Near the Bone by Christina Henry

October 14, 2025

Genre:

Thriller/Horror/Sci-Fi/ Cerebral

Premise

Sphere tells the story of a team of scientists that are sent to the bottom of the pacific ocean with navy military personnel to potentially be a first-contact team for a potential alien space-craft. They have all been preselected for their talents and for their diverse personalities and specialties to make a perfect, psychologically ideal team. Unfortunately humans do not exist under a vacuum and WILL fall under the pressure

Review

Let me just say this really quick... This book is amazing and I really don't have many notes on it. It was fucking phenomenal. At 510 pages, it read so unbelievably fast and kept me so entertained.

One thing I really liked about just the structure of the book is that there are many short chapters (~10-15 pages each) and the whole book is spread into 4 parts. This seems like a weird thing to like, but it allows me to have constant checkpoints to push through, and at the end of nearly every chapter was something that completely changes the way you perceive the challenges the characters are facing.

I also really appreciated the writing as a whole. It is not overly simplistic to an extent that makes it seem like someone's first novel, but it is just enough to let the reader slide through the words and understand everything very clearly, which is something that I tend to struggle with

I loved the characters overall as well, with only Beth standing out as kind of annoying to me at times, which was disappointing because I found myself really gravitating towards her at the novel's start

Criticism

Okay, so my criticisms are mostly found in the characters, namely Harry and Beth, the two minorities of the story. To start, Beth started off in the book as an overall powerful character who was frequently made aware of the fact that she was seen as inferior to some of the male characters of the story, but that she didn't give a fuck. She was buff, and strong, and she loved cutting open squid (YIKES) and I loved that about her

The issues came in towards the middle and end of the story, where her being a woman becomes more central to her character and the other characters, especially Norman, seem to overly sexualize her, even literally manipulating reality to look at her naked body. While this I think is meant to show the characterization of the male characters in contrast to her, I didn't like her being used as a tool for other characters to ogle after. This is especially irksome for me because it also felt like this was for nothing.

The characters don't learn anything or develop as characters or even have the plot pushed because of this. It just felt like Crichton wanted an excuse to talk about nipples and hyper-sexualized women. This is an oversimplification and slight over-dramatization of the character, but between that and the fact that she is written as constantly flip-flopping in emotions irked me at times and it was clear that the writer was a man.

The second issue I have is with Harry. Harry is a black mathematician that is poised as the primary logician and true leader of the team, who all turn to him for guidance. This sounds great right? a book from the 1980s where a black character is held in high regard and is central to the story? for the most part, yeah! my only gripe is that there are times where the other characters are casually racist towards him, but not in a way to make a linguistic point, but in a way that seems like incidental prejudice and stereotyping in how he is written. Like at one point, Harry makes an offhanded comment about Beth, and she replies with "It fits with your typical black-male contempt for women." which is said not to like make a point, but it is slid in like it is something like "of course she would say that, it's true" which is insane.

IDK, I'm kind of just writing in a free flow of thought here, and I actually considered cutting this section and summarizing it all into like 2 sentences but this is my website and I'll post what I like.

Conclusion

despite my gripes with how he writes women and how there seems to be shadows of subtle racism to me, Overall I did really enjoy the book (which sounds awful to say, I promise it really was like not a big part of the book y'all plz read it). The writing is great, the characters are largely believable (except Beth in some parts), the concept is so fucking cool, and the book is a roller coaster of emotions and thoughts and theories. Again, this is a 5/5 to me. That doesn't mean it's perfect, it just means it was phenomenal.

A Lush and Seething Hell by John Horner Jacobs

October 12, 2025

Story 1/2: The Sea Dreams it is the Sky:

Genre:

Cosmic Horror, Political, Dictatorship

Spoiler Free Thoughts:

So this is the first novella in the "A Lush and Seething Hell" collection, and it was... okay. It spends pretty much the first 3rd of the book setting everything up, with nothing paranormal or weird, the 2nd 3rd all about like a kind of dissent into "madness" story (though I would not call it madness, just weirdness), and the final third is more content, but feels more like an action novella than a horror book.

This is technically a cosmic horror novella, but the horror is incredibly subtle, which could be good for some, but I really do prefer more explicit horror. I was not at all scared through the book and the strongest reaction I ever had to somewhat spooky parts were "hmmm" as I tried to delve into the Lovecraftian aspects of the story (though there isn't much there). The book is decently well written and the characters are alright, but I just felt bored for a lot of it and found that I kind of had to actively motivate myself to finish the book, rather than finding myself addicted to reading it. I nearly DNFd it but found a way through and I wish I could say that I'm happy I stuck with it, but I'm really not. I would not necessarily recommend this novella to people, but we'll see if the second Novella in this collection will be any good.

