Tag: horror

Kate’s Review: “Graveyard of Lost Children”

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Book: “Graveyard of Lost Children” by Katrina Monroe

Publishing Info: Poisoned Pen Press, May 2023

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

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

Book Description: Once she has her grip on you, she’ll never let you go.

At four months old, Olivia Dahl was almost murdered. Driven by haunting visions, her mother became obsessed with the idea that Olivia was a changeling, and that the only way to get her real baby back was to make a trade with the “dead women” living at the bottom of the well. Now Olivia is ready to give birth to a daughter of her own…and for the first time, she hears the women whispering.

Everyone tells Olivia she should be happy. She should be glowing, but the birth of her daughter only fills Olivia with dread. As Olivia’s body starts giving out, slowly deteriorating as the baby eats and eats and eats, she begins to fear that the baby isn’t her daughter at all and, despite her best efforts, history is repeating itself.

Soon images of a black-haired woman plague Olivia’s nightmares, drawing her back to the well that almost claimed her life―tying mother and daughter together in a desperate cycle of fear and violence that must be broken if Olivia has any hope of saving her child…or herself.

Baby Teeth meets The Invited in a haunting story of the sometimes-fragile connection between a woman’s sense of self and what it means to be a “good” mother.

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

The second night in the hospital after my daughter was born, I have a stark memory of calling the nurse in the middle of the night because the kid just wouldn’t stop crying. I wasn’t having any luck with breastfeeding so we were relying on formula to be brought to the room, and they were taking their sweet time while my daughter was in hysterics. Eventually they showed up with formula, and then after she was fed and still screaming they swaddled her up nice and tight, and put on a lullaby, and she was quiet again. Both my husband and myself burst into tears, and this was our WHAT HAVE WE FUCKING DONE? moment of early parenthood. Luckily, it basically only went up from there, as we had an awesome support system in place from our family, friends, and various supportive and affirming medical professionals (never mind that four months later COVID hit and the world shut down, at least it waited until after the fourth trimester was over!). I was having flashbacks to this one vividly awful night as I was reading “Graveyard of Lost Children” by Katrina Monroe, a horror story so evocative and unrelenting and in some ways SO REAL that it overtook me and really, really unnerved me while also breaking my heart. Sure, there are definitely supernatural elements in this book. But it’s also about the horrors of early motherhood and postpartum depression/anxiety/psychosis, which are all too real horrors.

The narrative is told through two different perspectives. The first is that of Olivia, a brand new mother to a baby named Flora, whose own family history involved her teen mother Shannon trying to kill her at four months by throwing her down a well. While Olivia had no contact with Shannon and has found herself in a loving marriage to her wife Kris, Flora’s birth kickstarts a lot of fears and anxieties. The second is the first person perspective of Shannon herself, and follows her pregnancy and the months leading up to Olivia’s attempted murder. Throughout these timelines both women are seeing and hearing visions of a Black Haired Woman, which leads them to self loathing, paranoia, and delusions about their respective babies. I loved seeing both perspectives, and felt like I got to know both women very, very well as their stories went on, so by the time the two storylines were coming together they melded well and I fully believed how they were shaking out. The slow burn of suspense involving the Black Haired Woman, starting with whispers and intuition and evolving into something more visceral and terrifying, was so well done and so effective that it can stand with any of the ghost story titans while being a well done metaphor for postpartum mental illness. There are so many moments that freaked me out, and so many reveals that genuinely surprised me, and Monroe really knows how to create not only a very unsettling ghost/supernatural being, but also how to create very real human characters who have edges, baggage, and many complex sides to them. Every beat hits effectively and perfectly.

But it’s the little things that turn into big things and the cultural and misogynistic things that really set me on edge as I read this book. We see the new mother experiences of Olivia and Shannon as the story goes on, and see the ways that they are chipped away at and torn to shreds even when it ISN’T the Black Haired Woman doing the damage. For Olivia, it’s the constant comparison between her experience and the experiences of other new mothers, as the transition for her is difficult and exhausting when it seems seamless and easy for others. Or it’s the fact that her wife Kris is loving and tries to be supportive, but still has to prioritize work due to a crappy family leave policy and is gone a lot and just doesn’t GET it. Or it’s that breastfeeding for Olivia is awful and painful, but the narrative is ‘breast is best’ makes her feel like a failure and pushes her to push through the pain, even when it’s too much. Or it’s medical professionals who are dismissive and flippant when she raises concerns. And seeing Shannon’s experience as a teen mother in a conservative household in the 1980s, which has her met with outright hostility from her community and even her own mother, and sees the way that OTHER young unwed mothers were treated when she is made to work in a home for unwed mothers, well….. It really shows that this whole idea of ‘motherhood is a blessing’ can be absolute poison to struggling women who aren’t experiencing it as the miracle it is supposed to be. Or, even worse, are punished for it because they did it outside of an acceptable circumstance. The Black Haired Woman is definitely a villainess in this story, but the other villain is the unsupportive culture our society has towards mothers, and how mothers are supposed to just grin and bear it because the baby is more important. And that’s only compounded further if a mother has mental health issues to boot (Andrea Yates comes to mind). The Black Haired Woman is a metaphor for PPD/PPA/PPP, but she thrives in environments that Olivia and Shannon had to live within. And that is what really got to me.

“Graveyard of Lost Children” is outstanding and gut wrenching horror. I absolutely loved it, even as it tore my heart out of my chest. DO NOT SLEEP ON THIS BOOK. Get it, even if the topics are hard to handle.

Rating 10: Searing, devastating, harrowing and scary as hell. “Graveyard of Lost Children” is magnificent.

