Lucy Taylor's Blog, page 2
November 22, 2017
MR. WHITE by John C. Foster
A simple question that sets in motion a hellish evil and a code word an unhappy wife hoped never to see precipitate the action in this impossible-to-put-down mix of occult horror and espionage thriller.
A clandestine operative named Lewis watches a terrifying video where a captive is forced to torture himself to death. The man in the video asks the fatal question “Who is Mr. White?” and Lewis, not understanding the danger, later poses the same question to a fellow agent. Not a good idea, for merely by questioning Mr. White’s identity the speak has summoned a malevolent force into her or his life – which will probably not last much longer at that point.
In one brief, significant excahange, a puzzzled operative is asked what tactic his mother used to frighten him as a boy — why, she invoked the bogeyman, of course, ready to punish even a small transgression in unspeakable ways. Mr. White is the real life version of that monster under the bed, except now he’s no fairy tale, but a malignant entity equipped with a diabolically sadistic bent along with a penchant for creative impalements.
Suffice it to say, you do not want to snag Mr. White’s attention.
Foster begins the novel with graphic horror and only ratchets it up from there, using multiple viewpoints and settings in Europe and the US, including a harrowing scene where Lewis rides the Berlin Night Express in a desperate bid to reach his family. Two major plotlines intertwine – while Lewis is fighting his way across Europe, his wife Cat and daughter Hedde face horrors of their own. In an attempt to escape Mr. White’s relentless pursuit, they seek refuge with their Uncle Gerard, a Christmas tree farmer in the moribund town of Flintlock, New Hampshire, and a man who harbors secrets of his own.
Outstanding among a host of memorable characters is teenaged Hedde, who learns about self-sufficiency and survival from her gritty uncle and secretly dabbles in the occult behind the red door in the attic.
MR. WHITE is so good I found myself reading more slowly as I neared the end. Foster’s writing is superb, and I wanted to savor every sentence. Truly a stand-out novel not to be missed!
A clandestine operative named Lewis watches a terrifying video where a captive is forced to torture himself to death. The man in the video asks the fatal question “Who is Mr. White?” and Lewis, not understanding the danger, later poses the same question to a fellow agent. Not a good idea, for merely by questioning Mr. White’s identity the speak has summoned a malevolent force into her or his life – which will probably not last much longer at that point.
In one brief, significant excahange, a puzzzled operative is asked what tactic his mother used to frighten him as a boy — why, she invoked the bogeyman, of course, ready to punish even a small transgression in unspeakable ways. Mr. White is the real life version of that monster under the bed, except now he’s no fairy tale, but a malignant entity equipped with a diabolically sadistic bent along with a penchant for creative impalements.
Suffice it to say, you do not want to snag Mr. White’s attention.
Foster begins the novel with graphic horror and only ratchets it up from there, using multiple viewpoints and settings in Europe and the US, including a harrowing scene where Lewis rides the Berlin Night Express in a desperate bid to reach his family. Two major plotlines intertwine – while Lewis is fighting his way across Europe, his wife Cat and daughter Hedde face horrors of their own. In an attempt to escape Mr. White’s relentless pursuit, they seek refuge with their Uncle Gerard, a Christmas tree farmer in the moribund town of Flintlock, New Hampshire, and a man who harbors secrets of his own.
Outstanding among a host of memorable characters is teenaged Hedde, who learns about self-sufficiency and survival from her gritty uncle and secretly dabbles in the occult behind the red door in the attic.
MR. WHITE is so good I found myself reading more slowly as I neared the end. Foster’s writing is superb, and I wanted to savor every sentence. Truly a stand-out novel not to be missed!
November 1, 2017
THE DISAPPEARANCE OF ADELE BEDEAU by Graeme Macrae Burnet
THE DISAPPEARANCE OF ADELE BEDEAU, a dark and elegantly written literaray crime novel, is set in a small Alsatian town as drab as the book’s protagonist. Here Manfred Baumann plods through his never-varying daily routine: lunch at the Restaurant de la Cloche, bridge game with the boys on Thursdays, a surreptitious visit to a brothel once a week, where he manages to accomplish his mission fully clothed while his ‘partner’ remains almost motionless.
