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books_with_tess's review
4.0
This is...wildly glorious.
My brain has been properly scrambled from reading these stories! They’re so amazingly, wildly, sickeningly well spun I can’t understand that one of these are true.
They’re all so different and unique and they’re all such a ride of the absurd and curious.
My personal favorite must be the short “Coming home”. That took a DARK turn and I love it!! 😆
My brain has been properly scrambled from reading these stories! They’re so amazingly, wildly, sickeningly well spun I can’t understand that one of these are true.
They’re all so different and unique and they’re all such a ride of the absurd and curious.
My personal favorite must be the short “Coming home”. That took a DARK turn and I love it!! 😆
evavroslin's review
5.0
* Review copy received from the author for review consideration *
“The King of Shadows” starts off with a person preparing for the funeral of their father. This tale resonated with me a great deal, having undergone similar trials with my own father. The author does a good job incorporating all of the mixed emotions of this affair, and of seeing family members after all this time. It’s also an interesting examination of fairy tales from the protagonist’s childhood and how they have affected her to this day. Ultimately, the story ends on a gut punch that really struck a nerve for me.
I first read the next story, “Hey, Little Sister,” in another anthology, and it was a good experience to re-visit this tale, which is also personal to the author’s own experiences.
“When Gods Die” starts off with a young trauma patient in an emergency situation at the hospital from the point of view of one of the medical practitioners treating her. It goes in the direction of old Norse myths and religious debates that quickly turns into personal terror for the main character that she can’t escape.
“Nickelback Ned” continues stories with the themes of grief, death, loss, mourning, and pain, which encompass all of the tales in this beautifully written collection. “This Body of Death” includes the pervasive note of sexuality and forbidden desires that also runs as an undercurrent throughout the stories.
“The Last Word” shows a man, Albert, who has a black book with all the pages inside it blank. He’s kind of a collector of rare antique items. He’s trying to get over his break-up with a woman named Marla. He writes in the book, mostly about her, until one day he finds an entry has been written already, talking about things no one could possibly know. His friend, Bruno, calls him and they agree to get together. Things get considerably darker from that point on, and more sinister.
“Neighborhood Watchers” doesn’t take long to turn macabre and grisly, while “Black Roses and Hail Marys” examines two homeless characters and the decisions that brought them to their current fates that leads to an interesting twist.
“Cold Hands, Cold Heart” calls to mind the Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman collaboration ‘Good Omens’ while “Though Thy Lips Are Pale” takes us back in time with a historical tale set in France with a girl who is engaged to the son of a Duke in the Duchy of Normandy, painful rituals, and unspeakable cruelty.
Overall, this is a strong and well put together collection of horror fiction, and to paraphrase from one of the author’s friends listed in the acknowledgments, Maria Alexander really is the Tori Amos of horror.
“The King of Shadows” starts off with a person preparing for the funeral of their father. This tale resonated with me a great deal, having undergone similar trials with my own father. The author does a good job incorporating all of the mixed emotions of this affair, and of seeing family members after all this time. It’s also an interesting examination of fairy tales from the protagonist’s childhood and how they have affected her to this day. Ultimately, the story ends on a gut punch that really struck a nerve for me.
I first read the next story, “Hey, Little Sister,” in another anthology, and it was a good experience to re-visit this tale, which is also personal to the author’s own experiences.
“When Gods Die” starts off with a young trauma patient in an emergency situation at the hospital from the point of view of one of the medical practitioners treating her. It goes in the direction of old Norse myths and religious debates that quickly turns into personal terror for the main character that she can’t escape.
“Nickelback Ned” continues stories with the themes of grief, death, loss, mourning, and pain, which encompass all of the tales in this beautifully written collection. “This Body of Death” includes the pervasive note of sexuality and forbidden desires that also runs as an undercurrent throughout the stories.
“The Last Word” shows a man, Albert, who has a black book with all the pages inside it blank. He’s kind of a collector of rare antique items. He’s trying to get over his break-up with a woman named Marla. He writes in the book, mostly about her, until one day he finds an entry has been written already, talking about things no one could possibly know. His friend, Bruno, calls him and they agree to get together. Things get considerably darker from that point on, and more sinister.
“Neighborhood Watchers” doesn’t take long to turn macabre and grisly, while “Black Roses and Hail Marys” examines two homeless characters and the decisions that brought them to their current fates that leads to an interesting twist.
“Cold Hands, Cold Heart” calls to mind the Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman collaboration ‘Good Omens’ while “Though Thy Lips Are Pale” takes us back in time with a historical tale set in France with a girl who is engaged to the son of a Duke in the Duchy of Normandy, painful rituals, and unspeakable cruelty.
Overall, this is a strong and well put together collection of horror fiction, and to paraphrase from one of the author’s friends listed in the acknowledgments, Maria Alexander really is the Tori Amos of horror.
bookswithtess's review
4.0
This is...wildly glorious.
My brain has been properly scrambled from reading these stories! They’re so amazingly, wildly, sickeningly well spun I can’t understand that one of these are true.
They’re all so different and unique and they’re all such a ride of the absurd and curious.
My personal favorite must be the short “Coming home”. That took a DARK turn and I love it!! 😆
My brain has been properly scrambled from reading these stories! They’re so amazingly, wildly, sickeningly well spun I can’t understand that one of these are true.
They’re all so different and unique and they’re all such a ride of the absurd and curious.
My personal favorite must be the short “Coming home”. That took a DARK turn and I love it!! 😆
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