This certainly has been a year for horror books about horror films!
How to Make a Horror Movie and Survive is author Craig DiLouie’s second foray in aThis certainly has been a year for horror books about horror films!
How to Make a Horror Movie and Survive is author Craig DiLouie’s second foray in a row with writing Hollywood horror into an unsettling novel (Episode Thirteen is about a paranormal reality show). The blurb calls it darkly humorous, and it has its moments. The tagline for the book is, “Horror isn’t horror unless it’s real”. Make of that what you will.
The first 25% of this book was very wobbly for me. While I was invested in the story and intrigued by the characters, it felt like the pacing was off and like the tone of the novel wasn’t quite tuned. When the book found its footing I was very satisfied with everything about it until the last 20% of the book. Then it started to crumble again a bit for me and then limped a bit to the finish. I want to be clear: At no time did I stop reading this book. At no time did I think about DNFing. I was invested the whole time and felt compelled to finish. It’s a total page-turner. I just didn’t find the book as a whole to be completely solid. I think the issue may have been that the book was probably too long.
What I loved about this book was the sheer love of horror movies it showed as a whole. From quotes by famous movie directors to film references to on-page deaths that would be at home in a “Final Destination” movie, this book shows a deep and abiding respect for the horror genre, even for what came after the time period after this book is set in.
Craig DiLouie is a fantastic horror author and his books are always a great read. This one may not be 100% solid, but I still recommend 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.
This Skin Was Once Mine and Other Disturbances (to be referred to as TSWOM from here on out in this review) is a set of four short stories centered arThis Skin Was Once Mine and Other Disturbances (to be referred to as TSWOM from here on out in this review) is a set of four short stories centered around toxic and/or abusive relationships of different types, the ways in which such humans can harm one another, and the ways people develop coping mechanisms and/or certain obsessions in order to deal with the trauma and pain they’ve gone through.
LaRocca gives a clear warning that there are a couple of significant triggers in a letter at the beginning of the book, but if you’re the sensitive sort I suggest maybe trying to find a more comprehensive list of triggers and content online before you read.
This is a great short story collection, with imaginative and truly creepy tales. LaRocca manages to write truly beautiful horror prose, making things vile and wretched somehow sound almost poetic in their horrid tragedy.
I give kudos to the titular short story, “This Skin Was Once Mine”, for being one of the creepiest stories I’ve ever read. It’s not about the story’s topic or content, either. It’s all about the protagonist’s obsession and coping mechanisms. And the snakes. Yeah, there’s a warning for you: danger noodles all up in this story.
I’d also like to point right to “Seedling” for being one of the most touching, emotional, and beautiful horror stories I’ve ever read while still managing to be gross and freaky.
The last story in the collection, “Prickle”, is just plain creepy-weird and all I could keep thinking about is the word “cruelty”.
The low point in the book for me was the story “All the Parts of You That Won’t Easily Burn”, which was a great story, but I didn’t totally understand the dynamic or the motivations in it.
I truly do recommend reading it if you’re a horror fan. It’s great and the stories are so lovely.
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.
We Used To Live Here is very hard to describe because it’s a patchwork of influences and genres that ends up making a fast-paced and completely intrigWe Used To Live Here is very hard to describe because it’s a patchwork of influences and genres that ends up making a fast-paced and completely intriguing quilt of vibes that ends up being a terrifying and entertaining read. It’s part House of Leaves (but not quite as gonzo), part Backrooms (but not as desolate), part “Parasite” (like the blurb says, but make it even creepier), and add some gothic sprinkles on top for extra atmosphere.
(If you don’t know what Backrooms are, just look it up on Wiki. Seriously intriguing Creepypasta stuff).
What do you end up with? A book that managed to freak me all the way out (few books do that) and kept me completely engaged all the way from start to finish. I can completely see why this is being made into a film because it’ll make a great one.
It’s not perfect. I felt there were a couple of plot holes and I wasn’t completely satisfied with the ending, but I could live with the ending as it is. I loved the LGBTQ couple versus the traditional couple aspect and I wish that theme had been explored more, but not exploring it didn’t detract from my enjoyment of the book as a whole.
It’s a freaky fun time and I think if you want your brain bent for about 320 pages, this is the book you want right now.
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.
