Author: aliactast

Review: The Night Circus

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The Night Circus
Erin Morgentstern

This was a reread for me, which typically I don’t reread books so soon after the first time I’ve read them. It tends to be a decades later ‘oh yeah, I can appreciate this differently now’ vibe. But I read this book for the first time in 2020 and I’ve probably aged a few decades between them and now.

I remember, both times I’ve read it, immediately thinking of the Hunchback of Notre Dame. The opening lines are from the perspective of and detailing the Night Circus itself, the edifice, and I remember the first time I read it being drawn in by this comparison. It’s something that promises something unusual.

What I find funny, having read this book twice, is that the characters are so crisp and well developed while giving the smallest amount of detail necessary. That’s how a mysterious air is achieved, after all, but it really does smack you in the face to realize how little you know and how much you still attach yourself on.

My opinion of certain aspects has changed given the time and life experiences I’ve had between readings; I am far more sympathetic to Isobel the scorned card reader; far less sympathetic to Tsukiko who betrayed her love.

I still love the man in grey and Chandresh.

The characterization is evocative. The storytelling and pacing; the sense of being out of time in several aspects, is something which manages to draw you in while keeping you separated, exactly as a circus should.

Plus, who doesn’t live a story that comes with an aesthetic?

It’s an absolute recommendation

Review: Thistlefoot

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Thistlefoot
GennaRose Nethercott

I’ll cut to the chase, this was one of my favorite books I read in 2023.
Thistlefoot takes place in a world of magic and not, a world where most things are exactly the same as they are in reality but with an important exception —the scars of an event can awaken the spirit of a place.

One of the early mentioned examples of this is a Burger King that grew eyes after a break in.

Thistlefoot, the book’s name sake, is a house that sprouted chicken legs.

The sibling pair at the heart of the story, Bellatine and Issac Yaga, are the inheritors of Thistlefoot and the generational trauma that both makes them who they are and that has been kept from them by their family. They both have their own unusual gifts, which unbeknownst to them are adaptations to that trauma. The book examines disapora in a fascinating way.

The story follows both the Yaga siblings and the history of the house itself in a slow burn reveal of the tragic events that led Thistlefoot to sprout legs and flee.

All while being hunted by a similar oddity, which intends to destroy Thistlefoot.

This book was such a delicate and well constructed handling of generational trauma and particularly genocide. I had gone into it blind and was taken in immediately with the world and characterization.

It’s an absolute recommendation.

Review: Big Bad

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Big Bad
Chandler Baker


A copy paste disclaimer! :There are several stories available for free download if you are already subscribed to amazon prime, and I took advantage of that recently and thought I’d spend November telling you about the short stories and novellas I picked up that I liked best and thought was worth the read.

These tend to be stories commissioned by Amazon and put into collections by Amazon

Okay, back to review:

From the first line I knew I would like this one; a horror story wrapped in a failed marriage and the other way around.

At 58 pages, it’s a very quick read. The pacing and characterization is a lovely build to the end of the story; the twists are both obvious and not, telescoped well but always leaving the reader with doubts.

It’s another of those stories that is difficult to talk about without spoiling the whole of it, so very worth the read.

I honestly started to say more but am not sure how to without giving it away haha

The characters are extremely well done and feel organic, even under their bizarre circumstances.

Review: What the Dead Know

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What the Dead Know
Nghi Vo

A copy paste disclaimer! :There are several stories available for free download if you are already subscribed to amazon prime, and I took advantage of that recently and thought I’d spend November telling you about the short stories and novellas I picked up that I liked best and thought was worth the read.

These tend to be stories commissioned by Amazon and put into collections by Amazon

Okay, back to review:

Of the stories I read, this one has stuck with me a long time. The narrative is immediately engaging, the characters relatable and enjoyable. It’s one of those stories difficult to talk about without spoiling it because you want to pull others into this same world that you were pulled into.
The gimmick of two con artists, one being utilized for and also taking advantage of the ignorance of those around them because of their race; the communication with spirits and motif of revenge all check very important boxes to me.
Of the ghosts stories I’ve read, which is not a small number, several of the images in this story are so evocative that they’re well stuck in my craw. I absolutely would recommend this story to anyone and at 30 pages it leaves you both wanting more and satisfied.

Review: The Six Deaths of the Saint

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The Six Deaths of the Saint
Alix E Harrow

A copy paste ! :There are several stories available for free download if you are already subscribed to amazon prime, and I took advantage of that recently and thought I’d spend November telling you about the short stories and novellas I picked up that I liked best and thought was worth the read.

These tend to be stories commissioned by Amazon and put into collections by Amazon

Okay, back to review:

*Vomit, scream, fall over in vomit*
It’s perfect.
Professional start, no?

I absolutely adored this story. It checked every mark for me: time travel, time loop, deal with the devil, character development by progressing through trauma, sacrifice motif, clear evil, unclear anachronistic time period. The tone and voice of the story was so clear and strong immediately, the narrative wasting no time to establish the character outside of anything other than a force to be reckoned with through the motif of willpower.
I have recommended this short story to so many people at this point that even at 29 pages I’m willing to offer it up as one of my contenders for my favorite book I’ve read this year.
It is beautiful, the wording and flow of sentences purposeful and well sculpted.
No notes.

Review: The Pram

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The Pram
By Joe Hill


There are several stories available for free download if you are already subscribed to amazon prime, and I took advantage of that recently and thought I’d spend November telling you about the short stories and novellas I picked up that I liked best and thought was worth the read.

