Set in an alternate version of the 1920s, in a small island community, THE BEE KING is part fairytale, part horror story. Our heroine, Alice, is strong and muscular; she's had to be, to protect her sister and young cousin from her alcoholic wastrel father, who plans to sell her to a much older man for a dowry. However, plans change when the Bee Men arrive from the mainland. The Bee Men wear pinstriped suits and black veils, and they are responsible for the mysterious "moon bees" that make a magical honey guaranteed to create good fortune. They also serve the equally mysterious Bee King, who has come to the island in a search for his new bride.
Reading this book was like a fever dream. It has elements of Cinderella and Bluebeard, but it also has the dark and surreal whimsy of some of Hayao Miyazaki's edgier works. The storyline is dark but what makes it redemptive is the feminine rage fueling Alice's every move; she resents living in a society that uses female flesh as currency and is determined to do whatever it takes to get herself and her sister's out of it. This is definitely a monster story that will have you questioning who the real monster really is by the end.
A few people asked me if this was really scary and I personally don't think it is. There is body horror and allusions to the very real horrors of sexual assault and violence against women and young girls, but this is the sort of story that is more creepy than scary and a lot of the violence is that surreal fairytale violence that is so cartoonish that it doesn't feel as visceral or immediate as what you'd find in a crime thriller. When I wasn't reading this book, I was thinking about this book, and wondering what would happen next. I had never heard of this author before until I read her contribution to the Native horror anthology, NEVER WHISTLE AT NIGHT, and after reading Kushtaka, I went out and bought all her books.
She said she's got even more gothic horror planned and I absolutely cannot wait for it.
I was rereading REBECCA for a podcast episode and oh my GOD. I had read it for the first time around 10 years ago but I couldn't actually remember anything about the book, which made the reread experience very interesting as I kept getting these fleeting little glimpses of what I thought I remembered, like a ghostly overlay on top of my fresh experience.
Here's the thing. This book is, on many levels, dated. A lot of what happens in this book couldn't be possible with modern technology. It is also, on several occasions, racist. They have a costume party where someone literally shows up in brown-face, and another guy is dressed as a Chinese guy with those long fingernails. Oop.
The mystery itself? Top-tier. A Gillian Flynn-esque twist to rival all twists. I gasped, I held my breath, I wheezed all the way to the finish line. The nameless heroine is compelling in her anxiety; in some ways, it's a lot like THE YELLOW WALLPAPER in how it uses a home as a setting for a woman's slow spiral into what feels like madness. Domesticity isn't always benign. Sometimes, it's a trap snapping shut.
I really don't have much else to say except that this was so much fun. It is VERY slow paced by contemporary standards and part of the build is watching this heroine's expectations of her life as a member of the nouveau riche slowly crumbling as she realizes that she's just a pale shadow of the former bride, the woman whose name overshadows hers so thoroughly that she is erased in the narrative. It's just such a fascinatingly daring book that holds up so well and I had such a great time reading it.
This is one of the easiest five-star reviews I've ever written because GRAVE MATTER was a wild rollercoaster ride of equal parts thrills and chills from start to finish and I never wanted to get off. It's set in the wilderness of the Pacific Northwest. The heroine, Sydney, is a biologist who's been selected for an exclusive and important project working up close with fungi-- specifically a newly discovered glowing species-- at a facility owned by the reclusive Madrona Foundation.
However, as soon as she gets there, something feels off. They take away her technology and her phone, the animals in the woods don't look right and don't move right, and she keeps getting flashes of things that look a whole fucking lot like ghosts. Add to that a brooding love interest who is kinky and forbidden and a backdrop that is both lush and terrifying, and you have a recipe for a luscious dark truffle of a book that is as delicious as it is insidious.
Less is definitely more going into this book, for sure. I am SO glad I didn't read spoilers and went in cold. Halle can be a hit-or-miss author for me but her new books are all so amazing and I think this might be my new favorite of hers. Gothic is definitely a genre she does well. Can't wait to read more from her!
