Something I look forward to every January is the Winterween Readathon hosted by Gabby (gabbyreads on YouTube and @_myfictionalworld) and this year’s readathon just wrapped up.
The readathon ran from the 10th – 16th and it was so much fun! As I’ve done with both Winterween and Summerween in the past, I thought that since the readathon is now over, it would be nice to go over the prompts and what I read for each prompt in addition to sharing some mini reviews!
Every Winterween/Summerween readathon has 5 prompts, and this year the prompts were:
- Read a book in the dark or at night
- Read a horror/thriller
- Read a book with a house on the cover or in the title
- Read a horror book published 5 or more years ago
- Read a novella, manga or listen to a spooky audiobook
I love that the prompts are easy enough that you can typically knock off a few of them with one read, and that there’s usually one that might be a little trickier — for me this was the Read a horror book published 5 or more years ago. The other thing I love is that it’s usually pretty easy to combine prompts and knock off multiple prompts with one book.
Now, let’s get to the books I read and some mini reviews!
The Doll’s House by Lisa Unger
Prompts Completed: Read a book in the dark or at night, Read a horror/thriller, Read a book with a house on the cover or in the title
I have really enjoyed reading the Amazon Original Stories recently, so I was excited to read The Doll’s House for the read a book with a house on the cover or in the title prompt. I’ve also never read Lisa Unger before but have seen her books for years, so I’ve been curious about her writing for a while now. Honestly, I loved this. The vibe was so incredibly unsettling; I really was uncomfortable for the entire 95 pages of this short story and I liked how the unsettling feeling grew. I also liked that there was no useless information — we learned about the characters and what led them to this point in their lives and everything we learned moved the story forward. That sounds like something obvious in a short story, but I’ve read a few where we got a lot of useless information that wasn’t at all important to the story.
Personally, I find dolls very unsettling, so this was a great place to start for Winterween, and reading it in my room, lights out, all alone in the middle of the night definitely made me feel uncomfortable. I would’ve loved to read a full length version of this story and it’s made me curious about Unger’s novels. The ending? Oh, that ending gave me chills — this whole thing was kind of my worst nightmare and I loved it.
Night of the Mannequins by Stephen Graham Jones
Prompts Completed: Read a novella, manga or listen to a spooky audiobook, Read a horror or thriller
Story time, when I was a little kid I was pretty intrigued by mannequins and to make sure that I didn’t touch them my grandma once told me “Don’t touch the mannequins, if you do they’ll come to life and take you away” and suffice to say, I never touched a mannequin, and since then I’ve been freaked out by them. Because of that I thought Night of the Mannequins would be a great pick for this Winterween.
I listened to this one on audio, and I don’t know, I was a little lost. I couldn’t get invested into the story as it continued to go on. I was interested in the beginning and pretty creeped out at some moments, but I found myself zoning out part way through and then it just kinda went off the rails. I wouldn’t say this one was bad by any means, but I didn’t find it very interesting.
Here Lies a Vengeful Bitch by Codie Crowley
Prompts Completed: Read a book in the dark or at night, Read a horror or thriller
Honestly, I’m pretty torn on this one. I love the premise of it; I think it’s so interesting and exactly the kind of story that I like. We know I love a good revenge story. However, I think the execution was a little lacking. After finishing it I did see that it’s a debut, and it definitely feels that way. It’s not bad, but it could’ve been better, and it just feels a little underdeveloped.
Apparently this whole town hated our main character, Annie, but I couldn’t really tell you why? Like, sure she kinda didn’t care about anything and could be a bitch but it doesn’t sound like she did enough for everyone to hate her. She wasn’t particularly likeable (as I’ve said before, not a problem for me) but sometimes I found her to be very obtuse, which got to be annoying. There was one specific thing that was staring her in the face from the very beginning and it took like 11 chapters for her to really figure it out which I thought was a bit ridiculous. I think the reveal of the murderer was pretty obvious, which is fine, but I found the motive a bit…boring, as bad as it is to say that. Do I think the motive was realistic? Yes, however, you’ve got a protagonist who literally comes back from the dead to avenge her murder, I think the motive for murder could’ve had a little more oomph to it.
