Title: Loteria Writer: Cynthia Pelayo Publishing House: Agora Books Date of Publication: February 21, 2023 Rating: 5 stars ‘’In a few hours I will take you with me on the journey to the other world because I can’t leave you, not ever again.’’ In a game of Loteria, there is a multitude of paths one…
Seven Empty Houses
Title: Seven Empty Houses Writer: Samanta Schweblin (translated by Megan McDowell) Publishing House: Riverhead Books Date of Publication: October 18, 2022 (First published May 1, 2015) Rating: 5 stars Houses are our shelter. The space where memories are created. The places where we develop our personalities, where we are raised, where we raise our families…
White Fur
Title: White Fur Writer: Jardine Libaire Publishing House: Weidenfeld & Nicolson Date of Publication: May 30, 2017 Rating: 5 stars ‘’I’ll do anything in the world for you.’’ Elise and Jamey meet in New Haven in 1986. It doesn’t matter whether theirs is ‘love at first sight’ or not. The bond swiftly developed between them…
The Platform Edge: Uncanny Tales of the Railways
Title: The Platform Edge: Uncanny Tales of the Railways Writer: Various, edited by Mike Ashley Publishing House: British Library Publishing Date of Publication: January 18th 2019 Rating: 5 stars ‘’Our love affair with trains – especially steam trains – is matched by our fear of them. Who amongst us has not, at one time or…
Armagh Folk Tales
Title: Armagh Folk Tales Writer: Frances Quinn Publishing House: THP Ireland Date of Publication: March 3rd 2014 Rating: 3 stars ‘’Like many counties in Ireland, stories are in the DNA of the people. The landscape is the fabric of the stories – what sews us together or unfortunately, at times, rips us apart. Stories are…
The Whistling
Title: The Whistling Writer: Rebecca Netley Publishing House: Michael Joseph Date of Publication: October 14th 2021 Rating: 5 stars ‘’As I neared Iskar, my eyes drifted to Hettie’s window, and something against the pane stopped me in my tracks. I pinned my attention to it and was assailed with a spike of disquiet. As I…
Haunters at the Hearth: Eerie Tales For Christmas Nights
Title: Haunters at the Hearth: Eerie Tales for Christmas Nights Writer: Various edited by Tanya Kirk Publishing House: British Library (Tales of the Weird) Date of Publication: October 2022 Rating: 5 stars ”There was a little snow on the ground, and the church clock had just struck midnight. Hampstead in the night of winter for…
Ghosts of Christmas Past
Title: Ghosts of Christmas Past Writer: Various edited by Tim Martin Publishing House: John Murray Date of Publication: October 19th 2017 Rating: 5 stars ”And what a long night it is, out there beyond the warm rooms and the firelight. Don’t worry about the noises. Ignore the moving shapes. It’s time to step out. Turn…
Stories for Christmas and the Festive Season
Τitle: Stories for Christmas and the Festive Season Writer: Various Publishing House: British Library Publishing Date of Publication: October 13th 2022 Rating: 4 stars ”To me, it’s the one time you are really a child at heart, however old you may be. It’s a time of lovely, darling surprises, of, for once, reaping the benefit…
Spectral Sounds
Title: Spectral Sounds: Unquiet Tales of Acoustic Weird Writer: Various edited by Manon Burz-Labrande Publishing House: British Library Publishing Date of Publication: September 22nd 2022 Rating: 5 stars ‘’Don’t you want to hear me speak my piece?’’ The Invisible Tenants of Rushmere (Florence Marryat): The young couple who rented Rushmere thought they had found the…
The Dutch House
Title: The Dutch House Writer: Ann Patchett Publishing House:Bloomsbury Publishing Date of Publication: September 24th 2019 Rating: 5 stars ‘’If you lived in Jenkintown in 1968 or went to school at Choate, chances were good you’d cross paths with most of the people there eventually, even if just to nod and say hello, but New…
Before Your Memory Fades
Title: Before Your Memory Fades Writer: Toshikazu Kawaguchi (translated by Geoffrey Trousselot) Publishing House: Picador Date of Publication: August 30th 2022 (first published September 2018) Rating: 5 stars ‘’I don’t like the idea of dying with regrets.’’ In the café Donna Donna in beautiful Hakodate, lives are unfolding as autumn approaches. A heartbroken daughter wants…
Hare House
Title: Hare House Writer: Sally Hinchcliffe Publishing House: Mantle Date of Publication: January 6th 2022 Rating: 5 stars ‘’We walked through a landscape bleached with frost, the earth standing hard and frozen. Ice crept everywhere. Even the streams had begun to freeze, ice fingering out from their edges, tombing them over. Yet the cold left…
