SYNOPSIS: In this masterpiece follow-up to her critically acclaimed short story collection Cruel Works of Nature, author Gemma Amor winds 11 new, hand-illustrated tales of terror. A true artist of atmosphere and emotional horror, Amor's stories bring readers to the edge and dangles them off.Readers will journey to the depths of hell, go on a daddy-daughter date, learn what's locked in Lee's basement, watch a mother battle postpartum depression, eat the world's messiest birthday cake with Brian, and try to survive in the English countryside during the blitz.
I haven't read Cruel Works of Nature yet (eternally behind, that's me), but reading this just bumped it way up in my queue. The stories here are at turns beautiful and horrifying (sometimes both). I *love* the illustrations; they're unsettling and fit the stories perfectly. And speaking of images, Amor has some really wonderful ones in here (the Devil Kid in 'I Am Ghost' and the man next to the desk in 'Have You Seen My Dog?' spring immediately to mind) The foreword explains that 'Justine' includes rape, abuse, and suicidal ideation. And 'The Strangler' deals with postnatal depression. Very grateful to know this going in. ((and I know that some people think warning for triggers will keep people from reading that work entirely, but Justine turned out to be my favorite of the collection, seconded closely by Caleb)) Quotes/Lines: ((spoilers below!)) HAVE YOU SEEN MY DOG? -- "Are you a Doctor?...But you're a woman." UGH one of these guys. -- 'How cruel old age is, I thought, not for the first time. How cruel, and how indiscriminate.' I don't know if this line would've hit as hard as it did if my grandma wasn't in the late stages of Alzheimer's, but...yeah. -- "No, I don't believe you. I think you know something about my dog." Call for help NOW -- "He's dangerous, be careful," I croaked, rubbing my neck. Linda smiled, unconcerned. "So am I, dear" she said, lifting a giant arm and flexing her bicep.' Everybody needs a Linda. -- Aw, puppy! -- Yeah, that guy needs help and the dog needs a safer home asap. -- would you quit sending Linda away she might be able to help you -- 'Offence being the best form of defence' NOT IN THIS CASE will you at least text Linda so she can come with you or so *anyone* knows where you're going?? -- "Well, you're an idiot, Miriam, and I say that as a friend." Seconded. -- AUGH NOPE NOPE NOPE NIGHTMARES FOREVER -- oh Copper, sweetie. And poor Albert, too. I can't even imagine coming fully back to yourself and realizing *that*. PURE WATER -- "That was years ago!" "You gaffer-taped me to a lamppost dressed as a goat and shaved my bollocks." "It was a stag do! That was the whole point!" "In December." "You survived." I can absolutely picture these two idiots and I love them already. -- do not drink from that wtfffffff JUSTINE -- "Don't say it," Justine interrupts furiously. And so the guy proceeds to say it. *eyeroll* -- At least she has her mom. <3 -- 'She rubs at the skinny, pale scars around her slender wrists and feels the full force of her hate coursing through every tiny capillary in her body. She feels as if it will shoot out of her feet and speed through the earth and put roots down far into the ground, and eventually, instead of a woman, there will be a bitter, black, poison tree around which nothing will grow except thorns and weeds.' -- Ohhhhhhh. On the one hand, a smart strategy, but on the other hand god, her poor mom. -- 'Here lies Uriah Dice, she thinks. But not for long.' Make it worth it, hon. If you can. :( -- 'There are bodies, lining the valley.' The descriptions after this are terrifying. -- 'She is in a forest of silent, hanging corpses, the only living thing in the land of death.' -- 'Justine met Uriah at work, or more specifically, at a work party.' okaaaaay we're getting into flashbacks of what happened and I might end up skimming -- 'She did something she wished every day after that one for the rest of her life that she hadn't. She wiped her mouth on the back of her hand...and laughed at him.' Honey, no, none of what happens after this is your fault. More creepy guys at bars should get puked on, honestly. -- 'She packed her things wearily into a plastic crate and made her way down to the underground parking lot' no no no no -- 'CALL ME' ahhhhhh fuck *off* creep -- 'It's a woman's health clinic, with a particular role to serve: that of helping women in trouble. Women like Justine.' No. :( -- 'And she will blame herself.' Why can't I bring you into the real world long enough to hug you -- "This is all your fault," he sobbed. "Yours!" I'd say fuck off and die, but you've succeeded at the second part. God. I hope Justine finds what she needs and gets some kind of finality to all this. I'm gonna need to take a week-long break from reading entirely if this has a sad ending. ((also, the sole flaw I can find in this story is that a