Month: June 2024

Serena’s Review: “The God and the Gumiho”

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Book: “The God and the Gumiho” by Sophie Kim

Publishing Info: Del Rey, June 2024

Where Did I Get this Book: ARC from the publisher!

Where Can You Get this Book: WorldCat.org | Amazon | IndieBound

Book Description: Kim Hani has retired from a life of devouring souls. She is, simply put, too full. Once known as the infamous Scarlet Fox, she now spends her days working in a coffee shop and annoying a particularly irritating, if unfairly handsome, trickster god as often as she can.

That god is Seokga the Fallen. Exiled from the heavenly kingdom of Okhwang, he now begrudgingly resides in the mortal realm, working toward his redemption and suffering through his interactions with the particularly infuriating, if sneakily charming, gumiho barista at his favorite café.

But when a powerful demon escapes from the underworld and threatens to end all of humanity, Okhwang’s emperor offers Seokga an enticing bargain: Kill this rogue creature, as well as the legendary and elusive Scarlet Fox, and he will be reinstated as a god. Hani, however, has no intention of being caught. Seokga might be a trickster god, but she has a trick of her own that he’ll never see coming: teaming up. As Seokga’s assistant, Hani will undermine and sabotage his investigation right under his overly pointy nose. Sure, she’ll help him kill the demon, but she certainly won’t allow him to uncover her secret identity while they’re at it.

As the bickering partners track their case down a path of mayhem and violence, the god and the gumiho find themselves inescapably drawn to each other. But will the unlikely couple stand together to prevent the apocalypse, or will they let their secrets tear them—and the world—apart?

Review: I was very excited when I received an ARC from the publisher for this book! Right off the bat, it has a lot of things going for it: combining urban fantasy and South Korean mythology, and then setting the story in the early 90s. Looking at all of that, it was easy to see that this book was going to be lots of vibes all mashed together. Add in an enemies-to-lovers romance, and yeah, easy to see why I was excited. Let’s get into the full review!

While I had a lot of hopes for this book, it didn’t all come together quite like I wished. But there was still a lot to like about it, and I do think there are many readers out there who will enjoy it. Let’s start with some of the good stuff! I’ve had some exposure to South Korean mythology in other fantasy books, but I’m by no means an expert. In that regard, some of the fantasy elements were just familiar enough that I felt like I understood this world easily, but were still exploring new dynamics and aspects of the mythology that felt completely fresh. Even the familiar elements were twisted into new forms that were intriguing.

I also thought the writing was approachable and easy to read. While I think it was a tad simplistic at times, especially with regards to characterization, it shone as far as pacing and fast-paced storytelling. The reader will be quickly drawn into this world, and the story will catch them up for the ride from there. As a reader who often focuses on characterization above most other elements, it speaks to the readability of the style of writing that I finished this one up fairly quickly even though I wasn’t connecting to the main characters.

Now, as I’ve mentioned, I did struggle with the characters themselves, both separately and as a couple. From the romance angle, I was left wanting right away when I realized that the “enemies” portion of their relationship came from a mess up in a coffee order. Now, I get that this is played for humorous effect, but it just didn’t work for me. We’re talking about centuries-old beings here with untold powers; the fact that they are equally ridiculous about this minor altercation doesn’t speak well of either of them. And it simply wasn’t as funny as it was clearly meant to be.

Things didn’t really improve from there. On one hand, we have a trickster god, and yet I barely ever felt this aspect of his personality. Instead, he was very much the “grumpy” side of the relationship, and the chaos aspect of what I imagine from trickster gods was nowhere to be found. As for Hani, we learn early in the story that she has been in hiding for decades now after committing a mass murder for which she is still being hunted today. We’re told that she is incredibly clever to have avoided capture for so long. But again, right from the beginning, we see her making choices that clearly give away her past. In one notable example, when choosing a weapon, she immediately picks the type of weapon that her wanted identity was most known for using. And, predictably, this is what begins to alert the hero to her past. It’s just…kind of silly. And there were multiple instances of things like this for both characters, where we are told they have certain traits, but the actual choices and behaviors we see on the page directly contradict this. And, again, I could never get past some of the ridiculousness and immaturity of characters are are hundreds of years old.

Overall, this was just an ok read for me. The readability of the style of writing and some of the more fun aspects of the world-building were enough to pull me through this read fairly quickly. But throughout it all, I struggled to connect to these characters or become invested in their love story. If you’re looking for a fresh-feeling urban fantasy, this might be one worth checking out, however!

Rating 7: A fun concept and world were dampened a bit by characters who I found more ridiculous than not most of the time.

Reader’s Advisory:

“The God and the Gumiho” can be found on these Goodreads lists: Asian SSF and Adult SFF by BIPOC Authors.

Kate’s Review: “Middle of the Night”

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Book: “Middle of the Night” by Riley Sager

Publishing Info: Dutton, June 2024

Where Did I Get This Book: I received an eARC from NetGalley.

Where You Can Get This Book: WorldCat.org | Amazon | Indiebound

Book Description: In the latest jaw-dropping thriller from New York Times bestselling author Riley Sager, a man must contend with the long-ago disappearance of his childhood best friend—and the dark secrets lurking just beyond the safe confines of his picture-perfect neighborhood.

The worst thing to ever happen on Hemlock Circle occurred in Ethan Marsh’s backyard. One July night, ten-year-old Ethan and his best friend and neighbor, Billy, fell asleep in a tent set up on a manicured lawn in a quiet, quaint New Jersey cul de sac. In the morning, Ethan woke up alone. During the night, someone had sliced the tent open with a knife and taken Billy. He was never seen again.

Thirty years later, Ethan has reluctantly returned to his childhood home. Plagued by bad dreams and insomnia, he begins to notice strange things happening in the middle of the night. Someone seems to be roaming the cul de sac at odd hours, and signs of Billy’s presence keep appearing in Ethan’s backyard. Is someone playing a cruel prank? Or has Billy, long thought to be dead, somehow returned to Hemlock Circle?

The mysterious occurrences prompt Ethan to investigate what really happened that night, a quest that reunites him with former friends and neighbors and leads him into the woods that surround Hemlock Circle. Woods where Billy claimed monsters roamed and where a mysterious institute does clandestine research on a crumbling estate.

The closer Ethan gets to the truth, the more he realizes that no place—be it quiet forest or suburban street—is completely safe. And that the past has a way of haunting the present.

Review: Thank you to NetGalley for providing me with an eARC of this novel!

