strange and random happenstance

My parents like to cite Doctor Zhivago as their beginning. But personally I think that a compelling case could be made for their mutual love of Thomas Hardy. Before they even met my Dad ranked Jude the Obscure as one of his favorite books of all time and my mom named her cat Eustacia after Eustacia Vye from The Return of the Native. Of course it turned out Eustacia was a boy but Stacey lived a long long life unlike most characters in Thomas Hardy's books. Because my parents held Thomas Hardy in such high esteem he therefore became an author I was reluctant to read. Mainly because if I didn't like him I could possibly be disowned. Or at least I thought so at the time. But my love of James Purefoy made me willing to finally give Thomas Hardy a chance. In other words, I was really excited for the 2003 adaptation of The Mayor of Casterbridge that was made for A and E. And I didn't even make it through the first episode. I honestly don't know how far I made it but it was just depressing and muddy and it was at the height of my hatred of Ciarán Hinds so I washed my hands of it. Which means I wasn't over the moon about watching the 1978 adaptation but I do love Alan Bates so I was willing to give it a try. The problem is that no matter who stars in this tale it's a story of a miserable and horrible man, Michael Henchard. He sells his wife while drunk and blames the drink. Of course it's not the drink that's to blame, it's something rotten and twisted within him. Because if he had been a little nicer, a little more generous, you know what? Everyone could have had a happy ending. Instead there's lots of misery and death and self-flagellation. I mean, seriously, this is a lot to handle. Watching someone in a downward spiral with no way to stop it is not something that is relaxing. This isn't a show to be watched passively. You're an active viewer. You're viscerally involved in watching this man's downfall and just hoping that his death comes soon enough that some happiness can be grasped by the survivors. But at least with Alan Bates driving this crazy train there is acting on such a level that, well, I'm sorry, Ciarán Hinds, you could just never reach it. The simplest expression, the way Alan Bates's face can morph from awe and love to sheer blinding terror and rage in just an instant made the fall of Michael Henchard riveting but not restful television. The fact that the supporting cast includes Anna Massey, Jack Lowden's doppelganger, and the face melting Nazis from Raiders of the Lost Ark, was just an added bonus. Or another drink at the pub put on someone else's tab? Because Michael Henchard is not a man the better for drink. In fact most of Thomas Hardy is just desperation verging on folk horror. Which, it's a vibe I can get behind. And a vibe this adaptation leaned into. Just look to the scarecrow and how the townsfolk scared Lucetta to an early grave. Seriously, if Carl Davis had made the score a little scarier this might have been horror. But isn't the fall of a man horrible enough as it is? Again, I'd say it depends on the man and Michael Henchard got what he deserved.

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: Alan Bates, Carl Davis, Ciaran Hinds, Doctor Zhivago, Eustacia Vye, Fifty-Five Years a Masterpiece, Horror, James Purefoy, Jude the Obscure, Michael Henchard, The Mayor of Casterbridge, The Return of the Native, Thomas Hardy

The Burial Witch by Cari Thomas
Published by: HarperCollins Publishers
Publication Date: June 5th, 2025
Format: Hardcover, 150 Pages
Rating: ★★★★★
To Buy (different edition than one reviewed)

It's summer and Miranda Richardson has every second of her time accounted for. She has spent her life trying to live up to the expectations of her parents who already have two perfect children. But she never thinks she's good enough. If she can't even smile right for the family photo how is she going to achieve all her goals? They're laminated and on her wall; GOALS BEFORE THIRTY. Which is why instead of going to the park with her brother she is digging through boxes in the attic for a school project on the Richardson Family Tree. She's learning all about the Smiths and Evans from Shropshire and the local steel industry. Despite her father's enthusiasm she doesn't think she could be more bored if she tried. Yet she chose to look into her father's family and not her mother's. As she shifts the boxes of the past in the attic she finds a suitcase. It obviously belonged to her maternal grandparents. They emigrated from Nigeria to Peckham. Since their deaths her mother never talks about them. They are Richardsons, they can achieve anything they set their minds to. They don't dig into their past, they are a future-facing family. Which would be why Miranda is learning about Shropshire's steel industry. Her mother has made it clear that that part of their lives, her life, is over. The past is the past. But it's about to affect Miranda's present. In the suitcase she finds a box. There is something inside the box. When she moves it there is a clunking sound. Getting it open becomes her obsession. It's like a fairy tale come to life, this is her test. And she's failing because fairy tales don't come with instructions. She starts to slip in her work and she's distracted at church and lashing out. This little coffin shaped box leads her to do the unheard of. She has never disobeyed her parents, she wants to be like her mother when she grows up, and yet she goes to a shop that is off-limits. When A Sense of Craft opened in Richmond Miranda's mother tired to have it shut down. But this store and it's owner, Maya, might be Miranda's only hope. Though Miranda can't help but feel that Maya is a threat. That she's somehow involved in what's happening. Especially when Maya's advice opens the box to reveal a wooden doll. What could this mean? Miranda has to get to the bottom of this. Her summer was written and now she's dealing with magical forces, first loves, demonic dreams. If she wasn't highly strung before the events of the last few weeks she is now. The question is, will she embrace what's to come or bury it in a shallow grave?

Since I finished Shadowstitch I have been desperately craving anything new in Cari Thomas's The Language of Magic series. So when The Burial Witch novella was announced I was overjoyed. Preordered it from England to get it two months early overjoyed. And then I learned it was about Miranda. And my joy was somewhat tempered. It's not that I dislike Miranda, she's just the least interesting member of this Scooby Gang. Miranda has just been there, doing her thing, being conflicted about her religious beliefs and equally fighting and embracing this new aspect to herself, this magical aspect. She just is. And then The Burial Witch comes out and now I have to reread the whole series because of this new insight I have into her. Her OCD nature, her wanting to please her parents, her fear of the "other," all of this I relate to. Some from when I was her age, some from now. It's like she represents the different stages of my life and she's had to have all these changes thrust on her over one short summer. But what really struck me about her book, this book, is that you have to have no foreknowledge of anything else in this series for this book to work. It is a self-contained little masterpiece of a novella. Really, think British Stephen King at the top of his game and that's The Burial Witch. This is a perfect standalone horror novella in the tradition of Carrie. A religious girl is confronted by the unknown, there's temptation in this new knowledge, then, being who she is, she must find out more and goes to a forbidden shop where it's revealed that magic is real. And that dichotomy, that struggle in Miranda that Maya tries to help her with is to show her that not all religion is Christian and not all magic is bad. Which brings in the Vodun religion. Most people just think of rather racist and stereotypical Voodoo tropes. Whereas real Vodun is nothing like the movies would have you think. Yes, it's far away from anything Miranda might have experienced, and let us not forget she's lived a very sheltered life, but it's still holy. It's still divine. And so many books only use Vodun for the tropes, here it's handled thoughtfully. And what I really appreciate is that seeing as this series is set in England there's a certain kind of view of British magic. It's very Anglocentric. Yet England, like the rest of the world, is a melting pot. Therefore it makes sense that there are different kinds of magic. And having Vodun from Nigeria just works. There's a balance here that makes it both terrifying and respectful. Because it's how Miranda handles the changes where all the fear arises. The villain isn't magic, the villain is change. The villain is a future that wasn't planned out and laminated. That's a horror we can all relate to.

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: Anglocentric, Cari Thomas, Carrie, Horror, Miranda Richardson, Nigeria, Novella, OCD, Religion, Scooby Gang, Shadowstitch, Stephen King, Summer School, The Burial Witch, The Language of Magic, Threadneedle, Top Ten, Vodun, West Africa

A Bride's Story, Vol. 15 by Kaoru Mori
Published by: Yen Press
Publication Date: December 16th, 2025
Format: Hardcover, 224 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"Anthropologist Henry Smith returns to England from Central America with his bride Talas, intending to introduce her to his parents.

However, despite her love for Smith, Talas is saddened to be leaving the homeland she loves so dearly.

How will the Smith family react upon meeting their new daughter-in-law?"

I have adored this series from day one and this summer I finished up a reread so I am DESPERATE for this volume. DESPERATE I SAY!

The Girl, the Priest, and the Devil by Theo Prasidis and Staša Gacpar
Published by: Dead Sky Publishing
Publication Date: December 16th, 2025
Format: Paperback, 128 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"In Ottoman Greece, a motherless girl named Daphne leads a suffocating farmer's life. When her older brother dies after a short illness, her patriarch father curses God for leaving him with only a daughter. Unable to pay the local priest for his son's burial, he compels Daphne to go to the village and beg for money. Daphne gets rejected and mocked by the villagers, and flees to the mountains, where she finds a gold pouch. She dares to dream - this could be her way out. But just before she's about to carry out her escape plan, the Devil pays her a visit. These lands belong to him. And pay-ment is due.

