Tag Archives: Contemporary

December 11, 2025 · 1:00 am

A Review of A Visit from Naughty Claus

Title: A Visit from Naughty Claus (‘twere the Night After Christmas)

Author: RyFT Brand (Robert F Thompson)

Publisher: Self-Published

Publication Date: December 1, 2011

Genres: Fantasy, Contemporary, Holiday

Length: 3 pages

Source: I received a free copy from the author.

Rating: 3 Stars

Blurb:

Bad kids get coal; really bad kids get a visit from Naughty Claus. Free until December the thirty-first—Happy Holidays!

Can’t seem to stay off the naughty list? Does your behavior make the bad kids cry? Do you cheer when you find a lump of coal in your Christmas stocking? If so you’d better forget watching out and just start running, because Naughty Clause is coming to town. A Visit from Naughty Claus, a dark and dreary tale of Christmas woe in verse that follows the fateful Christmas night when a boy who just couldn’t behave gets his just deserts, and it ain’t Christmas pudding with a sprig of holly in it either. Ready to start behaving?

Content Warning: a terrible tantrum and an even worse consequence for that tantrum.

Review:

Christmas comes in many forms.

This poem is so short that my review of it may very well end up having more words in it than the poem itself! It’s a riff of The Night Before Christmas, but the point of it can still be made if there are any readers who aren’t already familiar with the original. I enjoy seeing how modern authors reinterpret old classics and thought this was a realistic take on what Christmas can be like for some families who aren’t exactly picture perfect.

The beginning explained how the narrator’s family was attempting to deal with a child who seemed to be keen to destroy Christmas for everyone in that household. I say attempting because the parents were trying but didn’t seem to have the gumption to really put their feet down and get their child to stop destroying presents and ruining the house. As I was reading, I wondered if the youngster had been spoiled during his short lifetime or if he had something going on with his mental or physical health that was contributing to these tantrums. Yes, I know I’m probably wildly overthinking this, but it was interesting to come up with various theories about what was going on with him.

As for the ending? Well, you’ll have to discover that for yourselves. It made me wish Mr. Thompson would reappear on the literary scene and write a sequel to this short, funny piece. There was more he could do with it, and I would have found it amusing to find out what happened next. In the meantime, I’ll just have to use my imagination and encourage all of my readers to check out this playful piece of poetry as Christmas looms nearer.

A Visit from Naughty Claus made me chuckle.

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Tagged as 2010s, Book Reviews, Christmas, Contemporary, Fantasy, Holiday, Poetry, Robert F Thompson, RyFT Brand, Santa, Self-Published

November 27, 2025 · 1:00 am

A Review of Come December

Title: Come December

Author: Holly Schindler

Publisher: Self-Published

Publication Date: December 7, 2022

Genres: Holiday, Paranormal, Contemporary

Length: 24 pages

Source: I received a free copy from the author.

Rating: 5 Stars

Blurb:

A sweet, short holiday tale about opening yourself up to magical possibilities. Natalie is new to town, and feels invisible and painfully alone…until a mysterious stranger in a cemetery changes everything. Come December is the first installment of Forever Finley, a collection of stand-alone episodes or short stories that released once a month throughout 2016. Subsequent releases include: January Thaw, Forget February, Dearest March…, April’s Promise, Mayday Mayday Mayday, Chasing June, A Hundred Julys, Under the August Moon, Song for September, October Omen, and the Forever Finley Finale (Pale November / December Bells). Stories can be purchased individually, or readers can purchase all installments in Forever Finley: An Episodic Novel.

Content Warning: Grief and loneliness.

Review:

Loneliness only makes the holidays even harder.

Thanksgiving isn’t a common setting in the books I read, so I was intrigued when I realized that November and early December was when Natalie had the experiences she had here. I also appreciated the fact that she was such a lonely character as that isn’t a typical theme in Thanksgiving stories either. There is definitely something to be said for exploring a few of the many reasons why someone might find the holidays difficult and why not everyone is filled with cheer at the end of the year. I would read Thanksgiving and other holiday-themed stories much more often if this were commonplace.

This included a light, friendly paranormal twist that was in no way scary, so no worries to anyone reading this who might be a little nervous at the thought of reading about a ghost. It was an important part of the storyline in the sense that Natalie valued those conversations and the first friendly person she met after moving, but it could also be read as a metaphor for adjusting to a new town and having to start all over again with making friends and putting down roots.

