Black Cranes: Tales of Unquiet Women combines Asian women and horror in a dark and beautifully haunting way. I believe every group of people has their own "outsider" experiences and feelings... Asian women have had stereotypes of objectification, sexualization, depersonalization, submission, and more. This anthology explores all of those negative classifications and translates them into some brilliant stories. The anger and pain that Asian women carry, and have carried, finds itself in these pages. These stories are inspired by so many things: family, the future, folklore, food, legends, love, revenge, and so on. We see powerful Asian women in this book - and women I think the world should see more of, too! This is an anthology that will resonate with so many... and will need proper time to digest. It has a lot of important messages that need to be heard!

Review to come!

Review to come!

Review to come!

Helena is a Gothic horror lover's dream! Set in the mid-1800s, this novella explores the life (and many deaths involved) of a mortician and funeral director, Helena Morrigan. She takes up residence in the home of three newly-orphaned siblings. Business starts to increase at the same time as there is a serial killer in the midst! YIKES.

This is Claire L. Smith's debut and it is haunting, beautiful, and fast-paced! Helena is a force to reckon with and I would love to engage in conversation with her. I imagined myself having all kinds of talks with her about anything and everything - shes seems so cool! All the characters in this novella are developed quite well given the amount of pages, but Helena is just something else entirely. This is the kind of book that I can imagine readers enjoying with some Danny Elfman in the background, a warm cup of tea, and a fire crackling beside them. It exudes Gothic goodness with every chapter!

Thank you CLASH Books for the review copy for the #NightWormsBookParty!

3.5 - review to come!

Raise your hand if you ignored/forgot the part about this book being witchy! Just me ? Well, I guess that just makes this book even better for me because I was so surprised - in a good way! I am participating in Witchtober and had no idea I would be starting off with such a bang - 4.5 stars!

At first I was not really believing the hype around this book... the plot did not come together too great up front and it just sort of teetered alongside plots of books that already exist and that I have read. But soon it took a turn and I was HOOKED! I really found myself connecting with and rooting for Lou and Reid. I love their unconventional setup and how they took the ball and made it a whole new game of their own.

I loved the witch vs. Chasseurs aspect aka the "evil" vs the "good." But as any reader knows, especially in this genre, things are not always as they seem! But a-ha!! *zips finger in the air astutely* There are some excellent twists and turns in this... no one is who you think they are and everyone is who you think they are all at the same time. I loved the reveals, the secrets, the backstory, and the setup for book two. That cliffhanger of an ending! YES! And I really hope there are going to more than just two books because this is a world full of characters I am absolutely going to be obsessed with!

Let's just go ahead and point out first of all how sickening this cover is?! Just... wow! I could get lost in this art for days. On to the book... while it did not blow me away as much as this cover, I still enjoyed it overall. I am landing on a 3.5 rating. The beginning was quite slow and hard for me to really get a feel for the pace, but then about 60% of the way in the book really picks up. You start to get INTO the book as secrets reveal themselves and a new plot emerges. I seriously wish the first half had been even half as entertaining and compelling as the back end, but the latter does make up for the former. I read this simultaneously as a retelling of The Little Mermaid AND a prequel as it kind of fit with elements to be either.

I love the incorporation of witches on land as well as sea and combined with mermaids, Gods, etc. This story is rich with some historical flavor, too! Sometimes, however, the descriptions, word choices, and sentence structure tend to murk up the pace a bit... but it is not too often. It's hard to explain, but you will recognize a little clunky vibe from time to time if you read. We get a mix of friendship, romance, betrayal, magic, and suspense with Sea Witch. We also are thrown into yet another world where witches are being killed for no reason - while not necessarily in this book it is discussed and attempted.

I am definitely going to be picking up the sequel to this, Sea Witch Rising, as I am all about this dark water magic and hope we get a little more in it and slightly less romance? I doubt that will be the case, but I am still interested in finding out!

Alma Katsu has once again crafted an intricate story rich with so much history and distinct characters with THE DEEP. I tip my hat to the author imagining how many hours, days, weeks, months went into researching the time period as well as the RMS Titanic and the HMHS Brittanic. The story is loaded with details and facts but presented in a natural and organic way that you do not even realize how much you are learning. The book alternates timelines between 1912 and 1916 for each of the ocean liners and when they are read back to back you really get a sense of their differences and similarities.

I will say the same thing I have seen others say. I went into this book expecting more horror than I got. This book is definitely more along the lines of historical fiction fused with supernatural horror as well as romance. But once I picked up the flavor of the book and read it as such, I started to fall more in love with the characters as well as the ships. And then whenever something irksome or supernatural would occur it would just be a little bonus as I really started to enjoy the overall story and plot.

I am an Alma Katsu fan until the end!

Stations of Shadow immediately intrigued me with its plot revolving around drag culture and the macabre/supernatural. How could I say no to that?! But what I got was even more than I expected. The writing style in this book is rich with evocative details, Queer and pop culture references, and characters with such intricate and complex mindsets, situations, and personalities. Stage names Hera Wynn and Hydra are fierce competitors and I they are described with such vivid imagery each time. Their relationship is definitely not an easy one, and the more you read the story, the more you are pulled deeper in it. Some of the scenes appeared in slow motion in my head when reading. It was as if I was watching the show and I could see the lights flashing and hear the beat of the music but time was slowed down as everything was unraveling around me.

This is the first of J. Daniel Stone I have read and I have already bought more! The way he can shine a light onto the scene and tell a compelling story is something I am eager to continue exploring. 4 stars!