“Ring Shout” by P. Djèlí Clark

This novella received a lot of praise when it was published, and I can see why. However, I procrastinated on reading it myself until it popped up as a pick for my book club. I expected to love it — and normally I would — but unfortunately, the reading experience didn’t go as I’d hoped.

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GENRE

Horror, Fantasy

SERIES

n/a

PUBBED

2020

Quick summary

Set in early-1920s Macon, Georgia, during the Prohibition era, Ring Shout is about a young woman named Maryse Boudreaux hunting demonic members of the Ku Klux Klan with her two friends.

The demons are attracted to the hatred that fills members of the Ku Klux Klan, and they were able to cross over to this world during a ritual that took place in November 1915, when The Birth of the Nation (a real and controversial film) was shown. Only a few people have the ability to see the demons, which disguise themselves as White men and are all members of the Ku Klux Klan.

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Comics Roundup #68: DCeased, vols. 1-4

DCeased is a comic-book series I learned about from Lashaan and read for the first time last year. I’d only read the first volume, but I was immediately hooked. You see, it’s a zombie apocalypse comic-book series featuring superheroes — a story I was hoping for but never knew I’d get. I was sure to like it.

I enjoyed the story so much that I quickly bought the other available volumes but didn’t get around to reading them until earlier this year. Due to busyness and several blogging slumps, I’m just now getting around to chatting about them.

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Genre

Horror

Series

DCeased, vols. 1-4

Pubbed

2019

Quick summary

DCeased is a zombie apocalypse series set in the DC universe. How did the zombie apocalypse start? Well, the villain Darkseid wanted to create an anti-life equation that he could use to control all sentient races. To do so, he needed Cyborg and Death. But by adding a bit of Death, the equation became corrupted. Cyborg was then sent to earth with the equation inside him and once he touched down, his system automatically went online, causing the anti-virus equation to become a techno-organic virus that not only spreads via social media (as soon as they see the equation online, people first try to tear it from their mind before spreading it), but also the traditional way of an infected zombie biting another being.

“The Old Nurse’s Story” by Elizabeth Gaskell, illus. by Seth

I surprised myself a while back by picking up this classic horror short story to read for a readathon and actually liking it.

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Genre

Classic Horror

Series

n/a

Pubbed

1852

Quick summary

The Old Nurse’s Story is a short ghost story an old nursemaid tells her charges about when she and their mother were younger. The mother, Rosamond, and the nursemaid were sent to live at the family mansion with Rosamond’s aunt shortly after Rosamond’s parents died.

Comics Roundup #66: Three Dark Comics

I’ve been battling a blogging slump since the beginning of this year and it recently became worse, so my posting hasn’t been consistent lately, and I’m behind on many reviews. Actually, the comics I’m discussing in this post were read way earlier this year, in March and April. So, due to those factors, my thoughts on them might not be as detailed as usual.

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Mirka Andolfo’s Mercy: The Fair Lady, the Frost, and the Fiend by Mirka Andolfo (illus.), transl. from the Italian by Arancia Studio

Genre

Horror

Series

n/a

Pubbed

2020

From Goodreads

The story is set in a small town in Washington state during the Klondike Gold Rush of the late 19^th century. The Swanson family controls the town and seems to run everything, even the brothels. In the prologue, the Swansons seem to have found a portal in one of the gold mines through which monsters can enter. These monsters can take on human form, and some of them are already in the world — a group of Native Americans hunt them.

Top 5 Tuesday #65: Creepy Covers Coming 😱

Top 5 Tuesday is a weekly meme created by Shanah, the Bionic Book Worm, and now hosted by Meeghan at Meeghan Reads.

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This week’s topic:

Top 5 creepy covers

(Let’s chat about all those book covers that give you super creepy atmospheric vibes!!)

Brace yourself. This is about book covers, so naturally I went overboard with the pics.

I haven’t read any of these books, so I’ll link to the Goodreads page.

Krampus: The Yule Lord by Brom (illus.)

This cover is one of the creepiest to me. I try not to look at it and will quickly scroll past whenever I glimpse it because it’s the type of image that annoyingly sticks around in my mind long after I see it.

Spooktastic Reads TBR | 2021

Spooktastic Reads is back! 😀

Spooktastic Reads is a mini-event hosted by the Wyrd & Wonder crew — Imyril, Lisa, and Jorie — over the 13 days leading up to Halloween, so October 19 – 31. (For more info, check out Imyril’s post.)

