Author: thelibraryladiesmn

Kate’s Review: “American Vampire (Vol. 4)”

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Book: “American Vampire (Vol.4)” by Scott Snyder, Rafael Albuquerque (Ill.), & Jordi Bernet (Ill.)

Publishing Info: Vertigo, September 2012

Where Did I Get This Book: I own it.

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

Book Description: American Vampire flashes back to two very distinct points in American history. The first tale comes from the early 1800’s with the “The Beast in the Cave” featuring art by the legendary Jordi Bernet (Torpedo, Jonah Hex). Learn about the original American Vampire, Skinner Sweet, and his involvement in the brutal Indian Wars, and an ancient evil hidden in the heart of the Old West. Plus, more about the man Skinner used to call his best friend – James Book!

The second tale comes straight from 1950s America, where American Vampire is terrorizing the suburbs with hot rods, teenyboppers and fangs! “Death Race” focuses on ferocious new vampire hunter Travis Kidd – but what is his connection to Skinner Sweet? As the story comes to a violent end, a sworn enemy’s identity is finally revealed, and lots of blood is spilled!

Writer Scott Snyder (Batman, Swamp Thing) and artist Rafael Albuquerque bring together even more threads to the complex tapestry that is the world of American Vampire.

Review: Admittedly as I was going about my read through of “American Vampire”, I picked up “Volume 4” and had an ‘I have no memory of this place’ moment. I had vivid recollections of the previous volume, just as I have recollections of what comes next. But this one didn’t stand out in my mind. So I was eager to dive in and remind myself what this volume had to offer. But as I was reading, I realized that there was probably reason I didn’t remember much. “American Vampire (Vol. 4)” is, unfortunately, the weakest part of the story yet.

But as always, let’s start with what I did like, and that was mostly the story “The Nocturnes”. We follow Calvin, one of the Vassals that was sent on the basically doomed Taipan mission during WWII, who we thought was dead, but actually was turned into a vampire when he was accidentally exposed to some of Pearl’s blood. The good news is he’s still working for the Vassals, and this standalone tale is following him and what he’s been up to. Mostly it’s taxonomy for the organization, categorizing different and new vampire subspecies, and in this story it isn’t a mission that has his interest, but a familial one: once he became a vampire he cut all ties to the living world outside of work, and he just wants to see his brother perform in his singing group. Unfortunately it’s in a sundown town, and also unfortunately, there are vampires afoot. I like Calvin as a character, and I liked seeing this exploration of what you have to give up as a Vassal, as those we have met up until now have been pretty solitary anyway. I also liked the way that it explores Jim Crow racism and sundown towns, and Calvin’s Othering because of his skin as well as his undead status. It’s a perspective we haven’t seen yet in the story and I enjoyed it.

BUT, that said, the other arcs in this collection haven’t aged super well from when they were first published. For one, guess who has once again been relegated to the sidelines: Pearl. She is barely in this book. Felicia Book isn’t in it at all. And we are STILL dwelling on Skinner Sweet, and while I KNEW that he wasn’t actually dead, it’s still frustrating that we didn’t get any kind of breather from him as a character who gets a huge friggin’ spotlight. This story takes us back to when he wasn’t yet a vampire, and we find out that he was actually good friends with James Book of all people, and they fought together during the Indian Wars, and oh boy. OH BOY. For one, the very complex and tragic subject matter at hand just doesn’t really sit well with me these days, given how the U.S. Government has consistently participated in a genocide against Indigenous peoples, and having that as a plot point in this story feels pretty grotesque. For another, we get into what is a well meaning story about the actual first American Vampire, an Indigenous woman named Mimiteh who was attacked by colonizer vampires and staked by the Vassals of the Morning Star as a precaution. After rising from the dead she is worshipped and feared by the Apache peoples that the U.S. Government is trying to overwhelm, and it just feels appropriative. It sure doesn’t help that Mimiteh is stark naked in nearly every encounter we see of her, which makes it feel all the more dehumanizing. And here’s a tip, making James Book, one of the pretty clear cut ‘good guys’ of this series, a participant in colonial driven genocide is probably not a good idea if you want him to remain clean nosed (creepy relationship with Felcia’s mother aside). The other story is about a vampire hunter for the Vassals named Travis Kidd, whose family was killed by a vampire and now he’s trying to take all vampires out. I did like some things about this story, namely that Travis kind of has a Charles Starkweather feel to him, in that when we first meet him he is killing his teenage girlfriend’s family, but they are vampires so it’s not the horrific spree that Starkweather had. It’s a wry reference to be sure. But, SURPRISE SURPRISE, do you know who it is that he ultimately wants his revenge against? You guessed it. SKINNER FREAKING SWEET. So we get very little Pearl in this collection, NO Felicia Book, and we get TWO HUGE STORIES WITH SWEET. SERIOUSLY?!

My feelings towards Skinner Sweet, and I MAY BE THE ONLY ONE?! (source)

Okay, so it was a bit of a stumble, but “American Vampire (Vol. 4)” does set up the next arc with a solid cliffhanger. I feel like Pearl and Felicia get more to do next time around, so onwards I go with higher hopes.

Rating 6: It just hasn’t aged super well. Also, while I knew we weren’t done with Skinner Sweet, I REALLY wish we were done with Skinner Sweet. That said, a story following Calvin is pretty good, and I liked some true crime connection and homages.

Reader’s Advisory:

“American Vampire (Vol. 4)” is included on the Goodreads list “Best Horror Comics/Graphic Novels”.

Previously Reviewed:

Serena’s Review: “Cursed”

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Book: “Cursed” by Marissa Meyer

Publishing Info: Feiwel and Friends, November 2022

Where Did I Get this Book: Edelweiss+

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

Book Description: Adalheid Castle is in chaos.

Following a shocking turn of events, Serilda finds herself ensnared in a deadly game of make-believe with the Erlking, who is determined to propel her deeper into the castle’s lies. Meanwhile, Serilda is determined to work with Gild to help him solve the mystery of his forgotten name and past.

But soon it becomes clear that the Erlking doesn’t only want to use Serilda to bring back his one true love. He also seeks vengeance against the seven gods who have long trapped the Dark Ones behind the veil. If the Erlking succeeds, it could change the mortal realm forever.

