Tag: horror

Kate’s Review: “The Night Guest”

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Book: “The Night Guest” by Hildur Knútsdóttir & Mary Robinette Kowal (Translator)

Publishing Info: Tor Nightfire, September 2024

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

Where You Can Get This Book: WorldCat.0rg | Amazon | Indiebound

Book Description: Hildur Knutsdottir’s The Night Guest is an eerie and ensnaring story set in contemporary Reykjavík that’s sure to keep you awake at night.

Iðunn is in yet another doctor’s office. She knows her constant fatigue is a sign that something’s not right, but practitioners dismiss her symptoms and blood tests haven’t revealed any cause.

When she talks to friends and family about it, the refrain is the same ― have you tried eating better? exercising more? establishing a nighttime routine? She tries to follow their advice, buying everything from vitamins to sleeping pills to a step-counting watch. Nothing helps.

Until one night Iðunn falls asleep with the watch on, and wakes up to find she’s walked over 40,000 steps in the night . . .

What is happening when she’s asleep? Why is she waking up with increasingly disturbing injuries? And why won’t anyone believe her?

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

Earlier this summer I went into the doctor for some weird symptoms that seemed to come out of nowhere. I was experiencing head spinning and elevated heart rate at times, mostly when driving, and I was worried that something was wrong. But after running tests and even putting me on a heart monitor for two weeks, the doctor wasn’t able to find anything out of the ordinary (and the symptoms generally resolved), and I ended up having to basically chalk it up to anxiety (and given that I had a massive anxiety episode a couple months later that was probably the case). But in the moment I was very stressed about symptoms that weren’t really explainable no matter how supportive my provider was (and she was!). So there were some aspects of “The Night Guest” by Hildur Knútsdóttir that were personally very relatable to me, what with the question of medical mysteries and the stress that comes with it. Luckily I can say that the relatability ended there, as this novel was supremely, SUPREMELY, creepy, and just got creepier as it went on.

I loved how weird and creepy this book is. We are following the perspective of Iðunn, a woman living in Reykjavik who has been exhausted and feeling poorly, although her medical tests are coming up without any answers. But after she buys a watch with step counts, and the counts over night are in the tens of thousands in spite of her thinking she’s asleep, the first person POV novella slowly spirals as she becomes more and more incoherent and unhinged. Knútsdóttir really captures a deeply disturbing tone, starting with the already kind of upsetting (but also too real) scenario of a woman dealing with medical issues that no one else can really explain, and how hopeless that can feel, and going deeper and deeper int weird territory as phantom steps, weird injuries, and other odd things begin popping up that feel connected to Iðunn. Since it’s in the first person we really get into Iðunn’s mind and slowly learn her backstory as her perspective is crumbling more and more. I absolutely loved how bananas this descent was, and how we do learn things about her and her background and part of what may be driving her mental state as these bizarre things are happening to her. It’s very much an unreliable narration story, but Knútsdóttir hits the exact right notes to make it abjectly horrifying the longer is goes on until even the reader feels like they are going mad.

One qualm? I did find the ending to be a little confusing and perhaps a little too quick. There is always a risk of going too deep into the weeds with an unreliable narrator that is perhaps losing their mental faculties, and I think that’s what may have happened here. It’s a hard balance to strike when trying to keep a consistent tone to a character, but also having to maybe explain SOMETHING as the story wraps up. I didn’t feel like we really got that there, though I do understand that it may be a bit difficult to do so with the trajectory that Iðunn took and where she was by the ending. But that being said, it kind of made the ending more of a thud than a stuck landing.

But at the end of the day I found “The Night Guest” to be really weird and unsettling in a really good way. Should more of Knútsdóttir’s works be translated I would definitely seek it out, what a strange and unique story this was.

Rating 7: Super creepy and very unnerving, but a frantic and confusing ending bumped my score down just a little bit.

Reader’s Advisory:

“The Night Guest” is included on the Goodreads list “Horror to Look Forward to in 2024”.

Joint Review: “Lucy Undying”

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Book: “Lucy Undying” by Kiersten White

Publishing Info: Del Rey, September 2024

Where Did We Get This Book: We received ARCs at ALAAC24.

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

Book Description: In this epic and seductive gothic fantasy, a vampire escapes the thrall of Dracula and embarks on her own search for self-discovery and true love.

Her name was written in the pages of someone else’s story: Lucy Westenra was one of Dracula’s first victims. But her death was only the beginning. Lucy rose from the grave a vampire, and has spent her immortal life trying to escape from Dracula’s clutches–and trying to discover who she really is and what she truly wants.

Her undead life takes an unexpected turn when, in twenty-first-century London, she meets another woman who is also yearning to break free from her past. Iris’s family has built a health empire based on a sinister secret, and they’ll do anything to stay in power.

Lucy has long believed she would never love again. But she finds herself compelled by the charming Iris, while Iris is mesmerized by the confident and glamorous Lucy. But their intense connection and blossoming love is threatened by forces from without. Iris’s mother won’t let go of her without a fight, and Lucy’s past still has fangs: Dracula is on the prowl again.

Lucy Westenra has been a tragically murdered teen, a lonesome adventurer, and a fearsome hunter, but happiness always eluded her. Can she find the strength to destroy Dracula once and for all, or will her heart once again be her undoing?

Kate’s Thoughts

I am going to preface my review with some caveats. The first is that I have genuinely enjoyed all of the books that I have read by Kiersten White. Like, not a clunker in the bunch in my experience. The next is that I have a very, very personal connection to the original story of “Dracula”, as I read it in my all time favorite college class which was taught by my very favorite professor turned friend Andy, who tragically passed away due to a brain tumor far too young, and his analysis and contextualization of the novel made for very rewarding reading. And I really liked the idea of approaching Lucy Westenra, who was basically a character to be a tragic woman victim to drive the men in her life towards justice, to get some more complexity and time to shine. After all, we know that women don’t have to just be victims there for man pain. With these things in mind, I was so, SO anticipating “Lucy Undying”, White’s newest retelling and reimagining of a classical piece of Western literature. My hopes were so high.

