Slewfoot by Brom

Format: 305 pages, Paperback

Published: April 25, 2023 by Tor Nightfire

Horror/borrowed

Oh you know what is coming, 1600s, the colonies. Men thinking they know better. Men saying women should do this and that, but not other things.

And here comes Abitha, struggling with her husband on their farm. His brother being a total ahole. A guy pointing fingers in town and group mentality. Abitha does speak her mind, she works hard, she forgets to be prim and proper.

And then she is alone, and vulnerable. And that brother really wants her farm. But something is in the woods, something that was wakened. Something angry....

It was never like eeek, horror! Mostly it made me angry at men at the end and I might have cheered at some things cos men suck.

I liked it. But ugh, puritans sucked!

Connecticut, 1666: An ancient spirit awakens in a dark wood. The wildfolk call him Father, slayer, protector.

The colonists call him Slewfoot, demon, devil.

To Abitha, a recently widowed outcast, alone and vulnerable in her pious village, he is the only one she can turn to for help.

Together, they ignite a battle between pagan and Puritan – one that threatens to destroy the entire village, leaving nothing but ashes and bloodshed in their wake.

This terrifying tale of bewitchery features more than two dozen of Brom’s haunting full-color paintings and brilliant endpapers, fully immersing readers in this wild and unforgiving world.

Carole´s Monday: The Dungeon Anarchist's Cookbook

Author: Matt Dinniman

Title: The Dungeon Anarchist's Cookbook

Series: Dungeon Crawler Carl #3

Genre: SciFi, Fantasy, Comedy

Format: ebook

Pages: 544

Published: March 19, 2021

Where I got It: Borrowed from library

Summary: 

Welcome to the Gun Show!

The top 10 list is populated. The sponsorship program is open. The difficulty is ramping up. The first three floors were nothing compared to what Carl and Donut now face.

The Iron Tangle. An impossibly complicated subway system built out of the world's subterranean railway systems, all combined and then tied together into a knot. Up is down. Down is up. Close is far. The cars are filled with monsters, the railway stations are less than safe, and the exit is always just a few stops away.

But there is hope. For the first time, the crawlers are all working together. The loot is better than ever. And the secret to unraveling it all may be hidden in the pages of a seemingly useless book.

Welcome, crawlers. Welcome to the fourth floor of the dungeon.

Review:

Finally got a chance to get into this. However, I'm bummed that my library didn't have the audio version of this one. SIGHS. Ebook is fine and all, and I'll take what I can get. 

We are back with Carl and Donut. The top 10 list is populated. The sponsorship is open. And the difficulty is ramping up. They will face an impossibly complicated subway system, all knotted up and filled with monsters. Even with these odds, there is a spark of hope......crawlers are working together to solve the puzzles and find good loot. 

Oh Carl. Oh Donut. This was a mess but fun and chaotic. 

There were some tedious moments, but it didn't bug me too much. I powered through them because I needed to know what was going to happen next.

I don't want to spoil anything, but yes, lots of trains and lots of monster mobs. Lots of crawlers. I loved seeing them start to work together. Honestly.....they need to all work together. F these TV people. 

The ending has me screaming. I can't wait to get started on book 4!

As you seen above, I did the book version of this book. I enjoyed it, but I missed Donut screaming in my ear. I may have to cave and buy the audio or use my Audible credits. Sighs. 

Overall, this was chaotic and messy and fun. Some tedious moments, but worth pushing through. Def read the other books first. 4 stars from me. 

 

Reading Challenges:

- Library Love #17

The Summer skies by Jenny Colgan

Series: MacIntyre 

Format: 347 pages, Paperback

Published: March 13, 2024 by HACHETTE INTL

Women´s fiction/own

Morag comes from a line of pilots and when her granddad calls that he is sick she goes to help. her family owns a flying route through the Scottish isles.

But Morag was involved in a horrible accident and has some trauma even though she claims she is fine.

I am so not in a review writing mood today, I am doing badly. Blergh, make it short!

Morag was nice, she did have some trauma, she did want to run away to Dubai. And clearly she belongs here, and not flying boring big planes.

There are some fun interesting people around. She meets a grumpy guy.

It all works out! I enjoyed it, it was a nice easy read. Perfect for the summer.

Morag McGinty is a Scottish lass from the remote islands that make up the northernmost reaches of the UK. She's also a third-generation pilot, the heir apparent to an island plane service she runs with her grandfather. The islands--over 500 dots of windswept land that reach almost to Norway--rely on their one hardworking prop plane to deliver mail, packages, tourists, medicine, and the occasional sheep. As the keeper of this vital lifeline, Morag is used to landing on pale golden beaches and tiny grass airstrips, whether during great storms or on bright endless summer nights. Up in the blue sky, Morag feels at one with the elements.

Down on the ground is a different matter, though. Her grandfather is considering and Morag wonders if she truly wants to spend the rest of her life in the islands. Her boyfriend Tim, from flight school, wants Morag to move to Dubai with him, where they'll fly A380s and say goodbye to Scotland's dark winters.

Morag is on the verge of making a huge life change when an unusually bumpy landing during a storm finds her marooned on Inchborn island. Inchborn is gloriously off-grid, home only to an ancient ruined abbey, a bird-watching station, and a population of one: Gregor Cameron, a visiting ornithologist from Glasgow who might have just the right perspective to help Morag pilot her course.

Bat Eater by Kylie Lee Baker

Format: 336 pages, Paperback

Published: January 8, 2026 by Hachette

Horror /borrowed

Sometimes my brain is not working at its fullest. I started reading this one, but did not get far. Anyway 3 h later it hit me why it was called bat eater! I thought it was like cos it was horror. Not because the book would deal with racism.

Srsly, why were people like that? I did not fear anyone more than anyone else while Covid was at its worst. If anything people should have feared me most! I worked through it all, SO worked through it all, my kid was at daycare through it all. Honestly the only thing I noticed about Covid was those stupid masks that I haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaated. Other than that business as usual.

Covid hit NY. Cora found herself without a job. Her sister was pushed infront of a train. Now she works as a crime scene cleaner.

And someone seems to be killing Asian women....

Oh and there are ghosts. This is the ghost month when ghosts come back and they are hungry so there are rules you must follow, but Cora did not so now they are huuuungry.

This book dealt with covid, racism, and ghosts. Quite the mix. I am glad I do not have to deal with hungry ghosts, they sound scary.

It started off a bit slow, but it got interesting. I waited for the horror aspect. But then it all was horror because people will always be scarier than ghosts

Cora Zeng is a crime scene cleaner, washing away the remains of brutal murders and suicides in Chinatown. The bloody messes don't bother her, not when she's already witnessed the most horrific thing possible: her sister being pushed in front of a train.

Before fleeing the scene, the murderer whispered two words: bat eater.

Months pass, the killer is never caught, and Cora can barely keep herself together. She pushes away all feelings, disregards the bite marks that appear on her coffee table, and won't take her aunt's advice to prepare for the Hungry Ghost Festival, when the gates of hell open.

Cora tries to ignore the rising dread in her stomach, even when she and her weird co-workers begin finding bat carcasses at their crime scene clean-ups. But Cora can't ignore the fact that all their recent clean-ups have been the bodies of East Asian women.

Soon Cora will learn: you can't just ignore hungry ghosts.