Tag: horror

Book Review: Diavola by Jennifer Thorne

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Anna has two rules for the annual Pace family destination vacations: Tread lightly and survive.

PLOT SUMMARY:

It isn’t easy when she’s the only one in the family who doesn’t quite fit in. Her twin brother, Benny, goes with the flow so much he’s practically dissolved, and her older sister, Nicole, is so used to everyone―including her blandly docile husband and two kids―falling in line that Anna often ends up in trouble for simply asking a question. Mom seizes every opportunity to question her life choices, and Dad, when not reminding everyone who paid for this vacation, just wants some peace and quiet.

The gorgeous, remote villa in tiny Monteperso seems like a perfect place to endure so much family togetherness, until things start going off the rails―the strange noises at night, the unsettling warnings from the local villagers, and the dark, violent past of the villa itself.

GRADE: C-

REVIEW:

This book had a thrilling premise, a haunted villa in Tuscany and being trapped with family members who dislike you. That already sounded like a horror story ready to happen. I didn’t mind the first 20% of this book, but being Italian, there were many inaccuracies that I couldn’t overlook. I didn’t mind when Anna, the American protagonist spoke Italian like Google Translate, however, when the author had a two hundred year Florentine ghost speak Italian in the same way, I simply couldn’t stay focused on the story. Not to mention that the author doesn’t realize that Italy is culturally vastly different between the northern and southern regions. What this means is that there’s no way someone in Florence is using cornicelli amulets to ward off the evil eye when that is a very Southern Italian superstition that you won’t see past Rome. Not to mention that I disliked most of the characters in this book, including the protagonist (what annoyed me about her is that she returns to New York with the ghost following her home and she doesn’t act scared shitless as any normal person would be, but rather is cracking jokes at it). I really couldn’t enjoy this book for all of those reasons, and maybe if you’re not Italian, you won’t pick up all the inaccuracies that I did and might like this better, but for me, this was a complete pass. The author can write, but clearly, she or Tor Nightfire were sleeping at the wheel when it came to backing up her research.

*Thank you so much to NetGalley and Tor Nightfire for the digital copy of this book in exchange for an honest review!

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Book Review: Nestlings by Nat Cassidy

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There’s no place like home.

PLOT SUMMARY:

Ana and Reid need a break. The horrifically complicated birth of their first child has left Ana paralyzed, bitter, and struggling―with mobility, with her relationship with Reid, with resentment for her baby. Reid dismisses disturbing events and Ana’s deep unease and paranoia, but he can’t explain the needle-like bite marks on their baby.

GRADE: B+

REVIEW:

Right off the bat, you get Rosemary’s Baby vibes from the very first chapter – but if you have read Riley Sager’s Lock Every Door, then you’ll also feel like the gargoyles are vaguely familiar (although here they have a bigger role).

Ana and Reid with their baby Charlie, win some kind of apartment lottery and happen to get one at one of the most luxurious buildings in Manhattan – however there’s a catch 22, as the building is rumored to have brought upon much bad luck to the tenants that live there. The building is wrapped in mystery as not many books are written about it, safe for one that Reid finds in a used book store that he quickly becomes obsessed with.

The novel is gripping, chilling, and with a very unexpected ending (although I do love that Cassidy went down the route he did). Nestlings captures you with a claustrophobic clutch and doesn’t let go until you reach the very end. My only tiny gripe with the novel is that between the major reveal and the end, it kinda began to move slower, but I kept on reading because I wanted to know how it would end for these characters.

This a must-read if you love creepy horror, verging on the terrifying. The images are really dark, and at times downright sickening – which I loved, so if you’re into that sort of horror you will love this too.

*Thank you so much to NetGalley and Tor Nightfire for the digital copy of this book in exchange for an honest review!

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3 Thanksgiving Horror Movies to Watch on Thanksgiving!

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If spending time with your family begins to feel like a drag, then suggest a movie to watch and have everyone settle down to a terrifying horror movie that takes place during Thanksgiving cause sometimes the holidays are just downright scary!

KRISTY (2014)

Violent thugs terrorize a young woman (Haley Bennett) who’s alone on a college campus for Thanksgiving weekend. Ashley Greene plays a chilling pierced villain. Think “Home Alone” but with a lot more violence and gore.

PILGRIM (2019)

A woman invites Pilgrim reenactors to her family’s Thanksgiving celebration in an effort to remind them of their privilege and help them bond with one another.