Reader’s Advisory:

“Graveyard of Lost Children” is included on the Goodreads list “Horror to Look Forward to in 2023”.

Kate’s Review: “We Don’t Swim Here”

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

Book: “We Don’t Swim Here” by Vincent Tirado

Publishing Info: Sourcebooks Fire, May 2023

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

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

Book Description: She is the reason no one goes in the water. And she will make them pay. A chilling new novel for fans of Tiffany D. Jackson, Lamar Giles, and Ryan Douglass.

From the author of BURN DOWN, RISE UP comes a chilling novel told through alternating voices that follows two cousins as they unravel their town’s sinister past, their family’s complicated history, and the terrifying spirit that holds their future captive.

Bronwyn is only supposed to be in rural Hillwoods for a year. Her grandmother is in hospice, and her father needs to get her affairs in order. And they’re all meant to make some final memories together. Except Bronwyn is miserable. Her grandmother is dying, everyone is standoffish, and she can’t even go swimming. All she hears are warnings about going in the water, despite a gorgeous lake. And a pool at the abandoned rec center. And another in the high school basement.

Anais tries her hardest to protect Bronwyn from the shadows of Hillwoods. She follows her own rituals to avoid any unnecessary attention—and if she can just get Bronwyn to stop asking questions, she can protect her too. The less Bronwyn pays attention to Hillwoods, the less Hillwoods will pay attention to Bronwyn. She doesn’t get that the lore is, well, truth. History. Pain. The living aren’t the only ones who seek retribution when they’re wronged. But when Bronwyn does more exploring than she should, they are both in for danger they couldn’t expect.

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

I read “Burn Down, Rise Up” by Vincent Tirado last year, and then I had the pleasure of seeing them speak at ALA Annual last summer. Given that I liked “Burn Down, Rise Up” well enough and really enjoyed their talk on their panel, I was very happy when I was sent “We Don’t Swim Here”, Tirado’s newest YA horror novel that has a small town with secrets premise combined with a healthy fear of water due to a supernatural force. My love for urban legend horror knows no bounds, so I was very excited to read this one. After all, summer is right around the corner and I intend to spend a lot of time at the pool this year, so why not freak myself out about swimming in anticipation?

The most interesting aspect of this book to me was that way that Tirado explores the way that true tragedy can turn into community lore and mythos. Hillwoods is a small town that has what appear to be superstitions and rituals that are in place to appease a supernatural force, the biggest being that swimming isn’t allowed due to a vengeful spirit. But as Bronwyn explores this and pushes against this superstition as an ‘outsider’, the story starts to come to light of what actually happened and how actual historical fact can be twisted and inflated into something else. I don’t want to give anything away as I think that the reveals are worth concealing, but given that many urban legends and local lore probably have some basis in fact, I quite enjoyed the way that Tirado explores that in this book. I also liked the way that they addressed the realities of racism and oppression in a small town community, especially when there are few people of color living there, and how that has manifested over the years in American history.

In terms of the characters and the mystery itself, I thought that Bronwyn and Anais are pretty enjoyable perspectives to follow. They are fairly typical teenagers, and I liked the alternating chapters that shed insight into what it was like for an outsider as well as someone who had lived in the community all her life. That said, I didn’t think that either Bronwyn or Anais were super fleshed out or explored to the degree I would have liked, and their conflicts with each other felt a bit repetitive with Bronwyn seeking answers and Anais refusing to provide any, again and again. There were also a number of references to the various rituals and superstitions of the town that were mentioned in passing, but not really expanded upon. There just felt like there was a lot of potential that didn’t quite get met for me, and while the main thread was entertaining and interesting, there were multiple smaller threads that didn’t really wrap up in satisfying ways.

“We Don’t Swim Here” had enough connections to real life issues and metaphors that the strengths outweigh the weaknesses. I will be very curious to see if Tirado ever goes back to this story with the other rituals and superstitions that were left unanswered. Regardless, YA horror fans should probably check this out.

Rating 7: A horror tale about the crimes of the past and the way that tragedy can be passed down into lore, “We Don’t Swim Here” is entertaining young adult horror, though I would have liked a little more character exploration.

Reader’s Advisory:

“We Don’t Swim Here” is included on the Goodreads list “Latinx Books Releasing in 2023”.

Kate’s Review: “This Delicious Death”

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Book: “This Delicious Death” by Kayla Cottingham

Publishing Info: Sourcebooks Fire, April 2023

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

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

Book Description: Jennifer’s Body fans will clamor for this new sapphic horror standalone from New York Times bestselling author Kayla Cottingham.

Three years ago, the melting of arctic permafrost released a pathogen of unknown origin into the atmosphere, causing a small percentage of people to undergo a transformation that became known as the Hollowing. Those impacted slowly became intolerant to normal food and were only able to gain sustenance by consuming the flesh of other human beings. Those who went without flesh quickly became feral, turning on their friends and family. However, scientists were able to create a synthetic version of human meat that would satisfy the hunger of those impacted by the Hollowing. As a result, humanity slowly began to return to normal, albeit with lasting fear and distrust for the people they’d pejoratively dubbed ghouls.

Zoey, Celeste, Valeria, and Jasmine are all ghouls living in Southern California. As a last hurrah before their graduation they decided to attend a musical festival in the desert. They have a cooler filled with hard seltzers and SynFlesh and are ready to party.

But on the first night of the festival Val goes feral, and ends up killing and eating a boy. As other festival guests start disappearing around them the girls soon discover someone is drugging ghouls and making them feral. And if they can’t figure out how to stop it, and soon, no one at the festival is safe.

