Icy Heart, Empty Chest by Holly Lee and The Hat Man by Greg Marchand

Icy Heart, Empty Chest by Holly Lee 

This review is also on Reedsy Discovery.

Icy Heart, Empty Chest by Holly Lee is great at world building by creating a modern society of fairies, nymphs, elves, kelpies, and other magical creatures. It has a fascinating albeit gruesome plot and characters with potential. However, it is a slow paced book that gets repetitive very quickly.

In an alternate universe in which magical creatures live their daily modern lives, Cora is a barista, bounty hunter, smuggler, and art thief. Her client Finneas gives her a new assignment to retrieve a kelpie’s heart from the witch who stole it and give it to a potential buyer. While investigating Filla, the witch who took the heart, she learns that the heart belongs to Damien, a kelpie who is also her ex. He is alive but is growing weaker without his heart. Cora must choose between duty of following her assignment and a love that never really ended.

The strongest aspect of this book is the world building. It does not pull the old standard “Fairylands are stuck in a pastoral arcane Medieval like society" trope. If human society changes, there is no reason to assume that Fairy Worlds wouldn’t. They live in a society where magic and technology combine to create a world that is both fantastic and identifiable. 

This is a world where nymphs and sprites live next door to each other in suburban homes. Where an elf runs the local cafe. Where a doctor might treat your illness or injuries or you might get a witch to do it. Lee clearly had a lot of fun with treating magical characters like people that we might see every day. They just happen to have powers to create storms, curse people, heal with their hands, or teleport from one place to another. 

Some might have large ears, fur on their whole bodies, wings, sharp fangs, or look more animal than human. But they are just like you and me. They go to work or school, go shopping, run errands, hang out with friends, spend money, relax at home, and live mundane lives while having awesome powers and fascinating physical characteristics. 

The book has a promising character and its plot is alright for the most part. Cora isn’t a smuggler simply for money. She steals because she loves and appreciates art. Her love of art is inherited from her late father. In a way, her career keeps her memory of him alive even if her pursuits aren't exactly legal.

Cora’s love for her father also is evident in her conflicts with Damien. In fact, their fathers had a violent confrontation. As children who are close to their parents will do, Cora and Damien defended their old men and ended their relationship in a battle of words. While Cora rejects what she lost, she recognizes that Damien doesn’t deserve to have his heart taken out and doesn’t want his death on her conscience. No matter how their relationship ended, she does not want to be the one to give him a death sentence. 

The most serious drawback in the book is its pacing and it drags what would be an interesting plot. The heart assignment is well executed and there is genuine suspense in Cora’s search and retrieval of the heart. It could be a thrilling cat and mouse game that happens to have a living macguffin and lucky for Damien, a patient that is actually alive to take part in the search.

However the slowest moments occur during Cora and Damien’s reunions. There are several chapters devoted to them discussing their conflicts before they are resolved. A few are fine because this is a couple with a lot of serious baggage but those chapters repeat themselves. Cora and Damien spend a lot of talking in circles over the same topics and discussions without coming to any resolution or clarity. 

The pacing drags down what could be an interesting book with a fascinating premise and characters and makes it tedious and even boring. Their conversations could have been shorter, or came to the main points quicker. Also instead of talking about their issues and telling each other how they feel, they could show each other. What is overly verbose could have more action showing the two coming closer together emotionally on this heart stopping, pun not intended adventure. 

The Hat Man by Greg Marchand 

A supernatural creature that has gained popular culture relevance is The Hat Man. a mysterious tall figure with no facial features and dressed in a black suit, coat, and fedora appears from out of the shadows and stands over an unwilling victim usually in their bedrooms, in an abandoned street, or the woods, somewhere they are alone. It doesn’t touch them or talk to them mostly. It just stands there as a frightening silent presence. The Hat Man is most commonly associated with sleep paralysis as humans have largely reported seeing it in their bedrooms and over their beds before approaching REM sleep. There are urban legends of Benadryl users taking large quantities of the antihistamine to purposely encounter the figure. 

The Hat Men inspired the look of various characters like Freddy Krueger in the Nightmare on Elm Street franchise, The Babadook, and Creepypasta’s Slenderman. He has also appeared in the horror films, Shadow People and The Shadow Man, the documentaries The Nightmare and The Hat Man: Cases of Pure Evil, the games LSD: Dream Emulator and Deep Sleep, the Jason Pargin novel, John Dies At the End, and The Twilight Zone episode, “The Shadow Man.” The Twilight Zone episode in particular builds on the legend by depicting The Shadow Man as attacking people except “the one under whose bed (they) lay.” Unfortunately, the young protagonist finds himself the prey of a Shadow Man from under someone else’s bed!

The most recent portrayal of this enigmatic eerie and otherworldly figure can be found in Greg Marchand’s horror novel, The Hat Man. Similar to The Twilight Zone episode, it shows a Hat Man who isn't just terrifying because of its mere presence. It isn’t above using violence to make a point. 

This version of the Hat Man appears after a couple excavate trees for their gum. Instead of the expected sap from a slash pine, blood emerges and the two stumble upon an abandoned grave. They then see a terrifying figure dressed in a fedora who attacks the couple. Once unleashed, The Hat Man attacks various characters in violent ways. Two brothers searching for the monster are separated then murdered with great efficiency by The Hat Man. It falls to Sadie Burrows and Colton Garrett, who lose loved ones to the Hat Man, to investigate the mystery of this strange specter, its origins, and hopefully how to stop it. 

This book embellishes The Hat Man mythos by giving it more agency, character traits, and even a backstory. Instead of being a silent detached observer, it is an aggressive creature of action and rage. He uses his sharp claws, ice cold death breath, and superhuman strength to overpower then kill its victims. The action removes the more ominous ambiguous presence from the legend but makes sense from a storytelling point of view in this context. 

In some ways, Marchand combines the behavior of The Hat Man with more malevolent spirits like the dybbuk, which possesses and torments the living and the revenant which returns from the dead to inflict harm or terror. 

The behavior of the Hat Man becomes more understandable once we learn about its backstory before its death. It was once a person that was involved in horrible things and died graphically and violently. It is trying to seek the vengeance and justice in death that was denied in life. It’s not a particularly understandable or sympathetic character in the past or present, but knowing that it was once human gives it more of a relatable edge.

 There are many people filled with such hatred in their hearts that they make life miserable for those around them. Their words, actions, and very presence stirs negative emotions within people and they almost delight in that persona. They could fly into violent rages or play cold sociopathic mind games, but no matter their means they bring cruelty and inspire fear, despair, dependance, self-blame, guilt, submission, anger, fury, trauma, depression, anxiety, complacency, and apathy. Now picture a person like that coming back to life after their death and having supernatural abilities. It’s very easy to see why The Hat Man leaves such an impression on those he encounters.

