October 28, 2022 · 1:00 am

A Review of Vespasian Moon’s Fabulous Autumn Carnival

Vespasian Moon’s Fabulous Autumn Carnival - A Long Short Story by Berthold Gambrel book cover. Image on cover is a drawing of a large yellow full moon with a black bat flying near the top of it in the sky. There are two jack o lanterns at the bottom of the cover near the title. Title: Vespasian Moon’s Fabulous Autumn Carnival – A Long Short Story

Author: Berthold Gambrel

Publisher: Self-Published

Publication Date: October 18, 2019

Genres: Paranormal, Mystery, Romance, Holiday, Humour

Length: 54 pages

Source: I received a free copy from the author.

Rating: 5 Stars

Blurb:

Federal Agent Jane Raczyck is tired of her job. So is Sheriff Sixtus Davis, the head law enforcement officer in the town of Turpin’s Gulch. But when Raczyck’s agency sends her to work with Davis on combating the drug epidemic in the small Appalachian hamlet, the two are compelled to investigate the local carnival and its mysterious impresario… even though they’d much rather be doing other things together.

Review:

Content Warning: References to drug abuse, multi-generational poverty, and some of the negative consequences of living in an insular community like prejudice against and a deep distrust of outsiders. I won’t discuss these subjects in my review, and they were a minor part of an otherwise pretty lighthearted plot.

Small towns are supposed to be sleepy, peaceful little places where nothing weird ever happens….right?

The main characters were a hoot. Neither of them seemed all that emotionally invested in carrying out the roles in society that they were supposed to be fulfilling. Even when Jane behaved like a federal agent and Davis took his job as head law enforcement officer in Turpin’s Gulch seriously, there was still always an faint undercurrent of restlessness and snark in their personalities that always made me wonder how they’d break the unwritten rules of how they were supposed to act next based on their occupations and gender identities. This was exactly what the setting needed in order to thrive, and it made me wish I’d ignored my overflowing to be read list and jumped ahead to this tale when it first came out.

I loved seeing how the narrator broke the fourth wall and spoke directly to the audience when necessary. For example, this was how Jane was described: “Now, because standards of beauty vary greatly, let me simply say that she had whatever you consider to be the most attractive hair color and style, atop whatever you think is the ideal face shape, with skin colored in the precise shade of pigment you like the best,” and it made me laugh out loud when I read it. Of course the audience’s preconceptions and tastes matter when describing a beautiful woman, and it tickled my funny bone to see that addressed so openly.  Do keep an eye out for other unexpected moments like this while reading because i can’t possibly list them all in this review.

The paranormal elements of the plot were beautifully understated. Many of these scenes that included them could be explained away with rational alternatives to what some characters assumed was happening there. I love ambigious stuff like that, especially when it’s followed up with scenes that gently nudge the reader in the particular direction the author wants you go while still leaving room for other interpretations for those who wish to hang onto their own ideas about the origins of previous spooky moments. Yes, I’m being vague in this paragraph on purpose. If you want to know more, you’ll have to read this book!

While no prior knowledge of Appalachian culture is required to understand the storyline, readers who are from that culture or who have knowledge of it in other ways will find some gems here. I nodded and chuckled as I read certain passages because of how much they reminded me of certain people I knew when I was a kid or of cultural references that I rarely see mentioned in fiction.

Vespasian Moon’s Fabulous Autumn Carnival was everything I was hoping it would be and more.

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October 27, 2022 · 1:00 am

A Review of Samantha, 25, on October 31

Samantha, 25, on October 31 by Adam Bertocci book cover. Image on cover show a young red haired woman wearing a witches hat and cloak. She looks surprised as the wind attempts to blow her pointy hat off of her head. Title: Samantha, 25, on October 31

Author: Adam Bertocci

Publisher: Self-Published

Publication Date: October 12, 2021

Genres: Fantasy, Contemporary

Length: 50 pages

Source: I received a free copy from the author.

