All posts by Katie Jane Gallagher

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About Katie Jane Gallagher

Author of the Beauty and Her Alien series and Specter.

Specter—Chapter One Teaser!

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You guys, Specter debuts in just two days, and I’m beyond excited. Specter is a YA paranormal thriller perfect for any Stranger Things fan. If you like fast-paced thrillers with twists and turns that will seriously keep you guessing and strong female characters, then this is a book not to miss.

Want to preview the book? Chapter One is down below. ❤

Book Trailer

About the Book

Author: Katie Jane Gallagher
Print Length: 370 pages
Publisher: Hidden Bower Press
ISBN: 978-0578508184
Available in paperback and ebook format
Retailers: Amazon | Barnes & Noble | all other major retailers | Hidden Bower Press
Available on Overdrive! Speak with your local library staff to learn more.

Blurb

A long-buried secret lies within the woods…

Horror aficionado Lanie Adams should be thrilled when two eighties-era ghosts materialize in her bedroom. Yet after a fainting incident unbecoming of a horror nerd, she would rather her haunting just go away—the ghosts’ distorted, waterlogged voices and ice-cold auras are more terrifying than any movie. Enlisting the help of Ryan, an entirely-too-cute stoner, she makes it her mission to put the spirits stalking her to rest.

Some sleuthing reveals that their sleepy Connecticut town is host to a shadowy, decades-old conspiracy. If Lanie wants to say a final goodbye to her ghosts, she’ll need to keep digging. But it’s important to tread carefully. The culprit is still in town—and they’ll stop at nothing to keep the truth buried.

Advanced Reviews

“Fans of Marissa Meyer’s The Lunar Chronicles, Meg Cabot’s The Mediator (throw-back!), and Netflix’s Stranger Things will binge this book from cover to cover… Her abounding wit, humor, and determination make Lanie so much more than a fictional character; she is the girl we’d all want at our lunch table, or hiking through a Connecticut woods with us on the most magical night of the year. Lanie is a girl we can root for, one many of us can relate to and one we certainly need to see more of.” Goodreads reviewer, 5 stars

“Omg I devoured this book, can’t remember the last time I read a book so fast! I can totally see why it’s being pitched as similar to Stranger Things, since it’s very suspenseful with ghosts, demons, and an 80’s element (even though it’s not set in the 80’s).” Goodreads reviewer, 5 stars

“I love a good book about ghosts and specter doesn’t disappoint. I’m glad that I was able to relate to the main character since I’m introverted and I love horror movies. The books is fast paced and I didn’t really want to put the book down!” Entertainingly Nerdy, 5 stars

Want a sneak peek at Chapter One? Just keep reading. ❤

It turned out all the books and movies had gotten ghosts dead wrong. Still, I knew what I was dealing with from that very first glimpse. Just like you can tell a cat from a dog, some instinct thrummed through me, real deep and low in my gut, and I knew. The dead aren’t the living, and it was the dead I saw that day.

Day, not night—see? Granted it was October, but the way early bit of October, too early for even me to be getting excited about America’s best holiday. Plus it was sunny, plus it was a Tuesday. If the days of the week were people, Tuesday would be bumbling, adorable, and absolutely average—perhaps the younger cousin of trendy and aloof Thursday. Nothing notable is supposed to happen on Tuesdays, let alone anything supernatural.

I was in bed, wrapped up burrito-style in my blankets, shivering from a fever and halfway to miserable—only halfway because it was just about the time Mrs. Morrie would be handing out the math test I was supposed to be taking. It’s funny how things work out; the night before I’d considered faking sick to dodge the test, and now here I was, sick for real.

I was just sinking into a nap when the door creaked open, followed by the light pad of footsteps. I snaked an arm out from under the warmth of my comforter, my hand meeting soft fur.

“Hey, Mustard,” I croaked. The virus hadn’t spared my throat. I patted the bed, and my golden retriever jumped up and began snuffling my face, all whiskers and dog breath.

“Gross!” And as I pushed him away, I saw a flash of blue-tinged skin in the corner of the room.

