December was an average reading month for me. I did not read great books, which would have made my favourites list, but I still enjoyed a couple of good stories. I had planned to read more winter and Christmas-related novels, but I ended up with horror, sci-fi and a thriller.
My Best Friend’s Exorcism (2016) – Grady Hendrix 4/5
When I picked this book up, I did not expect that I would finish it. I heard Hendrix’s name often mentioned on YouTube by the booktubers I love to watch. He is an upcoming popular horror writer. But the titles of his books never really stood out to me; I thought it wouldn’t be my taste. I was in the middle of multiple other books and kind of in a reading slump. Mostly because I couldn’t progress in my reread of House of Leaves. So I decided to pick up my e-reader and find something suspenseful but easy to read, to hopefully get back my reading motivation. Then I saw this book and decided to try it out. It definitely got my motivation up and running!
The story is original, funny and sometimes disgusting or even shocking. Not too scary (unfortunately), but good enough to surprise the reader once in a while.
Who Goes There? (1938) – John W. Campbell Jr. 3/5
This is another quick pick on my e-reader. A short novella; the story behind a sci-fi classic movie The Thing. It was a fun reading experience and the book reveals more details about the various scientific experiments and about the alien species we are dealing with than the movie ever did. Yet, in retrospect, I found the movie to be better. Take this opinion with a grain of salt of course, because The Thing was one of the first horror movies that I saw as a child. So I’m nostalgically biased.
Holly (2023) – Stephen King 3/5
I was so excited about this new Stephen King thriller, that I started reading it almost immediately after receiving the package, even though I still had a lot of other books to finish. Looking forward to yet another supernatural crime, just like in Mr Mercedes and Finders Keepers (or the short story If It Bleeds), I wasn’t put off by the lack of the supernatural. The thriller component in this story was just as strong and suspenseful (for this reason I still gave this book a three-star rating).
But… I hated that the story was so much filled with political opinions, especially the recent pandemic. King often portrays his political views in his books, but usually very subtle and fitting to the story. This was just a rant! Every chapter, if not every page, had some mention of the pandemic with sometimes a joke or comment thrown in about Trump. But in almost every case, it had nothing to offer for the story itself. In the end, it was almost (badly) comical how every new character introduction included the vaccination status of the person. Interesting concept, but definitely not a natural conversation starter between normal people who just have met each other, yet, that’s what happened.
I strongly have the idea that King had experienced some horrible times during the pandemic and the current political instability in the world, like probably most of us, and decided to infect the character of Holly with all his fears and frustrations. Which in the end ruined her character, at least for me. His talent for writing and creating interesting plots and characters in general, did save this book from a one-star rating.
Thus my final opinion about this book would be that it is a disappointing marriage between political trash and a good thriller. I hope that his next book will be different.
Carmilla (1872) – Sheridan Le Fanu 3/5
Lastly, I read the vampire story before Dracula (1897). I cannot say that I loved it, but it was fine. I learned a new word while reading it: Schloss, which is a German-originated word for a castle. And the book had an authentic gothic atmosphere. Not too long and contains some romantic vibes even, I would recommend checking it out!
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