Michael Barnes

When Girl, Goddess, Queen was released there was another Hades & Persephone retelling published. A Touch of Darkness by Scarlett St. Clair, so clearly it’s the zeitgeist. This was also Bea Fitzgerald's debut and a glorious find it was.

My partner is a fan of the Chthonic myths and I was only halfway through my library copy before I went out and bought her a paper copy, I also purchased Bea Fitzgerald's The End Crowns All her retelling the myth of Cassandra.

Girl, Goddess, Queen follows Kore, later known as Persephone (a name meaning chaos bringer). The young girl escapes her fate of marriage by jumping into the Underworld, ruled by Hades. Hades and Persephone become relatable, witty young people trying to find their place in the world. We find out that there’s much more to Hades than the harsh way he portrays himself and that Persephone is no longer the helpless damsel we know her.

The YA story does not shy from portraying the culture of the Greek gods as misogynist, with the threat of violent rape a possibility which whilst not graphically portrayed in honestly conveyed necessary in any faithful reading of the Greek myths.

Similar to Jennifer Saint’s novels, you don’t have to have any knowledge of Greek mythology to enjoy this read. I had no idea what the original story was meant to be until I Googled it. However, I’d say there are definitely ways the author nods to the original story.

Much of the conflict comes from miscommunication between Hades and Persephone and in this case the trope is used well without it feeling silly. Hades and Persephone constantly avoid opening up about their feelings to each other, for fear that they’ll break the friendship they have.

The resolution is tried to the myth and provides a satisfying conclusion.

This authorized retelling of Shirley Jackson’s The Haunting of Hill House (1959). A Haunting on the Hill (HOTH) by Elizabeth Hand is a startlingly contemporary and frighteningly vivid take on one of the most well-known haunted house novels of the twentieth century. The Haunting of Hill House (THOHH) begins " No live organism can continue for long to exist sanely under conditions of absolute reality; even larks and katydids are supposed, by some, to dream. Hill House, not sane, stood by itself against its hills, holding darkness within; it had stood so for eighty years and might stand for eighty more. Within, walls continued upright, bricks met nearly, floors were firm, and doors were sensibly shut; silence lay steadily against the wood and stone of Hill House, and whatever walked there, walked alone".

Hill House is still not sane.

Kirus Reviews summaries thus "Looking to escape New York City in the wake of the pandemic, Holly Sherwin and her partner, Nisa Macari, enjoy exploring charming “little towns long since colonized by self-styled artists and artisans.” Holly, once a promising playwright, is now teaching English at a private school but has recently won a grant to produce the witchy play that may just revive her career. When she stumbles upon a creepy old mansion on an isolated hill, she knows she’s found the perfect place to hole up with the small cast for two weeks of intensive rehearsals. Never mind that the owner is shady; never mind that the one neighbor threatens her with a knife as she drives by; never mind that the caretakers refuse to spend the night, ever, in the house—Holly knows it’s going to galvanize her cast into the performances of their lives. When they all gather for a run-through of the script, she can feel the magic, the electricity in the air. But maybe the house’s energy reflects more than the power of her words; there are also unexplained bloodstains on a tablecloth, an unearthly field of cold by the nursery, and mysterious voices at night. Not to mention the horrible black hares that keep popping up. Are they real or imaginary? Yes, and yes. While the novel doesn’t draw any kind of straight line between Jackson’s characters and Hand’s, other than some “echoing” voices on a recording, clearly this novel is shaped around Jackson’s legacy, not only in the setting, but also in the characters, specifically the relationship between Holly and Nisa. What she offers, then, is not merely retelling or update, but almost palimpsest".

I confess I had to go back a reread some of THOHH while reading HOTH to appreciate what an outstanding achievement Hand has in, as it describes on the front of the novel 'return to the world of Shirley Jackson' her propulsive writing style with a clever ability to immerse the reader in her worlds. The short chapters and intense scenes were genuinely chilling. With retellings, the original always casts a long shadow—especially with a book like this—but not only was this compulsively readable, but it felt unique and appealing as its own novel, which is a challenging balance to strike.

Holly is a playwright turned private school teacher who has refused to give up on her ambitions of writing a standout drama. After she receives a grant to develop Witching Night her latest play. I was entranced by the play within the story based on a feminist retelling of an old play in which a woman was accused of being a witch and consequently murdered for it, has a lot of potential. The novel is scattered with the songs composed and in the novel hauntingly sung by her partner Nisa a singer-songwriter who has been adapting classic murder ballads for the play.

