strange and random happenstance

Leech by Hiron Ennes
Published by: Tordotcom
Publication Date: September 27th, 2022
Format: Hardcover, 336 Pages
Rating: ★★★
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Before the inhabitants of the chateau can send word to Inultus and the Institute that the Baron's doctor has died a new doctor has arrived, unexpectedly stepping down from the train in Verdira. The mystery though isn't how the Institute knew to send a new doctor the mystery is how the previous doctor died. The Institute's body is one, spread out all over the world. Their knowledge is shared, their knowledge is sole, therefore to not know something that happened to one of their own is truly a mystery. And they do not know how the doctor died at the chateau in the far north. They should have remembered the cause of death not just the death. The new doctor arrives and immediately starts to investigate. Trying to fill in the gaps in their memory. What could have killed this host? And there it is. The answer, waiting in their corpse for discovery; a competitor. Another parasite trying to take root. A parasite capable of killing. Because the Institute keeps their secrets to themselves the residents of the chateau do not realize they are dealing with someone who has walked their corridors for years. The Baron's son Didier, Didier's pregnant wife Helene, excluding their twins all believe that the doctor is a new entity and therefore are spending needless time introducing them to how life works at the chateau. While the doctor views this all as an inconvenience. The competition must be found, examined, studied, and then eliminated. Luckily dinner is the only time when the household assembles and no one has ever made it to dessert under the Baron's gimlet glare therefore there is plenty of time for hunting the parasite. But where could the previous body have encountered it? In a flash it comes to them, the mine. The chateau gets it's money from a wheatrock mine and there was a collapse. Something in the dark. They must return to the mine. They get the houseboy Émile to help, risking the wintry weather to find their enemy. But what if that is exactly what the enemy wants? What if returning to the mine brings the parasite back to the chateau? What if it is all happening again and there's no stopping another death and another? The Institute has bodies to spare, but does the Baron's doctor?

To have a gestalt entity be your narrator is a ballsy move. But Hiron Ennes makes it work because they have such a strong authorial voice. I often found myself questioning if someone capable of such confident worldbuilding was truly a first time author and then, when the book completely fell apart at the end, I found myself no longer asking that question. The problem is this book is dealing with big issues from bodily autonomy to class warfare to climate change on a more intimate scale. Yes we see the macro, but only filtered through the eyes of one part of the whole. And it's the continual narrowing of the vision which in the end is Leech's downfall. When the gestalt entity loses connection to the greater whole at first it's interesting. How can someone used to being something more thrive? The answer is they can't. Of course what's really happening is that the original personality is coming through. The parasitic infection is losing it's hold. And the original personality coming through is where everything falls apart. That and the fact that there really is no ending. But more on that later. Once the original personality is back in control there's a disconnect. You have forged such a connection to the gestalt entity that even though you are revolted by everything they stand for you're also somehow rooting for them. And the hints and flashes of the original personality coming through actually doesn't connect you to that character but seems to be used more to understand the world they are living in and how this entity got a foothold. The original personality should be who we are rooting for, but instead they are flat and lifeless. And that's why the last quarter of this book is such a disappointment. This world and the characters that people it are so interesting and unnerving. You feel restless and ill at ease reading Leech but at the same time you don't want to leave the Swiss Chateaux with all it's Gothic goodness and Frankensteinian vibes. But Hiron Ennes's "burn it all down" vibe that takes over the last quarter of the book while logical in the Mary Shelley sense just feels rushed. And our two protagonists riding a train off into the sunset? It somehow discounts all that came before. What is the message? That escaping from trauma is a victory even if your continued survival is questionable? And while that might be true in life this is fiction. There could have been more solidity and less ambiguity and it's only subpar Gothic literature that doesn't understand this imperative.

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: Chateau, Dystopian, Émile, Frankenstein, Gestalt, Going Gothic, Gothic, Hiron Ennes, Inultus, Leech, Mary Shelley, Mine, Narrator, Parasite, Switzerland, The Baron, The Institute, Verdira, Wheatrock, Winter

The House Across the Lake by Riley Sager
Published by: Dutton
Publication Date: June 21st, 2022
Format: Hardcover, 368 Pages
Rating: ★★★
To Buy

Casey Fletcher started drinking the day her husband drowned in Lake Greene. But her grief has become so all encompassing that it's destroying her life. For awhile she had her drinking under control and then she didn't. Passing out cold in the play she was staring in on Broadway and having to be dragged offstage while unconscious by her costars was literally her career vanishing down the bottle. Her mother swooped in and banished Casey to the Lake House in Vermont. The house where Casey spent the last happy moments of her life before it all went to hell. Now her mother and her cousin call daily to check in. Her acting skills are put to the test by declaring she's not drinking because of course she is. Her neighbor Eli is supplying her with the booze her mother had hoped to deny her. The lake is as deserted as it always is this late in the year. There are only five houses on Lake Greene. The Fitzgeralds have already left for the season, Eli is always there, and handyman Boone is working on the A-Frame next door. Which leaves the glass house directly across from Casey. And the inhabitants of that house are about to throw a wrench in Casey's plan to drink herself into oblivion. Casey sees someone drowning out on the lake and rushes into action and saves her new neighbor Katherine Royce. Like Katherine knows who Casey is, Casey knows who Katherine is, the supermodel turned philanthropist who's married to tech guru Tom Royce. The girl who had the billboard in Time Square that captivated the world and Casey. They are the owners of the glass house. That night Tom and Katherine come across the lake to thank Casey and since Eli is already over they take the party outside and Eli gets to telling ghost stories around a fire. The evening is cut short when Katherine passes out. She and her husband return home but Casey is worried about Katherine and gets out her husband's binoculars. Watching the Royces becomes her new obsession. One that might prove deadly when Katherine disappears.

The House Across the Lake marks a turning point for Riley Sager. In his previous books that have hauntings or other paranormal phenomenon he meticulously pulls back the curtain to prove that it was humans all along, just an old man under a mask solved thanks to Scooby and the gang. Here he does not. And I love it. I was a little sad when the Camp Nightingale disappearances was a revenge well plotted. As for the mysteries at the Bartholomew being at the feet of the elite, well, couldn't I have had just a hint of the real horrors of Rosemary's Baby? As for Baneberry Hall and House of Horrors, it was sadly human horrors. The genius in making the paranormal real in this specific book is that Riley Sager is doing a spot on pastiche to the Gillian Flynn genre that was so lovingly and accurately skewered by Kristen Bell's The Woman in the House Across the Street from the Girl in the Window. There's a predictability to this genre that relies on copious amounts of alcohol and unreliable narrators and Riley Sager does a good job leaning into these tropes with Carrie Fisher, I mean Casey Fletcher, as his protagonist. Husbands, neighbors, everyone is a suspect when her neighbor disappears. Yet what is really happening goes back to a ghost story that Eli told around Casey's fire pit. It's a moment that is almost a blink and you'll miss it moment. There are so many other elements at play in that scene that what Eli has to say gets lost in the kerfuffle. In fact, I was so busy putting together the other parts of the jigsaw I lost sight of the bigger picture so that it was a nice surprise to realize the kind of book I thought I was reading wasn't what I was reading at all. As a reader it's really wonderful when your expectations are proved wrong. When a book turns out not to be what you expected, but better. While Riley Sager is a must buy author for me after this twist I can't wait to see what he writes next.

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: Alcoholic, Carrie Fisher, Disappearance, Ghosts, Gillian Flynn, Kristen Bell, Lake Greene, Riley Sager, The House Across the Lake, The Woman in the House Across the Street from the Girl in the Window

A House with Good Bones by T. Kingfisher
Published by: Tor Nightfire
Publication Date: March 28th, 2023
Format: Hardcover, 256 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"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."

Did someone say Southern Gothic as a pop out from behind the rose bushes hiding the teeth?

White Cat, Black Dog by Kelly Link
Published by: Random House
Publication Date: March 28th, 2023
Format: Hardcover, 272 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"Seven ingeniously reinvented fairy tales that play out with astonishing consequences in the modern world, from one of today's finest short story writers - MacArthur "Genius Grant" fellow Kelly Link, bestselling author of the Pulitzer Prize finalist Get in Trouble.

Featuring illustrations by award-winning artist Shaun Tan.

