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!

Have you read any of these books or seen the movies? Do you have an opinion on my face-offs? Please share your thoughts!

28Jul2023

Book Review: The Cabin at the End of the World by Paul Tremblay

Posted in Book Reviews by Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies

Title: The Cabin at the End of the World
Author: Paul Tremblay
Publisher: William Morrow Paperbacks
Publication date: June 26, 2018
Length: 336 pages
Genre: Horror
Source: Purchased
Rating:

Seven-year-old Wen and her parents, Eric and Andrew, are vacationing at a remote cabin in northern New Hampshire. Far removed from the bustle of city life, they are cut off from the urgent hum of cell phones and the internet. Their closest neighbors are more than two miles away in either direction.

On a summer day, as Wen catches grasshoppers in the front yard, a stranger unexpectedly appears. Leonard is the largest man Wen has ever seen, but he is friendly, with a warm smile that wins her over almost instantly. Leonard and Wen continue to talk and play, until three more strangers, two women and a man, all dressed like Leonard in jeans and button-down shirts, come down the road carrying strange, menacing objects.

In a panic, Wen tells Leonard that she must go back inside the cabin. But before she goes, her new friend tells her, “None of what’s going to happen is your fault. You haven’t done anything wrong, but the three of you will have to make some tough decisions. I wish with all my broken heart you didn’t have to.” As Wen sprints away to warn her parents, Leonard calls out, “Your dads won’t want to let us in, Wen. But they have to. We need your help to save the world.”

The Cabin at the End of the World is a terrifying tale of the impending apocalypse… or of a group delusion… or of evil masquerading as people with a mission. What’s actually happening here is open to interpretation, but no matter the truth, it’s scary, violent, and claustrophobic.

We open with a lovely little family — 8-year-old Wen and her dads Eric and Andrew — enjoying a peaceful country vacation. The pretty cabin they’ve rented is remote but comfortable, a landline and a large flatscreen television the only devices to connect with the outside world. All is well, until a huge stranger appears from out of the woods and talks to Wen while she’s outside.

Leonard seems kind and Wen — even though she knows she’s not supposed to talk to strangers — is oddly drawn to his open manner — until three more people begin walking up the driveway, all dressed similarly to Leonard and carrying scary-looking implements. She doesn’t know it, but by the time she runs to the house and urges her dads to lock the doors, it’s already too late. The strangers start by knocking, but it’s clear that they’re coming in, no matter what.

Even once the cabin’s haven has been invaded, Leonard’s kindness, overlaid with deep sadness, persists. He won’t hurt the family. None of them will. But Eric, Andrew, and Wen must make a choice. The apocalypse is coming, and only they can stop it… by choosing one of their own to sacrifice. Eric, Andrew, and Wen must willingly choose which of them will die, and then carry out their decision by killing their sacrifice. Otherwise, billions of people will die and the world will be left a wasteland.

Does this make sense? Of course not. Eric and Andrew fight as much as they can. But the crazy people stay, and have the family at their mercy, and they are fanatically determined to see their mission through.

Why these four people are involved, who they are, and how they ended up at this cabin in New Hampshire is revealed over time. The events they foretell seem to be backed up by the momentary glimpses of news events when they occasionally turn on the TV. But are these real, or pre-recorded programming? Is any of this really happening? Even if it were, how could this one family in any way have anything to do with the outcome?

Horror stories set in isolated cabins have a certain vibe all their own — the helplessness, the idea of a beautiful escape from the world turning into a hellish trap, the lack of resources and impossibility of rescue. Here, the elements add up to a riveting story that features bursts of terrible violence, with a psychological tension that never lets up.

The story does not provide succinct answers, and even at its end, there’s a huge amount of ambiguity about what actually happened. And while that frustrated me in some ways (because apparently I need clear answers), it also makes the book especially haunting. I haven’t been able to shake if off since reading the final pages, and keep turning it over and over in my mind.

This is my first book by this author, but I’ll certainly be seeking out more… once I recover from this one!

The Cabin at the End of the World was adapted into a movie, A Knock at the Cabin, which was released earlier in 2023. I’ve seen very mixed reviews, but plan to watch it in the next week or so. Based on the trailer, it looks terrifying.

30Mar2023

Book Review: A House with Good Bones by T. Kingfisher

Posted in Book Reviews by Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies

Title: A House with Good Bones
Author: T. Kingfisher
Publisher: Tor Nightfire
Publication date: March 28, 2023
Length: 256 pages
Genre: Gothic horror
Source: Review copy courtesy of the publisher via NetGalley
Rating:

A haunting Southern Gothic from an award-winning master of suspense, A House With Good Bones explores the dark, twisted roots lurking just beneath the veneer of a perfect home and family.

“Mom seems off.”

Her brother’s words echo in Sam Montgomery’s ear as she turns onto the quiet North Carolina street where their mother lives alone.

