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horrorbutch's reviews
1257 reviews
The Salt Roads by Nalo Hopkinson
dark
emotional
funny
inspiring
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
4.0
Blood Cypress by Elizabeth Broadbent
adventurous
dark
emotional
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Disclaimer: I received an e-ARC from netgalley.
This novella explores a southern family where everything is seemingly wrong. The father is dead, the mother is lazy, the daugher’s a lesbian, one son has long hair and the youngest son is just plain wrong and doesn’t talk. Or so the chatter in the town goes. Nobody actually cares about the precarious finances of a family raised by a grieving mother and a son that needs constant caring, not when the appearances are just so wrong (after all, a woman who can’t keep her house in order doesn’t really deserve any pity! And one that lets her kids run around like that? Even less so.) And when the youngest son goes missing one day while everybody else is at work and the brother tasked with watching over his little brother takes his eyes off him to do his homework everything begins to unravel and prejudices that were just boiling under the surface for far too long start boiling over.
The story is interrupted with short chapters exploring that Lila, the daughter, has grown up to actually sleep with women and left that small southern town as she tells a woman she spent the night with about what happened during that search for her little brother. It is very interesting and I liked that the listening character could function as an audience stand in, asking a few of the questions I was asking myself. I really enjoyed the descriptions of the swamp in the end and I liked how the stories tied the two separate timelines together in the end.
All in all, if you like gothic horror with queer aspects, a really interesting exploration of swamps and a view at the small town prejudices against poor, autistic and queer people, this was a fun novella and I really enjoyed reading it.
TW: ableism, death, death by fire, homophobia, attempted incestuous assault, talk of sexual assault, sexual harassment
Pink Zombie Rose: Major Arcana, Volume 1 by Dia VanGunten, Beppi
adventurous
challenging
dark
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
3.5
Disclaimer: I received an e-ARC from netgalley.
This book took me on an interesting journey. Mind you, not an easy one. The main issue that other reviews have already raised is that this does not really fit the typical graphic novel style. It includes pages long text and often very hard to decipher lettering, which made the whole thing very hard to read at points. Some pages just feature nearly a full page of cramped gothic script hand lettered writing with some illustrations beside it. So be aware, what you are going into, because I wish I had known that before. I read this also on a computer and I do not think that it is legible on a phone, so even though it is provided as an epub make sure you have the opportunity to read this on an appropriate device (or a physical version, which I could imagine working really well). I did like that there is such a big diversity in art styles, different fonts and art styles used for different chapters (one of my favorite backgrounds was the color-by-number approach, which I found fascinating!).
The narrative also is not the easiest to follow, moving between characters and narrative forms and feels quite confusing. I still enjoyed it, but if you like your narratives clear and linear you will probably not find anything that interests you here. In general, it takes a long time for the zombies to come up (nearly 60%), before that we are introduced to a variety of characters and then we follow their lives. I wished for a bit more on the zombie part, but it seems like there might be more out there?
All in all, a weird and strange experience, kinda fun, but not an easy read. I’m still glad I took the chance and I at least had a quite interesting experience.
TW: past sexual assault, self harm
Origins of Desire in Orchid Fens by Lynn Hutchinson Lee
dark
emotional
mysterious
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
4.0
Disclaimer: I received an e-ARC from netgalley.
This novella explores the life of a young Romani woman surviving in an oppressive town, where she knows she has to keep her identity secret or else face ostracization and violence. The town is run by a mining operation and the narrative examines the forced invisibility of the Romani woman, as well as the ecological destruction and the violent strike breaks and unsafe labor conditions. Orchid also knows how to care for the plants that she is named after and the novel spends a significant time examining the nature that surrounds this mining town, rich in biodiversity and panni raklies (ghosts of murdered women).
One of the strongest points of this novella is its gorgeous writing style, lush and rich and full of descriptors that made it easy to picture the nature and feel the terror of its destruction vividly. It also felt a bit dreamlike, which added to the supernatural aspect of the story for me. The story dives deep into Orchid’s mental state, her fears and worries and rage, which was also beautiful. I also enjoyed the relationships she had with other people, especially the one with her mother and the one with her husband Jack.
Due to the narrative choice of telling this story in many, very short chapters, as well as the very descriptive prose the plot sometimes feels a bit barebones, which is the only reason this novella doesn’t get five stars from me. However, I still enjoyed reading it a lot and if you enjoy magical realism with a focus on ecological themes, you should check this novella out.
