Category: Kate’s Reviews

Kate’s Review: “Earthdivers (Vol. 1): Kill Columbus”

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

Book: “Earthdivers (Vol. 1): Kill Columbus” by Stephen Graham Jones & Davide Gianfelice (Ill.)

Publishing Info: IDW, September 2023

Where Did I Get This Book: I received an ARC from the publisher at ALAAC23

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

Book Description: The year is 2112, and it’s the apocalypse exactly as rivers receding, oceans rising, civilization crumbling. Humanity has given up hope, except for a group of Indigenous outcasts who have discovered a time travel portal in a cave in the desert and figured out where everything took a turn for the worst: America.

Convinced that the only way to save the world is to rewrite its past, they send one of their own—a reluctant linguist named Tad—on a bloody, one-way mission to 1492 to kill Christopher Columbus before he reaches the so-called New World. But there are steep costs to disrupting the timeline, and taking down an icon isn’t an easy task for an academic with no tactical training and only a wavering moral compass to guide him. As the horror of the task ahead unfolds and Tad’s commitment is tested, his actions could trigger a devastating new fate for his friends and the future.

Join Stephen Graham Jones and artist Davide Gianfelice for Earthdivers, Vol. 1, the beginning of an unforgettable ongoing sci-fi slasher spanning centuries of America’s Colonial past to explore the staggering forces of history and the individual choices we make to survive it.

Review: Thank you to IDW comics for giving me an ARC of this book, and thank you to Stephen Graham Jones for being SO kind when you signed it!

Back when I had just gotten back from ALA, people were asking me what my highlights were. And one of them was meeting Stephen Graham Jones at a signing at the IDW booth. I was already ecstatic when I saw that he was going to be there, and even more excited when I realized that he was signing ARCs of the first volume of his series “Earthdivers”, a fantasy/speculative fiction/historical fiction series about Indigenous people on a dying earth using a time travel portal to send one of their own back in time to stop America from happening (as America is seen as the main driver of the climate change disaster). I had been eager for this first volume, and getting it WHILE MEETING HIM (and having a lovely conversation!) was just the very best. And “Earthdivers (Vol. 1): Kill Columbus” is everything I had hoped it would be.

The concept alone is so unique and also so, so bold. I mean, it takes serious spunk to frame a story about the assassination of a man that is still, in a number of places, celebrated every year as the supposed ‘discoverer of America’, but whose horrific crimes and direct and indirect actions towards the Indigenous peoples on this continent are impossible to ignore. Even I was like ‘whoa’ when I read the premise of the comic book, but the rage is earned, and it is palpable on the pages as Tad, the man chosen to go back in time and assassinate Columbus, has to take on a mission with high and dangerous stakes. And low odds of success. I loved seeing Tad grapple with the fact he will never see his wife again, that he has to do things that he never thought he could do, and also really enjoyed seeing him slowly start to accept his mission and the bloody business that goes with it. Jones depicts the brutality of life on the ship, whether it’s the dire conditions or the hierarchy that lends itself to violence, and also shows the less acknowledged aspects of the voyage the ships are on (specifically the religious zeal that Columbus has). I also found the tension building and building and building as Tad realizes that his chances to kill Columbus and stop that version of America from happening are slipping through his fingers, and that if he fails, it was all for nothing, and it could mean the end of humankind. The tension is rife, the violence is visceral, and the anger and desperation is well depicted.

But I also liked the ways that Jones depicts the others back on Earth in 2112, as the world is dying due to climate change and they are becoming all the more desperate, especially when they realize that the time portal in the cave may have more dangers than realized. I really liked Sosh, Tad’s wife who is in an uneasy partnership with Yellow Kid, the member of the group who came up with the idea, but has been a little shifty as far as Sosh is concerned. I liked the moral ambiguity that Jones gives a number of his characters, as it raises very difficult questions about the lengths that these characters are willing to go to make this mission a success. And along with that, I really enjoyed how the time travel themes didn’t feel like super hard Sci Fi, and more like fantastical or speculative based in the system in place. We don’t really know what the deal is with this cave, but I have a feeling things are going to be explored as the series goes on.

And I really liked the artwork. I like the use of color and the angles that Davide Gianfelice brings to the page, and I loved the detailed character designs for our main players.

(source: IDW)

What a fantastic start to what is sure to be a fantastic series! “Earthdivers (Vol. 1): Kill Columbus” is another shining star from Stephen Graham Jones. I cannot wait to see what happens next!

Rating 9: Unapologetic, daring, dark, but hopeful, “Earthdivers: Kill Columbus” is a must read in speculative fiction with a visceral message and lots of what ifs.

Reader’s Advisory:

“Earthdivers (Vol. 1): Kill Columbus” isn’t on any Goodreads lists as of now, but it would fit in on “Graphic Novels & Comics by The Aboriginal, Indigenous, and Native Peoples of the World”, and “Best Time Travel Fiction”.

Kate’s Review: “Your Lonely Nights Are Over”

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

Book: “Your Lonely Nights Are Over” by Adam Sass

Publishing Info: Viking Books for Young Readers, September 2023

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

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

Book Description: Scream meets Clueless in this YA horror from Adam Sass in which two gay teen BFFs find their friendship tested when a serial killer starts targeting their school’s Queer Club.

