This October I gave myself a reading list, something dark academia to start off, an Edgar Allan Poe retelling in the middle, and a gay werewolf to end it!
Mini reviews of each title below:
Summer Sons / Lee Mandelo
Lee Mandelo’s Summer Sons is full of heat and chills. Clashing together fast cars and academic intrigue, this book took me on a wild ride. Honestly not something I would normally consider reading, but I felt very intrigued by the cover and it’s back cover blurb. I remember seeing it stick out between all of the older horror mass markets at my book store, and knowing I had found something special lost up high in the stacks. After climbing down the ladder I sat down on it’s last step and was instantly hooked after reading:
“Lee Mandelo’s Summer Sons is a sweltering, queer southern gothic that crosses Appalachian street racing with academic intrigue, all haunted by a hungry ghost.”
- back cover
And I was not disappointed. Not even halfway through the book I had already added some of Mandelo’s other work to my TBR. A must read if you are looking for anything gothic and queer. This book will drag you through grief, pain and high speed racing. Buckle in!
What Moves the Dead / T. Kingfisher
I LOVED THIS ONE! It was so great and gothic and perfect. And I loves hares. This one was a re-imagining of Edgar Alan Poe’s The Fall of the House of Usher, which leans heavily into everything fungal about the Original.
“The first thing I noticed was that Poe is really into fungi. He devotes more words to the fungal emanations than he does to Madeline.”
- author’s note
This book had me gripped and reading it late into the night. Really amazing work, I don’t want to talk about the story to much lest I give it away! Definitely add this one to your TBR if you are at all interested in fungi.
Bored Gay Werewolf / Tony Santorella
I wanted something campy and fun to end off my October reading, and this book filled it’s role nice and neatly. Nothing too spectacular about this one, and honestly not sure why it was in the horror section at Chapters! Definitely more of an urban fantasy, with not as much werewolf action as I was expecting. I still had a good time reading this one though!
Review I found on StoryGraph that made me laugh:
“I hoped for werewolf shenanigans but also ended up being a bored gay werewolf reading this *sobbing emoji*”
- spidergoo