Tag: horror

Serena’s Review: “Dead Water”

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Book: “Dead Water” by C.A. Fletcher

Publishing Info: Redhook, July 2022

Where Did I Get this Book: Edelweiss+

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

Book Description: There’s something in the water… On the edge of the Northern Atlantic lies a remote island. The islanders are an outwardly harmonious community—but all have their own secrets, some much darker than others. And when a strange disorder begins to infect them all, those secrets come to light. Ferry service fails and contact with the mainland is lost. Rumors begin to swirl as a temporary inconvenience grows into nightmarish ordeal. The fabric of the once tight-knit island is unnervingly torn apart—and whatever the cause, the question soon stops being how or why it happened, but who, if anyone, will survive.

Review: I’m pretty much treading on Kate’s toes at this point, since this book clearly fits within the horror genre. But to be fair to myself, it’s from an author I’ve read and enjoyed in the past (seriously, “A Boy and His Dog at the End of the World” is fantastic!), so I was just following my own reading track record to read this latest release. It’s also worth noting that this is the second time in about a month where I’ve read a horror book that not only features zombie rabbits but has them on the cover. Trends are weird, man. Anyways, on to the review!

On a small island, accessible only by ferry once a day, there is no escaping one another. For better or worse, everyone knows everyone, and secrets and gossip have a way of coming to the surface. But when a strange malady begins affecting the people of the island, the true inescapabilty of the place hits home. Without knowing the cause of the curse, an ancient thing half lost to memory, who will survive the night of horror ahead?

I’m going to go out on a limb right now and guess that this book will be a bit polarizing to readers. And I think that all comes down to the pacing and stylistic decisions the author makes early in the book. It’s a slow (sloooooow) start to the story, and we are introduced to a large number of POVs in quick succession. For me, because I enjoyed Fletcher’s first book so much and knew that that one had a large payoff at the end for the groundwork laid early on, I had enough faith that this was all going to go somewhere eventually to happily read on. But I imagine for some readers it may be feel like quite a slog. The horror/fantastical aspects of the story really don’t start showing up until almost halfway through the story.

I think this slow build and the sheer number of characters actually worked really well in the end, if you can get there. For one thing, by having this number of characters, you really get a sense for the feeling of the island, where everyone knows everyone, and their lives weave in and out of one another’s in interesting ways. It also created a situation that gives the reader an increased investment in the outcome of the horror that begins to unfold. These are people with hopes, dreams, flaws, and strengths, not simply NPCs dropping like flies with no thought in the world. It was also clever that your opinions of some of the characters changed as the story continued, so those who you thought were easy-fodder-baddies become more interesting in their own right.

There was also an interesting history and myth that slowly unfolds between chapters of the book. Not only did I find this smaller story interesting in its own right, but there was a surprising twist that came into play in the last fourth of the book that really pulled this story into the present situation in a unique way.

There was also a great exploration of grief and family that winds its way throughout the story. We see how much family is a choice that one makes, regardless of blood connections. That families can support each other but also uniquely break one another. One of the main (ish) characters is also struggling with the recent loss of a spouse, and we see her having to confront some of the darker sides of grief. There’s also an interesting touch on faith and belief that comes into play as the story unspools.

In the end, I think the payoff of the last half of the book is well worth the slow start of the story. By the time the horror starts to tack up, you really care about the characters who are in the path of this violence. And woven throughout is a heart-warming story of coming to understand both the tragic but also the bright sides of love and family. If you enjoy slower, immersive reads with a nice touch of horror and fantasy, than this is definitely one to check out!

Rating 8: A slow start ultimately pays off in a creeping, dread-filled story that also explores beautiful themes of family and the power of love.

Reader’s Advisory:

“Dead Water” isn’t on any Goodreads lists yet but it should be on Aquatic Horror Books.

Kate’s Review: “Just Like Home”

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Book: “Just Like Home” by Sarah Gailey

Publishing Info: Tor Books, July 2022

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

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

Book Description: “Come home.” Vera’s mother called and Vera obeyed. In spite of their long estrangement, in spite of the memories — she’s come back to the home of a serial killer. Back to face the love she had for her father and the bodies he buried there.

Coming home is hard enough for Vera, and to make things worse, she and her mother aren’t alone. A parasitic artist has moved into the guest house out back, and is slowly stripping Vera’s childhood for spare parts. He insists that he isn’t the one leaving notes around the house in her father’s handwriting… but who else could it possibly be? There are secrets yet undiscovered in the foundations of the notorious Crowder House. Vera must face them, and find out for herself just how deep the rot goes.

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

I’ve heard the name pop up now and then, but I am pretty certain that until I picked up “Just Like Home”, I hadn’t read anything by Sarah Gailey. I’ve been tempted by a couple of their titles like “The Echo Wife”, but I just haven’t made the leap in spite of the fact that they have some buzz around them. But when I read about this newest book, a horror novel involving a woman who is returning to her childhood home, which also happens to be the site that her father committed numerous murders, I decided that it was time to finally jump in. And, to my slight dismay, as I was reading, I wasn’t really getting into it in the way that the description implied I would.