The Query brothers love layers: Layers of meaning to their book titles, to names, to themes, to characters, and more. Maybe that’s Harrinson’s influenThe Query brothers love layers: Layers of meaning to their book titles, to names, to themes, to characters, and more. Maybe that’s Harrinson’s influence from being a screenplay writer? Who knows. All I know is that the layered meanings in their books is one reason why I absolutely love a Query brothers book. The other reason comes down entirely to the influence of Matt Query on the plot, worldbuilding, and writing: His depth and breadth of knowledge concerning wilderness and nature makes these books not only breathtakingly imagined, but wholly realistic in their scale and terror. When I was reading this book I absolutely knew I wasn’t reading an exaggeration of how dangerous or beautiful the Northern Rockies are, because I bet Matt Query backpacked those mountains before he and Harrison wrote this book (heck, they both might have).
A huge theme in this book is how adults not acting as they should, caring for the children in their communities and fostering their talents, leads to them having to scramble to make their own way in the world and run wild. That’s how our main character, Ben, gets sent to wilderness reform camp for the summer. It’s there where he finds adults are the same everywhere: they’re not truly invested in what’s best for the kids. They’re invested in what’s in it for them. So Ben has no choice but to make his own way and hopefully save a few other souls while he can.
I was really invested in the plot of this book and I actually love the Query way of slow-burn horror. The horror of it all is always made clear pretty early on–it’s just the intensity of the horror that keeps ratcheting up, and it gets so much worse as time goes on. The main issue I had with this book was the narrative style. It was a little too clunky for me, sometimes abruptly switching from third-person omniscient to third-person limited to head jumping. I still highly recommend it, but just be aware of the narrative.
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: Coming of Age/Horror/Supernatural Horror ...more
Cuckoo is one of those books that makes me wish I had: a) Worked out how to actually build my website that I paid for so I could write a long essay abCuckoo is one of those books that makes me wish I had: a) Worked out how to actually build my website that I paid for so I could write a long essay about this book and all its themes and other stuff; or, b) Wish I still wrote really long book reviews that I then had to slice and dice in order to fit them into my social media spaces. In my opinion it’s really that good, that captivating, and that intelligent.
It’s giving me Stephen King’s IT, but make the protagonists all queer in one way or another. It’s giving me “Invasion of the Body Snatchers”, but make it body horror to the extreme. It’s giving me cosmic horror, but putting it in the form of brood parasitism (which is a real behavior of cuckoo birds, leading to the metaphor “cuckoo’s egg”).
Why do I love this book other than it’s a queer conversion camp cosmic horror? It comes down to Felker-Martin’s writing, really. Her writing seems to come at you from all sides, all at once, with no quarter given. It’s a full-on assault to your brain in the best way: brutal, gory, inelegant, raw, terrifying, visceral, sensual, erotic, emotional, romantic, heartbreaking, nauseating, and more. When I was reading this book it sometimes felt like I was on an emotional and reactional ride, being carried away with the words on the page almost without consent (but it’s not like I’d have fought the tide anyway).
This was just a terrific read I know I’m going to be recommending forever.
(Be sure to check your TW/CWs thoroughly before reading if you think you’ll need to.)
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: 5 Star Review/Cosmic Horror/Horror/LGBTQ Horror/OwnVoices ...more
This book is creepy as heck. This book is also freaking fantastic.
I had a bad experience with my last Malerman book, which was Daphne. I didn’t like This book is creepy as heck. This book is also freaking fantastic.
I had a bad experience with my last Malerman book, which was Daphne. I didn’t like it at all. I ended up DNF-ing it. I ended up wanting to read this one mostly because I couldn’t stop thinking about the cover. It’s a brilliant cover that evokes these feelings of childhood, innocence, being so small around large things, being defenseless against the dark, abandonment, and of feeling isolated. I just couldn’t get it out of my head: “What is that book about?”
Well, the cover does a good job of conveying a lot of what the book’s themes are, actually (so A+ to the cover designer!). I never had a closet growing up, so I don’t know what it’s like to fear the monster in the closet, but Malerman could’ve made the “monster in the closet” any number of things and gotten the message across because the monster is just a very large metaphor (for lack of a better word right now) for the culmination of just about everything that’s happened to everyone in this book. (If I went any further it’d be Spoiler City and I don’t want to live there).
When I tell you this book is fantastic, I’m telling you I think this is the best horror novel I’ve read so far this year, and that’s saying something because it’s really been a great year for horror already. Not only does it fall outside the traditional narrative structure, which sets it apart in a unique but not-annoying way, but it’s told from the POV of a child that comes across as genuinely lost, frightened, and never comes across as precocious. A lot of the horror in this novel felt like it was being generated directly from how sad and helpless this child felt. How cruel it all felt.
