Interview With the Vampire is buzzing everywhere right now. Between the TV series to the thirty-year anniversary of the movie, it makes sense that a book in the spirit of everything we love about Louis and Lestat would surface. But this time, it tells a tale between two women. We Love the Nightlife by Rachel Koller Croft has those Anne Rice vibes from beginning to end. It even has similarities all the way down to the introduction of Claudia.
It’s 1979. Amber is an American housewife married to an Englishman in London. She yearns to break free and enjoy the nightlife. While she wants to head to the disco every night, her husband would rather she stay home and domesticate herself. When she can get out, she heads to the club, enjoying every free moment under the disco ball. This, of course, catches the attention of Nicola, a vampire.
Amber is looking for a way out of her housewife situation. She yearns to be free to party whenever she wants. Nicola is looking for a new companion to join her in the club scene. They are a perfect match for the never-ending partying. After all, it is the nightlife both feel so alive in.
Fast forward to the present (almost 50 years later). Nicola and Amber are still enjoying the nightlife club scene. Amber (like Louis in Interview) hates the idea of killing people to survive. She also hates the idea of continuing to stay with Nicola. She is bored and ready to take flight. But how does one leave their maker?
Maybe by introducing a new friend to take her place?
As her maker, Nicola can sense everything going on inside of Amber. She will do anything to keep her companion from leaving her. If that means she needs to change, then she will change. She comes up with a brilliant scheme to keep the party going. Meanwhile, Amber starts planning her exit out of London.
But will Nicola eventually let her little vampire go?
The truths revealed in the end make for an insane twist you will never see coming.
If you loved the relationship between Louis and Lestat in Interview with the Vampire, you will definitely love this book. The vibes between Amber and Nicola are very reminiscent of Anne Rice’s two most beloved vampires. That’s what made me appreciate this book so much. Those same Louis/Lestat vibes that made me fall in love with Interview are the same vibes here. It made me love Amber and Nicola, and their bond with each other.
This book releases on August 20, 2024. You can order a copy through Bookshop.org or the Amazon Bookshop, which are both featured in my Shop link in the menu above.
It is rare that I come across a book that surpasses all others. A diamond in the rough, so to speak. Of the hundreds of books I peruse each year, I may come across one, maybe two books, each year that sit with me long after I’ve turned that last page. These are the books I take my time with. I don’t rush through them over the course of one or two days. I take over a month to read that book. It’s because I know I need to truly absorb the story.
Michelle Kenneth with Paul Tremblay. 03.03.2024
Back on March 3, 2024, I met Paul Tremblay at Barnes & Noble in Union Square. He signed a couple of copies of The Cabin at the End of the World for me. Personally, I thought Paul was a really cool guy. Someone I could see myself being really good friends with. It was the same vibe I felt with Edwin Walker and the fashion designer Malan Breton when we met (and yes, we’re still good friends).
There is a reason why I am starting this post this way. It may help you to understand just how special this book is, because in my world, when the universe gets involved, that means something very important is happening. Meeting Tremblay was the starting point.
As we talked about the horror movie Knock at the Cabin, starring David Bautista, which was based upon The Cabin at the End of the World, his publisher asked if I’d like a copy of his next release, Horror Movie. She warned me not to sell it. I mean come on, he signed it. This one is not leaving my curated collection. Especially, since I know every single horror book fan wants this signed ARC. I am never letting this one out of my library. Not even for someone to borrow it. I’d rather buy them a copy than to let them even touch this copy. [A side note to readers, that means there will be a future Instagram giveaway of a signed first edition of Horror Movie.]
When I left the store, I snapped a couple of pictures of the book and posted them on Instagram, to which the Horror community instantly became envious and hated me at the same time. Sigh. You just had to have been there.
As the weeks progressed, Saga Press (an imprint of Simon & Schuster) sent me a copy of My Heart is a Chainsaw and then Don’t Fear the Reaper by Stephen Graham Jones. Now, I mention these two books for a reason. It’s important for you to pick up the Indian Lake trilogy by Jones in order to completely understand Horror Movie. The trilogy and this book go hand in hand.
Stephen Graham Jones speaking at the New York Public Library. 04.29.2024.
Of course, at the time, I did not know this. I made the connection when I finished Horror Movie and read in the acknowledgements that Tremblay thanked Jones for the idea. That’s when Horror Movie and the trilogy clicked. But of course, I never would have made this connection at all if the universe hadn’t had Saga Press drop the trilogy into my mailbox and I ended up reading the books simultaneously with Horror Movie.
More importantly, while My Heart is a Chainsaw is the main book that is linked to Horror Movie, it’s Don’t Fear the Reaper that was on repeat in my universe. I could not figure out why that was until I read the acknowledgments. In the acknowledgments, Jones writes, “You know those moments when your world is kind of crackling all around you like crumpled paper unfolding, so you can finally read what’s on that page, what you didn’t even know was there hiding, had been written all along? This is that, for me. It’s my life going this direction, not that direction.”
While you may brush off these connections so far, I’m not done. After I posted Don’t Fear the Reaper as the week’s The Next Seven on Instagram (a weekly Wednesday post that features the next seven books I am reviewing), I saw Jones posted on his Instagram that he would be at the New York Public Library (more particularly, my NYPL branch) the following Monday. Seeing that as a strange sign from the universe, I go.
Of course, by this point, noticing that Don’t Fear the Reaper was on repeat in my universe (all the way down to some spiritual thing that happened that I’m not going to get into, I just know that someone else witnessed what I witnessed and was so freaked out, they followed me to safety), I still had not picked up that Tremblay and Jones were connected.
I was carrying these two books around with me, reading a chapter of Horror Movie, and then switching to Reaper, without ever knowing there was a connection. That is, I didn’t discover it until I read the acknowledgments in Horror Movie and did a WTF.
I carried these two books around with me, not knowing the authors and the books were connected.
It is strange, though, how all of this kind of fell into place in my world. First, meeting Tremblay and receiving Horror Movie, Saga Press sending the first two books in the Indian Lake trilogy, meeting Jones, then receiving the final installment of the trilogy. Then I discover the two authors and their stories are linked. As a book influencer, I can tell you, of all the books I’ve reviewed over the last decade, none of them have shown up the way that these four books did and the universe announced a connection (one for me to figure out). I’ve never unknowingly read books simultaneously together without knowing they were connected. As a writer, though, I understand the connection. It’s right there in Jones’s acknowledgements. It’s right there on the page.
So as you read this review, you may pick up on the tie-in that ultimately links Horror Movie with the trilogy (if you’ve read all the books). I recommend reading the trilogy alongside Horror Movie in order to completely get the WHOA factor while reading all four books. It will help you to appreciate them at a much deeper level.
All of these books are listed in the Bookshop.org and Amazon Bookshop in the Shop menu above.
The Review: “Horror Movie” by Paul Tremblay
I wanted to mull this one over before I did a review because my brain needed to be OK with what I just read. Please note this is a five-star rating for me.
It’s several days later, and I’m still thinking about this book. The screenplay. The filming. The reboot. The OMG did that just happen at the end?
There are layers to the way this story is told. There is the present day. They want to remake Horror Movie, a low-budget film that never saw the light of day until the director decided to release clips of it on YouTube before she died. There’s the screenplay, written in a way that we can understand what made this into a horror movie, keeping the Thin Kid (our narrator) out of the loop. There is foreshadowing of what is to come.
This is where I want to say if suicide is triggering for you, there are elements of this in the book. You have been warned. Mind you, that is a trigger for me. That is the main reason why I needed to sit a little while longer with my thoughts on this book before doing a review because maybe that was the part that scared me the most. Yet, I believe that the way Tremblay approached this topic was as gentle as he possibly could. It’s like he’s saying it’s time for this to happen. It will be ok. You’ll be ok. Everyone will be ok. And also not ok. It’s like looking back at a moment that has haunted you and will forever haunt you, and learning to be ok. To see the monster of death and not fear the reaper.