TW: animal attack, anti-romani racism, cancer, car crash, classism, death, forced sterilization, murder, racism, violence
Boys Weekend by Mattie Lubchansky
adventurous
challenging
funny
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
5.0
Sammie is a recently out transfemme, who is invited to be the “best man” by their college friend Adam and asked to spend the weekend with the rest of his college friend group at El Campo, a hypercapitalist Las Vegas if tech-bros built it. During this weekend they will not only have to face the very dude-bro gang of entrepreneurs that is Adam’s other friends, but also a mysterious cult at the hotel. After all if you’re already having to deal with tech bros, bloodthirsty gods aren’t gonna make the whole thing that much worse.
This is an incredibly well made horror satire, taking apart hustle culture, capitalism and bro-culture as well as examining the stress of being transfemme and how relationships change through transition. The art style is really fun and I loved the many tiny details in the backgrounds of a lot of pictures (such as drones falling and a tiny diver drowning due to the lack of safety controls). I really liked the people that supported Sammie and all in all this was a very fun, heartbreaking and satisfying graphic novel that I enjoyed reading.
Fever Dreams of a Parasite by Pedro Iniguez
challenging
dark
emotional
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
4.0
Disclaimer: I received an e-ARC from netgalley.
In this horror short story collection, the author explores the horrifying from a marginalized often Latinx perspective. Whether the horror comes from real life, like domestic abuse, racism and poverty, or from the supernatural, like vampires and deep sea creatures, the stories thrive by exploring the emotional states and fears of the various main characters and manage to pull you in quickly no matter which cosmic, strange turns the stories take. The writing is also very well done, building tension often to the point of near-snapping with a very satisfying terrifying end.
I’ve read one of the short stories here before in a cosmic horror collection “Beyond the Bounds of Infinity” and so while I was able to go into this collection expecting great cosmic horror I was still blown away by how much I enjoyed all the stories in here. While there are always some stories I enjoy more than others (in the case of this collection my favs very Feast of the Dreamer, Purveyors and Puppets, The Cellar, The Bottom Dweller, The Last Train out of Calico, Effigies of Monstrous Things and Postcards from Saquaroland), there wasn’t a single story in this anthology I did not enjoy.
All in all this is an anthology I can just recommend any reader interested in horror short stories and as always you can find trigger warnings and more thoughts on every single short story below.
Nightmare of a Million Faces: A woman working in the sex film industry visits a party to try and impress a producer in order to get a new role. But rumors about her abusive ex and her abortion make for an unrestful evening. And it gets worse, when suddenly everybody else disappears. Well written and haunting, I liked how dread was already ever present in the entire story from the beginning.
TW: domestic abuse, murder, sexual abuse, sex trafficking, victim blaming, violence
*FAV* Feast of the Dreamer: A man, formerly working for the mob, has found a new use for the corpses at the dumping sites. He’s literally chasing a dream through ingesting the corpses. During one of these visions, he finds out the grisly way to enter that world permanently. Great gore, great body horror, I loved it!
TW: cannibalism, murder, suicide, unsanitary, vomit
Skin: A young man goes out seal hunting with his uncle, hoping to pay off some gambling debts, but somebody decided to hunt them instead. Very short, but intriguing.
TW: fatphobia, murder
Shantytown: A Mexican Ghost Story: A short story about a young girl, who lives in a Shantytown and the Ghosts that haunt that place. Starts out more heartbreaking than scary, but features an interesting scary end.
TW: death, labor exploitation, racism
*FAV* Purveyors and Puppets: A TV show host with a past of being harassed by racists is invited to debate a rather famous racist TV show host. But once she arrives at his studio, she quickly realizes that something is incredibly wrong. Very dark, very messy, very fun.
TW: murder, stalking
Roots in Kon Tum: An American soldier visits Vietnam trying to find a woman he met there during his trip. Instead he is confronted with the realities of Agent Orange. Satisfying ending!
TW: ableism, chemical warfare, death, murder, (implied?) rape, war
Midnight Frequencies: A food vendor just trying to make a living, always carefully avoiding police attention as he cannot afford the permit costs, finds himself accosted by strange, hungry beings.
