Tag: horror

Kate’s Review: “Black Sheep”

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Book: “Black Sheep” by Rachel Harrison

Publishing Info: Berkley, 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: A cynical twentysomething must confront her unconventional family’s dark secrets in this fiery, irreverent horror novel from the author of Such Sharp Teeth and Cackle.

Nobody has a “normal” family, but Vesper Wright’s is truly…something else. Vesper left home at eighteen and never looked back—mostly because she was told that leaving the staunchly religious community she grew up in meant she couldn’t return. But then an envelope arrives on her doorstep.

Inside is an invitation to the wedding of Vesper’s beloved cousin Rosie. It’s to be hosted at the family farm. Have they made an exception to the rule? It wouldn’t be the first time Vesper’s been given special treatment. Is the invite a sweet gesture? An olive branch? A trap? Doesn’t matter. Something inside her insists she go to the wedding. Even if it means returning to the toxic environment she escaped. Even if it means reuniting with her mother, Constance, a former horror film star and forever ice queen.

When Vesper’s homecoming exhumes a terrifying secret, she’s forced to reckon with her family’s beliefs and her own crisis of faith in this deliciously sinister novel that explores the way family ties can bind us as we struggle to find our place in the world.

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

There have been many online discourse controversies that have left me scratching my head over the years that I have been online, and one of the more recent ones was when people in the horror community got fully up in arms about the idea of ‘cozy horror’. There were some who thought that labeling some aspects of the horror genre as cozy was infantilizing, there were some who thought that horror can not have cozy or comforting aesthetics to it by definition, and there were some who were REALLY, REALLY angry from both sides. I myself don’t really use the phrase cozy horror (and I guess I sure won’t now!), but I do think that there are stories and authors that can be described as ‘horror lite’ (in that it’s still VERY valid but I may recommend her to friends who want a read for Halloween but don’t like being super freaked out or disturbed). One of the authors who comes to mind with that is Rachel Harrison, who has written books like “Cackle” and “What Sharp Teeth”, that are definitely horror at heart but have a, shall we say, lighter touch than bloodier or more twisted authors. I happen to really love her books and always recommend them to people from all genre backgrounds, and her newest one, “Black Sheep”, is another to add to the rec list! She’s done witches, she’s done werewolves, and now she’s taking on fundamentalist families and those who dare leave! With a bit of a twist.

I love Harrison’s deft touch in making these horror stories have charming and not as scary elements to them, while still making them feel very solidly in the horror genre. “Black Sheep” has some lighter moments and some nicely drawn pathos to go along with the creepier themes of fundamentalism and toxic family dynamics. Vesper is our main character, who has left her rural tight knit family behind due to their fundamentalist beliefs and how cagey they always made her feel, but decides to return when she receives a wedding invite from her teenage boyfriend and her cousin Rosie, and she wants to maybe throw in some petty drama out of past hurts. Even though she escaped the group, she is a bit of a hot mess (I mean, going to stir up shit at a wedding between an ex boyfriend and a friend, whom you left in the lurch? It’s a choice), and you wonder if that’s due to the fundamentalist sect she was raised in, or if there are other aspects at play that may be more supernatural. But she’s an endearing mess, and you definitely want her to be able to extricate herself from this toxic family dynamic while also finding her own identity that isn’t predicated on the group and their perceptions of her. She makes bad decisions, but she is also clearly dealing with a bit of trauma because of the hot and cold relationship she has with her family and her daring to leave the group and its core belief set. Like many of Harrison’s protagonists, she’s complex and sometimes frustrating, but I liked following her on her journey as the tries to reconcile her background and her future.

I also liked the way that Harrison approaches the group and family on the farm, as while they are definitely true believing fundamentalists who see anyone outside of themselves as less than, she also brings out the more enjoyable traits and aspects. It’s easy to paint groups like this in fiction as cartoon villain-y, or over the top, but Vesper’s family, while being obviously damaging and sanctimonious to a vicious degree, also have glimmers of humanity. Whether it’s a loving aunt who loves to dote on Vesper, or her cousin and childhood friend Rosie who is nervous and also elated for her wedding day, or even the few and far between moments where Vesper’s mother Constance has moments of true affection or sadness regarding the gulf between them, we see how groups like this can have these moments of humanity that are familiar and relatable. Fundamentalists scare me precisely because of the way that can be relatable, and then you may not realize you are being sucked into something until it’s too late.

