Category: Kate’s Reviews

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”.

Kate’s Review: “Vanishing Daughters”

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

Book: “Vanishing Daughters” by Cynthia Pelayo

Publishing Info: Thomas & Mercer, 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: A haunted woman stalked by a serial killer confronts the horrors of fairy tales and the nightmares of real life in a breathtaking novel of psychological suspense by a Bram Stoker Award–winning author.

It started the night journalist Briar Thorne’s mother died in their rambling old mansion on Chicago’s South Side.

The nightmares of a woman in white pleading to come home, music switched on in locked rooms, and the panicked fear of being swallowed by the dark…Bri has almost convinced herself that these stirrings of dread are simply manifestations of grief and not the beyond-world of ghostly impossibilities her mother believed in. And more tangible terrors still lurk outside the decaying Victorian greystone.

A serial killer has claimed the lives of fifty-one women in the Chicago area. When Bri starts researching the murders, she meets a stranger who tells her there’s more to her sleepless nights than bad dreams—they hold the key to putting ghosts to rest and stopping a killer. But the killer has caught on and is closing in, and if Bri doesn’t answer the call of the dead soon, she’ll be walking among them.

Review: Thank you to Kaye Publicity for sending me an ARC of this novel!

I have a very special place in my heart for the story of “Sleeping Beauty”. It was my favorite Disney movie as a toddler, and my parents say that I basically wore our VHS of the film out due to watching it over and over again. I also generally enjoy the fairy tale in so many of its forms, even if those forms can be pretty dark and disturbing (no surprise given fairy tales). With all of this in mind I was so, so very excited to read Cynthia Pelayo’s new horror/thriller book “Vanishing Daughters”, as she decided to approach the story of Sleeping Beauty through the lenses of local folklore, grief, the things that haunt a person and a community, and violent misogyny. Pelayo is one of my favorite authors and I was very curious to see what she was going to do with a fairy tale so near and dear to my heart.

Pelayo once again creates a dreamy and strange world that lives within Chicago, but treads into fantastical places while still feeling very much steeped in the Midwestern metropolis through history, folklore, urban legend, and real life terrors. We follow Briar Rose, a journalist who lives in her family home in the woods, located on the Southside of Chicago, who is mourning her mother’s recent death. Briar Rose has been dreaming strange and terrifying things, and the house she lives within feels haunted, both by something otherworldly, but also by the crushing grief of the loss of her mother. Meanwhile a serial killer has been murdering women in Chicago, leaving devastation behind but capturing their spirits to holding them within a trapped other world, and his connection to Briar Rose reflects a destiny that the journalist was unaware of, even though her free spirited mother was hinting at it in life. This dark fantasy retelling is so rich and layered, with creative analogs to the original fairy tale while also connecting folklore of Chicago and its darker histories that still linger in the minds of its citizens. I loved how ethereal and odd this felt, really bringing out the idea of sleep and dreaming and all the themes that come with a Sleeping Beauty story.

The horror and thriller elements of the serial killer mystery are also on point, not only tapping into very real themes like violent misogyny and victims memories being exploited, but also the tales of cruel fairies that curse bloodlines and steal people for their own devices. For our evil fairy analog we have someone/something that is part fantastical in how it functions in this story, but also just feels like a very real threat, as women in real life can go missing and be left without a voice or justice, becoming ideas and warnings instead of being seeing as living breathing humans. It’s both a critique of the way women victims are exploited by true crime narratives, but also an interesting exploration of how real life folk lore and cautionary tales are created from tragedies and how we forget that. I enjoyed the POV of the serial killer, as it was such a jolting distinction from Briar Rose’s chapters, and it made me uneasy and on edge. You throw in the dark past of Chicago and so many cultural references to this city and its history (another thing I love about Pelayo’s books: Chicago itself is a character, and given that I really enjoy Chicago it’s so fun to see how she represents it) and you have a strong time and place with a lot of well explored history lessons.

“Vanishing Daughters” is my favorite of Pelayo’s works. This book is compelling and beautiful and raw and emotional, and I highly recommend it. If you haven’t ready anything by Cynthia Pelayo, now is the time and this is the title.

