Jason Cavallaro's Best and Worst of August

20 books read, but not much luck. Only two 5-star reads and they are:

BEST OF THE MONTH

Stray Dogs/Stray Dogs: Dog Days (graphic novels) by Tony Fleecs and Trish Forstner

Yep, both 5-star reads are from the same team that has brought you hundreds of My Little Pony comic books. Stray Dogs is NOT My Little Pony. Don't be fooled by the cute dogs. This is creepy, menacing, and completely heartbreaking. You were warned.

WORST OF THE MONTH

The Salt Grows Heavy by Cassandra Khaw

Khaw's writing is an enigma to me. I LOVED Nothing But Blackened Teeth, but I've hated this one and The All-Consuming World. I can't put my finger on why this is happening. They read like they're from different writers.

The rest:

The Haunted by Danielle Vega. Not as good as The Merciless. Grade: C
The Women in the Walls by Amy Lukavics. Is this the same author that wrote the amazing The Ravenous? Grade: C
The Butcher by Jennifer Hillier. Not one of her best either. Grade: C
Other Words by Brian Keene. Try End of the Road or the Hail Saten stuff for his non-fiction. Grade: C
Refrigerator Full of Heads by Youers/Fowler (graphic novel). Basketful of Heads is better, although this one is gorier. Grade: C
The Last Werewolf by Glen Duncan. Fantasy werewolves aren't as cool as horror ones. Grade: D
This is How You Lose the Time War by El-Mohtar/Gladstone. Award-winning and boring. Grade: D
Godzilla: History's Greatest Monster by Swiercyznski/Gane (graphic novel). The plots in Godzilla comics are never great, so the art has to pop. Grade: C
Gwendy's Final Task by King/Chizmar. The weakest of the trilogy, but still good. Grade: B
Snarl by John Boden. It seems like Boden's prose is getting more poetic, and it's distracting to me. Grade: D
Suspect by Robert Crais. Very good buddy cop/dog mystery. Grade: B
The Facts of Life by Graham Joyce. Joyce is great, but this isn't one of his better novels. Grade: C
Wet Market and Other Stories by Aron Beauregard (collection). The title novella (novellette?) was good, but the rest of the stories weighed it down. Grade: C
To Stare Death in the Eyes by Eric Butler. Butler is a super nice guy, but I had trouble getting through this splatter western. Grade: D
The Fix by Spencer/Lieber (graphic novel). It was really funny, but I wasn't really caught up in the mystery aspect of this. Grade: C
The Upside-Down Voice that Speaks Backwards by RJ Benetti (collection). Reads like really weird/humorous Twilight Zone episodes, but not as good. Grade: C
The Donut Legion by Joe R Lansdale. Not quite in the top tier of Lansdales stuff, but another solid one from the legend. Grade: B
Ten by Gretchen McNeil. Fun, campy slasher. Grade: B
Reviews by Jason Cavallaro
jcavallaro42@gmail.com
Twitter: @pinheadspawn