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Book Review: Within These Wicked Walls by Lauren Blackwood

 

cover art for Within These Wicked Walls by Lauren Blackwood

Within These Wicked Walls by Lauren Blackwood

Wednesday Books, 2021

ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1250787101

Available: Hardcover, Kindle edition, audiobook Bookshop.orgAmazon.com )

 

 

Within These Wicked Walls takes its inspiration from the classic gothic romance Jane Eyre. Set in England, Jane is an orphan who arrives to work as a governess in Thornfield Hall, home to the wealthy Edward Rochester, and the two fall in love. Author Lauren Blackwood moves the story to contemporary Ethiopia, replacing Jane with Andi, an impoverished Black debtera, who is hired to exorcise the malevolent spirits haunting the opulent Thorne House and its owner, nineteen-year-old Magnus Thorne. The book is focused in on Andi and Magnus and their attempts to eliminate the curse of the Evil Eye that dooms anyone who looks into Magnus’ eyes and causes the deeply disturbing hauntings in the house. Blackwood turns the horror and the supernatural up and intensifies the romance, creating an emotional whirlwind that will blow the reader away. Blackwood does not shy away from addressing race, women’s independence, and colonialism, all of which impact the story in a much different manner than in the original book.

 

Recommended for readers, especially teens, in the mood for a gothic romance, an African-inspired fantasy, a terrifying haunted house, or any combination.

 

Contains: body horror, gore, violence, death, physical and emotional abuse, references to suicide.

 

Reviewed by Kirsten Kowalewski

 

Graphic Novel Review: Daphne Byrne by Laura Marks, art by Kelley Jones

Cover art for Daphne Byrne by Kelly Marks

(Bookshop.com Amazon.com )

Daphne Byrne by Laura Marks, art by Kelley Jones

DC Comics, 2020

ISBN-13:

Available: Hardcover, Kindle, comixology

 

Set in 1886 New York, Daphne Byrne is still in mourning over the death of her father and has been affected greatly upon his passing. She’s tormented at school by the popular girls. She’s grappling with her mother who has been seeing a medium who she knows is a fraud. Her mother is spending the little money they have left on trying to contact her dead husband. Daphne tries her best to expose the medium, only to earn the ire of them both. While all of this is going on, Daphne meets a supernatural entity, simply called Brother, who offers friendship and support to the sad girl. He also encourages Daphne to stand up for herself, inviting her to use his powers as a tool. This power becomes particularly useful when she discovers the utter betrayal committed by certain parties close to the family.

 

Daphne Byrne would be of interest to anyone who enjoys stories from this period. Something I noticed in the less favourable reviews out there regarded the setting, which also influenced some of the plot points such as the fraudulent medium. I loved the story and found Daphne to be an interesting character. The artwork helped in this. Jones has been drawing comics for a long time, and I recognized his work immediately from his work on Sandman. He lends an otherworldly quality to creatures and characters. At times Brother reminded me of a sinister Dream. Recommended.

Contains: blood, body horror, nudity, sex

 

Reviewed by Lizzy Walker

Book Review: Owl Manor: Abigail (Book Two of the Owl Manor Trilogy) by Zita Harrison

A note from the editor:

We are now in the month of November and Monster Librarian still needs to raise the funds to pay for our hosting fees and postage in 2021. If you like what we’re doing, please take a moment to click on that red “Contribute” button in the sidebar to the right, to help us keep going!  Even five dollars will get us closer to the $195 we need to keep going at the most basic level. We have never accepted paid advertising so you can be guaranteed that our reviews are objective. We’ve been reviewing and supporting the horror community for 15 years now, help us make it another year! Thank you! And now our review of .Owl Manor: Abigail (Book Two of the Owl Manor Trilogy).

 

cover art for Owl Manor: Abigail by Zita Harrison

Owl Manor: Abigail (Book Two of the Owl Manor Trilogy), by Zita Harrison

Zealous Art Publishing, 2020

ISBN: 979-8675396467

Available: Kindle, Paperback

 

“And I knew this thing was built of all my fears, was empowered by them, and that it would devour me if it could,” says Abigail, the central character in the second book of Zita Harrison’s Owl Manor Trilogy. Inspired by Gothic suspense classics, this fast-paced psychological thriller about a jilted young woman alone in the world after her mother’s murder, is chock full of malevolent supernatural forces. An eerily evocative Colorado mountain setting, an estate-turned-inn where hovering owls have been known to attack, and a series of unexplained murders, are only the beginning. Readers can find out about Abigail’s childhood in the first book of the trilogy, Owl Manor: The Dawning, which takes place during the Gold Rush, but this second volume deftly takes us into Abigail’s present without disruptive recaps.

Unfortunately for Abigail, her mother Eva’s murderer/dead lover, the insane Rafe Bradstone, has possessed his relative Victor and hopes to be reunited with Eva’s spirit through her daughter. Abigail has already been traumatized by knowing that her mother did not want her, by being at the manor when her mother and Rafe died, and by being left by her fiancé on the day of her wedding. Although the staff at Owl Manor care about her, they are finding it difficult to deal with the ghosts and strange houseguests, and are left to handle the violence without the help of the authorities. Abigail had hoped to prove to herself that she could survive on her own, but the past, for which she was not responsible, comes back to haunt her anyway.

An interesting element woven loosely through the two books Harrison has written so far (the third will be Owl Manor: Nightfall) is the attention to the role of women as wives and mothers, attitudes toward unmarried women (including prostitutes), and the life choices women had in the United States during the 1800’s. Eva is portrayed as a sort of feminist who is determined to leave her restrictive family life and make her own money. Eva pays dearly for her choices, and her daughter is her innocent victim. Abigail wonders, “Is the world, in the end, just a reflection of one’s state of mind?” She does get an answer in this creepy, entertaining book. Recommended.

 

Reviewed by Nova Hadley