Tag: Mental Health

Wilder Girls – Rory Power

I wish I were surprised. I wish any of this were still strange to me.

Before I say anything else I have to mention the cover! Aykut Aydoğdu’s cover art is incredible and it’s what drew me to this book in the first place. Of course, the blurb sucked me in too but the cover had already solidified my need to have this book in my life.

I’m often wary about reading books that have a lot of hype surrounding them. The longer it takes me from discovering a book I desperately want to read to actually holding the book in my hands, the higher my expectations grow. Unfortunately this can result in reality feeling like a colossal let down, when it was actually the pedestal I built that was mostly to blame for the disparity.

I’ve been anticipating this read since January and while I enjoyed it, I didn’t love it. It was a quick read and I definitely wanted to know what was going to happen. I never felt a connection with any of the characters though, so no matter what they experienced I felt like I was watching on dispassionately from the sidelines when what I wanted was to be cheering them on, feeling their pain and mourning their losses.

This story is told from the perspectives of Hetty and Byatt, but Reese’s story is also important and I would have liked to have seen the events unfold from her point of view as well. Although I know some information about each of these girls I wasn’t invested in their friendship or their survival.

Once thing I absolutely loved was the descriptions of the Tox’s impacts on the individual characters. If you’re squeamish this may not be the book for you but I was all in for the flare ups of their conditions. I wanted to know why the effects were so diverse and I did get a partial explanation for the differences between students and teachers, and male and female, but I wanted more. I know in stories like this you don’t always get access to knowledge that the main characters aren’t privy to but I would have loved to have been able to read a confidential military report, even if parts of it were redacted.

Because this story begins a year and a half after the Tox began the Raxter girls have already settled into their new normal. It’s brutal but a lot of the emotion that would have been evident in the beginning has already evaporated. There are some scenes where you catch a glimpse of what life would have been like prior to the Tox but you don’t get to see everyday life devolving. This may have helped me to become emotionally involved in the outcome.

I expected to feel the urgency of the events in this book but I never did, even though numerous scenes should have had me on edge. Maybe I set my expectations too high. If I’d read this book earlier or on a day when I was already feeling more emotional I may have felt more for Hetty and her friends. I don’t know.

Despite my whinge (sorry about that. I had hoped to be rambling about my love for everyone and everything I encountered), I’m still glad I read this book. I don’t think I’ll ever want to reread it but I am still interested in reading the next book by this author.

Rating: 3 out of 5.

Once Upon a Blurb

It’s been eighteen months since the Raxter School for Girls was put under quarantine. Since the Tox hit and pulled Hetty’s life out from under her.

It started slow. First the teachers died one by one. Then it began to infect the students, turning their bodies strange and foreign. Now, cut off from the rest of the world and left to fend for themselves on their island home, the girls don’t dare wander outside the school’s fence, where the Tox has made the woods wild and dangerous. They wait for the cure they were promised as the Tox seeps into everything.

But when Byatt goes missing, Hetty will do anything to find her, even if it means breaking quarantine and braving the horrors that lie beyond the fence. And when she does, Hetty learns that there’s more to their story, to their life at Raxter, than she could have ever thought true.

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Halloween Carnival Volume 4 – Brian James Freeman (editor)

Yes, I know Halloween is over but when you’re into horror every day can be Halloween! I did begin this volume in early October but because I didn’t love any of the stories it’s been a bit of a slog to finish it.

Mannequin Challenge by Kealan Patrick Burke – 🎃🎃🎃

Theo is mentally preparing himself to attend the office Halloween party. As an introvert I can definitely relate to his reticence, especially considering he’s an outsider and there’s going to be a mannequin challenge. I was surprised by Theo’s response to the mannequin challenge (we certainly differ in that respect). I wish there had been an explanation, however brief, of how the mannequin challenge worked the way it did.

Death stood by the photocopy machine, a drink raised to its bony mouth.

Across the Tracks by Ray Garton – 🎃🎃🎃

Kenny, Sam and JayJay are from the wrong side of the tracks. The good candy can be found across the tracks in the affluent part of town so that’s where they are trick-or-treating. Unfortunately a bully and his minions are also there, but encountering them isn’t the weirdest thing to happen that night. The descriptions of the bullying were quite graphic and the story ended abruptly. Although I don’t mind some ambiguity, the main event takes place off page and that’s the part I wanted to be able to see. I didn’t get any of the answers I was seeking.

Since they had first encountered him in grammar school, Ed Mortimer had been a permanent part of their lives, a human animatronic Halloween yard decoration that could jump out of the dark at them at any time, all year long.

