Menagerie in the Dark-Stories by Chris Kauzlarich

August 26, 2025 By Leave a Comment


Menagerie in the Dark-Stories by Chris Kauzlarich
Publisher: Phantom Quill Press
Genre: Mystery/Suspense/Thriller, Sci-Fi/Fantasy, Paranormal, Holiday, Contemporary, Historical
Rating: 5 Stars
Reviewed by Astilbe

Life often appears darkest just before the dawn of a new day.

In Menagerie in the Dark, Chris Kauzlarich immerses us in a speculative journey that explores the darker aspects of the human condition before bringing us back to the surface with the light of a new day. Through fourteen stories, this menagerie of characters faces trials of sorrow, death, loneliness, regret, deception, murder, delight, wonderment, and bliss, revealing what will either strengthen them enough to survive or plunge them to their demise. A boy’s home burns down, forcing him to confront a terrifying new world. A man enters a door where he witnesses his wife’s death, leaving him devastated; yet, he cannot stop returning to the scene, convinced he can save her. A nurse’s patients continue to perish under her care, but she harbors a dark secret—an administered cocktail for nefarious purposes.

These and other stories will stretch the limits of your emotions, from heartbreak to horror, leaving you yearning for more.

Fear comes in many mysterious forms.

Katelyn was in severe pain and desperately seeking more medication in “Echoes.” What I found most interesting about her tale was how many different ways it could be interpreted. Yes, she had a back injury that could explain why she needed her pain pills so regularly, but she also showed some signs that her reliance on them had possibly grown past what they were originally prescribed for. There were also inconsistencies in her memories that had multiple possible meanings as well. Other readers should decide for themselves which explanations they think fit the clues best, but I sure enjoyed the process of coming up with my own theories.

I loved the twist on what zombies are like in “Scalpel.” This was actually one of the biggest reasons why I chose a full five-star rating for this collection as the cause of the outbreak was as creative as it was original. It’s not easy to surprise me with this subgenre, so I must tip my cap to the author for pulling it off and making horror feel so relevant to life in 2025. The references that were included about current events from the past several years not only fit into the storyline nicely, they also made me chuckle in a few places which isn’t easy to do when I’m simultaneously scared.

While they were walking around trick-or-treating, Connor told his friends a terrifying local legend about a supernatural killer in “The Legend of Chucky Mudd.” What made the tale even more memorable was that the main character lived in the same house Chucky used to live in! I enjoyed seeing how Connor’s friends reacted to this conversation and how they changed their Halloween plans as a result of it. These scenes reminded me of things like Bloody Mary that used to scare me as a kid, although, of course, these characters were in serious danger and didn’t realize what their games were going to lead to. This was deliciously spooky, just the right amount of gory, and made me want a sequel.

Menagerie in the Dark was a perfectly balanced mixture of genres.

Filed Under: Mystery/Suspense, Reviews, Science Fiction/Fantasy Tagged With: , , , , , , , ,

Father of One by Jani Anttola

August 25, 2025 By 8 Comments


Father of One by Jani Anttola
Publisher: The Book Guild
Genre: Contemporary
Rating: 3 Stars
Review by: Astilbe

Maka, a young Bosnian soldier, has survived three years under siege. When the enemy forces launch their final attack on his hometown, he must escape to the hills. But traversing the vast woods is a task against all odds: to stay alive, and to find his infant son and his wife, he is soon forced to make a desperate move.

Set against the harrowing background of raging guerrilla warfare and the genocide in Srebrenica, Father of One is, at heart, a story of deep humanity, compassion and love. It is the account of one man’s desire to reunite his family, separated by war, and of bonds unbroken by trauma, sustained by loyalty and tenacity. Writing in a voice that rings with clarity and authenticity, Jani Anttola lays open a dark moment in Europe’s recent history.

Knowledge is a powerful weapon.

War makes many forms of communication difficult or even impossible. The most memorable scenes in my opinion were the ones that showed how the characters coped with not knowing as much about their loved ones and the world at large as they would normally expect. Whether it was knowing if someone was still alive or if they should trust a stranger, there were many moments that were filled with danger and uncertainty that would not have otherwise been there. This was where Mr. Anttola’s writing style shone brightly as he gave the audience many examples of how the characters dealt with all of these unknowns.

