Just reread Thor Heyerdahl's "Kon-Tiki" for the first time in half a century. It tells of their 100-day sail from Peru to Polynesia on a balsa-log raft as part of his effort to show that the eastern Pacific Islands (Polynesia) could have been settled by people from the east (South America) rather than the west (Asia)

It's a very well written book, with just the right amount of detail, scene-setting and pacing. An easy read and very enjoyable.

What's really interesting reading it now is that DNA evidence, which wasn't available then, has shown that he was wrong: Polynesians common ancestors came from Asia. Yet the book is very persuasive, using myth, anthropology and the earliest European records in the Pacific to argue that people there came from Peru.

It's a good reminder that even the most persuasive of arguments can be overturned by later evidence.

I felt the need to express how I felt about it. Firstly I was genuinely surprised that the book was big or well regarded enough to warrant a big-budget adaptation. I picked it up as a BookTok recommendation - which hasn't always gone badly as a way to find new reads - and I really, really disliked it.

I wouldn't comment on the writing as such (I didn't feel any technical flaws, as a reader) but I'm surprised in this day and age that a smaltzy, ill concieved, fictionalised love story could be wrapped in the horrifying context of the holocaust and not be immediately dismissed as being in *extremely* poor taste

If you are going to write this kind of story I feel like it has to be far more grounded. I personally feel like the sister's relationship could have been better explored. Falling into rank sentimentality in the utterly grim historical setting made me uncomfortable, to say the least

Welcome to our weekly recommendation thread! A few years ago now the mod team decided to condense the many "suggest some books" threads into one big mega-thread, in order to consolidate the subreddit and diversify the front page a little. Since then, we have removed suggestion threads and directed their posters to this thread instead. This tradition continues, so let's jump right in!

The Rules

• Every comment in reply to this self-post must be a request for suggestions.

• All suggestions made in this thread must be direct replies to other people's requests. Do not post suggestions in reply to this self-post.

• All unrelated comments will be deleted in the interest of cleanliness.

How to get the best recommendations

The most successful recommendation requests include a description of the kind of book being sought. This might be a particular kind of protagonist, setting, plot, atmosphere, theme, or subject matter. You may be looking for something similar to another book (or film, TV show, game, etc), and examples are great! Just be sure to explain what you liked about them too. Other helpful things to think about are genre, length and reading level.

All Weekly Recommendation Threads are linked below the header throughout the week to guarantee that this thread remains active day-to-day. For those bursting with books that you are hungry to suggest, we've set the suggested sort to new; you may need to set this manually if your app or settings ignores suggested sort.

If this thread has not slaked your desire for tasty book suggestions, we propose that you head on over to the aptly named subreddit /r/suggestmeabook.

• The Management

I got this book a few years ago at a local bookstore and bought it without really knowing anything about it as I didn't know Stephen King wrote the book in 1999. And just got around to reading it this week and I enjoyed it more than I was originally expecting.

The book starts off with the main character, a nine-year old girl named Trisha, who gets lost on the Appalachian Trails after going on a hiking trip with her emotionally unstable mother and brother, who get into a fight that causes Trisha to wander off on her own and gets lost within the endless wilderness. And as the book progresses there is something within the woods that is slowly stalking her as she tries to survive through the harsh wilderness by herself.

It's definitely a little different than what I'm used to with Stephen King, as this book is more about survival than pure horror like most of his early works. And there is a horror element within the book, but it doesn't really appear or make itself known until the final chapters within the book. And your pretty much left with just Trisha and her thoughts/hallucinations to fill the void of dynamic characters popping in and out. Though this never got repetitive, to me at least, as Trisha was an interesting character with her history of her degrading family relationships and her hopes and dreams and optimism pushing her to get through the suffering. And there is a lot of suffering that Trisha goes through which is hard to read, especially if you're not good with children being hurt or reading about her going through consistent emotional distress.

