Sarah O'Connor

Book Review: A Haunting on the Hill by Elizabeth Hand

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March 13, 2024

“Hill House neither sleeps nor dreams. Shrouded within its overgrown lawns and sprawling woodlands, the long shadows of mountains and ancient oaks, Hill House watches. Hill House waits,” (Hand 3).

Struggling playwright Holly Sherwin has just received a grant to develop her play, an adaption of The Witch of Edmonton, that may just bring her the success she was promised in her youth. When she finds the isolated and remote Hill House, Holly knows she’s found the perfect place to rehearse and develop her play. Inviting her actors, the infamous Amanda Greer, her best friend Stevie, and her girlfriend Nisa, Holly is sure that once they settle in to Hill House everything will become clear. And Hill House, not sane, is ready to welcome it’s guests. Continue reading

Book Review: The Curse of Eelgrass Bog by Mary Averling

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March 7, 2024

“It’s a feeling that comes from inside a person. A brightness certain people possess that makes them unique. Your heart glows especially bright, Kess Pedrock,” (Averling 116).

Kess Pedrock’s life is unnatural. Her favourite hobby is looking for megafauna fossils and skeletons, she lives in her family’s Unnatural History Museum, and her best friend is Shrunken Jim, a demon’s head that speaks to her from a jar. Despite being an unnatural life, Kess has grown to love it while her parents are off working in Antarctica and her brother Oliver locks himself away in the library. But when a new girl named Lilou Starling comes to Wick’s End asking Kess for help breaking a mysterious curse, Kess is ready to do so. But the key to breaking the mysterious curse hides in the centre of Eelgrass Bog, a place full of witches, demons, and all things dangerous, but Kess and Lilou are ready to solve it’s mysteries. But Kess might be more connected to the curse than she originally thought. Continue reading

Book Review: Calpurnia by Audrey Dwyer

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February 29, 2024

I received this book from Playwrights Canada Press in exchange for an honest review.

Jamaican Canadian screenwriter Julie is working on her passion project, adapting the beloved To Kill a Mockingbird from the perspective of the Finch family’s Black maid, Calpurnia. But Julie has lived a privileged life. Her father, a successful judge, helped get her a successful literary agent and is given space and her encouragement by her father and their Filipina housekeeper, Precy, to write her screenplay. But Julie has writer’s block, and her brother Mark, hoping to impress his father’s lawyer friend and be asked to join his firm, tells Julie that she shouldn’t appropriate and write from a perspective she doesn’t know. This causes Julie to go to great lengths to prove that she can, which will lead to one unforgettable dinner. Continue reading

Book Review: Chrysalis by Anuja Varghese

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February 28, 2024

“Sometimes we let our truths rot in darkness to preserve the lies we tell in the light,” (“A Cure for Fear of Screaming,” Varghese 147).

Varghese’s debut short story collection Chrysalis has gotten a lot of hype surrounded around it and it is deserved each and every one of them (including the numerous awards it has won). I love how Varghese balances horror, fairy tale, surreal, and contemporary fiction all so neatly in this collection. The stories are all so different from one another but communicate a lot of similar themes. It is unapologetically queer and at it’s heart shows the ways that women of colour fight to find power for themselves. The stories in this collection were brilliant and I can’t wait to see what Varghese has in store for us next!

Here are my thoughts on each of the stories in this collection: Continue reading

Book Review: Tender Beasts by Liselle Sambury

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February 20, 2024

I received this book from Simon and Schuster Influencer Program in exchange for an honest review.

“That was the thing about families. They knew even the things you wanted to keep secret,” (Sambury).

