Category: Kate’s Reviews

Kate’s Review: “You’ve Got the Map Backwards”

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Book: “You’ve Got the Map Backwards” by Brian Usobiaga

Publishing Info: Self Published, April 2024

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

Where You Can Get This Book: Amazon

Book Description: A year removed from high school, lifelong friends Aisha Kinseya and Sarah Piedmont find themselves lost in different places. Struggling with depression, Sarah’s growing dependency on alcohol lands her in rehab. Aisha, in the midst of her second year of college, finds herself increasingly isolated as a crippling anxiety begins to overwhelm her.

Finding solace in familiarity, the two girls reunite only to have their friendship fracture. As they search for answers, Aisha and Sarah discover how relationships can change. How knowing someone your entire life doesn’t mean you know them forever, and how, if you want to grow, there are certain things you must leave behind.

Review: Thank you to Brian Usobiaga for sending me an epub of this novella!

We are starting to wind down 2024, with Thanksgiving next week and then the whirlwind of the holidays kicking into overdrive. I had such an anxiety filled year that I’m actually kind of behind on my reading goals, if I’m being honest, and usually that means that I’m not really taking chances or risks in genres outside of the ones I love. But that said, when author Brian Usobiaga reached out to me with his novella “You’ve Got the Map Backwards” a few months back, even though I KNEW that I was going to be going outside my genre, I was so intrigued by the premise that I wanted to give it a go! So let’s depart from horror, thriller, cozy mystery, and graphic novels to take on a coming of age contemporary novella!

(source)

This is, quite obviously, not the usual kind of fare that I spotlight on this blog, but I was intrigued by the story as someone who has had falling outs with close friends once we hit a certain age and different paths in life (not due to any addiction issues or anything like that, however). And I liked that Usobiaga decided to focus the story on both Sarah’s struggles as well as Aisha’s struggles, and how sometimes friendship can be complicated when both people in the relationship are going through things, even if those things are quite different. We follow both of them through their own perspective moments, with Sarah dealing with being fresh out of rehab and teetering back towards alcohol, and Aisha trying to adjust to college while also taking on Sarah in hopes of supporting her and helping her after rehab. Usobiaga is pretty frank about how difficult Sarah’s path is, as she is in a very vulnerable place and not equipped to deal with trying to stay sober after her program has completely. Sarah is an interesting character because I found her to be incredibly maddening, but I also really felt for her. I also liked Aisha’s perspective as she is trying to hold her own in school as her connection to her father is distanced and somewhat strained, while also feeling a loyalty to Sarah even though Sarah is a mess and bordering on taking advantage of Aisha’s kindness. Their friendship is very complex and I really liked getting both of their perspectives to be able to see both sides.

I think that the only hangup I had was that sometimes the time shifts were confusing. There were definitely headers that lets the reader know that we are now in a different place in time, sometimes a decade behind even, but I found myself having to go back and remind myself when a certain moment was taking place because it felt a bit like the other moments in time that we were seeing play out. I’m someone who really likes structured time jumps that follow a pattern, so ones that are a bit more creative tend to confuse me, and this may not be a problem that translates to all readers.

I found “You’ve Got the Map Backwards” to be an emotional and quick read, with characters whose pain felt very real and who we hope will find some healing. I’m happy I took a chance on it!

Rating 7: Shorter and to the point, “You’ve Got the Map Backwards” is a story about addiction, friendship, and a crossroads between two people who mean a lot to each other.

Reader’s Advisory:

“You’ve Got the Map Backwards” isn’t on any Goodreads lists as of now, but if you like friendship dramas with some honesty and a little bit of hope, this would be a good match for you.

Kate’s Review: “Sundown in San Ojuela”

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Book: “Sundown in San Ojuela” by M.M. Olivas

Publishing Info: Lanternfish Press, November 2024

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

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

Book Description: When the death of her aunt brings Liz Remolina back to San Ojuela, the prospect fills her with dread. The isolated desert town was the site of a harrowing childhood accident that left her clairvoyant, the companion of wraiths and ghosts. Yet it may also hold the secret to making peace with a dark family history and a complicated personal and cultural identity.

Setting out on the train with her younger sister Mary in tow, she soon finds herself hemmed in by a desolate landscape where monsters and ancient gods stalk the night. She’s relieved at first to find that her childhood best friend Julian still lives in San Ojuela, but soon realizes that he too is changed. Haunted.

Yet she’ll have no other choice than to seek out his help as the darkness closes in.

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

I will admit that when I am prepping for ALA I generally find myself more focused on strategy to get ARCs before I look at panels that may be of interest. What can I say, I love getting books. But I usually do find some panels that pique my interest, and this past conference I found one about speculative fiction and indie publishing that was really interesting. One of the speakers was M.M. Olivas, an author I hadn’t heard of before that moment, but whose debut novel “Sundown in San Ojuela” sounded VERY interesting indeed. She described it as a spaghetti western meets the vampire films “Near Dark” and “A Girl Who Walks Home Alone at Night”. HOW COMPELLING. I threw it on my NetGalley list and when the time finally came to read it I sat down and dove in.