Dearie and Cole are inseparable, unlikeable, and (in bad luck for them) totally unbelievable. From the day they met, Dearie and Cole have been two against the world. But whenever something bad happens at Stone Grove High School, they get blamed. Why? They’re beautiful, flirtatious, dangerously clever queen bees, and they’re always ready to call out their fellow students. But they’ve never faced a bigger threat than surviving senior year, when Mr. Sandman, a famous, never-caught serial killer emerges from a long retirement—and his hunting ground is their school Queer Club.

As evidence and bodies begin piling up and suspicion points at Dearie and Cole, they will need to do whatever it takes to unmask the real killer before they and the rest of Queer Club are taken down. But they’re not getting away from the killer without a fight.

Along the way, they must confront dark truths hidden beneath the surface of their small desert community. When the world is stacked against them and every flop they know is a suspect, can Dearie and Cole stop Mr. Sandman’s rampage? Or will their lonely nights soon be over . . .

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

If there is a surefire way to catch my attention when it comes to a book’s description, it’s to compare it to a piece of media or other book that I absolutely adore. It can be a bit of a gamble! The more I love the referenced TV show/movie/book, the higher hopes I have for the book at hand, and if it doesn’t live up to my expectations, I am going to probably ding the book at hand a bit more than I might otherwise. So talk about a huge gamble for “Your Lonely Nights Are Over” by Adam Sass. Not only does it reference one of my most formative horror movies, “Scream”, it also references one of my all time favorite movies, “Clueless”. And the thought of mashing them up? OH MY GOSH. GIVE IT TO ME. I definitely went in wary that the comparison would fall flat and therein influence my feelings. And while “Your Lonely Nights Are Over” didn’t quite meet the potential that I had hoped for it, it had other unexpected things within that really did work for me.

This is one of those odd times where I’m going to talk about what didn’t work for me before I go into what absolutely worked, because I want to end on a high note because there were things that REALLY clicked. But I WILL say that as someone who has consumed horror for years and years, I pretty much called almost all of the twists and called the killer long before any of these things were revealed. This very well may be just because I have seen and read so many horror things that I can spot twists and turns, but it definitely pulled some of the suspense from the story. I was invested in both Cole and Dearie, and liked how Sass wrote both of them and gave them unique voices that really got their experiences and perspectives across. I think they read less like the “Clueless” comparisons, however, and more like “Mean Girls” in some ways, but they did have me laughing a bit with their bantering and snark.

But what really, really shines in this book is how Sass tackles and explores the theme of loneliness, especially when it comes to the unique loneliness that can come with being a queer person. Dearie and Cole are both VERY close and have a relationship that transcends romantic and platonic, but there are still aspects about each of them during this book that does isolate themselves from each other. On top of that we also get the loneliness of being closeted for some characters, or the loneliness of gay people from generations where coming out came later in life, or just the loneliness of being a queer teenager trying to navigate through life. I loved how Sass dissected this idea and unabashedly puts forth that solidarity between queer people is a way to combat that loneliness and the horrors that it can bring, whether it’s a slasher killer in a story like this, or the real life horrors of bigotry, self loathing, and isolation.

“Your Lonely Nights Are Over” may have been a little predictable for this longtime horror fan, but I really enjoyed other parts of it. It will surely thrill its target demographic, and it should be on YA Halloween book lists this October.

Rating 7: The characters are fun but the mystery is a bit predictable. But I loved the message about loneliness in the queer community and how finding your people can combat it.

Reader’s Advisory:

“Your Lonely Nights Are Over” is included on the Goodreads lists “Queer Horror”, and “YA Serial Killers”.

Kate’s Review: “No Child of Mine”

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

Book: “No Child of Mine” by Nichelle Giraldes

Publishing Info: Poisoned Pen Press, September 2023

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 something in the dark. And it’s starting to whisper…

Essie Kaur has defined herself by her ambitions, a fiercely independent woman whose only soft spot is her husband, Sanjay. She never imagined herself as a mother. It was never a part of the plan. But then she finds out she’s pregnant. As her difficult pregnancy transforms her body and life into something she barely recognizes, her husband spends the nights pacing in the attic, slowly becoming a stranger, and the house begins to whisper.

As Essie’s pregnancy progresses, both her and Sanjay’s lives are warped by a curse that has haunted her family for generations, leaving a string of fatherless daughters in its wake. When she’s put on bedrest, Essie trades the last aspects of her carefully planned life for isolation in what should be a welcoming home, but she isn’t alone. There’s something here that means to take everything from her…

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

Here we are again, taking on a horror novel that has pregnancy horror as one of its big themes. I’ve said it many a time, but it’s no shock this is a big trend in horror right now, given that there are many real life horror stories being told about pregnancy in the shadow of reproductive rights being attacked in this country left and right. “No Child of Mine” by Nichelle Giraldes is in good company as it reflects the darkness and bleakness we in the U.S. are dealing with, some places far worse than others. That isn’t to say that “No Child of Mine” is run of the mill or cookie cutter. It has some new things to say, and this time we have a family curse at hand!

What sets “No Child of Mine” aside from other pregnancy horror related stories that have come out this year is that the horror aspects are actually existing outside of the fetus/child. You don’t get the sense that Essie is growing something malevolent inside of her, or that once this child arrives she will become a danger to herself or others. But that doesn’t mean that this book is any less intense when it comes to Essie’s pregnancy, and showing the scary stuff that can come with it. Whether it’s intense morning sickness that can’t be quelled, or the inconvenient timing upending Essie’s dreams of becoming an attorney (dreams that she had already delayed so that her loving husband Sanjay could do grad school first), or just how pregnancy can make a person feel like little more than a vessel and incubator, Giraldes does a great job of showing how freaking isolating and scary pregnancy can be. Hell, even as someone who had planned for her pregnancy and was actively trying for it, I found SO MUCH of Essie’s frustrations and worries relatable. Maybe it’s people expecting her to be elated and joyful, maybe it’s Sanjay seemingly more concerned with how the baby is doing versus how Essie is doing, maybe it’s the assumption that her mourning her independence means she’s a shitty mom, all of these things were SO apt it raised my hackles as I read.

