Author: Schizanthus Nerd

A Study in Downing – Ava Reid

Effy has read her copy of Emrys Myrddin’s Angharad so many times she can quote entire chunks of it verbatim. A student of architecture (because women aren’t allowed to study literature), Effy has a unique connection to the story.

Though she had read Angharad for the first time at thirteen, she had been dreaming of the Fairy King long before that.

When she learns that designs are being sought for Hiraeth Manor, which will house the recently deceased national treasure’s writings, Effy jumps at the chance. While the odds are slim that a university student a mere six weeks into their degree will be chosen, Effy’s determined to make her design stand out.

Upon arriving at Hiraeth Manor, Effy meets Ianto Myrddin, Emrys’ son, and Preston, a literature student. Ianto is … odd and she’s not a fan of “smug, pedantic” Preston. (Effy’s words, not mine.)

Effy’s disdain for Preston grows when she learns the focus of his study, to discredit Emrys Myrddin. Fair enough, too. If your intention is to cast aspersions on one of my favourite authors, we’re going to have a problem.

A book featuring a character who’s this passionate about a book was always going to end up on my radar. Set it in a location like Hiraeth Manor, which you should really explore yourself before anyone describes it to you, and I’ll be planning a road trip. Add fear, uncertainty, some trauma, magic and a mystery to solve, and consider me sold.

I may have to rethink my ‘I don’t do romance’ stance. Emily Wilde’s Encyclopaedia of Faeries and now this book have both well and truly sucked me in, and I haven’t had a problem with the romance components of either. I was actually looking forward to the characters finally getting their acts together and declaring their love.

“Oh, stop it. You’re being so relentlessly you.”

And now I must retreat into the forest to contemplate my fractured bookish romance worldview.

This book describes dissociation in one of the most authentic ways I’ve ever read. The impacts of the trauma Effy has experienced also rang true.

The writing is beautiful, even when it’s describing darkness. It took me much longer than I expected to finish this book, not because I wasn’t enjoying it but because I wanted to linger over each sentence. I didn’t want to miss a thing and I’m keen for a reread.

I’ve agonised over this review for weeks. There’s so much I want to say but I don’t want to ruin anything. I expect this will be one of my favourite reads of the year.

But if fairies and monsters were real, so were the women who defeated them.

Thank you so much to NetGalley and Del Rey for the opportunity to read this book.

Rating: 5 out of 5.

Once Upon a Blurb

Effy has always believed in fairy tales. She’s had no choice. Since childhood, she’s been haunted by visions of the Fairy King. She’s found solace only in the pages of Angharad – a beloved epic about a mortal girl who falls in love with the Fairy King, and then destroys him.

Effy’s tattered copy is all that’s keeping her afloat through her stifling first term at her prestigious architecture college. So when the late author’s family announces a contest to design his house, Effy feels certain this is her destiny.

But Hiraeth Manor is an impossible task: a musty, decrepit estate on the brink of crumbling into a hungry sea. And when Effy arrives, she finds she isn’t the only one who’s made a temporary home there. Preston Héloury, a stodgy young literature scholar, is studying Myrddin’s papers and is determined to prove her favourite author is a fraud.

As the two rival students investigate the reclusive author’s legacy, piecing together clues through his letters, books, and diaries, they discover that the house’s foundation isn’t the only thing that can’t be trusted. There are dark forces, both mortal and magical, conspiring against them – and the truth may bring them both to ruin.

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For Girls Who Walk Through Fire – Kim DeRose

Every week Elliott attends a sexual assault support group for teenage girls. Every week Elliott hears the stories of the other girls in the group. Every week Elliott becomes more and more certain that nothing is changing.

Elliott is sick of talk. She’s sick of the perpetrators not being held to account for their actions.

“I’ve been thinking about this a lot, and I think it’s time we take matters into our own hands.”

Elliott is ready to do something new and she thinks The Book of Reflection could hold the answers. Now all she needs is a coven.

“For when brought together with a coven – and only with a coven – will the spell most suited to the conjuring witch be summoned. Those who would suppress and destroy you stand not a chance when confronted with the power that lies within these pages.”

