Steve Stred's Blog, page 10

Book Review: False Bodies by J.R. McConvey

Title: False Bodies

Author: J.R. McConvey

Release date: October 1st, 2024

*Huge thanks to Breakwater Books for sending me a digital ARC!*

Do you know the writer J.R. McConvey?

I feel like this is a name that not enough people know about, but that within a few short months that is going to really change.

First, let’s get something out of the way. I know J.R. McConvey. Cocky eh? Well, no, what I mean is, I actually know the guy, consider him to be a wonderful friend and at one point, we were even working on a screenplay for one of my novella’s together. J.R. is not only a fantastic human, but outside of the writing world, he’s a Gemini and Genie award-winning producer. In the writing world, his debut collection, ‘Different Beasts’ which was released in 2019 won the Kobo Rakuten Emerging Writer Prize in Speculative Fiction award. And that was where we connected. Well, not through that – but because of that win – his collection was sent over to Kendall Reviews for reviewing and I jumped on it for three reasons. One – it was titled ‘Different Beasts’ so I was stoked to read some Canadian beastly tales. Two – because he was Canadian. I’m always game to read new to me Canuck stuff. Three – not surprising, but Andrew Pyper had judged those awards and there was a blurb from what Andrew had noted about the book, and that really sold me. It was very similar in tone to Andrew’s blurb of Ian Rogers ‘Every House is Haunted’ collection and that collection is SO GOOD, so I was on board. And guess what? ‘Different Beasts’ was magical.

Not long after, J.R. and I began chatting and since then we’ve become solid buds. But don’t take that for nothing, if this book sucked, I’d tell you, because I know his beard could handle the truth.

Sometime in the last two or three years, McConvey asked me if I knew of any place he should send this novel for submission. I suggested a few spots, but nothing stuck (unintentional pun), but when he said it had been picked up, I was so excited.

Why?

Have you read the blurb.

Here’s a quick sentence to get you excited. ‘A cryptozoologist goes to Newfoundland to investigate a report of a Kraken attack.’ I mean COME ON. If you read that and your eye brows went up and your heart rate quickened, then not only are you and I now friends, but you can best bet you’re zipping to the bottom to hit the preorder link.

If you read that and were like ‘meh,’ I suggest you stop reading and question why you hate awesome fiction. You can marinate on that.

So, now, we arrive at McConvey’s debut. ‘False Bodies.’ Stunning cover art in tow, I bumped this way up my TBR, wondering just what craziness McConvey’s delivered and boy, does he deliver.

What I liked: The story follows Eddie Gesner, a cryptozoologist, who is trying to live his life with a few things hanging over his head. The first is that he’s seven-feet tall. Which makes him standout no matter where he goes. I’m not sure if this character was modeled after James “Bobo” Fay from Finding Bigfoot, but that’s kind of who I pictured while reading this. The second is that many people consider him a murderer. Why? After marrying the woman of his dreams, they went on a trip in Tibet. While there, his wife disappeared, never to be found. She was super rich. So, many presumed he killed her. While Eddie insists that a Yeti took her. This has now given him the moniker Eddie ‘The Yeti’ Gesner, which he detests.

The story picks up while he’s at a cryptozoology conference. His friend contacts him and tells him of a strange occurrence off the Newfoundland coast. Where a drilling rig was seemingly attacked by a Kraken. How do they know this? A tentacle was left behind.

Up until this point, McConvey delivers a very straight forward creature-feature. He’s setting the stage and you’d be forgiven if you believed that the rest of the story would go like this – Eddie goes there, investigates, discovers that a massive squid exists, battles it to avenge the deaths of those workers and the death of his wife, and once he successfully kills the creature, lives out the rest of his life.

Wrong.

No, what McConvey does from that point on is simply extraordinary. This novel is richly layered and as we move from chapter to chapter – and it’s very subtle at first – J.R. ramps up the tension and the pacing so that the final quarter feels like a full on sprint.

Once on the ground, he teams up with a local detective who wants to get to the bottom of what happened. We get more details. The crew change was scheduled to happen. The new crew arrived, only to find nobody onboard the drilling rig. Then they all mysteriously returned – dead – but with markings on their foreheads.

We then get a mysterious diary – from the 1800’s and a distant relative of the detective – that goes over a previous incident of a giant squid arriving at the shores, and soon Eddie understands someone is following him.

The introduction of the squid-cult was a fascinating plot point. I won’t go too far into that aspect as I’m now at the stage where I gotta walk the spoiler-free line carefully, but it not only opened up some supernatural elements I wasn’t expecting, but made for some cinematic scenes.

