Disclaimer: The Bubblegum Review currently reviews indie books pseudonymously on social book cataloguing sites, and here on Substack primarily behind a paywall. * For review and other service requests, please see here. *
Jackal, Jackal: Tales of the Dark and Fantastic by Tobi Ogundiran
6/15/23
I had fun with this collection, even when some stories were more "downtime-y". My favorites: "The Many Lives of an Abiku", "Isn't Your Daughter Such a Doll", "Guardian of the Gods", "Midnight in Moscow", and "The Goatkeeper's Harvest". There are about 18 stories in this collection, which gets automatic cool points just for being different: I haven't read any (contemporary) folk/epic tales of Nigeria. It creates a level of surreal to see how "fictive" folk tales of the past influence the "real" reality of the present. It's like the folk tale never ends; it becomes the present (when you keep telling it and believing in it). I'm also a pretty big fan of Undertow Publications. 😎
Oh, and thanks for the first read Edelweiss!
4 bubblegums
Shadow Drive by Nolan Cubero
5/7/23
Shadow Drive is like a mystery tchotchke (Thanks for the first read Blackstone Publishing and Edelweiss). I'm not a mystery connoisseur, but I couldn't put it down once I picked it up and I feel pretty confident in saying that you won't be able to either. There are about 700 mysteries/dolls within the 1 mystery/doll, and it's a constant whittling down until it's solved and even that's a mystery!
Shadow Drive is written really well: it reads easy. I did have some issues with believability—understanding of course that this kooky crazy s**t probably happens every day—but life is stranger than fiction, and so the burden of proof is on the fiction to make kooky crazy s**t seem like it really does happen like it does!
3 1/2 bubblegums
Notes from a Cannibalist by Ultan Banan
5/7/23
This book is wild; it reminds me of The Third State by Mark B. Follis: expat fiction, fiction that, as a result of being geographically displaced, causes...a third state, a state of dizziness, vertigo, being off balance, losing it. Add drugs, the South American jungle, civil war, religion, a fake priest, epidemics and cannibalism, and well...s*@t.
The ultra genius about Notes is the ending, which brings everything together expertly, literally: there's a cannibal to the cannibal, a cannibal behind the cannibal, the ultimate cannibal, the cannibal who eats ALL (the cannibals). There's still that ultimate god, and who eats the ultimate cannibal? Huh.
I'm a fan of this author's work and I recommend Meat—the first work I read—if you like this subject matter (which the author does). It's cool psycho-spiritual dark fiction that is weirdly religious in its exploration of the ultimate sin of the flesh: eating it.
5 bubblegums
Corner by Zo-O
4/22/23
Thanks for the first read, Edelweiss!
Very cozy read for a room in the corner :-) It's an endearing and clever take on a creative way to imagine oneself both in & out of the comforts but limits of solitude. Since it's wordless, it does an awesome job of conveying the theme of imagination. Some great talent out of South Korea!
4 1/2 bubblegums
The Neighbour by Julie Proudfoot
4/21/23
The Neighbour is a heavy book or, should I say, a book about the heavy topic of grief and all of its associated ugly messiness. For that reason, topic-wise, it wasn't my cup of tea...the heavy maze-like emotionality and crazy, ugly (but understandable) nonsensical behavior. The writing also didn't seem to flow at times. However, it's a book that does a good job marinating; it stays with you...like grief, I suppose. Fantastic ending though...Bob saves the day. That was really cool.
3 1/2 bubblegums
The Year of the Monster by Tara Stillions Whitehead
11/9/22
I feel like I do a disservice to short story collections when I don't read them all in one sitting, because it breaks momentum; and it's hard to determine if it's for that reason or a thematic break with the collection.
The Year of the Monster started out very strong; I loved "Armistice", "General and the Tornado", and the titular "The Year of the Monster". I loved the idea and symbolism of "Deleted Scenes" and "Not for Syndication"—the writing overall is very metaphoric. After "Year of the Monster", however—which is only several stories in—I felt like the collection veered and petered out: there was more of a thematic break, but the overall theme I think is tonal: the theme of loss, God, space and sadness. I didn't think all the stories fit enough to become a collection, but the stories being very good when they are good.
I first received The Year of the Monster as an ARC from Edelweiss, and I'd like to thank them and Unsolicited Press! (I wanted more from the latter after reading Rook by Stephen Eoannou)
3 bubblegums
Blackteeth by C.L. Bevill
3/23/23
I started reading Blackteeth and then got slammed by life so I'm not sure whether it was my life dragging or the book. All of that to say: it took me awhile to finish Blackteeth.
I wouldn’t mind another go-round with this author because there's solid writing skill here, but I wouldn't necessarily be enthused about it. That's how I felt about Blackteeth: meh. At times the narrative dragged because the author can be too detailed, but, again, there's solid writing here, so it wasn't like I was completely slogging through. If you like a little home-spun, home-grown horror I would recommend. I'm sure some variation of this story has been told before, but it was still novel to me, and I appreciated the creativity of premise here as well: children being taken by literal and fantastical monsters (makes this a cool urban fantasy as well).
3 1/2 bubblegums
Let No One Sleep by Juan José Millás (Author), Thomas Bunstead (Translator)
4/6/23
Wait For It ...
Seriously ... wait for it. This is a book that is building up to something ... quite shocking in the end (I grew bored with the strange meanderings halfway through the book).
So wait for it.
I give Let No One Sleep 3 1/2 bubblegums just for strange novelty alone. I thought $14 was overpriced, but it's still a worthwhile read: recommended for people with strange bird ideas or fantasies, or those with a creative ornithological bent; good psychological cautionary tale of what happens when you take (artistic) liberties with and advantage of people with mental health issues.
4 bubblegums
The Book of God by Ultan Banan
9/19/22
I'm here because of Meat, the first novel that I read by this author (which I highly recommend).
disclaimer I don’t agree with the book description that God 'loses the plot'. PEOPLE DO!
I recommend The Book of God. As with Meat (and much of this author’s work), it is shocking, jarring and cringey. It’s also quite funny. It has all the books and perspectives of the Bible, all the creativity and poetry of prose, all the interestingness and sharpness of satire, and all the plot of a good story...not the greatest ever told ha, but pretty good.
It's not shocking just for shocking sake; it has something to say, and that something is a critique of the devil within people that transforms God into the devil that we see in The Book of God: it’s the concept of God and what happens to God when people are corrupted by their own understanding of God, the devil himself. Book of God is a searing, smart observation that is being told—as with the Bible—in books of stories and perspectives, gaining momentum until it explodes. As with the classic The Master and Margarita by Bulgakov, The Book of God makes an interesting addition to the canon of "fictive gospels".
Amazing and beautiful ending. I didn’t have an emotion in finishing the book: it just felt like the end of a very long journey that is just beginning again. It's an overall good wrong interpretation of the Bible and God.
5 bubblegums
Black No More by George S. Schuyler
9/6/22
What a ridiculously ridiculous book that perfectly captures the ridiculously ridiculous devilment of racial politics.
PS. I became aware of this (Mint) edition through a LibraryThing giveaway. Mint Editions is an imprint of West Margin Press.
I was introduced to Schuyler under similar circumstances in college: he was arguing about the construct of race in his essay "The Negro-Art Hokum" (as juxtaposed against Langston Hughes' essay "The Negro and the Racial Mountain").
I very much recommend Black No More. It’s a very well-written satire with a clever plot that perfectly devolves into the inanity of racial politics. A black scientist is so invested in the progress of blacks that he develops a machine to get rid of the problem of race by making blacks white. But the whites who were once black can’t stop producing black children; and in the end, many are scrambling to prove their generational whiteness; many are scrambling back to black, and everyone’s ancestry is all mixed up.
5 bubblegums
Expose Three Evil of the CCP: Creating Wuhan Virus, Harvesting Organs Alive, Financial Fraud by Xu Xue Chun
8/15/22
Expose Three Evil of the CCP was a pleasant surprise: the editing wasn't great, and I don't normally read nonfiction; but considering that Chun wrote this book over a 20-year time span with limited English skills and Google translate makes this impressive.
This is a fascinating book. One because even a Chinese citizen under a tyrannical ruling party with limited English skills (such as Chun) could comment that the 2020 US elections (that gave rise to the Biden administration) was a farce. And two because—because of this book—I could perceive the rise of the CCP in America with US double agents (headed by Fauci) working in tandem with the CCP to release biological warfare for country and world domination. Chun's and my evidence are of course completely circumstantial—the devil burned the evidence, and Wuhan lab samples—but if you can't see what's going on by now, well...here's to your 7th vaccine and 15th booster.
* Biden btw recently tested positive for COVID *again twice in one month after full vaccination and 2 boosters
Chun lists the three evils of the Chinese Communist Party and proposes reforms based on the US government model (a natural blend of capitalism and communism), yet still somehow a reform of communism, which includes an overthrow of the CCP. I was confused by this reasoning, as communism is what leads to totalitarianism such as the CCP, but I suspect Chun has become a victim of attempting to reason from the snares of an unreasonable philosophy (Chun emphasizes that while the CCP does not reflect Chinese people, Chinese people still support the CCP and love being brainwashed. Chun disambiguates the CCP and communism, stating that the CCP is a dictatorship of evil corrupt scum and demons and traitors of the Chinese people). (Google translate is comical at times; I believe Chun refers to the Deep State as reptiles or some sort of reptilian creatures)
Chun, like me, is faith-based; I don't agree with his biblical take that God punishes people, but he does reference his personal experiences with God as a young boy and believes that he was sent to redeem humanity. This he did by overcoming his fears to flee China so that he could expose the CCP. (China is heavily surveilled by Skynet technology and Chun states that many dissenters are thrown in prison and psychiatric hospitals, or just go missing)
The three evils Chun lists are (1) biological warfare - (Chun states that the kick-off of Wuhan virus (COVID) in (Wuhan) China in January 2020 was announced to be completely preventable and controllable by the CCP and Chinese government and was contained within two months. People in Wuhan and Shanghai, Chun states, didn't wear masks. Fauci, of course, funded the lab in Wuhan) (2) live organ harvesting - (Chun states that Falun Gong practitioners and Uighurs are persecuted for this reason, and when these reserves are exhausted, many university students go (and have gone) missing) (3) P2P financial fraud - (According to Chun, the CCP set up (celebrity-backed) P2P companies advertised as "inclusive financing" so that Chinese citizens could finance P2P and then P2P make loans from that money to private businesses (private businesses cannot ask Chinese state-owned banks for loans). Chun states that while there are P2P companies that operate in good faith, many are fake companies created to embezzle money: the CCP would then use this money to pay world powers to do their bidding in their own countries)
I understand Chun's disambiguation of the CCP and communism, but I think what’s happening in America, China and Russia are, again, good examples of why communism can't work. The virus has been used to increase state power at the expense of individual freedom: defrauding elections, bankrupting the economy, promoting racial tension, disenfranchising small business and human viability to enliven big business, social media and tech; biological warfare has been used to defund the police, law & order, increase homelessness, fear, anger and rampant (illegal) immigration and overall demonry.
I've already written a book about this book, so I won't go on. I recommend you read it and opine for yourself. Based on a lot of fishy business and circumstantial evidence, I believe that Fauci and what would become the Biden administration as well as double agents across party lines worked with the CCP to oust Donald Trump. (Chun states that 1-2 CCP members defected and fled to the US in 2017, at the beginning of Trump's office, to warn that the CCP would release a bioweapon (but nobody believed them))
Enlightening read.
5 bubblegums
Rook by Stephen G. Eoannou
10/16/22
How Crime Affects Relationships
I first read Rook as an ARC from a LibraryThing giveaway, thanks! The tour of a particular locale is always cool in crime fiction: in this case, Buffalo, where I happened to live for a year. Interesting city.
I would describe Rook as literary crime fiction in that it's not completely plot based, i.e. it’s not just about crime, but how crime affects different relationships, which makes this crime noirish as well. We all know the crime is wrong, but there's enough ambiguity and complexity that we can, for a minute, be made to entertain how it might be right. Rook is also well written, enough for me to look out for more from this author and Unsolicited Press!
4 1/2 bubblegums
Anxiety Dreams by Barrie Darke
8/4/22
Anxiety Dreams reminded me of Shortcuts, early Ray Carver: weird characters doing weird things in weird circumstances. Sometimes I didn't get it, but I did enjoy it for the thematic loyalty of all the stories to the titular "Anxiety Dreams". My faves were "Dead Man's Tree" (very good), "The Trainee Scheme" (laughing), "Few and Far Between Women" (what the—), and "The Soothers". I'm here because of Darkness and Storm (my first read, which I highly recommend), then Dragon Clouds (which was good too), and now I believe I've reached the end of the line with this author whose writing and Geordie accent I've very much enjoyed.
3 1/2 bubblegums
Time's Incinerator by Mark Hunter
7/16/22
Time's Incinerator isn't "up my alley" story-wise, but it's a very important book because of all of what is being communicated—with those searing, glittering moments of truth that this author is known for (see: Shift Change). I was ready to give up twice, but more than halfway through…whoa. Brilliant and shocking insights into memories, self-help, marriage, "happiness", and the mind with a hint of sci-fi for a REALLY novel way to tell a story via the additional themes of time travel via drugs. A LOT is being communicated here, so much so that I'd recommend it as a kind of self-help book, especially for men. The fact that I kept returning to such a drab character to see how things would work out struck me as even interesting. This is all about physically but not spiritually maturing, so that one goes on to unwittingly create a life—getting married, having kids—that is not wanted, and exploring where that deep sense of indifference and hatred comes from. This can also serve as a cautionary tale for getting to know the types of people one gets involved with because that kinda scared the s**t out of me.
"but it's not enough to have the knowledge of it" is a repeated sentence and sentiment throughout this book, and I love how a seemingly secular book demonstrates this spirituality of all things: here we are presented with a man who does all the "right" things, e.g. stable income, job, family, but is not at peace.
4 1/2 bubblegums
Make My Bed In Hell by John Sanford
7/9/22
So based on Amazon reviews, this is NOT John SanDford, a popular murder-mystery writer who is still living. This is John SaNFord née Julian Shapiro, an attorney-turned-writer—as the publishers over at Brash Books—who is no longer living.
Make My Bed In Hell is a very bizarre book. I think the title is a misnomer (and so too the original title Seventy Times Seven), and I do agree with the original publishers that the weird poem that's plopped in the middle of the book should've been excised. BUT this is such a good book in line with Brash's mission to publish *innovative whodunits and mysteries. I would classify Make My Bed In Hell as an avant-garde mystery/crime noir: it's told in a very unique way...that I don't think will be for everyone, but that I very much enjoyed quite bizarrely, I think, because the language is very beautiful and the writing very good; it was just so easy to read (in one sitting). I also like historical novels with "archaic" language, and it was quite funny.
PS When I say "innovative mystery/crime fiction", think a mystery or a crime that happens by omission, because of something you *didn't do rather than something you did.
4 bubblegums
Mankiller by Ashley Mayne
7/8/22
Mankiller surprised me. Very poetic language, very literal, and content that I would best describe as dark magical realism. A slice of life in a female friendship with a cruel twist. (I’m a fan of Dr Cicero Books)
4 bubblegums
The Talosite by Rebecca Campbell
7/3/22
Firstly, this cover is bitchin' (and so is the title), and I'm a fan of Undertow. I didn’t come away loving The Talosite, nor would I recommend it, but I'm glad I read it. And I think this has a lot to do with the familiarity of the theme that I've already seen in movies like Pet Sematary or Re-Animator. I've run across several explorations of the undead and war, but I don't think I've encountered the undead used as soldiers. Interesting, but I didn't find the story that novel.
The Talosite does create a mood though, and it does that well. If you're up for short historical sci-fi, then this may be for you. Thanks for the first read Edelweiss!
3 bubblegums
Dragon Clouds by Barrie Darke
7/14/22
Revenge of the Prostitutes
Ooooh! I did not want it to end like that! But you really can't feel sorry for anyone here...
Dragon Clouds took a while to pick up steam, but it wasn't unpleasant to read; it began as a psychological portrait, progressed to a mystery and crescendoed at a full-blown horror. All while managing to remain totally literary. As a couple of reviewers pointed out, Dragon Clouds is smart, original and unusual (in premise): I give 5 bubblegums for originality alone.
I'm here because of this author's first work, Darkness and Storm, which I very much recommend, and I'm twice a fan! Love the writing, love the off-beat storytelling.
Dragon clouds are sad...dragon clouds are revenge for being sad...
4 bubblegums
Darkness and Storm by Barrie Darke
6/30/22
I'm not a fan of Macbeth or Shakespeare, but I’ll remember this Darke's rendition: I loved this! I was at the edge of my seat! Very intelligent and intuitive writing; the language here is so exquisite.
Though the royal deaths were uncathartic, I enjoyed getting there nonetheless, because a story like this is about the buildup. We're already given the spoilers of how this will/might end, but the fun is in getting there because this is an exploration of greed and power. The Queen as some sort of Molech figure? Great stuff.
5 bubblegums
The Shinnery by Kate Anger
6/22/22
I read this in about 2 days: it’s good. This is my first read from Bison Books, an imprint of the University of Nebraska Press.
The Shinnery isn’t my usual taste since it reads more mainstream (where I can see it doing well), but it's also a period piece, excellently written—even as an ARC, thanks Edelweiss!—and I like Westerns and historical fiction.