The Halloween Tree by Bev Vincent – 🎃🎃

Luke and his friends are going trick or treating tonight and for Luke this means he’ll need to face one of the scariest things in his life – the tree on the corner. Luke is convinced this particular tree is alive and scheming against him. Unfortunately I didn’t find this story scary at all.

In that moment it looked like a giant ogre, with arms upraised and outstretched, ready to wrap them up in a crushing embrace, impaling their bodies with spiny talons six feet long.

Pumpkin Eater by C.A. Suleiman – 🎃🎃🎃

Peter loves Halloween but his wife Marlene doesn’t. He chooses this night to fix his marital problems, once and for all. This was a predictable story.

She had no idea that he knew. No idea the price she would have to pay.

When the Leaves Fall by Paul Melniczek – 🎃🎃🎃

In Haverville there’s one farm that no one ever talks about. Signs surrounding the farm warn trespassers to stay away. One Halloween night, Chris and his best friend Kyle decide to find out what’s really going on at Graver’s Farm. Neither will ever be the same. This was the longest story in this collection. With the amount of build up I expected more answers than I found.

Nightfall was coming swiftly, carrying the seeds of slumber. And also the batwings of nightmare.

I’ve now read four of the five volumes in this series and this is my least favourite so far. I’m disappointed that I don’t have a favourite story in this volume. I’m also not keen to reread any of them.

Thank you so much to NetGalley and Hydra, an imprint of Random House Publishing Group, for the opportunity to read this book.

Rating: 3 out of 5.

Once Upon a Blurb

Kealan Patrick Burke, Ray Garton, Bev Vincent, C. A. Suleiman, and Paul Melniczek treat readers to some spooky tricks with a hair-raising assemblage of tales gathered together by author, editor, and master of the macabre Brian James Freeman.

THE MANNEQUIN CHALLENGE by Kealan Patrick Burke
For some, office parties are the highlight of the season. For others, they can paralyze with dread. Theo is determined not to let his anxiety stop him from attending—though maybe he’s right to be afraid.

ACROSS THE TRACKS by Ray Garton
The candy’s always better on the other side of town, even if it means crossing paths with bullies. But a rich house with an unlocked door might just be too good to be true …

THE HALLOWEEN TREE by Bev Vincent
Every town has one: a house or a field or an old tree that just gives off a bad vibe. Of course, those feelings are just silly superstition, nothing to take seriously. Right?

PUMPKIN EATER by C. A. Suleiman
Peter loves Halloween – almost as much as he hates his wife. Luckily, his favourite holiday presents an opportunity to fix his problem. After all, putting his wife in her place should be as easy as pie.

WHEN THE LEAVES FALL by Paul Melniczek
Haverville always seemed like a typical town to me: a place where people work hard, and no one ever really leaves. Until the night I went to Graver’s Farm – and discovered what Haverwille was really hiding. 

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A Wistful Tale of Gods, Men and Monsters – David Ruggerio

DNF @ 26%

I was intrigued by this book’s blurb and was looking forward to a spooky read. The idea of a town that’s inherently evil, with the scares taking place in a graveyard, school and mortuary, sounded like my kind of fun. Unfortunately it’s not working for me at all, which is really disappointing. Even worse, I’m currently surrounded by reviewers who loved this book so I feel like I’m missing out on something wonderful.

I’m finding the story quite disjointed and haven’t been able to form an emotional connection with any of the characters that have been introduced so far.

I acknowledge that I’m reading an advanced copy of this book so hopefully proofreading and editing will fix a lot of the problems I’ve experienced. The punctuation is all over the place. An abundance of commas exist where they shouldn’t and they’re missing where they’re needed. While they could easily be fixed, here are only a couple of the many sentences that frustrated me:

Whether that was Lilly or not, William wasn’t waiting around to find out, he bolted.

That old Ford was a sight for sore eyes, he could now breathe easy.

An extraordinary feeling of happiness and expectations filled the inhabitants, this was their holiday.

I know my punctuation and grammar are nowhere near perfect either, but I’d definitely want someone to clean up my writing if I ever expected people to pay for it.

There was some phrasing that felt awkward:

These were ghosts that were disturbed for keeping evil obsessions hidden.

they were blood-like red in color.

It was an erotic transformation, from a woman of beauty to a fierce beast of uncontrollable hatred for mankind.

This was a horror unlike any before; no man had ever survived such a terror and lived to tell about it.

My jaw dropped (and I almost threw in the towel right then and there) when I found this sentence in the second chapter:

Giving birth was akin to a gang-rape.

