whimsydearest

  Jade Nguyen is in desperate need of money for college, so when her estranged father in Vietnam offers to pay in exchange for her help with renovating an old French colonial home, she agrees. However, when she arrives, she soon realizes that the house is haunted and oh, so hungry. She Is a Haunting by Trang Thanh Tran is a chilling eco gothic that deftly explores diaspora and the horrors of colonialism. Right off the bat, I want to point out that the writing style in this book is extremely poetic, which comes as a double-edged sword. At times, the writing is gorgeous and biting, but occasionally there are bizarre mixed metaphors that don't create a cohesive image and left me scratching my head. For instance, after accidently injuring her hand, Jade decides to dramatically open the window. I throw the window open, a guillotine in reverse. Cool air rushes in, drying my skin and cooling me down, but I am a flame. Rain splashes on the sill and mixes with blood. I have so many questio...

The House of Drought  by Dennis Mombauer is an eerie eco-gothic that centers around a colonial mansion in Sri Lanka that sucks the land dry around it and follows different generations of people inhabiting the estate and trying uncover its mystery. First off, it’s really refreshing to read a gothic that takes place outside of the UK or America, and the setting was wonderfully atmospheric. However, I think this novella mainly falls victim to attempting to do too much and in too short amount of pages because, as it stands, the story feels unsatisfying incomplete. I still have so many questions regarding the mythology behind the Sap Mother and the house's connection to her. The novella also gets bogged down by a 5 whopping POVs, so the majority of the characters feel indistinctive and tend to bleed together. Honestly, this would have been a much tighter and compelling of story if it had stuck with the twin's POV in the past and just 1 POV in the future trying figure out what happen...

Following her father’s execution, Beatriz is left destitute and without a home, so she accepts the handsome Don Rodolfo Solórzano’s marriage proposal despite the rumors surrounding his first wife’s death. However, her new home is not the refuge she’d thought it would be. She hears voices and feels as if invisible eyes are watching her. Desperate for help, she turns to a priest to confront the malevolent presence lurking in her home. The Hacienda  by Isabel Cañas is an utterly gripping and deliciously gothic historical horror that’s set during the aftermath the Mexican War of Independence. The story is wonderfully atmospheric and has all the trappings of a classic gothic novel (in the best possible way). There’s a crumbling and dilapidated estate, a vengeful ghost, and something hiding in the walls. However, it’s the two main characters that really stole my heart. There’s Beatriz is the headstrong daughter of a general, and then there’s Padre Andres who is a priest with his own demo...

The Lighthouse Witches by C.J. Cooke paints a chilling and atmospheric Scottish gothic that follows the lives of a mother and her three daughters across different decades. 1998: Liv is an artist hired to paint a mural inside a lighthouse on a small island off the coast of Scotland. She’s moves there with her daughters (Sapphire, Luna, and Clover). However, the mural she's been commissioned to paint includes strange symbols and she swears she keeps catching glimpses of a child in the lighthouse. 2021: After Luna's sister has been missing for 20 years, she mysteriously reappears—only she’s unaged. Luna’s baffled, so she tries to get to the bottom of the mystery and find out if this girl truly is her sister or if some supernatural being is trying to trick her. First of all, I really love the author really plays into the story’s coastal setting and sheds light on Scotland’s bloody history of witch hunts. I’m so used to American gothics set in haunted houses that I find a cursed lig...

There are whispers of a beast in the wood who kidnaps pretty girls. However, Belle doesn’t heed these warnings and ventures into the woods to pick flowers. There she encounters the beast, and her mother sacrifices herself to save her.  Ever since that day, both Belle and her father blame her for her mother’s disappearance, and as punishment, he keeps her locked away.  However, Belle is convinced that her mother is still alive and she’s determined to bring her back.  In Beauty and the Beast of the Lost Paradise Volume 1 , Kaori Yuki introduces a gorgeously dark retelling of Beauty and the Beast . You may know Yuki as the mangaka of Angel Sanctuary and the queen of gothic manga herself, and her latest manga certainly delivers in the gothic department.  It really amps the magic and the horror factor with all sorts of fantastical characters and monsters. For instance, there is a Cogsworth-like character who can control time at the Beast’s castle. There’s also the Idoles...

In an alternate 19th century France, vampires have integrated into human society. However, when a vampire’s beloved wife is found murdered in their mansion, the police refuse to investigate. A special investigative team of three is called in instead: an immortal severed head, her maid attendant, and the Cage User who carries her. Undead Girl Murder Farce Volume 1 by Yugo Aosaki (writer) and Haruka Tomoyama (illustrator) delivers a good old-fashioned gothic murder mystery with supernatural elements. It’s snarky and sharp and filled with shocking twists. It’s also tropey in the best possible way. (Yes, this includes the battle maid.) However, it’s the art that falls flat to me. Maybe it’s the thick brush style that the illustrator used, but the artwork looks muddled in parts and some of the panel layouts appear cluttered, making it difficult to decipher what’s going on at times. Overall though, the story itself seems promising and like something that would be completely up my alley, so ...

Darkly intoxicating and told through luscious prose, A Dowry of Blood by S.T Gibson reimagines Dracula from the perspective of his one of his brides: Constanta. It’s written as her final love letter to him, recounting the time they first met up to the events ultimately leading to her freedom.  Over the course of centuries, the story follow a polyamorous vampire coven's blood-soaked bonds and family melodrama as they live under the shackles of their tyrannical sire. It’s a pensive look at all the hedonism and delights of immortality as well as all the loneliness, ennui, and yearning that comes along with it Now, this book doesn’t reinvent vampire lore by any means, and it doesn’t need to either. It pays homage to classical vampires in the vein of Anne Rice, Bram Stoker, and Sheridan Le Fanu—certain to delight lovers of the gothic and macabre. Thank you, NetGalley and Nyx Publishing, for providing me with an ARC in exchange for an honest review . Book Details: Publication Date ...

When Scarlett marries the taxidermist Henry, the two begin experimenting with creating new Frankensteinian monstrosities as Scarlett herself becomes obsessed with the idea of altering her own body. The Taxidermist’s Lover by Polly Hall is a bit of a mixed bag for me. The writing is deliciously gothic and atmospheric, and I wanted to love this story so badly since I adored its allusions to The Bride of Frankenstein and I'm a taxidermy collector myself. The worst part? I was not into the romance, which is unfortunate because romance is a heavy component of this book. Now, don’t get me wrong. I love dark, twisted romances like between Vanessa and Dr. Sweet in Penny Dreadful .  However, to me, Henry is not swoon-worthy and lacked any charm. He comes off as simply an emotionally abusive and jealous asshole and some of the descriptions of the sex scenes are inadvertently 50-Shades-of-Gray levels of comical at times. The best part? I enjoyed watching the gradual metamorphosis of Scarle...