Book Review: They Bloom at Night

They Bloom at Night 

by Trang Thanh Tran
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I picked up They Bloom at Night for a couple reasons but the primary reason is it’s a finalist for the Hugo Lodestar Award for best YA book.
Unfortunately I do not feel it’s quite up to the benchmark for a Hugo and feel at most 3.5 stars is the best I can give it; even thought I really liked the overall concept and found it very quotable.

”Sometimes we need people to hunt the things we need to die but that we aren’t ready to kill.”

For me, They Bloom at Night drags in place, is a bit overwritten, and definitely too repetitive. Trang Thanh Tran has some quotable passages and great messaging for teens including: passionately talking about loving yourself for who you are and finding yourself over being who society, parents, etc. want you to be. All sentiments I’m passionate about reinforcing, especially for teens. The LGBTQ+ representation here is very well done. Thus it hurts me to give only 3 stars; but the truth is I was bored and disengaged a lot. I felt like I’d more than gotten the message by the 60% mark and didn’t need another 100+ pages to slam it all home.

That said, the story is brilliant, the characters are good, and the plot points are clever; it just doesn’t come together and I’m blaming pacing and writing. The final product is too repetitive and convoluted in its delivery. I know this is a YA book; but I think we need to give teens more credit to read without being reminded every ten pages of the overall messaging and plot of the story. This could easily have been a five star read; but in the end I must be honest and admit that I didn’t love it even though I really wanted to (and felt like I should given its horror focus).

That’s not to say that it shouldn’t be read. I’d actually still buy They Bloom at Night for a well read teen. The overall messaging and presentation of our sucky society and its disappointing expectations is very valuable. I just wouldn’t give it to anyone, teen or not, that struggles to read or isn’t very passionate about reading. I truly believe most will suffer through or just give up. Tran just doesn’t deliver in a way that worked for me which is really too bad.

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Comic Review: The Last Day of H. P. Lovecraft

The Last Day of H.P. Lovecraft 

by Romuald Giulivo
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

”For in nothingness, one is liberated at last from the transient and ephemeral, and no desire goes unfulfilled.” 

A very surreal experience. Essentially a comic based on the letters and diary entries that Lovecraft wrote on his death bed. The overall tone of this comic is fairly depressing, gothic, and makes many arching statements on existence that Lovecraft expressed in his life.

I really enjoyed it but would be wary to recommend it to just anyone. Not for anyone struggling to decide why we exist or with depression. I’d only recommend this for those with some ‘darkness’ in them who are curious to explore it in a safe and slightly academic way. The art made me think of Dante’s Inferno and the different layers of hell that are traversed. Much of the time ‘in’ Lovecraft’s subconscious has an overall hellish feel and the reds, blacks, dead imagery is exquisite.

A perfect selection for any goth or dead intrigued comic reader. However there is a lot of narrative here unlike most comics. Be prepared to read. The art is really just a compliment to the text in this case (and not vice versa like most comics). Without the text it would not tell any story and the narrative would be lost.

Please note: I received an eARC of this book from the publisher via NetGalley. This is an honest and unbiased review.

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Book Review: I Know A Place: Rest Stop and Other Detours

I Know a Place: Rest Stop and Other Dark Detours 

by Nat Cassidy
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

12 short stories and 1 novella (ish) length story; equals 13 bite sized chunks of delicious horror from Nat Cassidy. Each one of them twisted… and as you read on each seems a bit stranger than the last. Culminating in a storm with an untraditional narrative that is a conscious stream of (nearly) nonsense. My favourite of all the stories was also a different narrative approach in which the story is told in emails back and forth… and it’s brilliant!! Especially the ending that is lines and lines a single emoji! I won’t tell you which one as it’s too good to spoil. Weeks after reading it I still have images of this one in my head, and the descriptive sounds!!

The opening novella length story, Rest Stop, is horror for horrors sake. A little bit of inspiration seems to have come from Jigsaw and trapping your ‘prey’ by tricking them into feeling safe in one place, and then destroying that illusion. It features a huge spider which is a literal nightmare to me. Spiders are the absolute worst!!! *shudder* I almost had to skip through it but luckily the story moves on quickly to a new threat; and (for me) nothing is as terrifying as a spider (unless it’s the vast deep dark ocean that is equal or worse; but that’s a different kind of terror).

The remaining stories are all clever in their own way. The variety of stories here shows the vast range of plot points and items that can be horrific. Nat Cassidy does a wonderful job of highlighting serial killers, supernatural entities, crazed humans, fungus (yep mushrooms) and more to demonstrate the multitude of options available to scare us. I guarantee everyone will find at least one (if not more) stories here that touches a nerve and gives you the horror shudder you are likely looking for when you pick-up a Cassidy book.

Please note: I received an eARC of this book from the publisher via NetGalley. This is an honest and unbiased review.

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