This presence is also augmented by the personal suffering inflicted by the human characters. Sadie is coming off of an abusive relationship in which her ex hurt her dog, Buddy, who would later be killed by The Hat Man. A vet assistant and animal lover, Sadie’s strongest emotional core was her dog and the Hat Man destroys it. 

Colton’s family is extremely dysfunctional, particularly his troubled, addicted younger brother, Trevor, whom Colton has always taken a paternal role towards. He also greatly admires his older steadier brother, Bill, who is also the Sheriff. Both are murdered by The Hat Man. In killing them, The Hat Man also deprives Colton of his strongest emotional touchstones. 

It’s not enough for The Hat Man to kill someone physically, he destroys them emotionally by removing those they love the most and leaving them completely vulnerable and helpless when he comes after them.

That is the atmosphere that surrounds the book. It is a cruel world obsessed with death and violence that is reflected by an even crueler afterworld where the violence doesn’t end. Instead it increases. One of the more disturbing passages occurs when Sadie, Colton, and their friends hunt for The Hat Man during a Mardi Gras parade and stare befuddled and shaken at a float from The Hat Man Krewe, a float that not only honors the terrifying spirit that ruined their lives, but turns him into an attraction. It is one thing to become victimized by a disturbing person or presence but it is another thing to see that same presence glamorized into a figure of fun, sexuality, or worse admiration. 

The Hat Man book reveals a lot about a supernatural creature but it also reveals a lot more about the humans who talk about it. 

The Assassin's Heart by Chuck Morgan; Dead People Anonymous by Loraine Hayes

The Assassin's Heart by Chuck Morgan; Dead People Anonymous by Loraine Hayes 

 The Assassin's Heart by Chuck Morgan 

This is a short review. The full review is on LitPick 

The Assassin's Heart is an enthralling character driven Thriller about an assassin who begins to question her allegiances when her own heart and emotions are on the line.

 Delia Cahill seems to live a perfect enviable life. She's happily married to Mark, a government employee and has a great career as a high powered attorney with a noted list of rich and famous clients. She is actually a high priced assassin with a tremendous kill list and an excellent reputation as someone who gets the job done. Her latest assignment is Alexander Thorne, a tech genius who created an app that can penetrate any system, network, and defense. However, her heart gets in the way as Delia finds herself falling in love with her target.

Delia straddles the line between consummate professional and romantic heroine and plays both extremes rather well. She's like a praying mantis or a black widow spider, attracting her captive before destroying him. In fact she is so effective at her job that it would be nice to see more of this side of her as a remorseless killer.

Mostly we see her when she realizes that her job isn't what she thought. Her relationship with Alexander becomes a deal breaker between her and the Organization. After she falls in love, they go through extreme measures to break her, treating her just like she used to treat her targets. 

Delia lived a life of violence that overpowered her enemies and tried to live without a conscience. It worked until her conscience overpowered her. 

Dead People Anonymous by Loraine Hayes 

It turns out the dead need just as much emotional and psychological help as the living. Just like the living, the dead sometimes meet in groups to talk about them. Dead People Anonymous by Loraine Hayes is an entertaining, hilarious, and heartfelt look at life after death and the support groups that they form. 

Lexi died at age 28. She wakes up surrounded by other ghosts that have their own stories to tell. There's Billy, a soldier who died during the Vietnam War and finds Lexi very attractive. Vivian is the group leader and Team Mom who suffered loss and rejection in life. Malik appears to be the youngest as he died at 11 but since he's the first who died, he is the wisest and most experienced when it comes to rules of the dead. Dominic is a surly argumentative sort on the surface but has a hidden heart of gold. Maria is quiet but retains the insecurities and neurosis that she had in life. Finally, Chester is the oldest, dying at age 98 and has a lifetime of regrets and memories. The Dead People Anonymous group is there for each other.

The living impaired talk about their problems, discuss the circumstances of their deaths, and what they need to do to cross over to the next plane of existence wherever that may be.

The world of the dead is very detailed with all of the rules and standards that the dead follow. Like all good Fantasies, Hayes took great care in creating and planning her imaginary world and it shows in her writing. 

The ghosts are restricted to various rules. They feel emotions strongly and those emotions can be quite contagious among them. They can relive moments in their pasts as observers and maybe learn things about those moments that they suppressed on Earth. Yes Heaven and Hell exist and the choices that they made in life and after death could serve as gateways to either location.

The ghosts can touch each other but not humans.

They can leave and observe humans, but during times of stress or enlightenment, they find themselves transported back to the building where the group meets. It's also not a good idea to visit friends or family. It's not forbidden but it brings out the worst emotions and could lead to permanent relocation in one direction or another.

These rules are intriguing as Lexi navigates her way through being dead, making mistakes, and adjusting to her ghostly afterlife.

The book also has a strong sense of character development as we get to know each group member, what they were like in life, who they left behind, and what unfinished business holds them back. 

Each character's past is explored and we touch on various human experiences through the eyes of those who had to leave humanity behind. These are stories of lost loves, missing family members, unfaithfulness, anger, jealousy, age, grudges, unspoken words, regrets, and wanting to know if their lives had any meaningful impact and if there was some part of themselves that lived on in some way. 

In the end that's all anyone wants to know, dead or alive. If they actually mattered.

What Was Left of Her A Story of Ghosts by Victoria Hattersley; Whirl of Birds Short Stories by Liana Vraijitoru Andreasen

 What Was Left of Her A Story of Ghosts by Victoria Hattersley; Whirl of Birds Short Stories by Liana Vraijitoru Andreasen 

By Julie Sara Porter 

Bookworm Reviews

What Was Left of Her A Story of Ghosts by Victoria Hattersley 

This is a summary of my review. The full review is on LitPick.

What Was Left of Her is very reminiscent of the old Gothic novels like Jane Eyre or Rebecca. It explores the outer atmosphere built on suspenseful austerity and the inner psychology of the troubled people within.

Two sisters, Cassie and Alex reunite after the death of their Aunt Lucie. While going through her house, the two recount their troubled and disturbed childhood with the loving but haunted aunt who raised them and their developmentally disabled potentially sociopathic cousin, Bella. While they remain in Lucie’s coastal home, strange things start happening. Cassie sees someone out of the corner of their eye, hears whispers, and things are mislaid. She is beginning to wonder if maybe Bella who was believed to have disappeared might still be alive. 

