Book Review: Diavola by Jennifer Thorne

Posted in Book Reviews by Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies

Title: Diavola
Author: Jennifer Thorne
Publisher: Tor Nightfire
Publication date: March 26, 2024
Length: 296 pages
Genre: Horror
Source: Purchased
Rating:

Jennifer Thorne skewers all-too-familiar family dynamics in this sly, wickedly funny vacation-Gothic. Beautifully unhinged and deeply satisfying, Diavola is a sharp twist on the classic haunted house story, exploring loneliness, belonging, and the seemingly inescapable bonds of family mythology.

Anna has two rules for the annual Pace family destination vacations: Tread lightly and survive.

It isn’t easy when she’s the only one in the family who doesn’t quite fit in. Her twin brother, Benny, goes with the flow so much he’s practically dissolved, and her older sister, Nicole, is so used to everyone—including her blandly docile husband and two kids—falling in line that Anna often ends up in trouble for simply asking a question. Mom seizes every opportunity to question her life choices, and Dad, when not reminding everyone who paid for this vacation, just wants some peace and quiet.

The gorgeous, remote villa in tiny Monteperso seems like a perfect place to endure so much family togetherness, until things start going off the rails—the strange noises at night, the unsettling warnings from the local villagers, and the dark, violent past of the villa itself.

(Warning: May invoke feelings of irritation, dread, and despair that come with large family gatherings.)

Talk about a family vacation from hell!

The air felt murky when she joined everybody at the table, but it was the usual Pace family murk, bad moods combining to form a full low-pressure weather pattern.

In this creepy, atmostpheric horror novel by Jennifer Thorne (author of the brilliant Lute), a family stay in a Tuscan villa turns nightmarish… and not just because of the forced proximity of a dysfunctional family.

Main character Anna Pace is a constant disappointment to her family. Blamed for everything from the death of her middle school classroom’s pet guinea pig to fooling around with her sister’s prom date (she didn’t, actually) to every other sort of wrong-doing imaginable, Anna is constantly on alert. The idea of spending a week with her family is so stressful that she secretly arrives in Italy two days early to squeeze in some alone time before she has to face the rest of the group.

The family’s idyllic Tuscan luxury rental seems off right from the start. There’s a dead zone around the building where nothing grows. A tower is kept tightly locked, and while Anna thought she saw a window in it, it’s actually totally bricked over. Why is there a goat kept tethered at the end of the lane? And why does Anna spot locals sneaking around with flashlights at night?

Little incidents pile up — slamming doors, spoiled food, onslaughts of mosquitoes — and then escalate into rearranged furniture and injuries caused by unseen hands. The family seems to be in the worst sort of denial. Anna’s father insists that there’s nothing wrong, because he paid for this vacation, dammit!, and they WILL enjoy it. Everyone else falls back on blaming Anna for causing problems.

“I don’t know why you’re trying to stir things up, Anna,” she spat. “I gave up trying to figure that out a long time ago, goodness knows, a long time! There is absolutely nothing wrong with where we’re staying.”

Anna knows deep down that what’s happening at the villa isn’t normal, especially given the side-eye the family gets whenever they venture into the nearby village. She can fell it in the air whenever they go back into the villa, a sense of wrongness and bad intent — and the longer they stay, the worse it gets, especially with the terrible dreams of a menacing woman that begin to haunt Anna’s every moment… even when she’s not asleep.

Oh, this book gets creepier and creepier as it goes along, and the family’s insistence on acting as if everything is okay becomes enough to make you want to pull your hair out. I would have been running away as fast as my legs could carry me as of the second day — and Anna does consider leaving, but it’s the same old family dynamic that keeps her from going:

Everybody would worry about her if she left and it would poison the rest of their vacation and she wouldn’t want to hear about it, but by God, she would. She’d hear about it at every single gathering forevermore.

The toxicity of the family is a huge factor in the horror elements. Yes, there are gruesome, gory incidents, and plenty of disturbing scenes, but the way Anna’s family treats her is one of the most upsetting aspects of this book. She’s the family scapegoat, for no very good reason except that that’s what they’re all used to. No wonder she dreads these family vacations.

Not to downplay the actual horror — the haunting storyline is scary and insidious, and there’s a moment where we readers might think that Anna has finally broken free… but then we see that there’s still quite a bit of the story left, and get a creeping suspicion that the terror isn’t even close to being finished with Anna.

Diavola is a relatively short novel, and if possible, should be read in one or two long reading sessions. Due to limited reading time this past week, I read the first half or so in little fits and starts, and found myself rather disengaged — but I’m convinced the fault was in my approach, not the book itself. Once I sat down for more extended reading over the weekend, I couldn’t put the book down and flew through the second half.

As a story of haunting and possession, Diavola is sinister and frightening. As a tale of awful family dynamics, it’s both relatable and bleak. Black humor lightens some of the worst moments, and yet the overall vibe is menacing all the way through.

There are some gross-out scenes, so be warned if you’re on the squeamish side. Recommended for horror fans who appreciate a gothic vibe in their stories of terrible family vacations.