It’s fully summer now, and along with the promises of pool days, barbecuing, river tubing, and melting in the heat and therefore hiding in an air conditioned home as much as I can, I also have the promise of a new Riley Sager novel every year. And this year we have “Middle of the Night”, a new thriller about a long missing boy, the man who was the one left behind and facing survivor guilt, and a neighborhood that has had this case haunting them for decades… oh, and also a spectral person lurking in the neighborhood in the dead of night. Oh yes. This has potential for sure.

Like most of Sager’s books before it, I was entertained by the mystery and the twists and turns of “Middle of the Night”. The initial mystery is already a solid premise: thirty years ago, Ethan Marsh and his neighborhood best friend Billy were camping in his backyard on a sleepover, only for their tent to be cut into and Billy to go missing, with Ethan clueless as to what happened outside of shoddy flashes of memories that don’t make much sense. In the present Ethan has returned to the old neighborhood to sell his parents house after their retirement, and has started noticing weird things, like a mysterious shadow person creeping through the neighborhood at night, or signs of life that only Billy could have done back in the day. You already have me with the questions of what happened to Billy, and who (or what) is now sending Ethan messages thirty years later, but then Sager adds MORE to it by bringing in a mysterious local institution with connections to the Ivy League that may or may not have been doing some odd things they hoped to keep hidden. The weirdness and the slow reveals of how THAT plays into the story, as well as more evidence, motives, suspects, and, yes, red herrings, makes for a suspenseful read as we jump from Ethan’s perspective in the present to other people’s perspectives in the past, and even though it could have been a lot of narrative shifting, it worked well for me. I was genuinely surprised by a lot of the reveals, and even those that weren’t as shocking to me still felt executed tightly and properly. I know that Sager can be polarizing to thriller fans, but I always buy into his books because it’s just fun to experience the ride.

Sager is usually a good bet if you want an entertaining read for the fun summer months, and “Middle of the Night” once again delivers on that. But what I also liked about this book is how Sager explores the themes of survivor guilt and collective trauma for those who live in a tight knit community when a person, especially a young person, goes missing. My mind kept wandering back to a notorious and long lingering Minnesota case, that of Jacob Wetterling, who was kidnapped by a masked man in 1989 and was missing for decades until they got a confession and found his body in 2016. Ethan has come back to the place where his best friend vanished, and has to face how that has shaped his life up until now, and how that has reverberated through his relationships, actions, and experiences, usually with tragic elements as he hasn’t fully reconciled all of his guilt and fear and heartbreak. I found Ethan to be a very easy to follow main character, and I thought that Sager really dug into his psyche. It’s also a change to have a male protagonist in a Sager book (I suppose “Survive the Night” had a dual POV with a male protagonist, but it was split), so that was a breath of fresh air. And hell, we even get a little bit into the minds of all the people in the neighborhood around the time Billy disappears, which gave more complicated layers to a supposedly perfect suburban setting. I always enjoy a dressing down of the facade of a perfect Americana community, and “Middle of the Night” peels back some layers and exposes the cracks that were there even before Billy disappeared. It makes for some added pathos to an already emotional premise.

Ultimately I found “Middle of the Night” to be another serviceable thriller, and one perfect for summer vacations. It’s speedy and fun and I continue to hold Riley Sager in high regard when it comes to genuinely enjoyable thrillers.

Rating 8: Tense and at times incredibly sad, “Middle of the Night” is about going home in the face of unresolved trauma, and a neighborhood haunted (perhaps literally) by a long lost child.

Reader’s Advisory:

“Middle of the Night” is included on the Goodreads list “Best Dark Fiction of 2024”.

Serena’s Review: “Mirrored Heavens”

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Book: “Mirrored Heavens” by Rebecca Roanhorse

Publishing Info: Saga Press, June 2024

Where Did I Get this Book: ARC from the publisher!

Where Can You Get this Book: WorldCat.org | Amazon | IndieBound

Book Description: Serapio, avatar of the Crow God Reborn and the newly crowned Carrion King, rules Tova. But his enemies gather both on distant shores and within his own city as the matrons of the clans scheme to destroy him. And deep in the alleys of the Maw, a new prophecy is whispered, this one from the Coyote God. It promises Serapio certain doom if its terrible dictates are not fulfilled.

Meanwhile, Xiala is thrust back amongst her people as war comes first to the island of Teek. With their way of life and their magic under threat, she is their last best hope. But the sea won’t talk to her the way it used to, and doubts riddle her mind. She will have to sacrifice the things that matter most to unleash her powers and become the queen they were promised.

And in the far northern wastelands, Naranpa, avatar of the Sun God, seeks a way to save Tova from the visions of fire that engulf her dreams. But another presence has begun stalking her nightmares, and the Jaguar God is on the hunt.

Previously Reviewed: “Black Sun” and “Fevered Star”

Review: This was on my list back in January for most highly anticipated books of the year, and we’re finally here. So many massive events that have been slowly building up over the course of this series will be resolved! Prophesies will be either fulfilled or thrown off! And, most importantly for my romance-loving-heart, Serapio and Xiala will finally reunite (unless something goes wildly off track!). And while I do think there were a few weakness to the overall book here and there, in the ways that truly counted, this was a successful conclusion to an excellent trilogy!

I’ll say right now that, as a whole, I think this series is excellent. However, it did take an interesting trajectory as far as my experience reading each individual book. Looking back at my reviews, I gave a “10” to the first book, a “9” to the second, and this one is an “8.” Luckily, since it started out as the very top, even if each book dropped a bit in my estimation, that still left plenty of room to be solidly good reads. The main reason for the drop for this one had to do with the balancing of the various characters (their arcs and POVs) as well as the pacing towards the end of the book. Because of this former point, I think that readers’ reception of this book will largely come down to which characters are their favorite.

From the beginning, I’ve been here mostly for Xiala and Serapio’s stories, both individually and as a couple. And luckily for me, both of these two were done best by in this last book. Xiala, especially, was really given some of the best elements of this story. Not only do we finally make it back to her homeland, but we learn more about her connection to the ocean and her abilities (something that we barely touched on in the second book, really). Not only must she learn to wield these powers (game-changingly powerful abilities, as it turns out!), but she also travels an interesting arc of coming into her own as a princess and leader of her people, something she’s been fleeing from for most of her adult life. There was some real tragedy in this portion of the story, but we also get some of the best action sequences, as well.