That was the next thing that wasn’t right. It—she—had none of the silvery translucence from the stories. In fact, she wasn’t see-through at all, her figure cast in slow-moving blue shadows, like the sun making mottled patterns on the seafloor.

There was a ghost in my room—a ghost my age, her hair a big mess of feathery curls straight out of an eighties movie, her clinging black leotard and jeans vintage to match. And she was looking right at me.

I jerked back, yelping as my head collided with the headboard. The ghost’s eyes widened. In my peripheral vision, Mustard was making circles at the end of the bed, preparing for his thrice-daily nap. Didn’t he notice? Weren’t dogs supposed to have a sixth sense for the paranormal? They could predict earthquakes and sniff out cancer, after all. In the movies, dogs always gave early warnings about evil spirits…

And that’s why all the smarter ghosts in those same movies always found some sinister way to get rid of the dog. I scrambled forward and gathered Mustard up into an unhappy, squirming ball, then tried to leap out of bed, only to get caught in the blanket. I tumbled to the ground, and Mustard wriggled free from my arms. Shooting me a wounded look, he trotted from the room.

The bed skirt was blocking my view of the ghost. I sucked in a steadying breath and willed myself to get up. Surely she’d be gone when I stood up again, going for the jump-scare-then-leave kind of haunting. What a great story this would make, narrated by upturned flashlight around a clichéd campfire. I was lying sick in bed, then…

I pushed up from the floor with a groan.

“Fuck!” There she was, blue and muted, though she stood directly in the sunlight beaming through the window. A vague, familiar feeling quivered at the back of my mind…

The ghost was tracking me with her eyes. After a long, silent moment, her lips twitched up into some horrid semblance of a smile. She took a step forward.

“M-Mom?!” But my call was useless reflex only; she’d deemed my fever just low enough to go into work for a few hours, rather than shuttling me to the doctor. I was alone in the house—well, no one else alive was in the house.

You’re hallucinating. Call Mom so she can take you to the hospital. For that must be it—my fever had climbed too high. Yet the ghost looked so real, and I couldn’t help but scan my room for something, anything, to use to fight back. I didn’t keep my room stocked with weaponry, so I settled for the bedside table lamp, yanking the cord from the wall and clutching it baseball bat-style.

Time for the first and likely final showdown between Lanie Adams and Ghost Girl.

But she took another step forward—her sneakers were also some retro style, I noticed—and icy fear rooted me in place. Just a hallucination—a hallucination of a ghost who shops at Goodwill. I drew together my fleeing scraps of courage and poked the lamp toward Ghost Girl’s stomach.

It passed straight through, without even a ripple at the edges. I lurched back, gripping the lamp to my chest like a safety blanket. “Not real,” I whispered, and the ghost frowned at me, as if to say, I beg to differ.

“What do you want?” I managed. My voice was a trembling wreck. Didn’t ghosts usually have some sort of purpose, some wrong to be righted or atrocity to be avenged? She opened her mouth to answer…

The words erupted as a garbled stream of syllables.

Fine, she could have the room; I was willing to vacate. I threw down the lamp and vaulted over the bed, hurtling towards the door—

—Where I leaped straight through another bluish ghost, this one a teenage boy standing right on the threshold.

That was when my hopes that this was all just a hallucination evaporated away. Have you ever taken a bath in a ghost? Suffice it to say that the experience is not pleasant—an aching kind of cold that seeps to the bone in the space of a heartbeat, banishing all memories of warmth. But I didn’t have to endure it for long. White sparks clouded my vision, then the world wavered and contracted to a pinhole.

Want to keep reading? Specter debuts July 7th (this Sunday!) at all major retailers, Hidden Bower Press, and is available to rent for free through Overdrive with your library card!

Specter is a book not to miss. With strong characters who are easy to root for, this captivating, multilayered debut will keep you holding your breath till the very last page.

Interview with a Cover Designer!