There are also flashbacks to fill in the gaps of how the Thin Kid was approached to make the film, what happened during filming, and what happened afterward.
There’s method acting, and then there’s Thin Kid. I don’t think I’ll ever look at a method actor the same way again. I will always be thinking about the Thin Kid and what he took with him after the film. What he became. Do all method actors leave the character behind, or does the character become a part of the actor after the movie?
As I write this, sitting outside on a lounge chair, enjoying the spring Manhattan weather, I have a copy of Stephen Graham Jones’s Don’t Fear the Reaper on my lap. Paul Tremblay thanked SGJ for the idea of Horror Movie. SGJ mentioned to Tremblay that he should watch something about chainsaws on YouTube. That took Tremblay down a very dark rabbit hole where Horror Movie was birthed. If you’ve read My Heart is a Chainsaw, the first book in the Jade Daniels trilogy, you’ll understand the horror movie and chainsaw reference in this book. SGJ is the inspiration for Horror Movie.
I can see a Paul Tremblay and Stephen Graham Jones horror writing and film class in some university’s curriculum in the future. You sort of need to read both of their works simultaneously to completely understand their stories and where the references are being derived from.
I will admit that the screenplay in this book kept my brow furrowed throughout. I kept thinking, what are you doing? Where are you going with this? Not in an accusatory way to the author, but in an ‘I know this is where you’re going to scare me.’
The entire time, I am trying to protect myself for what is to come. The hand in the pocket. The uncaring step towards death. What are you warning me of? It’s like my brain knew what he was going to do. That’s why I didn’t speed through this book in a day. I sensed the trigger. I took my time. Stuck other books in between the next chapter and the next to ease the moment when it happens.
Then, finally, it happens. I’m stuck there in my head, but I keep reading. And then the end. OMG. THAT. JUST. HAPPENED.
To which, days later, I remember there was a suicide in the book. But I’m still at the end saying, OMG, THAT JUST HAPPENED.
After you read the book, this caption will make sense.
Joan He’s Kingdom of Three duology concludes with the release of Sound the Gong. This tale is a re-imagining of the Chinese mythological tale of the Three Kingdoms.
It begins with Strike the Zither where we meet Zephyr, an orphan who took fate into her own hands to become one of the leading strategists in the kingdom for the warlordess, Xin Ren. Under Xin Ren, she seeks to create alliances with other factions for the wars that are forthcoming. She will betray someone in order to reach her end game, to make Xin Ren the empress.
Sound the Gong is the conclusion to this story.
Strike the Zither
The year is 414 of the Xin Dynasty, and chaos abounds. A puppet empress is on the throne. The realm has fractured into three factions, and three warlordesses hope to claim the continent for themselves.
But Zephyr knows it’s no contest.
Orphaned at a young age, Zephyr took control of her fate by becoming the best strategist of the land and serving under Xin Ren, a warlordess whose loyalty to the empress is double-edged―while Ren’s honor draws Zephyr to her cause, it also jeopardizes their survival in a war where one must betray or be betrayed.
When Zephyr is forced to infiltrate an enemy camp to keep Ren’s followers from being slaughtered, she encounters the enigmatic Crow, an opposing strategist who is finally her match. But there are more enemies than one―and not all of them are human.
Sound the Gong
All her life, Zephyr has tried to rise above her humble origins as a no-name orphan. Now she is a god in a warrior’s body, and never has she felt more powerless.
The warlordess Xin Ren holds the Westlands, but her position is tenuous. In the north, the empress remains a puppet under Miasma’s thumb. In the south, the alliance with Cicada is in pieces.
Fate has a winner in mind for the three kingdoms, but Zephyr has no intentions of respecting it. She will pay any price to see Ren succeed―and she will make her enemies pay, especially the enigmatic Crow. What she’ll do when she finds out the truth. . . Only the heavens know.
Review of the Series
If I could pitch this book, it would be Mulan meets the Celestial Kingdoms. The focus of Mulan’s story would center around the battles and war efforts. Place this in a fantasy world where women are allowed to fight. They can become generals. They can lead armies and become warlords. But then, let’s take out the ancestors part of this story and replace them with celestial gods. Next, let’s throw this all into a retelling of the Three Kingdoms.
Now, let’s create an ongoing chess match being played out between warlords, and each has a strategist whispering in their ear. Throw in a bit of a love story between two strategists from warring parties, Zephyr and Crow, and we have the elements that compose this story.
Just for clarification in the comparisons between Mulan and the story of the Three Kingdoms, the Three Kingdoms took place between 220-280AD. Mulan (a folk heroine) existed sometime in the 4th century, long after the story of the Three Kingdoms. This story takes place in 414 AD.
Strike the Zither starts right off within the fields of war. A betrayal. And Zephyr is in the middle of it all. This is her strategy to change what fate has determined in order to make her warlordess the next empress. But I will warn you, don’t get too attached to Zephyr. She dies.
Crazy, right? She dies.
But isn’t this story about her? Yes, it is.
There’s more than one book about her. So how in the world does this get drawn out if she died?
Those celestial gods. I tell ya. They are not supposed to meddle in the affairs of humans, but every now and again, they do. In particular, Zephyr meddles in those affairs.
I’ll leave the review at that. I’ll be honest, when the celestial kingdom became part of the story, that is when I became interested in the story. I love stories about the gods. I’m not into the fighting or the war part of this book (which was literally the whole thing). Oddly enough, I perked up when Zephyr died. That is when the story had my full attention. Which, I know, is completely weird. But that is where the story really began for me.
Sound the Gong releases today (04.30.2024). You can purchase the duology in the Bookshop.org and Amazon Bookshop link in the Shop Menu above.
Harper St. George brings to us a new spicy Gilded Age romance series with The Stranger I Wed.
Pub Date: April 23, 2024
Synopsis
New to wealth and to London high society, American heiress Cora Dove discovers that with the right man, marriage might not be such an inconvenience after all. . . .
Cora Dove and her sisters’ questionable legitimacy has been the lifelong subject of New York’s gossipmongers and a continual stain on their father’s reputation. So when the girls each receive a generous, guilt-induced dowry from their dying grandmother, the sly Mr. Hathaway vows to release their funds only if Cora and her sisters can procure suitable husbands—far from New York. For Cora, England is a fresh start. She has no delusions of love, but a husband who will respect her independence? That’s an earl worth fighting for.
Enter: Leopold Brendon, Earl of Devonworth, a no-nonsense member of Parliament whose plan to pass a Public Health bill that would provide clean water to the working class requires the backing of a wealthy wife. He just never expected to crave Cora’s touch or yearn to hear her thoughts on his campaign—or to discover that his seemingly perfect bride protects so many secrets…
But secrets have a way of bubbling to the surface, and Devonworth has a few of his own. With their pasts laid bare and Cora’s budding passion for women’s rights taking a dangerous turn, they’ll learn the true cost of losing their heart to a stranger—and that love is worth any price.
Review
I am going to be honest with you. I was not expecting the spice. I was expecting some sort of historical fiction romance taking place in the Gilded Age with zero spice. I mean, honestly, historical romances are not known for any spice in the bedroom. These stories have been historically known to be absolutely boring. Did women even know what an orgasm was until the Feminist Movement?
Well, maybe Asian women did because men were taught the importance of making women orgasm so that it can increase the chances of pregnancy. But English men during the Gilded Age knowing how to pleasure a woman? I think that is the fictional part of this story.
