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| 1250244072
| 9781250244079
| 1250244072
| 4.20
| 10,355
| Aug 06, 2024
| Aug 06, 2024
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it was amazing
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(originally reviewed at
thelibraryladies.com
) I can’t emphasize enough just how much self-control it has taken to diligently get through my June a (originally reviewed at thelibraryladies.com ) I can’t emphasize enough just how much self-control it has taken to diligently get through my June and July books before reading this one. Thanks to NetGalley/Edelweiss/publishers, I have the opportunity to read these books sometimes months in advance, and man is it tempting to skip right to my most-anticipated titles! But, at last, here we are! Another T. Kingfisher book to review! It’s hard for me to say which type of Kingfisher book I like best. I’ve love all of the original fantasy books that she’s written that exist within one world (there are several different series and a few stand-alones all in this same world). I’ve enjoyed her horror stories, several of which Kate and I have joint reviewed on the blog. And then, of course, I’ve gobbled up her fairy-tale re-imagings. This book is one of the latter, this time seeing Kingfisher tackle a loose re-telling of “The Goose Girl.” Honestly, I’m not as familiar with this fairtyale as I am with others, but in some ways that may have worked in my favor. Not only did I not have expectations about which story beats needed to be hit when, but I was also better able to flow with the shifts in focus that Kingfisher took in the story. That said, there are elements that she takes from the original and twists in very…um…disturbing ways! If you’re familiar with the original story, you’ll remember that the talking horse companion ends up meeting a fairly grisly fate. Kingfisher saw that version of the story and decided to raise the creepiness factor to about an 11! (Another side note: I love reading her author note’s at the end because they are often just as entertaining as the book itself. This time it was particularly funny because as I read this book, I found myself getting stuck on the thought that this author sure does write a lot of creepy horses. And then low and behold, in her author’s note she goes “You may be wondering just what my problem with horses is…” Why, yes, I was! I won’t spoil the explanation, but it’s as amusing as everything else from her!) One of the things that most impresses me about Kingfisher’s work is the manner in which she balances many different tones all in one, fairly contained book. In this story, we not only have the trappings of a re-told fairytale, but we have comedy, we have tragedy, we have romance, and we have a healthy dose of horror. And none of these elements over shine the others! I will say, the horror aspects stand out particularly well in this one. Not only with the aforementioned horse, but also with the sorceress herself and her disturbing powers. Up to the very end, I was on the edge of my seat worrying how our characters were going to get out of this situation! I also loved all of the characters. And again, I’m impressed by how Kingfisher works against stereotypes in this area. I personally often struggle with child/middle school aged main characters, but Cordelia was a fantastic lead character. She was believably written for her age while also serving an important role within the story. It’s all too easy to have young characters in books like this who are either side-lined because there is nothing for them to contribute, or are written in a way that makes them come off as a person much older than they are. Not so here! But I loved Hester most of all, the 50-year old woman who first suspects that there is something strange about Cordelia and her beautiful mother. This was perhaps less of a surprise, as I’ve now read several older women characters written by this author and they have all been fantastic! I also very much enjoyed the love story here, though it was definitely a sub plot to the challenge of the dealing with Cordelia’s mother. That said, while I loved the romance, this is also where the book fell from a 10 to a 9. Throughout the book, we get great insight into Hester’s mindset and the mental challenges she’s faced with aging and her perception of herself as a romantic partner. This was all excellent and incredibly relatable. But as the story continued, I never felt like this was truly resolved. The romantic interest is never brought into what Hester is thinking, and as this has impacted their decades-long one-and-off relationship, it really felt like he deserved to understand what was going on here. We didn’t need to have a “Hallmark moment” type scene, but some sort of resolution on this front would have really tied it together. So, no surprise here, I loved this book! I’ve had my pre-order in for months now, and I as justified as ever in continuing to buy her books the second they come available! Fans of fairytale re-tellings should definitely check this one out, as well as any/all Kingfisher fans out there! Rating 9: Truly a master storyteller! Kingfisher makes the process of jumping from genre to genre look easy! ...more |
Notes are private!
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not set
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Aug 09, 2024
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Sep 04, 2024
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Hardcover
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| 1250884926
| 9781250884923
| 1250884926
| 3.56
| 5,928
| Apr 09, 2024
| Apr 09, 2024
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liked it
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(originally reviewed at
thelibraryladies.com
) Kate’s Thoughts When Serena approached me asking if I’d be interested in doing another Joint Review of (originally reviewed at thelibraryladies.com ) Kate’s Thoughts When Serena approached me asking if I’d be interested in doing another Joint Review of an S.A. Barnes book, I was game. I liked getting both our perspectives on “Dead Silence”, as it is both Sci-Fi and Space horror, and therefore in both our wheelhouses. I enjoyed “Dead Silence”, and reading up on “Ghost Station” was just as intriguing to me based on the description. If I was mentally comparing “Dead Silence” to “Aliens” and “Event Horizon”, “Ghost Station” read like the sci-fi horror film “Prometheus” to me, with a crew getting in way over their head on a mysterious planet that has sinister secrets. In terms of the things I liked, I really enjoyed Ophelia as our protagonist, as she is both unreliable in a number of ways, but is also very driven for very personal reasons in connection to a dangerous mental disorder known as ERS. I liked not really knowing what her deal was beyond one straight forward incident, and an anxiety and shame about being a part of a notorious corporate family with immense wealth and unscrupulous morals. We slowly get to peel back her layers, and as she and the crew find themselves in a situation that keeps getting more tense and more dangerous, her secrets and their secrets combine to make for a good deal of suspense and mysteries revealed. There is also some nice space horror bits here, and some beats that really unsettled me. Particularly the way that Barnes shows a slow decay of various crew members sanity, for reasons that may not be as obvious as Ophelia would like it to be. But all that said, this one felt like it was a bit heavier on the Sci-Fi elements this time around, and even though I enjoy Space Horror as a Sci-Fi sub-genre, if you tread a bit too far into the Sci-Fi, my brain just shuts off (this actually happened with “Prometheus” as well). There is no question that this book does have a lot of suspenseful and scary moments in it that worked for me, but they felt a little few and far between. This isn’t to be a criticism of this book because I imagine that this will work very well for the target audience of Sci-Fi aficionados (let’s see what Serena says!), but it just got into the Sci-Fi weeds a bit too much for me as a person who isn’t a fan of that genre. “Ghost Station” will probably satisfy Sci-Fi fans who like space horror, but for this horror fan who doesn’t usually mess with that genre, it didn’t hit as hard as I’d hoped it would. Serena’s Thoughts While I liked this one more than Kate did (probably no surprise, as science fiction is a much-loved genre of mine on its own right, and the horror side of things was the more experimental thing), I also agree with many of her criticisms. For the most part, I enjoyed the science fiction elements we had here. Many of them are fairly standard fair as far as futuristic technology goes, but I thought they were presented and used in interesting ways. I also thought the horror elements were good. There was definitely the slow build up of dread as Ophelia and the other members of the crew explore and piece together the mystery of what had happened before them. There were some legitimately creepy moments, but not enough to make the book unapproachable to more casual horror readers. That said, I think the horror aspects of the first by this author that we joint read, “Dead Silence,” hit me harder, some even popping up in my head at inconvenient times days later. Whereas with this book, moments were a bit freaky, but it didn’t stay with me in the same way. I also struggled a bit with the pacing and character development in this one. While I think the slower nature of the building dread worked well on the spooky front, the pace overall seemed to drag, especially in the beginning. I kept wanting to rush ahead for things to start happening, and it seemed to take quite a long time to get to anything substantial. And, while I enjoyed discovering more about Ophelia, who she was and why she made the decisions she did, I also found myself more frustrated by some of her decisions and inner monologues than I did with the lead character in “Dead Silence.” Overall, I thought this was was a serviceable science fiction horror story, though I don’t think it quite lived up to the high that was the author’s previous work. Kate’s Rating 6: There are definitely solid horror moments, but this was a little too heavy on the Sci-Fi for me. Serena’s Rating 7: A bit slow with regards to pacing, but an approachable book overall, especially for the more casual horror/science fiction readers. ...more |
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1
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not set
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Apr 15, 2024
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Apr 30, 2024
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Hardcover
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| 0593532260
| 9780593532263
| 0593532260
| 4.10
| 6,954
| Jan 30, 2024
| Jan 30, 2024
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really liked it
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(originally reviewed at
thelibraryladies.com
