Sarah O'Connor

#1 Fan (Pt. 1)

NotSarahConnorWrites

January 23, 2024

Where were you when you first learned about Gypsy-Rose Blanchard? Were you listening to a true crime podcast? Scrolling through Tumblr? Were you binging a new show? Were you reading a book? Did it come up naturally in a conversation with your friends, where you were trying to outdo one another with messed up true crime facts? Were you scrolling through TikTok, seeing the excitement of her 9.8 million followers, some waiting outside her prison for a glimpse of Gypsy-Rose, now free?

I found out about Gypsy-Rose Blanchard through Facebook as the case was unfolding. I think it was through Buzzfeed, and I was early enough that no one knew how involved Gypsy was at the time. It was June 2015 and Dee Dee Blanchard’s body was found stabbed in her bedroom, Gypsy nowhere to be found. It was early enough that the world still thought Gypsy was a chronically ill child, so the fact that she was missing caused panic to those who knew the Blanchard’s intimately and that worry spread online. As the crime took hold of the internet, Gypsy was found and the true story unfolded, one where a young woman was revealed to be the victim of Munchausen by Proxy who found murder to be the only way she might escape it. Continue reading

Book Review: Elsewhere by Alexis Schaitkin

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January 17, 2024

“You do not get to keep what is sweetest to you; you only get to remember it from the vantage point of having lost it,” (Schaitkin 205).

Vera lives in a small town surrounded by mountains. The town loves and protects their own and has a particular reverence for mothers, all of whom suffer the same affliction: they vanish, disappearing into the mist and clouds that surrounds the town. There’s no pattern or reason for it, mother’s vanishing is a fact that people elsewhere wouldn’t understand. Vera’s mother vanished when she was young, and as she grows and comes closer to motherhood herself she wonders what her own fate will be, and whether or not she will disappear like her own mother did. Continue reading

Book Review: Ripe by Sarah Rose Etter

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January 12, 2024

“The amount of pain we can endure is spectacular. We are conditioned to withstand torture, to haul gray boulders of hurt on our shoulders, to confront the pressure endlessly, the heavy rough stone wearing away at us until our skin breaks open, revealing the bloody red flesh below,” (Etter).

Cassie has been employed with Voyager for a year and finds herself trapped in a corporate nightmare, constantly oscillating between her fake self at work and her real self at home. She endures the toxicity of her boss Sasha and the charismatic CEO who will do anything to make sure Voyager is a success while listening to her colleague complain about an exotic fruit spread while a homeless man sleeps outside of her apartment window. She hangs out with two friends she doesn’t particularly like and is dating a chef who has a girlfriend. But despite the feelings of loneliness Cassie is never really alone, a black hole follows her, changing it’s size wherever she goes, watching and waiting. Continue reading

Book Review: The Joy Divisions by Scott A. Dimovitz

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January 10, 2024

I received this book from the author in exchange for an honest review.

“None of us chooses the life we discover we’re leading. That’s our tragedy and our challenge,” (Dimovitz 157).

After his mother dies, Ed Pullman, art-school dropout, aimlessly wanders Allentown, Pennsylvania looking for purpose. With his loving cousin Ester offering comfort, guidance, and introduction to her ex-boyfriend’s, Tod Griffon, cult, Ed tries to make sense of it all. Making connections with a trans singer, Neo-Nazi’s, goth kids, and a Jewish travel writer, Ed becomes immersed in a variety of subcultures that may just help him find his place in the world. Continue reading

Book Review: Don’t Fear the Reaper by Stephen Graham Jones (Indian Lake Trilogy #2)

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January 5, 2024

“Dark Mill South’s Reunion Tour began on December 12th, 2019, a Thursday. Thirty-six hours and twenty bodies later, on Friday the 13th, it would be over,” (Jones 19).

