howlinglibraries's Reviews (1.85k)

 What a fascinating, strange, captivating little story Lamella is. I don't reach for bizarro horror often, but when I saw this cover and read the blurb, I was so compelled. I immediately needed to know who the terrifying (yet oddly adorable) child in the artwork was, and how her sudden and unexplained appearance in Mel's life would play out.

Lamella dumps us right into the oddity of the story, as Mel comes home from a stressful work day and finds his girlfriend tending to a baby she insists is theirs, though he's never seen the child in his life. Worse yet, the baby has a downright unsettling appearance, and her newfound residence in his home seems to have brought a few other inexplicable circumstances along, too.

Right from the start, this story is pure confusion and chaos, but I loved that Mel goes through the motions just as baffled as the reader is. I quickly gave up on theories and guesses, and decided to just enjoy the ride, and I'm glad I did, because I never would have guessed where the story would lead (and I'm still not entirely sure I understand how we ended up there). Between Mel's flawed and confused narrative and the faintly horrifying imagery of Lamella's character design, this story put a pit of dread in my gut that wouldn't quit.

I won't lie: almost nothing about this story makes sense when I look back on it, but I tremendously enjoyed the general sense of unease Lamella gave me from front cover to back and found the writing so enjoyable that I flew right through it. I consider myself very picky about bizarro work, but this is probably my favorite bizarro title I've ever read, and I'm very interested in seeing what Max Halper releases next! (As a side note, I'm obsessed with this cover art — it suits the story so well!)

Thank you so much to Bad Dream Entertainment for providing me with this review copy in exchange for an honest review! 

 

Oh my gods, I can't even begin to deal with how incredible this first serial was. Xen, also known as Cole McCade, is an all-time favorite author of mine, and everything he reads is just immediately launched onto my TBR, but as someone who adores the crossing-over of horror and romance more than just about any other genre mash-up you can imagine, when he announced this series, I was so excited I could barely stand myself — and it already has completely hooked me.

Anyone who has read Xen/Cole's work knows he's incredible at writing romance, but I'm not sure how many of my friends are aware of how solid his horror writing is, and the body horror and creeping, dreadful sense of everything being wrong in this story is stunningly well-written. On top of that, as always, the characters are charming and flawed and beautiful and broken, and I immediately wanted to hold them all and keep them safe, especially Sho and Naoki (and poor, precious Jiro!).

As far as the romance element goes, Marrow utilizes one of my all time favorite pairing tropes: childhood best friends growing up to love one another, but being too afraid to confess their feelings for risk of losing everything they've built. Xen excels at the slow-burn, so don't go into this first installment expecting more than sweet pining and barely-stifled words, but oh, am I ever so excited to watch this unfold between these two sweet babies.

✨ Representation: Naoki is gay; Sho is queer (I believe it's being implied that he is bi or pan); all primary (and I think all side) characters are Japanese

✨ Content warnings for: mentions of past loss of parents, grief, body horror, brief/vague memories of child abuse, care-taking of ill elderly parents

I read a final copy through my Kindle Unlimited subscription, but for the sake of disclosure, I was also sent an early review copy by the author. 

 Don’t mind me over here, forever obsessing over everything Eric writes. 🖤

I've read several of Eric's works now, and have been genuinely captivated by each and every one. Their way with words is brilliant all on its own, but Eric has the plots and characters to flesh out all of that eloquence and give it a sturdy home that leads to the most memorable and truly special reading experiences. Unsurprisingly for anyone who's a fan of this author's works, We Can Never Leave This Place runs through a wide gambit of emotions, and left me feeling somehow both drained and fulfilled in the best way when it ended.

We Can Never Leave This Place is a gloomy, claustrophobic tale of a teen girl in a seemingly war-ravaged or dystopian society, trapped in a toxic home with her ruthlessly cold mother after her father is murdered. Strange characters filter into the apartment and bring their own bizarre and, at times, horrific motives and desires with them, and all Mara can do — and us, alongside her — is watch the quiet chaos reach its peak. There's a general sense of disgust and true, human horror that permeates the entire tale, due both to the characters' depraved actions and Mara's filthy living conditions, and each time a glimmer of hope is unveiled, you can't help but grasp onto it desperately despite knowing it will likely be wrenched away from Mara soon enough.

