Starling House by Alix E. Harrow

 

A grim and gothic new tale from author Alix E. Harrow about a small town haunted by secrets that can't stay buried and the sinister house that sits at the crossroads of it all.

Eden, Kentucky, is just another dying, bad-luck town, known only for the legend of E. Starling, the reclusive nineteenth-century author and illustrator who wrote The Underland--and disappeared. Before she vanished, Starling House appeared. But everyone agrees that it’s best to let the uncanny house―and its last lonely heir, Arthur Starling―go to rot.

Opal knows better than to mess with haunted houses or brooding men, but an unexpected job offer might be a chance to get her brother out of Eden. Too quickly, though, Starling House starts to feel dangerously like something she’s never had: a home.

As sinister forces converge on Starling House, Opal and Arthur are going to have to make a dire choice to dig up the buried secrets of the past and confront their own fears, or let Eden be taken over by literal nightmares.

If Opal wants a home, she’ll have to fight for it.

This is a story of poverty and class, the power of dreams, strange creatures, and revenge.

Opal is a young woman who has been plagued by strange dreams involving the crumbling gothic mansion known as Starling House. She has been raising her little brother ever since their mother's death. Some faked records and a free motel room allowed her to keep him even though she was only 15 at the time. A dead end job and occasional petty thievery have kept them afloat. She doesn't want much for herself, but she is willing to do whatever it takes to make sure her brother has a better life than he can have in this small, secretive, dying town, even if it involves working for the owner of the house she's been warned to stay away from. 

I loved Opal and her brother Jasper. By the end I even loved the grouchy motel owner. I'm not usually one to read romantasy, but throw in a dark gothic vibe with a mystery in a crumbling house that seems to be coming to life and I'm all in!

4 out of 5 stars

My thanks to Tor Books for this gorgeous illustrated paperback.

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About the author

Happy Bunny and Other Mischiefs by Rebecca Gransden

Dangerous creatures, neglected kids and dejected employees face the weird, odd and perilous. Enter a world where possessed pageant girls get their revenge, a pigeon leads to an underground cult, and a video game mod threatens to unleash hell itself. Enjoy fourteen stories of spite, mischief, and malevolence!
  

This book was wild! 

In reading this I have taken a surreal trip through strange worlds beginning with a sentient Turducken that has escaped its packaging and discovered the internet.

A boy is helped out of his abusive home life by his cousin.

There is a video game console unlike any other, that empowers real-life avatars with incredible abilities.

A prank goes way too far in Slug Slick 

Stage-Mothers lose the upper hand in Pageant

Friends who share an ulterior motive take a road trip down memory lane in SparrowEyes

A group of "mean girls" get physical with an unfortunate woman who has a shocking  secret in Gut Punch.

These are stories of the strange and macabre, unlike anything I have ever read before. Rebecca Gransden has created a unique and unnerving collection.

My thanks to the author for the ARC

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About the author

Black Magick: 13 Tales of Darkness, Horror & the Occult Edited by Raven Digitalis

 Darkness is interpretive. It’s in our nature to explore the shadows. Through the 13 stories presented in Black Magick, compiled and edited by award-winning occult author Raven Digitalis, the reader is transported into mysterious settings that blur the line between fiction and reality.

Each story uniquely integrates occultism and magick, deepening the mysteries of the shadow. By acknowledging darkness through the written medium, we can better come to terms with the darkness within ourselves.

Black Magick is a distinctive collection of modern occult fiction. Esoteric themes permeate 13 engrossing stories, invoking a sense of wonder and terror. The stories within this anthology explore occult themes across eras and cultures, proving to be both entertaining and educational.

These haunting tales are finely crafted by a wide variety of writers, and each story is uniquely different from the other.

When we bravely explore the darker aspects of life, we more accurately come to know what it means to be human.

This! This is exactly what I mean when I say I love dark fiction. These unsettling stories are some of the best I've read this year. 

A diverse cast of characters find themselves in unnerving situations, abusive relationships, love, lust, obsession, and misplaced trust, all under the dark cloak of magic and the occult.

I have always wanted to befriend a crow and have it leave me little trinkets. I've often left them nuts and berries but they rarely return. After reading about a student who rescued one I think I'll just mind my own business and let them mind theirs.

A woman in love with the idea of love, though no man can ever meet her expectations sets her sights on a new conquest. They have never met but she is sure she can make him hers.

A witch settles in to her new home while on a trial separation from her husband, in a town where witches are unwelcome. 

A man in an abusive relationship finally sees his lover for what he truly is.

A lonely man accepts a dangerous invitation from a stranger he meets while shopping in the small town where he is stuck waiting for his car to be repaired.

These stories are all delightfully disturbing and kept my dark little heart entertained for hours.

5 out of 5 stars

My thanks to Raven Digitalis

Available for Pre-order

Stories contained:

1. Candle Magic by Storm Constantine

2. Spanish Jones by Adele Cosgrove-Bray

3. 3:33 by Rhea Troutman

4. Entombed by Corvis Nocturnum

5. Fata Morgana by S.M. Lomas

6. Automatic Writing by Gabrielle Faust

7. The Black Cat by Edgar Allan Poe

8. Don’t Forget to Feed by Miranda S. Hewlett

9. The Night Everything Changed by Raven Digitalis

10. ReBound by Tracy Cross

11. Captured by Jaclyn M. Ciminelli

12. Red Gifts by Daniel Adam Rosser

13. The Iconoclasts by Mona Fitzgerald-King

The Year's Best Dark Fantasy & Horror: Volume 5 Edited by Paula Guran

 From the back cover :

This outstanding annual exploration of the year's best dark fiction journeys into the shadows to deliver nineteen tales of the haunted, weirdly surreal, evil incarnate, frightening futures, and much more.

I loved volume 4 of this anthology so I was beyond thrilled when volume 5 showed up at my door unexpectedly. 

Horror is my happy place and I have loved anthologies for as long as I can remember. I'm like a kid in a candy store any time I open one. There's just so much to choose from. There are so many delightfully dark tales here. 

If I had to pick a favorite it would be Return To Bear Creek Lodge by Tananarive Due where a family gathers as their mother is dying. It takes place in the 1970s and reminds me of how terribly afraid I was of my own grandmother. Is that an awful thing to admit? Oh well, it's done now and it takes a damned good horror story to dredge up my own past trauma.

I also loved The Dark House by A.C. Wise, partly because it takes place in my own state of Rhode Island. There's a mystery surrounding the life and death of a photographer whose many photos featured a particular house that is now abandoned but not necessarily empty. When curiosity leads people to its unlocked door some things are best left undiscovered.

A reminder of the cruelty of children, and the cruelty of being a child can be found in The Demon Lord Of Broken Concrete by Alex Irvine.

Not all of the stories in this anthology are scary but they are all wonderfully weird and creepy in their own way. 

My thanks to Pyr Books.

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