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

I read Kayla Cottingham’s debut novel “My Dearest Darkest” last year and enjoyed it due to the tone and the characters. I was also lucky enough to be able to say hello during ALAAC 2022, and she was super awesome and gracious over my awkward fangirling. So when I was offered a copy of her newest horror novel “This Delicious Death”, I jumped at the chance. Partially because I really wanted to see what she followed her debut up with. But also because when I saw that it was about cannibal monster girls going to a music festival, I was fully invested and on board.

Another example of a book that teenage Kate would have been so into. (source)

This was just such a fun read from start to finish. I really liked all of the characters, especially the core friend group of Zoe, Celeste, Jasmine, and Valeria, and I liked the ‘zombie’ (if that’s even the right word) mythos that Cottingham has created for the story. In terms of the characters, our core four feel like a pretty realistic and typical group of teenage girls with the usual insecurities and ride or die friend dynamics, just with a bit of a flesh eating twist to round it all out. While I wasn’t super invested in the will they or won’t they dynamic of Zoe and Celeste, I did like them a lot as friends and really liked how all of these girls have seen some serious shit and are still processing, all while relying on each other. You get to see flashbacks to when all of them were first infected with the Hollowing illness that transformed them into ‘ghouls’ that now can only live on human flesh (synthetically produced now, however), and how they all dealt with that change, that trauma, and how they all came together as friends who are now close as close can be. I loved their banter and their humor, and I loved as they band together to help protect Valeria after she goes feral and kills someone, and how they want to solve what is happening. The gal pal flesh eating teenage gumshoe vibe REALLY worked for me, and you throw that into a conspiracy whodunnit with the backdrop of a Coachella-esque music festival and you have a really, REALLY unique and fun story that will appeal to teens and adults alike. And along with all that, I really really liked all of the representation this book had, with trans characters, lesbian and bisexual characters, characters from different racial and ethnic backgrounds.

And now the horror. The references to “Jennifer’s Body” in the description of this book are pretty on point both in theme and tone, but I also felt like we got some “Left 4 Dead” elements with the descriptions of the way that the ‘ghouls’ look (to me, very much like The Witch in those games. If you know, you know!). I really liked how Cottingham thought out of how The Hollowing pandemic and fall out would have worked, from the way information would have spread to how the population would have reacted to how it would have adapted to try and contain it/cure those who were turned into ‘ghouls’. We get sprinkles here and there of outside perspectives beyond our main character flashbacks, and it fills in some of the blanks with a nice blend of genuinely unsettling bits as well as some fun tongue in cheek/cynical moments that would fit right in in a Verhoeven film. Cottingham doesn’t hold back on the gore and body horror elements either, with full on descriptions of gnarly transformations, some cannibalism, and moments so bloody you feel a bit like you’re in a literary splash zone a la “Evil Dead: The Musical”. It really is a blast.

“This Delicious Death” is the perfect horror read for the time of year we are in, with vacations and road trips abound. It makes it all the more perfect given that we are still trying to navigate a pandemic, albeit a potentially waning one, and the messiness that can come with the aftermath. Recommended reading to be sure.

Rating 9: A fun and gory body horror meets girl’s road trip tale, “This Delicious Death” is a must read horror novel for all your summer vacation plans!

Reader’s Advisory:

“This Delicious Death” is included on the Goodreads lists “Queer Horror”, and “Cannibal Books”.

Kate’s Review: “Sisters of the Lost Nation”


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

Book: “Sisters of the Lost Nation” by Nick Medina

Publishing Info: Berkley, April 2023

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

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

Book Description: Anna Horn is always looking over her shoulder. For the bullies who torment her, for the entitled visitors at the reservation’s casino…and for the nameless, disembodied entity that stalks her every step–an ancient tribal myth come-to-life, one that’s intent on devouring her whole.

With strange and sinister happenings occurring around the casino, Anna starts to suspect that not all the horrors on the reservation are old. As girls begin to go missing and the tribe scrambles to find answers, Anna struggles with her place on the rez, desperately searching for the key she’s sure lies in the legends of her tribe’s past.

When Anna’s own little sister also disappears, she’ll do anything to bring Grace home. But the demons plaguing the reservation–both ancient and new–are strong, and sometimes, it’s the stories that never get told that are the most important.

Part gripping thriller and part mythological horror, author Nick Medina spins an incisive and timely novel of life as an outcast, the cost of forgetting tradition, and the courage it takes to become who you were always meant to be.

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

Horror fiction is, for me, a fun way to escape the horrors of the real world whilst also safely exploring emotions of fear and anxiety in a controlled environment. I love getting lost in a horror novel or movie, as it gives me some time away from real life scary shit. But more and more I’ve really come to appreciate horror stories that tackle themes of these real life horrors, especially in times like these where there is so much uncertainty and discord. Give me horror fiction that delves in metaphors for terrible things, especially if it brings awareness to these terrible things. Enter “Sisters of the Lost Nation” by Nick Medina, a new horror novel that involves a young adult Native woman named Anna living on a reservation who works at the local tribal casino. Strange things have been happening at the casino, and while Anna tries to tell herself that it’s nothing, it becomes harder and harder to ignore. Especially when her sister Grace goes missing after being involved with the casino and its shady practices.

I’m actually going to start with the thing that didn’t really work for me as well, just to get it out of the way because it did affect my experience, but not in a way that derailed it. I just think it’s needed context to make my ultimate rating make sense as I’m going to be gushing for the most part. The one aspect that fell a bit flat was the way that the book was structured. There was a lot of time jumping between chapters, in non-linear ways that felt a bit jarring and confusing at times. I did eventually get used to it, and it did eventually settle into a more clear cut timeline, but for awhile I had to keep flipping back on my eReader to remind me where I was in the story arc, and that could be frustrating.