The propelling force of this text is the horror elements, which were genuinely disturbing and frightening. A Haunting on the Hill is the perfect blend of horror and literary fiction without being overlong or drawn out. The characters—one of which is inevitably Hill House—were perfectly complicated and their shifting allegiances/motivations made the novel that much more interesting.

Kylie Lee Baker’s a novelist whose Bat Eater and Other Names for Cora Zeng and The Scarlet Alchemist duology have been on my to be read tower for a while so I picked up her young adult fantasy debut novel as it was available in my local library.

Though the story is set in the 1890s, it has very little to do with the human world of the time: it follows a non-human protagonist dealing with the two supernatural worlds she inhabits due to her Reaper father and Shinigami mother, starting in England and then moving to Japan.

With inspiration from Japanese folklore and Shinto mythology, it’s largely about protagonist Ren’s quest to destroy three Yokai so that Izanami, the Goddess of Death, will accept her as a Shinigami. It’s also about her relationship with her younger brother—a Reaper who didn’t fit in well because of his unusually gentle soul—and a stranger she meets in Japan—a former Shinigami with a deformed foot, cast out for being physically imperfect. But most of all, The Keeper of Night is about Ren’s desire to belong, and what she’s willing to do to earn a place among the Shinigami after being rejected by the Reapers.

A engaging and well-paced tale that expresses much about this mythology and I am keen to read the conclusion in The Empress of Time.

It’s the wedding of the wifetime and if that pun was worthy of a heartfelt groan then this third and second last book in the Tomes & Tea series is probably just what you need. Whilst I think you could read this one alone I would recommend reading the earlier novels Can't Spell Treason Without Tea and A Pirate's Life for Tea as most of these characters have been introduced in these earlier novels.

Our protagonists Kianthe and Reyna are working on making their wedding memorable and its not just the whole town that they have befriended, but the pirates, dragons, Queensguard, a lost heir, family and old friends.

Can it still be considered cosy fantasy when the story will involve dethroning a queen? Also I hope the idea of a wedding sword catches on.

Thoroughly enjoyable if you enjoyed the two books but it ends on a cliff hanger and the final novel in the series Alchemy and a Cup of Tea due to be published later this year.

This was an outstanding recommendation that led me to Xueting Christine Ni work. On my engagement with Sinophagia I immediately bought Sinopticon her anthology Celebration of Chinese Science Fiction.

As with the best anthologies Sinophagia provides an introduction and content warnings for each story, then offers fourteen stories ranging greatly in length and theme. The stories span from the earliest 2002 (“Immortal Beauty” by Chu Xidao), to (“Night Climb” by Chi Hui). At the end of each piece, Ni has included thoughtful notes about both story and author and track the different sub genre's of horror covered in these stories, some common to western horror and others more unique to Chinese and Asian stories.

I have picked a few stories that really stuck with me, but I really could have chosen any of these stories and their excellent supporting notes by Ni.

The collection begins with The Girl in the Rain” by Hong Niangzi feeling like a western urban legend horror surrounding a university campus, and then getting into a blood-soaked narrative. Central is the three-person friendship between Jiang Ruohan, Luo Xi, and Shen Jie. Two of the three are in a romantic relationship, and things eventually take horrific turns—those turns being tied closely to the legends established at the outset. The notes describe it as Xiaoyuan Jingson (college horror) and it clearly reflects the stresses of university life, including the social elements.

“The Waking Dream” by Fan Zhou is a science fiction horror story in which technology has been developed to allow people to perform as part of a workforce in a virtual workplace while their bodies are sleeping. Shen Yue is one such worker, but in her case, the shared virtual workplace is littered with what seem to me very Chinese/Asian style monsters. As the story progresses, we learn more about the cost these work practices take and the what or more how she is seeing these. In the notes I discovered the author Fan Zhou writes under pseudonym and keeps her identity behind avatars which makes the story she tells even more impactful.

And due to my love of spicy food I couldn't neglect the Chuan Ge's the Ying Yang pot with its focus on hot pot and traditional magic which is used to trap a thoughtless male who wanted to take advantage. How one can find them­selves “locked” in marriage to the dead through the very act of dining – which food is consumed and how – leading to an unplanned ghost wedding inside a hotpot restaurant ensconced in a dimly lit street. Our protagonist discovers a dish that breaks the boundaries between the living and dead in a story full of food culture and twists. Try to read this one when you are about to go to lunch, preferably Sichuan hotpot.

“The Shanxiao” by Goodnight, Xiaoqing. In this odd story, it’s the damsel who saves the young man in distress, but all is not as it seems in this meta­fictional story with its readerly address: “What? You’re laughing at this tired old plot… yes, a lot of books tell this sort of story.” It disentangles embedded stories in reimagined tales.