Finding seeds of inspiration in the Brothers Grimm, seventeenth-century French lore, and Scottish ballads, Kelly Link spins classic fairy tales into utterly original stories of seekers - characters on the hunt for love, connection, revenge, or their own sense of purpose.

In "The White Cat's Divorce," an aging billionaire sends his three sons on a series of absurd goose chases to decide which child will become his heir. In "The Girl Who Did Not Know Fear," a professor with a delicate health condition becomes stranded for days in an airport hotel after a conference, desperate to get home to her wife and young daughter, and in acute danger of being late for an appointment that cannot be missed. In "Skinder's Veil," a young man agrees to take over a remote house-sitting gig for a friend. But what should be a chance to focus on his long-avoided dissertation instead becomes a wildly unexpected journey, as the house seems to be a portal for otherworldly travelers - or perhaps a door into his own mysterious psyche.

Twisting and turning in astonishing ways, expertly blending realism and the speculative, witty, empathetic, and never predictable - these stories remind us once again of why Kelly Link is incomparable in the realm of short fiction."

I'm not the biggest fan of short fiction, but Kelly Link is always an exception to any rule.

The Best of Catherynne M. Valente, Volume One by Catherynne M. Valente
Published by: Subterranean Press
Publication Date: March 28th, 2023
Format: Hardcover, 800 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"The celebrated author of Fairyland, Space Opera, and much more, Catherynne M. Valente is also known for her stunning prose and captivating worldbuilding. From life on Mars to the zombified streets of Augusta, Maine, she has taken readers on unforgettable journeys for two decades. Subterranean Press is proud to present: The Best of Catherynne M. Valente, Volume One, the first comprehensive collection of Valente's short fiction, soaring through eighteen years of pushing the edges of storytelling. Among her award-winning stories, you'll find everything from melancholy robot girls to Eurydice and Orpheus; from detectives in Purgatory to time-traveling squirrels to a very different Santa Claus; from the grey coast of Washington to Alice's Wonderland. Valente's work is an open, beating heart, ready to welcome you in to its darkness and its light."

And you've got 800 pages of it!

Emma's Dragon by M. Verant
Published by: Acerbic Press
Publication Date: March 28th, 2023
Format: Paperback, 376 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"The award-winning fantasy reinvention of Jane Austen continues.

Emma Woodhouse needs a dragon. Her life depends on it. But Emma's dragon is claimed...by Elizabeth Darcy.

When Emma Woodhouse meets newly wed Elizabeth, a brush of their gloved hands unmasks the Darcys' fantastic secret. Emma has discovered Yu nchi, the deadly dragon coveted by both Emperor Napoleon and England's Secretary of War.

Luckily, secrets are nothing new for Emma. She has her own: a deathbed promise, and a clever plan to achieve it. The Darcys' power, forbidden to her, might even help.

But clever plans can go astray. As treason stalks a royal ball, an avenging queen rises to ravage England. Survival rests on a fabled alliance: Emma and her secrets, Elizabeth and her dragon, and the magical music of Mary Bennet and Georgiana Darcy.

Will Emma, Elizabeth, and Mary unravel the mystery of the great wyves in time to save England and themselves?

Emma's Dragon is the second book in the award-winning Jane Austen Fantasy series. This boldly original story is filled with magical dragons, strong heroines, and a brilliantly reimagined Regency that challenges barriers of class, race, and love.

Don't miss this thrilling, romantic fantasy."

I just found out about this series and with my love of all things Regency Magic I feel like my life is now complete.

The Fairy Bargains of Prospect Hill by Rowenna Miller
Published by: Redhook
Publication Date: March 28th, 2023
Format: Paperback, 416Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"In this enchanting historical fantasy about sisterhood and self-discovery, a woman does everything she can to help her sister escape her husband - perfect for fans of C. L. Polk, Mary Robinette Kowal, and Marie Brennan.

There is no magic on Prospect Hill - or anywhere else, for that matter. But just on the other side of the veil is the world of the Fae. Generations ago, the first farmers on Prospect Hill learned to bargain small trades to make their lives a little easier - a bit of glass to find something lost, a cup of milk for better layers in the chicken coop.

Much of that old wisdom was lost as the riverboats gave way to the rail lines and the farmers took work at mills and factories. Alaine Fairborn's family, however, was always superstitious, and she still hums the rhymes to find a lost shoe and to ensure dry weather on her sister's wedding day.

When Delphine confides her new husband is not the man she thought he was, Alaine will stop at nothing to help her sister escape him. Small bargains buy them time, but a major one is needed. Yet, the price for true freedom may be more than they're willing to pay."

What would be the cost of freedom to the Fae?

Her Lost Words by Stephanie Marie Thornton
Published by: Berkley
Publication Date: March 28th, 2023
Format: Paperback, 448 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"From A Vindication of the Rights of Woman to Frankenstein, a tale of two literary legends - a mother and daughter - discovering each other and finding themselves along the way, from USA Today bestselling author Stephanie Marie Thornton.

1792. As a child, Mary Wollstonecraft longed to disappear during her father's violent rages. Instead, she transforms herself into the radical author of the landmark volume A Vindication of the Rights of Woman, in which she dares to propose that women are equal to men. From conservative England to the blood-drenched streets of revolutionary France, Mary refuses to bow to society's conventions and instead supports herself with her pen until an illicit love affair challenges her every belief about romance and marriage. When she gives birth to a daughter and is stricken with childbed fever, Mary fears it will be her many critics who recount her life's extraordinary odyssey...

1818. The daughter of infamous political philosopher Mary Wollstonecraft, passionate Mary Shelley learned to read by tracing the letters of her mother's tombstone. As a young woman, she desperately misses her mother's guidance, especially following her scandalous elopement with dashing poet Percy Bysshe Shelley. Mary struggles to balance an ever-complicated marriage with motherhood while nursing twin hopes that she might write something of her own one day and also discover the truth of her mother's unconventional life. Mary's journey will unlock her mother's secrets, all while leading to her own destiny as the groundbreaking author of Frankenstein.

A riveting and inspiring novel about a firebrand feminist, her visionary daughter, and the many ways their words transformed our world."

Two women who transformed the world, they just happened to be mother and daughter.

Lone Women by Victor LaValle
Published by: One World
Publication Date: March 28th, 2023
Format: Hardcover, 304 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"Blue skies, empty land - and enough wide-open space to hide a horrifying secret. A woman with a past, a mysterious trunk, a town on the edge of nowhere, and a bracing 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 opens, people around Adelaide start to disappear.

The year is 1915, and Adelaide is in trouble. Her secret sin killed her parents, forcing her to flee California in a hellfire rush and make her way to Montana as a homesteader. Dragging the trunk with her at every stop, she will become one of the "lone women" taking advantage of the government's offer of free land for those who can tame it - except that Adelaide isn't alone. And the secret she's tried so desperately to lock away might be the only thing that will help her survive the harsh territory.

Crafted by a modern master of magical suspense, Lone Women blends shimmering prose, an unforgettable cast of adventurers who find horror and sisterhood in a brutal landscape, and a portrait of early-twentieth-century America like you've never seen. And at its heart is the gripping story of a woman desperate to bury her past - or redeem it."

What's in the trunk Adelaide? WHAT'S IN THE TRUNK!?!

Hotel of Secrets by Diana Biller
Published by: St. Martin's Griffin
Publication Date: March 28th, 2023
Format: Paperback, 416 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"Diana Biller's Hotel of Secrets is chock full of banter-filled shenanigans, must-have-you kisses, and romance certain to light a fire in the hearts of readers everywhere.

During ball season, anything can happen - even love.

It's ball season in Vienna, and Maria Wallner only wants one thing: to restore her family's hotel, the Hotel Wallner, to its former glory. She's not going to let anything get in her way - not her parents' three-decade-long affair; not seemingly-random attacks by masked assassins; and especially not the broad-shouldered American foreign agent who's saved her life two times already. No matter how luscious his mouth is.

