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Category: book reviews
Nightjar: Stories
by Emily Ruskovich
This collection is made up of five short stories, all connected by the same haunting, quietly devastating voice.
The first story, Victor’s Room, follows Rebecca, a young mother who moves to a remote farmhouse where her husband spent his childhood. The story is told from her perspective as she wonders how she ended up there. She looks back on meeting her husband at university, where he taught and she was a student, and remembers their relationship, marriage, and the birth of their daughters. Over time, Rebecca realizes that many of her life choices were not truly her own, and she starts to see that her husband is not who he claimed to be. He tells her about growing up in the house, his childhood, and the death of his brother Victor, in a room that Rebecca later chooses as a sanctuary for herself. Reading this story made me feel uneasy; the relationship between Rebecca and her husband is very one-sided and manipulative.
The second story, Owl, follows a young man whose wife is shot by some neighbourhood boys who mistake her for an owl. Their relationship is already strained, so when she later disappears, he suspects either the boys are involved or that something from her past has finally caught up with her. I found this story heartbreaking and incredibly sad, with characters who feel like nothing more than victims of circumstance.
The third story, Round Lake, centers on a young woman who, after learning the truth about a key event in her life, starts to question everything, especially the life she has built around her memories. There were moments in this story I found incredibly easy to identify with. As I was reading, I kept thinking, I have totally responded this way, and this is exactly what I would have done.
Petty Creek Road is the one story I couldn’t quite identify with. It follows two older brothers who, because of circumstances in life, move in with each other and become the best of friends. When Butch, the younger brother, is tragically killed, his brother Will has to come to terms with his loneliness, the relationship he has with his son, and a gift he has denied possessing until now.
The final story, Nightjar, is about a young girl, Tess, who has to look after her little brother Rory during summer vacation. While doing so, she experiences something miraculous that gives her a sense of purpose and peace in her otherwise lonely and isolated life. The relationship between the young girl and her brother is incredibly realistic, sometimes funny and very heartbreaking.
Emily Ruskovich is a talented writer. Her stories draw you in with their beauty, and her writing is rich with description and metaphor. She is one of the best writers I have read.
Every story in this book will be suitable for High School study.
Thank you to NetGalley and Random House for the copy.
When Among Crows
by Veronia Roth
Curse Bearer Series #1
When Among Crows is a short novel, more of a novela really, that is steeped in Polish Folklore. The juxtaposition of European folklore against a contemporary American setting makes for an interesting story, to say the least.
Dymtr comes from a family whose calling is to slay monsters. Think “Grim” from the TV series; unfortunately, he has to sacrifice half his soul to be a monster slayer. At the very beginning of the novel, Dymtr is tasked with finding the infamous Baba Yaga and, well, slaying her. We get a bit of Dymtr’s backstory: how his Grandmother (Bubcia) trained him, and his first kill being a striga, even though she seemed so “normal.” Dymtr travels to Chicago to find Baba Yaga and, along the way, meets Ala, a monster herself, but not by choice; her family was cursed, and with the death of her aunt and cousin, the curse bounced to the next living relative, her. Ala is a Zmora, a night “demon” who feeds off fear. They also meet up with Nikko, a male Strzga, another Slavic creature in human form who feeds off anger and can turn himself into an owl, who it seems may fall in love with Dymtr, which, of course, will complicate things.
In the novel, our main character, Dymtr, has to reconcile with the “sins” of his past and decide how to move forward: should he retain his identity and fulfill the obligations of the family legacy, or will he move forward with a renewed sense of righteousness?
This novel was a great palate cleanser. It was a quick, easy read between heavier books—a wonderful escapist novel using Slavic folklore, always a favourite.
Thank you to Tor Publishing and Netgalley for the copy.
Mad Mabel
by Sally Hepworth
Well, I was pleasantly surprised to be so engulfed by this novel; I read it in one day. It was the perfect book for sitting on my balcony, sipping a beverage and reading until the sun set, and where I live that isn’t until 10:30 in the evening.
