Review: Young Gothic by M.A. Bennett

Young Gothic by M.A. Bennett
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Filled with deadly secrets and the monsters you thought only existed in your mind ...

You've heard of Frankenstein's monster, you've heard of Dracula, but have you heard of the Villa Diodati? Eve, Griffin, Hal and Ren embark on a summer they'll never forget at the birthplace of all things Gothic.

The summer is beset by mysterious happenings, as the monsters they create begin to clamber out of their minds. Events rise to a horrible climax when, on a dark and stormy night, one of the villa's guests is found dead and each of our foursome becomes a suspect in a gruesome murder.

It was supposed to be the trip of a lifetime. But when the stuff of nightmares becomes their reality, will they make it out alive?

--
Okay, so it's been a while since I've written a book review because I've been so busy with PhD work, but I just had to write about this one! This book has everything I like: creepy castles, creepy owners of castles, creepy doppelgangers, and twists I just did not see coming!

I'm always a bit wary about books with multiple first-person narrators, and this one has four, but it was done so well. Each of the narrators--Eve, Griffin, Hal, and Ren--was so distinguishable, and I really, really enjoyed seeing their personalities shine through their writing styles.

The intertextuality of this book was amazing. Seriously good. Spoilers ahead! Bennett cleverly and subtly (and not so subtly in places!) wove in references to so many 19th century gothic novels. Frankenstein, The Invisible Man, Dr. Jekyl and Mr. Hyde, and The Vampyre. Eve, one of the narrators, is a gothic novel enthusiast, and so she made so many links within her narratives and references that I (as a fellow gothic novel enthusiast) got. Hal is a film enthusiast, and there was so much intertextuality for films too, but I wasn't familiar with most of those and so it didn't have quite the same 'aha moment' effect on me... but it's definitely signposted me to a lot of films to watch.

The pacing in this novel was excellent, but the only bit that threw me was the ending where Griffin's ex/stalker came into the story. Suddenly, it almost seemed like a different novel--though it was now leaning toward An Inspector Calls. But I really did like the pregnancy/baby storyline. In fact, there were two pregnancies (though Eve's was historic and she had an abortion). My PhD research is primarily about pregnancy horror and so this book definitely fits that for me--though this one is more centred around a pregnant character (or two) in a horror story, rather than the pregnancy being the source of the horror.

The characters in this novel were (I think) 18 to 20. It read a little older than most YA, but it still felt YA overall to me. And I loved this.

Other things I also loved:

- the creepy reveal about the servants' tongues having been cut off

- the architecture of the castle and there was a lake

- how the four main characters were re-creating the iconic visit of the Dead Poets 200 years ago.

I will definitely be reading the sequel!

View all my reviews

Review: MOTHERTHING by Ainslie Hogarth

 

Motherthing by Ainslie Hogarth
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

A darkly funny domestic horror novel about a woman who must take drastic measures to save her husband and herself from the vengeful ghost of her mother-in-law.

When Ralph and Abby Lamb move in with Ralph’s mother, Laura, Abby hopes it’s just what she and her mother-in-law need to finally connect. After a traumatic childhood, Abby is desperate for a mother figure, especially now that she and Ralph are trying to become parents themselves. Abby just has so much love to give—to Ralph, to Laura, and to Mrs. Bondy, her favorite resident at the long-term care home where she works. But Laura isn’t interested in bonding with her daughter-in-law. She’s venomous and cruel, especially to Abby, and life with her is hellish.

When Laura takes her own life, her ghost haunts Abby and Ralph in very different ways: Ralph is plunged into depression, and Abby is terrorized by a force intent on destroying everything she loves. To make matters worse, Mrs. Bondy’s daughter is threatening to move Mrs. Bondy from the home, leaving Abby totally alone. With everything on the line, Abby comes up with a chilling plan that will allow her to keep Mrs. Bondy, rescue Ralph from his tortured mind, and break Laura's hold on the family for good. All it requires is a little ingenuity, a lot of determination, and a unique recipe for chicken à la king…

--

There's one word that I'd use to describe the narrator of this book and that is Vicious.

Abi is terrifying. And the writing is terrifyingly good. I could not read this book quickly enough. We've got this mixture of domestic suspense and outright horror. A character who's desperate to be loved and a character who's scarred by her past. There's so much inner conflict in Abi, and this was one of those books that really had me thinking deeply about the psychology of the mind--and exactly how stable Abi is. Because there's one scene in this toward the end that I did not see coming. It's gruesome, and yet kind of... inevitable. I don't even know if that's the right word, because it is so, so shocking. Abi is pretty much a psychopath. Or a sociopath. But she's endearing too. And I love traditionally unlikeable characters like this.

