Empire of Wild

author: Cherie Dimaline

I read Empire of Wild and I am so not ok but in…a good way? This #OwnVoices novel about a woman who tries to save her husband from a supernatural threat is the horror novel you need for Halloween. It’s a quick read but rich in language and detail, right down to a grandmother keeping her magic supplies on top of her fridge in one of those blue tins that cookies come in.

Joan is part of a Métis community in Georgian Bay, Canada. She has been searching for her missing husband, Victor, for almost a year. When she stumbles into a revival tent, she meets a preacher who looks just like Victor but claims to be someone else. As Joan tries to solve the mystery she realizes that there is more to this than a case of missing identity. The ensuring story is a short, sharp jolt of colonialism, corporate exploitation, lost souls, and ancient evil pitted against Jean, her twelve-year-old nephew, and a tiny, tough old lady named Aljean.

This is NOT a romance novel. This is horror. MAJOR TW for a scene of explicit animal abuse and for the sexual exploitation of women. However, many of our readers will enjoy the feminist and intersectional focus of this book and its examination of life in a modern indigneous community. Although it is not a romance novel, the relationship between Jean and Victor is a beautiful love story and every good thing that happens, happens because people love each other fiercely and with utter loyalty.

Romance readers care a lot about endings so while I won’t reveal the ending even in a spoiler I will say that:

I readers who enjoy works intersectional and feminist horror like the movie Get Out, The Only Good Indians by Stephen Graham Jones, and The Return by Rachel Harrison will find this book to be exciting, scary, and exquisitely written, with the kinds of detail that bring you intimately into characters’ lives. Don’t read it before a walk in the woods, and do read it with the lights on, the door locked, and your eyes on the people you love.

– Carrie S

Horror, Mystery/Thriller

Eventide

author: Sarah Goodman

Eventide is an atmospheric story with an unusual setting and plot complications that I did not see coming. This book is simply but descriptively written and the hinted supernatural element is suitably creepy, but the plot doesn’t quite hang together and some threads are resolved too easily.

I’m getting cranky about books that promise me a haunt and end up pulling a Scooby Doo instead, so here’s a quick spoiler as to whether the book actually has supernatural elements or not:

Verity and Lilah come to Wheeler, Arkansas from New York City in 1907 on an orphan train. Their mother is dead and their father, a doctor, has been institutionalized due to mental illness. The girls are quickly placed with different families – Verity with farmers and Lilah with the town teacher, Miss Maeve. Both households are kind and allow visits between the sisters, and Verity becomes attracted to her fellow farmhand, Abel. However, the woods surrounding the town and fields are menacing and forbidden, and strange phenomena occur near the well in the woods. The ensuing story is essentially a historical supernatural mystery with elements of thriller and romance, and several surprising twists.

Verity has a strong voice and is a fun character – her flaws are consistent and understandable and her virtues (a willingness to admit when she’s wrong, and dogged determination) are commendable. Verity is determined and stubborn and there’s something satisfying about seeing her get her teeth into an idea (metaphorically speaking) and chew away at it until she’s proved wrong or right.

Verity’s romance with Abel is not the focus of the story, which is much more about Verity’s attempts to provide for her sister even when that might mean letting her go. It’s an emotionally rich story with a lot of internal conflict even before the supernatural intrudes, with ideas about family, home, ambition, and responsibility colliding for both Verity and Abel.

I found this book to be engrossing if not wholly believable. It strains credibility while also being mysterious and exciting. I enjoyed the use of the orphan train as a device since that’s a part of history that I’m interested in and that doesn’t get much attention. I especially enjoyed the different expectations of the families and the fact that Verity’s new family subverted my expectations by being matter-of-fact but also kind and patient (not all orphan train children were so fortunate). There’s a real sense of work and of place and great delight when New Yorker Verity drops her first “Y’all,” followed quickly by a well-timed and well-utilized, “Bless your heart.” Verity has many flaws (her very first response to being told not to go into the woods is to go into the woods) but her love for her sister is powerful and moving.

Readers should be prepared for an ending which is, romantically and otherwise, sort of happy? Sort of not? I’d say that the resolution of the book will leave some readers mostly content and others completely horrified. It’s quite a whammy. Even though this book does not hold up to strenuous questioning, I was entertained by it and at times genuinely creeped out. This is a good Halloween read which will entertain without being too taxing or traumatizing, which is exactly what I like.

– Carrie S

Gothic, Historical: American, Science Fiction/Fantasy, Young Adult

Poppy Redfern and the Fatal Flyers

author: Tessa Arlen

I reviewed the first book in this series, Poppy Redfern and the Midnight Murders, and when I received an email from the book’s publicist that book two was available, I leaped on it. While there were some elements about the first book that were present in the sequel and just as annoying as they were the first time, I really enjoyed visiting Poppy again. Tagging along as she and her merry band of mammals (her dog, Bess), humans (her she’s-not-sure-what-the-status-is companion, Griff) and imaginary characters (the heroine of her novel in progress) was as absorbing as it was in the first book.

Poppy now works for the London Crown Film Unit as a script writer, and her first assignment is to travel to an airfield to profile the female civilian pilots of the Air Transport Auxiliary. Known as the “Attagirls,” these were real trained pilots who, because they were women, were ineligible to enlist, but were desperately needed to fly planes from factories out to airfields during the war.

The mix of history, setting, and character is the best part of this series. Poppy is as clever and indomitable as ever, whether she’s pinching her remaining coins to try to place expensive phone calls back to the main office of the Film Unit or to Griff, or trying to make her very limited travel budget stretch to cover her room and meals. The Attagirls are all individual characters, nuanced and distinct, and seeing what they do and the circumstances under which they work is fascinating. The mystery plot begins after a somewhat slow start when one of the best of the Attagirl pilots dies on film in a crash, and it’s labeled an accident by ‘pilot error.’ Poppy isn’t so sure, and neither is Griff, conveniently alongside Poppy while he’s “on leave,” or so he says. Poppy is determined to investigate what happened, using the cover of the film project as an excuse to stick around. Once the mystery plot gets going, it’s a ride. I couldn’t put it down.

The parts that annoyed me carried over from the first book, too: Poppy is writing a book series, and her heroine talks to her in her head, usually pushing her toward some new course of action, counseling her to be a bit more brazen, a bit more daring. Sometimes it was a bit much for me. Griff is as charming and secretive as he was in the first book, only this time more so, and Poppy’s tolerance for his behavior started to irritate me. Her allowances for his inconsistencies made her seem even more inconsistent as a character. Her introspective musings about Griff’s secrets and those from her fictional heroine grew repetitive, but the liveliness of the Attagirls, the characters surrounding Poppy and Griff, and the revelations of the mystery plot made up for it.

I really like this series, and am going to keep up with it. I probably won’t re-read them, but despite the parts that bugged me, I still think about Poppy, both books, and the world of the novels – definitely a sign of a good mystery. I’ve recommended book one to several historical mystery fans I know, and I’ll definitely recommend book two to them as well.

– SB Sarah

Historical: European, Mystery/Thriller