This book has elements of The Six Swans, Hades x Persephone, and The Secret History, which a dash of co-dependent queer relationships and culty chthonic hijinks. The writing itself feels very 2000s fantasy, reminiscent of authors like Sherwood Smith, Maria V. Snyder, Patricia McKillip, and Juliet Marillier, so even though it's a recent work, something about it feels very wistful and nostalgic, kind of like a Hayao Miyazaki movie or an old-fashioned British boarding school.
I don't want to say too much since this book is not out yet, but the heroine, Lark, comes from a poor salt-mining family and after witnessing a ritual that she shouldn't, she ends up bargaining herself as a bride to the local swan god of the underworld. We also learn that she's been booted from her boarding school for reasons that aren't quite clear, and for also unclear reasons, she's at odds with the two beautiful rich children that her family is semi-indentured to even though they used to be childhood friends.
TENDERLY, I AM DEVOURED is a short gothic masterpiece that manages to accomplish a lot of story and depth of feeling in a limited page time. It never fully went where I expected it to go, and usually that was a good thing. There were a few characters I personally felt needed to be stabbed who were not stabbed, but hey, you win some, you lose some. At the very least, this book lived up to his coming-of-age promises and obsessive throuple.
Cut to me chasing down everything this author has written because I love the vibe.
Thanks to the author/publisher for sending me a copy!
I'm honestly shocked that the ratings for A WOUNDED NAME are so low because for the right audience, I think this would be an instant favorite. I suspected I would like it from the beginning because I'm a sucker for literary retellings, and the absolutely stunning cover was promising gothic vibes that it 100% delivered on.
A WOUNDED NAME reminded me a lot of Baz Luhrmann's Romeo + Juliet in the sense that it modernized the characters and setting, but kept its old-fashioned dialogue. Instead of being set in Denmark, in a cold and drafty castle, A WOUNDED NAME is set at a posh boarding school where the Danemark family serve as headmaster. After Hamlet Danemark passes, his brother, Claudius takes over and marries his late-wife, Gertrude.
Ophelia is the daughter of the Dean of Curriculum, who serves as the headmaster's righthand man. She lives in the school year-round, even during summer, which is how she's grown so close with her brother Laertes's friends, Horatio... and Dane, Hamlet's son.
I saw a lot of reviews claiming that this book romanticized an abusive relationship but I don't think that's true. It's pretty clear in the subtext that both Ophelia and Dane are behaving destructively. Ophelia is mentally ill and has been institutionalized because she claims she can see the bean sidhe like her mother (and, like the ghosts, it's never fully certain whether what she sees are imaginary or not). She hates taking pills and Dane later encourages her not to, as he pretends to be mentally ill himself to confound and trick his and Ophelia's father figures (which begs the question: if he's that good at pretending, is it an act?).
The writing in this was so good and the toxic relationship between Dane and Ophelia was as compelling as it was repulsive. Portraying him as a manic theater kid with privileged rich boy energy was perfect, and Ophelia's naivete, desperation, and insanity were perfectly done. A WOUNDED NAME is not a happy story, but then, neither was the original, and I think if you enjoy a well-written dark academia with heavy gothic themes and a pastiche style retelling that goes for big and bold, like Baz, you'll love this.
I regret putting off reading this for so long. It was incredible and does not have nearly as many ratings as it deserves.
IF THE FATES ALLOW was a Stuff Your Kindle Day find and I finally got around to reading this little gothic novella today. This story is set at a Florida mansion called Haven House, which is owned by the Fairweathers, a rich family whose fancy pockets are starting to grow thin. Because of this, the family patriarch, Stephen Fairweather, is trying to force his three children, Lucy, Cal, and Willa, into advantageous marriages.
Willa is supposed to marry a man named Richards, but her sister, Lucy, is writing to him instead since she's the charming one and a lifetime of chronic illness and breathing fits has made Willa self-conscious around men. But then one day, she meets a doctor named Noah who challenges her without ever making her feel like an inconvenience or a burden. And she starts to question her family's plan for her, which leads to an uncovering of some very dark secrets...
I liked this story a lot. The way it starts out, you think it's just going to be a sweet, light Victorian romance, but it ends on a surprisingly dark note. I appreciated the wintry vibes, and the "love conquers all" message of the story, couched in a surprisingly bittersweet and sinister setting. I think I own one of this author's full length novels, and while I was excited to read it before, I'm even more so now.
