I remember when this first came out, my friend Heather got an ARC and she was telling me about how creepy this was, and how it was like a thriller but also a fantasy-- maybe. Maybe? MAYBE? I had to check it out. And now that I've read it, I can definitely see the "maybe" element to the fantasy. This kind of reads like an R-rated version of John Connolly's THE BOOK OF LOST THINGS, where it's a mystery wrapped in alternating layers of fantasy and reality, to the point where you're no longer sure what is real and what isn't.
Cassandra Tipp was a famous romance novelist who made tons of money off her Harlequin-esque publications. But before that, she was a girl in a house, with two siblings, and two parents... and a faerie friend named the Pepper-Man. As Cassandra grows older, Pepper-Man and the surrounding faeries insert themselves into her life, in unpleasant and increasingly disturbing ways. ACOTAR, this is not. These are the faeries of ancient myth: the ones who will steal your soul and eat your heart, and grant you a wish that feels more like a curse.
The story is narrated in second person, by Cassandra, to her two heirs: her niece and nephew, Penelope and Janus. In order to inherit, they have to read her story and find the secret code that she's buried in the pages. Then and only then can they claim the money. But Cassandra's story is horrific, and the only thing scarier than faeries is the idea that maybe they don't exist at all. I haven't read many stories in the second person-- just Caroline Kepnes's YOU and Laura Fraser's ITALIAN AFFAIR. It's a narrative style that can come off as twee, but I actually really liked it here. I also liked the unreliable narrator: another device that can be twee in the wrong hands, but was done masterfully here.
I'm not really sure how to rate this. It wasn't quite as disturbing as I'd braced myself for it to be and much of the violence is couched in ornate fairytale style language that mitigates the overall effect. I'm not usually a fan of stories that are open-ended but I think it kind of works here, even if it did leave me thinking, UM, ANSWERS, PLEASE. But as frustrating as it could be at times, I found myself morbidly fascinated by this story and reading between the lines, looking for answers, just like Janus and Penelope. I read it in just a few hours and couldn't stop thinking about it until I'd finished, so I feel like if a story grips you like that and holds you in its thrall, then it kind of just HAS to be a five.
My favorite work of Grady Hendrix's is actually his nonfiction collection of essays, PAPERBACKS FROM HELL, which is a loving homage to the horror genre that covers everything from Gothics to ghouls. As someone who reads pulps on the reg, I was excited to see someone else who appreciated trash as much as I do-- there's something about finding an out-of-print gem that nobody has heard of and getting everyone excited about reading it... it's like getting an ARC, but in reverse. I love that feeling.
I've read some of his fiction works, too, but the two that I read-- HORRORSTOR and MY BEST FRIEND'S EXORCISM-- were better in premise than they were in execution. It felt... gimmicky, and the writing really couldn't carry off the story, sadly. That said, I was very excited when I heard about THE SOUTHERN BOOK CLUB'S GUIDE TO SLAYING VAMPIRES. One: because I love vampires and if its got fangs and hunts at night, I'll read about it; and two: because it's set in the 1990s and books set in the 80s and 90s are so hot right now. They feel claustrophobic because there's no internet & no cell phones. Everyone is a remote island of fear.
Patricia has the ideal life: nuclear family with a doctor husband, and a book club of other well-to-do Southern ladies. Unfortunately, her book club makes the classic mistake of picking the usual slew of boring "book club bait" books and after being caught not reading the book of the month, she and a couple other ladies go rogue by starting their own book club where they do nothing but read true crime, horror, and mysteries. Sounds like my kind of book club! Where do I sign up?
At the same time, an old lady goes crazy and bites off part of Patricia's ear. Her young relative comes home to take care of her and he's kind of weird. His name is James. Patricia feels sorry for James and tries to help him out, even as weird things start happening. Weird things that might or might not be connected to James, the man she has invited into her home and who has become intimate with her family. Everyone thinks Patricia is crazy and that all those books she's been reading have rotted her brain, but Patricia thinks she knows what she sees, and if Ann Rule's memoir has taught her anything, it's that sometimes it's the people who are closest to you who can't be trusted... right?
So, I went into this expecting satire or comedy, and there is a bit of that, but it's mostly written straight. It pays homage to a lot of vampire and horror tropes, but it reminded me most strongly of Fright Night (1985), The 'Burbs (1989), and maybe a dash of STEPFORD WIVES. The slow feeling of doom and paranoia were so well done, and Grady Hendrix might be the only male writer I've ever read who really understands and captures how men talk over and gaslight women. There were sexist scenes in here that literally made me sick to my stomach, because I've been in similar situations and it really sucks being painted as someone who's hysterical or shrill when you have actual concerns.
In addition to the horror vibe, there's also a sense of camaraderie with the women in the book club, and even some surprisingly erotic scenes, which is a must if you're writing in the vein (ha-- vein) of vintage horror movies and books, because a key element of horror was sex. The horror genre is basically the epitome of the Eros and Thanatos drives of Freudian psychology. By the time the book ended, I was actually shocked at how dark and disturbing it was. This was leagues better than anything else Grady Hendrix has written and I honestly can't wait to see what he does next.
Thanks to the publisher for sending me a copy in exchange for an honest review!
