Review: A Magic Deep and Drowning by Hester Fox

* Copy courtesy of HQ Fiction *

A Magic Deep & Drowning by Hester Fox is a reimagining of The Little Mermaid set in the Dutch Republic in 1650. Sounds amazing and I certainly enjoyed the first section set in what is now the Netherlands. Clara and her maid take a ride in a carriage to see a whale that has washed up on a nearby beach. The daughter of wealthy parents, Clara wonders if the whale is a bad omen but is excited at the news of a betrothal as it means she can finally leave home and establish a household of her own.

On first sight, Clara believes the soon-to-be love interest Maurits could have easily stepped out of the pages of her nursemaid's fairy stories so we know that he's fae. Both characters quickly become besotted with each other and I was rolling my eyes early on with the descriptions of his tidal-pool eyes and the waves of heat that pass between them.

I reviewed The Widow of Pale Harbour by Hester Fox in 2023 and I'm assuming this is the reason the publisher sent me a copy of the author's latest release, A Magic Deep & Drowning. I commented in my 3 star review of The Widow of Pale Harbour that there was too much romance for my liking but here there's even more. In fact, I'd go so far as to call A Magic Deep and Drowning a romantasy or young adult coming of age paranormal romance. It sounds like a mouthful, but this historical romance will appeal to readers familiar with the genre.

This reimagining of The Little Mermaid involves a gender switch and Maurits hails from the Water Kingdom where his people are in turmoil, disgusted by the way humans have overfished the sea to the point of scarcity.

Clara was an adventurous and courageous protagonist keen to accept accountability for the destruction:

"For the first time in her life, she had made a decision herself, one that did not sit precariously on the axis of her own comfort and duty." Page 249

Wanting to atone for the sins of human kind is obviously admirable, but I have no idea why she had to do it while being hungry all the time. Even when there was food to eat, Clara chose to hardly eat any of it which proved annoying.

I kept reading in hopes of returning and dwelling in the bustling streets and canals of 1600s Amsterdam when in hindsight I probably should have set this aside. The overarching message about being better custodians of the land and the sea will appeal to many readers, but A Magic Deep and Drowning by Hester Fox is confirmation that romantasy isn't for me.

My Rating:

★ ★ ★ ★ ★

Review: Starling House by Alix E. Harrow

Starling House by Alix E. Harrow is set in a small mining town in Eden, Kentucky where Opal lives in a motel room with her younger brother Jasper. Their parents are both dead and Opal struggles to make enough money for the basics while saving for Jasper's education.

Opal is tough and scrappy and resorts to petty crime to make ends meet.

"People like me have to make two lists: what they need and what they want. You keep the first list short, if you're smart, and you burn the second one. Mom never got the trick of it - she was always wanting and striving, longing and lusting and craving right up until she wasn't - but I'm a quick learner. I have one list, with one thing on it, and it keeps me plenty busy." Page 4

Eden is an unlucky town and has its own gothic mansion of the title, complete with imposing iron gates that fuel fears among the locals the property is haunted or cursed. Starling House is the home of a sole reclusive inhabitant by the name of Arthur who never leaves. Arthur's ancestor Eleanor Starling is the author of Opal's favourite childhood book The Underland which includes tales about mythical creatures from another world.

Opal is drawn to the mansion for reasons she can't explain and accepts a job there as a cleaner. Arthur seems aloof and resistant to company and I just loved this description of him:

"Arthur has a thick yellow pad of paper balanced on his knee. His left pinky is silvery gray with graphite, and his sleeves are rolled to the elbow. His wrists look stronger than I would expect from someone whose main hobbies are skulking and frowning, the bones wrapped in stringy muscle and scarred flesh." Page 55

Starling House is a Southern gothic story about home and running away and is part fantasy, part romance with a dash of spooky paranormal. It's certainly different to my usual reading fare and felt like it was best suited to a young adult audience. The writing was engaging but while some readers might find the inclusion of footnotes in a fictional story quirky, I found them unnecessary and distracting.