And man. I really didn’t like this book.

There are many things that I didn’t like about this book and I don’t want to turn this into a long rant, so I will do my best to keep this brief. What I will say is that I started out liking it for a bit. Some of the set up was promising. But then it fell apart once we got into the nitty gritty. This book is told in multiple perspectives. The first is Iris, a woman living in the modern day who is trying to escape the clutches of the toxic MLM that her family, particularly her now dead mother, has been running and has made them powerful and dangerous. When she arrives in London to try and sort out some property that her family has, she finds the diary of Lucy Westenra, the tragic victim of vampire Dracula (but also almost everyone around her) centuries before. Iris has also met the mysterious ‘Elle’, who is quite obviously vampire Lucy. Along with the present day, we have TWO perspectives from Lucy. The first is her diary from her time shortly before becoming a vampire (which Iris has found), as well as transcripts from therapy sessions that let us know what Lucy was up to AFTER her turning and before now. It’s a hefty amount to juggle, and unfortunately it isn’t juggled very well, feeling meandering and bloated. It’s a lot of telling instead of showing when it comes to Lucy and her exploits, and it makes the pacing lag as we jump between the three. I wish that one had been cut completely to be frank. And then to make matters more convoluted, the tone does a sudden shift later in the book, and it feels like two different novels being combined into one, but shoehorned in in an awkward fashion.

But the most egregious thing to me was how in an effort to bolster Lucy up beyond the admitted victimized waif that she was in the original text BASICALLY EVERY OTHER CHARACTER FROM “DRACULA” has been turned into a devious villain who meant to do her harm. And look, I get the drive to do so. I wholly understand the way that many women were treated during the Victorian era by the men in their lives. I can understand wanting to make The Five Heroes perhaps not as gallant as the original text did, that maybe they were men of their time with all the baggage that comes with it. Hell, I can even perhaps get into the debate of trying to treat a dying Lucy with blood transfusions when she wasn’t REALLY consenting to it (though it sure wasn’t unheard of, and I know this because I once worked in a historic upper class Victorian house in St. Paul that has SO MANY medical horror stories, especially for the women). But making Dr. Seward a psychopath? Making Quincy a total dumb dumb? Making Arthur scheming for more wealth? MAKING VAN HELSING AN ‘OLD PERVERT’?! Hated it. And the biggest sin? Mina is not exempt from this. So what is supposed to be a feminist re-envisioning makes the choice to throw the only other woman from the original text under the bus to make Lucy look better and wronged and scorned and etcetera etcetera. It’s the same lazy trap that that vanity project “Maleficent” fell into, and I HATED that movie and I really disliked this book because of this. I admit that I may be too personally fond of the original story to really give this the fairest of shakes, but this kind of approach almost always sticks in my craw, beloved text or not.

I do have a positive I will share because it’s only fair to do so after this long rant of a review: I absolutely loved the predatory Utah based MLM storyline, Goldaming Life and how Iris and Lucy connect to it. In the author’s note White mentions that she’s writing a book that does more Utah MLM culture deconstruction and oh my GOD I am SO here for that. Though in another moment of ranting, Arthur’s title in “Dracula” was spelled “Godalming”, not “Goldaming”. I think this was just a misspelling as there was no indication that misspelling was intentional. I’m hoping this will be corrected in the final product.

I still intend to keep reading Kiersten White’s books, as overall I still really like her as an author. But I really disliked this book, which was such a disappointment because I had such high hopes for it.

Serena’s Thoughts

If I just type “same” and call it good, would that count for my half of this joint review? But honestly, much of what Kate expressed was my own experience as well. I want to re-emphasize truly how much of a shock this was. Like Kate, I’ve loved every book I’ve read by this author. Sure, I’ve had favorites (I particularly enjoyed her “Vlad the Impaler” trilogy), but none of them have whiffed nearly as badly as this one did. I’m honestly not sure what happened. It could be simply a case of the author having too much tied up in her own head canon regarding Lucy (as she admits in the author’s note in the end), and then the story itself was lost in the shuffle.

I’ve only read “Dracula” once, so I don’t have the same deep ties to the story as Kate does. That being the case, I was happy enough to go along with the reinterpretation of some of these characters. But very quickly, I ran into the exact problem that Kate expressed: the “reinterpretation” was the same for every single character, namely, they were all terrible people in comparison to Lucy. I really lost it, however, when this carried over to Mina. I truly dislike it when authors attempt to write “feminist” re-tellings of classic characters and the way they end up showing this is by demonizing the other women surrounding them. It’s just icky. This was made all the worse for Lucy then being written as your tried-and-true special snowflake who literally inspires every other woman around her and, yes, essentially ends WWI all on her own.

Beyond that, while I think the modern day story was better written, I don’t feel that it fit comfortably alongside Lucy’s own history that was slowly unfurled through diary entries and therapist notes. It also wasn’t helped that, personally, this storyline was simply of less interest to me. I can see that it was better done, but my original draw to this story was in the original “Dracula” time period and characters (I’ll also say that I think the cover is a bit misleading, as it definitely leans towards a more historical/gothic vibe than the large chunks of contemporary horror/thriller storylines that we got here).

Overall, I have to agree with Kate in pretty much every way. This was a disappointing read, all the more so for it coming from an author who has been such a sure thing in the past.

Kate’s Rating 3: A huge misstep from an author I usually quite enjoy, “Lucy Undying” is bloated, convoluted, and relies too much on demonizing other characters in order to bolster Lucy up. Very disappointing.

Serena’s Rating 3: A bizarre missing of the mark from an author who has had great success tackling similar re-tellings in the past.

Reader’s Advisory

“Lucy Undying” is included on the Goodreads lists “Queer Vampire Books” and “The Vampire Renaissance”.

Kate’s Review: “Haunt Sweet Home”

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Book: “Haunt Sweet Home” by Sarah Pinsker

Publishing Info: Tordotcom, 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: On the set of a kitschy reality TV show, staged scares transform into unnerving reality in this spooky ghost story from multiple Hugo and Nebula Award-winning author Sarah Pinsker.

