Review: The Year of the Witching

 

Title: The Year of the Witching      

Author:  Alexis Henderson

Synopsis: “A young woman living in a rigid, puritanical society discovers dark powers within herself in this stunning, feminist fantasy debut.

     “In the lands of Bethel, where the Prophet’s word is law, Immanuelle Moore’s very existence is blasphemy.  Her mother’s union with an outsider of a different race cast her once-proud family into disgrace, so Immanuelle does her best to worship the Father, follow Holy Protocol, and lead a life of submission, devotion, and absolute conformity, like all the other women in the settlement.

     “But a mishap lures her into the forbidden Darkwood surrounding Bethel, where the first prophet once chased and killed four powerful witches.  Their spirits are still lurking there, and they bestow a gift on Immanuelle: the journal of her dead mother, who Immanualle is shocked to learn once sought sanctuary in the wood.

     “Fascinated by the secrets in the diary, Immanuelle finds herself struggling to understand how her mother could have consorted with the witches.  But when she begins to learn grim truths about the Church and its history, she realizes the true threat to Bethel is its own darkness.  And she starts to understand that if Bethel is to change, it must begin with her.”

Review:  I both loved and hated this book.  What I loved:  The Year of the Witching is extremely well written.  It’s like I was right there, with Immanuelle, whom I really started to care about.  What I hated: The Year of the Witching is extremely well written.  It’s like I was right there, with Immanuelle, whom I really started to care about.  Remember, this is a horror novel, set in a dystopian, puritanical, secluded society… I spent most of the time battling feelings of anger and terror.  At one point I had to put down the book for over a week to work out my emotions. 

     I love the idea of a secluded, low tech, mostly agricultural society.  The Village is one of my favorite movies, please don’t judge me. The idea of a simpler life is very appealing to me.  However, you add in a crazy, blood thirsty Prophet who is also a sexual predator, evil witches who live in the dark ominous woods, and a bloody curse, and it’s no longer the idyllic place I would imagine.  I loved it.  I hated it.  I wanted to throw it against the wall.  I had to put it in time out.  And that is how you know it’s a fabulous book.  I highly recommend The Year of the Witching for any fans of horror, and I just cannot wait for the next book in the Bethel series.

 

Publisher:  Ace

If you like this book you may want to read:

The Once and Future Witches by Alix Harrow

Burn Our Bodies Down by Rory Power

Review: The Return

 

Title:  The Return        

Author:  Rachel Harrison

Synopsis: “An edgy and haunting debut novel about a group of friends who reunite after one of them has returned from a mysterious two-year disappearance.

     “Julie is missing, and the missing don’t often return.  But Elise knows Julie better than anyone, and she feels in her bones that her best friend is out there, and that one day she’ll come back.  She’s right.  Two years to the day that Julie went missing, she reappears with no memory of where she’s been or what happened to her.”

Review:  I made the mistake of starting The Return at bedtime one night.  I like to read before bed to help me relax and push aside any worries of the day.  So, at 10pm (Ok, it was probably 9:30; I love bedtime.) I moisturized, grabbed a cat and my book, and climbed under the covers.  Next thing I knew it was 2am and I had read the whole book.  I was so frightened after I finished that I had to sleep with the lights on.  

Reading The Return was like driving by an accident.  Even though you kind of know what happened, and you know it’s going to be bad, you can’t help looking.  I had sort of figured out basically what was going on, but the main characters had no idea, and I couldn’t help speeding through the pages to find out what they were going to do.   I highly recommend The Return to fans of horror and the supernatural.

Publisher:  Berkley

If you like this book you may want to read:

Wonderland by Zoje Stage

The Twisted Ones by T. Kingfisher

The Deep - Review

Title: The Deep

Author:  Alma Katsu

Synopsis:  “Someone, or something, is haunting the Titanic.

     “This is the only way to explain the series of misfortunes that have plagued the passengers of the ship from the moment they set sail: mysterious disappearances, sudden deaths.  Now suspended in an eerie, unsettling twilight zone during the four days of the liner’s illustrious maiden voyage, a number of the passengers – including millionaires Madeleine Astor and Benjamin Guggenheim, the maid Annie Hebbley and Mark Fletcher – are convinced that something sinister is going on… And then, as the world knows, disaster strikes.