The characters inside are troubled miserable souls notably Cassie and Bella. Cassie is a recovering alcoholic with a fragmented memory. It’s hard to tell whether the ghosts are real and surround her or whether they are in her mind. 

Even though Bella is absent through most of the book, she is still very much in the family’s mind and consciousness. She was a seriously troubled woman who may not have been physically capable of controlling herself but also may have been and did not care. The description of her could go either way and is only provided by third person accounts from Cassie and Alex. 

The cousins' personalities and actions merge until it’s hard to tell how much of Cassie’s memories are accurate, whether they were things that Bella did or whether Cassie was projecting and who was haunting who.

Whirl of Birds: Short Stories by Liana Vraijitoru Andreasen 

This review is also on Reedsy Discovery.

Liana Vraijitoru Andreasen’s anthology Whirl of Birds Short Stories is an extremely difficult book that reveals complex narratives and themes.

It captures the abstract, the allegorical, the symbolic, and the metaphorical and turns them into understandable commentaries on the characters themselves and the societies in which they and the Reader inhabit. It's a book that isn't always easy to understand but it's impossible to get out of your mind.

The best stories are: 

“The Puppet Show”-This is a very creepy story that takes the whole “we are mere puppets on a string” metaphor literally. Kids enjoy a puppet show particularly the ongoing adventures of Princess Gina who gets in various cliffhangers that put her in peril. 

This is a very surreal short story that implies a theme of possessing someone's talent and soul. It's not a coincidence that Gina the Puppet shares the same name as Gina, who works for the puppet show and narrates the adventures. In the Puppeteer’s eyes, both Ginas are one and the same and he believes that in owning one, he has control of the other.

He controls Gina who is a brilliant performer and storyteller and tries to manipulate circumstances around her. He invites various male performers to play the character, Radu, to join them almost as though to test her fidelity. Each time they commit transgressions, the men disappear leaving Gina more isolated and dependent on the Puppeteer. 

Significantly, there are three men therefore three tests. Three is a magical number that appears often in fairy tales, like the kind of stories that the Ginas star in. The Puppeteer is writing his own story and controlling the narrative of Gina's life. He treats the human Gina like a character that does whatever he wants them to. She has no story beyond the one that he created for her.

The final pages show both the end of the Puppet Show and Gina's relationship with the Puppeteer. It depicts that the puppeteer can't control everything, that he is as much a pawn, a puppet, in larger games and larger stories that surround him. He can't control changing tastes, that children are always looking for the next big thing and once they find it, they throw out the old thing. He can't control when people get lives of their own and move on and away from him, in effect changing the plot. 

He especially can't control the outside world, when revolutions and violence can occur. Instead, he is left alone with his incomplete story and no one that cares or is even interested enough to listen to it.

“Stolen Light”-This story uses an ominous natural phenomenon as a metaphor for the family observing it. Jose Angel, a young boy, sees a mysterious cloud approaching Las Vegas. Terrified, many have theories but the boy has only certain things in mind. If the world is ending, he wants to get some nagging questions answered about his missing father.

What is particularly compelling and frustrating is the lack of answers that this story provides leaving events ambiguous. There are no definite answers to what the cloud is. In fact the characters' speculations say more about themselves than they do about the phenomena itself. 

Some say the cloud is a government experiment and it's a conspiracy. Others say that it's an impending alien invasion. Still others think that it's the Biblical End of Days. They act how most people would in such a situation. They make their own conclusions in the face of no answers or ones that they disagree with.

Jose Angel is like many teens. He wants his own life. He wants to satisfy those urges that he has for companionship and belonging. He is less concerned with the thing in the sky than he is with the things that are troubling his mind.

Among those questions are those about his father. He asked his mother about him and she gave non-answers which left him as confused as everyone else is about the cloud. Then conveniently an encounter might provide a solution but it only raises more questions and potentially puts Jose Angel in danger.

This story demonstrates how our thoughts can become cloudy with our own questions and speculation. We might get an answer but it may not be what we expected or liked. Sometimes it leads to more questions and makes things even cloudier.

“Whirl of Birds”-Birds usually represent color, flight, independence, and freedom. But sometimes they can also represent dread, violence, scavengers, predators, and death. This is what happens as Bianca is on a drive and is pursued by a very persistent flock of birds that keep following her towards an unpleasant encounter. 

The story is reminiscent of Alfred Hitchcock’s The Birds and Edgar Allen Poe’s “The Raven” as the birds hover around her. Bianca isn’t frightened of the birds. In fact she is enchanted by them and her own thoughts. She wonders where they come from and where they are going. She sees meaning in the sky but can’t yet articulate what it is. 

Her thoughts also drift towards various names like “Steve,” “Andy,” and “Sam.” We are not told of her specific relationships with these men though we can make inferences based on a phone call with Andy and that Sam enters her mind the most but dissipates upon encountering a car crash. These names suggest connections but quite possibly long gone ones of people who were once important to her but now no longer are. They flew away from her mind as she was driving down the road watching birds fly towards her. 

While the birds and Bianca’s thoughts suggest a liberating experience, there is something else that is at play. They could just as easily be symbolic of something more sinister. The birds are vultures, carrion eaters, usually associated with death. They circle over her car like they are waiting for something. Bianca, whose name by the way means “white” or “pale,” drives along with them, almost feeling spiritual and emotionally connected with them. It could very well be that she is symbolic of “Death on a Pale Horse” and it doesn’t care who the people around them are. They are just names that will come to an end soon, not people with experiences, stories. Her history with them doesn’t matter because it will end as all things do.

There is an eerie climactic encounter with an unnamed woman where once again we are told very little about which also parallels “Bianca and the birds as death” symbol. There is no personal connection and they are uncertain and afraid of each other. Bianca’s appearance frightens the woman but the story seems to apply that she is who Bianca is there for. She may resist but she will face Bianca, the birds, and death no matter what. 

“Mahogany”-This story is almost a modern day adaptation of the Greek myth, “Pygmalion and Galatea” in which a sculptor falls in love with his creation but this puts some commentary of modern life to the tale. 

Al, a woodcarver, is not a lonely bachelor like his ancient counterpart. In fact he has a nagging wife and disinterested kids. He has a life that Pygmalion might have envied of people surrounding him and he may have at one time loved. But life got in the way, voices were raised, comments were ridiculed, and arguments broke out. A family that might have been close once is disconnected from each other. They share a last name and a roof over their heads but that’s it. There is nothing but noise, misery, and despair. Al can only find silence and acceptance through his art.