PS – If nothing else, Diavola should be a lesson to us all to look beyond AirBnb reviews and do a good Google search when staying in ancient villas!

4Dec2024

Book Review: The Return by Rachel Harrison

Posted in Book Reviews by Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies

Title: The Return
Author: Rachel Harrison
Publisher: Berkley
Publication date: March 24, 2020
Length: 304 pages
Genre: Horror
Source: Purchased
Rating:

A group of friends reunite after one of them has returned from a mysterious two-year disappearance in this edgy and haunting debut.

Julie is missing, and the missing don’t often return. But Elise knows Julie better than anyone, and she feels in her bones that her best friend is out there, and that one day she’ll come back. She’s right. Two years to the day that Julie went missing, she reappears with no memory of where she’s been or what happened to her.

Along with Molly and Mae, their two close friends from college, the women decide to reunite at a remote inn. But the second Elise sees Julie, she knows something is wrong—she’s emaciated, with sallow skin and odd appetites. And as the weekend unfurls, it becomes impossible to deny that the Julie who vanished two years ago is not the same Julie who came back. But then who—or what—is she?

I first fell for Rachel Harrison’s writing when I read her 2nd published novel, Cackle. Since then, I’ve devoured each new book, and have loved them all. Clever plotting, exceptional character development, and generous helping of gruesome, scary horror all add up to terrifyingly satisfying reads. I’ve been meaning to go back and read her debut novel, The Return, for quite a while… and now I’ve finally done it!

The Return is just as creepy and scary as I expected, and I enjoyed every bit of it, even while feeling grossed out and completely on edge.

At the heart of The Return is a group of four women who have been best friends since their college days. Now scattered and living separate lives, they still represent the truest connections they’ve ever had, despite distance often keeping them apart.

When Julie disappears on a hiking trip, the friends are shocked, but Elise — our main character — is the only one of the remaining three who simply doesn’t accept that Julie might be dead. As more and more time passes, and Julie’s husband eventually holds a memorial service for her, the other two friends, Molly and Mae, urge Elise to seek therapy to deal with her denial and grief. Elise pretends to agree, but in her heart-of-hearts, she feels that Julie, wherever she might be, is still alive.

And then, two years after her disappearance, Julie simply shows up back at the home she shares with her husband. She has no memory of the past two years, and just wants to carry on with her life — and most of all, to reconnect with her best friends. Mae decides that what they need is a girls’ trip — time alone, someplace remote, where they can unplug from the outside world and just focus on being together.

As the four friends arrive at the hotel where they’ll be staying, it’s clear that this place is just weird. Each room is an over-the-top experience, with bizarre, extravagant themed decor. Elise is uncomfortable right from the start, but she tamps down her unease for the sake of the group. Things only get worse once Julie arrives and the other three get their first look at her since her return: She’s emaciated, falling apart, and her teeth are a disaster. But she’s Julie, and they love her, and most of all, they want her to feel how happy they are to be with her again.

As the story unfolds, the group dynamics inform how the friends interact, how much they share and what they choose to hold back. Through Elise’s first-person narrative, we come to understand her unhappiness, how she feels judged by the others, and the role that Julie plays in her life.

At the same time, we see that something is very, very wrong. Is it the hotel itself? Why is the manager so stressed out? What’s that weird smell? Why does Elise think there’s something on the balcony outside her room? And what, exactly, is wrong with Julie? Why does she seem better some days? Why is formerly vegetarian Julie now bingeing on meat? WHAT IS GOING ON?

If all of this sounds like a lot to unpack — well, it is, and yet, it works beautifully. As the book progresses, it becomes clearer that Elise herself is not the most reliable of narrators. We may think she’s being straightforward, but there are a couple of big bombshells that she drops later in the book that make us reevaluate everything she’s told us so far. At the same time, there are clearly some truly icky things happening, and as the book progresses, the gore gets worse and worse.

The Return is fascinating, scary, and unusual. It’s not for the squeamish — but I happened to love it. The mounting horror is just so well constructed — and beyond that, I loved the insights into women’s friendships, how they change and evolve, and how loneliness and dissatisfaction creeps into lives as people grow up and face the world after college.

You can’t erase your past when there are pieces of it scattered inside other people.

I will say too that I love Rachel Harrison’s way with words. Little descriptions that could just be stage-setting made me stop to reread them and savor what they evoke:

It’s a colorless day. The kind of fall day not advertised. The trees shiver in the wind.

Toward the end of the relationship, when my resentment congealed and my love peeled like a sunburn to reveal the sneering face of reality underneath, I called her to confess.

Overall, The Return is a fast, absorbing, chilling read. Not quite on a par with some of her later books (such as Such Sharp Teeth and Black Sheep, which are brilliant!), but a terrific horror read none the less. I’m still trying to wrap my head around everything that happens in this book… and I’m afraid that from now, I will be refusing all opportunities to visit remote, extravagant rural resorts.

