Wings of Sorrow

The latest horror novella from Sfetsos (Through the Blur) underdelivers on a promising concept. Newlyweds Thera and Hector arrive for a week of sorting and clearing out Thera’s recently deceased aunt’s house only for things to immediately become strange and worrisome. They encounter locked doors with deep scratches gouged into them, paintings that move, and huge numbers of crows and ravens gathering around the property. As the couple uncovers a generational curse that effects the women in Thera’s family, the plot reads like a classic haunted house novel crossed with Hitchcock’s The Birds. It’s a cool combination of tropes, but Sfetsos’s lackluster prose fails to provide the scares and atmospherics necessary to suck readers in. The question of whether Thera and Hector’s true love can break the curse feels well-worn, and attempted feminist commentary about the matrilineal curse, while admirable, never goes particularly deep. This is best suited for Sfetsos’s existing fans. (July)