Going into this read, I thought I’d be entirely on board with a story of revenge, where victims take back their power while dealing a dose of ‘let the punishment fit the crime’ to those who have violated them. Imagine my surprise when I discovered that, while I’m big on fairness and justice, revenge is actually not something that motivates me.

The more I read, the more uncomfortable I became with the results of the revenge. By spending so much time focused on the perpetrators, the girls weren’t learning ways to manage the impacts of their trauma.

The way the revenge took place left the girls in a passive role. The book, rather than the girls, chose the spell for each perpetrator and until it was cast the girls didn’t know what the result would be. While the girls each decided they wanted revenge, not having agency in deciding its form didn’t feel like an especially trauma informed way of going about it.

I appreciated that this book clearly shows that sexualised violence takes many forms. Those who have experienced it come from all walks of life, as do those who choose to commit those crimes. The short and long term impacts look different from survivor to survivor and healing is most certainly not one size fits all.

While revenge definitely plays a significant role in this book, connection and healing are also explored so while you may walk through the fire with these girls, there’s also hope.

Because here was the truth of walking through fire: it was excruciating, and it burned, and it turned you to ash. But flames did more than burn. Flames also brought light.

Thank you so much to NetGalley and Union Square & Co for the opportunity to read this book.

Rating: 3.5 out of 5.

Once Upon a Blurb

Those who would suppress and destroy you stand not a chance when confronted with the power that lies within these pages …

Elliott D’Angelo-Brandt is sick and tired of putting up with it all. Every week, she attends a support group for teen victims of sexual assault, but all they do is talk. Elliott’s done with talking. What she wants is justice.

And she has a plan for getting it: a spell book that she found in her late mom’s belongings that actually works. Elliott recruits a coven of fellow survivors from the group. She, Madeline, Chloe, and Bea don’t have much in common, but they are united in their rage at a system that heaps judgements on victims and never seems to punish those who deserve it.

As they each take a turn casting a hex against their unrepentant assailants, the girls find themselves leaning on each other in ways they never expected — and realising that revenge has heavy implications. Each member of the coven will have to make a choice: continue down the path of magical vigilantism or discover what it truly means to claim their power.

For Girls Who Walk Through Fire is a fierce, deeply moving novel about perseverance in the face of injustice and the transformational power of friendship.

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All Hallows – Christopher Golden

Welcome to Parmenter Road. For a decade now, your Halloween night tradition has included braving the jump scares of the Haunted Woods, the brainchild of Tony Barbosa and his now 17 year old daughter, Chloe. They’ve added more scares to the path this year, the Haunted Woods’ final year.

You didn’t take a glow stick into the woods with you tonight because you wanted to savour the full experience. It was worth the wait and you’re going to really miss this long standing Halloween tradition next year.

Now you’ve faced down the banshee, you wander over to the Koenigs’ block party. On your way, you think of Zack and Ruth Burgess. You’ve heard rumours about that couple so you told your kids to skip their house when they’re Trick-or-treating. You can’t be too careful these days, after all.

You usually keep to yourself but even you aren’t immune to the gossip you’re hearing at the party tonight. Sure, you feel bad for the lives that are imploding all around you but there’s also a part of you that’s relieved your marriage and your kids aren’t part of tonight’s fodder. At this distance, you can almost imagine this is all playing out on Wisteria Lane.

Hold on. Who’s that? There’s a kid approaching you, wearing a costume that looks like it’s seen better days. You thought you knew all of the kids in the neighbourhood but you’ve never seen them before. You wonder if they’re okay.

“He’ll find me. He always finds me.”

Hmm, maybe not. As you start to ask them what’s wrong, who always finds them, you notice someone getting closer. You’ve definitely never seen them before. You would have remembered someone that tall. Is that who the kid’s so terrified of?

Are those … candle flames where their eyes should be?

If you like to get to know your horror victims before they’re sliced and diced, this is the book for you. If you want to see people’s insides become their outsides, this is the book for you. If Halloween isn’t a day of the year but a state of mind for you, this is the book for you. If you desperately want to visit the place the horrors have come from, join me in hoping for a sequel.

