Book Review | The Nightmare Girl by Jonathan Janz

The Nightmare Girl is a horror novel by Jonathan Janz.

When Joe Crawford confronts a young mother abusing her toddler in a gas station parking lot, he doesn't know the little boy will end up in a foster home. He doesn't know that the young mother will soon burn herself alive in grief and rage, nor does he know that the dead woman belonged to an ancient and monstrous fire cult who will stop at nothing to get revenge. After the young mom's suicide, Joe and his family are plagued by inexplicable events. One night Joe smells ashes in his daughter's nursery. A kindly old couple whose house Joe renovated is found butchered ritualistically. Pushed to his limit, Joe becomes friends with the local police chief Daryl Copeland, who decides to accompany Joe to the cult's isolated compound, where the chief is murdered and Joe is taken hostage. Joe awakens in the huge three-story house he has been renovating for a beautiful client and her husband. His lovely client turns out to be the leader of the fire cult. Joe and the little boy he saved at the beginning of the novel are the planned sacrifices of the cult's midsummer ceremony. Joe's wife and some local policemen save Joe, but in a wild shootout the house is set ablaze and the little boy is taken hostage upstairs. Joe is left to do battle alone against the cult.

Wow. Oh my God.

I'm such a fan of Jonathan Janz. His books are over-the-top, unsettling, and so much fun. I thought I knew what to expect when picking up a Janz novel, but I'm realizing I was wrong. We will be blessed with quite a few releases from Janz this year, and I'm excited to see where each book will take me. There was more than one scene in The Nightmare Girl that left me gasping and horrified. For me, humans are often the scariest of creatures.

While reading The Nightmare Girl, I was reminded of Janz's The Siren and the Specter as well as Joe Lansdale's Cold in July. I was pleased to see Lansdale mentioned in the acknowledgments at the end of The Nightmare Girl. Lansdale's influence on Janz's work is apparent, and I highly recommend them both.

If you haven't read Janz before, The Nightmare Girl is the perfect place to start. It was originally published before Samhain Publishing went under and has now been re-released through Flame Tree Press. If you enjoyed Janz's The Siren and the Specter, I think you will really dig this one as well.

⭐⭐⭐⭐★

Review copy provided by publisher

Book Review | Beneath the Sugar Sky by Seanan McGuire

Beneath the Sugar Sky is the third book in Seanan McGuire's Wayward Children series.

When Rini lands with a literal splash in the pond behind Eleanor West's Home for Wayward Children, the last thing she expects to find is that her mother, Sumi, died years before Rini was even conceived. But Rini can’t let Reality get in the way of her quest – not when she has an entire world to save! (Much more common than one would suppose.)

If she can't find a way to restore her mother, Rini will have more than a world to save: she will never have been born in the first place. And in a world without magic, she doesn’t have long before Reality notices her existence and washes her away. Good thing the student body is well-acquainted with quests...

A tale of friendship, baking, and derring-do.

Warning: May contain nuts.

If you've been following my reviews so far this year, you know I've been making my way through Seanan McGuire's Wayward Children series. This series is about children who have gone to fantasy worlds (similar to Alice or Narnia) and returned home.

These books are so imaginative. I'm really enjoying making my way through this series. Book 1 (Every Heart a Doorway) was set at the school for kids who were having trouble coping with their return from a fantasy world. Book 2 (Down Among the Sticks and Bones) was set in one of the dark fantasy worlds. Beneath the Sugar Sky was set in a Nonsense world.

There's a quote in the book that pretty much sums it all up:

"'We're teenagers in a magical land following a dead girl and a disappearing girl into a field of organic, pesticide-free candy corn,' said Kade. 'I think weird is a totally reasonable response to the situation.'"

I think this world was my least favorite simply because it was hard for me to worry about the fate of people in a world where the ground was made of graham crackers.

That being said, I did enjoy Beneath the Sugar Sky, and I absolutely loved the ending. I'm looking forward to finding out what's in store for us in book 4.

⭐⭐⭐⭐★

Book Review | Collision by J.S. Breukelaar

Collision is a short story collection by J.S. Breukelaar.

A collection of twelve of J.S. Breukelaar's darkest, finest stories with four new works, including the uncanny new novella "Ripples on a Blank Shore."

Introduction by award-winning author, Angela Slatter. Relish the gothic strangeness of "Union Falls," the alien horror of "Rogues Bay 3013," the heartbreaking dystopia of "Glow," the weird mythos of "Ava Rune," and others.

This collection from the author of American Monster and the internationally acclaimed and Aurealis Award finalist, Aletheia, announces a new and powerful voice in fantastical fiction.