The romantic subplot, too, was handled gently, so I also want to reassure anyone who doesn’t usually enjoy that genre that this is a sweet introduction to it. Romance is interesting to me when it’s a small part of a much bigger story whose main conflicts involve other aspects of life, and that’s exactly what happened in this tale. If you ask me, this is a great example of how to seamlessly incorporate romantic elements without allowing them to overshadow everything else that’s going on with the characters, so kudos to Ms. Schindler for finding the perfect balance here for everyone from diehard romance fans to those of us who are more hesitant about the genre but occasionally willing to visit it.

Come December was a heartwarming and life-affirming Thanksgiving read.

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Tagged as 2020s, Book Reviews, Contemporary, Holiday, Holly Schindler, Paranormal, Self-Published, Thanksgiving

November 20, 2025 · 1:00 am

A Review of Hearth Stories, Winter Solstice 2023

Title: Hearth Stories, Winter Solstice 2023

Author: Sarah Jackson, Adriana C. Grigore, Em Harriett, Alicia Adams, Catherine Yeates, Akis Linardos, Jennifer Shelby, Katherine B. Randall, Emily Yu, & A.P. Howell

Publisher: Hearth Stories

Publication Date: December 21, 2023

Genres: Fantasy, Paranormal, LGBTQ+, Historical, Contemporary

Length: 128 pages

Source: I received a free copy from the publisher.

Rating: 5 Stars

Blurb:

Hearth Stories is a speculative fiction magazine focused on cozy fantasy stories. Each issue features a letter from the editor, author bios and interviews, and wonderful stories focused on family, home life, connection, and the natural world.

Content Warning: Brief references to domestic violence, broken bones (not from domestic violence), blood, loss of bladder function, climate change, and mild household injuries.

Review:

Nature is for everyone.

“Dandelion” was a heartwarming tale about a tiny, human-like creature who helped an injured duck. The kind and brave protagonist, Dandy, made me smile. I also appreciated how much this felt like a traditional fable with its straightforward descriptions of the setting and characters and gentle tone. As much as I’d like to go into greater detail here, it’s better for other readers to get to know Dandy for themselves and be surprised by the wholesome plot twists along the way.

Magic wasn’t something everyone was capable of doing, so the fact that Naomi could do it was meaningful. “Primeval” followed her as she adjusted to yet another school and tried to figure out how to cast spells. The world building in this entire collection was well done, but this piece in particular stood out to me due to how many layers of meaning the author was able to squeeze into a short story. Honestly, this felt like it could be the first chapter of a novel or the first instalment of a long series due to how much I learned about Naomi as well as how many future conflicts and moments of pure joy were just barely hinted at.

While I didn’t necessarily connect with every tale in this collection on a personal level, this is my own shortcoming as all of them were well written. Style is such a subjective topic that I can’t possibly take off any stars due to this, but I did want to mention it in case other readers have similar experiences. Yes, the themes remained the same from beginning to end as far as the magic of forests and the importance of looking after nature goes, but the writing styles varied so much that in my opinion there should be something here for many different types of readers.

There was kindness woven into every moment of Ginny’s life in “The Second Form of Ginny Elder.” She was a senior citizen living with a few physical disabilities who looked after every sick or injured animal who showed up in her garden. Her sweet personality made me adore her immediately, especially once the narrator shared a little bit about her tragic backstory, and my feelings for her only grew warmer and deeper as I saw how careful she was to look after all of her charges. There was a beautiful twist to this tale that I didn’t see coming but that fit Ginny’s personality and history perfectly. Do keep an eye out for it as you read!

Hearth Stories, Winter Solstice 2023 made me yearn for cozy winter days spent tucked into warm blankets while reading.

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Tagged as 2020s, A.P. Howell, Adriana C. Grigore, Akis Linardos, Alicia Adams, Anthology, Book Reviews, Catherine Yeates, Contemporary, Em Harriett, Emily Yu, Fantasy, Hearth Stories, Historical, Jennifer Shelby, Katherine B. Randall, LGBT, Novella, Paranormal, Sarah Jackson, Winter Solstice

November 6, 2025 · 1:00 am

A Review of For the Rest of Us

Title: For the Rest of Us – 13 Festive Holiday Stories to Celebrate All Seasons

Author: Dahlia Adler

Publisher: Quill Tree Books

Publication Date: September 2, 2025

Genres: Young Adult, LGBTQ+, Contemporary

Length: 327 pages

Source: I borrowed it from the library

Rating: 3 Stars

Blurb:

Fourteen acclaimed authors showcase the beautiful and diverse ways holidays are observed in this festive anthology. Keep the celebrations going all year long with this captivating and joyful read!

