So many people wondered if the infamous Chuck Tingle could write a serious horror novel. I say let them doubt no more, because Camp Damascus is not onSo many people wondered if the infamous Chuck Tingle could write a serious horror novel. I say let them doubt no more, because Camp Damascus is not only a serious horror novel, but it’s a relevant and timely one that also manages to preserve some of Tingle’s signature voice.
I couldn’t put this book down, people. Not only was it full of that righteous indignation for organized religion I love so much, but that rage was backed up by a wealth of well-researched and sourced ecclesiastical, religious, and lesser-known theological texts, some so obscure I’m not even sure how deep Tingle had to dig into academia to find them or how long it took them to go through bibliography after bibliography like a spiraling rabbit hole of Latin and Aramaic. If you’re going to write a horror novel lambasting evangelical Christianity and mega churches, Chuck Tingle really decided to go big or go home. I gotta tell you, the biblical sparring in this book was something I was here for in a big way, because there’s nothing like watching religious zealots being forced to shift their goal posts or deliberately misinterpret their own scripture.
I fell in love with the deeper story here too, of memories lost and the people we lose along with them. Picnics in the park, dancing awkwardly in an apartment, meet-cutes in book shops… Going from thinking you’re living a life with love being behind everything you do to knowing all that life has done is taken love from you might cause one to radically alter the course of one’s life, but it also probably won’t change the core of you. But just like conversion therapy doesn’t make you any less gay, losing your faith won’t necessarily make you any less kind or brave.
The characters in this book are brilliant. Keeping the main cast to a protagonist and two supporting characters really left a lot of room for great world building, fantastic character development, organic plot exhibition, and some great larger scenes filled with evocative and colorful imagery.
There’s also some fantastic random silliness, weird body horror with a point, and gnarly gore here and there inside, just to remind us we’re reading Chuck Tingle. I simply loved all of it.
I was provided a copy of this title by NetGalley and the author. All thoughts, opinions, views, and ideas expressed herein are mine and mine alone. Thank you.
File Under: Body Horror/Cult Horror/Horror/Horror Comedy/LGBTQ Fiction/LGBTQRomance/Occult Fiction/Occult Horror/Paranormal Fantasy/Urban Fantasy ...more
It’s so unfair that I have to give this book (which is by all rights an entertaining slasher film romp where the frat boys aReal Rating: 3.5 / 5 Stars
It’s so unfair that I have to give this book (which is by all rights an entertaining slasher film romp where the frat boys are the ones in danger and not sorority girls for once) 3.5 stars. I would’ve loved to have rated it higher; but as it was, if it weren’t such a fun book to read (and I didn’t even manage to guess whodunit!) I would’ve rated it lower because this book has enough plot holes I felt like I might need to send for a work crew to come patch them all for author Cale Dietrich.
Why didn’t I guess who did it? Well, because it didn’t make any sense. If anyone else who has read this book can look back at any point in the book and tell me there was any hint that made you realize in hindsight the murderer was at least slightly suspect, then I’d like to know, because it’s driving me nuts.
And as for the leading suspect for the murders for the majority of the book: If Sam (our MC) was so skeptical, why didn’t he find a way to contact that person’s family and find out if they knew anything about where he was or what happened to him? Moreover, if said person had indeed disappeared suddenly, wouldn't law enforcement have contacted Sam as a matter of course, considering their shared history? I just felt like I kept stumbling into plot holes and if I was watching a horror film I’d be asking Sam out loud as I was watching the television, “Why don’t you make one simple phone call?”
I loved that this was a YA horror novel in the slasher genre with prominent LGBTQ representation and a LGBTQ main romantic relationship but that Dietrich never made this book about being queer. This wasn’t a slasher novel about being gay, this was a slasher novel that just happened to have a heavy amount of queer representation that was presented in a positive light. These young men are simply fresh meat in the college market, trying to find their people and their way in life. Yeah, they’re gay, but that’s never the point. And that’s not the motive for the murders, either.
It really is an entertaining, diverting, fun, and slasher-iffic read that’s good for when you just want to take some time to sink into a book that has the feel of a 90’s slasher film.
I was provided a copy of this book by NetGalley in conjunction with the author. All thoughts, views, and opinions expressed in this review are mine and mine alone. Thank you.
This is the first time a Catriona Ward book has let me down.
When I started out this Russian nesting egg of a novel, I absolReal Rating: 3.5 / 5 Stars
This is the first time a Catriona Ward book has let me down.
When I started out this Russian nesting egg of a novel, I absolutely loved it. I was digging it. However, the longer this book went on, and the more layers Ward unveiled, the less I enjoyed it. Simply put: It became messy. It became less interesting. It became hard to keep track of. It lost propulsion. The pacing lacked off. I simply started to lose interest. By the end, I didn’t really care how it ended as long as the book just finally ended. I haven’t been this disappointed in a book in a very long time.
For the entire first act or so, I did truly enjoy it: the set up, the characters, Ward’s truly incredibly creepy prose and incredible world building. The book felt like it held so much potential in its pages…only for it all to fizzle out like the whole book has been rained on and it to become a damp mess.
The 3,5 stars I’m awarding this book comes purely for the portion of the book I loved and the passages here and there after that part that I thought were really beautiful. I’m not willing to go so far as to give this book three stars, because it’s not a simple, average novel I’d just toss away. It’s still Catriona Ward. It just doesn’t feel like her best effort.
I was provided a copy of this title by NetGalley and the author. All thoughts, opinions, views, and ideas expressed herein are mine and mine alone.
