Sarah O'Connor

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

#1 Fan (Pt. 1)

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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