They Drown Our Daughters by Katrina Monroe

 

If you can hear the call of the water,
It's already far too late.

They say Cape Disappointment is haunted. That's why tourists used to flock there in droves. They'd visit the rocky shoreline under the old lighthouse's watchful eye and fish shells from the water as they pretended to spot dark shapes in the surf. Now the tourists are long gone, and when Meredith Strand and her young daughter return to Meredith's childhood home after an acrimonious split from her wife, the Cape seems more haunted by regret than any malevolent force.

But her mother, suffering from early stages of Alzheimer's, is convinced the ghost stories are real. Not only is there something in the water, but it's watching them. Waiting for them. Reaching out to Meredith's daughter the way it has to every woman in their line for generations-and if Meredith isn't careful, all three women, bound by blood and heartbreak, will be lost one by one to the ocean's mournful call.

Part modern gothic, part ghost story, They Drown Our Daughters explores the depths of motherhood, identity, and the lengths a woman will go to hold on to both.

Once upon a time, a wronged woman was willing to do whatever it took to secure her daughter's future.

Maybe if her intentions had been pure, maybe if they had not held a tinge of selfishness things would have turned out differently. 

Instead, what she set in motion ruined the lives of generations to come.

Years later, rumors of witchcraft and a curse on the women are still fodder for gossip and pranks, and occasional vandalism on the family property.

When Meredith returns to her childhood home with her young daughter in tow, there is no happy reunion between her and her mother. Old wounds are reopened, and danger lurks in the water, waiting for its chance to claim another life.

This story is told on multiple timelines, from the points of view of several generations of women. I would describe it as historical horror fiction that makes its way into the modern day. It is atmospheric and dark, touching on the bonds between mothers and daughters and what it takes to sever them. There is a bit of supernatural mystery woven in, with a quick pace that kept me turning the pages. I was all in on this story until probably the final third when it took a weird turn without an adequate explanation.

I still enjoyed the story but that irked me enough to deduct a star.

4 out of 5 stars.

My thanks to Poisoned Pen Press

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Sallow Bend by Alan Baxter

 

When two teenagers go missing from the small, rural town of Sallow Bend, the residents come together to search for them. Little do they suspect that finding the wayward girls will be the start of their problems. An ancient evil is rising, and only one man seems to realize that everyone is in danger and this is not the first time it’s happened. With the carnival in town, people want to have a good time, but for many, this will be the worst time of their lives. SALLOW BEND – a tense and frightening folk horror novel from Alan Baxter and Cemetery Dance Publications.

Tricia is still grieving the loss of her son Toby. She tries to hold out hope that he is alive and will be found someday but he's been missing for a year and it's just not looking good. Her marriage has also taken a hit since her husband's drinking has spiraled out of control ever since their son disappeared. Now two young girls have gone missing and Tricia wants to help with the search. Some of the locals suspect the carny folk while others are suspicious of Caleb, the school janitor who can never look anyone in the eye for long. Tricia and Caleb team up in the search but what they discover goes far beyond their wildest fears.

The girls are found alive, but only Caleb realizes that something is horribly wrong. They were searching for two girls so why have they come back with three? Who or what is this stranger? And why does the entire town think they've known her all her life?

The three girls are now inseparable, and unnatural deaths seem to follow everywhere they go.

I loved this book so much! There is an old superstitious saying when you get a weird unexplained chill, that it's because a goose just walked over your grave. This book gave me chills so many times that the entire gaggle of geese must have walked over mine. 

Sallow Bend was a pleasantly creepy surprise for me. It has pretty much everything my heart desires in a horror novel. There's a small town with a dark past, lots of secrets, the carnival rolling in at the perfect moment to get blamed for some disappearances, and a whole lot of supernatural goings-on.

5 out of 5 stars

My thanks to Cemetery Dance Publications for the digital copy.

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Haunted Attractions with your Other Father by Norman Prentiss

 

Death separates people from each other. For a time.