If I had to describe this book to you in a single sentence, I would tell you that it's like Gone Girl meets Darkness Falls. Told in past and present, THE DEAD GIRLS alternates between a group of friends in the 90s who become fascinated by one girl's stories of an evil witch ghost called the Red Lady, and one woman living in the now who is haunted by something terrible and menacing.
Heather and Becca were supposed to be best friends forever. Then Becca started telling Red Lady stories, which are truly horrific. They're about a witch who was murdered by the town and then came back as a vengeful ghost. Becca has a lot of reasons to feel vengeful, and she ends up dragging her whole group of friends, including Heather, into her morbid fascination. Now, Heather is an adult, has a job as a psychologist, and also married. She's haunted by something that happened 30 years ago, and when someone starts stalking her and leaving her morbid clues, she naturally assumes it's someone from her childhood who wants to help her remember what she's tried so very hard to forget.
This was really, really fun. I'm not going to pretend it's high literature, but I don't always go in for that. Sometimes I want to be a low brow basic B who reads trashy mysteries on the bus with titles that scare her neighbors. And yes, I see you woman who was staring at me and this book from across the aisle with obvious suspicion. Welcome to the Dead Girl's Club, population ME. No, but seriously, I literally devoured this in a single day. I actually read this on my lunch break because I wanted closure and it was scary enough that I didn't want to read it after dark. It's the perfect blend of Gillian Flynn-esque murder mystery and supernatural horror, even if the twist at the end is a little diet-meh.
If you love mysteries about dysfunctional women and want to feel a little nostalgic about the 90s, this is a fantastic book. It's breezy, fun, and has a gorgeous cover. Do you need anything else in a book? Probably not, don't be a snob. Only I'm allowed to be a snob, and even I liked this book.
Thanks to the publisher for sending me a copy in exchange for an honest review!
I love Gothic horror and the fact that this is set in a creepy boarding school in Patagonia with Argentinian characters seemed like a slam dunk. I'm sad that it wasn't, because I was really, really looking forward to this book and was so sure that it would be good. Here's the problem, though: good writing is like a carrot on a stick. You want to withhold enough information to keep the reader interested and make them think that they have a chance at catching the carrot; but if you hold the carrot too far away and don't reveal enough information, the reader will be bored and confused and will wander away in search of something more interesting.
The plot of this story is very difficult to explain. There are two timelines (I think, although both appear to be happening concurrently), with two narrators. One is a young teacher named Mavi, the other is a mysterious crystal being named Angel. There's a curse on the school. There's a student missing. Something creepy is happening. And don't worry, the book will keep reminding you how creepy it is; even when it isn't.
I found the timeline really confusing and the storyline was really disorganized. I kept waiting for things to click into place, but that never happened. I know people harangue authors for info-dumps, but I would actually prefer a well-written info-dump if it was interesting to keeping the reader totally in the dark. I love the cover for this book and I thought the atmosphere of this book was really well done, with regard to the arctic setting and the dilapidated mansion, and I really wanted to love it for being infused with South American folklore, but the pacing and story were just totes off.
Your mileage may vary with this one, and if this ends up being one of your top books for fall, more power to you. I guess it depends on how you feel about going into a book totally cold and-- based on other reviews I saw-- not getting to find out anything until the end. A similar book to this is HOUSE OF LEAVES, which I also couldn't get into. So if you like HOUSE OF LEAVES, you will probably like THE TENTH GIRL. I have so many other ARCs that I'd rather read than spending anymore time with this one, so I'm sorry to say I'm ghosting THE TENTH GIRL and leaving it on unread.
Thanks to the publisher for sending me a copy in exchange for an honest review!
The early 2010s were dark times. FIFTY SHADES OF GREY was a best-seller and everyone wanted to write the Next Big Thing. It didn't take long for people to go from writing about tortured porn to torture porn, and pretty soon we ended up with, well, a lot of books like these. HELD has been on my radar for a while because it frequently appears on the "Readers Also Enjoyed" tab for my Horrorscape series. Naturally, curiosity took over and made me want to check this book out.
First, a caveat. This book is dark. I don't think I've read or watched anything so horrific since The Collector (the one made by the Saw guy, not the one based on the John Fowles novel) or maybe since the tail end of Stephen King's MISERY. HELD is about people-- women-- getting tortured in incredibly brutal and graphic ways, and it was almost too much even for me. I think I was able to prepare for it since the negative reviews for this book were so detailed and helpful, so keep in mind that if this is a sensitive point with you, you should steer clear of this book.
That said, I actually liked HELD a lot more than I was expecting to. It's funny that this appears as a suggestion for my work because I actually had an idea similar to this-- although nowhere near so well-thought out. Nicole is just an ordinary wife and mom until she is abducted at gunpoint in a grocery store parking lot. Her captor is a man named Ron, averagely good-looking and 100% psycho. Ron finds Nicole amusing, and decides to keep her as his own. A fate that seems horrible until she finds out about the other women he keeps downstairs, the ones he calls his "basement bitches."
Ron is a failed author who wants to try again. This time, he's decided to do research for his horror novel-- by committing the horrific acts himself. He's certain it will be a best-seller. He has moments of being charming and funny that are quickly eclipsed by calculated acts of sadism. He claims to want Nicole's love, but not even she is safe from his whims. She knows she has to escape, but she isn't sure how, and time is running out, as Ron's novel is close to being finished...