But now onto the good stuff, as there is a lot of it. For one, I really liked the horror elements that Medina creates that come from various Indigenous stories from lots of different groups of Native peoples. The one that stands out the most is a story that has translated into that of a disembodied head that rolls around the (fictional) Takoda Reservation. Protagonist Anna Horn has been terrified of this story as long as she an remember, as her uncle told her the story as a young child and is now a teenager who still lives in fear of it. The weird beats where Anna catches a glimpse of something possibly rolling around, or feels the heat of breath from an unknown source, really creeped me out. But I also liked that her fear and obsession with this story and her belief that it is real also made it so that she was interested in the lore and mythology of her community and people, as it made for a stark contrast to the real life horrors of a casino that may be hiding some really dark secrets and is in some ways turning its back on this history in favor of monetary gain. Anna’s interest in her culture and its stories is a really powerful thread in this tale, and how the power of stories, be they terrifying or not, can play such an important role in a person’s life and their motivations.

And the best aspect of this book for me was how Medina has put such a candid and devastating spotlight on Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women, a terrible epidemic that has reflects the continuing violence, apathy, and racism that Indigenous women face from greater Western society. Anna faces her own sets of victimization and racism at the hands of her peers and those above her at the casino, but she is also realizing that Indigenous women are going off the radar, and being dismissed as either runaways, or merely addicts who are off on the search for a hit. So when her own sister Grace goes missing, and there are few people taking it seriously, it hits close to home, and she begins to notice that there are suspicious things going on at the casino. And that the girls who are disappearing may have ties to the higher ups. I was so deeply invested in where these missing women went, and when it becomes clear that they are quite probably in danger, or being manipulated in other ways, it just makes the story that much more tense and upsetting. Medina sets the tension on edge and really builds it up, and addresses a very real problem against the backdrop of this fictional tribe with very real problems of poverty, corruption, racism, and misogyny. I also really appreciated the author’s note at the end which gives greater context to MMIW, as well as resources he used and information spots for the reader to familiarize themselves with all of it.

“Sisters of the Lost Nation” is a visceral and chilling read. Fans of horror and thrillers need to check it out, but I also think readers of all stripes should do themselves a favor and look into it. It’s wholly unique and talks about very real injustices that need to be paid attention to.

Rating 8: A searing and devastating horror-thriller that not only finds horrors in Indigenous mythology and lore, but also in the all too real Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women epidemic.

Reader’s Advisory:

“Sisters of the Lost Nation” is included on the Goodreads lists “Indigenous Horror, Thriller, etc”, and “Horror To Look Forward To in 2023”.

Kate’s Review: “The Haunting of Alejandra”

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

Book: “The Haunting of Alejandra” by V. Castro

Publishing Info: Del Rey, April 2023

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

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

Book Description: Alejandra no longer knows who she is. To her husband, she is a wife, and to her children, a mother. To her own adoptive mother, she is a daughter. But they cannot see who Alejandra has become: a woman struggling with a darkness that threatens to consume her.

Nor can they see what Alejandra sees. In times of despair, a ghostly vision appears to her, the apparition of a crying woman in a ragged white gown.

When Alejandra visits a therapist, she begins exploring her family’s history, starting with the biological mother she never knew. As she goes deeper into the lives of the women in her family, she learns that heartbreak and tragedy are not the only things she has in common with her ancestors.

Because the crying woman was with them, too. She is La Llorona, the vengeful and murderous mother of Mexican legend. And she will not leave until Alejandra follows her mother, her grandmother, and all the women who came before her into the darkness.

But Alejandra has inherited more than just pain. She has inherited the strength and the courage of her foremothers—and she will have to summon everything they have given her to banish La Llorona forever.

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

I have had a serious, serious fascination with the La Llorona folk tale ever since I stumbled upon it in an American folklore book in elementary school. The idea of a ghostly woman who drowned her children, and now wanders the river banks of the Earth looking for her children, weeping loudly along the way, scared the absolute crap out of me (especially since as a child I lived within walking distance of the Mississippi River). When V. Castro, a Latina horror author who has taken Mexican folklore and written some fantastic horror fiction, said she was writing a La Llorona story, it became one of my most anticipated reads of 2023. I had really high hopes for this book. And man oh man did it deliver.

I am SO excited that V. Castro decided to take on the La Llorona story because of my childhood obsession with it, and given that she’s a fantastic horror writer with a voice that is so unapologetically Chicana it is just the perfect fit. And the way that she applies it to this story to fit real world horrors is just fantastic. It’s told mostly through the perspective of spiraling mother Alejandra, who has started seeing visions of a woman in white during especially trying moments. But then there are the ways that we trace back through the generations of Alejandra’s familial line, and how this presence has been there to torment many of the women through the generations, and whose lives were impacted or destroyed, the trauma passing down and down. Whether it’s an Indigenous woman who is making a dark bargain with this entity to escape her Spanish abuser, or Alejandra’s biological mother who gave her up after becoming pregnant as a teenager (and thought she was doing the right thing, BUT Alejandra was left with a very cold and controlling Evangelical family’s care, that’s a whole other layer to this story that I really thought was well done), or her grandmother with few choices in a marriage with too many children and a philandering husband, the presence of ‘La Llorona’, or whatever it is, serves as the perfect metaphor for the horrors of marginalized women with very few options. I loved seeing all of these women and their stories, and seeing Alejandra be pushed to perhaps try and stop that cycle and to fight against this entity is really, really empowering.

