Disclaimer: I received an e-ARC from netgalley. 

Combining haunted house with eco horror, this story explores a fixer-upper house near a swamp in Florida and the failing relationship between a couple as the husband struggles to come to terms with his past and the wife questions what she wants for her future. 

While the actual horror takes a while to get going, what really drew my attention was the exploration of the characters and their relationships with each other. While they are two newlyweds and should care only for each other, they keep secrets from each other that force a wedge between them that just keeps growing. It was fascinating to see how they were sabotaging their own relationships and growing more distant until there was no way for them to bridge the distance. While the wife engages in not-so-innocent texting with her former coworker, while questioning her sexuality, the husband hides the fact that he lost his job and soon finds himself lying more and more to his wife about what he does all day as video tapes begin to . 

The later half of the book then finally dives deep into the supernatural aspects of the story, revealing the monster hiding in their walls. I really enjoyed watching the descent into trauma, unreality, hallucinations and horror. The body horror was delicious too!  

All in all, this was a well done eco horror/haunted house combination with interesting (but not likeable) main characters and a great use of a dual-POV-narrative to make you question what one POV just told you. 

TW: (past) addiction, body horror, cheating, (past) child neglect, (past) parental death, gore, murder 

 Disclaimer: I received an e-ARC from the publisher. 

This is a really interesting collection of horror stories often exploring grief and the body and hunger. While not all 18 pieces in this collection are long (in fact a few are just flash fiction pieces) I enjoyed the way the stories were structured in the anthology, trading off longer pieces with shorter ones, which made for a nice change of pace while reading. My favorites of the collection were Exuviae, Flesh Advent, The World of Iniquity Among Our Members Is the Tongue and The German Cousin, but there wasn’t a single story I did not enjoy (even the flash fiction pieces where enjoyable and managed to tell a story in the few words they were given). 

The writing absolutely excels both in the intriguing premises, but also in how it paints a picture of the haunting scenes, making the stories feel very atmospheric. I also loved the diversity of horror presented here, from academic, body and cult horror to parasite and psychological horror there’s something here for any fan of the macabre. 

All in all, I had a really fun time reading this collection and I can just recommend you check it out. Below you can find my thoughts on (nearly) all pieces included here (except for three very short flash fiction pieces) as well as trigger warnings (which are also included in the anthology itself!) 

The Consultant’s Hand: A haunting story about a university struggling to survive under recent budget cuts. I enjoyed the POV taken for this (second person, which I normally do not vibe with) but through the choice to include the narrator in the story and tell the tale as if it was being told to us it somehow worked and made the whole thing feel very intimate.
 TW: child death, death 

Estrangements: A father walks into his living room and finds his children transformed into monsters! The premise of this story is haunting and the emotional core of this horror story is very strong. I loved it.
 TW: car accident, child death, death, loss of sanity, matricide, murder, unreality 

*FAV* Exuviae: A haunting story about a strange family and the people that join it. I love a good parasite horror and this one really dug deep into the messy vibes of bone-deep terror, autonomy, violence and love.
 TW: body horror, gore, home invasion, kidnapping, loss of autonomy 

Bite-Apple: A short story about a little Halloween game. Very short, but I enjoyed the lore it built in that time. 

Feast of the Upside-Down Saint: A very short story about a town and the saint they worship. A bit too short for me to fully dig into it, but I loved the visuals.
 TW: abuse of authority, death, harm to children, injury, murder 

*FAV* Flesh Advent: A high school athlete, an English teacher and a chemistry teacher have teamed up for the purpose of All Flesh. A race to the finish line descends into a glorious body horror show down. Incredibly well written, horrifying and lyrical, I loved this one.
 TW: body horror, death, gore, injury 

A Goodnight Kiss from Aunt Spider: A young girl, grieving her grandmother, finds solace in watching Aunt Spider in the garden. Creepy, gross, fun, a great insect horror that makes great use of its child protagonist.
 TW: animal death, grief 