) I haven’t read anything else by Krystal Sutherland, but I was familiar with the name when I was appro (originally reviewed at thelibraryladies.com ) I haven’t read anything else by Krystal Sutherland, but I was familiar with the name when I was approached about reviewing her latest book. Mostly, I have vague memories of a YA dark fantasy that she released a few years ago that had a creepy but compelling cover. This one, too, follows in that line where, at first glance, it seems normal enough. But then you look closer…yep, creepy! I was also drawn in by the promise of witches and a mystery centered around tracking down a serial killer. Unfortunately, this book didn’t quite hit the way I wanted it to. However, in this case, I do think a lot of it comes down to many of these tropes and beats simply not being to my taste. But let’s start with the good! Like I said, I was drawn in by the witches and the murder mystery, and from a distant perspective, I think both of these things were interesting. I liked the idea that in this world magic was only something that came to women. Through this lens, the book then had a lot to say about feminism and the ways that women experience society. I haven’t watched the “Barbie” movie yet… *ducks*…but I would bet that this has very similar vibes. That said, I also felt that some of the messaging was a bit heavy-handed at times. There were moments where it almost had an “after school special” feeling to it….”See?? The patriarchy!!” I found myself wishing for a bit more subtly on that front. I also liked the serial killer aspect of the story. This book was definitely a lot darker than I was expecting, and I appreciated how much it committed to its themes, really diving into some of the body horror moments. Fans of dark fantasy and horror will likely appreciate the fact that the book doesn’t shy away from these more gruesome scenes. However, I found myself struggling to remain invested in the story. While the action does pick up in the last 100 pages of the book, that’s always a bit too little, too late for my overall reading experience. I found myself setting the book down too often and having to force myself to continue reading. There wasn’t anything objectively wrong with the writing, but it didn’t grab me. It felt a bit to formulaic and simplistic at times to really give the book much of a unique tone. It wasn’t helped that it was written in present tense, a style that I always struggle to enjoy. That said, readers who are not bothered by this approach to writing may not come away feeling the same way. Similarly, because the writing was on the more simple side, I struggled to truly connect to any of our three characters, as their chapters had a bad tendency of beginning to read the same as one another. I liked the idea of all three characters, I just didn’t end up really loving any of the actual characters themselves. Overall, this was a bit of a middling read for me, but much of this came down to some of my own preferences on writing styles and the way larger themes are handled. I do think that it will connect for YA readers who are looking for a good, creepy witchy book, however, and if you’re a fan of the author, I’m sure this will be a hit! Rating 7: Appropriately creepy and witchy, but I was distracted by what felt like heavy-handedness with the overall message. ...more |
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1
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not set
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Jan 13, 2024
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Feb 06, 2024
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Hardcover
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| 1668016133
| 9781668016138
| 1668016133
| 4.11
| 122,120
| Sep 05, 2023
| Sep 05, 2023
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it was amazing
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(originally reviewed at
thelibraryladies.com
) It’s finally time for another Stephen King book!! He is and has been my favorite author, ever since I (originally reviewed at thelibraryladies.com ) It’s finally time for another Stephen King book!! He is and has been my favorite author, ever since I was in middle school, and I am so happy that not only has he continued to write and thrive, but that he’s expanded his stories and genres beyond horror. “Holly” is his newest, and I held off on it for a bit because I wanted to savor it. And once I dropped in, eager to read a new book about Holly Gibney, I had pretty high hopes. And not only were they met, they were exceeded. I know that Holly Gibney is a bit of a polarizing figure amongst Stephen King fans. King has always had a tendency to have a favorite characters or settings that he likes to bring from story to story, whether it’s Randall Flagg or Castle Rock or Shawshank Prison or Danny Torrence, and Holly is that character right now. And I happen to love it, because I really, really love her as a fellow anxiety prone neurodivergent woman. I love seeing how much she has grown as a character since her debut in “Mr. Mercedes”, and how she has come into her own while still having the challenges that come with being who she is (this book takes place during the Delta wave of the COVID pandemic and man oh man was I like ‘yep, that’s exactly how I was during this time’ whenever she was stressing about groups, masks, and hygiene as she investigates). King places her front and center in this nearly five hundred page book, and she shines like a star as far as I’m concerned. She brings me so much joy through her complexity and quirkiness and tenacity. But King also fleshes out his supporting characters really well, whether it’s returning favorites like Jerome and Barbara Robinson, or new characters like the deeply, deeply sinister Roddy and Emily Harris, whose depravity and cruelty is hidden by a veneer of intelligence and seeming fragility due to their ages. I felt like I knew everything about them by the end of the book, and it chilled me to the very bone. Which segues perfectly into the horror/thriller elements of this book. King slowly unfolds the grotesque and absolutely horrifying secrets that Roddy and Emily Harris are holding through flashbacks in time to their various victims, and while he doesn’t hold his cards to the vest too long in terms of what they are doing (I won’t spoil it), he still builds upon it in a way that makes for a slow and grueling revelation that really, really disturbed me. Holly Gibney has faced some really nefarious antagonists in her time as a character, but these two really took the cake. And that’s a steep order given that past villains Holly has dealt with include Brady Hartsfield and The Outsider. It is a really good device being able to see Holly slowly but surely piece together the disappearance of Bonnie Dahl and the tangled web and nasty turns that come with it, as a potential body count seemingly grows and she circles the most unexpected of criminals. Sure, I knew what was going on, but seeing Holly (and to extent Barbara and Jerome) play their parts in figuring it out was so enjoyable. I also thought that King used the time and place of the Delta Wave of 2021 to a chilling and effective degree, as Holly’s mother has just died of COVID after refusing the vaccine which has sent Holly into mourning, and post January 6th anxieties are also still at play. I know some people got up in arms about how overtly political “Holly” seems to be, but I thought that King gave a really good explanation in his author’s notes as to why he felt like he wanted to go in this direction. It also helped contextualize how DIFFICULT everything was at this time, and how it could absolutely hinder this kind of investigation (and how dangerous people will hide their dangerous nature until they feel emboldened). It worked really well for me. I loved “Holly”. It manages to balance absolutely horrifying beats with genuinely hopeful and endearing ones. It’s top tier King as far as I’m concerned. ...more |
Notes are private!
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1
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not set
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not set
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Jan 25, 2024
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Hardcover
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| 1982188340
| 9781982188344
| 1982188340
| 4.47
| 22,882
| Oct 31, 2023
| Oct 31, 2023
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it was amazing
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(originally reviewed at
thelibraryladies.com
) After reading a few short stories by horror icon Tananarive Due in 2023, I told myself that I needed (originally reviewed at thelibraryladies.com ) After reading a few short stories by horror icon Tananarive Due in 2023, I told myself that I needed to finally pick up one of her novels. I don’t know why I haven’t, as she has always been on my radar. But for whatever reason it just never happened. When her newest novel “The Reformatory” came out, I bought myself a copy on my solo trip to Duluth. It took me a bit to get to it, as I had a stack of books to attend to and whenever I have a book that I have purchased I usually end up letting it sit a bit because of no deadline to read it. But then I did sit down and start reading. And my God. I was completely blown away by what I was reading. I was such a fool for waiting so long to pick it up. I was such a fool for waiting to pick up a book by Due. Because “The Reformatory” is magnificent. The horror themes in this story are already top tier for me. I love ghosts in general, but I LOVED how Due brought in the folklore of Haints from the low country and the deep South of the United States (it’s been awhile since I’ve been to Savannah, Georgia, but one of the things that really stands out for me is how you see so many specific blue doors in a shade called Haint Blue, as it was thought to ward off Haints). Due really knows how to create terrifying moments in her pacing and descriptions, and with the tormented ghosts of dead children, who died at the hands of a racist and violent institution, being present and haunting said institution, it makes for a perfect metaphor as well as a great ghostly tale. It’s scary and nerve wracking and the high tension moments with the Haints were top tier horror. There were also the less focused on but certainly implied supernatural gifts of Robbie’s sister Gloria. While Robbie can see ghosts and communicate with them at least to a small degree, Gloria has her own talent of being able to get a sense of someone’s future if she is able to touch them or be near them. I am a complete sucker for both of these tropes, and I loved that Robbie and Gloria have different skills that they don’t necessarily want, but have to contend with. But, unsurprisingly, it’s the realistic horrors of the Jim Crow South that really pack a wallop in “The Reformatory”, as both Robbie and Gloria are having to maneuver their way as Black people (children at that) through a deeply racist and violent society that has targets on their backs, not only because of their skin color, but because of their family name (as their father is on the run for a crime he didn’t commit that he was accused of because of his outspokenness). For Robbie, he is in what is essentially a prison as a child, for the audacious crime of kicking a white teenager who was harassing Gloria. Dozier School for Boys is run by a violent and sadistic warden, with dead children haunting the place that only Robbie can see. The brutal realities of the violent punishments are displayed in full, as Due basically tells the reader that they mustn’t look away from these real horrors that were committed about Black children, whether it’s torture, sexual assault, or murder. Dozier is a relentless prison that Robbie is barely surviving within, and seeing him and other detainees try to survive is enraging and devastating. On the flip side is Gloria, who is determined to get Robbie out, and is trying to work through the justice system by reaching out to the NAACP, as well as well meaning (but at their heart ignorant) white people who may have the power to help, but have their own reservations. I thought that the dichotomy that Due showed between Robbie living in an overtly racist dangerous situation, and Gloria whose relentless pursuit for justice is putting her in just as much danger, while also displaying the everyday racism and dangers to Black people during this time and in this place. I also really appreciated how she not only took inspiration from her own family history, and also had in story versions of actual historical people, whether it was a reference to Thurgood Marshall or an actual interaction with Harry T. Moore. It’s so well done and so incredibly harrowing, and it’s an important reminder that even if Haints and psychic abilities aren’t real, the violent oppression against Black people at this time (and present times) was, and cannot and should not be washed away or forgotten. “The Reformatory” is my first 10 Rating of 2024, and it has set an incredibly high bar for any and all books for the rest of the year. It’s phenomenal in every way. I never should have waited so long to read Tananarive Due. Expect more works by her this year, because I’m going to make up for lost time. ...more |