Want to know more about Rachel Harrison’s books? Check out my reviews of her other books:

Cackle
Such Sharp Teeth
Black Sheep
So Thirsty

30Oct2024

Book Review: So Thirsty by Rachel Harrison

Posted in Book Reviews by Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies

Title: So Thirsty
Author: Rachel Harrison
Publisher: Berkley
Publication date: September 10, 2024
Length: 304 pages
Genre: Horror
Source: Purchased
Rating:

A woman must learn to take life by the throat after a night out leads to irrevocable changes in this juicy, thrilling novel from the USA Today bestselling author of Such Sharp Teeth and Black Sheep.

Sloane Parker is dreading her birthday. She doesn’t need a reminder she’s getting older, or that she’s feeling indifferent about her own life.

Her husband surprises her with a birthday weekend getaway—not with him, but with Sloane’s longtime best friend, troublemaker extraordinaire Naomi.

Sloane anticipates a weekend of wine tastings and cozy robes and strategic avoidance of issues she’d rather not confront, like her husband’s repeated infidelity. But when they arrive at their rental cottage, it becomes clear Naomi has something else in mind. She wants Sloane to stop letting things happen to her, for Sloane to really live. So Naomi orchestrates a wild night out with a group of mysterious strangers, only for it to take a horrifying turn that changes Sloane’s and Naomi’s lives literally forever.

The friends are forced to come to terms with some pretty eternal consequences in this bloody, seductive novel about how it’s never too late to find satisfaction, even though it might taste different than expected.

Rachel Harrison’s books are always a (gruesome) treat, and So Thirsty is an absolute gem. This book lets us know right up front — hey, it’s on the cover! — that this is a vampire story. But the how and why of it all are just so perfectly developed that it’s not at all what you’d expect.

If there is a happy medium between being a resigned, mildly depressed thirty-six-year-old woman with a thankless job and cheating husband, and being an immortal vampire indulging her lust for blood and sex and her desire for love and excitement, it sure would be nice to find it.

We start with Sloane, a woman in her mid-30s, whose life is snug, secure, and unsatisfying. She’s committed to her multi-step daily skin routine, but the signs of aging keep creeping in anyway. Her husband Joel is a cheater, but she chooses not to confront him, preferring to avoid having to actually so something about it. When Joel sends her off on a surprise birthday weekend with her best friend Naomi, she’s startled and a bit disconcerted that he planned this for her… and rightfully suspicious that he has ulterior motives. (Note to cheaters: Don’t forget about that doorbell camera!)

Naomi arrives at their ultra-posh lakeside resort and immediately shakes things up. They’ve been best friends since their teens, but their lives have taken very different directions since then. Naomi works for an up-and-coming rockstar — who is also her boyfriend — and she’s impulsive, glamorous, and impatient with Sloane’s safe (boring) life. This is not the Sloane she once knew, and she wants to force her out of her complacency.

She does so by taking Sloane to a party with strangers they’ve just met. Behind the gates of their remote mansion, the strangers are welcoming and wild. Sloane fears they’ve stumbled into an orgy; Naomi urges her to unwind and let things happen. One of the men in particular seems to have an intense, instant connection to Sloane, but she’s skittish and reluctant to risk the safety of her cocooned life, no matter how much temptation is staring her in the face. However, all choice is soon taken from both Sloane and Naomi, as a terrifying moment leads to their transformation and the start of a new life for both women.

As I mentioned earlier, the fact that Sloane and Naomi become vampires isn’t particularly surprising, given the cover and blurb. What makes this interesting is their response and experiences. The need for blood is described as an intense thirst, and the thirst represents not just the literal requirement for blood as a life-sustaining substance, but all the elements missing from Sloane’s former life — the passion for excitement, taking risks, grabbing all that life has to offer. The thirst is what Sloane will need to both embrace and control if she’s to have any sort of future at all, and to do so, she’ll have to break down the careful barriers she’s put up over the years.

I loved the insights into both Sloane and Naomi as individuals, as well as their shared dynamic. Their bond is threatened to the point of almost breaking, but ultimately it’s their love for one another that keeps them going, even in the worst of moments.

My main quibble with So Thirsty is that the vampires they encounter are introduced as a group, and there isn’t all that much to differentiate one from another. Beyond that, a few seem a bit too stereotypically vampire-y — are they intentionally aping a vampire vibe, or is this just who they are? (And also, I could definitely have done without the orgy… )

Quibbles aside, I thought the complicated relationship between Sloane and Naomi was particularly well done. Their shared history means they know each other better than anyone else, but also leads to possibly unreasonable expectations. They each want the other to pursue better options and live their best lives — but their perspectives on what that might look like aren’t actually in sync.

Does that sound less bloody than what you’d expect in a vampire novel? Never fear! Those looking for classic horror elements won’t be disappointed — yes, there’s introspection and a focus on relationships, but there’s also plenty of blood and gore. Really, lots and lots of blood and gore. Violent incidents are used to startling, scary effect, and there are a few characters met along the way who are simply terrifying.

So Thirsty is a totally absorbing read, and such a blast for readers (like me) who’ve read tons of vampire stories already, and are hungry (thirsty?!) for a new twist. So Thirsty is not quite as great as Such Sharp Teeth or Cackle, but I still enjoyed it immensely. A bloody good read for these creepy days of late October!

