Diane M. Johnson's Blog, page 5

Sing Our Bones Eternal -- A Darkly Poetic Mermaid Folktale

 

Cover Image courtesy of
author
Sing Our Bones eternal is a richly drawn fantasy where seafaring Bluebeards hunt mermaids to sacrifice to their god, a magical tree named Kilda who will grant favor for those sacrifices. Senga is the primary character, the daughter of one such hunter, and a hunter herself, although she’s going through a major identity crisis, believing that bewitching may have occurred to transform her from mermaid to human.

Abilene, a mermaid captured by Senga's family for the purpose of sacrifice, spends time with Senga while in captivity, and she is more than willing to convince Senga of the awful truth.

The author has a highly picturesque style of writing. The world these characters inhabit is drawn in splashy poetic—and often horrific detail. There’s no doubt that a lot of heart went into the telling of this story. It's a darkly detailed romantic fantasy that doesn’t shy away from themes of abuse, loss, sacrifice and sexual awakening, dressed in a folkloric world of mermaids and satyrs and werewolves.

But it can sometimes be hard to follow because of the rich style of writing. The story unfolds from multiple points of view that had me pausing to ratchet back, trying to remember who was who and what their connections were to the other characters in the story, and because of it, I often felt a bit disconnected from those characters. But for the right audience—that being dark romantic fantasy—this story is sure to entertain.

This is not the kind of story I normally choose, so take that into consideration when I rate this a four. It’s ultimately not my kind of story, but it’s well written on multiple levels, and I recognize that quality. I want to thank the author for providing this ARC.

Tap the cover image for a Goodreads link.

Reviewing Horror in November — A Short Story Collection, and Splatterpunk

 As a newer member of the HWA—Horror Writers Association—I have had the opportunity to access a boatload of ARCs from authors in hopes of getting attention to be considered for Brahms Stoker. This was a member perk that I wasn’t expecting, but I’ve taken advantage of it by trying to review as many as I can read. I’ve posted reviews of several, and I wish I could read faster. So, below are the ones I’ve finished for the month of November. Two great books for two different horror audiences.

Cover image courtesy of
Death Knell Press
First up is Impulses of a Necrotic Heart, a collection of short stories by Red Lagoe. I adored this collection of quick reads. The stories have a lot of heart, sometimes heartbreak, sometimes vengeful, sometimes with a dash of soul. They tackle subjects ranging from body horror specific to being women, to managing the loss of loved ones, to coming to terms with death to penance and retribution.
What more can I say about this collection of short stories except that they were nothing less than fantastic. Red Lagoe handles them with a delicate hand while not shying from the horrific aspects of every one.

Highly recommended reading, especially if you only have time for a snippet here and there. Five Stars.

You can purchase the book here.

Cover image courtesy of 
Black Void Publishing
Next up, a bloodbath of a book with a pair of Native American MCs. Churn the Soil by Steve Stred.

This is a police procedural with a gruesome horror backdrop, as we follow two characters, Office Brown and Nancy—a resident of an outlier settlement along the border of an Alaskan/Canadian No man's land. And it’s literally that—a no man's land, where the inhabitants of the settlement have come to accept their role as keepers of a stretch of clearing between them and the forest beyond it, even though they aren’t sure why. The clearing must be maintained, and no one is to set foot in the forest beyond it.

But someone does just that, a young girl who challenges the notion, then winds up dead in the most gruesome way. Border resident Nancy receives a spiritual calling to find answers, as does Officer Brown, who was once a member of the settlement as a child. The townsfolk don’t like police interference though, which makes investigation, with wildly supernatural elements in play, difficult.

Stred's writing style is succinct, short chapters that are easy to commit to, with enough pull at the end to draw you into 'just one more' chapter. He doesn’t rely on flowery prose which, for the most part is an effective and streamlined method of story telling here. This is the right kind of story for Stred's chosen writing style. Also, if you’re looking for something to read with a Native/indigenous connection, this can go on your list, as The Border is essentially an outlier indigenous community. Both Officer Brown and Nancy are of indigenous heritage, and I like the fact that Stred doesn’t lean heavy into tropes regarding that heritage. The horror touches on Hopi folklore without the intent of caricature.

This is a solid 3+ read for me, while not quite tipping into 4 territory. The gore is a plus. I like the main characters, although I wish we had a chance to go deeper into their psyches at times. There was one particular villainous twist that I saw coming, so that eventual reveal didn’t hit me like I wished it would have done. Also, because I brought it up so often in my reviews this year, it passes that Bechdel test. Not by much, but Nancy is a strong female character and that's always a plus for me. All in all, this was an imaginative and blood filled take on a monster from Hopi folklore.

You can purchase the book here.

