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Book Review: Double Barrel Horror, Volume 3 edited by Matthew Weber

Double Barrel Horror, Volume 3 edited by Matthew Weber ( Amazon.com )

Pint Bottle Press, 2020

ISBN: 978-1-945005-01-5

Availability: Paperback, Kindle edition

Double Barrel Horror, Volume 3 is a 182 page collection of horror shorts by six different authors, two stories by each one. Most of the stories clock in at around the 10-15 page mark, and the quality is all over the map. There are some good ones, but some clunkers as well. Or, in keeping with the “shotgun” theme of the book title, there are some good rounds of double-aught buck in here, but there is also a fair amount of birdshot and blanks mixed in.

Calvin Demmer is the most consistent author out of the six; his “Highway Hell” and “Motel Madness” are entertaining romps, concerning how roadkill is really removed from the highways, and what happens to a bad, but not truly evil, person when they are tossed into purgatory. Robert Essig’s “From Unclean Spells” is a decent story of necromancy gone wrong. If nothing else, the belch-and-barf-fest (literally) in the story is quite amusing. Essig comes up big with “Fuel for the King of Death”, which scores high both in terms of originality and excitement. How does a freaky little Museum of Death keep getting new video footage for the museum? Read on and find out. Mark Matthews adds “Goodwin”, which is an entertaining take on the joys of necrophilia, from a corpse’s point of view. The most chilling story in the book certainly comes Glenn Rolfe. His “The House on Mayflower Street” is a terrifying look at what happens when nosy neighborhood brats start investigating the classic “abandoned house” in a suburban neighborhood. As the kids find out, curiosity is not only painful, it’s a lot worse than death. This one would make a good movie; it alone is almost worth the price of admission.

As for the rest of the stories…meh. They aren’t necessarily bad, but they aren’t that interesting either. The writing quality for all of them is fine, there just really isn’t anything in the stories to capture and hold the reader. They are okay for a quick moment, but there is nothing that will make the stories truly memorable for the reader. If you have the money to spare, you may want to consider picking this up for the good stories it does contain. Anyone on a limited budget, though, would be better off investing in The Third Corona Book of Horror Stories or Lost Highways: Dark Fiction From the Road.

Contains: violence, profanity, gore

Reviewed by Murray Samuelson

Posted on June 30, 2020 by Kirsten, Reply

Book Review: My Sister, the Serial Killer by Oyinkan Braithwaite

My Sister, the Serial Killer by Oyinkan Braithwaite ( Bookshop.org | Amazon.com )

Doubleday, 2018

ISBN-13: 978-0385544238

Available: Hardcover, paperback, audiobook, Kindle edition

My Sister, the Serial Killer, by Nigerian author Oyinkan Braithwaite, is set in Lagos, Nigeria. Korede is the dutiful, protective, perfectionist older sister to beautiful, selfish, lazy, and possibly sociopathic Ayoola. Ayoola has “accidentally” stabbed three different boyfriends to death, and each time she has called Korede to help with the cleanup. According to Ayoola, each time has been self-defense, but, Korede wonders, why is she always carrying a sharp knife if it’s accidental? Korede, following through in covering up the murder, reads his blog and sees his social media. He wrote poetry and obviously had friends and family who are worried about his disappearance. He seems like a nice guy, and Korede wonders if Ayoola really had to act in self-defense.

Korede is a nurse who is very good at her job. She has a long-standing crush on one of the doctors, who has always been a nice guy, and thinks she is finally getting somewhere with him when Ayoola breezes through the door, making an unforgettable impression on him. When Korede expresses her frustration with this, Ayoola tells her there’s no such thing; even so-called “nice guys” like the doctor are after beauty more than they care about anything else, and she’ll prove it. Ayoola then proceeds to sweep him away with her beauty, despite her selfishness, cheating on him, and criticism of him. Korede, worried that he may become Ayoola’s next victim, attempts to warn him and instead of taking her seriously, he accuses her of jealousy, spite, and a lack of sisterly love, confirming Ayoola’s assertion that he isn’t really a “nice guy” after all.

Flashbacks to their childhood and current family relationships reveal that their father was an abusive man who punished Ayoola for being attractive to boys and men, and Korede has been protective of her since then. What’s going on now is clearly tied to the early damage done by the men in their lives. My Sister, the Serial Killer is darkly funny, but it’s also an indictment of the horrors caused by the patriarchy and a solid response to the frequent assertion that “not all men are bad guys”. The nicest guy in this book is completely blind to the harm he’s doing to both Korede, with his accusations, and Ayoola, with his obsession over her beauty. A compelling, disturbing, perceptive, and satirical book, My Sister, the Serial Killer gets inside your head and stays there. Recommended.

Contains: murder, blood, violence, child abuse, implied sexual assault.

Posted on June 25, 2020 by Kirsten, Reply

Book Review: Crave (Crave #1) by Tracy Wolff

Crave (Crave #1) by Tracy Wolff ( Bookshop.org | Amazon.com )

Entangled Teen, 2020

ISBN-13: 978-1640638952

Available: Hardcover, paperback, Kindle edition, audiobook

Grace’s parents died in a car accident, leaving her no choice but to leave her home in California and unenthusiastically move to Alaska, where her uncle, now her guardian, is headmaster at a remote, exclusive boarding school. While her uncle, and her cousin Macy, seem glad to have her there, Grace at once notices there’s something off about the school (a giant Gothic castle) and the students. Her first encounter is with the dark, Byronic, and exceedingly rude Jaxon, who is both hostile and very hot. Despite his attempt at intimidation, Grace holds her own… at least until altitude sickness does her in. Flint, another friendly student, carries Grace and her suitcase up to the room she’ll share with her cousin (Grace spends a significant part of the book either suffering from altitude sickness, recovering from a twisted ankle, and recuperating from attempts against her life. This gives her both a reason for not keeping to a school schedule while actually living in a school and for her complete obliviousness about the fact that all the students are supernatural creature) As Grace attempts to integrate into the school with Macy’s help, she finds herself thinking more about Jaxon, despite his extreme bouts of hostility and his obvious concern and attraction to Grace, both ordering her a special breakfast when she’s stuck in bed and sending her a copy of Twilight “as a warning.”

Jaxon might have a point, if Twilight took place in wintry Alaska instead of rainy Washington, if he and Grace were anything like Edward and Bella, and if the heat between the main characters was turned way up. As dysfunctional as Grace and Jaxon are together, their chemistry is undeniable. Crave is going to get a lot of hearts beating faster (and props to Wolff for making consent between Grace and Jaxon explicit).

A lot gets sacrificed for Jaxon and Grace to come together– not just literally, as Grace bungles her way through lethal and bloody vampire politics and tensions between vampires and dragons, but in the name of romance (like Grace dancing with Jaxon at night in the Alaskan outdoors in nothing but a dress with spaghetti straps, a scene which is gorgeous to read but romantic only in theory). Despite the problematic aspects of the relationship between the two, they have their moments, both apart and together. The drama, secrets, and twisty relationships mean that Crave is not just the story of Grace and Jaxon; they are part of a larger picture that we have yet to see pieced completely together. Crave is a compelling, escapist read with a healthy serving of snark, that urban fantasy readers and YA vampire enthusiasts should enjoy. Recommended for ages 14+.

Contains: violence, gore, murder, assault, ritual sacrifice