Sometimes murderers are popular.

7. Pine – Francine Toon

Being from the US, we have Halloween without a “party piece,” just pure give and take in the serious pursuit of anyone who gives out full size candy bars, so it was entertaining to me that anyone had to sing or tell a Bazooka Joe level joke to get their essentially real food like toffee apples and not just brightly colored commercial candy glory. The way they do it in this little village near the Highlands would make it way easier to poison or razorblade somebody.

Anyway, Lauren lives with her dad in what is clearly quite a small village and basically only guises for Halloween treats on one street. Her mother has left the family for reasons unknown and her dad does not want to talk about her mother and is essentially an alcoholic with some moments of clarity. Lauren’s survival methods at school and at home when she’s basically neglected are sad but understandable and she does see her mother even though she doesn’t really know it’s her, which is part of the story that gives it an actual trajectory instead of just meandering around this town (which I got worried was going to be all of the story, just a character/location study which can be so tiring when you want a story resolution). Lauren sees her and so do other people, but nobody remembers seeing her except Lauren and this one older lady who Lauren learns was her mother’s friend and into older traditions and witchy sorts of things.

Lauren doesn’t really know who she’s seeing because of her dad’s lack of interest in telling her about her mom and thankfully Lauren’s babysitter Ann Marie and the older lady Vairi give her some information and show her photos. It’s very sad that her dad just cannot get his shit together in any way. Lauren is resilient and a bit wistful and obviously she’s getting bullied at school because some children are terrible humans.

After a very weird night where Lauren’s drunk father catches Ann Marie at the Spar and he thinks she’s just buying liquor underage and then he drunkenly scares the crap out of her giving her a ride almost all the way home, Ann Marie ends up missing. The reader doesn’t find out that this situation and the resolution will give context and resolution to other aspects of Lauren and her dad’s life that have been nudged about while we’re learning how their lives go and about the town and it was really great to have an actual story here. It’s a story that lures in the lit fic “atmospheric” fans but actually goes somewhere satisfying.

 

In Snuffy’s village of one witch-hat cardboard house, she has only these felt crows to hear her party piece and find missing persons.