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Who hasn’t bought a book based solely on the cover design? Go into a bookstore and it’s almost like entering an art gallery. Covers entice us into the book, acting as alluring seductresses, promising us adventure or scares, inviting us to new worlds. The YA sphere especially, in my opinion, has really stepped up the cover game in recent years—which meant that the cover for Specter had to be good. Really, really good.

I knew that Specter needed a particular kind of cover—one that fit in with the YA aesthetic, was reminiscent of Stranger Things, and wasn’t too hokey or corny. After a lengthy search for the right cover designer and a couple serious bouts of frustration, I chanced upon Liana Moisescu and fell in love with her work instantly.

What really drew me to Liana’s designs was her versatility. Every project Liana works on is unique; she takes the unique qualities of each book into consideration, rather than trying to force each book into a specific design aesthetic. I was absolutely thrilled when I received the final design back from her. It’s gorgeous, it’s mysterious, and, most importantly, it encapsulates the feel of Specter perfectly.

So I wanted to sit down with Liana and pick her brain a bit about covers to get a peek of the magic taking place behind the curtain. Enjoy the interview!

What is your artistic background, and how did you get into cover design specifically?

I’ve always been interested in art and all things beautiful but also in science, so I pursued the latter by attending a Biotechnology college. My path took me towards my artistic nature, and I found myself creating and designing ads for a fashion company. From there things escalated quite quickly, and I really started loving all things graphic design, I also started dabbling in photography, painting, and drawing.

I’m a passionate reader, always have been, so I naturally pursued book cover design as it’s such a fascinating niche. Book covers can have so much variety with genres and design styles.

Are you a reader yourself? Any favorite covers?

YES! I love reading fiction mainly, more specifically sci-fi, legal thrillers, fantasy, and crime/mystery books, but I also read the occasional nonfiction self-help or science genres. I have tons of favorite covers, to name a few Blood & Water by Alana Newman, The Maker of Swans by Paraic O’Donnell, Parasite by Mira Grant, The Fault in Our Stars by John Green, The Lesser Bohemians by Eimear McBride, The Great Reset by Richard Florida, The Night Ocean by Paul Lafarge and many more!

If you could design a cover for any existing book, which one would you pick?

There have been a ton of redesigns for the Harry Potter series by professionals and fans alike, and I love the more recent, modern ones. One that stands out for me is by Olly Moss, with modern, fun artwork. It would be a dream to have a chance to illustrate a new edition of the covers. I grew up with the Harry Potter world and already have tons of ideas for the style and design elements.

What makes a good cover, in your opinion?

There is no exact formula that makes a cover good as it’s such a subjective matter, and as a designer you learn to accept and appreciate so many styles. However, for me, it has to have an element that stands out, whether it is the font style or layout, or a clever graphic. A bold color will appeal most of the time, but it’s not necessary for a cover to be eye-catching. I also love a design that is minimal and not cluttered and that also has a surprising element, something original and fun (or pertinent to the genre). Quite a tall order, I know!

Are there any little details you consider when making a cover that most people wouldn’t expect?

There are a lot of interesting little details, like maybe lining up the top of the back cover elements with the spine and front cover so everything looks clean and neat (not in every case of course). Or maybe calculating the dimensions and creating a template, or spending hours finding that perfect image or font that would tie everything together. There are tons of small aspects like these that come into the process of designing a book, and they’re all part of the fun.

Any pet peeves when it comes to popular cover design that drive you bananas? Recent design trends, etc?

I’ve learned to love and appreciate trends and different styles as they’re just indicators of what people are attracted to in a design at that point in time. Of course, I do have my own preferences, and I have seen collage design gaining a lot of popularity. When done right and when it has meaning it can be gorgeous, but sometimes it’s done just for the sake of the trend without any true significance. I suppose that does tick me off just a little, however, design and art are always open to interpretation and subjective to the eyes of the viewer so maybe I’m just missing the point entirely, who knows? That got deep!

You have tons of experience working with authors to craft the perfect cover. Do you have any advice for new authors who are going to be working with a designer for the first time? From a designer’s perspective, what should authors do to help make that working relationship successful?

