I was excited to land a review copy of this one and had high hopes for it, and boy did it live up to the hype.
Oooh so many echoes of Follow Me to GroI was excited to land a review copy of this one and had high hopes for it, and boy did it live up to the hype.
Oooh so many echoes of Follow Me to Ground and Eartheater in this deeply atmospheric Appalachian folk story of a secluded family who, for generations, spend their lives tending to the cranberry bog on their property. And the bog, in return, is supposed to bless the eldest son with a bog-wife, a vegetal human-like being that will assist them in carrying on the family line.
The Haddesley children maintain the ritual, but the bog fails to deliver, and everything the siblings believed to be true is coming into question, crumbling around them like the walls and ceilings of the ancestral mansion they call home.
The polar opposite of her sun-blanched western novel, Desert Creatures, but just as intense and strange, The Bog Wife swims within a variety of genres - historical, gothic, fungal/eco, body horror - while sinking its fingers and toes into odd family rituals and claustrophobic landscape and legacies....more
This book was sent to me by a really good goodreads book buddy of mine quite a few years back who felt strongly that I would like it and I'm embarrassThis book was sent to me by a really good goodreads book buddy of mine quite a few years back who felt strongly that I would like it and I'm embarrassed to say that I am only just now getting to it but man were they right. This was right up my alley.
Narrated by a son named Daniel, the book starts at the end, with him searching for his sister, though we aren't yet privy to how or why they've been separated. But we soon come to understand that his father brought him and his sister out into the middle of an undeveloped forest, close to where their mother used to live, and together, they've built a home of their own. They live an isolated life and are taught to live off the land and to fend for themselves. The dad makes money bare knuckle fighting and cashing in on favors owed until the owner of the land he's living on discovers him and comes to collect his due.
It's a quietly violent and atmospheric book about family that plays around with gender biases, while also hinging heavily on themes of survival and revenge. It's definitely a must read for fans of books like Andrew Kivak's The Bear and Eden Lepucki's California....more
This is a wonderful #forthcoming collection of flash and short stories about monsters of all kinds - #vampires #werewolves #witches #ghosts #ghouls #aThis is a wonderful #forthcoming collection of flash and short stories about monsters of all kinds - #vampires #werewolves #witches #ghosts #ghouls #aliens and of course, the worst monster of all... humans!
Lori's debut contains some of the most human monsters and monstrous humans I've read in a while. The relatability factor is high with this one.
The Monsters Are Here is a unique mix of horror and urban fantasy with a little bit of sci-fi thrown in for fun and that makes it the perfect halloween sidekick.
I kept eyeing this one in the bookstore, the cover was gorgeous but the jacket copy felt eh, so I would pick it up and put it back, it until I saw it I kept eyeing this one in the bookstore, the cover was gorgeous but the jacket copy felt eh, so I would pick it up and put it back, it until I saw it in a used book store for a couple of bucks a few weeks ago, and thought, this is a sign.
The book opens with a woman waking up the day before her wedding to find a dead whale beached on the island. She can't help but believe it's an omen. Her husband, a fisherman, has been out at sea and there's been no sight of his boat and her estranged mother has arrived at her doorstep unannounced. From there, we're rocked back and forth in time as she recounts the lessons she learned while living with her drug dealing dad and the painful longing for a mother who was never around, while she tries to move forward in the grip of grief and uncertainty in a relationship that never quite seems to be what she needs it to be.
I loved the writing and Meter's overall approach to the storyline until the infidelity came in. I wasn't expecting it, though as I reread the jacket copy, I can see how it's kind of written between the lines there. I'm just not a fan of that as a plot device and it can be kind of triggering for me. Co-dependency and the lasting damage of bad parenting are also themes that ebb and flow throughout.
Looking over other reviews, I see that this book is quite polarizing. And I agree with both sides - it's kind of dreary and frustrating, but I also found the book to be quietly beautiful. ...more
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