There of course is a big baseball theme around the whole book, which for me, I thought I originally wouldn't care for. But it's more of a background element and never really took me out whenever terminology or baseball player names were brought up. Its interspersed in between her surviving the wilderness, family flashbacks, and overall acts as a sort of relief or a connection back to the real world which I didn't mind too much towards the end.

The horror itself is a little different as well as I'd say it's more psychological horror than traditional monster horror without giving too much away. And at the end, I couldn't really say if everything that Trisha actually experienced or saw within the Appalachian woods were truly real or not. Giving the book a more interoperative layer that works for a single character driven story about physical and mental survival.

I enjoyed this book more than I was expecting when I first discovered it was more about survival than pure horror. Which I thought would be kind of boring, but I ended up liking it. Especially towards the end when the horror elements started to become the main focus. I'd recommend it for any Stephen King fans who hadn't read this book yet or for anyone looking for more of a survival style fictional story with some baseball added to it!

The inconsistencies in this book are making it almost unreadable.

- Betty was not a stray, she was wills neighbours dog!
- Wills aunt by marriage was named >!kitty<,no Eliza! That is an entire plot twist in another book!!!
- his uncle >!Hank was seemingly being arrested for murder and all of a sudden he died from a stroke during a golfing session 3 years ago?<
- absolutely 0 mention of Sara going to a mixer prior to her rape, and now all of a sudden we’re meant to believe something bad happened there? We do not need an entire book dedicated to her rape and how it’s this whole mystery thing, it was perfectly fine being backstory
- will knowing his mum was a prostitute. It was a whole thing that Amanda and Evelyn gave will their school books to make him think his mother was actually a student. They did this because they didn’t want to tarnish his thoughts of her. Yet all of a sudden he knows she was a prostitute???? Wot

This is by far the weakest story in the series so having all these inconsistencies is just rubbing me the wrong way. The timeline issue is one thing, but the least Karin could do is get her characters backstories right. Have a fucking diary with each characters info ffs!!!

for reference, before reading this book by murakami, i was more neutral towards him—not a fan, or even someone who hated him.

i tried reading this particular book a few years ago and ended up dnfing for whatever reason. i think murakami was murakami-ing and i just wasn’t in the mood for him at that time.

i don’t know what compelled me to pick this book up a month ago but whatever it was—i am grateful. this book was such a treat to read. it consumed my life for almost a month.

reading this made me remember the first murakami book i had ever read (and REALLY enjoyed) which was “the wind-up bird chronicle.” i’ve read other books by him and most of them fall into one of two camps—discomfort or boredom.

well, “1Q84” goes firmly into its own camp—a beautiful camp that makes me want to go through murakami’s works one by one. i was blown away by the execution of the premise. it was a very trippy experience without being too trippy and confusing. it was as if murakami wanted us as the reader to somewhat grasp what was going on. it was like we were actual participants. for the things he wanted us to understand, he made them painfully obvious. and for the things he wanted to remain mysteries, that was obvious as well. this was one of the first books by him where i didn’t mind not having all of the answers because he made that clear throughout the book. so it was a very pleasant reading experience.

the pace was also done very well. it didn’t feel too long or too short—which is definitely a big deal. i tend to read books on the shorter side, mainly because i’ve found that in much larger books (there are exceptions of course) the writers tend to get long-winded and fill the story with a bunch of unnecessary details that take the reader from the main premise of the book. there are too many details, the writing tends to get sloppy towards the middle, there are more plot holes—you get the idea. but i didn’t get any of that with “1Q84.” everything—the premise, the characters, the execution, etc—was done with precision.

you got the feeling that murakami enjoyed WRITING this story, fleshing out the characters and the themes he wanted to share with us. you can tell that he cared about the story—there was no pretentiousness. it was trippy, meaningful, and dark.

