Cate Gardner's Blog, page 3

Read 2020 - 47 - Running with Scissors by Augusten Burrows

Occasionally my mother would comment that there was a smell likemanure emanating from my father's ears. And sometimes he would tell her that she was a fucking bitch. 

I hate it when I can't get on with a book; they're supposed to be my best friends. Running with Scissors is a memoir by Augusten Burroughs. I picked this copy up at a charity shop in December 2018. I read about a third and stopped once I got to the rape by, though not called it in the book, a paedophile. This book is not quirky. It is not fun. It is highly disturbing.

Run away from it.

Read 2020 - 46 - Smoke Gets in Your Eyes by Caitlin Doughty

It is a truth universally acknowledged that Caitlin Doughty aka Ask a Mortician is brilliant. The Bestwick bought me Smoke Gets in Your Eyes last Christmas, alongside another of her books (name currently escapes me). I've been desperate to read it, but am strictly following my number generator guidelines so that books don't end up on the shelf for years. Although, some have been and despite my best efforts (not really trying all that hard), they continue to do so.

Smoke Gets in Your Eyes, Doughty's first book, details her early years in the Mortuary business, from when she joined a crematorium through to mortuary school. Interspersed are comments on death cultures across the world. I highly recommend this book.

If you haven't caught the Ask a Mortician blogs on You Tube, you should. They are full of wonderful death facts, historical and current.

Read 2020 - 46 - Smoke Gets in Your Eyes by Caitlin Doughtly

It is a truth universally acknowledged that Caitlin Doughty aka Ask a Mortician is brilliant. The Bestwick bought me Smoke Gets in Your Eyes last Christmas, alongside another of her books (name currently escapes me). I've been desperate to read it, but am strictly following my number generator guidelines so that books don't end up on the shelf for years. Although, some have been and despite my best efforts (not really trying all that hard), they continue to do so.

Smoke Gets in Your Eyes, Doughty's first book, details her early years in the Mortuary business, from when she joined a crematorium through to mortuary school. Interspersed are comments on death cultures across the world. I highly recommend this book.

If you haven't caught the Ask a Mortician blogs on You Tube, you should. They are full of wonderful death facts, historical and current.

Read 2020 - 45 - Arthur Miller's The Crucible

 Can you speak one minute without we land in Hell again?I am sick of Hell!

I couldn't sleep.

After about five days of holiday, I'd ruined my sleep pattern with naps and too much caffeine. Wandering the lonely halls of my home, heading towards the only lit room, I found my husband sat hunched over his laptop, he too unable to sleep. I'd left the book I was reading in the dark of the living room and who knew what monsters were waiting down there - well possibly one slug that gets in every night and leads a slimy trail over my carpet. Git!

So, there I stood in the Bestwick's book lined study and did the unthinkable, I chose a book that a) wasn't on my to read pile/list and b) number generator hadn't chosen for me. I'm a rule breaker. Be afraid, be... a little wary.

Anyway, I read 'The Crucible' in a couple of hours. It is brilliant.

The End.

Read 2020 - 44 - Horror Stories by E Nesbit

We are always expecting the ivy to force itself throughthe window and make an uninvited thirdat our dinner table. 
A collection of classic horror stories by childhood favourite E. Nesbit, author of The Railway Children and The Phoenix & The Carpet.

Inside we find tales of black magic, of ruined castles, ancient portraits and marble statues that walk, murderous plants and a mysterious and ghostly violet car. I enjoyed most of the stories.

Read 2020 - 43 - Split Tongues by Kristi DeMeester

The nightmares split open on my tongue. 
The doctor is old enough to fart dust...

Oh my goodness, when did I buy this delightful-looking chapbook? I've enjoyed many of Kristi DeMeester's short stories, and recall having missed out on buying her chapbook, and then, they announced there were some proof/extra copies for sale and I bagged one. Chapbooks by Dim Shores come (or at least the ones I've experienced have) with a print copy of the cover and stickers. Who doesn't love stickers? As the wee book is dated 2016, I'm guessing I purchased it later that year or early 2017. It came with a copy of the anthology Looming Low. 

