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October 2021 book releases

Here's my first post in over a month! Today I'm talking about October 2021 book releases. Let me know in the comments if you're hoping to read any of these! #bookblog #bookblogger #bookblogging #OctoberReleases #2021 #amreading

Pin Me Hi everyone! Welcome to Owl Book World. My name is Kaili and I’m the one who runs the blog. October is right around the corner and you know what that means….New books (as if we can read them all). Is there any October 2021 book releases that you are interested in reading? There are actually several October 2021 book releases that I have an ARC of and need to start reading soon. I can’t…

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The Return by Rachel Harrison

Fast fun read! Four best friends living across the country, one goes missing. After a couple years, they hold a funeral for the missing Julie, but then she returns. She just shows up after two years of being gone claiming to have no memory of the time missing. This book is in the perspective of Elise, a neurotic woman who feels like a sister to initially missing Julie. The four friends are: Elise, Julie, Molly, and Mae. They all have their own personalities but Elise feels like Julie and her have always been very close and similar. Mae decides they need to have a girls’ weekend to reconnect. The location she chooses is a hotel in Maine where everything is gaudy and all the rooms have their own theme. After the girls’ weekend begins, they notice that Julie has changed (A LOT). Elise is by far not a perfect person and at times a lot crazy, but not enough for me to put down the book. I read this book in probably about 4 hours over two days and really enjoyed the ride. Some of the developments were delightfully unexpected, overall the book was pretty good. I really liked the writing style and felt like I was watching a movie. I liked the dynamic between the friends and the background of the hotel was really well done. I personally would have preferred a little more suspense and horror aspects but there was still plenty to keep me turning the pages. This is a four star read for because I wanted MORE. Not just more story, I wanted more creepy moments that weren’t just paranoid thoughts in Elise’s mind. I wanted more events to happen before the reveal. For the length of the book, it’s fantastic. I just personally think this is a book that would have benefitted from more happening in it. (with maybe shorter flashbacks). I would recommend this book to anyone. It has creepy moments, mystery, and great character relationships that you want to know more about.

4 stars!

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Blind Site by Andrew Van Wey

This was a really fun read. A bizarre case of an invisible killer with super strength. Agent Michaels finds similarities between these unusual cases and uses the help of a blind woman who is able to "blink" or send herself outside of her body. Agent Michaels is a great character. After reading Blind Site I felt that anyone that likes to read the Pendergast books would definitely enjoy this one. I really enjoy Van Wey's writing style, which makes me keep turning the pages.

Also if you liked X-Files this would be right up your alley

4 star read for me!

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Phantoms Edited by Marie O'Regan

A great anthology!

I read this anthology specifically for Laura Purcell's Cameo short. Her story was great and has the same vibe as her other books (which is good!). She is a favorite of mine.

With the bonus of amazing stories from other authors as well. Some of my other favorites included The Marvelous Talking Machine by Alison Littlewood, Frank, Hide by Josh Malerman, and 20th Century Ghost by Joe Hill. I had not read Alison Litttlewood before and I look forward to reading more from her.

I enjoyed almost all of the stories in this anthology because they were all very unique. I highly recommend to any fans of horror and ghost stories but also to anyone looking for a starter into the genre too. While creepy, these stories are not extreme horror so they would be great for someone not interested in the more gruesome side of horror but the spooky and creepy.

5 stars!

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The stories in Dark Stars are great examples of how vast the range of horror can really be. Every story gave me something to sit and think about, and even had me going back to re-read a few. This is a brand-new anthology featuring some of the biggest names in horror right now. The featured authors in Dark Stars are: Caroline Kepnes, Ramsey Campbell, Priya Sharma, Livia Llewellyn, Stephen Graham Jones, Chesya Burke, Alma Katsu, John F.D. Taff, Gemma Files, Josh Malerman, Usman T. Malik, and John Langan. All who provide horror stories that go beyond the scares. I usually pick up an anthology when I see that an author I like is being included and the bonus is getting to read from other authors I might not be familiar with. With this anthology, though, all of the authors are big names in horror or dark fantasy. I usually keep horror anthologies to read a short story between books. This is an anthology I could sit and read the stories back to back without it getting repetitive because it isn’t a themed anthology. Each story is completely its own. My personal favorite stories from this anthology include: Chesya Burke’s “Trinity River Blues”, Gemma Files’s “The Sanguintalist”, John Langan’s “Enough for Hunger and Enough for hate”, Josh Malerman’s “Mrs. Addison’s Nest”, and Usman T. Malik’s “Challawa”. All of these authors continue to push the boundaries of what is considered horror and also how it can be every bit as literary and academic as other genres. I would recommend this anthology to people who love horror, of course, but also anyone who enjoys deep short stories that pack a lot to mull over.

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One of the best slow burn haunted house books I’ve ever read. This book is a classic that I have just now gotten around to reading. Originally published in 1973, Robert Marasco’s Burnt Offerings still gave me a feeling of deep dread. The premise is that of a family escaping the city for the summer by renting an estate in the need of some upkeep for a suspiciously low price. In the family there is the housewife Marian, the stressed teacher Ben, their ten year old son Ben, and Ben’s lively older aunt. Marian convinces Ben to stay at this house and she is absolutely enamored with the building and the ‘treasures’ inside. The house slowly begins to change as different incidents happen at the house. From aggressive outbursts to personal sacrifices, the house feeds. Throughout the book the person I felt the most for was Ben. He was just minding his business while his parents (read: Marian) were being overtaken by the power of the house. The scene in the pool made my stomach twist because it felt like I was watching a scene of roughhousing getting out of hand. Like watching a situation where one person is malicious and acting like it’s fun when the other is begging the other to stop. The book is relatively short but packs a lot in it. I highly recommend this book to any fans of horror but also to fans of mystery and hauntings.

