"One of the weirdest and most convoluted Christmas stories that I have ever read, filled with surprises, suspense, thrills, fast paced action, danger, gore and grit... a crazy page turner, a roller coaster of a holiday ride."
AN ASTONISHING, HARROWING, BEAUTIFUL novel mixes the everyday horrors of racism with the terrors of the supernatural in a tale of a brutal Florida reformatory haunted by the boys who died there. SOLID A
"The much anticipated follow-up to Canticle Creek, The Wiregrass is set in the temperate rainforest area of Victoria in the fictional town of Satellite."
THE OPPRESSION OF THE UYGHUR PEOPLE explored in heartbreaking detail through an exiled poet and filmmaker’s memoir. Beautiful writing about a horrifying topic brings stories of the imprisoned and murdered into the light. A MINUS
#BookReview The Dower House Mystery by Patricia Wentworth
Read as e-book using a mix of Braille and TTS
Dean Street Press
Pub. 1925
I’ve been meaning to read Dean Street Press for ages as their books sound so enjoyable, so #DeanStreetDecember was the nudge I needed.
I loved the setup of this one; Amabel Grey takes a peculiar job to earn enough money to send her daughter on a chance of a lifetime trip abroad (to snag a rich husband!), thinking she’s a capable woman who doesn’t believe in ghosts and all will be fine. How hard could it be to be paid by the owner of a house to live there for 6 months to quash the local rumours that it’s haunted, which have made it impossible to rent out?
But of course as soon as she arrives strange and unsettling things start to happen, all of which sound ridiculous when explained out loud; someone laughing, a cat mewing, doors that were bolted at night being wide open in the morning, the feeling that someone is following you up the stairs. And all manner of other creepy little details to add to the tension:
“The house was very still, but twice the stillness was broken by that sound of light footsteps, jenny of course, moving about downstairs. She turned a page and forced her mind to follow the words. They remained words to her, separate words, no connecting thought to string them together. On other nights there had been a hundred sounds; the wind in the chimneys, the pattering of the rain, the unkempt ivy buffeting the windowpane, the faint scuttering of mice. Tonight there were none of these sounds, the house was very still. It was like the hush before a storm.”
The solution was a little absurd and I saw it coming but I didn’t mind as I was enjoying the main characters and the eerie atmosphere of the house so much, I just went with it!
A fortune teller, a past love, a mysterious missing girl and two dogs that run away in terror all make for a thoroughly entertaining read. #Bookstodon#DeanStreetDecember23@bookstodon
#BookReview Setting the perfect tone for this collection of twenty-three tales of Baba Yaga is the spell-poem by Stephanie M. Wytovich that opens it. The stories that follow are traditional and modern, set in Slavic forests or a swamp in the American Deep South. Two of the stories are interesting variations on our Hansel and Gretel tale, another is told by the Baba Yaga's hut on chicken legs, and in one Baba Yaga falls in love.
The Baba Yagas vary too, they are ancient and young, beautiful and ugly, cruel and compassionate, but she is always a powerful figure who is closely connected to the natural world.
Into the Forest was edited by Lindy Ryan with an introduction by Christina Henry, and the stories are by women fantasy and horror writers who bring a welcome feminist sensibility to many of them. There are some very strong selections, but the collection does have a few weaker choices.
A couple of the stories are bursting the seams of a short story and could be developed into novels. The perfect kind of eerie anthology to cozy up with through the dark, cold months. #reading#books@bookstodon
@bookstodon
I really can't recommend Gordon Doherty's Empires of Bronze series enough - it's written really well and he clearly has done his research. What's really fascinating is that the story is ultimately a sad one - the Sea Peoples essentially end up wiping out most Bronze Age civs (other than the Egyptians), but the story has a hopeful ending. The author also does a great job of separating fact from fiction.
Recently finished "Not A Good Fit At this Time" by Adam Hulse and had a blast with it. Check out my Goodreads review for details but fans of horror, science fiction, and dark fantasy should absolutely give it a read!
Oh, forgot to mention--my review of 'The Betrayals' by Bridget Collins (which I've RAVED about on here--you may have seen some toots) is up on Nerds of a Feather!
Heroes do The One Right Thing. With rising fascism, sometimes The One Right Thing doesn't exist; and usually heroes don't either. In this book, we see what happens when weak, flawed people do a small, right thing.
A SURREAL POST-APOCALYPTIC SETTING lends power to this dreamlike retelling of Macbeth. Hallucinatory, atmospheric prose captures the point of view of a man pushed to his limits with no options but to fight. B PLUS
MURDERBOT’S BACK, BUT not better than ever. In fact, the semi-human fighting machine is feeling vulnerable—at the worst possible time, as it and the humans it protects are dealing with multiple interplanetary threats. Fast-paced, thoughtful. A MINUS