"Osgood shouts into the dark. No echo returns. She lifts her face back to the beacons. Beyond it, the sky is inky black emptiness, absent of clouds an"Osgood shouts into the dark. No echo returns. She lifts her face back to the beacons. Beyond it, the sky is inky black emptiness, absent of clouds and stars, as though her world has shrunk down to only this place, swallowed up into darkness by some great leviathan, or cruising through outer-outer-space in a bubble of black. She startles herself by barking out a laugh that sounds more like a rough cough. A wave of relief washes over her as the laugh is reflected and echoes back to her."
I was contacted by the author, Cooper S. Beckett, to review his upcoming novel, Osgood as Gone. I don't accept many indie requests for one reason or another and I don't normally read digital copies, but how could I say no to this?! I couldn't. I mean.. firstly, IT'S QUEER AS FUCK. Yes, please! The concept is a bit of urban fantasy/horror/thriller. I've been branching out more within the urban fantasy subgenre lately (this is my second just this month), so that's also rad!
Osgood as Gone is about Prudence Osgood, a purple-haired former paranormal investigative celebrity turned occult podcaster. She was in a car accident decades before when a semi plowed into her, nearly killing her. Now she self-medicates with drugs and alcohol. One day she receives a mysterious message that sends her and her assistant Zack on an investigation that involves a band and numerous missing people.
Osgood as Gone is a wonderfully addictive beginning to the Spectral Inspector series! It was refreshingly diverse, with a motley crew of characters that I dug a lot. Os is especially great! I clearly find myself drawn to the fucked up and flawed characters and she is certainly that. Also? I fucking adore Zack. What a cinnamon roll! HE MUST BE PROTECTED AT ALL COSTS!!
Cults, ghost hunters, conspiracy theories & cringey sex.. OH MY!! This was a wild, twisty ride and just a shit ton of fun! THAT ENDING, THOUGH.
Beckett's writing is easy to fall into and I look forward to reading more from him!
“The drumbeats in the Hinterlands, Will lead me right to you…”
(Thanks again to Cooper S. Beckett for the chance to read this before it releases!)...more
“Travis lay the knife on the floor and shuffled forward on his knees like a man about to perform a tender act. He put his face between the girl's whit“Travis lay the knife on the floor and shuffled forward on his knees like a man about to perform a tender act. He put his face between the girl's white legs and touched his lips to her wound, and his mouth filled instantly and he was forced to spit.
EAT!
But there was something else now too, wasn't there? A warmth. A kindling. He put his lips against the wound again and this time swallowed when his mouth had filled and the horror and revulsion he had imagined were not the things he felt. He felt only a bright relief as the blood slicked his throat and struck the furnace of his gut and its heat spread, and before all of this had even happened he had swallowed again, and again. . .
Take it all, Rue said. Take it all.”
Clearly I've been super buried in SFF, because I somehow missed In the Valley of the Sun, the debut horror novel unleashed upon us by Andy Davidson back in 2017. It was a finalist for the Bram Stoker Award for Superior Achievement in a First Novel, which is well-deserved! Yet it didn't seem to garner the attention it should have. I'm so thankful that Skyhorse Publishing sent me a copy of the new paperback release, otherwise I may not have known about it! (LIES. Everyone on Bookstagram is in love with this book right now! I began to see it everywhere after I received my copy!) That cover with the skull, blood dripping from the eye hole and vampire teeth caught my attention immediately. I mean.. HELLO.
This follows Travis Stillwell, a deeply troubled drifter who also happens to be a serial killer. He takes women home from country bars and then murders them in horrific ways. Except one night he meets someone who is more fucked up than he is. The mysterious Rue. He wakes up in the parking lot of a motel in his camper covered in blood and without any memory of what went down the night before. There he meets Annabelle, a single mother that owns the barely-functioning motel. She offers him a few odd jobs in turn for allowing him to stay. Annabelle has a 10-year-old son named Sandy, who Travis builds a somewhat reluctant bond with. As the days go on, Travis starts to feel sick. Soon, he is unable to work during the day. While this is happening, a Texas Ranger named Reader is tracking him across the state, unaware of the fact that Travis is now trying to conquer another demon within him. Something more horrifying than imagined.