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1
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not set
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not set
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Jan 25, 2024
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Hardcover
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| 1250864992
| 9781250864994
| 3.64
| 1,568
| Nov 07, 2023
| Nov 07, 2023
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liked it
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(originally reviewed at
thelibraryladies.com
) Happy 2024! I hope that you all had a good New Year Celebration, and that you are not as anxious abou (originally reviewed at thelibraryladies.com ) Happy 2024! I hope that you all had a good New Year Celebration, and that you are not as anxious about the coming year as I am. As the social hangover of the holidays wears off, I’m eager to get into the reviews of 2024, and we are starting off with something a little bit sapphic, a little bit fandom-y, and all kinds of odd in a good way. I saw “Gorgeous Gruesome Faces” by Linda Cheng as a Goodreads ad, and the title alone caught my attention. When I read that it was a horror thriller involving a K-pop competition and a former teen idol trying to start anew, I knew it was absolutely a must read for me. And then you throw in a twist involving some folklore from the Asian Diaspora? What a combination! I do really like the set up for this book. We have our protagonist Sunny Lee, who used to be a part of a teen TV show that rocketed her and her two cast mates turned friends Candie and Mina into stardom, but whose career has crashed and burned after a massive scandal and the death of Mina. Her friendship (and potentially something more) with Candie crumbled, and she hasn’t seen her since their show ended. Now Sunny has joined a K-Pop competition that Candie has also joined, in hopes of getting back on her feet, and perhaps hashing things out with Candie. It has the set up for a soapy and cutthroat thriller, with past relationships, traumas, and baggage making things that much more tense. I loved the slow building of Sunny trying to connect with Candie again, as well as the way that other contestants start dropping like flies due to supposed accidents and breakdowns. Sunny was an interesting enough character, though I think that I wanted a bit more connection between her and Candie, as their past romance should make the mystery about Candie’s potential culpability and Sunny’s suspicions feel that much more high stakes, but as it was I wasn’t TOTALLY buying it (that said, there is the potential for another book, which could flesh it out a bit more). When it comes to the dark fantasy and horror elements of this book, it was pretty creative and at times pretty brutal. I really enjoyed some of the descriptions of the way that characters faces would ‘change’, and become uncanny and unsettling, all while sending that person into a full blown panic, to the point of self mutilation and self harm. Body horror can really get under my skin, and in this book I definitely found myself squirming a bit. There is also some solid ‘ghost girl’ imagery, as Sunny starts to see visions of a washed out spectre of a broken girl who looks a lot like her dead friend and former cast mate Mina, whose death has haunted Sunny. I LOVED the descriptions of the stalking ghost, they really set my teeth on edge while feeling like a vengeful spirit from an A-Horror film. But there is also a bit of dark fantasy in here as well, as it draws upon the folktale of The Celestial Maiden and the Woodcutter, in which a goddess is basically held captive by a peasant after he stumbles upon her without her clothing, and hides them from her, rendering her unable to leave the Earth. Cheng really runs with the idea of the ‘held captive’ angle, and uses the concept of her supposed worshipers being given special abilities, but how darkness is always attached to those who use it. It was pretty unique in this regard, and I hope that we just see more and more nods to mythologies that we don’t see as often in modern literature. I found “Gorgeous Gruesome Faces” to be entertaining and sufficiently creepy. I am absolutely going to check out where it goes from here when the next book in the series comes out. ...more |
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1
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not set
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not set
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Jan 25, 2024
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Hardcover
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| B0BT13D97M
| 3.65
| 1,179
| Oct 24, 2023
| Oct 24, 2023
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really liked it
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(originally reviewed at
thelibraryladies.com
) We are approaching the end of 2023, and with Hanukkah behind me, Christmas next week, and today being (originally reviewed at thelibraryladies.com ) We are approaching the end of 2023, and with Hanukkah behind me, Christmas next week, and today being the Winter Solstice, my celebrations are in full swing and about halfway through. I honestly love the Solstice, as I love the darkness that comes with it and the promises of slowly unveiling light as Winter moves through. And given that it’s the holiday season of MANY holidays, I thought that showcasing “Christmas and Other Horrors: An Anthology of Solstice Horror”, Ellen Datlow’s newest edited collection, would be the perfect flair for this festive time. So no matter what you are celebrating this time of year, there is probably a horror tale in here for you to be a sinister holiday treat! As usual, I will focus on my three favorite stories, and then I will review the entire collection as a whole. “His Castle” by Alma Katsu: I have always loved seeing videos of the Welsh tradition of the Mari Lwyd, where wassailers go door to door with a ghostly set up of a horse skull, sheet, and hobby horse to see if they will be invited in for drinks and food in exchange for good luck on whom they visit. Therefore I loved that we got a story centered around that tradition, and that it was written by Alma Katsu, who knows how to bring the creepiness factor up to eleven to whatever she thinks up. Trevor an Cate are spending their holiday in an Air BnB in a small town in Wales, when they get locals at their door doing the Mari Lwyd tradition. They invite the men inside, but tensions start to rise as they converse, as Cate believes they may be targets of the men. But Trevor and Cate have secrets of their own. I loved the building suspense of this story, as you get the sense that Katsu is hiding something from the reader, but I also loved the commentary about the way that land has always been used by the wealthy to their own ends, even if it hurts more working class folk, whether it’s through old aristocratic systems, or properties being bought up by corporations to be turned into luxury vacation homes while locals lose out of owning their own land. I also liked the historical twist in this, but that’s all I will say about it. “Return to Bear Creek Lodge” by Tananarive Due: I have a note to myself that I need to read more Tananarive Due (side note: I have her newest novel “The Reformatory” on my stack, so look for a review for that in January!), and “Return to Bear Creek Lodge” just continues to emphasize that goal while helping meet it. Her writing style is so evocative and really brings out all the emotional punches as you read. Johnny and his Mom are going to Bear Creek Lodge to see his dying Grandmother for one last Christmas, though Johnny’s last interaction with his Grandmother left him scarred and traumatized. As Johnny comes to terms with the impending loss and what it means, he also starts seeing a creature that seems otherworldly and dangerous, and finds out that he’s not the only one who has encountered this weird beast. This story is weird and alarming, while also having a lot of pathos and insight into generational trauma, the complexities of family dynamics, and the way that racism can damage a person and how that damage transfers down the line. Due mentioned in her author’s note that this story may be expanded upon by her later, and I would absolutely love to read more about Bear Creek Lodge and the monster that seems to live nearby. “Gravé of Small Bird” by Kaaron Warren: I think this was my favorite story in the collection, as it was so strange and so eerie and felt like “The Wicker Man” meets “The Menu”. Because what a combination! Jackie is a former reality TV cooking show competitor, who made the final two but lost the competition, which led to an outburst that solidified her reputation for being an asshole. When she’s invited to cook for a Twelve Feast Days of Christmas Festival on a remote island steeped in old Christmas and Pagan traditions, she accepts. There she finds out about an ancient tomb that lines up with the solstice sunrise, a tradition involving birds and bones, and a contest in which a woman is chosen to be the Beauty who is supposed to lead the island to a light filled future. Jackie wants to be the Beauty, no matter what, and will do anything to win. This story is so creepy and strange, but I loved the use of vague Pagan rituals, appropriated rites taken by Christians, and all of the descriptions of the amazing and decadent foods, with a menu tradition that possibly inspired “The Twelve Days of Christmas”. As a whole, this collection was a mixed bag, at least in terms of my thoughts about it. Beyond the three I highlighted there were a couple other strong stories (“Our Recent Unpleasantness” by Stephen Graham Jones and “The Lord of Misrule” by M. Rickert were also very well done), a few that were pretty okay, and a few that just didn’t work for me. I really enjoyed how this collection does touch on SO MANY holidays that occur around the end of the year, or focused on some of the Pagan origins and folklore behind modern traditions, but there were also some stories that felt like they had greater themes in mind and just tacked on the Solstice and holiday aspects in ways that didn’t quite fit. The good news is that it is varied enough as a collection and a fun enough hook that it’s going to be a timely seasonal read regardless. “Christmas and Other Horrors” is a fun horror anthology to read during this Solstice and holiday season. Cuddle up after your holiday gatherings with this book, horror fans. It’s bound to be a seasonal classic. ...more |
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not set
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not set
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Jan 25, 2024
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Kindle Edition
| ||||||||||||||||
| 059324379X
| 9780593243794
| 059324379X
| 3.79
| 8,167
| Oct 03, 2023
| Oct 03, 2023
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really liked it
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(originally reviewed at
thelibraryladies.com
