For my next, Women in Horror Month feature, I’m happy to present To Be Devoured by Sara Tantlinger. Tantlinger is a Bram Stoker Award-winning poet and I believe this is her first published novella. Here’s the synopsis:

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What does carrion taste like? Andi has to know. The vultures circling outside her home taunt and invite her to come understand the secrets hiding in their banquet of decay. Fascination morphs into an obsessive need to know what the vultures know. Andi turns to Dr. Fawning, but even the therapist cannot help her comprehend the secrets she’s buried beneath anger-induced blackouts.

Her girlfriend, Luna, tries to help Andi battle her inner darkness and infatuation with the vultures. However, the desire to taste dead flesh, to stitch together wings of her own and become one with the flock sends Andi down a twisted, unforgivable path. Once she understands the secrets the vultures conceal, she must decide between abandoning the birds of prey or risk turning her loved ones into nothing more than meals to be devoured.


What a wonderful and disturbing tale from Tantlinger. Without spoiling anything, I have to say the downward spiral of the main character is horrifying and very well written. I enjoyed getting into Andi's head and watching the story play out. Tantlinger has an amazing eye for the visceral and many of her scenes made me cringe (in a good way). If you like bloody horror and ever wondered what raw meat might taste like (you know, that itch in the back of your brain that keeps asking what it would feel like to tear meat with your teeth and feel the splatter of hot blood on your cheeks...don't act like you don't know what I'm talking about, it's there, inside you, gnawing its way through your gut) then do yourself a favor and join the committee.

Continuing our journey through Women in Horror Month, I’m pleased to share my review of Donn’s Shadow by Caryn Larrinaga. Donn’s Shadow is the sequel to Donn’s Hill and if you haven’t read it, then I highly recommend you fix that as soon as possible.

Here’s the synopsis:

Return to the most haunted small town in America...
Mackenzie Clair finally has this whole ghost-hunting psychic thing figured out. The Soul Searchers are a hit, she’s got pet-parenting down, and she even has a plan to banish the poltergeist running amok at a lakeside cabin. Best of all, Donn’s Hill feels like home. But not everyone loves the town as much as Mac.
A world-famous paranormal debunker thinks the psychics in Donn’s Hill are lying about their abilities. His determination to destroy the Soul Searchers threatens Mac’s livelihood, and when a killer strikes, the sheriff’s suspicions threaten her freedom.

Mac needs all the help she can get to find the real murderer and clear her name… even if that help comes from beyond the grave.   

This novel is a mystery novel so I’ll keep this review spoiler-free. One of Larrinaga’s biggest strengths is creating a cast of believable, three-dimensional, characters. At one point in the novel, we are introduced to a person who by all accounts is supposed to be an asshat; however, this character has been nothing but nice up to this point. That being said, the protagonist trusts her friends’ opinions, and therefore by proxy, because Larrinaga has created these believable characters, I too trust in them.

On top of this, there were several unexpected twists in turns in this book. I am pretty sure I said WTF out loud more than a few times. It’s refreshing to see a storyline go in new and different directions other than the expected.

Something else fun in this book is the exploration into the world of psychics, mediums, and diviners. It’s obvious that Larrinaga did her homework on the subject and I learned a thing or two from this story.

The last thing I’ll say (unless I get into spoilers) were the scenes that were full of creepy tension. Who knew the slightest creak of a floorboard could be unnerving in written form. My hat’s off to her for being able to paint a picture vivid enough that I could easily see it in my mind as I read along.

Larrinaga leaves the story open for another novel in the Soul Searchers Mysteries, and I for one can’t wait until it comes out.
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While Donn’s Shadow stands strongly on its own, you’ll get so much more out of the tale if you read Donn’s Hill first. 

February is Women in Horror Month. In the past, I have taken the opportunity to highlight amazing women who write horror through interviews and such. This year, I wanted to do something a little different.

I decided to tackle my, to be read pile, and not only that, I decided to focus my efforts on all the kick-ass women authors in my, to be read pile. Therefore, to kick off Women in Horror Month, we’re starting with Betty Rocksteady’s novella, The Writhing Skies.

The Writhing Skies released back on Oct 1, 2018, from Perpetual Motion Machine Publishing. I bought it when it first came out and then it quickly found a home in my ever-growing pile of books. 2019 was a shit-show when it came to reading for pleasure, but I vowed 2020 was going to be different. So far I’ve stuck with that goal and I’ve read four so far.

Here’s the synopsis:

THE SKY IS HUNGRY
Glowing lights and figures in tattered robes force Sarah from her apartment. Outside, phosphorescent creatures infiltrate her every orifice. They want to know everything, especially the things she would rather forget.
Featuring 20 black and white illustrations.
 
It’s a short synopsis but it accurately hits on what this story is about. If you are a fan of weird cosmic sex horror, then this book is definitely for you.

First off, this book is strange. Rocksteady for sure hit it out of the park when she was going for cosmic horror. We never really find out exactly what’s going on, and that’s perfectly fine because the true horror isn’t what’s currently happening to Sarah and the rest of the world, rather the true horror lies in what has already happened to Sarah.

The story evoked all sorts of feelings, from horror, disgust, and sadness. My hat’s off to Rocksteady for being able to hit me with those kinds of feels in such a short tale. However, if you read my review of her collection of short stories, In Dreams We Rot, you’ll know that she is a very capable writer. Also, you can check out my interview with Rocksteady here where we dive into what makes her the awesome author she is.

This is a novella that makes you think, makes you cringe, and makes your face twist into all sorts of different expressions as you read it. Do yourself a favor and check it out.

Now, on to a spoilery discussion. Leave now if you don’t want to know the inner secrets of, The Writhing Skies.

As I mentioned above, while there are strange and horrible things happening to Sarah and the rest of the world, the true horror is what has already happened. As the story moves forward, we find out that she was coerced into having sex which results in a pregnancy. Her boyfriend is quite the ass and devises a plan to abort the child, giving Sarah false assurances that it won’t hurt too bad, that he’s done it before (that should have been a big warning sign), and that everything would be okay. We also find out as the story goes on that her boyfriend’s level of assery goes so deep that it puts the Marianna Trench to shame.

In short, his plan to abort the baby is kicking the shit out of Sarah until she starts bleeding. Truly horrifying, and while I would like to think that his chosen method of abortion doesn’t happen that often, I would probably be shocked at how often that it, or similarly dangerous methods occur. A reason why safe and obtainable abortion options need to be readily available for those who need them.

Horror often is a medium that highlights current social/political/economic issues and this novella didn’t hide that fact. Everything that is happening is a result of those choices as if the act itself awakened some cosmic beast from its slumber. The way the creatures or entities interact with Sarah is a metaphor for her own feelings on what happened to her. They can simultaneously make her feel at ease, pleasured, hurt, disgusted, sad, and confused, which I believe is how she probably felt during everything leading up to the abortion.
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This story stuck with me long after I finished it and I’ve thought about it many times.