Rhiannon

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.

I mean, I wouldn’t do it for any amount of money because I absolutely suck at these kinds of puzzles and I’d be done for before I finished walking in the front door, but reading about them is absolutely my jam!

This is kinda like a mashup of elements of the movies Saw and Cabin In The Woods and Cube and Agatha Christie locked-room whodunnits (but where you already kinda know the murderer) all set in a crazy escape room - no HOUSE - with a big fat reward at the end of it all – if you survive.

It’s a load of fun and I was thoroughly entertained by the fast-paced action and creativeness of the house and I really liked a lot of the main characters – although I’d have been happier with more detail and backstories from some of the other Six. I enjoyed what the plot evolved into as well, and so I'm thoroughly invested in where this is going.

I’d already bought the second book before I even started this one, so convinced I was that Duncan wouldn’t disappoint, and he didn’t let me down. I’m heading straight into the next one right away, which looks to amp up the action even more (why am I getting Hardcore Henry vibes now?)

Go Henry GO!

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.

Clearly familiar with the VHEMT group/movement, this author had a very interesting premise for this logical/nihilistic (depending on which side of this particular philosophy you fall on) novel that I was very interested to read, as my own familiarity with VHEMT goes all the way back to 1992, shortly after the group was formed.

Unfortunately, despite the decent writing, it at times also came off as pretentious and preachy (and I’m someone who’s not adverse to the basic underlying VHEMT beliefs). I enjoy a good philosophical horror, which this is – good vs evil, humanity’s hubris, religious themes, etc… but it also was far too repetitive for me, and maybe that’s because I’m quite familiar with this movement already? Maybe for those new to it it’s more effective in driving the point home? But I kinda doubt it. There’s just too much repetition of scenes, and phrases. For a minor example the phrase ‘black heart’ is repeated nearly 100 times throughout the book and it was honestly wearing on my nerves. Like, I get it already please stop clubbing me over the head with this 🙄… and that’s just a phrase. I think it would be more enjoyable if it was cut down by at least a third? I think it would be more accessible to a wider audience then.

This is a very heavy ‘internal monologuing’ kind of novel without a lot of movement, so you really have to go into it with that in mind. It’s not light reading by any stretch. It’s dismal and heavy and misanthropic, but it also makes you think and ruminate on the core nature of humanity. For some, this might be too much though, too draggy, but it also might work for those who enjoy a more cerebral horror. You will absolutely feel mentally exhausted reading this.

I went into this thinking I’d really enjoy the philosophical horror but felt myself far more interested in the physical horror aspects (some very excellent visceral scenes, excellent creature and world building). The scope and length and structure put me in mind, very distantly, of some of Clive Barker’s longer novels like Weaveworld and Imajica, and I was impressed by that kind of detail.

In this case though the length and repetition ultimately detracted too much from it being a good or great novel for me.

My thanks to NetGalley and Witching Hole Publications for the ARC. I am leaving this review voluntarily and all opinions are my own.

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!

Inventive but also deeply irritating! Weird architecture is always fascinating to me, from liminal spaces to cosmic elder god cities to structures with hidden rooms and passageways, so this book, on the surface seemed right for me.

Unfortunately, the characters’ wildly hysterical speculations that just somehow magically seem normal(?) and not at all histrionic (my god so over the top) was making my eyes roll so much. It kinda reminded me of how my best friend and I in our late teens and early ‘20s would make up wildly silly conspiracy theories about the most mundane of things and then laugh at our nutty inventiveness.

I mean, strange architecture is strange, sure. But this book’s absurdities just go on and on and somehow the two earnest amateur sleuths amazingly are never too over the top in their melodramatic hypothesizing. I'd have actually bought into it more if it had turned out to be a liminal space trope. Alas, this is not that.

And then when you get to the actual history and motivations behind the alleged perpetrators it’s just more implausible nonsense and behaviour that I was giggling at, which I don’t think was the writer’s intention? Meh, what do I know though?

The book is a very fast read even though it’s at a fairly normal 200 pages. This is because the drawings of the house are redundantly repeated over and over. Some of the illustrations do have differences, but honestly the main drawings (like the one on the cover) must be repeated at least 8 or 9 times in the book, which is kind of unnecessary padding.

