Title: Insylum
Author: Z. Rider
Publication Date: June 9, 2015
Publisher: Dark Ride Publishing
Pages: 122
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The Last Ones In…Never Come Out
A.J. changed in boot camp, coming out all straight-backed and short-haired. His best friend Nate hardly recognizes him anymore, especially when it comes to the way he acts. His priorities. Now he’s about to ship out to Afghanistan, and despite the rift growing between them, the two decide to have one last hurrah—at Insylum, the extreme traveling funhouse they’ve been waiting for a chance at for years.
They’re last in line on the last night of the show. They are the last two to go in.
And they may never come back out.
Warning: Some tentacular activity. (Also body horror. And maggots.)
I know this may come as a shock, but I’m a huge horror junkie! So when I saw the cover for Insylum and read the synopsis, I was immediately sold! Especially since it was such a short read AND was available to borrow on Amazon Prime!
Insylum was a thrill ride from start to finish! Make no mistake, this is NOT a YA horror book by any stretch. It is gory and brutal right from the start. As I’ve said, I love horror, but this is the first horror book I’ve ever read (EVER) that made my pulse speed up! It definitely is not for the faint of heart. The characters were surprisingly well-developed for such a small book and the “funhouse” was described in such vivid detail that, well, it was terrifying.
I love a good 800 page Stephen King novel as much as the next person, but this much horror crammed into 122 pages just works! And there’s a twist at the end that I definitely did not see coming! I only wish the ending had been described in a little more detail, but I guess that’s supposed to be part of the mystery. In any case, I highly recommend this to any horror fan!
Title: A Crown of Swords (The Wheel of Time #7)
Author: Robert Jordan
Narrator: Kate Reading & Michael Kramer
Publication Date: November 15, 1997
Publisher: Tor Fantasy
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Reviews for book 5 and book 6
In this seventh book of Robert Jordan’s The Wheel of Time series, Elayne, Aviendha, and Mat come ever closer to the bowl ter’angreal that may reverse the world’s endless heat wave and restore natural weather. Egwene begins to gather all manner of women who can channel–Sea Folk, Windfinders, Wise Ones, and some surprising others. And above all, Rand faces the dread Forsaken Sammael, in the shadows of Shadar Logoth, where the blood-hungry mist, Mashadar, waits for prey.
I’m going to be really blunt here: I’ve been putting off this review because I did not like this book and now I don’t remember much about it. Looking back at the synopsis, I can recall why I don’t remember what happened. Nothing happened. Really.
Okay, well now I’m not being completely truthful. A few things happened. Egwene puts her foot down in her new role among the Aes Sedai, Rand hangs out with some baddies, and Mat gets raped by a queen. Repeatedly. And everyone laughs it off.
I feel like this chapter in the series had potential to be amazing! Unfortunately, it seems as if Robert Jordan really just wanted to milk this cow as long as he possibly could, to the point where we get this seventh book of pure filler. The women argue, even MORE characters are introduced, and other characters are completely absent.
I could complain about a lot in this book, but my biggest complaint is the big battle at the end. There’s one in every book and the battle at the end of book six blew my socks off! In my review of Lord of Chaos I said, “I had to literally restrain myself from jumping up and down in excitement!” and, “This book was truly the best of the six I’ve read so far!” My, how the mighty have fallen.
I’ll continue the series just because I am already seven books in and have invested hundreds of hours of listening. I just really hope it pays off in the end.
