Tag Archives: 2010s

July 25, 2024 · 1:00 am

The Other Side of the Coin: A Review of A Fairy Tale Murder

Book cover for “A Fairy Tale Murder” by Dulcinea Norton-Smith. Image on cover is a close-up photo of assorted jelly beans. Their colours include black, orange, yellow, purple, green, light green, and red. Title: A Fairy Tale Murder

Author: Dulcinea Norton-Smith

Publisher: Self-Published

Publication Date: May 11, 2011

Genres: Fantasy, Historical, Retelling

Length: 14 pages

Source: I received a free copy from the author.

Rating: 3 Stars

Blurb:

Kids are always good and witches are always bad right? Wrong you idiot! Step inside A Fairy Tale Murder and discover the grisly truth.

Content Warning: Child neglect and abandonment. I will not go into any detail about this in my review.

Review:

So much depends on how you define the phrase happily ever after.

I strongly recommend going into this without reading any spoilers about it ahead of time. This is one of those cases when the plot twists work best, at least in my opinion, if the reader hasn’t been tipped off about them in advance and is hopefully surprised by everything they are about to read. What I can say is that I enjoyed looking at a famous fairy tale from a new perspective. Character development wasn’t something that most of those stories spent a lot of time thinking about, so there is a lot of room to explain why certain characters from them behaved the way they did and how their choices could be interpreted in many different ways if you finally have all of the information instead of only some of it. Kudos to the author for using this approach to breathe fresh life into something so well known.

As much as I liked the premise, I struggled with the plot holes. There were multiple instances of characters either not communicating with each other or not thinking through the rational consequences of their actions. It was understandable when the kids did it as they were traumatized and their brains were still developing, but seeing adults do the same thing so often was hard to figure out. If only a few more scenes had been included to help explain why the characters consistently made decisions that that they should have thought twice about. I so desperately wanted to give this one a higher rating!

Dympna was such an interesting protagonist. It made me smile to read about the details of her life that might have been exaggerated just a little in order to make this feel more magical. Then again, maybe everything happened exactly as she recounted and she was simply someone who broke all sorts of rules about what life in the Middle Ages was like! There is definitely something to be said for leaving such things up to the reader’s imagination and not giving us strict input about how we should interpret them.

A Fairy Tale Murder was a creative look at an old classic. Now I must end this review before I accidentally give any clues as to which one I’m talking about! 

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July 18, 2024 · 1:00 am

Supernatural Business: A Review of Iago Wick and the Vampire Queen

Book cover for Iago Wick and the Vampire Queen (Lovelace & Wick #1.5) by Jennifer Rainey. Image on cover shows a black and white drawing of a woman wearing a late 1800’s style dress and a large, floppy hat. There is a small ruffle of fabric around her neck as the dress covers up every bit of her torso and arms and much of her neck, too. This drawing is surrounded by a drawing of a Victorian-style floral frame that has been drawn on top of a red, wallpaper-like surface. Title: Iago Wick and the Vampire Queen (Lovelace & Wick #1.5) by Jennifer Rainey

Author: Jennifer Rainey

Publisher: Self-Published

Publication Date: August 30, 2017

Genres: Fantasy, Paranormal, Historical, LGBTQ

Length: 79 pages

Source: I received a free copy from the author.

Rating: 3 Stars

Blurb:

As a demon, Iago Wick has made quite a career out of conjuring mischief and mayhem in the name of Hell, but this time, perhaps he’s gone a bit too far.

After deliberately foiling the plans of a spoiled vampire—all in the name of fun, really!—Iago discovers that the vampire in question is no ordinary bloodsucker. She’s the newly-appointed matriarch of one of the oldest vampire families in America, and she’s very angry.

Soon, Iago is caught in a war with the vampires and their cyborg servants. Will he settle his score with the clan of bloodsuckers or will Iago find himself at the mercy of the Vampire Queen? What precisely is the matter with those strange cybernetic servants, anyway? And most importantly, will Iago ever get the smell of garlic out of his clothes?