Burnet’s attention to detail and the precision with which he builds the character of Manfred and his nemesis, Detective Gorski, make for a fascinating and compelling read. Skillfully, Burnet pits them against each other, the unstable loner Manfred and the dogged Gorski, still tormented by the murder case he was unable to solve years ago.
The novel is also a cautionary tale about the perils of spending too much time immersed in one’s own dark thoughts, and Baumann’s mind is clearly a dangerous place to dwell. Adrift in an ocean of beer, wine, and paranoia, he fancies the world is watching. Should he deviate from even the smallest detail of his routine – say, ordering a different dish on the day he habitually orders something else – he frets that this will elicit gasps of amazement from the restaurant’s other patrons and soon become town-wide gossip. Comical at first, it becomes more sinister as we learn more about Baumann’s early life, his controlling and contemptuous grandfather, and the dreadful secret he carries with him.
Where the novel falls short is in the lack of attention paid to its female characters. Alhough Adele Bedeau’s disappearance provides the catalyst for all that follows, in her brief appearance in the book, she’s a cipher, a sullen young woman who apparently dislikes her job and has a secret boyfriend, but little else. Even Baumann, who obsessively observes her, acknowledges he’s never given any thought to what her life is like or who she is. There’s also a brief and rather puzzling love interest for Baumann that, given his personality, goes about where you’d expect it to, and a look at Gorski’s snobbish and unpleasant wife who regrets her marriage to a lowly law enforcement officer.
Although once the mystery is solved, some readers may be tempted to skip the Afterward, don’t do this, for Burnet isn’t done with us yet. He provides an entire history of the novel’s supposed author, one ‘Raymond Brunet” who had a life oddly similar to Manfred’s.
Altogether a gripping little mystery, both stylish and macabre!
Burnet’s attention to detail and the precision with which he builds the character of Manfred and his nemesis, Detective Gorski, make for a fascinating and compelling read. Skillfully, Burnet pits them against each other, the unstable loner Manfred and the dogged Gorski, still tormented by the murder case he was unable to solve years ago.
The novel is also a cautionary tale about the perils of spending too much time immersed in one’s own dark thoughts, and Baumann’s mind is clearly a dangerous place to dwell. Adrift in an ocean of beer, wine, and paranoia, he fancies the world is watching. Should he deviate from even the smallest detail of his routine – say, ordering a different dish on the day he habitually orders something else – he frets that this will elicit gasps of amazement from the restaurant’s other patrons and soon become town-wide gossip. Comical at first, it becomes more sinister as we learn more about Baumann’s early life, his controlling and contemptuous grandfather, and the dreadful secret he carries with him.
Where the novel falls short is in the lack of attention paid to its female characters. Alhough Adele Bedeau’s disappearance provides the catalyst for all that follows, in her brief appearance in the book, she’s a cipher, a sullen young woman who apparently dislikes her job and has a secret boyfriend, but little else. Even Baumann, who obsessively observes her, acknowledges he’s never given any thought to what her life is like or who she is. There’s also a brief and rather puzzling love interest for Baumann that, given his personality, goes about where you’d expect it to, and a look at Gorski’s snobbish and unpleasant wife who regrets her marriage to a lowly law enforcement officer.
Although once the mystery is solved, some readers may be tempted to skip the Afterward, don’t do this, for Burnet isn’t done with us yet. He provides an entire history of the novel’s supposed author, one ‘Raymond Brunet” who had a life oddly similar to Manfred’s.
Altogether a gripping little mystery, both stylish and macabre!
September 13, 2017
MY ABSOLUTE DARLING by Gabriel Tallent
MY ABSOLUTE DARLING, Gabriel Tallent’s debut novel, is the gripping, often shocking tale of Turtle, a fourteen-year-old girl attempting to survive in two worlds: that of her school, where she struggles over vocabulary words and treats female peers with a casual misogyny and that of her home, where her father’s tutelage in firearms, survivalist training, and the kind of mental and physical toughness that would do credit to a hardened commando, has come at a terrible price.
Turtle’s love/hate for her father Martin has evolved in a climate of physical abuse, casual camaraderie, and constant indoctrination in his toxic world view. Martin is a fascinating, yet terrifying character, a man so damaged that he nicknames his daughter ‘kibble’, like the food fed to dogs, and prepares for an end of the world that one senses he’s more than a little eager to see.
