It’s time for another post in my “Try a Chapter” Challenge—where I’ll choose ONE book for next month’s TBR!

If you’re not familiar with the Try a Chapter tag, it’s a tag common on booktube (and sometimes blogs) where the participant reads the first chapter of five books and chooses one of those books to read, based on the results!

For this series, I do something a little different:

The five books I choose will be inspired by the following month’s “theme”—for example, since June is Pride Month, the 5 books I sample for June’s TBR would be own-voice queer books, and so on. You get the idea!

Since March’s Devour Your TBR group theme is Monstrous March, I’ll read the first chapter each of five horror/thriller books:

1. At the Cemetery Gates: Volume 2 — John Brhel & Joseph Sullivan
2. Bones — Andrew Cull
3. Limbs: A Love Story — Tim Meyer
4. Off Season — Jack Ketchum
5. The Visible Filth — Nathan Ballingrud

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My thoughts on the first chapter of…

At the Cemetery Gates: Volume 2:

Since this is a short story collection, I just read the first story, and I loved it. It reminded me of a twist on an old urban legend we’ve all heard a million times (but I can’t say which one, because spoilers!), and it was so well written and fun that I don’t even want to put this collection down now.

Bones:

This is another short story collection, so again, I read all of the first story (which was a bit lengthy at 25% of the overall book’s length, but flew by!). It was so good and creepy and slow-burning, and like the previous collection, I struggled to put it down and not keep going right away.

Limbs: A Love Story:

OH. MY. GOD. I loved Tim’s Kill Hill Carnage last year (it made my best of list), so I’ve been dying to read this since it released earlier this month. WOW, the first chapter was so warped and awful and hilarious. I don’t know if I should predict that this one will win the challenge, or that I’ll go ahead and finish it today. ? Talk about a good batch of books to read in this month’s challenge!

Off Season:

I haven’t read anything by Jack Ketchum in years, but I’ve always heard this is one of the most messed up, well-written cannibal horror stories ever made, so I’ve been meaning to give it a try. The first “chapter” (they’re just chunks divided by times of events) was super intense and suspenseful. ? At this point, I have NO idea how I’m going to choose a winner.

The Visible Filth:

This is a chapbook, so it doesn’t have chapters, but it had the end of a section a few pages in, which is where I chose to leave off. I love this author, but there wasn’t much of a chance for anything exciting to happen in the first few pages, so it was probably the least enthralling read of these 5 (that said, it’s so short I might continue it now, anyways!).

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And the winner is…

Limbs: A Love Story!

This was so hilarious and weird, and I know I’m going to love the rest of it, too, so it was a pretty easy choice to make. That said, I think, since At the Cemetery Gates v2 and Bones are both overdue ARCs, I might add them to my March TBR, too!

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Is this something you might want to try out for your own TBR? If it is, please let me know so I can read or watch your post, too! ♥

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