… and we’re back with more chills, thrills, and terrifying hauntings. My e-reader thanks you for lightening its load, the publishers and publicists who have sent me ARCs thank you for getting my ass in gear (as does my personal TBR which has been glaring at me for the proportion of bank account consumed vs. time spent consuming), and I thank you because I have read some really fantastic and varied stuff this week. Away we go…

The Lighthouse Witches by CJ Cooke (Berkley, October 5th)

I usually avoid horror that involves small children. It didn’t used to be a Thing, however, since I got pregnant with my first, that particular sub-genre is a little too real for me, no matter how eldritch and fantastical the plot. That said, I did absolutely fine with The Lighthouse Witches; unfortunately, I can’t tell you why since it would ruin the novel’s absolutely mind-blowing twist.

I can tell you that the book ticked all of my horror boxes: isolated island off the Scottish coast, witches, magic, mystery, crumbling buildings, conspiracies, folklore… There are authors for whom it can be dangerous to try to pack all of that into 300+ pages but Cooke juggles with aplomb and definitely knows how to build and sustain suspense so that when the hammer does come down the reader is genuinely terrified.

Put this one on your spooky season list, fellow ghouls. You will not be disappointed. I’m definitely going to be reading it again next time I go to Cape Cod in the off season – not Scotland, I know but definitely the same sort of winter in a deserted resort town vibe.

Black Water Sister by Zen Cho (Ace)

Is Zen Cho’s latest book horror? I think the fact the main character is possessed by the spirit of her dead grandmother and an angry goddess who want to use her to avenge generations old crimes qualifies it as such. But it’s also many, many other things. It’s a story about accepting all of who you are. About learning that your parents are people too and that most of them did the best they could or, at least what they thought was best. That most people are fundamentally good and do bad things but there are people who are fundamentally evil and do good things.

That your life is yours but also, it’s not.

Jess is one of so many who feel they don’t fit. Is she right? Is she wrong? It doesn’t matter, because that’s the way she feels. Someone recently described trauma to me as, “the effect of the event rather than the event itself.” If that’s true, then it doesn’t matter whether Jess is Malaysian or American or gay or straight or a medium or alone in her head. What matters is the way she feels about each of those things, the way each of them has affect her, leave a mark on her life and her psyche and, for lack of a better term, her soul. That’s the real story that Cho tells in Black Water Sister, or at least the one I read, and as someone who’s struggling with that is many, many ways right now, while I wouldn’t wish it on anyone else, suddenly I don’t feel so alone.

Summer Sons by Lee Mandelo (TorDotCom, September 28)

What do you do when your other half’s ghost curses you and then goes off and dies, leaving you with his fortune, a murder to solve, and a very possessive, hungry version of his ghost?

Go back to where it all started and pretend you’re going to get a masters in Appalachian folklore until the culprit reveals themself. Sort of.

Summer Sons is creepy and gothic and angry and bloody and I loved it. I love the way it juxtaposed new and old and forced what was to answer to what is, literally beating the dirty laundry into submission. Forcing those who think they have the right to everything they want because they fit a certain mold to realize time has passed them by and using a haunting that should be on their side to do it. Not going to lie: as a Jewish member of the alphabet mafia? Hella satisfying.

The book is also extremely queer in ways I wasn’t expecting but appreciated from my “make it queer but also, let people do other things,” soap box.

You should for sure read it. Probably clear your calendar for the day.

Next week: Comics Catch-Up!