When the World Can't Leave Women the Hell Alone - Three Reviews

As someone who loves to write, read, and review, I sure get overwhelmed by it sometimes.

I frequently struggle with harnessing the energy to write reviews, due to pesky undiagnosed ADHD/Autism and my age-old friend, depression. The hardest part of all of it is the feeling of falling behind. Being a fairly quick reader, the books that I want to review will pile up and then I’m scrambling to bring all of said thoughts together and suddenly I’m overwhelmed by executive functioning.

Funnily enough, people seem to get my most unfiltered thoughts on books by mouth, right after I’ve finished what I was reading.

What remains fun, however, is when my reading seems to line up in thematic way, and I can combine reviews due to a narrative thread that appears to tie books together. I’m not sure I’d call it the most helpful way of battling distractions, but it’s the way I have right now, dammit!

Pictured are three novellas I’ve recently had the pleasure of reading. Conjuring the Witch is a title I’ve been trying to get to since its release in May, and thanks to the audiobook becoming available on my Hoopla app, I took the opportunity and dug in. Candy Cain Kills is the second title in Shortwave Publication’s newest “Killer VHS” series, which features new takes on the horror genres of yore. Brian McAuley, one of contemporary horror’s sweetest men, delivers a deliciously unhinged take on slasher films, with a Christmas twist. And lastly, Bloom is the most recent release from Delilah S. Dawson, and this was my first time reading her work. Let us take a look at each one below:

Conjuring the Witch by Jessica Leonard - Upon finishing this audiobook, I very much want to find Leonard’s previous work Antioch. This newest novella is a dark, slowly paced story of a deeply religious town terrified of the witches that supposedly reside in their woods, as well as how fear often conjures what we feed that energy into. One of the women within this community is beginning to feel at odds with her faith, seeking a more involved role in the church. However, it’s not so much how the men react to her as how they don’t react, merely shrugging off her wishes. Being that this particular parish is overwhelmingly patriarchal, the rebuff doesn’t go over all too well, and her ensuing ambition begins to be read as witchly influences.

The novella pays homage to its folk horror forebears, calling to mind images of Robert Eggers’ The Witch, or the insular community of Shyamalan’s The Village. While these elements are present, how Leonard executes her central theme is drastically different. Female empowerment is very much at play throughout the narrative, but it’s the central, rotting core that’s reserved for her delicious commentary regarding how men, especially extremist white men, will do anything to stay in power.

Though it takes its time in showing its hand, the third act of Conjuring the Witch is propulsive and fantastic. For fans of all things witchy, this is the perfect read. Especially during this season!

Candy Cain Kills by Brian McAuley - Earlier this summer, I gushed about McAuley’s debut novel, Don’t Fear the Reaper, which gleefully expounds upon concepts explored in Nightmare on Elm Street 2 and Wes Craven’s New Nightmare, respectfully (still can’t wait to talk these movies on a podcast with you someday, Brian!!!).

Yet, it’s within his novella follow-up, Candy Cain Kills, where McAuley delivers an entirely new voice. Being that his specialty is film and screenwriting, its no surprise that his grasp on slasher conventions colors much of this stories subversive fun. What continues to define his brand of slasher is the heart at the center of it all, extending to narrative revelations involving the killer as well.

Slasher’s typically shy away from making us feel strongly for much of the supporting players, but McAuley’s gift lies within his nuance, introducing a family on the brink of marital and emotional collapse that you genuinely root for throughout the high-octane runtime. Candy Cain herself is far more complex than we could ever imagine, and I would love to see her back in the future.

All in all, Candy Cain Kills is a brutal, heartfelt homage to Christmas slasher films that any film or fiction fan will adore. And it comes out in November, so just in time for the holidays!

Massive thanks, as always, to Brian and Shortwave for providing me with my eArc!

Bloom by Delilah S. Dawson - Another Arc that tragically got away from me until release day, I finally cracked into this novella last week about queer romance that takes a dark turn. While this may feel like well tread territory by some, the compelling themes of obsession, as well as those initial days when you’re first realizing your queerness and focusing on a person you believe may be your salvation, are eerily prevalent.

When Ro meets Ash, she never expects to fall head over heels for this charming, yet mysterious woman whose cottagecore veneer masks a troubled past and present. Over the course of the novella, the two experience a burgeoning romance, but Ro’s growing obsessions, and curiosity, lead her to corners of the psyche she should never have seen.

For many who know me, I’m a big softie. While I don’t enjoy dark, unhappy endings, I respect the hell out of them, so I don’t view the dark nature of this story as a hinderance in the slightest. I greatly loved this fairytale turned nightmare in major ways. Bloom is one of the rare times I’ve seen open discussion of love/attraction shown to larger/fat bodies. Probably the only other time I’ve seen this in a recent novel, let alone horror, was Gretchen Felker-Martin’s Manhunt, as well as the Diet Riot anthology from Nico Bell.

It’s an experience not often represented in fiction, let alone positively, so even brief mentions in this story were a needed breath of fresh air. If you enjoy your romances on the darker side, this is a quick and devious read that will get your blood pumping in more ways than one.

I’m not saying anything revolutionary when I say that trauma is difficult to contend with, especially in our current structures and systems, especially for anyone who is not a cisgender heterosexual white man. These books feature women who are acting against or contending with their traumas in various ways, while also dealing with the constant bullshit of patriarchy, puritanism, generational trauma, god, they deal with so much bullshit.

I’m not here to dole out spoilers, so I highly recommend reading these. if you want a dark, hell-yeah-women narrative about overcoming religious-based domination, Conjuring the Witch shows you just how much men ultimately create their own downfalls. If you love slasher films and are looking for some rich complexity and character building mixed in, Candy Cain Kills is a damn good time that will make you feel so much for the trauma of the titular killer. Do you sometimes wish your romantic comedies got a little darker from time to time? Ohhhhh boy, Bloom is a wild and nuanced ride that shows you how far love and obsession can make us go.

Fiction, and writing as a whole, continues to be a medium where we can best work through that which hurts and heals us. Whether that be religious trauma, systemic oppression, or generational trauma that will ultimately effect your relationships for all time, we use fiction to make sense of that which refuses to make sense of us. Add these three excellent distillations to your upcoming spooky reading.