Ok. So the market today is to add spice to any sort of romance story. Women want their eggplant and peaches stories that fall more under the pornographic end of the spectrum. I was in the kitchen getting a cup of coffee, listening to the audiobook going into detail of their first encounter. I literally stopped what I was doing, raised an eyebrow, and said, “Oh, we’re going there with this story?” Totally unexpected from Berkley Publishing. But alas, tis the market these days.
That spice was a signal to me that I am not allowed to listen to the audiobook or read the book in public. And the Maine Coon better be asleep because I feel embarrassed when he looks at me. Oh, these are things I don’t want going on in my mind in any setting where the cat or a human can sense I must be reading something super spicy.
So now that I have clarified this book is spicy, most of you will have already headed to Amazon, Bookshop.org, or whatever your favorite retailer is to purchase this book. For the rest of you who need more than the spice, keep reading.
This is for the people who love Gilded Age/historical fiction stories. What intrigued me about this story is that the book shows another angle to the New York debutantes with money looking for an English title. Cora Dove, the illegitimate daughter of a wealthy NY businessman, does not want to marry. She just wants her inheritance. But since her father doesn’t want her mixing with people in American society (to save his wife and legitimate daughter from embarrassment), he’s made the caveat that she (and her sisters) must marry if she wants her inheritance. So she decides to marry someone with a title in England.
Her father agrees, so she, her sisters, and their mother (a former actress), sell their home and head to England in search of a husband with the help of one of her friends who married a gentleman in England.
As they are doing their reconnaissance, Leopold Brendon stumbles upon Cora. Literally. And that’s all it takes for their story to begin. He needs her money and she needs a husband. Works out just fine.
But what happens if this business deal could be more than just a business deal that would allow her to divorce him in a couple of years? What if they were to fall in love? What happens then?
This story is also the beginning of women’s rights in England, when women are seeking their freedom to own their own property. There was a time when women could not access their money or their property without a man. Their fathers, brothers, husbands, etc. were responsible for their property. Women were not allowed to handle their own finances, have bank accounts, own property, etc. without a man. At this juncture of the Dove sisters’ stories, giving women the right to their own property is set to a vote.
The Stranger I Wed is the first book in this Gilded Age series featuring the Dove sisters as they navigate English society, and being a woman looking for a husband so they can access their own inheritance. They will be met with suffragettes and their rights to vote, and so many more stories affecting women in their quest to be free.
You can purchase a copy of this book in the Bookshop.org or Amazon Bookshop links in the Shop menu.
Oh, and just to clarify, I think I’d put this as NC-17 on the spice scale. Not quite X-rated, but definitely spicier than R.
An Enchanting Case of Spirits by Melissa Holtz mixes a little bit of sleuthing with spirits who have unfinished business. Sprinkle a little bit of romance on top, and we have this new spirited mystery from Berkley Publishing.
Synopsis
When a fortieth birthday celebration leads to a ghostly visitor, four friends find themselves navigating surprising mysteries and spiritual hijinks, in this clever debut from Melissa Holtz.
Alyssa Mann isn’t adventurous, not since her husband died and she found herself the single mom of a teenage daughter. But there’s no way to avoid celebrating the big 4-0, so when her best friends drag her out for drinks and a tarot reading, she throws caution to the wind and decides to see what the spirits have to say. It’s all fun and games, until she wakes up the next morning with a wicked hangover—and a ghost perched on the edge of her bed.
Sheer panic sends her running to get help from Nick West, the (very attractive) detective who lives next door. When he finds no one inside, Alyssa has to accept that she really did see a ghost. As the dearly departed keep appearing, Alyssa and her friends do their best to learn how to control her newfound power. Trading insults with ghosts, tracking down family heirlooms, and getting closer to the skeptical but helpful Nick is more fun than Alyssa imagined. But when looking into one ghost’s past reveals unexpected—and unwelcome—facts about Alyssa’s late husband’s death, she discovers she just may be in over her head.
Book Review
In An Enchanting Case of Spirits, Alyssa’s medium powers awaken during a tarot reading and things will never be the same again for her or her friends. In this comedic ride with a psychic helping spirits with unfinished business move on (mainly, because she wants them out of her life), we discover that these spirits all have one thing in common (besides being dead). Unbeknownst to any of them, they all have a reason why they are flocking to Alyssa, and it is not just because she’s a medium now. It’s because she also has a connection to their deaths.
Alyssa and her friends (plus throw in the tarot card reader that sparked Alyssa’s newfound power) band together to help unravel what happened to these ghosts. Nick West (the hot homicide detective living next door) can’t really help them because his captain closed these case files after feeling pressure from the mayor.
Alyssa can’t stand her neighbor, but in the enemies-to-lovers trope, you know she’ll eventually change her mind. Both characters come from a background of loss. Alyssa’s husband died in a car accident. Nick’s fiancée died from cancer. In time, their attraction to each other takes over after all of her requests for help brings them together, even if he can’t believe she sees ghosts.
But Nick starts to believe after a girl goes missing and she is able to give him details on where she can be found. That case that he was told to close, it ends up that she can do something to uncover the truth behind not just that one case, but multiple cases. While he may hate that she is becoming an amateur sleuth, he can’t help but think that maybe he should listen to what she has to say, despite her strange way of obtaining information.
I enjoyed this book. There were a lot of laugh out loud moments with the ghosts providing comic relief to Alyssa’s predicament. I was happy at the end when I discovered this may be the beginning of this story. I actually felt like screaming, “YES!” We’re getting a book two.
Sleuthing friends where the ghosts are helping them with their own unfinished business, what’s not to love? What they’re getting themselves into though is pretty dangerous and could cost them their own lives. So yes, there is a bit of a scare element in this mystery.
If you like the show Ghosts, you will definitely love this book.
An Enchanting Case of Spirits is out now. You can order a copy through the Bookshop.org or Amazon Bookshop link in the Shop menu above.
Nick Medina is back with another Native American horror story steeped in folklore and mythology in his new novel, “Indian Burial Ground.”
Medina, author of “Sisters of the Lost Nation,” takes us back to the rez to talk about two issues that plague Native Americans – alcoholism and suicide.
In his Acknowledgments, he explains:
These two themes, along with Missing and Murdered Indigenous People, create the backdrop to this Louisiana story.
Synopsis
A man lunges in front of a car. An elderly woman silently drowns herself. A corpse sits up in its coffin and speaks. On this reservation, not all is what it seems, in this new spine-chilling mythological horror from the author of Sisters of the Lost Nation.
All Noemi Broussard wanted was a fresh start. With a new boyfriend who actually treats her right and a plan to move from the reservation she grew up on—just like her beloved Uncle Louie before her—things are finally looking up for Noemi. Until the news of her boyfriend’s apparent suicide brings her world crumbling down.
But the facts about Roddy’s death just don’t add up, and Noemi isn’t the only one who suspects that something menacing might be lurking within their tribal lands.
After over a decade away, Uncle Louie has returned to the reservation, bringing with him a past full of secrets, horror, and what might be the key to determining Roddy’s true cause of death. Together, Noemi and Louie set out to find answers…but as they get closer to the truth, Noemi begins to wonder whether it might be best for some secrets to remain buried.
Review
For those who know me, or follow me on Instagram, they know I reference Nick Medina’s books often, especially when we are discussing Indigenous issues.
One of the themes in this story that really resonated with me was the part about good and evil and how sometimes they can get out of balance. There are times when evil abounds, and then there are times when good outweighs evil. The universe will always try to correct itself when this happens in order to restore balance.
We can not have good without evil or evil without good.
This story is told by Noemi (present day) and Louie (past). For those who have seen Reservation Dogs, Gary Farmer narrates Louie in the audiobook, while Erin Tripp narrates Noemi’s story.