“Don’t talk to day about what we do at night.”

When aimless twenty-something Mara lands a job as the night-shift production assistant on her cousin’s ghost hunting/home makeover reality TV show Haunt Sweet Home, she quickly determines her new role will require a healthy attitude toward duplicity. But as she hides fog machines in the woods and improvises scares to spook new homeowners, a series of unnerving incidents on set and a creepy new coworker force Mara to confront whether the person she’s truly been deceiving and hiding from all along―is herself.

Eerie and empathetic, Haunt Sweet Home is a multifaceted, supernatural exploration of finding your own way into adulthood, and into yourself.

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

Well, Summer is pretty much over, and while I do admit I will miss the pool and other outdoor activities as the temperatures drop, Autumn is my favorite season and it’s no contest. I am also one of those weirdos who decides that Halloween Season begins the moment that Labor Day ends, and what better way to celebrate that than with a spooky book? And if you are looking for a spooky book that isn’t TOO spooky, well then do I have a good title for you: “Haunt Sweet Home” by Sarah Pinsker! Are you kind of interested in getting in the Halloween mood, but don’t want to dive in too deep, either because you aren’t a lunatic like I am or because you like your horror a little on the lighter side? Then look no further.

This is a novella, so it’s a pretty quick read, but for being quick it hit all of the correct beats and parsed out an engaging and at times eerie ghost story while also effectively taking on mediocre reality TV shows. I never got into home improvement shows, but I do have some experience with ghost hunting TV, and “Haunt Sweet Home” nails the false pretenses of reality TV and the way it can manipulate those who participate and those who consume. We follow Mara, a twenty something who hasn’t found her lot in life yet and is convinced to join her cousin’s incredibly successful reality TV show where he not only renovates and makes over houses, but also investigates hauntings. Mara becomes a lower rung PA and finds out how the sausage gets made on a show like this, but also encounters some strange, and perhaps otherworldly, characters along the way. It’s a ghost story that has a genuine self discovery theme, and I found it to be honest about the frustrations of not knowing your path as well as honest about the faux imagry of reality TV. I especially liked the way that Pinsker frames the novella with excerpts of pivotal episode transcripts for “Haunt Sweet Home”, and how they seem to show one thing, but then slowly reveal something else as the story goes on. As someone who doesn’t watch a lot of reality TV but is also deeply fascinated with the genre and how produced it actually is I really enjoyed the peek behind the curtain here.

And while I didn’t find this book particularly scary, I don’t think that being scary was the goal. And that worked in its favor, as the coziness of this tale is hard to deny and the journey of self discovery is pretty well done. Mara’s encounters with the supernatural are pretty clear if you know what to look for from the jump, and even when they are revealed its less a surprise and more of a puzzle piece that helps explain her motivations going forward, and a fairly enjoyable arc for our somewhat aimless protagonist. It’s the kind of spooky-esque read that would be perfect for people who don’t really like super scary stories, but want something to pick up during Autumn as the leaves turn and Halloween creeps up upon us. Mara had a tendency to be a bit frustrating at times, but I don’t think that was unintentional, and because of that it worked pretty well for the narrative.

Overall, if you want a more gentle and cozy horror tale for the upcoming spooky season, “Haunt Sweet Home” is a pretty good option. It’s quick, it’s charming, it has vibes for the Halloween fiends who want gentler fare for sure.

Rating 7: An introspective ghost story about bad reality TV and self discovery, “Haunt Sweet Home” is a quick read perfect for the upcoming Autumn season.

Reader’s Advisory:

“Haunt Sweet Home” isn’t on any Goodreads lists as of yet, but it would fit in with other Cozy Horror books.

Kate’s Review: “Scanlines”

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

Book: “Scanlines” by Todd Keisling

Publishing Info: Perpetual Motion Machine Publishing, May 2021

Where Did I Get This Book: I own it.

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

Book Description: In 1987, Congressman Benjamin Hardy III died by suicide on live television amidst accusations of political corruption. Years later, rumors of a recording surfaced among VHS trading groups and urban legend chat rooms. Dubbed the “Duncan Tape,” after the deceased cameraman who attempted to sell the video, the rumors allege that anyone who watches the tape is driven to suicide.

Or so the story goes. In truth, no one has ever seen the supposed Duncan Tape, presumably because it doesn’t exist. It’s a ghost story perpetuated on the forums and chat rooms of the internet, another handful of bytes scattered across the Information Superhighway at blistering 56K modem speeds.

For Robby and his friends, an urban legend is the last thing on their minds when a boring Friday night presents a chance to download porn. But the short clip they watch turns out to be something far more graphic and disturbing, and in the coming days, they’ll learn even the most outlandish urban legends possess a shred of truth…

Review: Every once in awhile I decide that I need to do a bit of a ‘Spring cleaning’ on my Kindle, in that I look back at books that I purchased on a whim and then never actually read. It’s such a bad habit of mine, and it’s even worse on the Kindle because since it’s digital I never actually have a physical space that is taken up by said purchase. So a couple weeks ago I was looking at my purchases, and decided it was time to pick a book to read. I opted to go with “Scanlines” by Todd Keisling, in part because it was a novella and therefore a quicker read, but also because I remembered that a lot of horror influencers had raved about it, which led to me purchasing it. I settled in one evening, knowing I would no doubt finish it in one sitting, but I wasn’t really prepared for what I found. But that’s a compliment.

“Scanlines” is a mix of a cursed media horror story with a coming of age tale, short and brutal while also having a certain nostalgic edge to it. We follow Robby, a teenager living in the 1990s in an age of dial up Internet and a lingering naïveté about the world wide web. When Robby and his friends stumble upon the notorious “Duncan Tape”, a video of a U.S. Congressman killing himself on camera and becoming stuff of urban legend (as anyone who watches it will supposedly kill themself), their lives are sent into a tailspin. This alone is already great, I love a cursed media story as it is. But “Scanlines” is incredibly clever in that it takes Internet urban legends, the violence that was so Wild West at the time (Rotten.com anyone?), and the very real suicide video of U.S. Congressman R. Budd Dwyer, and creates something deeply unsettling. And graphic. I mean the cover alone! We watch as these teenagers start to see a dead man everywhere, haunting their every step, and their desperation to solve what he could possibly want as his image follows their every move and makes them more and more desperate. The descriptions of the video, the descriptions of the twisted face, the way that these kids just unravel, it’s all so messed up and scary, and Keisling fits it all into a novella’s length without it feeling lacking or rushed. The scares are tight and relentless, and the imagery got under my skin very effectively.