Can Serilda find a way to use her storytelling gifts for good—once and for all? And can Serilda and Gild break the spells that tether their spirits to the castle before the Endless Moon finds them truly cursed?

Previously Reviewed: “Gilded”

Review: Back when I reviewed “Princess of Souls,” I went on a mini rant about Macmillan only handing out one ARC per day to each individual during ALA. And back when I reviewed “Gilded” last week, I went on another mini rant against myself for delaying reading this duology. Well, combine those two and you and get the rant where I missed out on an ARC for “Cursed” at ALA because a.) I hadn’t gotten around to reading the first one and b.) they were only handing out one ARC, so I picked “Princess of Souls”…

Man, I wish I had picked this book instead!

Expecting a child and engaged to the evil Erkling, Serilda’s prospects really couldn’t be worse. Add on top of that the fact that her beloved village children are trapped under the Erkling’s curse, and she cannot tell her love and the father of her child, Gild, any of this for fear of tipping off the Erkling to her plans. With the clock ticking on her pregnancy, Serilda is desperate to find a way to save the children, Gild, and her own baby. But as she works to uncover the secret history of the land, she discovers that the Erkling’s game is much greater than she had suspected.

I pretty much read this book immediately after finishing up “Gilded.” I think it really worked being read in this way, as the story picks up immediately after the previous one kicks off. It really could feel like one, longer book. In some ways, I think it was even improved on for being read this way. As, given the way the action of the entire duology is spread out, this book opens on the lull before the story. The previous book set it all up, but this stories opens with Serilda in a fairly impossible situation. Ultimately, as judged on its own, I do think this one struggled a bit more with pacing right off the the bat because of this. As the story continued, there were long swaths of time where very little happened. There were also large changes in scenery and situation that would also feel a bit like they petered out into yet another lull. But, overall, I do think the plotting and pacing work, if they are a bit more jumbled than in the first book.

This is still very much Serilda’s story, and I continued to enjoy her as a main character. I thought the way Meyers handled her pregnancy was interesting (if a bit of a cop out in certain ways), and Serilda’s relationship with the children of her village and the child she will soon bring into the world remains her primary motivation and focus. The romance is, of course, still very sweet. But, if anything, this book reinforced again and again that this is not the relationship at the core of Serilda’s world, as much as she loves Gild. I really liked this. Not only is it refreshing to read about a main character who’s motivational relationship is not yet another romantic interest, but Meyers used this opportunity to continue to build on what was, really, a very bare bones start to Gild and Serilda’s relationship (Serilda even spends time reflecting on whether or not she truly can say she’s “in love” with Gild having only known him for a total of three nights at this point). However, perhaps unsurprising to those familiar with my pet peeves, I did struggle on and off with why Serilda continued to keep so many secrets from Gild. She seemed to be very dismissive of his ability to keep a secret or remain level-headed in front of the Erkling. But…isn’t he the one who’s been successfully dealing with this cruel king for centuries?

The story did take good number of unexpected turns along the way, and I think this really worked. As I said, there were lulls to the story, but every time I began to get the first hints of tedium, Meyers would throw a massive switch into things, and I’d find myself facing almost a completely new story and challenge. I think this worked very well and helped combat some of the pacing issues. I was able to predict a few of these reveals, but the way everything came to light and played out still was surprising and fun. There was one final twist towards the end that I’m still not completely sure makes a lot of sense. But…eh, I could go with it.

This was a very solid conclusion to the duology. I think the pacing does knock it down from a 9 to an 8, for me. But it was still a very solid read and one I greatly enjoyed. Fans of the first book are sure to be pleased with this one (just don’t expect greatly increased Gild/Serilda action though!)

Rating 8: An excellent continuation and conclusion to a unique fairytale retelling, this book (and duology) is sure to please YA fantasy fans!

Reader’s Advisory:

“Cursed” can be found on these Goodreads lists: Epic High Fantasy/Romance/Mythology in 2022 and YA Releases November 2022.

Kate’s Review: “The Vicious Circle”

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Book: “The Vicious Circle” by Katherine St. John

Publishing Info: William Morrow & Company, September 2022

Where Did I Get This Book: I received an ARC from the publisher at ALAAC22.

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

Book Description: A perfect paradise? Or a perfect nightmare?

On a river deep in the Mexican jungle stands the colossal villa Xanadu, a wellness center that’s home to The Mandala, an ardent spiritual group devoted to self-help guru Paul Bentzen and his enigmatic wife Kali. But when, mysteriously, Paul suddenly dies, his entire estate–including Xanadu–is left to his estranged niece Sveta, a former model living in New York City.

Shocked and confused, Sveta travels to Mexico to pay her respects. At first, Xanadu seems like a secluded paradise with its tumbling gardens, beautiful people, transcendent vibe, and mesmerizing de-facto leader Kali. But soon the mystical façade wears thin, revealing a group of brainwashed members drunk on false promises of an impossible utopia and a disturbing, dangerous belief system–and leader–guiding them.

As the sinister forces surrounding Sveta become apparent, she realizes, too late, she can’t escape. Frantic and terrified, she discovers her only hope for survival is to put her confidence in the very person she trusts the least.

Review: Thank you to William Morrow & Company for giving me an ARC of this novel!

On that first night of the ALA Annual Conference, there is always a bit of a free for all in the exhibit hall as publishers unleash ARCs of books unto the librarian masses. In the recent times I have gone I always tell myself, ‘be discerning! Don’t grab for the sake of grabbing! You know what books you want, prioritize those!’. And, as one can imagine, that never works, and I end up with many books because panic tells me so. But hey, I’ve found some fun books this way, and that is why I don’t kick myself too hard when I do it. That is how I got “The Vicious Circle” by Katherine St. John: I passed the table, saw the cover, read the back and said to myself ‘IT’S A CULT THRILLER!’ and shoved it in my tote bag. I finally sat down to read it a couple months after the fact, and it was…. a decidedly mixed bag.

