Anticipated October 2023 Releases!

October has become one of my favorite months over the past couple years, so I'm excited to share some of the many amazing books coming out in October! It looks like there are a ton of spooky books, as well as plenty of non-horror books for those who may not be as big a fan of them–basically, there's just a lot of awesome books coming out in October, so be sure to have a look and also let me know what October releases you're most looking forward to!

Starling House by Alix E. Harrow || October 3rd -- Amazon | Bookshop.org

Nestlings by Nat Cassidy || October 31st -- Amazon | Bookshop.org

Red River Seven by A.J. Ryan || October 10th -- Amazon | Bookshop.org

Knock Knock, Open Wide by Neil Sharpson || October 3rd -- Amazon | Bookshop.org

The Paleontologist by Luke Dumas || October 31st -- Amazon | Bookshop.org

Last to Leave the Room by Caitlin Starling || October 10th -- Amazon | Bookshop.org

A Haunting on the Hill by Elizabeth Hand || October 3rd -- Amazon | Bookshop.org

Saevus Corax Deals with the Dead by K.J. Parker || October 3rd -- Amazon | Bookshop.org

Curious Tides by Pascale Lacelle || October 3rd -- Amazon | Bookshop.org

These Burning Stars by Bethany Jacobs || October 17th -- Amazon | Bookshop.org

Lilith by Nikki Marmery || October 17th -- Amazon | Bookshop.org

House Gone Quiet by Kelsey Norris || October 17th -- Amazon | Bookshop.org

The Dead Take the A Train by Cassandra Khaw, Richard Kadrey || October 3rd -- Amazon | Bookshop.org

Two Twisted Crowns by Rachel Gillig || October 17th -- Amazon | Bookshop.org

Silent x City by Sarah Davis Goff || October 17th -- Amazon | Bookshop.org

Bittersweet in the Hollow by Kate Pearsall || October 10th -- Amazon | Bookshop.org

Shield Maiden by Sharon Emmerichs || October 3rd -- Amazon | Bookshop.org

Death Valley by Melissa Broder || October 3rd -- Amazon | Bookshop.org

All that Consumes Us by Erica Waters || October 17th -- Amazon | Bookshop.org

What the River Knows by Isabel Ibanez || October 31st -- Amazon | Bookshop.org

Some People Need Killing: A Memoir of Murder in My Country by Patricia Evangelista || October 17th -- Amazon | Bookshop.org

The House of Doors by Tan Twan Eng || October 17th -- Amazon | Bookshop.org

Geneva by Richard Armitage || October 10th -- Amazon | Bookshop.org

People to Follow by Olivia Worley || October 31st -- Amazon | Bookshop.org

What are your anticipated October releases?

Review: Starling House by Alix E. Harrow

      

Starling House by Alix E. Harrow

Tor Books

Publication Date: October 3rd, 2023

Hardcover. 320 pages.

About Starling House:

"Eden, Kentucky, is just another dying, bad-luck town, known only for the legend of E. Starling, the reclusive nineteenth-century author and illustrator who wrote The Underland--and disappeared. Before she vanished, Starling House appeared. But everyone agrees that it’s best to let the uncanny house―and its last lonely heir, Arthur Starling―go to rot.

Opal knows better than to mess with haunted houses or brooding men, but an unexpected job offer might be a chance to get her brother out of Eden. Too quickly, though, Starling House starts to feel dangerously like something she’s never had: a home.

As sinister forces converge on Starling House, Opal and Arthur are going to have to make a dire choice to dig up the buried secrets of the past and confront their own fears, or let Eden be taken over by literal nightmares. If Opal wants a home, she’ll have to fight for it."

Starling House really surprised me! I’ve had very hit or miss experiences with Harrow’s previous work (The Ten Thousand Doors of January didn’t quite hit, but I had fun with her Fractured Fables novellas), so I was really unsure how I would like this one. Starling House sounded pretty different from some of her previous work so I was excited to check it out, and I ended up really enjoying it.