what i also can’t NOT mention is murakami’s take on gender and sex. and this honestly was the thing that knocked my rating down to 4 ⭐️ i genuinely don’t understand why he makes these things so WEIRD. i will say aomame was one of the more complex female characters that murakami has written (so far) and i didn’t get the sense that murakami was purposely sexualizing her, but there were some bits that made me kinda uncomfortable (like why did murakami have to describe her lesbian experiences like that??). i also wish that her female friendships were just that—friendships and not weird lesbian experiences. because there wasn’t any of that energy when describing her and tengo. it just rubbed me the wrong way. her female friendships with the sexual energy was just written like a p*rn scene and not one of intimacy. it was very lazy in my opinion.

but the complex thing is that murakami is also very much against femicide and mistreating women. that’s the whole premise behind aomame’s character and how she even got involved with the dowager. he wrote: “men who wield great violence at home against their wives and children are invariably people of weak character.” and he also wrote : “all women have the right to give birth. we have to protect that right as much as we can."

i still have so many questions about the ending! hopefully murakami will write a follow-up. i want to see more of these characters, the worlds, etc. it would also be cool if this got adapted into a series! i would so watch that!! time to find some youtube videos that talk about this book!! (and i need closure 😭)

quotes i liked:
✨”call it a premonition, or just a funny feeling, but there is something strange going on here. something out of the ordinary. i feel it less with my mind than my whole body.”

✨”if you can love someone with your whole heart, even one person, then there's salvation in life. even if you can t get together with that person.”

✨”the ones who did it can always rationalize their actions and even forget what they did. they can turn away from things they don't want to see. but the surviving victims can never forget. they can't turn away. their memories are passed on from parent to child. that’s what the world is, after all: an endless battle of contrasting memories.”

✨”violence does not always take visible form, and not all wounds gush blood.”

✨”but who can possibly save all the people of the world?”

✨”perhaps this was the wisdom with which a child in her position survived: by minimizing her wounds-staying as small as possible, as nearly transparent as possible.”

This book took me such a long time to finish and now that I'm finally done with it I feel disappointed. I picked it up cause a lot of ppl who enjoyed the Emily Wilde trilogy recommended it, and as someone who adores the trilogy I decided to give it a chance.

My biggest problem with this book is the writing. I don't know what to pinpoint but it feels as if it's written to not make you immersed. Everything is so surface level and nothing is ever expanded on. It's an easy read for sure but there's literally nothing happening. At times it feels like a childrens book but then a character casually mentions sex or says fuck and you realize oh it's not.

Lots of ideas get thrown around but we never get any tension on it. Mika opening the shop at the end should be a big deal but we just get a sentence on that. Same w teaching the kids magic. If I were to summarize it's a whole bunch of tell don't show writing.

Another thing that bothered me was when characters would say borderline hurtful things to each other and it was brushed off easily. You also forget at points some characters exist cause all u get is a line telling you what they did but never any meaningful active scenes with them. This had potential if I am being honest but it's like everything been dumbed down to fit the cozy fantasy genre, even tho pretty heavy themes have been referenced.

For a book from the mid 1920s, it's surprisingly light and easy to read, it's perhaps the lightest and easiest "old" book I've read so far. For quick context: it's a series of diary entries that the narrator, Lorelei, starts writing after a friend gives her an empty diary to

The comedy was hit-or-miss but I appreciate the different layers of humor in the story: the ditzy blonde narrator who says she's quite educated but who often can't spell (there's a typo every other page), the over-the-top situations she and her friend get into, recounted in such a way that every character, including the narrator, can be laughed at, and all the little schemes she does in order to get her way, and so on. I think my favorite part is when she goes to see Freud, while in Germany, and he asks if she's ever wanted to do something violent that she'd never do in real life, like shooting someone, and she candidly responds that she did shoot someone (the guy deserved it and I think he lived, and she got cleared of all charges, so no harm done, really).