Throughout, the reader is pulled along by one simple aspect – is there really a giant squid. Once we get our answer, McConvey ramps things up and this is when we get the ‘corporate greed’ aspect that we are tipped off about in the synopsis. Yet another element that honestly wasn’t on my Bingo card for this novel, it added more depth, but also worked well when we consider the current Canadian environment and the ongoing boycott of Loblaws. My only gripe is that the head of the corporation wasn’t described more like slime ball Galen Weston.

McConvey wraps this up perfectly. The final fifty pages or so are pristine and harken back to the depth of storytelling he offered in ‘Different Beasts.’ This is a Canadian story at its heart and that really shines through this final quarter. Throughout we get that aspect well, the ‘everyone knows everyone’-ness of the location, the ‘everyone is friendly’ aspects, but McConvey injects the Canadian horror story element ten-fold to wrap this up and it really showcases how phenomenal of a writer he is.

What I didn’t like: Honestly only one main issue with this one and that involves somebody key to the cult. I can’t specifically say – spoilers and such – but Eddie invites them to meet up as he has questions but somebody kills them before he can meet them. The way it was laid out, I felt like I’d missed something, as I’d kind of assumed they had special powers, so when it was said they died, I wasn’t fully on board with the delivery. Minor, but was an odd choice at that particular juncture of the story.

Why you should buy this: Look, if you read my one-liner up top and pumped your first in the air and instantly smelled saltwater, then smash the preorder button and celebrate being awesome.

But, if you read all of this and you’re still on the fence, you should buy this because this novel takes the basic outline of a horror novel and wraps it within a 70’s detective novel. This is what a ‘James Bond Meets The Kraken’ movie would look like if filmed by the guys who made ‘Se7en.’ This novel delivers in spades with great set pieces, tons of action and a deeply flawed main character that you want to root for, even as the evidence stacks up against him, time and time again.

McConvey has delivered an immaculate debut novel and I can’t wait to see this one breach the surface and shred readers when it gets released.

5/5

Book Review: Moon of the Crusted Snow by Waubgeshig Rice

Title: Moon of the Crusted Snow

Author: Waubgeshig Rice

Release date: October 2nd, 2018

If you’ve been following any of my reviews for the last seven or so years, you’ll know (and have read me typing these things before!) that I love Canadian wilderness fiction, dystopian fiction, and just unnerving wilderness fiction. A few of my own books are essentially those concepts all throw into a blender and mixed up for consumption, but very rarely do we get Indigenous Canadian Dystopian Wilderness Fiction and somehow, Waubgeshig Rice’s 2018 release, ‘Moon of the Crusted Snow,’ was completely missed by this reader. How? I really don’t know. Outside of this book, the only other examples of ICDWF (yeah, I’m being a bit too lazy to type that all out again, though me typing this out to explain to you why I didn’t type that out is far longer than if I’d typed that out… anyways) is 2019’s ‘Taaqtumi: An Anthology of Arctic Horror Stories’ which was PPPPPHHHHHHenomenal. Yes, emphasize the PPPPPHHHHHHH when reading that please and thanks.

So, when I read the synopsis of this one, I was really excited, and it wasn’t long after I bought this that the sequel, ‘Moon of the Turning Leaves’ was nominated for an Aurora Award for Best Novel. With that in mind, I bumped ‘Moon of the Crusted Snow’ way up my TBR and dove in, wondering what heartache Rice had in store for me.

What I liked: The story takes place in a small northern Anishinaabe community. Life is simple for the people who live there, though things have improved since they were connected to the larger hydro lines and internet access. Winter is coming, so those who hunt are out getting the last few animals to fill their freezers until Spring and those who have young ones are getting prepared to keep them occupied when it gets too cold to spend much time outside.

Things are going well until one day the power turns off and all communication with the outside world ceases. At first, this is nothing, they’re used to it and it was a frequent occurrence prior to them joining the larger grid. But as the days accumulate and turn into weeks, tensions rise and the community gets a plan together.

Before I go a bit further here, I want to discuss a few things. Rice effortlessly creates these characters and weaves the opening portion of the story with ease. Evan and Nicole feel like old friends, and the few characters we see introduced with depth – Walter etc. – all come across as friendly, caring people who know that the duty of the Tribe council is to look after the whole not the individual. Seeing that this release came out prior to Covid, and having read it now, it’s interesting that this book foreshadowed a lot of the relationship breakdowns and Freedom rallying we saw sprout up when the pandemic hit.

Growing up, a show I watched weekly as a kid was ‘North of 60,’ which felt like a very early prequel to this book. I loved seeing the interactions between the people, the way that the elders wanted some of the young ones to remain their and keep their way of life going and how the outside, wider world continued to creep in and disrupt life. Rice’s depiction of this small town was very similar and it was within those ‘casual’ moments that this one really shines. I say ‘casual’ because we get almost throw away paragraphs that really highlight the struggles this group has dealt with. One such example is an early 20’s man who we find out was being highly recruited to try out for a hockey team, only for his flight out to be cancelled due to a blizzard and he never got a second chance. Or when the kids sit down and we get a wonderful story told to them from the grandparents. For some readers these moments may come off as ‘filler’ or ‘not necessary’ but when we look at the totality of the story in itself, it works perfectly with the flow of the book and with the nature of the community.