Rating 9: Probably my favorite Pelayo story to date, “Vanishing Daughters” is strange and dreamlike, while also exploring themes of grief, folklore, and the very real people who turn into myth, for better or worse.

Reader’s Advisory:

“Vanishing Daughters” is included on the Goodreads list “Horror To Look Forward To in 2025”.

Kate’s Review: “We Were Warned”

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

Book: “We Were Warned” by Chelsea Ichaso

Publishing Info: Sourcebooks Fire, 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: Everyone knows the legend of Fairport twenty years ago, a shocking murder closed the place down. This year, the ruins will be bulldozed at last. But tonight, it’s not too late to die.

All her life, Eden Stafford has heard the lore about the abandoned beach resort at the edge of ever since the notorious murder there, anyone who sets foot on the property is cursed to die, It’s more than just a over the years, two high school students who dared to explore the ruins of Fairport Village were killed there.

Eden is no stranger to notoriety, having endured a family scandal that’s made her a target at school. So when she reluctantly attends an overnight party at the ruins, she’s on edge—not because of some legend, but because the clique that has made her life hell for years is there, too, including Caleb Durham, the worst of them all.

Yet out of all the things Eden expected to happen that night, finding another student dead at Fairport Village wasn’t one of them.

Though the death is ruled an accident, Eden knows she saw something suspicious at the ruins—and Caleb and her other longtime tormentors did too. Now they’re all being followed by a deadly stranger, and to save themselves, they must work together to uncover the truth about Fairport Village. But after all that’s happened, can Eden really trust Caleb and his friends? Or will they leave her to face a killer alone?

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

One of my favorite things to do when I was working at one of my old library internships was putting together YA displays. I had this internship for half a year and I did about four or five displays, and finding common themes in books, from the obvious to the kind of quirky, was really fun. Whenever I read a YA novel I think about this fun task, and what kind of display said book would fit into. I kept thinking about that as I read “We Were Warned” by Chelsea Ichaso, because man would it have had so many possibilities! Would it have been on a YA Urban Legends display? A “If You Like “Pretty Little Liars…” display (dating myself like crazy here)? Would it have been on a “Creepy Stories By The Seaside” display? It has a lot of potential!

This is probably a great entry for the thriller genre for the target audience, but also has the goods to be entertaining to anyone looking for a quick and snappy read with some decent red herrings and an easy to follow mystery. I love the idea of an urban legend that is possibly true, and the way that it captures how a small town tragedy can take on a life of its own within the minds of the people who live within a community that has head to live with it. I’ve always been a huge sucker for mysteries and horror tales that use this kind of device, and this one had a solid background and a sufficiently eerie setting of an abandoned seaside resort that was the location of a horrific murder and some devastating fallout in the years after (including more murders). I found the mystery to be entertaining and a quick read, and I can definitely see how young adult audiences would be able to relate to Eden and Caleb, and even some of the more morally grey characters like Victoria, Caleb’s close friend and kind of Mean Girl that is Eden’s nemesis (but maybe misunderstood?). I enjoyed the dynamics between these characters and how Ichaso upended expectations for Eden and for me as a reader.

That said, as a 40 year old woman who has read MANY mysteries and thrillers over the years, “We Were Warned” definitely reads like a YA thriller to me. Which is NOT a bad thing at all. I would absolutely put this on a display for chilling thrillers in a YA section of a library, and know exactly who I would recommend this title to. But as a YA thriller, it does have some things that didn’t work for me. For one, Eden is, at times, a bit grating in the constant reminders of how Caleb must hate her and how much she hates him, while it’s pretty clear to the reader (or at least this reader) that there was more to the story on Caleb’s side. It got a bit repetitive to read about her resentment towards him and her assumptions, as it was obvious that wasn’t the case. There were also some twists in here that didn’t work for me, one in particular that followed a familiar ‘one last shock’ routine that almost never clicks with me when it happens in a thriller novel I’m reading. But again, these kinds of things are not necessarily going to hinder the audience that the book is intended for. It’s definitely a ‘your mileage may vary’ situation.