Weirdly enough, I think I'd still read some of Uketsu's other books. They're kind of like junk food? Anyway, it was a mildly entertaining fast read, but I do wish it hadn’t been so over the top in its plot. Just don’t go in expecting too much from this.

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.

First, I have to preface this review by saying that, with very few exceptions, I’m generally not one to read urban-fantasy-light-horror books. I usually find them too forced, too twee, too repetitive. And yes, this book leans much more to the light side of things and is only horror adjacent in that it does have ghosts, entities, witches, and supernatural shenanigans.

So, when I surprisingly realized by the second chapter of this novel that I was absolutely smitten with it, I suspected I had been lured in by nixies and held hostage by a group of pesky chaneques… somehow Debra Castaneda had won me over to her magical world in just a few pages!

Along with creatures and entities from a wide and wild variety of world mythology, it’s packed with Mexican folklore and witchcraft, which I was rather unfamiliar with, and which I’ve discovered to be rich with complex, but engaging, tradition and culture. And it’s set in a real historical neighbourhood, Chavez Ravine, in the Los Angeles area – albeit in an alternate reality. And the (real) history of that neighbourhood is, itself, intriguing and tragic. Castaneda has done a fantastic job altering the history just a bit in a bid to bring in the supernatural elements, as it were. And she’s done it with a charmingly effortless blend of magic and the mundane. This is a world where magic and spirits are par for the course and wholly believable.

I loved the lighthearted humour. I adored the very real characters in this world – Maddy felt absolutely relatable and someone I’d want to hang out with – she’s weary but determined. She has real flaws and tragedies in her past that don’t overwhelm her character or the story, but rather make her the strong person she is without boxing her into a trope.

The humour is subtle and clever, the mystery intriguing, and the overall tone has just the slightest hint of darkness amongst the whimsical without it being overbearing. I loved this book and can’t wait to continue on with a new favourite series!

Fast paced occult detective noir brimming with mystery, excellent world-building, and characters I love.

I was initially sent an e-ARC by the author, but by the end of the first chapter I had to send him a message to say I wasn’t going to be finishing the ARC.

‘Oh no!’ you think. Bad sign.

But wait! I had to immediately place an order for a physical copy, I’d fallen in ❤️ with the book that fast. And when I truly love a book, I absolutely must own a physical copy. So. I immediately placed that order.

It was an excruciating wait, but when the book arrived I dove right back in. I was not disappointed.

Seriously, by the beginning of Chapter 2 I was fully immersed in the late 90s nostalgia that felt effortless and weirdly comforting. But also, how Tyler managed to write a perfect 1998 when There Is No Way he’s old enough to have experienced it first-hand is a testament to his talent. Tyler’s creativity and imagination are wondrous things to behold – his characters are tough, funny, flawed, and wholly relatable.

Here, he writes a detective noir in 1998 Salem, Massachusetts, replete with occult critters, demons, ghosts, reanimation, pretty gruesome murders (but not so gruesome that the more squeamish will be put off, so it’s got a broader audience appeal in that way.) The main-Main Character, Ed, is scruffy, world weary and cursed to rise from the grave once a year (the opening scene of his death gave me strong Eric Draven vibes, again amping the 90s feel) to partner up with Sam, the young adult son of an old friend and solve some pretty heady supernatural crimes in the space of a week. Their relationship is touching, funny, and utterly relatable.

The mystery they’re pursuing is rife with action but the humanity and emotional connections are what really surprised and impressed me. I was quite thrilled with the plot, but these characters... I absolutely adored them and yes, Tyler, we need to hear more from this world!

And Tyler’s afterword, a tribute to someone who changed his life, broke my heart and made the story all the more moving.

Seriously folks, Tyler Downs does not disappoint! (And thank you Tyler for the e-ARC I didn’t read because it was too good.)

Water Horror? I let the lake in and I’m so happy I did!

This is my first Hessenauer book and what a great way to start. I love a good ocean/lake/water horror and this one was that, in spades. And it’s a hybrid epistolary structure with film footage, transcripts, interviews, and video diary entries, which is one of my favourite story structures.