I do think that I wanted a bit more expansion for the antagonist and the explanation of the family curse that has haunted Essie’s bloodline, however. I really liked the set up for it, and seeing the many different ways that women in her family have had their lovers taken away shortly after having a baby girl. It also made for a tense build up as to what was going on with Sanjay, as he becomes more and more distant and terse as her pregnancy progresses, and how that too had perhaps been seen in the generations before. But by the time some reveals come out, I realized that the foundation we were working with was pretty shaky, and that the curse was needed to drive the story but wasn’t really drawn out into whys and hows. On top of that, the resolution to the whole thing went pretty fast and seemed to be an afterthought, almost too easily resolved and wrapped up with a bow. I wasn’t mad at how it shook out, but it just went really fast in comparison to the build up.

All in all, I’m always down for horror tales that talk about pregnancy and motherhood. “No Child of Mine” is another reflection of the time we are living in in the United States, with societal expectations and medical issues being potentially more difficult to vanquish than a family death curse. What a time to be alive, huh?

Rating 7: Another all too real horror tale about the dark side of pregnancy and the expectations that come with it. I wanted a bit more explanation and a less rushed ending, but it felt pretty damn relatable.

Reader’s Advisory:

“No Child of Mine” is included on the Goodreads list “Horror to Look Forward to in 2023”.

Kate’s Review: “What Kind of Mother”


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

Book: “What Kind of Mother” by Clay McLeod Chapman

Publishing Info: Quirk Books, September 2023

Where Did I Get This Book: I received an ARC at ALAAC23

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

Book Description: After striking out on her own as a teen mom, Madi Price is forced to return to her hometown of Brandywine, Virginia, with her seventeen-year-old daughter. With nothing to her name, she scrapes together a living as a palm reader at the local farmers market.

It’s there that she connects with old high school flame Henry McCabe, now a reclusive local fisherman whose infant son, Skyler, went missing five years ago. Everyone in town is sure Skyler is dead, but when Madi reads Henry’s palm, she’s haunted by strange and disturbing visions that suggest otherwise. As she follows the thread of these visions, Madi discovers a terrifying nightmare waiting at the center of the labyrinth—and it’s coming for everyone she holds dear.

Combining supernatural horror with domestic suspense into a visceral exploration of parental grief, What Kind of Mother cements Clay McLeod Chapman’s reputation as a “star” (Vulture) and “the twenty-first century’s Richard Matheson” (Richard Chizmar, Chasing the Boogeyman.)

Review: Thank you to Quirk Books for providing me with this ARC at ALAAC23!

One of my missions at ALAAC this past summer was to see if I could get my hands on an ARC of Clay McLeod Chapman’s “What Kind of Mother”. After reading “Ghost Eaters” and being wholly blown away and freaked out, his newest book was a must read. I was very happy when I did, indeed, get an ARC, and while I knew it was a high priority read, I would have to prepare myself. For one, Chapman is absolutely no holds barred brutal in his horror stories when he wants to be, whether that be seen through horrifying imagery, or soul shattering pathos. And for another, the themes of this story include a missing and presumed dead child. So combine the two and I’m probably going to be wrecked. But hey, with enough emotional preparation and steeling of oneself, surely I could come out of this relatively emotionally unscathed, right?

Ha ha ha, WRONG. (source)

Chapman has once again knocked me off my feet because his ability to pull out so many elements of multiple genres and apply it to this horror tale is so, so phenomenal. I knew that this was at its heart a horror story, but he also effortlessly brings in glimmers of dark fantasy thriller, with our protagonist Madi. Madi is down on her luck and trying to start over back in her home town, with her teenage daughter in tow (the daughter whose impending birth made a pregnant and teenage Madi flee this town in the first place). She sets up shop reading palms and cold reading clients to tell them what they want to hear. But when she reconnects with old flame Henry, whose own son Skyler disappeared a few years prior when he was a baby, she realizes that she is having actual visions of Skyler, and may be able to find him. As a dark fantasy thriller this is already great. So when Chapman also added in a slight pathos driven romance between the former lovers, as they are both at the end of their ropes and connecting over Skyler’s potential presence. I liked seeing these two desperate characters and seeing them team up, and fall into something potentially emotionally unhealthy. Madi and Henry both have a lot of pain that manifests in different ways, and their complicated personalities and relationship echoes what I expect from gritty complex woman centered thrillers. That alone drew me in. It’s suspenseful and poignant, as the idea of a child going missing is a complete nightmare to me and it felt like Henry’s grief and guilt was pretty spot on.

