Melissa Albert: "The Children" (ARC Review)

Title: The Children [on Amazon | on Goodreads]
Series: None
Author: Melissa Albert [Instagram | Goodreads]
Genres: SPOILER - revealing the genre(s) would ruin your reading experience...If you want to go into the book without knowing anything vital about it, I recommend not reading the Labels at the end of my review either. No need to worry though - the review itself will be spoiler-free...
Year: 2026
Age: 18+ (but it can be read by mature teens)
Stars: 5/5
Pros: Visceral, immersive, haunting, with a denouement you won't see coming. Makes you care deeply for the characters (especially the protagonist's younger self).
Cons: The writing gets too purple at times.
WARNING! Death, murder, suicide, self-mutilation, fire, bugs. Child neglect/exploitation, pedophilia, infidelity, alcohol abuse.
Will appeal to: Those who like a familial saga with a twist. Those who muse about the relationship between life, art and fame.

Blurb: Guinevere's late mother, Edith Sharpe, needs little introduction. Bestselling author of the unendingly successful Ninth City series, her books brought so much joy and inspired the imagination of countless children the world over. Guin's childhood with her mother, brother Ennis and her actor father was a blissful, bohemian affair, filled with continuous laughter and surrounded by artistic types in their Vermont barnhouse. At least, this is the story Guin presents as she prepares for the press tour for her upcoming memoir about life in the Sharpe family. Now estranged from her brother and her parents long dead after a devastating fire, strange events threaten the veneer of serenity and familial harmony Guin is keen to project. Ennis, now a notorious artist with a troubled past, announces a new installation – his first since a disastrous last show one year prior – simply entitled Mother. And Guin can't help but worry that the truth behind their idyllic childhood is about to blow her world apart. (Goodreads)

Review: First off...DISCLAIMER: I requested this title on NetGalley. Thanks to Bloomsbury Publishing Plc (UK & ANZ) for providing a temporary ecopy. This didn't influence my review in any way.

GRIM(M) AND GORGEOUS

I have a confession to make: The Children was my first Albert book. I took a chance on it based by the synopsis alone, not really knowing what to expect (except for dark-fairy-tale vibes, according to the reviews of her backlist) - but upon parting with the last page, I immediately proceeded to add all her previous novels to my TBR list, top priority. Yes, it's THAT good. But you want to know what, precisely, is so good about it, and it's not easy to explain without entering spoiler territory. Anyhow, I'll try...

So: I won't tell you if The Children is a contemporary book with an unreliable narrator, or an exquisite (if dark) exercise in magical realism, or a straight-up supernatural tale, or all these things combined. But I will tell you this: The Children is an ode to the power of art - the power to save, or the power to damn, depending on certain circumstances. It's a dark fairy tale (yeah, indeed - in the vein of Albert's past books) unleashed in the real world. It's the story of a dysfunctional family and a predatory house. It's horrifying and spellbinding, bitter and beautiful, very meta yet unmistakably human (with all that entails). If you're like me, these things alone will probably seal your deal with this novel. But in case you need more practical details, feel free to read on... [...]

Hanna Alkaf: "The Hysterical Girls of St. Bernadette's"

Title: The Hysterical Girls Of St. Bernadette's [on Amazon | on Goodreads]
Series: None
Author: Hanna Alkaf [Site | Goodreads]
Genres: Supernatural, Contemporary
Year: 2024
Age: 14+
Stars: 4/5
Pros: Fleshed-out, believable (and diverse) protagonists (Muslim, Malaysian). Strong social commentary. Atmospheric writing. 
Cons: The ending feels rushed and doesn't provide enough closure, especially for some characters.
WARNING! Sexual assault/molestation (not graphic, mentioned), trauma, psychosis, victim dismissal, toxic parent, corporal punishment (mentioned).
Will appeal to: Those who enjoy stories about female empowerment and solidarity - better if in a supernatural context.

Blurb: For over a hundred years, girls have fought to attend St. Bernadette’s, with its reputation for shaping only the best and brightest young women. Unfortunately, there is also the screaming. When a student begins to scream in the middle of class, a chain reaction starts that impacts the entire school. By the end of the day, seventeen girls are affected - along with St. Bernadette’s stellar reputation. Khadijah’s got her own scars to tend to, and watching her friends succumb to hysteria only rips apart wounds she’d rather keep closed. But when her sister falls to the screams, Khad knows she’s the only one who can save her. Rachel has always been far too occupied trying to reconcile her overbearing mother’s expectations with her own secret ambitions to pay attention to school antics. But just as Rachel finds her voice, it turns into screams. Together, the two girls find themselves digging deeper into the school’s dark history, hunting for the truth. Little do they know that a specter lurks in the darkness, watching, waiting, and hungry for its next victim... (Amazon)

Review: Why don't more people talk about this book? It's one of those hidden gems that keep getting overlooked in favour of more hyped novels, and I'm going to do my part to rectify this wrong...

SISTERS IN ARMS

In the vein of Flawless Girls, but with more flesh to its plot and characters, THGOSB is an unapologetically Malaysian, yet in a way universal tale with many facets: an enthralling supernatural mystery woven with a strong contemporary/coming-of-age thread; the story of a haunting, yet not a conventional ghost story; but more than anything, a call to togetherness in the face of women's vilification and dismissal. Despite the publisher's notes, however, it definitely doesn't fall under the dark-academia umbrella, unless you think that a single character being strong-armed by her mother into excellence qualifies - I'm telling you this just so you don't build up expectations that won't be met (I mean...everything's labeled "dark academia" these days, but a "school with secrets" setting isn't enough for a book to earn it). Mainly told in a dual narrative, but with the interpolation of a third point of view, THGOSB explores themes of trauma, agency (or lack thereof) and the silencing of female voices, along with sisterhood (real or forged) and the most abhorrent crime: women themselves perpetuating the cycle of abuse because they think it's inescapable, and that the only way girls can protect themselves is by becoming higher-priced commodities. [...]