) Thank you to NetGalley for sending me an eARC of this novel! There is no disputing that Jordan Peele i (originally reviewed at thelibraryladies.com ) Thank you to NetGalley for sending me an eARC of this novel! There is no disputing that Jordan Peele is a super important and super talented voice in horror as a whole right now. Whether it’s his films that are making waves, or his dabbling in TV, or his work in podcasts, Peele is very much a huge influence, and rightfully so. And now horror literature is being brought into that, as Peele is the editor for “Out There Screaming: An Anthology of New Black Horror”, in which he picked authors and stories to bring together for a short stories collection. I was pretty thrilled to see that this was available on NetGalley, and I added it to the slew of short stories collections I read for th past year (it really was a short story collection heavy year for me!). And once I started, it was hard to stop. “Eye & Tooth” by Rebecca Roanhorse: Serena has reveiwed some of Rebecca Roanhorse’s fantasy titles on here (though we both did “Black Sun” for Book Club), but hey look she does horror too! I actually knew this because she also had a story in “Never Whistle At Night”, but “Eye & Tooth” really stood out to me. Atticus and Zelda are siblings who work as ghost hunters/busters/cleaners of bad energies, and are called to a remote house in Texas by an elderly woman. She says she has a monster problem in her fields. Zelda and Atticus think they can help, but the woman is keeping something from them. I really liked this creature feature story, whether it was the creepiness of the cornfields, the sibling relationship between a psychic brother and a not as clearly gifted sister, or the big twist that was surprising but also a little heartfelt in a way? It was just a really fun tale. “The Rider” by Tananarive Due: I am ashamed to say that I hadn’t read anything by Tananarive Due until I read this short story, and boy oh boy am I going to rectify that post haste because I think this was my favorite in the collection. During Freedom Summer two sisters are traveling as Freedom Riders to help fight for voting rights and against the Jim Crow South. While traveling on a bus in a remote area, they and the driver are waylaid by a mysterious entity in the middle of the road. Due builds the tension in this perfectly, not just of the thing in the road that upturns the bus ride, but also the tension of being two Black Freedom Riders in the Deep South, as it was a very dangerous position to be in. I was on the edge of my seat until I turned the last page. Just fantastic. “Dark Home” by Nnedi Okorafor: I’ve read some Okorafor in the past and enjoyed her work immensely, so I was very excited to see what she was going to bring to this anthology and was not disappointed. A Nigerian-American woman returns to her hometown after her father, a beloved member of the community, passes away. During a traditional ritual, she decides to pocket an item to remember him by, which is against tradition. When she returns home, strange things start happening. I really loved this one as it combines dark fantasy and horror elements with aspects of Igbo culture, and creates an unsettling story about traditions, grief, and things that haunt us. And honestly, the collection as a whole was pretty good! I really loved these three stories, and there were a few that very well could have been in my top three as well (special shout out to “Lasirèn”; I love a scary siren story) because they were so good. There were a few that didn’t work for me as well, whether because of pacing issues or the fact that they veered more towards Science Fiction themes, which only works for me in VERY specific settings. But there are so many voices here with so many perspectives, and so many sub genres to choose from, that any horror fan will probably be right at home while also exploring voices they haven’t had as much experience with. And as mentioned above, the scary things in this collection are not limited to the supernatural; there are lots of real life horrors like racism, classism, misogyny, and the realities of living in the United States as a Black person, both past and present. It’s really been a year of short stories collections for me, and “Out There Screaming” is one of the last ones of 2023 and it was a great one to almost end on! I hope that Jordan Peele keeps curating anthologies like this, because he has a knack for it. And I hope that we get to see more from some of these authors very soon. ...more |
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| 1982182822
| 9781982182823
| 1982182822
| 3.24
| 1,217
| Dec 05, 2023
| Dec 05, 2023
|
liked it
|
(originally reviewed at
thelibraryladies.com
) Thank you to NetGalley for providing me with an eARC of this novel! It’s now December, and the tempera (originally reviewed at thelibraryladies.com ) Thank you to NetGalley for providing me with an eARC of this novel! It’s now December, and the temperatures here in Minnesota are starting to drop and there are higher and higher changes that snow is going to be in the forecast. I don’t mind winter THAT much, especially around Hanukkah and Christmas, but I will say that by the time we get to the time of year with the holiday season behind us I do start to think that maybe, just maybe, less cold, ice, and snow could be a fun shake up from the norm (though maybe that invites a monkey’s paw situation with climate change, arg, I can’t win). But we aren’t there yet, and cold weather means cold stories are all the more powerful. So I start off the encroaching winter with “Where the Dead Wait” by Ally Wilkes. Because it’s good to remind myself that while a Minnesota winter can be arduous, at least I’m not on a failed polar expedition in the 1800s where starvation, disease, and cannibalism are the outcomes. I truly believe that Wilkes has a gift for how she writes a story, bringing out evocative and vibrant imager and moments of beauty as well as horror. There were so many moments where a certain turn of phrase or descriptor flowed with a flowery ease that I don’t usually expect from a horror novel. I noticed this while reading Wilkes’s previous novel as well, and it feels like a unique writing style choice for a historical ice horror tale. I also really enjoyed a few of the characters in this book, namely Charles Day, the disgraced captain of a previous polar expedition who is haunted by the things he did to survive (as well as his sexual desires and same sex attractions), and Mrs. Stevens, a self proclaimed medium who brings spiritualist tendencies to the expedition seeking out her husband, who is now lost again on on the previous expedition with Day (and whom Day was very fixated upon). These characters worked for me, as did the themes of the spiritualist movement and the questions of validity that go with it. But here is where I got a little hung up when it comes to this book. I felt like “Where the Dead Wait” has a LOT of similarities to Wilkes’s previous book., “All The White Spaces”. They are both historical horror books that take place during a doomed polar expedition (one arctic, one antarctic), they involve weird supernatural things in the snow, a conflicted protagonist, and a slow burn of descent into madness and desperation. I think that it’s a well done book in terms of these aspects, but it’s already something we’ve seen from Wilkes, and it was something we JUST saw in terms of the chronology of her novels. I wholly understand having an interest in a specific theme, and I absolutely think that an author has every right to write about what they wish to write about when it comes to that interest. But I did think that coming up so close upon the previous one it felt like more of the same. I think that what adds to this is the double edged sword of Wilke’s writing style. It’s very deliberate and at times flowery with some awesome prose and descriptors, but it can also be slow going because of those things. So yes, I praise it for being an interesting way to write and approach a story like this above, but combining it with other aspects that can weigh the story down makes it not as easy to get through, at least in my experience. I’m not writing Ally Wilkes off as of now, as “Where the Dead Wait” had some great moments and some meat to it (maybe not the best descriptor, but so it goes). I do hope that perhaps on the next adventure out we’ll go beyond what we’ve seen before. ...more |
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| 9798986487724
| B0CFZL17T4
| 4.20
| 44
| unknown
| Oct 23, 2023
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really liked it
|
(originally reviewed at
thelibraryladies.com
) Thank you to C.J. Weiss for sending me an eARC of this novel! I was definitely interested in “Secrets (originally reviewed at thelibraryladies.com ) Thank you to C.J. Weiss for sending me an eARC of this novel! I was definitely interested in “Secrets Gnaw at the Flesh” by C.J. Weiss, a story about a young man named Garrett, whose proposal to his girlfriend Marie goes awry when she says no. But when she tells him it’s because her family has to hold back supernatural forces from a Breach every few years, and it means dropping EVERYTHING to try and keep these things at bay, Garrett doesn’t really believe her, and agrees to attend the newest Breach period with her family if it means she will give him another chance. That alone sounds interesting and unique. And then when it sounded like family dysfunction and trauma was a huge component a la Mike Flanagan’s “The Haunting of Hill House”, I was all the more intrigued! Bring on the messiness of human relationships to make the ghost problem that much more complicated. So I jumped in and was interested in what I would find. The ghost mythos and world building is pretty well done in this book! It helps having a newcomer to the Renault Family in Garrett, as him being wholly unfamiliar with The Breach, mekari (aka demonic entities), and all the other supernatural aspects means that he is going to get a crash course that we as the readers get to see first hand. We get a good family connection to The Breach, as well as some creative different subtypes of haunts, be they ghosts or demons, and the ways they can mess with those trying to keep them out. I enjoyed the uncertainty that we were seeing through Garrett, as the assurance is that you will spot a possessed person vis a vis their behavior being off or strange doesn’t REALLY help someone who has just met this family outside of new fiancee Marie. It’s an effective way to build suspense, and it makes the tension build relentlessly at times. There are plenty of moments that come completely out of nowhere as well, and as The Breach gets more and more powerful the horror elements all come to a suspenseful and scary head. But adding to the tension is the fact that all is not well in the Renault Family during this historical Breach, and that family secrets are starting to come tumbling out as more and more danger comes forth. Not only between immediately family members, but also between lovebirds Garrett and Marie. I will say that I found Garrett to be completely nuts putting EVERYTHING in his life on hold for Marie after they had been together for a kind of brief amount of time, but it kind of works because it shows that he is making a HUGE, unknown commitment for a woman that he doesn’t know all sides of, and how sometimes that can lead to trouble. And trouble comes calling as the Renaults start to turn on each other, lash out, and reveal betrayals that could put all of them in danger as it chips away at their untied front in this ghostly service that leaves the world in the balance. I love a good family drama, so seeing all of these very human problems start to tumble out and cause even more problems was a nice combination. I do like my horror stories to have some nice real world metaphors, and while sometimes this could feel like it stilted the pacing a bit (or just reinforced my disdain at Garrett impetuously going all in on Marie, as well as with her for letting him do so without some fully informed consent until it was too late), it worked well in this. I wish we’d had a little more exploration of all the family members, as some felt more fleshed out than others. With a good mix of well conceived horror mythology and family drama, “Secrets Gnaw at the Flesh” is a fun and spooky haunted house story. And just remember, your family may have some dysfunction, but at least you don’t have to battle ghosts on top of all that. It’s the little things. ...more |