This would make a great book club discussion book but for the fact that it was all on the father, so I don’t think there’s much to discuss. As a Christian though, this was an excellent commentary on the workings of God and devil, and how quickly faith becomes confused with a change in environment. How easy it is to believe in God when there is no temptation. Very flawed character in Jessa of course, but I appreciated her independence in working out her own understandings. Also, as a Christian, I love how I came away wondering about patriarchy. Of course, God's order is patriarchal, but what if the patriarch makes a mistake because his judgment is misguided? Regardless, I think Jessa needed to forgive her dad to reset rightness because she became angry and so contrary because of what happened to her.
I very much recommend. Excellent writing from start to finish but I thought it wrapped up corny and sentimental.
5 bubblegums
Indigo Seas by Samantha Novak
7/10/22
(Smiling) I enjoyed Indigo Seas, a quirky, off-beat and family-fun, friendly adventure that takes place on the high (and fabled) African seas. Bonus cool and yummy points for the integration of South African cuisine. It was also quite funny (especially the character of Pierre), and I just loved the family angle, or the commentary on wacky adults, and the different relationships explored. The setting of a boat and the destination of Madagascar is enough of a mystery to make nothing seem far-fetched. Cool read (and cover).
4 1/2 bubblegums
In the Realm of the Midnight Gardener by Christopher Laine (Author), David Slebodnick (Illustrator)
6/21/22
In the Realm wasn’t as polished as The Seven Coins Drowning series (I started with, and which I recommend), but it’s the same kind of great epic adventure in novelette form. Judging by publication dates, it seems In the Realm was meant to start the series? There’s the mention of Uncle Willingston here—which begins Seven Coins—and the presence of the (Belknap-ian) Tindalosi, this time cast a little different: still horrendous and deadly but a little more compromising. The ending is *really good. What a deal!
3 bubblegums
Mary Waboss by J.F. Simpson
6/20/22
"What about Mary Waboss for christ sakes?"(!)
This is a great encapsulating quote from Mary that occurs toward the end of the book; whether you sympathize with that quote or not is another story.
Mary Waboss was a pleasant surprise. It’s a really well-written and well-told story that pairs well with Roadman by Colin McGinnis in the story of a rambling native american caught between loyalty to a dying culture and hatred toward a burgeoning dominant one. It reminded me of an Ann Petry's The Street, or a Theodore Dreiser's An American Tragedy, or a Richard Wright's Native Son in the study of a character that's like watching a car crash that you can't look away from (without giving too much away). I highly recommend.
5 bubblegums
The Girl with the Bomb Inside by Andy Conway
6/20/22
I would love this as either mandatory or optional reading for high school home-schooled students. There's a twist that I wasn't expecting. This is a creative way of telling a short cautionary tale that is and will always be appropriate.
4 bubblegums
The Child Cephalina by Rebecca Lloyd
6/13/22
The Child Cephalina is psychologically thrilling historical fiction that captures the zeitgeist of spiritualism and poverty in mid-19th century London. And, of course, it blends the supernatural and occult, religious and historical in only the way that Tartarus Press can. I read this in about two days.
There's so much suspense that by the time I got to the end, the truly weird seemed less weird and more believable than the buildup. At one point, I wondered if any of the (three main household) characters were sane, and that's part of the suspense: Cephalina presents the very spiritual topic of human will and what we can't help. The supportive yet sobering character of Hoodie certainly reminds us of fleeing temptation, but to what extent can we help being inexplicably "attracted" to someone? Can an inexplicable attraction or fascination for someone be described as anything but sexual? Is there anything actually wrong with what Robert Groves is doing? Would you have the same opinion if Mr. Groves were female? And Cephalina is creepy, but so are all the weird and questionable and susceptible adults around her. Oh boy. The writing and highlighting of the complexity of relationships and the times is brilliant.
I was at the edge of my seat when both went up to the attic and looked through the wood, and I almost howled when both almost tumbled down the steps to get away. I really enjoyed this. Onward and upward with Tartarus Press (and perhaps this author) again!
5 bubblegums
The Doll Maker and Other Tales of the Uncanny by Sarban
6/9/22
I realized with The Doll Maker that I really enjoy Tartarus Press because I really love the genre of supernatural; it’s hard to pull off exactly because it's elusive, requiring a constant weaving in and out of reality without veering off into fantasy or total horror (see: Algernon Blackwood).
There are three novellas/novelettes here (that I enjoyed), with the titular "The Doll Maker" being an interesting take on unhealthy relationships. Tartarus Press specializes in what they call “interesting” fiction, and I’m interested.
3 1/2 bubblegums
Trese Vol 4: Last Seen After Midnight by Budjette Tan (Author), Kajo Baldisimo (Artist)
6/4/22
"If I don't fight, the demons will come"
I'm about 10 years late to the Trese party, but I'm here! And I enjoyed this. The graphics are kick a*s. Most likely, I'll shell out a Netflix fee for the animation series adaptation. I'm more interested in that than the comic series.
I think I was expecting one story because I was surprised to see four here (about 136 pages). "Cadena de Amor" fell flat, and my favorite was the closer "The Fight of the Year". Very well-illustrated and told, short, who-dun-it soft-core mysteries with a supernatural Filipino folkloric twist. I liked the story behind the Bangungot, a spirit attracted to pain and suffering, and in trying to save the heart from breaking holds it too tight, causing it to die. I think the original comic series had about eight volumes or books, but what's offered on Amazon is four volumes with this last not being released until July (thanks Edelweiss!).
4 bubblegums
Knucklebones by Marni Scofidio
6/13/22
This is my first experience with the Welsh landscape and, so, vocabulary in fiction—which, alarmingly, doesn't seem to have many vowels—so I'm unsure what “sodiums” are, or if there really is a place in Wales called "Ffrynt”. There's a Welsh primer at the beginning, but of course it doesn't answer any of these questions.
Knucklebones isn't "my style", but it is page-turning, well-told and written; and it communicates some cool truisms about (bad) parenting, and the propensity of the human "will" to arrive at the same stupid circumstances repeatedly. It’s big on plot as a bit of a psychological thriller that reminds me of a famous old movie, but I won’t say because it might give it away even though it’s not quite the same. Comically enough, one of the characters mentions the movie partway through the book. Good ending. Did Clary break her promise and make the wrong decision again?
3 1/2 bubblegums
Playing God in the Meadow: How I Learned to Admire My Weeds by Martha Leb Molnar
5/11/22
I thought I’d throw in the towel after the 100-page mark because I thought it veered too political, specifically liberal, but I was more than pleasantly surprised; I really loved this.
Playing God in the Meadow, like most memoirs, cloaks itself in a kind of untouchability precisely because it’s true: it may not be true for me as a reader, but it’s someone else’s experience and figuring out. This is what I loved about Playing God: it’s an educational memoir, but also what I like to call a “progression” memoir, where the reader is kindly allowed into the struggles and faults of the author as the author then tries to grow from them out of them in front of you.
The meadow is just the starting place for a fledgling understanding that then grows into a greater understanding of nature, life and God. What an adventure! It’s so fascinating. How man’s interference and relationship with nature is like bacteria, creating a new strain that nature grows resistant to with each "cure", until a new medicine or solution is necessary and then all over again. Until man learns, I guess ... I kept wondering and saying aloud: Just leave it! What will happen if you just leave the meadow for a year or two?! Aren’t you super curious about what it will look like and how it will reckon itself on its own without you?! I’m so curious.
This is the author’s own experience after all—which is also cool in its background—but the author’s critique of man’s predilection to control nature by labeling and categorizing it is, again, what the author is guilty of! There is a consistent theme here of over politicizing nature by repeated comparisons between native and non-native plants and natives of a country and foreigners and immigration (though the author’s proposal to her daughter to hire immigrants was hilarious).
Beautiful ending, beautiful writing and editing (even as an ARC, thanks Edelweiss!). We’ve overcomplicated things as humans tend to do and must now turn back to God, back to the meadow, back to Nature for the answer. It’s all around us! Simple.
5 bubblegums
Only the Cat Knows by Ruyan Meng
5/6/22
I really liked Only the Cat Knows. I almost want to say it was charming, but maybe in a dark way. I really loved the multiple layers of self-containment here: the outer suffocating setting of communism that creates the inner suffocating setting of a small village that creates the inner suffocating setting within a family and even further within each individual character, all of which gradually unravels to create a problem that is ultimately solved, and quite suddenly and unexpectedly. I can appreciate a complete novella, and I just really loved the overall thematic tone of setting and place, both within and without. This was an ARC—thanks Edelweiss—so I don't know what the final product will look like, but I would've been interested in a blurb at the end about the real story that inspired this one.
4 1/2 bubblegums
Roadman by Colin McGinnis
6/3/22
The Everywhere Man Roadman, Man
Cue Johnny Cash's "I've Been Everywhere Man" lyrics:
🎵 I've been everywhere man, I've been everywhere man, Crossed the deserts bare, man... 🎵
Yeah, that's Roadman, which is quite stunning. A rambling tract of a rambling native american rambling across the americas amidst the dissolution of native americans, told in creative rambling prose. (I think the author is mixed white and native, which is an equally cool perspective from which to tell such a creative historical fictive tale)
I have a love for books like Roadman that give difficult subject matter proper treatment, where the writing style is so gorgeous that it somewhat overrides the subject matter, giving it balance, and making it all just seem beautiful.
I thought I'd rate Roadman lower because of the many typographical errors, but I enjoyed it too much. Loved Roadman, love Fomite Press.
5 bubblegums
Blackchurch Furnace by Nathan Singer
5/1/22
There's actually black People, a Church and a Furnace!
If anything, Blackchurch is a fun read. It’s also different, and that’s a lot going for it: very novel and creative concepts, explorations and pairings (that showcase the diversity of this author’s writing ability). This is my first time around with Down & Out Books!
Though I found myself rolling my eyes several times, the overall message of this book is greater than its parts. It’s a great message about and portrayal of false worship and how it all seems to begin just as crazily and abruptly as it ends (false worship, it turns out, is a wild adventure).
There’s an amazing moment in this book between one of the bandmates and the guy who makes disturbing porn. The guy is telling the bandmate how he loves their music because he realized that the band was trying to destroy music with their music (because it’s so bad); and the bandmate is like what?! I love making music! It's an awesome conversation about trying to destroy the thing that you love—your god, your art—but failing because destruction just creates something new.
I disliked the publishing bloat at the end of the book: the story ended sooner than I thought but "on time", and the next 10 or so pages were dedicated to other works by the publisher and even chapters from other novels. Despite, the end was great, and the beginning of a new end was a twist and great as well.
4 bubblegums, yo
The Church of John Coltrane by Chad Taylor
4/21/22
The Church of John Coltrane vs. The Church of John Coltrane
I LOVE this. I read it all listening to a generic winter jazz mix. The only Coltrane I have is “In a Sentimental Mood” (with Duke Ellington); but this isn’t really about John Coltrane, nor is it about the *actual Church of John Coltrane, a black church in San Francisco that canonized the late jazz musician as a patron saint and is also known as The Saint John Coltrane Church, or The Saint John Will I Am Coltrane African Orthodox Church. *rolls eyes
The Church of John Coltrane is about misplaced worship, and obsessions; fake stories about fake art and artist deaths used to create fervor to make money in a fake art and music world. Oh, and China. Let us worship at The Church of John Coltrane with a little Chinese jazz ... when all seems to be a facsimile, what happens to the concept of originality? Let us philosophize at The Church of John Coltrane … where the congregation is an unhappy, itinerant, drunk gambler and his late bitter father, and a lying immoral curator and her artist and druggie kid and sham of a marriage. Remarkable dialogues here that capture stunning truisms and philosophies about life and art.
I’ve become a fan of this author since Pack of Lies (ha), which is equally brilliant, but suffers from the same frustrating lack of editing as Coltrane, which is riddled with typographical errors. Coltrane states that it's written in New Zealand dialect, but I felt that was completely lost on and indistinguishable from the errors.
So many beautiful scenes in this book became like art itself: the parallels and mention of Poe's short story "The Man of the Crowd", the bright photographic pulses of flash in the hallway, the records on the pallet being spun like a record in preparation for international shipment; the cat, the rain, the desolate rooms and The General Building. This is a mood. An arty mood. The fight was absolutely hilarious, and the mood of losing thousands and walking out of a hotel in a casino robe. Life's a gamble, art's a gamble. Let us pray at The Church of John Coltrane … where the explorations in this entire novel really sound like the up and down over here over there bah bah bah skiddy bop bop bop of jazz. Frenetic. Cool.
5 bubblegums
The Bandaged Man by Nicholas John Greenfield
4/15/22
Cool novelette of intrigue. It definitely left a residue. The writing wasn't bad but it wasn't great, but the story is, or at least it's intriguing and plays star of the show while the writing sits in the audience. Weird, if that makes sense. Anyway, it definitely left a residue.
4 bubblegums
Helpmeet by Naben Ruthnum
3/26/22
Let's just say that while reading this book and after reading this book and even now, writing this review, I have a very serious thinking face on.
Helpmeet is quite compelling, definitely eerie, a little chilling, very well written and confusing. I definitely liked the exploration of a (more-than) dysfunctional marriage merged with caretaking (and the actual horror it produces), but I felt a little lost on the premise, or this "third" entity (without giving too much away). And maybe that's just it, this "third" entity is the rotting, the filth, anthropomorphized into a flower, something, as desire, that appears beautiful but is not, is deadly, all-consuming, disgusting. The wrong thing, the wrong acts and emotions and desires realized as something real and truly horrible. (I'm working it out as I write I guess) It definitely leaves a residue.
Helpmeet is a novelette, short, but there's much here—there's a lot being said. Original concept that reminded me of the first Hellraiser movie, that bloodied thing becoming more human as it fed on others. Wow, just interesting. Thanks Edelweiss: I first read it here!
5 bubblegums
The Me You Love in the Dark, Volume 1 by Skottie Young (Author), Jorge Corona (Artist)
3/26/22
The illustrations and colors are fantastic. Interesting concept: I really like how the monster is the literal embodiment of an abusive relationship and the journey into one, and that's what "haunts" a house. What happened to Row's friend threw things off for me though, and it made The Me You Love in the Dark suddenly more real and less fantasy, so now I'm like, OK: how is she going to explain what happened to her friend? The end seemed to be a solution that was a thematic or genre mismatch.
This is a five-part series—Volume 1 of which I first read on Edelweiss (132 pp)—but it's hard to tell with these: is this the end? This is my third go-round with Image Comics and the pattern seems to be installments and then a whole book—I think that's customary generally—but it confuses me because I never know if more is coming. Is this the end?
3 1/2 bubblegums
A Righteous Thirst for Vengeance, Volume 1 by Rick Remender (Author), André Lima Araújo and Chris O'Halloran (Artists)
3/26/22
Really great illustrations but holey plot—thanks Edelweiss for the first read. I loved how so much was conveyed with minimal speech bubbles, but I think this is also what didn't work. Who was this Wen guy and who did he work for? Why was he at Mary Sullivan’s house, and why did he go to the second lady’s apartment? Is he a contract killer? Who is the "innocent target" described in the book description? I just had too many questions by the end that, instead of intriguing me, confused me into a disinterest in going any further (there’s eight volumes).
3 1/2 bubblegums
Helem by Stanley Wany
4/15/22
Is it supposed to make sense?!
It’s weird because I didn't necessarily "enjoy" Helem; but it’s a beautifully made book with illustrations that are quite breathtaking, especially the full-page spreads.
I didn't understand a lot of it—is that Basquiat? Some Basquiat-adjacent dude seemed to be behind or intertwined in it all, and I liked that point of familiarity for a graphic novel such as this that constitutes some majorly confusing ideas. You know you're tripped out (as a reader) when you start turning the book upside down so it can make more sense, and then it does! Whoa. Helem is mostly wordless, so I spent a lot of time looking at the graphics, especially since one can pack a lot, and each one is like a Rorschach test. Whoa. If anything, Helem is a work of art.
4 1/2 bubblegums
Sentencing Silence: What is it that we cannot hold in our hands that holds us like a fist? by Kathleen Cecilia Nesbitt
4/11/22
This is a very hard ugly book, but one for the literary canon of sexual abuse. Hats off to the author. It is just like the cover: beautifully ugly. This is an unraveling; but told in writing that is actually more intimate than the subject matter, because it is told creatively, and as how trauma happens: like the cover, a melting of faces, everything, memories all jumbled together. Who am I? It's all a bad dream.
Since Sentencing Silence is so heavy, I'm not sure if I was impatient for it to end for that reason, or because it felt like it dragged toward the end, which is where the treatment became too symbolic and sentimental, resulting in a corniness here and there. But it's one of these books that needs to be written. Like this. PS The mother was just as horrible. I think the end made me uncomfortable because, in uncovering the evil of the father, it seemed all too easy to make gradations of evil and so automatically qualify the mother as "less evil" and so good and a victim. (But a lot of truth was said about the mother too) It's like a scene from the movie The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, and the girl, broken, goes to visit her mother in the home, and her mother looks at her and says, I should've chosen a better father for you.
4 1/2 bubblegums
Fairoz by Moniza Alvi
3/14/22
Fairoz is true to its introductory description: it is folkloric and a fae tale, a dark fairy tale about a young (Muslim) girl who battles with evil—in this case, the evil highlighted is religious misunderstanding, religious extremism, Islamic extremism, misunderstanding. I really loved it.