So, if this had been brutality for the sake of brutality, I probably wouldn't have been able to finish. But this was more of a (very violent) work of psychological suspense, as well as a survival story. Nicole is funny-- it's clear to see why Ron decides to keep her-- but she's also selfish and a little cruel in her quest for survival, and she's forced to see the very worst of herself as she does what's needed to survive. I sped through this book pretty quickly wanting to see what happened. The book doesn't quite end on a cliffhanger, but it doesn't have the closure I need, either. I guess we have to get the second book to see whether or not Nicole gets to have her revenge.
If you can stomach dark and gory reads, you might like this. It's not for everyone but it has a really great story line with fast pacing and definitely creeped me out. I'll probably read the sequel. :)
SCHOLOMANCE is such an intense and brooding work. Like all of the other R. Lee Smith books I've read, the pacing is very slow, and the romance is even slower. This isn't a book you read when you want instant gratification. In fact, I'd argue that this isn't the type of book you read when you want gratification at all, as very little about this book is what I'd call "pleasurable." But if you like dark academia and eldritch horrors, this will be your jam. There really is nothing else like it, although VITA NOSTRA comes kind of close. It is a dark, delicious treat of a book where no light can escape.
Mara has never been like other girls. She's cold and unfeeling, and kind of a sociopath. She's also a psychic. She lives a dull and meaningless existence but one day she gets a letter from her only friend, Connie. Connie has always craved magic abilities ever since Mara confided her powers to her in secret, and when Mara was unable to give her what she wanted, she sought out a mysterious demon-run school in the wilds of Romania. This is where the letter comes from, and in it, Connie is begging for rescue and help.
After a sinister journey up a mountain that isn't unlike the dash for the Cornucopia in The Hunger Games, Mara makes it to the Scholomance. And Harry Potter, this is not. Students must endure terrible trials just to be considered students at all. And as students, they are utterly at the mercy of their demonic teachers, who operate on a totally different level of morality and don't really have any qualms about making their human students into inhuman pets or fuckpuppets. If body horror is a trigger for you, look away, because this book has lots of it, and lots of unsexy sex, too.
As Mara searches ineffectively for Connie, she becomes a student in her own right while gradually beginning to get to know some of the demon Masters there. And this is where the book gets interesting and also where I will stop elaborating. I will say that Mara is an utterly fascinating heroine. She's the sort of antiheroine that people often beg for on Twitter, which makes it a shame that this author is so criminally underrated. I get it; her books are long and take a while to get into, but I think if more people gave her a chance, they'd see that she's writing the sorts of things that they've always wanted to read. The world-building, the dialogue (Kazuul's words are pure poetry), the philosophy, the exposition-- it's all done so well, to the point that this ends up almost being a rumination on the human condition in addition to also being a sort of romance (with a compelling love triangle!), mystery, and magic school fantasy. Anyone who says they enjoy grimdark should read this, because it actually is.
Thanks to Caro for buddy-reading this with me! We're starting HEAT next! >:D
I've been really neglecting my Kindle Unlimited subscription and am trying to get back into it by using that sweet, sweet library to check out some cool dark reads. I've been in a dark mood as the sun sets sooner and the weather gets colder, and all I really want to do is curl up with some dark AF books and be shocked.
REIGN OF RUIN seemed like it could be the perfect book. It's kind of like if you took Handmaid's Tale and imbued it with graphic rape and degradation scenes. They are so OTT that I had trouble reading some of them and needed to skim, and this is coming from someone who pretty regularly reads and writes bodice-ripper style books filled with rape scenes. But these are pretty brutal and I 10/10 do not recommend this book to anyone who has trouble stomaching books that involve rape or abuse, because REIGN OF RUIN has both and they are hardcore.
It's difficult to explain the plot because part of what makes this book so unique is a big fat spoiler. I will say that it has supernatural elements, and that the "epilogue" that was actually the short story that ended up serving up the inspiration for the expanded novella format of this book raised more questions than it answered, and left me feeling even more confused than I did before. I don't really understand how the world went to shit and I don't really feel like the book answered that in a satisfactory way. I was also uncertain of this was meant to be horror or erotica or both? I'm sure it's somebody's kink but I'm not really into sadism or medical stuff, so it definitely wasn't mine.
If you like dark and degrading works of horror erotica, you may enjoy this. I did not.
The best thing in the world is when you find an author who really resonates with you. For me, Jennifer Armintrout is that author. It's like she peered into my mind, saw the checklist detailing everything I love to see in fiction, and then immediately set out to write a fleet of books that have every single one of those delicious tropes that I love so much.
I kickedstarted my Jenny Trout Experience with THE TURNING, which is a dark vampire erotica with an evil villain, vampires who actually behave like vampires, and enough horror to put the romance elements in their place. QUEENE OF LIGHT is a fantasy story about faeries and court intrigue, with high stakes coups and betrayals and yes, also doomed romance. How could the author write two totally different styles of books and have them both be so different, and yet so good? I have no idea, and yet she did it again with AMERICAN VAMPIRE.
