Tag Archives: Paranormal

July 27, 2023 · 1:00 am

A Review of All the Nothing We’ve Done

Title: All the Nothing We’ve Done

Author: Christina McMullen

Publisher: Self-Published

Publication Date: January 8, 2017

Genres: Fantasy, Paranormal, Humour, Contemporary

Length: 24 pages

Source: I received a free copy from the author.

Rating: 3 Stars

Blurb:

Chevelle Falsetto has died, struck down by the Number 48 bus. The very bus she should have been riding to work. Now, instead of explaining to her boss why she’s late, Chevelle finds herself explaining to Saint Peter why she’s early.

Review:

Content Warning: Bus accident, alcohol use

Everyone deserves a second chance, right?

Chevelle was a witty, opinionated, and confident protagonist. I kept shaking my head as I read all of her rebuttals to what Saint Peter was saying. She certainly had thought her arguments through well, and I was curious to see if the heavenly realm would actually listen to what she had to say. There is definitely something to be said for characters who know their worth and who aren’t shy about pushing back against unfair judgements even if those judgements come from a saint himself.

I would have liked to see more time spent developing the ending. There were some important rules established in earlier scenes that were not taken into account in the final scene. As much as I enjoyed the rest of it, seeing the characters ignore the prior plot development dampened my enthusiasm for this tale. If only there had been a better explanation for why this happened!

With that being said, I enjoyed having a protagonist who worked in the service industry. This is just uncommon enough that it makes me perk up every time I find another book that talks about what it’s like to work a low-paid, stressful, and low-status job without any hope of finding a better position. The hopelessness of her work life endeared me to Chevelle even more than I already was. More than anything, I wanted her to finally get her happily ever after.

While there are references to Christian religious beliefs here, this cheeky tale isn’t something I’d slot into the inspirational genre by any means. It’s meant for readers of any (or no) belief system without advocating for any particular perspective , so don’t let the references to saints and heaven dissuade you from checking it out if you don’t generally read about such things.

All the Nothing We’ve Done made me smile.

A Review of Jathniel, the Immortal

Title: Jathniel, The Immortal

Author: Eugene Roy

Publisher: Self-Published

Publication Date: April 29, 2023

Genres: Fantasy, Paranormal, LGBTQ+, Contemporary

Length: 42 pages

Source: I received a free copy from the author.

Rating: 4 Stars

Blurb:

‘Angel Of Death’ Jathniel’s assignment at an elementary school shooting challenges his faith, and breaks his heart. But, like all Transitional Guides, he is supposed to be emotionally sterile. As a means of reset, Jathniel is thrust into unknown territory – life as a mortal canine, where he is granted the experience of love in its purest form, trusting and unconditional.

Review:

Content Warning: Car accident, mass shootings, death of a child, death of a pet, HIV.

Love comes in many different forms.

Jathniel’s reaction to each of his new assignments made me smile. I can’t go into a lot of detail about those moments without giving away spoilers, but I was delighted by how adaptive he was to new situation. The one where he was transformed into dog and had to adjust to a world where he understood the humans perfectly well but they weren’t able to return the favour well at all was especially fun. It truly felt like the author had tapped into dog psychology in those scenes, and I chuckled along as Jathniel adjusted to being someone’s pet instead of the powerful spirit being he had normally been.

My only piece of constructive criticism for this short story has to do with the ending. I found myself getting a little confused about one character’s transformation into someone else, and I would have benefited from a longer explanation about what was going on there. As much as I loved the rest of it, this scene did hold me back from going for a full five-star rating there.

The world building was fabulous. Did I want to dive deeper into it? Of course, but I was also satisfied with how much the author shared about what Jathniel did as an Angel of Death and why he was able to move so seamlessly from one death to the next. If Mr. Roy ever decides to write a sequel, I hope I’ll be the first person in line to read and review it. This was something I was thrilled to have stumbled up, and I’m not quite ready to say goodbye to it yet.

Jathniel, The Immortal made me yearn for more.

