Small Spaces by Katherine Arden

Well there's definitely a fall bite to the air by now here in Colorado. I'm a true summer gal but fall does stand a very close second as my favorite season. In fact, I could do with just summer and fall year round - I hate winter and spring!

Fall makes me think of Halloween and high school football games - even though I'm not a fan of football, Friday nights spent in the stands with my bandmates and junk food concessions will probably forever hold a place in my heart. 

And while I love to read horror year round, fall demands it! And so I was super excited to find out that Katherine Arden, yes, The Bear and the Nightingale Katherine Arden, had written a middle grade ghost story!

Eleven-year-old Ollie is happiest spending her time between the pages of books. So when she stumbles upon a woman just about to toss a book into the river, Ollie decides she must save the tome. 

When she gets home, she dives in, discovering a story about two brothers who'd fallen in love with the same woman. One night, one of the brothers makes a deal with someone called the smiling man, a deal that would grant the brother's wish in exchange for a promise to be cashed in at a later date. 

In the middle of reading the book, Ollie and her school take a trip to a local farm that bears a marked resemblance to the one in Ollie's book. And when she finds a graveyard with tombstones matching the names of the people in her book, she begins to suspect the story might hold a little bit of truth. 

When the school bus breaks down leaving the farm, their teacher leaves to find help. The day grows darker and the bus driver issues an ominous warning that prompts Ollie and two others to leave the bus behind. But as they try to make their way back to the farm and possible help, the night and the things they've been warned against begin to close in...

Small Spaces is meant for middle grade readers, but that doesn't mean there wasn't enough for this adult to enjoy. I even got the occasional hair on end tingle as I was reading!

Short Fiction Friday: Eight Ghosts by Rowan Routh - Repost

Hi, all! Last Christmas I received a fantastic collection of ghost stories printed in the UK as a fund raiser for English Heritage. Well, this week the US got their own edition and I wanted to go ahead and plug the book again for Stateside audiences!

Eight authors, eight spooky historic sites...

Imagine being given free reign of an historic and possibly haunted location in the English countryside. It's a horror fanatic's dream! It's also the basis for Eight Ghosts: The English Heritage Book of New Ghost Stories, a collection put together by English Heritage, the organization responsible for preserving and caring for historical sites throughout England. Eight authors were chosen and each given access to a site of their choosing as inspiration for an original short ghost story to be included in the collection.

Here's the full TOC:
"They Flee From Me That Sometime Did Me Seek" by Sarah Perry - Audley End
"Mr Lanyard's Last Case" by Andrew Michael Hurley - Carlisle Castle
"The Bunker" by Mark Haddon - York Cold War Bunker
"Foreboding" by Kamila Shamsie - Kenilworth Castle
"Never Departed More" by Stuart Evers - Dover Castle
"The Wall" by Kate Clanchy - Housesteads Roman Fort
"As Strong as Death" by Jeanette Winterson - Pendennis Castle
"Mrs Charbury at Eltham" by Max Porter - Eltham Palace

I thought this was a truly fantastic collection of creepy tales! It's not often that I really love every story in an anthology like this, but in this case I really did.

Sarah Perry, author of The Essex Serpent, and Mark Haddon, author of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime, offered up two of my hands down favorites, though. In the first, an art conservator is hired for a job that has terrifying results and in Haddon's tale, people are plagued by memories of another time.

The other tales range from chilling - Max Porter's entry about a woman revisiting the site of her sister's disappearance - to the heart wrenching - Kate Clanchy's tale of a family visit to Housesteads Roman Fort - and everything in between. There's an actress who takes method acting a bit too far in Stuart Evers's tale, a wedding that's crashed by a departed soldier in Jeanette Winterson's delightful tale, a security guard who didn't believe in ghosts before his latest posting in Kamila Shamsie's story, and a lawyer faced with terrifying visions of death in Andrew Michael Hurley's entry.

Trust me, each and every one is fabulous and fabulously eerie!

We Sold Our Souls by Grady Hendrix

Kris made a name for herself in the 90s as part of Dürt Würk, a heavy metal band whose cult following had pushed them to the brink of success. But rather than finding fame, the band fell apart and it was lead singer Terry Hunt who ended up with all the glory. 