But I also found a lot of the horrors of motherhood aspects of this story pretty relatable. Caveat, I am no means in the same position as Alejandra is, as she is in a loveless marriage with a controlling boob who pressured her into more children than she wanted and discouraged her from working outside the home, while I have a really great romantic and parenting partner and we are one and done with our hilarious but spirited three year old. But all that said, there were so many spot on moments that Castro put in this book, whether it’s the frazzled rush of having to go go go with meandering children in tow, or having to be in charge of schedules and chores and doctor’s appointments and more, or feeling like you really don’t get a break while having to sacrifice so much, and then feeling guilty for feeling like you deserve more. While the supernatural demon/La Llorona bits and the suspense surrounding Alejandra and her women ancestors were super effective and scary, I was more set on edge by the way that Alejandra was being pushed closer and closer to breaking, and what that would mean for her and her children. Because THAT is something that does happen in real life, and the consequences of that can be deadly and devastating. This is just as much a horror story about postpartum depression and psychosis as it is generational trauma, and it is SO well done.

“The Haunting of Alejandra” is harrowing and evocative and everything I could have wanted from a La Llorona story. V. Castro continues to thrill and amaze me, and I am so excited to see how she tops herself next time, as I feel like she is always exceeding my expectations.

Rating 9: A deeply unnerving and scary examination of generational trauma and the unspoken pressures of motherhood, “The Haunting of Alejandra” is another fantastic horror tale by V. Castro.

Reader’s Advisory:

“The Haunting of Alejandra” is included on the Goodreads “Latinx Horror/Fantasy”, and “The Female Malaise: She’s Sad, Mad, and Bad”.

Kate’s Review (and Giveaway!): “The Twisted Dead”

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

Book: “The Twisted Dead (Gravekeeper #3)” by Darcy Coates

Publishing Info: Poisoned Pen Press, February 2023

Where Did I Get This Book: I received a paperback copy from the publisher.

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

Book Description: Keira is ready for her life to return to normal. Though, to be fair, normal is a tall ask when your ability to see ghosts has landed you the job of groundskeeper in a small town’s cemetery.

When Keira receives an invitation to dinner at Dane Crispin’s crumbling ancestral estate, she knows she can’t refuse. The last living descendant of the Crispin family is reclusive. Keira only met him once…on the night he tried to kill her.

The mansion is steeped in history that is equal parts complicated and bloody. Keira senses the presence of restless spirits the moment she steps through its door. And Dane, waiting for her inside, wants to ask for her help.

Review: Thank you to Poisoned Pen Press for sending me a copy of this novel!

We have come to the final entry in my reviews of Darcy Coates’s “Gravekeeper” Series! The most recent book, “The Twisted Dead”, is the third in what I hope is a long running series, and I was very eager to see where Coates was going to take ghost whisperer Keira and her sidekicks Mason, Zoe, and cat Daisy next. I feel like horror is a genre that doesn’t tend to have long running series as much as say romances or mysteries, so I’m quite pleased that we get to spend more time with this merry band of misfits. And “The Twisted Dead” is my favorite adventure yet!

Coates really knows how to balance out the more jovial and lighthearted tone of this series with genuinely creepy supernatural and ghostly moments and mythologies. We have picked up very close to where we left off with “The Ravenous Dead”, Keira having recently freed a shade (or malevolent and rage filled spirit) that had been tormenting the other ghosts in the cemetery, and now she has been invited to the home of Dane Crispin, local wealthy hermit who may or may not have tried to kill Keira, Mason, and Zoe. But instead of revenge or vendettas, Dane is instead needing her help, as he is being tormented by his own ghostly problem. And that is where we get into a new kind of spectral foe: parasitic ghosts that haunt people, not places. I love that Keira is finding new kinds of ghosts and the challenges that their differences present, and there are definitely descriptions and beats here that show how Coates, while doing a bit of a horror lite cozy ghost story with this series, knows how to conjure up some straight up nightmare fuel. And along with the not so friendly spirits, we still get to see the kinder and gentler spirits that Keira sees while in the cemetery, a few of them giving me moments of pure joy as I was reading (and also a moment or two of tears).

And the characters are still very engaging and interesting, and have really grown into their own and beyond their baseline impressions. I still really like Keira and her drive to help ghosts and those that are affected by them, and I like that we are starting to see more insight into the life that she cannot remember. Coates has introduced the mysterious corporation Artec, the group that Keira has been hiding from though she has no memories as to why, and I love that we get a little bit of corporate conspiracy and corruption on top of the supernatural themes. We still don’t REALLY know what the full endgame is for Artec and Keira’s full connection, but Coates has drawn out the suspense without falling into any frustrating traps of milking it too much. We also get to learn more about Mason’s past, and get to go a bit more into his secretive reasons for leaving medical school and coming back to Blighty. And then there’s Zoe, who has gone from making me a little nervous with her conspiracy peddling to being pretty darn endearing and fun without getting into ludicrous ‘quirky girl’ territory. Coates knows how to keep these characters fresh and keeps exploring their potential, and I really like their dynamic.

“The Twisted Dead” is the strongest entry in the “Gravekeeper” Series thus far. And now I am at the point where I have to wait to see what happens next. I can hardly wait.

And now the most exciting part! I’m giving away all three of the “Gravekeeper” Series books I’ve read and reviewed! So you can win not only “The Twisted Dead”, but also “The Whispering Dead” and “The Ravenous Dead”! The giveaway is open to U.S. residents only, and runs through April 19th, 2023

Enter Here To Win!

Rating 8: With lots of things coming to light and a group of characters who are fully realized and comfortable in their characterizations, “The Twisted Dead” is the strongest “Gravekeeper” book yet!