Characters have also called one another “homo”, “nuts” and “retarded”.

If the story had grabbed me I wouldn’t have been as focused on typos, including “lightening” instead of “lightning”, as well as the other nitpicks. I hate to admit defeat where any book is concerned but I can’t travel any further with this one.

I’d encourage you to read some 4 and 5 star reviews before deciding if this is the book for you or not. I’m definitely an outlier here.

Thank you so much to NetGalley and Black Rose Writing for the opportunity to read this book.

Once Upon a Blurb

Can a village be inherently evil? Welcome to Brunswick NY, Population 4,941.

On the surface, this sleepy hamlet comes alive in the autumn with picturesque apple orchards, haunted corn mazes, laden pumpkin patches and holiday hay rides. During a snowy Halloween, a young William Willowsby must battle evil forces that have been shielded by the locals for generations. On the outskirts of the town is the abandoned Forest Park Cemetery. All things wicked seem to revolve around the old graveyard. A rarely seen homunculus serves an evil task master. Together they weave a wicked web that attempts to snare the youth of the hamlet. A creepy graveyard, a spooky schoolhouse, an abandoned mortuary and a member of his own family will leave you simply sleepless.

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The Poor and the Haunted – Dustin McKissen

Spoilers Ahead!

It was terrifying to know nightmares didn’t wait for the sun to fade – or for sleep to come.

Jimmy and Kelly knew fear and uncertainty from a young age. Their parents fought regularly and violently, drank excessively and abused drugs. Living in poverty and neglected, Jimmy did whatever he could to protect his younger sister. When their father dies by suicide, their mother becomes increasingly abusive.

In the Lansford home, normal was not an option, and Jimmy faced two choices: Let life eat him and Kelly alive, or shoulder more of the burden than any child should.

Although he remains haunted by his childhood, Jimmy’s adult life is outwardly normal. He has a nice home, is employed and has a loving wife and children. Jimmy does everything he can to ensure his children never experience anything approximating what he and his sister did when they were children.

Things change, and not always for the better.

Jimmy’s daughter is now the same age his sister was when their father died and Jimmy’s carefully constructed world is coming undone. He begins to experience things he can’t explain as painful memories resurface.

As this book was marketed as horror I expected to encounter lots of things that go bump in the night. Although there are supernatural elements to this story that I won’t explain because that would take us into spoiler territory, the main horror I experienced was as a result of more natural (if you can call them that) occurrences.

Child abuse is its own horror and when you consider the legacy of childhood trauma, its impacts on the person who has experienced it and by association everyone who loves them, that’s true horror right there.

PTSD and survivor’s guilt are explored in this book. Because the impacts of these are so pervasive it became difficult to distinguish whether specific events in this book were supernatural in origin or a symptom of one or both of these. This could irritate me in different circumstances but here it made me feel like I was getting a glimpse of what Jimmy was experiencing. I did wonder whether some of Jimmy’s experiences were dissociative in nature; another explanation was provided but I could make the case for both possibilities.

Given some of the content of this book I expected to feel sad and hopeless overall but there was some light pushing back the shadows. Jimmy’s bond with his sister and his repeated attempts to protect her from the harshness of their lives was heartwarming. Detective Mike Carlisle, the only responsible adult in the Lansford kids’ lives, was someone I looked forward to spending time with. He modelled unconditional love and was a positive role model, particularly for Jimmy, whose life could have been vastly different without his influence.

I was left with a couple of unanswered questions. I still don’t understand why Jimmy’s daughter bit his neck. I know his sister did that to their father but I would have thought, if this was Kelly’s influence, she would have chosen a shared memory that was less violent to get her message across. Also, if Kelly had the ability to leave a handprint then couldn’t she find a way to let her brother know it was her? Cliché or not, it doesn’t seem far fetched to me that she could have written a message on a foggy bathroom mirror or something similar.

Pop culture and this book: There were plenty of references to TV series, including Friends and Stranger Things, and music, in particular Cyndi Lauper’s Time After Time. (I love that song!) However, there were so many references to Stephen King’s stories that I made a list. Keep in mind that I am by no means an expert on the King-dom so I expect some references flew straight over my head. Having said that, here’s what I found:

  • Jimmy stays in hotel room 237
  • The dairy farm the family lived on for a while is owned by the Torrance family and it’s located on Torrance Road
  • The ice cream shop is called Derry’s
  • There’s mention of “the neighborhood Cujo”
  • Jimmy’s daughter watches IT.

If you read this book and find references to anything Stephen King related that I’ve missed, please feel free to let me know.

Thank you so much to NetGalley and Black Rose Writing for the opportunity to read this book.

