Publication date: October 12th 2020
Links: Amazon | Goodreads

1865

Hanau, Germany

Sixteen-year-old Elva has a secret. She has visions and strange powers that she will do anything to hide.
She knows the warnings about what happens to witches in their small village of Hanau. She’s heard the terrible things people say about the Witch of the North Woods, and the malicious hunts that follow. But when Elva accidentally witnesses a devastating vision of the future, she decides she has to do everything she can to prevent it. Tapping into her powers for the first time, Elva discovers a magical mirror and its owner—none other than the Witch of the North Woods herself. As Elva learns more about her burgeoning magic, and the lines between hero and villain start to blur, she must find a way to right past wrongs before it’s too late.

 

Broken Wish is the first in a series called The Mirror, written by different authors, spanning generations and the curse that afflicts them. Julie C. Dao kicks off the series with Broken Wish, a story of friendship and broken promises. Fractured fairytales one of my favorite things—if it's done right—and I will even read YA if the premise sounds promising. I know, I'm a YA snob. Most of the time it's the angsty romance that I can't do in YA. In fairytale retellings, I'm expecting it to be angsty so it's okay, I guess? (Don't judge me.)

Beginning in Hanau, Germany (the birthplace of the Brothers Grimm, btw), a young woman named Agnes Heinrich befriends Mathilda, and their friendship is sweet and true. Unfortunately, they live in a time where different is to be feared and Mathilda is "different". Agnes and her husband can't have children and Mathilda agrees to help them in exchange for Agnes' friendship. Agnes agrees but breaks her promise to Mathilda, breaking her heart in the process. Years later, Agnes' daughter Elva discovers that she might be able to stop a vision of danger surrounding the village and her parents. She sets off on a journey to discover more about herself and the curse that befell her family all those years ago. That means hunting down the witch who set the curse in the first place. 

I loved this story.  The characters are fleshed out and the writing is beautifully stylized. All the components for a perfect fairytale are here: the witch, the woods, and a mirror. True to Disney style, there is so much to download from this. It's darker, somewhere between Disney and the original Brothers Grimm. There are a lot of Easter Eggs if you are a fairytale fan like me. While there's a bit of romance, there's definitely skew towards friendships and other forms of love like that of family. While it's technically YA, the focus on friendship is almost MG. 

Overall, it's a story that feels true to Disney, about finding out who you are, staying true to your word, and forging ahead even if you don't know how the story will end. 

Publication Date: January 14, 2019
Links: Amazon | Goodreads

Those who bear marks on their skin are doomed to a life of slavery. Lexil has seven.

Sold into servitude, Lexil must deal with brutal punishments, back-breaking labor, and the loss of every freedom. When a young child she has befriended faces a horrible fate, Lexil must intervene to protect her, no matter what the risk.

With the help of a boy named Finn, the trio flee into the Wastelands. There, they must evade those who hunt them while trying to survive a barren landscape. Lexil must face challenges she's never imagined existed, all while learning what it means to truly be reborn.

The Red Queen meets The Hunger Games in this stunning new release. Buy REBORN now to find out if being branded a reborn is a myth, a curse... or a destiny.

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How Dark Can YA Get?
by Jenna Greene

                The idea that teens can’t handle deep and dark themes in literature is a pretty obsolete notion. It isn’t just the Internet that has exposed adolescents to the trials and tribulations of the world. Children live; therefore, they are exposed to poverty, abuse, strife, inequity, and prejudice. They might not experience it all themselves, but they can see it. They know about it. The eyes and ears of the young are far keener than anyone might expect.

                So why would we put it in literature as well? Why would we write about slavery, intolerance, or racism instead of more cheerful topics? Won’t this just remind the readers of the injustices in the world and how there is so much darkness surrounding them?