lot of description is given to the fact that Uriah is a fat man, and I'm hoping there are fat protagonists later in the book to kinda balance this out)) -- 'She realizes, in retrospect, that Uriah was probably in love with her, in his own, terrible way. Retrospect and hindsight are harmful things, in Justine's mind. They are clubs with which to beat herself when the world turns to black.' -- 'It doesn't matter what she says or what she does, what sentence he is given and for how long he will never, ever accept the truth of his own behavior. In his mind, he is still a boy, and that boy is not to blame. NOT MY FAULT. Suddenly, the words light up like fire in her brain. NOT MY FAULT. Justine swallows, feeling herself fill up with something hot, and powerful, and almost hopeful. It is not my fault, she thinks.' This. Story. From here to the end I was pretty much a crying mess. I AM GHOST -- 'The ritual starts in the bathroom, as many rituals do, with a knife, and a mirror.' ...therapy is sorely needed I think. -- 'Just a simple, clean white bedsheet. One that covers me from head to toe. Memorable, yet faceless. A blank. People don't remember the guy in the sheet. A humble square of fabric. The perfect disguise.' What the hell is he planning to do -- 'I stumble back. My heartbeat slows. The smile is still going. I watch in horror as the top of the kid's head starts to flip backwards like he's a fucking pez dispenser, like someone has cut his head in two with thin, impossibly sharp razor wire' AUGH RAT GIRL -- I thought the illustration for this one would be disturbing af and I WAS NOT DISAPPOINTED -- "Why do you have a girl in your basement?! I thought it was a dog or something! No way. I'm not cool with this, Lee!" Lee ignores him, grinning from ear to ear.' Bash this little creep over the head and get her *out* of there, Timmy. I'm having The Girl Next Door flashbacks and if that's the way this story starts going I'm skipping it sorry -- Okay. I can see where, from a child's perspective, Lee might honestly believe he's doing the right thing in protecting her from curious doctors and scientists and the like. He still worries me, and Timmy definitely needs to stay close and supervise and get her out if Lee goes fully awful. -- 'Lee is the exact opposite of Timmy, sure, but Timmy wonders if he really is a bad kid, at heart. Timmy doesn't get a chance to find out, unfortunately. Neither does Lee. What he gets instead, is a shiny black Audi A4 sedan, driving too fast.' oh *shit* -- 'It is a good thing that there is no mirror.' nnnnnnnnnnnnnn MY BEST FRIEND -- 'And I had to eat, didn't I? What else was I supposed to do? Starve down here?' Yiiiiiikes -- 'It could be a goddamned Wendigo for all I knew, or cared.' Foreshadowing?? -- Yep. -- 'They say that mankind has no other natural enemy, no real predator. They are wrong.' This is me never going into a wooded area ever again. HEART OF STONE -- 'As soon as she tells me this, I realize I hate Giles, even if he is only nine years old. I do not want to compete for Jenny's love. Her love belongs only to me.' Yeahhhhhh, gee, I wonder why Jenny's mom left you. -- Oh, and a restraining order? Nice. But of course you still get visitation, because fuck a kid's safety, right? -- 'So sacred, I wish I could turn her to stone, preserve her like this forever.' If anything happens to this poor kid so help me... -- 'I pocket the number, and try to forget about it, for a while. It's too soon after the last one, really. I should space things out a bit.' how many bodies do you have in your basement -- All right, no, Julie is an asshole (though more garden-variety than whatever the hell he is). You don't upset your kid; she can have two jewelry boxes for pete's sake. -- 'and if she was famous, she would belong to everyone, instead of me. I had to do something to protect her from all that. Didn't I?' Well shit. CELL BLOCK B -- "You don't get shoes on death row, McCready." Well, this bad situation just got worse. -- "Warden's coming! Better hide!" Um, yeah, I'd sure as hell say so. -- Are they in hell? Purgatory? -- "I needed to see...inside him. To see if he was like me." eeeeeeeeep A BIRTHDAY CAKE FOR BRIAN -- my only note for this story is 'AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH' THE STRANGLER -- 'Later, someone, a person like you maybe, might call it postnatal depression, but my poor kid, my darling boy, my life and soul, who has no idea what postnatal depression is, doesn't give a shit about that. He is having a full-scale toddler tantrum, which is very normal, healthy developmental thing, or so I'm told. I am not having a healthy, normal reaction to it, however.' .............. -- 'And I don't blame the kid, honestly. Because all he needs is his mother. Objectively, I can see that. I can recognize that. I just can't do anything about it.' I don't remember a whole lot from my