These tend to be stories commissioned by Amazon and put into collections by Amazon

The Pram is a short story about miscarriage and grief, particularly the grief of the protagonist Willy who feels overshadowed and pressured to resolve grief for his wife Marianne, only to realize he hasn’t resolved anything for himself.

I thought it was an honest treatment of a difficult topic, one I’ve dealt with personally and which I normally immediately stop reading once child or fetus death is involved.

At 57 pages, it’s a quick read and satisfying as a horror short story. Too often horror short stories are so focused on the twist that they fail to embrace the heart of their topic, particularly when they’re commissioned short stories on demand.

Review: Yellowface

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I was thinking about what I could do for my last review of the spooky season and I thought “Did I talk about ‘Yellowface’ yet?” I went back and checked. I haven’t. I need to.

Yellowface by RF Kuang is not billed as a horror story exactly.

It is horror, I would argue. The ‘satirical novel’ (read:horror) takes a deep dive into the publishing industry, white privilege, racism, the persecution complex of white authors, the dismissive attitudes toward Asian voices, the tokenism and more in a way that is so educational, so detailed, as to be exhaustive.

It follows a white woman who, deeply jealous and entitled, steals her successful Asian friend’s manuscript after her death and publishes it. It examines the lengths to which this white woman goes, publishing under a misleadingly Asian sounding name, claiming that anyone can write any topic with her own touch of persecution, justifying her theft by claiming her research into being able to edit the novel makes her an expert, having a sensitivity reader fired, dealing with the deceased’s family and friends, destroying evidence, and turning up in Asian cultural centers trying to promote “her” writing.

As it all unravels, the novel is full of suspense and agitation. And I just have to say….have you ever read a novel and thought, ‘The author thinks about this all of the time.’ Not ‘the author thinks about this all of the time because obviously she wrote a book about it’ but ‘the author has had this fear and idea curling in the back of her skull for at least a decade, and it is a privilege I have not to have thought about it’? That’s the tone of Yellowface.

Never Whistle At Night

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As always when I read any collection of short stories there are particular ones which catch my attention, but I really can’t stress how much I enjoyed ‘Never Whistle at Night’. The collection is extremely well put together, spanning a variety of topics impacting indigenous communities, whether that be indigenous folk lore inspired, inspired by racism, classism, internalized trauma, religious trauma, or all of the above and of course more. The cultural weight of each story has its place in the anthology.

The editors deserve all the credit in the world, it’s a wonderful collection. Please support them.

Mexican GothicSilver Nitrate by Silvia Moreno-Garcia

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Goooooood Saturday to you. You’re getting two for the price of one today.

Continuing my ‘October is Spooky’, beginning with Mexican Gothic–I picked up this book very specifically because I heard so many literary agents talking about it. Not only socially, but in pitching horror stories a lot of feedback I got was ‘Is it like Mexican Gothic?’

People love this book and I am a convert.

Mexican Gothic
Silver Nitrate by Silvia Moreno-Garcia

Goooooood Saturday to you. You’re getting two for the price of one today.

Continuing my ‘October is Spooky’, beginning with Mexican Gothic–I picked up this book very specifically because I heard so many literary agents talking about it. Not only socially, but in pitching horror stories a lot of feedback I got was ‘Is it like Mexican Gothic?’

People love this book and I am a convert.

Moreno does an amazing job of creating a landscape and atmosphere very similar to many early black and white horror films; I’ve heard her tone directly compared to Del Toro and this novel specifically to Crimson Peak, though very clearly Moreno knows her stuff about the old film industry that inspired Del Toro (more on that in a bit).

Mexican Gothic is so reminiscent of Bride of Frankenstein for me, and I’d honestly hate to spoil anything about the turn in plot where it takes on to become a more modern horror, just please read it.

I came off of the high of Mexican Gothic wanting more Silvia Moreno-Garcia. I even did that thing where I reread specific passages because I liked the wording that much.

Seriously. Read Mexican Gothic.

Luckily, it was right around debut time for Silver Nitrate.

My first take away beginning Silver Nitrate is the care and treatment of old horror films; Moreno Gracia clearly knows not only through her own research but anecdotally a great deal about the golden age of horror. I related, for better or worse, to Montserrat as a character and that compelled me through the book. The examination of the occult in the early 1930s and the impact of different esoteric movements on world culture hit every mark for me. I appreciated the focus, as always, on Mexican culture and Mexican film, reclaiming something that so often is defaulted to American.

It was an excellent book, I’d recommend you to read it and to look out for her other work.

Camp Damascus

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It’s October! I should do some spooky books.

Starting the month with Dr Chuck Tingle, Camp Damascus is hands down one of the best books I have read this year. A quick read under 300 pages, it is one of these most effective horror stories I have read in ages. Centered around religious trauma and homophobia, the action begins almost immediately, with no ‘wait till the third act’ nonsense. Shit hits the fan, and hard, and keeps coming. Dr Tingle takes no time to bullshit around with building suspense, the true horror comes from the nonchalant reactions and denials of the clear horrors occuring.
The main character’s neurodivergence was written so naturally and well, it was a wonderfully refreshing representation that I didn’t realize I had been craving.
Easily one of my favorite books of the year, I absolutely encourage you to read it, I am so excited for his next book that I know is in editing stages.

Prove love 💕