From Lunar New Year to Solstice, Día de Los Muertos to Juneteenth, and all the incredible days in between, it’s clear that Americans don’t just have one holiday. Edited by the esteemed Dahlia Adler and authored by creators who have lived these festive experiences firsthand, this joyful collection of stories shows that there isn’t one way to experience a holiday.

With stories

Dahlia Adler, Sydney Taylor Honor winner of Going Bicoastal

Candace Buford, author of Good as Gold

A. R. Capetta and Cory McCarthy, authors of the Once & Future series

Preeti Chhibber, author of Payal Mehta’s Romance Revenge Plot

Natasha Díaz, award-winning author of Color Me In

Kelly Loy Gilbert, Stonewall Book Award winning author of Picture Us in the Light

Kosoko Jackson, USA Today bestselling author of The Forest Demands Its Due

Aditi Khorana, award-winning author of Mirror in the Sky

Katherine Locke, award-winning author of This Rebel Heart

Abdi Nazemian, Stonewall Book Award–winning author of Only This Beautiful Moment

Laura Pohl, New York Times bestselling author of The Grimrose Girls

Sonora Reyes, Pura Belpré Honor winner of The Lesbiana’s Guide to Catholic School

Karuna Riazi, contributor to The Grimoire of Grim Fates

Content Warning: A few celebrations are set during the Covid era. Racism. Grief.

Review:

Traditions give the year meaning.

I was intrigued to explore Valentine’s Day through the perspective of an aromantic character in “PS. I (DON”T) LOVE YOU.” That was a clever choice that gave Elis plenty of opportunities to figure himself out and form opinions about this holiday. Getting to know him was rewarding, and I thought he was a well-written character. It’s difficult to go into detail here without sharing spoilers, so all I will say is that this tale had a satisfying ending that wrapped up the major conflicts while still leaving room for a possible sequel if the author ever chooses to write one.

In general, I found myself wishing for more character development in these tales. This criticism wasn’t limited to one or two instalments but instead was a thought that came to mind over and over again as I read. It’s easy to look up the meanings of words but not as simple to figure out why characters behave the way they do if the text doesn’t provide enough hints about what’s going on with them. As much as I wanted to give this collection a higher rating, this was something that prevented me from diving as deeply into it as I was hoping to.

Cora brought her friend and possible boyfriend Matty home to meet her family for Juneteenth in “Hill Country Heartbeat.” I enjoyed the nuances of their relationship as they atttempted to figure out if they were friends, romantic partners, or something else entirely. The subplots, which I can’t really go into here without sharing spoilers, also added depth to the characters and plot. It was interesting to see how Cora responded to things that she would normally oppose loudly.

For the Rest of Us – 13 Festive Holiday Stories to Celebrate All Seasons was a good read for anyone who celebrates anything other than Christmas or Thanksgiving or who would like to learn more about other cultures.

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Tagged as 2020s, Anthology, Book Reviews, Christmas, Contemporary, Dahlia Adler, Dia de Los Muertos, Diwali, Eid, Hannukah, Holi, Juneteenth, Kwaanza, LGBT, Lunar New Year, Nowruz, Passover, Quill Tree Books, Rosh Hashanah, Simchat Torah, Sukkot, Valentine's Day, Winter Solstice, Yom Kippur, Young Adult

October 30, 2025 · 1:00 am

A Review of I Found the Boogeyman Under My Brother’s Crib

Title: I Found the Boogeyman under My Brother’s Crib

Author: Ben Farthing

Publisher: Self-Published

Publication Date: September 24, 2024

Genres: Horror, Contemporary

Length: 112 pages

Source: I borrowed it from the library.

Rating: 2 Stars

Blurb:

How do you protect your family from an urban legend?

Rachel hears a stranger laugh in her baby brother’s nursery.

She races in to see a dark figure slip beneath the crib, disappearing into an eerie reflection of her brother’s room.