Rating: 5 Stars

Blurb:

Samantha hates her job, her debt and her general circumstances, and if that weren’t enough, her first post-pandemic Halloween isn’t shaping up to be any fun. Unenthused about the prospect of another day (and week and month and year) stuck working in a boring health food store, Samantha hopes that dressing as a witch will help recapture the magic in her life… or at least conjure up a little Halloween fun.

But when a mysterious black cat crosses her path, Samantha’s holiday hijinks take a turn for the weird, culminating in a spooky confrontation with the scariest horror of all: her own future.

Award-winning writer and filmmaker Adam Bertocci has been praised by Entertainment Weekly, USA Today, The New Republic, GQ, The Wall Street Journal, The Guardian, Back Stage, Broadway World, E!, Maxim, IGN, Wired, Film Threat and more. This wistful-yet-witchy short story explores the mysteries of improvised cat care, growing up, and what’s really important in life.

Review:

Content Warning:  Witches and witchcraft. This is also set during the Covid-19 pandemic and contains a few references to things like social distancing, proper hand washing, and wearing a face mask in public. No one caught Covid during the storyline, though.

Halloween magic is for everyone.

This novella captured the frustration of working in retail or other dead-end jobs perfectly. Even though she was grateful to have work when so many others were laid off during the Covid-19 pandemic, Samantha was bored and restless at Esterbrook’s Natural Market. Her history degree hadn’t panned out the way she hoped they would, and she couldn’t see how her circumstances would change for the foreseeable future. I had a lot of sympathy for her and was curious to see if her dreams would finally come true. This wasn’t something I was expecting to find in a spooky Halloween read, but it fit the themes perfectly.

Samantha was a likeable and intelligent protagonist. She was the sort of person I’d love to be friends with in real life.  I enjoyed seeing how one of her biggest flaws, her tendency to ramble on when other people were hoping she’d give them a clear yes or no as a response, changed the course of her destiny. It’s always nice to see characters who are given genuine challenges to overcome and whose weaknesses make a meaningful difference to the plot.

One of the biggest reasons why I chose a five-star review had to do with how the fantasy elements of the plot were handled. Yes, I know that sentence is a vague one, but I need to be careful how I word this in order to avoid spoilers, but Mr. Bertocci did a marvellous job of playing around with the audience’s expectations of how witches should behave and how a fantasy story should unfold. He clearly knew this genre well and wasn’t afraid to turn certain tropes upside down in order to keep me guessing. Bravo for that!

Samantha, 25, on October 31 was perfect.

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October 26, 2022 · 1:00 am

Wednesday Weekly Blogging Challenge: Scariest Real Life Ghost Story

Hosted by Long and Short Reviews.

Click here to read everyone else’s replies to this week’s question and here to see the full list of topics for the year.

Blurry black-and-white photo of a ghostly-white woman wearing a long-sleeved dress and wearing her black hair half over her face. Unless you count the loud footsteps that sometimes rumble up and down my in-laws stairs (but that are probably just coming from a noisy neighbour in the other home in their duplex), I have never seen or interacted with a ghost.

With that being said, my father had a frightening and bizarre experience one night while sleeping at my grandfather’s home about thirty years ago.

This home was built by my grandfather on land that has been in our family for generations. There have been no sudden deaths, acts of violence, or any other tragedies in that house or on that land for as long as anyone in the family can recall. It’s a peaceful place, and yet the story of the black-eyed woman still happened.

Dad was sleeping in bed next to mom when he felt the bed gently shake as someone sat on it in the middle of the night. He awoke to see his wife sitting on the end of the bed staring at him.

It took him a minute to remember that mom did not have black eyes. That is to say, the eyes of the woman looking him did not have pupils, irises, or sclera. They were coal black from beginning to end. She otherwise looked exactly like his wife.

He looked over to the side and saw his actual wife sleeping quietly beside him, so he reached forward to swat the black-eyed stranger away. His hand couldn’t touch anything solid where she sat, and yet she was still there looking at him.