Quinn Connor: "Cicadas Sing of Summer Graves"

Title: Cicadas Sing of Summer Graves [on Amazon | on Goodreads]
Series: None
Author: Quinn Connor [Site | Goodreads]
Genres: Contemporary with a Twist, Thriller/Mystery
Year: 2023

Age: 16+ (I shelved it as Adult because of the characters' age, and it's indeed marketed to that demographic, but it can be read by mature teens. There are far more graphic YA books out there)

Stars: 4.5/5
Pros: Atmospheric, spellbinding, inventive, full of heart. Centers on a set of unique, diverse characters.
Cons: Tendentially slow (if you prefer stories with more than a modicum of action). Leaves some questions unanswered.
WARNING! Violence, body horror (though in one case it's actually more poetic than disturbing), blood, drowning/near drowning. Bullying/toxic friendship, panic attacks/disorders, grief, racism, classism.
Will appeal to: Those who like stories with their roots in a troubled/tragic past. Those who enjoy a mixture of cozy and unsettling, beauty and horror. Those who have a thing for characters both haunted and haunting.

Blurb: Prosper, Arkansas had not always been this way. Years ago, at the height of the summer swelter, in the wake of an unexpected storm, the local dam failed and the valley flooded - drowning the town and everyone trapped inside. The secrets of old Prosper drowned with them. Now, decades later, when a mysterious locked box is pulled from the depths of the lake, three descendants of that long-ago tragedy are hurled into another feverish summer. Cassie: the reclusive sole witness to an impossible horror no one believes. Lark: a wide-eyed dreamer haunted by bizarre visions. June: caught between longing for a fresh start and bearing witness to the ghosts of the past. Bound together, all three must contend with their home's complex history - and with the ruins of the town lost far beneath the troubled water. (Amazon)

Review: In 2024, I got the chance to read an ARC of Connor's second novel The Pecan Children, and I fell in love. That experience compelled me to seek their first one (I say "their" because Quinn Connor is actually the pen name for a writing duo, Robyn Barrow and Alex Cronin), which cemented them in my favourite-author pantheon. So here I go again, gushing about their debut book that doesn't read like a debut at all...

PAST IS PROLOGUE

If The Pecan Children was a (mind-bending) "allegory of decay in small-town America" (to quote the editorial notes), CSOSG deals with a dark page of the country's history, and sacrifices the big twist(s) for a slow but steady crescendo of reveals, a trickle of often uncanny details painting the picture of a small lakeside community and the way a tragic event that occurred many years prior continues to shape its present. The fictional town of Prosper is inspired by a real Arkansas one (Buckville) that was intentionally flooded in the 1950s, causing the displacement of many struggling farmers, a number of them Black and Native Americans. Cicadas gives an even more appalling spin to that story - and many others of the same kind - whose extent will only be apparent towards the end of the novel. On the backdrop of that tragedy, the authors entwine the lives of three young women (and the teen brother of one of them), each haunted in a different way, and craft a story of generational trauma, family ties, sense of belonging/legacy, human connection, ghosts of the past (both literal and figurative) and hope for the future. The protagonists are from diverse ethnicities (which ties in with the story), sexual orientations and ways of life, marked by different familial histories or survivors of different traumas, but the narrative manages to bring them together organically and effortlessly, and each one of them gets her chance to steal the scene - though I must admit having a soft spot for June and her intensity, that manifests itself in an impossible, ultimately poetical guise. [...]

Seanan McGuire: "Adrift in Currents Clean and Clear"

Title: Adrift in Currents Clean and Clear [on Amazon | on Goodreads]
Series: Wayward Children (10th of ?? books)
Author: Seanan McGuire [Site | Goodreads]
Genres: Supernatural (technically it would be Portal Fantasy, but since I don't have a Fantasy Room in my blog, I decided to shelf this one as Supernatural - that's the closest I could get)
Year: 2025
Age: 14+
Stars: 3.5/5
Pros: An imaginative look-in-reverse at one of the most common fantasy tropes. Features an engaging protagonist and a very endearing turtle. Raises questions about disability and bodily autonomy.
Cons: Even as a child, the main character talks like a semi-adult sometimes. Her story breaks what were understood to be two cardinal rules of travelling through the doors.
WARNING! Near-drowning.
Will appeal to: Readers who like a twist on a classic lost-in-Wonderland premise. Everyone who's ever felt out of place, but doesn't necessary dream of a happier world than the one they live in...

Blurb: Nadya never considered herself less than whole, not until her adoptive parents fitted her with a prosthetic arm against her will, seeking to replace the one she'd been missing from birth. Frustrated and unable to express why, Nadya began to wander, until the day she fell through a door into Belyrreka - and found herself in a world of water, filled with child-eating amphibians, majestic giant turtles, and impossible ships that sailed as happily beneath the surface as on top. In Belyyreka, she found herself understood for who she was: a Drowned Girl, who had made her way to her real home, accepted by the river and its people. But even in Belyyreka, there are dangers, and trials, and Nadya would soon find herself fighting to keep hold of everything she had come to treasure. (Amazon excerpt)

Review: A while ago, I decided I wouldn't write full reviews anymore for certain types of books, including novellas. But since I've been reviewing this series in full from the start, I'm making an exception here, and I intend to go on doing so for all its future installments. So, I'll keep writing a mini review after my first read, and a full one after my second.

