Unusual Occurrences by Glenn Rolfe

Glenn Rolfe's UNUSUAL OCCURRENCES delivers chills, heartbreak, and small-town horror as only he can. This collection of dark stories— from a haunted coin ("Skull of Snakes") to murder mystery ("Abram's Bridge") to critters of all sorts ("Girl by Day" "Harry's Inevitable Extinction") to the author's personal take on his brother's passing ("The Rooster") and a Christmas story like something out of Natural Born Killers ("Welcome to Paradise")—will keep you turning the pages into the night, freaking you out one minute, and breaking your heart the next.

If you've not read Rolfe, this is one hell of an introduction!.

Track listing: 1. Out of Range 2. Abram's Bridge 3. The Fixer 4. Not Kansas Anymore 5. Skull of Snakes 6. Fire 7. Too Much of a Dead Thing 8. Harry's Inevitable Extinction 9. Halloween Worm 10. The Rooster 11. The House on Mayflower Street 12. Jackie Boy 13. Welcome to Paradise 14. Girl By Day 15. Boom Town

 

I love short horror stories —you are probably tired of hearing me say that, but I just can't get enough of them. I am so glad I chose Unusual Occurrences for my first read of the month.

Within the first sentence or two at the start of each story I was instantly engaged and eager for more. That is a most impressive skill that not all possess, to be able to come up with that perfect sentence that a reader can't walk away from. 

 These stories have been previously published before being collected here, but I had only read one of them in the past. It still packed a punch for me as a reread, and that is rare. Most stories were new to me and I enjoyed every single one of them.

Glenn Rolfe has a gift for hooking the reader immediately as he weaves tales of vampires, ghosts, aliens, UFOs, and more in this excellent collection of dark fiction that delivers shivery chills one minute and a heart-breaking gut punch the next.

5 out of 5 stars

ARC provided by Victory Editing NetGalley Co-op

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Scaring and Daring: Terrifying Takes on 15 Classic Tales—A Horror Writers Association Anthology

 Abandon all hope, ye who enter here! 

Get ready for a terrifying spin on some of literature’s most beloved tales—no story is safe! From Captain Hook’s run-in with dark magic to Sherlock Holmes narrowly escaping graveyard spirits to a happily never after for Cinderella, this horror anthology is anything but a bedtime story. In this terrifying new collection for young readers, the best-loved stories from the literary canon are revisited and reimagined with a deadly twist by some of the top authors working in middle grade today. 

Featuring tales from New York Times bestselling authors Jonathan Maberry and Kelley Armstrong, Carlos Hernandez, Lisa Morton, Maurice Broaddus, and many others, this collection will haunt you long after you turn the last page. Read on—if you dare!

Created by award-winning editor Eric J. Guignard.

• In “The Hound of the Basking Villas," a wily girl teams with young Sherlock Holmes to search for a missing boy in a fae-haunted cemetery.

• In “The Boy of La Mancha Rides a Ghost Horse," a young Don Quixote, along with his stalwart companions, seeks honor and recognition by capturing (before time of his mother’s curfew) a ghost horse that terrorizes all of La Mancha.

• In “Hook and the Hand of Fate," Captain Hook trades a promise for the return of his hand, but learns that barters cannot be broken in Neverland.

• In “Prince Badi az-Zaman and the Ogress Fattan," a young prince sets out to find an ogress responsible for mayhem among his people, only to learn not all is as seems.

. . . and more!

Some of my favorite writers have breathed new life into classic tales to delight young readers and the young at heart. My favorites were based on the stories I loved best as a child.

The Glass Slipper by Sherrilyn Kenyon imagines a very different fate for Cinderella after she marries her prince.

The Hound of the Basking Villas by Kelly Armstrong leads young sleuths to a graveyard in a spooky search for a missing boy.

The GruelMaster by Nathan Carson could have saved Oliver Twist from going hungry.

The plight of missing people is blamed on an Ogress in Prince Badi Az-Zaman and the Ogress Fattan by Tanvir Ahmed, but who is the real culprit?

The Secret Thing in the Garden by Delilah S. Dawson is a far spookier version when young friends attempt to dig a pond.

Wolf In The Mirror by Sarwat Chadda pays homage to The Jungle Book where Mowgli should have been left alone.

