REVIEW: Blanky (novella) by Kealan Patrick Burke

Blanky is a horror novella. I bought my copy new.

Review:

Steve is a teacher who is drowning in grief over the sudden death of his infant daughter, Robin. His wife, Lexi, has gone to stay with her parents, unable to deal with being in the same house where Robin died.

Steve hears a noise from his daughter's empty room and goes to look only to find Blanky, Robin's old blanket. He calls Lexi to tell her about it, and she's able to bring herself to come over to take a look at it. The two of them reconnect and things seem to be going better for a bit, until everything goes very wrong.

The ambiguity of this one was frustrating, since it could have easily been resolved with a little more information from just one or two other characters. At any rate, there are a couple different versions of what happened, and readers are left to decide for themselves what they believe.

I feel like some of the weirdness about Blanky should have been discovered earlier on. Either way, I have questions and no answers. 

REVIEW: Night of the Mannequins (novella) by Stephen Graham Jones

Night of the Mannequins is horror. I bought my copy new.

Review:

In his rambling, all-over-the place way, teenager Sawyer explains how a prank involving a mannequin he and his friends found a while back resulted in a bunch of deaths - but, Sawyer, insists, fewer deaths than there might have been if he hadn't recognized what was going on with Manny the mannequin and stepped in to try to protect everyone.

So, I can't really say much about this one without ruining it, but reading this was the literary version of watching a train wreck. I mean that in the best possible way, for a horror story.

Sawyer...man, that kid. I don't even know where to start. Literally everything he did had a tendency to spiral out of control, whether he recognized it or not.

I admit, I got a little bit lost near the end, because it wasn't always easy to tell what was real and what wasn't. Still, even if I wasn't entirely sure exactly what happened at the end, this was quite a ride. 

REVIEW: We Had to Remove This Post (novella) by Hanna Bervoets, translated by Emma Rault

We Had to Remove This Post is literary fiction. I bought my copy new.

Review:

Kayleigh, in desperate need of money after getting out of a toxic relationship with one of her coworkers at the call center she used to work for, answers a vague job ad for a position as a "quality assurance worker" at Hexa. She has no idea what to expect, but the pay is better than at the call center. She soon learns that Hexa is a subcontractor for a large and powerful tech company that she and her other new coworkers must agree to never mention by name.

Kayleigh's new job involves being a content moderator for this tech company. It turns out to be a job that she's very good at - it soon becomes second nature for her to apply the constantly changing moderator guidelines to whatever hundreds of pieces of media she's supposed to evaluate each day. Yes, some of what she sees is horrible, but she'd had pretty horrible abuse hurled at her when she was at the call center, and at least none of this stuff is aimed at her personally.

While working at Hexa, Kayleigh makes several friends and even finds herself in a long-term relationship with one of her coworkers, Sigrid. The bulk of this story is focused on Kayleigh and Sigrid's relationship and how things change the longer they're at Hexa.

REVIEW: Murder in the Age of Enlightenment: Essential Stories (short story anthology) by Ryūnosuke Akutagawa, translated by Bryan Karetnyk

Murder in the Age of Enlightenment is a collection of Akutagawa's short stories. I bought my copy new.

Review:

This book contains 7 short stories. Overall, I found this collection to be very readable and strangely intriguing, even though I wasn't always sure what the author was trying to get at.

My favorites were probably "In a Grove" (in which we see a crime from multiple POVs and are never told which version is the truth) and "Madonna in Black" (a creepy story about a possibly cursed statue).

I can't say I necessarily enjoyed it, but "Hell Screen" (about a painter who insisted that he needed to see horrors in order to properly paint them) was certainly compelling. 

REVIEW: I Found Puppets Living In My Apartment Walls (novella) by Ben Farthing

I Found Puppets Living In My Apartment Walls is horror. I bought my copy new.

Review:

Johnny and his cousin Brittany are at their grandpa's New York apartment, preparing to clear out his things after he was legally dead due to being missing for a year. The apartment is a renovated TV studio, the place where their grandpa once worked as a puppeteer for a Sesame Street-like children's show.

