My Review
It’s been a while since I’ve updated the blog, or even posted a review anywhere. I wish I could say why, exactly, I’ve been absent, but it’s more or less a mix of things and I haven’t had the will … Continue reading
Tag Archives: horror
Synopsis
Andrea Hannah's Where Darkness Blooms is a supernatural thriller about an eerie town where the sunflowers whisper secrets and the land hungers for blood. The town of Bishop is known for exactly two recurring windstorms and an endless field of sunflowers that stretches farther than the eye can see. And women―missing women. So when three more women disappear one stormy night, no one in Bishop is surprised. The case is closed and their daughters are left in their dusty shared house with the shattered pieces of their lives. Until the wind kicks up a terrible secret at their mothers’ much-delayed memorial. With secrets come the lies each of the girls is forced to confront. After caring for the other girls, Delilah would like to move on with her boyfriend, Bennett, but she can’t bear his touch. Whitney has already lost both her mother and her girlfriend, Eleanor, and now her only solace is an old weathervane that seems to whisper to her. Jude, Whitney's twin sister, would rather ignore it all, but the wind kicks up her secret the summer fling she had with Delilah's boyfriend. And more than anything, Bo wants answers and she wants them now. Something happened to their mothers and the townsfolk know what it was. She’s sure of it. Bishop has always been a strange town. But what the girls don’t know is that Bishop was founded on blood―and now it craves theirs.
Synopsis
“Violent, smart, gruesome and wildly original, this novel pulls readers into a horrific world of murder and cannibalism while also critiquing misogyny, exploring Asian fetishization and stereotypes, sharing what it’s like to navigate two cultures and telling a touching story of a family in turmoil.” —New York Times Book Review Crying in H-Mart meets My Sister, the Serial Killer in this feminist psychological horror about the making of a female serial killer from a Korean-American perspective. Ji-won’s life tumbles into disarray in the wake of her appa’s extramarital affair and subsequent departure. Her mother, distraught. Her younger sister, hurt and confused. Her college freshman grades, failing. Her dreams, horrifying… yet enticing. In them, Ji-won walks through bloody rooms full of eyes. Succulent blue eyes. Salivatingly blue eyes. Eyes the same shape and shade as George’s, who is Umma’s obnoxious new boyfriend. George has already overstayed his welcome in her family’s claustrophobic apartment. He brags about his puffed-up consulting job, ogles Asian waitresses while dining out, and acts condescending toward Ji-won and her sister as if he deserves all of Umma’s fawning adoration. No, George doesn’t deserve anything from her family. Ji-won will make sure of that. For no matter how many victims accumulate around her campus or how many people she must deceive and manipulate, Ji-won’s hunger and her rage deserve to be sated. A brilliantly inventive, subversive novel about a young woman unraveling, Monika Kim’s The Eyes Are the Best Part is a story of a family falling apart and trying to find their way back to each other, marking a bold new voice in horror that will leave readers mesmerized and craving more.My Review
Anything involving eyes makes me queasy. It’s why I’ve never worn contact lenses – only glasses – since I was seven years old. It’s why I’ve never attempted any kind of vision correcting surgery. And it’s why I almost feel … Continue reading
Synopsis
From a provocative new literary talent, a hilarious and haunted novel featuring an unlikable protagonist grappling with grief, inheritance, and the ghosts of his past. We meet our ill-tempered protagonist—the story’s titular “brat”—at a low moment, but not yet at rock bottom. The Gabriel of the novel is mourning the death of his father as well as a recent breakup, and struggling to finish writing his second book. Alone and aimless, he agrees to move back into his parents’ house to clear it out for sale. Here, the clichés end. Gabriel has trouble delivering on his promise as the moldy, overgrown house deteriorates around him, so does his own health, and large sheets of his skin begin to peel from his body at a terrifying rate. In fragments and figments, Gabriel takes us on a surreal journey into the mysteries of the family home, where he finds unfinished