i tried out a paid book recommendation service - round 2

  I’ve made a few updates to my profile since last time. First, I added a note about YA, and how it’s a harder sell since I’m not really in the target demographic. Second, I updated the section regarding good books I’ve read recently. I highlighted Blood Price by Tanya Huff, Grave Witch by Kalayna Price, and The Murder Wheel by Tom Mead.

  For those curious, Blood Price is the first book in the Vicki Nelson series, the series that the Lifetime show Blood Ties was based on. I’ve been watching the show on Tubi lately and I wanted to try the books. The first two episodes of the show are a somewhat accurate adaptation of the first book, but the book is much gayer than the show. I compared the two in my liveblog here. I also liveblogged Grave Witch, which focuses on a witch who specializes in summoning shades to solve crimes. She gets dragged into a big case, there’s a conspiracy, this goes all the way to the top, yada yada, you know how these books work. I liked the necromancy and the mystery. Mostly. It’s got a lot of interesting allegory stuff going on, but I feel like one of the big plot twists kinda undermines it. The Murder Wheel is the second book in the Joseph Specter locked-room mystery series. People tend to rag on this series for having these ridiculous convoluted murder plots, but that’s why I like them. They’re very Saw-coded. Like, the end-of-the-book breakdowns remind me so much of those scenes at the end of the Saw movies where they reveal the twist and do all these editing cuts back to bits throughout the movie. Plus the title of this one just sounds like a Saw trap.

  Another thing I did was send an email to support asking about how stretch reads are determined. For example, does a specific genre count as a stretch read if I don’t read it often but I specifically asked for it?

  The answer is it depends. If you want that genre to be included choose “mix of familiar and stretch,” but if you want only the requested genre, choose “expand my horizons.” I’d already had mix chosen so everything’s fine lol.

First Impressions

  I’m actually pretty pumped about these!

  First book is The Dead Take the A Train by Cassandra Khaw, because I like urban fantasy and eldritch horror. Which I do. Very Much. This sounds great. Second is Looking for Love in All the Haunted Places by Claire Kann, because I wanted not-depressing queer books. Not only is this a paranormal rom-com, but it also has ace rep! So I’m very here for this. I didn’t mention I was ace anywhere so it’s a really cool coincidence that I got recced some ace rep. he Third is Our Wives Under The Sea by Julia Armfield, because I like aquatic horror. It’s also gay, which is cool. I vaguely remember some Youtuber I like mentioning they weren’t super hot on this one, but I don’t remember full details. I’m definitely willing to give it a shot though.

  So yeah, first impressions, I’m way more hyped about this crop than the first round.

Things Go Downhill Quickly

  So it took me a while to actually start reading these. I got kinda burnt out on reading for a while and it took me a while to get back in the saddle. And when I finally got around to reading the books, well…

The Dead Take The A Train

  This was the book I was the most excited about, and by far the biggest letdown. I dnf’ed in chapter 1.

  I have a very strong squick regarding pregnancy stuff in books. What happens in chapter 1 was pretty gross and I couldn't handle reading any further.

  This is particularly disappointing since I did specifically list pregnancy stuff as a thing I have a problem with, and I was not warned about it at all. Like, it’s in my dealbreaker section, so it shouldn’t be there at all. Because it’s in the dealbreakers, I didn’t put it in the warning section; I assumed that wouldn’t be necessary lol.

Our Wives Under the Sea

  I feel like an asshole for not liking this book.

  Like, on a conscious level I get it. It’s a book about grief & loss. It’s one of Those Books where the plot doesn’t really matter and to complain and nitpick about the plot is essentially to miss the point of the book. But dear god, this book was boring. I read this one with an audiobook while doing other stuff; if I’d had to use an ebook or physical copy I wouldn’t have finished it.

  Here’s the thing: the part of me that likes aquatic horror is not the part of me that likes Fine Literature. I do not read aquatic literature to be moved by the human condition. I am here mainly for Fish Violence. It’s kinda hard to be in the proper headspace for a book about grief when you’re baying for blood, y’know?

  And I just really like it when books have plot. I like it when things happen. I like getting conclusive answers to mysteries.

  And I’m so viscerally annoyed with myself for not appreciating this Beautifully Written Fine Literature. I hate myself for being bored. I hate that my main takeaway from this whole thing was “wow that my husband in space forum sure sounds fun.”

  I liveblogged this one, but it's honestly not that great of a liveblog if we're being honest. I've done better.

Looking for Love in All the Haunted Places

  It wasn’t all bad? But it wasn’t that great.

  The ace rep is good. I really like Lucky, the main character who is also ace. But the book itself is kinda slow and boring, and there are a few weird quirks here and there that take me out of the story. Compared to the other books it’s lovely, I did finish it after all, but it’s still only like a 3 star.

  I go into my thoughts some more in the liveblog, but some of it might be too nitpicky to include here? I never know if I'm being too negative or petty in my liveblogs.

How Were The Recs?

  So, regardless of what I actually thought of the books, how do I feel about the recommendations themselves?

  Looking for Love in All the Haunted Places was probably the best rec. On paper, it has so many key components I should be all over. Hauntings, ace rep (ownvoices ace rep!), a love interest who is actually nice to the mc. There’s even a section where they go to a haunted theme park! The execution just didn’t wow me, unfortunately.

  Our Wives Under the Sea is fine, I guess? It is technically aquatic horror with a Lovecraftian flavor, there are gay people in it, and lots of people do like it. But it also feels kinda obvious in the way that The Last Final Girl was obvious? But with a slightly different flavor. It’s hard to explain.

  The Dead Take the A Train... wow. Like I said in the last post, my main motive for paying a human to give me book recs is to avoid content warning issues. I know they’re not perfect, but it’s like, right in chapter 1. Like come on. Easily the worst rec of the bunch by default.

  Overall, huge letdown this month. I’d say I hope next month is better, but honestly I kinda wanna keep my expectations low.