Now, the true ramping up of this story occurs not long after two community members return from down south. They were at university and arrive via snowmobiles. Once back they describe the chaos that has taken over the wider world with power outages and connectivity essentially down around the world. Soon after, a strange, towering white man arrives, one who demands they shelter him as he has limited food and promises to help out.

Rice does a great job of showcasing the unsteady relationship between the Indigenous group and Caucasian who has arrived. It ripples with historical implications as well as the constant battle between wanting to help while wondering what they’re really up to.

Evan is a powerful main character. A family man first, with a heart of gold, but one who is distrusting of this new arrival and the threat of others following. And soon enough a few more do. This is compounded by members of the community dying and food supplies dwindling.

Listed at 220 pages in print length, Rice packs this with so much tension, you’ll feel like you’re reading a George R.R. Martin door-stopper. As each chapter concludes and we move closer and closer to the ending, Rice keeps somethings unanswered and suggests – subtly – about other, nefarious things at work.

The ending is a powerful whiplash of anger, frustration and confrontation. It was expected and all roads led to it, but the straightforward way Rice tells this part was fantastic. Just devoid of excessive description, we get action from A to B to C and damn if it wasn’t spot on and emotional.

We get a wonderful epilogue, that shows the reader where things were going and honestly, if a sequel was never written, I’d be perfectly fine with how it ended, wrapping up most loose ends, but leaving others up to the imagination of the reader.

What I didn’t like: I’m actually A-OK without knowing the ‘why’ of the world going dark, as I suspect some readers would want that spoon-fed. And I’m A-OK with the secondary characters remaining fairly under developed. They weren’t central to the narrative but they played their roles when called upon. The only thing that I can see, that might annoy some readers that also irked me, was the lack of the environment playing any role in the sequestered nature of the community. Yes (and small potential spoiler) we do get two characters that freeze to death, but when winter hits and the temperatures plummet, I thought for sure we’d get more of the people battling against winter as well as each other, but for the most part that’s an alluded concept with fuel running lower and the constant fight to make sure everyone had enough firewood.

Why you should buy this: Rice has crafted such a pristine story here. The characters are wonderfully complex, battered, flawed, but human. The community is great and reminded me of where I grew up in the middle of nowhere, and the realistic actions that take place once the lights go dark was more unnerving than most of the most terrifying horror novels I typically read. What Rice did here was sublime and already it’s found a place as a revered book, but that will only grow as the years go by.

Now, onto the sequel.

5/5

Book Review: Starlet by Danger Slater

Title: Starlet

Author: Danger Slater

Release date: August 27th, 2024

*Huge thanks to Danger for sending me a digital ARC of this one!*

I’m kind of at a loss as to how to really start this review.

Over the last number of years, I’ve read maybe six or seven of Danger’s books, and throughout, one thing has always been certain – Bizarro. When things are going smoothly, expect a ridiculous, crazy, insane development to happen. I mentioned in my review of Slater’s novella ‘Moonfellows’ that it was perhaps his best thing yet, his shining moment, showcasing his imagination and his writing like nothing else he’d done. With his almost straight-up horror book ‘House of Rot’ (which was very, very close to not having any Bizarro moments in it that it surprised the hell out of me reading it), he showcased another side of his writing and I was chomping at the bit to see what came next.

I never expected ‘Starlet.’

Not in a million years did I expect to read a full-force, body-horror story that skewers Hollywood elitism, ageism, and the battle to stay on top. Danger has delivered not only his most powerful story yet, but also a really engaging slasher story, where the final girl does whatever she can to survive.

What I liked: Déjà is a young woman, recently having moved to Hollywood, in the hopes of making it big. She’s had a few solid casting tests, but nothing’s stuck yet. But her fortunes change, when she bumps into one of the biggest movie stars in the world, one who not only recognizes her from her casting tape, but thinks she has exactly what it will take to make it big.

From here, they get flirty, Déjà working her day job while trying to get cast, and Mr. Brandon Bowers, superstar, is filming around the world. But they text, they Skype, and things progress. Even as Bowers reveals some odd fetishes, Déjà pushes them aside, believing that they really do having something here, a real connection.

The meat of the story takes place once Bowers is back and he invites Déjà over to his place. A few of his Hollywood elite friends show up and things take a strange turn when a new drug, Reno, is introduced and the reality of the lengths this trio is going to stay on top is revealed.

