The Familiar is the latest adult novel by Leigh Bardugo. Like Ninth House, The Familiar is magical realism, but it is also historical fiction as it is set in 16th century Spain. I enjoyed The Familiar and at this point I think that Bardugo cannot fail to write a novel that I find interesting.
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Bad Cree is the debut novel of nehiyaw (Cree) writer Jessica Johns. The novel has been shortlisted for 2024 CBC Canada Reads. The reviews I read described Bad Cree as creepy, haunting and terrifying. I have been in the mood for creepy books lately, so this novel sounded good to me. Although it has some interesting aspects to it, Bad Cree turned out to be an underwhelming story.
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I wanted to read Lone Women by Victor Lavalle as it is inspired by the women homesteaders who took advantage of the government’s offer of free land in the American mid-west to anyone who could turn the harsh, inhabitable landscape into a working farm. I love it when women are badass and prove that they can survive without men. Lone Women is also supposed to be a horror novel, and I like the horror genre, but I would say the horror in this novel is underwhelming. As compulsively readable as I found Lone Women to be, I did not find it to be very horrifying.
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I have never read anything by Grady Hendrix before, and I guess judging by How to Sell a Haunted House, he writes comic-horror novels. I bought How to Sell a Haunted House because I wanted something spooky to read, but this is not a scary novel. It is low-key terrifying, though, because of all the creepy dolls and puppets that populate the story. I still found it to be an interesting read as it is about how trauma can affect generations of a family.
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I was initially put off by Starling House because of the “Reese’s Book Club” decal on the cover1. However, I kept seeing this book on different websites with good reviews, and it is described as a gothic novel – a genre that is like catnip to me – so I knew I had to read it. Although this book did not turn out to be as creepily gothic as I hoped, I found Starling House to be an entertaining read.
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Silver Nitrate is the newest book from Silvia Moreno-Garcia. This is my favourite of her more recent works (Mexican Gothic, Velvet Was the Night and The Daughter of Doctor Moreau). Silver Nitrate pays homage to the golden age of cinema, back when movies were filmed on highly volatile silver nitrate, but it also tackles a part of Nazism that does not get as much attention: the occult.
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I came across Zoraida Córdova’s The Inheritance of Orquídea Divina on the Book Outlet website. I had never heard of it before, but the synopsis sounded interesting enough to give it a chance. I had no expectations when I started reading this novel, but I found it to be an entertaining and engrossing read.
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Gods of Jade and Shadow is Silvia Moreno-Garcia’s second novel following her debut novel, Signal to Noise, and itself followed by Mexican Gothic, Velvet was the Night and The Daughter of Doctor Moreau. I find that I prefer Moreno-Garcia’s earlier works more than her more recent novels, because I enjoyed Gods of Jade and Shadow, a fairy tale based on Mayan folklore, as much as I enjoyed Signal to Noise.
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Signal to Noise was Silvia Moreno-Garcia’s debut novel, and I enjoyed it best out of all her novels that I have read so far (Mexican Gothic, Velvet was the Night and The Daughter of Doctor Moreau). It is a fantasy novel set in Mexico about a teenage girl who discovers that she can perform spells while listening to records.
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You may have noticed that I have read quite a few books based on Greek and Roman mythology. The Witch’s Heart is based on a mythology that I am not as familiar with: Norse mythology ie. Odin, Thor, and Loki. But this is not a Disney/Marvel watering down of Norse mythology where the gods are more likeable and played to comic effect. Like the Greek and Roman gods, the Norse gods were actually dicks. The Witch’s Heart is about a woman who has been relegated to a footnote in Norse mythology (as women typically are), a witch called Angrboda who was also a wife of Loki. Gornichec gives Angrboda her own story, and it is a good, interesting story, but I am not blown away by it as other readers seem to be.
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