Tag: horror

Kate’s Review: “Camp Damascus”


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Book: “Camp Damascus” by Chuck Tingle

Publishing Info: Tor Nightfire, July 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 searing and earnest horror debut about the demons the queer community faces in America, the price of keeping secrets, and finding the courage to burn it all down.

They’ll scare you straight to hell.

Welcome to Neverton, Montana: home to a God-fearing community with a heart of gold.

Nestled high up in the mountains is Camp Damascus, the self-proclaimed “most effective” gay conversion camp in the country. Here, a life free from sin awaits. But the secret behind that success is anything but holy.

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

I have been aware of Chuck Tingle for about ten years now, as he has been a huge Internet meme in and of himself for a number of reasons. The first is that Chuck Tingle is a pseudonym and the way he presents himself is almost assuredly (I don’t want to say assuredly, however) performance art to an amazing and endearing degree. The second is that up until now he is predominantly known for writing short story monster erotica, with titles like “Space Raptor Butt Invasion”, “Bisexual Mothman Mailman Makes A Special Delivery In Our Butts”, and “Absolutely No Thoughts of Pounding During My Fun Day With This Fun T-Rex Because I’m Aromantic and Asexual And That’s a Wonderfully Valid Way of Proving Love Is Real”(oh man, I LOVE this). I also have a memory of spending an evening hyperfocusing on scrolling his Twitter feed and laughing so hard I was crying. When I saw that Tingle was going to be writing two actual, full length, non-monster erotic horror novels, I was absolutely fascinated by the entire concept, and when I read the plot for “Camp Damascus” I knew that I needed to read it. Firstly because I’m always down for horror that plays on real life fears (in this case, conversion camps and fundamentalist Christianity), and secondly because what would a mainstream Chuck Tingle book look like?

“Camp Damascus” works on so many levels for me, the first of which being that lately LGBTQIA+ people are being maligned, vilified, and threatened by so called culture warriors and bigots, with more and more laws passing that target trans people and drag queens, and people losing their minds over the slightest hint of a rainbow on a mainstream product. The unfortunate and horrible truth is that places like Camp Damascus and the people who run it are, while perhaps not supernatural, causing harm to LGBTQIA+ children. It’s a book that calls out that hateful bullshit through metaphors and demonic imagery, and it is done in a way that is very scary, very earnest, and very affecting. Our protagonist Rose is a teenage girl living in the deeply fundamentalist community of Neverton, Montana, her family members of the Kingdom of the Pine Church, and she is living a life of true belief and pragmatism. But when she starts seeing images of a menacing demon, and starts coughing up bugs, and it is all connected to a hidden to the world (and in some ways herself) attraction, she starts to realize that there are parts of her life that have been suppressed and hidden from her, and that it ties back to the community conversion camp Camp Damascus. The demons in this book as described are unsettling and creepy, and Tingle has a few wonderfully described moments that freaked me all the way out just through the way he paints a tense picture to its snapping point. And there is, of course, the real life horrors of how queer people can be demonized by fundamentalist groups, and having it connect back to literal demons involved with a conversion camp just feels absolutely correct. Horror as religious trauma and bigotry isn’t something I expected from the guy who brought us “Taken by the Gay Unicorn Biker”, but it works incredibly well.

And the other thing that I really, really enjoyed about this book is Rose as a character, as not only is she queer, she is also autistic. As someone who is neurodivergent herself, I’m always eager to see characters who are ASD or ADHD or what have you, and I really liked the exploration Tingle does with her character as a very literal person with many curiosities who is living in a community that is VERY threatened by curiosity in general. Exploring a queer person living in this reality was a choice I liked, but it also made me think about what it would be like to live in this kind of community with a different neurotype and how challenging that would also be. I also really love how heartfelt Rose is, and how Tingle never lets her become too cynical, or worn down. She is determined to figure out what is going on with her, and once she does she is determined to make sure that the trauma she has experienced doesn’t happen to anyone else, making friends and connections with other people like her along the way. It shouldn’t surprise me that there is so much hope in this story, as Tingle has always exuded hope with his saying ‘love is real’, and it makes this battle cry against bigotry pulse with joy.

“Camp Damascus” is an impressive jump to the mainstream by Chuck Tingle, who is a horror writer I am going to be keeping my eye on.

Rating 9: Relevant, searing, and incredibly heartfelt, “Camp Damascus” is a solid and enjoyable mainstream horror review novel from Chuck Tingle.

Reader’s Advisory:

“Camp Damascus” is included on the Goodreads lists “Queer Horror”, and “Horror to Look Forward to in 2023”.

Kate’s Review: “Burn the Negative”

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Book: “Burn the Negative” by Josh Winning

Publishing Info: G.P. Putnam’s Sons, July 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: Some remakes aren’t just a bad idea…they’re deadly.

Journalist Laura Warren is mid-flight to LA when she learns that the streaming series she’s about to report on is a remake of a ‘90s horror flick. A cursed ’90s horror flick. The one that she starred in—and has been running from her whole life.

As a child star, Laura was cast as the lead in The Guesthouse. She played Tammy Manners, the little girl with the terrifying gift to tell people how the Needle Man would kill them. But her big break was her last, as eight of her cast and crew mates died in mysterious ways, and the film became infamous—a cult classic of fictional horror that somehow summoned the real thing. Hoping to move on from all the negative press, Laura changed her name and her accent, dyed her hair, and moved across the Atlantic Ocean. But some scripts don’t want to stay buried.

Soon after landing, Laura finds a yellow dress just like the one she wore in the movie. Then the words “She’s here” scratched into the wall in an actor’s trailer. And then people working on the series start dying. It’s all happening again, Laura’s worst nightmare brought to life, and she finds herself on the run with her sister and a jaded psychic, hoping to find answers—and to stay out of the Needle Man’s lethal reach.

An homage to slasher films with a fresh take on the true price of fame, Burn the Negative is a twisty thriller best read with the lights on.

