“I really have discovered something at last. Through watching so much at night, when it changes so, I have finally found out. The front pattern does m“I really have discovered something at last. Through watching so much at night, when it changes so, I have finally found out. The front pattern does move - and no wonder! The woman behind shakes it! Sometimes I think there are a great many women behind, and sometimes only one, and she crawls around fast, and her crawling shakes it all over. Then in the very bright spots she keeps still, and in the very shady spots she just takes hold of the bars and shakes them hard. And she is all the time trying to climb through. But nobody could climb through that pattern - it strangles so..."
Why has it taken me so long to read this classic work of gothic flash-fiction?!
After giving birth to her baby, a young woman is locked away in a room by her husband ( a doctor) who believes she is suffering from "temporary nervous depression" (postpartum depression). The room is depressing and our unnamed narrator is lonely, with nothing but a sickly yellow wallpaper to entertain herself with. She's isolated for so long that she starts to see images in this wallpaper come to life in the moonlight, particularly an image of a woman she believes is trapped behind the dizzying patterns.
This story was not just about a descent into madness, but also a story of women's oppressive conditions and lack of agency in the patriarchal 19th century. I know I would lose my freaking mind if my husband "thought it best" to keep me locked up in a room for god knows how long (and without anything to read!!! Hello?!)
"I am not a place where nature can be weeded and tamed and kept in order. I am tree roots – and dark hollows – and ancient moss – and the cry of the o"I am not a place where nature can be weeded and tamed and kept in order. I am tree roots – and dark hollows – and ancient moss – and the cry of the owls. I am not a thing that you can shape, not anymore. I am no garden, but the woods, and if you ever come near me again, every but of wilderness in me will rise up to bite you. I will tear your throat out with my teeth."
This was very slow paced but pushing through was SO worth it. ...more
"Men have always been permitted in fiction and in life to simply be what they are, no matter how dark or terrifying that might be. But with a woman, w"Men have always been permitted in fiction and in life to simply be what they are, no matter how dark or terrifying that might be. But with a woman, we expect an answer, a reason."
A female protagonist who loves Billie Holiday and Halloween music instantly becomes a likable character for me. This book was vile, gory, raunchy, unhinged, and I loved it.
The story follows Maeve, a young woman who works as a theme park princess at "the happiest place on earth" *wink wink*. In her spare time she enjoys reading in sketchy bars, pleasuring herself while slandering strangers online, and she has a bit of a suppressed dark side that only her bedridden ill grandmother sees and understands. When Maeve's best friend's hot brother Gideon moves to town, he awakens something hungry and monstrous within her.
A large chunk of the book is author C.J. Leede letting readers get to know Maeve, her desires, her sadness, her anger, her love for Halloween and her contentment with working at a theme park. But then as the book progresses, we're teased with some dark circumstances that eventually escalate to downright violent and graphic displays of pure horror. Maeve is a complex character, a delightfully lecherous woman whom I personally found compelling because as she herself points out in the story, why must only women have a reason for their depravity?
This book might not be for everyone but it was certainly for me. If you enjoy very flawed female protagonists, American Psycho, feminine rage, a bit of dark romance, erotica, and unhinged violence...you might want to pick up this book!...more
This was my first book by Ashley Winstead and now I'm eager to read her last book In My Dreams I Hold a Knife! The minute I read the All. The. Stars!
This was my first book by Ashley Winstead and now I'm eager to read her last book In My Dreams I Hold a Knife! The minute I read the summary and realized the premise involved taking down a patriarchal cult, I was all in. Suspenseful, harrowing, and unputdownable.
**TRIGGER WARNINGS: misogyny, sexual violence, physical abuse, mental abuse...more
“The truth is that sometimes, options are just doors meant to give the illusion of choice. Have you ever tried to open those doors?”
If you are someone“The truth is that sometimes, options are just doors meant to give the illusion of choice. Have you ever tried to open those doors?”
If you are someone who loves one-sitting reads, strong, sorrowful prose, feminist narratives, and dark fairytales, author K.P. Kulski’s House of Pungsu is a novella you may want on your reading list.
