Whoa. This book was... something else. The first half of it was fantastic-- character development up to here, settings and atmosphere that had me feeling jealous, and the perfect blend of character-driven and story-driven elements propelling the book forward. The second half was... weird. Very, very, very weird. I was trying to think about what this book reminded me of and then it hit me: Stephen King's ROSE MADDER. The ending was like something out of a fever dream and I wasn't sure it worked. There was also some major insta-love between the two characters. They were both so broken, I wish there had been more time for them to build a rapport with each other on an emotional level before deciding they were in love after they did it once. I mean, really.
The story is very dark and I would advise anyone picking it up to go in with caution. It opens up with a violent murder-suicide scene and there are graphic depictions of self-harm. Towards the end, there's a lot of gore and emotional trauma. I didn't see many reviews warning people about this. The self-harm passage was particularly visceral and had me feeling a little light-headed (I think it occurs around 25% in the Kindle version).
Our two heroes are Zach and Trevor. Zach is a computer hacker and the son of abusive parents. Because of this he has major emotional intimacy problems and can't sleep with anyone he loves (or love anyone he sleeps with). Trevor, on the other hand, is the sole survivor of his father's murder rampage in their home. His father was an artist and an alcoholic before he just became an alcoholic (and then a murderer). Now Trevor himself is an artist and has become numb after a life spent in and out of foster homes. To anchor himself, he has returned to the scene of all of his traumas: the house in Missing Mile.
I think this book is worth reading because it is a work of LGBT+ horror, it is chock-full of '90s fringe culture references, and does a great job with atmosphere and setting. If the romance and the story had been just a little more fleshed-out this could have been an easy five-star read. I'm a little shocked that so many people were condemning this book for being too sexually graphic. Apart from being a little too descriptive about bodily fluid, this is more story than it is sex scene. I found the violence way more frequent and off-putting (funny how way fewer people are talking about that).
THE FALL starts out great but kind of ends up being a tangle of non-answers and lack of closure. Family madness ends up being a sort of Macguffin for this book and while I liked the vibes, I can see why so many people found the story-telling frustrating. The story is nicely written, though, and Madeline is a sympathetic heroine. I also thought the yo-yoing alternative timelines were pretty well-done. It ended up being a sort of interesting, beautiful mess. I still really liked it though but I wish it had been a little more solid.
EFFIGIES was a book I picked up while thrifting. Even though I don't read the genre as much anymore, I used to be quite the horror girly. It's a shame I didn't keep some of my older ones with the cool cover art because a lot of them are worth pretty serious money now. But look at that cover art. Look at that hand-painted cover and the gothic font. I NEEDED this book.
I'm actually kind of annoyed about this book because it started out really good. There's some great dynamics at play here: people who consider themselves "native" to the town and don't like the way that society is changing and passing them by; rich city people who want to take advantage and basically ruin everything about the town that drew them there in the first place; and hippies who are resented by virtually everyone even though they're doing the least damage just because they're different and don't do things by the book (aka the bible).
Things get weird when this one lady finds a finger in a box left on her doorstep. And then there's talk about Satan and demon children and weird science and everything starts to get quickly out of hand. I lost interest in this book around page 100, when the bad sex scenes started pouring in. This is a dude that does not know how to write good sex scenes, or portray women in a healthy way. The passage where the husband is describing his wife made my eyes roll so far back into my head that I'm going to have to book an appointment with a proctologist to find them again. And if I never see the phrase "rudimentary breasts" again, I will burn some cute bookmarks on an altar of special edition paperbacks to the book gods.
Should have been alarmed when I saw that some horror reviewers I trusted said, "Better give this one a miss," but I like finding things out for myself because I'm stubborn. So I found out myself that I should have given this one a miss. Oh well.
SLICE OF CHERRY is a YA publication from 2011, and even though this book was released while I was on Goodreads, I hadn't actually heard of it or this author before listening to a Teen Creeps podcast episode about the author's other book, BLEEDING VIOLET. In some ways, this book is a product of its time. It reminds me of the gothic nlog-centered stories that I used to see on Quizilla in the early 2000s. There's something very Tim Burton-esque about this story, but without the humanistic whimsy that made Tim Burton more fantasy than horror. It's like someone curated one of those emo girl Xanga pages with the razorblade and fallen angel aesthetics and decided to make a portal fantasy out of it. Which means that it ends up feeling very precocious for a teen novel and not always in a good way. There are passages in this book that are incredibly triggering, even for an adult reader.