Eli Whittaker also only wants one thing: to find out who is selling American secret codes across Europe, arrest them, and go home to his sensible life in Washington, DC. He has one lead - a letter the culprit sent from a Viennese hotel. But when he arrives in Vienna, he is immediately swept up into a chaotic whirlwind of balls, spies, waltzes, and beautiful hotelkeepers who seem to constantly find themselves in danger. He disapproves of all of it! But his disapproval is tested as he slowly falls deeper into the chaos - and as his attraction to said hotelkeeper grows."

Ball season in Vienna? YES!

Intrigue in Istanbul by Erica Ruth Neubauer
Published by: Kensington
Publication Date: March 28th, 2023
Format: Hardcover, 288 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"In Agatha Award-winning author Erica Ruth Neubauer's fourth wanderlust-inspiring historical mystery, it's 1926 and the adventures of vibrant, young American widow Jane Wunderly send her to Istanbul, Turkey, where the search for her archeologist father unravels secrets tied to a mysterious relic from the Ottoman Empire...

Istanbul, 1926: After her historian father makes a clandestine journey abroad, Jane and the dapper Mr. Redvers trace his footsteps while signs of danger loom back home in the United States. They're greeted at their destination by Aunt Millie and unsettling news: Professor Wunderly was on a mission to locate the lost heart of Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent - a legendary relic from the Ottoman Empire said to possess potent mystical powers - then vanished completely, leaving behind his unpacked luggage, a perplexing riddle, and an eerie mystery Jane must solve to keep her loved ones safe.

What starts off as a clear-cut investigation becomes an intercontinental game of cat and mouse as Jane realizes a gang of nameless figures have been stalking her every move from Turkey to Hungary. And it seems even helpful friends can't be trusted for long when a man is stabbed to death on the Orient Express to Budapest. With Redvers by her side and few clues to rely on, Jane’s desperate search for her father leads to centuries-old secrets and an unidentified enemy who could make her disappear like the missing Sultan's heart..."

Gotta support local authors!

Play the Fool by Lina Chern
Published by: Bantam
Publication Date: March 28th, 2023
Format: Paperback, 320 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"A cynical tarot card reader seeks to uncover the truth about her friend's mysterious death in this delightfully clever whodunit, "a delicious blend of suspense and madcap humor" (Library Journal, starred review).

For Katie True, a keen gut and quick wit are just tools of the trade. After a failed attempt at adulting in Chicago, she's back in the suburbs living a bit too close to her overbearing parents, jumping from one dead-end job to the next, and flipping through her tarot deck for guidance. Then along comes Marley.

Mysterious, worldly, and comfortable in her own skin, Marley takes a job at the mall where Katie peddles Russian tchotchkes. The two just get each other. Marley doesn't try to fix Katie's life or pretend to be someone she's not, and Katie thinks that with Marley's friendship, she just might make it through this rough patch after all. Until the day when Katie, having been encouraged by Marley to practice soothsaying, reads the cards for someone who stumbles into her shop. But when she sneaks a glance at his phone, she finds more than intel to improve her clairvoyance. She finds a photo. Of Marley. With a gunshot wound to the head.

The bottom falls out of Katie's world. Her best friend is dead? Who killed her? She quickly realizes there are some things her tarot cards can't foresee, and she must put her razor-sharp instincts to the ultimate test. But Katie's recklessness lands her in the crossfire of a threat she never saw coming. Now she must use her street smarts and her inner Strength card to solve Marley's murder - or risk losing everything."

I'm always here for the mystical and murder!

The Quarantine Princess Diaries by Meg Cabot
Published by: Avon Impulse
Publication Date: March 28th, 2023
Format: HPaperback, 336 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"Mia Thermopolis knows just what to do in a crisis: Rule.

During the Covid-19 pandemic, a section of the diary of Princess Mia Thermopolis of Genovia fell into the hands of Meg Cabot, the Princess's royal biographer.

As reported in media outlets such as Entertainment Weekly, The Mary Sue, Refinery 29, Bustle, and more, from March until June of 2020, sixteen entries of the princess's diary were leaked onto Ms. Cabot's blog, to the delight of over a million fans.

In these entries, titled The Coronavirus Princess Diaries, the princess recorded her most heartfelt emotions while dealing with her husband's quarantine after exposure to the virus; her personal (and political) battles while imposing health restrictions on her small European nation; life during lockdown (even in as idyllic a location as a palace on the Riviera); and of course, dealing with her demanding royal family, especially her grandmother.

Since then, readers have been clamoring for more chapters of Mia's coronavirus diary...and here they are at last: The Quarantine Princess Diaries include not only the previously released entries (now edited and updated with new content), but two hundred more pages of entirely original, never-before-seen entries, including the princess's worries over a possible royal affair; a showdown between Mia and Grandmère over the latter's intended nuptials; the eventual development and distribution of a groundbreaking intranasal vaccine for every citizen in Genovia; and, as always, a royally happy ending.

After all we've been through, what could be more comforting for any lover of royal romance than snuggling up with a brand new installment of the diary of Mia Thermopolis, the princess who started it all?"

So excited to be back with Mia... But I kind of wish it was the third movie...

Bayou Beloved by Lexi Blake
Published by: Berkley
Publication Date: March 28th, 2023
Format: Paperback, 336 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"When a woman returns home to Louisiana's Butterfly Bayou, her high school crush finally notices she exists, in a small-town contemporary romance from New York Times bestselling author Lexi Blake.

Quaid Havery always planned to follow in his father's footsteps. He went to law school and then came home to take over his dad's legal practice. Being the only lawyer in small-town Papillon, Quaid is pretty sure he's seen everything. After all, he was once asked to sue an alligator for defamation of character. He's prepared for anything the town can throw at him, until he encounters Jayna Cardet. She's gorgeous, smart, funny, and unlike any woman he's met before.... Except he has.

Jayna never thought she'd return to Papillon, but when her life gets turned around she must learn to live in the close-knit community again. She certainly never dreamed she would practice law in her little town, but she finds herself in the courtroom, and the opposing counsel is her former high school crush, Quaid. It wouldn't be so bad if the man had developed a beer belly, but Quaid is more handsome than ever. And instead of ignoring her like he did in high school, he's made it plain that he wants to get to know her.

Thus begins a courtship destined to end in a wedding or a war. Either way, the locals are popping some corn and eagerly awaiting the outcome."

Hallmark meets all your high school reunion fantasies in one!

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: Catherynne M. Valente, Diana Biller, Erica Ruth Neubauer, Kelly Link, Lexi Blake, Lina Chern, M. Verant, Meg Cabot, Rowenna Miller, Southern Gothic, Stephanie Marie Thornton, T. Kingfisher, Victor LaValle, Vienna

Our Last Echoes by Kate Alice Marshall
Published by: Viking Books for Young Readers
Publication Date: March 16th, 2021
Format: Kindle, 416 Pages
Rating: ★★
To Buy (different edition than one reviewed)

Bitter Rock, a small island off the coast of Alaska, is known for two things, it's unique birds and the fact that large numbers of people have disappeared from it. Sometimes all at once. Sailors, GI's, and in 1973 the entire village of Landontown. All thirty-one inhabitants. But anyone stupid enough to build on Belaya Skala, Bitter Rock's headland, should have known better than to take up residence on that blighted bit of rock. The founder of Landontown's widow didn't know what to do with this island she owned and decided to form the Landon Avian Research Center, LARC for short, that studies the island's unique birds, the red-throated tern. Sophie has lied her way into an internship at the LARC because it was there that her mother was working when she disappeared in 2003. This is recent news to Sophie because she always thought her mother died when she was three which resulted in her going into care. But ever since Abbey Ryder called and asked about her mother's disappearance, not death, she knew she had to return to the place her mother was last seen. Turns out Sophie's whole life has been a lie and those nightmares about drowning might be more real than she ever thought, because the moment she arrives on Bitter Rock she feels as if she's not just been here before, but has lived here. She knows the land, she knows the people, and there are some people her brain is screaming at her to avoid. Why would she react so viscerally to William Hardcastle? He just runs the LARC with Dr. Kapor, who approved Sophie's internship. She never knew him before, did she? And then Abby shows up. She comes out of the mist, the same mist that Dr. Kapor's son Liam could have sworn he saw Sophie walking into. But the locals are weird about the mist. Sophie, Abby, and Liam decide to ban together to solve the mystery of Bitter Rock. Sophie has never had friends before, no one else to rely on, so it's strange having people to help. People who won't look at her like she's crazy, people who don't freak out that her reflection doesn't quite match, people who see there's something in the mist and are willing to find out what it is, people who will help her until the bitter end.

