For several years now, various internet wags have provided statistics indicating that the comparative popularity of zombies and vampires correlate with US political administrations: zombies have peak periods when Republicans are in power, while vampires have their boom years when the Democrats hold the White House. How seriously this data should be taken is debatable; but…
The Witness for the Dead Spoiler-Free Review
The Witness for the Dead, Katherine Addison’s much anticipated follow up to The Goblin Emperor, is an engrossing murder mystery in a richly imagined world.
REVIEW: Rogue: Untouched Is an Origin Story With Issues
Rogue: Untouched is the second book in Marvel and Aconyte Books’ Marvel Heroines line; a collection of novels focusing on female characters. Written by Alisa Kwitney (Cadaver & Queen), Rogue: Untouched follows the titular character in an alternate version of her origin story. The usual players are all there and many of the events are the same…
REVIEW: My Heart is a Chainsaw Effortlessly Slays
Content warning: Self-harm, suicide, and emotional, physical, and sexual abuse. I’d say MHIAC it’s made for teenagers sixteen years old and older. My Heart is a Chainsaw feels like it was made for me, and me personally, which is always a wonderful thing to feel when you open a book. The volume begins with an…
REVIEW: The Southern Book Club’s Guide to Slaying Vampires by Grady Hendrix
Vampire fiction has evolved considerably in the just-over-two centuries since the genre was codified by John Polidori. Each year brings with it a new take on the theme that becomes the latest contender for classic status, and for 2020 that work may well be The Southern Book Club’s Guide to Slaying Vampires by Grady Hendrix….
Murderbot Doesn’t Love Parenting. Murderbot Just Wants to Watch Its Shows.
With the upcoming release of Fugitive Telemetry, the sixth book in the Murderbot Diaries series by Martha Wells, I have been thinking about how Murderbot explores more and more of what it means to be a person in each book. Specifically, I’m thinking about the family relationships it encounters and participates in in Network Effect,…
WWAC Reads!
If you’d like a reading recommendation of any kind, WWAC has your back. Here at WWAC, our recent voracious reading has been varied. Lots of us have been cozying up with recent celebrated speculative fiction, WWAC Boss Publisher Wendy Browne has been delving into nonfiction, and I recently read an exciting Young Adult novel that…
Life, Death and Twisted Romance: The Taxidermist’s Lover by Polly Hall
Scarlett Pepper’s husband Henry is a skilled taxidermist, but despite his talents, he is struggling to get by in a dwindling marketplace. While surfing the net Scarlett comes across the work of another taxidermist, Felix De Souza. Unlike the Henry, a reclusive soul who mistrusts the Internet, Felix proudly showcases his creations to the public…
REVIEW: Wit, Weirdness and Warped Ethics: Lakewood by Megan Giddings
Lena Johnson receives an invitation to take part in the Lakewood Project, which purports to be a series of research studies relating to mind, memory, personality and perception. There is something about the letter that makes her uncomfortable – but with paid expenses, housing and perhaps even life insurance, Lena finds the offer more enticing…
Modern Hauntings, Victorian Torments: Belle Vue by C. S. Alleyne
Claire Ryan has been evicted by her landlord, but chances to find an affordable alternative: a flat in a building that was once a Victorian asylum called Belle Vue. Her boyfriend Alex, a history student, is more than happy with this development as he can base his latest research project around the building’s heritage. In…
REVIEW: The Girls Are All So Nice Here
Our reign was short and bloody. What came after it was worse. When an email arrives in Ambrosia “Amb” Wellington’s inbox, she deletes it immediately. It’s from her Alumni committee, inviting her to a ten-year reunion, but Amb does not want to go. Then strange notes start to arrive. Something VERY BAD occurred when Amb…
Black Magic and Dark Secrets: Alexis Henderson’s The Year of the Witching
Immanuelle Moore is a teenage girl who lives in Bethel, a town gripped by an authoritarian religion. The Good Father of Bethel’s faith is opposed by a Dark Mother, a demonic figure associated with witchcraft and devilry. Immanuelle has been treated with suspicion from birth as her late mother, Miriam, was a witch. Yet she…