When Dr. Louis Creed takes a new job and moves his family to the idyllic rural town of Ludlow, Maine, this new beginning seems too good to be true. Despite Ludlow’s tranquility, an undercurrent of danger exists here. Those trucks on the road outside the Creed’s beautiful old home travel by just a little too quickly, for one thing…as is evidenced by the makeshift graveyard in the nearby woods where generations of children have buried their beloved pets. Then there are the warnings to Louis both real and from the depths of his nightmares that he should not venture beyond the borders of this little graveyard where another burial ground lures with seductive promises and ungodly temptations. A blood-chilling truth is hidden there—one more terrifying than death itself, and hideously more powerful. As Louis is about to discover for himself sometimes, dead is better…
Rowan Mayfair, a beautiful woman, a brilliant practitioner of neurosurgery—aware that she has special powers but unaware that she comes from an ancient line of witches—finds the drowned body of a man off the coast of California and brings him to life. He is Michael Curry, who was born in New Orleans and orphaned in childhood by fire on Christmas Eve, who pulled himself up from poverty, and who now, in his brief interval of death, has acquired a sensory power that mystifies and frightens him. As these two, fiercely drawn to each other, fall in love and—in passionate alliance—set out to solve the mystery of her past and his unwelcome gift, an intricate tale of evil unfolds.
I rarely re-read stuff, with very few exceptions. But this book (and its series) is one I've gone back to. Rice's engrossing prose haunts as much as the pivotal figure that's sunk his hooks into everyone in the Mayfair line. My young-adult fantasies were phantom-fueled long after I'd finished reading. (OK, I'll admit it--my older-adult fantasies, too.) (Is that wrong? Maybe. But it feels so...well, wrong, but still sex-ay, so...)
A recurrent, unidentifiable noise in her apartment. A memo to her boss that's replaced by obscene insults. Amanda—a successful architect in a happy marriage—finds her life going off kilter by degrees. She starts smoking again, and one night for no reason, without even the knowledge that she's doing it, she burns her husband with a cigarette. At night she dreams of a beautiful woman with pointed teeth on the shore of a blood-red sea.
The new voice in Amanda's head, the one that tells her to steal things and talk to strange men in bars, is strange and frightening, and Amanda struggles to wrest back control of her life. A book on demon possession suggests that the figure on the shore could be the demon Naamah, known to scholars of the Kabbalah as the second wife of Adam, who stole into his dreams and tricked him into fathering her child. Whatever the case, as the violence of her erratic behavior increases, Amanda knows that she must act to put her life right, or see it destroyed.
Intense, disturbing, and darkly funny at times, this is a fine little terror of a tale about demonic possession. The intimacy of the first-person point-of-view is particularly successful because of the conversational tone throughout--the reader's lulled by the hushed confession and holds a deep breath while awaiting the final outcome. Read it while the sun's up and maybe plan some palate-cleansing activities with your nearest and dearest for after. Definitely do not read close to bedtime.
Rae Seddon, nicknamed Sunshine, lived a quiet life working at her stepfather's bakery. There are places in the world where darkness rules, where it's unwise to walk. Sunshine knew that. One night, she went out to the lake for some peace and quiet. There hadn't been any trouble out at the lake for years, and Sunshine just needed a spot where she could be alone with her thoughts. Big mistake. Vampires never entered her mind. Until they found her. And set upon her, and took her to an old abandoned mansion. They took her clothes and sneakers. They dressed her in a long red gown. And they shackled her to a wall-within easy reach of a figure stirring in the moonlight, who is also chained. She knows that it is a vampire. She knows that she's to be his dinner, and that when he is finished with her, she will be dead. Yet, when light breaks, she finds that he has not attempted to harm her. And now it is the vampire, Constantin, who needs her to help him survive the day, to protect him from the sun with her magic...
TBH, it's been a while since I read this and I'm definitely due for a re-read soon. All I remember is that 1) I loved this romance that isn't technically a romance, but is a love story, IMO, and 2) all the descriptions of hot bakery action made me crave Cinnabon like I was a sugar-glaze addict in sweet-stuff rehab. (Freakin' yum.)
