Kill Them With Kindness by Will Carver

Hi, all! (School is out and I'm not sure what day it is anymore!) Today I'm excited to be part of the Random Things blog tour for Will Carver's latest, Kill Them With Kindness out this month from Orenda!

What if it were possible to infect society with empathy? Dr. Haruto Ikeda thinks he can. And he thinks this will solve all of the world's problems. It will make people care. 

But as with all best intentions...

Whoa! This was a really tough one for me right now! I mean, I'm pretty sure we all have some form of PTSD from 2020. 

In Carver's nightmarish thriller, this is all taking place alongside the Covid pandemic. There's a cabal, there's a conspiracy, and the crazy thing is that the further along I got into the book I had a harder time picking out the fiction. 

And the book begins with the "Dignity Pills"—this book is scary and prescient and triggering. It's watching a train wreck as it happens. Who got infected and did what and why. And since we start at the end we never have a minute to hope things will turn out. 

And this is not a bad review. Carver has done an amazing job of leaving at least this reader incredibly unsettled. As a seasoned dark fiction and horror fan that doesn't happen often. Everything that happens in this is book is exactly how I imagine something like this would happen. 

This book is just frighteningly real! It's Contagion behind the scenes. It's like Silent Night without the party. Honestly, I don't know what to say about this book. It freaked me the heck out! 

I enjoyed it in the same way that I enjoy Black Mirror. 

The Burial Witch by Cari Thomas

TGIF, everyone! Today I'm excited to be part of the Random Things tour for Cari Thomas's The Burial Witch, a novella set in the Threadneedle world (The Language of Magic series). 

Miranda has always fought to be the best. It's what's expected in her family. And yet, compared to her brother and sister, she feels like she's falling short. 

While researching a family history project she finds a suitcase she believes belonged to her maternal grandmother. They don't talk about that side of the family history much. She knows they emigrated from Nigeria to the UK. But their African history has always been a sensitive point for her mother. 

Inside the suitcase, Miranda finds a box that can't be opened. And it eats away at her. She starts having nightmares and becomes convinced this is a test from God. Raised an evangelical Christian, Miranda has always been strong in her faith and active in her church. But this box has raised questions she's not sure she really wants the answers to. 

The Burial Witch is a fun addition to the Threadneedle world. Very witchy and mysterious. I loved the Yoruba and Vodun angle. I especially loved the way Thomas explores faith and practice beyond Christianity. 

I should note too, this isn't a religious read by any means. It's witches. Witchy, witchy, witches! Miranda's family and their history and choices are a key part of the story, including raising said family within a Christian religion. 

This fits nicely in my latest reading trends to be honest. Beyond How to Kill a Witch, I've also been spending ample time in Angela Slatter's Verity Fassbinder and Sourdough worlds. I also think we're seeing a strong return to witches lately, which isn't unexpected all things considered. 

The Burial Witch is out now in the UK and will be available in the States later this summer. This is the second of four companion novellas to the Language of Magic series.