What are you currently reading?

[brlesh]

Finished up Grackle by AC Wise, which was a really effective ghost story, even without sticking the ending.

Up next, starting In the Mist, a collection of ghost stories by Elizabeth Walter.

B

[brlesh]

Finished The Withering Hours by Morgan Sylvia, a collection that I liked a lot.

After that, I finished up the last novella in Windhaven by Martin & Tuttle.

I also really liked this story. Reading-wise, it was certainly something different. A pure fantasy story, and not really in anyway groundbreaking, but Martin and Tuttle are such good story tellers that the story just works.

Up next, starting Grackle by AC Wise. To my recollection this is the first thing I’ve read from Wise.

B

[brlesh]

Love to know your thoughts once you finish. I was so close to pulling the trigger on the slipcased edition from Weird House. I really enjoyed Carrion Harvest, but just never got around to pulling the trigger on this collection.

Overall, I really liked it. The style was very readable, with the stories being well paced with a straightforward storyline.

In the opening 4 or 5 stories she hits all the classic horror tropes. There’s a witch story, a ghost story, a vampire story, & a werewolf story. All were all well told.

The fifth story, ‘Janie’, was the highlight of the collection. About a woman who survives a serial killer, had a twist ending I didn’t see coming. A definite gut punch of a story.

The remaining stories were all kind of interlinked, set in a world were things are going bad, but society is still functioning (other than the last story, which had a full-on post apocalyptic feel to it). These had more of a folk / cosmic horror feel to them.

For the most part I liked these stories, though not as much as the opening, more traditional, horror stories.

Of the 16 stories in the collection, I would say there was really only one that I just didn’t care for.

I would certainly read something by Morgan Sylvia again.

B

[sholloman81]

am now starting Don Winslow's new novella collection, THE FINAL SCORE, which I've heard very good things about.

I have this one in my TBR pile and cannot wait to get around to it. I adore Don Winslow's writing and this one sounds like another winner! Let us know what you think when done.

[RonClinton]

My past few horror titles have been a bit underwhelming, so have pivoted to crime for the next couple of reads. I just finished THE LAST KING OF CALIFORNIA by Jordan Harper, which was great, and am now starting Don Winslow's new novella collection, THE FINAL SCORE, which I've heard very good things about.

[sholloman81]

Just finished reading the Thunderstorm LE of Bridgett Nelson's "Blossoming Decay", a first-time read and author for me. All I can say is WOW! This collection totally blew my mind. Have never read anything from this author previously, but I'm now dying to read more. I read a ton of horror, and this has to be one of the most dread inducing collections that I have read in quite a while. So many of these stories gave me extreme anxiety, and this author does not pull punches! The stories singled out on the Thunderstorm ordering page are for sure the standouts, but I can honestly say that there were no weak stories in the collection. So glad that I finally got around to reading this book and adding it to my Thunderstorm collection!

Am now reading the Thunderstorm LE of The Sisters of Slaughter's "Slaughter City", a first-time read. I enjoyed their book from the Thunderstorm VS line and am interested to see what they can do on the short story side of things.

[Sock Monkey]

Started The Withering Hours, a short story collection by Morgan Sylvia.

To my recollection this the first thing I’ve read by Sylvia, and at the half way point I’m really enjoying this collection of mainly folk horror stories.

B

Love to know your thoughts once you finish. I was so close to pulling the trigger on the slipcased edition from Weird House. I really enjoyed Carrion Harvest, but just never got around to pulling the trigger on this collection.

[Ben Staad]

When I was tracking down an excerpt to read online I did see that this was adapted to a show. I'll see if this ever appears on a service I have. Thanks!

The TV series was really good too if you get a chance to watch it. I think it's on HBO but I own the 4k set which is how I watched it.

I have another book by her that I haven't read yet.

[TacomaDiver]

Last night I started Station 11 by Emily St. John Mandel. I'm in the shallow end of the story and finding it well done so far. The author is doing a very good job at setting scenes, tone, and letting me be inside the narrative.

