I recently finished a big sci-fi book and was looking for something short and sweet to help me come back down from the stars. While Uncommon Charm by Emily Bergslien and Kat Weaver is certainly short, its sweetness is contained in a friendship growing quietly in the backdrop of a sinister family secret that is…
Well, shut me in a dark and dreary house and call me mad because I finally found a gothic story that I love. Johanna van Veen’s latest novel, Blood on Her Tongue, proved to me that a story can honor all the typical gothic tale dressings while finding new, complicated ways to shock and disturb…
A Fairy King, a rising sea, and predatory men make up the fetid water in A Study in Drowning by Ava Reid. It’s not something you would want to swim in, but it is a story you will want to read. Reid blends real life with a foreboding fairytale to showcase the difficulties women face…
Bite-sized gothic tales are appropriate for light summer reading lists, as long as you like things dark and twisty all year round as I do. Before you jump into warmer water, dip your toe in the cold lake and mystery surrounding Lacrimore by S.J. Costello. A medium named Sivre travels across the lake to a…
After finishing A House with Good Bones, I am reminded yet again that I am missing out by not having read T. Kingfisher’s entire catalog. In terms of content and genre, this southern gothic mystery is worlds apart from my first experience with a Kingfisher book (Nettle & Bone), but the fabulous storytelling, fun characters,…
You all know the stories. The tales where a man marries a mysterious woman with secrets she begs to keep. But the man’s curiosity always wins out in the end, and he learns something that causes irrevocable damage. Even when I was told not to, I decided to pull back the layers of Indigo Maxwell-Casteñada…
Continue reading ➞ The Last Tale Of The Flower Bride – Artful Arrangement
It’s October babay! And that means I have to read horror and horror alone, because that’s just the way I am. Sundial, by Catriona Ward, is the first book up for review. Sundial enchanted me in ways both unexpected and expected. Ward’s latest novel is a clever and emotional ride through both gothic and serial…
Revelation Space is a big series. Sure, it’s a trilogy, but it also has two related novels and a treasure trove of short stories. I’ve only scratched the surface on the shorter fiction by Alastair Reynolds, but the little I have read has been just as exciting as the sprawling epics. Now I’m writing this…
Continue reading ➞ Chasm City – Not Splitting Hairs On This One