Teenage werewolf Kalix MacRinnalch is being pursued through the streets of London by murderous hunters. She could certainly use a little help right about now, but her sister, the Werewolf Enchantress, is too busy designing clothes for the Fire Queen. So it looks like Kalix is on her own, as usual.
This problem all started back at home in the Scottish Highlands where Kalix's family, the MacRinnalch Clan, is plotting and feuding after the head of the clan died suddenly without having named a successor. As the court intrigue threatens to blow up into all-out civil war, the competing factions determine that Kalix is the swing vote necessary to determine the new leadership of the clan.
Unfortunately, Kalix isn’t really into clan politics--laudanum’s more her thing. But since Kalix might just be the reason the head of the clan ended up dead, she'll need to abandon her bad habits, if only long enough to stay alive.
This is a savagely entertaining wolf-romp with some great twists. As the first of a trilogy, it wraps things up while leaving a path clear to a sequel. It was a pleasure getting to know all these magical kooksters, as well as seeing the condition of the titular wolfgirl slowly improve in ways that make sense and fit the story. Recommended for folks into frightening furries who enjoy a good whiskey now and again.
Jackie has a map of the city on the wall of her bedroom, with a green pin for each of her trees. She has a first-kiss tree and a broken-arm tree. She has a car-accident tree. There is a tree at the hospital where Jackie’s mother passed away into the long good night. When one of them gets cut down, Jackie doesn’t know what to do but she doesn’t let that stop her. She picks up the biggest rock she can carry and puts it through the window of a car. Smash. She intends to leave before the police arrive, but they’re early.
Ann is Jackie’s best friend, but she’s got problems of her own. Her mother is chained up in the basement. How do you bring that up in casual conversation? “Oh, sorry I’ve been so distant, Jackie. My mother has more teeth than she’s supposed to, and she won’t eat anything that’s already dead.” Ann and her sister Margaret don’t have much of a choice here. Their mother needs to be fed. It isn’t easy but this is family. It’s not supposed to be easy. It’ll be okay as long as Margaret and Ann still have each other.
Add in a cantankerous old man, his powerfully stupid dog, a headless ghost, a lesbian crush and a few unsettling visits from Jackie’s own dead mother, and you’ll find that One Bloody Thing After Another is a different sort of horror novel from the ones you’re used to. It’s as sad and funny as it is frightening, and it is as much about the way families rely on each other as it is about blood being drooled on the carpet. Though, to be honest, there is a lot of blood being drooled on the carpet.
This book is bonkers. This book is *bananas*. When I finished it I was all, WTF did I just read? The dark humor bites as savagely as some of the creatures in the tale, surprised laughs out of me when I least expected. This wild fever dream somehow manages to also be a solemn meditation on the relationships between mothers and their daughters, loss, and grief. And it's creepy af. This is a weird little horror-comedy that doesn't give a shit about pulling punches and sparing your sensibilities--the squeamish should read something else. Seriously. But if you're brave enough to give this a go, it's totally worth it. (And keep an eye out for Easter eggs.)
Cas Lowood has inherited an unusual vocation: He kills the dead.
So did his father before him, until he was gruesomely murdered by a ghost he sought to kill. Now, armed with his father's mysterious and deadly athame, Cas travels the country with his kitchen-witch mother and their spirit-sniffing cat. They follow legends and local lore, destroy the murderous dead, and keep pesky things like the future and friends at bay.
Searching for a ghost the locals call Anna Dressed in Blood, Cas expects the usual: track, hunt, kill. What he finds instead is a girl entangled in curses and rage, a ghost like he's never faced before. She still wears the dress she wore on the day of her brutal murder in 1958: once white, now stained red and dripping with blood. Since her death, Anna has killed any and every person who has dared to step into the deserted Victorian she used to call home.
Yet she spares Cas's life.
This is a fabulous Young Adult horror (and romance!) that needs to be adapted for streaming media ASAP (Shudder, are you reading this???) I dig this take on ghostbusting, the lead guy's voice, and the challenging romantic complication of falling for a...ghost? A monster? What exactly is this chick, anyway? (Is it better that we don't know???) (I have so many questions!!!) A fun way to pre-game for Halloween.