THANKSGIVING (2023)

For many years this was only a fake trailer shown in Quentin Tarantino’s and Robert Rodriguez’s 2007 double feature, Grindhouse. Finally, sixteen years later we get an actual movie by Eli Roth inspired by that trailer. An axe-wielding maniac terrorizes residents of Plymouth, Mass., after a Black Friday riot ends in tragedy. Picking off victims one by one, the seemingly random revenge killings soon become part of a larger, sinister plan.

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3 Witchy Novels to Read During Halloween

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THE YEAR OF THE WITCHING BY ALEXIS HENDERSON

In the lands of Bethel, where the Prophet’s word is law, Immanuelle Moore’s very existence is blasphemy. Her mother’s union with an outsider of a different race cast her once-proud family into disgrace, so Immanuelle does her best to worship the Father, follow Holy Protocol, and lead a life of submission, devotion, and absolute conformity, like all the other women in the settlement.

But a mishap lures her into the forbidden Darkwood surrounding Bethel, where the first prophet once chased and killed four powerful witches. Their spirits are still lurking there, and they bestow a gift on Immanuelle: the journal of her dead mother, who Immanuelle is shocked to learn once sought sanctuary in the wood.

Fascinated by the secrets in the diary, Immanuelle finds herself struggling to understand how her mother could have consorted with the witches. But when she begins to learn grim truths about the Church and its history, she realizes the true threat to Bethel is its own darkness. And she starts to understand that if Bethel is to change, it must begin with her.

HOUR OF THE WITCH BY CHRIS BOHJALIAN

Boston, 1662. Mary Deerfield is twenty-four-years-old. Her skin is porcelain, her eyes delft blue, and in England she might have had many suitors. But here in the New World, amid this community of saints, Mary is the second wife of Thomas Deerfield, a man as cruel as he is powerful. When Thomas, prone to drunken rage, drives a three-tined fork into the back of Mary’s hand, she resolves that she must divorce him to save her life.

But in a world where every neighbor is watching for signs of the devil, a woman like Mary—a woman who harbors secret desires and finds it difficult to tolerate the brazen hypocrisy of so many men in the colony—soon becomes herself the object of suspicion and rumor. When tainted objects are discovered buried in Mary’s garden, when a boy she has treated with herbs and simples dies, and when their servant girl runs screaming in fright from her home, Mary must fight to not only escape her marriage, but also the gallows.

SLEWFOOT: A TALE OF BEWITCHERY BY BROM

Connecticut, 1666: An ancient spirit awakens in a dark wood. The wildfolk call him Father, slayer, protector.

The colonists call him Slewfoot, demon, devil.

To Abitha, a recently widowed outcast, alone and vulnerable in her pious village, he is the only one she can turn to for help.

Together, they ignite a battle between pagan and Puritan – one that threatens to destroy the entire village, leaving nothing but ashes and bloodshed in their wake.


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Book Review: Forgotten Sisters by Cynthia Pelayo

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Sorrow will be my constant, because they died.

PLOT SUMMARY:

Sisters Anna and Jennie live in a historic bungalow on the Chicago River. They’re tethered to a disquieting past, and with nowhere else to go, nothing can part them from their family home. Not the maddening creaks and disembodied voices that rattle the old walls. Not the inexplicable drownings in the area, or the increasing number of bodies that float by Anna’s window.

To stave off loneliness, Anna has a podcast, spinning ghostly tales of Chicago’s tragic history. But when Anna captures the attention of an ardent male listener, she awakens to the possibilities of a world outside.

As their relationship grows, so do Jennie’s fears. More and more people are going missing in the river. And then two detectives come calling.

They’re looking for a link between the mysteries of the river and what’s housed on the bank. Even Anna and Jennie don’t understand how dreadful it is—and still can be—when the truth about their unsettled lives begins to surface.

GRADE: A

REVIEW:

When I read The Shoemaker’s Magician earlier this year, I thought that it definitely was one of my fave horror thrillers because it had everything I loved rolled into one novel – however, with Forgotten Sisters Pelayo taps into other things I absolutely love – The Little Mermaid, historical tragedies, and a mysterious killer on the loose. Some authors are linked to their location, such as Anne Rice with New Orleans, or Stephen King with Maine, and whenever I think of Pelayo and her writing I link her to Chicago – and love discovering and learning more about this city through her novels.

This novel is a modern retelling of The Little Mermaid but it’s also a ghost story of sorts (I don’t want to delve too much into detail because I think it’s important to find out on your own). But it’s also about the strength of sisterly love since the novel mostly focuses on the relationship between Anna and Jennie. The house they live in is next to a river, and soon both the house and river become important characters within the world of the novel as the people who inhabit it. A lot of this novel reads like a Gothic novel in regards to the two sisters spending most of their time indoors whilst being burdened by ghosts and odd noises. Young men have begun to go missing and show up dead in the river weeks and months later, sparking thoughts of a serial killer, although the police wish to not acknowledge that they may be dealing with one for fear of alarming the public.

