If you could walk out of your old life, leaving everything behind, and into a new one filled with beauty, magic, and wonder, would you? Two sisters are confronted by this question in Tara Isabella Burton’s latest literary thriller Here in Avalon, which came out earlier this month. I loved the decadent dark side of New York City that Tara conjured up in her debut Social Creature. With this book, Tara explores the same city through a lens of glittering magic. But even the most ethereal of artists and dreamers cannot truly live inside a fairy tale…. Continue reading Review of Here in Avalon—A Cultish Cabaret
Tag: book review
Review of Sunless Solstice—Christmas Ghost Stories
As my various posts over the years about Christmas ghost stories might suggest, I’m on a bit of a mission to bring this spooky seasonal activity back into fashion. But I’m not alone in my quest! The British Library has started publishing annual collections of haunting Christmas tales as part of their Tales of the Weird series. Sunless Solstice: Strange Christmas Tales for the Longest Nights, edited by Lucy Evans and Tanya Kirk, is the third such collection, released in December 2022. If you, like me, would like to start spending your Christmases telling scary stories around a fire, I cannot recommend these collections enough! Continue reading Review of Sunless Solstice—Christmas Ghost Stories
Review of A Power Unbound—Fantasy Politics and Power Plays
There’s just nothing quite like a satisfying conclusion to a stellar trilogy. I’ve been eagerly awaiting A Power Unbound, the conclusion to Freya Marske’s The Last Binding series, which finally came out earlier this month. I was sucked into Marske’s intricate world of Edwardian magic from the first few pages of A Marvellous Light and fell even more in love with the series and its recurring characters when I read Book 2, A Restless Truth. With A Power Unbound, Freya Marske does a masterful job of rounding off the series and orchestrating a large cast of characters and complex plot to a satisfying conclusion. Continue reading Review of A Power Unbound—Fantasy Politics and Power Plays
My Cousin Rachel Review—More Daphne du Maurier
I’ve loved Daphne du Maurier ever since I read and reviewed her most famous novel, Rebecca, during the first year of this blog. Since then, I’ve read a few of her other works, including Jamaica Inn and the short story “The Birds.” But none of her other works have had as powerful an impact as I felt while reading Rebecca. Nothing, that is, until I saw the 2017 film adaptation of My Cousin Rachel starring Rachel Weisz and Sam Claflin. Ever since seeing it in theaters, I’ve been meaning to go back and read du Maurier’s novel of the same name. I finally had the opportunity, thanks to starting a new book club focused on books that have been famously adapted. And now having read it, I can say that My Cousin Rachel is joining Rebecca as one of my favorite Gothic novels of the twentieth century. Continue reading My Cousin Rachel Review—More Daphne du Maurier
Review of Starling House—Kentucky Gothic
Opal has been dreaming of Starling House, but the house seems to have dreams of its own… Starling House by Alix E. Harrow is a brilliant Gothic fantasy which came out earlier this month. With a sentient house, a cursed family, and long-buried secrets rising to the surface, this book puts Kentucky Gothic on the map. Continue reading Review of Starling House—Kentucky Gothic
Review of Wrath Becomes Her—Gothic Golems
“I am retribution!” is the battle cry of Vera the golem in Aden Polydoros’s brilliant new young adult novel Wrath Becomes Her, which comes out tomorrow, October 10. I’ve been impressed with Polydoros’s ability to seamlessly blend Jewish culture and folklore with the Gothic ever since reading his debut, The City Beautiful, a couple of years ago. But he takes this to a whole new level in Wrath Becomes Her, creating the kind of book I really wish I could have read as a teen. Continue reading Review of Wrath Becomes Her—Gothic Golems
Review of The Widow of Rose House—Romance and Haunted Homes
Victorian romance and haunted houses—I’m always on the lookout for books that combine two of my favorite things like this, and have just found one that does so extraordinarily well! The Widow of Rose House by Diana Biller is a delightful Gothic romance that came out back in 2019. It fit so perfectly in my wheelhouse, that I will definitely be keeping an eye out for more books by this author in the future. Continue reading Review of The Widow of Rose House—Romance and Haunted Homes
Review of Never Whistle at Night—Indiginous Horror
From “wendigos” to “Indian burial grounds,” the folklore and tragic history of North America’s indigenous populations has frequently been mined for inspiration and twisted to suit the purposes of horror authors writing outside of their own cultures. In recent years, however, we’ve seen a real rise in the number of indigenous voices within the horror scene telling their own stories. A new collection of short horror stories celebrates this surge of Native American writers: Never Whistle at Night: An Indigenous Dark Fiction Anthology, edited by Shane Hawk and Theodore C. Van Alst Jr. This anthology, which contains twenty-six stories plus a foreword by Stephen Graham Jones, came out just last week, in plenty of time for spooky season. Continue reading Review of Never Whistle at Night—Indiginous Horror
Review of The Last Heir to Blackwood Library
When Ivy Radcliffe suddenly inherits a country estate with a grand and ancient library from an unknown relative, it seems like a dream come true. But that dream slowly turns into a nightmare as the library’s dark secrets come to light. This is the premise of Hester Fox’s Gothic fantasy novel The Last Heir to Blackwood Library, which came out back in April. Continue reading Review of The Last Heir to Blackwood Library
Review of Silver Nitrate—Cursed Films
Don’t play with magic you don’t understand. You’d think this would be common sense by now, but there’s always some skeptic willing to treat mystic rituals like a game—to their own detriment. Montserrat and Tristán learn this lesson the hard way in Silvia Moreno-Garcia’s latest horror novel Silver Nitrate, which came out last month. Continue reading Review of Silver Nitrate—Cursed Films