29Oct2024

Halloween posts for Tuesday!

Posted in Top Ten Tuesday by Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies

Lately, I’ve been bouncing back and forth for my Tuesday posts, alternating between the Top Ten Tuesday and Top Five Tuesday memes, depending on their topics for the week. This week, both are Halloween themed… so I’m doing them both!!

First up… it’s Top Ten Tuesday:

Top Ten Tuesday is a meme hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl, featuring a different top 10 theme each week. This week’s topic is a Halloween freebie! For my Halloween post, I’m going to focus on horror novels on my to-read list (updated for 2024). I’ve done this topic a few times in the past several years, and given the state of my TBR list, it’s time to do it again.

Noted with shame: Some of these books were on my Halloween horror TBR list last year! So, you know, I’m not exactly great at following through…

Still, here are a bunch I really do want to get to… including a few upcoming 2025 new books.

Starling House by Alix E. Harrow
Dread Nation by Justine Ireland
The Changeling by Victor Lavalle
Diavola by Jennifer Thorne
Hemlock Island by Kelley Armstrong
The Return by Rachel Harrison
Cutting Teeth by Chandler Baker
Overgrowth by Mira Grant (upcoming 2025 new release)
Witchcraft for Wayward Girls by Grady Hendrix (upcoming 2025 new release)
My Ex, the Antichrist by Craig DiLouie (upcoming 2025 new release)

Are any of these on your TBR too? Which ones look best to you? And if you’ve read any, let me know what you thought!

Next, let’s take a look at this week’s Top 5 Tuesday:

Top 5 Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted by Meeghan Reads — check out the next batch of upcoming topics here.

This week’s topic is Top 5 books to recommend for Halloween, and the prompt is: It’s trick or treat time — are you going to tell us your best scary books or cutesy Halloween tales?

My picks are mainly ghost stories, plus a funny/clever fantasy that I reread every October!

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The Uninvited by Cat Winters (review)
The Veil by Rachel Harrison (review)
Thornhill by Pam Smy (review)
I’ll be Waiting by Kelley Armstrong (review)
A Night in the Lonesome October by Roger Zelazny (review) — I’m reading this one again right now! Such a fun annual tradition.

What books do you recommend for Halloween? I love a good ghost story — do you have any favorites? Save

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In case it’s not obvious, I’ll probably be spending my Halloween with my nose in a book! Wishing you all a happy Halloween, whatever you’ll be doing!Save

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10Oct2024

Book Review: I’ll Be Waiting by Kelley Armstrong

Posted in Book Reviews by Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies

Title: I’ll Be Waiting
Author: Kelley Armstong
Publisher: St. Martin’s Press
Publication date: October 1, 2024
Length: 336 pages
Genre: Horror
Source: Review copy courtesy of the publisher via NetGalley
Rating:

From New York Times Bestselling author Kelley Armstrong comes a spellbinding new tale of supernatural horror involving a haunted-house, seances, lost loved ones, and a sinister spirit out for blood…

Nicola Laughton never expected to see adulthood, being diagnosed with Cystic Fibrosis as a child. Then medical advances let her live into her thirties and she met Anton, who taught her to dream of a future… together. Months after they married, Anton died in a horrible car accident, but lived long enough to utter five words to her, “I’ll be waiting for you.”

That final private moment became public when someone from the crash scene took it to the press—the terminally ill woman holding her dying husband as he promised to wait for her on the other side. Worse, that person claimed it wasn’t Anton who said the words but his ghost, hovering over his body.

Since their story went public, Nicola has been hounded by spiritualists promising closure. In the hopes of stopping her downward spiral, friends and family find a reputable medium—a professor of parapsychology. For the séance, they rent the Lake Erie beach house that Anton’s family once owned.

The medium barely has time to begin his work before things start happening. Locked doors mysteriously open. Clouds of insects engulf the house. Nicola hears footsteps and voices and the creak of an old dumbwaiter…in an empty shaft. Throughout it all she’s haunted by nightmares of her past. Because, unbeknownst to the others, this isn’t her first time contacting the dead. And Nicola isn’t her real name.

That’s when she finds the first body….

In this atmospheric, thrilling new ghost story, Kelley Armstrong’s full talents are on display to thrill, chill and leave the reader guessing how Nicola escapes with her life–if she can.

Kelley Armstrong has quickly become a favorite author over the past few years, thanks to terrific series such as A Rip Through Time and A Stitch in Time. I also loved her first foray into contemporary romance, Finding Mr. Write. So it’s no surprise that I’ll Be Waiting, a stand-alone horror novel, pulled me in right from the start and never let me go.

The synopsis above says a lot — perhaps too much — about the plot of I’ll Be Waiting, so I’ll stick to a brief rehash. The basics: Main character Nicola (“Nic”) spends all her life knowing she’s on borrowed time. She’s already exceeded the life expectancy for someone with CF (cystic fibrosis). As the book opens, she’s happily married to a lovely man, Anton, and they’re bantering about future travel plans when a random car accident kills him — but not before he shares last words with Nic: I’ll be waiting for you.

