The Painting by Charis Cotter

“It was a painting, set in a heavy wooden frame carved into thick swirls. A grassy foreground, a road leading through rocky hills to a lighthouse, and a vast ocean beyond. Something about it seemed familiar.”

I received a free digital copy of this book from the publisher through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Annie loves painting, her mother wants her to read more books and do better in school. It’s suffice to say that Annie and her mother don’t really see eye to eye. One day Annie finds an old painting of a lighthouse in the attic. She’s instantly drawn to it so she takes it to her room. Her mother on the other hand, wish that painting never leave the attic. Not long after that, Annie’s mother slips into a coma after a car crash accident. Since then strange things begin to happen to Annie. One night, she got sucked into the old painting she found in the attic. Inside that painting she meet a girl who lives in the lighthouse named Claire. Claire relationship with her mother, Maisie, is fraught, just like Annie and her mom. Annie then try to help them mending their relationship while also hoping that somehow it could also help her relationship with her mom and revives her mother from coma, and bring an answer as to why she could travel into the painting and why she is destined to meet Claire.

The Bloody Chamber and Other Stories by Angela Carter

“I was a young girl, a virgin, and therefore men denied me rationality just as they denied it to all those who were not exactly like themselves, in all their unreason.”

I will forever be thankful to the person who post a line from this book on tumblr. That post got me so curious and lead me to maybe one of the best fairy tale retellings anthology I’ve ever read. Whoever you are, thank you so much! The Bloody Chamber and Other Stories is an anthology of fairy tale retelling short stories written by Angela Carter. Unlike most of fairy tale retellings I’ve read, the stories in this books are dark, sensual, and quite gruesome. The only fairy tale retelling that I feel to have a quite similar dark feeling to this book is Carolyn Sturgeon’s The Fairest of Them All. But, while The Fairest of Them All lacks of subtlety and the quality of power in its characters, The Bloody Chamber managed to deliver it.

Girl of Nightmares (Anna #2)

“She crossed over death to call me. I crossed through Hell to find her.”

What’s that? Did I made a pentagram for this book? Nah, it’s just a star, I promise. ( ͡º ͜ʖ ͡º) Girl of Nightmares is the second and final book of Anna duology by Kendare Blake. The story picks up months after the event in Anna Dressed in Blood. Cas couldn’t move on. He’s seeing Anna everywhere. He see her in his dreams, and sometime he sees him in waking nightmares. But Cas noticed that these aren’t just daydreams. He doesn’t know what happened to Anna, but he knows something is wrong. Now Cas is trying to look for an answer, and he will give everything to returns the favor and make sure that Anna is okay.

Anna Dressed in Blood (Anna #1)

“But hey, at least we’ll have this strange story to tell, love and death and blood and daddy-issues. And holy crap, I’m a psychiatrist’s wet dream.”

It’s October, and that means it’s Halloween month, and that means I have to read at least one horror book. I just feel like I have to, because I like ghost stories. So when I saw that Retri from @darklingreads and a couple of other bookstagram made a bookclub and chose Anna Dressed in Blood as their October read, I decided to read it too.

The Armageddon Rag

"What's the use of messing around in things you don't understand?"

The Armageddon Rag is a mystery/fantasy book written by George R. R. Martin, who I’m sure you know by his well-known and most beloved works, A Song of Ice and Fire. This book revolves around Sandy Blair, a journalist turns novelist who investigates the murder of a rock promoter, James Lynch and its weird circumstances around it. This circumstances set off Blair to not only find out who killed Lynch but also launched a suspicion towards Blair’s favorite rock band, The Nazgul, and their connection to Lynch. During his investigation, Blair unfolds many secrets surrounding, Lynch, The Nazgul, and the occult mystery surrounding rock and roll world at that time.

The Night Circus

“You think, as you walk away from Le Cirque des Rêves and into the creeping dawn, that you felt more awake within the confines of the circus.  You are no longer quite certain which side of the fence is the dream.”

This is gonna sounds so cheesy, but that quote above is exactly how I feel when I finished this book. The Night Circus is a stand alone fantasy book written by Erin Morgenstern. The story revolved between two magicians who set against each other in a magical challenge by their venerable masters with Le Cirque des Rêves as their battle ground. Things get complicated when the two of them start to fall for each other and their thread of fates got tangled with others who live inside the circus.