We have a documentary film crew exploring a near 100-year-old mysterious ship wreck 🛳️ at the bottom of Lake Superior (an actual shipwreck relocated from Lake Charlevoix for the purposes of this story, which actually adds to the remoteness and jeopardy to good effect), along with a possible red algae bloom, maybe ghosts, superstitions, hallucinations, murder, and definitely people losing their minds.

Hessenauer sets up the story by immediately diving (pardon the pun 😉) into video transcripts of a doctor-patient interview with an apparent survivor of an incident that occurred out on Lake Superior (which, as a 70s 🇨🇦 kid is extra spooky – thanks Gordon Lightfoot.) It gives us just enough to get a good sense of something horrific – through the patient’s actions and reluctance to talk – but just enough to know that at least someone has survived this horror, at least in a fashion. The mystery is immediately apparent by the second chapter when we learn that a doc crew has gone to investigate a sunken ship mystery, and that ghostly mood builds perfectly to the end.

There’s a lot of factors playing into the horror and the atmosphere is made genuinely ominous through the use of the description of diving footage 🤿. There’s also the added bonus of a red algae bloom which, in this tale, is reminiscent of mycelium horror, another horror sub-genre I love.

This is a great take on that, and by having it water-based adds the extra element of ‘shipwreck ghost story’ to it, along with the eerie depths of the lake, which the author conveys perfectly – the murkiness of the water’s depths, the isolation on the water, the strange way water messes with sound and vision… and the main characters are interesting and complex to boot, so there’s a vested interest in their fates.

An excellent, creepy story! I’m definitely checking out more of this author’s work.

My thanks to the author for the complimentary copy. I am leaving this review voluntarily; all opinions are my own.

Once again Stephen Graham Jones doesn’t disappoint! This follow up to My Heart Is A Chainsaw delivers in all the best possible ways – multi-character POV, intricate plot with non-stop action (it all happens over a 36-hour period during a wicked winter storm), gruesome deaths and some of the best characters ever written in a horror novel. Jade is absolutely my hero, but really so many of SGJ’s characters are so vividly alive. This sequel is better than the first – more evenly paced and smoother in its action and plotting. And although it also has a large cast of characters as well, I felt that I was closer to more of them than in Chainsaw, more invested.

Jade makes me weep with her refusal to believe she is better than she thinks, and worthy of love and admiration. That armour she’s cultivated is seriously hard to pierce, but we readers can see beneath, and see what she’s truly made of even if she can not. Her glib, dark humour is still present, although it’s reigned in by distance and time. Her subtle humour is part of that armour she’s honed so well. But you can also feel her softening up just a bit in her relationship with Hardy, her concern for the students, her softening towards Banner, and she actually dares to consider someone her ‘best friend’ and I almost felt the earth shake when she thought that, I was so proud of her.

SGJ’s horror movie knowledge is epic and intimidating and he uses it all to such great effect that I am in awe of his skill. Of course, horror fans have a lot of meat to chew on with his books and this is no exception. There’s lots to entertain.

One caveat: don’t try reading this without having read Chainsaw. It just won’t make sense to you. SGJ’s worldbuilding in this series is deep and crafty and lived in, and although Chainsaw is maybe more chaos, it’s absolutely imperative to really understanding Jade’s (and others!) journey through the little town of Proofrock.

I do love collections of short stories, but unfortunately more of these didn’t really land for me than did. The collection focuses on themes of shame, desire, identity, a lot of parental trauma, much of which is told through allegorical whimsy or surrealism. Some of the literary devices work, some just were unbearable or fell flat for me. I found a lot of the experimental writing aggravating or tiresome – and I generally tend to like experimental structure or writing.

But the stories that worked for me, I really liked: Smear the Queer, The Failed Messiah (which had a sharp sense of humour to it that surprised and delighted me), similarly Siren Island had that edgy humour. And Alex Adams… was clever and interesting as a Peter Pan gender flip in the real world.

So, although I was mixed overall, I do think I’d enjoy a novel length work from this author and will be looking further into their catalogue.

My thanks to NetGalley and The Dial Press for the ARC. I am leaving this review voluntarily and all opinions are my own.

What would you do to get your beloved child back from the dead?

Brilliantly bleak grief horror that explores the spiral of emotional and physical pain, the kind that is like a constant gut punch, the kind where you feel a constant pressure behind your eyes and ears and in your jaw so visceral nearly unendurable, and it isn’t going away.