It’s here where the story really shines. Through the biting sarcasm and show biz quips, Slater revels in railing against the ridiculousness of these lengths they’ve gone and Déjà is used as the grounding mechanism. She waxes on about how they should be happy and feel fortunate that they’ve achieved so much, even as they bitch and complain that they’ve not won an Oscar yet or that every movie they’re offered sounds like its filmed straight for streaming.

The final quarter of the novel is where the action takes place. A full on ‘survive-at-all-costs,’ but I won’t go too far into that, as I want to remain spoiler free. Let’s just say, Slater let’s this one roll out cinematically, highlighting each scene with fantastic descriptions and realistic moments. That realism, where things hurt and energy fails highlights Déjà’s will to survive and makes her that much more of a relatable character.

Throughout, Danger also included some quick reviews of movies Bowers had been in, so the ending and the ‘epilogue’ of wrapping things up the way he did was spot on.

What I didn’t like: Honestly, this one was a blast from start to finish and I didn’t really feel any let downs. I think if there was anything I would point out, it would be that at times, where Slater tries to interject some humour, it does come off a bit more sarcastic than hilarious, based off of the way the scene was set up. It’s hard to fully explain without a direct example, but again, I want to be spoiler free, so I won’t direct quote here. But overall, a very minor thing.

Why you should buy this: The King of Bizarro has matured and focused with this one. It’s a strange thing to read a Slater book and discover that this fits 100% in the body-horror subgenre and that worked perfectly for me.

Slater’s writing, which is astounding given his track record and length of time as an author, continues to progress, and this one showcases yet another side to his skillset. He’s like a Jazz musician who can walk into any club in the world and pick up an instrument and play along with the band, no matter what genre of music they’re playing. ‘Starlet’ is a stunning release and I’m frankly still stunned after finishing it. Powerful, poignant, metaphorical and simply perfect, Slater just may have written his masterpiece.

5/5

Book Review: Children of the Dark 2: The Night Flyers by Jonathan Janz

Title: Children of the Dark 2: The Night Flyers

Author: Jonathan Janz

Release date: April 22nd, 2024

Way back in 2018, I read a novel titled ‘Children of the Dark’ by a brand-new to me author, Jonathan Janz. It was my first Janz book, one that was super highly recommended by a million other readers, and after I devoured that novel, I was hooked. Since then, I’ve read another almost-dozen Janz novels, and have really enjoyed reading his books. But, I think of all of them, ‘Children of the Dark’ remained my favorite – though ‘Wolf Land’ is a very close second – and was one that I thought of frequently, whenever the topic of coming-of-age horror novels was discussed. I didn’t believe we’d get a sequel and the ending of book one was solid enough that it could’ve simply ended there, even with the questions that remained unanswered.

When the second book was announced and the cover was revealed, I was super stoked for this one, getting my pre-order in ASAP. I really, really wanted to start reading this as soon as it loaded on my Kindle, but alas, life (and reviewing commitments) prevented that from happening. But, as soon as I could, I jumped in, and boy was I transported right back to where we left off in book one.

Now, I’ll be doing my best to remain spoiler free, but if you haven’t read book one yet, definitely get it read, but be aware, this is a sequel and as always, stop reading here if you’re not wanting to learn anything about book one or book two.

What I liked: A year after the events of book one, we find Will, institutionalized and despondent. He’s been trapped in a cage, kept at a distance from his younger sister Peach, and frustrated that nobody believes him about what happened during that horrendous period in his life, when the Children came and killed so many people. Will is being blamed for aiding the serial killer, Carl, and no matter how much he pleads his case, it falls on deaf ears. Thankfully, a worker at the institution, Pierre believes him and is Will’s only friend.

This is how life is for Will, that is, until the night the Night Flyers arrive and all hell breaks loose. Carnage erupts, blood is splattered, and when all is said and done, Will, aided by an officer, escapes, and Pierre and his niece, Anita, race away with Will.

From this point on, it’s literally a survive-at-all costs story where Will and crew fight to stay alive, as the Children swoop down on them and soon they’re simply fleeing and dealing with the collateral damage. As Will is reunited with his friends and those he loves, we see an internal fight between helping those who need help or racing away with his loves ones.

It all comes to a head with a cinematic battle, where I can only picture Janz kicking his writing chair away and dancing with glee as his fingers clicked and clacked like possessed maniacs, as he wrapped up the novel and did it with glee.

The ending is both powerful but also open ended. We could see a third novel in this world, but I haven’t seen any word yet anywhere, though I know the fans would be ecstatic if there is a finale to a trilogy.

What I didn’t like: Frankly, I began to grow a bit annoyed with Will’s constant whining over needing to never be apart from Peach ever again, but the second they’re reunited, he does pretty much everything possible to leave her with others and go on some side quest. It became a frustration that repeatedly we get this emotional bump of the two of them together, to only be squashed in the following sentence when Will jogs away. I get it, I really do, but come on Will, good lord, ha!

