Welcome to this months #BuddyRead episode. What's a Buddy Read? Co-host Classy and I select a title that we'll either read, listen to, or a combination of both. Afterwards we come together to chat about it on the podcast! This is a candid and spoiler-filled convo.  We talk about this book during a live chat at in the Shelf Addiction Official Facebook group, so you'll want to join us there!
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In this episode, we're discussing Home Before Dark, by Riley Sager. Be sure to check out the video version of this pod and watch the After Show on Patreon.

​Check out previous Buddy Read titles here!

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​Welcome to this months #BuddyRead episode. What's a Buddy Read? Co-host Classy and I select a title that we'll either read, listen to, or a combination of both. Afterwards we come together to chat about it on the podcast! This is a candid and spoiler-filled convo.  We talk about this book during a live chat at in the Shelf Addiction Official Facebook group, so you'll want to join us there!
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In this episode, we're discussing Doctor Sleep by Stephen King. We are also comparing it to the movie adaptation! Both Classy and I listened to the audiobook and read the book. Which was a fun experience on top of watching the movie. ​If you haven't read the book and still want to know what we thought about the movie, then you'll still want to listen!

​Be sure to check out the video version of this pod and watch the After Show on Patreon.

​Check out previous Buddy Read titles here!

I appreciate good cover art! If I'm looking to be scared, I want the cover to show me a bit of what's in store. This photo gallery includes some titles that I've read and some that are on my TBR.  Feel free to click through each cover to get the book synopsis on each one! 

Share one of your top creepy covers!

​Don't miss the latest Shelf Byte podcast feature! You'll hear a spoiler-free book or audiobook review in 5 minutes or less!
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Today, I'm sharing my thoughts on Imaginary Friend, by Stephen Chbosky. If you've read this book (or listened on audio), I'd love to talk about it! Comment below and let me know what you thought. 

​​This October, let R. Diamond, Harley Easton, Gregory L. Norris, Randi Perrin, CM Peters, Marie Piper, S.B. Roark, Sienna Saint-Cyr, and Katey Tattrie give you the shivers with HAUNT, a collection of nine brand-new and wide-ranging tales of haunted dwellings. 

Publisher: Amazon Digital Services LLC
Release Date: October 17, 2017
Format: ebook
Pages: 180  
Source: Author
Genre: Short Stories, Anthology, Paranormal, Horror
​Rating: 4 bookmarks

Roommates by Katey Tattrie
Redemption Hill by Randi Perrin
By Tethers Bound by S.B. Roark
The B Room by CM Peters
Error by R. Diamond
The Shut-In by Gregory L. Norris
Jessie by Marie Piper
Possessed by Sienna St. Cyr
People who live in Glass Sanitoriums by Harley Easton

*All proceeds from HAUNT will go to Chicago-area charities that provide services for the homeless population.*

*This ebook was provided by the author in exchange for a honest review.

Haunt is an anthology that is perfection for this time of year. Short stories that will creep you out at many degrees. There is a huge range of stories styles and flavors of horror, but they are all on theme with a form of a haunting. From a haunted house, to a sanitarium, and everything in between, Haunt will give you a few hours of Halloween fun. I don't want to give anything away so I'm going to keep this 100% spoiler free. With 180 pages and 9 different stories Haunt is a very quick and light read.

​The Girl with All the Gifts came recommended to me on audiobook. I hate to say it, but it was a mild disappointment to me.  When I get recommendations, I tend to expect great things depending on where the referral comes from. I had pretty high expectations when I started this story. There was a lot of hype about this book in the year of its release, so I suspect that I'm in the minority here when I say that it was okay. Don't get me wrong, it wasn't boring or noticeably slow, it was just average. Read on to find out why The Girl with All the Gifts earned a 3-bookmark rating.

​Publisher: Orbit | Hachette Audio
Release Date: January 14, 2014 | June 10, 2014 (audio)
Format: Audio MP3
Pages: Paperback: 460 pages | Audio Length: Approx 13.4 hours
Narrator: Finty Williams
Source: Audible
Genre: Horror
Review Date: December 28,  2016
Rating: 3 bookmarks

Synopsis: Melanie is a very special girl. Dr. Caldwell calls her "our little genius."

Every morning, Melanie waits in her cell to be collected for class. When they come for her, Sergeant Parks keeps his gun pointing at her while two of his people strap her into the wheelchair. She thinks they don't like her. She jokes that she won't bite, but they don't laugh.

Melanie loves school. She loves learning about spelling and sums and the world outside the classroom and the children's cells. She tells her favorite teacher all the things she'll do when she grows up. Melanie doesn't know why this makes Miss Justineau look sad.

This is a unique kind of zombie book. Melanie is on a military base where they have a school of sorts. The student children are transported from their rooms to the classroom by soldiers and they strapped into their chairs from the moment they are wheeled out of the room (aka cell).  The children are hungriest (zombies). None of them seem to know what they are, especially Melanie. She's a special kind of zombie and doesn't want to eat her teacher Miss Justineau, of whom she views as almost a mother figure.  As the story goes on it’s clear that Miss Justineau feels maternal towards Melanie as well.

I have a trilogy finale for you today...a long awaited finale! I reviewed book two, The Twelve over two years ago. The Passage kicked off this wild and treacherous ride, read on to find out how I felt when it all came to an end with The City of Mirrors.

Publisher: Ballantine Books and Random House Audio
Release Date: May 24, 2016
Format: MP3
Pages: 598 (Hardcover) / Audio Length: Approx 29.5 hours
Narrator: Scott Brick
Source: Library Borrow
Genre: Fantasy/Post Apocalyptic/Dystopia/Horror
Review Date: July 6, 2016
Rating: 4 bookmarks

​​Synopsis: In "The Passage" and "The Twelve", Justin Cronin brilliantly imagined the fall of civilization and humanity's desperate fight to survive. Now all is quiet on the horizon but does silence promise the nightmare's end or the second coming of unspeakable darkness? At last, this bestselling epic races to its breathtaking finale.

"The world we knew is gone. What world will rise in its place?"

The Twelve have been destroyed and the hundred-year reign of darkness that descended upon the world has ended. The survivors are stepping outside their walls, determined to build society anew and daring to dream of a hopeful future.

But far from them, in a dead metropolis, he waits: Zero. The First. Father of the Twelve. The anguish that shattered his human life haunts him, and the hatred spawned by his transformation burns bright. His fury will be quenched only when he destroys Amy – humanity's only hope, the Girl from Nowhere who grew up to rise against him.

One last time light and dark will clash, and at last Amy and her friends will know their fate. 

The story picks up about 20 years after the end of The Twelve.  I found it pretty interesting what happened to all of our major characters from the previous installments. Amy, Peter, Michael, Alicia, Hollis, and more. We get to see some of the babies from the previous books as adults with their own families and kids. We got to get a glimpse of the rebuilding of society. After they've been lulled into a false sense of security, the world thought that the Virals were a thing of the past and long gone.  Are they? Of course not. Nothing's that easy.

We find out what's happened in the time that's passed through a story that is laid out in a way that's similar to a Bible as something similar. The story of what happened with a Amy after taking out the Twelve and what happened shortly after are expressed in the form of a historical document.