The first two sentences of the prologue are one of the BEST I’ve read in a while: “It’s interesting to note that there are two groups of people who are rarely, if ever, suspected of murder. These groups are elderly women and little girls. We meet Elsie Mabel Fitzpatrick who is 81 years old. Elsie and her bosom friend Daphne are chit-chatting about the neighbours, an eclectic group of people who all will take part in the story in varying degrees. It seems no one in the neighbourhood has seen or heard from their ninety-three-year-old neighbour Ishann, and to add to their concern, his packages of shipped vitamins are beginning to pile up on the doorstep, and his chihuahua Nugget has been yapping nonstop for a couple of days. Elsie takes it upon herself to check on him and crawls over the fence to see Ishan lying dead on the floor through the glass. The police are called, and they soon find out that Elsie is also “Mad Mabel,” a notorious murderer sent to prison when she was only 15 for killing…someone (no spoilers), so of course, being the person to discover the dead body and because of her history, she is not ruled out as a suspect.
The novel then skips back in time to give Mabel’s back story, where we learn who her parents are, what type of childhood she had and, of course, her possible motivations for murder. Chapters are labelled “Then” and “Now,” and Hepworth does an excellent job of only giving us the time frame in Mabel’s life that fits with the events happening in the “now”. As readers, we move from not knowing the true character of this murderer to actually befriending her. The Mabel of “Now” is strong and spunky, but the Mabel of “then” is a young, emotionally damaged girl who is abused by almost every aspect of society. As readers, we eventually learn that there could be several potential murder “victims,” but Hepworth is successful at not making it entirely predictable.
If you’re looking for an engaging story with an intriguing and somewhat funny protagonist, then you will love this novel. It does pull on your heartstrings with its treatment of Mabel.
Trigger warnings for child sexual, physical, and mental abuse, as well as violent scenes and domestic abuse. The story is not graphic, but the subject matter is sensitive—five stars, one of my favourites of the summer.
Between Two Fires
by Christopher Buehlman
Fallen angels are preparing for battle. Lucifer and his minions have chosen medieval France as their battlefield, and what better way to recruit humans to their cause than by challenging their faith with the plague. It’s 1348, and our main character, Thomas, a disgraced knight, has already had a crisis of faith. After suffering betrayal by his brothers in battle and by his wife, he has taken to the life of a brigand. Thomas has committed crimes both legal and moral that he would rather forget, but hey, it’s the time of the plague, and survival is being used as an excuse for sinful behaviour by everyone. Everyone, that is, but a young girl named Delphine.
When Thomas meets Delphine, he feels inexplicably protective of her because she seems to epitomize innocence and good. And Delphine is indeed different. She is visited by angels and set on a quest to journey to Paris to “find” something and take it to Avignon, and she persuades Thomas to accompany her. Along the way, they encounter a plethora of evil in the form of monsters, demons, and the walking dead. They also encounter some good, one person in particular being important to their journey: Fr. Matthieu, a kind yet imperfect monk who brings some jovility and warmth to the trio.
We, the readers, know that these three are going to face an evil in Avignon that will build into a holy war, one where everyone feels as though God has abandoned them.
I really REALLY liked this novel. I listened to the audio, narrated by Steve West, and his narration was powerful. It almost reads as a morality play. Naturally, themes of forgiveness, redemption, crisis of faith, the duality of mankind, good and evil, and the corruption of religious and political institutions are developed, among others. The development of Thomas’s character is powerful to see, as he responds to the challenges he encounters, albeit mostly supernatural, in a very human and realistic manner.
It is a horror novel that is VERY atmospheric and features graphic violence, but I think that no matter who you are, you will like the ending.
Brimstone Hollow
by Archer Sullivan
Brimstone Hollow is the second book in Archer Sullivan’s Annie Gore series. Annie is a spunky, independent private investigator we first met in The Witch’s Orchard. Sullivan has again written a Southern Gothic-esque mystery filled with interesting characters, a fast-paced plot, and an engaging protagonist. This time, Annie is approached by a young mother who wants to know how her estranged father, a “snake handling” preacher named Ezra King, died. The case takes Annie to a small Appalachian town, where she meets an assortment of townsfolk — some who followed the preacher, and some who didn’t. With help from the Chief of Police, Annie uncovers more than just murder: an entire underworld of criminal activity.
I expected to enjoy this novel, and I did. It’s a great palette cleanser if you’ve been steeping in heavy literary fiction — a quick, plot-driven read with a very likable main character. Sullivan also has a knack for slipping in a twist or two to keep things from getting predictable.
Thank you to Minotaur Books and NetGalley for the copy. Brimstone Hollow will be available for purchase August 11th.
