So Long and Thanks for All The Fish

Hi Everyone.

This post is really difficult to write but really has been a long time coming. I started this blog back in 2014 with a purpose in mind – I wanted to motivate myself to read more young adult literature in order to become a better writer. Over the last six years, I’ve had a fantastic time writing for Arkham Reviews. I have post almost 600 book reviews, spoken with talented authors and passionate readers, and discovered books that I never would have picked up before.

However, all good things have to come to an end.

This year has been unimaginably difficult on everyone and I’ve taken a lot of time to reflect on what is most important to me. Working on this blog is incredibly hard work. Despite what some people seem to believe, this blog is entirely non-profit and has always been a labour of love. Keeping up with my target of two posts a week eats up a lot of my time, and also means that I rarely have time to read anything outside of my set “blog books” anymore.

Due to this, I have made the incredibly difficult decision to step away from Arkham Reviews to give me time to work on other projects. I have no plans at this moment to take down any of the old reviews, so they will be still there for everyone to enjoy, however this website will no longer be updated or monitored by myself. The Arkham Reviews Twitter and Goodreads feeds will now also no longer be in use going forward.

Thank-you again for all your support over the years. It’s been a pleasure discussing young adult books with you and hope we meet again in pastures new!

This Summer on Arkham Reviews

Hi-diddly-hi Neighbour-inos!

I hope that you’re all having as good of a summer as you can under current circumstances. Now that my little season of middle grade reviews is done and dusted, it’s time to return to business as usual here on Arkham Reviews. Over the coming week, I plan to take a look at the fourth Fazbear Frights collection of short stories and also write up the next part of my Point Horror retrospective. After that, here’s an idea of what you can look forward to over the next couple of months:

Harrow Lake by Kat Ellis

Where Dreams Descend by Janella Angeles

F.O.X.E.S by M.A. Bennett

Goddess in the Machine by Lora Beth Johnson

Apley Towers: The Lost Kodas by Myra King

Midnight Sun by Stephenie Meyer

The Haven by Simon Lelic

The Kingdom of Copper by S.A. Chakraborty

Deception by Teri Terry

The Last Hope by Krista & Becca Ritchie

Children of Virtue and Vengeance by Tomi Adeyemi

Starsight by Brandon Sanderson

The Summer of Middle Grade 2020

Hi everyone! I hope that you’re keeping safe and well!

As I’m taking part in Camp NaNoWriMo over this month, I found myself hankering to read something a little lighter. Due to this, it’s the perfect time to announce this year’s Summer of Middle Grade event! As I had a great time reviewing a selection of great summer reads for young readers last year, I thought it would be fun to do the same again!

Here is what to look forward to over the next few weeks. There will probably be another Owlcrate unboxing as well, if my June box turns up promptly!

The Vanishing Trick by Jenni Spangler

The Strangeworlds Travel Agency by L.D. Lapinski

The Highland Falcon Thief by M.G. Leonard and Sam Sedgman

The Impossible Boy by Ben Brooks

School for Nobodies by Susie Bower

Uki and the Outcasts by Kieran Larwood

Fighting off the Winter Blues

Hi Everyone!

I’ve finally finished my winter reads and I hope that you enjoyed them all! Unfortunately, it’s still cold and dreary outside and spring feels a long way away. It’s time to return to business as usual here on Arkham Reviews to help fight off those winter blues. I have a great selection of novels both new and old to share with you over the coming weeks.

At the moment, I’m reading Scott Cawthon’s latest collection of Five Nights at Freddy’s short stories – Into The Pit. After that, here is a sneak peak of what you can expect as we head into spring. I’m trying to alternate a bit more between new releases and things that have been sitting on my to read pile for a while, so hopefully you will find this selection to be nicely varied:

Dreamland by Robert L Anderson

The Guinevere Deception by Kiersten White

The Stone of Kuromori by Jason Rohan

Scavenge the Stars by Tara Sim

Cinder by Marissa Meyer

The Night Country by Melissa Albert

Aiden’s Quest for Apollo by Tanvi Kesari Pasumarthy

The Toll by Neal Shusterman

Final 7 by Kerry Drewery

Shadowsea by Peter Bunzl

The Smoke Thieves by Sally Green

Crownbreaker by Sebastien de Castell

Naturally, I will also be finishing off my series of retrospective Goosebumps reviews over this time as well. I hope you’re as excited about this little selection as I am!

TTFN!

New Year, New Reviews

Hi Everyone!

I hope that you enjoyed this year’s picks for The Sobeks and sorry that it’s taken me so long to wish you a very Happy New Year. I hope that you all had a brilliant festive season, however you chose to celebrate it.

I, for one, took a few weeks to just rest and reflect away from this blog. As you’ve probably noticed, I didn’t do a great job of updating the blog over the past year. This is purely because 2019 was a pretty bad year from me. Between sickness, massive vet bills, and even a particularly nasty spell in which I received some unpleasantness from an author who was not very happy with a review that I left, I was left at times with very little motivation to go on.

I am in a much better place right now and am certainly hoping to be able to update the blog with more regularity, but please be mindful that I might still disappear every now and again to preserve my own mental health. This blog is ultimately just a hobby of mine, and I’m happy to continue so long as it remains fun.

