I will not start this review with, "I don't know where to start." I repeat, I will not start this review with, "I don't know where to start." So let's start with Prophet's Prey by Sam Brower. For those unfamiliar with the story, it chronicles the pursuit of Warren Jeffs, leader of the FLDS church, and the years-long effort to bring him to justice. On paper, this should have been exactly the kind of book I would devour. High-control religion? ...
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Book Review: The Dead Girls Book Club by Zia Rayyan | When Book Clubs Go Off the Rails
The Dead Girls Book Club by Zia Rayyan… oh. emm. gee. I have words, unfortunately, and none of them are particularly kind. I wanted to love this book. The premise had me fully hooked. Secretive women? A creepy book club? Murder? Sign me up immediately. But the execution? Whew. This thing was choppier than an episode of Hell’s Kitchen during dinner service. The perspective bounced around so much I started feeling like a literary ping-pong ball. ...
Book Review: Counting the Cost by Jill Duggar | Surviving Faith and Finding a Voice
Reading Counting the Cost by Jill Duggar Dillard resurfaced a lot of unresolved religious trauma for me—mainly anger. Not so much for myself anymore, but for my daughters and others. I always struggled to follow the rules, and while I tried to give my kids some exposure to the real world, I still sheltered them from a lot. That came from my own experience of being extremely sheltered, much like Jill was. I still struggle with feeling like I ...
Book Review: Hollow by Celina Myers | More Hype Than Bite in This Vampire Tale
Hollow by Celina Myers—widely recognized as CelinaSpookyBoo—comes highly recommended in the paranormal and BookTok communities. As a paranormal investigator, I’ve noticed that mainstream paranormal media often lowers expectations for what a “real” investigation looks like. Many viewers are exposed to dramatized, sensationalized content, in which every unexplained sound is treated as proof of something sinister and as genuine evidence of ...
Book Review: A Stolen Life by Jaycee Dugard | A Memoir of Survival and Resilience
A Stolen Life by Jaycee Dugard is the emotional, heartbreaking story of a young girl whose innocence was stolen from her—the life she might have lived, and a horror most people can’t begin to fathom. In 1991, at just eleven years old, Jaycee Dugard was abducted while walking to her school bus stop. She spent eighteen years in captivity, hidden away from the world, before finally being rescued in 2009. Her story is both unimaginable and deeply ...