I struggled with the slow pacing, especially given the subject matter. War is a difficult topic to discuss, and there were times I thought the author’s thoughts about it would have been easier to understand if this were a shorter read. While the detailed descriptions did give me a vivid mental image of what Maka and his fellow soldiers were enduring, it also slowed down the storyline at times when I would have preferred things to move along a little faster.

This book did an excellent job of exploring how even seemingly tranquil moments can still be traumatic for a soldier in retrospect. Not knowing when violence is going to erupt again can make it extremely difficult to take care of basic human needs like eating, sleeping, bathing, or using the bathroom. Nobody should live on high alert twenty-four hours a day for years on end, and yet this was what Maka had to do in order to have any chance at all to survive. The effects on his mental and physical health were serious but left understated in some places so readers could figure out for themselves what was happening with him.

Father of One was a sobering read.

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Filed Under: Mainstream Fiction, Other, Reviews Tagged With: , , , , , ,

Being Broken – Tales and Essays of Survival and Death from Narcissistic Parental Abuse by Geoffrey R. Jonas

August 22, 2025 By 2 Comments


Being Broken – Tales and Essays of Survival and Death from Narcissistic Parental Abuse by Geoffrey R. Jonas
Publisher: Self-Published
Genre: Non-Fiction, Contemporary, Historical
Rating: 5 Stars
Reviewed by Astilbe

A young woman dies alone in a hotel room, her fentanyl-poisoned cocaine still on the desk. She had been missing for nearly 2 weeks. Social Services had been trying to find a place for her to live with her 3-year-old son, whom she had left with her parents. Six months later her father fights for his life in intensive care, but succumbs to his illness because of a lifelong use of alcohol and tobacco. A month after his death her mother is assessed by doctors to be unable to care for herself because of her Alzheimer’s and mental health issues brought on by benzodiazepine and alcohol addiction.

The son, brother, stepson is the only one left to pick up the pieces. He begins a journey of the self and finds out the truth of his family. After going over letters, notes, emails, videos, and text messages, he uncovers a disturbing picture of the abuse his sister suffered at the hands of their parents. He also begins to better understand his own struggles with mental health and substance addiction because of the trauma and abuse he also suffered from their parents.

Follow the son as he looks through his family history to discover the generational abuse that trickled down through the years. Learn about how parents who suffer from narcissistic personality disorder emotionally abuse and manipulate their children. See how the abuse and trauma becomes mental illness in the abused, and how they fall into vicious traps of addiction, eating disorders, self-harm, and complex post-traumatic stress disorder. Witness the transformational change of the son as he works on the recovery of his inner child and tries to become the man he was meant to be.

Every choice has consequences, and some terrible choices echo through families for generations.

I appreciated the author’s thoughts about how medical providers and society in general could improve the way they treat people who are struggling with mental illness, domestic abuse, trauma, and Substance Use Disorder. His ideas were sensible and included plenty of straightforward advice on everything from changing the way one thinks of someone who is struggling with these challenges to ideas for legislation that could make treatment and recovery easier for this population as well. These are not easy problems to fix by any means, but there are things people from every walk of life can do to make the world slightly better for everyone affected by the sorts of things that Mr. Jonas experienced as a child, teen, and young adult.

While I loved this book in general, my all-time favorite scenes were the ones that showed how people who have Narcissistic Personality Disorder can manipulate nearly any conversation or situation to their own benefit, especially in cases when their victims are not already well-versed in how this disorder can destroy relationships. This isn’t always an easy topic to talk about, so I appreciated the care the author took in describing what his childhood was like without demonizing anyone or downplaying the deep trauma this mental illness caused in his life. It was a delicate balance to maintain, but it added extra layers to his story that were necessary in order to understand why everything unfolded the way it did.

One of the most remarkable things about this memoir was how brutally honest Mr. Jonas was about his faults. He shared multiple stories about things he had done that hurt other people or, in a couple of cases, animals without making any excuses for his choices or softening the blow by passing the blame to others. This is a difficult thing for many people to do, especially for someone who had such a traumatic start to life, so I have to commend him for doing all of the hard work that is necessary in order for a person to not only face up to their worst moments in life but also to genuinely apologize for them. He is a talented writer, and I hope to read more of his work in the future.

