“Don’t open the door.” This warning comes just a little bit too late for Jacklyn and her crew in The Scourge Between Stars, a stunning debut sci-fi thriller by Ness Brown that came out in April. This tense game of cat-and-mouse between a starship crew and unseen alien intruders lurking within the vessel’s walls is perfect for fans of the Alien film franchise who have been waiting for something new and fresh in that vein. Continue reading Review of The Scourge Between Stars
Category: Genre
Review of Book of Night—Crime and Shadow Magic
It’s a bad idea to mess with those who have magic abilities you could only dream of. But Charlie Hall is full of bad ideas in Holly Black’s debut adult fantasy novel Book of Night, which came out last year. I’ve been a fan of Holly Black’s YA faerie books for many years, most recently enjoying The Cruel Prince and its sequels. But with Book of Night, Black takes a fresh approach to the fantasy genre and proves that she can write just as powerfully for adults as for kids and teens. Continue reading Review of Book of Night—Crime and Shadow Magic
The Quiet Stillness of Empty Houses Review
An orphaned governess takes up a new position in a remote manor and begins to develop inadvisable feelings for her employer. You’ve heard this story before—or have you? L. V. Russell puts a new twist on this classic Gothic premise in The Quiet Stillness of Empty Houses, which came out earlier this month from small indie press Quill & Crow Publishing House. Continue reading The Quiet Stillness of Empty Houses Review
Folk Horror in Literature
Something ancient has been awakened in the woods…. This premise encapsulates the essence of many folk horror stories. I have briefly touched on folk horror before in my review of the YA folk horror anthology The Gathering Dark, but as this deeply rooted subgenre of horror experiences another wave of popularity, I figured it was time to dive into it more deeply and give you a few recommendations through which to explore the genre.
In my earlier post, I defined folk horror as “any horror tale that draws on regional folklore,” but this is a bit of a simplification. As with the Gothic, folk horror is difficult to nail down and define. Works in this category tend to deal not just with folklore but also with folk religion, customs, and rituals. In Western literature, this often involves elements of some pre-Christian pagan practice that has persisted in isolated communities despite the pressure to Christianize. Works of folk horror may draw on real life folklore, beliefs, and practices from a particular culture or region, or they may feature a fictional community with lore of the author’s own creation. Common themes and tropes in works of folk horror include a rural setting, a supernatural entity associated with the natural environment, and worship of or sacrifice to this entity. Continue reading Folk Horror in Literature
Review of FINNA and DEFEKT—Retail Terror
Anyone who has ever worked retail can probably regale you with tales of crazy customers, unreasonable managers, and hellish working conditions. Indeed, writer Nino Cipri’s traumatic experiences working retail inspired them to create the bizarre sci-fi horror world of their LitenVerse books. The two novellas in the series, Finna (2020) and Defekt (2021), are set in an IKEA-like big-box furniture store that has a tendency to open up portals into other dimensions…
Finna centers on two LitenVärld employees, Ava and Jules, who recently broke off a romantic relationship. After the breakup, Ava changed her work schedule so that she wouldn’t have to run into Jules on the shop floor. But when “Fucking Derek” doesn’t show up for his shift, Ava is called in to work awkwardly side by side with her ex. Then things start to get really weird when a customer’s grandmother goes missing. The LitenVärld staff is informed via cringey instructional video that the maze-like structure of the store’s showrooms occasionally causes wormholes to spontaneously open up into parallel dimensions—and it’s up to the employees to retrieve any customers who unwittingly wander through the portals. When Jules recklessly volunteers for the mission, Ava can’t just sit there and let them go alone. As the two traverse increasingly strange and dangerous worlds with alternate LitenVärld stores populated by carnivorous furniture and hive-mind clones, Ava and Jules begin to rebuild a tenuous friendship in the ruins of their romance.
