Tag: Short stories

Kate’s Review: “Never Whistle At Night”

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Book: “Never Whistle At Night: An Indigenous Dark Fiction Anthology” by Shane Hawk (Ed.) & Theodore C. Van Alst Jr. (Ed.)

Publishing Info: Vintage, September 2023

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

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

Book Description: A bold, clever, and sublimely sinister collection that dares to ask the question: “Are you ready to be un-settled?” Featuring stories by:

Norris Black • Amber Blaeser-Wardzala • Phoenix Boudreau • Cherie Dimaline • Carson Faust • Kelli Jo Ford • Kate Hart • Shane Hawk • Brandon Hobson • Darcie Little Badger • Conley Lyons • Nick Medina • Tiffany Morris • Tommy Orange • Mona Susan Power • Marcie R. Rendon • Waubgeshig Rice • Rebecca Roanhorse • Andrea L. Rogers • Morgan Talty • D.H. Trujillo • Theodore C. Van Alst Jr. • Richard Van Camp • David Heska Wanbli Weiden • Royce Young Wolf • Mathilda Zeller

Many Indigenous people believe that one should never whistle at night. This belief takes many forms: for instance, Native Hawaiians believe it summons the Hukai’po, the spirits of ancient warriors, and Native Mexicans say it calls Lechuza, a witch that can transform into an owl. But what all these legends hold in common is the certainty that whistling at night can cause evil spirits to appear—and even follow you home.

These wholly original and shiver-inducing tales introduce readers to ghosts, curses, hauntings, monstrous creatures, complex family legacies, desperate deeds, and chilling acts of revenge. Introduced and contextualized by bestselling author Stephen Graham Jones, these stories are a celebration of Indigenous peoples’ survival and imagination, and a glorious reveling in all the things an ill-advised whistle might summon.

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

Up until quite recently I would always preface my review of short story collections and anthologies with some version of ‘I don’t really like short stories collections, but I wanted to try out _______ because of _____’. But in recent years, I’ve been enjoying a good number of the short story collections and anthologies I’ve picked up, and have therein become far more willing to give them a go. Especially if the collection appeals to me for one reason or another. And it is these reasons that I picked up “Never Whistle At Night: An Indigenous Dark Fiction Anthology”, edited by Shane Hawk and Theodore C. Van Alst Jr. Not only have I had greater success with short story anthologies, this one also showcases dark fiction, be it horror, thriller, or dark fantasy, by Indigenous authors. I had read works by some of the authors, but a lot of them were new to me, and I was very eager to hop in and see what the experience was going to be like. And it was intense, but overall positive!

As usual with short stories collections, I will talk about my three favorite stories in the anthology, and then review the work as a whole.

“Kushtuka” by Mathilda Zeller: A young Indigenous woman is pressured to go work for a powerful white man for a dinner party, even though he is manipulative and predatory. But as he and his colleagues feast and put her down, a mysterious creature that looks like her stalks her and the house they are all residing in. This one was one of the stories that was the most straight up horror, with a shape shifting Kushtuka being one threat, but another threat being white people who are more than happy to take advantage of Indigenous people, especially women, when they have power over them. And man, the descriptions of the Kushtuka were TERRIFYING. This was the first story in the collection and it really started it off with a bang.

“Navajos Don’t Wear Elk Teeth” by Conley Lyons: A gay man living in a family summer home for the season meets a mysterious neighbor, with whom he starts an affair. Their relationship becomes intense, and the lover starts to behave in more erratic and violent ways, including showing off a tooth collection with some very strange teeth. This one was just a slow burn of creepiness, with our protagonist finding himself in a frog in a pot of boiling water kind of situation and as unsettling or flat our terrifying things happen and escalate. And there is really just something about a weirdo that collects teeth that really gets under my skin. Throw in some themes about queer identity and the ways that colonialism can appear in unexpected ways, and you have some great symbolism to add to the creep factor.

“Sundays” by David Heska Wanbli Weiden: A recent widower who has been carrying the trauma of sexual abuse at a Catholic boarding school decides that he is going to confront his abuser and take his revenge. While ruminating about his past, his marriage, and the horrific things he experienced at the school, he finds himself face to face with his rapist, and has to make a choice. This one was my favorite of the collection, and it was absolutely one of the hardest ones to read due to the visceral nature and the topics of child sexual abuse and the overall horror stories of the Boarding Schools. Weiden is such a powerhouse of gritty and realistic and DARK thriller stories, and this one was not only very suspenseful, it was also very emotional as it takes on the very real awful realities about the Catholic Boarding Schools that abused and destroyed so many Indigenous families and children. It’s SO upsetting and it’s content warnings all around, but it’s just astounding.