In terms of a cult thriller, “The Vicious Circle” is pretty successful if only because it knows what notes to hit and doesn’t stray from it. The details The Mandala pick and choose from a lot of other true life cults; you get a little People’s Temple/Jonestown, you get a little Rajneeshpuram, you get a little NXIVM, with sprinkles of Scientology and Children of God for good measure. It’s a true smorgasbord of cult ideologies, and it was kind of fun for me to be able to be like ‘oh I get that reference’. There is also an effective ‘frog in the pot of boiling water’ pacing as our protagonist Sveta arrives at a compound called Xanadu in the Mexican jungle after getting word that she has inherited a vast fortune from her late uncle Paul. Who just so happened to be an incredibly successful wellness author and icon, influential enough to have a compound called Xanadu in the Mexican jungle. Sveta thinks that it’s going to be easy to settle the estate and everything else with Kali, her uncle Paul’s wife, and then begins to realize that maybe things aren’t what they seem. I always enjoy the ‘oh shit’ moments in a cult thriller, and St. John definitely has many of them coming at a quick pace. It makes for a fun and easy thriller that is, in a way, comforting to a reader who likes these kinds of stories. And I fully realize that ‘comforting’ is a strange word choice given the fact we are talking about a potentially dangerous cult. But it kept me turning the pages to see how it all shook out for Sveta as she goes head to head with the Mandala and its devotees.

I think that some of the more negative aspects are pretty easy traps to fall into in a book like this, mostly because you need them for the story to work if you don’t want to do a lot of difficult literary heavy lifting. The biggest for me is that Sveta feels VERY naive and susceptible to being duped when I’m not quite certain that she would be. I’m not talking about falling for the cult angle, as that isn’t really the issue. It’s more the fact that she has found herself in a very precarious position: isolated in the jungle, newly named as a beneficiary of millions upon millions of dollars, and with a woman who has EVERY reason to want that money, but feels like she can trust said woman. I found it very frustrating that she took everything that Kali said at face value. You met her once for dinner and it was a nice meal. Fine. But your uncle CLEARLY kept her out of his will for a reason, especially since it sounds like his death wasn’t sudden. I understand why the story needs her to be this way, but I kind of needed more reasons for her to be this way. It made Sveta’s motivations feel more there to drive the plot as opposed to trying to make the two work in a cohesive and believable way.

All in all “The Vicious Circle” is entertaining enough and has enough suspense to keep me engaged and interested. It doesn’t really stand out too much from other run of the mill cult thrillers, but as someone who loves a cult thriller that isn’t necessarily a bad thing.

Rating 6: Pretty standard cult thriller reading. Doesn’t reinvent the wheel, but it’s entertaining enough.

Reader’s Advisory:

“The Vicious Circle” isn’t included on many specific Goodreads lists yet, but it would fit in on “Cults and Communes in Fiction”.

Highlights: November 2022

Kate weeps for the end of the Halloween Season, but now we are in November and we are barreling forward towards the winter holidays, where food and family rule and the cold weather in Minnesota starts to close in. Snow is pretty, but snow is also cold. Hopefully we still have some time to wait, and while we do we have some books that we are looking forward to this month!

Serena’s Picks

Book: “Saint” by Adrienne Young

Publication Date: November 29, 2022

Why I’m Interested: I don’t know if I can properly express just how much I hate this cover. Honestly, if I didn’t know that Adrienne Young is an established author with a good number of well-received books under her belt already, I’d glance at this and think it was one of more poorly designed self-published books I’ve seen. That aside, however….this is the prequel to the “Fable” duology and tells the story of her famous father, Saint, and of her mother, a woman who died before Fable’s own story began. I’m really excited to see the love story play out between these two characters. Though I’m a bit hesitant, as it’s always kind of a bummer to read about character who you know are going to hit up against tragedy hard in their future.

Book: “Raven Unveiled” by Grace Draven

Publication Date: November 8, 2022

Why I’m Interested: Grace Draven is another author whom I’ve really enjoyed reading. I’ve gone through a lot of her back catalog over the years, but it has been especially fun reading her “Fallen Empire” trilogy as it’s come out. We’ve seen a lot familiar romantic pairing tropes covered and covered well. And like the first book, this romance is one of my favorites: enemies to lovers! It also features two characters who were introduced in the second book (to varying extents between them) and whose conflict was built into that book. After meeting them there, I was primed with excitement to see how their story would play out here, with Gharek, the late Queen’s “fixer” essentially, chasing after Siora, the woman who used to care for his daughter but whom he now sees as the person who betrayed them. Can’t wait to check this one out!

Book: “Tread of Angels” by Rebecca Roanhorse

Publication Date: November 15, 2022

Why I’m Interested: I’ve really been enjoying this author’s “Between Earthand Sky” series, so she’s become kind of a no-brainer for lists like this. She comes out with a new book? It’ll probably end up here. But this novella also sounds particularly interesting, following the story of a young woman setting out to try and save her sister who is accused of murder. Add in fallen angels, demons, and a strange new world, and this book sounds like just my cup of tea. Not to mention, November is a busy reading month for me; there are so many great upcoming books that I couldn’t fit on this list! That being the case, I’m happy to get my hands on a novella every once in a while.

Kate’s Picks

Book: “White Horse” by Erika T. Wurth

Publication Date: November 1, 2022

Why I’m Interested: You know how much I love a good horror story, especially if there are ghosts involved, and “White Horse” by Erika T. Wurth is getting a lot of hype in the horror community from people I trust. Kari has been perfectly satisfied with her metal music, her horror novel collection, and sitting at the local bar The White Horse a few nights a week. She tries not to think of the mother who left her when she was two days old, or her father’s accident that threw her into a caregiver role. But when her cousin Debbie brings Kari a bracelet that once belonged to her missing mother, Kari starts seeing the woman’s ghost, as well as visions of other, scarier things. Kari is determined to find out what happened to her mom, and to try and stave off whatever monster has come along for the ride.

Book: “Wayward” by Chuck Wendig

Publication Date: November 15, 2022

Why I’m Interested: Back in 2019, Chuck Wendig wrote a pandemic thriller/dystopia story called “Wanderers” in which a fungus based disease took out a huge majority of Earth’s population. And then a year later we were in the midst of an actual real-life pandemic, and while it wasn’t as deadly as White Mask by any means, it still turned the whole world upside down. And now we have the sequel, “Wayward”, and I have to say it’s an achievement of my own anxiety and mental health that I could pick up an 800+ page book about a pandemic raged America. The town of Ouray is home to the former sleepwalkers, Shepherds, and Black Swan, the AI that predicted world’s end. Benji is a well respected member of the community, Shana is awaiting the birth of her child after being in stasis for years, and Matthew is barely hanging on. But then Black Swan starts acting strange, and its followers are becoming more fervent. Soon Ouray doesn’t seem as utopic as it once did. I smell a cult, guys, and that sounds awesome.