Black Mass Rising author Theo Prasidis and emerging artist Staša Gacpar invite you to the mystical countryside of 19th century Greece, a land wreathed in legends and superstition. Inspired by actual folktales of the time, The Girl, the Priest, and the Devil is a captivating graphic novel with the otherworldly quality of the weird folklore of old."

This is a book that is at once aggravating and empowering, aggravating to see how Daphne is ostracized by those she loves and empowering by how she finds freedom. For all fans of historical fantasy. A must read. 

Mine is a Long, Lonesome Grave by Justin Jordan and Chris Shehan
Published by: Oni Press
Publication Date: December 16th, 2025
Format: Paperback, 104 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"From the writer of The Strange Talent of Luther Strode and the artists of House of Slaughter and Morning Star - folk magic and cold-blooded revenge collide in rural Appalachia!

Eisner and Harvey Award–nominated writer Justin Jordan (The Strange Talent of Luther Strode, Dead Body Road) and #1 bestselling artist Chris Shehan (House of Slaughter), and Ringo Award nominated-artist Maan House (Morning Star) throw a brass-knuckled gut punch of revenge-horror torn from the forgotten corners of West Virginia, where magic and murder go hand in hand...

Harley Creed is a bad man. He used to be worse.

A violent ex-con with a string of brutal crimes in his past, he only wanted one thing when he finally walked free from prison: to leave Briar Falls, WV, behind and disappear forever. But Harley's hometown has a strange way of swallowing people whole - call it a consequence of the low-level folk magic that has permeated its darker corners for generations. And now that Harley has returned, pent-up vengeance for his past crimes is about to come roaring back. Somebody has put a hex on him - and Harley has seven days before he dies in twisted, screaming agony.

To reverse it, Harley must find and kill his unseen enemy before their curse can reap its terrible end. But in Briar Falls, there's no shortage of suspects - and Harley is coming for them all. If he can't have peace, at least he can have revenge."

This is a quick headlong rush of death and more death with a veneer of the supernatural. I would have liked to know more about the world before it was over and done.

Far Down Below by Chris Condon and Gegê Schall
Published by: Mad Cave Studios
Publication Date: December 16th, 2025
Format: Paperback, 152 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"Journey to the Center...of Eastern Pennsylvania. On a rainy 1983 summer day, two friends decide to investigate a haunted house, and inadvertently discover a tunnel to the center of the earth.

It all begins in 1865. Somewhere beneath Pennsylvania, in darkness. A distant sound is heard. A whirring...Suddenly, the wall explodes and a gigantic drill bit bursts through, revealing a train-like cab and locomotive wheels encased by sharp, metal treads. This metal beast is known, simply, as THE MONOLITH. Explorers emerging from the cab look at the massive cavern they are standing in, and declare that they have found it - The Hollow Earth. From the darkness, something slithers up the cab, kills the lights, and the explorers are never seen alive again...

A century later. 1983. It's a rainy day in Eastern Pennsylvania. Two friends, Mike and Brian, are bored at Brian's house. While down in the basement, they uncover the key to Brian's grandfather’s house - abandoned since the mid-60s and presumed haunted after his grandfather mysteriously disappeared."

Goonies like adventure with a Hollow Earth theory!?! How could you not pick this up?

The Black Crow Book of Best New Horror Volume 1 by Various
Published by: Black Crow Books
Publication Date: December 16th, 2025
Format: Hardcover, 200 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"13 original tales to terrify in a brand new anthology showcasing the very best and bizarre in horror fiction.

Featuring horror legends and worldwide bestsellers Olivie Blake, Ramsey Campbell, Lisa Tuttle, Tim Lebbon, V Castro, Ally Wilkes, Rian Hughes, Lindy Ryan, Susi Holliday, Lily Kade, TL Huchu, Adrian Tchaikovsky, and Clay McLeod Chapman.

Be careful what you wish for.

Whether searching for love, fame, money or revenge, remember that everything comes with a price. From stepping into an unknown in nature to ignoring the warnings of locals, to finding your perfect match or facing the hidden horrors of your past, beware.

The thirteen stories in this brand-new anthology explore the dark side of human nature and take us into the hidden, terrifying recesses of a world we never see. Until it's too late ."

Yes, be careful what you wish for, in particular horror anthologies by kick-ass authors who will keep you awake late into the winter night.

Asa James by Jodi Lew-Smith
Published by: Koehler Books
Publication Date: December 16th, 2025
Format: Hardcover, 306 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"1875 Vermont. Asa James hasn't exactly sucked on the silver spoon. No one chooses to grow up on a rural poor farm, but a mixed-race orphan with Asa's scarred face has little choice.

Determined to be a naturalist and scientific thinker in the vein of Charles Darwin, instead he finds himself thrust alone into the wider world, taking a tutor's position at a mountaintop mansion. There, the widow Caro Rockwell is glossy and sardonic, someone so far outside Asa's experience that she could well be another species. But soon he glimpses the broken woman inside the shell. Amid a series of eerie events, they form a friendship that grows into a sweet and tender sort of love.

His heart has what it wants. But then, from within the many dark recesses of Mansfield Hall, a shameful secret is discovered that will force Asa into making a terrible choice."

Shades of Angels and Insects.

The Mysterious Death of Junetta Plum by Valerie Wilson Wesley
Published by: Kensington
Publication Date: December 16th, 2025
Format: Hardcover, 224 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"At the darkly glamorous height of the Roaring 20s, an independent Black intellectual and her bi-racial foster child are immersed in the vibrant world of the Harlem Renaissance - and a shocking murder on Striver's Row - in this thrilling Jazz Age mystery for reader of Nekesia Afia, Jacqueline Winspear, Avery Cunningham's The Mayor of Maxwell Street.

1926: Harriet Stone, a liberated, educated Black woman, and Lovey, the orphaned, biracial 12-year-old she is bound to protect, are Harlem-bound, embarking on a new, hopefully less traumatic chapter in their lives. They have been invited to move from Connecticut by Harriet's cousin, Junetta Plum, who runs a boardinghouse for independent-minded single women.

It's a bold move, since Harriet has never met Junetta, but the fatalities of the Spanish flu and other tragedies have already forced her and Lovey to face their worst fears. Alone but for each other, they have little left to lose - or so it seems as they arrive at sophisticated Junetta's impressive brownstone.

Her cousin has a sharp edge, which makes Harriett slightly uncomfortable. Still, after retiring to her room for the night, she finally falls asleep - only to awaken to Junetta arguing with someone downstairs. In the morning, she makes a shocking discovery at the foot of the stairs.

What ensues will lead Harriet to question Junetta's very identity - and to wonder if she and Lovey are in danger, as well. It will also tie Harriet to five strangers. Among them, Harriet is sure someone knows something. What she doesn't yet know is that one will play a crucial role in helping her investigate her cousin's murder...that she will be tied to the others in ways she could never imagine... and that her life will take off in a startling new direction...."

A startling new direction? Say, solving crime?

These Crooked Things by Ellen Byerrum
Published by: Lethal Black Dress Press
Publication Date: December 16th, 2025
Format: Kindle, 352 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"A corpse, a coverup, and a grievously injured pregnant woman lead a playwright and a playboy detective down a crooked path to a secret society, a long-ago death, and three potential killers of a very rich bad boy.

It's November 1934. Post-Prohibition lingers like a hangover in New York City as famous gangsters fight for headlines with local criminals, Broadway shows, and society sinners.

Amid the glitz and glamour, a man lies dead on the floor of a swanky Upper East Side apartment as his injured pregnant wife hides nearby. Private detective Graydon Chase and his new fiancé, playwright Esmé de LaForet, are called in by the family to keep the scandal at bay. But there's no keeping this crime quiet, as playwright and playboy pursue a crooked path to untangle multiple would-be killers, with more than enough motives to go around.

Complications abound when Graydon's aristocratic English parents invite themselves to Esmé's place for that most American holiday - Thanksgiving. Over the turkey and stuffing, Graydon's oh-so-upper-crust father itches to involve himself in the investigation (despite his prejudice against his son's fiancé as a "woman of the theatre"), and a local mobster trying to go legit wades into the thick of it, bringing vital information on the murder. Will it arrive in time to keep our detecting duo safe from a gunman's bullet? And which gunman is the real danger?

The second mystery in the Art Deco Mysteries by Ellen Byerrum."

I think the prospective in-laws for Thanksgiving might be the most dangerous part of this endeavor. 

