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Every Woman Knows This by Laurel Hightower
Nothing makes me love horror more than when I’m reading a kick ass horror collection featuring some of the strongest, and yet frightening female main characters to ever grace the fictional page. Laurel Hightower opens the door hesitantly on your darkest nightmares. She knows the dark depravity that awaits you inside and yet she still welcomes you on a wicked laugh. It makes you nervous, each step full of trepidation and yet both curiosity and morbid fascination makes you put one foot in front of the other. Stories of womanhood with a particularly nasty bite – Serial Killers, of female exploitation, haunted books that tell the future and creature features…
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A Sliver of Darkness by C.J. Tudor – REVIEW
A Sliver of Darkness is C.J. Tudor’s inaugural short story collection. I’ve always said that short story collections are always going to be difficult to rate. You’re not going to love every single story, but if at least a few resonate within you, then it’s a win. I’ve not had the opportunity to read Tudor’s work previously, I know, please don’t come for me! I will be changing that pronto. Each story was complex and atmospheric, and it didn’t take much for me to envisage myself in the protagonist’s shoes, it’s safe to say every story was fully immersive. A Sliver of Darkness feels a little like a treasure map…
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Review: The Haunting of Strawberry Water by Tara Gould
The Haunting of Strawberry Water catapults you into an ethereal memory of an important figure. A Mother. An extension of yourself, connected by genes and love. Someone that will stand by you until their last breath. They can protect you or they can destroy that link forever. Tara Gould depicts an elegant but deeply heart-breaking tome that displays the links between motherhood and mental health. It’s disturbing but so very perfect. Gould is an artist of trauma, she knows exactly how to inject a longing and flaw to her character. Is our outcome in life more of an inevitability due to our childhoods or can it be altered? An extremely…