Reader’s Advisory:

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

Previously Reviewed:

Kate’s Review: “American Vampire: Vol. 7”

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

Book: “American Vampire: Vol. 7” by Scott Snyder, Rafael Albuquerque (Ill.), & Matías Bergara (Ill.)

Publishing Info: Vertigo, January 2015

Where Did I Get This Book: I own it.

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

Book Description: Writer Scott Snyder (Batman, Swamp Thing) and artist Rafael Albuquerque bring together even more threads to the complex tapestry that is the world of American Vampire.

When we meet Pearl again, it is in 1960’s Kansas, an era fraught with fear of nuclear war, angry demonstrations and vast social change. But what has changed in the years since the V.M.S. attack? And where is Skinner Sweet?

Review: So we are now at the last volume of “American Vampire” that I read until I just kind of let it fall by the wayside. And as I was reading through it, I think I realized that I may not have actually finished “American Vampire: Volume 7” on my first read through, as I did not remember a lot of what I was reading beyond the first section. And I don’t really know why I didn’t keep going with it, because as I was reading this, I found myself really, really enjoying where the story was going. The new beginning was engaging, the stakes were raised, and what I thought was impossible actually came to pass: I. Actually. Liked. Skinner. Sweet.

I, too, was shocked. (source)

We have shifted into a new phase of “American Vampire”, and have entered the ending arc as well, and we start out very strong. It’s now the 1960s in America, about tenish-years after the Vassals of the Morning Star was dealt a big blow by Carpathians, after Pearl’s husband Henry’s death, and after Skinner disappeared after his betrayal. Pearl has returned to her family home in Kansas, and has started taking in runaway vampire children who are hiding from Carpathian vampires, and finds new, hidden homes for them with other vampires in hiding. She’s still connected with Cal, who is still working with VMS, and after getting hints of a man called The Gray Trader, they decide to look into what he is, and how it connects to the vampires. Meanwhile, Skinner has been making moves on the Mexican Border, but he, too, runs afoul something disturbing, so much so that he seeks out Pearl. So we have a new mystery, we have new trajectories for our favorite characters, and we have a new backdrop of the 1960s that was an incredibly restless and fraught era of change, violence, and social upheaval. Once again Snyder has managed to meld themes of America with his vampire mythology, and I was so here for it.

Pearl is still such a wonderful main character. Her grief for Henry still lingers, but she has persevered and has become a beacon of hope for vampire children, fighting off hostile neighbors and making a network of safety, and her reluctance to go back to the VMS is completely understandable. I like that she’s still close with Cal, and I love how she has been able to bring her warmth to the vampire children whilst also being VERY badass when the moment calls for it. And I think that it’s ultimately Pearl that makes Skinner Sweet work for me. It’s undeniable that they have some pretty heady chemistry, which I am always going to enjoy, but what’s interesting about Skinner is that he really does have an affection for Pearl that does seem to go beyond her resemblance to his old ladyfriend. It’s a bit cliché for the bad boy to be tamed by the love of a good woman, and by no means is Skinner redeemed in any way shape or form, but I do like seeing him recognize the help that Pearl can provide, and that he is actually being VULNERABLE and FALLIBLE and not just falling into old bullshit backstabbing that he has ALWAYS done up until now. We also leave him in an interesting state at the end here which raises a lot of questions about where his story is going to end.

And the new vampire lore is pretty interesting. We get some good body horror bits in this volume, some of which was pretty freaking squirm inducing for me and my various phobias/content I can’t handle too well hang ups. I’m not going to go into too much detail, but it’s an even bigger threat than the characters have dealt with, and it’s very imposing and, while a little ridiculous in some ways, is a fresh new villain for the final arc of this series that has gone to so many crazy places. There is a fair amount of set up to be done here, but it’s done quickly and by the end of the volume there’s a solid jumping off point to go forward from. I am a little nervous about the fact we only have two volumes left after this to wrap it all up. Where are Felicia and Gus? What about the reveal of James Book being a vampire hidden away from the world? Will all of this be wrapped up well on top of the new Gray Trader storyline? I guess we’ll have to see. I’m optimistic as of now.

“American Vampire: Vol. 7” is a good start to the end of a sometimes messy but always entertaining series. I regret not finishing it up on the initial run, but now I just have something to look forward to, I guess! Let’s see where Pearl and Skinner go next.

Rating 8: An enjoyable start to a new and final cycle of vampire lore in the heart of American history, “American Vampire: Vol. 7” jumps into the fraught times of the 1960s and shows how fraught its protagonists are.

Reader’s Advisory:

“American Vampire: Vol. 7” is included on the Goodreads list “Vertigo Titles” Must Read Comics A-E”.

Previously Reviewed:

Kate’s Review: “The Ravenous Dead”

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

Book: “The Ravenous Dead (Gravekeeper #2)” by Darcy Coates

Publishing Info: Poisoned Pen Press, March 2022

Where Did I Get This Book: I received a print copy of this book from the publisher.

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

Book Description: He’ll never let go…

Keira, hired as Blighty Graveyard’s new groundskeeper, lives surrounded by the dead. They watch her through the fog. They wordlessly cry out. They’ve been desperately waiting for help moving on—and only Keira can hear them. But not every restless spirit wants to be saved.

Sometimes the dead hate the living too much to find peace.

As Keira struggles to uncover the tangled histories of some of the graveyard’s oldest denizens, danger seeps from the darkest edges of the forest. A vicious serial killer was interred among the trees decades before, his spirit twisted by his violent nature. He’s furious. Ravenous. And when Keira unwittingly answers his call, she may just seal her fate as his final intended victim.

Review: Thank you to Poisoned Pen Press for sending me a print copy of this book!