And as for the horror elements, they are definitely there! Whether it’s some bits of body horror or moments of bloody violence, Harrison, while being more on the lighter side of the horror scale still can get under your skin and have scenes where you are reminded that oh yes, you are indeed reading a horror novel. There are other things that I might have otherwise gone into in this review, but I’m trying very hard to be vague because there is a bit of an element of surprise that is needed in this book.

“Black Sheep” is a fun mix of family drama, existential rumination, and affable horror tale. I so enjoy Rachel Harrison and what she is doing with her ideas within the genre, and it’s always a treat to see what she comes up with next.

Rating 8: A fun and subversive tale that examines family dynamics, destiny, and dysfunction, “Black Sheep” is a surprising horror lite novel from Rachel Harrison.

Reader’s Advisory:

“Black Sheep” isn’t included on any Goodreads lists yet, but it would fit in on the Goodreads shelf “Domestic Horror”.

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

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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”

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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”.

Serena’s Review: “Together We Rot”

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Book: “Together We Rot” by Skyla Arndt

Publishing Info: Viking Books for Young Readers, August 2023

Where Did I Get this Book: copy from the publisher!

Where Can You Get this Book: WorldCat.org | Amazon | IndieBound

Book Description: Wil Greene’s mom has been missing for over a year, and the police are ready to call the case closed–they claim she skipped town and you can’t find a woman who wants to disappear. But she knows her mom wouldn’t just leave…and she knows the family of her former best friend, Elwood Clarke, has something to do with it.

Elwood has been counting down the days until his 18th birthday–in dread. It marks leaving school and joining his pastor father in dedicating his life to their congregation, the Garden of Adam. But when he comes home after one night of after a final goodbye with his friends, already self-flagellating for the sins of drinking and disobeying his father, he discovers his path is not as virtuous as he thought. He’s not his father’s successor, but his sacrifice. For the woods he’s grown up with are thirsty, and must be paid in blood.

Now on the run from a family that wants him dead, he turns to the only one who will believe him: Wil. Together, they form a reluctant partnership; she’ll help him hide if he helps her find evidence that his family killed her mother. But in the end they dig up more secrets than they bargained for, unraveling decades of dark cult dealings in their town, led by the Clarke family.

And there’s a reason they need Elwood’s blood for their satanic rituals. Something inhuman is growing inside of him. Everywhere he goes, the plants come alive and the forest calls to him, and Wil isn’t sure if she can save the boy she can’t help but love.

Review: This is definitely one of those books that crosses genres between what Kate and I both like to read. She, of course, would be drawn by the creepy nature of the story, especially the focus on the dark cult. While I like the paranormal aspect of it, and the spooky, haunted forest that sounds right out of the best kinds of fairytales. I think I can safely say that we both liked the cover. Through some snooping on Kate’s personal Goodreads, she also read this book and liked it, overall. For me, it was a bit more hit and miss.

But let’s start with what did work. And the first thing that comes to mind is the atmospheric nature of the story. As I said, I was partially drawn in by the mention of a cursed woods, and man, that cursed woods really hits well. Not only do large chunks of the story take place in the woods themselves, but the author has a real talent for evocative writing, making the trees themselves come alive. This same skillful writing also very much works with the more creepy aspects of the story. There were definitely some scenes and descriptions that were truly horrific, but some of these same scenes were also rather beautiful? While others were simply gruesome. Either way, the author’s writing style definitely leant itself to these more descriptive, lyrical moments of the story.

I struggled more with the pacing and the characterization of the two main POV characters, and, to lesser extents, the side characters. Both of these quibbles come down to the same thing, I think: this is an incredibly short book. On one hand, I always want to applaud authors who don’t feel the need to write massive tomes. But on the other hand, there is also a point where a book can suffer for its brevity, and that’s the case here. While Wil and Elwood had the makings of excellent characters, there simply wasn’t enough time in the book to really flesh each of them out, let alone the complicated nature of their relationship. For all that we are told that they used to be close, they had a fight, and then this book sees them coming together again, the reader is never truly given enough of this history to invest in this changing relationship. Instead, where there was room for a lot of depth of feeling and growth, we are left with a story that goes from “enemies” to “lovers” in the blink of an eye, undermining the supposed seriousness of their original falling out.