I don't want to say too much about this book because spoilers, but basically, Fancy and Kit are two sisters who live in a town in Texas called Portero. Portero is the land equivalent of a piece of Swiss cheese except instead of being filled with air, its holes lead to other worlds and inhuman monsters, which are sort of guarded against by a roving magical police force called Mortmains. I am literally so jealous of this concept and wish that I'd thought of it. Points for imagination. Fancy and Kit are also the daughters of a serial killer called the Bonesaw Killer who murdered all of his victims in their basement. But lest you feel too sorry for them, the psycho gene runs strong in these two and they are more than eager to carry on their father's work, "unzipping" old perverts and torturing a would-be prowler in the cellar.
At some point, one of them realizes that she has the ability to go to this other world that she calls "the happy place" which is basically one of these Swiss cheese portals. Except in this world, she's basically a god. The other sister thinks that they ought to do public works for the greater good. And these two conflicting desires end up fusing rather gruesomely with their bloodlust: they decide that they will take people to the happy place to torture and murder BUT ONLY IF THEY DESERVE IT. There, random act of kindness done. Send these two the Nobel Peace Prize already.
The murders are pretty violent and often ironic. It's like a more graphic revenge story in the vein of Jigoku Shoujo where you're introduced to some horrific abusers and would-be murderers who end up getting a bloody serving of rough justice. Child abuse (sexual and physical) are themes in this book, and there are graphic descriptions of gore. Someone is called the F-slur for gay people at one point. Also, people who aren't from Portero are called "transies" which was mentioned in the Teen Creeps podcast and which I thought was a transphobic slur but it's actually apparently an in-town slur for people who are tourists and I think it's short for "transients" but that's never gonna catch on like muggles or mundanes, bestie.
Ultimately, the story was SO WEIRD that I almost couldn't help but like it. I could tell the author had a lot of fun writing it and the idea of two Black heroines getting to be so unapologetically bad while also being themselves in this twisty fantasy world where they had total control was honestly refreshing and unique. And again-- I had major jealousy over the setting she created because it was so fucking cool. I just wish it had been fleshed out more. You know a book needs more time on the editing book when you read 500+ pages of it and get to the end and think, "But I still don't really know how any of this works and also none of this gives me closure." Like, the ending was pretty unsatisfying and I don't think there was ever a concrete explanation for how the portals worked or what the Mortmains did, or how people became Mortmains or what the townspeople did to protect themselves from monsters. This is what happens when you get a story that's all vibes and very little payoff. It can work and here I think it actually did, but how do you market it? To WHOM do you market it?
That said, I'm kind of itching to read the companion book lol.
This is a frustrating review to write because when I first picked up the book, I thought this was going to be a five star read. It employs so many of my favorite tropes-- creepy small towns, dark family secrets, toxic relationship dynamics, evil children-- and the author has such an accessible, suspenseful writing style. The idea of a creepy hippie commune out in the middle of the desert was SO good and I was excited to figure out what was going on with Rob and her family.
I ended up getting really put off by the animal and child abuse that are themes in this book, though. I didn't see a lot of reviews warning people about that, and it is BRUTAL. I'm not particularly put off by animal deaths in the sense that while I don't like them, they aren't deal-breakers for me if they aren't gratuitous, but this felt gratuitous. The child abuse and dangerous situations for the children in this book are also pretty brutal. Several people in this book are straight up psychos.
Which brings me to another point: it's hard to root for anyone in this book because everyone is so awful. Towards the end, I felt like the book kind of jumped the shark and I began to think, Really? REALLY? It felt like it was trying so hard to be weird and edgy that it ended up not being cohesive. Is it paranormal or isn't it? What is going on with the family? These questions are never answered in a satisfactory way. And while I liked the vibes, you can't write a whole book entirely based on vibes. GIVE ME ANSWERS.
I'm giving this a three. I didn't hate it and there were several things I loved about it, but the ending left me wanting more than I got (and this book seriously needs to come with a warning-- yeesh).
The prologue for this book was really good. I loved the 1970s setting with the kids and at first it was giving me IT vibes because of how much it popped. I could tell that the author had a lot of fun writing it, and the Halloween/small town vibes were EVERYTHING.
I was less enamored with the "contemporary" '90s setting. It had a fun retro feel and, again, the small town setting was REALLY well done, but everything felt way too drawn out and kind of scattered. There were too many POVs and I don't really think they were adding enough to keep the tension going. Instead, in my opinion, they kind of bogged down and convoluted the storyline. I don't think this needed to be 500+ pages and a lot of that page count felt like it was probably coming from the POV swaps and the excessive details about random things.
I do like this author's writing style though and I really liked her vampire book, CANDLELIGHT BAY. She has several other titles that I'm interested in exploring, including some haunted house ones and a culty sorority, but this wasn't it. Thanks to Heather for trying to BR this with me! Sorry this wasn't it.