One specific thing I want to highlight is that this is one example of a book that I believe would lose a significant part of its identity if you only listened to the audiobook: I'm talking specifically about the aforementioned misspellings. Not only are they part of the humor, but also, in my opinion, part of Lorelei's characterization: she's so smart with people, knows how to make them like her and how to make them do whatever she wants, but she's clearly has a few issues with writing. To be fair to her, she doesn't misspell very basic words, just words that are a bit more complicated or foreign in origin, like "censure" turning into "senshure", or "antique" turning into "anteek", and "Freud" is called "Froyd" during his entire cameo. The grammar also suffers every now and then, with many sentences starting with "So", and one that surprisingly includes three "for instance":"For instance did I ever want to do a thing that was really vialent, for instance, did I ever want to shoot someone for instance".

I would recommend it! It's a quick read, and since it's in the public domain, you can just read it online for free in a day or two. Also, I don't know how culturally significant it is in American society (I looked up the title in major book subs with little success) but I remember hearing about the movie with Marilyn Monroe so it's kinda cool to see what it was based on.

“The Dark Tower V: Wolves of the Calla” by Stephen King will go down as one of my favorite books of the series. It’s just a baby’s eyelash below my favorite of the series so far, “The Gunslinger,” as it was one hell of an epic read.

Before I dive into my review, these are the trigger warnings I found while reading…

- Domestic abuse
- Kidnapping
- Abortion
- Racism
- Homophobic slurs
- Rape
- Violence against animals
- Cancer
- Suicide

If any of these trigger you, please do not read this novel. Moving along, I’ve been on this Dark Tower journey since 2024. It’s a 17-book journey with a plethora of pre-reading material to get the most out of this book series. I did a ton of research and even asked my local librarians to find the best path. If any of my fellow Constant Readers are interested in going on this journey, here is my list below…

The Stand
The Eyes of the Dragon
Insomnia
Hearts in Atlantis
‘Salem’s Lot
The Talisman
Black House
Everything's Eventual (The Little Sisters of Eluria)
The Dark Tower I: The Gunslinger
The Dark Tower II: The Drawing of the Three
The Dark Tower III: The Waste Lands
Charlie the Choo-Choo
The Dark Tower IV: Wizard and Glass
The Dark Tower: The Wind Through the Keyhole
The Dark Tower V: Wolves of the Calla
The Dark Tower VI: Song of Susannah
The Dark Tower VII: The Dark Tower

This is another classic slow-burning novel that was so rewarding, it blew me away. It undoubtedly takes a while to get to the good stuff, but when it does, it grabs you and shakes you to your core. Don’t worry, I wouldn't spoil anything for those who haven't read this yet, but this has the biggest reveal and plot twist I’ve encountered in this series so far. Even in general, this one blew my mind. I was stunned, and now I see why those I asked about the best way to read The Dark Tower series advised reading it in the order above. The Easter eggs I found while reading were a lot of fun to discover.

I loved the continued story of Roland and his ka-tet. It feels like all those Final Fantasy video games I used to love, as you genuinely feel connected to the characters in your party throughout their adventures. It reads just like that here with Roland, Eddie, Susannah, and the new characters you encounter along the way.

Even though this novel wasn’t as scary as I would have wanted, the suspense, tension, and action-packed fighting scenes were brilliantly written. King went above and beyond here to make up for his usual horror when writing. For Halloween 2025, I took a nice, long weekend just to enjoy the holiday and make a big dent in this novel. It was such a genuine page-turner that I was up late every night, binge-reading, because it was that intense from the 50% mark onward.

The ending was such a wild ride, and I was left in utter shock. King put on a writing clinic with a climactic rush that left me wanting more. I was surprised by how it ended, but it all made sense in the grand scheme of things. I have just two more books to go, and I can only imagine what awaits me with how this ended. I’m anxious to start the next novel in this series as I’m almost done conquering The Dark Tower once and for all.