     “Years later and the world is at war.  And a survivor of that fateful night, Annie, is working as a nurse on the sixth voyage of the Titanic’s sister ship, the Britannic, now refitted as a hospital ship.  Plagued by the demons of her doomed first and near fatal journey across the Atlantic, Annie comes across an unconscious soldier she recognizes while doing her rounds.  It is the young man Mark.  And she is convinced that he did not – could not – have survived the sinking of the Titanic…”

Review:  This is the second book I’ve read by Alma Katsu.  The first one I read was The Hunger, and I loved this one just as much as that one.  This novel is marketed as horror, but it’s not so much scary as it is atmospheric.  Good historical speculative fiction involves a lot of research, and this author definitely does her research!  There are no weird moments where something is off and it pulls you out of the setting. 

     The Deep reads like a really good gothic horror.  Not a lot of blood, guts or violence, but plenty of uncomfortable creepiness.  There is a mystery that isn’t solved until the very end.  It’s a ghost story.  And we already know the ultimate end of the Titanic and the Britannic, so it adds a bit of a sense of urgency to the story.  We know this isn’t going to end well.  I highly recommend The Deep to anyone who enjoys reading. 

***I was provided a free copy of this novel via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.***

Publisher:  Penguin Group / Putnam

If you like this book you may want to read:

The Hunger by Alma Katsu

The Toll by Cherie Priest

The Animals at Lockwood Manor by Jane Healey

Salvation Day- Review

Title: Salvation Day    

Author: Kali Wallace

Synopsis:  “A lethal virus is awoken on an abandoned spaceship in this incredibly fast-paced, claustrophobic thriller.

     “They thought the ship would be their salvation.

     “Zahra knew every detail of the plan.  House of Wisdom, a massive exploration vessel, had been abandoned by the government of Earth a decade earlier, when a deadly virus broke out and killed everyone on board in a matter of hours.  But now it could belong to her people if they were bold enough to take it.  All they needed to do was kidnap Jaswinder Bhattacharya – the sole survivor of the tragedy, and the last person whose genetic signature would allow entry to the spaceship.

     “But what Zahra and her crew could not know was what waited for them on the ship – a terrifying secret buried by the government.  A threat to all of humanity that lay sleeping alongside the orbiting dead.

     “And then they woke it up.”

Review:  I absolutely loved this book.  Salvation Day starts off at a fast pace and doesn’t let up, there isn’t a single slow moment in all 320 pages.  The story is told from two points of view.  There is Zahra, who is from the Wastelands of North America.  She is a member of a cult who are among the outcasts of current civilization, who are looking for a home.  And there is Jas, an orphan and the sole survivor of a tragic viral outbreak on a spaceship.  He represents the civilization that Zahra’s cult family hates.  Normally I dislike head-hopping in a story told using first person narrative, but the author makes it work. 

     I purchased this novel at noon, and was finished reading it by 5pm.  I did take a short nap and eat lunch in there somewhere.  I got so into the story that I was seeing it happen in my head like an awesome science fiction/horror movie, think Aliens.  And as I was reading I just kept going faster and faster because the last third of the book is pretty much all climax and I just had to know what was going to happen.  Seriously, I thought my Kindle was going to start to glitch because of how fast I was tapping the screen to turn the pages.  Then, the ending was just so perfect that I had to just sit there for a moment to take in what had just happened.  I highly suggest Salvation Day as top priority Summer read.

Publisher:  Berkley

If you like this book you may want to read:

Alien: Echo by Mira Grant (Read BookGirlR’s review here)

Wanderers by Chuck Wendig (Read BookGirlR’s review here)

The Toll by Cherie Priest

The Luminous Dead by Caitlin Starling

Alien: Echo - Review

Title:  Alien: Echo

Author: Mira Grant

Series: “An original young adult novel of the Alien universe”

Synopsis:  “Olivia and her twin sister Viola have been dragged around the universe for as long as they can remember.  Their parents, both xenobiologists, are always in high demand for their research into obscure alien biology.

     “Just settled on a new colony world, they discover an alien threat unlike anything they’ve ever seen.  And suddenly the sisters’ world is ripped apart.

     “On the run from terrifying aliens, Olivia’s knowledge of xenobiology and determination to protect her sister are her only weapons as the colony collapses into chaos.  But then a shocking family secret bursts open – one that’s as horrifying to Olivia as the aliens surrounding them.

     “The creatures infiltrate the rich wildlife on this virgin colony world – and quickly start adapting.  Olivia’s going to have to adapt, too, if she’s going to survive.”

Coming from Titan books 10/29/19

Coming from Titan books 7/30/19.