The spaghetti western influences are definitely there, as are the vampire films that Olivas mentioned, and I found “Sundown in San Ojuela” to be a multi layered story about homecoming, trauma, and identity in the shadow of colonization. Our horror elements take a lot of inspiration from Latine and Chicano folklore and some of the horror stories that come from that, be it Chupacabras, El Coco, or ancient Aztec gods. Throw in some vampires for good measure and you have yourself a real feast of supernatural suspense, with a woman who can see ghosts at the forefront as she confronts her family’s past in Casa Coyotl where her aunt resided until her death. I always love a character who can see ghosts, and Liz is a great protagonist who I was more than happy to root for as she and her sister Mary return to Aunt Marisol’s home in San Ojuela. I also loved Liz’s connection to Santa Muerte, and how she is already searching for dire answers when she realizes that monsters are everywhere in this town she thought she had left behind. I really enjoyed some of the deeper subtexts of this book, especially in relation to the Latine experience in areas near the border, and the generational traumas and violence that has been passed down since the conquistadors and still expresses itself through racism, oppressive immigration laws, and the way Latine people, both citizen and immigrant, are exploited and cast aside.

But the one downside of this book is how there are a number of shifting POVs, and not just in terms of character perspectives. There are lots of characters that get some focus, it’s true, but my bigger qualm was how we would go from first person to third person to sometimes even second person, which is SUCH a tricky voice even when it’s the main one being focused on. Since we were jumping a lot between these different voice types, I found it jarring and a bit of a jolt, which pulled me out of the writing. Which was too bad because I didn’t want to be taken out of the story at hand, so distractions were frustrating. And there was also a bit of wide net that was cast in this book, with LOTS of action going on with LOTS of characters having LOT to do, and I feel like perhaps it could have been tighter. All that said, it didn’t detract from the story too much!

“Sundown in San Ojuela” was a fascinating horror tale with a lot of clear influences that I really dug. I’m so happy that I went to that panel so that I could hear all about it from Olivas herself, because I’m not sure I’d have found it otherwise!

Rating 7: So many great layers and a unique and twisted horror tale is elevated by Latine folklore, though some of the POV shifts are jarring at times, and it sometimes felt like a wide swath that could have been tighter.

Reader’s Advisory:

“Sundown in San Ojuela” isn’t on any Goodreads lists as of yet, but I kept thinking about Isabel Cañas and V. Castro and their novels as I read this one.

Kate’s Review: “Guilt and Ginataan”

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Book: “Guilt and Ginataan” by Mia P. Manansala

Publishing Info: Berkley, November 2024

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

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

Book Description: Autumn is in full swing for the town of Shady Palms—the perfect time for warm drinks, cozy cardigans, and…dead bodies?

The annual Shady Palms Corn Festival is one of the town’s biggest moneymakers, drawing crowds from all over the Midwest looking to partake in delicious treats, local crafts, and of course, the second largest corn maze in Illinois. Lila Macapagal and her Brew-ha Cafe crew, Adeena Awan and Elena Torres, are all too happy to participate in the event and even make a little wager on who can make it through the corn maze the fastest—but their fun is suddenly cut short when a dead body is found in the middle of the maze…and an unconscious Adeena lies next to it, clutching a bloody knife.

The body is discovered to be a local politician’s wife, and all signs—murder weapon included—point to Adeena as the culprit. But Lila knows her best friend couldn’t have done this, so she and her crew put on their sleuthing caps yet again to find the killer who framed Adeena and show them what happens when they mess with a Brew-ha…

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

I’ve been having a rough go of it for the past week and a half. My worst fears about the election came true, and I’ve been spending a lot of time either feeling lots of rage, or commiserating with/supporting my friends and loved ones who have so much to lose should all these promises made come to pass. So during this time I’ve been trying to be a little gentle on myself when it comes to what I consume, entertainment wise, and it was the perfect time to read “Guilt and Ginataan” by Mia P. Manansala, the newest cozy mystery in the “Tita Rosie’s Kitchen Mysteries” series! And besides, I also love a cozy mystery for fall, my favorite time of year. So I wrapped myself in the heaviest weighted blanket our house had to offer to feel cozy and to try and tamp down my ever ongoing anxiety attacks as I dove in.

As a mystery, I did have a few moments of being surprised and caught off guard. Manansala does a really good job of spreading out motives and suspects, with red herrings and misdirections that kept me on my toes. In this novel, Lila is on the case during the Shady Palms Corn Festival after a woman named Yvonne, the wife of a visiting Mayor, is found murdered in the corn maze, and Lila’s best friend and business partner Adeena is found passed out next to the body with a bloody knife in her hand. Lila always seems to have some kind of connection to the murders in these stories, usually because a loved one is accused of having something to do with it, and now it’s finally Adeena’s turn, which made the stakes feel incredibly high as Adeena has always been Lila’s number one supporter and confidant. I think that this entry into the series brings it back up to the top of its game after the last book that didn’t click as well as I had hoped it would, and the higher stakes were a huge part of that. I also liked seeing how Lila has grown as an investigator, and how she has become more in her element as the series has gone on without any frustrating roadblocks between her and her loved ones or her state as an amateur detective (still hoping she eventually opens up her own agency, but perhaps that would take away from her kind of Jessica Fletcher thing she has going on) .

