Rebel-Mouthed Books

The Watchers Commentary

A.M Shine’s 2021 novel-turned-motion-picture, The Watchers is an inventive take on the “something’s in the woods” story with a killer premise, executed with lyric prose, exciting plot, and effective dread. While on a road trip to deliver a pet bird, Mina gets lost in rural Ireland and her car breaks down. After embarking on foot through the nearby forest, Mina discovers a strange, concrete structure. Inside, Mina meets Madeline, Daniel, and Ciara, then, the mirror: floor to ceiling on the far side of the large room, lit brightly. Mina can see their reflections, but she does not see what lies on the other side of the glass: the watchers— creatures from Irish folklore who emerge from underground to observe our characters through the mirror. Should anyone go outside after dark when the creatures come out, they will be killed. Those inside The Coop, as they call it, both work together AND hurt one another— trust an ever-shifting ground beneath their feet. Can this forced family find a way out of the forest and away from the Watchers? And, if so, how do they return to their normal lives after the terrors they’ve seen? The Watchers will make you want to close your curtains. It’s about Irish folklore, being observed without consent, fucked up found families, lost and found trust, mimicking faces (in art and literally), the will to survive, and what follows you home after.

The Loney Commentary

Perhaps the most Catholic book I’ve ever read, Andrew Michael Hurley’s unsettling 2014 debut novel The Loney is about an Easter week, church-trip-gone-awry along a particularly violent stretch of the UK coastline: called the Loney. In the 1970s, a small parish journeys to Coldbarrow, where a shrine to Saint Anne is to be the stage for one of God’s greatest miracles: healing the sick— one of their own— a mute teenager named Hanny. The Loney’s prose mesmerizes as it swallows you up. Though not without an abundance of grim, it’s a story with a tender heart about superstition and ritual, miracles, suicide, the Troubles, and Catholicism’s hypocrisies, like its hatred of and impression of witchcraft for its own benefit.

Who Was Changed and Who Was Dead Commentary

Considered to be one of English author Barbara Comyns’ seminal works, Who Was Changed and Who Was Dead is a tight under 200-page, terrifying, absurdly funny, gorgeous novel about a small village affected by a flood and then a mysterious, deadly illness. Who Was Changed and Who Was Dead is a clever, character-driven story explosive with a frightening plot, vibrating with the electricity living under each sentence— not a word wasted. About disaster and illness, Comyns’ novel is full of people trying to live “normally” amidst death and destruction— a theme that can resonate with today’s post-COVID readers who give this 1950s novel a chance. Who Was Changed and Who Was Dead whispers tragedies to us— suicides, mass violence, drownings, gruesome illness casualties— but tempts us with the tantalizing promise that “it won’t affect us— our main characters,” only to chuckle and thrust us with them into the action. Devilishly funny, scary but with a happy ending, it’s a story about shitty parents, mass hysteria, profiting off of tragedy, buried treasure, and, as the introduction reads, “about what it’s like to grow up next to a river.”

The Invasion: The Grey Land Book 2 Commentary

The second installment of Peadar O’Guilin’s The Grey Land series, The Invasion, follows the war between humans and Sidhe in Ireland, shortly after the events of The Call. Surprisingly gritty and true to the real horrors of war, O’Guilin’s enthralling novel speaks to the role of determination in survival, being disabled in wartime, patriotism and its demands, and the horrors of occupation. A page-turner, The Grey Land series is well-executed YA horror, perfect for readers hungry for fantasy that feels grounded in reality, in such a way as to terrify you.

The Call: The Grey Land Book 1 Commentary

To crudely describe it in two words, The Call by Peadar O’Guilin is an Irish Hunger Games. It’s a story about folklore, surviving gruesome violence, young love, preparing for something traumatic, and what we are willing to trade for our lives. An engaging, fast-paced read, The Call is set in a modern day Ireland as it survives a large-scale attack from a people thought lost to history— the Sidhe, or fairies, who the ancient Irish exiled to The Grey Land, a parallel, hellish dimension, where they have been trapped, planning their revenge against the humans. That revenge comes in the form of The Call— each adolescent will at any random moment disappear out of thin air for three minutes and four seconds. They find themselves in The Grey Land, where hunting parties of Sidhe track them down, torture them, and turn them into grotesque shapes to fit their amusement. If they survive the hunt for a whole day, they return to the Many-Colored Land, or Ireland, though they are forever changed. Ours is a survival story: young Nessa, our protagonist, attends a training college preparing adolescents for The Call. She is disabled and, against everyone’s expectations, knows she must survive The Call. We watch her navigate friendships that could end at any moment, school bullies with a thirst for violence like the Sidhe, and a budding romance against all her best instincts.

The Dark Between the Trees Commentary

The VVitch meets Briardark, part historical fiction, part horror, Dark Between the Trees by Fiona Barnett is a dual account of two groups who enter and then disappear in the mysterious Moresby Forest in the UK, one a small company of soldiers in 1643, the other a modern day, fact-finding archeological team there to investigate what happened to the soldiers hundreds of years before. In Moresby Forest dwells a creature from legend— the Corrigal— present in local accounts dating back even before Christianity reached it. It hunts both parties as they get lost, separate, and begin to see the Forest for what it truly is: a duplicitous place haunted by an ancient being that defies understanding. This engrossing read is about mentorship, how groups fall apart, history folding in on itself, trust, and ego being so easy to prey on.