Kate Alice Marshall's Rules For Vanishing felt uninspired, disjointed, and unoriginal to me. So why would I read the "sequel" you ask? I could say that it was because the teaser at the end of Rules For Vanishing felt more inspired than the rest of the book, which would be true, but really it was just because it was there. I can never seem to leave well enough alone and end up in situations that I completely put myself in. And yet I would say, for half this book, it really was something special and then it fell apart and my interest went with it. Because Kate Alice Marshall fell into all the traps she laid for herself in Rules For Vanishing. This book became nothing more than a mashup of other stories better told. Here was some more Annihilation, here was some Labyrinth, here was a whole hell of a lot of Stranger Things, and then there's Twin Peaks. I admit that the Twin Peaks comparisons are probably heavily responsible for getting me to pick up Out Last Echoes. I've been an addict since day one when I was probably too young to watch but my parents didn't really believe in censorship, and they also really wanted to watch it themselves, so they let little eleven year old me watch with them. I don't know how many times I've watched the original series since then, but every time I introduced a friend to the series I'd rewatch the whole show with them. I also wrote a paper on the show for my forestry class, which involved me rewatching the whole show again but this time taking notes. And my obsessive preparations leading up to it's return? Yeah, you could say I'm a fan in the true fanatic sense. I wasn't sure how this book would tap into the Twin Peaks vibe. Could it be location, could it be thematic, or could it go all out like Psych did with their episode "Dual Spires?" Turns out it was with doppelgangers, black oil, and music always being in the air. So yeah, I can see why Our Last Echoes is mentioned as being "like" Twin Peaks. But I would also strongly argue against this assessment as well because Twin Peaks has a very fixed and well defined mythology and meticulous worldbuilding. I have now read two books by Kate Alice Marshall set within the same universe and I have no idea what her mythology or worldbuilding is about. So there are what, seven worlds with some Gods and they want to gain access to our world again? This is vague and well confusing and what!?! I mean really what!?! I've read some eight-hundred pages of her work and that is all I've got. Will I pick up the inevitable next book? Probably, I'm a masochist. But seriously, just some cohesive worldbuilding would go a long way to saving this series.

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: Abby Ryder, Alaska, Annihilation, Doppelgangers, Dual Spires, Fog, Going Gothic, Kate Alice Marshall, Labyrinth, Mythology, Our Last Echoes, Psych, Rules For Vanishing, Stranger Things, Twin Peaks, Worldbuilding

Slade House by David Mitchell
Published by: Random House
Publication Date: October 27th, 2015
Format: Hardcover, 238 Pages
Rating: ★★
To Buy

There is a door. It's small and unassuming. Most people never see it because most of the time it isn't there. But every nine years on the last Saturday of October it's there for the chosen one. Near The Fox and Hounds Pub, Slade Alley is easy to miss. If you don't look carefully you could end up going out the other side wondering how you could have missed the entrance. But through that small door is a beautiful garden leading up to a house. A house that is far too nice for the working class neighborhood the alley is a part of. But then again, you'd never find the house in that neighborhood. It's in a little bubble all it's own, an orison. In 1979 Nathan Bishop is the chosen one. His mother, a pianist, has been asked to perform at Slade House for Lady Norah Grayer. Lady Grayer asked that Nathan be brought along. He spends the day in the garden playing with a boy his age, Jonah. But as they chase each other around the house things begin to shift and change. Nathan is worried that the Valium he snuck from his mother was bad. But it's not the Valium, it's the house. It has lured him in and Norah and Jonah won't let go. Nathan Bishop and his mother are never seen again. Nine years later in 1988 Detective Inspector Gordon Edmonds is looking into the disappearance of Nathan Bishop and his mother because new evidence has surfaced. On the day they disappeared they asked directions from a Fred Pink. Immediately after stepping out of Slade Alley Fred Pink was hit by a car and has spent the intervening years in a coma. When he was catching up on the news that he missed he recognized the Bishops and immediately went to the police. Gordon Edmonds finds Slade House and the beautiful widow Chloe Chetwynd. She uses her feminine wiles to seduce Gordon Edmonds. He is never seen again. In 1997 a group of paranormal investigators made up of college students, one of whom is Fred Pink's nephew, goes missing never to be seen again. In 2006 the sister of one of the missing college student interviews Fred Pink. She to disappears. Like dominoes, each disappearance leads to another and another, stretching back and forward until someone is able to pop the bubble.

Years ago I bought Slade House giddy for a good haunted house story not knowing that it tied heavily into David Mitchell's other book, The Bone Clocks. But then again, all his books tie in. Yet I still thought I should probably do my homework and read The Bone Clocks first. So I put off reading Slade House, and I put off reading it. Then two things happened around the same time, a friend of mine said this book could easily be read as a standalone and I found a copy of The Bone Clocks on the sales table at Barnes and Noble. Thanks for sending me mixed messages universe! So I was basically back at square one. Looking for a good spooky read leading up to Halloween I said fuck it and picked up Slade House and I really wish that I had waited. Typical me would have read The Bone Clocks first. Typical me would have been right. This feels almost like it's the CliffsNotes version of the meticulous worldbuilding that Mitchell has done. There is a literal infodump in the forth chapter that while yes, it makes everything clear, feels too shoehorned in. This information about apertures and orisons and lacunas and psychovoltage feel like they belong to another story. And really, they do. And that is this book's fatal flaw. Yes, you may be given everything you need to know, but it feels shallow. The ending is a literal Deus ex machina where a character from his other books who is from the other feuding immortal faction shows up and puts an end to Norah and Jonah. How is that fair to the readers of this book? It feels not just like Mitchell is cheating the readers of a satisfying ending but is also admonishing them for not doing their homework. I should have known this wasn't likely a book for me because of the comparisons the The Turn of the Screw. My main problem with that story is there is no jeopardy. You know the governess survives. The same could be said here. There is no driving force because every narrator dies so your investment in the characters will never pay off so you quickly learn to disassociate from all of them. And this isn't even going into my issues about how Mitchell handles each decade and the derogatory language he uses. Sure, it's era appropriate, but much like everything to do with this book I could have done without.

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: CliffsNotes, David Mitchell, Deus Ex Machina, Disappearances, Ghosts, Going Gothic, Haunted House, Immortality, Infodump, Orison, Slade House, Souls, The Bone Clocks, The Turn of the Screw, Worldbuilding

Two Wars and a Wedding by Lauren Willig
Published by: William Morrow
Publication Date: March 21st, 2023
Format: Hardcover, 448 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"From New York Times bestselling author Lauren Willig: a dramatic coming-of-age story with a dual timeline and a single heroine - a bold and adventuring young woman who finds herself caught up in two very different wars on both sides of the Atlantic.

September 1896: An aspiring archaeologist, Smith College graduate Betsy Hayes travels to Athens, desperate to break into the male-dominated field of excavation. In the midst of the heat and dust of Greece she finds an unlikely ally in Charles, Baron de Robecourt, one of the few men who takes her academic passion seriously. But when a simmering conflict between Greece and Turkey erupts into open warfare, Betsy throws herself into the conflict as a nurse, not knowing that the decision will change her life forever - and cause a deep and painful rift with her oldest friend, Ava.

June 1898: Betsy has sworn off war nursing - but when she gets the word that her estranged friend Ava is headed to Cuba with Clara Barton and the Red Cross to patch up the wounded in the Spanish-American War, Betsy determines to stop her the only way she knows how: by joining in her place. Battling heat, disease, and her own demons, Betsy follows Teddy Roosevelt's Rough Riders straight to the heart of the fighting, where she is forced to confront her greatest fears to save both old friends and new....

Set during an electrifying era of nation-building, idealism, and upheaval, Two Wars and a Wedding is the tale of two remarkable women striving to make their place in a man's world - an unforgettable saga of friendship, love, and fighting for what is right."

Despite the title that is nothing but cringe the contents are wonderfully Lauren!

