Death in Her Hands

Death in Her Hands by Ottessa Moshfegh, 262 pages

Vesta is a 72-year-old widow who lives in a secluded cabin with only her big mutt, Charlie, to keep her company. When she discovers a mysterious note about Magda, a dead woman who was apparently not killed by the note-writer, Vesta's mind kicks into overdrive, spinning a backstory for Magda and the mysterious person who wrote the note, despite having no evidence of anything. As such, most of this book takes place in Vesta's mind, though the short excursions into the outer world with Vesta are unsettling at best. A mad mix of humor and psychological suspense create a haunting tale of a woman who is a mystery to everyone around her. The only question is: is that mysterious woman Magda or Vesta herself?

The Twisted Ones

The Twisted Ones by T. Kingfisher, 385 p.

An extremely pragmatic freelance editor goes to rural North Carolina to clean out the house her unlikable grandmother had lived in. She finds, um, things she did not expect. I don’t read much horror, but I liked this a lot. There’s a nice mix of this-thing-is-impossible and this-thing-is-evil; some emotional horror and some biological horror. The narrator’s voice is the best part, though; there's a lot of humor amongst the horror.

(And she makes it clear in the first chapter that the dog lives, so you're safe on that front.)

T. Kingfisher is a pen name of Ursula Vernon.