Bloody Good Horror is a horror anthology from HellBound Books containing 35 short stories with no set theme. The people at HellBound Books were kind enough to send me a free copy for review.
Bloody Good Horror
The Bloody
I think the anthology is front-loaded with stories that are slightly too similar in theme. A big theme in a lot of the earlier stories is characters who are literally or metaphorically haunted by something. I feel like the problem is not so much that the stories are similar on a very surface level, but more that I was able to notice a recurring pattern. Changing the order of the stories would have probably helped out with that and made the “no theme, no limits” aspect of the anthology much stronger.
There are many stories here with bad dialogue, punctuation mistakes, and rough writing in general. Even some of the stories I ultimately enjoyed have this issue. I think this book really needed an extra editing pass to catch these various issues to make the writers’ work shine; I would have absolutely given this book a higher rating if it was a bit more polished.
The Good
I still found a good amount of the stories to be enjoyable, and I found some authors I want to keep an eye on and see more work from. I want to spotlight a couple of the stories I particularly liked.
“Remnants of Worship” is about a washed-up film critic and his search for a scary film that may not exist. I tend to be a big fan of mysteries, so I enjoyed the lead up where we’re following the breadcrumbs. The ending fell flat, but I liked the journey.
“To My Beloved Cynthia, from Tanya” is a letter from a woman to her former lover. I wasn’t feeling the epistolary style at first, but it grew on me. I really liked the various twists and turns it took. Also I just really like [subject matter I will not reveal because spoilers]. “Grandma” is about two homeless men who take shelter from a storm with a strange old woman who mistakes them for her grandsons. This story is just so silly. The bit with the gun is particularly ridiculous. It’s also a story featuring [subject matter I will not reveal because spoilers].
In “Public Displays of Affliction,” a man normally sees people as horribly wounded, but sometimes encounters people who look strangely healthy. It’s a neat concept and I really like the execution. The story feels refreshingly tight and the cliffhanger ending was good.
The Horror
I give this book 3 out of 5 cthulhus. There are some enjoyable stories in Bloody Good Horror, but there’s a fair bit of rough writing that could have used some extra polish. You can check it out on Amazon at the link below. Remember that we are an Amazon affiliate and if you buy anything from the links provided we will get some $ back.
(3 / 5)
“In the distance, she heard her husband in the backyard call for her , but she was not that woman anymore, that mother and wife. She was Nightbitch, and she was fucking amazing. It seemed she had been waiting for this for a very, very long time.”
-pg 89, Nightbitch by Rachel Yoder
Nightbitch is the debut novel of Rachel Yoder about a stay-at-home mother coming to terms with the loneliness and brutality of motherhood. The main character, only referred to as The Mother, begins to undergo a frightening change as she sinks deeper into a depressive state. She transforms into Nightbitch, an animalistic creature full of anger, bloodlust, and freedom. The Mother must utilize the help of a strange book and a group of multi-level marketing mommies to harness her newfound strength before she loses herself or her family.
The novel is a stunning commentary on the everyday violence of motherhood centered within the context of werewolf and mystical woman mythos. The Mother spends much of the book contemplating her future and the abandonment of her dreams. Specifically, she grapples with the loss of her ability to create art, her longtime passion. On a larger scale, Nightbitch examines how many women are asked to stop being individuals after having children and only become mothers–existing only in the presence of their child. The message is clear, poignant, dark, and at times, hilarious. The prose and structure of the book are abnormal, however, it works with the overall messaging and plot.
As far as negatives go, Nightbitch was pretty ambiguous. This was by design, and created an aura of magical mysticism around many of the characters and events. The Mother is the definition of an unreliable narrator. However, towards the end of the book, I would have liked a little more clarity in what certain characters knew.
Nightbitch is a must read for any parent. As a non-parent, I highly recommend it for those interested in feminist horror or more avant-garde approaches to horror narratives. Those who don’t like books with heavy introspection or ambiguous storytelling may enjoy something else, however I still think it is an interesting read nonetheless.
“Dread washed over me. Had she been sitting there, watching me sleep, the whole night? Her skin gleamed like candle wax in the light; then she grinned and whatever color her eyes had been before, now they turned red. In an instant, her skin transformed, dried and desiccated into leather, and her teeth grew long and needle sharp.”
-pg 214, The Hacienda by Isabel Cañas
My only minor criticisms would be the resolution was fairly quick and mostly offscreen. Though maybe I’m just saying that because I wanted to keep reading, even after the book ended! I also found myself slightly annoyed at the characters for not picking up on some of the more obvious clues to what had happened in the house.
A thoroughly enjoyable gothic (and dare I say, romantic) novel that kept me on the edge of my seat, I highly recommend The Hacienda. If you enjoy haunted house tales, you will enjoy this book.
Are their traditions innocent or are they darker than they seem?
The Plot
Harry, short for Harriet, is a British writer gaining popularity after the publishing of her first novel. She meets Edward, a member of the widely known Holbeck family, and the two strike up a relationship. The Holbecks are high powered executives, running family businesses that bring in massive amounts of wealth. When Harry learns she is pregnant, the couple decide that it is finally time for her to meet the family.
During her first meeting with the family, Edward’s father, Robert gives Harry a vintage tape that he says holds a story that he’d like her to listen to. As Harry listens to the tape, she begins to believe that the Holbecks have done some very bad things.
As she continues visiting the family, their strange traditions are revealed to her. The games that they play traditionally involve darkness and fear. Can Harriet find out the truth about the mysterious Holbecks?
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The Verdict
Catherine Steadman outdoes herself in The Family Game. She creates such a mysterious family in the Holbecks and their dynamics are intriguing. Readers will follow Harry as she tries to determine the truth about Robert’s misdoings. The cast of family characters are a wonder to watch. We’ve all always wondered what the extremely rich live like. Harry shows us their virtues and misdeeds.
The novel really remarks on the power of wealth and the wealthy’s ability to commit audacious crimes and pay for them to go away. Robert, as the patriarch of the family, is a prime example of such. As Harry begins to discover that Robert may be confessing to a series of murders on the cassette tape, she must decide how to proceed. She knows that the power that Robert holds cannot be taken lightly.
As Harry navigates potentially deadly Christmas traditions, she races for the truth, unable to forget once she finds it. Harry is such a compelling character – a developing mother willing to risk life and limb to protect her unborn baby. Harry is brave and unapologetic and is a true testament on how to write a female main character.
It was very difficult for me to decide between 4 and 5 Cthulus, so we will call it 4.5. This is a novel I highly recommend thriller lovers check out.
(4.5 / 5)
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