One of the biggest things I look for in a cozy mystery series is a group of characters and a setting that is enjoyable, charming, and, well, cozy? And Shady Palms and everyone who lives there continue to be utterly engaging (though I still don’t really like Lila’s group of aunties, but they weren’t in this one very much so that was neither here nor there in this case). I also really enjoyed the autumn setting in this one, with the body of Yvonne being found in a corn maze during the Corn Festival in town. It also just feels like such a small town thing that resonates, as my Dad’s small hometown of Schaller, Iowa always has a Popcorn Days celebration that we would attend during family visits throughout my youth. I’m still really loving the life and details that Manansala is bringing to her setting and all of the quirky people who live there.

And finally, yes, there are more recipes in this book!! Boy do I still love a good recipe selection from a cozy mystery story, and once again there are many at hand this time that just sound to die for.

The “Tita Rosie Kitchen Mysteries” Series is still really fun, and “Guilt and Ginataan” keeps the vibes nice and chill while bringing in the kind of suspense I want from a cozy mystery story. We may be in need of some cozy comforts in the future when taking a break from reality to recharge, and this series is a good place to seek such things out.

Rating 8: Another fun cozy mystery about Lila Macapagal with some awesome recipes! Perfect fall reading here!

Reader’s Advisory:

“Guilt and Ginataan” is on the Goodreads list “2024 Cozy Mystery New Releases”.

Kate’s Review: “Snow Drowned”

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Book: “Snow Drowned” by Jennifer D. Lyle

Publishing Info: Sourcebooks Fire, November 2024

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

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

Book Description: There’s a saying on Fall Island: if you’re not careful, the snow will get you.

Gracie Hutchinson has lived on Fall Island her whole life and knows there’s some truth to those words. Fall’s snowstorms have a spooky way of claiming people, making them disappear without a trace or driving them mad. Now, with a hundred-year-storm approaching, most of Fall’s residents have fled to the mainland. But not Gracie. Left behind her with physician father, she braces for landfall.

Gracie’s not the only one left behind. Her classmate Joseph Wescott, descendant of the legendary pioneer who founded Fall Island, has stayed, too. After a chance encounter, the two stumble across something more unsettling than the snow: a ritually mutilated corpse. By night, as the snow begins to fall, it becomes clear that whoever (or whatever) murdered the man they found has their sights set on Gracie.

Seeking refuge at Wescott Manor, Gracie feels safe surrounded by dozens of locals hunkered down in the huge house. But as the storm assaults the island, Gracie discovers secrets that have been kept since Fall was settled. If she can’t uncover the hidden history and terrifying truth about Fall Island before the storm’s end, she’ll be the next to disappear into the snow.

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

Being a Minnesota girl, I know a thing or two about snowstorms. I actually kind of enjoy a nice hardcore blizzard, assuming that I’ve had enough time to prepare for it (i.e. stock up on comfort food, wine, and a bunch of books or movies/TV shows) and that I don’t have to drive in it. It’s probably no surprise, then, that I really like wintery horror stories, so of course I really wanted to read “Snow Drowned” by Jennifer D. Lyle. The description had me thinking of Stephen King’s amazing miniseries “Storm of the Century”, so I thought I knew what I was getting into. But I was wrong, and wrong in a good way.

Unfortunately I can’t really tell you WHY I was wrong because of spoilers, so I will give you other reasons as to why this book worked pretty well for me. The first is that I genuinely enjoyed the slow burn build of the horror and mystery at the heart of Fall Island as a monumental snow storm is approaching. We follow Gracie, a teenager whose family has been on Fall Island for generations, and who has been a bit isolated at home as she and the rest of the island awaits for a huge storm to hit. But when she and Joseph Wescott, the heir apparent to the devout founding family of the town centuries ago, find a body that seems to have been ritually murdered, things start to spiral out of control. I liked seeing Gracie hole up with the Wescotts in their mansion, and how Lyle slowly unfolds that this well regarded and deeply religious family has some dark secrets, and that Gracie is, unfortunately, about to play a key role. The Gothic vibes of the island were well done and the family was unsettling and sinister, and it had me turning the pages looking for more.

