Through Gates of Garnet and Gold

 Through Gates of Garnet and Gold by Seanan McGuire, 149 pages.

Everyone thought that when Nancy found her door and got to go home, nobody at Eleanor West's School for Wayward Children would ever see her again. But when ghosts start devouring the living statues in the Halls of the Dead she realizes she wants to live more than she wants to be in the place it feels like she belongs, so she is back at the school asking Eleanor to break the school's "no quests" rule again. 

It was so nice to spend time with Nancy again! Overall, this book does a good job bringing back a lot of the original cast from the first book, and giving them a chance to interact again. I also found the descriptions of the Halls of the Dead very striking. That being said, I feel like that character work in this book is a little weaker than many other in the series. Despite the fact that Kade is in this book the whole time, I don't feel like I know much more about him then when we started, and even Nancy's major changes seem to happen mostly off-page. I'm still really enjoying this series, but I don't know that this is the strongest entry.

Gallant

Gallant by V.E. Schwab, 338 pages.

Olivia Prior has never entirely fit in at Merilance School for Girls, partially because she can't speak, and partially because she sees the dead. A letter from a man claiming to be her long-lost uncle invites her to his country home, Gallant. And Olivia, desperate to be wanted and find a place to belong, goes willingly, even though Gallant is the one place her mother warns her never to go in the diary that shows her slow spiral away from sanity. When she arrives Gallant is not what she expects, but she has to learn its secrets quickly if she is to have any hope of the family she has longed for. 

This was a fabulous, very gothic, novel. The books blurb describes it as The Secret Garden  meets Crimson Peak, and honestly that's an extremely accurate comparison. I liked how spooky it was, but also how thoughtful. The writing is beautiful, and the images are striking. Highly recommended for fans of modern gothic. 

The Girl and the Ghost

 The Girl and the Ghost by Hanna Alkaf, 280 pages.

Suraya is very young when she inherits a pelesit from her witch grandmother. The ghost, who she names Pink, is her only friend for many years, but Suraya doesn't know that pelesits are dark, mischievous creatures. As she learns that her oldest friend has a side to him she's never seen, she has to find a solution as things keep getting more dangerous, for everyone. 

This was a pretty interesting middle grade book! I don't believe I've ever read a book set in Malaysia, and this one did a great job immersing me in the culture, in both a historical folklore sense and a normal life in the modern day sense. The characters and conflicts were a little simplistic, but that's not unexpected for a middle grade book. I think this exciting, slightly spooky book would be a great choice for middle schoolers, especially those curious about how kids in other countries live.

The (Most Unusual) Haunting of Edgar Lovejoy

The (Most Unusual) Haunting of Edgar Lovejoy by Roan Parrish, 384 pages

Since he was a teen, Edgar Lovejoy has seen ghosts, often when he's least expecting them. They terrify him, and it's made going to big public places really difficult, especially in a city with as much history as New Orleans. But when his coworkers do convince him to do a bit of socializing at a club, he's captivated by nonbinary burlesque performer Jamie. Jamie, who, when not dancing at the burlesque, is a horror connoisseur and full-time haunted house designer. Despite their vastly different feelings toward the supernatural, they can't deny their attraction to one another.

Jamie and Edgar make for an unusual pair, but somehow it works incredibly well. Jamie offers the strength and kindness that helps Edgar come to terms with his fears and anxieties, while Edgar is able to provide the supportive friends and family that Jamie deserves. My one quibble is that even though Edgar admits that he should probably see a therapist, the comment is pretty much tossed aside, as this relationship has fixed all his anxieties. I love to see people grow in romance novels as individuals, not just as co-dependent friends/lovers, and by implying that this relationship fixes everything, it makes me as a reader doubt the longevity. However, that doesn't detract from a lovely story, perfect for reading during spooky season.

A selection of January graphic novels

 Battlefields: The Night Witches by Garth Ennis with art by Russ Braun (2009) 79 pages

It is fascinating that Russia did have women pilots in their air force during WWII. Half the story is following a German squad pushing into Russian territory with one conscientious young man as our narrator. The other half focuses on just a couple of the women pilots who fly night missions dropping bombs. One in particular, Nadia Anna, achieves the rank of Captain and is a survivor despite a brief romance with heartbreak and her plane going down. The story succeeds in showing the horrific tragedy of war. The art work is a bit cartoon-y, but not far-off in portraying the gritty realism.