But what really caught my attention with this novella is how it really captures the nostalgia of the time period. I was a teenager in the late 90s into the early 2000s, and while my Internet connection at home was pretty sparse (AOL hooked up through the home phone for awhile, then we eventually got a separate line but it was still pretty minimal), I do remember stumbling upon things that scandalized me (not the Dwyer tape thank goodness), and how it all felt so novel and like uncharted territory. Keisling has a great author’s note to go along with this book talking about how this story took some inspiration from something that did actually happen to him and his friends back in the day, and that exploration of the friendships between Robby and his friend group and the ways that dynamic functioned and changed after experiencing a shared trauma added a whole other layer to this story, pulling out some nostalgic aspects of teenage friendships as they shift and evolve, especially when life changing things happen. I found it to be moving in spite of the pretty visceral violent moments in this book. It’s a very fascination dichotomy in tone, and I thought it worked really well.

“Scanlines” was an effective horror novella that I shouldn’t have sat on for so long. I will absolutely seen to check out more from work Todd Keisling.

Rating 8: Short and nasty but also a meditative coming of age tale, “Scanlines” is a rough ride, but one that I found myself oddly moved by in a way.

Reader’s Advisory:

“Scanlines” is included on the Goodreads list “Cursed Media”.

Kate’s Review: “Through the Midnight Door”

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

Book: “Through the Midnight Door” by Katrina Monroe

Publishing Info: Poisoned Pen Press, August 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: As emotional as it is haunting, Through the Midnight Door explores the sometimes-fragile bonds of sisterhood and the way deeply rooted trauma can pass from generation to generation.

The Finch sisters once spent long, hot summers exploring the dozens of abandoned properties littering their dying town―until they found an impossible home with an endless hall of doors…and three keys left waiting for them. Curious, fearless, they stepped inside their chosen rooms, and experienced horrors they never dared speak of again.

Now, years later, youngest sister Claire has been discovered dead in that old, desiccated house. Haunted by their sister’s suicide and the memories of a past they’ve struggled to forget, Meg and Esther find themselves at bitter odds.

As they navigate the tensions of their brittle relationship, they draw unsettling lines between Claire’s death, their own haunted memories, and a long-ago loss no one in their family has ever been able to face.

With the house once again pulling them ever closer, Meg and Esther must find the connection between their sister’s death and the shadow that has chased them across the years…before the darkness claims them, too.

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

Given how much I enjoyed Katrina Monroe’s previous novel “Graveyard of Lost Children”, I definitely had any new books that she would be writing on my radar. So obviously when Poisoned Pen Press reached out with “Through the Midnight Door” I was eager to accept and get my hands on it. I always love having an author whose works I can look forward to, and I had pretty high hopes to be freaked out once again while also being put through the emotional ringer.

This was a bit of a tone shift from Monroe’s previous novel, as while that one did feel like a straight up horror story, “Through the Midnight Door” feels a bit more like a dark fantasy with horror elements. But that was fine, because the horror elements were ON POINT, with very creepy visuals being described, a building sense of dread, and a lot of moments that had some solid jump scare moments in book form. I am very freaked out by descriptions of body movements being strange or jerky or things along those lines, and there were a few beats that had me wound up with how Monroe executed this trope. And as a dark fantasy it also worked really well, with weird dreamy aspects (like keys that can appear in the strangest, and sometimes nastiest, ways, or an impossible house with many doors) that pepper throughout the story that makes it feel almost fairy tale-esque. Dark fantasy is absolutely my favorite fantasy sub-genre, and this story definitely has an eerie fantastical air about it. I do wish that it had been a little more scary at times, but hey, that’s a personal preference and probably based on my own expectations.

As I was reading this, I was getting some serious “The Haunting of Hill House” vibes, the Mike Flanagan miniseries version, as we are not only exploring a literal haunting, but also the ways that our past, our childhood experiences, our family dysfunction, our trauma and grief, can also haunt a person. As we follow Meg and Esther as they are trying to find out what happened to Claire in the present, we also get glimpses into their childhood not only in regards to the impossible house that changed their lives, but also into their relationships with their parents, the losses they suffered, and how their traumas have shaped them as well as how it all shaped Claire. Meg and Esther love each other but are also in constant hurt and wary of each other, and following them as they are trying to confront their past and trying to leave it behind has a pretty solid emotional punch. Monroe has once again effortlessly conveyed the layers and complexity to her characterizations, and I found Meg and Esther to be very realistic and easy to understand, motivation wise.

“Through the Midnight Door” is another heart-rendering spooky tale from Katrina Monroe. Not as scary as I had hoped, but it absolutely hit the right levels of pathos and family angst and healing.

Rating 7: Less frightening than anticipated, but still an emotional gut punch with some creepy moments, “Through the Midnight Door” is a dark fantasy family drama sure to appeal during the upcoming Halloween season.

Reader’s Advisory:

“Through the Midnight Door” is included on the Goodreads list “Can’t Wait Sci-Fi/Fantasy of 2024”.

Kate’s Review: “House of Bone and Rain”

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

Book: “House of Bone and Rain” by Gabino Iglesias

Publishing Info: Mulholland Books, August 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: In the latest from Shirley Jackson and Bram Stoker Award-winning author of THE DEVIL TAKES YOU HOME, a group of five teenage boys, living in Puerto Rico, seek vengeance after one of their mothers is murdered; a doomed tale of devotion and the afterlife of violence.