“Iago Wick and the Vampire Queen” is a 17,000-word short story prequel to The Lovelace & Wick Series.

Content Warning: Murder and kidnapping. I will not mention these topics in my review.

Review:

Supernatural business is nothing to mess around with.

I enjoyed the quiet and unassuming small town setting. Honestly, the residents of Marlowe probably wouldn’t have believed what was going on behind closed doors in their sleepy community even if one of the main characters had decided to reveal their true identities to everyone. Peaceful places are a good option for hiding in plain sight, and I liked the way the author showed the many ways in which awful deeds can done right under the noses of people who think they know all of the local gossip already.

This novella had a dry sense of humor that I struggled to connect with due to the terrible things that were simultaneously happening to so many of the human characters. I’d read about either one of these things on their own, but the combination of them simply didn’t work for me as a reader. It felt a little too flippant to move between an edgy joke and another description of the ways in which vampires harm the humans around them. This is a subjective piece of criticism, of course, and I’m sure there are a lot of readers out there who love this sort of dark writing style. I’m simply not one of them, and I found myself wishing I could stick to the more lighthearted elements of the plot and skip over the rest.

With that being said, Iago’s personality was such an interesting one. There was a strong, sharp sense of danger surrounding him due to the fact that he’s (obviously) a demon and therefore not exactly the most wholesome fellow around. He had his own moral code that often didn’t match up to what a human might consider a reasonable or kind thing to do, but I did admire the way he stuck to it no matter who or what might have tempted him to break the rules of hell just once.

Iago Wick and the Vampire Queen was a playful read.

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July 11, 2024 · 1:00 am

A Review of Tapping at Twilight

Title: Tapping at Twilight Book cover for Tapping at Twilight by Kassandra Alvarado. Image on cover is a close-up photograph of an old-fashioned wooden door that has an iron hinge and knocker. Both the hinge and the knocker are rusting, and the wood on the door is cracking with age.

Author: Kassandra Alvarado

Publisher: Self-Published

Publication Date:  February 26, 2013

Genres: Paranormal, Historical

Length: 7 pages

Source: I received a free copy from the author

Rating: 3 Stars

Blurb:

A quiet London evening is disturbed by quiet rapping at the door, who or what could it be?

Review:

Visitors aren’t welcomed here.

Ms. Alvarado had a descriptive writing style that pulled me into the storyline before I even finished the first sentence. Seriously, it was that fast!  I adored her use of alliteration and the vivid manner in which she described even the most ordinary details of the setting. There is nothing like settling into such crisp writing while allowing it to carry you away to a faraway time and place. She is clearly a talented writer, and I hope to read more of her work soon.

With that being said, I did find myself wishing for much stronger plot development as I read this. I had so many unanswered questions by the time I finished the seventh and final page of it. By no means did I expect everything to be resolved, but it was disappointing for me as a reader to experience a rapid buildup of tension and intrigue only to be left hanging at the end about what was going on with all of the rapping at the door. As much as I wanted to give this one a higher rating, the sudden and unsatisfying ending dampened my enjoyment of a tale that was otherwise delightful.

The protagonist’s character development was well done, though. Mister Westerfield was a sympathetic man who had been denied his greatest wish in his youth by his disapproving parents. Now that he was old and settled in life, he finally had the opportunity to make some of his own decisions about how to pass the time. It’s not as common as it ought to be for narrators who are senior citizens to be the centre of attention, so I relished getting to know this character and imagining what adventures might still await him in life.

Tapping at Twilight had an old-fashioned feel to it that suited the subject matter nicely.

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July 4, 2024 · 1:00 am

A Review of The Killer Catfish of Cape Cod

Book cover for The Killer Catfish of Cape Cod by Bill Russo. Image on cover shows a few dead trees in a flooded area that could be a swamp or the overflow area for a river. The sky above the trees is blue with a few puffy white clouds in them, and you can see a forest of healthy trees in the distance. The water looks like it has been recently disturbed as it is not perfectly still.Title: The Killer Catfish of Cape Cod

Author: Bill Russo

Publisher: Self-Published

Publication Date: September 9, 2017

Genres: Horror, Contemporary

Length: 26 pages

Source: I received a free copy from the author.