Mom and Dad don’t believe her. They accuse Rachel of making excuses for breaking their strict rules about healthy sleep.

But Rachel knows what she saw.

The Boogeyman wants her baby brother.

The Boogeyman wants to drag him away into his eerie realm beneath the crib.

Rachel’s not going to let that happen.

I Found the Boogeyman Under My Brother’s Crib is a tale of urban legends, liminal spaces, and things that go bump in the night, from Ben Farthing, the “King of Creepy” (MJ Mars, author of The Suffering).

Content Warning: Kidnapping and child abuse.

Review:

Nobody can get away with being naughty forever.

The narrator captured the frustration of being a sixteen-year-old who doesn’t always feel like adults are listening to her well. While my parents were thankfully nothing like Rachel’s, just about every teenager at least occasionally has a conversation with their parents that doesn’t make sense. Sometimes you grow up and understand the adult perspective better, but not all parents make the sorts of decisions that are in their children’s best interests and that can be seen from another perspective in five, ten, or twenty years.

This novella would have benefited from more character and plot development. The premise was strong in the beginning but later scenes didn’t build on it in the ways I hoped they would. It petered out instead of explaining why the characters behaved the way they did and what the boogeyman was truly capable of which was disappointing to me. I had been anticipating this novella all autumn due to how much I enjoy this series in general and expected to give it a much higher rating than I ultimately did.

With that being said, I thought the ideas in this tale were interesting ones and could see how they may have been meant to fit together. It was interesting to learn the historical context of the boogeyman in this universe and what people hoped would happen when they talked about him. There was a twist involving this antagonist that was fun and would have encouraged me to go for a higher rating if it had been given more time to develop.

This is part of the I Found series that can be read in any order.

I Found the Boogeyman under My Brother’s Crib had a creative premise.

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Tagged as 2020s, Ben Farthing, Book Reviews, Contemporary, Horror, Novella, Self-Published

October 23, 2025 · 1:00 am

A Review of I Found a Lost Hallway in a Dying Mall

Title: I Found a Lost Hallway in a Dying Mall

Author: Ben Farthing

Publisher: Self-Published

Publication Date: June 18, 2024

Genres: Horror, Paranormal, Contemporary

Length: 162 pages

Source: I borrowed it from the library.

Rating: 3 Stars

Blurb:

Somewhere among the shuttered stores…

Lisa hears a call for help.

She finds her senile old coworker, Saswin, lost in an abandoned hallway. He’s talking to a circle of mannequins, their limbs twisted and fused in unnatural ways.

When Lisa looks away, she swears the mannequins have moved…

And that this abandoned hallway has grown longer.

After Saswin disappears down the impossible hallway, Lisa goes to find him, but she’s unprepared for the horrors that await her in the mall’s forgotten depths.

I Found a Lost Hallway in a Dying Mall has been compared to creepypastas like NoSleep stories or SCP entries. It’s a chilling tale of identity, liminal spaces, and the horror of leaving the past behind, from Ben Farthing, “The King of Creepy” (MJ Mars, author of The Suffering).

Each book in the I Found Horror series is a STANDALONE. They can be read in any order.

Content Warning: Disability from a stroke. Dementia. Emotional abuse. Mannequins.

Review:

Everything declines eventually.

This was a good example of how the horror genre doesn’t have to include a single drop of blood in it in order to scare its audience. Dying malls are eerie enough on their own if you ask me, and adding in mannequins that are anything but the inanimate objects they’re supposed to be only added an additional layer of dread to the setting. The explanation for why such innocuous things could suddenly become terrifying was well done, too, and made me wish for a prequel or a sequel as there was still plenty of space to explore how this dying mall transformed into something so unlike its formerly cheerful self.

Lisa’s illogical decisions were the only thing holding me back from giving this book a higher rating. My first impression of her was of an intelligent woman who used her wisdom to try to make the world a better place if or when she had the opportunity to nudge it in that direction, so it was confusing for me later on when she began making choices that put her and those around her in danger. This didn’t seem to match the dependable Lisa I’d already met and grown to like, and there was never quite enough character development for me to reconcile these different aspects of her personality.

With that being said, I loved the exploration of disability and aging in this piece. Lisa and Hank had reached a point in life where their physical health was beginning to slow them down in ways they could no longer explain away as a bad day. Adjusting to that wasn’t easy for them, especially when they began to face the small moments in life that would have been effortless a few years ago but not required some planning and energy management in order to accomplish.