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Jan 25, 2024
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| 0593468465
| 9780593468463
| 0593468465
| 3.97
| 13,540
| Sep 19, 2023
| Sep 19, 2023
|
really liked it
|
(originally reviewed at
thelibraryladies.com
) Thank you to NetGalley for sending me an eARC of this collection! Up until quite recently I would alwa (originally reviewed at thelibraryladies.com ) Thank you to NetGalley for sending me an eARC of this collection! Up until quite recently I would always preface my review of short story collections and anthologies with some version of ‘I don’t really like short stories collections, but I wanted to try out _______ because of _____’. But in recent years, I’ve been enjoying a good number of the short story collections and anthologies I’ve picked up, and have therein become far more willing to give them a go. Especially if the collection appeals to me for one reason or another. And it is these reasons that I picked up “Never Whistle At Night: An Indigenous Dark Fiction Anthology”, edited by Shane Hawk and Theodore C. Van Alst Jr. Not only have I had greater success with short story anthologies, this one also showcases dark fiction, be it horror, thriller, or dark fantasy, by Indigenous authors. I had read works by some of the authors, but a lot of them were new to me, and I was very eager to hop in and see what the experience was going to be like. And it was intense, but overall positive! As usual with short stories collections, I will talk about my three favorite stories in the anthology, and then review the work as a whole. “Kushtuka” by Mathilda Zeller: A young Indigenous woman is pressured to go work for a powerful white man for a dinner party, even though he is manipulative and predatory. But as he and his colleagues feast and put her down, a mysterious creature that looks like her stalks her and the house they are all residing in. This one was one of the stories that was the most straight up horror, with a shape shifting Kushtuka being one threat, but another threat being white people who are more than happy to take advantage of Indigenous people, especially women, when they have power over them. And man, the descriptions of the Kushtuka were TERRIFYING. This was the first story in the collection and it really started it off with a bang. “Navajos Don’t Wear Elk Teeth” by Conley Lyons: A gay man living in a family summer home for the season meets a mysterious neighbor, with whom he starts an affair. Their relationship becomes intense, and the lover starts to behave in more erratic and violent ways, including showing off a tooth collection with some very strange teeth. This one was just a slow burn of creepiness, with our protagonist finding himself in a frog in a pot of boiling water kind of situation and as unsettling or flat our terrifying things happen and escalate. And there is really just something about a weirdo that collects teeth that really gets under my skin. Throw in some themes about queer identity and the ways that colonialism can appear in unexpected ways, and you have some great symbolism to add to the creep factor. “Sundays” by David Heska Wanbli Weiden: A recent widower who has been carrying the trauma of sexual abuse at a Catholic boarding school decides that he is going to confront his abuser and take his revenge. While ruminating about his past, his marriage, and the horrific things he experienced at the school, he finds himself face to face with his rapist, and has to make a choice. This one was my favorite of the collection, and it was absolutely one of the hardest ones to read due to the visceral nature and the topics of child sexual abuse and the overall horror stories of the Boarding Schools. Weiden is such a powerhouse of gritty and realistic and DARK thriller stories, and this one was not only very suspenseful, it was also very emotional as it takes on the very real awful realities about the Catholic Boarding Schools that abused and destroyed so many Indigenous families and children. It’s SO upsetting and it’s content warnings all around, but it’s just astounding. When looking at the collection as a whole, I really liked the variety not only in the types of genres and sub genres that are represented, but also in the writing styles of all the authors and how it reflects their visions and experiences as Indigenous people in the U.S. and Canada in modern society. Some of them were a bit too intense for me, or triggered me for various reasons and that made it so I had a harder time enjoying them, while others sometimes felt a little uneven. BUT, as a whole? It’s pretty good. It has opened my eyes to a number of authors whom I had never heard of and am going to pursue and read more from. For people who like horror, dark fantasy, and/or thrillers, there will almost certainly be something to enjoy in this collection. And I will always promote and showcase stories by Indigenous authors, especially in genres that have been pretty damn white and European in terms of what gets the focus and what gets promoted. What better time than right now to check this out? “Never Whistle At Night” is another successful anthology experience for me, and it’s a horror and thriller collection that should be sought after by fans of the genres. It has variety and unique perspectives, and I urge people to check it out! ...more |
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Jan 25, 2024
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| 1728278945
| 9781728278940
| 1728278945
| 3.97
| 7,570
| Nov 07, 2023
| Nov 07, 2023
|
really liked it
|
(originally reviewed at
thelibraryladies.com
) Thank you to Sourcebooks Fire for giving me an ARC of this novel at ALAAC23, and thank you to Darcy C (originally reviewed at thelibraryladies.com ) Thank you to Sourcebooks Fire for giving me an ARC of this novel at ALAAC23, and thank you to Darcy Coates for signing it! One of my highlights of the now months ago ALAAC23 was meeting Darcy Coates, a horror author that I have enjoyed for about a year and a half now. It was a real joy meeting her at the convention and getting a signed copy of her newest novel, “Where He Can’t Find You”, which is also her first horror novel for Young Adults. While I think that some of her stories definitely have crossover potential (“The Gravekeeper” series is probably the most obvious choice in my mind), it was cool hearing that she was officially making the leap. I waited for the Halloween season before starting it, as I wanted the right ambiance, and it ended up being a good choice. Darcy Coates has done it again, and this time she casts a net over a whole new audience. I would say that Coates has successfully jumped into the YA genre with “Where He Can’t Find You”. I greatly enjoyed our core cast of characters, a group of teenagers living in a small town that has been plagued with disappearances, followed by brutal murders and dismemberments, all perpetrated by a being known as The Stitcher. While it reads like an urban legend, the residents of Doubtful know that he is real, and group of friends Abby, Rhys, Riya, and Connor all have their reasons for wanting to stop him (or it). I liked getting to know all of these teens and their motivations, and I also liked how Coates loops in new girl Jen into the fold, as she not only serves as a character who is having to adapt to this strange and dangerous small town, but also serves as an effective audience surrogate who learns as the audience does. I really loved Jen and her outsider perspective, as well as her interactions with her policeman father who is thrust into a MASSIVE shitshow right as he starts his new position. It also gave me some horror nostalgia feelings for “It”, as the idea of a group of teens trying to stop a malevolent force that has been destroying a town and causing a rot throughout its history is very much in line with that classic Stephen King tale, while also feeling unique to this world building on its own. What I liked most about “Where He Can’t Find You” is that Coates doesn’t seem like she feels a need to tone down the horror aspects for a teen audience. This is definitely a YA book, as it follows a group of teens determined to stop someone (or something) from wreaking havoc on their home, and the teenage relationships are at the forefront, but there are still a lot of Coates-esque horror elements that read like one of her adult novels. I wasn’t sure if we would get some of the bloody gore and out there horror things that she is known for in her adult books, but don’t worry; we do. I loved the creativity of the lore of The Stitcher and the way she has crafted a Derry-esque town that is haunted by its violence, and I found myself squirming at some of the descriptions of the sewn back together wrong remains that we encounter in the story. She also brings some of her well known scary imagery to this book, with unease building into terror as suspense tightens and breaks, all of this happening even without some of the more gore heavy moments (though those moments also never go overboard; she really knows how to hit the mark in both the explicitly gross as well as the general sense of creepiness). Coates trusts her audience, and horror loving teens and adults alike will probably find enjoyment in this novel. “Where He Can’t Find You” is another fun horror novel from Darcy Coates, and it proves that she can jump audiences with ease while continuing her crossover appeal across many ages. If you are still aching for some Halloween reads post Spooky Season, this is one that will do you just fine. ...more |
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Nov 03, 2023
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| 0316527327
| 9780316527323
| 0316527327
| 3.35
| 7,861
| Oct 03, 2023
| Oct 03, 2023
|
really liked it
|
(originally reviewed at
thelibraryladies.com
) Thank you to NetGalley for providing me with an eARC of this novel! Happy Halloween, everyone!! This i (originally reviewed at thelibraryladies.com ) Thank you to NetGalley for providing me with an eARC of this novel! Happy Halloween, everyone!! This is one of my favorite days of the year, and while I am always sad that the spooky season inevitably comes to an end on this wonderful day, I still look forward to it. Between taking my kid trick or treating and watching the original “Halloween” film, I like making this day special, and this year I have a special final review for Horrorpalooza 2023: “A Haunting on the Hill” by Elizabeth Hand is not only a new haunted house story, it is also an official continuation of Shirley Jackson’s “The Haunting of Hill House”, the formative and influential Gothic horror story about four paranormal investigators in the sinister Hill House. When I heard that there was an authorized sequel that takes place decades after the original, I was very, VERY interested to see what exactly the author was going to do with it. We’ve had some really good interpretations of the Hill House lore in the past few years, and an actual novel sounded ambitious and daunting. But I was very, very satisfied with how it all shook out. “A Haunting on the Hill” brings new inhabitants to Hill House, set in the modern times. Holly, a playwright who is trying to re-craft an old play about a witch, discovers the empty (but still cared for) mansion while on a drive during a vacation with her girlfriend and creative partner Nisa, and is almost immediately drawn to it. After convincing other members of the play, Stevie (an actor and a close friend) and Amanda (the lead), to join, what begins as a creative endeavor slowly turns into a nightmare. So once again we have four people in Hill House who don’t know just how dangerous it is, with locals and caretakers trying to warn them as their warnings fall unto closed ears, and a house that starts to draw them in. I liked watching the slow spin out as Holly, Nisa, Stevie, and Amanda deal with little things (like things being in one place and ending up in another, or lights being on when they were sure they were off), which then turn into big things (black hares falling