Category: Kate’s Reviews

Kate’s Review: “Bless Your Heart”

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Book: “Bless Your Heart” by Lindy Ryan

Publishing Info: Minotaur Books, April 2024

Where Did I Get This Book: The library!

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

Book Description: Rise and shine. The Evans women have some undead to kill.

It’s 1999 in Southeast Texas and the Evans women, owners of the only funeral parlor in town, are keeping steady with…normal business. The dead die, you bury them. End of story. That’s how Ducey Evans has done it for the last eighty years, and her progeny―Lenore the experimenter and Grace, Lenore’s soft-hearted daughter, have run Evans Funeral Parlor for the last fifteen years without drama. Ever since That Godawful Mess that left two bodies in the ground and Grace raising her infant daughter Luna, alone.

But when town gossip Mina Jean Murphy’s body is brought in for a regular burial and she rises from the dead instead, it’s clear that the Strigoi―the original vampire―are back. And the Evans women are the ones who need to fight back to protect their town.

As more folks in town turn up dead and Deputy Roger Taylor begins asking way too many questions, Ducey, Lenore, Grace, and now Luna, must take up their blades and figure out who is behind the Strigoi’s return. As the saying goes, what rises up, must go back down. But as unspoken secrets and revelations spill from the past into the present, the Evans family must face that sometimes, the dead aren’t the only things you want to keep buried.

A crackling mystery-horror novel with big-hearted characters and Southern charm with a bite, Bless Your Heart is a gasp-worthy delight from start to finish.

Review: Oddly enough, when the horror novel “Bless Your Heart” by Lindy Ryan came out last year, I just never got around to it. Which, in hindsight, is WILD, because it has so many elements within its pages that so appeal to me. Vampires! Generational ties! Family dysfunction! And to top it all off, it takes place in 1999, so the nostalgia bomb that it would surely detonate would be epic! When I was approached to read the upcoming sequel “Another Fine Mess” (coming out next week – stay tuned!), I realized that I needed to go back and read the first one, only to realize as I was reading it that it was BASICALLY WRITTEN FOR ME! I’m kind of kicking myself for passing it by, because “Bless Your Heart” is a fun, cozy, and gory vampire tale.

Before I get into the vampires, first I want to talk about the setting and the characters. Because “Bless Your Heart” is a bit of a mix of Stars Hollow from “Gilmore Girls”, Bon Temps from “True Blood”, and Santa Clara from “The Lost Boys”, with locals, ambiance, and the usual gossip and community to go with the supernatural. Our main characters are four generations of women whose family has run the town funeral parlor, and who just so happen to kill vampires to keep the town safe. Ducey is the first generation, a grumpy and no nonsense matriarch, her daughter Lenore, who is determined to carry on the business, Lenore’s daughter Grace, who is soft and kind, and Grace’s teenage daughter Luna, who is awkward and getting her footing (off topic: this takes place in 1999, and Luna is fifteen, a bit Goth but awkward about it, and into Sid and Nancy and all things Hot Topic. aka ME DURING THIS EXACT TIME). I loved seeing this family start to realize that vampires are starting to rise again, and not only try to figure out who is causing it, but also how to handle it, as they all have different approaches and different traumas, and how they interact with the people in their town (and how they try and keep their secret from getting out). There’s lots of heart and humor with this family, and it found their interactions to be realistic in their love and complexity. I also found them to be very funny at times, with witty banter and conversations being very prominent.

And I did really enjoy the vampire mythology that Ryan brings to this story and her world building. It’s kind of fallen to the wayside to have vampires be shambling ghouls, with many vampire tales having seductive and mysterious blood suckers that are scary in their predatory and sensual ways. And this book DOES have that. But it also has some rather nasty versions of vampires called strigoi (LOVE IT), giving us a bit of a maturation process for vampires that starts with gross mindless corpses, and eventually turns into the Lestats, the Draculas, the sexier beings with time and experience. I thought that the gory bits in this book were gross and fun, and I really enjoyed how well thought out Ryan’s vampires were, serving up scares as well as the expected seductiveness. And the mystery of why the vampires are rising at this moment was fairly well conceived, and while I called a couple twists, it was still fun seeing them play out. pp

All in all, “Bless Your Heart” is a solid start to a new horror series that has some witty characters, a well developed and charming small town, and some nasty vampires. I can’t wait to see where it goes from here!

Rating 8: A solid small town cozy mystery blended with a gory vampire horror tale, “Bless Your Heart” is a promising start to what could be a fun series.

Reader’s Advisory:

“Bless Your Heart” is included on the Goodreads lists “Pink Horror Genre”, and “Vampires!”.

Kate’s Review: “What Remains of Teague House”

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Book: “What Remains of Teague House” by Stacy Johns

Publishing Info: Poisoned Pen Press, April 2025

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: Three siblings reckon with the darkness hidden within their family after multiple graves are discovered behind their childhood home.

When the Rawlins family matriarch unexpectedly dies, all three adult children rush home. What they find is a house bursting with grief, dark memories surfacing around each corner, and multiple bodies buried deep in the woods. The Rawlinses want to believe these discoveries point to a crime long past. But one of the graves behind Teague House is fresh, the earth disturbed just that week—and its inhabitant is a local woman they knew.

Is the youngest Rawlins sibling with something to hide guilty of her murder? Is his sister experiencing false memories of her late father digging near the graves? Why is their aunt in such a rush to leave town after her sister’s funeral?

Enter private detective Maddie Reed, who has her own reasons for being curious about the bodies buried behind Teague House. Detective Reed sets out to unmask a killer—one she may have been hunting all her life.

Review: Thank you to Poisoned Pen Press for sending me an ARC of this novel!

