A spellbinding tale about two daring women who hunt for truth and justice in the perilous art of conjuring the dead.
1873. At an abandoned château on the outskirts of Paris, a dark séance is about to take place, led by acclaimed spiritualist Vaudeline D’Allaire. Known worldwide for her talent in conjuring the spirits of murder victims to ascertain the identities of the people who killed them, she is highly sought after by widows and investigators alike.
Lenna Wickes has come to Paris to find answers about her sister’s death, but to do so, she must embrace the unknown and overcome her own logic-driven bias against the occult. When Vaudeline is beckoned to England to solve a high-profile murder, Lenna accompanies her as an understudy. But as the women team up with the powerful men of London’s exclusive Séance Society to solve the mystery, they begin to suspect that they are not merely out to solve a crime, but perhaps entangled in one themselves…
Title & Author: What Feast at Night by T.Kingfisher Published by: Tor Publishing Group | Tor Nightfire Pub Date: Feb 13 2024 Genre: General Fiction (Adult) | Horror | LGBTQIAP+ Pages: 160 Date Read: Aug 22 2024 Rating: ★★★☆☆
Thank you Netgalley, author, and the publishers for allowing me the opportunity to read this book early.
I am a huge fan of T.Kingfisher and request her books the second I see them on Netgalley. This woman can write and writes well, and generally her novellas are everything I want in a story. They’re short, but the story isn’t lacking (generally). This one though suffers from a lot of fillers that I found annoying. The constant use of (), repeating of information, and there was not enough horror. Though when we are given the scary bits, they are terrifying. Sadly, though, the ending was very anticlimactic and not really scary at all. It wasn’t tense, and fell flat.
I loved this exploration into folklore. I think that I had heard of moroi before, but really didn’t know much about them and wouldn’t have minded if there were some real life accounts thrown into the story to act as proof of what was happening.
Alex, Angus and Miss Potter are amazing characters and I hope T.Kingfisher writes more featuring them.
Title & Author: Haunt Sweet Home by Sarah Pinsker Published by: Tor Publishing Group | Tordotcom Pub Date: Jan 28 2025 Genre: General Fiction (Adult) | Sci Fi & Fantasy Pages: 192 Date Read: 2024/08/03 Rating: ★★★★☆
I had started to read this book after failing to read Cherie Priest’s “The Family Plot”. This book delivered in all the right ways for a ghost story. I’m a huge fan of the “cozy horror” genre and really just want more books like this, maybe with a little more scare, just a pinch more though.
Title & Author: Diavola by Jennifer Marie Thorne Published by: Tor Nightfire Pub Date: March 26 2024 Genre: General Fiction (Adult) | Sci Fi & Fantasy Pages: 296 Date Read: 2024/08/16 Rating: ★☆☆☆☆
I skipped a few chapters and skimmed more, but I’m counting this book as read darn it because I had put so much time into reading it that I do not want the wasted effort. This book should have been considered finished by the 60% mark, that would have made it so, so much better. Don’t get me started on the ending. I had to read endless pages where Anna’s family just use her as a punching bag, why not remove some of that and flesh out the ending more? Oh man, I hated this book even though there were genuine parts that scared me.
Edited to add: Actually, I’m coming back to add that I’m so angry at this book, because it almost caused a reading slump.
Edited to add (again): jeez I probably should have thought this one out more. Anyways, I will say it is clear that Jennifer Marie Thorne can write. Up until the 60%ish mark I was hooked. Just got so dang boring.
Title & Author: At the Bottom of the Garden by Camilla Bruce Published by: Random House Publishing Group – Ballantine | Del Rey Pub Date: Jan 28 2025 Genre: General Fiction (Adult) | Sci Fi & Fantasy Pages: 384 Date Read: 2024/07/13 Rating: ★★★★☆
Thank you Netgalley, publishers, and author for giving me the chance to read this wonderful book.