This was a buddy-read with Heather. I finally finished it even though this book is way darker than I'm usually comfortable with, and I've been in a slump when it comes to dark reads. But I needed the Kindle Unlimited spot so I decided to suck it up buttercup and grin and bear it, because after getting traumatized by R. Lee Smith's COTTONWOOD, I felt like I could take on the world. FYI, this review is going to have some spoilers and discussions of some of the trigger warnings, so maybe don't read this if you don't want to read that kind of stuff.
THEN, EARTH SWALLOWED OCEAN is kind of like if someone took ADDIE LARUE and made it into an omegaverse novel, right down to the deals with the devil and the freckle worship. Sadie (her name even sounds like Addie lol) has something terrible happen to her in the beginning of the book, which should have resulted in her death, but the devil intervenes. Now if she can find an evil soul to replace her own, she can live. WHAT A DEAL.
Enter the werewolf brothers, Wright and Ridge Lindal. Wright served in WWII and is still traumatized from that and the death of his human wife (at his brother's hands no less). Ridge, on the other hand, lives his life according to a code of feral sociopathy. He almost eats-- literally-- Sadie after raping her, but then it turns out that she's his soulmate instead. Even though he's evil.
Throughout the whole book, the reader wonders which-- if either-- of the two brothers is going to die to fulfill the devil's prophecy. Which actually leads me to what is perhaps the biggest plothole in the whole book: WHY THE HELL didn't they take one of those religious serial killers down to the ocean and kill one of them? They were evil AF. But was this ever considered? Noooo lol. They were too busy having blasphemy-sex on top of the church altar (which, hey, you do you, boo, I'm not religious).
The writing is absolutely gorgeous but there's a point where literary repetition starts to feel more like accidental repetition and the author overused a lot of words, like lush, plush, and feral. Sometimes they would be used multiple times per page. She has a truly amazing writing style that is brilliantly evocative and reminded me of both Poppy Z. Brite and Tanith Lee at times, but this felt egregious.
I don't want to spoil the ending but there are triggers for cannibalism, gore, sex with blood, knotting, sex in a church, blasphemous stuff, child abuse (neglect), gun violence, references to Nazis, war violence, and suicidal ideation. Also, there's a TON of sex. I'm not usually one to call that a trigger but this is more erotica than it is a romance and that's the type of thing you have to be in the mood for. I skimmed a lot of chapters because the sex scenes started to feel so repetitive and were absolutely drenched in fluids (which I personally find gross, but some people like the sloppy stuff I guess). Maybe the point of this was to make it feel like they were animals, but it lacked tenderness and emotional intimacy. I think that's the problem with fated mates as a whole: it acts as a shortcut that omits the need for romantic development and trust.
Anyway, Shiloh Sloane is an author to watch. I've read two of her books now and both of them were amazing. I'm excited for the upcoming book set in this world called CRACKED BLUE SKY.
UPDATE: Goodreads did that thing where they deleted my old review (and all the likes) because I guess my review and love of T. Kingfisher were just too amazing for this world. But that's okay because I'm just going to use this as an opportunity to scream at you to READ HER BOOKS BECAUSE SHE'S AMAZING. Also, stop being toxic, Goodreads. ♥
I'm not usually into horror novels but I like classic horror that relies less on blood and gore and more on psychological tension and atmosphere, and this book has both of those things in spades. WHAT MOVES THE DEAD is a delightful bundle of tropes: creepy animals, crawling mold, a gothic castle, a family filled with madness, and a dark, dank secret that would chill the blood of men, all told by a dryly witty nonbinary protagonist, Alex, who has come to the House of Usher to aid a childhood friend as she succumbs to a mysterious illness.
I don't know if any of you are familiar with Magic the Gathering lore, but this has very similar vibes to the plane of Innistrad when it was being influenced by Emrakul: picture a quaint 19th century European village being slowly poisoned by toxic and sinister influences. The interactions with the flora and fauna and the palpable terror of the villagers made this feel like an old skool horror movie that could have starred Bela Lugosi or Boris Karloff. I also liked the comedic elements that came from Alex and the proper Ms. Potter, Beatrix's fictional aunt, and determined female mycologist.
Less is definitely more going into WHAT MOVES THE DEAD because part of the fun is figuring out what's going on. But this is definitely creepy and despite being under 200 pages, the pacing was economical and perfect. If this isn't made into a movie, somebody's not doing their job.