Families hiding secrets are always fun types of thrillers to me. I enjoy a sub-genre of families being terrible and damaging the generations down the line, no matter WHAT the parent genre is, but when you bring murder into it as well as generational trauma that is a topic that has so many possibilities. Because of this love for that kind of drama, I was very interested in reading “What Remains of Teague House” by Stacy Johns. When family secrets involve dead bodies, old AND new, buried on the family property, things have a possibility to get juicy!

I think that some of the strongest things in this book were character based. We followed a few of the characters through third person, and in one case first person, perspective chapters, where we get to follow their parts of the mystery and see how they all fit together. We had perspectives from all three of the siblings, Sandra, Jon, and Robby, as well as past perspectives from Aunt Phil to see the background to Russ and Val (who got a single chapter at the start). I found Aunt Phil’s to be really well done and thought that it was great getting some context for her relationship with Val, giving us insight into Val as well. The sibling perspectives went from fine (Jon and Sandra) to deeply irritating (Robby. It’s by design as he’s a scumbag, but it was grating to have to read his chapters). But the best one, for me, was that of Maddie, who is an investigator who gets privy to what is happening at Teague House, and has her own reasons and connections (potentially) to one of the bodies that has been unearthed. I really enjoyed Maddie’s chapters, as not only was hers the first person perspective, but I also thought that her motivations, backstory, and arc were the most interesting. Her chapters also read like a well done procedural, and I enjoyed seeing her on the trail and getting her information from the Rawlins siblings in hopes of finding justice.

But, along with that, comes why it didn’t work as well for me as I had hoped it would. We had some good build up and pacing for a lot of the novel, but then as we started to get closer to the climax things started to go REALLY fast and felt really rushed and cobbled together. I was left scratching my head a bit about some of the reveals, feeling like some choices were made just to make things shocking without really earning it. On top of that, going back to Robby’s character from above, we had such a frustrating and grating character in this guy that I was actively turned off anytime we were following his perspective. I can usually do fine with immoral characters or people who are deeply unlikable, but that’s only if there is something a bit more interesting about them, and Robby just wasn’t interesting. Just obnoxious. These things sadly derailed my experience, and the other characters couldn’t quite compensate.

I think that “What Remains of Teague House” had its ups and downs. I definitely don’t regret reading it, but it was pretty middle of the road.

Rating 6: I like a family drama, but with some really unlikable characters and a rushed ending this one didn’t live up to my expectations.

Reader’s Advisory:

“What Remains of Teague House” isn’t on any Goodreads lists as of now, but it would fit in on “Family Secrets”.

Kate’s Review: “Strange New Moons”

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Book: “Strange New Moons” by Stephen Kozeniewski (Ed.) & Kayleigh Dobbs (Ed.)

Publishing Info: French Press Publishing, January 2025

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

Where You Can Get This Book: Amazon

Book Description: You can hardly swing a dismembered deer carcass these days without hitting a “No vampires, no zombies, and no werewolves” sign on an anthology.

Well, to that we say “Pshaw!” And also, “Awooo!”

Because what readers really don’t like are dull werewolf stories. So, we tasked the horror community with writing the weirdest, wildest, most creative, utterly bonkers tails (ha!) of lycanthropic lunacy possible.

– a brutal, boneshattering peek at the kind of “dogfights” the super-wealthy watch to amuse themselves

– a story of two inquisitive city employees trying to find out who (or what!) keeps pooping on a local landmark

– a ride along with a delusional cop trying to prevent the total werewolf apocalypse. Werepocalypse!

Plus werewolf Frankenstein! And werewolves in space! This book is all gore and no bore. With a lineup running the gamut from brand, spanking new cubs to heavyweight timber alphas, you’d have to be the weakest elk in the herd not to slobber all over…

Review: Thank you to French Press Publishing for sending me an eARC of this novel!

I’m still a little bit shocked that werewolves haven’t had a huge horror moment lately the way that vampires and zombies have. And I fully admit that I am kind of a part of that lack of werewolf moment, as I’ve never really been huge into that sub-genre of horror (though lately I’ve enjoyed books like “Such Sharp Teeth” by Rachel Harrison, and “Bride” by Ali Hazelwood, which do have werewolves and some horror elements). Hell, I didn’t even get my butt to the movie theater to see the new “Wolf Man” even though it looked pretty decent. So when I was offered the anthology “Strange New Moons”, edited by authors Kayleigh Dobbs and Stephen Kozeniewski, I was game. Bring on the lycanthropes, I said!

Like most other short story collections, I am going to showcase my favorite three stories, and then review the collection as a whole.

“Vargsången” by Mary SanGiovanni: This was the first story in the collection, and it made it so that it started with a serious bang. A woman in an isolated cabin knows that there is some kind of predator outside her door on a snowy night. She wants to keep her sleeping children safe, but doesn’t know if she should confront the beast, or just hope that it goes away. I love the Scandinavian setting and mythology choices, and thought that it was suspenseful and relatable as a mother has to decide if she should risk drawing attention to a predator outside the door. This may have been my favorite story in the collection, as a matter of fact!

“That Time of the Month” by Kayleigh Dobbs: I’ve read Kayleigh Dobbs before and have always enjoyed her stories, and this one was one of the more humorous contributions to the collection, with a wry commentary to go with the lycanthropy. Every month in a community the men lock themselves up, tucked away from the full moon lest they find themselves in a dangerous situation. But one hapless husband has found himself out on the streets on the night that he is supposed to be safely tucked away… Dobbs sets up one scenario based on what we’ve expected from werewolf tropes in past stories, but subverts it in a clever and often quite humorous way. I found myself cackling a fair amount as I read this story. Horror humor done right!