The house of the title was a character in its own right, and in particular its ability to communicate feelings about its inhabitants which I loved. Completely run down and neglected when Opal arrives, I particularly enjoyed all of the scenes where she was cleaning room by room, bleaching curtains, removing dead insects and animals and cleaning the walls to bring the house back into shape.

Opal even makes mention of the cliche cleaning montage in the book:

"In the movie version of my life the scene would collapse here into a cleaning montage. You would see me rolling up my sleeves and hauling wet laundry out of the washer, dragging the motel cleaning cart across the parking lot, discovering half a granola bar stuck to the carpet and shoving it furtively in a trash bag. The soundtrack would turn peppy, indicating the heroine's renewed resolve. But reality never skips the boring parts, and I'm not sure I have renewed resolve so much as a real stubborn streak, just like Mom. Survival is a hard habit to break." Page 176

I thoroughly enjoyed The Ten Thousand Doors of January by Alix E. Harrow in 2023 and am looking forward to the publication of The Everlasting later this year.

My Rating:

★ ★ ★ ★ ★

Review: Australian Ghost Stories by James Phelps

* Copy courtesy of Harper Collins *

Australian Ghost Stories - Shocking True Crime Stories of the Haunted, The Supernatural and Paranormal Happenings by James Phelps was an engaging piece of investigative journalism and a riveting read.

Promises to include accounts from a rugby league legend, Bathurst winner and an Aussie rock icon were delivered, although my favourite accounts came from regular members of the public. I was hoping to read about the house in Humpty Doo, but given the author's efforts to bring previously unknown cases to light and shy away from the already heavily publicised ones, I understand why Humpty Doo wasn't included.

In addition to several family homes on regular suburban streets, the author included the Aradale Lunatic Asylum in Ararat, Victoria, and the Hydro Majestic in the Blue Mountains, NSW. This was the first time I'd ever heard mention of the Hydro Majestic - the hydropathic sanatorium turned hotel retreat for the rich - but then it cropped up in the very next book I read, Everyone This Christmas Has a Secret by Benjamin Stevenson. I love bookish coincidences like this and I'd love to stay there one day.

Not surprisingly, the author drew from his extensive knowledge of Australian prisons and jails, having researched and written several books about them, two of which I've read: Australia's Most Murderous Prison - Behind the Walls of Goulburn Jail and Green Is The New Black - Inside Australia's Hardest Women's Jails. St Saviour's Cemetery is the oldest of Goulburn's forty graveyards and the accounts from hardened prison officers working at Goulburn jail were super creepy.

The colour photographs were a great inclusion and not all accounts were specifically linked to a true crime; in many cases there was no known reason for the haunting. In presenting his research gathered from interviewing more than a hundred people, James Phelps isn't afraid to break the fourth wall and the narrative often jumped around in time and location.

"(Even authors are allowed to do supernatural things while writing a book about the supernatural). And to confuse things even more, we are going to hit fast forward instead of rewind." Page 136

I wondered why this seemingly erratic writing style was necessary and I can only imagine it was to keep the reader engaged but a lesser committed reader may find it too distracting. Not me though, I was here for ALL of the stories, no matter their method of delivery or how much I longed for a fixed structure.

Enjoying an interview with James Phelps about Australian Ghost Stories on GoodReading recently, I was surprised to read that the author doesn't believe in the supernatural. If Phelps was a sceptic looking for answers, surely he found them after traversing the country recording first hand accounts with people from all walks of life with nothing to gain by sharing their accounts for this book. There are just too many unexplained experiences.

Australian Ghost Stories by James Phelps made the hairs on my arms stand up, but if you're a sceptic, I'm not convinced this will make you a believer; but what could? Perhaps a visit to St Saviour's Cemetery would be a good place to start... or if that sounds too confronting, you could always read a FREE sample of the book... with the light on of course!