Flashforward eight months, and Nic is still mired in grief, which she lives through by seeking medium after medium, hoping for one final connection with Anton. She knows most are frauds, and knows she should let this obsession go, but she can’t. Worried friends and family stage an intervention of sorts: They’ve found a parapsychologist who applies a scientific approach to contacting the other side, and they want Nicola to agree to make this attempt to reach Anton her last, no matter the outcome.

Everyone knew I loved Anton. They just didn’t know how much. I want the same for my grief. They can know I’m still hurting… just not how much.

As a small group gathers at a lakeside house for the seance, unexplained noises and phenomena begin to occur. Is it yet more fakery? Could it really be Anton? Or is it something or someone else from the other side, with a much darker agenda?

I’ll Be Waiting explores the power of love and grief through Nicola’s experiences. She’s a fascinating main character, living with a chronic illness and suffering through the media interest Anton’s death has provoked. (She’s often described in the press as a terminally ill widow, which is offensive to Nic on so many levels). Through Nic, we get a portrayal of what daily life with CF is like, but also get inside her head to know how thoughts and expectations of death have always been a part of her life. Part of why she can’t let go of the attempts to reach Anton is the very fact that he died first: it was always supposed to be her.

As Nicola spends time at the lake house and experiences unexplained noises, pushes from unseen hands, and other strange occurrences, she also spends more and more time with vivid dreams from her own past. As a teen, something awful happened — awful enough that her parents abruptly moved her across the country and allowed her to change her name in order to escape it all. Now, memories of that time are coming fast and furious, and Nic is left to try to connect the pieces between those events and her possible visitations from Anton.

The suspense builds, with twists and turns that are hinted at, then land with huge, shocking impact. Sure, the first creaking floorboards would probably have sent me running for the hills, but Nic is a woman with a mission, and she refuses to be scared off until she sees this seance through. The tension in the house ratchets higher and higher, as Nicola is forced to question everything — the spirit (spirits?) who seem to be making their presence known, as well as the trustworthiness of the people she’s counting on to see her through this experience.

Somewhere around the 50% point, I sat down with I’ll Be Waiting to read a few more chapters… and didn’t move again until I’d finished. It’s no exaggeration to say this book is impossible to put down. The ghost story and suspense elements are absolutely gripping, but the book is so much more than a horror story. It’s Nicola’s inner life — her memories of her great love and her unending suffering through her grief and loss — that make this book so compelling and so powerful.

I’ll Be Waiting is both beautiful and completely chilling. There are some major jump-scare horror moments, but it’s the story of Nicola and Anton that I think will truly stay with me. This book is masterful storytelling with heart and strong emotional impact. Highly recommended.

28Aug2024

Book Review: The Night Guest by Hildur Knútsdóttir

Posted in Book Reviews by Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies

Title: The Night Guest
Author: Hildur Knútsdóttir
Translated by: Mary Robinette Kowal
Publisher: Tor Nightfire
Publication date: September 3, 2024
Length: 208 pages
Genre: Horror
Source: Review copy courtesy of the publisher via NetGalley
Rating:

Hildur Knutsdottir’s The Night Guest is an eerie and ensnaring story set in contemporary Reykjavík that’s sure to keep you awake at night.

Iðunn is in yet another doctor’s office. She knows her constant fatigue is a sign that something’s not right, but practitioners dismiss her symptoms and blood tests haven’t revealed any cause.

When she talks to friends and family about it, the refrain is the same ― have you tried eating better? exercising more? establishing a nighttime routine? She tries to follow their advice, buying everything from vitamins to sleeping pills to a step-counting watch. Nothing helps.

Until one night Iðunn falls asleep with the watch on, and wakes up to find she’s walked over 40,000 steps in the night . . .

What is happening when she’s asleep? Why is she waking up with increasingly disturbing injuries? And why won’t anyone believe her?

This Icelandic horror novel first came to my attention through Mary Robinette Kowal, who apparently met the author, read the book (in Icelandic!), and then asked to translate it once she learned that it wasn’t available yet in English. Thanks to MRK’s involvement, The Night Guest is being published by Tor Nightfire in September — and it’s sure to be a hit with anyone who loves creepy, ambiguous horror stories.

The main character, Iðunn, wakes up exhausted every day. Not just the kind of exhausted that comes from a rough night’s sleep, but with aching muscles and body pains. Everything hurts. But doctor after doctor find nothing wrong with her. She suspect ALS or other frightening diseases, but when her blood work all comes back fine, it’s not a relief. Something is wrong… and no one can tell her what.

Socially, Iðunn is a little awkward, always feeling like an outsider. We learn much more about her background and why her family and social life are the way they are — but I appreciated the way the information unfolds and offers an unexpected twist, so I won’t reveal it here.

Eventually, Iðunn takes even more drastic measures to figure out what’s going on at night and to make it stop. Her efforts to stop it fail in rather spectacular, dramatic ways, and she progresses from waking up sore to waking up bloody and injured — still without knowing why.