After years of enduring the absolute loss of his beloved son and the subsequent collapse of his entire life, Rob is drowning in alcohol and regret. Until he hears of a way that may bring his son back. At a cost. And oh, what a cost it is.

Stick with the opening set up, which is an excellent depiction of a man who no longer cares about anything on his way to the bottom of his grief spiral, because when Rob makes his Faustian bargain, the price gets higher and higher.

And oh what a twist in that hidden chapter.

A fun, fast little read of story with an ancient, grouchy demon named Ammit who must make his required human sacrifices while possessing the body of an animal. Any animal will due, and usually he picks some truly terrifying predators. Ammit tries to be strategic in what animal body he chooses – until he makes a hilariously tragic miscalculation and winds up in the body of an aging, fat domestic housecat, Purcell Hounsfield.

Now he must use all his resources and inventiveness to try and off his equally elderly human companion.

Fast paced, wry and easily relatable to those of us who have often muttered “my cat is trying to kill me” on a regular basis while trying not to trip over them going down the stairs, Feral is an amusing, droll short horror comedy that left me giggling and smiling and looking sideways at all the cats in my neighbourhood.

There’s some really good, unique world building here. Very visual, very bleak. But I think that was about the only interesting part of the book for me. It’s an interesting concept, but I was getting weary of the male MC is ‘gonna save’ his GF and why are all the ‘bad’ guys always Guys? The idea of the Black Farm being ‘not hell’ made me wonder what ‘hell’ would actually be like for this world? I was surprised that the majority of suffering in this world is physical with no real emotional or existential torment… (apart from our MC feeling some guilt over his GF being here as well.)

And there’s some gnarly extreme stuff. There’s a scene about a quarter of the way in that actually made me feel somewhat nauseous – which is very uncommon for me. But I think it was a little too repetitious and predictable for me in the end and just meh overall.

I can’t remember what I was going to write…

My brain has melted out of my ears. This book is so nearly impossible to describe… it is existential cosmic scifi horror with no happy ending or clear path. It’s challenging, weirdly subversive and most definitely not for everyone.

Do not bother with this if you’re looking for something:

• Light and effortless

• Linear

• Uninteresting

• Boring and staid

• Relaxing

• Reassuring

How many times have I read this book?!?!? Now I have so much more to worry over what I’ve ever forgotten in my life… 🤣 😟 😕 😵

I strongly recommend watching the short film on Youtube. It’ll give you the opening chapter in 15 minutes and at least you’ll have an idea what you’re in for.

https://youtu.be/3v8AsTHfAG0?si=Tgg224Q7rrOuga1H

🌎☀️

Swoon.

I absolutely loved this magnificent, gorgeous ode – to humanity’s hubris, the natural world and the seemingly unavoidable, calamitous journey we’re on – that turns the idea of a future dystopia on its head.

Not exactly a novel, but a series of loosely connected, light scifi-ish stories spanning our very near future to several millennia away. This book runs the gamut of emotions when faced with the climate ravages overtaking us: terror (fire, flood, drought), guilt (we did this!), resistance (to change, to tech, AI!!), surrender, inspiration and creativity, and sheer joy and wonder at what can be accomplished.

I, like many, am nervous 🤨 about the future role of intelligent tech, machines, AI, etc., and it’s impact on our future. And I was honestly a little concerned how I would relate overall to the book (I was expecting a great deal of negativity to the idea of the drones), but I found Rex’s writing to be moving and poetic while still briskly moving through a vast timeline where the wildcraft drones became something I was rooting for. Each story is individual and has its own merits, but taken as a whole, it’s an inspiring path forward.

Made me laugh, cry, reflect and thrill to the possibilities of this future!

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

*A side note here as well: Stelliform Press is publishing some incredible stuff. They have swiftly risen to the top of creative, wonderful, earth-focused fiction, art and poetry that is really quite stunning and I am so grateful for their, and their artists, work!

A most Unreliable Narrator who may be haunted or may be losing his mind, or both. Paranoia, guilt, and a desperate need to keep everyone at arms length have developed into unhealthy obsessions, OCD and avoidant behaviour for Mike O’Brien as he’s drawn back to Seattle after some 15 years by a former close friend who has a can’t miss opportunity to direct a play that he has written.

