"Pray they are hungry.
Kara finds the words in the mysterious bunker that she’s discovered behind a hole in the wall of her uncle’s house. Freshly divorced and living back at home, Kara now becomes obsessed with these cryptic words and starts exploring this peculiar area ..."



The story had issues for sure. Still, it is a great, quirky, weird read full of awful scenes and horrible, intrusive imagery. Although it wasn't a particular scary read for me, it had a few scenes so creepy, I had to put the book away for a few breathes, then pick it up again. That one animal comes sneaking into my mind months after reading this ;)

Should you be interested, the story is inspired by Algernon Blackwood's "The Willows" (1907)

I loved Beau and the descriptions of the taxidermy (freaky!).

This is my pick for the Favourite Book OF 2023 Roundabout!

Please send onwards in the following order:

Mathgirl40
djf1968
echode
39301
valpete
cross-patch
dark-draco
earthcaroleanne
greenbadger
estelle1806
grovalskii
fifna <=
Icilia

This book has arrived in Canada! I am a big fan of T. Kingfisher (a.k.a. Ursula Vernon) and this is one of her books I've not read yet, so I am looking forward to it. Thanks, Andrasthe for sending this book along with the labels and bookmark!

I enjoyed this novel and found it to be more entertaining and less dark than some of the other cosmic horror novels I'd read in the past. I liked all the characters too, even the stuffed dead ones! I've not read The Willows, that this story gets its inspiration from, but I've put it on my reading list.

Thank you, Andrasthe, for contributing this book to the roundabout!

This book is on its way to djf1968 now!

From Austria by way of Canada, Andrasthe's book has arrived in Northern California. Neither an author nor a genre I've got much experience with (which is one of the things I enjoy about this roundabout). I won't get to it until next week, but I'm looking forward to it.

Horror and fantasy aren’t my genres, but on the heels of an epic 600 page biography, this was exactly the kind of mental shift I needed. Several of the pop culture references go over my 55 year old head, but I added Bambi, Watership Down and The Portrait of Dorian Gray to my “I need to revisit that'' list before I got to page 20.

As I continued, I know I missed a lot. But there are lots of layers, and even as I concluded “I’m not getting this, and I’m not going to,” I could appreciate the writing, the imagery, and a lot of the humor. It never horrified me in the traditional sense, although I found myself kind of grossed out more than once. I’m glad it came to me, even if I still don’t understand it.

Some of my favorite quotes:

"Uncle Earl believes strongly in Jesus, Moses, the healing power of crystals, the Freemasons, the Illuminati, that aliens landed in Roswell but the government is suppressing it, secret histories, faith healing, snake-handling, that there is an invention that will replace gasoline but the oil companies are suppressing it, chemtrails, demon possession, the astonishing powers of Vicks VapoRub, and that there's proof that aliens contacted the Mayans and the Aztecs and probably the Egyptians, but the scientists are suppressing it."

"Panic was definitely called for right now, but for some reason, if there are two people, only one of you panics at a time."

"Pray that they are hungry."

"No matter where you go, the Jesuits got there first."

"He stirred the sand, and if it were a horror movie, at that point a monster the size of a Buick should have leaped out of the ground, but this wasn't a movie and reality has no sense of dramatic timing."

"You're from Florida. There's got to be more holes to hell in Florida than any other state."

"I am not a glass-punching person. I design logos. Those are two very different skill sets."

Sending this on to the next reader in the Favourite Books of 2023 roundabout. Enjoy!

This has landed in chilly Seattle, a perfect setting for a creepy read! If it's anything like this author's other book The Twisted Ones, I'll only be able to handle it in the daytime...

Oh this was fun! I liked all the humans and all the animals portrayed here. It doesn't take long for the book to answer why I'd want to "pray that They are hungry", and after that I was just along for the ride.
The contrived coping mechanisms for fear, the ridiculous ex-husband, and Simon's eye of questionable origin were all very entertaining. For me, this was less horror and more Buffy the Vampire Slayer shenanigans.

Passing off to the next reader 39301 over some drinks & chow!

Received this book from @echode when we met up at Delancey restaurant and had delicious pizza. We were inspired by the book chosen by @djf1968 for the best of 2023!!