I also loved seeing her and Serapio finally (FINALLY!) reunited. Both of these characters are excellent in their own right, but even some of the other side characters comment on the fact that they both seem to become fuller versions of themselves together. Theirs is a relationship built on radical acceptance, and it’s especially gratifying seeing it play out for Serapio, a person who is held at a distance by literally everyone else around him for his godly persona. For his part, Serapio’s story is once again wrapped up in a prophesy, one that he must fulfill in order to win the coming war. Some of this began to feel a bit like filler, but because Serapio’s personal story and arc is so compelling, the character himself brought a sense of gravitas to a plot line that could have felt superficial at times.

Unfortunately, the book begins to fall apart a bit when it comes to the many other POV characters. Most unexpectedly, this carries over to Naranpa, the third main character who has shared equal billing with Xiala and Serapio up to this point. By the time I finished up this book, I was frankly left a bit baffled by this character and her story here (both in this book, and, by extension, the entire trilogy). She’s off on a side quest throughout most of the book, and by the time it wraps up, I’m not sure what the point even was? It’s honestly a bit hard to describe just how little there was for this character to do, especially without getting into spoilers. It seems like it may be building up in one direction, but then just…doesn’t. And then it’s over and the reader is left wondering whether they would have even noticed had Naranpa’s storyline been excluded altogether? Pretty shocking stuff for a character who had been equally as important as Serapio and Xiala in the first two books.

While this was the most egregious example, primarily because of Naranpa’s positioning as a main character from the first two books, the unnecessary POVs carried over to other characters as well. For example, we get numerous chapters told from the villain’s perspective. Now, some of these take place in the past and thus serve to flesh out the history behind Serapio’s birth/creation. But, at the same time, again, much of what we got here felt rather unnecessary. Especially any of the chapters set in the modern time period. I simply didn’t need as much exposure to this character, and, given the way the story builds and concludes, there were no twists or swerves that would retroactively make these inclusions worth while.

Lastly, the pacing of the major conflict felt a bit off. Xiala’s storyline is the main point of action for the first two thirds of the books. All of the other characters are following much more passive arcs, mostly spending time looking ahead to and positioning various pieces for the the great battle that is coming. I can’t emphasize enough just how much time is spent discussing and preparing for this conflict, how great the scale is meant to be, how insurmountable the odds our heroes face. And yet, when it actually comes, everything sort of falls flat. Again, I don’t want to spoil how it resolves, but given how much time is spent building to this moment, by the time it arrives, the reader would be excused for getting through it all all before realizing that it is, in fact, now already over.

So, a bit of a dour note to end on, but I don’t want that to tint the rest of the positives of this book and this trilogy as a whole. While there were definitely flaws in this last book, it also concluded in an extremely satisfactory way, especially if you’re fans of Serapio and Xiala. The world-building remained excellent throughout, and the author’s sheer skill as a writer is not to be underestimated. I definitely recommend this trilogy to any fantasy fans out there looking for a high quality, unique story!

Rating 8: Not without some flaws with regards to pacing and certain character POVs, but an excellent resolution to the trilogy as a whole.

Reader’s Advisory:

“Mirrored Heavens” can be found on these Goodreads lists: Ancient Mesoamerica Books and Polynesian and Native American Fantasy.

Kate’s Review: “The Pecan Children”

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Book: “The Pecan Children” by Quinn Connor

Publishing Info: Sourcebooks Landmark, June 2024

Where Did I Get This Book: I received an ARC from the publisher

Where You Can Get This Book: WorldCat.org | Amazon | Indiebound

Book Description: For fans of The Midnight Library and Demon Copperhead comes a breathtaking story of magical realism about two sisters, deeply tied to their small Southern town, fighting to break free of the darkness swallowing the land—and its endless cycle of pecan harvests—whole.

How long will you hold on when your world is gone?

In a small southern pecan town, the annual harvest is a time of both celebration and heartbreak. Even as families are forced to sell their orchards and move away, Lil Clearwater, keeper of a secret covenant with her land, swears she never will. When her twin Sasha returns to the dwindling town in hopes of reconnecting with the girl her heart never forgot, the sisters struggle to bridge their differences and share the immense burden of protecting their home from hungry forces intent on uprooting everything they love.

But there is rot hiding deep beneath the surface. Ghostly fires light up the night, and troubling local folklore is revealed to be all too true. Confronted with the phantoms of their pasts and the devastating threat to their future, the sisters come to the stark realization that in the kudzu-choked South, nothing is ever as it appears.

A story of the love between sisters, and an allegory of decay in small-town America, The Pecan Children walks the line between beauty and horror.

Review: Thank you to Sourcebooks Landmark for sending me an ARC of this novel!

We are about half way through Pride Month, and I’m happy to be able to say that today I have a horror-esque novel that will be a great choice if you are wanting to read LGBTQIA+ books through the end of June. Sourcebooks Landmark reached out to me with “The Pecan Children” by Quinn Connor (the pen name of writing duo Robyn Barrow and Alex Cronin), and touted it as a Southern Gothic story that has a lovely sapphic romance at the center of it. All of this caught my eye, and I was eager to jump into it leading up to Pride. And I think that it did make good on the majority of the promises it made in the description.

In terms of a genre I would PROBABLY classify this as more of a dark fantasy than a horror novel (which was what I thought I was getting into), but that doesn’t mean that it can’t be scary at times or definitely have horror elements that shine through. There are so many moments of dread, even if it’s just through the description of invasive kudzu, or strange children encountered in the wilderness, or strange fires that flicker to life only to abruptly disappear like they never started in the first place. We are mostly following twin sisters Lil and Sasha, who have grown up in a small town in Arkansas that has relied on pecan harvests and local community to survive, only for land to suddenly stop producing and predatory land grabs snatching up and threatening the town. But this is not the case on Lil and Sasha’s farm, the one that Lil has tended to ever since her other passed, and the one Sasha has returned to after being away. The slow building suspense of what is happening around them as they reconnect with old loves, the first being Lil’s ex boyfriend Jason who has also returned and the second being Autumn, an old friend of Sasha, makes for an eerie and creepy read as things just seem off. And by the time we find out just what IS going on (and I’m not going to spoil anything), the tension snaps back and reverberates as the story hurtles towards its end. I think that I was hoping for more straight up horror beats, but when I started approaching it as a dark fantasy it worked really well for me.