I really, really wanted to like this book. You’ve got the horrors of colonialism, sexism, misogyny, a single mom who’s a working professional and raisI really, really wanted to like this book. You’ve got the horrors of colonialism, sexism, misogyny, a single mom who’s a working professional and raising two girls on her own, racism, xenophobia, the current situation in Mexico with the cartels and widespread disappearances of females of all ages, the duplicitousness of coyotes when it comes to ensuring immigrants cross the border to the US safely, and the deliberate erasure of the true histories of where we all come from, even though your average child knows history is full of war and sacrifice.
I didn’t like it. It had some of the most uneven pacing I’ve ever seen in a horror novel. Once you start to build the dread you can’t just take a break from building the dread. The dread needs to keep building. That line needs to be tight, with only a little slack so the reader doesn’t get overloaded while reading. This book has dread build and stop. Suspense build and stop. This book should have made me feel like something was crawling slowly up my spine from the inciting incident. Instead, it would start to climb and then stop completely for pages and pages before it would start again, but in a different way and at a different speed. If I’m reading horror, I want to be scared, not annoyed.
There was also something about Gout’s writing that struck me as uncomfortable to read. I think there’s a formality to it that makes the book feel stuffy, or like a shirt collar that has been ironed with too much starch. It made me feel like I couldn’t take the book seriously because someone needed to let him know it was okay to relax and let the words flow instead of ensuring they were in absolutely perfect form at all times. The dialogue was done very well, but the narrative didn’t match up, and it created a disconnect that just made me groan.
I also think the book is a touch longer than it could have been due to filler material. Some scenes were unnecessary and some sections were longer than I thought were needed.
But the history research done for this book is impressive, and it’s definitely an interesting read. I seem to be rather in the minority in regards to my opinions about this book so maybe pick it up and give it a try. It may be your yum.
I was provided a copy of this title by NetGalley and the author. All ideas, thoughts, views, and opinions expressed herein are mine and mine alone. Thank you. Owing to personal policy, all reviews 3 stars and under will not appear on any social media or bookseller websites. Thank you. ...more
There’s nothing that seems to sting more in the ARC reading business than having a novel you’ve been really excited about all year completely let you There’s nothing that seems to sting more in the ARC reading business than having a novel you’ve been really excited about all year completely let you down.
I’ve been looking forward to Silver Nitrate all year because it’s the first time I’ve been approved for the ARC of one of Silvia Moreno-Garcia’s novels. Come on, folks! Mexican horror films and Nazi occultism? How in the ever-living heck am I going to pass that up! How could I resist such plot yumminess?
I tried really hard to love this book. I tried to even like it. All this book did for me is fall absolutely flat and boring.
The error doesn’t fall with Moreno-Garcia’s writing, because she knows how to intrigue you, how to craft a plot, how to world build, and I don’t even want to know what her browser history looks like or how much time she spent in research libraries to get the world building as impeccable as she did. If there’s one thing you never have to worry about with Moreno-Garcia is atmosphere: the woman knows her craft. You won’t see a single anachronism in her books.
The issue I came across in this book was the completely unenjoyable and uninteresting main characters and the slow, plodding pace of the book itself. While I do enjoy a horror novel that builds dread and foreboding as it works towards its conclusion, this book just seemed to plod along without bringing along that dread and foreboding. Whenever something spooky or creepy happens, it just has a feeling of, “Oh, so that happened,” instead of feeling like something profoundly scary happened.
I really wish I could’ve come away from this novel saying it was as spectacular as I had hoped, but between the narration style, the snail-like pace, and the lack of chills, it just wasn’t my cup of tea.
I was provided a copy of this title by NetGalley and the author. All thoughts, opinions, views, and ideas expressed herein are mine and mine alone. Thank you. As per personal policy this review will not appear on any bookseller or social media websites due to a three star or lower rating. ...more
For he said unto him, Come out of the man, thou unclean spirit.
And he asked him, What is thy name? And he answered, saying, My name is Legion: for we For he said unto him, Come out of the man, thou unclean spirit.
And he asked him, What is thy name? And he answered, saying, My name is Legion: for we are many. (King James Version, Mark 5.8-9)
It’s 1905 in Pennsylvania, and we’re at a Catholic orphanage for boys. Our protagonist, Peter, has been at the orphanage for seven years, ever since his father shot his mother (accidentally setting the house on fire in the process), and then put his shotgun under his own skin and pulled the trigger in front of young Peter. Since that night he’s been at St. Vincent’s, and is almost ready to enter the priesthood himself, if he can decide he loves serving God enough to give up hopes of marrying the Hill girl down the road someday.
It’s early winter in Pennsylvania, and everyone is trying to get ready for the time when they’ll all be hunkering down as the snow falls, the rough roads become impassable, the game goes to ground or is all hunted down, and there is not even one root vegetable left in the ground. The orphanage, already living on Christian charity alone, barely has enough food to feed their charges, which number close to 40. They are completely full of growing boys of all ages, and not one of them isn’t living with their own inner demons.
Not the biblical ones, silly.
Not until one night, when the county sheriff brings his horribly injured and possessed brother to the door of the orphanage and begs the priests to help save his brother’s soul. That night, something dark is let loose on hallowed ground and into the vulnerable souls of damaged boys.
The thing about darkness is that you never know who it’s going to affect, why it’s going to affect them, and just how bad it’s going to be when it hits them. Sometimes it’s the ones you suspect the most. Sometimes, it’s the last ones you expect.