It’s set at a great pace, is unbelievably suspenseful and unpredictable, and honestly left me a bit shook. I can’t recommend it enough.
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: 5 Star Review/Ghost Fiction/Horror/Paranormal Horror/Suspense Thriller...more
This is my first Paul Tremblay book, mostly due to the fact I’d been turned down for the Tremblay ARCs I’d requested in the past. I was so happy when This is my first Paul Tremblay book, mostly due to the fact I’d been turned down for the Tremblay ARCs I’d requested in the past. I was so happy when I was granted access to this one, though, because the summary had me reeling. “Cursed film” genre is one of my favorites: As a Gen-Xer the “Poltergeist Curse” and the “Exorcist Curse” were writ large in my brain from my adolescent years.
Horror Movie exceeded expectations. I’ve been wary of thriller and horror novels as of late because they just haven’t been hitting like I’d hoped they would, but this? This slaps. It filled me with nostalgia for those “lost films” of urban lore but also filled my curiosity for today’s Creepy Pasta stories of occult rituals, creature origin stories, and even cryptid lore.
From the start, I was engaged and felt compelled to read and keep reading, knowing nothing was going to stop me until I reached the end of this book. Is it a little predictable? Yes. I liked that, though, because even if a horror film is predictable, part of the fun is waiting for the inevitable to come. The characters in a horror movie–or novel--all have a Sword of Damocles hanging over their heads. The horror is inevitable–it’s the timing of it that’s the variable.
Horror Movie is told in single POV from the narrator, but in the present and the past (dual timelines). There are sections in the past that are told in third person omniscient: Those are scenes from the film you’re “viewing”. This is an effective storytelling format for this book and a great way to disseminate both the exposition and the backstory without infodumping.
The whole book, without exception, is a great read: for summer, for horror, for fun, for in the dark under the covers, for by a campfire, for on the beach. Loved 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: 5 Star Review/Horror/Occult Horror ...more
Q: What was your favorite television show as a kid?
If you’re one of those people who’s ever been completely incensed when a television show has been wQ: What was your favorite television show as a kid?
If you’re one of those people who’s ever been completely incensed when a television show has been working for seasons towards putting a queer couple together only to have one (or both!) of those characters killed off or suddenly being magically straight as a plank, then you might completely identify with Misha, the protagonist of Chuck Tingle’s speculative fiction novel Bury Your Gays.
Yes, you read that correctly: speculative fiction novel. This novel is marketed as both horror and science fiction, but that’s a spectacular indicator a book is likely to end up in that nebulous category called speculative fiction. When you throw genre fiction into a blender and add a dash of, “What if we add in this variable here?”, then I consider that to be speculative fiction. I hate pigeonholing books like this further because I believe it lessens their appeal and reach. If you like body horror, over-the-top violence, poorly-veiled Hollywood references that were likely written that way on purpose, a protagonist who starts out the book righteously angry and just keeps on getting more justifiably angry, mysterious Hollywood execs who are only worried about money to an inhuman degree, Hollywood caricatures and stereotypes, coming out stories, award show shenanigans, horror villain origin stories, seeing the true damage of AI on the environment and on Hollywood manifested, and love an easter egg, then you’ll dig this.
Did I like it as much as Camp Damascus? No. I find Camp Damascus to be the better of the two novels, but that’s not down to Tingle’s talent as a writer. That’s all about my tastes as a reader. I have a harder time with books that have male protagonists just in general, and I also had expectations this book would lean further into body horror than it did. Combine that with me correctly guessing a good chunk of what happens in the back half early on and it just affected my overall enjoyment. Tingle is a really effective story plotter and has a great sense of energy, imagery, and atmosphere.
It’s a great novel and a lot of fun. You’ll enjoy getting to be as mad at Hollywood as Misha is and cheer him on as he fights to write what he wants.
TWs for: Child abuse/neglect, homophobia, hate speech, gore, very violent deaths, blood
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/Horror/LGBTQ Horror/LGBTQ Fiction/Science Fiction/Speculative Fiction
What would you do if you suddenly found yourself in the middle of a horror film?
I Was a Teenage Slasher is a campy, satirical take on the slasher genrWhat would you do if you suddenly found yourself in the middle of a horror film?