daughter's first year of life, but I do remember these feelings. -- 'Because it is so hard to love someone so much whilst failing them with every waking breath, failing them so hard you can barely look yourself in the eye anymore, or anyone else, for that matter.' And here come the waterworks again CALEB -- The poor cat. :( -- 'Apparently splintering glass is more dangerous than the bomb blast itself, or so someone told me. Someone is always telling me something. War is a fertile land for gossip.' -- 'He had dirt on his neck and his fingernails were atrocious, black, and ragged. I swallowed back my disgust and surprise, and pushed him towards the table. City folk, I thought, but kept it to myself.' Orrrr traumatized child? The kid's running from a war zone; I doubt a manicure is high on his list of priorities. -- What kind of creepy-ass cat-murdering rituals is Johnny up to while you're busy judging parents who've sent their son away for his own safety? -- 'Is there curse on my farm? First the cat, then the milk, and now the chickens. Because, you see, two things concern me greatly, in relation to that. A boy, who came on the train, a boy who never talks, not ever, not a single word at all. This all started happening around the time he arrived.' Lady... -- I like the doctor; listen to the doctor. -- "Stay with me," she pleaded, and so of course I did. I put my arm around her and watched as she opened the telegram.' :( -- Ohhhh, so now Johnny is stealing hair from your brush. Yes, this is perfectly normal. RUN PLZ -- "Come out," he said in an odd, quiet voice. "Why won't you come out, darling? It's your Edward. I've come back for you." GET A GUN -- I love the ending of this one!!
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SYNOPSIS: These are tales of wickedness... stories of evil and cunning, written by today's women you should fear. Includes tales from Kelley Armstong, Rachel Caine and Sherrilyn Kenyon, writing in their own bestselling universes.
Hex Life: Wicked New Tales of Witchery will take the classic tropes of tales of witchcraft and infuse them with fresh, feminist perspective and present-day concerns--even if they're set in the past. These witches might be monstrous, or they might be heroes, depending on their own definitions. Even the kind hostess with the candy cottage thought of herself as the hero of her own story. After all, a woman's gotta eat. Bring out your dread. The lineup in this anthology is not to be BELIEVED. So many authors I already love and some I'd been meaning to read. And there are a couple of short stories set in larger universes that I haven't gotten into yet, so that was a nice preview. Thank you, Night Worms! <3 My favorites: Widows' Walk Home: A Morganville Vampires Story The Deer Wife Bless Your Heart Last Stop on Route Nine Haint Me Too Gold Among the Black How to Become a Witch-Queen Honorable mention to The Night Nurse, which was amazingly well-done but I am never reading it again because it got into PPD a little too well. Quotes/Lines: ((spoilers below!)) AN INVITATION TO A BURNING -- Lovely opening paragraph. -- "And if I were a witch, and here you are alone with me, with no matches in sight, what do you think would happen then?" I approve of your sass, Sage. -- I love the feeling of connection and found family in this ritual. WIDOW'S WALK -- 'Once only Martha lived there but the others gradually shifted into it as husbands shuffled off mortal coils, either naturally or otherwise.' WHAT A LINE. -- Oh Chelsea, poor kid. -- 'She's old enough to understand that her position is one of shame; not because of the theft so much as being a child whose parents cannot feed them adequately. The shame isn't hers, but she still feels it, suffers for it on her mother's behalf.' :( -- "Your penance will be to come here for breakfast before school every weekday. And after school, there will be chores." ... "Until your debt is worked off or you're no longer hungry." I love them. -- "Who should take Mr. Landreneau?" "Me. I love a bully," says Eugenie. **pledging fealty to all these badass ladies** -- "Now, now, girl. If you can't say anything nice don't say anything at all." Virginia where were you when I was in middle school -- DAMN, Eugenie. Not screwing around at all. I love it. -- Ohhhh. Have I mentioned how wonderful Angela Slatter's stuff is? Because yes. I haven't found a story of hers yet that I haven't loved. BLACK MAGIC MOMMA: AN OTHERWORLD STORY -- "I don't believe you are aware of what you possess, Miss Levine." Yep, totally am. But go ahead and explain it to me anyway.' Heh. I like her. -- "That's Tiffany. She's a total bitch." "Savannah..." "Sorry, Mom. I should roll up the window before I call her that." I adore this child and will definitely look into this series. -- 'Once Dora surrenders-- well, the third time she surrenders, the first two being fake-outs, which I expect' I