I Found a Lost Hallway in a Dying Mall was thought provoking and makes me hope that Mr. Farthing will release some more stories soon.

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Tagged as 2020s, Ben Farthing, Book Reviews, Contemporary, Horror, Mannequin, Paranormal, Psychological Horror, Self-Published

October 16, 2025 · 1:00 am

A Review of Horsefly

Title: Horsefly

Author: Mireille Gagné

Publisher: Coach House Books

Publication Date: May 20, 2025

Genres: Horror, Science Fiction, Contemporary, Historical

Length: 171 pages

Source: I borrowed it from the library.

Rating: 4 Stars

Blurb:

A terrifying tale about the ways in which we try to dominate nature, and how nature will, inevitably, wreak retribution upon us.

In 1942, a young entomologist, Thomas, is sent to a remote island to work on biological weapons for the Allied military. The scientists live like prisoners while they look for the perfect carrier for anthrax among the island’s many insects.

In 2024, in the same region of Quebec, a heat wave unleashes swarms of horseflies while humans fall prey to strange flights of rage. Theodore is living a simple life, working double shifts and drinking to forget, when a horsefly bite stirs him from his apathy and he impulsively kidnaps from the nursing home his grandfather Emeril, whose dementia has him living in the past during the Grosse Ile biological weapons experiments.

The horsefly, meanwhile, knows a few secrets…

Content Warning: Horseflies, brief references to the damage these bugs do to a body when they bite you, an insect-born pandemic, and dementia.

Review:

Anger is only the first step.

Poetic is just about the last word I’d associate with horseflies, so it was a wonderful surprise to discover just how beautifully the horsefly in this story described their life. Kudos to the author for writing these scenes so descriptively and smoothly. I genuinely felt as if I were exploring the world through the perspective of a creature that, while highly intelligent and certainly not what a real horsefly would sound like if they could talk, also experienced life in a radically different way than how a human would describe those same events. This sort of storytelling takes talent, and it makes me want to read everything else Ms. Gagné has written or will write in the future.

It would have been helpful to have more action scenes. So much time was spent talking about the characters’ thoughts and feelings that I sometimes grew a little restless as I was reading. There was plenty of space to explore topics like what else the government did in response to this project once they realized it had some horrifying side effects or how the sickness that caused uncontrollable rage was affecting human society. Even a little more attention to such things would have made it easy for me to choose a five star rating.

Don’t let the horror tag scare you off if this isn’t a genre you typically read. The frights in this story were real but mostly happened off-screen or developed slowly in my imagination as I pieced together what happened on that remote island to make horseflies suddenly so dangerous. I thought that was a refreshing way to approach topics like pandemics and how messing around too much with the natural world can go terribly wrong. Many storytellers write these these tales from the perspectives of innocent people who suddenly must confront something they don’t understand instead of sharing the origins of these diseases from the perspectives of the people and the horseflies who created it or helped to spread it. When combined with the smooth writing style I complimented earlier, this made for a creative reading experience.

Horsefly was a thoughtful and deliciously scary piece of xenofiction.

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Tagged as 2020s, Book Reviews, Coach House Books, Contemporary, Historical, Horror, Mireille Gagné, Novels, Pandemic, Psychological Horror, Science Fiction, Xenofiction

October 9, 2025 · 1:00 am

A Review of The Hunger We Pass Down

Title: The Hunger We Pass Down

Author: Jen Sookfong Lee

Publisher: McClelland & Stewart

Publication Date: September 9, 2025

Genres: Mystery, Fantasy, Paranormal, Contemporary, Historical

Length: 384 pages

Source: I borrowed it from the library.

Rating: 4 Stars

Blurb:

Jordan Peele’s Us meets The School For Good Mothers in this horror-tinged intergenerational saga, as a single mother’s doppelganger forces her to confront the legacy of violence that has shaped every woman in their family.

Single mother Alice Chow is drowning. With a booming online cloth diaper shop, her resentful teenage daughter Luna, and her screen-obsessed son Luca, Alice can never get everything done in a day. It’s all she can do to just collapse on the couch with a bottle of wine every night.

