A man-eating beast stalks the impoverished countryside of Gévaudan, France. Only Professor Sebastian Grave, who defeated it once before, knows the beast’s true nature and why it seems to have returned. Cameron Sullivan crafts a brilliant reimagining of the historical legend of the Beast of Gévaudan, inspiration for many a modern werewolf tale, in his impressive debut fantasy, The Red Winter, out tomorrow from Tor! Continue reading Review of The Red Winter—Werewolves in Revolutionary France
Tag: LGBTQ
Review of Spread Me—Erotic Horror
They say that fear and arousal are remarkably similar sensations. Sarah Gailey, the multi-talented author of alt-history adventure books like River of Teeth and more traditional horror such as Just Like Home, exploits this overlap in their recent erotic horror novella Spread Me, which came out back in September. Part re-imagining of John Carpenter’s classic 1982 film The Thing, part post-Pandemic fever dream, Spread Me is guaranteed to be quite unlike anything you’ve ever read. Continue reading Review of Spread Me—Erotic Horror
Review of Cinder House—A Haunting Fairy Tale
“A ghost was how a building held a grudge.” What if Cinderella was a ghost, murdered by her stepmother and only able to interact with the world outside the home she haunts for the three precious nights of the prince’s ball? Freya Markse (whose The Last Binding series I absolutely loved) puts a delightful, eerie spin on this classic fairy tale in her bite-size novella Cinder House, which came out earlier this fall. Continue reading Review of Cinder House—A Haunting Fairy Tale
Review of The Eyes Are the Best Part
Satisfying. That’s the best way I can describe The Eyes Are the Best Part, a bizarrely lovely book about feminine rage and cannibalism. This debut horror novel from Monika Kim came out last summer and swept a whole bunch of awards and nominations, from the Bram Stoker Award for Best First Novel to being a Goodreads Choice Award nominee. It’s been on my TBR list for a while, and I finally got around to adding it to my plate. If you love stories about complicated and messy young women getting revenge, then The Eyes Are the Best Part is definitely worth savoring. Continue reading Review of The Eyes Are the Best Part
Review of The Library at Hellebore
When your school crest is composed of figs, wasps, and carnivorous deer, you know you’re in for an interesting school year… If anyone has the aesthetics of horror down, it’s Cassandra Khaw, who broke into the genre back in 2021 with Nothing But Blackened Teeth. I had the pleasure of interviewing Khaw before that book’s release to get their thoughts on hauntings and horror novellas. Now Khaw is trying their hand at dark academia with The Library at Hellebore, which came out just last week. If you’re craving more books about magically powerful young adults at deadly schools after finishing Naomi Novik’s Scholomance series, then you’ll definitely want to check this one out! Continue reading Review of The Library at Hellebore
Review of They Bloom at Night—Algae Horror
You’ve heard of mushroom horror? Well, make room for its new cousin: algae horror. Anyone who has experienced the notorious “red tides” off of the United States’ southern coasts knows just how harmful, creepy, and off-putting large-scale algal blooms can be. But Trang Thahn Tran (author of She Is a Haunting) takes the red tide to new supernatural heights in their latest YA horror novel, They Bloom at Night, which came out earlier this month. Continue reading Review of They Bloom at Night—Algae Horror
Review of Someone You Can Build a Nest In—Monster Romance
What better to read during Pride Month than a sapphic monster romance? A man-eating shapeshifter falls in love with the daughter of a powerful monster hunting family in Someone You Can Build a Nest In, a delightful fantasy romance debut by John Wiswell that came out earlier this year. Continue reading Review of Someone You Can Build a Nest In—Monster Romance
Books with Nonbinary/Ungendered Protagonists
Happy Pride Month, dear readers! I’ve written a few times on this blog about how Gothic literature has been used to explore marginalized genders and sexualities, both in joyful, celebratory ways and as a way of exploring societal and personal anxieties about not conforming to the norm. Many queer authors have found their place in the field of Gothic fiction, and you’ll also find many queer characters both as villains and as protagonists (or sometimes, both). Today I want to highlight a few of my favorite recent reads in Gothic-descended genres that are written from the point of view of a nonbinary or ungendered protagonist: Continue reading Books with Nonbinary/Ungendered Protagonists
Review of What Grows in the Dark—A Spooky Debut
What if you could turn your trauma into your hustle? It might not be the healthiest way of dealing, but Brigit does just that by creating a ghost hunting show centered on her connection to her dead sister in What Grows in the Dark, a debut horror novel by Jaq Evans that came out earlier this year. Continue reading Review of What Grows in the Dark—A Spooky Debut
Review of A Power Unbound—Fantasy Politics and Power Plays
There’s just nothing quite like a satisfying conclusion to a stellar trilogy. I’ve been eagerly awaiting A Power Unbound, the conclusion to Freya Marske’s The Last Binding series, which finally came out earlier this month. I was sucked into Marske’s intricate world of Edwardian magic from the first few pages of A Marvellous Light and fell even more in love with the series and its recurring characters when I read Book 2, A Restless Truth. With A Power Unbound, Freya Marske does a masterful job of rounding off the series and orchestrating a large cast of characters and complex plot to a satisfying conclusion. Continue reading Review of A Power Unbound—Fantasy Politics and Power Plays