Turtle is not, however, without allies. An alcoholic grandfather in the trailer nearby attempts to help her, a perceptive teacher offers sanctuary, and a schoolmate named Rilke, herself the victim of Turtle’s bullying, makes overtures of friendship. Each is foiled by Turtle’s fierce insistence that nothing is wrong at her home.
The world opens up for Turtle after she rescues Brett and Jacob, two teenaged boys lost in the Mendocino wilderness. Spending time with their loving, wholesome families is like a voyage to another planet, worlds away from the brutal treatment she’s come to associate with ‘love.’
The introduction of another girl, ten-year-old Cayenne, into Turtle’s life ratchets up the terror, and Turtle must make a terrible decision: to do the courageous thing and end this or carry on as always and preserve the pernicious bond between herself and Martin.
In the final chapters of the novel, Turtle’s feelings for Cayenne, Brett, and Jacob are tested to the core when she has to pit her own survivalist training and shooting skills against those of her formidable father.
MY ABSOLUTE DARLING is both unforgettable and often deeply unsettling. Some of the more graphic passages are difficult to read, as when Turtle is forced to do pull-ups from a ceiling beam with an upright knife between her legs. That said, this is a novel not to be missed, where brutal action merges with magnificent prose and acts of stunning cruelty are juxtaposed with mesmerizing descriptions of the natural world in which Turtle finds rare moments of solace.
Turtle’s love/hate for her father Martin has evolved in a climate of physical abuse, casual camaraderie, and constant indoctrination in his toxic world view. Martin is a fascinating, yet terrifying character, a man so damaged that he nicknames his daughter ‘kibble’, like the food fed to dogs, and prepares for an end of the world that one senses he’s more than a little eager to see.
Turtle is not, however, without allies. An alcoholic grandfather in the trailer nearby attempts to help her, a perceptive teacher offers sanctuary, and a schoolmate named Rilke, herself the victim of Turtle’s bullying, makes overtures of friendship. Each is foiled by Turtle’s fierce insistence that nothing is wrong at her home.
The world opens up for Turtle after she rescues Brett and Jacob, two teenaged boys lost in the Mendocino wilderness. Spending time with their loving, wholesome families is like a voyage to another planet, worlds away from the brutal treatment she’s come to associate with ‘love.’
The introduction of another girl, ten-year-old Cayenne, into Turtle’s life ratchets up the terror, and Turtle must make a terrible decision: to do the courageous thing and end this or carry on as always and preserve the pernicious bond between herself and Martin.
In the final chapters of the novel, Turtle’s feelings for Cayenne, Brett, and Jacob are tested to the core when she has to pit her own survivalist training and shooting skills against those of her formidable father.
MY ABSOLUTE DARLING is both unforgettable and often deeply unsettling. Some of the more graphic passages are difficult to read, as when Turtle is forced to do pull-ups from a ceiling beam with an upright knife between her legs. That said, this is a novel not to be missed, where brutal action merges with magnificent prose and acts of stunning cruelty are juxtaposed with mesmerizing descriptions of the natural world in which Turtle finds rare moments of solace.
July 10, 2017
BIRD BOX by Josh Malerman
I’m a latecomer to Malerman’s gripping novel, BIRD BOX, which was published in 2014, but perhaps some other fans of horror and post-apocalyptic fiction have missed out on it, too.
BIRD BOX, which gets its name from the caged birds whose cooing is supposed to warn of approaching intruders, is a fast-paced, intensely creepy tale that starts with an ambitious premise – the world is suddenly populated with creatures that, once looked upon, drive humans into a suicidal rage.
We meet Malorie, a young woman on a twenty mile boat trip upriver with her two children, the unnamed Boy and Girl. All are blindfolded. Malorie relies on the children’s preternaturally keen sense of hearing to tell her when danger is near. Malerman does a fine job of ratcheting up the suspense as the trio approach potential threats. Is that rustling in the bushes a human being? Is that musky smell a prowling wolf or dog? Malorie and the kids are never sure, but to give in to temptation and remove the blindfolds could mean a swift and violent death.