But I will start with the good, as per usual. I will say that Gailey has a very clear vision as to how they want to portray the very real complexities of loving someone who is, without a doubt, a fucking monster. Vera’s childhood relationship with her father, who turned out to be a serial killer who was torturing men in the family home’s basement, is one that was very fulfilling for her as a child. He clearly loved her very much, always made her feel special, and knew exactly how to prop her up when she was down. We know that Vera’s father is a psychopath, and we see the brutal descriptions of his work, as it were. But we also completely understand how Vera has a hard time reconciling that truth with the other seeming truth of how much he loved her. It’s something that always feels sticky, when loved ones of horrible people who cause damage and pain and violence upon others have a hard time unpacking their experience from that reality, and I thought that that aspect of Vera felt pretty spot on, as well as the ways that she has been warped because of it. And yes, there are plenty of really upsetting and unsettling moments not only because of this stark relationship exploration, but also in terms of the horror elements themselves. It’s a VERY weird and unnerving book, and it goes in directions I wasn’t expecting, and a lot of it reminded me of the movie “Frailty”, which is ANOTHER weird and unnerving story.

But that’s the flip side, in a way: it almost got to be too weird. I can’t even really tell you why, exactly, the rest of this story didn’t connect with me, but it just goes to places that I didn’t enjoy as much as I was hoping I would. We take a VERY sharp turn late in the game in terms of reveals and twists, and it just threw me more than anything else. I have to be careful in how I talk about this, as my biggest issue would be considered a pretty big spoiler, but what I will say is this: I understand the symbolism and metaphor that Gailey was going for here, and I think that it could have been achieved if approached a different way. But as it was, it felt like the metaphor got a bit OVERextended, and got to a place that felt clunky and strange and really threw off the rest of the book for me. This very well may just be me, so I encourage people who are interested to give it a go. But it just didn’t land in the way that I had hoped that it would.

This was a solidly mixed bag for me. I think I would give Sarah Gailey another shot (honestly, bring on “The Echo Wife”), but “Just Like Home” wasn’t the home run I was anticipating. But if you like weirdness, as so many people do, definitely give it a go.

Rating 6: Some good creepiness and some interesting moments about loving someone who is a monster, but the weirdness got a little too weird for me.

Reader’s Advisory:

“Just Like Home” is included on the Goodreads lists “Queer Horror”, and “2022 Horror Written by Women and Non-Binary Femmes”.

Kate’s Review: “American Vampire (Vol. 1)”

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Book: “American Vampire (Vol. 1)” by Scott Snyder, Stephen King, & Rafael Albuquerque (Ill.)

Publishing Info: Vertigo, 2010

Where Did I Get This Book: I own it.

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

Book Description: From writers Scott Snyder and Stephen King, American Vampire introduces a new strain of vampire – a more vicious species – and traces the creatures’ bloodline through decades of American history.

Snyder’s tale follows Pearl, a young woman living in 1920s Los Angeles, who is brutally turned into a vampire and sets out on a path of righteous revenge against the European monsters who tortured and abused her. And in King’s story set in the days of America’s Wild West, readers learn the origin of Skinner Sweet, the original American vampire – a stronger, faster creature than any vampire ever seen before.

Don’t miss out as Snyder and King set fire to the horror genre with this visionary, all-original take on one of the most popular monster stories! This beautiful collection features a new introduction by Stephen King and bonus art including character sketches, variant covers and more!

Review: Here we are again, about to embark on a re-read of a graphic novel series that I loved in the past and want to revisit in the present. Well, sort of. You see, I read the majority of “American Vampire”, Scott Snyder’s horror comic that follows American vampires through the decades as America changes and evolves. I own almost the entire series. But then for some reason I just kind of stopped reading it, and I honestly don’t really remember why (I have theories, but to address them here would be spoiler-y). So I decided that for my next re-read (potentially final…) of a series I would go back to a horror series I greatly enjoyed. And as a bonus, guess who wrote part of the first volume? Good ol’ Uncle Steve. If Stephen King is involved, I’m always game, and always have been.

We have to differing storylines that do merge together in a way in Volume 1. The first is of Pearl, a 1920s movie extra who loves being in the silent films, as she and her roommate Hattie try to make it big in Hollywood. But when Pearl is invited to a Hollywood executive’s party, what she thinks is a big break turns out to be a trap; the high powered executives are vampires, and they attack her and leave her for dead in the desert. She is rushed to a hospital, but dies.. Until a mysterious man brings her back to life, and she vows revenge on those who killed her. The other story (and the one King wrote) is about said mysterious man, Skinner Sweet, a ruthless desperado from the 1800s, who is turned into a vampire, and realizes that somehow he’s a new breed, one that has distinct advantages over the European ilk, and he goes on a massacre while a man named Book hopes to hunt him down and stop him once and for all. Both stories have a distinctly American feel to them, be it the glowing lights of Hollywood and it’s broken promises, or the dangerous and lawless expansion out West, and Snyder and King find ways to not only have some great arcs that set up an entire series, but ones that can stand on their own as well (especially King, as this is his only contribution to the series, and it’s SO him in characterization and storytelling). It’s the interesting Western theme and the femme fatale theme that are so compelling to the story, and they easily fit together as Pearl beings her journey, and Sweet continues his. I also really appreciated the idea of the ‘American’ vampire type being more violent and opportunistic and guns-a-blazing than the European type. If that isn’t an apt metaphor I don’t know what is.

I definitely prefer the Pearl storyline, as Pearl is such a great character from the jump. She is ambitious but not cutthroat, tough but fair, and the fantastic metaphor of a predatory movie studio being turned into vampire nest works on every level. Once Pearl realizes her new state and new powers, she isn’t hesitant to seek revenge on those who killed her, but at the same time she is struggling with her new condition, especially because of those she loves, specifically her roommate and best friend Hattie, and her would be lover Henry. The relationship with Henry is especially compelling, as Henry is a supportive and caring man who just worships the ground Pearl walks on. Snyder writes him in a way that makes him so likable, never making his love and devotion to her in doubt, nor making it some kind of weakness. Pearl can absolutely stand on her own, especially after she becomes a vampire, but it’s also completely okay for her to want companionship and support and it never feels like it’s holding her back. I loved Pearl the first time, and I loved her again this time.