love the fighters-who-respect-each-other's-tactics trope. -- I love you lady behind the counter please do not die for trying to help. -- I really like Dora. I hope she shows up in the series more. THE NIGHT NURSE -- 'Two year olds, constitutionally, are passive-aggressive. It's literally a hallmark of their personalities.' Yep. -- 'and then socks, always socks! No one could ever find, match, or put on their own socks!' TRUTH. -- 'Esme had tried to befriend these women, but they happened to be the same kinds of women who read Eat, Pray, Love and considered Love, Actually the best movie of all time. They were lovely women who would raise lovely children and Esme had nothing in common with them.' *checks author credit* Get out of my head, Sarah Langan -- 'So she got up and held the baby. Offered her breast, which the baby bit, tearing up the scab that had just healed. "I don't want you," she cooed sweetly, because babies don't understand English.' Yeahhhh, that is not a good sign. -- 'Spencer threw fits when she was late, which it turns out is normal for a two-year-old, but somehow unacceptable at a preschool for two-year-olds.' Right??? -- "Oh. Should I cram this baby I'm holding back in my vagina?" she asked. YOW. YOU TELL 'EM. Also, poor Esme. I'm getting secondhand stress/memories of my own PPD just from reading this. -- The ointment concerns me, and I do not trust Wendy one bit. Esme should have a proper support system, not a do-nothing husband and a woman she met at a museum who I'm pretty sure bewitched her somehow. The whole 'oh, I'll work with you on payment' just means the price will be WAY too high. -- 'She got the text from Mike that he'd be coming home late. He had this pattern since they'd started having kids. He stayed away util they were sleep-trained.' Fuck you, Mike. If the Night Nurse really is some kind of monster hopefully she'll eat you. -- "You can't have my references because you're not my employer." Liking Wendy a little more now. Get that asshole. -- 'Wendy smiled at the baby and she smiled more at Esme, like she mattered. Like she was a person who could be seen.' Oh, honey. You need help, and what got into your house because your husband's an unsupportive ass? (please don't let anything happen to her or those kids) -- 'The next day Mike slept in because it was Saturday and he was tired.' And she isn't?? -- "It's voodoo," Marlene whispered. "I can smell it on the children. You're marked." UM. -- "Can you feed him? I left a bottle," she asked Mike. Mike popped a last beer, and answered like he'd only vaguely heard. "Sure." She'd been through this before. Sure meant absolutely not, but she decided to let it play out.' My hatred for Mike is bright and unending. -- Wendy keeps ignoring her when she suggests it's time to leave oh nooooo -- Oh my GOD these judgmental preschool dipshits. "I trust you'll give me my money back. A false accusation of child abuse is a big deal. I can't imagine you'll keep your accreditation if I sue." GET 'EM ESME. -- 'Ritah's mom asked Esme to babysit. "You realize I'm drowning and you've never once offered to watch Lucy, right?" MY GIRL, there you go. Now do Mike. -- Ask Marlene for help!! She might know what to do. It's not going to be as easy as throwing stuff away. -- Oh no. No, no no. That is the stuff of nightmares I cannot handle this. THE MEMORIES OF TREES -- ...please be a more lighthearted one I need it after that. -- 'The Faithful intended to hang the child at dusk.' Oh, well then. Okay. -- I have read two more paragraphs and I want every one of the Faithful to die slowly and horribly. -- The more things change, huh? -- 'Our weapons are older, stronger,' the trees responded. 'We will not let you fall, little one.' <3 -- 'Elder Barrow's expression didn't waver, except to allow a tiny, almost imperceptible smile.' Looking forward to your brutal death. -- 'We spared the children, who ran away into the woods. Little Ellena had asked for that, and we obliged.' Good on you, kid. HOME: A MORGANVILLE VAMPIRES STORY -- "Way to waste your blood donations," Shane said, and nodded at the cuts that had opened up in Oliver's hand.' A vampire getting pissy that someone's opening a rival coffeeshop across the street? I love it. -- 'He had a family to protect, not just from the random hunger pangs of some nightstalker, but from the things even the vampires feared.' oooooh. *curious about this series* -- "If you draw that stupid thing, I'm going to have to refuse service," Jane said. "And cook that arm for my dinner. Oh, who am I kidding. I'll feed it to the cat." Yikes? -- Shane you dumbass -- Fluffy vampire bunny slippers? Myrnin, I adore you. -- "If I'd found you gadding about, I'd have burned you on the spot, Myrnin." Shane felt a chill, because Oliver's voice was no longer cool. It was vicious, and completely serious.' So he acts like that even now, and used to murder