”Get out in the name of Jesus!” He said to the black-eyed woman. She disappeared like a mist.

He was not able to fall back asleep again that night.

Let’s add a few more pieces of information to the mystery:

1) During that time, my parents were trying to decide whether to make some life-changing career decisions that would make it much easier for them to pay the bills and even save a little bit of money for the future. Saying yes to those opportunities would also increase their stress and decrease the amount of time they had for anything other than work and finishing college (for my mom) and mean our family would need to move a few thousand miles away from where we lived at the time.

2) My father has seasonal allergies that required him to take allergy medicine before bed in order to be decongested enough to sleep. He is also known to be someone who occasionally has trouble transitioning from sleeping to being fully alert, especially if he’s interrupted during deep sleep.

3) They belonged to a denomination that worried about evil spirits and demons more than many other faiths and denominations do. Avoiding and casting out these spirits were common topics of conversation in our social circles.

So this could have been a hypnogogic hallucination. That is to say, a hallucination that took place while his brain was still in the process of waking up. These types of hallucinations can include seeing, feeling, and hearing things that are not actually there because your mind is still dreaming at that time. They are not dangerous, just a quirk of the human mind.

On the other hand, my mother has a sibling who had night terrors and incidents of sleep walking when he slept in that room as a kid. Maybe it’s a coincidence, or maybe not.

No one else has seen the black-eyed woman at my grandparents’ home to the best of my knowledge, but this is the scariest real-life (possible?) ghost story I know. I will leave it up to all of you decide if you’d rather believe it was a spirit, a mental process that can be explained by our current understanding of psychology and neurology, or something else entirely.

Happy (almost) Halloween!

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October 25, 2022 · 1:00 am

Top Ten Tuesday: Halloween Things I’ve Never Done


Hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl

I’m borrowing this theme from Jana’s Halloween post last year, so she gets all of the credit there. It was such a great idea for both Halloween and Top Ten Tuesday.

Sugar cutout cookies decorated to look like a ghost, bats, spider web, the word “boo,” and a jack-o-lantern. 1. Visited a haunted house attraction.

I have been inside a house that others said was haunted, but I can’t say I’ve ever seen or heard anything there that defies scientific explanation.

Haunted house attractions don’t appeal to me because I dislike jump scares.

2. Attended an adult Halloween party.

3. Dressed up as something scary or gross.

4. Played the trick part of trick-or-treating.

I once toilet papered someone’s car, but they knew about it and I cleaned everything up immediately. I wouldn’t do anything to damage someone else’s property or leave a mess, so no egging or toilet papering houses for me.

5. Seen a ghost. 

6. Participated in a seance or used an Ouija board. 

7. Visited a fortune teller. 

8. Drank a pumpkin spice latte. 

9. Eaten many Halloween-themed treats. 

10. Decorated for Halloween. 

Here’s a quick explanation of why I haven’t done a lot of this stuff.

I was a preacher’s kid growing up, and my family didn’t celebrate Halloween at all until I was in middle school. We attended harvest festivals at various churches or didn’t do anything in particular that day instead depending on the year. When my parents later changed the family rules and said trick-or-treating was okay, we weren’t allowed to pick scary or gross costumes.

While I’m no longer a member of that church, I still have no interest in contacting spirits or having my fortune read. (I do not judge those who are into those things, though! To each their own).

Many Halloween treats, including pumpkin spice lattes, are filled with dairy products. I’m allergic to milk, so I usually can’t eat and drink that stuff unless I visit a vegan bakery or find a recipe that can be modified and make them myself. Maybe someday I’ll dig into that part of the Internet and do it, though.

Do you celebrate Halloween? What common Halloween things have you never done?

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October 20, 2022 · 1:00 am

Running to Safety: A Review of One Dark Hallow’s Eve

One Dark Hallows Eve by Eldritch BlacI book cover. Image on cover shows a drawing of two sinister glowing jack-o-lanterns sitting at the bottom of a hill on the night of a full moon. A house and a leafless tree sit at the top of the hill. Title: One Dark Hallow’s Eve

Author: Eldritch Black

Publisher: Self-Published

Publication Date: October 22, 2015

Genres: Middle Grade, Fantasy, Paranormal, Horror, Contemporary, Historical

Length: 43 pages

Source: I received a free copy from the author.