Being Broken – Tales and Essays of Survival and Death from Narcissistic Parental Abuse was exactly what it needed to be in order to tell this tale.

Filed Under: Non-Fiction, Reviews Tagged With: , , , , ,

Haunting Melody by M. Flagg

August 21, 2025 By 1 Comment


Haunting Melody by M. Flagg
Publisher: The Wild Rose Press
Genre: Young Adult (14 – 18 y.o.), Paranormal, Romance, Contemporary
Rating: 4 Stars
Reviewed by Astilbe

Melody Marie sees ghosts. Just her luck that they see her as well.

Not even Melody’s mother knows her secret. Already tagged aggressively anxious won’t help Melody at Pinedale High, either. She’s the overweight walking disaster who desperately wants to fit in. No chance of that.

Hammer and his biker buds tragically died on Pinedale’s campus in the 1970s. He is drawn to Melody’s compassion for him. When her friendship with classmate Justin deepens, Hammer’s menacing antics turn dangerous. Every school day becomes a nightmare, and Melody’s desire to fit in fizzles out.

Now, she encounters nonstop clashes with ghosts, her meddling mom, a nosey school counselor, and even the law because of Justin, a known troublemaker. Can she rise above everything going wrong to help Hammer or Justin…or find a way to help them both?

There’s more than one way to get an education in high school.

Melody’s personality captured the angst and drama of being a teenager nicely. She genuinely felt like a sixteen-year-old to me, from her rapidly shifting mood on certain days to the way she analyzed social situations for every possible morsel of information she could get out of them. It’s not easy to make the transition to adulthood, especially for someone like her who was not only grieving the loss of her father but also dealing with bullying, moving to a new town, and adjusting to a different school. That’s a lot of change and conflict for anyone to deal with!

It would have been helpful to have more development for the romantic subplot, especially given how often Melody was warned not to pursue this possibility. While her interest in him made sense due to her attraction to bad boys and her understandable resistance to well-meaning but unsolicited advice, I would have liked to know more about why she found him so appealing when there were hundreds of other guys to choose from at her new school.

I enjoyed the parallels the plot made between how certain characters were treated in modern times and how some of the ghosts were mistreated fifty years ago before they died. Human nature never really changes, and it doesn’t always lead people to being kind to those who don’t fit into the group in some way. There is definitely something to be said for keeping this in mind when reacting to someone one might not understand for whatever reason and withholding judgement until all of the facts have been revealed, so it was nice to see some examples of both how to do this and how not to do this here.

This is the fourth book in a series that doesn’t need to be read in order, although I sure am curious to go back and check out the earlier instalments now.

Haunting Melody was filled with supernatural secrets.

Filed Under: Reviews, Romance, YA/Middle Grade/Children's Tagged With: , , , , , , ,

Portrait of a Ghost by Betty Ann Harris

August 18, 2025 By Leave a Comment


Portrait of a Ghost by Betty Ann Harris
Publisher: Books We Love, Ltd.
Genre: Mystery/Suspense/Thriller, Romance, Paranormal, Contemporary
Rating: 3 Stars
Reviewed by Astilbe

The quaint New England coastal town of Mystic Port is steeped in history, and has more than its fair share of restless sprits. Prudence Trivit, the town’s librarian and historian, is on a mission to exonerate her great Aunt Alexandra, who in 1897 was accused and arrested for the murder of her husband, the mayor. Prudy is certain of her great aunt’s innocence.

A handsome young journalist, Dylan Monroe, is sent to Mystic Port to interview Prudy for the town’s 250th anniversary celebration.
Dylan notices Prudy’s uncanny resemblance to her great aunt in the large portrait of Alexandra that hangs in the museum. He is stunned by her beauty and quite intrigued by the story of Alexandra.

Prudy and Dylan become quite the investigative team. There are mishaps and mayhem as the spirit of Alexandra try’s to point them in the right direction and an opposing spirit tries to dissuade them.

True love never dies.

The romantic subplot was sweet and complemented the mystery and paranormal storylines nicely. While I didn’t have a lot of time to get to know the characters involved in it, I had a good feeling about them given how kind they were to each other and how many hobbies they shared in common. They seemed to have a decent foundation for possibly building something beautiful together, and this is something I’d love to see expounded upon if the author ever decides to write a sequel as there was still plenty of space to explore the possibilities between them.

