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Anaïs Nin at the Grand Guignol by Robert Levy
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Dark, sexy, and written in a suitably decadent prose style, Robert Levy’s supernatural take on historical figures Anais Nin, Henry Miller, June Miller, and real-life star of the Grand Guignol Paula Maxa will leave you breathless. Monsieur Guillard, the demon lover conjured by Anais’s secret fantasies and obsessive, unfulfilled longing, is a spellbinding character, malevolent, controlling, destructive, and yet sexually irresistible. ANAIS NIN AT THE GRAND GUIGNOL is a tour de force of dark, steamy eroticism. It’s Levy’s best work yet.

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Harrow County, Vol. 2: Twice Told by Cullen Bunn
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Emmy’s long-lost twin sister Kammi visits Harrow County to meet her sister and claim her power, setting off a dark chain of events that turns the haints against Emmy. There are lots of cool haints in this volume, including many we haven’t seen before, and Kammi makes for a compelling antagonist. I hope this won’t be the last we hear from her!

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Underworld Dreams by Daniel Braum
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This is Daniel Braum’s best collection yet, filled with stories that exhibit a masterful sense of ambiguity and explore the tension between the personal and the profound. Though Braum enjoys playing with genre tropes, you won’t find any cliches here, only stories that take you in unexpected directions. My favorites of the collection include “How to Stay Afloat When Drowning,” a Montauk-set tale that hints at the dangerous unknowns of the sea; “Rum Punch is Going Down,” in which an exotic island’s mysteries help a man who is running from his past find himself again; and the title novella, “Underworld Dreams,” a meditation on the different realities that stem from the choices we make during important moments, which may be Braum’s finest piece of writing to date. UNDERWORLD DREAMS is a collection of mind-bending stories that doesn’t disappoint.

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Harrow County, Vol. 1: Countless Haints by Cullen Bunn
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

A fun, fast-moving setup to what I expect will be a highly enjoyable series, COUNTLESS HAINTS combines writer Cullen Bunn’s masterful use of atmosphere and setting with artist Tyler Crook’s vibrant watercolor illustrations to create something truly compelling. The haints are scary in their otherworldliness, and Emmy is a complex, conflicted heroine you can root for. Bring on the next volume!

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