This book is stark and bleak, but vividly drawn with gore and terror. There’s a great juxtaposition between heroism and sainthood. There’s another great juxtaposition between being made evil and being primed for evil (we’re leaving the moral/philosophical argument about the notion of evil out of this since this book is set in a highly religious landscape and has a lot of biblical references). This book is no Hobbes v. Rousseau treatise: Everyone in this book is uniquely gray in their own way. It’s how they have dealt with their personal demons, how they have lived their life in the orphanage, how they have helped the other orphans, and how they handle the demonic infestation that endangers them all that helps to shine a light on their true natures.
Don’t think the adults are exempt from this same judgment. They have to face the same God, after all.
I was absolutely thrilled by the evil children, because I loves me some evil children. Especially if demons are involved. There’s a good deal of blood, guts, decay, and gore, so that makes me a happy horror fan. The fight scenes are violent and bloody and I’m here for it. It’s super violent and there’s a ton of death. It has an almost cinematic vibe to it, which absolutely thrilled me.
I don’t issue a laundry list of TW/CW, but I am going to say that if you are the type of person to have triggers involving kids, animals, or religion, then I think you might wanna stay away or look for a comprehensive trigger list online.
Otherwise, let the blood fly!
I was provided a copy of this title by NetGalley and the author. All thoughts, opinions, ideas, and views expressed herein are mine and mine alone. Thank you.
File Under: 5 Star Review/Gothic Fiction/Historical Fiction/Horror/Occult Fiction/Occult Horror ...more
I absolutely adore stories that read as both horrific and beautiful at the same time. Absolutely elegant prose filled with gore and terror. Colorful aI absolutely adore stories that read as both horrific and beautiful at the same time. Absolutely elegant prose filled with gore and terror. Colorful and evocative imagery juxtaposed against apathetic and dismissive dialogue. Compassionate concern wrapped in manipulation and poison. This novella is Hans Christensen Anderson, Poe, Dickinson, and Shelley tossed into a cauldron and simmered together into a black magic soup. And it is delicious.
I don’t normally give warnings. I don’t like them, because I feel it ruins the story. Especially if you’re reading dark fantasy or horror. In my opinion, you should pretty much be buckled in and ready for whatever when you open up a book in these genres. In this case, I am going to warn you this book isn’t for people who want to avoid gore or body horror. Just trust me on this.
Clocking in at around 115 pages (depending on your format), Cassandra Khaw makes efficient and effective use of every single word, using brilliant sentence and scene construction to bring this story together in the most economic, efficient, and elegant way possible. It’s not a complex story at its core: It’s two characters simply traveling together to see what’s over the next mountain. That’s generally what most stories are about, really: What’s over there? It’s a classic journey. In a full-length novel, the characters would be waylaid several times by side quests and subplots. In this novella, our two protagonists reach their first side quest and that’s where the vast majority of the story takes place.
I love that. I love that these two characters abandon their journey for what they think will just be a little while: First out of curiosity, then out of obligation, then out of vengeance, and then…Well, that would be spoiler territory.
It’s lovely and ghastly and perfect, in my opinion. Macabre, sinister, and sad. I highly recommend it.
I was provided a copy of this title by NetGalley and the author. All ideas, views, thoughts, and opinions expressed herein are mine and mine alone. Thank you.
File Under: Dark Fantasy/Horror/Mythological Fiction/Novella/Body Horror ...more
Talk about a book that grabs you by the throat right from the get, drags you right into its pages, and never lets you go. My issue? It should’ve let uTalk about a book that grabs you by the throat right from the get, drags you right into its pages, and never lets you go. My issue? It should’ve let us readers go a little earlier.
I know, I know! I’m always complaining books are too long. So sue me. Or that books have too many epilogues when just one would suffice, thank you very much. This books suffers from that rare combination I call “The Return of the King Syndrome” (for those who have seen Peter Jackson’s “LOTR: The Return of the King”): Too many chapters at the end that read like epilogues so you think this chapter must be the ending, but then there’s another chapter that makes you think the same way, but then there’s another chapter that would’ve sufficed as a perfectly good ending as well. This goes on for several chapters. I would’ve nixed all but maybe two or three of them.
But the ending? *chef’s kiss*
This book feels a little like The Village, a little like Midsommar, a little like Hannah Whitten’s Wilderwood, and there’s a touch of The Handmaid’s Tale in there too. Even as I write this list of cultish/occult/horror/ and speculative fiction influences that I felt traces of in the framework of this novel (and, for some reason, there’s an episode of Criminal Minds that involves someone running through a sunflower field to hide from an unsub, I think), I know I can’t write this list down without acknowledging the other half of this book, which involves women working the soil, spilling their blood, sweat, and tears into it to bring forth crops mostly for the menfolk to eat before they do and flowers to bring beauty to the world.
If you pay attention to the narration clearly in the very beginning of the chapter you can tell it’s the time of the Dust Bowl Migration, and the town of Bishop is established when the land there calls to one particular migrant from the eastern seaboard, who had restlessly been searching for a place to establish his own town. We don’t find out until later that the place where the town founder has picked to become Bishop, the town where the events of our book take place, is in Kansas, which suffered the most drought and agricultural damage of any state during the Dust Bowl period. It was a truly damaged land, deprived of life. It called to this restless soul searching for a place all his own, and it spoke to him. And he paid the price many times over to establish Bishop, a town that was his, and his alone.