It’s a relief when Alice wakes up one morning and everything has been done. The counters are clear, the kids’ rooms are tidy, orders are neatly packed and labeled. But no one confesses they’ve helped, and Alice doesn’t remember staying up late. Someone–or something–has been doing her chores for her.

Alice should be uneasy, but the extra time lets her connect with her children and with her hard-edged mother, who begins to share their haunted family history from Alice’s great-grandmother, a comfort woman during WWII, through to Alice herself. But the family demons, both real and subconscious, are about to become impossible to ignore.

Sharp and incisive, The Hunger We Pass Down traces the ways intergenerational trauma transforms from mother to daughter, and asks what it might take to break that cycle.

Content Warning: Alcoholism, kidnapping, rape, pregnancy, abortion, miscarriage, childbirth, mental health (depression and, depending on how one interprets certain scenes, delusions and hallucinations), domestic violence, car accident, cancer, murder, and demonic possession. I will not be discussing these topics in my review.

Review:

What does it mean to be a survivor?

This was a heavy read at times, but it was also an important one. It’s easy to sanitize the past but much more difficult to take a clear look at what previous generations endured and how their experiences can still affect even those descendants who were born decades after their deaths. I found it especially interesting to take note of the personalities of the various women in this family – as nearly all of the characters were women – and see how the same habits and mannerisms echoed through the generations with some individuals being able to express much healthier versions of these traits than their mothers or grandmothers did depending on what their lives were like and how much they’d been able to heal from their trauma. I must tip my cap to Ms. Sookfong Lee for all of the work she put into crafting their personalities and giving readers small hints of how everyone was similar to each other.

The ending did feel a little rushed to me after spending 300+ pages building up tension and digging deeply into the secrets and mysteries of the Chow family. I was expecting the final confrontation to take up much more space in the storyline than it did, and so I was let down by how quickly things were resolved. If more time had been spent on those last few chapters, I would have happy chosen a full five-star rating as this novel was otherwise an excellent example of how the horror genre can be used to explore all sorts of serious, real-world topics that many families can be reticent to talk about.

My favorite scenes were the ones that invited the audience to think about the multitude of ways that intergenerational trauma can be passed down over and over again even if someone is aware of what is happening and knows their behaviour isn’t emotionally healthy. I loved the way the author left space for readers to interpret certain scenes from a wide variety of psychological and supernatural perspectives. Was the antagonist literally real, a vivid metaphor for how generations of unresolved trauma have metaphorically haunted this family, or some combination of these two possibilities? I have my own theories about that topic but don’t want to influence anyone else’s perspective before they’ve read this. What matters is that new readers think for themselves as they encounter new clues about what is going on and trace every thread of this story from 1939 to 2025.

The Hunger We Pass Down made me yearn for a sequel.

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Tagged as 2020s, Book Reviews, Contemporary, Dark Fantasy, Fantasy, Historical, Horror, Jen Sookfong Lee, McClelland & Stewart, Mystery, Novels, Paranormal

September 18, 2025 · 1:00 am

A Review of Loving Safoa

Title: Loving Safora Book cover for Loving Safoa by Liza Wemakor. Image on cover shows a drawing of two black women embracing each other romantically with one of their hands lovingly placed on the other one’s cheek. The former is wearing a red hat and red dress.

Publisher: Liza Wemakor

Publication Date: February 6, 2024

Genres: Fantasy, Horror, Romance, LGBTQ+, Contemporary

Length: 103 pages

Source: I borrowed it from the library.

Rating: 3 Stars

Blurb:

When schoolteacher Cynthia gets a tattoo at a block party in 1991 Flatbush, she doesn’t realize she’s embarking on a life-changing romance with an immortal Ghanaian vampire. Cynthia’s affair with Safoa weaves together stories from nineteenth century Ghana, late twentieth century New York and a near future reality in Maryland that defies the utopian/dystopian binary.

Content Warning: References to racism, sexism, and homophobia.

Review:

Sometimes danger can be a little cozy.

This is a good example of how to blend romance into the horror and dark fantasy genres. Without Cynthia and Safoa’s relationship, none of the other storylines would have gelled together due to how important it was for these two particular characters to thrive together and explore their world as a team. While I can’t go into a lot of detail about why this is so without wandering into spoiler territory, pay attention to their early conversations in particular in order to understand why this is so. There were some wonderful moments of foreshadowing in those scenes that paid off beautifully later on.