I liked this story a lot. There was a bit of a “Practical Magic” vibe happening, but only if the story remained when they were children. Oh, and if you like a complicated, awful woman. I’m a little amazed with the author making me able to feel bad for Clara, our antagonist. No where does she come off as sympathetic and yet, when I read her childhood, I got a glimpse of why someone might turn out like that.
There were only two things that I think take away from the story; the pacing (which slows down in the middle), and the sisters voices. I got their character chapters mixed up a lot, because it was a bit difficult at times to distinguish from which viewpoint I was reading, they just both sounded the same (even though the chapters were named after them, it was just difficult).
I’m a little embarrassed by this, but I always thought the saying was, “If you thought (this), you have another thing coming.” I learned thanks to this book that it’s “think”…”If you thought (this), you have another think coming.” And it really does make way more sense. SMH
Title & Author: We Used to Live Here Marcus Kliewer Published by: Atria/Emily Bestler Books Pub Date: June 18, 2024 Genre: Fantasy Pages: 312 Date Read: 2024/07/04 Rating: ★★★★☆
I loved this book, though I found the pacing to be a little slow at times. Charlie by far is the star here. I loved her character the most, and the bond Eve and Charlie has for each other really shines through. I appreciated the fact that Charlie didn’t ever play down Eve. Sure, there were doubts, but she took Eve’s concerns fairly seriously.
This book scared me. While reading, I was half convinced I saw a withered woman out of the corner of my eye in the next room. There were points where I was scared enough that I had to put the book down.
The only thing I am upset with is the Morse code! No one is talking about it!!! And there is one bit that I can’t figure out, but no one is talking about it, so please people come to my comments and share what the code means and that bit at the end. WHAT IS THE NAME?
Title & Author: Bookshops & Bonedust by Travis Baldree
Published by: Tor Trade
Pub Date: November 7, 2023
Genre: Fantasy
Pages: 339
Date Read: 2024/05/19
Rating: ★★★☆☆
Spoiler-ish
The ending made me incredibly sad. I was going to read “Legends & Lattes”, but decided I would start with the sequel-prequel. Now that I know I will be leaving most of the characters behind, I have no interest in continuing (at least not for while), with the story-line.
Travis Baldree mentioned a mystery set in this world and I hope he goes back to the idea. I enjoyed the story and the coziness of it all. Just felt like Maylee deserved better.
Highlights
Chapter 16– Page: 115
“You know, there’s a lot of people out there. Lot of noise. I love what I do, love it every day, but none of us sees more than a tiny piece of all the world, like we’re lookin’ out a little-bitty window. And I saw you through mine, and somethin’ inside me said, ‘That’s somebody you oughta know.’ Simple as that.
-=-=-=-=-=-
Chapter 35– Page: 231
“Never trust a writer who doesn’t have too many books to read. Or a reader, for that matter,” said Zelia.
-=-=-=-=-=-
When Ruby rents a fully furnished apartment, she doesn’t expect it to come with the ghost of the previous tenant too. When her neighbor across the hall winds up dead, and the police dismiss it as a mugging gone wrong rather than a murder, she and her deceased roommate decide to investigate.
I got this book through Netgalley and requested it primarily because of the cover and I wanted a mystery. It’s a decent mystery that was fun to read. I liked the main characters of Cordelia (my favorite), and Ruby. Ruby I thought at times was annoying, but I can’t explain why exactly. I think it was because she was so outgoing? Example, who in their right mind is gonna go to the murder victim’s work and interrogate his coworkers? What company would even allow this woman to walk on in and conduct an investigation in their break room. This is probably where I should say that this begins what I disliked about the book. Why in the world would all of Jake’s (the dead guy) coworkers answer this woman? She isn’t the police, she has no power or authority. There’s a bit later on when one of Jake’s girlfriends turns up at Cordelia’s and Ruby’s apartment to answer questions. What?! Why? Why would she do that. I can suspend my disbelief for ghosts, but I can not envision a world where a woman who seems to be so full of herself would travel to the apartment of some unknown woman to answer questions to help further along Ruby’s investigation. It doesn’t make sense.