For childhood friends Gabe, Xavier, Tavo, Paul, and Bimbo, death has always been close. Hurricanes. Car accidents. Gang violence. Suicide. Estamos rodeados de fantasmas was Gabe’s grandmother’s refrain. We are surrounded by ghosts. But this time is different. Bimbo’s mom has been shot dead. We’re gonna kill the guys who killed her Bimbo swears. And they all agree.

Feral with grief, Bimbo has become unrecognizable, taking no prisoners in his search for names. Soon, they learn Maria was gunned down by guys working for the drug kingpin of Puerto Rico. No one has ever gone up against him and survived. As the boys strategize, a storm gathers far from the coast. Hurricanes are known to carry evil spirits in their currents and bring them ashore, spirits which impose their own order.

Blurring the boundaries between myth, mysticism, and the grim realities of our world, House of Bone and Rain is a harrowing coming of age story; a doomed tale of devotion, the afterlife of violence, and what rolls in on the tide.

Review: Thank you to Mulholland Books and Hachette for sending me an ARC of this novel! Special thanks even, as they were super kind to send me an ARC after I had missed out on getting one at ALA, and took down my information once I told the reps at the booth how much I was looking forward to this book. It was a very kind gesture and it was a lovely book mail arrival!

I know by now that if I am going to read a book by Gabino Iglesias, it’s going to be a rough go with lots of visceral violence, dark themes, and yet a gorgeous lyrical journey to boot. It stands to reason, then, that “House of Bone and Rain” was a tip top priority on my list, even if it was going to no doubt really kick me in the teeth, emotionally. But I have really enjoyed everything I’ve read by Iglesias, and because of that I knew that his newest horror novel needed to be a priority, even if it was a bit unclear what the horror components, at least the supernatural ones were going to be. But ultimately, I shouldn’t have been surprised that while the supernatural ones were grand and well done, it was the real life ones that would REALLY cut to the bone.

I don’t really want to spoil the horror aspects of this book, as there is a reason it is kept a bit close to the vest in the description. Iglesias packs a wallop of a punch with the reveal, and it made me go ‘wait…. what?!’, but in the best way possible. I will say that some of the ins and outs of it felt a bit Cosmic-y, with an impending storm surge churning up something otherworldly, and while it’s not full on Cthulhu or Old Gods in its execution, the largeness and inevitability of it was really heavy throughout the narrative. Which is a lovely theme in tandem to a monster storm that is about to bear down on an island like Maria did. Some of the descriptions of the big reveal were very creepy, and I loved how it was presented and how it fit in with both the hurricane as well as the threats that Gabe, Bimbo, Xavier, Tavo, and Paul are all dealing with in the wake of Bimbo’s mother’s murder. The violence is supernatural and all too real, and it makes the horror beats feel all the more unnerving as the story goes on.

But horror elements aside, this book reads just as well as a drug kingpin thriller with real world tragedies and horrors at the heart. Gabe, Bimbo, Xavier, Tavo, and Paul are best friends brought together by their shared experience of living a difficult life in Puerto Rico, where the ghosts of colonialism have led to lots of corruption, wealth disparities, and lots of experiences with violence, even before Bimbo’s mother’s death. As Bimbo and his friends are driven by vengeance, and as Hurricane Maria is about to barrel down on the island and cause mass devastation on top of that, our characters are pulling together in the face of terrible odds, and for a sense of a need for justice that they won’t be able to achieve due to their circumstances and the systemic disparities they are living within. I was on the edge of my seat watching them all make these decisions, because while I KNEW that these were sometimes TERRIBLE decisions, I felt like Iglesias perfectly captured why they were doing these things because I understood the realities they they were living, and how it shapes each of them. Bimbo is especially a complicated and intriguing character, because while his mission to take out a VIOLENT DRUG KINGPIN with no real plan, and putting his friends in severe danger (and not being super forthcoming in some ways but that is all I will say) was absolutely CRAZY to me… but I also know that the grief and the loss meant that he had nothing to lose, and I couldn’t really fault him to a point. Iglesias is the kind of author who shows a huge picture of complex characters and dire circumstances, and you generally know that happy endings in his tales are hard to come by, but they are still great reads because he pulls out such emotion and poignancy with the bleakness. The repeated phrase in this book, ‘all stories are ghost stories’, is especially moving as we see their reality laid out bare.

“House of Bone and Rain” didn’t disappoint! Gabino Iglesias has created another unrelenting horror thriller that got under my skin, and surprised me in a lot of ways.

Rating 8: A merciless, creepy, and devastating story about friendship, revenge, desperation, and loss, with sprinkles of Cosmic-ish horror to go with the real world ones.

Reader’s Advisory:

“House of Bone and Rain” is included on the Goodreads lists “Horror to Look Forward to in 2024”, and “2024 Adult Fantasy/Sci-Fi/Speculative Releases by BIPOC Authors”.

Kate’s Review: “Beyond the Bounds of Infinity”

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Book: “Beyond the Bounds of Infinity: An Anthology of Diverse Horror” by Vaughn A. Jackson (Ed.) & Stephanie Pearre (Ed.)

Publishing Info: Raw Dog Screaming Press, July 2024

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

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

Book Description: Welcome to a world of horror viewed through a kaleidoscope lens. Embark on a journey to untangle the writhing tendrils of human terror in a dimension where the possible and impossible blend-an unstable realm where comfort can be found in the coldest pits, and dark gods feast upon the sweetest suffering-where infernal sounds birth silent letters that drift along midnight shores and the unexplained lurks beneath crumbling urban structures. Step over the edge of what you think you know, and find yourself…Beyond the Bounds of Infinity!

Featuring stories by L. Marie Wood, S.A. Cosby, Jessica McHugh, and Mary SanGiovanni-alongside newer voices like Cassius Kilroy, Jessica L. Sparrow, and Vicky Velvet-Beyond the Bounds of Infinity offers a collection of weird fiction and cosmic horror stories that are diverse down to the cellular level. From Taíno folk horror to the horror of identity in a world that just doesn’t understand, from cozy to apocalyptic, and everything in between, let these authors show you what fear really is, and what it means to them.