Book: “Five Survive” by Holly Jackson

Publication Date: November 29, 2022

Why I’m Interested: I really loved Holly Jackson’s “Good Girl’s Guide to Murder” Trilogy, so it was a no brainer that I absolutely needed to read her next YA thriller novel “Five Survive”. Her stories are so addictive and fun, and this one goes in a whole different direction than what we saw with Pip in that previous series. Six friends are on an RV road trip hoping to meet up with friends for a relaxing and fun vacation. But when the RV’s tires blow, they are completely confused as to what could have happened, since the road looks clear. Then they realize that someone shot them out, and is watching them with a gun. The shooter says that they want a secret that one of them is hiding, and that person had better come clean, or else people will die. Soon the friends start questioning who they really are to each other.

What new books are you looking forward to this month? Let us know in the comments!

Serena’s Review: “The Golden Enclaves”

This post may contain affiliate links for books we recommend.  Read the full disclosure here.

Book: “The Golden Enclaves” by Naomi Novik

Publishing Info: Del Rey Books, September 2022

Where Did I Get this Book: own it!

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

Book Description: The one thing you never talk about while you’re in the Scholomance is what you’ll do when you get out. Not even the richest enclaver would tempt fate that way. But it’s all we dream about, the hideously slim chance we’ll survive to make it out the gates and improbably find ourselves with a life ahead of us, a life outside the Scholomance halls.

And now the impossible dream has come true. I’m out, we’re all out–and I didn’t even have to turn into a monstrous dark witch to make it happen. So much for my great-grandmother’s prophecy of doom and destruction. I didn’t kill enclavers, I saved them. Me, and Orion, and our allies. Our graduation plan worked to perfection: we saved everyone and made the world safe for all wizards and brought peace and harmony to all the enclaves of the world.

Ha, only joking! Actually it’s gone all wrong. Someone else has picked up the project of destroying enclaves in my stead, and probably everyone we saved is about to get killed in the brewing enclave war on the horizon. And the first thing I’ve got to do now, having miraculously got out of the Scholomance, is turn straight around and find a way back in.

Previously Reviewed: “A Deadly Education” and “The Last Graduate”

Review: This was probably my most anticipated release for the entire year. My sister was getting married the week it came out, and I forewarned her that I would have limited time to help as I would need to prioritize reading. JK, I didn’t actually do that (though, as she’s also an avid reader and loves this trilogy, she might just have joined me in avoiding wedding work for reading!). So, without any more prelude, let’s get into it!

Things both did and yet so very much did NOT go to plan. Yes, El and her friends managed to save the students of the Scholomance, fill the school with mals, and send it careening off into the void. No, they did not live happily ever after. In one last heroic effort, Orion was trapped and left behind in the Scholomance, doomed to a horrific end at the mercy of the most terrible type of mals there is, a mawmouth. And now a mysterious force is crippling the enclaves, provoking them into suspicion and fear, a hair’s breath away from all-out war with one another. With forces spiraling out of control and only an array of awful choices before her, El must find away to avoid her fate of becoming a world-destroying maleficier.

I was worried about this book in much the same way that I was worried about the seventh “Harry Potter” book when it came out. For one thing, the books that came before were pretty much perfection in my estimation, but the end to a series can really make or break the entire thing, even ruining excellent books that came before. For a second thing, both “Deathly Hollows” and “The Golden Enclaves” abandon the formula and setting that was so central to the series up to this point. The Scholomance was not just a school, it was a character that drove almost all of the story and plot of the first two books. So, without it…would the story hold up? Well, long story short, yes, yes it did!

What I continue to love about this series is how creatively Novik tackles concepts and themes that are very relatable to a modern reader. But under all the magical guild and guise, they’re also presented as completely organic to the story, no one message feeling particularly preachy or heavy-handed. Given the title, it will come as no surprise that much of this story revolves around the Enclaves, the powerful communities that provided shelter from the many dangers facing magical beings. But these communities are incredibly difficult to get into, leading to a very stratified culture between the haves and have-nots. Like the other two books, a large part of this book is taken up by El’s exploration and explanation of how these Enclaves work, many of their secrets being new to not only the reader but El as well. And from there, the book dives into the real meat of the story: where is the line in “the sacrifice of one for the good of the many?”

What I really appreciated in the exploration of this theme throughout the book was how handily Novik avoided coming to any easy, pat explanations. Instead, she meticulously lays out a problem, a world, and the people in that world handling that problem as nuanced and complicated. El must make choices, but these choices do not come with all the feel-good material of a righteous easy path. Instead, her path is full of rage, devastation, and the hard realization that more often than not the world is not made up of monstrous people but of monstrous situations or systems that cause people to make monstrous choices again and again.

I also loved how so many aspects of the first two books were tied up into this one. Not only do we have the prophesy that has hounded El her entire life (that she will become a destroyer of worlds), but there is also the question surrounding Orion and his unique abilities. There were some genuinely shocking reveals in this book. I had the inkling of a guess on one tiny aspect of it, but most of it was a complete surprise and I was there for it.

This book is also much darker and more grim than the previous two entries (not that they were particularly light-hearted, what with all the discussion about child and teen death rates). But from the very first page, El’s journey is one of bare, tortured persistence in the face of horror after horror. Those looking for much in the realm of quirky teenage romance (not a lot to be found before, but at least some) should prepare for a much darker tale than that. However, all of that being said, El, and this book, doggedly strive towards the hopeful, even in the face of horrible odds and terrible choices. I loved how it all came together in the end. And while no one rides off into a utopian sunset, the story felt complete and completely satisfying. Fans of the first two books (as long as you weren’t only in it for the love story) are should to love this book just as I did!

Rating 10: Superb! A perfect landing for what feels like a perfect trilogy full of challenging themes of power, family, and hope.

