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Graphic Novel Review: Tales from Harrow County Volume 1: Death’s Choir by Cullen Bunn, art by Naomi Franquiz

Tales from Harrow County, Volume 1: Death’s Choir by Cullen Bunn, art by Naomi Franquiz

Dark Horse, 2020

ISBN-13: 97815067168

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

 

Award-winning, Eisner-nominated Southern Gothic horror returns in Tales from Harrow County, Volume 1: Death’s Choir. The story focuses on Bernice Anderson as she has taken on the mantle of steward of the small community ten years after her best friend Emmy Crawford left Harrow County. World War II has taken young men from the community, leaving tragedy in its wake. Harrow County is left in a state of mourning when the news of the deaths of their family members arrive. A mourning woman, Mrs. Dearborn, has called upon the spirits, but in summoning the supernatural choir that beckons the spirits of those the war has taken, has also summoned a deadly banshee as well. Bernice and her partner Georgia must find a way to save Harrow County from certain doom. The town does face more than supernatural foes. With not only Bernice’s protective witchcraft, but also the same-sex relationship between Bernice and Georgia, the Reverend unleashes some passive-aggressive nonsense.

 

 

For readers familiar with Harrow County, there will be familiar haints and creatures. As a fan of Priscilla the goblin, I was overjoyed that there was more of her, but I was ill-prepared for the cliffhanger ending.

 

 

Artist Naomi Franquiz takes over from Tyler Crooks. While her style is similar to Crooks’, she seems to have a more vibrant color palette, but this does not detract from the story. Her lush landscapes and well-developed character designs and art lend Cullen’s story a familiar atmosphere.

 

 

Volume 1 collects Tales from Harrow County: Death’s Choir #1-#4. Highly recommended.

 

Reviewed by Lizzy Walker

Posted on October 22, 2022 by , Reply

Book List: Get Ready for Black Children’s Book Week!

Black children's book week logo

 

February 27-March 5 will be the first celebration of Black Children’s Book Week, which extends Black History Month into March.

Black Children’s Book Week is a global celebration of Black children and the people who ensure Black children are represented in books and other children’s media. While the week is administered by Black Baby Books, events are hosted by both the Black Children’s Book Week Committee, and celebrants throughout the world!

Read Across America Day is also during the first week of March, so look for that week to be a huge celebration of children reading!  To get you started, here’s a short list of some really cool scary books to share with kids next week,  or really any time!

 

cover art for Amari and the Night Brothers by B.B. Alston

Amari and the Night Brothers  by B.B. Alston  (Bookshop.org)

Thirteen-year-old Amari Peters, on a mission to find her missing older brother,  mysteriously receives a scholarship to the training camp for the Bureau of Supernatural Affairs, which has the mission of keeping supernatural creatures secret while also protecting humans. Amari navigates both the supernatural and social obstacles she encounters with her street-smarts, resourcefulness, and resilience.  Read the full review here.

 

 

 

 

cover art for The Forgotten Girl by India Hill Brown

The Forgotten Girl by India Hill Brown (Bookshop.org)

India Hill Brown joins Mary Downing Hahn as a true storyteller of the middle-grade ghost tale. Iris discovers an abandoned cemetery in a wooded area near her neighborhood. Soon she is having nightmares and is drawn back to the cemetery by the ghost of Avery Moore, a girl buried there. She and her friend Daniel discover it is a Black cemetery, dating back to when Black and white people were segregated even after death. Although they bring it to their town’s attention successfully, Avery won’t be satisfied until she has Iris as a “forever friend”. While there are many similarities to Hahn’s Wait Till Helen Comes,  Brown takes the story to a new and more complex level that deals with racism, segregation, and student activism among the scares.

 

 

 

The Dark-Thirty: Southern Tales of the Supernatural by Patricia McKissack, illustrated by Brian Pinkney. (Bookshop.org)

These stories have the eerie feeling of truth to them, possibly because of McKissack’s introduction, where she describes listening to the stories the adults around her told when she was a child. This is a Caldecott Award winner, and also a Coretta Scott King award winner, but beyond that, it’s just really good storytelling, made even better by the dramatic illustrations. This is one of the books that you really need to hold in your hands and see the artwork complementing the story across a double page spread, to truly appreciate. Don’t let the award for children’s book illustration fool you: this book is often used with and appreciated by middle school aged kids and older.