AMERICAN VAMPIRE is a totally different book from her two other series done under this name. For starters, it is a standalone, which will come as a relief to those of you who want to read a good book without committing to a long-term relationship. This book is the perfect one-night stand for the impatient reader. The tone is also different. It's got a small town horror vibe reminding me of American Gothic, and it's really creepy.
Graf is a vampire who's on his way to a racy orgy party at the home of his sire. He gets lost en route, and finds himself in a small town that looks to be abandoned. When he goes into a gas station, however, he ends up finding a cowering girl and a monster. The girl is our heroine, Jessa, and the monster is this powerful and evil entity that's been holding the town in thrall for five years. Nobody's been able to get in or out in all that time, and the townsfolk have started to get kind of, well, crazy.
One thing I really liked about this book is how imperfect the narrators are. Graf is not a nice man and is a bit of a psychotic playboy who's used to getting his way. Jessa is also morally grey. She's an adulteress and has a slew of emotional issues and personal baggage. That said, neither of them are truly Bad People, and they have some pretty intense character arcs that transform them over the course of the novel as they slowly start to fall for each other despite knowing that they shouldn't.
The backdrop of horror is also really well done. It reminds me of Stephen King's older stories, the ones that took place in a small town hiding a big evil, like NEEDFUL THINGS or IT. In fact, the monster in this book is actually called "It" by the townsfolk (although nothing like Stephen King's IT), which made me wonder if that was maybe done in homage to the King of Horror himself. The way the townsfolk - and Jess and Graf - were trapped in the town gave this book a desperate, claustrophobic vibe that had me frantically turning pages, and Armintrout doesn't skimp on the gore.
If you're into horror novels with romance (or romance novels with horror), and want to read a vampire story that has an unusual plot and an even more unusual romance, you should definitely read AMERICAN VAMPIRE. I went in not expecting much and ended up being totally surprised.
A few years ago, Halle put most of her books on sale and I went on a buying spree. Karina Halle has a big cult following and I wanted to experience the edgy blend of horror and romance that she's become known for with books like Experiment in Terror and The Artists. What I'm quickly finding is that she's very hit or miss. Some of her books are very well done, and others are... not.
I was side-eying this book from the get-go with its slightly judgey sounding disclaimer in the blurb:
"A note about this book: Donners of the Dead is set in 1851 – couples were often thrust into marriage together with short courtships, racism was widespread and not overly frowned upon, and women had little to no rights. What wouldn't fly in today's day and age was unfortunately the norm back then - it is worth keeping that in mind when reading this book."
Like, I get the need for disclaimers if you're going to emulate a bodice-ripper from the days of yore. Whenever you're writing about a different era in which bad things happened to women and minorities, it can be uncomfortable - at best.
That said, there were nuances, even back then, and the words you used with certain people varied. It is pretty gross to see the love interest in this book casually deride the heroine for being half-Native, calling her pine nut, and, I think, "Injun." The others in their treasure-hunting party were certainly happy to fling the word "Injun" around like racist confetti. Which, on the one hand, okay, they are working class and ignorant, so it fits. But it felt gratuitous and, well, forced.
The plot of this book is pretty creative. Eve is hired on as a tracker to look for treasure when she and her party encounter a bunch of zombies influenced by the Wendigo myth. The execution was lacking. There's a lot of gore, but the horror lacks subtlety. Eve is a helpless heroine, shrieking, flinching, and constantly looking to Jake in a way that's reminiscent of Kagome's catch-phrase, "Go get 'em, Inuyasha!" Like, girl, take some responsibility and at least put some value on your damn life?
I did not like Jake at all, and the historical context seemed limited to homespun, casual racism in dialogue, and an overuse of the words "I reckon." I was hoping for Dawn of the Dead meets Rosemary Rogers, and instead I got... not that. If you're looking for a Western romp, just read Rosemary Rogers instead. Jake McGraw can only dream of being Steve Morgan when he grows up.
After reading so many Harlequin manga, it feels weird to pick up a manga that isn't about gushy romance, but gushy body parts. You think I'm kidding? Man, this is some creepy shit. I thought it was going to be a light-hearted gothic novel with cute little anime girls but now I'm literally freaking out because it's midnight and someone I know might disappear into the woods.
Jeanie and Amber are twin girls who are going to a boarding college in the Australian bushlands because reasons. They thought it would be an opportunity to connect with her aunt, but she drops them off and then immediately leaves under the cover of night, leaving them at the mercy of the crotchety and slightly creepy teachers, and the older than dirt VP. Almost as soon as they take up residence in the school, creepy things happen. Seances go awry, mirrors don't act normally, things watch them in the shadows, and they have some MFing terrifying nightmares about dead girls frolicking in trees raining blood. OH. EM. GEE.
I was actually very impressed by this story and how thoughtful and mysterious and creepy everything is. Sometimes horror anime goes totally over the top, like Higurashi no Naku Koro Ni, or "When the Cicadas Cry" had a good atmosphere but also relied on shock horror and had a lot of splatterpunk, whereas THE DREAMING is much more psychological in nature and reminds me of Japanese horror films like The Ring and The Grudge in how it relies on atmosphere, emotion, and secrets to keep the story driving to its inevitable and creepy climax.
Even after finishing this review, I still have chills. I'm going to have to stay up for another hour or two reading something that isn't scary. If you enjoy horror movies, you should pick up this book. It is almost cinematic in its delivery, to the point where I could almost hear the wind and the eerie howls. Apparently the story was loosely inspired by The Picnic at Hanging Rock.