Not me picking up a Five Nights at Freddy's novel even though I KNOW that I can't do robots, dolls, or horror. Man, I am so dumb about this kind of stuff. Why do I do this? WHY? Even though I know that FNaF is well out of my wheelhouse, I am fascinated by the lore and the franchise. It's a video game series filled with jump scares and the evil secrets that can be buried by a small town and quaint Americana.
THE SILVER EYES is about a girl named Charlie, who is the daughter of the inventor of the animatronics. Struck by nostalgia and the need for answers, she and her friends go to the abandoned mall that was build as a shell around the pizzeria that closed after the infamous murders. And it's creepy and it's weird, and there's a security guard who seems to know too much. Also, did those animatronics move? I'm pretty sure they did. OH MY GOD DID THOSE ANIMATRONICS MOVE? IS IT BEYOND ME? IS? IT? BEHIND? MEEEEEEEEEE? OH GOD I HEAR A MUSIC BOX.
I don't want to say too much because spoilers and all, but this was really creepy and ended up being the perfect blend of a survival horror story, a small town thriller, and, like, an 80s horror throwback. I feel like Stephen King could have written something like this, as it definitely has IT vibes. A lot of people on Amazon didn't like the art but I actually thought it was fine. I guess if you're used to the polished Marvel/DC look, you might be disappointed, but I like the indie look that some of these smaller publishers, as they remind me of the webcomics I read in my teens (specifically Questionable Content, which I LOVED). I do think the story felt a little bare bones and I would have liked more closure, but since this is book one in a three book series, I guess they have to hold out some stuff for the sequels, so I'm tentatively suspending judgement.
There aren't a lot of authors where I read their books and am like, "I NEED to be friends with this person," but I feel that way about Richie Tankersley Cusick. She just gets me. Her favorite tropes are my favorite tropes. She knows how to write a horror novel that still serves up on the romance. And that is just so... rare. It honestly kills me that I didn't read more of her books as a kid. I think she would have been right up there for me alongside L.J. Smith and Caroline B. Cooney. #HorrorQueen Also, PLEASE BE MY FRIEND. I'M COOL.
SUMMER OF SECRETS is one of the few books in RTC's backlist that hasn't made it to ebook. So I actually tracked down and bought a paperback because I want to read all her books. It's one of the middling ones, not the worst, not the best. Two girls, Stephanie and Gayle, go out to the country to visit Gayle's elderly Aunt Pat. When they get there, though, they get reamed by a truck with its lights off. And then they wander offroad and discover A SEVERED ARM IN A TRASH BAG.
I'm sorry?
This is before even fifty pages have gone by and really sets the tone for when they arrive to Aunt Pat's house and the doors are unlocked and there's no one there. Thinks go bonkers pretty quickly from there: the killer tries to kill someone via food poisoning (LOL), one of the girls literally FALLS ON A KNIFE, and then there's a canoodling session in a haystack that's put to a premature end by pitchforkus interruptus. (Which I was really happy about, because the cover MADE ME PROMISES OKAY.) No joke, I might have deducted a star out of spite if the scene on the cover didn't happen, because that old skool clinch cover, YA style, was, like, 80% of the reason why I bought this book.
There were some things I really loved about SUMMER OF SECRETS. The friendship between the girls, not one not two but THREE hot guys, some surprisingly steamy descriptions of bare chests ('90s YA Thirst Traps have entered the chat), and some pretty creepy scenes and setting of the atmosphere. I'm deducting points because the heroines were SO DUMB. One of them literally fell on a knife. The other was like, okay, I know you might have tried to kill my friend and maybe also me, and I know you keep gaslighting me, but I'm going to lie to the authorities for you TWICE because you're hot uwu.
Honestly, this just made me nostalgic for SILENT STALKER, which was this but better. I'm not mad, though, and because it's by RTC and has the best YA horror cover ever, I'm keeping this one.
Darcy Coates is a new-to-me authors that I'd heard of but hadn't actually read until my sister gave me a copy of this book, HOUSE OF SHADOWS. As soon as I realized it was a romantic horror novel with themes of marriage of convenience and a haunted house, I was so excited, because those are two of my favorite tropes. Also, I think we can all agree that romantic horror is a sorely under-represented genre.
Sophie Hemlock(!) is the daughter of a merchant (I think?) and when she meets the mysterious Joseph Argenton at an opera and hits it off with him, she's charmed and wary of his intensity. When a marriage proposal follows shortly after her father has a ruinous incident with a shipment, it seems too good to be true. He's provided her with the key to save her family's fortune, but that key might also be her demise.