“We Were Warned” has a fun premise and an entertaining mystery. While it was a bit middle of the road for me, I am pretty certain that it will be a good fit for its intended audience!

Rating 6: Entertaining and a fast read to be sure and almost certainly a solid thriller for the audience it is written for, though more seasoned thriller fans may be underwhelmed at times.

Reader’s Advisory:

“We Were Warned” is included on the Goodreads list “YA Novels of 2025”.

Kate’s Review: “The Undoing of Violet Claybourne”

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

Book: “The Undoing of Violet Claybourne” by Emily Critchley

Publishing Info: Sourcebooks Landmark, 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: 1938. Gillian Larkin is used to going unnoticed, until she is sent away to school and befriended by her roommate, the vibrant and spirited Violet Claybourne. As the Christmas holidays approach, Gilly can’t believe her luck when Violet invites her to spend them at her home, the crumbling Thornleigh Hall.

At Thornleigh, Gilly is dazzled by the family’s faded grandeur, and above all by Violet’s beguiling older sisters who seem to accept her as one of their own. But following a terrible accident in the house’s grounds, Gilly begins to realise the Claybourne sisters aren’t quite what she thought they were. And if she’s to survive in their world, she may have to become just like them . . .

A captivating novel of family secrets, desperate ambition and deepest betrayal, set against the winter of 1938, The Undoing of Violet Claybourne is the irresistible new mystery from the acclaimed author of One Puzzling Afternoon.

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

Back when “Downton Abbey” was all the rage I would text with my Mom about the goings on, and would occasionally go to my parents house to watch with her. We both really enjoyed it for the most part (I will admit I found later seasons to be less compelling), but my father ALWAYS hated it and would let us know how much he hated it if I was over for an episode. There was one night Dad LOST IT about the romanticization of the crumbling aristocracy blinded by privilege tramping all over the common people with no remorse after one of the Crawleys did something really callous and pretty wretched to people who worked for them, only for it to be glossed over by the show.

You’d had thought this farm boy from Iowa was a regular Enjolras from LES MIS. (source)

So that leads me to “The Undoing of Violet Claybourne” by Emily Critchley. Which pretty much puts these kinds of themes front and center as an aristocratic family clinging to power in the years leading up to WWII brings a newcomer into the fold and corrupts her with their privileged and damaging ways. I just kept thinking about my Dad’s rants as I read this book. Though admittedly, the Crawleys, for all their flaws, didn’t commit and cover up a murder…

As a historical fiction story with some thriller elements, I found “The Undoing of Violet Claybourne” to be rather tense, even if it was less about a ‘whodunnit’ and more about ‘are these spoiled rich brats going to get away with this?!’. I won’t say what ‘this’ is, as you will appreciate it more if it’s a shock, but I was definitely on pins and needles to see if the Claybourne sisters Emmeline and Laura were going to keep up their lies, with unwitting but ultimately complicit Gillian, our narrator, being slowly eaten by guilt. Especially when her complicity not only brings pain to the people at the heart of the tragedy, but also ropes Violet, her friend and the reason she was brought to this upper class home in the first place, into the web. I could see various puzzle pieces falling into place, but the absolute horror of it, knowing it was coming like a speeding train about to derail, made me SO ANXIOUS. Critchley brings in some solid shocks and twists with these various unravellings, and it was quite the ride that had me tied up in knots.

But what I really enjoyed about this book was the way that Critchley portrays her characters. You have Gillian, who was so eager to be accepted by posh and charismatic Laura and Emmeline that she threw her actual friend Violet to the side, only to end up in a murder cover up. You have Laura and Emmeline, scheming sisters that flaunt their privilege but are also in different ways constrained by it, and therefore make reckless and cruel decisions. And you have Violet, the most tragic of the characters, who is thrown to the side by her family due to her ‘peculiarities’ (it’s highly implied that she is OCD and perhaps neurodivergent in other ways), and then thrown aside by Gillian in favor of her callous and careless older sisters. The Claybournes are cold and callous, and they are exactly the bleak reality that “Downton Abbey” never really allowed their beloved Crowleys to transform into: the dying aristocracy in England before WWII that was gilded, nasty, and unfeeling. It adds to the overall unease.

