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Goddess of Filth by V. Castro (Review #249)

 "One hot summer night, best friends Lourdes, Fernanda, Ana, Perla, and Pauline hold a séance. It’s all fun and games at first, but their tipsy laughter turns to terror when the flames burn straight through their prayer candles and Fernanda starts crawling toward her friends and chanting in Nahuatl, the language of their Aztec ancestors. Over the next few weeks, shy, modest Fernanda starts acting strangely - smearing herself in black makeup, shredding her hands on rose thorns, sucking sin out of the mouths of the guilty. The local priest is convinced it's a demon, but Lourdes begins to suspect it’s something else - something far more ancient and powerful. As Father Moreno's obsession with Fernanda grows, Lourdes enlists the help of her “bruja Craft crew” and a professor, Dr. Camacho, to understand what is happening to her friend in this unholy tale of possession-gone-right." Review: A possession horror story where the entity is for the girls, and the real demon is jus...
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Graveyard Shift by M. L. Rio (Review #248)

  “Every night, in the college’s ancient cemetery, five people cross paths as they work the late shift: a bartender, a rideshare driver, a hotel receptionist, the steward of the derelict church that looms over them, and the editor-in-chief of the college paper, always in search of a story. One dark October evening in the defunct churchyard, they find a hole that wasn’t there before. A fresh, open grave where no grave should be. But who dug it, and for whom? Before they go their separate ways, the gravedigger returns. As they trail him through the night, they realize he may be the key to a string of strange happenings around town that have made headlines for the last few weeks—and that they may be closer to the mystery than they thought." Review: WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT??????? Worst scooby-doo, half-assed mystery. AND THEY HAD ME! I was so down for a group of people brought together by nicotine (although for people who can only smoke at a graveyard, ya'll be smoking everywhere),...

All of Our Demise by Amanda Foody & Christine Lynn Herman (Review #247)

  WARNING: SPOILER ALERT: IF YOU HAVE NOT GOTTEN THIS FAR IN THE ALL OF US VILLAINS DUOLOGY, STOP NOW. DO NOT READ. THIS IS BOOK 2. CHECK OUT ALL OF US VILLAINS   FOR THE REVIEW OF BOOK 1! "'I feel like I should warn this is going to be absolutely brutal.' For the first time in this ancient, bloodstained story, the tournament is breaking. The boundaries between the city of Ilvernath and the arena have fallen. Reporters swarm the historic battlegrounds. A dead boy now lives again. And a new champion has entered the fray, one who seeks to break the curse for good... no matter how many lives are sacrificed in the process. As the curse teeters closer and closer to collapse, the surviving champions each face a dismantle the tournament piece by piece, or fight to the death as this story was always intended. Long-held alliances will be severed. Hearts will break. Lives will end. Because a tale as wicked as this one was never destined for happily ever after." Review: Dude... ...

All of Us Villains by Amanda Foody & Christine Lynn Herman (Review #246)

  The Blood Moon rises. The Blood Veil falls. The Tournament begins. Every generation, the coming of the Blood Moon, seven families in the remote city of Ilvernath each name a champion to compete in a secret tournament to the death. The prize? Exclusive control over a hidden wellspring of high magick, the most powerful resource in the world - one thought long depleted. But this year, a scandalous tell-all book has exposed the tournament and thrust the seven new champions into the worldwide spotlight. The book also granted them valuable information previous champions never had - insight into the other families’ strategies and weaknesses. And most important, it gave them a choice: except their fate or rewrite their legacy. Either way, this is a story that must be penned in blood.”  Review: We back and betta than eva!!! Okay listen, I’m a busy gal! So this took me 2 months to read. But listen, I don’t think that should be a reflection of the book itself.  It was a slow, slow...

The Harpy by Megan Hunter (Review #245)

“Lucy Lives with her husband, Jake and their two boys. Her life is devoted to her children, her days, mapped out by their finally tune routine. Until a man calls one afternoon with a shattering message. His wife has been having an affair with Lucy’s husband. He thought she should know. Lucy is distraught. She decides to stay with Jake, if only for their children sake, but in order to even the score, they agreed that she will hurt him three times. Jake Will not know when the hurt is coming, or what form it will take. And so begins a delicate game of crime and punishment, from which there is no return…” Review: “Deeply unsettling” author Daisy Johnson said of this book, and honestly I think that’s the perfect description. For me though this wasn’t necessarily horror, and fantasy is a stretch at best, but let’s backtrack a bit. This story was about grief. Lucy is grieving and trying to heal from a monumental wound. She by no means is a pillar of a healthy psyche, but even in her worst mom...

Bone Crier's Moon by Kathryn Purdie (Review #244)

 "Bone Criers have a sacred duty: to ferry the spirits of the dead to the afterlife. But the gods demand a sacrifice from them to prove their dedication. Ailesse has prepared since birth to become the matriarch of the Bone Criers, but first, she must complete her rite of passage by finding - and killing - the boy she is destined to love. Bastien has been seeking revenge for his father’s death at the hands of a Bone Crier. When he finds Ailesse on the night of her ritual, their fates become entwined in life and in death. Sabine has never had the stomach for the Bone Criers’ work, but when her best friend, Ailesse, is taken captive, Sabine will do whatever it takes to break the bond between Ailesse and Bastien. Before they all die.” Review: This was such a fun little read! Honestly, I was hooked from the moment Ailesse attacked that tiger shark. The pacing for this was like NASCAR. We were flying through so much action and plot and I was here for it. There were times I will say that...

Hell Bent by Leigh Bardugo (Review #243)

 WARNING: SPOILER ALERT: IF YOU HAVE NOT GOTTEN THIS FAR IN THE ALEX STERN SERIES, STOP NOW. DO NOT READ. THIS IS BOOK 2. CHECK OUT NINTH HOUSE FOR THE REVIEW OF BOOK 1! "Find a gateway to the underworld. Steal a soul out of hell. A simple plan, except people who make this particular journey rarely come back. Galaxy “Alex” Stern is determined to break Darlington out of purgatory - even if it costs her a future at Lethe and at Yale. Forbidden from attempting a rescue, Alex and Dawes can’t call on the Ninth House for help, so they assemble a team of dubious allies to save the gentleman of Lethe. Together, they will have to navigate a maze of arcane texts and bizarre artifacts to uncover the societies’ most closely guarded secrets, and break every rule doing it. But when faculty members begin to die off, Alex knows these aren’t just accidents. Something deadly is at work in New Haven, and if she is going to survive, she’ll have to reckon with the monsters of her past and a darkness ...