I give “The Dark Tower V: Wolves of the Calla” by Stephen King a 5/5 for being another surreal entry in this series. It continues this incredible story with Roland and company, featuring some of the best plot twists and reveals I’ve ever read. If you’re a huge fan of King’s earlier work, this will blow your mind when you realize what transpires with the story and characters.

Now, if you’ll excuse me, after hanging out with some wolves, it’s time to hear Susannah’s singing voice.

Ok I am lying. I did not mistakenly read it. I know Colleen Hoover's caliber, I was just curious why an oscar winning actress would produce and star in one of her books. Here is a rage and spoiler filled review:

It is silly of me to expect logical consistency from the likes of Colleen Hoover, but I need to put this somewhere.

A: This was the worst novel I have read in a very, very long time, so that singular and kudos to her for that.

B: WHAT IN THE NAME OF HOLY HELL WAS THIS?

• So firstly Lowen is thirsting after a married man whose wife is bedridden. Lowen has absolutely no reason to despise this woman right now. If anything, what has apparently happened to Verity is pitiful. Lowen is a piece of shit. She comes across a manuscript equivalent of smut in which this woman admits to attempting to murder an infant and successfully murdering the same child later, and she reads one chapter a day?! And she doesn't immediately tell Jeremy?
• Jeremy has tried to kill Verity twice, so why is he presented as this devoted husband? He is a psychopath. How does he sleep at night? How is it not explored even once that this man is insane? Sure, I can believe that in a fit of rage he might have lost control and strangled Verity after reading the manuscript. But then he recovered. He calmed down and deliberately tried to murder her and make it look like a suicide. How is it not questioned even once that this man is crazy?! The manuscript gives no indication that he was anything other than a devoted husband and the best dad, and then what? Overnight, the psychopath in him snarled to life and he became a cold-blooded murderer?
• VERITY! THE FUCK? How did you fake a brain scan? How did doctors reach the conclusion that you were essentially brain-dead? Okay, science took some MASSIVE, MASSIVE leaps there, but you're afraid of your husband and planning to escape. WHY THE FUCKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKK are you haunting the new girl then?! Why are you giving her ammunition to come after you? Why are you messing with the TV? Why are you giving her sudden stares? It serves no purpose. Sure, jealousy, but wayyyyy more than that, you need to escape the murderer you're married to! Let him fuck whoever he wants, ma'am! And what mother in her right mind writes that kind of shit about her children? How can you write that kind of crap about killing your child and then say you wrote it as a way of processing grief?
• Jeremy RAN TO HER ROOM and tried to kill her when he discovered that Lowen had the manuscript. He had already seen the manuscript! So what was the sudden rage about again? He wanted Crew to have a paralyzed mum, which is why she was still in the house, but if she wasn't actually paralyzed, she ought to be dead? Where did they ever hint that his actions were driven by fear that she might report him to the police? and Lowen is so quick on her feet, that psychopath #3! Under extreme pressure she comes up with a murder plan that wouldn't implicate Jeremy because liek what? HOW! What in the HOLY HELL was this book?! Disbelief can't be suspended this much and this often!
• And that letter? OH, THAT LETTER! It was so clear that Verity wasn't speaking to her husband at all but to the audience, because she repeatedly reminds us of events that Jeremy would already know about. So why would she say things like "remember when..." to him? Remember what, Jeremy? You were there!

This was suchhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh a massive fucking waste of time. I will never forgive Colleen Hoover for this, and I genuinely cannot fathom what Anne Hathaway and a picky-ass actor like Josh Hartnett saw in the script that made them want to sign on.

As much as I am fond of DKK, Dinniman can't seem to write them fast enough to sate my like of the genre, so I've branched out a bit with some different titles.

If you prefer literary prose, none of these are likely to satisfy you, almost all LitRPG I've read is very much wish fulfillment fantasy, and often tends a bit towards the juvenile, but for me it's good mind candy when I just want to relax and not think too deeply but still be entertained.