Johnny wakes up one night to find Swoomie, his grandpa's old puppet, standing over him and watching him. Only Swoomie's right side moves, the side that Johnny's grandpa controlled. Swoomie somehow disappears into the apartment's walls, and Johnny becomes obsessed with figuring out what's going on. Whatever it is, he's sure it's linked to his grandpa's disappearance. Brittany isn't convinced he saw what he thought he saw, but, as a superfan of her grandpa's show, she's excited about the thought that their grandpa might have stored the old puppets inside the apartment's walls.

REVIEW: Vigilance (novella) by Robert Jackson Bennett

Vigilance is science fiction. I bought my copy new.

Review:

In this near-future America, mass shootings have been monetized and turned into entertainment. John McDean executive produces Vigilance, a game show supposedly designed to keep Americans vigilant against all threats. At unspecified intervals, a public space is selected and several contestants (the active shooters) are set up at various entrances with weapons of their choice and all the ammo they could want. There are monetary prizes for contestants who manage to kill all the civilians and survive, for civilians who manage to kill a contestant, and more. 

McDean is a marketing wizard who has all of this down to a science. He knows who his Ideal Person, his target audience is, and he knows exactly what they want. He's so good at what he does, in fact, that his bosses have used his work to train a new AI, Perseph, to do what he does, only better, and Perseph is set to debut at the height of the most recent Vigilance.

REVIEW: And Then I Woke Up (novella) by Malcolm Devlin

And Then I Woke Up is a blend of horror and post-apocalyptic science fiction. I bought my copy new.

We'll just say this entire review is a spoiler. 

Review:

Spence is one of the many cured patients at Ironside, a special facility. Although calling it "cured" is a bit misleading, since relapses can certainly happen. At any rate, in group therapy, he and the other patients tell each other their stories - what they were doing when they got caught up in the narrative, what they did while they were infected, and how they came to be cured and end up at Ironside. When a woman named Leila arrives at Ironside, Spence gradually befriends her, until eventually she trusts him enough to tell him that she's leaving - she's going to check on Val, the person who acted as leader in her group and reinforced the narrative. Spence decides to go with her.

REVIEW: The Moon Over the Mountain (short story) by Atsushi Nakajima, art by Nekosuke, translated by Asa Yoneda

The Moon Over the Mountain is a fantasy/magical realism Japanese story (or I misunderstood and it's symbolic or something). I bought my copy new.

Review:

This is the story of Li Zheng of Longxi, a young civil servant who quits service because he feels he has more to offer the world as a poet. He never becomes famous, however, and eventually leaves his wife, children, and everything else behind, disappearing. Later, his old friend, government inspector Yuan Can of Chenjun, encounters a beast that almost attacks him but races away at the last second. Then Yuan Can hears the voice of his old friend, who tells him that he has become a terrifying beast, a tiger. He had Yuan Can record some of his poetry and asks him to tell his wife and children that he is dead, and to care for them in some way. He admits that his combination of narcissism, fear of failure, and lack of desire to put in strenuous work is what has transformed him into a beast.

REVIEW: Stitches: Short Stories (anthology) by Hirokatsu Kihara, art by Junji Ito, translated by Jocelyne Allen

This is an anthology of short horror stories. I bought my copy new.

Review:

This one's on me - I wasn't paying attention and initially got this thinking that it was an anthology of Junji Ito manga shorts. Instead, it's an anthology of (primarily) textual short stories by Hirokatsu Kihara, illustrated by Junji Ito. This didn't necessarily have to be a bad thing. Maybe it'd be a Japanese Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark, with the illustrations making everything several times creepier.

Or not. Most of the stories were either not very memorable or were downright disappointing with their lack of follow-through. "The Kimono" was kind of sweet and creepy, and "The Play" was mildly creepy. However, several of the stories literally ended with some variation of "nothing happened, thank goodness." It was a letdown.

There is one manga story in the collection, created by Junji Ito and based on a "true story" collected by Hirokatsu Kihara. It starts off good and creepy due to Ito's artwork...and then the main character chickens out and changes the subject in order to avoid learning anything truly scary.

All in all, not really worth it, not even for Ito's artwork.

REVIEW: Defekt (novella) by Nino Cipri

Defekt is the second work set in Cipri's sci-fi LitenVerse world. I bought my copy new.

Review:

This takes place at around the same time as Cipri's first LitenVärld (knockoff IKEA) work, Finna, and features a cameo appearance of one of that work's characters, but I think it could be read and enjoyed on its own.