MAGIC FORMULA

This book came out seven years after Nadya's first appearance in the series (in Beneath the Sugar Sky), and when it was announced, I couldn't help thinking that writing an origin story for a side character whom most readers were likely to barely remember (unless they had reread the series in the meantime) was an odd choice. I mean, she had so little screen time back then, even if the book's epilogue had her front and center, and seven years is a very long time. Then again, in my case, this proved to be beneficial in a way, because I had completely forgotten a crucial point in Nadya's biography, and the ending of AICCAC came as a twist to me for that reason, though of course the author didn't intend for it to work that way. But I'm getting ahead of myself here...the aforementioned ending needs to be discussed in full (though I'll do my best in order to avoid spoilers), but in the meantime, allow me to start from the beginning.
Let's get it out of the way: this installment reminded me a bit of Across the Green Grass Fields (which is my least favourite Wayward Children book to date) with its classic-fable-like atmosphere and premise (talking, intelligent animals). In tone, it also reminded me of the author's The Up-and-Under series under the A. Deborah Baker pen-name (which, again, left me lukewarm). But I found the water world to be inventive, the sweet and caring, yet brave and independent protagonist easy to like and root for, and the human-bonded, sentient turtles infinitely more appealing (and endearing) than the mythical equine species in ATGGF. Also, it was nice to see some disabled representation in this one, though the waters are a bit muddled in that respect (no pun intended)...Nadya was born with only half a right arm, but she never thinks of herself as broken and resents her adoptive parents for fitting her with a prosthesis against her will, yet she doesn't complain when the river's magic does something similar with her in the portal world. Last but not least, for a book where the main character isn't asked to be a hero and the real action is crammed in the last 25 pages, AICCAC never gets boring, and proceeds nicely towards its climax (though, well, "nicely" may be a charitable word here, given what awaits our protagonist). [...]

Nova Ren Suma: "Wake the Wild Creatures"

Title: Wake the Wild Creatures [on Amazon | on Goodreads]
Series: None
Author: Nova Ren Suma [Site | Goodreads]
Genres: Contemporary with a Twist
Year: 2025
Age: 14+
Stars: 4.5/5
Pros: Unique twist on the all-female-commune trope. Relatable, compelling protagonist. Atmospheric, gorgeous writing. 
Cons: The now-and-then structure may confuse some readers. Some details aren't addressed or explained.
WARNING! Sexual assault (mostly off-page; one instance on page, but not overly graphic). Death of a minor and an adult (off-page/not graphic). Arson. A prison scene.
Will appeal to: Those who like a poetical yet fierce, dreamlike yet visceral approach to feminism.

Blurb: Three years ago, Talia lived happily in the ruins of the Neves, a once-grand hotel in the wilds of the Catskill Mountains, with her mother Pola and their community of like-minded women. Some came to the Neves to escape cruel men, others to hide from the law, but all found safety and connection in their haven high above civilization, cloaked by a mysterious mist that kept intruders away. But as their numbers grew, complications followed, and everything came crashing down the night electric lights pierced the forest. Uniformed men arrested Pola, calling her a murderer and a fugitive, and Talia was taken away. Now sixteen, Talia has been forced to live with family she barely knows and fit into a world scarred by misogyny, capitalism, disconnection from nature...everything the women of the Neves stood against. She has one goal: to return to the Neves. But as Talia awaits a signal from her mother, questions arise. Who betrayed her community, and what is she avoiding about her own role in its collapse? Is it truly magic that keeps the hotel so hidden? And what does it mean to embrace being her mother’s daughter? With the help of an unexpected ally, Talia must find her way to answers, face a mother who’s often kept her at arm’s length, and try to reach the refuge she lost - if the mist hasn’t swallowed her path home. (Amazon)

Review: Nova Ren Suma is back! Her previous book came out in 2018, go figure - seven years is an eternity in book industry. Suma shared her writing and publishing journey for Wake the Wild Creatures in a series of interviews and newsletters, and for a number of reasons, that journey was a hard, yet ultimately exhilarating experience for her. One thing I can testify, though: she hasn't lost her touch. 

IMMERSIVE EXPERIENCE

Nova Ren Suma could never produce a bad book - or even an average one. And regardless of the content (I'll get to that in a minute), I mean it on a sentence and atmosphere level. All her stories are a masterclass in writing, though they remain accessible and avoid purple spikes (also, she knows how to write a first chapter that makes you want to read what comes next...WTWC and The Walls Around Us are a hard testament to that). All her stories drip with ambiance to the point that you can not only see, but almost taste and smell the places she describes - which is all the more true with a narrative where nature is front and center, and almost a character in itself, like this one. And she never fails to use her writing gift to create vibrant protagonists - all young women - and give them a voice that feels natural and a perspective that feels both believable and something you can get behind (or at least understand), even when you and those characters don't exactly see eye to eye. So, what I mean is, on the writing front this book is impeccable, and a thing to be savoured and revered in equal measure, and main character Talia's voice - as a kid, at 13, at 16 - is spot-on, conveying the innocence of someone who's grown up in an isolated, all-women enclave while at the same time (and for that very reason) allowing her to make insightful remarks about "civilization"'s flaws and all the ways it can fail (or more like vilify) the female gender. [...]

Ian Chorão: "When We Talk to the Dead" (ARC Review)

Title: When We Talk to the Dead [on Amazon | on Goodreads]
Series: None
Author: Ian Chorão [Instagram | Goodreads]
Genres: Thriller/Mystery, Supernatural (more like Paranormal, but I'm using genre labels that match my Reading Rooms, where Paranormal is under the Supernatural umbrella)
Year: 2025
Age: 16+ (please have a look at the WARNING! section though)
Stars: 4/5
Pros: Haunting, tense, almost lyrical at times (horror notwithstanding), with diverse, fleshed out characters and intriguing dynamics.
Cons: A couple of major plot points (not of the supernatural/paranormal kind) require a strong dose of suspension of disbelief. The open ending may not sit well with certain readers.
WARNING! Violence/assault (not of the sexual kind), horror/blood and gore (I can't be too specific in order to avoid spoiler, but TW for drowning). Anxiety, intrusive thoughts, trauma, loss of a sibling, loss of a parent, mentally ill parent. Use of a derogatory term.
Will appeal to: Those who are looking for a blend of very real and psychological horror with a twist. Those who are fond of damaged, yet brave characters and complicated relationships.

Blurb: Though nineteen-year-old Sally remembers nothing about the accident that took place on Captain’s Island and destroyed her family when she was a little girl, she suffers from intense anxiety, pervasive bouts of dissociation, and gruesome nightmares. All Sally knows is that her mother hasn’t spoken since the accident that took the life of Sally’s twin sister. Following the tragedy, her family fled and never looked back. When her mother suddenly dies, Sally and three college friends travel to the island - for her friends it’s an adventure to a strange, abandoned place. For Sally, it’s a desperate bid to recover some of her memories and understand what really happened to her family. But when memories begin to return, Sally is overcome by grief and rage that threaten to plunge her into madness – a madness that is fed by a malevolent presence stalking them on the island. (Amazon excerpt)

Review: First off...DISCLAIMER: I requested this title on NetGalley. Thanks to Crooked Lane Books for providing a temporary ecopy. This didn't influence my review in any way.