“The Undoing of Violet Claybourne” is tense and upsetting, a well done historical thriller with some truly deplorable characters who have some interesting baggage. Prepare to be unnerved!

Rating 7: A tense mystery with some misbehaving elites at the helm, “The Undoing of Violet Claybourne” is a twisty ride with some good surprises against a historical backdrop of the unfeeling aristocracy in pre-WWII England.

Reader’s Advisory:

“The Undoing of Violet Claybourne” is included on the Goodreads list “The [descriptive word] of [first-name] [last-name]”.

Kate’s Review: “They Bloom At Night”

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

Book: “They Bloom At Night” by Trang Thahn Tran

Publishing Info: Bloomsbury YA, March 2025

Where Did I Get This Book: I received an ARC from the publisher at ALAAC24.

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

Book Description: A red algae bloom has taken over Mercy, Louisiana. Ever since a devastating hurricane, mutated wildlife lurks in the water that rises by the day. But Mercy has always been a place where monsters walk in plain sight. Especially at its heart: The Cove, where Noon’s life was upended long before the storm at a party her older boyfriend insisted on.

Now, Noon is stuck navigating the submerged town with her mom, who believes their dead family has reincarnated as sea creatures. Alone with the pain of what happened that night at the cove, Noon buries the truth: she is not the right shape.

When Mercy’s predatory leader demands Noon and her mom capture the creature drowning residents, she reluctantly finds an ally in his deadly hunter of a daughter and friends old and new. As the next storm approaches, Noon must confront the past and decide if it’s time to answer the monster itching at her skin.

Review: Thank you to Bloomsbury YA for providing me with an ARC of this novel at ALAAC24!

It’s almost March, and yet I am here once again with an ARC I got at ALAAC last summer. I always find it funny when I still have a few lingering finds from the conference, especially since the next one is only four months away, but let me tell you this find was one I was really excited about. “They Bloom At Night” is the new YA horror novel by Trang Thahn Tran, and it was well worth the wait. Because like any good horror novel, it’s not the just horror stuff that brings the goods, it’s also the commentary about the world in which we are living.

Let’s look at the horror stuff first. Like in their previous novel “She Is A Haunting”, Tran brings rich perspectives to well loved horror sub-genres. This time it’s a combination of body horror as well as eco horror. The eco horror is the settling, as we are in a small town in Louisiana after a hurricane has ravaged it, with a toxic and mysterious algae bloom basically engulfing the waters that the town has depended on to survive. This kind of setting is unfortunately feeling more and more timely, and I thought it was a great place to make comment on the climate crisis and how it can have so many effects that some may not think of. After all, it’s not just mutated sea life and mysterious monsters that are a threat in this book, but a community teetering towards financial ruin and a corrupt self proclaimed leadership that has taken over as well. You feel the desperation in Mercy and the people who live there, and the added horrors of rumors of mutated sea creatures can only make it worse.

And as someone who has a hard time with body horror (I still haven’t seen “The Substance” even though it has so many accolades!), it was very well done, balancing out the nasty with the more fantastical. The descriptions of the mutations caused by the bloom had their moments of me thinking ‘oh YUCK’, which is exactly what I’d expect from body horror, and they could vary from being generally creepy to outright nasty. And hey, I’m never big on the nasty, but the creepy? I really loved the creepy here. Especially the caution about ignoring ‘the knocks’ at the door after dark. Good gracious. But if you like the nasty, never fear, because yeah, some really disgusting transformations happen in this book, especially for those who have been a little too exposed to the bloom, as body parts rot away, skins get sloughed off, or mutilations are put to the forefront. For our protagonist Noon, the body horror bits are slow and meticulous, starting with her hair turning white, but then becoming more and more alarming.