Much like Eric's other works, there's only so much I can say without spoiling the madness that ensues within these pages, but I truly enjoyed this novella so much and I know I'll be adding it to the ever-growing list of Eric LaRocca titles I frequently rave about and recommend so highly. Well done with another incredible release that has dug itself entirely under my skin, Eric. I'm happy to have it here.

✨ Content warnings for: mentions of child death, parent death, grief, unclean living situation, violence, murder, brief mention of rape, emotional and verbal abuse from a parent, animal violence/death, insects, body horror, brief descriptions of miscarriage/stillbirth, incest

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

 I'm so glad I waited to read these graphic novels until they were all out so that I could binge them back-to-back like I just did, because I was totally hooked on this trilogy of volumes and couldn't put them down! This was my least favorite of the graphic novels in one sense, because as I mentioned in my review of the first volume, the art style made fight scenes hard to follow at times, and that problem was more noticeable to me in this volume than the previous two. On the other hand, though, I enjoyed Maxim's character the most in this volume as we got to see how much he had progressed away from an arrogant, cocky princeling, into this disciplined, brave man who knows what he has to lose and what he needs to prove. Well done yet again, Schwab!

✨ Representation: the members of the Maresh family are Black; multiple BIPOC side characters; one on-page sapphic side character 

 Oh, this was absolutely delightful — even better than the first volume! If you know me, you probably know already that I'm a massive sucker for tournaments, trials, etc., and learning that the infamous Night of Knives is a set of trials custom-built for that contestant? Sign me the hell up. (Sign me up for reading about it, not, y'know, participating. Just to be clear.)

I'm so thoroughly enjoying this time of getting to know Maxim better and learning how he was shaped into the proud and powerful King we know from the Shades novels, and now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go devour the final volume in this trilogy.

✨ Representation: the members of the Maresh family are Black; multiple BIPOC side characters; one on-page sapphic side character 

 I've been missing the Shades series and characters lately, so I thought it was high time that I read the graphic novel series following Maxim in his younger days. This was incredibly fast-paced and fascinating! I love prequels and getting to go back into the past to learn more about a world I've already spent so much time falling in love with, and The Steel Prince has a wonderful coupling of both old and new details and characters. While this first volume didn't explicitly spoil the main trilogy, I would definitely recommend waiting until after finishing A Conjuring of Light before picking up this graphic novel series.

My only complaint was that I thought the art style was a little dark and muddled during the big fight scenes, so it sometimes was difficult to follow along with exactly what was happening, but I think that could easily be a "me" issue more than a problem with the book.

✨ Representation: the members of the Maresh family are Black; multiple BIPOC side characters; one on-page sapphic side character 

I'm not totally sucked in to the story of Elle(s) based on this first volume, and I'm always wary in these sorts of scenarios since Elle's situation is clearly written to resemble the DID experience, but there were some minor elements that have me wondering if Elle is dealing with that or something else entirely.

I loved the artwork, thought the characters were cute and the dialogue was fun, and most of all, I was impressed with the artistic depictions of the different versions of Elle. I loved that each one was represented by nothing more than a hair color change, and that Elle herself even thinks of the "other Elles" by their hair colors ("I think of that one as the blonde", etc.). It was a really simple, neat stylistic choice that made the story super easy to follow.

I wasn't in love with this book, but I'm definitely intrigued and looking forward to continuing the series! 

 What an incredible, intense, sad installment to the series. I originally thought this was only going to be a 3-volume series, so I'm extremely happy to find out that there are more issues in the works, even if Something is Killing the Children does wreck me a little bit more every time I revisit this world.

Also, Erica Slaughter is such a damn badass and I want to know her.