I Was a Teenage Slasher is a campy, satirical take on the slasher genre of horror novels, set in the dry and flat landscape of West Texas in 1989. This was the year that Jason took Manhattan, Michael Myers got revenge, and Freddy had a dream child. It was also the year Motley Crue visited Dr. Feelgood.
Instead of approaching the slasher story from the POV of the Final Girl, as is genre convention, IWaTS tells the story from the slasher’s POV in an autobiographical manner. This narrative structure is a great twist on the genre, but it also directly insinuates our narrator is unreliable. That’s doubly true for Tolly Driver, who shows signs early in the story of having a habit of shifting blame. There’s some great subtext in this book about whether or not Tolly becoming a slasher was because of trauma, infection, or both, which I thought was very deftly woven in, given how trauma usually does have something to do with violence in teenagers and how violence can be contagious.
The premise, campiness, satire, and interpersonal scenes in this book were all great. I also really enjoyed whenever Tully became the slasher. It was the rest of the book where I ran into a problem. The rambling and tangents definitely made sense for the structure and purpose of the story and informed some of the plot, but I was bored. I honestly kept wanting to skim those parts. Sometimes stream of consciousness works for me and sometimes it doesn’t.
The last 10% of this book was fantastic and the ending blew me away. In the end it was a very uneven read for me. I know this book has gottens fantastic review from a great deal of my mutuals, so I have a feeling this might only be me.
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. This review is rated three stars or below, so it will not be appearing on my social media. Thank you.
This book feels like some of my favorite (and scariest) episodes of Doctor Who got put into a mixing bowl with a psychological thriller and then stirrThis book feels like some of my favorite (and scariest) episodes of Doctor Who got put into a mixing bowl with a psychological thriller and then stirred until all ingredients were well-integrated. This is why I love Barnes’ writing, because as she did with Dead Silence before this, you can’t quite call this book science fiction or space horror or a psychological thriller: It’s pure speculative fiction, a genre mashup of epic proportions that’s like taking whatever she finds in the pantry of her mind and seeing if it makes a tasty treat. And it scores.
This won’t be an in-depth review because going deeper than the surface is just asking for spoilers. I am, however, going to say that if you are the type of person that typically needs TW/CWs regarding body horror/gore/mental games/SI, then you should probably try to find those online before you read this book. Take care of you.
A lot of this book revolves around themes of guilt, responsibility, and memory. How long do you hold onto guilt and trying to make up for something before it’s enough? Who is it who determines that enough has been done to absolve you? Is it even your guilt to carry? Who are you responsible for? Who should you feel responsibility for? In the end, can anyone truly be held accountable for the actions of another adult? When can we consider ourselves or others compromised? Who are we even to judge who is compromised? Who’s to say we’re not the ones compromised? And memory: It’s such a heavy thing, for better or for worse.
As usual, Barnes’ writing is delightfully creepy and evocative, and her world building is absolutely on point. The imagery is vivid and adds so much to the horrific atmosphere of a frozen planet, a (metaphorically) haunted crew, and a ghost station out in space.
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.
I love Lizzie Borden related stories usually. I’ve been low-key obsessed with Lizzie herself since I was a kid (yes, an actuReal Rating: 3.5 / 5 Stars
I love Lizzie Borden related stories usually. I’ve been low-key obsessed with Lizzie herself since I was a kid (yes, an actual kid). For the first third of this book I was actually really vibing with this book. I was even vibing with it closing in on the halfway point. Then, for me, that’s when it all started to fall apart.
I will admit, it had been nagging me from the beginning of the book that Rodriguez Wallach made the choice to spell out the accents of the native Massachusetts characters. It’s a huge pet peeve of mine when authors do that. I cringe every time because I feel it insults readers. It feels cheesy and mocking. The fact that she continued to do this for the entire book irritated me to no end and by the end of the book I was positively sick of it.
What ruined this book for me was the “love triangle”. I can’t stand love triangles in any book, but in this book it felt even more out of place and even more forced. It made our protagonist, Tessa, look weak when she could’ve been more empowered. I never like when an author puts a female in a position where she needs males to validate her or her power in order to resolve the plot.
I can’t fault the world building or creepy aesthetic this book has. Rodriguez Wallach definitely did a great job building up the established folklore and legends surrounding the Bridgewater Triangle, including the real life events and real places inside the triangle. She took what a lot of people would dismiss as urban legends and managed to twist it into an insidious plot involving white privilege, haves and have-nots, and betrayal.