The whole time I was reading this, I kept thinking about the old skool bodice-rippers I love to read-- and it kind of felt like the YA version of one, too. Kizzy and Lillai, the narrator, are two Romani girls living in eastern Europe until their camp is burned down and the children are taken as slaves by soldiers by order of one of the local lordlings.
Immediately, the wounded and traumatized girls are put to work in the kitchen until they heal enough from their injuries to be serving girls/what are essentially sex slaves (since it's YA, a lot of the horror of their situation is off-page or alluded to, but there's definitely a prominent threat of sexual violence). But Kizzy, the beauty of the two, catches the eye of Dracula's righthand man, who thinks that she would be a fitting plaything for the Voivode.
This is a rough read because it really leans heavily into the oppressive structures of a patriarchal feudal system, where women-- especially brown women-- are on the bottom. Despite that, there are strong feminist themes in this book, as well as feminine rage (particularly of the variety spilled in blood), that keep this from feeling like a downer.
Lillai's queerness is also handled well, imo. It's accepted by her loved ones, and when someone objectifies her relationship with someone of the same sex, they are roundly condemned by one of her male friends. I liked how it ended up being such an integral part of her character.
This is not a romance but I liked this take on Dracula's brides. It has a more bittersweet ending than most.
I've read several books about Elizabeth Bathory but I think this one is one of my favorites (and not just because it has one of the happier endings). UNHOLY WITH EYES LIKE WOLVES is a sapphic paranormal horror romance, in which Noemi, a thirty-something widow questioning her purpose goes to serve as the housemaid to Erzebet Bathory, a stern and brutal Countess.
This is a great combo of the Carmilla and Elizabeth Bathory stories (I thought it was so clever, making Mircalla an anagram). It's full of feminine rage, bi awakening, and blood shed as powerful women indulge in their baser impulses to the patriarchy's detriment. Noemi is the victim of SA and isn't sure whether she wants to be a wife or mother; giving into her anger and asking the dangerous questions people around her tried to repress lets her become powerful--
And dangerous.
I loved the philosophical and theological elements in this book. I've read several of Morgan Dante's books at this point and I think UNHOLY WITH EYES LIKE WOLVES is my favorite one to date.
Nikki J. Summers is a new-to-me author but I will definitely be checking out more of her work. I heard about FIRETHORNE from TikTok. A reader put it on a list of gothic dark romance novels and I really liked the title. I would say it's kind of like a cross between Cruel Intentions and Haunting Adeline. A girl named Maya Cole comes with her father to a place called Firethorne, owned by the Firethorne family, to work as a maid in their mansion. As soon as she sets out on the trip, though, she starts getting mysterious warnings to stay away. And we soon find out that the Firethorne family has sinister intentions for her, including a bet to see who can steal her virginity first.
Look, I'm a sucker for melodrama and mystery and this book had both. If I had one complaint, I would say that the first half was slightly better than the second half simply because it went in a direction that I wasn't quite expecting (and isn't one of my personal favorite plot devices). But the author made me like it and she made it work, and honestly, Damien and Lysander's characters were both so interesting and twisted that I really enjoyed seeing what they would do next.
This is an interesting modern twist on the traditional gothic format, and it's heavy on the spice, and features a dark romance hero who isn't quite as evil as some. Also ***SPOILER*** the heroine bites someone's ween off. I'm surprised more people aren't talking about that. I'm all for a female rage moment and trust me, here, the action was more than justified. Work it, girlie.
A WALTZ WITH THE BONE KING is a beautiful novella featuring the death and the maiden trope. Lorelai, a sickly and beautiful woman with morbid interests, meets the King of the Dead while walking in the woods. He has fallen in love with her and wants to court her, but every meeting with him carries a risk of death. Little does she know, she's been living on borrowed time already, and like Jareth, he has reordered time and turned the world upside-down for her already...
The Victorian goth-punk vibes of this reminded me a lot of Corpse Bride and Adalyn Grace's BELLADONNA, especially with the message that all of us are living on borrowed time at every moment and that while death is the true end to every story, it is nothing to be feared. The ending of this book made me cry because it made me think of my dad, who was ill with a terminal illness for almost six months. He was so at peace at the end, after going through so much discomfort and pain, and so much of what Lorelai had to say about her thoughts on death and living reminded me of him.