Starling House takes place in Eden, Kentucky, a small town that is somewhat forgotten, in a sense. It’s a quiet, rather depressing town where not that many people seem to come or go. A lot of not great things seem to happen in Eden, and people there seem have a lot of bad luck. It also has a rather haunted atmosphere, largely due to the existence of the ominous Starling House. The Starling House was once home to a slew of members of the Starling family and has experienced a plague of deaths throughout its mysterious history. Townspeople know of only one heir living there now, the mysterious Arthur Starling who keeps entirely to himself and is pretty much never seen around town–and this is pretty much where our story starts.

In Starling House, we mainly follow Opal and Arthur, with Opal being our main POV for a majority of the book. Opal is someone who’s really just trying her best and doing what she can to get by and make the most of things for her brother. Her brother is still in high school, and Opal has basically taken care of him on her own for a number of years since her mom died. The siblings live rent free at a local motel due to a past arrangement their mother made with the owner, and overall, it’s not really a great existence for them. They really have to scrape by most days while Opal works to find a way to get her brother a better life. Opal is an incredibly determined person who is not about to let anything get in the way of her goals. I really appreciated her attitude, as she’s not someone to let things scare her easily, and even if she is scared, she’s really the type to just barrel through anything because, well, she has to do what she has to do.

Opal also understandably struggles with some past trauma and mental struggles from the difficult life she’s led, so it was particularly compelling to follow her on this journey and really get into her head to understand where she’s coming from. I think Harrow handled this aspect of Opal’s story really well and conveyed Opal’s many different experiences and emotions well. There's a few times where some decisions she makes are frustrating, but for the most part, I actually found her a pretty intelligent person to follow, which is always refreshing. And she has some great sass and dry humor that worked really well for me in this book.

Then, we have Arthur. We don’t get as many POV chapters from Arthur, though is still a rather prominent character. He’s your sort of typical dark, quiet, mysterious man who acts like he doesn’t have a lot of emotions and doesn’t care about a lot of things, but you can sort of tell that there’s some compassion and softness lurking underneath that tough, misunderstood exterior. I liked seeing Opal and Arthur’s interactions grow from jilted and cautious to still jilted but more comfortable. There’s a lot of humor written into the way they interact, and their dialogue is entertaining as well, which brings some levity to the darker tone of the novel.

Starling House’s pacing is on the slower side, but it’s a very consistent slowness that fits well with the tone of the novel. It’s not slow in a dragging sense, but more of a thoughtful and purposeful sense. We jump pretty quickly into interaction with the Starling House and learning more about its history, but there’s a stability to much of the plotting that leaves things feeling consistent and easy to follow. I think there are a few areas where there are a number of somewhat predictable plot points having to do with communication and misunderstandings and background of characters/history, which did slow things down slightly for more, but nothing overly drastic that made me want to stop reading the book.

Harrow has a very compelling writing style, and Starling House really proves to me that she has a very wide range and ability to write different styles. Starling House embodies much of the flowing prose of some of her previous novels, but is not overdone and has a slightly more simplistic style to it that reminds me more of her novellas and feels a bit more accessible. It was really easy to get into the mindset of both Opal and Arthur, and also to feel like you are really a part of this somewhat dreary town struggling to get through life.

I didn’t have too many problems with this book, but there were still a couple things that didn’t work for me. I felt as though Arthur’s character was a bit stereotypical in nature, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but did make him a little less compelling to me since I felt like I’d read about him a million times before. Similarly, the romance the develops between the two main characters was just a little overdone and seemed forced in some ways that frustrated me, as I really think this would have worked well without a romantic connection between the two. And lastly, I’d say that this was sold to me as being a bit spookier and more haunting, when the reality is that it’s more dreary and gloomy in tone than actually scary. This isn’t really a bad thing, it just doesn’t quite match with how it’s been marketed.