While Noemi is going through a horrible heartbreak (losing her boyfriend to suicide), Louie tells the story of the scary things that happened when he was a teenager. Stories of the Takoda vampire, the Takoda people, and the tamahka (the two great gators). Then there are the people dying and their corpses sitting up during their wakes. Bones in the cemetery are being dug up, and screams can be heard underground. People are going missing.
There are a lot of creepy things happening on the rez.
What I appreciate the most about Medina’s stories is the intertwining of myth and folklore into these characters’ lives in order to explain the unexplained. Each tale invokes ancient wisdom that helps people understand what is going on inside of them as they battle the monsters around them.
With every Medina book, I always learn so much. I enjoy reading Native American mythology and folklore, especially the scary stories that are passed down from one generation to the next.
The book is out on April 16, 2024. You can purchase the book through the Bookshop.org or Amazon Bookshop links in the Shop menu.
Something Kindred is a new coming-of-age story of a young Black girl returning to her roots, to a town filled with ghosts. Echoes.
Synopsis
Magical realism meets Southern Gothic in this commanding young adult debut from Ciera Burch about true love, the meaning of home, and the choices that haunt us.
Welcome to Coldwater. Come for the ghosts, stay for the drama.
Jericka Walker had planned to spend the summer before senior year soaking up the sun with her best friend on the Jersey Shore. Instead she finds herself in Coldwater, Maryland, a small town with a dark and complicated past where her estranged grandmother lives―someone she knows only two things about: her name and the fact that she left Jericka’s mother and uncle when they were children. But now Jericka’s grandmother is dying, and her mother has dragged Jericka along to say goodbye.
As Jericka attempts to form a connection with a woman she’s never known, and adjusts to life in a town where everything closes before dinner, she meets “ghost girl” Kat, a girl eager to leave Coldwater and more exciting than a person has any right to be. But Coldwater has a few unsettling secrets of its own. The more you try to leave, the stronger the town’s hold. As Jericka feels the chilling pull of her family’s past, she begins to question everything she thought she knew about her mother, her childhood, and the lines between the living and the dead.
Review
Is this a ghost story? No. Not in the way people want a ghost story. This is a coming-of-age story about a young woman discovering her bisexuality and the meaning of home and family. Yet, the town is haunted with echoes, ghosts stuck in the town of Coldwater. Not everyone can see them. Only a few can, and those ghosts are filled with sadness, which makes others feel that sorrow and despair.
As Jericka prepares her photography portfolio for Parsons, she struggles with finding a topic to shoot until she decides to photograph the echoes.
But all of this is such a small part of the story. The main part is Jericka’s relationships with her estranged grandmother, her father (whom she hasn’t seen since she was 4), and his new family, her mother (who carries a secret that could destroy her relationship with her daughter), and her new friend Kat.
This book focuses mostly on family relationships and the need to run away, far away, from the people that hurt you. There are generations of people that leave Coldwater and the pain this small town causes. But this book also focuses on mending those past hurts and letting go of the past.
All in all, I think this is a great book to give to a young woman preparing to leave home for college or a new life, especially if they’re running from a lot of pain. Speaking from experience, there are some rifts that can never be mended. Sometimes, the healing comes at the end of someone’s life. There are even those instances where there is no forgiveness and the trauma shapes us and our decisions to stay away from the places that brought us our greatest despair.
Coldwater represents that pit of sadness that will never be fixed. But there are people who choose to make the best of things and create a home in that place because it’s where they found their peace. A hometown is different for everyone.
The author did an excellent job diving into these themes, working out the suffering inside to find peace in the things that haunt them…the echoes.
This book is out now. You can find this book in the Bookshop.org and Amazon Bookshop in the Shop menu.
For those who love historical fiction and American politics, I have a new book suggestion for you that releases on March 12, 2024, called Becoming Madam Secretaryby Stephanie Dray.
Publisher: Berkley Publishing
Synopsis
She took on titans, battled generals, and changed the world as we know it…
New York Times bestselling author Stephanie Dray returns with a captivating and dramatic new novel about an American heroine, Frances Perkins.
Raised on tales of her revolutionary ancestors, Frances Perkins arrives in New York City at the turn of the century, armed with her trusty parasol and an unyielding determination to make a difference.
When she’s not working with children in the crowded tenements in Hell’s Kitchen, Frances throws herself into the social scene in Greenwich Village, befriending an eclectic group of politicians, artists, and activists, including the millionaire socialite Mary Harriman Rumsey, the flirtatious budding author Sinclair Lewis, and the brilliant but troubled reformer Paul Wilson, with whom she falls deeply in love.
But when Frances meets a young lawyer named Franklin Delano Roosevelt at a tea dance, sparks fly in all the wrong directions. She thinks he’s a rich, arrogant dilettante who gets by on a handsome face and a famous name. He thinks she’s a priggish bluestocking and insufferable do-gooder. Neither knows it yet, but over the next twenty years, they will form a historic partnership that will carry them both to the White House.
Frances is destined to rise in a political world dominated by men, facing down the Great Depression as FDR’s most trusted lieutenant—even as she struggles to balance the demands of a public career with marriage and motherhood. And when vicious political attacks mount and personal tragedies threaten to derail her ambitions, she must decide what she’s willing to do—and what she’s willing to sacrifice—to save a nation.
Review
In order to understand Social Security, you should go back to its beginnings and why it was created to begin with. Frances Perkins was the woman behind it. She spent many years investigating labor conditions, trying to make things better for everyone. Becoming Madam Secretary dives into her story from her course studies to the honor given to her at the age of 80 by John F. Kennedy.
Perkins is responsible for the end of child labor. She helped change the 54-hour work week. She witnessed the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire in 1911, which would move her to advocate for fire safety.
But her claim to fame is the Social Security Act.
Today, lawmakers constantly challenge the Social Security Act. But in FDR’s days, the elderly could become homeless and destitute, especially women who were dependent upon men to support them. If their husband died and the money ran out, or if they did not have children to take them in, they would wind up on the streets.
The Social Security Act was meant to protect our elders from that fate, especially if they could not work anymore. Today, we lament paying taxes into the Social Security system, but we should consider how not everyone is able to save money for retirement.
Without Frances Perkins, the SSA never would have happened. She became the first woman to be appointed to a presidential cabinet. FDR chose her to become his Secretary of Labor.
This book shares the most amazing things one woman did to change how we work. These are all things the working class takes for granted. One woman did so much to make basic working conditions better for us. She looked for ways to protect us after we could no longer work.
While she was advocating for the working class, she also struggled in her personal life. Her husband suffered from manic depression, so he had to be committed. And later, her daughter would suffer from it.
How she was able to hold it together with so many issues at home while working towards helping all of America is incredible.
For those interested in politics and the conversations happening in Congress to overturn what this one woman did, you should read this book. There is so much to learn about the history of labor and how it changed thanks to Frances Perkins. It may change your mind on how you view certain labor policies today.
For those looking for a little romance to read today, I have the perfect YA rom com for you! Marissa Meyer just released With a Little Luck yesterday. This standalone is the second book set in the Fortuna Beach universe. The first book in this series you may have heard of: Instant Karma.
Synopsis
After being magically gifted with incredible luck, a boy discovers this gift just may be a curse when it comes to love, in this sweet romantic comedy by #1 New York Times-bestselling author Marissa Meyer.
Jude is determined to fly under the radar. He just wants to draw comics, host D&D night with his friends, work at his parents’ vinyl record store, and escape high school as unscathed as possible. That is, until the night he finds himself inexplicably gifted with a bout of supernatural good luck.
Suddenly, everything Jude has ever wanted is within reach. His art is being published. He helps his friend’s song become a finalist in a songwriting competition. And he wins a pair of coveted concert tickets, which he can use to ask out the popular girl he’s been crushing on since elementary school.