In an attempt to avoid spoilers but talk a little about other things that worked, I can say that “Storm of the Century” is accurate, but you have to throw in some folk horror and a family conspiracy edge that harkens to “Ready or Not” and other privileged wealthy antagonists. Lyle holds these things pretty close to the vest, and I was genuinely caught off guard a few times as I read this book. Lyle lays out the clues, and she does it in a way that make perfect sense but still kept me guessing at least part of the time. I also really loved the swerve that we took right before the climax of this action, as I was expecting one kind of sub genre and then got something all the more interesting that had a GREAT pay off. There was a bit of a quibble I had that kind of knocked some points off, and that was the ending wrap up had another swerve moment that made me groan, and then set up for a potential sequel. Would I read the sequel? Possibly! But the initial ending was so satisfying that I wish we hadn’t even laid the groundwork at the last moment.

Winter is coming, folks, and “Snow Drowned” is going to be a perfect horror read for a snowy dark night. A YA horror winner in a genre that sometimes gets a bit rocky in that age group, which I’m always happy to see.

Rating 7: A YA horror that had some solid surprises and scares, though the ending was a bit of a disappointment.

Reader’s Advisory:

“Snow Drowned” isn’t on many Goodreads lists as of now, but it would fit in on “Horror Novels Set (largely) in Winter/Snow”.

Kate’s Review: “This Girl’s A Killer”

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Book: “This Girl’s a Killer” by Emma C. Wells

Publishing Info: Poisoned Pen Press, September 2024

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

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

Book Description: Meet Cordelia Black. Cordelia loves exactly three things: her chosen family composed of her best friend Diane and her goddaughter; her hairdresser (worth every penny plus tip); and killing bad men.

By day she’s a successful pharmaceutical rep with a pristine reputation and a designer wardrobe. By night she’s culling South Louisiana of unscrupulous men—monsters who always seem to evade justice, until they meet her. It’s a complicated yet fulfilling life that requires complete and total control at all times. But when the evening news starts throwing around the words “serial killer,” pressure heightens for her in the South, and it’s only exacerbated when Diane starts dating a man Cordelia isn’t sure is a good person—someone who might unravel everything Cordelia has worked for. Soon Cordelia’s world spirals, and she loses her grip on those tightly held threads that keep her safe.

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

Horrorpalooza is over, and now I start to work back towards the books that I read before October that didn’t fit a horror theme to fit within that month’s review schematics. We had a cartel thriller on Saturday, and now we get back to good old fashioned women’s centric thrillers with Emma C. Wells’s novel “This Girl’s a Killer”. This has been on my list for awhile now, and now the time has finally arrived. With admittedly mixed results.

There were definitely things that did work, however. Most obviously to me is that I do love stories like this, with sarcastic and quippy morally grey narrators doing pretty terrible things but for fairly understandable reasons. I enjoy the idea of a pharma rep named Cordelia (I just kept thinking of Cordelia Chase from “Buffy”) being professional and put together by day, and then murdering abusive and violent men by night after the legal system fails to do anything about them. I enjoyed the story arc at hand, with her having an ‘oh shit’ moment when finding out that her company is recalling the drug she uses for her schemes (as it works SO WELL to knock men out you see), and then things slowly falling more and more out of control. Partially because she kind of starts dating a cop, partially because she really hates her best friend Diane’s new boyfriend. The thriller aspects are more about how and whether she will get away with her crimes, but it’s also a little tongue in cheek which gives it a bit of zip.

But on the flip side, it isn’t really anything that I haven’t seen before in the women’s centric poppy serial killer tale. That isn’t necessarily a bad thing, as I did find this book to be a very quick read and an entertaining one at that. After all, who doesn’t like to read about terrible predatory men getting justice doled out from a pissed off woman with a serial killing habit to feed? The problem is that Cordelia as a protagonist is trying to be “Promising Young Woman” vis a vis “Dexter”, but I didn’t feel like she had the complexities to back it up and is instead a bit of a caricature without the depth I was hoping for. Girlboss serial killer who loves her bestie and her high fashion labels and aesthetic is fine, but I was really hoping that she’d be a bit more interesting. I have similar criticisms for the supporting characters, with said bestie Diane being a little on the saccharine side and her daughter Samantha being precocious as hell bordering on a little unbelievable. As an escapist bloody romp this works, but I think that had the characters been stronger it really could have knocked it out of the park, and it didn’t quite get there.

It’s kind of strange to refer to a story about a serial killer in designer clothes as ‘cozy’ reading, but if you like thrillers you will probably feel that same vibe. Overall “This Girl’s a Killer” is pretty fluffy thriller fun that doesn’t take itself super seriously. I can dig that vibe this time of year.

Rating 6: Fun for what it is, but none of the characters moved outside of static two dimensional personalities and the story suffered for it.

Reader’s Advisory:

“This Girl’s a Killer” is included on the Goodreads list “Best Serial Killer Books”.

Kate’s Review: “All Our Wars”

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

Book: “All Our Wars” by Stephanie Vasquez

Publishing Info: SparkPress, October 2024

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

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

Book Description: For fans of Katie Gutierrez’s More Than You’ll Ever Know and Netflix’s Narcos comes a high-stakes thriller about the daughter of a high-ranking Mexican cartel leader dragged back to the life she fought hard to escape.