Rating: 5 Stars

Blurb:

This is not a Halloween story though you might find monsters in it, depending on what your definition of a monster is. Rather, it is the tale of two young men in search of an eerie pond they read about in a book – a strange lake said to be filled with man-eating catfish. Against the counsel of a wily old Cape Codder who claims there’s no truth to the story, they venture into the wild, uninhabited area in hopes of collecting specimens to sell to a museum in Maine. You could go to that Museum (It really does exist) and see if there are any collections of Killer Catfish on display – or if you find it more convenient, you may read the story!

Content Warning: Murders. I will not discuss it in my review.

Review:

If you know better, will you do better?

There wasn’t a lot of time for character development in such a short piece, but Mr. Russo definitely made the best of what he had. I especially enjoyed getting to know Anse, a slightly crusty old man who worked at a tackle shop and often gave tourists advice on the best fishing spots in the area. He was a little gruff at first glance, but he had excellent reasons for coming across this way that I’ll leave up to other readers to decipher for themselves. Honestly, I probably would have behaved the same way if I were in this character’s shoes. He didn’t exactly live in the safest part of the world, after all, and dealing with constant streams of visitors who weren’t always keen to listen to reason only made things worse.

I liked Anse’s explanation for why Rico and Angelo, the visitors, decided to brush aside his warning and go fishing at Kaycee Pond despite its scary reputation. Not everyone in the world has common sense or is willing to consider other points of view. Sometimes this only leads to minor inconveniences, but occasionally it can be wildly dangerous to ignore the advice of people who have many years of experience on a specific subject like, say, catfish that are much larger and smarter than they should be.

The ending was perfectly frighting. While I can’t go into much detail about what happened in it without giving away spoilers, I can say that it added new layers of meaning not only to everything Anse already knew about that area but also to why nobody lived near that pond anymore and why everyone else in the area was also terrified of getting too close to the water. This was one of those cases when basic details about what happened were more than enough to tickle my imagination and make me feel very glad that fishing isn’t one of my hobbies.

The Killer Catfish of Cape Cod made me shudder.

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June 20, 2024 · 1:00 am

A Review of An English Heaven

Book cover for An English Heaven by Julie Bozza. Image on cover shows a closeup shot of some beautiful little pink flowers. Their petals are long, thin, and drooping a little. Title: An English Heaven

Author: Julie Bozza

Publisher: Self-Published

Publication Date: December 15, 2017

Genres: Historical, Paranormal, LGBTQ+

Length: 12 pages

Source: I received a free copy from the author.

Rating: 5 Stars

Blurb:

A muddy trench in France during the Great War wasn’t the most auspicious place for Tom and Michael to reach an understanding of their own natures. A small, individual tragedy unfolds … But then Tom discovers a place beyond, where he and other men like him are blessed with all that life denied them.

Content Warning: Murder.

Review:

Healing comes in many forms.

This is one of those cases when it honestly doesn’t matter how much a reader knows in advance what is going to happen to the protagonist, so feel free to read the blurb or skip it as you prefer. What truly mattered in my opinion was how Tom reacted to the news that he did not survive World War I and will never again return to those muddy, dangerous trenches to fight another day. That is something I will not be digging into deeply in my review in order to avoid giving away any important spoilers, but it certainly gave me a lot of food for thought as I read this short and charming tale. Everyone reacts to unexpected news differently, and you can tell a lot about someone by what they say in the moments after the truth is revealed.

One of the things I adored about this tale was how it approached the idea of healing. Tom, the main character, was not only dealing with the trauma of war and his recent death, he’d also spent his entire young life hiding his sexual orientation. That, too, was a trauma he carried with him into the afterlife even though keeping such things hidden really was the only option for young queer men in the 1910s.

