My favorite Booklist Spotlight of the year is now live! The Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror Spotlight comes every August and it is like Christmas for me and all of you. Not only will it contain lists of the best speculative fiction of the year but also, so many extra reviews.
There are so many reviews in this issue, back in May, my editor, Susan Maguire, was saying the print pages were all full. But that does not deter any of us who help cover SF/F/H. I have 3 reviews in the print issue but I also contributed 3 more for online, doing my part to get you the most reviews possible for your collection decisions. And the 3 e-only reviews are things that would not have made it into print in time without me and Susan making it work.
There is so much information here to help all of your speculative fiction readers, and as we all know, there are a LOT of them right now. You literally cannot have enough. But for Horror specifically, I always love how this issue lands just in time for our Spooky Season orders to be placed in plenty of time to serve the hordes of readers shambling in to ask for scary books this October.
I am going to break up the coverage over a few days since there is so much. Today, I will start with the print reviews. All three are going to be in high demand, and interestingly (and this happened just by chance), they represent a wide swath of what horror can read like. From devastating grief horror to a visceral and terrifying vampire epic, to a hauntingly creepy big horror tale, there is literally something here for every reader.
Again, as usual, you can access the full reviews in the print magazine or online here (if your library has the print you can use this link to get your electronic access set up).
Let's get this party started with a small press title by a BIG name author, a novella that I could not put down even though it crushed me. And it's a STAR.
STAR
Kill Your DarlingBy Clay McLeod Chapman
First published August 2024 (Booklist).
Get ready to be devastated and entertained in equal measures by Chapman’s latest, a novella from an award-winning small press. Glenn’s son Billy died 40 years ago at age 15, brutally murdered, his entire face encased in duct tape, left dead in a strip-mall parking lot. The case was never solved, but Glenn’s grief is still sharp and raw. Now retired, Glenn lives with his wife, Carol, and spends his time creating an unwieldy scrapbook, his attempt to preserve the memory of his son and find his murderer. Hoping to help Glenn, Carol signs him up for a writing workshop at the public library, but being forced to make sense of Billy’s death may lead Glenn too far into the darkness. Told through Glenn’s first person narration, readers palpably experience his pain, helplessly watching it spool out on the page, threatening to suffocate all, much like the duct tape did to Billy. For Horror readers looking for a tale that provides an intense and unflinching look into grief as it morphs into a terrifying obsession such as in, The Devil Takes You Home by Iglesias, In Excess of Dark by Lagoe, and Chapman’s own What Kind of Mother.
Three Words That Describe This Book: Grief Horror, Unflinching, Intense
Further Appeal: Every book Chapman writes is awesome, but know that if I give one of his books a STAR that means it is even better than his usual standards. Chapman is a must buy for every library, even single one of his books. In this case, you need to work slightly harder because this one is coming from Bad Hand Books, the Shirley Jackson Award winner, Bram Stoker Nominated small press run by one of the best editors out there, Doug Murano. I point out the editor because I could see his hand in this book. How he helped Clay to keep the story tight without sacrificing the details needed. And the ending was just perfect for this particular book.
Other notes I took about this book:
- a tight, suspenseful, and masterful story here.
- Chapman’s latest novella has a strong connection to his last novel, What Kind of Mother, as both explore parental loss.
- Purposely meant to upset you, but also to make you think about yourself, your own reactions– like Paul Tremblay makes you feel
- So real. You can feel everything that happens here. From the intense emotions to the stickiness of the duct tape.
- A near perfect example of Grief Horror– the emotion is all there, raw and sticky (duct tape) and complicated and terrifying.
- Just prepare yourself-- devastation and entertainment yes, but think about what that juxtaposition of feelings means-- it will leave you wrecked as well; you have to work out having those feelings at the same time-- This is why it is ultimately a star. When a Horror book can take your feelings off the page with what seems like ease, that is impressive (because it is not easy to actually accomplish).
- Crossroads by Laurel Hightower-- is a backlist small press title I still think about and hand sell to so many readers.