                Yes. But it’s also a way to show characters experiencing unfortunate events … and surviving. Even thriving. YA books can show protagonists enduring and overcoming. Not only that, but having an impact on the world they live in, changing it for the better. What could be a more positive, uplifting thought than that? Isn’t that why the original fairy tales were created? To show horrific circumstances and people overcoming them. Facing adversity and overcoming the odds.

                That’s really the power of all literature. Sure, not every book will tackle issues at extreme depth and emotion, but every story has a conflict of some sort. A struggle. And even those that don’t end happily, still end. That is a resolution, of sort, which the reader must sort through internally. And, whether they know it or not, that emotional turmoil will stay with them and, to a degree, help them as they continue with their life.

                And who needs these tools better than children?

                I can’t think of anyone.

                Sure, the images have to be presented in an age-appropriate manner. Some action must take place ‘off-stage’ or be inferred to, rather than seen. But the base conflicts can be present. And, yes, adolescents can handle it. 

About the Author

Jenna Greene is the author of the acclaimed Young Adult Fantasy series, Imagine! She is a middle school teacher, dragonboat coach, enthusiastic dancer, and semi-professional napper. She lives in Lethbridge, Alberta with her husband (Scott), daughter (Olivia), and dog (Thor, dog of thunder).

Website | Twitter

Publication date: October 12th 2020
Links: Amazon | Goodreads

From the multi-award-winning author of Everyday Enchantments: Musings on Ordinary Magic & Daily Conjurings comes a cozy Gothic short story about searching for soul, meaning, love in a world that's forgotten the power of everyday conjuring. 

 Looking for love can be deadly… You know how it goes. You go out, hoping to meet someone. You wade through your fair share of brainless automatons, lifeless bodies, and ravenous undead good at passing as human. 

The more you go out, the less hope you feel and the colder your body gets. But you keep at it. All you need is one beating heart to match your own before yours stops pumping altogether. How hard can it be to find one living, breathing human in a city full of bodies? 

Dating. 

It’s hungry business. 

CW: Assault.

Read now

 

At just 17 pages, Hungry Business is a poignant tale of one woman's search to find love in a dead world. Our protagonist is lonely. Why else would she continue to date when those dates make her feel cold. Vowing to never date again and swearing it's not worth the risk but loneliness and desperation drive her back out again nights later. Through it all, she wonders about the cat in the apartment across the way and the person who is still human enough to own it, as all the cats left the dead parts of the city during the initial rage of the virus. 

Drawing parallels between the pitfalls of dating and dating in the zombie apocalypse, this short story packs a big world into a few pages. The dating scene is a cold enough place to be even when the body sitting across the table from you isn't slowly rotting from the inside out. Of course, the dates she encounters try to put on their best impressions—covering the evidence of their afflictions with dress and carefully applied makeup. It's not enough to hide the hungriness inside them as they ache for the life they no longer have.

This is obviously horror, populated as it is with the undead, though "Cozy gothic" are two words not often seen together. The pervasiveness of the narrator's constant fear of being overcome by rot, along with the pensive mood of the piece heightens the isolation that she feels even when with others. 

Eventually, she realizes that the inside of her bright, cheery apartment and the view of the cat in the window fills her heart and brings her comfort the way the dates couldn't. It's a strange contrast between the cold, gray world outside and the cozy blankets, warm baths, and hot tea she comforts herself with indoors to keep ahold of her humanity. Through it all, the orange tabby cat is in the window across the way as a beacon of hope that there is another beating heart out there. Isn't that what we all search for in this big cold world?

Publication date: February 2nd 2021

Links: Amazon | Goodreads

The time has come for Kai and her friends to make a final stand, and as the war begins, everyone must choose a side. But with the lines between good and evil more blurred than ever, Kai has to stick with her convictions and follow her heart. Kai’s first priority is to free Finn from the clutches of Tessa Raven, who has become no better than the evil she once fought against.

As Kai reluctantly turns against the people she once considered her closest friends, she becomes entangled in a struggle with a mysterious new power that threatens to destroy what is left of Finn and change everything she thought she knew about the planet.

