Dave Higgins's Blog, page 8

Happy Bunny and Other Mischiefs by Rebecca Gransden

Gransden places highly plausible protagonists in extreme or inexplicable situations, creating a series of tales where mind and body face being tortured or broken. This book collects fourteen short stories of horror and the surreal. ‘Turducken: Confirm Humanity’. A three-fowl roasting joint tears free of its packaging and sets out to find its purpose in … Continue reading Happy Bunny and Other Mischiefs by Rebecca Gransden

Seeking a Batter Perspective

One of my wife’s fellow sensei visited recently, leading to a discussion of the story of Yunmen’s cake from the Blue Cliff Record. Our apple tree has also copiously fruited this year, leading to my wife creating copious cake. This clearly (not) being a message from the universe, I have haiku’d. Cast aside the core … Continue reading Seeking a Batter Perspective

The Age of Witches by Louisa Morgan

Morgan blends the commodification of young women in nineteenth-century US society with hereditary witchcraft, creating a novel that is both a romance and a tale of defying overt power structures. Married to a wealthy New York industrialist, Frances Allington holds a place almost at the top of Gilded Age Society but only almost. Seeking that … Continue reading The Age of Witches by Louisa Morgan

Pride of British Lions

The strange conjunction of two stories about the undermining of Britain and Britishness in the same newspaper yesterday has raised questions: Can one be proud of something one does not believe exists? And if so, should one be? While perusing my post-breakfast coffee, I sipped an online article about the United Kingdom owing reparations to … Continue reading Pride of British Lions

The Great God Pan by Arthur Machen

Taking as its un-described centre the Grecian god-devil Pan rather than some unpronounceable alien-deity but using the same technique of building implication that Lovecraft would later use, this novella will interest both those seeking a tale of dread and those seeking Lovecraft’s inspirations. To the police and high society, the deaths by apparent suicide of … Continue reading The Great God Pan by Arthur Machen

Precious Nugget

Drawn by golden sun Stubbing my toe on granite Does not offer joy

Dating Dracula by Kinsley Adams

Adams builds a modern romance arc onto a foundation of traditional vampire myth, creating tale that treats vampires as neither solely Other nor solely sexy humans with a limited diet. When vampire society reveals itself to the world, Anna sees it as the perfect opportunity to make her vlog become famous. Unfortunately, her plan to … Continue reading Dating Dracula by Kinsley Adams

Not the Same as the Same

The Conservative Party are currently attempting to select a new leader. While the candidates seem to display facets of the party, I feel the party might have missed the perfect candidate, the poster child for “this is different, which is not the same as the same”: Una Cat. Her credentials are almost flawless: Una is … Continue reading Not the Same as the Same

Oddjobs by Heide Goody & Iain Grant

Goody and Grant blend cosmicism, bureaucracy, and spy action to create a novel that unites the horror and comedy of an absurd universe rather than showing only one of them. Indescribable horrors from outside our reality have invaded and they will win. But until they do, Morag Murray’s job is to help preserve the general … Continue reading Oddjobs by Heide Goody & Iain Grant

Empty Is Not Empty

A stone twists my foot I cannot return this gift The crane cannot swim