She brushes the thought away as she climbs the front steps. Sam’s excited for this rare extended visit, and looking forward to nights with just the two of them, drinking boxed wine, watching murder mystery shows, and guessing who the killer is long before the characters figure it out.

But stepping inside, she quickly realizes home isn’t what it used to be. Gone is the warm, cluttered charm her mom is known for; now the walls are painted a sterile white. Her mom jumps at the smallest noises and looks over her shoulder even when she’s the only person in the room. And when Sam steps out back to clear her head, she finds a jar of teeth hidden beneath the magazine-worthy rose bushes, and vultures are circling the garden from above.

To find out what’s got her mom so frightened in her own home, Sam will go digging for the truth. But some secrets are better left buried.

I’ve never not loved any book I’ve read by T. Kingfisher… and having just finished A House with Good Bones, I can safely say that my record is intact!

Putting aside my overly convoluted wording, the bottom line is — A House with Good Bones is another fantastically creepy, highly readable book by an author who knows how to tell a great story!

There’s so much to love here. Southern Gothic vibe. Highly intelligent and rational main character (she has a Ph.D. in entomology!) thrust into a decidedly odd situation. Family secrets and a dark past. Childhood nightmares and memories that might not be what they seem. All of these ingredients, and more, woven into a tightly constructed, tense, yet weirdly enjoyable narrative with no wasted space or filler. No wonder I read this in a day!

Sam is a fabulous main character — smart, caring, and happy to talk about bugs at the drop of a hat. I mean, I wouldn’t necessarily want to eat dinner with her, but she’d be great fun to hang out with. When her fieldwork for her next research project gets postponed, she heads to North Carolina to spend a few months with her mother, and notices that her mom is just not herself. Gone are the brightly painted walls, cheerful artwork, and frank conversations. Suddenly, the house is 50 shades of ecru, a Confederacy-era painting is hanging over the mantelpiece, and they even say grace before meals.

We are not a family that says grace over food. Gran Mae always insisted on it, but Mom’s Christianity has generally been limited to a fondness for Jesus Christ Superstar.

Does mom have early onset dementia? Is she having some sort of breakdown? Nothing makes sense, and Sam is worried.

On top of these worries, Sam is also a bit freaked out by weird occurrences. Like, why is there a vulture perched on the mailbox every time she drives up to the house? And why are there no bugs in the garden? And what’s up with that weird photo she finds in the attic?

I’m clearly not going to give anything away, so let’s just say that answers are revealed, secrets unraveled, and creepy-scary weirdness becomes more and more dominant as the story progresses. It gets terrifying and also icky, yet it’s totally fascinating and impossible to look away from.

One of the things I love about T. Kingfisher’s books is that no matter how creepy things get, the writing is so much fun! There are tons of one-liners and quips I could share, but even in non-flashy asides, the tone of voice is delightful:

She is a genuinely kindhearted person and a champion worrier. If there was an Olympic sport for worrying, Mom would win the gold and then give it to the silver medalist because she was afraid that they might feel bad for losing.

A House with Great Bones is so gripping and so enjoyable. The ending is great, with a big dramatic climax, a satisfying resolution, and just a little hint of lingering menace keeping it from feeling too sunshine-y and neatly wrapped up. I would happily spend more time hanging out with Sam! Even though I was very creeped out at times, I had so much fun reading this book, and recommend it wholeheartedly.

16Mar2023

Book Review: Lone Women by Victor LaValle

Posted in Book Reviews by Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies

Title: Lone Women
Author: Victor Lavalle
Publisher: One World
Publication date: March 28, 2023
Length: 304 pages
Genre: Historical fiction/horror/fantasy
Source: Review copy courtesy of the publisher via NetGalley
Rating:

Blue skies, empty land—and enough room to hide away a horrifying secret. Or is there? Discover a haunting new vision of the American West from the award-winning author of The Changeling.

Adelaide Henry carries an enormous steamer trunk with her wherever she goes. It’s locked at all times. Because when the trunk is opened, people around her start to disappear…

The year is 1914, and Adelaide is in trouble. Her secret sin killed her parents, and forced her to flee her hometown of Redondo, California, in a hellfire rush, ready to make her way to Montana as a homesteader. Dragging the trunk with her at every stop, she will be one of the “lone women” taking advantage of the government’s offer of free land for those who can cultivate it—except that Adelaide isn’t alone. And the secret she’s tried so desperately to lock away might be the only thing keeping her alive.

Told in Victor LaValle’s signature style, blending historical fiction, shimmering prose, and inventive horror, Lone Women is the gripping story of a woman desperate to bury her past—and a portrait of early twentieth-century America like you’ve never seen.

I’d never read anything by Victor LaValle until now, but how could I pass up a book that’s historical fiction, horror, and the story of a strong woman making her own way, all wrapped up into one story?