*FAV* The World of Iniquity Among Our Members Is the Tongue: A small town school finds its social structure changing, when a girl whose mother died and whose father, the preacher, turned to a fanatical interpretation of theology shows up wearing a mask one day. What starts out as a community trying to accept the oddities of one of their vulnerable members soon questions the ideas of acceptance versus willful ignorance. The ending was great and I really enjoyed this story.
 TW: death, grief, gore 

Winter Savory: A young man celebrates his first Christmas with his mother’s family and learns about their strange, violent rituals. Fun and gorey, I liked that one.
 TW: gore, torture, violence 

Osculum: Two people get real close on the dance floor. Nice gore. 

Graceful Degradation: A survivor of a horrific car crash is offered the chance to reclaim their life through an experimental medical trial of the definitely-not-a-neuralink brain interface, but of course things don’t go well. Horrifying.
 TW: death, injury, grief, medical abandonment 

Duet for Breath and Flame: A grieving man buys a little music box from two children on the street and soon finds himself obsessed with the strange instrument as the noises it makes remind him of his dead wife’s voice. The family that made the instrument unsettles and intrigues him too.
 TW: death, death by fire, grief 

Smoochfest: A man struggles to accept his new neighbors’ constant smooching. A really strange, but intriguing story.
 TW: dismemberment, murder, nonconsensual touch 

Dreamland Coffee: A cosmic horror story about a coffee shop where reality blurs and language fails. Intriguing. 

*FAV* The German Cousin: A family in ruins after the husband’s suicide and the German cousin, who arrives to support the grieving widow and her children. I loved the focus on the intricacies of language, as well as what gets lost in translation. And as someone who speaks German I enjoyed getting to understand all the references, even though “rühig” unfortunately seems to be a mistranslation/typo as the actual word is spelled “ruhig”. I really loved this story otherwise though, it’s great!
 TW: death, grief, harm to children, suicide 

TWs for the flash fiction pieces: Hydra (TW: death), Wheel of Meat (TW: death, gore, torture), How I Turned My Little Brother Human (TW: death, infant death). 

I liked them, but since they are so short I feel that giving my thoughts on them will spoil the plot. 

 Disclaimer: I received an e-ARC from netgalley. 

A story following three queer kids who once upon a time tried to make a video game together until one of them stopped coming online and the project was disbanded soon after. Now, 18 years later, we meet the characters as adults and get to see how they have changed: Lilith, trying to use scout mentality to find her footing in a cis world, Sash, who is a part-time webcam dominatrix and still lives with her parents, and Abraxa, mentally ill and homeless and slowly losing her connection to reality as she descends deeper into the world of the unfinished game. 

While we only spend a little time with the characters as teenagers, I really found that part quite interesting. Even though I wasn’t familiar with online communities in the 1990s, I found it fun to explore how friendships and communities formed and fell apart. However, the bigger part of this novel takes place in 2016 in an America where Trump hasn’t yet been elected President (but will be during the course of the story) and follows our three main characters as they try to get through their days, diving deep into their various mental states. So if you don’t really connect with the first part of the story and the chatlogs and the very detailed descriptions of video game creation, don’t worry: that’s just the beginning of the story, it does change a lot and become a lot more accessible. 

One thing I particularly enjoyed with this story is how it explored the concept of sanity and madness and the very thin line between them. Abraxa, who is treated as insane by everybody around her, holds a similar dream of building a safe haven as a corporate cis woman, who applies for a loan at a bank. One of Lilith’s trans friends votes for Trump, but then acts horrified when he attacks trans people. Sash longs for community with other people, but acts in ways that make others distrust her and finds herself more and more isolated. The line between over-the-top paranoia and the actual lived experience under transmisogyny and trauma born from it is thin and dissolving constantly and I found that incredibly intriguing to read. 