Have you ever felt both simultaneously overwhelmed and underwhelmed by a book? Because that's kind of how I felt about this one, BLEDDING SORROW. It wasn't bad, but everyone was singing its praises to me about how it was such a mind-shattering Gothic novel that didn't care about happy endings, and reveled in its own twisted nature. That sounded like something I could totally get on board with, and I knew already that this author was fully capable of writing such dark and gloomy stuff that reading it could just about ruin your day, because Marilyn Harris also wrote THE EDEN PASSION, which has the dubious honor of being one of the more twisted and unpleasant "romance" novels I have ever read.
BLEDDING SORROW is only a romance in the most liberal sense of the word. There are two people who are in love in this book, but other than that, it doesn't really fit the genre for a wide variety of reasons. The focus of BLEDDING SORROW is definitely Gothic horror. The setting is an old Elizabethan house owned by the Bleddings, minor nobility that can be traced back centuries. The current owner, Geoffrey Bledding, is impoverished and must lease it out to the Historical Trust's various events. He and his staff are relegated to a distant wing of the house and are expected to make nice with the tourists and the students touring his home, which he does, playing host most convincingly.
But Geoffrey is not the gentlemanly lord that he seems. He's got his wife, Ann, locked away (an homage to the madwoman in the attic trope, perhaps), only he's the one who has caused her to be mad through many nights of druggings and rapes. Poor Ann's only solace are the small mercies of Caldy More, the servant, and the curious attentions of the handsome new coachman whose job it is to drive the coach and do menial tasks around the estate. Ironically, the first Geoffrey Bledding was also cuckolded by a coachman, and his reaction to this was, well, shall we say unreasonable.
Ghosts haunt BLEDDING SORROW, foreshadowing what will happen. All of the characters in the book seem to be locked into their paths, without question; this is a book that seems to believe in both fate, and the idea that history repeats itself. You'll suspect the ending, but it will probably still take you by surprise. I read a spoiler in one of the reviews on Goodreads and was still taken aback. Holy shit. What an unfair, depraved little book. But then, of course the woman who decided to have a narcissistic coward as the hero of her romance would choose to end her Gothic romance in this way.
Should you read it? Only if you like dark, depressing books and aren't easily offended by outmoded tropes and language. BLEDDING SORROW is not PC, and it doesn't pull back any punches when it comes to the mistreatment of its characters. I think it might have been a more effective book if the characters were more fully fleshed out. Ironically, the supporting character, Caldy More, has the most deep and thoughtful development over the book, whereas the three mains feel much more shallow and superficial - at least to me. That said, I did think it was interesting, and if you can manage to find a copy (sadly it's still out of print), it's worth a read for the WTFery alone.
I'm low-key impressed by how good this was. I got this out of the Kindle freebie section and if you've been following my reviews, you know that I have some thoughts on the freebie section. It's a lot like a bargain grocery store in the sense that you can get some high quality goods for next to nothing... and you can also get a hell of a lot of stuff that's barely fit for consumption. The "bad" basically subsidizes the "good."
BLACK BAYOU is one of the first books in a while that successfully creeped me out. In a way, it's reminiscent of some of those occult movies from the early 2000s, especially Rose Red (2002). The book opens with our heroine, Marigold, waking up to her parents trying to murder her in a bathtub. Beside her is the corpse of her dead sister. Before her parents can succeed, the police arrive and her parents are both shot and killed.
It turns out that her parents were both "angels of death," and had been killing the patients at the hospitals at which they worked for years. People in her town blame her for the killings and her boyfriend breaks up with her because he can't stand the pressure. Having nowhere else to go, Marigold is sent to live with her last remaining relative, her aunt Delilah in New Orleans.
Her aunt is creepy and aloof, but worse still is the house. Something about it creeps her out and it doesn't help when a local tour guide/voodoo practicioner tries to warn her to get out. That night, Marigold has horrifying delusions that are so terrifying that she locks herself in the wardrobe to stay safe. It turns out that the guide is named Louis Dupont and he and his family go way back with the La Roux family, as the La Roux family owned several of his ancestors as slaves. He tells Marigold about some of her chilling family history, which are linked to the mysterious occurrences in the house.
This isn't really a romance, at least not in the traditional sense, but I really liked the relationship between Louis and Marigold, and since this is the first book in a series, there's a chance that they might have a relationship later on. There's also a super twisted scene in an ancestral tomb in a graveyard, which was exactly what I needed for my romance novel scavenger hunt. Oh man, I am so glad I read this while it was light out and not in bed, at night. I would have peed myself in fear.
I'll be the first to tell you that the Kindle freebie section is a crapshoot, but BLACK BAYOU is one of the gems. I enjoyed the book and its creepiness; it was the perfect fall read leading up to Halloween.
I bought this book when it was on sale for 99-cents because I really liked what I've read from this author before (for the most part) and the summary sounded a lot like a modern homage to STEPFORD WIVES, which is one of my favorite horror novels (and I love both movies as well, for different reasons). A reboot with fresh-faced yoga moms sporting glow-ups? It's the obvious conclusion.