Review:  I’ve spoken before about how much I love the Alien franchise.  I was very excited to find out that there are several new Alien books being released this year.  Alien: Echo by Mira Grant is the first this year, Alien: Isolation by Keith DeCandido releases on July 30 and Alien: Prototype by Tim Waggoner releases on October 29. 

     I accidentally bought both a digital copy (Kindle) and a hardcover copy of Alien: Echo because I got so excited when I saw it at Barnes & Noble I forgot I had preordered it for my Kindle.  (This actually happens to me a lot.  Don’t judge.  I like books more than I like people.)  I read it in 3 hours when I got home from the bookstore.  I just plopped down on the couch, started reading, and didn’t move until I finished.  I mean it.  I didn’t get a drink.  I didn’t have any reading snacks.  I didn’t even go to the bathroom.  I’m pretty sure my husband tried to talk to me and I didn’t even pause to give him the death glare. That’s how good it is.

     Mira Grant is one of my favorite authors, and Alien is one of my favorite series.  (I’ll read anything written by Mira Grant, no questions asked.)  Put the two of these together and it’s a match made in heaven.  The world building and character development that went into this novel is amazing.  Olivia is an awesome character.  Even without the chest bursting aliens, they don’t show up until about halfway through the book, I would have loved a book about her.  She’s the new girl, and her parents are weird.  She has a mysterious twin sister that nobody has ever met; and a crush on one of the popular girls at school.  She even breaks the rules to impress the girl she has a crush on.  She is definitely a well written teenager!  The world is awesome.  It’s Mira Grant, so of course the xenobiology is well thought out and well written.  Also, there are chest bursting aliens.  You don’t want to miss this one!  If you’re like me you may even get so excited you accidentally buy two copies!

Publisher:  Imprint

If you like this book you may want to read:

Newsflesh Trilogy by Mira Grant

Harmony by Lilith Saintcrow

Illuminae by Amie Kaufman & Jay Kristoff (read BookGirlR’s review here)

Wanderers - Review

Title:  Wanderers

Author:  Chuck Wendig

Synopsis: “Shana wakes up one morning to discover her little sister in the grip of a strange malady.  She appears to be sleepwalking.  She cannot talk and cannot be woken up.  And she is heading with inexorable determination to a destination that only she knows.  But Shana and her sister are not alone.  Soon they are joined by a flock of sleepwalkers from across America, on the same mysterious journey.  And like Shana, there are other “shepherds” who follow the flock to protect their friends and family on the long dark road ahead.

     “For on their journey, they will discover an America convulsed with terror and violence, where this apocalyptic epidemic proves less dangerous than the fear of it.  As the rest of society collapses all around them – and an ultraviolent militia threatens to exterminate them – the fate of the sleepwalkers depends on unraveling the mystery behind the epidemic.  The terrifying secret will either tear the nation apart – or bring the survivors together to remake a shattered world.”

Review:  You all know by now that I love a good apocalypse.  Give me a novel about the end of the world that is heavier than my cat (the small cat, not the 20 lb monster cat) and I’m a happy book worm. 

     Wanderers is an interesting take on the end of the world by plague trope, with interesting characters.  At first I thought that it was going to be a zombie novel.  Around 25% in I realized it’s actually a plague that kills all humanity/end of the world novel.  At 75% in I finally realized it’s actually neither, and yet both, of those.  It is full of characters you love and characters you love to hate.  My only complaint is that there are two main characters that are both female whose names begin with S and I spent the entire first half of the novel confused about which was which.  But that might just be me.    

     It took me five days to read Wanderers, but that’s only because I had to work; and one day I had a migraine headache and wasn’t able to read at all, which was horrible.  Every minute I wasn’t reading I was trying to figure out when my next opportunity to read was going to be so I could get a bit further in the story.  I stayed up way past my bedtime so I could read, and when I finally allowed myself to sleep I had weird dreams that I blame on Wanderers. 

    I highly recommend all of Chuck Wendig’s novels and I think Wanderers is a great choice for a summer read.  But be warned, this novel is an epic, heavy read (I’m not just talking about the physical weight of the book) and once you start reading you won’t be able to stop. 

***I was provided with a free copy of this book via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.***

Publisher:  Del Rey

If you like this book you may want to read:

Invasive by Chuck Wendig

The End of the World Running Club by Adrian J Walker

The Chrysalis - Review

Title:  The Chrysalis

Author:  Brendan Deneen

Synopsis:   “Welcome to the dark side of suburbia.

