Ren Yu grew up on stories of mermaids. She knows all of the myths, legends, and truths. Mermaids drove her to swimming at a young age and now in her teens, she is a competitive swimmer. She starts and ends her days at the pool and her only goal is to get scouted so that she can get a full scholarship to college. Chlorine follows Ren on her path from girlhood to womanhood and all of the changes and pressures that transistion brings. As her junior regional competition looms ahead and the stress is as high as it’s ever been, Ren starts to lose herself as a human and gives into her mermaid desires.
This book, you guys – this book! It ticks so many boxes for me: Coming-of-age? Check. Body horror? Check. Literary horror? Check. Sapphic longing? Check. All of these elements are wound up into a tightly written narrative from a protagonist that is, to put it quite simply, other.
We experience all of these “firsts” with Ren as she looks back on her human life, through the lens of a queer, immigrant mermaid. This sounds a little out there – I know, but stick with me on this one because the prose and the story are just so good! Chlorine is one of the best debut novels that I have read in quite some time. It was unique, spellbinding, and I can’t recommend it highly enough. Jade Song is one to watch out for and I will definitely be keeping an eye out for more of their works in the future.
A Tribute to Alvin Schwartz’s Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark edited by Jonathan Maberry
2.5/5 Star Review
I can’t tell you how much it kills me, absolutely kills me, to rate this book as just “ok.” Everything about it should have been 5 stars – A great author as editor? Check. Tribute toScary Stories to Tell in the Dark? Check. A fantastic stable of writers? Check. And yet… This anthology really missed the mark for me.
Admittedly, Schwartz’s trilogy of Scary Stories is my gold standard. I was one of those kids who always started a new hold for them at the library as soon as I returned them. They were my doorway in to horror and it’s hard to hold a candle to them. I have gone back and read them many times as an adult and they still hold up.
Click on the cover art to purchase from bookshop.org.
I read Don’t Turn Out the Lights with that in mind. I tried not to compare the two books too closely because it’s not a fair expectation. I read this anthology for what it is, a tribute and a new generation of writers telling their scary stories.
My issues mostly lay with the unevenness of the collection. The book is marketed as YA horror and some of the stories are, but some are written to a very young middle-grade market. Like its predecessor, the stories in Lights can be read to yourself or aloud to others, but so many are missing that – Boo! ending. You know the one I’m talk about – the one that makes you look behind you, over your shoulder to see what’s waiting in the darkness. Many of these tales just… end. They leave you feeling incomplete and wondering what the heck happened. I feel one of the greatest faults lies with adult horror authors not knowing how to write to a YA audience. It is my opinion that they feel they need to write down to teens and they don’t give them the credit they deserve as readers. One of the most glaring examples of this was in The Cries of the Cat by Josh Malerman. I adore Malerman and the premise he had was a creepy one, but it felt so watered down that it lost its way.
Having said all that, there are some standout stories in this collection:
The Neighbor by Amy Lukavics – Dennis makes a new, unwanted friend with the little boy he sees across the street.
Tag, You’re It by N.R. Lambert – Nick keeps getting tagged in photos by someone who seems to be physically getting closer and closer.
Lint Trap by Jonathan Auxier – Jasper’s family moves into a new house and he starts talking to the children who live in the dryer in the basement.
Brain Spiders by Luis Alberto Urrea & Rosario Urrea – What happens when the kids in class start bullying the new girl from another country?
Mud by Linda D. Addison – Maurice fights his mother about taking baths and she sends him off to his grandmother’s house for an unforgettable sleepover.
The Tall Ones by Madeleine Roux – Estrella tries to convince the new boy in town that the town’s customs and traditions must be honored or else something may happen to him and his family.
I think there are enough stories in here that make checking out this collection worthwhile. It would be a good pick for a library check-out for sure.
If you’re an adult trying to recapture a little bit of that Scary Stories magic, I actually recommend picking up Corpse Cold by John Brhel & Joe Sullivan and illustrated by Chad Wehrle. I reviewed it here last year. To date, it is the next best thing to them that I have read.
Thanks to NetGalley and HarperCollins for making this digital ARC available for me to review. Don’t Turn Out the Lights releases on September 1st 2020.
An anthology of vacation horror edited by Samantha Kolesnik
5/5 Star Review
I think we can all agree that 2020 has been a dumpster fire of epic proportions. It’s almost the middle of summer and instead of traveling and lounging at the beach, we are staying close to home and masking up whenever venturing out is necessary. Does it stink? Absolutely! Want to feel a little better about it? Read this book.
Worst Laid Plans is a collection of 14 tales of vacations gone horribly awry. While not every story is specifically a summer trip – all of them have a distinct summery vibe. This anthology runs the gamut from aliens to monsters; from body horror to the supernatural; from grief to human nature at its worst. There is something in this collection for nearly everyone. It’s also worth a mention that Sadie Hartmann, Mother Horror herself, wrote a fantastic forward for this anthology!
Click on the cover art to purchase from bookshop.org.