witches? ...let Jane have him. -- "Pot, kettle," Shane muttered, and she at least pretended not to hear, which was good, because he liked his internal organs on the inside.' *snerk* -- "Do you like my new familiar? I thought he'd be useful. Oliver seemed concerned for his safety. Unusual. He normally doesn't care about the mayflies." okay that is creepy -- "Hundreds of thousands of innocents slaughtered to find a handful of genuine threats. Isn't that right, sugar?" "Yes," Amelie said quietly. "But that began before my time, or Oliver's." "You took up the cause happily enough." "It's what we were taught," Oliver said. "Is that what you want to hear? An apology for that?" "Oh no, sweetie. I'm not here for your regret. I'm here for your blood." ngl I'm still kinda on Jane's side here -- "Back away from me, boy." "Or what?" Michael, you do not seem to have much common sense. -- "Don't offer up your blood for him." "I'm not. I'm offering it up for this town. There are a lot of innocents here. You talked about how many were killed to get to you, right? I'd like to avoid that here." ...please don't die -- "Tell your friends how I died, Oliver." "The times were different," he said. what did you DO you asshole -- ...go straight to hell Oliver, wtf -- "Better to reign in hell than serve in heaven. Take us home, my love." Awwwww. -- "Even for Morganville, that was weird." I'm buying all of these books. THE DEER WIFE -- 'She has killed those who cross her. She has scared men to death. If you're out in the woods at night and you hear her song, it'll be the last sound you ever know. But the stories, they're all half-truths.' This is a beautiful piece so far; I love these women and their relationship. -- ...sorry, if he was gonna get drunk and violent then he had it coming. Hope the kid's not showing the same tendencies; if he starts in then get the hell out of Dodge. -- Okay, fuck him forever for even trying that. Get out, Julie. -- *heart eyes* THE DANCER -- "They don't mean it." Mrs. Weaver smiled at Baker, you know how children exaggerate.' Ugh. -- "Oh, you don't need to tell this part," Mrs. Weaver said, staring at her shoes. Poor Ani. She and her brother need parents who give a shit about them instead of maintaining appearances. -- "We are a family, Mr. Baker. We're going to live as one." Even if it means tying up your kid?? -- "Ani, if you come with me, I will bring you to Burlington and find a place for you for the night." Bless you. -- 'The repercussions of taking Ani wouldn't be slight, but Baker had a good lawyer, and he wasn't afraid. This wasn't the first time.' Hello yes I would like an entire series of Baker being an epic badass and getting abused kids out of bad situations. -- ...okay I didn't see that coming. BLESS YOUR HEART -- The first paragraph of this just kicked my anxiety into overdrive. PTA politics, noooo -- 'It was the end of church for her. It would have been the end of the entire town if she could have swung it.' I love you. ((please let her son be okay)) -- "Well, you know how kids can be--" he started.' Kill him. -- "Eh, a few of them were involved" "the bully's not a *bad* kid" fuuuuuuck youuuuuu -- Oh, Tuck, sweetheart. -- 'Isolating a gay kid in a red county...she knew how that went. He'd end up broken, running off, or dead. And I ain't losing my boy.' I love you, agree with you, and will provide an alibi if necessary. ((seriously, she's not brushing this off or thinking 'oh, he just has to get through this and he'll be fine'; she knows and flat-out acknowledges how bad this can get without sugar-coating it in her own head and that is So Important)) -- "Not the time, Audrey! Not the damned time, all right?" Should've listened sooner, asshole. -- The. Last. Line. THE DEBT -- oh shit, that paragraph about the one time she ever wore a dress. -- 'hopeful that the reason her dad had suddenly been so eager to take her to the country of his birth was because he wanted to rekindle the warmth they had lost.' *looks at story title* *looks at theme of anthology* Yeah I doubt it. -- Baba Yaga reference yesssss -- If you did this to your little girl on purpose I swear -- "This settles your debt." Your debt might be settled with her but now I get to kill you, them's the rules. TOIL & TROUBLE: A DARK-HUNTER HELLCHASER STORY -- Without her...humans are screwed. Sounds about right. -- "Not the most original of prophecies, is it?" "Nay. Seems as if patricide be the crime of the hour. How very gauche." I like how this started all formal and then went full snark. -- I like Eeri a lot; she's actually giving the people who want help honesty. She's still *trying*. (I can see the witches' cynicism, being ageless and all, but...yeah.) Also, instead of them letting Eeri go and asking her to apprentice of her own free will, they keep her as a slave and have the gall to think her 'treacherous'? You're lucky she hasn't played