Twelve years have passed since Sofia De Luna’s mother was murdered. Sofia now leads a quiet life, far from the cartel violence she was raised amidst. But when her narco father’s retirement catapults her to head of the family, that peaceful existence is upended.

Unhappy with this changeover of power, Sofia’s brothers and cousins are wary of her desire to legitimize the family and her insistent questions about her mother’s mysterious death. Meanwhile, in Mexico’s uncertain political climate, Andres Herrera, the ex-sicario accused of Sofia’s mother’s murder, sees the opportunity for his exit from the drug business. He just needs Sofia, his first love, to uphold the truce between the cartels before the war brewing at the border trickles down to Mexico City, marring the upcoming election.

After a chance meeting with a disenfranchised DEA agent reveals the true depths the Torres will go to keep their power, Sofia decides she must stop the war her cousins have put in motion. But if she sacrifices her family for the dream of peace, will she meet the same fate as her mother?

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

My organized crime fiction experience is pretty limited to mafia movies like “The Godfather” and lots of the Scorsese catalog (“Goodfellas” is a favorite movie of mine, Terror Tuesday people and I have made it a Christmas tradition to watch it and eat lasagna). I’m not really someone who reads a lot of organized crime stuff, and I can’t think of any off the top of my head. But I’m always game to try new sub genres, so when “All Our Wars” by Stephanie Vasquez ended up in the inbox I felt that it was a sign that it was time to try out an organized crime thriller.

The intrigue, politicking, and tension regarding a power vacuum in a cartel family in this book made for a suspenseful read. Sofia is the daughter of a powerful cartel boss in Mexico, who left her family behind after her mother Maria was murdered and her close friend/lover Andres, now an ex-sicario, was accused of the murder but never taken to task for it. When she comes to visit at her father’s behest, she is told that she is next in line to run the business, just in time for her father to be killed under murky circumstances. All of this alone is interesting from the jump because I liked seeing the way that Sofia has to balance her own desires to stay out of it along with the familial pressure to stay, especially since it could cause a hostile takeover from her cousins should she make the wrong move, especially since the brewing power struggle between cartels could have a ripple effect all across Mexico. I really liked Sofia as a main character, and seeing her try to do the right thing while uncovering lots of disturbing truths regarding her family had me invested, especially as she starts to work alongside a DEA agent to try and get more answers and potentially put herself in even more danger. The ins and outs of the crime family and the violent realities of the business are engaging and interesting.

But what I enjoyed most about this book was the way that Vasquez presents a number of complicated and passionate familial and romantic relationships, and seeing how these relationships fit into the political and business interests of the cartel and the groups that benefit from them. Some of the more obvious ones are the relationships between Sofia and her former love Andres, or the romance between her brother Diego and his lover Yolotli, both of which I found to have an aching longing that gave them some complexity. But the one that I really liked was getting insight into the backstory of Sofia’s mother Maria and her relationship with Andres’s father Martin, and their doomed romance that was stopped before it could really start thanks to the fact Maria’s father betrothed her to Alberto, the heir apparent to a powerful cartel, who ends up being Sofia’s father. We see the way that Maria has her own desires but feels like she needs to push them away, and how her involvement in Alberto’s business starts to make her fear for herself and her children, and how she is still drawn to Martin in the years after their romance never quite happened. We get a lot of information about Maria, and we see how she has affected Sofia and her own values. I think Maria was my favorite character, and seeing her path juxtaposed with Sofia’s was a great choice.

“All Our Wars” was outside of my sub genre box, but I’m happy I took a chance on it. Maybe I should check out more of this sub genre.

Rating 7: A cartel thriller mixed with some tense family drama, “All Our Wars” was outside my usual reading sub genres but was a satisfying detour.

Reader’s Advisory:

“All Our Wars” isn’t included on any Goodreads lists as of now, but it would fit in on “Drug Cartel”.

Kate’s Review: “It Will Only Hurt For A Moment”

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

Book: “It Will Only Hurt For A Moment” by Delilah S. Dawson

Publishing Info: Del Rey, October 2024

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

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

Book Description: In this highly atmospheric thriller from the Bram Stoker Award–nominated author of The Violence, a young woman hopes to reinvent herself at an isolated artists’ colony . . . only to be drawn into its dark, twisted past.

Sarah Carpenter is starting over. She’s on the run—leaving behind her unsupportive, narcissistic ex-boyfriend and alcoholic, abusive mother—and headed for a new beginning at Tranquil Falls, a secluded artists’ colony on the grounds of a closed hotel. There, with no cell signal or internet to distract her, she hopes to rediscover her love for pottery and put the broken pieces of her life back together.

But when Sarah uncovers the body of a young woman while digging a hole for a pit kiln, things start to fall apart. Her fellow artists begin to act in troubling ways. The eccentric fiber artist knits an endless scarf. The musician plays the same carousel song over and over until his fingers bleed. The calligrapher grins with ink-stained teeth. Not to mention the haunting dreams Sarah has night after night.