Derek is a model LitenVärld employee, always striving to support the store and its goals. Right from the moment he wakes up in his converted shipping container home behind the store to the moment he leaves work, he lives and breathes his job. It kind of creeps his fellow employees out. His supervisor encourages him to stop trying to make friends and just focus on his work, but he can't help but feel a little lonely.

Then Derek starts to feel a little...off. It begins with a sore throat. When it progresses to coughing up blood and gristle, a coworker encourages him to take his first sick day ever. He wasn't even aware that he could do that. Unfortunately, this then results in upper management questioning Derek's loyalty to the store and assigning him to a special nighttime inventory shift. Meeting his new coworkers is a shock, to put it mildly.

REVIEW: Spring Comes Riding in a Carriage (short story) by Riichi Yokomitsu, art by Atsuki Ito, translated by Yui Kajita

Spring Comes Riding in a Carriage is a Japanese realistic fiction short story. I bought my copy new.

Review:

I'm slowly working my way through all the Maiden's Bookshelf stuff that has been translated into English. This particular story was originally published in 1926 and is focused on a married couple. Their marriage started rough, with the husband having to fight against his wife's parents' objections in order for them to get married in the first place. Then the husband had to deal with issues with his mother-in-law. Now the couple is finally left to themselves, but they still can't fully be happy - the wife is dying (tuberculosis?). Her husband acts as her caretaker, simultaneously resenting the way he feels tethered to her and dreading the day she finally leaves him. She rages at him, accusing him of wanting to be elsewhere, with someone else, only letting up as she becomes more prepared to die.

REVIEW: What Moves the Dead (novella) by T. Kingfisher

What Moves the Dead is horror. I bought my copy new.

Review:

When Alex Easton, a retired soldier, receives a letter from their childhood friend Madeline Usher indicating that she is dying, they immediately travel to the Usher ancestral home. Although Alex has been warned, it's still a shock to see how ill the last two remaining Ushers look. Madeline's brother, Roderick, with whom Alex once served, looks like a strong breeze could blow him away. Madeline looks like she could die at any moment.

Despite being nobility, the Ushers are ruinously poor, and it's painfully evident in the condition of the house and surrounding land. Surely the mold, mushrooms, and algae-infested lake can't be good for Roderick and Madeline's fragile health, but Roderick refuses to leave without Madeline, and Madeline is too sick to go anywhere. 

REVIEW: The Turn of the Screw (novella) by Henry James

The Turn of the Screw is gothic horror. I bought my copy new.

Review:

A young governess is hired by a man to care for his niece and nephew. He leaves them entirely in her care and makes it clear that he doesn't want to be bothered about them. 

The governess is quickly charmed by Flora but is somewhat nervous about Miles, the eldest of the two, when she receives a letter saying that he has been expelled from his boarding school. When Miles arrives, however, he turns out to be just as charming as Flora, and the governess can't bring herself to ask what happened at school. 

After the governess sees a couple unexpected people on the grounds, she learns that they may be the ghosts of Miss Jessel, the previous governess, and another former employee, Peter Quint. She becomes obsessed with the idea that the children have seen these two as well and are somehow being negatively influenced by them.

REVIEW: This Is How You Lose the Time War (novella) by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone

This Is How You Lose the Time War is a blend of science fiction and f/f romance. I bought my copy new.

Review:

Red and Blue are agents from opposing forces in a war that spans multiple timelines and locations. They become intrigued by each other, seeing each other as worthy adversaries. Although they never directly interact, they communicate through letters cleverly woven into the fabric of worlds where they know or suspect their paths will cross. Initially, the letters have a taunting tone. Eventually, however, their relationship warms, becoming something more like love.

But that doesn't change the fact that they're on opposite sides of a war. One side or the other will win, right?

REVIEW: If Found Return to Hell (novella) by Em X. Liu

If Found Return to Hell is fantasy. I bought my copy new.

Review:

Journeyman Wen is an intern at One Wizard, a wizarding firm that helps callers with any number of magical problems, as long as their problems are covered by insurance and the customers can afford to pay. Once upon a time, Wen dreamed of actually helping people. Now, however, daily life involves nothing more than passing customers off to more qualified but overworked wizards.

One of Wen's latest calls seems like something that might warrant a house call. Surprisingly, Wen's supervisor doesn't assign someone else to the job, but rather sends Wen, who brings along Nathaniel, a friend and coworker at the call center. Unfortunately, Wen ends up promising a little more than they should and soon ends up with a problem in the form of a new roommate who's possessed by a demon prince from Hell. 