Another enjoyable albeit haunting story is Zhou Dedong’s “Have You Heard of Ancient Glory”, which is a social horror about a haunted suburb. In varied perspectives, the narrative cleverly ex­plores the shifting burial practices in a crowded landscape.

She Cong Ge’s “Those Who Walk at Night, Walk with Ghosts” offers stories-within-a-story in a novelette-length tale that captures folklore and haunting across night walks in remote villages. Yimei Tangguo’s “The Ghost Wedding” spotlights the tragic custom of stolen brides and draws atten­tion to sexual abuse, imprisonment and poverty, while Su Min’s “Ti’Naang” is a Frankenstein-type story with a twist.

Cai Jun’s “Huangcun” is another novella that unfolds a pleasant yet ominous tale. It’s immersive in first-person voice, where an encounter with a strange girl on a cold, Shanghai night leads to a visit to her hometown in an ancient house haunted with familial spectres associated with a ghostly flute.

I was also gratified to realise that Ni had chosen a more female authors than many anthologies and a wide spread of writers with those early in the their careers and well established. Also writers with different experiences in publishing some traditionally based, some purely web based.

The book follows a group of six teens living in the same neighborhood since childhood: Leila, a would-be artist; Gael, a horror lover who has already directed a short film; Malachi, a black queer boy; Devon, twin sister to genius Drew; Drew, the skeptic, who attends private school, and Yaya, Devon’s longtime crush. Most of the friends are Black, with the exception of Leila.

Ever since the Scream franchise began subverting the tropes of horror films many contemporary YA horror choose to also subvert these obvious tropes. In this story which sees a demon (seemingly following the rules from a very poorly received movie 'Read Your Rites' (Box office revenues 10 million on a 12 million cost) stalking the teens.

These teens are trope savvy enough (especially Gael) to bait the demon and recognise the need for the 'final girl' to end the threat. But with the required third act twist and a satisfying reveal of who was the real monster it was a Karen sorry Kendra. I found it a breezy, satisfying addition to the genre.

Given I am reading the fourth book in the Dr. Greta Helsing series by Vivian Shaw then I must be enjoying the series and as much as I revelled in the first three this book only extends the pleasure as it continues the previous world building which saw the good doctor narrowly avoiding the end of the world in book three Grave Importance, the leaders of Heaven and Hell are struggling to collaborate according to the terms of their new treaty—especially because angels and demons are, quite literally, allergic to each other. Seeking a solution, the powers that be decide to see if the allergy persists on Earth by sending an angel and demon on a research trip, first stop: New York City. And what better chaperone than Dr. Greta Helsing, who happens to owe Hell a few favours of her own?

But there’s unrest in New York’s monster underworld and Greta and her team are about to land in the middle of it. Something is off in Heaven and on Earth, and Greta will have to figure out just what that is if she hopes to protect those she loves most.

The usual cast of characters from previous books, including Lord Ruthven, Sir Francis Varney, and Abraham Van Helsing, numerous supernaturals such as mummies, bog monsters, werewolves etc the Angels, archangels, lords of hell such as Samuel, and support from Dr Faust it is identifying these literary refences which make these books so much fun for me. Reminiscent of The Extraordinary Adventures of the Athena Club series by Theodora Goss.

I hope Vivian Shaw returns to this world in future works.

I first encountered August Clarke's writing as H.A. Clarke in their young adult contemporary witches Scapegracers trilogy described as The Craft meets Mean Girls—except more heartwarming and queer a found family trope, but with teen witches funnelling their angst into reckless magic.

So I was excited to read Metal from Heaven and it didn't disappoint.

I am unapologetic communist and this book carries revolutionary theory and action in full. It begins with an organized labor strike and protest during a surge of unionization efforts by workers in this nation. Told at that time from the point of view of a young (around 12/13) factory worker Marney Honeycutt. The eponymous metal from heaven – ichorite – is part of Marney’s body from in-utero exposure to the substance making her lustertouched and interacting with the metal on a primal level (handling it can induce violent attaches like an allergic reaction, but it also gives her a measure of control over it. Those calling for a better world, Marney’s family and community, are all murdered at the orders of Chauncey, the man who discovered how to utilise ichorite. Like all capitalists didn’t care about his workers; they protested; he had them killed. After escaping Marney embraced by bandits known as 'the Highwayman’s Choir' and their community of Fingerbluffs. We follow Marney as grows up; and eventually masquerades as a noble to get close to Chauncey’s daughter, with the goal of killing Chauncey. And – because where would the story be if they didn’t? – things get complicated.

The author in an interview said they had never seen stone butches in genre fiction, given that they are one, or was at the time when I wrote this book so they explored what lesbianism means in terms of class and how messy and gender-transgressive lesbian masculinity is and has been and will continue to be.