Flashbacks to four years earlier intersperse the saga of Malorie’s desperate canoe trip to find a new sanctuary. At that time she lived with a small group of survivors in the same house she and her children are now fleeing; in fact, she gave birth to them there, unattended and terrified. The flashbacks tell us a lot about life in the house with the drawn shades and about a world where every activity taking place outdoors has to be performed wearing a blindfold, but there’s not much fleshing out of the characters. I’d have liked to know more about these people with whom Malorie shared the dark house, other than their penchant for quarreling among themselves, but I fully identified with their angst – when comrades leave the house to gather provisions, who knows what they may have seen by the time they return?
BIRD BOX is both deeply disturbing and very hard to put down. Malerman’s fiction lures us into a nightmare world where not seeing what’s out there may or may not kill you, but taking off the blindfold to look most certainly will.
BIRD BOX, which gets its name from the caged birds whose cooing is supposed to warn of approaching intruders, is a fast-paced, intensely creepy tale that starts with an ambitious premise – the world is suddenly populated with creatures that, once looked upon, drive humans into a suicidal rage.
We meet Malorie, a young woman on a twenty mile boat trip upriver with her two children, the unnamed Boy and Girl. All are blindfolded. Malorie relies on the children’s preternaturally keen sense of hearing to tell her when danger is near. Malerman does a fine job of ratcheting up the suspense as the trio approach potential threats. Is that rustling in the bushes a human being? Is that musky smell a prowling wolf or dog? Malorie and the kids are never sure, but to give in to temptation and remove the blindfolds could mean a swift and violent death.
Flashbacks to four years earlier intersperse the saga of Malorie’s desperate canoe trip to find a new sanctuary. At that time she lived with a small group of survivors in the same house she and her children are now fleeing; in fact, she gave birth to them there, unattended and terrified. The flashbacks tell us a lot about life in the house with the drawn shades and about a world where every activity taking place outdoors has to be performed wearing a blindfold, but there’s not much fleshing out of the characters. I’d have liked to know more about these people with whom Malorie shared the dark house, other than their penchant for quarreling among themselves, but I fully identified with their angst – when comrades leave the house to gather provisions, who knows what they may have seen by the time they return?
BIRD BOX is both deeply disturbing and very hard to put down. Malerman’s fiction lures us into a nightmare world where not seeing what’s out there may or may not kill you, but taking off the blindfold to look most certainly will.
June 22, 2017
THE WITCHFINDER'S SISTER by Beth Underdown
The scariest thing about Underdown’s gripping novel isn’t that it’s based on the historical record of one Mathew Hopkins or that his crusade against witches is (in Underdown’s fictionalized version of his early life) possibly motivated by trauma he suffered as an infant, but that the disempowerment and silencing of those considered to be inferior beings feels so familiar today.
The year is 1644, in Essex, England, a time of political and religious upheaval. Alice Hopkins, the narrator, is a widow who seeks shelter with her brother Mathew, a preacher’s son bent on ridding the countryside of women suspected of witchcraft.
The world Alice was born into has trained her to be meek and subservient toward men. As Mathew’s unwilling assistent, she faces a daunting task: bear witness to the horrors of the interrogations while still trying to help the women escape their fate. Her efforts do not go as hoped. When we meet her, Alice is locked in an attic, keeping a journal which opens with, “Nine months ago my brother Mathew set himself to killing women.”
Those hanged for witchcraft are invariably unmarried or widowed old women, often of an eccentric bent. To prove their wickedness, almost anything will do. Some have odd birthmarks, others dabble in folk remedies, or have had the ill luck to quarrel with a farmer just before his horse died. Some are simply mentally ill. One scene, in particular, is haunting: a teenaged girl who is clearly delusional insists that Mathew must ‘swim’ her to determine if she’s possessed by the devil, “swimming’ being a form of torture in which the victim is bound hands to feet and tossed in the water. Those who float are guilty; those who sink, drown as innocents.
Underdown skillfully interweaves the mores and mindset of 1644 England with Alice’s sometimes quite modern insights. Reflecting on her brother’s obsession with women, sin, and sex, she observes, “It was the thinnest of tricks: if a thing frightens you, to call it something else.”
Of course not all the men Alice encounters are focused on persecuting witches. Some merely patronize and demean her while holding out the carrot of marriage like some great prize and fretting over the state of her “delicate” health.