Things get sus pretty much immediately. Her husband claims he has to race ahead of their coach and leaves her to continue the journey on her own. When she gets to the house, Northwood, her new in-laws are creepy and weird. There's a red door her husband tells her not to go into. She hears weird whispers and phantom music, and her husband's young cousin, Elise, is drawing pictures of a monster that she claims "whispers to her."
What the fuck is going on?
HOUSE OF SHADOWS was a really fun, quick read. The chapters are short, which makes it easy to stop and start. I thought the romance was actually kind of weak, and I think the story would have been a lot better if the author had played up the passion between the leads and maybe included a smutty scene or two. I also would have liked a little more creepiness, although the visceral horror elements in this book were done pretty well (what few there were). It has elements of Bluebeard, Rebecca, and Rose Red, with maybe a dash of The Haunting of Hill House. If you're looking for something creepy and a little romantic and not too scary, this is a great book for you.
Okay, so let me start off this review by saying that I am the BIGGEST horror wuss, so if you're an aficionado take this review with a grain of salt. (Maybe the whole jar, actually.) I like gothic tales and ghost stories but I don't like graphic violence or books where the pets or the love interests die, so as you can imagine, reading horror is usually an especially fraught experience for me. I love the aesthetics, I just hate the misery-- and I get super, super anxious while reading.
T. Kingfisher understands the desperate need among the anxious for vibes and aesthetics but no Super Bad Things in horror. Between this book and WHAT MOVES THE DEAD, I ended up both charmed, amused, and scared out of my pants, but both had satisfying endings that were bittersweet (bonus in this one: the dog doesn't die). I think people reading this expecting, I dunno, Stephen King, might be mad, but man, what an amazing story. Apparently it's a sort of expansion/homage to Arthur Machen's "The White People." I've never read that story but I'm sure the author did a great job (God bless the public domain).
This story is about a woman named Mouse who is tasked with cleaning out her grandmother's house when she dies. But her grandmother was a hoarder-- and her step-grandfather was apparently harboring some pretty insane delusions about people he calls "the twisted ones." Mouse finds a journal in his bedroom detailing some of his ramblings, with references to a manuscript and something he calls The Green Book. The more she reads, the weirder it gets. But then Mouse starts to see things in the wood: creatures that shouldn't exist and places that should be there. And then she starts to wonder if maybe her step-grandfather wasn't really delusional after all.
I don't want to say anything else because some people are out there giving way too many spoilers in their reviews and less is definitely more, but I LOVED this book. I loved Bongo the Hound. I loved the people Mouse encounters who help her on her journey: Enid the Goth barista, Foxy the hippie, and Tomas and Skip, people living at the commune (one of them is bipolar and the rep is so casual). I loved how creative and creepy this world that the author built felt. I've seen people calling it folk horror and after thinking about this, apparently that's the kind of horror I like. Cozy horror with vibes. If you enjoyed this experience, books with similar themes are YOU LET ME IN, THE CHINA GARDEN, and THE STRANGER. I loved all of these books so apparently creepy rocks and creepy trees are my thing. Go figure. Either way, T. Kingfisher is the only person out there who I trust to scare me properly and politely.
The only reason this isn't getting a full five stars is because I wanted to find out what was really going on with the grandmother and get more closure with the book. I feel like a lot of things were left to the reader's imagination or whatever, and sometimes that feels like cheating. I'm not mad, though.
Have you ever read a book and thought to yourself, "That was good, but let's never do this again?" That was me with THE HELLBOUND HEART. When I bought the book, I actually had no idea that it was the inspiration for Hellraiser, or, indeed, that Clive Barker had been involved with the production. I knew Barker from his more whimsical offerings: ABARAT and THE THIEF OF ALWAYS. Still horrifying, yes, but in the far more palatable mode of Tim Burton or Neil Gaiman.
Oh my God, this was so not that.
THE HELLBOUND HEART is beautifully written, just like Barker's fantasy, and it has the same cruel streak of dry, ironic humor, but the similarities end there. This is a gruesome, grisly book populated by twisted, unlikable characters. Frank, our first main character, is a morally bankrupt man who has grown weary of what life has to offer him. He has heard that there are imaginable pleasures to be found if one unlocks the puzzles of Lemarchand's box and uses it to summon the interdimensional hedonists: the cenobites. So he unlocks the box and the cenobites come... and Frank has, shall we say, regrets.
