Paperbacks from Hell #4: THE TRIBE by Bari Wood
The Tribe is a novel of continued relevance, as well as intellectual and emotional depth, that makes it deserving of a broad audience beyond typical horror readers. It should have crossover appeal to fans of crime fiction, historical fiction, or religious mysticism, and its themes around Jewish identity, racism, and general humanity put The Tribe on equal footing to any celebrated work of ‘literary’ fiction.
Book Review – HOLLY HORROR: THE LONGEST NIGHT by Michelle Jabès Corpora
The first book is good, and I enjoyed it, but the sequel steps everything up in significant ways to outshine the first. And its setting around Christmas and a high school staging of Dickens’ A Christmas Carol makes this one work better for this time of year than Halloween, or the summer when both the books have been released.
Book Review: The Woodsmoke Women’s Book of Spells by Rachel Greenlaw
It’s primarily a semi-supernatural romance, blended with mystery, home renovations, inheritances, and homecoming.
Into the Wardrobe: WAIT TILL HELEN COMES by Mary Downing Hahn
It’s a dark-fantasy/supernatural-horror middle grade novel that would’ve delighted young me with its spookiness and darkness, but also the strong central story and its emotional resonance.
Book Review: Immortal Pleasures, by V. Castro
I was pleased to sink my teeth into Immortal Pleasures by V. Castro, about an ancient Nahua (from what’s now Mexico) vampire roaming the modern world. Some elements of the book weren’t to my taste, but it was fairly interesting and entertaining.
Double review: What Grows in the Dark, by Jaq Evans, and Terror at Tierra de Cobre, by Michael Merriam
I’ve been in a mood for reading horror lately, and a fair number of interesting stories in that field have been crossing my path, so I’m combining reviews here of two debuts from this week. Although they’re both pretty brisk reads that include LGBTQ+ protagonists and diverse casts, they’re quite different in focus and tone.