Reading THE WITCHFINDER’S SISTER hundreds of years after the real Mathew Hopkins did his evil work, one would wish to find scapegoating, misogyny, and projection a thing of the past. Sadly, as anyone following current events well knows, this is not the case.
The year is 1644, in Essex, England, a time of political and religious upheaval. Alice Hopkins, the narrator, is a widow who seeks shelter with her brother Mathew, a preacher’s son bent on ridding the countryside of women suspected of witchcraft.
The world Alice was born into has trained her to be meek and subservient toward men. As Mathew’s unwilling assistent, she faces a daunting task: bear witness to the horrors of the interrogations while still trying to help the women escape their fate. Her efforts do not go as hoped. When we meet her, Alice is locked in an attic, keeping a journal which opens with, “Nine months ago my brother Mathew set himself to killing women.”
Those hanged for witchcraft are invariably unmarried or widowed old women, often of an eccentric bent. To prove their wickedness, almost anything will do. Some have odd birthmarks, others dabble in folk remedies, or have had the ill luck to quarrel with a farmer just before his horse died. Some are simply mentally ill. One scene, in particular, is haunting: a teenaged girl who is clearly delusional insists that Mathew must ‘swim’ her to determine if she’s possessed by the devil, “swimming’ being a form of torture in which the victim is bound hands to feet and tossed in the water. Those who float are guilty; those who sink, drown as innocents.
Underdown skillfully interweaves the mores and mindset of 1644 England with Alice’s sometimes quite modern insights. Reflecting on her brother’s obsession with women, sin, and sex, she observes, “It was the thinnest of tricks: if a thing frightens you, to call it something else.”
Of course not all the men Alice encounters are focused on persecuting witches. Some merely patronize and demean her while holding out the carrot of marriage like some great prize and fretting over the state of her “delicate” health.
Reading THE WITCHFINDER’S SISTER hundreds of years after the real Mathew Hopkins did his evil work, one would wish to find scapegoating, misogyny, and projection a thing of the past. Sadly, as anyone following current events well knows, this is not the case.
May 28, 2017
Hammers on Bone by Cassandra Khaw
“I want you to kill my stepdad” begins Hammers on Bone, Cassandra Khaw’s masterful combination of gritty noir detective story and Lovecraftian cosmic horror. The startling request comes from a young boy named Abel, who slams his piggy bank down on the desk of Detective John Persons to prove he can pay for the hit.
Turns out Abel’s problem is an abusive stepfather, and Persons is the only one he feels he can turn to. Persons helpfully suggests Abel might “tell his mum to call child services,” but the kid, older than his years, is fully aware his stepdad, McKinsey, is much worse than just your average social deviant. He is, in fact, a bonafide monster. Abel also knows why Persons is the only one with a shot at taking him down.
Added to this mix is a younger brother who’s at even higher risk from McKinsey’s abominable intent and Sasha, a pretty waitress who’s been tainted by the vile McKinsey herself.
Persons, a hardboiled London gumshoe, turns out to have a soft spot for kids and ‘skirts’ and finally takes on the case. In a quietly harrowing scene, he interviews McKinsey’s indifferent boss, who acknowledges the man is a menace but shrugs it off, saying “I’ve met worse than him.” After staking out McKinsey’s house (while Downton Abbey plays on t.v. and McKinsey’s wife and children cower in another room), Persons discovers the stepfather poses a threat far greater than he imagined, one that could endanger all London. He has to pull out all his tricks, including shedding his own human form, in order to fight him on anything like equal terms.
Hammers on Bone is a stunning descent into a nightmare unfolding against a backdrop of a diverse, working class London. Khaw throws in a dash of humor, too, as Persons, although living in modern times, likes to flavor his speech with lingo from another era that at times renders him both comical and quaint.
With superb writing and a gripping plot, Hammers on Bone is an occult thriller not to be missed.
Turns out Abel’s problem is an abusive stepfather, and Persons is the only one he feels he can turn to. Persons helpfully suggests Abel might “tell his mum to call child services,” but the kid, older than his years, is fully aware his stepdad, McKinsey, is much worse than just your average social deviant. He is, in fact, a bonafide monster. Abel also knows why Persons is the only one with a shot at taking him down.