TW: murder
FAV* The Cellar: A sister just picked up her brother from prison, when a wildfire forces the two siblings to take shelter in the cellar of an abandoned farm. The shelter however leads to a land called Fantastica and in it they are visited by the people they lost. Haunting and horrifying.
TW: animal death, drunk driving, death, wildfire
The Savage Night: A hunter forced to trail behind his tribe for consorting with dark magic catches up to them in the night only to discover his people slaughtered. When one of them is returned to him he tries his best to carve out a survival for the two of them. But his friend has returned quite wrong.
TW: animal death, death, gore
*FAV* The Bottom Dweller: A man stars his new job at the marine park to clear aquariums. They keep all kinds of interesting creatures here and some of them are hungry. I really find the world building her fascinating and I love a good ocean-based horror!
TW: drowning, injury
Adrift Ebon Tides: A short story about two men adrift on the ocean, the last survivors of their ship. Very cosmic horror and really rather short, but I liked the writing style and again, I love ocean-based horror.
TW: death, drowning, suicide
Midnight Shoeshine: A man is stopped from committing suicide by a young boy offering a shoeshine. This night will change his life! Sweet, with a scary ending.
TW: murder, suicide
*FAV* The Last Train out of Calico: A bunch of aged train robbers decide on one last heist. But what they will find inside the train is far, far different than they could have ever expected. Really gorey, I liked it.
TW: gore, murder
Bad Dogs: A woman is on the way to her dealer, when she finds herself stranded in a phone booth and werewolves begin to circle. Very short, but still interesting character work.
TW: addiction, drugs
Birthday Boy: A young boy is excited for his birthday and his father promised him a pinata! But something else is going on in their house. A fascinating horror story told from the perspective of a child, I really liked the combination of innocence and underlying horror.
TW: murder, implied torture
The House of Laments: A soon-to-be family tries to find some things to decorate their home in a yard sale when they find a camera. The pictures reveal a dark secret that the pregnant woman can’t stop herself from investigating, unable to let it rest out of fear for her unborn child. Haunting and with a really grisly end.
TW: child murder, death
Caravan: A young boy and his mother are travelling, hoping for a better future. But the road is dangerous and food is scarce and when children start disappearing tempers soon flare when accusations of cannibalism are raised. Interesting and with a fun plot twist at the end.
TW: cannibalism, child death, murder
Body of Work; or, The Fever Dreams of a Parasite: A designer has achieved what few manage: fame. But he wishes for something bigger, something that will help him be remembered forever. Dives deep into gore and body horror, but is also kinda touching? I liked it.
TW: death, gore
*FAV* Effigies of Monstrous Things: A story I’ve actually read before in Beyond the Bounds of Infinity, but I enjoyed it then and I enjoyed it here. A scathing look at the economical injustice of the world and the horrors of being poor in a world that does not care. The end is both gorey and deeply sad. Very, very well done!
TW: body horror, child death, gore, mold, murder, racism, unsanitary living conditions
The Body Booth: A pregnant journalist is asked to investigate a disturbing art installation only to find that it is much more real than expected. Explores the overlap of motherhood and creation of life and men abusing women to make their art (looking at you Picasso). However, this is one of the less intriguing pieces in this collection to me.
TW: child death, gore, miscarriage, pregnancy horror
*FAV* Postcards from Saquaroland: A man who left his family for the promise of a better future and a place where he can ear money to support them finally asks for them to follow him. He only wants to find a job, but his dream of being possessed by creatures sensitive to sunlight who want darker-skinned vessels haunts him.
TW: flaying, gore
In this horror short story collection, the author explores the horrifying from a marginalized often Latinx perspective. Whether the horror comes from real life, like domestic abuse, racism and poverty, or from the supernatural, like vampires and deep sea creatures, the stories thrive by exploring the emotional states and fears of the various main characters and manage to pull you in quickly no matter which cosmic, strange turns the stories take. The writing is also very well done, building tension often to the point of near-snapping with a very satisfying terrifying end.
I’ve read one of the short stories here before in a cosmic horror collection “Beyond the Bounds of Infinity” and so while I was able to go into this collection expecting great cosmic horror I was still blown away by how much I enjoyed all the stories in here. While there are always some stories I enjoy more than others (in the case of this collection my favs very Feast of the Dreamer, Purveyors and Puppets, The Cellar, The Bottom Dweller, The Last Train out of Calico, Effigies of Monstrous Things and Postcards from Saquaroland), there wasn’t a single story in this anthology I did not enjoy.