Skinner is another story, however. It’s interesting, because I thought that perhaps going back into it ten years later with an evolved reading taste would change my thoughts, but nope, I still find Skinner to be the worst, and not really in a fun way. King doesn’t really write him as anything but a disgusting villain, which is good, as the focus of the hero arc is more on his enemy James Book, who was hunting him down in life and now hunts him down post vampirism. There are lots of “Dracula”-esque moments as a group of humans uses their wits and knowledge to track down a vampire, and once again I was more rooting for them to take out Skinner (even though we know it doesn’t work, given Skinner’s connection to Pearl). I do like how King sets up an entire line and arc for how Skinner is going to be functioning and hounded in the years to come, as generations have reason to go after him (Book’s partner has a daughter named Abi who has her own reasons to want Skinner dead as time goes on. I will say that the relationship between her and Book is weird and a little gross, but it has to happen for something ELSE to happen, so…. whatever). Long story short, the Skinner Sweet storylines we see are only as interesting as his foils, and my guess is that King intended for that to be case.

And finally, the artwork is still some of my favorite artwork in comics to date. Rafael Albuquerque can do both really charming kind of down to Earth designs, while also tapping into some really horrific imagery.

Source: Vertigo

I’m really excited about this re-read of “American Vampire”, as I’m already having a blast. Join me, won’t you, as we follow Pearl and Skinner through the years of this very young and very flawed nation. What will these two very different vampires get up to?

Rating 8: A great start to a vampire story that feels incredibly American, for better and for worse.

Reader’s Advisory:

“American Vampire (Vol. 1)” is included on the Goodreads lists “Comics + Graphic Novels To Read For Halloween”, and “Best Adult Vampire Books”.

Kate’s Review: “The Last Comic Book on the Left (Vol.1)”

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Book: “The Last Comic Book on the Left (Vol. 1)” by Ben Kissel, Marcus Parks, & Henry Zebrowski (Eds.)

Publishing Info: Z2 Comics, June 2022

Where Did I Get This Book: I own it.

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

Book Description: RISE FROM YOUR GRAVES
Not a joke, not a gag like a necromancer The Last Podcast on The Left is reviving the tradition of the humor comic magazine except this time as a series of graphic novels. Inside you will see stories edited and curated by your Last Podcast Hosts made to entrance the eyes and titillate the senses. SEE: Detective Popcorn solve the meaning of LIFE! WITNESS: The descendent of Albert Fish! GET AROUSED BY: Very Sexy Mothman! A mix of Comedy and Horror created by some of the best comic writers ,artists, warlocks in this dimension.

Once read The Last Comic on The Left will change your life maybe for the better.

DISCLAIMER: The Last Comic on The Left has not been funded by an underground satanic cult. All Cryptid portrayals have come with the explicit permission of The Mothman, Sasquatch and Jersey Devil estates. By buying, reading or even looking at this book you are consigning your soul, spirit or any eternal animating entity to the creators of this book which again is not funded by a satanic cult . 

Review: It’s been a few years, but I am still wholeheartedly into the podcast “The Last Podcast on the Left”. While other podcasts have fallen to the wayside, partially due to not driving as much, partially due to other factors, this one is still a must listen for me, and I will support Ben Kissel, Marcus Parks, and Henry Zebrowski in as many creative endeavors as I can. So of course I was going to pick up “The Last Comic Book on the Left”, the new graphic novel horror anthology inspired by the show, and designed by a number of writers and artists working in today’s comics industry. I preordered it and it took awhile after some delays, but when it did arrive, I dove in.

This is a collection that has a lot of entries, from short stories to ongoing tales to odd artwork that sends up pin ups and ads from old comic anthologies from back in the day. You can tell that all of the contributors have a clear vision that they are putting forth, and it’s a mish mash of varying successes. I actually enjoyed it quite a bit, haphazard as it was. There were a few stand outs for me. My favorite things were the pin up artworks of various cryptids, from the Jersey Devil to Mothman to Sasquatch, designed in ways that make them out to be Playboy centerfolds with sexy designs and insights into their favorite things (the Mothman one was particularly hilarious, as it’s just otherworldly gibberish with the occasional unsettling bits of English). There is also a really interesting story by Noah Van Sciver that starts out as a seemingly graphic history of the Fundamentalist Latter Day Saints, the offshoot Mormon cult that is known for egregious abuses and fanaticism, but instead turns into a meditation on how we tell these stories (this was probably my favorite in the collection; I have been deeply fascinated by the FLDS and I really liked how Van Sciver turned the whole concept of comic histories on its head). There is also a creepy comic that is based on the Sandown Clown Incident, which was just unsettling and tense because of not only the source material, but also the framing of the tale itself with two small children encountering a creepy clown-like figure, the tension building and building into high strangeness discomfort.

But here is the thing. While I think that fans of the podcast (like myself) will find a lot to love in this collection, I’m not sure that there will be a lot of crossover appeal to broader audiences. With the previous LPOTL book being the fantastic “The Last Book on the Left” there was so much great content and context beyond the podcast lore that I felt any fan of true crime could pick it up and enjoy it. “The Last Comic Book on the Left” is definitely a love letter for the fans who have been with the show for awhile, with references to such characters as Detective Popcorn and Scungilli Man that a layman just isn’t going to get. I think it’s super fun, and I think that there will probably be some people who like the weirdness of a lot of it. And a lot of the stories have outside accessibility to be sure. But it does feel niche. I’m okay with niche, however. This comic is written for me as a fan of the show. It’s chaotic and wild. But it’s absolutely a matter of ‘your mileage may vary’ in terms of other readers.

