Mindy's Book Journey

  Title: Happy Bunny and Other Mischiefs Author: Rebecca Gransden Genre: Weird Fiction/ Horror Published: 10/30/24 by the author I received a copy for review from the author.  This collection of 14 short stories that are full of imaginative scenarios. The ideas are truly unique which helps to draw you in.  Imagine taking a friend's pigeon to the vet leads to an underground cult. Imagine a sentient turducken escaping its packaging to explore the world. These are just of a couple of the outrageously weird concepts explored in this collection. A couple of the stories are written a very fever dream kind of way that makes following the plot difficult. I don't fault the experimental writing, but I personally do not enjoy the confusion they left me feeling. The rest of the stories I enjoyed. The standout stories for me were SparrowEyes, with its creepy setting and creature, and Happy Bunny, with a person in a bunny costume getting teleported to various television and movie s...

  Title: The Staircase in the Woods Author: Chuck Wendig Genre: Horror Published: 4/29/25 by Del Rey I received a copy for review from the publisher through NetGalley.  A group of friend's camping trip ends in disaster when they find a mysterious staircase in the woods that leads to seemingly nowhere. One of the teenagers climbs the staircase and never returns. Many years later, the staircase has reappeared and the group is determined to find out what happened to their friend.  This book explores friendship and trauma in a very unique way. Though the premise seems whimsical and mysterious, I can say that this is a very dark horror story. It takes very classic horror tropes and does them in a very new way that left me intrigued. The characters were not all super likable, but they are felt real and well developed. They all had their very interesting stories to tell through the narrative. Since this is a book about trauma there is some triggering material such as self-ha...