Today I want to point you to Booklist's final issue of the year, listing all of the books that received star reviews [including a few by me]. Below I have the Booklist Reader post which explains the issue and I added the link for direct digital access to the issue which is free through 1/31.
And as the post below explains, there are also 134 NEW reviews in this issue including a horror story collection that blew me away. I actually wrote this to my editor when I turned in the review: "Susan, I wanted to write, 'Tuttle, where have you been all my life?' but I realized that wasn't very professional."
Want to know more? First, I have the info about the issue which is an EXCELLENT suggestion, display, and collection development resource. You can make a whole library best display, including titles from every area of the library using this resource, find a suggestion for any reader or listener [there is a sound bite review for EVERY TITLE], and use the free access to check any areas where you might have collection duties for missed titles.
Seriously, this is a jackpot resource. I even suggest you use your digital access or go pull out the December 15th issues from past years to find even more "best" resources. I love this issue as a year end recap and as an easy, efficient , and effective tool for providing high level RA Service to any patron.
Then, second you can read my STAR review of The Dead Hours of Night by Lisa Tuttle.
The Latest Booklist: Starred Reviews, 2020
Our annual Starred Reviews issue, featuring every single starred title published in 2020 (and short annotations for each), is here! And this year, it’s free and open to all readers, not just subscribers. As one year unfolds into the next and certain books crop up on prominent “best” lists, it is with pride that we present this accumulation of stellar works deserving the highest praise. Along with this starry look back on 2020, Sarah Hunter also presents a Booklist Backlist of remarkable YA reads with expansive fantasy worlds.
The December 15 issue of Booklist is now live. Visit Booklist Online, where you’ll find 134 new reviews. The articles will be free to all for the next two weeks—to have unrestricted access, you’ll need to log in. If you aren’t yet a subscriber, or you do subscribe but haven’t registered for access, you can take care of that today!
You can also find the complete magazine online! Booklist’s digital edition of the December 15 issue is live. It’s a great way to explore the magazine from your iPhone, iPad, tablet, Samsung Galaxy, or any other internet-connected device. With the digital issue, subscribers will now get print, online, digital, and archival access to the 22 Booklist and four Book Links issues each year! Visit www.booklistonline.com.
And the whole issue is free until January 31st for all.
Click here for direct digital access to the issue.
The Dead Hours of Night [Stories]By Lisa Tuttle
Feb. 2021. 234p. Valancourt, $24.99 (9781948405829).
First published December 15, 2020 (Booklist)
After the success of the award-winning Monster, She Wrote: The Women Who Pioneered Horror and Speculative Fiction, editors Kroger and Anderson have begun releasing a series of new books by those forgotten creators such as this collection of twelve stories, originally published in magazines and anthologies between 1980 and 2017, with both an introduction by Kroger and new notes by Tuttle to preface each story. These are character driven, intense horror tales about women, their lives, their realities, and its inherent terror. Filled with complicated, fully realized women, not just “final girls,” Tuttle’s captivating protagonists narrate dark, unsettlingly stories, with a direct tone, immediately drawing readers into their weird worlds, immersing them in the dread, stringing all along, until the inevitable, emphatic last line that leaves readers gasping as a result of the consequences, and yet, eager to dive back in and experience it all over again. Story after story, these dark emotions gloriously amplify, never disappointing. While she was obviously impacted by the groundbreaking work of Shirley Jackson, it is Tuttle’s influence, ringing loud and clear, on the award-winning work of authors like Carmen Maria Machado, Elizabeth McCracken, and Karen Russell, which will finally and thankfully lead readers back to her.
Further Appeal: Sometimes I hate my word limits. This was a review where I felt this hard. I could not get a summaries of the stories in here. But then I was happy because when I removed the summaries, I had room still to really try to sum the entire collection up in a few sentences.
I will tell you that the first story hooked me for the entire book though. It is a thoroughly modern ghost story of a couple, now separated looking for specific home from their past, one that is not on the GPS. The entire story felt like I was out to lunch with a friend who was telling me this creepy story. And then the twist! It was super creepy [creeptastic is a word the copy editors never let us sneak in to the review, but it applies here] and terrifying but without blood or a jump scare.
And that's how it opens! It only got better from there.
I first learned about Lisa Tuttle, from Grady Hendrix when we served on the HWA Lifetime Achievement Award committee together a few years ago. I had never heard of her. Then as I mentioned in the review above, she came up again in Kroger and Anderson's book. Still I never had a chance to read her stories. Well now I, and all of you, have no excuse. Seriously, this is a great collection for a wide range of readers.
Three Words That Describe This Book: character driven, intense, direct tone
Readalikes: Besides the ones above, who are all excellent short story writers, I would also suggest the novels or stories by Gwendolyn Kiste and Samanta Schweblin.
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