Meanwhile, Charlie and Aric remain behind and help Raven breach the underground world of the Science Council. All bets are off as they prepare to cross every line and burn every bridge in an attempt to claim the world that has abused them for too long.

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Excerpt 

Too many missing coefficients.

Raven ran her ungloved hand over the smooth, cool metal of the missile. She needed it to shatter the barrier—opening the way down so that she could destroy the Science Council. She knew enough about terminal ballistics to be able to calculate its exact impact on the crystal tube that led to the Science Council’s underground lair when it struck. The only problem was that the makeup of the tube was so unique…

“It’s a thing of beauty, Raven,” Sayers commented. He stared at her hungrily from his spot amongst her people, seeking approval.

“Yes, it is,” she offered, and he smiled.

“The only problem is, because the substance we’re striking has never been studied, there’s no way to tell if it will work without testing it. Our likelihood for success is still low.” She glanced around the interior of the Dome of Artifacts, taking in the relics from the original Earth with an appreciative eye. “And I’m not willing to risk destroying all of these artifacts by blowing up the whole place when the chance of it failing to destroy the tube is unacceptably high.”

Her soldiers stood around her, silent, waiting for her suggestions. She’d been trying to puzzle this out for three weeks, and the answer was painfully obvious: a last straw plan. And yet, she hesitated, because there was a small part of her that wanted to try every other possible scenario before resorting to what she knew would work, even though she knew that wasn’t logical.

Damn my weakness.

“We’ll need something softer,” she said at last. “Something that will turn to mush on impact rather than ricocheting off the crystal and taking out this whole place. Also, we’ll need something much bigger… heavier.” She scrutinized the crystal tube housing of the elevator platform that had, thus far, been impossible to penetrate.

“Would you like us to try crafting a hollow missile that’s twice this size?” asked Larson. “We’d have to melt this down first.” He gestured toward the missile they’d taken three weeks to craft and painstakingly calibrated.

“No.”

The time to divulge her last straw plan was now. She knew a missile wouldn’t work. A rain of bullets wouldn’t work. But she happened to have a special tool—a former friend who could run at the speed of a bullet and who was close to two hundred pounds.

A human body hitting the tube at that speed would spread adequate weight over a large enough surface area to crack open the entryway to the Science Council’s underground world like an egg. Also, a body would explode upon impact, resulting in a mostly liquid byproduct, causing minimal damage to the artifacts.

Finn’s sacrifice would save the planet.

About the Author

Tracy Auerbach is an author of science fiction and fantasy for teens and adults. As an avid reader with a vivid imagination, she chose to study film, English, and education, and went on to teach and write STEM curriculum for the New York Department of Education. This helped to polish her writing skills and ignite her passion for science fiction and fantasy. 

Her first scholarly article, published in Language Magazine, was about the value of active, creative learning in science.

On the fiction side, Tracy’s work has been featured in the online literary journal Micro-horror, The Writing Disorder fiction anthology, and the “(Dis)ability” short story anthology, in addition to her novels.

When she is not teaching or writing, Tracy is usually reading or spending time with her family. She lives in New York with her husband and sons.

https://tracyauerbach.com/

https://twitter.com/TracyAuerbach

https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/5265528.Tracy_Auerbach

https://www.instagram.com/auerbach.tracy/

https://www.facebook.com/tracyauerbachauthor/

Publication date: February 11th 2021

Links: Amazon | Goodreads

The first season of Sole Survivor has aired, a traumatized December Foss is trying desperately to escape her fifteen minutes of fame, and everyone thinks the drop bears are dead. Everyone that is except The Ark: a radical group of eco-terrorists with an axe to grind, and Joseph Steinberg, who still has plenty of them in reserve.

When the Ark release the drop bears from captivity, all hell breaks loose and December must face them again. This time, though, they’re on her turf. This time, it’s personal!

