Wednesday, January 6, 2021

What We've Been Reading #78

Today our team members are sharing three recent and recommended reads. We have an eclectic mix of shapeshifters, ghosts, and tales of unquiet women (the best kind, right?!) We hope you find something you’ll love!

Don’t forget to click either tag above to find more books worth your time ♥

Hairspray and Switchblades by V. Castro

Hairspray and Switchblades by V. Castro

When Maya and Magdalena lose their parents to a home invasion, Magdalena puts her dreams on hold and turns to exotic dancing. Cash is what the sisters need to stay together and keep Maya in an elite catholic high school that has set her on the path for an athletic and academic college scholarship.

These sisters come from a bloodline of Jaguar shifters from Mexico and have gained unwanted attention. The San Antonio Stripper Ripper is stalking the streets, out for a specific kind of blood.

Though Magdalena trades in skin, there is no way she will allow anyone to own her. Steamy. Bloody. Dangerous. Hairspray and Switchblades, what more could a girl need to survive the hot streets?

Book 5 in the Rewind-or-Die series: imagine your local movie rental store back in the ’70s, ’80s, and ’90s, remember all those fantastic covers. Remember taking those movies home and watching in awe as the stories unfolded in nasty rainbows of gore, remember the atmosphere and textures. Remember the blood. 

Amazon | Goodreads

Audra’s Teaser Review

I have always been fascinated by the idea of werewolves and shapeshifters and this novella is no exception. I have read a fair amount of Castro’s short stories, but this is the first longer piece of hers that I’ve read. I love that her work always includes interesting mythos and nods to her Mexican American heritage.

Read Audra’s entire review at Goodreads.

Black Cranes, Tales of Unquiet Women edited by Lee Murray & Geneve Flynn

Almond-eyed celestial, the filial daughter, the perfect wife. Quiet, submissive, demure. In Black Cranes: Tales of Unquiet Women, Southeast Asian writers of horror both embrace and reject these traditional roles in a unique collection of stories which dissect their experiences of ‘otherness’, be it in the colour of their skin, the angle of their cheekbones, the things they dare to write, or the places they have made for themselves in the world.

Black Cranes is a dark and intimate exploration of what it is to be a perpetual outsider.

Featuring 14 stories by Nadia Bulkin, Grace Chan, Rin Chupeco, Elaine Cuyegkeng, Geneve Flynn, Gabriela Lee, Rena Mason, Lee Murray, Angela Yuriko Smith, and Christina Sng, and a foreword by Alma Katstu.

Amazon | Goodreads

Alex’s Teaser Review

This is an anthology that will resonate with so many… and will need proper time to digest. It has a lot of important messages that need to be heard!

Read Alex’s entire review at Goodreads.

You Are Invited by Sarah A. Denzil

“There are those who claim the ghosts walking the corridors of Sfântul Mihail are not ghosts at all.”

During a midnight journey snaking through the Carpathian Mountains, these are the words whispered to Cath Fenwick. It is the warning she will later wish she’d taken more seriously.

When Cath receives her invitation to The Event–a monetised retreat for social media influencers–she can’t believe her luck. Irene Jobert is the most famous influencer in the world, and now Cath will be one of the five participants chosen to stay with Irene in a renovated Transylvanian monastery.

The catch? Their every move will be live-streamed to millions of people around the world. Patrons pay for constant access to their favourite social media stars: Irene, the model, Nathan, the gamer, Jules, the blogger, Daniel, the fitness guru and Cath, the writer. Nestled halfway up a mountain, surrounded by forests teeming with nature, the five are isolated, with nothing but the internet to connect them to the world. That is, until eagle-eyed live-stream followers all around the globe notice a sixth participant. A dark figure lurking in the background. Who–or what–is in the monastery with them?

Wolves roam the nearby forests. Shadows haunt the long corridors of Sfântul Mihail. Slowly, five lonely people begin to lose their minds. You are invited to The Event. 

Amazon | Goodreads

Emily’s Teaser Review

I had so much fun reading it, and I absolutely loved the setting for the story. There were some great creepy scenes, and I was invested the entire time I was reading it.

Read Emily’s entire review at Goodreads.

Laurie is one of our LOHF Admins. Laurie creates our review posts, coordinates review requests, oversees the Ladies of Horror Fiction directory, and manages our LOHF Goodreads group.

You can find Laurie on her blog Bark’s Book Nonsense, on Twitter as @barksbooks, on Instagram as @barksbooks, and on Goodreads.

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