The Night Guest by Hildur Knútsdóttir

After finishing this one, I thought, "well that was a sweet little horror novel." I'm not sure I can verbalize why sweet is the best word, but it really is. 

Maybe it's Mary Robinette Kowal's subtle hints of humor alongside the terror in her voice as she narrates Iðunn (pronounced Ethun) in Knútsdóttir's novella. I rooted for Iðunn and was horrified alongside her as events unfolded. I wanted Iðunn to wake up feeling refreshed, not like she just walked 5 miles or wrestled a bear. What other explanation could there be for the soreness, bruises on her body, and blood under her nails night after night?

Maybe it's the book's format of 100+ chapters - but many just a single sentence. It was nice not needing pages and pages of explanation and exposition. It's really quite simple, Iðunn isn't sleeping well. In her journey to figure out why, she tries psychotherapy, sleeping pills, insomnia, dating distraction, GPS, and a step-counting app. Despite the overall brevity, Knútsdóttir still managed to create someone you care for and seem to know pretty well. 

It definitely wasn't the sinister undertone of Iðunn's morning revelations.

Or the cats.

And it wasn't the reveal. Definitely not the reveal, which I'm a little flummoxed by, to be honest.

But somehow, at the end of the day, I was able to listen to this novella in a few hours and got a fun head scratcher out of it. Unconventionally, horrifically, sweet. 

Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen

This is a part of my quest to read those books I feel like everyone had to read in high school, but somehow I didn't. My goal? To know what people are talking about when they reference this book, and to hopefully understand the source material for some pop culture references.

Well, now that I've finished the book, I realize I overestimated the pop-cultural currency this book contained. I don't feel like there were moments where I said, "THAT'S where that came from!" And I didn't get to understand why Jane Austen is such an amazing author (I'll duck if you want to throw shoes at me now). 

Set in the early 1800's in England, I at least hoped to get some interesting details about life in that time. But it was a long slog of ladies gossiping and talking about marriage and visiting homes to realize there wasn't much that I would take with me. And I feel like not much really happened. It was just all he said this and she said that and NO I WON'T marry you! And blah blah blah. I'm sorry, did I miss a tea time at some manor while I was sighing for the millionth time? But someone might have gone on holiday and I'll never know!

I guess I didn't like the book. But will I watch the movie? Yes I will, if for no other reason than to see if in my utter boredom I missed a good part or not. But I'm pretty sure I didn't and if I did..

Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir

If you liked Andy Weir's first novel, The Martian, then Project Hail Mary won't disappoint as another witty, funny, creative sci-fi adventure. Suspend your belief for this one, as moments of sudden clarity, synchronicity, and serendipity abound. But in order to save the world, everything has to fall perfectly into place, and I was here for it!

In some ways, Weir's protagonist, Ryland Grace, is an everyman archetype - an unassuming middle school teacher with no real drama or intrigue in his life. But in other ways, he's the smartest, luckiest, most well-equipped human in the universe. If you can get past all of that (and I think Weir is able to get us to that point) then PHM is a great story. 

We open to Grace waking up and not remembering where he is or even who he is. But he seems to be in space, which is a problem when you have amnesia...aaaaand have never been in space before. Grace slowly regains his memory through snapshots of his life back on earth. So we get the alternating timelines as a way to reveal why Grace is in a spaceship trying to save the world. To complicate things, there is an unknown vessel near grace's ship that he isn't sure is from earth. But he has to make contact with it in order to complete his mission.

Weir is great at giving us so many scientific details in an easy to understand and relatable way. And Ryland Grace is a smart, funny, and entertaining narrator. And the story itself, about how the sun is dying and what is causing it, is thoughtful and interesting too. 

For more information about Weir and his work, here is his website. And here is a link to the trailer for the movie, coming out next year, added bonus - it stars Ryan Gosling.

Ghost Station by S. A. Barnes

I was going to say this was a first for me in terms of genre: space horror. But now that I think about it, I was introduced to space horror in the 90's when I went in cold to see Event Horizon and walked out of the theater in horrified silence. THAT shit was space horror. 

But we'll take it down a notch and talk about Ghost Station, which is set on an alien planet with a long lost civilization. We follow a team of explorers to this planet which includes psychologist Dr. Ophelia Bray, who is there to help them deal with the recent loss of a team member. But she is also there to screen them for signs of ERS, a debilitating space disease that results in psychosis.

While it can be assumed Dr. Bray won't immediately be accepted as a part of this already established team, she can't help but feel like there is more they aren't telling her. The leader of the team doesn't support her presence and the others' treatment of her range from indifference to outright resentment.

As they explore this long abandoned planet, the team's grief over their lost teammate, coupled with disturbing discoveries, make it difficult for Dr. Bray to discern if someone's behavior is due to grief, deception, or emerging signs of ERS. 

Of course, Dr. Bray isn't immune to developing ERS either, and her past, which slowly unfolds for us, makes her wonder if she might have a predisposition for it, because her team aren't the only ones acting strange at times...

While this wasn't Event Horizon level space horror (and let's be real, thank God for that), it was a solid read. I'd pick up another one by this author, who apparently writes a variety of genres, from YA and Romance (as Stacy Kade) to horror (as S.A. Barnes).

  

Greenlights by Matthew McConaughey

I'm not a memoir reader. But this was gifted to me during a happy hour, when my defenses were down and I was probably more excited than normal to receive a gift. All jokes aside, I will admit that one of my favorite books, The Glass Castle, is a memoir, so when Greenlights arrived in my audible account, I decided to waive judgment. But I felt like, of all the memoirs out there, is McConaughey's really going to be the one to change my life (as promised during said happy hour)?

I'll admit, having McConaughey narrate his book makes it ten times better. You literally hear his drawl and get all the nuances, jokes, and emotions he conveys on the written page. His penchant for writing is clear, as his stories, anecdotes, and poems roll off the tongue with ease. He has the voice of a spoken word performer, and given that his upcoming book is a collection of his poems, that doesn't surprise me.

His stories show his free spirit and big heart. His entrance into acting and later success seem oddly coincidental, as he got into acting in his 20s and might have just been in the right place at the right time. His overall theme of recognizing the green lights in your life and turning red and yellow lights into green was a great metaphor for life's ups and downs. And it was fun to hear him tell a story and then proudly declare, "green light!".

But at the end of the day, will this book change my life? No. Was I entertained while reading it? Yes. I'd definitely recommend the audio version though to get the full effect.