Hokusai: A Graphic Biography by Giuseppe Latanza and Francesco Matteuzzi (2021) 128 pages

I really enjoyed the art and the biographical story. Like Hokusai making woodblocks to stamp multiple prints of his art, some of the graphic novel's images are repeated. In between the story of his life there are full pages of text with historical background about Japanese art, or explaining terms and historical periods. Some of this felt repetitive, unfortunately, like a different author had lost track of what had previously been explained. However, this did not drastically lessen my enjoyment. I thought the book was aimed at teens at first, but it does mention and show a bit of the erotic art that Hokusai made during one part of his life.

The Secret to Superhuman Strength by Alison Bechdel (2021) 240 pages

I loved this even more than Fun Home. Bechdel is even more revealing about herself, and explores engrossing related topics. Exercise trends through the second half of the 20th century, Romantic poets, Transcendentalists, Kerouac, Zen Buddhism are all connected. She explores mountains as a symbol for human achievement. The aphorism "it is about the journey, not the destination" comes across.

Will Eisner's New York: Life in the Big City by Will Eisner (2006) 421 pages

I've read a couple of his other realistic graphic novels and highly recommend this one as well. "New York: The Big City" consists of short vignettes. "The Building" tells the backstory of four ghosts who hang around a particular intersection where a historic building has been torn down and a new one constructed in its place. These stories reveal the tragicomic world Eisner is drawn to portray. "City People" is filled with more observations in mostly one or two page vignettes. A longer tragic story is told in Collisions. "Invisible People" contains three longer stories. Sanctum tells the sad story of Pincus Pleatnik. The Power tells a symbolic story of a healer named Morris. Eisner says of Mortal Combat, "In relating the story of Herman, who became the unwilling prize in a clash of wills, I hoped to evoke the helplessness of a person caught in an intersection of the traffic of life."

Past Tense: Facing Family Secrets and Finding Myself in Therapy by Sacha Mardou (2024) 336 pages

A courageous memoir. I picked it up at my new comic shop because it is by a local St. Louis author. Her journey to overcome her anxiety and unpack her childhood trauma is fascinating. She specifically delves into a therapy model called Internal Family Systems (IFS) because she finds it helpful after some initial skepticism. Mardou's art style is a bit loose, but expressive. Freeing herself from generational trauma reveals truly healthy outcomes.

Sheine Lende

 Sheine Lende by Darcie Little Badger, 391 pages.

Shane, like many of the women in her family before her, has the power to rouse ghosts from the world below. She and her mother use these powers, including the tracking power of their ghost dog, to find missing people (whether they can pay or not). Which is the right thing, but also hard, since money has been tight since they lost their home, community, and several family members in a flood many years ago. Things get even harder when her mother goes missing on a search and rescue mission for two siblings, and Shane has to go further than she ever thought possible to get her back.

This prequel to Elatsoe really works as a prequel in a way that many don't. The story didn't undercut anything from that book, while also not being rendered less meaningful because we know how Shane eventually ends up. Rather it added a lot of depth and history to a character we only see in passing, letting her own her story in the same way the Ellie does in her book. That being said, this book didn't work for me quite as well as Elatsoe. I found the pacing to be a little slow and clunky, and I had a hard time really getting into this book. It's still worth reading for fans of Darcie Little Badger, but I would recommend her other books first if you're looking for modern fantasy mixed with Lipan Apache mythology. 

Diavola

Diavola by Jennifer Thorne, 291 pages

As the lone singleton on her family vacation to Tuscany, Anna is a bit of an outcast. She's useful because she speaks Italian, but otherwise, her parents and siblings pretty much treat her as an attention-hogging waste of space. When she starts noticing creepy stuff happening at the villa they've rented, Anna's observations just feed into her family's assumptions. But before long, even they can't ignore the unexplained events going on at their villa...

This horror novel was scary on multiple levels, from the uncannily real way Anna's family treats her to the supernatural spookiness that latches onto the main character. I loved that this book kept me guessing, and I really loved that my guesses were never right. A fantastic horror novel.