Ghosts, hauntings, nightmares and tragic accidents plague the small troupe of actors that has gathered for this production. Mike isn’t sure if he’s the culprit of the incidents, if he’s hallucinating everything, or if he has acquired a malevolent ghost who is trying to sabotage his mind and his very life.

Somehow it all relates back to a horrific secret that he has kept well and truly hidden for some time, and as his life falls apart, he may not survive the final act. Cohn effectively and creepily conveys the unstable state of mind of the narrator while building a haunting mystery, but there's a lot going on here for this little novel and I wanted more from the ending which ended a little too abruptly and messily for me.

A neo-western crime drama that gives off Breaking Bad and Taylor Sheridan vibes, this reads more like a screenplay than a novel – it’s written in these spare, short little vignettes and jump cuts that are a brief, uneasy glance into a family going inextricably off the rails as the secrets of the past catch up with them, blowing up their comfortable lives.

There were some weirdly jarring plot inconsistencies and small details that didn’t make much sense that I found very distracting and troublesome, like this:

“…𝒈𝒓𝒂𝒃𝒃𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒉𝒆𝒓 𝒑𝒉𝒐𝒏𝒆 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒉𝒖𝒓𝒍𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒊𝒕 𝒂𝒄𝒓𝒐𝒔𝒔 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒓𝒐𝒐𝒎. 𝑰𝒕 𝒔𝒉𝒂𝒕𝒕𝒆𝒓𝒔 𝒂𝒈𝒂𝒊𝒏𝒔𝒕 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒘𝒂𝒍𝒍.”

And then moments later

“𝑨 𝒔𝒉𝒂𝒓𝒑 𝒑𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒃𝒓𝒆𝒂𝒌𝒔 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒔𝒊𝒍𝒆𝒏𝒄𝒆, 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝑪𝒂𝒎𝒊𝒍𝒍𝒂 𝒈𝒍𝒂𝒏𝒄𝒆𝒔 𝒂𝒕 𝒉𝒆𝒓 𝒑𝒉𝒐𝒏𝒆.”

Or later on:

“𝐀𝐛𝐞𝐥 𝐝𝐫𝐢𝐯𝐞𝐬 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐌𝐮𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐧𝐠 𝐭𝐡𝐫𝐨𝐮𝐠𝐡 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐝𝐞𝐬𝐞𝐫𝐭𝐞𝐝 𝐨𝐮𝐭𝐬𝐤𝐢𝐫𝐭𝐬 𝐨𝐟 𝐉𝐮𝐚𝐫𝐞𝐳, 𝒃𝒍𝒊𝒏𝒅𝒇𝒐𝒍𝒅𝒆𝒅 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐮𝐧𝐞𝐚𝐬𝐲”

(my emphasis) Um, 𝘸𝘩𝘢𝘵?

That kind of thing.

And I have to say that the basic underlying ‘mystery’ was kind of obvious to me right from the jump. I stuck around because Cosco does an amazing job of painting a scene and I really did enjoy the quiet menace of the book and was curious to see how it would all play out. All of the characters are morally ambiguous, but I think the female characters were given short shrift and were only there to serve as a sexual foil for the men.

I think it would make an excellent movie, more so than the actual book.

𝙈𝙮 𝙩𝙝𝙖𝙣𝙠𝙨 𝙩𝙤 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙖𝙪𝙩𝙝𝙤𝙧 𝙖𝙣𝙙 Booksirens 𝙛𝙤𝙧 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙘𝙤𝙢𝙥𝙡𝙞𝙢𝙚𝙣𝙩𝙖𝙧𝙮 𝙘𝙤𝙥𝙮. 𝙄 𝙖𝙢 𝙡𝙚𝙖𝙫𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙩𝙝𝙞𝙨 𝙧𝙚𝙫𝙞𝙚𝙬 𝙫𝙤𝙡𝙪𝙣𝙩𝙖𝙧𝙞𝙡𝙮; 𝙖𝙡𝙡 𝙤𝙥𝙞𝙣𝙞𝙤𝙣𝙨 𝙖𝙧𝙚 𝙢𝙮 𝙤𝙬𝙣.