And then Chapman threw me for a loop that I didn’t at all expect, and it completely fucked me up. I don’t want to go into any spoilers here because I think that it needs to be a surprise. But I will talk about the horror elements in some terms that keep it a bit close to the vest. Firstly, so much nasty body horror. And what I loved about it was that this book isn’t super gory, but Chapman still made me cringe and squirm with some of the descriptions. It’s also incredibly creative in the direction it goes and what it means for the characters who are dealing with it. So the imagery is definitely freaky and unsettling. But then there is the more visceral and personal horror of this book, and that is the grief, fear, and guilt that comes with a missing child for any parent that is going to be reading this story. Chapman really taps into that deep seated horror (one that I absolutely have when it comes to my daughter) and twists the knife, creating moments that are gut wrenching either because of the despair involved, or because as a parent there were moments where something just awful was happening… and I couldn’t really assure myself that I wouldn’t be behaving in a similar way were I in a similar situation. These were the moments that just gutted me, and as the story unfolded in a new way that explored parental devotion and inability to either seek or accept closure, the more disturbed I became. This one is going to sit with me for a long time because of these moments. Goddamn you, Clay McLeod Chapman (I say that mostly in awe of you, sir).

“What Kind of Mother” is just brutal, but it’s a must read for horror fans. Clay McLeod Chapman is an up and coming powerhouse in horror literature, and if you haven’t checked him out yet, now is the time. But be warned: you aren’t going to see crabs the same way after reading this.

Rating 9: Devastating, horrifying, and a brutal depiction of parental grief, guilt, and devotion. I’ll be thinking about “What Kind of Mother” for awhile.

Reader’s Advisory:

“What Kind of Mother” is included on the Goodreads lists “2023 Gothic”, and “Horror to Look Forward to in 2023”.

Kate’s Review: “Beneath the Surface”

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

Book: “Beneath the Surface” by Kaira Rouda

Publishing Info: Thomas & Mercer, September 2023

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: On a weekend voyage, the power-hungry children of an aging billionaire are unprepared for a storm of deceptions in a novel about ruthless family ambition by USA Today bestselling author Kaira Rouda.

You are cordially invited to an overnight voyage on the Splendid Seas.

An invitation to Catalina Island from billionaire CEO Richard Kingsley. For his sons, Ted and John, and their wives, it’s an opportunity to curry favor, gain control of a real estate empire, and secure their family’s futures. For the controlling patriarch, succession is a contest. He and his newest wife won’t make it an easy win.

Then Richard’s estranged live-wire daughter, Sibley, crashes the party. She’s the least of the night’s surprises. As the stakes for the inheritance of the Kingsley legacy are raised, the beautiful waters of the Pacific look more like a menacing illusion.

Let the games begin for a family who has everything money can buy, and has used lies, deception, and more to keep it. This weekend one of them will be crowned heir. One is in line to lose everything. That’s the plan. But in the coming storm, so much can go dangerously wrong.

Review: Thank you to Thomas & Mercer for sending me an ARC of this novel!

Though I was late to the game when it came to the show “Succession”, my husband and I have been making our way through and enjoying it as a show that we can watch together and be captivated and mortified by the horribleness of the billionaire class. We haven’t finished it but I know basically everything thanks to the Internet, and it boggles the mind how there is pretty much no one to like, and yet I am so invested in their nonsense. So when “Beneath the Surface” by Kaira Rouda came my way and had comparisons to “Succession” to boot, I knew that I wanted to read this book. Bring on more wealthy people behaving just abhorrently, evidently I can’t get enough.

You mean jumping into a thriller with toxic family dynamics and gratuitous displays of wealth to compensate? Yes Roman, we ARE doing this. (source)

If you are still kind of suffering from “Succession” withdrawals, I do think that “Beneath the Surface” will scratch that itch at least a little bit. It’s a similar set up of an uber-wealthy family dealing with the impending stepping aside of the head of the family company, and the children who all want the coveted CEO spot. In this case it’s real estate tycoon Richard Kingsley, and his children are uptight John, charismatic but duplicitous Ted, and the estranged and wild Sibley. While it only takes place over one weekend and doesn’t rise to the same complex and unnerving heights as the Roys in many ways, I did like seeing the awful kids try and gain favor with their awful father while his awful fourth wife looks on with superiority as well as her own duplicity. I mean, I love this kind of soapy and catty drama as bad people are bad to each other, and “Beneath the Surface” is fun enough that it reads fast and kept me going and awaiting every twist and turn with bated breath. I just really enjoy all the drama that comes with rich people behaving badly (unless we get a “Boar on the Floor” kinda deal like on “Succession” and then I just get uncomfortable), and “Beneath the Surface” has a lot of that.

I will say that the characters, however, could have been more fleshed out. We had a few first person perspective from a few of the characters. There’s Paige, the wife of second son Ted who has been supportive and patient for years, putting her own career on hold to raise their children and to bolster her husband. There’s John, the oldest son who feels like the company should be his birthright but has stumbled enough that his father is disappointed and reluctant. There’s Serena, Richard’s fourth wife who is comfortable being a trophy wife but has her own reasons to want security and power within the company hierarchy. And Richard himself, who enjoys pitting his children against each other. And none of them really move beyond two dimensional archetypes of what we would expect from characters such as these. I think that Paige was the most well rounded and complicated, as I greatly enjoyed her chapters and found her to be the most engaging, but most everyone else hit each point of their roles without growth, or if not growth, glimpses into the layers that we are being made privy to on this tense and high stakes yacht weekend. And as for the supporting characters who don’t have perspective chapters, they are pretty standard and static.

All in all, “Beneath the Surface” is entertaining and fast paced. I enjoyed the plot, and while I needed more from the characters, if this does indeed turn into a series I would PROBABLY keep reading just to see where some of these characters end up, and how their story trajectory changes.

Rating 7: A catty and sudsy plot make for an engaging read, although none of the characters really moved outside the boxes they started in.

Reader’s Advisory:

“Beneath the Surface” is included on the Goodreads list “Can’t Wait Books of 2023”.

