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REVIEW: The Dead Inside by Laurel Hightower & Sandra Ruttan
The Dead Inside is a horror anthology that tackles the sensitive subject of identity. Never have I read an anthology that so profoundly affected a part of my heart. I am secure in my identity, I know who I am, what I am meant to do in terms of my career, and how I project myself to others. However, I have close friends who aren’t secure in their identities. They struggle to accept their sexuality, and their gender, they deserve to feel this inner peace without persecution. It very rarely plays out this way and this anthology examines the horror of both the human psyche and the hurt it can…
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REVIEW: No Less The Devil by Stuart MacBride
No Less the Devil is most definitely a tale of two parts. The first 80% is a taut, twisty detective novel with wit and sarcasm aplenty…the norm for a Stuart MacBride novel. The last 20% however, had me flummoxed. I uttered the words WTF a lot and found myself physically scratching my head. If this was the plot all along it felt incredibly rushed and didn’t make much sense. I can’t give much more away without big spoilers, trust me, you’ll just have to read it for yourself. No Less the Devil opens with the Bloodsmith still being at large. Seventeen months have passed and the officers conducting Operation Maypole…
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Bookshelf Book Tag
It’s been a long time since I’ve got involved with a book tag post, but when I saw another blogger doing the Bookshelf Tag, I just knew it was something fun to get involved with. I’m unaware of who originally started it but if you want to get involved too then consider yourself tagged! HOW MANY BOOKSHELVES DO YOU HAVE? Wow! What a question to start with! Not enough is the answer but currently I have 3 full floor to ceiling sized bookcases with a long one in the bedroom too – that’s where I keep all the special editions we own and ARC copies that mean something special to…
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We Can Never Leave This Place by Eric LaRocca
We Can Never Leave This Place, I think probably I can’t. I’m trapped in a state of purgatory. How do you sum up a story that depicts such vivid imagery of neglect and trauma? I’m not going to lie; this book seems to be impossible to review with enough fervour to do it justice. It’s the kind of story that leaves you staring into space afterward. The musings playing around your consciousness like a never-ending loop. “When you’re given a gift, something else gets taken away.” Eric LaRocca is the king of trauma horror. Reading a story penned by this glorious author is always an experience. He leads you…
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REVIEW: Sundial by Catriona Ward
Sundial, much like its atmospheric veracity, blew me away. I stood in the desolated desert and allowed the dust and the sound of longing carried by the wind to scratch at my skin. I’ve never been one for extremes, especially the heat but this novel made it more claustrophobic, more suffocating, and felt myself clawing for the cool. Sundial had everything that I love in a horror story…oppressing sense of dread. A threat that is entirely human. A will to protect and survive. Horror isn’t exclusively about ghost stories, the supernatural, and things that go bump in the night. Horror examines just how the humanity (or lack thereof) of our…
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Why Do So Many Women Enjoy Reading Domestic Thrillers?
Domestic thrillers have been on my radar for quite some time. My first dip into the genre came when I discovered Before I Go to Sleep by S.J. Watson in 2012. It was the first domestic thriller that impacted me, and the plot has stayed buried in my psyche. I wasn’t new to the thriller genre, having devoured Karen Rose novels and detective stories before that. This felt new, invigorating, and frightening on some deeper primal level. Imagine waking up every morning in an unrecognisable bed, next to an unrecognisable man, and having that man explain that he is Ben, her husband and that she had an accident twenty years…