While Frank is having his... regrets... we cut to the second main character, Julia. Julia is married to Frank's brother, Rory, and she also has regrets. Namely that she could never get over the impassioned affair she had with Frank before her wedding (they did it on her veil, ffs). They have just moved to the house that the brother's used to share before Frank went missing and Rory thinks it's going to be a new step in their relationship and Julia does too, but she's thinking backwards and Rory is thinking rocking chairs on the porch. Watching this go down is main character number three, Kirsty, Julia and Rory's sort-of friend. She is attracted to Rory and resentful of Julia, and when things start going down, she begins to suspect that Julia is having an affair. Ha, she wishes it was just an affair, because Kirsty is about to have some regrets, too. No character in this book shall go without suffering. I mean, pleasure. Because-- as irony would have it-- the cenobites think the two affairs are virtually one and the same.
Now, I am not a horror fan, but after 30+ years of reading and 10+ years of book-blogging, I know a master craftsman when I see one. This is a good story. I mean, obviously. Imagine writing a short story and then having ti become a booming horror franchise right up there with Nightmare on Elm St. and Friday the 13th. My man is living the dream. The writing is both spare and evocative, and rather than falling into the trap that plagues so many horror writers (especially the splatterpunk ones), Barker never overdescribes. He knows when to leave things to the readers' imaginations-- which is both better and worse for the reader. Now, did I like it? That's a tough question, and while thinking on the rating scale, I'd have to say that it was good, but just a little too awful for me to say that I truly enjoyed it. All the characters are not very nice people, and the story is carried out with this casual sense of inevitability and apathy that just makes what's happening, paradoxically, that much more immediate and horrific.
So yes, HELLBOUND HEART was a compelling, propelling read that had me finishing it-- on a worknight-- in just a couple hours. But now I can't sleep and I'm creeped out and I really don't think I'll ever be revisiting this nightmare of a book again (or watching the movie, because yikes, pins).
Whoa. I'm honestly kind of shocked that this has such low ratings because it seems like it's a pressure cooker of everything that the YA community claims to love: mature voice, lyrical writing, chaotic sapphic energy, morally grey characters, poison, and court intrigue. Even better yet, I read this hot on the heels of another work of Elizabeth Bathory fanfiction, THE BLOOD CONFESSION, and I actually think this one might be better!
Less is more going in but I'll try to give a brief summary. Anna Darvulia is a midwife's daughter who lives in a home with an abusive father. She and her mother barely scrape enough together to earn a living with the father drinking all his profits, so when she catches the eye of Countess Bathory and earns her favor, it seems too good to be true. Anna and Elizabeth eventually grow close, developing an almost romantic bond. And as Anna falls deeper and deeper under her spell, it seems like there's nothing she won't do to keep her status as Elizabeth's "dove."
The writing in this book is great and I thought the author did a really great job managing that historical tone without being too verbose. Once the book started rolling along, it had me clutching the book with white knuckles, desperate to find out what happened next. It's pretty violent for a YA and the fraught relationship between Anna and Elizabeth reminded me of some of the 1970s bodice-rippers I read, where the "hero" was actually blatantly unapologetically evil, and I think this is the first F/F book I've read that captures that same energy-- although this is not a romance.
I'll definitely be checking out more from this author because this was slipping-off-the-edge-of-my-seat good.
THE CRANE HUSBAND is such a bizarre book. When I was young, I had a book of fairytales from all over the world and this story could have been ripped from its pages. Even though it's set in contemporary times, there's something chillingly timeless and old-fashioned about it, outside of those modern references. It seems to float in its own bubble.
The story is about a small family: a teenage girl and her younger brother, who both live with their self-absorbed artist mother on a farm. Their dad is dead and their bohemian mother has entertained affairs with people of all genders, but one day, she brings home a crane. And the crane is kind of a huge douchebag. All of the farm animals are afraid of him, and when he and the mom spend the night together, she comes down the stairs covered in blood. Obviously, the crane has to go.
But the mother insists she loves him.
I feel like this is an allegory for how abuse transforms people, and how people who commit violence against others are like animals. I have read other stories that turn abuse into metaphor, which simultaneously makes it more chilling and more palatable. Fantasy can be a vehicle to explore trauma with a remove that makes it feel safer, psychologically. I feel like THE CRANE HUSBAND does this.
The story was a little too weird and disjointed for me to fully love it, and the anachronism was tonally jarring, but I thought the writing was gorgeous and I really appreciated what the author was trying to do. At times, it almost gave me a Boy and the Heron vibe. If you like Angela Carter, you'll probably enjoy this. I'll definitely be checking out more of her work.
So I've been trying to read as many books by Black authors that I have on my Kindle as I can for Black History Month, and as a result, I've been finding so many new and undiscovered gems that I forgot I bought in the first place. Case in point: MIRROR GIRLS by Kelly McWilliams.