"Rue takes the tissue from her pocket and touches the dried blood to her tongue, and though it is faint and stale, and the kleenex dissolves, she feels him. Hears his heart beating, pumping. She hears his tires and radio and the music of his voice, and she knows that if she feeds now, feeds heavy, grows stronger than she ever has before, she will be able to close her eyes and cross the great wide open valleys and mountains between them with little more than thought, an act of will, and when she opens her eyes, she will be with him."
Taking place in 1980's Texas, this had a grimy, humid, claustrophobic, ominous atmospheric vibe. The intensely vivid imagery sets the stark tone. A glorious amalgamation of vampires and cowboys. This element catapults it from a tired old blood-sucking story for me. There's just something about the old West that is so haunting, so isolating. Throw in horror noir/crime thriller.. I couldn't help but envision a screen adaptation as I read. Almost something along the lines of No Country for Old Men, with the cinematic feel of Westworld but with vampires! FUCK YES!!
The writing is truly exquisite. Like brutal poetry that drains your blood with every chapter. It's in a league with the likes of Joe Lansdale and Jim Thompson - two absolutely brilliant writers! AND THIS IS DAVIDSON'S FIRST NOVEL!! Goddamn.
With influences from the typical vampire novels like Carmilla and Dracula, In the Valley of the Sun dares to be a modern classic. There is an incredibly special quality to the story. It bleeds together in such an organic way - hurt, anger, revenge, pain.. and it's more than a little sexy. I'M A MASOCHIST, OKAY?!
"Monsters," he said. "The world's just full of monsters."
This was a haunting, unflinchingly brutal and darkly poetic story that closely examines human nature, the deep horrors and the profoundly beautiful. It sunk it's teeth into me, completely.
(Thanks to the radical folks over at Skyhorse Publishing for sending me a copy!)...more
"Jake thought he knew what it felt like to be that tree - immobile, rooted to the ground, trapped and powerless to do anything but stand by and watch"Jake thought he knew what it felt like to be that tree - immobile, rooted to the ground, trapped and powerless to do anything but stand by and watch the passage of time, unable to run away from the grief, the sorrow and all the dark things that sharpened the edges of life."
Dead of Winter is not only the second seasonal assortment of short stories by Kealan Patrick Burke, but it's the second book of his that I've read. I enjoyed this collection just a wee bit more than Dead Leaves, but both are wonderful and are a good place to start with Burke's work. I'm also a huge fan of the recommended books list that can be found at the back of this collection, as well as Dead Leaves. My nerdy heart appreciates that added touch!
Dead of Winter is melancholic and sinister. It's drenched in sadness. Much of the focus within this collection is on loss and the effects it has on you. Grief, loneliness, heartache.
Burke truly is a master of building dread. Unsettling tension mounting, while a visceral unease haunts each story. Bleak, yet poetic.
My favorites were:
-Visitation Rights -The Quiet -Home
"Winter came, as harsh as grief.."
Dead of Winter is our worst fears.. come to life. One that takes hold of you by the throat in it's icy grasp. Plausible, genuine horror....more
"The heart of the matter was that, from the beginning, America had always been a nation of fear.."
As I sit here writing this review, the narrative of"The heart of the matter was that, from the beginning, America had always been a nation of fear.."
As I sit here writing this review, the narrative of the world continues to appear bleak. A cavalcade of grim events litter our news headlines steadily. MAGA-hat-wearing teenage boys protesting a woman's right to choose at the March for Life rally, then infringing upon the personal space of a 64 year old Native American vet, taunting him while he beat on his drum as part of the Ingenious Peoples March, a separate rally that was coincidentally happening at the same time nearby; a certain R&B artist getting back on the charts after a documentary detailing decades of pedophilia and sexual abuse aired (as I'm about to post this, I learned that he was finally dropped by his label); YouTube allowing an accused rapist on the run from Dutch police to post monetized videos, burying the story again and again; the longest partial government shutdown in US history.. the list of real-life headlines goes on. And on.
Vigilance by Robert Jackson Bennett is fucked up! Truly. It's Death Race meets The Hunger Games meets The Purge. But even more chilling is just how eerily relevant to current times it is.
"The point of being American was that you got to own shit. But when you owned shit, you were afraid someone would take it. But you could be brave, and fight back--if you had a gun. But sometime at the turn of the century that fear had grown. A lot--in tenor, in intensity, in scope. People became afraid of their own government, their own soldiers, their own neighbors, of companies and technology and schools and churches and other nations. There was just so much to worry about.