I also really enjoyed the dichotomy between the physical transformation that Noon is experiencing and the way that she is starting to realize that she is starting to shift her own ideas about who she is, whether it’s due to having to confront the trauma of being sexually assaulted, losing her father and brother, or realizing that she is still trying to suss out her own gender identity. It’s not like using the ideas of body horror as a metaphor for transformation of multiple kinds is new, but I thought that Tran really differentiated between some of the more disgusting elements (see above) and the more ethereal and liberating ones, even as Noon was turning into something else than she had been before, whether it’s because of her exposure to the bloom or her confronting the trauma and loss. It’s gratifying to see that this transformation, at least for Noon, could be depicted as a positive, and her journey to finally finding peace with herself in spite of the horrors that surround her. It made for a very emotional read, and I was very invested in her as a character, as well as the other ‘othered’ characters around her.

I really enjoyed “They Bloom At Night”.

Rating 8: A creepy and sometimes nasty combination of eco and body horror, “They Bloom At Night” is also an examination of trauma and gender identity against the backdrop of a ravaged climate.

Reader’s Advisory:

“They Bloom At Night” is included on the Goodreads lists “Trans and Nonbinary Fiction 2025”, and “Horror To Look Forward To in 2025”.

Kate’s Review: “Fence, Vol. 5: Rise”

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

Book: “Fence, Vol. 5: Rise” by C.S. Pacat & Johanna the Mad (Ill.)

Publishing Info: BOOM! Box, August 2022

Where Did I Get This Book: The library!

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

Book Description: USA Today best-selling author C. S. Pacat (Captive Prince) and popular web cartoonist Johanna the Mad along with colorist Joana LaFuente (Transformers) and letterer Jim Campbell (Giant Days) reunite for the highly-anticipated next chapter in this fierce and heartfelt GLAAD Media Award-nominated series. Excitement is in the air as Nicholas and his friends celebrate their prestigious invitation to the Halverton Training Camp. They immediately come face-to-face with the best teams in the country, and Nicholas struggles as he suffers defeat after defeat by an old enemy. Will a new addition to the team bring Nicholas closer to the rest of the team and awaken the resilience within he needs to prevail? But Seiji, in contrast to Nicholas, remains unchallenged and let down by the camp. With Seiji’s goal to learn (instead of win) stuck in his head, will Nicholas step up to pose a real challenge to Seiji, even growing their friendship as a result?. Get ready to say “En Garde” to the next installment of Fence!

Review: It has been so long since I’ve revisited the fencers at King’s Row Boys School! Once I realized I hadn’t read the next installment in the “Fence” Series, I hastily requested “Fence, Vol. 5: Rise” from the library, more than ready to jump back into the world of high school fencing and all the slow burn drama that comes with it. Normally I like a slow burn, as well all know. But I will say that when it comes to “Fence”, I’m starting to get a little impatient…

But first I’ll start with that I enjoyed. I do like how Pacat is still really devoting time and explanation to fencing as a sport, and how we are seeing the ins and outs of the fencers and the kinds of competitions they engage within. In this volume we see Nicholas, Seiji, and all the rest of the team (as well as new team manager Bobby!) go to a prestigious training camp to hone their skills, alongside other top tier fencers in their competitive circles. It’s an interesting way to keep things going while also showing the kind of work and dedication elite athletes have to tend to even if they aren’t doing high stakes tournaments. We also get introduced to a few new characters, and while we don’t get to know them terribly well (And how could we? We already have so many characters to keep track of), we see enough of them that I got a feel for the different teams and how they gel with each other. And finally, I REALLY loved how Pacat found a way to bring in Bobby further into the story, as I think that Bobby is just the sweetest. I had been worried when he hadn’t made the team, as I was thinking that meant we wouldn’t be seeing as much of him anymore, but here he is in all his adorableness being able to be a part of the team while using his skills at being the best booster ever for his friends. Perfection!