Overall, I’ve given Starling House 4 stars! If you’re looking for a compelling and atmospheric read to evoke the gloomy aspect perfect for fall, then you’re in the right place.

*I received a copy of Starling House courtesy of the publisher in exchange for an honest review.*

Buy the book: Amazon | Bookshop.org

Can't-Wait Wednesday: The Dead Take the A Train by Cassandra Khaw, The Witches at the End of the World by Chelsea Iversen, & Richard Kadrey, A Haunting on the Hill by Elizabeth Hand, & Silent City by Sarah Davis-Goff

    

Can't-Wait is a weekly meme hosted by Wishful Endings that spotlights exciting upcoming releases that we can't wait to be released! This meme is based off of Jill @ Breaking the Spine's Waiting on Wednesday meme.

This week's upcoming book spotlights are:

The Dead Take the A Train by Cassandra Khaw & Richard Kadrey
Publication: October 3rd, 2023
Tor Nightfire
Hardcover. 400 pages.
Pre-order: Amazon | Bookshop.org

From Goodreads:
"Bestselling authors Cassandra Khaw and Richard Kadrey have teamed up to deliver a dark new story with magic, monsters, and mayhem, perfect for fans of Neil Gaiman and Joe Hill.

Julie Crews is a coked-up, burnt-out thirty-something who packs a lot of magic into her small body. She’s been trying to establish herself in the NYC magic scene, and she’ll work the most gruesome gigs to claw her way to the top.

Julie is desperate for a quick career boost to break the dead-end grind, but her pleas draw the attention of an eldritch god who is hungry for revenge. Her power grab sets off a deadly chain of events that puts her closest friends – and the entire world – directly in the path of annihilation.

The first explosive adventure in the Carrion City Duology, The Dead Take the A Train fuses Khaw’s cosmic horror and Kadrey’s gritty fantasy into a full-throttle thrill ride straight into New York’s magical underbelly."

This sounds incredibly wacky, and I'm here for it!

The Witches at the End of the World by Chelsea Iversen
Publication: October 17th, 2023
Sourcebooks Landmark
Hardcover. 307 pages.
Pre-order: Amazon | Bookshop.org

From Goodreads:
"Rage burns brighter than any spellfire…  Deep in the birchwoods of Norway, magic courses through the veins of two sisters. For years they've been alone, but sweet-tempered Kaija is tired of living in shadows and longs for a life filled with community, even if it means stifling her magic. But Minna is a witch through and through, with wrath always simmering just below the surface. Different as they may be, both will never forget the day they were driven from their village. The day their mother burned.  When Kaija leaves to pursue a new life, Minna is left alone in the darkness of the forest. Devastated and outraged at the betrayal, Minna casts a curse to punish those who took everything from her. What she doesn't realize is that this act will incite a deadly chain of events. Soon it will destroy everything, including the life Kaija has lovingly built. But once a witch's rage boils, regret means nothing―she can't take back what's already done.   Someone will have to burn."

I am always up for a good witchy book in October and this sounds absolutely perfect for the season! 

A Haunting on the Hill by Elizabeth Hand
Publication: October 3rd, 2023
Mulholland Books
Hardcover. 336 pages.
Pre-order: Amazon | Bookshop.org

From Goodreads:
"From three-time Shirley Jackson, World Fantasy, and Nebula Award-winning author Elizabeth Hand comes the first-ever authorized novel to return to the world of Shirley Jackson's  The Haunting of Hill House:  a suspenseful, contemporary, and terrifying story of longing and isolation all its own.

Holly Sherwin has been a struggling playwright for years, but now, after receiving a grant to develop her play, The Witch of Edmonton, she may finally be close to her big break. All she needs is time and space to bring her vision to life. When she stumbles across Hill House on a weekend getaway upstate, she is immediately taken in by the ornate, if crumbling, gothic mansion, nearly hidden outside a remote village. It’s enormous, old, and ever-so eerie—the perfect place to develop and rehearse her play.

