Author: Rach @ Anxious Nachos

Educational publisher, writer and cat mama.

My favourite gothic fiction

Rach @ Anxious Nachos5 Comments

Hi everyone,

Since I’m in the middle of participating in Gothtober, the readathon all about gothic fiction, I thought it the perfect time to talk about some of my favourite gothic fiction! I’ve loved gothic fiction since I was a teen. I always gravitated to the gothic classics both in and out of school, my favourites being Dracula and Wuthering Heights. The combination of creepy, mysterious settings with powerful romance, the supernatural, the constant sense of fear, foreboding and suspense just combines all my favourite things to read about. So I’ve picked out five of my favourite recent(ish) gothic releases alongside twelve I’m highly anticipating that will be released in the next year! It was supposed to be five as well, but 2021 is so full of gothic books and I’m incapable of narrowing down options. I don’t know what is driving this trend but I wholeheartedly approve.

Favourites

Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia

How could I start with anything other than my favourite book of the year, Mexican Gothic? This book is just the best, most fucked up gothic book I’ve read in years. It has all the most terrifying features of gothic fiction: the damp, mouldy house with walls that seem to move if you stare at them too long; the dark and dangerous fog covered cemetery with figures in the distance; the constant feeling that you’re being watched; mushrooms…. It is such a twisty, dark ride, and one that cemented Moreno-Garcia on my list of must-buy authors! The atmosphere is so full of suspense that reading this book is just an absolutely terrifying experience, do not read it at night as I did! Get ready to have your mind just scream WHAT THE FUCK.

The Animals at Lockwood Manor by Jane Healey

Not only is The Animals at Lockwood Manor one of the most gorgeous physical books ever (especially as I got a special edition with stunning endpapers and sprayed edges), but it’s also just an amazing book, especially because at the centre of this gothic book is a brilliant sapphic relationship! It really is full of all my favourite gothic romance tropes: women fainting at the slightest thing, lounging indecently on chaise lounges, ruffled satin gowns and delicate touching of fingers on wrists. It’s BEAUTIFUL. The Animals at Lockwood Manor is of course a complete piece of gothic fiction with the creepy manor house, the ghostly figure in white who keeps appearing around the house, and a special ingrediant to make the environment even more creepy: taxidermied animals!

The Mercies by Kiran Millwood Hargrave

The Mercies is definitely not a traditional gothic book. It has no creepy manor house for one. But I really feel like this has the emotional intensity, the romance, the gloomy atmosphere, and the dark fear and suspense that is inherent in all gothic fiction. So whilst at first glance this might not seem to fit the mould of a traditional gothic classic, I do think it deserves to be on this list! Instead of an English manor house, The Mercies is set in a small fishing village in Norway, in a rough and unforgiving landscape that becomes even more unforgiving when a witchhunter is brought in to bring a group of women back under control.

Blood Countess by Lana Popović

One of my favourite elements of gothic fiction is the beautiful and haunting romances. There’s just something about the writing style in gothic books that allows for such beautiful expression of desire. Blood Countess does this so extremely well, it has one of my favourite sapphic relationship developments of any book. The language is just absolutely stunning and the yearning is incredible. Not only that, it’s also inspired by Countess Elizabeth Báthory who is considered to be the most prolific female serial killer ever.

White is for Witching by Helen Oyeyemi

Yes, this is the reason for the “recent(ish)” at the start of the post. White is for Witching released in 2009, but I only just read it recently (I literally finished it this morning) but I enjoyed it so much I added it to this post on my lunch break! I cannot express how absolutely incredible the atmosphere in this book is, oh my god. It’s sinfully dark and delightful, very strange at times but so foreboding and filled with such thrilling suspense. There is such a sense of malevolency throughout, as it’s all about a house that is haunting four generations of women in a family. It never wants to let them go, so keeps them in the walls of the house. And if creepiness isn’t enough, to make it even more perfect, it has a sapphic relationship too!

Anticipated gothic releases

Down Comes the Night by Allison Saft

Synopsis: A gorgeously gothic, deeply romantic YA debut fantasy about two enemies trapped inside a crumbling mansion, with no escape from the monsters within.

Honor your oath, destroy your country.

Wren Southerland is the most talented healer in the Queen’s Guard, but her reckless actions have repeatedly put her on thin ice with her superiors. So when a letter arrives from a reclusive lord, asking Wren to come to his estate to cure his servant from a mysterious disease, she seizes the chance to prove herself.

When she arrives at Colwick Hall, Wren realizes that nothing is what it seems. Particularly when she discovers her patient is actually Hal Cavendish, the sworn enemy of her kingdom.

As the snowy mountains make it impossible to leave the estate, Wren and Hal grow closer as they uncover a sinister plot that could destroy everything they hold dear. But choosing love could doom both their kingdoms.

Allison Saft’s Down Comes the Night is a snow-drenched, gothic, romantic fantasy that keeps you racing through the pages long into the night.

Madam by Phoebe Wynne

Synopsis: Light a fire they can’t put out…

For 150 years, above the Scottish cliffs, Caldonbrae Hall has sat as a beacon of excellence in the ancestral castle of Lord William Hope. A boarding school for girls, it promises a future where its pupils will emerge ‘resilient and ready to serve society’.
Rose Christie, a 26-year-old Classics teacher, is the first new hire for the school in over a decade. At first, Rose feels overwhelmed in the face of this elite establishment, but soon after her arrival she begins to understand that she may have more to fear than her own ineptitude.
When Rose stumbles across the secret circumstances surrounding the abrupt departure of her predecessor – a woman whose ghost lingers over everything and who no one will discuss – she realises that there is much more to this institution than she has been led to believe.
As she uncovers the darkness that beats at the heart of Caldonbrae, Rose becomes embroiled in a battle that will threaten her sanity as well as her safety…

A brooding, mesmeric novel with a feminist kick, perfect for fans of Naomi Alderman, Madeleine Miller and Margaret Atwood.

The Upstairs House by Julia Fine

Synopsis: Julia Fine, author of the “surreally feministic tale” (Family Circle) What Should Be Wild, returns with a provocative meditation on new motherhood—Shirley Jackson meets The Awakening—in which a postpartum woman’s psychological unraveling becomes intertwined with the ghostly appearance of children’s book writer Margaret Wise Brown.

