My Book Reviews for October 2024
My Book Reviews for October 2024
My Book Reviews for October 2024 comprise a stunning horror anthology, a characterful murder mystery set in Alaska, and various NetGalley advance copies I had the privilege of reading.
Of the Flesh: 18 Stories of Modern Horror
Given the high quality of writing on show in this horror short story anthology, it could just as easily have been billed as literary fiction. Although there are some gory descriptions, the stories are cerebral not slasher and explore issues such as racism, misogyny, worker exploitation and domestic abuse. Some scenarios popped up more than once: house renovations, airplane flights, strange foods, outsiders entering new communities, and bodily transformations.
Here’s what each story is about:
Fight, Flight, Freeze by Susan Barker
A mistress is haunted by the cancer-ridden ghost of her lover's dead wife.
Flight 2212 by J.K. Chukwu
In a world where no one has fingers and toes but limbs that end in bone, a woman flies abroad for risky surgery to have digits fitted.
The Fruiting Boy by Bridget Collins
A young couple buy a dilapidated doer-upper – with something malignant in the dry rot.
Daisies by Mariana Enriquez, translated by Megan McDowell
In this morbidly humorous tale, Lucas is summoned by his aunts to witness the reburial of his long-dead mother’s bones. But there’s a problem with the remains.
The Broccoli Eel by Michel Faber
Against a backdrop of domestic violence, a child is coaxed into eating his greens with horrific consequences.
Sketchy by Lewis Hancox
A comic strip I sadly couldn’t read on Kindle. It looks suitably creepy and I’m sorry to have missed out.
Apples by Emilia Hart
A middle-aged woman moves into a house with a wild garden. The apple tree has startling properties.
Waffle Thomas by Ainslie Hogarth
A woman has ended a long-term relationship and plans to heal herself by hiking in an oak forest. But she isn’t the only one in the woods.
Shade by Robert Lautner
Set in an indigenous community in Bolivia, a 11-year-old miner takes it upon himself to tidy and decorate the carving to El Tío, the devil who rules the mine.
The Smiling African Uncle by Adorah Nworah
The real-life horror of racism is front and centre here. Zikora, newly arrived in the UK, is hounded by repeated encounters with a blonde woman who accuses him of theft, and worse.
Rosheen by Irenosen Okojie
A young Irish/Trinidadian woman arrives in Norfolk in search of her long-lost father and is forced to take work with an abusive, exploitative farmer.
Carcinisation by Lucy Rose
An exquisitely written tale of metamorphosis. An unloved fisherman’s wife keeps one of the crabs in his catch as a companion.
Going Large by Lionel Shriver
A svelte woman, who despises those more amply sized, gets a taste of her own medicine.
BobaJob by James Smythe
A futuristic approach to dealing with debtors.
Fairies by Lavie Tidhar
Maya is a little girl who’s scared of fairies, and of the bullies at school.
Ghost Kitchen by Francine Toon
An islander moves to a mainland city and orders a takeaway.
The Old Lion by Evie Wyld
A woman takes a trip home to visit her widowed father. Meanwhile girls and animals are going missing.
Mouse by Louisa Young
A woman, caring for her sick and ungrateful husband in a high-rise flat, discovers she has an unwelcome house guest.
With thanks to the authors, publisher and NetGalley for the opportunity to read an early copy in exchange for an independent review.
City Under One Roof by Iris Yamashita
An Anchorage-based detective goes to a remote Alaskan town to investigate the discovery of body parts washed up on an icy beach. Naturally, as this is crime fiction, the cop has her own agenda for pursuing the case.
Not only is this a strong plot that builds to an action-packed climax, it also features an unusual setting and great characters.
All the town's residents and visitors live in the same apartment building, so everyone knows everyone's business, and news travels around the community faster than it gets to the police.
Seldom have I read such vividly drawn characters. They include a retired bank robber, a parent desperately concealing their heritage, an eccentric woman with a pet moose and a very sad jazz singer.
I'm really looking forward to reading book two when it comes out.
Barrowbeck by Andrew Michael Hurley
These short stories are loosely connected by their setting, a Lancashire village called Barrowbeck. Each story moves to a different time, starting with ‘First Footing’ about the ancient settlement sacked by marauders from a rival tribe. As one might expect from work penned by Andrew Michael Hurley, the tales make frequent reference to weather; trees, berries and crops; wildlife and livestock; rivers, hills and rocks; and Christian and pagan superstitions. Although it was the promise of these elements that drew me to the book, ultimately it was the stories that placed less overt emphasis on folkloric description that I found most appealing.
