 Y'all. This book. Hey, E here. Welcome back to another book review. Today we are talking about Jemma Amor's PAP Dear Laura. Before we get started, I'm going to try something, hang on, let me grab my phone. I'm going to try something a little bit different. They upped the quality of the E-Bird app, so we're going to go with professional. E-Bird! Dear Laura by Jemma Amor. Every year on her birthday, Laura gets a letter from a stranger. That stranger claims to know the whereabouts of her missing friend, Bobby. But there's a catch. He'll only tell her what he knows in exchange for something personal. So begins Laura's sordid relationship with her new pen pal, built on a foundation of quid pro quo. Her quest for closure will push her to bizarre acts of humiliation and harm, yet no matter how hard she tries, she cannot escape her correspondence demands. The letters keep coming, and as time passes, they have a profound effect on Laura. From the author of Cruel Works of Nature comes a dark and twisted tale about obsession, guilt, and how far a person will go to put her ghosts to bed. Ooh, fancy. So now that we know what Dear Laura is about, let's talk about this book. This book came out of nowhere for me. I have been following Jemma on Twitter for a while. She followed me back. I'm trying to work out a deal to get a war on Christmas, her to illustrate war on Christmas. I just want to give you the full breadth of my knowledge of her and any type of professional relationship that we might have. Am I biased? I don't think so. Look, most people are raving about it. Most of the horror community is raving about it. Jemma is obviously a fantastic author, just from what I read in this book. There are certain scenes and certain segments and certain sections that there is a mastery of language that she has that I am completely baffled by. I really fanboy over the stuff that I don't think I can do. I know that sounds, it might sound odd. You guys might understand what I'm talking about, but I can't write this well. I know I can't write this well, so anytime I see something like this, I am in awe of it. And this time, I'm in awe of it. Chapter 29, paragraph 2 is a powerful, powerful paragraph. There is one scene that is told kind of outside everything. That one paragraph is kind of told outside of everything. And while a less experienced editor might look at that section and go, you need to stay in POV, what Jemma does is really, really, really fucking good. I don't have the words to describe how good it is. That's how good it is. Once more, I am flummoxed. There are so many hidden gems floating around out there. I keep coming across. And it's kind of actually making me angry that these people aren't getting more attention. Helen Phillips, now Jemma Amor. I want to see these books and these authors everywhere. But then, at the same time, on Twitter today, Jemma was talking about she wishes she wouldn't obsess over every single word and every single sentence and every single page of her work. I understand. I completely, 100% understand. And that just makes me respect her even more, knowing that what I read is a polished piece. This also makes me feel a little better that it's not like, oh, here's my first draft kind of thing, you know? But I am insanely impressed by this book. And I don't want to talk too much about the book. Now that you know what it's about, Ebert read you the synopsis. But there's a... I do hesitate. So I got this one mustaches driving me crazy. I do want to say that there's not a whole lot that happens in this book. It's very short. It's about 100 pages long. Not a whole lot happens. Which is a testament to how good the book is because I couldn't stop reading. If this is... This comparison is not going to be good. But if you are a fan of Richard Layman's In the Dark, the book about the scavenger hunt, you will probably like this one. There's a bit of a, you know, she's receiving letters and this guy wants something from her throughout the entire story. But the final denounment, the final ending, is where this book really shines. And, well, sorry, not just that, but the writing period. The writing is an absolute joy to read. I was blown away. I was shot. In fact, it completely ruined the next book that I picked up. I'm not going to drag the next book. I'm not going to talk about the next book here. But it really, really hit me when I picked up the next book that I was supposed to read. I opened it up and I started reading it. And I had an honest moment of regret, an honest moment of mourning and grief that I was no longer reading Jemma's book. That's me, fanboying for however many minutes. I highly, highly recommend you go out and buy this book. It's cheap. If you have Kindle Unlimited, it's free. I want everybody to go out and grab this book. So until next time, I have an E, you have an U. This has been Women in Horror Month Day 3. I'll talk to you guys later. Bye-bye!