So what did you do? You bought a fucking gun."
Vigilance takes place in 2030 America. The idea came about a few years before, after the 514th mass shooting that year. A video of a school shooter was streamed to social media as it was happening. Advertisers were disgusted at first.. worried that their brands would be ruined because of the sponsorship logos that had been thrown into the video all over the internet. But then they realized that the exposure they were getting was unreal. People couldn't stop watching. We know this feeling. I'm sure at some point we've all been there. I found myself falling into that hole as a teenager during 9/11. I made myself sick watching those horrific scenes over and over on every station. It was all that was shown, even here in Canada. If not on tv, then the internet was producing story after story. It was awful. Yet we continued to watch.
There are people who get off on violence, both figuratively and literally. John McDean is one of them. He is the POS producer that puts on Vigilance, a television show that airs active shooters on network tv, optimizing outrage for ad revenue. It's insanely popular and makes a lot of cash for those involved by exploiting fear. Viewers bet on what location will get shot up, survivors of the shootings can receive a monetary payout.. along with the "bragging" rights that they participated in a mass shooting.
On the opposite end is Delyna, a bartender who has lost hope in America ever changing. Her father was a police officer that was killed by another officer.. because he was a black man holding a gun. She is done with all the violence and fear and especially with Vigilance.
Vigilance is a harrowing satire on an all-too-familiar America. Robert Jackson Bennett has done a brilliant job showing just how meaningful a story like this is. Things have got to change. There has to be hope that they will. There has to be action. Otherwise.. Vigilance isn't that far off from happening.
(Much thanks to Tor.com Publishing for sending me a copy!)
**The quotes above were taken from an ARC & are subject to change upon publication**...more
"I was obliterated, really. Just sort of crushed into atoms. And then without warning, something gathered me up in a deep, luscious embrace and reasse"I was obliterated, really. Just sort of crushed into atoms. And then without warning, something gathered me up in a deep, luscious embrace and reassembled me. I could feel it--I could feel her consoling me, sweeping away the emptiness, signaling the absolute fact of something greater than both of us just out of sight."
Your Favorite Band Cannot Save You is a horror/sci-fi novella about a dude that has a music blog called Much Preferred Customers. His musical tastes are eclectic, so when he comes across a weird, yet intoxicating track by a band with no discoverable online presence called Beautiful Remorse, he knows he must get this mp3 out there into the blogosphere. It is unlike anything he has ever heard before. He coins the genre "allurebient," which essentially could be described as seductively trippy. What he soon finds out is that this mysterious band will be dropping a new track daily over the next 10 days. He decides to join them on tour and quickly realizes that something comes over the listeners when they hear the music. As anyone that has fallen in love with a song knows, it hits you in unexplainable ways. No one person hears any one song the same way. It's all so personal.. that experience. How you interpret it. What the impact is on you. But there is something else happening with these tracks that Beautiful Remorse are releasing. Something hypnotic, almost as if the listeners are possessed by a psychic energy during the length of the song.
I'm someone that is always listening to music. While I write, read, shop for groceries, on walks, prepping supper, etc. I was listening to The Bones of a Dying World by the brilliant If These Trees Could Talk while reading this and.. oof. It was the perfect accompaniment, in my opinion!
"The music speaks for itself."
An alien-summoning cult, Lovecraftian monsters coming from the sky, blood sacrifices, psychic viruses, a passion for music.. Your Favorite Band Cannot Save You reminded me of the good bits of Bird Box, as written by China Miéville. It was fucking bonkers and I dug the hell out of it!
Funny, dark, weird. This was just so damn fun!
Scotto Moore has a radical debut on his hands and I look forward to reading whatever he releases next!
(Big thanks to Tor.com Publishing for sending me a copy!)
**The quotes above were taken from an ARC & are subject to change upon publication**...more
“The harsh, unyielding reality of having to compromise your ideals bit by bit, day by day, just to achieve a few little victories in the face of the w“The harsh, unyielding reality of having to compromise your ideals bit by bit, day by day, just to achieve a few little victories in the face of the world’s malice, or indifference. Until sometimes you wonder if there’s nothing left of you but the shell of the man you intended to be, just going through the motions because you’ve nothing better to do.”