If it has just been a bit more mature and had the dialogue been a bit less mocking and cheesy then this book could’ve been great. It just wasn’t quite there for me.
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.
I read the first book in this series back when I started doing this whole ARC reading/reviewing thing and it was an unexpected treat, so when I got anI read the first book in this series back when I started doing this whole ARC reading/reviewing thing and it was an unexpected treat, so when I got an invite to read and review the sequel I jumped on it right away and I’m glad I did because not only is The Devil’s Promise an even better novel than The Ghost Tracks, but Celso Hurtado has really grown as a writer in the two years since The Ghost Tracks was published and it shows.
I’m not going to explain the plot of The Ghost Tracks for those who aren’t familiar with it. You can go and look up the blurb or something. An even better suggestion is to go read it! I can’t emphasize how much you really can’t read The Devil’s Promise and understand it without reading The Ghost Tracks. You’ll be extremely lost and won’t understand Erasmo, the book’s main character, in any way unless you do that. Then come read this book. Also! I don’t know if the final, published version of this book will have TW/CWs in place, but there is a lot of material in this book worthy of such warnings, so you may want to go look them up if you’re a person who needs such warnings.
The Devil’s Promise picks up a few months after The Ghost Tracks left off. Erasmo’s grandmother is in the hospital and they don’t know if she’ll make it. He and his ex-bestie still aren’t speaking. Erasmo is trying to work as much as possible to pay hospital bills but he’s hardly making a dent as more and more come in. He’s not good. Then he gets an email reply to his Craiglist ad from a man who claims to have just realized he may have made a pact with the Devil when he was a teenager and now the payment has come due.
I don’t want to go any further with explaining the plot itself than that because of spoilers and because letting the plot unfold is one of the best things this book has to offer. It’s layered, surprising, depraved, seductive, and dark. It’s also nasty and very violent in some parts.
The Ghost Tracks had a lot to say about friendship. This book has a lot to say about family. Erasmo spends most of this book in a dazed and confused state, full of inner musings about the parents who abandoned him when he was small, the grandmother who loves him unconditionally and could quite possibly die before he becomes a legal adult, the grandfather who’s passed but looms so large in his memory, and the envy he feels constantly toward anyone and everyone who has a family and everything they want when he just feels lost, alone, and broken.
This book is marketed as YA, but it honestly shouldn’t be pigeonholed like that. Erasmo may only be 17, but he’s lived more than some adults have and has had to shoulder more responsibilities and see more things than most adults have. I think supernatural and occult horror fans would be surprised by how much they might enjoy this book.
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: Amateur Sleuth/Body Horror/Book Series/Coming of Age/Cult Horror/Horror/Occult Horror/OwnVoices/Supernatural Horror/YA Book Series/YA Fiction/YA Horror...more
Dude, I’m an atheist, but all the main characters in this book totally could learn some lessons from Proverbs: Pride goeth before destruction, And an Dude, I’m an atheist, but all the main characters in this book totally could learn some lessons from Proverbs: Pride goeth before destruction, And an haughty spirit before a fall. Better it is to be of an humble spirit with the lowly, Than to divide the spoil with the proud.
These people are greedy to the point of avarice: filled with envy, lust, pride, privilege, and ambition. They won’t listen to warnings. They won’t listen to each other. They won’t even listen to their own instincts. They trod over grounds not their own and are surprised when things go wrong. Even when they are told to go, they stay. When things go awry and it’s clear they might be in danger, bruised egos refuse to give in.
One could say they were doomed from the start.
This is my huge problem with A Haunting on the Hill, and the sole reason I can’t rate this book five stars: I hate them all. I don’t hate them in that, “I love to hate you,” way. No. I just find them all either plain annoying or they just plain disgust me and I want to throw my Kindle at them. It’s hard to fully enjoy a horror novel when you can’t really find anything redeemable about your so-called protagonists.
Other than the characters, I found everything else about this novel to be spectacular: the ambience, the plot, the pacing, the world building, and the supporting characters. The fact the book seems like it was almost written like it hopes to be adapted for the big screen someday was a touch annoying, but I’ve seen that before and it wasn’t that huge of an issue.
One of the things I enjoyed the most in this book were the murder ballad excerpts. Can we talk about these? These lovely murder ballads? I was here for every single time a ballad came up in this book. They were my favorite part of the book. Not only did they add color and character to the plot of the book, but they added so much nuance to the book as a whole. An absolutely brilliant touch!
