I can’t say enough good things about this book. It’s part of a greater series called Twisted Tales which are stand-alone books that present a twist or what if situation of the Disney movies like “What if Aladdin never found the lamp” or “What if Wendy traveled to Neverland with Hook?” I hadn’t read any of them before but I chose this one first since this was Hercules that I adore. It is also written Jen Calonita and I have reread her Secrets of My Hollywood Life series many times so I had to try. And I just loved it! Thus sparking me to read the rest of the series.
I read Grady Hendrix’s Paperbacks from Hell annually every October so I had to see his fiction. And it’s just as wild and witty as his nonfic.
The Final Girl Support Group goes behind the scene of what happens to those final girls that kill their killer (and kill the sequel killer) and survive traumatic massacres. How do they grow up?
. . . . With issues as with the case of the MC, Lynette whose paranoid and withdrawn and constantly prepped with a gun just in case.
But it seems like there’s another killer and he’s picking off the support group one by one. And like in any good horror, Lynette is the only one who sees the danger. Now I won’t say more cuz that would just be giving away spoilers. But I will say, Hendrix deftly uses the tropes to his advantage with each girl surviving a thinly veiled take of classic film like Chainsaw Massacre, Nightmare on Elm, Halloween etc. as well the suspected killer hops from one to another so you’re like “of course it’s that one” but wait bam surprise twist!
Also had some interesting things to say about the nature of horror and how it is primarily women are affected. Much like in real life and other profound things that I won’t get into here.
As for the horror, I can’t be the true judge of that as I took precautions in reading this during the daytime and watching copious sitcoms afterwards but it does have gorey descriptions and nightmarish murderbilia, sociopaths, necrophilia and more.
Really this is very good for anyone whose a fan of the genre. 5 bloody knives
So I was so so excited to get this book. It’s like the ONLY book I’ve ever read that has Ecuadorian characters. It’s always Mexican/Dominican/Puerto Rican since those are the most common in the US. But this was a whole family of them. Plus the family and the author were from Guayaquil, Ecuador! Just where my mom was from so it was like fate that I needed to read this. And I wasn’t the only one excited, my aunt got excited too and wanted to know which town the author was from on the off chance she heard of her.
Now on to the actual review of the first book I finished for 2022. This was a great story imbued with magical realism. It was centered with dual storylines between the past and present. The past was from the POV of the titular Orquídea Divina, a most unlikely woman who leaves her home and hopefully her bad luck as she tries to take power to change her fate and protect her family.
The present storyline tackles the consequences of Orquídea’s life. Now an elderly matriarch who calls her (grand)children to her magical isolated home because she’s dying. Always secretive and had driven off her family members, her grandchildren Rey and Marimar are reluctant to go back. But they also hope for some answers for the bad luck and magic that always surrounded them. Why she always was afraid. What exactly happened in her past.
I can’t reveal more since I don’t want to spoil anything but it has glittering prose-I can see the magic and glamour of the circus that is mentioned as well as the natural world. It was gripping too and kept me turning pages too. No boredom or skimming pages here as Cordove explored generational trauma, family, and the slippery grasp of love, helplessness and (self) power. 4 stars ️
If I had to make a comparison to something else it reminded me a bit of Disney’s Encanto what with the secretive matriarch, generational story and magical house and powers. Only this is darker and probes deeper with character reflections and introspections.
I decided last year to expand my reading from the deliciously fun backstabbing frenemy series like Gossip Girl and Beauty Queens to a group diverse YA standalone book so here are my reviews. They’re a bit short since I wrote it after I read all the books, which again was over the year, so it’s not as detailed. Also all are non spoilery.
Hello to any and all book lovers who stumble upon this blog. I’m a voracious reader in my free time (One book a day is my preference), but I haven’t found many who’ve read the same books. So I try to nag my friends until they do because “XYZ book is just sooo good!”
Now I’ve turned my efforts to the internet to share my love of reading. Mainly in the form of reviews and rankings. Maybe you’ll find a book you like? Maybe we can get into a discussion in the comments. Mainly this is a place for me to ramble on about what I read.
It’s always Mexican/Dominican/Puerto Rican since those are the most common in the US. But this was a whole family of them. Plus the family and the author were from Guayaquil, Ecuador! Just where my mom was from so it was like fate that I needed to read this. And I wasn’t the only one excited, my aunt got excited too and wanted to know which town the author was from on the off chance she heard of her. 
️ 
#adialsaid, #ajsteiger, #alisongervis, #americanpanda, #americanstreet, #angiethomas, #averylargeexpanseofsea, #brittalundin, #camp, #camryngarret, #comeonin, #concreterose, #crystalmaldonando, #cynthialeitichsmith, #diverse, #elizabethavecedo, #fatchanceCharlieVega, #felixeverafter, #fiction, #francescha, #gloriacho, #heartsunbroken, #i'llbetheone, #ibizoboi, #ifIhadyourface, #kacencallender, #leahjohnson, #levacrosen, #lgtbq, #likeothergirls, #lylalee, #magicalrealism, #misasugiura, #misfitinlove, #mitaliperkins, #nataliasylvester, #nexttimewillbedifferent, #offtherecord, #piecingmetogether, #pulp, #quietkindofthunder, #rachelreads&reviews, #realisticfiction, #reneewatson, #robintalley, #running, #saintsandmisfits, #sarabernard, #skali, #taheranmafi, #thesilencebetweenus, #todaytonighttomorrow, #topicalissues, #whenmyheartjoinsthethousands, #withthefireonhigh, #YA, #youbringthedistantnear, #youshouldseemeinacrown
Rachel Reads & Reviews 