This is a series I've been wanting to sink into for years now. I've got the first 9 (!!!) books and finally, FINALLY decided to see what it was all about. I've been missing Miriam Black like crazy and wanting to get into more urban fantasy. They tend to be such delicious bite-sized morsels of storytelling. The equivalent of a fun blockbuster movie, essentially. I need that during the holidays! I've been devouring such massive fantasy novels and with the crazy busy month of December.. my reading pace has been fucking glacial.
In the first installment, we meet John Taylor, a detective. He was born in the Nightside, which is an absolutely bonkers city that is.. well.. it's a pretty fucked up place to live! The Nightside is the dark, secret underworld of London. It's always night there. In fact, it's always 3am. Dawn never comes. Life, death and reality are all flexible concepts in Nightside. Literally anything goes there. It's filled with bleak, strange, seedy characters.
John left the Nightside 5 years ago and is lured back for a dame.. er.. a job. A job for a client that intrigues him. Makes him a little hot under the collar, if you will. Her teenage daughter is missing and she wants him to track her down. You see, John has a gift. He is able to find lost or hidden things, things that don't necessarily want to be found.
"The quiet was getting on my nerves. It just wasn't natural, to be so completely quiet. This was the quiet of the tomb. Of the grave. It had an almost anticipatory quality, as though somewhere off in the darkest and deepest of the shadows, something was watching, and waiting, and biding its time to attack. The city might be empty, but that didn't mean the night was."
This felt like the love child of Dick Tracy and Farscape.. which I AM SO HERE FOR!!
Part crime noir, part grim fantasy.. Something from the Nightside was unabashedly pulpy. Just an easy, enjoyable read. It's a worthy introduction to a series that has lasted a shit ton of years. I'm glad to have so many of the books to keep on with. It feels like a series that will continue to grow and expand on an interesting story. ...more
Once this thought arrives, it stays. It sticks. It lingers. It dominates. There's not much I can do about it. Trust me."I'm thinking of ending things.
Once this thought arrives, it stays. It sticks. It lingers. It dominates. There's not much I can do about it. Trust me. It doesn't go away. It's there whether I like it or not. It's there when I eat. When I go to bed. It's there when I sleep. It's there when I wake up. It's always there. Always."
Iain Reid likes to mentally fuck the shit out of his readers. Goddamn.
I read his sophomore book, Foe, in the summer and dug the hell out of it! I'm actually not sure which one I preferred out of the two. Maybe Foe, because it had more twisty turns than this. Much like with the mind-fuck that is Lost during it's original run, I guessed THE BIG THING in I'm Thinking of Ending Things almost immediately. That didn't detract from my immense enjoyment of it, however.
It was such an addictive read! I mean, it says it right there on the cover and everything. But for real, this was a fucking blast! I read it in one sitting. I couldn't turn the pages quick enough!
"But isn't being alone closer to the truest version of ourselves, when we're not linked to another, not diluted by their presence and judgments? We form relationships with others, friends, family. That’s fine. Those relationships don’t bind the way love does. We can still have lovers, short-term. But only when alone can we focus on ourselves, know ourselves. How can we know ourselves without this solitude?"
Reid is genius at evoking atmosphere and mounting tension. Both of his relatively short novels are brimming with ambiance. I grew up in the country, so it wasn't hard for me to be transported back to that setting. I could smell the crisp air, feel myself bounce around in the vehicle while travelling on kilometers of dirt road, see the never-ending sky above me.. that uneasiness of being out in the middle of nowhere, feeling like you are being watched.
As I mentioned in my review for Foe, this is being adapted for Netflix by Charlie Kaufman. Since that announcement, the brilliant Jesse Plemons has been cast in the role of Jake. Which.. oh my fucking hell. This is perfect casting! I've loved him since Friday Night Lights, but he's continued to become an even better actor in the years since. Dude can play just about any type of character!
I'm Thinking of Ending Things is suffocating, intelligent, suspenseful.. and ultimately, quite sad. To say more would ruin the entire plot of this story. You'll just have to read it for yourself!
What are you waiting for?
PS. I totally Googled Cruciverbalist!
(Thank you Simon & Schuster Canada for the copy!)...more
Holly (The Grimdragon)
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