When she discovers glass shards in her clay, Sarah wonders if someone is out to get her—or if she’s losing her grip on reality out here in the wilds, where the pounding of the waterfall never, ever fades. As she investigates the beautiful valley and the crumbling resort looming over them all, she unearths a chilling past that refuses to remain buried . . .

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

I gotta say, this Halloween season went by way too fast. I had a Halloween party this past weekend and a number of my friends and I were lamenting that October went by so fast, especially since the election is next week and none of us feel totally ready to see how that is going to shake out. Hell, my anxieties about that has plagued me pretty much all year, no doubt contributing to my near mental breakdown this past summer, some health problems, and the fact that I am SO behind on my reading as we enter the last two months of the year. But the horror I’ve read this month as been great, and I am SO thrilled to end my favorite month with Delilah S. Dawson’s newest novel “It Will Only Hurt for a Moment”. I loved her book “The Violence”, and this new one sounded like a perfect Halloween read. And it definitely scratched not only the scary itch, but also the dread that I’ve been feeling as of late thanks to the pulsing feminine rage this book has. Because same, girl.

Actual footage of me the past month. Months. Years.. (source)

As a horror novel it ticks a lot of the boxes that I really enjoy. Is there an isolated setting? Check. Is there a dark history to said isolated setting? Check. Is there a wide swath of strange characters who could be hiding something? Check. Are there ghosts? Big ol’ check. We follow Sarah, an artist who has been selected to join an artist’s colony/program located in the woods and at the site of an old fancy hotel, who just wants to be able to process some trauma by delving into pottery and having some self reflection time. But her fellow artists start acting strange, she starts having bad dreams, and she finds a long buried corpse that went unnoticed, and who appears to have tried to claw her way out of her coffin. I really enjoyed the way that Dawson slowly pieces together the mystery and slowly turns the dial of tension up so that the scares build and creep up slowly until they burst. The descriptions of the weird things that her fellow artists were doing, or the strange dreams that she was experiencing, were strange and surreal and unnerving to be sure.

But what worked best for me in this was the way that Dawson compares and contrasts the kinds of misogyny and abuse that women have had to contend with throughout history to that which they have to contend with today, peeling back insidious ways that the treatments have, in some ways, become more insidious and clandestine. In the modern time Sarah is reeling from the end of a long term relationship with her boyfriend Kyle, who she had come to realize was manipulative and emotionally abusive towards her. As she looks back at the relationship she sees the way he’s isolate her, how he’s denigrate her interests and separate her from her circle of friends, how he made sure that she was always dependent on him and felt the need to put him before herself. As she starts to learn the dark secrets of Tranquil Falls, and the history of the site and the way that women there were trapped within the confines of the era in which it was at its height, we find out horrors of women who were discarded, silenced, abused, and locked away for treading outside the expectations of their gender. There are some VERY upsetting moments portrayed in this book that could definitely be triggering for some people, so take that into account. But the rage and the fighting back that Sarah does, and the ghosts of the women who were subjected to such madness and violence make their rage and resistance known as well. I found it to both amplify my very present anxieties regarding next week, but to also give it a catharsis in some ways. Shitty men rarely get away with their shittiness in a Delilah S. Dawson novel, and I, for one, really needed to see that play out. Even if it terrified me at times and set me on edge.

“It Will Only Hurt For a Moment” is another stellar horror novel from Delilah S. Dawson, brimming with secrets and understandable anger. It’s not too late to pick it up for one last horror tale for the season.

And with that, Horrorpalooza comes to an end once more. And it feels like the right read to end with this year. I’m still feeling so much dread and terror about how next week’s election is going to go. But it’s good to see that there are other people who are making art to reflect similar feelings. Happy Halloween everyone. I hope that you all have a safe and fun and spooky holiday tonight. I hope that I can leave my personal terrors behind and it stays limited to this most wonderful holiday.

Rating 8: Filled with an eerie build up and many bursts of feminine rage, “It Will Only Hurt for a Moment” is a seething horror novel about misogyny, both old and new.

Reader’s Advisory:

“It Will Only Hurt for a Moment” is included on the Goodreads list “October 2024 Horror”.

Kate’s Review: “All The Hearts You Eat”

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Book: “All The Hearts You Eat” by Hailey Piper

Publishing Info: Titan Books, October 2024

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

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

Book Description: A visceral and heartbreaking work of gothic horror about small town mysteries, local folklore and the things we leave behind when we’re gone, from the Bram Stoker Award winning author of Queen of Teeth.

What really happened to Cabrina Brite?

Ivory’s life changes irrevocably when she discovers the body of Cabrina Brite on the sands of Cape Morning, along with a mysterious poem. How did she die, and why does it seem she was trying to swim to Ghost Cat Island, the centre of so many local mysteries?

Desperate to uncover the answers surrounding Cabrina’s death, and haunted by her discovery, Ivory begins to see the pale ghost of Cabrina, only to shake it off as a mere hallucination. But Ivory is not alone. Cabrina’s closest friends have also seen a similar apparition, and as they toy with occult possibilities, they begin to unravel the truth behind Cabrina’s death.