The White Lady by Jacqueline Winspear
Published by: Harper
Publication Date: March 21st, 2023
Format: Hardcover, 336 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"The White Lady introduces yet another extraordinary heroine from Jacqueline Winspear, creator of the best-selling Maisie Dobbs series. This heart-stopping novel, set in Post WWII Britain in 1947, follows the coming of age and maturity of former wartime operative Elinor White - veteran of two wars, trained killer, protective of her anonymity - when she is drawn back into the world of menace she has been desperate to leave behind.

A reluctant ex-spy with demons of her own, Elinor finds herself facing down one of the most dangerous organized crime gangs in London, ultimately exposing corruption from Scotland Yard to the highest levels of government.

The private, quiet "Miss White" as Elinor is known, lives in a village in rural Kent, England, and to her fellow villagers seems something of an enigma. Well she might, as Elinor occupies a "grace and favor" property, a rare privilege offered to faithful servants of the Crown for services to the nation. But the residents of Shacklehurst have no way of knowing how dangerous Elinor's war work had been, or that their mysterious neighbor is haunted by her past.

It will take Susie, the child of a young farmworker, Jim Mackie and his wife, Rose, to break through Miss White's icy demeanor - but Jim has something in common with Elinor. He, too, is desperate to escape his past. When the powerful Mackie crime family demands a return of their prodigal son for an important job, Elinor assumes the task of protecting her neighbors, especially the bright-eyed Susie. Yet in her quest to uncover the truth behind the family's pursuit of Jim, Elinor unwittingly sets out on a treacherous path - yet it is one that leads to her freedom."

Sticking in her wheelhouse yet totally new!

A Mansion for Murder by Frances Brody
Published by: Crooked Lane Books
Publication Date: March 21st, 2023
Format: Hardcover, 320 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"Old bones speak from the grave as a curse descends on Saltaire in acclaimed author Frances Brody's thirteenth Kate Shackleton mystery, perfect for fans of Rhys Bowen and Jacqueline Winspear.

When Kate Shackleton disembarks at Saltaire station, in the West Riding of Yorkshire, she has no idea what to expect. A stranger, Ronnie Creswell, has written to say that he has urgent information about the past that will interest her, and he persuades her to make the journey to Milner Field, the grand house that is said to be cursed. But moments after Kate arrives at the lodge, a messenger brings devastating news to Ronnie’s parents: he has been found drowned in the mill reservoir.

Ronnie's father suspects that this was no accident, and the post-mortem proves him right. Ronnie was murdered. Terrified and distraught, Mrs. Creswell refuses to stay at the Lodge a moment longer. But events take an even more shocking turn when ten-year-old Nancy Creswell, eyes and ears for her blind Uncle Nick, goes missing. An account of the fateful Saturday of Ronnie’s death arouses Kate's suspicions, and furhter investigations could prove her right. But truth is never so straightforward at Milner Field. Uncle Nick spins an old story that could hold the key to finding Nancy alive - though the fabled curse may not have claimed its last victim yet. And only a set of old bones buried on the grounds will finally reveal the horrifying truth."

Wouldn't it be funny if a book by Frances Brody just said "perfect for fans of Frances Brody!"

The Sinister Booksellers of Bath by Garth Nix
Published by: HarperTeen
Publication Date: March 21st, 2023
Format: Hardcover, 368 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"Return to the enchanting world of The Left-Handed Booksellers of London in this sequel by Garth Nix, bestselling master of teen fantasy, where once again a team of booksellers must fight to keep dangerous magic under cover before the stuff of legends destroys our world.

There is often trouble of a mythical sort in Bath. The booksellers who police the Old World keep a careful watch there, particularly on the entity that inhabits the ancient hot spring.

This time trouble comes from the discovery of a sorcerous map, leading left-handed bookseller Merlin into great danger, requiring a desperate rescue attempt from his sister, the right-handed bookseller Vivien, and art student Susan Arkshaw, who is still struggling to deal with her own recently discovered magical heritage.

The map takes the trio to a place separated from this world, maintained by deadly sorcery and guarded by monstrous living statues. But this is only the beginning. To unravel the secrets of a murderous Ancient Sovereign, the booksellers must investigate centuries of disappearances and deaths. If they do not stop her, she will soon kill again. And this time, her target is not an ordinary mortal."

AND Garth Nix is doing a US book tour! So be sure to check out the dates.

His Fatal Legacy by Heather Atkinson
Published by: Boldwood Books
Publication Date: March 21st, 2023
Format: Kindle, 246 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"Edinburgh 1896

Amy Alardyce's once-perfect life is in tatters. Her eldest son, Robert, has come of age, become the master of his own home, and married his childhood love Jane. But with maturity has come a terrible legacy, and the dark desires Robert inherited from his evil father Matthew, are fighting to get loose.

Whilst Jane is working hard to get her and Robert accepted into fashionable society, poor women are being hunted on the streets of Edinburgh, and Amy fears her son is to blame. And once the infamous Inspector Murphy takes up the case, Amy has to face a stark choice - denounce her son as a monster or risk her own safety to protect him from the consequences of his lethal actions.

If you love Emily Organ, Kate Saunders and Ann Granger, you'll love the Alardyce series. Discover bestselling author Heather Atkinson and you'll never look back...

Please note this is an updated version of the previously published Ancestral Tides."

Could there be a serial killer in the family?

The Shoemaker's Magician by Cynthia Pelayo
Published by: Agora Books
Publication Date: March 21st, 2023
Format: Hardcover, 336 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"A fabled lost movie. An increasing body count. How much do you risk for art?

Paloma has been watching the Grand Vespertilio Show her entire life. Grand, America's most beloved horror host showcases classic, low-budget and cult horror movies with a flourish, wearing his black tuxedo and hat, but Paloma has noticed something strange about Grand, stranger than his dark make-up and Gothic television set.

After Paloma's husband, a homicide detective, discovers an obscure movie poster pinned on a mutilated corpse on stage at the Chicago Theater, she knows that the only person that can help solve this mystery is Grand. When another body appears at an abandoned historic movie palace the deaths prove to be connected to a silent film, lost to the ages, but somehow at the center of countless tragedies in Chicago.

The closer Paloma gets to Grand she discovers that his reach is far greater than her first love, horror movies, and even this film. And she soon becomes trapped between protecting a silent movie that's contributed to so much death in her city and the life of her young son."

Bodies appearing in historic Chicago theaters possibly tied to a horror host? So many boxes ticked!

The Witch and the Vampire by Francesca Flores
Published by: AWednesday Books
Publication Date: March 21st, 2023
Format: Hardcover, 368 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"Francesca Flores's The Witch and the Vampire is a queer Rapunzel retelling where a witch and a vampire who trust no one but themselves must journey together through a cursed forest with danger at every turn.

Ava and Kaye used to be best friends. Until one night two years ago, vampires broke through the magical barrier protecting their town, and in the ensuing attack, Kaye's mother was killed, and Ava was turned into a vampire. Since then, Ava has been trapped in her house. Her mother Eugenia needs her: Ava still has her witch powers, and Eugenia must take them in order to hide that she's a vampire as well. Desperate to escape her confinement and stop her mother's plans to destroy the town, Ava must break out, flee to the forest, and seek help from the vampires who live there. When there is another attack, she sees her opportunity and escapes.

Kaye, now at the end of her training as a Flame witch, is ready to fulfill her duty of killing any vampires that threaten the town, including Ava. On the night that Ava escapes, Kaye follows her and convinces her to travel together into the forest, while secretly planning to turn her in. Ava agrees, hoping to rekindle their old friendship, and the romantic feelings she'd started to have for Kaye before that terrible night.

But with monstrous trees that devour humans whole, vampires who attack from above, and Ava's stepfather tracking her, the woods are full of danger. As they travel deeper into the forest, Kaye questions everything she thought she knew. The two are each other's greatest threat - and also their only hope, if they want to make it through the forest unscathed."

I am ALL ABOUT Rapunzel retellings!

Woman of the Year by Darcey Bell
Published by: Atria/Emily Bestler Books
Publication Date: March 21st, 2023
Format: Paperback, 240 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"A deliciously twisty thriller about the dark side of female friendship and a revenge plot that gets a little out of hand from the New York Times bestselling author of the "intense, captivating, and astonishing" (New York Journal of Books) A Simple Favor.