A lot of the book is read like a poetic fever dream and works well in regards to its fairytale roots, so it never bothered me that the two sisters spoke like they were Dickensian characters (once you reach the end you’ll understand why). I know some may think that the love that blossomed between Anna and Peter was what some readers would call “insta-love” but really – I felt that it was possible for the two of them to fall for each other as quickly as they did when they had spent so much time exchanging emails prior (I’ve always been a sucker for long emails and letters between people I’m fond of and understand how a relationship can evolve from that rather quickly).

This novel was unique as it was an amalgamation of thriller, horror, crime, history, and fantasy all rolled into one unique story. I recommend this for those who lean towards Gothic atmospheres in their books and enjoy a slower-paced murder mystery.

*Thank you so much to NetGalley & Thomas & Mercer for the digital copy of this book in exchange for an honest review!

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3 Horror Movies to Check out for Spooky Season!

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TALK TO ME

When a group of friends discover how to conjure spirits with an embalmed hand, they become hooked on the new thrill and high-stakes party game — until one of them goes too far and unleashes terrifying supernatural forces.

A new take on possession that’s brutal, unexpected, and highly terrifying! I watched this movie twice within a 12-hrs span.

TOTALLY KILLER

Thirty-five years after the shocking murders of three teens, an infamous killer returns on Halloween night to claim a fourth victim. When 17-year-old Jamie comes face-to-face with the masked maniac, she accidentally time-travels back to 1987. Forced to navigate the unfamiliar culture, Jamie teams up with her teenage mother to take down the psycho once and for all.

This is a mash-up between a slasher and Back to the Future. It’s fun and thrilling, and Kiernan Shipka is always a delight.

NO ONE WILL SAVE YOU

Brynn finds solace within the walls of the home where she grew up until she’s awakened one night by strange noises from unearthly intruders.

Usually, alien invasion films aren’t my cup of tea, but this one was thrilling from the very first scene until the very end. You never have a chance to catch your breath, and Kaitlyn Dever is a powerhouse in a movie that she carries on her own and with barely any dialogue at all.

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Book Review: Our Own Unique Affliction by Scott J. Moses

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“We’re each dealt our own unique affliction, Alice. Ours is death. Yours? Yours is life.”

PLOT SUMMARY:

Our Own Unique Affliction is the story of Alice Ann, a dejected immortal who longs for her life in the sun. Navigating guilt, loss, family, meaning, murder, and all that comes with the curse of living forever. An existential bleak, quiet until it’s not, hallucination on duality, rife with fangs, empathy, blood, and grief.

GRADE: A-

REVIEW:

Full disclosure, vampires are my favourite supernatural creature, but since they are my favourite, I usually don’t watch or read many books or movies that feature them because I am personally picky when it comes to vampires. My biggest gripe with most vampire books is the author leans too much on making them romantic heroes that they tend to forget or downplay the monstrous aspects that make these creatures absolutely terrifying. Alice Ann is no such vampire. Yes, she holds some smidgen of humanity but she’s also a brutal monster – and it’s a perfect balance. Alice Ann yearns for a life under the sun – and her memories of her family when she was human are viscerally moving and sad – especially when she sees immortality as a curse. I wasn’t too drawn to the human that essentially drove her and her sister around in a truck everywhere (I’m always iffy about humans that work for vampires or vampires relying on humans – it always seems like an odd relationship that will end up derailing at some point – and in the case of this novella it did just that). Usually, book endings are something that I don’t always like because most are lackluster even when the story has been amazing – however, Moses lands the perfect ending for this book – and it couldn’t have been better.

Read this if you like vampires, philosophical musings about mortality, and grief horror.

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Book Review: Delicate Condition by Danielle Valentine

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Her body is no longer her own….

PLOT SUMMARY:

Anna Alcott is desperate to have a family. But as she tries to balance her increasingly public life as an indie actress with a grueling IVF journey, she starts to suspect that someone is going to great lengths to make sure that never happens. Crucial medicines are lost. Appointments get swapped without her knowledge. Cryptic warnings have her jumping at shadows. And despite everything she’s gone through to make this pregnancy a reality, not even her husband is willing to believe that someone is playing twisted games with her.