I found myself wishing for more details as I was reading this piece. There simply wasn’t much time spent describing the characters or settings, and this made it hard to imagine what anyone or anything looked like. Given the fast pace, I definitely wasn’t expecting pages of descriptions for everything, but more attention paid to this would have made me feel comfortable choosing a higher rating as the plot itself was exactly the sort of story I like to pick up.

The genealogy subplot piqued my interest. I sometimes wonder about a few mysteries in my own family tree, so books that explore characters who have similar questions about their ancestors are always interesting to read. It’s difficult to go into much detail about what Prudy learned without giving away spoilers, but I liked all of the clues she discovered, how she pieced them together, and how hard she worked to figure out the portions that didn’t quite make sense to her. There’s something so satisfying about a character who cares this much about her ancestry and wants to uncover the truth.

Portrait of a Ghost made me smile.

Filed Under: Mystery/Suspense, Reviews, Romance Tagged With: , , , , , ,

Peterkin and the First Dog by Simon King-Spooner

August 14, 2025 By Leave a Comment


Peterkin and the First Dog by Simon King-Spooner
Publisher: Self-Published
Genre: Young Adult (14 – 18 y.o.), Sci-Fi/Fantasy, Historical
Rating: 4 Stars
Reviewed by Astilbe

In an ancient world an orphan boy in sheep-farming country tames a wolf.

The two become outcasts, fleeing to a foreign country. Powerful figures determine their fortunes: a holy crone, a demonic bandit, a ruthless baron fleeing a paranoid king.

All travel down a great river till ill-luck blocks their journey.

Then tensions build to a violent climax.

Every journey should begin with a fresh loaf of bread.

This was some of the best world building I’ve read in a long time. Mr. King-Spooner created an intricate and immersive setting that made me feel as though I’d actually travelled to another time and place to learn about Peterkin’s life in a small, superstitious village where bread was the best part of any meal and the adventures he had with his pet wolf when such a staple food wasn’t always an option. It was especially interesting to see how someone who would still be considered to be a child in our version of Earth was treated in a society where adulthood began sooner and where teenagers were generally assumed to be capable of doing just about anything older folks could do. It was one of countless examples of both minor and major things that were radically different between his culture and my own, and it kept me guessing about what I might learn next.

As emotionally invested as I was in Peterkin’s story, I struggled with the slow pacing at times. There were vivid descriptions of where the protagonist travelled to and who he met in various places. While they were extremely important to the plot in the long term, I also found myself wishing for a little more action and conflict to keep my interest levels higher as I waited to discover where the characters might go next.

The themes surrounding death and the rituals and cultural beliefs surrounding it were handled nicely in this book. Obviously, a rural community that only had access to basic herbal remedies could not treat many diseases and injuries as easily as we would. While I don’t want to give away too many hints about how this affected the plot, I’m glad the author spent so much time thinking about how characters who live in such an era would think about things like mortality, grief, and what the gods expected of them. These scenes were well done and fascinating.

Peterkin and the First Dog made me wish for a sequel.

Filed Under: Reviews, Science Fiction/Fantasy, YA/Middle Grade/Children's Tagged With: , , , , ,

Movie Review: Murderbot

August 11, 2025 By Leave a Comment


Murderbot
From AppleTV+
Writers: Paul Weitz and Chris Weitz
Directors: Paul Weitz, Chris Weitz, Andrew Milano, David S. Goyer, and Keith Levine
Starring: Alexander Skarsgård, Noma Dumezweni, David Dastmalchian, Sabrina Wu, Akshay Khanna, Tamara Podemski, and Tattiawna Jones
Genre: Sci-Fi/Fantasy, LGBTQ
Rating: 5 Stars (10 Stars on IMDB)
Reviewed by Astilbe

A security android struggles with emotions and free will while balancing dangerous missions and desire for isolation, evading detection of its self-hacking as it finds its place.

Safety is no laughing matter…but just about everything else is!

As someone who has yet to read “All Systems Red,” the book by Martha Wells that this series is based upon, I started watching with only the vaguest notion that the plot had something to do with a robot. Immediately, I felt empathy for Security Unit 238776431, or SecUnit as he preferred to be called. This was a show that doesn’t require any previous knowledge of the characters or plot to be funny, relatable, or surprising, although I’d love to hear from viewers who did know what to expect in advance to see what they thought of the small screen adaptation of it.