There’s a madwoman upstairs, and only Megan Weiler can see her.

Ravaged and sore from giving birth to her first child, Megan is mostly raising her newborn alone while her husband travels for work. Physically exhausted and mentally drained, she’s also wracked with guilt over her unfinished dissertation—a thesis on mid-century children’s literature.

Enter a new upstairs neighbor: the ghost of quixotic children’s book writer Margaret Wise Brown—author of the beloved classic Goodnight Moon—whose existence no one else will acknowledge. It seems Margaret has unfinished business with her former lover, the once-famous socialite and actress Michael Strange, and is determined to draw Megan into the fray. As Michael joins the haunting, Megan finds herself caught in the wake of a supernatural power struggle—and until she can find a way to quiet these spirits, she and her newborn daughter are in terrible danger.

The Shape of Darkness by Laura Purcell

Synopsis: As the age of the photograph dawns in Victorian Bath, silhouette artist Agnes is struggling to keep her business afloat. Still recovering from a serious illness herself, making enough money to support her elderly mother and her orphaned nephew Cedric has never been easy, but then one of her clients is murdered shortly after sitting for Agnes, and then another, and another… Why is the killer seemingly targeting her business?

Desperately seeking an answer, Agnes approaches Pearl, a child spirit medium lodging in Bath with her older half-sister and her ailing father, hoping that if Pearl can make contact with those who died, they might reveal who killed them.

But Agnes and Pearl quickly discover that instead they may have opened the door to something that they can never put back…

The Wife Upstairs by Rachel Hawkins

Synopsis: A delicious twist on a Gothic classic, Rachel Hawkins’s The Wife Upstairs pairs Southern charm with atmospheric domestic suspense, perfect for fans of B.A. Paris and Megan Miranda.

Meet Jane. Newly arrived to Birmingham, Alabama, Jane is a broke dog-walker in Thornfield Estates––a gated community full of McMansions, shiny SUVs, and bored housewives. The kind of place where no one will notice if Jane lifts the discarded tchotchkes and jewelry off the side tables of her well-heeled clients. Where no one will think to ask if Jane is her real name.

But her luck changes when she meets Eddie Rochester. Recently widowed, Eddie is Thornfield Estates’ most mysterious resident. His wife, Bea, drowned in a boating accident with her best friend, their bodies lost to the deep. Jane can’t help but see an opportunity in Eddie––not only is he rich, brooding, and handsome, he could also offer her the kind of protection she’s always yearned for.

Yet as Jane and Eddie fall for each other, Jane is increasingly haunted by the legend of Bea, an ambitious beauty with a rags-to-riches origin story, who launched a wildly successful southern lifestyle brand. How can she, plain Jane, ever measure up? And can she win Eddie’s heart before her past––or his––catches up to her?

With delicious suspense, incisive wit, and a fresh, feminist sensibility, The Wife Upstairs flips the script on a timeless tale of forbidden romance, ill-advised attraction, and a wife who just won’t stay buried. In this vivid reimagining of one of literature’s most twisted love triangles, which Mrs. Rochester will get her happy ending? 

What Big Teeth by Rose Szabo

Synopsis: MISS PEREGRINE’S HOME FOR PECULIAR CHILDREN MEETS THE ADDAMS FAMILY IN THIS HAUNTING STORY OF ONE GIRL’S ATTEMPT TO RECONNECT WITH HER MONSTROUS FAMILY.

Eleanor has not seen or spoken with her family in years, not since they sent her away to Saint Brigid’s boarding school. She knows them only as vague memories: her grandfather’s tremendous fanged snout, the barrel full of water her mother always soaked in, and strange hunting trips in a dark wood with her sister and cousins. And she remembers the way they looked at her, like she was the freak.

When Eleanor finally finds the courage to confront her family and return to their ancestral home on the rainy coast of Maine, she finds them already gathered in wait, seemingly ready to welcome her back with open arms. “I read this in the cards,” her grandmother tells her. However, Grandma Persephone doesn’t see all, for just as Eleanor is beginning to readjust to the life she always longed for, a strange and sudden death rocks the family, leaving Eleanor to manage this difficult new dynamic without help.

In order to keep the family that abandoned her from falling apart, Eleanor calls upon her mysterious other grandmother, Grandmere, from across the sea. Grandmere brings order to the chaotic household, but that order soon turns to tyranny. If any of them are to survive, Eleanor must embrace her strange family and join forces with the ghost of Grandma Persephone to confront the monstrousness lurking deep within her Grandmere-and herself.

Summer Sons by Lee Mandelo

Synopsis: Andrew and Eddie did everything together, best friends bonded more deeply than brothers, until Eddie left Andrew behind to start his graduate program at Vanderbilt. Six month later, only days before Andrew was to join him in Nashville, Eddie dies of an apparent suicide. He leaves Andrew a horrible inheritance: a roommate he doesn’t know, friends he never asked for, and a gruesome phantom with bleeding wrists that mutters of revenge.

As Andrew searches for the truth of Eddie’s death, he uncovers the lies and secrets left behind by the person he trusted most, discovering a family history soaked in blood and death. Whirling between the backstabbing academic world where Eddie spent his days and the circle of hot boys, fast cars, and hard drugs that ruled Eddie’s nights, the walls Andrew has built against the world begin to crumble, letting in the phantom that hungers for him.

Sorrowland by Rivers Solomon

Synopsis: A genre-bending work of gothic fiction that wrestles with the tangled history of racism in America and the marginalization of society’s undesirables.

Vern, a Black woman with albinism, is hunted after escaping a religious compound, then she discovers that her body is changing and that she is developing extra-sensory powers.

Alone in the woods, she gives birth to twins and raises them away from the influence of the outside world. But something is wrong – not with them, but with her own body. It’s itching, it’s stronger, it’s… not normal.

To understand her body’s metamorphosis, Vern must investigate not just the secluded religious compound she fled but the violent history of dehumanization, medical experimentation, and genocide that produced it. In the course of reclaiming her own darkness, Vern learns that monsters aren’t just individuals, but entire histories, systems, and nations.

