Tag:

Occult & Supernatural

Review

Breathe In, Bleed Out

by Dodie Ownes

Maybe Hannah’s best friend Tess is right—a restorative yoga retreat in Joshua Tree might be what Hannah needs to let go of the images of her fiancé’s horrific death, right after he proposed to her in a stunning wilderness setting. On the women’s arrival in the desert, all seems idyllic—the sound bowls, Guru Pax in his flowing robes, the yurts and tech-free environment. But soon Hannah’s nightmares about Ben’s death are supplemented with visions of Waylon Barlow, an ancient miner with a flesh mask and a pick axe. The other retreat attendees, including Hannah’s high school ex-boyfriend Miles; tech-bro Jared and his ethereal partner, Luna; and Dennings, an ex-Marine, start to sense that something is off. Pax’s assistant, Kimi, assures them all is well—but then Dennings disappears. In superb Final Girl form, the retreat attendees get picked off one at a time, in entertainingly gruesome ways. As Hannah struggles to survive and save Tess, she has to confront her own secrets. Author McAuley, winner of Esquire’s Best Horror Book of 2022, Curse of the Reaper, demonstrates once again his flair for cinematic suspense with humor and splatter.

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Review

Dark Sisters

by Charlotte Del Vecchio

The small Southern town of Hawthorne Springs holds a dark and twisted history of witchcraft and sin, carried through generations of the women who live there. In this historical thriller, we meet three women whose fates, spanning hundreds of years, have been bound to the magic that flows from this town. Anne Bolton is a healer in 1750 fleeing with her daughter from persecution for witchcraft, placing her faith in a powerful natural entity and encouraging others to do the same. Mary Shepard is a housewife in 1953, entertaining a sapphic affair as an escape from her monotonous life in a restrictive community. Camilla Burson is the defiant daughter of a preacher in 2007, fighting against the community and the church to discover the truth behind the sinister and mysterious disease that plagues the women of Hawthorne Springs and how it connects to the Dark Sisters, a parable of two wayward women that may be all too real. Is there truly a source of magic in this town, or are the Dark Sisters simply a story preachers share to incite fear and keep women in their place? Visit three different time periods as DeMeester addresses generational trauma, cult-like religious practices, and the collective power of women who are willing to take down the patriarchy.

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Review

Listen to Your Sister

by Henrietta Thornton

Calla, 25, has carried her family forever—they’re a “collectively forked tongue, sharp and dangerous”—and their endless needs drag her from the better life she was building. She’s now a fretful, parenting-advice-reading mom to her lovable but wayward younger brother Jamie, 16. Their father is dead; their mean, drunken mother took off; and middle child, Dre, is no help, despite swearing that if Calla became Jamie’s guardian, he’d be there for them. “Redneck Amish Mormons would be better guardians than you,” says Jamie, in one of the book’s many grimly funny moments, and the pinnacle of his unthinking rejection is driving to a Black Lives Matter protest with a group of friends—when he promised Calla he’d stay home—to give the protesters some illicit help. Jamie has been experiencing bizarre moments, such as when his hand dissolves into a girl’s face and he can feel her insides; more of the same happens at the protest, but no excuses can help Jamie with the law when he’s Black and the protest gets violent. Things are simultaneously going monumentally wrong for Dre, who now must also dodge the police; Calla is once again on the hook to save her brothers from themselves. This is where fear and body horror meet hope and love, the siblings’ lengthy battle for one another stretching their emotional and physical limits and revealing their true selves in all their fury and strength. Debut author Viel really brings the horror here, it’s not for the squeamish at all, but those who can brave this epic fight will be rewarded with a story to remember.

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Review

The Last Grudge

by Brian Kenney

A classic police procedural that does a miraculous job of balancing the investigation on the one hand and the complex personal lives of the detectives on the other. One of Helsinki’s most successful business leaders is murdered in his home, by a kitchen knife to his heart. He was on his way to a dinner celebrating his company’s fiftieth anniversary, an event overshadowed by protests because of recent layoffs he’s authorized. Yusuf, one of the leading detectives throughout this series, is put in charge of the investigation, which leads inward, with a meticulous examination of the apartment, and outward, contacting many of the executive’s colleagues and just individuals with whom he may have had contact. Unnerved at his leadership position, Yusuf brings on Detective Jessica Niemi, his partner in the earlier books, who’s now on leave trying to escape from her personal demons—literally, not metaphorically. As the story briskly unfolds—Seeck keeps the plot moving—the past and the present collide in a terrifying way. While this can be a stand-alone, it’s best to read it as part of a series. For fans of Camilla Läckberg and Jo Nesbø.

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