Hemlock Island by Kelley Armstrong

Hemlock Island by Kelley Armstrong

I don't read a lot of horror, but once in a while once grabs my attention. Hemlock Island revolves around Laney Kilpatrick, an English teacher and thriller author who is recently divorced and is grieving her sister who lost her battle to cancer. She is raising her 16-year-old niece, Madison, and reluctantly renting her vacation home on a remote island to strangers. Things get out of control when the renters call her in the middle of the night to inform her that there are blood and nail marks all over the guest room's closet. Laney goes out to the house with her niece Madison. Her ex-husband, Kit, also shows up with his sister, Jayla. And then, we have Sadie, a former friend from high school, and her brother, Garrett, who is now a cop. There is so much tension in the group, but we gradually learn about their relationships and secrets. Then one of their group goes missing - and...
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The Low, Low Woods by Carmen Maria Machado

The Low, Low Woods by Carmen Maria Machado

I don't read a lot of graphic novels. I get more caught up in the words and tend to ignore the images, which means I lose half of the experience. However, the art in The Low, Low Woods was definitely eye-catching, integral to the story, and kept me engaged. In a small, Pennsylvania mining town, the women lose chunks of their memory. Two teenage girls (one Latina, one Black, both queer) are on a quest to figure out what's going on. The reasons for the memory losses are at least partially predictable and horrifying. The Low, Low Woods deals with tough topics and doesn't shy away from the fact that survivors deal with trauma differently. It dealt with several themes which could have been explored more, but I truly liked Vee and El, who have been best friends since they were kids. The town is a hard place to live and a hard place to leave. ...
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The Final Girl Support Group by Grady Hendrix

The Final Girl Support Group by Grady Hendrix

Maybe I'm just tired of "final girls." Maybe the characters were underdeveloped and the plot was not gripping. Maybe the book can't decide if it's funny or not. Any which way, The Final Girl Support Group was a disappointment for me. Our narrator, Lynette, is one of 6 final girls who have been attending group therapy for 16 years in the basement of a church. Lynnette suffers from the aftereffects of the trauma she faced as a teenager over 20 years ago. She is paranoid about safety in her house and rarely goes out. Each of the women has coped with her trauma in different ways, but when one of them is killed, Lynn knows that there's a monster after them and they need to protect themselves and each other. Or at least that's how Lynn sees what's happening. The book has lots of action, some really stupid decisions, some paranoia, and a mediocre motive. A lot of people really enjoyed...
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The Blind Owl by Sadegh Hedayat

The Blind Owl by Sadegh Hedayat

The Blind Owl is unsettling and darkly romantic. It's an Iranian classic and I only ran into it because I was looking for something by a South Asian writer, but it's definitely worth reading. The book has two distinct parts. The first one feels almost like a nightmare, but a calm one. It has an inevitability but not one that makes you scream. I chose not to use the word nightmare because no matter how macabre this first part is, it has a peaceful almost tranquil quality to it. Our narrator sees a beautiful woman who he falls in love, or at least lust, with. Then, he ends up killing her and the section becomes more and more disturbing. Then we have a break. The second part presents an alternative story, maybe more realistic but our narrator is still not fully connected with reality. He tells us about his complicated family history and about how he is in love...
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Don’t Fear the Reaper by Stephen Graham Jones

Don’t Fear the Reaper by Stephen Graham Jones

I am not a Slasher fan. I watch the Scream movies, but that's about it. So, yes, I missed some of the references, but that doesn't diminish my enjoyment. It also didn't make me want to watch more slasher films though. And I rarely read horror. However, I loved the first in this trilogy, My Heart Is a Chainsaw, that I made Amber buy a copy. Don't Fear the Reaper is just as good. Jade Daniels is our star once again. It's been four years since the Independence Day Massacre, and while this might work as a standalone, knowing the events and characters from the first will definitely make this one richer. Jade and her chosen final girl, Letha, have grown and changed as they've dealt with the consequences. Jade has been in jail and her conviction has just been overturned. Letha is married and has a young daughter. But Jade's back in town, arriving, as is her luck, the same...
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The Helm of Midnight by Marina J. Lostetter

The Helm of Midnight by Marina J. Lostetter

The Helm of Midnight is a fantasy novel, but it's also horror and mystery. The book opens with a daring and deadly heist. The thieves stole a dangerous artifact of terrible power: the death mask of Louis Charbon. Charbon was once a serial killer and the theft of the death mask means that someone might have the power to channel Louis Charbon’s abilities when they wear it. Krona, her sister De-Lia, and the other Regulators need to find the thieves and discover the truth behind this heist. The story is told through the perspective of three main characters, each in a different time frame. The three viewpoints have different narrators which worked well by keeping it clear whose portion of the story we were listening to. And each read with appropriate emotion and helped flesh out the characters' personalities. Krona is in the present time, trying to solve the mystery and stop more killings. Melanie's chapters take place about two years...
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