A Haunting in the Arctic

A Haunting in the Arctic by C.J. Cooke, 340 pages

A shipwreck on the northern coast of Iceland since a horrific incident in the 1970s, the Ormen is scheduled to be demolished soon. Travel Tiktoker Dominique has decided to make a midwinter trek to document the former whaling ship-turned-research vessel's history and last days. Not long after she arrives, three more influencers do too with the same idea, though none of them seem to be seeing or hearing any of the supernatural things Dominique does. Interspersed with Dominique's story is the tale of Nicky, the daughter of a whaling tycoon who wakes up aboard the Ormen in 1901, trapped on a boat full of men that only want one thing from her...

This book swings between horrific and eerie, depending on whose story is being told. It's chilling (literally — it's the Arctic, it's right there in the title — though there are definitely a few questionable elements as the twists at the end are revealed. Not a bad book to read, though I much prefer Cooke's The Lighthouse Witches.

I'll Be Waiting

I'll Be Waiting by Kelley Armstrong, 324 pages

As someone who has been dealing with cystic fibrosis her whole life, Nicola never expected to outlive her husband, Anton. But after a car accident, that's just what happened, and Nicola is left reliving Anton's final moments on the side of the road, whispering "I'll be waiting for you." Several months later, Nic is still haunted with grief, and has turned to spirit mediums to try to reconnect with her late husband. In an attempt to cut her off from the unhealthy relationship with fakes and cons, her friends and family convince Nic to try one last time, with a very scientific seance before calling it quits. That's how she ends up at Anton's grandmother's lake home with an American scientist, her brother-in-law, and a new friend from a grief counseling group. However, there's something from Nic's past that keeps popping up and potentially interfering with their attempts to reach Anton...

It's rare to find a horror novel featuring a character with a terminal illness that doesn't immediately become the center of the story, and it's lovely to see Nic portrayed as much more than her illness (it's more of a character trait than a definition). I loved the way Nic and her friends and family approached the seances (with a bit of dry humor and skepticism, even as they took part in the rituals), as well as the mix of easily explained and unexplained phenomena in the book. It does go a bit off the rails toward the end of the book, though that's the case in a lot of horror novels. All in all, this one was pretty decent. (However, reader beware if you don't like bugs. Bleh!)

The Third Wife of Faraday House

The Third Wife of Faraday House by B.R. Myers, 338 pages

Emeline Fitzpatrick is determined to marry her beau, a dashing lieutenant in the British Navy, but her guardians instead ship her off to be the third wife of wealthy Captain Graves, whose first two brides died in childbirth. Or at least that's what Emeline's told, as when she arrives at Graves' remote island home, she finds that the second Mrs. Graves, Georgina, is still alive, though just barely. Sure that her Navy suitor is coming to rescue her, Emeline is determined to keep Georgina alive as long as possible, and see if she can't figure out what's actually killing her.

This gothic tale has tinges of Jane Eyre and more than a little Rebecca, though it pales in comparison to both of those classics. This was suggested to me as a mystery, and while it's definitely mysterious, it's not A Mystery, if you will. Still, it's a fun gothic romp (if that's not too much of a contradiction!), with a helping hand from a ghost.

A New Lease on Death

A New Lease on Death by Olivia Blacke, 325 pages

Cordelia died a few months ago, but she hasn't left behind the tiny apartment she loved so much (she didn't leave it much when she was alive — why start now?). New tenant Ruby was grateful to get a fully furnished apartment, though she hasn't been able to keep the plants alive. When the guy across the hall turns up dead, ghostly Cordelia and Gen Z Ruby team up to solve his murder.

This was a surprisingly fun and funny mystery novel. The author clearly spelled out the rules of ghost/human interactions, which made the whole thing easier to believe and created some fun hurdles. I also appreciated that both Cordelia and Ruby brought their own skills and talents to the investigation. I loved it, and I'll happily read more in this series when it comes.

A Fine and Private Place

 

A Fine and Private Place by Peter S. Beagle 317 pp.