The Red Scare Murders by Con Lehane
Published by: Soho Crime
Publication Date: December 16th, 2025
Format: Hardcover, 400 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"This wry, big-hearted noir brings 1950s New York to life, from the tenements of Hell's Kitchen to the mansions of Riverdale, from Sing Sing to City Hall, with a gripping murder mystery laying bare the explosive conflicts between its big wheels, its working stiffs, its gangsters, and its dreamers.

July 1950: Mick Mulligan has just hung out his shingle as a private investigator in New York's sweaty Hell's Kitchen. A former Hollywood cartoonist who was blacklisted during a communist witch hunt, Mick is broke, divorced, and in need of a paying gig to make his child support payments. But maybe not this gig. First off, it's impossible. Worse, it's liable to get him killed.

Last year, universally reviled cab company owner Irwin Johnson was murdered. One of his drivers, an African American Communist Party member named Harold Williams, was arrested, tried, and found guilty, despite scant evidence. Now his execution date is two weeks away. New York City labor leader Duke Rogowski asks Mick to find fresh evidence that might buy Harold a stay of execution.

Lots of people might have wanted Irwin Johnson dead - anyone from his betrayed wife to his jilted mistresses' jealous husbands to the mafiosi he was stealing business from. But no one has any reason to help Mick exonerate Harold Williams, and some of Irwin's former associates are happy to take a blunt object to the head of anyone asking awkward questions. Yet Mick can't abandon a potentially innocent man to the electric chair. Can he pull off a miracle?"

Or you know, getting killed is a way to get out of paying child support...

The Bookseller of Hay by James Hanning
Published by: Corsair
Publication Date: December 16th, 2025
Format: Hardcover, 320 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"In 1962, a young man left university without a degree and, for want of anything better to do, bought a small shop in an obscure market town on the edge of the Brecon Beacons. Within fifteen years, largely through force of personality, Richard Booth had created the world's largest second-hand bookshop, attracting thousands of visitors from across the globe to Hay-on-Wye, on the Welsh border.

The Bookseller of Hay tells the tale of an extraordinary, chaotic man, a true British eccentric, who invented the term 'book town', attracted a coterie of exotic and illustrious followers, crowned himself king, declared the town's independence and provided the bookish backdrop which - to his frustration - allowed a rival attraction, the now world-famous Hay Festival, to flourish.

It is a story of the extraordinary singlemindedness of a hard-working, hard-playing and rebellious son of privilege, inspired by a romantic vision and a deep love of the area, of a man better suited to publicity than bean-counting who launched countless careers but whose business instincts undermined precisely what had brought success. Booth was a deeply divisive figure, but love him or hate him, all agree on one thing. He put Hay on the map.

James Hanning, a frequent visitor to Hay since the 1960s, has interviewed dozens of local people and booksellers and with typical acuity wonderfully captures this bygone era of eccentricity and excess."

If you're a book lover you know about Hay-on-Wye and dream about visiting. Here's a history of it's rise to prominence through Richard Booth. 

The Once and Future Queen by Paula Lafferty
Published by: Erewhon Books
Publication Date: December 16th, 2025
Format: Hardcover, 312 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"Outlander-meets-The Princess Bride plus Camelot in a fresh, big-hearted, feminist, timeslip adventure reimagining the epic saga of King Arthur, as told from the perspective of his spunky and surprising queen, Vera - complete with time travel and good running shoes!

Vera always knew she didn't fit in. When she learns that she is meant to be in another time, she leaps at the chance to embrace a new life in a world of valor, intrigue, and unexpected magic in this bold and romantic retelling of Arthurian legend...

22-year-old Vera is at a crossroads: waiting tables, grieving her previous relationship, and jogging aimlessly each morning as if toward an uncertain future. Then an odd man shows up at her workplace, insisting that she was once the legendary Queen Guinevere of Camelot, and that her lost memories hold the key to changing both the past and the present. Somehow, it all feels like the direction she's been looking for. But when she asks the mysterious man to tell her more about Lancelot, Arthur, and a faithless queen, he can only say that much of what she's heard about Camelot is wrong. The truth, he claims, is something she must see for herself.

After jumping through a portal in Glastonbury's historic center, Vera is not prepared for what she finds. Magic is everywhere, but a curse on the kingdom means it dwindles every day. She has no idea how to perform a queen's duties. Her fast friendship with Lancelot sets gossip flowing, and the stranger she must call "husband" often refuses to meet her eye. Arthur is a puzzle: cold, forbidding, and, while angry to her face, keeps leaving secret tokens of tenderness in her chambers. Worst of all, Vera's memories - and the answers locked within them - show no signs of returning. If Vera is truly destined to save Camelot, she'll have to trust her instincts. And her king will have to trust her..."

Imagine having such a shitty life that you instantly believe you're a Queen from myth. I mean, at least it's an escape right?

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: A Bride's Story, Chris Condon, Con Lehane, Ellen Byerrum, Hay-on-Wye, Horror, James Hanning, Jodi Lew-Smith, Justin Jordan, Kaoru Mori, Olivie Blake, Paula Lafferty, Staša Gacpar, Theo Prasidis, TL Huchu, Valerie Wilson Wesley

Putting the Fun in Funeral by Diana Pharaoh Francis
Published by: Lucky Foot Press in conjunction with BVC
Publication Date: September 4th, 2018
Format: Kindle, 296 Pages
Rating: ★★★★
To Buy

Beck Wyatt's mother is dead. In the most gruesome yet amusing way possible. She was crushed to death by the phallus of one of the gargoyles that perched on the roof of her mansion. Don't worry, she deserved it. Which is something the police can't quite grasp and why Beck is a person of interest. The bereaved usually don't ask for crime screen photos to put on display. Or go about planning the tackiest funeral whose theme could literally be "Ding-Dong! The Witch Is Dead!" Because besides being her mother, she was a literal witch. A trait that Beck has inherited, though she made sure never to let her mother know about her powers. This woman spent years torturing Beck, who knows what would have happened if she knew about her powers. A lifetime of cages, chains, trials, and now she's free. All the secrets she kept bottled up to protect the three people in the world she loved can now be decanted like a cheap wine. Jen, Lorraine, and Stacey have always been there for Beck. They knew the Wicked Bitch was trouble, she did enough damage to their own lives, but they never knew how bad until now. Now that Beck can actually say what happened with impunity. When she's ready that is. First there needs to be much drinking, and tons of cheesecake. Of course, as "luck" would have it, her mother's death sets off a chain of events Beck could never have foreseen. First there's the attempted kidnapping by the very sexy Damon Matroviani. Then there's the death curse. Then there's the near death experience of plunging through a river to remove the death curse. More and more "incidents" keep happening to Beck which keep making her interesting to the police. She just wants to bury the Wicked Bitch and get on with running her business, a resale and consignment shop that also runs estate sales. Which of course means her business and home are attacked. And it turns out that Damon might have seen this all coming and warned her more properly. Because Beck is the daughter of two very powerful bloodlines and was kidnapped by her aunt at birth and raised without any knowledge of the world she should have taken a place in or her magical abilities. So once again Wicked Bitch AKA Aunty Mommy screws over her life. Here's hoping Beck can get it back, but on her terms, no one else's.

I feel there's really no way to properly classify Putting the Fun in Funeral. It might be one of the oddest Urban Fantasy books I've ever read. There seem to be two genres fighting for dominance and they couldn't be more different. On the one had it wants to be magical chick lit, with the girls giggling about guys while drinking margaritas and eating cheesecake. On the other hand it's straight up horror. The torture and PTSD that Beck has is heartbreaking and horrifying. And the book swings from one extreme to the other. Reading this book is almost like getting repeated whiplash. Yet somehow it works. There's a disconnect but also a tentative balance. It makes sense that Beck wants that part of her life that is hers to be almost superficial. I'm not saying that her connection to her friends isn't bone-deep, it's just that they let her set the boundaries and that means they stick to the "fun" as it where. They gossip and drink and drink and gossip and then get around to the cheesecake, because this is what Beck needs to counteract the horrors she faced in her past and still faces minimally twice a month at the hands of "Aunty Mommy." Though for me the real horror is when Beck learns more about the magical world she was kept apart from. That world is about bloodlines and status, in other words, if the Death Eaters and the Republic of Gilead from The Handmaid's Tale got together and created a breeding program this is what it would be. And it scared the shit out of me. This moved the book so far away from chick lit into straight up dystopian horror that I shudder just thinking about it. Beck would have no control over her reproductive rights. She would be forced into contracts and used as a broodmare to the benefit of her father's family. What's more, due to the whole "magical" nature of these people, she can be forced to carry twins or triplets. Oh, and every consummation guarantees conception. Just hell no. I just can't. The books that are the most successful are ones that despite whatever genre they are reflect the real world and real crises the readers are facing. This was almost too real. This is the world that so many people want to see become a reality. They want to take away all my rights to my own body. And I'll be standing at the ramparts with Beck screaming no. This is my body. You stay the fuck away.