That said, let’s just look at one of my favorite bits of artwork. BEHOLD: SEXY JERSEY DEVIL by artist Sean Van Gorman!

The caption at the bottom sent me into hysterical laughter. (source: Z2 Comics)

It’s out there, it’s nutty, it’s funny and strange. I had a fun time with “The Last Comic Book on the Left”. It fuses the humor of my favorite podcast with some creative graphic novel designs and storytelling.

Rating 7: It’s going to be very niche, I feel, geared towards fans of the podcast, but I enjoyed the chaotic energy this collection was serving.

Reader’s Advisory:

“The Last Comic Book on the Left” isn’t included on any Goodreads lists as of now, but I think it would fit in on “Horror Comics Anthologies”.

Kate’s Review: “The Pallbearers Club”

Book: “The Pallbearers Club” by Paul Tremblay

Publishing Info: William Morrow, July 2022

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

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

Book Description: A cleverly voiced psychological thriller about an unforgettable—and unsettling—friendship, with blood-chilling twists, crackling wit, and a thrumming pulse in its veins—from the nationally bestselling author of The Cabin at the End of the World and Survivor Song.

What if the coolest girl you’ve ever met decided to be your friend?

Art Barbara was so not cool. He was a seventeen-year-old high school loner in the late 1980s who listened to hair metal, had to wear a monstrous back-brace at night for his scoliosis, and started an extracurricular club for volunteer pallbearers at poorly attended funerals. But his new friend thought the Pallbearers’ Club was cool. And she brought along her Polaroid camera to take pictures of the corpses. Okay, that part was a little weird. So was her obsessive knowledge of a notorious bit of New England folklore that involved digging up the dead. And there were other strange things – terrifying things – that happened when she was around, usually at night. But she was his friend, so it was okay, right?

Decades later, Art tries to make sense of it all by writing The Pallbearers’ Club: A Memoir. But somehow this friend got her hands on the manuscript and, well, she has some issues with it. And now she’s making cuts.

Seamlessly blurring the lines between fiction and memory, the supernatural and the mundane, The Pallbearers’ Club is an immersive, suspenseful portrait of an unforgettable and unsettling friendship.

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

It’s finally time, everyone! Paul Tremblay has a new horror novel out, and it’s one that caught my attention VERY quickly when I read about it. For one reason, obviously, is that it’s Paul Tremblay. He’s one of my favorite horror authors, and one of the best ones writing today. But the bigger issue at hand is that while he has taken on other horror themes and twisted them onto their head (possession, zombies, ghosts, etc), he is taking on a subgenre that is near and dear to my heart, and that I am VERY picky about: vampires. I love vampire stories, but I want very specific things from my vampire stories. And Paul Tremblay gave me everything I need. Oh, and yes, like in most of his other works, I ended up weeping relentlessly by the end.

It almost always comes to this when I read his books. (source)

Let’s start with the plot and the way this story is told. The narrative structure of this book is so fantastic. It is framed as a memoir written by Art Barbara. Going in, we know nothing about Art, or why he would have written a memoir about himself. We also almost immediately notice that there are seemingly handwritten annotations and footnotes written by a mystery voice, and those footnotes are critiquing the story as written. We soon realize that this story Art is telling is about his friendship with mysterious cool girl Mercy Brown, whom he met through the Pallbearers Club, a group he formed in high school as a community service opportunity. Teens work at funerals of forgotten people to serve as mourners and pallbearers. Mercy saw the ad Art put out, and called him. Thus began a friendship built on punk music, 80s yearning, and a mutual interest in working funerals. Art for extracurricular brownie points, Mercy for… other reasons. As Art talks about their friendship, he slowly reveals that he believes her to be a vampire. Mercy, in the footnotes, is constantly questioning his words, editorializing, and it is through both of their POVs that we see a slow burn creepy story about toxic friendship and potential vampirism come to be. I loved how Tremblay decided to tell this story, as it makes both of our narrators have truths and lies that the are sprinkling in. And given that Tremblay is a master at creating deeply disturbing horror moments, the vampire stuff (as Art describes it) is well done, unique, and taps into an actual folktale from New England that is about, in fact, a woman named Mercy Brown who was thought to be a vampire. Look it up! Start HERE. I loved how he brought in this actual story of American mythology and connected it to a metaphor about toxic friendships. The vampire mythos that we get feels fresh and new, and it taps into the non-romanticized themes of vampires as users, superstitions around illness, and codependence. It’s so damn good.

Now I need to talk about Mercy. Mercy is the shining star of this book, of all Paul Tremblay books. He so effortlessly captures the ‘cool girl as seen through the geek boy’s eyes’ trope and turns it into something that is both malevolent as well as bittersweet. We have this great tactic in which we see how Art views Mercy through his memoir, and we also get to see Mercy’s voice not only tell him how badly he has projected his own insecurities into he perception of her (which I believe so many ‘cool girls’ have to deal with when it comes to these kinds of geek boys and their worshiping), but also reflect that cool girl-ness she absolutely DOES have, as well as the clear love (and resentment) she also has for him. There is no question that both Art and Mercy are terrible for each other, and that they both get a lot of things wrong about each other. But the way that Tremblay gives both of them voices to construct a broader truth is great, and he does it in a way that doesn’t make Mercy just a potential vampire that is also a well worn manic pixie dream girl trope. She is basically what I wanted Samara Weaving’s character in “The Babysitter” to be in terms of meeting her full potential, and I absolutely adored her with my entire heart.