Book 23 in the Rewind-
or-Die series: imagine your local movie rental store back in the ’70s, ’80s, and ’90s, remember all those fantastic covers. Remember taking those movies home and watching in awe as the stories unfolded in nasty rainbows of gore, remember the atmosphere and textures. Remember the blood.

Read Now

Before I begin here, I want to make sure I thank Valerie at Cats Luv Coffee for giving me the chance to share a blog post on her site. Of course, if you don’t know anything about me, you might be wondering why she’s gone and done that. The simple answer is she’s awesome, and she’s helping me promote my new book, Sole Survivor 2: Drop Bears on the Loose.

We’ll talk more about that in a moment, but if I sum it up by telling you it’s a killer koala creature feature (again, more on that in a second), it’ll help this post make a whole bunch of sense. Basically, I’m going to share some of my favourite creature features here with you today.

In coming up with this list, there were a few rules I had to set myself. I didn’t want to feature the same creatures more than once. Seeing as I love crocodile movies, that would rule out a whole bunch of films about everyone’s favourite man-eating reptiles from the Mesozoic. I also didn’t want to worry about the laws of physics or reality and limit myself to real creatures you might encounter. The ‘koalas’ in the Sole Survivor books are actually drop bears, and even then, they’re twisted away from what the general public might see as a drop bear here in Australia. You can find out about the ‘real’ ones here.

The other thing I tried to keep in mind was that I had to have seen it recently enough to actually remember it. I remember loving movies like Congo and The Ghost and the Darkness when I was a kid, but I really can’t remember them well enough to talk about them although I should probably revisit them soon. Oh, and finally, they needed to be horror, whether loosely or firmly. So, as brilliant as I think Life of Pi is, I couldn’t include it.

Without further waffling, let’s have a look at what we’ve got here.

Night of the Lepus:

Some people talk about movies like Friday the 13 th and Nightmare on Elm Street being the ones they were exposed to at far too young an age. For me, it was this one. Flicking through channels, I saw giant bunny rabbits storming a ranch, and I immediately knew what I wanted to watch. Next minute, there were flashes of blood and close-ups of gore-laden rodent teeth everywhere. Years later, I saw gifs of these same scenes on the internet and, when I investigated, I knew I had to revisit. Funnily enough, this is a movie that still holds up today. Its environmental themes and focus on human relationships goes really well with the incredibly fun scenes of mayhem it includes. I won’t run through the plot for you, but when a little girl is given a pet rabbit that’s been injected with a birth-control serum, it escapes and all hell breaks loose. The rabbits grow to massive sizes and eat everything in their path, including the residents of the local community. As I said, it’s a tonne of fun and it’s surprisingly touching. 

Razorback:

The only real way to describe this one is as an Australian cult classic. Even as I type, I’ve just discovered it will be screened in a local cinema next Friday night! Here in Australia, giant boars are a pretty well-known part of the folklore. We all know they’re vicious and they can properly gut you, but on reflection, this movie may have a lot to do with that. Just like the more recent Boar, it features a giant pig that’s terrorising the local community. The plot is a little too crazy to explain in detail, so I’ll put it simply: Mad Max-style human villains, a giant baby-eating razorback boar, a father hell-bent on revenge and as much carnage as you care to partake in, this one’s loads of fun. I first became aware of it when I was at University, and now that I know it’s going to be at the cinema next week, I’m going to try to convince the wife that we need to see it again!

Rogue:

It’s not easy to pick a crocodile (or alligator) movie as a favourite. I love the genre, and when you consider the creatures don’t even need to be exaggerated to create real scares, they make brilliant horror movies. So, although I enjoyed Crawl, I could easily have slotted Black Water or another older Aussie creature-feature Dark Age in here, but Rogue is the one I’ve gone for. It uses the familiar trope of the US journalist coming to Australia to taste the local colour, but for this guy, the boat ride through Kakadu doesn’t end well. Halfway through the ride, a giant crocodile tips the tour-boat and leaves our cast of characters stranded on an island in the middle of a tidal flat. Needless to say, there’s blood, there’s carnage, there’s suspense, and there’s an American to save the day. Sort of. Mostly, though, there’s a humongous crocodile that generates real tension and will have you on the edge of your seat. Recommended.

