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mehsi's review against another edition
4.0
I received this book from Caffeine Tours in exchange of an honest review.
I am so so so so hyped for this book. I may have read it before, or at least parts of it as a couple of stories were recognisable to me. But I still had tons of fun and found many new stories to enjoy. I like the diversity in the stories. And how creepy some of them were.
For each story I have written a small review to tell what I thought about the story. Did I like it? What wasn’t too my taste. That kind of stuff. Since this is an anthology I didn’t love everything, but I found plenty to like and also love.
Let Down by Claire Hamilton Russell: Star rating, 4.5 stars A great beginning to the anthology. This is a dark Rapunzel retelling and I loved it a lot. It had great characters, the Lady… I just wanted to give her a big hug, the poor thing has been through so much and has given up all hope. The one who wants to save her is brave and I admired their tenacity to not give up despite the pain. The ending was just so sweet and made me very happy.
Moonlight by Ally Kölzow: Star rating, 4.5 stars I recognise this story! Things in the walls. Forever running around always forgetting always remembering and forgetting. It was sad in many ways. But also very creepy. That ticking of the clock, the time running out. The things you see in the house. The ending just broke my heart.
An Account of Service at Meryll Point by C.L.: Star rating, 2 starsSorry, but what? While the story had some good moments, because you are curious about what is lurking in the tower. Is it a lover? Is it a demon? A witch? What is up there. Will someone open the door? It was also a bit too longwinded for me and I just got a bit bored. The ending… I am still not sure what is happening there. Is the lord the lady? Did our lord like to dress up? Was that it?
The White Door by Lindsay King-Miller: Star rating, 5 stars Another one I recognise. But this story was amazing, creepy, spooky, gruesome and OMG. I love the tension and how you could soon see that something was lurking in the house, that something was terribly wrong and that you should run run run and run. The ending, oh boy! Love that. Really well-written.
Doctor Barlowe’s Mirror by Avery Kit Malone: Star rating, 3 stars Not entirely my kind of story and at times it was a bit boring. The mirror/window reminded me, because of how often the guy longed to visit it, of Harry Potters Mirror of ERISED. I was just shouting at the two guys to close that danged mirror/window because I just got a big case of heebiejeebies because of it. I knew something was deadly wrong with that thing.
Laguna and the Engkanto by Katalina Watt: Star rating, 3 stars A bit weird, a bit strange, and at times a bit off-putting. I did love that the girl kept her connection to the sea, to the water. That she rediscovered it even further when she got older. I am still curious about the marks and what they mean. I have some thoughts, but I would have liked some more explanation about it. The ending, oh my gosh, that is one way to end a story.
I am so so so so hyped for this book. I may have read it before, or at least parts of it as a couple of stories were recognisable to me. But I still had tons of fun and found many new stories to enjoy. I like the diversity in the stories. And how creepy some of them were.
For each story I have written a small review to tell what I thought about the story. Did I like it? What wasn’t too my taste. That kind of stuff. Since this is an anthology I didn’t love everything, but I found plenty to like and also love.
Let Down by Claire Hamilton Russell: Star rating, 4.5 stars A great beginning to the anthology. This is a dark Rapunzel retelling and I loved it a lot. It had great characters, the Lady… I just wanted to give her a big hug, the poor thing has been through so much and has given up all hope. The one who wants to save her is brave and I admired their tenacity to not give up despite the pain. The ending was just so sweet and made me very happy.
Moonlight by Ally Kölzow: Star rating, 4.5 stars I recognise this story! Things in the walls. Forever running around always forgetting always remembering and forgetting. It was sad in many ways. But also very creepy. That ticking of the clock, the time running out. The things you see in the house. The ending just broke my heart.
An Account of Service at Meryll Point by C.L.: Star rating, 2 starsSorry, but what? While the story had some good moments, because you are curious about what is lurking in the tower. Is it a lover? Is it a demon? A witch? What is up there. Will someone open the door? It was also a bit too longwinded for me and I just got a bit bored. The ending… I am still not sure what is happening there. Is the lord the lady? Did our lord like to dress up? Was that it?
The White Door by Lindsay King-Miller: Star rating, 5 stars Another one I recognise. But this story was amazing, creepy, spooky, gruesome and OMG. I love the tension and how you could soon see that something was lurking in the house, that something was terribly wrong and that you should run run run and run. The ending, oh boy! Love that. Really well-written.