The Last House on Needless Street by Catriona Ward

Synopsis: *THE MUST-READ GOTHIC THRILLER OF 2021 FROM THE SHIRLEY JACKSON AND AUGUST DERLETH AWARD-WINNING AUTHOR OF LITTLE EVE AND RAWBLOOD *

This is the story of a serial killer. A stolen child. Revenge. Death. And an ordinary house at the end of an ordinary street.

All these things are true. And yet they are all lies…

You think you know what’s inside the last house on Needless Street. You think you’ve read this story before. That’s where you’re wrong.

In the dark forest at the end of Needless Street, lies something buried. But it’s not what you think…

The Death of Jane Lawrence by Caitlin Starling

Synopsis: Author of THE LUMINOUS DEAD Caitlin Starling’s THE DEATH OF JANE LAWRENCE, pitched as a Crimson Peak-inspired gothic horror about a young woman who makes a marriage of convenience and soon finds herself trapped in her new husband’s decrepit and possibly haunted mansion, and spirals down a dangerous path of ritual magic in an effort to save them both, to Sylvan Creekmore at St. Martin’s Press, in a very nice deal, at auction, by Caitlin McDonald at Donald Maass Literary Agency (world)

The City Beautiful by Aden Polydoros

Synopsis: Set against the backdrop of the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair, this queer Jewish gothic fantasy follows a young immigrant, Alter, who is possessed by the dybbuk of his murdered best friend and is thrust into a deadly hunt for a serial killer.

Wuthering Heights by Tasha Suri

Synopsis: Tasha Suri suggested she revamp Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights after Settle approached her to reclaim a different classic. “Tasha didn’t feel she was the right author for that book, but she did have an exciting idea for Wuthering Heights,” the editor said. “She proposed focusing on how, when the British colonized India and white men traveled there and had children with Indian women, if the children passed as white, they were then sent back to England to be integrated into ‘proper’ white society. Tasha had a brilliant plan for weaving that little-known part of history into Wuthering Heights.”

Suri called the classic novel a favorite of hers, “a strange and polarizing book: dark and gothic, passionately romantic and pointedly cruel. It’s also the story of the destructive influence of a boy who doesn’t belong: a boy who looks ‘foreign’ without having any particular history of cultural identity; a monstrous boy who has no place, no family, no right to want things, and wants them anyway. I want to write a reclamation that says: everyone comes from somewhere, and colonialism may try to make us its monsters, but we don’t have to let it. I hope my re-imagining will also help make readers a little more aware of the long, long history of South Asians in Britain. There’s so much history that we’re not taught that young readers deserve to know about.”

I hope you enjoyed this list of gothic books, and are as excited as I am about 2021! It is the year of the gothic book and I don’t know why we’re having such a big push for gothic novels, but I am so happy we are! Do you have any favourite gothic books? Let me know in the comments!

Book review: A Golden Fury by Samantha Cohoe

Rach @ Anxious Nachos1 Comment

Title: A Golden Fury by Samantha Cohoe

Publisher: Wednesday Books

Publication date: 13 October 2020

Genre: Young Adult | Fantasy

Page extent: 320 pages

Rating:

Synopsis

Thea Hope longs to be an alchemist out of the shadow of her famous mother. The two of them are close to creating the legendary Philosopher’s Stone—whose properties include immortality and can turn any metal into gold—but just when the promise of the Stone’s riches is in their grasp, Thea’s mother destroys the Stone in a sudden fit of violent madness.

While combing through her mother’s notes, Thea learns that there’s a curse on the Stone that causes anyone who tries to make it to lose their sanity. With the threat of the French Revolution looming, Thea is sent to Oxford for her safety, to live with the father who doesn’t know she exists.

But in Oxford, there are alchemists after the Stone who don’t believe Thea’s warning about the curse—instead, they’ll stop at nothing to steal Thea’s knowledge of how to create the Stone. But Thea can only run for so long, and soon she will have to choose: create the Stone and sacrifice her sanity, or let the people she loves die.

Thank you to Wednesday Books and NetGalley for providing me an eARC in exchange for an honest review.

I’ve spoken quite a few times on here that I’ve been really struggling with YA fantasy this year. But over the past few months, I’ve been going in with low expectations (or no expectations), and that actually seems to be boding well for me because I was pleasantly surprised by YA fantasy, A Golden Fury!

A Golden Fury is a science heavy fantasy all about alchemy, set in a time where female alchemists were very frowned upon. We follow a young alchemist, Thea, whose mother is the most famous female alchemist in the world. She’s also neglectful and abusive and when her mother seems to go mad, Thea is sent to live with the father who doesn’t even know she exists. Thea works out that the journey to create the Philosopher’s stone is what caused her mother’s madness, so when she gets to her father and finds him and his companions just as hungry for the stone, she must try to save the ones she loves from the madness. And the only way to do that is by creating the stone herself so she pays the price of madness and not them.

The first 40% or so of this novel is my favourite. It’s full of brilliant scenes all around alchemy. I loved how much detail has been put into this science, there is so much detail about the process of alchemy and I loved this! This heavy science is probably not for every reader, but it’s one of the things I love most about adult fantasy/scifi and a key thing missing in a lot of YA fantasy I read, so I just adored that we had so much information about the actual science behind the magic.

Despite my love for the science, and as much as I enjoyed this book, I did leave the book just feeling a little well, lack of any feeling. This book was fine, it was okay, but I didn’t leave the book with any overwhelming feeling of passion, either good or bad. I think one of the main reasons for this is that none of the characters felt very genuine in their actions. I never trusted Will from the second we first meet him, so the whole romance storyline and Thea willing to give up her mind for him just felt a little ridiculous. It could have been a really powerful story because I think Thea’s strength and determination were written really well, but because the romance was so central to her actions and the romance was the most lacklustre part of this book, it meant I struggled to believe how someone supposedly as smart as Thea could act like she does (much like how Rahel feels towards her actually!) Add that to her father’s actions, and the sudden forgiveness of him, it just didn’t feel hugely genuine to me. Unfortunately, the key driving plot of this book does surround the romance and Thea’s feelings for Will, so if that doesn’t hit right for you, this story will feel a little lacking.