Review: Thank you to Stephanie Pearre for sending me an eARC of this collection!

I don’t really collection many things, but one thing that I DO collect is hardcover annotated classic novels. I have about seven as of now, from “Dracula” to “Anne of Green Gables” to “The Hobbit” and more. One that I have that is a bit of an outlier is “The Annotated Lovecraft”, as I haven’t actually READ anything by H.P. Lovecraft, but wanted yet another Annotated tome for my shelves. One of the reasons I haven’t checked it out, in spite of his works being SO formative for horror, especially Cosmic horror, is because of what a bigot he was. Because of this, I’ve stayed away and relied on the cultural zeitgeist to be informed about Cthulhu and the Old Ones and all that. So when I was approached by Stephanie Pearre to read “Beyond the Bounds of Infinity: An Anthology of Diverse Horror”, I thought this was the perfect chance to finally dive into a bunch of Cosmic horror tales, written specifically by Own Voices authors whose works reclaim a sub-genre jump started by a bigot.

As I always do with short stories collections, I will review my three favorite stories, and then review the collection as a whole.

“Effigies of Monstrous Things” by Pedro Iniguez: While there are PLENTY of horrifying stories in this collection, I think this was the one that really cut to the bone for me. A single father living in poverty is working on trying to solve the mold problem in his apartment complex in a neighborhood where children are going missing. When he stumbles into a crawlspace and finds a terrible effigy, he realizes that mold may be the least of his problems. This one was not only a deeply upsetting tale involving decay and death, it was also an insightful take on poverty, microaggressions, racism, and how some populations are easier targets for violence or inaction because of their marginalized status. This one really made me shudder.

“A Dampened Embrace” by Christopher Hann: If any of the stories had a hook right from the jump in this collection, it was this one, as it describes a mother dying, then her body being dug up under mysterious circumstances. A son is mourning his mother’s death, while also grappling with a family legacy of worshiping a deity at the cost of so much. Now he tries to figure out what is next, when inevitability may be the only outcome. This one was an interesting blend of generational trauma, family loyalty, and the way that children can suffer at the hands of well meaning parents, and it had moments of beauty as well as moments of despair.

“24 Points” by S.A. Cosby: This is honestly just a good reminder that I need to read S.A. Cosby’s novels, as I have been meaning to but haven’t done so yet. Because wow, this one was so, so utterly unnerving! Three hunters, a boy and his father and his uncle, go into the woods looking for a deer, and see the biggest deer that they have ever seen. But when the uncle shoots it, it becomes quite clear that they should have left it well enough alone. I felt that ultimately this story was more of a folk horror tale than cosmic, but there were definitely things that overlapped between sub-genres that worked well. And that ending! DANG. I won’t spoil anything, but DANG. I think this one may have been my favorite.

As a whole collection, “Beyond the Bounds of Infinity” has some real stand outs, and some stories that didn’t connect as well for me. But I did really appreciate the wide swath of topics, perspectives, and levels of horror that were within its pages. As I mentioned above I am not someone who is super versed in Cosmic horror, but I really got a good sense of the sub-genre and its beats from this book. And what a great way to reclaim a sub-genre that was in many ways created by and still defined by a bigoted creep like Lovecraft. I love seeing people that he would have looked down upon (to say the least) saying that they have every right to have their place at the Cosmic horror table, and how it shows that horror, be it this sub-genre or ANY sub-genre, has room for everyone.

“Beyond the Bounds of Infinity” is a must for Cosmic horror fans, old and new alike. I feel like I got a crash course in a sub-genre I’m not as familiar with, and I enjoyed the ride.

Rating 8: A compelling collection of Cosmic horror from many different perspectives, “Beyond the Bounds of Infinity” is a good intro to a sub-genre that has lots of room for new voices.

Reader’s Advisory:

“Beyond the Bounds of Infinity” is included on the Goodreads list “Cosmic Horror That’s Not Lovecraft”.

Kate’s Review: “Letters to the Purple Satin Killer”


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Book: “Letters to the Purple Satin Killer” by Joshua Chaplinksy

Publishing Info: CLASH Books, August 2024

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

Where You Can Get This Book: Amazon | Indiebound

Book Description: Jonas Williker is considered one of the most sadistic serial murderers of the modern era. This epistolary novel explores the aftermath of his arrest and the psychological trauma of those who lived through it. The Pennsylvania native brutalized his way into the zeitgeist during the early part of the new millennium, leaving a trail of corpses across five states before his eventual arrest. All told, Williker was responsible for the rape and murder of 23 women, and is suspected in the deaths of dozens more. His calling card—a torn piece of fabric found on or inside the bodies of his victims—helped popularize his now ubiquitous nickname. The Purple Satin Killer. 

In the years following his arrest, Jonas Williker received hundreds of letters in prison. Collected here, these letters offer a unique glimpse into a depraved mind through a human lens, including contributions from family, the bereaved, and self-professed “fans.” They represent a chilling portrait of the American psyche, skewering a media obsessed culture where murderers are celebrities to revere. What you learn about the man from these letters will shock you, but not as much as what you learn about yourself.

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

Even though I am deeply fascinated by true crime and have been since I was a child, I will absolutely admit that it can very easily shift from morbid curiosity to bad taste, especially when perpetrators are given a state of celebrity or put on a pedestal. A recent example of this was when Charles Manson died a few years ago and Voodoo Donuts decided it was a good idea to make one of their special donuts commemorate him (I will say that this meant our at the time trivia team had the BEST team name that night, as our name included the phrase ‘a tasteful Charles Manson Memorial Donut’). Spoiler alert, Voodoo got a lot of much deserved pushback because WHAT THE HELL? There are always going to be people who make murderers into folk heroes and romanticize them, and “Letters to the Purple Satin Killer” by Joshua Chaplinsky is an incredibly dark horror novel that puts that concept at center stage, as the reader reads a number of letters written to a sadistic serial killer from loved ones, enemies, and, yes, fans. When Chaplinsky reached out to me about this book I was nervous, but also INCREDIBLY intrigued, as it sounded brutal, but like it had some serious potential.