Jamarat, the hajj ritual of stoning the devil, starts the collection very strong with "Driving the devil away", and I really love how it highlighted the futility of religion, a religious ritual, in trying to stop the devil when the home is bad—the mother is a Snow Queen, the father gone, the home made of straw that the wolf can blow down (as in The Three Little Pigs). Indoors made of ice that brings on the fire. (I loved the imagery of "Snow White": the snow and ice, the tangled wood and forests, the woodcutters)
Though it'd probably take up less space to list the poems that I wasn't as crazy about, my particular favorites were: "Indoors", "What do you do with a heap of stones?" (which cleverly turns next into), "'It was a house of female habitation'", "The white cat", "Not enchantment", "Home", "Listening to Fairoz and Tahir", "Does the Devil know what he is?", "The notice", "Ripe", "Absent and present", "Her absences", "Ice age", "Who's there?", "The woods", and "My imagined Fairoz", which was an excellent close: was it all just a fairy tale? We’re left with the very real reality of what was once only imagined, what seemed like a bad dream—evil, the devil, being like a bad dream—that became a very real reality once believed in and acted upon. I love this! The Notes and Acknowledgments are super cool too.
Thanks Edelweiss: I first read the ARC here!
5 bubblegums
A Season in Hell with Rimbaud by Dustin Kyle Pearson
3/13/22
I had never heard of the French poet Rimbaud before reading this, so I think it a very clever spin-off of Rimbaud's extended prose poem, A Season in Hell. Same themes of men, hell, masculinity and, perhaps, homosexuality (briefly), but in its proper context of trauma. I love the associated images: hopefully they’ll be in color in the published book (I read an ARC, thanks Edelweiss). PS The author's work seems to be evocative enough to become imagery and moving poetry: check out the poem "The Flame in Mother’s Mouth" as a cool short film.
"A Season in Hell with Rimbaud" is an awesome poem that begins the collection *very strongly. I also really liked "Regardless", "A Dependency", "The Day I Told My Brother That Despite It All, I Found a Way to Be Happy", "A Forgetting Statement", "Whirling", and "In Hell's Ocean I Come upon a Man Wanting His Son's Approval". I thought it really cool this idea of hell burning both inside and outside of the house where each brother separated from the other, and hell being also found when they are together. Hell is in the brothers. That's my interpretation anyway.
4 bubblegums
Koan by Tim Gorichanaz
3/17/22
koan a paradoxical anecdote or riddle, used in Zen Buddhism to demonstrate the inadequacy of logical reasoning and to provoke enlightenment.
Like, what is the sound of one hand clapping?
Koan could benefit from typo and line editing, especially, because it seemed to go on with too much information at times. But it’s a different kind of tale and an intriguing story that highlights a philosophical concept and religious truisms. I particularly enjoyed the added bonus of a history lesson of the Basque people and a geography tour of Basque Country (absorbed and surrounded by the greater country of Spain).
What Koan does well is making the reality of stranger-than-fiction believable; it’s very twisting and turning because the premise is nuts. It’d make a good (religious) book club discussion book. Should the priest have done that? Would it have mattered if he denied it, so it was better to admit it? Koan is actually a very good book that demonstrates how God works: the priest was the only one who had agency because he had God, despite being judged by the wicked people as bad; he was like the fulcrum, grounding the story, being that which the story revolved around, and the characters acted upon. It’s a good representation of how people blame God. It made me wonder about fall guys and how many other (religious) scandals are actually false. I love the street poet's story at the end, so many layers here. What an apt title! And a great ending! An apt ending.
3 1/2 bubblegums
Pack of Lies by Chad Taylor
3/8/22
"Because you never talk about anything with your friends—all you do is have a good time."
This is a very, very, very critical sentence to the book (and also scarily to life); it's the catharsis of everything we, as the reader, suspected, but there's actually more, I discovered, that comes behind it.
Pack of Lies is a different read, in tone and style, and I really liked it, though I wish—especially for a book so short—there weren't so many typos. What's cool and scary about this book is that we as the reader are being lied to as well. I experienced a disorientation from the tales spun, where am I? The crazy tangents, so many stories. It's messed up; I just didn't know what to believe. The book literally becomes a lie. I don't want to give too much away since it's a short (but packed) read, but I recommend it.
4 bubblegums
Dear Sweet Filthy World by Caitlin R. Kiernan
3/10/22
This is my first rodeo with this author and Subterranean Press, and I didn't think I would make it. I didn't like the first story at all; the second was OK, and it picked up steam by the third. My favorites, beginning with the third, were "Paleozoic Annunciation", "Charcloth, Firesteel, and Flint", "The Dissevered Heart" and "The Eighth Veil" (which, linguistically, reminded me of Burgess' A Clockwork Orange). I really loved "—30—" most of all; I liked "Hauplatte/Gegenplatte", "Sanderlings" and "Interstate Love Song (Murder Ballad No.8)", which was a fantastic story and close. Fitting cover, awesome cover.
Dear Sweet Filthy World is *a lot, and I found myself wanting like hell to finish it, but settling in each time I began another story. The writing is quite good with the should-be-annoying and quirky tendency—that actually works for the stories—of a narrator, or an "I", continuously "butting in" to the story. There’s also a repeated focus on genitalia (which, considering the author, makes sense). It's so atypical of my reading preference, but the breadth of knowledge is quite breathtaking, paired with fantasy and what all else. I guess this would be considered "Lovecraftian" (of which I am not a fan). It reminded me of a Polaroid picture, many of the stories being ephemeral, ghostly, not quite developed, but then the writing becomes more definite and linear at certain stories and there is a picture there until it goes back to being zygotic again, in development. Cool interplay, I guess.
5 bubblegums
Envy the Rain by Jamie Boud
3/2/22
A Breakup Novel for the Broke up
-“Do you think you’re depressed?”
-“No,” I said. “Not depressed. Not anymore. Just a little lost…still just a little lost.”
Envy the Rain is a really good capture of our untethered-ness, the unmooring and driftless nature of being due to a context like a breakup...with someone we've been with for almost 20 years no less...that we shouldn't have been with to begin with.
I liked that Envy reads very "clean", the irony of its innards being a total mess. There were some typos, but it was edited well and presented cleverly in segments, each chapter reflecting a new woman, a new country and a new kind of beginning and lostness. I thought it cool the little twists here and there, and how we begin at the end of a relationship, but how Envy journeys toward the beginning simultaneously, to how everything started, when everything went wrong: we see the real truth. It's an oxymoron, good breakup novel.
4 bubblegums
The Bitterwood Bible by Angela Slatter
2/21/22
I've just never read anything like it, though Tartarus Press seems to publish a lot of writing that surpasses genre and mixes genres in very wild and novel ways.
Bitterwood was a slow buildup that begins to gradually peak at "The Badger Bride", "The Burnt Moon" and "By My Voice I Shall Be Known", and then wilds the f88k out—crescendos—*hardcore at "The Night Stair", which I read like wtf fghyhyhyhalkks. Those are my favorites. "The Night Stair" rocked me, especially because it seemed to come out of nowhere—another genre out of nowhere—and it's *good and forms the meat—no pun intended—of Bitterwood. Be sure to pay attention because the stories are interconnected, and names will keep popping up. Everything ends with the occult and revenants, "Spells for Coming Forth by Daylight", which is clever.
Bitterwood took a lot out of me. Like Sourdough and Other Stories (which I highly recommend), the stories are very dense; it's like they feed on you, your energy. Whew!
3 1/2 bubblegums
Muladona by Eric Stener Carlson
2/18/22
Whoa. Alright, just whoa. Muladona is A LOT. There's A LOT going on here.
Firstly, I've become a fan of Tartarus Press; and I was up for another adventure with this author (after reading The St Perpetuus Club of Buenos Aires, which I recommend). Solid writing skills and a wild imagination that blends mystery with the occult, history and folklore—blurring the lines between fantasy and reality—has me reeling for a second time.
Muladona takes on much, and I can appreciate that: relations between Swedes, the Spanish and Natives in a place called Incarnation Texas against the backdrop of the Spanish flu. I started Muladona at a solid 5, but by the middle and start of the 4th or so tale (this is also a tale within multiple tales), I was down to a 3. I think this is a matter of plot taste because Muladona still held plausible weight for me while still spiraling into the ridiculous and YA fantasy. I also didn't like the man vs. woman angle, and sympathetic takes for women and mothers who are just as wrong as men and fathers. It just doesn't make any logical sense.
Awesome folklore: I'd never heard of the Muladona and its different bents as according to different Spanish-speaking, Native and mestizo cultures. Overall, it's worth the ride. It started out horrific enough and totally veered into I don't know what; the author has a propensity for that. The tales were really cool. I was wrong in my guess about the Muladona! I'd be dead!
3 1/2 bubblegums
The Least of It by Peter Nash
2/15/22
Eh. I liked the idea of what this novelette conveyed more than the execution of it. The scenery was beautiful, the historical background a bit too heady and confusing. Overall, it seemed an intellectualization or romanticization ... or an attempt to make egocentric characters and their trashiness seem a lot more romantic and complicated than they actually were. Like giving crappy behavior a beautiful scenery of knowledge and geography. The main character around which all of this centered was not likeable and a little too one-dimensional.
3 bubblegums
Fig Street by Dell Sweet
2/15/22
I'm here because of the author’s screenplay Mexico (written under the name Geo Dell); and while both are totally different, both share in very solid writing that reads like a movie.
Fig Street veered weird at times but—like Mexico—features crazy twists and turns that were still plausible without being over the top. Fig Street is the dark side of childhoods and streets: MISSING posters of kids, and small-town close-knit neighborhoods disfigured by poverty and (substance) abuse. It reads like a movie and doesn't bother to tie up loose ends; much of the town remains just as in the dark as I did as a reader. Though I didn't understand some things, Fig Street was a good capture of childhood (monsters) and small-town workings. Great dialogue between the kids. Good suspense.
3 bubblegums
Lamlash Street: A Portrait of 1960's Post-War London Through One Family's Story by J.M. Phillips
2/15/22
I enjoyed Lamlash Street because 1) it was atypical of memoirs in being historical and so educational, and 2) it reminded me of and highlighted very well what a memoir is: a slice of life. In this case—what’s so cool—the author is able to go back and tell a story from the perspective of an 11-year-old beginning in Christmas of 1962 and ending in Christmas of 1963. So many changes! And it was cool how both the beginning and end begin and end in celebration, but with two very different tones.
I don't want to give too much away, but what I found particularly fascinating was the lack of indoor toilets in the 60s stemming from living in condemned housing destroyed by the war, and the housing then becoming a garden! It's cool how many of us have so many fond childhood memories of streets and old neighborhoods despite the drear and horror of what was actually happening. My streets were Weaver Way and Mills Street!
4 bubblegums
Mexico by Geo Dell
1/8/22
What's cool about Mexico is that it really does read like a movie. It got very Departed-like at the end, where the bullets started flyin, people started droppin, and my hand went up to my forehead, oh my.
This is the first (indie) screenplay I've read, and I enjoyed it. The pacing was great and the twist and turns appropriate and shocking, though interrupted throughout by poor editing. I'm also not sure that the details about the reporter were necessary; I don't think she was integral enough to be given her own separate "parts". I think it was just enough to know how skeevy media/news stations can be too in reporting and following up on stories.
4 bubblegums
The Shipbuilder of Bellfairie by M. Rickert
1/9/22
The Shipbuilder of Bellfairie didn't "work" for me, but here’s what it did well (because it was a weird read for me in this dual way):
Great suspense: there's a great ping-pong of suspense. Shipbuilder does a good job of constantly posing the question, what happened?! One minute I was lulled into thinking I knew where the story was going, and then wham! and wham! and wham! Though I wasn't invested in the characters, I needed to know how the story would turn out. Great job painting an unreliable narrator who also keeps secrets from us as readers: I became a part of the small-town perception of Quark as well.
What’s weird is that while the tone of Shipbuilder is suspenseful, the suspense fell short because of characters that seemed unfinished or not fleshed out very well. It seemed weird without being "weird fiction" because it throws elements into the story—like myth, lore and magical realism—that are cooler in theory than in action. It's hard to describe without giving the plot away. But the plot just didn’t work in describing the main character and town because there wasn’t enough there, and some parts weren’t believable. I actually thought it would end differently, and that a more fitting ending would have been the evil of the town getting the neighbor that they deserve (by Quark staying). But that's just me, and I don't think I spoiled anything. Great cover and ride, nonetheless. This is my third read, I think, from Undertow Publications!
3 bubblegums
Made in Korea by Jeremy Holt (Author), George Schall (Artist)
1/11/22
What I found interesting about Made in Korea was that it was highly rated as a series but mediocrely rated as a whole book.
I love the cover but, contrary to other reviews, thought the plot and illustrations just OK. There were some gorgeous colorful depictions of the city Seoul, but facial expressions and objects were often blurry or not well defined. I liked that the speech bubbles were easy to follow.
I thought Made would make a great novel for teens ... until the end. That's when I felt the implication that changing one's gender could be considered "transcendent" a little disturbing, especially as it relates to a story about young adults. This is a time of almost monstruous transition, so, like, no sudden moves ... everybody just calm down. Also, the ending fit in terms of what the guy was doing with AI and sexuality, but not with the character of Jesse: I thought Made was more about Jesse not fitting in due to not being human and being taken advantage of in that vulnerability, so throwing in sex changes, etc. didn’t fit thematically. But I did love the pairing of AI with child/teen development because it really did capture the angst of what it's like to be a teenager and out of place, out of body—just a crazy, unsure dangerous time, especially when a child is unsure of their origins, or the origin is all screwed up. So I loved that exploration. I loved the uncertainty captured of (all) the parents as well, and how, mid-point, everything is flipped upside down and Jesse is the normal robot surrounded by abnormal human robots.
I first read Made in Korea via Edelweiss. Thank you!
3 1/2 bubblegums
Radium Girls by Cy
1/11/22
*I read an advance review copy of Radium Girls via Edelweiss, thanks!
I loved Radium Girls; I fell in love with the artwork, so beautiful and warm, and I loved the "nude" isolates of the women; it reminded me of cubism. I’d never heard of this story before, and I enjoyed the novelty of a historical graphic novel. I even loved the interview and found it clever and tastefully done. But when I read "feminism", I'm like, here we go ... I just finished reading about 6+ women who died slow of radium poisoning in the early 20th century, and the author is involving themselves in solidarity because of how they personally view the world? Egotism like this can make art seem contrived and disingenuous. I think it was omitted in the book that the male doctor died too, and so did a male lead chemist (and others). The legislation enacted as a result affected not women but *workers, including the right of individual workers to sue corporations for damages from labor abuse. It would've been cool to see a formal blurb about the real story, maybe even including the fact that radium was discovered by Marie Curie (and her husband), and that Curie also died from exposure. (PS I did appreciate the author’s ability to summarize the story appropriately because it's a lot of information (about the story and time period) to distill into 150 pages)
4 bubblegums
Grind Your Bones to Dust by Nicholas Day
1/4/22
From a glance at the blurb, I thought Grind Your Bones would be a collection of short stories; it didn't dawn on me until the third part that these stories were interconnected. So the one thing I wished for was a TOC—even for the four parts—because I thought, wait a minute, that name sounds familiar, so I had to scroll back through the previous stories. Of course, what's really cool is that Grind Your Bones is a dual novel: a collection of four long stories that are interconnected so as to *make a novel.
I come away from Grind Your Bones unsettled, even in calling it a masterpiece, and I don’t know why. I think because it’s so expansive in what it covers and understands; most of its mastery lies in its ability to elude genre. It doesn’t settle anywhere “permanent”. The writing is superb and prosaic—sprawling—as with Cormac McCarthy’s Blood Meridian, of which it reminded me. It was very horrifying to me in a way that evil man-eating donkeys seemed to take a back seat. Religious and metaphysical to extremes of horror. The exposition of the many layers of evil through the exploration of evil is just astounding. And I say that as a Christian! I was wholly shocked by the end, that this had all been for "love" and to be free from it. Bonkers.
And so to dust may Adam in his evil return. Grind man's bones to dust!
5 bubblegums
Ring by André Alexis
1/2/22
Ring is very, very interesting. There are a number of ways one could interpret this, I suppose, due to the premises presented here, but, to me, Ring was like a creationist story about love, which is not really love. A high-brow, intellectual Romance with a cruel twist: an anti-Romance. A story of how women pass on the idea of dysfunctional love to their daughters through trying to control love, trying to control men, and suffering for it ... beginning with an overemotional Greek goddess who falls in love with a doll, a man who was never real in the first place. Cue the ring! Cue the wedding vows! Cue the marriage!
Ring is very sprawling; it covers a lot, it endeavors much, and accomplishes what it endeavors: a great tour of and homage to Toronto and Canada, inclusive and all-encompassing ideas and discussions of "love", disambiguation of weddings, marriages and love, and solid premises and plot lines for a fairly complicated plot line. However, true love would have been destroying the ring altogether.
It fell apart toward the end, which felt rushed and contained a lot of "progressive" regressive liberal malarky talking points that I don't think were integral to the book. (It became too sprawling) But it all works, as it turns out, in painting a very comprehensive view of what dysfunctional love looks like in all of its orientations.