Despite his assurances that he is not having an affair, Al is clearly in love: with his own creation. He carves a beautiful woman out of mahogany. This is someone who will not belittle, or disagree with him, will treat him well, and that can look, act, and say anything he wants. Like the puppeteer with Princess Gina, he has complete ownership of her. She is a fantasy, a story and it’s one in which he can create. 

However unlike the Puppeteer and Pygmalion, it’s a story that he would rather keep for himself. The Mahogany Figure represents the ultimate beauty represented in art. She can never be captured or possessed and certainly never be owned. In Al’s mind, he doesn’t want his carving to come to life, grow old, and become shrill, cold, and unloving. He wants to preserve her as she is, forever young, forever beautiful, forever innocent. 

“Driving With Sara”-This is a haunting story about age and loneliness and how desperate people sometimes do desperate things to make connections. The Narrator is an old woman who is irritated with her pestering daughter and diminishing life so she makes a connection with a stranger named Sara.

The Narrator realizes that her life is not what it was. It is breaking apart piece by piece from interests, to people that she once knew, to pets. She is seeing parts of her identity move away one by one. What is particularly sad and memorable about it, is that it is not from an illness like Alzheimer’s. These actions are caused by a daughter who thinks that she knows best and infantilizes her mother. The attention only seeks to isolate her and make her feel lonely. 

The Narrator’s connection to Sara is one of mutual strangers but she thinks that it gives her the love and support that she is looking for from her daughter. This woman is delusional but her mind is so troubled and traumatized that she can’t tell the difference between what is true and what she imagines about Sara.

The irony of Sara’s appearance is a grotesque and dark comic one that seems to put a fatalistic punch line to this poor woman’s life. In being unable to truly bond with her daughter, the Narrator seeks another very unhealthy and troubling bond with someone who is also rejecting her in her own way. Rather than acknowledging that, the Narrator would rather remain in this state than admit what is painfully true. 

“The Return”-Loneliness is also the culprit in this story of a father communicating with his daughter by phone. Unlike The Narrator and her mother who live a stifling isolating experience which leaves the mother longing for a connection that makes her feel less confined and lonely, Melvin’s relationship with his daughter, Ella, is already isolated. 

Melvin projects an image of a kind and efficient worker, but he is starting to slow down. His work is less noticeable and he is distracted. He slowly loses confidence and eventually his placement at work. As long as he had a role at the office, he was known but as it diminishes, he is made redundant, faceless, someone easily discarded. The job has deprived him of his humanity and left him alone and disenchanted with the outside world.

His home life is equally isolated. His wife is dead and he is separated from his daughter by distance. They only communicate by phone which Melvin hates. The results are that Melvin is desensitized and disconnected from the life around him. He is physically cut off from others, so mentally is as well.

He becomes involved with an experiment involving rats. This experiment is foreshadowed when he tells a disturbed Ella a story about rats committing violent actions out of love and respect. In his loneliness, he is personifying human interaction with animals. The things that he wants: love, respect, understanding, empathy are things that he believes that he sees in rodents. This isolation, unmet longing, and the desperate need to have those longings met cause him to go to extreme means to get them. Those means present a horrible lasting impression on Ella and the Reader.

“What Lingers”-This story personalizes one of the most historic tragedies by giving us two characters who experienced it and share an intuitive connection because of it. 

At first we aren’t told where Alex and Katya  are and what disaster has befallen them. There are hints with words like “radiation,” and references to the odd sky color and opening valves. The clues start piling up until proper names like “Pripyat” and “Three Mile Island” enter. Then it becomes more apparent what is going on and what the characters are experiencing. It’s a universal thing. No matter what the tragedy is, people who are associated with such an event will always feel connected to it.

Besides giving clues for the Reader to guess where they are, this approach demonstrates the humanity that such tragedies bring. It doesn’t matter when or where they are, but those who have been through them will share a bond of mutual survivors. It creates links of kinship that go beyond friends and family. 

Alex and Katya’s link is explored in an intuitive and possibly psychic manner. They are brought together by this tragedy and their relationship. Even though they are in another place, they recognize each other as someone who understands and has been through the ordeal. They reach beyond that memory and are able to connect on a more personal level. 

“Valley of the Horse”-This story presents an ominous energy found in nature and how it parallels grief. Zak is haunted by his various interactions with a judge and a dying horse on his way to and from work. 

Judge Ivy and the horse seem to be cut off from the edge of the world. Zak pities the horse who is clearly suffering and Ivy who can do nothing but watch her die. Their interactions run the gamut between casual, revulsion, indifferent, sympathy, anger, depression, defiance, and ultimately acceptance. Ivy is a man who wants to believe that he is doing his best for his horse and wants to be with her during his painful experience. He doesn’t want to hasten it, but suffer through it with her.

Zak is drawn to this man because he recently suffered the loss of his partner, April. Even though he is with someone else, his thoughts of April never diminished. Ivy and the horse are constant reminders of the person that he lost and the guilt that he felt for things that he did and didn’t do with April. In some ways, Zak is reliving his own experiences including the life that he didn’t have with her. Zak and Ivy are parallels in loss and the emotions that are associated with it.

One of the most telling moments is when Zak rages at Ivy and a crowd gathered around the horse. Since Ivy is a judge, Zak is calling him out on his treatment of the horse and how he can let her suffer. It’s a bit heavy handed, but he is also comparing Ivy to God, who is often described as a judge on why April died as well. He wants to know why she died and why Zak didn’t recognize the signs to help her until it was too late. He wants to know why he, like Ivy, just watched her suffer instead of helping her. 

“Exorcism”-The title suggests one thing but the text of this story tells something else. At first it appears that Mrs. Mitchell is the titular exorcist and she is there to extract a demon from Tony Reyes, a young man. That is not what happens. 

What we are given instead is a character study of a young boy through the perspectives of his father and his English teacher. They both share memories of Tony as they knew him. Mrs. Mitchell saw a bright, polite student who answered questions and had a deep understanding of literature. His father saw his son who was a happy jokester but became troubled, quiet, and withdrawn as though he were possessed. 

Senor Reyes’ descriptions of Tony’s subsequent behavior are eerie as it details a teenager who might be losing his grip with reality and sanity. He is troubled by voices and destructive thoughts. It’s a traumatic nightmare told from the point of view of an anguished parent wanting to take the pain away from his child but who is helpless with not knowing what it was.