By the time the story of our four friends starts in earnest, it’s much further into the future. Twins Whitney and Jude, angry Bo, and lost Delilah. All four live together in Deliliah’s house, since their mothers collectively disappeared one day two years ago and haven’t been seen since. Was it murder? Did they just decide to leave their daughters and run away? No one knows. But the answers to what happened that day have haunted all four girls every moment since, and they still long for closure. For answers. Each of them have their own theories and opinions they don’t tend to share with the others. All four of them have secrets, some of them painful. And all four of them know something is wrong with the town of Bishop, but none of them are able to put their finger on it.
Andrea Hannah writes in her acknowledgements, “This is the first book I’ve written in a long time that feels like me.” Well, I applaud you, Ms. Hannah, for getting your literary groove back, because the juxtaposition between these large flowers blooming in the sunshine and yet knowing somehow that becoming sunflowers would both give the men reason to not cut them down but also would give the women of Bishop some protection if they needed it with their sheer height was a stroke of genius. You gave the men the wind and the earth, but you gave the women the flowers and the water. Necessity is the mother of invention, and the dead women of Bishop used what was once theirs to invent a way to fight against the patriarchy that ruled their town until the day would come when the town could be freed.
There’s not a lot of world building to do in this book, and there’s not a magic system, per se. This book is almost entirely driven by the characters and their emotions. I’d actually wager this book would be nothing without emotion. They flow, fly, simmer, and rage through every character, sometimes to the point where it almost feels palpable. I love a book where I can almost taste a character’s feelings in my mouth, like the saltiness of tears or the sourness of disappointment. Keeping this book small in geographic scope fit Ms. Hannah’s writing style so well I kind-of hope she doesn’t stray to anything in the epic/high fantasy genre, where characters are far-flung around another world, where time will be taken away from intense and passionate characters.
This book could’ve been rated 5 stars, if it weren’t for the awkward and stuttered denouement.
I was provided a copy of this book by NetGalley and the author. All thoughts, views, and opinions contained therein are mine and mine alone and are given of my free will. Thank you.
I knew where this book was heading, but boy was the journey a hard and uneasy one. Let me put it this way: I don’t let other people drive when it comeI knew where this book was heading, but boy was the journey a hard and uneasy one. Let me put it this way: I don’t let other people drive when it comes to curvy mountain roads or bad conditions. I need to be in control of the car or else I feel completely wracked with nerves and jumpy the entire time, bracing myself to leap into action at any time and the words, “Pull over and let me drive before you crash the car,” on the tip of my tongue for the entire drive. That’s the kind of feeling I had the entire time I was reading Graveyard for Lost Children: I felt like I was watching a train wreck happening right in front of me and I just wished I could reach inside the pages and take control of the situation before it got to where I knew it was going.
Part of this comes from me strongly identifying with the book’s protagonist, Olivia. Like Olivia, I wasn’t quite ready to be a mom when I had my first child, but I was pressured into going through with the birth. Don’t get me wrong–I don’t regret it one bit. I love my older kid more than anything in the world and never experienced the type of mental issues Olivia did regarding childbirth. But when it came to my second child, who was planned (unlike the first), I was pressured into breastfeeding, had a ton of issues surrounding the matter, and felt everything from shame to rage toward everyone in my life, including my baby and myself. While it wasn’t postpartum depression or psychosis (I am bipolar and wasn’t properly diagnosed at the time, so that certainly could’ve played a part into my state of mine back then), I spent that first year of my second (and last) child’s life resenting every time I had to feed him, put lanolin ointment on myself, soaked through the pads I placed in my nursing bra, or times I had to stay home because he couldn’t go more than an hour or two without feeding.
What I appreciated about this book was how author Katrina Monroe used the themes of parental abandonment and the way mothers tend to feel a loss of self-identity when their children are born to bring the elements of gothic fiction to life in this novel, both with Olivia stuck at home with her daughter Flora and with Shannon as she writes her “memoirs” down in her journal while imprisoned at a psychiatric institution for her daughter once she gets her back. Both are stuck within walls, feeling trapped there by people who are supposed to love them while they wither away to nothing. I found it to be a brilliant way to approach a gothic theme and I related so much to it.
In general, the feelings of shame surrounding motherhood are pretty universal. Almost every new mom questions whether or not they’re going to be a good mom. They question it before they get pregnant. They question it during pregnancy, and they doubt themselves constantly in the early days. The bad news? It never goes away. Sure, it calms down some over the years, but my kids are 20 and 22 and I still wonder if I did right by them and if I’m a good mom. I have a feeling I’ll be wondering that same thing on my deathbed. Katrina Monroe takes these near-universal feelings of shame and doubt and crossbreeds them with the mythology of the changeling, a story present in many cultures wherein a human baby is stolen by supernatural or demonic entities and a substitute baby is placed into the parent’s care instead. Depending on the culture, the changeling serves a different purpose and most of the time that purpose isn’t benevolent. In this book, the changeling mythology serves to exacerbate both Olivia and Shannon’s shame and doubt surrounding whether or not they are good mothers, or deserve to be mothers at all.
I don’t know how people who aren’t parents or mothers will feel about this book or how it will resonate with them. I only know how it resonated with me. It was creepy. It made me uneasy. I had to put it down a few times and go hug my kids. I needed to go for a short drive to get some air. It brought up some long-repressed feelings regarding those early days of being a mom. It also made me feel sad for those mothers who don’t have a support system and feel too ashamed to ask for help.