3 bubblegums
Carts and Other Stories by Zdravka Evtimova
12/30/21
I prefer In the Town of Joy and Peace but, overall, I enjoy this author's writing: it's dark magical realism with a really good (country/village) sense of humor. I enjoy being traipsed to Bulgaria to the strange characters and strange world they inhabit. I particularly enjoyed "The Old House", "Winds", "The Hawthorn Bush", and the titular "Carts".
3 1/2 bubblegums
The Hundred Choices Department Store by Ginger Park
12/20/21
*I read an advanced copy of The Hundred Choices Department Store from Edelweiss. Thank you!
I'd known about Japan's occupation of South Korea from Eugenia Kim's The Calligrapher's Daughter, but not Russia and then North Korea too! I had to go to a world map to look at the location of all these Asian countries (and the position of Korea) to be astounded again!
I marvel at how much happens here within a very short period of time, within just 99 pages, all while keeping good time, good pace. Nothing seems rushed. The storytelling is great, which gives Hundred Choices a tone of magical realism amidst grim historical fiction. It's sad and angry, but that sadness and anger is checked by the backdrop of Christian acceptance and forgiveness, the magic of memories and moments, and carrying them alive as culture. I love how the family was depicted, how they're all affected by war (and religion) in very different ways, and how this culminates into a familial truth that is almost as difficult to accept and forgive as war.
5 bubblegums
Jacob’s Apartment by Joshua Kemble
12/19/21
I enjoyed Jacob's Apartment (thanks Edelweiss!). It’s an honest exploration into the development of faith through rote acceptance, and the testing of faith through hard times. I loved the uniqueness of subject matter and the change of illustration styles throughout.
Jacob's Apartment is quite sad—melancholic—a heart-wrench, but what I love is that it isn’t in its honesty and logic. It's a portrayal of what is: the messiness of life and navigating the best way we know how even if it's wrong and crazy, but possessing a dignity of knowing that it's wrong and crazy without knowing how to fix anything. I loved the character of Sarah, who, as the atheist, made the most sense; her letter was beautiful. And I loved how this story of “losing” faith doesn't end on a syrupy, ta-da fix-it-all, cheery note. It's sad but it isn't because it’s the truth (of how it goes sometimes). We don't know, and there is the joy of God in that because we're not God and supposed to know—how to take on the burden of the whole universe.
4 1/2 bubblegums
Red Company by Andy Monk
12/14/21
Barbarians At the Gate
I haven't read a ton of horror, but I'm definitely a fan of the genre taking place during the Dark Ages. Fitting, no?
I don't know what I was expecting with Red Company—I usually don't read blurbs but the first few pages of a book—but it wasn't this! This is good. At times I thought the end dragged, but the overall tone here is relentless and bleak coupled with horror anyway.
It's lit from the first page and lit until the end—it don't stop. Great page-turner and excellent grasp of good and evil and the battle and interplay between the two: it's saying a lot, about manhood, honor, faith, God, the devil, handicaps, loyalty, bargains, choices ... while at the same time being a story of how a princess named Solace becomes a demon through "love".
Awkward phrasing here and there but overall Red Company is very well written. Great sense of dread. Great horror. Whew! I feel like I wrote the book that's how much it worked me.
4 1/2 bubblegums
Cubicles Anonymous by Brett Pahler
12/18/21
I can appreciate Cubicles, or any novel centered around the workplace that sheds a different light from a different angle. It gave me a lot to think about: the motivations of co-workers as dependent on their intimacy; the workplace motivations of individuals based on their personal lives; "good guy" bosses in "bad guy" companies, "bad guy" bosses with "good guy" workers; and, most of all, the very misguided anti-heroic notion of assuming responsibility for other people's lives, i.e. volunteering to be an (office) hero when nobody asked you to, and the very surprising yet unsurprising blowback.
Silas (as the main character) is the perfect anti-hero, meaning he does a lot of moral things based on very selfish reasons, creating a very conflicted, vacillating idea of him that is hard to agree and disagree with from one moment to the next. He is painted/written very well: not conflicted enough so as to be totally illogical but conflicted enough to be totally unreliable and ridiculous. Very sardonic and hilarious. The ending was perfect: from the extremes of corporate to the extreme of bleeding-heart non-profit. I loved the whole idea of "Dynamic Explosions" and the hilarity and horror of CEOs trying to make safety profitable (in an office of bureaucrats who sell weapons). Ohmygosh.
4 bubblegums
The Fabric Over The Moon: 28 short stories from unlikely heroes by Ferran Plana
12/30/21
Mm? Ha, I don't know! I like the cover, and the stories are like the cover, as in strange; as in, not quite being able to describe what I'm looking at.
Fabric isn't "writerly", but it's different, like weird folk tales, or a story you might relate orally to another person. I enjoyed "Izah" very much, which is the reason I decided to read this book because it starts the collection off very strong, but also in a way that the rest of the stories couldn't really stand up to. I also enjoyed "Chase", "Possess", and "Birds". It's funny, and some of the stories I didn't understand too much.
3 1/2 bubblegums
The Third State: a psychological episode by Mark B. Follis
12/3/21
I'm beginning to enjoy ex-pat "dis-location" "dislocated" fiction. The state of being a non-citizen in a country that you are trying to affect in some way creates this automatic air of mystery and disorientation. And I just love when authors come out of the woodwork as ex-spies or ex-CIA or FBI or merchant marines etc. to create a work of fiction of all things. In this case, the author is an American arborist, ex-Peace Corps with extensive living abroad experience.
Third State put me in a third state with a relocation to Ecuador, where I had no idea of indigenous populations and ex-pat diversity, and the enormity of the Amazon. I don’t personally like overly analytical explanations grounded in the psychology profession, nor the use of a psychologist to "move" (along) a story (and as a main means to "illuminate" a story); however, these plot aspects didn't necessarily "hurt" the story since the story is very well written and intriguing. (I read this in about two days ohmygosh I just wanted to know what was happening and what was going to happen!) I love the fact that everyone—from the indigene to the mulatto to the Ecuadorian to the Italian-Asian married couple to the Peace Corps Dutchman—has a point of view that is portrayed from a sympathetic angle. It's food for thought that you may not necessarily side with the natives against the foreigners when the natives in some cases are more harmful to their own people than the foreigners, who are at times equally misguided. I also never knew about university agendas in other countries, or the role of universities in other countries manifested as dissertations; and I just love how this was highlighted (in its complexity).
This would make a great book club discussion book. The last part of this book is wild!
4 1/2 bubblegums
Fargo Burns by Kos Kostmayer
12/10/21
This is a cool book, a sort of psychological, mental health coming-of-age tale simply but oddly and creatively told: a loss of sanity as explored through childhood trauma, and a stab at returning to sanity ... no pun intended.
'Fargo Burns', turns out, has a double meaning; and though its details waxed and waned on me, it's a stunning ending (as with the beginning) that works with the whole text to communicate something very powerful about male-hood, manhood, female-hood and womanhood, and how the power of a woman to affect a male into a man lies in her ability to hold him accountable while still remaining easygoing and non-judgmental of him. (This is also an indication of her womanhood) I just love how Fargo's wife is portrayed, as "terrific" by everyone: her husband is a maniac, struggling, but she maintains a very heartwarming relationship with him that includes taking his children to him.
I was utterly stunned (and moved) by the end (standing ovation). In the end, a male must find his own manhood despite all the support in place, and I love how the savagery of that is portrayed. It's a psychological battle that, spun out of control, becomes a dangerous physical battle to stay alive. This book will stay with me for a while. *Howls then barks like a dog.
5 bubblegums
Fighting Is Like a Wife by Eloisa Amezcua
12/18/21
*Review based on an Advanced Reader Copy/Uncorrected Proof Copy from Edelweiss
Great cover and use of graphic poetry to mimic the bloody, confusing, blurry, rope-a-dope, run-on, repetitive life of a boxer and dysfunctional abusive love. I give it a 5 just for its "southpaw" unconventional stance—creativity—alone.
Since Fighting centers on the career (and marriage) of the American boxer Bobby "Schoolboy" Chacon, I would've liked to have seen more about him, especially as a boxing fan myself, e.g. a pic and/or bio in the back, especially to illuminate some passages of poetry. (I'm not sure if "Round 4" was a commentary on the death of his son; if so, I only connected the dots once I read more about Chacon online) Maybe also a brief bio of Valorie—she was his 1st wife? There's also a brief note of when he was stripped of the super featherweight championship, but no date. I liked Rounds 1, 2 and 10, "The Facts", "It Was Just an Opening" and "She Said, He Said". I also liked some of Valorie's poems, but I can't say which because all of the "Valorie" poems are titled "Valorie". Also, there are two poems titled "The Facts" (I liked the first one).
4 bubblegums
The Tangle Box by Dave Kavanagh
11/15/21
The Tangle Box can be a matter of taste; and I'm not too keen on sad stories or stories of abuse told sentimentally: a story is already sentimental because it's sad and horrible, so now should come the writing talent of crafting it well. Plot-wise, the story seemed improbable; and I think this is because, though good, the pacing was still somehow off because of the treatment of time. As if experiencing major catharsis resulting from years of horrible abuse will occur over several days through a third-party psychologist, and then all at once. I'm not saying it's impossible, but it appeared so in the book. Fiction is about making the impossibility of all seem believable. There were just too many deus ex machinas: the psychologist, the cook ... The pacing seemed good until the climax, and then it all seemed rushed and, again, rather improbable. But Tangle is well written: it flows well; it's suspenseful and page-turning and creates a great tone of dread. There weren’t that many errors, but they were prominent when they appeared, e.g. "Paul" with like four l's to read "Paullll". I enjoyed the Irish backdrop.
3 bubblegums
Mother Figures by Amy Barnes
11/22/21
I really kinda like this collection. A quirky sentence, I guess, for a quirky collection of weird surrealistic flash fiction that explores the tragedy of woman/motherhood. My favorites are:
Cul-de-Sac Saint
Stairway to Heaven
Delivery
Dr. Audubon Will See Me Now
Preservation, &
Split Level Good-Byes
Not so much "Angela's Wake", but such a cool concept of a woman's body being carrion for vultures after miscarriage. Cool quirky cover that is explained with "Eating Watermelon at Sanders Pond", which is like a twisted ode to twisted bad advice from mothers. P.S. Fruit is "the mature ovary of a flowering plant that contains seeds". Clever.
4 bubblegums
I Am the Subway by Kim Hyo-eun (Author), Deborah Smith (Translator)
11/1/21
I Am the Subway is lovely!
It's more than the literal connections made on the subway: it's a metaphor for connection: all the human connections made on the subway because of the subway. The illustrations are beautiful; I love the watercolor, which creates a transparency to make all the denizens of the subway (look) like ghost riders: transients. It's also cool that this centers around the Seoul subway because it's the longest in the world. The author and translator are interesting too, and I love that Kim Hyo-eun is both author and illustrator.
I read a digital review copy of I Am the Subway via Edelweiss :-)
5 bubblegums
Mrs Midnight and Other Stories by Reggie Oliver
12/1/21
Initially, I didn't think I would enjoy Mrs Midnight because, stylistically, this collection is very heavy-handed in narration: it's the constant telling of a story (versus the showing of a story). But this began to grow on me as, perhaps, a stylistic quirk of the author, a distinct writing style, for the stories are filled with some degree of intrigue, suspense and oddness (owing to the supernatural bent); and the writing and narration are good. I particularly enjoyed "Mr Pigsny", "The Mortlake Manuscript" and "A Piece of Elsewhere". My main criticism is that the story titles were forgettable and odd in the sense that many conveyed a definite part of the story but not the essence of the story. Many of the stories also end quite "flat".
This is the third title I've read from Tartarus Press, and I'm enjoying it!
3 1/2 bubblegums
The St Perpetuus Club of Buenos Aires by Eric Stener Carlson
11/26/21
- "I realised, to my horror, I hadn't been admitted to a witches' coven. I'd simply come to a sex club for bureaucrats."
It was at this moment—halfway through—that I set aside this book just to guffaw. I mean, really laugh as this sunk in. Initially, I thought quoting this book would be spoiler-y, but then I realized—looking back from each page I'd read and going forward to each page to come—it'd be impossible. Even if I wrote equations on a chalkboard and explained this book word by word, you'd still have no proper understanding of it. The St Perpetuus Club of Buenos Aires is nuts.
- "If I'd survived all of that, then wasn't this trouble with Julieta just a hiccup? I mean, she couldn't stay mad at me forever. And once I solved the riddle of St. Perpetuus, once I found out where the pool of Panther Energy was stored, then I could make everything right again."
Another guffaw. I mean, isn't this a totally plausible thing to say to our husbands or wives who we are failing? Look honey, I'll come home and be a spouse and parent as soon as I find the key to the Spidey Secrets hidden in the dark chamber. In a way, this is a totally perfect quote that encapsulates this book. It's very strange without being strange fiction. Lots of intrigue and surprises—quite an adventure—and nothing like I’ve ever read in terms of wit, imagination, cleverness and hilarious historical fiction. He didn't exactly hoard a crucifix in his anal cavity to outwit the devil, but here's an unsaintly guy who made sainthood for being able to renege on a deal with the devil through time travel. I'm not going to tell you what he became the saint of—it's just so cool; you'd have to read it yourself.
5 bubblegums
The No One by Kimile Aczon
11/7/21
I didn't enjoy The No One. It’s suspenseful—intriguing—and 'good when it’s good'. An OK story about the devil and his battle with God. Great cover and start, but then it all went off the rails and became laborious to get through. Too many "deus ex machinas" used to 'solve plot', too stereotypical (racially) for my taste, and too many typos (that should’ve warned me when I detected them in just the first couple of pages of Amazon’s "Look Inside" feature. I gave it a shot because I'd just read my first title from Omnium Gatherum, and it was pretty good.
3 bubblegums
Family Solstice by Kate Maruyama
10/19/21
I give 10 bubblegums for the writing and suspense comprising more than half this book, and 3 bubblegums for the execution of the climax, which rapidly deflated in a weird mix of hardcore fantasy horror, softcore paranormal, and eye-rolling "wokeism". But then inflated again and ended good. Some of it I didn't get. It reminded me of Marasco's Burnt Offerings. You know, "this house was always your house"—The Shining—"you've always been the caretaker here". The movie Alien and people being slime-baked into the walls.
There's a really cool overarching theme (and lessons) here of familial perception and breaking toxic familial cycles, which becomes the horror too. It's a really interesting novelette that has ALL kinds of moving parts, is in 3 parts, and all in less than sixty pages, which is impressive. This is right on time for Thanksgiving if you're looking for that perfect anti-family anti-Thanksgiving book. Family Solstice is it.
3 1/2 bubblegums
The Puppet's Tattered Clothes by Alan Bray
10/17/21
I love this. I wanted to say that it would've been better if ... there were illustrations to appeal better to youth, if ... it was more fleshed out to appeal more to adults, if ... but I think it works uniquely just the way it is and how it was originally intended: as a 'flash novel'. It's a novelette that reads like a lengthy short story, but there's a novelesque coming-of-agedness about this tale even though the main character is 19 ... chronologically, that is. Something is broken inside; this is the major theme, but a way to fix it ... with the magical realism of forgiveness, marionettes and the promise of travel to distant lands to start again ... It's a special tale. Literally and figuratively, it pulls at the heart strings, inside.
5 bubblegums
The Body of Martin Aguilera by Percival Everett
10/17/21
A Black, a Mexican and Japanese Walk Into a Bar ...
The Body of Martin Aguilera is crazy and scary for many reasons, foremost because I would categorize it as "pre-apocalyptic"; there's a buildup the entirety of this book that is uncomfortable, sad and weird, and it just gets worse. What also makes this short read scary is the historical? Catholic sect of 'Penitentes', which I'd never heard of, and I have no idea if their discussion in this book is correct or completely twisted so as to serve as a literary device for tone. It worked for me but then it didn't, because it raised a lot of questions that spooked me, sure, but also fell short of spooking me by confusing me. Things were left too open-ended at times. Very interesting read though. This is one of these books that I was eager to finish reviewing so I could read what other people had to say!
4 bubblegums
The Hour of Parade by Alan Bray
11/19/21
I've become a fan of this author since The Puppet's Tattered Clothes. Such exquisite writing that is reflective of the author’s ability to plunge deep into emotional depths but unemotionally, very matter-of-factly. But maybe it's the illusory and superficial nature of emotion that the author is able to capture so well.
Firstly, I love classic writing, so check. Then there's the whole theme of an existing but fictional book by Jean-Jacques Rousseau running alongside the story being told in the novel. It's a world full of doppelgängers, twins: people who may look like you and have the same life but live in a different country, a different time, a different reality, speak a different language. And then all of these realities—two sets of realities, two sets of couples, of four individual people—crashing together. The mirroring going on here is next level. The theme of war, and the interestingness of the author's own background intermingling with the story: a psychologist and anthropologist translating a French novel. And then amidst all of this, I still wasn't expecting THAT to happen. Oh my goodness. But then why wasn’t I? The Hour of Parade is about mirrors and illusions: the doppelgänger and illusion of true love being sex and bitterness, the romantic and alluring promise of something more being nothing more than the illusion that it is. It's erotic but not romantic. Great insight into male and female relationships and their bitterness of interdependence brought on by illusions. It’s a long book, but it went by quickly. The chapters are very short. Highly recommended.