Rating: 3 Stars

Blurb:

Beware it’s Halloween and the Pumpkin Men are coming.

It’s All Hallow’s Eve and Owen Weeks is not having a good day. Something’s stirring in the lake by his house, the dead leaves beneath this shoes crunch like bones, and even the brambles seem to twitch when he’s not looking.

Nothing’s right.

But things get a lot worse as Owen discovers a terrifying stranger hiding in an abandoned farmhouse. A dark spell is cast. Old magic, magic that raises a terrifying horde of nightmarish creatures.

As the monsters descend upon the village, Owen realizes there’s only one place left to go…across the lake. But can he survive the horror of the legends said to live below its muddy waters?

The clock’s ticking toward midnight, and soon it will be the hour of the Pumpkin Men and ancient terrors from a distant land.

One Dark Hallow’s Eve is a lost tale from Eldritch Black’s The Book of Kindly Deaths. Read it now and slip into a timeless world of dark fantasy and Halloween horror.

Review:

Content Warning: Skeletons and pumpkins who can walk.

Get ready for a gentle scare.

Twelve is an awkward age, especially on Halloween. You’re not a little kid anymore, but you’re not yet old enough for the parties that teenagers or adults sometimes attend that weekend either. I enjoyed the way this short story captured the weirdness of this in-between stage in life and how kids deal with the realization that what worked for them on previous Halloweens maybe isn’t quite what they should be doing this year. It’s not something I’ve seen covered very often in the horror genre, so it was refreshing to find here.

There were times in the plot when certain elements didn’t fit together, and yet the characters accepted all of the twists and turns without a second thought. I wish more time had been spent explaining what the characters were thinking and why no one questioned why their town was suddenly overwhelmed with monsters. Even a simple explanation would have nudged me to bump my rating up half a star or so, and a deeper one would had positively affected my rating even more.

The world building was well done. Obviously, the author didn’t have a lot of space here to go into great detail, but he made good use of every page he did have to work with to ensure that all of his readers knew the basics of what was going on and how this world was different from our own. I was both satisfied with his explanations and curious to know more. That’s a good sign in my opinion, and I will keep an eye out for what the author comes up with next!

This is part of a series, but it can be read as a standalone work.

One Dark Hallow’s Eve was a quick and spooky read.

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October 19, 2022 · 1:00 am

Wednesday Weekly Blogging Challenge: Fantasy Animal You Wish Was Real?

Hosted by Long and Short Reviews.

Sunlight streaming through the forest and a dirt road travelling through the forest. Click here to read everyone else’s replies to this week’s question and here to see the full list of topics for the year.

My answers to this week’s question partially depends on your definition of the terms animal and fantasy.

Do modern fantasy myths count?

Where is the line between a plant and an animal?

Where is the line between an animal and human?

I will give you all two responses and let you decide which one you think fits this prompt better. Honestly, I want to pick both of them, but I’m also not 100% sure that either of them will match what all of you think of when you hear the term fantasy animal.

Answer #1: Bigfoot 

Bigfoot walking around in the Himalayan mountains. On the rare occassion I visit a zoo, the primate exhibits are the most interesting portions of those trips to me.

Part of me is sad to see monkeys, gorillas, orangutans, and other primates stuck in cages. Another part of me is fascinated by their body language, facial expressions, and social structures.

It always makes me wish we had some analogous species in North America. For example, what if Bigfoot were real? Wouldn’t it be amazing to have a large, intelligent, ape-like creature roaming around our forests and/or mountains?

I like to think about what humans and Bigfoot may or may not have in common if they were real. Would they have a language? Would they have myths about the strange, hairless people that they work so hard to avoid? The possibilities are endless.