When looking at the collection as a whole, I really liked the variety not only in the types of genres and sub genres that are represented, but also in the writing styles of all the authors and how it reflects their visions and experiences as Indigenous people in the U.S. and Canada in modern society. Some of them were a bit too intense for me, or triggered me for various reasons and that made it so I had a harder time enjoying them, while others sometimes felt a little uneven. BUT, as a whole? It’s pretty good. It has opened my eyes to a number of authors whom I had never heard of and am going to pursue and read more from. For people who like horror, dark fantasy, and/or thrillers, there will almost certainly be something to enjoy in this collection. And I will always promote and showcase stories by Indigenous authors, especially in genres that have been pretty damn white and European in terms of what gets the focus and what gets promoted. What better time than right now to check this out?

“Never Whistle At Night” is another successful anthology experience for me, and it’s a horror and thriller collection that should be sought after by fans of the genres. It has variety and unique perspectives, and I urge people to check it out!

Rating 8: A whole slew of dark tales from so many talented authors, “Never Whistle At Night” is a must read not only for the variety, but the Indigenous voices it showcases.

Reader’s Advisory:

“Never Whistle At Night” is included on the Goodreads list “All Indigenous Peoples 4”.

Kate’s Review: “Here in the Night”

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Book: “Here in the Night” by Rebecca Turkewitz

Publishing Info: Black Lawrence Press, July 2023

Where Did I Get This Book: I received a print copy from the author.

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

Book Description: The thirteen stories in Rebecca Turkewitz’s debut collection, Here in the Night , are engrossing, strange, eerie, and emotionally nuanced. With psychological insight and finely crafted prose, Here in the Night investigates the joys and constraints of womanhood, of queerness, and of intimacy. Preoccupied with all manner of hauntings, these stories traverse a boarding school in the Vermont woods, the jagged coast of Maine, an attic in suburban Massachusetts, an elevator stuck between floors, and the side of an unlit highway in rural South Carolina.

At the center of almost every story is the landscape of night, with all its tantalizing and terrifying potential. After dark, the familiar becomes unfamiliar, boundaries loosen, expectations fall away, and even the greatest skeptics believe–at least fleetingly–that anything could happen.

These stories will stay with you.

Review: Thank you to Rebecca Turkewitz for sending me a copy of this book!

We are starting to wind down the Halloween Season, as the holiday is next week and the various creepy plans that I have for the month are coming to a head (“Hocus Pocus” night with ladyfriends? Check. “Practical Magic” night with more different ladyfriends? Check. “Lost Boys” party at the local Alamo? CHECK AND MATE!). And as we continue our horror lit journey for the month, we are now coming to a book that felt a little different than my usual horror fare. “Here in the Night” by Rebecca Turkewitz was sent to me by Turkewitz herself (thank you again!), and I was expecting another short stories horror collection with blatant scares, sub genre jumping, and the usual fare for the horror fan who wants smaller tales to read at their own leisure. But when I sat down and started reading, I realized that “Here in the Night” was something far different from what I was expecting, and that it was something very special because of it.

Like I always do, I will highlight my three favorite stories and then review the collection as a whole.

“Warnings”: Members of a school track team run in a desolate area, the warnings of predators and strangers at the back of their minds until something they never thought could happen, happens. This is one of the shorter stories in the collection, more like a flash fiction tale, but I loved the structure, written in a ‘we’ narration, speaking like a chorus and speaking for the track team as a whole and beyond. This story felt like an expanded take on the Calvin and Hobbes quote (which I’m probably butchering) ‘this is one of the things you figure will happen to someone else, but unfortunately we’re ALL someone else to someone else’. It’s scary and sad and sobering, and all achieved in maybe two pages.

“Here in the Night”: On June 12th 2016, Ellie and Jess are returning from a visit to Ellie’s family, and seeking out updates on the Pulse Nightclub massacre as they drive down an isolated country road in rural North Carolina. As their grief and anxiety builds, they question their differences in reactions as well as their differences in upbringings. Almost definitely the most heart wrenching story in the collection, Turkewitz captures the trauma, the grief, and fear, and the questions that were swirling in the queer community after this horrific hate crime happened, examining two women in a relationship who find themselves upset at the world as well as at each other amidst the fear and uncertainty. There’s the slow build of their relationship tension, but then a whole other tension about the potential danger they could be in in the moment, perhaps heightened due to the mass shooting on their minds, which make for some very unnerving beats as well as emotional ones.

“Crybaby Bridge”: Sam is a teenager who has just moved to small town Indiana after an incident in her old community in the big city, and has trouble fitting in with other girls on her basketball team. While at a sleepover they tell her the story of Crybaby Bridge, a haunted spot in town that is supposedly roamed by the ghost of a young woman who drowned her baby and then killed herself, and Sam finds herself drawn to the tale. I love a scary story about urban legends, and “Crybaby Bridge” does a really good job of spinning a familiar tale while subverting it in ways that I didn’t expect. I really loved Sam as a character, as she is so complex and nuanced and could read like a ‘not like other girls’ trope but is so much more. It’s also a great exploration of how urban legends can make villains out of victims and turn them into spectral monsters.