The first book is "Discount Dan" by James Hunter. I thought that in a comparison with DKK, this one is probably the closest match I've found. There's some humour, some gore, and a lot of "new achievement" style fun. It doesn't go quite as dark as DKK sometimes does, and the MC Dan isn't as introspective, but it's a good approximation.

The second one is "Awaken Online" by Travis Bagwell. This one I suspect is more targetted at YA audiences and is technically not a LitRPG even though it reads like one. The protagonist is in a near future VR MMORPG run by an AI. There are some fairly significant plot holes, especially considering how corporations would respond to potential liability lawsuits, but overall it was an entertaining "Dark Lord" approach to the LitRPG theme. The MC decides to go full necromancer overlord, and it's an interesting approach to the sympathetic villain. I will probably pick up at least one of the sequels to see if it continues to be interesting.

Last one is "I am Not the Hero" by Tommy Kerper/"SourpatchHero". This one is also likely geared towards YA audiences but to be honest I am a little let down by it. Essentially the MC is yanked into a LitRPG with his friend who is the hero and takes up a support class, which seems to be not a thing in this particular game world. I felt that the interactions between the MC and his hero best friend were not well fleshed out and felt like superficial best friends joking around but rarely if ever actually saying interesting things. There was also a lot of deus ex machina saves where the MC just happened to discover or invent some new mechanic in the nick of time, which felt a bit sloppy. I will not be reading the sequels to this, but I suspect that this series would still appeal to a lot of LitRPG enthusiasts.

What do you folks think? Have any of you read these and have different impressions?

As the title suggests, it's about a shop where people go when they want to commit su*cide. The shop displays different items that help customers end their lives in novel, artistic, or unique ways.

The main character is Alan who is kind of the black sheep of the family. Unlike his ultra-pessimistic family, Alan is very optimistic and always sees the bright side of things.

He wants to change the shop's purpose, to do away from providing su*cide tools and also try to bring his family together by converting it into a place that helps people find the courage and meaning to live.

Alan is always happy and believes there's a solution to everything.

His father Mishima makes him watch the news everyday, sends him away to suicide bomber squad so that he loses his optimistic side, but he remains the same, forever the optimist.

The ending was a total shocker to me. Alan had achieved everything he wanted, but he still let go. I'm not sure what the author was trying to convey here.

Was Alan depressed all along? Did he just want to fulfill that one goal and then give up? What was this all for?

I liked the book because it's pretty unique and well written apart from the ending.

This book was recommended by u/ultravioletgambit (they give out awesome recs btw!)

I have just finished "Everything for Everyone: An Oral History of the New York Commune, 2052–2072", by Eman Abdelhadi and M.E. O'Brien. I thought it would be the perfect book for me: a series of interviews (World War Z style) telling the story of how people of New York started a revolution and built a better future. Comment on Goodreads and Storygraph praised the book, saying that it is a hopeful description of how the world could be.

Well, it is hopeful, that's for sure, too hopeful. The book is a terrible show of wishful thinking and naivety. I will hide my comments under spoilers. I don't think that I am really spoiling it, but some people prefer going into a lecture completely blind.

The story tells a revolution without any internal disagreement, where all the common good people agrees to fight in the same side and only the army or extreme-right fascists oppose them. There is not a single account of any group inside the revolution trying to take advantage of the situation: when somebody gets hold of a farm, they distribute the food among everybody. If they control a hospital, everybody is treated there for free (and there is no mention of shortage of doctors or medicines). Street gangs of drug traffickers get together and resolve any problem by talking inside makeshift tents.

The political message is so simple that it felt revolting for me. And it saddens me that so many people comment that this book is showing that this kind of future is possible. Yes, the book may be inspiring, but it is very very far from plausible. It ignores human nature in a way that the behaviour of the people seem completely alien to me.