steal-the-eyeball. -- okay so that's definitely the same creeper in disguise RUN -- "But you judged your sisters for your crimes and for that you are damned." Wait, what? Those weren't her sisters; they were her owners. She panicked and ran after being directly threatened, how is that damnation material?? And I just looked her up on Kenyon's website and her character profile still says 'slave', just apparently to a demon or somesuch now? No thanks. (I haven't read anything else in the series; if I misread something here or Eeri does get a happy ending, please DM me on Twitter and let me know!) LAST STOP ON ROUTE NINE -- "My dad got locked up here," Kai said. "He said that place was just a bunch of rednecks who hurt kids for fun. And he said Gracetown is haunted as shit." Poor kid. I'd be twitchy around there, too. -- So the grandma sent him to a creepy 'Reformatory' and then said he needed therapy as an insult when he didn't bounce back all happy-cheery afterwards? What a sweet lady. -- "What if we get pulled over? And I get locked up for no reason like him?" Oh honey. Why can't I do battle with this society and win dammit -- "There's a house. I'm just going to knock on the door and ask for directions." NO -- "That's crazy!" Kai said. "Haven't you ever seen Deliverance?" Listen to the kid please and thanks -- 'She still remembered a black woman's name: Renisha McBride. And there were others. But she also wasn't going to let fear rule her life. It was broad daylight. She was lost. She was dressed for church. She would be fine.' No no no no live in fear for just the next five minutes please -- "Lock up behind me. I'll be right back." oh no not The Words -- 'Then Charlotte noticed the Confederate flag' DRIIIIIIVE -- worry about the car later just GO -- well shit -- "We didn't!" Kai screamed at her. "Someone hit us!" "Kai...calm down. Breathe." No, Kai is showing exactly as much panic as the situation requires, do not get out of the...you're getting out of the car, aren't you. -- 'Kai's gratitude vanished, replaced by bitter fright. "You still don't get it!" True. Don't get me wrong, I want Charlotte to get out of there but it's so much worse for Kai because he's a kid and he's trying So Damn Hard to get her to LISTEN and she won't, and she's not going to be the only one to pay if this really goes south. -- "I have to see if he got thrown." OH MY GOD LADY. -- "Tell him...what? He won't believe you." "Yeah, he will," Kai said, sure of it.' I think I'd like Harry a lot. WHERE RELICS GO TO DREAM AND DIE -- "If you had it all to do over again, how would you want to die?" Well THERE'S an opener. -- The spirit in the candle flame (and how it got there) is both nicely done and Utterly Terrifying -- "You've been affable company these years." ... "Thank you," she said. "So have you." <3 <3 <3 -- "While you slept I took from you all that I need to make a child of our own." Um. They knew each other and loved each other and he pretty much just willingly died for her but that is still kinda disturbing. THIS SKIN -- 'I didn't have to introduce myself. He already knew who I was. What he didn't know was I was prepared to tell him everything. As soon as it had happened, I'd known I wanted to tell someone. What was the point of doing it if no one knew it was you?' o___O -- AUGHHHHHH -- okay that was just a full-body shudder of a story HAINT ME TOO -- 'She didn't like work and she didn't want to be in the house with those mean kids. They were always doing things to hurt her. She wanted to tell her parents, but she knew that it would just make them upset. They couldn't do anything about it. That was just how it was.' *rooting for the haint to eat the family* -- "Those pots from upstairs need chucking out back, Our Nig." ...die -- 'Somehow, they often reminded her, this wasn't slavery-- that had ended forty years before. No, this was sharecropping.' I need a time machine and a flamethrower. -- 'Somehow the family never remembered her name. Her parents had given her a name but it must have been too hard to remember.' Oh sweetie, no, don't give them even that much benefit of the doubt they're just assholes -- Okay these kids can go straight to hell -- "Business. You know a few years ago you wouldn't have even known the word." *flames on the side of my face gif* -- "I will not die as a free woman running from these men." She walked into the house, grabbed the rifle off the mantel, and came back out. "I won't leave you." Hello yes I would die for you just thought you should know -- 'White people did not like ghosts, Shea reasoned, because they were not controllable. They didn't like Negro women ghosts because they were angry.' godDAMN what a line -- I haven't read any of Burke's stuff before and what the hell, self. Shame. THE NEKROLOG -- 'I seem to recall an urgent, whispered conversation with Dad when she discovered a birth certificate stamped with a