Book Review: The Library at Hellebore by Cassandra Khaw

 

The Library at Hellebore by  Cassandra Khaw

“I could think of a hundred things holier than being sacrificed to something that doesn't even love you back.”

There are certain writers about whom I wonder based on little things. Khaw’s books have had interesting titles and pretty solid word of mouth.  The thing that scared me off a bit was a comparison that most consider positive. A friend compared her work to Charlee Jacob, the late Splatter-poet who he was a fan of. The problem with that comparison is that I was not a fan. I tried one of Jacob's books and was not impressed. That said, having read one book of each, this book seemed more in the pocket of Clive Barker, transitioning between Gruesome horror and dark fantasy. 

The Library at Hellebore is a dark fantasy that reads to me like a hellish combo of Harry Potter meets Cabal. Picture a school for monsters,  but real weird, gross monsters who will decorate their school with organs. Graduate, and you will have a normal life, just one problem you gotta make it through the last day. Maybe Battle Royale meets Cabal is better I mean Fuck Harry Potter and the transphobe he rode in on. Anyways…

This novel is wild and excellently written weirdness that I loved, while I am not surprised that mainstream readers might be struggling a bit with. It is getting an average of three stars on Goodreads, and let me tell you I think it is WAY better than that.   

The concept is high, the prose is excellent, the world it creates is transgressive and sticky, and the narrator is as reliable as the RFK Jr.-led CDC. 

“We reside as well on a planet where the efficacy of medical science is questioned and media personalities argue whether a clot of cells has more value than a woman's life. To put it another way, these are unutterably stupid times.”

That is a quote from the book; see what I did there. This book is the complete package, doing all kinds of interesting and bizarro. Like Barker in the early days, the violent and gross is written with a velvet red-tinged beauty.

 “We watched the boy die.

If the universe had any mercy in it, the swarm would have blanketed him, obscured his death from view, but it didn't. His death was a spectacle. We saw him denuded of skin, saw them burrow through the spongy tissue of his bones, and now through his heart and lung, liver and stomach. And seconds he went from boy to Swiss cheese monument, a juddering collander trestles by strings of crawling jeweled shelled insects.”

The characters are well-written. I didn’t always remember their names right away, but their motivations were clear to me. Their motivations are monstrous for sure, their place in this dark academic circle mirrors the relationship between students, but through a monster’s lens.

“Died?” I supplied. After several months together, I felt safe in saying I loathed her. unused to dislike I guess, Joanna had all but waged war on my dislike of her, ambushing me with presence, besieging me with compliments; It was a surgical effort, beautiful and its thoroughness. It did Jack to improve my opinion, which unfortunately just exacerbated Joanna's need for approval. Hell wasn't just other people, hell was living with them.”

The Library a Helleborne is a beautifully designed book by Tor Nightfire with its blue pages, detailed interiors, and all those with the magical prose make it a book really worth having as well as just reading. I mean, get it at your library if you have to, but it is a book worth having on the shelf. 

I will leave with my favorite sample of the writing if that doesn’t sell you, we have different tastes.

“Cracked apart at her shoulders, the knobs of her wrist bones, the long stem of her throat. Through them I could see wet muscle and a myriad of tongues, coiled in the shadows like worms for a bulge of intestines. Stefina Raised one corner of her lips and a snarl, her dark eyes very nearly black in the evening light. “We can see how much chill you get if I take off a limb.”

“Oh, please. We're in hellebore. You're not scary.”

 

Book Review: The Brood by Rebecca Baum + Interview...

 

The Brood Rebecca Baum

 207 pages, Paperback

Expected publication October 28, 2025 by Thomas & Mercer

 

Audio of podcast interview 

 

I admit the first time I heard of this author was when an e-mail appeared in my inbox asking if I would check out a pre-release arc. I have to admit that I didn’t read the e-mail closely. She had me at eco-horror.  I am not sure I would’ve named my novel the same as an all-time classic David Cronenberg film, but in a vacuum, The Brood is the correct title.

The Mary Whelton who rose through the ranks at a powerful for being the fixer for a Harvey Weinstein/ Epstein type. Infamous and guilt-ridden Mary is the main character in a horror novel so you know she is about to face a reckoning.  She heads out of the city to escape the press who is chasing her down.

After an accident, she wakes up in a remote cabin, prisoner of a young woman just named girl, who sees her as mother to a brood of supernaturally weird Cicadas who are about to awaken themselves…

Baum is not a debut author and won awards and praise for her debut novel, but writing a horror novel requires entirely different muscles. This is a short read, and Baum kept the pages turning. She did a great job of building suspense and seemed to relish those moments of horror. One of the best examples is a moment when Mary thinks she has escaped to her car.