The TV series was really good too if you get a chance to watch it. I think it's on HBO but I own the 4k set which is how I watched it.

I have another book by her that I haven't read yet.

[Ben Staad]

Last night I started Station 11 by Emily St. John Mandel. I'm in the shallow end of the story and finding it well done so far. The author is doing a very good job at setting scenes, tone, and letting me be inside the narrative.

Edit: FYI. I purchased a large print, used HC edition, from Walmart. The condition was listed as good. As expected it was a discarded library edition that is readable but pretty far from good condition.

[brlesh]

Started The Withering Hours, a short story collection by Morgan Sylvia.

To my recollection this the first thing I’ve read by Sylvia, and at the half way point I’m really enjoying this collection of mainly folk horror stories.

B

[jeffingoff]

This may make jeffingoff happy. I'm just about ready to skim read the last third or so of Bentley Little's new one, CITY HALL. I think I may have finally gotten my fill of his trademark surreal/satire/horror take on institutions. That exhaustion started to a degree with DMV, his book previous to this one (I didn't care at all for BEHIND, his non-satire novel between DMV and CITY HALL), but feels full-blown on this new one. After reading all his books (not all of them adopt this approach, but those that do) that take this approach, CITY HALL feels far too familiar, too rote, too step-by-step, even down to the basic cast of evil characters and the types of bizarre actions they take. It feels like a book I've read repeatedly, and this kind of numbing familiarity snaps me time and again out of the story.

This brings me no joy. I want more happiness in the world even if I don't understand how anyone could have derived happiness from a Little read. This is a bummer, Ron! I guess you just need to know it has to be something you're in the mood for before you pick up another Little.

[sholloman81]

This may make jeffingoff happy. I'm just about ready to skim read the last third or so of Bentley Little's new one, CITY HALL. I think I may have finally gotten my fill of his trademark surreal/satire/horror take on institutions. That exhaustion started to a degree with DMV, his book previous to this one (I didn't care at all for BEHIND, his non-satire novel between DMV and CITY HALL), but feels full-blown on this new one. After reading all his books (not all of them adopt this approach, but those that do) that take this approach, CITY HALL feels far too familiar, too rote, too step-by-step, even down to the basic cast of evil characters and the types of bizarre actions they take. It feels like a book I've read repeatedly, and this kind of numbing familiarity snaps me time and again out of the story.

Too funny! I came to this same conclusion a good while back. I had picked up a large box of Bentley Little books from a yard sale. I believe it was around 20 books and had to have been pretty much everything that he had written up to that point. I stupidly made the mistake of reading them back-to-back to plow through the box. After a handful of reads, I started to feel like a bunch of them were almost written via template, especially the "institution messing with people" types that you mention. Once my mind saw that, I couldn't unsee it which ruined future books for me. I still love a few of his early books such as The Mailman but the idea of reading anything new by Little leaves me cold.

[RonClinton]

This may make jeffingoff happy. I'm just about ready to skim read the last third or so of Bentley Little's new one, CITY HALL. I think I may have finally gotten my fill of his trademark surreal/satire/horror take on institutions. That exhaustion started to a degree with DMV, his book previous to this one (I didn't care at all for BEHIND, his non-satire novel between DMV and CITY HALL), but feels full-blown on this new one. After reading all his books (not all of them adopt this approach, but those that do) that take this approach, CITY HALL feels far too familiar, too rote, too step-by-step, even down to the basic cast of evil characters and the types of bizarre actions they take. It feels like a book I've read repeatedly, and this kind of numbing familiarity snaps me time and again out of the story.

[sholloman81]

Finished up Project Hail Mary, which ultimately I ended up liking quite a bit, though there were a couple of times throughout the book where I zoned out on the story. Looking forward to seeing the movie.

B

Glad to hear that you liked this one as it's still sitting in my TBR pile! Perhaps the movie will prompt me to move it up the stack. It's gotten great reviews.