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Goblin by Josh Malerman

A novel in six novellas”. Six stories about the town of Goblin, where the unusual is usual and the rain is constant. In the different stories, Malerman introduces various town characters including; a loyal friend to a psychopath, a historian with an extreme fear of ghosts, a big game hunter with a birthday wish, a young magic enthusiast, a confused zoo tour, and a grieving landscaper who harbors something from the city in the middle of his hedge maze. I decided to read Josh Malerman’s Goblin after reading his short story Frank, Hide, in the anthology Phantoms edited by Marie O’Regan. I really enjoyed his style of writing and wanted to read more. Goblin was not what I expected, but it was so satisfying! I love stories of strange towns and their quirks, and Goblin definitely has that. I loved the town legends and the strange things people just accept as part of their everyday in Goblin and even celebrate as to what makes their town special. After the book, I just wanted more stories and information on the town, I know I will be reading this again in the future. I would recommend this book to anyone that enjoys town folklore type fiction. This was a fun read and Malerman’s writing is enjoyable. I will definitely be looking into his other books.

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Stolen Tongues by Felix Blackwell

A man and his fiancée visit her family's cabin where strange sounds and events force them to ask for rescue from the snowed in cabin. His fiancee has always slept-talked and walked but now it has become even more sinister. She talks to a mysterious person in her sleep while telling them thins about her life and even her fiancé. The man will do anything to get rid of these nightly visitors.

I read this book years ago but I haven't reviewed it before. I re-read it today because it has been wildly popular in the Books of Horror facebook group. The writing was easy to imagine and never lulled, which I appreciated. the story happens over many days and nights with the nights of course being the creepiest. I did feel the sense of dread when it was night and knew something would happen while she slept. The feeling of someone watching you while you sleep is always something that will creep me out, and that feeling definitely translated well from the book.

I thought this book was a really fun read and was nice to sit and read in one sitting between longer books. If you like hauntings and creepy possession-like stories I would recommend this to you. Perfect for when you want a fast read that doesn't drag at all.

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BONE CHINA by LAURA PURCELL Bone China gave me WHIPLASH. A lady's maid on the run from her mistakes Esther Stevens becomes Hester Why when she moves a manor that looks off cliffs into the sea. Her guilt weighs heavily on the newly named Hester and doesn't let her go. Her new mistress is an older woman who Hester tries to take care of (while pretty much partially high), but it seems Miss Pinecroft doesn't want to do anything except watch and wait in that room, not even to go to bed. Why must she watch the dishes? Creeda, a mysterious figure in the book who reminded me of a cult leader, is a long time member on the staff and gives us our look into the folklore of fairies that ties everything in the book together. A historical fiction with a toe in the mysterious realm. The book give us two narrators, one given by a lady's maid who moves to a new house to escape from her past and the other is the younger version of her new mistress, Miss Pinecroft, forty years prior. While Hester is unreliable, given she is wildly obsessive and either high or hungover, she made the ending absolutely memorable. Both of the narrators gave the books two rushes of action that made the book a breeze to finish. I was usually excited for Hester's part to end so I could read more on Miss Louise Pinecroft. Her story was so interesting and the climax was unexpected to say the least. While I did get a little frustrated with Hester's obsession of being loved, her addiction and guilt swarming her was so believable. The book took turns I was completely not expecting but comes perfectly together in the end, and thats what I absolutely love when reading. Even if someone is not a big fan of historical fiction, but they enjoy twists, I would recommend them this book.

4 out of 5 stars!

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The Lost Village by Camilla Sten

Camilla Sten's The Lost Village gave all the creepy abandoned village vibes I was hoping for. Our main character is a filmmaker looking to create a documentary about an abandoned village that her grandmother grew up in. Her grandmother would tell her stories about the village and showed her letters from her family after she moved away. Inexplicably, overnight all the people in the village went missing except for a baby that was found alone. This filmmaker leads a team to try and explore the village and find any missing information.

The book was a great read and there were not very many moments where the story seemed to drag. I enjoyed the atmosphere that Sten created and felt as though I could see what she intended. While the atmosphere and main story line were amazing, I did feel as though there were some aspects that weren't for me. The main character was quite abrasive in her thoughts about other people but you could tell that this was a character that over thought every little interaction with another person. As someone with anxiety, it's understandable but not the most fun to read. The ending did leave me wishing there was a bit more explanation and maybe a bit of a twist that was unexpected. I have read other reviews where they loved the twists in this story but to me they seemed quite obvious with the evidence from the book and the hints were a bit heavy handed.

The Lost Village was a fun ride that is worth the time to read and had a few creepy moments in the book that are worthy of a read alone. Rating out of 5 stars, I would give this book a 3.

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J.N. Williamson horror paperbacks from the 1980s. They don’t make ‘em like this anymore!

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William W. Johnstone horror paperbacks from the 1980s, published by Zebra Books. They don’t make ‘em like this anymore!

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Ruby Jean Jensen horror paperbacks from the 1980s, published by Zebra Books. They don’t make ’em like this anymore!