Review Roundup: Six Reviews for the Price of One! feat. Ally Wilkes, Gemma Amor, Sarah Read, Hadassah Shiradski, and Steph Nelson

Neurodivergence is hard. Where hyperfocus has been a godsend when it comes to reading lots of books semi-quickly, it often conflicts with writing, so then there’s a ton of books I’ve read and haven’t reviewed and I start to feel overwhelmed.

In an effort to be nicer to myself, I decided to do what I used to on Instagram and bundle several reviews into one post. Especially since on here I don’t have a word limit.

So, for the sake of brevity, here are some really cool books I’ve read recently!

Where the Dead Wait by Ally Wilkes

Coming in just about a week (insane), Ally Wilkes returns to the arctic for some chilly horror. I was a massive fan of her previous novel, All the White Spaces which stands as one of the few novels written by a cis person that I will say nails its trans representation. Not many of you can achieve that.

While it’s hard to hear “arctic horror” and not immediately compare it to The Thing or Who Goes There?, Wilkes utilizes these influences to turn the genre in on itself, leading to a far more introspective read. This is replicated sevenfold in Where the Dead Wait, which takes aim at colonial expeditions to the arctic, as well as the themes of cannibalism that often surround them.

I specify the expeditions as colonial because part of what makes this book so great is the way it challenges the ideas/theories of the fiction of this time in history. I brought up the extreme racism of many early expedition horror stories in my piece discussing Mike Flanagan’s Fall of the House of Usher, highlighting the theory that because the North is so cold there must be highly evolved, perfectly white super-humans who prove the supremacy of the white race. This was believed by many of the early supernatural horror squad including Poe, Lovecraft, Machen, and just about anyone who was super racist or xenophobic at that time.

Wilkes uses these ludicrous theories as a way of highlighting the immense arrogance and hubris of many of the men from this time, vying only for power and manifest. It lends a heavier weight to the particularly grounded revelations of its ending, which I personally was not expecting but gosh darn appreciated witnessing.

The queerness of this novel is not as apparent as All the White Spaces, which is in no way a criticism. William Day’s feelings toward his prior ship-mate is consistently hinted at throughout the novel but is approached in the strict homophobic voices of its time period. It sets up some nuanced and subtle depictions of troubling co-dependent relationships that occasionally stem from shared, horrific trauma, as well as the seeming easy charisma of those who seek to control other for their own gain.

Where the Dead Wait is a marvelous return to the snowy terrors of the arctic, while also incorporating more of Wilkes’s signature wit and subversion. While perhaps not as pulse-pounding as its predecessor, it sure as hell makes up for in creeping, uneasy fear.

The Folly & Christmas At Wheeldale Inn by Gemma Amor

It only took me about five or six years to finally read some freaking Gemma Amor! I originally came across this acclaimed Brit through the NoSleep Podcast, where she was a frequent contributor of stories, many of which were my faves. I remember when the announcement for Cruel Works of Nature played before an episode, for crying out loud!

Anyway, fast forward to now. I was gifted copies of her recent novella, Christmas At Wheeldale Inn (thank you, Cemetery Gates!), and upcoming novel The Folly (thank you, Gemma!!). Both are fantastic in their own rights and for similar reasons. Let’s get into it.

The Folly is a fast-paced tale of a middle-aged daughter who finally proves her father’s innocence surrounding the strange and sudden death of her mother. Being that his release comes during the early days of the global panini, the duo take residence watching over a seaside property that has seen several tragedies, but will give them time and space to heal and grieve. Well, at least that is the case until a stranger shows up who is acting exactly like her late mother and speaking in her exact voice, alluding to secrets that her father has been hiding.

The rest, as you can imagine, goes drastically downhill from there. When I finally had time to sit down and devote my attention to this book, I tore through it faster than tissue paper. Amor creates a compelling dynamic between husband and daughter and steadily picks at the threads that keep them together until the wild final rug-pull of its climax. This is a story of redemption, revenge, grief, hope, and isolation that feels like one of the better examples of how to integrate the trauma of the pandemic into fiction. If you really loved Robert Eggers’s The Lighthouse, then you will greatly appreciate what this novel has to offer.

Wheeldale Inn is drastically different, at least plot and time-wise. This taut little story takes place in the horse and buggy days, following a couple who make the word “dysfunctional” sound tame. The husband is on the run from debtors and they are set for his aunts home to beg for her mercy. When an accident derails the travelers and strands said couple, they find themselves taking refuge in a nearby inn. However, it would appear that the innkeeper is carrying out a funeral for his wife as the couple arrive.

