Morgan’s Landing by Linda Griffin

May 19, 2025 By Leave a Comment



Morgan’s Landing by Linda Griffin
Publisher: The Wild Rose Press
Genre: Mystery/Suspense/Thriller, Contemporary
Rating: 3 Stars
Reviewed by Astilbe

In the small town of Morgan’s Landing, fourteen-year-old Julie Morgan disappears on her way to school after a spat with her twin sister. Detective Jim Brady uncovers a few suspects—Is it fired school janitor Bear Wayans, paroled sex offender Raymond Ochner, Julie’s computer teacher David Hartwell…or his own teenage son Colin? Jim can’t believe his son could be involved, but his wife is convinced the boy is hiding something. He needs to find Julie before the worst happens—and keep the peace at home.

Not everything is as safe as it may first appear to be.

This tale did a good job of exploring what it’s like to live in a small community. I especially liked the scenes that showed the many different connections between various characters. While not everyone knew everyone else on a personal basis, they did see each other around regularly and had all sorts of loose ties to each other through school, work, and other activities that typically take up a lot of someone’s time. I enjoyed taking note of how everyone knew each other and, in some cases, what they thought of one another, too.

It would have been helpful to have more character development. As interested as I was in the plot, getting to know the characters wasn’t as easy as I would have preferred it to be because of how little time was spent describing their personalities. I could describe their physical appearances and occupations easily, but I would struggle if someone asked me if the major characters were shy, boisterous, serious, thoughtful, talkative, or some other adjective. If this hadn’t been the case, I would have happily gone for a higher rating as the storyline itself was attention grabbing.

The twist at the end was a wonderful surprise that I hadn’t seen coming. I enjoy it when mysteries play around with the rules of their genres and expect their readers to keep thinking of new possibilities from the first scene to the last one. Kudos to Ms. Griffin for her creativity here! It’s a big part of the reason why I get a thrill every time she comes out with a new book.

Morgan’s Landing kept me guessing.

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

Low April Sun by Constance E Squires

May 16, 2025 By Leave a Comment


Low April Sun by Constance E Squires
Publisher: University of Oklahoma Press
Genre: Historical, Contemporary, Mystery/Suspense/Thriller, Action/Adventure
Rating: 3 stars
Reviewed by Nymphaea

On the morning of April 19, 1995, Delaney Travis steps into the Social Security office in Oklahoma City to obtain an ID for her new job. Moments later, an explosion shatters the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building into rubble. Her boyfriend Keith and half-sister Edie are left to assume the worst—that Delaney perished in the bombing, despite lack of definitive proof. Twenty years later, now married and bonded by the tragedy, Edie and Keith’s lives are upended when they begin to receive mysterious Facebook messages from someone claiming to be Delaney.

Desperate for closure, the couple embarks on separate journeys, each aiming for an artists’ community in New Mexico that may hold answers. Alongside their quest is August, a recovering alcoholic with a haunting connection to the bombing. Raised in the separatist compound of Elohim City, August harbors secrets about Timothy McVeigh, the perpetrator of the attack, and his own possible involvement in the tragedy. When his path crosses with Edie, he must choose whether to tell anyone about his past.

As the 20-year anniversary of the bombing approaches, fracking-induced earthquakes shake the ground of Oklahoma City, mirroring the unsettled lives of its residents. In their quest for answers, Edie, Keith, and August seek to understand how the shadows of the past continue to darken the present, as the ground beneath them threatens to give way once again.

Understanding the past, so one can move into the future.

Life is always more complicated than we mere mortals want to admit. Humans are a mess of contradictions, stories, lies and half-truths. I liked how the author wove all these into this story.

Being that I was alive during the time of the Oklahoma City Bombing, this book grabbed my attention. I wanted to see how the characters handled the situation and the aftermath. I liked that the author kept the stories of the various characters complicated and the mystery threaded through the story was good, too. It showed that life, as I said above, is complicated. There were times, though, where the story was a bit slow and it took some effort to get through it. Maybe I wasn’t in the right mood for this book and wasn’t ready for something this heavy. Other readers may absolutely love it, so don’t be deterred. There is intrigue to the story that will ensnare many readers.

If you want a different take on the events of the Oklahoma City Bombing, the aftermath and the people who lived through it, then this might be the book for you. Give it a try.

