Book review - The Hysterical Girls of St Bernadette's

 

Title: The Hysterical Girls of St. Bernadette's

Author: Hanna Alkaf

Genre: magical realism

Similar books: A House Unsettled by Trynne Delaney

                      The Changing Man by Tomi Oyemakinde

Rating:

nicely balanced

Summary (provided by publisher): For over a hundred years, girls have fought to attend St. Bernadette’s, with its reputation for shaping only the best and brightest young women.

Unfortunately, there is also the screaming.

When a student begins to scream in the middle of class, a chain reaction starts that impacts the entire school. By the end of the day, seventeen girls are affected—along with St. Bernadette’s stellar reputation.

Khadijah’s got her own scars to tend to, and watching her friends succumb to hysteria only rips apart wounds she’d rather keep closed. But when her sister falls to the screams, Khad knows she’s the only one who can save her.

Rachel has always been far too occupied trying to reconcile her overbearing mother’s expectations with her own secret ambitions to pay attention to school antics. But just as Rachel finds her voice, it turns into screams.

Together, the two girls find themselves digging deeper into the school’s dark history, hunting for the truth. Little do they know that a specter lurks in the darkness, watching, waiting, and hungry for its next victim…

My opinion: There is a lot going on in this book and it moves kind of slowly, making it a dense read, but it's worth it. It takes these complex, heavy ideas and combines them into a single plot. That could easily become overwhelming or underexplored in a lesser novel. In Alkaff's hands, though, it all weaves together in a sensible, understandable way. It's not a fun read, exactly, but it is a fascinating one and well worth the effort.

Advanced Reader Copy provided by NetGalley

Pick 6: horror

October means it's time for my annual list of horror stories. Who doesn't love a good scare in October? It's almost required to prepare for Halloween by scaring yourself silly. Here are six horror books of varying degrees of scariness published in the last six months.

6 new horror novels:

1. The Boohag Flex by Justina Ireland
2. The Lamplighter by Crystal J Bell
3. So Witches We Became by Jill Bagochinski
4. Read at Your Own Risk by Remy Lai
5. It Came from the Trees by Ally Russell
6. The Midnight Game by Cynthia Murphy

NANOWRIMO

 Hi friends

Just a note to say that I'll be participating in National Novel Writing Month in November. I'll still be posting but perhaps not as frequently as normal.

Graphic novel spotlight - Taxi Ghost

 

Taxi Ghost by Sophie Escabasse

This book could have been tired and standard. The set-up is pretty common - a girl starting puberty discovers that she now has supernatural abilities. Right from the moment Adele discovers she can talk to ghosts, though, Escabasse presents us with unique twists. For one thing, the major female influence in her life - her grandmother - doesn't train her to use her abilities. All her grandmother wants to teach her is how to keep ghosts away. And the ghosts themselves are deeply involved in local affairs. They have unusual rules (riding in cars, an inability to walk in snow, etc) that present odd challenges that add to the charm of the book. More than just a story of ghosts and justice, Taxi Ghost explores the change that we can make and the value of listening. With detailed illustrations this is a book that can be enjoyed repeatedly.

Advanced Reader Copy provided by NetGalley

WWW Wednesday

What are you currently reading?

The Millicent Quibb School of Etiquette for Young Ladies of Mad Science by Kate McKinnon - The Porch sisters have been kicked out of every etiquette school in town and are beginning to suspect they don't belong anywhere. But then they receive a mysterious invitation.

What did you recently finish reading?

The Epic Story of Every Living Thing by Deb Caletti - Harper's family has always been just her and her mother. But a chance encounter on social media introduces her to a half sibling and eventually to her sperm donor father. Overwhelmed by pandemic anxiety and a recent breakup Harper throws herself into learning about her father as a way of understanding herself.

What do you think you'll read next?

Chasing the Shy Town by Erika McGann

Hair pins take 2

 Over the summer I made some floral hair pins. They turned out fairly well but I wasn't completely happy with the look. They are tidy but not very dynamic. So I tried a different design, gathering the petals more. And this is the result.

These will join the other style on my Etsy shop.

Graphic novel spotlight - The Inscrutable Dr Baer

 

The Inscrutable Doctor Baer and the Case of the Two-Faced Statue by Jerzy Drozd

Doctor Who (Doctor Baer even sort of resembles the Doctor as portrayed by David Tenant) meets Jackaby in this offbeat adventure. Doctor Baer is a fastidious character with a deep understanding of cursed objects who finds himself thrown into an adventure with an overly-eager pair of sidekicks. The stakes are high but the tone is light. The art is incredibly detailed but never takes itself too seriously. That makes this a great deal of fun to race-through or linger on an individual page and lends itself well to re-reading.