Wednesday, September 1, 2021

What We've Been Reading #104

It’s time for a mid week pick-me-up! Here are a few of our most recent recommendations.


The Book of X by Sarah Rose Etter

The Book of X tells the tale of Cassie, a girl born with her stomach twisted in the shape of a knot. From childhood with her parents on the family meat farm, to a desk job in the city, to finally experiencing love, she grapples with her body, men, and society, all the while imagining a softer world than the one she is in.

Goodreads | Amazon | Bookshop

Audra’s Teaser Review

This Shirley Jackson award-winner blends the surreal and grotesque with the mundane, uncovering truths about the experience of being a woman. A strange and urgent tale I felt take root in the twisted knot I keep in my own stomach.

Read Audra’s entire review at Goodreads.


Beneath a Bethel by April Jan Rowan

Beneath A Bethel by April-Jane Rowan

Every youth of Elbridge remembers their Floris, the holy ceremony where their teeth are pulled out with pliers. It marks their ascension into adulthood and their right to have new porcelain teeth, ones that are embedded with magic, that grant the ability to make wishes.

Angora’s Floris will be upon the banks of the Eldwen river, the communal ceremony befitting his station. However he longs to remember his ceremony for the splendour of the Bethel, wreathed in candle light, drooping flowers and holy hymns.

Seeking to fulfil his dream leaves him the victim of violence and an outcast from society, living on its fringes until a chance meeting brings him to the heart of the Masters Guild, the place teeth are made. Learning secrets he never thought he’d be privy too, he eventually discovers the dark cost of their tradition.

Beneath A Bethel is a dark horror fantasy, set in a harsh, snow-covered city that hides its brutality with pageantry.

Goodreads | Amazon | Bookshop

Laurie’s Teaser Review

This novella is exceptional. The author immediately throws you into her dark world all innocent and unaware. You won’t stay that way for long. It might take a moment to get your bearings but once you do it’s going to be very hard to do anything else but finish every word of this story.

Read Laurie’s entire review at Goodreads.


Burials by Jessica Drake

Burials by Jessica Drake-Thomas

What is buried can return. Those who are dead can still speak. A witch can be burned, but not silenced. When the abattoir is opened, the dead will rise. Burials is the narrative of those whose voices have been taken away-murdered women, witches, ghosts. It’s about speaking one’s truth, and using magic to heal or to banish, even from beyond the grave.

Goodreads | Amazon | Bookshop

Alex’s Teaser Review

BURIALS by Jessica Drake-Thomas is a collection of dark poetry with so much emotion. Bringing together elements of witchcraft, ritual, relationships, and pain, one thing is certain: “you can’t get rid of me or silence me!”

Read Alex’s entire review at Goodreads.


Thank you for joining us today! We hope you found something to add to your tbr list. Please share your recent reads with us in the comments below.


If you are a LOHF writer and have a book you’d like us to consider for a review please visit our review submission page here.


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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