Twenty years ago, gregarious Lorelei and mousy Holly became fast friends as students in the same college psychology seminar. Taught by an expert in control and human behavior, the two students also grew close to their charismatic professor. But in one twisted moment of gaslighting, their friendship flamed out and Lorelei's once-promising future fell apart.

Flashforward, Holly has everything Lorelei ever wanted, while Lorelei is a lonely cat lady. Now, Holly is even up for an award at a Woman of the Year ceremony, and Lorelei finally has the perfect opportunity to get the revenge she's wanted for years. But she’s not the only person who has been obsessively following Holly's career - and when someone winds up dead, Lorelei realizes she may be in danger, too."

You'd think the author of A Simple Favor could get a better cover... You'd think...

Flux by Jinwoo Chong
Published by: Melville House
Publication Date: March 21st, 2023
Format: Hardcover, 352 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"A blazingly original and stylish debut novel about a young man whose reality unravels when he suspects his mysterious employers have inadvertently discovered time travel - and are using it to cover up a string of violent crimes...

Four days before Christmas, 8-year-old Bo loses his mother in a tragic accident, 28-year-old Brandon loses his job after a hostile takeover of his big-media employer, and 48-year-old Blue, a key witness in a criminal trial against an infamous now-defunct tech startup, struggles to reconnect with his family.

So begins Jinwoo Chong's dazzling, time-bending debut that blends elements of neo-noir and speculative fiction as the lives of Bo, Brandon, and Blue begin to intersect, uncovering a vast network of secrets and an experimental technology that threatens to upend life itself. Intertwined with them is the saga of an iconic '80s detective show, Raider, whose star actor has imploded spectacularly after revelations of long-term, concealed abuse.

Flux is a haunting and sometimes shocking exploration of the cyclical nature of grief, of moving past trauma, and of the pervasive nature of whiteness within the development of Asian identity in America."

Yes to all of it, but a huge yes to Raider!

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: Band of Sisters, Bath, Chicago, Cuba, Cynthia Pelayo, Darcey Bell, Frances Brody, Francesca Flores, Garth Nix, Greece, Heather Atkinson, Jacqueline Winspear, Jinwoo Chong, Lauren Willig, Two Wars and a Wedding

Devil House by John Darnielle
Published by: MCD
Publication Date: January 25th, 2022
Format: Hardcover, 416 Pages
Rating: ★
To Buy

Every town has an urban legend. A mystery or a murder that has captivated the minds of the locals and passed into lore. Gage Chandler just happened to turn his town's tale into a bestseller. A local teacher violently killed two of her students during an attempted burglary and was caught while taking their dismembered bodies to the beach in an attempt to dump them in the ocean. The White Witch of Morro Bay made a name for Gage and he has been looking for his followup project ever since. And then he hear's about "The Devil House." The house is in Milpitas, California, which is why no one has heard about it. The town became infamous for a grisly crime that happened in 1981 that ended up serving as inspiration for the movie River's Edge. The locals did not like the national attention. So when another murder happened with satanic overtones they hushed it up. "The Devil House" just happens to be up for sale. So not only could Gage write his next bestseller about the case he could write it at the scene of the crime. This PR stunt alone could generate huge sales. So Gage moves into "The Devil House." The home has been through many changes between when it was first built and it's infamy. But during the crime it was an abandoned store that sold pornography with booths in the back to watch videos. The "Monster Adult X" sign was still on the roof of the building when some teens moved in and decided to redecorate it as their clubhouse. The teens got very territorial and when the owner one day showed up with a potential buyer the interlopers were brutally murdered with a sword. But as expected Gage finds the locals aren't at all receptive to his arrival in their town. They don't want to talk about the murder, and they really don't want to talk about Derrick and Seth, the two kids who are the most likely culprits. Because that's another aspect of this case that is curious, no one was ever caught and charged with the murders. So Gage does what he does best. He immerses himself in the crime. He buys crime scene pictures off eBay and takes the interior of the house back to what it looked like when the murders happened. He becomes so entrenched that he can't be sure if he's writing a book now or living it.

As most reviewers with any sense have pointed out, this book is a bait and switch. The cover, the hype, everything about this book screams horror, and yet what it is isn't really clear even after you read it, but one thing is clear, it's not horror. Devil House is perhaps the sloppiest manuscript I have ever read. I am not even going to deign to call it a book because it needed several more passes to make it even legible and omit severe chronological issues, such as the constantly shifting date of the two murders at "The Devil House." The writing is beyond amateurish. In fact I take back manuscript and shall call this word salad. And seriously, don't get me started on the fake ye olde english that pops up in the "Song of Gorbonian" section. It's some of the worst writing I've ever read. This word salad has the pretensions to greatness, and instead comes off as a preposterous waste of time. As for the second person narration? Well, firstly, second person narration should be used sparingly, not for hundreds of pages, but what's more is that it isn't really second person narration, it's first person masquerading as second person wherein it's really the author talking to the murderess. I mean, what the fuck man? Really!?! You want to go there? You think you're Joe Goldberg? Joe Goldberg knows literature and he'd kill you for the crimes against it you've committed. But what's the worst sin in this book is everything is purposefully obfuscated and elliptical and talks around the subject in some attempt to make a statement on what is truth, what is really going on here, and in the end, it doesn't matter. Because, huge spoiler here, Gage Chandler has made it all up. There were no teenagers, there was no Satanic Panic, it's all BS in an attempt to what, write a book? To reclaim fame? To claw his way out of the insanity he'd driven himself to? Seriously, the ending negates the whole book, the whole story of "The Devil House." I mean, the whole "book" is so badly written and self-aware there was no way it could have clawed it's way back out of the grave it had dug to make me actually like it. But I was impressed that it made me hate it even more.

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: California, Devil House, Gage Chandler, Going Gothic, Horror, Joe Goldberg, John Darnielle, Murder, River's Edge, Satanic Panic, Second Person Narration, The Devil House, The White Witch of Morro Bay, You

O Caledonia by Elspeth Barker
Published by: Scribner
Publication Date: September 20th, 2022
Format: Paperback, 208 Pages
Rating: ★
To Buy

Janet lived for sixteen short years. Her family went away on holiday without her because she was being punished because of her behavior and she was gutted like a rabbit at the foot of the stairs. Stabbed by a family retainer for being a "whore." But as everyone said, it's what she deserved. She never was normal. She liked books too much and boys barely at all, an extra irony given why she had a falling out with her parents before the holiday and what her murderer thought of her. Her mother despaired of her. All she wanted was the perfect daughter, someone to chat and gossip with, but instead she got Janet. A girl who couldn't be bothered to wear a simple white dress to the hunt ball and instead insisted on a purple gown that was a bit too grown up. But then, she got what she deserved. And Janet didn't see her death coming. She loved life. The castle that was home to her family and the eighty odd boys her father taught during term time, Auchnasaugh, she loved more than anywhere else in the world. The castle wasn't just a castle, it was her castle, her home, and somehow, when they moved there, it's almost as though her wish to be a princess had come true. She explored every room and turret and turn of the stair until it was her domain completely. The countryside she explored on foot and hoof. Watching the changing of the seasons. Rejoicing in the flora and fauna that was a part of her world. Learning about mycology from her eccentric relative Lila. She spent every minute she was indoors in her room sitting perfectly straight in a chair reading. She loved poetry, she loved the sounds certain words made, but she learned early on not to share this with anyone. Her brother thought it stupid, her younger sisters weren't anything like her, and as for when she finally went to school, her classmates thought her a joke. Who actually wants to learn Greek and worship their gods? Learning is a burden and everything else is what life is about. But not for Janet. Janet was different and therefore she got what she deserved. Because girls shouldn't want to decorate their rooms to reflect the work of Edgar Allan Poe, they should want mirrors and makeup and not have jackdaws making homes in their dollhouses. But at least her family was ride of her. At least she got what she deserved.