This is an excellent Dickensian horror with Amor’s modern sensibilities applied. Morality is muddy, the horrors are far more social than corporeal, and the twists deliver that sort of faint chill you experience when face-to-face with the uncanny. If you happen to be looking for a fun, quick, and creepy tale for this holiday season, Christmas At Wheeldale Inn delivers.

The Bone Weaver’s Orchard by Sarah Read

I listened to this one, at the recommendation of Sadie Hartmann in her 101 Books to Read Before You’re Murdered, which listed this book amongst many. Another quick novella, this story follows young Charlie who is sent to a small private boys school while his father fights in skirmishes. Charlie is a rather quiet and sensitive sort who loves bug collecting, which often gets him in trouble with the other boys and the overly strict headmaster.

When his only friend at the school goes missing following an injury, Charlie attempts to solve the strange happenings at the school, which involve a cloaked figure who steals things from their rooms. Bone Weaver’s Orchard is all about that sweet atmosphere, baby. Ratcheting up the unease up by degrees before taking it’s gruesome shot.

It sets the stage for a dark horror mystery commenting on the secrets we sometimes unearth when inspecting class struggle in historic Britain, ESPECIALLY poorer classes. A very quick read with all the tension you could want in a book with this title.

What Happened at Hawthorne House by Hadassah Shiradski

I’m quickly realizing that all of the books I’ve mentioned so far have been British authors and this was not intentional at all. Oh well.

I’ve been wanting to read this one for a minute. Hadassah is a very kind and supportive soul and the cover of this book alone hooked me in. Boy, this one is DARK. In a similar vein to Such Small Hands by Andres Barba, this takes place in an orphanage, surrounding the sadistic game of monarchy played by the girls inside.

In the interest of not giving away the entire novella, I will cease summarizing there and simply say I was in no way prepared for any of this story. It perfectly outlines the cruelty and isolation that can sometimes stem from children who are traumatized and searching for any form of connection, or control, and how that sometimes leads to devious ends. Its narrative bait-and-switch only darkens the tale further, showing how much control some characters held more than others, providing a series of twists that will chill the bones long after the last lines.

As with the other novellas I’ve mentioned, this is a fast and facetious read. Perfect for a reader who loves evil children.

Sawtooth by Steph Nelson

Ah-Ha!! Here we go, an American author! I honestly don’t know why I created this bit. It’s mostly borne from exhaustion. MOVING ON.

I reviewed Steph’s debut novel, The Vein, just a few months ago. It was a part of a marathon read I did surrounding three of the way-better-than-they-had-the-right-to-be Fall novels releasing from Dark Matter INK. The Vein is a horror that is epic in scope, and heart-wrenching in execution. And I love it.

Authors I love have a habit of releasing quite a few things this year, and Steph is no exception as she announced mere months ago a forthcoming novella called Sawtooth through Cemetery Gates Media. Since I have no control I asked for an ARC immediately and added it to the sea that has been drowning me. I SUFFER FOR WHAT I LOVE.

Sawtooth focuses on a grieving woman whose wife recently passed from early-onset Alzheimer’s. Wanting to carry out her partner’s final wish, she hikes into the mountains to spread her ashes, but quickly finds herself stalked by a mysterious creature in the process.

What I believed would be a fun creature/human showdown turned into something completely shocking. This novella is an excellent case of an honestly insufferable lead that flips your expectations of what is going on. Where you think the horror lies solely in the creature stalking our protagonist, it’s actually the protagonist itself.

Now, I say all of this, and it’s not quite that simple…there are complexities to our protagonist, but her ultimate actions and the ways we find she treated her wife’s sickness and final wishes with her health are ROUGH. Nelson succeeded in presenting a character you do not want to root for, and its final stinger of an ending will leave you floored. It lead to a rather healthy rant session between Steph and myself online.

If unlikeable characters aren’t really your thing, that’s okay, you may not gravitate towards this one. What it does say about love and selfishness and sickness is powerful, but it’s also within these themes that it reveals its brambly darkness. If all of this sounds like a recipe for an enjoyable weekend read, then you gosh darn go for it.

So there you have it, folks. Six recent reads/listens that I greatly enjoyed. I’m still working on some standalone reviews for some big titles I love, so stay tuned! I hope you give one of these books a whirl, they’re an excellent time!