down chimneys, or seeing cars barreling towards trees only to have them disappear). Hand takes her time in building up the tension, and adds more tension between the actors who are already on edge for other reasons none of them really want to talk about. She makes it so that the dread is fully taut, and then will let it snap to create genuinely scary moments that feel right out of Shirley Jackson’s playbook. In terms of how well it blends in with the source material, I think that Hand does a really good job of making this story seem original and unique while still holding some of the tone and themes of “The Haunting of Hill House”. Given that through the original and at least two adaptations (NOT the 1999 adaptation, mind you), one of the main points Jackson was making was that yes, Hill House is haunted, but the people who inhabit it are ALSO haunted by things outside of the mansion. And we get that with our characters in this story, whether it’s Holly aching for success, or singer Nisa, who is rife with her own insecurities while trying to put on a show of great confidence and allure, or actress Amanda who is trying to remake her career after an accident in a previous show that she felt blamed for, or actor Stevie who is still feeling the repercussions of horrific abuse he endured as a tween, vulnerable people come to Hill House and have a slowly building dread as strange thing start to happen. Hand never goes outside of the levels of the original book, slowly upping the ante of suspense with general unease to moments of rapt terror, and it just feels like Jackson’s Hill House is bringing in more victims to keep inside so it doesn’t walk alone. She also manages to pay homage and fit in references to the original text, without feeling like she’s leaning upon it too heavily, or just retelling the tale in a new coating. Hell, she even can explore the less obvious themes of queerness that were hinted at in the original, and bringing in the spirit of Nell and Theo and their complicated relationship through Holly and Nisa. It’s believable as a sequel and it’s worthy of it as well. “A Haunting on the Hill” is an eerie and unsettling follow up to a beloved horror classic. I felt like it hit the right beats, caught the right tone, and ended up fitting in with the story many know and love. And with that, on this lovely All Hallow’s Eve, Horrorpalooza 2023 has come to an end! I hope that you have all had a fun and deeply spooky Season of the Witch, and I hope that everyone out there has a fun, safe, and creepy crawly Halloween!!! ...more |
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Oct 26, 2023
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| 0593359232
| 9780593359235
| 0593359232
| 3.32
| 37,853
| May 24, 2022
| May 24, 2022
|
really liked it
|
(originally reviewed at
thelibraryladies.com
) Thank you to NetGalley for providing me with an eARC of this book! I’ve mentioned it before, but it’s (originally reviewed at thelibraryladies.com ) Thank you to NetGalley for providing me with an eARC of this book! I’ve mentioned it before, but it’s always kinda fun when Serena and I have an author that we both really enjoy. Partially because it’s interesting to see how we interact with an author’s work as two people with different literary focuses, but also because it usually means an author is good at genre jumping. And while Kiersten White has been more in Serena’s genres of fantasy and historical fiction, she has dabbled in horror now and again. And for her debut adult novel “Hide”, she returns to horror, enticing fans of the genre with an abandoned theme park, adults hoping to play hide and seek for a cash prize, and sinister ulterior motives from the people who are running the contest. I mean come on. I live for all of this, and I really like White as an author. So you know I was really excited to jump into the thick of it. White already had me with the premise of a high stakes hide and seek game where money is the prize but undisclosed dangers threaten the players. Given that stories like “Hunger Games” and “Squid Game” have appealed to me for a very long time, it was a no brainer that this theme would work for me in this novel. Especially since I enjoy White’s writing and deconstructions of other tropes she’s taken on. And I’m not going to spoil to much here in terms of big details, but the way that White handles this story, with nods to Greek mythology as well as very real issues regarding the idle rich vs an ever more strained lower class, is a well balanced take on all the things she seeks to take on. I really liked the slow build up, as each day passes we see various players start to drop out of the game, with insights into the moments leading up to their ‘loss’ that start innocuous but then turn more and more sinister as the story goes on. I was in the dark for a lot of the plot, until I started to realize just what the broader picture was, influence wise, and once I did I became all the more invested in seeing how it all played out. And the way that she weaves this in with the social aspects of wealthy elites taking advantage of lower income groups for their own gains makes it all the more interesting. Sometimes the dialog of said wealthy elites was a LITTLE on the nose (which was a bit surprising as this is marketed as an adult novel; I tend to expect more of that in YA, but hey, this is White’s first foray into adult audiences and perhaps some old habits die hard), but it was few and far between and never took me too far out of the story. I also mostly enjoyed the characters of this book. We mostly focus on Mack, who survived a massacre on her family when her father went full family annihilator, but wasn’t able to find her to kill her as well. Mack felt pretty realistic in her personality and her closed-offness, and I enjoyed how we slowly unpacked her trauma as well as how she perceives her role in some of the outcomes. I was a bit skeptical about how White was seemingly giving bits of perspective to EVERY contestant, as boy, that’s fourteen people in only a certain number of pages. But I thought that, for the most part, she gave at least a little bit of a glimpse into all of their psyches, and let us see why they would agree to this strange contest through their motivations and bits and pieces of their backstories. Some felt more contrived than others, but in general the most important players (be it cast wise or game wise) were given a lot to work with. I especially liked Ava, a disabled veteran with whom Mack becomes quite attached to, in spite of her fears of getting attached. Ava has a lot of great lines and some great characterization, and I was very invested in hers and Mack’s relationship as well as their wellbeing. This foray into the adult reading demographic was pretty successful, which doesn’t surprise me. Honestly, given that White’s YA books have massive crossover appeal to adult audiences, I wouldn’t be shocked if the same can be said for “Hide” appealing to teens. Regardless, I thought it was fun, and it just emphasizes how much I really like White as a dark fantasy and horror author. I hope we get more of that from her in the near future! ...more |
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Oct 26, 2023
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Hardcover
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| 0440000211
| 9780440000211
| 0440000211
| 3.78
| 117,610
| Mar 15, 2022
| Mar 15, 2022
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really liked it
|
(originally reviewed at
thelibraryladies.com
) I am now at the point in my librarian and blogging career that I lose titles that I would normally be (originally reviewed at thelibraryladies.com ) I am now at the point in my librarian and blogging career that I lose titles that I would normally be super into amongst the books that I want to read. Whether it’s for blog purposes or keeping my RA skills up, I am always looking for books to add to the pile, and then others tend to shuffle through long past their release date. This is what happened with “The Book of Cold Cases” by Simone St. James, and author that I generally like and would normally be putting on my radar earlier than a few months past the release date. Well thank you, Book of the Month Club, because had you not had this book as a selection of that month I probably would have ended up on a hold list and then not gotten to this book until much later. Which would have been a bummer, because “The Book of Cold Cases” combines true crime blogger themes with a 1970s murder case that scandalized a town, as well as a perhaps supernatural presence within the accused murderess’s house. All things that I’m super into. The story is told through the perspectives of present day Shea, true crime obsessive due to her processing (or not processing) of her own traumatic incident in her past, and past Beth, an accused murderer who was acquitted and who is more than the media and the community sees her as. When Shea meets Beth randomly and asks to interview her for her armchair sleuthing blog, Beth surprises her with a ‘yes’, and then Shea starts to investigate the Lady Killer Murders that Beth seemingly got away with. I liked seeing Shea go on her own investigation and how it is supplemented by the slow reveals of Beth’s past as we see what she was going through during the scrutiny and police investigation/trial back in the 1970s. It’s a device we’ve seen before but St. James does it well. We slowly get more and more information about both women and what their motivations are, and they are both interesting and complex enough that I was invested in finding out what Beth was hiding, and if Shea was going to find herself in trouble as she starts to unravel it all. I found Shea especially fascinating as a character, as while it may have been easy to just paint her as a true crime weirdo, St. James instead brings her own victimization into the formula and makes it less a morbid hobby and more of a coping mechanism (and honestly, I think that for a number of true crime fans there is a bit of anxiety processing and trauma processing that goes into the fascination with the genre). And as for Beth, I liked how St. James picks apart misogyny of the media and society when it comes to the portrayals of women in crime cases like this. Though there were some things that didn’t really work for me. The problem is, I can’t really talk too much about them here without going into serious spoiler territory. What I will say is that we get a device about half way through the story that made it a bit less interesting for me, as it makes Beth a little less interesting as a whole. And the other issue is that, like other Simone St. James books, there is an element of the supernatural here. I generally like how St. James incorporates ghost stories into her books, and it isn’t that I didn’t like it here, because I did. I think that the problem is that in this story it didn’t really feel like it was needed, and because of that it felt a bit forced into it. It doesn’t make it any less suspenseful, and I still tore through this book over the course of two days. But this time around it may not have been necessary to have that element to it. At the end of the day, I was supremely entertained by “The Book of Cold Cases”! It’s summer now, and I do think that this would be a great beach or cabin read. It may even send a chill up your spine on a hot summer day. ...more |
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| 1728220238
| 9781728220239
| 1728220238
| 4.02
| 11,249
| Jun 07, 2022
| Jun 07, 2022
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really liked it
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(originally reviewed at
thelibraryladies.com
