Ladino magic goes up against the Spanish Inquisition in Leigh Bardugo’s brilliant historical fantasy novel The Familiar, which came out in April. I’m always eager to find more Jewish representation in fantasy and gothic/horror fiction, and ever since reading Rose Lerner’s The Wife in the Attic, I’ve been particularly interested in the plight of conversos in Inquisition-controlled Spain or Portugal—a subject I’ve rarely seen tackled in these genres. The Familiar proves that this slice of history makes a compelling backdrop for Gothic stories. Continue reading Review of The Familiar—Fantasy and the Spanish Inquisition
Month: July 2024
Review of The House of Silence—E. Nesbit’s Ghost Stories
I’m sure you’ve noticed by now that I love a good ghost story. Lately, I have especially been enjoying discovering the works of many of the talented female authors who flourished during the golden age of ghost stories but have since gone largely unrecognized. Which is why I was devastated to learn that the small publisher who introduced me to many of these authors will be shutting their doors: Handheld Press, the small UK house who brought us Women’s Weird volumes I and II, The Outcast and the Rite, From the Abyss, The Unknown, Strange Relics, and so much more have announced that they are done publishing as of this summer. But they made sure to go out with a bang. One of their last titles was The House of Silence: Ghost Stories 1887–1920 by E. Nesbit, with an introduction by Melissa Edmundson, which came out in May. Nesbit’s stories were among my favorites that I first encountered in Women’s Weird and in my sporadic reading since, so I was thrilled when Handheld announced they’d be doing an entire collection of her ghost stories. And I was not disappointed! Continue reading Review of The House of Silence—E. Nesbit’s Ghost Stories
Fresh Takes on Lovecraft
Howard Phillips Lovecraft is the kind of writer who provokes mixed emotions. On the one hand, he has become the face of the cosmic horror subgenre and his influence on modern horror in general is undeniable. When you sit down to actually read his stories, however, you’ll find that they tend to be permeated by his rampant bigotry—extreme even for his own time—and many of his plots fall into repetitive, predictable patterns. Even his best stories (I particularly enjoyed The Shadow over Innsmouth and “The Thing on the Doorstep”) have at their core an intense xenophobia and complete disregard for women. But whether you’re a hardcore Lovecraft fan or uninterested in ever reading anything from the man himself, you can enjoy the many new stories coming out from authors who play in Lovecraft’s sandbox while critiquing some of his views and adding new perspectives into his worlds. Here are just a few examples of books that put a fun, new twist on Lovecraft’s immortal mythos: Continue reading Fresh Takes on Lovecraft