Grieving her mother’s sudden death, Sunny Behre knows she has what it takes to take up her role as leader of her family, as her mother wanted. But at the will reading there is no declaration of Sunny being the new leader of the Behre family, just a sticky note that says, “Take care of Dom.” Sunny has four siblings, and the youngest, Dom, has always been the black sheep of them, even before he was accused of murdering his girlfriend the year before. Dom swears he’s innocent, but when one of their classmates is found brutally murdered, and then another, Sunny can’t be so sure. What she does know is that she’s going to take care of Dom, and her other siblings who seem to have secrets of their own. It’s what her mother would have wanted. Continue reading

Book Review: Roll for Initiative by Jaime Formato

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February 12, 2024

“Maybe I don’t wanna fight a dragon. Maybe I wanna be a dragon. I’m going to write a campaign and I’m going to be the Dungeon Master this time. The Dragon Master Dungeon Master,” (Formato 16).

Things aren’t going well for Riley Henderson. She has to take the bus to school now, make herself an afterschool snack, finish her homework and do her own laundry (gross) all because her older brother Devin is off in college in California. Devin used to do all of this for Riley but now she and her mom are alone stuck fending for themselves in Florida. Riley misses her and Devin’s DnD games and starts planning a campaign for them to do together. But when her map is found by one of her classmates she finds a group of girls interested in joining her campaign. Maybe things aren’t so bad after all. Continue reading

Book Review: Hell Bent by Leigh Bardugo (Alex Stern #2)

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February 7, 2024

“That was the problem with love. It was hard to learn, no matter how harsh the lesson,” (Bardugo 209-210).

Alex Stern is determined to get her Virgil, Darlington, out of Hell. Even though the Lethe House has forbidden it, Alex has a plan in place that might just get her and her group to Hell and bring Darlington back. But things can never be easy. When professors on campus start being murdered in strange ways, Alex knows magic is involved. Despite the darkness that’s coming, Alex is determined to survive, even if it means confronting more demons from her past. Continue reading

#1 Fan (Pt. 2)

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February 5, 2024

On January 23 2024, Queer Eye’s Bobby Berk publicly offered to redesign Gypsy-Rose’s house. A fan on TikTok decided to shoot their shot at being friends with Gypsy by sending a voice note of them singing changed lyrics to “Crazy” by Gnarls Barkley. If you search “Gypsy-Rose Blanchard” on Etsy you get a variety of merchandise, from shirts and sweaters with her face that say “You served now it’s time to slay,” “Will you be my Gypsy-Rose?,” “Gypsy Rose is my homegirl,” “Gypsy Rose 4 President,” “Gypsy Rose Stan.” One fan made an acrylic nail with her portrait on it. There is no limit to the merch you can buy with Gypsy-Rose’s face on it, including the meme-worthy “The D is fire.”

Read the full post on my Substack.

Book Review: Yaga by Kat Sandler

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February 4, 2024

I received this book from Playwrights Canada Press in exchange for an honest review.

“And I wonder, I wonder why they tell stories about my cold, dark eyes, the ugly old virgin, the mother of monsters who eats their children as pay for their questions, when no one will stay and have a drink, get to know me. I’m very funny, you know,” (Sandler 46).

When private investigator Rapp is hired to learn what happened to the young heir of a yogurt empire, he doesn’t expect to learn about Baba Yaga, a Slavic myth who seems more than myth in the small town of Whittock. Teaming up with the local sheriff, the investigator questions a university professor with a predilection towards younger men and stories of a woman who helps others in a strange hut in the woods, Rapp is in for more than he bargained for. Continue reading

Book Review: Ninth House by Leigh Bardugo

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February 2, 2024

“That was what magic did. It revealed the heart of who you’d been before life took away your belief in the possible,” (Bardugo 71).

Alex Stern never thought she’d be going to Yale. A recovering addict and lone survivor of an unsolved homicide, Alex is given the second chance to attend Yale on a paid scholarship. But there’s a twist, Yale is home to eight occult secret societies, all of which dabble in magic. Alex has been tasked to join Lethe, the ninth house, that supervises the other societies and makes sure they don’t take their practice in magic too far. But when a girl is found dead with links to four of the eight societies, Alex is determined to find out who killed the girl why they’re trying to keep it a secret. Continue reading