Ghost 19 by Simone St. James

If The Woman in the Window and the Exorcism of Sara May had a baby, it might be something like Ghost 19...something like. I haven't actually read the Woman in the Window, but I saw the movie with Amy Adams and then I saw the even better The Woman in the House Across the Street from the Girl in the Window with Kristen Bell, so I know what I'm talking about.

Hear me out. We have a woman...who is afraid to leave her house...who watches the neighbors from her window...and maybe there's ghosts...and it's a period piece...all packaged in a novella (those last three are Sara May resemblances, fyi). 

What I liked was the story as a whole and how it came in a quick read. What I didn't like was the era the story was written in. The story takes place in 1959 and it's obvious. I suppose if you're going to go out of your way to set a tale in 1959, you'd want details that make the clear, but I just found things like the name Trixie, or references to taking "bennies" distracting. And the dialogue seemed old-timey and dated. Take this exchange, for instance, "You think you're an artist? Goddamn you, Ginette, You're fooling yourself! You're no goddamned artist, and you never have been - you're a hack."  And then there was this, "My diagnosis is that you've had some over excitement of the hysterical kind. It happens sometimes with unmarried women." 

It reminds me of an old movie that's overly dramatic, so much so it's not realistic. I don't know, maybe it's a noir thing and that's what St. James was going for. I'd be curious to know if there was a particular reason she chose that year.  

While I found the setting more distracting than anything, I'll admit that overall, it was a story that kept my interest, extra points for being short and sweet.

Dorothy Must Die by Danielle Paige (Dorothy Must Die Series, book 1)

"[My mother] told me that, whatever anyone at school said, a trailer was where I lived, not who I was. She told me that it was the best home in the world because it could go anywhere."

And what better place to go than the colorful, magical land of Oz? But we learn quickly that this ain't your mama's Oz. 

Dorothy Must Die is the first of a series of novellas about Amy, from...(I'll give you one guess). She's in high school with a mother who suffers from addiction and needs more care than she gives her daughter. Amy doesn't get much relief at school either, where she is mercilessly teased by the uber popular, glitter encrusted, and soon to be teen-mom Madison. Madison is of those people you love to hate, and although her appearance in this book is short, she's full of character and wit.

One day, a storm brews and Amy finds herself at home hunkered down for an incoming tornado. Her mother has left her to party with friends and Amy's only company left is Star, her mom's pet rat.

I'm sure you know where this is headed, but this is no family-friendly jaunt to the Emerald City. There is no room for singing and merriment in a world that has basically been turned into a barren wasteland ruled by the unmerciful, ambitious, and devastatingly stylish Dorothy. Her friends are there too - The Scarecrow has gone from dopey and curious to a downright sadistic war criminal. The tin man? Sure, he has heart...and knives and swords that he wields with blind devotion for Dorothy. And the lion is basically a soul-sucking dementor. We also have appearances from the Wizard and Ozma and a lot of new and memorable characters.

Which brings me to a separate point, if you're into books about magical worlds like Harry Potter, this is a fun one. Oz is, of course, a magical place, and author Danielle Paige really focuses on this - the mechanics of how the magic in Oz works and how it can be used and harnessed. She adds a new chapter to the familiar family friendly story we all know with a bit of horror, dark comedy, and tongue in cheek irreverance. 

The Last House on Needless Street by Catriona Ward

This was a quick, fulfilling read and based on it, it makes me want to read Catriona Ward’s other novels. The House on Needless Street is her most recent, published in 2021. It’s one of those books that you're better off going into blind, which kinda makes for a tough review, but I'll do my best. Suffice to say, there's a murder and the story revolves around it. It's a story told from multiple viewpoints, including a cat's. And I have to tell you, when it comes to the cat, I am here for it.

The story centers around Ted Bannerman, a man haunted by his past, his mother, and little green men in the attic. Ted lives with his Cat, Olivia, and their daily monotony is broken up by occasional visits from Ted's daughter, Lauren. There is clearly a dysfunctional dynamic between Ted and Lauren, who have a love/hate relationship with each other. And while I'm not sure dysfunctional is the first word I'd use to describe Ted's relationship with Olivia, the fact that she talks (at least to us) and quotes the Bible isn't normal. And when Lauren isn't visiting and Olivia isn't doting in Ted, there are occasional visits from Ted's deceased mother. 

Ward's tale is a cross between horror, mystery, thriller, and ghost story. Her characters aren't particularly likeable (except maybe the cat), but I found myself wanting to keep reading to figure out what the hell was going on. It's an exploration of how horrors like abuse and murder damage our psyche and invade our mind - how the ghosts of the past continue to haunt and manifest themselves well after the dust settles. At its heart, it's a story of how people deal with pain and trauma, and Ward does it in a captivating way.