Reader’s Advisory:

“The Golden Enclaves” can be found on these Goodreads lists: Dark Academia and Best Adult Sci-Fi/Fantasy Trilogies.

Kate’s Review: “Effects Vary”

This post may contain affiliate links for books we recommend.  Read the full disclosure here.

Book: “Effects Vary” by Michael Harris Cohen

Publishing Info: Cemetary Gates Media, October 2022

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

Where You Can Get This Book: Amazon

Book Description: Effects Vary features 22 stories of dark fiction and literary horror that explore the shadow side of love, loss, and family. From an aging TV star’s murderous plan to rekindle her glory days, to a father who returns from war forever changed, from human lab rats who die again and again, to a farmer who obeys the dreadful commands of the sky, these stories, four of them award winners, blur the thin line between reality and the darkest reaches of the imagination.

Review: Thank you to Michael Harris Cohen for reaching out an sending me an eARC of this novel!

Halloween season may be over (ugh, it always goes way too fast), but you know me and you know how much I love scary stories. So we aren’t staying away from horror for too long, as today I am taking on “Effects Vary” by Michael Harris Cohen. When this ended up in our inbox, I thought that it was probably about time that I pick up a horror short stories anthology. It has been awhile, after all. And the info I found about it piqued my interest, even though I tend to be a little gun shy about short story collections in general. But the good news is that “Effects Vary” was another positive experience with this format!

The stories in this collection run a real gamut! From different sub genres to different perspective construction to different lengths, the twenty two stories fit together well but all stand on their own in different ways. As always when it comes to short stories, I’ll talk about my favorite three, and then about the collection as a whole.

“Pain Is Your Teacher” : This is one of the shorter stories in the bunch, which is about the length of a drabble (for people who aren’t familiar with fan fiction, that’s a few hundred words at most). A woman writes a farewell letter to her husband as they are settling up their divorce, and as the letter winds down she reveals a last laugh she got upon him after years of abuse. Again, this is a short story, one of the shortest in the collection, but it gets right to the point and goes for the throat almost immediately. I felt like I learned everything I needed to know about Alexander and his nameless soon to be ex wife, and I thought that it was vicious and satisfying in all the right ways.

“Everything Is Forever”: A self proclaimed psychic and mostly charlatan is making an appearance on a TV show and having to explain how one of her recent predictions got things so wrong. As someone who has vivid memories of my nanny watching Sylvia Browne on “Montel”, and as someone who loves a medium story (legitimate or otherwise), I really liked the trajectory this one took. It’s another shorter story in this collection, but even in the limited pages Cohen manages to create a broad narrative and backstory for Joyce the psychic, and creates a tragic circumstance that cuts right to the emotional quick and is absolutely haunting.

“The Ex-Court Painter, Goya, and The Princess”: This one was almost certainly my favorite story in the collection, as it’s unsettling as hell but also has a certain bittersweetness to it. An ex-court painter for Spanish King Charles IV is called back to the palace to paint for the King, even though Goya has taken over. He finds out that the King wants him to paint a portrait of the princess, who as a baby has died tragically shortly after being born. As the painter comes back every year to create a new portrait that imagines how she would have aged, his obsession with the dead princess he has created starts to grow. This one is very creepy, as our ex-court painter becomes more and more fixated on a girl who has been long dead (and who died as an infant no less!), but it also captures grief, regret, and madness in ways that treat more towards melancholy rather than flat out shock or distaste.

The rest of the stories were kind of hit or miss for me, though I do think that there were more hits than misses. Cohen can easily jump from setting to setting and has so many characters and circumstances that all feel well thought out and envisioned, and I thought that all of them did a good job of setting a scene and going on a journey in ways that were quick but satisfying.

If you, reader, are wondering why this has a 7 rating instead of a higher one when I have been generally pretty positive, I will say that there were some ongoing themes in the collection that were really hard for me to deal with, specifically child death. I felt like there was more child death in this collection than I was able to really handle at the time of reading it, as it’s a difficult theme even once in a story. So in a collection of multiple stories that have multiple moments of children dying, it’s probably no surprise that I had a hard time with this. What can I say, I’m unfortunately one of those people that, now that she has a child, is far more sensitive to such things (for examples, I can’t watch Alex Kintner’s death in “Jaws”, and I have to stop watching the opening scene of “Scream” when Casey’s parents come home). This is obviously VERY subjective from reader to reader, so while I had a difficult time dealing with it, another reader may be totally okay with it as a theme in their horror fiction. But it still did have an effect on my reading experience. One could say that effects vary.

You have no idea how proud I was with that little joke. (source)

Overall, “Effects Vary” is an effective and varied collection of dark fantasy and horror tales. I’m sure that most horror fans will find a lot to like here!

Rating 7: A huge array of horror stories for any horror fan, “Effects Vary” is a varied collection of scary tales.

Reader’s Advisory:

“Effects Vary” isn’t on any Goodreads lists as of now, but it would fit in on “Best Horror Short Stories”.

Serena’s Review: “Gilded”

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Book: “Gilded” by Marissa Meyer

Publishing Info: Feiwel and Friends, November 2021

Where Did I Get this Book: Edelweiss+

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

Book Description: Long ago cursed by the god of lies, a poor miller’s daughter has developed a talent for spinning stories that are fantastical and spellbinding and entirely untrue.

Or so everyone believes.

When one of Serilda’s outlandish tales draws the attention of the sinister Erlking and his undead hunters, she finds herself swept away into a grim world where ghouls and phantoms prowl the earth and hollow-eyed ravens track her every move. The king orders Serilda to complete the impossible task of spinning straw into gold, or be killed for telling falsehoods. In her desperation, Serilda unwittingly summons a mysterious boy to her aid. He agrees to help her . . . for a price.

Soon Serilda realizes that there is more than one secret hidden in the castle walls, including an ancient curse that must be broken if she hopes to end the tyranny of the king and his wild hunt forever.

Review: We read “Cinder” for bookclub many (many) years ago, and I remember enjoying it for the most part. Which is why I bewilder myself that I haven’t read any of the rest of the books in that series or by this author! She writes creative fairytale retellings (some times even including science fiction angles!) for heaven’s sake! That sounds right up my alley! Whatever the case, I did request an e-galley of this book back in 2021 when it came out….and again failed to prioritize it. But when I saw that the second one was coming out this fall, I finally decided that enough was enough, so here we finally, finally are.