Spooktastic Reads is a laid-back event, so there’s no need to make a TBR or to even read books for it. You participate in whatever way you like, which I’m grateful for because this is always a busy time of year for me.

I tend to always make a TBR and never read anything from it, so this time I shall instead list books I’ve already started and need to read. There’s nothing scary on it (well, one of them may be, but I doubt it). These books just give me fall vibes.

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Comics Roundup #62: “DCeased”

I actually began a review for this several weeks ago, but I managed to misplace it. Now I can’t remember if I began the review on a notecard or on my laptop, so it’s lost forever until I don’t need it, which is when it will magically reappear as if it hadn’t vanished.

I’ve realized after running a book blog for several years now that sometimes I tend to judge a book a bit harder than I need to. I don’t know if it’s due to writing reviews over the years or from rating books or interacting with the bookish community, but sometimes I’m harder on the book, I think, because I didn’t get much else from it but pure enjoyment. But what’s wrong with loving a book simply because I enjoyed it and nothing more?

That was my experience with DCeased. I gave it a high rating after completing it because I rate books more on enjoyment than anything else, but it took a while for me to admit that it’s a favorite because all I got from it was enjoyment. I delayed adding DCeased there thinking I should have gotten more from the story. Now I think that was silly of me. There’s nothing wrong with adding a book to your favorites list simply because it was entertaining. Everyone has their own criteria for adding a book to their favorites list, but for me simply enjoying a book is reason enough. I guess I was put off because DCeased was an easy add for me. Afterall, zombies + superheroes = Zezee loves it! 😀

“The Southern Book Club’s Guide to Slaying Vampires” by Grady Hendix

This one was very popular last year, when it was published. I remember seeing it chatted about on many blogs and many of my trusted blogs for book recommendations enjoyed it as well. All that got me curious and made me place it on my TBR.

Then, because the title says it’s a story about a book club, my book club selected it as one of our reads, which I was grateful for because as much as I’d like to read the books on my TBR and shelves soon after placing them there, they most often just remain in those places unread for years. So I read it for book club, and it made for great discussions since we disagreed on a variety of things about the book. In the end, I think I ended up enjoying it a bit more than my fellow book clubbers did.

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Genre

Horror

Series

n/a

Pubbed

2020

From Goodreads

Fried Green Tomatoes and Steel Magnolias meet Dracula in this Southern-flavored supernatural thriller set in the ’90s about a women’s book club that must protect its suburban community from a mysterious and handsome stranger who turns out to be a blood-sucking fiend.

Comics Roundup #58: Manor Black

Here’s another comic book I read for Wyrd & Wonder waaay back in May. I think it was on the recommendations shelf of the comic bookshop I frequent, and it was that and the synopsis that got me interested.

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Manor Black, Vol. 1 by Cullen Bunn & Brian Hurtt, illus. by Tyler Crook

Genre

Supernatural; Horror

Series

Manor Black

Pubbed

2019

From Goodreads

From the creators of Harrow County and The Sixth Gun comes this gothic horror fantasy about a family of sorcerers in crisis.

Roman Black is the moribund patriarch of a family of powerful sorcerers. As his wicked and corrupt children fight over who will take the reins of Manor Black and representative of the black arts, Roman adopts a young mage who he gifts his powers to with the hope that someone good will take his place against the evil forces out to bring down his family and legacy. (Goodreads)

My thoughts

Because this is a story about magicians, I went in thinking it was solely fantasy-based, despite the horror vibe the cover gives off what with the black and red colors and the style of the typography for the title, which makes me think of slasher films.

Comics Roundup #46: “Watersnakes”

I love the cover of this book. The girls on it look ready for a battle. I like the fierce expression on their faces and, once I’d gotten my hands on a copy of the book, I liked the silver foil used for the title and the faint water snake flowing through it.

When I saw the book at the Lion Forge booth at the 2019 ALA Conference, I knew I had to get it because of the cover, so I did and recently read it.

Watersnakes by Tony Sandoval (illus.), transl. from the French by Lucas Marangon

Genre

YA Fantasy; Horror

Series

n/a

Pubbed

2008

Goodreads summary

Mila is a solitary teenager ready to put another boring summer vacation behind her until she meets Agnes, an adventurous girl who turns out to be a ghost. And not just a regular ghost, but one carrying the essence of an ancient fallen king and a mouth full of teeth that used to be his guardian warriors.