But like so many tales, “The Pecan Children” is rife with real world obstacles and societal commentary. The first is that Lil and Sasha’s hometown is in stasis and slowly succumbing to a rot and decay of an outside force that is sucking it dry. It works well for the horror elements and reveals that are in place (no spoilers here, again), but it’s also a pretty poignant way to talk about the way that many small towns in poorer rural areas are really struggling for many reasons, and how in turn many of the people who do stay cling to aspects of the past. But along with that is the fact that I also loved the dichotomy of the twin sisters, as Lil has stayed to continue the pecan farm as her mother had put that mantle on her, and Sasha left for a time, only to return and to reconnect with her sister, in spite of the resentment between both of them for different reasons. It’s a heartfelt thread that crosses throughout the dark fantasy elements and eerie scares of the greater story, and it has siblings that clearly loves each other while having to overcome bitterness and familial heartaches. It was the very human and realistic moments that worked best for me in this novel, whether it’s the love between the twins, or the romance between Sasha and Autumn, or the reconnection between Lil and Jason. I REALLY liked the relationship between Sasha and Autumn, as I love seeing two old friends reconnect and realizing that there was always something more there, and finally being willing to explore it more than they had in the past.

With a strange and dreamy aura about it and some easy to root for relationships, romantic and sisterly, “The Pecan Children” is a dark fantasy read that would be a great choice for Pride month, and a solid read for dark fantasy readers who like a Southern Gothic twist.

Rating 7: A creepy and dreamy dark fantasy tale that is also about sisters, lost loves, and decaying small town identity, “The Pecan Children” is an eerie read for summer.

Reader’s Advisory:

“The Pecan Children” is included on the Goodreads list “Queer Books Set in Arkansas”.

Diving Into Sub-Genres: Folk Horror

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We each have our own preferred genres of choice. Kate loves horrors and thrillers, really anything that will keep her up at night! And Serena enjoys escaping through hidden doors into realms of magic and adventure. We also read mysteries, historical fiction, graphic novels, etc. etc. And that’s not even counting the multitude of sub-genres contained within each greater genre. In this series, one of us will present a list of our favorites from within a given sub-genre of one of our greater preferred genres.

Interestingly enough, while I have decided to focus on the sub-genre of Folk Horror for this edition of ‘Diving Into Sub-Genres’, it’s a sub-genre that I tend to have complicated feelings about. That isn’t to say that I dislike folk horror; on the contrary, if I love a piece of folk horror, I REALLY love a piece of folk horror. The perfect example of this is the film “The Wicker Man”, one of the earlier examples in the sub-genre in which a Scottish policeman goes to the strange and pagan island of Summerisle in search of a missing girl, and finds a community of odd, quirky, and ultimately devious townsfolk who mess with the outsider before pulling one of the greatest twists in horror history. It’s one of my favorite horror films, and my Terror Tuesday friends and I have watched it about three times in our years of movies. There’s also “The Witch”, which brings a Puritan family to the unforgiving wilderness as a witch lurks in the woods tormenting them, though the bigger threat may be the way the family Others their daughter Thomasin. This is a favorite movie of mine, period. But for every “Wicker Man” and “The Witch” there are probably five or so “Midsommar”s, in which I find the final product lacking, underwhelming, or overly pretentious (sacrilege I know, but I really hated “Midsommar”). But it’s absolutely a sub-genre that has a lot of teeth and a lot of potential, so I wanted to highlight some of the stories within.

Folk Horror is generally a kind of horror tale that involves an outsider finding themselves caught up in an unfamiliar place that has ties to folklore or ‘old ways’, and finds themselves in danger at the hands of the people or things they encounter. Superstition, ritualistic practices, nature and the dangers that come with it, and people with hidden motives are usually involved. And while there are occasionally some supernatural elements to be had, usually involving creatures from folklore and Pagan religions, it’s more likely the the threat is going to just be people in one way or another. In terms of books, one of the earlier examples is the novel “Harvest Home”, where a family movies into an isolated rural/agricultural community that adheres to some old timey superstitions about how to make their crops grow. The list I put together has some newer titles, and are mostly books that I’ve enjoyed. Or at least appreciated.

Book: “The Twisted Ones” by T. Kingfisher

I’m starting with a T. Kingfisher book because I really like the easy breezy and sometimes ‘cozy’ horror tone she brings to her novels, and that same tone comes with “The Twisted Ones”. When a woman named Mouse has to clean out her deceased grandmother’s cabin in the wooded wilderness in North Carolina, she thinks it will be a time consuming, but generally easy task. But she soon hears strange noises at night, and sees glimpses of odd beings through the corners of her eyes in the clearing around the cabin. And she soon finds diary entries her stepgrandfather left, describing strange and terrifying beings that stalk the woods, and a mysterious man named Ambrose. As Mouse starts to dig deeper into the mysteries and the strange things she’s encountering, she finds things that are beyond imagination. Kingfisher is always a fun read, and this one has some weird folksy scares to go along with her affable main character.

Book: “The Ritual” by Adam Nevill

This one is a bit more of a straight up folk horror nightmare, and “The Ritual” had enough cinematic horror elements to it that it did get adapted into a film a few years ago, which I found to be fun and creepy as hell. It definitely solidified my fears of camping, I can tell you that much, and the book beforehand had a similar effect. Four old friends are hoping to reconnect their bond that time and shifting priorities has eroded away, and go for a camping trip in the north of Sweden, in a wooded area nestled in the Arctic Circle. When they start to get discombobulated and lost, tensions start to reach a new high. But it’s when they stumble upon an old seemingly abandoned house, which has odd altars, scattered bones, and Pagan symbols, they realize that they aren’t really alone in these woods. There’s a nice build of tension with this one, and some interesting modernization of outsiders meeting old world sensibilities.

Book: “The Loney” by Andrew Michael Hurley

Folk horror doesn’t always have to be in your face with its action and themes while still achieving an overarching sense of dread, and I think that “The Loney” is a good example of this BECAUSE of how quiet it is, until it has you in a stranglehold in the last few moments. This one was a bit of a slow read for awhile, but then when it sped up MAN did it speed up and create an atmopsheric Gothic oddity. In the 1970s a family consisting of a deeply Catholic mother and her two sons, one of whom is developmentally disabled, take a week long retreat to a remote seaside hamlet, with the mother hoping that fervent prayer and visitation to a local shrine can create a miracle to cure her son. During one of these trips, the younger brother Smith, our narrator, encounters a genial but odd group, consisting of some adults and a heavily pregnant teenage girl, as well as hostile locals who don’t adhere to the Catholic dogma that the visitors do. This one not only has the clash of new sensibilities vs old (though a bit subverted as Smith’s mother is VERY antagonistic in her faith), it also has a really twisted conclusion.

