Welcome to Litsy!

What in the absolute fuck did I just read? Seriously...I have no words. None.

I'm not sure if this is humour or horror but it's a whole lot of cringey mind-fuck wrapped in a messy "wait....what...seriously?" candy coating. I have no idea if I liked it because I have no idea what just went on. @BookishTrish Did you read this? I'm so confused ??

#bookspinbingo #TBRDeckofCards #QueenOfDiamonds #GiftedByALitten
@Clwojick @TheAromaofBooks

Very bizarre with a wholly unlikable protagonist. Some plot lines fell flat and the horror was just not there for me. Finished it wanting more from it, but it did have it's funny moments. Would be willing to read more from this author.

Round 33 of the #tenatatime #tbr project. It‘s come in handy having so many unread books in my house while the libraries have been closed. At least I‘ll never run out of stuff to read.

...and yet I feel like that‘s exactly what Barrett tried to do: grow both. I needed her to lean in to the weird a bit harder. Some beautiful writing some super cliched yet easy to read.

Never have I read such an amazing dark comedy horror novel. I read it in one sitting. Captivating and laugh out loud funny, easily compared to Ash vs Evil Dead (one of my favorite shows).

TFW you realize that maybe there‘s the smallest possibility your #bookbuyingban isn‘t going as well as you‘d thought #Januaryhaul #guilty

Yeah. WTF was that??🤔 It started off promising, a very aussie sarcastic humour, then it just veered hard left into batshit territory. Creepy, making me very uncomfortable batshit territory. With dashes of child abuse & skeezyness. Don‘t bother with this one, it‘s the very first Pan I‘ve given I think & it‘s well deserved. #dontbother #ineedashowernow

Next up is this new novel by Shirley Barrett. Described as The Exorcist meets Twin Peaks in a tiny Australian town, it definitely sounds interesting. Eleanor is a 31yr old teacher when she finds a lump in her breast. After chemo & a mastectomy, she‘s had enough of her unsympathetic friends & lack of prospects so she takes a job out in the middle of nowhere. But where did the old teacher vanish to & why is there a bus outside her house at midnight?

Today was a big #LibraryHaul day! I‘ll be slowly posting each book,I‘m still having major wifi issues with my iPhone coz of stupid update/s😠Eleanor is overwhelmed by people after surviving a breast cancer diagnosis & surgery.She retreats to Talbingo,a small town in need of a teacher.It‘s a weird town,like the wine drinking friar who rants about demons causing cancer,why her cabin has so many locks on the door & who‘s knocking on it late at night.

After a bad breakup, cancer diagnosis, and a mastectomy, Eleanor accepts a teacher position in a remote town. Her predecessor has disappeared and was perfect according to the residents, which is a hard act to follow. This is a weird, funny, weird book. Eleanor is a hot mess. It‘s uncertain as you read her unpublished blog, if things are real or in her imagination. This definitely leans more toward Bridget Jones‘ Diary than The Exorcist even ⬇️

I‘m a little late (as usual), but I love this idea @Cinfhen ! I‘m currently a third of the way through the tagged book and I‘m re-listening to U is for Undertow. The McNeil is my next physical book on deck. The Gods of Gotham is my next audio pick because I saw @Chrissyreadit say it is great on audio. #weeklyforecast

This is a very weird, funny, bizarre horror novel with a very unlikable main character whom I half liked anyways because I adored the narrator. Eleanor takes over teaching at a remote school with only 11 students after the former teacher disappears. Eleanor hasn't worked in 3 years as she's been battling breast cancer, a brutal break up, so she sees this as a chance to start over. Things do not go as planned. #TeamSlaughter #scarathalon @Clwojick

This is so completely weird... so of course it's my jam. #TeamSlaughter #scarathalon @Clwojick #24b4Monday

A woman whose life has been turned upside down takes a teaching job in a weird, isolated Australian town. A lot of shit happens, some of it unsettling, some of it confusing, some of it funny. I think Barrett was clever in the way she revealed things (or didn't), but the payoff was unsatisfying and I was put off by the informal tone of the narrator. Lots of "So, anyway..." and YELLING CAPS TO CONVEY BIG FEELINGS. Not really my flavor but ⭐⭐⭐

Book 9 finished for #screamathon @4thhouseontheleft

First off, I'm not sure why this is listed in the horror genre. It started out interesting and even though the main character was unpredictable and neurotic, I was enjoying it. Then she moves to a small town where the last school teacher mysteriously disappeared, and this story starts falling apart. Sadly, the ending didn't help and just left me frustrated.

The story begins with a #BreastCancer diagnosis but takes a very unexpected path from there.
#Spooktober

Let‘s start off by #FriYayIntro
1. Read the tagged book early this year and I just hated how the teachers acted in the book! So frustrated by the plot I had to DNF 😅
2. Earlier seasons of Big Bang Theory, Will & Grace, & Everybody Loves Raymond 😆 (I am trash for sitcom)
3. Had Croissant 🥐 & Coffee this morning ☕️
4. Sydney, so it‘s Australian Eastern Time Zone (Friday night right now)
5. The Grey Poppy 🤘🏼

The first part of the book was good, but it all went downhill for me when the MC got the new job in a remote mountain town. I did not find it funny at all, nor scary - it was just too bizarre! I finished the book hoping to get some closure but nope, nothing. There must be some meaning to all this, but I did not get it. 🤔

Two recent reads thst used a word I hadn't encountered before 'eldritch'

What did I just read? 😂 it started really well and I love how insane the protagonist is, but it just started getting so strange and then I was like oh ok it must make sense in the end... but I‘ll let others judge the “story”.

