Ninth House, by Leigh Bardugo

One of my favourite things about my wife is her ability to find out about stories that are exactly my thing and send them my way before I've even heard of them. Case in point, Leigh Bardugo's Ninth House, an excellent Horror/Fantasy novel set in the Secret Societies in Yale University.

The novel follows Alex Stern, a university freshman on scholarship, recently moved from California and now working for an organization which monitors the activities of the schools eight secret societies. In Bardugo's world, the societies are each able to perform different styles of magic and Stern has just joined the Lethe, who work to ensure that none of groups step out of line and upset the balance at the New Haven, Connecticut Institution.

I found the book an excellent read and think that those who grew up on Harry Potter and want to find something darker and really engaging may have found a new home in Bardugo's world. I am definitely looking forward to the sequel.

Book Review: Taaqtumi: An Anthology of Arctic Horror Stories

Having been a long time fan of Horror and recent discover of Inhabit media, an Inuit-owned publishing company in Nunavut, Canada, I was thrilled to find this collection pop up on my FaceBook feed and then delighted to see my wife had already put an order in for it when I suggested we might want to buy it.

The stories included in Taaqtumi range from Thriller to Supernatural Horror and to Science Fiction/Horror. Standouts for me included Iqsinaqtutalik Piqtuq: The Haunted Blizzard, by Aviaq Johnston (who wrote a delightful children's story called What's My Superpower that I absolutely loved in 2017), and The Door, by Ann R. Loverock, although the book has stories that would work well for both Horror fans like me and those just peeking into the genre.

An excellent collection and from a company I hope does more like it in the future.