Well, this is adorable. Great art plus a college/coming-of-age plot makes this catnip for me. Looking forward to reading more.

I've been aware of this for awhile, and it floated on my mental list of Books I'll Get Around To Eventually until Garrett expedited the eventually part by shoving it into my hands and telling me that I would like it. And he was correct!

I spent fond TGIF time as a child watching Sabrina, The Teenage Witch, to the point that I had a Salem the cat Giga Pet and now, as an adult, unabashedly own the entire series on DVD. One might think that history would set me up to get all pearl-clutchy and "My childhood!!" about this new, blood-drenched, corpse-eating, Satanic Sabrina... But you'd be wrong. I loved every panel, perhaps especially when

Spoiler

Harvey is eaten by witches, because Harvey has never been my favorite. Too earnest, too boring, too dumb.

In the introduction Aguirre-Sacasa says that Chilling Adventures of Sabrina has a strong Sandman influence, and that's apparent in the storytelling and retro art style, which reminded me a lot of Preludes and Nocturnes.

I've really been feeling the rebooted Archieverse lately, and this has only added fuel to that fire. Definitely plan to read Volume 2, and to give Afterlife with Archie a try, too.

Hey look, I finally read this 13 years after it came out! Perfect for a dip into Stephen King-land—the setting, the voice, the characterization, the dialogue—without the commitment. Good summer afternoon reading that I’ll be turning over in my head for awhile... lack of closure will do that.

I want to give this book another try at some point.

A tense, sinister, ambiguous, and deeply satisfying horror novel about a teenage girl who is perhaps possessed by a demon, perhaps suffering from mental illness and an abusive family dynamic, or perhaps both!, whose father decides that the best way to deal with her issues is to have the family star in a Discovery Channel reality show. (Because as we all know, reality television is the best way to solve your problems and return your life to normalcy.) The whole fiasco is recounted by her younger sister, who bears witness to their family's unraveling in the way of children who become observant as a survival strategy.

There are shades of The Shining here, and We Have Always Lived in the Castle, and of course The Exorcist, so if you like those things, you will also like this.

As for me, I adore what Tremblay does here. His writing is smart, he's aware of the broader context of possession narratives in which he operates, and he's downright scary on both the uncanny supernatural level and on the people-doing-inhumane-things level. He also does other things I really like: His characters pass the Bechdel test! He doesn't go out of his way to make anyone especially likeable! And he doesn't shoehorn in a romantic subplot!

I have two more of his books on hold from the library. Can't wait to devour them and then sadly wait for his next release.

I usually only read one Stephen King book per year, on account of the fact that one day there won't be any more Stephen King books and I don't want to run out too soon. So the fact that I've read more than one this year is noteworthy. I even plan to read more. Maybe as I'm getting older my own mortality is sinking in, along with the mortality of favorite authors, and I realize that even though I might one day run out of their books, I will also surely run out of life?

Morbid turn, but appropriate for this book, which deals a lot with being young and also with impending mortality. It's about a college kid who gets a summer job at an amusement park and decides to extend his employment after his girlfriend breaks his heart. It fits into the Hard Case Crime imprint barely, in that there is a serial killer and an attempted murder, but it's tame in comparison to other King.

I mainly liked this one for King's voice, the atmosphere of the thing, but it's not his best. I wasn't keen on Dev and spent a lot of my time thinking that the female characters were more interesting and not getting what they deserved, thanks to narrator Dev who mainly sees them as potential love interests whose good-heartedness might or might not be as important as the length of their legs. Dev is not good at imagining women as complexly human, or as existing not in relation to himself, which is a shame, because I think King is capable of imagining them in those ways.

The fun parts are fun, though, if you like Stephen King. Long digressions to set things up? Check. Cultural references to things King likes? Check. Precocious kid who is both tragic and psychic? Check. Maybe he's working off of a bingo card based on his greatest hits, but there are worse things you could read on a late-summer day.

Grady Hendrix has a new book coming out from Quirk on September 18. It's called We Sold Our Souls, and if you're a horror fan, you're probably already planning to read it. Hendrix has gotten a lot of attention over the past few years, and for good reason. He's a writer with a deep love for horror, and not just the classy stuff. As his examination of the pulpy horror of bygone days in Paperbacks From Hell amply demonstrates, he appreciates the smarmy, outrageous side of horror that's so easy, so tempting, to discard or disavow.

Full review at Dire Dread.

Listened to this over the course of two trips to Knoxville and back home. I found myself less interested in Sue's sections, but overall this was a unique dual memoir that examined aspects of spirituality and being a woman that are a bit out of my experience, while touching on enough relatable experiences to keep me listening. Lots of catalyst for thought about creativity, marriage, and mothers and daughters, as well as inspiration for some of my recent poems. Read for the travel memoir category of the Book Riot Read Harder Challenge.