9 Incarnate by Gary Starta

9 Incarnate is the sequel to Demon Inhibitions.

Agent Caitlin Diggs is back and still adjusting to her new life in the parallel universe. She is posing as her alternate self because this universe’s Caitlin Diggs died trying to protect her. It is a weird concept for her to grasp at first, but she is learning.

When the President of the United States is mysteriously murdered, Caitlin and Briana must go to work to figure out if it was a demon who committed the crime. Armed with paranormal powers and Briana’s ability to cast spells, they handle the paranormal side of FBI investigations.

They feel like they may be getting clues, when suddenly, the whole demon population on the planet suddenly disappears.

Now, this is the alternate universe that Caitlin is in, so demons are as common as humans.

When strange orbs enter Earth and begin trying to communicate with the population, Caitlin and her crew at the FBI begin to theorize that they may be dealing with ancient Egyptian gods and goddesses.

This intrigues Caitlin more than usual because she is so constantly referred to as the goddess Isis.

When the Ennead actually make it to Earth, their motives come into question. Are they here to help humanity, or are they here to take over. Battling the investigation into the President’s death as well as trying to figure out why gods and goddesses are reappearing on Earth, Agent Diggs has no lack of action in her life.

With a character as well written and likeable as Caitlin Diggs, I feel fans of any genre would be able to get into this book.

The rest of the characters are also great supporting characters. They are all pretty likable in their own ways and have strong character arcs. They are well-written, and I don’t feel like any character was paid less attention to

The writing makes for a nice reading pace. It flows together nicely and has a nice balance of dialogue.

The first half was really fast-paced and was easy to read. There was so much happening that it was just too hard to put down.

As the novel progressed, it did start to slow down a bit. It was full of action, but I felt that it could have been compressed to get to the point a little quicker.

There may have been too many references to gods and goddesses for me to really fully enjoy it. But, that is the plot of the story, so I had to accept it and push through it. Being a genre I normally don’t dive into very often could have been part of the reason why I felt it was slow in some areas.

3.5/5 Stars

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Sharp Objects by Gillian Flynn

Camille’s skin tells the story of her troubled past.

Riddled with words that she carved into her skin, they tell the story of a girl trying to get through the pain of her teenage years in the only way she knew how.

After a stay in the hospital, Camille became a reporter for a paper in Chicago.

When a story about a child murderer calls her back to her home in Wind Gap, she doesn’t know how she will be able to face going back there.

Wind Gap houses her past, her dead sister, and her addiction to carving words into her skin using knives from the kitchen. Everywhere she turns, there is a memory; whether it be an old face or an old hangout. Nothing has changed.

What has changed is the fact that there are innocent girls being murdered in their town, and nobody knows who is behind it.

As Camille tries to get her story and figure out what is going on in Wind Gap, she has to face all of her old demons . . . and her new ones. Her mother is as shut off and disapproving as ever. Her sister tries to be the golden child, but has a wild side that ends up with a night of drinking and doing drugs with Camille. Being attracted to a cop and playing a game of cat and mouse trying to get information and a statement from him.

Nothing is easy down in Wind Gap. There are too many secrets.

This was a really deep and dark book. Between dealing with mental illnesses and murder, there was no room for any bright storyline, and that it what makes it stand out to me. Gillian Flynn didn’t try to fluff up the story at all because these are very real problems that people face. It made the book very real and more interesting.

The twist at the end was really interesting to me. I am not sure if figuring out who the murderer is was supposed to be a twist, or a confirmation of readers’ beliefs. I had it narrowed down to two people mid-way through the novel, and both of them ended up being caught and prosecuted for different crimes. So, it wasn’t really a twist to me, but it didn’t have to be. It was good to finally know what happened and who did it.

That being said, the reveal of the murderer was really creepy. The explanation of where the teeth went and how the crimes went down was really disturbing.

I was sort of disappointed with how Camille ended up at the end of the book. I was hoping that she would come out of Wind Gap stronger than ever and leave her past behind. She couldn’t do that and ended up reverting back to her old ways. I don’t necessarily always want books to have a happy ending, but I was really rooting for her.

5/5 Beautifully written. Really intriguing story.

I haven’t been able to get the image of a crazy lady in all white taking a girl into the woods since I read that section in the book. That will probably be the thing that sticks with me the most. It gave me chills.

Memorable Quote: “Sometimes I think illness sits inside every woman, waiting for the right moment to bloom.”

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Losses by Robert Wexelblatt

This was an interesting book for me. It was really short, only about 82 pages, but it didn’t seem to go anywhere quickly.

It didn’t seem to actually go anywhere until the last few chapters.

A single father who is also an IRS agent takes on a large case that could incriminate a lot of people.

He has to balance his work with taking care of and raising his young daughter Augustus. They were abandoned by her mother when she was very young, and it has just been the two of them for years.

When she changes her mind and decides she wants to actually be a mother, he and Augustus must figure out how to approach the situation.

Some things just don’t follow a certain game plan though.

The writing was okay at best. The story was interesting, but as I said before, it was either lacking a good flow or was just moving very slow.

For a storyline that wasn’t very sophisticated, it had a moderately sophisticated vocabulary. I couldn’t figure out what type of audience it was trying to reach.

3/5 stars

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Artificial Gods by Thomm Quackenbush

This is Book 3 in the Night’s Dream series.

When Jasmine sees a mysterious UFO hovering over her back yard, things start getting very weird for her.

Men in all black suits show up at her door demanding photographs of the UFO that she did not take.

She discovers they may not be after her alone. Her sister Chrys and Chrys’s friend Dylan may also be in trouble. They receive weird visits from people they do not know and they experience lost time.

When they come face to face with a reptilian that calls himself Gideon, everything starts to fall into place.

They visit a doctor who conducts hypnotism on the three to try to figure out what has happened to them during their lost time.

After this, Jasmine discovers that her sister may not be who everyone thinks she is. There may be a dark secret deep within her.

Gideon enlists the help of Jasmine to destroy the “Grays” [aliens] because he can’t do it himself.

This book seemed to go on a lot longer than it really needed to. There were a lot of chapters that I felt could have been shorter and a lot of information was given that was not helpful to the story. The ending especially seemed to drag on.

If anything, the book should have ended right after the fair. It would have left some things up to the imagination.

The three main characters from the first two books were reintroduced at the end of this one, but I felt their appearance was really unnecessary. It didn’t add anything to the story for me and made the ending more confusing.

The first half of the book flowed a lot nicer than the previous two books, but as it reached the end, the writing felt forced.

The one plot point that I found really interesting was the suggestion that people see things because they really believe in them, and people can be forced to see anything if belief is pushed onto them. 

I never really got attached to any of the characters in this one either. I kept reading more to just find out what happened and to finish the series rather than because I cared about the characters.

3/5 stars. The plot was more interesting than the first two, but it fell short in the end.

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