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| 1250875137
| 9781250875136
| 1250875137
| 4.03
| 2,871
| Nov 02, 2022
| Nov 02, 2022
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really liked it
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‘The oldest stories said Mariposa began with a song, and like all songs, it would end with silence.’ I am torn between being absolutely thrilled Seanan ‘The oldest stories said Mariposa began with a song, and like all songs, it would end with silence.’ I am torn between being absolutely thrilled Seanan McGuire finally let us experience the world of Mariposa and being saddened that all we get is a short story instead of a novella about Christopher. Set in the world of the Wayward Children series—though this could certainly be read as a stand-alone—Skeleton Song gives us the tragic love story of Christopher and his “skeleton girl” that happens to be the Princess of Mariposa. You can read the entire thing HERE if you’d like. I think I actually enjoy the backstories more than the forward-plot-progression volumes and this one is really fun playing around with the whole Dia de los Muertos vibes. I enjoy how Christopher is so outcast because he ‘came from a world of others like him, skeletons wrapped in flesh and skin’ and how the Princess is able to find him lovely despite him having a face. But what works best is how much this really does add texture to all we’ve previously known about Christopher, like the twist about the origin of his bone flute and how much he misses and loves skeleton girl. It’s all very sweet and tender: ‘That was the best thing about Christopher, and she enjoyed him in all ways; it was wonderful to have a companion who didn’t demand she be a perfect princess, but allowed her to be a person when she wanted to be.’ But that also makes the ending all the more tragic. I really hope this is just a taste and we will get much more of Mariposa in an upcoming book. Also this was fun to read right before Halloween. “Sing to me of Mariposa, oh mi calaquitas, Sing to me of the honeyed sky and the fields of endless gold. Sing to me of butterflies, oh mi calaquitas, Sing to me of the dreaming days and the nights as yet untold. . . .” ...more |
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not set
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not set
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Oct 29, 2023
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ebook
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| B089FTG8MS
| 3.79
| 1,517
| Jun 17, 2020
| Jun 17, 2020
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liked it
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‘Once there was a girl who got lost and when she found her way home she realized she’d arrived back without herself…’ I feel most people have a specifi ‘Once there was a girl who got lost and when she found her way home she realized she’d arrived back without herself…’ I feel most people have a specific childrens show they look back on and think “why was that show so creepy?” Especially the ones that you only half remember and nobody else seems to recall (until someone finally put the whole thing on youtube I could not find anyone that had ever seen the weirdly unsettling Grinch Halloween special, and now you can watch it here). Two Truths and a Lie, a “novelette” by Sarah Pinkser delves into the unsettling atmosphere of a hardly remembered public access show that Stella, our narrator and compulsive liar, thinks she’s making the show up when she tells her friend. But when they uncover old episodes of the show she begins to fear the series may have served as a dark prophecy for the child guest’s lives. And worse, almost the whole town appeared on it, including her. This is a short but certainly spooky story that questions if we fall into the trap of self-fulfilling prophecies. ‘ Uncle Bob was the anti-Mr. Rogers. A cautionary uncle, not predatory, but not kind.’ When I was a kid my mother assumed anything Jim Henson was for kids and thats how I got left alone to be terrified by episodes of Henson’s The Storyteller. As an adult its all pretty goofy but wow did those demon puppets frighten me in the episode The Soldier and Death. Another that came to mind for me was Courage the Cowardly Dog. Luckily for me, these shows never had any potentially supernatural powers to ruin my life (though my love of fairy tales likely started with that Henson show so maybe it did?). Something Pinsker captures so efficiently and eerily here is the way childhood nostalgia is a perfect breeding ground for terror. Authors like Stephen King or Stephen Graham Jones have often shown that mixing horror and childhood is creepily effective, and since nostalgia pokes at a tender place inside us it is also very vulnerable. There is something deeply unnerving about considering how the root of childhood memories has now gone rotten and twisted. Pinsker combines this with the way fairy tales and the simplistic innocence of childhood stories can quickly cast a dark shadow and it is all a recipe for a chilling read. Which brings us to Stella, who is quite a storyteller in her own life. ‘She had always done that, inventing things when she had no reason to lie,’ she self-accesses, ‘just because they sounded interesting, or because it gave her a thrill.’ So when one lie becomes a repressed truth, she is on the case to figure out what was so unsettling about the Uncle Bob show. The stories he tells seem to portend the disasters that would await these children in early adulthood, such as a story about driving away forever being told to a boy who would drive off a cliff. Then there is her own: ‘Once upon a time, there was a little girl who didn’t know who she was. Many children don’t know who they will be, and that’s not unusual, but what was unusual in this case was that the girl was willing to trade who she was for who she could be, so she began to do just that. Little by little, she replaced herself with parts of other people she liked better. Parts of stories she wanted to live. Nobody lied like this girl. She believed her own stories so completely, she forgot which ones were true and which were false…or if there was anything left of her…’ Yet some stories don’t seem to have come true but became something even worse, making us wonder if the lives were shaped by rejection of the stories told. It’s all very creepy and while the story is a bit scattered, it comes together for a nice twist ending. Two Truths and a Lie is a fast and fun story that probes the creepiness of half remembered childhood and makes for a great spooky season read. You can read the whole story HERE. 3.5/5 ...more |
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1
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not set
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not set
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Oct 24, 2023
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Kindle Edition
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| 125078204X
| 9781250782045
| B08JK87RJR
| 3.59
| 654
| Oct 28, 2020
| Oct 28, 2020
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really liked it
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For those looking for spooky Halloween vibes but don’t like to be actually scared, I’m excited to present this story which I like to think of as “cozy
For those looking for spooky Halloween vibes but don’t like to be actually scared, I’m excited to present this story which I like to think of as “cozy horror.” We all deserve some spooky season fun and even the most fear-adverse readers will likely have a pleasant adventure through this one. The Little Witch by M. Rickert is a charming yet creepy little tale (you can read it all here) of an aging woman who generally keeps to herself but has taken interest in a young girl she sees each Halloween dressed up as a witch in red boots and solemnly takes too much candy. The witch girl, it seems, does not age despite the passing years. The story is told with as much wholesome warmth as there is eerie mystery and abrupt disaster in the neighborhood, feeling much like a cozy evening with a cat snuggling in your lap by the fire but if that cat just happens to be a ghost. This is a perfect read for Halloween and leaves you with much to ponder, haunting you long after without being fearsome. ‘Such power was harnessed from either great evil or great good.’ This really was a delightful story and Rickert creates such an all-encompassing atmosphere that is both cozy and charming yet still unsettling. The narrator—the older woman—tells the tale with a lot of vagueness that keeps you guessing and all the unconfirmed suspicions make for a perfect spooky experience. Yet, despite the sudden deaths going on, we feel her reclusive loneliness and her being avoided from the whispered rumors of her being a witch more than anything else. Is she hexing people or are these accidents a coincidence? And is that why Alice, the adorable little witch, is drawn to her? And who is the horned figure that accompanies her on Halloween nights? Yet all these uneasy questions seem snuggled in all warm in the blanket of the narrative that is more concerned with taking care of this mysterious houseguest who frolicks with the narrator’s cat and loves candy. ‘Alice seemed perfectly happy to eat her marmalade toast by candlelight and, when she got to the third piece, I noticed how her little legs in the striped stockings and red boots had begun to swing happily beneath the kitchen table.’ So if you are looking for a great spooky season read but are more interested in being charmed than chilled, The Little Witch is a perfect treat. It proceeds to a well constructed yet still ambiguous ending that has had me wrestling with all the half-revealed clues throughout the story yet I found the eerie atmosphere and unnerving events to be more devilishly delightful than dreadful. And who knows, maybe you’ll spot Alice this year trick-or-treating on Halloween night, better have some extra candy for her. 4/5 ...more |
Notes are private!