 

Quick Book Review — I Died Too, But They Haven’t Buried Me Yet — by Ross Jeffery

Cover Image courtesy of Clash Books
Henry is an ass. I know, some book review sites will get their panties in a bunch (looking at you, Amazon) because I used a swear word, but Henry IS an ass, and every single character that inhabits Ross Jeffery’s story here would agree. Fuck, Henry would even agree. He is a seriously flawed MC; a misogynist, a homophobe and a past-his-prime ex-husband with some serious anger issues. So, if you don’t like seriously flawed main characters like Henry, this book won’t be for you. 
I love seriously flawed main characters—I mean, I wouldn’t make the time to hang out with ones as belligerent as Henry, but I love to read about them with the hope that they will grow. There are other reasons to give Henry a chance. He's grieving over the loss of his daughter. Twelve years have passed since her disappearance, and the case is essentially closed. But Henry is still grieving, and the process involves burying pieces of her on the anniversary of that disappearance. Well, not pieces of her, per say, but pieces of his memories of her. Because Henry is guilt ridden. For whatever reason, he blames himself for what he has come to accept as her death. He is also coping with the help of a therapy group whose members are equally—and inadequately grieving over the deaths of loved ones. So, Henry is in good company. And his best friend Josh, also grieving over the loss of his wife, is a standup guy. His compassion and tolerance helps make up for Henry's lack of it. 
Henry's daughter Elsie comes back to haunt him in terrifying ways with the help of one new member of the grievance club, and he's not a friend but most certainly may be a foe preying on Henry’s guilt. Josh is the one who tries to save Henry from traveling deeper down the road of despair as he tries to justify the strange happenings that he too has witnessed. 
I’m liking a lot of elements of this story. Jeffery brings the horror to the table. He manages grief like a grief ninja, and there are moments when I found myself truly invested in what happens next. But the storytelling pace did feel uneven at times. There are moments that dragged for me, like the three pages of trepidation that it took for Josh to open a letter. Once we get there, Jeffery delivers, but those three page beforehand…like pulling a loose thread that has no end. It gets aggravating. And speaking of Josh, I felt like the storyline involving his grief was left incomplete. But Henry’s story is the main story, and it comes to a heartbreaking end. 
I have to admit that I was not as surprised by the ending as I hoped I would be. But it’s a logical ending, an appropriately tragic ending, and it affords the opportunity for a grieving character to grow where he needs to grow. Another strong point, the characters rang true to those above mentioned flaws. Jeffery knows how to create solid characters whose actions and words ring true.Anyway, I'm rating this one a 3.75, which bumps it to a 4 here. I’m holding back from a higher rating mostly because of those drawn out passages that delayed getting to the literal punch of the horror. But the horror bits, once we got there, were worth it. Thank you to the author and publisher for the ARC.

Quick Book Review --The Girls in the Cabin by Caleb Stephens

Cover Image courtesy of Joffe Books
The Girls in the Cabin is a solid entry in the psychological horror/thriller realm with plenty of triggerry topics to be aware of, if you need mention of that. I'm going to try my best to avoid spoilers here, while touching on those potential triggers.

The gist of the story is this: A father and his two daughters, Emma (8) and Kayla (teenager) go on a camping trip after the death of their mother to cancer. The trip is an attempt to get past the loss and to bond as a family, but this is a challenge because of deeper, more complicated reasons. The girls have lost trust in their dad. Some reasons are legitimately his fault. Others are just a part of the grieving process, of losing their mom who is portrayed as the anchor of the family. And of course, a camping trip, the wilds...the youngest has an accident in the midst of a freak storm, and the only hope of saving her comes when they find refuge at a woman's home in the middle of nowhere. This is story one -- a grieving family trying to move on and to forgive each other in order to become a family again.

Then there's story two -- Clara, the owner of the house. Clara had an abusive upbringing that flags many triggers--rape, child abuse, domestic abuse, and author Stephens does not shy away from the details. She is broken, but she's a survivor--and maybe the friends and remaining family that she has is the glue that has kept her together. One of them is a confidante named Sydney, another girl who met with Clara when they were kids at a cabin in the woods. They formed a special bond during their childhood years, and Sydney grew to become Clara's protector--mostly from the awful men in Clara's life.

Enter Chris and his broken family into Clara's life where she still longs for the perfect family that was never hers to be had. Also enter, jaded and overprotective Sydney, and you have what could have been the makings of a romantic comedy. But this story is far from a romantic comedy, and the terror that awaits these two families comes together with increasing , graphic detail.

It's a tense and terrifying read, which is what it should be. Well done.

This may seem a weird criticism though, but I don't really like the book's title. Most of the story takes place on a dilapidated farm in a rundown, two story home. I guess it's true that these girls came together at a cabin during their childhood, but the cabin itself is from a memory and kind of insignificant. Maybe that's a whiny criticism on my part, but it still bugs me. A little.