Nettie Lonesome dreams of a greater life than toiling as a slave in the sandy desert. But when a stranger attacks her, Nettie wins more than the fight.
Now she’s got friends, a good horse, and a better gun. But if she can’t kill the thing haunting her nightmares and stealing children across the prairie, she’ll lose it all—and never find out what happened to her real family.
1988. Charleston, South Carolina. High school sophomores Abby and Gretchen have been best friends since fourth grade. But after an evening of skinny-dipping goes disastrously wrong, Gretchen begins to act…different. She’s moody. She’s irritable. And bizarre incidents keep happening whenever she’s nearby.
Abby’s investigation leads her to some startling discoveries - and by the time their story reaches its terrifying conclusion, the fate of Abby and Gretchen will be determined by a single question: Is their friendship powerful enough to beat the devil?
This is another solid possession story that leans heavily on dread to build the horror but ultimately has true friendship at its heart. It's been a big hit with horror fans for good reason but do yourselves a favor--read the book, do not watch the trite and insipid movie adaptation.
After receiving a frantic letter from her newly-wed cousin begging for someone to save her from a mysterious doom, Noemí Taboada heads to High Place, a distant house in the Mexican countryside. She’s not sure what she will find—her cousin’s husband, a handsome Englishman, is a stranger, and Noemí knows little about the region.
Noemí is also an unlikely rescuer: She’s a glamorous debutante, and her chic gowns and perfect red lipstick are more suited for cocktail parties than amateur sleuthing. But she’s also tough and smart, with an indomitable will, and she is not afraid: Not of her cousin’s new husband, who is both menacing and alluring; not of his father, the ancient patriarch who seems to be fascinated by Noemí; and not even of the house itself, which begins to invade Noemí’s dreams with visions of blood and doom.
Her only ally in this inhospitable abode is the family’s youngest son. Shy and gentle, he seems to want to help Noemí, but might also be hiding dark knowledge of his family’s past. For there are many secrets behind the walls of High Place. The family’s once colossal wealth and faded mining empire kept them from prying eyes, but as Noemí digs deeper she unearths stories of violence and madness.
And Noemí, mesmerized by the terrifying yet seductive world of High Place, may soon find it impossible to ever leave this enigmatic house behind.
This is a cloying little horror that winds its way through an eerily familiar mid-20th C. Mexico. The heroine's a sharp-witted beauty I'm 100% behind, and I enjoy that, while she's a fighter, she gets by with a little help from her friends. There are some pretty freaky moments, as well as sickening ones, but the climax thoroughly satisfies and the ending is poetically heart-felt, with abundant hope. Though I may never eat another mushroom again... ::dry heaves::
Tress Montor’s family used to mean something—until she didn’t have a family anymore. When her parents disappeared seven years ago while driving her best friend home, Tress lost everything. The entire town shuns her now that she lives with her drunken, one-eyed grandfather at what locals refer to as the “White Trash Zoo.”
Felicity Turnado has it all: looks, money, and a secret. One misstep could send her tumbling from the top of the social ladder, and she’s worked hard to make everyone forget that she was with the Montors the night they disappeared. Felicity has buried what she knows so deeply that she can’t even remember what it is . . . only that she can’t look at Tress without feeling shame and guilt.
But Tress has a plan. A Halloween costume party at an abandoned house provides the ideal situation for Tress to pry the truth from Felicity—brick by brick—as she slowly seals her former best friend into a coal chute. Tress will have her answers—or settle for revenge.
Oooof. What a *masterful* reworking of The Cask of Amontillado. Like the OG, it's not pretty. Unlike the OG, which was only chilling (no offense, Eddy), this book's also painful and heartbreaking. It snatches you up and swings you around, periodically making you think, OK, maybe there's a glimmer of hope here, before dashing you against a slowly rising brick wall, again and again. I mean, DANG. It lays down layer upon layer of insults, only these aren't words that never hurt you, these are the sticks and stones that break you. I'm waaaaay past my teen years but this YA novel SHOOK ME UP.