I have to admit the first half of the book was a better read to me than the latter half, but I can admit that others may not read it the same way I did. It doesn’t matter in the long run because it’s a terrific book. Just maybe don’t read it in the middle of the night while rocking your kid to sleep.
I was provided a copy of this title by NetGalley and the author. All thoughts, opinions, views, and ideas expressed herein are mine and mine alone. Thank you.
Any of you ever have that conservative and overly staid relative who’s covertly racist that you really wish you didn’t have to spend time with? When tAny of you ever have that conservative and overly staid relative who’s covertly racist that you really wish you didn’t have to spend time with? When they pass away, you’re relieved in that guilty sort of way, but what’s done is done, right? Right?
Well, what if there’s a creeping sense they aren’t entirely gone? Not like they’re a ghost, but more like their very spirit lives and breathes in the very bones of the house they lived in? What if your own mom is deliberately and obviously acting over the top, performing like your dead grandmother is still around, watch her every movement?
And then try to reconcile the creepy, weird, and downright WTF incidents that are happening in the house that once belonged to your mean and old-fashioned grandmother with your empirical science-trained brain. Surely there has to be a rational explanation for what’s going on. Surely there has to be a thesis that can be proven by scientific method for the events going around you. Things like this don’t just happen without some sort of explanation.
And then you do some research, and there are possible explanations, but the explanations you find just don’t jive with your academic brain. Square block, round hole. All of a sudden, both nothing and everything seem to make sense at the same time, and you don’t know which way is up.
A House with Good Bones is a solid ghost story, horror tale, and paranormal fantasy (heavier on the paranormal than the fantasy) held together with a solid line of suspense and a decent dose of occultism (and I do mean a decent dose that leads to some seriously creepy stuff that leads to some of the best scenes in the book). The suspense is a mix of paranoia, the reliving of childhood fears and traumas, sleep paralysis and nightmares, and digging into family secrets that result in answers that would make anyone creeped out if it were their family.
This book is also a decent study in the dichotomies of familial generations. An old-fashioned grandmother who lived her life like it was a 1950s TV show (just throw in some magic, racism, and child abuse and you’re golden), compared with her granddaughter, who lives a completely different life and loves it: doesn’t want kids, doesn’t think she ever wants to get married, is devoted to her career in academia, doesn’t care if she’s fat, loves insects more than most people, and would gladly spend all day in the dirt if she could. These are two women who are related and are unlikely to ever get along for any reason at all. They never got along even when her grandmother was alive. It’s specifically knowing what would anger her grandmother the most that gives our protagonist ways to distract, redirect, and upset the spirit of her grandmother, much like a teenager would use the same knowledge to deliberately hurt their parents.
I often have mixed feelings about Kingfisher’s books, and this book is no exception. The first half drags quite a bit. The second half is awesome and a horror-fueled nightmare, but the first half is just a touch slow, in my opinion. I did enjoy the read though, so I wouldn’t count it out.
I was provided a copy of this title by NetGalley and the author. All views, thoughts, opinions, and ideas expressed herein are mine and mine alone. Thank you.
“The Nightmare Man” starts out kind of rough and maybe even a little slow, but once this story plugs in and shakes off the shaky beginning, it becomes“The Nightmare Man” starts out kind of rough and maybe even a little slow, but once this story plugs in and shakes off the shaky beginning, it becomes a really fantastic horror novel. Let me tell you, I was absolutely ecstatic, because I’ve read a ton of novels claiming to be horror novels in the past 18 months or so that other people have sworn would give me the shivers and I’ve been like, “Meh”. “The Nightmare Man”, however, is the only one so far to actually give me some genuine creepy, psychotic vibes. Markert assumed his new nom de plume specifically to write horror and made this novel his debut under that new name, and I honestly think it’s a whizz bang of a horror debut, because while I wasn’t scared (I don’t get scared by horror books or movies, I just happen to be a big fan of the genre in general), I was so… happy! Excited! I was downright giggly at the scenes, imagery, and plot points that would likely horrify others–but for someone like me I was clapping like this was a terrific horror show put on just for me.
Like I pointed out, the first act of the book does suffer from some pacing and plotting issues. It could’ve used some more time in editing, is my opinion, just because it feels like Markert maybe had the second and third acts of this book set in his head and he knew where he wanted this book to go and how he wanted this book to end… but then had to come up with a way to get there, so a first act had to be crafted to set it all up. As a result, a large chunk of the first act feels disconnected from the rest of the book, in my opinion. I was bored with that section enough I kept falling asleep and hoped beyond hope the book would get better.
Luckily, it did. There were some great plot twists and character turns, as well as deeply held secrets revealed at exactly the right times for the right reasons. Some of the weirder, more paranormal/metaphysical events that happen are genuinely creepy, deliciously violent, deeply sinister, and at one point it’s all just absolute bedlam.
I loved the various ways Markert worked in various myths, folktales, and fairy tales involving sleep, dreams, and death. I thought these holistic and non-scientific points were a great juxtaposition to the psychiatric legacy of the Bookman family.
It was a fantastic read for a dark, cloudy, rainy day.
NetGalley and Crooked Lane Books provided me with access to this title. All thoughts and opinions expressed are my own. Thank you.
This book has a whole lot of promise, but never has a chance to deliver, which is a shame because I would have loved to have seen all the potential inThis book has a whole lot of promise, but never has a chance to deliver, which is a shame because I would have loved to have seen all the potential inside the pages come to fruition.