REVIEW: The Girl Who Became a Fish (short story) by Osamu Dazai, art by Nekosuke, translated by David Boyd

The Girl Who Became a Fish is, maybe, magical realism. I bought my copy new.

Review:

This is the story of Suwa, the young daughter of a charcoal maker. During the summer months, when visitors come to the area to see the local waterfall, Suwa's father has her run a small tea stand. Although she obediently does as she's told, her voice is drowned out by the sound of the falls and she rarely sells anything. One day, while staffing the tea stand, she witnesses a student accidentally fall and drown.

This gets tied in with a story Suwa's father once told her, about two brothers, one of whom was transformed into a serpent, as well as Suwa's eventual fate.

REVIEW: The Mist (novella) by Stephen King

The Mist is a horror novella originally published in 1980. I bought my copy new.

Review:

A terrible storm hits western Maine, although thankfully the damage to David and Steff Drayton's home is relatively minor. In the aftermath, David decides to go to the supermarket to pick up a few things. His 5-year-old son Billy comes with him, as does his neighbor, Brent Norton. Steff stays home in order to continue working on cleanup.

Immediately after the storm, a thick fog starts rolling in. By the time David is in line at the supermarket, the fog has swallowed up a good portion of the parking lot, making him uneasy. But the true fear doesn't start until a bloodied man stumbles in from outside, and others try to leave. Something is moving around in the fog, and whatever it is is deadly.

REVIEW: Matchmaking a Player (novella) by Angela Casella

Matchmaking a Player is a contemporary romance novella, part of the author's Highland Hills series. I got my copy free.

Review:

I could have sworn I'd kept at least a few notes about this, but apparently not. I'll have to work from memory. Unfortunately, I honestly don't remember much about this other than that it was just okay.

The main character, Brittany, works at a bar and has a serious crush on her boss's brother, Logan. If I remember right, Logan was interested in her when they first met, but she was married, so he didn't say anything. Now that she's divorced, there's nothing standing in their way except their own issues. 

The romance itself didn't make much of an impression on me - it probably didn't help that I haven't read any of the other works in this series (this novella was a freebie I acquired at the last Book Bonanza). The most memorable bits, for me, were the matchmaking romance author who literally wrote the main characters of this novella into her latest book (I'd think that would feel super weird in real life, but what do I know?), and the fact that Brittany and Logan got caught having sex behind the bar by Logan's brother, Brittany's boss, and this was treated as more mildly amusing than anything.

Anyway, this wasn't bad, I guess, but it didn't prompt me to look up any of the author's other works.

REVIEW: The Scourge Between Stars (novella) by Ness Brown

The Scourge Between Stars is sci-fi horror. I bought my copy new.

Review:

A couple hundred or so years ago, desperate colony ships left Earth in search of a new home. The place they found, Proxima b, turned out to be to dangerous to settle, so their descendants are heading back to Earth. Things don't look good. They can't go back to Proxima b, they likely don't have enough food, oxygen, and fuel to make it back to Earth (which may not even be habitable, anyway), and they keep getting caught in the crossfire of what seems to be some kind of enormous alien war.

Jacklyn Albright is the acting captain of the Calypso, barely holding herself together, much less the ship. Her mother committed suicide, her sister is dead, and her father, the ship's captain, hasn't left his quarters or spoken to anyone in over a week. Then things go from bad to worse. There are glitches in the ship's systems, something keeps making banging noises inside the ship's walls, and a crew member is found horribly mutilated.

REVIEW: Just a Little Crush (novella) by Willow Winters & Amelia Wilde

Just a Little Crush is a contemporary romance novella. I got it for free.

Review:

Aubree has had a crush on her best friend's brother, Jackson, ever since she first moved to town three years ago. At the time, however, she was seeing someone else. After she broke up with that guy, Jackson was seeing someone else. There's never been a good time to confess her feelings, and now...she doesn't want to ruin her friendship with him or his sister.

They're all doing their regular Sunday night thing, drinking and watching football at The Peanut Bar and Grill, when a couple guys hit on Aubree. Jackson cuts in, and suddenly things shift between the two of them. But is it just a one-night stand or the start of something else?