C. J. Daley

This was on a list for spooky reads, and because of this stellar cover, I instantly added it to my list. The back cover marks this a pitch-dark, witty fantasy, and I wonder if it's tagged that because Tor picked it up? It's not that that isn't accurate, just anywhere else would have probably gone with horror, supernatural, paranormal...

The story follows an exorcist, not known for being delicate, but undeniably effective. The novella flies through some background—never genuinely getting to the level of world-building—and we get shown how good the exorcist really is. His main target is Prosper of Schanz, or more specifically, Prosper's Demon. 

This was an enjoyable read. My favorite part is the author's chosen voice, it really leads the story's tone, and I feel like it's purposefully heavy handed. I loved that the story is pretty obviously time-period specific, however the author's exorcist kind of sits and speaks outside of it. 

Overall not really a spooky one though!

I knew as soon as this book opened with an exorcist putting bullets in a mason jar of holy water, it was going to be a good one. 
I'll start with the height of this book...this book spooked me legitimately! Which hasn't happened since I read Home Before Dark by Riley Sager. Again, just a good mixture a things going on and the book got me. Was I looking over my shoulder in the dark? Yes, I was. Damn basement laundry rooms... 
When the Hill family moves into their recently renovated country home, they expected some peaceful time off before flipping the house for a profit. What they got instead, was demonic presences, evil spirits, and possession. Oh and evil fog, humidity, and funky smells. Body horror and disfigurement. 
The author does some cool references/Easter eggs. For the new family he kept saying the Hill's house, which I took as a possible ‘The Haunting of Hill House' nod.  There's also the obvious name for the exorcist, Merle Blatty, which is a nod to the author of ‘The Exorcist' William Peter Blatty. 
My favorite part of the novel was the way it was narrated. The production did some really cool things the narrators voice. They changed the octaves lower and higher for some of the demonic stuff and it was really good. 
Personally a 5/5*. 

So I am currently attempting to read the Poirot series in order. Ambitious I know... even though they don't actually connect and in some they reference work done by Poirot that has not actually been mentioned prior, but anyway that's how I'm doing it.

So for me I really enjoyed this story not being in the perspective of someone working with Poirot—as much as I enjoy Hastings and disliked the doctor from Roger Ackroyd. This was a refreshing take from so many of the others feeling the same. The story changes perspectives from random characters/suspects and Poirot is almost in the background. This way, when it gets to the explanation at the end, you don't really understand or know what he's thinking because you haven't been attached to him the entire time. It gets to a point where it's almost frustrating how Hastings is used as a tool to blind you, so this approach was nice for me.

A very enjoyable one, I would certainly read it again.

I really wanted to give this a go for its 50th anniversary year, and after loving Pet Sematary, I knew I had to bump this one up. Believe it or not, I’ve been alive for 32 of those 50 years and managed to avoid pretty much all spoilers.

While reading this, which I didn’t know was any form of religious, I also happened to be listening to C.J. Leede’s American Rapture—which is an extreme examination on religion. Both of them start with a kind of deep dive into the bounds in which Catholicism is designed to hold down and punish women simply for existing. While Sophie’s family is simply force feeding her guilt on a biblical scale, Carrie’s mother seems to be well off the deep end. While Sophie is showcased to be so far removed that she truly doesn’t even know how the world itself functions, Carrie is so religiously uneducated in womanhood that she is unaware of menstruation, not even knowing herself. While AR showcases how religious families can be hurtful even within the Bible, Carrie’s mother using god like a hammer. Much more on the side of torture than praising.

I was surprised by how thoroughly this goes into the high school level of bullying. Because she is so sheltered, the other girls view her as weird, because she isn’t allowed to dress normal or use makeup, isn’t super skinny, they consider her ugly. The opening scene of the novel they throw tampons and sanitary napkins at her instead of helping her, solidifying just how other they view her. She is ostracized from her fellow classmates while she can’t even seek solace at home. Kind of similar to Neal Cassidy’s Schroeder that I just finished as well, that level of bullying could be seen as more than enough to push someone over the edge, and yet King’s novel adds an additional layer.

Right from the beginning, the reader understands that Carrie has telekinetic powers. She is not sure how exactly they work, or why she has them, nor are they very strong, but it’s something within her that she can explore. The novel mixes Carrie’s own discoveries with excerpts from scientific research and journals surrounding the phenomenon in a way that almost felt like King was creating his own superpower or mutant gene, even though that is not at all the direction of the novel. And Carrie is anything but a superhero.

And while there are definitely some issues where this is dated—primarily the descriptions of young girls, women in general, and some racial terms—I found it interesting that Chris’ boyfriend is displayed as the quintessential bad guy, his mistreatment of women being the main thing on display. It’s almost a commentary while missing his own mistakes?

And with that being said, Chris is the villain here. As a ringleader from the opening shower scene, she becomes wholeheartedly hellbent of ruining Carrie’s life…mostly because she got in trouble for doing a terrible thing? As the daughter of a lawyer, who is also displayed as an entitled idiot, it’s no surprise that Chris would blame someone else rather than doing some soul searching. This hellbent desire to get back at Carrie is the straw that breaks the camels back. The ending is fast, violent, and gruesome in a way I don’t think I’ve ever read before.

As soon as I saw this was available, I immediately grabbed a copy and started reading it. Christmas horror is 100% my style this year.

This was a lot darker than I expected from the blurb to be honest. I expected a fast paced home invasion story, and instead I got a ghost story featuring kidnapping, infatuation, absolute control, and conditional love. Mam is not like other mothers. Angelina is constantly watching out so as not to upset her, because at best, she’ll be berated, and at worst…well she doesn’t want to know.

This really broke down and showed the different ways a parent can be over the top controlling. One of my WIP actually features the same type of control, and this was done well enough that I was definitely taking notes. The conditional love was so strongly written and revolting that it made my stomach turn just reading through it.

This was definitely a very Christmasy story, and just about as dark as you can go. Personally a 4/5* for me.