Thank you so much to NetGalley and Titan Books for the opportunity to read this book.

Rating: 4.5 out of 5.

Once Upon a Blurb

It’s Halloween night, 1984, in Coventry, Massachusetts, and two families are unravelling. The Barbosas have opened their annual Haunted Woods attraction in the forest behind the house they’re about to lose. The Sweeneys are fighting about alcoholism and infidelity on their front lawn. Up the street, a high-school senior is about to have her secrets exposed, while down the street, the truth about Ruth and Zack Burgess turns out to be even more horrifying than the rumours ever were. 

And all the while, four children who do not belong are walking door to door. Children in vintage costumes with faded, eerie makeup. Children who seem terrified, and who beg the neighbourhood kids to hide them away, to keep them safe from The Cunning Man. But with families falling apart and the community splintered by bitterness, who will save the children of Parmenter Road? 

All Hallows. The one night when everything is a mask…

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Big Bad – Chandler Baker

There’s an order to these things, a way that events must unfold.

Sam knows all too well what can happen when things don’t go to plan so he makes sure everything is done just right. What’s not part of the plan, though, is his wife, Rachel, arriving home late.

With wolves too close for comfort and an unexpected visitor at the door, thing are about to go bad, in a big way.

While I was here for the horror, unexpected bonuses came in the form of Odie and June, Sam and Rachel’s daughters. Odie tries to be a good big sister, despite June being June. As I waited for the inescapable bloodshed, Odie warmed my heart. She’s determined to protect her younger sister from something neither of them understand and I was in awe of her courage.

“There are things we’ve never told you.”

Thank you so much to NetGalley and Amazon Original Stories for the opportunity to read this short story.

Rating: 4.5 out of 5.

Once Upon a Blurb

For a family trying to make an isolated farmhouse into a home, fear and rage are getting harder to control in a primal short story by the New York Times bestselling author of Whisper Network and Cutting Teeth.

The Strauss family is on knife’s edge. Sam is a resentful stay-at-home dad. Rachel feels the restlessness in her blood returning. Their children are getting out of hand. And a recent mudslide has forced the wolves out of the woods to look for food.

As dusk falls and tensions rise, the family must come together to survive the night —from the threats outside and those within.

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Best of Luck – Jason Mott

Have you ever had a friend with a charmed life? Will’s best friend of twenty years, Barry, has had a recent string of good luck, resulting in all round prosperity. Meanwhile, Will’s luck appears to have run out.

Will knows where his luck has gone, though. He’s so sure, in fact, that he shows up at the architectural masterpiece Barry calls a home with a shotgun. It’s time to introduce Barry to Henry.

I wasn’t sure which of the friends was going to have the worst day but when someone brings a gun to a confrontation, you know it’s not going to end well. Although I had hoped for a specific outcome, the way the events unfolded made more sense.

“Sometimes you have good luck. Sometimes you have bad luck. Everything can ultimately be traced back to luck in some form, right?”

Thank you so much to NetGalley and Amazon Original Stories for the opportunity to read this short story.

Rating: 4 out of 5.

Once Upon a Blurb

Did you ever hear the one about the man with a string of bad luck? The worst is still to come in a chilling short story of an insatiable friendship by the New York Times bestselling author of Hell of a Book.

For best friends with vastly different fortunes, what’s left to hash out other than a forced confession at gunpoint? All that the destitute, sickly and grieving Will demands is that monstrously successful Barry admit to draining all the luck right out of him. Like blood. As the standoff escalates, the truth is not the only thing ready to come out.

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In Bloom – Paul Tremblay

Working on a story about Cape Cod Canal’s blue-green algae bloom, Heidi interviews Jimmy, who is apparently the person to talk to about the bloom in ‘83.

Jimmy tells Heidi a story that’s difficult to believe. Until it’s not.

Honestly, though, I don’t feel a burning need to prove to myself that what I saw was what I saw. I know it to be true, even if it was all a hallucination.