#GreenBooks #30JuneBooks

My June TBR! Currently still reading a book from my March TBR 🙊 but I did finish my April list so that‘s good news! Really excited for these books 😍😍

1. Summer movie season, new Spider-Man movie
2. Nothing has caught my eye yet (so many new releases are part of series), so working on #LitsyAtoZ and Mount TBR.
3. No really a snack, but corn on the cob, picked fresh from the garden, is my favorite summer food. Also, of course my favorite drink is the reliable Arnold Palmer.
4. 105, set back in July 1988, before I was living in WV.
5. @Erie @Danifierroa

#thursdaysurvey @laurenslibrary

My book from the last round of #LMPBC #GroupX came back to me this morning. I've loved going through all the comments. Looks like we were all a bit bemused by it, but we all had plenty to say! Thanks again for the fun and interesting reading experience @LapReader @thegreensofa @Sarz @BecH

Book 8 for 2019
#horror #horrorreads #horrorbooks #thriller #thrillerreads #thrillerbooks

3 ⭐
This started out funny and sarcastic, but then... I'm not really sure what happened. I feel like this book may have gaslighted me. I'm not sure what to think.

My strongest impression though was one of frustration, because there's no way a male character would have been written as Eleanor was.

It was a quick and compelling read - I finished it in a day.

#lmpbc #groupx #theaussies
@CarolynM @thegreensofa @LapReader @BecH

Utterly bizarre but the most fun I‘ve had reading a book in a while. The ending was just as WTF-worthy as I‘d hoped. 😂 #newyearwhodis

Another current read, 80% in and I'm still not sure if I like it or not. It's a quirky story about cancer survivor who took up a teaching job at a remote countryside and soon found out what happened to the teacher before her and all the weird things that happen there...It started off quite funny but the occasional foul language& bad teaching attitude are making me uncomfortable 😅
#newbook #bookworm #booklover #booknerd #bibliophile #currentread

My library hold came in (I currently have way too much checked out 😶) and this looks SO good - can‘t wait to start it! #newyearwhodis

First DNF of the year, promising beginning kept me reading for far to long. Apparently horror+comedy+cancer+jerks genre is not for me or this novel is terrible, either way I resent the reading hours wasted.

This opens strongly with observations about cancer treatment that had me laughing out loud. The narrator has a cynical, biting sense of humour that I found refreshing & v funny in parts - like a good friend telling you a story, no holds barred. But she becomes unlikeable (a bad teacher, violent & irrational) & the story overblown, so I stopped caring. It‘s been compared to Twin Peaks or Fargo but too farcical. Lively writing & voice; so-so story.

What the heck did I just read there? This book is so weird that it feels like you‘re watching The Rocky Horror Picture Show after having drunk two bottles of wine. The narrator is a horrible person, the story is totally whacky but still it has a certain appeal. I‘d give it 3/5 stars.

Beginning this one tonight. I love how the cover blends in with my tree. 😁

3.5/5. Um.....that was quite a trip. I am not even sure which parts of the book were real and which were fabricated in the narrators mind. All I know is that she seemed 🦇 💩 🤪

I am on my bus travelling home from work and it‘s Thursday. How fitting. Very funny so far @CarolynM @suvata #LMPBC Group Xcellent @Sarz @thegreensofa

They say it‘s Bridget Jones meets the Exorcist but I think it leans more on Bridget. We meet Eleanor and the most horrific thing that happens is that she gets breast cancer within the first 20pgs. and loses a breast, her job, and this all after she lost her bf. She moves to the middle of nowhere to teach at a small school. And you root for her up until you realize she might not be the most reliable narrator. But she still makes you laugh. This👇🏼

Oh my #FreakyFreaks, this was awesome. Completely original, banana pants in all the right ways, and the audio was Aussie gold.

#NoFemmeber

I'm not really sure what I've just read. It was quite a ride and certainly never dull, even if I wasn't really sure what to think about it or about the central character most of the time. Because it's my #LMPBC book I don't want to give too much away. I'll put it in the post for you tomorrow @LapReader
#LMPBC #GroupX

Unfortunately my glasses have become #readingnecessities (I even have to take them to restaurants now to read the menu) and the pen is essential for my #LPMBC read. #FallIntoReading

Billed as “Bridget Jones meets The Exorcist” teacher Eleanor, finished treatment for breast cancer moves to a remote town in the Australian outback. The paranormal, freaks and a severed hand come to life, are just some of the fun campy moments in this novel.

“This is the problem with having cancer: Everyone expects you to have mysteriously acquired some kind of wisdom out of the experience, and if you haven‘t, then it‘s a personal failing.”

#lpmbc #round4 #groupx

Just getting started on my book. Looking forward to this reading experience with my group 🙂

https://www.audible.com/pd/The-Bus-on-Thursday-Audiobook/B07FKTQ33D?qid=&sr=&ref...

A cancer survivor takes a job in a remote Australian village as a schoolteacher after her predecessor mysteriously disappears. The narrator is probably a sociopath and everyone else in the story is totally unpleasant, which made the whole thing sort of funny. There were parts so cringeworthy you couldn‘t help but nervously laugh to yourself, or mumble “Jesus fucking Christ...” under your breath. I really enjoyed it, so 4 out of 5 stars from me.

Um, ok, so that happened. Did it, though? I'm not 100% sure what I just read, but I thoroughly enjoyed the ride! 4.25 stars.

Now for something completely different. Bridget Jones meets Stephen King. Loving it so far ...,

Sick day reading soundtrack. #readingsoundtrack

Oh. My. Gursh. This turned out to be NOTHING like I thought it would in the best way possible. First I thought it was like Christopher Moore wrote Wicker Man, and then it took some reeeaally dark turns. This is a weird mystery with a “hot mess” protagonist, and would be great for a book club as there‘s a lot to discuss about mental illness, cancer, life as a 30-something, coercive control, and a what just happened?-style debatable ending. 5 ⭐️s