My Rating:

★ ★ ★ ★ ★

Review: The Strangers on Montagu Street (Tradd Street #3) by Karen White

From one book with a creepy house at sunset on the cover to another, and this is my third visit to the Tradd Street series written by Karen White. Beginning with The House on Tradd Street (#1) and continuing with The Girl on Legare Street (#2), The Strangers on Montagu Street (#3) picks up with the same set of characters and moves us along with their lives and complex relationships.

Melanie Trenholm is a successful realtor in Charleston, South Carolina and continues to work on restoring her historic home. Love interest Jack is still on the scene but he's shocked early on to discover he has a daughter he didn't know about. Oh, and Melanie is also psychic but she keeps it on the down low.

Not sure why it is that I enjoy this series so much, is it the frequent mention of architecture, restoration and antiques? Melanie's ability to see/sense ghosts or the tension brewing between Melanie and Jack? I don't usually enjoy the romance elements of a plot but here it works. The Southern location and sultry heat along with unearthing family secrets containing betrayal and loss kept the pages turning with enthusiasm. And there's even a haunted dollhouse, need I say more?

With so much time elapsing since reading the first two books in 2011 and 2015 respectively and with the third in 2024, I'm surprised I was able to immediately dive straight back into the series with such ease and relish. It shouldn't have come as a surprise that while I was off reading other things, the author continued on with the series, ultimately choosing to end it with book #7 in 2021.

It's rare for me to be able to read a series right through to its conclusion - either losing interest, prioritising elsewhere or abandoning the task due to diminishing reading returns - but I'm excited to give it a try this time, and now have the following books to look forward to.

The remaining books in the series are:

• Return to Tradd Street (#4)
• The Guests on South Battery (#5)
• The Christmas Spirits on Tradd Street (#6)
• The Attic on Queen Street (#7)
  

Any prediction as to when I'll finish reading the series? 😆

My Rating:

★ ★ ★ ★ ★

Review: Cursed Objects by J.W. Ocker

Cursed Objects: Strange but True Stories of the World's Most Infamous Items by J.W. Ocker was a mildly entertaining and interesting book, the kind of which is soon forgotten, but enjoyed while it lasted. The author is clear at the start of the book that he doesn't intend to cover hauntings, whether they be haunted locations or haunted objects, which I thought was fair enough.

The book is perfect for the audiobook format and is divided into categories, with each object given its own chapter. Each object is covered in a brief 5-8 minutes on audiobook, or a few pages in print format.

In the chapter entitled Cursed Under Glass, we learn about the infamous Hope Diamond and Otzi the Iceman, whose mummified remains were discovered more than 5,000 years after his death.

I enjoyed learning about rune stones in Cursed in the Graveyard, which only served to reinforce my thoughts on disturbing tombs or burial sites for purposes of research or grave-robbing.

Cursed in the Attic introduced me to the case of The Crying Boy Paintings - which I'd somehow never read about - The Baleroy Chair of Death and The Basano Vase.

In the chapter entitled Cursed in Stone, one of the topics was The Amber Room and I recall interviewing author William F. Brown about it back in 2012 as well as doing a few hours of Googling on the topic. In fact, this entire book elicits frequent Googling as the reader is inspired to look at the physical object being described and read a little further than Ocker's offerings.

The Business of Cursed Objects chapter included Annabelle the Doll and the Warren Collection, and all manner of haunted and travelling museums. The Curse in the Machine included James Dean's Porsche 550 Spyder and The Prague Orloj (a magnificent medieval astronomical clock in Prague) among other items of interest including chain emails, which I thought was a bit of a stretch.

In his chapter Why Aren't These Objects Cursed, the author makes a good point when wondering why objects like the Mitchell-Hedges Crystal Skull and the Skin Book of James Allen don't have a reputation for being cursed.

Cursed Objects by J.W. Ocker was easy to digest with each cursed artefact covered in a short chapter, including information on where the item is (if the location is known) and how many deaths have been attributed to it.