Serilda is a story-teller at heart, spending her days spinning wonderous tales of magic and danger. Most of the time, however, this propensity for tall-tales is only appreciated by the village children. Indeed, most others see the mysterious wheels of color that mark her eyes and see nothing but trouble, a young woman touched by a god known for lies. Soon enough, however, magic seems to escape from the world of words and Serilda finds herself caught up in a tall tale herself, forced to spin straw into gold (a skill she foolishly claimed during one of her stories) for a cruel Fae king. Luckily for her, she meets a strange young man who does in fact have this skill. But what will he ask for in return?

I have to say, discovering that you’ve been missing out on something awesome has to be one of the few times where you’re almost rewarded for your own delay. I mean, I loved this book and I had the second book already primed and ready to go and got to merrily skip out on the year-long wait that other fans had to put up with! But it also means I’ve just been missing good books for years. I’ll definitely be checking out those other “Cinder” books now, that’s for sure.

This book was a solid fairy-tale retelling, meeting all of the requirements I look for in this sort of book. The plot hits all the major markers that readers are familiar with from the original “Rumpelstiltskin,” but other than these basic points, the world, characters, and story all feel fresh and unique. Obviously, the biggest change is that Gild himself is not the villain but the love interest. This is definitely an example of a “less is more” romance, and I appreciated that the author didn’t abandon her premise to give more page time to this character or the romance in general. Indeed, it proves just how well-written Gild was that I was fully invested in his story and the romance between him and Serilda given we only see him briefly here and there, broken up by large sections of the story that follow only Serilda.

But this choice is even neatly referenced by Serilda herself at times, noting that this is her story and not Gild’s. While the mystery surrounding him and his ability to spin gold is at the heart of much of the story, Serilda’s own motivations and priorities are what drives things: her love for her father, a mother she lost to magic years ago, and to the young children she tells stories to in her village. She was an excellent character in that you can see her making choices that you, as the reader, know will lead to mischief and sorrow, but they also feel true to the character she is. She also never shies away from the fallout of her own decisions, good and bad. She’s an incredibly strong and brave character, and, at times, laugh out loud funny.

But the story was also much darker than I was expecting. The Erkling was a terrifyingly cruel character, his presence seeming to leak off the page and let you viscerally feel the fear that everyone experiences when around him. There were several moments in the story where it felt like the author was going in a certain direction and I thought “oh, she won’t follow through on that, there will be a way out.” Nope! This had all the darkness and grim horror that is often found in classic fairytales where innocence is not a magical shield that protects characters from bad outcomes.

I loved this book. For all that it had dark, sob-worthy moments, I also found the dialogue and inner monologue to be clever and witty, giving the reader a nice reprieve from too much gloom. It does end on a pretty massive cliff hanger, but luckily for me (and anyone else who hasn’t read it yet) the second book in the duology is coming out this month, so there’s not much of a wait there. I definitely recommend this for fairy-tale fantasy readers. It might also fall into the rare “new adult” fantasy genre.

Rating 9: Sooooo good! An excellent fairytale retelling that takes a familiar story and character and remakes them into something entirely new and fresh.

Reader’s Advisory:

“Gilded” can be found on these Goodreads lists: YA Fractured Fairytales/Radical Retellings and YA/NA Fantasy Romance Book Club Nominations.

Kate’s Review: “Always the First to Die”

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Book: “Always the First to Die” by R.J. Jacobs

Publishing Info: Sourcebooks Landmark, September 2022

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

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

Book Description: For fans of Riley Sager with a classic slasher twist, Always the First to Die follows a former horror movie actress as she returns to the set of her most iconic film, only to find that the strange circumstances begin to resemble the plot of her most famous film.

After her husband’s death, Lexi has refused to return to the Pinecrest Estate on the Florida Keys, too many hard memories on that strip of land. Memories of meeting her husband on the set of an iconic horror movie. Of being cast as an extra, of watching herself get killed on screen. And of scoffing at the rumors of the Pinecrest Estate “curse,” until she witnessed a cast member die that very summer. But when her daughter sneaks away to visit her grandfather, legendary horror movie director Rick Plummer, Lexi is forced to face her past. That’s when a Category Four hurricane changes course, and hits the southern coast.

Unable to get through to her daughter, Lexi drives to the Keys in the wake of the storm. What she finds is an island without cell service, without power, and with limited police presence. A desolate bit of land, with only a few remaining behind: the horror director, the starlet once cast as the final girl, the young teenager searching for clues of her father, the mother determined to get off the island, and…the person picking them off one-by-one.

Soon enough Lexi’s life begins to resemble Rick’s most famous horror film, and she must risk her life to save her daughter before someone, or something, destroys them all.

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

Well even though Horrorpalooza is over for this year, you know that I like to extend the spooky season well beyond the end of October. So it just made sense to pick a thriller that has some quality horror love and reference points to ease out of an all horror line up. So that brings us to “Always the First to Die” by R.J. Jacobs, a thriller novel with a slasher movie twist. As a slasher movie geek with a love for fourth wall breaking nonsense, the description of this really spoke to me, and while I’ve saved it for a later review date (this has been out since September after all), make no mistake, I throughly enjoyed this book.

Since it is a mystery thriller at heart, let’s start there. The set up is pretty well done. We have Lexi, a current librarian who once had a serendipitous acting turn in “Breathless”, one of the most lauded (and most notorious) horror films of the 1990s. The director, Rick Plummer, has a reputation for being hardcore and visionary, and the death of one of the actors on the set solidified the film in Hollywood horror lore. Now Lexi is his daugher in law, his writer son/her husband Cam disappeared, and Rick lives on the Pinecrest Estate in the Keys where they filmed the movie and is estranged from Lexi. Lexi’s daughter lies to her and goes to visit grandad, and then a Hurricane hits. So Lexi goes to find her kid, but they all find themselves trapped on the island with a potential killer who may have a vendetta against Plummer. Solid stuff, and while it sounds fairly run of the mill, Jacobs does a good job of building the suspense while also giving back story so we can understand Lexi, Rick, and what is motivating both of them. We have two timelines, the first being the present day, and the second being the filming of “Breathless” where Lexi first meets Rick and things start going sideways, and both narratives take their time to build up the mystery and to leave clues that intersect with each other. I liked having a couple mysteries to solve, and while I kind of guessed some aspects of one, others were vague enough that I was left mostly in the dark. I also liked how Jacobs took a ‘locked room’ theme and applied it to an island in the wake of a hurricane. It cuts our characters off in a realistic but unique way, and makes them have to reckon not just with a killer on the loose, but also their pasts and their secrets.