“It’s All For The Best, Sweetie” by Rose Strickman: I’m a true sucker for any kind of fairy tale retelling, especially if it’s a bit dark, so “It’s All For The Best, Sweetie” was the other story that really stood out to me. Through letters from a grandmother to a granddaughter, we find the story of a woman who has trapped her granddaughter in her home, believing her to be a dangerous animal at heart. The epistolary format was really great, and it made for a very unreliable grandmother narrator as she writes her letters to Roja, becoming more unhinged by the minute. Or is it just clarity? Such a creepy and twisted “Red Riding Hood” reimagining.

As a collection I thought that it had a lot of variety across sub-genres, which is always nice to see, with a nice mix of traditionally scary, to surrealistic, to tongue in cheek humorous. The only author I had read in this group (at least I’m fairly certain of) is Kayleigh Dobbs, and I truly enjoyed reading so many of the works in this collection from authors I was unfamiliar with. And any stories that didn’t work as well for me were more due to the sub-genres themselves (like leaning more heavily Sci-Fi, for example), and that is more a reflection on my tastes as I could see fans of said sub-genres being very happy with what they find.

So overall I’m pleased that I read “Strange New Moons”. It’s always nice to see more werewolf fiction since it hasn’t had it’s moment in the moon as much as other monster horror has, and if you do like werewolves this collection will surely satisfy!

Rating 8: A fun and varied collection of werewolf stories crossing tone and genre!

Reader’s Advisory:

“Strange New Moons” isn’t on any Goodreads lists as of now, but would fit in on “Werewolf Books”.

Kate’s Review: “You Must Take Part in Revolution”

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

Book: “You Must Take Part in Revolution: A Graphic Novel” by Melissa Chan & Badiucao (Ill.)

Publishing Info: Street Noise Books, March 2025

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

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

Book Description: From acclaimed journalist Melissa Chan and esteemed activist artist Badiucao comes a near-future graphic novel dystopia that explores technology, authoritarian government, and the lengths that one will go to in the fight for freedom.

Three idealistic youths, forever transformed by the real-world protests in Hong Kong in 2019, develop diverging beliefs about how to best fight against techno-authoritarian China. As conflict escalates and a nuclear disaster looms, is working with an increasingly fascist and non-democratic United States the answer? Andy, Maggie, and Olivia travel different paths toward transformative change, each confronting to what extent they will fight for freedom, and who they will become in doing so.

A powerful and important book about global totalitarian futures, and the costs of resistance.

Review: Thank you to Street Noise Books for sending me an eARC of this graphic novel!

When I was an undergrad at the U of MN, I had my first library job working in the Annex at Wilson Library. My duties included shelving books all throughout the library, as well as working the desk to pull materials like old journals, microfiche, and newspapers. One of my friends at the time was my coworker Hugo, who was an exchange student from Hong Kong. A few years after graduation he moved back home and we lost touch, but in the summer of 2020 he reached out during the George Floyd protests/the uprising to see how I was doing since he knew I was still living in the area. We chatted a bit, and he told me that he had been a part of the protests in Hong Kong in 2019, and gave some tips to pass on to others who were out protesting. It was interesting hearing him talk about all of that, as I certainly heard about it peripherally, but hearing about it first hand was jarring. I kept thinking about Hugo as I read Melissa Chan’s new graphic novel “You Must Take Part In Revolution”, as it has a start in 2019 Hong Kong, and then delves into a not so distant possible future where autocracy is rising across the world. So….. relevant reading to say the very least.

The first thing you need to know about this book is that it is GRIM. That isn’t meant to be a negative critique, because I think that any book talking about a totalitarian world needs to be grim on some level, and Chan feels no need to hold anything back in this possible future as China has cemented itself as an autocratic world power and a fascist United States starts to push against them in a bid for its own power. We follow three characters, all of whom bonded and became friends during the 2019 Hong Kong protests. We have Andy, who has been trying to keep his head down but has been helping resistance against the CCP in his own ways and finds himself recruited to a rebel paramilitary group . We have Maggie, who went to prison in 2019 for her part in a violent protest tactic that had severe consequences. And we have Olivia, who has some dark secrets that she is hiding after dropping off radar after the protests. One of the greatest strengths of this story is that all of these characters are well drawn out and have many layers, and while the reader could certainly have opinions and feelings about the actions they take, Chan is careful to not label any of them as doing something right or wrong, but all trying to survive in a world that is filled with horrors and complexities.

Both Chan and illustrator Badiucao have backgrounds that can lend first hand to the story being told, as Chan is a journalist and Badiucao is an activist, and their critiques of the autocratic and oppressive CCP are blistering, but they don’t stop there as the United States in this book is ALSO rather villainous. As both countries start to set their sights on Taiwan, and the fallout from that unwinds as the years pass, we see a very scary possibility that our own world could be headed in such a direction. I was chilled to the bone reading this book, and I feel like it is a must read for anyone who may be terrified about the state of things, and who are wanting to find their place in not only a new reality, but also within an urge to resist. That said, let’s go back to the grimness mentioned above. This book makes it VERY clear that there is a stark cost for anyone who wants to fight back. That isn’t to say it’s a condemnation of fighting back, because it is not at all. Chan and Badiucao are very clear that resistance against such things is necessary. But it also has no room for romanticism of revolution against a world of surveillance, greed, and corruption, and the pain and consequences are laid out in full honesty.

And finally the artwork. I was fully unfamiliar with Badiucao before reading this, though apparently he is known as Australia’s answer to Banksy. I really, REALLY liked his art style, as the visuals and unique and jarring and sharp in all the right ways for the story at hand. It brings in glimmers of humanity against a backdrop of oppression and despair.

(source: Street Noise Books)

It’s hard to stomach at times, but “You Must Participate In Revolution” is absolutely necessary reading for the times we are living in. I hope that we heed its warnings.

