yourspookymom's reviews
216 reviews

While this had a slew of incredibly beautiful and heartbreaking passages, a strong story, and a unique look at mental illness, it just wasn’t for me. It was much more of a sci-fi story and the time/story jumping was a little confusing. Overall an easy and worth it read if you enjoy this time period and sci-fi horror!

Review to come!

Only the Stains Remain was very clearly a deeply, DEEPLY personal book. I do not claim to know if this is told from the author’s personal experience, but it seems to be clear that this is a topic that is very near and dear to his heart. I imagine that this was an incredibly difficult, yet cathartic story to write. 

There are some really stunning quotes in this short read. Some that will really stick with me, but I found it overall to be much to repetitive. It took away some of the tension and emotion by overstating the purpose of a tale such as this. None the less, I think this is an incredibly important novella to exist in the horror realm - especially given the prose. 

Not sure I get the hype around this - I don’t like when only like the last 15 minutes of a story.

Damn, this was WILD. I loved Transmuted by Eve Harms, so it was an honor to receive an ARC of this upcoming release. This short but effective novella is co-written with Mariah Darling. 

This is prime queer indie horror! It’s thought-provoking and sad at times, but it’s an unexpectedly wild ride that I think a lot of readers will have fun with. Had no idea where it was going, and then when you find out you’re quick to think “well, I didn’t see that coming!” 

Per usual, Harms’ writing is captivating and deliciously weird. Darling is a newer author for me and I’m excited to read more from her! An interesting concept and a great length for a story of this nature. You can tell they both put a lot of heart into this story. 

Out Feb 11th, 2025 and pre-orders are open now!

The best part of this was the Bonus Chapter 📍

Okay now THIS is a Ketchum I can get behind a bit easier. This was fantastic - haunting and had me at the edge of my seat. There’s an entire chapter from the POV of an 8 year old and it’s BRILLIANTLY written. Recommend this one for more extreme lovers!

It feels wrong writing a review on this and really, I am speechless. I’ve never read a more devastating and disturbing book as this one. It’s just not enjoyable at all. It’s a “curiosity killed the cat” type of read where you hear so much about it, you think you’d never read it, then you think one day you can do it…you do it and you really aren’t ever the same after. 

While you can’t even believe this ever truly happened to someone, it did. It very much did & I’m sure not even the surface of emotions, actions, and events were remotely encapsulated in this book. None of us will ever know truly how Meg felt. Because it’s something unimaginable. Why was this book written? This was a story that needs to be known, but did it need to be retold in a somewhat fictionalized novelization? You endure so much in these pages that I’m not sure I’ll ever fully understand why I read it, but I will say that Ketchum is a horror author that has explored the darkest corners of the human psyche and what happens when that breaks, and he’s done it well.  What happens when you’re just a young boy & everyone around you is constantly telling you it’s all okay? That is where the depravity of this story digs deep into the psyche of the reader and rips it to bloody, flapping shreds. 

At some point in our lives, we’ve all been that young girl & that young boy. We’ve all been kids that have grown into teens, have had crushes, have felt the flutter of attraction in our bellies, but what happens when those are clouded by the maniacal judgement of someone deeply, deeply unwell? An adult that has only shown you adoration and safety in the past? This book explores that madness and depravity in grave detail. 

While I recommend this novel to literally no one in the entire human existence, there is something profoundly impressive that one person took a story and reminded us all how deeply fragile human beings really are. 

This has been on my TBR for a long time - for the lovers of history, bogs, folk horror and bleak stories.  

Silvie’s father has taken her and her mother on an Iron Age reenactment trip with a professor and some students. Silvie’s father is abusive both mentally & physically and he uses his obsession with history to further drive home his abuse. 

I really feel like this did a nice job of bringing up topics around how some men carry this insufferable obsession with “history.” History how they perceive it and then over explain (one might say mansplain) to women - particularly to women who have a great appreciation for history, but I’m still not 100% I liked HOW it was done. These themes were almost too oversimplified. There wasn’t a lot of depth to the book itself - very surface level really. I think it had a purpose and achieved that purpose, but it had a lot of opportunity to dig deeper on these themes but in the end, chose not to. 

I really enjoyed the setting and the concept, but the execution fell flat. 

3/5

I absolutely LOVED the first Candy Cain, but this one didn’t deliver as strongly for me. Which isn’t saying a lot though because it still is a wonderful addition to the series. I appreciated the extension of Candy’s story and the ending was unexpected which is always nice, IMO! Definitely worth the read if you loved the first! McAuley’s writing always hits and he’s a wonderful storyteller!