But there are a couple of things that didn’t work as well, and I think that at this point I am just about done with the very slow pacing of this series. I know that for some people that means that they are waiting for Nicholas and Seiji to finally figure out their feelings for each other (or Aiden and Harvard, who are also lollygagging a bit in their will they or won’t they), but for me it’s about an actual confrontation between Nicholas and his half brother Jesse, who as far as we know doesn’t know that Nicholas exists. That has been a huge driving force for Nicholas in this series, to prove himself as a good athlete as a way to work out his abandonment issues regarding his father, with Jesse being the personification of that (as well as an arrogant prick, as far as this reader can tell). But I feel like it just keeps getting drawn out, and I’m starting to lose my patience. I like the technical aspects of this book when it comes to fencing as a sport and a skill, but I also want to get to some of the emotional pay offs that have been teased for quite awhile now.

ANY DAY NOW. (source)

At the end of the day I’m still invested in “Fence” and am interested to see where we are going next. But I would love it if we could move it along.

Rating 7: Another cute installment to this sports series, though I am getting a bit impatient waiting for some interaction between Nicholas and his half brother…

Reader’s Advisory:

“Fence, Vol. 5: Rise” is included on the Goodreads list “Books About Queer People In Sports”.

Kate’s Review: “The Crash”

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

Book: “The Crash” by Freida McFadden

Publishing Info: Poisoned Pen Press, January 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 nightmare she’s running from is nothing compared to where she’s headed.

Tegan is eight months pregnant, alone, and desperately wants to put her crumbling life in the rearview mirror. So she hits the road, planning to stay with her brother until she can figure out her next move. But she doesn’t realize she’s heading straight into a blizzard.

She never arrives at her destination.

Stranded in rural Maine with a dead car and broken ankle, Tegan worries she’s made a terrible mistake. Then a miracle she is rescued by a couple who offers her a room in their warm cabin until the snow clears. But something isn’t right. Tegan believed she was waiting out the storm, but as time ticks by, she comes to realize she is in grave danger. This safe haven isn’t what she thought it was, and staying here may have been her most deadly mistake yet.

And now she must do whatever it takes to save herself—and her unborn child.

A gut-wrenching story of motherhood, survival, and twisted expectations, #1 New York Times bestselling author Freida McFadden delivers a snowbound thriller that will chill you to the bone.

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

Here is a bit of a wild thriller confession on my part (though if you have been reading my reviews for awhile now it won’t be shocking): I haven’t read anything by Freida McFadden. I feel like she’s a pretty popular author in the genre right now, at the very least she is very prevalent with title after title coming out. And she does show up on my various reading feeds pretty often. But I just hadn’t checked her out! Well, until Poisoned Pen Press sent me an ARC of “The Crash”, a novel about a pregnant woman named Tegan fleeing a bad situation… who ends up in a worse situation when her car crashes during a blizzard and she’s ‘rescued’ by an older couple in the middle of nowhere, who say they can give her shelter…. and then imprison her in their basement. Well, I mean, come on. The premise alone is super, super intriguing. And I figured it was high time that I read something by this author that I’d been seeing everywhere. And to be quite honest, once I was done, I wasn’t totally sold.

But first the things that did work for me. I was pleasantly surprised that not only do we get the perspective of Tegan, our pregnant hostage in the basement of a strange couple in rural Maine, we ALSO get the perspective of Polly, the wife of the duo who is the actual mastermind of the kidnapping plot. It was a bold choice, and because we got to see what was going in her mind I was able to see that this was not only having some “Misery” vibes, but also some “Pearl” vibes as well. I say “Pearl” because Polly is both deeply unwell and a bit disturbing, but also sympathetic in a lot of ways, in this case because of her deep grief, trauma, and borderline psychosis due to her infertility when she so desperately wants a child. Is it a little cliché? Sure. Does grief and trauma over not being able to have a baby mean you can kidnap a pregnant woman your husband stumbled upon after a car crash and plot to to take the infant for your own?

Polly, noooooo. (source)

That said, I really enjoyed the Polly sections because I loved the unhingedness of it all. It made it fast paced and a true page turner, the exact kind of read I want for escapism. Polly was a huge reason for that.