manuscripts written by his parents which seem to mutate every time he picks them up, and a bizarre home video that hints at long-buried secrets. Strange people and figures emerge—perhaps directly from the novel’s embedded fictions—and despite his compromised state (and his more successful brother’s growing frustration) Gabriel is determined to try to make sense of these hauntings. Part ghost story, part grief story; flirting with the autofictional mode while sitting squarely in the tradition of the gothic, Brat crackles with deadpan humor and delightfully taut prose. Smith’s arrival heralds the next generation of fiction writers—formally inventive, influenced by the rhythms of the internet, and infused with a particularly Gen Z sense of alienation. Irreverent and boundary-pushing, but not for its own sake, the novel that follows is muscular yet lyrical, riddled with paradox, and told with a truly rare and compelling clarity of voice. Brat is a serious debut that refuses to take itself too seriously.My Review
This book…was a series of mind games from the first chapter to the very last page. I still don’t understand, 100%, what I read – even two weeks after I finished the book. Was it a good read? Yes. Was … Continue reading
Synopsis
A chilling twist on the “cursed film” genre from the bestselling author of The Pallbearers Club and The Cabin at the End of the World. In June 1993, a group of young guerilla filmmakers spent four weeks making Horror Movie, a notorious, disturbing, art-house horror flick. The weird part? Only three of the film’s scenes were ever released to the public, but Horror Movie has nevertheless grown a rabid fanbase. Three decades later, Hollywood is pushing for a big budget reboot. The man who played “The Thin Kid” is the only surviving cast member. He remembers all too well the secrets buried within the original screenplay, the bizarre events of the filming, and the dangerous crossed lines on set that resulted in tragedy. As memories flood back in, the boundaries between reality and film, past and present start to blur. But he’s going to help remake the film, even if it means navigating a world of cynical producers, egomaniacal directors, and surreal fan conventions — demons of the past be damned. But at what cost? Horror Movie is an obsessive, psychologically chilling, and suspenseful twist on the “cursed film” that breathlessly builds to an unforgettable, mind-bending conclusion.My Review
Paul Tremblay is an incredibly gifted author with a true talent for writing thrillers, horror, and the unexpected. I enjoyed some of his other work, and I was super excited to jump into Horror Story because the whole “cursed found … Continue reading
Synopsis
This Is Where We Talk Things Out by Caitlin Marceau, author of Palimpsest: A Collection of Contemporary Horror, follows the gut-wrenching journey of Miller and her estranged mother, Sylvie, who have always had a tense relationship. After Miller's father dies, she agrees to a girls' vacation away from the city to reconnect with the only family she has left. Although she’s eager to make things work, Miller can’t help but worry that her mother is seeing their countryside retreat as a fun weekend getaway instead of what it really is: a last-ditch effort to repair their relationship. Unfortunately, that quickly becomes the least of Miller’s problems. Sylvie's trapped in the past and if Miller's not careful, she will be too. A cross between Stephen King's Misery and Stephanie Wrobel's Darling Rose Gold, This Is Where We Talk Things Out explores the horror of familial trauma, mother-daughter relationships, and what happens when we don't let go.My Review
This is Where We Talk Things Out is fact paced, dark, and full of twists! This is Where We Talk Things Out is one of those books that is always being recommended to me on the Kindle store (because I … Continue reading
Synopsis
In the tourist town of Wharton, on the coast of Lake Superior, Tess Bell is renovating her old family home into a bed-and-breakfast during the icy dead of winter… As the house’s restoration commences, a shuttered art studio is revealed. Inside are paintings Tess’s late grandfather, beloved and celebrated artist Sebastian Bell, hid away for generations. But these appear to be the works of a twisted mind, almost unrecognizable as paintings she and others familiar with his art would expect. The sinister canvases raise disturbing questions for Tess, sparking nightmares and igniting in her an obsession to unearth the truth around their origins. What evil has been locked away for so many years? The ominous brushstrokes, scratching at the door, and moving shadows begin to pull Tess further and further into the darkness.My Review