It’s in no way a bad book! I enjoyed reading this, the science is very cool, I just didn’t leave it with any particularly strong feelings. I hope others have better luck with it!

#5OnMyTBR: Magic

Rach @ Anxious Nachos5 Comments

#5OnMyTBR is a bookish meme hosted by E. @ Local Bee Hunter’s Nook and you can learn more about it here or in the post announcing it. It occurs every Monday when we post about 5 books on our TBR. Thank you E. for the awesome graphic for these posts as well!

Hi everyone,

It’s officially scary month and I am so excited to read all the horror books! It was also really sunny in Melbourne this weekend, which I’ll admit is never going to not be weird because scary month should be AUTUMN. Alas. I’ll take the sun after 6 months without it. This week’s #5OnMyTBR is all about magic! My list is all YA fantasy today because I’ve been struggling with the genre all year and thus my TBR is rather overflowing with it now…

Cemetery Boys by Aiden Thomas

Top of the list is one of the biggest releases of the year, Cemetery Boys by Aiden Thomas! I am potentially going to read this in October, it’s not on my “official” Gothtober TBR, but it is on my list of “can switch this in for several prompts depending on my mood”. It’s about a trans boy who vows to prove himself a brujo by summoning a ghost.

Kingdom of Souls by Rena Barron

I’m trying to read all my 2019 book purchases before the end of the year, and this is one of those that I just never had a chance to read last year. The Kingdom of Souls by Rena Barron is about a family of witchdoctors and the daughter who isn’t coming into her powers so she trades years of her life in exchange for magic.

The Candle and the Flame by Nafiza Azad

Another of my 2019 purchases (my excuse is that I’m on the outs with YA fantasy so these have languished on my TBR for a while), The Candle and the Flame is set on the Silk Road, in a city whose entire population was recently slaughtered, except for three individuals. It is now protected by the Ifrit, djinn of order and reasoning, and when one of them dies, everything changes for the three humans who survived the massacre.

The Midnight Lie by Marie Rutkoski

The Midnight Lie by Marie Rutkoski is set in the same place as her Winner’s trilogy, which I haven’t actually read and know nothing about but I heard this had lesbians kissing so I bought it (I have no self control for sapphic books). It’s about someone from the lower castes, Nirrim, trying to seek out the magic the higher castes wield for herself.

Beyond the Ruby Veil by Mara Fitzgerald

I know I said above me and YA fantasy are on the outs so I shouldn’t be buying this book when it’s one that releases later this month. And it is true that I’ve been struggling with YA fantasy this year which is the reason the only books on my owned TBR with magic right now are YA fantasy. BUT, as with The Midnight Lie, this has girls kissing and therefore I must support. But also the author marketed this as “tiny chaos lesbian who’s going to save the world or burn it down trying” and if that isn’t genius marketing I don’t know what is.

And that’s it for another week! What book with magic are you most excited to read during the rest of 2020? Let me know in the comments!

September wrap up

Rach @ Anxious Nachos3 Comments

Hi everyone,

I hope you all had a good September! This month it was my birthday, and as lockdown is still going strong in Melbourne, I basically sat inside and ate cupcakes for a week (which I’m not complaining about at all, because they were excellent). I still seem to be reading more slowly than earlier in the year, and I think it’s probably because the whole current situation and worries about the future are just getting harder and harder to ignore (and the fact I keep picking up my phone to doom scroll). I’m hoping this will improve a little in October if only because I’m participating in the very fun Gothtober readathon and have a very exciting TBR! Anyway without further ado, here’s my September wrap-up!

Books read

This month I read a total of 8 books (and another two for work purposes), so technically I did reach my goal of 10 books this month, though I am still reading slower than usual. Especially considering I haven’t quite finished Phoenix Extravagant…. But the even better news is that my pile of ARCs is now looking much more manageable. I didn’t finish all of them, but I’ve only got one outstanding for the year and it’s a November release so I have a little while to read it.

The Ikessar Falcon by K S Villoso (you can read my review here)

The Roommate by Rosie Danan (you can read my review here)

Unconquerable Sun by Kate Elliot (you can read my review here)

A Golden Fury by Samantha Cohoe (review to come)

The Midnight Bargain by C.L Polk (review to come)

Riot Baby by Tochi Onyebuchi

The Once and Future Witches by Alix E. Harrow (review to come)

Phoenix Extravagant by Yoon Ha Lee (okay I technically haven’t quite finished this one but I’m counting it, review to come for this one too)

Books purchased/borrowed/approved for

My library reopened for collection orders and it was my birthday in September, so I had a slightly larger than usual book haul this month!

Frankenstein in Baghdad by Ahmed Saadawi

White is for Witching by Helen Oyeyemi

The Ghost Bride by Yangsze Choo

Mostly Dead Things by Kristen Arnett

Gods of Jade and Shadow by Silvia Moreno-Garcia

Transcendent Kingdom by Yaa Gyasi

Who I Was With Her by Nita Tyndall

The Song of Achilles of Madeline Miller

Freshwater by Akwaeke Emezi

Cemetery Boys by Aiden Thomas

Legendborn by Tracey Deonn

Tender is the Flesh by Agustina Bazterrica

After Elias by Eddy Boudel Tan

The Vanished Birds by Simon Jimenez

These Violent Delights by Michah Nemerever

October TBR

I’m participating in the Gothtober readathon and I posted yesterday about all the spooky gothic fiction on my TBR, you can check out my post here!

My blog posts

Reviews

#5OnMyTBR

Misc

Community

Here are some of my favourite posts from the community this month!