- 12 Hours by L. Marie Wood-- devestating and entertaining as well; I reviewed it in LJ in January; still thinking about it.
Soon after Ivory, a trans woman, in a small, seaside town in Massachusetts, comes upon the body of a trans girl, Cabrina, washed up on shore, she is visited by a ghost cat (Is it Cabrina?) who takes her to a hidden world, just off the coast. Xi and Rex, trans girl and boy, are Cabrina’s best friends, who also still feel her presence. The search for answers about Cabrina begins intimately, but as the five operatic acts layer on top of each other, the world and its characters are fleshed out, and the pacing, action, blood, and destruction build, engulfing all in the intense and visceral emotions, until Piper breaks it all open, releasing the existential terror (both real and supernatural) into the world, but not without anchoring it with love and hope. A great choice for fans of original takes on the vampire trope like Devils Kill Devils by Compton, the queer, teen found family of Cuckoo by Felker-Martin, or the grief and cosmic horror of This Thing Between Us by Moreno.
YA Statement: “What's out there that’s so bad even a dead girl is scared of the dark?” This question asked by Xi early in the book is at the heart of why teens who do not mind existential dread and visceral, but not gratuitous, descriptions will want to devour this book.
Three Words That Describe This Book: Visceral, Terrifying (from every vantage point), anchored by love
- This is an epic story told in 5 acts; in fact, it reads like an epic, 5 Act Opera ala Wagner. I say this as a HUGE positive. It has the pacing with each act having its own pacing and story arcs, that build on top of each other. As the story and the world building emerge, the pacing increases until the action, blood, destruction, revenge, violence, and emotions literally engulf the reader in the final act. But each act is definitely needed to build to that 5th act.
- And engulf is a great word for this book in every act. It is an adjective I will work into the 170 words I get for my review.
- 4 main narrators and they are all trans which I will noted and then refer to them by their correct pronouns for their true selves. It is an issue in the book because Carina's mom does not accept her true self. Ivy, a grown woman. Cabrina, the found dead girl of high school age. And her two best friends Xi, a teen woman and Rex, a teen man. Xi and Rex are accepted by their moms (Xi has a single mom and Rex 2 moms), but Cabrina is not. Her mother, the local politician in their seaside, MA, holiday town, has locked Cabrina up to stop her from being a woman.
- In terms of plot, this is NOT a book that I want to tell you what happens more than the plot description. What I said above about the operatic nature of the storytelling gives you a sense of what you expect which is what you need here.
- I suggest you try to read each "Act" in one sitting. Take an intermission between to digest and again, let the story engulf you. And then read another Section-- in full, at once if possible.
- This was the note I am most upset I couldn't fit into the review-- The story has a dreamlike quality at times but I also think that is a trick of the light as well because as it gets more into its own speculative world, the story also gets more real.
- Also, this story is intimate and follows a few key characters in a small town, but it has implications for the entire world. Again-- terrifying from every vantage point. When you catch your breath with the end of the story, you-- the reader-- have to sit with a whole other set of emotions and fear that Piper has made clear but also left to you to imagine. And that is just the supernatural terror. There is also the horror of living in a trans body, and worse, being trapped in a body that is not the right one for you, not allowed to escape it.
- Get ready to feel all of your emotions with this one. fear, anger, love, existential dread, revenge, horror, sadness, joy, tumult, and even peace.
- In the acknowledgements Piper thanks little Hailey for sticking it out, even when she didn't want to. That did break me at the end. I dare you not to cry.
Readalikes: Besides the titles above, Nat Cassidy's Nestlings is also a good comp here-- both are informed by classic vampire lore but also set out their own "rules," creates new fear, and new mythology that is fascinating on its own. I love this sub trend in the re-emergence of the Vampire story in particular.
But this is more than a "vampire" books. It will appeal greatly to Romantasy fans. GREATLY!
In terms of readalikes, it is hard because this book is very unique (as all of Piper's books are). I do feel like this story and Queen of Teeth are family. Like this is the older, sister story. Without Queen of Teeth, I don't think Piper writes this book.