I’d say that if you can stand the characters, you’ll adore it. If you can’t stand the characters it’s still a totally worthwhile read.
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. This review has been written freely, without any recompense. Thank you.
I’ve never been so glad to be one of those people who really only likes apples in baked goods. Really.
I’ve also never had an opportunity to flex my gI’ve never been so glad to be one of those people who really only likes apples in baked goods. Really.
I’ve also never had an opportunity to flex my geography degree in regards to Quakers, Pennsylvania, and the apple (yes, geography has a ton to do with the apple–geography has a ton to do with everything) while reading a book so much before.
This book was fabulous. Absolutely, positively, fan-flipping fantastic. Did I have moments when I thought the characters were dumb? Yes. Did I find some parts predictable? Sure. Do I care? Not one bit. This is horror on some kind of quasi-epic scale, because even though the meat of this book doesn’t take place over longer than maybe a traditional school year, the story itself is epic in scale, owing to how far back in time it truly stretches and how pervasive the horror truly is.
If you’re looking for a book that feels like autumn, this book fits the bill: Trees, rushing river, crisp air, leaves falling and gathering on the ground waiting to be blown away into large piles, apples ripe and round on their branches, flies glutting themselves on the last of the rotting summer berries, that feeling of susurration and suspension when the earth is settling down before it goes dormant for winter.
Writing about apples somehow always becomes a partially sensual and sinful endeavor. Wendig writes evocatively when people take bites out of the apples, making sure we know exactly how the juice gushes out, how it runs down their chins, their arms, sometimes further down. How it glistens and coats their skin. He writes about how exactly they take their bite, sometimes revealing their sin: an angry bite, a greedy bite, a lusty bite, etcetera. Not only are these apples cursed with the gift of a certain type of knowledge, but they are sin incarnate, revealing the hidden monsters inside all those who partake.
The characters are so explosively unique and wonderful on both sides of the story. It’s definitely never a story where you want to root for the bad guy or anything, but the antagonists in this book are more than what they seem, and the evil stretches.
I loved the ongoing themes of sin, white supremacy, misogyny, right-wing conservatism, conservation, colonialism, and fallen idols. It’s just a fantastic book and I can’t say anymore or I’ll start spoiling things. I just recommend you give it a try!
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.
I’ve never rated an anthology five stars before, because they’ve all been really hit-or-miss for me. They usually end up being either three or four stI’ve never rated an anthology five stars before, because they’ve all been really hit-or-miss for me. They usually end up being either three or four stars, because you’re always going to have some stories that just don’t hit the mark or maybe just find some stories that just read like “dud” to you. Never Whistle at Night has maybe two or three stories out of 27 that I didn’t gel with completely, but it wasn’t because they weren’t well-written; it was just because they weren’t my jam. When the stories in this collection work, they really, really work. This anthology, as a whole, is worth every page. The quality of the work done and the absolutely captivating stories collected for it speak not only to the talent of the authors, but to the editors who pulled this project together as well. It should be no surprise to anyone who knows me that I love that this is an #OwnVoices anthology as well, because no one could or should be writing these stories and profiting off of them but indigenous peoples.
I don’t want to go too deep into what each story means to me because I feel like that’s wrong, since I’m white and these stories aren’t meant for me. I do, however, want to point out the stories I liked best and maybe a few words about why I liked it.
Kushtuka by Mathilda Zeller: Stolen artifacts + objectification of Native American women = Eff around and find out.
White Hills by Rebecca Roanhorse: Eugenics!
Quantum by Nick Medina: Is the worth of being Native American found entirely in DNA?
Hunger by Phoenix Boudreau: Buffy the Vampire Slayer but with a scary possession monster inside of a frat boy.
Snakes Are Born in the Dark by D. H. Trujillo: Deface sacred artifacts and see what happens.
Heart-Shaped Clock by Kelli Jo Ford: Sad story about drug addiction in indigenous communities.
Dead Owls by Mona Susan Power: A ghost story about how there can be layers of tragedies on the same land.
The Prepper by Morgan Talty: Horribly sad story about the mistreatment of mental illness in indigenous communities.
Collections by Amber Blaeser-Wardzala: What kind of bargain would you make for a foot in the door or a leg up in your industry?
I was provided a copy of this title by NetGalley and the editors. All thoughts, opinions, views, and ideas expressed herein are mine and mine alone. Thank you.
