Trad Wife by Sarah Langan

Every day, millions watch Mia Wright, the “trad wife” queen, on her idyllic 300-acre farm. With her handsome husband, seven perfect children, and a life of from-scratch meals and pastoral bliss, she’s an icon of modern femininity. But behind every perfect image is a secret. And in this case, the secret is a horror.

Desperate to save her tarnished career, journalist Jenny Kaplan arrives at Black Swan Farm to profile Mia. Jenny is ready to write a scathing exposé, determined to expose the deception behind Mia’s curated life. But soon, Jenny has more to contend with than staged videos and picture-perfect poses. There’s something wrong at the farmhouse. Something slithers through Jenny’s dreams, and at night, the children sing strange nursery rhymes.

She’s losing time. She’s losing her hair. She starts to worry that she’s losing her mind.

There is a horror at the heart of Black Swan, and it’s waiting just for Jenny. Trad Wife will make you question what’s real and what’s just a perfectly curated deception…

Will you see the lie?

A journalist who has lost her job and is being taunted by an internet troll heads to Black Swan Farm to write a story on a popular tradwife. Millions of women watch Mia's reels every day and say she makes them feel "seen." 

So what's the deal with Mia? Everyone admires her, wants to emulate her, goes into debt trying to sell her products. What power does she have that allows her to exercise so much control over others? The camera loves her, but the true horror happens when the camera isn't rolling. Behind the scenes, the children are emotionally and socially stunted. Basic hygiene is neglected, and something slithers through the house at night.

There is a curse on Black Swan Farm that began generations ago when the original trad wives who settled there fought for their rights. In those days, as in real life, a woman who lost her husband lost everything. She could not own property, including the home she helped to build, if her husband died. Even her own children could be taken from her and sent off to live with male relatives. The real Trad Wives who fought for their rights were the first feminists.

 Aside from the chilling supernatural aspects, this is a book that made me think about the many differences between the realities of being in a traditional gender role marriage (which I am) and the fake and performative reels that have infested social media from trad wife "influencers." Somehow I don't have time to stage my house and myself while I pretend it's 3am to record myself acting out a pantomime of a dutiful wife cooking an enormous breakfast for a man who would have to get up an extra hour early to have time to gorge himself on it. Traditionally speaking, wives did not get paid for comments and clicks, so there's that.  Many of these influencers prey on younger, insecure women who are easily swayed. I am not convinced they influence anyone else.

The relationship between the journalist and her sister made me sad for the both of them, and the backstory of the curse and how it came to be was my favorite part. This seems to be one of those books that people either love or hate. You can count me among the side who loved it. The polarizing realism of mental illness, family dysfunction, and the subjugation of women were all woven together with supernatural horror to make a spellbinding contemporary read.

My thanks to Atria Books for the invitation to read an e-ARC

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When the Night Comes Knocking by Katherine Daniel

In this Appalachian horror novel, two estranged siblings become trapped in a convenience store under attack by a monster from the mountains who feasts on guilty hearts.

Rattle, rattle in the dark…

The mountain’s bones seek out a heart.

Jane has not spoken to her brother Thomas since the accident that nearly killed them both. Their drive from college through the North Georgia mountains is uncomfortably silent, until they stop at a roadside convenience store, where a man stumbles in with a mutilated body, claiming to have been attacked by a monster.

At first, no one believes the man’s ravings, but when the next person to leave the store is brutally killed, they fear that local legend might be true:

There’s a beast in these mountains who feasts on guilty hearts… and someone among them has lured it out of hiding.

Jane and Thomas each harbor secrets, but so do the other patrons, and as the monster claims more hearts, the survivors turn on each other, desperate to save themselves by uncovering the guiltiest among them.

If the siblings can’t overcome the rift between them, they’ll surely become the monster’s next victims…or worse, become monsters themselves.

 

Jane and Thomas are estranged siblings, thrown together for the first time in months on a forced road trip to spend an uncomfortable Thanksgiving with their parents. What is meant to be a quick stop at a convenience store on the way turns into the stuff of nightmares when they become trapped with a small group of strangers by a supernatural creature that feasts on guilt.