Kate’s Review: “The Reunion”

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

Book: “The Reunion” by Kit Frick

Publishing Info: Margaret K. McElderry Books, August 2023

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: Eleven Mayweathers went on vacation. Ten came home.

It’s been years since the fragmented Mayweather clan was all in one place, but the engagement of Addison and Mason’s mom to the dad of their future stepbrother, Theo, brings the whole family to sunny Cancún, Mexico, for winter break. Add cousin Natalia to the mix, and it doesn’t take long for tempers to fray and tensions to rise. A week of forced family “fun” reveals that everyone has something to hide, and as secrets bubble to the surface, no one is safe from the fallout. By the end of the week, one member of the reunion party will be dead—and everyone’s a suspect.

The Peacekeeper: Addison needs a better hiding place. The Outsider: Theo just wants to mend fences. The Romantic: Natalia doesn’t want to talk about the past. The Hothead: Mason needs to keep his temper under control.

It started as a week in paradise meant to bring them together. But the Mayweathers are about to learn the hard way that family bonding can be deadly.

Review: Thank you to Margaret K. McElderry Books for sending me an ARC of this novel!

Though I had never really prioritized my travel plans to include a visit to an all inclusive resort in Mexico, I found myself at one this past March when one of our high school friends got married near Puerta Vallarta. I ended up having a good time, outside of awkward chit chat with high school classmates I hadn’t seen for decades and a complete emotional meltdown during the reception due to being fully overwhelmed by EVERYTHING (which sent me to our room to sob it out before hitting the dance floor again, woooo!). But overall it was a very surreal experience, being a very controlled environment with so many amenities, all behind a wall with armed guards at the front. I was thinking a lot about this as I read “The Reunion” by Kit Frick; there’s a veneer that just doesn’t quite gel with the dramas of reality. And in the case of the book, things kind of go full “White Lotus”. Which I, of course, love.

Your enjoyment of this book is probably more guaranteed than your enjoyment of any White Lotus Resort given their, uh, histories… (source)

The story structure is told through first person POVs of the teenage members (and soon to be members) of the wealthy and privileged Mayweather family. We have Addison, a high strung people pleaser who is jumpier than usual. There’s Mason, Addison’s twin who is hotheaded and angry about his mother’s upcoming marriage. Then there’s Theo, the soon to be step sibling of Addison and Mason who is already on thin ice with Mason due to previous interactions. And Natalia, Mason and Addison’s cousin who is trying to have a good time and trying to avoid the twins due do some past unpleasantness. It means that everyone is a possible suspect, as well as a possible victim, as right off the bat we find out that someone at this engagement party between the parents of Theo and The Twins goes missing. I liked getting into the minds of all the teens, as they are all unreliable but also insightful in their own ways. Frick builds up the tension between all of them, with past grievances intermingling with in the moment stress, as well as misunderstandings that sometimes feel a bit farfetched and yet never tread towards wholly unbelievable due to momentary circumstances, or personal biases at play. She knows how to toy with the characters personalities based on their backgrounds, and to find depth and complexity in at least a few of them (mostly Addison and Theo; Addison is a perpetual people pleaser who is frantic to keep everyone happy and it is starting to wear at her, while Theo is NOT wealthy, does NOT relate to his future step siblings, and is very, very anxious surrounded by opulence he is not used to). I did find myself very invested in who was going to be revealed as the missing person, and if any of them were up to no good leading up to it. And actively dreading the answers to that for at least a few of the characters, which goes to show that Frick did a good job.

The mystery itself is also pretty well done. Frick goes at her own pace in laying out clues, whether it’s slowly revealing the details of the missing person or tossing breadcrumbs of info from each character perspective. We also get supplemental material in more epistolary forms, whether it’s guest information updates from the resort itself, or police transcripts as the investigation starts to ramp up and suspects start to be focused in on. Frick has a lot of well done hints as well as a lot of well placed red herrings, with so much well laid doubt and misdirection throughout that it really does make for some good twists and reveals when the moment is right. I was so caught up in the fast pace I mostly read this book in one sitting. Yeah, it was that hard to put down, which is exactly what I would want from a book that has been compared to “The White Lotus” (not just by me, mind you!).

“The Reunion” is a fast paced mystery that is the perfect read as summer comes to an end! If you have one more beach vacation in store Labor Day, this is the one to bring.

Rating 8: With well written first person perspectives and a suspenseful mystery, “The Reunion” is an engaging thriller from Kit Frick!

Reader’s Advisory:

“The Reunion” is included on the Goodreads list “YA Summer Thrillers”.

Kate’s Review: “The Shadow Sister”

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

Book: “The Shadow Sister” by Lily Mead

Publishing Info: Sourcebooks Fire, June 2023

Where Did I Get This Book: I received an ARC from the publisher at ALAAC23.

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

Book Description: Sutton going missing is the worst thing to happen to Casey, to their family. She’s trying to help find her sister, but Casey is furious. And she can’t tell anyone about their argument before Sutton disappeared. Everyone paints a picture of Sutton’s perfection: the popular cheerleader with an entourage of friends, a doting boyfriend, and a limitless future. But Sutton manipulated everyone around her, even stole an heirloom bracelet from Casey. People don’t look for missing Black girls–or half-Black girls–without believing there is an angel to be saved.

When Sutton reappears, Casey knows she should be relieved. Except Sutton isn’t the same. She remembers nothing about while she was gone—or anything from her old life, including how she made Casey miserable. There’s something unsettling about the way she wants to spend time with Casey, the way she hums and watches her goldfish swim for hours.