It’s left purposely ambiguous whether or not Tony was possessed, showing signs of schizophrenia or depression, or was just simply acting out as a troubled teen. All that is known is that he is gone, was not the same person that he was before, and has left behind two authority figures who bonded with him but could not understand what he was going through. They had a limited frame of reference based on their own associations and experiences and were unable to communicate with Tony or find helpful solutions that may have saved him. Instead, they are left wondering why. 

“At Taft Point”-This story is reminiscent of Shirley Jackson’s “The Lottery” in that it demonstrates the futility of blind obedience and never questioning what one knows isn’t right.

A group of tourists visit Taft Point. At first it seems like a pleasant visit to nature. It’s beautiful and imposing. There is a deep spiritual connection as the visitors feel God’s presence in the view around them. It's almost a meditative but disconcerting experience. 

There are hints that not is as it seems within the group. The women are dressed alike with long skirts and braids. There are a lot of children. They speak often of God and their leader gives a speech filled with metaphor and generalities but no specifics about the group or their motives. It’s not outright scary but it may put the Reader at a distinct unease that there is something that is off about these people. 

As the characters talk to each other, their reason for being there and motivation becomes clear. It is a terrifying experience not just because of what is being done but the willingness of the people to do it. There is a slight bait and switch as one of the group tries to disobey and one expects that those closest to them would rally to their side. Instead, they ally with the rest of the group, not the outsider leaving them to their fate as a final decision is made. These people are so driven by their leader’s view that they lost their free will and are willing to follow him to commit atrocities. 

This blind obedience is so prevalent in society today whether it’s through religion, politics, nationalism, philosophy, and any group that provides thought and identity. If one is so drawn to the group, they will surrender everything: friends, families, beliefs, faith, laws, work, country, relationship, money, intelligence, standards, morals, ethics, common sense, and finally their own lives just to be a part of it. The less they question and research only the sources that they are told to, the more likely they will surrender everything to someone who will profit off of them and end their lives rather than be seen as anything less than a deity. 

“Rabbit in the Hat”-One thing that this anthology has is an ongoing theme of people using their art to make their voices heard. This is particularly scene in this story of Bill Morris, who has worked in a museum for over 40 years and has shown artistic talent himself. His closest friends and colleagues attend an exhibition of his work. 

Many of the people use their frames of reference on how they see Morris: as a quiet unassuming single man that had been just there in their lives, faded into the background. They didn’t know him. They only knew what they saw in him. His real self is explained through his art.

Morris’ art covers three rooms. The first two are more ordinary, landscapes, still life. They represent the exterior. A man who quietly observed everything around them and was able to capture it. The words that no one heard, the man that no one saw showed them the outside world that he saw.

The third room explores a darker more subterranean consciousness inside Morris, one that is honest, naked, violent, sexy, and more real than what they had previously known. They are forced to confront their own secrets, inner lives, thoughts, and insecurities and lay them bare. It is a joke, maybe, but it is also a chance for Morris and the other characters to face their inner truths and authentic selves. 

“Sound Waves”-Another ongoing theme in this anthology is whether forms of communication brings us together or drives us apart. This one explores the power of changing technology as seen through radio. A spooky night at a radio program. DJ Charlie Tainter receives a mysterious phone call that causes his colleagues to question the man and where he comes from.

The entire setting is in the radio station during the program so it’s  a compact and limiting environment. Charlie and his co-workers can only go by the voice on the radio, the Internet, and Charlie himself to piece together what they are given. Charlie says one thing. The caller says another. The Internet says yet another. The accounts don’t tell a complete story instead it’s all accusation, denial, and information that is later discredited. It’s hard to tell what the truth really is and if the characters don’t know, the Reader certainly doesn’t. We are left to our own conclusions.

 It seems that this device, radio, like other technological marvels is created to be a source of communication. Unfortunately, it can only communicate so much. Fittingly, another form of communication is used, the Internet. Both can create and distort sound and images. Both can tell you what’s considered good or bad, right or wrong and shape views. They provide information as it is given not necessarily what is true but what people want to believe. Because of that, we don’t know what to believe.

A possibility is presented in the final pages, one that transcends space and time and relies more on imagination than information. It calls for the characters and Readers to think beyond what is laid out in front of them and look for possibilities that are beyond what they are told. Words, news, voices, information can be altered and subjected to reinterpretation. When faced with that information, a person should weigh their own options and look inward for what they perceive and believe. 

The Unholy Trinity: A Collection of 99 Stories by L. Marie Wood; Horror Anthology Delivers on Shocks, Scares, Twists

 The Unholy Trinity: A Collection of 99 Stories by L. Marie Wood; Horror Anthology Delivers on Shocks, Scares, Twists 

By Julie Sara Porter 

Bookworm Reviews 

Spoilers: L. Marie Wood’s Horror Anthology, The Unholy Trinity: A Collection of 99 Stories is practically Tales From The Crypt in book form. So much so that I expected a wisecracking skeleton puppet to pop up from the pages and start quoting ghoulish puns. 

Well that didn't happen but The Unholy Trinity carries many of the same great qualities that Crypt does: easy digestible stories of fears brought to life with spine tingling plots, graphic images, and engaging twists. These stories combine Wood's three previous horror anthologies, Caliginy, Phantasma, and Anathema. They are written to raise that slight chill in the back of the mind, the one that tells you that despite knowing that you are alone in the house while you read this book that maybe you should give that window, or that closet, or the door locks a second look. They remind us that watching horror is a fun and interesting pastime but reading horror lets your imagination fly off into dark and forbidden dimensions that turns your sleep into an unpleasant one.

All of the stories are terrifyingly well written and are certain to scare and delight the Reader but the best are: 

“A Bat Out of Hell”-Right out of the gate, the first story is a mesmerizing thrill ride of shocks, scares, and screams of fright. Carly goes to the County Fair with her boyfriend and just can’t resist the roller coaster called A Bat Out of Hell.

This story draws the Reader right in with its atmosphere that promises fun and adventure but hints at something else. The Fair should be fun but there is darkness. The description and tone remind the Reader that these rides may be exciting but they also dare riders to defy death by going too high or too fast inside metal contraptions put together and inspected by people that may not be entirely trustworthy. 

As if the regular suspense of a theme park isn’t bad enough, the roller coaster itself is far worse. The demonic Goth motif hints at its true intentions. There are bits of foreshadowing like the blood red seats and screams that sound less like the “fun to be scared” screams and more like the “being tortured and begging to be let go” screams. The final pages deliver the gore that reveals that this ride was literally meant to scare the Hell into you. 

“The Dance”-“The Dance” mixes subtlety and eroticism. Gillian, the Narrator is mesmerized by a seductive dancer named Vanessa who fills her with desire especially after the two dance together.