Story 2/2: My Heart Struck Sorrow:

Genre:

Cosmic Horror, Racial, Descent into Madness

Spoiler Free Thoughts:

Okay I'm going to keep this breif because I honestly don't feel like writing too too much on this one because tbh I've already started reading another book and I'm ready to put this whole collection by Jacobs behind me. With that said, I did enjoy this story considerably more than the one before it. It follows two people coping with grief in very different time periods, using their work as ethnomusicalogists as a gateway to healing, even if it is through extreme and even ritualistic means. I thought the book was bery successful as a piece on grief and loss and the extents that people are willing to sacrifice themselves and what they know to be true to cope with that loss.

As far as teh fear factor goes, I wasn't often actually scared during the book, but there is one scene in the middle of the story that is very well written and is so evocative that it is amazing to vizualize. it felt like when a song starts slow and melodic but slowly quickens the tempo and pecomes more discordant in tone. It is a scene that decieves you and builds upon itself to illicit maybe not fear, but awe of the visuals being discribed. I give this a 4/5 stars and I would recommend that if people picked "A Lush and Seething Hell" up, that they skip the first story and just read this. If it was available independent of this collection I'd just recommend that but unfortunately it is not.

alright y'all. I hope you enjoyed this slop I've given you today. Please come back soon for the review of the book I'm reading now (and my review for the sphere that I actually read before this but haven't gone through the effort of writing a review for yet.

Sphere by Michael Crichton

October 7, 2025

Genre:

Thriller/Horror/Sci-Fi/ Cerebral

Premise

Sphere tells the story of a team of scientists that are sent to the bottom of the pacific ocean with navy military personnel to potentially be a first-contact team for a potential alien space-craft. They have all been preselected for their talents and for their diverse personalities and specialties to make a perfect, psychologically ideal team. Unfortunately humans do not exist under a vacuum and WILL fall under the pressure

Review

Let me just say this really quick... This book is amazing and I really don't have many notes on it. It was fucking phenomenal. At 510 pages, it read so unbelievably fast and kept me so entertained.

One thing I really liked about just the structure of the book is that there are many short chapters (~10-15 pages each) and the whole book is spread into 4 parts. This seems like a weird thing to like, but it allows me to have constant checkpoints to push through, and at the end of nearly every chapter was something that completely changes the way you perceive the challenges the characters are facing.

I also really appreciated the writing as a whole. It is not overly simplistic to an extent that makes it seem like someone's first novel, but it is just enough to let the reader slide through the words and understand everything very clearly, which is something that I tend to struggle with

I loved the characters overall as well, with only Beth standing out as kind of annoying to me at times, which was disappointing because I found myself really gravitating towards her at the novel's start

Criticism

Okay, so my criticisms are mostly found in the characters, namely Harry and Beth, the two minorities of the story. To start, Beth started off in the book as an overall powerful character who was frequently made aware of the fact that she was seen as inferior to some of the male characters of the story, but that she didn't give a fuck. She was buff, and strong, and she loved cutting open squid (YIKES) and I loved that about her

The issues came in towards the middle and end of the story, where her being a woman becomes more central to her character and the other characters, especially Norman, seem to overly sexualize her, even literally manipulating reality to look at her naked body. While this I think is meant to show the characterization of the male characters in contrast to her, I didn't like her being used as a tool for other characters to ogle after. This is especially irksome for me because it also felt like this was for nothing.

The characters don't learn anything or develop as characters or even have the plot pushed because of this. It just felt like Crichton wanted an excuse to talk about nipples and hyper-sexualized women. This is an oversimplification and slight over-dramatization of the character, but between that and the fact that she is written as constantly flip-flopping in emotions irked me at times and it was clear that the writer was a man.

The second issue I have is with Harry. Harry is a black mathematician that is poised as the primary logician and true leader of the team, who all turn to him for guidance. This sounds great right? a book from the 1980s where a black character is held in high regard and is central to the story? for the most part, yeah! my only gripe is that there are times where the other characters are casually racist towards him, but not in a way to make a linguistic point, but in a way that seems like incidental prejudice and stereotyping in how he is written. Like at one point, Harry makes an offhanded comment about Beth, and she replies with "It fits with your typical black-male contempt for women." which is said not to like make a point, but it is slid in like it is something like "of course she would say that, it's true" which is insane.