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

We all know that of all the great horror film sub genres out there, I have a special place in my heart for a good old fashioned slasher film. I like the melodrama, I like the over the top nonsensical Savini-esque violence, I like the bursts of terror that come out in jump scares that then make me laugh in spite of myself. I also like weird real life strangeness, unexplained things or potential supernatural events. And when those two things come together, well that’s even better. So of course I was interested in “Burn the Negative”, a new horror slasher novel by Josh Winning about a cursed movie called “The Guesthouse” that is being revamped into a series called “It Feeds”, and how the old protagonist went into hiding to escape the notoriety only to be sucked back in. I mean that just screams “KATE, READ THIS!” And in a lot of ways it did everything that I wanted it to… Until it committed one of my most loathed sins of the slasher genre…

But let’s start with the positives! As there are a good amount! “Burn the Negative” is such a fun homage to not only slasher movies, but the lore around certain slasher movies that are supposedly ‘cursed’ films due to the terrible things that happened to various people involved in the productions. “It Feeds”/”The Guesthouse” has vibes akin to “Poltergeist” or “The Exorcist”, both horror movies that are beloved in the genre but have some really sad connections (“Poltergeist” especially: the actresses who played the daughters both died young, Dominque Dunne was murdered by her ex-boyfriend and Heather O’Rourke died of congenital stenosis). Everyone loves the idea of a cursed movie because of the high strangeness and lore of the unexplained, and “Burn the Negative” really runs with it. It also very much feels like a slasher movie, with lots of wacky deaths, a protagonist with secrets and a rough past, and a genuinely freaky “Needle Man” that has perhaps taken on a life of itself after being a horror movie villain whose actor was never actually publicly identified. I would absolutely watch this if it were a horror movie, and it was a quick and engaging read that had me hooked.

I also liked the other aspects of this plot, specifically those regarding Laura, the child star of the film who changed her name from Polly due to the notoriety, and her traumatic childhood as a child actress with an overbearing stage mom. Having this added layer to her character made her all the more easy to invest in, as man can this woman EVER catch a break? But it’s also something that feels like a real life horror to add to the supernatural ones, whether it’s the abuse that Laura/Polly endured from her zealous mother, or the way that it put a wedge between her and her younger sister Amy, or the way that adults involved with the film saw the difficulties she was having but ignored in favor of production, these things were almost more upsetting that The Needle Man.

But. BUT. We once again get a book that feels a need to do a final ‘gotcha’ kind of ending that yanks the carpet out from under the reader. And readers, we all know how I feel about such endings. I do appreciate that with a horror novel that is paying homage to/deconstructing slasher movie tropes and themes, the temptation to do a very slasher-y ending with a ‘but you were never REALLY safe’ is probably very, very present. But I’ve never liked stories that imply safety and release, only to make the antagonistic force come back for a ninth inning reappearance/victory. And I think that the reason it really cheesed my grits in this book is because there ARE a lot of other real life themes and metaphors like child exploitation, toxic parents, trauma, and self hate that it just felt especially galling to me. Sadly this was a situation where I was very ready to give this a pretty high rating, but the frustrating ending bumped it down a bit in my mind.

Hard pass on rugs being pulled out from under me. (source)

“Burn the Negative” is a clear love letter to slasher movies, and a fun take on the dark side of childhood fame and fortune. I wish it had stuck the landing a bit more. I’m interested in seeing what else Josh Winning has to offer horror literature, because there was a lot to like at the end of the day.

Rating 7: A fun homage to horror movies and a take on childhood fame and Hollywood pitfalls, though the ending was a bit hackneyed.

Reader’s Advisory:

“Burn the Negative” isn’t on any Goodreads lists yet, but I think it would fit in on “Slasher Horror Books”.

Joint Review: “Silver Nitrate”

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Book: “Silver Nitrate” by Silvia Moreno-Garcia

Publishing Info: Del Rey, July 2023

Where Did We Get This Book: We received eARCs from NetGalley and Edeweiss+!

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

Book Description: From the New York Times bestselling author of The Daughter of Doctor Moreau and Mexican Gothic comes a fabulous meld of Mexican horror movies and Nazi occultism: a dark thriller about the curse that haunts a legendary lost film–and awakens one woman’s hidden powers.

Montserrat has always been overlooked. She’s a talented sound editor, but she’s left out of the boys’ club running the film industry in ’90s Mexico City. And she’s all but invisible to her best friend, Tristán, a charming if faded soap opera star, though she’s been in love with him since childhood.

Then Tristán discovers his new neighbor is the cult horror director Abel Urueta, and the legendary auteur claims he can change their lives—even if his tale of a Nazi occultist imbuing magic into highly volatile silver nitrate stock sounds like sheer fantasy. The magic film was never finished, which is why, Urueta swears, his career vanished overnight. He is cursed.

Now the director wants Montserrat and Tristán to help him shoot the missing scene and lift the curse . . . but Montserrat soon notices a dark presence following her, and Tristán begins seeing the ghost of his ex-girlfriend.

As they work together to unravel the mystery of the film and the obscure occultist who once roamed their city, Montserrat and Tristán may find that sorcerers and magic are not only the stuff of movies.

Kate’s Thoughts

I always look forward to Silvia Moreno-Garcia’s new books, because I know that I am almost assuredly going to be a well done take on whatever genre she wants to tackle. We’ve seen horror, we’ve seen fantasy, we’ve seen noir, and romance. She really knows how to be a chameleon and jump from genre to genre, and “Silver Nitrate” is no exception. This time we have a little bit of magical realism, a little bit of historical fiction, and a little bit of good old fashioned occult horror. As well as the real life horrors of post WWII Nazis fleeing to Latin America. Man, that’s another thing I love about Moreno-Garcia; she deftly inserts historical context from a place I have little knowledge of into her stories, and I find it so, so fascinating every time.

“Silver Nitrate” is both an exploration of mystic occult intrigue as well as a history lesson in Mexican cinema. I really loved learning all of these historical tidbits about movie history in Mexico, and the film industry in general and the inner workings of it. I was having to go and look into some of her references (okay, many of her references), but that made the experience all the richer because I LOVE connecting historical dots and how it can really elevate a tale. And she always does it in a way that flows very well, never taking me out of the story too much (just enough to go on a tangent or two). The history of Mexican cinema was just such a fun angle to me, and I really enjoyed learning more and seeing that side of the story.