5 bubblegums
A Turn in Fortune by Jon Pepper
10/16/21
When Family May Not be a Good Corporate Investment
This is a light, fun, delicious and hilarious read about corporate shenanigans and buffoonery with a real gem of insight pertaining to working as an outside contractor in a family-owned business (whose bottom line may be money over family); I snickered and smirked with a dirty sense of delight every night reading it. The funeral procession of aged, nearly dead board members toward the end was absolutely hilarious. The utter insanity of large corporations buying out smaller corporations so that smaller corporations now have a permanent seat on the Board of the larger corporation, all but ensuring some uni business global world order where nobody cares ... Such an apropos read for these times; hopefully, we'll have a turn in fortune as well.
4 1/2 bubblegums
The Bells of Eastertide: A Novel of Dark Age Britain by Leslie Douglas
11/13/21
The Bells of Eastertide begins in medias res, which gave me a sense of watching a 55-minute TV episode in a series like Game of Thrones, or anything giving off a whiff of medieval, and so seemingly fantastical kingdoms. It's like the beginning and middle go by in a rapid wave of plot until the end when everything seems to slow, and the end takes its time. I can appreciate this book because it raised a lot of questions that I had never previously considered, and it does a really good job of exploring good and evil, church and state, and the complicated execution of God's kingdom through men and earthly kingdoms. I read the majority of it in one day: it flows well because it’s written well and the plot of relentless treachery. I thought it cool that I started hearing hourly church bells in my neighborhood throughout the day I finished this book (though it's not quite Easter). This would make a great (religious) book club discussion book, principally surrounding King Edbert.
4 1/2 bubblegums
Fissure by Grant Jahn
10/28/21
Fissure strikes me as one of these books that may sound better in an author's head; it brought up for me the very real need for structural editing when a novel is expansive, its ideas so numerous and philosophical. There was a lot I didn't understand, and I believe that to be an editing issue, structurally so. Where the book needs to keep being reeled in or risk, as it does, veering off ... It fell short for me as an allegory because I wasn't sure of a solid point being made. But even this is hard to critique because a theme here is extremism in the name of nationalism or a similar utilitarian goal, which produces the major theme here of chaos and confusion. It was an interesting and very strange read. It started good then became laborious, but not to the point of DNF: as I do believe in God, I thought the author had some great insights, but there were so many characters (as if they were contained in a book of their own) that I forgot about one if they were reintroduced later and became confused if they were given a different identity.
I give cool points to Fissure for the idea of the world starting or being made from and in an apocalypse (usually, dystopian fiction starts in media res (with the dystopia already happening) so that was cool).
3 bubblegums
Blancaflor, The Hero with Secret Powers: A Folktale from Latin America by Nadja Spiegelman (Author), Sergio García Sánchez (Illustrator)
10/5/21
I like that the author explained the international history of Blanca—that this was her retelling—as the classic folktale begins with the prince. I’d never heard of Blancaflor, and I enjoyed this, but the feminist talking points at the end soured me on this otherwise beautifully illustrated and written folktale. Especially since Blanca's mother was just as horrible as her father. I do not think author/adult opinions and biases should ever be in literature designed for children. I was able to see for myself that Blanca learned lessons by herself about hiding what made her special (incorrectly, for the "love" of a man (or anyone)), and the right man loving her for who she really was. This isn’t about "female" "power", but how the prince and Blanca, man and woman, work together to complement each other and create a 'happy ending'.
*I read a review copy of Blancaflor via Edelweiss :-)
3 bubblegums
The Last Cuentista by Donna Barba Higuera
10/6/21
SCI-FI FOLKLORE
WOW! This was amazing. Appropriate for both a young adult and adult audience. Very well-developed characters, well researched. So colorful both figuratively and literally. It was a cool coincidence that I happened to be reading the folktale Blancaflor—which I’d never heard of—when I arrived at Petra’s cuento about Blanca. The way this book wove the dream unreality of the rabbit el Conejo running to the waking reality and sudden appearance of white little clear shrimp Voxy was magic itself (I just loved him). The Last Cuentista is set in the future, taking place in an even more distant future, reaching always back to the past, to the spiritual and the present, always looking forward to a better future. Just amazing. And the acknowledgments at the end of this book serve as a kind of epilogue, as a cuento in itself, how many hands to reach in and people it takes to tell a great story. But not just one story; this is a book of stories within stories within stories. So cool! It's like a griot, Mexican style. Great and appropriate ending.
*I read a review copy of The Last Cuentista via Edelweiss :-)
5 bubblegums
My Father's Keeper by Andrew Potok
10/10/21
When my mother returns from Paris, she is renewed as always after her stay at the Plaza-Athénée and her visits to the grand fashion houses, but plainly stunned to see me warm and smiling in the company of my father. At a safe distance, she tolerates the heretofore unsuspected bond. She is accustomed to my sharing her disdain for Zyga, she once being the unquestioned source of power in the family.
There are so many powerful quotes in this very moving and engrossing book about the wars within wars, the greatest and most significant war being within. The insight here is often painful, it is so sharp; but it’s a very fluid and easy and powerful read about the penultimate importance of fathers despite their transgressions, and our own personal destruction when rejecting that truth through unforgiveness.
I like historical fiction, though not really when it surrounds identity, e.g. "Jewishness", "blackness", "whiteness", etc., but this was more than a pleasant surprise: here’s a book that makes such a fuss about identity only to blow up its absurdity throughout and in the end. Set against the backdrop of the beginning of World War II with the bombing of Poland, My Father's Keeper is more a coming-of-age tale (about a first-generation Polish-Jewish-American male) that breathtakingly spans about 20 years, a journey of unforgiveness to forgiveness through a return of a son to his father. So many surprises in this book. I really loved the character of Henry Karp—of his German Jewishness—as a friend to the protagonist.
Another great read from Fomite Press :-)
5 bubblegums
Companion Plants by Kathryn Roberts
10/12/21
At first glance the book cover seems so non-descript, but then you read Companion Plants and discover that it fits perfect, and then it's almost beautiful.
'Non-descript' is the operative word here: 'lacking distinctive or interesting features or characteristics'; there's so much familial dysfunction that the story seems to flatline in apathy, indifference, no direction, the dream-like wanderings of youth, dysfunctional youth when they've been shaken and untethered by a home, parents, without solid foundations of true love.
Companion Plants is a solid novel: well written and edited, believable; though fiction, it feels almost weird or rude to intrude with a review, almost as if this were a memoir: the characters aren’t real, but the circumstances all too real. For this reason, Companion Plants may boil down to how well you personally 'like' or 'dislike' the story being told. It’s a really good cautionary tale about Christan parents who twist the axiom of 'honor thy parents' into worship of themselves as God, creating damage to their children by blocking them from being able to forgive by pretending to have been perfect in raising them.
3 1/2 bubblegums
Life of Maggot by Paul Jameson
10/2/21
This was/is gorgeous. I actually love this even more than Nightjar—which is a masterpiece; and, like Nightjar, I am at a loss for what to say. This is an ugly beautiful story told in prose and presented in verse, of ancient-old faceless everyman's evil cannibalizing itself in hate while a magical world of love and creation lies always equally eternal. That folds in on itself and absorbs its children in infinite protection. 'Maggot' was the cutest littlest thing I've ever never seen; I love how I never know quite what he is until it's explained as how children can understand it. He's a Tree King like magic. (Even cooler when I looked up the word 'maggot': an older definition is "whimsical fancy")
I give Life of Maggot like 10 bubblegums. Jameson has become one of my favorite (indie) authors!
5 bubblegums
76 and the Odd 93 by Paul Jameson
9/26/21
This author, both as a writer and artist, has a definite signature style of writing and collage work that may not work for everyone (but works for me!). As with Nightjar, it’s the same magical, ancient and dark undertones present, as well as the sound commentary on good and evil and religion gone horribly wrong. Since 76 and the Odd 93 is allegorical, it was both enjoyable and unenjoyable to read; the point being made here is more important than the characters, so I didn’t really care about the characters. There were also multiple story lines that, at times, made things unclear. But it's interesting and it all began to gain legs and make sense midway through, and then I did become *somewhat invested in the outcome. Which was kind of shocking and not quite what I thought. But then again, I didn't know what this would be about. It really is a surprise. Definitely leaves an aftertaste (of strawberry ice cream?).
3 1/2 bubblegums
Meat by Ultan Banan
9/21/21
This is a filthy book. Repugnant. Base, disgusting. Ecstasy, undulating. Hilarious, decadent. I never knew there could be so many levels to baseness, to flesh. Sort of like a biblical anti-biblical creation anti-creation story of what it means to be truly grounded in the flesh: evil, sorrow. But weird, as there was much spirituality to this: ephemeralness, sex and drug-induced; but the flesh, the meat grounding everything again, an inability to transcend it so devouring it, destroying it. Wild ride. And, really, some truly laugh-out-loud moments. I've never read anything quite like this. It's so disturbing how everything gets so twisted: light means dark and dark means light. Destruction and killing and overindulgence of a lack of self-control come to bring peace, mean God. Super wild ride. Crazy but perfect locales, characters and names: Ducasse and Fikrim and Hugo in Amsterdam, in Greece, in a bookstore, in a story within a story of a cannibal, in a bar and hoorhouse in Amsterdam but not Greece, yet somehow, they're still there, waiting. I feel like this should be required reading in a contraption to hold your eyeballs open in A Clockwork Orange kind of way. Looking forward to more from this author and Black Tarn Publishing.
5 bubblegums
The Space Between Two Deaths by Jamie Yourdon
9/18/21
This is a great tale of having a greater imagination than what you imagine yourself to be. In the end, it was almost like the young girl Ziz never even existed, or even the tale or anyone. The Space Between Two Deaths seesaws between two worlds: a fictional tale set on earth but bound by the netherworld of Sumerian mythology. What a strange read. I never quite knew where *I was, the rules not quite right on earth and even stranger in the netherworld, with everyone being a literal and figurative slave to their own realities, their own imaginations. Until everyone, the whole tale, the whole reality is literally swallowed up by Ziz, who makes a choice to be poisoned by it, to die from it to transcend it. She became Ninhursag. So cool.
4 1/2 bubblegums
Ever Rest by Roz Morris
9/7/21
Just to show how idiosyncrasies contribute to reviewing: I didn't enjoy how Ever Rest made me *feel* (complicated) reading it. Many of the lines are heavily loaded and inferred; at times, I had actual trouble reading because it wasn't clear which character said what. It's weird. The story arc and execution are amazing in breadth, originality and writing talent. A major theme of this book is complexity (in individual characters and relationships), and the author captured that perfectly. I guess I just don't like that. I guess I realize that I don't like overly "complex" "complicated" characters. Or rather, characters who seem overly complex and complicated only because they're egotistical and evil. Banal actually. But that's just the nature of the beast, or the music industry, part of the story arc that's being captured (and juxtaposed against mountain climbing). So cool. A couple of times I caught my breath—on the precipice, feeling like I would fall myself ... until I was restored back to the music industry, which made me loathe the characters and the banality of egotism all over again.
4 bubblegums
Sourdough and Other Stories by Angela Slatter
9/15/21
This is an amazing collection; I don't think I've read anything like it: dark folklore that ends well with a fairytale's twist, and dark folktales that don't. It took me awhile because the stories are very dense, heavy, sometimes repetitive, but always magical, curious and interesting, sometimes chilling. Where the end is not nearly as important as the journey getting there. Celtic folklore surrounding 'changelings' and trolls is infinitely interesting and so, I guess, an infinite reserve. All of the stories are great, but my favorites are: "Little Radish", "The Navigator", "The Angel Wood", "Ash" and "A Porcelain Soul". It became a little confusing to keep track of all the cool names and locales because the stories are also interconnected; it really is like a constant kneading, shaping and reshaping of the same tale ... A lot to chew on, on dough, on dough that is sour. "Under the Mountain" was an awesome close, where all is troll and nothing was really real, human; it all returns to under the mountain, the stories, everything. There is a remarkable sense of justice in the stories, a logical making of sense, where no matter what, the woods, nature, and all the creatures of the wood live by a deep sense of order, where all is settled up in the end. Awesome.
5 bubblegums
Nothing is Everything by Simon Strantzas
9/3/21
I guess this is what happens when magical realism becomes unbalanced: when there's magic, but more realism than magic, it becomes strange. And this is what Nothing is Everything *is: strange with a capital Strange. I thought the stories lacked a certain "oomph", but I don't know. "All Reality Blossoms in Flames" was a remarkable close while "In This Twilight" was an unremarkable opening, which demonstrates how important story arrangement is in collections. "The Flower Unfolds", "In the Tall Grass" and "The Fifth Stone" I enjoyed, and I've never seen a book cover more perfectly able to capture a novel, a collection no less: it's all a theme of 'home', but being imprisoned by home—home, but being too big, having outgrown home, not fitting in. Not quite home but 'amongst home'. Awesome.
I wouldn't necessarily recommend Nothing is Everything, but I'm happy I read it.
4 bubblegums
Close Watch by Signe Christensen
8/21/21
I knew who it was from the beginning; however, there was good enough suspense and twists to make me question if I really did and if that was the 'point' of the whole story anyway. The story could be boring, but the narrative/storytelling is good and sets a good pace, and the questions and lessons presented are good. I felt this would make a great YA novel. The theme of this book affects both men and women but it's especially scary with the young folks, I think.
Close Watch could use a close watch: there were many errors and awkward mixes of verb tenses, and I think this lack of general and structural editing contributed to this not feeling quite like a novel. It felt more like a stream of consciousness, someone just writing, describing an incident in a journal. I think it could be tightened up considerably. Also, for a story set in London, none of the characters sounded as if they were from London.
3 bubblegums
Cenotaphs by Rich Marcello
8/24/21
This book is an *experience. It’s very soulful, meaning good for the soul, touching your soul, very moving. I absolutely love the cover. If I didn't already believe in God, this might be a book that I would think of as "transformative". The season of Fall is coming up, and this is a wonderful book for Autumn.
I really loved the narration; it’s deceptive in first person because it's not a memoir; it’s honest but dishonest and flawed, and very raw in its dishonest honesty but gentle. The whole book and its characters' understanding of life and forgiveness made me think of 2 Corinthians 12:7. About the illusion of strength, and how forgiveness is such a huge undertaking beyond the capacity of human beings that it takes God (or the supernatural, some bigger force) to orchestrate it. And I love how this was beautifully demonstrated by “suddenly” and “weirdly” bringing together two wounded individuals who couldn’t forgive themselves and so others. Cenotaphs is certainly a book worthy in the canon of forgiveness and also aging; I love the word and how it’s used both literally and metaphorically in the book. I'd never heard of “cenotaph” before.
4 bubblegums
Root and Branch by Preston Fleming
8/13/21
"And have nothing to do with the fruitless deeds of darkness, but rather expose them."
-Ephesians 5:11
Great biblical quote from the book to sum up, well, the book. Of course, good political thrillers or intrigue like Root and Branch highlights total confusion while simultaneously presenting the confusing question of who the enemy really is. What's really right or wrong.
This makes a great discussion book: there's a lot going on here, and Root and Branch does a good job of highlighting the inane circuitousness and eternity of war, as well as the competing interests and complex casualties of war (that you never think about). In my case, I never conceived of third-party contractors in government operations, or considered the complexity of being both a proud American citizen and a naturalized American citizen with radicalized children who help the enemy of America (in your country of origin and residence). This book may show you just who you really are as an American, especially in the face of crisis. And just how crises are both generated and organic, but how both can be and are exploited for political and capital gain.
I thought main character last names too symbolic and so ridiculous at times, and I think the novel could've benefited from general editing as there are many typographical errors, which bothered me not so much considering the length of this book, but more so because it really is very well written and could've been near perfect.
4 1/2 bubblegums
Drawing on Life: Poems by Mason Drukman (Author), Lisa Esherick (Illustrator)
8/21/21
Beautiful language and cover ... some of my favorites (with my most favorite being "Still Life"):
An American Family*
An Eye for Taste
One Eye for Survival*
Balance Rock
Shipping News
In my dream thoughts
Rainy Day Rumblings*
It wasn't a "bad" collection, but one that I can't say I "enjoyed"; there were repeating themes, yes, but the collection didn’t feel “thematic”, as in pulled together by a single thread. (Maybe due to poem arrangement)
3 bubblegums
Saturday Night at Magellan's by Charles Rafferty
8/17/21
Saturday Night at Magellan's *almost became a DNF for me until I realized that I was reading a collection of flash fiction; then it warmed up, and many of the stories are truly beautiful. *Favorites: "Skywriting", "An Incident at the Stamford Train Station", "Rain", "Late", "Her Dinner", "Tornado", "Orchard Bright", "She Had Been Drunk Exactly Twice", "The Blanket", "Europe Is the Invention of Americans", "They Had Wandered Out of Frame" (I laughed out loud) & "Thief".
It's hard to describe this collection; most of the stories center around objects but with much of the collection's allegiance being only to flash. Some stories like "Orchard Bright", "Blanket" & "They Had Wandered Out of Frame" are amazing metaphors, while stories like "Rain", "An Incident...", "Thief", and even a snippet of "She Had Been Drunk...", create and capture so wonderfully mood—of an environment or nature—so perfectly and stunningly.