Cursed Objects by J.W. Ocker was akin to stumbling upon a random documentary while channel surfing and being sucked right in. It's only when I surfaced at the end of the book that I felt as though that might have been a waste of time, given I'd done most of the research myself in all that Googling. At the time however, I was happy for the bite size curse snacks delivered up by Ocker.

Published in 2020, Cursed Objects by J.W. Ocker is a light read recommended for those interested in history, social history, archaeology, the paranormal and of course curses. Even if you're a skeptic, there are plenty of facts, geography and history to sink your teeth into and some ripper stories.

I'm interested to know if you believe in curses, bad juju or karmic consequences, so let me know in the comments below.

My Rating:

★ ★ ★ ★ ★

Review: The Twisted Tree by Rachel Burge

Reading the blurb for The Twisted Tree by Rachel Burge and finding out the main character Martha can tell things about a person just by touching their clothes, I was immediately sold. 

Discovering this is a young adult debut and part ghost story set in Norway based on ancient Norse mythology was a bonus.

Regular Carpe Librum followers will no doubt have noticed that I don't read much YA at all, but The Twisted Tree reminded me that I still enjoy the odd title every now and again.

Martha is partially blinded in an accident and has run away from home. She travels to Norway seeking answers from her grandmother, desperately hoping she can explain her strange ability to discern memories and emotions just from touching a person's clothes.

"Mum had bought the blouse a few days ago, and it was the first time I'd touched silk. I know from going through her wardrobe that different types of fabric reveal their secrets differently - cashmere holds a person's emotions and makes you feel them like your own; cotton shows images and facts without feeling - but silk is like nothing else. It speaks of deceit." Page 19

Complete with a creepy gothic cover design and easy to read YA thriller building from the opening pages, The Twisted Tree by Rachel Burge was a pleasure to read.

Martha is struggling to come to terms with her changed appearance since the incident that left her blind in one eye, and there is a subtle budding hint of romance that takes place during all of the spooky thrilling action.

The Twisted Tree is the first in a series to feature Martha, and the next one is called The Crooked Mask and was published in 2020. The Crooked Mask continues the story of the two main characters, but I think I'm happy to leave them here, fully satisfied that I finally read this book, after adding it my list back in November 2018.

The Twisted Tree by Rachel Burge is a great choice for October reading, providing some scary and spooktacular moments and a super creepy tree.

My Rating:

★ ★ ★ ★ ★

Review: The Sentence by Louise Erdrich

* Copy courtesy of Hachette Australia *

A book set in an independent bookshop in Minneapolis, with a ghost? Sign me up!! Louise Erdrich is a native American author and Pulitzer Prize winner and The Sentence is my first time reading any of her work.

All Souls' Day is a day for commemorating and honouring the dead, and The Sentence begins on All Souls' Day in 2019 and takes us through a year of bookshop employee Tookie's life, ending on All Souls' Day in 2020. Tookie is a likeable native American character although her backstory didn't seem (to me) to chime with the direction of the story. Here's a sample of her voice though:

"I have a dinosaur heart, cold, massive, indestructible, a thick meaty red. And I have a glass heart, tiny and pink, that can be shattered." Pages 251-252

The reader accompanies Tookie as she navigates this troublesome year, but there's no real sense of an overarching purpose to what we're reading. The issues are up to the minute current, however the 'year in the life' seemed to be the only unifying story arc.

Having said that, there are many quotable moments in The Sentence and there's much here for book lovers to get excited about. Daily tasks in the bookshop, interesting and compelling customers, reading references we can all relate to (many of us have our own 'hard stack' and 'easy stack' of books waiting to be read), book lists (catnip for readers) and the overall power of books and stories for people navigating the Black Lives Matter movement or enduring isolation and lockdowns in the midst of a pandemic.

