Today, I’m reviewing two recent releases from Crystal Lake Publishing. I originally wasn’t planning on purchasing either of them, but immediately before Doll Crimes was published, its author, Karen Runge, was brutally attacked by poachers in a nature reserve. I felt the least I could do to help support her was pre-ordering a copy of her book.

Power is a short story that cost only 99 cents, and since I had an Amazon digital credit for that amount which was about to expire, I thought why not give it a try? Continue reading →

Several reoccurring themes emerge in this collection. Many stories reference Alice in Wonderland, as well as blood, doors, smashed mirrors, the beach, sisters, unreliable memories, madness, dreams, movies, men and women in conflict, doppelgangers, metamorphosis, people with dog masks, and out-of-body experiences. Also, several of the stories make references to the cover image. While the repeating images would normally feel repetitious to me, they don’t here, taking on thematic tones. It’s actually repetitious in a good way. The stories also make references to each other on several occasions, so many of them take place in the same world. Continue reading →