4 bubblegums
The Hooligans of Kandahar: Not All War Stories are Heroic by Joseph Kassabian
8/7/21
I really appreciate the honesty here. I have to remember that this is a memoir that is true because it is satirical as if it isn’t. Generally, I applaud memoirists for their ability to order a convoluted messy experience; in this case, I don't think I've ever read a military memoir narrated so matter-of-factly. Praise or condemnation be damned. War is hell: it is what it is, and, overall, I appreciated the accurate capture of that: the Taliban screwing over their own citizenry, the citizenry screwing over one another and being screwed by US soldiers who screw over one another, who in turn are screwed by their US government.
5 bubblegums
The Monsters of Chavez Ravine by Debra Castaneda
8/5/21
Monsters was a weird and important read. Weird because I guess this would be considered Urban Fantasy—the weirdness of urban fiction mixed with horror and the supernatural—which I haven’t read at all. And important because it makes a worthwhile contribution to local color fiction; I love historical backgrounds of locales in the United States, particularly told from the perspective of different backgrounds: in this case, the Mexican communities of Chavez Ravine.
I do think The Monsters of Chavez Ravine was anti-climactic and the supernatural explanations borderline ridiculous and so unbelievable at times. Supernatural takes a lot of skill to pull off, and it's much subtler than horror (which was on point), and certainly more than stereotypes and archetypes of potions, powders and witches. It did leave an aftertaste though, which I can appreciate because it made me ponder; and I did love how the dangers of socialism, greed, politics and power are portrayed as the real evil they are and can be: they are unleashed as literal monsters on a community (that is resistant to its takeover, actually). I also love how evil is portrayed as a spiritual issue and not a racial one (because the whites are just as supportive of the Mexicans as they are against the Mexicans, just as other Mexicans bailed on their neighbors). Cool look at local politics, which is where the real power of a nation is. PS The Afterword is just as intriguing and important as the story.
4 bubblegums
Off Somewhere by Z. Z. Boone
8/2/21
I love the East Coast New England feel of many of the stories—great cover—along with the commentary on parents and parental relationships, especially from a male perspective (as a father, friend, boyfriend and/or son). Some of my favorites: "Off Somewhere", "Kat", "Sympathy Grades", "Lifeline", "Mom the Poet", and "The Buddy System".
I wouldn’t call Off Somewhere a “good” collection—but it wasn’t “bad” either; rather, it’s an important one. And an interesting one. I laughed a lot, which, at times, deceived me into thinking that the humor would come at the expense of a story meaning or moral; but this is where the interesting, important part comes in: Off Somewhere is great at capturing the ambivalence and so meaninglessness of human decisions through storytelling via catharsis. Many of the stories in this collection center around a climax, a single decision made by a character or characters; and many of the sharp insights about the human condition come from humorous one-liners. Looking forward to more titles from Whitepoint Press.
4 bubblegums
In Arthur's Nature: The Novel of a Philosopher Pushed to the Edge and the Woman He Pushed over It by J. T. Frederick
8/4/21
An Interesting Philosophical Path to Forgiveness
This is an amazing piece of biographical fiction; it’s a remarkable display of what the author understands, which then forms the appropriate liberties he takes in his fiction, and the appropriate boundaries he stays within to let the history speak for itself, so to speak. I’d endeavor to say that the author has created a fictional Schopenhauer that is more multi-dimensional and interesting than the actual; what’s ironic is that I’d also endeavor to say that Schopenhauer’s only ability to overcome his will through the manipulation of fiction is what made him interesting. What’s really great is how the author captures a real critique of Schopenhauer’s hypocrisy, namely that much of his philosophy was unlived theory, creating a fictional character that became, weirdly, a prisoner both physically and psychologically to his own philosophy.
If you can stick it out with the (very long, at times) philosophical ramblings, it’s more than worth the read. I find it hilarious that I breathed a sigh of relief when Schopenhauer heads to prison, which effectively ended his philosophical assaults on me as a reader. This book is wild. The hilarity of a narcissistic philosopher heading to prison had me howling especially given his severe sincerity. Good news, the Governor says to Arthur; your victim is recovering from her serious injuries. Arthur (dead serious): What is the good news? I howled. The twists and turns are so good (and shriek-worthy) because they are appropriate, not over the top. One such thematic twist is an unconventional, philosophical path toward forgiveness. Cool quote:
As Spinoza observes, a bad person is not immoral or evil, they are simply deficient in actualising their own essence of self-preservation. They neither seek their own advantage nor that of others. They are not responsible for their actions, but are weak of mind and body. They are infirm, and as such are largely influenced by emotion and deleterious external factors. To borrow further from Spinoza, as they are the inadequate cause of their own actions, they impede their flourishing and the flourishing of others.
They are not a bad person, rather they are bad at being a person.
Arthur became a very sympathetic figure for me, but more so because it was through no fault of his own, no matter how much he tried to will it. He could only achieve “personhood” through letting go, which, for him, meant death.
4 bubblegums
Reflection by J. Sharpe
7/20/21
Awesome cover, interesting premise and location, suspenseful but not scary; and just not my cup of tea.
There's a lot of characterization here almost to the point of literary horror; but I feel like I can't critique that since characterization is very necessary for the premise of this book, which is very unusual but to its detriment. For me, the plot mechanics didn't work: Reflection isn't necessarily horror and straddles multiple genres; so, since we're dealing with purgatory here, it makes for a weird supernatural story with interchangeable characters that I just didn't care about, dialoguing about things I didn't care about because they deserve to be there. I think the plot could've been flushed out/researched more to come up with a more plausible idea of purgatory that reflects a good understanding of God and devil and the relationship and roles of the two.
3 bubblegums
Ghost Ride by Hope Zane
7/18/21
As its perfect name suggests, Ghost Ride was an ephemeral read. And a really cool and different one that read both like a long short story and a novelette, that becomes something altogether new in between both. Strong writing, somber mood and tone, but somber story? I just don't know. Initially, I thought the "apocalypse" was self-imposed, but then the girls meet another set of people who *seem real enough to prove that *maybe something really dystopian is happening here. I couldn't understand yet I could, the story resting in between, forming a ghost of meaning and understanding too. It really is a ghost ride.
5 bubblegums
The Someday File by Jean Heller
7/22/21
I can appreciate a well-written hard-boiled mystery, particularly one that gives me a stellar tour of a particular locale—in this case Chicago; and even though I've never been, I really fell in love with it; the history, organized crime, the mob, politics, (dying) journalism: it all made me fall in love with the history of America anew, the good the bad the ugly, let's get it.
Particularly for the context of journalism, crime etc., I found the dialogue to be too forced liberal PC at times, but maybe that fit with the character of Deuce. Really cool glimpse into the parallels and interrelation of Italians and Hispanics in Chicago, and the influence and confluence of both on and in politics and migrant work. Deuce was cool; I also thought it cool how the precarious balance and overlap between journalism and law enforcement was highlighted. Love the title. Love the nostalgia ...
4 1/2 bubblegums
The Weight of Air by David Poses
7/17/21
I can appreciate this book because it's not a William S. Burroughs' Junky or a Selby's Requiem for a Dream: it's not page after page of depressing, unrelenting scores and looking for scores; instead, it's everything that happens in the middle also for a functional addict.
It's impossible to rate someone's personal experience so I'll say that "the lies about addiction" and "the truth about recovery" are tall orders to fill in their subjectivity, and it struck me as clickbaitish. As a God-centered person myself, I agree with the author that God is not a "one size fits all" for drug addiction, but neither is science. The irony of fleeing from a drug treatment program not because you don't want help, but because the program is run by religious zealots who also have a false idea of God is just as bad as suggesting life-long drug use to curb the side effects of life-long drug use. In the end, man doesn't know. Some people are changed by God, some succumb; some are changed by medicinal drugs. *P.S. I find it odd that the treatment counselors in the book refer to drug addiction as a "disease" rather than Satan. In any case, and because I do believe in God, the treatment base is spot on, because in God we are helpless. But when we pretend that we're not and have a choice, we suffer even more (in that illusion).
The real lie is an unwillingness to forgive our parents—particularly mothers—as it requires an admission that our parents were wrong. The author had no problem admitting his father’s wrongs, but nothing about his mother who *repeatedly cropped up as a problem, fueling this fairy tale lie of "everything being OK", playing favorites with her children, and, really, projecting the hell of her anger toward her ex-husband onto her children (particularly the author's younger brother who was closer to his father). The author talks about this very dysfunctional relationship between his parents and, thusly, being placed on heavy anti-depressant medication as early as 16. So begins a life-long avoidance of pain, and an inability to face the reality of God and overcome evil feelings recreated in us by parents and guardians in the home. It's disingenuous then to overlook that to suggest a science-based model that just requires more drugs. Once the author was able to really tell the truth (to his family and friends)—at the end of the book—that's when the real recovery began. The only way out is through, not away.
3 1/2 bubblegums
The Bully by K.J. Kwon
7/9/21
- "Remember, it's important you acknowledge its existence."
I love this quote; not only does it represent this story's climax, but it also encapsulates what this whole thing is about. *Remember, it's important that you acknowledge your belief in the devil, who has tricked you into believing that you don't believe in him when your actions show very much that you do.
I loved that the overall plot of the story is a nod to the very real high rate of suicide in many Asian communities (due to intense societal, ethnic and familial pressure). Similarly, I loved the part about the character seeing a spiritualist in order to deter the stigma of going to a traditional psychologist in a culture—an international culture really—of virtue signaling "getting help" but doxing and selling your private information so that you're shamed into never getting help so that you can remain in hell. The Bully packs a lot for its length—South Korean culture, spiritualism and folklore in under just 100 pages—while still managing to represent what a good novelette does: tell a good story (with a clear beginning, middle and end) under a timer. There was some English language sentence awkwardness, but it actually kinda worked for the book.
What's awesome is that despite the suffering of the main character, he is not sympathy-worthy. Good ending, which is an overall nod to human nature and how many people dig very awful holes for themselves due to behavior they won't acknowledge: rather than seeking help to be released from the behavior, they seek help from the trouble they've caused themselves due to their behavior. Awesome.
- "Remember, it's important you acknowledge its existence."
5 bubblegums
Windfall: A Henry Lysyk Mystery by Byron Td Smith
7/8/21
Though confusing at times (due to the twisting plot and financial aspect of the mystery), I enjoyed Windfall. You don't even realize that the title itself is a mystery until the meaning behind it is revealed at the end. Without sounding too stupid here, Windfall is a "surprising mystery". It’s also a cozy mystery driven by the theme of relationship building. I'd suggest not reading the Afterword until reading the story; because, again, I was surprised again, for truth is often stranger than fiction. Plus, the whole idea of a mystery being driven by mental illness is pretty wild.
4 bubblegums
The Path of the Tapir by Michael Jarvis
6/25/21
This is GOOD. Really strong plot mechanics executed by really strong writing. Much of The Path’s "goodness" lies in its uniqueness: genre fiction—mystery/suspense/crime/environmental—that still manages, despite the many *many players—to be literary (with appropriate levels of character (and animal) focus). You have man against man against nature that produces the genre, the plot, which is handled masterfully, especially considering how much (nuance) is going on…with each individual character, and how these individual stories build and converge into one big story.
What I liked about The Path of the Tapir is that most of the characters are anti-heroes: they are written realistically, i.e. you sympathize with them because they are flawed (in complex ways): facial disfigurements; the "good guy" detective represents the "bad guy" company; the "bad guy" represents the "good guy" grieving family...Everyone abetting the lead suspect, who turns out to seem so conspicuous because of the inconspicuous conspicuous suspect, and everyone's own self-interest helping to make everything worse. You want to sympathize and are frequently led down a path to sympathize with these characters, until my greatest sympathy in the book was for the tapir, whose long, winding path ends symbolically in a trap set by man who can do nothing but entrap himself. I looked forward to reading this book every day.
5 bubblegums
Not Alone by Sophocles Sapounas
6/11/21
Combined with the multiple interpretations and implications of the title, Not Alone was a cool adventure. It has a very cult classic feel, meaning it's unique stylistically and so won't be to everyone's taste. I love the cover illustration and it was even cooler when I found it in the story. Some of the drawings are very beautiful and strong, particularly the night scenes and the (artistic) depiction of shadow(s) and light, but some I felt could be stronger—they confused me—and made clearer. Similarly, some of the speech bubbles read left to right and were cut off or cut too close to the top, bottom or side (I did receive an ARC via LibraryThing). I felt Not Alone would've been stronger as a full story rather than a set up for a series.
3 bubblegums
Oja and the Parrot's Curse by Leo Unadike
6/18/21
The real strength in this book is its enduring truths (as a parable), and those truths tying everything and bringing everything back together again to reflect the greater message of the story. Very strong writing and plot (that reminded me of the biblical story of Joseph) until it took a direction that I didn't really care for, i.e. the highly climactic leave from Tangandoom and the subsequent anti-climactic journey to and arrival at Kanuri: overall, pretty good editing (with the exception of weird verb tense mixes); but this is where the writing began to feel rushed and the plot came apart at the seams a little ridiculously. But then things came together again…but then...So reading this book for me was like Yes! Oh brother, no...OK, kinda yes, oh boy no, YES! Anti-climactic plot turns, but good ending.
3 1/2 bubblegums
Manufactured Witches by Michelle Rene
6/16/21
I really dig the title ‘Manufactured Witches’, which is a clever play on the book’s theme of ordinary and supernatural magic and the very thin line between the two: the idea of 'finding your magic' and knowing how to wield it (for use in the right spirit) lest it consume you. I feel like Manufactured Witches is a stylistic preference; and, personally, I'm not big into storytelling with a sentimental bend. There were also way too many typographical errors; not enough to spoil the story because this here is (wise) story tellin', but enough to notice the many of them. Of course, Camille's Home for Wayward Children reminded me of Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children.
3 1/2 bubblegums
I Take My Daddy Everywhere! (Little Boy Character Version) by Kim Hunter and Teacher Kim (Authors), Ema Dessy (Illustrator)
6/2/21
Charming little book highlighting and illustrating the importance of fathers, especially, and cleverly, from the perspective of the child.
4 bubblegums
Living in Cleveland With the Ghost of Joseph Stalin by Marc Sercomb
6/2/21
First of all, this book is hilarious: I remember setting it aside at one point to bust out laughing, loudly inquiring wtf this book was about. Really good humor, but especially befitting the perspective of a thirteen-year-old boy, whose life is hilariously but sadly not going too hot. It reminded me of Ken Kesey's One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest: Kid's Version.
I wish I had've started a draft for a review of this book right before the mental hospital bust-out scene, because right after that I had a very hard time getting through the rest of this book. It’s a good example of a book being totally nuked because of the end, where, to me, it goes completely off the unbelievable rails, which is especially unfortunate given the topic of adolescent psychosis—is he even psychotic?—due to familial dysfunction—which, is there any other type of dysfunction? I mean, it doesn't have to turn into a Degrassi Junior High after-school special, but I think the humor is a bit too flagrant and adult for a YA character, i.e. the perspective of the kid is great, but his character treatment is not. Familial dysfunction and life are certainly crazy—and can be stranger than fiction—but, ironically, the fiction must still be believable, and there must be some form of "justice" to achieve that. The premise of Joseph Stalin being in the attic is brilliant, especially as a metaphorical ghost of trauma, but to leave a kid talking to himself in his own head and then treating himself with a psychotherapist also in his own head is ... hilarious, yes, but kinda cruel, and then making him a famous kidnapper writer boy wonder, just over the top. It felt like some trippy hippie acid On the Road, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas joyride just for the sake of being a trippy hippie acid On the Road, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas joyride, but for a thirteen-year-old boy. Not exactly inappropriate, just disquieting. I actually started thinking at one point that this couldn't be true, that it would turn out to be a literary device like a Shutter Island total delusion of the kid's ... That would've worked, but, no, that would've been disquieting too.
3 bubblegums
The Phantom of the East Tower by Ellen Alexander
4/24/21
Phantom does a good job creating atmosphere; it’s comfy cozy, adventurous, spooky YA fiction: even as an adult, I related to that teenaged angst, and I felt like I was there too, away from home, at a boarding school in a spooky castle. Without giving too much away, I'm flagging the believability of the prisoners' plot line and even more so the fact that their capture is assumed, and everything is tied up in a neat little bow. Also, the affected diction of Mr. Munsen seemed ridiculous when everyone else in the book talked the same, along with the repeated ghost illustration since the mystery of the phantom is 'solved' partway through. You'll never guess the phantom of the east tower! (I know I didn't see that coming (cool twist, very Scooby Doo-like))
*I received an ARC of The Phantom of the East Tower as part of a LibraryThing giveaway
3 bubblegums
A Question of Sanity by Katherine Black
4/27/21
This is a good grasp of the biblical observation of the evil of women. And a good clever yarn about it. Don't worry, if I told you half of what this book is about you still wouldn't know a thing. I mean, up and down, side to side, I was tossed about like a rag doll. I deflated initially thinking this would be just another doppelgänger story, but the horror here, comically enough, is that 'just another doppelgänger story' is just too gauche, gaudy and fantastical when another wild and crazy premise will do just fine because it can be and is that true.
I thought the character Victor a little too deus ex machina, until like 7,000 other things happened after that to distract me from my critiques, and then another 7,000 things in the ending. And that's just it: this book jumps right in, and I read it at a clip; I was sucked right in and didn't have time to contemplate the errors that I found because the book is written with good flow. Fast and intense. It's also pretty funny.
