shrouded skeleton statue

Daryl M.

Librarian


Posts by Daryl M.

  • Kelli Estes and her latest novel, Today We Go Home

    Interview With an Author: Kelli Estes

    Kelli Estes lived in the deserts of eastern Washington state and Arizona before settling in the Seattle area, which she loves so much she plans to forever live near the water. She’s passionate about…

  • Scott Thomas and his latest novel, Violet

    Interview With an Author: Scott Thomas

    Scott Thomas’ debut novel, Kill Creek, is a classic “haunted house” updated for the 21st Century. It is also a love letter to the horror genre, its authors and readers. Now Thomas is back with his…

  • Shaun Hamill and his first novel, A Cosmology of Monsters

    Interview With an Author: Shaun Hamill

    Shaun Hamill is a native of Arlington, Texas. He holds an MFA from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop and lives in the dark woods of Alabama with his wife, his in-laws, and his dog. A Cosmology of Monsters is…

  • Jennifer Giesbrecht and her first book, The Monster of Elendhaven

    Interview With an Author: Jennifer Giesbrecht

    Jennifer Giesbrecht is a native of Halifax, Nova Scotia where she earned an undergraduate degree in history, spent her formative years as a professional street performer, and developed a deep and…

  • Rhys Thomas and his new novel, The Secret Life of Sam Holloway

    Interview With an Author: Rhys Thomas

    Rhys Thomas is the author of The Suicide Club and On the Third Day. He lives in Cardiff, Wales, with his partner and three cats. His new novel is The Secret Life of Sam Holloway and he recently agreed…

  • Sarah David-Goff and her debut novel, Last Ones Left Alive

    Interview With an Author: Sarah Davis Goff

    Sarah Davis-Goff was born and lives in Dublin. Her writing has been published in the Irish Times, the Guardian and LitHub. Last Ones Left Alive is her debut novel and she recently agreed to talk about…

  • Dahlia Adler and her book His Hideous Heart

    Interview With an Author: Dahlia Adler

    Dahlia Adler is an associate editor of mathematics by day, a blogger for B&N Teens, LGBTQ Reads, and Frolic by night, and an author of young adult and new adult novels at every spare moment in between…

  • Alix E. Harrow and her first novel The Ten Thousand Doors of January

    Interview With an Author: Alix E. Harrow

    Alix E. Harrow is a part-time historian with a full-time desk job, a lot of opinions, and excessive library fines. Her short fiction has appeared in Shimmer, Strange Horizons, Tor.com, Apex, and other…

  • Tim Mason and his first adult novel, The Darwin Affair

    Interview With an Author: Tim Mason

    Tim Mason is a playwright whose work has been produced in New York and throughout the world. Among the awards he has received are a Kennedy Center Award, the Hollywood Drama-Logue Award, a fellowship…

  • Del Howison and his first novel, The Survival of Margaret Thomas

    Interview With an Author: Del Howison

    Del Howison is an award-winning editor, journalist, fiction author, and actor. He has been nominated for the Bram Stoker Award four times (and won it once), for the Black Quill Award twice, for the…


Reviews by Daryl M.

  • Cover image for The Children on the Hill

    The Children on the Hill

    • By: McMahon, Jennifer
    • Reviewed By: Daryl M.
    Monster. The word brings to mind ugly, misshapen creatures wreaking havoc wherever they go. Perhaps the most famous monster is Frankenstein’s monster from Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein. It’s been over 200 years since the teenaged Shelley created one of the most enduring tales of all time. And over the last two...
  • Cover image for Siren Queen

    Siren Queen

    On a whim, a young Chinese-American girl pays with an inch of her hair so that she and he sister can see Romeo and Juliet at the new nickelodeon in their neighborhood. From that moment on, she has a single desire: to be a motion picture star. Not simply an...
  • Cover image for Never Been Kissed

    Never Been Kissed

    • By: Janovsky, Timothy
    • Reviewed By: Daryl M.
    As Wren Roland celebrates his 22nd birthday with his best friends and roommates, Mateo and Avery, he begins to lament the fact that he has never been kissed. He’s been close, but has yet to experience what his degree in film studies has convinced him will be a life-altering and...
  • Cover image for Only a Monster

    Only a Monster

    • By: Len, Vanessa
    • Reviewed By: Daryl M.
    Joan believes herself to be a typical teenager. She spends her summers in London visiting her maternal grandmother, while her father visits his family in Malaysia. During this visit, she has been volunteering at Holland House, a historic home and museum in Kensington. Holland House is where she met Nick...
  • Cover image for The Book Woman's Daughter

    The Book Woman's Daughter

    • By: Richardson, Kim Michele
    • Reviewed By: Daryl M.
    In 2019, Kim Michele Richardson told the story of Cussy Mary Carter and her work as a Pack Horse Librarian in The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek. Now, in 2022,  Richardson returns to tell the next chapter in Cussy Mary’s story, which actually belongs to her daughter, in The Book...
  • Cover image for One last stop

    One last stop

    • By: McQuiston, Casey
    • Reviewed By: Daryl M.
    A young woman on her way to her first day of classes at Brooklyn College spills coffee on herself just prior to boarding the subway. Another young woman on the train comes to her rescue with a scarf and a kind word. The next time the student boards the train...
  • Cover image for The Quarter Storm

    The Quarter Storm

    • By: Henry, Veronica G.
    • Reviewed By: Daryl M.
    Vodou priestess Mambo Reina Dumond learned the practices and customs of Vodou as a child from her father, while her family was living in Haiti. She is inhabited by the spirit of Erzulie, which makes her a gifted practitioner of water magic. Reina operates a small business behind her home...
  • Cover image for One-Shot Harry

    One-Shot Harry

    • By: Phillips, Gary
    • Reviewed By: Daryl M.
    The year is 1963. Martin Luther King, Jr. is about to hold his Freedom Rally at Wrigley Field in Los Angeles; William H. Parker is Chief of the Los Angeles Police Department; John F. Kennedy is President of the United States; Pat Brown is the Governor of California; Gas is...
  • Cover image for The Fervor: A Novel

    The Fervor: A Novel

    Meiko is the Japanese wife of Jamie Briggs, a white US Air Force pilot fighting in World War II. Meiko, and her daughter Aiko, are “residents” of the Minidoka internment camp in Idaho. A few days ago, an unscheduled truck came to the camp. The residents are told to stay...
  • Cover image for Mickey7

    Mickey7

    • By: Ashton, Edward
    • Reviewed By: Daryl M.
    Mickey Barnes NEEDS to get off Midgard, the colony planet on which he has lived his entire life. Because staying on Midgard is not an option, he takes the only avenue open to him: he volunteers to be the “expendable” on Midgard’s first outgoing colony ship, the Drakkar. An “expendable”...