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: An Urban Development, Beck Wyatt, Chick Lit, Damon Matroviani, Death Eaters, Diana Pharaoh Francis, Everyday Disasters, Gilead, Horror, PTSD, Putting the Fun in Funeral, Reproductive Rights, The Handmaid's Tale

The Burial Witch by Cari Thomas
Published by: HarperCollins Publishers
Publication Date: June 5th, 2025
Format: Hardcover, 150 Pages
Rating: ★★★★★
To Buy (different edition than one reviewed)

It's summer and Miranda Richardson has every second of her time accounted for. She has spent her life trying to live up to the expectations of her parents who already have two perfect children. But she never thinks she's good enough. If she can't even smile right for the family photo how is she going to achieve all her goals? They're laminated and on her wall; GOALS BEFORE THIRTY. Which is why instead of going to the park with her brother she is digging through boxes in the attic for a school project on the Richardson Family Tree. She's learning all about the Smiths and Evans from Shropshire and the local steel industry. Despite her father's enthusiasm she doesn't think she could be more bored if she tried. Yet she chose to look into her father's family and not her mother's. As she shifts the boxes of the past in the attic she finds a suitcase. It obviously belonged to her maternal grandparents. They emigrated from Nigeria to Peckham. Since their deaths her mother never talks about them. They are Richardsons, they can achieve anything they set their minds to. They don't dig into their past, they are a future-facing family. Which would be why Miranda is learning about Shropshire's steel industry. Her mother has made it clear that that part of their lives, her life, is over. The past is the past. But it's about to affect Miranda's present. In the suitcase she finds a box. There is something inside the box. When she moves it there is a clunking sound. Getting it open becomes her obsession. It's like a fairy tale come to life, this is her test. And she's failing because fairy tales don't come with instructions. She starts to slip in her work and she's distracted at church and lashing out. This little coffin shaped box leads her to do the unheard of. She has never disobeyed her parents, she wants to be like her mother when she grows up, and yet she goes to a shop that is off-limits. When A Sense of Craft opened in Richmond Miranda's mother tired to have it shut down. But this store and it's owner, Maya, might be Miranda's only hope. Though Miranda can't help but feel that Maya is a threat. That she's somehow involved in what's happening. Especially when Maya's advice opens the box to reveal a wooden doll. What could this mean? Miranda has to get to the bottom of this. Her summer was written and now she's dealing with magical forces, first loves, demonic dreams. If she wasn't highly strung before the events of the last few weeks she is now. The question is, will she embrace what's to come or bury it in a shallow grave?

Since I finished Shadowstitch I have been desperately craving anything new in Cari Thomas's The Language of Magic series. So when The Burial Witch novella was announced I was overjoyed. Preordered it from England to get it two months early overjoyed. And then I learned it was about Miranda. And my joy was somewhat tempered. It's not that I dislike Miranda, she's just the least interesting member of this Scooby Gang. Miranda has just been there, doing her thing, being conflicted about her religious beliefs and equally fighting and embracing this new aspect to herself, this magical aspect. She just is. And then The Burial Witch comes out and now I have to reread the whole series because of this new insight I have into her. Her OCD nature, her wanting to please her parents, her fear of the "other," all of this I relate to. Some from when I was her age some from now. It's like she represents the different stages of my life and she's had to have all these changes thrust on her over one short summer. But what really struck me about her book, this book, is that you have to have no foreknowledge of anything else in this series for this book to work. It is a self-contained little masterpiece of a novella. Really, think British Stephen King at the top of his game and that's The Burial Witch. This is a perfect standalone horror novella in the tradition of Carrie. A religious girl is confronted by the unknown, there's temptation in this new knowledge, then, being who she is, she must find out more and goes to a forbidden shop where it's revealed that magic is real. And that dichotomy, that struggle in Miranda that Maya tries to help her with is to show her that not all religion is Christian and not all magic is bad. Which brings in the Vodun religion. Most people just think of rather racist and stereotypical Voodoo tropes. Whereas real Vodun is nothing like the movies would have you think. Yes, it's far away from anything Miranda might have experienced, and let us not forget she's lived a very sheltered life, but it's still holy. It's still divine. And so many books only use Vodun for the tropes, here it's handled thoughtfully. And what I really appreciate is that seeing as this series is set in England there's a certain kind of view of British magic. It's very Anglocentric. Yet England, like the rest of the world, is a melting pot. Therefore it makes sense that there are different kinds of magic. And having Vodun from Nigeria just works. There's a balance here that makes it both terrifying and respectful. Because it's how Miranda handles the changes where all the fear arises. The villain isn't magic, the villain is change. The villain is a future that wasn't planned out and laminated. That's a horror we can all relate to.

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: A Sense of Craft, Anglocentric, Cari Thomas, Carrie, Horror, Miranda Richardson, Nigeria, Novella, OCD, Religion, Shadowstitch, Stephen King, Summer School, The Burial Witch, The Language of Magic, Threadneedle, Vodun, West Africa

I legit thought that the book, The Three-Body Problem, was a murder mystery. I mean why else would it have had "Body" in the title? They're corpses right? Wrong. I now know it refers to celestial bodies... But until I watched this show I would have put money on it being some sort of procedural. At least there was a cop played by Benedict Wong, so I had something right. Maybe? Well there are "unexplained deaths" so I'm sticking to a partial victory no matter how slim. My first exposure to Liu Cixin's novel is a little infamous as it went from my friend Aaron's favorite book to his most hated book in the span of a month. So when I heard it was going to be adapted by the creators of Game of Thrones for Netflix, and knowing how Aaron feels about that show, I thought that there was no way it could possibly be good and it would probably really piss off Aaron. So of course I suggested we watch it together on our Thursday Night Teleparty. And the problem with this was this is a show that needs to be binged. 3 Body Problem doesn't work spread out over weeks. You need to keep that threat of alien invasion at the forefront. I mean, sure, this is probably the longest game of an alien invasion in probable history. They won't arrive for a long long long time and made first contact decades previously. But the horror, the danger, there's an immediacy to it that suffers over the long haul. A countdown clock can not strike fear forever, eventually there will be fatigue. Though what I found oddest about the show is that while it is obviously science fiction it leans very strongly into the horror genre. You thought Game of Thrones was bloody? Wait until you see poor old Alfie from Lark Rise to Candleford disassembled. His body is sliced into a bloody morass by nanofibers. Jonathan Pryce meets the same fate. At least he had two seasons on Game of Thrones before he went boom with the Great Sept of Baelor. And this is my problem with the show. There's a rotating door with the cast. As soon as you like someone they're dead. I mean, I don't think I can even figure out how many characters died this season without multiple flow charts and perhaps a white board. But of the core college group that are these oh so great scientists that are our only hope? Of the five of them two are dead by the end of the first season. Because OF COURSE this is getting a second season. Why wouldn't it be? They're the Game of Thrones creators. Let's just totally ignore how that show tanked and there is no fanbase anymore and concentrate on the earlier seasons when it was all anyone was watching. But back to 3 Body Problem, how are they going to keep me invested if anyone I get attached to might go all 'splodey at a moments notice? Then there's the tonal shifts. The smaller collegiate setting with depression and video games and somehow now we're at the UN!?! The characters are the only way to keep this sliced ship from sinking, and if they're all dead... Well. Needless to say, I'm very interested to see if they can keep this show afloat.

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: 3 Body Problem, Alien Invasion, And the Emmy Goes To, Benedict Wong, Game of Thrones, Horror, Jonathan Pryce, Lark Rise to Candleford, Liu Cixin, Netflix, Oxford, Science Fiction, Teleparty, The Three-Body Problem

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

Some people might think that Gothic books are seasonal, only to be read around Halloween. Those people would be wrong. Yes, fall is a wonderful time to read spooky tales, but how about the depths of winter? When the wind blows and the landscape is bleak and tree branches gently scratch at your window. Or spring, when the snow begins to melt and new life starts to shoot up out of the dirt, what else could be unearthed? Then there's summer. I love escaping the heat to a moonlit moor or a deserted castle. Plus summer I've always associated with horror and slasher films and they are a close cousin to the Gothic. In other words, any time of the year is perfect for a good Gothic read, so why not now? That's why I'm Going Gothic right now, I hope you'll come along for the ride.

