It’s time for my first Mini Review Monday of October! In case you haven’t seen any of my previous posts (you can see my most recent one here), I do ‘mini’ reviews of books that I’ve previously read and am now ready to share my full thoughts about.
First up, I’d like to talk about Barb Jacobs Just Won’t Die by Tanya Pell. Thank you to Atlantic Books for sending me an eARC in exchange for an honest review.
Barbra Jacobs is exhausted after twenty years playing the ‘final girl’, the only one that survives till the end of the movie. She’s sick of creepy guys at backwater horror conventions asking her to sign photos of her twenty-year-old self in underwear. She’s decided this is her last one.
She thinks her day can’t get any worse when she finds a woman with her throat slit in the bathroom. And now this deranged killer is stalking Barb and picking off her former castmates one by one . . .
She’s sick and tired of playing the victim. If she’s going to live, Barb must give the final-girl performance of her life.
Because this time, there’s no one coming to save her.
Publication Date: 15th October
CW: death, violence, gore, stalking, obsession, blood, injury, fire
My Thoughts:
Barb Jacobs Just Won’t Die was such a cleverly meta slasher all about the final girl image, what that means and unpicking it in a different lens.
Barb is an excellent protagonist with a voice that sinks its hook into you very quickly. She is a survivor, even though she may feel like she’s been pigeon-holed into the ‘dumb blonde’ stereotype by her most iconic role. This has hugely influenced how the world sees her and there are these sickening scenes of parasocial relationships and sexualisation through her character. She feels trapped by her role and the fear of ageing, as her worth has been defined by her looks for so long. The fears she holds are so human and relatable, but then she is plunged into a new nightmare. Pell takes her on a brilliant journey of self-discovery, just with a lot of stabbing along the way. The way rage and vengeance is explored in this book is wonderful and directly in conversation with expectations, stereotypes and breaking out of the role you are expected to play.
Pell hits the nail on the head in terms of tone here. There is this wonderful balance of darkness, humour and rage that taps into the silent scream we all may hold inside. This book is packed full of bloodshed and gore with kill scenes that are creative as they cause chills to form on your arms. Right from the start, there is a palpable sense of menace, both in the fandom and then in the bodies that start to stack up. Barb is surrounded by threat at all times and discerning who is friend or foe is a huge obstacle for her to overcome.
I really liked how immersed in the horror genre this book was, focusing on the Final Girl trope and the way horror seems to fixate on brutalising young women. There is this daunting fear of growing older intertwined with the male gaze and beauty industry that Pell really delves into. It feels like it could be in conversation with The Substance and just why that film landed with so many viewers, particularly women who has never seen their experiences depicted so viscerally before.
Barb Jacobs Just Won’t Die is a testament to survival and smashing stereotypes. Let your scream rip into the night.
Next up, I’d like to talk about You’re No Better by Andrew Joseph White. Thank you to Daphne Press for sending me an ARC in exchange for an honest review.
Morgan’s father is a serial killer. To be exact, Morgan’s father is Graham Nathaniel Slaughter-the man who brutally murdered fifty-one young women and girls across Washington DC-and the day Morgan put him behind bars was the best of his life. Now, all Morgan wants is to survive senior year without flunking out or racking up another assault charge, but that’ll be difficult considering the documentary his mother just agreed to. Morgan’s participation is non-negotiable and comes with rules. Like putting off transition until college. And talking about his father.
In a desperate attempt to prove he is nothing like his father, Morgan latches onto his father’s mysterious final victim: a young woman with no name and no family to claim her. He’ll figure out who she is. He’ll bring her peace, whatever the hell that means.
Then new classmate Felicity slams into Morgan’s life, armed with a switchblade and a life-shattering secret. They know why Morgan’s testimony never lined up in court. They know Morgan was taught to hurt people. And if Morgan doesn’t let them help find this girl, they’ll tell everyone. He and Felicity have so much more in common than he can stomach, and the consequences of the truth could destroy them both.
Publication Date: 27th October
CW: murder, death, violence, injury, transphobia, abuse
My Thoughts:
You’re No Better is a book that sits heavy on you as you read, unafraid to sit in the murky morally gray and the monstrosity humanity is capable of. It asks difficult questions and offers no easy answers, leaving you pondering long after the final pages.
Andrew Joseph White excels at complex characterisation, peeling back the layers and showing you the different facets of the central characters and the circumstances that brought them to this exact moment. That is very much the case here with Morgan. He is a deeply traumatised character who has been exposed to violence from a very young age but the question he is grappling throughout the book is to what extent was he complicit. Where was that line drawn and did he step over it? White seems concerned with the debate about nature vs nurture and the effect of socialisation from different places. There is a preoccupation with a potential for predisposition to violence and how that kind of upbringing would shape someone.
The central concept is a fascinating take on the true crime industry and raises uncomfortable questions immediately.This book is one of the most arresting and rageful takes on the true crime industry that I have read. It explicitly positions it as an exploitative practise that builds on sensationalist narratives that minimises real suffering and turns real people into characters or caricatures. All of it is an artifice, a pretence for the entertainment for the masses. Morgan is aware of this and actively manipulating the narrative in some ways but also being manipulated in others. The transphobia they face from their mother is horrifying and ties in with the sheer hatred they encounter elsewhere. They are hated for every facet of their being, none of which they have control over.
You’re No Better is such a brilliant but twisted book. It is probably my favourite of White’s work so far and that is a high bar to cross.
Finally, I’d like to delve into Scorpion Deep by C. G. Drews. Thank you to Tempest for giving me an ARC in exchange for an honest review.
The only thing Jonathan wants from the mouldering isle of Kelcarrow is to escape. Summer is ending, and when his friends leave for college on the mainland, Jonathan will be alone with nothing but the ocean’s haunts.
In an act of wild desperation, Jonathan pays a tithe to Scorpion Deep – an eldritch sea god – and, to his horror, awakens him from the murky depths. As scales grow down his spine and Scorpion Deep’s obsession darkens, Jonathan realises the only way to end the nightmare is to destroy the monster.
But the price must be paid in blood.
Publication Date: 29th October
CW: murder, death, violence, abuse, drowning, injury, self-harm
My Thoughts:
Scorpion Deep is perfect reading for this time of year as the nights grow colder and darker and secrets hide in the shadow. It is one of the best aquatic horror books I have picked up.
This is a brilliantly unsettling book. Drews really delves into the feeling of isolation that Jonathan is experiencing. That way of being cut-off by the world and feeling your sense of self eroding is horrifying, but it is also heightened here by the abuse Jonathan has survived from his father. The scenes between the two of them crackle with menace and fill you with terror. Drews goes into dark territory here but with sensitivity and nuance. The violence Jonathan has witnessed and suffered has shaped who he is and how he views the world. We move between past and present as there are secrets buried in the past too, leading to some shocking reveals as the story goes on. That blurring of time makes the story feel like it exists in this liminal space where past and present collide, as does the fantastical and the real. Somehow the magical elements feel grounded with blood under their fingernails.
The ocean has always been a source of wonder but also fear for me. Just the idea that we do not know quite what is lurking in the deeps and some of those that we have discovered look like eldritch figures makes it this space of possibility and petrification in equal measure. Drews taps into this horror wonderfully, focusing in on the unfathomable terror of the unknown. That lack of control and unknown path forward also very much informs Jonathan’s character and the journey he goes on through this story. It is a well-paced tale that gives you light in the darkness but also goes right into the monstrous. Everything builds to a conclusion that sears itself into your brain.
Scorpion Deep got under my skin. Drews plays with your psyche and delivers an excellent, twisted story.