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

Everyone! In the Dream! Is You! by Adam Dove

May 16, 2025 By Leave a Comment


Everyone! In the Dream! Is You! by Adam Dove
Publisher: Last-Picked Books
Genre: Sci-Fi/Fantasy, Paranormal, Contemporary
Rating: 3 Stars
Reviewed by Astilbe

In these six stories, full of dangerous magic, fragile men, and broken families, Adam Dove explores the macabre reality of masculinity and the lives it destroys.

A teenager becomes trapped in a cyclical dreamscape, turning a high school crush into an absurdist nightmare. A promising sculptor uses a new technique to mold his lover into the perfect woman. A deserted child’s search for his missing father leads him to the sinkhole on the outskirts of town—which his classmates say leads straight to Hell.

Spanning the breadth of genre and blurring the lines between reality, dream, and nightmare, the stories in Everyone! In the Dream! Is You! show us that beneath the hardened shell of masculinity is a broken, wailing humanity, desperate to be free.

Anything is possible in dream-like places.

In “Unstable Ground,” a deserted child’s search for his missing father in a sinkhole quickly spiralled out of control. I loved the dreamlike quality of this tale, especially as the main character wandered further into the sinkhole and discovered things that made this reader shudder. Every layer, both metaphorically and literally, of the underground tunnels and caverns he explored gave another clue about what was happening and made me wonder if my previous assumptions about what was really going on should be reevaluated. This was something I couldn’t stop reading until I knew how it all ended.

“Everyone! In the Dream! Is You!” continued the trend of making this reader feel like I was trapped in a nightmare, but this time the setting was a high school where the rules of physics and biology kept changing so quickly that I had trouble keeping up with what was going on. It would have been helpful to have a more defined plot in this story given how many other aspects of it were different from one scene to the next. This was a pattern that repeated in a few other stories, too, and led me to choose the rating I did.

A rotting, infected tooth caused such horrible pain for a character in “Heap” that he decided to take matters – and maybe even a molar – into his own hands. This opening scene set the stage for an exploration of a relationship that was placid on the surface but filled with mysterious and horrifying twists and turns the moment its surface was scratched. The vivid descriptions in it made me shudder sometimes, but I couldn’t possibly stop reading.

Everyone! In the Dream! Is You! was surreal.

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

The Dim Future by Phina Rheads

May 15, 2025 By Leave a Comment


The Dim Future by Phina Rheads
Publisher: Self-Published
Genre: Non-Fiction, Contemporary
Rating: 3 Stars
Reviewed by Astilbe

“The Dim Future” is a rhythmic, musical poetry collection using profound language to express and unpack themes and concepts such as love in all its different iterations, philosophy, loss, admitting one’s mistakes, complex family environment, mental health, generational trauma, existentialism, temporality, growth, resilience, etc. The use of free verse verbalises and highlights the chanting quality and aesthetics of the poems, as well as the insight that the author wants to convey to the reader. In turn, allows the reader to receive this wisdom and elaborate it for themselves. Be sure that no matter who you are, at least one poem out of the thirty rhyming poems was written just for you.

Nobody’s life is perfect.

One never really knows what other people’s quiet struggles might be. This collection introduced readers to characters who are dealing with everything from racism to grief to a teacher who doesn’t realize how much pressure they’re placing on their students and more. Behind a happy smile might be someone who desperately needs some understanding and a break from the things in their life that feel impossible to fix. The first step to helping is to understand the emotions not everyone feels comfortable expressing, and this was an interesting take on the topic.

I found myself wishing for more details to be included in these poems. It was tricky to visualize what was happening in them because there weren’t many words in them that described any of the five senses or what the characters in them were like as people other than the difficult circumstances they were going through. Paying more attention to such things would have made it easier for me to maintain a high level of interest in every piece.

With that being said, there was some interesting imagery in “Black Teenage Girl.” It talked about the fragility and beauty of the main character who needed to be protected from the outside world, comparing her to an egg in a nest at the top of the tree. That’s the sort of description that makes me perk up as a reader and want to learn more about the metaphor and how it should be understood.

The Dim Future believed in compassion which is something our world needs more of!