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1
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not set
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not set
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Oct 24, 2023
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Kindle Edition
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| 1250759412
| 9781250759412
| 1250759412
| 2.66
| 43,255
| Oct 19, 2021
| Oct 19, 2021
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it was amazing
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“I hope this house eats you.” “I hope the same about you.” The thing about a haunted house is that, no matter how ghastly the exterior or cacophonous t “I hope this house eats you.” “I hope the same about you.” The thing about a haunted house is that, no matter how ghastly the exterior or cacophonous the creaks and shrieks from within, we are still drawn to enter through their foreboding doorway. There are even psychological studies that show people find the fear of entering a haunted house like the kind operating for the Halloween season to offer a sort of soothing post-experience effect, further drawing us to them. Haunted houses have become an archetype in fiction, often acting as a repository for grief and guilt but also functioning as a psychological mirror reflecting and enlarging the traumas inside the occupants minds. In this way it manipulates and preys upon us all and plays a role that seems just as alive as any character. Though a house is not always empty as such a place has often been twisted and traumatized by those who have perished within, and they may still lurk in the shadows… Such is the case with Cassandra Khaw’s Nothing But Blackened Teeth which, like a haunted house itself daring us to enter inside it’s pages, masterfully manipulates tropes as a sort of meta-commentary by way of chilling story, all brought to life by a gorgeous prose style that feels like it's tearing into the viscera of language and displaying it in all its bloody glory. A rather polarizing book and a quick read, I found this to be an absolute delight functioning on multiple levels that deliver a shocking and scary tale while also examining the intensity of grief, the archetypes of horror fiction and testing the rivets of friendship. It is a novel as gorgeous as it is gruesome. Haunted Houses come in many varieties. In his introduction for the novel Burnt Offerings, horror author Stephen Graham Jones offers two distinctions: the Stay Away Houses and the Hungry Houses. ‘ Whereas Stay Away Houses just want to be left alone,’ Jones writes, ‘Hungry Houses aren't complete without people to digest for reasons or decades or centuries.’ The latter category is most often exemplified by Shirley Jackson’s Hill House and here Khaw offers us another example with their own twists. When a group of friends, all former ghost hunters, enter an abandoned Heian-era mansion in Japan so Nadia and Faiz can achieve Nadia’s dream of being married in a haunted house, they are poking the home in the very wound that set it down into legend. Long ago, after hearing her bridegroom had perished before returning for their wedding, a bride had herself buried alive in the walls of her mansion and each year another girl would meet the same fate until the mansion finally fell into disrepair and disuse. Every aspect of the house is dripping dread and portending trauma as Khaw skillfully crafts an atmosphere and tone to the novel that transports you directly into the terror—you swear you can hear your own footsteps reverberating in the prose— and a lexicon of devouring and digestion sinks its teeth into much of the descriptions of the house. ‘[The mansion] smelled instead like such old buildings do: green and damp and dark and hungry, hollow as a stomach that'd forgotten what it was like to eat.’ This is not just any hungry house, however. In Night Side of the River, Jeanette Winterson offers a dichotomy of hauntings where either it is the place that is haunting you or it is the person being haunted from within—Winterson uses Hill House, which Jones’ also classified as a ‘Hungry House’, as an example of the latter where the house magnifies your own internal haunting and brings it externally. Khaw’s house, however, manages to be both as it preys on the mental states and fears of the group while also being a haunted place that, not unlike a Stay Away House, has sent its array of hitobashira and yokai out to torment and steal people away. This plays into an aspect of Asian horror and ghost lore that is different from the Western tradition, which we’ll get into shortly, but it also makes the character’s personalities such an important part of the story. ‘After all, isn't that the foremost commandment in the scripture of horror? They who are queer, deviant, tattooed, tongue-pierced or other must always die first.’ The characters are what really made this story work for me. It is a group of friends, but one where the tight-knot of friendship has frayed and old resentments are larger in the mind than older, fonder memories—‘Compassion, like everything else, can be worn dull by rough use.’ They get frustrated with their friends and must survive each other just as much as they must survive the mansion. When you inevitably want to yell at one of them, a character will as if on your behalf which is another clever way Khaw makes you feel inside the story with them. Our narrator, Kat, is fresh out of a hospital stay for what they term ‘terminal ennui’ and is still treading waters in a sea of grief (a primary target for Hungry Houses). Kat is close friends with Faiz, a friendship that was ‘guilt-bruised, gestated in the shambles of a stillborn relationship. But a friendship nonetheless.’ and Nadia feels threatened by their past so tensions are high. There is also Phillip, the white White-Knight type character with as much charm and charisma as his bank account that paid for this entire trip. Finally there is Lin, who is doing well on his own and provides excellent comic relief for the reader and frustration for the group as he finds it is ‘easier to run your mouth, run from the Sisyphean work that was being emotionally open.’ A quick aside because I LOVE Lin. I’ve always wanted a character in a horror who just cracks jokes and giggles things like “oh we are all gonna die” because that would be me. Taking none of it seriously. Being kind of a dick to everyone, smoking a joint instead of running, being not very helpful. And is the character who knows the rules to horror (a great horror trope) and seems resigned to them. Lin rules. ‘Don’t spook the ghosts.’ So much of this is an exploration of grief, a grief that awakens the spirits within, a grief the ghosts feed off of. And Kat invites them in not just through grief, but quite literally asking the house to keep her company. ‘Even if it was a house with rotting bones and a heart made out of a dead girl's ghost, I'd give it everything it wanted just for scraps. Some unabridged attention, some love. Because loneliness is terrible. I found the depictions of grief to be quite extraordinary here, not just Faiz in terror at the possible loss of Nadia and showing how someone can completely fall apart, but the way grief is shown all muffled and imagery of being submerged in water is a frequently used technique. ‘Have you ever cannonballed into a cold lake? The shock of an old memory is kind of like that; every neuron singing a bright hosanna: here we are. You forgot about us, but we didn’t forget about you.’ Kat experiences the haunting most profoundly, seeing all the spirits and hearing the constant chant of their voices. Khaw is exceptional at using language to transfer seamlessly from the “real” to the “supernatural,” with ghosts and fears being tasted just as much as seen. ‘ I didn’t know someone else’s pain could have a texture, a bite, a gelatinousness you could hold in your teeth, but I could almost gnaw on [Redacted]’s dying.’ Something I find particularly interesting in Blackened Teeth is the way the supernatural is so much a part of the “real” world, something that draws from the Eastern folklore around ghost where their realm can conjoin with ours and is just a natural thing you hope to avoid upsetting. This is the tradition Kat grew up in, like Khaw who is also from Malaysia, and where the group of friends did their ghost hunting: ‘Growing up where we did, back in melting-pot Malaysia, down in the tropics where the mangroves spread dense as myths, you knew to look for ghosts. Superstition was a compass: it steered your attention through thin alleys, led your eyes to crosswalks filthy with makeshift shrines, offerings and appeasements scattered by traffic.’ For those who are interested, I found this really cool list of haunted places in Malaysia that would likely be places our group would have checked out. This style of horror, however, is different than the US versions of horror where it is usually an intrusive evil that must be overcome and deafeated—Phillip portrays this trope in his character as someone who must muscle his way to victory—and here the house must be assuaged. Victory isn’t even part of the equation. In this way, I quite enjoyed that Khaw has opted to include multiple languages in the text and leave them untranslated. It works on several levels, particularly if they aren’t words you recognize because it emphasizes that this is foreign to you, that you are the stranger here and not the ghosts. And if it upsets you, there’s a chance Phillip is your avatar in the narrative as he sees everything as an experience he can purchase and own to accommodate and center him (there’s an argument to be made there is a subtle anti-colonialism message in this novella, especially when (view spoiler)[Phillip is centered at the end (hide spoiler)]). The language in all of Khaw’s work is something to marvel at and they create a prose that feels more like poetry. The figurative language swirls like smoke and is almost intangible the way it works in a poem and the vocabulary is so well chosen. It feels very ornate in a way that also feels like it is probing a supernatural past, and seem to similarly embody a sense of language that is like the objects in the house that seem to say ‘this was old before the word for such things existed.’ Khaw absolutely dazzles. ‘This is the problem with horror movies: Everyone knows what's coming next but actions have momentum, every decision an equal and justified reaction. Just because you know you should, doesn't mean that you can, stop.’ Which all brings me to what I loved so much about this novella: it is an examination of horror and the psychology behind it all. If haunted houses are a mirror of our psyche, it is only natural to fall into a sort of trope of your own psychology and each character well represents that. The fear kicks in and the emotions take the controls. All the pieces are set, the roles chosen, the rules to survive the house are pre-established: it’s like a board game fresh out of the box. They even joke about the order they should likely die in. I delighted at the scene where they search for a library to find a book that has answers because, well, that’s just how it goes in a haunted house. It’s very playful and amusing and the text is full of clever nods to its own self-awareness. It is a horror story playing itself out and we feel like we are rolling the dice along with them. ‘My head swam, full of static again, like someone’d tuned the inside of my head to a broadcast decades dead.’ I have to say, Nothing But Blackened Teeth completely charmed me as much as it chilled me. It is sharp as it is smart, especially in Khaw’s excellent examinations of horror dynamics. But above all, this is a really heartfelt novel where underneath the hauntings and violence it digs into ideas of grief and the awkward sadness of a slowly unraveling friend group. All constructed with prose that makes me grin ear to ear (picture creepy horror monster that feeds off poetry grin?) when I read it. A worthy addition to the literary canon of haunted houses, Cassandra Khaw’s Nothing But Blackened Teeth is a frightfully good time. Let it devour you. 5/5 ...more |
Notes are private!