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: Castles, Fall, Going Gothic, Gothic, Halloween, Horror, Moors, Seasonal Reading, Slasher, Snow, Spring, Summer, Winter

Final Girls by Riley Sager
Published by: Dutton
Publication Date: July 11th, 2017
Format: Kindle, 352 Pages
Rating: ★★
To Buy (different edition than one reviewed)

Quincy Carpenter is a final girl. Not just because she survived a massacre in the Poconos which left all of her friends dead, but because the press has elevated her to that status officially. She, along with two other women, are THE final girls. The first was Lisa, she survived a knife wielding maniac who attacked her sorority and killed all nine of her fellow sisters. Then there was Sam, she survived the Sack Man who showed up at the Nightlight Inn and killed everyone on site until Sam killed him. Then there was Quincy, she survived Pine Cottage and ran into the arms of her savior, the cop Coop, who gunned down her assailant. Coop's been keeping a protective eye on Quincy for ten years now. He's glad she's leading a normal life. She has a baking blog and is deep in the stages of baking season, that stretch from October to December when baked goods are a must. She has a solid almost-finance in prosecutor Jeff. In fact, from the outside her life looks perfect, and that's what she wants everyone to think. She's not a final girl, she is normal. But below the surface is rage. She pops Xanax with grape soda any time she feels. She is a mess, and events are about to rock her carefully controlled world. Because Coop brings her news that Lisa has killed herself. It's not just that this will bring the reporters out of the woodwork yet again, it's the fact that Lisa had survived so much and to take her own life goes against everything it means to be a final girl. What's more, Lisa tried to reach out to Quincy moments before her death. What did Lisa need to tell her? And if that isn't strange enough Sam shows up on Quincy's doorstep. After the public scrutiny Sam went off grid. She successfully disappeared. She was the mysterious one of the three final girls and here she is wanting to bond with Quincy, claiming that it's what Lisa would have wanted. Only Sam has many secrets and many demons following her. But Quincy wants to do what is best, and she invites her in. Then Sam gets arrested and Quincy realizes that the reason Sam so successfully disappeared is because she changed her name to Tina Stone. Well, whomever Sam/Tina is, she's pushing all Quincy's buttons, trying to get her to open up, to lash out, to embrace what it means to be a final girl. But is this because Sam has another motive? Soon they're on the cover of every newspaper, Quincy is under suspicion for battery of a junkie, and Lisa, well, Lisa didn't kill herself. Which means, is one of them next?

As the forth of July holiday approached I was longing to read Riley Sager's newest book, Survive the Night. He was my author of last summer and I was determined he'd be my author of this summer as well. But I was still waiting on my signed copy from Murder By The Book so I decided to delve into the only other book written under the Riley Sager nom de plume I hadn't gotten around to, Final Girls. Sadly it didn't scratch my itch. This is my least favorite of Riley Sager's books so far. And the truth is, I don't think it was a flaw in the book that made me dissatisfied, because it had so many things going for it, a relevant baking blog, true crime websites, though I disagree that the preponderance of them are run by men, and glorious Twin Peaks references that if you have obsessively watched the show for years like I have will clue you into the twist at the end. No, the problem was with me and my hatred of the "single white female" trope. I was all in for the slasher/cabin vibe, but sadly despite being the event that made Quincy a "final girl" it's more a subplot. Nothing more than background for where she is now, a decade later. And that is dealing with Sam/Tina and her moving in on Quincy's life. So you might be wondering, why do I hate the "single white female" trope so much, because I really can't stand it, so I will try to explain. So the trope is all about a woman coming into your life and incrementally taking it over. For me, the reason I hate this is that if someone tried to do this to me they'd be gone before they knew what hit them. If someone is problematic, if someone gives off a stalker vibe, WHY ARE YOU LETTING THEM IN!?! Admittedly, here Riley Sager is giving us a set of circumstances where it would be wrong to turn that woman away, so points for that, but for me, I can't see opening up my home to anyone who would basically end up being a hurricane. I like my nice, neat, controlled life. I would not tolerate it to ever go "single white female" and so I am annoyed when others let it happen to them. The ONLY time I've enjoyed this trope was in season four of Buffy the Vampires Slayer when Buffy's roommate Kathy is trying to single white female Buffy but Kathy turns out to be a demon and is vanquished. Rightly so if just for her music taste!

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Coop, Final Girl, Final Girls, Going Gothic, Horror, Murder by the Book, Pine Cottage, Poconos, Quincy Carpenter, Riley Sager, Single White Female, Slasher, Survive the Night, Twin Peaks

The House on the Borderland by William Hope Hodgson
Published by: A Public Domain Book
Publication Date: 1901
Format: Kindle, 109 Pages
Rating: ★★
To Buy

There once was a house. It is now nothing more than ruins. There once were strange occurrences there. They are long forgotten. Only a journal tells of what happened there at the house near the abyss and that journal has been found by two travelers. They went looking for some good fishing in the west of Ireland and instead found a tale which will ensure they will never return to this benighted land. The author of the journal lived in the house with his sister who acted as his housekeeper and his dog Pepper. The house was long thought cursed by the locals, and after his experiences, perhaps they were right. One night he had an out-of-body experience and traveled through space to another planet that had a vast plain. There a valley housed a jade replica of his own home. The valley looked more like an arena because the mountains rise up in such away around the house that it feels as if they are watching it, along with the idols that dot the mountains. Before he returns home he sees a humanoid pig creature trying to force its way into the jade version of his house. The creature clearly sees him before he departs. Months later the humanoid horrors attack his home. This time it's not on some distant planet but right outside his door. He doesn't know how, but he fights them off. They appeared to have come out of an ever growing pit near his home and after the attack he plans to investigate. He and Pepper laboriously work their way further and further into the pit only to see that at the bottom there is no bottom, just an abyss. They have to fight their way out of the pit against rushing water and their own frailties. Pepper is injured in the exodus. The pit becomes a lake but the sound of rushing water is constant, which leads to the realization that a mysterious door in the cellar of the house leads directly into the abyss. The house is perched above nothing. Time expands and contracts. He sees his lost love, he sees Pepper age and die before his eyes, he sees the creatures return, he sees the door open...

At the very heart of this book there is a great Gothic horror story to be had, but you have to wade through a lot of slop to get to it. It's not that the slop isn't interesting from a historical point of view, you can obviously see how this work influenced authors from H.P. Lovecraft to Terry Pratchett. Pratchett even said that The House on the Borderland was "the Big Bang in my private universe as a science fiction and fantasy reader and, later, writer." Not knowing that Pratchett felt this way prior to reading it when the protagonist ends up on a foreign planet surrounded by idols I was instantly reminded of Pratchett's writing to a distracting degree. I'm just happy it turns out I wasn't hallucinating this, which is probably what most of this novel is. But going back to what worked in this novel, one night the house is attacked by the humanoid pigs previously seen in the vision of the other planet. They have somehow emerged from the pit near the house and decided to attack it. They are vicious and intelligent, but after a battle raging a full twenty-four hours the protagonist is victorious if still perplexed. Where did these creatures come from? Where are the bodies of those he successfully killed? He doesn't go out into the garden for days after the battle for fear of attack, but could the survivors really have taken away their fallen comrades? And did any of this even happen. That's what I find most interesting about this story is that here we have an entirely unreliable narrator, yet for these few pages as the battle rages, he seems lucid enough to be telling the truth. Yet his omissions make you question your own opinion on his sanity. The biggest problem is where is his sister? She seems to come and go throughout as an afterthought, but during a battle one would think that she would make an appearance. So then you start going further down the unreliable narrator rabbit hole and wondering if she even exists. What's more, are the humanoid swine really trying to break into the house on Earth or, because we saw the house on that far distant planet where the swine are supposedly from, is the attack happening to that house and somehow there is a rift in time and space? Whatever is really going on here, this small slice of the pie makes the rest of the hallucinatory rants almost worth it.

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: Book Club, Going Gothic, Gothic, H.P. Lovecraft, Horror, Humanoid, Interstellar, Journal, Ruins, Science Fiction, Secret Door, Swine, Terry Pratchett, The House on the Borderland, The Last Word, William Hope Hodgson

There's FINALLY an adaptation of Locke and Key! While I haven't been a Keyhead for long, only about two years, I have learned from my fellow community members all about the frustratingly long wait to finally see these amazing comics by Joe Hill and Gabriel Rodriguez adapted for the small screen. There was a 2011 pilot notably starring Miranda Otto as Nina Locke. If you search around online you can usually find somewhere to watch it, though I haven't. Then Hulu had a bigger named cast pilot in 2017 which starred Frances O'Connor as Nina which I'm personally glad didn't take off due to Frances O'Connor issues that are very deep-seated in me. But 2020, despite all the other crap out there, finally saw Locke and Key come to Netflix with the even better news that we'll be getting more of it! In an age where Netflix is culling shows like there's no tomorrow, Locke and Key will continue to live on! So how does this adaptation compare to the comics? Well, it has Aaron Ashmore, otherwise known as "The Ashmore of My Heart," so right there is a big tick in the winning category. Overall it's a solid adaptation. They leaned more into the fantastical elements and the magic instead of the horror. So think Willy Wonka with the occasional boat ride. Because this show doesn't skimp on bringing the scary when it needs to, but it left out the brutal rape of Nina and other elements that would have made it strictly for an adult audience instead of more teens and up. There are also some fascinating new keys, some twists I didn't see coming with plot changes that make this an enjoyable viewing experience for new and old fans. So while my heart still belongs to the comics, this show has my undivided attention.      