Sidney, the heroine of this novel, is twice-divorced, overweight, and a struggling self-published author who has just moved to the bedroom community of Lassister Cove. All of the women there are yoga moms in the extreme and keep raving about this exclusive and intensive spa treatment called "Regimen," available at the Lotus spa and massage center. Everyone who's been through it says it's completely changed their lives - physically and mentally.
But there's a dark twist. Some of the people who participated in the spa treatment have disappeared. And the one person who's been friendly to her, a man named Leo, is most definitely in on it and hiding something from her. He seems to be on her side, and she's more attracted to him than she feels that she should be, but when her adult daughter starts to join the Regimen program, Sidney must play her cards very carefully...especially when her own life may be at risk.
God, this was so suspenseful and good. I blew through it in just a few hours (hence the lack of status updates). It kind of reminds me of a Criminal Minds episode I watched that creeped me out for days afterwards (can't say any more, because spoilers, but if you read this, and you watch criminal minds, I'm pretty sure you'll know exactly what I'm talking about). It was definitely inspired by Stepford Wives too but is different enough that I was never entirely sure what was going to happen, or what sort of twist it might take. I also feel like maybe there's a dash of Anne Stuart in this as well - she's famous in her psychological thrillers for having heroes who also might be the villain.
Honestly, it's a bit of a crime how underrated this author is. She's like Tarryn Fisher in that even while you can tell that her works are self-published, that gives them this edgy, personal charm that you probably wouldn't get in something mass-produced and edited multiple times, watered down in order to be palatable to a PC audience. She's had a couple books I didn't like so much but man, her thrillers are awesome. I can't wait to read the others I have on my Kindle so I can go out and buy some more.
I am shocked that this was published by the same Octavia E. Butler who wrote PARABLE OF THE SOWER and KINDRED. It felt like it was written by a totally different person. If I hadn't looked at the publication date and seen the "2005," I would have thought that this was a less-successful first novel. That seriously bums me out because I love vampire novels, and the idea of reading a novel about a black vampire that explores the themes of racism within a supernatural context sounded fascinating, especially since I had loved what I'd read of this author before and how she explored similar themes within the science-fiction framework. Joining me in this buddy read was my fellow vampire-lover, Heather, who doesn't seem to be into this book either for many of the same reasons I'm about to dive into.
Shori is an adolescent vampire who awakes at the beginning of the novel to find herself mortally wounded and in a severe amount of pain. She's picked by a hitchhiker who intends to drive her to the hospital - until she bites him and that makes him sexually attracted to her and crave her like she's a drug and he's an addict. This would be fine if she didn't flipping look like a preteen. It's mentioned several times that she looks like a child, and while complaining about this in one of my status updates, I had someone basically tell me that I shouldn't be so offended. Well, I am. I think that's gross. And I don't care if she's fifty-three in human years, even in vampire years she's prepubescent, because it's mentioned several times that she's not fully developed and can't yet reproduce, even if her sexual organs are functioning (ugh and they are - prepare yourself for incredibly gross sex scenes).
I don't have children so I can't imagine how gross and uncomfortable this would be for people who do. I don't want to read about adolescent sex (or sex with people who look adolescent), especially not if it's framed as a functional and desirable relationship. I get that Octavia Butler was a daring writer who pushed boundaries of what was socially acceptable in order to challenge the status quo (something my critic seemed to be arguing, albeit slightly less eloquently), but it's my right to say when I feel like an author goes too far for my own personal tastes. I felt the same way about Bryn Greenwood's ALL THE UGLY AND WONDERFUL THINGS, which is basically a romance between an eight-year-old girl and a fully grown man. One person's "oh my god, that's so brave and literary!" is another person's "no, god no, why would you write that? what the hell?"
Apart from the grossness of the female character and her - ahem - relationships with other characters in the book, I did like the way vampires were presented here (they call themselves the Ina, and they have their own rules and social hierarchies that reminded me of the Xenogenesis saga, except that didn't have gross underage freakiness), and I thought the trial at the end was interesting. The problem with this book is that it's slow AF, and while the human and compassionate part of you wants Shori to get revenge for the awful things that happened to her, the reader and hedonist part of you is going to be bored off your ass waiting for anything resembling a climax (EW, no, not that kind of climax - get out of here you gross person) to happen. This is Butler's weakest effort by far.
There's been an increase in horror novels being targeted at young women and I'm super into that, because they tend to be less focused on gore and more on psychological and atmospheric elements, which are the two things that I really love in my horror stories when I choose to read them. It's more Gothic and less, you know, splatterpunk.
I've read four such books pretty recently. WHAT BIG TEETH, WILDER GIRLS, HOUSE OF HOLLOW, and now SAWKILL GIRLS. I loved HoH, I really liked WBT, I hated WG, and I was really bored by SG, sadly. It's not the worst of the lot but it felt very over-written to me because unlike some of the other stories, which gradually build up to the dark reveal, we're spoiled pretty early on into seeing what's really happening and then we're just expected to sit around and wait while it unfolds. I think my friend jade said it best in their review, when they describe the pacing as "glacial." There's three POVs and they're all filled with this purple prose style of writing that I might have liked when I was fourteen but feels slightly embarrassing now. I tried to stick it out but I'm not feeling this one. Your mileage may vary.