Rating: 3.5 out of 5.

Once Upon a Blurb

As a child Jimmy Lansford and his sister Kelly suffered crushing poverty, their father’s unexplained and frightening suicide, and their mother’s constant abuse and cruelty. Having grown to be a successful adult, Jimmy must contend with the sudden re-emergence of memories from his childhood in Oklahoma and unexplainable events occurring inside his own home. Is it more than memories that haunt Jimmy? Did his parents suffer from mental illness and addiction, or were they possessed by something even worse – and has that presence arrived to take Jimmy?

The first horror novel from acclaimed author and journalist Dustin McKissen explores the nature of hauntings, the ghosts from our past that haunt our present, and the unbreakable bond between siblings who learn early on they can only rely on each other.

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Slash – Hunter Shea

This was bloody fun! So much blood! So much fun! Well, it was fun for me as a reader. I don’t think any of the characters were enjoying themselves as I cheered on from the sidelines during their bone crunching demise.

Ashley is a final girl, the lone survivor of the Hayden Resort massacre five years ago. Since that night she has lived with debilitating PTSD and the nightmare continues for her, inescapable whether she’s awake or sleeping.

Ashley preferred the silence, for within the soundless void, she would be able to hear … things, if they came near.

Ashley’s story may have concluded with her death by suicide (this is not a spoiler – it’s in the blurb) if not for her fiancé, Todd. He only knows snippets of what Ashley and her friends endured at the hands of the Wraith but Todd is convinced Ashley has left clues that will enable him to figure out the Wraith’s identity.

Todd and some friends take it upon themselves to visit the “thousand acres of crumbling resort” to investigate further. I bet they wish they hadn’t.

This is my first Hunter Shea novel but it will definitely not be my last. I adore slasher movies so having those scenes in book form, where my imagination can take the descriptions of what the characters are experiencing and run with them, was something I’ve been looking forward to. I was not disappointed. I love visceral horror deaths and they were not in short supply here!

I was pleasantly surprised by the emotional depth conveyed alongside the gore. I had expected lots of running, frantic dialogue and some good ol’ slicing and dicing. That was all there but there was also an authentic representation of PTSD with Ashley’s character and gut wrenching grief from Todd’s.

Whenever I encounter any stories with the potential for a final girl/guy I play a game of Who Will Survive? Because this is my game and I’m weird, I have rules about how this is played. As quickly as possible after meeting each character I have to decide, based on the limited information I have at that time, whether I think they will still have a heartbeat at the end of the story or not. I’m not allowed to change my vote, regardless of how much information I come across that contradicts my initial assessment.

“Try not to get us killed. Okay?”

Naturally I played Who Will Survive? while reading Slash. Even though I now know who bled out during this “night of horror and impossibilities” I haven’t edited my first impressions to match the outcomes, so you’ll have to read the book to find out who’s still breathing.

So, with that said, who are our victims contestants?

Todd – fiancé of the previous final girl and a man on a mission. Even though he wanders into horror no-no territory by saying, “I’ll be right back”, he’s the main character. Surely he lives to tell the tale, right?

Heather – Ashley’s best friend before she died. She’s caring and a good friend to both Ashley and Todd. I want her to survive so she and Todd can support one another after the blood dries.

Vince – Heather’s husband. I want him to survive because Heather is so lovely and I don’t want her to experience any more grief. However, I doubt both Heather and Vince will survive, so I’m expecting Vince to die at Hayden.

Jerry – Law enforcement don’t usually fare so well in horror stories. Jerry is a misogynist cop so he may die twice, if possible.

Bill – a gambler on a diet. Depending on how strict his diet is, he may not have sufficient energy to outrun a murderer. I think his odds are fairly slim.

Sharon – her older sister, Sheri, didn’t survive the previous massacre. She’s angry and impulsive, which could work for or against her. I’d hate for her parents to lose another child to this killer but I fear she’s going to leap before she looks at an inopportune time.

Elvira – the cat. The Wraith can kill all the humans they want, as long as they don’t hurt the cat. I want to believe Elvira is still purring at the end of this book.

Taylor – not part of the core group. He’s toast!

Kaitlin – also a stranger. Sorry, Kaitlin, but you don’t stand a chance.

“You think they’re all right?” Vince asked. “No one’s screaming. That seems to be the best way to assume things are okay in this place.”

If I wasn’t currently in danger of a TBR pile avalanche I would have already started rereading this book. I’m definitely going to be on the hunt for more Hunter Shea books.

Thank you so much to NetGalley and Flame Tree Press for the opportunity to read this book. Five blood soaked stars!