This story is filled with descriptions of Vanessa and her dancing. She is beautiful and otherworldly. Her hair, body, face, and figure give off the impression that she is almost too perfect. Gillian feels stirrings within her that she ignored because of fears of being outed but they are brought forward  the more she and Vanessa interact. 

 Vanessa awakens those longings that Gillian put away, the longings to be with someone without judgment, to be pleasured sexually and emotionally, and to feel that rush that one individual can bring to another individual. It is a truly erotic story that also serves as a metaphor for fulfilling one’s longings and living authentically. 

“The Inn By the Cemetery”- This is a delightful, creepy, and surprisingly romantic story about the past haunting the present. Modern couple Sharon and Mitch go on a romantic weekend getaway to historic bed-and-breakfast. While visiting a cemetery, Sharon picks up an old bracelet. Meanwhile, Mitch has unexplained dreams of the past and visions of a ghostly woman. 

This is a haunting, beautiful, and almost wistful story that delivers feelings of sorrow and uncertainty rather than fear. Sharon’s imagination is activated as she researches the past of the town for a book. The research consumes her to the point that she has trouble separating herself from the past. 

Meanwhile Mitch’s encounters with the past are found by esoteric means. The images of the ghostly woman aren’t really scary. They emphasize her sadness and isolation from the world of the living. She inspires empathy rather than scorn. The couple’s visit practically makes them the unwanted intrusions instead of the ghost.

“The Black Hole”-As many know some of the best anthology stories are ones that like to offer social commentary inside a memorable story. In this story, a group of young African-American men are invited to a paintball tournament by one’s white co-workers. The true intentions of the night are revealed as the men find themselves running for their lives.

This story is very reminiscent of Jordan Peele’s movies by turning a supernatural occurrence into an insightful commentary on racism. The players are evenly divided in strength and athleticism but the white players have advantage over their black counterparts because they know the true meaning behind the game. The weapons become more realistic and the game becomes bloodier and more violent as we peer into the dark hearts of those playing it. 

The black men try to strategize and work together to survive the night and maybe even fight their assailants. It’s truly gut wrenching as they get taken out one by one because they live within a system that does not value them as people. They are regarded by their hunters as nothing more than targets meant to be slaughtered. 

“The Keeper of Souls”-This story is similar to a dark fairy tale that personifies Death as an actual being. The Narrator has been haunted by a creature that he calls The Keeper of Souls. Now at age 88, he fears that the Keeper is coming for him.

The Keeper’s dark clothing and silent demeanor deliver a slight chill. The overall impression is that of a character that you can barely see out of the corner of your eye and swear he was there a second ago. Then upon closer inspection, he’s gone at least according to your eyes. But somewhere in your heart, you know he’s still there watching and waiting. 

The Keeper is like one of those fair folk who operate on their own rules and standards. He collects souls, that’s what he does. He no more has any feeling or compunction about it than he does about the heads that he carries. He is not someone who can be reasoned with, challenged, or argued against. He just is. 

“Dear Monique”-This story is brilliant at subversion and shifting the Reader’s thoughts towards and then away from the characters. A long letter recounts the friendship between Monique and the narrator, Christine. 

Christine’s narrative starts out sweet and nostalgic. She captures various moments that solidified the friendship between the two women through school, marriage, and motherhood. There is at first a sisterly bond between them that appears unbreakable. It’s sweet until we remember that sisterhood can have negative qualities as well as positives. For every March Sisters there are also Cinderella and her Wicked Stepsisters.

The letter takes a severe turn as Christine’s memories become more fragmented, darker, and more accusatory. Buried resentment and envy come forward and the two friends confront one another in a tragic conclusion. At first, it seems abrupt and jarring but upon closer inspection, the letter reveals that there was always something brewing under the surface of this friendship. Their end isn’t a surprise as it is inevitable.

“Baie Rouge”-This story is a continuation of and sequel to “The Dance” by carrying many of the same themes of sexual attraction and undying love. Sandra remembers her relationship with Vickie and still mourns her death. One night during her grief, Sandra gets a surprise visitor that completely changes her outlook.

The couple are very close and Sandra’s memories are pleasant. She recalls Vicki’s positive and negative qualities cherishing those former times as a means of holding onto her deceased lover. Sandra makes Vicki a real person and not a caricature or a model of perfection. That makes her death all the sadder. 

The resolution is easy to predict but at the same time intriguing. Because of what we are told about their relationship, the results are not something to be feared. Instead it is seen as a triumph. 

“To Die A Fool”-Like “The Black Hole,” this is social commentary wrapped inside an engaging story. Only this time religion is given this bitter satiric treatment. A religious man finds his  beliefs tested when confronted with his own mortality.

This story is a savage and brutal takedown of religion and the willful blindness that it sometimes brings. The Narrator spends the first few pages trying to convince the Reader that his faith is constant and unyielding. He arrogantly describes his devotion almost to the point of parody.

The final pages counters the Narrator’s view and give him an ironic hell. It’s a complete contrast to what he talked about without understanding. It forces him to look at himself and learn that his religious behavior was just simply surface without substance. 

“Last Request”-Some of the darker stories in this anthology takes the Readers into the mind of characters who are human and far more dangerous than any supernatural entity. Willie Dean Campbell sits on death row awaiting his last meal and execution.

Campbell’s story is one of using violent means to satisfy one’s cravings and desires. He is written as someone who has a hunger that needs another thrill to satisfy it. Those thrills start out minor and then get progressively worse. He is inhuman as he looks at his victims as simply means to satisfy those longings.

The most troubling aspects of this story are revealed when Campbell admits that he didn’t come upon his homicidal tendencies on his own. In fact, they were drilled into him by his mother. She created the desire and the cravings and got him started on the path. Campbell just simply followed it to its obvious conclusion. 

“One Night Stand”-Some of these stories are flash fiction and have only one page or even a few sentences to capture a mood. In this one, a woman contemplates the aftereffects of a murder.

Despite the short length, Wood manages to capture a truly diabolical situation. The description is extraordinarily graphic and evocative in its violence. In a few short sentences a nightmare is created.

The final sentence is meaningful enough to be a twist ending. In this brief story, we learn as much about the characters and their situation as we would have if we had been given more pages. 

“Issue”-This story is one that many authors may relate to, especially when their characters seem so real. While writing his latest mystery novel, Maurice White seems to feel the presence of Charlie Carver, his protagonist. 

