Disclaimer: I received an e-ARC from netgalley. 

This story follows a gay couple, Fehmi and Şener as they live out their idyllic retirement years on the island of Büyükada. They have just celebrated their unofficial anniversary of 40 years, celebrating a love that was only ever allowed to exist in secret and behind closed doors. Their love is not idyllic or pure and they also have some issues, as any couple probably would, but it is very clear they have chosen well to spend their lives together. But when a family moves in to get their son Deniz away from his school, where he just beat up another classmate, their lives are soon changed, as Fehmi finds himself deeply attracted to the boy. 

I absolutely adored the lyrical writing of this book, obviously I only know the English translation, but I think it made for a really beautiful reading experience. The story also moves quite slowly, not at all what I expected from a book that’s marketed as a mystery and a thriller (in fact those aspects only start at 60%), but as a fan of contemporary fiction, I found myself enjoying that. However, I think you need to know what you’re getting into, because this is not a fastpaced thriller at all and sometimes the book does feel a bit overextended. The story examines the relationship between Fehmi and Şener, the issues they have with each other, the fact that Fehmi treats Şener badly and as if he was inherently more feminine and thus weak at points and the resentments that causes for Şener, the way Şener controls the house tightly as the only place he is allowed to be himself, the tension in how they talk with their neighbors and friends and the constant obfuscation of their relationship, as well as the atmospheric descriptions of the island and the people on it all made for incredibly interesting reading. While I did not care that much for Fehmi becoming creepily obsessed with Deniz (his age is never specifically mentioned, but we do know he is in school and celebrates a birthday After Fehmi starts creeping on him), it was still interesting to see how this would play out. 

My favorite part of the story began after the story takes a dark turn (as the summary promises!), since I deeply enjoyed the role reversal for the characters and the way they were forced to embody new roles and figure out a life so unlike anything they had even been able to conceive previously. It was also interesting to see how they would find their way out of their dilemma and so I really enjoyed reading that part. 

So, if you are willing to wait for the suspense, enjoy reading about people, who upon messing up find themselves forced to dig ever deeper, want to take a deep dive into a couples relationship, their highs and lows and other issues, or just want to feel like you are spending a quite eventful summer on an idyllic island in Turkey, then you should read this book! 

TW: drug use, homophobia, murder, stalking, violation of consent 

 Disclaimer: I received an e-ARC from netgalley. 

There’s vampires on the cruise ship, what could go wrong? A vampire couple, feeding on strong (and different) emotions decide to try something new and they join a queer cruise. On the ship they fuck and explore new and intriguing forms of hedonism, when they encounter a nonbinary social media influencer named Heaven. It becomes clear they aren’t human either. Soon Hugh has fallen under their spell and Rebekah struggles to come to terms with the duality of jealously and desire battling within her. 

If you like your vampire stories bloody, this is not the story for you. If you like them sexy… Meh, also not really (for a book that claims to dive into hedonism, most of the actual sex is deeply unsatisfying). But if you like emotional vampires with issues, selfish, horrible queer people and someone breaking out (or being broken out of) their everyday trot then you will find this here. We follow Rebekah, a vampire who has grown compliant living with her artist husband, feeding just enough to stay sated. When Heaven unsettles the balance, they have built together, Rebekah has to confront her hunger and her past. She is an incredibly interesting character, jealous and bitchy and selfish and to me intriguing (sometimes you just enjoy a horrible, problematic woman, who revels in her own pity even though everybody knows she suuuucks). I also really liked Heaven, nonbinary shapeshifter, homewrecker extraordinaire, selfish and horrible and oh so sexy. And I was deeply intrigued by the hate-interest-jealousy thing Heaven and Rebekah had going on (although I wish that had been explored in more depth! They were the most interesting characters after all and should have been the main focus tbh.) I wish Hugh had been fleshed out a bit more and I did not see the appeal Rebekah (or Heaven) saw in him because he just didn’t get enough depth. 

I also did not get a real horror vibe from this, it is more queer vampire satire than anything even remotely scary and I would have liked to learn more about Rebekah’s past, but if you like what we do in the shadows and criticism of stan culture you might be more interested by this than I was. Just don’t go into it expecting any actual horror or erotica. 

All in all, an interesting beach read if you like messy women, who feed of your emotions, satisfying for the short snack that it is, but not leaving me sated either. 

TW: alcohol, slight issues of consent due to vampiric powers (already existing lust gets enhanced), death, gore, jealousy, violence 

 Disclaimer: I received an e-arc of this book by the publisher Tenebrous Press. 

 

In this Weird body horror novella, an abduction leaves a couple separated and, by the time they reunite, irreparably changed. The man has undergone medical experimentation, his body spliced together with that of an unknown woman, and he is pregnant with something he can not understand. The woman’s mind has split in two, existing partially in reality and partially in abstract terror. They have both been taken to the same hospital for rare conditions, but the treatment might make everything worse and soon things spiral into weirder and weirder places. 

This novella explores bodily autonomy, body horror and medical trauma, wraps it into gore and surrealism and garnishes it with a lot of extreme horror imagery. While this book wasn’t easy to read, taking the reader on a wild ride with twists and turns and sometimes very strange scene changes, I enjoyed it a lot. The author’s writing style really shines when it comes to body horror and gore and the dissociative weirdness of trauma and I enjoyed following the dissection of the main characters’ minds and experiences. I really enjoyed the way the scene and POV changes worked in tandem to leave me guessing what is real and what is a hallucination. 

Once again Tenebrous Press published another win for Weird horror with a capital W. While this story might not be for people who want a clear straightforward story or easy fleshed-out answers to everything, if you allow yourself to be taken captive by the story and follow with the twisting plot you will be rewarded by a world grander and more terrifying than you can imagine. I adored it! 

TW: animal abuse, body horror, car accident, child abuse, colonialism, death, dissociation, eye trauma, forced birth, forced impregnation, gender/body dysphoria, gore, hallucinations, kidnapping, medical abuse, medical experimentation, murder, mutilation, pregnancy horror/trauma, restraints, implied sexual violence, suicide, torture, unreality, violence, suggested violence towards an infant