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Book Review: Ember of Night by Molly E. Lee

cover art for Ember of Night by Molly E. Lee

Ember of Night by Molly E. Lee

Entangled Teen, 2021

ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1649370310

Available: Hardcover, Kindle edition ( Bookshop.org |   Amazon.com )

Harley is just about to turn eighteen and escape her abusive father with her younger sister Ray when Draven comes into her life. There’s a chemistry between them she can’t deny, but her life is already full between work and taking care of Ray, and she doesn’t have time for a guy in her life. Her best friend, Kai, warns her against Draven, but Harley doesn’t like being told what to do, and when Kai goes out of town, she discovers that she’s developing a friendship with Draven, who has also befriended Ray.  Unfortunately, the day she turns eighteen, demons attack her while she’s with Draven, and they have to fight them off.  Harley learns she’s not quite human– there’s something special about her blood– and Draven is watching her to see what she becomes. Despite anger, fear, and mistrust poisoning the situation, Harley and Draven are drawn to each other magnetically as they work to solve the mystery of who is behind the attacks, and what exactly Harley is.

Harley is a strongly-drawn character with intense emotions, unafraid to face anyone who challenges her, who has a force of personality that pulls the reader along. The chemistry between her and Draven is powerful. The way she sees herself and others is distorted, though: Ray is pure and must be protected, while Harley is a monster who deserves to be in pain. Author Lee uses vivid imagery to describe demons and villains and create atmosphere.

The physical abuse, trauma, and betrayal Harley endures during this story is difficult to read, more so than any of the attacks by supernatural elements. Although the story doesn’t quite make sense in places, Ember of Night is a compelling read that ratchets up the suspense and sensuality to the very last page and leaves you impatiently waiting for the sequel.

 

Contains: emotional and physical abuse, violence, gore, suicidal thoughts, sexual content.

 

Posted on July 6, 2021 by , Reply

Book Review: House of Salt and Sorrows by Erin A. Craig

cover art for House of Salt and Sorrows by Erin A. Craig

House of Salt and Sorrows by Erin A. Craig

Delacorte, 2019

ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1984831927

Available: Hardcover, paperback, Kindle edition, audiobook

( Bookshop.org | Amazon.com )

 

House of Salt and Sorrows is the strangest version of the fairytale “The Twelve Dancing Princesses” I have come across to date.

 

The Duke of Salten had twelve daughters. His wife died in childbirth with the last, and the girls have, one by one, died terrible deaths, until only eight of them are left: Camille, Annaleigh, Rosalie, Ligeia, Lenore, Honor, Mercy, and Verity (yes, there are some very Edgar Allan Poe-influenced names). I’ve seen some complaints about the lack of character development in the girls, but the original tale doesn’t make most of them more than placeholders.

 

Inheritance in Salten goes to the eldest child, regardless of sex. With the death of her sister Eulalie, whose funeral starts the book, Annaleigh, the narrator, is sixteen and now second in line to inherit, after Camille. Annaleigh’s father has recently remarried a much younger woman, Morella, who is now pregnant with twin boys and decides that after years of mourning, another year set aside to mourn Eulalie is a year too long, and it’s time to put the black away.  She orders them special dancing slippers, and plans a party to invite eligible suitors. Annaleigh isn’t ready to set her grief aside, but she isn’t given a choice.

 

Annaleigh believes Eulalie was murdered, and investigates with Cassius, a young man visiting Salten, who is soon entangled in the family’s intrigues (he is also the required love interest for the main character in a YA novel). She also discovers her sister Verity has been drawing disturbing portraits of their dead sisters, insisting that she is seeing their ghosts. A rumor has spread that the girls are cursed, and though invitations to Morella’s party are accepted, no one wants to speak or dance with them. Frustrated with their situation, the girls look for a magical door, find it, and go through it to discover it is an elegant ball where they can dance all night.