The story begins with many creepy moments like when Maurice begins speaking in the accent that he gave Charlie and taking on some of his mannerisms. He is afraid to look in the mirror or go about his daily activities because he thinks that he will see Charlie appear to him.. As the snippets of Maurice’s novel are meant to keep his readers in suspense, Maurice’s journey does the same to us. The Reader isn’t sure if Charlie’s fears are justified or we are reading the thought process of a paranoid schizophrenic. Is Charlie a fictional character or an alter ego that Maurice tries to suppress but is begging to come forward. Or more than likely could both be simultaneously true?

The ending spins the story in a different direction from entering the mindscape of a writer to blurring the lines between the real world in which they live and the fictional world that they create. Charlie Carver takes on a more demonic persona as he confronts his author. He is unfinished because his story is and he demands a resolution. This story shows that people, authors especially, can create their own demons and are often at their mercy. 

“Noon”-This story takes a trip into panic during the end of the world. The Narrator searches through a zombie apocalypse for his brother, Corey.

The story captures the panic and tension that one would have in a situation where their entire world has ended. The Narrator recalls the moments when  the creatures attacked the humans and chaos ensued. He’s still in shock and denial trying to reconcile the world that he once knew with the one before him. This leaves him defenseless when he isn’t adequately prepared for the new normal. All he can do is find his brother and hide. 

The tension contrasts with the Narrator’s feelings towards Corey. His memories of the two raising each other and sticking together through hardships fill him with hope. He hangs onto those memories because they are all that he has. He wants to think of Corey as the man that he once was and not a corpse or worse. That hope turns to despair and fear when he realizes that the times have changed his brother too.

“Patty”-Unlike many of the stories in the anthology that  cannot be found in reality, this one explores a monster that is very human and unfortunately very common. In this one, Patty recalls her unhappy and abusive marriage to her husband, Troy and the violence that ensued from it.

Who needs ghosts, demonic roller coasters, and zombie apocalypses when the fear of domestic violence is all too present and real? Patty’s marriage starts out badly even before the ceremony when she overhears Troy make disparaging comments about  her appearance. Troy’s abuse towards Patty escalates from sharp criticisms, to outright insults, to gaslighting, to physical and sexual violence. The characters fall into a pattern that is frequently echoed in reality. 

The worst part about the abuse is the toll that it takes on Patty. When we read about her, she is a faded withered woman who is deprived of the ability to think for herself because of the erosion of her self-esteem. She wears clothing, fixes her hair, and manages the household in ways that he approves of. She is not even allowed the privacy of her own thoughts without his domineering voice and harsh hands entering her mind. As with many abuse victims, she has lost the ability to fight him and in this case her obsession to please him takes on violent proportions. However, the story makes us side with her because Patty is not the monster. Troy is. He took her identity, mind, independence, self-respect, and left behind an empty shell. He did far more damage than any zombie ever could.

“Idol”-Many of these stories are at their core about obsessions, but none explore that concept more than this one. In a long monologue, Iris recounts her obsession for a famous woman to the point that she wants to look like her and goes to desperate lengths to achieve her goal.

The story straddles the line between darkly comic and extremely grotesque,  Iris talks about her injuries and body mutilations like they are a day at the spa. She is alarmingly nonchalant about the fact that her complexion is burnt to a crisp,, that her hair and eyebrows are gone because of disastrous dying techniques, and parts of her skin has been hacked off to trim the fat. It’s terrifying and pathetic to imagine this poor woman putting herself through such torture to look like her idol.

This story is a commentary on the beauty industry and the lengths that people, especially women, go through to look perfect. In a world where eating disorders, plastic surgery addiction, compulsive shopping, and images and videos that exploit insecurities in the name of beauty are all too common, are Iris’ actions really that far off? Many destroy themselves to obtain a perfect image that doesn’t exist, that never existed. They just don’t do it as graphically as Iris does. 

“Abstract”-If Art can capture life, then it can capture death too and that is what is explored here. Matthew and Cameron go to an art exhibit from a controversial artist whose paintings leave quite an impression on those who observe them.

The story starts out like one of those urban legends. Matthew and Cameron debate about the stories that they heard that they swore happened to a friend of a friend. Like other urban legends, this set up opens up a real fear but puts a story around it that is hard to believe. We may not believe the legend, but it scares us all the same. 

Things take a turn when the duo look at the painting. It is not described very much, just in splashes of colors. It’s an abstract which one may look at in any museum and  ponder its meaning, but leave it behind in pursuit of other works. With this one, it’s not so much the painting itself but how it makes the viewer feel. There is a haunting creeping coldness that symbolizes death. It can’t be expressed into words and barely into visuals beyond an abstract. It can only be felt and as it is felt, it remains. 

“Skin”-”Folie a deux” means shared psychosis and is particularly felt among two or more people who work together to commit crimes. In this story, Karen, a former psychiatric nurse, recalls her troubled obsessive relationship with Jeremy, a patient.

Karen and Jeremy are like many killer couples, most notably The Joker and Harley Quinn. They fill a need for each other and those needs often end in murder. Jeremy lives for his obsessions and addictions that are only satisfied by killing and devouring his enemies. He lives on emotion and impulse and doesn’t care who he hurts. 

Karen on the other hand is smarter and more methodical and calculating. She delivers certain things and pays favors to Jeremy to earn his trust. Then when she has it, she becomes an accomplice to his deeds. While Jeremy is not personally invested in the people he attacks, Karen is. She has a specific target in mind and puts them right in Jeremy’s path. In some ways, that makes her worse than Jeremy. He may live totally in darkness but she can control it. 

“Worthington Court”-This is reminiscent of those old ghost stories or campfire tales about that person or that area in town which are cursed. In this story, the cursed area is Worthington Court and the only person who knows its dark devastating secret is Alma Roberson, a 96 year old resident who reveals the secret to Henry Goode, a skeptical historian.

There is a nostalgic old world quality to this story, the kind which is shared by a storyteller to their listeners. Alma tells the story with a compelling narrative that captures both history and horror. She tells it in a way that makes you want to listen even though you are afraid of the ending. 

The story has a parallel point of view from Henry. After Alma finishes her story, he researches it to determine the veracity. He  methodically and thoroughly searches archives, town records, newspaper articles, census reports. He is convinced that he knows the truth. He forgets that there is something out there that resists being researched and can’t be analyzed or understood by academic means. 

“Detour”-This story has one of the usual stock endings found in horror but the journey to get there can’t be missed. Stuck in traffic, Cheryl takes a detour along the mysterious Palatial Lane only to get the fright of her life. 

