All 2025 reviews - Shastrix Books

2025

All reviews

The Christmas Murder Game

The Christmas Murder Game

Alexandra Benedict

8th February 2025

I made some bad assumptions picking up this book - that it would be a cosy crime, and that it would be a bit simple and cheesy. It’s not.

This is a surprisingly dark story - fitting the locked room mystery trope, and yet feeling a lot darker than some, particularly as we learn more of the backstory and more of this story develops. There’s a lot of introspection from the characters and the main character feels deeply real and properly traumatised.

And yet that’s contrasted with the silliness of a Christmas game that the story isn’t structured around. It weaves a complex balance that’s really interesting to see play out.

I was also pleasantly surprised by some of the demographics portrayed. There’s a decent set of representation of sexualities, which isn’t what I’d have expected from the genre and was refreshing.

A really interesting, clever, and engaging book. I’ll definitely be looking out for other similar works from Benedict.

read more

Filled StarFilled StarFilled StarFilled StarFilled Star
Starling House

Starling House

Alix E Harrow

8th February 2025

While not my usual choice of genre, this book leapt off the table in the bookshop and demanded that I buy it, and so I did.

It’s a sort of horror romance, about a young woman bringing up her younger brother in a run down American town with a creepy house.

The story isn’t really all that creepy - and the reader sees a bit more, probably, than the character, which helps it feel a bit safer. It does however try to expose a lot of nasty things about the town’s history and what it’s done to marginalised people in both the past and recent times.

I really liked the book. Maybe not enough to want to go and hunt out more by the author, but enough to consider recommending it to a friend, if I can find one I think will be into this genre twister.

read more

Filled StarFilled StarFilled StarFilled StarFilled Star
Moonflower Murders

Moonflower Murders

Anthony Horowitz

1st February 2025

Former editor turned hotelier Susan is back, as she’s dragged into a new investigation tied to a book she previously edited.

It’s a fun adventure for the most part - and Horowitz makes really good use again of the book-within-a-book format (this time without needing to use a hard-to-read typeface too).

I love that he can write one story with two styles, with such close relationships between the stories, and yet it takes right up until the end to actually see if all and how clever it is.

My only issue was with quite the swerve in tone near the end - it’s warned about, but even then felt like a bit of a let down that it had to be that way.

I enjoyed it though, and am looking forward to a third adventure.

read more

Filled StarFilled StarFilled StarFilled StarFilled Star
Buy book #ad: UKBuy ebook #ad: UK
Escape Route

Escape Route

Cassandra Rose Clarke

1st February 2025

In the third Prodigy tie-in novel, we find the crew after the end of season one, when they take a break on a planet to look for spare parts, and get caught up in a situation that tests their friendships.

The plot feels exactly like the sort of thing that would happen in a prodigy episode, and fits neatly into the universe.

The characters are there, but don’t feel quite as strongly embedded as in the previous two novels - I didn’t feel like they were playing out quite S well in my head.

A nice little revisit to the team, and a refreshing break from long books.

read more

Filled StarFilled StarFilled StarFilled StarEmpty Star
Buy book #ad: UK
Wind and Truth

Wind and Truth

Brandon Sanderson

25th January 2025

Book five of the Stormlight Archive is enormous. It took me five weeks to read (although I did take breaks at the quarter and halfway marks to read other shorter books). The physical hardback became a bit unwieldy around the middle, but was seemingly better to handle nearer either end.

The plot is excellent. There are so many threads going on, wrapping things up while still setting up new avenues to explore in later books. It ties in well with the wider Cosmere series with a bunch of little Easter eggs, and still tells a compelling story.

The story takes place over 10 days, and that gives a really nice structure, and helps with following the passage of time, which sometimes I struggle with in novels. This also gives much more opportunity for chapters in the gaps between, and we explore some other characters and get to learn more about them and their motivations, which helps flesh out the world.

Despite it ultimately being a war story, Sanderson does excellently to have enough parallel storylines moving that this aspect never feels dominant in a way that I would hate to read. The battles are well described in a way that I could actually follow, which I often struggle with.

I found myself most invested in one strand though - following two characters on a quest which they didn’t really understand, and seeing them grow, and learn about themselves and their world along the way.

It’s an absolutely great way to wrap up the first half of this epic series, and leaves me waiting impatiently for more stories in the cosmere (although I’m also glad of a break after so many pages!).

read more

Filled StarFilled StarFilled StarFilled StarFilled Star
Buy book #ad: UKBuy ebook #ad: UK
Rock 'n' Roll Renegades

Rock 'n' Roll Renegades

Franklin W Dixon

25th January 2025

The Hardy Brothers find themselves radio presenters, a job that seems to require surprisingly little training, and then naturally find themselves investigating a new crime - pirate radio. I’m not sure that really fits the 90s era, but that’s where we are.

First up, this had some of the most surprising language choices of the series. Yes the earlier stories were racist, and sexism pervades the series, but those weren’t surprises to me, as they are well known issues with these books. This time out though we have one of the main characters using ableist and homophobic slurs, which feels very unusual (although it is the 90s, so not unusual in society at large).

The aside, the plot is quite a fun one, and makes good use of Chet for light relief. It explores businesses, technology, career choices, and a new type of crime - making it quite an educational adventure too.

So all in a mixed experience.

read more

Filled StarFilled StarFilled StarEmpty StarEmpty Star
Buy book #ad: UK
Only You Can Save Mankind

Only You Can Save Mankind

Terry Pratchett

18th January 2025

I read the other two Johnny Maxwell novels, which follow this, as a child, but somehow have never ended up reading this, despite consuming the vast majority of Terry Pratchett's novels since. This then presented itself to me in a charity shop not long after discussing it with a friend, so home it came with me to be read.

