howlinglibraries's Reviews (1.85k)

Three underrated things I love in horror: subversive Lovecraftian themes, tough ladies, and diversity.

There’s a trail of blood on the carpet leading out of the bedroom, and your only thought is that if you can just find your heart, maybe everything will be okay. Maybe the pain will stop.

Luckily, Garden of Eldritch Delights offers each of those themes in spades. Throughout the collection, there are endless themes that feel inspired by Lovecraft without seeming too familiar, and most of the protagonists are angry, feisty women who have a bone to pick with something or something. There’s a delightful amount of diversity woven into the stories, and each story is just as feminist as the last.

The collection kicks off with my favorite, That Which Does Not Kill You: a story about a woman waking up to find that her girlfriend has ripped her heart clean out of her chest. It starts off gory and morbid, but quickly reveals itself to carry a much more real-world experience of abuse and gaslighting that was so well written and authentic.

Collateral damage. Your lover was not exercising a surgeon’s precision last night.

A few other notable favorite mentions go to The Yellow Death, a fascinating new take on vampires (major trigger warnings for rape here, though!), and Executive Functions, in which any of my fellow “raging feminist” horror readers can get a fix of watching a heartless, misogynistic rapist undergo a little karmic justice. Though the three I’ve named here were the ones I loved the most, I actually gave almost every story 4 or more stars, which is something I can rarely say about a collection!

The only reason Garden is getting 4 stars instead of 5 from me is because the last few stories, sadly, totally lost me. The collection began to go downhill with A Noble Endeavor, a story with a black slave as a narrator, which had an ending that made me feel vaguely uncomfortable in a way I don’t quite know how to explain. Things picked back up with the next story, but the final two felt very lacking and didn’t fit the collection as a whole to me—I honestly think I would have rated the whole book higher if they’d been left out.

Still, this is a very positive 4-star rating from me, and I absolutely recommend checking out Garden of Eldritch Delights if you are at all interested in feminist or Lovecraftian horror! I think Snyder did an amazing job with the majority of these stories and I’ll absolutely be checking out more of her work in the future.

Content warnings for misogyny, rape, ableism, abuse, extreme racism (all challenged in text), body horror, gratuitous violence/murder/torture/etc.

All quotes come from an advance copy and may not match the final release. Thank you so much to Raw Dog Screaming Press for providing me with this ARC in exchange for an honest review!

Adam Ellis is one of my favorite webcomic artists of all time, and Super Chill is a delightful collection of his comics that I think most anxiety-ridden millennials can relate to from start to finish. Or... maybe it's just me who also finds themselves succumbing to crystal collecting obsessions and feeling the pressing need to call my mom and ask her to schedule my appointments despite my being a grown woman?

Anyways...

This is adorable, and hilarious, and I love Adam Ellis. That is all.

Thank you so much to the publisher for providing me with this ARC in exchange for an honest review!

Millie Morris, a professor at UC Santa Barbara, has accepted her perma-single status and place as "one of the guys", but things get shaken up a bit when a drunken celebration ends in a "half-night stand" between herself and her colleague/best friend in the world, the handsome and charming Reid Campbell.

Despite sharing a great night together, the two of them decide to stay friends, and even more, to create online dating profiles! When Millie can't find a way to be honest with her own name and picture, she creates a fake profile, but has no idea how to respond when Reid unknowingly "matches" with her and begins to fall for both the real Millie and the fake account.

I am such a sucker for the friends-to-lovers trope it’s not even funny, so when I heard that the writer duo Christina Lauren was putting out this story about best-friends/colleagues turned friends-with-benefits turned lovers? I was all over it! This is only the second Christina Lauren title I’d read, the first being Autoboyography, which I enjoyed, but had high hopes that I—like many of my friends—would like their adult novels even more.

“Our half-night stand?” he asks, and his smile is an adorable concoction of self-deprecating and sweet. I shake my head. Must resist the cute nerd.

Luckily, my suspicions were right, because I was obsessed with this read and could not put it down once while reading it. It was one of those things where I started it right before bed one night, planning to read “just a few chapters”, and the next thing I knew, it was 5am and I was finished it. That’s when you know a book sucked you in, right?

I don’t think I’ve ever been normal. Me? I was obsessed with serial killers.

First of all, the writing in this is absolutely fantastic. I find that a lot of adult contemporary authors are great at writing emotions and feelings, but not amazing at the actual verbiage; that’s not an issue with this duo at all. Millie and Reid both felt like these wonderfully complex, three-dimensional characters. Also, can we talk for a second about how freaking awesome it is that Millie’s main character arc (besides her closed-off nature) is an obsession with female serial killers? Hello, can we be friends?