Why you should buy this: If you’ve already read Janz, and/or book one, then book two is a no-brainer. You probably pre-ordered this. But, if you’ve not read Janz or book one, then get on this. Book one was a phenomenal coming-of-age creature feature, and book two easily lives up to the lofty standards Janz set in book one and then some. This once again shows the power of banding together and fighting for a singular goal, even when the odds seem stacked against you.

Janz has really delivered a phenomenal coming-of-age novel – AGAIN – and once again, I’m thrilled that I’ve visited with Will, even if I’m longing for a third entry and some true answers to the questions unanswered.

5/5

Book Review: Strange Little Ghouls by Wendy Dalrymple

Title: Strange Little Ghouls

Author: Wendy Dalrymple

Release date: January 1st, 2022

I’ve read a few things from Wendy in the past and have had a lot of fun with her works. She’s typically a lean writer, one who keeps things tight and crisp and deftly carries the reader from point A to B to C, which I personally, really like.

Recently, she had posted that this collection was currently free for Kindle, so I went to grab a copy, but then saw that I’d purchased it about a year ago! I don’t know how many times that happens to each Kindle reader, but it happens to me a lot!

Lately, I’ve decided that I’m wanting to always be reading a short story collection from a woman writer while I read my typical two-four long reads. I like have short stories to sneak in between the books when I switch, so with that in mind, I dove into this one from Wendy, excited to see what bite-sized beasts she’d created this time.

What I liked: The collection itself is a mix of flash-fiction up to novelette length stories. Throughout, we get a lot of great theme changes and it kept things fresh, especially when going from a flash fiction piece to another flash fiction piece. It never felt ‘more of the same,’ which sometimes can bog down collections when story after story seems to be the same thing with just different characters.

Highlights for me were;

‘From Whence We Came’ – this quick story follows Madeline and her rich, douchebag boyfriend, Beau. They’re at a swanky get together near a cemetery. After Beau tells her that some of his relatives are buried there, they sneak in to find them and things go crazy. I enjoyed how this one played out and we didn’t get the expected ending, which was refreshing.

‘Run For Your Life’ – two friends, Danica and Melody, sign up for a fun, 5k run. It’s monster themed, with zombies and chainsaw wielding maniacs jokingly chasing the participants. At first Danica is worried this might be too much after recently being assaulted outside of a bar, but soon she hits that runners high. From that point, Wendy does a great job of taking this somewhere you least expect it, which was such a blast.

‘Sunset Village’ – this one could’ve had the tag line ‘An M. Night Shyamalan’ film. Creepy, unsettling and packing an entire novels worth of dread in maybe 2k words, we follow Sylvia who has taken a new job as the live-in caretaker for Sunset Village, a 55-plus retirement community. But, as you can surmise, the residents don’t really want a new caretaker, and they let her know that.

‘Little Friends’ – perhaps the most body-horror story within, while also being the most squirm-inducing, the story follows a new kindergarten teacher who is excited to teach the kids. Quickly though, a lice outbreak happens and things go from uncomfortable to forcing the reader to take a shower soon after. Phenomenally executed.

Throughout, Wendy sprinkles little fun terror moments throughout, which kept me flipping the pages.

What I didn’t like: There were a few short stories that did seem a bit jarring based off of the tight word counts. Case in point is the first story, ‘Dress to Impress.’ It begins as a fun, Halloween, bar story, but when the action arrives, there’s a moment where I had to reread the preceding parts a few times to see if I missed something, the switch in pacing and plot seemingly arriving out of nowhere.

As always, with collections, reader experiences will vary from story to story!

Why you should buy this: A really fun, galloping batch of stories, Wendy gives something for every reader within. We get some really great highs, some really well executed lows and each story stuffs oodles of anxiety causing moments.

A perfect collection to casually read and react to, Wendy never disappoints.

4/5

Book Review: Where the Dead Don’t Die by Ronald J. Murray

Title: Where the Dead Don’t Die

Author: Ronald J. Murray

Release date: May 31st, 2024

*Huge thank to Netgalley and the publisher for an eARC!*

I’d not yet read any of Murray’s short fiction, but having read a number of his poems and finding them visceral and engaging, I jumped at the chance to read this collection of short fiction. When you couple that with the phenomenal cover, it really hyped me up for diving into a pit of blackness and wondering if I’d be able to claw my way out from the depths.

What I liked: The collection is made up of short stories and novelette’s, which I can safely say, nothing feels bloated or overly forced to be boxed in by word count restraints. The longer stories flow well, not dipping and the shorter ones bite hard and immediately engage the reader.

