Rhiannon

A lovely gothic novel set in 1950s Netherlands complete with a forbidden sapphic romance, a decaying manor house in the country and ghosts that bind themselves to their haunted humans (à la Lasher of Rice’s Mayfair Witches) all strongly in the vein of Poe and du Maurier.

Roos grows up under the abusive, exploitive, and strict rule of her (maybe) mother, performing sham séances for money. But Roos has a real spirit tethered to her, Ruth, who has protected and cared for her since she was a child. When Roos reaches the age of 21 her mother effectively sells her off to a mysterious, wealthy widow, Agnes, who says she only wants to have Roos as a companion and seems to understand that Roos’ claim of the spirit Ruth is, in fact, real. Agnes and Roos have much in common.

Roos happily goes off with Agnes to live in her decrepit home in the country, also inhabited by Agnes’ ailing sister-in-law, the memory of Agnes’ deceased husband, and loads of secrets and inherited familial madness.

A haunting and elegantly written gothic romance with plenty of deep dark secrets, charming and terrifying ghosts and a story that unfolds at a languid pace. The story was intriguing, the setting atmospheric, and the characters complex and morally ambiguous. The structure of the story was done well with short ‘interviews’ Roos has with a doctor, separated by 3-4 chapters of first-person narrative told from her POV, so you’re never really certain just how reliable she is, but I found myself drawn to her eagerness for a normal life and her sweet relationship with her spirit, Ruth. I found myself really rooting for her.

Strongly recommend for that haunting, atmospheric read!

I see why some might say this is extreme horror, and it is! But I thought it was more of a body horror posing as a commentary on horror in ultra-masculinity. Although the violence is incredibly brutal and absolutely ramps into the extreme category, it was also more grounded in gritty reality than mere shock value when compared to traditional extreme or splatterpunk.

The first third is spent setting up the distinct main characters – we have a cop, a mafioso boss, a scientist testing new drugs and an already supremely angry, roided out dude who gets amped to the nth degree by those experimental drugs and is now running loose through the mean streets of Chicago. The characters are all pretty much men with the female roles seemingly secondary and are mentioned tangentially or as victims of the violence inflicted. It feels like this was a deliberate choice made by the author?

Despite this, I thought Wagner’s setup of the main cast was well thought out and gave me enough to be interested in them and how they would all come together in the plot. There’s a lot of commentary on male masculine behaviour and traits, with some developing or ruminating in interesting ways and others maybe not so much?

This will sound odd, but it was almost like reading a classic Greek epic through the lens of our action-packed, ultra-violent modern time. In fact, the main villain of the piece frequently refers to himself as a god. This is also emphasized by the choice of Roberto Ferri’s excellent “Ecate” as the cover. Vengeance and hubris, extreme violence and tragedy abound in both the classical Greek era and our own current age.

An entertaining, fast-moving novel that kept me hooked right to the end.

My thanks to NetGalley and Dead Sky Publishing for the ARC. I am leaving this review voluntarily and all opinions are my own.

Solid and wonderfully varied collection of stories centring on addiction, hunger, desperation, desire and all its various permutations… this offering of quick and dirty short horrors will satisfy that craving and leave you wanting more.

Standouts for me were:

Agreeable Grey by Tyler Downs – he’s fast becoming a favourite for me. I find I’m absolutely mesmerized by his characters, including this one of a quick glimpse into the life of a deteriorating addict and his apathetic existence… but for that one thing…

A Need for Skin by Henry Penrose was just ick and creepy and gruesome and I loved it.

Evergreen Terrace by Mark Towse which took an unexpected and perfectly wild swing that I didn’t see coming.

Inspiration by Matthew Jon Smith is brilliantly meta, clever and hysterical to boot. This one also took some wild turns that I absolutely wasn’t expecting, making it all the better for its surprises.

We Do Without by Judith Sonnet was an emotional tale of two brothers in a post-apocalyptic world and the need for expression, communication and connection… the grounded characters were an emotional gut-punch.

Sunflower by R.S. Mot was equally heartbreaking and horrifying, from the incredibly creative perspective of fauna.

Vitreous Abyssal by M.G. Phillips was absolutely horrifying in how far a son will go to keep his father alive. Also, super ick.

Evans sets the bar high in the quality and creativity of the stories on offer here. This collection will scratch that horror itch.