I almost never read horror so this was a nice change for me.
I know this book was supposed to be creepy and scary, but it totally went campy for me a la Buffy the Vampire Slayer, which is why I took off a few points for my rating.
On the other hand, if the Wonder Museum ever existed in real life, I'd love to visit! One of my favorite quirky shops in San Francisco is Paxton Gate, which has taxidermy and cool carnivorous plants for sale. Look it up sometime... I think if Uncle Earl opened up a shop, he'd have something like it.

Sending this on for the next reader in the roundabout!

I've now received this book. I can't say horror stories are at the top of my hit parade. I'll withhold judgement until I've read...probably in the next two weeks.

Although not a genre I'm familiar with, I found this book entertaining and intriguing. I was on the edge of my seat for much of the book and the humor juxtaposed with the horror made this an adventure. Love this Roundabout where I get to experience so many different kinds of books.

Sending this along to the next reader.

Arrived this morning. Doesn’t sound like my cup of tea but if there’s quirky humour I may just be saved! Let’s see.

Felt a bit YA to me, but that didn’t mean I didn’t enjoy it. Luckily it didn’t actually frighten me ( which I was dreading) and I liked the camp humour. I’ll send it on after the Bank Holiday weekend.

Going to the next in line.

Apologies - I've had this for a while, but just realised that I never 'caught' it. All safe here with me.

I began this with slight trepidation - I like a good horror novel, but so many 'new' authors I try are a serious let down, and this didn't start off in the best way. It seemed a little slow and almost had too much of a 'chic-lit' flavour to really float my boat. The horror elements started off slowly and I began to think this might be just a bit too tame for my tastes and then ... WHAM! Suddenly hooked, creeped out beyond measure and thinking way too much about it after lights out, I devoured the whole thing in a couple of days.

I loved the humour amongst the horror - it made it seem somehow more real, but I think we'd all have a hard time accepting these things if they actually happened to us and sarcastic hysteria might be the way we'd handle it. I also loved the way that nothing was solved - oh, our world might be ok, but the Willows are still there - and they could break in again. And no-one already trapped over there was saved.

Definitely worth the read and I'll now be tracking down more books by this author to read.

Off to it's next reader.

This has arrived.

When I picked this book up, I didn’t want to put it down again, to the point that I took the slow train to Glasgow to double my reading time. Unfortunately an ex-colleague that I haven’t seen for years got on later and stopped me reading. I should have been allowed to kill her.

However, this is a seriously creepy book. I loved the Wonder Museum and Simon and Uncle Earl, but the willow world is a place full quiet menace. You know in that world nothing is what it seems and the most innocuous thing will either kill you, eat you or fold you!

I would probably not have picked this up myself. Thank you for including it in the roundabout.

On it's in the roundabout.

It's arrived, thank you! I don't read horror and reading the reviews I'm a bit worried I will get anxious reading it, but let's see.

When she gets divorced, Kara moves back to her Uncle's place, the Glory to God Museum of Natural Wonders, Curiosities, and Taxidermy. Left on her own to look after the museum, she finds that somehow a hole has been knocked in the wall, and there's a mysterious corridor behind it. She and Simon from the coffee shop next door go in to explore, but what they uncover is stranger and more horrible than they could imagine. I'm not into horror but although this is very nasty in places it's also very readable and I ended up being really gripped, I enjoyed the humour and really liked the characters. I did have some strange dreams while reading it and do seem to have knocked a bit of a hole in the plaster... (just kidding... or am I?)

Posted to estelle1806, next in the ray.

Received just in time for Halloween!!

A very entertaining read, sometimes puzzling, with loads of suspense and occasionally creepy. The characters were rather likeable and I did not find it too scary. I enjoyed it, thanks for sharing Andrasthe!

To the next reader of the roundabout...

Please let us know when you release it again.

Bon voyage !

The book is with me now. And hahaha, I was going to write "this genre is not really my thing", but when I scrolled through the JEs, I found many previous readers writing exactly that. And then really enjoying the book. So, I'm open for anything. :) And very curious now!

I feel so-so about this book. It wasn't really horror, it wasn't really fantasy. I did read it at during a plane ride, and on those occasions I could read just about anything and feel entertained. And I found it a rather funny read at times. But the last few pages I just skimmed over because I just found it too tedious and not captivating anymore.
I always find it good to dabble in genres that I'm not used to, so in that sense I am very happy I got to read the book. But it was a confirmation that horror (or even horror-ish) books don't do much for me. Thanks for sharing anyway, Andrasthe!
Off to the Netherlands in a day or two!

And it has arrived, thank you grovalskii. And thank you very much for the beautiful calendar!