But I had a hard time picking my favorite three stories because I really enjoyed all of them. They are definitely horror stories, but they all flow so smoothly and read like literary ruminations on love, loss, grief, and trauma, and never in a way that felt like it was trying too hard (which can be a big sticking point for me when it comes to the idea of ‘literary’ horror; if you have to hammer home you’re ‘literary’, it just makes you seem like you think you’re more valid than genre horror, and I hate that). Turkewitz can peel back the layers of the human condition and find the scary things, be they real life or supernatural or perhaps ambiguous, usually framed within a female or queer experience. The stories here are effective but never feel over the top, and there were multiple times I said to myself ‘I really like this’ as I finished up one story and moved on to the next. Not a clunker in the bunch, and in my experience that is rare in a short stories collection.

I urge horror fans who are hoping to find something a bit more ruminative to seek out “Here in the Night”. These stories will unsettle you, but they will also bubble up emotions as they tug at your heartstrings. I am spreading the word on Rebecca Turkewitz. Check this book out.

Rating 9: Quite possibly the best short story collection I’ve read this year, “Here in the Night” combines uneasy supernatural horrors with the horrors of the real world, all with a literary flair that makes for an evocative read.

Reader’s Advisory:

“Here in the Night” is included on the Goodreads list “Spooky/Halloween LGBTQ+ Fiction”.

Kate’s Review: “Pre-Approved for Haunting”

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Book: “Pre-Approved for Haunting: And Other Stories” by Patrick Barb

Publishing Info: Keylight Books, September 2023

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

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

Book Description: A collection of weird, dark stories and millennial anxieties. In this new collection, Patrick Barb explores themes of family found and lost, media consumption and the dangers of runaway nostalgia, the supernatural in our lives, and the impact of violence in both the long- and short-term. From rural backwoods to Park Slope brownstones, Barb’s characters face impossible, awful situations, testing their inner strength and understanding of reality. Covering quiet horror, weird fiction, supernatural horror, slasher horror, topical dark fiction, and more, these stories spotlight supposedly familiar terrors and fears in new and unexpected ways.

Review: Thank you to Turner Publishing and Keylight Books for sending me an ARC of this collection!

Though I do see myself as an avid horror fan (probably more than avid if we are encompassing all of my pastimes and interests), I am always discovering creators that are new to me, either because they are also new, or more likely because I just haven’t tuned into them yet. It’s always fun to have a new horror author end up in my path, and “Pre-Approved for Haunting: And Other Stories” by Patrick Barb (who is also a local author for us Minnesota people!) is the newest example of that. I had never heard of Barb before, but the description of his works in this collection definitely had my attention from the jump. A short story collection is a great way to get a feel for a new to me author, and I can definitely say that this book is a good example of that. Holy varied works, Batman!

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

“Casual”: This was a story pretty early in the collection, and it was the first one to make me say ‘okay, this guy knows what he’s doing’. Talk about a twisted take on a pretty well worn concept! Jack and Lizzie are meeting for the first time in person after meeting online, choosing a quiet bar to get to know each other a little bit… and to do their first dual murder together. From the jump you know that these two young people are here to do something terrible, but it’s written in a way that feels like a cozy meet cute between two people who have similar interests and sparkling chemistry. I really liked the subversion, and how even though you know how it’s going to go you can’t help but kind of like the banter and flirtation as they get to know each other, and feel the poignancy of the end.

“I Will Not Read Your Haunted Script”: As a person who enjoys an urban legend, especially ones that involve haunted Hollywood and cursed movies, this one had a lot going for it out the gate. A screenwriter is sick of people approaching them with supposedly haunted and cursed screenplays, as their own notorious script may or may not have cursed an entire production, leaving them the last person involved alive. But this newest one may be the exception, and not because the writer has any say. I love the construction of this one, being somewhat second person from the screenwriter’s POV, and how it vacillates between a rant with exposition, and bits from a screenplay. I loved the frenzied build up and the absolute bonkers unraveling of it all.

“Iggy Crane and the Headless Horse Girl”: I’m pretty certain this was my favorite in the book, as I love anything related to “Sleepy Hollow” and I REALLY loved the way that Barb updated it and made it fit into a modern framework. Iggy Crane is the new riding instructor at the prestigious Sleepy Hollow Girls’ Preparatory Academy. She is drawn to headmistress Cat Van Tussel, but finds some of her students, specifically the Bones Girls Clique, difficult. And when she sees a viral video involving a girl who pretends to be a horse, things get all the stranger. I really, really loved this story, and how Barb takes the ideas of superstition and lore and translates it into viral videos and idle gossip. It feels like “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” without trying too hard, and I adored how it all lines up with the original tale while still being pretty novel and unique.