GHOST IMAGE

When We Talk to the Dead turned out to be a different novel than I'd envisioned - mind you that's not a bad thing at all, but I want you to have a better idea of what you're getting into if you decide to give it a chance (which you totally should 😉), so I thought I'd give you a heads-up. With very little help from the cryptic cover (though, after reading the book, I realised it was a good fit), and nothing else to go by than the blurb and the title, I thought I was in for a ghost story...which I suppose can be deemed true in a sense, but not the one you would imagine. OK, now it's me who's being cryptic, but I don't want to spoil the book for you either...Suffice to say, there aren't any ghosts in this story...not in the classic sense. But if you think of memories and trauma and lost loved ones and the child you used to be as ghosts, I suppose there are plenty... [...]

Jihyun Yun: "And the River Drags Her Down" (ARC Review)

Title: And the River Drags Her Down [on Amazon | on Goodreads]
Series: None
Author: Jihyun Yun [Site | Goodreads]
Genres: Supernatural, Afterlife, Contemporary
Year: 2025
Age: 14+
Stars: 4/5
Pros: Honest, raw (yet at times poetical) representation of grief. Fleshed out characters who elicit sympathy even when they make bad choices. Atmospheric writing.
Cons: Gloomy and emotionally though. Delivers a predictable (though powerfully executed) resolution.
WARNING! Parent death, sibling death, animal death/sacrifice, body horror/decay, car crash, drowning/near drowning, strangulation, burns, underage drinking. Parentification, grief, racism.
Will appeal to: Those who enjoy revenant narratives, lyrical horror, Korean folklore and coming-of-age themes. Those who like damaged characters, complicated sibling relationships, and estranged friends' reconnections leading to tentative romance.

Blurb: When her older sister is found mysteriously drowned in the river that cuts through their small coastal town, Soojin Han disregards every rule and uses her ancestral magic to bring Mirae back from the dead. At first, the sisters are overjoyed, reveling in late-night escapades and the miracle of being together again, but Mirae grows tired of hiding from the world. Driven by an insatiable desire to unravel the truth that crushed her family so many years ago, she is out for revenge. When their town is engulfed by increasingly destructive rain and a series of harrowing, unusual deaths, Soojin is forced to reckon with the fact that perhaps the sister she brought back isn’t the one she knew. (Amazon excerpt)

Review: First off...DISCLAIMER: I requested this title on NetGalley. Thanks to Oneworld Publications/Rock the Boat for providing a temporary ecopy. This didn't influence my review in any way.

A STUDY IN SORROW

Yun takes a pretty common trope in YA literature - a teen with powers bringing back a dead loved one, namely a sister - and uses it to its best advantage in order to tell a much larger story, incorporating themes like parentification, selfishness, loneliness, guilt, by way of ancestral magic and Korean myths/culture. Mainly told from the perspective of 17 y.o. Soojin, but including other POVs, mostly resurrected sister Mirae's (one of the touches that make the book stand out in a sea of "came back wrong" narratives), And the River Drags Her Down pulls no punches in exploring the grief that engulfs a broken family (six years prior to Mirae's drowning, when the girls were 10 and 11, their mother died in a car crash) and its consequences - maybe a tad, you know, enhanced by magic, but not less relatable for this reason...if anything, even more. While the power that the women in her family possess was originally born out of very primal needs during a prolonged food shortage (and only meant to resurrect small animals), Soojin has twisted it into a tool to avoid facing loss, even before she employs it to resurrect her sister. Mired in grief and loneliness, she ultimately turns to her gift in order to get her only emotional anchor back, but there will be hell to pay - for her and Mirae both, not to mention, a bunch of other people - and ultimately, a though decision to make. [...]

Olivia Neal: "Blue Ridge Calling" (ARC Review)

Title: Blue Ridge Calling [on Amazon | on Goodreads]
Series: None
Author: Olivia Neal [Site | Goodreads]
Genres: Contemporary, Supernatural, Afterlife
Age: 14+
Stars: 4/5
Pros: Entrancing, quietly magical. Features relatable characters with authentic teen voice.
Cons: A bit of a slow burn. Leaves some questions unanswered. The open ending may not sit well with some readers.
WARNING! Death in the family, grief, depression, depiction of a broken body. Drinking and smoking (on page).
Will appeal to: Those who like heartfelt stories that combine magic, ghosts, found families, hurting and healing, and a coming-of-age arc.

Blurb: Two years ago, a car accident on a perilous mountain road sent a family into freefall, and none of them have been the same since. Sage used to have everything under control: perfect grades, record times on the swim team, and carefully medicated ADHD. But ever since her mom died, she’s just been going through the motions. Kora has known Sage’s family her whole life, so losing Sage’s mom was like losing her own. At the end of the summer, she’s supposed to abandon her beloved Blue Ridge mountains for a prestigious art school in New York, but leaving now feels wrong. And an unexpected romance with a new girl in town might complicate things. Then there’s Sam, Sage’s older brother. He’s spent the last two years traipsing through the mountains, trying to find evidence of local ghost stories. He said he would be back by now, but no one has heard from him. To find him, Kora and Sage will have to dig deeper into the myths and legends of the mountains they call home - before it’s too late. (Amazon excerpt)

Review: First off...DISCLAIMER: I requested this title on Edelweiss. Thanks to Running Wild Publishing/RIZE Press for providing a temporary ecopy. This didn't influence my review in any way.