The designer-client relationship can be easy to navigate if both parties are willing to communicate. From my experience, that is the key. As a designer I always give my client a little “brief” of my own, asking them what styles, fonts, colors they prefer and what covers they love, what cover they dislike, etc and their willingness to share as many details as possible will give the designer a clear understanding of the concept they envision. Of course, sometimes the client doesn’t have a clear vision for the design, and again communication comes in. Brainstorming and sharing ideas back and forth is a great way to figure out which direction to take.

Do you prefer getting a lot of specific details from your clients about their vision for a project or would you rather have more freedom to craft the project?

Great question, that depends a lot on the client and how clearly they visualize their book cover artwork. If they have a specific concept in mind, this is what I’ll create and maybe suggest different ideas or changes if something doesn’t feel right. As an appendix to the previous question, another piece of advice for an author is being flexible and trusting their designer. Many times, an idea can sound good but on paper it can have some flaws that only an experienced designer can point out and fix. So good communication, flexibility and trusting your designer.

Creative freedom is also a wonderful direction, I wholeheartedly enjoy both ways of collaborating with a client.

Thank you so much for giving us your insight about cover design! Where can we find you online?

You can invite me to work on 99designs, and here’s a small sample of my work, as well as my Twitter.

What are your favorite covers as of late? Comment down below!

And a small aside—if you haven’t seen the book trailer for Specter yet, check it out! Specter debuts THIS SUNDAY, July 7th, and the paperback and ebook are available for preorder at all major retailers and from Hidden Bower Press.

Short Tuesday #18: “Strange Scenes from an Unfinished Film” by Gary McMahon

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This week for Short Tuesday I took a look at Gary McMahon’s “Strange Scenes from an Unfinished Film,” courtesy of Nightmare Magazine. You can read the short story for free here…

I came into this story hopeful that it would be similar to The Ring, one of my most beloved horror films. Yet this story was overall clunky to me, in the writing style, characterization, and story. Coming in just over 3000 words, it rockets along to a very predictable conclusion; the pacing combined with the MC’s lack of disbelief at what is happening to him really had me wanting the author to stretch things out a bit and allow the action of the piece a bit more time to unfold at a gentler pace.

There’s also a matter-of-fact, tell don’t show quality about the piece that almost reminded me of work in translation. (I’ve done no formal research to back this up, but my experience with translated work is that English-speaking authors place much more emphasis on sensory, non-telling details. Different strokes for different folks?) There were a good amount of times when we slid into infodumping that could have been expanded into actual scenes.

He was a strange and often dangerous man, but for some reason our relationship had lasted a number of years.

Like, why is he dangerous? Can we get an example here? The author is more forthcoming later, but there’s no reason to keep us hanging.

So unfortunately this was a rushed, jumbled mess to me, with a plot that begged for refining and more subtlety.

A small aside—if you haven’t seen the book trailer for Specter yet, check it out! Specter debuts July 7th (less than ONE WEEK OMG!) and the paperback and ebook are available for preorder at all major retailers and from Hidden Bower Press.

Chapter Twelve of The Gold in the Dark and a Writing Update

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Illustration courtesy of the amazing Ally Grosvenor, as always.

The twelfth chapter of The Gold in the Dark is out! New chapters, complete with chapter illustrations, release every other Sunday at 11 AM EST. This week is a split POV chapter between Thurie and Tia. This chapter is a favorite of mine—well, really any chapter with Thurie is a favorite of mine. 😉 Thurie and Dunna were a pretty spontaneous addition to the narrative, but now looking at the book as a whole, I can’t even picture what it would look like without them. Funny, how letting your subconscious chew away at a book idea can work so well.

This week in writing updates… Specter is debuting in JUST ONE WEEK OMG. I can hardly believe it. I’m trying to keep calm, but it’s that sort of thing where all the little pre-debut tasks never end. Birthing a book baby is tough work!!! Blog posts, Instagram posts, miscellaneous promo, making posters—sometimes it seems the circus is never-ending. But even though life is a whirlwind right now, it’s the kind of whirlwind that I know I’ll look back fondly on later.

