mbmartin42's reviews
327 reviews

The first follows Eve who along with her partner Charlie have just purchased a house in the Oregon backwoods that they hope to flip. One night when Charlie is out and Eve is home alone, there’s an unexpected knock on the door. On the doorstep is a family of five. The father claims that he used to live in the house and wants to show it to his family. Eve is reluctant to let strangers into her house, especially when Charlie isn’t there. But Thomas, his wife Paige, and their three children seem harmless, so she agrees, provided they keep their visit short.

But fifteen minutes turns into an hour, and suddenly Eve wonders if she’s made a huge mistake. As she walks through the house with the family, she notices weird nooks and crannies that (she swears) weren’t there before. Is the house changing? Or is Eve going mad?

“Funny… how memories can change like that.”

The second is made up of found footage that ranges from newspaper clippings, journal entries, message board conversations, and reports of missing persons. At first these pieces seem completely disconnected, but as the story progresses they slowly start to form into a weird stitched together whole that fill in some (but not all) of the blanks of what Eve and Charlie are going through.

This is subtle horror. One that creeps up on you slowly.

Kliewer takes your typical horror tropes and creates such an air of tension and dread that help build a completely unsettling atmosphere throughout. Especially as the mystery deepens and the whole thing keeps getting weirder and weirder. Parts of this book were pure nightmare fuel (the scene in the attic still gives me chills to think about). And because this is psychological horror, you’re never really sure what’s real and what isn’t.

This book is incredibly unique. I loved the puzzle box feel of the whole thing. Not only was the mystery fascinating, it was fun to find that there were also little clues, hidden messages and Morse code peppered throughout some of the sections (some of the websites and email addresses mentioned really do exist and are active too). Which, for me, made this the type of book where immediately after finishing I jumped online to scour the internet (mostly reddit as this started on r/nosleep) to see how others interpreted the pieces as well as the ending. Which brought me back to how I felt reading House of Leaves last year.

If you’re into puzzle solving and psychological horror with supernatural elements this one is definitely for you. But, as I’ve said above, don’t be expecting a straight forward ending.

I’ve also heard that this is in development as a Netflix film, which I will most definitely be watching. I’ll also 100% be picking up whatever Kliewer gives us next.

You Let Me In by Camilla Bruce

Go to review page

challenging dark emotional mysterious 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? Yes

5.0

The Darkest Night by Lindy Ryan

Go to review page

challenging dark emotional funny lighthearted mysterious reflective sad tense fast-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? Yes

4.0

To be honest I have a love hate relationship with short story collections as I usually struggle to stay interested enough to finish one in entirety. Even though there were a few here that I didn’t love, there were definitely more hits than misses within The Darkest Night for me.

Through the central themes of grief, loss, death and melancholy memories tying this collection together combined with the setting of each story in the cold and frozen place around the Holidays, this was the perfect read for the season.

Plus, with a ton of big names in horror story telling included here, there’s a little bit of something for everyone within these pages from dark fantasy & Grimm’s retellings to the darkly humorous to pure horror, blood included.

So many good tales but a few of the standouts were…

🚪Children Aren’t the Only Ones Who Know Where the Presents are Hidden by Josh Malerman

A woman who hates the holidays must confront the past when a mysterious door appears in the desert.

⛄️Thaw by Rachel Harrison

A couple retreats to a secluded cabin for the holidays but it takes a sinister turn. And hey, is that snowman getting closer?

📦Mr. Butler by Clay McLeod Chapman

A man’s childhood best friend appears on his doorstep and won’t leave until it gets what it wants.

🗡️Father’s Last Christmas by Lee Murray

In this perfect gory medieval fairy tale an ailing king must choose his successor depending on the quality of the gift he’s given by each of his children.

❄️Winter Blue by Christopher Golden & Tim Lebbon

On the way to visit Grandma & Grandpa, a father and daughter run into a woman who has been mysteriously attacked.

🥛Eggnog by Kristi DeMeester

Let’s just say revenge is best served in a chilled glass of holiday cheer during a woman’s first outing postpartum to her husband’s office Holiday party where she meets an obnoxiously beautiful woman who introduces herself as his work wife.

🔮The Ladies’ Society for the Dead by Darcy Coates

A group of women gathers annually on the winter solstice to trade ghost stories and hold a seance.

Crypt of the Moon Spider by Nathan Ballingrud

Go to review page

dark mysterious sad tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

“Of course you know of the relationship between the moon and madness.”

Crypt of the Moon Spider is a sci-fi horror with a gorgeously gothic atmosphere and a dash of cosmic horror.

Featuring forced institutionalism, experimental surgeries, mad scientists with a god complex, and of course spiders.

It’s a weird piece for sure. But also such an elegantly executed nightmare.

