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Sunday Funday: ARC Mini Reviews - Darkness on the Edge of Town & Where I End & You Begin



Happy Sunday everyone!  Today I'm sharing three ARC mini reviews with you: Darkness on the Edge of Town (Stranger Things #2) by Adam Christopher (available May 28th, 2019) and Where I End & You Begin by Preston Norton  (available June 4th, 2019).  Thank you very much to NetGalley for providing me with these ARCs in exchange for my honest reviews.  Read on to see my thoughts on these two books:


❋ ❋  

Stranger Things is one of my favorite shows and I enjoyed the first novel so I was thrilled to get approved for this next installment. I think I actually liked Darkness on the Edge of Town a little more than Suspicious Minds. This novel primarily follows Jim Hopper, my favorite adult character in the series, at Christmas 1984 with Eleven as he tells her about his past as a detective in NYC 1977 with his wife and daughter. The brutal serial killer case he tells her about is that last one he was on before everything in his life changed. I enjoyed this look into Hopper's past. We don't know much about his life before the series aside from the fact that he's no longer married and that his daughter died, but I liked this glimpse into his past. The novel doesn't go into the family tragedy aspect which is just fine with me, but it does a good job of showing just how dedicated he was to his wife and daughter. As a mystery/ crime novel, it really stands up too. There is a bit of a Stranger Things twist, but it isn't as focused on it which still works even if I would have liked a some more on that front. As for the characters, Delgado was easily my favorite of the new characters and Hopper himself felt entirely true to form, but Eleven seemed closer to her season one self rather than how we leave her at the end of the second season. Finally, if you are a fan of Stranger Things on Netflix or even crime novels in general, I highly recommend picking this up. I can't wait to see more of this novel series. Thanks again, NetGalley!


I read this novel from May 21 - 29, 2019 and my review is also on Goodreads.



❋ ❋  

Where I End & You Begin by Preston Norton is a unique and fun YA contemporary body swap novel - think Twelfth Night meets Freaky Friday. For the most part, this novel really delivered for me. The cast of characters was complex and quite engaging, but Ezra himself was easily my favorite and the easiest to relate to for me. No matter what the exploration of identity is fascinating. Plus, I have to admit I totally enjoyed all of the pop culture references. I only have two gripes: there are several passages that could have been trimmed down and I hoped for a better conclusion to to certain plot elements. Overall, I highly recommend this novel if you enjoyed Norton's style in Neanderthal Opens the Door to the Universe and She's the Man. I'm definitely looking forward to more from Preston Norton in the future.


I read this novel from May 31 - June 1, 2019 and my review is also on Goodreads.


Have you read these two novels or do you plan on it in the future?  What are you reading now?  As always, thanks for visiting my blog and perhaps even commenting down below!

Comments

  1. Overall, I also enjoyed Where I End & You Begin. I thought Ezra was a fantastic narrator, and I laughed a LOT. The pop culture references were fun for me as well, but like you, I felt it could have been trimmed a bit.

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