The Lottery and Other Stories
Title: The Lottery and Other Stories Writer: Shirley Jackson Publishing House: Penguin Modern Classics Date of Publication: October 2009 Rating: 5 stars ”The only town lights were the street lights, the lights in the all-night lunchstand across the street, and the one remaining counter lamp in the bus station where the girl sat in the…
Mortal Echoes: Encounters With the End
Title: Mortal Echoes: Encounters with the End Writer: Various, edited by Greg Buzwell Publishing House: British Library Publishing Date of Publication: August 1st 2019 Rating: 5 stars ” ‘ You’re not really dying, are you?’ ” asked Amanda. ” ‘I have the doctor’s permission to live till Tuesday,” said Laura. ” Strange Even in the…
The Doll: Short Stories
Title: The Doll: Short Stories Writer: Daphne du Maurier Publishing House: Virago Modern Classics Date of Publication: 2011 Rating: 5 stars ”There was only the island. Beyond it lay the ghostly, the intangible; the truth was in the seared rock, in the touch of the soil, in the sound of the waves breaking against the…
Checkmate to Murder
Title: Checkmate to Murder Writer: E.C.R.Lorac Publishing House: British Library Crime Classics Date of Publication: August 10th 2020 (first published 1944) Rating: 5 stars As London descends into the familiar darkness of war, a man of questionable morality is murdered. The fog cannot hide the frightened young man who is arrested for the murder of his…
Murder of a Lady
Title: Murder of a Lady Writer: Anthony Wynne Publishing House: British Library Crime Classics Date of Publication: January 4th 2016 (first published 1931) Rating: 5 stars ”Autumn was dressing herself in her scarlets and saffrons; already the air held that magical quality of light which belongs only to diminishing days and which seems to be…
Death of a Bookseller
Title: Death of a Bookseller Writer: Bernard J. Farmer Publishing House: British Library Crime Classics Date of Publication: March 17th 2022 (first published 1931) Rating: 5 stars A book collector is found murdered in his study, surrounded by valuable volumes. His friend, Sergeant Wigan, helps in arresting the alleged murderer. But what if the wrong…
The Black Dreams: Strange Stories from Northern Ireland
Title: The Black Dreams: Strange Stories from Northern Ireland Writer: Various edited by Reggie Chamberlain- King Publishing House: Blackstaff Press Date of Publication: October 4th 2021 Rating: 5 stars ”A dream possesses all of Northern Ireland and Northern Ireland is a sort of fairyland too. It is a place of outspoken symbols and unspoken rules,…
The Dovekeepers
Title: The Dovekeepers Writer: Alice Hoffman Publishing House: Simon and Schuster Date of Publication: October 4th 2011 Rating: 5 stars ”We came like doves across the desert. In a time when there was nothing but death, we were grateful for anything, and most grateful of all when we awoke to another day.” Yael. A woman…
Α Little London Scandal
Title: A Little London Scandal Writer: Miranda Emmerson Publishing House: Fourth Estate Date of Publication: August 6th 2020 Rating: 5 stars ‘’And I know I don’t really fit in but someone has to ask the questions.’’ Anna Treadway embarks on a quest in what many consider the ‘’shady’’ parts of London, to save a young…
Murder By The Book: Mysteries For Bibliophiles
Title: Murder By The Book: Mysteries For Bibliophiles Writer: Various, edited by Martin Edwards Publishing House: British Library Crimes Classics Date of Publication: August 10th 2021 Rating: 5 stars ‘’That’s our daily job, inventing stories; making a definite pattern of a number of incidents. Dammit, I could contrive some sort of story out of any…
Tales of the Mist
Title: Tales of the Mist (original title: Los Cuentos de la Niebla) Writer: Laura Suárez Publishing House: Europe Comics Date of Publication: May 20th 2020 (first published April 5th 2019) Rating: 5 stars ”When I looked through the window the wind blew through the trees, their shadows spreading far. Souls would appear, trembling and searching,…
First Person Singular
Title: First Person Singular Writer: Haruki Murakami (translated by Philip Gabriel) Publishing House: Harvill Secker Date of Publication: April 6th 2021 (first published July 2020) Rating: 2 stars ‘’But the whole neighbourhood was still and silent, as if the dense clouds above had swallowed up all sound.’’ Cream: A young man is invited to a…
Escape Routes