What happened to Sutton? The more Casey starts uncovering her sister’s secrets, the more questions she has. Did she really know her sister? Why is no one talking about the other girls who have gone missing in their area? And what will it take to uncover the truth?

Review: Thank you to Sourcebooks Fire for giving me an ARC of this novel and to Lily Meade for signing it!

Back in June, nearing the end of the second to last day at ALAAC23, I was dragging my bag of books et al around, waiting in line for a signing with Darcy Coates. Someone asked me if it was the Lily Meade line, and I, unaware, said ‘no’. But then I was informed that it was, as it was a dual signing, and I just thought to myself ‘ah, okay, bonus book, cool’. But when I was handed “The Shadow Sister”, Lily Meade’s debut thriller novel, the cover caught my eye. And then the description did as well. This bonus book seemed like it was going to not only be a fun additional book, but one that was squarely in my genre interests. When I did sit down to read it, I was hooked almost immediately.

I really enjoyed the narrative construction in this novel, told from present day Casey’s perspective and past Sutton’s perspective (which jumps around in time leading up to the moment she went missing). It allows us to get some insights into how the mystery is being built and pursued on Casey’s end as Sutton returns and isn’t acting like herself, while also giving us a different perspective that sheds light and changes the perceptions of the mystery as it unfolds. There is an eerie unease that builds as we know that SOMETHING isn’t right with Sutton, be it the trauma she endured and the fallout, or whether there is something else at work on top of that. The pacing works well as strange, but maybe(?) plausible things are happening, while Casey is convinced that this Sutton has something very, very wrong with her. And therein the reader also wonders what exactly it is. There are some genuinely well done surprises and twists in this story as well, some I didn’t see coming at all and landed perfectly. Meade carefully and deliberately lays out clues and misdirections and information throughout, things that you think could be significant towards one aspect of the story but then end up being significant towards another one, and it made for a lot of really fun, sometimes devastating, shocks.

But it’s the characters and the greater themes of intergenerational trauma and strife, as well as small town hypocrisy, and racism, that really makes for the really strong pillars of this book. We find out quickly that Sutton and Casey are from a biracial family, with their father’s side descended from enslaved people that has been meticulously mapped due to his personal interest and place in academia, as well as a robust passing down of family stories through the years. This family history is a crucial part of the story, partially because some of the sisterly strife between Sutton and Casey has to do with disagreements over a bracelet that was left by their now deceased grandmother, who was an inspiration and a woman whose stories connected them to their family’s past of tragedy and triumphs of living through slavery and finding reconciliation against the odds. There is also the greater themes of racism in America, as this small town community that feels and seems close knit, harbors a lot of jarring realities, namely the lack of awareness or urgency when Black girls go missing. Just to name a few.

“The Shadow Sister” is a stunning debut, and I am very much looking forward to whatever Lily Meade has in store next. Check this one out!

Rating 8: Tense, mysterious, and emotionally charged, “The Shadow Sister” is a thriller with a genre twist that explores intergenerational trauma, sisters, and small town secrets.

Reader’s Advisory:

“The Shadow Sister” is included on the Goodreads lists “2023 YA Mysteries And Thrillers”, and “YA Horror 2023”.

Kate’s Review: “Loteria”

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

Book: “Loteria” by Cynthia Pelayo

Publishing Info: Agora Books, February 2023

Where Did I Get This Book: I received a print copy at ALAAC23.

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

Book Description: The Mexican board game of Lotería is a game of chance. It is similar to our American bingo. However, in Loteria instead of matching up numbers on a game board, players match up images.

There are 54 cards in the Lotería game, and for this short story collection you will find one unique story per card based on a Latin American myth, folklore, superstition, or belief – with a slant towards the paranormal and horrific. In this deck of cards you will find murderers, ghosts, goblins and ghouls. This collection features creatures and monsters, vampires and werewolves and many of these legends existed in the Americas long before their European counterparts.

Many of these stories have been passed over time throughout the Americas, and many have been passed via word of mouth, just like the tales the Brothers Grimm collected. These are indeed fairy tales, but with a much more terrible little slant. Published by Burial Day Books.

Review: Thank you to Agora Books and Cynthia Pelayo for handing out copies of this book at ALAAC23!

There were many highlights of being at the ALA Annual Conference, but one of my most anticipated moments was going to see Cynthia Pelayo speak on a panel about thriller novels. I greatly enjoyed Pelayo’s novel “Children of Chicago”, and after the panel she was kind enough to be signing copies of the sequel “The Shoemaker’s Magician” (look for that one in the future!), as well as her short stories collection “Loteria”. I was happy to get both of them, and was very interested in the concept of “Loteria”. Lotería is a Mexican game involving 54 cards with different images and themes, and Pelayo put together a short story collection that takes inspiration from each of the cards. I mean really, HOW COOL. So I hopped on in, not sure of what to expect, but that ended up being a good thing.

Normally I would do my usual ‘pick the best three stories to talk about then talk about the collection as a whole’, but I feel like that’s a little trickier to do for “Loteria”, as there are more than fifty tales in this book. The stories range from flash fiction to poetry to more short story length tales, and the way that Pelayo connects them to each card while putting unique and original twists on them is really, really neat to see. I did have a few that really stood out, such as “The Woman/La Dama”, which is a La Llorona story involving two tourists who see a strange woman while on vacation, or “Death/La Muerte”, about a man who witnesses a strange funeral procession and is approached by a figure in black. I also really liked “The Hand/El Mano”, which goes into vampires and the legend of the Tlahuelpuchi. I really liked seeing what supernatural elements and twists she would bring to her various stories, and while some were familiar to me there were plenty that I wasn’t as familiar with.