Murray doesn’t dance around phrasing, this isn’t a poet filling the paper with purple prose, which we tend to see, and I was very happy to discover wasn’t the case here. If this was your first experience with his writing, you might even be surprised that he writes poems, as the format and pacing here is spot on.

Stand outs for me were;

‘Jealousy’ – the opening story starts this off with a bang. A chaotic story about Riley, who struggles to remember what happened in a traumatic moment and has to swim through his mind putting bits and pieces in front of him. It was a perfect story to start off with, one that sets the stage for the darkness that takes place after.

‘A Letter to My Future Corpse’ – one of the darker, bleaker stories within, Murray gives us a story about a despondent painter who desperately wants to be reunited with his family. This one was the closest story within that I could see beginning life as a poem and being transformed into long fiction, especially with some of the phrasing choices.

‘Cornelia’ – one of the more brutal stories, this one starts off with a man drunkenly challenging the world to strike him down while he raves in the middle of a snowy road. Ironically, he gets hit by a car, waking up under the care of a man and a woman. While Murray doesn’t keep the ‘twist’ that secretive, it still is absolutely unnerving as the story progresses and ultimately we get the big reveal.

‘In the Labyrinth’ – easily the highlight of the collection, Murray channeled his inner Lovecraft to deliver a story that was so cinematic and claustrophobic, that I was very sad when it ended. The story opens with Mitchell, a sleaze ball at a bar, looking to find a woman to hook up, even though he’s married. When he finds someone, they head to her place, where things seem straight forward. Hook up, leave, deal with his guilt. Until he gets drugged and wakes up in an odd labyrinth. We get a stunning dose of cosmic horror and Barker-level brutality from there on.

Throughout, Murray showcases his ability to seemingly ‘flick the switch.’ And what I mean is essentially block out the stories light and take us dark, take us to a place where there’s no hope in sight.

What I didn’t like: Overall, I enjoyed all of the stories, but some were definitely more to my taste than others, which is the case with every collection. Readers will always find which stories work for them and which don’t.

Why you should buy this: Murray is a talented poet and this collection shows that he can easily transition to a mastery of short fiction as well. His characters are flawed, well formed and push the story forward, which makes for a more connected experience for the reader.

Really solid release.

4/5

Book Review: A Misfortune of Lake Monsters by Nicole M. Wolverton

Title: A Misfortune of Lake Monsters

Author: Nicole M. Wolverton

Release date: July 2nd, 2024

*Huge thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the eARC!*

There’s something to be said for the depth of emotions that really well done YA books can pull off. Often times, its focused around loss or love. But when we get a story that deals with loss AND love, you know that you should probably cancel any plans, as your heart is going to be aching and your attention will be focused completely on the story you’re about to read.

I’ve not read anything from Wolverton previously, but for a first time experience, this was so very well done that I’ll absolutely be seeking out more of her work. I hadn’t seen much of this book shared around in my usual haunts, but when I saw Nicole herself, post about it on IG, I was immediately intrigued. When I read the synopsis, I was hooked. Pun intended? Sure, we’ll go with that!

What I liked: The story follows three small town friends, Lemon, Darrin and Tory. Lemon and Troy secretly love each other, though they’ve not told each other. Everyone else knows it, but hey, grade 12 and all, no need to push these two together if they’re going their separate ways after graduating, right? Lemon though, has a huge secret. For decades, her family has perpetrated the myth that the lake has a sea monster, Old Lucy. They get in the Old Lucy costume and make sure sightings happen so that tourists visit and spend their cash. Lemon herself, is struggling. Her parents have died and she’s moved in with her grandparents.

All is going seemingly well, even if Lemon is angry about being forced into this life and not able to leave and pursue veterinary school. That is, until a real sea monster attacks her and her dog and even more secrets are exposed.

It’s from here that Wolverton really shines. The first quarter or so is all about setting the bowling pins up and from this moment forward the pins are knocked down, one by one. There’s heartbreak, trust issues, secret government agencies, coming-of-age perfection and through it all, we get to see the three friends band together and work as a team to try and not only get to the bottom of what this monster is, but also to ensure the future of their small town.

Like many YA books before, this one had me smiling, crying and pumping my fist in the air, as the story unfolded and we see Lemon, Troy and Darrin grow up over a short span of time, the reality of the wider world showing its ugly face.

The ending is spot on and thankfully designed in such a way that it feels like a true ending. Would I like another book featuring these characters? Sure. But if this is the only story we get with this trio, I’d be a-ok with it because of how wonderfully developed they are, which is a testament to the deft writing of Wolverton.

What I didn’t like: I, personally, am not a fan of first person POV shifts and that is how this book is told. Each chapter is told through a different POV – namely between Lemon and Troy – and it is very jarring, especially as we move deeper into the book and the tensions rise. I would’ve preferred a 3rd person POV throughout, but that’s just me and my own reading tastes. Once I got over that initial shift, it was easy transitions the rest of the way.