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: Aaron Ashmore, Adaptation, And the Emmy Goes To, Fantastical, Frances O'Connor, Gabriel Rodriguez, Horror, Hulu, Joe Hill, Keyhead, Keys, Locke and Key, Miranda Otto, Netflix, Pilot, Rape, Renewed, Willy Wonka

My love of all things Gothic isn't going away anytime soon, so I figure, Going Gothic is here to stay. A permanent fixture during the blustery time of year when the snow melts and reveals all the secrets it's been hiding. Even though that can happen as late as May in Wisconsin, I am ever hopeful that it will be in March. What I love about the "umbrella" of the term Gothic is that so many books can fit under it, from romantic parody of the Gothic tropes, to all out horror, and everything in between, and yes, that is basically what you're getting this time around. A veritable cornucopia of Gothic goodness. Also here's hoping, knock on wood, that I do not have a whole bunch of health issues, including the worst cold I might have ever had, happen again this month so everything arrives on time instead of a few hours to a few weeks later... sorry Assassination Vacation, you will shortly have all your posts up. I think.  

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: Assassination Vacation, Going Gothic, Gothic, Health Issues, Horror, Parody, Sick, Wisconsin

Tales of H.P. Lovecraft by H.P. Lovecraft
Published by: Harper Perennial Modern Classics
Publication Date: 1935
Format: Paperback, 346 Pages
Rating: ★★★
To Buy

The world is stranger than it seems. No one knows this better than those who have been to Miskatonic University. But then, if you've been to this Ivy League school you've probably been there to catch a glimpse of their extensive collection of occult books and are therefore used to the strange. Perhaps you are even hoping to see the famous Necronomicon, capable of summoning the Old Ones. If that is the case, stories of ancient creatures plaguing the dreams of artists and poets are probably your bread and butter. Meteorite's bringing luminosity and madness to a small valley might seem plebeian. But at least you are forewarned. At least you know of the dangers that can be had on a street that can never be found again where you listened to the most haunting of music played on a viol. You know that sounds within the walls might bring a sleepless night or they might bring death to those you care for. You know that there are aliens and creatures beyond man's knowing and that sometimes this knowledge brings madness. Perhaps you yourself are mad. Maybe you were a professor at Miskatonic University who was called to a strange happening and your eyes were opened to the depravities that are possible when man and beast unite. Or maybe you went on an expedition, nothing more simple or academic than that. Then something went wrong. Someone went missing. Your worldview was forever changed and you were left with one purpose, to conceal the discovery of this horror from the rest of the world forever. Here's hoping you succeed and don't get in league with evil. But evil is so persuasive...

While most readers would probably place Lovecraft in the horror or fantasy sections of their bookshelves, he was distinctly influenced by the Gothic and in my mind that is where he belongs. Such authors as Edgar Allan Poe and Robert W. Chambers helped lay the groundwork for Lovecraft and all three of these men straddled genres. If you keeping going backwards in classification you'll see that Gothic is the only way to encapsulate all of them, because horror eventually arose out of the Gothic tradition of the 18th and 19th centuries. Yet Lovecraft has almost defied classification, he has become a byword for cosmic horror and knowledge beyond the ken of man, knowledge that often leads to insanity. His greatest creation, Cthulhu, is known by those who don't even know who Lovecraft or Arkham or Miskatonic University is. His imagery has become a part of popular culture and his influence is still felt. For me his influence is felt even closer to home in that my family owns Stanton and Lee Publishers which started as an imprint of Arkham House, which was founded by August Derleth and Donald Wandrei to publish Lovecraft's work in beautiful hardcover editions. Therefore it's kind of embarrassing to admit that while familiar with Lovecraft's work I had actually never read it until now. What struck me most about this collection of his short stories is you can instantly see why his writing is classic. It's not just looking beyond his work and seeing how much influence he has had on other writers from August Derleth to Terry Pratchett to Bruce Campbell to the Duffer Brothers, but it's how his work was so original. His work feels so modern, so fresh, so out of it's time. His legacy might be great, but it's endured because he was a gifted writer who saw the world differently, much like the afflicted artists who people his stories.

As for this collection hand-picked by Joyce Carol Oates after all the copyright issues were settled... without having read any of Lovecraft's stories not included here, I'd say it's a very solid collection that should have left "At the Mountains of Madness" out. Now I know those who are fans of Lovecraft are wondering why I would omit his most famous work. Well it's because a novella has no business being included in a collection of short stories, it creates an imbalance in the book's flow. Also, his writing style works better on a smaller scale. I'm not talking worldbuilding, I'm talking length. He has a way of packing such a punch with his shorter stories that having the time to search miles and miles of Antarctica AND see giant penguins who actually have nothing to do with the plot makes the punch lose it's impact. It's true, shorter is sweeter. As a reader I'm not a fan of short story collections. One really badly picked or placed piece can throw off my entire opinion of the book, IE "At the Mountains of Madness." Though in fairness to this collection I didn't hold the novella inclusion against it, that's Joyce Carol Oates's fault. But I did have issues with Lovecraft's writing, and not just with the occasional out-of-touch reference that is the product of his time that he expressed through his continued use of inbreeding as a plot point, but through his repetitive use of certain words, phrases, stylistic elements, and plot twists. That's the problem with a writer who has certain ticks when stories that weren't meant to be presented together are, you see where he repeats. You think perhaps you should start a drinking game for every time he uses the word "cyclopean" but then worry that you will die of blood alcohol poisoning. But I think that if you were to just space out the reading of his work you wouldn't find this as annoying as someone who reads right through.

Yet this repetition isn't all bad. Yes, it can be irksome, but it also helps his stories to have an inter-connectivity. It's interesting to me, reading these stories almost a hundred years after they were written that he is obviously setting all these stories within the same universe of his creation. He's worldbuilding on a level that, as time goes on, is becoming more and more popular. How many tie-ins, prequels, sequels, what-have-yous are now out there in the world? Characters from Miskatonic University reappear or are referenced in other stories. Events that have happened in an earlier story with say a University expedition have consequences in a story that was written later about a different expedition. This more than anything else is why people have latched onto his work. He has created his own universe and while his longest story is nowhere near a sizable book if you put them all together you have one heck of a story. I think this is why so many authors are drawn to writing stories within his world. It's not just that it's iconic, it's that it's so specific, so well built that to write within these confines gives you a freedom and the hope that a little of his genius will rub off on you. While I'm not going to debate the difference between true literature and fanfic here, because that is too thorny an issue, there has to be something said to the freedom of writing in someone else's voice. Even Neil Gaiman has gone all out fanboy with his Sherlock Holmes pastiche set in Lovecraft's universe, "A Study in Emerald" which should be noted isn't the only time Sherlock has fought with Cthulhu in various other authors work. But it is very interesting to muse on the fact that Conan Doyle and Lovecraft are contemporaries... makes you think, doesn't it?

Though, for me there were two stories that really struck home, "The Rats in the Walls" and "The Shunned House." Both stories deal with houses that have weird effects on the residents. Needless to say these homes have death within their walls yet hint at "the other." Be it cannibalism, paganism, werewolves, these stories work because not only are they suspenseful, but they are also left open ended enough that you have to draw your own conclusions. With the mysterious, sometimes having everything tied up neatly in a bow is dissatisfying. The hints, the surmises you reach, they can scare you more then knowing exactly what was going on. These two stories need to be read in one sitting, the pages turned as fast as your eyes can take in the words. These stories go for the tropes of traditional Gothic stories, and yet, Lovecraft knows how to tweak the narrative just enough to make the genre all his own. That is why I think so many people shy from calling him a Gothic writer, he has made the genre his bitch. While "The Shunned House" is slightly predictable, following genre conventions, I defy anyone to see that ending coming in "The Rats in the Walls!" A story about a man restoring his ancestral home, you expect a bit of ghosts and ghouls, you don't expect him to become a cannibal and eat his son's best friend after dreaming that he was a pig now do you? Right there is the essence of Lovecraft. Serving up the unexpected in a very macabre way. He's fused his own weird notions of aliens and outer space with what people expect from the Gothic and created what is and will always be Lovecraftian.