Book: “The Hunger” by Alma Katsu

Feel like combining some historical fiction in with your folk horror? Alma Katsu has you covered with her Donner Party horror story “The Hunger”. Because what could make an already true story about getting trapped in the wilderness in the dead of winter and resorting to cannibalism MORE horrifying? BRING IN SOME SUPERNATURAL TERRORS ALSO MAKING PROBLEMS. As the Donner Party moves west in hopes of finding a new life out west, they go on a bad route and get stuck in the Sierras right when winter is about to hit. As their survival becomes less and less likely and they have to start eating the dead to survive, something else and otherworldly is watching and waiting from the unforgiving wilderness. This folk horror trope is definitely along the lines of outsiders moving into an area unfamiliar to them and finding something terrible and unexpected, but it’s also an interesting meditation on the hubris of men, and the way that manifest destiny made settlers think that they were deserving of a new life, when in actuality they had NO idea what they were getting into.

Book: “Pet Sematary” by Stephen King

This is probably the least obvious of folk horror novels on this list, but thinking about it really made me think about the broad swath that folk horror can reach. And “Pet Sematary” TOTALLY has folk horror elements! It follows the Creed family as they move into a new small town and new house near a forest, leaving big city life behind. When the family cat is hit by a car on the busy road, Dr. Louis Creed is led to a backwoods ‘pet cemetery’ by his neighbor Judd, who says that you can bury an animal there and it comes back to life… Though admittedly a little wrong. It works for the cat, though yes, it’s not the same cat it once was. And when horrific tragedy strikes the family, Louis decides to use the burial spot one more time out of desperation and grief. I’m sure you can imagine how it goes. This one is very much in the realm of ‘unrelenting mysteries and horrors of nature’ trope that is found in the sub-genre, as we don’t know WHY the ground can bring things back to life, or why they always come back wrong. It’s a terrifying story not only because of the reanimation, but also the ambiguity.

Book: “Slewfoot” by Brom

This was a favorite read of mine from a couple years ago, and I still find myself going back and skimming through different parts of it. And MAN, does it really fit a folk horror mold, specifically if your kind of folk horror is very much “The Witch” (which, as we all know, is the case for me). After all, Puritans clashing with a supposedly malevolent force in the forest is always going to be up my alley, and in this book nature and forest spirts play a HUGE role in all of it. Abitha is a reluctant Puritan widow who is trying to keep her farm away from her vicious brother in law now that her husband has passed away. When she meets a strange demonic figure in the forest she calls Slewfoot, who has no memory of his past life but has guidance from forest spirits about his role as a vengeful being, they slowly grow a friendship as outsiders. And when the Puritans start to target Abitha, they don’t realize that messing with her is messing with him. I LOVE THIS BOOK, and it combines nature, zealousness, outsiders, and folklore to create a fantastic addition to this list.

What folk horror novels are your favorites? Let us know in the comments!

Serena’s Review: “Daughter of the Merciful Deep”

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Book: “Daughter of the Merciful Deep” by Leslye Penelope

Publishing Info: Redhook, June 2024

Where Did I Get this Book: ARC from the publisher!

Where Can You Get this Book: WorldCat.org | Amazon | IndieBound

Book Description: “Our home began, as all things do, with a wish.”

Jane Edwards hasn’t spoken since she was eleven years old, when armed riders expelled her family from their hometown along with every other Black resident. Now, twelve years later, she’s found a haven in the all-Black town of Awenasa. But the construction of a dam promises to wash her home under the waters of the new lake.

Jane will do anything to save the community that sheltered her. So, when a man with uncanny abilities arrives in town asking strange questions, she wonders if he’s might be the key. But as the stranger hints at gods and ancestral magic, Jane is captivated by a bigger mystery. She knows this man. Only the last time she saw him, he was dead. His body laid to rest in a rushing river.

Who is the stranger and what is he really doing in Awenasa? To find those answers, Jane will journey into a sunken world, a land of capricious gods and unsung myths, of salvation and dreams made real. But the flood waters are rising. To gain the miracle she desires, Jane will have to find her voice again and finally face the trauma of the past.

Review: I’ve read several books by this author in the past. I started out with her original world, high fantasy trilogy, and very much liked that. But I have also enjoyed the swerve towards historical fiction that she’s now taken, incorporating fantasy and magical elements alongside stories that very much tackle the cultures and issues of specific points in history. Her last one, “The Monsters We Defy,” was set in the 1920s, and while the story was made up of many elements (including a heist!) the jazz movement and its place in Black history was very central to the story. All of this to say, that I was very excited when I saw that in this book she was going to tackle an even lesser known point in history: that of the drowned towns of the South.

Overall, I very much enjoyed this book. It manages to fit a lot of excellent historical information into a narrative that is still very character-focused, all told through the eyes of our leading lady. For her part, Jane is a sympathetic character, a young woman who has suffered greatly, but throughout the course of this book, rediscovers her own power and sets a course not only for herself but for her entire community. There’s also a very sweet romance included, something that this author often incorporates in her stories, much to my appreciation!

I will say that the book did struggle a bit with pacing, however. The start to this story is fairly slow, with very little actually happening for much of the first half of the book. For readers of historical fiction, however, this may be less of an issue. The story is definitely following more genre conventions for historical fiction in this half, with its detailed focus on the details of this time and place. Readers who were more intrigued by the fantasy elements, however, have a while to wait for these to truly show up. And then when they did, I feel like a little more could have been done to blend these fantasy elements into the previously established historical setting. The reader is left to take much of them magical stuff at face value and just go with it.

I also appreciated the author’s note that was included at the end. For whatever reason, I’ve gotten into the habit of flipping to the back of books to read the author’s note before I even start, and yet again, I feel like this method has paid off. I had vague knowledge of the sunken towns, already. I grew up in a town next to a large, dammed reservoir; though no towns were destroyed in its making, the concept of drowned towns was always a morbid point of curiosity to a population that went about its day in the shadow of a huge dam like this. But I appreciated the greater detail I received in this author’s note, which went on to further enrich my reading experience as the characters confront this looming danger. Perhaps some of the plotting was a bit predictable, here, but at the same time, the characters were compelling enough that this wasn’t a problem for me. Readers who enjoy historical fiction with a lighter focus on fantasy should definitely give this one a go!

Rating 7: A bit disjointed in its balancing of genre conventions between fantasy and historical fiction, but the strength of the historical topic and the compelling characters still made it a worth while read!

Reader’s Advisory:

“Daughter of the Merciful Deep” can be found on this Goodreads list: 2024 Adult Fantasy/Sci-fi/Speculative Releases by BIPOC Authors

Blog Tour & Joint Review: “Not in Love”

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Book: “Not in Love” by Ali Hazelwood

Publishing Info: Berkley, June 2024

Where Did We Get This Book: eARC from blog tour!