Answer #2; Dryads 

A picture of a tree that is showing it’s dryad features.

Those of you who have been reading this blog for a while might remember how much I like trees. There is nothing like sitting in the cool shade of  a mature tree on a hot day and listening to the breeze rustle through it’s countless leaves. It’s so relaxing.

The thought of certain trees having consciousness and the limited ability to walk around (depending on which stories about them you believe) tickles my fancy.

Yes, I know that technically dryads are spirits instead of flesh and blood animals. I’m hoping we can stretch the definition of fantasy animal enough to include them since many other fantasy animals also have features that you’d never find in the species scientists have currently catalogued. (For example, horses can’t fly…but unicorns can!)

It would making walking through the woods just a little more special if I knew that a small number of the trees there were aware of visitors and would maybe even have a conversation with you if you caught them at the right time.

Oh, if only!

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October 18, 2022 · 1:11 am

Top Ten Tuesday: Favorite Words


Hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl

A pile of scrabble letters. I tweaked the themes of the last two Top Ten Tuesday posts, but this time I’m sticking to the script! Some of them will have explanations, but it didn’t feel necessary for others.

1. Vorpal

Okay, so this is technically only a word because Lewis Carroll said it was….but many other new words have been invented since then, so I still say it counts.

 

2. Petrichor 

I was so happy to learn there’s an official word for that lovely scent that happens after a rainstorm.

 

3. Gossamer 

 

4. Bucolic

I adore the feeling of this word rolling off of my tongue. Part of my childhood was spent living on a few different farms. There are many pleasant aspects of rural life to be sure, but I chuckle and shake my head at people who romanticize it. I can only hope they’ll spend a lot of time researching what life is really like there in every season of the year before moving.

5. Panacea

 

6. Curmudgeon

This isn’t to say being around grumpy people is relaxing or uplifting….but curmudgeon itself is such a great word.

 

7. Oeuvre 

It refers to the entire body of work of a writer, painter, musician, etc. Pronouncing it is delightful, too.

 

8. Palimpsest

That is to say, a manuscript written over a previous manuscript or manuscripts. It’s such a poetic and thrifty mental image.

 

9. Sequoia 

 

10. Defervescence

There’s nothing like the shaky, exhausted relief that comes when a fever breaks and your temperature (or the temperature of someone you love) finally goes back to normal.

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October 13, 2022 · 1:00 am

A Review of Judith – A Triorion Universe Story

Judith - A Triorian Universe Story by L.J. Hachmeister book cover. Image on cover shows the sun breaking through the clouds over a hill that has a bare tree on it. Title: Judith – A Triorion Universe Story

Author: L.J. Hachmeister

Publisher: Source 7 Productions (Self-Published)

Publication Date: February 1, 2020

Genres: Science Fiction, Contemporary

Length: 19 Pages

Source: I received a free copy from the author.

Rating: 3.5 Stars

Blurb:

With a broken heart and the resurgence of cancer, Judith Derns’ life comes to a halt. Some odds just can’t be beaten. But when she encounters a strange being in her countryside home, she discovers a chance to do something more than just survive another day. With a dying body and the military invading her home, Judith taps into a strength she didn’t know she had, and with a single decision, unleashes the greatest power of all.

Review:

Content Warning: Cancer, pregnancy, infertility, grief, death, and car accident. I will not discuss these topics in my review.

Bad days happen to everyone eventually.

Judith had been through so much in her life! I raised my eyebrows when the narrator described the many losses she’d already endured, and it made me curious to see how she’d react to yet another piece of terrible news. She seemed like the sort of person who knew how to take things one day at a time and who would reserve her true feelings about her diagnosis for when she arrived safely at home and had no one around to interrupt her. I liked her as a person and found myself wishing she could finally catch a break after such a long string of bad luck.