Mental health issues also play a big part in this story (a trigger for some). Portraying mental health issues in horror can get tricky. It can come across as offensive for some, and while this story veers dangerously into cringey mental health issues territory (no spoilers on how here...), I'm happy to say that I felt like the author handled those issues with a fair level of compassion and understanding.

A solid, thriller with a lot of cringe worthy, tortuous horror. Oh, and one more thing. It passes the Bechdel test. Easily. It's amazing how often the horror I read seems to reach that bar.

Thanks to author Caleb Stephens and publisher Joffe Books for the ARC review copy of the book.

Hey, Bing Chatbot, Find My books!

And it does.
And the rest is more than disturbing.

A conversation with Bing's chatbot. We book authors have nothing to worry about with AI. Nothing at all...

At least I can say that its ability to summarize my books is...wrong. Except for The Schoharie. It's close but still not right. And it promises not to come up with stories based on my own writing! Unless, of course, if I change my mind...

Nope, nothing to worry about. Nothing at all...

Check out the conversation on my Facebook Author page: https://www.facebook.com/CaseyAdamsSt...

Prophet Reborn is a 2023 Readers' Favorite Book Awards Finalist in the Category of Christian Thriller!

So, this happened...
https://readersfavorite.com/book-review/prophet-reborn
I'm thrilled to announce that  Prophet Reborn , the second book of the  Perfect Prophet  trilogy, has been recognized as a finalist in the 2023 Readers Favorite Book Awards under the category of Christian Thrillers. This is among the top 6 of the entrants in the category.
I haven't entered my books into many contests, so to place in one is pretty cool! Feel free to click on the link below the press release to read a Readers Fave review and to buy, and don't forget to check out the entire trilogy, including the final chapter, Perfect Sacrifices too!

Quick Book Review—What Doesn’t Kill You by Ken Brosky

 

Cover image courtesy of
Timber Ghost Press
This is a solid and imaginative piece of horror, maybe taking its inspiration from a creature in Greek mythology. The story begins with a very successful woman, responsible for creating a social media app called TheBuzz, returning home to her dead end town to give them a gift. Of course things turn incredibly bad quickly, once the gift — a statuesque female like creature with a beehive for a head, comes to life. 
The only way to survive this queen and her protective drones is to literally kill her. Because, according to successful businesswoman Emma, your perseverance in killing the thing proves you’re special. It proves that you have what it takes to break free of the strangling hold of a small town like Seven Sisters and to transform into something bigger than your weaknesses, into something successful. 

But as you might guess, killing this monster isn’t easy. It regenerates in a unique way, and if you do succeed in “killing it," be prepared for the truly unexpected consequences. Bee careful what you wish for… see what I did there? (I’ll show myself out…)
You can find a copy of What Doesn't Kill You at AMAZON or direct from the publisher, TIMBER GHOST PRESS. 

The Threads Guy and the Problem with We the People on Social Media

Social media is a thing these days, especially with the likes of the Muskrat gumming up the works, and Dorsey keeping his fingers in the pie, and the Zuckster challenging the status quo. And that's not even touching on the likes of Mastadon or Hive or TikTok or, Insert-A-Platform-Here. It’s too much, to be honest, especially when having a social media presence, in some form or other, is necessary. Because I am a writer. And an introvert. That second one doesn’t bode well for a promoter of books, but I do what I can.

So, when the great social media wars broke out, where Musk promised to make all sorts of horrendous changes to Twitter (“X”) once he acquired it, and has been fulfilling that promise ever since, I was one of millions who scrambled to find that new place to inhabit, to maybe find some like minded readers and writers (and viewers and screenwriters) to support each other, to keep track of the writing world and to maybe sell some books.

But that’s not how social media works, is it. Social media inevitably wants to take that turn down the unlit path to show us the seedy underbelly of its existence—the antisocial network. And that underbelly is vast and ravenous and bloated. Or so it seems. I’m going to remain positive and suggest that none of us want to go there, knowing full well that maybe pieces of us do if for no reason than to peek, to say that we've seen what can’t be unseen, to experience the reprehensible. And whether we've accepted this sad truth or not, I'm willing to bet money that most of us have had to, at some point, deal with it.

Recent case in point, the Threads Guy. I’m not going to officially name the Threads Guy. Let’s face it, we've all had bad days including myself with this particular encounter. But the Threads Guy reached out with a promise:

The Threads Guy wanted to do something charitable for his fellow writers in the community, in part to gain some followers, no doubt,  but hey, that’s the catch 22 of the social media writing community—support other writers, but hopefully gain something in return. What Threads Guy is giving away is pretty common in the writing community, a chance to post your book on his thread, free advertising of sorts! And the slim chance that he will be interested enough to buy it, maybe review it.