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1
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not set
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not set
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Oct 21, 2023
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Hardcover
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| 1982136456
| 9781982136451
| 1982136456
| 3.70
| 87,864
| Jul 14, 2020
| Jul 14, 2020
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it was amazing
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‘You hide in the herd. You wait. And you never forget’ Having been a fan of Stephen Graham Jones for awhile now, it has haunted me year after year that ‘You hide in the herd. You wait. And you never forget’ Having been a fan of Stephen Graham Jones for awhile now, it has haunted me year after year that I had not yet read The Only Good Indians. The book stalked me, perched on my shelf, eyeing me to be its victim come spooky season. This year it finally caught me. Like the characters hunted by Elk Woman, once it had its hold on me I could think of nothing else, practically do nothing else but be dragged along its narrative of growing dread and violence. And I loved every moment of it. Jones has a nearly supernatural skill to craft so much horror, grief, humor and action onto the page, none of them competing for emotional space but instead amalgamating into something far greater and gripping. His stories are populated by endearing characters who open their hearts full of flaws and tattered hopes and Jones never shies away from sending them to violent ends. Here they are pitted in a race against an encroaching fate that manifests generations of grief and guilt into an apocalyptic atmosphere of almost certain doom. On the surface of The Only Good Indians is a truly terrifying monster tale that functions as a window into themes of indigenous identity and feelings of futility to escape guilt, poverty and reservation life as Jones demonstrates horror as a legitimate literary medium that will leave you chills. ‘Thanksgiving was going to be an Indian holiday this year, with the four of them bringing in a haul like this.’ Each turn of the page piles onto a growing sense of dread in this sharp and sinister novel. It opens on a scene of violent death--‘INDIAN MAN KILLED IN DISPUTE OUTSIDE BAR’ the headline reads, ‘thats one way to put it’ the character thinks, knowing it was a mysterious elk that really got him killed. But this does more than introduce the unique twist on a man vs. nature theme and immediately draws our attention to the violence and aggression faced by indigenous people in the US (indigenous people are 2.5 times as likely to experience violence compared to any other race, and 84.3% of women ‘ it was like–he hates himself the most for this–it was probably what it was like a century and more ago, when soldiers gathered up on ridges above Blackfeet encampments to turn the cranks on their big guns, terraforming this new land for their occupation. Fertilize it with blood.’ Their actions recalls the genocides that took the land from their people and corralled them into lives on reservations. Guilt chases us all through our lives, but this time it might be really out to get them in the form of Elk Woman. “We’re from where we’re from,” she says back. “Scars are part of the deal, aren’t they?” If this sounds a bit like I Know What You Did Last Summer set on a reservation, its probably because not only does The Only Good Indians pay homage to indigenous heritage but to the heritage of the genre as well. Jones discussed in an interview, that the book was crafted to be ‘wanted to write a slasher, but in the way a slasher hasn’t been done before’ and he makes creative use of many tropes here. Notably, Jones plays with a common, and unfortunately fairly racially insensitive horror trope of the “indian curse”—you know, the whole “don’t build a house on an Indian graveyard” thing—and re-appropriates it in the form of a curse now hunting Blackfeet (similarly, Jones title re-appropriates the infamous genocidal quote by US Army general-in-chief Phillip Henry Sheridan). But we have other elements as well, and I really appreciated the nod to “Final Girls” of horror fame by having Denorah be nicknamed “Finals Girl” by her father due to her basketball notoriety taking her team to the finals. What is quite fresh here, however, is the way horror tropes are used as a way to explore cultural identity, and one that the characters are always questioning themselves: what does it mean to be Blackfeet in the modern world? Consider the moment when they decide to hold a sweat to honor tradition: “There’s nothing, like, against doing it at night, is there?” Gabe asks. There is an undercurrent in the novel that ‘three-braid days are over and done with,’ that nobody is going around earnestly believing themselves the reincarnation of ‘Blood Clot Boy’, that the stereotypes used about their people have little to nothing to do with life on the reservation and there is a prevailing sadness about this: ‘meaning the few of his ancestors who made it through raids and plagues, massacres and genocide, diabetes and all the wobbly-tired cars the rest of America was done with, they may as well have just stood up into that big Gatling gun of history, yeah?’ There is a chilling desperation here, too, because nobody seems to be able to escape it. And in The Only Good Indians even when you think you’ve broken free, your curse comes to call. ‘Really, Lewis imagines, he deserves some big Indian award for having made it to thirty-six without pulling into the drive-through for a burger and fries, easing away from diabetes and high blood pressure and leukemia. And he gets the rest of the trophies for having avoided all the car crashes and jail time and alcoholism on his cultural dance card. Or maybe the reward for lucking through all that—meth too, he guesses—is having been married ten years now to Peta, who doesn’t have to put up with motorcycle parts in the sink…’ But back to the horror. Because this one really chilled me, I mean, I cut a midnight walk with my dog short because I couldn’t stop thinking about Elk Woman appearing in flashes between the passing boxcars of a train--this book gets INSIDE you. It helps that Jones is such a visual writer and all the jump scares and abrupt violence—of which there is plenty and I’ll never think of motorcycle engines the same again—registers as very cinematic. And for as clear as it is Jones truly cares about his characters, he also will kill them at any moment so it keeps you on your toes. Even the slower scenes in the middle make you wonder when everything will explode into gore. It’s all written with such care and I enjoyed discovering that the elk in the novel were inspired by the James Dickey poem A Birth, which you can read in full here but I find the opening stanza particularly alive in this novel: ‘Inventing a story with grass, I find a young horse deep inside it. I cannot nail wires around him: My fence posts fail to be solid…’ An aspect I found to be very successful is the way the horror is very psychological, with the quick reminders of their crime making them wonder if they are losing their grip on reality. ‘If animals came back to haunt the people who shot them, then the old-time Blackfeet would have had ghost buffalo so thick in camp they couldn't even walk around,’ Lewis thinks, but then he questions every sound and begins to question if friends are just an elk in disguise. Which is what really makes this story frightening: we can fear Elk Woman and her finally catching us, but what is more alarming is knowing she can push us to commit the atrocities for her. It speaks to the ways the characters think how many of their friends or families ruin their own lives, backed into crimes, drugs or alcoholism, and we see how quickly an argument can turn into violence. Because ‘when the whole world hurts, you bite it, don’t you?’ When asked what he hoped to communicate with this book, Stephen Graham Jones responded ‘Horror, man. If someone hesitates before turning the living room light off, if they’re counting the steps down a dark hall, than I’ve done what I’m here to do.’ I am about to post this and then shut off all the lights at work, and I’m already dreading the moment when I have to walk through the totally blackened bookstore with thoughts of Elk Woman in my head. Will her face rise above a shelf? I hope not. But thats how I know this book really worked for me, because I cannot stop thinking about it. It should be said too that there is a great humor mixed in, even in the frightening moments (c’mon, Lewis deciding someone has to go because they don’t catch the laugh line from a novel they both supposedly read is great). But there are also some truly visceral and wildly disquieting moments that I will likely never shake. The Only Good Indians should become a spooky season classic. 4.5/5 ‘For them, ten years ago, that's another lifetime. For you, it's yesterday.’ ...more |
Notes are private!
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1
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Oct 06, 2023
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Oct 06, 2023
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Oct 06, 2023
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Hardcover
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| 1250347351
| 9781250347350
| B0CBYYD2YF
| 4.22
| 1,528
| Aug 29, 2023
| Aug 29, 2023
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really liked it
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When I was a kid I was certain our basement was a place of horror. I’d never go down there and assume every odd noise I’d hear at night was a sure sig
When I was a kid I was certain our basement was a place of horror. I’d never go down there and assume every odd noise I’d hear at night was a sure sign my assumptions were accurate. But eventually I faced my fears and fought…I don’t know, some cobwebs and shadows? and by the time I was a teen I had converted the basement into my bedroom. Fortunately I never had to share the space with anything like this… [image] Ben Hatke (Julia’s House for Lost Creatures and Zita the Spacegirl) and has mastered the perfect mix of cute and creepy creatures and it certainly shines bright in his newest middle grade graphic novel, The Things in the Basement. Milo is tasked with retrieving his baby sibling’s missing sock from his creepy basement—tia Maria made it so it is important!—and what begins as chasing a rat who has stolen the sock turns into an epic adventure through mysterious hidden room after room and deep into the earth where all the lost socks of the world end up. Along the way Milo must face his fears of eerie spaces and spooky creatures but finds that a little kindness goes a long way and he begins to make friends. Though not everyone in this creepy labyrinth is friendly…some want to devour you whole! Will Milo ever get the sock back or will he, too, become another resident eternally haunting the basement? [image] I really love Hatke’s signature artwork and it makes this such an enjoyable experience (a lot of the creature designs will look vaguely familiar and the little musician mushroom buddies have appeared in other picture books). I also loved the whole variety of rooms opening into vastly different rooms like it was a haunted Meow Wolf, with a bootleggers hideout, an artist studio and some super amazing Piranesi-esque caverns: [image] And the character designs are great, like this…nun with a bell for a face in a mysterious underground monastery: [image] Things in the Basement is super cute and fun and a lovely lesson on facing fears, especially to help and protect your friends. This is just as fun and magical for adults as it surely will be for the younger readers it is aimed at (it may be a bit frightening for real young readers but in more a cute way than a traumatic way). Ben Hatke is a joy and this is a perfect book to kick off Spooky Season which is just around the corner! [image] ...more |
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1
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not set
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not set
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Aug 25, 2023
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Kindle Edition
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| 0802161510
| 9780802161512
| 0802161510
| 3.69
| 1,146
| 2023
| Oct 24, 2023
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really liked it
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A lifetime of winding fairy tales and the fantastical with facts unstitched from time made it only natural for Winterson to approach stories of ghosts
