5/10/25 Special Guest Reviewer: Danielle Yvonne
- Christina Pfeiffer
- May 10
- 4 min read
New reviewer Danielle Yvonne returns this week with two reviews for a couple of recent reads, both of which sound incredible!
Check them out below!
Vulpine Curse
By Katherine Silva
“release.
it's exhilarating.
like flying.
every darkness
every cascading wave
or thought
of pain
of love
of death is flowing from him away
and…
just like that, it’s over”
Welp, this book ruined me. And I mean that as a compliment. It was incredible. Silva submerges the reader into a dystopian hellscape where the stages of grief are met by a man who lost his husband and his stranded daughter. It takes on the topics of grief, loss and survival. And at times it’s brutal. There’s a lot of bloodshed in this one.
Vulpine Curse was absolutely brilliant and has a core message that YOU ARE NOT FORGOTTEN. EVER. The representation in the story is top tier and tackles current issues in the world we live in.
It’s going to be a tough read for some. I sobbed. A lot. But I highly recommend this book. I was engulfed from the very first page.
I don’t usually copy and paste the synopsis, but I think this one does a really amazing job at explaining the book:
Acceptance is impossible: a state of being those left behind eventually stumble to through the haze of loss. For Hugh, it's something to be held at arm's-length. He can't let go of his lost husband nor his stranded daughter. So, he cycles through the first four stages of grief over and over while killing in the name of a despicable man. The apathy keeps him alive.
Get it here:
A Graveside Gallery: Tales of Ghosts and Dark Matter
By Eric J. Guignard
It’s only May, and I have read some of the best short story collections already this year, than I have in the last few. And this collection is well at the top of the list. I devoured this entire book in a day and it’s over 250 pages.
Every single story was really great, and I don’t love cherry picking, but given the number of stories in this collection (19!). I figured I’d highlight some of my favorites.
Penny’s Dinner:
“He killed a woman today, he killed a woman, he killed a woman, and he can’t stop thinkin’ it, and it wasn’t his fault, but he killed a woman…”
This story was WILD. I had no idea what way it was going at any given time, but I did NOT expect the plot twist at the end. Total mind penetration. This was an amazing story to start off the collection because I was immediately engulfed and could not wait to see what else this book had to offer.
If I Drive Before I Wake:
“There’s no steering wheel in a self-driving car, no pedals. No chance to take control, override the artificial intelligence.”
Okay, I don’t want to say too much because I feel like there’d be spoilers, but this story gives such Black Mirror vibes. It’s actually creepy as hell, especially because it revolves around both AI and driving cars. I absolutely loved this one.
The Telephone Game:
“…trying to will her brain to turn on faster, as if perhaps that alone might make the voice on the other end become clearer.”
This was a fast-paced thriller. It was a quick story but an absolutely heavy hitter. The plot twist had me dropping F bombs and the ending left my jaw dropped. There was nothing about this story I would have changed or didn’t love.
Ritual Sacrifice to the Great Gods of Skates:
“…and if she should let go now, he will be lost in the cosmic spiral of annihilation.”
This story is wild and the way it’s formatted on top of his prose is brilliant. It was bizarre at times, but in the best ways possible. It was another one that I had no idea where it was going to go or what would be mixed in next, but probably my favorite out of the entire collection. Fantastic all around.
Ommetaphobia:
“The eyes were a lunacy by which all the rest of life was now measured, and the longer he examined them, the greater in number they seemed to appear.”
Ommetaphobia, the fear of eyes. This one hurt to read at times. Literally. It’s trippy as hell and super bizarre. And it goes into some gnarly body horror which made me say “damn,” a whole freaking lot. It was a really nice add to the bunch!
There are also two notable mentions on my list—and the titles alone should make it obvious why…
-Perchance to Dream in Voices of a Friend: A Fanciful Epilogue to Frankenstein
-The Tale of Samuel Whiskers Continued; or, A London Digression:
Homage to The Tale of Samuel Whiskers or The Roly-Poly Pudding by Beatrix Potter.
I highly recommend this to any and all horror readers. With so many stories, there’s something for everyone. It’s also available on KU.
Get it here:
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