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Bee’s Knee’s Fantasies: Wolf Worm and Butterfly Effects

17 Mar

Wolf Worm
by T. Kingfisher
Wolf Worm is the latest by T. Kingfisher. Sonia Wilson grew up assisting her botanist father with his research and as a talented illustrator, enjoyed creating beautiful art out of what many people would simply consider weeds. But after her father’s death she struggles to find work as a scientific illustrator until she is hired to paint a collection of parasitic insects for a reclusive entomologist. The strange happenings in the nearby woods filled with odd wildlife and rumors of “blood thieves” has her both fearful and curious.

This is an entrancing dark historic fantasy/gothic horror story that gave me the creeps in the best possible way. As someone who grew up with a biology teacher for a father who enjoyed photographing our backyard bugs, I appreciated the detailed way that Kingfisher handled the topic. Even predisposed to finding insects intriguing, Kingfisher’s description’s still were at times horrifying and I can only imagine how much dread they would inspire in entomophobics. The 1899 time period felt well researched including social issues of the time. Kingfisher’s experience as an artist, herself, brings Sonia’s passion to life. She masterfully builds dread and includes several unexpected twists. If you enjoy this story, also check out her excellent spin on Poe’s The Fall of the House of Usher, What Moves the Dead, and its sequel, What Feasts at Night.

Butterfly Effects
by Seanan McGuire
Butterfly Effects is the latest in Seanan McGuire’s InCryptid series, which follows several generations of the Price family (both biological and found) on their adventures. Sarah Zellaby is one of the more unusual members of the family who was adopted as a young child. Sarah isn’t human, she is a Johrlac, a species that look like pale humans with dark hair, but are actually evolved from a species of psychic wasps on a world in another dimension. By those who are aware of them, her species is typically feared and reviled on earth for their powers and tendency to cause chaos. Despite all of her best efforts at being a good person, she has been kidnapped and brought to the Johrlac home world for crimes she did not even know existed.

McGuire gives enough of the backstory at the start so that you do not need to read the other books in the series to understand this one; this books follows events most closely with the stories in Imaginary Numbers and Calculated Risk which also focused on Sarah. Butterfly Effects is told from both Sarah’s perspective and that of one of her adopted cousins. Sarah is an interesting and complex character and I think readers who are neurodiverse will especially feel a kinship with her. The Johrlac world is vividly described from its giant bugs and beautiful flowers to its unique buildings; this story will appeal to Science Fiction as well as the series’s usual Fantasy fans.

Written by:
Aimee Harris
Information and Digital Services Manager

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Day or Dusk, Dawn or Dead of Eve: The Night House Sticks With You All Day

26 Feb

The Night House scared me in my bones and through my veins.

Film poster showing a woman standing alone at the end of a wooden dock at a lake in the dead of night. There is a shoreline in the background with a distant house beneath a red moon through heavy clouds. The text reads “The Night House.”

The director plays with angles and shapes to distort your vision while the writers weave the slightest and most intriguing details into the character’s background and behavior to keep you guessing. The scares are well-timed and effective. Each serve a purpose. Every twinge of dread or outright jump in your seat is vindicated. From the bumps to the spooks to the visual distortion and to the realism of the suspension of belief, the fear and unease of this movie lives in human flaws, moral debate, and in the spinning wheel of grief.

The Night House (2020; R) blends psychological horror, suspense, and mystery. You can reserve the DVD here in the BCCLS system or find a copy at the Hoboken Public Library.

Beth is reeling from the death of her husband and, in that grief, has decided to stay in the lakehouse they built together. She puts up a strong front and continues with her day-to-day life, but she can’t hide from the night and the tricks on her mind in her dreams. Soon, she cannot tell what a dream is and what is real. Or are they the same? Either way, a ghostly presence is luring her in. So, she begins digging for answers and going into her husband’s affairs. There lies a trail of dark and disturbing urges. ​

The film is about the seductive battle between not wanting to let go without all the answers, vs. the monsters in our mind that feed on us as we walk through that rotted, dark tunnel. On its simplest level, too, it’s the classic sparring between what lies in this world and what exists beyond it, and at what stages in our lives is it possible for them to blend. ​

Watch under the caution of your lamps and with blankets by your side. Don’t think about the souls that once walked through your room now, perhaps hiding under the couch as you reach for your drink. You might find yourself noticing, too, how angles in your home, at just the right tilt, silhouette the human form. Ghosts and spirits prey on our lazy, presumptuous vision and blind expectation that everything will be as it is when we turn around.

My heart is still pumping tight to the chest, and my throat clenches when I consider the story’s morality. It could happen to any of us, and I, for one, will take extra notice the next time I’m at a secluded cabin of every boat rock, every vacant house, every angle shift, every depth beyond dark windows, and every light across the lake.

Reserve your copy in the BCCLS system here to pick up at the Hoboken Public Library.

Comment below your thoughts once you’ve had a watch.

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Written by:
Sean Willey
Information and Digital Services Assistant

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