I was with Jimmy as he yearned to be the son his father wanted him to be. I couldn’t wait to see where his story was leading. The conclusion itself didn’t surprise me but I was expecting the story to wrap up a day later than it did, in a different location.

I probably enjoyed the descriptions of the body horror more than I should admit. It was a lot of fun imagining what unfolded after the final page.

Thank you so much to NetGalley and Amazon Original Stories for the opportunity to read this short story.

Rating: 4 out of 5.

Once Upon a Blurb

There’s something in the water in this hallucinatory short story by Paul Tremblay, bestselling author of The Cabin at the End of the World and The Beast You Are.

Journalist Heidi Cohen is in Cape Cod investigating the sources of recurring toxic algae blooms along the coast. A local named Jimmy has his own theory for her. Every year the fetid growth gets worse — but it’s been going on longer than anyone knows. Decades ago, something happened to Jimmy that he’s never forgotten. Is Heidi ready for the real story?

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It Waits in the Woods – Josh Malerman

No matter how unbelievable they are, some stories ring true.

Legend says that the demon imp who owns the white and yellow bridge is searching for a replacement for its lost face.

Brenda was fifteen when her sister, Amanda, went missing. Three years later, Brenda decides it’s time to chase the myth. She grabs some supplies and heads into the forest. She doesn’t tell anyone where she’s going.

Along with her recording equipment, Brenda also brings Larry the mannequin, because apparently traipsing in the forest alone in search of a demon imp isn’t scary enough for her.

Myth and reality collide in this story of grief and guilt. I loved Brenda’s tenacity. I wanted to spend more time in the cave and need to know what happens next. I’d be keen to read about the events from Amanda’s point of view.

“Do you have my face?”

Thank you so much to NetGalley and Amazon Original Stories for the opportunity to read this short story.

Rating: 4 out of 5.

Once Upon a Blurb

Some chilling campfire tales ring too true to ignore. For one young woman, an urban legend calls her into the woods in a spine-tingling short story by the bestselling author of Bird Box.

The dense Michigan forest. Haunting wails. The clip-clop of demon hooves on a bridge to nowhere. It’s more than a tall tale to Brenda Jennings, whose sister disappeared in those woods one fateful night. Three years later, on a solo stakeout in the dark, Brenda goes in after her. She’s desperate for answers, and terrified to find what lies waiting on the other side of that bridge.

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Ankle Snatcher – Grady Hendrix

Marcus and Tess both volunteer at a crisis hotline. They may have only just started dating but already their banter is down pat. It feels like it’s meant to be.

They both have survived the dark days of the past.

“When I was six,” I said. “My dad killed my mom.”

Marcus has always followed the rules his father taught him. Then Tess breaks a very important rule.

There was an inevitability to the trajectory of this story, which had me hoping I’d encounter some insides are now your outsides squishiness. The need you had to check under your bed before you went to sleep as a kid may be reignited, and for good reason.

“You can’t hide from the boogeymen”

Thank you so much to NetGalley and Amazon Original Stories for the opportunity to read this short story.

Rating: 4 out of 5.

Once Upon a Blurb

Obey the rules. It’s the only way to survive the night in a short story about what hides in the dark by the New York Times bestselling author of The Southern Book Club’s Guide to Slaying Vampires.

Marcus grew up believing his father killed his mother — then blamed it on the boogeyman under the bed. Always leave the lights on, his father warned, or the boogeyman will get you. Marcus still heeds the superstition, especially when he invites his new girlfriend over. Is Marcus haunted by a creature or has he just inherited his father’s murderous delusions? The night will tell.

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The Pram – Joe Hill

Willy and Marianne recently moved to Hobomeck, a small town in Maine where religious folk are known as Sin-Planters, which is not creepy at all. One of the locals loans Willy an antique baby carriage so he can cart his groceries home. Also not creepy.

“Leave it here,” she said, her voice a kind of angry whisper. “Just leave it.”

Before long, Willy begins to hear a baby in the carriage, a baby that doesn’t exist.