Rating 9: A stark warning for a possible dark future, “You Must Participate In Revolution” is a call for resistance to authoritarianism. Incredibly relevant reading.

Reader’s Advisory:

“You Must Take Part In Revolution” is included on the Goodreads list “Great Graphic Novels (Released In) 2025”.

Kate’s Review: “This Book Will Bury Me”

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Book: “This Book Will Bury Me” by Ashley Winstead

Publishing Info: Sourcebooks Landmark, March 2025

Where Did I Get This Book: I received an ARC of this novel from the publisher.

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

Book Description: From the bestselling author of In My Dreams I Hold a Knife and Midnight is the Darkest Hour comes a chilling, compulsive story of five amateur sleuths, whose hunt for an elusive killer catapults them into danger as the world watches.

It’s the most famous crime in modern history. But only she knows the true story.

After the unexpected death of her father, college student Jane Sharp longs for a distraction from her grief. She becomes obsessed with true crime, befriending armchair detectives who teach her how to hunt killers from afar. In this morbid internet underground, Jane finds friendship, purpose, and even glory…

So when news of the shocking deaths of three college girls in Delphine, Idaho takes the world by storm, and sleuths everywhere race to solve the crimes, Jane and her friends are determined to beat them. But the case turns out to be stranger than anyone expected. Details don’t add up, the police are cagey, and there seems to be more media hype and internet theorizing than actual evidence. When Jane and her sleuths take a step closer, they find that every answer only begs more questions. Something’s not adding up, and they begin to suspect their killer may be smarter and more prolific than any they’ve faced before. Placing themselves in the center of the story starts to feel more and more like walking into a trap…

Told one year after the astounding events that concluded the case and left the world reeling, when Jane has finally decided to break her silence about what really happened, she tells the true story of the Delphine Massacres. And what she has to confess will shock even the most seasoned true crime fans…

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

I really loved Ashley Winstead’s previous novel “Midnight Is The Darkest Hour”, so much so that it made my top ten list the year it was published. I found it to be propulsive and addictive, and when I had the opportunity to read her newest book “This Book Will Bury Me” I knew that I had to take it. I was even more interested when I read the premise, as I thought that it sounded familiar, plot wise. I do enjoy thrillers that take inspiration from real life. But this one made me have to really do some introspection about that.

“This Book Will Bury Me” has a clever story structure, as it is a story within a story that has some unreliable narration and a design like it’s a tell all true crime memoir. We have Jane, a woman who, after being traumatized by her father’s sudden death when she was in her early twenties, latched onto a true crime forum and became an armchair sleuth with four other true crime aficionados. When she and this group break a case wide open, they get a lot of attention upon themselves, and then get pulled into a brutal multiple murder of some college students in Idaho (which is very clearly based on the Moscow Murders – I will talk about that in a bit). We are seeing things through the lens of a disgraced public figure trying to clear her name, which adds a mystery on top of other mysteries, and makes for a gripping narrative as we try to see if Jane and co can solve the mystery, and what happens to make them all so reviled after the fact. I found Jane to be a compelling narrator, because I found her to be incredibly sympathetic as well as incredibly maddening at times. Winstead did her due diligence of drawing out and fully backing up why Jane would have been so drawn into the world of internet crime solving, as she hasn’t had clear answers about the tragedy of her father’s natural, but incredibly traumatizing, death, and needs to find answers to other mysteries to compensate. Sure, I spotted a few twists before they were revealed, but I was having a fun enough time that it didn’t matter.

What also worked for me in this was how Winstead also takes a controversial topic like true crime, specifically internet sleuths and their assistance/meddling (depending on who you talk to) in real life cases with real life victims. Jane and her friends all seem to have the best intentions as they try to solve crimes, but it’s hard to deny that, good intentions or not, they let hubris, ego, and their own biases drive their investigations. It’s not exactly a farfetched problem given that there have been plenty of internet sleuths in real life who have put innocent people on blast and done horrific damage (I’m thinking of the Reddit Boston Marathon Bomber debacle, I’m thinking of that one TikTok woman who named a half assed theoretical suspect in the aforementioned/soon to be mentioned Moscow Murders and sent viral harassment their way ALL BASED ON TAROT READINGS, and more). I appreciated that Winstead didn’t set out to make Jane a nasty person, but a damaged person who makes some pretty big missteps, even if her intentions are pure. But it does raise a lot of questions about the people whose love of true crime goes a few steps further into actually trying to insert themselves into it, blurring the lines between a theoretical fascination and an active participant. I enjoyed that it wasn’t super black and white.

BUT. I will say that I was uncomfortable with how close and obviously ripped from the headlines this plot was to the Moscow Murders in Moscow, Idaho. Ripped from the headlines stories happen quite a bit in pop culture. “Law and Order”‘s entire franchise takes that premise and creates episodes from actual crimes that happen, for example. But I think that part of my issue here was that the initial student murders in this book felt like they were completely lifted from that specific crime, a crime that is still pretty raw and still hasn’t had true resolution or justice because the main suspect hasn’t even gone to trial yet. And I mean LIFTED. Like timelines, details of the house, details of the fallout, it felt like the first group of murdered college students in this book were carbon copies of what happened on King’s Road in 2022. Had there been some changes or tweaks it would have felt a bit better to me. For example, the second mass murder scene felt like it was inspired by Ted Bundy’s sorority house spree, but didn’t feel like I was just reading the spree with new names. On top of that, Bundy happened DECADES ago, and he was tried and convicted and executed, so the victims families had at least some sense of closure. That hasn’t happened for the families of the Moscow victims yet. So as it was it felt kind of ghoulish to me to be so close to the actrual details. Though perhaps there’s an argument to be made that it would still be ghoulish even if it had made the changes and tweaks. I guess it goes back to questions about true crime and exploitation. Which in turn may shadow the intent that I do feel like this book was going for.