And as for the horror aspects of this story, Moreno-Garcia once again really evokes the creepy in her narrative. Whether it is strange imagery that Tristán is seeing after getting in too deep, or the idea of a cursed film in general, or the very real scares of the idea of Nazis using mysticism as a way to gain power, there are so many unsettling aspects of this book and Moreno-Garcia balances them all. She can do flat out horror, or building unease, and both parts on the horror spectrum fit in very well within the story.

Another delightful story from Silvia Moreno-Garcia! I love that we get new content by her pretty consistently, and I cannot wait to see what kind of genre hopping she takes on next!

Serena’s Thoughts

Another summer comes, another Silvia Moreno-Garcia book to joint review here on our blog! At this point, it’s well established how much we both enjoy this author. But one of the things I appreciate the most is how I can never anticipate what sort of story I will get from her next. Yes, she often incorporates fantasy and horror elements (hence both of our love of her work!), but the exact sort of story is always very different. Last summer found us reading a re-imaging of “The Island of Doctor Moreau.” And this summer we do a deep dive into the 90s and classic Mexican film history.

I’ll be honest, I know next to nothing about this topic, so I spent a large portion of this book with my phone open to Google, frantically researching the various directors and actors mentioned. But, as I said, this is one of the great joys of her work. I also went down several rabbit holes regarding Nazis and mysticism; always a fun time! I really liked how these two seemingly very disconnected topics were woven together so neatly. One thing that stood out to me on this read is the unique approach to fantasy and magic systems that this author takes. That is, she doesn’t worry about it much. Much of the magic in her books is used to enhance the overall tone of the book, with very little put into explaining to readers how exactly any of this works. She’s a perfect answer to the types of fantasy fans who insists that complex systems with clear rules, ala Brandon Sanderson, is the only way to portray magic.

I also really liked our main two characters. Their relationship, a friendship built over decades of knowing one another, was such a true depiction of this sort of rare person in one’s life. Someone who you understand so well that you, on one hand, can’t stand them, but on the other hand, love them more than life itself. I particularly liked the swapped nature of their personalities from the sort that we typically see, with Montserrat taking on the more aggressive, proactive role, with Tristan very much serving as the softer one of the two.

Overall, this was another excellent story by this author. See you all next summer (fingers crossed!), can’t wait to see what we’ll be reading next time!

Kate’s Rating 8: A fun combination of horror, history, and occultism.

Serena’s Rating 8: A fascinating mix of historical deep dives and truly creepy moments!

Reader’s Advisory:

“Silver Nitrate” is included on the Goodreads lists “Vintage Media in Dark Fiction”, and “Non-Caucasian Protagonists in Science Fiction, Fantasy, Horror, and Paranormal Romance”.

Kate’s Review: “The Beast You Are: Stories”

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

Book: “The Beast You Are: Stories” by Paul Tremblay

Publishing Info: William Morrow, July 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: Paul Tremblay has won widespread acclaim for illuminating the dark horrors of the mind in novels and stories that push the boundaries of storytelling itself. The fifteen pieces in this brilliant collection, The Beast You Are, are all monsters of a kind, ready to loudly (and lovingly) smash through your head and into your heart.

In “The Dead Thing,” a middle-schooler struggles to deal with the aftermath of her parents’ substance addictions and split. One day, her little brother claims he found a shoebox with “the dead thing” inside. He won’t show it to her and he won’t let the box out of his sight. In “The Last Conversation,” a person wakes in a sterile, white room and begins to receive instructions via intercom from a woman named Anne. When they are finally allowed to leave the room to complete a task, what they find is as shocking as it is heartbreaking.

The title novella, “The Beast You Are,” is a mini epic in which the destinies and secrets of a village, a dog, and a cat are intertwined with a giant monster that returns to wreak havoc every thirty years.

A masterpiece of literary horror and psychological suspense, The Beast You Are is a fearlessly imagined collection from one of the most electrifying and innovative writers working today.

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

It is always a good reading day when Paul Tremblay comes out with a new book, and my eyes are constantly peeled for a new title by him. I am so pleased that Tremblay is becoming more and more well known, what with the successful adaptation of his novel “The Cabin at the End of the World” hitting theaters this past winter. When I saw that he had a new book called “The Beast You Are” coming out, and that it was a short stories collection of previous works (as well as a novella), my usual nervousness about short stories didn’t even phase me. I trust Tremblay. And I was right to do so, because this is, on the whole, a good collection.

I will do the usual set up of talking about my three favorite stories, and then talk about the book as a whole.

“I Know You’re There”: This is one of the earliest stories in the collection, and it is almost certainly my favorite because of how ambiguous and heartbreaking it is. We follow Silas Chen as he works through the grief of losing his husband David to a sudden death, having found his body upon arriving home from work. As he tells the story to different people, aspects of if change, but one thing remains the same: Silas wasn’t sure if David’s dead body was staying completely still. There is a bittersweetness as well as an unease as we hear multiple iterations of Silas finding his dead husband, and the reader wonders if Silas is lying, or if his grief and sudden solitary life has led to him misremembering due to trauma, but the creepy descriptions of a body perhaps moving just a little bit, in various ways, when one’s back is turned, settled into my brain as I was reading it. As was the wonder about how grief makes it so that perhaps a departed loved one lingers in one way or another. Really unnerving, but also very emotional.

“The Blog at the End of the World”: We read a blog whose owner is talking about a mysterious disease that is making people drop dead, starting from what seems to be the end of the world and working backwards to earlier days when it’s just rumors and whispers, starting from the end and moving back towards the start. Tremblay wrote this one back in 2008, a good twelve years before COVID came into the picture and misinformation spread online like wildfire, so reading this was a bit surreal (and in the story notes he mentions it was surreal revisiting it now) because it almost predicted the way people would talk over each other, sow distrust, and disbelieve each other as things were falling apart around them. I loved the structure of this one, as it does read like a LiveJournal from the mid to late 2000s, and it was pretty neat getting the story told in this epistolary way (there is also a hilarious moment in the comments with a clear spam bot, man do I remember those days!).

