J.D. Holman > Recent Status Updates

Leave No Tracks - Interesting bit of Dominican folklore. Maybe it's just the smoke from the summer's wildfires, but I got a bit misty-eyed toward the end of this one. 5 stars

Sugary Deaths - I suspect the author may have been a fan of the Gargoyles cartoon. A good girl power story. 5 stars

La Madrina - This is a very sweet, gentle story. 5 stars.

The Other Side of the Mountains - Hey, the dog lives. 3 stars.

La Patasola - Creepy and gruesome. 4 stars

The Boy from Hell - Vampire story. Nice little twist. 4 stars.

Bloodstained Hands Like Yours - Actually tense and suspenseful. But the resolution was confusing. 4 stars.

La Boca del Lobo - Just alright. I think what I liked best was how much I had to dredge up my Spanish vocabulary. 2.5 stars

Blood Kin - Beautiful mythology. The horror is the all-too-real oil company. 4 stars

Dismembered - Horror can be beautifully touching. 4.5 stars

Beware the Empty Subway Car - Purely by coincidence, earlier today I picked up a book from the local bookstore written by the same sister duo as this story. This is a lougarou tale, with an unusual second-person perspective. I enjoyed the open, questionable ending(s). 4.5 stars.

El Viejo de la Bolsa - One of the most useful classes I ever took in university was the special topics course on Dictatorships in the Cono Sur, I swear. This takes place in Montevideo, Uruguay, in 1977, and the protagonist's parents have been disappeared. This one is really powerful, with perhaps a surprising ending. 5 stars.

Donde esta el duende - creepy enough. 4 stars.

I listened to the first story on Libby, with my husband.

The Nightingale and the Lark - an urban fantasy reimagining of Romeo and Juliet, with some neat twists. 4 stars from us both.

The Prepper - that was quite the different zombie story. 4 stars.

Dead Owls - Odd name to the story. The tale has a sweet note to it. 4 stars.

The Longest Street in the World - Dark urban fantasy. 3.5 stars.

Human eaters - Another story within a story. Interesting bit of lore. - 4 stars

Scariest. Story. Ever. - I cannot explain this one without spoilers. But I liked it. 4.5 stars.

Heart-Shaped Clock - completely realistic fiction; the protagonist reminds me a bit of an old classmate. I liked it but don't understand why it's in a horror compilation. 4.5 stars.

Behind Colin's Eyes - Whoa. That's a good one. The POV really makes it. 5 stars.

Night in the Chrysalis - Not a fan of the ending. It also seems like it's on the verge of a great metaphor that falls short. 3 stars.

Before I Go - more sad than scary. 4 stars for the storytelling.

Snakes Are Born in the Dark - An ambiguous ending as the introduction to the collection promised. Some nice body horror. 4 stars.

The Ones Who Killed Us - With what, page-long run-on sentences? I'll try reading it again at a later point. DNF that story.

Tick Talk - ugh, ticks! A wee bit of body horror, and a way to make the damned arachnids even more creepy. I'll be itching for a while. 4.5 stars.

Hunger - very much along the lines of what I had expected in this collection. Well told. 5 stars.

Quantum - Might be creepier if I knew some lore of what it could be? Hopefully Amber does better after the end of the story. 4 stars.

Wingless - the horror is that it's feasible. 4 stars.

Navajos Don't Wear Elk Teeth - wouldn't have guessed this was written by a woman, until I read the bio at the end. I'm not a fan of BL. Half-decent serial killer realistic horror. 3 stars.