2 Comments

Filed under Science Fiction and Fantasy

Tagged as 2020s, Book Reviews, Contemporary, Eugene Roy, Fantasy, LGBT, Paranormal, Self-Published, Short Stories

June 29, 2023 · 1:00 am

A Review of Love’s Refrain – A Victorian Ghost Story

Title: Love’s Refrain – a Victorian Ghost Story

Author: Steven Glick

Publisher: Self-Published

Publication Date: December 18, 2018

Genres: LGBTQ, Paranormal, Historical

Length: 100 pages

Source: I received a free copy from the author.

Rating: 3 Stars

Blurb:

A ghost from the past. A chance meeting in the present. A terrifying séance. Charlotte Stanton’s perfect married life is turned upside down when a secret love she buried long ago hauntingly returns. Still the question remains: are the supernatural events intruding upon Charlotte’s life happening only in her mind? Is she heading down a path toward madness? Set in Boston’s Gilded Age and accompanied by period drawings and silhouettes, LOVE’S REFRAIN explores one woman’s search for love, and the power of the past to emancipate the present.

Review:

It’s never too late to make things right.

Charlotte stirred up so many different emotions in me. Sometimes I felt endless empathy for her, while in other scenes I shook my head in frustration at how naive and sheltered she was. Surely the average adult would have figured out some of the stuff that she found so confusing much faster than she did! With that being said, I appreciated how nuanced her personality was, and I’d much rather read about a realistically flawed character than someone who always made the right decision. The more I got to know her, the more I liked her. If the author ever writes a sequel, I’d sure like to follow along on more of her journey.

I would have loved to see more details included in this story. For example, we never learned how Charlotte met her husband or what killed the ghost who was haunting Charlotte. That cause of death could have been a good way to get to know the deceased and explain why she was so attached to the protagonist. I also had some questions about the ending as far as the practicalities of life Charlotte would need to face after the final scene was wrapped up. While I can’t go into detail about that without giving away spoilers, it was yet another moment in this tale when having more details would have made the storyline richer in my opinion.

Spiritualism is one of those topics that I don’t think is discussed enough in fiction, especially in paranormal stories set in the late 1800s. I was pleased to see how much attention it received here. Whether you already know a lot about this movement or nothing at all, don’t worry. The most important details will be spelled out clearly, and everything else will be a happy bonus for those of us who do have preexisting knowledge of it. Some of the most interesting scenes were the ones that explored the various responses to the spiritualist movement from different portions of society. Many different points of view were represented, and I thought the author did a good job of showing why so many people were drawn to it and what they hoped to get out of speaking to their dead loved ones.

Love’s Refrain – a Victorian Ghost Story made me smile.

6 Comments

Filed under Science Fiction and Fantasy

Tagged as 2010s, Book Reviews, Gothic, Historical, LGBT, Paranormal, Self-Published, Steven Glick

June 15, 2023 · 1:00 am

A Review of Ambrose & Ed

Title: Ambrose & Ed

Author: Eugene Roy

Publisher: Self-Published

Publication Date: December 9, 2022

Genres: Paranormal, Romance, Contemporary

Length: 16 pages

Source: I received a free copy from the author.

Rating: 4 Stars

Blurb:

Edna can be a bit scatterbrained. Ambrose can sometimes be careless. But together they have a loving oath that transcends realm and time.

Review:

Content Warning: Death from natural causes.

Nothing can stand in the way of true love.

Ambrose and Ed were so gentle and sweet. I loved hearing about the many happy years they’d had together, and I hoped they would somehow realize how their quiet, wholesome choices had improved the lives of everyone who knew them. These are the sorts of characters I love to read about, and I could have followed them through an entire novel and still wanted more.

The only thing preventing me from giving this short story a full five-star rating was how confusing I found the characters. Ambrose and Ed’s many children and grandchildren were mentioned, but none of them actually showed up in the storyline. I struggled to keep track of all of their names and wished that this portion had either been slimmed down or expanded so that I could get to know their extended family as well as I did the two protagonists. Either option would have worked well in my opinion. It was simply confusing for me as a reader to be introduced to so many characters and then never go any further with that information.