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

Frankie & Chair by Johan Ingler

May 13, 2025 By Leave a Comment


Frankie & Chair by Johan Ingler
Publisher: Self-Published
Genre: YA (10-16 yrs old), Contemporary
Rating: 3 stars
Reviewed by Nymphaea

Nine-year-old Danny has an unusual best friend: Chair, an armchair. Together, they write The Adventures of Captain Redtail & Sir Winchester, a comic about a squirrel space pirate and his faithful companion, a robot cupboard. Content with life as it is, Danny dislikes any sort of change. He’s already had to endure the hardest change of all: the loss of his father.

But things take a turn when he starts at a new school and meets Frankie, a bold skateboarder whose friendship takes him by surprise. Frankie battles with a looming tragedy of her own, stirring emotions in Danny that he struggles to understand. And with Chair stubbornly opposing Frankie’s presence, the rising tensions set off a series of events that none of them could have imagined.

It’s a rocky journey toward new friendship and an understanding of grief, all mirrored in Danny’s comic world—a place where he explores the emotions he’s still learning to process.

How to learn to let go and grow up…we’re all trying to figure it out.

Ingler has written an interesting story that’s a cross between a YA and a fantasy. Danny has his best friend, a talking chair…Chair. They talk and he deals with his various problems. They even write a comic book together, The Adventures of Captain Redtail and Sir Winchester. It’s cute in that it reminded me a lot of Calvin and Hobbes. But Danny meets Frankie and has to figure out how to move forward. The author captures the feeling of being a kid and confused by the fact that the world never stops. It always keeps going forward.

I liked this tale of adventure and fantasy, but also the theme of growing up and letting go to move onto bigger things. It’s a cycle in life we all have to go through and it was cute to see how Danny does this. I liked how he was dragged out of his safe world and into the rest of the world.

If you want a book that’s comic, silly, cute and poignant, then this might be the one for you.

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

Dream Girl Drama by Tessa Bailey

May 12, 2025 By Leave a Comment


Dream Girl Drama by Tessa Bailey
Publisher: Avon
Genre: Romance, Contemporary
Rating: 3 stars
Reviewed by Nymphaea

When professional hockey player Sig Gauthier’s car breaks down and his phone dies, he treks into a posh private country club to call a tow truck, where he encounters the alluring Chloe Clifford, the manic pixie dream girl who captivates him immediately with her sense of adventure and penchant for stealing champagne.

Sparks fly during a moonlight kiss and the enamored pair can’t wait to see each other again, but when Sig finally arrives to meet his dad’s new girlfriend over dinner, Chloe is confusingly also there. Turns out the girlfriend is Chloe’s mother. Oh, and they’re engaged.

Sig’s dream girl is his future stepsister.

Though the pair is now wary of being involved romantically, Chloe, a sheltered harp prodigy, yearns to escape her controlling mother. Sig promises to teach her the ins and outs of independence in Boston—but not inside his bedroom. They both know there can never be more than friendship between a famous hockey player and his high-society, soon-to-be stepsister. But keeping their relationship platonic grows harder amid the developing family drama, especially knowing they were meant for so much more…

They’ve found the one…except their one might be their future stepsibling, too. Awkward.

I’ve never read a book by Tessa Bailey, so I went into this book with a fresh perspective. It was an easy read and quick, which was nice. It was a good afternoon or two read. The characters had potential and were relatable, so I was invested in the story.

I did have a few quibbles about the story, though. Chloe is described as a manic pixie dream girl. She’s eccentric and fun and quirky. She’s nice and cute and sweet, too. At times, she seemed almost bland, though. Too good to be true, sort of thing. It was nice that she was nice, but I wasn’t as invested in rooting for her. This might not be a turn-off for other readers. Maybe I wasn’t in the right headspace to read this story. Other readers may love her quirks. I did like the scenes with Sig and his teammates as those were funny scenes. The banter was great.

If you want a book that’s fun, spicy, and something you’re not expecting, then this might be the one for you.