Doctor Barlowe’s Mirror by Avery Kit Malone: Star rating, 3 stars Not entirely my kind of story and at times it was a bit boring. The mirror/window reminded me, because of how often the guy longed to visit it, of Harry Potters Mirror of ERISED. I was just shouting at the two guys to close that danged mirror/window because I just got a big case of heebiejeebies because of it. I knew something was deadly wrong with that thing.
Laguna and the Engkanto by Katalina Watt: Star rating, 3 stars A bit weird, a bit strange, and at times a bit off-putting. I did love that the girl kept her connection to the sea, to the water. That she rediscovered it even further when she got older. I am still curious about the marks and what they mean. I have some thoughts, but I would have liked some more explanation about it. The ending, oh my gosh, that is one way to end a story.
alexauthorshay's review against another edition
slow-paced
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
3.0
"Moonlight" - more sinister, but also confusing? It takes almost the whole story to reveal what's going on and even then we don't get the whole context (it doesn't matter for the story itself, I suppose, but they are details I would have liked having.)
"I Am the Master of My Eyelashes" - read like a poem. Very particular with words and interesting for those choices, but in terms of concrete readability I was lost. I get the general theme/gist but don't really understand the specifics of what I read.
"The White Door" - Much longer than I expected given the few pieces before it, but at the same time not long enough. I'm not sure if it's merely a queering of Dracula or a sort of alternate version that changes who the three female vampires in the story are. It felt rushed and like the attachment between protagonist and Lucy needed much more time to deepen before the protagonist did a complete personality change.
"Doctor Barlowe's Mirror" - kind of a Superman phantom zone thing, not that original with the ending.
"Laguna and the Sirena" - I'm rarely a fan of stories like this. They feel vivid enough in setting and sometimes character but in terms of action and plot, such big and complicated words are used and are combined in such a vague imagery/poetry way that I don't actually understand what's being said. It sounds pretty, but I don't follow what it's supposed to be. The very last section also felt like a jump, like something was skipped (or I didn't catch something I should have).
“The Moon in the Glass” - probably the most traditionally gothic in feel so far, but for that the twist ending wasn’t really that much of a twist.
“Brideprice” - another Dracula retelling I think. This one with two women and a man instead of three women but otherwise fairly similar in vibes to “The White Door”.
“Lure of the Abyss” - pretty typical as monster-to-love-interest stories go.
“Hearteater” - the most full story-feeling work so far. I figured out what both characters were long before it was revealed and it didn’t feel like that unique of a story, but the characters still managed to have arcs in this piece and their relationship had time to develop.
“Quicksilver Prometheus” - did not end how I expected, for sure, but mostly because what felt like a ghost story shifted tracks midway through and the whole tone and focus of the story seemed to change.
“Homesick” - Gothic only for the ghostly side of things. Unusually joyful and fluffy compared to the rest of the works before it.
“Rodeo” - what a weird spot to end the story. Foreboding and ominous but also feeling incomplete or at least shorter or more rushed given the building expectation from the first pages of the story.
“Lady of Letters” - this one also felt way too short, particularly the time jump at the end that is a plot twist only because of how much time it skips. Interesting enough concept, but I found ‘Jade’ hard to figure out, how she exists and even came to exist. Which perhaps is at least partly on purpose and not the focus of the story, but was distracting for me because of that.
“The Ruin” - my absolute favorite. It’s dark, but I wouldn’t call it Gothic. Modern, post-apocalyptic vibes, a little serial killer thriller. Not only gay but trans. Lots to like in this one.
“The Dream Eater” - a unique portrayal of succubi/incubi, not as threatening and hypersexual as usual, made all the better for it deliberately being used in a pro-ace storyline.
"My Love Lays Split on Either Side" - Very bisexual, down to the use of color. Prose poetry, super short. But far too metaphorical and abstract for my brain to fully comprehend.
"Leadbitter House" - The MC is kind of a jerk, but the story itself was not too bad. But right at the end it goes from a haunting story to someone peeling out of their own body and it just dropped out of nowhere with no explanation at all, leaving me confused.
