For a short story collection, this was pretty great. Garth Nix’s imagination can be a wonderful place, but also a scary one. Ugh, he is so creepy sometimes. The highlight was the first story, a novella set in the Old Kingdom from his Abhorsen series, which is one of my favorites. But there were also a couple of stories in here I loved, and would like to see more stories set in their respective worlds. Short reviews of each of the stories found below. “To Hold […]
This is how it will be when you drown.
Dead in the Water by Nancy Holder is about a ghost ship and the horror that befalls shipwreck survivors who board her. The setup isn’t new but what elevates Dead in the Water is the pitch black execution. Dead in the Water is a harrowing story about trading your soul for what you desire most. It’s a riff on Faust but these characters don’t know they are even making a deal with the devil. It’s about obsession, desire, pain of loss, and being unable to […]
Whacks and Whacks and Whacks
…only a fool would reject the comfort of routine for weeks of murder and monsters. Kindle location 2065 This sequel to Maplewood meets and, in some ways, exceeds its predecessor.
Silly Merricat.
Shirley Jackson’s last full length novel is a startling and unsettling peek behind the curtains of the house at the end of the street that is always dark. The one the neighbor children taunt each other to approach after sunset. It begins with the following: “My name is Mary Katherine Blackwood. I am eighteen years old, and I live with my sister Constance. I have often thought that with any luck at all, I could have been born a werewolf, because the two middle fingers […]