SO, it’s a bit messy and complicated. As a thriller that kept me interested, I did enjoy “This Book Will Bury Me”. But, I hope that in the future authors who want to take inspiration from real victims and real crimes can make it feel a little less blatant, because if this one had done that it would have been a slam dunk. As it was, it felt murkier than I would have liked.

Rating 8: A gripping mystery with a dissection of true crime fandom gone too far, “This Book Will Bury Me” is another entertaining read from Ashley Winstead, though I am a little uneasy about how close it was to the inspiration.

Reader’s Advisory:

“This Book Will Bury Me” is included on the Goodreads list “2025 Mystery Thrillers True Crime”.

Kate’s Review: “Blood On Her Tongue”

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

Book: “Blood On Her Tongue” by Johanna van Veen

Publishing Info: Poisoned Pen Press, March 2025

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: The Netherlands, 1887. Lucy’s twin sister Sarah is unwell. She refuses to eat, mumbles nonsensically, and is increasingly obsessed with a centuries-old corpse recently discovered on her husband’s grand estate. The doctor has diagnosed her with temporary insanity caused by a fever of the brain. To protect her twin from a terrible fate in a lunatic asylum, Lucy must unravel the mystery surrounding her sister’s condition, but it’s clear her twin is hiding something. Then again, Lucy is harboring secrets of her own, too.

Then, the worst happens. Sarah’s behavior takes a turn for the strange. She becomes angry… and hungry. 

Lucy soon comes to suspect that something is trying to possess her beloved sister. Or is it madness? As Sarah changes before her very eyes, Lucy must reckon with the dark, monstrous truth, or risk losing her forever.

Review: Thank you to Poisoned Pen Press for sending me an ARC of this novel!

I gotta say, I love that we are kind of living in a horror lit vampire renaissance at the moment. We are getting a lot of really well done vampire stories as of late, with interesting and intriguing twists and perspectives, and “Blood On Her Tongue” by Johanna van Veen is a new tale to add to the list. I enjoyed van Veen’s previous novel “My Darling Dreadful Thing”, and when Poisoned Pen Press asked if I was interested to check this one out too I leapt at the chance. I love a Gothic story, I love a vampire story, and I couldn’t wait to see what van Veen had in store with this one. And it was overall a winner with twin sisters Sarah and Lucy, a bog body, and a nasty transformation of one twin while another has to decide if said transformation is a dealbreaker, especially with oppressive patriarchy making things all the more difficult.

The horror themes in this book were fairly unique blends of both folk horror (the idea of bog bodies being used in a supernatural way is SO great) and a take on vampirism vis a vis parasitism, and it all worked really well for me. I really enjoyed seeing the slow build up through Sarah’s deterioration, to letters that Lucy and Sarah have written each other, to Sarah’s notes in various books and research writings, and I thought that the pacing and the tension was taut and snappy. Lucy slowly realizing that her twin isn’t really her twin anymore was very nerve wracking and emotional, and van Veen isn’t afraid to have some really gnarly body horror moments as Sarah becomes more and more desiccated and monstrous in her appearance and behaviors. It’s also a more animalistic take on vampirism, bringing in some aspects of possession horror as well that blur the lines between the sub-genres and make them feel complementary to each other.

And while I was a bit flabbergasted at Lucy’s complete blind devotion to Sarah even when she was doing some REALLY crazy things (as mentioned above), I did think that van Veen did fantastic due diligence to make it fully believable that she would be terrified of Sarah being committed. As someone who used to work in a historic house with a narrative history that had a lot bleak tidbits regarding the way women were treated in a medical context, a lot of these aspects were believable and very disturbing. Whether it’s an aunt with a history of mental illness who suffered within an asylum, or the way that Sarah herself was treated as a menace when dealing with immense grief, or how Lucy and Sarah both are dismissed over and over again based solely on their genders (mostly by the men surrounding them), the way that Lucy wants to protect Sarah at all costs was wholly earned. It’s once again the real life horrors of misogyny and a lack of understanding of mental illness (and the approaches men took towards women who were suffering) that really gave this story a punch. God I wanted to throttle Sarah’s husband more and more as the story progressed. And it also raises some issues about Sarah’s transformation and the way that so many were trying to shove her away from everyone, and whether or not it was because they thought she was really dangerous, or because they thought she was becoming inconvenient.

“Blood On Her Tongue” is a savvy blend of folk horror, vampire horror, and the horrors of misogyny and ableism. I found it unnerving and deeply creepy.

Rating 8: Unsettling and angry, “Blood On Her Tongue” is a striking horror tale that has a lot to say about not only the supernatural, but also about misogyny and ableism for two sisters in the 19th Century.

Reader’s Advisory:

“Blood On Her Tongue” is included on the Goodreads list “Horror Books 2025”.

Kate’s Review: “Boy With Wings”

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

Book: “Boy With Wings” by Mark Mustian

Publishing Info: Koehler Books, March 2025

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: What does it mean to be different? From Mark Mustian, founder of the Word of South Festival of Literature and Music and award-winning author of the international bestseller “The Gendarme,” comes the new Southern gothic novel, “Boy With Wings”.

Johnny Cruel is born with strange appendages on his back, frightening his neighbors and leaving him struggling to find a home. Johnny ends up in a “freak show” traveling the 1930s South, where he bares his back to onlookers who come to gape and fawn. Is he a horror or an angel? Should he hide himself to live his life?

As Johnny comes to grips with his uniqueness, he embarks on a journey of love and finds the miracles that give our lives meaning. Mustian’s thrilling and emotional story of self-discovery is perfect for book clubs and fans of historical fiction.