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: Arkham House, At the Mountains of Madness, August Derleth, Bruce Campbell, Going Gothic, Gothic, H.P. Lovecraft, Horror, Lovecraft, Miskatonic University, Necronomicon, Neil Gaiman, Terry Pratchett, Worldbuilding

After last year I now realize that I am not along in my Gothic obsession, or should I call it predilection, because it seems I'm just drawn to the genre whether I intend to be or not. Therefore I welcome you to Going Gothic 2: The Gothining! Or perhaps I should say Going Gothic 2: The Rise of Cthulhu. Why "The Rise of Cthulhu" you might ask? Because in the last year my Gothic bent went more to the monstrous side... Because Gothic literature isn't all about a fair damsel in a dilapidated mansion, oh no, Dracula, Frankenstein, Cthulhu, these are the creatures of the Gothic genre! Because Gothic does have the tendency to slip, ever so slightly, towards horror. And horror would be a good way to categorize 2017 and my reading just went with it. Therefore we might have some more "traditional" tales, but we will also have some off the beaten path, in Antarctic wastes, with wolves howling at the gates. So join me in a month of revelry to the gods of the Gothic.   

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: Angela Carter, Antarctic, Chthulhu, Dracula, Frankenstein, Going Gothic, Horror, Lovecraft, Mary Stewart, Monsters

The Birds
Based on the short story by Daphne Du Maurier
Starring: Tippie Hedren, Rod Taylor, Jessica Tandy, Veronica Cartwright, Suzanne Pleshette
Release Date: March 28th, 1963
Rating: ★★★★
To Buy

Melanie Daniels is picking up a mynah bird for her aunt when she meets Mitch Brenner. As is the nature of this young socialite who is inclined to play practical jokes, the mynah bird having been chosen to repeat certain four letter words, she pretends to be a sales associate willing to help Mitch in his search for two love birds for his little sister's birthday. Of course, it's really Mitch who's playing the joke on Melanie, knowing full well about this girl who likes to play in Italian fountains naked. Melanie, chagrined, decides to one-up Mr. Brenner and shows up later at his home with the love birds only to find he's headed to Bodega Bay to spend the weekend with his family. Never one to be deterred Melanie heads up there to deliver the birds in the most convoluted and confounding manner. Instead of simply driving up to his house she rents a boat to sneak up on his dock and therefore leave the birds as a surprise.

Melanie gets the result she was hoping for, Mitch races back to town to meet her... too bad she's attacked by a bird on the way back, marring her triumphant approach and perfect hairdo. That night she is invited to dinner at the Brenners, where she gets to meet Cathy, the birthday girl, and Mitch's mother, Lydia. After a persistent Cathy insists that Melanie stay for her party the next day Melanie stays with an ex of Mitch's and Cathy's teacher, Annie. That night after dinner with Mitch and his family a bird kills itself against Annie's door. The next day at Cathy's party birds come out of nowhere to harm the children. The attacks become more and more fierce, the death toll rising. The Brenners and Melanie eventually take refuge in a house boarded shut mourning the death of Annie and countless others. As night falls there is no end in sight of these ever vicious, ever increasing attacks that come in waves. As dawn breaks we are left with a minor victory, they survived the night. But how much longer will they live?

The irony of The Birds is that you can see that Daphne Du Maurier would have loved the movie if it hadn't been her own story twisted out of shape and stripped of all subtext. She loved the conventional being destroyed by the unexpected, be it a midget mistaken for a child or a lovely usherette killing RAF officers as a calling. Therefore a meet cute that goes apocalyptic starting with an unexpected braining by a bird in Bodega Bay, yes, this is right up her alley. Only it's not what she had written. The Birds is perhaps the movie by Hitchcock, more than any other, that could be labeled a summer blockbuster, even if this was before JAWS set the standard. That is the problem. Hitchcock wanted to make an apocalyptic blockbuster out of a story of subtlety and nuance. Of course by this third outing with Hitchcock Du Maurier should have known what she was in for. A story about one family's attempt at survival against the onslaught of birds was turned into a romantic comedy with a chance meeting that soon spirals into death, death, and more death, with a side of a man on fire. A world of feathers and blood. Where what you see is what you get.

I can't help but feel sorry for Du Maurier. Sitting, watching this film, you can see how Hitchcock's mind was working when he read and then cannibalized her story. There's the lone telephone booth taken off a Cornish Moor and the school bus that brings our hero's daughter home for school, which lead to Hitchcock thinking; how about an attack IN the telephone booth, and what good is a school bus full of children when you can put a whole school in jeopardy with no bus to protect them? Yes, you can see the genius of Hitchcock at work because these are images forever shared in our zeitgeist. But how must Du Maurier have felt? Betrayed? Again? No wonder people think her story "The Birds" is just about the apocalypse without any deeper meanings, because her story was eclipsed by the iconic images of Hitchcock. Yet it's a DAMN fine and original take on the end of days. Sure it's stripped down and went for shock value, but can you think of a Hitchcock film this memorable and bleak? This is just pure horror. Hitchcock had wanted to end this movie with a shot of the Golden Gate Bridge covered in birds... interesting thought, birds bringing about the end of days, no matter who's the storyteller.

The Birds also broke with convention. Movies have scores, it's a fact of life, they give out an Oscar for it. Heck even all television you watch is scored, some more professionally and competently than others, but we expect melody to underscore our acting. Hence when this doesn't happen, like in the Buffy the Vampire Slayer episode where Buffy's mom dies it stands out as original and is lauded. Now I don't know if Hitchcock was the first to do this stunt, but it still packs a wallop to this day. Seriously, it was gutsy to make this movie with no soundtrack other than practical sounds. Yes, it goes in the exact opposite direction that Du Maurier had pictured with the ominous silent attacks. But having the attacks drown out the very voices of the actors leads to another kind of horror. A cacophonous nature versus a silent one. Aside from the shower scene in Psycho, the scene where Melanie waits outside the school for young Cathy while the birds slowly multiple on the jungle gym is one of the most ominous and scary in film history. The reason why it works so well is the counterbalance of the quietly massing birds with the children's innocent singing. This signing is the only music you'll get. This adds to the realism and also shows that birds turning against us is scary enough with their piercing cries that they don't need a Bernard Herrmann orchestral backing to get the blood pumping.

But a flaw in this film is that we are obviously supposed to be rooting for the humans to win. Or at least I assume we are. The problem is, aside from Annie, I don't like any of the characters. The Brenner family is a dysfunctional family worthy of comparison to the family in Du Maurier's The Scapegoat. While Melanie fits right in with her mommy issues that the distant Lydia can hopefully fix. So while I enjoy this film it's not really my favorite Hitchcock film. I take glee in the death and destruction. Melanie is a spoiled rich girl, Mitch is a magnetic man whom women flock too, which I can not see for the life of me, Cathy is a spoiled and clueless little girl, and Lydia is emotionally remote and almost a cold hearted bitch. This cast of unlikable characters being slowly tortured makes me laugh. I know it's some perverse, dark sense of humor that resides in me, I blame my grandparents, but I take joy in these characters's pain. Because if this is a cross-section of humanity? Let the birds loose. And that is why the ending is dissatisfying. No one wins. It's open ended. The humans are beaten but not destroyed. Yet what chance do they have against the number of birds in the world?

And that's what I really don't get about this film. The ending is inconclusive and the heroine is beaten. Hitchcock was known for subverting expectations with his films, especially with regard to his female leads. Psycho was sold as a new Janet Lee vehicle, and yet she is killed very quickly and the film falls on the shoulders of Anthony Perkins. But there's subverting expectations and then there's this. This feels like something different. I've always felt the ending was a little off. The bubbly socialite turned into a near comatose zombie never sat right with me, and then I watch The Girl, a TV movie about Hitchcock and his relationship with Tippi Hedren. Now I kind of get why the ending of The Birds never sat right with me and also why I hate Marnie, Hitchcock's followup with Tippi, so much. These movies were really about breaking Tippi's will. Subjugating her to Hitchcock's every whim. I think without ever knowing this I felt it in her performance, I felt unease. I felt creeped out. With the recent revelations about Last Tango in Paris you can draw a quick parallel to Melanie's attack in the bedroom. It feels like a rape scene, because it is one. That is the true horror of The Birds. Man's nature, not bird or beast's.