  • Mols @ Mols by Moonlight had an INCREDIBLE blog month, I am in awe of these posts!! Check out 50 authors describing their WIP in one sentence, 101 dark fiction books that aren’t by men, an interview with K-Ming Chang, the author of a highly anticipated release, Bestiary, and some really awesome books on part one of her 2021 anticipated releases! Seriously, I am in awe at how wonderful every single one of these posts were.
  • E. @ Local Bee Hunter’s Nook posted a huge list of LGBTQ+ Retellings. I adore retellings, so this list expanded my TBR so much.
  • Charlotte and Anna @ Reads Rainbow, wrote a discussion on the erasure of the word lesbian for YA literature, it is well worth a read!
  • Aentee @ Read at Midnight posted an absolutely fascinating post about tigers in Viet lore and how this lore connects to several upcoming novellas.
  • Hsinju @ Hsinju’s Lit Log created a list celebrating 2021 sapphic book releases from LGBTIQA+ publishers and self-published authors. It’s huge and amazing and I honestly don’t know how I’m supposed to read all these amazing books next year?!
  • Laura @ The Book Corps has a list of trans and nonbinary books you should suppot instead of You Know Who, featuring some of my favourite authors!

And now to SPOOKY MONTH! I’m so excited for my October TBR so I’m hoping that I’m going to have a more positive reading month than the last few months. I hope everyone else has as relaxing a month as possible in our current times. What are you hoping to read this month? Let me know in the comments!

Readathon: Gothtober TBR

Rach @ Anxious Nachos5 Comments

Hi everyone,

It is SO CLOSE to being October, which is one of my favourite reading months of the year as I love focusing on spooky books. This year, I’m going to be participating in the fantastic Gothtober readathon, which is hosted by LadetteM, Olivia’s Catastrophe and Little Wolf. It’s a readathon to celebrate gothic fiction, although you don’t need to read just gothic books to participate (and I won’t be!) But all the themes and prompts are designed to work well with gothic fiction. So without further ado, here’s my TBR for this readathon!

Disability rep: a book with disability representation

I have been wanting to read Christina Henry’s books for so long, she writes horror retellings of fairytales which sounds very up my street. The Girl in Red is a horror retelling of Red Riding Hood, and it features a main character with a prosthetic leg!

BIPOC author: A book written by a Black, Indigenous, or Author of Colour

In news that made me happy this week, my library reopened its doors for collection orders which meant I could go collect a bunch of reservations I’ve been waiting on, all of which are perfect for Gothtober! White is for Witching by Helen Oyeyemi is one of these, it’s a modern, queer, gothic horror about a spooky, mysterious house where generations of women inhabit the walls.

LGBTQ+: A book with LGBTQ+ representation

Sarah Waters is the author of one of the biggest lesbian novels of all time, Tipping the Velvet. I haven’t actually read any of her novels, but she writes a lot of gothic, historical, mystery novels which seems perfect for spooky season! Fingersmith is the one I’ll be reading, it’s about a girl from a family of thieves who falls in love with the rich mark she’s trying to steal from.

Bones: A book with Bones either on the front cover or in the title

Okay I really struggled with this prompt, none of my books have bones in the title or on the cover so this connection is tenuous to say the least. My thinking was: bones are dead things; and also the flamingo’s legs are so thin they totally look like bones. Thus, Mostly Dead Things by Kristen Arnett will be my read for this prompt.

Female protagonist: A narrative led by a heroine

The Ghost Bride by Yangsze Choo is a spooky (because of the ghosts) historical romance based on Chinese/ Malaysian customs and is about a girl offered to be a ghost bride for a recently decesaed young man (as ghost brides are used to placate angry spirits). She is then drawn into the parallel world of the Chinese afterlife every night.

Oldest purchased: A book that has been on your owned TBR the longest

I have been meaning to read The Phantom of the Opera by Gaston Leroux for years, it’s one of those classics which has just sat on my shelf and I’ve never gotten time to read. But that changes now! It’s the gothic horror/romance novel which the musical is based on!

Foreign Country: A book that takes place in a country foreign to the one you currently reside in

Frankenstein in Baghdad by Ahmed Saadawi is a retelling of one of the most well known gothic novels of all time! It’s, obviously, set in Baghdad, and follows a scavenger in US occupied Baghdad who collects human body parts to sew together a corpse, to get the government to recognise the parts as people and give them a proper burial. But as we all know, the corpse, Frankenstein, wakes up…

Modern retelling: A modern retelling of a Gothic Classic, or a newer release which is described as ‘gothic’

I am considering rereading Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia for this prompt because it’s my favourite book of the year and I really want to reread it, but I have so many other books I need to read as well…. My other option for this prompt is The Deathless Girls by Kiran Millwood Hargrave. It’s a sapphic retelling about the brides of Dracula.

Red: A book with the colour red on the cover, or in the title

Award for most fucked up book on my TBR goes to this baby! Tender is the Flesh by Agustina Bazterrica is a fucked up story about a virus that makes animal meat poisonous to humans, so eating human meat is legalised (yeah, I told you it was fucked up). We follow one of the “farmers” of human meat who is given a “special gift” (a woman) that he starts to get to know, even though he isn’t supposed to talk with the specimens. As I’ve said like three times already, this is some fucked up shit.

Grey Morality: A book with character or themes that are morally grey

Back to another classic gothic novel here, with The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde. I read this years and years ago as a teen and I am very much due a reread as an adult! Dorian Gray is of course the morally grey character, who sells his soul for eternal youth and beauty!

Lies: A book where the title has liar, lies or lying it it, or the MC is a liar

Rebecca by Daphne du Marurier is another classic, like The Phantom of the Opera, which has been on my TBR for years and I’ve just never got around to it. But, I’m very excited for the Netflix film adaptation which is releasing near the end of October so I need to read this before then! The husband spends the whole book lying about his first wife, which is why I’m reading it for this prompt!

Undead character: A book which includes an undead character (this can be ghost, zombie, Frankenstein, vampire, wraith, banshee, mummy, skeleton etc)

Another classic gothic novel, Dracula by Bram Stoker is one of my favourite classics and I’m very excited to reread it this month! I first read this when I was in high school, I studied this book and Carmilla for my English dissertation which pretty much talked about queer vampire sex and it was great.

Dark academia: a book set at university/college with dark themes or vintage aesthetic

I have like four different dark academia books sitting on my shelf right now so who knows which one I’ll actually end up reading for this prompt. At the moment, I’m thinking it’ll be The Secret History by Donna Tartt since that’s been on my shelf the longest, and I keep hearing people talk about it. One of my most anticipated books of 2021 (A Lesson in Vengeance) is also described as a sapphic The Secret History meets The Craft so I want to know what I’m in for!