Why you should buy this: As far as lake monster stories go, this one is top notch. Told with rapid pacing, rising tension and a really well done finale that was showcased in a very cinematic way, Wolverton has really knocked this one out of the park. Lemon is such a great main character and watching her and Troy find each other through the stress of their situations was an absolute highlight.

5/5

Book Review: Stone Gods by Adam Golaski

Title: Stone Gods

Author: Adam Golaski

Release date: February 3rd, 2024

*Huge thanks to John at NO Press for sending me a digital copy of this one!*

Recently I read Adam Golaski’s collection ‘Worse Than Myself’ which was released back in 2008 by Raw Dog Screaming Press. That collection was dark, mysterious and at times super weird, which, when done right, can really tick my boxes when it comes to short stories. Not long after I posted my review, John from NO Press contacted me to see if I’d be interested in reading Adam’s newest collection, which I readily agreed to. I’m always mystified by authors who have almost no social media presence other than readers sharing their books or the publisher posting about them. It feels like back before the internet was around and books came upon your reader radar organically and not algorithmically. 

What would Golaski deliver this time? I had no idea, but I was game for whatever he was about to throw my way!

What I liked: Much like ‘Worse Than Myself,’ the stories within this collection can be described as Ligotti meets Lynch. Despondent, bleak, dreary and ultimately devoid of sun, throughout each story grew heavier and heavier, as though a block of cement was continuously added to my back as the collection progressed.

Stand outs for me were;

‘Hushed Will Be All Murmurs’ – the opening story in the collection was very close to my favorite one here. It follows two men, potentially at the end of the world, who row a boat out into the fog and slowly go crazy while one tells the other a story. As someone who has always been scared of fog, this one had me unnerved from the first paragraph.

‘Stone Head’ – my favorite story in the collection, a man comes home, ready to prepare dinner for his wife and child who are returning from a trip, when he discovers a large, stone head in his back yard. From there, madness consumes him, a dystopian jungle sprouts up all around him and things that may or may not be his wife and child come home. This one paired really well with my favorite story from ‘Worse Than Myself’ – ‘The Man From the Peak’ – in that nature played a large roll in the smoke screen over reality and the main character continually questioned his own sanity. Outstanding story.

‘Holy Ghost’ – this one, much like the other two I mentioned, featured a man going insane, but this one utilized a very different manner to have this occur. ‘Holy Ghost’ is a strange band that sporadically releases albums. It’s a cause for celebration and when our main character gets a call from his local record shop that a new ‘Holy Ghost’ CD has arrived and is on hold for him, he races down to grab it. Then he meets a woman, who at first he thinks he’s seducing, but also wonders if she’s seducing him. Until he’s sitting in his car, body paralyzed and his mind begins to break. Fantastic.

Golaski has a way of immediately unsettling the ready, of telling a story from the beginning as though through a funhouse mirror where even the sentences themselves appear wavy and the reader struggles to digest what’s being projected.

What I didn’t like: As is often the case, some stories just didn’t click with me. Some of that is down to the ‘weird’ elements, that cross very close into Bizarro territory, a genre that I either get or don’t, and some of the stories either started strongly before taking a strange turn or simply were weird from the start and stayed that way.

Why you should buy this: Golaski occupies a section of dark fiction storytelling where the prose and the delivery are masterful but are written for a very specific group of readers. Much like how Ligotti and Zelenyj craft their stories purposefully, the reader must consume them purposefully, and for that reason, Golaski surely must be considered one of the masters of that subsection. 

Like a rain cloud that only remains over a singular person on a sunny day, ‘Stone Gods’ is dark, dismal and ultimately a collection that’ll leave a mark on every reader who consumes it.

4/5

Book Review: Blessed Skeletons by Robert Weaver

Title: Blessed Skeletons (Occult Britain Book 4)

Author: Robert Weaver

Release date: February 14th, 2024

*Huge thanks to Robert for sending me a digital copy of this one!*

If I showed you the cover of this book, without title/author etc listed. Would you think I was suggesting you read a Mike Mignola book? Maybe something in the Baltimore world? If you don’t know that name, Mike created Hellboy and the BPRD and his art is very distinctive. Even without reading the synopsis, when Robert emailed me about this book, I was intrigued. Seeing it was book four, I was a bit concerned, as I’d not read the previous three, but from what I gathered, this one is part of a series, but can be read on its own, so with that in mind, I went in, hoping to be chilled and creeped out.

I’m happy to report, I was!

What I liked: Ten years after being exiled from Wovenham, former judge Wolfe Remington is summoned back. At the end of his time as judge, he found a man guilty of murder and put him to death. Now, new bodies are being found, and they all have similarities to the man Wolfe sent to death. Similarities so close and not known by the public, that it seems as though the dead man has returned.