Rating: 5 out of 5.

Once Upon a Blurb

Five years after Ashley King survived the infamous Resort Massacre, she’s found hanging in her basement by her fiancé, Todd Matthews. She left behind clues as to what really happened that night, clues that may reveal the identity of the killer the press has called The Wraith. 

With the help of his friends, Todd goes back to the crumbling Hayden Resort, a death-tinged ruin in the Catskills Mountains. What they find is a haunted history that’s been lying in wait for a fresh set of victims. The Wraith is back, and he’s nothing what they expected. 

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The Institute – Stephen King

‘Did you see the dots?’

‘No.’

‘You will.’

I love the King-dom! I felt the same way after finishing this book as I did the first time I read Carrie; I need to read every book Stephen King ever writes.

After being kidnapped in the middle of the night, Luke awakens in a bedroom that’s almost identical to his own. He’s in the Front Half of the Institute and that’s where his nightmare really begins.

‘I know as long as they’re testing you, you stay in Front Half. I don’t know what goes on in Back Half, and I don’t want to know. All I do know is that Back Half’s like the Roach Motel – kids check in, but they don’t check out. Not back to here, anyway.’

I was always going to adore Luke. He’s beyond genius level smart but he’s also a wonderful friend and someone I’d enjoy talking with. He’s an avid reader, so even if he had nothing else going for him, I’d be wanting to hang out with him for that reason alone. I related to him when his reading habits were described:

He read the way free-range cows graze, moving to wherever the grass is greenest.

but it was this passage that confirmed I would read any book ever written that followed any part of this kid’s life:

Luke Ellis was the guy who went out of his way to be social so people wouldn’t think he was a weirdo as well as a brainiac. He checked all the correct interaction boxes and then went back to his books. Because there was an abyss, and books contained magical incantations to raise what was hidden there: all the great mysteries.

Fortunately (or not, depending on how you look at it), Luke’s not alone in Front Half. There are a revolving door of kids and the core group of these become somewhat of a found family (I love found family stories!), supporting one another as they attempt to navigate their bizarre new reality. My favourite kid was 10 year old Avery, but I also wanted to adopt Kalisha, George, the class clown and Nicky, the rebel. Okay, so maybe I wanted to adopt them all.

Great events turn on small hinges.

I’m always ready to cheer on a group of people who are railing against injustice. The fact that this group were kids with telekinetic or telepathic abilities who had been kidnapped and experimented on only served to add more oomph to my armchair cheerleading.

I loved to hate most of the Institute’s staff, with the exception of Maureen who, despite the fact that she’s older than me, I also wanted to adopt. It’s easy to despise anyone even tangentially involved in harming children. However, it always amazes me that Stephen King can add greys to what I know to only exist in black and white.

While I was appalled at their treatment of the children under the “care”, I was intrigued by the psychology that had to play out within the individual staff members; what was it about them that made them behave the way they did? What unknown overarching purpose of the Institute could possibly warrant them believing the methods they used were anything close to approximating okay?

No one who fully grasped the Institute’s work could regard it as monstrous.

I could almost see Mulder and Scully in the periphery of this book. This investigation would be right up their alley. Naturally Mulder would lose his gun at some point and Scully would blink at the exact moment the truth was laid bare.

I can’t wait for my next King fix! I’m all in for an author who can make sentences that on the surface appear like harmless fun make me want to cringe when I know their true meaning.

“We’re having a movie this evening, you know. And fireworks tomorrow.”

Rating: 5 out of 5.

Once Upon a Blurb

In the middle of the night, in a house on a quiet street in suburban Minneapolis, intruders silently murder Luke Ellis’s parents and load him into a black SUV. The operation takes less than two minutes. Luke will wake up at The Institute, in a room that looks just like his own, except there’s no window. And outside his door are other doors, behind which are other kids with special talents – telekinesis and telepathy – who got to this place the same way Luke did: Kalisha, Nick, George, Iris, and ten-year-old Avery Dixon. They are all in Front Half. Others, Luke learns, graduated to Back Half, “like the roach motel,” Kalisha says. “You check in, but you don’t check out.”

In this most sinister of institutions, the director, Mrs. Sigsby, and her staff are ruthlessly dedicated to extracting from these children the force of their extranormal gifts. There are no scruples here. If you go along, you get tokens for the vending machines. If you don’t, punishment is brutal. As each new victim disappears to Back Half, Luke becomes more and more desperate to get out and get help. But no one has ever escaped from the Institute.