We don't often get to revisit the books of our youth - the classics, yes, but the mindless, pulpy trash we read in abundance? That's harder, because those are the tomes that tend to slip through the cracks of time, only to be forgotten in favor of newer, shinier trash.
THE DAWNING was some mindless, pulpy trash I read in middle school, when I was starting my short-lived "horror" phase. Everything was Stephen King, Ramsey Campbell, and Dean Koontz. And this guy, apparently. Hugh B. Cave. I found this book while going through some boxes of old books I'd chosen to keep, and when I looked up my pal, Hugh, I found that he apparently used to primarily write books about evil voodoo ritual inspired by his residence in Haiti. This book, THE DAWNING, seems to be a one-off.
THE DAWNING is more science-fiction than horror. Specifically, it is post-apocalyptic. Technology is beginning to fail, the cities are hopelessly polluted. Gun violence runs rampant as people get desperate, scared, and violent, and the streets are terrorized by gangs of teens who are high on a dangerous drug called "Hallelujah."
The violence has increased to the point that a small group of individuals have decided to band together and go out into the wilderness, where the corruption is lesser and they have a greater chance to survive. Going back to their roots, so to speak. They're a pretty motley group, but mostly get along - there's Cricket, the animal lover; Max, the lovable brogrammer; Dan, the doctor; Don, the teacher (not smart, having a Dan AND a Don); Professor Varga (who I kept reading as Professor "Viagra"); and Cuyler, wife-beater, racist, gun nut, outdoorsman, and probable Trump supporter.
As a group they mostly function together... except for Cuyler. Cuyler is a little too fond of his guns and he enjoys killing the animals they come across in the wild. You know, for fun. The rest of the group can see and hear that his wife is subjected to the same brutal treatment that he uses with everything else, but in typical non-confrontational fashion, none of them want to get involved and sow trouble. They decide they may be forced to put up with Cuyler.
- until strange and awful things start happening at their camp.
BECAUSE OF COURSE THEY DO
The funny thing is, I was about thirteen or fourteen when I read this book and I remember thinking about how weird it was, reading about a bunch of "old" people. I had carried my adolescent impressions of the book with me for all these years, thinking that it was about a bunch of older people led by their "wizened" professor/grandfatherly figure. You can imagine my amusement and horror when I realized that all of the main characters are the age I am now, and the "wizened" professor is actually in his early forties - within my dating range, in fact. This, gentle readers, is what "growing old" feels like, in action, and I can't help but be reminded of that surreal shock of the kids in IT, when they return to their town as adults and are shocked to find that time has moved on without them.
THE DAWNING is a pretty good book. I liked the survival elements, and the horror elements, although I feel like it gets a little too mystical towards the end. Still, what can you expect from a pulpy horror novel from a dude who enjoys writing about voodoo?
P.S. I'm one of those people who enjoys reading the ads in the back of the book, and I was amused to see Mary Ann Mitchell's SIPS OF BLOOD in the back, which I've also read.
Quirk Books is my go-to for fun, quirky reads. They specialize in books that pay homage to or satirize pop-culture, and NIGHT OF THE LIVING TREKKIES is no exception. First, let's take a moment to appreciate the frak out of that cover. The artist totally nailed the 1960s pulp look (trust me, I would know: I read them). The book is just as good. NIGHT OF THE LIVING TREKKIES is a gory celebration of comic book/sci-fi conventions, Star Trek, Star Wars, zombie movies and books (specifically The Walking Dead and Dawn of the Dead), and horror movie cliches.
Jim is a veteran from the Afghanistan war and it messed him up. He used to be big into Star Trek, but after serving in a real war he lost interest in watching fake ones, even if they're set in space. But he's reunited with his long lost love when the hotel he works at ends up becoming the venue for GulfCon, a Star Trek convention.
Pretty soon, things start to go wrong in a bad way. People getting hurt or sick and a series of mysterious no-call, no-shows and outright disappearances. There's also a bunch of creepy people huddled in the alley outside the hotel who don't look like your typical homeless people. That's because they aren't. They're zombies - but of course, this being an homage to Star Trek, they aren't going to be your typical zombies, oh my no. How pedestrian.
NIGHT OF THE LIVING TREKKIES kind of reminded me of Scott Sigler's INFECTED (only better written and without all the shock horror and gore). The zombies and their transformation were truly terrifying, and even though I don't like zombie films or books typically, I really appreciated the survival element in this book, as Jim and his new friends navigate the hotel and try to figure out what's causing the outbreak as well as how to survive. The Star Wars references were also hilarious.
If you enjoy any of the things that I mentioned in the opening paragraph of this review (Star Wars, Star Trek, zombies, etc.), I think you'll enjoy NIGHT OF THE LIVING TREKKIES. It's been a while since I had so much fun being scared.
When Alice was a little girl, two of her friends stabbed her and left her for dead because they believed that the character from Alice's father's famous comic books, Mr. Tender, would grant them their hearts' desires if they used Alice as a sacrifice. Now a young woman, Alice finds herself a victim to her father's comic books once more, as figures from her past start resurfacing in mysterious and sinister ways. Somebody is watching her - and they want something from her. Something dangerous.