The same problem shows up in the overall pacing of the story. Because the book is so short, the reader is jumping from one scene to the next quite quickly. The entire story also only takes place over a few days, adding to this rather frenetic reading experience. While I think books that tell a story that plays out in a short time span can work, they still rely on enough substance to be woven in to allow the reader to fully invest in the characters and the situations they are experiencing. And unfortunately, some of that greater substance was lacking.

Overall, I think this book had a lot of potential, and even fifty or so more pages added on could have bounced this up to an 8 rating for me. As it stands, I think the author has a real skill for lyrical, evocative storytelling, so I’m definitely interested to see what she does next! Fans of contemporary paranormal horror will likely enjoy this one, but go in more for the creepy forest and religious cult than for the characters.

Rating 7: A sure hand on the lyrical style of her writing, I simply wish Ardnt had allowed us more of it than what we got here in this shorter, paranormal horror story.

Reader’s Advisory:

“Together We Rot” can be found on these Goodreads lists: YA Folk Horror and Moody stories about small towns with secrets and magic.

Kate’s Review: “What Kind of Mother”


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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: “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”.

Joint Review: “Mister Magic”

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Book: “Mister Magic” by Kiersten White

Publishing Info: Del Rey, August 2023

Where Did We Get This Book: Kate received an eARC from NetGalley and a physical ARC at ALAAC23, Serena received an eARC from Edelweiss+.

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

Book Description: Thirty years after a tragic accident shut down production of the classic children’s program Mister Magic, the five surviving cast members have done their best to move on. But just as generations of cultishly devoted fans still cling to the lessons they learned from the show, the cast, known as the Circle of Friends, have spent their lives searching for the happiness they felt while they were on it. The friendship. The feeling of belonging. And the protection of Mister Magic.

But with no surviving video of the show, no evidence of who directed or produced it, and no records of who—or what—the beloved host actually was, memories are all the former Circle of Friends has.

Then a twist of fate brings the castmates back together at the remote desert filming compound that feels like it’s been waiting for them all this time. Even though they haven’t seen each other for years, they understand one another better than anyone has since.

After all, they’re the only ones who hold the secret of that circle, the mystery of the magic man in his infinitely black cape, and, maybe, the answers to what really happened on that deadly last day. But as the Circle of Friends reclaim parts of their past, they begin to wonder: Are they here by choice, or have they been lured into a trap?

Because magic never forgets the taste of your friendship. . . .

Kate’s Thoughts

I thought I knew exactly what to expect when I picked up “Mister Magic”, because I thought that I knew how Kiersten White ticked and would tell this story. I’ve greatly enjoyed her horror stories in the past, and I thought that this one sounded like an interesting take on the “Candle Cove” creepypasta with some children’s TV nostalgia and deconstruction to boot. But what I got was something that was far more personal and emotional, and something that connected with me in ways I never anticipated, all while being, yes, very creepy. Because yes, “Mister Magic” is definitely a weird fiction dark fantasy horror about a group of adults who are being drawn back into the children’s TV show they participated in as children, but has since been wiped from the pop culture zeitgeist for reasons the reader doesn’t know at first.

But it’s also a story about childhood trauma, trying to leave a repressive and high control society and culture, and the repression of oneself to live the way others, namely parents and adult figures, think one should to make their own lives easier. I loved the sinister imagery of Mister Magic and the slow dropping of clues from various found texts, I loved following Val as she is brought back into the fold with her former “Mister Magic” compatriots as they all return for a reunion (held by a mysterious podcast in the town in which they filmed the show), and I loved seeing all of them realize that something is very wrong, and it’s NOT just the potentially supernatural elements. As someone who has been trying to raise a very spirited toddler in ways that won’t cause lasting emotional turmoil (and as someone who felt a need to repress my own emotional difficulties as a child and teenager, which led to a VERY dark mental state), this book really cut me to the bone. I applaud Kiersten White for exploring these themes, and for being vulnerable in her author’s notes about her own journey to leave a group that was causing her trauma.