Added to this mix is a younger brother who’s at even higher risk from McKinsey’s abominable intent and Sasha, a pretty waitress who’s been tainted by the vile McKinsey herself.
Persons, a hardboiled London gumshoe, turns out to have a soft spot for kids and ‘skirts’ and finally takes on the case. In a quietly harrowing scene, he interviews McKinsey’s indifferent boss, who acknowledges the man is a menace but shrugs it off, saying “I’ve met worse than him.” After staking out McKinsey’s house (while Downton Abbey plays on t.v. and McKinsey’s wife and children cower in another room), Persons discovers the stepfather poses a threat far greater than he imagined, one that could endanger all London. He has to pull out all his tricks, including shedding his own human form, in order to fight him on anything like equal terms.
Hammers on Bone is a stunning descent into a nightmare unfolding against a backdrop of a diverse, working class London. Khaw throws in a dash of humor, too, as Persons, although living in modern times, likes to flavor his speech with lingo from another era that at times renders him both comical and quaint.
With superb writing and a gripping plot, Hammers on Bone is an occult thriller not to be missed.
May 5, 2017
"Sweetlings": My New Novelette up at Tor.com
"The night before my mother walked into the New Sea carrying my six-week-old brother, I heard her and Papi arguing. Even with the wind screaming past our tiny squatter's house on the cliff, the rage in her voice slashed through the thin wall."
So begins "Sweetlings", my new science fiction/horror novelette now available to read for free on Tor.com.
Imagine a time when rivers and oceans rise so fast, they wipe out entire cities and towns. Mir wasn't yet born then, but Papi lived through the catastrophic flooding that wiped out much of the east coast of the United States. Now Papi, a former science teacher, studies the new forms of sea life and concludes that "...the Great Inundation was just the beginning."
Mir's friend Jersey wants to go inland, but she wants to stay with her father, even if it means dealing with terrible diseases like Blister Rot and Permian-era arthropods that have suddenly come back to life.
To find out what fate awaits Mir, Jersey, and Papi and what surprises this New Sea has in store for them, go to: goo.gl/XHXD8o
So begins "Sweetlings", my new science fiction/horror novelette now available to read for free on Tor.com.
Imagine a time when rivers and oceans rise so fast, they wipe out entire cities and towns. Mir wasn't yet born then, but Papi lived through the catastrophic flooding that wiped out much of the east coast of the United States. Now Papi, a former science teacher, studies the new forms of sea life and concludes that "...the Great Inundation was just the beginning."
Mir's friend Jersey wants to go inland, but she wants to stay with her father, even if it means dealing with terrible diseases like Blister Rot and Permian-era arthropods that have suddenly come back to life.
To find out what fate awaits Mir, Jersey, and Papi and what surprises this New Sea has in store for them, go to: goo.gl/XHXD8o
April 6, 2017
AGENTS OF DREAMLAND by Caitlin R. Kiernan
Agents of Dreamland by Caitlin R. Kiernan is that rare work of fiction so gripping, complex, and disturbing that it begs to be read a second time, both to savor the exquisite writing and to look for subtleties, clues, and references that may have been overlooked the first time.
When the novella begins, the agent known only as the Signalman, a cynical hard-drinking operative on the trail of a cult leader, is arriving in Winslow, Arizona. There he meets with the enigmatic Immacolata Sexton, a woman whose cryptic, hard-as-nails exterior is later belied by small future acts of compassion toward the suffering denizens of a doomed Los Angeles. Sexton is a time traveler; we follow her from Vermont in 1927, where she examines evidence of an alien spacecraft, to the American southwest and a desperate, present-day race to stop a horrific plague, then to a future Los Angeles where alien ships rule the sky and the few human inhabitants eke out a pitiable existence.
All Kiernan’s characters are memorable; for me, the most vivid was a confused, lost young woman named Chloe, who’s been goomed by cult leader Drew Standish to become a key member of the Children of the Next Level. Chloe’s lurid, drug-addled past makes her a perfect, if tragic, foil for indoctrination by madman Standish.
To be fair, Agents of Dreamland is not for everyone (but what great fiction is?). Some may find it too pervasively dark or too graphic in its depiction of body horror. Some may wish for a more traditional, less unsettling ending, especially at a time in history when the idea of ecological disaster, alien or otherwise, seems all too likely.