Vampire film/TV: watch your favourite vampire TV show or film

For my film, I’ll be watching my favourite adaptation of Dracula, the 1992 edition with Keanu Reees, Anthony Hopkins and Gary Oldman! I might also try out the recent BBC Dracula TV show, which was created by the same team behind Dr Who. I’ve heard some mixed feelings so I haven’t yet got around to it, but maybe October is the month!

Finally, because I am EXCEEDINGLY indecisive, I also have some extras here which all fit some of these prompts so I can mix and match depending on my mood.

Cemetery Boys by Aiden Thomas

Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia

Hurricane Season by Fernanda Melchor

Vita Nostra by Marina and Sergey Dyachenko

The Luminous Dead by Caitlin Starling

I’m so excited for this TBR! All of these books looks so amazing, so spooky, there’s so many gothic novels in there, classics and modern, and I can’t wait to celebrate this genre all month long! I suspect there’s going to be a lot of new favourites in my reads this month. Are you participating in this readathon? Let me know in the comments!

Book review: Unconquerable Sun by Kate Elliot

Rach @ Anxious Nachos1 Comment

Title: Unconquerable Sun by Kate Elliot

Publisher: Tor Books/Head of Zeus

Publication date: 1 October 2020

Genre: Adult | Science fiction | Space opera

Page extent: 528 pages

Rating:

Synopsis:

It has been eight centuries since the beacon system failed, sundering the heavens. Rising from the ashes of the collapse, cultures have fought, system-by-system, for control of the few remaining beacons. The Republic of Chaonia is one such polity. Surrounded by the Yele League and the vast Phene Empire, they have had to fight for their existence. After decades of conflict, Queen-Marshal Eirene has brought the Yele to heel.

Now it is time to deal with the Empire. Princess Sun, daughter and heir, has come of age.

In her first command, she drove a Phene garrison from the beacons of Na Iri – an impressive feat. But growing up in the shadow of her mother – a ruler both revered and feared – has been no easy task. While Sun may imagine that her victorious command will bring further opportunity to prove herself, it will in fact place her on the wrong side of court politics. There are those who would like to see Sun removed as heir, or better yet, dead. To survive, the princess must rely on her wits and companions: her biggest rival, her secret lover, and a dangerous prisoner of war.

Thank you to Head of Zeus and NetGalley for providing me an eARC in exchange for an honest review.

WE ARE BLESSED WITH AMAZING QUEER SCI FI THIS YEAR AND I CANT STOP SCREAMING ABOUT IT. I honestly cannot express in words how amazing a year scifi is having, I am in AWE at the stories coming in this genre. Unconquerable Sun is a retelling of Alexander the Great set in space with a female Alexander (and yes, there is a female Hephaestion too). It’s an epic story of war across the galaxy and as someone who hasn’t been hugely interested in massive war/military fantasy and scifi before, I am in awe at the ease with which Elliot’s writing completely engaged me because I had so much fun and was on the edge of my seat the whole way through.

Unconquerable Sun follows Sun, the daughter and heir to the Chaonian empire, who is locked in a bitter battle with her warrior mother for power, and must deftly use her brain and loyal companions to defeat the Phene empire they are at war with.

Unconquerable Sun does take a little time to fully get into. Sun isn’t the most endearing of characters: in fact, for the first few chapters, I thought she was a whiny brat and was swaying towards Team Eireine (her mother). A lot of the book is from Sun’s POV, which did make it a little difficult to get into the first portion of this book. However, from the wedding feast onwards, I was enthralled. There is constant action and tension throughout, this story never ever lets up. It’s absolutely amazing. It might sound like near constant battles and races against team is too much, but I really didn’t think it was at all. I think that’s particularly down to the way Elliot has embedded so much plot behind every single battle? We see so much history of the world come out in the story when we battle the Phene; we see so much political shenanigans when we get the fights and tension with Perse; we see so much insight into the different cultures in the galaxy when we battle with the Gatoi; and we see so much depth and exploration of family when we see the fraught nature of Sun’s relationship with her mother. There is so much worldbuilding poured into each of these battles that every one seems so different but so important because you gain more insights into the world each time.

This is another book which has had a blurb that doesn’t prepare you for more than one POV going in, which I do think publishing needs to get better at because it is always rather jarring to go into a book you think is going to be about Sun, and then get four or five other POVs (The Bone Shard Daughter I’m looking at you as well). But much like with The Bone Shard Daughter, I also think Unconquerable Sun benefited from having these additional viewpoints. It’s very interesting to see into the POV of an enemy Phene soldier, though their importance isn’t really touched upon within this book so by the end I was questioning a little why they were there. I’m assuming we’ll see more of them in the sequel! Alongside Sun, the other major POV character is Perse, the daughter of the leader of one of the 7 houses holding up the Chaonian Empire, who ran away from home to be a soldier. Her path becomes entwined with Sun’s in a way neither of them want, but I found the development of their relationship fascinating. It was really interesting to see Sun’s opinions on Perse go back and forth depending on who she was talking to. It really highlighted Sun’s ability to manipulate and use people, but also emphasised how she gains loyalty from those around her. Zizou is another POV character who I absoluty loved. He’s a Gatoi soldier who has been captured, and his personal storyline was one of my favourites. The Gatoi are a very interesting race and I loved reading about their culture and how the Phene have manipulated them in their war, it was all absolutely fascinating.

Sun has other companions, although we don’t get their POVs, but each are so unique and they are all so brilliant! If anything, I wish we got more of them! Of course, I must hightlight Hetty, the Hephaestion to Sun’s Alexander, the secret lover always by her side. I found the protective nature of Sun’s personality hilarious around Hetty but was equally enamoured with the way Hetty refused to be put in the corner and hidden away.

This was a really fantastic read. Push past the first few chapters of bratty Sun to get to a thrilling military scifi that never gets boring despite the constant battles thanks to the mammoth world building and character development that is embedded into each of these battles. Loved this one, and I can’t wait for the sequel!

