David Niall Wilson's Blog, page 4

We Came From an Island – Cynthia Pelayo

It’s wonderful when an author takes the time to share some of the very personal things that are parts of them. We Came From an Island is a small, fairly short book with a lot of power behind it. It’s a glimpse into a culture, and a world, that – having read it – I believe would break most people, particularly those of us from the west who, while we have problems of our own, simply have not experienced the level of dismissal, prejudice, and hate our society has built into a norm. On top of that, the stories of family in this volume are deep, and dark. “I come form an angry family,” is a quote that will stick with me, because it was so deep, and so dark.

Cynthia Pelayo is a strong voice in modern horror, and writing stories about her heritage and the struggles of Puerto Ricans is something she has said she will not do as a career. She writes lyrical, folklore driven horror in the city of Chicago, and she is very, very good at it. But this tiny book is a window you can peek through to the shadows that made her strong.

Highly Recommended.

Growing Up Dead in Texas – Stephen Graham Jones

There is so much to unpack in this book. Author Stephen Graham Jones takes readers back to his childhood, to a dusty Texas town where lives are lived one cotton module to the next, where famliies have been living and loving and lying to and about one another for generations. Parts of this are the results of conversations with people he has not seen in a very long time, talking about a mysterious fire that brought several deaths to the community… but even in those parts, it’s about so much more.

There’s a thing about Jones’ writing that is on full display here, that is wonderful. He takes you into his head. He writes, thinks twice about things, seques into memories and back and it’s not at all like fiction. It’s like you are sitting around a fire somewhere, sipping something strong, and listening, as he tells a story. His voice is so strong it replaces the story with images that start to feel like your own memories.

This is very, very good book. It fits in between the cracks of genres, but stitches them together with a blunt needle and thick thread, letting the characters, thoughts and memories slip through the seams to other places. Mystery, memoir, alternate or corrected history? All of that.

Very highly recommended.

First Reactions: The Devil’s in the Flaws & Other Dark Truths

So, arcs have been out for a little while to a number of authors and reviewers, and reactions are coming in. I wanted to creat this post to highlight some of them… Waiting for a book to come off of pre-order is always rough. Waiting until next January is going to kill me… but comments like these absolutely make all the difference. YOU CAN PREORDER NOW on Amazon / B&N / Smashwords / Apple and KOBO. Bookstores will find it in the Ingram Catalog. Release 1/3/2023.

From the Foreword by Richard Chizmar:

David Niall Wilson’s short story collection, The Devil’s in the Flaws & Other Dark Truths is long overdue and well worth the wait. In fact, I devoured it in a single sitting. I can’t remember the last time that happened. Three hundred pages, twenty-one short stories, nearly half of them original to this book, and they went down like a shot of top shelf whiskey, scorching my soul and leaving me dizzy. The Devil’s in the Flaws is a treasure chest of fine storytelling, and I envy you the opportunity to experience it.

Here’s the thing about David Niall Wilson: he can do it all. His prose is clear and concise and propulsive. He knows how to hook the reader, make them care, and guide them to the edge of their seat where they are turning the pages as fast as they can. He’s a natural born storyteller in that regard.

But he’s also something else: a stylish son-of-a-gun; a dark poet. His writing is lush and rich and full of rhythmic layers. Trust me, no one will ever mistake Wilson for a pulp writer (whose work I also happen to enjoy); instead, he comes across as a wizened jazzman, dressed all in black, lurking in the smoky corner of a seedy New Orleans club. If you’re lucky, he’ll wave you over and play you a secret tune. If you’re lucky, he’ll hypnotize you with his wordplay. The point I’m trying to make here is that while many pure storytellers—including yours truly—shine the brightest when it comes to moving the reader from Point A to Point B with a minimum of stylistic flourishes, Wilson’s talent is such that he is able to accomplish this task with a more lofty literary focus. I only despise him a little bit because of this talent.

Blurbs:

“Reading The Devil’s in the Flaws and Other Dark Truths is a wild experience. Some of the tales are short, some a bit longer. The settings and plots pendulum from gritty realism to hyper-surreal. But the thread that runs through them all is David Niall’s Wilson uncanny ability to draw you into his world and render you helpless to look away no matter how uncomfortable you get. I absolutely loved this collection.” —Jonathan Janz, Author of Marla and The Siren and the Specter

“THE DEVIL’S IN THE FLAWS AND OTHER DARK TRUTHS is a deluxe V.I.P. tour of the formidable imagination of David Niall Wilson. A genre veteran, David’s great talent is brilliantly on display in these stories. I found myself rereading passages, savoring the darkly beautiful prose. If you’re a horror fan, you need some Wilson in your life, and this collection is a great start.” – Ray Garton, Author of Live Girls, Crucifax, and dozens of others. “Also from Ray (with permission): “Your writing is beautiful. It contains all the minutia of real life in tangible ways. It moves me. I’m envious because you’re the kind of writer I’ve always wanted to be, and I’ve tried, but without success. I’m a pulp writer to the bone, it turns out.” (Thanks Ray…)

“There is a remarkable range of style on full display in David Niall Wilson’s The Devil’s in the Flaws & Other Dark Truths. Distinguished and completely unpredictable, Wilson flaunts his impressive abilities to always surprise and bewilder his readers. A truly astonishing collection.” —Eric LaRocca, author of Things Have Gotten Worse Since We Last Spoke and Other Misfortunes

The Babysitter – Stephen Graham Jones – Review

Charlotte just wants to hit all the right marks as a good babysitter, study for her SAT exam, and redeem herself after a previous near disaster. The family is weird. Nanycams hidden, locked doors, forbidden spaces, and a lot of rules, but she has it all under control, until she doesn’t.