When we meet Adelaide, we know right away that something is very wrong… mainly because she’s in the process of burning down her house with her parents’ dead bodies inside. She leaves with a huge, heavy steamer trunk and sets off for a ship to Seattle, and from there, a train to Montana, where homesteader land is available to anyone who’s willing to live there.

Adelaide craves solitude, a fresh start, and freedom from the dire secret that’s haunted her family her entire life. Her old home in California was a farm close by other Black farming families, but even among people she felt a kinship with, there was a distance — rumors flew about her and her parents and the family’s strangeness.

Montana isn’t exactly the promised land, though. Adelaide’s homestead is barren earth with a primitive cabin, about 16 miles from the nearest town, the tiny Big Sandy. While she suffers through the shockingly cold and windy weather of her new home, where it’s not even winter yet, she also starts to meet some of the other “lone women” nearby, and forms tentative first connections.

But Adelaide’s secret — and her locked steamer trunk — are never far from her mind, and keep her prisoner to her obligation to hide what she sees as her family’s curse from everyone nearby — for their own safety as well as hers. Meanwhile, there are other dangers as well — bandits who prey upon lone women, racist townsfolk who view conformity as the only virtue, and powerful town leaders who are intent on pushing out those who don’t abide by their rules and inflicting their own form of frontier justice whenever they deem it necessary.

Lone Women has violence and terror, but it also has remarkably strong women at its heart. Adelaide herself is wonderful, as are the other women she bonds with. It’s astonishing and admirable seeing her determination to survive, make her own way, and not give in.

The mystery of the trunk is unfolded slowly — and I won’t give anything away, but at a certain point in the story, I let out a very loud “OH!!!” when things finally became clear. Such an amazing reveal!

The actions of some of the townspeople represent the true horror of this story, and I loved how the frightening elements combine so well with the historical depiction, the character studies, and the fantastical elements too.

Overall, I loved Lone Women. The mood builds dramatically, the characters are distinct and memorable, and the resolution… well, again, I don’t want to give anything away, but it’s got a great ending!

19Jan2023

Books & TV: Fungus among us

Posted in Bookish Thoughts, Pop Culture by Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies

Having just spent an intensely creepy 80-something minutes watching the series premier of The Last of Us (HBO), I’m now forced to sit here and contemplate just how terrifying fungi can be. If you’re not scared, then you definitely haven’t watched this show… or read any of the books I’m about to talk about!

Let’s start with The Last of Us. This show has been getting tons of hype — well deserved! For those who aren’t familiar with the history, The Last of Us started as a videogame (released in 2013) that was absolutely huge — and which is generally considered a giant step forward in gaming in terms of both graphics and storytelling. (For more on the game and its significance, read here — but note that there are spoilers for the overall storyline). I’m not a gamer, so that aspect doesn’t mean a whole lot to me, but I do love a good post-apocalypse story… and this one is a doozy.

Here’s the official trailer from HBO:

Are you scared yet?

After watching the first episode, I naturally starting thinking about the scary-as-hell books I’ve read over the past several years featuring horrific fungi — and thought I’d share the case of the creeps with everyone else!

If you’re into fungal horror (or want to know what books to avoid at all costs), then check out this list. I’ve provided links to my reviews, in case you’re interested.

The Girl with All the Gifts (and the sequel, The Boy on the Bridge) by M. R. Carey:

The Girl With All the Gifts was my first exposure to zombie apocalypse via fungus, and man, was it horrifying! It’s a great story — and at the time when it was released, the marketing cleverly didn’t disclose what it was actually about. I expected a story about kids with some sort of paranormal abilities, perhaps, and instead… FUNGAL HORROR. So good…

What Moves the Dead by T. Kingfisher

This was a 2022 release, and it’s just amazing (and creep-tastic). A retelling of The Fall of the House of Usher, but with fungi! You’ll never look at a rabbit in quite the same way again.

Mexican Gothic by Silvia Garcia-Moreno

I almost hesitated about including this one, since the very fact that I’m putting it here is entering into spoiler territory… but it’s a prime example of great fungus-based horror!

The Unfamiliar Garden (The Comet Cycle, #2) by Benjamin Percy

This is the 2nd book in the Comet Cycle trilogy (and I’m eagerly awaiting the release of #3!). In these books, a comet that passes close by Earth has a devastating effect on the world as we know it. The first book, The Ninth Metal, relates one aspect of the story, and here in book #2, we see an entirely different set of effects on the natural landscape, including… you guessed it… horrifying fungi! I tend to describe these books more as sci-fi than horror, although there’s plenty of ickiness too.

Those are the examples from my own bookshelves… but there’s more! If you just can’t get enough of deadly fungi, check Fangoria’s list of movies, TV episodes, and books with fungal horror plotlines.

And if you want to start on a less terrifying note, then there’s always this goodie (available via Amazon and elsewhere):