Another week, another “Gravekeeper” book! While I do love the really scary stuff that Darcy Coates has concocted in the past, it’s also kind of nice to have a comparatively lighter horror story to tackle. The second book in the series, “The Ravenous Dead”, ended up being a pretty fun beach read for me on my vacation at the beginning of March, as while it’s eerie and admittedly scarier than “The Whispering Dead”, it’s also light hearted enough that it just fit in with the relaxation I was going for.

“The Ravenous Dead” is the second book into the “Gravekeeper” series, and we pretty much jump right back in where we left off. Keira is still living in the groundskeeper cottage at the Blighty cemetery, still able to see the lingering ghosts in the graveyard that she can potentially help cross over, and still doesn’t remember much of her past before waking up here. She’s still chummy with Zoe and Mason, and is trying to help ghosts, maintain friendships, and stay under the radar lest the mysterious group chasing her previously pops back up. I find it awesome that Coates can write some pretty zippy and humorous dark fantasy as well as the horror that she is so good at, and “The Ravenous Dead”, while having darker horror bits, is still very accessible and, dare I say, cozy. I love that Coates does this as easily as she does her very scary stuff.

But, cozy or not, I also liked that this one was a bit darker than “The Whispering Dead”. I totally get that the first book in a series has a lot of groundwork to lay, and I also understand that the Gravekeeper books are a bit more on the dark fantasy and light hearted side. And that works just fine overall. But I was pretty pumped when Keira first encountered the ‘shade’, aka the spirit of the potential serial killer that is not only still fully invested in causing death and destruction, it can also attack and ‘kill’ ghosts that are in the cemetery. It reminded me a bit of the Peter Jackson horror film “The Frighteners”, and it upped the ante for stakes in this book as Keira not only has to worry about a mysterious group coming after her, she now has to worry about being hurt or killed by one of the things that she is sticking around Blighty to help. It also made her inner conflicts about confiding in Mason and Zoe about her ghostly abilities all the more pressing, as she doesn’t want to put them in danger, but could really use their support. It just made the horror elements all the darker, and given that when Coates REALLY goes to town on the horror like in some of her other books, it’s VERY satisfying for the reader. So it was nice seeing shades of that in this one.

And the cast of characters and overall setting is still pretty fun. I’m warming up to conspiracy theorist Zoe, I still like Mason’s earnest personality (and I like that while there is kind of something going on between him and Keira, it isn’t obsessed over), and I still like Keira’s spunky and sometimes exasperated attitude. And there are also more fun interactions with the townsfolk of Blighty, like perky florist Polly and her morose goth son, or kindly pastor Adage who is still letting Keira stay in the groundskeeper cottage. Coates just knows how to make Blighty seem like a quirky little community that has a lot of charm to go around.

“The Ravenous Dead” was a fun follow up to the first book in the series, and next week I am moving onto the most recent “Gravekeeper” book “The Twisted Dead”. And on top of that, I’m going to run a giveaway of all three “Gravekeeper” books, so definitely check back in soon! Darcy Coates is still keeping me entertained and intrigued, and I can’t wait to see where Keira goes next!

Rating 8: A well done and darker sequel that explores more of the downsides of being able to see ghosts, “The Ravenous Dead” keeps with the quippy atmosphere while still finding grim scares.

Reader’s Advisory:

“The Ravenous Dead” is included on the Goodreads lists “Psychic/Paranormal”, and “2022 Horror Novels Written by Women and Non-Binary Femmes”.

Previously Reviewed:

Kate’s Review: “Linghun”

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

Book: “Linghun” by Ai Jiang

Publishing Info: Dark Matter INK, April 2023

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

Where You Can Get This Book: Amazon | Dark Matter INK

Book Description: WELCOME HOME.

Follow Wenqi, Liam, and Mrs. in this modern gothic ghost story by Chinese-Canadian writer and immigrant, Ai Jiang. LINGHUN is set in the mysterious town of HOME, a place where the dead live again as spirits, conjured by the grief-sick population that refuses to let go.

Review: Thank you to Ai Jiang for sending me an eARC of this novella!

I had been seeing “Linghun” on my social media feeds on and off before it ended up in my inbox, and there was a lot about it that caught my eye. The cover design was one aspect, as was the promise of a Gothic horror story. But it wasn’t until I really dug into the first few pages that I realized that “Linghun” was not only going to be a creepy Gothic horror story, but also a very emotional exploration of grief. I love a story like that, but I also have to steel myself for a story like that. And boy oh boy was it not pulling any punches. I love a ghost story that can take on deeper layers, and this one is less about the ghosts and more about the people who are aching to see those ghosts again.

Man did this one really get to me. It’s not a particularly long book, definitely novella status not even clocking it at one hundred pages, but in those pages Jiang has crafted such a bleak, disturbing, and haunting tale about how grief can drive people to completely upend their lives if there is just ONE chance of getting to reconnect with a dead loved one. This is mostly through the eyes of Wenqi, a Chinese Canadian teenage girl whose family left China after the death of her older brother when he was six and she was three. Her mother, so consumed by her grief, convinces her family to move to HOME, a weird small town where people’s dead loved ones can manifest in one of the much sought out houses (so sought out that other people, called lingerers, camp out in hopes of securing an open home). Wenqi never knew her brother, but at the same time he is all she’s known because her mother has been so unable to process her grief and move on, that Wenqi is just an afterthought. Watching Wenqi have to become even more and more of an afterthought as her brother’s presence appears, and her mother is only interested in trying to keep his presence around, is heartbreaking for Wenqi, and very, very distressing to watch unfold as her mother becomes more and more obsessive and overcome.