While I didn’t love Here Lies a Vengeful Bitch, I did really like the horror elements (some parts toward the end were so creepy and I was all about that) and would check out Codie Crowley’s work in the future.
My Darling Dreadful Thing by Johanna van Veen
Prompts Completed: Read a book in the dark or at night, Read a horror or thriller
I randomly saw My Darling Dreadful Thing in Books Are Magic when I was in New York last year and thought it sounded interesting so I decided to buy it, but didn’t get around to it before the end of the year. When the news about Winterween was released I knew that I would finally get around to reading it for the readathon and I’m so glad that I did!
I love gothic horror, I love stories about spirits and the supernatural, so this book really seemed like it would be right up my alley. I was hooked from the start. I thought everything about this was so interesting. I love an unreliable narrator, and Roos definitely is that, but I also couldn’t help but believe her the entire time. Something about the way van Veen wrote Roos made it so easy for me to believe everything she was saying, even if I normally wouldn’t. I loved the atmosphere and could easily picture everything as it was happening. There was such an unsettling and sinister vibe throughout the entire story that kind of just laid beneath the surface of everything and I absolutely loved that. I really couldn’t put this one down. I kept telling myself “Okay, one more chapter and then you have to stop and go to sleep” and suddenly I had read another 50 pages.
I really like van Veen’s writing style and I’m excited to read more from her. I definitely recommend this one if you’re a fan of gothic literature!
Plain Bad Heroines by Emily M. Danforth
Prompts Completed: Read a horror book published 5 or more years ago, Read a horror or thriller, Read a book in the dark or at night
Won’t lie, I am a little frustrated by this one. I think the concept is super interesting and intriguing, I liked both the past and present timelines and I think there was a lot of possibility for this one to really be a hit for me, but oh my gosh it took forever to get through this book. There is no reason for this book to be as long as it is.
Really, I think this would’ve worked much better as a duology, with the first book focusing on the history of Brookhants and Flo and Clara’s story, then the second book focuses on the present timeline and the filming of the film with Harper, Audrey and Merritt with some flashbacks to the past. That would’ve made the whole story much easier to follow and more condensed. Additionally, the story just dragged; it really felt like two complete books that were mashed together, sprinkled with asides from the author (we did not need an explanation of what a Finsta is…).
This one is also listed as horror and while there were scary/frightening elements, nothing about this felt horror to me. I kept waiting for it to lean into the horror and it never did. Ultimately, I think there’s a lot of good stuff in this book, but I don’t think it was executed in the best and most effective way. I’m glad I finally read it, but it’s not one that I’ll be revisiting.
And that is everything that I read for Winterween! Truthfully, I had hoped to read more books (one of them I still have from the library, so I will be reading it!) but this year Winterween fell during an incredibly busy week for me, so while I got to read a bunch of stuff over the weekend, the week was a little slower for me. I did complete all of the prompts though, and that was really the thing that I wanted to accomplish.
I had also hoped that this Winterween I would be able to be more active online — sharing my progress to my Bookstagram story and chatting with others, but again, that just wasn’t in the cards this time around. Even without that though, I had a great time during Winterween as I always do!
To summarize, here are the books that I read, the format I read them in and what rating they got:
- The Doll’s House by Lisa Unger (Ebook, 4 stars)
- Night of the Mannequins by Stephen Graham Jones (Audiobook, 2 stars)
- Here Lies a Vengeful Bitch by Codie Crowley (Ebook, 3 stars)
- My Darling Dreadful Thing by Johanna van Veen (Physical, 4 stars)
- Plain Bad Heroines by Emily M. Danforth (Audiobook, 3 stars)
The Doll’s House and My Darling Dreadful Thing were definite hits for me and were the highlight of the books I read. While Here Lies a Vengeful Bitch and Plain Bad Heroines weren’t my favorites, I do see the positives in both books and why these would really work for people. Unfortunately, Night of the Mannequins was the least successful book for me, but I would check out more of Stephen Graham Jones’ work!
Did you participate in Winterween this year? If so, I’d love to know what you read/how the readathon went for you. If not, have you ever participated in either Winterween or Summerween before or would you participate? Let me know in the comments!
Until next time! 💜
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