4 bubblegums
Gaslight Paradise by Walrus
4/24/21
Really cool on-the-mark cover art that describes Absurdity with—somehow—meaning. It's like an absurd not-quite-absurd children's book only for adults that was kind of a cross between The Shining & something from Dr. Seuss, where I couldn't have cared less about the characters because they were superficial and stupid, but it was an experience, a spirit still driving everything to make it interesting, and make me want to do it again.
4 bubblegums
Nightjar by Paul Jameson
4/18/21
Wow
A deal with the devil is always a bad deal ... but for who?
I'm pretty speechless. This, to me, is a masterpiece, from the language to the art to the formatting, to all that combine to create a magical realism too cruel to be magical but seemingly real enough to happen in times bygone to seem magical & otherworldly: real. We haven't evolved that much. This is an eternally simple story of humanity, where what lies eternal beneath and in spite of the evil is the real truth: such beautiful magic! A doubly creationist story.
5 bubblegums
Cut Her Out In Little Stars by Daniele Kasper
4/10/21
Cool cover art and title (which is coolly explained in the book), and great sci fi premise of a love story described by quantum entanglement. Poor Cara, I've never seen a character take such a beating; she was like a human bobo doll ... Quantum Entanglement: A Love Story. What I really loved was that this is a Sci Fi Love Story without being a Sci Fi Romance; no mushy gushy, but love surrounded by and restricted to the practical reality of its own plot, which also made it pretty hilarious. The end was also great and loyal to that.
I give this book a 10 for narration alone; it was a REALLY easy and smooth read. I just was totally not expecting anything I read. I was hooked right in, and I read it in just a few days. Despite, Cut Her Out could benefit from plot editing and tightening, mostly toward the end: not every little thing about character motives and actions needs to be explained through character dialogue. Also, one betrayal was enough; the plot twists toward the end were a bit much. There were also (grammatical) errors throughout that made me cringe because this is a good read that could've been even better without them.
3 bubblegums
No Going Back by D. T. Adams
4/16/21
If a Body Catch a Body Comin' through the Rye ...
The experience of reading this book was like watching paint dry ... with little air bubbles and hairline cracks being like the action ... but until the hairline cracks keep multiplying until the whole wall falls down. Weird reading experience: a book that wasn't really a joy to read, but one that I'd still rate high and recommend for some reason that's like Je ne sais quoi.
The pace is excruciatingly slow, but it's actually in alignment with the mediocre life and so stream of consciousness of the main character. Wait for it ... no, really wait for it, because nearly halfway through it does take a series of amusing unexpected turns, but which were, again, uncathartic for me as a reader but totally appropriate and cathartic for the character. It's like a plot that's exciting because the character is hang gliding in Zanzibar on Tuesday and fighting crocodiles in Australia on Wednesday VS a character who never leaves the house so crossing the street one day is a big deal. Because of the really slow pace, this book could've been tightened up and reformatted in areas to punch it up, e.g. the dream sequences. I’d also like to see it reread for typographical errors because I do think it a worthwhile read overall, and very fitting for the society and times we live in. No Going Back does a really good and clever job of playing with the theme of celebrity. It reminded me a bit of The Catcher in the Rye: there's a total moment, a total paragraph of that theme, that misinterpretation of being a savior ... From a character who deems everyone a phony while being the phoniest of the phony of all.
4 bubblegums
Don’t Be Afraid by Walrus
3/14/21
Really cool little sci fi? novelette. Not long enough to be a book but complete enough to be a book and not a short story! Intriguing, well written and comical enough for me to head over to Gaslight Paradise, another (longer) work by this author.
4 bubblegums
Rumspringa (A Broken Minds Thriller Book 2) by Lee Maguire
3/13/21
This was quite the (buggy) ride from beginning to end. This is a (psychological) thriller, but I couldn't stop laughing during certain parts: a simple Amish serial killer is a lot funnier than it seems. The psychologist was actually the boring character with annoying character flaws. Rumspringa parallels different character POVs while maintaining a "strong" main character (voice)—it takes on a lot: the psychology profession, the thin line between good & evil, perversion of good through religion, and the perversion of the religion *in the religion, e.g. I was howling at the idea of an Amish serial killer who doesn't even follow Amish rules (of Rumspringa) correctly. But that's just it, right? Evil religious people are evil because they don't really believe in God. As a God-centered person myself, I’ll say that this isn’t about religion/God vs Psychology/science and Psychology/science "winning", but Psychology/science vs plain ole evil that uses religion as a cover. Several typographical errors but well written and a worthwhile read. A lot of food for thought.
4 bubblegums
Josie and the Scary Snapper by Elisa Downing (Author), Isadora Machado (Illustrator)
3/12/21
What a darling book, gorgeous cover art—great colorful vivid illustrations. I laughed my butt off at the end! It's cool because the 'scary snapper' is TOTALLY not what I thought it would be, HA! And neither was the end. Short, but really cool creative twists that capture the vivid colorful and creative imagination of us all, child and adult alike. :-)
4 1/2 bubblegums
Toyson’s Toy Shop (Night Magic Book 1) by Lea Ben Shlomo (Author), Ilja Bereznickas (Illustrator)
3/12/21
I think what was weird?/not strong enough? about this book was that it didn't seem to have a protagonist, or a strong one; everyone has a little something to say, which made me come away from Toyson's wondering how it's marketed? What specific audience does the author have in mind? The structure is interesting, kind of reminiscent of Roald Dahl—not quite as high fantasy, but too long-winded for kids yet a weird fit for adults. I'm not interested in a series, but I did enjoy it. Hilarious play and confusion on a popular American saying, and a subtle cool message about giving people (and things) a shot.
3 1/2 bubblegums
Screens (Seven Coins Drowning) by Christopher Laine
5/9/21
You have to read the whole series, in order: that's my advice. It just won't make as much sense or fit together as well if you don't, though it might still be entertaining since each book offers a cool heap of imagination, and each of the first three books is under 80 pages (which, especially, made me wish for more editing). A mix of Sci fi, Legend, high Fantasy and then a mix of all three, respectively—a different genre with each book that draws an object or person or scene from one book and implants it into another with the overall unifying theme of Momentum: time travel, but by different means each time: by bus, by drugs, by a machine, by the genre itself: fantasy, etc. ... You relive the first book over and over, only to move to Book 2, which draws off of a moment in time in Book 1 ... You get to the end at Screens, only to return to the beginning at Book 1. It is written in such a way that you, as a reader, literally become the time travel ... where I didn't understand the specifics of some particular sentences, say in Screens, but I understood how all the sentences came to work together as a whole, meaning. This is bonkers. I very much recommend this series: really cool in a 'what did I just read?' kind of way, and a unique writing style/signature and technique. Nice imagery and pretty funny.
The second book, The Black Chili, fits (with the end), I think, but I don't know ... I think it does because of the amulet object ... which seems to appear in The Trove? ... But the object is described differently in each book, so it doesn't seem the same, which then destroys the connection ... Of where Black Chili fits between Books 1 and 3. ? I guess that's my only other critique. Uncle Willingston was my favorite; The Trove was pretty cool too. Screens wasn’t my favorite but it's quite a piece, a fitting ending and very cool overall because it grasps an essential meaning, an essential horror: This is actually how I personally came to God: the sudden realization of reliving the same moment again and again, and that repetition somehow driving a forward momentum, but of annihilation. You won't expect Screens, at least I didn't: Wǔyè Yuándīng, "The Midnight Gardener", and The Hounds of Tindalos, Tindalosi. I wasn't ready. It's like *I was on the Liao too!
I give the Seven Coins Drowning series 5 bubblegums.
5 bubblegums
Central City by Indy Perro
3/14/21
"To Solve Crime While Maintaining the Status Quo" ... Doing Crime to Solve Crime?
Contrary to another reviewer’s take, I liked that a real city is never defined: great cover art and a "faceless" city gave Central City a Frank Miller/Robert Rodriguez police/crime comics feel. Great writing, genre-appropriate vocabulary, humorous and absorbing from beginning to end. Kudos to the author for capturing the philosophical complexity of law and order. "Imbroglio" is the only way to describe it. (*The scene with the two detectives and the suspect's wife is some really great (hilarious) writing) Good story overall, but until the climax—until it was all too over the top and more crazy twists and turns were necessary to resolve the "imbroglio" the story itself had become, until, literally, somebody has to get shot in the head for everything to resolve itself. It's important how authors unthread the story and then thread everything back together; although I'm certain life is this ridiculous, a lot of the end didn't seem that believable to me, ironically, for fiction.
3 1/2 bubblegums
TARO: Legendary Boy Hero of Japan by Blue Spruell (Author), Miya Outlaw (Illustrator)
5/13/21
*Mild spoiler*
I was totally with this book until Tarō looked into the mirror: a major turning point in the book. Then things went downhill in a too-cheesy-this-is-hard-to-believe way. TARO took me all over the place; I think I changed my opinion of this book so many times because it seems to straddle genre and/or merge the unlikeliest of genres in a disjointed way that didn't flow for me, e.g. it was too fantastical to believe in the (historical) reality, and too realistic for me to suspend belief for the fantasy/legend. This is one of these books ... Not a hair out of place: awesome exterior and interior art, great formatting and editing and writing, but the plot and mechanics of the content weren't entirely there. Taro seemed like The Wizard of Oz meets Mowgli of The Jungle Book, all set in Edo Japan. It certainly kept my attention nevertheless; it's a great adventure.
3 1/2 bubblegums
Unfettered Journey by Gary F. Bengier
4/7/21
Unfettered journey indeed!
Great, developed characters, well written, sensible understandable clever plot, knowledgeable and well researched ... But overcomplicated sci fi Romance and just not my cup of tea. I'm God-centered so the scientific philosophical theories, meanderings and 'overthinking' were difficult for me, though very critical to the story: it's a front-seat view to figuring out life and meaning via old and now new experiences, which evolve meaning ... To a certain extent. The story arc is quite dazzling, and so too the pacing of so much that happens within the timespan of years (that ironically pass quickly). It's a unique book in that you feel as if you're an actual character in the journey: Ha, fiction simulation AI. I think this book would've been more appealable to me when I too was still trying to 'figure it out'.
3 1/2 bubblegums
Leaving Oklahoma by LC Rung
4/27/21
I'm conflicted here ... Because I think this story was very conflicted and conflicting. I had a queasy sense of foreboding, because it's a buildup, right? The protagonist has a secret—*secrets, to tell—but what is it what is it what are they? … And oh man! Wasn't expecting that ... Leaving Oklahoma is very well written and packs quite the content punch at only 170 pages. It's a thriller-horror rooted in mundane evil: individual and collective small-town secrets; it's queasy, sickening, indifferent. It reminded me of John Lithgow in the movie Raising Cain, and the fracturing of 'the personality' due to trauma. Some plot scenes were a bit outlandish, and I didn't like how everything was wholly explained: I think good writing and mystery is intuiting when the audience is smart vs. when the audience needs explaining ... But (laughing), I'm conflicted and don't know what to think ... I'm reeling. I've never been to Oklahoma, but I'll never look at it quite the same ...
4 bubblegums
The Resurrectionist by A. R. Meyering
3/16/21
This book is A LOT! At all times. It’s fantasy grounded in reality, busy storylines ... a whopping 400+ pages. Great cover, although I'm not sure who 'the resurrectionist' is? It's weird because even though the overarching theme is coming back to life/getting a shot at new life, 'The Resurrectionist' seemed like a misnomer. Maybe '(The) Revenant(s)'?
Errors and awkwardly worded sentences and phrases found this read wanting for general and structural editing; but it was gripping. Cool history behind the book, and I really loved this idea of "bottling" evil lest the world be haunted by it and turned into a grotesque carnival of reality. I also dug how the author explored everyone's story so that there really was no "bad guy". Awesome twist and moral about how we can't be picky about whose life we save if we're really about saving lives.
4 bubblegums
In The Town Where All Things Are Possible by Charles Martin & Will Weinke
1/15/21
This is a REALLY interesting read: quaint but sinister, foreshadowing but deceptively so. A WILD twist, I thought. I actually had butterflies reading it, like what the holy hell is happening here? I think it took me by such surprise because there's a clever build up to a certain storyline that you THINK is going to happen, until it goes all the way left.
A love story until you discover that the love is really a horror, and all the more terrifying because of the realism, which makes it this weird dystopic utopia with notes of magical realism. It reminded me in several ways of the seeming fairytale The Wizard of Oz, only here the 'wizard' is underground.
Great message about real and true love told in a novel way but hampered at times by typographical errors: few but several—this was almost written perfectly! I came away thinking that maybe this was overcomplicated or that maybe there were "plot holes" because I was left with several questions. Good book club/discussion book. Well done, bittersweet yet fitting and magical ending that really is a love story but, again, with a twist ...
4 bubblegums
Sing Your Sadness Deep by Laura Mauro
3/17/21
*ALL of the stories in this collection are stunning, but here are a few faves:
"The Grey Men"
"Ptichka"
"In the City of Bones"
"The Looking Glass Girl"
"The Pain Eater's Daughter"
Sing Your Sadness Deep sits heavy on the bones: it really is 'sing your sadness deep'. The thematic loyalty and language of this collection is breathtaking; and so, too, the diversity of voice, geography and relationship explored in this sadness: from a 5-year-old to a black girl to a husband to an adolescent, between sisters, to Siberia to Finland, underneath an ocean, to a half-human half-lizard, God to atheism. You are wooed into believing that all of this is real. It is everyone's sadness, the alternate reality created by sadness so grotesque, seeming so real.
My eyes bulged in horror a few times and I was so happy to be done with a couple of stories with shaky fingers, that I was almost sad that it all ended. "The Pain Eater's Daughter" is a remarkable close for a really awesome collection.
5 bubblegums
Book of Yeshua by Francis Chapman
11/18/20
If you don't like your Jesuses Beretta & Glock-toting and regenerative like a starfish, then this is probably not for you. BUT! If you like philosophical action-packed fictive gospels, and your Jesuses virtually unkillable, then this is definitely for you. I received Book of Yeshua as part of a LibraryThing giveaway!
There were errors toward the middle and end, but considering the length of this book, they were negligible. It’s *very well written. Content-wise, I'm not sure. Especially regarding the trial, I found myself wishing I knew more of the original story, otherwise it seemed that the Book of Yeshua could be very cut and paste, regurgitative. It can be tricky writing a fiction based on a fiction, or an original work: think Bulgakov's The Master and Margarita. Much skillful creative license and, ironically, originality is needed. I was also not sure if Book of Yeshua's premise(s) were a strawman argument, or a false understanding and criticism of a false belief that many people have.
This took me all over the place: I started out thinking it was the best thing since sliced bread, then I moved into dislike, then a stupor that certain premises were being introduced. Accordingly, I think of Book of Yeshua as neither here nor there but an overall interesting and worthwhile read. It wasn't believable to me as a fiction, but it succeeded in giving me some food for thought.
3 bubblegums
What We Take For Truth by Deborah Nedelman
11/6/20
I'm not usually into "small town" reads, but What We Take For Truth offers just a bit more than the old and tired theme of lies and scandals in a small town, and with a twist: It really is a different world out there, and the theme of logging (and how this describes man's relationship with not only the environment but also with another) really brought that to my attention. Add in the theme of memories and the fragility of the mind in recalling them, and you've got a book that was a pleasant surprise with an ending that I didn't expect. There were some errors (e.g. word omissions) throughout, but, overall, it's cool that I as the reader was discovering alongside the characters.
3 1/2 bubblegums
Gunfight at the Old Leake Canal by GB Hope
1/10/21
Eh. Cozy, comfortable adventure that started out great and kind of reads like John Buchan's The Thirty-Nine Steps, until it doesn't. It's understandable, the plot, but simultaneously nonsensical, reading as adventure just for the sake of adventure.
It wasn't so disagreeable to me that I couldn't finish it, but I was curious to see how it would end more so because I'd already read too much. It's written fairly well, but too many stories running parallel to a main story involving characters & scenarios I just didn't care about.
3 bubblegums
Plenty to Hide by Moira Leigh MacLeod
10/5/20
Characters, characters, characters. If this book has anything, it has character(s): a small-town one, that is. I'm not big on the theme of "small-town literature", but what this book lacked in personal taste for me, it made up for in the masterful handling of a bevy of characters. Remember, it's not the plot that drives the plot, or one main character, but a small town of characters (that give a distinctive personality to the town). From Mary Catherine to Mary Margaret to Mary Mack, I thought I'd lose it and track early on. But the narrative is written well and the narrative arc impressive, as well as the author’s ability to give balance and depth to nearly twenty characters (both individually and relationally), if not more. Some minor errors throughout, but an intriguing read.
4 bubblegums
Rone Isa by Robin Murarka
10/14/20
Every once in a while, a book comes along in which you don't even know what the hell's going on ... Until the end. And then you want to either read through or flip through the book again, but you can't because the TOC doesn't correspond to the chapter names because it only lists chapter numbers: that's my one main critique.
Rone Isa is well written with literally like two typos; it's formatted well, awesome cover art. I liken it to the game Jenga where you want to take out/critique a piece, but you don't know which one because if you take one piece out it'll all topple to the ground and you don't have a better idea, so you just leave it there and don't say anything because it all fits together actually ... Eventually in the end.
There's a definite tone here, but the only way I can describe it is to reference the content, which seems disjointed & weird ... until the end, dull and confusing until the next part, and the end. The title doesn't make any sense, and the dystopia doesn't hit you ... until the end, when you realize that it was always dystopic, but you'd need the end to realize that. And it's quite frightening (some good evocative writing with the hospital scene).