But how long can Jude’s good fortune last? And why does he find himself thinking about Ari, his best friend since forever? If Jude has been dreaming of the wrong girl this whole time, does that mean he’s doomed to be unlucky in love forever?
With a sprinkle of magic, this sweet beachside romance is perfect for fans of To All the Boys I’ve Loved Beforeand Love & Gelato, as well as anyone who has ever swooned over Marissa Meyer’s beloved characters.
Review
In the spirit of To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before, With a Little Luck is an adorable feel good, light read when you feel like reading one of those cute YA rom com books. This book really took me back to my high school days of asking out the most popular guy in school (and he said, yes). About doing nerdy things with friends, loving music, and just wanting to be successful in whatever you put yourself out there to do (no matter how scary it is).
If I had a little extra luck on my side, I think things probably would have turned out just about the same. But sometimes you need that extra boost of luck. The extra bit of confidence. Or maybe even enough luck to notice that your best friend is in love with you.
I kind of laughed when the good luck charm appeared. It reminded me of my brother because he does Dungeons & Dragons meetings every week (and he’s in his 40s…thank you, Stranger Things). The book has comic strips within to show you the story that Jude is drawing as he tries to create his own D&D story. I really loved this added element in the book, because Jude’s art is what makes him unique.
Jude and his sisters reminded me of The Loud House on Nickelodeon. I love how they all have their own thing that they’re great at. They also have a great support system where they encourage and cheer each other on. I really loved that aspect of Jude’s family.
I guess I can say what really made this book were all of the characters.
Like the other Marissa Meyer books I own, there are tabs I’ve left throughout the book of wise things that hit me at my core. They’re all little life lessons. In With a Little Luck, those wise sayings center around being confident in yourself to do the scary things. For Jude, that’s about getting his artwork published. For me, that’s about feeling confident in finishing my novels. There’s always some little words of writing wisdom that Meyer puts into her novels and they always leave a lasting imprint on my mind.
Also, of note, the Fortuna Beach series involves a little bit of magic from the universe, so if you have issues with topics dealing with karma or the universe granting you an unusual amount of luck, then you should probably skip this one. But, if you are like me and LOVE stories dealing with karma and the universe giving you a helping hand, then this is your kind of book.
At any rate, if you want a sweet rom com to get you through today, this is the book you should pick up either for yourself, or for your favorite teen who loves rom coms.
I hope you have a wonderful Valentine’s Day filled with love. And rule number one to doing that is to make sure you do something for yourself. Show yourself that you are loved. Don’t always depend on others to do that for you. Do that for yourself. Love you, first. Then go share that love with others. You will find that the universe will make sure you feel loved when you start from within.
If you’ve been enjoying True Detective: Night Country as much as I have, you may like this new book out today from Iris Yamashita, “Village in the Dark.”
This book takes place in Alaska. So get your hot cocoa, tea, or coffee ready because we are about to travel into tribal lands.
SYNOPSIS
In Village in the Dark, Detective Cara Kennedy thought she’d lost her husband and son in an accident, but harrowing evidence has emerged that points to murder—and she will stop at nothing to find the truth in this riveting mystery from the author of City Under One Roof.
On a frigid February day, Anchorage Detective Cara Kennedy stands by the graves of her husband and son, watching as their caskets are raised from the earth. It feels sacrilegious, but she has no choice. Aaron and Dylan disappeared on a hike a year ago, their bones eventually found and buried. But shocking clues have emerged that foul play was involved, potentially connecting them to a string of other deaths and disappearances.
Somehow tied to the mystery is Mia Upash, who grew up in an isolated village called Unity, a community of women and children in hiding from abusive men. Mia never imagined the trouble she would find herself in when she left home to live in Man’s World. Although she remains haunted by the tragedy of what happened to the man and the boy in the woods, she has her own reasons for keeping quiet.
Aided by police officer Joe Barkowski and other residents of Point Mettier, Cara’s investigation will lead them on a dangerous path that puts their lives and the lives of everyone around them in mortal jeopardy.
Review
First, I would like to preface this in saying that the synopsis for Village in the Dark strips the story of what made it so intriguing. This book is written by an Asian American woman and includes the story of the Indigenous Peoples of Alaska. She brings together numerous tribes, including an Asian woman and her biracial daughter. These women create their own community together to raise their children. They live off the land, preparing for the day they could come under attack by an abusive ex.
Point Mettier is another community created by a former bank robber who was abused by her husband. In a large condo building, she lives with an entire community that seeks to hide women on the run from their abusive exes. The entire community exists in this one building, and they are there to protect each other.
Mia’s character is also of interest. She is a young woman who was raised in Unity Village. Reading about her journey into Man’s World was a centering moment in understanding how difficult it can be for Indigenous People to navigate the two worlds, especially ours. These are the conversations I’ve seen in the comment sections of Native American Instagram accounts.
After Cara discovers the DNA of her husband and son do not match the bodies that she had buried, that is when everything goes crazy. She soon discovers more and more dead bodies cropping up. And they’re all connected. She just has to figure out how, and it all begins with the photos they found on a gangster’s cell phone.
I was surprised how well an Asian American woman was able to include Indigenous stories into this book, all the way down to the language. She was able to do this with the help of the Native American community. They made sure she was including these elements correctly.
I also loved how she included a Japanese Indigenous woman to the Unity village. I loved seeing women uplifting each other, protecting each other, and creating a society together. They even came up with their own language, which is a little bit of everything from the different tribes.
As for the murder investigations and who is out there killing everyone, I wasn’t expecting any of it. First, I thought it was a serial killer, but it ended up being something far worse. Betrayals will abound.
This book is a quick read. A little under 300 pages.
I really enjoyed it. But mostly, I appreciated that an Asian American woman was able to tell a story that properly included Indigenous voices with the help of someone from the Native American community. There are a lot of strong women in this book. It’s like a happy ending for those who are victims of domestic violence. It’s all about community in the end and lifting your hand down to raise each other up. This is a quality that the Native American community teaches. That is what wins out in the end.
Thank you, Berkley Publishing, for sending this book my way. It gave me more confidence to keep working on my two book projects because I am an Asian American woman incorporating Indigenous stories into my books. It was good to read a book by another Asian American woman who accomplished this feat.
Just because it’s November, it does not mean I am done reading scary books. This book I’m sharing today did not disappoint. It is perfect for horror movie fans.
Good Girls Don’t Die [#ad] by Christina Henry releases on November 14, 2023. [NOTE: This post contains affiliate links. Please see the disclosure at the end of this post for more information.]
This is not your typical horror novel. Take your horror films, cozy mysteries, and the insanity that is our world today, throw them in a blender and what do you have? Good Girls Don’t Die. [#ad]
Figuring out what was really going on was not so easy. I was confused at the end of each story, thinking, “What just happened?” At first, I thought this was reading like The Mill (a movie on Hulu), where it’s just a bunch of people going through some virtual reality. No, that wasn’t it.
Then the Cabin in the Woods story began, and I started thinking there is no way what I think is happening is really happening. Not at this scale. Are they stuck in some strange Truman like show? No, that definitely cannot be it.
Throw the Squid Game into this and you really are wondering what is going to happen after they all escape their strange scary stories.
When I got to the end, I sat there trying to wrap my head around what was going on. I kept thinking that this could actually happen because we see this kind of behavior out there in the world today. Women are murdered for these exact reasons, and that is scary.
I am not going to spoil this one for you. You are going to have to find out for yourself what happened. All I am going to say is that there is absolutely no way you are going to guess the ending at all. Good Girls Don’t Die [#ad] is straight out of several horror movies and stories ripped from the headlines.
