Hello friend. Today’s Indie Recommends Indie post features author Cristina Mîrzoi. Let’s meet her and learn about the indie books she adores! If you are a horror fan as well, you will finds lots of great indie horror in this post!
Cristina, welcome to Armed with A Book! Since it’s your first time on the blog, can you please tell me and my readers about yourself?
Hi there, so happy to be here! I am a writer from Romania. My preferred genre is dark/weird fiction. I started out with a children’s fantasy novel in my native language, but soon decided to focus on flash fiction horror in English for speculative fiction e-zines. I self-published my first short story collection this year on Amazon and I’m currently working on a dark fantasy novella.
Do you primarily read indie books or big publishers books as well?
I think it’s been 70% big publishers and 30% indies until recent years. Since I started writing, I have been interacting with a lot of indie authors, so I now have a long TBR of indies on my plate for the next few months. The tables will surely turn. 😊
Cristina’s Indie Recommendations
Forget the Sleepless Shores: Stories by Sonya Taaffe
Dark Fantasy, published 2018
Standalone
In Forget the Sleepless Shores readers should expect to be captivated by many ghosts and spirits who inhabit brine, some from tears of heartache and loss, some from strange bodies of water, not necessarily found on the map but definitely discovered through charting a course though the perilous straits of author Taaffe’s imagination, which is eerie and queer (by every definition of the word).
I am in awe of this collection. It may not be everyone’s cup of tea, but since I often prefer style over plot, in certain situations where it delivers a deeper experience, such as a feeling or an idea that will stay with me, then I will embrace it completely. Sonya Taaffe is both a poet and a classical studies scholar and it shows. Her style is simply gorgeous; well balanced between literary and cosmopolitan. I loved the soft tones, the vivid imagery – I could almost feel the sea smell and the chilly breeze. Each word seems to fall exactly where it was always meant to; even when quotes were inserted, it flowed so naturally; it didn’t feel like distinct authors. You need time to take it all in, so I welcomed a pause between each story. Most of them are odd, unsettling, melancholic, sad and surprisingly tender. They touch upon themes such as death, grief, yearning, or tragic love. We follow these tragic characters and stumble upon haunting creatures such as monsters, ghosts, angels, dybbuks and golems. Some stories are actually heavily imbued with Ashkenazi Jewish folklore, one of my favourites, The Dybbuk in Love, is simultaneously romantic and creepy. Also, most have LGBTQ+ representation.
It’s very difficult to place into a certain category. I would recommend for weird fiction readers who enjoy surreal, unsettling and sensual writing.
Trying To Be So Quiet & Other Hauntings by James Everington
Genre: Ghost Fiction/Horror
Published 2019
Standalone
Trying To Be So Quiet & Other Hauntings presents three stories about love, loss and the horror that comes when grief removes our reason for living from the world.
In ‘The Second Wish’, a son coping with the sudden death of his parents returns to his childhood home only to find that, despite everything being familiar, things inside seem increasingly unreal.
In ‘Damage’ a grieving lover loses all sensation of pain as she tries to make sense of her enduring grief.
The title story is a novella telling of a husband’s struggle with the reality of his wife’s death as he remembers their life together. Although haunted, he struggles to find the ghosts that assail him as meaningful as the bleak fact that he is now alone. But that doesn’t stop him seeing them…
Death has always been an awkward topic for me. I never know what to say or how to feel. I’m not even sure if I know what grief means, and most times I just try to move forward and not think much about it.
Reading these three short stories was quite intense. We can label them as ghost stories, but not in the classical sense, as are main characters are haunted by their own emotions, which they fear more than spectres. The 1st one is basically a candid story involving a recently widowed man searching for closure. The 2nd is about a grown man whose parents have passed away. While back home to sell the house, he finds himself overwhelmed by his surroundings. The last one is about a suicidal young woman on the 1st year anniversary of her partner’s passing, and it is the most unsettling one, as it is the rawest in terms of grief. I had to pause between them as their awkwardness genuinely moved me. I loved the simplicity of the memories. The style is so delicate and beautiful; it makes the hurt palpable, so much that it lingered in my mind afterwards, as I wondered how I would react if I were in their stead.
I think that many readers could enjoy and take conform in these small three pieces regardless of their preferred genre.
Ripper Country: A Collection by Jack Harding
Genre: Gothic Horror
Published Year 2022
Standalone
A darkly twisted feast of Gothic horror stories that will take you to the edge of darkness – and beyond…
Welcome to RIPPER COUNTRY.
A semi-alternate Victorian London where imagination runs wild and madness reigns supreme. Where the cobbled streets run red with the blood of the innocent, and unscrupulous fiends come out to play. Where the wicked stench coming off the old river pales in comparison to the foulness of the crimes that will forever haunt the annals of British history.
Where the man you know as Jack The Ripper is the least of Whitechapel’s worries.
Inside these pages, you will find stories of fear, madness, suspense and terror that will stay with you long after you turn the last page.
Enjoy this blood-soaked debut collection from Jack Harding, author of React and Driving in the Dark, a British horror author set to leave his own blood-soaked legacy on this haunted land…
Since I’m a big fan of Victorian-age ghost stories, once I saw this collection, I thought it would fit like a glove. And it did because I enjoyed it much more than I expected to.