But on the other hand, there were a couple of things that didn’t work as well for me. The first was Tegan as a character, as while Polly was very interesting to me, Tegan felt half baked. I just didn’t connect with her as much and thought that she was a lot more two dimensional than I wanted her to be. On top of that, we had some pretty wild twists and turns that felt shallow and only there for shock value, and I don’t want to spoil any of them here because I do want people who want to read it to not go in with all the fun sucked out, but there was one in particular that made me say ‘really?’ out loud once it was revealed. You all know how grumpy I get about books that have massive twists for the sake of twists, and this one had one that I found to be particularly frustrating (I will admit that there was another that I did generally like, though it wasn’t super surprising).

So for my first Freida McFadden novel it was a bit of a mixed bag. I am pretty sure I will be checking out other books by McFadden, because this one was fun for the most part, but I will probably save them for times that I need a quick and not so deep escape.

Rating 6: Pretty entertaining and it has an interesting perspective from that of the main antagonist, but some of the twists were a little too outlandish for my tastes.

Reader’s Advisory:

“The Crash” isn’t on any super relevant Goodreads lists, but it would fit in on “Kidnapped!”.

Kate’s Review: “The Vengeful Dead”

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

Book: “The Vengeful Dead” by Darcy Coates

Publishing Info: Poisoned Pen Press, February 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: How far will she go to save the damned?

Keira is caught in a deadly battle. Her ability to help ghosts move on from the mortal world has made her a threat to Artec, a powerful corporation intent on trapping the tortured dead for profit. They’ve been tracking her for years and now, finally, there’s nowhere left for her to run.

Artec fears Keira and everything she’s capable of. They will stop at nothing to eliminate her―including sending armed men after everyone she holds dear.

Desperate and quickly running out of time, Keira races to hone her abilities as she searches for a way to destroy the twisted organization for good. But at least now she’s no longer alone. Her friends have offered to follow wherever she leads, even if that means a direct strike deep into the heart of Artec’s central base…and to the certain death waiting for them there.

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

It’s been about two years since I started Darcy Coates’s dark fantasy/horror “Gravekeeper” series, and we have now reached the end with the fifth book “The Vengeful Dead”. What started as a story about an amnesiac who can see ghosts in a quirky small town has grown into something more, involving found family, corporate conspiracy, and… well, still a quirky small town. I am always interested to see where a series lands once all is said and done, and I am happy to report that “The Vengeful Dead” was a successful wrap up to a series I’ve enjoyed for the past two years!

As a satisfying wrap up of an ongoing series, I thought that this book really does a good job of not only tying up the Artec arc that has been plaguing Keira since we first met her, it also gave us one last stand alone ghost story, involving an old sanatorium and the ghosts of women who were, perhaps, victimized there. I wasn’t certain that we were going to get one more story where Keira helps ghosts that are unable to move on, be it due to unfinished business or Artec holding them hostage to drain them of their energy, and when it became clear that she was going to have one more mission in that regard I was very pleased. I also thought that the Artec story, which grew and became more fleshed out as the series went on, had a really well done climax and conclusion here. When I started this book I never imagined that Keira’s biggest hardship would involve a corporation trying to exploit resources and beings to create a profit, but man, what a storyline for everything else going on in the world at the moment. Coates had a lot of build up and I had high hopes, and I felt that the way it all wrapped up in “The Vengeful Dead” was deeply, deeply satisfying for this reader who has been all in since Keira first arrived in Blighty four books ago.

But the strongest aspect of “The Gravekeeper” series for me was always the characters, and I was really hoping that we would get a good send off for Keira, Zoe, Mason, Daisy the cat, and all of the quirky (and sometimes villainous) people of Blighty. One of my favorite themes of these books was the way that Keira made herself a found family and found herself in such a kind and loving community, with crabby recluses, charming florists, mysterious coffee shop owners, and others, and to see so many of these characters, main and supporting, have moments to shine and moments to let the readers say goodbye was so heartening. We got nods to previous plot points, we got couples finally officially getting together, and we got to see Keira, Zoe, and Mason work together through the toughest times and keep their bonds alive with heart and humor as well as the freaky moments that come with horror stories. I always found this series to be more on the cozy side because of all of the characters, and while I’m certainly going to miss them, I was so thrilled with all that they were able to do in this last story.