six-pointed star. I was told never to mention this to anyone and Mom's look was so serious, so desperate, that I never did.' ..... -- 'I don't blame them. Only they didn't let me hold her in the end.' Ummmm. Your kid is not dead -- 'But I was told they had died and I was an orphan and all this was for my own good. They didn't indulge my grief. We were all grief-stricken.' GO MAGNETO ON THESE ASSHATS, GIRLS -- 'We learned to love one another. This was the first thing though it wasn't what they intended to teach us.' *found family feelings, send help* GOLD AMONG THE BLACK -- I have now adopted Greta and Jesper and nothing bad is ever allowed to happen to either of them. -- 'She preferred to stay with him even if it meant sleeping in the forest.' This darling. -- 'But Liesl wouldn't stop. "They say that dog is your familiar and he can change shapes." Hell. No. I see where this might be going and it's not allowed. -- <3 HOW TO BECOME A WITCH-QUEEN -- 'The list of things queens cannot say is a long one, and you have not said them for most of your life.' -- 'If you had been given a choice, you would have stayed in the forest with the dwarves--or the huntsman.' Snow White adaptation!! *love for this story immediately increases tenfold* -- 'It is tiresome to ask permission, but you have had to ask permission from men all your life-- your father, your husband. Only in the forest were you free.' -- "And perhaps I shall take Dorothea with me. The nuns will know how to assuage the grief of an emotional girl." Nicely done. -- 'He had never asked you if you still went to the king's bed. He knew that queens have no choice in such a matter.' I am rooting so hard for you both. -- 'You knew that whatever inn you stop at, she will arrange it so that for the first time in fourteen years, you will spend the night with the man you love.' *flail* -- I really like the setup of the dwarf families. -- Ermengarde. I love it. -- The relationship she has with Wilhelm is wonderful. "Want to be King after I defeat your brother's army?" "Yeah sure sounds good" -- BATTLE GHOST WOLVES I am buying all of Goss's stuff -- 'The three of you standing there, resemble the three Fates.' SYNOPSIS: Deep in a Wyoming mine, hell awaits. Nat Blackburn is given an offer he can't refuse by President Teddy Roosevelt. Tales of gold in the abandoned mining town of Hecla abound. The only problem - those who go seeking their fortune never return. Along with his constant companion, Teta, a hired gun with a thirst for adventure, Nat travels to a barren land where even animals dare not tread. Black-eyed children, strange lights and ferocious wild men venture from the deep, dark ghost mine...as well as a sinister force hungry for fresh souls.
Former Rough Riders investigating a haunted mine. Auto-buy. Weird Western is one of my favorite genres, esp. when we get into the 'horror' side of weird. I've read some of Shea's books before, and he always has a fun, easygoing writing style and memorable characters. When Matthias and Angus appeared, I thought that maybe they'd end up being recurring characters throughout a series of his books. That doesn't seem to be the case, but it easily could have been: both were larger than life (pretty much literally, in Angus's case) and felt very fleshed-out. The monsters are fantastically done, with some great creative explanations behind them. (the DOG, you guys. I'm not going to give any spoilers right here, but just trust me and buy this for the scene with the dog) Quotes/lines: ((spoilers below!)) -- 'He wanted to be a miner like his daddy. For now, this was as close as he could come.' This is not gonna end well. Be careful, kid (and leave the mice alone!) -- Ohhhh, so we're gonna slingshot at cave rats now instead. This is a good idea. -- Poor rat. Burying it is a nice gesture, but hopefully next time you won't kill one to begin with. -- 'Something heavy crashed in the Stygian depths behind him.' Never mind, not gonna be a next time. Bye, kiddo, sorry. -- "Uh-uh-uh, Billy. It's not nice to take away my pets." oh okay I see we've already reached the OH HELL NO part of the book -- 'Scott and I knew each other from a brief stint in the Apache Wars' It might not be fair, sign of the times and all that, but I'm kinda predisposed not to like you. -- "Indians? I thought most of them were settled by now." Settled??? *bitter laughter* -- Being more concerned with the gold than with the soldiers who disappeared trying to find it? Yeah, rings true. -- "Yes, yes, yes. I know you want to talk to the complaint department. But you're being rude. I'm in the middle of a conversation with my friend here." I love you, Teta. Questionable nickname or no. -- "So you got a bunch of books, and only one bottle of whisky." Same, Teta, same. -- 'For the first time in my life, I kinda liked trains.' *snerk* Also, I love the schoolteachers, all heading for new jobs