Recent Reads: Two Mini Horror Reviews: America’s Most Gothic by Leanna Renee Hieber and Andrea Janes & Acquired Taste by Clay McLeod Chapman

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Two Mini Horror Reviews:

“The Gothic, as a genre, is designed to be an alluring, mesmerizing phantasm. Raising the hairs on the back of your neck. Making you question your reality, your sanity, and perhaps teaching you something of the perilous precipice between life and death.”

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America’s Most Gothic: Haunted History Stranger Than Fiction by Leanna Renee Hieber and Andrea Janes, a deliciously dark, meticulously researched compendium that delves into the Gothic via a fascinating selection of female-focused haunted histories. A wonder- and dread-inspiring journey and a TBR-boosting, must-read treasure for Gothic-lovers everywhere.

Favorites:

• Portrait of a Lady — Marian “Clover” Adams (Leanna)
• The Nasty Blues: The Story of Melrose Hall (Andrea)
• The Subterranean — The Wasaba Street Caves and Seattle Underground (Leanna)
• Water Cures and Electric Baths: Madwomen in the Attic (Andrea)
• The Great American Castle (Leanna)
• They Told You to Run: Spirits of “The Bloody Pit” (Leanna)

Thank you to Jody Blanchette (@redreadreviews) for my beautiful signed copy, won via IG giveaway!

“We were all ghosts haunting our own homes now.”

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Acquired Taste by Clay McLeod Chapman, a creepy and horrific, at times downright gross and appalling collection of short stories brimming with heart, humor, and an unremitting sense of darkness and dread. Intense and visceral with a wide range of appeal and subject matter.

Favorites:

• “Who Brings a Baby?”
• “The Spew of News” (reminiscent of Wake Up and Open Your Eyes)
• “Baby Carrots”
• “Knockoffs”
• “Stay on the Line” (prior review here)
• “Nathan Ballingrud’s Haunting Horror Recs”

🖤Amanda

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