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Book List: 2021 Favorites

Monster Librarian’s staff reviewed over 100 books in 2021. These included fiction, nonfiction, anthologies, short story collections, poetry, novels, graphic novels, and novellas of all kinds, for adults, teens, and middle graders, both traditionally and independently published. While many excellent books came our way, the following titles received the designation of “highly recommended” from our reviewers. With the exception of seven books on this list, these can all be purchased from our storefront at Bookshop.org.

I really hope that you will choose to support Monster Librarian by making your purchases though our storefront at Bookshop.org. or through the links provided with publication information in our reviews. We received almost no funding this year and were lucky to cover our hosting fees.

 

 

Novels:

The Final Girl Support Group by Grady Hendrix
Lakewood by Megan Giddings
Whisper Down the Lane by Clay McLeod Chapman
Seeing Evil (Cycle of Evil #1) by Jason Parent
Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia
Children of Chicago by Cynthia Pelayo
Neptune’s Reckoning by Robert J. Stava
(Con)Science by PJ Manney
Final Girl by Wol-vriey
The Between by Ryan Leslie
Constance by Matthew Fitzsimmons
To Dust You Shall Return by Fred Venturini
Devil’s Creek by Todd Keisling
The Deep by Alma Katsu
Goblin: A Novel in Six Novellas by Josh Malerman
The Burning Girls  by C.J. Tudor
The Last House on Needless Street by Catriona Ward
The Other Black Girl by Zakiya Dalila Harris
Of One Blood by Pauline Hopkins

 

Young Adult:

Clown in a Cornfield by Adam Cesare
Beasts and Beauty: Dangerous Tales by Soman Chainani

 

Middle Grade:

The Girl and the Ghost  by Hanna Alkaf
Root Magic by Eden Royce
The Year I Flew Away by Marie Arnold
Amari and the Night Brothers by B.B. Alston

 

Graphic Novels:

Road of Bones by Rich Douek and Alex Cormack
Elvira: Mistress of the Dark (vols 1 and 2) by David Avallone, art by Dave Acosta
The Shape of Elvira by David Avallone, art by Fran Strukan (issues 1-3) and Pasquale Qualano (issue 4)
The Masque of the Red Death: Fine Art Edition by Edgar Allan Poe

 

 

Collections:

Coralesque: And Other Tales to Disturb and Distract by Rebecca Fraser
From the Depths: Terrifying Tales by Richard Saxon
Children of the Fang and Other Genealogies by John Langan
Burning Girls and Other Stories by Veronica Schanoes
Grotesque: Monster Stories by Lee Murray

 

Anthologies:

Attack From the ’80s edited by Eugene Johnson
Howls from Hell: A Horror Anthology edited by HOWL Society
Not All Monsters: A Strangehouse Anthology by Women of Horror edited by Joanna Roye and G.G. Silverman
Wicked Women: An Anthology of the New England Horror Writers edited by Jane Yolen and Hilary Monahan
Miscreations: Gods, Monstrosities, and Other Horrors edited by Doug Murano and Michael Bailey

 

Poetry:

Tortured Willows: Bent. Bowed. Unbroken. by Lee Murray, Geneve Flynn, Christina Sng, and Angela Yuriko Smith
A Complex Accident of Life by Jessica McHugh
Cradleland of Parasites by Sara Tantlinger

 

Nonfiction:

Cult Cinema by Howard David Ingham
Encyclopedia Sharksploitanica by Susan Snyder
The Devil and His Advocates by Nicholas Butler
Women Make Horror: Filmmaking, Feminism, Genre by Alison Peirse
The Science of Women in Horror: The Special Effects, Stunts, and True Stories Behind Your Favorite Fright Films by Kelly Florence and Meg Hafdahl
1000 Women in Horror: 1895-2018 by Alexandra Heller-Nicholas
Glamour Ghoul: The Passions and Pain of the Real Vampira, Maila Nurmi by Sandra Niemi
Writing in the Dark by Tim Waggoner
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Posted on January 4, 2022 by , Reply

Book Review: The Condemned by Jesse Rosenbaum

cover art for The Condemned by Jesse Rosenbaum

The Condemned by Jesse Rosenbaum

Fulton Books, 2021

ISBN: 9781649523228

Available: Paperback, Kindle edition  ( Bookshop.org  |  Amazon.com  )

 

The Condemned is an entertaining, although occasionally predictable debut novel from Jesse Rosenbaum.  It’s a decent story and worth reading, although it could have used one more edit to correct the grammatical mistakes that pop up from time to time.