The ending made me smile. While I don’t share spoilers in my reviews, this is one of those tales that isn’t meant to surprise anyone. You may very well be like me and know how it’s going to end as soon as you finished the first sentence, but there’s so much more to good storytelling than writing twists. Mr. Roy pulled me into this world so kindly that I didn’t want to leave it. That, to me, is every bit as valuable as being thrilled by an exciting battle scene or shocked by how the clues in a mystery fit together.

Ambrose & Ed was a heartwarming fusion of the romance and paranormal genres that I’d recommend to fans of either one even if you’re generally not into both of them.

No Ordinary River: A Review of Badwater

Title: Badwater

Author: Travis Liebert

Publisher: Self-Published

Publication Date: November 8, 2019

Genres: Horror, Paranormal, Contemporary

Length: 27 pages

Source: I received a free copy from the author.

Rating: 3 Stars

Blurb:

Review

“I’ve been a search and rescue diver for twelve years. We see a lot of strange and disgusting things. But what I saw last week has me questioning both my job and reality.”

There’s a place in the river where not even search and rescue divers are supposed to go. It’s called Badwater.

But when Joseph Albright dives into this forbidden region, he discovers something beyond comprehension.

Intent on solving a mystery as old as the earth itself, he comes into contact with forces beyond fathom.

Get this riveting new horror story and learn of the terrors that pervade our world.

Content Warning: Drowning and body horror.

A strong current might drown you in this river, but even if that happens it will be the least of your worries.

Joseph was a sympathetic and memorable protagonist. I appreciated how cautious he was around water and how seriously he took his work as a search and rescue diver. These were important things to establish early on in order to explain his later behaviour. They also endeared me to him as a character because I knew how knowledgable he was about safely enjoying the water and how drowning can happen to even the strongest swimmer. If the author ever writes a sequel, I’d sure like to learn more about this world and the other people in it.

My only reason for choosing a three star rating had to do with a plot hole that the narrator never closed. It involved what the powers of the character who controlled Badwater actually were and how far they could be stretched or pushed back against. In some scenes, this character seemed nearly all-powerful, while in others there appeared to be loopholes to the rules. I would have loved to see this clarified as it was the only thing that prevented me from choosing a much higher rating. Everything else about this tale was deliciously scary.

The folklore elements of the storyline were top-notch. They shared enough information for this reader to know what was happening but also left plenty of little details up to my imagination. I also enjoyed taking note of the slight differences in how various characters reacted to the legends about Badwater and why no one was ever supposed to go there. Not only did this make everything feel realistic, it encouraged me to keep reading so I could come up with my own theories about which versions made the most sense to me.

Badwater was a spooky summer read.

A Review of The Trip to Nowhere

Title: The Trip to Nowhere

Author: Stephanie Shaw

Publisher: Self-Published

Publication Date: May 14, 2022

Genres: Paranormal, Mystery, Contemporary

Length: 59 pages

Source: I received a free copy from the author.

Rating: 3 Stars

Blurb:

A broken marriage,
A lost love,
And nothing to lose.
When his wife confesses that she’s pregnant for Cole’s business rival, the news throws him into a downward spiral. Unable to face his life, he decides to go on a road trip alone. In the process, he uncovers the truth about a missing woman, an unborn child and a shocking family secret. He realizes too late that sometimes the past needs to be left in the past.

Review:

Content Warning: Pregnancy and murder.

Save this one for the next time there’s a foggy day in your area.

The setting tickled my imagination. Foggy days can make the world feel a little softer and more magical in general, especially if you have a long, quiet drive ahead of you and plenty of time to think. The author captured this feeling beautifully, and I smiled as she found ways to incorporate those drives into her plot twists as well. Her imagination took Cole into some places that were as surprising for him as they were entertaining for me as a reader.