This follow-up to ODD ADVENTURES WITH YOUR OTHER FATHER continues Jack and Shawn's horror/fantasy/LGBTQA+ roadtrip, chronicling their 1980s visits to out-of-the way attractions that amplify Jack's mind-projecting powers:

- A theater where the performance of a classical tragedy leaves an unforgettable aftertaste.

- A haunted house that targets a specific type of victim.

- A life-size concrete replica of Stonehenge that enacts a gender bending transformation to punish a disrespecting visitor.

- And a boardwalk funhouse ride that brings about the end of the world -- in more ways than one.

Meanwhile, in the present day, their daughter Celia confronts challenges at her summer camp job, while Shawn arranges visits to his dead lover's spirit in a house he doesn't own. The lovers could be reunited permanently, If only Jack's parents could be coerced into selling their home....

With this Haunted sequel, Bram Stoker Award winner Norman Prentiss offers horror, humor, and heart in an unforgettable collision of bizarre adventures, past and present.

This is a tough one for me to review. Mainly because when I saw the cover and that it was by Norman Prentiss I jumped so quickly on the chance to read it that I did not even realize it was a sequel. I wanted so badly to read it in time for Pride Month but here I am a week late.

It was a bit confusing to me at first to get the gist of the whole family dynamic but that is my own fault for not having started with book one. I am sure there are things that would have been better understood by me if I was not reading in the wrong order.

This is not exactly horror, but there are supernatural elements involved.

All Celia knows of her "other father" who passed away when she was very young, are the stories she is told by her surviving father, of their adventures and road trips together. 

All I knew of Jack and Shawn's relationship is that they were very much in love, in a time when it was dangerous to be openly gay. While some of Jack and Shawn's experiences were quite chilling I felt that this was more a story about love and loss and the bonds of family. It is sometimes humorous, often bittersweet, and always entertaining. It is quite original and I loved the characters. I do recommend that you read Odd Adventures With Your Other Father before starting this one.

4 out of 5 stars

My thanks to Cemetery Dance Publications for the review copy.

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Blood Cult of the Booby Farmers by Peter N. Dudar

 

Under the burning sun of Cold Currant, Mississippi, right on the banks of the Mississippi River, sits an old antebellum farmhouse that has been passed down over the generations. The farm's current occupants, the Tucker clan, are on the brink of losing their family's legacy. Only, the Tuckers have been hiding a depraved, murderous secret under the very soil of the farmland they continue to work. When the vice-president of Cold Currant Savings and Loan shows up one sweltering summer afternoon to transfer their foreclosure papers, all hell breaks loose.

In the race to save their farm, Lee Tucker and his two inbred sons, Tobias and Mathias are going to have to make some terrible decisions and spill a lot of blood. Only, things aren't exactly as they seem once the sun sets and the moon rises above the crops. And as their latest victim lies naked and screaming in the barn, a nightmarish chain of events begins to unfold. Will it be the end of the Tucker Blood Cult, or will their redneck living be enough to save the family farm? Find out in BLOOD CULT OF THE BOOBY FARMERS!

Well... if Peter Dudar can admit to having written this I suppose I can admit to having read it, even though I was warned that it's kind of "out there." Before we go any further I think it's only fair to give you the same warning. It's incredibly raunchy and kind of crazy. It straddles the line between extreme horror and bizarro fiction. It is gory and grotesque, vulgar and offensive, and yet weirdly hard to stop reading once you start.

The Tucker clan are an inbred family of farmers who enjoy cannibalizing certain parts of women's anatomy that I'm sure you can ascertain from the title. This has been their way of life for quite some time, but now that their farm is about to be foreclosed on they are in danger of being found out. Murder and mayhem ensue as they try to hold on to their farm and keep the law from discovering that there's more than veggies being planted.

They have an unusual crop this year due to chemical pollutants. Their produce is still the best around, but nobody has ever seen this kind of harvest before.

If you enjoy weird and gross fiction this may be for you. It's not as nasty as some of the Edward Lee I've read if that puts it into perspective for you, but it is definitely not for the faint of heart.

4 out of 5 stars

My thanks to Grinning Skull Press for the complimentary copy

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