Bee is pretty great too, don’t get me wrong, but Mercy is Bee with a bit more depth. (source)

And finally I need to talk about this pathos I keep mentioning. Because this book is just brimming with it in the way that Tremblay does. He really, really knows how to just gut the reader. As said above, Art and Mercy’s friendship is not healthy, really, given that the entire ‘is it a vampire thing?’ question harkens back to the parasitic nature of vampirism, and therein the parasitic natures of some bad human relationships. But I will say, without spoiling things, there is some serious emotional depth that Tremblay taps into with their friendship, about their mutual outcast status and loneliness that connected them in the first place, and at once makes you think ‘this is so unhealthy’, while also feeling the mutual, real love they have for each other. And, once again, I found myself bawling during a Paul Tremblay horror novel. God DAMN do I love how this man knows how to destroy my soul.

“The Pallbearers Club” is a phenomenal take on a vampire story. It is definitely my favorite of Tremblay’s books. I urge horror fans, especially if you like new takes on vampire stories, to pick this one up.

Rating 10: Loved it so much. Mixing humor, horror, and a whole lot of pathos, “The Pallbearers Club” is Tremblay’s best work.

Reader’s Advisory:

“The Pallbearers Club” is included on the Goodreads list “Horror To Look Forward To in 2022”, and it would fit right in on “The Ultimate List of Vampire Books”.

Kate’s Review: “The Insane God”


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

Book: “The Insane God” by Jay Hartlove

Publishing Info: Water Dragon Publishing, May 2022

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

Where You Can Get This Book: Amazon | Indiebound

Book Description: Nightmare on Elm Street meets The Stand. A meteorite fragment cures a teenaged trans girl’s schizophrenia but leaves her with visions of ancient warring gods annihilating each other in space. As the Earth hurtles toward the cloud that is the shattered bodies of those eternal enemies, their eons-old conflict is rekindled on Earth to divide and destroy humanity. Can she and her brother stop the spread of global disaster?

Review: Thank you to Beverly Bambury for sending me a print copy of this book!

I mean, honestly, you are just tantalizing me when you say that something is “Nightmare on Elm Street” meets “The Stand”. Given that “The Stand” is an all time favorite of mine and I just love a good slasher movie, when I saw that comparison mix for “The Insane God” by Jay Hartlove, I just HAD to see what that meant. I knew I was throwing a bit of caution to the wind, as it was pretty clear that this story, while having those comparisons, was going to be a bit heavier on the Science Fiction than I am used to. But I’m game to experiment when the mood strikes me, and strike me it did.

There are some interesting ideas here to be sure! I loved the idea of space rocks giving people powers and interfering with biological functions like mental illness, and I liked the idea of how people that are touched by these things can have new powers awakened within them. Hartlove has set the stage for some well done suspense and some pretty solid consequences, with cosmic horror elements as well as some trippy surreal horror, like the ability to manipulate and bring things from dreams into the real world (THAT was so “Nightmare on Elm Street”). We also have some good old fashioned suspense regarding people who are raging bigoted assholes, and people who are true believers in one side of a space set feud and who want to bring about destruction on Earth. This leads to a lot of content warnings (specifically some pretty upsetting scenes of transphobia, Islamaphobia, violence due to both these things, and difficult moments involving mental illness and the stigma that can come with it). But we also get a coming of age story in which a teenage girl finds herself a potential savior of mankind, all while grappling with her own identity as a trans woman, a recently cured schizophrenic (due to otherworldly influence), and as a sister. Hartlove melds them all together into a fast paced narrative that has a lot of ideas, and it mostly comes together pretty well!

There is also the fact that our protagonist Sarah is a trans woman, a representation that we are finally seeing more and more of in genre fiction and horror. It’s important to note that Jay Hartlove is not trans, and that as a cis woman I can’t really tell you if Sarah is a good representation of a trans character. That said, I did look into Hartlove’s background and various interviews, and he does have a trans child and a non-binary child, and it’s pretty clear that he has written this story with a hope of giving trans people characters they can seen themselves in. Sometimes it comes off a little clunky and hamfisted, at least to me, and again, I’m not really someone who can judge how well representative Sarah was and whether her experiences ring true or false. But it really does seem like Sarah’s characterization has all the best intentions, and as a character I thought that she was complex and interesting, and was very easy to root for. At the end of the day I liked her a lot. And I hope that we get more trans characters in genre fiction, and more trans authors in the mix to tell those stories.

I think that ultimately this was more heavily Science Fiction in a cosmic sense, which I knew going into it. I always like to give genres that I’m not super into a try, especially if it seems like there could be some crossover interest, and as I mentioned above, describing it as “Nightmare on Elm Street” meets “The Stand” would imply a lot of crossover! And I do get the comparisons, given the creative ways that Hartlove toys with dreaming and cosmic and existential end of world elements with warring factions within the chaos. Still and all, it did get into the Sci-Fi weeds a bit, which will probably work for a lot of people!

“The Insane God” is a bit of an out there Sci-Fi/horror story that I thought was pretty creative. Sure it has some stumbles here and there, but there is so much that feels unique, and it has its heart firmly in place.

Rating 7: Super creative and outside of the box, though maybe a little too heavy on the Sci-Fi for this reader.

Reader’s Advisory:

“The Insane God” isn’t on any Goodreads lists as of now, but I think it would fit in on “Cosmic & Lovecraftian Horror”.

Kate’s Review: “Men, Women, and Chainsaws”

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Book: “Men, Women, and Chainsaws” by Stephen Graham Jones

Publishing Info: Tor.com, April 2022

Where Did I Get This Book: I own it.