As Kiernan writes, “The haunted human psyche craves resolution…humans, inherent problem solvers that we are, chafe at problems that cannot be solved, questions that cannot ever, once and for all, saisfactorily be put to rest.”
With no glimmer of hope at the ending and no promise of a resolution to come, Agents of Dreamland defies conventional expectations and raises the spector of a future we may not want to imagine.
In short, this is great writing that is likely to stick with the reader for a very long time. Definitely not to be missed.
Read more …
When the novella begins, the agent known only as the Signalman, a cynical hard-drinking operative on the trail of a cult leader, is arriving in Winslow, Arizona. There he meets with the enigmatic Immacolata Sexton, a woman whose cryptic, hard-as-nails exterior is later belied by small future acts of compassion toward the suffering denizens of a doomed Los Angeles. Sexton is a time traveler; we follow her from Vermont in 1927, where she examines evidence of an alien spacecraft, to the American southwest and a desperate, present-day race to stop a horrific plague, then to a future Los Angeles where alien ships rule the sky and the few human inhabitants eke out a pitiable existence.
All Kiernan’s characters are memorable; for me, the most vivid was a confused, lost young woman named Chloe, who’s been goomed by cult leader Drew Standish to become a key member of the Children of the Next Level. Chloe’s lurid, drug-addled past makes her a perfect, if tragic, foil for indoctrination by madman Standish.
To be fair, Agents of Dreamland is not for everyone (but what great fiction is?). Some may find it too pervasively dark or too graphic in its depiction of body horror. Some may wish for a more traditional, less unsettling ending, especially at a time in history when the idea of ecological disaster, alien or otherwise, seems all too likely.
As Kiernan writes, “The haunted human psyche craves resolution…humans, inherent problem solvers that we are, chafe at problems that cannot be solved, questions that cannot ever, once and for all, saisfactorily be put to rest.”
With no glimmer of hope at the ending and no promise of a resolution to come, Agents of Dreamland defies conventional expectations and raises the spector of a future we may not want to imagine.
In short, this is great writing that is likely to stick with the reader for a very long time. Definitely not to be missed.
Read more …
March 8, 2017
Great Jones Street: "The Netflix of Fiction"
“Why isn’t the short story more popular?” That’s the question that Kelly Abbott, CEO of Great Jones Street, asked himself a few years ago.
Kelly had grown up watching his father labor over short fiction, so he knew the difficulties writers face. He wanted to find a way to offer high quality short fiction to a wide audience and came up with a theory – that mobile phones, our culture’s generally short attention span, and the desire for high quality entertainment could lead to a resurgence for the much neglected short story.
With the goal of bringing short fiction back to popular culture, Abbott and his partner Ken Truesdale, came up with the idea for Great Jones Street, an app where readers can access virtually any type of short fiction. They reached out to writers who, in turn, recommended other writers. In its first year, Great Jones Street acquired over a thousand short stories, a number Abbott says they’re on track to publish every year.
To flesh out the catalogue, Abbott and Truesdale also contacted editors like John Joseph Adams (for s/f, fantasy), Suzie bright (erotica), and Nick Mamatas (mystery/crime).
The GJS app not only gives a synopsis of each story, but the approximate time it will take to read it. Waiting in a doctor’s office? In line at the DMV? Just found out your flight’s been delayed? With GJS you can find everything from longer works to exquisite little gems of five minutes or less to fill the time.
As a writer, GJS is absolutely my favorite app, because it allows me to explore genres I generally don’t read. It expands my reading universe and gives me dozens of new, favorite writers whose work I now look for.
For now, GJS is free (up until the first ten thousand readers), but it won’t stay that way. For lovers of short fiction, it’s the best deal in town.
https://www.greatjonesstreet.press/
And P.S. If you’re a horror reader on GJS, look for my stories: Nikishi, Blessed Be the Bound, Wingless Beasts, Choke Hold, and Lust in the Days of Demons
Kelly had grown up watching his father labor over short fiction, so he knew the difficulties writers face. He wanted to find a way to offer high quality short fiction to a wide audience and came up with a theory – that mobile phones, our culture’s generally short attention span, and the desire for high quality entertainment could lead to a resurgence for the much neglected short story.