And if you’re just hearing about Specter for the first time, welcome! Specter is a YA paranormal thriller perfect for fans of Stranger Things, about a girl who suddenly starts seeing ghosts. The detailed blurb is below!

Blurb

Horror aficionado Lanie Adams should be thrilled when two eighties-era ghosts materialize in her bedroom. Yet after a fainting incident unbecoming of a horror nerd, she would rather her haunting just go away—the ghosts’ distorted, waterlogged voices and ice-cold auras are more terrifying than any movie. Enlisting the help of Ryan, an entirely-too-cute stoner, she makes it her mission to put the spirits stalking her to rest.

Some sleuthing reveals that their sleepy Connecticut town is host to a shadowy, decades-old conspiracy. If Lanie wants to say a final goodbye to her ghosts, she’ll need to keep digging. But it’s important to tread carefully. The culprit is still in town—and they’ll stop at nothing to keep the truth buried.

So if you’re a Stranger Things fan, please consider adding Specter to your Goodreads TBR or preordering at any book retailer. Even independent bookstores should be able to preorder Specter—and you can even request your local library order a physical or ebook copy!

All right, that’s all for now. Have a great rest of your weekend, and enjoy Chapter Twelve. ❤

The Travelling Cat Chronicles by Hiro Arikawa

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This is one of those books you just keep hearing about, the kind of book that’s always front row center on those beautifully curated Goodreads lists. You know, those lists that should be titled Great Books You Should Read Right Now, You Uncultured Genre-Reading Swine. (Yeah, yeah, yeah, I’ll get to The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo eventually. Stop bugging me, geeeeeeez.)

Anyway. The Goodreads people might be on to something, since The Travelling Cat Chronicles is an adorable, touching read. If you’re wary of reading a translated book, fear not. Philip Gabriel is the translator, which means you are in excellent hands; for those who don’t know, Gabriel also translates for Japanese lit legend Haruki Murakami.

The premise is that Nana, a cat with a whole lotta attitude, is heading on a road trip alongside his human owner, Satoru. Why are they traveling, you might ask? The answer is revealed in time; this book is wholly about the journey and the people they meet along the way. That last sentence sounds way too wholesome for my normal (secretly gagging over here) but it’s accurate, I swear.

The book is very artfully written. I never thought I could admire head-hopping, but Arikawa knows what’s up—this is head-hopping with a purpose. I honestly don’t have one complaint. (Stunned.) So if you are a cat person, are looking for a palate cleanser, or like odd and adorable Japanese stuff, this is a must-read.

A small aside—if you haven’t seen the book trailer for Specter yet, check it out! Specter debuts July 7th, and the paperback and ebook are available for preorder at all major retailers and from Hidden Bower Press.

Short Tuesday #17: “These Deathless Bones” by Cassandra Khaw

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This week for Short Tuesday I left Nightmare Magazine aside and returned to Tor.com once again to read “These Deathless Bones” by Cassandra Khaw. You can read the short story here…

This short story details the relationship between a witch queen and her maniacal young stepson. The piece has evocative, beautiful writing and definitely inspires a sense of dread.

Bones pour from every crack in the walls and windows. Lengths of rodent ulna. A blanket of hedgehog spines, undulating down the tapestries. Vertebrae, joined even in death, slithering like snakes. The molars from his first kill, the fragments of its skull. Everywhere, bones, clacking their way across the curlicued tiles.

It has a definite sense that this is the start of a larger work of fantasy fiction, where we are being introduced to crucial characters—this sentiment is echoed by many of the commenters on the story, who wonder if there will be a forthcoming piece featuring more of the main character. I don’t exactly count that as a good thing, though, since the story feels incomplete. Plot events happen, but not in any sort of way that comes together into a cohesive, satisfying story—we’re just left as readers wondering if there’s more. Can you count something as a short story if all we are given is set up, an event, and some back story? The whole thing is more like a scene than an actual story.

So while I did enjoy the writing here, I ultimately felt that this story wasn’t very successful.

