A wispy woman in white, a widow who haunts the home she once ruled over, a fair maiden whose life was tragically cut short—have you ever noticed how many of the ghost stories of popular culture and local legend feature female spirits? Brilliant and knowledgeable ghost tour guides Leanna Renee Hieber and Andrea Janes—whom I have taken many tours of NYC with through Boroughs of the Dead—explore this phenomenon and its significance in their first nonfiction book, A Haunted History of Invisible Women: True Stories of America’s Ghosts, which came out back in September. Through a blend of personal, professional, and academic lenses, Leanna and Adrea provide a cultural analysis of the ghostly women that populate American legends and what their stories can tell us about ourselves and about American society. As a lover of ghost stories who also loves to examine why and how we tell them, I cannot recommend this book enough! In my excitement to preorder the book, I wound up with more copies than I need, so I’ll be giving away one of my extras. Read to the bottom of this post for information on how to enter to win a signed copy of A Haunted History of Invisible Women! Continue reading A Haunted History of Invisible Women Review and Giveaway
Cautionary Tales Against Resurrection
It’s a common moral in tales of folklore and fantasy: Do not disturb the dead. No matter how powerful of magic you possess, it is always inadvisable to go against the laws of both nature and the divine by attempting to reverse the irreversible. Even if you do manage to bring someone back from those Plutonian shores, they are never quite the same. Yet, as humans with a complicated relationship to mortality, it is natural for us to grieve the absence of those we love and to long to bring them back to life. Countless tales of Gothic and horror literature are here to remind us exactly why those thoughts should remain just a fantasy and not be acted upon. Here are just a few of my favorite examples of stories that warn against raising the dead:
Review of A Restless Truth—Magical Murder at Sea
Being trapped onboard a ship with an unknown murderer is a frightening enough prospect on its own, without adding powerful magic to the mix. Luckily Maud Blyth is just as undaunted in the face of overwhelming odds as her brother Robin. I just reviewed A Marvellous Light, Book 1 in Freya Marske’s The Last Binding trilogy, the other week and went straight from finishing that one to reading the sequel. A Restless Truth, the second book in this fantasy romance series came out at the beginning of November. Continue reading Review of A Restless Truth—Magical Murder at Sea
Mushroom Horror
Lately, I’ve been noticing a rising trend in fungal-themed horror novels, or what some corners of the internet are starting to dub “sporror.” (Get it? Like spores?) Mushrooms and their kin have many characteristics that lend themselves quite well to horror. For one thing, there’s still so much that we don’t know about these organisms—only in the last decade or so have we started to understand the vast mycelium networks that exist unseen beneath the soil, linking miles of forest and providing all sorts of important contributions to the ecosystem. On top of that, mushrooms, molds, and yeasts are strange, almost alien in the way that they defy categorization. They have elements of both plant and animal, and yet are neither. They are also associated with dark, damp, underground spaces and are noted for their role in decomposition. Through the recreational use of psychedelic mushrooms, these organisms have also been linked with the fantastical and surreal, with hallucinatory visions and altered states of mind. There are many poisonous mushrooms that can be fatal to humans, and some of them look deceptively similar to their less toxic brethren. Then there are the parasitic fungi, which can infect and feed off of plants, animals, insects, and humans in often gruesome ways. With so many potentially horrific directions to go in, I think we will only continue to see even more mushroom horror in the future. Below is just a sampling of works that feature frightening fungi:
A Marvellous Light Review—Edwardian Magicians
Getting cursed is just about the worst way to find out magic is real… An English baronet finds himself thrown headfirst into the world of magical conspiracies and sorcerer soirees in A Marvellous Light by Freya Marske, which came out last year. I’ve been a long-time fan of Marske’s podcast, Be the Serpent, but only just picked up her first book in preparation for reading the sequel, A Restless Truth, which came out earlier this month. Continue reading A Marvellous Light Review—Edwardian Magicians
Nona the Ninth Review
The world has ended before, but it could always end again…. The first two books of the Locked Tomb series (Gideon the Ninth and Harrow the Ninth) were two of my favorite books from the last few years, and now Tamsyn Muir is back with the third installment! Nona the Ninth, the penultimate book in this projected quartet, came out earlier this fall and continues to prove that Muir is one of the most creative minds in today’s science-fiction and fantasy scene. Continue reading Nona the Ninth Review
Spooky Stories to Consume Like Candy
Looking for some quick scares to get you in the mindset for Halloween? I’ve already written a post on ghost stories that you can read to get into the spirit of the season, but shades of the deceased aren’t the only things that will send shivers down your spine. Here are a few of my favorite stories featuring all sorts of other things that go bump in the night. These stories are all available online and perfect for giving yourself a quick horror fix before you go out to celebrate All Hallow’s Eve tonight:
Review of Strange Relics—Haunted Archeology
There is an allure to the ruins of past civilizations, but perhaps some things are better left buried…. Archeologists Amara Thornton and Katy Soar explore this notion in a new collection, Strange Relics: Stories of Archeology and the Supernatural, 1895-1954, which came out from Handheld Press last month. Y’all know I love a themed anthology, and I’ve been particularly enjoying the collections of late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century weird/horror/ghost stories from this publisher, which so far have also included Women’s Weird (volumes one and two), The Outcast and the Rite, and From the Abyss. If you’re a fan of ancient civilizations or the people who study them, this collection provides some fascinating insight into how the boom in archeology influenced our horror literature. Continue reading Review of Strange Relics—Haunted Archeology
Review of The Lost Son—Gothic Audio Drama
A man’s frantic breathing is suddenly interrupted by a low, ominous growl… Before the words of the story even begin, these sounds paint a picture at the beginning of The Lost Son. Sound has a peculiar ability to immerse you in dread and terror in a way that I find harder to accomplish through the other senses. Perhaps that is why we’re seeing such a boom right now of horror stories being produced through audio fiction. These days, I devour audio fiction at a rate about five times faster than any other format. I started reading audiobooks around the same time I launched this blog and then reluctantly branched out into fiction podcasts. But I’ve been delighted over the past couple of years to see a rise in a new kind of audio fiction: the audio drama mini series. Often hosted on podcast platforms, these stories blend the best of both audiobooks and podcasts, with a bit of a throwback to old radio dramas, as well. They are self-contained stories, limited to a small number of episodes, and they revel in the audio format through the use of sound effects, background music, and talented voice actors. I’ve been venturing into this format through the shows produced by Realm, such as Beatrix Greene. And now there’s a new show coming out by a small group of independent creators that seems especially created for my tastes: The Lost Son. Continue reading Review of The Lost Son—Gothic Audio Drama
Review of What Moves the Dead—More Mushroom Horror
“The dead don’t walk.” Alex Easton repeats this line as a mantra even as all evidence seems to point to the contrary in What Moves the Dead. This latest novel by horror and fantasy writer T. Kingfisher is a retelling of Edgar Allan Poe’s classic story “The Fall of the House of Usher” and came out back in July. This is the first of Kingfisher’s works I have read, despite having had her books and short stories recommended to me for years. She finally lured me in with a Poe retelling, and I’ll definitely be checking out more from this author! Continue reading Review of What Moves the Dead—More Mushroom Horror