A well written and thoughtful memoir on growing up in Hollywood royalty with all the famous friends and relatives that a young woman could hope for and yet still struggling to find her place in the most understandable of ways.

Candid without being salacious, Skye reveals her emotional loneliness and desperation to be seen in a chaotic and discordant lifestyle where she is invariably surrounded by rich and/or famous friends and family, yet always searching for validation. All of which is obviously the result of her father’s complete absence during her childhood and teenage years, and his irksome aloofness in her 20s and 30s.

Whether she’s shacking up with a serial cheater and heroin addict (Kiedis) or blowing up her fairy tale romance with one of the Beastie Boys (Ad-Rock), discovering her undeniable attraction to women, working through her complex and relatable abandonment issues, and succumbing to the very things that her previous partners were guilty of (infidelity, drug use) her famous lifestyle, glamourous as it was, was still very much emotionally relatable to me. Her honesty about her own role in her life is refreshing and frank – she doesn’t shy away from her culpability in her relationships.

Skye is the same age as me, and her emotional ups and downs as a young girl and young woman trying to find her footing and who she is, her self-sabotaging behaviour, even in this glittery world of privilege and precarious existence, struck a raw, nostalgic nerve.

Come Sing For The Harrowing – Dan Coxon

A very interesting and unsettling collection of short stories from this (new to me) author. I noticed this book has a foreword from the incredible Brian Evenson, and that absolutely tracks, because Coxon writes those kinds of weird, quietly horrific and eerie tales that go in the most unexpected directions and linger on in your hind brain long after it’s over. It’s a solid collection with nary a dud in the bunch.

Exceptional highlights for me were:

• Long Gone (Slight Return) – this one seemed like a definite homage/take on Manic Street Preachers and the real-life great mystery of Richey – it really hit for me, leaving me sad and nostalgic and brought up those 30-year-old memories

• A couple of excellent shorts with heavy cosmic and Lovecraftian overtones in The Wives of Tromisle and London Deep

• Bring Them All Into the Light, Our Sister of Blackthorn, and Come Sing For the Harrowing are folklore horror in the vein of Midsommar and the Wicker Man

• Tales of madness and disconcerting psychological horror in The Darkness Below and Gorphwysfa are the kind where you’re not sure if the characters are losing their minds or are truly haunted by entities, and are done so well you feel haunted yourself just from reading them

A really amazing collection of horror tales that has a little bit of everything and all well written. I need to go get some more Coxon books!

My thanks to NetGalley and CLASH Books for the ARC. I am leaving this review voluntarily; all opinions are my own.

Pub: 04-21-2026

This was kind of like reading a good old V.C. Andrews 80s melodrama. You know how we all read those back when we were teenagers and secretly felt thrilled at the guilty secret of them? Deep down we knew they were trashy but still had some fun with them? Well, that’s kind of the feeling I got from this novel. It’s sort of billed as a gothic horror but it barely grazes the horror aspect.

As an adult it doesn’t quite work for me as the characterizations were tragically typical and unoriginal. Absolutely none of them were likable for me, and some were excruciating in their over-wrought villainy. As a whole they seemed remarkably thick in their actions and reactions to events happening around them.

It’s got that whole southern gothic trope thing going for it: deep secrets, dysfunctional family that are all pretty much abhorrent. A stupid, naïve young woman who is a “psychic-witch” who gets swept up in the money and privilege of a wealthy Savannah family dynasty that’s laced with all the stereotypes and rather predictable.

The main character is Ingrid, our psychic, whose desperation to be a part of this wealthy family is cringy and cloying. She’s stunningly dense when it comes to the motivations of the family she so desperately wants to join and honestly, I didn’t give a fig whether she wound up a victim of their machinations or not.

It wasn’t absolutely horrible, and as long as I pretended I was still a fourteen-year-old, it was just entertaining enough – mostly because I had a mild curiosity to see what other silliness could be added to the rather chaotic plot.

My thanks to Netgalley and Kensington Books for the ARC. I am leaving this review voluntarily; all opinions are my own.