Four years after Jennifer Daniels survives a slasher she falls right back into it just as she’s found herself back in Proofrock, Idaho. Convicted serial killer Dark Mill South escapes during his prison transfer during a blizzard and in thirty-six hours will wreak bloody havoc on the town. But after four years Jennifer is different now, it’s time for another final girl to save the day. Slashers are behind her, right? Continue reading

My Year as The Fool Reversed

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January 3, 2024

For the past few years I’ve done a Year Ahead Spread on New Year’s Eve using my Wild Unknown tarot deck. It’s a thirteen card spread that is typically done on New Year’s Eve, or on birthdays, to give some insight into the year to come. The first called pulled is for January, the second February, and so on until the thirteenth card is pulled signifying the theme of the year. For 2023, I pulled The Fool Reversed.

The Fool is the only unnumbered card in the Major Arcana and is often seen as “main character of the Major Arcana and makes his journey through each of the cards, meeting new teachers and learning new life lessons along the way,” (Biddy Tarot). Journeys are a big theme with The Fool, the Wild Unknow tarot deck uses the words “spontaneity, innocence” when describing the card with an emphasis on “beginnings” and the possibility of falling, or failing. But of course, those are all words and interpretations for The Fool Upright, not Reversed.

Read the full post on my Substack.

Book Review: Pervatory by R.M. Vaughan

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January 2, 2024

I’m very grateful to the Literary Review of Canada for reaching out to me to review R.M. Vaughan’s posthumous novel Pervatory. Read my full review on their Substack, Bookworm!

Book Review: My Heart Is a Chainsaw by Stephen Graham Jones (Indian Lake Trilogy #1)

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December 29, 2023

“…in the slasher, wrongs are always punished. The crew that did the bad prank years ago gets the just dessert they deserve, with a bloody cherry on top, and when they least expect it, making it all better…A little bloody maybe, but all the dead people are people who were asking for it,” (Jones 48).

Jade Daniels finds escape in the world of slasher movies. Her mom is absent, her dad abusive, and the town of Proofrock thinks she’s strange and wants nothing to do with her, which is fine with Jade, she wants nothing to do with them either. She prefers the world of slashers, where the masked killer gets their revenge and everyone who dies deserves it. She even gives her history teacher a Slasher 101 lesson for her year-end essay. Jade thinks that a slasher is just what Proofrock needs, and when she starts to notice the patterns of one forming she thinks that’s just what’s about to happen. But what’s hiding behind the slasher loving mask that Jade wears? Continue reading

Substack – 30 Things I’ve Learned By 30

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December 26, 2023

My sister and I were supposed to be born around Valentine’s Day 1994, but we decided to speed that up by nine or so weeks. Our mom was already in the hospital with preeclampsia, the best place to be when you suddenly go into labour. Our mom was actually supposed to be discharged the day she went into labour. She and my dad were supposed to be visiting her parents for an early Christmas, but I guess my sister and I thought being born would be more interesting.

Even then it took long. I don’t know when my mom went into labour and I can’t ask her about it now. My dad doesn’t remember all of the details, but my mom must have been discharged (or meant to be discharged) in the late morning or early afternoon. Regardless, my sister and I didn’t arrive until the night. It had gotten so late that my parents started to wonder if my sister and I would have different birthdays, but at 11:01pm, sixteen minutes after my sister, I came into the world breeched with medical tongs to assist my entrance into the world.

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Book Review: The Book of Benjamin by Ben Robinson

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December 21, 2023

“Sometimes patrons ask if my full first name is Benjamin. Then they ask if I know what my name means…They are surprised to find out I’m the oldest of two sons and not the youngest of twelve. They look at me as if I’m wearing the wrong name tag, wearing the wrong name,” (Robinson 31).

Ben Robinson’s book is a combination of memoir and poetry, examining the etymology of his name and how he is perceived by others and how we perceive ourselves based on our names. How much do our names shape our identity? How much do we shape ourselves around our names? Robinson explores this and so much more in The Book of Benjamin. Continue reading