"Taylor Hall" - interesting that a 'haunted' house and the person living in it can have a relationship of sorts. This story was a lot fluffier in comparison to some of the others, and felt the most complete in terms of character arc(s) and the inclusion of an actual plot.
morgiebunney's review
dark
emotional
inspiring
mysterious
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
that_bookworm_guy's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
3.5
A great mixture of stories, I'm always on the hunt for more queer gothic stories and this didn't disappoint
ally_d's review against another edition
4.0
A really cool collection of queer Gothic short stories, from lovely and heart-warming (though in a distinctly gothic way) all the way to really unsettling. Personal favorites were S.T. Gibson's Brideprice, Sam Hirst's Homesick and Emmanuel Arjona's I Am The Master Of My Eyelashes, but every story offered something completely different and often totally unexpected.
breadbummer's review
adventurous
dark
emotional
lighthearted
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.25
I think I went into this one expecting more horror in it. Yeah, sure, a few of these stories really sucked me in ("The Moon in the Glass," "Hearteater," "Quicksilver Prometheus"), but most of them, to use a metaphor, left me feeling like I was given a light snack when I was expecting a full meal. I totally wanted more of "Doctor Barlowe's Mirror" (this one was, compared to most others in the book, pretty solid content-wise, though) and "Rodeo," which both felt like just the beginning of stories that should have been novels in their own right. I didn't expect so many of the tales to have such cheesy endings, and cheese isn't my literary taste (don't know what it is with me and food tonight lol). Some had way too many unanswered questions and/or were just kind of all over the place, leading me to wonder what the point of the story was in the first place. I dunno, I guess I was expecting more from this collection.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Domestic abuse, Body horror, Stalking, Grief, and Gore
Moderate: Murder, War, Dysphoria, Lesbophobia, Death of parent, and Child death
Minor: Pandemic/Epidemic, Gun violence, Sexual content, Sexual assault, and Sexual violence
Being an anthology, every chapter has different potential triggers that come with them. Twirling Book Princess sums them up nicely: Let Down by Claire Hamilton Russell: imprisonment, non-consensual sex Moonlight by Ally Kölzow: death of loved one An Account of Service at Meryll Point, as recollected and set down by C.L.: societal transphobia (narrator is accepting, however) The White Door by Lindsay King-Miller: violence, murder Doctor Barlowe’s Mirror by Avery Kit Malone: none Laguna and the Engkanto by Katalina Watt: death of parent The Moon in the Glass by Jude Reid: murder, hallucinations Brideprice by S.T. Gibson: mention of sexual assault, murder, blood-drinking Lure of the Abyss by Jenna MacDonald: some people get eaten by a sea monster Hearteater by Eliza Temple: none Quicksilver Prometheus by Katie Young: hallucinations, mention of death of children Homesick by Sam Hirst: none Rodeo by Ryann Fletcher: homophobia, domestic violence, murder Lady of Letters; or, the Twenty-First Century Homunculus by Heather Valentine: cheating Taylor Hall by Jen Glifort: panphobia (challenged) The Ruin by E. Saxey: threat of the apocalypse The Dream Eater by Anna Moon: illness of loved one Leadbitter House by Mason Hawthorne: body horrorrainbopagn's review against another edition
4.0
I’m not one for anthologies but I loved this!
Sapphic stories abound and the collection highlights many gender identities and sexualities. There isn’t a bad story in this anthology, but my favorite is ST Gibson’s little peek from Dowry of Blood.
This is more queer and fantasy than horror, so I’d recommend it for anyone looking for queer representation. There are a few stories that verge on more horrorish but nothing is too extreme. I’d recommend it as a book for teenagers looking to get into both gothic fantasy and horror.
Sapphic stories abound and the collection highlights many gender identities and sexualities. There isn’t a bad story in this anthology, but my favorite is ST Gibson’s little peek from Dowry of Blood.
This is more queer and fantasy than horror, so I’d recommend it for anyone looking for queer representation. There are a few stories that verge on more horrorish but nothing is too extreme. I’d recommend it as a book for teenagers looking to get into both gothic fantasy and horror.
tomwbrass's review
1.0
Some books are un-put-downable. This was very-easily-put-downable. Not many stories actually gothic, little sense of cohesion or thematic linking across stories, no editor's introduction or other basic accoutrements that make short story collections by multiple writers make sense to readers. I need to stop buying kickstarted products