Set in the South in the 1950s during the time of segregation, MIRROR GIRLS is about twin sisters: one has dark skin and the other is light enough to pass as white. Magnolia is raised by her paternal grandmother in a rich plantation house, whereas Charlene (Charlie) is raised by her maternal grandmother up north, in New York.
However, when the girls were separated, a terrible curse was enacted. And when Magnolia finds out the truth of her parentage, suddenly her reflection disappears from the many mirrors in Heathwood and she is unable to eat or drink anything without it tasting like ash or rot. OMG! When she and Charlene meet for the first time, they are struck by their similarities and differences, and also by the way that the current political climate regarding race has affected how they are treated. Especially when the townsfolk decide that they want to segregate the local cemetery and disinter all of the Black people, to move them to a fetid swamp. The spirits aren't happy, and one of the Yates girls might die as a result. DUN DUN DUN.
I thought it did a great job not talking down to its audience and it was honestly pretty dark and chilling for a YA book! People who are regular horror readers might not find this scary at all, but people like me, who are wimps and find mirrors creepy AF won't be able to read this at night. That was my mistake, you see, and I'm regretting it even now. Holy eep. The gothic atmosphere and the weight of the curse were both done really well and I liked the relationship between the sisters, even though I think maybe things might have been better if they didn't have that instant connection.
In some ways, this really reminded me of WHEN THE RECKONING COMES, but toned down for a YA audience. I personally thought WHEN THE RECKONING COMES was better because it really leaned into the history element, and it also had more of a romantic subplot, which I really like in thrillers. But the way this book portrays segregation and the strength of young women were both great, and I think this would be a great book for teens wanting to learn more about this time period, and also looking for something a little scary that won't scar them for life.
THE SHADOW SISTER is one of those "trust the process" books because it takes a while to get going, and until about 10% from the end, I had no idea how it was going to end. If you're a fan of YA folk horror, and books like LOVELY BONES and HOUSE OF HOLLOW, you're going to love SHADOW SISTER, plain and simple.
This story is about two sisters, Sutton and Casey. Sutton is the pretty, popular sister. Casey is the weird, introverted, prickly sister. One day, Sutton goes missing and it basically tears their little family apart, especially since Sutton was her mother's not-so-secret favorite. Casey feels torn about her sister's disappearance because their relationship was so fraught-- Sutton terrorized her and basically treated her like shit, in the way that sisters sometimes do, so she's not exactly sorry that she's gone, even though she still loves her at some level.
It's a shock to everyone when Sutton comes back, but when she does, she's not exactly the same. She's lost all her memories, the family dog is suspicious of her, and she is fucking obsessed with Casey in a way that she never was before, to the extent that she wants to be around her all the time. Casey is suspicious that it's all just a clever ruse. But it might actually be worse.
This is a great book. It rocks at being a thriller, horror, and magical-realism, but it also offers great commentary on slavery, biraciality, family favoritism, colorism, religious abuse, and the bias in the way that police investigate the disappearances of white girls versus black girls. Despite all these pretty heavy topics, it doesn't feel oppressive, and I thought the author did a fantastic job writing about such dark content so delicately. Also, we stan morally grey characters who get a redemption arc. I even teared up a little at the end (although if you pressed me on it, I'd never admit it).
I seem to be in my YA folk horror era and I don't think I want to leave anytime soon.
What if the literal concept of bigotry became self-conscious?
TELL ME I'M WORTHLESS is probably the darkest, most disturbing book I've read in a while. It's actually probably a good thing I read it now, when I'm actually feeling pretty good, because I could see this being a two or a one-star read if I were in the wrong state of mind to read it. It is a bleak, depressing, disturbing book, filled with hateful imagery and symbolism. It is a book that takes the idea of the power of anger becoming a transcending force that permeates the physical forces of reality like a cancer or a rot, bringing with it supernatural powers that can haunt a place like a ghost. It is like The Grudge, but fueled by whole generations of fascism, discrimination, and hate.
***WARNING: OFFENSIVE DESCRIPTIONS AND SPOILERS TO FOLLOW***
There are three narrators in this book: Ila, Alice, and the House. Ila seems to be coded as a closeted transman who self-identifies with female pronouns and is an active TERF. She is also a predator, participating in the same behaviors that she uses to condemn and deligitimize trans people and their existence, despite also being marginalized herself (Jewish/Middle Eastern and, ofc, queer-coded). Alice is a transwoman who cam girls, emasculating men for money. She lives in an apartment that is haunted and believes that tendrils of The House of seeped into her very existence, hungering for her even now. She also suffers from serious gender dysphoria, and cam girling is her way of projecting this dysphoria onto a masochistic audience that craves humiliation and emasculation for sexual gratification.