A small aside—if you haven’t seen the book trailer for Specter yet, check it out! Specter debuts July 7th, and the paperback and ebook are available for preorder at all major retailers and from Hidden Bower Press.

Black Mirror Season 5 Review

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Any other Black Mirror fans out there? Along with the rest of the world, I’m a pretty big fan of this show, though it’s always kind of a mixed bag in terms of writing. So I thought that now that I’ve seen all three episodes of season five and had a couple days to gather my thoughts that I’d put together some mini reviews for each episode. This post is chock-full of spoilers, by the way, so proceed at your peril if you haven’t watched the episodes yet.

Episode 1: “Striking Vipers”

The premise of “Striking Vipers” is that a man who has lost the spark of his marriage uses a VR fighting game to cheat on his wife with his best friend. This one’s a bit of a gender bender—the man’s friend, also male, uses a female character, so though the sex is heterosexual on the surface, there’s an underlying question of whether the two friends would enjoy a homosexual relationship IRL.

I enjoyed this episode, and it inspired a bit of a debate with my husband and some friends of ours (all big gamers) about what constitutes cheating. I think there was a bit of a missed writing opportunity here, though; I fully expected the husband to fess up to his wife and start having wild, raucous sex with her in the game, as opposed to the once-a-year sex-with-other-people compromise they came up with. I know some will disagree, but it feels pretty depressing for them to wait all year to have sex with other people, like it is some great treat to get away from each other. So overall this episode was okay, but I felt like the ending was a bit unsatisfying and would have liked to see things head in a different direction.

Episode 2: “Smithereens”

I enjoyed “Smithereens” the most of the three episodes, even though it dragged on a bit in the latter half. The premise is that a man kidnaps an intern who works at the social media company Smithereen and uses the hostage situation to demand to speak with Smithereen’s CEO. As is revealed later in the episode, a few years back the man was caused an accident that resulted in the death of his fiance; he had been checking the Smithereen app while driving, ultimately causing the crash. It’s because of the purposely addictive quality of the Smithereen app that the man wishes to speak with the CEO.

It’s the reasoning behind the man’s request that weakens this episode slightly. He admits that it was him who ultimately caused the crash, but still he finds a lot of grievance with Smithereen. This is the point where I started questioning the ultimate message of the episode. Yes, social media platforms like Facebook and Instagram are specifically engineered to be addictive, but this doesn’t mean that their users have no agency. Many things beside social media are addictive; if someone is an alcoholic and they cause a fatal accident while driving drunk, no one is calling liquor companies to complain. That fault rests with the individual.

So while I found this episode very engaging, especially how the government officials and Smithereen higher-ups worked to clarify and resolve the situation, the message of the episode was a bit muddled.

Episode 3: “Rachel, Jack and Ashley Too”

“Rachel, Jack and Ashley Too,” also known as the Miley Cyrus episode, was decidedly the weakest of the lot—though this was not down to Miley’s performance, surprisingly enough! The episode follows two teenage sisters from a middle class family and a pop star who is at odds with her aunt, who is also her manager. The younger of the two sisters is a huge fan of the singer, so when the singer comes out with an Alexa-like toy, that’s the only thing the young teen wants for her birthday.

I was wholly prepared for this episode to delve deep into the ways that online personalities can simulate friendship. Think about it: the young, lonely teen girl is given a version of her idol that can keep up a conversation. There is such an opportunity here to explore how people find “friendship” with online personalities—for isn’t this the reason that streamers and vloggers are so popular? It’s because they are friendship (or even relationship!) simulators, to the point that some streamers might conceal their relationship status to keep up the illusion that they are single.

Yet instead the episode veers off into left field; the pop star’s maniacal aunt puts her in a drug-induced coma, then extracts songs from her brain for release. There are way too many “buys” in this episode; what I mean by that is that with speculative fiction the writer is given one unique, unrealistic aspect to explore that the audience will “buy,” and then of course the freedom to play with that “buy” for the rest of the story. Yet in this episode, we are asked to not only buy that a weak version of the pop star’s personality has been condensed into the toy, but also that the singer’s aunt is outright evil with no depth, that two teenage girls can hack into the toy’s “brain,” and that the aunt can prize songs from her niece’s brain and release them to the public with no audience blowback. Pretty unbelievable, right?