“Detour” is almost hypnotic as it describes the long drive with the roads and endless traffic. It’s meant to put the Reader and Cheryl into a false sense of monotony during an everyday situation in which we are all too familiar. 

Palatial Lane is purposely the opposite of its name. Cheryl expects a wealthy road with big mansions, manicured lawns, and fancy cars. Instead, she finds an unkempt wood, old houses, dead grass, and an overall sense of abandonment. It is a place that fills her with fear and loathing and only towards the end does she realize that her fears are justified. 

“The Morning After’-This is another flash fiction which takes two sentences to capture a mood, a thrilling creepy mood. A woman hears a singer’s voice on the radio and it causes her mind to wander to a specific memory.

In the brief time in which we are given, we are told what we need to know about the woman, the singer, and what happened. The information that we are given gives us the important details and lets our minds wander about the rest. We don’t know who they are, the motives, or what led to it. That is left to the imagination. All that is known is something horrible happened and the Woman is not at all remorseful. In fact, she is jubilant.

“A Glimpse”-This is a very strange story which leaves a lot to the imagination. A woman is frightened by the appearance of a stranger but there may be more to this stranger than she thought.

We aren’t given a long story, just a few paragraphs. Most of it is devoted to the woman’s theories about this figure so it’s hard to tell what is real and what isn’t. This adds to the ominous feeling throughout. 

We are led to believe one thing, but then we are told something else that pivots us into another direction. In the end we aren’t given any clear answers and are left with the unknown. In a way that’s what makes it scarier. We are left to our own interpretations and to make our own conclusions. 

The Shabti by Megaera C. Lorenz; Phony Mediums, Egyptian Curses, and a Charming Gay Romance Makes a Chilling Historical Supernatural Horror

 The Shabti by Megaera C. Lorenz; Phony Mediums, Egyptian Curses, and  a Charming Gay Romance Makes a Chilling Historical Supernatural Horror

By Julie Sara Porter

Bookworm Reviews

Spoilers: Megaera C. Lorenz’s The Shabti has a lot going for it: An engaging historical setting, an inside look at the Spiritualists movement and the tricks that frauds pulled, a genuinely creepy supernatural threat, and a charming romantic gay couple that encounters these problems.

In the 1930’s, Dashiel Quicke was once a noted Spiritualist that many would pay top dollar to get his psychic impressions or communicate with deceased loved ones. He now spends his time exposing the hucksters and grifters of the Spiritualist Movement, revealing how they actually accomplished their tricks. During one of his lectures, he captures the interest of Professor Herman Goschalk, an Egyptologist and museum curator. Herman tells Dashiel that his museum is the center of some strange activity: footsteps, whispers, missing items, stuff being thrown around, bleeding walls, the usual. At first the situation seems easily explained by science or an overactive imagination but as Dashiel gets to know Herman and experiences more of these strange events, it becomes clear that they are being haunted by a real ghostly apparition, a ghost from Ancient Egypt who inflicts great pain, curses, and suffering against all it comes near. All of the flimflam tricks aren't going to save them when they are faced with the real thing.

From beginning to end, this is a book brilliantly charged with a sense of Historical Horror. Instead of going for big shocks and scares, The Shabti leisurely builds its pace by taking a straight line from events that are odd but could be explained to the cosmic horror in which the barriers between time and space and life and death must fade before that horror can be encountered and possibly defeated.

One of the ways that it accomplishes this fear is by giving us a protagonist who has seen the supernatural world from the inside and knows how people bend and use it to their advantage.

The most interesting moments early on in the book occur when Dashiel tells how Spiritualists operate. He describes how they hire spies in the queue to gather information then sneak into the mark’s house to take a valuable object to look like the “spirits” used “relocation” to appear in the medium’s hands. Information gathered by the spies, cold readings, and early special effects added to the performance to sway the audience. It's a pretty clever grift and a sweet scam that is easy to see why many are fooled, especially those who have lost loved ones or want proof of life after death.

 That life also comes to weigh in on Dashiel as he admits to Herman that many former clients, particularly a sickly elderly woman, came to bad ends because of their trust in Dashiel and his former colleagues. His past also figuratively comes back to haunt him when a former partner and lover wants to reignite their relationship both on and off stage. It doesn't take much for the former Spiritualist to see the guilt and danger that a life of deceiving others would bring, and it is understandable why he would expose it. However, his skeptical nature and career of exposing the Spiritualist Movement is just as much a vulnerability as when he was an active participant in scamming others, when he faces real ghosts. He has to use the same procedures seriously to save Herman and himself that he once used deceptively to gain money.

The fraudulent style of Spiritualism puts Dashiel in a false sense of confidence when he is faced with the Egyptian Ghost. He could assume that bleeding walls are rust, creaking walls are a house settling, footsteps and whispers are signs of an overactive imagination. But after a while, those scientific rationales and previous charlatan history becomes moot when those small signs become large unrecognizable monsters and the whispers become shouts of the undead.

It's enough to make one doubt their beliefs and particularly their minds. There are many chapters where the supernatural encounters cause tremendous physical and psychological pain to Dashiel and Herman. They are shaken, disturbed, and quite often bedridden after facing the remnants of the Egyptian Ghost’s curse. It is a terrifying experience because of how it affects their bodies and minds and the only healing balm they have is each other.

Speaking of Dashiel and Herman, their relationship is a bright spot in this Horror Show of Ancient Terror. It is one of those relationships that begin organically with the two beginning to understand and relate to one another. Herman is confused and fascinated by Dashiel’s career as a Spiritualist and is on the fence between skepticism and belief. Dashiel gets arcane knowledge from Herman’s studies and while he explains Spiritualism and gives possibilities to Herman's encounters, he never ridicules him and likes talking with him.

 A friendship grows between the two protagonists that in other works could have remained platonic but fortunately for them, it does not. Their romance begins  unexpectedly just as  the Reader might think, “Hmm, they would make a nice couple” a few pages before they actually kiss. Their love strengthens each other as Herman’s knowledge of Egyptology and Dashiel’s Spiritualism experience counter the Ghost's wrath.

This book is set in the 1930’s and it doesn't go into the legal and prejudicial ramifications and potential hardship that could occur if a romance between two men is made public. On the one hand, it does a mighty historical disservice in showing how courageous the two characters are just by being together. But on the other hand, it also proves to be a source of light and brightness in this dark disturbing supernatural world. 

When the two men work together to fight the Egyptian Ghost alongside friends and Dashiel’s former colleagues, their love is the truest and most honest thing that counters the terror of the otherworldly darkness but also the deception and mind games that Dashiel was once proud to be a part of.