I first read this book sometime in the 1970s and for some reason it stuck with me so I decided to revisit it. It's the tale of a man, Jonathan Rebeck, a former pharmacist who has hidden himself from society by living in an old mausoleum in a Bronx cemetery. Rebeck doesn't leave, believing he cannot pass through the gates into the outside world. A crabby raven brings him food stolen from local venders. In his nineteen years there Rebeck has met ghosts of people interred in the cemetery. When the ghosts first arrive they are very "alive" but as time passes and they gradually forget their former lives, they fade away. The latest cemetery residents are a middle-aged man who was poisoned and a young woman. Improbably, the ghosts fall in love with each other. Rebeck, too, finds himself with a lady friend who visits the mausoleum of her late husband. When Mrs. Clapper learns that Rebeck lives in the cemetery she tries to convince him it's time for him to return to the "real world." This book was originally published in 1960 and has recently been reissued. I listened to the audiobook which has an introduction by Neil Gaiman.

The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida

 The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida by Shehan Karunatilaka, 400 pages.

Maali Almeida wakes up dead, which even by his standards is a lousy way to start the day. What's worse is that he has no idea how he got that way, or why his body is being dismembered and thrown into Beira Lake. In life he was a war photographer, an arranger of meetings, a gambler, and a closeted gay man in 1990 Colombo, so the list of people who could have potentially wanted him dead and his body disposed of isn't exactly short. His ghost has only seven days to answer these mysteries, as well as to lead the people he loves most to the photos he had tucked away to rock a nation being torn apart by civil war, terrorist activity, and government corruption.

This is a pretty depressing book. Which isn't exactly surprising given the setting, but it bears saying anyway. The protagonist is dead from the beginning, as are a whole lot of other ghosts, and it is absolutely full of gruesome and unfair deaths. It is also a higher context book than a lot of the other world literature I've been reading this year, and I do feel like there's an assumed amount of knowledge about Sri Lanka that I didn't have going in. All that being said, this is a very well constructed book. Being dead allows for a pretty wide perspective, and the fact that it was told mostly in pretty short vignettes was a great decision. I also found the mystery pretty compelling, although it wasn't quite as prominent as I might have thought it would be. Finally, I was pleasantly surprised to find this book, and Maali in particular, less misanthropic than I was afraid it would be, especially by the end. This is not a light read, but I would say it is a good one.

The Ghost That Ate Us

 The Ghost that Ate Us: The Tragic True Story of the Burger City Poltergeist by Daniel Kraus, 302 pages.

"On June 1, 2017, six people were killed at a Burger City franchise off I-80 near Jonny, Iowa. It was the bizarre and gruesome conclusion to nine months of alleged paranormal activity at the fast-food joint—events popularly known as 'the Burger City Poltergeist.'" Author Daniel Kraus compiles interviews with every living survivor, new evidence, and other sources from "the most exhaustively documented haunting in history" into a complete account of the tragedy.

At this point I need to clarify that this is a completely fictional novel. The former paragraph is a selection from the actual, standard description of the book. This novel commits harder to passing itself off as nonfiction than any other book I've seen with a similar premise, and I honestly really respect it. Kraus dedicates the book to characters that died in the fictional tragedy, includes numerous footnotes to articles that don't exist, and even adds photos with fictional image credits (the real image credits on the very last page are actually the only time in the entire printed text that it admits to being fictional). Max Brooks' Devolution had a similar concept, but Kraus both commits to it harder and nails the tone of pop-nonfiction better. I'm a real fan of horror passing itself off as nonfiction, so I enjoyed all of that thoroughly. 

Beyond the gimmick, I found this to be a very compelling horror novel overall. The book tells you from the beginning how it is going to end, and still kept me desperate to know what was going to happen next. Even more impressively, it manages to pull off some pretty haunting twists (if you'll forgive the pun). It was also way less gross than I was afraid it would be, given how horror set in restaurants tends to go. This book has a very different tone than the average horror novel, but I would definitely recommend that people give it a shot. 

Other Birds

Other Birds by Sarah Addison Allen (2022) 287 pages

Zoey is ready to start college, and is feeling pressured by her father and stepmother to permanently move out of their house in Tulsa. They had reluctantly taken her in when her mother died when Zoey was seven. She has never really been treated as part of the family and she seeks to find some essence of her mother at an efficiency apartment that she had inherited on Mallow Island, off the coast of South Carolina. The condo is not far from the university she'll be attending in the fall. When she arrives on the island, she meets Fraiser, the caretaker of the small condo community called The Dellawisp, named after the small turquoise birds who live on the property, birds which are not shy about landing on people, pulling on their shoelaces, or even following them inside. Additionally, there are four other units besides the one now owned by Zoey, but the inhabitants aren't open about meeting her ‒ or each other, for that matter. The only person who makes an extended appearance on Zoey's first day there is Lizbeth, a hoarder who shushes any activity. Zoey tries to change the dynamics; her enthusiasm is refreshing for a young woman whose best friend at the moment is an invisible pigeon.

