All Things Halloween Review - One Dark Window

One Dark Window (The Shepherd King, # 1)

By: Rachel Gillig

Publication: September 27, 2022 by Orbit

432 pages

Genre: Young Adult, Fantasy, Magic, Gothic

Source: Borrowed from the e-library

( Goodreads | Amazon )

*Note: The above link to Amazon is an affiliate links. Affiliate links support giveaways for Somewhere Only We Know readers.

Goodreads description--Elspeth needs a monster. The monster might be her.

Elspeth Spindle needs more than luck to stay safe in the eerie, mist-locked kingdom of Blunder—she needs a monster. She calls him the Nightmare, an ancient, mercurial spirit trapped in her head. He protects her. He keeps her secrets.

But nothing comes for free, especially magic.

When Elspeth meets a mysterious highwayman on the forest road, her life takes a drastic turn. Thrust into a world of shadow and deception, she joins a dangerous quest to cure Blunder from the dark magic infecting it. And the highwayman? He just so happens to be the King’s nephew, Captain of the most dangerous men in Blunder…and guilty of high treason.

Together they must gather twelve Providence Cards—the keys to the cure. But as the stakes heighten and their undeniable attraction intensifies, Elspeth is forced to face her darkest secret yet: the Nightmare is slowly taking over her mind. And she might not be able to stop him.

I listened to One Dark Window on audio, so that means spellings are a struggle. Also, I don't have any quotes to guide me, refer back to, or share with you in my review.

This world was unique but not explored in depth. There are Providence Cards that reminded me of tarot cards in their description. Except, instead of fortune telling, the Providence Cards provides the possessor/user of the card with supernatural powers of various kinds. Each card has a specific power. Elspeth has a unique ability that we don't learn about until later, but that ability has basically allowed her to absorb a Monster into her mind.

The king's nephew that the description stated was the highwayman who attacked Elspeth is trying to collect all 12 providence cards. He believes that collecting all of them will cure the mist that is trapping the kingdom. However, very few Nightmare cards exists. And Elspeth is having to keep a few secrets in the process.

If I remember correctly, Ravyn is the nephew in question. There were other family members, and another name that was similar (Hawk maybe???, or did it start with an R also?) that causes confusion in my memory, and I don't have the paper book to refer back to. Ravyn is supposed to be the love interest, but I feel like I heard something spoilerish that has kept me from connecting to him. I think I would have connected to him without the unsolicited knowledge I stumbled upon. But I will have to continue the series to see how things play out.

I was a little frustrated with how predictable the plot was. Things that felt like they should have been plot twists were glaringly obviously. Maybe this was designed for the next book to have a bigger impact, assuming the spoilers I heard were real. But at this point in the story, I find myself mildly caring about the characters where they are right now because I know a good bit must change in order to get where we end up if the spoilers I heard are true. Even still, I found myself enjoying the journey. It wasn't until I stopped to analyze it that I realized some world building was missing.

One Dark Window still gets 4 Stars. Have you read or listened to One Dark Window? What did you think? Let me know!

This review is part of my All Things Halloween event--a month of fantasy, paranormal, supernatural, mystery/thriller, etc reviews and books.

Can't Wait for The Thirteenth Child

Can't-Wait Wednesday is a weekly meme hosted by Wishful Endings to spotlight and talk about the books we're excited about that we have yet to read. Generally they're books that have yet to be released as well. It's based on Waiting on Wednesday, hosted by the fabulous Jill at Breaking the Spine. Find out more here.

The Thirteenth Child

By: Erin A. Craig

Expected Publication: September 24, 2024 by Delacorte Press

512 pages

Genre: Young Adult, Horror, Gothic, Fantasy

( Goodreads | Amazon )

*Note: The above link to Amazon is an affiliate links. Affiliate links support giveaways for Somewhere Only We Know readers.

Goodreads description--This is the story of Hazel, a young healer navigating a ruthless court to save the life of the king, grappling with a pantheon of gods with questionable agendas as she fights for agency and true love in her own life as the goddaughter of none other than Death himself.

All gifts come with a price.

Hazel Trépas has always known she wasn’t like the rest of her siblings. A thirteenth child, promised away to one of the gods, she spends her childhood waiting for her godfather—Merrick, the Dreaded End—to arrive.

When he does, he lays out exactly how he’s planned Hazel’s future. She will become a great healer, known throughout the kingdom for her precision and skill. To aid her endeavors, Merrick blesses Hazel with a gift, the ability to instantly deduce the exact cure needed to treat the sick.

But all gifts come with a price. Hazel can see when Death has claimed a patient—when all hope is gone—and is tasked to end their suffering, permanently. Haunted by the ghosts of those she’s killed, Hazel longs to run. But destiny brings her to the royal court, where she meets Leo, a rakish prince with a disdain for everything and everyone. And it’s where Hazel faces her biggest dilemma yet—to save the life of a king marked to die. Hazel knows what she is meant to do and knows what her heart is urging her toward, but what will happen if she goes against the will of Death?

From the astonishing mind of Erin A. Craig comes the breathtaking fairy tale retelling readers have been waiting for— what does a life well-lived mean, and how do we justify the impossible choices we make for the ones we love?

What are you guys waiting on this week? Let me know!

All Things Halloween Review - The Fall

The Fall

By: Bethany Griffin

Expected Publication: October 7th 2014 by Greenwillow Books

400 pages

Genre: Young Adult, Horror, Fantasy, Paranormal, Gothic, Retelling

Source: Publisher via Edelweiss (Thank you!!)