I really enjoyed “Mister Magic”. It spoke to me in ways I never could have predicted, while also creeping me all the way out.

Serena’s Thoughts

Like Kate, I also went in feeling like I knew a decent amount about the kind of book I’d be reading. I’ve enjoyed White’s books in the past, and I felt like this would be a good collab since it would be creepy but not like “trauma level” horror of the ilk that Kate can handle but I definitely can’t! But also like Kate said, the story given in the blurb is only half of what this book has to offer, and the much more straight-forward half at that (believe it or not, the fact that a TV show might have been real is the simple part!). There was a lot of depth to be found in this one, exploring childhood (how it’s experienced by children and how adults idealize it), family (how the “real” families can sometimes be damaging and the joy that can be found in families created oneself), and in the power of oneself, in the face of forces telling you who you can be.

Reading the author’s note, it’s also very clear that this is a personal book for Kiersten White. And while I applaud her for taking a very large topic and finding a creative way of talking about it without, you know, talking about it, I do think that the read itself suffered a bit from the pacing and the mashing together of “typical horror/thriller” and the commentary on larger themes. There were points in dialogue where characters would literally just go on a several-paragraphs-long mini speech just laying all of these greater points out. And while I loved the insightfulness of what was actually being said, it did take me out of the actual book itself. I struggled to connect at these moments, feeling clearly that no one would actually speak like this.

But, again, in total I think this was a highly ambitious book and that it accomplished everything it set out to do. If its quality as a straightly told horror/thriller is dinged a bit by the tendency of its themes to rise above its plots, than in this case, that’s a deal I’m willing to make!

Kate’s Rating 9: Creepy, personal, VERY emotional and hopeful, “Mister Magic” upended my expectations in the best ways.

Serena’s Rating 8: Packing in layers upon layers in themes regarding individuality, identity, and personal strength in the face of oppression, this book will suck you in and take you to some dark, but important, places.

Reader’s Advisory

“Mister Magic” isn’t on any Goodreads lists as of now, but it would fit in on “Creepy Kids”.

Kate’s Review: “Vampires of El Norte”

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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”.

Kate’s Review: “Delicate Condition”


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Book: “Delicate Condition” by Danielle Valentine

Publishing Info: Sourcebooks Landmark, August 2023

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

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

Book Description: Anna Alcott is desperate to be pregnant. But as she tries to balance her increasingly public life with a grueling IVF journey, she starts to suspect that someone is going to great lengths to make sure her pregnancy never happens. Crucial medicines are lost. Appointments get swapped without her knowledge. And even when she finally manages to get pregnant, not even her husband is willing to believe that someone’s playing a twisted game with her.

When the increasingly cryptic threats drive her out of her Brooklyn brownstone and into hiding in the cold, gray ghost town that is the Hamptons in the depths of winter, Anna is almost at the end of her rope.

Then her doctor tells her she’s had a miscarriage—except Anna’s convinced she’s still pregnant, despite everything the grave-faced men around her claim. Could it be that her mind is playing tricks on her? Or is something more sinister at play? As her symptoms become ever more horrifying and the sense of danger ever more present, Anna can’t help but wonder what exactly she’s carrying inside of her…and why no one will listen when she says something is horribly, painfully wrong.

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

Perhaps you have noticed, readers, that we are getting a fair amount of horror books centered around pregnancy and motherhood as of late. Which shouldn’t come as a shock to any well versed and in touch horror reader, given that horror trends tend to like to tap into social anxieties that are going on at the time. And seeing as reproductive rights have been getting struck down and attacked in the United States ever since Roe v Wade fell, it’s just par for the course, anxiety wise. “Delicate Condition” by Danielle Valentine is the newest entry to this sub genre, and it already has a bit of hype going in because it is going to be the inspiration for the new “American Horror Story” season coming out later this year. With all these things swirling around in my mind, I dove into this book, eager to see the directions it went. And I really, really loved it.