Without revealing too much else about the plot, I’ll just say that the tension builds in a way that get more and more disturbing, and as the clues to Iðunn’s nightly experiences pile up, we find ourselves increasingly at a loss to explain it all. Is it psychosis, as one doctor believes? Is it something otherworldly acting upon her? I wasn’t quite sure where I landed on these questions at the end of the book — I like clean answers, and the book doesn’t provide a simple solution. We’re left to sort out what we ourselves think might have happened — which is disturbing, yet very effective.

The storytelling is terrific. What seems straightforward at the start becomes more complicated as we go along. The horror elements creep in when least expected, until it all becomes more explicitly horrifying by the end.

Iðunn is a great example of an unreliable narrator, and we’re left to wonder right alongside her just what the hell is going on. It’s a unique story, and the short length of the book (just over 200 pages) keeps it tight and fast-moving.

The Night Guest becomes more gory and violent by the end; earlier, it leans more toward psychological horror. I’m so glad I got to experience this unusual gem, and recommend for anyone who enjoys questionable lead characters and weird, terrifying premises. If you’re a horror fan, don’t miss this one!

Final note: As an added bonus, the use of technology (especially the fitness tracker) is awesome! Also, I don’t believe I’ve ever read an Icelandic book before, and I loved the setting, the names, and the overall vibe.

15May2024

Book Review: The House that Horror Built by Christina Henry

Posted in Book Reviews by Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies

Title: The House that Horror Built
Author: Christina Henry
Publisher: Berkley
Publication date: May 14, 2024
Length: 320 pages
Genre: Thriller
Source: Review copy courtesy of the publisher via NetGalley
Rating:

A single mother working in the gothic mansion of a reclusive horror director stumbles upon terrifying secrets.

Harry Adams loves horror movies, so it’s no coincidence that she accepted a job cleaning house for horror-movie director Javier Castillo. His forbidding gray-stone Chicago mansion, Bright Horses, is filled from top to bottom with terrifying props and costumes as well as glittering awards from his career making movies that thrilled audiences—until family tragedy and scandal forced him to vanish from the industry.

Javier values discretion, and Harry always tries to keep the house immaculate, her head down, and her job safe. Then she hears noises from behind a locked door, noises that sound remarkably like a human voice calling for help. Harry knows not asking questions is a vital part of keeping her job, but she soon discovers that the house may be home to secrets she can’t ignore.

The House that Horror Built is a clever haunted house story, set in a post-COVID world in which the odds seem stacked against single mother Harry and her son Gabe.

The world is just reemerging from lockdown. 14-year-old Gabe’s school is open for in-person learning three days per week. After losing her previous restaurant work when everything shut down, Harry has finally found a decent job again, which means — if she’s frugal — she can still pay her bills and put food on the table for her son. Years earlier as a teen, Harry lived on the streets and in shelters, and she knows just how close to losing it all she and Gabe are — especially once she receives an eviction notice from her heartless landlord.

Fortunately, Harry’s part-time job pays very, very well. She works as a housecleaner for Javier Castillo, a world-renowned, Oscar-winning director who now lives as a recluse behind the gates of Bright Horses, his Chicago mansion. A life-long horror fan herself, Harry can truly appreciate Javier’s artistry and loves his movies, but even she is somewhat shaken by the replicas and original props that fill his house, especially the masks and costumes from one of his creepiest movies. It’s Harry’s job to keep all of these spotless, no matter how uneasy they make her.

Javier seems to take an interest in Harry and Gabe, and when he starts inviting them for meals at his home, it’s hard to say no, even though Harry isn’t comfortable blurring the lines between professional and personal. Still, Gabe is over the moon at being invited into such an icon’s home, and he develops an instant rapport with Javier. But Harry has heard and seen unexplainable things in the house, and when a dinner with two of Javier’s leading film stars ends in tragedy, Harry knows that something is very, very wrong. Yet with eviction looming, she may have no choice but to move into Javier’s home with Gabe… and there’s definitely danger waiting for them there.

The House that Horror Built is a slow-burn horror story. The terror is more of the psychological variety — no guts and gore spilling out of the shadows, and no buckets of blood. Instead, there’s a sense of menace pervading Bright Horses — the feeling that something is moving when Harry’s head is turned, unexplained noises from behind locked doors, glaring eyes from inanimate objects. It’s creepy, and Harry knows it’s creepy, so why does she bring her son into this place?

Here’s where I feel the book has such an interesting hook: We may scream at horror movie characters to walk away, don’t open that door, don’t go into the haunted house… but in reality, people don’t always have options. Harry and Gabe literally have nowhere to go. The building where they’ve lived for ten years has been sold and is slated for demolition. There aren’t any affordable apartments available, and anyway, with such little notice, Harry has no money saved for a down-payment, much less moving expenses. She knows she’s lucky to have gotten the job with Javier. If she loses it, she and Gabe will be on the streets, and while she survived her earlier experiences of homelessness, she’s determined to avoid that for her son by any means necessary.