My grandma, when she first met the man who would become my husband, said, “This one’s still too green,” meaning that he wasn’t quite finished ripening yet. Hadn’t quite grown all the way up yet. She was right. That’s how I feel about this book. It has the feeling of not quite being done. It still needs some time in the oven.
The reason I say this is because there’s just so much going on in this book: non-linear timelines, shifting POVs, shifting of characters at the wheel, shifting of POVs within the same character’s section, and more. And yet, this book has very uneven pacing and I have a feeling that which character you like reading about most will be different for different readers (I liked reading Chloe’s POV the most, but someone else might like reading Kate the most). Usually, uneven pacing is a sign the book is either too long or that it’s too busy giving attention to some sections while not giving enough attention to others. Either way, it’s an editing issue.
While the story itself is compelling, the way it’s told is not. I just couldn’t sink myself into it like I have other ghost stories and horror tales that have been released this year. It just wasn’t my cup of tea.
Thanks to NetGalley and Random House for granting me access to this title. Due to the 3 star or lower rating this review will not appear on social media or bookseller websites. ...more
The very first thing I need to tell you guys is that this book is a whole lotta fun. The second thing I need to tell you? I have a very screwed up scaThe very first thing I need to tell you guys is that this book is a whole lotta fun. The second thing I need to tell you? I have a very screwed up scary-o-meter, so I can’t tell you if you’re going to be freaked out or scared when you read it, because I don’t get freaked or scared while reading books. I’m not one of those people who get the chills or goosebumps while reading scary books or can;t read them at night. I actually stayed up until after midnight to finish this book and then slept like a baby. The only time I get chills or goosebumps when reading a book is when reading a book with prose so beautiful it feels like I’m reading something bigger and beyond my understanding. This is my way of telling you, before you might even open this book, that you might get freaked out or need to sleep with the lights on afterwards, but I won’t be able to tell you that. I just know I had one heck of a fun time reading this occult horror cum dark fantasy cum philosophical treatise on monsters, despite the issues I ended up having with the book.
I’m not going to synopsize the book for you. The approved marketing blurb actually does a pretty decent job of it, for once. It hits the major plot points without spoiling anything major. This is one book you’ll be extremely grateful to approach with only the major and mostly non-occult plot points in your mind, because it’s so delightful to let the plot unfold page by page as page as you read. But…the book does start just a little slow. I know you need a little build-up in books like this, but about 10% of the first act of the book reads as simply morose, petty, and a bit pathetic on the part of our protagonist, and I tend to dislike that look on anyone.
Truthfully, I never really grew to truly like any of the characters in this book, except for the house. And make no mistake: Malice House is as much a main character in this book as Haven or Kylie or anyone else. Now, don’t get me wrong: I love myself a morally grey character, but I like them to have goals, motivations, and intentions. I’d write you a whole huge paragraph about Haven and her characterization, but there be spoilers, and I’m not one to violate that eternal law of pop culture.
Another issue I have with the book is a plot twist that happens late in the book that I felt was wholly unnecessary and I truly don’t know why the author threw in. For added drama? For sentimentality? For some kind of sense of redemption or purpose for Haven? To have some motivation for Haven? I have no clue. Whatever Shepherd’s intentions, I was really disappointed because that twist was totally out of tune with the entire rest of the book and it almost felt like an afterthought compared with the elegant darkness and gothic solitude the rest of the book had been composed of.
Megan Shepherd does have a lovely gift for prose, especially when the prose leans toward the fantastical, philosophical, metaphysical, and dark. Her descriptions of Malice House, the town of Lundie Bay, and the perpetual soggy atmosphere of the Pacific Northwest, are vivid enough they stick with you. I can’t stop thinking of one passage where she describes Malice House as being clear and distinct enough above the fog that everything and everyone else around it looks like “walking dreams”. That’s a vision I can understand from living in a valley with tule fog: when the fog gets thick like pea soup, everyone and everything more than ten feet from your face looks like they’re shrouded in some sort of soft focus mist or shroud; like they’re something from a dreamscape.
Like I said, the book is a lot of fun, even if it is uneven in some places. For the outstanding prose you have some dialogue issues. For the outstanding themes you have some characterization issues. You can see where I’m going with this. Overall, I still count it as a fun and worthy read for the fall or for whenever you’re craving a story about who are the monsters and who creates them.
Thanks to NetGalley and Hyperion Avenue for granting me access to this title in exchange for a fair and honest review.
This book was everything I hoped it would be and more. I expected dark satire/horror comedy about wine moms and the … It all started with a she shed.
This book was everything I hoped it would be and more. I expected dark satire/horror comedy about wine moms and the absolute hell it is living in suburbia (AKA, “where dreams go to die”), and this book delivered that with a sly edge of pop culture indulgence and social commentary on how lonely motherhood can be, how much work moms do without any recognition or gratitude from their spouses, and how living in suburbia means you also have a certain outside appearance that must be maintained in both your house (mandated by your HOA) and your neighbors (because lord forbid you not be the only mom on the block not wearing the latest trend in atheleisure).
The book is extremely entertaining and definitely a page turner. Do I feel like it’s a book with wide appeal? No. This book is definitely a niche market book. It’s not going to resonate the same with everyone simply due to the main themes of motherhood and female friendship. But as that one mom that was always the odd one out on every block I’ve lived on because I could care less for what everyone else was wearing or what the latest food trends this book definitely feel into my pop-culture and horror infused soul and mixed with my morbid humor loving heart.