A mother, daughter, and grandmother find themselves trapped in an empty Joseon-era palace with no concept of time. Where are all the people? Why does the palace not crumble and decay? The daughter is troubled with strange dreams and is curious about what is hidden behind locked doors, the mother is constantly keeping those doors locked at night, and the grandmother seems to keep herself locked behind a door of her own.
There is also a story within this story in the form of a retelling of the Korean folktale “The Tiger’s Whisker”---which I took the liberty of reading for a comparison and I will definitely say, K.P. Kulski’s ending to this tale is much more cathartic than the original.
There is lots of mystery and beautiful, lyrical writing throughout this story of women’s aches and women's power. Every page is atmospheric and laced with Korean folklore. If this sounds like your cup of tea, you'll devour House of Pungsu!...more
Let me start by saying there's a good chance many will not feel this book is for them for the same reasons I assumed it wouldn't be for me. It's slow-Let me start by saying there's a good chance many will not feel this book is for them for the same reasons I assumed it wouldn't be for me. It's slow-simmering, psychological horror with a writing style that many might label as "pretentious". But that's okay. To each their own. If you are that person, skip this book.
But if you are a reader who loves their horror novels to unnerve them while simultaneously having the senses bombarded with symbolic imagery and writing that is both beautiful and vicious: this might be for you.
JAWBONE follows a clique of wealthy, bored, teenage girls who spend a lot of their free time after school hanging out in an abandoned building, telling each other scary stories and testing the group's durability with dangerous dares—jumping from high places, punching each other in the stomach, strangling one another until unconscious--ya know, normal teen girl stuff. The leader of this clique is Annelise and she is a fearsome creature to behold. A lover of cosmic horror and “creepypastas”, Annelise invents what she calls the White God—"white" representing an unsoiled canvas, the possibility of corruption, a fathomless fear— and she gets her friends to “play along” in her strange rituals of worship (again…just your everyday teen girl stuff). There is also another story happening with Annelise’s best friend Fernanda, who has been kidnapped and being held captive by their literature teacher, Miss Clara.
I loved this book, and was surprised when I realized this fact because horror with this sort of writing style--lyrical with very little dialogue--is rarely my cup of tea. I tend to space out or get lost. Shockingly that wasn’t the case with JAWBONE. I was unsettled the entire time, questioning the sanity and reliability of each character’s perspective, and found myself wondering if Annelise’s imagination could have power not only over her friends, but the readers as well. I was fully intrigued by this anti-heroine who is manipulative and intelligent and terrifying. Author Monica Ojeda weaves a very raw, dark tapestry of themes: female sexuality, girlhood, mother/daughter relationships, religion, purity, and adolescence. Seeing as this book was translated from Spanish to English, I truly hope Ojeda’s other works of horror make it to the States so I can read more. She has gained a new fan!...more
WOMAN, EATING by Claire Kohda is a story of a young woman who’s half Japanese, half vampire and it not only met a lot of my expectations, but also madWOMAN, EATING by Claire Kohda is a story of a young woman who’s half Japanese, half vampire and it not only met a lot of my expectations, but also made me really hungry!
Lydia is making her way in the world for the first time without her vampire mother who’s been put in a home. She’s twenty-three, an art school graduate, new to London, and always hungry. She’s used to a strict diet of pig’s blood, having never once sunk her teeth into human flesh and unable to digest human foods. She wishes she could eat the foods her father used to eat—sushi, ramen, sashimi. In fact, one of the things she loves about fully human people is how their food makes up a part of who they are. And so when she’s not binge-watching episodes of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, she’s hours deep into YouTube videos of people eating food. She wonders if being a vampire inherently makes her a bad person and there’s a cute boy she likes but also wants to eat. Basically she’s got it rough in spite of her immortality and eternal youth.
I picked up this book hoping Lydia would be predatory and vicious (because I love my bloodshed) but instead, she’s awkward, yearning, lonely, insightful, and sweet. I just wanted to hug her. This is a book about a young woman’s desire and appetite, about race and self-love, about wanting to belong while feeling stuck in the middle.
Pick this one up if you’re looking for books that give an appreciation for food and art, or if you’re on the search for paranormal fiction centering a mixed-race vampire written by an Asian author!...more
Nina The Wandering Reader
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