So yes, Harry moves Gabe into Javier’s home, knowing full well that the place may very well be haunted, and that something malevolent lurks in the corners and very probably wants to hurt her. But at Bright Horses, Gabe has a room, plenty of food, and a safe way to get to school. Author Christina Henry does a superb job showing the choices and sacrifices a mother will make to care for her child.

In terms of the horror story, it’s somewhat of a mixed bag. There’s a creepiness to the book, and we know from the start that something seems off about Javier. We learn that he became a recluse after a family tragedy, and after the most recent scandal in Chicago, he’s once again being hounded by paparazzi. Javier seems determined to help Harry and Gabe, even when she clearly doesn’t want him in their lives. And then there are the noises and the inexplicable events in the house — how much is Javier aware of?

The secrets of the house aren’t revealed until close to the end, and although I’d guessed what was going on, there were still elements that surprised me. I did feel that the ending was too abrupt. We’re left with answers about Bright Horses and Javier, and the immediate situation is resolved, but we don’t actually get any big-picture resolution for Harry and Gabe. After investing so much in their struggles, it feels unfinished to not get an epilogue that lets us know what happens next for them (and, hopefully, to let us know that they’re doing well!).

Overall, I enjoyed The House that Horror Built. Christina Henry’s books are always intensely gripping, and this one is no exception. Once I started I couldn’t put it down. Apart from not feeling fully satisfied by the ending, I enjoyed the building tension of the story as well as having such an interesting, unusual lead character as Harry. Recommended for fans of haunted house stories and horror movie buffs!

14Jan2024

Book Review: The Parliament by Aimee Pokwatka

Posted in Book Reviews by Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies

Title: The Parliament
Author: Aimee Pokwatka
Publisher: Tordotcom
Publication date: January 16, 2024
Length: 361 pages
Genre: Horror/fantasy
Source: Review copy courtesy of the publisher via NetGalley
Rating:

The Birds meets The Princess Bride in this tale of friendship, responsibility, and the primal force of nature.

“Murder owls are extreme,” Jude said. “What’s more extreme than murder owls?”

Madeleine Purdy is stuck in her home town library.

When tens of thousands of owls descend on the building, rending and tearing at anyone foolish enough to step outside, Mad is tasked with keeping her students safe, and distracted, while they seek a solution to their dilemma.

Perhaps they’ll find the inspiration they seek in her favorite childhood book, The Silent Queen….

With food and fresh water in low supply, the denizens of the library will have to find a way out, and soon, but the owls don’t seem to be in a hurry to leave…

The Parliament is a story of grief and missed opportunities, but also of courage and hope.

And of extremely sharp beaks.

Awww, look at the cute owl on the cover!

Kidding. That’s a murder owl. Not cute!

And ignore what the synopsis says about The Princess Bride — that might seem to indicate that this book is full of whimsy and silliness, and it’s nothing of the sort.

Let’s get back to the murder owls.

When Mad Purdy agrees to teach a kids’ chemistry workshop — making bath bombs — as a favor to her former best friend who works at the local library in their hometown, she has no idea what she’s in for. She’s already moved away to put distance between herself and the site of her worst memories, but in the name of friendship, agrees to do this one thing.

But that one thing, meant to just be one brief event, turns into days of waking nightmares, as the library is surrounded by millions of tiny owls. Maybe one on its own is cute. This swarm is far from it, as the trapped inhabitants learn after watching the owls descend on the first person to venture outside. It isn’t pretty.

Mad expected to be in and out in one hour, boundaries firmly in place. Instead, she’s thrust into the role of protector, keeping the kids physically and emotionally safe, or as safe as they can be, given that food, water, and medicine are running out, and the outside world seems to have no clue how to rescue them.

To keep the kids distracted, Mad begins to read to them from her favorite book, The Silent Queen — which seems to show up in the library just when needed. No one has ever heard of it before, but for Mad, it was a lifesaver through the worst days of trauma during her childhood. The story of a young queen who isolates herself in a tower, but finally has to step out of her safe zone to save her people, may seem a little on the nose, but it doesn’t feel heavy-handed. The story gives the kids something to focus on, and meanwhile starts forcing Mad out of her own inner fortress.

The Parliament can be terribly frightening, and while there are several scenes of gruesome attacks when a few people are foolish enough to venture outside, much of the horror is psychological. The people inside the library are trapped, cut off (there’s no wifi or cell service, thanks to the owl swarm), and utterly reliant on one another and whatever scraps of supplies they can scavenge. Meanwhile, the few attempts at solutions that come from outside the library seem doom to failure, and worse, put the people inside the library in even greater danger.

This book is fascinating, and the story-within-a-story approach (chapters of The Silent Queen alternate with chapters focusing on the library) keeps us on the edge of our seats with both pieces of the narrative. The Silent Queen reads like a fairy tale/fantasy quest, and it’s both lovely and dramatic. The main story, within the library itself, conveys all the terror and claustrophobia of being trapped with a bunch of strangers, with a clock ticking and no rescue on the way.

