I promise this isn't a review. You can find my reviews on Goodreads from now on. I recently read a book that I feel the need to open up a dialog on.



A question that I see asked a lot (in writing groups) is whether or not the reader can tell if the author is male or female by reading the book. In You by Caroline Kepnes I knew the author was a female, but if you had covered up the book cover and asked me what gender the author was I would have told you that the author was a male. She did such a good job finding that character's voice that I couldn't tell the book was written by a female. It could have been because Joe isn't the typical male. He reads instead of playing video games (both are fun, he could have done either and it wouldn't have bothered me). I recently read Final Girls, and I knew without a doubt that the book had been written by a man. The name Riley is unisex and we were meant to think it was a woman writing the books, but I already knew it was a male long before. Knowing the book was written by a man using a pen name didn't make the book any less enjoyable, but I could tell it wasn't a woman writing the book. He glossed over things that women might have spent more time on, and some of his interactions between the female characters were a bit odd. He did do his best to give the characters their own personalities (the MC steals, Sam/Tina calls everyone babe). He gave them each their own voice, it just didn't sound like a female voice (or at least what I think of as female). I don't remember ever reading a book and feeling like that. 

The future of weekend reviews

When I started this blog I thought that it would be a good idea to review books on it. I called my reviews 'Weekend Reviews' and posted them on Friday, Saturday, or Sunday. I thought it was nice to have an assigned day where I did something special, kind of like when youtubers have things like 'scary Saturday' and play horror games. I didn't think about how weird it would be that I was trying to sell books while reviewing other people's books. At the same time as I was reviewing my books on here, I wasn't taking the time to post the same review on amazon, goodreads, Barnes and noble, or anywhere that would help the author sell books. It would be very random for someone to just come across my blog, and highly unlikely that they would buy a book based on my short review. To be honest, when I like a book there's not much that I say about it, so my reviews were short and there wasn't much to them (like some of my blog posts). I have decided to discontinue weekend reviews and focus on something that will benefit my blog instead. I may bring something else to my blog in the future, but I have nothing planned yet.

Barnes and Noble

I saw an article this morning that said Barnes and Noble is failing. I don't know if that's true, but I think it probably is. I know from personal experience that a lot of stores are failing now that there is so much online competition. I can still remember when Borders went out of business (at least the location near me), I had to hurry up and use my giftcards. I had always loved Borders, since they had a big selection of manga. I don't really read a lot of manga, but I was really into Death Note at the time. As much as I loved Borders, Barnes and Noble holds more memories for me. My dad used to drop me and my sister off there and we would look at almost everything in the store. When we got hungry we would eat something from the store inside. I tried my first overpriced grilled cheese there. There was something about Barnes and Noble that made me want to see my book in print on the shelves. I got away from Barnes and Noble recently, since I didn't feel they had enough content that interested me lately. The last time I went in one there were a lot of books that inspired movies and not much else. I was disappointed, and I also found the prices too high. I turned to book outlet or the local library for paperpacks, but I still like to go to Barnes and Noble or Books A Million from time to time. I would be sad to see them go.

The new and improved opening of Zombie Bite

“You look like Carrie on prom night,” I said, aiming my gun at the man’s face.

His wild eyes stood out against his blood-soaked skin as he studied me. “Carrie?” he choked out. I had heard his voice before. It was the one that had come across my radio asking for help.

“Yeah, from the old Stephen King movie. I like to watch old movies,” I explained as I sized the man up. I had to hold my breath as the rancid smell of his body odor stung my nose. His face was a mess that consisted of wrinkles and bruises. His stained Harley Davidson t-shirt clung to his skeletal frame. He managed to sneer at me, exposing a set of crooked, yellow and brown teeth.

“What’s going on?” The man growled as if he was seeing me for the first time. “Who the hell are you?”

“I came here to help you,” I answered. “Most people know to stay away from schools, so why are you here?” I asked. The infected tended to visit places that held memories for them. I'd heard people call the infected zombies, but that wasn't right. Zombies ate brains. The infected were just cannibals with no preference.  

My To Be Read List

Part of being a writer is being a reader, but I haven't been much of one lately. I have read very few books during the past two years, but I think I'm getting back into the swing of things. I actually have a list of books that I'm planning to check out. I know that I'm not going to read all of these, but I'm going to try.

The first is my current read, Hidden Bodies, the sequel to You. 

The next book is one I've seen in Book of the month unboxings. Actually, the next few will be books I've seen in these unboxings. Our kind of cruelty kind of reminds me of You, well the blurb did anyway.



I've been wanting to read Final Girls for a long time, and it'll probably be my next read. I love the pink and black copy with the black pages. I think it would look nice sitting on my bookshelf, but I'll probably end up getting it from the library.





The youtuber (chapterstacks) who got me interested in You also got me interested in this next pick.


I've been more interested in horror and thriller novels lately, so that would explain my interest in the next author.




Finally, my love for video games and popular movies means that I fan girl over books that involve games and movies. I want to read Ready Player One.