I’ll be pretty forthcoming out the gate here, this book has a lot of content warnings attached to it. It has some pretty visceral descriptions of violence in it, so absolutely tread forth with caution. If you don’t like violence, this is probably a good one to skip, because Chaplinsky doesn’t hold back too much, especially during the opening ‘foreward’ that describes the crimes of Jonas Williker.

Where do I even begin with this? I suppose as good a place as any is the structure of this book, written like a true crime paperback that collects letters sent to serial killer Jonas Williker while he is in custody for dozens of brutal murders. The letters range from his mother, to a cop who unwittingly let him get away after a routine stop and has been haunted by it ever since, to obsessed fangirls ranging from porn stars to lonely women to old friends and so many more. We never get any letters from Jonas’s perspective, but honestly, I was okay with that because we absolutely get to know him and what a monster he is through the letters and words of others, as well as getting to know all of these people who have been in his life both before and after the murders. It’s also a great choice to not center the serial killer and instead look at the people who are writing him letters and their motivations, and I really felt like I got the motivations of most of them.

The letters range from the depressing, to the darkly humorous, to the unsettling, and while sometimes the satirical elements were really coming out, I also know that it’s not TOO farfetched given that a lot of the inspirations of these strange characters aren’t too off from actual people who glommed on to actual serial killers. Hell, Ted Bundy (a lot of Williker’s story, crimes, trial, and prison time, harkens to Bundy), Richard Ramirez, and the aforementioned Charles Manson all had their lady friends that sought them out AFTER their crimes were well known, so I felt that that tracked pretty well. There are also the poignant and sad ones, as Jonas’s mother writes him diligently, as does an ex girlfriend who had NO idea what he was capable of and is deeply messed up because of it. And then there are the really creepy bits, like the slow reveal that, due to Jonas’s notoriety, there is a copycat killer on the loose, sending strange postcards within the letter collections that pop up eerily. There is also the mysterious anonymous penpal who is claiming that she is the victim that Jonas wasn’t able to kill, and how her trauma of being the only one left has her unraveling the longer Jonas is imprisoned as she struggles with survivor guilt. Her letters were both heartbreaking as well as very, very scary as she loses more and more control as Jonas’s execution date comes ever closer. I thought that the voices all seemed pretty unique, which was a huge feat given that Chaplinksy has dozens of characters here. It’s also interesting getting to see Jonas’s whole story through these letters, as we follow him from arrest to death row, and it’s such a compelling device that kept me reading IN SPITE OF the really rough stuff in this book.

It’s also a great send up of this weird obsession some people have with violence and serial killers, and the different ways that people try to attach themselves to people like Jonas. One of the more effective ones involved Evangelicals trying to reach out to ‘save’ him, hoping to use this monster who violently murdered many women as an example to get their religious message across. This is, again, something that happened with Ted Bundy, as he was supposedly born again in prison (though I am pretty certain that he did it not because he actually believed in Jesus as his lord and savior, but because he could troll people while also perhaps getting some leniency. Which he didn’t). And in Jonas’s case, none of that matters to those who are trying to use him as an example, all that matters is that he is a shining example of their own agenda. There are also momentary references to political figures that Jonas had connections to before his murders came to light that are now DESPERATE to keep their good names away from his, panicking in letters trying to distance themselves. Some may find that unbelievable, but it totally worked for me. There’s also just the idea of people trying to attach themselves to a serial killer solely because of the infamy, a true testament to true crime obsession and the lingering spectre of American violence run amok. Since it’s satire it can be over the top, but it always felt like it was grounded in this grim reality.

“Letters to the Purple Satin Killer” is chilling and unrelenting, a character study and a study of culture. It’s a rough read, but I found it fascinating and very effective.

Rating 9: Deeply disturbing and yet very on point about the darker sides of true crime and celebrity, “Letters to the Purple Satin Killer” is not for the faint of heart, but pretty darn insightful about a culture obsessed with violence.

Reader’s Advisory:

“Letters to the Purple Satin Killer” isn’t on any Goodreads lists as of now, but it would fit in on “Best Serial Killer Books”.

Kate’s Review: “Ghost Camera”

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Book: “Ghost Camera” by Darcy Coates

Publishing Info: Poisoned Pen Press, July 2024

Where Did I Get This Book: I received an ARC from the publisher as well as an eARC from NetGalley.

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

Book Description: When Jenine finds an abandoned polaroid camera, she playfully snaps a photo without a second thought. But there’s something wrong with the a ghostly figure stands in the background, watching her. Fixated on her. Moving one step closer with every picture she takes.

Desperate, Jenine shares her secret with her best friend, Bree. Together they realize the camera captures unsettling impressions of the dead. But now the ghosts seem to be following the two friends. And with each new photo taken, a terrible danger grows ever clearer…

DISCOVER CHILLING NEW BONUS STORIES:

A woman survives a plane crash in a remote arctic tundra, accompanied only by a stranger who seems fixated on something moving through the blinding snow. A house stands empty. Hungry. Waiting for the children drawn to it like moths to a flame. A woman finds a shoebox filled with old VHS tapes. They have a note “Don’t watch. You’ll regret it.” And more!

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

While I have no doubt been enjoying Darcy Coates more ‘horror lite’ titles in “The Gravekeeper” Series recently, I am also always amped when she has some more intense horror stuff coming out. Because of this I was VERY excited to see the book “Ghost Camera” fall across my path. What I didn’t realize at first was that this book is actually a re-release of her novella “Ghost Camera” AND a collection of other short/shorter stories on top of it. Which was a-okay by me, because that means its’ just more Darcy Coates tales of terror to read through and be totally freaked out by. All of this sounds great. And man, it was really fun getting back into her freakier work.

As usual, I’m going to highlight my three favorite stories from the collection, and then review it as a whole.