File Under: 5 Star Review/Anthology/Horror/Short Stories/Own Voices ...more
I have a theory that being an atheist takes a lot of shock and terror out of reading religion-themes horror novels and watchReal Rating: 3.5 / 5 Stars
I have a theory that being an atheist takes a lot of shock and terror out of reading religion-themes horror novels and watching movies in the same vein. All my life I’ve never had a single issue watching horror movies or reading horror novels with religious themes because I’m an atheist. My mom is terrified of The Exorcist. Me? Not even a tiny grimace. I get more terrified of things like The Purge, because that actually feels like something that could happen.
That’s what I think happened while I was reading The House of Last Resort. If I was in any way scared of demons or interested in the concept of evil as anything else but a moral subjective then maybe this book would have rated higher for me. But I’m me, and I’m the type of person who says, “Evil is morally subjective and therefore doesn’t exist”.
The concept is definitely more high-concept than some horror novels and I actually really enjoyed it: I can’t say my kids and I haven’t seen those videos and articles online where you can move to isolated villages in France or Italy and purchase a home for x amount of dollars or even for free as long as you fulfill x amount of conditions and not thought, “That might actually be a great thing to do,” for some of the exact same reasons the characters in this book did it. I also enjoyed the general flow of the book, the dialogue, and the world-building.
In the end, it’s only me that’s got me not liking the book so much, and it’s just because we didn’t vibe well. I still say give it go if you like demons, ghosts, the evils of organized religion (especially the Catholic Church), and poorly-timed earthquakes.
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.
Fifty Beasts to Break Your Heart is a stellar collection of 13 stories (and one incredible bestiary–more on that later) from the spectacularly creativFifty Beasts to Break Your Heart is a stellar collection of 13 stories (and one incredible bestiary–more on that later) from the spectacularly creative and brilliant mind of GennaRose Nethercott, who wrote the equally spectacular novel Thistlefoot.
I don’t think I’ve read a collection by a single author where I loved so many stories to the extent I loved the stories in this one. With one exception (Fox Jaw), I ate every story in this book up with a really sharp grapefruit spoon and then licked the bowl clean.
A quick summary of my thoughts on the remaining stories:
Sundown at the Eternal Staircase - Spectacularly eerie, fascinating, and great symbolism on how some people are just heading in different directions in life.
A Diviner’s Abecedarian - Tween girls can be mean as hell when not in possession of the sight. Give them the sight and that’s just horrifying.
The Thread Boy - Poignant, emotional, and magical story about a life well-lived even though there was pain.
The War of Fog - I read in a book coming out soon that war is a place, not a time. This story reminds me of that. War is endless and eternal and you’re stuck there.
Drowning Lessons - Cynical, sad, but neat story about what it’s like to be responsible for a sibling’s well-being.
The Autumn Kill - This one is angry, visceral, and vengeful. I loved the ending.
A Lily is a Lily - This one is hard to sum up in little words. Let’s just say it’s a haunting story about what can happen when we build people up in our minds so much they take up our entire existence.
Dear Henrietta - Provocative, creepy, and downright wicked. Dude, this one is good.
Possessions - Don’t mess around with sketchy witchcraft books you find at thrift stores. This one is hard to describe but it’s beautifully written.
Homebody - Awful to read, awful to describe, awful to think about. It’s sad and tense and made me want to punch something.
A Haunted Calendar - Funny, horrific, and imaginative.
The Plums at the End of the World - This was incredible. It’s heartbreaking, evocative, and all about how people fear anything different.
My last note is on the titular “story”, Fifty Beasts to Break Your Heart. It isn’t a story so much as a bestiary and it’s the crown jewel of this collection. Complete with eerie, creep-tastic sketches, each beast is named and described with short, incredible paragraphs. They’re utterly fantastic in every way. I couldn’t get enough of them. The bestiary is practically worth the price of admission.
This collection isn’t to be missed.
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.
I’m among the few that didn’t really enjoy What Moves the Dead that much when it was released. I found it to be underwhelming when I reviewed it, but I’m among the few that didn’t really enjoy What Moves the Dead that much when it was released. I found it to be underwhelming when I reviewed it, but I like Kingfisher so much I decided to read the sequel anyway and I’m glad I did because I loved What Feasts at Night so much better than What Moves the Dead.