A lifetime of winding fairy tales and the fantastical with facts unstitched from time made it only natural for Winterson to approach stories of ghosts and death in an AI present. Now that I’ve returned to where I have a valid SIM card and internet access, I wanted to share some insights from Winterson having gotten to see her speak several times over the weekend at Hay Festival in Wales. [image] Winterson spoke about he experiences with ghosts and the history of ghost stories to propel a larger discussion around her most recent book, Night Side of the River, which I eagerly devoured when it came out this past autumn. For Winterson, it is only all too understandable that the past would somehow be contained within the present and the variety of ways we think about ghosts are manifestations of this. She even shared that she has her own ghost living in her house and he often frightens her girlfriend with loud thumps. ‘I know it’s a him because he’s needy,’ Winterson joked, ‘my ghost locked himself in the parlor the other day. And the door doesn’t lock so we had to take the whole apparatus off to get him out.’ Which all lead to intersecting with Winterson’s other current area of interest: the space of humans in an increasingly digital world. But what was most magical about it was…I finally got to meet my favorite author. I may have cried, but I got a hug. [image] After years of her books feeling like a comforting hug every time I read them, this was the best day ever. Well, on to the (original) review of this wonderful collection of stories, from which I got to listen to her read No Ghost Ghost Story. ‘There’s always a story, isn’t there? A story of somebody drowned, somebody murdered, somebody who died for love.’ Spending the days leading up to Halloween with Jeanette Winterson’s rather cozy ghost stories was a festive good time that made the season more enjoyable all around. Night Side of the River is a collection of ghost stories that vary from gothic tales of haunted houses and spectral visitations to stories that show modern technology as an expanding frontier for new forms of hauntings. These are all interspersed with insightful and intimate commentary by Winterson for a book where the thrills of these bite-sized narratives are also a vessel to examine ideas of life after death, love, loss and the significant literary qualities of the horror tradition itself. We see how the genre adapted to address the beliefs and existential anxieties of their times, making Winterson’s technology angle another step forward in its evolution. Many of her best themes find their way into these stories and while we only catch glimpses of the inimitable Winterson moments of prose practically flying off the page in astonishing aerobatics with the tales being more plot focused here, it all still charms and chills its way right into your heart. In short, Night Side of the River functions like a ghost tour through the season with Winterson as your knowledgeable guide, directing us to ponder the history and happenings while also ensuring a satisfying and spooky event. ‘She understands the advantage the Dead hold over the living; the Dead are not afraid.’ I’m quite smitten with these collections of seasonal stories Winterson has embarked on and in many ways this feels akin to her jolly Christmas Days: 12 Stories and 12 Feasts for 12 Days collection. While that book of stories certainly helped make the season bright for me last year, Night Side of the River led me through the dark corridors and stormy atmosphere of Halloween and really brought the holiday to life. I enjoyed the touch that there are 13 ghost stories here, with 13 being a rather spooky number befitting the season much like how the Christmas collection had a story for each of the 12 days of christmas. Sure, they aren’t the strongest of stories Winterson has ever written, but this is easily overlooked because the full effect of the fiction and non-fiction approach to analyzing hauntings is so devilishly pleasant. And while these aren’t always the scariest of stories—I like to term them “cozy horror” here, particularly as they usually have happy endings, though if you want some actually frightening and unsettling Winterson horror I highly recommend The Daylight Gate —that also seems beside the point. Besides, as Winterson says in conversation with The Guardian, ‘I don’t get scared of the dead, it’s the living that scare me. I’m not worried about ghosts – I’d rather spend the night in a haunted house than in Romania with Andrew Tate.’ Overall, the collection invites us to lean in and enjoy this tour through the realm of the dead, not shrink from it. ‘I used to believe that life and death were separate states. Now I know that things are liquid, porous; not solid at all.’ There is a genuine love for the season and the literary traditions that accompany it that is endlessly infectious and the introduction essay alone is worth the price of admission (you can read an abbreviated version of it HERE in The Paris Review). Winterson looks at the long history of ghost stories and the way they can work as commentary on the general attitudes of the times in which they were created and why they’ve long captivated readers. ‘In spite of Protestant theology, scientific materialism, or the plain fact that there is no empirical proof that anyone has come back from the dead,’ Winterson writes, ‘ghosts have not been evicted from their permanent ancestral home: our imagination.’ This is part of what makes this collection so heartfelt is that it isn’t trying to make any big claims on ghosts—though Winterson does include several stories of hauntings she has experienced—but to ask us to think about what is so interesting about the ideas behind them. She recently addressed this in an interview with NPR: ‘I like to play with the form. I thought, well, why not break in as myself and talk about things that have happened to me that I can't explain away? So I was showing that I've got some skin in the game here, that these things have been part of my reality, and I don't understand it. And simply, I have to live with it. And, you know, we're in a world now that's always looking for easy answers, quick-fire solutions. Nobody likes to say, I don't know. And this is a book about saying, I don't know. And when it comes to the supernatural, I think that's the most honest answer.’ The book really holds the door open to invite imagination and possibility, and she provides an interesting look at how authors have long done so and helped continuously shape the genre. She writes about The Castle of Otranto in 1764, for example, and how it brought the Gothic atmospheres to ghost stories or Washington Irving’s 1820 tale, The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, with ‘themes distinctive to the American Gothic – in particular, the undertow of the land itself, its bloodstained colonisation returning as a series of hauntings.’ Of course she mentions Edgar Allan Poe, as the gambling scene in The Passion with life or death stakes was written as an attempt to write a Poe-like story. She even provides a few of her favorites like M.R. James or Susan Hill’s The Woman in Black and one could make quite a spooky reading list from these pages. I really love her approach to categorizing the stories here, although I do wish Devices—the technology-based stories—were moved to later in the collection as it isn’t the strongest start. But I am particularly fascinated by her choice to include stories addressing Places and People, a distinction on hauntings she addresses in the introduction. We often think of haunted houses traditionally as a haunted space that assails those who enter. However, she looks at authors like Nathaniel Hawthorne bringing in ‘the psychic fractures and guilty disturbances peculiar to the pioneering spirit’ in his fiction it begins to ask ‘are such hauntings from the outside or the inside?’ This is also present in The Turn of the Screw by Henry James where we must ask ‘Is the manipulation a direct haunting? Or does Bly feed off the haunted places in the heads of its inhabitants?’ and Shirley Jackson’s The Haunting of Hill House certainly shows the house more as a mirror reflecting a haunted mind back on itself. So, as the names of these sections suggest, each addresses a different form of haunting. There is the method of ‘you are haunting yourself,’ as the narrator advises herself in the first tale, App-arition, or, as is theorized in The Door (one of my favorites) ‘Maybe that’s what a haunting is: time trapped in the wrong place…haunted place working as a memory store.’ It’s all quite fun. As a side note, I've always the way Stephen Graham Jones offers two distinctions on haunted houses: the Stay Away Houses and the Hungry Houses. ‘Whereas Stay Away Houses just want to be left alone,’ Jones writes, ‘Hungry Houses aren't complete without people to digest for reasons or decades or centuries.’ In these stories Winterson tends towards the Hungry Houses, though this makes sense based on her influences in Poe, James and Jackson and the way a psychological haunting is better geared at examining the genre mechanics. ‘To honour you is to live. To love you is to live…I promised you I would live. Not a half-life, not a haunted life, not a shadowlife.’ Winterson also includes what she terms “hinge stories” that are printed back to back and offer two different perspectives on the same situation. I really enjoyed this approach to give a more dynamic look at the events but also to address differing ideas on ghosts in general. As one would expect with Winterson, we get some really lovely, philosophical ideas expressed. Such as thoughts on death as an interruption on life and questioning if that interrupts love. ‘Death, though, is a different reality. You are dissolved. Into what? Into time, into space, into the leaky container that is me, who will also dissolve into time, into space. No. 80 on the PeriodicTable, you are gone. But before I take up my role as the long-suffering one – the gold-band-wearing survivor who was always there and is still – I am aware that mercury makes possible the extraction of gold from poorer-quality ores. You brought out the best in me.’ There are many different depictions of what comes after death here, and a few humorous thoughts such as ‘Who gets to be reunited? Is the Afterlife polyamorous?’ I also enjoy how, for a collection that addresses haunted homes, it also considers the common phrase that death is a sort of “returning home”: ‘Home is inside us as well as outside us. An image we hold in our minds. Some people like to say that when we die we are going home. But it’s a strange home. We never visit it, until we do, and when we do, we never return.’ Through these stories we see a lot of love and loss, and I enjoy how these themes are the primary focus to examine. The spooky settings make excellent adornment for such investigations and it also asks us to consider what our own thoughts on death and ghosts says about us. ‘Truly, technology is going to affect our relationship with death. In theory, no one needs to die. In theory, anyone can be resurrected. We can be our own haunting.’ It seems only natural with Winterson that she would take the idea of haunting and look towards the future with it. AI is a topic of interest for Winterson, such as her collection of essays 12 Bytes: How We Got Here. Where We Might Go Next that look at how the technology might impact the way we love and interact or how it gives Mary Shelley’s ideas a new life as she played with in Frankissstein. ‘We have unexpectedly created an opportunity for the dead,’ she writes about concepts like the metaverse and apps that can mimic texting as if from someone you knew now gone and explores how a dead person living on in a virtual world isn’t unlike a haunting. ‘It seems to me like a perfect space for ghosts,’ she says and I will never look at online interactions the same again. Maybe I’m actually a ghost haunting you right now. ‘When i am climbing, i understand that gravity exists to protect us from our own lightness of being, just in the same way that time is what shields us from eternity.’ I have to say, Night Side of the River was an ideal was to spend spooky season and having new material from Winterson is always a joy. This is charming and insightful and I really enjoyed the way she plays with themes as a way of examining the literary implications and pushing the boundaries of them. She certainly makes you see the phrase "ghost in the wires" in a new light here too. A spooky treat that I can’t wait to revisit every October. 4/5 ‘Does the door open when we are born, to let us into this life? we won't notice it again until we are done, until it's there at the top of the stairs, waiting for us, our entrance then, our exit now.’ ...more |