CURVE BALL

Reading this book was a strange experience. I requested it thinking it would be heavy on female friendship and ghost lore, and while it did, indeed, put the former on the forefront right from the start, at first it seemed more interested in introducing instant romance and what appeared to be a budding love triangle - involving a bisexual girl, her (male) ex and her new (female) flame - than in delivering on the ghost promise (as a matter of fact, ghosts didn't even make an appearance until past the halfway mark). Except what I feared would be a typical (if atmospheric and charmingly written) YA book ultimately evolved into something much more meaningful and emotive than I could imagine - among other things, a celebration of siblinghood and found family, identity and connection, and the strength it takes to leave the familiar path and steer into the unknown. The conflict I was bracing for fizzled out, the romance was fast but surprisingly healthy, and the apparently mismatched group at the center of the narrative - lifelong friends (and narrators) Sage and Kora, new girl Hunter, Kora's ex Connor, and Sam's secret friend Noah - ended up both striking a bond and winning my heart. By the time the ghosts were properly introduced (and what an introduction it was) and the supernatural aspect as a whole started threading into the story, I was hooked. [...]

Chuck Wendig: "The Staircase in the Woods" (ARC Review)

Title: The Staircase in the Woods [on Amazon | on Goodreads]
Series: None
Author: Chuck Wendig [Site | Goodreads]
Genres: Supernatural, Thriller/Mystery
Year: 2025
Age: 18+
Stars: 4/5
Pros: Brilliant, exciting twist on a popular urban legend and a beloved horror trope.
Cons: The characters aren't easy to like, for different reasons (though it's kind of the point). The political tirades feel random and out of place. The somehow-open ending may not sit well with some readers.
WARNING! Violence, hate speech, suicidal ideation, self-harm, sexual abuse (off-page), emotional abuse, parental abuse, parental neglect, drug and alcohol addiction, bullying, animal abuse. Lots of blood, gore and disturbing imagery, bug horror, vomiting.
Will appeal to: Those who enjoy mind-blowing (and hard-hitting) portal fantasies with a psychological angle. Those who like double-timeline narratives.

Blurb: Five high school friends are bonded by an oath to protect one another no matter what. Then, on a camping trip in the middle of the forest, they find something extraordinary: a mysterious staircase to nowhere. One friend walks up - and never comes back down. Then the staircase disappears. Twenty years later, the staircase has reappeared. Now the group returns to find the lost boy - and what lies beyond the staircase in the woods...(Amazon)

Review: First off...DISCLAIMER: I requested this title on NetGalley. Thanks to Random House Worlds/Del Rey for providing a temporary ecopy. This didn't influence my review in any way.

STAIR STRUCK

Apparently, staircases to nowhere in the middle of the woods aren't a rare sight, and in time have become an object of fascination spawning whole threads on sites like Reddit or Quora. Wendig drew on the urban legend according to which these staircases would be portals to other dimensions, wove it with a beloved horror trope (estranged childhood friends reunite to get closure and defeat an old evil), and produced a deliciously disturbing, nightmarishly captivating and completely addictive haunted-house maze, where friendships are tested and individuals must rise above their fears and flaws if they want to get out. (Mind you...don't expect actual ghosts - there are other ways for a house to be haunted...). Told in a now-and-then narrative across a twenty-something-years divide (the author references Covid, so I'd say, more like twenty-five than the twenty accounted for in the synopsis), the story introduces us to five friends who, as teens, swore an oath to always have each other's back, and after a drugged and drunken night in the woods when a member of the group vanished at the top of a supernatural staircase, slowly drifted apart, only to band together as adults in order to solve the mystery when a similar structure reappears.

Now, if you're into (hellish) supernatural mazes, literal twists and turns, videogame-style challenges and psychological horror, it doesn't get much better than this. Granted, this book is disturbing and gross at times (well, MOST times), but it's also creative and addictive and sort of exhilarating. The ending, while not coming with a pretty bow, gives you closure about the things that matter most. If it were only for these aspects, TSITW would be a 5-star read for me. [...]

Kyrie McCauley: "Bad Graces"

Title: Bad Graces [on Amazon | on Goodreads]
Series: None
Author: Kyrie McCauley [Site | Goodreads]
Genres: Supernatural
Year: 2024
Age: 14+
Stars: 4/5
Pros: Atmospheric, adventurous, harsh yet tender, with characters who manage to avoid stereotypes and a fresh take on magic.
Cons: Not all characters are equally developed. You need to suspend disbelief for some of the mundane parts.
WARNING! (TW list provided by the author): body horror (reviewer's note: also involving bugs), drowning, suicide, bodily injury, bodily trauma, blood, child neglect, history of abuse; referenced but not on page: homophobia, statutory rape, eating disorders. This book may be uncomfortable for those with emetophobia. (More): alcohol abuse, arson, burns, suffocation, drowning, attempted suicide, animal death.
Will appeal to: Those who are in for an all-female survival (in more than one sense) narrative, with themes of found family, queer love, overcoming trauma and having each other's back.

Blurb: Using her sister’s grades and clean record, Liv starts to rewrite her story, winning a prestigious internship on a movie set filming in Alaska. Instead of a commercial flight, Liv finds herself on a luxury yacht alongside pop star Paris Grace, actress sisters Effie and Miri Knight, Olympic gymnast Rosalind Torres, and social media influencer Celia Jones. Just as the group starts to bond, a violent storm wrecks their vessel, stranding them on a slip of an island in the North Pacific Ocean. Among the threats of starvation and exposure, they learn there is a predator lurking in the forest, unlike anything they’ve seen before - until they begin to see it in themselves. Every injury they suffer on the island causes inexplicable changes in their bodies, transforming them bit by inhuman bit. With little hope for rescue and only each other as their final tether to humanity, can the girls endure the ominous forces at work on the island? Or will they lose themselves to their darker natures? (Amazon excerpt)

Review: In the vein of Wilder Girls (that I haven't read, but has a similar premise - though, based on the reviews I've read, a different backdrop and outcome), McCauley penned a Shakespeare-imbued, Tempest-inspired story - or more like, a nod to the play - that grows on you at every turn.