Review: Thank you to Books Forward for sending me an ARC of this novel!

Though I fell off watching “American Horror Story” awhile ago (I think the last season I watched was “1984”), one of my favorite seasons (along with “Coven” and “Hotel”) is “Freakshow”. It was such an interesting topic to cover a freak show traveling in the American South in a post-WWII era, letting us get to know the characters and seeing the complexities within their characters and the abuses that they faced from society. I have always enjoyed a story like this, and when “Boy With Wings” ended up in the inbox I was absolutely interested in giving it a go because of that. A kid named Johnny Cruel comes of age with wing-like deformities after loss and trauma, finding his place in a traveling carnival? Why yes, that does suit my fancy!

The reason this book was so enticing to me was because of the carnival/freak show factor, as the history of traveling carnivals and freak shows is SO fascinating to me. Look, I’m the gal who absolutely loves a story about a band of freaks in a freak show BECAUSE of the idea of Othering, dehumanization, and so called ‘freaks’ finding companionship and community against the odds and the prejudices of society. And I thought that this aspect of the book was great, with Johnny becoming a star due to his deformities, feeling like he belongs even though he is being exploited by leader Tiny Tot as she makes money off of his oddities. I loved the way that Mustian shows the tenuous connections that Johnny had with other members of the circus, be it Tiny Tot’s daughter Winifred, with whom he falls in love , or Sheila, who takes him under her wing and is ultimately punished for it. I also just loved the depiction of the Great Depression Era, and felt that we got a good sense for the time and place with the hardships that everyone was feeling, especially the Black people in the Jim Crow South. Though this does lead to some very difficult to deal with moments, including racism, ableism, violence, and misogyny, all of which is depicted pretty honestly here, so know that this book definitely comes with a lot of trigger warnings.

I will say, however, that there were some structural choices that took me a bit out of the book as I was reading it. For one, we had some pretty big time jumps that split the story into different parts, and some pretty big gaps in Johnny’s experiences. Given that it was implied in at least one of these time jumps there were some pretty big developments, I was a little bummed that we didn’t get to spend as much time in these segments of his life. I don’t usually need things spelled out for me TOO much when there are time jumps, but in this book I think that the character development could have been strengthened if we had delved a little bit more, especially in that time between his time at the work camp and the traveling carnival. And along with that we had a structure that would flip flop between a third person Johnny chapter, and then a first person perspective chapter of one of the players in his life during that time. I liked the Johnny chapters just fine because it felt consistent, but the first person perspectives were hit or miss, compounded by the fact that each person only got one shot at it. Had the characters all popped a bit more or felt fully fleshed out it could have worked better, but some were interesting (Elias and Winifred stood out) while others were a bit flat.

If we had stayed with the freak show for the majority or even all of the story this would have worked better for me, but that being said I really enjoyed the time and place and themes of found family and coming of age in “Boy With Wings”.

Rating 7: A bittersweet historical fiction fantasy about an outsider looking for his place in difficult times. I do wish the pacing hadn’t been as choppy as it was with the time jumps and multiple perspectives, however.

Reader’s Advisory:

“Boy With Wings” isn’t on any Goodreads lists as of now, but it would fit in on “Circus/Carnival Books”.

Kate’s Review: “The Buffalo Hunter Hunter”

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Book: “The Buffalo Hunter Hunter” by Stephen Graham Jones

Publishing Info: Saga Press, March 2025

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 historical horror novel set in the American west in 1912 following a Lutheran priest who transcribes the life of a vampire who haunts the fields of the Blackfeet reservation looking for justice.

A diary, written in 1912 by a Lutheran pastor is discovered within a wall. What it unveils is a slow massacre, a chain of events that go back to 217 Blackfeet dead in the snow. Told in transcribed interviews by a Blackfeet named Good Stab, who shares the narrative of his peculiar life over a series of confessional visits. This is an American Indian revenge story written by one of the new masters of horror, Stephen Graham Jones.

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

The time has finally come! We have another horror novel from Stephen Graham Jones! Jones is one of my favorite authors and any of his works are automatically most anticipated on my reading list at any given time, and this time we have “The Buffalo Hunter Hunter”. Jones had tackled slasher stories, folk horror, meta commentary, werewolves, and many more, but this time he’s once again doing something new: he is taking on a historical fiction western for this tale of terror. Oh, and also vampires. I may not be as big of a western gal, but vampires? OH YES THAT IS VERY MUCH MY JAM. And with Jones at the helm I had really, really high hopes. And once again, they were basically met because Jones is a master of the genre.

First, the structure. This is an epistolary horror/historical fiction/western novel, which is a hefty endeavor, but Jones tackles it with ease. We have a few perspectives, most of which are diary entries of a Lutheran Pastor named Arthur Beaucarne, or transcripts of a ‘confession’ by a mysterious Blackfoot named Good Stab who claims to be a vampire. It’s a slow burn at first, as we find out how Good Stab was turned into a vampire, as well as his quest for vengeance against United States soldiers for the pain and suffering that it brought down upon the Blackfoot people, the community that he was from in life. It’s a bit of a mix of reliable vs unreliable with these two men as they cobble this story together, and the epistolary style makes for a more impactful device as revelations come into clarity.

Next, I want to talk about the vampire mythos in this book. I really loved what Jones did with the world building here, as not only does it have some classic vampire elements, with blood sucking, sun sensitivity, immortality, and a descent into more feral impulses when taking the vengeance that is owed. But one of the things that stood out that made this feel more unique was that Good Stab, when trying to feed, will take on the elements of whatever creature he is feeding upon. When he, in desperation, drinks from a buffalo for example he proceeds to grow two black horns in his head. I thought that was so creative and it made the vampire themes stand out.