While I agree with some reviews that at points the story felt too long (this book is 500 pages long and not that much happens) and the ending felt a bit too abrupt, I have to say I enjoyed that too. Life (and stories such as these, which are quite lifelike) do not need to tie up in a neat little bow to be enjoyable and as I let myself get carried away by Abraxa’s, Sash’s and Lilith’s experiences. I also really enjoyed getting to see the characters as closeted/gender-questioning teens and how the story then skipped over the whole coming out and transitioning processes to their adult and out selves only hinting at what happened in the time between. It reminded me a lot of Any Other City by Hazel Jane Plante in that way. 

If you like stories exploring video games or older internet culture, you will love the first part of the story. If you enjoy messy trans women and an exploration of (some of) the ways they carve out a survival in a fucked-up world, you’ll love the second part of the story. I really enjoyed it and am very glad I read it. 

TW: domestic abuse (minor), drug use, fire, homophobia (minor), intrusive thoughts, psychosis, suicidal thoughts, transphobia, unreality 

 Disclaimer: I received an advance review copy for free through booksirens, and I am leaving this review voluntarily. 

The crew of the Teapot find themselves stranded in space due to a warp engine malfunction. They thankfully find a place to hunker down to wait for rescue, but when a bounty hunter joins them searching for a dangerous runaway shapeshifter, things get scary. 

I really loved returning to the Teapot, Lem is still a great main character and I adored all the puns and nerdy references so very, very much. If you’ve read other books in this series you can expect the same fun space adventures as in the others. If you just wanna jump in… you can. The book does pretty much explain what’s going on and it’s pretty accessible in reminding you what happened, without becoming boring if you have read the other books. 

I really enjoyed how this story threaded the needle between tension and the fun exploration of space and characters I had come to expect based on the other books. I also love that we got to (still) learn a bit more about Lem and Spock, as well as some more aspects of Lem’s backstory and all in all that was a very fun and very enjoyable addition to the Teapot universe. I also liked that this story was a bit of a fluffier story and not as emotionally heavy as some previous installments here (not that they don’t also have a place, but it felt nice to have something comforting to look forward to during this time). 

If you like your sci-fi fluffy, cute, queer, with fascinating aliens and lots of nerdy references I can only advice you to give this book a try and to enjoy your stay 

TW: confinement, gaslighting, incarceration, misgendering (one instance), transphobia (mention) 

 Disclaimer: I received an e-ARC from netgalley. 

The average life of a small Scottish town is disrupted when a funfair rolls into town. The Freakslaw is populated by people outside of acceptable social norms, particularly in a town where everything is only acceptable in black and white. The Freakslaw wants to bring some color into their lives, some fun and danger, but they also want revenge. Soon the town’s teenagers find themselves drawn to the funfair and its inhabitants, while the adults slowly grow concerned and then angry about these disruptions to their way of life. 
This story takes the lives of those forced to make a living outside of society, including disabled, fat and trans bodies, who found a refuge in the freakshow, as well as people who have chosen this life on the margins because they found closer connections there than they ever found outside. What I personally adored was that the people of the Freakslaw are not perfect, noble and yearning for acceptance from ‘normal’ people. They are humans and as such sometimes they hate, they crave revenge, they flaunt their otherness on purpose to piss off those on the straight and narrow. And then of course, they do come to the small town with the intention of revenge. It is a joyful, queer, angry story and I really loved that. 
There are also a lot of different POVs explored, both from people inside the Freakslaw and people from the town, diving deep into a variety of psyches, which sometimes made it a bit hard to follow along. Despite this I really found myself enjoying the story and I kinda wish it had been longer at points, so we could explore a few of the characters more deeply. 
However, all in all I really enjoyed this story (even if the horror is minimal) and even though the ending felt like it happened a bit too fast, I had a lot of fun. 

TW: ableism, abortion, burning alive, death, domestic abuse, drug trip, eating disorder (past, mention), fatphobia, injury, institutionalization (past, mention), physical assault (past), sexism, sexual assault (past), transphobia, violence