About Good Girls Don’t Die
A sharp-edged, supremely twisty thriller about three women who find themselves trapped inside stories they know aren’t their own, from the author of Alice and Near the Bone.
Celia wakes up in a house that’s supposed to be hers. There’s a little girl who claims to be her daughter and a man who claims to be her husband, but Celia knows this family—and this life—is not hers…
Allie is supposed to be on a fun weekend trip—but then her friend’s boyfriend unexpectedly invites the group to a remote cabin in the woods. No one else believes Allie, but she is sure that something about this trip is very, very wrong…
Maggie just wants to be home with her daughter, but she’s in a dangerous situation and she doesn’t know who put her there or why. She’ll have to fight with everything she has to survive…
Three women. Three stories. Only one way out. This captivating novel will keep readers guessing until the very end.
About the Author
Christina Henry is a horror and dark fantasy author whose works include Horseman, Near the Bone, The Ghost Tree, Looking Glass, The Girl in Red, The Mermaid, Lost Boy, Alice, Red Queen, and the seven-book urban fantasy Black Wings series.
She enjoys running long distances, reading anything she can get her hands on, and watching movies with samurai, zombies, and/or subtitles in her spare time. She lives in Chicago with her husband and son. Learn more online at www.christinahenry.net.
[Disclosure: I received a copy of this book in exchange for a review on this site. My review is not influenced by the publisher or the author in any way. This post contains affiliate links. I may earn a small commission for my endorsement, recommendation, testimonial, and/or link to any products or services from this website. Your purchase helps support my work.]
November is Native American Heritage month. As I finish my two book projects, I will be sharing Indigenous stories, as well as stories from Indigenous creators and storytellers.
Berkley Publishing sent along Blood Sisters [#ad] by Vanessa Lillie to be featured this month on this site. This book released on 10.31.2023. [NOTE: This post contains affiliate links. Please see the disclosure at the end of this post for more information.]
In this story, Syd Walker is an archeologist working for the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA). She’s uncovered a skull of an Indian woman in Rhode Island. Finding that skull is just the beginning of a much bigger story.
Another skull is unearthed in her hometown in Oklahoma, but this one has her old badge inside of it, like a calling card asking her to come home.
Find me.
The BIA sends her home to Oklahoma, where she has to face her own demons. Haunted by a friend who was killed when they were kids, she suffers from ongoing psychological trauma from that incident. She killed their attacker, but it was too late to save her friend and her parents.
Going home isn’t what she expected. She’s not an archeologist on this return, she’s an investigator, but what she’s investigating is more than just the skull with her badge in it. There is so much more to what is calling her back home.
She arrives to find out her sister, Emma Lou, has gone missing. The land is poisoned and caving in, thanks to mining and energy companies polluting the land. People are being forced to take a pittance for their poisoned homes and nothing for the land. Drugs are becoming a way of life for their community so much that even Syd’s mother is making drug deliveries.
Bad people are taking advantage of this dying community. Whites are encroaching on the land and taking it as their own without reprimand. The government…don’t get me started. Underneath all of this are the Indigenous women who have gone missing. Their bones are littering the earth, completely undiscovered. But there are people looking for them, hoping they are still alive.
Lillie incorporates a lot of the issues plaguing Native Americans. The story takes place in 2008, but the problems are still relevant today (if not worse).
Lillie is a white-facing Cherokee. I didn’t start crying until I read the Author’s Note at the end of Blood Sisters. [#ad] Her note reminded me of why it is so difficult for me to write Book Project #1. I’ve cried so many times already, because to tell what is happening to Native Americans over these last hundred years all the way up until today has been so difficult, because it hurts me to know how much evil has been wrought against an entire race, all in an effort to exterminate them.
For this book, I will say that the ending surprised me. The twists kept coming and they didn’t stop. There’s redemption, surprise, intrigue, and just pure evil slamming up against you. She even threw a tornado in there (which actually did happen on May 10, 2008). There is more involved in this return to home than just investigating a skull with her badge in it. Ends up, everything is far worse than you can imagine.
This is a fantastic read for those who love thrillers and want to understand a little more about the terrors facing everyday Indigenous lives. If it’s not the white man trying to poison Native Americans, it’s people trying to murder them and steal the land out from underneath them, and people flooding their communities with drugs. This book goes into a very dark place, so tread lightly.
Thank you Berkley Pub and PRHAudio for sending Blood Sisters my way. [#ad] I think it frightened me more than I let on, because a lot of the topics Lillie touched upon are elements that appear in Book Project #1 (and that’s the horror book). It reminded me a bit of the psychological terror in the Hannibal Lecter books and the evil the FBI are chasing down (which is far worse than the cannibal). In this case, Syd had no idea what she was searching for when she arrived home, until it stumbled out of a cave. That was when everything changed.
[Disclosure: I received a copy of this book in exchange for a review on this site. My review is not influenced by the publisher or the author in any way. This post contains affiliate links. I may earn a small commission for my endorsement, recommendation, testimonial, and/or link to any products or services from this website. Your purchase helps support my work.]
Today’s fall horror book comes from Erika T. Wurth, and it is called White Horse.
[Disclosure: I may earn a small commission for my endorsement, recommendation, testimonial and/or link to any products or services from this website. Your purchase helps support my work.]
I’ve been sitting on this book for a little while now, because I’ve been mulling it over. That is actually how I know the book is really good…if I am still thinking about it long after I read it.
For me, what I am mulling over is Bigfoot. Weird, right? Kind of reminds me of Big’s obsession with Bigfoot on Reservation Dogs. If you are like most, Bigfoot is just some urban legend that no one really believes is out there. Never once did I contemplate just where the story of Bigfoot came from.
Imagine my surprise that Bigfoot’s roots come from Indigenous cultures.
As I dive more and more into Native American stories and their culture, I am learning how protective they are of their stories. One book (I’ll be sharing soon) lists most of their horror stories as the white man being the monster. And truthfully, it is rather eye opening to see the story through the eyes of a Native American. I usually just nod my head and go, “Wow, you are so right.”
With White Horse, you can see the monster through different eyes and it is equally as terrifying. Watching history and folklore cross paths to explain the monsters around us, really made my heart sad. I think I didn’t want to talk about this horror story so soon, because my heart wept. To have that sort of emotional feeling during a horror story, that means you need to read it.
All I can say is that I don’t think the horror story ever really ends. There are so many levels of horror that stick with you long after you turn the last page. That is what makes this debut novel an incredible horror story.
Synopsis
Some people are haunted in more ways than one…
Kari James, Urban Native, is a fan of heavy metal, ripped jeans, Stephen King novels, and dive bars. She spends most of her time at her favorite spot in Denver, a bar called White Horse. There, she tries her best to ignore her past and the questions surrounding her mother who abandoned her when she was just two years old.
But soon after her cousin Debby brings her a traditional bracelet that once belonged to Kari’s mother, Kari starts seeing disturbing visions of her mother and a mysterious creature. When the visions refuse to go away, Kari must uncover what really happened to her mother all those years ago. Her father, permanently disabled from a car crash, can’t help her. Her Auntie Squeaker seems to know something but isn’t eager to give it all up at once. Debby’s anxious to help, but her controlling husband keeps getting in the way.
Kari’s journey toward a truth long denied by both her family and law enforcement forces her to confront her dysfunctional relationships, thoughts about a friend she lost in childhood, and her desire for the one thing she’s always wanted but could never have…
There are a lot of new books coming out this month. A LOT!!! From horror to cookbooks to Native American stories, you will find a whole array of new titles you will want to get your hands on.
One of my favorite new titles this month is Jo Nesbo’s The Night House. Want to get into the mind of a horror writer, plus throw Inception on top of it all? This one will creep you out. It is a great read to get you in the mood for spooky month.
The phone ate the kid!