But what really stands out is how incredibly in depth and unflinching this story is when it comes to the manifest destiny and western expansion era of the United States, and the genocidal violence that came with it when it came to the Indigenous People across the nations. When we are learning about this time period as children in this country, in general, there are a lot of framings of heroism, grit, and steadfast ambition that built this nation from sea to shining sea. I know that when I was in grade school we learned this with SOME sprinkles of the violence against Indigenous populations (in Minnesota at my prep school we did focus on the U.S.-Dakota War of 1862 in sixth grade for a unit, but even then it was pretty whitewashed), but overall it was more ‘woo, Oregon Trail, pioneers!’ at the heart of it. This book forces the reader to confront the horrendous violence that the United States military and government perpetrated against Indigenous populations, with and anchor being the Marias Massacre and the trauma and loss Good Stab endured as a member of the Blackfoot people even before he became a vampire. Jones doesn’t feel a need to cushion the blow for his readers, nor should he. And its not just in the way that he portrays the horrific violence and the fallout, but also in how Good Stab’s perspective uses terms and names from his own vocabulary as opposed to Western words (a lot of this is seen in how Good Stab refers to animals), with no reference page or glossary to be found. It made for complicated reading, but it was a fantastic choice. The real life unflinching historical horrors were so, so disturbing, and it’s important that we acknowledge the real history of this country, now more than ever, and Jones doesn’t sugar coat any of it, while also making it an emotional and devastating gut punch.

“The Buffalo Hunter Hunter” is harrowing and engrossing, heavy and necessary and another great horror tale from Stephen Graham Jones. I continue to be incredibly impressed and in awe of his horror storytelling prowess.

Rating 9: A dark horror western that takes on trauma, loss, and retribution against the violent colonial system that is the United States, “The Buffalo Hunter Hunter” is another evocative winner from Stephen Graham Jones.

Reader’s Advisory:

“The Buffalo Hunter Hunter” is included on the Goodreads lists “2025 Releases by Indigenous Authors”, and “Horror Books 2025”.

Kate’s Review: “The Unworthy”

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Book: “The Unworthy” by Agustina Bazterrica & Sarah Moses (Translator)

Publishing Info: Scribner, March 2025

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

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

Book Description: The long-awaited new novel from the author of global sensation Tender Is the Flesh: a thrilling work of literary horror about a woman cloistered in a secretive, violent religious order, while outside the world has fallen into chaos.

From her cell in a mysterious convent, a woman writes the story of her life in whatever she can find—discarded ink, dirt, and even her own blood. A lower member of the Sacred Sisterhood, deemed an unworthy, she dreams of ascending to the ranks of the Enlightened at the center of the convent and of pleasing the foreboding Superior Sister. Outside, the world is plagued by catastrophe—cities are submerged underwater, electricity and the internet are nonexistent, and bands of survivors fight and forage in a cruel, barren landscape. Inside, the narrator is controlled, punished, but safe.

But when a stranger makes her way past the convent walls, joining the ranks of the unworthy, she forces the narrator to consider her long-buried past—and what she may be overlooking about the Enlightened. As the two women grow closer, the narrator is increasingly haunted by questions about her own past, the environmental future, and her present life inside the convent. How did she get to the Sacred Sisterhood? Why can’t she remember her life before? And what really happens when a woman is chosen as one of the Enlightened?

A searing, dystopian tale about climate crisis, ideological extremism, and the tidal pull of our most violent, exploitative instincts, this is another unforgettable novel from a master of feminist horror.

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

Even though it was making the rounds when it came about a couple years ago, I never got around to reading “Tender Is The Flesh” by Agustina Bazterrica, a dystopian horror novel about a future where cannibalism is made legal and humans are bred for meat after the animals used for food are taken out by a virus. I heard that it was bleak and relentless, and I couldn’t quite bring myself to read it even though the metaphors sounded really interesting. But when I saw that she had a new horror novel out called “The Unworthy”, I decided to snap that one right up so that I could finally experience one of Bazterrica’s works. I thought that I prepared myself well, mentally, as hey, climate crisis and violent religious orders in horror? It’s not like those things deeply, deeply disturb me or anything, right?

Look, I know myself, I just lie to myself. (source)

This was my first time with a Bazterrica story and WOW. It was a ROUGH one, but not in a bad way. She takes on two horror sub-genres that stress me the hell out, eco/climate horror and religious horror, and combines them into a searing post-apocalyptic nightmare involving violence, chaos, zealotry, and, yes, feminine rage. Bazterrica doesn’t hold back from some really relentless and absolutely horrifying moments. There are so many content warnings I’d attach to this, between graphic depictions of violence to child death to mutilations and sexual violence, it’s fairly grim in the portrayal of a world devastated by climate change and a society that has basically collapsed, and the sociopaths that find ways to take advantage. Our nameless Narrator has been THROUGH it, and we see her story starting in the oppressive and zealous and violent convent, and eventually see how she got there as she writes out her story and comes to terms with everything that has happened to her. We also get hints into the corrupt and violent cult that she has found herself within, with her being a part of the ‘Unworthy’ class, who are submitted to hard labor, humiliation, and torture by the Superior Sister and the mysterious Him (a very creepy amped up take on carrying water for the patriarchy if I ever saw one). There are the Enlightened class that she hopes to join, though no one REALLY knows what that entails, just that it’s aspirational (though if you are like me and have a working knowledge of cults and tropes like this, you can guess that there are hidden, uh, costs). I loved the slow burn build up and how it was interspersed with not only Narrator’s past.