Twenty years later, Kris is barely squeaking by with a job at a crappy motel, a care that barely runs, and a house she's about to lose. And that's when she sees it - a billboard announcing Terry's return to the stage and an all our rocktastic final tour. It's the push Kris needs to finally do something. To finally confront Terry about what happened all those years ago. 

But Kris soon finds that some things are better left unknown. And some betrayals are far worse than you can ever imagine. 

Heavy metal and horror collide in this latest from Hendrix, a terrifying tale about how far one would go to make their dreams come true.

Grady Hendrix is not only an expert in analyzing the horror genre, he's proven himself an expert at writing it too. And yes, I do mean expert. Three books in and all three have hit my favorites list, that qualifies him in my mind.

I honestly wasn't sure when I dove into this one. Sure, Horrorstör was flat pack paradise of ghosts and My Best Friend's Exorcism thoroughly creeped me out while also appealing to my 80s obsessed nature, but heavy metal is most emphatically NOT my thing, so even I had some reservations in getting started with this latest. But given he hasn't let me down, I was excited none the less. And it was worth it!

Kris is in a dead end job, living in a house that's literally being sold out from under her. She really has no friends, no connections at all, and no direction. And part of that is thanks to the fact that she's been facing the fact that she had it all and was on the brink of a big music career, and lost everything. And the how of that particular storyline is part of the book but it's clear from the time that she sees Terry's billboard that she believes Terry is the cause of her downfall.

And thus begins her dark and horrific adventure!

This was a fabulous horror read, y'all. Super fun and super fast paced. Also, creepy as all get out! An instant favorite for any horror fan!

R.eaders I.mbibing P.eril XIII

Fall is right around the corner! In fact, we're already feeling it a bit here in Colorado. Just a teensy bit :)

Of course for me, this year, fall means the baby is almost here, but that's not curbing my craving for all things dark and creepy. So I'm signing on once again for the Readers Imbibing Peril (RIP) challenge.

Here's the info per Book Chatter, the official host this year.

The purpose of the R.I.P. Challenge is to enjoy books that could be classified as:
Mystery
Suspense
Thriller
Dark Fantasy
Gothic
Horror
Supernatural

The emphasis is never on the word challenge, instead it is about coming together as a community and embracing the autumnal mood, whether the weather is cooperative where you live or not.

The goals are simple.

1. Have fun reading.

2. Share that fun with others.

As we do each and every year, there are multiple levels of participation (Perils) that allow you to be a part of R.I.P. XII without adding the burden of another commitment to your already busy lives. There is even a one book only option for those who feel that this sort of reading is not their cup of tea (or who have many other commitments) but want to participate all the same.

Multiple perils await you. You can participate in just one, or participate in them all.

Peril the First:
Read four books, any length, that you feel fit (our very broad definitions) of R.I.P. literature. It could be Stephen King or Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Shirley Jackson or Tananarive Due…or anyone in between.

Peril the Second:
Read two books of any length that you believe fit within the challenge categories.

Peril the Third:
We all want you to participate. This Peril involves reading one book that fits within the R.I.P. definition.

Peril of the Short Story:
We are fans of short stories and our desire for them is perhaps no greater than in autumn. We see Jackson in our future for sure! You can read short stories any time during the challenge. We sometimes like to read short stories over the weekend and post about them around that time. Feel free to do this however you want, but if you review short stories on your site, please link to those reviews on our RIPXII Book Review pages.

Peril on the Screen:
This is for those of us who like to watch suitably scary, eerie, mysterious gothic fare during this time of year. It may be something on the small screen or large. It might be a television show, like Dark Shadows, or your favorite film. If you are so inclined, please post links to any R.I.P.-related viewing you do on our book review pages as well.

Peril of the Review:
Submit a short review of any book you read and you may see it here on the blog! Again, you may participate in one or all of the various Perils. Our one demand: enjoy yourself!

I'll be tackling Peril the First, Peril of the Short Story, and Peril on the Screen (while also trying to save some for 30 horror films in 30 days challenge).  

The challenge begins September 1 and runs through October 31. If you're interested in signing on, you can do that here.