The house she’s babysitting in has a dark history she was not aware of when she took the job. The kids are being seduced by a power they don’t understand, playing dangerous games in the shadows, and nothing is quite what it seems.

Pitted against her past, her future, her memories and an impossible situtation, Charlotte has to find a way to protect the children, perform her duties and move on to the life that’s waiting for her without ending up dead, in jail… or much worse.

This is Stephen Graham Jones at his darkest and weirdest, bringing the kind of terror that lingers and makes you check the corners and odd places wherever you go, wondering.

BLOOD COUNTRY by Jonathan Janz – Review

I came into Blood Country without having read the first book in the series, but it took right off, and I was able to meet and understand the characters as I went. This is an action-packed book that covers a short period of time, but fleshes out a world, and a group of comrades, perfectly. Dez is searching for Susan, who he was unable to save, and who has been taken by vampires into “Blood Country,” where the vamps rule and hunt, led by a powerful (and very full of herself) queen.

That the world is populated by those who were once human, but who were exposed to a biological weapon that released oppressed genetic characteristics is the key. There are monsters, heroes, werewolves and vampires and trolls and gape-mouthed monster fish. For the most part, you get a flash of monster that fades slowly to show the struggling humanity beneath.

As relationships shift and evolve, and various groups vie for control, a rag-tag band of heroes launches an impossible rescue attempt against impossible odds… while maintaining a level of snarky banter that simply never falls flat.

Very well done and builds well into the next book in the series.

The Things They Carried – Tim O’Brien – Review

THE THINGS THEY CARRIED is not an easy book to read, or listen to. It’s a reminder of some of the worst bits of humanity. |For those of us old enough to remember, it’s also a reminder of a more confusing time… news was limited to TV and papers, weekly magazines. That war that never should have happened… There is a lot to unpack.

Tim O’Brien manages to cover almost all of them. The utter wrongness of the entire concept of war. The fake patriotism that draws you in, because you don’t want family / country / whoever to think badly of you… so you go. And as an author, there are serious lessons to be learned here. The story, “The Things They Carried,” which is only one section of this, is a lesson in detail, in building a character that doesn’t just fill a hole in your plot, but that lives, breathes, feels and serves consequences that stick with the reader. They carried comic books and photographs, bibles and moccasins… some of them lived, others died.

All of them have something to teach. Highly recommended. Brian Cranston did a wonderful job, as always, narrating the main body of the book, but I have to say that the additional bit at the end, where Tim O’Brien narrates a portion of the book while returning to Vietnam with his daughter, felt more real – the emotion was clearly there.

Now I’ll carry some of the things they carried, in my memory… One more person will remember.

Review of THE DEVIL TAKES YOU HOME by Gabino Iglesias

Gabino Iglesias has managed something very difficult in The Devil Takes You Home. He has managed to create a rocket-fuel burning adventure story with dark magic, extreme violence, intrigue and plenty of action , while also presenting deeply resonant themes of racially-fueled pain and Latino culture. Nothing is quite as it seems, with the possible exception of the clearly defined systemic racism built into the characters, and their society.

This is not a novel of hope. This is not a novel of friendship, or good deeds. There are no heroes. It is dark, unrelenting, and passionate, as the best crime fiction always is. The elements of dark magic and supernatural creatures serve to punctuate elements of the plot, and the characters. They aren’t jarring, but are prestented in ways that make them integral to the story… emphasizing the at times over-the-top character flaws, and their roots.

I listened to the audio version of this book. The narrator, Jean-Marc Berne, brought the Spanish elements to life. The characters were well-defined and the pace was smooth.

This is a very intriguing novel from a powerful voice. I am sure we will be hearing more from this author, and if we’re lucky it will make its way to Hollywood. Highly Recommended.

Pre-orders live for THE DEVIL’S IN THE FLAWS

The Devil’s in the Flaws & Other Dark Truths won’t be available until January 3, 2023, but the pre-order is in place on Amazon for the eBook. The paperback will follow. There is going to be a hardcover, eventually, and there will be a limited edition with some very cool intererior illustrations… but here are the two important things. You can preorder now and every order helps. I have review galleys in all electronic formats. It is also live on Goodreads so if you DO read a galley, you can review it.