So while it was interesting to see Miley act, this episode just spiraled into ridiculousness and felt like a wasted opportunity.

Are you guys Black Mirror fans? What did you think of this season?

Missing Persons Report: Melissa White

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Full Name: Melissa Mary White
Date of Birth: February 2, 1969
Place of Birth: Lanster, New Hampshire
Missing Since: September 22, 1985. (Sixteen years old)
Height: 5’4” (At time of disappearance)
Weight: 115 pounds (At time of disappearance)
Race: Caucasian
Hair: Blond
Scars and Marks: Freckles; ears pierced; navel pierced
Clothes and Jewelry: Unknown

If you have any information concerning this case, please contact the FBI immediately.

…

…

…

Specter paperback and ebook go on sale July 7th.

With strong characters who are easy to root for, this stunning, multilayered paranormal thriller will keep you holding your breath till the very last page.

Order from all major retailers or Hidden Bower Press.

ARC: Lock Every Door by Riley Sager

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Thank you to NetGalley and Dutton for sending me a free advanced reader copy of this book for an honest review. Lock Every Door debuts July 2nd.

Lock Every Door by Riley Sager was a binge-it-in-two-days type of read. This is the book you should have in your tote to read on the beach—an addictive and thrilling read that kept my nose glued to the page right up until the end. It’s also a rare specimen of book that advertises itself as having potential paranormal elements and manages to keep you guessing on that front far into the book. There are tons of books where the main character thinks, hmm, this place might be haunted, but it’s obvious to readers that that’s not the case. Not so here. (And I’m not giving anything away! Are there ghosts afoot in the MC’s bizarro apartment building or is everything rooted in the real world? You’ll have to read and see!)

The premise of the book is that a woman down on her luck (laid off, cheating boyfriend, finances in a downward spiral) manages to snag a gig where she gets paid to live in a ritzy, vacant NYC apartment. But, of course, everything is not as it seems, and things get spooky real quick. I was getting serious Rosemary’s Baby vibes throughout, due to the creepy New York apartment high-rise coupled with the young female MC.

I do feel obligated to mention that I picked up on two reveals far before they came. However, the full nature of the overarching plot reveal took me very much by surprise, while at the same time being very satisfying—the surprise is just that, surprising, while still managing to preserve suspension of disbelief. I highly recommend Lock Every Door, and I’m looking forward to reading more books by the author.

A small aside—if you haven’t seen the book trailer for Specter yet, check it out! Specter debuts July 7th, and the paperback and ebook are available for preorder at all major retailers and from Hidden Bower Press.

Short Tuesday #16: “Carry On” by Seanan McGuire

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This week I returned once more to Nightmare Magazine, selecting for this week’s Short Tuesday a story by Seanan McGuire. I only realized when I reached the end and looked at the author bio that she wrote this story! I’ve never read anything by McGuire myself, but I’ve definitely been seeing her books making the rounds. You can read the story first here…

“Carry On” documents a policy change that airline companies have adopted requiring passengers’ bags not only to be weighed, but also the passengers themselves. Please don’t let your eyes glaze over with the words “airline” and “policy change”—”Carry On” is not a dry story at all, and as you read through it you’ll be fully in the MC’s shoes, wondering if you’ll come in under weight. It’s a story that you can feel yourself dismissing as kind of ridiculous… until you remember exactly how nightmarish and invasive flying already is, then you’ll be on board. (Har har.)

McGuire has a strong voice that I’d describe as conversational—it has a lot of forward momentum that keeps you reading on. I will say that I wasn’t absolutely riveted by the story, and I was a bit turned off by the moralizing tone at the end. Even so, I enjoy me some speculative fiction, so overall it was a fun read.

A small aside—if you haven’t seen the book trailer for Specter yet, check it out! Specter debuts July 7th, and the paperback and ebook are available for preorder at all major retailers and from Hidden Bower Press.