The Joys of Medieval Slaughter. Time Travel to The Last Saxon King. A Review and questions about pants.

 The Last Saxon King pulled me in right from the beginning. I liked the main characters and the secondary characters. The action and adventure were exciting. The book had elements of science fiction, horror, and fantasy. Except for the time travel, the historic events were pretty accurate. Umm, maybe time travel exists which would make the book seriously accurate. The author has a section following the story that explains the end of the Viking era and the events leading to the Battle of Hastings. As a history buff, I enjoyed this.

The Last Saxon King is set up to have a sequel. I only ask two things. More female characters. The main female character is fantastic but she's the only one!  Surely, even in medieval battles, there were camp followers. The other thing is I want to know how Dan kept the time-traveling rod in the waistband of his trousers throughout the battles. What kept it from falling out? Medieval pants didn't exactly have elastic waistbands.

I can suspend my disbelief to believe in time travel, but it's hard for me to believe the time travel device never fell out of Dan's pants while he's slaughtering Normans.

Thanks to Netgalley and Imbrifex books for allowing me to read and review an eARC of The Last Saxon King. I look forward to the sequel, The Celtic Deception.

Bad Cree Dreaming of Bad Monster. A Review of Bad Cree.

 The thing is, McKenzie isn't really a bad Cree. She does what most young people do, leaves home to find better opportunities. But she feels bad about leaving her family and thinks her bizarre dreams are due to feeling guilty. Little does she know that strange and mysterious dreams run in the family.

McKenzie goes home to the lake and her sister, cousins, mother and aunts thinking the dreams will end. Instead, she finds nightmares have begun while sleeping and awake. How does a bad Cree overcome the monster that stalks her dreams, her family and hometown? With the help of the strong ladies who share her genes.

Bad Cree certainly wins the Alison Bechdel test--that is two or more women talking together about something besides men. Lots of brave and interesting women in Bad Cree. Also, lots of gore, but it's horror so what do you expect?

Oh, and lots and lots and lots of eyeball rolling and smirking. Please, young adult writers, stop with all the smirking eyeballs. My eyeball-roll-o-meter and smirk-o-meter overheated with Bad Cree. Other than every character managing to roll their eyes at some point, Bad Cree is a dandy horror novel.

Thanks to Netgalley and Doubleday for allowing me to read and review Bad Cree

Charmed by Music and Mushrooms A Review of Ghost Music

 I was charmed by the opening few pages of Ghost Music, by the strange orange mushroom asking only to be remembered. I would call this book literary horror. It's frightening in the "why are these strange things happening to me" rather than the blood and gore horror. There is lots of philosophical thinking, lots of references to classical music and a double mystery of why the protagonist's husband keeps so many secrets and why is she compelled to keep seeking out a concert pianist who may or may not be a ghost.

Just like in real life, there are no clearcut answers to the protagonist's questions.  

Ghost Music doesn't have any monsters to slay at the end, but it does have a wonderful ghostly mood. I felt like I was also trapped in the stifling warm room full of orange glowing mushrooms.

Thanks to Netgalley and Grove Atlantic for allowing to read and review an eARC of Ghost Music.

Love the cover.

Kari Already Has Too Many Problems and then a Ghost Shows Up. Can't an Urban Indian Get a Break? Review of White Horse.

 

I liked this character enough that I hope there is a sequel.

I had to think about White Horse for a few days. This isn't a bad thing. A book that makes a reader think is better than a book that's immediately forgotten. 

I like the characters very much. Kari seems like a cool person to know but I probably wouldn't hang around with her. Lots of drinking, lots of smoking, and way too much eyeball rolling. My eyeball-roll-o-meter went off the charts. When the characters aren't smoking, drinking, or rolling their eyeballs, they have interesting family dynamics going on. Lots of love and attempts at understanding between most of them. Kari's care of her father is especially touching. Some sexual and mental abuse but there is comeuppance. awaiting.

Oh, and Kari loves cats. I have to like a character who loves cats. (I have one beside me right now as I write this. A cat, not a character.)