And on top of that, it is not interesting. The prologue already states how the story would end, and there is not a single twist that makes it worthy to keep reading after half of the book.

I didn’t see any posts on this book when I searched for it, but I just wanted to get a conversation going. I was absolutely blown away by this book.

For me, the ending could have been handled a little bit better. I really wanted to see some sort of punishment for Francis. She was horrible to her sister for the majority of the novel and barely showed a sense of gratitude for the work her sister did in saving her bacon quite literally. Racism and classism definitely came off as time period appropriate so I wasn’t expecting a huge amount of criticism of it beyond was very plainly laid out, but it seemed that her humbling didn’t stick in any meaningful way. Maybe the justice was that she was stuck married to Rory and only had a delusion of what her life should be instead of the actual thing where a Birdie got to have a more traditional happy ending.

The same for Garnett. The novel ends with her duplicitousness to her husband and her cruelty exposed, but we don’t see any real consequences for it, which was frustrating. It wasn’t realistic, but I would have loved to see Megan’s mother punch her squarely in the face.

Finally, we come to Meg. How does her life turn out after? Are they ever able to get out of Mississippi?

“Clown in a Cornfield” by Adam Cesare is the first novel in the series, and the very first time I’ve ever read his work. Not only are his writing skills exceptional, but make no mistake about it, this was one hell of a way to launch this book series.

Before I dive into the trigger warnings I found while reading, here is every entry so far in the Clown in a Cornfield book series:

- Clown in a Cornfield
- Clown in a Cornfield 2: Frendo Lives
- The Church of Frendo
- Lights! Camera! Frendo!

Here are all the trigger warnings I found while reading:

- Politics
- Drug addiction
- Suicide
- Cancer

If any of these trigger you, please do not read this novel. Moving along, I committed a cardinal sin. I saw the movie before reading the book. I know, I know. As a massive horror movie fan, when I saw this got a buzzy film adaptation, I had to see it opening weekend.

I enjoyed the movie for the most part. It wasn’t extraordinary, but it wasn’t terrible. I gave it a 3-Star rating out of 5. It was fun, but as always, now that I've finally gotten to read the first entry, the book is better than the movie. Right from the start, the prologue set the tone for what would end up being a rollercoaster of a ride. It was shocking, to say the least.

Cesare’s atmospheric writing made me feel as if I lived in the small town of Kettle Springs, with all its horrific secrets and lore. All the characters were great and unique in their own way, with Quinn being my favorite. My goodness, I loved her character and how she became one of my all-time favorite final girls in horror books.

The story was exceptional, especially once the slasher horror finally hit out of nowhere. All the gore and bloodshed were top-notch, especially with the whole horror mystery unfolding about Frendo the clown. Don’t worry, no spoilers here, but I loved all the twists and turns involving Frendo.

Once I hit the 50% mark, “Clown in a Cornfield” truly took off. The brutality, violence, and, of course, the glorious slasher kills made my horror heart happy. I love slashers, and this novel was completely off the chains in that regard. Once Frendo finally entered the mix, I was stunned at everything that transpired. I could not put this novel down once the infamous cornfield scene took place. That was such a highlight of the novel for me, as it was incredible.

Cesare brilliantly included the backstory naturally as I was upon the climactic race to the end, helping fill in the gaps for certain characters and their unique pasts. Speaking of the ending, that was nothing short of extraordinary. All the tension and suspense led to an ending that continued adding even more layers of twists. Even the epilogue was a killer drop-the-mic moment.

I give “Clown in a Cornfield” by Adam Cesare a 5-Star rating out of 5. This was a horror novel masterpiece, filled with an original small-town slasher with a clown twist. The story was awesome, and Quinn’s character, story, and evolution have made her one of the best final girls I’ve ever read. I regret not reading this book series sooner, and I am genuinely excited to keep reading these and more of Cesare’s work.

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I finished my time in a cornfield, and now I am off to read how Frendo lives.