Something Followed Us Home by Cynthia Pelayo. 4/5
Some of my favorite authors–and some new favorites–populate this great anthology of Latine horror stories. These show a diversity of traditions, folklore, and experiences from all over Latin America, ranging from the urban to the wild, the domestic to the national, and the light and humorous to the very dark and gory. Many touch on colonization, imperialism, and capitalism; “Her First Cruise Ship” by Ann Dávila Cardinal has to be an instant classic about those very things. I hope there will be a sequel to this, the way there’s been one for Never Whistle at Night for Indigenous horror.
Sunrise by Téa Obreht. 5/5
With her usual panache, Obreht gives us nested stories that ultimately come together in a single moment of horror–and escape from horror. This noel–containing an airplane crash survival story, the discovery of a ghost town, a story about the ghost town, and a story about someone else discovering the ghost town–is clever and beautifully constructed. If you find yourself asking, “where is this pulp-Western tale going?” I urge you to be patient: the reward is excellent, and if you’re like me, you’ll find the inner stories compelling and beguiling even if they’re not a genre you read a whole lot. Overall, a terrific novel. You could pair it with a number of novels by Joe Lansdale or even the recent hit Yesteryear in exploring themes, but it’s also a great read in the context of Obreht’s recent book The Morningside.
Exit, Miss Saigon by David Mura. 1/5
This is a huge, hot, toxic mess. I’ve read Mura’s other work, and this reads like a collection of everything editors might wisely have told him to leave out of those books. Much of the material is old and outdated and is presented with little updating or a clear reason for being included other than centering Mura as the hero of his own story, repeatedly. Mura comes across as a gender essentialist. A whole section is a collection of quotes and miscellaneous thoughts that go nowhere are are basically just mutterings. There’s a lot of anger and bragging–oh, the bragging, god, please, it made me cringe. Mura’s ego is massive, and he’s continually stroking it. But you know what made me cringe even more? The whole chapter at the end of relative penis sizes among Asians and other groups. I don’t know who that helps or how it will function for other readers–I don’t know how this book will help anyone other than the author, in fact–but, just: no. No.
Our Sister’s Keeper by Jasmine Holmes. 3/5
While there were, obviously, historical all-Black towns, this book feels like the author took Colson Whitehead’s version of the sterile Black town in The Underground Railroad and added some supernatural trappings without doing a lot of other work. In East Cobb, life is idyllic and residents have learned that their pain and trauma can be alleviated by women forced to work as emotional labor slaves. When a young (het; seems everyone is het in this world) couple arrives, the woman is singled out and pushed to conform, while her spouse’s once-strong feminism fades rapidly and he encourages her to give up her career. The themes are important: the way men and even other women seek to stifle women’s voices and push them into becoming human broodmares, the loss of bodily autonomy in exchange for protection from/by whites, and the way women manipulate one another for social power are all clearly presented, but there remain a lot of things readers will have to willingly suspend their disbelief for in order to find this a truly satisfying read.
Queerleaders by Olivia A. Cole; Ashley Woodfolk. 1/5
This was disappointingly meh. A coincidentally all-queer cheer team faces a discrimination complaint from a straight cheerleader, so the team captain recruits someone she thinks is straight, and oops, she’s actually bi, and she and the captain desperately want to get together but think they need to hide it to keep the discrimination complaint at bay. The primary threat the queerleaders faced–losing funding for national competition–never felt real, and the characters felt mostly interchangeable. Even the two narrators were so indistinguishable I’d have to go back to remember which one was which. The arcs with exes were weak and felt forced, and the accounts of the cheer routines lacked energy and suspense. It could have been so much better, and felt a little like it was rushed through development to capitalize on the popularity of Heated Rivalry and other queer sports stories.
Back for Blood: Never Whistle at Night Part II by Edited by Shane Hawk and Theodore C. Van Alst Jr. 4/5
A very worthy companion to the first volume, which introduced readers to new and established writers of Indigenous horror. There’s more gore, I think, in this one, and some of the stories are weaker (as to be expected in any anthology), but the vengeance theme is on full display throughout. The horror ranges from the psychological to the very realistic to the absolutely terrifying and over-the-top. But it’s all really good, and every story addresses intersectionality in a different and original way. My book group read the first volume together; I’ll be recommending this one to them as well.
Goldie Vance Book One by Hope Larson. 5/5
I love this cute and smart series about Goldie Vance, a teen with a passion for fast cars, her girlfriend, and solving mysteries at the hotel where she and her dad work. The setting is charming and diverse and beautifully-drawn, and the capers are well-paced and clever. Perfect for middle grades on up.
Witch Hat Atelier: Grimoire Edition 1 by Kamome Shirahama. 4/5
This is full of absolutely beautiful art, some typical manga tropes, and did I mention beautiful art? If you’ve watched the anime, the manga is even more detailed and lovely, so even if the story is a bit predictable and full of the reversals, forced relationships, and other elements of the genre, this is worth having. I’d love to see a hard copy, because I bet the production values are fabulous. As it is, the eARC I read was solid: it’s well-paced, has nice character development, is full of kawaii merch possibilities, and has loads of visual appeal.