The author reframes the mythos of Jack the Ripper into several interconnected stories. Each could be read on its own, but together they create this murky stream of gloom and macabre from which precious things such as humanity, hope and friendship surface scarcely. And it’s the most beautiful thing, that despite the raw imagery, the cruelty, madness and overall dark narrative, you see these glimpses of hope that bring warmth and candour to the overall tragic and gruesome tales.
I loved how each story was told from another person’s point of view, that sometimes the ominous narrator disappears, and the villain was the one addressing you nonchalantly while making you a witness to his endless cruelty. Another story written from the 2nd person perspective, so you feel like a small child scarred by the Bogeyman.
I liked the small insertion of classical literary pieces in the dialogue: Alice in Wonderland, Dorian Gray, Sherlock Holmes or Dracula, as a tribute to this great legacy of weird and surreal tales.
I would recommend this to fans of historical fiction, gothic fiction, to those who savour old ghost stories from the Victorian era.
I Hear the Clattering of the Keys (and Other Fever Dreams) by Jamie Stewart
Genre : Occult Fiction
Published Year 2021
Standalone
This debut collection from Jamie Stewart is a collection of macabre tales where ordinary lives find themselves shattered by forces that lurk on the fringes of existence.
Meet Alan Madden, who only wants to offer his son advice, even after his death; or Susie Granger, who worries for her neighbour Jane, known to everyone else as The Witch of Denison Street; or Sabina Kyle, who gets a special birthday present that – for a price – can make her dreams come true.
Jamie Stewart, co-editor of Welcome to the Funhouse, presents seven nightmarish tales that peel back the skin of normality to show that insanity and horror are only a scrape away.
This chilling collection of seven short stories is quite powerful despite its length. Like a cold serpent, the weird/gruesome elements slide unnoticed at first through mundane glimpses of life. It all starts very casual; It introduces you to these relatable people, living in relatable places, starting their relatable day at work or at home with their families. The realism makes these paranormal, creepy and gruesome tales even more disturbing. I liked the author’s blunt style, the unexpected twists and the complexity of his troubled characters. I wasn’t necessarily rooting for them, but I understood them and their reasons for acting in a certain way quite well. My favourite story was probably Trick or Treat; it’s so devastating and leaves you with an unsettling feeling of hollowness. The writer has a brilliant talent for breaking the wall between the reader and his words, as you actually experience a whirlwind of emotions, instead of just watching from the outside.
I feel like The Twilight Zone fans could enjoy these stories, it’s also a good fit for ghost and paranormal lovers.
The Lunchling by Jay Alexander
Genre : Folk Horror
Published Year 2022
Standalone, possible sequel
Orville and Ellie Taylor would do anything to get their son to eat his dinner. Lennon’s an exceedingly fussy kid, and desperate times call for desperate measures.
Which is why they started using the puppet.
“The Lunchling”, they called it: an ugly little wooden doll with a funny voice. It was hideous, and dumb, and a little bit terrifying. And it was the only thing keeping Lennon alive.
Until it started trying to kill him…
Now Orville will do anything to get rid of the demented puppet, but it’s not giving up easy. It’s a part of the family now, and it’s hungry…
The Lunchling is a tale of fear and family, inspired by the classic and iconic slasher movies of the eighties and nineties. This horror novella from Jay Alexander, author of Price Manor: The House That Falls and Starving Grounds (coming June 2022), will stick with you long after you’ve buried it underground.
There’s a funny reason I picked up this book. I was a picky eater when I was a child. I remember my usual lunch: friend chicken and French fries, but even so, I very often simply refused to eat. My grandmother had received a creepy doll from a friend as a gift to me. In the early 90s Romania, all children had more or less the same toys, not very colourful and not very fun, but I was surprisingly fond of this one (I still have it) and same as with the little boy from this novella, my parents used this boy doll to make me sit at the table and eat. The good part is that my doll wasn’t evil and trying to sacrifice me to some unearthly being (I hope 😊). So, this explains part of the appeal of this novella. I really enjoyed it was just the right amount of creepy. It was packed with great action, well-paced, it was even funny at times, like a campfire tale, keeping me on the edge of my seat. But despite of the action and the scary stuff, it also had soul. I loved that. I loved the father. He was so endearing in his love for his family and so honest, I very much wanted him to be safe at the end of this book. Not just physically, but also from an emotional point of view.
I would recommend this to 80s horror and folk horror fans. Trust me, it’s a fun ride.
Cristina’s Book Spotlight
The Headsman
Gothic Fiction
Published 2022
Take a glimpse into the world of a headsman, a gloomy village in which each dweller has a secret: an evil witch, a shrewd florist, a naive young man, a foreign merchant, a dreadful husband, a mischievous maid, and a lustful duke. These stories are intertwined, weaving a dark narrative of love, trickery, brutality, and loss.
Under the bleak aesthetic, raw human emotions unravel themselves in a gripping story about moral decay. In a world that belongs to the wicked, how far can one walk this path while keeping a clean conscience?
The Headsman is a collection of short stories that focus on interconnected characters, sometimes looking at the same event from a different perspective. As a genre, it falls somewhere under dark fiction territory.
Goodreads and IndieStoryGeek
Readers who enjoyed Forget the Sleepless Shores and Ripper Country would like this book.
Connect with Cristina on Twitter and Goodreads. See Linktree for other links.
Did you add any books to your TBR today based on this post or did you see any you have already read? Tell us in the comments!
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Banner Photo of library by Alfons Morales on Unsplash
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