But the horror movie easter eggs are such a fun bonus and what made this read stand out for me. Jacobs definitely has a working knowledge and affection for horror movies and the horror genre, and I loved seeing reference after reference sprinkled throughout the narrative in a meta sort of way. It’s already fun to have the setting and plot revolve around a horror movie cast and crew that had a tragedy on the set, which leads to rumors of a curse on the production (in similar ways things are said about the “Poltergeist” franchise or “Twilight Zone: The Movie”). To add in a nudge nudge wink wink of a ‘how to survive a horror movie’ mentality that Lexi has, in part due to being in one in her youth and in part due to her late husband’s book on the subject, just makes it all the more fun. It’s like having Randy and/or Mindy Meeks from the “Scream” Franchise yelling in our protagonist’s ear, and it absolutely worked for me as someone who is assuredly a Randy or Mindy Meeks kind of horror fan.

Duh. (source)

I thought that “Always the First to Die” was an entertaining thriller that will have some appeal for fans of slasher and horror movies. But you honestly don’t have to love the horror genre to find this book fun; if you are a lover of locked room mystery thrillers it will be a good addition to your to-read pile!

Rating 8: Addictive and compelling with a lot or horror movie reference icing, “Always the First to Die” is a fast paced thriller that will entertain slasher movie fans.

Reader’s Advisory:

“Always the First to Die” isn’t included on many Goodreads lists, but I think it would fit in on “Slasher Fiction (No Novelizations)”.

Not Just Books: October 2022

While we do love us some books, believe it not, we do have a life outside of reading. So to highlight our other pop culture interests, on the last Monday of each month, we each will highlight three other “happenings” from the last month. Big events on favorite TV shows, new movies we’ve watched, old movies we’ve “discovered,” etc. Pretty much whatever we found of particular interest outside of the book world during the last month. Share your own favorite things in the comments!

Serena’s Picks

Hulu Movie: “Rosaline”

This is not a particularly vibrant period of time for the romantic comedy. Sure, there have been a few hits here and there, but I grew up in the 90s where you could count out at least 3-5 brand new, very fun romantic comedies every summer, many of which I still re-watch. So my expectations weren’t high when I clicked on this movie (particularly after watching that absolute atrocity that was Netflix’s “Persuasion”…) But I thought this movie worked, especially in ways that “Persuasion” didn’t. There was a really nice mixture of modern language and sensibilities with the classic lines and story of the “Romeo and Juliet.” Much of it probably comes down to the fact that Kaitlyn Dever’s “Rosaline” is incredibly funny and likable. The story was also told in what felt like a very fresh way, from the perspective of a character who doesn’t even appear on the page of the original story. It’s funny, the love story is sweet, and it’s a perfect example of the type of romantic comedy that you just don’t see much of anymore.

TV Show: “Hell’s Kitchen”

My boys are at a rough age (3 and 2) and I spend waaaay too much of my time corralling little crazy-pants tyrants and, more often than I would like, losing my patience with them. So, I find it strangely gratifying to watch a show largely centered around Gordon Ramsey losing his mind over raw chicken and yelling at a bunch of chefs. There’s really not much more to my enjoyment of this show, honestly. I do like reality cooking shows, but this one rates fairly low, it seems, on actual creativity and skills with cooking and focuses more on the dynamics of a restaurant kitchen. Yeaaaah, no, it’s all about the yelling.

Video Game: “The Quarry”

This could technically be a shared one for both Kate and myself since we’re playing it together, but it was my idea so I’ll take the claim! We both like video games (though we also both get to them less often than we used to cuz…you know…toddlers) so it was about time that we joined our powers together! Plus, this one looked like it could be creepy, and I needed external support from my horror-loving friend to get me through it. We may (may!) be on our second play through due to a VERY poorly timed glitch in my controller, but we still haven’t got to the end even once to see how (or if) these poor teens get out of this death camp.

Kate’s Picks

Film: “Mr. Harrigan’s Phone”

I really liked the short story “Mr. Harrigan’s Phone” in the Stephen King collection “If It Bleeds”, as I found it to be a story that felt like vintage King in its creepiness and its heart. And when I saw that there was a movie adaptation with Donald Sutherland as Mr. Harrigan, well, that was just fantastic news to me. I watched it during a virtual Terror Tuesday movie night with the usual suspects, and oh man. Was it an enjoyable viewing. Craig is a somewhat lonely teenage boy who is hired by local reclusive billionaire Mr. Harrigan to act as a reader to the elderly man during the afternoons after school. They strike up a friendship, which leads to Craig showing Mr. Harrigan how to use a smartphone. After Mr. Harrigan dies, Craig is devastated, and when he has a run in with a bully, he calls Mr. Harrigan’s phone to vent on his voicemail, missing his friend and his advice. When the bully ends up dead, Craig starts to wonder if maybe Mr. Harrigan isn’t really gone. True, it has its scary moments, but it’s really the emotional performances by Sutherland and Jaeden Martell that drive this movie. All of us Terror Tuesday people were crying by the end.

Film: “Halloween Ends”

Back in 2018 I saw the reboot/requel movie “Halloween”, where they erased basically all other “Halloween” canon after the first Carpenter film and started a new trilogy with Jamie Lee Curtis reprising her role of Laurie Strode. I really liked “Halloween 2018”. I didn’t really like “Halloween Kills”, the sequel. I was on the fence about “Halloween Ends”, but when I saw people talking about how polarizing it was, I knew that I should give it a go. And I ended up really enjoying it. Laurie is trying to move on from Michael Myers. After he rampaged through Haddonfield and murdered her daughter Karen, his disappeared. Now Laurie and grand daughter Ally are trying to keep moving forward. But when Ally starts to get close to a local misfit named Corey, and Corey starts acting strange, Laurie thinks something is up. And someone is waiting in the sewers of Haddonfield, biding his time… This movie takes a huge shift that is, admittedly, jarring, so I can see why some people are frustrated. But I thought that it was a bold choice, and that it looks more about the traumas of not only one person, but that of a community, and how that trauma can cause a rot. I really enjoyed it.

