The downside of living in a smallish city is that sometimes (usually) I have to spend months waiting for independent or foreign movies to come out online or on DVD before I can watch them. If, like me, you’ve been waiting for what seems like decades to see The Handmaiden — rejoice! It is finally available on iTunes and Amazon. The Handmaiden is an erotic movie directed by Park Chan-wook, set in Japanese-occupied Korea in … Continue reading Movie Review: The Handmaiden →
Normally I would never find myself watching a psychological thriller like Pet, although I would have avidly read the spoilers. If I had been able to find spoilers, I probably would have read them and then watched It’s a Wonderful Life instead. Alas, spoilers were not to be found. Last week I had some high quality female rage going; the movie was rentable on iTunes, and the next thing I knew I had hit “Rent: … Continue reading Movie Review: Pet →
Some people like to skip over Halloween and careen straight into Christmas, or so the mall would have me believe. But I like to extend Halloween as long as possible, if for no other reason than the fact that where I live Fall has just barely started. So yesterday I covered myself with a protective layer of cats (plus one dog) and watched the Netflix haunted house movie, I Am the Pretty Thing That Lives … Continue reading Movie Review: I Am the Pretty Thing That Lives in The House →
I am huge, rabid fan of the Joannes Cabal series by Jonathan L Howard. I might be a little in love with Joannes Cabal, which is super, super fucked up. Regardless, when I saw that Howard was writing a new series with the word “Lovecraft” in it, I went “Ooooooh.” Carter and Lovecraft acts largely as a start to the series and a platform for world building, and as such I’m inclined to cut it … Continue reading Carter and Lovecraft by Jonathan L Howard →
NB: Welcome to Flashback Friday! During FBF, we’ll be resurrecting older posts and reviews that are relevant to things we’ve published on the site this week. Elyse reviewed a pretty creepy horror/thriller, so we thought we’d resurrect a lighter horror novel for other readers. This review was originally published (weirdly a year ago today) August 26, 2015. Horrorstör is basically a novel about a haunted IKEA. There’s no romance in it, but it’s relevant to the interests of … Continue reading Horrorstör by Grady Hendrix →
In one of my more epic Bad Decisions Book Club moments I decided to read The Disappearance at Devil’s Rock by Paul Tremblay (the author that scared Stephen King) immediately before my husband left town for a week. Cue me lying in bed in a cold sweat, sleep deprived, paralyzed with fear because I can smell the rotten stench of zombies, only it turns out to be Dewey’s fetid “salmon and chicken entree” breath, and … Continue reading The Disappearance at Devil’s Rock by Paul Tremblay →
To those of you that have already read The Rook, rejoice, for the sequel, Stiletto, is finally here. For those who haven’t read The Rook, OMG, I’m so jealous, you get to read it for the first time, and unlike those of us who read The Rook in 2012, you get to read the sequel right away. The Rook and Stiletto are fantasy novels that take place in modern Britain. They are not romances. However, … Continue reading Stiletto by Daniel O’Malley →
I hate horror movies. I really do. That last time I willingly watched a horror movie, I saw Paranormal Activity in theaters and slept with the light on for a week. But when I saw The Babadook (an Australian-Canadian psychological horror film) on Netflix, after hearing so many great things about it, I figured I was safe. The Cute Boy™ and one of my roommates were going to watch it with me. We would have … Continue reading Movie Review: The Babadook →
Wake of Vultures is not a romance (although there’s a romance in it) and it ends on a cliffhanger. Seriously – the characters are left on the edge of a literal cliff. I realize that cliffhangers are a non-starter for many readers, but keep this in mind: Wake of Vultures is also an excellent, gritty, terrifying and fantastical Western about Nettie, who dresses as a boy and who is both bisexual and biracial (African American … Continue reading Wake of Vultures by Lila Bowen →
Lovecraft Country is tragically devoid of romance and yet I can’t resist reviewing it for you, dear Bitches, because it’s one of the most satisfying books I’ve read in quite some time. Lovecraft Country is a series of connected stories (together they form one cohesive arc, but most of the chapters could easily stand alone) about a Black family living in Chicago in the 1950s. The family business consists of publishing The Safe Negro Travel … Continue reading Lovecraft Country by Matt Ruff →
Chimera is the final book in the Parasitology Trilogy by Mira Grant. Having reviewed the first two books, Parasite and Symbiont, I felt obligated to read and review the conclusion. Technically, this review is a DNF because I read the first 70 pages, threw a fit, and then skipped around to get the feel of the rest of the book. I read large chunks of the middle as well as the last eighty pages, but I never … Continue reading Chimera by Mira Grant →
