Other Words For Smoke - Review

Other Words for Smoke - Review

A creepy book that's perfect for summer! And there's a talking cat! Other Words for Smoke is a horror novel by Sarah Maria Griffin, and was Voted Teen & YA Book of the Year at the 2019 Irish Book Awards.

Twins Mae and Rossa spent two summers with their aunt Rita, in a house with flowered wallpaper. Two summers before Rita, and her teenage ward Bevan, died in flames at that very house. As soon as the twins step inside the house, they are caught in a game between two forces, one that could claim both of their lives. Mae and Rossa tell their story, the story of the strangest summers of their lives, and what really happened to Rita and Bevan.

This is a queer story too, with a romance between Mae and Bevan. Obviously, that sold it for me, and I picked it up. The prose is beautiful; the characters, especially the magical ones, were rich and engrossing. I've never been a big fan of the haunted house trope in horror, but this book balances between the actually scary and the whimsical quite well.

I do have one gripe; how the plot was centered. It was disjointed at times, and I wasn't able to get a good focus on the characters. It switches between Mae, Rossa & Rita in a 3rd person narrative, and Bevan's point of view is in 2nd person. This made it a little confusing to follow along with.

The book also takes inspiration and actual events out of Irish history. The Magdalene Laundries were Irish institutions run by Catholic nuns that housed wayward girls. Wayward meaning pregnant and unmarried, prostitutes, and even just young women that didn't live up to rigorous standards. These women, in real life, were abused, neglected, and sometimes had themselves and their babies killed by the nuns themselves. This was a real experience in Irish history, and I appreciated how Griffin wove it into the narrative with great care for the little known event.

Overall, I really loved this book, and would recommend it to lovers of whimsy, horror, talking cats, and Neil Gaiman.

-May

im living off of these

PLEASE

If supernatural can have 15 seasons then Dead boy dectives can have two. So watch. Rewatch tell your friends. Watch it through a thousand times. END THE CANCELLATION STREAK

hate that i can't hang out in silence w online friends. sometimes when i'm not replying it's not in a "this conversation is over" way or in a "i'm too busy to reply" way. but in a "on all levels except physical my head is on your lap while we both silently scroll on our phones" way

✨️ Summon the Good Omens Fandom!! ✨️

Good Omens has been longlisted for a National Television Award for Best Comedy! 🎭

David Tennant is also longlisted for the Best Drama Performance award for his role as the Fourteenth Doctor.

Please go here to cast your vote!

[Reblog as much as possible - because if we win, David and Michael will get on stage. Together. And we all deserve that.]

happy mother's day from bildad the shuhite