Where You Can Get This Book: Tor.Com | Amazon

Book Description: It’s been two years since Jenna’s ex-boyfriend left her alone in East Texas heartbroken. Now he’s back in town and she wants to payback. One night, she stumbles upon a bloodthirsty Camaro that may be the key to carrying out her revenge.

Review: So I’m highlighting something a little different today for my review. The reason is that I have been picking away at some of the short stories by Stephen Graham Jones, one of my favorite authors, and I found one that is so accessible and such a quick read that I want to spread the word of this awesome author. Seriously if you haven’t read Jones yet, this will make it easy! “Men, Women, and Chainsaws” is a short story that is available on Tor.com! I myself bought it for my Kindle, which is also an option, but above there is a link right to it! And it’s a story about a revenge seeking woman who has the help of a bloodthirsty car! The obvious reference here is “Christine” by Stephen King, but I got more of a “Little Shop of Horrors” vibe from this story and I was one hundred percent here for it.

What do you want from me, BLOOD?! (source)

Our main character is Jenna, a woman who has had to deal with a fair amount of loss in her life, the most recent one being that of her boyfriend Victor, who went to work on oil rigs and sent her a break up letter. Earlier was the death of her bio parents in a tragedy involving a car. Jenna’s last happy moment with Victor was recreating a photoshoot at a local junkyard involving a junked out Camaro and Caroline Williams of “Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2” fame, and when Jenna finds the Camaro later, the same night Victor comes home and her rejection is flaunted for everyone, things take a turn for the supernatural. It involves bloodletting, a rebuilt car, and a scorned lover’s revenge. But it’s also a story of a woman who has suffered some pretty terrible loss in her life, and how a bloodthirsty car not only can help her seek revenge but also closure.

And it’s the sense of melancholy that permeates the pages that made this story one of the more bittersweet tales that Jones has written. Jenna has seen some shit and been through some shit, and I just wanted her to have some kind of happiness, or at least peace. As she finds out some ugly truths about Victor, as well as some hidden truths about what happened to her biological parents, my heart broke for her as she seeks out a connection, seeks out not only the hope of taking out a user and abusive prick, but also the hope of finding a connection to the parents she never knew, and finding not only meaning in their loss, but also perhaps an otherworldly reunion. I’m being a bit vague, and I kind of have to be because the story is filled with emotional beats that are best experienced with no prior knowledge. But on the flip side, there are also some really fun horror moments, and some really awesome homages to horror stories, be it the aforementioned “Christine” and “Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2”, as well as the nostalgia of hitting up a scary movie at the drive in. Jones just loves horror stories and he writes them with such a fondness that you can’t help but grin form ear to ear when you read them.

Short stories are generally hit or miss for me, but Stephen Graham Jones is always on point within this format. He knows how to build a world and an arc and make it feel well thought out and explored in less than fifty pages. “Men, Women, and Chainsaws” is weird and emotional, and I really enjoyed it on every level.

Rating 9: Strange and eerie but with undercurrents of pathos, “Men, Women, and Chainsaws” is a delightful short story by one of my favorite authors.

Reader’s Advisory:

“Men, Women, and Chainsaws” is included on the Goodreads list “2022 Horror and Sci Fi Releases”.

Serena’s Review: “Juniper & Thorn”

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Book: “Juniper & Thorn” by Ava Reid

Publishing Info: Harper Voyager, June 2022

Where Did I Get this Book: Edelweiss+

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

Book Description: A gruesome curse. A city in upheaval. A monster with unquenchable appetites.

Marlinchen and her two sisters live with their wizard father in a city shifting from magic to industry. As Oblya’s last true witches, she and her sisters are little more than a tourist trap as they treat their clients with archaic remedies and beguile them with nostalgic charm. Marlinchen spends her days divining secrets in exchange for rubles and trying to placate her tyrannical, xenophobic father, who keeps his daughters sequestered from the outside world. But at night, Marlinchen and her sisters sneak out to enjoy the city’s amenities and revel in its thrills, particularly the recently established ballet theater, where Marlinchen meets a dancer who quickly captures her heart.

As Marlinchen’s late-night trysts grow more fervent and frequent, so does the threat of her father’s rage and magic. And while Oblya flourishes with culture and bustles with enterprise, a monster lurks in its midst, borne of intolerance and resentment and suffused with old-world power. Caught between history and progress and blood and desire, Marlinchen must draw upon her own magic to keep her city safe and find her place within it.

Review: Unlike “For the Throne,” this book isn’t a direct sequel to the “Red Riding Hood’ re-telling that came before it. That said, it does feel kind of funny reading two follow-up books to two versions of the same fairytale that I read exactly a year ago. However, this is only a companion novel, set in the same world as “The Wolf and the Woodsman,” and instead focuses on retelling a different, dark fairytale, “The Juniper Tree.” I didn’t know really anything about this original tale before starting this book, so I was curious to see how things would play out!

Marlinchen’s father is cursed to never be full, no matter how much he eats, and to never feel rested, no matter how much he sleeps. And for their part, she and her two sisters are also cursed along with him and he refuses to let them out of his house. Instead, he uses their various magical gifts to support himself and their home. But Marlinchen dreams of more, of going out beyond the gates of her cursed home. And finally, she does it. There she discovers thrills and mysteries, but most especially, she discovers the ballet and its star dancer, a beautiful, charming young man. But something dark also haunts the streets, and as Marlinchen tries to keep secret her growing connection to the ballet dancer, she begins to suspect that this darkness may be coming from her own home.

