Book Review: The Modern Prometheus: An Existential Body Horror Novel by Jayson Robert Ducharme
The Modern Prometheus: An Existential Body Horror Novel
Author: Jayson Robert Ducharme
Published: April 24, 2022
295 Pages
Reviewed By: Kim
Kim’s Rating: 5 stars
Book Description:
Peter Murphy, a college professor and family man, has lost everything. Following a tragic series of events, he awakens to discover that parts of his body have been replaced with parts from corpses, and his creator is not giving him all the answers he needs. With little to lose, Peter begins an odyssey to reclaim his old life and come to terms with his new one. Finding a world that has long since moved on without him, he descends into destructive madness, leaving blood and death wherever he goes.
THE MODERN PROMETHEUS is a 300 page “existential body horror” novel about a man reanimated from death, who discovers horrific truths about the nature of his death that will bring about a crescendo of violence and catastrophe.
Kim’s Review:
Ooh…. This was a good one! Starting with the cover: Fabulous. Honestly, the cover was the whole reason I bought the book in the first place. Then I started reading, and I was hooked! This story had me going till the very end! I’ll admit that I’ve never read Frankenstein, though I do know the story. Obviously there are some similarities, but I liked that I wasn’t constantly comparing them. I really liked all the characters too. Peter was relatable and I got very emotionally invested. His growth as a character, whichever direction he grew, was well done and believable. And his poor family! So many times, I started misting. The story wasn’t super complicated, but boy was it a roller coaster! While it was perfect for spooky season, it’s a great book to read anytime!! I really liked it a lot! Definitely one of my Top Ten for the year!
Purchase Links:
Amazon US
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Audiobook Review: Wrong Place Wrong Time by Gillian McAllister
Wrong Place Wrong Time
Author: Gillian McAllister
Narrator: Lesley Sharp
Published: August 2, 2022
Audiobook
Reviewed By: Jessica
Dates Listened To: October 4-10, 2022
Jessica’s Rating: 5 stars
Book Description:
Can you stop a murder after it’s already happened?
Late October. After midnight. You’re waiting up for your seventeen-year-old son. He’s late. As you watch from the window, he emerges, and you realize he isn’t alone: he’s walking toward a man, and he’s armed.
You can’t believe it when you see him do it: your funny, happy teenage son, he kills a stranger, right there on the street outside your house. You don’t know who. You don’t know why. You only know your son is now in custody. His future shattered.
That night you fall asleep in despair. All is lost. Until you wake… and it is yesterday.
And then you wake again… and it is the day before yesterday.
Every morning you wake up a day earlier, another day before the murder. With another chance to stop it. Somewhere in the past lies an answer. The trigger for this crime—and you don’t have a choice but to find it…
Jessica’s Review:
It seems like 2022 has been the year of thrillers for me as I have found so many I have greatly enjoyed. And Wrong Place Wrong Time is another of those! This is another one that made me go “Whoa!”
Sort of like a reverse Groundhog Day where Jen sees her teenage son Todd murder an unknown stranger in front of their house one night and he is arrested. This would be every parent’s worst nightmare come true. Then she wakes up the ‘next day’ but it is not: It is actually the day before the murder. She lives each day and then wakes up further in the past. How long will Jenn keep going into the past and can she stop Todd from his now future crime?
Jenn is on this on her own for the most part because everything she experiences no one will remember because the next day she moves into the past again.
I can’t say much more because you really can’t without giving everything away! I thought I might know the direction the novel was going, but nope! I was wrong! The story does become more than just stopping this now future murder and we get some unbelievably good twists! And the ending.. I just loved it!!!
I listened to the audiobook and the narrator did a fabulous job with her storytelling and interpretations of the characters.
If you are a thriller lover at all, then go pick this one up now! And prepare to go along for a wild and crazy good ride!
Purchase Links:
Amazon US
Amazon UK
Audible Original: I Choose Darkness: A Holiday Essay by Jenny Lawson
I Choose Darkness: A Holiday Essay
Author: Jenny Lawson
Narrator: Jenny Lawson
Published: September 29, 2022
Audiobook: 38 minutes
Reviewed By: Jessica
Date Listened To: October 22, 2022
Jessica’s Rating: 5 stars
Book Description:
From cheap costumes to creepy dolls to questionable candy, number one New York Times bestselling author Jenny Lawson weaves a hauntingly hilarious account of her ongoing—sometimes outrageous—Halloween life.
The holly-jolly holidays aren’t for everyone, least of all when you look back on that one Christmas when there were two definitely haunted dolls waiting for you and your sister under the tree. You have to assume that’s where it all started.
And so it was for Jenny Lawson. Now, she lives in the land of eternal Halloween, as evidenced by her interior decor and general state of darkness. (Although, if you ask her, her taxidermy zoo is less dark, more delightful. But not everyone has taste, so what are you going to do?)
This essay takes Jenny back to where it all started, from her humble beginnings as a trick-or-treater in the 1980s, on high alert for (logistically improbable) candy laced with razor blades and the (allegedly) ever-present threat of satanists on the loose. From there, she has risen from the candy-wrapper ashes of her childhood to claim her rightful lifestyle as the queen of Halloween.
Jessica’s Review:
This very short self-described essay popped up for free on my Audible, so I got it. I had no idea who Jenny Lawson is, so I didn’t know what I was in for but was very pleasantly surprised! Halloween is Jenny’s favorite holiday of the year and she reminisces and her childhood Halloween’s. And we must be close to the same age, babies of the 1980’s, because I have so many similar memories as her! From the hideous costumes offered to the fear of razor blades being put in candy: and yes, I remember my parents taking my sister and I to the hospital and our candy being x-rayed! I had a plastic orange pumpkin container that my candy was in. It was most likely done at the hospital that my mom worked at.
I really enjoyed this essay of Jenny’s Halloween memories and she even narrated! She tells it like it is, foul language and all! I am going to have to look up some of her other books she has written and even listen to the audio if she narrates those! She definitely seems to have a new fan to look at her blog!
Purchase Links:
Amazon US
Amazon UK