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Oct 30, 2023
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Jun 02, 2023
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| 3.89
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| Jul 12, 2022
| Jul 12, 2022
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really liked it
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This review somehow got deleted but luckily I back up all my reviews. ‘This place breeds nightmares.’ It is often said we fear what we do not understand This review somehow got deleted but luckily I back up all my reviews. ‘This place breeds nightmares.’ It is often said we fear what we do not understand. Myths and stories of ghosts and fairies often arose out of strange happenings science would later explain away, and while often we discover it wasn’t witches that killed the crops or poisoned the town we also sometimes find that nature can be just as frightening as the scapegoated specters. T. Kingfisher’s What Moves the Dead, a fresh and frightening retelling of Edgar Allan Poe’s The Fall of the House of Usher, transforms the gothic horror and decrepit mansion into a tale of ecological and body horror told with a detective narrative flair. The short novel thrives on its gloomy atmosphere and dynamic characters as Kingfisher expands upon the original story with larger context and explanations that enhance the tale without feeling overly revisionist or stuffing a space that didn’t need to be filled. The characters are given more agency and background, such as hailing from a fictional war-torn country where the linguistic features of their language adds an interesting element to understanding the story. Told through an addicting blend of horror and humor, What Moves the Dead is a thrilling gothic mystery running on an engine of amalgamating dread and oppressive atmosphere that shows how sometimes the answer is simply a doorway into new fears. ‘This dreadful house. I think I would rather face a line of rifles, even now. At least that’s a human enemy.’ To approach a classic from a fresh angle is no small task but What Moves the Dead manages the endeavor without many missteps into gimmickry. Wisely opting away from merely recreating Poe’s language, Kingfisher applies her own sense of voice that is adorned with enough linguistic flourishes from the original tale to read like a respectful tribute in the spirit of Fall of the House of Usher while still being its own thing. As she notes in the afterword, Poe frequently addresses fungi in the original, which becomes the springboard for this version. Kingfisher’s retelling delights through maintaining an oppressive and gothic atmosphere in keeping with the original, delivering the reader into the stuffy halls of Usher’s crumbling mansion and the grimy landscapes around the tarn, populated by putrid smelling mushrooms and hares that the townsfolk believe could be witches. ‘If we ran, then the small child that lives in every soldier’s heart knew that the monsters could get us. So we did not run, but it was a near thing.’ The story is altogether frightening, taking on elements of ecological horror as well as body horror. ‘The dead don’t walk,’ becomes a sort of refrain throughout the story, beginning like a mantra to focus on and remain rational before reading more like a spell to ward off the approaching doom. The use of movement (such as the way a face contorts into a disturbing smile) to trigger chills down the reader’s spine is well executed and grants a very visual quality to the short novel, making you feel like another anxious guest along for the ride. There are frequent depictions of the hare’s movement, which gives the impression of a ‘disembodied hand walking along on its fingers, or of living limbs separated from their owners’ among other unsettling behaviors that are also paralleled in Madeline’s nocturnal stumblings and keep the reader feeling like the terror could be lurking all around them. Kingfisher excels at writing motion and creating visual atmospheres, and those talents serve the story well. The house, which is said to ‘breathe nightmares’ is also very strikingly depicted Kingfisher’s characters are the real success of the story, however, and given much more agency and personality than in Poe’s original. The narrator, Lieutenant Alex Easton, tells the tale with a lot of sarcasm and humor. Easton’s disdain for American’s, with lines like ‘sometimes it’s hard to know if someone is insulting or just an American,’ works well as a laugh line in tense moments and adds a charming dynamic to the interplay with the American doctor, James Denton, who becomes a rather endearing John Watson-esque side-kick through the story. Add to this the haunting figures of the Usher siblings and a fictional aunt to Beatrix Potter who is herself an illustrator when not performing as an amateur mycologist. ‘It's like telling stories at the bar about the worst pain you've ever been in. You laugh and you brag about it, and it turns the pain into something that will buy you a drink.’ The blend of horror and humor keeps the novel moving and feeling like a big horror blockbuster film that becomes an event of thrills beyond merely chills. Laugh lines punctuate the darkest moments, adding a sort of gallows humor that coaxes you into the terror without detracting from it, like nervously stepping through one of those haunted house venues that appear every October. ‘There were three veterans at that table, battle-scarred soldiers who had served their countries honorably in more than one war... and all three of us screamed like small children and recoiled in horror.’ Reading this book reminded me of being in a theater where everyone shrieks at the appropriate moments and then a trickle of laughter ripples through the audience. Its fun, its infectious, and it keeps you wanting more. Kingfisher does well by keeping this novel short and succinct, with just enough character, exposition and action to not feel sold short. I truly enjoy how language plays a key role in the novel, particularly the Usher’s and narrator’s native language in the fictional country Gallacia where they have 7 sets of pronouns. There is one for God, one for inanimate objects, and gender neutral pronouns like ka/kan or, to denote a child va/van is used. The narrator uses the appropriate pronouns in the text, and the enhanced dexterity of pronouns gives added insight into several key aspects of the story, particularly the ending. It all reads very natural, you’ll hardly notice it after a few pages and it isn’t used that frequently, which I suspect is a subtle dig at recent claims they/them pronouns are confusing despite having always been common usage. Easton is non-binary, using ka/kan pronouns and several times mentions binding kans breasts, and I enjoyed the examination on how in Gallacia all soldiers use the genderless pronouns as a mark of honor and camaraderie where gender roles really have no meaning on a battlefield. ‘This is no place for a delicate lady. I tell you, it’s haunted…’ There is special attention to the ways mysterious happenings are explained away into legends and lore of ghosts or witchcraft. While crossing the Mediterranean, Easton was once told the myth that ‘the dead carry lanterns down in the deep’ to explain what another passenger says is likely just bioluminescent plankton. This sort of interplay between ghostly speculation and science is at the heart of the novel and the detective narrative of the novel, much in keeping with Poe’s ‘tales of ratiocination’. In Poe’s classic there is much emphasis on Roderick’s nervous state, something that all the guests at the mansion begin to succumb to themselves and Easton steps through many rational theories, such as the shell-shock they all likely retain, but the reasoning never quite satisfies and the mystery looms large over the novel adding to the eerie tone and granting a mystery narrative quality that pushes you forward to uncover the truth. Is there one thing connecting the hares, Madeline’s illness, Roderick’s nerves, the maid’s suicide, the nightmares and more? Is it a haunting, or is it something that, while more tangible, is also more terrible? What Moves the Dead is a fun romp of a horror novella that manages to become something greater than a mere retelling of Poe or the conglomeration of its horror tropes. The rather exciting climax is admitted a bit over the top, though it fits the tone and tale and the chilling aspects of it that feel earned through Kingfisher slowly and effectively putting the pieces together allow it to land. It truly does expand upon the original in a way that works, and I particularly enjoy how it places the story in a larger social context. There is an excellent thread of social criticisms on the subjugation of women, such as frequent remarks about Madeline’s condition being brushed away with the misogynistic diagnosis of hysteria or old Ms Potter being denied a seat in Royal Mycology Society for being a woman, which is successfully juxtaposed with Easton and the way the Gallacian society is more progressive even just through the way it is encoded in the language. There are some wonderful frights and the eco-horror will have you eyeing mushrooms and hares differently on your next nature walk (also, if you dare, check out the instances of “zombie fungus spiders” that I couldn’t stop thinking about while reading this book). Frightening and frightfully fun, What Moves the Dead is a hit. 4/5 ‘The dead may walk, but I will not walk among them.’ ...more |
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| 4.06
| 69,002
| Oct 14, 1981
| Jul 25, 2017
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really liked it
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While the nightmare fuel that is Alvin Schwartz’s Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark is more silly nostalgia to me now than actual frights, nothing hel
While the nightmare fuel that is Alvin Schwartz’s Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark is more silly nostalgia to me now than actual frights, nothing held a grip on me quite like these books when I was a kid. Especially Stephen Gammell’s illustrations, which still pop into my mind like intrusive ghosts on spooky nights… [image] Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark Grab your blanket and flashlight, these stories are best enjoyed in the excitement of childhood nerves. The kind that make sure stare into the darkness and wonder if every sound is that creepy lady from the illustrations slowly creeping across your floor. You know, this one: [image] Stephen Gammell’s artwork for these books was so frightening that it was frequently a target for book bannings in the 90s (though the stories were thought to be too frightening as well and alarmed the usual subjects who get all giddy for Satanic Panic) and there was even a reprinting of all three volumes with different, toned down illustrations. Which of course, nobody wanted because it was the artwork that was half the fun. But the stories themselves are quite charming. Alvin Schwartz is a folklorist and set out to craft a sort of Grimm-style series of stories for American children’s literature. There are many fairy tale and folklore elements to these books, especially a large moral warning for children who misbehave (one story that always scared me was the children’s parents leaving and sending in a monster to raise the children because they had it coming). One element I found really exciting as a kid was to see narratives that did not end in tidy, happy resolutions. Stories end in misery or other terrors and that was such a thrill to me because you never knew what you were going to get. [image] A lot of them are really cheesy as an adult, and each of the three volumes has a few meant to be silly jokes rather than scary (the window washer story still pops into my mind at least once a year), but it is still just a good time to share with the young readers in your life. I love those early moments in life where books are exciting because they unsettle you so much, making you uncomfortable but unable to look away. Those always stick with me, and I’m always thrilled to see so many young people still picking these books up for a frightfully good time. ...more |
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Oct 31, 2022
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| 9781454947042
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| 3.61
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| Aug 16, 2022
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liked it
