Bite Size Book Reviews: What Moves the Dead

What Moves the Dead by T. Kingfisher 

Another T. Kingfisher book! I am new to her work, but so far I’ve loved everything I’ve read. What Moves the Dead takes Edgar Allen Poe’s Fall of the House of Usher and really fleshes it out. We shall not look too deeply into what that flesh is, but it’s there and I’m fascinated. For anyone wanting some queer rep in their books, our protagonist is a Sworn Soldier, which means that while they were born a girl, their decision to become a soldier has rendered them genderless, a practice which is unique to their small European country. This allows them to move through a lovely gothic narrative, where traditionally so much action and attitude is gendered, in unpredictable ways. Kingfisher doesn’t only turn gender on its head, she also plays with popular storytelling conventions from Poe’s era. A reader may not notice it if they aren’t familiar with supernatural tales from the 19^th century, but as a nerd who IS at least a little familiar with supernatural tales from the 19^th century, I see what she did thar and I liked it. A sequel is coming out next year and I’m thrilled.

Bite Size Book Reviews: Tales from the Hinterland

Tales from the Hinterland by Melissa Albert 

Melissa Albert’s Hazel Wood duology is one of my favorite YA series of recent years. The Hazel Wood revolves around a famous book of dark fairytales, Tales from the Hinterland, written by the protagonist’s estranged grandmother, and the revelation that both the stories and the Hinterland itself are real. In a move that I love, Albert has gone ahead and written the full collection cited in her books. Tales from the Hinterland is a creepy and unsettling collection. Similar to what I said in my review of Small Spaces, there’s only so much you can say in YA due to the youth of its target audience. But, as with Small Spaces, when it comes to horror, that vagueness lets the reader’s mind cook grimmer outcomes than even the author may have intended. Not that Albert skimps on the gore; this is a fairytale collection after all, and much like OSHA regulations, old fairytales are written in blood. Fans of Angela Carter will recognize her influence on the stories and hopefully enjoy them as much as I did. Personally, having read Tales from the Hinterland and Carter’s The Bloody Chamber back-to-back, I think in some ways Tales is the better book. But you should look into it yourself. Hint: if you love pretty books, check out the hardcover of Tales from the Hinterland! The illustrations are beautiful and the books feels good in your hand.

Bite Size Book Reviews: The Adventures of Amina al-Sirafi

The Adventures of Amina al-Sirafi by Shannon Chakraborty

The Adventures of Amina as-Sirafi is not, technically, horror. However, it is full of magic and monsters and a great number of horrors, and since this is my blog and I make the rules, I’m including it! Amina al-Sirafi is a middle-aged, retired pirate who just wants to raise her daughter, keep her enemies from finding and killing her family, and maybe even stop her roof from leaking. But when the mother of a crew mate (who died terribly on her watch) demands Amina’s services, she has to get the band back together for one last job. It’ll be fine, right? It’s set in a meticulously researched Middle East circa the crusades and filled with a bestiary of mythic beings from around the Indian Ocean. Reading this felt like falling into The Arabian Nights with a satchel full of old maps. 10/10, will be preordering the next book.

Bite Size Book Reviews: Black Light

Black Light by Elizabeth Hand 

Alex Kern, infamous filmmaker and trendsetter, has returned to Kamensic, an elite artist village in upstate New York, and to his fabulous mansion Bolerium. It’s Halloween, and he’s throwing one of his famous parties. And best of all, the whole town is invited. Including Charlotte. Cults, witchcraft, past lives, and seedy 1970’s party culture collide on a dark and stormy night in this creepy, R-Rated coming of age story. Black Light is a personal favorite that feels fresh every time I reread it. Hand paints a vivid picture of the community Charlotte has grown up in and the forces that have shaped her and now threaten her. It’s a fantastic atmospheric read for the season, and if you’re tired of ghosts and ghouls, than Black Light might be the story for you. More psychedelic than scary, Black Light is a magical, mystical, psychological thriller that keeps you guessing what will happen next.

Bite Size Book Reviews: No One Goes Alone

No One Goes Alone by Erik Larson

Erik Larson is deservedly famous for his nonfiction; Devil in the White City about H. H. Holmes, Dead Wake about the sinking of the Lusitania, The Splendid and the Vile about the blitz in London, and many more, all of which I highly recommend. No One Goes Alone is his very first foray into fiction. In it, a party of paranormal researchers circa 1905 sail to an isolated island to investigate an abandoned property The isolation will, in theory, allow them to fully research the house without other parties coming around to manipulate the results. Like all Larson’s works, it is thoroughly researched, but with the benefit of supernatural scares. That said, this book is not going to be a hit with everyone. I personally enjoyed it, however I’m very aware that that’s mostly because I’m a big ole nerd who doesn’t mind the narrative breaking off to discuss leading thoughts on paranormal research from the turn of the 20th century. That niche interest was very well served here, but Your Mileage May Vary. Also, No One Goes Alone is only available as an audiobook. I have… thoughts about that.