Hell Followed With Us Commentary

Andrew Jospeh White’s YA horror novel Hell Followed With Us is about a group of queer and trans teens surviving Armageddon, heralded by a religious cult, the Angelic Movement, that took over the world using a bioweapon— a disease called the Flood. Our protagonist Benji escapes the cult at New Nazareth and stumbles into the arms of The Watch, a small group from the LGTBQIA+ center in Acheson, Pennsylvania, where he finds community he desperately needs, even and especially at the end of the world. A story about young love, body horror and dysphoria, religious trauma, shedding our skins, grief, being good, and the complexity of having multiple selves, Hell Followed With Us is a gory yet propulsive book for readers who might also like Camp Damascus or The Last of Us.

Our Wives Under the Sea Commentary

Julia Armfield’s second novel, Our Wives Under the Sea, is a love story— an intimate, evolving love between two women and an awe-struck love for the ocean— tangled up in the sheets with a horror narrative about a submarine dive gone wrong. Our Wives Under the Sea is about the random details that become love stories, the ocean haunting us from within and without, the anxiety of losing a partner, the terror of finding them again, but different, and the pain of evolution.

Grey Dog Commentary

Canadian speculative fiction writer Elliot Gish’s trot into horror, Grey Dog, sets her apart as a tension-building master with a bold voice and a lot to say. Gish’s wise pace and biting commentary exhilarate. Grey Dog follows 29 year old Ada Byrd, a school teacher, arriving to a new posting in a Canadian small town, where strange things happen in the woods. Ada’s journal documents a story full of queerness and crushes, unmet expectations, betrayals of friendship, miscarriages and lost children, the trials of teaching in Christian towns, witches, and the tantalizing thrill of what you’ll find in the woods.

Sour Candy Commentary

Kealan Patrick Burke’s short story Sour Candy is an immediately-scary nightmare of non-consensual parenthood about chance encounters, the ravages of being a parent, and the terror of being stuck and helpless.

Our Share of Night Commentary

Mariana Enriquez’s highly acclaimed novel Our Share of Night is a rich, lengthy, family saga, horror story about a young man and his inheritance: an estate, a cult, and a magical strength all his own. Set in Argentina from the 1960s to the late 1990s, just before, during, and after military dictatorship, Enriquez’s sweeping novel is a dedication to disappeared people and the violence they face, wrapped around the story of a family and the terrifying God they worship.

Convenience Store Woman Commentary

Unsettling and deeply profound, this concise, not-quite-horror book, Convenience Store Woman by Sayaka Murata follows Keiko, a 36 year old convenience store worker, through a 24-7, living, breathing ecosystem, where she both finds her identity and then begins to question it as well as her role in Tokyo society. An entrancing read, Convenience Store Woman is about performing normalcy, reaching or evading society’s expectations, being human, and the satisfaction of a clear role.

The Hacienda Commentary

Isabel Cañas’s debut novel The Hacienda is a gothic, supernatural, haunted house story set in 1823 rural Mexico following the Mexican War of Independence. Mexican Gothic meets Rebecca, others have said, which is a strikingly accurate comparison. The Hacienda is about indigeneity, mother-daughter relationships, colorism and caste, witchcraft and the Inquisition, budding (and forbidden) love, and the determination needed to survive being home.

The Changeling Commentary

Victor Lavalle’s seventh book, The Changeling (2017), is a surprising and deeply horrifying fairy tale planted firmly in modern day New York City about a family torn apart and the drive to piece it back together again.

The Writing Retreat Commentary

In Julia Bartz’s The Writing Retreat, we follow a small group of young women writers taking a month-long residency in an old, country manor, hosted by an (in)famous author, Roza, whose motivations begin mysterious but evolve to be sinister. It’s a book about writers and the act of writing. With notes of Shirley Jackson and Hill House, The Writing Retreat is a thrilling, psychological ride about broken friendships, the creative process, queer desire, and scary stories.

Waywarden (Briardark Book Two) Commentary

An entrancing sequel to S.A Harian’s Briardark, Waywarden is a survival horror story set in a wilderness that does not adhere to the rules of physics.

Briardark (Book One) Commentary

S.A Harian’s Briardark is the first book in a horror series about a haunted wilderness— the Deadswitch— where space and time bend and darkness follows a group of researchers, there to study a glacier. An alluring horror read, Briardark is also a fascinating take on climate change, the science of life on earth, guilt, breakups, self purpose, and being lost.

Her Body and Other Parties Commentary

Carmen Maria Machado’s debut short story collection Her Body and Other Parties is an ingenious read about boundaries and betrayals, queer desire and intimacy, stories with forgotten endings, strange contagions, the doubts of parenthood, invasion of the body, and our smallness in the universe.

Mexican Gothic Commentary

Silvia Moreno-Garcia’s sixth novel Mexican Gothic is The Haunting of Hill House meets The Last of Us— a spell-binding and surprising story with depth, terror, and charisma.

Suicide in Gaza: An Invisible Arm of Genocide

In this piece, we will together explore available data on suicide rates in Gaza, the immediate and systemic causes, and how suicide can be wielded as a tool for oppression.