Mad herself survived a terrible incident at age eleven, and that’s impacted every aspect of her life ever since. She’s taught herself a thousand useless, random tricks and survival skills, but at the expense of allowing herself to connect with others or let anyone really know her. This may make her the perfect person for helping the children in the library, but she has to get past her own trauma before she can truly start connecting with them.

My only quibble with The Parliament, and it’s a minor one, is that there are too many adult characters in the library to keep track of. We have Mad and her best friend Farrah and her former friend and love interest Nash, but there are also librarians and a book group and some seniors and, well, they start blurring together. Ultimately, I was more interested in the kids as individuals than in the glimpses we get of the adults, and so I didn’t bother trying to keep most of them straight in my mind. Like I said, this is a pretty minor issue, and ultimately didn’t keep me from being totally engrossed in the book.

Overall, The Parliament is a fascinating read, and once I started, I just couldn’t stop. The main story and the fantasy story within it work together in complicated and surprising ways, and as the tension ratchets up, I was on the edge of my seat. The author does a terrific job of keeping the action intense and frightening, while also letting us inside the characters’ experiences and providing a look at the long-lasting effects of trauma and survivor’s guilt.

Highly recommended.

31Oct2023

Top Ten Tuesday: Halloween freebie — Ten horror books on my TBR list (2023 edition)

Posted in Top Ten Tuesday by Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies

Happy Halloween!

Top Ten Tuesday is a meme hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl, featuring a different top 10 theme each week. This week’s topic is a Halloween freebie! For my Halloween post, I’m going to focus on horror novels on my to-read list. (I’ve done this topic a few times in the past several years, and given the state of my TBR list, it’s time to do it again.) Some of these books have been around a while, and some are upcoming new releases:

Starling House by Alix E. Harrow
Black Sheep by Rachel Harrison
How to Sell a Haunted House by Grady Hendrix
Dread Nation by Justine Ireland
What Feasts At Night by T. Kingfisher
Hemlock Island by Kelley Armstrong
The Changeling by Victor Lavalle
The House that Horror Built by Christina Henry
How to Make a Horror Movie and Survive by Craig DiLouie
A Head Full of Ghosts by Paul Tremblay

Have you read any of these (or for the upcoming new releases, do you plan to read them)? Which ones look best to you?

What’s on your Halloween TTT this week? Share your link, please, and I’ll come check out your top 10!

Save

15Sep2023

Book vs movie: Two very different face-offs… which will win?

Posted in Books & Authors, Pop Culture, Uncategorized by Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies

I’m back with two more book-to-screen comparisons… and I have to say, it’s very weird to combine these two extremely different books/movies into one post! But I’m lazy… so here goes.

Which was better — the book or the movie? Read on to find out!

Face-off #1:

The Cabin at the End of the World
Book by Paul Tremblay, published 2018
Knock at the Cabin movie, released February 2023

Thoughts: After reading the book several weeks ago (check out my review, here), I’d been curious about the movie adaptation. The book tells a terrifying story of a family terrorized by strangers who show up at their remote vacation cabin and inform them that they’ve been chosen for a terrible mission: They must willingly chose to sacrifice one of their family members, or the world will end. Are these people crazy? Are they doomsday cultists? Can anything they say be true? The book is scary and claustrophic, and in many ways, the movie captures the feeling of dread and the way a happy interlude can change to absolute terror within mere moments. The movie’s casting is terrific, especially David Bautista as Leonard, the leader of the intruders — a huge, powerful man with a quiet voice and a sad, kind demeanor, whose gentleness makes his instructions all the more awful. The movie is well done and — based on my family’s reactions — very powerful for those who haven’t read the book.

However… the movie changes the ending in significant ways, and that was a bit of a dealbreaker for me. The book’s impact is enhance by its ambiguity — we’re left to wonder whether any of what the intruders said was real, and whether there really was any connection between the events inside the cabin and the fate of the world. I actually loved that about the book — we’re left to consider for ourselves whether mass delusions and coincidences were at play. The movie removes the ambiguity, as well as changing the family members’ fates, and I thought both changes cheapened the overall impact. I’m glad I watched the movie, but it just doesn’t live up to the book.

Verdict: The book for the win!

Face-off #2:

Wonder
Book by R. J. Palacio, published 2012
Movie released 2017

Thoughts: After reading White Bird by R. J. Palacio a couple of weeks ago, I was inspired to finally read Wonder, a book which has become a phenomenon in the 10+ years since it was first published. This middle-grade book is sweet and thoughtful, with an emphasis on kindness, inclusion of multiple points-of-view and experiences, a remarkable main character, and even plenty of humor. I was a little hesitant about watching the movie, worried that it would lean too heavily on the sweet to the point of becoming saccharine, but actually, I found it very, very good. Given that the parents are played by Julia Roberts and Owen Wilson, their roles are a little more prominent than in the book, but not distractingly so. The focus remains on Auggie and his experiences going to school for the first time, and the young cast is quite impressive. The movie captures most of the book’s plot beats, although by necessity, some elements end up left out or diluted. Still, it’s a very well-made adaptation, and well worth checking out.

Verdict: The book for the deeper looks into characters’ experiences… but the movie is great too!