Also, this book has me wondering if everybody in Boston is obsessed with beer and drinking? Because I would have thought that no, of course not, but this book has every character (besides Ruby) asking for a beer. I’m surprised the author didn’t write in the bus driver as drinking on the job.
I also liked some of the explanation on the ghost mechanics, like why ghosts don’t want to actually come in contact with a living person. That’s a great idea, make it painful for the ghost too. However, I did not care for the whole “if I believe it to be true, it suddenly is”. Need to make a whole garbage bag disappear, just will it to be so! Yet Cordelia struggles with floating, but can walk through the walls, and sink through the ground. I get that ghosts have magical abilities in a folklore sense, making things appear and disappear. I just thought explaining it away with simply thinking it’s true makes it true was a bit lazy. Furthermore, I would rather have not had it explained. Along with maybe a whole garbage bag disappearing. There has to be rules to this, right? If you can cover it with your ghostly hands it disappears, if you can’t wrap your whole body around an object it’s going to be visible. It’s just the way it is. I have read, watched, and listened to ghost stories, I’m a paranormal expert, 😛 Just kidding. I have no idea. But that’s just what I found annoying.
Overall, I enjoyed reading it. I liked the story line. I loved Cordelia’s character and look forward to reading the next one in this series.
Thanks to the author, the publisher, and NetGalley for the review copy. All opinions are mine.
Title & Author: A New Lease on Death by Olivia Blacke
Published by: Minotaur Books
Pub Date: Oct 29 2024
Genre: Mystery & Thrillers
Pages: 336
Date Read: 2024/05/07
Rating:★★★☆☆
Tim Shelley / WCBU This architect’s concept drawing dates to 1895.
A little dive into the history of Peoria Public Library. Most of this comes from the book “Tomes of Terror“. I tried finding out more on the people themselves, but some of what is written in “Tomes of Terror” is just wrong and or I couldn’t find any information to support what was written. In those cases, I wrote out what I found and the source. Otherwise, take this story for what it is, a good legend.
Peoria Public Library doesn’t look like a place that is cursed, nor does it look to be haunted. Something that looks fairly modern, it’s hard to imagine a place so juxtaposed from one that is typically imagined when it is reported to have as many as thirteen ghosts in residence.
To start off our story, we go to the 1830s, when Andrew and Mary Stevenson Gray lived in a two-story home in Peoria, IL. Life was seemingly well for them until Mary’s brother died, and her nephew came to live with them. He brought with him grief and little else, for he tended to associate with criminals and be of no use as a drunkard. He spent a good deal of time in jail and accrued a lot of fines and fees for lawyers.
Eventually, the Gray’s were unable to pay the debts for their nephew and had used their mortgage as a means to pay their lawyer, David Davis (no wonder he turned out to be a crap lawyer with a name like that). And as this story goes on, Mr. Davis wanted his money and brought a lawsuit against them to foreclose on the mortgage.
Mary kicks her nephew out and when his body is found later floating in the Illinois River she curses the land with “thorns and thistles, ill luck, sickness and death to its every owner and occupant.” 1
The land gained a quick reputation for being haunted. Stories began that Mary’s nephew could be heard crying and begging at the front door. Caretaker’s for the property refused to work there. Because the public opinion was so against David Davis, he never actually lived there and the home abandoned. What a waste!
It’s unclear what or how Mary and Andrew spent the rest of their lives, however there is a legend that states that on the night the house caught fire, the local’s saw the ghost of Mary in the flames, dancing and laughing as the house burned.