GIRLS UNITED

Upon starting this novel, I was just a tiny bit worried that I wouldn't click with the main cast (except for the protagonist), because the girls had the potential to present as vapid, entitled or catty at first, what with them being all high-profile (again, except for aspiring writer Liv). I decided to take the risk on account of the premise sounding so exciting, and I'm happy to report McCauley went for a different, refreshing angle right from the start. Turns out, none of the high-profile girls is vapid, entitled or catty, even if they're flawed somehow (then again, so is ordinary Liv). Female solidarity in the face of a male predator extends its tiny tendrils ever since they meet, and ultimately forges a strong web, not only because the girls end up stranded on an off-the-map island and have to look out for each other (speaking of which, Paris, Celia, Rosalind, Effie and Miri not only are rich and famous, but all go back a long way...and yet, they bond with Liv - one of them a bit more effectively than the others 😉). Last but not least. they all seem to value their craft over the popularity and money it entails (which is maybe a tad unbelievable, coming from a bunch of teens, but as I said, so refreshing that I was happy to buy into it). [...]

Lora Senf: "The Losting Fountain" (ARC Review)

Title: The Losting Fountain [on Amazon | on Goodreads]
Series: None (so far...but a continuation of the story is implied)
Author: Lora Senf [Site | Goodreads]
Genres: Supernatural
Year: 2024
Age: 14+
Stars: 4/5
Pros: Creative premise. Rich, fascinating worldbuilding. Deceptively simple - but as a matter of fact expertly crafted - prose.
Cons: Lacks that extra ingredient that makes you bond with the characters on a visceral level. One twist is easy to anticipate. While the story doesn't end on a cliffhanger, there are a number of loose threads left for a sequel to pick up (if you prefer your books to be self-contained).
WARNING! Blood and gore, death/animal death, suicide (off-page), child abuse (off-page), injuries/mutilations, burns, near-drowning, body horror, bugs.
Will appeal to: Those who enjoy a creative portal-fantasy-adjacent world with quirky characters.

Blurb: Ember, Miles, and Sam have been called home - only home is a place none of them have ever been before. The choices they make will not only determine their own futures but will also have vast and permanent consequences - they will either restore a cosmic balance or destroy the dams that separate two worlds, ending them both. Hidden below the surface, the world of the Fountain is vast: unexplored and unmapped and full of wild things. There are other entities as well, entities that haunt and hunt in the Fountain, because it rewards nearly as often as it punishes, and it has been punishing the greedy and merciless and cruel for a very long time. The borders between our world and the world of the Fountain are already porous. If the balance between them is upset and control of the Fountain is lost, the consequences will be rapid, merciless, and world-ending. For Ember, Miles, and Sam, all from different times, what starts as a journey to take control of their lives quickly becomes a quest to save - or destroy - both worlds, depending on whom you ask. (Amazon excerpt)

Review:  First off...DISCLAIMER: I requested this title on Edelweiss. Thanks to Union Square & Co. for providing a temporary ecopy. This didn't influence my review in any way.

ITS OWN MAGIC

I'm always on the hunt for books that bring something new to the table, so I decided to give The Losting Fountain a chance - based both on the synopsis and on Seanan McGuire's endorsement by way of a blurb. I'm pleased to say that this novel is, indeed, a fresh spin on the portal fantasy genre (though in an oblique way, since the island where the Fountain resides can't be accessed from your average portal) and the teen heroes/chosen ones trope. If the Fountain is slightly reminiscent of the Shop Where Lost Things Go from Seanan McGuire's Wayward Children series, Senf does something entirely different with the premise by having the Fountain act as a moral compass: from time to time, it calls to people who have lost something and gives them the chance to retrieve it, but if they get greedy and try to take other things that didn't use to belong to them, the Fountain punishes them and...recycles them for other purposes. At the same time, it serves as a defense, preventing nightmarish creatures from another dimension from creeping into our world (and into any when, which adds an exciting layer to the plot). There's a complex (though not overwhelming) magic system at play with regards to the Fountain and the island, and while I was a little frustrated by some half-explanations, I suppose they have a rhyme and reason in a story that purposefully leaves some threads hanging in view of a possible sequel. [...]

Mira Gonzalez: "The Darkness Behind the Door" (ARC Review)

Title: The Darkness Behind the Door [on Amazon | on Goodreads]
Series: None
Author: Mira Gonzalez [Site | Goodreads]
Genres: Supernatural (not exactly...but I don't have a Fantasy Room in my blog, so that's the closest I could get), Contemporary
Year: 2024
Age: 14+ (technically, this is a NA book, but suitable for younger teens as well. See the WARNING! section though)
Stars: 4/5
Pros: Gripping, cinematic and ultimately heartwarming (though with a side of sadness), with easy-to-love characters. Combines two tropes that never get old in a fresh combo.
Cons: At least one of the major reveals isn't hard to see coming. The prose would have benefited from a little more editing.
WARNING! (TW list provided by the author): Blood, gore, death, suicide, religious trauma, homophobia, profane language, implied sexual content, drug use. (More): Bullying, car accident, kidnapping, grief.
Will appeal to: Those who like a blend of mayhem, magic, mystery and memories. Those who don't mind a sizeable amount of queer awakening/coming-of-age, slow-burn romance and familial love spiking up such blend.

Blurb: When a phantom moose nearly runs Theo's car off an icy Alaskan road, Theo succumbs to curiosity, following the moose's trail to a door hidden amongst the trees. Despite the threat of becoming the latest victim in a string of mysterious disappearances, Theo crosses the threshold. To his horror, the door vanishes, stranding him in a monster-infested alternate reality. Looming adult responsibilities are forgotten as Theo must fight just to survive. Inside the surreal dimension behind the door, Theo finds allies who hold the encroaching darkness at bay: a sword-wielding man named Archer with a strange case of amnesia, and a shapeshifting dragon named Zephyr. A sinister phenomenon threatens to consume Theo as he grapples with his sense of identity and growing feelings for Archer; the longer he remains in this realm, the more his own memories slip away. With darkness closing in and his time running out, Theo must unravel the secrets his companions harbor and confront his own inner demons if he hopes to find a way back to the world he knows before all is lost to the shadows. (Amazon)

Review: First off...DISCLAIMER: I requested this title on NetGalley. Thanks to Victory Editing NetGalley Co-op for providing a temporary ecopy. This didn't influence my review in any way.