Although I’ve had good intentions for years, this was my first Joe Hill read. It was easy to get into and I enjoyed the growing dread as the story progressed.

Willy’s story highlights, in a way that only horror can, that when resentment and grief are allowed to fester, it can result in something, well, not great. I was convinced I could hear the sound effects associated with the body horror.

One of my favourite bookish things, accidental learning, came into play here. I’m loving learning more about the Ship of Theseus.

I already own a bunch of Joe Hill books. I think it’s about time for a binge.

Thank you so much to NetGalley and Amazon Original Stories for the opportunity to read this short story.

Rating: 4.5 out of 5.

Once Upon a Blurb

A husband’s obsessive desire for a child leads to an unexpected manifestation of his yearning in a nightmarish short story about fatherhood dreams by New York Times bestselling author Joe Hill.

Willy and Marianne’s farmhouse in Maine has acres of meadow and fresh air, and a lonesome bridle path in the forest along which Willy daydreams and ambles. When he’s loaned a decrepit old baby stroller to cart his groceries home, the rickety squeak of the wheels comforts him. So do the sweet coos of a baby Willy knows can’t be real. Can it? In this twisted thicket, wishes come true — with a price.

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Slime Doesn’t Pay! – R.L. Stine

I’ve got to give Amy credit. If Arnie was my little brother, I would have sought revenge much sooner than she did. Arnie is an absolute brat and their parents don’t even discipline him. He gets away with everything and Amy has just reached her limit.

“Arnie is ruining my life!”

It’s time for revenge of the sticky, oozy blue slime variety. Only things don’t exactly go to plan.

I’m old, so my introduction to R.L. Stine dates all the way back to the late 80’s, when The Babysitter had me not wanting to answer the phone (the kind that plugged into the wall). Having been indoctrinated for a couple of years by The Baby-Sitters Club, Stine also managed to turn me off babysitting for life.

I thoroughly enjoyed being terrified by Stine’s Point Horror books. By the time the Goosebumps books were published, though, I thought I was too old to read them and I’ve always felt like I missed out on something special.

Now I’m old enough to no longer care what anyone thinks of my reading list and this slimefest looked like the perfect reintroduction to one of my favourite authors from my childhood.

This read was just as fun as I’d hoped it would be. Amy’s voice is engaging and her struggles with a little brother whose behaviour had me considering an exorcism are relatable, even with the elements that don’t feature in that many childhoods.

I know kid me would have adored it as well, and probably would have mixed up a batch of slime to see what happened. Adult me has made note of where to find the list of ingredients, just in case.

I haven’t read enough R.L. Stine books to know if he sneaks in pop culture references but, intentional or not, when the creature bounded out of Amy’s closet, it brought to mind the Terror Dog we first met in Louis’ apartment in Ghostbusters. I then spent most of the book hoping a character would blurt out ‘He slimed me.’ But enough about my Ghostbusters obsession. I was also pretty chuffed that the horror movie director’s surname was Craven.

I’d like to think I’d brave Arnie to claim some of his mother’s Friday night homemade pizza. Minus the quills, of course.

I can foresee a Goosebumps binge in my future.

Thank you so much to NetGalley and Blackstone Publishing for the opportunity to read this book.

Rating: 4 out of 5.

Once Upon a Blurb

Lots of little brothers can be pests and troublemakers — but Amy’s brother Arnie is a MONSTER …

In this R.L. Stine family-friendly scare fest, Amy and her friend, Lissa, don’t know what to do about Arnie’s bullying, bad-boy behaviour, and mean jokes and pranks. The little monster is ruining their lives!

The girls decide it’s payback time. Total humiliation for Arnie. They find a recipe for blue slime on a YouTube channel and mix a big bucket to pour over Arnie at his birthday party.

To their horror, the girls instantly discover that SLIME DOESN’T PAY! Before their eyes, Arnie’s whole body starts to change. The slime turns him into a real monster.

Now Amy and Lissa have two frightening dilemmas: Can they save their town from the raging Arnie Monster? And is there any way to turn the monster back into Arnie?

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