As for the collection as a whole, it was probably pretty evenly distributed between the three I loved, then the ones that were pretty good, okay, and not really for me. I did like the overall unease of these tales, and I definitely see the tweaked and twisted take on certain aspects of Millennial nostalgia in a good number of them (I’m specifically thinking of “The Other Half of the Battle”, which, without giving too much away, was making me flashback to both the ‘Pork Chop Sandwiches!’ meme and my G.I. Joe sleeping bag from when I was but a child. MAN did that tap into multiple layers of nostalgia memories). A few were a little much for my triggers and horror boundaries, so it’s probably a good idea to know what your triggers are and know that there will probably be a few content warnings that would be good to be aware of (child harm, some body horror aspects, some gendered horror but not in an exploitative way). At the end of the day there is variety here and it touches upon multiple genres, multiple tones, and multiple entry points for horror fans of all types.

“Pre-Approved for Haunting” is a weird and sometimes nasty collection that is a good introduction to an author I was unfamiliar with. I will be looking for more from Patrick Barb in the future.

Rating 7: A varied and macabre collection of horror stories for many different horror tastes, “Pre-Approved for Haunting: And Other Stories” is a spooky and at times terrifying treat.

Reader’s Advisory:

“Pre-Approved for Haunting: And Other Stories” isn’t on any Goodreads lists as of yet, but it would fit in on “Best Dark Fiction Short Story Collections”.

Kate’s Review: “Loteria”

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

Book: “Loteria” by Cynthia Pelayo

Publishing Info: Agora Books, February 2023

Where Did I Get This Book: I received a print copy at ALAAC23.

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

Book Description: The Mexican board game of Lotería is a game of chance. It is similar to our American bingo. However, in Loteria instead of matching up numbers on a game board, players match up images.

There are 54 cards in the Lotería game, and for this short story collection you will find one unique story per card based on a Latin American myth, folklore, superstition, or belief – with a slant towards the paranormal and horrific. In this deck of cards you will find murderers, ghosts, goblins and ghouls. This collection features creatures and monsters, vampires and werewolves and many of these legends existed in the Americas long before their European counterparts.

Many of these stories have been passed over time throughout the Americas, and many have been passed via word of mouth, just like the tales the Brothers Grimm collected. These are indeed fairy tales, but with a much more terrible little slant. Published by Burial Day Books.

Review: Thank you to Agora Books and Cynthia Pelayo for handing out copies of this book at ALAAC23!

There were many highlights of being at the ALA Annual Conference, but one of my most anticipated moments was going to see Cynthia Pelayo speak on a panel about thriller novels. I greatly enjoyed Pelayo’s novel “Children of Chicago”, and after the panel she was kind enough to be signing copies of the sequel “The Shoemaker’s Magician” (look for that one in the future!), as well as her short stories collection “Loteria”. I was happy to get both of them, and was very interested in the concept of “Loteria”. Lotería is a Mexican game involving 54 cards with different images and themes, and Pelayo put together a short story collection that takes inspiration from each of the cards. I mean really, HOW COOL. So I hopped on in, not sure of what to expect, but that ended up being a good thing.

Normally I would do my usual ‘pick the best three stories to talk about then talk about the collection as a whole’, but I feel like that’s a little trickier to do for “Loteria”, as there are more than fifty tales in this book. The stories range from flash fiction to poetry to more short story length tales, and the way that Pelayo connects them to each card while putting unique and original twists on them is really, really neat to see. I did have a few that really stood out, such as “The Woman/La Dama”, which is a La Llorona story involving two tourists who see a strange woman while on vacation, or “Death/La Muerte”, about a man who witnesses a strange funeral procession and is approached by a figure in black. I also really liked “The Hand/El Mano”, which goes into vampires and the legend of the Tlahuelpuchi. I really liked seeing what supernatural elements and twists she would bring to her various stories, and while some were familiar to me there were plenty that I wasn’t as familiar with.

And then there are the stories that are of more human horrors, whether it’s “The Mermaid/La Sirena” with stories of human trafficking, or “The Water Pitcher/El Cantarito”, a story about border patrol agents who have no remorse for the way they help facilitate the pain and suffering of migrants hoping to make a better life in the U.S. The very real human suffering that is found on these pages make for chilling tales, made all the more disturbing and upsetting because you know that there aren’t merely stories of myth, legend, and scary story sharing, but actual things that happen to real people. Pelayo isn’t afraid to be brutal and to make the reader see the brutality up close.