Obviously, there isn’t a lot of space for world building in only twelve pages, but I was impressed with how much Ms. Bozza was able to include. Tom was finally free to make his own decisions about what his existence might look like after death, and I was curious to see which one he might choose as all of them had their own merits. This would have made a great series, but it also worked really nicely as a quick dip into a world so full of possibility. A small taste of what might happen next was all I needed to imagine many possible endings for this character that would have fit his personality nicely.

An English Heaven was heartwarming and the perfect read for Pride Month!

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June 13, 2024 · 1:00 am

Speaking the Truth: A Review of Foo Foo

Book cover for Foo Foo by Patrick Riot. Image on cover is a drawing of a someone wearing a hat shaped like a bunny’s head. The hat is white and has two long rabbit years, once of which is partially bent over. The insides of the ears are red. The person in this image does not have a face. Perhaps they are a mannequin? Title: Foo Foo

Author: Patrick Riot

Publisher: Self-Published

Publication Date: September 29, 2011

Genres: Young Adult, Fantasy, Retelling

Length: 39 pages

Source: I received a free copy from the author.

Rating: 5 Stars

Blurb:

The mice of the Squeak Republic have been attacked by rabbits! Can Milton keep his neighbors from going insane in the face of an overwhelming, shadowy fear?
Foo Foo is a young-adult parable that lives in the friction zone between group-think and individuality, war and peace, terror and freedom. Milton, a rather ordinary but rational field mouse, clashes with his neighbors as they succumb to their irrational fears. As a recognition of true patriotism, as long as Edward Snowden remains free, so shall this book.

Review:

Content Warning: fascism and mob violence. I will not discuss these topics in my review.

Fables are for everyone.

Bunny Foo Foo was something I spent a lot of time thinking about as a child. Why would a fluffy little rabbit irritate field mice? What did the field mice have to say to each other about those experiences after their tormentor had hopped away? While I don’t want to give away spoilers in this review, I was intrigued by the idea of exploring this little world more deeply and looking at one possible way things could have turned out. A story can share part of the truth while ignoring the rest of it, and any number of facts in and of themselves might not be as clear-cut or as easy to understand if separated from everything else that is known about a situation.

I loved the way Mr. Riot blended together a retelling of that classic poem with a sharp warning about the dangers of black-and-white thinking, authoritarianism, and fascism. This tale contained multiple layers of meaning that fed into each other more and more often as the final scene grew nearer. Each possible interpretation stands on its own for readers who may want to focus on one aspect of it at a time or who maybe aren’t quite old enough to catch all of the references at the moment. That is not an easy feat to accomplish by any means, so I must commend the author for making it look so effortless and creating something that can teach a reader something new when they return to it a few years from now.

What a perfect ending. Did I want to keep reading about what happened next? Of course, but I was also satisfied by how things were wrapped up and thought the foreshadowing, especially from the first few scenes, paid off nicely by the final sentence. There is definitely something to be said for leaving one’s audience wishing for just one more chapter. Based on how much I enjoyed this short story, I will definitely be keeping an eye out for what the author comes up with next.

Foo Foo was thought provoking.

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March 14, 2024 · 1:00 am

Persistence: A Review of Ghost Coach

Book cover for Ghost Coach by Amanda Linehan. Image on cover is a closeup photo of some white satin or silk sheets on a bed. The sheets are a little rumpled. Title: Ghost Coach

Author: Amanda Linehan

Publisher: Self-Published

Publication Date: January 10, 2015

Genres: Paranormal, Contemporary

Length: 15 pages

Source: I received a free copy from the author.

Rating: 3 Stars

Blurb:

Sarah hasn’t been sleeping well. Turns out, she has a ghost in her house. But this ghost has a problem.
And only Sarah can solve it.

Review:

Content Warning: brief reference to blood, a dead animal, and a ghost with a severe head injury. I will not discuss these things in my review.

Even ghosts need a little tutoring sometimes.