“The Dead Thing”: An early teenage girl whose parents have split up due to substance abuse issues notices that her younger brother has come home clutching a box to his chest. When she asks what he has, he tells her that it’s just some dead thing but won’t show her. But something in the box is pulsing, and as he keeps it hidden and she becomes more and more curious, the thing begins to grow… This was one of the bleakest stories in the bunch, and honestly it kind of got to me in a not so good way, but I wanted to include it because 1) the stream of consciousness style really added to the reading experience, setting me on edge almost from the start and capturing the haphazard and spiraling situation at hand, and 2) I kept thinking about the 1980s remake of “The Blob” as I was reading. And that’s probably why it got to me because that movie just…. UGH. If you truly get to me (without triggering me, I should add, because that I DON’T like), I gotta give you props.

The collection as a whole is very broad and varied, with Tremblay doing straight up horror, to dark fantasy, to flash fiction, and beyond. What struck me the most about the stories is that a lot of them feel like they are pushing boundaries and looking to be experimental. There is the aforementioned “The Dead Thing” and its stream of consciousness narrator, or a meta pseudo-“Fangoria” column homage “The Postal Zone: The Possession Edition” that reads like it is the actual Fangoria magazine column ‘The Postal Zone’ (and was actually published in Fangoria, THE LAYERS OF THIS STORY). But the biggest experimentation was the lion’s share of the book, the titular novella “The Beast You Are”, in which Tremblay has created a new world with anthropomorphic animals who are going up against a monster that takes a sacrifice every thirty years. The way that Tremblay goes beyond the expected is what makes this book so interesting, and while some stories didn’t work as well for me as others did, I really did appreciate the way that he went outside the box.

“The Beast You Are” is a strong short stories collection that really shows off Paul Tremblay’s range. How great to see stories new and old gathered in one place, and to see the places the author is willing to go across so many tales.

Rating 8: Creative, bittersweet, experimental, and unsettling, “The Beast You Are” is a varied mix of stories by one of the most interesting horror authors writing today.

Reader’s Advisory:

“The Beast You Are” is included on the Goodreads list “Horror to Look Forward to in 2023”.

Kate’s Review: “Dead of Winter”

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

Book: “Dead of Winter” by Darcy Coates

Publishing Info: Poisoned Pen Press, July 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: From bestselling author Darcy Coates comes Dead of Winter, a remote cabin in the snowy wilderness thriller that will teach you to trust no one. There are eight strangers. One killer. Nowhere left to run.

When Christa joins a tour group heading deep into the snowy expanse of the Rocky Mountains, she’s hopeful this will be her chance to put the ghosts of her past to rest. But when a bitterly cold snowstorm sweeps the region, the small group is forced to take shelter in an abandoned hunting cabin. Despite the uncomfortably claustrophobic quarters and rapidly dropping temperature, Christa believes they’ll be safe as they wait out the storm.

She couldn’t be more wrong.

Deep in the night, their tour guide goes missing…only to be discovered the following morning, his severed head impaled on a tree outside the cabin. Terrified, and completely isolated by the storm, Christa finds herself trapped with eight total strangers. One of them kills for sport…and they’re far from finished. As the storm grows more dangerous and the number of survivors dwindles one by one, Christa must decide who she can trust before this frozen mountain becomes her tomb.

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

Back in the spring I took my solo trip up to Duluth, Minnesota, a city on Lake Superior that is definitely one of my happy places. It was late April, but let me tell you, it felt like winter. There was snow, it was about thirty degrees, and driving into the city felt like I was driving into a blizzardy tundra for the last ten miles of my drive. But that backdrop was perfect for one of the books that I brought withe me, Darcy Coates’s new horror novel “Dead of Winter”. I’ve really enjoyed pretty much everything I have read by Coates, and her more recent reads have been the “Gravekeeper” series, which is a bit more on the tamer side of horror. Sure, ghosts and those who can see them are creepy, but it was more of a cozy horror tale. So settling into “Dead of Winter” was interesting, given that the pretty early on we get a very graphic description of a decapitated head pinned to a tree. I cackled to myself and thought ‘oh that’s right, Coates can also go hard’. And that was a good omen for things to come, because “Dead of Winter” was a hoot and a half.

It was so fun to jump from the more dark fantasy/horror lite feel of the “Gravekeeper” books to this more hardcore/familiar to me Coates aesthetic of bloodbath and nightmare fuel. The horror elements merge well with the thriller ‘whodunnit’ aspects, with a familiar trapped in isolation with a killer trope combined with some slashery goodness. It’s a fast and fun read, with some pretty wicked gory moments and a no holds barred take on picking off the strangers in the cabin, therein culling the suspect pool in crazier and crazier ways. Coates ratchets up the suspense and gives us a lot of red herrings to the mystery aspect, and creates kills that feel like they are right out of any decent slasher movie. From decapitations to scattered teeth to frozen corpses, the visceral scares are continuous and always on point. Again, it was a real trip reading some of these really gory moments after the tamer “Gravekeeper” books, but it just goes to show that Coates contains horror multitudes and can achieve the vision she is going for across the board.

When looking at the thriller elements, this classic locked room set up is familiar but still engaging. Christa is our protagonist who is isolated in a winter snowstorm in a hunting cabin with strangers, and as they start dying one by one she has to figure out who is killing them and what their motive could be. It’s pretty old hat in how it is revealed and approached, and I had pretty easily figured it all out about halfway through. That isn’t to say that my conviction didn’t waver, however, as there were a few red herrings that did make me question my theories. Ultimately I could guess what was going on, but it didn’t really detract from my enjoyment of the book overall. Part of that is because I did like Christa as our main character and liked seeing her piece together all of the pieces. The other part is that, at the end of the day, approaching this like all my favorite 80s psycho killer movies, the journey through is the more important part than the ultimate solution. It didn’t matter that I knew who did it almost from the jump. It was a wild ride and that is exactly what I want from a book that reads like a slasher movie.

We are fully into the summer season now, and if you are a horror or thriller fan that wants a fun and bloody beach read, look no further than a snow ridden hunting cabin. Darcy Coates, you continue to impress me, and “Dead of Winter” should be on any horror lover’s list.

Rating 8: A fun and straight out of a movie slasher thriller that is the perfect summer read in spite of the cold setting.