     “Barely employed millennials Tom and Jenny Decker have to grow up fast when they lose their cheap Manhattan apartment.  Leaving “the city” is hard, but the blow is softened when they stumble upon a surprisingly affordable house in the suburbs.

     “For Tom, the bills, the mortgage, and Jenny’s unexpected pregnancy add up to terror.  He’s not ready for this kind of responsibility.

     “Then he finds the thing in the basement.  It makes him feel like a winner even as it scrambles his senses.  A new job soon has him raking in the big bucks – enough that Jenny can start making her entrepreneurial dreams come true.  

     “The Deckers’ dream home conceals more than one deadly secret.  As Tom’s obsession with the basement grows, Jenny realizes that to save her family, she must expose everything.  Before it destroys them all.

     “No one ever really wants to grow up… but sometimes behaving like an adult is the only way to survive.”

Review:  The story starts out with a brutal murder, and then cuts to a stereotypical millennial couple moving to the suburb.  The Chrysalis is engaging enough that I found myself thinking about it when I was doing other things.  While reading the first half of the novel I didn’t have a problem putting it down when my reading time was over and I had to do other things, like make dinner or go to work.  The second half of the novel I could not put down.  I read it in one go, at bedtime, and then couldn’t sleep because I was afraid that I was going to have nightmares. 

     

     ***It’s a new release, so I won’t post any major spoilers.  But there are a few minor ones below.***

     At first I felt bad for the characters, especially Tom.  He gives up a lot to provide for his little family and it had to be hard.  In his mind he is basically selling out by taking the sales job that allows him to be a provider.  And Jenny, getting fired from her job just when she finds out that she is pregnant, is dealt what had to be a devastating blow emotionally.  Things go from bad to worse when Tom discovers the chrysalis in the basement.  I’m going to admit that it took me a long time to realize that the chrysalis in the basement symbolizes addiction, and that the whole novel is about how addiction can ruin your life. 

     The Chrysalis is scary enough that it kept me awake at night, and it made me feel kind of queasy.  Which, for a horror novel, means that it did its job.  If you aren’t jumping at shadows and uncomfortable after reading a horror novel, did you really read a horror novel?

***I was provided a free copy of this book via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review***

Publisher:  Tor

If you like this book you may want to read:

The Hunger by Alma Katsu

Hex by Thomas Olde Heuvelt

The Passage - Review

Title:  The Passage

Author:  Justin Cronin

Series:  The Passage #1

Synopsis:  “It happened fast.  Thirty-two minutes for one world to die, another to be born.”

     “First, the unthinkable: a security breach at a secret U.S. government facility unleashes the monstrous product of a chilling military experiment.  Then, the unspeakable: a night of chaos and carnage gives way to sunrise on a nation, and ultimately a world, forever altered.  All that remains for the stunned survivors is the long fight ahead and a future ruled by fear – of darkness, of death, of a fate far worse.

     As civilization swiftly crumbles into a primal landscape of predators and prey, two people flee in search of sanctuary.  FBI agent Brad Wolgast is a good man haunted by what he’s done in the line of duty.  Six-year-old orphan Amy Harper Bellafonte is a refugee from the doomed scientific project that has triggered apocalypse.  He is determined to protect her from the horror set loose by her captors.  But for Amy, escaping the bloody fallout is only the beginning of a much longer odyssey – spanning miles and decades – towards the time and place where she must finish what should never have begun.”

Review:  I loved this novel.  It’s truly epic, spanning a large period of time and multiple characters.  If you’ve read my other reviews then you know that I love zombie novels and apocalypse novels.  I found this to be a unique take on the traditional zombie apocalypse.  The use of vampires instead of zombies is not all that original.  What I found unique is that the majority of the vampires are just mindless feeding creatures, semi controlled by twelve elder vampires; and then there’s Amy.  She is a different sort of creature.  She is not human anymore, but she isn’t like the vampires either. 

     I especially enjoyed the sections of the novel dealing with the human compound struggling to survive 90+ years after the start of the apocalypse.  They have struggled for more than 90 years to keep the lights on and the vampires at bay.  They have created their own government, and their own laws to keep their civilization alive.  The Passage is a vast and complicated novel that sucked me in and wouldn’t let me go.  I was only halfway through when I went to the store and purchased the next two in the series.  Cronin has created a masterpiece.  The world building and the character development are spot on.  Once you start reading The Passage you won’t want to stop.