IDK, I'm kind of just writing in a free flow of thought here, and I actually considered cutting this section and summarizing it all into like 2 sentences but this is my website and I'll post what I like.

Conclusion

despite my gripes with how he writes women and how there seems to be shadows of subtle racism to me, Overall I did really enjoy the book (which sounds awful to say, I promise it really was like not a big part of the book y'all plz read it). The writing is great, the characters are largely believable (except Beth in some parts), the concept is so fucking cool, and the book is a roller coaster of emotions and thoughts and theories. Again, this is a 5/5 to me. That doesn't mean it's perfect, it just means it was phenomenal.

The Only Good Indians by Stephen Graham Jones

October 1, 2025

Genre:

Native Horror/ Surrealism/ Gore

Spoiler Free Thoughts:

So I've been reading a lot of like... more chill horror lately/ cozy horror (Kingfisher and Hendrix as you can see from my reviews here)and I decided that I wanted to try out this book because I've heard good things about it and I love what seems to be a monster book? The overall premise of native horror is also very interesting to me, so I figured I'd give it a try, even if it's sort of outside of my wheelhouse as of late.

In this book we look at the lives of 4 native men following their slaughter of a massive herd of elk when hunting in a location they were not permitted to be. What follows them is both a very physical and completely intangible horror that rips their lives apart in the most gruesome Rube Goldberg machine of suffering you can imagine.

Okay so this book was good? I think? Let me say that the book is split into three chunks, each taking on a different perspective, with the last chunk being proportionally much smaller than the other two. I'll get into my main gripe with this novel in a second, but with the segmented format of the book, it made it really difficult to maintain interest at times. Like part one ends with a fucking BANG that leaves you recoiling back with "what the fuck did I just read", so naturally you go onto the second part. You sit down, you're excited to read it, and then the type of horror kind of shifts, in a weird way? It really slowed down as it basically had to reintroduce the new characters of this chunk since there was a perspective change, which made it incredibly difficult to get into the second chunk, but I am glad that I did because it was kind of insane.

I think that my main gripe with the book is the literature and actual writing of it, which was incredibly difficult to follow at times, especially the beginning. it constantly shifted perspectives and time frames and characters and even what person (3rd vs 2nd) at times, which most books would break up with either a new chapter or at least a major page break to indicate some sort of change, but not this book. No this book frequently will switch between perspecties or times or even places in the middle of the paragraph, which made it difficult to read. This is especially prevalent at the beginning of part one, as it is doing this shifting while also attempting to tell you a non-linear story that develops over time.

It was just too much to balance at times, and really made me frequently reread pages or even a half of a chapter at one point to see if I was missing context for a character being introduced or what was being insuated vaguely through dialogue.

With this said! I did really like the book, which I know sounds crazy considering I kind of ripped it for a second, but I really do. I thought that when the writing of it wasn't getting in the way, the plot was very interesting and psychological while being incredibly surreal and off-putting in a good way at times. The premise of native horror was incredibly successful (I say this as a whitey) and I felt like it was really grounded in reality, while very purposely veering off the road into insnaity when necessary. Overal 4/5. I probably wouldn't read it again because of the writing, but would encourage others to read it to experience what being punched in the head by descriptions of viscera feels like coming from Stephen Graham Jones

Good Quotes:

“[Gabe talking about his nearly estranged daughter] she's going to reach an age where she'll want to take the world in her teeth and shake until she tears a hunk of something off for herselt. And then, whether it's good or bad, whether it's a scholarship or a five-ear bid in state, or two kids in as many years, she'll sit in the corner by herself and chew it down, dare anybody to say this isn't exactly what she wanted...”

“Dealing with cops is like being around a skittish horse: No sudden movements, nothing shiny or loud. Zero jokes.”

“Peta reaches up to his forehead, delicately removes a flake of paint from the basketball pole, and then pulls him to her chest, her palm to his cheek, and this, her, it's home, and it's not haunted, not even a little.”

What Feasts at Night by T. Kinfisher

September 21, 2025

Genre:

Folk Horror/ Witch

Spoiler Free Thoughts:

So this is my 5th Kingfisher novel, and is actually the last horror book she’s written (other than the third installment of this series that comes out next week), and I’m obsessed. This book is a sequel to What Moves the Dead (though it acts well as a standalone novel) and follows Alex Easton, a retired soldier as they revisit a hunting lodge that they inherited from their father many years ago, following the disappearance of the lodgekeeper. When exploring the town of the lodge and asking it’s citizens, all say that the keeper has died, but refuse to tell what has caused it. After some coaxing, eventually we learn that the lodge is supposedly haunted by some sort of spirit that is a common folk devil across the entire region… then hilarity ensues.