Where You Can Get This Book: WorldCat.org | Amazon | Indiebound

Book Description: Rue Siebert might not have it all, but she has enough: a few friends she can always count on, the financial stability she yearned for as a kid, and a successful career as a biotech engineer at Kline, one of the most promising start-ups in the field of food science. Her world is stable, pleasant, and hard-fought. Until a hostile takeover and its offensively attractive front man threatens to bring it all crumbling down.

Eli Killgore and his business partners want Kline, period. Eli has his own reasons for pushing this deal through – and he’s a man who gets what he wants. With one burning exception: Rue. The woman he can’t stop thinking about. The woman who’s off-limits to him.

Torn between loyalty and an undeniable attraction, Rue and Eli throw caution out the lab and the boardroom windows. Their affair is secret, no-strings-attached, and has a built-in deadline: the day one of their companies will prevail. But the heart is risky business – one that plays for keeps.

Serena’s Thoughts

First of all, I’ve loved being included in these blog tours and truly appreciate the opportunity to participate! I’ve loved most books I’ve read by Ali Hazelwood, up to this point, so I was excited to check this one out! Unfortunately, I have to admit up top that not only was this my least favorite book by Hazelwood so far, but it was a let down of a read for me in most ways. Now, of course, this is a subjective take, especially the things that didn’t work for me, and many of my complaints may work great for others!

First of all, I was disappointed to find that this was a duel POV romance story. Hazelwood has always been a favorite of mine for the simple fact that she writes single POV love stories, something that I always prefer. And, I’m sorry to say, but I think the change in format was for the worse in general. More often than not, I feel like authors end up using duel POV as a crutch when conveying the a love story. Instead of showing the romance building, the narrative simply switches between POVs where both characters simply tell the reader how much they adore the other. And we had much of that here. Gone was much of the nuance and the romantic scenes/action that show the characters growing to love one another.

What’s worse, given the nature of the way this relationship builds, instead of telling the reader how much they each are growing to care for one another, we ended up with a whole lot of inner thoughts about simply wanting to jump into bed with one another. The male POV was especially rough in this arena. I don’t care to repeat the number of times he reflects on how great of a lay Rue is. This is all fine and dandy, but not something I need to be in someone’s head to hear about repeatedly.

I also thought the balance was off in this book between the spice scenes and the emotional development: there was too much of the former and not enough of the latter. Rue, in particular, had an interesting background and I enjoyed learning more about her backstory and watching her come out of her shell a bit. But for his part, Eli felt a bit too much like your standard “golden retriever esque tech bro” type character. He also seemed to immediately fall into instalove/lust with Rue from their very first scene together, which didn’t leave the story anywhere to go for him.

Unfortunately, I didn’t love this book, which I’m so disappointed to report. I’ve really enjoyed Hazelwood’s romances in the past, but many aspects of this were just never going to be for me (the duel POVS, the balance of spice to plot, etc.). Others who like these elements may enjoy this one more.

Kate’s Thoughts

There is a reason that Ali Hazelwood is probably my favorite romance author, and that is because in some ways I know exactly what to expect, but in other ways she knows how to catch me off guard. I usually know a few things about what I’m going to get into with her novels, and that is they are always going to have quirky and science minded protagonists, and there will be some steamy spicy moments. “Not In Love” is no exception to this, and it still works for me for the most part. I really enjoyed our female lead Rue, as she was probably Hazelwood’s most coded as neurodivergent character yet, and I am always going to be ALL about that kind of representation. Especially since she is never put down or made to feel bad for it by those who matter. I wasn’t as big of a fan as Eli, and it’s for the same reasons that Serena lists above. But I DO appreciate that Hazelwood has been experimenting a bit within her sub genre approaches as of late, whether it was a stellar dive into paranormal romance in “Bride” or a tamer and more chaste take on YA romance in “Check and Mate”. In this one she explores kink and BDSM as Rue and Eli do their forbidden lust/romance, and I kept thinking about “Secretary” as I read, which is a good thing because that movie is WILD and oh my GOD JAMES SPADER. Anyway. I have no experience in the BDSM/kink community so can’t speak to how accurate it is, but I like that Hazelwood is expanding her horizons.

But I do find myself agreeing with her frustration with the way the romance progressed as was presented, though in my case it may have more to do with personal preference more than anything else. I have been used to Hazelwood taking her sweet time with the romances in her books, building up the sexual tension and the friendship and intimate aspects to her love birds at.a pace that makes for lots of fun moments and then a HUGE pay off when they do consummate. Well in “Not In Love”, while there is a BIT of a wait, the sexytimes payoff is a bit sooner than a lot of her past books, and for me it felt like we were going off prematurely. Which I fully recognize is a bit of a silly criticism for a forbidden romance/no strings turned more romance. But it’s a tried and true pattern for me and my reading tastes that romances that have a lot of spice too soon don’t connect for me as well as that sweet sweet slow burn, and that’s, of course, incredibly subjective. I know plenty of people who will see this as a huge plus.

So while some parts of “Not In Love” didn’t quite click for me, I did enjoy other aspects of it like I have in previous books by Hazelwood. I still can’t wait for whatever she comes up with next.

Serena’s Rating 6: The duel POV hampered rather than helped the love story, and the spice scenes were not the best and overshadowed the plot.

Kate’s Rating 7: I like that Hazelwood continues to explore different angles and sub genres of romance, and I like how unapologetically neurodivergent Rue is. But as someone who really likes there to be some build up to spice for a slow burn pay off, “Not In Love” went a little too hard too fast for me.

Reader’s Advisory

“Not in Love” is on this Goodreads list: Rom Coms

Kate’s Review: “What Fire Brings”

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Book: “What Fire Brings” by Rachel Howzell Hall

Publishing Info: Thomas & Mercer, June 2024

Where Did I Get This Book: I received an ARC from the publicist.

Where You Can Get This Book: WorldCat.org | Amazon | Indiebound

Book Description: A writer’s search for her missing friend becomes a real-life thriller in a twisting novel of suspense by the New York Times bestselling author of These Toxic Things.

Bailey Meadows has just moved into the remote Topanga Canyon home of thriller author Jack Beckham. As his writer-in-residence, she’s supposed to help him once again reach the bestseller list. But she’s not there to write a thriller—she’s there to find Sam Morris, a community leader dedicated to finding missing people, who has disappeared in the canyon surrounding Beckham’s property.

The missing woman was last seen in the drought-stricken forest known for wildfires and mountain lions. Each new day, Bailey learns just how dangerous these canyons are—for the other women who have also gone missing here…and for her. Could these missing women be linked to strange events that occurred decades ago at the Beckham estate?