I’ve never read anything else by Wendy Webb (although my Kindle tells me I have a few of her other books already, so I better get reading), so I wasn’t sure what to think of this one when I bought … Continue reading
Synopsis
A romantic cabin getaway doesn’t go exactly as planned. High up on the windswept cliffs of Pale Peak, Faye and Felix celebrate their new engagement. But soon, a chorus of ghastly noises erupts from the nearby the screams of animals, the cries of children, and the mad babble of a hundred mournful voices. A dark figure looms near the windows in the dead of night, whispering to Faye. As the weather turns deadly, Felix discovers that his terrified fiancée isn’t just mumbling in her sleep – she’s whispering back. Originally a contest-winning story on reddit.com’s horror community NoSleep, Stolen Tongues has received widespread acclaim and has been optioned for film.My Review
Stolen Tongues was not what I was expecting. To be honest, I didn’t know what I was expecting, but I have seen this book around and it has gotten a lot of glowing reviews among those who enjoy the horror … Continue reading
Synopsis
Angela has everything she thought she ever wanted—a successful husband, a lavish house, and a bottomless fortune. But the sight of a strange man in a grocery store one night reawakens her dormant sexuality and soon Angela embarks on a dangerous descent into the world of underground pornography and back-alley plastic surgery. As the stakes get higher, long-buried memories resurface and Angela finds herself enamored with Reena, a fetish film performer. With some help from a queer gang called The Waifs, Angela is forced to make the decision between her unhappy upper-class life and the treacherous world of underground film.My Review
I went into this novella without any idea of what to expect. Not only had I not read anything by this author, since I tend to stay away from novellas, I didn’t read anything even remotely like this. Ever. I … Continue reading
Synopsis
A NEW CONCEPT IN FEAR... Imagine a supernatural horror story in which the paranormal activity happens within YOUR home. A SINCERE WARNING ABOUT THE ENTITY IN YOUR HOME takes the form of an anonymous letter sent to YOUR address. It details the terrifying events which happened in your home and which continue to this day. You have inherited a curse and are being preyed upon by a bone-chilling apparition. This 10,000-word letter from the previous resident advises you how to cope, while detailing the unthinkable ordeal they suffered before you. A SINCERE WARNING ABOUT THE ENTITY IN YOUR HOME is the ultimate way to scare yourself in your own home, because it's the only ghost story which takes place IN your home. Dare you read it?My Review
What originally drew me into this book was the whole premise about it being a letter written by an anonymous author to you, the reader, talking about paranormal events that have happened in the home that you are currently residing … Continue reading
Synopsis
Now, for the first time, the New York Times bestselling serial thriller is complete in one terrifying volume. John Saul, the master of supernatural suspense, John Saul, brings to chilling life the small New England town of Blackstone--and the secrets and sins that lay buried there. . . . From atop Blackstone's highest hill, the old Asylum casts its shadow over the village. Built in the 1890s to house the insane, the Asylum has stood vacant for decades. But now, the wrecker's ball is about to strike--and unleash an ominous evil. Strange gifts begin to appear on the doorsteps of Blackstone's finest citizens. Each bears a mysterious history. Each brings a horrifying power to harm. Each reveals another thread in the suspensefully woven web of . . . THE BLACKSTONE CHRONICLES Part I--An Eye for an Eye: The Doll Part II--Twist of Fate: The Locket Part III--Ashes to Ashes: The Dragon's Flame Part IV--In the Shadow of Evil: The Handkerchief Part V--Day of Reckoning: The Stereoscope Part VI--AsylumMy Review
Until recently, I didn’t even know that this series came together in one book. My mom bought the series as it was released, one each month, back in 1997. So I have the original books, which apparently aren’t in print … Continue reading