And then there's The House, steeped in history. The House where three girls entered but only two left. The House has seen terrible things and reveled in them. It's almost a fairytale-like figure, except when all the paint and panels have been stripped away, you'll find visceral gore and horror. Here, haunting almost seems to represent the process of radicalization. People who come to the House might seem innocent, but they have the seeds of fascism burning inside them already: the House, with its strange powers, makes them grow. And even if they manage to escape, those seeds will still blossom.
I felt so much anxiety reading this book. It really does have TWs for literally everything, including things like antisemitism, graphic transphobia with violent language, and eugenics. Despite all that, it's a compelling story. It reminded me a lot of the countercultural, transgressive horror of the 90s, penned by authors such as Tannith Lee, Poppy Z. Brite, and Kathe Koja. In fact, I think if you enjoyed those authors, you'll probably enjoy this book. It shares a lot of the same themes as those books. I'm not sure I'd read this again and I'd be careful who I recommended it to, but the concept of imperfect and viciously flawed queer people populating a horror novel like this made me think of what chels_ebooks said in their review of GAYWYCK, "the first gay gothic novel," about how GAYWYCK's characters weren't meant to be aspirational: instead the book aimed to just titillate gay readers with the same salacious thrills and chills as the "straight" gothic novels, just gay. I feel like in some ways, TELL ME I'M WORTHLESS does that for genderqueer individuals, too. It's messed up shock horror with queer characters who do messed up things in very messed up situations.
Help! I watched the original 1986 My Little Pony TV show this morning and then followed it up with this 1990 Scholastic publication. My pajamas are tie-dyed and my neighbor is playing rock music that has cowbell in it. WHAT YEAR IS IT???
Okay, but seriously, I am so happy the books from my childhood are making a comeback. There is something so much simpler about these old skool pulpy YAs. Nobody has cell phones and people actually have to talk to each other. It's so refreshing! Plus, the lack of Google on the go makes all of these characters exist in a sort of bubble, which makes for a claustrophobic and isolationist environment.
Belinda and her two friends, Hildy and Frank, begin this book coming back from an April Fool's party. I've never heard of such a thing but apparently they exist and the three of them are coming back from one, despite one of them being drunk and another one being grounded. Frank has dubbed himself the "king of fools" and decides an excellent prank would be to run the car behind them off the road. Except-- whoops-- he runs them right off a cliff, and then it explodes.
Faster than you can say "I Know What You Did Last Summer," the three of them make a pact swearing themselves to secrecy and that's that. Except it isn't, because Belinda gets hired on for a mysterious tutoring job and the son of her employer is super... uh, weird. He's a disfigured kid who covers all of his mirrors with fabric and lives in the dark, alone with his snakes. Basically, he's a Batman villain in training and about one synapse away from telling Belinda to ask him "how he got his scars."
But Belinda is pretty sure she knows how she got his scars. And she's also pretty sure it's connected to the sinister pranks that someone has started playing on her. The only question is who is doing it and why, because even though Adam "why yes, I do have the Joker as my profile picture" Thorne seems like the obvious candidate, his too-hot-to-be-trusted half-brother, Noel, is also suspicious. So is their stepmom, who casually confides to Belinda that she wishes Adam died in the car wreck that put her husband in the hospital. There's also the butler, Cobbs, who's British and therefore also immediately suspect (British people basically invented the parlor mystery, after all). And let's not forget Frank and Hildy, who seem to think friendship is a free pass for treating someone like a subhuman.
Basically, anyone and everyone in this book is fully capable of evil.
I obviously had to start this book on April Fools' Day since, I mean, it's called APRIL FOOLS. Also, it's written by RTC herself, first of her name, and she is one of my favorite Point Horror novelists. Why? Because her teens actually act like teens, she usually works in a steamy kissing scene or two, the sinister stuff in her book is actually sinister, and there's usually at least two hot but sinister boys. If teen me had gotten her hands on these books back in the day, she would have shipped the villainous boys so hard. RTC knows how to cater to the feminine urge to ship any and all hot villains.
Regarding this book in particular, it was meh. The gothic ambiance was great but Belinda wasn't one of her better heroines. She was kind of TSTL. Also, her friends were awful. Was I actually supposed to care if they made it out alive? Because I was kind of hoping for their demise. They were awful people. The twists were good, though, and I liked the Thorne brothers. Also, Cobbs was the best. (The book actually ends with him telling the heroine he loves her, which I kind of found hilarious. Also, apparently he loves butlering so much he'd do it for free? Did a millionaire write this?)
Not one of RTC's best, but not her worst, either. I stan.
Nenia ✨ I yeet my books back and forth ✨
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