Up next in my Women in Horror Month reviews is Collision by J.S. Breukelaar. Collision is a collection of short stories that extends past horror into all areas of speculative fiction.

This collection was my first encounter with J.S. Breukelaar's storytelling. I loved these strange and wonderful stories. I felt like I was taking a trip into Breukelaar's imagination.

These stories felt like they all had deeper meanings than what I was grasping on the page. I enjoyed each story, but I also felt like I was missing out on what Breukelaar was really sharing with each one. I was happy to find author notes for each tale at the end of the book. This was the perfect touch to conclude my journey through Collision.

I look forward to reading more of Breukelaar's work. I have a copy of Aletheia on my shelf that I can't wait to check out.

If you're a fan of strange and fantastic fiction (or you want to sample the work of J.S. Breukelaar), Collision is a great choice. The range of genres combined with the unexpected directions she takes in her stories make Collision a fun and interesting collection.

⭐⭐⭐⭐★

Review copy provided by publisher

Recent Updates and Currently Reading | February 17

I hope everyone had a great reading week this week. I had an excellent reading week with the exception of this huge mistake:

I read some of The Nightmare Girl on my lunch break today, and I left my book in my office. 😭 pic.twitter.com/CgSw10DlxW

— Jen | Book Den | LOHF (@BookDen) February 13, 2019

The next day I didn't have a chance to read at lunch so I forgot it again. I learned my lesson, and my current reads will continue to stay home from now on.

Posted Last Week

I posted my ⭐⭐⭐★★ review of Without Condition by Sonora Taylor.

Finished Reading

I finished reading Dead Moon by Peter Clines. ⭐⭐⭐⭐★

I also read The Nightmare Girl by Jonathan Janz. ⭐⭐⭐⭐★

Currently Reading

I'm back to reading the ladies!

The Ladies of Horror Fiction team is hosting a readalong of The Between by Tananarive Due. We are in the second week of the readalong, and I'm really enjoying it. I'm so glad I have a couple more Tananarive Due books on my shelf because I will need more of her writing after this one.

Finding Baba Yaga by Jane Yolen is written in verse, and I'm enjoying it so far.

I also started reading Collision by J.S. Breukelaar. So far the stories are strange and wonderful.

Recent Acquisitions

The Invited by Jennifer McMahon - Many thanks to Doubleday for sending me a copy of The Invited by Jennifer McMahon. This is supposed to be a "chilling ghost story with a twist". I'm here for it!

The Wolf and the Watchman by Niklas Natt och Dag - Historical fiction is a bit outside of my comfort zone, but The Wolf and the Watchman sounds amazing so I thank Atria Books for offering to send me a copy.

The Woman in the Window by A.J. Finn - I won a copy of The Woman in the Window from an Instagram giveaway. I need to finally see what the hype is about with this one.

So what about you? Let me know what you're reading this week or leave me some links!

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This post is being shared as part of Book Date's It's Monday! What Are You Reading? and Caffeinated Book Reviewer's The Sunday Post.

Book Review | Without Condition by Sonora Taylor

Without Condition is a horror/dark romance novel by Sonora Taylor.

Cara Vineyard lives a quiet life in rural North Carolina. She works for an emerging brewery, drives her truck late at night, and lives with her mother on a former pumpkin farm. Her mother is proud of her and keeps a wall displaying all of Cara’s accomplishments.

Cara isn’t so much proud as she is bored. She’s revitalized when she meets Jackson Price, a pharmacist in Raleigh. Every day they spend together, she falls for him a little more — which in turn makes her life more complicated. When Cara goes on her late-night drives, she often picks up men. Those men tend to die. And when Cara comes back to the farm, she brings a memento for her mother to add to her wall of accomplishments.

Cara’s mother loves her no matter what. But she doesn’t know if Jackson will feel the same — and she doesn’t want to find out.

I'm continuing my Women in Horror Month reviews with Without Condition by Sonora Taylor.

This is a tough review for me only because I was the wrong audience for this one.

The character development in Without Condition was great. I read this as a group read with several of the Ladies of Horror Fiction team, and we had some really great discussions after reading about the main character's childhood and experiences with bullying.

Without Condition was also well written and a quick read.

The only reason this wasn't a huge hit with me was it was less "horror" and more "dark romance". I'm just not a romance reader.

If you enjoy dark romance and need a great read for Women in Horror Month, Without Condition might be an excellent choice for you. I am definitely open to reading more of Sonora Taylor's work in the future.

⭐⭐⭐★★

Review copy provided by author