View all my reviews

Review: DEAD ELEVEN by Jimmy Juliano

 

Dead Eleven by Jimmy Juliano
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

On a creepy island where everyone has a strange obsession with the year 1994, a newcomer arrives, hoping to learn the truth about her son's death--but finds herself pulled deeper and deeper into the bizarrely insular community and their complicated rules...

Clifford Island. When Willow Stone finds these words written on the floor of her deceased son's bedroom, she's perplexed. She's never heard of it before, but soon learns it's a tiny island off of Wisconsin's Door County peninsula, 200 miles from Willow's home. Why would her son write this on his floor? Determined to find answers, Willow sets out for the island.

After a few days on Clifford, Willow realizes: this place is not normal. Everyone seems to be stuck in a particular day in 1994: they wear outdated clothing, avoid modern technology, and, perhaps most mystifyingly, watch the OJ Simpson car chase every evening. When she asks questions, people are evasive, but she learns one thing: close your curtains at night.

High schooler Lily Becker has lived on Clifford her entire life, and she is sick of the island's twisted mythology and adhering to the rules. She's been to the mainland, and everyone is normal there, so why is Clifford so weird? Lily is determined to prove that the islanders' beliefs are a sham. But are they?

Five weeks after Willow arrives on the island, she disappears. Willow's brother Harper comes to Clifford searching for his sister, and when he learns the truth--that this island is far more sinister than anyone could have imagined--he is determined to blow the whole thing open.

If he can get out alive...

--

Oh wow, I really wish I'd written this review earlier, after I'd finished the book--and not, like, six months later. But these things happen--and I feel that I really must write something about this book. Because this is one spectacular horror novel.

The interweaving narratives and storytelling modes that work together to tell the 'bigger picture' story is simply amazing. Sometimes, combining so many narratives can cause pacing or tension problems, but not with this novel. Without all the narrators, I feel it would make a far less terrifying story.

I particularly adored the setting. I mean, I love stories set on islands. I love missing-person stories. I love horrifying monsters. I love weird groups and cults.  And this book has everything.

View all my reviews

Review: BUNNY by Mona Awad

 

Bunny by Mona Awad
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

The Vegetarian meets Heathers in this darkly funny, seductively strange novel about a lonely graduate student drawn into a clique of rich girls who seem to move and speak as one

"We were just these innocent girls in the night trying to make something beautiful. We nearly died. We very nearly did, didn't we?"

Samantha Heather Mackey couldn't be more of an outsider in her small, highly selective MFA program at New England's Warren University. A scholarship student who prefers the company of her dark imagination to that of most people, she is utterly repelled by the rest of her fiction writing cohort--a clique of unbearably twee rich girls who call each other "Bunny," and are often found entangled in a group hug so tight they become one.

But everything changes when Samantha receives an invitation to the Bunnies' fabled "Smut Salon," and finds herself inexplicably drawn to their front door--ditching her only friend, Ava, a caustic art school dropout, in the process. As Samantha plunges deeper and deeper into the sinister yet saccharine world of the Bunny cult and starts to take part in their ritualistic off-campus "Workshop" where they magically conjure their monstrous creations, the edges of reality begin to blur, and her friendships with Ava and the Bunnies are brought into deadly collision.

A spellbinding, down-the-rabbit-hole tale of loneliness and belonging, creativity and agency, and friendship and desire, Bunny is a dazzlingly original second book.

---

Oh, wow. This book. THIS BOOK!

Joining a cult while studying your MFA in creative writing? A cult where you summon monsters? This was the perfect book for me to read while finishing my MFA in creative writing.

The writing is just so trippy, so psychedelic, and it's the exact kind of horror I love. And I don't even want to say any more than that, because I think going into this book with no idea or expectations about it meant I had the best reading experience possible.

View all my reviews

Review: CURSED BUNNY by Bora Chung

 

Cursed Bunny by Bora Chung
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Cursed Bunny is a genre-defying collection of short stories by Korean author Bora Chung. Blurring the lines between magical realism, horror, and science-fiction, Chung uses elements of the fantastic and surreal to address the very real horrors and cruelties of patriarchy and capitalism in modern society.

Anton Hur’s translation skilfully captures the way Chung’s prose effortlessly glides from being terrifying to wryly humorous. Winner of a PEN/Heim Grant.

----

Recommended

I picked up this book because of the cover, and quite simply, it is stunning. This is a tricky collection to write about because it contains so much. Each story is so different and the collection spans multiple genres. The darker, more disturbing stories are at the start—mostly—and I have to say these were my favourites. I definitely enjoyed the first two-thirds of the stories, where we’ve got the absurd, dark, weird, creepy stories. I found the ones at the end to be much slower and more contemporary, not really what I’d been looking for as I’m drawn to horror.

Out of all the stories, the first one was probably my favourite. Just the first sentence is amazing, and I still find myself thinking about the monster made from body matter that rises out of the toilet and forces its maker to swap places with it.