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: Apocalypse, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Daphne Du Maurier, Du Maurier December Deux, Hitchcock, Horror, JAWS, Last Tango in Paris, Marnie, Psycho, Rape, Subtext, The Birds, The Girl, The Scapegoat, Tippi Hedren

American Psycho by Bret Easton Ellis
Published by: Vintage
Publication Date: March 6th, 1991
Format: Paperback, 401 Pages
Rating: ★★★
To Buy

Patrick Bateman and his friends are the epitome of yuppiedom. Young, highly successful investment bankers, they wear the right designer labels, they are seen at the right restaurants, and they drink the right bottled water. Bateman could be any one of them, only he harbors something darker behind the veneer that is the true depth of those around him. He satisfies a violent blood lust killing women and men. They might have offended him, they might have merely looked at him the wrong way, or they might have a better business card. As Bateman fuels this dark need his desire to kill comes sooner and sooner. But with everyone living in their own chemically aided hermetically sealed bubble who would even notice his crimes?

American Psycho is one of those books that everyone knows about. Like classics that people brag about reading, I'm not sure how many of those people have actually read this book. The bookseller at Barnes and Noble who checked me out and who has literally never said more then a few words to me ever (even more impressive when you think how often I go to the bookstore) got all gushy about this book and Bret Easton Ellis, but with the caveat that it is violent. He wasn't wrong. This book is not an easy read. The violence and culture of the time make it hard to swallow. Yet there's something about the underlying message lambasting our culture that calls to us and makes the book still relevant. Why else would there not only be a movie but a musical, which actually makes more sense then you'd think, and a contemporary television show about an older Bateman in the works? Because Patrick Bateman is the zeitgeist of the late 80s in New York, whose afterimage can sadly still be seen today.

There's a fine line between camp and horror that Ellis walks in this book. American Psycho succeeds when it's subtle. Before we witness Bateman kill firsthand it's scenes like the one at the laundromat when he's trying to explain through belligerence and a language barrier the importance of getting his sheets whiter than white. Of course the sheets bear the hallmarks of the previous night's killing, but having not seen the killing the interaction is laced with dark humor. Not to mention my favorite scene where he decides his colleague must be killed for having a nicer business card. Being suggestive works far more than being graphic, and it's not long before Ellis is graphic. This is when the book shifts, and in my mind, starts to fall apart. Our imagination can be pretty horrific with just implying what happened, but Ellis, he is one sick fellow for some of the imagery he conjures, especially what "happens" to Bateman's ex from college.

Yet one does wonder how deliberate this downward spiral is. It's clear that Bateman's killing spree is ramping up, and therefore it does make sense to go gorier and grosser as he unravels, but it makes for a less readable story. The unraveling also raises the question of how much of this is real? Was Bateman so sick that he hallucinated it all? How else would Paul Owen be seen after Bateman killed him? I have a theory about Paul, but that will hold for a minute. It's the questioning of Owen still being alive as well as Bateman's seeming ability to get away with it all that makes one think perhaps it didn't happen. With the amount of drugs Bateman takes and looking to scenes like the chase with the helicopter, one can see how the "it's all in his mind" theory is plausible. And is it any less horrific to know that these are just his thoughts? For my money, I think he was a murderer, but I do like the ambiguity.

Going back to the zeitgeist and Bateman's mindset, I think American Psycho is a scathing attack on our culture during the late 80s. It's a flawed attack, but it gets it's point across admirably. One of the reasons it's hard to get into this book is the sheer number of designer brands Bateman lists. Every article of clothing in the whole book from Bateman's own wardrobe to everyone else he encounters is stripped down to their socks and shoes. After awhile you think that perhaps Ellis could lighten it up because he's gotten the point across, but he doesn't. I think that the fact that he doesn't give it up shows even stronger the relentless consumerism in our society. But it's not just the buying of more and more designer labels, it's also the lifestyle that goes with the designer labels, the physique that must be maintained, the music you listen to, everything is detailed to the nth degree and it shows how vapid and shallow our culture can be at it's very worse.

But not only does American Psycho attack our habits, it attacks what these habits make of us. Throughout the book Bateman is again and again mistaken for other investment bankers. He is interchangeable with his colleagues. Indistinguishable. Hence Paul Owen also being interchangeable and being able to be seen from beyond the grave.  The only thing that really separates Bateman is his blood lust. He is just a cog in the machine that is our culture. When he finally confesses his crimes they are viewed as a joke. Not only that, but the man he confesses to doesn't even realize he is Bateman! Once again he could be anyone. Everyone is only concerned about themselves and their problems, nothing else is relevant or even absorbed into their consciousness. This anonymity gives Bateman great freedom in being able to commit his crimes, but reflected back on us, this interchangeability means that Bateman might not be the "American Psycho" of the title. What do you see when you look in the mirror?

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: America, American Psycho, Brand Names, Bret Easton Ellis, Business Cards, Consumerism, Horror, Interchangeable, Killing, Murder, Patrick Bateman, Paul Owen, Yuppie

The King in Yellow by Robert W. Chambers
Publication Date: 1895
Format: Kindle, 203 Pages
Rating: ★★★
To Buy

Never read "The King in Yellow." Your life will be forfeit, insanity will come to you and you will welcome it gladly. Ah, but to resist such a temptation, how is one to do that so easily?  The play will haunt you and the world will change. It doesn't seem possible in a world where war has raged for so many years that a man or a woman could fall not because of a bullet but because of the written word. But Carcosa will haunt you.

Back in January and February there was only one show that everyone was talking about and that was True Detective. I was quite literally indifferent to it. A cop show staring two actors I've never liked, one of which is woefully miscast in a certain movie franchise I quite like, I had better uses of my time, thank you very much. That was until I heard that it was not a run-of-the-mill procedural because of it's incorporation of elements from the supernatural horror genre and it's references to the works of Robert W. Chambers.

This intrigued me because it wasn't something I would expect to be mainstream and the literary tie-in, well, I couldn't pass that up now could I? While the show fell completely apart in the final two episodes to create one of the most forgettable series in recent memory, not to mention my ire because The Yellow King and Carcosa were nothing more then red herrings, my compulsive need to read anything related to adaptations made me pick up Chambers book, and that is where the real payoff lays.

Chambers doesn't squander his setups with a bad denouement worthy of a schlocky B-Movie, oh no. He is able to create this world of paranoia and unease that slowly infiltrates your subconscious and unsettles you in a way the best horror writing will. While I'm not a fan of short stories, because I feel they sometimes limit your ability as a storyteller to go for the bigger picture, the way in which Chambers has his stories obviously set in the same world and has the through line of the destructive play "The King in Yellow" and the symbol of "The Yellow Sign" he is able to create a cohesive whole while still creating these little jewel-like stories. Though the book falls prey then to inconsistency, because in a collection of short stories there will always be one or two that just don't quite work. It's like a literary law of nature.

The way in which Chambers uses elements of Poe and writers of the Victorian Gothic genre yet is able to presage the world to come that is at once eerily accurate yet also just unnervingly different enough makes me wonder why he isn't lauded more for his visionary writing. Lovecraft was strongly influenced by Chambers, even writing about Carcosa himself, as did August Derleth. So why hadn't I heard of Chambers before True Detective? He should be up there with Poe and Jackson and King!

Chambers taps into something that we search for whenever we read a ghost story or watch a horror movie, that "what if" that creates chills up our spines. The most unnerving aspect of The King in Yellow isn't the titular play but the world under siege that Chambers creates. While some of the stories take place during the Siege of Paris that happened some twenty years prior to this book's publication, it's how he extrapolates these events into the future and in his story set in 1920 the world's recovery from a World War is so spookily precise I feel that he knew The Great War was coming and he was some kind of prophet.

While "The Street of the Four Winds" tickled me in how he referred to a cat's fur as plumage, something I thought only I ever did, it was the story "The Mask" that I most connected to. Perhaps this is because, while many of his stories deal with art, here the artist has found a way to alchemically change anything into marble, and what artist wouldn't be intrigued by an amazing new ability as well as a way to cut corners? The fact that this ability then leads to success but also madness and destruction makes it not only a fable, but a supernatural story of the highest order, because did reading the book do this?

The idea underlying all the stories, but in particular this one, is can someone be driven mad by a piece of writing? Can something be so amazing and so horrifying that it literally drives you round the bend? The fact that most of the stories center on artists or those with artistic leanings, the "sensitive souls," makes Chambers's conceit more layered then most arguments for persuasion. Personally I don't believe that video games can make someone commit a crime or murder, that it's always there, deep down in them, but it's an interesting thought to muse on in the dead of night, to wonder, but what if?

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: B-Movies, Carcosa, Derleth, Horror, Lovecraft, Plumage, Poe, Robert W. Chambers, Shirley Jackson, Stephen King, The Great War, The King in Yellow, The Siege of Paris, The Yellow Sign, True Detective