SecUnit’s understanding of human culture kept me guessing from the first episode of season one to the last one. He was grossed out by simple things like hugging or kissing but generally unmoved by violence unless one of his clients was in immediate danger. These contractions only made him more interesting to me as I never quite knew how he was going to react to any given situation. He didn’t have a human mind, and it showed in all sorts of surprising ways.

I loved the offbeat humor in this series. Not only did it highlight the many differences between humans and sentient robots, it also provided relief from the dramatic scenes. It’s not always easy to balance the two, especially with shows that include as many gun battles and other dangerous moments as this one does, but when it’s done right it’s a great way to draw in a wide variety of audiences and give everyone something to enjoy.

Murderbot made me want to dive even more deeply into this universe.

Filed Under: Miscellaneous Musings, Movie Review, Television Show Tagged With: , , , ,

The Christmathon by Valerie J. Patterson

August 8, 2025 By Leave a Comment


The Christmathon by Valerie J. Patterson
Publisher: Self-Published
Genre: Romance, Holiday, Contemporary
Rating: 3 Stars
Reviewed by Astilbe

Sophia Brady, mayor of Noelville, has only one wish for Christmas: to put an end to the Christmathon. To end the rivalry between her town and Garland Falls. What’s stopping her other than 75 years of tradition? The new mayor of Garland Falls. He likes the snow games, the reindeer cup, and healthy competition. He’s just as unyielding in his stance that they continue. When Sophie meets a handsome stranger at her favorite restaurant, will romance be enough to take her mind off the Christmathon?

Competition comes in many forms.

Since the holidays are a time for relishing all sorts of rich dishes, it made perfect sense to describe the food and alcohol the characters consumed in vivid detail. I must admit to needing to grab a few snacks while reading because of how hungry those passages made me. The narrator made every meal and bottle of wine sound amazing, including the ones that I’ve never actually eaten or drunk in real life.

This story would have benefited from another round of editing. Along with the multiple punctuation and other errors I noticed, Sophia’s name was regularly written as Sophie without any explanations as to why that change had occurred. This happened so frequently that I’m not actually sure which one was correct, and it distracted me from the plot itself even though I was originally quite interested in checking it out.

The chemistry between the two main characters was incredibly strong, and this is something I’m saying as a reader who generally prefers a slower burn in the romances I read. Ms. Patterson did a great job of showing why her characters were such a compatible match for each other within just a few pages. There was an electric connection between them that made me excited to see what would happen next. That is not easy to do, so kudos to her for pulling it off. It was exactly what this tale needed to gel together.

The Christmathon made me yearn for romance, wine, and Christmas lights.

Filed Under: Reviews, Romance Tagged With: , , , , ,

Secrets of Lakeluster House by Diane Scott Lewis

July 31, 2025 By Leave a Comment


Secrets of Lakeluster House by Diane Scott Lewis
Publisher: BWL Publishing Inc
Genre: Young Adult (14 – 18 y.o.), Mystery/Suspense/Thriller, Paranormal, Contemporary
Rating: 5 Stars
Reviewed by Astilbe

Sage, at fourteen, grows up in turmoil in Nahant, Massachusetts. Her changing body, her parents’ rocky marriage. When her cousin Patrick visits for the summer, his parents’ divorce has given him a reckless anger. He insists they explore the creepy mansion in the woods. Nate, Sage’s younger brother, is reluctant to approach the manor where a beloved teacher was found hanged months earlier. The children’s great-great grandmother worked at Lakeluster House in a previous century and was under suspicion of shooting another servant.

Now an old lady and her butler have moved in and the kids bring a welcome cake. Invited inside, Sage encounters a strange little girl who shows her the manor’s dark secrets—sparking Sage’s curiosity. Will the butler—a man with his own mysteries—throw them out for snooping? Who is real and who is a ghost? Was her relative guilty? And what danger lingers in the attic? Sage must gather her courage, risking her life to find out.

Genealogy is a window to the past…but is every story about previous generations true?