View all my reviews

Review: BAD WITCH BURNING by Jessica Lewis

 

Bad Witch Burning by Jessica Lewis
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

For fans of Lovecraft Country and Candyman comes a witchy story full of Black girl magic as one girl's dark ability to summon the dead offers her a chance at a new life, while revealing to her an even darker future.

Katrell can talk to the dead. And she wishes it made more money. She's been able to support her unemployed mother--and Mom's deadbeat-boyfriend-of-the-week--so far, but it isn't enough. Money's still tight, and to complicate things, Katrell has started to draw attention. Not from this world--from beyond. And it comes with a warning: STOP or there will be consequences.

Katrell is willing to call the ghosts on their bluff; she has no choice. What do ghosts know of having sleep for dinner? But when her next summoning accidentally raises someone from the dead, Katrell realizes that a live body is worth a lot more than a dead apparition. And, warning or not, she has no intention of letting this lucrative new business go.

Only magic isn't free, and dark forces are coming to collect. Now Katrell faces a choice: resign herself to poverty, or confront the darkness before it's too late.

--

This has to be one of the most emotional books I've ever read. There's a lot packed in here. Child abuse, physical abuse, domestic abuse, emotional manipulation, threat, danger. And there's the murder of a dog. Honestly, that bit really got to me and I just was in tears when that happened. That's one of the parts that stands out most to me. -- and then, of course, Katrell can raise the dead through writing letters, so we get Conrad returning. Just as we get multiple people returning, people that Katrell is paid to bring back. And it's all just...creepy. Such great horror vibes. We have Katrell's life unravelling more and more, her losing control of her magic/powers, and all this amid a serious child protection storyline as she's not being looked after.

I listened to the audio book of this, and the narrator is so good too.

View all my reviews

Review: ROSEMARY’S BABY by Ira Levin

 

Rosemary's Baby by Ira Levin
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Rosemary and Guy Woodhouse, an ordinary young couple, settle into a New York City apartment, unaware that the elderly neighbors and their bizarre group of friends have taken a disturbing interest in them. But by the time Rosemary discovers the horrifying truth, it may be far too late!

— 
I read this one for horror research for my MFA, and this book is incredible. Horror set in an apartment block. It starts off slowly, with just a few hints that the neighbours aren’t quite what they seem. And it just gains momentum from then on, until we’re dealing with a creepy Satanic cult who steal Rosemary’s baby. It is SO creepy!

View all my reviews

Review: DIREWOOD by Catherine Yu

 

Direwood by Catherine Yu
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

In this velvet-clad 1990s gothic horror, Aja encounters a charming vampire who wants to lure her into the woods—just like her missing sister.

No one ever pays attention to sixteen-year-old Aja until her perfect older sister Fiona goes missing. In
the days leading up to Fiona’s disappearance, Aja notices some extraordinary things: a strange fog
rolling through their idyllic suburban town, a brief moment when the sky seems to rain blood, and a
host of parasitic caterpillars burrowing their way through the trees. Aja’s father, the neighbors, and
even her ex-friend Mary all play down this strange string of occurrences, claiming there must be some
natural explanation. It seems everyone is willing to keep living in denial until other teens start to go
missing too.

Aja is horrified when she meets Padraic, the vampire responsible for all the strange occurrences. His
hypnotic voice lures her to the window and tells her everything she’s longed to hear—she’s beautiful and
special, and he wants nothing more than for Aja to come with him. Aja knows she shouldn’t trust him,
but she’s barely able to resist his enthrallment. And following him into the woods may be the only way
to find Fiona, so she agrees on one condition: He must let her leave alive if she is not wooed after one
week. Though Aja plans to kill him before the week is out, Padraic has his own secrets as well.

In the misty woods, Aja finds that Padraic has made his nest with another vampire in a dilapidated
church infested by blood-sucking butterflies. Within its walls, the vampires are waited on and entertained by other children they’ve enthralled, but there is no sign of Fiona. Before her bargain is up, Aja must find a way to turn her classmates against their captors, find her sister, and save them all—or be forced to join the very monsters she wants to destroy.

—- 

I was delighted to be approved for an ARC of this book, and it’s amazing: compelling, creepy, enchanting. Most of the time when I was reading this book, I felt like I was under a dark spell…delirious…almost like I was drugged. The writing is that good. It just crawls inside you and never lets you go.

It’s been a long time since I read a more traditional vampire story. And I love horror, can’t get enough of it. The imagery in this book is fascinating, and I’m never going to look at butterflies again.

Also, sisterhood. Aja is looking for her missing sister Fiona throughout this book, and we see the power of sisterhood. And that ending! I did not see that coming.

This book is dark and dangerous and creepy and sad. Creepy 90s horror at its best.


View all my reviews