) Thank you to Poisoned Pen Press for sending me an eARC of this novel! Minnesota may not be on any ocea (originally reviewed at thelibraryladies.com ) Thank you to Poisoned Pen Press for sending me an eARC of this novel! Minnesota may not be on any oceans, but we do have Lake Superior, which is so vast and unruly at times that it kind of acts like the sea. Hell, it’s big enough and has enough commercial traffic on it that there have been a fair amount of shipwrecks in its waters, so many that I have a framed poster in our den of the various wreckages on a map of the Great Lakes. I got that poster when I was a tween, so clearly shipwrecks have fascinated me for awhile (fun fact, on a day where the conditions are right, you can see a shipwreck in the waters at the Split Rock Lighthouse, north of Duluth. I ALWAYS try to see it when I go). I was thinking a lot about the shipwrecks in Superior as I read “From Below” by Darcy Coates. But I also knew that, while similar, the wrecks I was thinking of weren’t comparable. The biggest reason is the actual ocean has A LOT more secrets than ol’ gitchi-gami does just by it’s vast unknown depths. The other, more fiction based one is that this shipwreck has some supernatural nonsense going on. This story is told in two timelines that slowly come together to reveal what happened on the S.S. Arcadia, a ship that disappeared during a voyage sixty years prior and whose wreckage was just discovered way off course. The first timeline is in the present, with a dive team that has been selected to go in and document the wreckage. The other is on that doomed voyage, following the crew and the passengers as things slowly start to go wrong and a strange, choking fog stalks the ship. Which is just the beginning. In the present we have leader Cove and her crew going into the wreckage and finding clues as to what went on…. and as things go from solemn to strange to terrifying, they don’t feel like they can stop because they need the money the dive will bring in. Both timelines build up the dread at a languid pace, tightening the tension bit by bit until things suddenly snap. It goes on a little long and extends a bit more than it needs to, but it has moments of high tension and horror. I enjoyed the present timeline more than the past one, but both use different elements to achieve some well done scares. In the past it’s a frenzy of paranoia and desperation for the crew and passengers as things spiral out of control, and in the modern time it’s a realization that there are things left in this ship that should not be there. Cove is the most interesting character of them all, as she is trying to be a good leader, but also knows that they all need the compensation. It’s a legitimate factor that kept me from wholly disbelieving their choices in staying on (there was another issue near the end that I didn’t buy, but that’s just another byproduct of it going on a little long, which is mostly forgivable). But Coates doesn’t only rely on the supernatural side of things when it comes to the horror moments in this book. I mean sure, a long lost shipwreck with a mysterious disappearance, and then horrors within, are great themes for a horror novel, and themes I don’t see TOO often (though interestingly enough Serena and I reviewed a novel this year that had those exact themes but in space). And these themes work really well here. But it’s more the real life and realistic moments that had my pulse pounding. Coates goes into some really good detail about deep sea diving, and just how dangerous it is, and a lot of the suspense was built up around a slowly running supply of oxygen, as well as the very real threats of the bends and pressure damage should one try to ascend too quickly. And when you are exploring an underwater ghost ship and find really horrific things inside, how are you NOT going to suck through your oxygen, or try to speed out of there just a little too quickly? Ugh, that really was the stuff that set me on edge. And Coates did a great job of explaining all of it for a layperson so I understood some of the dangers when I may not have initially. So it seems I may have to go back through Darcy Coates’s catalog to see what else she has written, as “From Below” was super entertaining and definitely freaky. I wasn’t exactly in a rush to go deep sea diving at any point in my life, but this just clinches it. ...more |
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| 1250850878
| 9781250850874
| B09YPWJDR4
| 3.94
| 759
| Apr 20, 2022
| May 11, 2022
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really liked it
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(originally reviewed at
thelibraryladies.com
) So I’m highlighting something a little different today for my review. The reason is that I have been (originally reviewed at thelibraryladies.com ) So I’m highlighting something a little different today for my review. The reason is that I have been picking away at some of the short stories by Stephen Graham Jones, one of my favorite authors, and I found one that is so accessible and such a quick read that I want to spread the word of this awesome author. Seriously if you haven’t read Jones yet, this will make it easy! “Men, Women, and Chainsaws” is a short story that is available on Tor.com! I myself bought it for my Kindle, which is also an option, but above there is a link right to it! And it’s a story about a revenge seeking woman who has the help of a bloodthirsty car! The obvious reference here is “Christine” by Stephen King, but I got more of a “Little Shop of Horrors” vibe from this story and I was one hundred percent here for it. Our main character is Jenna, a woman who has had to deal with a fair amount of loss in her life, the most recent one being that of her boyfriend Victor, who went to work on oil rigs and sent her a break up letter. Earlier was the death of her bio parents in a tragedy involving a car. Jenna’s last happy moment with Victor was recreating a photoshoot at a local junkyard involving a junked out Camaro and Caroline Williams of “Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2” fame, and when Jenna finds the Camaro later, the same night Victor comes home and her rejection is flaunted for everyone, things take a turn for the supernatural. It involves bloodletting, a rebuilt car, and a scorned lover’s revenge. But it’s also a story of a woman who has suffered some pretty terrible loss in her life, and how a bloodthirsty car not only can help her seek revenge but also closure. And it’s the sense of melancholy that permeates the pages that made this story one of the more bittersweet tales that Jones has written. Jenna has seen some shit and been through some shit, and I just wanted her to have some kind of happiness, or at least peace. As she finds out some ugly truths about Victor, as well as some hidden truths about what happened to her biological parents, my heart broke for her as she seeks out a connection, seeks out not only the hope of taking out a user and abusive prick, but also the hope of finding a connection to the parents she never knew, and finding not only meaning in their loss, but also perhaps an otherworldly reunion. I’m being a bit vague, and I kind of have to be because the story is filled with emotional beats that are best experienced with no prior knowledge. But on the flip side, there are also some really fun horror moments, and some really awesome homages to horror stories, be it the aforementioned “Christine” and “Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2”, as well as the nostalgia of hitting up a scary movie at the drive in. Jones just loves horror stories and he writes them with such a fondness that you can’t help but grin form ear to ear when you read them. Short stories are generally hit or miss for me, but Stephen Graham Jones is always on point within this format. He knows how to build a world and an arc and make it feel well thought out and explored in less than fifty pages. “Men, Women, and Chainsaws” is weird and emotional, and I really enjoyed it on every level. ...more |
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| unknown
| 4.29
| 24
| unknown
| Feb 2022
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liked it
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(originally reviewed at
thelibraryladies.com
) Thank you to Beverly Bambury for sending me a print copy of this book! I mean, honestly, you are just (originally reviewed at thelibraryladies.com ) Thank you to Beverly Bambury for sending me a print copy of this book! I mean, honestly, you are just tantalizing me when you say that something is “Nightmare on Elm Street” meets “The Stand”. Given that “The Stand” is an all time favorite of mine and I just love a good slasher movie, when I saw that comparison mix for “The Insane God” by Jay Hartlove, I just HAD to see what that meant. I knew I was throwing a bit of caution to the wind, as it was pretty clear that this story, while having those comparisons, was going to be a bit heavier on the Science Fiction than I am used to. But I’m game to experiment when the mood strikes me, and strike me it did. There are some interesting ideas here to be sure! I loved the idea of space rocks giving people powers and interfering with biological functions like mental illness, and I liked the idea of how people that are touched by these things can have new powers awakened within them. Hartlove has set the stage for some well done suspense and some pretty solid consequences, with cosmic horror elements as well as some trippy surreal horror, like the ability to manipulate and bring things from dreams into the real world (THAT was so “Nightmare on Elm Street”). We also have some good old fashioned suspense regarding people who are raging bigoted assholes, and people who are true believers in one side of a space set feud and who want to bring about destruction on Earth. This leads to a lot of content warnings (specifically some pretty upsetting scenes of transphobia, Islamaphobia, violence due to both these things, and difficult moments involving mental illness and the stigma that can come with it). But we also get a coming of age story in which a teenage girl finds herself a potential savior of mankind, all while grappling with her own identity as a trans woman, a recently cured schizophrenic (due to otherworldly influence), and as a sister. Hartlove melds them all together into a fast paced narrative that has a lot of ideas, and it mostly comes together pretty well! There is also the fact that our protagonist Sarah is a trans woman, a representation that we are finally seeing more and more of in genre fiction and horror. It’s important to note that Jay Hartlove is not trans, and that as a cis woman I can’t really tell you if Sarah is a good representation of a trans character. That said, I did look into Hartlove’s background and various interviews, and he does have a trans child and a non-binary child, and it’s pretty clear that he has written this story with a hope of giving trans people characters they can seen themselves in. Sometimes it comes off a little clunky and hamfisted, at least to me, and again, I’m not really someone who can judge how well representative Sarah was and whether her experiences ring true or false. But it really does seem like Sarah’s characterization has all the best intentions, and as a character I thought that she was complex and interesting, and was very easy to root for. At the end of the day I liked her a lot. And I hope that we get more trans characters in genre fiction, and more trans authors in the mix to tell those stories. I think that ultimately this was more heavily Science Fiction in a cosmic sense, which I knew going into it. I always like to give genres that I’m not super into a try, especially if it seems like there could be some crossover interest, and as I mentioned above, describing it as “Nightmare on Elm Street” meets “The Stand” would imply a lot of crossover! And I do get the comparisons, given the creative ways that Hartlove toys with dreaming and cosmic and existential end of world elements with warring factions within the chaos. Still and all, it did get into the Sci-Fi weeds a bit, which will probably work for a lot of people! “The Insane God” is a bit of an out there Sci-Fi/horror story that I thought was pretty creative. Sure it has some stumbles here and there, but there is so much that feels unique, and it has its heart firmly in place. ...more |