OF TWO MINDS

Let's get it out of the way: this book is a VERY difficult one to review without spoilers. What starts as your average portal fantasy novel (though with a college-aged protagonist, which makes it different enough) soon takes an unexpected turn - or more like a series of them - and morphs into a coming-of-age story with one foot firmly planted in reality. The clues to the final reveal are all there, but the author does a great job of covering her tracks (except in one case - at least one of the twists was easy to figure out, though I didn't expect its follow-up) and unfolding the truth a bit at a time. Then again, the imaginative setting(s), immersive adventures and sweet, slow-burn romance are guaranteed to redirect your attention from the most telling details 😉. Come for the engrossing, cleverly built alternate reality, suspended between coziness and horror/despair, and the mystery behind it; stay for the engaging characters searching for their place in life, and battling trauma and personal demons (not all of them metaphorical) as much as they do the monsters and darkness in their portal universe. [...]

Isabel Strychacz: "House of Thorns" (ARC Review)

Title: House of Thorns [on Amazon | on Goodreads]
Series: None
Author: Isabel Strychacz [Site | Goodreads]
Genres: Supernatural, Thriller/Mystery
Year: 2024
Age: 14+
Stars: 4/5
Pros: Fresh, atmospheric take on the haunted/magical/evil house trope. Engaging (if sometimes flawed) characters.
Cons: The first section is a bit lackluster. There's some confusion about the protagonist's age. The addiction theme is ultimately brushed aside.
WARNING! Grief, panic attacks, anxiety/PTSD, drug and alcohol abuse (offscreen), near-drowning, death of a parent who no longer lives with the family.
Will appeal to: Those who like creepy, but not downright gruesome stories. Those who enjoy sisterly dynamics and a pinch of childhood-friends romance. Most of all, those who are fond of mysterious houses and shifting realities.

Blurb: Five years ago, the Peartrees fled their home - the infamous ancestral Brier Hall - and never looked back. But her oldest sister went missing that night, and there’s been no sign of her since. In the aftermath, the Peartrees are traumatized and get by however they can. Lia’s remaining sister Ali says yes to any bad idea, and Lia tries so desperately to be the perfect daughter that it’s tearing her apart. But as the five year anniversary of the night they left nears, Lia begins seeing her missing sister everywhere. When Ali disappears with no warning except a cryptic phone call, Lia is sure she’s gone back to Brier Hall. Lia must go home one final time and face what haunts her in an effort to find her sisters and uncover the truth of her past. (Amazon excerpt)

Review: First off...DISCLAIMER: I requested this title on Edelweiss. Thanks to Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers (Simon Teen) for providing a temporary ecopy. This didn't influence my review in any way.

ON THE HOUSE

I've been reading so many supernatural (or in one case, multiverse) books with houses at their center lately, and yet each and every one of them has managed to bring something different (and creative) to the table. I can happily report that House of Thorns is no exception. I'll be honest...it's a bit of a slow burn, and at first I thought it was a fairly run-of-the-mill modern gothic story, but when the mystery about the house started to get unraveled, I was hooked. Told from teen and kid Lia's perspectives, with the interpolation of some chapters from Brier Hall's point of view (which is not a gimmick, but a narrative device that does add a pivotal angle to the story, plus it's really cool), House of Thorns is a novel that blurs the lines between the past and the present, the haunter and the haunted - and even the ultimately familiar trope at its core feels fresh and exciting (OK, a bit heartbreaking too) in this context. While on the surface a tale of (strained) sisterly relationships and childhood trauma, on a deeper level HOT is about the need to belong and to find someone who will fill our empty spaces, a need embodied by the emotional entanglement between a young woman and a house who loves her back - if in a twisted way. Which makes for a melancholic and creepy narrative that works very well with the supernatural, time-bending quality of the story and the sisterhood theme. [...]

Katrina Monroe: "Through the Midnight Door" (ARC Review)

Title: Through the Midnight Door [on Amazon | on Goodreads]
Series: None
Author: Katrina Monroe [Site | Goodreads]
Genres: Supernatural, Thriller/Mystery
Year: 2024
Age: 18+
Stars: 4.5/5
Pros: Creative twist on the magical/evil house trope. Excellent characterisation.
Cons: The supernatural experiences inside the house could have been fleshed out more. A familial problem gets resolved too easily. There's some confusion about the characters' ages (though for all I know, it might have been fixed in the finished version).
WARNING! Blood and gore, implied suicide, self-harm, abuse/child abuse (not sexual), poverty, child loss, kidnapping, stalking, manipulation, alcoholism, vomiting, car-crash imagery, bug horror, fires. On the mental-health side: PTST, paranoia, OCD, depression, grief, guilt, generational trauma.
Will appeal to: Those who enjoy a visceral examination of trauma and strained sisterly relationships on the backdrop of an atmospheric supernatural thriller.

Blurb: The Finch sisters once spent long, hot summers exploring the dozens of abandoned properties littering their dying town - until they found an impossible home with an endless hall of doors…and three keys left waiting for them. Curious, fearless, they stepped inside their chosen rooms, and experienced horrors they never dared speak of again. Now, years later, youngest sister Claire has been discovered dead in that old, desiccated house. Haunted by their sister's suicide and the memories of a past they've struggled to forget, Meg and Esther find themselves at bitter odds. As they navigate the tensions of their brittle relationship, they draw unsettling lines between Claire's death, their own haunted memories, and a long-ago loss no one in their family has ever been able to face. With the house once again pulling them ever-closer, Meg and Esther must find the connection between their sister's death and the shadow that has chased them across the years...before the darkness claims them, too. (Amazon)

Review: First off...DISCLAIMER: I requested this title on NetGalley. Thanks to Poisoned Pen Press/Sourcebooks for providing an ecopy. This didn't influence my review in any way.

