What I'm Reading: Booklist April 1, 2024 Issue

The April 1, 2024 issue of Booklist dropped a few days early and I have 2 reviews in this issue. As usual, you can find my draft review here with my three words and bonus appeal info and more readalikes.

Both titles are from small presses that I trust for you to add to your library collections. They are professionally edited and bound in a way that stands up to multiple checkouts. 

Cranberry Cove
By Hailey Piper

Apr. 2024. 152p. Bad Hand, paper, $12.99 (9798988128632). 
First published April 1, 2024 (Booklist).

Piper, known for her Cosmic Horror, employs the same terrifying tone, this time setting it all in a “people eating hotel.” Connor and Emberly are the private security staff for underground crime boss, Ricard, sent to investigate what really happened when his son was sexually assaulted by an unseen male attacker during a weapons deal at  the notorious, long deserted, and possibly haunted, Cranberry Cove hotel. What follows is the best crossover episode of  Law and Order SVU and X-Files that you never knew you wanted and now cannot live without. Readers experience the horror emanating from the walls with all five of their senses, as the compelling story ropes them in from the start and holds them rapt until the final, emotional scene, but it is Emberly and Connor, their tender relationship as long time partners and their honest discussions about gender and Emberly’s transition which standout here. This is a one-off novella that will appeal to fans of supernatural crime and intense haunted hotels such as in The Return by Rachel Harrison and the backlist gem, Travelers Rest by Keith Lee Morris.

Three Words That Describe This Book: immersive, compelling, haunted hotel.

Further Appeal: You can easily booktalk this novella with the sentence I wrote above: "What follows is the best crossover episode of  Law and Order SVU and X-Files that you never knew you wanted and now cannot live without."

The strong sense of place dominates this story. On page 21, Emberly refers to the place as a "people eating hotel." Piper tips her hat early, yes, but she really works hard to make this NOT a gimmick. The hotel and the world/mythology around it is built meticulously. This is not your ordinary haunted hotel. The world is immersive. You feel, smell, and see the rotting hotel. You get a sense of the underworld Em and Connor operate within.

Also of note is Emberly. She carries the story with the seriousness it needs. She is an excellent investigator, she is a fully realized person, not just a 2D character on a page. 

And it might sound like with all the world building and character development it would move slow, but this is not the case at all. With short chapters that feel like scenes or mini episodes, things move briskly. But not too fast to put plot over the mood, place and characters. it is well balanced.

And I am very tough on endings. This one has a great ending for the story. No other way it could end and feel like the story worked, in my opinion.

Readalikes: I had a whole bunch jotted down but the two above capture the mood of this story. It is menacing and Weird. The Harrison is a little more on the nose but Morris' novel is one of my all-time favorites. It is the very best menacing hotel story I have ever read.

I would also suggest Carmen Maria Machado's In the Dream House which is a memoir, but works very well here.

And for those who like supernatural investigative elements the best, fans of Simone St. James can be directed to this Piper title. While The Sun Down Motel seems like the most obvious option, I would actually direct people to The Book of Cold Cases.

Invaginies

 By Joe Koch June 2024. 238p. Clash, paper, $16.95 (9781960988119). First published April 1, 2024 (Booklist). 

Shirley Jackson Award nominee, Koch, presents a collection of 18 stories that are Weird, lyrical, and grotesquely beautiful. Featuring all of the creepy things readers would want in a Horror collection (e.g. rats, clowns, body horror), but showcased in ways readers would never expect, this is a volume that leaves both its characters and readers transformed. To describe the plot of any single story does Koch a disservice because each tale is more of a character sketch, a prose poem, or  a moment in time, but as the reader moves through, they are stitched together into a book that feels like it could all be one cohesive story, and yet, clearly it is not. A thought-provoking collection that readers will experience physically, making it a great  suggestion for those who like to mix their their literary fiction with visceral, lush prose, recounting stories that captivate and discomfort in equal measure, such as in Tinfoil Butterfly by Rachel Eve Moulton and The Seventh Mansion by Maryse Meijer.

Three Words That Describe This Book: grotesquely beautiful, thought provoking, lyrical

Further Appeal: This is not an "easy" book to read in just about every way that statement can be interpreted; however, that is not a negative thing about it. It is the best thing about it. This also is a signal to you that it is NOT for everyone. But people who really like dark, thought provoking, extremely well constructed prose that challenges the reader to look into themselves as well as makes them uncomfortable, this is the book for them.

A phrase that didn't make the review which I saved for here is, "told with lyrical prose  that will burrow into readers, leaving them transformed."

Here are some more notes from when I was reading and trying to figure out how I was going to talk about this book as a single volume:

• This is literary fiction told through a Weird lens where the grotesque odd and dark corners shine through or twist around the prose 
• Prose is complex and lyrical but also beautiful in a grotesque way. You get lost in the prose and how it takes over you grabs a hold of you and then lets you go feeling changed.

Koch, already critically acclaimed, will keep rising, so get this book on your radar now.

Readalikes: The two books in the review are perfect examples of the reading experience of this collection. I really liked both of those novels and gave them reviews in Booklist as well. If you use those links to read more, you will see many other readalike options.

Back Monday with my April LJ column, so 8 more reviews. And that's no April Fools.