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A review by howlinglibraries
Something Borrowed, Something Blood-Soaked by Christa Carmen
3.0
I always love a good horror collection, and when I was offered this one, it felt implied that the stories were not only spooky, but also feminist in nature, which immediately hooked my interest. I will say that there are a lot of feminist notes to the tales, as well as subversion of some tropes here and there, though it wasn’t enough to make this anthology a complete winner for me.
There are definitely a few gems in the collection, such as:
• Red Room, in which a woman tries to warn her boyfriend about the terrifying, bloody photos that keep mysteriously appearing on her phone—but nobody ever listens to the women, do they?
• All Souls of Eve, a Halloween retelling of Ebenezer Scrooge’s tale—except this time, the ghosts are dead ex-boyfriends, and they’re just as toxic in the afterlife as they were when Eve dated them.
• Lady of the Flies, a story full of secondhand awkwardness and cringe-inducing grossness, albeit dimmed slightly by a lackluster back story.
Unfortunately, the other ten stories in the collection were mostly 3-star reads for me.
The most bothersome aspect for me is how heavily it relied on repetition of drug-related narratives. I know that the synopsis mentions substance abuse as one of the themes, but I think nearly half of the stories featured drug usage and/or characters with addictions. While I have no problem reading about addiction, it reached the point of repetition.
On one hand, many of the tales had serious potential; I think Christa Carmen shows definite potential as a writer, and I’d love to see where she goes with it, but the vagueness of most of the characters’ motives frustrated me, and on a more personal “pet peeve” note, the over-usage of similes in descriptive text kept jarring me out of the story, especially when there were multiple in a paragraph. All in all, though, I still enjoyed myself quite a bit while reading!
All in all, if you’re looking for a unique and feminist collection of indie horror, go ahead and give this one a try. I’m definitely willing to check out more of this author’s work in the future, because I think she has potential to go far, but this collection just didn’t quite "wow" me.
Thank you so much to the publicist for providing me with this ARC in exchange for an honest review!
Content warnings for violence, death, abduction, slut-shaming, abuse, suicide, alcoholism, addiction, drug usage, animal death, torture, mutilation, sexual assault, and self-harm.
You can find this review and more on my blog, or you can follow me on twitter, bookstagram, or facebook!
There are definitely a few gems in the collection, such as:
• Red Room, in which a woman tries to warn her boyfriend about the terrifying, bloody photos that keep mysteriously appearing on her phone—but nobody ever listens to the women, do they?
• All Souls of Eve, a Halloween retelling of Ebenezer Scrooge’s tale—except this time, the ghosts are dead ex-boyfriends, and they’re just as toxic in the afterlife as they were when Eve dated them.
• Lady of the Flies, a story full of secondhand awkwardness and cringe-inducing grossness, albeit dimmed slightly by a lackluster back story.
Unfortunately, the other ten stories in the collection were mostly 3-star reads for me.
The most bothersome aspect for me is how heavily it relied on repetition of drug-related narratives. I know that the synopsis mentions substance abuse as one of the themes, but I think nearly half of the stories featured drug usage and/or characters with addictions. While I have no problem reading about addiction, it reached the point of repetition.
On one hand, many of the tales had serious potential; I think Christa Carmen shows definite potential as a writer, and I’d love to see where she goes with it, but the vagueness of most of the characters’ motives frustrated me, and on a more personal “pet peeve” note, the over-usage of similes in descriptive text kept jarring me out of the story, especially when there were multiple in a paragraph. All in all, though, I still enjoyed myself quite a bit while reading!
All in all, if you’re looking for a unique and feminist collection of indie horror, go ahead and give this one a try. I’m definitely willing to check out more of this author’s work in the future, because I think she has potential to go far, but this collection just didn’t quite "wow" me.
Thank you so much to the publicist for providing me with this ARC in exchange for an honest review!
Content warnings for violence, death, abduction, slut-shaming, abuse, suicide, alcoholism, addiction, drug usage, animal death, torture, mutilation, sexual assault, and self-harm.
You can find this review and more on my blog, or you can follow me on twitter, bookstagram, or facebook!