The themes and stories span various sub genres of horror and thriller, and while some are stronger than others, overall it’s a pretty well rounded collection. I also love how Pelayo has centered the Latine experience, as all of these tales take inspiration from Latin American folklore, urban legends, mythologies, and cultures. She also has poetry and verse in this collection, and while I am not as into poetry as other people may be, I do like seeing the versatility at hand here and how she connects it to her themes at hand.

If you want a primer for what Cynthia Pelayo can bring to the horror and thriller table, “Loteria” would be a good collection to pick up and explore!

Rating 7: A mixed collection of dark fantasy and horror tales with a creative hook, “Loteria” is a way for rising star Cynthia Pelayo to show her range across many stories, formats, and sub genres.

Reader’s Advisory:

“Loteria” isn’t on any Goodreads lists as of now, but it would fit in on “Great Reads for Halloween”.

Kate’s Review: “Night of the Living Queers”

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

Book: “Night of the Living Queers” by Shelly Page & Alex Brown (Eds.)

Publishing Info: Wednesday Books, August 2023

Where Did I Get This Book: I received an ARC at ALAAC23.

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

Book Description: Night of the Living Queers is a YA horror anthology that explores a night when anything is possible exclusively featuring queer authors of color putting fresh spins on classic horror tropes and tales.

All Hallows’ Eve. Samhain. Dia De Los Muertos. Fiesta de Los Aguizotes. No matter its name or occasion, Halloween is more than a Hallmark holiday, it’s a symbol of transformation. NIGHT OF THE LIVING QUEERS is a YA horror anthology that explores how Halloween can be more than just candies and frights, but a night where anything is possible. Each short story will be told through the lens of a different BIPOC teen and the Halloween night that changes their lives forever. Creative, creepy, and queer, this collection will bring fresh terror, heart, and humor to young adult literature.

Contributors include editors Alex Brown and Shelly Page, Kalynn Bayron, Ryan Douglass, Sara Farizan, Maya Gittelman, Kosoko Jackson, Em Liu, Vanessa Montalban, Ayida Shonibar, Tara Sim, Trang Thanh Tran, and Rebecca Kim Wells.

Review: Thank you to Wednesday Books for giving me an ARC of this novel at ALAAC23 and to Alex Brown for signing it!

I am very much the kind of person who is like ‘It’s August? Halloween is going to be here soon!’. I love looking forward to my favorite holiday, and even though it’s still hotter than hell outside and people are still thinking of BBQs and the beach, I’m counting down the days until I can smell leaves and wood fire on the wind and seep up all the witchy spooky stuff of the season. So what better time to read “Night of the Living Queers”, a YA horror collection edited by Shelly Page and Alex Brown, which showcases 13 stories by and about queer BIPOC people? This was one of the books on a Children’s/YA Horror panel I went to at ALAAC23 this summer, and I was lucky enough to hear Alex Brown talk about it, which hyped me up to read it. And once I dove in, I could tell that the hype was real.

As usual, I will talk about my three favorite stories in the collection, and then take on the collection as a whole.

“The Visitor” by Kalynn Bayron: A girl wants to make sure that she is home with her father on Halloween night, as they have their rituals and traditions they do every year. After being tailgated home by a mysterious car, she starts to feel like someone is watching her as she and her Dad wait out the night. This one took a huge swerve in ways that I didn’t anticipate, and it was done in such a well crafted way that I was taken by surprise, and totally thrilled by it. The slow building paranoia of someone maybe lurking outside the house was tense and unsettling, and then the swerve was perfectly executed. That’s about all I can say about it, just know I was impressed and creeped out.

“Nine Stops” by Trang Thanh Tran: A girl who is still mourning her grandmother’s recent death has retreated into the Internet, isolating herself from her loved ones and friends. After going out with friends on Halloween night and taking the subway, she finds a video of a woman talking about her own sister’s death, and begging people to watch all the way through, with deadly consequences if not. I think this was my favorite in the collection, as the dread ratchets up and up until it’s basically unbearable. I also liked the exploration of grief and how it can consume a person, and drive them to do desperate and perhaps horrific things in hopes of finding closure. This one really got under my skin. And who doesn’t love an Internet urban legend as a jumping off point for a horror tale?

“Hey There, Demons” by Tara Sim: When a teenage boy is left to babysit his half sister on Halloween night, he decides that it’s time to take on the poltergeist activity that has been occurring in their new house. But when the way to help take out the ghost is by helping a demon, he finds himself in for more than be bargained for… but perhaps in a more romantic way than he thinks. I did like that there were some cute and fluffy stories in this collection to go with the scares, and I loved this one as we meet somewhat anxious Noah and sassy and snarky demon Kody (a name that he adapts for his adventure with a perplexed human teen). The mythos is solid, the banter is adorable, and I really loved seeing this odd pair take on a poltergeist, as well as a teenage party. Just a hoot!