together and a couple deciding to have a fling on the train. I know they're probably not going to show up again, but they seem like fun and I wish they played a bigger part. -- 'The buttons on the front of her shirt were working hard to keep things together.' Between this and the women on the train, that's probably enough about breasts. I get it, they're there. ;) -- "I don't like this," Teta said. "It feels like we're buried alive." "In a way, we are." "Thank you, Nat. I needed your reassurance." Pfffft. I do love the bond between these two. -- 'The mines were the heart of Hecla, the reason for it ever being a town. I guess I just wanted to see if the heart was as dead as the rest of the body.' <3 -- "Do you have any food?" the girl asked. "We could use some water," the boy added.' I want to say 'poor kidlets', but I'm leaning more toward "black-eyed children SHUT THE DOOR" -- I KNEW IT (also, Billy, is that you??) -- Selma! <3 -- "I'm almost afraid to ask how you came by that name." I held up a warning hand. "Don't ask and he won't tell. You don't want to know." I'll go with that. -- You maaaaaay want to tell Selma about the black-eyed kids now. -- Ohhhh shit. Poor Lucille. -- I am an eternal sucker for the fighting (or retreating) back-to-back trope. -- 'At that moment, I didn't care if it was the second coming of Jesus. If that was the disguise he chose, his father couldn't blame me for taking a shot.' What a line. -- So I'm thinking this thing disguised itself as an old man and a dog? If so, that's a very The Thing-esque tactic and I LOVE. -- oh my god the DOG I want this to be made into a movie solely for that moment -- Geez, Nat, at least give her a chance to turn away. -- "Let's leave while we're still alive to do it." Amen, Teta. Though they're packed up and we're only halfway through the book, so something's going to keep them there. -- "The dog. Did you at least have the decency to bury the dog?" There it is. -- 'They were the smart ones. Leave it to the white man to stumble into this nightmare.' Fair. (and I think maybe Teddy isn't as fond of you as you think) The whole Apache Wars thing still gives me pause, but his fighting alongside Native Americans as well is at least a good sign. -- "This is where my companion and I have been headed ever since we heard the Trumpets of Armageddon." oh NO please don't tell me we're going into Creepy Cultist territory -- "The only cowboys I knew who thought fighting had to be fair never lived long enough to learn the error of their ways," I said. -- 'Matthias called out, "Would it be a bother if one of you told us what was going on out there?" I'm starting to like this weirdo. -- "How do you explain your inability to cross that barrier and the changing of the day into night? Think, Mr. Blackburn. I may be a reverend, but I don't have the power of Jesus to do such things." He has a point. -- "I don't hear anything," he said in a hush. "You can't," Angus said. "The dead don't talk to you. I'll go to them now." I love Angus. -- "I am going to kick Teddy's ass when I see him." Well-earned. (the kids, though, bless) -- 'I was growing irritable and had to suppress the urge to choke him. This confirmed for me that he was, indeed, Matthias.' Dorks. -- Okay so she's not a djinn but what the HECK -- Lucille, noooo. There had better be something more for her than that. -- ...sorry Nat but this thing with the dog when you were a kid kiiiinda makes me hate you -- 'If this was hell, it tore me up inside to think that this is where she ended up, just like the preacher had warned me when we made plans for her burial.' Imma just take a quick detour into the book to kick a preacher's ass, brb -- 'He (Matthias) said knowledge was power and there was no reason to hide anything from her just because she was a woman. I wasn't in a mood to argue.' Not that there's anything to argue about. ((also Matthias and Angus are now My Boys and I want a whole series of them driving around fighting ghosts and demons and such)) -- "You're one twisted bastard," I snarled. "I invented twisted bastards." Point one to the Devil. -- I like the parasitic spy take. -- Walking in an actual cross formation to go confront demons. LEGENDS. -- I never thought I'd say this, but I adore the black-eyed children. -- 'The adult spirits swept over us like a wave, jumping ahead of the children. It made sense. They had been their parents at one time, and were going to protect them even beyond death.' This book is not supposed to make me teary-eyed dammit. -- 'I don't think mocking Satan is such a good idea.' Heh. -- Nooooooo -- That ending; I'm cackling. |
A WORLD WITH A BLUER SUNMy reviews are set up a little like live-tweets: I write down lines I like/impressions as I read, and then transcribe. Reviews will contain spoilers, but I'll give a warning before they start. Archives
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