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‘The more I live, the more I dread death, even while I abhor life.’ Do you believe in ghosts? Gothic Tales, a slim little volume that collects a short ‘The more I live, the more I dread death, even while I abhor life.’ Do you believe in ghosts? Gothic Tales, a slim little volume that collects a short story and an essay by Mary Shelley asks this question in the latter, ruminating on why tales of ghosts still capture our attention and fears even as science and reasoning have brushed aside many mysteries and myths of the world. This is a fun little book that serves as a gothic snack for those who may have only read Shelley’s famed Frankenstein and it made for the perfect spooky season treat to read it on this wet and grey autumn day. In it we find Shelley grappling with familiar themes and forcing the reader to confront ideas of death and ask what frightens more, the haunting of a spectral existence beyond the grave or one in which we must cover the corpses of all we know with dirt while being denied the peaceful finality ourselves. The short story in this collection, The Mortal Immortal was written for a 1834 annual literary collection called Keepsake, who published over half of Shelley’s 21 commissioned stories during her life. The story was inspired by a painting that shows a young man and woman assisting an elderly woman on the stairs, and so in The Mortal Immortal we follow Winzy as he must experience his beloved wife as both a young and old woman while he himself is unable to age. This confessional narrative probes a familiar theme to fans of Frankenstein, showing how those who attempt to subvert or outwit the natural world tend to open up horrors beyond their imaginings. Here we see Winzy find his immortality—or possibly just a long life, the uncertainty of this which haunts him even on his 303rd birthday—to be a curse that drives him to thoughts of self-destruction. There is a fun romantic plot complete with bitterness of a rival, some digs at arranging marriages for finance instead of love, an alchemist and is overall a fun 30pg read. ‘But do none of us believe in ghosts? Shelley asks in her essay On Ghosts. She discusses how the advances in science have taken much of the mystery of the world away but that belief in ghosts still seems to linger. ‘For my own part, I never saw a ghost except once in a dream,’ she tells us, but discusses how ghosts can inhabit the spaces ‘of which we are ignorant.’ ‘beyond our soul’s ken, there is an empty space, and our hopes and fears, in gentle gales or terrific whirlwinds, occupy the vacuum.’ Shelley relates three fun tales of hauntings, such as a ghost with hardly a head left and a talking cat, and I enjoyed the subtle dig that she was more willing to relate these tales ‘since they occurred to men,’ a nice barbed statement that she herself is often disbelieved for being a woman. Gothic Tales is a little Halloween treat that makes for a fun way to pass an evening. Plus the cover art is amazing. So tell me, dear reader, do you believe in ghosts? 3.5/5 ...more |
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Oct 26, 2022
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Oct 26, 2022
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Oct 26, 2022
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| 006299512X
| 9780062995124
| 006299512X
| 4.36
| 8,900
| Sep 06, 2022
| Sep 06, 2022
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really liked it
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Adorable and very sweet, Garlic and Witch from author/illustrator Bree Paulsen is a sincere look at the inevitability of change and learning how to em
Adorable and very sweet, Garlic and Witch from author/illustrator Bree Paulsen is a sincere look at the inevitability of change and learning how to embrace it. A follow-up to Paulsen’s Garlic and the Vampire, this second installment revisits the witch and her living vegetables that works in her garden, but could be plausibly read as a stand-alone. When the witch struggles with a potion for the Count, the vampire we meet in the first book, Garlic is sent on a mission to the magic market while struggling with the realization she is slowly turning into a human. This is a lovely little graphic novel aimed at younger readers and is sure to be a success with them through it’s heartfelt message and gorgeous artwork, and a charming tale about recognizing that change is a fact of life. [image] Garlic adventuring with the Count What I loved most about this story is that it was upfront in it’s message about the inevitability of change and framed as something that is in fact frightening. Paulsen shows how change can also be fun and rewarding, but she doesn’t try to imply that the uncomfortable feelings are something we shouldn’t let ourselves feel and I think that is a great lesson to teach. Yes, change is scary but we have to deal with it as best we can and often it can be for the good, as we see here. It was cute to see all the vegetables become human versions of themselves and see the attempt at inclusive depictions of different races and body types. There is a cute romantic plot hinted at between Garlic and her very caring and supportive friend, Carrot, and the relatively low-stakes adventure still has some cute tension and twists. I also loved the vampire, who is subtly represented as gay and mentions that he also had to learn to love himself for who he is, so big win there. Admittedly I didn’t quite catch that Garlic realized she was turning human by growing a fifth finger, so it can be a bit confusing I guess but overall its very cute. It could easily be read without having read the first, though it pairs well as a sequel and gives the backstory to how the living vegetables came to be. A bit slight, but definitely aimed at younger readers, this is an adorable cottagecore-esque graphic novel that is perfect for the Halloween season but great any time of year. ⅘ ...more |
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Oct 09, 2022
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| 3.71
| 1,576
| Jan 15, 2010
| Dec 07, 2010
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really liked it
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‘And then all of us forgot how to sleep.’ It is time to begin my favorite seasonal celebration: geek out with a bunch of spooky stories and then regret ‘And then all of us forgot how to sleep.’ It is time to begin my favorite seasonal celebration: geek out with a bunch of spooky stories and then regret it in two weeks when they’ve gotten under my skin and everything is unsettling at night. Call it my pagan autumn ritual as I shake like a leaf, and I certainly will be now because Stephen Graham Jones is a modern master of horror and The Ones That Got Away, a collection of his early stories, is a frightfest of fun. Jones feels so at home in familiar realms of horror that he quickly rearranges the furniture and customizes the decor into something fresh that lets the fear inside in unexpected ways. These stories, predominantly featuring working class settings and characters, often are reflections back into childhood, pulling the reader back into that pure, primal terror born from the uninhibitated imaginations of children and examining moments that cast shadows even into the character’s adulthoods. Sinister and surprising, The Ones That Got Away is an intense collection that will keep you turning pages and checking under the bed. ‘When you’re twelve, your superstitions are pure like they’ll never be again,’ says one of Jones’ protagonists, and this idea is key to so much of the charm in these stories. In the notes section at the end of the book (which is honestly one of my favorite parts of the book and makes me just really enjoy the author as a person), Jones talks of an upbringing on Stephen King novels and the influence is evident though Jones does manage to make everything his own. Like the vibes from books like It or stories such as The Body, many of the stories here (most notably Monsters and Raphael) are immersed in a sense of nostalgia, reflecting back on the people and places of days lost to time such as ‘the hamburger joint that used to be the concession stand for the drive-in, when there’d been a drive-in,’ for example. I’ve always found stories set like this rather comforting as they do trigger nostalgia, though it is interesting to consider that the nostalgia is for reading books that utilize this nostalgia that are references to an era just before my own childhood—a feeling of nostalgia for someone else’s nostalgia, if you will. The sense of place is practically a side-character in these stories, an era dying away along with the loss of innocence that interrupts the stories. It is precisely because of this cozy veneer that the creeping horror is able to be so shocking and alarming. Raphael opens with some fantastic coming-of-age narrative building with middle schoolers who band together while feeling themselves ‘invisible’ to the rest of society, all crushing on the one girl in their group and telling scary stories before a moment of terror changes their lives forever (well, those who still have a life after). Monsters, a favorite in the collection, is another cute coming-of-age framing around a summer fling between two young people where the tension about if they kiss or not to end the summer is dramatically and violently tossed aside when a vampire enters the picture. I love it. It’s hitting you with fear right in the most comforting of narratives, something I found Jones to do quite well in his novels and second short story collection. ‘What I was doing was willing myself to grow up.’ The moments of terror in many of these stories become the cautionary tale for the survivors, such as in the title story where the narrator admits without the death of his friend he may have continued to spiral down a path of drug and degredation. Childhood cool rarely translates into adjusted adult though there is something beautiful about when Jones describes those moments of coolness in the calm before the coming storms that would linger in the memory of bystanders, the self eternal in youth in their minds: ‘The girls we never married would still be talking about us. We’d be the standard they measure their husbands against now. The ones who got away.’ However, we find many of these characters instead wind up the reason to correct course and survive. ‘I might never have gone on to college without the warning he’d been,’ the narrator says in Til the Morning Comes, a shockingly effective tale about being scared of an uncle’s Grateful Dead posters as a child, or the repeated idea of survivors guilt that ‘It’s a good life. One I don’t deserve, one I’m stealing, but still, mine’. As most of the stories are told in the retrospective, such as the showstopper Raphael where the narrator recounts the possible stories of what happened on one violent and tragic day and realizes ‘the other story I told myself was that I could make up for it all,’ living his life as a great father in response to the abuse a friend had received from her own, and we see how the interjections of terror resonate across an entire lifetime. While these are scary stories, there is something so literary too them, something unique and engaging that make them feel almost like classics the first time you read them. ‘Isn’t that what fairy tales are, anyway? What we tell ourselves about ourselves, just in an indirect way, with elves and magic and monsters to make it all safe?’ There is a wide variety of stories here too, which adds to the fun because you are never quite sure what you will get next. A boy learns the lengths his father would go to help them survive, teen mean girls find a weight loss method that has deadly consequences, a snake-oil salesman faces off in a zombified wild west, a deadly rodeo bull might be the trapped soul of a serial killer, and even baby monitors and dolphins are used to instill fear. Jones is able to genre bend and blend in really interesting ways, and even when some of the stories fall flat it is still fun to see him experimenting. One particularly well-done story is Captain’s Lament, where a tale becomes the backstory to a well-known urban legend, but Jones navigates it so well that the surprise twist is when you connect it to what story he is referencing. I was impressed. As most of these stories are collected from various magazine and anthology publications, there is a bit of repeated themes or techniques, though Jones is effective with them so it hardly matters. I do enjoy the way he often tells you what is coming before it happens, but without context so it registers more like a dire warning it is too late to heed. It is interesting, too, that the title of the collection is The Ones That Got Away though the story it references is titled Ones Who Got Away, but whatever. While I found After the People Lights Have Gone Off to be a slightly stronger collection, this was incredible fun and full of lots of spooky good times. These are stories that are certain to get under your skin. 3.75/5 ‘I swallowed, my eyes full with what had happened, with who, or what, I’d led to Elaine, with what he might be picking from his teeth right now in whatever dark place he was holed up in for the daylight hours, and then, to make up for it, to start making up for it, I draped my new granddad’s arm across my shoulders, to help him up the hill, and understood a little even then, I think, about what it might be like to have spent your whole life alone, so that just one person reaching up to help you along could mean the world, and save your life, and make everything all right for a few moments.’ ...more |