And as an entire collection, I mostly enjoyed “Night of the Living Queers”! I liked the way that they tied the stories together, with all of them happening on the same Halloween night under a Blue Moon, and how they were still able to do their own thing while having that connection. While some of the stories kind of fell into horror tropes that I don’t really care for (so many surprise ‘and then the ending is totally changed in one moment!’ gotchas), I did think that there were enough sub genres and tones that there is something for horror fans of all kinds. It’s also awesome having so many BIPOC and queer authors writing these stories with these perspectives feeding into the stories. Horror is becoming more diverse, but we still have a ways to go, and this book has a lot of authors who are establishing themselves as valuable voices to the genre. You love to see it.

Halloween is coming up fast, and “Night of the Living Queers” is going to be a must read for the nearing spooky season! Definitely check it out for Hallow’s Eve reading!

Rating 8: A solid and spooky collection of horror stories of all kinds, “Night of the Living Queers” is a varied and entertaining read from some established and up and coming YA horror authors.

Reader’s Advisory:

“Night of the Living Queers” isn’t included on any Goodreads lists as of yet, but it would fit in on “Queer Horror”, and “Great Reads for Halloween”.

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

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

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

Publishing Info: William Morrow, July 2023

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Reader’s Advisory:

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

Kate’s Review: “Illusions of Isolation”

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Book: “Illusions of Isolation” by Brennan LaFaro

Publishing Info: French Press, March 2023

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

Where You Can Get This Book: Amazon

Book Description: Is anyone ever really alone?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Reader’s Advisory:

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

Serena’s Review: “The Scarlet Circus”

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Book: “The Scarlet Circus” by Jane Yolen

Publishing Info: Tachyon Publications, February 2023

Where Did I Get this Book: Edelweiss+

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

Book Description: “The Scarlet Circus,” the fourth volume in Yolen’s award-winning short fiction series brings you passionate treasures and unexpected transformations. This bewitching assemblage, with an original introduction from Brandon Sanderson, is an ideal read for anyone who appreciates witty, compelling, and classic romantic fantasy.

Review: Jane Yolen is a powerhouse in the fantasy genre. She’s written over 400 novels, short stories, poems, and essays. Beyond that, her work has claimed numerous awards over the many decades she’s been writing, not least of which include a Caldecott Medal and numerous Nebula Awards. Such is the case that she’s one of those authors whose backlist is so intimidating that no matter how many books of hers I read, whenever I pick up a recent one, I’m immediately struck with a sense of guilt for not having gotten to more! So I was happy to see that she was releasing a short story collection this year (with a focus on romance, just in time for Valentine’s Day!), as that seemed like an easy, bite-size re-entry point to an author who deserves much more space on this blog.

This is a short story collection, so there’s really no point in including a summary paragraph. I also won’t be going over every single story in this collection. But I will say right here that I’d struggle to rank these stories or try to include any as “least favorites.” So right here at the top, this is a general recommendation for this collection, and any fans of fantasy short stories should definitely check this one out.

The collection covers a wide swatch of fantasy genres, including fairytale retellings (“Alice in Wonderland”), reimaginings of popular tales (like King Auther and “Romeo and Juliet”), time travel, and even a clever take on the footnotes of an essay that has disappeared after being written in invisible ink. Interspersed with all of these tales, Yolen has included her own poetry. While I do think that her prose is stronger than her poems, these were also nice breaks between the stories, and will likely appeal to those who like a bit more variety in their reading experience.

I did have a few favorites, however. While all of the stories focus on love in one way or another (some with happy endings, other with tragic), I did particularly like one of the later stories in the collection, “The Sea Man,” that focuses more on the love of family. The story follows a sea captain who discover the titular sea man. Though their connection is brief, the story explores the deep understanding of family and love that can cross all boundaries, including ones as simple as language to the more complicated kind that delve into the fantastical.

I also really liked “Dark Seed, Dark Stone,” a story that takes place in ancient Britain, focusing on the Picts and their in-fighting. After the death of her father, the shield of the King, Bridei, a young woman wishes to take upon herself that same role. But, of course, her skills with a spear and shield could never compete with the other warriors. Instead, she earns her place through sheer bravery and the ability to take on a threat in a unique way. Again, the love story is a very small part of this story, but I thought it was an interesting new look into this time period and Bridei himself.

Lastly, I really enjoyed “Dragonfield,” a more straight-forward, action-packed fantasy story. As the title suggests, it follows the tale of a brave young woman, a reluctant hero, and their fight to save their town from a rampaging dragon. While this story wasn’t doing anything particularly shocking, it was the sort of solid, familiar fantasy story that I think most authors work years to complete. And here, Yolen seems to whip it out as if it’s nothing. The simplicity of the story itself instead highlights her vast skills at amusing narration and the creation of interesting and sympathetic characters, even with a very limited format.