I think what threw me off with What Moves the Dead was the inevitable comparison with Poe’s The Fall of the House of Usher. I just couldn’t let it go and I think that may have compromised my ability to enjoy that story. With What Feasts at Night, we’re removed from the Usher household and on a new journey with Alex Easton. There’s no prior story association for me to be hung up on and so I got to enjoy this story just as it’s presented.
What I loved the most about this book was the dry witticism of Alex Easton. Alex’s voice is strong and clear and so funny to me. I laughed so many times reading this book because my sense of humor is skewed much the same way. Alex is a genuine character and one I loved reading. I could read an entire novel in Alex’s voice, but if Kingfisher wants to keep writing novellas featuring Alex Easton in creepy gothic occult horrors then I’ll totally keep reading them just to laugh the way this book made me laugh.
It was lovely to see the esteemed Miss Potter and the besotted Angus again, as well as meeting new supporting characters that made for a colorful and entertaining cast.
The world building and story in this installment were so much more my speed this time around. Some nice moth core (it’s a thing) aesthetics, nightmare lore, superstitions, folk treatments, and musings on PTSD. It’s well-constructed, even if I felt the writing could’ve been better in a few places. The imagery was top-tier though.
It’s a great sequel to What Moves the Dead. I totally recommend 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.
I saw Lucinda Berry, I saw “Read Now”, and so I did.
It wasn’t her best, but it wasn’t terrible. Mostly, I thought it was just too much story to cram I saw Lucinda Berry, I saw “Read Now”, and so I did.
It wasn’t her best, but it wasn’t terrible. Mostly, I thought it was just too much story to cram into 82 pages. As a result, it felt very rushed and none of it had a chance to register as anything else but rushed.
That may not be the same for every reader. I can acknowledge this. I read a lot of thrillers, a lot of horror, a lot of really dark romance, and a lot of other dark stuff, and it takes a lot for anything to register shock and awe with me. It takes a lot to freak me out. This story? It hardly registered because all we got is basically an outline. Now, if this were a whole novel it would be a different story. It would probably be a great novel. It just didn’t work for me as a short story.
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. Due to personal policy, this review will not appear on any bookseller or social media page because it was rated three stars or less. ...more
Magical realism takes fantastical events and portrays them in a realistic tone. So you’ll have to forgive me if I don’t agree with categorizing The PaMagical realism takes fantastical events and portrays them in a realistic tone. So you’ll have to forgive me if I don’t agree with categorizing The Parliament as a fantasy novel like it’s being marketed. Because this isn’t a fantasy novel, dark or otherwise. This is a magical realism novel, first and foremost, with philosophically dark themes and horror tropes.
It was everything I hoped for from Aimee Potwatka’s second novel: The prose soared, I sobbed, I felt all the feelings, and I was completely swept away by this incredibly immersive story.
Calling this book “The Birds meets The Princess Bride” (as it states in the marketing material) is a gross oversimplification and absolutely does this book no justice. In mythology, owls symbolize everything from evil omens to talismans of wisdom. In fantasy, a parliament of owls has been used more than once as an unbiased council of judgment. In real life, they are beautiful and peaceful by day but chaotic and bloodthirsty by night.
“In the night, when the owl is less than exquisitely swift and perfect, the scream of the rabbit is terrible. But the scream of the owl, which is not of pain and hopelessness and the fear of being plucked out of the world, but of the sheer rollicking glory of the death-bringer, is more terrible still. When I hear it resounding through the woods, and then the five black pellets of its song dropping like stones into the air, I know I am standing at the edge of the mystery, in which terror is naturally and abundantly part of life, part of even the most becalmed, intelligent, sunny life—as, for example, my own. The world where the owl is endlessly hungry and endlessly on the hunt is the world in which I live too. There is only one world.” - Mary Oliver
I chose to view the titular parliament as a combination of that fantastical body of judgment and symbols of the underworld. It seems to best fit the themes of this book: grief, regret, anger, violence, abandonment, desolation, loneliness, helplessness, and trauma. Of losing your voice, not having a voice, fighting to have a voice, regaining your voice, and what comes after regaining your voice. Of flight, fight, and freeze. Of responsibility, fault, and blame. About sacrifice.
Aimee Potwatka delivers an amazingly complicated novel containing hugely emotional themes with a deft hand and sweeping prose that carries you away. You’ll feel drawn in and ensconced with these characters as they contemplate how to escape their judgment and survive the parliament of owls.
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: 5 Star Review/Body Horror/Disability Rep/Horror/Literary Fiction/Magical Realism ...more
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