This review was originally published in and is reposted with permission from Shelf Awareness.
Threats of violence and societal constraints loom over women of three different eras in a remote Scotland locale in this haunting, powerful novel.
Viv takes up residence in a house where she was cataloging the belongings in preparation for its sale. Still drifting after the death of her father, she makes two new acquaintances while grocery shopping to whom she becomes strangely attached. Two generations earlier, in the aftermath of World War II and still mourning the loss of her brother, Ruth moves into the house with her new husband and stepsons. Away from her family and with her husband often gone for work, she struggles to find her way in her new community and forms a bond with her maid. Centuries earlier, Sarah, an accused witch, is on the run with a small group.
In The Bass Rock by Evie Wyld (All the Birds, Singing), women through the ages survive the impressive entitlement of the men in their lives and struggle with both mental health problems and societies that pathologize (or, in the case of Sarah, demonize) their choices and needs that do not fit into the accepted models of femininity. Sarah's sections feel more remote than the others, but readers spend the least time with her. In the Viv and Ruth sections, which make up the majority of the book, their anger, their fear and their stifling frustrations are palpable, but the bonds that sustain them affirm that carrying on is, after all, worth it. --Kristen Allen-Vogel, information services librarian at Dayton Metro Library
Discover: Three women in different eras struggle with ordinary dangers in a remote part of Scotland in this lyrical, Gothic novel.

This review was first published in and is reposted with permission from Shelf Awareness.

Stephen Graham Jones (The Only Good Indians) packs bloody surprises and dark laughter into every page of Night of the Mannequins. Sawyer, the narrator, begins, "So Shanna got a new job at the movie theater, we thought we'd play a fun prank on her, and now most of us are dead, and I'm really starting to feel kind of guilty about it all." And from his captivating perspective, readers are launched into this brief but action-packed work of comedic horror. The prank in question goes awry and suddenly, there's a monster on the loose, or perhaps a psychopath. Or could it be both? New twists come with every chapter, and readers will delight more than once in the realization that they might be reading a different story from the one they thought was unfolding.

Sawyer makes for the most honest of unreliable narrators; his point of view is unvarnished, so far as it reflects his understanding. The accuracy of that understanding, however, and his judgment based upon it, is up for debate to say the least. Combine the horrors from the prank that lead to most of the group in question being dead with an undercurrent of anxiety about leaving childhood behind for adolescence (and the specter of college in the future--if one can survive that long) and the resulting voice is wry and engaging to the end. This book will take readers unexpected places; all one can do is trust Jones and enjoy the ride. --Kristen Allen-Vogel, information services librarian at Dayton Metro Library
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Discover: A teenage prank leads to a twisting series of horrors in this startling and wryly comedic novella.

This review was originally published in and is reposted with permission from Shelf Awareness.
When Eve returns home to sit shiva for her sister, a secret leads her to question what she thought she knew about their respective places in the family in this character-driven domestic drama. Tam was the successful sister; she was a well-known television journalist, married and the mother of two children before she died in her 40s. Eve, conversely, has a dissertation on a niche subject she still has not finished and a long-term relationship that she has kept so determinedly casual that she doesn't consider meeting at the airport, let alone marriage and children. Since they were teens, the one area where both agreed Eve was ahead was as the "sexy" sister. After Tam's funeral, Eve is given a note from her sister revealing something that a lover said to her--something that Eve knows couldn't have been said by Tam's husband.
Evening by Nessa Rapoport (Preparing for Sabbath) is an introspective drama about a woman reconsidering her family mythology. Eve contemplates the mysterious identity of Tam's lover, and who Eve is if Tam was not the devoted wife. And as she spends time with her divorced parents and the rest of her family, Eve also reexamines her conception of her parents' relationship and unearths the secrets of her grandmother's generation. Written in clear and thoughtful prose, Evening will keep readers entranced with the bonds and the competitions between sisters and the questions of what remains when loved ones are gone. --Kristen Allen-Vogel, information services librarian at Dayton Metro Library
Discover: A bereaved woman discovers secrets about her late sister that bring her new perspective on her own life in this intimate novel.