As fire season in the canyons approaches, Bailey must race to unravel the truth from fiction before she becomes the next woman lost in the forest.

Review: Thank you to Sparkpoint Studio for sending me an ARC of this novel!

We’ve actually had a pretty wet Spring going into Summer here in Minnesota, which means that in my part of the state we have no drought conditions and no threats of fires spreading dangerously (for now. We’ll see what Summer brings). Wildfire season hasn’t been a big thing for my state outside of the fact smoke has been making its way here for the past few years, but I know that it’s a huge problem out west. “What Fire Brings” by Rachel Howzell Hall takes that very real threat and throws a mystery of a missing woman, an intrepid detective, and a charming author in for good measure, and that kind of combination is super intriguing to someone like me. I was pretty hopeful going in, and my hopes were pretty well met, I’d say.

The mystery here is pretty unique and has a lot of interesting layers. We have Bailey, an aspiring private detective from L.A. who has taken on a case involving a missing woman Sam, who disappeared in the Topanga Canyon wilderness near the sprawling estate of famed author Jack Beckham. Bailey has snagged an undercover position as Jack’s writer in residence, and is using that to investigate, and while investigating starts to realize that Sam isn’t the only woman who has gone missing in the area over the years. It’s a great hook, and it has a built in suspense factor of whether or not Bailey will be discovered by Jack and his staff on top of the weird things she’s finding during her investigation. It makes for all of her moves to have added weight and potential consequence, as she is playing a part, being deceptive, and starts to realize that there may be bigger problems at hand for her outside of the investigation at hand. Bailey herself is a bit unreliable, as it slowly comes out that she has been having some problems and instabilities of her own, whether it’s a mysterious wound we aren’t privy to the origin of from the get go, an implied problem with fugue states here and there, and weird phone calls that are rattling her. It really added some dread to the ongoing investigation, which has its own twists and turns that I found surprising and enjoyable.

One thing that dinged it a bit was the pacing feeling pretty lackadaisical for a lot of the story, in spite of the fact the dread was built pretty well otherwise. It didn’t exactly meander or feel like it was stalling, but I remember there was a moment in my reading that I thought to myself ‘hm, there’s a lot of book left here’. I wasn’t bored or anything like that, but when I’m reading a thriller, even thrillers that ultimately don’t work for me (this one doesn’t fall into that category, I want to emphasize), I can at least give credit for a fast paced read that feels like it flies by. This one didn’t really have that, and by the time we did eventually get to the start of the climax it felt like it had been a long wait to get there. Once it got going it was breakneck, however. I think it’s sometimes a hard balance to get a solid slow burn for suspense while also doing a good job of keeping things moving smoothly. It’s certainly not a dealbreaker.

“What Fire Brings” is a sizzling thriller perfect for the summer months. Rachel Howzell Hall is making a name in the genre to be sure.

Rating 7: I enjoyed the mystery and the way there is already built in suspense with the private eye angle, though the pacing was sometimes a little slower than I would have liked.

Reader’s Advisory:

“What Fire Brings” is included on the Goodreads list “2024 Books by Black Authors”.

Serena’s Review: “Foul Days”

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Book: “Foul Days” by Genoveva Dimova

Publishing Info: Tor, June 2024

Where Did I Get this Book: ARC from the publisher!

Where Can You Get this Book: WorldCat.org | Amazon | IndieBound

Book Description: As a witch in the walled city of Chernograd, Kosara has plenty of practice taming rusalkas, fighting kikimoras, and brewing lycanthrope repellent. There’s only one monster Kosara can’t defeat: her ex the Zmey, known as the Tsar of Monsters. She’s defied him one too many times, and now he’s hunting her. Betrayed to him by someone close to her, Kosara’s only hope is to trade her shadow―the source of her powers―for illegal passage across the Wall to Belograd, where monsters can’t follow.

Life in Belograd should be sweet, but Kosara soon develops a fast-acting version of the deadly wasting sickness that stalks shadowless witches―and only reclaiming her magic can cure her. To trace her shadow, she’ll have to team up with the suspiciously honorable detective investigating the death of the smuggler who brought her across the Wall.

Even worse than working with the cops is that all the clues point in a single direction: one of the Zmey’s monsters has found a crack in the Wall, and Kosara’s magic is now in the Zmey’s hands.

The clock is ticking, the hunt is on, and Kosara’s priorities should be clear―but is she the hunter or the hunted? And in a city where everyone is out for themselves, who can Kosara trust to assist her in outwitting the man―the Monster―she’s never been able to escape alone?

Review: This one caught my eyes easily with its arresting cover. It’s not quite like anything I’d seen before, which immediately drew me in. Then, when reading the book description, I had two thoughts: 1.) this story sounds all over the place and 2.) it could be really awesome if it all comes together right! And, to spoil my entire review now, it was definitely the latter!

Let’s start with the world-building and fantasy elements. Right from the start, the atmosphere of this world was pervasive as well as intriguing. We feel the fear and dread of Kosara’s city, a place plagued by monsters for a brief window of time every year. It is cold, grey, but her home, and one that she loves and will do anything to protect. As the book description mentions, she then travels to the city beyond the wall, a place vibrant and full of life, having safely locked away its troubles (and seemingly all thoughts of trouble) behind a tidy wall. The contrast is stark and we feel Kosara’s bewilderment at the difference. I enjoyed the complicated nature of her feelings about these people and this place, comparing and contrasting it with her own home, with its very different culture and priorities. At the same time, the hardships of her home are not romanticized.

I also really enjoyed the various monsters we encounter throughout this book. At first, it felt like we weren’t really getting much page time or action with these monsters, instead hearing more about Kosara’s experiences in the past dealing with these beings. But as the pacing ramps up, about a third of the way into the story, we start to get some truly action-packed scenes, full of horror and excitement. Truly, it’s been a while since I’ve read a fantasy story that so effectively pulled me into these sort of scenes; I often found myself on the edge of my seat, wondering how Kosara and Asen were going to escape.

As for Kosara herself, man, she has to be one of my new favorite leading ladies of the year! On her own right, she’s a strong, independent character who is used to going it alone. Her past is rife with trials and mistakes, all of which have lead her to distrust those around her, sometimes to the detriment of her own situation and any burgeoning relationships she’s trying to form. In this way, her relationship with Asen is particularly interesting. Even as she slowly begins to trust and like him more, the habits of a hard life are difficult to fully shed, and we see her continuously struggle against her own worst tendencies and to have to later deal with the repercussions of these choices. I also really enjoyed the slow-burn romance between them. It’s very, very much a backburner part of the story, however, so readers shouldn’t go into it expecting much on this front. For me, however, this is almost the exact level of romance I look for in my preferred fantasy reads: it’s there, it has sweet moments, it has a lot of potential, but it’s not the main point of the story.