I adored the fact that Sarah was oblivious at first to the ghost’s attempts to scare her. She had such a logical and calm personality that the spirit of a dead person was the last thing she ever would have suspected to be the cause of the fluctuating temperatures in her bedroom. This was a nice change of page from the sorts of characters who generally populate this genre, and I found myself wishing for just a few more scenes with her in them so I could get to know her even better.

The beginning and middle of this tale did not quite match the ending due some references to blood and gore in the last few scenes. While other style could have worked for this piece, I have to say that I preferred the lightheartedness of the first two-thirds of it to the more violent – albeit still sort of humorous – tones at the end and wish that the author had stuck to one style or the other for the entire thing. Some readers will love both, of course, and that’s totally normal and okay, but in my experience these two approaches do tend to attract different audiences whose interests may not overlap here as much as the author might hope they would. Sticking to one lane would have made this a more effective and memorable story in my opinion.

There are only so many things someone can do after death to amuse themselves. It made perfect sense to me that the ghost would eventually want to interact with the living in order to get some sort of mental stimulation and socialization, as one-sided as those experiences could often be depending on who they were haunting and how that person reacted to suddenly having their covers pulled away or their television turned on in the middle of the night.

Ghost Coach was a funny, playful, and occasionally a somewhat dark take on the haunted house genre.

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February 29, 2024 · 1:00 am

A Review of Darkest Dean: Animal Short Stories

Book cover for Darkest Dean - Animal Short Stories by Dean Jarvis. Image on cover is a black and white sketch of a lion who is wearing an ornate crown that has a tiny cross at the top of it. The background of the cover is a very light yellow. Title: Darkest Dean – Animal Short Stories

Author: Dean Jarvis

Publisher: Self-Published

Publication Date: October 16, 2019

Genres: Fantasy, Historical

Length: 96 pages

Source: I received a free copy from the author.

Rating: 3 Stars

Blurb:

A collection of beautiful handcrafted stories with animals set as their themes.

Contains a mixture of Fantasy, fable, and personal stories. Humor, twists, and strange storytelling within.

Review:

Content Warning: animal abuse.

Once Upon a Time is a lovely place to begin.

Some of my favorite stories were the ones that written as fables. I’m specifically thinking of red-breasted robins here and how Mr. Jarvis imagined they might have ended up with such bright chests. Other readers should have the opportunity to be delighted by that turn of events just like I was, so I won’t share any further details about how it might have worked. All I ask is that you keep an eye out for this reference and enjoy it as much as I did once you find it.

While I normally love seeing a wide variety of genres being mixed together, I found some of the combinations to be a little jarring in this particular case. The tone of one tale might be somber and realistic while the next one could be lighthearted and obviously set in a fantasy universe. It was hard for me as a reader to leap around like that so often, especially since certain portions were written from a first-person perspective about characters who had concerning personality flaws that neither they nor the people around them ever acknowledged. It would have been easier for me to adjust if the writing style had remained more consistent throughout this collection.

With that being said, it was interesting to see how the characters thought about the world. Most of the human ones lived in rural communities or in otherwise rather quiet and isolated circumstances. It takes a specific sort of personality to thrive in such places, and the author did a good job of exploring what sort of person is often drawn to either spending a lot of time on their own or only seeing the same small number of folks over and over again.

I’d recommend Darkest Dean – Animal Short Stories to anyone who wants a little of everything in their next read.

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December 21, 2023 · 1:00 am

Reporting to Santa: A Review of Hellf on the Shelf

Book cover for Want to read Buy on Amazon CA Rate this book Hellf on the Shelf: A Christmas Short Story by Rumer Haven. Image on cover shows a ceramic toy elf looking up and over at a Christmas tree behind them.

(If anyone from the Top Ten Tuesday community is reading this, it’s a book I mentioned in a Top Ten Tuesday post last December. I saved it for this Christmas season to review!)

Title: Hellf on the Shelf

Author: Rumer Haven

Publisher: Self-Published

Publication Date: December 3, 2017

Genres: Fantasy, Holiday, Contemporary

Length: 17 pages

Source: I received a free copy from the author

Rating: 5 Stars

Blurb:

‘Tis the season for Santa’s elves to deck the shelves, but this one’s on Mom’s naughty list.