I struggled to understand Cole’s behaviour. He was given multiple hints about what was really happening as he drove down those foggy, isolated roads, and I shook my head every time he brushed yet another one aside and kept pushing on towards his goal. While I believe this may have been written to show how his faults had terribly distorted his thinking over the years, it would have been helpful to have this theory confirmed or denied. Leaving it the way it was written made it hard for me to connect to him because of how obtuse he seemed to be about some things that could have been easily straightened out in the first scene.

With that being said, I loved Ms. Shaw’s clean and crisp writing style. She did an excellent job of painting vivid pictures of her characters and the setting without slowing down the storyline or using a single word more than was necessary. This is a delicate and impressive balance to strike, especially in the short story format when the author also needs to juggle so many other elements of good storytelling simultaneously. I will definitely be keeping an eye out for what she comes up with next.

The Trip to Nowhere was an atmospheric read.

2 Comments

Filed under Science Fiction and Fantasy

Tagged as 2020s, Book Reviews, Contemporary, Mystery, Paranormal, Self-Published, Short Story, Stephanie Shaw

March 23, 2023 · 1:00 am

A Review of The Gift

Title: The Gift

Author: Eleazar Guzman

Publisher: Self-Published

Publication Date: September 15, 2022

Genres: Horror, Paranormal, Contemporary

Length: 11 pages

Source: I received a free copy from the author.

Rating: 4 Stars

Blurb:

An unexpected gift changes the life of a hopeless woman.

Review:

Content Warning: Cancer, grief, death, and the termination of a life-threatening pregnancy. I will only discuss grief in my review.

If it’s meant to be, it will happen.

The opening scene provided such a detailed sketch of how grief can spill over into one’s ordinary routines at the most inopportune times. This wasn’t something I was expecting to find in this genre, and it piqued my curiosity about where Erica was going and what she hoped to find once she arrived there. I immediately had sympathy for her and hoped things would get better for her. She was such a sweet and gentle character even in the middle of her unfathomable pain.

I did find myself wondering why Erica wasn’t thinking critically about what was happening to her. She was offered something that sounded too good to be true and accepted it while barely asking any questions about it at all. That struck me as odd, and I would have gone for a full five-star rating if she’d dug deeper into how the mystical nature of it was supposed to work and what she should be doing to get the most use out of it. Even something as simple as the narrator explaining that Erica had never been into the speculative fiction genre and wasn’t aware of certain tropes from it would have been enough for me to nod along in understanding and keep reading.

With that being said, the ending was so fabulous I settled on a four star rating. Obviously, I can’t go into much detail about it without sharing spoilers, but it pushed everything that happened earlier to their logical conclusions in ways that don’t always happen in these sorts of tales. I appreciated how much effort the author put into this frightening final scene and will be keeping an eye out for what he comes up with next. He clearly has a vivid imagination and isn’t afraid to use it!

The Gift was beautiful.

2 Comments

Filed under Science Fiction and Fantasy

Tagged as 2020s, Book Reviews, Contemporary, Eleazar Guzman, Horror, Paranormal, Psychological Horror, Self-Published

March 2, 2023 · 1:00 am

Making Things Right: A Review of Have You Seen Jeffrey

Title: Have You Seen Jeffrey

Author: C.Y. Stewart

Publisher: Cold Ridge Publishing (Self-Published)

Publication Date: July 14, 2020

Genres: Paranormal, Contemporary

Length: 34 pages

Source: I received a free copy from the author.

Rating: 4 Stars

Blurb:

It has been a month since it happened. At first, Steve and I talked about it every day. In the mornings, while sitting on our balcony, drinking coffee and looking down at the lush green valley below, our thoughts and discussion would manage to drift back to the mystery of what happened to Jeffrey. I checked the news every day. Among the media coverage of all the craziness happening in the world, I searched and searched, seizing onto the hope that I’d see a small, obscure, local article somewhere providing an update, or at least a clue, about Jeffrey. But no, nothing. As days went by, I feared that at some point, I would start doubting if it had happened at all, or if it was all in my imagination.