Fantastic photography is provided inside and out by Natalia Drepina. Reminded me of an autumnal Midsommar.

The chapbook contains two short stories Split Tongues and The Dream Eater, and are connected in theme by dreams and tongues. These are a trippy journey through lost faith and disturbing romance.

Read the book in an hour or so while enjoying the April sunshine in the front garden.

A Tale of Two Reviews

Over on Twitter, Paul Feeney has reviewed The Woods, the anthology containing my story, The Iron Curve of Thorns. Here's a wee bit on what he had to say about my story.

Beautifully written and heartbreaking. Gorgeous imagery and a haunting tale that keeps surprising.
And, over at his blog, Paul Finch has reviewed The Alchemy Press Book of Horrors, containing my story, The Fullness of her Belly.

in Cate Gardner's The Fullness of Her Belly, in which we meet Ella, a mental outpatient who can only satisfy her constant craving to be pregnant by making cushion babies and stuffing them up her dress.

The blog also lists the TOC for The Alchemy Press Book of Horrors 2, which includes Paul's story, What did you see?

Read 2020 - 42 - Broken Harbour by Tana French

A family is murdered on a ghost estate in Ireland. How close to home is the murderer?

Broken Harbour by Tana French is a Dublin Murder Squad book (number 4 in the series, I think). It is well told and I read it in about three days over the Easter holidays. Yes, my blog posts are always a wee bit behind. I do them in wonderful, magical batches. Or something like that,.

Pat Spain thinks there's an animal in the walls. Jenny Spain is either losing it or there's someone moving things around in the house and taking small, seemingly insignificant items. Despite unemployment and financial ruin, to outsiders they are the perfect family. We meet them at their end.

The lead detective, Scorcher, has things he is keeping from his new partner. When he was a child, his mother committed suicide at Broken Harbour, now named Brianstown, where the murder of the Spain family occurs. He is also battling the whims (and the devastation) of his younger sister, Dina. His partner, Richie, is a new detective, who has battled his way from the mean streets of Dublin's estates, and provides a stepping stone for the investigation when dealing with the neighbours.

Besides the murders, the catalyst for the story, it is also a tale of how we cannot always leave the past behind. A well-told tale, gripping, perhaps a little repetitive towards the end.

I shopped for this book in the Bestwick's study. He'd give it a mighty five stars. I'm nibbling at four.

Review - These Foolish & Harmful Delights

Over at Ginger Nuts of Horror, Eric J. Guignard has reviewed my collection These Foolish & Harmful Delights. Here's a wee excerpt:

These Foolish & Harmful Delights by Cate Gardner is an engaging collection of dark fantasy tales that range in subject matter from Hell-borne Punch and Judy dolls, to haunted asylums for the condemned, to demons and monsters in love.

You can buy my book over at Amazon in ebook or paperback.

Read 2020 - 41 - The Outsider by Stephen King

Before we were no longer allowed to hug our friends, we watched the first episode of 'The Outsider' on Sky with Priya and Mark. Despite having received the book from my brother for my birthday in 2018, I hadn't read it yet.

Side note: I now only have 86 books on my to-read shelves. Once we're allowed into the world again, that number will rise. Although, I'm hoping to never let it slip over 100 books again. I'll probably fail.

Extra side note: I know my to-read pile is a baby compared to many of my friend's to-read rooms.

I enjoyed the first half of the book more than the latter. I know it's Stephen King - duh! - but with the book billed as a thriller I thought it would have less of a supernatural edge to it. I guess I'm saying, I didn't find the supernatural aspects of the book as thrilling as they should be. I have a complicated history with King's books - I love some, hate others, and, in the case of The Outsider, feel ambivalent towards a small section.