“I only have one emotion, and it’s hunger.”

Another thing Christina Lauren has going for them is that they are just so damn good at making me smile, because the story is so cute and charming and fun. If I wasn’t cheesing over the cuteness, I was cringing out of my skin from secondhand embarrassment (in a good way, if that makes sense) because some of the interactions are so perfectly awkward.

Trying to be cool about banging your best friend is a lot harder than I would have anticipated.

Of course, there’s also the steam factor, and while Half-Night isn’t what I would consider the most sexual adult contemporary read, it definitely has a healthy dose of steamy scenes and they’re really well written—I don’t recall ever grimacing at any phrases or thinking that anything felt corny or unrealistic, which is a pretty common issue I have with sex scenes from lesser authors.

Honestly, I don’t have a single complaint about this book—great writing, fun characters, cute story, and perfect pacing.

All in all, My Favorite Half-Night Stand is such a delightful and heart-warming read. Whether you like your romance stories sexy, funny, or just sweet, there’s a little bit of something for everyone here. I’d happily recommend this story to anyone who’s a fan of adult contemporary romances, but I also think it would be a great introduction to the adult contemporary genre if you’re someone who’s more accustomed to YA contemporary and is looking to branch out into an older age range!

All quotes come from an advance copy and may not match the final release. Thank you so much to Gallery Books for providing me with this ARC in exchange for an honest review!

I didn't think anything from the Pumpkinhead franchise could be quite this bland and boring, yet here we are.

I loved the 1988 Pumpkinhead movie as a kid. My mom and I had a Blockbuster membership (wow, I feel old), and whenever we had free rentals to use and nothing new was out, we'd see what the cheesiest horror movie we could find was, and I'll never forget us laughing our way through the film, but it was a classic that you couldn't help but enjoy, you know? Sadly, all of the camp and twisted fun is sucked right out of the story in this graphic novel. I found it incredibly boring, and even Pumpkinhead's terrifying destruction couldn't pull me in, sadly.

Thank you so much to the publisher for providing me with this ARC in exchange for an honest review!

First, I am a grown woman who has loved dinosaurs since I was a very small child, so despite knowing when the publisher offered me a copy of this book that it was geared towards children, I was still pretty excited, I won't lie. I love the art on the cover, so I hoped that would continue on in the book (which it does, and it's lovely), but I didn't really know what to expect—if it would just be a picture of each dinosaur, or a short description, or what.

It turns out that the goal here was to offer a brief description of each dinosaur, but there is information missing, of course (as we certainly don't know everything about the creatures that have been discovered!), so a sizable number of entries in the dictionary are basically just the dinosaur's name, with no information on them. For the dinosaur types that there is information regarding, though, it's good, factual work made easy to read without being dumbed down too much. There are lovely, colorful illustrations throughout the entire book, though that's probably going to be hit-and-miss for a lot of people, as the artwork isn't realistic; it's just stylized silhouettes with minimal details, in gorgeous, bright colors. Authentic, no. Nice to look at, though? Quite.

The last thing I'll say is that this is not a book that you're intended to read cover-to-cover in one sitting; it functions more as a loose reference guide.

Would I add it to my son's library? Maybe.

Thank you so much to the publisher for providing me with this ARC in exchange for an honest review!

As soon as I saw the cover for Slothilda, I wanted to read it immediately, because the title character is so adorable that I couldn't pass her by. I dove into this one as soon as my Netgalley approval came through, because, come on—a cute little sloth with her Corgi pup, lamenting the struggles of a lazy life? Yes, please.

Slothilda is absolutely just as precious as I expected it to be, and then some. The artwork is fun and light, and Slothilda's plight is totally relatable. A vicious cycle of working out, then eating junk food, and repeating ad nauseam? Using your workout equipment as something to hang clothes on? Being glued to your phone all day, hiding your clutter, and spending money on all the wrong things? I think a lot of us have been there, and I know I sure have those days, so it was kind of fun to see it taken out of its naturally less-than-ideal state and translated into this cutesy little character who you can't fault for her laziness, even if you wanted to, because it makes her so happy!

Not to get too deep or anything, but Slothilda also functioned as an unexpected moment of self-reflection for me. On the one hand, some of what we see in the little comics had me a little like, "Ouch, just tag me next time, huh?" and feeling self-conscious and like I need to make some changes in my life. On the other hand, some of the things shown are so harmless and make little Slothilda and her pup so happy that it drew an opposite reaction from me: How often do we force ourselves to fit a certain criteria just because it's what society says is "best" for us? Do we do more harm than good sometimes? I know, "it's not that deep, Destiny," but it's food for thought.