Imagination or not, Jeffrey is gone. I have no idea where he is. Here, please let me tell you what I still remember. Maybe you can make sense of this…

Before we start, please allow me to ask you to please keep an open mind. There’s no other way to approach this story.

Review:

Content Warning: Murder and a few brief references to the early waves of the Covid-19 pandemic in April of 2020. No characters caught covid, though, and I won’t discuss any of this in my review.

True friendships are rare but precious gifts.

Some of my favourite scenes were the ones that included Carrie and Jeffrey reminiscing about their childhood in China. Not only did it give readers a chance to get to know both of them better, it was interesting to compare their opinions of western media and culture as children to what they thought now that they were both adults living in the United States. I also enjoyed hearing about what they missed from those early years as that can also be an excellent way to figure out what a character values in life.

I would have liked to see a little more character development, especially for Carrie due to how many warnings she ignored about the possible consequences of helping Jeffrey. Yes, he was a good friend, but she knew something was odd about the way he contacted her in the first scene. I always liked her as an individual, but I didn’t always understand why she kept pushing past the many hints that everything was not as it seemed. Had this been explained better, I would have happily chosen a full five-star rating.

The plot twist at the end was exciting and well done. There were plenty of hints included early on about what was to come, but solving the mystery wasn’t as important as understanding why this mattered to Carrie and how far she was willing to go to reach her goal. As much as I wish I could say more about this, it would be too easy to accidentally give away spoilers if I did. Just know that she was a determined woman who wasn’t going to let anything stop her even after the big reveal was shared.

Have You Seen Jeffrey made me wish for a sequel.

2 Comments

Filed under Science Fiction and Fantasy

Tagged as 2020s, Book Reviews, C.Y. Stewart, Cold Ridge Publishing, Contemporary, Coronavirus, COVID-19, Paranormal, Self-Published, Short Story

February 16, 2023 · 1:00 am

No Whimsy in This Winter: A Review of St. Aymon

Title: St. Aymon – A Canadian Horror Story

Author: George Gordon

Publisher: Self-Published

Publication Date: November 7, 2018

Genres: Horror, Paranormal, Contemporary

Length: 43 pages

Source: I received a free copy from the author.

Rating: 3 Stars

Blurb:

Welcome to the village of St Aymon.

An Englishman moves to his wife’s home in the Canadian wilderness. The village of St Aymon is located deep inside the boreal forest in the Northwest Territories, hundreds of miles away from civilisation.

Through a series of letters home, the Englishman recounts his experience.

But St Aymon is not what it first appears… the family are part of a religious cult, there are queer objects hanging in the woods, and strange noises can be heard at night.

Life, and his new family,are not what he expected. Dark times, the end is nigh.

Evil lurks within the woods.

Dare you read the horrors within?

Review:

Content Warning: animal abuse, verbal abuse, physical abuse, limb amputations, hallucinations, religious cult.

Winter is a dangerous time to take risks in the woods.

Michael, the main character, struck me as someone who wasn’t used to things working out for him no matter what choices he made. He leapt into the opportunity to move to his new wife’s hometown without appearing to do much research at all about what life is like in rural Canadian communities or how he should prepare for the long, cold winters here. For example, he didn’t even bother to bring warm, appropriate clothing and footwear with him even though the Northwest Territories are known for their bitterly cold weather. I had some mixed feelings about Michael because of these obvious sorts of personal oversights, but I enjoyed getting to know him and figuring out why he was so eager to leap before he looked. He was a complex man who defied categorization.

I struggled with all of the loose ends that remained after the final scene. This is something I’m saying as a reader who normally relishes ambiguity and the chance to answer certain questions about the plot and characters for myself. I had so much trouble putting the pieces together, though, that I felt obligated to go for a lower rating than I would have otherwise loved to give. It was difficult to keep track of the multiple narrators and figure out how their letters fit together chronologically speaking, and I was never quite certain that my interpretation of what really happened matched what the author intended to say.