Stone Yard Devotional
by Charlotte Wood
I’m not entirely sure why I picked up Stone Yard Devotional. I think it had something to do with a book podcast I came across, where the host mentioned it was the kind of book you read slowly, pausing to sit with what the words on the page are really trying to say. Not so much the telling of a story, but the meditation surrounding the narrator’s contemplation.
Our narrator walks away from her life running a “Threatened Species Rescue Center,” feeling it is essentially pointless. The world is going to hell in a handcart (my interpretation), and she retreats to a religious community of nuns. Not out of faith, but because “nothing is asked of [her], nothing expected” (pg. 18). From there, she turns inward, revisiting the events she believes shaped the woman she has become. As she settles into convent life, she begins to reflect on her upbringing, and particularly on her complicated relationship with her mother. Then three life-altering events unfold: a plague of mice, described in genuinely horrifying detail as the narrator and the nuns scramble to contain the infestation; the discovery of the remains of a nun who once belonged to their community, whose death appears to involve criminal circumstances; and the arrival of another nun, someone our narrator has crossed paths with before.
This is a deeply human novel. The examination of our narrator’s inner life is genuine, frustrating, and at times confusing, but through it all, it is rooted entirely in her truth.
Charlotte Wood’s writing is simple yet beautiful. There were several moments where I had to stop and just sit with her prose. For example: “Crossing the grass I made a clean track of footprints, deep green on the white spread of the lawn. It returned me to my childhood, to the sense of secret authority, imprinting one’s presence into a place with those clear, sharp prints. I exist” (pg. 39).
And: “I’m used to it now, the waiting. An incomplete, unhurried emergence of understanding, sitting with questions that are sometimes never answered” (pg. 69). The discussions you could spark from contemplating either of those passages alone would be well worth the read.
Stone Yard Devotional is a novel that can be finished in a relatively short time, yet its complexity and themes run deep. That combination of accessible length with rich, layered content makes it an ideal pick for book clubs and high school independent novel studies alike.
Bone of my Bone
by Johanna van Veen
Johanna Van Veen has quickly become one of my favourite authors, so when the opportunity to review her newest novel, Bone of My Bone, landed in my lap, I absolutely jumped out of my skin. An image that is more appropriate than you might think.
Bone of My Bone follows two women thrown together by the chaos of war. Sister Ursula is a young nun who has fled her convent to escape an invading horde of soldiers, carrying with her a tremendous weight of guilt for having abandoned her fellow sisters. Elsebeth is a brave, scrappy peasant girl who is running from the very same army. Their paths cross at a pivotal moment: just as Sister Ursula is about to be violated, Elsebeth steps in and saves her. From there, the two decide to travel together, and it isn’t long before their journey takes a fateful turn.
Along the way, they encounter a dying man in possession of something extraordinary: a holy relic, the skull of a saint. Legend holds that if the skull is reunited with the rest of the saint’s remains, the one who does so will be granted a wish. Naturally, Ursula and Elsebeth take the skull and set off to do exactly that, though each woman is driven by her own deeply personal reasons. Standing in their way is a necromancer who is stalking them across the countryside, desperate to claim the relic for himself.
This novel is such an entertaining read. It weaves together elements of German folklore, atmospheric dread, body horror, and a genuinely lovely love story. Van Veen’s writing is both gruesome and vivid, in description and in theme. She doesn’t shy away from the inhumanity of war, the selfishness of those who wage it, and the particular brutality that women are subjected to in the midst of it. And yet, through all of that darkness, something tender takes root. The romance between Ursula and Elsebeth is soft and authentic, and it earns every moment.
Set in Bavaria during the Thirty Years’ War, this one is an absolute must read if you love sapphic romances, folk horror, and stories that don’t flinch from the ugliness of history while still finding beauty within it.
Thank you to Poisoned Pen Press and NetGalley for the copy.
The Midnight Train
By Matt Haig
The second book in the Midnight World series
If you liked The Midnight Library, you will like The Midnight Train.
Eighty-one-year-old Wilber Budd has just finished his piano lesson when he receives a phone call from his past. Maggie, the love of his life, his ex-wife, whom he hasn’t spoken to in years, a lifetime really. She called because she had dreamed of him, after all these years, and just wanted to hear his voice. Wilber is filled with joy, though his joy is tinged with guilt. After the call, Wilber finds the last letter his wife wrote him, which ends with: “I love you, Wilber, but I am also leaving you. I don’t know where the past hides, but I will meet you there.” He feels responsible for the dissolution of their marriage, and he has missed Maggie tremendously. Wilber then has what we believe to be a heart attack.