Bite Size Movie Reviews: Halloween with the New Addams Family

a.k.a The Addams Family Halloween Special (1978)

I never saw any of the original Addams Family show. Like most millennials, I grew up with the Christina Ricci movies and could’ve been happy with that forever. EXCEPT! In the family home video library, there was a blank tape. And on this blank tape, someone in my family, at some point before memory, had recorded Halloween with the New Addams Family. It’s creepy. It’s kooky. It’s positively spooky. The aliens tracking my development as a child have probably written several dissertations by now for Space University on how this show changed my brain chemistry. It’s free on Youtube and Tubi, so go check it out for relatively wholesome Halloween fun (minus that witch doctor bit. That, uh, that one did not age well. At all).

Bite Size Book Reviews: The Salt Grows Heavy

The Salt Grows Heavy by Cassandra Khaw 

Did I call Hide a fast-paced gut punch of a book? Well, meet The Salt Grows Heavy; it’s here to eviscerate you. The little mermaid has escaped her prince and had her revenge. Why was there revenge? Eh, we’ll get to it. More importantly, now what? Like Inigo Montoya at the end of The Princess Bride, not much thought was given to what would happen after the bloody, bloody revenge. How about a road trip with the Plague Doctor? Was there a Plague doctor in the little mermaid? Eh. There is now. Surely a simple roadtrip will not yield further bloody revelations or grotesqueries beyond the grasp of mere men, or tempt you with a quiet, trickle of romance that swells into a flashflood that tears through the narrative, sweeping you away and leaving you fundamentally changed forever as you meditate on the nature of love. Anyway, content warning for gore and medical trauma. Like. A lot of gore and medical trauma. I made the tactical error of reading this on my lunch break. Don’t be like me. But do read this book.

Bite Size Book Reviews: Hide

Hide by Keirsten White

Fourteen people are invited to play hide and seek in an abandoned amusement park that closed down several decades before because of a child murder. But that was years ago! Surely nothing could go wrong now, right? And none of the fourteen players have any relevant traumas related to hide and seek, yeah? And if the park feels more like an elaborate labyrinth than a park, well that’s just because of how overgrown it is. And the company holding this contest is absolutely positively on the up-and-up. Would I lie to you? Hide is a tight, fast-paced gut punch of a book that has something to say about the world and one way or the other, it’s going to make you listen. It’s a delightfully angry, heartbreaking book and I would love to see it get a miniseries adaptation someday. Kiersten White’s got another horror novel, Mister Magic, out right now and I’m eagerly awaiting my copy from the library. 

Bite Size Book Reviews: Spite House

Spite House by Johnny Compton 

If you don’t know what a spite house is, stop reading and go google it because they are fascinating artifacts of human stubbornness. And also they look neat? Okay. To borrow a phrase, Spite House is a mystery wrapped in an enigma. The narrative bounces between several narrators, each of them with their secrets, no one ever fully revealing their hand before they have to. I loved the gradual reveals. It created a wonderful tension between characters as with each reveal, I had to reevaluate who might be in danger from whom, separate from the ghosts. I also loved the ghosts. Johnny Compton makes full use of the unique setting to create a pervasive sense of menace and claustrophobia. Add in the real world horror of being a black family in America, trying to move quietly and safely through Texas and, well, there’s a lot to keep you up at night.

Bite Size Book Review: Episode Thirteen

Episode Thirteen by Craig DiLouie

Episode Thirteen is an epistolary novel that treads familiar horror territory: a tv crew is investigating a famously haunted location, there are tensions within the group that are building, the house doesn’t exhibit any supernatural behavior until suddenly all the paranormal stuff starts happening, blah blah blah. We know these beats. Are they cliched? Yes. Did I still have a great time? Also yes! I am specifically recommending the audiobook of Episode Thirteen. It’s a full cast which, in my opinion, is never a bad move. Also, there is an original song written for the story that they actually arranged and recorded, and it adds a nice extra dose of wrongness to the narrative when it pops up. I love it when publishers really take advantage of the audiobook format to make the book an experience. The cast give great performances, and the story winds its way through some of my favorite tropes into eldritch territory.