I loved Tookie's description of one of her customers she refers to as Dissatisfaction:

"By way of the fact he was impossible to please, Dissatisfaction was one of my favourite customers. He was always in a hurry and wanted me to drop everything. He is one of the cursed, a Tantalus, whose literary hunger perpetually gnaws but can never be satiated. He has read everything at least once. As he began reading capaciously at the age of six, he is now running out of fiction. I love the challenge of selling books to him and tried first, as usual, to interest him in history, politics, biography. I knew he would not accept anything but fiction, but this was a chance for him to vent anxiety over what he might read next. He snarled and swatted aside my factual offerings." Pages 97-98

Despite these gems, overall, I guess I felt disconnected from this free form narrative. I generally prefer more structure to my plots than 'here's what Tookie experienced in a crazy year we've all recently experienced from a thousand different perspectives'. Naturally Tookie's perspective is different from my own, but perhaps I just couldn't engage with Tookie on the deep level many other readers seemed to have reached while reading The Sentence.

I really think books like The Sentence will improve with age and distance from the events it covers. Readers in 20-30 years who don't have a living memory of the murder of George Floyd, the Black Lives Matter movement and the beginning of the pandemic will be reading with interest, while I read in recognition.

My Rating:

★ ★ ★ ★ ★

Review: Fire Burn, Cauldron Bubble - Magical Poems chosen by Paul Cookson

* Copy courtesy of Bloomsbury *

Beautifully presented in an orange clothbound hardback edition, Fire Burn, Cauldron Bubble is a collection of magical poems by Paul Cookson and is a delight to hold in the hand. Containing a selection of over 70 poems by different authors, there's enough variety in these poems for children to suit all reading tastes. Here's an example from page 33.

Witch's Wishlist by B.J. Lee *

beetle toe

Fire Burn, Cauldron Bubble - Magical
Poems chosen by Paul Cookson
Published by Bloomsbury

henbane
first snow
plantain
pig's feet

toad flax
jacklebeet
beeswax
dragon teeth
fairy wing
winter heath
ginseng
wood ears
cypress oil
Job's tears
pennyroyal
burdock root
mustard seed
eye of newt
jimson weed
black mallow
stirring crook
goat sallow
spell book

Lovely black and white illustrations complement the poems in the book, but the real shining light of illustrator Eilidh Muldoon's work is her magically evocative cover design. Don't you just love it? Perfect for Halloween and winter reading.

My favourite poem from the collection by far is Somewhere in the Library from page 112.

Somewhere in the Library by Stewart Henderson *

Somewhere in the library
there are fierce and friendly beasts.
Dragons, cowardly lions
enjoying midnight feasts.
Somewhere in the library
there are whirlpools and lagoons,
coves and crags and picnics
with pop and macaroons.

Somewhere in the library
there are smugglers' hidden caves,
and voyages and shipwrecks,
where adventures come in waves.
Somewhere in the library
there looms a Gruffalo,
and Twits and Gangsta Grannies
and a wardrobe full of snow...

... Where the White Witch turns the pages,
her icy fingers vexed,
as Voldermort is reading
what happens to him next.
Somewhere in the library
down a whizzing country road -
an amphibian with driving gloves...
the hapless Mr Toad.

There's a Stig, and Railway Children
all present and correct,
whilst underneath the floorboards
the Borrowers collect.
But somewhere in the library
there is someone very wise.
Her title is librarian
which is really a disguise...

... For she's a gatherer of magic
and a confidante of elves,
whose legends she has catalogued
and filed on ship-shape shelves
And she knows a thousand sagas
and ten thousand thousand tales,
she's heard the yarns of hobbits,
and the ocean dreams of whales

So, let me share her mystery,
one secret so sublime -
her special prayer that starts each day... goes...
"Once upon a time..."

This is a quick read, and other favourites from the collection include: The Magic Kitchen Carpet by Paul Cookson, Hatastrophe by Dannielle Viera and Something Down the Plughole by Neal Zetter.

Fire Burn, Cauldron Bubble - Magical Poems chosen by Paul Cookson and illustrated by Eilidh Muldoon is recommended for children, teachers and parents looking for a magical and spooky read.

* These two poems have been reproduced here with the express permission of the publisher.