That is all I am going to say.
I will also be picking up a bunch of copies of Yung Pueblo’s The Way Forward to give out as Christmas gifts this year. His words are just the right words needed to inspire you. It will make a great gift for those you hold dear.
I am making my way through all of the other new books coming out this month (there are a lot of them).
You can easily find all of the titles listed below at PW’s Amazon Store. [Disclosure: As an Amazon Associate, I earn a commission from qualifying purchases.]
Also, if you are looking for more spooky reads, check out the Fall Horror Books in the Book archive for some of the stories I loved this fall season.
Happy Spooky Reading!
You can order any of the titles listed above through the PW Amazon Store. [Disclosure: As an Amazon Associate, I earn a commission from qualifying purchases.]
The Malus Domestica series from S. A. Hunt is one of my favorite scary series. It starts with Burn the Dark, followed by I Come With Knives, and The Hellion. This series is perfect for those who love their scary books to be on the extreme side, as in explosive action featuring witches, demons, and lots and lots of scary stuff. I don’t think I will ever get that cat scene out of my head.
This is also perfect for those looking for a trans author to read and follow.
What I loved about this series was all of the explosive action, followed by everything super evil you can think of. I may end up going back to read this series again.
This series is one you need to share with everyone who loves horror. It is really, really good.
Synopsis
Chilling Adventures of Sabrina meets Stranger Things in award-winning author S. A. Hunt’s Burn the Dark, first in the Malus Domestica horror action-adventure series about a punk YouTuber on a mission to bring down witches, one vid at a time.
Robin is a YouTube celebrity gone-viral with her intensely-realistic witch hunter series. But even her millions of followers don’t know the truth: her series isn’t fiction.
Her ultimate goal is to seek revenge against the coven of witches who wronged her mother long ago. Returning home to the rural town of Blackfield, Robin meets friends new and old on her quest for justice. But then, a mysterious threat known as the Red Lord interferes with her plans…
[DISCLOSURE: I may earn a small commission for my endorsement, recommendation, testimonial and/or link to any products or services from this website. Your purchase helps support my work.]
Malice House by Megan Shepherd is the perfect horror book for those who love their horror mixed in with a little fantasy and supernatural.
For horror writers and artists of macabre, maybe our worst nightmare is seeing our work come alive and do what it was created to do: kill in the most gruesome of ways.
I received Malice House last year when I was in the middle of taking a course at Conde Nast College in London, so I wasn’t able to get to it then. When I finally sat down to read it last month, I sat there thinking, “Look at you, Megan Shepherd. Scaring the hell out of me was not what I was expecting from this.”
I love a good horror story, especially when I wasn’t expecting to be scared at all. For me, being scared all lies with me walking away and thinking about what the author just whispered to me in between those pages. Did I carry it with me, mull it over, and think, “Yeah, that shit was scary?” I did with this one.
The scare factor lies in those creatives (or those, like me, who are writing a horror romance novel) who would be petrified if their scariest creations came to life and they went on a killing spree and there’s no natural way to stop them. It is kind of like the Jason, Freddie Krueger, and Michael Myers genre where you can’t kill them. They’ll keep coming back.
So if that’s your kind of scare factor, this is your next read.
“One step away from our world lies another: a land of violent fantasies, of sharp-toothed delights. . . .”Of all the things aspiring artist Haven Marbury expected to find while clearing out her late father’s remote seaside house, Bedtime Stories for Monsters was not on the list. This secret handwritten manuscript is disturbingly different from his Pulitzer-winning works: its interweaving short stories crawl with horrific monsters and enigmatic humans that exist somewhere between this world and the next. The stories unsettle but also entice Haven, practically compelling her to illustrate them while she stays in the house that her father warned her was haunted. Clearly just dementia whispering in his ear . . . right?
Reeling from a failed marriage, Haven hopes an illustrated Bedtime Stories can be the lucrative posthumous father-daughter collaboration she desperately needs to jump-start her art career. However, everyone in the nearby vacation town wants a piece of the manuscript: her father’s obsessive literary salon members, the Ink Drinkers; her mysterious yet charming neighbor, who has a tendency toward three a.m. bonfires; a young barista with a literary forgery business; and of course, whoever keeps trying to break into her house. But when a monstrous creature appears under Haven’s bed right as grisly deaths are reported in the nearby woods, she must race to uncover dark, otherworldly family secrets—completely rewriting everything she ever knew about herself in the process.
[DISCLOSURE: I received a copy of this book from the publisher for purposes of review. The opinions expressed here are by no means influenced by the publisher or the author. This post contains affiliate links. Should you click on the link and purchase the product, I may receive a commission from the sale at no additional cost to you.]
The Nightmare Man by J. H. Markert was my first five star read of 2023. As a writer, I think this one scared me more than most horror books because the idea that your horror story could come to life scared the crap out of me. This scary story is for those who fear their own nightmares.
For parents, if you could find a way to save your children from having recurring nightmares, you would help them, right?
What appears to be a miracle for children to have their nightmares removed turns into a real-life nightmare for them as adults when their nightmares start hunting them. More and more people are found dead, and they all have one thing in common.
This debut made me such a huge fan of this author. Finding the next master of horror is a difficult task in and of itself. To find a story that just scares the crap out of you and it be delivered so well…I mean, how can you not become a fan?
I will say, I will be reading all of his books. His next book, Mister Lullaby, releases on November 21, 2023. That is a book I plan on adding to my collection alongside The Nightmare Man.
Synopsis
Blackwood mansion looms, surrounded by nightmare pines, atop the hill over the small town of Crooked Tree. Ben Bookman, bestselling novelist and heir to the Blackwood estate, spent a weekend at the ancestral home to finish writing his latest horror novel, The Scarecrow. Now, on the eve of the book’s release, the terrible story within begins to unfold in real life.
Detective Mills arrives at the scene of a gruesome murder: a family butchered and bundled inside cocoons stitched from corn husks, and hung from the rafters of a barn, eerily mirroring the opening of Bookman’s latest novel. When another family is killed in a similar manner, Mills, along with his daughter, rookie detective Samantha Blue, is determined to find the link to the book—and the killer—before the story reaches its chilling climax.
As the series of “Scarecrow crimes” continues to mirror the book, Ben quickly becomes the prime suspect. He can’t remember much from the night he finished writing the novel, but he knows he wrote it in The Atrium, his grandfather’s forbidden room full of numbered books. Thousands of books. Books without words.
As Ben digs deep into Blackwood’s history he learns he may have triggered a release of something trapped long ago—and it won’t stop with the horrors buried within the pages of his book.
[Disclosure: I received a copy of this book from the publisher for purposes of a review. All opinions are my own and are not influenced in any way by the author or the publisher. This post contains affiliate links. Should you click on the link and make a purchase, I will receive a commission at no additional cost to you.]
When the publisher first sent this book to me for review, I thought it was funny, because I am the black sheep of my family. I’ve even posted about it on my social media accounts. Usually, those who find themselves to be estranged from their families is because of their religious and/or political differences. Oftentimes, in America, both are synonymous with each other.
When I went into this novel, I assumed that this cult-like family would be Christian. Oh, imagine my surprise when the cult happened to be Satanists. Now, you have my attention.
After reading this book, I guess it doesn’t matter what religion you are from. All cults are the same. They have the same issues that affect families. People become brainwashed with scriptures as they learn how not to love the people they are supposed to love. That’s why there are black sheep out there. We know life was meant to be better than this. We deserve to be loved.
For those who are looking for a horror book featuring the Devil, this is your Perfectionistwannabe.com Horror Pick for the fall season. The ending is as epic as any ending you would expect from a book about the Devil trying to bring an end to the world.