All in all this is an anthology I can just recommend any reader interested in horror short stories and as always you can find trigger warnings and more thoughts on every single short story below.
Nightmare of a Million Faces: A woman working in the sex film industry visits a party to try and impress a producer in order to get a new role. But rumors about her abusive ex and her abortion make for an unrestful evening. And it gets worse, when suddenly everybody else disappears. Well written and haunting, I liked how dread was already ever present in the entire story from the beginning.
TW: domestic abuse, murder, sexual abuse, sex trafficking, victim blaming, violence
*FAV* Feast of the Dreamer: A man, formerly working for the mob, has found a new use for the corpses at the dumping sites. He’s literally chasing a dream through ingesting the corpses. During one of these visions, he finds out the grisly way to enter that world permanently. Great gore, great body horror, I loved it!
TW: cannibalism, murder, suicide, unsanitary, vomit
Skin: A young man goes out seal hunting with his uncle, hoping to pay off some gambling debts, but somebody decided to hunt them instead. Very short, but intriguing.
TW: fatphobia, murder
Shantytown: A Mexican Ghost Story: A short story about a young girl, who lives in a Shantytown and the Ghosts that haunt that place. Starts out more heartbreaking than scary, but features an interesting scary end.
TW: death, labor exploitation, racism
*FAV* Purveyors and Puppets: A TV show host with a past of being harassed by racists is invited to debate a rather famous racist TV show host. But once she arrives at his studio, she quickly realizes that something is incredibly wrong. Very dark, very messy, very fun.
TW: murder, stalking
Roots in Kon Tum: An American soldier visits Vietnam trying to find a woman he met there during his trip. Instead he is confronted with the realities of Agent Orange. Satisfying ending!
TW: ableism, chemical warfare, death, murder, (implied?) rape, war
Midnight Frequencies: A food vendor just trying to make a living, always carefully avoiding police attention as he cannot afford the permit costs, finds himself accosted by strange, hungry beings.
TW: murder
FAV* The Cellar: A sister just picked up her brother from prison, when a wildfire forces the two siblings to take shelter in the cellar of an abandoned farm. The shelter however leads to a land called Fantastica and in it they are visited by the people they lost. Haunting and horrifying.
TW: animal death, drunk driving, death, wildfire
The Savage Night: A hunter forced to trail behind his tribe for consorting with dark magic catches up to them in the night only to discover his people slaughtered. When one of them is returned to him he tries his best to carve out a survival for the two of them. But his friend has returned quite wrong.
TW: animal death, death, gore
*FAV* The Bottom Dweller: A man stars his new job at the marine park to clear aquariums. They keep all kinds of interesting creatures here and some of them are hungry. I really find the world building her fascinating and I love a good ocean-based horror!
TW: drowning, injury
Adrift Ebon Tides: A short story about two men adrift on the ocean, the last survivors of their ship. Very cosmic horror and really rather short, but I liked the writing style and again, I love ocean-based horror.
TW: death, drowning, suicide
Midnight Shoeshine: A man is stopped from committing suicide by a young boy offering a shoeshine. This night will change his life! Sweet, with a scary ending.
TW: murder, suicide
*FAV* The Last Train out of Calico: A bunch of aged train robbers decide on one last heist. But what they will find inside the train is far, far different than they could have ever expected. Really gorey, I liked it.
TW: gore, murder
Bad Dogs: A woman is on the way to her dealer, when she finds herself stranded in a phone booth and werewolves begin to circle. Very short, but still interesting character work.
TW: addiction, drugs
Birthday Boy: A young boy is excited for his birthday and his father promised him a pinata! But something else is going on in their house. A fascinating horror story told from the perspective of a child, I really liked the combination of innocence and underlying horror.
TW: murder, implied torture
The House of Laments: A soon-to-be family tries to find some things to decorate their home in a yard sale when they find a camera. The pictures reveal a dark secret that the pregnant woman can’t stop herself from investigating, unable to let it rest out of fear for her unborn child. Haunting and with a really grisly end.
TW: child murder, death
Caravan: A young boy and his mother are travelling, hoping for a better future. But the road is dangerous and food is scarce and when children start disappearing tempers soon flare when accusations of cannibalism are raised. Interesting and with a fun plot twist at the end.