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Oct 26, 2023
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Nook
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| 0063069911
| 9780063069916
| 0063069911
| 3.10
| 12,391
| Jul 05, 2022
| Jul 05, 2022
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it was amazing
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(originally reviewed at
thelibraryladies.com
) Thank you to NetGalley for providing me with an eARC of this novel. It’s finally time, everyone! Paul (originally reviewed at thelibraryladies.com ) Thank you to NetGalley for providing me with an eARC of this novel. It’s finally time, everyone! Paul Tremblay has a new horror novel out, and it’s one that caught my attention VERY quickly when I read about it. For one reason, obviously, is that it’s Paul Tremblay. He’s one of my favorite horror authors, and one of the best ones writing today. But the bigger issue at hand is that while he has taken on other horror themes and twisted them onto their head (possession, zombies, ghosts, etc), he is taking on a subgenre that is near and dear to my heart, and that I am VERY picky about: vampires. I love vampire stories, but I want very specific things from my vampire stories. And Paul Tremblay gave me everything I need. Oh, and yes, like in most of his other works, I ended up weeping relentlessly by the end. Let’s start with the plot and the way this story is told. The narrative structure of this book is so fantastic. It is framed as a memoir written by Art Barbara. Going in, we know nothing about Art, or why he would have written a memoir about himself. We also almost immediately notice that there are seemingly handwritten annotations and footnotes written by a mystery voice, and those footnotes are critiquing the story as written. We soon realize that this story Art is telling is about his friendship with mysterious cool girl Mercy Brown, whom he met through the Pallbearers Club, a group he formed in high school as a community service opportunity. Teens work at funerals of forgotten people to serve as mourners and pallbearers. Mercy saw the ad Art put out, and called him. Thus began a friendship built on punk music, 80s yearning, and a mutual interest in working funerals. Art for extracurricular brownie points, Mercy for… other reasons. As Art talks about their friendship, he slowly reveals that he believes her to be a vampire. Mercy, in the footnotes, is constantly questioning his words, editorializing, and it is through both of their POVs that we see a slow burn creepy story about toxic friendship and potential vampirism come to be. I loved how Tremblay decided to tell this story, as it makes both of our narrators have truths and lies that the are sprinkling in. And given that Tremblay is a master at creating deeply disturbing horror moments, the vampire stuff (as Art describes it) is well done, unique, and taps into an actual folktale from New England that is about, in fact, a woman named Mercy Brown who was thought to be a vampire. Look it up! Start HERE. I loved how he brought in this actual story of American mythology and connected it to a metaphor about toxic friendships. The vampire mythos that we get feels fresh and new, and it taps into the non-romanticized themes of vampires as users, superstitions around illness, and codependence. It’s so damn good. Now I need to talk about Mercy. Mercy is the shining star of this book, of all Paul Tremblay books. He so effortlessly captures the ‘cool girl as seen through the geek boy’s eyes’ trope and turns it into something that is both malevolent as well as bittersweet. We have this great tactic in which we see how Art views Mercy through his memoir, and we also get to see Mercy’s voice not only tell him how badly he has projected his own insecurities into he perception of her (which I believe so many ‘cool girls’ have to deal with when it comes to these kinds of geek boys and their worshiping), but also reflect that cool girl-ness she absolutely DOES have, as well as the clear love (and resentment) she also has for him. There is no question that both Art and Mercy are terrible for each other, and that they both get a lot of things wrong about each other. But the way that Tremblay gives both of them voices to construct a broader truth is great, and he does it in a way that doesn’t make Mercy just a potential vampire that is also a well worn manic pixie dream girl trope. She is basically what I wanted Samara Weaving’s character in “The Babysitter” to be in terms of meeting her full potential, and I absolutely adored her with my entire heart. And finally I need to talk about this pathos I keep mentioning. Because this book is just brimming with it in the way that Tremblay does. He really, really knows how to just gut the reader. As said above, Art and Mercy’s friendship is not healthy, really, given that the entire ‘is it a vampire thing?’ question harkens back to the parasitic nature of vampirism, and therein the parasitic natures of some bad human relationships. But I will say, without spoiling things, there is some serious emotional depth that Tremblay taps into with their friendship, about their mutual outcast status and loneliness that connected them in the first place, and at once makes you think ‘this is so unhealthy’, while also feeling the mutual, real love they have for each other. And, once again, I found myself bawling during a Paul Tremblay horror novel. God DAMN do I love how this man knows how to destroy my soul. “The Pallbearers Club” is a phenomenal take on a vampire story. It is definitely my favorite of Tremblay’s books. I urge horror fans, especially if you like new takes on vampire stories, to pick this one up. ...more |
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Oct 26, 2023
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Hardcover
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| 1401228305
| 9781401228309
| 1401228305
| 3.97
| 25,713
| Oct 05, 2010
| Oct 05, 2010
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really liked it
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(originally reviewed at
thelibraryladies.com
) Here we are again, about to embark on a re-read of a graphic novel series that I loved in the past an (originally reviewed at thelibraryladies.com ) Here we are again, about to embark on a re-read of a graphic novel series that I loved in the past and want to revisit in the present. Well, sort of. You see, I read the majority of “American Vampire”, Scott Snyder’s horror comic that follows American vampires through the decades as America changes and evolves. I own almost the entire series. But then for some reason I just kind of stopped reading it, and I honestly don’t really remember why (I have theories, but to address them here would be spoiler-y). So I decided that for my next re-read (potentially final…) of a series I would go back to a horror series I greatly enjoyed. And as a bonus, guess who wrote part of the first volume? Good ol’ Uncle Steve. If Stephen King is involved, I’m always game, and always have been. We have to differing storylines that do merge together in a way in Volume 1. The first is of Pearl, a 1920s movie extra who loves being in the silent films, as she and her roommate Hattie try to make it big in Hollywood. But when Pearl is invited to a Hollywood executive’s party, what she thinks is a big break turns out to be a trap; the high powered executives are vampires, and they attack her and leave her for dead in the desert. She is rushed to a hospital, but dies.. Until a mysterious man brings her back to life, and she vows revenge on those who killed her. The other story (and the one King wrote) is about said mysterious man, Skinner Sweet, a ruthless desperado from the 1800s, who is turned into a vampire, and realizes that somehow he’s a new breed, one that has distinct advantages over the European ilk, and he goes on a massacre while a man named Book hopes to hunt him down and stop him once and for all. Both stories have a distinctly American feel to them, be it the glowing lights of Hollywood and it’s broken promises, or the dangerous and lawless expansion out West, and Snyder and King find ways to not only have some great arcs that set up an entire series, but ones that can stand on their own as well (especially King, as this is his only contribution to the series, and it’s SO him in characterization and storytelling). It’s the interesting Western theme and the femme fatale theme that are so compelling to the story, and they easily fit together as Pearl beings her journey, and Sweet continues his. I also really appreciated the idea of the ‘American’ vampire type being more violent and opportunistic and guns-a-blazing than the European type. If that isn’t an apt metaphor I don’t know what is. I definitely prefer the Pearl storyline, as Pearl is such a great character from the jump. She is ambitious but not cutthroat, tough but fair, and the fantastic metaphor of a predatory movie studio being turned into vampire nest works on every level. Once Pearl realizes her new state and new powers, she isn’t hesitant to seek revenge on those who killed her, but at the same time she is struggling with her new condition, especially because of those she loves, specifically her roommate and best friend Hattie, and her would be lover Henry. The relationship with Henry is especially compelling, as Henry is a supportive and caring man who just worships the ground Pearl walks on. Snyder writes him in a way that makes him so likable, never making his love and devotion to her in doubt, nor making it some kind of weakness. Pearl can absolutely stand on her own, especially after she becomes a vampire, but it’s also completely okay for her to want companionship and support and it never feels like it’s holding her back. I loved Pearl the first time, and I loved her again this time. Skinner is another story, however. It’s interesting, because I thought that perhaps going back into it ten years later with an evolved reading taste would change my thoughts, but nope, I still find Skinner to be the worst, and not really in a fun way. King doesn’t really write him as anything but a disgusting villain, which is good, as the focus of the hero arc is more on his enemy James Book, who was hunting him down in life and now hunts him down post vampirism. There are lots of “Dracula”-esque moments as a group of humans uses their wits and knowledge to track down a vampire, and once again I was more rooting for them to take out Skinner (even though we know it doesn’t work, given Skinner’s connection to Pearl). I do like how King sets up an entire line and arc for how Skinner is going to be functioning and hounded in the years to come, as generations have reason to go after him (Book’s partner has a daughter named Abi who has her own reasons to want Skinner dead as time goes on. I will say that the relationship between her and Book is weird and a little gross, but it has to happen for something ELSE to happen, so…. whatever). Long story short, the Skinner Sweet storylines we see are only as interesting as his foils, and my guess is that King intended for that to be case. And finally, the artwork is still some of my favorite artwork in comics to date. Rafael Albuquerque can do both really charming kind of down to Earth designs, while also tapping into some really horrific imagery. I’m really excited about this re-read of “American Vampire”, as I’m already having a blast. Join me, won’t you, as we follow Pearl and Skinner through the years of this very young and very flawed nation. What will these two very different vampires get up to? ...more |
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it was amazing
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| 3.97
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really liked it
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Oct 26, 2023
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