penmage | Reading

Thirteen-year-old Ali gets a chance to spend the summer with her aunt Dulcie and five-year-old cousin Emma at the family's long-abandoned lakefront property - over the strong objections of Ali's mother, who hates the lake. Ali is delighted to babysit Emma and get out from under her mom's over-protective thumb. But why do both her mother and Dulcie act so weird about the lake and their past there? Who's the mysterious girl who was ripped out of old family photos? And what's up with Sissy, the strange girl who hangs out at the lake and encourages Emma to behave badly and blame it on Ali?

Sissy's real identity won't come as a surprise to any readers over the age of 10, but there are some genuinely chilling moments and Hahn's trademark realistic family dynamics and exploration of guilty secrets and how parents' childhood trauma gets passed down to their children. I actually got stressed out reading about Ali trying to protect Emma while Dulcie blames Ali for all the weird stuff going on and accuses Ali of refusing to take responsibility for anything. (In fact, Dulcie and Ali's mom are the ones who are failing to take responsibility and projecting it on the kids.)

A good solid middle-grade ghost story with unusually complex family dynamics.

rachelmanija

A sensitive, well-written novel about a young girl coming of age at the end of the world. 11-year-old Julia lives in California suburbs with her doctor dad and fragile mom when the Earth's rotation begins to slow, and gradually gets slower and slower and slower.

Days and nights stretch out. Birds fall from the sky. Some people become severely ill, apparently from disruption of circadian rhythms. Crops fail. But life goes on, and Julia experiences all the ordinary milestones - a first love, her parents' marriage breaking up, becoming more independent - against a backdrop of larger loss and change. It

This is an apocalypse novel almost entirely without violence, apart from some light persecution of a scapegoated neighbor. There's some death, but it's all from natural or accidental causes. It's science fiction but marketed as literary fiction, and feels a lot more like the latter. The book has that melancholy, nostalgic, sepia vibe of looking back on times when you knew something was wrong but were young enough to be focused mostly on yourself, and knowing you'll never be that innocent ot experience the same time or world again.

rachelmanija

Another mystery with light horror/urban legend elements and a heavy use of images by the mysterious and pseudonymous Uketsu. If you like creepypasta, you will like this.

An abandoned blog with sketches of a woman's future child may reveal a horrifying secret. A child's drawings of his apartment building worry his teacher. A mountaintop murder has a clue in a sketch by the murder victim. How do the images reveal the solutions? Are these three weird stories related?

I enjoyed this very much. It's exactly as fun and bonkers as the first Uketsu book I read, Strange Houses, but feels more confident and assured. It also reads more like a normal novel, with actual scenes rather than solely relying on interviews and exposition.

I'm excited to read his next two books (forthcoming in English) Strange Buildings (originally published in Japanese as Strange Houses 2, which the translator says is more dark/disturbing than the first two) and Strange Maps, which the translator says is more of a classic mystery.

Content notes: Child abuse, animal in danger, brief but graphic violence.

Spoilers!

( Read more... )

denise posting in

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Hello, friends! It's about to be December again, and you know what that means: the fact I am posting this actually before December 1 means

karzilla reminded me about the existence of linear time again. Wait, no -- well, yes, but also -- okay, look, let me back up and start again: it's almost December, and that means it's time for our annual December holiday points bonus.

The standard explanation: For the entire month of December, all orders made in the Shop of points and paid time, either for you or as a gift for a friend, will have 10% of your completed cart total sent to you in points when you finish the transaction. For instance, if you buy an order of 12 months of paid time for $35 (350 points), you'll get 35 points when the order is complete, to use on a future purchase.

( The fine print and much more behind this cut! )

Thank you, in short, for being the best possible users any social media site could possibly ever hope for. I'm probably in danger of crossing the Sappiness Line if I haven't already, but you all make everything worth it.

On behalf of Mark, Jen, Robby, and our team of awesome volunteers, and to each and every one of you, whether you've been with us on this wild ride since the beginning or just signed up last week, I'm wishing you all a very happy set of end-of-year holidays, whichever ones you celebrate, and hoping for all of you that your 2026 is full of kindness, determination, empathy, and a hell of a lot more luck than we've all had lately. Let's go.

kuwdora

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The Puck in the Midden

Hunter and Bagger of the Elusive Snark

Reading

Deep and Dark and Dangerous, by Mary Downing Hahn

The Age of Miracles, by Karen Thomas Walker

Strange Pictures, by Uketsu

Look! I remembered to post before December started this year!

The Rats: A Witcher’s Tale.

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