As psychically terrifying as Firestarter, and with the spectacular kid power of It, The Institute is Stephen King’s gut-wrenchingly dramatic story of good vs. evil in a world where the good guys don’t always win.

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Fugly – Claire Waller

Spoilers Ahead!

You know the feeling you get when you’re approaching a car accident? The traffic has slowed down, emergency services are already on the scene and you don’t want to look. You know if you were involved in that accident you wouldn’t want a whole pile of strangers gawking at you as they passed, yet you can’t help it. You look, even as you’re wishing you hadn’t.

That was how I felt the entire time I was reading this book. I wanted to look away and move on to something lighter, happier, less vindictive, but I kept reading. Why? Because, despite how uncomfortable I was, I still wanted to know. It was compulsive.

I’ve never understood why victims choose to become offenders. Surely if you’ve experienced something painful enough that you could be labelled a victim as a result, you know how bad that feels and wouldn’t want to inflict that pain on anyone else, right? Apparently not.

Beth was bullied at school and now she targets “Beautiful People” online. If she’d simply had some imaginative revenge fantasies featuring some of the worst offenders in her life I probably would have cheered her on but that’s not her game.

Instead she revels in trolling people she wants to be, people who have never done anything to her and who she knows nothing about outside of their likely Photoshopped online presence. It’s a victory for Beth if her victims shut down their social media accounts, and the hatred she receives from her victims’ supporters? Bring it on! It’s like a drug to her.

Here I’m not a loser. Here, I reign supreme. It doesn’t matter what side of the fence you fall down on: lover, hater, you’re still focused on me, talking about me, making me the topic of conversation.

While I never liked Beth I did find some of her commentary about being overweight authentic, from not wanting to eat in public to the shame of standing in a retail store that doesn’t stock clothes in your size. Had she not also been a troll I probably would have found her character fairly relatable. Well, except for the fact that she bought into some infuriating myths surrounding sexual assault and self harm, and her propensity to blame pretty much anyone other than herself. Okay, so maybe there’s not as much relatability happening here as I thought. I did want her to make an appointment with a psychologist rather than study psychology though.

I initially liked Amy, adorable, quirky Amy. She was a bit too sweet to feel realistic but the contrast between her and Beth, who mostly only approximated sweet when she was eating chocolate, felt necessary. (While I’m thinking about sugar, I have to say that I absolutely loved the phrase “chain-eat chocolate” and expect I will probably both do this and use it in a sentence within a week.)

I wanted to hold onto the time I had with sweet Amy and bask in the warmth of the sunlight that appeared to be originating from her pure heart. While I understood her confusion, pain and anger when she learned some truths about Beth, whenever she yo-yoed between anger and forgiveness her personality seemed to change, almost as if there were three distinct Amy’s.

There were a couple of reveals that I’d figured out early on and unfortunately the blurb gave too much away. While the ending felt too neat overall, I liked that there were some questions that remained unanswered. It would have been nice to know who Tori really was but not knowing was even better.

If you have a problem with swearing, this is probably not the book for you. Because I’m me, I got curious. Give or take a couple because my maths isn’t perfect, I counted “shit” and its variations, not including “shite” 77 times and “fuck” and its variations 231 times!

P.S. I wasn’t offended by the swearing. It just made me think of this scene from Supernatural. 😊

Thank you to NetGalley and Carolrhoda Lab, an imprint of Lerner Publishing Group, for the opportunity to read this book.

Rating: 3.5 out of 5.

Once Upon a Blurb

In real life, eighteen-year-old Beth is overweight, shy, and geeky. She’s been bullied all her life, and her only refuge is food. Online, though, she’s a vicious troll who targets the beautiful, vain, oversharing It Girls of the internet. When she meets Tori, a fellow troll, she becomes her online girlfriend-slash-partner-in-crime.

But then Tori picks a target who’s a little too close to home for Beth. Unsettled, Beth decides to quit their online bullying partnership. The only problem is, Tori is not willing to let her go.

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Halloween Carnival Volume 2 – Brian James Freeman (editor)

Like most collections of stories, this one included both hits and misses for me. The first story was my favourite.

Mr. Dark’s Carnival by Glen Hirshberg – 🎃🎃🎃🎃

Professor Roemer loves exploring the myths surrounding Mr. Dark’s Carnival with his freshman class each year. Everyone in eastern Montana knows the legend but while everyone claims to know a person who knows a person who has experienced the Carnival, no one has known the truth firsthand. Until now.

I really enjoyed the growing sense of dread as I read, where the anticipation of the scare was half the fun. Sometimes what remains unseen can be scarier, when you feel unbalanced as you wait for jump scare that may or may not be coming. I had some unanswered questions including the significance of “3-7-77” and the fate of Robert.