Title: Escape Routes Writer: Naomi Ishiguro Publishing House: Tinder Press Date of Publication: February 6th 2020 Rating: 5 stars ‘’I can climb out on to the roof from the windows and see the whole metropolis stretched out before me, those hundreds of buildings – white, or grey, or black, depending on how filthy they are…
How to Make Paper When the World is Ending
Title: How to Make Paper When the World Is Ending Writer: Dallas Woodburn Publishing House: Koehler Books Date of Publication: June 28th 2022 Rating: 5 stars ‘’But sometimes stories are all we have.’’ Story to Tell Around a Campfire: The narrator instructs us how to tell the tale of Hannah and Mark, a couple who…
O Caledonia
Title: O Caledonia Writer: Elspeth Barker Publishing House: Weidenfeld Nicolson Date of Publication: March 29th 2022 (first published August 19th 1991) Rating: 5 stars ‘’At night, when the moon is high it beams through the dying cockatoo and casts his blood drops in a chain of rubies on to the flagstones of the hall. Here…
How to Gut a Fish
Title: How to Gut a Fish Writer: Sheila Armstrong Publishing House: Bloomsbury Date of Publication: February 17th 2022 Rating: 5 stars ‘’The weakness in the soil first appears at dusk in the centre of a ring of stones in a field. A small copse of trees weave around banks of raised earth, and the exposed…
The Mapmakers (Cordelia Hatmaker#2)
Title: The Mapmakers (Cordelia Hatmaker#2) Writer: Tamzin Merchant Publishing House: Puffin Date of Publication: February 17th 2022 Rating: 5 stars ‘’Our hats are a bit like books,’’ Cordelia began. ‘’They contain magic, but it’s up to the person reading the book to bring the magic to life. Without the reader, the magic just sits there….
Black Narcissus
Title: Black Narcissus Writer: Rumer Godden Publishing House: Virago Press (UK) Date of Publication: February 1st 2013 (first published 1939) Ratings: 5 stars ‘’Look at the eagles,’ he said. In the gulf eagles were flying, circling round one small spot in the air. Higher and higher they flew, but still they could not reach the…
Tales of the Sea: Traditional Stories of Magic and Adventure from around the World
Title: Tales of the Sea: Traditional Stories of Magic and Adventure from around the World Writer: Traditional, illustrated by Maggie Chiang Publishing House: Chronicle Books Date of Publication: March 22nd 2022 Rating: 5 stars ‘’Come, sit beside me, Walter, and let us talk of love.’’ The Betrothed of Destiny (Armenia): The people of Armenia know…
Serpents in Eden : Countryside Crimes
Title: Serpents in Eden Writer: Various, edited by Martin Edwards Publishing House: British Library Crime Classics Date of Publication: March 1st 2016 Rating: 5 stars ‘’It was a day of cloud, and the very air over the moors was grey, and the long waves of heather were dark as the black earth, the distant woodland…
Miss Treadway and the Field of Stars
Title: Miss Treadway and the Field of Stars Writer: Miranda Emmerson Publishing House: 4th Estate GB Date of Publication: August 2nd 2017 (first published February 28th 2017) Rating: 5 stars ‘’Everything can be given a price if someone chooses’, her mother said. ‘It doesn’t have to make sense to us, Anna. So little of the…
Weird Woods: Tales from the Haunted Forests of Britain
Title: Weird Woods: Tales from the Haunted Forests of Britain Writer: Various edited by John Miller Publishing House: British Library Publishing Date of Publication: August 27th 2020 Rating: 5 stars ‘’These are the aspects of our experience of nature that cannot be offset; the history of a place cannot be traded off against the history…
The Sister Who Ate Her Brothers: And Other Gruesome Tales
Title: The Sister Who Ate Her Brothers: And Other Gruesome Tales Writer: Jen Campbell (illustrated by Adam de Souza) Publishing House: Thames & Hudson Date of Publication: November 23rd 2021 Rating: 5 stars “It just so happened that the gardener did know of a house with a thousand rooms. It sat on the top of…
The First Person and Other Stories
Title: The First Person and Other Stories Writer: Ali Smith Publishing House: Hamish Hamilton Ltd Date of Publication: January 2nd 2008 Rating: 5 stars ‘’Williams Carlos Williams says that the short story, which acts like the flare of a match struck in the dark, is the only real form for describing the briefness, the brokenness…
The Ghost Factory
Title: The Ghost Factory Writer: Jenny McCartney Publishing House: Fourth Estate Date of Publication: March 21st 2019 Rating: 5 stars ‘’We called our situation the Troubles, and the longer it had dragged on the more fitting that genteel euphemism became. The murdering was sporadic but fully expected, like some recurrent, rumbling agony in your unmentionables….