A stunning, modern take on the Blodeuwedd myth from the Fourth Branch of the Welsh Mabinogi, this gorgeous debut novel is both heartbreaking and horrifying in equal measure. The story of a boy, Rory, and his friend and playmate, the girl Daye, who his sister created from flowers through a sort of modern green witchcraft. The story is set in an amorphous, contemporary Welsh-like setting where studying this kind of crafting is not entirely unusual. The writing, setting and tone is reminiscent of de Lint’s Newford stories and Crowley’s Little, Big – that being enchanting with an underlying gothic darkness.

As Rory grows older, he discovers that keeping Daye ‘alive’ is a complex endeavour that requires specialized knowledge, and he sets out to learn all he can to keep his most precious friend with him forever. And this is where the quiet horror slowly starts to creep up on you. You’re so engrossed with the beauty of the language and the story of this peculiar flower girl that you become uneasy… you start to realize just how awful this situation is as the pure beauty of their childhood relationship also begins to transform and subtly rot at the edges:

“𝑰𝒕 𝒉𝒂𝒅 𝒃𝒆𝒆𝒏 𝒉𝒂𝒑𝒑𝒆𝒏𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒇𝒐𝒓 𝒔𝒖𝒄𝒉 𝒂 𝒍𝒐𝒏𝒈 𝒕𝒊𝒎𝒆, 𝒊𝒏 𝒔𝒖𝒄𝒉 𝒂 𝒔𝒕𝒆𝒂𝒅𝒚 𝒂𝒄𝒄𝒓𝒖𝒂𝒍, 𝒅𝒓𝒐𝒑 𝒂𝒇𝒕𝒆𝒓 𝒅𝒓𝒐𝒑.”

This is body autonomy horror at its most subtle: skillfully and softly depicted through the beauty of nature and love as it morphs to codependence and ultimately obsession and possession and a fight for true independence and self-determination.

A devastating and haunting debut! I can’t wait to see what this author does next.

My thanks to NetGalley and Bloomsbury Books US for the ARC. I am leaving this review voluntarily; all opinions are my own.

When you go into these reimaginings and retellings you really do have to let go of all that has come before in order to buy into the creative changes. And I’m all for it, because really? these old myths and legends are so old that viewing them from our distant 21st century lens means we really can’t know the specifics and quirks of relationships and how people felt and what happened, so these retellings always open the story back up in new and interesting ways.

In this case, the old obscure story of Melantho, a slave girl and minor character in the Odyssey who was essentially raised as a foster child by Penelope, is retold by realigning their relationship (and ages) into one of a romantic nature. Hewlett does a decent job of reconstructing the story in such a way that the bits we know of Melantho from the Odyssey believably take on new meaning with understandable motivations so that she doesn’t come off as quite the ‘betrayer’ she did in the old stories.

The relationship between Penelope and Melantho in this book is one of a long and drawn-out complex affair of master and slave dynamics and childhood friendship morphing into that of a forbidden love affair. Unfortunately, the emotional aspects of it (including the interactions between all the female characters, really) felt forced and flat and draggy and wasn’t very interesting for me. I found the smaller plot points and changes that Hewlett made to the story far more interesting to consider and much more engaging.

My thanks to NetGalley and Sourcebooks Landmark for the ARC. I am leaving this review voluntarily; all opinions are my own.

This peculiar collection of weird fiction is that of absurdism and the bizarre. It’s unsettling and disturbing in the vein of Brian Evenson, Thomas Ligotti or Caitlin Kiernan’s existential dread and horror-tinged dark fantasies. I enjoyed this compilation because of it’s experimental and esoteric style, an uncanny valley atmosphere where myth and folklore are juxtaposed in seemingly chaotic modern settings and decorated with twenty-first century objects…

The individual stories in this collection are much more about a feeling, a setting, an atmosphere, than strict plotlines. The stories mix classical elements of fantasy and mythology, unexpectedly injecting modern ideas, devices, speech or behaviours into them. I understand this can be jarring for those expecting a more traditional narrative with a solid conclusion to the stories, but for those looking for something more unpredictable and unconventional you may find yourself pleasantly surprised by the choices the author makes. I know I was.

I found the stories quirky and fascinating and dimensionally out of sync with our known reality but just close enough to be discomfiting and uneasy. A very solid collection.

My thanks to NetGalley and University of Massachusetts Press for the ARC. I am leaving this review voluntarily; all opinions are my own.