And then on the flip side is Liam, a teenage boy in Wenqi’s neighborhood whose family has been a group of lingerers, desperate to get a house in HOME and who have stopped their lives and have resorted to camping out and hoping for a stroke of luck. Liam and Wenqi have similar frustrations of being the ones emotionally left behind while their parents are in deep grief, but it’s interesting seeing Liam on the other side of the coin, as his family is desperate to even have the opportunity, when it is not even a guarantee that they will have success. It was the portrayals of the lingerers that really messed with my head, as Jiang has one scene in particular that shows the lengths that the lingerers will go to try and have the chance to see those they loved again, even when it has all but ruined their lives and the lives of those that they brought with them. BUT AT THE SAME TIME, part of me wonders what I would do should I lose someone I love so fiercely and maybe have that opportunity. How far would I go? It’s a path I don’t want to think about too much. Which means it is SO PERFECT for a horror story.

“Linghun” is an effective and very eerie novella that is up there with other meditations on grief with a horror backdrop. If that kind of not so cheerful premise is your jam, this is a story you definitely need to check out.

Rating 8: A strange and melancholy story about grief and loss and how it can cling to a person until obsession has taken over.

Reader’s Advisory:

“Linghun” isn’t included on any Goodreads lists yet, but I think that similar horror stories about grief like “Pet Sematary”, “Ghost Eaters”, and “Horns” would be good fits.

Kate’s Review: “The Whispering Dead”

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

Book: “The Whispering Dead (Gravekeeper #1)” by Darcy Coates

Publishing Info: Poisoned Pen Press, May 2021

Where Did I Get This Book: I received a paperback copy from the publisher.

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

Book Description: Homeless, hunted, and desperate to escape a bitter storm, Keira takes refuge in an abandoned groundskeeper’s cottage. Her new home is tucked away at the edge of a cemetery, surrounded on all sides by gravestones: some recent, some hundreds of years old, all suffering from neglect.

And in the darkness, she can hear the unquiet dead whispering.

The cemetery is alive with faint, spectral shapes, led by a woman who died before her time… and Keira, the only person who can see her, has become her new target. Determined to help put the ghost to rest, Keira digs into the spirit’s past life with the help of unlikely new friends, and discovers a history of deception, ill-fated love, and murder.

But the past is not as simple as it seems, and Keira’s time is running out. Tangled in a dangerous web, she has to find a way to free the spirit… even if it means offering her own life in return.

Review: Thank you to Poisoned Pen Press for sending me a copy of this novel!

Up until this point I had read two Darcy Coates novels, both of which were SUPER scary and unrelenting in their horror themes. So when Poisoned Pen Press approached me asking if I was interested in reading more of her work, I leaped at the chance to do so. So for the next few weeks I am going to read and review her “Gravekeeper” Series, which involve a young woman named Keira, who wakes up in a strange cemetery with no memory of who she is, and realizes that she can see ghosts. The first in the series is “The Whispering Dead”, and while I thought I knew what to expect from Coates, it caught me off guard with a difference in tone and imagery. And this is overall a good thing.

Being the first in the series, “The Whispering Dead” has to set the stage, and I thought that it did, for the most part. I did enjoy the ghostly heart of the story, as well as the mystery of why Keira is seeing the ghost of a forlorn woman that wanders the cemetery grounds she is now calling home, AND the mystery of who she is given her lack of memories before waking up in said cemetery. I’m so used to Coates having really scary moments in her books, so the more dark fantasy vibe of this one was a surprise, though it was definitely a welcome one. While there are certainly creepy and spooky moments, be it ghosts wandering a cemetery and looking through windows, or building suspense in seemingly abandoned buildings and landscapes, Coates has some horror-esque elements that are pretty accessible to not just die hard horror fans, but also those who may like ghost stories but perhaps not the really scary stuff that can come with it. I was pretty invested in the reasons as to why Keira can see ghosts, and why there is a specific ghost that keeps popping up and how that ties to the town’s history. I am also interested in just what the deal is with Keira’s memory loss, and who she was before she suddenly woke up with no recollections of who she is. This book lays a lot of groundwork, and my guess is that it’s going to be a multi-book arc.

And I also mostly liked the characters at hand. I’ve seen this series compared to the “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” Scooby Gang as well as other horror/dark fantasy friend groups, and I think it’s pretty accurate. Keira is a good leader/protagonist, and I also like seeing her growing friendships with med student Mason (who may also be a romantic interest? I’m on board!), and with Pastor Adage, who has let her take up residence in the abandoned cemetery groundskeeper cottage. There is also weirdo Goth girl Zoe, who I am warming up to for the most part, but the problem is that she is VERY much a conspiracy theorist and while I know it’s supposed to be kooky and charming, these days conspiracy theorists generally leave a bad taste in my mouth due to the Q stuff and a lot of the racist and anti-Semitic building blocks that create a lot of conspiracies. I don’t think Zoe is that at all! But it just feels a bit uncomfortable. OH, and there is also a cat named Daisy, and we all know how much I love a feline companion. Overall it’s a well rounded cast that complements the tone of the story, and I think it’s charming.

I will be going forth in the series, with “The Ravenous Dead” up next week. I am eager to see what more Keira finds out about her mysterious past, and what ghosts are in store for her visions and second sight. “The Whispering Dead” is a good start to a series I look forward to continuing!

Rating 7: A spooky set up to a series with a quirky cast of characters, “The Whispering Dead” is some horror lite and perfect for people who want to explore Darcy Coates without being scared out of their minds!

Reader’s Advisory:

“The Whispering Dead” is included on the Goodreads lists “2021 Horror Novels Written by Women and Non-Binary Femmes”, and “Bring On the Creepy!”.