 

The story itself is fun, and puts a few new ideas into the “ordinary guy dealing with angels and demons” plotline.  Michael is your everyday college student who has the misfortune to be visited by Orrix, one of Lucifer’s former high level demon flunkies.  Orrix was banished to Purgatory for insubordination, and he wants to return to Hell to give Lucifer a beating and take over his job.  Orrix gives Michael a choice: help him find an ancient book that will allow him to return to Hell, or Orrix will make Michael’s life miserable.  Not really having a choice, Michael and his friend Tom search for the book so they can get Orrix out of their lives and return to normal.

 

The plotline is solid, and it’s a nice change from the usual good vs. evil.  Instead, it’s “good mixed up with evil” vs. evil, as Lucifer does play a role in the book, and neither he nor Orrix are shining paragons of virtue.   It’s quite fun, with both Lucifer and Orrix making their case for why each should win, since both of them are pathological liars.  The author shows good creativity with the descriptions of the afterlife, and there’s some good imagery.  The upside-down trees growing from the bottom of precipices (complete with bodies hanged from them) are a good example.  The dialogue between the characters fits in nicely and fills in the plot, keeping the story moving at a brisk pace.  For generating reader interest, Orrix and Lucifer steal the show.  Poor Michael seems a bit hapless and somewhat puppet-like, since he really isn’t given much choice in… anything, really.  He’s a likable character, but he should have been given a little more free will: his lack of control over his destiny makes him somewhat one-dimensional.

 

All the good points make for a perfectly good story, but the way the dialogue is written could have used a bit more spit and polish.  It is written in more of a script form, as opposed to a story form.   It’s just dialogue, with no indication of who the speaker is.  It never gets confusing as to who said what, but the style detracts from the emotion of what the characters say.  Of course, it could be a stylistic choice by the author, although it’s one not seen very often in fiction.

 

Overall, it’s a likable first effort from a new author.

 

Reviewed by Murray Samuelson

Posted on December 15, 2021 by , Reply

Book Review: Ratio of Brookes to Ashleys by Wol-vriey

Ratio of Brookes to Ashleys by [Wol-vriey]

Ratio of Brookes to Ashleys by Wol-vriey

Burning Bulb Publishing, 2021

ISBN: 9781948278454

Available: Paperback, Kindle edition ( Bookshop.org  |  Amazon.com  )

 

Where his last novel, Women, was the equivalent of ten cans of energy drink, Ratio of Brookes to Ashleys is equal to a pitcher of sugar-free iced tea.  The gore factor (for Wol-vriey, at any rate) is remarkably tuned down and the sex is minimal.  Instead, this is a dialogue-oriented story, with more focus on the characters than an action-packed narrative.  It’s a decent read, just a change of pace from his usual smashmouth, in your face style.

 

While playing the dating game in his late 20’s, Mike Broadman dates Ashley Brooke Cummins, a vindictive woman with serious mood swings.  He has the good fortune to stop dating her after a couple of months, followed by the misfortune of being cursed by her before her suicide.  The curse?  He can only date Brookes or Ashleys for the rest of his life.  The curse seems to work… too well.  Not only do people Mike knows start getting murdered, people he dates with the correct names start getting killed also.  While Mike is convinced the curse is real, the police suspect an actual human killer.  Or, possibly, a combination? That’s the mystery at the heart of the story, as Mike tries to prevent further deaths and find out the true cause.

 

It’s an original idea, and the story moves at a slower, more measured pace than Wol-vriey’s previous novels.  Character interactions and dialogue account for the majority of the book.   The characters are fairly one-dimensional people in their late 20s, but they are able to carry the story well enough despite the lack of character depth.  The character of Ashley Cummins’ ghost does provide some entertaining contrast, and it would have been nice to have seen her developed into a bigger role.  The Siamese twins (Brooke and Ashley, of course) also provide a bit of extra color.  The violence is at a much lower level that Wol-vriey’s usual work.  There are a couple of messy knifings, but most of the rest of the violence comes from people getting hit by cars; nothing too unorthodox.  It’s minimal enough that readers who dislike splat stories may be fine with this one.  Occasionally, the story does get a bit hokey (finding online hexes that actually work, for instance), and there seems to be an abundance of females named Brooke or Ashley in the book, but hey, it’s fiction.  The story does wind up nicely with a climax that has a twist, and a hilariously amusing curse that causes a real predickament for the person involved.

 

Overall, it’s a fun read, just a different style from the author’s usual work.  This is one the average horror reader can enjoy, but fans of the hardcore stuff may want to stick to his other works.

 

Reviewed by Murray Samuelson

Posted on December 6, 2021 by , Reply
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