I would have loved to see more world building in this novella. There were references to multiple unusual events in Safoa’s life that were either only briefly explained or not explained at all. While I’m not the sort of person who needs everything to be spelled out directly, there was so much more space here for plot and character development if those scenes had been given time to fully develop. The glimpses of the world building that were included were well done, and I would have happily chosen a much higher rating if this had not been an issue for me as a reader.

The ending resolved the most important conflicts nicely. I especially liked how it described the fate of a child who was introduced about three-quarters of the way through this piece as her dilemma had sparked my curiosity about what might happen to her next. Yes, I know that’s vague, but there were many things about this character that I was glad I didn’t have any advanced warning about. Being surprised can be a good thing!

Loving Safora was creative.

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Tagged as 2020s, Book Reviews, Contemporary, Dark Fantasy, Fantasy, Horror, LGBT, Liza Wemakor, Novella, Romance, Vampire

September 11, 2025 · 1:00 am

A Review of The Last of What I Am

Title: The Last of What I Am

Author: Abigail Cutter

Publisher: Union Square & Co.

Publication Date: September 19, 2023

Genres: Paranormal, Historical, Contemporary

Length: 363 pages

Source: I borrowed it from the library.

Rating: 3 Stars

Blurb:

A haunting and beautifully written novel about a Confederate soldier whose own personal war follows him into the afterlife—until one fateful day when his encounters with a modern-day couple change everything.
A ghost in his deserted childhood home in Virginia, Tom Smiley can’t forget the bloody war and its meaningless losses, nor can he shed his revulsion for his role in the Confederate defense of slavery. But when a young couple moves in and makes his home their own in the early twenty-first century, trouble erupts—and Tom is forced not only to face his own terrible secret but also to come to grips with his family’s hidden wartime history. He finds an unexpected ally in the house’s new owner, Phoebe Hunter, whose discoveries will have momentous consequences for them both.

Content Warning: War, racism, slavery, death, and a prison camp. I will only mention the latter in my review.

Review:

Forgiveness is a process.

The settings was well developed. I could easily imagine what each scene looked like, including moments that described things that I’ve never personally experienced like being in a prison camp. It was especially helpful to have detailed descriptions of things like food or clothing as they were both quite different from what the average person in North America would expect to have access to today. These moments helped this world come alive in my imagination as I waited to find out whether Tom would ever forgive himself for the role he played in the Civil War.

I struggled with the changes in tone and theme. It started off as a ghost story but soon veered firmly into the historical fiction genre as Tom described what it was like for a sheltered young man who didn’t really know what he was getting into to fight for the Confederacy in the Civil War. While knowing his background information was important for understanding why his spirit remained on Earth after death, so much space was spent on this topic that the blurb felt misleading to me as a reader. Readers who enjoy realistic historical fiction about war may be a great match for these chapters, but they never quite felt like they matched the tone of the first few chapters for me due to the drastic shift between the life of a moody ghost and the horrors he experienced as a young soldier when he was alive. I wanted to love this book, but this was an impediment for me to dive deeply into Tom’s life because of the many differences between the blurb and the text itself.

What I did find interesting about this book was it exploration of racism, intentions, and regret. Tom genuinely believed he was doing a good deed by signing up to fight for reasons that other readers should discover for themselves, but having good intentions doesn’t mean that a decision is justifiable. He was affected by the time and place he lived in, and I was intrigued by his character development as he realized what a colossal mistake he had made and how even someone who tries to do the right thing can still be veered off course through unconscious bias and a dangerous amount of ignorance on a subject. This is something every single of us can be fooled by, and it’s well worth reading and talking about

The Last of What I Am is a good pick for anyone who likes historical fiction that has some paranormal themes.

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Filed under Science Fiction and Fantasy

Tagged as 2020s, Abigail Cutter, Book Reviews, Contemporary, Historical, Novels, Paranormal, Union Square & Co.

Tag Archives: Contemporary

A Review of A Visit from Naughty Claus

A Review of Come December

A Review of Hearth Stories, Winter Solstice 2023

A Review of For the Rest of Us

A Review of I Found the Boogeyman Under My Brother’s Crib

A Review of I Found a Lost Hallway in a Dying Mall

A Review of Horsefly

A Review of The Hunger We Pass Down

A Review of Loving Safoa

A Review of The Last of What I Am

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