When he “dies,” he finds himself on a train with a lady from his past. Mrs Agnes Deborah Amaryllis Bagdale of Bagdale’s Bookshop, where Wilber used to visit as a child. Agnes is Wilber’s spirit guide of sorts, there to guide him through his life. The train will stop at various points in Wilber’s life, where he must get off and relive pivotal moments that shaped him into the man he was when he died. But there are rules Wilber must follow on this journey: he must get off the train, he must not be seen or interact with his younger self, and he must not be there when his “past” self falls asleep.
As Wilber journeys through his memories, the urge to break the rules grows stronger. Each forgotten moment tugs at his heart, wishful for a chance to rewrite the past, especially his story with Maggie. Readers are swept into Wilber’s struggle, feeling the raw ache of longing and the bittersweet weight of choices. We, too, are compelled to reflect on our own regrets and treasured moments.
This novel is an inviting, heartfelt read, gentle yet stirring. Matt Haig’s writing wraps the reader in warmth, exploring the quiet beauty and pain of love, regret, and the persistence of hope amid personal loss.
Thank you to HarperCollins and NetGalley for the copy.
Marion
written by Leah Rowan.
Narrated by Natalie Noudas and Tawny Platis
I both read and listened to this novel, and I quite liked both experiences.
Remember the black and white movie, Psycho? Noman Bates being the quintessential creepy mass murderer with huge mommy issues? Remember the shower scene? The visuals, along with the music sound effects, have become infamous in movie culture. Now, imagine if, as soon as that shower curtain is open, Marion incapacitates Norman by strategically kneeing him in a sensitive place, taking control of the situation and stabbing him in self-defence. In this twist, it’s Norman who dies! Marion, on the other hand, now faces a myriad of problems: what to do with the body, what to do with the $100,000 she just conveniently has in her possession, and how to help her sister, who is sporting a black eye from her husband’s abuse and has gone silent.
With all this chaos, can Marion (not her real name) clean up the catastrophic mess she’s in without getting caught—or killing anyone else?
Meanwhile, there’s Hannah, a young private investigator striving to succeed despite her parents’ lack of support. They insist she attend law school and refuse to fund her PI career. Before quitting, Hannah takes on one last case: a missing woman last seen near the Billings Hotel, run by Norman.
I really liked the dual viewpoints. We experience Marion and the aftermath of her choices, while also following Hannah, who serves as a character foil for Marion.
Thematically, it’s about women’s fury and the consequences of fighting back in a manipulative society. The writing is easy to read. Some plot twists are predictable, but overall, it’s entertaining.
The audiobook was wonderfully narrated. Noudas and Platis possess the perfect voices for Marion and Hannah, respectively. The intonation, emotion and phrasing added a wonderfully suspenseful atmosphere to the novel.
Thank you to Netgalley, St. Martin’s Press, and Macmillan Audio for the copies.
Gifted and Talented
by Olivie Blake
I admire Olive Blake’s writing tremendously. In this novel, she convincingly narrates the story from an omniscient point of view; in fact, her name is Death. So is she really dead? That is the question I kept asking myself as I read until….the other characters began to refer to her, then I knew she was actually a flesh and blood character, or is she? This question of mine makes sense once you start reading the book. Gifted and Talented is a novel about siblings. Actually think of the series Succession, but with heirs who are “telepathically and electrokinetically gifted.”
The novel’s plot is simple: the wealthy founder and CEO of a groundbreaking company dies, and each of his three children (two of whom are all but estranged from him) finds their way back home to discover who has inherited the company. And, of course, each of the adult children comes complete with their own massive set of luggage. Meredith, who always thought she would be the next in line, was somewhat shunned by her father and ended up working for a competitor building and marketing her happiness app “Chirp”; however, her ethics have come into question because her ex-boyfriend has discovered she has been using her “gift” to manipulate buyers into a false sense of happiness. Arthur, the only son, is a washed-up politician who is more of a frat boy than a man of the people. Seemingly kind-hearted but leading a life of debauchery, Arthur really doesn’t want to be a politician, especially because his gift, if unharnessed, would be very difficult to explain to the voters. But the guilt his father put upon him made him. And then there is Eilidh, once a promising ballerina, and closest to her father, the only Wren offspring to work with her father, who doesn’t really know what she wants, especially because her gift, when unleashed, is the most dangerous of them all. Then there is Death, and you will learn all about her as you follow the story.
