If you spent tons of time on the internet during the later 2010s and 2020s, you have probably heard of the mysterious and magical Chuck Tingle. The titles and covers of his paranormal romances involving various sentient body parts, inanimate objects, and laser equipped velociraptors live in my mind palace. However, I’ve never read anything…
The Iron Garden Sutra, by A.D. Sui, is the kind of book I relish. It’s an exploration of death amongst the stars through a semi-religious lens. I read it at a particularly weird time, an almost serendipitous one, had the circumstances not been so unfortunate. It popped up as ready from the library only a…
Bone of My Bone by Johanna van Veen is a horror novel that’s about the obsessive, deep sort of love that you would do anything for. Set in Germany amidst the Thirty Years' War, van Veen uses horror to explore love, the prevalence of violence, and the influence religion has in making sense of chaos. …
The Red Winter by Cameron Sullivan has got me howling; it’s so good. The book’s synopsis had me at monster slayer, but then give that monster slayer immortality and a demon that lives in his head? Hi, hello. I’m your girl, and this book is right up my alley. There’s horror. There’s a mystery. And…
I suffered an intense movie hangover after watching Emerald Fennell’s “Wuthering Heights,” so I needed to read something on the lighter side. Luckily for me, T. Kingfisher’s latest novella, Nine Goblins, has been waiting patiently on my TBR. So I decided to see what shenanigans a group of goblins got up to while I mended…
Thrum by Meg Smitherman was an interesting reading experience for me because I loved the big reveal at the end of the story, but I don’t like how we got there. I was very intrigued by a horror romance set in space, and despite Smitherman delivering one hell of an ending, the novella was a…
I know I’m the resident sour puss of the blog, but even I can have some fun sometimes. I have made it known that science fiction and horror is one of my favorite genre combinations, and with that comes a sweet tooth whenever something different (and let’s be honest, something retreading well-worn ground) pops on…
Continue reading ➞ Of Monsters and Mainframes – Werewolves, Vampires, and Mummies Oh My!
Cassandra Khaw is quickly becoming one of my favorite writers. I don’t know their specific writing approach, but everything of theirs is dripping with intentional vision that permeates down to the metaphors and similes. Theme isn’t just some intangible “je ne sais quoi” in their hands, but the mycorrhizal tendrils that support the structure of…
Continue reading ➞ The Library At Hellebore – Hellishly Good
Despite my recent tendencies to avoid newer releases at their release, You Weren’t Meant to be Human, by Andrew Joseph White, had an idea that was a little too tantalizing to pass up. However, I feel I came away from it with more mixed feelings than I expected, especially since I so easily slipped into…
Continue reading ➞ You Weren’t Meant To Be Human – A Dark and Bloody Birth
Let’s close the spooky season with an out-of-this-world but extremely relatable horror novella, Walking Practice, by author Dolki Min. It’s funny, it’s gory, and it’s going to stir up your emotions and encourage examination of love, identity, and how we connect as humans. After crash-landing on Earth, a solitary alien has spent years perfecting its…
Continue reading ➞ Walking Practice – Survival Of The Fittest