Homeless, hunted, and desperate to escape a bitter storm, Keira takes refuge in an abandoned groundskeeper's cottage. Her new home is tucked away at the edge of a cemetery, surrounded on all sides by gravestones: some recent, some hundreds of years old, all suffering from neglect.
And in the darkness, she can hear the unquiet dead whispering.
The cemetery is alive with faint, spectral shapes, led by a woman who died before her time... and Keira, the only person who can see her, has become her new target. Determined to help put the ghost to rest, Keira digs into the spirit's past life with the help of unlikely new friends, and discovers a history of deception, ill-fated love, and murder.
But the past is not as simple as it seems, and Keira's time is running out. Tangled in a dangerous web, she has to find a way to free the spirit... even if it means offering her own life in return.
I don't know how Darcy Coates does it, but in this book she's created a simultaneously charming and creepy af cozy-horror-romance novel. I'm pretty stoked that it's the first in a series and look forward to the rest of the books. Enjoy it with a mug of strong and sweet black tea and a plate of Tim Tams beside a roaring fire, if you can.
It was Vera's idea to buy the Itza. The "world's most advanced smart speaker!" didn't interest Thiago, but Vera thought it would be a bit of fun for them amidst all the strange occurrences happening in the condo. It made things worse. The cold spots and scratching in the walls were weird enough, but peculiar packages started showing up at the house—who ordered industrial lye? Then there was the eerie music at odd hours, Thiago waking up to Itza projecting light shows in an empty room.
It was funny and strange right up until Vera was killed, and Thiago's world became unbearable. Pundits and politicians all looking to turn his wife's death into a symbol for their own agendas. A barrage of texts from her well-meaning friends about letting go and moving on. Waking to the sound of Itza talking softly to someone in the living room...
The only thing left to do was get far away from Chicago. Away from everything and everyone. A secluded cabin in Colorado seemed like the perfect place to hole up with his crushing grief. But soon Thiago realizes there is no escape—not from his guilt, not from his simmering rage, and not from the evil hunting him, feeding on his grief, determined to make its way into this world.
This book isn't for the faint of heart. The writing style is simple, straight-forward, engaging, at times even funny, so when something fantastically *weird* suddenly transpires, you have to do a double-take, even when you'd rather not re-read the creepy/messed up/genuinely frightening bit you just read. Because, did you just read that? Yes. Yes, you did. But...wtf was it? Better not look too closely. This book borrows from Pet Sematary, Cujo, The Shining, Black Mirror, and 2001: A Space Odyssey, among others, to cultivate this uniquely horrifying world in which creatures best left in the dark recesses of the primordial ooze refuse to stay down there. They *will* haul their battered, besmeared carcasses out to meet you. It takes a lot to freak out this Gen X-er but this book WIGGED. ME. tf. OUT.
There are witches in the woods. These are the words the reverend of the Lilin Assembly of Our Lord repeats to his parishioners each week. Steve and Nicole Warby think it's just a metaphor, until Nicole takes a walk in those woods and comes back changed. Something came out of them with her, and the simple small-town life they've always known is forever altered when they discover the dark secrets buried deep and those intent on keeping them there. Fearing for his wife's sanity, and his own comfortable status in the church, Steve is unsure if he wants to help or ignore the problems. The reverend believes there are witches in the woods, and he thinks Nicole is only the most recent.
Conjuring the Witch is a dark, haunted story about what those in power are willing to do to stay in power, and the sins we convince ourselves are forgivable.
A quick, chilling read, this made me lose sleep and wouldn't let me put it down till I finished it. Leonard gets us to think we're comfortable, only to shriek out some extremely unsettling moments--I didn't think jump scares were possible in books but the author has proven me wrong. My only critique is that the end was too good for some of the characters and not long enough for the bloodthirsty reader (such as I) to relish.
I'm going to give the Whispering Dead a try. Good idea or bad?
ReplyDeleteHard to gauge...what's the scariest thing you're read (or seen) that you were still able to enjoy?
DeleteSo much to sink my fangs in to!
ReplyDeleteHope you find something you really dig!
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