The cons would be that Kilmer does tend to beat some points over the head and some things do feel a bit too on the nose. The book could have also used a bit more tightening up, though it’s not too loose in the pacing. I did have some questions that could qualify as plot holes, but I don’t know if that’s just me being overly analytical or not.
Overall, it’s a fantastically dark and whimsical book that takes the idea of suburban hell and notches it to 11. It’s one hell of a time.
Thanks to NetGalley and G. P. Putnam’s Sons for granting me access to this title. ...more
While not as complex and layered in themes as her recent works like this year’s “Sundial”, Catriona Ward’s “Little Eve” is still an impeccably writtenWhile not as complex and layered in themes as her recent works like this year’s “Sundial”, Catriona Ward’s “Little Eve” is still an impeccably written gothic horror tale set in the early half of the 20th century in Scotland, involving a prophet-like “Uncle” and the cadre of girls, young ladies, and one boy who have somehow come to live with him by one reason or another and are bound by his beliefs and words about how they came from the sea, are for the sea, and that the world will end when a great serpent encircles the earth.
Catriona Ward knows how to cast a spell with her words and sentences: her writing could almost be mistaken for a cantrip with how the time passes so effortlessly as you read her books. Reading Catriona Ward is never a chore, for she knows the economy of words and the magic that comes from imparting just the right amount of information at the right time and leaving some more information for later. You have to leave them always wanting more, and she knows that. Like someone who’s been starved, you can’t just feed them a feast or they will get sick. You give them a little bit of what they need at a time until it’s okay for them to have more. That’s what good horror and good suspense is supposed to be like. That’s what good editing is like. A steady line that never slacks off or sways. You are fed a steady diet of horror, exposition, characterization, imagery, inner thoughts, side characters, and a bite of subplot here and there as you turn page after page after page.
The theme, while relatively simple and classic, is turned sinister and poisonous by its origin: competing for a father figure’s affections. Longing to appease the parental figure in your life and coming to realize that parental figure is human and fallible. While “Sundial” also deals with themes of family, “Little Eve” deals with it in a twisted and stained manner, with the word and notion that these people are “family” banned by their “Uncle” as if he can truly dispel the ties and bonds that come to form between people kept together in seclusion for so long together in an isolated castle by the sea.
The characters are complex, traumatized, and have that inherent vulnerability that emits from those who you know are inevitably damned, whether they live or die at the end. The plot arc is rich and satisfying, even if some of the great turn was easily guessed. Nonetheless, even a Catriona Ward book that loses one star is still well worth reading.
Thanks to NetGalley and Tor Nightfire for granting me access to this title.
Talk about hopes dashed and a disappointing read. I don’t think I’ve been so surprised that a book I’ve been looking forward to could fall so far fromTalk about hopes dashed and a disappointing read. I don’t think I’ve been so surprised that a book I’ve been looking forward to could fall so far from even the average mark… ever? Yeah. Possibly ever.
Grant Morrison writes a novel with a drag queen protagonist who takes on a protege and passes on her myriad secrets played against the background of rehearsals for a pantomime in Glasgow (which does have a very large drag scene in real life). Sounds absolutely spectacular, but my issue isn’t the plot: it’s everything else about this book that’s the problem.
As I was reading this book, I got the feeling this book thinks it’s precious. Precocious even. It’s not. Told to the readers like we’re sitting there with her as if friends or confidantes by the protagonist, drag queen Luci LaBang, she is narrator, stand-in impressionist for all other characters, her own judge and jury for all actions taken during the tale she’s weaving for us, and both her own comic relief and foil. As is the tradition of novels told entirely in first person when drugs, alcohol, and crime are involved, she’s terribly narcissistic and undeniably unreliable. Yet Luci expects we will hang on to her every word, every sentence, and every god-awful tangent she runs off on. To be honest? This book is utterly exhausting.
Why explain in one sentence what you could explain in three pages? Why stick to a simple explanation when you could spend a whole chapter in sloppy exposition? And for pete’s sake, do you have to fill every sentence with words that most readers will need to look up in the OED?
This book is vulgar in places (which I loved), but also offensive in the wrong way in other places. I don’t know if that’s just me, being American and fond of binge-watching RuPaul’s Drag Race, but I just didn’t have the time to put up with this book and its supposed meta self-awareness and nihilistic outlook. It gets a no from me.
Thanks to NetGalley and Ballantine for the opportunity to review this title. Owing to the 3 star or lower rating, this review will not appear on any social media or bookseller website. ...more
I don’t normally like to review books that are in any way related to the holidays, because I don’t even like to read them, but Tordotcom was kind enouI don’t normally like to review books that are in any way related to the holidays, because I don’t even like to read them, but Tordotcom was kind enough to invite me to read this title and I gave it a shot because it was a horror novella, and I am quite a fan of those.
I’ve read so many excellent horror novellas. The horror genre is ripe with novellas and short stories. This novella, while slightly entertaining, is neither original nor special. It’s interesting and diverting enough to read, but I don’t think it was interesting or diverting enough to warrant its own wide release. Worse yet, it was rather predictable (or really predictable, depending on what kind of reader you are).
The prose was solid, but the characters were lackluster. The story was intriguing, but the execution was not. The whole thing is just a bit of fun, but not a whole lot of substance.
