About Book Marks
Recent Reviews
Cassandra Khaw
Rave The Chicago Tribune Khaw delivers a fresh new twist on the haunted house tale ... Khaw’s ability to dive deep in the specificity of her characters’ experiences shines here, and may have something to do with her experience with role player games ... The creatures’ cartoonishness occasionally threatens to undermine the scares in the book, though the voice that Cat hears in her head won’t disappoint readers craving horror ... [Khaw\'s] prose is lush and evocative, reminiscent of literary horror writers like Carmen Maria Machado, and Nothing But Blackened Teeth is a delicacy of supernatural horror garnished with blood. On a fear scale of zero to agonizing terror, Khaw’s novella lands firmly on: better keep a nightlight on tonight.
Grady Hendrix
Rave The Chicago Review of Books ... fiendishly meta ... Hendrix shares just enough about the other five survivors in the support group without getting too bogged down in backstory. By the second half of the novel, the story’s pace flies. Hendrix’s voice charms with irreverent wit while he skewers classic horror fans’ hunger for stories where violent men brutalize and murder women in a narrative ritual designed to excite us.
Anna North
Positive The Chicago Review of Books Throughout the novel, North describes the frontier landscape so elegantly you can almost hear Aaron Copland’s Billy the Kid swelling and retreating in the background ... Their being forced to live outside mainstream society and steal simply to survive allegorizes how fundamentally compromising it is for queer individuals to have their gender identities and sexuality outlawed.
T. Kingfisher
Positive The Chicago Review of Books In a genre where film narratives are full of found footage, The Twisted Ones contains a generous helping of found manuscript. The Green Book is a book within a journal within the novel. The sheer volume of found manuscript begs patience of its reader by the middle of the novel, but once things start going bump in the night at the house, the thrills leave you wanting more ... a strong sense of place. Its wooded hills are very much a character ... Mouse is so modest, you can’t help loving her from the get-go, but what seals the deal is her love for Bongo ... If you’re looking for a horror novel that uses a rich, regional narrative voice, and a unique creature mythology to put a fresh spin on traditional gothic elements, this novel is for you.
Carmen Maria Machado
Positive The Chicago Review of Books Much like in her fiction, Machado’s prose in her memoir shows an unflinching willingness to stretch the usual conventions of literary technique. It makes for a dynamic read ... With academic precision, Machado describes how a love life can go from idyllic to alarming to terrifying ... the author is courageous in her vulnerability ... Machado is an author who writes the truth of her experiences. Her understanding of the events of that ill-fated relationship aren’t up for debate.