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

Movie Review: Shredder Orpheus

May 12, 2025 By Leave a Comment

Shredder Orpheus
Writers: Robert McGinley
Director: Robert McGinley
Starring: Robert McGinley, Megan Murphy, Gian-Carlo Scandiuzzi, Vera McCaughan
Publisher: Boom! Cult, Inc., Image Network Inc.
Genre:SciFi/Fantasy, Horror, Historical
Rating: Stars 3 Stars (6 Stars on IMDB)
Reviewed by Astilbe

Skateboarder named Orpheus and friends go to Hell to stop television signals that are brainwashing America.

True love makes anything possible, right?

The retelling of the Orpheus and Eurydice legend made me smile. Anyone who isn’t already familiar with this Greek myth may want to give it a quick google beforehand so they’ll know the basic plot, but viewers who skip that step will be able to figure things out later on in the film once the plot speeds up. As someone who was only somewhat aware of the original, I thought it was cool to see it reinterpreted on the big screen but didn’t have any strong opinions about what that should look like. There is definitely something cool about seeing how famous old stories can be retold to new generations in ways that feel more modern, and I hope to watch more movies like this in the future.

I struggled with the slow pacing of this film, especially given how long it took some subplots to begin to influence each other. Yes, filming styles were different 30+ years ago, but I still found myself wishing that the fantasy elements of the storyline had been developed more deeply so it would be easier for me to figure out what is going on with those characters. There was room to do that here, and it would have made for a stronger tale in my opinion.

With that being said, the plot was so surreal and dreamlike that the portions of it I had trouble putting together at first ended up making much more sense later on. This may work best for viewers who can go with the flow and enjoy the ride. It may be confusing at times just like trying to explain what happened in a disjointed dream after you wake up and realize that dream you didn’t realize how odd certain moments were, but figuring out what certain scenes may have meant afterwards can be quite rewarding. I especially liked comparing the earliest scenes to what was revealed about them close to the end when certain themes finally wove together and worked in my mind.

Shredder Orpheus kept me guessing what might happen next.

IMPORTANT NOTE:

The brand-new novelization of SHREDDER ORPHEUS is available from Encyclopocalypse Publications!

SHREDDER ORPHEUS is now available to rent and/or own digitally at BOOM! CULT, and on a limited edition Blu-ray available exclusively at Vinegar Syndrome.

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

Paranormal Jelly: An Anthology of Whimsical Narratives Regarding the Comical Facets of the Occult by Zwahk Muchoney

May 6, 2025 By Leave a Comment


Paranormal Jelly: An Anthology of Whimsical Narratives Regarding the Comical Facets of the Occult by Zwahk Muchoney
Publisher: Self-Published
Genre: Mystery/Suspense/Thriller, Sci-Fi/Fantasy, Paranormal, Contemporary
Rating: 3 Stars
Reviewed by Astilbe

Paranormal Jelly blends the bizarre with the everyday in the early internet era of 1996. Middle-aged author Albert runs a popular website, sharing tales of eldritch horrors, baby Sasquatches, cigarette-smoking ghosts, and dark cultists. A skeptic at heart, he dismisses it all as fiction—until reality starts to blur. Cryptids and hauntings become alarmingly frequent, always just out of the reporter’s sight, but impossible to ignore. As Albert struggles to document these strange events, he’s drawn into a web of the supernatural that threatens his very existence.

Both skeptics and true believers are welcomed here.

I loved the playful and humorous tone of Albert’s adventures. The fantasy and science fiction themes were subtle in some places, but that only made those scenes even more exciting once they popped up again and made me look at what just happened in a new light. It was a nice contrast to the more skeptical characters who didn’t always believe the stories about ghosts, cryptids, aliens, and other creatures they heard.

As much as I liked reading about the various characters in this novella, there were so many of them that only the protagonist was given a chance to become more well rounded. Even then, I didn’t feel like I got to know Albert as deeply as I would have liked to due to the relatively short length of this piece and how much was going on with the plot. With stronger character development, this could have been a four or five-star work as the storyline and themes themselves were fantastic.

Some of my favorite scenes were the ones that provided scientific explanations for why things like orbs sometimes appear in photos and why certain types of people are more – or less – likely to believe in conspiracy theories and the paranormal in general. There are many different reasons why strange things happen and why people can have a wide variety of responses to the same event. I thought these passages treated both believers and skeptics fairly and assumed the best of everyone. That makes these sorts of stories so much more interesting to read as I knew the author had good intentions and wanted everyone to think critically about what they’ve read, heard, or maybe even seen with their own two eyes.