A companion novel that stands easily on its own, Defekt slots into the empty spaces of Finna. It tells the story of Derek, whose absence spurred the events of the previous book. Derek is the perfect employee. He studies his LitenVärld Employee Handbook religiously, practices his customer service greetings in the mirror each morning, lives in a shipping container behind the store, and cannot understand why his coworkers don’t share his eager enthusiasm for selling Swedish furniture. It’s almost like he was made for this job…. But after a strange itch in his throat leads Derek to take his very first sick day, management reassigns him to a special inventory shift, locking him in the store overnight. Derek finds himself directed to hunt down defective products—mutant toilets and skittering toy chests that seem to have developed sentience—beside a team of four strangers that seem eerily familiar. But as he sees the brutality with which LitenVärld treats its defective products, he begins to question how his beloved employer might treat defective employees… Continue reading Review of FINNA and DEFEKT—Retail Terror
Review of Piñata—Possession in Mexico
It’s good to get in touch with your roots, but sometimes those roots don’t want to stay buried… Apocalyptic Aztec gods and the vengeful spirit of a murdered Nahua woman threaten to enact a bloody vengeance for the horrors of colonialism in Piñata by Leopoldo Gout, a Mexican horror novel that came out last month. Continue reading Review of Piñata—Possession in Mexico
Review of The Writing Retreat—Channeling Stories and Spirits
How far would you go for a book deal? Five aspiring authors are faced with this question in Julia Bartz’s deliciously suspenseful debut The Writing Retreat, which came out earlier this year.
Alex has been suffering from writer’s block for over a year, ever since she had a catastrophic falling out with her former roommate and best friend Wren. But then she gets the opportunity of a lifetime to help her break out of her slump: a spot in an exclusive month-long writing retreat at the estate of her literary idol: the mysterious and reclusive genius of feminist literary horror, Roza Vallo. The only problem? Wren has been invited, too. Upon arrival at Blackbriar, Roza’s isolated mansion in snowy Upstate New York, Alex learns that she will be competing against Wren and three other young women to write a novel from scratch, with grueling daily word-count requirements and critique sessions. The winner will receive a seven-figure book deal and get to tour with Roza. Choosing the house’s dark history as the subject of her book, Alex will have to confront her own demons and those that haunt the estate if she’s going to have any chance at winning the contest. But as the retreat progresses, it becomes clear that not all of these young women may be quite who they appear and that even Roza Vallo may be harboring dark—perhaps deadly—secrets. Continue reading Review of The Writing Retreat—Channeling Stories and Spirits
Review of Tell Me I’m Worthless
Today I want to take a deeper dive into one of the books I read for the Trans Rights Readathon the other week: Tell Me I’m Worthless by Alison Rumfitt. This debut haunted house story came out in the U.S. earlier this year and showcases how examples of real-world horrors can be transformed and explored with nuance in fiction. Continue reading Review of Tell Me I’m Worthless
Review of The Unknown—Algernon Blackwood Stories and Essays
Even the most celebrated of classic ghost story writers could use a bit of a boost to their visibility these days. British author Algernon Blackwood was essentially a celebrity in the early twentieth century. Revered for his contributions to the ghost story and weird fiction genres, he became a household name toward the end of his life when he shared his stories through popular radio and early television broadcasts. Today, he is best known for two stories in particular, “The Willows” and “The Wendigo.” But these two tales are only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to his prolific career of both fiction and nonfiction writing that spans almost half a century. Publisher Handheld Press and editor Henry Bartholomew seek to introduce a wider audience to the breadth of Blackwood’s talents with a new collection, The Unknown: Weird Writings, 1900–1937, which came out last week. Continue reading Review of The Unknown—Algernon Blackwood Stories and Essays
Review of Hell Bent—A Descent to the Underworld
Would you go to Hell and back to rescue a friend? Alex Stern is prepared to do just that in Leigh Bardugo’s Hell Bent, which came out earlier this year. If you loved the dark academia vibes and intricate paranormal world of Ninth House, then you do not want to miss this high-stakes sequel! Continue reading Review of Hell Bent—A Descent to the Underworld