And make no mistake this book is full of dynamic fierce and masc/femme queer women and what a joy, it is glorious. Cailen at the Lesbrary describes it as thus 'Metal From Heaven is gender-fuckery and untamed queerness, labour politics and workers’ rights, anti-capitalist and gloriously anarchist. What the fuck is femininity weaves through the story, a bright, hot pink ribbon with razored edges. Pink, pink is everywhere: pink is the colour of gender-fuckery, as we see when Amon paints his face not blue for men or black for women, but pink; pink is what Marney sees when she uses her magic, the world smearing and shining around her. This is political fantasy – fiercely, unabashedly political – where there’s nothing on the menu but the rich, the rich and those who’ll betray everyone else to serve them'.

In that same interview I referenced above the author went on to talk about the Ichorite which is a major narrative point. The author said "… comes from my anxiety that fossil fuels are like corpses, a very literal dinosaur body. Imagine plastic and oil and everything we derive from said corpses being haunted, and how immense and profound the scale of that haunting would be. Simultaneously, I’m a Marx nerd. Marx writes about the commodity fetish as this capitalist delusion where we think we’re having relationships with objects instead of with each other. What would it mean if there was a substance that, in interacting with it, it becomes immediately clear that this is not the case? There’s a lot of goofy Marx interpolation in my worldbuilding. I think other Marx-heads will recognize what I’m playing with".

One Marx head to another all I can say I bravo.

The final fifth of the book speaks of the revolution in detail but from an omniscient but third person point of view but still in Marney's voice and it’s a glorious conclusion in the sweet hereafter.

I began Catching Teller Crow one evening and the next thing I knew I was finished it. Short stories in spite of their shortness can be every bit as filling and satisfying Catching Teller Crow (a joy to discover where the title comes from once you discover it in the story) is one such short story.

Nothing’s been the same for Beth Teller since she died. Her dad, a detective, is the only one who can see and hear her – and he’s drowning in grief. But now they have a mystery to solve together. Who is Isobel Catching, her story is in poetic style leading itself to ask if it's true or metaphor and realising its both.

This for me was the most revelatory how sibling-author team Ambelin and Ezekiel Kwaymullina could use these tools to tell this brief, sharp story around the mysteries that have emerged after an incident of arson and a suspicious death at a children’s home. It deftly examines racism, violence, terrible historic injustices and corruption within the police force. This is a book that shows trauma and survival. Stories are vital, and Catching Teller Crow highlights and champions the transformative and nourishing powers of storytelling.

I had read an enjoyed Ambelin Kwaymullina's young adult series that began with The Interrogation of Ashala Wolf and am keen to read more of her work.

The summary of Butter by Asako Yuzuki is hard for me as it is such a dense story of different characters who grow and develop and our understandings of them change and how they understand themselves change throughout this Japanese culturally specific but fiercely feminist novel that I either provide a one sentence "it's about a woman journalist who interviews an imprisoned female serial killer, there are lots of recipes and cooking" or "A bright yellow book that champions butter, based on a true crime story combining thriller with gourmet cooking and gender stereotypes" or perhaps a multi paragraph synopsis focused on the stories of each of the characters and their relationships who grow and understand themselves and others more deeply as the story unfolds.

Also while much is made of it being based on a true person " Kanae Kijima known as The Konkatsu Killer, is a Japanese fraudster and serial killer, convicted for poisoning three would-be husbands and suspected of four more, spanning from 2007 to 2009. She was given her nickname for her frequenting of "konkatsu" (marriage-hunting) websites, with her case also being called with similar names (ex. Konkatsu Killings Case) I think this is more just a jumping off point.

In providing an overview I compromised with Yu Sim at the Straits Times "a narrative around Manako Kajii, an imperious 35-year-old gourmand locked away behind bars. She had been found guilty of killing three lonely men, whom she seduced with her cooking and then made away with their money. Butter is an addictively weird culinary romp that somehow brings to mind BTS’ song of the same name (2022), which opens with the line “Smooth like butter/like a criminal undercover”. In the novel, the dairy product is the omnipresent ingredient across the dishes featured, which transports readers from Kajii’s blogged recipes to Michelin-starred restaurants to dingy ramen joints. Kajii insists on using quality butter in her recipes, likening the sensation of eating good butter to one of falling: “The body plummets, starting from the very tip of the tongue. She refuses to speak to the media, but this does not deter the hard-nosed weekly tabloid journalist Rika Machida. Eventually, the lines between work and friendship get blurred as Machida gets reeled into Kajii’s vortex. She even promises to act as Kajii’s proxy in eating what she cannot get behind bars, and then regaling her with luscious descriptions of the experiences".