SISTERS IN HARMS

Haunted/cursed/magical/evil houses have been a horror trope for ages, and 2024 in particular turned out to be rife of novels that put them front and center - I've read three in the last weeks alone, and that's only the tip of the iceberg. This is why it's all the more remarkable that some authors are still able to spin a fresh story around spooky mansions, as it's the case with Through the Midnight Door. I'll be honest though - in this book, it's the complex, often frayed relationship between three sisters (and their characterisation as individuals, or with regard to other people) that steals the scene. That's not to say that the house portion of the story doesn't deliver, though I expected a tad more (I'll come to that in a minute), and there's no denying that the other supernatural occurrences sprinkled throughout the novel are appropriately chilling - but the sisterly dynamic remains the core of the narrative, and a strong one at that. Through the Midnight Door weaves sibling rivalry/dependency, dysfunctional and toxic relationships, familial trauma, mental health issues, yet it's an uplifting story in what its protagonists are doing their best to bring justice to their dead sister, conquer the darkness that's trying to engulf them, and ultimately, find their way back to each other. [...]

Cherie Priest: "The Drowning House" (ARC Review)

Title: The Drowning House [on Amazon | on Goodreads]
Series: None
Author: Cherie Priest [Site | Goodreads]
Genres: Supernatural, Thriller/Mystery
Year: 2024
Age: 18+
Stars: 4/5
Pros: Creative premise. Interesting, atmospheric mix of thriller and supernatural (namely, Norse mythology). Strong characterisation/character dynamics.
Cons: The protagonists' bickering and ego trips can get annoying at times. A couple of plot points lack strong foundations.
WARNING! Near-drowning, human remains, fires/explosions.
Will appeal to: Those who like a slow-burn, creepy mystery (but with a frantic climax) on the backdrop of old friendships and even older family secrets.

Blurb: A violent storm washes a mysterious house onto a rural Pacific Northwest beach, stopping the heart of the only woman who knows what it means. Her grandson, Simon Culpepper, vanishes in the aftermath, leaving two of his childhood friends to comb the small, isolated island for answers - but decades have passed since Melissa and Leo were close, if they were ever close at all. Now they'll have to put aside old rivalries and grudges if they want to find or save the man who brought them together in the first place - and on the way they'll learn a great deal about the sinister house on the beach, the man who built it, and the evil he's bringing back to Marrowstone Island. (Amazon)

Review: First off...DISCLAIMER: I requested this title on NetGalley. Thanks to Poisoned Pen Press/Sourcebooks for providing an ecopy. This didn't influence my review in any way.

DOUBLE ROOM

How many books can you count that start with a housewreck? To the best of my knowledge, there are none; so I was immediately drawn to this story, where a dilapidated mansion washes up on a small town's shore causing the death of an old woman, Mrs Culpepper - not for the reasons you may expect - and the disappearance of her nephew Simon. I mean, the concept is awesome...though the aforementioned house ends up being of less consequence than I anticipated, while Mrs Culpepper's house is more central to the story (not only because Melissa and Leo, the two main characters, camp out in there). There are two levels to the mystery of the ominous mansion on the beach: one of them isn't particularly hard to crack, even before we get the wreckage's backstory (I'm referring to its origins - though where it's coming from NOW it's a different kettle of fish altogether, and we never get an answer for that, even if I have a theory), the rest is revealed bit by bit via some appalling discoveries the two protagonists make inside the other house, the one where they're staying, and thanks to some sniping of their own. The juxtaposition of typical thriller structure and supernatural content (namely, Norse magic/mythology) works very well, and the flashbacks into Melissa, Leo and Simon's childhood/young adulthood under Mrs Culpepper's wing are not only integral to the story (and necessary for character development), but also charming and poignant. [...]

Abigail Miles: "The Building That Wasn't" (ARC Review)

Title: The Building That Wasn't [on Amazon | on Goodreads]
Series: None
Author: Abigail Miles [Site | Goodreads]
Genres: Multiverse, Sci-Fi, Thriller/Mystery
Year: 2024
Age: 16+ (the book is geared towards adults, but can be read by mature teens)
Stars: 4/5
Pros: Merges a few sci-fi tropes and puts a clever and creative spin on them. Employs a peculiar writing style.
Cons: The pace is slow at times. There's an impalpable distance between the reader and the characters.
WARNING! Blood, torture (mostly off-screen), violence, domestic violence (off-screen), fires, claustrophobic spaces.
Will appeal to: Those who enjoy a creepy twist on the multiverse theory peppered with a generous dose of mad science, a sizeable amount of family secrets and a dash of romance.

Blurb: When Everly Tertium encounters a strange man in the park claiming to be her grandfather, she is invited to visit a mysterious apartment building. There, she finds herself in a constant state of déjà vu, impossibly certain that she’s already lived through these moments, already been introduced to these people, and already visited all of these rooms and floors. So why does she have no idea what’s happening to her? The longer she stays in the building, the more Everly becomes convinced there is more going on than meets the eye. Something is off, time seems to pass differently, and the people living there seem trapped. Slowly, Everly begins to wonder if she is trapped too. But would she even want to leave, if she could? (Amazon)

Review: First off...DISCLAIMER: I requested this title on Edelweiss. Thanks to CamCat Books for providing a temporary ecopy. This didn't influence my review in any way.

THROWN FOR A LOOP

The Building That Wasn't is one of those books - the ones you can't review at length lest you reveal too much. One of the genre label I used for it is a spoiler in itself, though it doesn't even begin to encompass the...peculiarity...or madness...of the situation as a whole. By way of introduction, suffice to say that, while the plot relies on a few familiar sci-fi tropes and themes, it combines and twists them (along with some new, intriguing ideas) into a complex, claustrophobic, at times brutal, yet ultimately hopeful tale. In a way, The Building That Wasn't reads almost like a modern (and dark) fable, due to both the writing style and the fractured timeline. As a matter of fact, the narrative weaves back and forth in time, with different characters at the forefront (briefly but effectively including the building itself, which is really cool), and though I guess some of the event depicted will make more sense on a second read, Miles managed to create an engaging web of mystery while giving out a piece of the puzzle at a time, if you pay attention. I must admit I was fooled when it comes to the identity of the mysterious Warden, who runs the building, because there could have been at least another contender for that role (I mean, in my opinion...even if a certain detail should have alerted me, but I interpreted it in a different way), and I didn't expect the story to unfold the way it did; but even if I had, it would have been worth my time nevertheless. [...]