And then there are the stories that are of more human horrors, whether it’s “The Mermaid/La Sirena” with stories of human trafficking, or “The Water Pitcher/El Cantarito”, a story about border patrol agents who have no remorse for the way they help facilitate the pain and suffering of migrants hoping to make a better life in the U.S. The very real human suffering that is found on these pages make for chilling tales, made all the more disturbing and upsetting because you know that there aren’t merely stories of myth, legend, and scary story sharing, but actual things that happen to real people. Pelayo isn’t afraid to be brutal and to make the reader see the brutality up close.

The themes and stories span various sub genres of horror and thriller, and while some are stronger than others, overall it’s a pretty well rounded collection. I also love how Pelayo has centered the Latine experience, as all of these tales take inspiration from Latin American folklore, urban legends, mythologies, and cultures. She also has poetry and verse in this collection, and while I am not as into poetry as other people may be, I do like seeing the versatility at hand here and how she connects it to her themes at hand.

If you want a primer for what Cynthia Pelayo can bring to the horror and thriller table, “Loteria” would be a good collection to pick up and explore!

Rating 7: A mixed collection of dark fantasy and horror tales with a creative hook, “Loteria” is a way for rising star Cynthia Pelayo to show her range across many stories, formats, and sub genres.

Reader’s Advisory:

“Loteria” isn’t on any Goodreads lists as of now, but it would fit in on “Great Reads for Halloween”.

Kate’s Review: “Night of the Living Queers”

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

Book: “Night of the Living Queers” by Shelly Page & Alex Brown (Eds.)

Publishing Info: Wednesday Books, August 2023

Where Did I Get This Book: I received an ARC at ALAAC23.

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

Book Description: Night of the Living Queers is a YA horror anthology that explores a night when anything is possible exclusively featuring queer authors of color putting fresh spins on classic horror tropes and tales.

All Hallows’ Eve. Samhain. Dia De Los Muertos. Fiesta de Los Aguizotes. No matter its name or occasion, Halloween is more than a Hallmark holiday, it’s a symbol of transformation. NIGHT OF THE LIVING QUEERS is a YA horror anthology that explores how Halloween can be more than just candies and frights, but a night where anything is possible. Each short story will be told through the lens of a different BIPOC teen and the Halloween night that changes their lives forever. Creative, creepy, and queer, this collection will bring fresh terror, heart, and humor to young adult literature.

Contributors include editors Alex Brown and Shelly Page, Kalynn Bayron, Ryan Douglass, Sara Farizan, Maya Gittelman, Kosoko Jackson, Em Liu, Vanessa Montalban, Ayida Shonibar, Tara Sim, Trang Thanh Tran, and Rebecca Kim Wells.

Review: Thank you to Wednesday Books for giving me an ARC of this novel at ALAAC23 and to Alex Brown for signing it!

I am very much the kind of person who is like ‘It’s August? Halloween is going to be here soon!’. I love looking forward to my favorite holiday, and even though it’s still hotter than hell outside and people are still thinking of BBQs and the beach, I’m counting down the days until I can smell leaves and wood fire on the wind and seep up all the witchy spooky stuff of the season. So what better time to read “Night of the Living Queers”, a YA horror collection edited by Shelly Page and Alex Brown, which showcases 13 stories by and about queer BIPOC people? This was one of the books on a Children’s/YA Horror panel I went to at ALAAC23 this summer, and I was lucky enough to hear Alex Brown talk about it, which hyped me up to read it. And once I dove in, I could tell that the hype was real.

As usual, I will talk about my three favorite stories in the collection, and then take on the collection as a whole.

“The Visitor” by Kalynn Bayron: A girl wants to make sure that she is home with her father on Halloween night, as they have their rituals and traditions they do every year. After being tailgated home by a mysterious car, she starts to feel like someone is watching her as she and her Dad wait out the night. This one took a huge swerve in ways that I didn’t anticipate, and it was done in such a well crafted way that I was taken by surprise, and totally thrilled by it. The slow building paranoia of someone maybe lurking outside the house was tense and unsettling, and then the swerve was perfectly executed. That’s about all I can say about it, just know I was impressed and creeped out.

“Nine Stops” by Trang Thanh Tran: A girl who is still mourning her grandmother’s recent death has retreated into the Internet, isolating herself from her loved ones and friends. After going out with friends on Halloween night and taking the subway, she finds a video of a woman talking about her own sister’s death, and begging people to watch all the way through, with deadly consequences if not. I think this was my favorite in the collection, as the dread ratchets up and up until it’s basically unbearable. I also liked the exploration of grief and how it can consume a person, and drive them to do desperate and perhaps horrific things in hopes of finding closure. This one really got under my skin. And who doesn’t love an Internet urban legend as a jumping off point for a horror tale?

“Hey There, Demons” by Tara Sim: When a teenage boy is left to babysit his half sister on Halloween night, he decides that it’s time to take on the poltergeist activity that has been occurring in their new house. But when the way to help take out the ghost is by helping a demon, he finds himself in for more than be bargained for… but perhaps in a more romantic way than he thinks. I did like that there were some cute and fluffy stories in this collection to go with the scares, and I loved this one as we meet somewhat anxious Noah and sassy and snarky demon Kody (a name that he adapts for his adventure with a perplexed human teen). The mythos is solid, the banter is adorable, and I really loved seeing this odd pair take on a poltergeist, as well as a teenage party. Just a hoot!