Reader’s Advisory:

“Dead of Winter” is included on the Goodreads list “Horror to Look Forward to in 2023”.

Kate’s Review: “Harvest House”

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

Book: “Harvest House” by Cynthia Leitich Smith

Publishing Info: Candlewick Press, April 2023

Where Did I Get This Book: The library!

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

Book Description: Deftly leading readers to the literary crossroads of contemporary realism and haunting mystery, Cynthia Leitich Smith revisits the world of her American Indian Youth Literature Award winner Hearts Unbroken. Halloween is near, and Hughie Wolfe is volunteering at a new rural attraction: Harvest House. He’s excited to take part in the fun, spooky show—until he learns that an actor playing the vengeful spirit of an “Indian maiden,” a ghost inspired by local legend, will headline. Folklore aside, unusual things have been happening at night at the crossroads near Harvest House. A creepy man is stalking teenage girls and young women, particularly Indigenous women; dogs are fretful and on edge; and wild animals are behaving strangely. While Hughie weighs how and when to speak up about the bigoted legend, he and his friends begin to investigate the crossroads and whether it might be haunted after all. As Moon rises on All Hallow’s Eve, will they be able to protect themselves and their community? Gripping and evocative, Harvest House showcases a versatile storyteller at her spooky, unsettling best.

Review: One of the most confounding book moments of 2023 thus far was I was having a hell of a time remembering a certain book that ran across my timeline. I am the kind of person who, when I see a book in passing that sounds interesting but doesn’t REALLY process in my brain so well, tells myself that SURELY I don’t need to make note of said book, because surely I will remember it. That’s what happened with “Harvest House” by Cynthia Leitich Smith. I saw it on Goodreads, thought ‘oh that sounds neat’, and then kept scrolling… and couldn’t remember it for a good long while. But eventually I did find it and tossed it on my request list, post haste! A Halloween haunted house attraction mixed with an actual ghost story with themes of Indigenous issues in the United States sounded really promising. The latter part of that description worked well, but the former? Not as much as I had hoped.

Like most of the time I will start with the things that did work. I really appreciated how Smith brings up themes of racism and appropriation towards and from Indigenous groups in American society, especially within a Halloween context. Lord knows every year the message ‘my culture is not a costume’ is ever relevant as you see people STILL dressing up in offensive Indigenous stereotypes and using imagery that is important to the culture said people are not a part of. I liked that our protagonist Hughie was grappling with this while volunteering at a town haunted house attraction, that wants to use a local legend of the ghost of an Indigenous girl as one part of the experience, as well as an ‘Indian burial ground’. Hughie is deeply uncomfortable with this, and his boss, Ms. Fischer, just doesn’t understand why these depictions are offensive and insensitive, and this part of the book is a great way to work through why these things are as such. I also kind of liked that Ms. Fischer, while completely clueless, wasn’t a moustache twirling villain, as it approaches the topic in a way that shows that sometimes this kind of racism comes from ignorance as opposed to malevolence, but still needs to be called out. The more contemporary YA elements of this book really clicked with me.

But here is the flip side of all that. I definitely picked this book up in part because I like books that have relevant things to say when it comes to social issues, but I ALSO picked it up because it sounded like it was going to be, ultimately, a ghost story with some horror-centric moments that weave in and out with the messages at hand. But unfortunately, I didn’t feel like the horror elements of “Harvest House” were prevalent enough. We do get some good first person perspective moments from Celeste, the ghost of an Indigenous young adult who is haunting The Crossroads, but it took until probably the last fifth of the book for there to be actual solid interactions between the ghost moments and Hughie. We do get a second hand account of another character encountering something strange at the Crossroads (with description of an online video), but it doesn’t last long, and then there are no more ghostly interactions until much later. It just didn’t feel like there was enough horror throughout the novel. I would say that perhaps removing the ghostly stuff and just stuck with the mystery about what happened at the Crossroads as the sole focus, but even that was abruptly wrapped up in one scene which felt more like an afterthought than anything else. I really just wanted more.

So while I really liked the social justice themes that were in this book, “Harvest House” felt less like a horror novel and more like a contemporary story with some supernatural stuff tacked on. A bit of a disappointment on the horror front, but still a read with some important points to make.

Rating 6: I liked the themes and I liked the messages about racism, appropriation, and misogyny, but for being a horror story it didn’t have the amount of horror that I would have liked.

Reader’s Advisory:

“Harvest House” is included on the Goodreads list “BIPOC Boy MC in YA Fantasy/SciFi/Mystery”.

Kate’s Review: “Dark Spaces: Good Deeds #1”


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Book: “Dark Spaces: Good Deeds #1” by Che Grayson & Kelsey Ramsay (Ill.)

Publishing Info: IDW, May 2023

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

Where You Can Get This Book: Comixology

Book Description: Scott Snyder’s Dark Spaces anthology line returns with an all-new story and creative team! In search of a fresh start, teenager Cheyenne Collins and her mother, Rebecca, move to St. Augustine, Florida, where they cross paths with Jean McKnight, a disgraced big-city journalist determined to pay her dues and rebuild her career, starting with a fluff piece on the town’s upcoming 450th anniversary celebration.

When the quaint community’s festivities give way to bloodshed and Cheyenne is the sole witness, Jean begins an investigation and the women find themselves at the heart of a supernatural conspiracy linked to St. Augustine’s colonial past. Together, they vow to expose the town’s historical sins, but the deeper Jean digs, the less clear it Who is Cheyenne Collins, and when does a quest for truth become a thirst for vengeance? Rising talents Che Grayson ( Urban Legends) and Kelsey Ramsay (Joan Jett and the Black Hearts, I Love Rock-n-Roll) team up for an eerie historical thriller about obsession, power, and redemption in Dark Spaces: Good Deeds!

Review: Thank you to IDW for sending me an eARC of this comic!

It is VERY rare that I review a comic in its single issue release format, as I much prefer to have the full story context in place in volume form. Volumes usually contain an arc within a story, or if its a limited series it can be contained in a full on graphic novel in one sitting. But when IDW sent me an email and some promotional pages for “Dark Spaces: Good Deeds #1” by Che Grayson, I was intrigued enough that I decided to take a chance on a single issue review series. Weird small town secrets, an eager to prove herself reporter, and something odd going on, all while simmering in a dark colonial past that leaks into the present? Oh yeah, this has the potential to be great, and “Good Deeds #1” is a great start!