For me, the collection came alive in the 1995-set story ‘Autumn Pastoral’ when an art expert is called to a sprawling Barrowbeck property to value the art collection of the late owner. Each of the hundreds of canvases, painted by visiting artists over the years, features the local landscape. The assessor discovers not only the owner’s eccentricities but also his “deep-rooted” spitefulness. (If you read the story, you’ll see why I have used inverted commas here.) ‘Sisters’ set in 2022 is a rounded character study of a guest staying at a Barrowbeck guesthouse run by aging siblings. The most memorable story for me was ‘Covenant’ set in the near future of 2029. Evelyn, the new Barrowbeck doctor, finds a vulnerable man asleep in a ditch. The creeping sense of suspense and doom is palpable as we learn more about these two characters. The likely end point of the tale soon grows ominously clear. The author rounds off the collection with ‘A Valediction 2041’, perhaps the most horror-laden story of all: Barrowbeck a decade after climate change has taken the ultimate toll.
This is an independent review of a NetGalley early copy. With thanks to the author, publisher and NetGalley for the opportunity.
Barrowbeck is published on 24 October.
The Land in Winter by Andrew Miller
“I wanted it to be something that was not afraid to slide sideways as well as going forwards.” This is what author Andrew Miller said of The Land in Winter in a recent interview in The Bookseller (p15, 23rd August 2024). This statement accurately sums up the digressive style of the novel.
Set in the severe British winter of 1962-3, it follows the lives and thoughts of two married couples: a country doctor and his quiet wife; a new farmer and his ex-dancer wife. As they contend with the elements, they also reveal their inner turmoils and their unexpected coping mechanisms.
With a strong sense of time and place, it is ideal for fans of slow-burn character study.
This is an independent review of a NetGalley early copy. With thanks to the author, publisher and NetGalley for the opportunity.
The Land in Winter is published on 24 October.
Curdle Creek by Yvonne Battle-Felton
Reminiscent of Shirley Jackson’s short story The Lottery, this full-length novel is told from the viewpoint of a woman in the closed community of Curdle Creek, where strict rules of tradition lead to the annual selection of a local to be sacrificed. In Jackson’s story it was to ensure a good harvest, in Battle-Felton’s each community member votes for who should be Moved On to control population size. Methods of despatch are similar to the one featured in The Lottery. The novel also explores issues of gender, race and fertility, and later stages of the book touch on surrealism with a brief, Kafkaesque trial.
Ideal for readers of densely-written literary fiction, especially those interested in seeing how the themes of The Lottery could be explored and developed in a novel.
The Blue Hour by Paula Hawkins
From the blurb: Eris, an island with only one house, one inhabitant, one way out. Unreachable from the Scottish mainland for twelve hours each day. Once home to Vanessa, a famous artist whose notoriously unfaithful husband disappeared twenty years ago. Now home to Grace. A solitary creature of the tides, content in her own isolation. But when a shocking discovery is made in an art gallery far away in London, a visitor comes calling.
Although it becomes something of a thriller in the closing stages, this is mainly high-level literary fiction set in the art world. Ideal for fans of the genre. With thanks to the author, publisher and NetGalley for the opportunity to read an early copy in exchange for an independent review.
Teen/adult horror romp, told in a straightforward and laddish style.
When Hudson gets his mad up, he turns into a giant spider. And then he has to feed...
Ideal for fans of an easy-read gorefest.
With thanks to the author, publisher and NetGalley for the opportunity to read an early copy in exchange for an independent review.
Tales Accursed: A Folk Horror Anthology selected and illustrated by Richard Wells
This is a collection of classic horror, starting with a 1870 tale by Sheridan Le Fanu and ending in 1975 with L.T.C. Rolt. (There’s also a Shirley Jackson story published in in The New Yorker in 2014, forty plus years after her death.)
Because each story is accompanied by a new illustration by the editor, it is probably best purchased in hard copy rather than ebook. A nice gift for the literary horror fan.
From the blurb:
Tales Accursed is the second collection of classic supernatural stories selected by the artist Richard Wells. Each of the sixteen tales is accompanied by one of Richard’s striking lino-print illustrations. This anthology contains work from both the established masters of folk horror, and some more surprising contributors: from Shirley Jackson and M. R. James to E. F. Benson and William Croft Dickinson.
With thanks to the author, publisher and NetGalley for the opportunity to read an early copy in exchange for an independent review.