I would have liked to see more conflict and character development in this tale. So much time was spent focusing on Judith’s reaction to her diagnosis that there wasn’t much space left over for her to explore the bizarre activity on her property or come to terms with what her life was going to be like after she arrived home. This also left me a little confused about the meaning of the final scene, especially as it pertained to Judith’s future. While I totally understand leaving space for additional plot and character development in later instalments, there unfortunately wasn’t enough of either of these things for me to choose a higher rating even thought I was intrigued by the main character and wanted to know more about her.

With that being said, the science fiction twist added a jolt of excitement to the plot. I was curious to see how it would tie into her cancer diagnosis and who she would decide to trust. She didn’t seem to know anyone who was on her property, so I couldn’t begin to guess how she’d react to their competing requests from her. This was one of those cases where I quickly developed an opinion on what a character should do but didn’t know if she’d actually follow through or if my gut instinct about what was happening was correct. It was amusing to get an answer to this question.

This is part of a series, but it can be read as a standalone work.

Judith – A Triorion Universe Story piqued my curiosity.

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October 12, 2022 · 1:00 am

Wednesday Weekly Blogging Challenge: Do You Buy Books New or Thrift Them?

Hosted by Long and Short Reviews.

Click here to read everyone else’s replies to this week’s question and here to see the full list of topics for the year.

A pair of black-rimmed glasses lying on an opened book. As I mentioned in an earlier Wednesday Weekly Blogging Challenge post, I generally borrow ebooks from the library instead of purchasing them.

If I did need to buy a book for some reason, I’d check a secondhand bookshop first but sniff everything carefully before buying it. Yes, there’s a good reason for this.

I’m allergic to many types of mould and other itchy things, so I need to be careful about what I bring into my house.

Assuming the book was in good condition and did not smell of mould or must, why not pay less for the same reading experience? I don’t even enjoy the scent of a new book after all. It makes me sneeze!

A used book is also easier to take with you to the beach or some other place where it might get wet, torn, or otherwise damaged because you have so much less money to lose if the worst happens. Of course, I’d do everything I could to keep it safe and dry, but accident do happen sometimes.

So that is my practical and frugal answer to this week’s question.

 

 

 

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October 11, 2022 · 1:00 am

Top Ten Tuesday: Types of Books I Read On Vacation


Hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl

Photo taken peering out of a windows on a plane. You can see one engine, part of a wing, and lots of fluffy white clouds. Here’s a confession that might put me at odds with the bookish community: I don’t do a lot of novel reading when I’m on vacation unless the weather is terrible, I get sick, or I’m enjoying a staycation and therefore won’t be sight seeing or reconnecting with faraway loved ones.

If I only have a week in an exciting destination, I’d rather check out their restaurants, hiking/walking trails, museums, beaches, pools, mountains, festivals, or other cool destinations instead.

Therefore, I’m going to tweak this week’s prompt to discuss the types of tales I read when I’m on vacation.

1. Long Books 

I generally avoid books that have 300+ pages, but I’ll sometimes make an exception while on vacation. This is even more true if I’m travelling somewhere that is known to have unpredictable weather or if I’m travelling at a time of year when it may be too hot, cold, or stormy to spend long periods of time outdoors.

 

2. Humorous Books 

Flying is uncomfortable and makes me nervous, so I try to download at least one humorous book ahead of time to distract me from intimidating security guards, long lines, and then being crammed into a flying tin can with hundreds of other passengers for hours. Ha!

 

3. Short Stories 

My attention span isn’t always strong enough for long, serious reads while on vacation, so I also like to have plenty of short stories from the speculative fiction genre saved to read, too. Apex and Fireside are two of the many sites out there that publish incredible short speculative fiction stories.

 

4. Genres I Don’t Normally Read

It might be a fluffy romance, cozy mystery, celebrity biography, or western.  There’s something about being away from home that makes me more interested in expanding my reading horizons.

 

5. Audiobooks 

One of the other reasons why I dislike flying so much is that turbulence can make me nauseated. Nausea does not pair well with a hot, crowded plane or with my underlying anxiety about scary security guards and this form of travel in general.  If I start feeling queasy, an audiobook is a great distraction while I wait for my anti-nausea medication to begin working.

 

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