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Sep 24, 2022
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Sep 26, 2022
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Sep 24, 2022
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| 164827787X
| 9781648277870
| 164827787X
| 3.86
| 2,822
| Dec 12, 2019
| Oct 19, 2021
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liked it
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[image]
Meet Meawbin, the creepy cat Starting Spooky Season well with Creepy Cat, an adorable and creepy graphic novel by Cotton Valent When Miss Fl [image] Meet Meawbin, the creepy cat Starting Spooky Season well with Creepy Cat, an adorable and creepy graphic novel by Cotton Valent When Miss Flora Cloud inherits an old gothic mansion she quickly discovers she is no alone. Inside lives a creepy cat, Meawbin! Creepy Cat is lots of cute, spooky fun as Flora is constantly startled, appalled and confused by the comings and goings of this bizarre cat and begins to start a friendship with the helpful (if not sort of bumbling) Oscar. The story is very episodic with each page being a single short that begins to slowly build toward a narrative arc (it is quickly apparent it began as a webcomic), and while it does read as a bit chaotic and jumpy this is only the first volume so it is still finding a story. What we do have is creepily delightful, with other ghosts in the house making quick appearances and learning all the things Meawbin can do, such as multiply into more cats (they return to one cat by eating all their copies) and slay vampires by snuggling them until the morning sun rises. [image] There is some funny stuff here, like Flora getting stuck inside Meawbin and Oscar assuming she is a furry and showing up later dressed as a cat, or just spooky renditions of silly cat behavior. The artwork is quite charming in all its gothic vibes and overall this is just very fun and lighthearted. Definitely a great little graphic novel aimed at teenage readers but fun for anyone. Especially fans of creepiness and cats. What could be better!? I’m excited to see where this story goes, as the first volume teases many possible narrative routes (romantic engagements between Flora and Oscar?) [image] ...more |
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Sep 10, 2022
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| 1419762206
| 9781419762208
| 1419762206
| 3.97
| 2,707
| 2022
| Jun 28, 2022
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really liked it
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Doctor Frances Ai has done the impossible and sewn the pieces of her sister back together and brought her back to life. But the life now living in Mau
Doctor Frances Ai has done the impossible and sewn the pieces of her sister back together and brought her back to life. But the life now living in Maura’s body isn’t Maura. M is for Monster, the debut graphic novel from author/illustrator Talia Dutton is a moving and thoughtful look at identity that reimagines the story of Frankenstein in a really fresh and inventive way. Fearing being taken apart by Frances to try again for the sake of science, M (with the help of ghost Maura who can appear to them in the mirror) lives a false life because at least it is a life but suppressing their true self begins to wear on everyone. It is a whimsical examination of those who hide who they are to fit society's expectations told through very eerie and engaging artwork that all comes together for a truly heartfelt and wonderful book. [image] M and ghost Maura The artwork here is really quite lovely and I enjoy that it is done entirely with shades of green against black and white artwork. While the story seems to be told in modern day (though this is vaguely a fantasy world as there are several mentions of magic though it never comes into play beyond being a partial explanation for reanimating Maura’s patchwork corpse), the imagery is all old cabins, windswept cliffside and vintage clothing that feels very much a nod to the imagery around Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein. She even gets a nod through an imaginary theorem the sisters discuss: the Shellstein Theorem. The story functions well independent of any Mary Shelley aspects, though the elements of pastiche are lovingly done. [image] Talia Dutton’s Victor Frankenstein is the genius scientist Frances Ai, someone who’s creative vision and quest for scientific discovery shapes their actions, morals and interpersonal relationships. There is an interesting reversal in M is for Monster that becomes the antidote to the violence Frankenstein’s creation fell in to due to feelings of neglect and isolation, here showing that if one can set aside their expectations and care for someone for who they are on their own terms, than even those who see themselves as monsters can find comfort and a space to flourish. I found this particularly touching having just done a back-to-back read of Shelley’s masterpiece and Winterson’s modern reexamination Frankissstein and the hopeful and welcoming tone here was nice. [image] M’s narrative will likely speak to teen readers in a way that can be individually interpreted about feeling stuck appeasing the expectations of others, though the story bends towards an expression of LGBTQ+ identities, particularly feeling you must perform identity in a way that other people assume based on your physical body. Especially for reasons of literal survival. The idea of being seen as a monster simply for who you are is lightly touched on and I am glad this had a strong message of love and inclusion as the ultimate lesson of the story. Dutton also includes a non-binary character, so thanks for some cool representation! M is for Monster is a delightful read (huge thank you and shoutout to Amanda for loaning/recommending me this--read their review here!) and I can’t wait to recommend this to everyone around Halloween. 4.5/5 [image] ...more |
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Aug 25, 2022
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Aug 25, 2022
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Aug 25, 2022
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| 1419748106
| 9781419748103
| 1419748106
| 3.26
| 868
| Aug 24, 2021
| Aug 24, 2021
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High school can be a hotbed of abuse for those who don’t fit the mold of “popularity” and social media has become an outlet where bullies can continue
High school can be a hotbed of abuse for those who don’t fit the mold of “popularity” and social media has become an outlet where bullies can continue the abuse even once a kid is home. I’m sure you’ve seen the countless articles about how social media enhances bullying and exacerbates mental health issues, and this platform of potential abuse becomes the landscape for horror in Witch for Hire, written and illustrated by Ted Naifeh. Transforming the infamous Momo Challenge hoax into a supernatural detective-style thriller, Witch for Hire follows Faye, a young witch and leader of the Loser Table (you know, where all the supposedly “uncool kids” sit at lunch trope) as she investigates a mysterious internet prank as it turns deadly. While the plot is pretty uneven and sort of a rushed jumble near the end, it makes up for it with cool artwork and a story that teases a lot of backstory with only minimal revelations about it and seems like a wonderful set-up to a graphic novel series I would be very excited to follow. Witch for Hire has a raw and edgy vibe to it that embodies a lot of hard boiled crime elements. The high contrast art is really fun, using a lot of great attention to shadows and light with a highly stylized color palette that adapts to the mood of each scene. The basis of the story is a viral online self-improvement social media account, @shy_shelbi, that promises popularity and success if you follow her steps and do anything she says, but her commands start to turn from pranks to hate crimes and violence, with deadly consequences for those who fail to complete her tasks. Who Shy Shelbi is and what her motivations are become the mystery driving this story that is successfully creepy and unsettling for readers of the target age group. [image] If the artwork of the “cursed creature” haunting the students in this book looks familiar, you probably remember the Momo hoax going around a few years ago (explained here if you don’t). See: [image] Naifeh does well to use an idea that will be familiar to teens as it will boost their excitement and engagement, but it becomes more than a cheap copy and an investigation into why people get sucked into abusive online schemes as well as the horrific effects of bullying. If you are someone who appreciates trigger warnings, there is a forced outing that occurs, though it was nice to see that the author has a character mention that this is a hate crime and it feels like the author was sensitive towards the issues used in the book that helped construct the fear aspects. There is a really cool grittiness to this book that just works. Set in what seems to be a school district full of wealthy white kids, there’s an element to the power dynamic that shows how often abuse can be passed down. The older sister in the novel to Cody, through whom the narrative takes off before switching focus to Faye later on in a pretty cool and effectively executed bait-and-switch storytelling misdirection, is certainly the queen Mean Girl of her school. Yet at home we see how this is enabled by her father, a rich land developer who will not hesitate to use intimidation, bribes or lawyer up to get anything he wants. The book also looks at mental health issues and how these are often the effects of psychological abuse and obdurate gender roles that subject women to erase themselves in service of their husbands. It is also pointed out that the wealthy school has no interest in providing accessibility for students with disabilities, such as the girl in a wheelchair at the Loser Table.There’s a lot of subtle social commentary going on that mixes well. I’m hoping this is meant to kickstart a series, because I’d be interested in this PI-style Witch for hire narrative to continue with more of this grit and edginess. The story seems to hint at a lot that never gets addressed, with much backstory being intentionally vague which gives the impression more is coming. This hooked me, though I could see how readers might see this as half-finished? It doesn’t help that the ending does feel a bit rushed and jumbled, though it was satisfying nonetheless. There's a definite pacing issue here, which is a shame because the ending was strong and would have worked better if the final few ideas had more room to breathe. This feels like a clunky pilot episode for a show, but one that there's so much promise you can't help but root for it in order to see what is coming next. And while I only gave it 3 stars this is really fun and definitely worthwhile. If you are looking for a cool and dark YA graphic novel for Spooky Season, though, Witch for Hire is a great choice! 3.5/5 ...more |
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Oct 13, 2021
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| 9781948226622
| 1948226626
| 3.38
| 1,957
| Oct 13, 2020
| Oct 13, 2020
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really liked it
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The thing about fear is that it can start small. Just one little sentence can plant a seed in your mind that grows and grows and before you know it, t