How much did I love this book? Let me count the ways!
The strained relationship between Jane and Thomas pulled me in immediately and kept me guessing why and how Thomas could possibly hold Jane responsible for a car accident when she was not the driver.

The claustrophobic feel of being trapped in the store with no means of escape and never knowing who the monster's intended victim was, since everyone in the store has a secret guilt it can feed on. 

Folk horror, grief, trauma and suspense! The creature itself, a shape shifting monster said to be the very bones that hold up the mountain, seeking a guilty heart to take its place. 

I don't usually do comparisons, but if you enjoyed The Mist by Stephen King, this is definitely for you, but without the sci-fi element, it's pure horror.  

My thanks to Berkley for the e-ARC.

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Mercy House by Adam Cesare

Harriet Laurel notices the odor the moment she steps inside Mercy House, brought to the retirement home against her will by her son and his wife. In the early stages of dementia, Harriet has grown to resent her daughter-in-law for not providing grandchildren. Yet as she crosses the threshold, she notices her mind begins to sharpen. Then her hate begins to grow. . . .

Arnold Piper, an eighty-five-year-old ex-Marine, has always prided himself on self-reliance. But betrayed by his own body, he’s learning that surviving war-torn Korea was easier than facing the daily indignities of old age. And his worst trials are still to come.

Sarah Campbell, an idealistic nurse, is already stretched thin at the chronically understaffed Mercy House. Now her duties are about to take a terrifying turn. Can she survive the night. . . and her patients?

This is a re-release to be published by Del Rey tomorrow. It was originally published in 2015 by Hydra 

Don and his wife Nikki have decided it's time for his mother Harriet to move into Mercy House. Harriet has never been easy to get along with, but the dementia has removed what little filter she used to have. The other residents in this home have begun a strange transformation just in time for Harriet's welcome dinner. It isn't long before this change overcomes her as well.

What follows is a cannibalistic, blood-soaked gore fest as the staff tries to survive the residents who have turned into rage filled killing machines who occasionally take a break from the murder and mahem to engage in geriatric orgies.

Let me warn you that this book is gross. It won't be for everyone. If you prefer your horror more scary than stomach churning, this will not be for you. This is something that would have given me pause before I accepted an invitation to read this book, had I known ahead of time.

I went along for the ride during the first half of the book, but the repetition began to get to me about the halfway point and by the end I was feeling frustrated at the lack of explanation for what was referred to as the "healing" of these previously weak and feeble residents who were suddenly increasing in strength and size. You may enjoy it more than I did. It's probably a case of it's not you; it's me. This is just not my type.

My thanks to  Del Rey for the e-ARC

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The Witching House by John Everson

 Angry and alone, Gianna tests an urban legend and writes the name Madelyn in blood on the mirror of the Witching House. When the ghost actually answers, she gains an unexpected friend. But soon Gianna learns friendship isn’t what the dead girl wants the most. Madelyn wants revenge for her murder. Can Gianna stop her before half the town is dead?

When Gianna is forced to move out of her school and away from her friends because of her father's new job, it feels like the end of the world. Her pregnant stepmother is treating her like Cinderella, her brother is no help, and the new school is full of bullies.

After a particularly cruel incident, she visits the "Witching House" a burned out shell where 20 years ago a group of vigilantes dealt with the witch in a Freddy Krueger-esque manner. It is rumored that writing the witch's name in blood will call her to you. You can probably guess what happens from there.

I liked Gianna but was not a fan of any of the other characters. Her father especially grated on my nerves as the type of half assed parent you just want to smack and say wake up! This is mainly a supernatural revenge story, so if you enjoy seeing bullies get what they deserve, including some fairly gruesome outcomes, this may be for you.

There are some chilling and creepy scenes, but nothing really fresh or original. Towards the end, it made me think of what it would have been like if, after Carrie had been bullied and tormented, Stephen King had her take an attitude of Oh well, never mind; let's just let bygones be bygones.

My thanks to Flame Tree Press for the ARC

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