It’s the well-drawn depths to these characters that kept me reading and the protagonist Rika changes as she learns to unlearn so much of the internalised misogyny in culture, It's her friend Reiko who she knew from high school who I really enjoyed following her discovery of self who begins by accusing Rika of losing objectivity with Manako Kajii only to fall for her tricks as well.

Note if you do plan to read this I found a fair chunk of the early part of the story slow. Rika’s initial lack of interest in food, paired with Kajii’s manipulative hatred of other women, makes neither of them a comfortable target for empathy. And Reiko is equally complex: a capable, smart woman who has lied to everyone in her life. I urge perseverance as this attributes are explored and provide a sharpness needed to heighten the taste of this story ( I assure you the temptation to fill this with food puns is almost overwhelming).

Also the book whilst filled with meals, is not filled with recipes rather it is hunger inducting because it tells the sensations and experience of these meals, there is a sequence where author has described a simple recipe of butter rice with soy sauce thoroughly that I began salivating.

J Murry at Readings describes it thus "These mouth-watering descriptions of sumptuous meals and thoughtful commentary on the constricting expectations placed on women. Food becomes the vessel for this commentary, as Rika’s austere, functional dinners make way for decadent, unashamed feasts as her worldview slowly shifts, plate by plate. Rika and Manako are both complex, layered characters that are a joy to watch Yuzuki steadily unpick over the course of the novel, revealing more with each tense conversation. The lively and varied supporting cast of characters plus a dash of humour and Butter is the perfect read for anyone who wants a darkly compelling novel about the vital importance of high-quality butter.

I myself cook with Lurpak but I am tempted to seek out even more sumptuous butter after reading this.

It's obvious. The first thing to note about McBride's debut 'a girl is a half formed thing' is its use of language, grammar, syntax or lack thereof, and punctuation. I have seen it described as 'stream-of-consciousness' and that is as good a descriptor/warning as any. Read as fragmented gasps and spurts and appears childlike at first reading. Usually starting a new book I try to read the first fifty pages in a one sitting to decide if I want to keep reading and for this novel I needed that to feel that I had a reasonable grasp of what was being conveyed. Even when I was more comfortable reading I never got passed a sense I was translating or deciphering the prose, rather than just reading as I do with other books. Not since Russell Hoban's Riddley Walker have I had to put in so much effort to read understand what I was reading.

It was also a hard read because of the harsh unforgiving treatment these children receive in an earlier Ireland that the catholic church held sway. The country described in the Pogues song 'thousands are sailing' "The land that makes us refugees, From fear of priests with empty plates, From guilt and weeping effigies".

Central through our unnamed narrator (spoiler the final line of the book is "My name is gone") is her brother three years older than her suffering from a brain tumour as infant whose brain has been damaged by the cancer and the surgery never to recover toa full life and then to die in his early twenties.

Our narrators life is also horrendous she is raped by her uncle. Even with her conflicted sexual response it is certainly rape, for she is only thirteen, which makes it paedophilia as well. Following this recounts sexual encounters as joyless and violent compulsion reminiscent of nothing so much as the self-harmers who cut themselves as a form of release from unbearable emotional stress. Throughout the novel angry Catholic virtue of her virago mother, expressed in speech rhythms that catch with uncanny accuracy the way that people actually talk.

The protagonist's end is heart rending in its inevitability. Summarised by Mark Byron Senior Lecturer, Department of English, University of Sydney "The narrator is dragged under by her failure to coalesce an identity sufficiently resilient to the burdens of her experience".

This was not a pleasant nor enjoyable read for me but a worthwhile one none the less.

I breezed through Aiden Thomas’ debut novel, Cemetery Boys in a day. Is eminently readable and a fast paced tale of trans identity and Latinx culture cultures I know little about so can not speak to the stories authenticity but the author is trans and Latinx at least he isn't appropriating another's culture or speaking for someone else voice.

From Kayti Burt at Den of geeks " The novel follows Yadriel, a trans boy determined to prove his gender to his traditional Latinx family, who all happen to be brujx, with the ability to see spirits. When Yadriel’s cousin is murdered, Yadriel decides to solve the mystery of what happened as a way to convince his family to accept his identity as a brujo. But when, instead of summoning the ghost of his cousin, Yadriel accidentally summons the ghost of (very cute) school “bad boy” Julian, who refuses to leave, Yadriel’s mission becomes much more complicated… especially once he realizes he might not want Julian to go".

I was delighted to discover the story continues in Espíritu which I have added to my to_be_read_ mastaba.