This book is an absolute riot. It starts with a gig that descends into madness and it never really lets up from there. The backdrop for the story is a Black Metal band trying to make their fame and fortune, and it soon turns into a story of love, loss, madness and chaos. The biggest draw for me was the potential Anti-Christ lead vocalists and it left me with more questions than answers (which I’m perfectly fine with).
Review: Gogmagog: The First Chronicle of Ludwich by Jeff Noon and Steve Beard
Now this is weird fiction at its finest. If you’re here for a plot-driven story you’re going to be disappointed, but if you’re here for the weird and the wonderful with a plot that meanders like the river our characters are traversing you’ll have a great time.
Review: The Warm Hands of Ghosts by Katherine Arden
This is by far the darkest of Arden’s books that I’ve read. Usually my issue with historical fiction/fantasy set in the World Wars is the inevitable romanticisation of the war and what people went through on the front lines. Arden instead shows the darker side, the people who didn’t want to fight, the ends people went to just to be able to survive, and the absolute horrors that those on the front lines faced. I found my heart breaking as I read The Warm Hands of Ghosts and I felt true horror at so much of what Arden shows.
Review: The Aeronaut’s Windlass (The Cinder Spires #1) by Jim Butcher
I LOVED this book. I have to admit I was slightly afraid of it when I saw that it was 600+ pages but I shouldn’t have worried because they fly by. I flew through The Aeronaut’s Windlass and it kept me engaged and enthralled the entire time.
The whole premise of humanity living in giant Spires with monsters living on the ground of the world just hooked me. The tiny tidbits you get about the ground were fascinating and I’m really hoping that at some point we get to visit the ground (sorry characters but I want to know what’s there).
Review: The Knowing by Emma Hinds
I think it’s important to start this review with a warning that The Knowing is a very dark book, and there are themes of sexual violence from almost the very first page. I wouldn’t say that there’s a single relationship within the book that doesn’t have some kind of manipulation or abuse in it.
If you’re okay with reading books with these types of content warnings then you’ll be utterly spellbound. Once I’d gotten over the shock of how almost every event in the book centres around sex I found myself wrapped up in the story. Flora is a mystic who can speak with the dead, only she’s been told she should never acknowledge the ghosts (and boy does it get interesting when she does)
Review: Three Eight One by Aliya Whiteley
Skyward Inn by Aliya Whiteley was my first big introduction to spec-fic and I’m so excited every time she releases a new book. Three Eight One is a fascinating mix of far-future and past (or maybe present, or recent past??). The bulk of the story is a coming-of-age heroes quest style tale following a girl named Fairly, and there’s also interwoven in, by the way of footnotes and a prologue, a far-future narrative where it seems that people’s consciousness’ are interwoven and you can choose to be ‘born’ into an organic body.
Review: Time’s Ellipse by Frasier Armitage
I’m going to start off by saying you really need to read Time’s Ellipse to experience what Frasier has created here. Where this book begins and where it ends both feels completely different but yet it also comes in a full circle. Trust me, that statement will make sense once you read the book.
Review: Mothtown by Caroline Hardaker
Okay I sat on this review for ages because I thought I was getting a horror story, but in reality I got a stunning story of self-discovery and an exploration of mental health all wrapped up in an addictive horror.
It took me a while to figure out where this was going. I’m going to do my best to avoid spoilers so this review is likely to be pretty vague in most places.
Review: Bookshops & Bonedust (Legends & Lattes #0) by Travis Baldree
Oh I’m so happy to have another book featuring Viv, and one that is as incredible as its predecessor (although this one is the prequel). Travis has crafted such a wonderful cosy read with slightly higher stakes than Legends & Lattes. It fits perfectly because at this point Viv is still a merc who is forced to stay in Murk for a while due to an injury. So it makes sense that trouble would find its way to her and she wouldn’t be able to resist getting involved.
Review: Red River Seven by A.J. Ryan
Red River Seven captured my imagination so badly that I literally had a nightmare inspired by the events of the book. Something I can’t say happens to me very often. Mix the scream-making creatures and the creepy as hell mist-shrouded London I know so well and it was perfect nightmare fuel.
Review: Midnight is the Darkest Hour by Ashley Winstead
Okay so this one had me hooked from the start and not for the reasons I expected. The synopsis talks of a vampiric figure called ‘The Low Man’ who seems to be murdering people in town, which was the main reason I wanted to read this. Going in The Low Man is actually mentioned way less than I expected, but what I did get was a dark, atmospheric story filled with vampire vibes and a love interest who is heavily influenced by Edward Cullen (but just the darker side of him…)
Review: After the Forest by Kell Woods
I’m a total sucker for re-telling of old stories set in dark & creepy forests, especially if you’re never sure if the main character is 100% good. And After the Forest ticked all of those boxes for me.