Reviews with content warning for Death - Blanky

Kealan is such a master of this gut-wrenching, tragic sort of horror tale that I'd been putting Blanky off for a while despite how badly I wanted to read it. Kealan is one of my favorite authors and I'd heard many rave reviews about this novella, but as a mother of a young child, child loss has been my only trigger in recent years and I worried that picking this one up might be a mistake. As soon as I gratefully realized over the past few months that my mental health treatments have worked enough that I can stomach stories about child loss, I immediately knew it was time to read Blanky, and I'm so glad that I did.

Blanky follows a father who's recently lost his infant daughter Robin, and the sheer grief and desolation that Stephen and his estranged wife are going through is palpable. Neither of them are certain they can go on or if they should even try, and who could blame them? The grief quickly segues into terror as bizarre things start happening upon the reappearance of Robin's lost 'Blanky', and from then on, it was an eerie, twisted little fever dream as the story unraveled. Some of the imagery in this novella was truly unsettling, and I'm certain I'll never look at an antique baby blanket the same way again.

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connorjdaley's review

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challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Last Spooky Season I gave Sour Candy and Dead Leaves a read, so this year a bought two more. I feel like this author just gets me. I like horror, but I do prefer it short, so his collection of novellas is superb.

This is a unique tale of loss, grief, and coming to grips with what’s real. It’s even more uniquely interlinked within almost Baba Yaga-esque nightmare-scapes. I don’t usually like dreams in stories—the what is, and what is not real undertones—as they don’t often work for me, but the author uses a deft hand to integrate them in ways that compliment the main characters detachment while he’s awake.

I also enjoyed how the author gives us a supernatural/paranormal story, but with the stages of grief on display, the level of alcohol being consumed, and the character being in the bowels of despair, it could also be entirely imagined…maybe even personally caused?

Enjoyable and quick.

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our_bookish_reads's review against another edition

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dark slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? N/A
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? N/A

1.5

I didn't like this one as much as Sour Candy; it seemed to drag on, and I found myself skimming and not enjoying the story. I ended up wanting to know what happened, so I finally finished it today.

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t_higgsreviews's review against another edition

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4.75

4.75 Stars

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poetsaredepressed's review

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dark emotional mysterious sad fast-paced

Strong character development? N/A
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

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