 

Or is that really what’s going on? I can’t say more without spoiling the story except to say that Annaleigh is an unreliable narrator and this book is really dark, disturbing, and disorienting. I’m still unclear on how much of the ending was real. The grief in the book felt authentic and the author’s world building was incredible. Salten is on an island in the ocean, and the People of the Salt have their own customs and religious traditions. “Aesthetic” is a popular concept on social media right now, and the aesthetic for this book is what I’d call island gothic. The ocean and the tall cliffs of the island permeate everything. This is a very dark tale, and while it doesn’t get violent or disgusting often, when it does, the imagery is vivid, so it isn’t for everyone, but it may be a treat for those who like their fantasy drenched in darkness.  Recommended.

 

Contains: Images of and references to suicide, murder, body horror, childbirth, stillborn children,  sexual situations, violence, gore, sexual situations, blood, decay.

 

Reviewed by Kirsten Kowalewski

 

 

 

Posted on June 26, 2021 by , Reply

Book Review: To Dust You Shall Return by Fred Venturini

cover art for To Dust You Shall Return by Fred Venturini

To Dust You Shall Return by Fred Venturini

Turner Publishing, 2021 (release date June 21)

ISBN: 9781684426348

Availability: Paperback, Kindle ( Bookshop.org | Amazon.com )

 

If you only have the budget to purchase one book for the entire year, this is the one to buy.  To Dust You Shall Return is superior to everything else out there, might as well just hand the author the Stoker award for best horror novel of 2021 and skip the drawn-out nomination process.  It’s that good: other authors will be hard pressed to equal it.

 

Most of the story is set in Harlow, one of those Children of the Corn-type Midwestern towns you could drive through and not know if anyone actually lives there.  Curtis Quinn, an aging ex-Mafia hitman with a price on his head, is led there while on the trail of whoever butchered his beloved wife into pieces.  He suspects it’s a revenge hit to get to him, but what he finds in Harlow is much more sinister and terrifying than anything the Mafia could have dished out.  Harlow residents live in fear of the Mayor, a sadistic madman (or is he?) with inhuman powers.  The residents’ only hope is the legend of the Griffin, an outsider who may one day come to deliver the townspeople from the Mayor’s grasp.  Could Curtis, a cold-blooded killer, be that man, and is it somehow connected to his wife’s murder?

 

The story scores unbelievably high on every possible level, but the excitement and originality are the two best points.  After a brief prologue, the story shifts into high gear right away, and, in 352 pages, doesn’t let up.  There’s never a hint of a slowdown: this is the type of book you will keep reading well into the night, until exhaustion sets in.  For originality, Harlow itself is one of the most intriguing fictional towns ever invented; it’s an unusual cross between a communist community and Blake Crouch’s Wayward Pines.  Residents are provided for and given jobs, but the cost is never being able to leave the town, exceept for a forays lasting a brief hour or two.  The town is surrounded with razor wire and various traps to keep the people in.  If they do escape, rangers track them down and return them to Harlow, where they are ritually slaughtered in front of the townspeople in extremely painful and bloody ways.  This causes the book’s gore factor to run high at times, but it is always in service to the story, never gratuitous for the shock factor.  That said, some of the killings are as hardcore as anything Jack Ketchum ever wrote and will make readers cower in fear, praying to forget what they just read.

 

The characters and plot also sell themselves by their unpredictability: the story does not go where you would expect.  Numerous characters double-cross each other, and the book becomes a guessing game,  keeping the story engrossing.  The legend of the Griffin also helps drive the story’s unexpected twists and turns, as most stories with a creepy little town rarely use the “savior” angle.  It’s just another example of what sets this story apart from all the competition.  Bottom line: just buy this one, and prepare to be blown away.  You won’t be disappointed.  This is beyond highly recommended.

 

Contains: blood, gore, profanity, cannibalism, ritualistic torture.

 

Reviewed by Murray Samuelson

Posted on May 13, 2021 by , Reply
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