Publisher: Ballantine Books

If you like this book you may want to read:

Dies the Fire (Emberverse #1) by S.M. Stirling

Feed (Newsflesh #1) by Mira Grant  (read BookGirlR’s review here)

The Twelve (The Passage #1) by Justin Cronin

Stranded - Review

Title: Stranded   

Author: Bracken MacLeod

Synopsis:  “In the spirit of John Carpenter’s The Thing and Jacob’s Ladder comes a terrifying, icebound thriller where nothing is quite what it seems.

     “Badly battered by an apocalyptic storm, the crew of the Arctic Promise find themselves in increasingly dire circumstances as they sail blindly into unfamiliar waters and an ominously thickening fog.  Without functioning navigation or communication equipment, they are lost and completely alone.  One by one, the men fall prey to a mysterious illness.  Deckhand Noah Cabot is the only person unaffected by the strange force plaguing the ship and her crew, which does little to ease their growing distrust of him.

     “Dismissing Noah’s warnings of worsening conditions, the captain of the ship presses on until the sea freezes into ice and they can go no farther.  When the men are ordered overboard in an attempt to break the ship free by hand, the fog clears, revealing a faint shape in the distance that may or may not be their destination.  Noah leads the last of the able-bodied crew on a journey across the ice and into an uncertain future where they must fight for their lives against the elements, the ghosts of the past and, ultimately, themselves.”

Review:  I loved Stranded.  My favorite type of horror novel, or movie, is psychological horror.  I don’t like a lot of blood and guts (unless it’s a zombie novel, but that’s a whole different review), however give me give me ghosts, demon possession, empty wastelands, or a vast nothingness and I’ll be up all night, with all the lights on, because I’m too frightened to sleep. 

     Stranded was a creepy, short novel that I stayed up until 4am finishing and then could not go to sleep.  I could not figure out what was happening until the story told me, which is unusual for me, so I was reading at breakneck speed to get to the end and find out what was going on.  I’ve seen other reviews that compare Stranded to an episode of the Twilight Zone, and I think those reviewers are dead on.  This novel definitely has that creepy, "is this really happening?" feel to it. 

     I really enjoyed Stranded, and if you are a fan of psychological horror and weird shit I think you will too.

Publisher:  Tor Books

If you like this book you may want to read:

Coldbrook by Tim Lebbon (read BookGirlR’s review here)

Hex by Thomas Olde Heuvelt

Patient Zero - Review

Title:  Patient Zero

Author:  Jonathan Maberry

Series:  Joe Ledger #1

Synopsis: “Monday, 1300 hours: Joe Ledger kills terrorist Javad Mustapha, AKA Patient Zero, with two point-blank shots from his Glock .45.  Wednesday, 0800 hours: Patient Zero rises from the dead…

     “When you have to kill the same terrorist twice in one week, there’s either something wrong with your world or something wrong with your skills… and there’s nothing wrong with Joe Ledger’s skills.  Ledger, a Baltimore detective assigned to a counterterrorism task force, is recruited by the government to lead a new ultrasecret rapid-response group called the Department of Military Science (DMS) to help stop a group of terrorists from releasing a dreadful bioweapon that can turn ordinary people into zombies.”

Review:  Patient Zero is a wonderfully dense read.  It’s a zombie story, and we all know how much I love zombie stuff, but it’s so much more than that.  Patient Zero is an action packed thriller in which the real bad guys aren’t zombies, but terrorists wielding a biological weapon that turns ordinary citizens into zombies.  Even after finishing this novel I was still thinking about it, and the main character Joe Ledger.  Joe’s voice is distinct and wow is he funny.  I had a crush on Joe within the first 2 pages of Patient Zero, sorry SuperSteve, and was terrified something bad was going to happen to him.  I’m glad there are more novels in the series, and I’ve added them all to my wish list.  I’ve also added Maberry’s Rot & Ruin series for young adults to my wish list.  If you like edge of your seat thrillers and zombie horror novels pick up Patient Zero, you won’t regret it.

Publisher: St. Martin’s Griffin

ISBN:  978-0312382858

If you like this book you may want to read:

Dragon Factory (Joe Ledger #2) by Jonathan Maberry

Coldbrook by Tim Lebbon (see BookGirlR’s review here)

Apocalypse Z: The Beginning of the End by Manel Loureiro (see BookGirlR’s review here)

The Newsflesh Trilogy by Mira Grant (see BookGirlR’s review of Feed here)