This novella was very surreal as it takes place on an alternate earth, where there’s breathable air on the moon and even forest for that matter. And, no, it will not explain. Neither will it explain how/why in the 1920s we can shuttle back and forth to the moon so easily. But that’s ok. This book isn’t here to do that.

It’s meant to unsettle, to be a psychological nightmare with the qualities of a fever dream. To explore themes of mental health and bodily autonomy and the violence one commits when taking someone else’s voice away.

As this is said to be a trilogy I can’t wait to see what happens next.

Content Warnings

The Way of Kings by Brandon Sanderson

Go to review page

adventurous emotional funny hopeful mysterious sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

In 2015 I was gifted two Sanderson novels, Mistborn and Way of Kings. I blew through the Mistborn trilogy and it quickly became one of my fav series. I knew I wanted more but was rather daunted looking at the door-stopper that is WoK. So there on my shelf it sat for a decade waiting for its moment to shine.

I am mad at myself for waiting so long to pick this up, yet I know I picked it up at the perfect time.

Immersed completely in this complex world, I devoured every word and closed it craving more. I absolutely loved everything about this book and found myself savoring even the slower moments.

Sanderson is a master of rich world building, intricate magic systems and complex characters and relationships.

I have to say the spren were by far one of my favorite aspects of Roshar.

Usually when a book is told through multiple perspectives I find myself leaning towards one over the others but I found myself wanting to get back to each and every one.

Kaladin, soldier branded slave, goes through the most- especially as we get his backstory- and really carries this book in many ways. Bridge Four will always have my heart and loyalty.

But I also loved Shallan; the penniless noble and the quick tongued, artistic scholar yearning for a new life in the world that lies beyond the walls of her home. Plus through her we get to meet Jasnah, sister to the king and really the baddest bitch.

And Dalinar’s arc was just too good. Highprince of Alethkar and haunted by his brother’s murder he grapples with deciphering if he’s actually going mad or having divine visions, indecision of abdication, adherence to the code and defending his honor.

Through all three, plus the interlude chapters, we get a full insight into Roshar, its many societies, the long war on the shattered plains, Szeth the assassin in white and all the many things at play. This book builds and builds until all the pieces fall neatly into place during the final 150 pages, aka the Sanderlanche, which left me completely flabbergasted.

I cannot wait to continue my journey into the Cosmere with Words of Radiance.

Cold Snap by Lindy Ryan

Go to review page

dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

The first half was straightforward and had all the makings of a good mix of isolation and grief horror. But for me, the second half jumped the tracks just a bit and felt like a confusing fever dream where the ending was cut a bit short. And although it left me wondering “What the hell was that?”, I haven’t been able to get this one out of my head all day.

Read if you want a quick story that’s dark, tense, unsettling and atmospheric (I felt the cold the entire way through), with themes of loss, grief and guilt.

But reader beware the cat does not survive (and it is brutal).

Content Warnings

Blackfish City by Sam J. Miller

Go to review page

dark emotional hopeful mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

“Stories are valuable here. They are what we brought when we came here; they are what cannot be taken away from us.”

Blackfish City takes us into the not so distant future where climate change has left large swaths of the world either flooded or burned to rubble. The rich have fled, constructing massive floating cities in the Arctic, to which refugees flock from all over the fallen world. This story takes us into the heart of Qaanaaq, one such city constructed with eight arms like a giant asterisk. And truth be told, Qaanaaq might not be as idyllic for some as the settlement is bustling with corruption; strife between classes, organized crime, amazingly advanced technology that sometimes has a mind of its own, and a new disease ravaging the city’s population. But “when a strange new visitor arrives—a woman riding an orca, with a polar bear at her side—the city is entranced.”

Why has she come to Qaanaaq, and how will she affect the lives of the people there?

That central mystery keeps the pages turning as we follow four main characters, each with distinct voices and perspectives, all living seemingly unconnected lives in different sectors of the city along different points on the wealth and status spectrum. Through this and City Without A Map, a mysterious and anonymous news service, we are given a panoramic view of the city through individual experiences.

Because of this the story is a little slow to start but bit by bit things start coming together and just as I started to suspect certain things, the connections are made and BAM! Everything starts falling into place piece by piece as these characters lives come crashing together. The pages began to absolutely fly by. Like being caught in a brutal, dizzying whirlwind that culminated in a story of human connections, resilience and resistance.

In the end, I loved everything about this book. And even though it was a bit bittersweet, it left me feeling hopeful for the City and these people that I had come to fall in love with, faults and all.

“We are stories. We are the stories of not only our lives but also those that came before us, those of the lives that have touched ours, the loved ones we carry with us.”

More...

mbmartin42's reviews 327 reviews

mbmartin42's reviews
327 reviews