Tag: Supernatural Horror

House of Bone and Rain by Gabino Iglesias

Posted on September 25, 2024 by - Book Review

“All stories are ghost stories.”

I’ve sat on reviewing this book for a couple of weeks. This isn’t because I didn’t like the book (I loved it), it’s because words about this book need to be thought out. House of Bone and Rain is wonderful horror writing, but it’s far more than that. Mr. Iglesias has managed to tuck a massive amount of social commentary into a novel about five pretty different teenage boys living in Puerto Rico seeking revenge while a hurricane is about to hit.

Now what I just wrote seems like a pretty standard plot approach, it’s the individual bits of it that make this so profound. Puerto Rico is a country with a fascinating culture and history. I won’t delve into to much here because that actually gives away some of the plot (I do hate spoilers), but there has always been a bit of an air of mystery surrounding the island.

As Bimbo and his friends seek out revenge against the biggest drug kingpin on the island, with a storm ready to strike, House of Bone and Rain begins it’s spiraling decent into chaos and madness.

My favorite thing about this novel is the timing between the supernatural and the hurricane. As Maria starts to swell, so do the strange things the boys encounter. This parallel really enhances the experience, and adds a significant degree of tension.

While I thought a couple of the side stories were just flavor to take a break from the insanity that the boys were undertaking, they turn out to fold right in and be some of the most significant aspects to what happens with Bimbo and his friends.

It’s not often that one finds harsh realities in a fantastical horror story, but Mr. Iglesias really delivers it here. The amount of grief and devotion just cannot be matched.

Bunny by Mona Awad

Posted on August 20, 2024 by - Book Review

Oh how I wanted to fall in love with this one. It had all the right elements of multi-generational weirdness and it seemed to be hitting all the right buttons. Heathers meets The Craft in a polished Stepford Wives wrapper tied together with some gentle hints of depression, anxiety, and smattering of substance abuse and imposter syndrome.

Bunny, however, falls short.

It kicks off wonderfully. Samantha “Smacky” Mackey is a student out of place in her graduate program at the exclusive Warren University. Her cohort consists of her own dark self, and the four “Bunnies:” Cupcake, Creepy Doll, Vignette, and The Duchess.

The Bunnies, who pretty much exist as a single unit, spend Samantha’s first year ridiculing her and, basically, breaking her down before, seemingly, embracing her wholeheartedly in their second year.

I could go more into what transpires, but, if you are going to read this one, I would hate to ruin the little bit of joy the unfurling of the chaos provides before it all falls apart.

Bunny reminds me very much of a hill I often tried to skateboard on the university campus near where I grew up. It was steep, terrifying, and seemed like a damn good idea to attempt. The first part was exhilarating, the mid starts to get shaky, and, by the time you reach the home stretch, speed-wobbles throw all control out the window and you end up wiping out across the lawn.

I went back and read parts of this book multiple times just to make sure I didn’t miss something pivotal that seemed to be driving the wrap-up. Some tropes were flexed with deft skill, and others were just slapped in the readers face like a week-old mackerel.

This is one of those books that I’m glad I read because I want to talk about it with others who have read it. I’m all about unhinged fiction with a “weird” slant, but, at the very least, hold the story together.

What Kind of Mother by Clay McLeod Chapman

Posted on June 20, 2023 by - Book Review

For those who have read my reviews previously, it’s no secret that I am a big fan of Mr. Chapman’s work. There is a certain way he approaches a story that evolves the absolute normal aspects of everyday life into a spiral of fascinating terror, and What Kind of Mother does exactly this.

Deeply entrenched in southern gothic horror, What Kind of Mother tells the tale of Madi Price, a mother who is forced back to her hometown of Brandywine, Virginia in order to have any semblance of a relationship with her seventeen-year-old daughter. With nothing really to her name, Madi ekes a meagre living reading palms at the local farmers market and a rundown motel on the edge of town.

Then Henry McCabe enters the story. Henry is an old high school flame, and now fisherman, who now spends his time posting flyers in the desperate search for his infant son who went missing five years ago.

Madi gets involved, and then the whirlwind really starts.

Reading Henry’s palm, Madi begins to be haunted by nightmarish visions of the waters of the Chesapeake Bay, and then the familiar Chapman spiral begins.

One of the things I absolutely love about Mr. Chapman’s works is the way he creates a tiny postcard of a setting, and then just pours on the flavor. Moisture is a huge theme in this novel, and it really did not help that I have been dealing with the Summer heat and humidity of North Texas while reading it. I swear I had a cloying claustrophobia whenever I sat down on the patio to continue reading. It might be in my head, but that’s what I’ve come to expect from a Chapman novel.

This is definitely a novel of zigs and zags. Situations are turned upside down, and it was often hard for me to figure out if I had figured out a twist prior to getting to it, or if I was just led to believe I had figured it out.

I will tell you one thing, Clay McCleod Chapman has absolutely ruined crabs for me. I’m not sure I can even be in the same room as them now.