Hello, hello, to new and old!

Come on in! Discussion is welcome here. You don't need to know me to comment to a post. If you have any questions or comments about anything in this post or elsewhere, now or ever, just ask or say; I'm not touchy.

I mostly post book reviews. I also post about fanfic, writing, movies, TV, food, psychology, life in Los Angeles, emergency response, travel, etc. I cut for major spoilers, but otherwise this is a "read at your own risk" journal.

I moderate two comms. One is FF Friday (fffriday, for recs, reviews, and discussion of F/F books, fanfic, etc. Just click to join. The other is eroticanons, for people who are or want to self-publish professionally. (Any genre, not just erotica; that's a holdover from earlier days.) If you're interested, click to join, then send me a message saying how you heard about it.

My favorite book is Watership Down, my favorite ice cream flavor is peppermint stick, and my favorite X-Man is Rachel Summers. Yes, I named myself after her.

( click here to read more about me, my fandoms, how to use tags on DW, disaster relief, and werewolf Marines. )

Things often burst into flames in my vicinity, especially cars, so I keep two fire extinguishers in the trunk. I once had my pants catch fire while I was naked and dripping wet. Welcome to my journal.

The Bone Key, by Sarah Monette

A collection of old-school stories of ghosts and other things that go bump in the night, starring a socially anxious, neurasthenic archivist by the name of Kyle Murchison Booth.

The stories are in the tradition of eerie old tales like “The Monkey’s Paw” and “Whistle and I’ll Come For You, My Lad,” in which terrors are not laid out in gory detail, but lurk, mostly unseen, in the corner of your eye. Family curses, incubi, resurrected dead that come back wrong, and all sorts of hauntings beset poor lonely Booth, in addition to the more private terrors inside his head. The stories are atmospheric, eerie, and sad.

Booth’s social isolation is offset a bit by several stories in which people offer him friendship and understanding, though he generally isn’t sure exactly what to do with it. I was unclear on the exact time period of the book, other than “not contemporary.” Booth is gay, which certainly doesn’t help with his social problems, but I’m not sure he’d do much better nowadays in that department. He’s the sort of person who would really benefit from therapy, but would never see a therapist for the exact reasons which make him need it.

This pleasingly eerie book is best read in a soft armchair in front of a crackling fire on a dark and preferably stormy night. Sweet dreams, and don't look out the window.

The Bone Key