C. J. Daley

This is a short story that I grabbed a paperback copy of, kind of cool that that’s even an option, and I loved that it’s like pocket sized similar to Evening of the Mutated Undead by E. Reyes and The Gatherings by Jeremy Ray. I read it in a single sitting, so no need for pocket storage, but the option’s always there.

Jay’s father is a man of rules, a harsh corrector when the rules get broken. One of his biggest rules is to never enter the garage, which is most often locked, and the memory of the one time Jay’s brother disobeyed is well engrained in their memory. So when Jay’s father tells him to follow him, and he seems to be headed for the garage, Jay doesn’t know what to think. Where is his family? And why is his father being stranger than usual?

This was a quick read but it still packed a punch. While not exactly long enough for me to sink my teeth into as a revenge story, it’s certainly short and sweet. A family heirloom, an axe, makes Jay feel strong, makes him feel like he’s up for the task of taking on his dad. All his father wanted was to be obeyed, but he’s done things unforgivable. In a kind of rule of two ending, the student may become the master. And I loved the barrels, they made me think of Breaking Bad.

The author very kindly offered me a physical ARC. And after reading a Grind reference 7 pages in, I knew I made a good decision. And then later an Underoath reference. And the G-2 07 Pilot is truly the best pen. I hope these are references where I am like the author, cause otherwise it means I’m like Schroeder…

This novel is a psychological trip of stream of consciousness. With winding, incredibly longwinded sentences, paragraphs, chapters even. It took some getting used to, but I’m absolutely enthralled by how the author was able to go on such runs. I can only assume he spent huge chunks of time just thinking, watching, being. And the way he was able to make it almost compulsive to read, while often the character himself is even losing the strain, is truly something.

Schroeder is riding his bike through town, making pit stops, and ending lives. He’s described as a kind of normal guy, but all I could think of was how much stamina he had for biking all day long. Not to mention the other exercising he was stopping to do. It’s clear that he’s a pretty traumatized person, as who else would do the things he does, however he has a pretty positive outlook on the world it seems, or perhaps it’s because he knows what he’s doing. A day long bike ride that’s a propulsive revenge tale.

The one thing I struggled a bit with was the why. At first I thought it was strange that I didn’t really understand why he was doing these things, and then I understood that it was a decided choice from the writer. And as my curiosity continued to peak, I arrived at the end of the novel, which features a great deal of explanation and heartbreak. It works well, but I wonder if it would have made the earlier bits just that much stronger if these tidbits were making themselves present during all his musings on the bike? I for one, never get far before my troubles make themselves present at the forefront of my mind.

I think the biggest win here for me, is the fact that the author takes you through Shroeder’s musings for pages on end, and then they are broken up with these almost blissful moments for him while he’s doing harm to others. Harm that is bordering on extreme or even the splatterpunk edge, without going too nasty for readers. It’s this fine edge of walking that line between extremes—the extreme of thought, and the extreme of revenge. It works quite well. And while I wouldn’t say I necessarily agree with him, I do understand the lengths he’s been pushed.

Thanks so much to NetGalley, Solaris, and Tantor audio for the ARC. The narration by both Emily Woo Zeller and David Lee Huynh were great!

This is a celebration of all things Chinese horror, which is fantastic. As this is audio, and I was listening at work without accompanying text, it was hard to note any of the story titles themselves, as they were in Chinese! But there were a few that stood out to me. The editor does a great job of adding notes and translations, however how some of them would pop up as footnotes right in the audio did add a slight layer of confusion for me, as they would repeat the Chinese phrase multiple times before commenting on it. It’s both necessary to define the terms used, but also took me out of the stories a lot.

One story that stood out was a mixture of ghost story, as well as a commentary on the pricing crisis on land that’s happening. An entire housing complex, which our main characters were not aware of when moving in, is mostly being used to house the ashes of the dead. While awake one night, a boyfriend finds a coin in the mouth of his girlfriend, a token used to help the dead. He freaks out and of course they desire to move. The twist that followed was not one I was expecting, and it was well done for something so short. The commentary on land, taking care of loved ones, and placing them to rest, reminded me of this year’s Korean film Exhuma.

Another I particularly enjoyed found a man and woman waking up inside an apartment. With no way out, they are trapped, and as their kidnapper knocked them out, they don’t even know where. Through various phone calls, the person on the other line offers them ways out through various tasks or tricks. I listened to this story right after watching Saw II and the comparisons cannot be understated. While there are no contraptions, the life and death possibility of being trapped, as well as the choices to save each other, does have a kind of Jigsaw feel with the person on the other end of the line. It also feels very reminiscent of those earlier 2000s movies where all the trapped person has is a phone.

Otherwise, with this being kind of mixed, as it includes short stories, novelettes, and novellas, I did struggle a bit with the different lengths, as sometimes I’d get used to a specific voice and then the story would promptly end. Then you’d start all over. I feel like collections of all shorts are a bit easier, but there were none that I disliked! As the editor notes several times throughout, some of these were what would be considered very Classical Chinese horror…which kind of felt like differing stories with the same ending of, “they were dead the whole time!” Not really displeasing, but I think it’s why I enjoyed the ones that differed the most.

Thanks to Truborn Press for the e-ARC, I’m glad for this spooky read!

With the son’s name being Craven, and the way the story opened, I really thought this was going to be some kind of modernized werewolf story. I’m not entirely sure why, but that was the first thought that hit me. It’s not, and I happened to like the direction the story took.