As I said, this is a thoroughly enjoyable collection of stories. It’s a must read for all fantasy short story fans, and I think it is an excellent choice if you’re looking for a unique take on a love story this Valentine’s season.

Rating 9: Yolen expertly weaves together a tapestry of romance, with the weft made of magic and the warp made of humanity’s joys and tragedies.

Reader’s Advisory:

“The Scarlet Circus” isn’t on any Goodreads lists yet, but it should be on Best Fantasy Short Story Collections.

Kate’s Review: “Unshod, Cackling, and Naked”

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Book: “Unshod, Cackling, and Naked” by Tamika Thompson

Publishing Info: Unnerving, January 2023

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

Where You Can Get This Book: Amazon | Author’s Website

Book Description: A beauty pageant veteran appeases her mother by competing for one final crown, only to find herself trapped in a hand-sewn gown that cuts into her flesh. A journalist falls deeply in love with a mysterious woman but discovers his beloved can vanish and reappear hours later in the same spot, as if no time has passed at all. A cash-strapped college student agrees to work in a shop window as a mannequin but quickly learns she’s not free to break her pose. And what happens when the family pet decides it no longer wants to have “owners?”

In the grim and often horrific thirteen tales collected here, beauty is violent, and love and hate are the same feeling, laid bare by unbridled obsession. Entering worlds both strange and quotidian, and spanning horror landscapes both speculative and real, Unshod, Cackling, and Naked asks who among us is worthy of love and who deserves to die?

Review: Thank you to Beverly Bambury for sending me an eARC of this short story collection!

Even though I am typing this whilst looking at a VERY out of control book pile on my nightstand, I’m not lying when I say that I’m always on the lookout for something new in my reading rotations. Especially if that something new is something horror related. So when I was approached with “Unshod, Cackling, and Naked”, a collection of short horror stories by Tamika Thompson, I was quite interested in giving it a go! I like finding new to me horror authors to check out, and the title alone had a lot of promise. And while it’s true that short stories aren’t always reliable for me, I’ve had luck with them recently, so I was down to try more. And happily, that once again worked out pretty well!

As I always do with short stories collections I will talk about the three that I liked the best, and then talk about the collection as a whole.

“Under the Crown”: This is actually, to me, the least ‘horror’ horror story of the collection, though there are still aspects that make it tread that way. But at the end of the day I found it to be a really satisfying tale of self liberation. A woman has been competing in beauty pageants for most of her life at the behest of her mother, and she is starting to get tired of it. During a really important pageant that she never wanted to do in the first place, the various tricks of the trade to make her look pretty start to take their toll, as the dress itself feels like its biting into her skin. This story is more about the very real pain that some people go through for beauty, be it physical or emotional, and our protagonist has a lot of body horror moments that are rooted in truth (teeth whiteners that burn, a dress that is so uncomfortable it draws blood, and something involving jelly beans that made me cringe). Beauty pageants, beauty standards, and misogyny are all themes in this story and I thought it had some nice moments of dark humor too.

“Mannequin Model”: Way back when during an early season of Top Model one of the challenges was for the contestants to stand in store windows as living mannequins, and my mind immediately went to that when I started this story, but it would be if the contestants then had to endure a psychological torture session (moreso). A woman who is strapped for cash and needs money to support her family in crisis takes a job as a living mannequin at a store, told to stand perfectly still in the store window between two actual mannequins. But as the shift lingers on and on and she has to endure physical pain, the leers of onlookers, and a cruel boss, she starts to hear the mannequins talking to her. This one is very unnerving, a look at objectification, of bad labor practices, of misogyny and racism, and how it can all come together to take a serious toll.

“Abduction Near Knife Lake”: I think that this was my favorite story in the whole collection, and it was the last one so it made the book end with a bang. Remnants of a bridal party and driving in the backroads of Michigan after the wedding when an Amber Alert comes through on their phones, describing the abduction of a young Black girl. When bridesmaid Samiah thinks she sees the car she convinces groomsman and ex-boyfriend Will to try and help her save the girl, as help is far away and missing Black children aren’t prioritized. Their good samaritan choice, however, lands them in unexpected danger. There are so many tension points in this story, between the suspense of whether or not Samiah and Will are going to get caught by the possible abductor, to the tension of being in an isolated wilderness, so things perhaps not being as they seem. It’s a really fun scary story, one that stood out for all the right reasons.

As a collection it’s cohesive and pretty solid! I don’t think there were any stories that didn’t work for me, though some I enjoyed more than others. But overall I found Thompson’s voice and storytelling to be unique and engaging, and given that I tend to be hit or miss with short stories collections I’m always happy when there is a pretty clear ‘hit’.

I think that there is something for everyone in “Unshod, Cackling, and Naked”, so definitely give it a go if you are looking for some enjoyable horror short stories! Tamika Thompson is a fun horror voice, and I will be going back to read “Salamander Justice” this Spring for sure!