There was a great story buried inside this merely good story. I loved the premise. Mr. Tender kind of reminds me of the creepy owner of Christmasland from Joe Hill's NOS4A2, or the proprietor of Stephen King's eponymous NEEDFUL THINGS. The murder that nearly killed Alice and scarred her for life was obviously inspired as well by the Slenderman myths, and the murders that periodically surface that were inspired by those myths. There's also a dash of MISERY in here, as well, lightly seasoned with some of Gillian Flynn's "damaged-girl-returns-home-to-confront-her-demons" existential crisis turned domestic horror vibes, as well, and even some of Marisha Pessl's NIGHT FILM in the sense that explores what happens when art and obsession go dark and twisted.
MISTER TENDER'S GIRL is definitely an ode to the horror drama and for most of the story (I'd say about 60%), it succeeds admirably. I only got 4 hours of sleep last night because I didn't want to put the book down: it sucks you into its bleak and chilling atmosphere, and doesn't let you go. It's like literary quicksand. The last 30% is where the book suffers because, in my opinion, it jumps the shark. Things just become too ridiculous, and it becomes like this crazy version of the Gong Show, where every one wants to out-psycho everyone else, and I'm just sitting here, like, "Wtf r u doin? Stahp."
I'll give it 3 stars because it was well-written and I think the author has the makings of a truly memorable story under his belt. This one just wasn't it, sadly. Still, it's fun and worth a gander.
Thanks to Netgalley/the publisher for the review copy!
I remember seeing an ad for this in the back of one of my Viz comics like twenty years ago, and obviously it made an impression because I couldn't stop thinking about it for all these years. Finally, I decided to buy myself a copy and holy shit, this is one of the most insane things I've ever read. The back of my copy compares this to "Powerpuff Girls on acid" and has a blurb from VICE magazine that calls her the "cruelest" cartoon artist in Japan.
CINDERELLA is a truly bizarre Cinderella retelling that feels like what you'd get if Rob Zombie was into anime. When Cinderella's father dies from overeating, he comes back to life as a zombie. Cinderella is overjoyed because this means that they can continue to run their yakitori shop together. But then her dad comes back with a demanding zombie bride and two zombie stepsisters, and all they do is make Cinderella cook, clean, and sew bras for them.
The prince in this book is a chronically ill stage performer who died and then came back as a zombie. Also there's fairies, everyone walks around topless (even while cleaning??) and there's plenty of blood and guts for the discerning splatterpunk aficionado. All drawn in an overly cute style.
So like I said, this book was insane. It was not my thing and definitely not for children, but I appreciated the sheer fucking bizarreness of it. Also, there's a great interview with the author in the back of the book where she talks about her history as an artist and how she launched her career. There's also an ad for an exclusive doll from these comics at a store in California that I am very tempted to send money to, just to see if they would send me a pity prize (note: won't be doing that, though lolol).
Recommended for fellow weirdos and people who like irony in art.
Riley turns the knife so its blade catches the candlelight. "I read about this method of exorcism called bleeding," she explains. "If you harm the host body enough, it scares the demon away" (131).
It never occurred to me that Mean Girls meets American Psycho: The Book could be a thing or that it needed to be made, but apparently Danielle Vega thought so - much to my detriment. The first sign that something fishy was afoot is a "warning" in the inside cover of this book that says "For mature audiences only" which I sneered at, because the only other books I've seen with such a disclaimer are yaoi manga and Maya Banks's Sweet series.
"Go to hell, warning!" I thought to myself, blithely turning the page, where I promptly met Sofia, the sniveling new girl who, like the character in Mean Girls, ends up befriending the outcast girl. Sort of. But then, that same day, she also ends up befriending the popular girls, sort of, including Queen Bee. Regina. I mean, Riley.
The difference is that the "Plastics" in this book should be called the "Fanatics." They are all super religious and think that Brooklyn is possessed by a demon and needs to be exorcised.
Wut.
"Okay," I thought to myself. "That's weird. I hope this is going somewhere."
***WARNING: SPOILERS AND DESCRIPTIONS OF GRAPHIC CONTENT***
Well, it was going somewhere. Torture. Graphic descriptions of torture. Graphic descriptions of torture that are really not appropriate for teenagers. I know, I know, there's a warning in the front cover, but I thought it was some sort of weird shtick, like the pentacle and the inverted cross on the cover. I mean, isn't Razorbill Penguin's young adult and middle grade imprint? How graphic could this book possibly be? Well, LET ME JUST TELL YOU SOME OF THE THINGS THAT HAPPEN IN THIS BOOK. Someone gets a finger chopped off by a knife, somebody gets crucified, somebody gets flesh literally chewed off, somebody gets burned alive, not to mention the stabbings, attempted drownings, and various other things that happen in here. Things I totally did not sign up for.
Oh, and that ending - that ending made me so mad. Because it turns out Brooklyn was possessed by a demon after all, so the torture was totally justified. The sociopathic squad was doing the right thing. At that point I was wringing my hands and being like, "Am I being too puritanical? Is this actually a good book, despite the graphic content?" I hated AMERICAN PSYCHO after all, and couldn't get around the violence. But when I got to THE ENDING(!), I was like, "Nope, this is a terrible book and I am going to give it the bad review it deserves (but not the bad review it needs right now)."
This was a gross and awful book and actually slightly ruined what was otherwise a good day.
Nenia ✨ I yeet my books back and forth ✨
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