It's the tale of a generic pre-teenage nerd at some point in the late 20th century, who is content to play counterfeit video games until suddenly it doesn't seem much of a game any more.

There's a lot going on in the story. It seems to somehow collect the youth experience of the time, which feels very relatable, but also to wrap it in discussions of the ills of the world from loads of different directions, all of which still feel very relevant today.

Pratchett's abillity to build a world in the background, never explciitly telling us things, but still painting the picture, is really clever and I feel like I might need to come back to this book again to capture and digest more of it.

Really good storytelling, and I'm glad that I occasionally get to experience these nuggets of Pratchett's writing tht I've not experienced before.

read more

Filled StarFilled StarFilled StarFilled StarFilled Star
Buy book #ad: UKBuy ebook #ad: UK
Hive

Hive

Brannon Braga

11th January 2025

I’m not normally one for graphic novels, but I remember this one being heavily marketed at the time and found it very cheap.

It’s a post-Nemesis story, distinct from everything else that’s been told, and in particular without any knowledge (obviously) of the Star Trek to come in later TV series.

500 years in the future, Locutus has decided the Borg have failed, and recruits Data to help in a time-travelling plan to use his past self to defeat himself.

It just feels like a terrible story. It doesn’t feel like Star Trek, it feels like a random action romp with Star Trek colours. The plot barely makes sense and starts with a lot of establishing notes that feel out of place.

I get that it’s meant to be more about the art, but my brain doesn’t work like that, and generally just thinks about the art to say “that doesn’t look much like him” or “what the hell have you done with these bodily proportions” or “why does the Borg Queen wear a skimpy bra?”

My brain wants to focus on the words, and for the most part the writing of these just feels like an afterthought. The voices seem off, and the tone jilted.

My copy has a bonus story in the back from the 1960s, a TOS comic in which Kirk and Spock help a planet fight against out-of-control AI which both felt better presented and more Treky, despite the limited colour palette, rougher style, and script that felt like it hadn’t been past a Trek expert.

The main saving grace was that it’s a quick thing to read. I’m glad I didn’t pay the full price for it though as I don’t feel I can derive that much enjoyment from the format.

read more

Filled StarFilled StarFilled StarEmpty StarEmpty Star
Buy book #ad: UK
Good Old Secret Seven

Good Old Secret Seven

Enid Blyton

11th January 2025

The Secret Seven come into possession of a Telescope, and as well as spying on their neighbours finally get to visit the Enid Blyton classic venue of a ruined castle.

As I read through the Secret Seven novels I’m more and more convinced that they are terrible children.

They bully Susie relentlessly, and I am almost always finding her a much more sympathetic character than I think I’m meant to be.

The boys in particular are really sexist again in this story, which is a weird counter to how other women in this story are presented. But the girls are even joining in with the sexism in order to hate Susie even more. It’s bizarre, especially with the knowledge of how girls are treated in later Blyton novels.

read more

Filled StarFilled StarFilled StarEmpty StarEmpty Star
Buy book #ad: UK
The Launch Party

The Launch Party

Lauren Forry

11th January 2025

This has been on my list for so long that I can’t remember where the recommendation originally came from, and also on my shelf long enough that I can’t remember where I bought it.

It’s a classic locked-room mystery set amidst the first group of tourists to stay at the first hotel on the moon. The randomly selected cast all seem to have a secret, and nobody knows what’s going to happen next.

It’s interesting reading this while The Traitors is on TV, as it’s a very similar sort of setup, and is told really well with the dynamic of growing mistrust and random accusations thrown around for terrible reasons.

I enjoyed reading about these characters and their time on the moon. A clever mystery with so much going on.

read more

Filled StarFilled StarFilled StarFilled StarEmpty Star
Buy book #ad: UKBuy ebook #ad: UK
Sabotage at Sports City

Sabotage at Sports City

Franklin W Dixon

11th January 2025

In one of their weirdest adventures yet, the Hardy Boys visit the Olympic Games, where Chet’s cousin is both competing and under threat.

It’s 1992, and there is an Olympic Games to tie-in to (I also remember from my youth the 1996 Olympics tie-in Hardy Boys novel, but it will be years before I get back to that!). The real Olympics is in Barcelona, but clearly that’s no good for the Hardy Boys - so their version is in an unnamed city that’s far from home but not far enough to be outside America. That’s just a bizarre way to ignore the actual world which makes so little sense to me as an adult reader.

Beyond that though it’s a fairly classic story for the era, with a mix of violence, investigation, and coincidence, and one of the classic tropes of mystery fiction thrown in to wrap it up.

read more

Filled StarFilled StarFilled StarFilled StarEmpty Star
Buy book #ad: UK

Top books

  1. Filled StarFilled StarFilled StarFilled StarFilled Star
  2. Wind and Truth
  3. Filled StarFilled StarFilled StarFilled StarFilled Star
  4. Moonflower Murders
  5. Filled StarFilled StarFilled StarFilled StarFilled Star
  6. Starling House
  7. Filled StarFilled StarFilled StarFilled StarFilled Star
  8. The Christmas Murder Game
  9. Filled StarFilled StarFilled StarFilled StarFilled Star
  10. Only You Can Save Mankind
  11. Filled StarFilled StarFilled StarFilled StarEmpty Star
  12. Sabotage at Sports City
  13. Filled StarFilled StarFilled StarFilled StarEmpty Star
  14. Escape Route