One can see why people superficially compare the heroine of this book traditionally to Merricat Blackwood and more contemporaneously to Flavia De Luce, but they're missing a key detail, we actually got to deeply connect with those two heroines while I know the barest hints of who Janet really is. Her story is told at a remove. We don't get to know her at all and I WANT to know about the girl who had been dying to quote Nina from The Segull to her mother and claim that she was "in mourning for [her] life." This is someone who I think I could be friends with. Instead I know that she likes Greek and hates math. I know as much about her after reading this book as I would a perfunctory job interview with her. Her entire brief life is here and yet I am as ignorant as when I started this short yet excruciatingly long book. But the worst part is I don't know if Elspeth Barker loved Janet and all her eccentricities or wanted to make an example of her, after all, she got what she deserved. It's said over and over again. She was a sixteen-year-old who was murdered and she deserved it!?! For what? For being different? Because that's what this book says again and again, if you're not normal, if you're not feminine, if you're not towing the expected line in regard to traditional gender rolls, you deserve death or the insane asylum. And yes, her eccentric relative Lila does go to the insane asylum, driven there by Janet's mother. Oh, and let's not forget the number of sexual assaults that Janet fends off. I'm sure if she hadn't been so resourceful she would have "gotten what she deserved." This book was being touted everywhere as a rediscovered classic. Who says it's a classic? Just because there are superficial inklings of the Mitfords or Dodie Smith or Shirley Jackson does that mean we are to embrace this simply odoriferous mess of victim blaming? Who said, this book is what people need to read now? No, in a post #metoo world this is the exact kind of book we should be holding up and saying NO MORE! No more to just accepting that women deserve to be victimized by their family and by the opposite sex just for existing. This book was first published in 1991 and a lot has changed in the world since then, and yet I feel like a woman author should have known better even then because it feels so dated. This tripe needs to be called out. And not just for abhorrent treatment of females but for lack of character development, lack of plot, and if anyone says the language and turn of phrase is beautiful, yeah, occasionally, but is that when Janet's describing her dream funeral or a friend of the family is showing her his cock before she pushes him into the hogweed?

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: #MeToo, Auchnasaugh, Castle, Dodie Smith, Edgar Allan Poe, Elspeth Barker, Flavia De Luce, Gender Roles, Merricat, Mitfords, Murder, O Caledonia, Poetry, Scotland, Sexual Assault, Shirley Jackson, The Seagull

The Flames by Sophie Haydock
Published by: The Overlook Press
Publication Date: March 14th, 2023
Format: Hardcover, 464 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"Set in the extravagant, Bohemian art world of early 20th century Vienna, the electrifying untold story of the four women who posed for and inspired the groundbreaking erotic art of controversial painter Egon Schiele.

Amid an opulent society living under the shadow of war are four muses, women whose bodies were shown in intimate detail, depicted by the charming yet controversial artist Egon Schiele. Adele, his passionate and fierce admirer; Gertrude, his sister who survived their blighted childhood but is possessive, single-minded, and jealous; his mistress Vally, a poor young woman from a bad background but with steel at her core; and the two, very different, Harms sisters, Edith and Adele, both of whom vie to become Schiele's wife.

Over the course of little more than a decade, the four women risk everything - their reputations, their most precious relationships, and their sanity and souls - as they try to hold on to the man they adore. As World War I throws their lives off course forever, and the Spanish influenza pandemic ravages Europe, threatening everyone in its path, one question remains: Will any of them emerge unscathed from their relationship with this man? Sophie Haydock’s The Flames reimagines the intertwining lives of these women: four wild, blazing hearts longing to be known. In an elegant Bohemian city like 1900s Vienna, everything seems possible. But just as a flame has the power to mesmerize, it can also destroy."

Oh, the college undergraduate who majored in art and loved her art history classes is loving this!

The Last Russian Doll by Kristen Loesch
Published by: Berkley
Publication Date: March 14th, 2023
Format: Hardcover, 416 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"A haunting, epic novel about betrayal, revenge, and redemption that follows three generations of Russian women, from the 1917 revolution to the last days of the Soviet Union, and the enduring love story at the center.

In a faraway kingdom, in a long-ago land...

...a young girl lived happily in Moscow with her family: a sister, a father, and an eccentric mother who liked to tell fairy tales and collect porcelain dolls.

One summer night, everything changed, and all that remained of that family were the girl and her mother.

Now, a decade later and studying at Oxford University, Rosie has an English name, a loving fiancé, and a promising future, but all she wants is to understand - and bury - the past. After her mother dies, Rosie returns to Russia, armed with little more than her mother's strange folklore - and a single key.

What she uncovers is a devastating family history that spans the 1917 Revolution, the siege of Leningrad, Stalin's purges, and beyond.

At the heart of this saga stands a young noblewoman, Tonya, as pretty as a porcelain doll, whose actions - and love for an idealistic man - will set off a sweeping story that reverberates across the century...."

Oh I love sweeping generational tales and nowhere are they better set than in Russia.

Daughter Dalloway by Emily France
Published by: Blackstone Publishing
Publication Date: March 14th, 2023
Format: Hardcover, 350 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"Perfect for fans of Marie Benedict and Renee Rosen, Daughter Dalloway is both an homage to the Virginia Woolf classic and a brilliant spin-off - the empowering, rebellious coming-of-age story of Mrs. Dalloway's only child, Elizabeth.

London, 1952: Forty-six-year-old Elizabeth Dalloway feels she has failed at most everything in life, especially living up to her mother, the elegant Mrs. Dalloway, an ideal socialite and model of perfection until she disappeared in the summer of 1923 - and hasn't been heard from since.

When Elizabeth is handed a medal with a mysterious inscription from her mother to a soldier named Septimus Warren Smith, she's certain it contains a clue from the past. As she sets out, determined to deliver the medal to its rightful owner, Elizabeth begins to piece together memories of that fateful summer.

London, 1923: At seventeen, Elizabeth carouses with the Prince of Wales and sons of American iron barons and decides to join the Bright Young People - a group of bohemians whose antics often land in the tabloids. She is a girl who rebels against the staid social rules of the time, a girl determined to do it all differently than her mother. A girl who doesn't yet feel like a failure.

That summer, Octavia Smith braves the journey from the countryside to London, determined to track down her older brother Septimus who returned from the war but never came home. She falls in with a group of clever city boys who have learned to survive on the streets. When one starts to steal her heart, she must discover whether he is a friend or foe - and whether she can make it in the city on her own.

Elizabeth and Octavia are destined to cross paths, and when they do, the truths they unearth will shatter their understanding of the people they love most."

The hook here is Mrs. Dalloway disappeared!

Once Upon a Tome by Oliver Darkshire
Published by: W. W. Norton and Company
Publication Date: March 14th, 2023
Format: Hardcover, 256 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"Welcome to Sotheran's, one of the oldest bookshops in the world, with its weird and wonderful clientele, suspicious cupboards, unlabeled keys, poisoned books, and some things that aren’t even books, presided over by one deeply eccentric apprentice.

Some years ago, Oliver Darkshire stepped into the hushed interior of Henry Sotheran Ltd (est. 1761) to apply for a job. Allured by the smell of old books and the temptation of a management-approved afternoon nap, Darkshire was soon unteetering stacks of first editions and placating the store’s resident ghost (the late Mr. Sotheran, hit by a tram).

A novice in this ancient, potentially haunted establishment, Darkshire describes Sotheran's brushes with history (Dickens, the Titanic), its joyous disorganization, and the unspoken rules of its gleefully old-fashioned staff, whose mere glance may cause the computer to burst into flames. As Darkshire gains confidence and experience, he shares trivia about ancient editions and explores the strange space that books occupy in our lives - where old books often have strong sentimental value, but rarely a commercial one.

By turns unhinged and earnest, Once Upon a Tome is the colorful story of life in one of the world's oldest bookshops and a love letter to the benign, unruly world of antiquarian bookselling, where to be uncommon or strange is the best possible compliment."

Hard to believe it isn't fiction.

All the Queen's Spies by Oliver Clements
Published by: Atria/Leopoldo and Co
Publication Date: March 14th, 2023
Format: Hardcover, 400 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"The "lively" (The New York Times) Agents of the Crown series continues with this thriller about Queen Elizabeth I's advisor John Dee in a race to save the Empire with the help of a mysterious manuscript that offers global power.

With rumors of the end times swirling, philosopher and astronomer John Dee travels to Prague in an effort to prevent one of Catherine de Medici's seductive ladies-in-waiting from luring the Holy Roman Emperor into a crusade against England.