Kingfisher largely writes fantasy novels, but I need her to switch completely to horror because it matches her tone so well. It is so obvious that Kingfisher is both deeply invested in her characters and has the most devastating situations to put them in, that are so filled with the most grotesque descriptions of fear and trauma that you will read (in a way that is still tasteful and not just splatterpunk)

Out of her books, I think that this is easily her best novel. It has the characters that I care the most about, with a plot that is solid, simple, and thought through, with an ending that is concise, scary, and also a great analysis on trauma.

Thoughts (Spoilers)

I loved this book. I always like Kingfisher’s work but this book was the culmination of all of the best parts of her, and beautifully improved upon the shortcomings of the last book in this series (read my review for that below). It developed beautifully on Angus, a gripe I had with the last book, and made him an actual character that had substance and that I cared for. I frequently found myself rooting for this mustachioed man and his private relationship with Ms. Potter (I know they have crazy old people sex). On top of that, I thought it was paced well and had a climax that felt climactic and deserved, with a nice span of pages detailing the conflict, and then a satisfying conclusion, something that I cannot say the same for the previous book’s abrupt ending that had me disappointed.

I think the fact that this was not based on existing work, unlike “What Moves the Dead” which is based on Edgar Allen Poe’s “The Fall of the House of Usher” allowed her to really do what she wanted to with every ounce of this book, while still very much grounding it in the setting of a late 1800s european village. This book is filled to the brim with folklore and was genuinely such a pleasure to read.

I especially found myself emotional at Kingfisher’s description of trauma and PTSD from war. While I am not a veteran, I am someone with PTSD and she does an amazing job of describing trauma. She talks about how war is usually talked about as an event that had a start and finish date and that it was confined to time, but that it is really a place. A place that you can visit and a place you can lose yourself in even years following it. She describes how you can recall a deeply traumatic experience and experience it like any other memory: locked in time in your head, but then you can suddenly be in the trauma, back where it happened. You never really leave that place, and it is always in the back of your head, ready for you to fall into when you hear a gunshot or when branches move the same way they did on a horrible night decades ago.

Again, I have never been to war, and cannot truly compare my experiences with trauma to that of a veteran, but trauma being a place and not a time really hit me and resonated with my experiences of feeling fine until something randomly trips me and when i look up I’m back where it happened.

I can’t begin to describe how much I loved this book, in spite of some of its flaws that I choose to ignore and that I’m sure others will bring up. If you want to start reading T. Kingfisher, this may not be the place to start, but it is a perfect place to end with her horror novels. I have nothing but excitement for the next installment in this Sworn Soldier Series, especially since it takes place in the American Appalachia, which is probably my favorite setting of anything ever and always.

Good Quotes:

“[Alex talking about trauma in the war]I sometimes think the fundamental disconnect with civilians is that they think a war is an event, something neatly bounded on either end by dates. What anyone who’s lived through one can tell you is that it’s actually a place. You’re there and then you leave, but places don’t stop existing just because you aren’t looking at them.”

“[Agnus speaking on the existence of ghosts] World’s a big place. I figured some bits just get overlooked sometimes. Like God goes around sweeping things up but he misses a corner now and again.”

Horrorstor by Grady Hendrix

September 18, 2025

Genre:

Horror (Ghost)

Pre-Read Thoughts:

I was really looking for more books similar to T. Kingfisher, when I saw a lot of people recommending this book, so I thought this was as good a place as any to get started with this author. I also admittedly really like that 3008 roblox game and the infinite Ikea SCP (I definitely don't have the most insufferable personality). I was nervous though because I really just love Kingfisher and had been on a kick of reading her stuff, so I was unsure about a new reading style

100 Word Summary

Amy is a career retail worker who struggles with making rent in her day to day, but makes what money she has at ORSK, a knock off Ikea. She is asked by her boss, Basil, who she hates, to stay late one night to investigate damage that appears to be happening in the middle of the night lately. She is accompanied by her coworkers Basil, Trinity, Ruth Anne, and Matt. While things start normal enough, the store quickly becomes disorienting and too large, and a presence begins tormenting them. It’s like 5 nights at Freddy’s, but one night and at a discount IKEA.

