Book Review: Stalking Jack the Ripper by Kerri Maniscalco

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Stalking Jack the Ripper is a fantastic debut! It is set in Victorian England but feels fresh using feminist ideas from today’s society questioning what is lady-like? This novel doesn’t hold back on blood and descriptions of the horrid acts. The novel uses the real crimes and letter’s from Jack the Ripper to enhance the realism of this bloody tale. There’s a picture of the original note that Jack sent to the police. The author takes license with the Jack’s story to better fit into the narrative of her own story.

The Plot: Audrey Rose Wadsworth lives in the year 1888 in London, at a time that an unknown figure was stalking and killing prostitutes. Audrey also lives in a time that is set on what a lady should and should not do, But she bucks the system, by assisting her uncle by investigating and dissecting the corpses of the…

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Book Review: Hunting Prince Dracula by Kerri Maniscalco

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Hunting Prince Dracula the second in the Stalking Jack the Ripper series. I feel in a lot of ways it is vastly improved from the first novel in terms of scope and descriptions. In the first novel the author was kind of handcuffed by using Jack the Ripper’s real crimes and building a novel around it, but this is a totally new tale where we get the author’s own vision. The body count is up, the dissections are more detailed, and there’s bucket loads of blood. The horror is ratcheted up, it takes a little while to get to the real horror but I have a phobia to one element that was described really well making my skin all creepy crawly.

The Plot: This novel takes days after the last one with Audrey Rose still dealing with torment that she and her family went through in the last book, and…

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Book Review: On the Come Up by Angie Thomas

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On the Come Up by Angie Thomas is a compelling coming age story about truth of one’s words and perception of being labeled a thug/hood rat while teenage female African-American rapper manages life and expectation. This is the second novel by Thomas after her blockbuster debut of The Hate U Give, this novel takes place a year after the incidences in that novel (all events are referred to and just a place and time setting and as a reward for the reader who read The Hate U Give, but there is no recurring characters). This is a really good follow up to the excellent The Hate U Give, which was five starred review by me, It manages to look at real issues of poverty, drug addiction, gang influence, and all the effects it has on the family. The rhymes and raps are really good, and very smart.

The Plot: Brianna…

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Book Review: The Burglar by Thomas Perry

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The Burglar by Thomas Perry is a meticulous thriller, that tells you every street and road the character turns on to get away. The meticulousness works for the character up slows the action to a crawl. at times it felt like I was reading a scripted version of “The Californians” SNL sketch as every freeway is listed. I lived in Los Angeles, CA for eight years so I knew a little of where the character was going, but I can see others get buried in all the details. This thriller is a snoozefest until the last 80 pages which it finally gets good, really good. But I had already given up on the character’s situation, the story reminded me of the Sandra bullock thriller The Net, just not updated and feeling very 90’s.

The Plot: Elle is a small 24 year old burglar, her cover is a collage athlete returning…

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