If you like cozy whimsigoth stories, you'll love this book. Especially if you love respectful skeleton daddies and the death and the maiden trope. I can't wait to read more from this author. I really like her writing style.
Thanks to the author/publisher for providing me with a review copy!
There's something very old-fashioned about THIRST. It has the vibes of one of those older vampire novels from the 90s and before that go heavy on the old skool goth vibes (mausoleums, family tragedies, creepy statues, Europe), but it feels fresh even as it feels familiar because of the unique Argentinian setting: this book is set entirely in Buenos Aires.
There are two parts in this book. Part I is about the vampire herself and the shenanigans she gets up to, making people into her helpless thralls who are only too happy to give up their blood (eventually), her doomed attempt at making companions, and the solitude that comes from having a thirst that spells out doom for anyone mortal.
Part II is about the human, a single mom newly separated with a mother who has MS (I think?). She's trying to navigate her newly single status even as she attempts to come to terms with her mother's looming death. The way that the two stories intertwine is unsurprising, but what makes this read interesting is the listlessness of the narrative, and the dimensionality given to both protagonists.
If you read a lot of vampire books, I don't think you'll be surprised by anything in THIRST. It's sapphic and Argentinian so even though it's an old story, the portrayal of the characters and the setting are what make it novel and different. It's a pretty depressing read so if you've recently had a loved one pass of a degenerative disease, this book could be triggering because it dives into full detail about the psychological effects of seeing that and as someone who just lost her father to brain cancer, that was really hard for me.
Overall, though, this book was great and I really enjoyed it.
Darcy Coates is one of my autobuy authors but some of her books can be a little hit or miss. That said, I think THE HAUNTING OF ASHBURN HOUSE might actually be her best one yet. It has everything I love about books by authors like T. Kingfisher-- scrappy heroine who feels a little neurodivergent coded, animal sidekicks that don't die, emphasis on female relationships-- with some genuinely scary moments of horror that actually gave me nightmares.
Adrienne is surprised when she inherits Ashburn from her distant aunt Edith. She only has one memory of ever going there as a child, and it involved her and her mother fleeing in a car and the scent of blood. When she gets to the house, something is immediately off. Only the downstairs is wired for electricity, there are strange notes and instructions carved into every surface, and paintings of the family that seem to shift and turn to watch her as she goes down the hall.
The townsfolk remember her grandmother as a cold and distant woman who occasionally demonstrated moments of goodness, but that seems at odds with the portrait the house paints of her: a twisted and increasingly unstable woman who might have done terrible things whose marks remain in the very walls. Adrienne must find out what kind of woman her aunt really was-- her life may depend on it.
I thought Adrienne was a fantastic and resourceful heroine and I adored her cat, Wolfgang. I also thought that in addition to the focal horror element, this book is primarily focused on relationships between women (Adrienne meets a group of would-be friends that end up playing a significant role in the story) and connections between family matriarchs (in this case, her aunt Edith). It felt empowering and surprisingly touching, and even though I generally prefer my gothic horror with a generous side of romance, there's nothing I would have changed about this book. I read it in about three hours.
THRUM is a lot of things and it does all of them pretty well. It felt like it could have been an episode of the show Love Death + Robots. Part gothic space opera, part alien romance, part survival story, THRUM is about a woman who wakes up in the middle of her spaceship from stasis and finds out that all of her fellow shipmates are dead and that someone-- or something-- has sabotaged her ship from the outside. When she puts out a distress call, someone answers, but that someone may be even more dangerous than being alone in space.
I don't want to say too much else because wherever you think this is going, it's probably not what you think. I am 99% sure that this was probably inspired by Bluebeard though (and that's not a spoiler, because again, not what you think), and maybe also a little bit of Crimson Peak with its hot and possibly villainous love interest. This is more creepy than scary which is perfect for a wuss like me, so if you want something with chilling vibes and a wild ending, this.
Nenia ✨ I yeet my books back and forth ✨
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