Over the next two days, I will be posting access to my draft reviews in the October issues of Library Journal and Booklist. In all I have 12 reviews that are going live this week. Sorry not sorry about exploding your TBR. I begin today with Booklist and my draft reviews with bonus appeal information.
I will begin with the two stars.
STAR Edited by Ellen DatlowOct. 2023. 448p. illus. Titan, $27.99 (9781803363264).
REVIEW. First published October 1, 2023 (Booklist).
Datlow, the most award winning editor in speculative fiction, comes through once again, with an anthology of 18, original stories by some of the biggest names in Horror today. The contributors were asked to add their voice to the human tradition of telling ghost stories during the darkest days of the year. The resulting range of scares is as wide as the topics considered. From a gory tale of Austrian folklore to open the book by Christopher Golden, to Cassandra Khaw’s defiant stand against the world, to the existential dread and wood demons of Josh Malerman’s Finnish solstice rituals, and even a few hot and bright, Australian set nightmares, there is something here for every reader. However, it is the gut punch of Tananarive Due and Stepen Graham Jones’ stories which tower above the rest and cannot be missed. The inclusion of a note by each author at the end of each story and the creepy illustrations at the start of each tale, both enhance the reading experience. Pair it with Hark! The Herald Angels Scream, edited by Golden to spice up your Winter Holiday themed displays for years to come.
Further appeal: This is a holiday anthology that completely embraces the spirit of the season without being Christmas focused. Most of the series's are set around Dec 20- early January. I really did love the multiple southern hemisphere set stories as a northerner. So cool to have hot holiday stories.
The TOC is diverse in every way from identity of writers to how they write to what themes are explored. Every story was solicited by Datlow and they are ALL original to this anthology. It features some of the best and most popular Horror authors right now and will be in high demand by fans of hose authors and those looking for a different type of holiday season read.
I cannot get Due or Graham Jones' stories out of my head. Due's story in particular is set in the world of the story she wrote for Other Terrors and in her story notes, she hints that these characters need a novel (!!!). Graham Jones' story is perfect for fans of The Babysitter Lives.
I am very tough on Datlow edited anthologies and do not give them all a star, but this one is worth all the stars. It will be a library holiday season and Halloween staple for years to come.
Three Words That Describe This Book: Holidays, All Original Stories, Range of Scares
Readalikes: Every person in the TOC, you can suggest their books. Golden's Road of Bones specifically, is an excellent winter set story. The link above goes to my review of the other holiday anthology.
Also, see this post by me about the tradition of reading Horror during the Winter Solstice.
Edited by Lindy Ryan and Lee MurrayNov. 2023. 200p. Black Spot, paper, $14.95 (9781645481379); e-book (9781645481386).
REVIEW. First published October 1, 2023 (Booklist).
Horror poetry is having a moment. Readers are discovering the format as their go-to place to elicit the dark emotions of the genre that they crave. With its brevity and free form style, poetry twists words in ways that viscerally amplify the terror. Award winning editors, Ryan and Murray, have taken the unease up another notch by inviting 112 poets, all women and nonbinary femmes, to contribute a poem focused on domestic violence, Horror in what should be the safest spaces. The individual poems are brutally honest and poignant. Ranging in length, style and topic, each gives readers more than they expect, over and over again. Three standouts are by Ali Jiang, EF Schrader, and Emily Ruth Verona, whose “Prime Real Estate Opportunity,” uses footnotes to chilling perfection. The volume benefits the Pixel Project, a global non-profit whose mission is to raise awareness for the cause to end violence against women. They have provided a list of resources in the back of the book which raises its stakes from merely providing a good read to offering a lifeline and hope to those suffering in silence. Consider shelving a copy in the 300s and one in your Horror collections.
Further Appeal: This book is hard to read, but that is the point. It is shining a light on domestic abuse to make people pay attention. You also need to have this book In your collections because of the resources provided b y Pixel Project-- worldwide contacting. Having this book on your shelves could literally save someone's life. Get it with other resources for those suffering from domestic abuse. Don't hide it in poetry. And don't tell me you can't change where it is selves, that all poetry goes with poetry, because that is a self imposed rule, one that does a disservice to why someone would read this book, that says you don't care about helping someone save their own life. Yes, I am being overly dramatic, but it is to show you how dumb this argument is. You will not go to library jail if you make a cataloging choice that is not the automatic default. Trust me, I have been doing this for years at the school library and it has had amazing results-- and no one has been fired or sent to library jail, rather he opposite, the kids and teachers are finding books easier.
Three Words That Describe This Book: visceral, poignant, brutally honest
Readalikes: Tomorrow, I will have a review of
Emily Ruth Verona's debut novel, so keep an eye out for that. The TOC will direct you to many women Horror writers who have stories and novels as well as poetry. This anthology can be used by you, the library worker, to help readers find more horror poetry as well.