( Goodreads | Amazon | Book Depository )

*Note: The above links to Amazon and Book Depository are affiliate links. Affiliate links support giveaways for Somewhere Only We Know readers.

Goodreads description--Madeline Usher is doomed.

She has spent her life fighting fate, and she thought she was succeeding. Until she woke up in a coffin.

Ushers die young. Ushers are cursed. Ushers can never leave their house, a house that haunts and is haunted, a house that almost seems to have a mind of its own. Madeline’s life—revealed through short bursts of memory—has hinged around her desperate plan to escape, to save herself and her brother. Her only chance lies in destroying the house.

In the end, can Madeline keep her own sanity and bring the house down? The Fall is a literary psychological thriller, reimagining Edgar Allan Poe’s classic The Fall of the House of Usher.

The Fall, as the description says, is a retelling of Edgar Allen Poe’s The Fall of the House of Usher. I’m not very familiar with that specific Poe story. The only Poe works I’ve read are The Raven and The Tell-Tale Heart. So I didn’t know much going into The Fall. However, I think that was a good thing because The Fall was unlike anything I’ve ever read before.

The Fall jumps around in chronology but is narrated by Madeline Usher with occasionally a few journal excerpts from a prior ancestor, Lisbeth Usher. The jumps in chronology help to keep the reader a little confused about what is really going on in this house and family. Essentially what we have is a cursed family. The entire Usher line is cursed, but there does seem to be a particular affliction for the female members of the line. Madeline has always been able to “hear” the house. She knows that it has its own consciousness. Madeline’s twin brother, Roderick, is terribly afraid of the house as a child, but he has never been as attuned to it as Madeline. When Roderick is sent away to school, he steadily leans on logic and distances himself from the house and the terrors he faced while living there. Because Madeline is so attuned to the house—as a matter of fact, she is the house’s favorite—Roderick in turn distances himself from Madeline as well. He refuses to believe. Madeline starts out believing that he house is protecting her, but over the years she learns to see the house for what it really is and it’s true intentions. It thrives on chaos, confusion, fear, and grief.

I felt so bad for Madeline. Her mother favors Roderick, but her father has a particular fondness for her—when he’s lucid. Eventually both parents die, Roderick lives at school and his visits become less and less frequent and the duration of each visit becomes shorter and shorter. The servants seem to think the curse is related to Madeline herself rather than the house. And the two doctors and the doctor’s apprentice who also live in the House of Usher offer no comfort or support. They poke and prod her with needles, studying her Usher blood, and chronicling her behavior. But she’s so utterly alone. And not just alone, but constantly living in fear.

Bethany Griffin’s writing style fit this story just perfectly. It wasn’t a style that blew me away with its beauty, but it was free-flowing, smooth, and fitting. Her writing had the appropriate amount of creepy, thrill, and mystery in keeping with an Edgar Allen Poe retelling for sure. I don’t know that The Fall could have been better or more suitably written.

My favorite quotes:

-Except, in this house, the secrets hide behind secrets, and tight places like this hole in the earth make my stomach clench with fear.

-The house rewards cruelty. It loves darkness and despair and death. And I am its favorite.

-He’s horrified by this place, by the things he cannot explain. And yet he leaves me here. At this thought, he turns, his eyes wide and surprised. He’s sensed my resentment, through the bond we share, but he won’t acknowledge it. He can’t, not when he’s already thinking of leaving.

-I blink over and over, holding back tears. My fingers come away from my cheek stained with blood. The house hurt me. My legs give out, and I collapse to the floor in a heap of skirts and anxiety. The planks of the floor grow unnaturally warm. I place my hands in my lap. I should have listened to Mother. The house was not trying to hurt me. No. It’s so big, it lacks finesse. It wants me to stay close, so it can protect me. I sit completely still, showing the house that I do not plan to leave it, not now, not ever. The blade of the ax quivers back and forth. I do not move. I sit, watching the ax. Letting the house know that I trust it.

-“The house is seductive,” Father says. “It reads our deepest desires.” But if that’s true, then why was Roderick sent away? Father laughs softly, still mixing the paint. “It doesn’t always give us our desires, Madeline,” he says, as though I asked the question aloud. Did I?

-He has been waiting; I’ve seen it in his demeanor. I understand waiting. But what he’s been waiting for isn’t me. He’s falling in love with the house. “I wish you’d come before,” I say. When I still trusted the house. Because I can never trust it now, and while he’s in its thrall, I can never trust him.

-There is safety in being cursed.

-”The house is speaking to you, isn’t it?” he asks. “Saying that it loves you most of all.” Is there jealousy in his voice?

-“The spirit of the house—the consciousness of it—gets inside our heads. It sees through our eyes and feels what we feel, especially moments of extreme emotion, moments of passion. Or grief. It loves grief.”

-There is no point loving the one who is cursed, is there?

-I have what I wanted. It is bitter.

The Fall was definitely a creepy read in keeping with what I know of Edgar Allen Poe. Since I’m not familiar with Poe’s The Fall of the House of Usher, I can’t tell you how accurate or true of a retelling The Fall is, but I can tell you that I enjoyed it immensely. It felt like the perfect Halloween type of read, perfect for this time of year. I struggled a bit with the ending. I don’t know how true to the original ending The Fall is, but it left me wondering what the point of the story was—other than just a super weird and interesting story. I’m still giving The Fall 4 stars. Have you read The Fall? What did you think? Let me know!

This review is part of my All Things Halloween event--a month of paranormal, supernatural, mystery/thriller, etc reviews and books.