Rating 8: A solid horror collection of various sub genres that explore supernatural terrors, as well as the terrors of being a Black woman in racist and misogynistic societies.

Reader’s Advisory:

“Unshod, Cackling, and Naked” isn’t included on many Goodreads lists as of yet, but it would fit in on “Horror Short Stories by Authors of Color”, and “Great Reads for Halloween”.


Book Club Review: “Interpreter of Maladies”

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We are part of a group of librarian friends who have had an ongoing book club running for the last several years. Each “season” (we’re nerds) we pick a theme and each of us chooses a book within that theme for us all to read. Our current theme is “Book Bingo” where we drew reading challenges commonly found on book bingo cards from a hat and chose a book based on that.  For this blog, we will post a joint review of each book we read for book club. We’ll also post the next book coming up in book club. So feel free to read along with us or use our book selections and questions in your own book club!

Book: “Interpreter of Maladies” by Jhumpa Lahiri

Publishing Info: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, April 1999

Where Did I Get This Book: The library!

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

Book Bingo Prompt: A book with AAPI main characters.

Book Description: Navigating between the Indian traditions they’ve inherited and the baffling new world, the characters in Jhumpa Lahiri’s elegant, touching stories seek love beyond the barriers of culture and generations. In “A Temporary Matter,” published in The New Yorker, a young Indian-American couple faces the heartbreak of a stillborn birth while their Boston neighborhood copes with a nightly blackout. In the title story, an interpreter guides an American family through the India of their ancestors and hears an astonishing confession. Lahiri writes with deft cultural insight reminiscent of Anita Desai and a nuanced depth that recalls Mavis Gallant.

Kate’s Thoughts

It’s not often that book club takes on a literary tale, so this time around we were stretching our limits with Jhumpa Lahiri’s well beloved short story collection “Interpreter of Maladies”. I’m someone who does try to tackle literary fiction every once in awhile, and this had been on my list, so I was excited to finally check it out, short stories aside. As we all know, short stories and I don’t always get along, but I like to think that I am game when it comes to book club! And overall I definitely appreciated the acclaim this book has, and how important it was when it first came out.

As always, I will focus on the stories I liked best. The first one that really stood out to me was “When Mr. Pizada Came to Dine”. This one is told from the perspective of a little girl whose family opens up their dinner table to a man named Mr. Pirzada, who is in the U.S. for research and away from his wife and daughters who are still in Pakistan. As our narrator gets closer to Mr. Pirzada, she learns about the conflict he left at home, as well the divides between India and Pakistan, and the Civil War and ongoing conflict going on between Pakistan and India that leaves Mr. Pirzada wondering how his family is doing. This one is through the eyes of a child, but definitely conveys the emotional conflict that the family friend is going through, as well as conveying a coming of age understanding about a life that she has never known, but is happening across the world. I was very invested in Mr. Pirzada and his family, and thought that the emotional beats were well achieved. The other story that really stood out was “This Blessed House”, which is the story of Sanjeev and Twinkle, newlyweds who are settling into their new home in Connecticut. As they look through the house they keep finding Catholic symbols and objects, and while Twinkle is tickled, Sanjeev is more and more frustrated with her fixation. I thought this one had some very funny moments, but I also liked the examination of a newly married couple who are still getting to know each other, and perhaps realizing each other’s foibles.

There were other well done stories in this collection, and I found Lahiri’s writing style and gifts for imagery to be stark and very engaging. It has a lot of difficult themes, from family strife to racism to trauma and loss, but they all come together in the end to make a well realized and melancholy collection of experiences of Indian Americans from all backgrounds and back stories. While I still have a hard time with short story collections based on my own personal biases wtih the format, I thought that “Interpreter of Maladies” did a really good job of stringing them together even without making direction connections. I’m glad that we tackled it, because it gave me the push to actually check it out!

Rating 8: A well written and melancholy collection of stories about love, loss, culture, and identity, “Interpreter of Maladies” is lyrical and powerful.

Book Club Questions

  1. Do you have a favorite story in this collection? What was it about that story you liked?
  2. This book has a lot of themes involving love and marriage. What were your thoughts on the different romantic relationships in the various stories?
  3. The immigration theme in this book has a focus on struggle and difficulties to adjust to a new culture and home. Do you think that a lens of struggle is seen as much in stories about the immigrant experience these days as opposed to twenty years ago?
  4. What did you think of the writing style in this book? Did you feel that it connected the stories together well?
  5. Who would you recommend this book to?

Reader’s Advisory

“Interpreter of Maladies” is included on the Goodreads lists “South Asian Fiction by Women”, and “Immigrant Voices (Fiction)”.

Next Book Club Pick: “Travellers Along the Way” by Aminah Mae Safi