Then her doctor tells her she’s had a miscarriage―except Anna’s convinced she’s still pregnant despite everything the grave-faced men around her claim. She can feel the baby moving inside her, can see the strain it’s taking on her weakening body. Vague warnings become direct threats as someone stalks her through the bleak ghost town of the snowy Hamptons. As her symptoms and sense of danger grow ever more horrifying, Anna can’t help but wonder what exactly she’s carrying inside of her…and why no one will listen when she says something is horribly, painfully wrong.

GRADE: A-

REVIEW:

Full disclosure, I’ve read many of Danielle Valentine’s YA novels (under the name Danielle Vega), her Merciless series being one of the most popular ones. So, I was curious what this author would do in an adult horror novel. I also was curious to read this because the new season of American Horror Story, a series that I really love and watch every year, is going to be based off of this book – and I wanted to read the book prior to viewing the series.

This book explores many things that deal with womanhood and motherhood, and the craziest thing is that what one would think are the horror elements, aren’t really as terrifying as the true elements of the novel. I think I was more horrified by the amount of physical pain and stress the protagonist submitted to during the IVF treatments than when she began having strange cravings (and when I say strange – the cravings are pretty brutal). The men in this novel are mostly trash – so it’s no surprise that they didn’t take any of Anna’s concerns about her body seriously.

This novel is full of twists and turns, and I liked the direction it went rather than going for the tired trope of “evil baby.” I am very curious to see how this book will be adapted in AHS: Delicate and hope that they keep Valentine’s powerful message.

I recommend this book to those who love feminist horror novels that subvert genre expectations.

*Thank you so much to NetGalley and Sourcebooks Landmark for the digital copy of this book in exchange for an honest review!

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Book Review: Whalefall by Daniel Kraus

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“Seventy percent of the planet is water. Most of that water is deep ocean. The origin of everything. Less than 5 percent of the deep ocean is mapped. Humans know more about Mars. Anything could be down there. Therefore, everything is.”

PLOT SUMMARY:

Jay Gardiner has given himself a fool’s errand—to find the remains of his deceased father in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of Monastery Beach. He knows it’s a long shot, but Jay feels it’s the only way for him to lift the weight of guilt he has carried since his dad’s death by suicide the previous year.

The dive begins well enough, but the sudden appearance of a giant squid puts Jay in very real jeopardy, made infinitely worse by the arrival of a sperm whale looking to feed. Suddenly, Jay is caught in the squid’s tentacles and drawn into the whale’s mouth where he is pulled into the first of its four stomachs. He quickly realizes he has only one hour before his oxygen tanks run out—one hour to defeat his demons and escape the belly of a whale.

GRADE: A

REVIEW:

I absolutely loved this book – which in a way almost felt like it was two novels in one. One novel is Jay’s battle to escape the various stomachs of the sperm whale he finds himself in, whilst the second novel is Jay’s guilt over his father’s suicide because the two always had a very difficult relationship that only got worse during his father’s cancer – and Jay spent his father’s last few months in life, not living with him or communicating with him. This novel runs against the clock as each chapter notes how much oxygen remains in Jay’s tank, and he’s got very little time to get back out of the whale and up on land before he dies. What I loved about this novel is that it had fast-paced short chapters so reading it was a breeze, but at the same time, it was rich with so many emotions. The reader can’t help but cheer Jay on, wanting him to be freed from the whale, but at the same time, you also hope that Jay can also be freed of his guilt. The novel explores both and I liked the way it ended. I won’t say anything more about it because I think you need to go into this novel blind and experience this journey with Jay.

I recommend this book if you love marine life adventures and character-driven thrillers. I love the ocean so this novel was right up my alley. I’d really love to see this become a film because it would make for an excellent survivalist thriller.

*Thank you so much to NetGalley and Atria and MTV Books for the digital copy of this book in exchange for an honest review!

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Out Now: I Want Candy by Azzurra Nox

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A family of witches. A girl in love.

Hidden away in an old, dilapidated Victorian home, the Dresden witches have been making their prized candies for years. Their secret ingredient would make most people squeamish, but for Lollipop it’s just another typical day at home. Lolli spends her days making candies and longing for her classmate Stella. As her infatuation for Stella deepens, Lollipop begins to question her loyalty to her family. Will she choose love or will she do anything it takes to preserve the Dresden legacy at any costs? Does she have what it takes to be the next head witch or will her powers never be strong enough?

Stella Morris has recently moved to Arcana, California after a tragic incident involving her mother. Stella is both beautiful and popular, but she harbors a darkness in her that threatens to make her whole world come undone.

This coming-of-age queer romance is drenched in blood and sugar.

PURCHASE BOOK HERE

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