Because Cape Morning isn’t a ghost town, but a town filled with ghosts, and Ivory is about to discover just what happens when you let one in.

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

We have truly been blessed this past year or so with some great vampire horror. I feel like I’ve read, reviewed, and enjoyed more vampire horror lately than in years past, and I have another title for you to add to the collection of solid vampire lore. I hadn’t read any Hailey Piper before I picked up “All The Hearts You Eat”, though she had been on my radar for a bit with lots of horror people I like really singing her praises. And it seemed this would be the perfect moment to do so.

So first off I want to talk about the vampire mythos in this. I really liked the way that Piper takes it on a creates something super creative and haunting. I was reminded quite a bit of old school vampire legends with transmogrifying powers, but also the heavy air of melancholy and dread that was seen in “Midnight Mass”. I don’t want to give too much away, but the little snippets and glimpses of something supernatural that our characters see are creepy, as are some of the full fledged reveals of what the vampires look like and how they function is so different from what we tend to see in vampire stories as of late. Themes of transformation are abundant, and I really appreciated this take and the scary beats and moments Piper pulls from it all. And the language the Piper uses to describe not only the scary bits but also just the entire atmosphere was so vibrant and rich I was totally swept away by it, like on a wave to Ghost Cat Island.

But what really resonated most with me in this story is how Piper juxtaposes the common emotional themes we see in a vampire story, such as identity, transformation, loneliness, and isolation, with stories of multiple trans characters, whether it’s Cabrina Bright who lost her life and left behind her queer and trans friends (as well as her cold and transphobic politician mother), said friends Xi and Rex who had very different experiences than their now deceased friend when it comes to their queerness and the people who support them, and Ivory, a trans woman who finds Cabrina’s body and is suddenly and understandably obsessed with finding out what happened to the dead girl, and stumbling into some darkness that she never could have anticipated… and wonders if embracing it could possibly be a better reality than the one she is living. Piper fleshes out all of these characters, including Cabrina through her diary, and I felt like I wholly understood all of them and how their trans identities shape the story and their arcs, and how it makes the longing that so many vampires in romanticism laden stories isn’t so hard to understand for these characters because of their gender identities. I found it very bittersweet, but also hopeful in the way it depicts finding the people who make you feel loved and wanted and like you belong.

“All The Hearts You Eat” is a unique vampire story that I greatly enjoyed. It’s time for me to dig into more stories by Hailey Piper.

Rating 8: An eerie and bittersweet vampire tale that takes on identity, transformation, and loneliness in ways that moved me deeply.

Reader’s Advisory:

“All the Hearts You Eat” is included on the Goodreads lists “Queer Horror”, and “2024 Transfem Books”.

Kate’s Review: “The Demon”

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Book: “The Demon” by Victory Witherkeigh

Publishing Info: BookBaby, October 2024

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

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

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

I can’t believe that we are about two thirds of the way through October already. We’ve tackled a few sub genres this Horrorpalooza, from vampires, to ghosts, to serial killers, to the apocalypse, and now we are taking on another popular horror trope: demonic possession. It’s not a trope that I read that much, but if there is a generally tantalizing hook with a story I will give it a go, and “The Demon” by Victory Witherkeigh has that hook: A creature called the Demon has recently possessed the body of the Girl, but cannot remember why it has done so, and now has to figure out what it’s mission is, while also dealing with a true human horror: freshman year of college.

The horror… the horror… (source)

It was a roll of the dice, as it’s a sub genre I’m wary of and it was a book I hadn’t heard of, but that hook, man. I couldn’t pass it up. And the hook was everything I wanted it to be! There were other aspects, however, that didn’t work as well.

First thing I will do is talk about what I did like about this book, and that is the fact that the premise is strong as hell and that a lot of the time we got some really solid moments with this premise in mind. I have always loved a story about an otherworldly being taking on the body/identity of a human and having to learn to live like a human, from Jeff Bridges in “Starman” to the demi goddess character Illyria on the show “Angel” (absolutely rotten than the show was cancelled so shortly after her character debut; I just loved her). So I absolutely loved the way that The Demon is having to not only adjust to living in a human body, but also having to maneuver through college of all things. So many great moments happened with this concept, whether it was the Demon dealing with roommates, student groups, or having to get a prescription for birth control. I also liked seeing the Demon make connections with other humans, be they awkward and romantic, or gentle and familial with one of the few actually okay people in The Girl’s family, namely her grandmother. All of these beats worked really well for me, being a huge sucker for this kind of trope. I also liked the way that Witherkeigh addresses themes like colonialism of the Philippines and racism that comes with that.