So, I have mixed feelings about this book. On one hand, to start with the positives, there is no denying that Reid is a strong, poetic author. She has a knack for turning a phrase in a way that catches the eye and imagination; I re-read several passages throughout the story. She also knows how to unspool a fairytale in a way that feel fresh and new, but still has that undefinable quality that makes it a fairytale at its heart. There’s a balance, always, to be struck between the beauty and pain found in fairytales. But, while she seemed to hit that mark with “The Wolf and the Woodsman,” I’m less sure that the balance is quite right here.

To be fair, on Goodreads this book is tagged as “fantasy” and “horror.” Sometimes these genres can overlap quite a lot, and I generally dismiss the “horror” tag as simply a heads-up that this will be a darker story. And yet, I wasn’t prepared for just how dark this book was. Indeed, it would fully fall under the category of “horror” all on its own. While I’m not typically an avid horror fan, I can read and enjoy it. So it wasn’t the surprising darkness of this book that had me questioning.

Instead, it seemed to be the pointlessness of some of it that bothered me, the sheer shock value for the sake of shock value at the heart of some of the more disturbing scenes. There were more than a few instances when something horrific would happen or be described, but that scene or action never lead to any personal growth, reflection, or even important movement of the plot itself. This is the kind of horror and darkness I can’t get behind. It gives the reader no pay-off for sitting through uncomfortable, dark scenes and instead makes some of it feel performative and ugly in a different way.

To end on another good note, however. I did like the main character and most of her story. Again, there were disturbing aspects of her story that I don’t feel were fully explored or justified to the reader. But, as she does have a distinct arc throughout the story, these I was better able to understand than some of the other horror aspects. The romance, such as it was, felt a bit too insta-love, with the connection forming fast and hard between these two. If anything, it was insta-lust more than love. Again, there was this weird obsession with adding a dirty-feeling shimmer to even the love story.

There’s no denying the high quality of the author’s writing, at this point. But this book did make me question some of her storytelling prowess. I will admit, however, that fans of horror in general might enjoy this more than I did. Fans of the first book may want to check this out, but they should go in with eyes wide open not to take that “horror” tag lightly.

Rating 7: Solid building blocks were undermined by a strange penchant for reveling in the darker aspects of the world, seemingly without much concern for the relevance of such things to the story itself.

Reader’s Advisory:

“Juniper & Thorn” can be found on these Goodreads lists: 2022 Gothic and 2022 Horror Novels written by women.

Joint Review: “What Moves the Dead”

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Book: “What Moves the Dead” by T. Kingfisher

Publishing Info: Tor Nightfire, July 2022

Where Did I Get this Book: Edelweiss+; NetGalley

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

Book Description: When Alex Easton, a retired soldier, receives word that their childhood friend Madeline Usher is dying, they race to the ancestral home of the Ushers in the remote countryside of Ruritania.

What they find there is a nightmare of fungal growths and possessed wildlife, surrounding a dark, pulsing lake. Madeline sleepwalks and speaks in strange voices at night, and her brother Roderick is consumed with a mysterious malady of the nerves.

Aided by a redoubtable British mycologist and a baffled American doctor, Alex must unravel the secret of the House of Usher before it consumes them all.

Serena’s Thoughts:

As fans of this blog know, I’ve been on a bit of a T. Kingfisher kick lately, after discovering how much I liked her worked after reading “Nettle & Bone.” So when I saw that she was coming out with a horror novella this summer, I was all on board to read it. And of course we had to have our resident horror expert’s take as well, so I roped Kate into this one.

I haven’t read the original “The Fall of the House of Usher;” frankly, I have read very little Poe altogether. But it was easy enough to guess at the typic of gothic horror story it must have been. So, I can’t say how closely T. Kingfisher followed that story. What I do know is that the author took the liberty of not only creating an original narrating character, but an entire country and culture from which that character originated. With that came one of the most interesting takes on new pronouns that I’ve ever seen. What made it work for me was just how well-thought out the language decisions were. They all made sense in the realm of what we can see in other real languages. But beyond the pronouns, Kingfisher used this culture to highlight the limitations placed on women of the time. But, as the author tends to have a light touch on her prose, it was all done in a humorous, if not any less important, way.

I also really liked the horror aspect of this story. In the author’s note (always read the author’s note!), Kingfisher mentions that she was in the process of writing this book when Sylvia Moreno-Garcia put out her “Mexican Gothic,” another gothic horror with a focus on mushrooms and fungus. I’m glad that Kingfisher wasn’t put off of writing this book, however, because they are ultimately very different stories. The fungus, itself, was very different. Sure, it played for all the spooky horror moments. But it also drew on different emotions that I had definitely not expected. I don’t want to get into it further than that for spoiler reasons, but I was definitely having some surprising reactions to various twists and turns towards the end of the book.

Kate’s Thoughts:

Unlike Serena, I have read “The Fall of the House of Usher”, but it had been, oh… twenty five years since I last read it? I remembered the basics, though I did wonder if I would spot the parallels as well as I would have had it not been a quarter century. But good news! I remembered enough to make the comparisons! But even better news is that T. Kingfisher has made the story unique and able to stand on its own while still harkening to the spirit of the original! That is to say, I definitely enjoyed this book!

A lot of the things I found interesting and unique Serena touched upon, but as the resident horror person I will stick to that aspect of the book. Kingfisher does a really good job of sticking to the Gothic paranoia of isolation and slow mental and emotional decline, while also introducing a really gross and unsettling body horror aspect with the fungal themes. While body horror can be a sub genre that makes me incredibly uneasy, what I liked about Kingfisher’s take on it is that this book rarely goes for deliberate over the top gross outs, and instead relies on unsettling imagery like hares that are behaving oddly, or a sleepwalking woman that just seems off, or the eerie beauty of a lake that glows at night for reasons unknown. We never get to super high levels of horror in this book, as there are plenty of moments of levity as well as a matter of fact tone as the story goes on, but there are plenty of beats that are incredibly creepy that feel like moments in the original tale. It’s a very well done homage and retelling that made me squeamish for all the right reasons.

