I've Been Reading...

 

Cass Adams buried her husband Roland in the koi pond. It's not until she tried to move the body that one of her friends catches her in the act and calls the authorities. No one in town is terribly surprised - they've known for years that Cass was off her rocker and most of them weren't too fond of Roland. They Call Me Crazy by Kelly Stone Gamble is a light, sort of romantic read that I really enjoyed. All of the characters have their own particular quirks, including Cass's brother-in-law, who bakes worms into his spice cakes in addition to selling them as fishing bait. I found myself really hoping that things would turn out okay for Cass.

That's a big change from Season to Taste by Natalie Young, which I tried to read a few months ago. In that one, Lizzie Prain  is disposing of her husband's body by cooking it into as many different recipes are possible and using every scrap. I never made it to the end, so I still don't know if the author ever explained why she killed him or why eating him seemed like a good idea. It was a tedious read with occasional bursts of gruesome detail.

Horrorstor by Grady Hendrix left me a little bit giddy, wishing that there was a sequel. I love haunted house stories so after I heard about this book, which is set in a wanna-be Ikea clone, I grabbed it at the library the next day and read through most of  it that same night. The story is fast paced and fun and even though the book is marketed as a spoof, once the store closes and the lights go out it's just as creepy as most of the horror movies I've seen lately. Over the course of their night in the store, the characters evolve from stereotypes into real people who care about each other. I don't want to spoil the plot by giving away too many details, but if you like built-on-a-burial-ground type of stories that aren't really trying to give you nightmares, I think you'll like this one.

Disclosure - The publisher provided me with an advance review copy of Call Me Crazy. I got Season to Taste and Horrorstor at the library, but the publisher of Horrorstor had already provided me with an advance review copy of the author's next book...which is why I kind of hate writing these disclosures. I always give you my honest opinion no matter where the book came from, okay?