“A stream of insects crawled from the floor vents.

And the dash vents.

 And beneath the back seat.

 In seconds, the car's interior was crowded with flickering, fluttering movement. A chorus of thousands blasted the small space with an eerie cry, a breathy, grating, almost metallic sound:

Oweeee-ooo. Oweeooo.”

The feminist metaphor and the ecological elements were the things that most hooked me about this novel. Girl as a character is frustrating, but she is supposed to be. Baum’s lifetime of consuming southern Gothic helps with the backwoods monster vibes coming off Girl.

“I need you to focus, Girl. to hear me loud and clear. Unless you release me, and by this, I mean either call an ambulance or bring me to the nearest hospital - I will starve myself and by extension…” she swallowed her distaste. “the babies.”

Girl shook her head. Her fingers slid up and down her corduroys. “Hospital don't know about this,” she breathed. The loose skin of her chest quivered. “ain't no doctor ever seen her in The Cave. For the miracle of the cicada babies born of our woman. You know that."

Is this novel perfect? No, it is a horror debut, and Baum’s horror is not entirely without growing pains. The novel starts off with an info dump and way to much information about Mary. The novel should’ve started with mystery about her. People hate this woman! What did she do? Hell we could’ve learned this with Girl, towards the end of the first act.

Mary’s role as fixer was actually very interesting, and I think if it was woven throughout the narrative, it would’ve made for a stronger push and pull with the body/eco horror stuff.

That said The Brood is a compelling horror novel, that expresses the author’s affection for these surreal creatures that really exist. She found a way to weave these neat critters into a novel that combines suspense and message. A cool combination.

“During the few peaceful hours when she pretended to be Girl’s mother, Girl had shown her the source of the insects’ relentless drone. Two hateful little accordion-like structures on each side of the male’s abdomen, evolved expressly for ear-splitting serenade. Now, with rage burning through her, she imagined pressing her fingernails into the ribbed membranes, silencing each of the multitude of tiny beasts, one by one.”

 

Book Review: Pam Kowalski Is A Monster by Sarah Langan

 

Pam Kowalski Is A Monster by Sarah Langan

120 pages, Paperback

Published May, 2025 by Raw Dog Screaming Press

 

Is it possible to win three Stoker awards and still be underrated? Sarah Langan has been on a roll with socially important science fiction. Good Neighbors was a smart hybrid of cli-fi, The Burbs, and  Twilight Zone’s The Monsters are Due on Maple Street. A Better World was a Phil Dickian sheltered reality in a dying Earth. Deep thinking books.

PKIAM is a short and fun little bizarro horror tale that can be read in a single sitting, although I did it in two, mostly sitting in the park. So it was a fun reading experience.  I know I often complain about first-person narratives, but this was a perfect example of a good time for first-person. It is a bit of a spoiler, so you want a totally cold entry, know that I loved this novella, A very character-driven story of Janet Chow, who is drifting through life, suffering from a bunch of various setbacks. She is really bothered by the success of a high school classmate who has become a TV psychic. Janet believes she is unique position to out her former friend.

What makes this novella so entertaining… It starts with the tone.

“Some context: back at Sewanhaka Senior High, Pam was one of those agreeable girls everyone liked. She wore witchy black broom skirts and carried A tarot deck to fool people into thinking she was deep. Her crew was an assortment of mid-level popular, moderately but not especially athletic norm-cores. in other words, she was Wonder Bread. Tapioca. The extra rice you get at a Chinese restaurant that you don't want.”

Janet’s personality comes through each page that is supposed to happen in first person.  One of the important things is that Janet is not exactly the best judge of what happened in the past, or in the story as it unfolds. Langan really does cool things with ooey-gooey ooey-gooey-ness of reality. 

 He chuckled. “Don't worry about it. It was a great story, though. You know when you've got a tiger by its tail. You can feel it. I had that. They come fewer and farther with age, but my Madam Pamela exposé had it all. I'll send it to you. You should use it. Just remember to credit me.”

“Absolutely,” I said.

Someone has to expose her, if it can't be me, I'd be happy for it to be you. So what are your questions?”

Outside, Dean was hacking up blood and possibly a literal lung. I was sitting on my small bed. Below, like dangerous lava, was the rotten carpet. I was aware that reality remained reality; it wasn't breaking or slipping into some new and horrific iteration simply because Pam Kolowski insisted it was.”

By the end, Pam and Janet are not who we think they are, a short book that touches on epic scope. It has a cool design, which didn’t prepare me for what was coming. That said, I trust Sarah Langan; this novella again proves she is worth following to any genre.