To convince the famously occult-loving Emperor to join his side, Dee entices him with the esoteric Book of Secrets, a volume that, if decoded, could provide the chance to control the levers of heaven and earth. But Dee faces enemies at every turn, including a female codebreaker who could be the undoing of Dee and the British Empire."

Did someone say John Dee!?!

Death on Deck by Verity Bright
Published by: Bookouture
Publication Date: March 14th, 2023
Format: Kindle, 332 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"When Lady Swift embarks upon her first luxury cruise she imagines a gilded ballroom, afternoons on deck taking tea and all the delectable food she can eat. But she can't seem to escape from murder...

Lady Eleanor Swift is all set to spend her birthday with her beau, dashing Detective Hugh Seldon, until he calls to cancel on her again at the last minute. What's a girl to do? Pack up her staff and her faithful old bulldog, Gladstone, and head off on a cruise to New York, that's what!

On the stunningly opulent ocean liner Celestiana, Eleanor tries to forget her worries and make the most of her trip. That is, until she sees a man being shot and falling overboard. On closer inspection of the scene, Eleanor literally stumbles over the likely murder weapon. And the nick in the barrel is unmistakeable: this gun belongs to Detective Seldon...

With some discreet digging, Clifford discovers Detective Seldon is aboard the ship on an undercover mission. Eleanor doesn't want to make waves but she's sure that something fishy is going on and he's being framed. To get Seldon off the hook, Eleanor casts her net wide and searches for the real murderer among a sea of suspects including European nobility, Italian opera stars and American nouveau riche. But does the victim's expensive gold ring point to a lavish lifestyle or is it a red herring?

When another passenger is found dead in his first-class cabin, a poisoned whisky glass clutched in his hand, Eleanor realises they are really in hot water. Will the killer be Eleanor's catch of the day, or will she spend her birthday at the bottom of the sea?

A totally charming, unputdownable Golden Age mystery with characters readers will adore. Perfect for fans of Agatha Christie, T.E. Kinsey and Lee Strauss."

I adore the locked-room trope of sea voyages!

Death and Croissants by Ian Moore
Published by: Poisoned Pen Press
Publication Date: March 14th, 2023
Format: Paperback, 256 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"Richard is a middle-aged Englishman who runs a B and B in the fictional Val de Follet in the Loire Valley. Nothing ever happens to Richard, and really that's the way he likes it.

One day, however, one of his older guests disappears, leaving behind a bloody handprint on the wallpaper. Another guest, the exotic Valérie, persuades a reluctant Richard to join her in investigating the disappearance.

Richard remains a dazed passenger in the case until things become really serious and someone murders Ava Gardner, one of his beloved hens... and you don't mess with a fellow's hens!

Death and Croissants is an unputdownable, hilarious mystery perfect for fans of Richard Osman's The Thursday Murder Club."

Anyone who names a chicken Ava Gardner is someone I need to know more about.

Vera Wong's Unsolicited Advice for Murderers by Jesse Q. Sutanto
Published by: Berkley
Publication Date: March 14th, 2023
Format: Hardcover, 352 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"A lonely shopkeeper takes it upon herself to solve a murder in the most peculiar way in this captivating mystery by Jesse Q. Sutanto, bestselling author of Dial A for Aunties.

Vera Wong is a lonely little old lady - ah, lady of a certain age - who lives above her forgotten tea shop in the middle of San Francisco's Chinatown. Despite living alone, Vera is not needy, oh no. She likes nothing more than sipping on a good cup of Wulong and doing some healthy detective work on the Internet about what her Gen-Z son is up to.

Then one morning, Vera trudges downstairs to find a curious thing - a dead man in the middle of her tea shop. In his outstretched hand, a flash drive. Vera doesn't know what comes over her, but after calling the cops like any good citizen would, she sort of...swipes the flash drive from the body and tucks it safely into the pocket of her apron. Why? Because Vera is sure she would do a better job than the police possibly could, because nobody sniffs out a wrongdoing quite like a suspicious Chinese mother with time on her hands. Vera knows the killer will be back for the flash drive; all she has to do is watch the increasing number of customers at her shop and figure out which one among them is the killer.

What Vera does not expect is to form friendships with her customers and start to care for each and every one of them. As a protective mother hen, will she end up having to give one of her newfound chicks to the police?"

Because sometimes you need a lighthearted mystery that takes place in San Francisco and you've read The Spellman Files a million times already.

So Shall You Reap  by Donna Leon
Published by: Atlantic Monthly Press
Publication Date: March 14th, 2023
Format: Hardcover, 320 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"In the thirty-second installment of Donna Leon's bestselling series, a connection to Guido Brunetti's own youthful past helps solve a mysterious murder. On a cold November evening, Guido Brunetti and Paola are up late when a call from his colleague Ispettore Vianello arrives, alerting the Commissario that a hand has been seen in one of Venice's canals. The body is soon found, and Brunetti is assigned to investigate the murder of an undocumented Sri Lankan immigrant. Because no official record of the man's presence in Venice exists, Brunetti is forced to use the city's far richer sources of information: gossip and the memories of people who knew the victim.

Curiously, he had been living in a small house on the grounds of a palazzo owned by a university professor, in which Brunetti discovers books revealing the victim's interest in Buddhism, the revolutionary Tamil Tigers, and the last crop of Italian political terrorists, active in the 1980s.

As the investigation expands, Brunetti, Vianello, Commissario Griffoni, and Signora Elettra each assemble pieces of a puzzle - random information about real estate and land use, books, university friendships - that appear to have little in common, until Brunetti stumbles over something that transports him back to his own student days, causing him to reflect on lost ideals and the errors of youth, on Italian politics and history, and on the accidents that sometimes lead to revelation."

Because my mom loved this series...

The Lonesome Hunters by Tyler Crook
Published by: Dark Horse Books
Publication Date: March 14th, 2023
Format: Paperback, 120 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"From Russ Manning award-winning and Eisner-nominated Harrow County co-creator Tyler Crook comes this supernatural fantasy about loss, power, and destiny.

An old and out-of-practice monster hunter in hiding crosses paths with a young girl that forces him to confront these chaotic creatures. As the beasts invade their tenement they set off on a supernatural road trip to stop these ancient evils in a story that explores the ways that youth informs adulthood and how early traumas can haunt us of in old age.

Collects The Lonesome Hunters #1–#4."

Tyler Crook is a genius.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer Tarot Deck and Guidebook by Gilly and Karl James Mountford
Published by: Insight Editions
Publication Date: March 14th, 2023
Format: Cards, 76 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"Follow the wisdom of Buffy, Willow, Xander, Spike, and others with this beautifully illustrated tarot deck inspired by the beloved series Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

In every generation, there is a chosen one - explore your destiny like Buffy the Vampire Slayer with this magical and bold take on the traditional 78-card tarot deck. This set features the heroes you love, casting Buffy, Willow, Angel, Spike, Xander, Giles, and more in gorgeous original illustrations based on classic tarot iconography. Featuring both major and minor arcana, the set also includes a helpful guidebook explaining each card's meaning and simple instructions for easy readings. Packaged in a sturdy, decorative gift box, this alluring tarot deck is the perfect gift for the Buffy the Vampire Slayer fan or tarot enthusiast.

ORIGINAL ART: Each of the 78 cards in this deck and the booklet features never-before-seen original Buffy the Vampire Slayer-themed art.

GUIDEBOOK INCLUDED: This unique deck includes a guidebook to help tarot practitioners of all skill levels do fun and informed readings.

BEAUTIFUL GIFT: The tarot deck and guidebook are packaged in a deluxe gift box perfect for gift-giving.

OFFICIAL LICENSED BUFFY DECK: This is the only official licensed Buffy the Vampire Slayer deck and guide.

25TH ANNIVERSARY: This deck is the perfect way to celebrate 25 years of Buffy the Vampire Slayer."

As Deanna Raybourn recently asked, "Can one have too many tarot decks?" The answer is no when there's a Buffy one coming out!

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Donna Leon, Egon Schiele, Emily France, Ian Moore, Jesse Q. Sutanto, Kristen Loesch, Mrs. Dalloway, Oliver Clements, Oliver Darkshire, Russia, Sophie Haydock, Tyler Crook, Verity Bright