By Christa Carmen
Oct. 2023. 332p. Amazon/Thomas & Mercer, paper, $16.99 (9781662512988); e-book (9781662512971).
REVIEW. First published October 1, 2023 (Booklist).
Blake heads to Block Island, 14 miles off Rhode Island, to confront her birth mother. Arriving in a winter rainstorm, she heads to a haunted mansion, now a Bed and Breakfast, where she sets out to untangle the complicated history of her family. Blake feels like the heroine in a Gothic novel, that is, until she is murdered, but not before she got a letter off to the sister she never knew. A few weeks later, Thalia returns to Block Island, the home she left behind ten years ago, to finish what the sister she never met started. However, whoever silenced Blake will stop at nothing to keep the secrets of the island and its generations of sisters quiet. Told in two parts, from Blake’s and Thalia’s perspectives, no one is safe in this compelling and atmospheric thriller that pays homage to classic Gothic novels while still adding something fresh to the beloved genre. An easy sell to fans of the Brontes but also, those who enjoy the creepy, psychological suspense of Simone St. James or Gwendolyn Kiste's LAMBDA award-winning Reluctant Immortals.
Further Appeal: This is a classic Gothic fiction fan's dream of a book. It is consciously a book about books and a book about storytelling itself. Everything Gothic is perfectly rendered. It is Rebecca dialed up to 10.
Other themes explored, family secrets (so many both secrets and families interconnected in those secrets), addiction issues, lesbian MC. The setting is the biggest character: the island, the weather, the house, its place on a cliff, all the other buildings. Carmen double down on the atmosphere and it shows; it enhances the reading experience.
The novel also has some modern psychological suspense twists that work very well with the Classic Gothic frame.
This book will have wide appeal to a huge swath of library patrons.
Three Words That Describe This Book: Gothic, Psychological Suspense, Atmospheric
Readalikes: Of course the dozens of books mentioned in the book-- the classic Gothic titles.
Jennifer McMahon is another good option here. I would not suggest to every fan of
Mexican Gothic or
The Hacienda though, because those have supernatural monsters at the center of the story; this does not.
I would like to note, I called out Carmen's story in
Orphans of Bliss: Tales of Addiction Horror edited by Mark Matthews as amazing. I said it would be on year end best lists, and I was correct. It was nominate for a Stoker this past year. This is Carmen's first novel, an it is with Amazon so it will have wide distribution. You need to be aware of it.
Root Rot & Other Grim TalesBy Sarah Read
Oct. 2023. 300p. Bad Hand, paper, $15.99 (9798988128625).
REVIEW. First published October 1, 2023 (Booklist).
Bram Stoker Award winner Read returns with a collection that more than lives up to its promise of providing “grim tales,” 18 stories that use both fairy tale frames of yore like dark woods and wishes granted and familiar tropes from science fiction and fantasy such as parallel worlds or an uninhabitable NYC. Each story is original, terrifying, and compelling but when Read pits what readers think is coming against the extremely sinister tone at the heart of each tale, it is as if she is stabbing their tender spots* with a knife, twisting it, and leaving it to dangle long after the last page is turned. Two of the best examples are “Root Rot,” which presents the Tooth Fairy in her full body horror glory and “Terror Bay Resort '' set in the 26th Century, in a heated Arctic, at the Franklin Expedition museum. Suggest freely to those who enjoy dark, immersive, and character driven speculative fiction that firmly grabs its readers as written by
Cynthia Pelayo,
Cassandra Khaw, and
Lauren Beukes.
Further Appeal: That asterisk above was a note to my editor which asked her to keep the phrase "tender spots" because the visceral image it invokes is a great reflection of the tone of many of the stories.
I really enjoyed how half the book is nostalgic, fairy tales of yore esque and then the second half is terrors of the world to come, grim tales for the future. But, I wish there was a break in the book to denote that, a way for the reader to know the switch is coming.
Sinister is the key word here. In fact, you could describe this book in 1 word it is sinister. Even the settings are sinister, especially the future ones, such as an uninhabitable NYC overtaken by sky whales, or a melting arctic where the Franklin expedition's lost ship is now visible and a tourist site. The illustrations enhance the sinister tone. And that cover! It will draw readers to the book without you having to say a thing.
Some of the stories here are are among the best I have read this year. Read, a librarian as well as an award winning and talented writer, is someone you need to be aware of. Order this collection from the award winning small press.
Three Words That Describe This Book: Sinister, discomfort, immersive
Readalikes: The three authors above have lots of options and all capture the tone and imagination of Read's work. The aforementioned anthologies,
The Hideous Book of Hidden Horrors, edited by Doug Murano is a good readalike here. Actually all anthologies
edited by Murano are a good choice here.
Also Read's debut,
The Bone Weaver's Orchard, which won the Bram Stoker Award for Superior Achievement in a First Novel is a great read.