My Rating:

★ ★ ★ ★ ★

Review: Life with the Afterlife - 13 Truths I Learned About Ghosts by Amy Bruni with Julie Tremaine

* Copy courtesy of Hachette Australia *

Have you ever looked at the title of a book and decided for yourself what it's going to be about? This happened to me when I saw Life With the Afterlife - 13 Truths I Learned About Ghosts by Amy Bruni, host of Kindred Spirits. I began a happy little assumption that being the host of a ghost hunter show like Kindred Spirits, Amy would be a medium or psychic of some sort, and here in her book she'd be sharing the 13 truths she learned from ghosts. Sound reasonable enough? Well, that's the book I wanted to read so I requested it from the publisher.

I've never watched an episode of Kindred Spirits, although from what Amy shares with the reader in her book, it's different from other ghost hunter books in that the hosts try to help those they come into contact with. Home owners are often disappointed to find their house isn't haunted and a lot of research takes place to determine the history of a house and who might be disturbing the peace.

You certainly don't need to be a Kindred Spirits fan or have watched the show in order to understand the contents of this book, however I do think the book is better suited to viewers of the program.

Amy Bruni saw her first ghost when she was a kid, but her skills as a paranormal investigator are what she draws on to do her work. She's not a medium or psychic and instead invites people like Chip Coffey on to her show when she needs a little additional insight.

Amy Bruni isn't like Debbie Malone, Belinda Davidson, Lisa Williams, and more whose books I've read and reviewed here on Carpe Librum over the years. If I'd read the blurb of this book properly and paid more attention to the actual title - not the title I wanted to see - this would have been clear to me from the get go.

Now that we've established my faults as a reader going into this, there were a few problems I encountered with the writing. Amy Bruni has written Life With the Afterlife with the help of Julie Tremaine, presumably because writing a book isn't her forte. However even with this expert assistance, the content of the book is disorganised, a little all over the place and repetitive in parts. Here's an example.

"The building, erected in 1892, had been a bank until it was converted into a restaurant in the late 1970s. Mike the owner of the Twisted Vine, had given us some items associated with the bank. Later on that day, when we used a banknote as a trigger object, Sam told us that he recognized the paperwork. From there, we were able to find a Samuel Lesseey, a longtime employee of what used to be Birmingham National Bank, who took his life in the building in November 1913. Lesseey had been tied to a theft there: A customer had modified a twenty-five-dollar check to pay out $2,500. The shame of the mistake and the ensuing scandal are believed to have led him to commit suicide. He walked to a local cemetary, laid down in a coffin box in a mausoleum, and shot himself in the head. The story spread as far as the West Coast, showing up in the Los Angeles Herald, albeit with his name spelled as "Lessep" and "Lessey" in the story." Page 226

This is the sort of investigation I enjoy reading about, but did Lessey take his life in the bank or at a cemetary? The story is either poorly written allowing for two interpretations or contains conflicting accounts of what happened to Lesseey.

The structure of the book around the 13 truths also made for a disjointed reading experience and allowed for repetition of places visited and cases worked.

The best part of the book came in the final few pages as Bruni shared her thoughts on the ways in which the current COVID pandemic might impact the world. She points out that major global events have resulted in a surge of spiritualism in the past, and I've been interested in that topic before, reviewing Ghosts of the Tsunami: Death and Life in Japan's Disaster Zone by Richard Lloyd Parry in 2017. The author goes on to mention that people have been spending more time in their homes and are perhaps becoming aware of activity they were too busy to take notice of before. She also comments that some of the activity might be spiking as a result of the increased levels of fear and anxiety many of us are experiencing, not to mention the grief at losing loved ones.

Bruni is absolutely right that people have suffered and died alone of the Coronavirus. Loved ones haven't been able to say goodbye and we haven't been able to come together and grieve the way we used to. All of this has to have some kind of impact on us; whether this is an increase in death awareness, or a surge in spiritualism, I don't know. I guess we'll have to wait and see.

My Rating:

★ ★ ★ ★ ★