What’s more, much of the character arch of this story is tied up in Kosara’s relationship with the antagonist of the story, her ex, the monster, the Zmey. This was simply fantastic. For one thing, it’s a nice rebuttal (perhaps too strong of word, maybe “counterbalance” would be better) to the many fantasy romances out there where the male love interest can often come across (or actually be!) quite abusive (usually emotionally or verbally). Here, we see the after effects on a woman who escaped an abusive relationship. What’s more, we see the ongoing challenges of being exposed to this sort of person, the way their power over their victim can remain, despite escape, despite “knowing better.” Kosara can recognize the dangers and abusive tactics of the Zmey, but she can also understand why women keep coming to him, and why she, herself, still feels drawn to him, despite all of this. It was all supremely well done, and not a subject I see covered this well very often. This is the dark side of the “but I can change him” story that we often see go the other way.

As you can tell, I loved this book! I started out this review thinking to give it a “9” on my rating scale, but now after writing about it, I realize I haven’t come up with a single criticism, and indeed, spent a good chunk of time talking about how rarely good it is at covering some its themes. If that’s not a “10” rated book, I don’t know what it! I highly recommend this to all fantasy readers, especially those who enjoy Naomi Novik, Margaret Rogerson, or Emily Lloyd-Jones!

Rating 10: Fantastic in every sense of the word, with a world brimming with magic and peopled with characters you can’t but fall in love with!

Reader’s Advisory:

“Foul Days” can be found on these Goodreads lists: The Most Beautiful Covers of 2024 and Eastern European Fantasy.

Kate’s Review: “Horror Movie”


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Book: “Horror Movie” by Paul Tremblay

Publishing Info: William Morrow, June 2024

Where Did I Get This Book: I received an eARC from NetGalley.

Where You Can Get This Book: WorldCat.org | Amazon | Indiebound

Book Description: A chilling twist on the “cursed film” genre from the bestselling author of The Pallbearers Club and The Cabin at the End of the World.

In June 1993, a group of young guerilla filmmakers spent four weeks making Horror Movie, a notorious, disturbing, art-house horror flick. The weird part? Only three of the film’s scenes were ever released to the public, but Horror Movie has nevertheless grown a rabid fanbase. Three decades later, Hollywood is pushing for a big budget reboot.

The man who played “The Thin Kid” is the only surviving cast member. He remembers all too well the secrets buried within the original screenplay, the bizarre events of the filming, and the dangerous crossed lines on set that resulted in tragedy. As memories flood back in, the boundaries between reality and film, past and present start to blur. But he’s going to help remake the film, even if it means navigating a world of cynical producers, egomaniacal directors, and surreal fan conventions — demons of the past be damned.

But at what cost? 

Horror Movie is an obsessive, psychologically chilling, and suspenseful twist on the “cursed film” that breathlessly builds to an unforgettable, mind-bending conclusion.

Review: Thank you to NetGalley for sending me an eARC of this novel!

Hooray hooray, it’s finally time for another Paul Tremblay horror novel!! I always look forward to seeing what this master of horror literature comes up with next, as not only can I count on it being deeply deeply upsetting in a scary sense, I can also count on it being deeply deeply upsetting in a ‘I am experiencing utter despair’ sense. And in “Horror Movie” we get both of those things and then some as we are told the story of a production of a ‘cursed’ horror movie, which starts as a shoe string low budget project and ends up as a tragedy that has to be shut down… only for a reboot in the works years later, with one of the last people involved standing being tapped to participate. This alone was enough to have me on board, but with Tremblay at the helm I knew that this was going to be a ride. And man, I really adored it.

There were so many elements of this book that really, really got under my skin. One reason for this is the narrative structure, as we are kind of flipping back and forth between two. The first is that of the unreliable (as we slowly start to realize) narration of our Unnamed Protagonist who played “The Thin Kid” in the original film as he navigates the new situation of a reboot and reminisces about his time on set with friends and coworkers Valentina (the director), Cleo (the writer), and the other people involved in the production that becomes a new member of the ‘cursed films’ club when tragedy after tragedy befalls so many people connected to the project. What starts out as a pretty straight forward thread that seems like a reminiscing and a slow reveal to the first domino of an incident that closed down the film gradually starts to transform into something very, very odd, and downright unnerving. And then on the other side we get snippets from Cleo’s original script for “Horror Movie”, which starts as a pretty familiar arthouse horror film with a little bit of an inflated sense of itself, but then really, REALLY starts to shift towards something that is, indeed, a bit genius but also bizarre. There is one moment describing a long holding shot towards the end of the book that really, really creeped me out because of how Tremblay drew it out, and I genuinely began to feel anxiety and was nervously giggling to myself as it went on. Tremblay has always been SO good at creating completely nerve wracking moments and beats without spilling into ludicrous or unworkable territory, and “Horror Movie” is another masterclass in this. And it really messed with me.

Me suppressing a panic attack until I can be alone after putting down the book after one specific scene. (source)

But this is also a really interesting take on the idea of art creation and how it can consume the creator, but also how art can come to life due to the belief in it, whether or not it’s from the creator itself or from the audience that it finds. There are some obvious explorations of this, mostly as “The Thin Kid” has to basically be method during the production and is isolated from everyone else and even goes to extreme lengths to get into character. But we also kind of see this through Valentina and Cleo’s methods as they are filming, as they have such grand ideas and lofty heights for their creation and how they want it to turn out. And even the way that the movie garners a following in spite of the fact it was never completed and never officially released, but through a few scenes being posted to YouTube which somehow brings not only the fanbase to life, but also other things that perhaps didn’t have the power they wield until a love of the art itself spread far and wide. It’s such an interesting examination of the power of art, for better or for worse. You get the sense that our protagonist probably wouldn’t be on the path he ends up on were it not for the film he was a part of, and not just because of what happened on the set.

Another fantastic novel from Paul Tremblay. I really loved “Horror Movie” in all its weird, nerve-wracking glory. I always look forward to Tremblay’s twisted horror tales, and highly recommend that horror fans check him out if you haven’t already!

Rating 9: A strange, deeply disturbing meditation on the creation of art, the way a myth can build, and how creation can influence destiny.

Reader’s Advisory:

“Horror Movie” is included on the Goodreads lists “Lost Films & Cursed Movies”, and “Found Footage”.