#5OnMyTBR: Books about books

Rach @ Anxious Nachos5 Comments

#5OnMyTBR is a bookish meme hosted by E. @ Local Bee Hunter’s Nook and you can learn more about it here or in the post announcing it. It occurs every Monday when we post about 5 books on our TBR. Thank you E. for the awesome graphic for these posts as well!

Hi everyone,

We are moving ever closer to October, one of my favourite reading months of the year! I actually think I might complete my goal of reading all outstanding 2020 ARCs in time to read nothing but spooky gothic books for the Gothtober readathon. This week’s theme for #5OnMyTBR is books about books and oh my god, this was so hard. I had to dig deep into my Goodreads to try find books about books. A few are more books about bookish things (like libraries), and there’s only two currently on my immediate, TBR but I’m sure I will get to the others eventually!

The Thirty Names of Night by Zeyn Joukhadar

This is one of only two books on my definite, immediate TBR (thanks to the fact I have preordered it!) It’s releasing in November and is a trans Syrian-American ownvoices story about an artist who finds a tattered journal belonging to a famous Syrian artist who dedicated her life to painting birds, and who mysteriously vanished after meeting a rare bird, the same bird the main character’s mother saw before her death.

The Archive of the Forgotten by A. J. Hackwith

This is the second book on my immediate TBR as it’s another preorder, this one releasing October. The Archive of the Forgotten isn’t about a book, but more about lots of books: specifically, a library. It’s the second novel in one of my favourite fantasy series about Hell’s library, which began with The Library of the Unwritten. The Library of the Unwritten was one of the most fun books I’ve ever read so I can’t wait to read this when my preorder arrives! It’s out in October which means my preorder might reach Australia just in time for Christmas…

The Care and Feeding of Waspish Widows by Olivia Waite

I definitely will read this one at some point, I just haven’t got around to getting a copy yet! It’s the second novel in the Feminine Pursuits sapphic historical romance series and isn’t technically about a book per se, but it is about a bookbinder so I figured that’s good enough! This book also features bees so I am 100% sold on it.

The Binding by Bridget Collins

This is one of those books that has languished at the edge of my awareness since it was released and I’m sure I will to get it eventually. The Binding is set in a world where people visit bookbinders to get rid of painful memories; once their stories have been told and made into a book, their memories lose the power to harm them.

The Ten Thousand Doors of January by Alix E Harrow

This is another book that is kind of languishing at the edge of my awareness as something to read eventually. I’ve heard a lot of very good things about this book, but I sometimes struggle with very poetic, reflective writing styles which this one seems to be from reviews. I’m reading an ARC of Harrow’s second novel at the moment so depending on how much I like that one, will likely impact whether I’ll read this one sooner or later (or not at all…)

Those are my five books about books on my TBR, have you read any of these? Let me know in the comments below. I hope you all have a great week!

Books I need to read by the end of the year

Rach @ Anxious Nachos3 Comments

Hi everyone,

It’s almost October which is SCARY because this year has just flown by and I’ve lost all track of time. For the last few months, I’ve been rather overwhelmed by ARCs and library books and I’ve been watching in horror as my owned TBR grows ever larger and it makes me feel so guilty every time I look at it. I’m aiming to finish all outstanding ARCs for this year this month, and then spent the last three months of the year trying to make some headway into my physical TBR! So to make this a little bit more official and help push me to meet my goals, I thought I’d make a post all about the books that I need to read before year end!

Books I got in 2019 and still have not read

The Girl in Red by Christina Henry

The Surprising Power of a Good Dumpling by Wai Chim

The Outside by Ada Hoffmann

A Torch Against the Night by Sabaa Tahir

The Candle and the Flame by Nafiza Azad

Books I got before 2019 and still have not read (I’M SORRY)

A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara

The Phantom of the Opera by Gaston Leroux

Boys Will be Boys by Clementine Ford

Man Tiger by Eka Kurniawan

Most anticipated 2020 releases I need to read

The Empire of Gold by S.A Chakraborty

The Mermaid, the Witch and the Sea by Maggie Tokuda-Hall

Seven Devils by Laura Lam and Elizabeth May

All Boys Aren’t Blue by George M Johnson

The Mightnight Lie by Marie Rutkoski

Random backlist books I’ve acquired this year

Vita Nostra by Marina and Sergey Dyachenko

The Secret History by Donna Tartt

Fingersmith by Sarah Waters

The Trauma Cleaner by Sarah Krasnostein

Empire of Sand by Tasha Suri

Pheeeew. There’s 19 books on this list, which works out at just over 6 a month which is completely doable. But I am doing some readathons and whether I’m actually in the mood to read these may hurt my chances, so I guess we’ll see if I managed these goals in December! By writing it down, I am making everyone hold me accountable! Think postive thoughts! I can do this!

Book review: The Ikessar Falcon by K. S. Villoso

Rach @ Anxious Nachos1 Comment

Title: The Ikessar Falcon by K. S. Villoso

Publisher: Orbit

Publication date: 22 September 2020

Genre: Adult | Fantasy

Page extent: 640 pages

Rating:

Synopsis:

The Bitch Queen returns in The Ikessar Falcon, the action-packed sequel to K. S. Villoso’s acclaimed fantasy debut, The Wolf of Oren-Yaro.

Abandoned by her people, Queen Talyien’s quest takes a turn for the worse as she stumbles upon a plot deeper and more sinister than she could have ever imagined, one that will displace her king and see her son dead. The road home beckons, strewn with a tangled web of deceit and unimaginable horrors – creatures from the dark, mad dragons and men with hearts hungry for power.

To save her land, Talyien must confront the myth others have built around her: Warlord Yeshin’s daughter, symbol of peace, warrior and queen and everything she could never be.

The price for failure is steep. Her friends are few. And a nation carved by a murderer can only be destined for war.