One of the most memorable aspects of this short story was how it explored the isolation of small town life in Canada. The experiences of someone who lives in a tiny village in the Northwest Territories, as was the case here, will be quite different from how someone who lives in a large and better supplied city like Toronto or Vancouver gets through the winter. It was cool to see this representation, and I enjoyed the scenes that described how quiet it is in those little villages and how far away the rest of the world feels once winter storms arrive and the roads aren’t necessarily safe for travel.

St. Aymon – A Canadian Horror Story was a deliciously scary tale to curl up with on a cold winter evening.

4 Comments

Filed under Science Fiction and Fantasy

Tagged as 2010s, Book Reviews, Canadian Authors, Contemporary, Epistolary, George Gordon, Horror, Paranormal, Self-Published, Short Story, Winter

February 2, 2023 · 1:00 am

Threatening Forest: A Review of Over the River and Through the Woods

Title: Over the River and Through the Woods

Author: Evan Camby

Publisher: Self-Published

Publication Date: June 21, 2016

Genres: Horror, Paranormal, Historical

Length: 28 pages

Source: I received a free copy from the author.

Rating: 3 Stars

Blurb:

Old Settler’s Woods is haunted. Evil. A place Ellie swore she would never set foot again.

It’s the winter of 1941, and a devastating blizzard has struck her small town. With the roads blocked, the only way to reach her ailing grandmother is to take the trail through Old Settler’s Woods, a place of unspeakable darkness and decay. Faced with losing the only family she has left, Ellie must contend with the evil once more. But will she survive with her sanity–and her soul–intact?

Review:

Content Warning: Hypothermia, mild violence (think ghosts lightly scratching at someone’s arms), and an implied murder that was never actually described or confirmed.

These woods are dark and deep, but not even Frost would make the mistake of calling them lovely.

The atmosphere was utterly perfect. Anyone who has ever walked in or near a forest on a cold winter day might recognize the uncertainty that can flood the nervous system when one hears something cracking, snapping, or scuffling off in the trees without being able to tell where the sound is coming from or who or what might be making it. Yes, it’s probably just an animal running away or a tree branch breaking under the weight of the heavy snow on it when it happens in real life, but that doesn’t necessarily make the experience any less eerie. My brain was flooded with memories of such days as I read this, and I shivered with delight as Ellie rationalized away what she was hearing and kept walking further into the forest no matter what.

I kept finding myself wishing for more substance to this story. There were brief glimpses of and hints about the terrible things that had happened in Old Settler’s Woods over the years, but none of them were described in enough detail to make them come to life in my imagination. I desperately wanted to give this a higher rating based on everything else I loved about it, but in the end this issue held me back from doing so. Reviews must be completely honest if they’re to be trustworthy, after all.

Ellie was a practical and resourceful woman, so I appreciated the time Ms. Camby spent explaining why Ellie would even think about wandering into a forest that her grandparents had spent years warning her to avoid. Not only that, but she did it during a fierce blizzard when the radio was warning everyone to stay home and off the roads! These are the sorts of scenes that can make or break a horror story, so I was glad to see so much attention spent on Ellie’s reasons for venturing out and why turning back wasn’t an option for her no matter how cold or frightened she was. I understood where she was coming from, and I felt like I got to know her better because of it.

Over the River and Through the Woods made me shudder.

4 Comments

Filed under Science Fiction and Fantasy

Tagged as 2010s, Blizzard, Book Reviews, Evan Camby, Historical, Horror, Paranormal, Psychological Horror, Self-Published, Short Stories, Winter

Tag Archives: Paranormal

A Review of All the Nothing We’ve Done

A Review of Jathniel, the Immortal

A Review of Love’s Refrain – A Victorian Ghost Story

A Review of Ambrose & Ed

No Ordinary River: A Review of Badwater

A Review of The Trip to Nowhere

A Review of The Gift

Making Things Right: A Review of Have You Seen Jeffrey

No Whimsy in This Winter: A Review of St. Aymon

Threatening Forest: A Review of Over the River and Through the Woods

Old Settler’s Woods is haunted. Evil. A place Ellie swore she would never set foot again.

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