We have a solid set up for our first issue, which is laying the groundwork for what is to come. The first storyline is that of Rebecca and her teenage daughter Cheyenne, who have recently moved to St. Augustine, Florida. They have bought an old abandoned diner, sold to them by a local named Mr. Foster, and they want to start over after having moved around a lot. The other thread is that of Jean, a journalist who, due to an unnamed mistake, has led her to lose credibility in the journalism community. So when she is offered a job to write a puff piece about the anniversary of the founding of St. Augustine, she takes the offer, and expects to have an easy, if not super satisfying, story to help rebuild her career. We have this well done juxtaposition of Jean meeting with the town leaders, who are bragging about how wonderful their community is, with new girl Cheyenne being bullied as an outsider by her very insular new class mates. Grayson, as I said, is laying a lot of groundwork here, and they do a very good job of showing the spun facade of the town the leaders want to present to Jean, all while weird and disturbing things are happening to Cheyenne at the hands of the townspeople. We don’t know what the issues with the townsfolk are and why they are being so secretive, and the unease builds and settles in in a very creepy way.

And then we get a whole other question by the end of the issue (no spoilers here!), that ties back to Cheyenne and Rebecca. Because the citizens of St. Augustine aren’t the only ones being a little bit cagey. I love the way that Grayson peels this back as well, and it feels done in a very deliberate way while happening all within the limited pages of a single issue comic. The climax of this issue alone is enough to make me want more, but there have been so many well placed questions as well as interesting characters that I am definitely hooked and wanting more. Especially since you can tell that there are going to be some complexities as to what is going on with this community, as it boasts of it’s colonial past while hostility is being thrown towards POC outsiders.

And finally, I really liked the artwork for this! Kelsey Ramsay makes good use of color, and I liked how some of the art is designed in a way that looks realistic, but also a bit odd and strange when it fits the scene.

(source: IDW)

All in all, “Dark Spaces: Good Deeds #1” is off to a promising and solid start! I will definitely be checking out where this goes next, as there are many questions I need to know the answer to.

Rating 8: A tantalizing and creepy start to what is sure to be a dark and layered series, “Dark Spaces: Good Deeds #1” has me hooked.

Reader’s Advisory:

“Dark Spaces: Good Deeds #1” isn’t on any Goodreads lists yet, but it would fit in on “Superheroes, Comics, and Social Justice” (admittedly we are early in the story so broader themes aren’t quite as clear yet).

Kate’s Review: “American Vampire: 1976”

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Book: “American Vampire: 1976” by Scott Snyder, Rafael Albuquerque (Ill.), & Francesco Francavilla (Ill.)

Publishing Info: DC Comics, November 2021

Where Did I Get This Book: I own it.

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

Book Description: America is broken. Trust between the government and the American public has crumbled. Paranoia reigns supreme.

Skinner Sweet has exhausted all efforts to regain his lost immortality. With his powers and purpose gone, he is now determined to go out with a bang. At a seedy motorcycle rally in the desert where he’s closer than ever to his death wish, Pearl Jones and a shocking partner track him down for one last, desperate mission. The force known as the Gray Trader and its minions are tunneling through the bowels of the world to unleash hell on Earth–just in time for America’s bicentennial. With catastrophe looming, it’s up to Skinner and Pearl to reconcile and change the course of history–or die trying.

Review: Well folks, we have come to the end of another comic re-reading/comic completion hybrid, as “American Vampire: 1976” is the end of the road for the “American Vampire” series by Scott Snyder. There was a pretty substantial gap between “Volume 8” and “1976”, just as there was a gap in the real comics release of the series. I don’t know what caused the wait, but I remember part of my reason for kind of giving up on the series the first time around was due to the fact I knew it didn’t have an ending. Well, now it does, and to me it seemed like there were a few things that needed to be addressed in order to stick it. And…. I think that it mostly did, with a couple stumbles…

We have jumped forward to 1976, and our characters have scattered to the wind since we left them. Skinner Sweet, having been rendered mortal after his last tangle with the Gray Trader a decade prior, has accepted that he can’t regain his immortality and has decided to become a stuntman in hopes of going out in a blaze of glory. So when he’s approached by Pearl with one more mission, we find out what all our vampires have been up to leading up to the American Bicentennial. Pearl is barely holding things together with the VMS, Felicia is on a mission to save Gus from the Gray Trader who has taken him hostage, Travis Kidd blames himself for the loss of Gus, and we find out that Jim Book has returned to the fold and has been Pearl’s partner for a number of years. Oh, and Mimiteh has come back as well (and HOORAY, she isn’t just a stereotype AND he has clothing this time around). I loved that this took place in 1976, in a year that American was celebrating its history in the face of a lot of bleakness (the loss of the Vietnam war, post-Watergate disillusionment, etc), and as the VMS has to try and stop an apocalypse that is going to happen during the Bicentennial celebration. It’s a great tone, and a great way for the story to wrap up as America has it’s own, in a way, reflection moment. And the big last showdown with the Gray Trader and it’s final push to destroy the world was well thought out and had high stakes and lots of suspense.

There are a lot of characters that we need to tackle, and, for the most part, many of them get some good page time and a fair amount of focus. I loved seeing Pearl rally the troops, I enjoyed seeing Skinner being pulled in again as he’s trying to, maybe finally, be able to get his immortality back, and I liked seeing Travis Kidd have more growth and depth as he grapples with how he failed Felicia and Gus. But that does lead to one of the pitfalls here, as one of the characters who is a bit shafted is Felicia, as it felt like she was just a frenzied grieving mother as she worries about Gus’s well being. Sure, she gets some pretty okay moments, but she didn’t feel like Felicia, and since we were at the end of the road I really wanted more in saying goodbye. It ended up feeling abrupt and lacking for my favorite character in the series.