Leo is the daughter of one of Paul’s closest patients. So when something goes wrong, his wife thinks it’s only right that they take him in. The eight year old has some real quirks to him, and it’s a learning curve for the entirety family. He’s obsessed with death, recruiting a small army of roadkill and dead animals. He keeps them in a backpack, and plays with them like toys. However, when he does, strange things happen, and they even seem to move…

It’s not just Craven having a hard time adjusting to this new life change…frankly there’s something off about Leo and his parents just can’t see it. He tries to reach out and make the brotherly connection, but it doesn’t work, doesn’t last, and things go wrong from there. I even liked how Leo speaks in a way that’s not usual for a child to his adoptive father, really adding to that layer of other.

While this is short, it does do a solid job of building an atmosphere of paranoia, and Craven seems to be the only one noticing that there’s something wrong with Leo. It could be Paul’s blissful ignorance, his wife’s plotting, or something else entirely that’s keeping them blinded to it. But will they catch on only when it’s too late? The later, more demonic, parts of this book brought to mind scenes from Paramount’s Evil, which I loved.

The examination of familial ties is really well done, and although I wish this had a wider, more in depth ending, the story really is about that examination overall. The ties that bind them are also part of the problem, dragging them down. This family’s legacy is anything but normal.

I’ve had this paperback for a while, so I decided to get to it as a spooky season read, as well as a Hispanic Heritage Month read.

The first story, The Crossing Guard, is also available separately as a kind of sample to the author’s writing. There is something off about Val the crossing guard. Eric has taken notice, and he feels certain. She’s doing something funky to the water bottles she offers out to the school kids. But when she catches him trying to destroy them, he quickly blames another passing kid. Safe for the moment, but no less culpable.

It read like a Goosebumps short, like something from Tales to Give You Goosebumps or even the newer series Stinetinglers. It even has the kind of classic cliffhanger ending you’d expect. I look forward to the sequel story.

While many of these shorts read like the author’s version of Goosebumps, they do range from middle grade characters/feeling to adult reads. Some of which are definitely more extreme too. One of my favorites is a story about a break in that’s mixed the feelings of slashers/The Strangers vibes with those of the more mysterious and ancient ritual tropes. Think home invasion times un-killable killer. It allowed for some really interesting twists, and even got my own creative ideas flowing honestly.

From monsters to aliens, theme parks to bugs, magic napkins and evil lies, Heredia knows his way around some horror tropes. And this collection has a fantastic set of story headers.

There’s also a great deal of diversity present in these stories that I feel as if you don’t exactly see elsewhere. That remembrance to include others. If it wasn’t the main character, it was a named character that was involved. And I thought that was perfect for Hispanic Heritage Month.

Thanks to NetGalley, MCD books and Macmillan Audio for the ARC. Unfortunately, I’m really not sure which way I’m leaning on this one.

For starters, this was not at all what I expected, and it was not at all what I was looking for. While that’s not the fault of the book, it did hinder my enjoyment throughout. I find the blurb to be quite misleading, as it continually questions if things are supernatural, demonic, possessive. That’s not really what this is about. There are hints, or even outright comments, but it’s something all its own.

Now that the novel is out, and it’s getting into spooky season, it’s worth noting that this is not a haunted house story. At least not the Halloween month-style most readers will be looking for. One of the things I enjoyed the most, which I assume is what they meant by ‘a new kind of haunted-house story’, is that the novel is really pushing the idea that a house can be haunted in way more ways than the paranormal. With that concept it’s really pushing those bounds with its themes.

After the death of their parents, Ezri is forced home to Texas to meet with their sisters to finalize things. While each and every occupant of the house suffered, Ezri’s journey through childhood was the darkest. Perhaps that’s why they fled all the way to England. They’ve always been different, and that’s also a huge portion of why. The author labeled them as trans, although with their desire to be and broadcast as both at different times, I did wonder if the term gender-fluid was more accurate (but I don’t know). Either way, the author does make a point to showcase their experience and traumas as different, and that stood out much more to me than most of the commentary on race, even though a huge part of the plot is them being the first black family in an all white neighborhood. However the woman in the beginning saying “so articulate”, really led right off with how the book would commentate. And from the author of The Deep, you shouldn’t be surprised there. The twist at the end also hit in a kind of Get Out way that I will not spoil.

One this that took me 100% out of the story multiple times, is that the blurb mentions upper-middle class, but then the parents actions clash with that, and then there’s also all the kids feeling like their parents were frugal and they didn’t know they had money? Right in the beginning, a neighbor mentioned wanting the house but picking a different one, the mother insinuates that it was because the woman could not afford their house. The house is commented on as being large, and inside an entirely gated community. The mother’s tastes for furniture are expensive, even imported foreign pieces. They comment on the fact that the father HAD to have a $100,000 tv. In one pivotal scene, that showcases the mother in a particularly good mood, she wants to take them to a dinner to celebrate good news. It is remarked upon that they are not dressed for that kind of restaurant. So, instead of going to change, the mother buys every single on of them a brand new outfit. Head to toe to be able to go to the fancier dinner spot. Then one sibling asks if they can ice skate after dinner at the mall too and the mother says of course. Then in the present day portion of the novel, the family is astonished to hear that they were set to receive over a million dollars prior to liquidating anything else. I’m sorry, and maybe it’s just my lower middle class upbringing catching all the surprise here, but that sounds like an incredibly wealthy family, not one breaking into the upper middle class?

As one of four siblings, there were also some very odd things the siblings did together that stood out to me, but maybe that’s just my family dynamic? Like cuddling together in bed as adults, comments on wanting to lick tears away, as well as some questionably off massaging. Maybe this was another layer to show reactions to the trauma, but it took me out of the story a bit too much.

But at one point towards the end, someone’s reading The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison, and I felt that the novel’s name drop was a really good choice as this is kind of an amalgamation of that book with the idea of a haunted house. All in all, some things in this that I really liked, and others that detracted from them.