Stepping into that foyer was like stepping into a coffin. Worse, actually. It was like walking completely out of the world.

The Facts in the Case of My Sister by Lee Thomas – 🎃🎃🎃

Davey is three years older than Joyce, his sister, and as a child she enjoyed being his assistant as he tried out new magic tricks. Now he watches helplessly as she lays in a hospital bed. I found this story predictable and while Halloween was in the background it wasn’t the focus. The monsters in this story are of the human variety, which is scarier than if they’d been pretty much anything else.

“There are no monsters, Joyce. They’re just in your imagination.”

Mischief Night by Holly Newstein – 🎃🎃🎃

When some kids decide to prank their assistant principal on Mischief Night it sets off an unexpected chain of events. This story read more as a cautionary tale and the story of Willard Cole is quite a sad one. It didn’t have the creepiness I’d hoped for and didn’t even really feel much like a Halloween story.

In Pennsylvania, the night before Halloween is known as Mischief Night. Kids play harmless but annoying pranks, like throwing toilet paper into trees, soaping windows, and egging cars. Occasionally lines are crossed, and what was annoying becomes malicious. Sometimes even deadly …

The Ghost Maker by Del James – 🎃🎃

A hitman reminisces about his introduction to a life of crime, does another job and gets invited to a Halloween party. After stressing out about his costume he is ready to attend the party and before anything Halloweeny actually happens the story ends.

All Saints’ Day is when the Saints in Heaven and the good Catholics of this world share the strongest bond. It’s also the one day I feel least comfortable doing what I do.

The Pumpkin Boy by Al Sarrantonio – 🎃🎃🎃🎃

Creepy clowns. That’s all I have to say about that.

“Uncle Lollipop loves you!”

Themes of loss and grief play out in various ways in most of the stories.

Thank you so much to NetGalley and Hydra, an imprint of Random House Publishing Group, for the opportunity to read this book.

Rating: 3 out of 5.

Once Upon a Blurb

Glen Hirshberg, Lee Thomas, Holly Newstein, Del James, and Al Sarrantonio bring the ghouls of the most haunted night of the year to life in a chilling collection of stories curated by master of horror Brian James Freeman.

MR. DARK’S CARNIVAL by Glen Hirshberg
Halloween is more than just a holiday in Clarkson, Montana; it’s a tradition passed down through generations. Only this year, the ghosts of the past may just be a little closer than usual.

THE FACTS IN THE CASE OF MY SISTER by Lee Thomas
When David was young, he believed in magic. In fact, he wanted to become a magician himself. But meddling in the forces of the mind has consequences beyond what an eleven-year-old can see.

MISCHIEF NIGHT by Holly Newstein
Cabbage Night, Goose Night, Devil’s Night – they’re all the same. Before the treats come the tricks. It’s all in good fun … until someone gets hurt.

THE GHOST MAKER by Del James
When people need to disappear, I make them vanish. The catch? I’ve always got to be on guard – because that knock at the door may not just be a little monster looking for candy.

THE PUMPKIN BOY by Al Sarrantonio
When boys start going missing, Detective Len Schneider is determined to make it right. But his partner knows that there are worse things out there than a dead kid. 

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Every Sparrow Falling – Shirley-Anne McMillan

Family doesn’t exist, I told myself. Not for people like me, anyway.

Cari has spent her life being bounced from one foster home to the next, never staying in one place long enough for any to feel like family. Now sixteen, her latest placement is with Dawn and Jacky, an elderly couple from Ballybaile, Northern Ireland who are “seasoned God-botherers”.

Three months into this placement Robin Merrow, a boy from Cari’s school, goes missing. The local rumour mill is having a field day, particularly Jessica and “the God squad”.

Cari has been spending time with Jessica and her Youth Fellowship friends at the urging of her foster parents but she’d much rather be hanging out with Stevie B., Brains and Muff, who relieve some of Cari’s boredom with actual fun. Jessica’s friends were mostly interchangeable to me but I really liked Brains.

The people in the town seemed to forget all about Robin’s disappearance after a while and while I did eventually learn a summary of his story, none of its content was really dealt with. While several social themes are touched on in this book, most don’t get a great deal of page time, such as when a character suddenly blurted out something huge about their past.

The blurb is accurate to a point, although the book ended up veering off into an entirely unexpected direction. Had I had any indication that a major plot point would focus on the intersection between homosexuality and Christian faith I may have steered clear.

