Book Review – Cabinet of Curiosities

Cabinet of Curiosities by Aaron Mahnke
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This is a lot like the author’s Lore series, only the stories aren’t quite as much fun. Some of the tales are entertaining and even informative. But most of them are familiar territory and/or depend far too heavily on the “gotcha” ending. Indeed, the latter is so prevalent that it gets annoying, a problem easily solved by skipping to the last line of the entry where the twist ending is revealed. In fairness, if I could have read this a story or two at a time rather than rushing to finish in time to return the book to the library, it might have been less tedious.

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Book Review – Creative Acrylics

Creative Acrylics: A Step-by-Step Beginner’s Guide to Creating with Paint & Mediums - Create Paintings Filled with Color, Texture, Unique Effects & More! (Volume 5) by Carla Co Chua
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This is a gentle, pleasant introduction to the art of painting with acrylics. The target audience appears to be makers and hobbyists, so the lessons go step by step and don’t involve anything too complicated. Instructions are clear, and the author does a good job of explaining concepts such as glazes and textures. If you’re brand new to painting in general or acrylics in particular, this is a good starting point.

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Book Review – The Matryoshka Memoirs

The Matryoshka Memoirs: A Story of Ukrainian Forced Labour, the Leica Camera Factory, and Nazi Resistance by Sasha Colby
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This is three stories combined into a single narrative: the tale of the author’s grandmother’s experiences as a slave laborer in Nazi Germany, the tale of her employer Elsie Kuhn-Leitz’s run-in with the Gestapo, and the author’s own experiences with her grandma. The 21st century parts of the book serve mostly as counterpoint and would have been more welcome if they’d been less florid. But the accounts from the 1940s supply a pair of powerful perspectives on the horrors of their times.

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Review – Amityville Apartment

Wow, the housing market has gotten so bad that even Satan is stuck renting. Obviously the only reason I watched this piece of camcorder crap was so I could make that joke in this review. See if desperate

Book Review – Homefront Horrors

Homefront Horrors: Frights Away From the Front Lines, 1914-1918 by Jess Nevins
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This should have been an interesting organization scheme for an anthology: short horror stories written between 1914 and 1918 but not about World War One. Unfortunately that means that most of the entries are sorely afflicted by the enduring 19th century trends in Brit lit. Using the stiffest possible language, the majority of these tales take the most roundabout routes when advancing their plots. Everything seems to center around trivia. I found myself imagining a parody in which a parson accidentally paints the pulpit in the village church ecru when it was supposed to be eggshell. Occasionally patience is rewarded when the ecru paint opens a portal to hell. But more often than not the ecru paint itself is the only horror to be found. And while at the outset I was ready to applaud the editor for publishing lesser known stories by authors famous for writing something else, a lot of these have remained obscure for a reason. That’s a genuine shame, because all of these authors had talent, and all of these stories had potential. Also this really ought to have come with a sterner warning about racist content. While none of the slurs are out of keeping with the times and the social class of the authors, they’re still jarring by 21st century standards.

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Book Review – Mad Kings and Queens

Mad Kings & Queens by Alison Rattle
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Though mildly diverting, this isn’t anyone’s idea of an in-depth study of the mental illnesses of European monarchs. The quality of thought and prose is on par with AI-generated text; I’m not saying this was written by a machine, but it reads like something that could have been (typos notwithstanding). And while the authors avoid outright slurs, the ableist language is disturbingly frequent. Overall a reader could learn more and have a more enjoyable experience by doing Wikipedia searches for the names in the table of contents.

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Review – Kraken (2026)

I’m not sure if this seems odd because it’s Norwegian or if it’s just odd in general. The lead actor in particular uses the same mildly startled facial expression for everything from meeting the local police officer to being attacked by a giant octopus. Some sort of corporate techno-greed stirs up a fjord monster that goes on a rampage. The ensemble cast of characters react in ways that don’t make much sense but at least keep the story moving. The effects are, well, let’s just call them variable. I like a good sea monster story, but this one meh’d me pretty hard. Mildly amusing