Western Isles Folk Tales
Title: Western Isles Folk Tales Writer: Ian Stephen Publishing House: The History Press Date of Publication: February 1st 2015 (first published October 15th 2014) Rating: 5 stars “Where the Northern Ocean, in vast whirls, Boils round the naked, melancholy isles Of farthest Thule; and the Atlantic surge Pours in among the stormy Hebrides.” Charlotte Bronté…
Out There:Stories
Title: Out There: Stories Writer: Kate Folk Publishing House: Random House Date of Publication: March 29th 2022 Rating: 5 stars ‘’By night our bones dissolve into our blood like sugar in tea. We sleep in anti-gravity pods with slick outer shells and vinyl interiors, our limbs held by Velcro straps, our torsos bound by cuirasses…
Ceredigion Folk Tales
Title: Ceredigion Folk Tales Writer: Peter Stevenson Publishing House: The History Press Date of Publication: May 1st 2014 Rating: 5 stars ‘’These stories are of another world, an Otherworld so familiar to the folk of Ceredigion 100 years ago; exotic and enticing, dark and dangerous, curious and comical, a world of the marginalised and misunderstood,…
Water Shall Refuse Them
Title: Water Shall Refuse Them Writer: Lucie McKnight Hardy Publishing House: Dead Ink Date of Publication: July 4th 2019 Rating: 5 stars ‘’There’s a special time of day, when light is caught in limbo. Dusk: that time when the twilight dips to a level where light and dark start to merge, and everything takes on…
Panics
Title: Panics (original title: Viens Writer: Barbara Molinard (translated by Emma Ramadan) Publishing House: The Feminist Press Date of Publication: August 9th 2022 (first published 1969) Rating: 5 stars ‘’EVERYTHING BARBARA MOLLINARD HAS WRITTEN HAS BEEN TORN TO SHREDS. The texts that follow were also torn to shreds. They were put back together, torn up…
Τhe Shape of Darkness
Title:The Shape of Darkness Writer: Laura Purcell Publishing House: Raven Books Date of Publication: January 21st 2021 Rate: 5 stars ‘’Shadows flee across the cobbles and climb up walls. Agnes has spent her life studying them, but she has not appreciated their sheer number until tonight. She sees shadows thrown by a dancing flame, the…
Offshore
Title: Offshore Writer: Penelope Fitzgerald Publishing House: Fourth Estate Date of Publication: March 28th 2013 (first published 1979) Rating: 5 stars ‘’I can’t do the things that women can’t do,’ she said. ‘I can’t turn over The Times so that the pages lie flat, I can’t fold up a map in the right creases, I…
Ιnto the London Fog: Eerie Tales from the Weird City
Title: Into the London Fog: Eerie Tales from the Weird City Writer: Various, edited by Elizabeth Dearnley Publishing House: British Library Publishing Date of Publication: August 20th 2020 Rating: 5 stars ‘’Like London fog itself, the power of the weird tale lies in its potential to suddenly shift from benign to baleful as the light…
Dead Relatives
Τitle: Dead Relatives Writer: Lucie McKnight Hardy Publishing House: Dead Ink Date of Publication: October 21st 2021 Rating: 5 stars ‘’The garden lies quiet, as if it’s sleeping. Nothing grows this late in November, and everything is sad and grey. The only thing of beauty is the lake that lies at the bottom of the…
The Schoolhouse
Title:The Schoolhouse Writer: Sophie Ward Publishing House: Corsair Date of Publication: May 5th 2022 Rating: 5 stars ‘’The university library was housed in an unimposing corner of North London, halfway up the Holloway Road. A small campus occupied the grounds of a former landfill site and seagulls still circled overhead, drawn by the scent of…
Drift
Title: Drift Writer: Caryl Lewis Publishing House:Random House UK Date of Publication: April 21st 2022 Rating: 5 stars ‘’A ripple. A disturbance on the sea that didn’t settle. Something that couldn’t be let go, and the warmth of the sun would magnify it into wind. And the wind would worry it until the weaves and…
Angela Carter’s Book of Fairy Tales
Title: Angela Carter’s Book of Fairy Tales Writer: Edited by Angela Carter, illustrated by Corinna Sargood Publishing House: Virago Date of Publication: January 1st 2005 (first published 1992) Rating: 5 stars ‘’Little lady, little lady’’, said the boys, ‘’little Alexandra, listen to the watch, tick tick tick: mother in the room all decked in gold.’’…
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