Despite her own hesitations, Holly’s girlfriend, Nisa, agrees to join Holly in renting the house out for a month, and soon a troupe of actors, each with ghosts of their own, arrive. Yet as they settle in, the house’s peculiarities are made known: strange creatures stalk the grounds,  disturbing sounds echo throughout the halls, and time itself seems to shift.  All too soon, Holly and her friends find themselves at odds not just with one another, but with the house itself. It seems something has been waiting in Hill House all these years, and it no longer intends to walk alone . . ."

I feel nervous about this taking on Hill House, but I also love The Haunting of Hill House so much that I love this chance to revisit it. 

Silent City by Sarah Davis-Goff
Publication: October 17th, 2023
Flatiron Books
Hardcover. 256 pages.
Pre-order: Amazon | Bookshop.org

From Goodreads:
"Orpen has always been an outlier in Phoenix City - the only outsider ever admitted to the ranks of the banshees, the female warriors who enforce order, and protect it from the skrake - the ravening creatures that have laid waste to the rest of the country, and gather at the city walls.

Unrest is building in the city - a deadly sickness is spreading through the workers, while an unspoken disillusionment is creeping amongst the fighting women, weary of enforcing the all-male management's patriarchal rule, and of the cost, to their sisters, and to young new recruits, of upholding this order.

Rumour has it that banshees have been taking matters into their own hands, and taking swift and violent revenge. When Orpen's troop leader falls under suspicion it becomes clear that Orpen will need to muster all her courage and prowess if she and her fellow banshees are going to be able to find a way to escape, and rebuild a society worth fighting for."

This sounds like it has a lot of familiar ideas, but it's a premise I'm always intrigued by, so I'm looking forward to checking it out.

Review: Black River Orchard by Chuck Wendig

  

Black River Orchard by Chuck Wendig

Del Rey

Publication Date: September 26th, 2023

Hardcover. 544 pages.

About Black River Orchard:

"It’s autumn in the town of Harrow, but something else is changing in the town besides the season.

Because in that town there is an orchard, and in that orchard, seven most unusual trees. And from those trees grows a new sort of apple: Strange, beautiful, with skin so red it’s nearly black.

Take a bite of one of these apples and you will desire only to devour another. And another. You will become stronger. More vital. More yourself, you will believe. But then your appetite for the apples and their peculiar gifts will keep growing—and become darker.

This is what happens when the townsfolk discover the secret of the orchard. Soon it seems that everyone is consumed by an obsession with the magic of the apples… and what’s the harm, if it is making them all happier, more confident, more powerful?

And even if buried in the orchard is something else besides the seeds of this extraordinary tree: a bloody history whose roots reach back the very origins of the town.

But now the leaves are falling. The days grow darker. And a stranger has come to town, a stranger who knows Harrow’s secrets. Because it’s harvest time, and the town will soon reap what it has sown."

Black River Orchard is horror story that will make you both love and fear something you would never expect: apples. It's a wild ride from start to finish that is sure to keep you turning the page as if your life depends on it. Chuck Wendig has a very specific style to his horror books, and if you like his style, then you will certainly have a fantastic time Black River Orchard. 

Black River Orchard is basically about a town where some apple trees start bearing magic apples that people eat, become addicted to, and weird shit starts happening. That's honestly all you really need to know going into this book. Also, you will learn a lot about apples, probably more than you really need to know, but honestly I enjoy having this excessive apple knowledge at this point. I also want to go try a lot of apples now. Anyway, let's get to the review! 