A very well-written book with the most extraordinary character development. In fact, the book is mostly about character development, their discovery of self, their reckoning with their truth and the possibility of redemption and reconciliation. If you like character-driven books rather than plot-driven ones, you will enjoy this book immensely.
Thank you to Tor Publising and Netgalley for the copy,.
Sunburn
by Chole Michelle Howarth
I love any novel set in Ireland. I often thought of myself as part Irish, but according to Ancestry, I’m only 2% Irish…give or take 10%. Nevertheless, I have a love for the people, the country and the culture. That said, I naturally gravitated to Sunburn when a copy became available.
The novel starts “ Now is the time between birth and slaughter. Another Summer has arrived. I spend my days waiting for something to happen. Something glorious, even something tragic. Nothing ever happens.” (pg 1). Now, if it doesn’t exactly capture every teenager’s mindset at the beginning of summer, I don’t know what does.
Sunburn takes place approximately 30 years ago in the small Irish town of Crossmore. Lucy is our main protagonist, a young girl struggling with her identity, and she comments, “Recently I have really wanted to figure out who I am” (Howarth). This novel is about Lucy figuring out who she is. what her heart wants, what her family and friends expect from her, and what society expects from her. She has a best friend, Martin, a neighbour with whom she grew up, and the unspoken expectation that their friendship will turn into something romantic. In fact, Lucy is beginning to notice that Martin’s interest in her is shifting from mere camaraderie to something more romantic. In the meantime, Lucy finds herself drawn to her classmate Susanna, an attraction that confuses her and complicates her life, as she is at a time when she must make life-altering decisions. Will she stay and live a life with what is familiar, her town, her friends and family, making a life for herself similar to her mother? Or will she follow her heart, which means leaving the life she has lived thus far?
Howarth is masterful at capturing the mindset of a teenager experiencing not merely teenage angst, but the struggle to acknowledge the truth behind her identity.
Howarth’s prose is absolutely beautiful and thought-provoking. Some examples: “ I can’t stand being on the outside of what everyone else is feeling.”Sometimes knowing someone for a long time is the only reason you’d be friends with them. It isn’t much of a bond, and still it is unbreakable” “ Even at my small age, I understood that there were limits to love, and I felt sure that one day people would run out of love for me,” Lucy loves Martin in her own way he “makes her feel grounded” and this line absolutely broke me “ when he leaves, I watch from the back door as he disappears down the garden, out into the dark road, taking the last of today’s goodness with him.”
A beautiful novel with a discussion-generating plot and themes, all wrapped in beautiful prose.
A perfect novel to use in High School classrooms, either as a mentor text showing the effectiveness of character voice and the impact of first-person narrative, or as an independent novel study.
Thank you to Melville House and Netgalley for the copy.
House of Splinters
by Laura Purcell
Laura Purcell is one of my favourite authors when it comes to Gothic Victorian literature. I am always riveted by her storytelling; it is incredibly atmospheric with regard to the creep factor. House of Splinters is a prequel to her acclaimed “The Silent Companions”. Truth be told, I enjoyed House of Splinters a wee bit more.
In this novel, we return to the creepy Bridge estate. After the death of her father-in-law, Belinda and her husband, Wilfred, arrive for the funeral and to claim their inheritance. Soon after their arrival, Belinda encounters one of the silent companions: two-dimensional, life-sized wooden figures that resemble deceased family members and appear unexpectedly throughout the house.
With unsettling memories of her last stay (after the birth of her son Freddie), a very pregnant Belinda is already on edge, so with the appearance of the “silent companions” and Freddie’s peculiar behaviour, Belinda gives birth, almost losing her own life and the life of her baby daughter.
As the novel progresses, Belinda learns of the dark history surrounding the Bridge, including murder and witchcraft. A history that her husband does not want to discuss. However, with the arrival of a brother-in-law, Nathan, whom she knew very little about, and the increasingly disturbing behaviour of her son, and bizarre noises, Belinda begins to wonder if she is losing her mind. Thankfully, she finds comfort in her newly acquainted brother-in-law, who confirms her misgivings about the home.
House of Splinters was everything I was expecting—quick, engaging, and riddled with suspense.
Thank you to Netgalley and Blackstone Publishing for the copy
Ink And Spine 