Once Upon A Terrifying Time

In the dying city of Elendhaven, on the edge of the sea, a monster stalks the shadows and does his master’s bidding. A creature in the shape of a man but who cannot die like one, twisted by magic and shaped by his master’s cruel cunning. Together they will have their revenge on Elendhaven, no matter the cost. This novella, y’all. It’s just so dark and strange and magical, like all the best fairy tales should be. I loved the relationship between the two leads, and the tense, disturbing feeling of their salt-coated city by the sea. If you’ve never read The Monster of Elendhaven, but you love fairy tale-esque books that mix horror and fantasy, magic and monsters, be sure to add this to your TBR

When it comes to fairy tales that are far darker on consideration than they may first appear, nothing says “yikes” like the Pied Piper of Hamelin. And apparently Cina Pelayo agrees, because her novel Children of Chicago puts a horror genre twist on an already horrifying tale of child abduction and murder (I mean, the children of hamelin were never seen again, so I guess that’s not technically murder…but he did something with them and that something might have been murder. Or cannibalism. LOTS of cannibalism in fairy tales.) Pelayo’s retelling is set in Chicago, where Detective Lauren Medina is on the trail of a brutal serial killer known as the Pied Piper, who targets children. When a murdered teenager is found floating in the same lagoon where Medina’s sister’s body was once found, she has no doubt that the killer is the Piper, and he’s come back for what he’s owed. What Lauren owes him.

Now She is Witch has only been published in the UK thus far, so to partake in Kirsty Logan’s new book, you will have to import yourself a copy. But hey, Blackwell’s (linked above) ships internationally for free, and I have a feeling this book will be more than worth the international shipping times if you happen to live outside the UK, as I do. Now She is Witch isn’t inspired by a specific story, but the storytelling is the heart of this novel, told in Logan’s haunting fairy tale-esque style. It’s about two characters: Lux, who has lost everything to the cruelties and suspicions of the world and has been cast out, and Else, who finds Lux alone in the woods after her life has been burnt to ashes. But Else didn’t stumble upon Lux by chance. She’s on the trail of a man who needs killing for what he did to her, and Lux has a particular affinity for poisons. Together, they hunt him northward, surrounded on all sides by danger and dark secrets.

Did I decide on this week’s topic just so I could expound (again) on the perfection that is The Salt Grows Heavy. No. I mean, mostly no. But there’s no denying that, when it comes to fairy tale horror, this grim and gruesome yet oddly hopeful Little Mermaid-inspired novella from Cassandra Khaw sets a whole new bar. Think Little Mermaid but if the Prince was an asshole, Ariel was a prisoner, and as revenge, she gave birth to a couple of kids who literally ate the entire kingdom. As one does. And instead of sticking around to join in the buffet, she sets out on the road with a strange but charming Plague Doctor. The two stumble upon a super creepy village, deep in the forest, with a bunch of kids who make Children of the Corn look friendly, and they’re being governed by three ghastly Surgeons. When the Plague Doctor reveals that the Surgeons have a dark, violent secret that is a part of the Doctor’s own past, the two travelers find themselves attempting to unravel the Surgeons’ powers and put an end to their terrible work.