PRE-ORDER HERE

GOODREADS LINK HERE

This new collection of stories from USA Today bestselling, multiple Bram Stoker winning author David Niall Wilson presents twenty-stories and a brand new, unpublished novella. Wilson’s work has been collected several times in digital only formats. This is the first major collection released since his award-nominated Defining Moments, and the subsequent collection Ennui & Other States of Madness. Included are several previously published works chosen by the author, along with seven previously unpublished stories, and the title piece, “The Devil’s in the Flaws,” a previously unpublished novella.

Included in this collection:

Unique *
The Milk of Paradise
A Prayer for 0443
She Mourned *
Anomaly
One *
You are Just Like Gods
Interred *
Etched Deep
His Cold Gourd Heart *
Fear of Flying *
Little Ghosts *
One Off from Prime
If You Were Glass
Angels
Slider
Teachable Moments *
The Whirling Man
The Last Patriot *
Wayne’s World
The Devil’s in the Flaws *
* Original to this collection

Share! Pre-Order! Review! Spread the word… this is my first major collection since 2008.

Review of SPINAL REMAINS by Chad Lutzke

Spinal Remains by Chad Lutzke, Cemetery Gates Media; 1st edition (August 9, 2022)

This collection is a not-so-friendly neighborhood of stories. Lutzke has crafted all the pieces in this collection around ordinary, everyday people, places, neighborhoods, relationships, and then taken them to strange, and at times very dark places. Often, it’s the matter-of-fact reactions, the unexpected ways the characters play off one another and interact, that are most disturbing.

As in all collections and anthologies, some of the stories made a deeper connection than others. The very first story, “Predisposition and a Box of Crayons,” caught me with the ending. It’s a serious drop into mental illness and parenthood that, if you have children, will leave a chill.

Another stand-out for me was “I Gave Them the Finger,” which introduces another theme that runs throughout the book – body parts. As mentioned above, it’s the very odd ways that those involved in the story react to the horrifying, absurd and chilling turns the stories take that is the key. These are not vivid, pencil in the eye horror stories. They are much more subtle and can catch you off guard. (There is at least one that goes extreme… just to see if you are paying attention).

My favorite story in the collection is “He Wears the Lake.” It’s strange, and more surreal than many of the others. It deals with aging, and dementia. It deals with “dealing” in ways that feel strange and at the same time very real.

“Better than October” is a reminder that teenage boys in coming-of-age stories very often do stupid things. They also, often, find themselves mixed up in ways that they did not expect, and can never escape.

“Baby Steps” is an almost humorous take on a modern day Renfield that is (at the same time) close to the bone for those suffering from addiction.

The final story, Vigil, was well-placed. An entire neighborhood, confronted with an unexpected horror, reacting one-one one, and as a group. Finding a way through something bad while, at the same time, continuing to be neighborly, to tell stories and share food. It felt at first as if all the neighborhoods of the book might be from one place, and that many of them were present for that vigil, even though it is not the case.

This is a very solid collection. Unlike most, it has themes that tie it together, and, with few exceptions, a style that does the same, giving it a solid form as a single book, rather than a patchwork. Highly recommended.

Things Have Gotten Worse Since We Last Spoke Review

Author: Eric LaRocca

Titan Books: Due ont September, 2022

The original novella release of Eric LaRocca’s “Things Have Gotten Worse Since We Last Spoke,” was my first experience of the author. I listened to the audiobook edition, and, despite the odd formatting, a story told through private messages and chat room conversations, that performance was, at first odd and casual, and then spiraled into a very unexpected, very dark place. On the surface, it’s a story of manipulation and desperation, but as is the case with most fiction based on deeper themes, it’s a microcosm of the human desire to be recognized, and loved, to please another and have them reciprocate. It’s also a mirror of the darker truth that this sort of shared devotion is rare, and often fleeting. LaRocca, of course, takes it to its extreme, and just far enough beyond that extreme to be certain you will never forget to be certain you have done all that you can to earn your eyes.

This new collection adds two vastly different tales to that novella, “The Enchantment,” a story of yearning for an empty faith, isolation, and again, desperation, as a lonely woman fights the world, her husband, and other powers for something she can’t quite understand, but craves with all her soul… if she has one? This story is dark in different way from the first, much more sedate in its delivery, which makes the darkness insidiously sneaky.

The final story of the three, “You’ll Find it’s Like that all Over,” has a similar theme, but again, from a new angle. People want to be part of a bigger whole, to ‘get along,’ and be accepted. The protagonist of this story is caught in an unhealthy relationship – his husband is a racist, and his neighbor is foreign, and stand-offish. His attempt to befriend that neighbor politely (if not all that sincerely) lands him in a very strange place, and an even stranger state of mind. This one is full of twists and turns, but again, not the swan dive into emotional discomfort you get from “Things Have Gotten Worse Since We Last Spoke,” or the author’s other novella, “You’ve Lost a Lot of Blood.” It is filled with clever tests and conversation with underlying meaning.

The sense one gets from reading all three is of a strong literary voice with range. It would have been easy to try and mirror the style of the first novella, but instead the author has provided two deeply thoughtful, memorable, and intriguing stories that will take readers by surprise and leave them thinking. Highly recommended.