Freckle and Hide by Jonathan Mayberry is about a boy with anger issues and his timid adopted dog.

The Shadows in The Rock by Joe R. Lansdale is a Huck Finn rafting adventure.

These were my favorites, yours may differ. The recommended reading age is 8-12 years old, but there is no reason older children wouldn't relish these tales. I think younger kids may struggle with some of the words and may be better suited to have the stories read to them.

My thanks to Eric J. Guignard for the hardcover copy.

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The Devil Take the Blues by Ariel Slick

During the 1920s, Beatrice Corbin just wants to keep her general store afloat and keep an eye on her younger, newly married sister, Agnes, in the small town of Azoma, Louisiana. Until she is approached by the Devil, Frank Charbonneau, and learns that her sister will be murdered. At first, she doesn't believe Frank until one of his predictions comes true. To save her sister, she makes a bet with him, staking her soul on the wager that she can find her sister's would-be killer in seven weeks. Meanwhile, Agnes is hiding her own secret, and Beatrice ignores her growing feelings for a Black blues musician, with whom Frank has also made a deal.

Unbeknownst to Beatrice, the true target is someone in her own family. As her time runs out, Beatrice becomes desperate and unknowingly pushes Agnes toward her inevitable fate. And everyone knows that the Devil doesn't play fair...but in this case, is he?

In the 1920s in a small southern town where racism runs rampant and the KKK has taken a foothold, there are two things that Beatrice cares about. Her only priorities are making sure her sister Agnes is safe, and keeping her general store in business.  When it is predicted that Agnes will be murdered, there is nothing Beatrice won't do to find and stop the would-be killer, even if she has to make a deal with the devil himself.

The devil, recently released from a trap, is more than happy to oblige. For Beatrice, it's a race against the clock. She has 7 weeks to find out who will kill her sister or she will not only lose her, but herself as well.

Atmospheric and dark, the writing style pulled me in from page one. It wasn't long before I began to worry for Agnes as much as Beatrice did. This gothic, historical fiction spins a tale of hot southern nights when moonshine, magic, and blues music fill the humid evening air, and the devil appears in human form seeking a good time. It's a tale of grief and loneliness with a bit of romance and forbidden love in a time and place when Anti-miscegenation laws could lead to imprisonment or being murdered for "consorting" with someone outside of your race. The author envisions a devil who is as charming as you've ever been warned about, with a passion for music and vulnerable to human emotion. 

4 out of 5 stars

My thanks to the author for the paperback copy.

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Psychopomp & Circumstance by Eden Royce

 

Phee St. Margaret is a daughter of the Reconstruction, born to a family of free Black business owners in New Charleston. Coddled to within an inch of her life by a mother who refuses to let her daughter live a life other than the one she dictates, Phee yearns to demonstrate she's capable of more than simply marrying well.

When word arrives that her Aunt Cleo, long estranged from the family, has passed away, Phee risks her mother's wrath to step up and accept the role of pomp―the highly honored duty of planning the funeral service. Traveling alone to the town of Horizon and her aunt's unsettling home, Phee soon discovers that visions and shadows beckon from every reflective surface, and that some secrets transcend the borders of life and death.

This book was a struggle for me to get through. It is a combination of historical fiction and fantasy that was clever in theory, but the execution left a lot to be desired. It takes place during reconstruction after the Civil War, but with magical creatures that I had never heard of, and were not really brought to life for me with much explanation of what they are. I did not expect this from the synopsis and it was an unwelcome surprise.

Phee has never been allowed to do much of anything without her mother's overbearing presence, so such a complicated undertaking as what they call a homecoming is a huge deal for her.
So much of this book is Phee's repetitive thought process as she worries over whether she is up to the task of planning and executing a funeral worthy of Aunt Cleo, a woman she loved dearly but who had been ostracized from the family. There is also her guilt over not having visited her when she was alive. I mean, I get it. Don't keep telling me. In such a short novel, it is best to just get on with it rather than repeat the same things. 

Then there is Aunt Cleo's house, which I was expecting to be spookier, and the writing style that I did not find appealing.

You may enjoy it more than I did, but this book was not for me.

My thanks to Tordotcom for the finished copy.

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