TW: cannibalism, child death, murder
Body of Work; or, The Fever Dreams of a Parasite: A designer has achieved what few manage: fame. But he wishes for something bigger, something that will help him be remembered forever. Dives deep into gore and body horror, but is also kinda touching? I liked it.
TW: death, gore
*FAV* Effigies of Monstrous Things: A story I’ve actually read before in Beyond the Bounds of Infinity, but I enjoyed it then and I enjoyed it here. A scathing look at the economical injustice of the world and the horrors of being poor in a world that does not care. The end is both gorey and deeply sad. Very, very well done!
TW: body horror, child death, gore, mold, murder, racism, unsanitary living conditions
The Body Booth: A pregnant journalist is asked to investigate a disturbing art installation only to find that it is much more real than expected. Explores the overlap of motherhood and creation of life and men abusing women to make their art (looking at you Picasso). However, this is one of the less intriguing pieces in this collection to me.
TW: child death, gore, miscarriage, pregnancy horror
*FAV* Postcards from Saquaroland: A man who left his family for the promise of a better future and a place where he can ear money to support them finally asks for them to follow him. He only wants to find a job, but his dream of being possessed by creatures sensitive to sunlight who want darker-skinned vessels haunts him.
TW: flaying, gore
Chasers by Mariah Darling, Eve Harms
adventurous
dark
emotional
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.25
This splatterpunk novella follows a black trans woman as she moves into her new apartment, but soon finds that there is something wrong about this place. Could it be her next door neighbor, who does extreme and disturbing performances while playing loud music? Or could it be her landlord, who lives on her other side, and who seems to good to be true? Either way Lenora will soon find herself fighting for her life!
I really enjoyed this novella. Lenora is a sarcastic but loveable protagonist, who just wants to find a place where she can feel safe and valued without being constantly harassed by transmisogynists. It was horrible to read how her own home became unsafe for her, but the ending was truly satisfying. I also enjoyed Lenora’s friends, Max and Kierra, they are such good friends!
The ending is gorey, weird and messy and I loved it. All in all, this is a brutal, quick horror that examines transmisogyny, has an amazing final girl character, great gore and builds tension really well!
TW: fetishization, gore, injury, murder, necrophilia, racism, rape, self-harm, sexual violence, suicide, transmisogyny
Content Warnings
Graphic: Rape, Self harm, Sexual violence, Transphobia, Murder, Sexual harassment, Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Suicide
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou
challenging
dark
emotional
inspiring
medium-paced
4.0
A Palace Near the Wind by Ai Jiang
adventurous
emotional
mysterious
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
Disclaimer: I received an e-book copy by the author.
This fantasy novella explores the lives of the Feng people, their way of life and their land threatened by human expansion. To stop them, a bridewealth must be taken and Liu Lufeng is the last remaining adult girl in the family, the others having already been sent off. She plans to stop this once and for all by killing the king, but once she gets to the palace new revelations of who’s actually in power, she finds herself pressed to find a new and better way to stop this.
I really enjoyed exploring this interesting world, it has very fascinating world building, and particularly the Feng people are intriguing (although I would have loved to get some more time in their country so I could learn more about their way of life by itself and not just in comparison to the lives of the humans). I also liked the parallelism found to real life racism, with the ways the Feng people smoothen their faces by shaving off parts of their bark to the way some people use plastic surgery and skin bleaching creams to achieve more “pleasing” (i.e. closer to white-centric ideals) features. The themes of colonialism and man-made destruction of nature also played a big role in the novella.
The strongest aspect of this novella is the writing style, which is lush and detailed and really paints a beautiful picture of nearly every scene we are shown. This does sometimes make it feel a bit slower than you would expect from a story about killing a king, but I still enjoyed it very much.
There are also quite a lot of characters, and it was sometimes a bit tough to keep them all straight, since the story isn’t that long and you don’t get to spend a lot of time getting to know the various characters. In general Liu is the most fleshed-out character in the cast and a bit more detail could have helped the other characters stand out more. However, this is something that I hope will be fixed if there are other stories to come.
All in all, I really enjoyed reading this novella and if you like fantasy that explores the duality of destiny and choice and female MCs rebelling against oppression, I can recommend this story wholeheartedly.
TW: arranged/forced marriage, environmental destruction, forced eating of meat, murder, vomiting
Cecilia by K-Ming Chang
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0