“Delicate Condition” has gotten a lot of comparisons to “Rosemary’s Baby”, one of the earliest pregnancy horror tales that really captured the mainstream consciousness, but it tweaks and twists it into something far more powerful. There are so many themes that Valentine addresses when it comes to pregnancy, reproduction, motherhood, and misogyny that on paper it would seem like too much to have to juggle. But it is all done so well. We have Anna, an actress in her late thirties whose career has just had a massive windfall right when she is trying to start a family with her husband Dex, and who has been unable to get pregnant thus far and has started IVF treatments. Already we have so much to work with. For one, we have the woman who wants to have a career and is proud of it but now wants to have a family as well, and feels torn between two desires that seem to compete with each other. We also have the frustrations and heartbreak of infertility that has no explanation, and pregnancy loss, and the stresses and trauma around that. We ALSO have the themes of how the medical field can feel somewhat dismissive and callous when it comes to Anna and her infertility (with notes and acknowledgements that it is even worse for BIPOC women and non gender conforming people), and then her actual pregnancy struggles (more on that in a bit), with her doctors being condescending at times and at other times straight up rude or hostile. On top of all of THAT, Anna is also possibly contending with a stalker, and as that starts to ramp up and even seemingly focus on her pregnancy, her fear is written off as stress or paranoia or hormones by most everyone around her. It captures the real life horrors of the way that people treat and view women, be they pregnant or trying to become pregnant or already mothers, and it made my blood boil.

And then there are the more, shall we say, supernatural horrors of Anna’s pregnancy in this story. Early in her pregnancy Anna seems to have a miscarriage, but as time goes on something is still growing inside of her. Her doctors are unwilling to believe that this is anything outside of a hysterical pregnancy at first, but as time goes on she is clearly pregnant, though her symptoms go from run of the mill to extreme nightmare fuel. I loved how Valentine tackled this, as all of the things that Anna experiences, like hair loss, and skin issues, and pain, these are all things that do actually happen to pregnant women, just to the nth degree. And as these things happen, once again they are dismissed as just normal things an she is basically told to take a Tylenol and drink some water. Even as someone is clearly following her. Even as she is having visions of talons trying to cut through her body. It’s exaggerated, but again, boy does it reflect the actual horrors of pregnancy. I was especially sympathetic to all of the ‘just take Tylenol and rest’ bits, given that early in my own pregnancy (which was generally pretty uncomplicated and easy) I had such bad cramping that I called the generic nurses line and was just told to take a Tylenol and drink more water. I ended up fainting from the pain. It all turned out fine, but in that moment being told to just drink more water and take a painkiller that did NOTHING was stressful and confusing. So as I was reading all of these things that are depicted as a body horror tale, knowing FULL WELL that a lot of it is really something that pregnant people deal with, even if it’s to a less degree, I was just super, super impressed.

And finally, there is also the way that Valentine brings together a broader story of other women throughout the centuries who are dealing with a similar thing that Anna is dealing with. We get cut scenes and vignettes of women who are pregnant, or have just given birth, or are trying to become pregnant, who are having the same weird encounters, visions, experiences, and horrors that Anna is encountering. It’s all pretty vague and mysterious, but it is done in a way that when Valentine does eventually weave it all together, it fits so well that I just blew my mind. I’m not going to spoil anything here because I just loved the execution and I loved the ultimate reveal as to what exactly is happening. What I will say is while “Rosemary’s Baby” is an obvious comparison that people will know, there is so much more going on, and not everything is as obvious as it seems.

I really loved “Delicate Condition”. It’s another great pregnancy and motherhood related horror tale that cuts to the bone.

Rating 10: A feminist reimagining of “Rosemary’s Baby” themes with a lot of bones to pick with those who discount the experiences of pregnant people, “Delicate Condition” is a perfect read to reflect the horrors of pregnancy, and the culture that touts it as uncomplicated while ignoring its darkness.

Reader’s Advisory:

“Delicate Condition” is new and isn’t included on any Goodreads lists of of now. But if you liked “Graveyard of Lost Children” or “Rosemary’s Baby” this would probably be a good book for you.