With the goal of bringing short fiction back to popular culture, Abbott and his partner Ken Truesdale, came up with the idea for Great Jones Street, an app where readers can access virtually any type of short fiction. They reached out to writers who, in turn, recommended other writers. In its first year, Great Jones Street acquired over a thousand short stories, a number Abbott says they’re on track to publish every year.
To flesh out the catalogue, Abbott and Truesdale also contacted editors like John Joseph Adams (for s/f, fantasy), Suzie bright (erotica), and Nick Mamatas (mystery/crime).
The GJS app not only gives a synopsis of each story, but the approximate time it will take to read it. Waiting in a doctor’s office? In line at the DMV? Just found out your flight’s been delayed? With GJS you can find everything from longer works to exquisite little gems of five minutes or less to fill the time.
As a writer, GJS is absolutely my favorite app, because it allows me to explore genres I generally don’t read. It expands my reading universe and gives me dozens of new, favorite writers whose work I now look for.
For now, GJS is free (up until the first ten thousand readers), but it won’t stay that way. For lovers of short fiction, it’s the best deal in town.
https://www.greatjonesstreet.press/
And P.S. If you’re a horror reader on GJS, look for my stories: Nikishi, Blessed Be the Bound, Wingless Beasts, Choke Hold, and Lust in the Days of Demons
January 4, 2017
We Eat Our Own by Kea Wilson
No script, no money, and soon no escape pretty much sums up the plight of the actors filming “Jungle Bloodbath” in Kea Wilson’s tightly plotted and beautifully written “We Eat Our Own”. Eccentric and possibly insane director Ugo Velluto lures desperate wannabe actor Adrian White (whose real name we don’t learn until the end of the book) to be his unlucky and unlikely leading man after the first actor to be cast in the part flees in terror. To prevent this happening again, once White shows up, Ugo has his passport confiscated and informs him there is no script.
The naive and increasingly desperate White finds himself immersed in a hotbed of international drug dealers, M-19 guerillas, and cannibalism scenes that may or may not be entirely simulated. It doesn’t take long for him to realize he’s in way over his head and that his success as an actor isn’t up for debate so much as his survival.
Wilson is being compared to Cormac McCarthy and with good reason; her prose is taut, her action thrilling, and her characters veer toward extremes – guilt-ridden kidnapers, ruthless Lolitas, a director who thinks setting the jungle on fire is a great way to get action footage of extras fleeing the flames. Movie buffs will find the story especially compelling since Wilson loosely bases it on the controversial 1970’s Italian horror film “Cannibal Holocaust”.
If all this sounds a bit over the top, make no mistake – “We Eat Our Own” is an expertly paced, rivetting novel with characters that may not be likeable, but are often unforgettable. Perhaps not everyone’s cup of tea – there’s graphic violence, White’s character of ‘Richard’ is portrayed entirely in the second person, and dialogue is written without quotation marks, so you have to pay attention to know who is speaking. All of this may take some getting used to, but don’t be deterred. “We Eat Our Own” is a harrowing and mesmerizing novel you won’t want to put down.
The naive and increasingly desperate White finds himself immersed in a hotbed of international drug dealers, M-19 guerillas, and cannibalism scenes that may or may not be entirely simulated. It doesn’t take long for him to realize he’s in way over his head and that his success as an actor isn’t up for debate so much as his survival.
Wilson is being compared to Cormac McCarthy and with good reason; her prose is taut, her action thrilling, and her characters veer toward extremes – guilt-ridden kidnapers, ruthless Lolitas, a director who thinks setting the jungle on fire is a great way to get action footage of extras fleeing the flames. Movie buffs will find the story especially compelling since Wilson loosely bases it on the controversial 1970’s Italian horror film “Cannibal Holocaust”.
If all this sounds a bit over the top, make no mistake – “We Eat Our Own” is an expertly paced, rivetting novel with characters that may not be likeable, but are often unforgettable. Perhaps not everyone’s cup of tea – there’s graphic violence, White’s character of ‘Richard’ is portrayed entirely in the second person, and dialogue is written without quotation marks, so you have to pay attention to know who is speaking. All of this may take some getting used to, but don’t be deterred. “We Eat Our Own” is a harrowing and mesmerizing novel you won’t want to put down.
