A husband, wife, and their two children living comfortably in the suburbs is the perfect place for a spiritual manipulator to wreck havoc. The opening scene is of the family hiding from an intruder. Within paragraphs, the intruder Marvin is revealed to be a man who actually met the family the day before at a …
Bram Stoker’s Dracula was the first adult book I ever read, which sparked my love of the occult in literature. Robert Masello’s The Night Crossing not only did justice to the memory of Bram Stoker but is a much needed reminder of the majesty of the world of vampires and witches. This novel is about …
My first introduction to GRRM was via Game of Thrones, which I quickly fell in love with the ability to juggle multiple characters and varying storylines. So when I got the chance to read and review Nightflyers, a collection of science fiction short stories, I was ecstatic. One of the greatest storytellers of a generation …
When I was born, my great grandmother put a black fist bracelet around my wrist to protect me from evil spirits. And I was six, the first time my grandmother called me a child of Shango. I grew up knowing about the Orishas, connecting their qualities to those of Catholic saints. I knew the facts …
The Poppy War is the debut young adult novel written by R.F. Kuang, inspired and set in China’s 19th and early 20th century. War orphan Fang Runin, aka Rin, seeks to escape being married off to an older man for his influence on trade for her drug dealing adoptive parents. She spends two years preparing …
Out of the Blue is Sophie Cameron’s debut novel about how the world continues after tragedy. It isn’t a morbid or cynical social commentary but a beautiful matter of fact. The novel is written in first person from the point of view of protagonist Jaya, a teenaged Sri Lankan girl from Scotland. The story begins …
The Iliad and the Odyssey are incredible collections of tales of wit, bravery, courage but also murder, deception and greed. Have you read either of these and wondered about the backstory of the characters who flitted on then off scenes between the pages? More specifically, did you read of Odysseus visiting Circe and wondered more …
Wonderblood, by author Julia Whicker, is an exploration of science, magic and religion. The novel follows protagonist, Aurora, a fourteen year old girl who goes from carnival member to queen. This novel uses universal themes to navigate a future society where people worship the remains of NASA. So what happens when future humans find space …