And then there were the genuinely beautiful things I found within this book, something I hadn’t expected as much when I picked it up given the plot and Bazterrica’s reputation. The first is just that the descriptions of things were gorgeous, and while this could be in part due to the translation by Sarah Moses, I get the sense that Bazterrica’s original text probably had this as well to show beauty within despairing. There was also the lovely connection between Narrator and newcomer Lucia, as Narrator hasn’t had a REAL connection since multiple losses she endured as the world as she knew it came crashing down. It’s also another great example of how high control groups and cults like the Sacred Sisterhood thrive on mistrust, paranoia, and the splintering of connections, and promising that only the group and its leadership can provide that, when it actuality community and connection to others is what can really bring people through the despairing and miserable times. And how community and connection is a threat. So many things I’ve been thinking about as of late just laying out on the pages here, in all it’s terrible and messy and scrappy hopeful glory.

“The Unworthy” is really, really tough, and has a lot of despair and misery. But it also has beauty, and showcases humanity in all of its highest highs and lowest lows. I quite enjoyed it, even if it made me feel really, really bad at times.

Rating 8: Relentless, horrifying, and at times rather gorgeous, “The Unworthy” is apocalyptic religious horror with an undercurrent of feminist rage.

Reader’s Advisory:

“The Unworthy” is included on the Goodreads list “Dystopian Womanhood”.

Kate’s Review: “The Haunting of Room 904”

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Book: “The Haunting of Room 904” by Erika T. Wurth

Publishing Info: Flatiron Books, March 2025

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

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

Book Description: From the author of White Horse (“Twisty and electric.” —The New York Times Book Review) comes a terrifying and resonant novel about a woman who uses her unique gift to learn the truth about her sister’s death.

Olivia Becente was never supposed to have the gift. The ability to commune with the dead was the specialty of her sister, Naiche. But when Naiche dies unexpectedly and under strange circumstances, somehow Olivia suddenly can’t stop seeing and hearing from spirits.

A few years later, she’s the most in-demand paranormal investigator in Denver. She’s good at her job, but the loss of Naiche haunts her. That’s when she hears from the Brown Palace, a landmark Denver hotel. The owner can’t explain it, but every few years, a girl is found dead in room 904, no matter what room she checked into the night before. As Olivia tries to understand these disturbing deaths, the past and the present collide as Olivia’s investigation forces her to confront a mysterious and possibly dangerous cult, a vindictive journalist, betrayal by her friends, and shocking revelations about her sister’s secret life.

The Haunting of Room 904 is a paranormal thriller that is as edgy as it is heartfelt and simmers with intensity and longing. Erika T. Wurth lives up to her reputation as “a gritty new punkish outsider voice in American horror.”

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

It is always a double edged sword when it is time for me to approach a book that I have been very much looking forward to. I always try to temper my expectations, because in my own mind something I am SO excited about can get so hyped up. This was always in the back of my mind when I was getting ready to read “The Haunting of Room 904” by Erika T. Wurth. There were so many things I was excited about with this title. It’s a haunting story, and I LOVE a haunting story. It has a medium, and a somewhat reluctant one at that. And it’s Wurth’s newest horror novel, and after how much I loved “White Horse” this one was really, really anticipated. So combining all of these things had be buzzing with excitement and nervousness. The verdict? The nervousness was a LITTLE warranted…

Starting with the positives, I do have a good amount to say. For one, Wurth always knows how to tease out a creepy image onto the page, and for me, there are so many things you can do with ghosts in regards to creepy imagery. There were so many moments here that really unnerved me, be it sobbing ghosts being described in mirrors to uncanny movements of other supernatural beings that Olivia encounters, we have a lot of really great material that really stood out in my mind’s eye, horror wise. I also enjoyed the way that Wurth described and built up the aspect of Olivia’s paranormal investigations, and how we got to see a few of her clients and cases in action. I’ve been a huge fan of the concept of ghost hunting ever since I first saw “Ghostbusters” as a little girl, and I liked the lore and process that Wurth brought through in this story in regards to some of the cases. But the part of this book that stood out to me the most was how Wurth ties the concepts of trauma, generational or otherwise, to the story at hand, not only through Olivia’s family and the loss of her sister, but also through the exploration and connection to the Sand Creek Massacre, one of many horrendous acts of violence against Indigenous People by the United States Government. The chapters that follow the Massacre are devastating and the way that it intersects with the story at hand made it all the more emotionally powerful for me. I also really enjoyed Olivia as a character, with her snark and her scrappiness but also her vulnerability. She’s very easy to root for.

However, I did think that some of the pacing felt a little bit off, and that there was sometimes a bit TOO much stuffed into the story. We had some awkward transitions sometimes, and while parts of the story felt a bit slow, others felt rushed. In terms of overstuffing the story, I liked how we got to see different cultural themes brought into the book, but sometimes it felt like it was going a bit off track from the story that was laid out. For example, there was a piece of the puzzle involving a Golem and a Dybbuk Box and that didn’t feel like it was explored enough to have a solid reason to have it there (especially since the entire concept of a Dybbuk Box is based on a hoax and has perpetuated Jewish stereotypes and exploited Jewish folklore for modern sensationalistic ghost hunting motives; to be fair, though, Wurth does mention the original Dybbuk Box as a hoax). Especially when there were probably other ways that these puzzle pieces could have fit together that didn’t feel like we were getting off into the weeds.

So while this didn’t quite live up to my expectations, I still found “The Haunting of Room 904” to be an unsettling and very emotional ghost story, be the ghosts actual ghosts or the ghosts that still haunt American history.

Rating 7: Though it was a bit muddled at times, overall I found “The Haunting of Room 904” to be creepy, emotional, and a calling out of the way that atrocities of colonialism still haunt Native populations in America.

Reader’s Advisory:

“The Haunting of Room 904” is included on the Goodreads lists “Indigenous Books 2025”, and “Horror to Look Forward to in 2025”.