There was one other big stumble for me in this final collection as we wrap up this story, and I need to go into detail to explain the problem I had with it. SO, therefore I am going to have to tell you to skip to the last paragraph if you don’t want to know and give you a

SPOILER ALERT! (source)

So a few volumes back, it was revealed that Jim Book, the original hero who was the lawman pursuing Skinner Sweet back in the day after being his foster brother in childhood, was actually still ‘alive’ and was also a vampire from the American strain. It took this long for him to come back, and I was actually pretty amped to see him because I was excited to see him confronting Skinner, but more I was anticipating seeing him meet his daughter Felicia. And for awhile I was riding high on his presence, because it added a new interesting layer to Skinner, as his foil, who was not only an enemy but also his dearest friend and in some ways brother, was back in his life after so much baggage… But. BUT. Not only did we not get any pay off with Jim meeting his daughter Felicia (HONESTLY, HOW DARE THEY SIDELINE HER SO MUCH?)… Jim ends up betraying the VMS and has been evil and siding with the Gray Trader the whole time!!!!! WHAT THE FUCK?! What a frustrating and unearned heel turn for this character! And it felt like it was done 1) because it’s shocking and a HUGE blow and twist for the VMS, and 2) it just props up Skinner more as a hero because if Jim freaking BOOK is bad, then Skinner is going to look good by comparison, and you know what?

(source)

Am I being perhaps a little to precious about Jim Book as a character? Yeah, maybe. But it was also pretty damned rushed after a long delay to bring him back into the fold. There was a missed opportunity there because it would have been far more interesting for Skinner’s final push for potential redemption to be about his foster brother as opposed to his love for Pearl (especially since it made Pearl’s final story a bit too intwined with Skinner when she can stand on her own, thankyouverymuch).

Okay I complained a lot but for the most part I did enjoy “American Vampire: 1976”, I swear! The series had a lot to address and wrap up, and I thought that Snyder did justice to most of his characters and plot lines. And what a great moment in time for the story to end. I will miss Pearl, Felicia, Gus, and, God help me, even Skinner freakin’ Sweet. “American Vampire” is a great series, and I’m glad I finished it.

Rating 7: Overall this is a solid conclusion to an enjoyable series. “American Vampire: 1976” has some stumbles, but it’s nice to see Pearl, Skinner, Felicia, and others go out with a bang.

Reader’s Advisory:

“American Vampire: 1976” isn’t included on any Goodreads lists as of now, but it would fit in on “Recommendations for Buffy Fans” (though the entire series should probably be on that list too).

Kate’s Review: “Night’s Edge”

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Book: “Night’s Edge” by Liz Kerin

Publishing Info: Tor Nightfire, June 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: Liz Kerin’s Night’s Edge is a sun-drenched novel about the darkest secrets we hide and how monstrous we can be to the ones we love most.

Having a mom like Izzy meant Mia had to grow up fast. No extracurriculars, no inviting friends over, and definitely no dating. The most important Tell no one of Izzy’s hunger – the kind only blood can satisfy.

But Mia is in her twenties now and longs for a life of her own. One where she doesn’t have to worry about anyone discovering their terrible secret, or breathing down her neck. When Mia meets rebellious musician Jade she dares to hope she’s found a way to leave her home – and her mom – behind.

It just might be Mia’s only chance of getting out alive.

Review: Thank you to Tor Nightfire and Wunderkind PR for sending me an ARC of this novel!

Vampires hold near and dear places in my horror heart, though I am very picky about the way these stories are told. I’m glad that we are kind of past the ‘vampires as super romantic supernatural lovers’ stories from the early 2000s, just as I am always glad to see creators mine within the numerous metaphors you can take from this specific horror tale. So I was very interested when “Night’s Edge” by Liz Kerin ended up in my mailbox for a few reasons. The first is that Tor Nightfire is pretty damn reliable when it comes to horror fiction, so any title they have is sure entertain. The second is that the description is very much a mother/daughter tale, with darker “Rapunzel”-esque implications. And the third is that any unique take on vampires is going to catch my attention. Boy, was did this book live up to my interest and expectations. “Night’s Edge” is fantastic, scary, and heartbreaking.

First off, the vampire (known as Saras) world building is superb in this book. Kerin takes some of the bare bones of vampire mythos (blood thirst, vulnerability to the sun and various elements) and sends them through the lens of a modern disease that has changed and terrified modern real world societies. We get a fabulous background of the Sara epidemic in a very easy to follow and engaging info drop through the eyes of Mia, a young woman whose mother Izzy has been infected and turned into a being that relies on blood to survive, and we get some good explanations as to how a society would have to adapt to dealing with Saras, usually in ways that would isolate them away and are potentially punitive (ie scanned for it before being able to enter a building, or being sent away to facilities that are secretive and perhaps more like prisons). It makes it so that you can absolutely understand why a person like Izzy, who is a single mom with a child who depends on her, would want to hide her condition, and how hiding it makes her life and Mia’s life that much more difficult, stressful, and dangerous, especially as Mia gets older and starts to come into her own. We get the vampire goods with this approach, but we also get to see it within the context of modern society that is trying to grapple with it, and that has led to more problems as more and more Saras start to become angry, isolated, and feral due to their inability to properly feed and keep themselves under control. Think “True Blood” if the fake blood supplement never came to be.

And it’s really the mother daughter dynamic between Izzy and Mia that brings out all the complicated and heart wrenching feelings in “Night’s Edge”. Izzy was changed into a Sara by a crappy boyfriend named Devon, whose poisonous influence on her could be due to his Sara nature where he’s trying to survive and has turned hardened and cynical… or it could be that he’s just another shithead dude who mistreats the women in his life (I feel like it’s probably the latter). And even after they leave Devon behind (though these shitty guys just won’t stay away, will they?), her being a Sara has transformed and damaged her relationship with Mia because Mia has to give up so much to keep Izzy safe, and Izzy doesn’t seem very grateful. She has to keep other people at arm’s length lest they find out at rat them out. She can’t live a normal life on her own due to the reliance her mother has on her. And, most grotesque of all, she has to give Izzy blood from her body every night to keep her from going fully feral. The codependency is there, but the emotional abuse is apparent as well. I love how I completely feel awful for Izzy because she had no say in this. BUT, at the same time, Kerin makes no excuses for the way she manipulates her daughter to keep herself safe and comfortable without thinking about the sacrifices, like LITERAL BLOODLETTING, her child is making for her. It’s so complex and so upsetting and you root for Mia so much, especially as she starts to want more for herself when she meets the charismatic musician Jade, but also has no idea how to function without her mom. It just killed me as I was reading it, especially since I am a mother with a daughter and this kind of thing just cuts to the bone a little more these days.