Gov. Thomas Ford
The property then becomes the home of Gov. Thomas Ford, who was thought to already have been cursed prior to moving in.2 (Side note: dude went to Transylvania University… I’m being superficial here, but again, what a name.)3
Within quick succession he lost his wife to stomach cancer, then died a few weeks after. Mrs. Ford died of cancer of the stomach October 12th, 1850, aged 38 years; and the Governor, then removed to the residence of Mr. Andrew Gray, already in the last stages of consumption, breathed his last on Sunday, November the 3d of the same year… 4
According to “Tomes of Terror“, the property is then given to an ex-slave, Tom Lindsay. Lindsay had recently been freed by the Emancipation Proclamation, and the son of his ex-master purchased a portion of the property and allowed him to live there.5 However, he wasn’t a slave and bought property himself, though I can find nothing on what property he bought.6
The book “Tomes of Terror“, makes claims that Tom had a lot of issues living there, had to rebuild the home, and employing superstitious methods to live on the land peacefully. But again… the beginning of this section got it all wrong, so maybe there is no truth to this.
Next up “Tomes of Terror” claims that many more property owners and their children died, but without any names I again couldn’t look it up, so I’ll just add it here, cause it makes for a spooky story.
However, in the decades following Lindsay’s departure, several more residents of the property suffered a series of eerie fates. The first was a local businessman whose wife died tragically within the first year of the couple obtaining ownership of the property. The next was a banker whose wife died shortly after giving birth to a baby boy; the child died soon after. That same banker remarried and he and his new wife also had a boy. That boy, who suffered a bizarre affliction wherein he avoided warmth, was often found sleeping in the cold front hallway of the home in the depths of winter. He too, died. His mother’s grief and despair was so deep that she was sent off to Minneapolis in an attempt to recover her sanity. The next resident of the cursed site was a boarding room housekeeper whose son plunged to his death from a hot-air balloon, and whose daughter drowned in the nearby river.
After the property was purchased to use as a library, Fred J. Soldan was appointed as head librarian. He was taken ill after a ride to Washington and returned with other members of the Peoria Bicycle Club in late October 1891 and died of pneumonia on November 5th at age 39.7
E.S. Willcox was appointed next and twenty years later on April 6, 1915, died after being struck by a car.8
Patterson Prowse died of a heart attack in the library, 1921.9
Lastly in curious sudden deaths is Dr. Edwin Wiley. It is said he died in 1925 from ingesting arsenic, though that seems to be another legend.
Welcome to the series of Haunted Libraries (and Bookshops) Around the World. In which I will highlight a library (or bookshop) and its stories of ghostly apparitions, and maybe suggest a book along with it.
Moravian Book Shop is currently located in Bethlehem, PA and boasts the title of being the oldest and possibly first bookstore opened in America. I’ll spare you most of the history, but to say that the bookstore itself has changed its location and name many times. So this little ghost tale probably doesn’t have anything to do with the original owners.
The staff have felt like they were being watched in the basement and just generally don’t like being there1, but more spectacular was when the ghost led the store manager back to the kitchens, where she had discovered the stove was still on.
Jane Clugston, who sells children’s books and has been with the store for almost 30 years, can corroborate. She told me that one night, while closing the store with a fellow employee, she saw a dark figure in a back hallway of the store, going into the kitchen. She and the coworker followed the figure back. Then, she says she realized the back kitchen stove was on, as well as the fan.
“I don’t know why this person, ghost, spirit drew us back there, but I guess to turn off those appliances,” says Clugston. “I’d never thought of it until I told someone else and they said a ghost led you back there. But in that back hallway a lot of people have said that they’ve felt things and they’ve seen things.” It’s like something out of a book.2
Besides then general sightings of thinking there may be patrons waiting is a story of how another manager saw a woman sprinting from one room to the other and had assumed that she was a shoplifter. He went to go investigate and discovered that he was the only person to have seen her.1
And yet for one reason or another these volumes were banished to the silted depths of obscurity. But these books breathe. They hold thoughts, knowledge and humour otherwise long gone. Their stories – and to a degree, their authors – are alive upon opening them, undiminished by the violence of time.
The Madman’s Library: The Greatest Curiosities of Literature by Edward Brooke-Hitching
Title & Author: Bookshops & Bonedust by Travis Baldree