TV Show: “The Midnight Club”

Okay, so I wasn’t a Christopher Pike reader back when I was a child consuming horror. I was an R.L. Stine girl, man, I had my loyalties! But I am, right now, a Mike Flanagan person, and I knew that I was going to devour his newest mini-series, “The Midnight Club”. Based on Christopher Pike’s YA horror novels from the 1990s, this is the story of Ilonka, a teenager girl who is about to go to Stanford… but is then diagnosed with thyroid cancer. As she researches her condition, she finds out about Brightcliffe Home, a hospice home for teens with cancer, in which a teenage girl in the 1960s attended, and mysteriously went into remission after being lost in the woods. When Ilonka gets there she joins The Midnight Club, where the teens get together late at night to tell ghost stories. And then strange things begin happening. Flanagan once again masters the scares and the emotional aspects of this story, and the cast is great. And while the teen characters are all wonderful (my favorite is Ruth Codd’s angry Anya), the slasher fan in me was more amped about Heather “Nightmare on Elm Street” Langenkamp as the doctor in charge. Also it takes place in the 90s, so NOSTALGIA ALERT!

Serena’s Review: “Poster Girl”

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Book: “Poster Girl” by Veronica Roth

Publishing Info: William Morrow & Company, October 2022

Where Did I Get this Book: Edelweiss+

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

Book Description: WHAT’S RIGHT IS RIGHT.

Sonya Kantor knows this slogan–she lived by it for most of her life. For decades, everyone in the Seattle-Portland megalopolis lived under it, as well as constant surveillance in the form of the Insight, an ocular implant that tracked every word and every action, rewarding or punishing by a rigid moral code set forth by the Delegation.

Then there was a revolution. The Delegation fell. Its most valuable members were locked in the Aperture, a prison on the outskirts of the city. And everyone else, now free from the Insight’s monitoring, went on with their lives.

Sonya, former poster girl for the Delegation, has been imprisoned for ten years when an old enemy comes to her with a deal: find a missing girl who was stolen from her parents by the old regime, and earn her freedom. The path Sonya takes to find the child will lead her through an unfamiliar, crooked post-Delegation world where she finds herself digging deeper into the past–and her family’s dark secrets–than she ever wanted to.

With razor sharp prose, “Poster Girl” is a haunting dystopian mystery that explores the expanding role of surveillance on society–an inescapable reality that we welcome all too easily.

Review: While I wasn’t a big “Divergent” fan (I didn’t even finish the trilogy), I’ve really enjoyed the adult/new adult fiction Veronica Roth has written recently. There’s also no denying that, like Margaret Atwood, Roth has a keen eye for producing dystopian works that can feel all too believable. It’s this sort of believability that truly gives dystopian works their chills, and with this book’s focus on technology and the surveillance state, I knew we’d be deep-diving into some uncomfortable ideas. And sure enough, it was uncomfortable and it was great!

For Sonya, time has stopped. After serving as the face of a regime known as the Delegation, after a revolution overturned society, she and other prominent members of the fallen system are now locked in a prison complex with no hope of rejoining society. But when she’s given the change to earn her freedom tracking down a missing girl, Sonya ventures back out into a world very unlike the one she left a decade before. As she digs into her past as well as her present, Sonya discovers dark truths that reorganize everything she once believed.

As I said earlier, in my opinion what makes a great dystopian story is the ability to create a world and society that is believable, thus all the more horrific. Here, with the creation of a society existing beneath an authoritarian regime that monitors and rewards behavior, the path to this destination is obvious. The Aperture, an implant that is placed in the eye that essentially acts like a smart phone that is even more accessible, is very easy to imagine. The story neatly demonstrates how the ease and functionality of a device like this would have a lot of immediate appeal. We see similar choices being made today; the ease and convenience of smart devices already leave many people unaware of how much of their personal information they are giving up for these creature comforts. The turn of this information then being used against the populace is easy to imagine.

Beyond that, it’s also incredibly easy to see this type of authoritarian system of governance grow into existence. What makes it even more compelling is that some of the rationales behind certain “esteemable” behaviors are easy to understand or agree with. Again, a dangerous slippery slope that is very recognizable. I was also impressed by Roth’s ability to side-step current political positions and parties; it was all too easy to go into it trying to paint both the Delegation and the system that came after it onto our current political parties. But neither fits the other perfectly, so there are no easy conclusions to be had.

Sonya was also an interesting character. She grew up as a “success story” to an oppressive system, largely benefiting from a government that hurt countless others. But we are meeting her ten years after the fact, trapped in a prison compound where she and many others expect to live out their days. Through her eyes, we see how various different individuals and groups have dealt with this shift in power and position. As Sonya ventures back into the world, she’s in a unique position to not only reflect on the world that she grew up in, but in the world that replaced it. Like all revolutions, though they may be replacing a great evil, they aren’t often followed with utopias of their own. She also is forced to confront the decisions that she and her family made and benefited from. I really liked her journey, especially the fact that it felt true to character. Nothing is hand-waved away or excused, but it is ultimately a hopeful story for her.

For this world? I’m not so sure. But I think the not knowing is what is important and what forces the reader to reflect on the messages and themes of the story afterwards. This book definitely touched on a lot of current issues we as a society are grappling with. This is just one direction that someone imagines things could go. But through this lens, we’re invited to do our own critical thinking. I know “critical thinking” isn’t the type of fun, exciting endorsement that often gets people galloping to the nearest bookstore. But it’s also a refreshing, unique read that will stick with you long after you’ve finished the last page.

Rating 9: Uncomfortably believable, this story asks readers to reflect on the nature of technology, surveillance, what we give up for convenience; that right and wrong are not as easy of concepts as we may wish them to be.

Reader’s Advisory:

“Poster Girl” isn’t on any relevant lists but it should be on Adult Dystopia.