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klaartjesmits's reviews
196 reviews
The House at the End of Lacelean Street by Catherine McCarthy
4.0
McCarthy's Mosaic was one of my favourite reads of last year, so I was very excited to get an early (digital) copy of The House at the End of Lacelean Street. Once again I was captivated from the start by the author's ability to create a constant sinister, claustrophobic atmosphere and to make her characters feel very real and well-rounded in few words. I think that's why my favourite aspects of this novella were the use of the house as a character and the developing bonds between the three protagonists.
It's difficult to talk about the plot and the meaning behind it without spoiling it so I won't go into too much detail here. I thought the concept was very creative and perfectly suited to tell this kind of story, making me feel a wide range of emotions. Personally I wanted the exploration of trauma, grief, and memory to go a bit deeper (and get more time with each character), so I think I would have loved the story even more as a novel instead of a novella.
But I highly encourage you to just pick up The House at the End of Lacelean Street if you enjoy psychological horror, explorations of trauma, places as characters, three-dimensional protagonists and creatively used pop culture references, or if you just want to know what the intriguing title means!
Thank you to the author, to Dark Hart Books and to BookSirens for the (free) eARC.
It's difficult to talk about the plot and the meaning behind it without spoiling it so I won't go into too much detail here. I thought the concept was very creative and perfectly suited to tell this kind of story, making me feel a wide range of emotions. Personally I wanted the exploration of trauma, grief, and memory to go a bit deeper (and get more time with each character), so I think I would have loved the story even more as a novel instead of a novella.
But I highly encourage you to just pick up The House at the End of Lacelean Street if you enjoy psychological horror, explorations of trauma, places as characters, three-dimensional protagonists and creatively used pop culture references, or if you just want to know what the intriguing title means!
Thank you to the author, to Dark Hart Books and to BookSirens for the (free) eARC.
A Botanical Daughter by Noah Medlock
3.0
When I read the premise of A Botanical Daughter I was immediately captivated: Frankenstein-inspired, horror with fungi, queer protagonists, a greenhouse setting, the Victorian era... all things I adore! And as I had hoped, this story conjured up some very intriguing, vivid imagery of a giant greenhouse, all kinds of plants and fungi, creepy taxidermy and more, which I wanted to keep exploring in my mind. I also loved the different forms of queer representation, which is something I am always looking for in books - especially in horror and historical fiction!
Unfortunately, though, I couldn't get into the story as much as I wanted to because of the writing style. It was clear from the start how skilled Medlock is at recreating Victorian writing, but I didn't expect the witty, light-hearted tone to persist throughout the entirety of the book. Although I enjoyed the humour and often laughed out loud in the beginning, it started distracting me from the increasingly darker, more serious and philosophical content, making it difficult for me to take it seriously. The style also focused on showing rather and telling, which I often really like (especially when inspired by oral storytelling), but in this particular story made me feel distanced from the characters and what was happening to them.
An example of this would be when a character grew fond of another character or started seeing them in a new light - I'm trying to be spoiler-free here, haha - it would just be mentioned here and there that they did so, instead of being brought on gradually and shown through subtle changes. This made it at times a bit unbelievable for me and decreased my investment in the characters; it was like I saw everything from a distance and never really got to know them from up close.
However, many other readers didn't seem to have the same experience with the writing style, so I would still encourage you to pick up A Botanical Daughter if you're interested in a queer Frankenstein-inspired horror story about a taxidermist and a botanist living together in a giant greenhouse and raising a 'botanical daughter'!
Thank you to the author, to Titan Books and to Edelweiss for the eARC!
Unfortunately, though, I couldn't get into the story as much as I wanted to because of the writing style. It was clear from the start how skilled Medlock is at recreating Victorian writing, but I didn't expect the witty, light-hearted tone to persist throughout the entirety of the book. Although I enjoyed the humour and often laughed out loud in the beginning, it started distracting me from the increasingly darker, more serious and philosophical content, making it difficult for me to take it seriously. The style also focused on showing rather and telling, which I often really like (especially when inspired by oral storytelling), but in this particular story made me feel distanced from the characters and what was happening to them.
An example of this would be when a character grew fond of another character or started seeing them in a new light - I'm trying to be spoiler-free here, haha - it would just be mentioned here and there that they did so, instead of being brought on gradually and shown through subtle changes. This made it at times a bit unbelievable for me and decreased my investment in the characters; it was like I saw everything from a distance and never really got to know them from up close.
However, many other readers didn't seem to have the same experience with the writing style, so I would still encourage you to pick up A Botanical Daughter if you're interested in a queer Frankenstein-inspired horror story about a taxidermist and a botanist living together in a giant greenhouse and raising a 'botanical daughter'!
Thank you to the author, to Titan Books and to Edelweiss for the eARC!