I’ve posted things like this, but never with the promise to buy one or two. I prefer to pay it forward once in a while by checking out an author's work without teasing anyone with the promise that I will. But I’ve hosted a few ShamelessPromo days inviting authors to list their books and repost others in the list. Like I said, it’s a common thing. So I followed Threads Guy and I posted a book with a thanks, if he happened to decide to buy it. I did it hastily, amidst a rough week of personal things going down, but I posted it and moved on.

Needless to say, Threads Guy wasn’t happy with my post. I didn’t lead with a teaser to what the book was about, and legit my bad. I was rushed when I posted, distracted to get out the door on time. It doesn’t matter. It happened, and I missed an opportunity, and oh well. That should have been the end of it. Except for that little bit of passive aggressiveness at the end. “They're really not difficult rules." Clearly, I had complicated Threads Guy's day. 

It irked me, that little finger wag. It really did. Not because he wasn’t going to RT my post, I don’t have time to worry about that. The dude gave his reason, and that was fair enough. But, "they’re really not difficult rules." Why was that necessary? I brushed it off and moved on. 

But Threads Guy followed up about his ruined day with a separate post…

This one really did irritate me because I knew he might not be speaking about me specifically, but I was definitely one of the ones to provide the ruin of his day. So I unfollowed the guy and responded in kind—wrong turn #1 on my part, but, I had had a long day once I saw it, a long couple of months to be honest, and I hoped to give him something to think about. 

That didn’t go well... In fact, Mr. Nice Guy showed his underbelly, where his charitable act of reposting the work of other writers came down to HIS effing RULES. He decided that my angry volley in return was because he refused to repost me, because he assumed that I thought I should get special treatment, when in reality I was just irked that he felt the need to reprimand me by reminding me that "it’s not that hard."

I still don’t think Mr. Nice Charitable Threads Guy gets it, as is highlighted by the maniacal laughter and the suggestion for me to grow up. Maybe I don’t get it, but really…nah. At minimum, I would have taken the time to say, sorry for your loss. 

But there's a chance that he’s right about my need to grow up because, while I’m mature enough to block out Threads Guy's identity, I can’t unsee the irony in how those simple green cross outs resemble a dick.

Be kind, people. Or at least try. I know, sometimes it’s hard. It’s the effort that counts.

A Very Brief Review of Mr. Jacobs vs. the Demonic Clowns...(a very long titled book)

 

Cover Image courtesy of 
Evil Cookie Publishing
Thank you NetGalley, Evil Cookie Publishing and the author for providing this ARC.

Mr. Jacobs is a plot centric novella that focuses on the actions of the outlandish Mr. Jacobs and his happenstance crew trying to save the world from a takeover by the Unnamed Shadowlord through the possession of a few hapless party clowns. It sounds like fun, right? And it is fun, to a certain degree. If you’re a fan of the exploits of a Doctor Who type of lead, or a Dirk Gently genius, or the novels of Christopher Moore or Craig McLay, then you might indeed enjoy this story.

But there’s not a lot of depth to these characters. They are arguably quirky, but we don’t get to know them or feel for them in a deeper sense. You may say that comedy isn’t designed for that, but I disagree. In my mind, a character facing an external challenge, like saving the world, still needs to face an internal challenge too, like coming to terms with his or her own beliefs or fears. Hence, the three rating for me. But it passes the Bechdel test—something that’s been lingering at the back of my mind all year so far, so thank you for scratching that itch.

Also, the ARC draft I read was riddled with pushed together wordslikethis. Sometimes this happens with advanced copies of books, so I tried not to let it influence my rating. But if these errors shouldn’t be the case, I want the publishers to be aware of it. Thanks for the read!

Find access to the book here

Brief Book Review -- Bunny by Mona Awad

Cover Image courtesy of Penguin Books
First, cudos to Mona Awad for stepping up to the plate and challenging the tech industry over using her material to train AI to write things. I'm in full support of this author's challenge. Now, about the novel Bunny ...

This is the second time I'm writing this review because the first one didn't post at B&N --thanks, nook app. I "love" starting over.

But hey, I did like this book. It's confusing as heck because of the trippy things that happen--the main character Smackie, an English grad student with a huge inferiority complex, is also a highly unreliable narrator. But her imagination kicks in big time as she bleeds out her tale of woe while trying to fit in with the rich girls on campus, who reach out to include her after several semesters of treating her like an other.

And she is an other--the horror elements are a fantastic and bizarre flip to a Stepford Wives ideal, but the love story, the real love story that makes Samantha the "other", is the reason to keep reading. You could argue that there are similarities to plenty of stories out there, such as Mean Girls or Heathers (movies are stories too), or the obvious nods to Alice in her Wonderland. But the telling of this bunny horror fairytale is weird and unique and original in a good way, too.

Check it out horror fans. You can find Bunny pretty much wherever books are sold, but you should also check it out at  Bookshop.org if you want to support indie bookstores. And who doesn't love an indie bookstore?