Synopsis
A cynical twentysomething must confront her unconventional family’s dark secrets in this fiery, irreverent horror novel from the author of Such Sharp Teeth and Cackle.
Nobody has a “normal” family, but Vesper Wright’s is truly…something else. Vesper left home at eighteen and never looked back—mostly because she was told that leaving the staunchly religious community she grew up in meant she couldn’t return. But then an envelope arrives on her doorstep.
Inside is an invitation to the wedding of Vesper’s beloved cousin Rosie. It’s to be hosted at the family farm. Have they made an exception to the rule? It wouldn’t be the first time Vesper’s been given special treatment. Is the invite a sweet gesture? An olive branch? A trap? Doesn’t matter. Something inside her insists she go to the wedding. Even if it means returning to the toxic environment she escaped. Even if it means reuniting with her mother, Constance, a former horror film star and forever ice queen.
When Vesper’s homecoming exhumes a terrifying secret, she’s forced to reckon with her family’s beliefs and her own crisis of faith in this deliciously sinister novel that explores the way family ties can bind us as we struggle to find our place in the world.
Pub Date: September 19, 2023
[DISCLOSURE: I received a copy of this book from the publisher for purposes of review for this site. All opinions are my own and are in no way influenced by the author or the publisher. This site contains affiliate links. If you click on any of the affiliate links, I may receive a commission from the sale of the product at no additional cost to you.]
The temperatures are starting to drop. People are running to pick up their pumpkin spiced lattes. For us bibliophiles who love spooky season, we are looking for every new and old scary book we can get our hands on to commemorate every thing we love about fall.
To start off the spooky season, I have a new title for you that is set to be released on September 5th called The September House. This book is for all those who love the haunted house and murderous ghosts vibe. This is for those who love The Haunting of Hill House.
Throughout most of this book, you may think it is comical how an older couple with a grown daughter could purchase a beautiful haunted Victorian and not care one lick that it is haunted. The wife loves the house so much that she will put up with the blood running down the walls every September. She will tolerate all of the ghosts that look the way they did when they were murdered. She can even put up with the priest that comes every other month to sanctify the house from whatever evil lurks in the basement.
Even when her husband goes missing, she does not bat an eyelash that something could be amiss, because she has her dream house. She can live with the ghosts, so long as she has her perfect Victorian.
But things start to go all sorts of wrong when her daughter starts asking for her father. He has not returned any of her calls. She is getting tired of hearing her mother make up excuses on why her father won’t come to the phone or return her calls. So she decides to show up right when the September season is in full swing, when the house is at its worst.
As the daughter begins to think her mother is suffering from dementia and is seeing things, the police show up thinking that she’s killed her husband. Yet, the house decides to take matters into its own hands to prove that it isn’t just haunted, there’s an evil being living in its basement. It plans on killing everyone in the house.
As you read through this book, stick with it until the end, especially if you love the good ole gory stories. What may seem as all innocent and comical at the beginning, can turn into a complete bloodbath at the end.
That’s the part I was not expecting from this. You hope it will turn out that way, but you start to give up hope that it will. Maybe it is just a feel good kind of haunted house story. Oh no. It turns into a bona fide bloodfest horror story towards the end, sure to make any horror lover happy.
Synopsis
A woman is determined to stay in her dream home even after it becomes a haunted nightmare in this compulsively readable, twisty, and layered debut novel.
When Margaret and her husband Hal bought the large Victorian house on Hawthorn Street—for sale at a surprisingly reasonable price—they couldn’t believe they finally had a home of their own. Then they discovered the hauntings. Every September, the walls drip blood. The ghosts of former inhabitants appear, and all of them are terrified of something that lurks in the basement. Most people would flee.
Margaret is not most people.
Margaret is staying. It’s her house. But after four years Hal can’t take it anymore, and he leaves abruptly. Now, he’s not returning calls, and their daughter Katherine—who knows nothing about the hauntings—arrives, intent on looking for her missing father. To make things worse, September has just begun, and with every attempt Margaret and Katherine make at finding Hal, the hauntings grow more harrowing, because there are some secrets the house needs to keep.
Get Your Copy
The September House is out on September 5th. This book is the first in this year’s Perfectionist Wannabe’s Horror Picks for the fall season. There will even be a few witchy books (that may not be scary, but are excellent reads for those who love the season, but hate the scare factor). Stay tuned for more finds and suggestions from now until Halloween. Happy Haunting!
[DISCLOSURE: I received a copy of this book from the publisher for purposes of a feature on this site. All opinions are my own and are in no way shaped by the author or the publisher. This post also contains affiliate links. That means that should you purchase the book in the link, I may receive a commission from the sale at no additional cost to you.]
This story is not about Medusa. This is a story about Medusa’s sisters; and they have their own stories to tell.
Medusa’s Sisters by Lauren J. A. Bear is a retelling of the stories of the gorgons, the gods, and humanity during Ancient Greek times, but with a little spin. This story is not about the legendary Medusa. This story is about her sisters, Stheno and Euryale.
From their birth, these triplets became a part of each other’s fates, the good and the bad. They are not monsters born from Titans. They are born with the same shape as humans and the gods of Olympus. Only Medusa is mortal, while her sisters are immortal.
Stheno, the eldest, is their protector. Euryale, the middle child, is just a woman yearning to fall in love and to live in the world of the gods. Medusa, the youngest, is the one everyone loves.
As the sisters watch the devastation of Pandora’s jar to Zeus creating humans over and over again until he gets it right, they one day decide to join the world of the humans in Thebes. After Thebes, it’s Athens.
It is in the land of Athena that they meet their doom of not only Medusa’s demise, but their own. All three sisters turn into gorgons. This is where the true tale of Stheno and Euryale begin.
They watch as Perseus takes the head of their sleeping Medusa, unable to stop him. They witness Pegasus and Chrysaor emerge from her decapitated body. After Medusa’s death, Stheno and Euryale continue to live on their island of Sarpedon. This is where they plot their revenge.
Thoughts
If you are like me, you probably know the Clash of the Titans version of Medusa’s story. I did not know she had sisters who were also turned into gorgons after Poseidon raped Medusa on the altar of Athena’s temple. Nor did I know that Medusa was pregnant with Poseidon’s children and Pegasus was a result of that rape (or that Pegasus had a twin).
Also, I did not know that Orion is the son of Euryale and Poseidon. In other words, I learned a lot from this retelling. I fact checked a lot of the elements in the story I did not know about, and those facts checked out. Hollywood really changed the story of Medusa, and I am not OK with that.
Medusa’s Sisters vindicates Medusa and her sisters. They are the victims. This book uses the actual myth from the original stories, and it does not stray too far from it. I do like, though, the one change where the sigil of Medusa’s face on Athena’s shield isn’t meant to be looked at as Athena honoring Medusa. It is meant for the goddess to remember what she did to their sister. Euryale painted the sigil onto Athena’s shield so she would remember how she had destroyed the woman she loved, all because she thought Medusa betrayed her.
Within this story, is the story of Orion and his dog Sirius. Oh, how I loved their story. I loved the tale of a boy and his dog. The tears were flowing when Orion was killed and then the gods chose to honor him and Sirius by placing them in the stars above Sarpedon, so Euryale could see them every night. [I’m getting goosebumps just thinking about it.]
Even in great tragedy, there is beauty. In sorrow, we find healing, even from our own enemies. This book is a wonderful tale of sisterhood, motherhood, and family. It is a story of love, hope, and strength.
For those who love tales of Ancient Greece, you will definitely enjoy this story.
[DISCLOSURE: I received a copy of this book from the publisher for purposes of a book review on this site. My opinions are my own, and are in no way influenced by the publisher. Should you choose to purchase the book or the movie through one of the links in this post, I will receive a commission from the sale at no additional cost to you.]