Everyone talks about how seminal Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark is, but The Dark-Thirty is just as essential.

 

cover art for Root Magic by Eden Royce

Root Magic by Eden Royce (Bookshop.org)

After Jezzie’s grandmother, a root worker, dies, her grandfather decides to teach her the basics of root magic, for purposes of protection, and she starts to develop supernatural powers. Her “witchiness” is causing her problems at school, though, and a racist police officer who knows her family are root workers is harassing them. Root Magic takes place around the time of the Kennedy assassination, during the time of Jim Crow. Eden Royce has written an excellent Southern Gothic novel with vivid description and plenty of scares about the traditions of the little-known Gullah-Geechee people. Read our full review here.

 

 

Posted on February 20, 2022 by , Reply

Booklist: Wedding Horror Stories

A lot of wedding proposals happen on Valentine’s Day. A typical online search for “wedding horror stories” turns up stories of terrible things that happened at actual weddings, so it’s not that outlandish to discover that a number of recent horror novels have revolved around weddings.

 

cover art for When The Reckoning Comes by LaTanya McQueen

 

When The Reckoning Comes by LaTanya McQueen

Harper Perennial, 2021

ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0063035041

Available: Paperback, Kindle edition, audiobook, audio CD

( Bookshop.org  | Amazon.com )

 

Mira’s high school friend Celine invites Mira to her wedding, which will be held at the recently restored plantation where Mira’s ancestor Marceline was enslaved. The ghosts of the enslaved who were murdered during an unsuccessful rebellion return to haunt the wedding, with brutal, bloody results. McQueen does an amazing job recreating Mira’s memories of her childhood friendship with Celine, who is white, and Jesse, a Black boy arrested for murder who is released after Celine intervenes, and of describing the horrific things that were visited on the enslaved people on the plantation. The racism, brutality, and hopelessness are reminders that horror isn’t limited to the supernatural.

 

cover art for Nothing But Blackened Teeth by Cassandra Khaw 

Nothing but Blackened Teeth by Cassandra Khaw

Tor Nightfire, 2021

ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1250759412

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

 

 

When you are ridiculously wealthy and well-connected, and your fianceé wants her wedding at a Heian-era haunted mansion, with the bones of a bride buried beneath, you make it happen. Wedding guest Cassie, our unreliable narrator, is disconnected and depressed, attending at the request of the groom, who is also her ex. Cassie is one of five people at the wedding: they all have the kind of entangled relationships that emerge from a small group dynamic formed in college, and attempting to summon a spirit in a haunted house the night before the wedding is not going to make it easier to get along. It’s been criticized for purple prose and lack of character development, but it is a wild, and vivid, ride.

 

cover art for The Death of Jane Lawrence by Caitlin Starling

 

The Death of Jane Lawrence by Caitlin Starling

St. Martin’s Press, 2021

ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1250272584

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

 

Jane approaches Dr. Augustine Lawrence with a proposal of marriage. She wants security and is willing to work hard. They plan for it to be just a business deal: no questions, no love, and never a night spent in Lindridge Hall, his family manor. The best-laid plans can go awry, though: the two of them fall in love. Set in an alternate version of England that has elements of both the Victorian era and post-World War II, this starts out structured as a rather predictable gothic romance and ventured into the territory of occultism, as Jane, trapped in the house with the increasingly paranoid Augustine, is abruptly awakened into a world of magical ritual by occultist friends of Augustine’s. They then leave her to deal with Augustine and whatever is causing the disturbances in the house, untethered to reality. The narrative, which was relatively straightforward until then, became mazelike and hallucinatory.  There’s significant body horror as well as blood and gore, so be warned. Readers who enjoy the version of occultism in this book might also appreciate Polly Schattel’s The Occultists.

 

Posted on February 15, 2022 by , Reply
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