My review

Overall, I though this book was good. I was really hoping for something og a more abstract haunting that was more of an environmental horror, where the store itself is the primary threat, similar to the Navidson Record in House of Leaves, but it was like a proper ghost story with physical ghosts and possesion. There is nothing actually wrong with that, it is just not my preference. I think the idea of having a ghost with a physical manifestation makes it more concrete and like a singular force is against you, but something where you never actually see anything that is a definite threat, but instead an environment that seems like it is beyond you and you are caught in the crossfire of it's shifting. I like a spirit that is so far beyond you that it likely doesn't even recongnize that you are there, but that it's influence is so powerful that it destroys everything in it's wake. Overall, i liked the book. I thought the main characters felt real and if you ever feel like you have a dead end job, this definitely will resonate with you tremendously. I also thought the ending was fun, in that there isn't a solid resolution and there's an insinuation that this will continue to happen, which is good. Overall, I thought it was good, but wasn't the best thing I have ever read.

Good Quotes:

“Life doesn’t care what you want, other people don’t care what you want. All that matters is what you do.”
“You're sure this isn't satanic?' Ruth Anne asked. 'It's a nondenominational séance," Trinity said.”
“people believed that architecture could be designed to generate a psychological effect.”

What Moves the Dead by T. Kinfisher

September 16, 2025

Genre:

Horror/ Historical (Cosmic/Environmental)

Pre-Read Thoughts:

I really love T. Kingfisher’s books. Plain and simple. She writes in a style that is simple to read but very evocative and also humorous at times that feels very human and like me. With this said, I was nervous going into What Moves the Dead, which is why it was my 4th book of hers I’ve read and not hesr 2nd or 3rd. Firstly, it being a retelling of Edgar Allan Poe’s The Fall of the House of Usher, made me nervous because I don’t typically like classics, both in their content or writing style, so I was hesitant. Secondly, It takes place in Europe toward the latter half of the American Civil War, which REALLY made me nervous and actually turned me off from the book when I first started reading because I so strongly prefer modern settings. With this said, T. Kingfisher surpassed my expectations yet again.

100 Word Summary

Alex Aston, a former soldier, is called to the house of Usher following a letter from Madeline Usher, the sister of his best friend and former fellow soldier Roderick Usher, stating that she is dying. Alex arrives to the dilapidated manor after meeting Eugenia Potter, a mycologist in the area on his path who warns him of the state of the family and home. Alex arrives and learns that Maddy’s condition is severe and strangely mirrors local hare’s that gather around the lake outside the manor… whom are able to move even with mortal wounds. Hilarity Ensues!

My review

So this book was fairly good, as I would hope considering this is seemingly T. Kingfisher’s highest rated horror novel on goodreads. At the time of writing this, it has ~3.9 stars, which I think is relatively fair. I saw a lot of people complaining about the pacing of the story, which is fair, as nothing particularly thrilling happens until almost half way through the book. With this said, the novel is incredibly short (~160 pages) and you are so quickly entranced by the nuances and strangeness of the setting that it moves rather fast in my opinion. My main issue with the book comes at the end, which tends to be a weak point in my experience for a lot of Kingfisher novels. There is so much buildup to this large realization and confrontation that you are incredibly excited to have this large climax of events, only to realize that you only have 20 pages left in the book MAX. Often in horror books, there is this clear built to a climax/ confrontation of a monster or evil, which then results in a substantial bulk of the book to escape the evil or defeat it. But here, they just (spoilers) close the door on the very much zombie-esque Maddy and burn down the home. You know reading the book that this is likely what the end result is going to be, since they drop so many clues about fire, and the strange behavior that Maddy is experiencing and Roderick’s insistence on staying with his family’s home, that this will be what happens, but for it to all happen over the course of like 15 pages was just a little anti climactic to me.

The grace that I will give Kingfisher is that in the Fall of the House of Usher, that’s basically what happens, it ends fairly abruptly and is meant to be more of a “holy shit that was strange and weird" and less of a “let’s see if they will survive this encounter/ they have to fight for their lives” sort of deal.

Overall, I thought that, despite my thoughts on the ending, T. Kingfisher did an amazing job with adapting the original work in a way that is both refreshing, and oddly modern for what it is. It is very clear in the novel that this is historical, which is never really questioned by the reader, but the ways the characters interact with each other feels very modern and human at times. I think it can often be hard to make realistic humans in historical fiction where authors are often tempted to make caricatures of what they think someone from that time period would be like, rather than real people with real motivations.

I give it a very solid 3.5 stars, though it could have been better if it were longer and the conflict more developed, but that’s just my preference. I would definitely recommend this book to others, but maybe not as their first Kingfisher novel (I would recommend The Twisted Ones if you’d like a good distilled taste of her style and themes, which I love)

Good Quotes:

“If we ran then we would have to admit there was something to run from. If we ran, then the small child that lives in every soldier's heart knew that the monsters could get us.”