Primal:

I didn’t mention this before, but I needed a Nicolas Cage movie in here. And, you know what, this one’s more of an action movie, but that doesn’t matter, it’s still loads of B-Grade fun. Cage, playing big-game hunter Frank Walsh, has captured a rare white jaguar in the Brazilian rainforest, and he’s trying to get it back to the States where he can sell it to a zoo. To do that, he boards a container ship with the creature. Unfortunately, US Marshals are also on the ship, and they’ve got cargo of their own, a highly trained assassin. Naturally, the jaguar is let loose (as is every other dangerous creature on the ship) and chaos ensues. It’s a pretty straight-forward romp, and it’s not in danger of being remembered as a classic, but is loads of fun and the jaguar causes more than its share of bloodshed.

Arachnophobia: 

I revisited this one recently with the family, and it’s easily the most well-known film on this list. Objectively, it’s the best film on this list too. As you’re probably aware, it’s tonnes of fun. When extremely venomous Venezuelan spiders find themselves let loose in a small Californian town, they immediately set to work killing the locals. There’s a whole bunch of context to the plot, but the long and short of it is that Jeff Daniels’ character Dr. Ross Jennings suspects spiders are to blame, and once they have their proof, he needs to stop them. John Goodman is brilliant as the pest control guy in this one, and the whole thing is incredibly entertaining. 

So there you have it: five animal-inspired creature features that are great fun. And that brings me to my new book, Sole Survivor 2: Drop Bears on the Loose.

If you’re like me and you love a good old-fashioned bit of creature carnage, you’ll probably dig the killer koalas in this one. Mutated and bloodthirsty, they’re let loose on the mainland, and as always, the result is chaos. It’s loaded with huge kills, tonnes of action and loads of fun.

If you’ve enjoyed this article, my newest Australian creature feature, Sole Survivor II: Drop Bears on the Loose comes out on February 11. The sequel to Sole Survivor (go figure), it features an army of killer koalas and a desperate fight to survive their onslaught. They’re both part of Unnerving’s Rewind or Die line.

You can pick them up from the links below.
Sole Survivor
Sole Survivor II: Drop Bears on the Loose

I’m also down to my last five paperbacks. If you’d like me to sign one and put it in the post, they’re only $15 US plus postage. DM me on Twitter or email me through my website to make it happen.

Zachary Ashford earned his writing chops as a journalist covering heavy metal bands for street press magazines and as a copywriter for a rock n roll radio station. Since those days, he’s done plenty, including operating as a freelance copywriter and editor. Nowadays, he writes fiction and teaches English and Literature in a high school.

You can find some of his nonfiction writing at Nerdbastards and Ozzy Man Reviews (under the name Chuck Steinway).

His fiction has featured in:
Dark Moon Digest 32/33
Kyanite Press Halloween Edition

Thanks so much for being a guest today, Zachary!

Be sure to check out his Sole Survivor and Sole Survivor II: Drop Bears on the Loose.  You can read my review of Sole Survivor here!

An uninhabited island… Several hundred hidden cameras… Ten contestants who think they’re stranded… One man employed to thin their numbers…

One predatory species determined to feed…

For the contestants of television’s latest prime-time reality show, the plane crash is a mere inconvenience on their way to fame and fortune. Unfortunately, there’s no rescue coming. Instead, the producers have other ideas, like watching them find the island’s killer creatures for themselves…

Like watching them die.

Tune in and discover who will be the Sole Survivor!

Book 6 in the Rewind-or-Die series: imagine your local movie rental store back in the ’70s, ’80s, and ’90s, remember all those fantastic covers. Remember taking those movies home and watching in awe as the stories unfolded in nasty rainbows of gore, remember the atmosphere and textures. Remember the blood.