On the flip side, I wasn’t aware that “The Demon” was a sequel to another book called “The Girl” until I had started reading it and began to wonder if I was missing some context due to how much info wasn’t really established. Since I hadn’t read the first one in the series, I was definitely missing some context as to the Demon’s motivations, her relationship with Death, and the ins and outs of The Girl’s family and her relationships and their motivations. It was like diving into a story starting in the middle, and that made things confusing. Admittedly this isn’t really the fault of the book as the assumption would obviously be that I WOULD have that context, but in this situation I didn’t. So that isn’t necessarily a ding on the story as a whole, but it did affect my personal experience with it. The other thing was that at times this book did feel a little meandering and unfocused, with a structure that felt a bit like a set of vignettes that had a thread through that could have been stronger and more taut.

So this was a bit of a unique situation and I don’t know if I can fully review “The Demon” as I didn’t approach it with the context that is assumed to be had by a reader. But I did really enjoy the moments of a fish out of water as the Demon tries to survive college.

Rating 6: A really cool premise with some really fun moments, but I definitely missed some context and some of it felt unfocused.

Reader’s Advisory:

“The Demon” isn’t on any Goodreads lists as of now, but it would fit in on the list “Demonic Possession”.

Kate’s Review: “Night of the Grizzlies”

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Book: “Night of the Grizzlies” by Jack Olsen

Publishing Info: G.P. Putnam’s Sons, June 1969

Where Did I Get This Book: I own it on Audiobook.

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

Book Description: Jack Olsen’s true account, traces the causes of the tragic night in August 1967 when two separate and unrelated campers, a distance apart, were savagely mangled and killed by enraged bears. 

Review: Given that I have tried to read more non-fiction this year, I thought that it could be fun to devote one day of Horrorpalooza to a horror story that is true. After all, true stories can be scarier than fictional ones, and while I didn’t really want to do a true crime story for Halloween as it seemed a LITTLE ghoulish, I was inspired by the Tooth and Claw Podcast to instead do a book about the horrors of nature. I decided to go with “Night of the Grizzlies” by Jack Olsen, which is the story of two horrifying grizzly bear attacks in 1967 in Glacier National Park, in which two women were brutally killed by two separate bears in two separate incidents on the same night. It’s probably one of the more well known American animal attack stories, and certainly one of the most well known when it comes to grizzly bears, and it had been on my list for a long time. After listening to the Tooth and Claw episode about the attacks, I decided that the time to read it had come.

“Night of the Grizzlies” is very straight forward in its narrative, telling the story of the two grizzly attacks in Glacier National Park in that one evening, starting with bear incidents that went generally ignored in the park in the weeks leading up to it, and then focusing on the night of the attacks itself, ending with the aftermath. We follow different people and the roles that they play, from naturalists who work for the park to other visitors to the Chalet to park rangers to the victims themselves. Olsen isn’t particularly sensational with his language and storytelling, though he does make the story very easy to read and incredibly gripping. I knew the story going in, but still found it engaging and suspenseful. I liked how he would follow different characters and give us their backgrounds, and I felt like I got to know them without him making any assumptions or taking liberties in their stories. It’s written in a way that is very narrative non-fiction, and it was a quick read that kept at a brisk pace. The stories of the two women killed by these bears are deeply upsetting at their core, as their deaths were shocking, violent, and probably due to the way that the park would throw garbage out for the grizzlies to feed them, which made the bears not only unafraid of humans, but also associating humans with food sources. I also appreciated that before we even get to that story, Olsen gives a lot of straight up facts about grizzly bears not only in Glacier, but in the United States, and the history of them being encroached upon by huge throngs of humans as colonizers moved west and started to spend more and more time in their habitats without having any clue on how to do so safely.

But something to keep in mind about this book is that it is almost sixty years old, and therefore it’s a BIT out of date when it comes to the facts about nature, bear behavior, and other scientific things. There is also some outdated language, and I ALSO felt that Olsen may have been a little harsh on the National Park Service as a whole when it seems like Glacier’s lax policies about bears and feeding bears garbage were a Glacier problem versus the Park Service as a whole. Definitely don’t let bears eat garbage, people. And I will say that that the National Parks do a GREAT job of being informative about the fauna in the parks and how to be safe around them. This is really just a matter of reflecting the time that it was written, and should be absorbed with that in mind. AND ALSO, Olsen sure seems convinced that the rangers killed both bears responsible for the attacks, but I am NOT in agreement based on what we know now about bear behavior and even based on what they found out about the bear after its death. But still, I did find myself thinking perhaps an updated edition could be good, though the demand is probably not exactly clamoring for that…

All in all I found “Night of the Grizzlies” to be absolutely harrowing, interesting, and a scary true story that just solidifies my ‘no thanks’ approach to camping. I’m glad I finally read it!

Rating 7: A gripping and straightforward timeline of the infamous bear attacks at Glacier National Park that changed ideas about the grizzlies there, “Night of the Grizzlies” is well done, thought also a bit outdated.

Reader’s Advisory:

“Night of the Grizzlies” isn’t on any relevant Goodreads lists (the one I found was a general ‘bears’ list and had the likes of “Little Bear” and “The Berenstain Bears”), but it would fit in on “Animal Attacks”.