#grave matter

[quotesfrombooksilike]

I often think of grief as a cycle from which there is no escape, an ouroboros, a snake of sorrow eating its tail.

- Karina Halle, Grave Matter

[ash-and-books]

Rating: 4/5

Book Blurb:

•Horror Romance meets Science Fiction in this dark and delicious gothic psychological thriller by NYT bestseller Karina Halle, perfect for fans of Ninth House, Yellowjackets, and Mexican Gothic•

Aspiring mycologist Sydney Denik is getting a second chance. When a dream opportunity presents itself with a prestigious foundation doing promising Alzheimer’s research, Sydney leaves the shambles of her old life to join a dozen other grad students at an isolated lodge hidden away in a remote, fog-shrouded inlet on Vancouver Island.

But the Madrona Foundation harbors more than brilliant minds. Everyone around her is hiding a terrible secret—including the resident psychologist she’s falling in love with. A student disappears, and no one but Sydney seems to care. Ghosts walk the halls. Snow falls in the middle of summer. Dead animals move like the living. The more Sydney uncovers about the foundation, the more she begins to question her own sanity. And if Sydney isn’t going mad, then the horrors in the surrounding forest are real, and the Madrona Foundation may be the biggest monster of all. 

NOTE: this book contains body horror, animal body horror, and explicit scenes of a sexual nature including degradation kink, bondage, and uneven power dynamics. This is reflected in the Content Warnings inside the book, but Netgalley requests should only be made if the reader is comfortable with the above. This book is a standalone.

Review:

A aspiring mycologist gets a dream opportunity to work for a prestigious foundation looking to cure Alzheimers... but on this exclusive trip to the island she soon finds herself in over her head as dead bodies begin dropping, her sanity is tested, and her connection to the mysterious professor runs deeper than she could have ever imagined. Sydney Denik just lost her scholarship to Stanford... but that's not going to stop her from going to the exclusive research trup for the Madrona Foundation she was accepted into while she had her scholarship.. she just has to hope no one finds out. Yet from the moment Sydney lands at the foundation students begin disappearing and she also finds herself strangely attracted to the extremely off limits but hot psychologist/professor, Wes. Sydney and Wes have a connection but she can't figure out why she is constantly drawn to a man who she knows she can't be with. Then theres the matter of the voices and visions Sydney has begun hearing and seeing, the dead students that appear, and the horrors that have begun to unfold around her... but is it all in her head or is the foundation doing something to her. Can Sydeny find the truth... and when she gets it can she survive it? This was definitely a really fun gothic horror romance with a fun mystery at the heart of it. I am a sucker for a horror romance and this one was such a fun read. I loved the nature horror and the gothic mystery with a mysterious island setting. The romance was also fun to read and honestly I just had a great time reading this and would absolutely recommend this book for fans of horror romances with a bit of mystery!!

Release Date: October 23,2024

Publication/Blog: Ash and Books (ash-and-books.tumblr.com)

*Thanks Netgalley and Metal Blonde Books for sending me an arc in exchange for an honest review*

[quotesfrombooksilike]

Sometimes others pick up on the fact that you're masking, and so they think perhaps they aren't worthy of being shown the true you. It's not always about people not accepting who you are. Sometimes it's about them feeling like they aren't good enough for you or worth your time. Sometimes people just want to feel worthy of being let in.

- Karina Halle, Grave Matter

[quotesfrombooksilike]

I try to stay silent when I first meet people, trying to figure out how to wear my mask, what kind of person I need to be for the conversation

- Karina Halle, Grave Matter

[semper-legens]

114. Grave Matter, by Juno Dawson

Owned?: No, library Page count: 140 My summary: Eliza Grey is dead. She died in a car accident at the age of seventeen. It was cruel, sad, and ultimately pointless. But her friend Samuel refuses to accept it. He’s bringing Eliza back. No matter what it takes. My rating: 4/5 My commentary:

More Juno Dawson, and a short one today - this appears to have been written as part of a project to get people, in this case teens, into reading. Which is fair, but it doesn’t give me a lot to talk about. Ultimately, this is a nice little ghost story, doesn’t overstay its welcome, gets in and out and does the job. I didn’t find it particularly scary in and of itself, but I think it’s more meant to be spooky than scary, if that makes sense to you.

(Also, if you noticed the fact that I’ve missed an entry, that’s because the book I read between this and the last was about my town, and I can’t really talk about it without revealing where I’m from, which I don’t wanna do.)

The story itself is a story common to a lot of ghostly narratives - someone has died, and their loved one/s want to bring them back. In this particular version, Samuel does a ritual given to him by a voodoo priest to rewrite the world so his friend Eliza survived the crash - but this has consequences. Now, the idea of using voodoo as something of an evil presence is a problematic trope in media, and I can’t say that all of the use of voodoo in this book isn’t in that group. It’s mitigated by Samuel’s aunt, herself a voodoo practitioner who is portrayed as the sort of ‘good witch’ to the antagonistic ‘bad witch’ who gives Samuel the ritual. Still has its own problems, but not as bad as it could be.

Other than that, though, the story is compelling and worth the short amount of time that it takes to read. Also, this book has these wonderfully moody black and white illustrations, which add an extra spook factor. I can see gothy teens who aren’t into reading liking this a lot, it’s pretty neat!

Next up, back into history and over to Europe, as a young boy grows up in occupied Vienna.

[grave-matter]

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GRAVE MATTER --- WHERE I’LL BE SELLING MY BOOTLEG TEE’S

[alextsmith]

💀AN ANNOUNCEMENT 💀 This Halloween, I am delighted to announce that I am illustrating a gothic YA novel by the bestselling author Juno Dawson. GRAVE MATTER is the haunting and moving story of a teenager who can't get over the sudden and tragic death of his girlfriend. Set in the snow covered winter, it's a tale of love, Haitian black magic, grief and difficult choices. Publishing Halloween 2017 by Barrington Stoke. FULL PRESS RELEASE HERE: http://www.thebookseller.com/news/juno-dawson-and-alex-t-smith-team-ya-story-424151 Above is a teaser. NOT the cover.