Last Spooky Season I gave Sour Candy and Dead Leaves a read, so this year a bought two more. I feel like this author just gets me. I like horror, but I do prefer it short, so his collection of novellas is superb. This is a unique tale of loss, grief, and coming to grips with what’s real. It’s even more uniquely interlinked within almost Baba Yaga-esque nightmare-scapes. I don’t usually like dreams in stories—the what is, and what is not real undertones—as they don’t often work for me, but the author uses a deft hand to integrate them in ways that compliment the main characters detachment while he’s awake. I also enjoyed how the author gives us a supernatural/paranormal story, but with the stages of grief on display, the level of alcohol being consumed, and the character being in the bowels of despair, it could also be entirely imagined…maybe even personally caused? Enjoyable and quick.

Creepy, horrifying and devastating all at once. This short story is able to turn an awful tragedy into a terrifying domestic disaster. This book made me feel things, but different things all at the same time. Masterful tragic horror.

Dnf

This one was okay. I enjoyed the unreliable narrator aspect and a lot of the imagery in this was beyond weird. Dolls creep me out so that did if for me I guess. I had fun but not enough for it to be a favourite.

What a weird story! Kealan Patrick Burke is a master when it comes to creating weird thriller, horror stories! In Blanky he handles the topic of grief in such a fascinating way. I really like his writing and I can't wait to read more by the author.