“Ghost Camera”: This is the titular story in the collection, and one of the longest ones as well (and had previously been published on its own as a novella). Jenine finds a retro Polaroid camera in an old lighthouse, and decides that she is going to play with it a bit. But when she looks at the pictures, she sees what appear to be ghosts coming closer and closer to her. She reaches out to her friend Bree for help in investigating, but they soon realize that she’s in grave danger. I love how this one builds up, with creeping ghosts getting more and more hungry and desperate with every photo taken. Coates really shows off her descriptive skills in this one, as the ghosts are SO goddamn scary in my minds eye.

“The Run to Broken House Ridge Lighthouse”: I love an urban legend that has a ghoulish twist, and this story is very much like one you’d tell around a campfire. A group of young adults are hanging out on a beach, and decide to test a local ghost story about racing a ghost to the lighthouse. This one is quick and pretty unrelenting in its building dread, and I really liked the urban legend of Cami Alan and what happens if you lose the race to the top of the lighthouse. It feels like the kind of local haunting tale you would find in any community with a dark history, and it made for an effective horror story. And once again, man, that imagery. I feel like Cami Alan is another spectre that is going to stick with me long after the read is over. I think this was quite possibly my favorite in the collection.

“Untamed Things”: I gotta say, I’m glad I wasn’t reading this one while on my flight to San Diego, because, spoiler alert kinda, it starts with a pretty gnarly plane crash. But Coates does something I didn’t expect here, and instead of a straight up horror tale I found this one to be more dark fantasy with a lot of hope sprinkled into it. When the plane she is on crashes, leaving her stranded on a desolate mountain, Ana is terrified and completely alone. When another passenger named Chloe suddenly appears and says that they are going to get out of this together, Ana is surprised but relieved. But as they try to traverse across the mountain to the front of the plane, Chloe lets Ana know that they are being followed. And what’s following them isn’t of this world. This one had a really high tension almost from the jump, and as Ana and Chloe were trying to escape whatever it was that was chasing them, I was on edge not only because of the obvious danger, but also because of how Coates slowly reveals some tricks and twists. It’s an interesting take on certain phenomena experienced by survivors in highly dangerous situations. I really, really loved it.

As a whole this is a stellar collection that has a lot of variety in length, theme and fright levels. While some of the stories didn’t connect as much to me, overall I really thought that they show a huge range, and also really show that Coates has no interest in pulling punches when it comes to nightmare fuel she wants to heap onto her readers. Coates is consistently scary for me when she writes stories like this. The woman has range!

“Ghost Camera” is a fun collection of horror tales. I recommend it to anyone who likes a good scare, but also keep it in mind for any scary reading you want to do for the ever creeping towards us Halloween Season! There’s something for everyone in this book!

Rating 8: Another triumphant work by Darcy Coates, this time gathering some spooky and truly scary stories in a horror collection that kept me on edge.

Reader’s Advisory:

“Ghost Camera” isn’t on any Goodreads lists as of yet, but it would fit in on “Spooky Short Story Collections”.

Kate’s Review: “The Drowning House”

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Book: “The Drowning House” by Cherie Priest

Publication Info: Poisoned Pen Press, July 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 Review: A violent storm washes a mysterious house onto a rural Pacific Northwest beach, stopping the heart of the only woman who knows what it means. Her grandson, Simon Culpepper, vanishes in the aftermath, leaving two of his childhood friends to comb the small, isolated island for answers―but decades have passed since Melissa and Leo were close, if they were ever close at all.

Now they’ll have to put aside old rivalries and grudges if they want to find or save the man who brought them together in the first place―and on the way they’ll learn a great deal about the sinister house on the beach, the man who built it, and the evil he’s bringing back to Marrowstone Island.

From award-winning author Cherie Priest comes a deeply haunting and atmospheric horror-thriller that explores the lengths we’ll go to protect those we love.

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

The description of “The Drowning House” by Cherie Priest made me do a double take the first time I read it. Surely I had read it wrong! A house, a full on HOUSE, washes up on a beach after a crazy storm? Obviously it has to be supernatural or something like that, but still, the very CONCEPT was SO interesting to me that I knew that I HAD to read the book. And not only do we have a weird house washing up on shore, we also have a missing man, his grandmother who died the night he vanished, which also happens to be the night the house washed ashore, and his childhood friends coming back to the small island community to try and find him, only to find something supernatural and menacing. All of these things come together to make a very odd read. In a good way, mostly.

There are lots of very creative aspects of this book, from the idea of an abandoned house washing up on shore, to some of the ancient magical and ritualistic elements that Priest creates for this book, to the concepts of communicating between dimensions and the way that this is achieved (mild spoiler but I HAVE to talk about it: a deranged otherworldly switchboard with some rather gruesome elements showed up at one point and I was completely horrified but also enthralled). I also did like some of the horror imagery, from figures materializing in the mist, to small town tragedies of missing boys whose spirits are seen crying the corners of Mrs. Culpepper’s home. So many of these things really worked for me, and it had this seaside atmosphere that was always tinted with some ominous undertones. It’s weird and dreamy and somewhat unnerving. I think that I would more categorize this as dark fantasy with horror elements as opposed to straight up horror, but trust me, the horror elements are on point.

The one critique I do have of this book is that I wasn’t as interested in our main characters Melissa and Leo, and their personal journey of having to team up in spite of their uneasy history in hopes of saving Simon, their childhood friend they are both deeply enamored with. I thought that they both had interesting back stories and understandable and believable motivations, but their tension never really resolved itself to create a genuine partnership that I was rooting for. Even getting flashbacks to their childhood and their friendship with Simon and some insight into Mrs. Culpepper’s background and her home (as well as some reveals about her connection to the washed up house and certain other things) didn’t really bring as much out of them as I would have liked.

Overall I think that “The Drowning House” has some really creepy beats and some really creative world building. But boy do I wish that the characterization had a little more oomph.

Rating 7: An atmospheric and at times creepy read, though I would say that “The Drowning House”‘s main characters weren’t as engaging as I had hoped they would be.

Reader’s Advisory:

“The Drowning House” isn’t on any Goodreads lists yet, but it would fit in on “Gothic Vibes (Modern Books)”.