No matter where or how she arranges the toy at night to surprise her sons in the morning, Mom wakes to find it just sitting on the shelf each and every time. Are the kids messing with her? Is her husband a traitor? Or is there more to the grinning elf on the shelf than its package advertised?

As Mom keeps trying to make spirits bright this season, she learns the true mystery and magic of Christmas.

Review:

Christmas magic is anything but effortless.

I adored the message of this short story. Too often the holidays are wonderful because women – and especially mothers – perform hours of invisible, unpaid work behind the scenes to ensure that the house is sparkling clean, the kitchen is stocked with plenty of delicious things to eat, invitations have been sent out for the parties organized by women, and there is a large pile of presents beneath the tree to suit everyone’s interests among countless other tasks. This isn’t to say this work is joyless. It can make amazing memories for everyone, but that doesn’t detract from the point that the labor is unevenly distributed and not always done happily. Keep this in mind while reading because it’s an important part of what plays out for one exhausted and confused mom as Christmas inches closer.

The unnamed family featured in this tale were genuinely nice people who loved each other and enjoyed spending time together. That’s not always present in what I read, so I sighed with relief when I realized that the twist had nothing at all do with anyone being unkind to each other. It was relaxing to get to know these characters better and wait to see what marvelous things might await them.

There was a gentle quality to the storyline that I appreciated as well. Yes, there were fantasy elements to it, but they all seemed like stuff that could occur at anyone’s house at this time of the year if that family believed in elves who watch over households and report back to Santa on what they find. I liked the ordinariness of the magical scenes and thought it blended in well with the sort of metaphorical magic that exists in our world.

Hellf on the Shelf was a breath of fresh air.

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December 14, 2023 · 1:00 am

Looking for Monsters: A Review of Forest of Bones

Book cover for Forest of Bones: A Short Winter Horror Story by Jessie Thomas. Image on cover is a close-up photo of someone wearing a black dress and holding the skull of an animal that has two long, mostly straight antlers protruding from its head. Title: Forest of Bones – A Short Winter Horror Story

Author: Jessie Thomas

Publisher: Self-Published

Publication Date: December 17, 2019

Genres: Horror, Holiday, Paranormal, Contemporary

Length: 53 pages

Source: I received a free copy from the author.

Rating: 4 Stars

Blurb:

Armed with her well-worn Field Guide to Cryptids of North America and a macabre sense of enthusiasm, Ana’s mission to visit and capture evidence of every known cryptid in the United States puts her on the trail of the elusive Covey Devil. Not many people are willing to spend their winter break looking for monsters, but Ana’s trio of friends seem up for whatever the adventure entails.

Review:

Content Warning: Blood and death.

Cold, dark forests are nothing to fool around with.

I loved the fact that the author chose Christmas time as a setting for this tale. The cold weather and long nights of that time of year in certain climates definitely sets the mood for scary things to lurk in the shadows. No matter how you personally feel about this holiday, there’s something to be said for acknowledging that it isn’t a shiny, happy season for everyone for a wide variety of reasons. I also appreciate the juxtaposition between the audience’s expectations for a Christmas story versus what was actually waiting for the characters in the Forest of Bones.

It was difficult for me to understand why four teenagers who had  only limited camping experience and no self-defence or first aid training so far as I could tell would head into a forest with such a frightening reputation in the middle of the night in December. While the storyline did eventually explain why this happened, I would have appreciated far more details about how this was supposed to look and how all four young women, one of whom was extremely nervous about the trip, were convinced to take such serious risks with their health and safety when they could have just as easily gone on a warm June afternoon with a much larger group of explorers instead.

Speaking of the ending, it was exactly what I thought it might be. It was nice that the author trusted the audience so much to connect the few clues about what was going on. Not everything always needs to be spelled out directly, and in this case it was much more fun to be a little confused at first than to have everything explained before it strictly needed to be.

Forest of Bones – A Short Winter Horror Story made me shudder.

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