𝑴𝒚 𝒕𝒉𝒂𝒏𝒌𝒔 𝒕𝒐 𝑹𝒖𝒕𝒉 𝑨𝒏𝒏𝒂 𝑬𝒗𝒂𝒏𝒔 𝒇𝒐𝒓 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝑨𝑹𝑪. 𝑰 𝒂𝒎 𝒍𝒆𝒂𝒗𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒔 𝒓𝒆𝒗𝒊𝒆𝒘 𝒗𝒐𝒍𝒖𝒏𝒕𝒂𝒓𝒊𝒍𝒚 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒂𝒍𝒍 𝒐𝒑𝒊𝒏𝒊𝒐𝒏𝒔 𝒂𝒓𝒆 𝒎𝒚 𝒐𝒘𝒏.

I had so many thoughts on this book and what I would say in my review. First, things to know: Big Country is and has been my all-time favourite band from the moment I first heard them at the age of 13 back in 1983. That has never wavered, not once. I have remained devoted to them (I had bought every album and 12” and special editions in both vinyl and CD) regardless of all the other music in my life, of which there is So Much, despite my wildly varying tastes, and despite the band not being ‘cool’ or ‘popular’ (here in North America, anyway). This Scottish band has remained true for me.

So, when Stuart died in 2001, I was broken. I was 31 and absolutely devastated by his death. I was never able to follow Big Country with the various lineup changes they made after Stuart was gone though – it never felt right for me. Back in those days we didn’t have mass media or social media so there were only vague rumours and hints of what had led up to it, and what really happened. I have waited literal decades, like so many other fans, with great apprehension and trepidation for the story.

And here it is. And it’s made me feel no better, although it has answered some questions and confirmed some things. What it has done is made me realize that this band that I thought was so close was in fact in constant chaos and disarray. That they weren’t at all this cohesive unit musically or thematically. That members of the band often didn’t like the music they were making. The dark and tragic lyrics that Stuart so poetically conveyed were always his words, and his alone. None of the others felt the depth of them as much as he did, beyond recognizing that he was an amazing poet and storyteller. And some barely even thought of him as a friend…

I knew this book wouldn’t be a happy one – how could it be? But I wasn’t expecting it to be so scarce in joy, when the music they made brought me and so many others such delight and wonder. I am sad but not surprised. The music won’t change for me.

I give it 4/5 – I did find the writing uneven and a bit jumpy at times. But I am so very grateful that the author was able to finally get access to the principal players in this story – band, family and friends. I can’t imagine how hard it was for them to be this honest about Stuart’s life and death.

A decent collection of 10 short horror stories. I’d say these lean more to a moderate level of horror, so if you’re not into anything too squeamish then these stories should be right up your alley. A lot of the themes seem to centre around comeuppance and karma. There are a few stories involving animals that might worry you — I’m an animal person and this had me worried a few times but overall, they weren’t over the top or cause for concern. A couple of other stories edging on taboo topics but again, nothing extreme.

There’s some botanical horror in The Sprouting (whose only two characters were horrible so I wasn’t really invested in them as people but karma and all that…), a bit of ancient almost cosmic horror in Dead Trees; some childhood trauma horror (watch your triggers here) in Battel The Monstur with an imaginative and tragic boy who fights back (this one was quite emotional and effective)…

I think it was a respectable mix of horror topics with nothing pushing boundaries 𝙩𝙤𝙤 much – reminding me a bit of the style of Stephen King’s early short collections that edged around horror without overt explicitness while still having characters that were despicable doing despicable things. As a collection of horror, I would have preferred the shorts to have a bit more punch/intensity to them, but I can also see this author probably doing well with a longer form expansion of some of these stories as there are some great, imaginative ideas here that cry out for more exploration.

𝑴𝒚 𝒕𝒉𝒂𝒏𝒌𝒔 𝒕𝒐 A.F. Cosentino 𝒂𝒏𝒅 BookSirens 𝒇𝒐𝒓 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝑨𝑹𝑪. 𝑰 𝒂𝒎 𝒍𝒆𝒂𝒗𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒔 𝒓𝒆𝒗𝒊𝒆𝒘 𝒗𝒐𝒍𝒖𝒏𝒕𝒂𝒓𝒊𝒍𝒚 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒂𝒍𝒍 𝒐𝒑𝒊𝒏𝒊𝒐𝒏𝒔 𝒂𝒓𝒆 𝒎𝒚 𝒐𝒘𝒏.