Now for the horror parts. I want more to happen faster. We keep seeing Kari's dead mother crying or screaming or bleeding, but it happens so often that the jump scares cease to be scary. At least her ghost mom wasn't rolling her eyeballs. But hey, that would be scary seeing a ghost rolling its eyeballs. I also think the supernatural powers that be should have just given Kari the warclub instead of making her stay in an expensive hotel to find it. Do supernatural entities own stock in The Stanley Hotel? I know Kari is a fan of The Shining, but really, it would have been cheaper if the warclub came with an order of burgers and fries at McDonalds. That would be a spooky Happy Meal surprise.

White Horse is a gripping mystery as to why and how Kari's mother died.  And Auntie Squeaker is a cool name.

Thanks to Netgalley and to Flatiron Books for allowing me to read and review White Horse.

The Stakes are High, But It's Hard for Me to Care A Review of The Spirit Phone Maybe My Title is a Little Harsh

 

The Spirit Phone has just about everything. Science fiction, horror, steam punk, alternative history, necromancy. Yet, I felt like something was missing. The fate of humanity was at stake, but I didn't feel close to any one character. There is a saying, "A million deaths is a statistic. One death is a story." That is, it's hard to feel close to the story of a million people, but singling out one person, and making us feel that person's tribulations, makes it a fascinating story for us.

We have two interesting main characters, Tesla and Crowley, two interesting secondary characters in the police officers, but none of those characters seem to have a private story at stake. Nobody has a wife or children to think about or a dear granny or Siamese cat. Of course, Tesla had his occupation, but that doesn't feel as close to me as a reader as would fighting evil to protect someone close to him.

The plot was exciting, the action almost nonstop, there's magic and science and more science and magic. The one thing that was missing for me was a more human element. I couldn't get particularly fond of any character.

The author ends with a short history as it actually happened, rather than the fictional tale. For a history buff like me, that was illuminating.

Much thanks to Netgalley and BHC Press for allowing me to read and review an eARC of The Spirit Phone.

Detective Noir With a Side of Demons Review of Even Though I Knew the End

Angels, demons, warlocks, detectives, sigils, magic, blood, and lots and lots of cigarettes. And lots of blood, but maybe not as much blood as cigarettes. But hey, it's the 1940's, everybody smoked, sapphic love had to be kept hidden, everybody wore fedoras and talked like Phillip Marlowe. There's even a character names Marlowe but she's not a Humphrey Bogart detective she's a lady, er, demon.

It's a fun book with noir detective talk and lots of smoking due to Chesterfield cigarettes and above mentioned demons.

It's a little sad, too. Moral of story: Do not sell your soul to a demon unless it's for a dire cause and having your own radio show is not a dire cause. They will get you in the end, or in ten years (whatever comes first.) Our protagonist has good cause even though she knew the end. 

Seedy bars, greasy spoon diners, baby-you-know-it detective talk, sapphic love, angelic possession, even a mental hospital, fallen angels and fallen priests. There's a lot packed into this short and fast-paced novel. I had a good time reading this.

Thanks to Netgalley and Tor for allowing me to read and review this eARC of Even Though I Knew the End.

Heartbreaking and Some of the Most Imaginative Writing. Review of Liberation Day

 I've mentioned before that some of the most gruesome monsters in horror are not the supernatural or unnatural but the manipulative humans behind them. Liberation Day by George Saunders will be sold as a literary collection, but believe me, it is pure horror. The characters are trapped in paralyzing, cruel, terrifying situations and very few of the protagonists escape.

This is not a happy collection, but it made me think about my own life. Do I feel trapped and how do I get out? Are people really so cruel to others? (In many ways, yes) Sometimes its society doing the trapping. Some of the characters are kept as amusements for the wealthy. One is trapped by her own snobbishness. But others are confined by fantastical, horrifying places with no way out.

George Saunders' mind is a very interesting place.

This is not horror with bloodsucking monsters, but Liberation Day is truly horrifying.

Thanks to Netgalley and Random House for allowing me to read and review an eARC of Liberation Day.

Keep reading. Keep writing.

“The best way of fighting and responding to the kind of threat that came my way is to show that it doesn’t work,” he said that day. “To show that the ordinary business of writing and reading and discussing and publishing and buying books just continues.”

Salman Rushdie