Anyways, this book is adorable, Slothilda is a precious little character, and I loved it. The only reason I'm giving it 4 stars instead of 5 is because it's so over-simplified that it doesn't feel like it should be considered a full release. It would make a good coffee table book, but if I had paid full price, I can't help but think I'd feel a little bit let down, as most of the book is empty white page space.

Thank you so much to Skyhorse Publishing for providing me with this ARC in exchange for an honest review!

Knee Deep in Little Devils is an interesting little collection of short stories, artwork, and haikus. From what I gather, it's put together by a group of writers and friends who meet biweekly to share work and inspire one another, which gives the anthology something unique. That said, I found it to be hit-and-miss overall. I wasn't a fan of most of the artwork, and the haikus felt out of place, strange, and like empty place-holders.

As for the stories, while half or so of them were 3-star reads or less for me due to lackluster plots or writing that I couldn't get into, a few were absolute gems! My particular favorites were the first two stories, A Check-Up for Mr. Bangles and A Walk in the Park. The first of these stories follows a father whose little girl is convinced her doll is dying, and he finds some peculiar things when examining the toy. The second story is about a man walking through the park late at night, determined to find anything to be afraid of, and it really is a fun reminder of how hard we horror fans might try to frighten ourselves sometimes. The other story I wanted to mention is Dead Dog Gone, a surprisingly adorable story about a woman who finds a hellhound on Halloween and decides to keep him as a pet.

Altogether, Knee Deep in Little Devils is a mixed bag, but if you're looking for some fun flash fiction to entertain yourself with on Halloween, I think it's worth giving a shot.

Thank you so much to WorD Publishing-pgh for providing me with this ARC in exchange for an honest review!

That was one of the most bizarre, surreal, and unsettling graphic novels I've ever read... and I loved it so much I don't even know how to explain why. Let me start with the artwork:



This is some of the most unique and quietly disturbing art I've ever seen in a graphic novel, and it works SO WELL for Watersnakes. The story starts off with Mila, a young woman who meets another girl and is immediately captivated by her presence, her looks, her... teeth? She begins to form a seemingly unhealthy obsession over the other girl, but meanwhile, strange dreams begin to plague her about a deep underwater cave full of spirits. There's nothing else I can say without spoiling the entire odd little plot, but let me just say that the artwork and story make this one well worth your time if you enjoy strange fantasy/horror crossover work.

Thank you so much to Lion Forge for providing me with this ARC in exchange for an honest review!

When I was younger, I struggled a lot with recognizing what was healthy or unhealthy in a sexual relationship. Sex has been a part of my life for a long time as someone who is attracted to multiple genders and does not fall anywhere on the asexual spectrum, but unhealthy relationships and exposure to unhealthy scenarios as a teen messed up my views on what it should look like, and honestly, Erika Moen's Oh Joy, Sex Toy webcomics were a tremendous help. In fact, I have to say that I think I first learned sex positivity from Erika's words. Because of my eternal gratitude to her and her partner Matthew for their guidance, when I saw that they were coming out with Drawn to Sex, I naturally felt like I had to review it.

I can't say that I learned anything new from this book, because 1) I followed their webcomic for years, and 2) I've been around the block long enough at this point to have learned these things firsthand. That said, this is such a fantastically comprehensive guide and I would absolutely encourage anyone and everyone to read it, regardless of your sexuality and gender identity—Erika and Matthew cover it all.

On top of how in-depth everything is, the representation in the comics? Flawless. Erika so strongly normalizes different races, sexualities, identities, body types, disabilities, and anything else you can think of. It's something I first noticed about the webcomic back in the day, and I was so happy to see that she still focuses so strongly on including as many people as possible. There's also a lot of attention paid to phrasing—instead of using binary terms, she'll use phrases like "people with *insert sexual term here*"—and she even takes time more than once to point out that asexuality comes in many different layers, and each and every one of those layers is perfectly valid.

I would recommend Drawn to Sex to anyone and everyone, and am so proud of Erika Moen and Matthew Nolan for the work they're doing. ♥

Thank you so much to Oni Press for providing me with this ARC in exchange for an honest review!

If you've seen my other Phoebe reviews, you'll know that I thought the original comics were cute, but I didn't like the last "graphic novel" (as in, one consecutive plot from start to finish, instead of a bunch of one-shot comic strips) very much. I'm pleased to report that this one was much better! You can tell that Simpson has really grown more accustomed to this style with the longer-running storyline, and it was really cute. I'd definitely recommend this for any young kids.

Thank you so much to the publisher for providing me with this ARC in exchange for an honest review!