After the death of her daughter Minami, Yuko resigns from her teaching job. As part of her parting lecture, she tells a twisting story about how the death of her child was no accident. It was murder. And those to blame are in that room.

This one horrible incident spirals from one woman’s revenge to a twisted child’s desire to be seen. I mean, I totally understand why Yuko is out for revenge after reading everything she’d gone through, but wow. She may have taken it a little too far? It’s just sad overall, but it drags in the middle; it made me feel like I needed to get those parts over with to get back to Yuko and her plans, but the payoff at the end? That fucking gut punch made it all worth it. If you don’t mind that slow part, I say check it out. 3 out of 5.

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July 5, 2025August 6, 2025 atthequillsmercy

Lenni Reviews Challenge Edition: “The Groomer” by Jon Athan

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Andrew McCarthy and his wife, Holly, have a typical life with their kids, Max and Grace. That is, until they notice a man named Zachary sniffing around, and Grace goes missing. Frustrated with the police, Andrew embarks on his own violent mission to find his daughter.

Well… Overall, this is Taken, but if we spent more time on the most awful parts of human trafficking, torture, murder, and snuff (trigger warnings for all of that, by the way). We don’t get the catharsis of a “win” after going through all this darkness; just bitter emptiness. A family is destroyed, and all the revenge gore in the world won’t make the demented fruits of these monsters go away. It’s just a downer, especially with what’s going on in the world now (perhaps that impacted my experience). Even if it’s not the perfect ending where everything is fine, there could have been some kind of hope at the end. The writing is fine, the descriptions of violence are visceral and real, but I can’t say I enjoyed this. 2 out of 5.

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November 22, 2019December 7, 2019 atthequillsmercy

Lenni Reviews: “Pushback” by John E. Stith

*This book was given to me in exchange for an honest review.

Dave is finally happy after restarting is life after his fiancee was killed in a car accident in which he was driving. He has a new girlfriend, a good job, but three bullet holes suddenly appear in his car and the people at his high school reunion have no idea who he is. Then strange letters and texts arrive. As the danger mounts, Dave tries to figure out who is trying to ruin his life.

I wanted to like this so bad but there is something about the writing that’s so damn dry. This guy is being (spoilers??) shot at, poisoned, hunted down, framed for crimes he didn’t commit, and he comes off as if all of this is a minor inconvenience to him. He’s just overall too chill about everything going on around him and since he didn’t care, I didn’t either. I was just killing time until the final reveal which I guess makes sense but like I said, I wasn’t that invested. 3 out of 5.

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