Spooky Quick Reviews

A House With Good Bones by T. Kingfisher (2023)

Sam is excited to spend some time with her mom, but when she arrives, something is off - her mom has lost a lot of weight, made odd changes to the house, and seems very anxious.  As Sam tries to figure out what's going on, she makes some startling, and frightening, discoveries.  This was a quick read with plenty of gory and spooky moments, although not everything worked for me.  I appreciate the length and pacing of this novel - it kept the action moving with very little filler.  We are thrust pretty quickly into this unnerving old home and can see right away that something is off with Sam's mom, although she tries to play it off.  There is a lot packed into it, sometimes to its detriment - it often felt like there were too many things going on, between bugs and roses and haunted houses and vultures and witches and mother-daughter relationships and family secrets.  Sam was another issue for me - her attempts at humor felt lame, like she was trying too hard.  I'm sure some people will find her funny and charming, but I didn't.  But, I don't read a ton of horror and there were some good moments of that here.  3.5 stars

Ghost Station by S.A. Barnes (2024)

Dr. Ophelia Bray, amidst personal and professional issues, joins a space exploration team during a visit to an abandoned planet.  Bray researches an illness called ERS, which is a space-based illness that can have disastrous effects.  She wants to work with the team to prevent further problems, but the crew is more concerned about exploring the alien planet and figuring out what happened to the previous research team - and hiding things from Dr. Bray.  Barnes' previous space horror novel was a hit for me, so I was excited for this one.  Although I felt the pacing was very slow, I still enjoyed this one.  I love stories set in space - it just makes everything feel more tense, and the abandoned nature of the planet only adds to this.  As we learn more about Dr. Bray, she does come across as somewhat of an unreliable narrator, as if she can't even trust herself.  The other team members are not as well fleshed out, which is kind of a bummer since the real action of the story takes so long to happen.  Once it does, though, it moves along very quickly, and I was swept up in finding out what would happen to the crew.  It does get a bit gory at times, so be wary of that.  4 stars

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