WHAT JUST HAPPENED. This book is full of pain and I’m just jotting down all my thoughts immediately after finishing so prepare for a review which is basically just me screaming OH MY GOD the whole time. I love adult fantasy for many reasons, but there’s a few authors who I adore for one very simple reason: when you think everything is absolutely rock bottom for the characters you love, shit gets even worse. K. S. Villoso is one of those authors who does so exceptionally well that almost constantly throughout this book I was like okay this is it, we’re on the up, come on Talyien, I’m rooting for you! And a page later shit goes to absolute fuck. And I fucking love it.

The Ikessar Falcon is book 2 in the series that started with the incredible The Wolf of Oren-Yaro, which follows the Bitch Queen Talyien as she hunts down her husband who walked out of her life 5 years ago. We left Talyien in Zirano, where her husband Raayel had vowed to kill her son if he proved he wasn’t his. He has gone off to hunt down mages to assist him and Talyien is hot on his trail.

The Ikessar Falcon is one of those absolute masterpieces of fantasy, where the ridiculously tense and fast paced plot is just as brilliant as the deeply flawed characters keeping you hooked to the book. The four key players rile me so passionately whether I hate them or love them.

  • Talyien is just as powerful a character as we met in the first book, but in this sequel, she’s getting desperate. She is such a driven character, who makes deeply hurtful and flawed decisions in the path to save her son. There are moments I wanted to scream at her, dark moments where her actions got so low it’s so hard to stay on her side. But this is a desperate woman, one who will stop at anything to save her son who she loves more than anything in the world and even in her darkest hours, I still can’t help but admire her and the strength she has to do what’s needed, no matter the cost. (And fuck me, the cost is great).
  • Khine continues to be the most refreshing beacon of light in this book. In the midst of so much pain and darkenss, Khine shines with such hope and joy and love and his relationship with Talyien continues to be one of my favourite parts of this series.
  • Raayel continues to be on my list of most hated book characters, such is the fury he fills me with due to his hypocrisy. And I hated myself to see that I was kinda sorta maybe growing to like him by the end of this book. We get to spend a lot more time with him in this book, and so we see more of his motivations as well as see Talyien deal with her feelings and their history.
  • And Agos!! The new addition to my most hated book characters! I so adore books that can rile me up with such love and such hate towards the characters, because it shows me how exceptional that book truly is to cause such uncontrollable passion in me. Alongside Raayel, we also spent lot more time with Agos, we see the deep possessiveness he has of Talyien, the dark cloak of anger he wears and all of that dark violence and love comes to such an incredible climax at the end of the book.

Alongside the characters, we have a whole host of new elements to The Ikessar Falcon to intice us in. We spent a lot more time exploring the agan, with lots of new magical creature and creations for Talyien to run into. The highlight of these for me were the majestic, ferocious dragons who we meet. But I also loved just spending some more time around mages, finding out more about how the agan works. I really loved the blood magic element of this book, which we got more of at the start of the book. It was so dark and caused so much heartbreak. And it was so early in the book!! I was in awe at how Villoso has no fears about fucking up these characters, about putting them through hell and when they think they’re finally free, shit gets even worse. I was so shocked at some of the events in the first section of the book because so rarely do you see events THIS traumatic so early in a book. And as much pain as this causes me, I just absolutely love when authors don’t hold back and are willing to do the absolute worst to their characters.

Another, slightly more random thing I really noticed in this sequel was the fooooooood. I don’t know if I just missed it all in the first book or if it was genuinely more prominent in this one, but oh my god?! All of the food descriptions were incredible?! I was salivating the whole way through. I could not stop imagining this food, it just sounded so unbelievably delicious.

As you can probably tell, I adored this sequel! I love Villoso’s ability to completely destroy characters (and readers). I love that she isn’t afraid to play with pain, to make her characters really suffer, to take us to that edge of wow actually maybe these people that I love aren’t going to win. I love her way of writing such morally grey characters who fill you with either such love or hate (or both, hello Talyien from 80% through the book!!!) The Ikessar Falcon completely fulfilled all I hoped for and SO MUCH more. It also got me out of a reading slump so THANK YOU.

#5OnMyTBR: Classics

Rach @ Anxious Nachos5 Comments

#5OnMyTBR is a bookish meme hosted by E. @ Local Bee Hunter’s Nook and you can learn more about it here or in the post announcing it. It occurs every Monday when we post about 5 books on our TBR. Thank you E. for the awesome graphic for these posts as well!

Hi everyone,

I have been waiting for this week’s #5OnMyTBR because I’ve wanted to talk about several of these on previous weeks but thought I’d save them all for today’s classics theme! I’m doing the Gothtober readathon in October, a readathon celebrating gothic fiction, and several of these are on my TBR for it, I can’t wait to read some new gothic classics as well as reread some favourites.

Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier

Rebecca is one of my new classics, I’ve never actually read it. But, I want to read it before the Netflix film release near the end of October because I’m very much someone who needs to read the book before they watch something. I’m aware of the plot because it’s just one of those books where you kind of know what happens, but that doesn’t make me any less excited to finally read this!

The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde

This is another I’m planning to read for Gothtober. I have read this one, but it was absolutely years ago and I’m very much due a reread! Oscar Wilde is just such a fascinating person, he’s the one I always choose when I’m asked ‘who from history would you like to have a dinner party with’. One of my most precious books is a collection of his poetry in a hardback with foil that I found in a second hand bookshop and it’s so pretty.

Dracula by Bram Stoker

Of course, how could any gothic fiction readathon tbr be complete without Dracula?! This is another of my favourite classics, and is actually the novel I chose to write my dissertation on in my senior year (I pretty much wrote an essay on queer sexuality in Dracula and Carmilla and it was MUCH FUN).

The Phantom of the Opera by Gaston Leroux

The last classic on both this list and on my Gothtober TBR is The Phantom of the Opera, which despite being a HUGE fan of the muscial and the film version with Gerard Butler, I am ashamed to say I’ve never actually read… I will finally be righting this awful wrong in October!

Olivia by Dorothy Strachey

Last but definitely not least is the only non gothic classic on the list, huzzah! Olivia is “considered one of the most subtle and beautifully written lesbian novels of the century” therefore obviously I need to read it.

And those are five classics on my TBR! Are any of your favourite classics on this list? If not, what are your favourites? Let me know in the comments!