And as an entire collection, I mostly enjoyed “Night of the Living Queers”! I liked the way that they tied the stories together, with all of them happening on the same Halloween night under a Blue Moon, and how they were still able to do their own thing while having that connection. While some of the stories kind of fell into horror tropes that I don’t really care for (so many surprise ‘and then the ending is totally changed in one moment!’ gotchas), I did think that there were enough sub genres and tones that there is something for horror fans of all kinds. It’s also awesome having so many BIPOC and queer authors writing these stories with these perspectives feeding into the stories. Horror is becoming more diverse, but we still have a ways to go, and this book has a lot of authors who are establishing themselves as valuable voices to the genre. You love to see it.

Halloween is coming up fast, and “Night of the Living Queers” is going to be a must read for the nearing spooky season! Definitely check it out for Hallow’s Eve reading!

Rating 8: A solid and spooky collection of horror stories of all kinds, “Night of the Living Queers” is a varied and entertaining read from some established and up and coming YA horror authors.

Reader’s Advisory:

“Night of the Living Queers” isn’t included on any Goodreads lists as of yet, but it would fit in on “Queer Horror”, and “Great Reads for Halloween”.

Kate’s Review: “Vampires of El Norte”

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

Book: “Vampires of El Norte” by Isabel Cañas

Publishing Info: Berkley, August 2023

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

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

Book Description: Vampires and vaqueros face off on the Texas-Mexico border in this supernatural western from the author of The Hacienda.

As the daughter of a rancher in 1840s Mexico, Nena knows a thing or two about monsters—her home has long been threatened by tensions with Anglo settlers from the north. But something more sinister lurks near the ranch at night, something that drains men of their blood and leaves them for dead. Something that once attacked Nena nine years ago.

Believing Nena dead, Néstor has been on the run from his grief ever since, moving from ranch to ranch working as a vaquero. But no amount of drink can dispel the night terrors of sharp teeth; no woman can erase his childhood sweetheart from his mind.

When the United States attacks Mexico in 1846, the two are brought abruptly together on the road to war: Nena as a curandera, a healer striving to prove her worth to her father so that he does not marry her off to a stranger, and Néstor as a member of the auxiliary cavalry of ranchers and vaqueros. But the shock of their reunion—and Nena’s rage at Néstor for seemingly abandoning her long ago—is quickly overshadowed by the appearance of a nightmare made flesh. And unless Nena and Néstor work through their past and face the future together, neither will survive to see the dawn.

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

Given how much I loved “The Hacienda”, I was totally waiting on pins and needles to see what Isabel Cañas was going to do for a follow up to her Gothic ghost story debut. It’s probably no shocker that I was elated when I saw that her next book was going to be about vampires. She approached the haunted house story with such a unique and cool hook, I just knew that she would do the same with vampires.

Much like “The Hacienda”, the time and place of “Vampire of El Norte” makes for the perfect setting for this horror novel. Taking place in the 1840s during the Mexican-American War, where the U.S. started to invade Mexico in hopes of taking more land for itself. Our protagonists Nena and Néstor find themselves swept up in it, as Nena is the daughter of a powerful ranch owner and Néstor is a vaquero who has returned to the ranch after a long absence when Mexicans start to band together to fight against the Anglos. The societal structure of Nena and Néstor’s world is laid out plainly and shows conflict, as these childhood friends are on different footing, but both have reasons to feel confined and oppressed in their own ways. For Nena it is her fear that her father will marry her off like property as a daugther, and for Néstor it is his lower class standing, which makes their lingering attraction from childhood all the more forbidden. But even more so is the fact that white settlers from the U.S. and the United States Government are encroaching in an act of violent colonialism, and for Nena and Néstor their very survival could be at risk, with him on the front lines, her acting as a healing curandera to the soldiers and fighters, and both of them being Mexican citizens who could face violence at the hands of invaders. The horrors of colonialism have a significant part to play in this book, as does classism and misogyny and the traumas that come with both. I really liked Nena and Néstor as they start to reconnect, and how their admiration and attraction is approached in a way that feels realistic while still being wholly satisfying. I also loved them on their own, as Nena is ambitious and capable, while Néstor is sweet and loyal, and their chemistry is simmering off the pages.

And then there are the vampires. It’s the perfect allegor, using vampires against the backdrop of Imperialistic wars as outsiders want to leech off of the people who live on the land that they desire to approrpiate. And I liked the vampire mythos in this book, as they are very animalistic and very brutal, with some interesting systems at play in how vampires function and live within the storyline and world. I really enjoyed the dread that builds as various characters find themselves stalked and hunted by the vampires, sometimes in lonely and vast areas in nature where there is little hope of help and already high stakes due to the war that is raging around them. There were lots of moments that really tapped into the suspense, and I think that if there was one aspect of this book that I needed more from it would probably be that I needed more vampire action.

Once again, Isabel Cañas nails a historical horror story, and brings with it not only supernatural threats and villains, but villains that were very real. “Vampires of Il Norte” needs to be on horror fans book piles!

Rating 8: A suspenseful and engaging horror story about vampires and colonialism, “Vampire of El Norte” is another well done historical horror novel by Isabel Cañas.

Reader’s Advisory:

“Vampires of El Norte” is included on the Goodreads lists “Mexican Gothic”, and “Historical Fiction Set in Latin America”.