And finally, a creepy, quieter, and haunting tale that may not be as gripping and action packed the first two, but will hold your attention until the very last page. Character-centered, atompshereic horror at its best.
First published August 2024 (Booklist).
The Haddesley Family has lived on the same bog, in West Virginia for generations. As each patriarch dies and is buried, the bog, in return, produces a wife for the eldest son. But, for this current generation– Charlie, the eldest, Wenna, who escaped the bog in her teens, Percy, the son most devoted to the bog, Eda, the matriarch since their mother’s disappearance, and Nora– no wife has come, the bog is dying, and their home is crumbling. Told over the course of a year, with a section for each season, from the alternating viewpoint of each sibling, Chronister crafts an immersive, haunting, and compelling tale of a family being crushed by the weight of their secrets and held hostage by their traditions. A lush and uneasy tale that leaves both characters and readers at the mercy of the land itself. For fans of atmospheric, character driven, Horror featuring a strong sense of place such as Ghost Wall by Moss, Sacrificial Animals by Pedersen or Fever Dream by Schweblin.
Three Words That Describe This Book: Bog Horror, haunting, slightly askew
Further Appeal: Key words that didn't;t make it above: Folk Horror, Appalachian, family trauma, secrets, Gothic, strong sense of place, unease, compelling, confidently written, character
centered.
This is a slightly askew from reality story-- one of my favorite kind of book. It is also character centered-- above plot. We see this one year through the eyes of the 5 siblings. Each has their own perspective and all are unreliable to us because they live an almost cult like experience. Even the sister who "got out" is still limited in her understanding of the outside world. But it is satisfying for us, the more "worldly" reader to see the same situations and events from all 5 of their eyes. If you love character center satires from any genre, you will enjoy this book.
Interestingly, the Bog does not have a POV but is the most important character
I fell into the storytelling immediately. Haunting, full of details and character building but also compelling, the pages fall away. The reader is brought into the family and can clearly see they are missing a lot of information, about the real world yes, but also we come to understand their place in their world very well. The unease grows and grows, the slightly askew tone– clearly more is going on here– there is something at work that is outside the norm. Is it a cult like situation or is there real supernatural stuff happening? The land may or may not have power on its own. I land on the side that it does because from the siblings perspective, it does. The land lashes out at them and their house, it sustains things in ways that are not “real.” But again, it could all be in their minds. There is a a lot of trauma here.
5 POVs, each of the children. Charlie, the oldest and one meant to carry on the tradition, Wenna, got out but comes back for Dad’s funeral rites, Percy, the second son and one most devoted to the Bog, Eda, the matriarch since mother’s disappearance, and Nora, the baby (24 years old but still a child) Love these characters. Each is unique and interesting and heartbreaking in their own ways.
Wenna is our eyes-- as much as she can be. She is able to see the family and their land falling apart – literally and psychologically, since she has lived in the real world.
4 sections– seasons– almost exactly same length– could read in 4 sittings: Summer, Fall, Winter, Spring one cycle, the last cycle? Also there is a definite switch from the men to the women of the family in terms of who has control of the land by the book's end.
Readalikes: I had to cut the statement above for words, but it originally read as: For fans of atmospheric, character driven, Horror featuring a strong sense of place and dangerous secrets such as Ghost Wall by Moss, Sacrificial Animals by Pedersen or Fever Dream by Schweblin
The Moss is the best overall readalike if you needed just 1. Overall, this book is very similar to the Pedersen (which I gave a star because in my opinion, the Pedersen had a better executed ending. This one was great but a little too quiet for the way the story built, although it was very satisfying.)
Also Boatman’s Daughter or The Hollow Kind by Davidson would both work very well. And last year's The Insatiable Volt Sisters by Rachel Eve Moulton. All of the readalikes featured in the reviews of all of the books I have mentioned are also options.
I will be passing this book on to the Shirley Jackson jury to consider. It is a great readalike for most SJA nominees.
Come back tomorrow for more Booklist August 2024 Spotlight goodies.
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