✨ Representation: queer primary character; BIPOC side characters 

 

Rachel Lynn Solomon is one of those authors I've heard so much hype for, I was simultaneously excited and downright nervous to finally try out a book of hers! What if I'm the odd one out? What if this book lets me down? My fellow Anxious Readers™️ probably know what I mean. Luckily, I wasn't disappointed at all, and in fact, I wholeheartedly plan on reading more of Rachel Lynn Solomon's books in the future, because this was absolutely delightful.

Ari and Russell are such lovable characters, though I'll admit Russell was my favorite of the two. We so rarely get to see fat heroes in romance, and I love that it felt authentic in that Russell does have some insecurities, but it also isn't like his entire world revolves around it. He's such a damn cinnamon roll (though he definitely does mess up a time or two).

Ari was more complicated for me. I adored her depression rep because it felt so genuine and relatable, but she also made choices that frustrated me. I don't mind the miscommunication trope sometimes, but in this case, it felt unnecessary and I was so annoyed with her refusal to face the truth about the situation and Russell's feelings. That said, the reality of living with depression like Ari's is that we do sometimes make these really poor choices and hurt our loved ones by keeping them at a distance, so despite it not being enjoyable to read about, I was certainly able to see why RLS chose to take us down that path.

(As a side note, while we're discussing representation, Ari and Russell are both Jewish and so is Rachel Lynn Solomon. I'm not Jewish, but I wanted to say that I thought it was so delightful and sweet to watch these two bond over their backgrounds and celebrations, and I really appreciated RLS sharing those experiences with us!)

Thankfully, the annoyance with a brief section of the story was not a deterrent from adoring this book and these characters. RLS' writing is so enjoyable and engaging, the tension that builds up between Ari and Russell is believable and absolutely charged with natural chemistry, and Russell's daughter is hilarious and steals the spotlight every chance she gets. I loved how easy it was to root for every single character in Weather Girl and to genuinely celebrate every milestone and success. I can't wait to read more from this author!

✨ Representation: Ari is Jewish and has depression; Russell is Jewish and fat; Ari's brother is Jewish and gay; Ari's mother is Jewish and has depression

✨ Content warnings for: depictions of depression, mentions of mental health-related hospitalization (a side character, not depicted first-hand), mentions of fatphobia, recent bad break-up

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

 Reception has been recommended to me countless times and I'd built an immense amount of hype for this story in my own mind, so I'm happy to say that I finally read it — and I can see why so many people have raved about it! I love stories about terrible rich people doing terrible-rich-people things (one of my all-time favorite horror films is Ready or Not, which this reminded me of once or twice), and though I don't read it as often as I'd like to, I thoroughly enjoy a good splatterpunk story.

I would say the splatterpunk element is where Kenzie Jennings absolutely shines in this story, because the gore and violence are on point. It takes a while to reach the moment where the violence kicks in, but once it starts, it doesn't let up until the climax of the story, and there were descriptions in this novella that had me positively cringing because they sounded so painful. I loved that aspect of Reception — I only wish it had come sooner.

Unfortunately, despite this novella only being a little over 200 pages long (or 8 hours for the audiobook I listened to), it dragged a bit for me in the first half. It takes exactly 50% of the story for shit to hit the fan, and while the first half does a good job of setting the scene and introducing the characters, that isn't necessarily what I went into Reception expecting. Realistically, that's possibly less Kenzie Jennings' fault and more my own for mismanaged expectations. Aside from that, I didn't love the ending, but I saw with a quick glance at friends' reviews that I seem to definitely be the odd duck out in this feeling, so take my opinion with a grain of salt!

Minor issues aside, this story was a fun time and I'm so glad I read it. The audiobook was solidly produced and I liked the narrator, so if you're an audiobook reader as well, I definitely recommend it! Whatever format you prefer, Reception is a disgusting, sometimes hilarious story featuring lots of gore, a lovable and comedic bickering set of sisters, and some really fucked up dinner plans, and I happily recommend it to my fellow horror lovers.

Thank you so much to Fireside Horror for providing me with this audio copy in exchange for an honest review!