We largely follow Dan, developer of the problematic magic apples, and his daughter, Calla, who consistently puts up with her dad's apple obsession. We also meet some additional POV characters, such as: Meg and Emily, a married couple who recently moved to town; Graham and Joanie, another married couple that live in town, though they actually rent their house out fairly often and also live in a nearby city; and lastly, a man named John Compass who ends up having quite a history that ties in well with other events in the town. It's a pretty large cast, as most of Wendig's novels tend to be, and we spend plenty of time getting to know all of them. A cast this large can often feel overwhelming and hard to keep track of, but Wendig works his magic and somehow creates individual, unique characters with distinct storylines and personalities that makes it easy to follow along. 

When Dan's magic apples start making the rounds, people in town start losing their minds a bit (and by "a bit," I mean absolutely, completely going crazy). Calla is one of the few who hasn't eaten an apple and it stuck trying to figure out what is going on, as well as how to stop it. This is a pretty intense story at times, and there's plenty of gore and gross things that happen along the way as people become more and more addicted to the apples, which leads to a culmination of events that are difficult to comprehend. In addition to the present day apple issues, there are additional layers to this story including past events that combine John Compass' storyline with the present. Everything happening in this town has a long history that goes back to intertwine with the indigenous Lenape peoples that previously lived on the land, and I really love how Wendig managed to tie all of this together. 

Wendig has a very verbose style of writing and pacing that really takes its time to set up the story, allow characters to develop, and build tension, which all works really well creating a slow burned and complex horror story that never leaves a moment for boredom. I love how much time and effort Wendig puts into developing his characters, as well as how much detail is put into developing history and background for both them and the setting. There's an ever-present creepiness that permeates the entire atmosphere of the story and really leaves the feeling of not knowing what to expect. 

Black River Orchard is a very "on brand" story for Wendig when compared to his other work, and while part of me really loves that, I also somehow felt as though I'd read this book before or parts of it just felt very familiar. I always have a great time with the crazy stories that Wendig takes us on, but I find I really have to be in the mood for a lot of side journeys and what feels like a bit of rambling at times (it's not actually rambling because everything plays into the plot, but it just feels like a lot of digressions) in order to fully appreciate his work. If you've read Wendig before and know whether you like his style or not then you'll probably have a good idea if this book will work for you or not. 

If you like a slow burn horror that unleashes creepiness at every corner and has a constant sense of unease, then Black River Orchard is the perfect fit. For me, it didn't end up clicking as much as some of his other books, but I still had a great time with it and will certainly be giving all of my apples a suspicious glance before I eat them now...

*I received a copy of Black River Orchard courtesy of NetGalley and the publisher in exchange for an honest review.*

Buy the book: Amazon | Bookshop.org

The Friday Face-Off: Current Read #15

        

 Welcome to The Friday Face-Off, a weekly meme at Books by Proxy. Join us every Friday as we pit cover against cover, and publisher against publisher, to find the best artwork in our literary universe.  You can find a list of upcoming topics at Lynn's Books.

This week's topic is:

Current Read #15

I recently watched the movie Annihilation after meaning to read the book by Jeff VanderMeer for years and honestly found it somewhat mediocre and disappointing. I'd heard the book was pretty different from the movie, so I decided to finally give the book Annihilation a go and so far I'm enjoying it so much more than the movie. All the frustrations I had with the movie are either explained or simply not an issue, so I guess that's what I get for procrastinating on reading the book and watching the movie instead (although I will say that the movie is visually stunning!). Anyway, Annihilation has tons of amazing covers to choose from, so let's have a look at some of them!

2014 US Paperback | 2015 Paperback | 2015 Italian

2014 Spanish | 2014 Polish | 2017 Turkish

2019 Lithuanian | 2017 German | 2015 Russian

2018 Indonesian | 2020 Romanian | 2017 Ukrainian

My choice(s):

So many of these are so cool! I love the original US edition, as well as the Romanian, Polish, 2015 paperback, and... well, like I said, these are all incredible. I think this is one of those books that provides a lot of room for creativity and experimentation, which we definitely see in these covers! Which cover(s) do you like best?

