The crossover of Dark Fantasy & Horror is probably one of my favorite combinations.
Starling House, Alix E. Harrow
Eden, Kentucky, is just another dying, bad-luck town, known only for the legend of E. Starling, the reclusive nineteenth-century author and illustrator who wrote The Underland–and disappeared. Before she vanished, Starling House appeared. But everyone agrees that it’s best to let the uncanny house―and its last lonely heir, Arthur Starling―go to rot. Opal knows better than to mess with haunted houses or brooding men, but an unexpected job offer might be a chance to get her brother out of Eden.
A dark and broody tale with delicious gothic vibes, Starling House is the perfect Fall read. Going in, I expected a house haunted by secrets. I had no idea just how sinister those secrets were going to be. I really loved these characters and I hope the author chooses to revisit them at some point.
House of Hollow, Krystal Sutherland
Iris has spent most of her teenage years trying to avoid the weirdness that sticks to her like tar. But when her eldest sister, Grey, goes missing under suspicious circumstances, Iris learns just how weird her life can get: horned men start shadowing her, a corpse falls out of her sister’s ceiling, and ugly, impossible memories start to twist their way to the forefront of her mind. The closer Iris gets to the truth, the closer she comes to understanding that the answer is dark and dangerous – and that Grey has been keeping a terrible secret from her for years.
House of Hollows was not at all what I was expecting. There are sections of it that are so utterly strange, bizarre, and icky that you won’t be able to understand why you also feel so compelled to keep turning the pages. Like the layers of an onion, this story unravels it self slowly but eventually it all comes crashing down in a climatic ending.
Book of Accidents, Chuck Wendig
Long ago, Nathan lived in a house in the country with his abusive father—and has never told his family what happened there. Long ago, Maddie was a little girl making dolls in her bedroom when she saw something she shouldn’t have—and is trying to remember that lost trauma by making haunting sculptures. Long ago, something sinister, something hungry, walked in the tunnels and the mountains and the coal mines of their hometown in rural Pennsylvania. Now, Nate and Maddie Graves are married, and they have moved back to their hometown with their son, Oliver. And now what happened long ago is happening again . . . and it is happening to Oliver.
This book blew my mind. It’s one of those novels that I will forever be wishing I could read again for the first time. It’s a chunkster of a book and every page packs a punch with elements of horror, sci-fi and mystery. Unlike anything I’ve read before, I loved it!
These books all weave tales of intrigue and fear while also managing to make us question what it really means to care about another person. Have you read a book like this and would you recommend it?
One comment
I love the book cover for House of Hollows! And Starling House was so good!