Book Review | A Complex Accident of Life by Jessica McHugh

 A Complex Accident of Life is a poetry collection by Jessica McHugh.

Inspired by Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, Jessica McHugh's debut poetry collection, A Complex Accident of Life, combines visual art and text to create 52 pieces of Gothic blackout poetry exploring the intense passion, enigmatic nature, and transformative pleasure of life, viewed through the kaleidoscopic lens of a female horror artist.

Wow, I really loved this collection. It was written using the blackout poetry technique where you use words contained within an existing text and blackout the rest creating a poem. I'll post an example from this collection here:

Affection

I must own my purpose.
Courage and hope will demand all my fortitude,
And there is a great remaining road between
     Angel     and     intention.

All of the poems in this collection were created using pages out of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein. I loved it. The poems were incredible, and I'm really inspired by the whole process.

If you're a fan of poetry, do check it out.

4.5/5 stars

Book Review | Scritch Scratch by Lindsay Currie

Scritch Scratch is a middle grade horror novel by Lindsay Currie.

A ghost story about a malevolent spirit, an unlucky girl, and a haunting mystery that will tie the two together.

Claire has absolutely no interest in the paranormal. She’s a scientist, which is why she can’t think of anything worse than having to help out her dad on one of his ghost-themed Chicago bus tours. She thinks she’s made it through when she sees a boy with a sad face and dark eyes at the back of the bus. There’s something off about his presence, especially because when she checks at the end of the tour…he’s gone.

Claire tries to brush it off, she must be imagining things, letting her dad’s ghost stories get the best of her. But then the scratching starts. Voices whisper to her in the dark. The number 396 appears everywhere she turns. And the boy with