Monday, March 18, 2019

The "Underrated" Recap

Ladies of Horror Fiction Instagram Challenge Weekly Recap

We are winding down the Ladies of Horror Fiction Instagram recaps. Only a couple more left! If you missed last week’s prompt of “Weather” you can check it out here.

So many authors and books in this challenge are underrated which is one of the reasons we started Ladies of Horror Fiction.  There are sooooooo many amazing and talented ladies out there writing some incredible horror books that are underrated. Hopefully you’ve already been adding tons of new names to your TBR lists but here are some more that we want to highlight from the recap of our “Underrated” prompt.

Ec_booklover is summoning up some realness with this photo Shadow Study by Maria V. Snyder.

“Once, only her own life hung in the balance…

When Yelena was a poison taster, her life was simpler. She survived to become a vital part of the balance of power between rival countries Ixia and Sitia.

Now she uses her magic to keep the peace in both lands—and protect her relationship with Valek.
Suddenly, though, dissent is rising. And Valek’s job—and his life—are in danger.
As Yelena tries to uncover her enemies, she faces a new challenge: her magic is blocked.And now she must find a way to keep not only herself but all that she holds dear alive.”

dlgillis20 gave us this stunning shot of Out by Natsuo Kirino.

Natsuo Kirino’s novel tells a story of random violence in the staid Tokyo suburbs, as a young mother who works a night shift making boxed lunches brutally strangles her deadbeat husband and then seeks the help of her co-workers to dispose of the body and cover up her crime.

The ringleader of this cover-up, Masako Katori, emerges as the emotional heart of Out and as one of the shrewdest, most clear-eyed creations in recent fiction. Masako’s own search for a way out of the straitjacket of a dead-end life leads her, too, to take drastic action.

The complex yet riveting narrative seamlessly combines a convincing glimpse into the grimy world of Japan’s yakuza with a brilliant portrayal of the psychology of a violent crime and the ensuing game of cat-and-mouse between seasoned detectives and a group of determined but inexperienced criminals. Kirino has mastered a Thelma and Louise kind of graveyard humor that illuminates her stunning evocation of the pressures and prejudices that drive women to extreme deeds and the friendship that bolsters them in the aftermath.”

This cover of IBITSU by Haruto Ryo that we got from banzaireads is EVERYTHING!  Such a creepy and awesome illustration that has me super intrigued.  I never knew I was missing horror manga and Japanese urban legends until now!

“There’s an urban legend that says late at night, sometimes a young girl dressed in gothic lolita clothing will appear by garbage dumps to ask a question. Any who answer will, without fail, die a twisted death. And tonight, another young boy will find himself enveloped by this horror…”

I can’t stop staring at this cover of White Is For Witching by Helen Oyeyemi.  There’s something hypnotic about it that has me looking deeply and turning my head to see if anything is different from other angles.  Anyone else??

“In a vast, mysterious house on the cliffs near Dover, the Silver family is reeling from the hole punched into its heart. Lily is gone and her twins, Miranda and Eliot, and her husband, the gentle Luc, mourn her absence with unspoken intensity. All is not well with the house, either, which creaks and grumbles and malignly confuses visitors in its mazy rooms, forcing winter apples in the garden when the branches should be bare. Generations of women inhabit its walls. And Miranda, with her new appetite for chalk and her keen sense for spirits, is more attuned to them than she is to her brother and father. She is leaving them slowly –

Slipping away from them –

And when one dark night she vanishes entirely, the survivors are left to tell her story.”


Hopefully you were able to find some more underrated books from ladies of horror fiction that can be added to our ever-growing TBR!  I, for one, will never complain of having too much to read… I think of it as a journey that will require lots of tasty treats and delicious teas and coffees along the way!  Make sure and check back in next week when we recap some highlights from the “dark” prompt!

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