The thing about fear is that it can start small. Just one little sentence can plant a seed in your mind that grows and grows and before you know it, there it is on some dark night when you are home alone casting its shadow over every detail around you. I often don’t find horror stories or films particularly scary in the moment, but later on… The anthology Tiny Nightmares, edited by Lincoln Michel and Nadxieli Nieto, thrives on this and delivers 42 very short stories that are sure to dig their claws into your mind. The list of contributing authors is excellent, with familiar names and favorites as well as authors I was introduced to for the first time (and have read more from after reading them here) and while anthologies can be a mixed bag of hit-or-miss this one has an extremely high success rate. There is certainly something for everyone here too, from standard monsters or violent shock scares to ecological horror and stories where societal ills are cast in the light of terror. Honestly, this is a perfect little collection for Spooky Season. These are bite sized stories--usually 3-6 pages--but they have lasting power. There’s one about it becoming common for people to randomly throw strangers in front of a subway car that I will think of literally every time I wait for one now. There are so many variations on fear here that you will find yourself constantly surprised and eerily aware that terror can pop up in any scenario. It is also really versatile with the storytelling, with epistolary stories and one, The Marriage Variations by Monique Laban written in a short choose-your-own adventure style that was such an excellent throwback to childhood reading. It is also peppered with art by Daehyun Kim that are really quite fun. If you are looking for some quick thrills, this is an unrelenting frightfest that will stick with you. There are honestly too many good stories to list, I’d basically just be rewriting the entire table of contents. And the best part is that they are all REALLY short and the compact size of this book makes it a perfect companion to carry around with you for whenever you get a moment to read. This is an essential spooky season read! ...more |
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Oct 05, 2021
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| 1554983851
| 9781554983858
| 1554983851
| 3.63
| 397
| 2007
| Sep 01, 2014
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really liked it
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Need a spooky picture book that is existential nightmare fuel? YOU ARE IN LUCK [image] What There is Before There is Anything There is a truly unset Need a spooky picture book that is existential nightmare fuel? YOU ARE IN LUCK [image] What There is Before There is Anything There is a truly unsettling picture book from Argentinian cartoonist Liniers. The book tackles issues of nightmares and fears, embodied in a story of a young child that sees monsters visit him from his ceiling every night. The story is dark, yet also comforting and acknowledges that even imaginary fears can be harmful. It also shows the frustrations of your fears not being believed or being minimized by adults, such as the parents in the book who are annoyed when the child runs to their room to sleep with them again. The ending is adds to the spookiness and is a harsh but real reminder that things like existential anguish don’t just simply go away. This is a book that would have really disturbed me as a child, yet I think I would have loved it even though—or probably, because—it would have exacerbated my anxieties. If you are a parent looking for a book for your children I would advise reading this yourself first and deciding, because this will definitely not be for everyone. It is legitimately spooky and unsettling and I appreciate it for the bold and blunt approach to examining the vibes of childhood fears. If this sounds like something you’d like, definitely check it out for Spooky Season! ...more |
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Sep 25, 2021
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| 099655680X
| 9780996556804
| 099655680X
| 4.26
| 715
| 2016
| 2016
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really liked it
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That’s it, Spooky Season starts NOW because this was surprisingly delightful. The Last Halloween from Abby Howard is a gross, very dark and unsettling
That’s it, Spooky Season starts NOW because this was surprisingly delightful. The Last Halloween from Abby Howard is a gross, very dark and unsettling graphic novel that also happens to be quite funny, fun and oddly heartwarming. Book 1 of Howard’s webcomic appears here in print and follows the story of 10-year old Mona and her ragtag group of...well, monsters as they try to restore the balance between the human and monster world once they’ve been unleashed into the human world and are quite graphically and violently killing literally everyone. Howard seems to perfectly balance multiple plot threads and gives each the space to breathe and progress which makes for a well-rounded and spooky good time, covering a lot of territory, exposition and general frights. What really drives this story is Howard’s wonderful art. It is simple black and white ink art that is really fluid and detailed in the right places, granting a wide variety of expressions to her characters without needing much but also detailing shocking scenes of decapitations, disembowelment, gross looking monsters and other horror sights. This book isn’t for the weak of stomach I fear, and some parts rather disturbed me. But it is spooky season and that's the fun, and it really works how well she ties the violence into the general dark humor of the book. This book is also wildly inventive with a really clever and fun plotline that also grows into a bit of a mystery (this book ends pretty abruptly but you can keep going in her webcomic: https://www.last-halloween.com/). The friendships develop along with character growth and it was surprising to see how many emotions Howard could build on the ‘found family’ type theme working in a shock-horror genre. It helps that Mona is unbelievably charming, often reminding everyone she is only 10 as if to lampoon the child-hero/chosen one cliche. Mona displays fear often in the book, which offsets her general precociousness and makes you really root for her. And just as endearing as Mona are her sidekicks, particularly Robert the Doll. Overall, this is just a really fun and satisfying read that will shock and spook you. The plot takes many surprising, and rather graphic, twists and the characters are so very addicting. It also features a non-binary adult and pushes towards a romance plot with a vampire dad that I am eager to see play out in Book 2. Kickstart Spooky Season, this book is wild! 4.5/5 ...more |
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Sep 20, 2021
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| 3.82
| 4,023
| Jul 23, 2019
| Jul 23, 2019
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really liked it
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[image]
With summer receding into autumn, I pulled Vera Greentea and Yana Bogatch’s Grimoire Noir down from the shelves during a thunderstorm the o [image] With summer receding into autumn, I pulled Vera Greentea and Yana Bogatch’s Grimoire Noir down from the shelves during a thunderstorm the other night to revisit this spooky and artistically gorgeous graphic novel. I am a huge sucker for noir aesthetics and plot which this book certainly delivers on But wait, there’s more (to be read in Billy Mays’ voice)! Blackwell is cut off from the rest of the world because its inhabited by witches and ghosts and the story is complete with a fairly rich lore on how they came to be and why only women are able to possess these powers. While a bit light and rushed on plot even with all it’s twists and turns, the artwork more that delivers and this is such a fun ride any hiccups in the narrative are easily glossed over making this a perfect read for spooky season. [image] The noir elements are delightful here with greyscale art, endless rain instead of fog, loads of depression and a detective in a trenchcoat and fedora aided exclusively by women in his search for his missing sister. Nobody smokes but my noir itch has been scratched and there are plenty of red herrings to misdirect the plot in order for more backstory and worldbuilding to slowly seep in. The book also delivers on witchcraft elements with a mysterious coven, cool powers unique to each witch, and lots of ghosts and dark narrative elements that will creep under your skin. It’s well constructed and a lot of fun. The story sometimes feels rushed but overall it works. There is a great tension between the two protagonists, Bucky and Chamomile, who were friends until Bucky’s relative jealousy of her witch abilities began to fracture their bond. She aids him in his search for his likely-kidnapped sister, but keeps her distance and functions as a sort of femme fatale for the noir aspects. The flashback scenes of their friendship and their fumbling attempts to reconnect are moving and add another great layer to the already textured emotionally somber and heavy tone of the book. Narrative aside, the characters really drive it and there is a very wonderful and diverse cast for the story to play with, most notably the witches’ coven and a slow-burn side-story about a powerful family from which the coven leader, Matilda, belongs. Luckily all the side-plots converge and the conclusion feels very satisfying and even surprising. A noir success for sure. What really makes this story fun, however, is the art. Everything is highly stylized and absolutely gorgeous. The landscapes are eerie and detailed and the character designs are outrageously cool. The greyscale art has only small touches of color on occasion, which really pop, suchs as Cham’s piercing blue eyes. The characters are very expressive, the frames feel very fluid, and the art produces such an engaging and eerie tone it is hard to put down yet you’ll find yourself pausing to get lost in the lovely art. While the story might only deserve 3 stars, 5 stars can’t contain the brilliance of the art and giving this anything less than 4 feels cheap. My 10 year old has been obsessed with this book for 2 years now and is frequently found rereading it under the covers at night. It is quick but lasting, and just a fun-filled ride. Get in the spooky season mood with Grimoire Noir>! 4/5 [image] ...more |
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Sep 14, 2021
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| 1910620130
| 9781910620137
| 1910620130
| 3.88
| 6,662
| Mar 14, 2017
| Mar 14, 2017
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really liked it
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The struggle of an artist in society is the way talent and profitability can be confused or intertwined, particularly as profitability and marketing b
The struggle of an artist in society is the way talent and profitability can be confused or intertwined, particularly as profitability and marketing become a form of accessibility to people and customers. Nightlights by Lorena Alvarez is an imaginative and spooky tale set in Bogota where the terror is a metaphor for capitalism and fame. While it is a bit short and ends right as it seems to really be taking off, the artwork is absolutely amazing in bright, bold colors creating a surreal and chilling atmosphere. The story follows Sandy, a young schoolgirl as she befriends a mysterious newcomer named Mofrie. The two become friends and Morfie's admiration for Sandy's art has a sinister impetus lurking in the shadows. [image] Being told you are good at something is always nice, particularly when it is an activity you take a lot of pride in. Morfie is the first to see Sandy's art, so hearing praise draws her to Morfie. But is it just bait? 'Once you realize that you need me to tell you how brilliant you are,' a monster snarls in one of Sandy's dreams, 'nothing will keep us apart.' The story turns into praise being a currency through which art becomes becomes consumed, quite literally like food, to strengthen a monster. Will Sandy be kept trapped making art solely to feed a beast? The criticisms of capitalism and exploring the way art interacts in a capitalist economy would be heavy handed without being couched in a childlike horror-story, but the effect is still deeply felt. Unfortunately it ends rather abruptly, though not a cliffhanger (it is said to be the first of a series and the sequel doesn't pick up where this leaves off but hopefully more will be coming). This is a wonderful little story and a perfect scary read for a young reader. 3.5/5 [image] ...more |
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s.penkevich
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Oct 31, 2022
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Aug 26, 2021
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