Fans of the original story should check this out, not only because it’s well done, but also because it’s a good introduction to an author who is doing creative things across genres.

Serena’s Rating 8: A short, spooky tale that introduces a new version of a classic tale, new character and culture included!

Kate’s Rating 8: Unsettling and unique, “What Moves the Dead” is a fun reimagining of a Poe staple.

Reader’s Advisory:

“What Moves the Dead” can be found on these Goodreads lists: Fungus Fiction and Summer of Speculative Reading

Kate’s Review: “From Below”

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Book: “From Below” by Darcy Coates

Publishing Info: Poisoned Pen Press

Where Did I Get This Book: I received access to an eARC via NetGalley from the publisher.

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

Book Description: No light. No air. No escape. Hundreds of feet beneath the ocean’s surface, a graveyard waits…

Years ago, the SS Arcadia vanished without a trace during a routine voyage. Though a strange, garbled emergency message was broadcast, neither the ship nor any of its crew could be found. Sixty years later, its wreck has finally been discovered more than three hundred miles from its intended course…a silent graveyard deep beneath the ocean’s surface, eagerly waiting for the first sign of life. Cove and her dive team have been granted permission to explore the Arcadia’s rusting hull. Their purpose is straightforward: examine the wreck, film everything, and, if possible, uncover how and why the supposedly unsinkable ship vanished.

But the Arcadia has not yet had its fill of death, and something dark and hungry watches from below. With limited oxygen and the ship slowly closing in around them, Cove and her team will have to fight their way free of the unspeakable horror now desperate to claim them. Because once they’re trapped beneath the ocean’s waves, there’s no going back.

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

Minnesota may not be on any oceans, but we do have Lake Superior, which is so vast and unruly at times that it kind of acts like the sea. Hell, it’s big enough and has enough commercial traffic on it that there have been a fair amount of shipwrecks in its waters, so many that I have a framed poster in our den of the various wreckages on a map of the Great Lakes. I got that poster when I was a tween, so clearly shipwrecks have fascinated me for awhile (fun fact, on a day where the conditions are right, you can see a shipwreck in the waters at the Split Rock Lighthouse, north of Duluth. I ALWAYS try to see it when I go). I was thinking a lot about the shipwrecks in Superior as I read “From Below” by Darcy Coates. But I also knew that, while similar, the wrecks I was thinking of weren’t comparable. The biggest reason is the actual ocean has A LOT more secrets than ol’ gitchi-gami does just by it’s vast unknown depths. The other, more fiction based one is that this shipwreck has some supernatural nonsense going on.

This story is told in two timelines that slowly come together to reveal what happened on the S.S. Arcadia, a ship that disappeared during a voyage sixty years prior and whose wreckage was just discovered way off course. The first timeline is in the present, with a dive team that has been selected to go in and document the wreckage. The other is on that doomed voyage, following the crew and the passengers as things slowly start to go wrong and a strange, choking fog stalks the ship. Which is just the beginning. In the present we have leader Cove and her crew going into the wreckage and finding clues as to what went on…. and as things go from solemn to strange to terrifying, they don’t feel like they can stop because they need the money the dive will bring in. Both timelines build up the dread at a languid pace, tightening the tension bit by bit until things suddenly snap. It goes on a little long and extends a bit more than it needs to, but it has moments of high tension and horror. I enjoyed the present timeline more than the past one, but both use different elements to achieve some well done scares. In the past it’s a frenzy of paranoia and desperation for the crew and passengers as things spiral out of control, and in the modern time it’s a realization that there are things left in this ship that should not be there. Cove is the most interesting character of them all, as she is trying to be a good leader, but also knows that they all need the compensation. It’s a legitimate factor that kept me from wholly disbelieving their choices in staying on (there was another issue near the end that I didn’t buy, but that’s just another byproduct of it going on a little long, which is mostly forgivable).

But Coates doesn’t only rely on the supernatural side of things when it comes to the horror moments in this book. I mean sure, a long lost shipwreck with a mysterious disappearance, and then horrors within, are great themes for a horror novel, and themes I don’t see TOO often (though interestingly enough Serena and I reviewed a novel this year that had those exact themes but in space). And these themes work really well here. But it’s more the real life and realistic moments that had my pulse pounding. Coates goes into some really good detail about deep sea diving, and just how dangerous it is, and a lot of the suspense was built up around a slowly running supply of oxygen, as well as the very real threats of the bends and pressure damage should one try to ascend too quickly. And when you are exploring an underwater ghost ship and find really horrific things inside, how are you NOT going to suck through your oxygen, or try to speed out of there just a little too quickly? Ugh, that really was the stuff that set me on edge. And Coates did a great job of explaining all of it for a layperson so I understood some of the dangers when I may not have initially.

So it seems I may have to go back through Darcy Coates’s catalog to see what else she has written, as “From Below” was super entertaining and definitely freaky. I wasn’t exactly in a rush to go deep sea diving at any point in my life, but this just clinches it.

Rating 7: A claustrophobic and eerie (and at times a bit drawn out) tale of ghost ships and exploration, “From Below” will surely chill horror fans to the bone.

Reader’s Advisory:

“From Below” is included on the Goodreads list “Horror to Look Forward to in 2022”.