Pleasant Nights

Title: The Ghosts That Haunt Me

Author: Steve Ryan

Genre: Non-fiction

Thank you, NetGalley, for this book.

This book intrigued me since it’s non-fiction. Hearing how detectives solve crimes is interesting to me. I like the puzzle aspect of it. This book was right up my alley. However, so much of it is filler from the author’s personal life that I ended up skimming a lot.

The six cases the author discusses are really interesting, and I’m glad I read the book because of them. The author is clearly not a writer by trade, and he relied on a lot of cliches and unimportant information to fill the book. Instead, I wish he had profiled 10-12 cases and went into more detail regarding them. Overall, this book was fine, but if I recommend it to people, I’m going to recommend skimming parts.

Title: What Moves the Dead

Author: T. Kingfisher

Genre: Horror

Thank you, NetGalley, for this book.

I’ve been meaning to read something by Kingfisher for a while, solely based on the covers. I mean, look at that thing. It’s so horrific, and I am intrigued about what it means! Now I know. I was definitely pleased by this one! It’s pretty short; I could have read it in one sitting if had the time, but its length was perfect for what the story was trying to accomplish.

This book is a retelling of The Fall of the House of Usher, which I have never read, to be honest. I like Poe’s stuff and have read several stories, but just not this one, as far as I can remember. Big fan of The Tell-Tale Heart, though. Easton, who is a sworn soldier in the fictitious country of Galicia, receives a letter from a childhood friend, Madeline Usher, who claims she is dying. Upon arrival, Easton realizes this is the case, and decides to figure out why Madeline’s current state doesn’t seem normal. This book was a lot of fun and really creepy in parts. I know another Easton book comes out in 2024, and I’ll definitely be picking it up.

Title: Who Haunts You

Author: Mark Wheaton

Genre: YA Horror

Thank you, NetGalley, for this book.

What a fun YA book! I don’t read a lot of YA these days, mostly because it’s so watered down with garbage, but I enjoy any good horror book, and I’m happy to say this was great! The main character, Bex, is autistic, which I rarely stumble upon in books. Hooray for representation!

The story is pretty crazy, in a great way. Other seniors at Bex’s high school are dying. As Bex digs into the deaths, she realizes they all have something in common. They believed they were haunted by long-dead relatives their own family members swear never existed. When Bex starts having the same visions, she knows she needs to figure things out before she is next. The plot isn’t perfect, but it was enjoyable and kept me guessing. Bex was an excellent character, and you root for her the entire time. I would recommend this to any horror fan, whether they read YA or not.

Title: Out There Screaming: An Anthology of New Black Horror

Editor: Jordan Peele

Genre: horror

Thank you, NetGalley, for this book.

I’m usually not an anthology reader, but I will read anything in the horror genre, so this was a definite must. I had read works from about half the writers in this collection already, which was fun. But I really loved discovering new writers, also. And the best part of an anthology is that if you don’t connect with something, you can just skip it. I admit that there were two stories that I just didn’t connect with, so I skimmed them.

Most of the stories were of a reasonable length, meaning on my Kindle, about 15-20 minutes for my reading speed. The book is described as horror by Black writers. However, most, if not all, of the stories involve racism of some form. Some stories are realistic and could have happened in society. Some involve the supernatural. Some were actually horrifying and will stick with me for a while. Some were more mild and lighthearted. But I definitely recommend this one for horror fans. It’s an easy one to pick up and put down if you are short on time, but each story presented a new scenario of terror.