Paranormal Jelly: An Anthology of Whimsical Narratives Regarding the Comical Facets of the Occult kept me guessing.

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

Hands Down by Felix Francis

April 30, 2025 By Leave a Comment


Hands Down by Felix Francis
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Genre: Contemporary, Mystery/Suspense/Thriller
Rating: 3 stars
Reviewed by Fern

Sid Halley, a private investigator, has a new left hand, having had a transplant since his last appearance in Refusal. After receiving death threats, an ex-jockey trainer friend calls Sid to ask for his help, but Sid has his own problems to deal with; like recovering from surgery and saving his crumbling marriage.

When his friend’s stable yard is torched, horses killed, and the friend is found dead, Sid can only blame himself for not helping sooner. The police think it’s suicide, but Sid is not convinced after his friend’s terrified phone calls. Heavy with a guilty heart, Sid starts to investigate and soon finds himself embroiled in a conspiracy that cuts to the very heart of the integrity of British horse racing.

Can Sid figure out what happened to his friend, or will he be the next one that the killer targets?

Sid Halley is having a rough time. His beloved wife, Marina, has decided she needs a break to think about their future and has gone to visit her dying father in the Netherlands with their young daughter. Still reeling from this emotional blow, Sid is asked for help by a friend who is an ex-jockey now trainer. Gary is being threatened and needs a friend he can trust, only before Sid can discuss what’s going on Gary’s stable is torched and his horses killed. Can Sid investigate what’s happening and sort out his marital crisis without anyone getting hurt in the meantime?

I’ve been a big fan of the various Sid Halley stories and found this addition was quite good. While all the previous books don’t need to have been read, I do feel that knowing who the main characters are in this series would give the relationship/emotional plotline a bit more oomph and have more meaning. The mystery aspect is new to this book and doesn’t really have any cross over to the previous books so I feel readers primarily concerned with the investigation side of things should be able to easily pick this book up by itself.

Readers looking for a fast paced or more action orientated mystery might find this doesn’t quite suit their needs. While I do feel the action is quicker than many British police procedural novels, I’ve read this isn’t an American or spy thriller where everything is just go-go-go from the first page till the explosive conclusion, but neither do I feel the is the pace slow or at all plodding. This is a nice balance somewhere in between.

I do admit that Sid’s marital issues take up a fair chunk of the pages and while I personally thought this helped balance out the story and made Sid feel more of a well-rounded family man I could understand if some readers are only really interested in the mystery and investigative aspects to the book.  This was a solid mystery with a well thought out plot.

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

Mountain Interlude by S.V. Brosius

April 28, 2025 By Leave a Comment


Mountain Interlude by S.V. Brosius
Publisher: Self-Published
Genre: Romance, Paranormal, Contemporary
Rating: 3 Stars
Reviewed by Astilbe

Can broken hearts mend if they are frozen in time?

Deep in the mountains of Colorado stands an old house shrouded in mist. A lonely, divorced woman will come face to face with the attractive man who owns the property. She will find herself in a world of paranormal mystery: a place where the lost are taken care of, the injured are healed, and time stands still.

Healing is for everyone.

Maizie’s character development was strong and made me want to spend even more time with her. She was an intelligent, resourceful person who could quickly solve problems if she felt threatened or confused. This is something I’m always happy to come across in stories, especially ones involving a woman driving alone in the middle of nowhere who has car trouble and needs to seek help. That’s a situation that just about any woman would feel rather vulnerable in, so it was a relief to meet a character who took her predicament so seriously.

It was never quite clear to me what the limitations of the paranormal elements of the storyline were. They seemed to wax and wane depending on what Maizie and Tony were currently doing, but it was never entirely clear to me if this was because their moods were influencing the spirit world or if this were a coincidence. If more attention had been paid to the logic of how this all worked, I would have happily given this tale a higher rating as it was well-written and memorable.

I must tip my cap at the author for their creative and thought-provoking ending. It was not at all what I expected it to be, but it fit the tone of this tale perfectly and made me wish for a sequel. There’s definitely something to be said for stories that play around with the audience’s expectations in order to keep their genre fresh and interesting.

Mountain Interlude was full of surprises.

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