If you have read my reviews before, multi-author anthologies are rarely a complete win for me. This was absolutely not the case with Worst Laid Plans. While there were a few tales missed the mark for me, there wasn’t one in here that I would rate less than 3 stars. My top picks were just so fantastic that I still feel good about giving this collection a full 5 star rating. Without further ado – let me share my top 5 from this collection:
Unkindly Girls by Hailey Piper – This was my absolute favorite story from this collection. Morgan is a teenage girl on vacation with her over-protective father. Every summer they go on vacation to a different beach, never the same one twice. This year is different because Morgan has found out a truth about her father. Without giving anything away, there is a scene in which Morgan is swimming in the ocean with two girls she’s just met and the imagery of it absolutely blew me away.
Taylor Family Vacation ’93 by Jeremy Herbert – Daniel Taylor, CPA, has taken his wife and young son on an Orlando vacation to visit the theme parks. Every morning he wakes up to see that his camcorder has recorded seconds of extra footage – a little more each time and it appears that someone is watching them with their own camera. As a side note, I’m a central Florida girl and Herbert completely nailed the Kissimmee and Orlando area, right down to the tourist traps and old motels.
In the Water by Mark Wheaton – Two American girls, Candice and Jenn are currently vacationing at a resort in Thailand. A major storm moves in and the resort goes into lock-down. Not wanting to disappoint their guests, the hotel opens the bar and turns the downstairs area into a hurricane party. It is here that Jenn and Candice meet up with a brother and sister they met in Goa and the night takes a turn for the worse. I really enjoyed the format of this story – some was told in real time from the girls’perspectives and some was told from the detectives investigating the aftermath.
Peelings by Kenzie Jennings – Beth, her twin daughters, and her abusive husband, Marc, take a family vacation to the Disney parks in Orlando. Beth is unhappy, she gets a terrible sunburn on the first day and Marc berates her for not being careful. Her daughters take the cues from their father and are horrible to Beth as well. As her burn begins to peel, she finds parts of herself transforming and discovers that Disney truly is the happiest place on earth.
The Penanggalan by Scott Cole – An unnamed protagonist and his partner, Maddie, change their vacation plans last minute when Maddie finds unbelievably cheap airline tickets to Panang. During the plane ride, our main character finds a little booklet in the seat pocket in front of him called, “A Field Guide to Supernatural Entities in Southeast Asia.” He becomes inexplicably drawn to a vampiric creature called a Penanggalan. This tale had some serious Junji Ito vibes and I was there for it!
It was so hard to narrow these stories down to select the top 5. I have two honorable mentions that I would also like to mention here: The Cucuy of Cancun by V. Castro and Deep in the Heart by Waylon Jordan. Castro brings a new twist on El Cucuy while Jordan tells a coming-of-age tale replete with cave monsters.
It’s been some time since I have stumbled onto a multi-author anthology collection that left me so thrilled. I honestly can’t recommend this one enough and it is so perfect for summer! Definitely one to check out.
I received a copy of this title for review consideration.
A Gothic Retelling of The Twelve Dancing Princesses by Erin A. Craig
5/5 Star Review
September has passed, but with this entry, I am wrapping up my reviews from the month-long anniversary celebration for The Ladies of Horror Fiction. This lovely team celebrated their first full year of spotlighting the amazing ladies of horror! There was a read-a-thon taking place for the entire month of September and it featured five different reading challenges – check out this link for the details!
I read House of Salt and Sorrows for Challenge #4 – Read a Book by a YA or Middle Grade Author. This was my fifth and final “official” pick for the read-a-thon.
It was many and many a year ago,
In a kingdom by the sea,
That a maiden there lived whom you may know
By the name of Annabel Lee; —
Annabel Lee – Edgar Allan Poe
I realize that I began this review by stating House of Salt and Sorrows is a fairy tale retelling, and it most definitely is – but it is impossible to ignore the homages to Edgar Allan Poe scattered throughout as well.
As the novel opens, Annaleigh Thaumas, our protagonist and the seventh of twelve daughters, is mourning the loss of her sister – the fifth familial death in but a few short years. They began with her mother and four of her eldest sisters followed – each death more tragic than the last. The deeply superstitious village believes that the family is cursed and none of the daughters believe they will ever marry well, if at all. After a series of events, they discover a hidden door in the family crypt that carries them anywhere their hearts’ desire. This leads to the girls sneaking out every night to attend balls all over the kingdom. As inevitably happens in fairy tales, situations and people are not often as they appear and the girls find themselves in terrible danger.
House of Salt and Sorrows has all of the common Gothic tropes – death and decay, haunted estates, family curses, madness, powerful love/romance, and ghosts. Craig writes them beautifully and weaves them into the setting and atmosphere of this novel. The setting is its own character in House; It is a raging sea, high cliffs, salty air, and sprawling manor. It is palpable. It paints the novel in blues and greens and grays that you can see as you read.
I would also like to mention, briefly, the mythology that Craig has built into this world. She has created a pantheon of gods that are worshiped in this land and they are reminiscent of those from the Greek and Roman mythos, but they have their own unique quirks. They are embedded in the day-to-day life of the people who live in this land and are therefore quite important to the story. I truly hope the author decides to revisit this world with another story. Craig has a strong talent for world-building.
As a final note, I want to remind readers that this is a YA book. If you go in expecting anything too grotesque or dark, you’re going to be disappointed. If you know what you are walking into – I think you will really enjoy this spooky little sea gem.
Tattered Covers & Broken Spines 