To be fair, some characters in this book are not judgemental and others are well intentioned but naive. However there are also those who wander into conversion therapy territory. Sadly these conversations are quite realistic; I have heard eerily similar accounts from friends whose churches attempted to ‘heal’ them of homosexuality. With a reasonable amount of this story taking place around church activities I enjoyed Cari’s perspective as an outsider.

I identified with Cari’s feelings about foster care and would have liked to have seen this explored further. Her foster mother, Dawn, is firm but caring and Jacky, her foster father, is essentially a teddy bear. I adored Jacky. Cari fairly consistently doesn’t come home when she’s supposed to and they know she’s not truly sorry when she apologises, yet they still decide they need to trust her more by converting the garage into an apartment for her. This didn’t ring true for me. Having had my own experience with a Christian foster family that were of the ‘do as I say, not as I do’ persuasion, I appreciated Dawn and Jacky’s genuineness, but they did seem too good to be true.

Thank you so much to NetGalley and Atom, an imprint of Little, Brown Book Group, for the opportunity to read this book.

Rating: 3.5 out of 5.

Once Upon a Blurb

‘Be nice to the majority of people and they won’t bother you much. Don’t get too involved. Have a laugh but keep your distance.’

These are the words 16-year-old Cariad lives by. She’s just been placed in yet another foster home, this time with an elderly Christian couple in a small town off the coast of Northern Ireland.

Cariad knows how to play this game. She’ll toe the line just enough that her new foster parents don’t ask what she gets up to when the sun goes down, just enough that they leave her alone. It’s easier that way.

But when a boy at school disappears – presumed dead – and no one seems to care, it really bothers her. Then one night out walking on the clifftops, she sees him and he asks her to keep his secret.

‘Don’t get too involved. Have a laugh but keep your distance.’

These are the words Cariad has lived by … until now.

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The Avant-Guards Volume 1 – Carly Usdin

Illustrations – Noah Hayes

I’ve been hovering between ‘will I or won’t I?’ since I first saw this graphic novel listed on NetGalley. I loved the blurb but sports and I don’t mix so well, unless movie marathons or TV series hurdles somehow became Olympic events while I was busy binge watching.

I saw some early reviews of this Volume that told me I didn’t have to adore basketball to fall in love with this story so I finally decided to give it a go and, great news! Those reviewers were right! You don’t need to know anything about basketball to appreciate this graphic novel.

This is Charlie.

She has recently transferred to Georgia O’Keeffe College of Arts and Subtle Dramatics and is not interested in playing basketball, not even after meeting the rest of the potential team: Liv,

Ashley, Tiffany,

Nicole, and Jay.

Liv is persistent though. She and the rest of the Avant-Guards wear Charlie down and she finally agrees to join the team, just in time for their first game.

This story has great diversity, with POC, LGBTQIAP+ and mental health all represented, which I appreciated. Although basketball brings the characters together, the focus is on friendship and having fun.

I loved Noah Hayes’ illustrations. They brought the personalities of each of the characters to life and drew me into the story. I don’t usually mention the colours used in graphic novels separately but I wanted to acknowledge Rebecca Nalty, who coloured this graphic novel, as it was the colours on this cover that initially caught my eye and made me want to read the blurb.

I really like the entire team and want to get to know them all better. While it was Liv’s enthusiasm that hooked me initially, the positivity, diversity and snippets of banter between the friends were what made me want to join their team. I’ll definitely be continuing to read this series. I’m even looking forward to the potential romance, despite being a fairly staunch romantiphobe.

Thank you so much to NetGalley and BOOM! Box, an imprint of BOOM! Studios, for the opportunity to read this graphic novel.

Rating: 4.5 out of 5.

Once Upon a Blurb

When Charlie transfers to the Georgia O’Keeffe College of Arts and Subtle Dramatics, she struggles to find her feet, but winds up exactly where she belongs … in the school’s (terrible) basketball team.

As a transfer student to the Georgia O’Keeffe College for Arts and Subtle Dramatics, former sports star Charlie is struggling to find her classes, her dorm, and her place amongst a student body full of artists who seem to know exactly where they’re going. When the school’s barely-a-basketball-team unexpectedly attempts to recruit her, Charlie’s adamant that she’s left that life behind … until she’s won over by the charming team captain, Liv, and the ragtag crew she’s managed to assemble. And while Charlie may have left cut-throat competition in in the dust, sinking these hoops may be exactly what she needs to see the person she truly wants to be.

From Carly Usdin (Heavy Vinyl) and artist Noah Hayes (Wet Hot American Summer, Goldie Vance) comes an ensemble comedy series that understands that it’s the person you are off the court that matters most.

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