I would love it if Darcy Coates comes back to Keira, Zoe, and Mason in the future. But if this is really goodbye for our “Gravekeeper” Scooby Gang, what a lovely and satisfying ending it was.

Rating 8: An action packed and satisfying conclusion to a charming horror series, “The Vengeful Dead” sticks the landing for sure.

Reader’s Advisory:

“The Vengeful Dead” is included on the Goodreads list “Horror Books 2025”.

Kate’s Review: “The Widow’s Web”

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

Book: “The Widow’s Web” by Susan Moore

Publication Info: Bloodhound Books, January 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: When her tycoon husband suddenly dies, a woman discovers the sinister secrets of Silicon Valley, in this psychological thriller debut.

When tech mogul Brad Jones is found drowned off the Marin coast, his death is quickly ruled a suicide. But his wife, Dr. Anna Jones, a renowned cyberpsychologist, isn’t convinced. Driven by grief and suspicion, Anna begins to dig into Brad’s past, uncovering some dark details behind Silicon Valley’s elite.

Anna soon crosses paths with Scott and Kristy Lyle, influential figures with connections reaching the highest echelons of the tech industry. The deeper she goes, the more she realizes Brad’s death is tied to a long-buried secret—one that powerful people would kill to protect. Caught between the truth and some dangerous enemies, will Anna risk everything to expose the sinister forces at play?

The Widow’s Web is a gripping psychological thriller that explores ambition, betrayal, and the terrifying reality that our worst enemies may be those we trust the most.

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

Well it just so happens that this week the books I’m reviewing are ALL about rich people behaving badly! Just like “A Girl Like Us” on Tuesday, we are now tackling a story that feels way too relevant, and in this case it’s even more so as it is about villainous tech bros in Silicon Valley doing shady things and destroying lives to maintain their power. I miss the days that my associations with that part of Northern California were more about my childhood memories of family trips and beautiful oceans and less about the aforementioned monsters in tech. Yep, “The Widow’s Web” by Susan Moore is a rich behaving badly thriller, but it has less melodrama and more actual nasty and disturbing plot points. Which surprised me in a good way.

As a thriller, “The Widow’s Web” is pretty straight forward on the surface. We have Anna, a psychologist who has been married to her tech mogul husband Brad for years and living a lavish life in Silicon Valley. But when Brad suddenly dies by drowning, she is suddenly plunged into a viper’s nest of lies and secrets involving her husband and fellow tech bro Scott Lyle, and realizes that Brad was hiding horrible secrets from her. We get the clues to the big reveals through modern day investigation from Anna herself, to flashbacks involving Brad and his business dealings, to journalistic digging from a reporter who has ties to Scott Lyle through his wife Kristy, and it all makes for a mystery that is fairly well put together, though well tread territory when it comes to the puzzle pieces and the way they fit together. I did wholly enjoy Anna as a character, as a grieving wife as well as a woman who is trying to protect her son from dark truths as she is finding them out.

But what struck me the most about this book is that, unlike other wealthy people behaving badly books I’ve read recently, Moore decides to take the bad behavior to incredibly dark and sociopathic places. I don’t want to spoil too much, but this book and its reveals don’t feel soapy or fun, and while I love soapy and fun, I appreciate the candor that Moore has put into place in her characters and the absolute depravity that she is calling out, as these tech bros are so rich and powerful that they don’t feel any fear of consequences. Was it a mind fuck to read this kind of story as tech bros are trying to dismantle society as we know it and turn in their techno-dystopic ideals? It sure was! Does it make this book feel all the more relevant and horrifying? YUP, IT SURE DOES. That is what stood out to me about this book. I didn’t expect it to continue fueling my existential dread about everything.

“The Widow’s Web” has familiar beats, but dares to push the envelope in its themes. Because of that, I found it to be compelling and effective.

Rating 7: A twisty conspiratorial thriller that has a sympathetic main character and the gall to go to the darkest places when calling out the sociopaths of the tech industry.

Reader’s Advisory:

“The Widow’s Web” isn’t on any Goodreads lists yet, but it would fit in on “Mysteries Set in Silicon Valley (Fiction)”.