AND THERE IS GOING TO BE A SEQUEL! Which is good, because this ends on a note that was a sucker punch, but also opens up the door for more. And I can’t wait to see where Kerin takes the next phase of this story, because “Night’s Edge” is phenomenal. Simply phenomenal. READ THIS BOOK!

Review 10: A visceral, scary, and devastating story about vampires, toxic relationships, codependency, and mothers and daughters that hit me right in the feelings over and over again.

Reader’s Advisory:

“Night’s Edge” is included on the Goodreads list “Horror to Look Forward To in 2023”.

Kate’s Review: “Illusions of Isolation”

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Book: “Illusions of Isolation” by Brennan LaFaro

Publishing Info: French Press, March 2023

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

Where You Can Get This Book: Amazon

Book Description: Is anyone ever really alone?

When a young man’s wife goes away for the weekend, he lies awake all night wondering what the otherworldly sound in the attic is and why only he can hear it.

After her husband’s death, a mother who interacts with her son exclusively through stationery notes grapples with the strange ways her lost love seems to be haunting them both.

And inch by inch, room by room, a young girl’s home is overtaken by a savage jungle, even while her parents are being gradually replaced by somewhat…wilder housemates.

In this debut collection Brennan LaFaro, the author of NOOSE and SLATTERY FALLS, brings you these stories of creeping dread and much, much more. Contained within are thirteen tales of horror, humor, and heart, (including nine which have never before seen the light of day) and an introduction by the legendary Jonathan Janz.

Is anyone ever really alone? Or are they merely suffering… ILLUSIONS OF ISOLATION

Review: Thank you to French Press for sending me an eCopy of this short stories collection!

One of my favorite things is when a book shows up in my inbox or comes across my path that is unknown, and it catches my eye even though I’m unfamiliar with the author due to the description and hype work done around it. That is really the situation I had with “Illusions of Isolation” by Brennan LaFaro, a collection of horror short stories that were completely new to me. I’m someone who really likes routine and control over many aspects of my life, so taking chances on books, while novel and fun at times, is also a little stressful for me. But reading the description of this book, I knew that I wanted to give it a chance because it just struck me in the right away. And I ended up really enjoying it.

Before we begin, one of the things that I really REALLY loved about this collection is that each story has an author’s note at the end, which provides some context and insight into the story itself. As someone who likes to write for myself on occasion, I always like seeing the process that other authors use when writing their own stories. I found it very enlightening and interesting in this collection, and seeing where LaFaro gets his inspirations and how he crafted these short stories was such a treat. It also provided some good background or thought process information of some of the more disturbing tales (I really liked having it for “Dressed for Success”, the first story in the bunch that has violence within a school setting. It really contextualizes the content so it doesn’t feel exploitative or distasteful). It feels a bit like the author’s notes behind the stories in the “Scary Stories To Tell in the Dark Books” in a way, and I really enjoyed it.

So I’ll tackle this like I do all short stories collections: I will talk about my favorite three stories, and then talk about the collection as a whole.

“Year of the Black Rainbow”: There were a few stories in this collection that used topical issues to help fuel the horror aspects (given that social anxieties influence horror a lot it’s not shock), and “Year of the Black Rainbow” was one of those and my first favorite of the collection. Alex, a non-binary teen whose parents have kicked them out of their home, has found themself alone and living in an unhoused community in an old abandoned hospital. While others have avoided the basement for its strange happenings, Alex has made it their home. But when intruders threaten them, the basement’s reputation comes to the forefront. I love a haunted house story, I love a story about a marginalized person finding a place to call home, and I love a story that has a nice heaping helping of comeuppance for shit heads. And this story has all of that.

“A Shine in the Woods”: Isolation cabin horror is always going to be top notch for me, and if you bring in some really unique elements and I am totally roped in. A family is having a vacation in a winter cabin setting, but something keeps knocking over their garbage cans and making a mess outside. As the snow comes down harder and the unknown threat becomes more pressing, the family starts to wonder if they are going to leave their vacation alive. I’m not going to say any spoilers here, but I LOVED where LaFarro went with this one! I had an idea as to what was maybe going on, but as the tension built and the stakes were raised he went in a completely different direction and I thought that it was so creative and so out there in the best way.

“The Lights”: Break out the tissues for this one folks. A neighborhood nice guy named Gus, known for his kind disposition and his love of the grill, is suddenly rendered catatonic in his backyard chair with a relaxed smile on his face. His wife has kept it secret until neighbors come by concerned, and he only speaks of ‘the lights’. As Gus remains in this entranced state, his wife, and his neighbors, start to realize the impact this quiet but gentle man had on their lives. This one is probably the least horror-esque story in the collection and a bit more Sci-Fi, but I thought that it was so lovely and a glimpse into the way loved ones impact our lives. It’s a bit ambiguous, but the ending is filled with so much genuine, bittersweet pathos that it brought tears to my eyes.

And truly, I thought that all of the stories in this book were pretty well crafted and well imagined. None of them felt like clunkers to me, and I thought that LaFaro really explored a lot of different sub genres and did them justice for the most part. There was definitely something to like about all these stories, and again, the author’s note for EACH story was so, so awesome. The tone could shift from splatter punk brutality to bittersweet pathos and the shift isn’t jarring or distracting. It’s just nice seeing different themes and tonality flowing well in an anthology, especially when there is such a dichotomy and it’s from a single author.

There is definitely something for everyone in “Illusions of Isolation”. I am going to be keeping an eye on Brennan LaFaro going forward, because this collection is filled with lots of goodies.

Rating 8: A well rounded and very strong collection of horror stories that span a number of sub genres and aesthetics, “Illusions of Isolation” really ought to be on any horror aficionado’s radar!

Reader’s Advisory:

“Illusions of Isolation” isn’t on any Goodreads lists yet, but it would fit in on the list “Short Horror/SciFi Collections”.