Umm, could someone please explain A House at the Bottom of a Lake to me? Because I sure as hell don’t get it. Admittedly, that could just be me. This could be another Bunny situation going on, where I’m just not existential enough to understand what I just read. What's A House at the Bottom of a Lake about? This novella by Josh Malerman (of well-deserved Bird Box fame) is a horror story. Kind of. It's about two teenagers row out...
I'm not sure how I stumbled across The Girl Who Died. I think author Ragnar Jonasson blurbed another scary book that I'd read and loved. I thought, if I loved that book, I'd probably love books by this author, too. What's The Girl Who Died about? The Girl Who Died, despite its off-putting title, was a really enjoyable read. It's brimming with tension and atmosphere, suspense and mystery. Main character Una spontaneously accepts a...
I never really think of December as a spooky time of year. But, author Cassandra Parkin manages to change that with her book The Winter's Child. What's The Winter's Child about? The Winter's Child is full of twists and turns, ghostly premonitions and ghastly visions as main character Susannah waits for her long-lost -- and possibly deceased -- son to return to her on Christmas Eve. Soon, Susannah starts seeing things that...
N0S4A2 is a Christmas book in the way that Die Hard is a Christmas movie. It's a horror novel that just so happens to be centered around Christmas. There are all the entrancing, alluring elements of the holidays that we love: carols, trees decorated with ornaments, and the smell of gingerbread in the air. But, author Joe Hill doles out each charming tidbit with a sinister twist that morphs the innocent into something incredibly dark and...
I love discovering new authors in supernatural fiction, and The Voices falls perfectly into this genre. This story starts off like most haunted house novels -- a happy couple moves into a too-good-to-be-true lovely old house that turns out to be creepyAF. But that's where anything expected in The Voices ends. What's The Voices about? Main character Christopher composes music for a living. During some recording sessions in his new...
I can't believe I'm saying this, but Mexican Gothic is the latest bestseller to fall into the DNF pit. Let me start off this book review by saying that I'm not only disappointed by how much I didn't enjoy this Gothic suspense -- but I'm very surprised by it. Author Silvia Moreno-Garcia's Mexican Gothic made HUGE waves last year among bookstagrammers and book bloggers, for its book cover alone! Which is, admittedly, gorgeous. ...
I uttered "What the fuck?" an unprecedented number of times while reading Bunny. That’s pretty much the only reaction you can have to this novel by Mona Awad. It's a complete What the actual eff??? ride from beginning to end. What's Bunny about? Bunny takes place at a prestigious art school. There’s a pack of hoity-toity, grad school women there who behave like middle schoolers; they roam around in a pack, affectionately...
A blogger friend recommended The Southern Book Club’s Guide to Slaying Vampires to me during one of my reading slumps. I jumped on it since I’m a big fan of author Grady Hendrix’s previous novel, Horrorstor. Also, as Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Twilight enthusiast (don’t judge), I have a thing for vampires. So, I figured this Hendrix story was worth a shot.
What is The Southern Book Club's Guide to Slaying Vampires about? This...
The Dead Girls Club by Damien Angelica Walters is a pretty morbid book title. Naturally, I was immediately drawn to it. The synopsis promised a mix of psychological thriller and supernatural suspense, so I was all "Yup, yup, that's my kind of book!" What's The Dead Girls Club about? The Dead Girls Club is told across two timelines: "Now" and "Then." The "Now" follows adult Heather, who's an anxious, nervous, borderline personality...
If it’s one thing I love about Wendy Webb novels, it’s that they’re incredibly creepy. And her latest book, The Haunting of Brynn Wilder, certainly delivers all the spine-tingling, floor-creaking moments you’d expect with a title like that. That being said… this book is also incredibly heartbreaking, which is something that I did not expect. What originally drew to me to Webb’s novels is this author’s ability to weave a damn...