I'm not sure what I love the most about this book. It could be the birds, the ghosts (yes, even the ghosts have chapters, telling us about themselves!), or the atmosphere of The Dellawisp in general. But the characters are compelling, and as we learn their backstories, the story grows in scope. I highly recommend this book!

Black Water Sister

 Black Water Sister by Zen Cho, 384 pages.

Jessamyn Teoh is a closeted recent college graduate living at home with her parents. When they decide to move back home to Malaysia, a country she left when she was a toddler, she goes with them. After all, what does she have to lose? Once she gets there she is thoroughly haunted by her dead grandmother and pulled into a world of gods and ghosts, where the questions of what she has to lose and what she can bear to give up become more pressing then ever.

This was a solid book, although for some reason (which I suspect is entirely personal taste) it never quite managed to grab me. My only concrete criticism is that there is a lot of Hokkien and it's not always very clear from context what it means. But it was definitely still interesting, and I hadn't previously known very much about Taoism, so it was really cool to see fantasy pulling on some new influences. I'm definitely excited to see what everyone else thought of this book at Orcs and Aliens next week.

An Uninvited Ghost

 

An Uninvited Ghost by E.J. Copperman (2011) 293 pages

Alison Kerby, a newly divorced mother of a ten year old, has fixed up a large old Victorian house on the Jersey Shore and is accepting her first guests, several senior citizens who are interested in experiencing the ghosts in her house. Her ghosts have agreed to put on "shows" twice a day. Yes, ghosts. It's a fun twist; the ghosts, Paul and Maxie, are quite entertaining. Paul is more thoughtful, while Maxie is more emotional and prone to take offense. The ghosts help Alison solve crimes, including a murder that occurs during a séance that is held in the house for the benefit of the seniors. Meanwhile, a reality television show is filming there, adding to the commotion.

It's a fluff read, and I want to escape into more books in this series!

The Library of the Dead

The Library of the Dead by T.L. Huchu, 330 pages

Let me say straight out that you cannot judge this book by the title. There is a library that's accessed through a crypt, but it plays a much smaller role in the book than you'd expect. Instead, this book is about Ropa, a teen girl who has dropped out of school to serve as a messenger for ghosts in an effort to support her family in a post-apocalyptic Cardiff (No idea what caused the apocalypse, honestly, and I'd love to know). Along the way, she learns of children that have gone missing, and against her better judgment, decides to start investigating. Soon she finds herself pulled into the titular library, as well as a house that operates as a magical Venus flytrap and a madcap fight against a drug-dealing golem.

This was fun, and Ropa was a fantastic character, but something about this felt very young-adult to me. That said, I'll happily read more about Ropa and her quirky skills as ghost messenger.

Nothing But Blackened Teeth

Nothing But Blackened Teeth by Cassandra Khaw, 125 pages

When a group of horror-obsessed friends arrive at a remote haunted Japanese mansion for a creepy wedding, they're *hoping* something supernatural and scary happens. After all, they love having the wits scared out of them. But no matter how much they say they expect it, they certainly can't handle it when the ghost of a buried-alive bride-to-be manifests and begins wreaking havoc. This is a short and scary book, full of horrific Japanese supernatural beings and division among friends. It's great, and fully worthy of that creeptastic cover.

Delicates

 

Delicates / Brenna Thummler, 316 pg.

Marjorie Glatt is back.  She is still working with the group of ghosts living in her family’s laundromat. Marjorie finally gets accepted by the popular kids at school, which shifts her attention away from the family and Wendell, her best ghost friend.  This makes Wendell unhappy. 

Eliza Duncan is a bit of an outcast at school. She’s an avid photographer, and is interested in finding and photographing ghosts maybe because as an oustider, she feels like a ghost herself. 

Marjorie must soon come to terms with the price she pays to be accepted by the popular kids. Is it worth losing her friend, Wendell? Is she partially to blame for the bullying Eliza endures?

Delicates helps us see what it feels like to fit in, and how it feels to those who don't.