Can't-Wait Wednesday: Last to Leave the Room by Caitlin Starling, Death Valley by Melissa Broder, & Curious Tides by Pascale Lacelle

    

Can't-Wait is a weekly meme hosted by Wishful Endings that spotlights exciting upcoming releases that we can't wait to be released! This meme is based off of Jill @ Breaking the Spine's Waiting on Wednesday meme.

This week's upcoming book spotlights are:

Last to Leave the Room by Caitlin Starling
Publication: October 10th, 2023
St. Martin's Press
Hardcover. 320 pages.
Pre-order: Amazon | Bookshop.org

From Goodreads:
"The city of San Siroco is sinking. The basement of Dr. Tamsin Rivers, the arrogant, selfish head of the research team assigned to find the source of the subsidence, is sinking faster. As Tamsin grows obsessed with the distorting dimensions of the room at the bottom of the stairs, she finds a door that didn’t exist before - and one night, it opens to reveal an exact physical copy of her. This doppelgänger is sweet and biddable where Tamsin is calculating and cruel. It appears fully, terribly human, passing every test Tamsin can devise. But the longer the double exists, the more Tamsin begins to forget pieces of her life, to lose track of time, to grow terrified of the outside world. As her employer grows increasingly suspicious, Tamsin must try to hold herself together long enough to figure out what her double wants from her, and just where the mysterious door leads…"

I read an ARC of this and it had me absolutely riveted, so it seems like the perfect October release! I actually think this one might be getting a special edition, too, so that'll be neat to see as well. I loved Starling's The Luminous Dead, but not so much The Death of Jane Lawrence, so this was such a great surprise to read!

Death Valley by Melissa Broder
Publication: October 3rd, 2023
Scribner
Hardcover. 240 pages.
Pre-order: Amazon | Bookshop.org

From Goodreads:
"In Melissa Broder’s astounding new novel, a woman arrives alone at a Best Western seeking respite from an emptiness that plagues her. She has fled to the California high desert to escape a cloud of sorrow—for both her father in the ICU and a husband whose illness is worsening. What the motel provides, however, is not peace but a path, thanks to a receptionist who recommends a nearby hike.

Out on the sun-scorched trail, the woman encounters a towering cactus whose size and shape mean it should not exist in California. Yet the cactus is there, with a gash through its side that beckons like a familiar door. So she enters it. What awaits her inside this mystical succulent sets her on a journey at once desolate and rich, hilarious and poignant.

This is Melissa Broder at her most imaginative, most universal, and finest. This is Death Valley."

I'm always interested in a California setting, and I love that this sounds pretty weird–right up my alley!

Curious Tides by Pascale Lacelle
Publication: October 3rd, 2023
Margaret K. McElderry
Hardcover. 544 pages.
Pre-order: Amazon | Bookshop.org

From Goodreads:
"Emory might be a student at the prestigious Aldryn College for Lunar Magics, but her healing abilities have always been mediocre at best—until a treacherous night in the Dovermere sea caves leaves a group of her classmates dead and her as the only survivor. Now Emory is plagued by strange, impossible powers that no healer should possess.

Powers that would ruin her life if the wrong person were to discover them.

To gain control of these new abilities, Emory enlists the help of the school’s most reclusive student, Baz—a boy already well-versed in the deadly nature of darker magic, whose sister happened to be one of the drowned students and Emory’s best friend. Determined to find the truth behind the drownings and the cult-like secret society she’s convinced her classmates were involved in, Emory is faced with even more questions when the supposedly drowned students start washing ashore— alive —only for them each immediately to die horrible, magical deaths.

And Emory is not the only one seeking answers. When her new magic captures the society’s attention, she finds herself drawn into their world of privilege and power, all while wondering if the truth she’s searching for might lead her right back to Dovermere…to face the fate she was never meant to escape."

There's a part of me that's actually tired of school settings... but the part of me that still always jumps at them is stronger, so I'm excited about the sound of this!