Thanks to NetGalley and Tordotcom for inviting me to view this title early for review. Due to the 3 star or lower rating this review will not appear in social media or on bookseller websites. ...more
I honestly don’t know what this book was trying to be, but to me it came across as a thriller/horror grab bag, complete with metaphors, tropes, easterI honestly don’t know what this book was trying to be, but to me it came across as a thriller/horror grab bag, complete with metaphors, tropes, easter eggs, and some stuff that was probably meant to come across as wink wink nudge nudge to lifelong horror fans such as myself but that ended up just kind of falling just sort of flat.
The whole book, frankly, was a clumsy endeavor.
We’ve got a sprinkling of Stephen King and the town of Derry in Malerman’s fictional town of Samhattan, where there’s a mystical sort of mass hypnosis where no one remembers certain events or a certain name until it’s mysteriously brought to the town consciousness once again; and even then, only the adolescents are the ones who can hold onto the name of the evil entity at all times.
We’ve got sports superstitions mixed in with urban legend superstitions. The basketball rim stands in for a magic 8 ball and if you think about HER she will come get you.
But if someone tells you not to think of pink elephants, what do you think of?
We’ve got a FMC named Kitty “Kit” Lamb, which is the very first thing that I noticed about this book that was downright metaphorical when it comes to horror novels and final girls and cliches. Kitty, being a little cat. Kit, being a baby fox. Lamb, not only being a baby sheep but also known in everything from religion to film as being an object of sacrifice. I knew before two pages into the book had been read she would be the final girl, because with that name how could she not be?
Still, this book couldn’t decide whether it was a thriller, a slasher horror, a supernatural horror, a treatise on metaphysical fear becoming manifest, or simply a tale of hysterical teens and a whole town in the midst of mass hysteria.
I just really wish it could’ve been more structured and the plot had been framed better. I wish there hadn’t been so many characters and so much racing around trying the most ineffective things possible. There were numerous errors made regarding medical examination of dead bodies that made me roll my eyes, and I would think a horror writer would think to smooth such bits out early on in the writing process, considering how well-versed even teenagers are in forensics these days.
So while the book is not unenjoyable, per se, it isn’t remarkable at all.
Thanks to NetGalley, Random House Publishing Group, Ballantine, and Del Rey for granting me early access to this book. Due to personal policy this review will not appear on social media or bookseller websites owing to the 3 stars or lower rating. ...more
I gotta be honest with you: I didn’t expect to like this book as much as I did, and I definitely didn’t expect it to be as freaky as it was. Maybe it’I gotta be honest with you: I didn’t expect to like this book as much as I did, and I definitely didn’t expect it to be as freaky as it was. Maybe it’s because all the books people swear are scary aren’t scary to me or because I just have a very skewed perspective on the word “scary”, but this book is a trip and a half. It’s poetic, sad, angry, neurotic, tragic, disorienting, darkly romantic, fanciful (but not overly so), and deeply steeped in the darkest of fairy tales and American folklore. I guarantee you’ll spend most of this book wondering what the heck is truly going on, and that feeling only grows as the book goes on. In the end, you have to make a choice as to what you think really happened, and I don’t think there’s a wrong answer.
I’ll be frank with you in that there is a lot of homophobic language and behavior in this book, along with a lot of internalized homophobia. This appears both literally and metaphorically. If this behavior and the language surrounding it is a huge trigger for you, then be very aware that you will come across it multiple times in this book.
I found this book to be charming, in a way. Sounds unusual, I know, for a horror novel to be somewhat charming, but it sometimes was, with its bursts of Great Gatsby-like dialogue, small talk about mythology, ruminations on the original versions of fairy tales versus what Disney made of them, and shudder-inducing mentions of creatures from American folklore and Native American mythology that give even me the heebie-jeebees. It’s the kind of horror mixed with wonder that always makes me smile because it’s simultaneously exciting and terrifying all at once.
I will admit the story arc could be more solid. It’s not quite as well-plotted as it could be, but this isn’t a plot-driven novel. It’s a character-driven novel that could have been better supported with a more stable plot, but it didn’t need it to be a terrific amount of shivery fun. It’s not all fun and games either, let me tell you. There is a great deal of anger, sadness, and tragedy in this book too. And there’s also the eternal question when it comes to a novel like this (where our protagonist can see supernatural/paranormal beings): is it all in his head or not? Maybe it could even be both?
This book is a long, sad, horrible, freakish spiral into madness and desperation propelled by events that occurred before the book began and only perpetuated and/or accelerated by the protagonist’s mind or by events that happen during the book. It’s tragic, but the tragedy is a beautiful and angry mess. Well worth the read.
Thanks to NetGalley and InkShares for granting me access to this title in exchange for a fair and honest review.
What’s unfortunate is this book had a lot of great potential but not enough follow-through, and what was turned out is sometReal Rating: 2.5 / 5 Stars
What’s unfortunate is this book had a lot of great potential but not enough follow-through, and what was turned out is something lesser than it should have been ruined by a deus ex machina way to resolve the plot.
There was something about this book and its weird, dimension-colliding, apocalyptic plot I kept hoping would amp me up and draw me in as I kept reading. I kept hoping to fall in love with the characters, or to be horrified by the descriptions and imagery the author was trying to paint with words across the page, but somehow the words never came close to inspiring the horror they aspired to.
It’s like the book was, in a way, not baked well enough. It just wasn’t done in a way you expect a finished and polished horror novel to be.
Thanks to NetGalley, Macmillan-Tor/Forge, and Tor Nightfire for early access to this book in exchange for a fair and honest review. Due to personal policy, this review will not be posted on social media or on bookseller websites owing to the 3 star or lower rating. ...more
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