With that out of the way, here’s a sneak peak of what is to come in the new year. As I did not take part in any Secret Santa events this year, I instead took myself down to Waterstones for a treat. As I really enjoyed my Summer of Middle Grade, I’ve picked up a few more novels of this sort to tide me through this grim part of the year. Each of these books has a wintery theme, and I’m very excited to share my reviews of them with you over the next few weeks:

The International Yeti Collective by Paul Mason

Nevertell by Katharine Orton

Frostheart by Jamie Littler

The Girl Who Speaks to Bears by Sophie Anderson

Explorers on Black Ice Bridge by Alex Bell

Of course, I will probably also have the next instalment of my Goosebumps retrospective ready to share with you over this time.

TTFN!

What’s Next on Arkham Reviews?

My exam is over and I passed. Hooray! Now I can finally focus on getting through my to read pile!

Now that I’ve worked my way through that selection of middle grade novels, it’s back to business as usual here on Arkham Reviews. The next post will be my 500th review, so I will be taking another look at J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter series, and after that I have the next set of five Goosebumps books to share with you. Here’s a sneak peak of what else you can expect over the next couple of months:

Sorcery of Thorns by Margaret Rogerson

Soul of the Sword by Julie Kagawa

Dreams of Gods and Monsters by Laini Taylor

Flame and Fury by Lisa Gail Green

Zeroes by Scott Westerfield

Twice Magic by Cressida Cowell

The Girl who Dared to Descend by Bella Forrest

Dreamland by Robert L Anderson

Aiden’s Quest for Apollo by Tanvi Kesari Pasumarty

The Stone of Kuromori by Jason Rohan

Cinder by Marissa Meyer

Final 7 by Kerry Drewery

The Summer of Middle Grade

Hi Everyone!

I hope that you are well. As I previously mentioned, my studies are currently getting in the way of my pleasure reading. Because of this, I don’t have a review prepared for this evening and so, unfortunately, I’m going to have to skip yet another post.

To make my life a little easier, I’ve decided to dedicate the next few posts to stories that are a little shorter and (hopefully) easier on my poor overworked brain. While I am currently reading through my next little block of Goosebumps books in preparation for the next trip down to Arkham Vaults, I have also popped into my local Waterstones and gathered a few exciting middle grade novels that I hope to also share with you over the next few weeks.

Here is an idea of what to expect next on Arkham Reviews:

Redwall by Brian Jacques

A Pinch of Magic by Michelle Harrison

Malamander by Thomas Taylor

Wildspark by Vashti Hardy

The House with Chicken Legs by Sophie Anderson

Battle of the Beetles by M.G. Leonard

Normal service will resume in July, once my last exam is hopefully done and dusted.

This Spring on Arkham Reviews

Sorry readers. I have had a very busy and stressful couple of weeks and therefore have not had time to prepare my Wednesday review. However, that does mean that I can take the opportunity to give you a hint of what to expect on the next couple of weeks on Arkham Reviews.

At the moment, I am reading both Skyward by Brandon Sanderson and The X-Files: Ground Zero by Kevin J Anderson, so expect to see reviews of them very soon. After this, here are some more of my planned reviews to take us up to the summer!

Hollow City by Ransom Riggs

The City of Brass by S.A. Chakraborty

Atlantia by Ally Condie

Dreams of Gods and Monsters by Laini Taylor

Flame and Fury by Lisa Gail Green

Battle of the Beetles by M.G. Leonard

Zeroes by Scott Westerfield

Twice Magic by Cressida Cowell

Dreamland by Robert L Anderson

The Girl Who Dared to Descend by Bella Forrest

Aiden’s Quest for Apollo by Tanvi Kesari Pasumarthy

The Stone of Kuromori by Jason Rohan

Yokai and Mermaids and Hollows, Oh My!

Hello everyone!

Now that my SantaThing reviews are all posted, it’s time to settle back into business as usual here on Arkham Reviews. And boy do I have some exciting reads lined up for the next couple of months! Although I am very likely to get distracted by some new releases, here are some other examples of what you can expect next on the blog:

Evermore by Sara Holland

The Twisted Tree by Rachel Burge

Firestarter by Tara Sim

A Mortal Song by Megan Crewe

Archenemies by Marissa Meyer

The Shield of Kuromori by Jason Rohan

The Wizards of Once by Cressida Cowell

Glow: Book 1 – Potency by Aubrey Hadley

Day 7 by Kerry Drewery

Only Ever Yours by Louise O’Neill

Ice Kingdom by Tiana Warner

Skyward by Brandon Sanderson

Hollow City by Ransom Riggs

It’s a lovely selection of new releases, stand alone novels and sequels, and I really can’t wait to share them all with you. Look out for my review of Evermore in the next few days.

Happy New Year from Arkham Reviews

Hello Everyone and Happy New Year! I hope that you’ve had a fantastic festive season, however you chose to celebrate it.

Following the tradition of my previous years on this blog, I decided to take part in LibraryThing‘s “SantaThing” event. This is a Secret Santa in which you post up your reading preferences (such as young adult novels) and a random person selects a handful of books for you on that basis.

As my books did not quite arrive in time for the holiday, I’ve decided that I will dedicate my next few reviews to looking at them all. Here’s what you have to look forward to over the next couple of weeks:

Arabella of Mars by David D Levine

The Thief by Megan Whalen Turner

Jumper by Steven Gould

Unspoken by Sarah Rees Brennan

It’s quite a varied selection and so I’m really excited to get started. If none of these take your fancy, check back in two weeks time for a sneak peak of my reading plans for the next few months!