Wovenham as a whole is a fantastic dark location. Weaver fills this book to the brim with strange characters, odd encounters and a feeling like no matter which direction you turn in, it’s raining and the sun refuses to break through the clouds.

Wolfe is conflicted, dealing with secrets, but that seems to be the standard for pretty much every character within, and as the story unravels and Weaver deftly clicks the puzzle pieces together, the reader is richly rewarded. It’s told in novel form, but throughout it really did have a comic book sensibility to it, as though told through cell blocks, not paragraphs.

The cinematic scope of the story is truly breathtaking and if this is indicative of the other three books in the series, I think readers need to flock to this series, and the gorgeous illustrations throughout made for wonderful accompaniment.

The tail end of this book speeds up ever so slightly, which aids in closing things off and answering many of those burning questions Weaver asked earlier on.

What I didn’t like: The middle section does slow down a bit and gets tricky to follow along. I typically hop between four to six books that I’m reading, but I found once I got to that section, I really needed to focus and diligently work my way through, so that I kept up with all of the moving parts.

Why you should buy this: This novel is as though Neil Gaiman & Mike Mignola wrote a story together. Dark, broody, atmospheric and dirty, Weaver spins a web that grabbed this reader and never let go. A wonderfully gothic story about death, secrets and what happens when the doors open when they should’ve remained locked.

4/5

Book Review: When the Night Falls by Glenn Rolfe

Title: When the Night Falls

Author: Glenn Rolfe

Release date: June 11th, 2024

*Huge thanks to Netgalley & Flame Tree Press for the digital ARC!*

Ahhhhh… sequels. 

The seemingly expected follow up to every novel.

At least it seems that way. That every author writes a novel and then must write a sequel, especially when readers love that first book to pieces. It’s a position every author who has written something finds themselves in and sometimes there’s more. Sometimes there’s not. And sometimes an idea isn’t there until it is.

Back in 2020, Glenn released his novel ‘Until Summer Comes Around,’ which was a fantastic riff on 80’s nostalgia and vampire fiction. We had Rocky, a teenaged main character who we instantly all clicked with and we had the emergence of bodies being found and sinister forces at work.

Glenn himself said that he thought that was going to be a singular release… until it wasn’t. And when the new idea clicked and things fell into place, voila, the sequel arrived.

Now, can Glenn follow up that fantastic story with a new entry?

I was excited to find out.

What I liked: Ten years after the events of book one, Rocky is just trying to live as normal as a life as he can. Gone is the back brace and now, he’s working as a firefighter. Until he isn’t. One day he’s there, the next gone, wanting to switch up his life and figure out where to go next. That is, until word comes that a TV station is planning on doing a ten-year anniversary special about the killings, even after Rocky refused to be involved and threatened them with a lawsuit if they went ahead with it.

The set up is great, and knowing the way Glenn crafts his stories, we see the weight of the events sitting heavy on Rocky. He still loves November, even if it is complicated, and he compares every new woman in his life to her. Is it a case of teenage love remembered through foggy glasses? Could be. But Rolfe does a great job of playing those emotions off each other well. November is still there, still lurking and still has feelings for Rocky.

The town is as vibrant as ever and its that familiarity that sets us readers at ease, even as Rolfe starts to spray the blood and sully the streets. Action comes fast and furious and we go from a coming-of-age remembrance piece to a full on Blade movie level of carnage quick. 

One aspect that I think works really well, is that Glenn’s vampires can move about during the day and are not immortal. Those two aspects tend to fully shape and guide most vampire stories, but these adjustments work so very well to ramp up the tensions and not let anyone have a moment to relax.

The ending of this one is emotionally spot on. Don’t get me wrong, Glenn plays with our emotions throughout – perfectly I might add – but the ending works to close several chapters, answer questions and ultimately wrap things up. Does this mean there will be more? Never say never, but if this is where we end Rocky’s story, it’s a mighty find ending.

What I didn’t like: I think, personally, the 80’s nostalgia worked very well in book one, but the 90s aspects didn’t shine through as much as I thought they would in comparison. It could’ve been a way for Glenn to make this try to be timeless, or it could’ve been a case of me reading a bunch of books lately all set around that time period, but it didn’t highlight the story like the 80’s did in book one.

Why you should buy this: If you’re a fan of Glenn’s you’ll be all over this. If you loved book one, you’ll be all over this. If you love vampire fiction you’ll be all over this. Can this be read as a stand alone? Yes-ish, though reading book one and book two back to back would be a really great way to dive into this story. Overall, Glenn has once again created a vibrant place, with vibrant people and then ripped them to shreds. And really, that’s exactly what we’ve come to expect from Glenn.

5/5