Jason Cavallaro's Best and Worst of April

After only reading 5 books in March (largely due to promoting my own book release), I'm back to reading 3-4 per week.  This month I was able to read 16.

And the best one was...

If Cats Disappeared From the World by Genki Kawamura

I'm a sucker for these Japanese fables, as one of my favorite books of all time is Hiro Arakawa's
The Traveling Cat Chronicles. Kawamura's has an added fairy-tale quality to it, as it features the devil as a main character (Cats, not surprisingly, LOVE the devil). This is an emotional, but fun and adorable Faustian tale (tail). 

WORST OF THE MONTH IS...

Good Girls Die First by Kathryn Foxfield

I'm a firm believer that your characters don't need to be sympathetic, but jeez....these girls were annoying. 

The rest:

The Hitchhikers by Chevy Stevens. Upcoming novel from Stevens. Some parts are unbearably suspenseful, and others were...just boring.  Grade:  C

He Who Types Between the Rows 3: Requiem by Mark Sieber (non-fiction). Predictably, another banger from Mark Sieber, aka horror's historian.  Grade:  A

Flight 171 by Amy Christine Parker. Very suspenseful YA thriller. Possibly my favorite trapped-in-the-sky novel.  Grade:  A

Small Town Monsters by Diana Rodriguez Wallach. Good premise, but I never connected to the characters.  Grade:  D

Feral vol 2 by Fleecs/Forstner (graphic novel). Not quite as captivating as the first volume, but I'm still onboard for volume 3. Grade:  B

The Violent Season by Sara Walters. A few twists are revealed too early, and the plot loses fuel in the third act.  Grade:  C

Angel Down by Daniel Kraus.  Upcoming novel from one of the best working today. He writes this one in a literary style, which is not for me.  Grade:  C

Haunt by Kirkman/Macfarlane (graphic novel). A dream-team of comic book collaborators (greg capullo also involved). Fell short of expectations.  Grade:  C

>Pleasant Dreams by Robert Bloch (collection). I've enjoyed his collections before, but this one didn't work for me. Grade:  D

Book of Evil by Snyder/Jock (graphic novel). Unique format. Not done in panel-style, but more of a prose short story with embedded art. Excellent work.  Grade: A

Dungeon Crawler Carl by Matt Dinniman. Figuring how much I liked The Grinding, I expected to love this one.  Grade:  C

Three Little Pigs by Edward Lee (novella collection). The first novella, The Pig, was easily the best of the three.  The second two dragged it down.  Grade:  D

We Are Always Tender With Our Dead by Eric LaRocca. I love his stuff, but this was just much too slow paced for me. Grade:  C

Daybreak by Brian Ralph (graphic novel). Fast-moving zombie comic, but not much substance. Grade:  C

That's it!  Til next time...

Reviews by Jason Cavallaro

jcavallaro42@gmail.com

Twitter:  @pinheadspawn