I loved the way Ms. Lewis described the slow transition from being a kid to being a teenager. Old hobbies can fall to the side as a thirteen or fourteen-year-old suddenly realizes they are interested in things that never caught their attention before, but it can also happen so gradually that one hardly notices the change at the time. This can be a tricky life stage to capture in fiction due to how quickly moods and interests can shift then, so I must tip my cap to the author for portraying it so well. Bravo!

Sage, Nate, and Patrick were given the perfect balance of adult supervision and freedom to explore their town as they tried to figure out what was keeping the ghosts from moving on. Did they sometimes make rash choices and ignore the sensible advice of the adults in their lives? Yes, because that’s what everyone does at their ages, and the storyline needed a little jolt of courage to keep moving along. This isn’t something I read about in young adult novels quite as often as I’d like to, but teens getting into a little mischief is such an important part of the genre.

The exciting plot twists in this book kept me reading. There were exactly the right number of clues about what was coming, and in a few cases the big reveals were allowed to be complete surprises instead. I enjoyed guessing what may happen next and then comparing my assumptions with what I actually read. Paying close attention is key to getting the most out of Sage’s adventures.

Secrets of Lakeluster House thrilled me.

Filed Under: Mystery/Suspense, Reviews, YA/Middle Grade/Children's Tagged With: , , , , , ,

Beneath Far Skies by F.C. Filips

July 29, 2025 By Leave a Comment


Beneath Far Skies by F.C. Filips
Publisher: Self-Published
Genre: Young Adult (14 – 18 y.o.), Sci-Fi/Fantasy, Historical
Rating: 3 Stars
Reviewed by Astilbe

A bit to the south of nowhere, the village of Shtrossenhossen faces an unexpected calamity. The government’s response is swift—mainly because it consists of a single person—and a ragtag band of neighbors is quickly assembled to defend their idyllic home. Unfortunately, they are completely out of their depth.

Join them on a journey packed with hilarity, action, and adventure as they uncover just how laughably outmatched they are by their enemy. From ancient ruins soaring high above the earth to reality-bending machinery buried below it, their quest will peel back the layers of a world they only thought they knew. Along the way, meet characters so unforgettable, it’s hard to tell whether they’re delightfully eccentric or dangerously unhinged.

Will our woefully unprepared heroes survive the impossible odds stacked against them? Can they challenge a god and live to tell the tale? Or will they have to move to another village? But then again, will there even be another village left? Crack open this book and find out!

Every adventure begins the same way: with a single step forward.

This was a world I felt like I really had just visited! It was described with such vivid detail that I could imagine the forests, villages, ruins, and other settings clearly in my mind. Figuring out how this society functioned was also easy to do as the characters spent plenty of time describing their roles, what was expected of them, and what they thought of, say, goblins or other creatures that followed other rules.

The slow pacing made it difficult for my interest levels to remain high at times. While I enjoyed the detailed descriptions of the places they visited, I would have liked to see more action or conflict during their adventures as there wasn’t always enough of these things to encourage me to read just one more page before bedtime.

There’s something to be said for dialogue that is well written and feels natural. Reading it made me feel like I was listening in on someone else’s conversation. The characters had smooth, casual speaking styles and didn’t always use full sentences to communicate their thoughts. This was a good choice for a book that was willing to play around with the English language a little in order to show how people – or sometimes folks who technically aren’t human but are as intelligent as humans – talk to each other when they have a lot to say and not much time to say it.

I also would have liked to see more attention paid to character development. Characters faded into and out of scenes regularly due to how many of them were included in this quest. Unfortunately, I didn’t get to know any of them well because of the large cast and the limited amount of time that was spent developing their personalities and backstories. This meant that I didn’t feel strong emotional connections to anyone and sometimes struggled to remember who was who.

One of the positive things I noticed about the characters was the way the women were written. That is to say, the author did an excellent job of allowing everyone equal opportunities to play whichever roles in the storyline they wanted to take on no matter their sex. This wasn’t always something that was common in the fantasy genre, especially in historical settings, so I was glad to see characters feel free to pursue their hobbies and interests without any restrictions. It’s nice to have these quiet moments of freedom and acceptance for everyone.

Beneath Far Skies made me smile.

Filed Under: Reviews, Science Fiction/Fantasy, YA/Middle Grade/Children's Tagged With: , , , , ,
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