I'd venture to call this "heady" or "intellectual", "philosophical" sci fi.
I recommend this book, just so you can read it through ... To the end.
5 bubblegums
White Boy in Watts by Karl Wiggins
10/1/20
What would a white English bloke who isn’t a cop know about Bloods and Crips? Well a lot, it turns out, because he was a cab driver with a death wish in the heart of gangland territory …
There were times when I lost the trail of thinking and the connection from one idea to another, but I rate this book pretty high because at only 49 pages, it packs a lot and a punch: I just didn’t think this is what it would be about (laughing). I was surprised by the content. I would’ve liked more about how the author landed in this situation, but the end of how he left was perfect. I give kudos as well because, as a white guy who experienced extreme violence in non-white areas, he refuses to be scapegoated and tells the truth about the degradation of non-white communities due to the immorality of the culture.
4 bubblegums
Q.Fulvius: Debt of Dishonor by M. G. Haynes
1/9/21
😎
This is really cool, really well written: an interesting and intense fictive character study amidst the backdrop of historical nonfiction, specifically the Roman legion and, perhaps, the fall of Rome. Slow, but ever-twisting and turning buildup driven by the unpredictable unfolding and evolution of a character, until it EXPLODES and all hell breaks loose. It's a war within a war. Awesome ending with a total twist done really well. I wasn't expecting that!
5 bubblegums
The Lottery Club by Elli Lewis
10/1/20
Novel idea and concept that waxed and waned on interestingness, though I don’t know if the "waning" part can be attributed to the bland landscape of England where the book is set. There were many typographical errors throughout, and I easily forgot characters because they were numerous and without depth, and there was a lot of humor and topics that I felt you needed to be British in order to understand. The writing is pretty solid though, and the narration is done well enough to make it interesting again until it wasn’t again.
3 1/2 bubblegums
A Footstep Echo by J.D. Sanderson
6/27/20
I read this in about four days. What I like is that the tone here is “cozy sci fi”; A Footstep Echo isn’t all hard, metal emotionless angles, robots and androids, but an unlikely main character who humanizes the whole tale and so the usual rigidity of sci fi (I did though get lost several times trying to understand the sci fi details). There were some typos throughout, but remarkable cohesiveness to the story arc. Solid and compelling storytelling. Worthy read.
3 1/2 bubblegums
What May Rise From The Ashes by Susanne Schmidt
6/19/20
I want to say that I wish the ending was as long as the beginning, or at least a little longer; but really, this little novelette was perfect. Remarkable pacing and timing in everything from character and setting descriptions to story arc. The charm of this mini book lies in its cozy library setting, an ordinary extraordinary old lady, fantastical character names in a royal setting of a placeless place, and a tone of beginner's magic. This story has an awesome theme of "flirtation with magic".
4 bubblegums
232 Jericho Avenue by Lee Richmond
6/22/20
Well written (though with some typos) and original.
There's a part of me that wants to say that, though entertaining, I didn't enjoy this book because I didn't understand it; and another part of me that thinks it's somewhat thought-provoking. It left me confused because, at the risk of sounding daft, I felt it was trying to communicate something that I just didn't get. Some food for thought on the nature of good and evil, nonetheless.
3 1/2 bubblegums
Figment by C.W. Johnston
6/17/20
This was an insane read. It was a "clean" read, well edited, but, at times, awkward sentences, awkward concepts, awkward storylines, awkward character types ... insanity, really. And, I guess, Figment.
It's like this complex mix of thriller, dystopia and mystery, but told in a simple way with very concise sentences. Once it hit the halfway mark, I was like what the—?! It was gripping at times. I give it another 1/2 bubblegum just because it's hard to capture a psychological thriller going on inside someone's head while maintaining objective narration.
I didn't enjoy how everything was conveniently and swiftly "worked out" in the end; the first twist was great, but then the several after that were a bit much, twist overload. But I liked the overall simple twist, which communicated how dangerous and sad it can be to shield one from the truth.
3 1/2 bubblegums
The Work of The Devil by Ken Hudson
6/15/20
The devil indeed! What's so cool about this book is the portrayal of the many identities of the devil by a play on the word itself: the main character is a "devil", or an apprentice indentured to an owner of a printing press. The old meaning of devil is "a junior assistant of a lawyer or other professional". In the Old Testament (of the Bible), the chief evil spirit, Satan (the devil), was often portrayed as a lawyer or a prosecutor (of/for) God. Fictional writing (of the novel type) at this time (of the 17th century) was considered a "work of the devil". Then, of course, you have the complete devilment of a civil war (in England), and the "devil" determined to find and tell the truth.
This is a great read, and a great and intelligent imagining of history (despite the many, many typographical errors). The tone is very exciting, and, as another reviewer stated, it doesn't let up from around the second chapter to the end of the book. Who's the devil? Parliamentarians? Royalists? Catholics? Puritans? The truth? A lie? A really awesome concept captured by the author is how people literally become faithless due to the constant changing of public opinion. It's funny how even the story plot gets lost in its capture of a plotless reality.
4 bubblegums
Rafi's World by Fred Russell
5/30/20
This is a *good read. Mean, hard, neat and fast, foreshadowing. Intuitive writing that's funny, clever. What's awesome is the climax, which is so unexpected and simple that it's not. I just didn't see THAT coming, out of all the things, yet I did ... It's an awesome capturing of the nuance of humanity, and a reminder about how delicate our foundations and illusions are, and what can happen once they're shattered.
In the context of this story, this is a great line,
You had to stand up for the people you loved, no matter who they were or what they did.
Also, great writing—incorporating the culture of Israel. I never knew about intra-Jew racism, and treatment of Arabs.
5 bubblegums
The Seances by Michael Richan
5/16/20
The Seances was just all over the place, but not so bad that I didn't feel compelled to finish. I think most of my disappointment in this book came from my excitement/expectation about its release. Though written well overall—with a minimal amount of errors/word omissions—this didn't work for me. The plot just didn't work. It started strong but lost me after the first part ended. A feature of paranormal is generational evil, but this was too much; there were too many generations to make it believable, or workable, after a certain point, and paranormal to the point of non-understandable fantasy. I also didn't like how an "innocent" was used to fulfill violent prophecy.
3 bubblegums
In the Town of Joy and Peace by Zdravka Evtimova
5/26/20
I guess this review will seem as strange as I thought this book, but strange in an amazing yet ephemeral way. It’s definitely an *experience with a definite personality of its own. "You had to be there" kinda vibe. Words that describe with the beauty of prose, but with edge like a sword, like seeing a very beautiful rose that pricks you with its thorns. Barring errors throughout, the writing is great but dense, heavy, like someone with too many teeth; each sentence is jam-packed with more sentences ... it seems like a lot going on. The location and characters in this book are of equal paramount importance, and the writing interacts them in a way that creates a story of depressing abusive stagnancy filled with a sort of magical realism. Like Wuthering Heights meets 100 Years of Solitude. It was just such a strange read, and funny.
5 bubblegums
Fifteen Years A Deplorable: A White House Memoir by Mike McCormick
5/10/20
I have so many things to say, but more so about the content than the book, or about the book than the content? Which just goes to show how memoirs, especially work memoirs, are a different kind of beast.
How can you critique someone's experience, particularly when this experience serves as a kind of appeal, or exit survey, or voice that the author wasn't allowed to have? Ironically, the work memoir is always restricted to professionalism and the often subjective definition of it.
The block paragraph style used in this memoir is really interesting: there's so much material to cover working as a stenographer under three presidents—both Republican and Democrat—that I admire the way the author has organized and presented information. Though Trump-leaning, 15 Years also does a great job of having the appearance of objectivity and non-partisanship. You forget as an everyday citizen that the people in the White House are also just everyday citizens who also have to work alongside one another for a common cause despite and in spite of politics. The author captures this beautifully, particularly by closing the memoir with non-partisan solutions and an overall theme of non-hatred.
4 bubblegums
Who Killed Buster Sparkle? by John W. Bateman
4/30/20
This is a cute, charming story, very amusing and heartwarming, good for the soul, down-home tale that does well in the setting of the hot lethargy of the South. Kind of a cross between Ghost, In the Heat of the Night, and To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything! Julie Newmar. So, in honor of these "crosses", and cross-gendering and dressing ... I felt like this book was a cross between pretty good, fluid and plausible storytelling and less than stellar writing: there were many word omissions throughout and very awkward sentences that made it difficult to read at times. I grew into the awkwardness of the "slang" as I grew into the comfort of the characters. Overall, I think this book could use a lot of structural and line editing. I think the author did justice to the characters, but I did question the plausibility of J's death and the author's inconsistency in naming Peaches throughout the book: first Peaches/Jasper, then just Peaches ... for me, the inconsistency "involved" the author in a way that “interrupted” the fiction.
3 1/2 bubblegums
Principles of Navigation by Lynn Sloan
4/23/20
Wow. This is good. Such an awesome story for so many reasons, including a skillful mix of beautiful prose and writing that is almost breathtaking in its ability to capture the nuance and complexity of (young) marriage. A snapshot, yet with so many twists and turns. I was sucked right in: I read it in about 3-4 days.
Firstly, this paragraph toward the end of the book:
She stood, her clothes wrinkled, a stain on her sleeve. “I wish Alice weren’t on her own.” It was the wrong thing to say. He could see that she knew it too. Embarrassed, she turned toward the bathroom and returned with fresh lipstick, which made her look worse.
This scene is out of context here, of course, but I couldn't stop laughing. I thought this was hilarious. In context, it's so grotesque, the wrongness and messiness of it all reflected in physical appearance, and the futile attempt to dress it up and "freshen it up", which makes it all the more absurd and ugly. It's a great scene that accurately sums up this book, and life.
I think this is the first time I came close to hating a good book just because of my feelings toward the protagonist. Toward the end, I was rooting for all sorts of horrible things to happen to her, which, in turn, made me examine the tiny cruelties within me, the complexity of marriage and union as a participator and as an observer, and the futility and cruelty in judging anything.
What can I say? "Justice served". Beautiful from beginning until the very end.
5 bubblegums
Undertow of Memory by Vince Sgambati
4/20/20
I debated reviewing this book because of male homosexual themes, and then I wondered if I'd "out" the book if I reviewed it; overall, I'm glad and curious why this book wasn't labeled "LGBTQ" fiction, otherwise I wouldn't have read it and would've missed the prose. And what beautiful prose. Not "writing" but prose. The sentences and stories flow effortlessly and poetically in perfect faith to the form of short story. "Touching the Elephant" began the collection, and very strongly; I was excited to read the remaining stories, which didn't quite match up for me, but what a beautiful, consistent theme of a sense of loss in this collection. It's not quite "sad", but a sense of loss that feels more natural than evocative. Like you're under water (great title).
4 bubblegums
Testament by Brad Wiebe
4/8/20
Great cover and a "clean" respectable plot, though I wasn't a fan of the author's preface; this then made the story, going in, seem more nonfiction than fiction since I now knew that the story would be told in a way to fit the mold of a point that the author was trying to make. Then again, point(s) well made. There were some word errors throughout, and awkward sentences, word choices and phrasing that, also and weirdly, fit the narrative personality of this story.
3 1/2 bubblegums
Eyes in the Walls by David V. Stewart
3/14/20
This book is nuts! I don't even know where to begin. There's just a lot going on here, beginning with the title, which is kind of a misnomer for the story, and the story being most chilling and terrifying for reasons that have nothing to do with this fictional story, but the truth of reality. Kinda.
I don't know man: this was wild. I don't want to give anything away, but it's not like I could anyway because there's just so much going on. And it's only about 100 pages! I laugh now thinking of how I sort of deflated at the beginning of the book, thinking it was going to be a kind of Goonies kid story. Ha!
I didn't like the end, and I didn't find the final reality of David F. to be 100% believable. But good dialogue, and solid writing especially in creating *very distinct and (role and age) appropriate characters.
5 bubblegums
The Real Truth by Gregg Maxwell Parker
1/25/20
Real Truth is what I'll call a "give-it-a-chance book" because it kept unfolding in a way that became captivating rather than having started as such. It has a very contemporary feel in that it is set within the current political climate (which was initially a turn off for me), but just when you think it’s about politics ... ! Wait for it ... Very surprising and outlandish while at the same time gripping for us God heads out there. There're some ghosts of past like a modern-day Scrooge, but it actually totally works with the story. And they're hilarious. Very professional and well-written book in which different concepts are capsulized and compete to make for an interesting parable. What do we really know about anything? To what extent do we have a right to a fervent opinion? Awesome book: awesome ending, mirror beginning. It put me in the mind of the TV series Frasier ... Egg all over my face ...
The Real Truth is literally kind of deus ex machina—both as and not as a literary device—which is really cool because there's a point in the book where everyone seems like an unreliable character in a story narrated omnisciently, and you don't know who to believe. This is doubly cool because the author is able to "get out of the way" by telling an objective story.
The plot twist is cool and one of hypocrisy, but not for the reason you may think ...
Excerpt:
“You can take it from me, there’s no guarantees in any of this shit,” said Hepburn. “Pardon my language. But watch out with all that certainty. You don’t want to find out you waited for nothing.”
5 bubblegums
The Soul City Salvation by Jonathan LaPoma
2/12/20
Would you rather jump off the cliff and build your dream life while descending, or work on building your dream life from the ironic safety net of a job that causes you mental and physical suffering? Are the questions this simple when you're a writer? Without giving too much away, Soul City has some really interesting parallels, which all ultimately beg the question, which comes first, the chicken or the egg? An unhappy, violent young man who teaches and lives in unsafe and unhealthy environments receives an invitation to teach at an experimental school full of emotional support and healthiness, which then forms the necessary backdrop for his rather painful transformation. Perfect pacing for a story that speaks to perfect divine timing in real life. It's a great lesson in "growing into becoming a writer"; however, one must arrive at peace with their vocation, or wherever they are in life, so that they can now "go for it" and reap some sort of financial success from that peace.
Since Soul City is 400+ pages of intense character focus and evolution, it’s like penultimate literary fiction, and it dragged at times. There were also word omissions and errors, but framed against 400+ pages, the fact that I didn't find more errors was impressive. I could've done without the overly sympathetic and generalizing "liberal" talking points at times, but, overall, I really applaud Soul City because it takes on a lot.
5 bubblegums
The Morbid Fascinations of David Bennett by R. M. Smith
1/18/20
Admittedly, I'm a bit excited to review this book, and by review, I mean discuss because there's just so much here, sprawling.
I call this book a "blossoming flower" because it's a book of unfolding, slow unfolding, paragraph by paragraph, chapter by chapter, the plot unfolds, without the tackiness of severe plot twists and, how cool, because what's unfolding is not only being revealed to you as the reader, but also to the narrator. It was like walking slowly and peering behind every corner before turning onto it. The content is quite disturbing, but it's told in this slow, unfolding "gentle" way that makes it very palatable, relatable and alluring. Like "gentle horror" ha. I guess it fits with the genre: paranormal kind of feels like “soft” horror.
I'm bummed a little because I feel that this book would be so much better with professional editing: there's a lot here—just over 300 pages—and spelling and word and omission errors throughout, e.g. skin that is "taught" instead of "taut". There's also this odd combination of sentence fluidity and then sporadic sentence/language awkwardness; however, this is rendered weirdly irrelevant considering how heavy-handed this book is with (first-person) narrative (which I highly commend since I don't think it easy to pull off narrating huge chunks of a story in first person without rendering it boring or unbelievable because the style is too familiar).
Overall, Morbid Fascinations is pretty damn good. Solid writing as a whole. Excellent consistency, with tone and just in general.
4 bubblegums
Customer Service by Anthony Custode Jr
1/1/20
This was a first for me in terms of indie reads for two reasons:
1. This book is what I call "a warm-up book", meaning I didn't initially think I would like it (from the "Look Inside" feature)—with awkward phrases like "futile chatter", and a seeming non-difference between author and character voice. BUT the more I read, the more the book warmed up, and the more I began to get into it.
2. Customer Service reminds me of something like a Clerks (the movie), and reads more like a screenplay than a book, i.e. it’s an entertaining read that reads like a cult classic movie.
There were some instances of word misuse, such as characters "shuttering" instead of "shuddering", "engrain" instead of "ingrain" and "as we started to 'disburse'" instead of *disperse.
P.S. I don't think the cover does the book a lot of justice.
3 1/2 bubblegums
We All Need Therapy by Lamar Neal
1/19/20
Through all the plaintive self-deprecating in a poetry collection that still manages to remain evasive and read itself between the lines, I felt very happy beginning this; I don't know why, but I felt like the sun was shining. It's like the poems create a searching inside of themselves. Like a Ouija board that you as the reader put your hands on as it reads itself.
I disliked the racial component (though I understand its importance to the author in identity development). The end ultimately tied everything together very nicely even though I felt the contents spilling out thematically at times. For example, the shift between speaking generally (about the social/historical climate) in an otherwise "I"-centered collection about personal experiences. Timing was also off in this respect, shifting from poems that weren't time-centered to poems that were suddenly centered in a past historical date, in a collection that began with the insinuation that it would move in a somewhat chronological fashion. But strong beginning, strong ending. Middle meh. Some really strong poems and beautiful language. I wondered with the poem "Satisfied" if both the author and Jesus were Satan.
Some typos and word omissions. I really liked the switch from formal verse to maybe free and blank verse. I don't read much poetry but there seemed to be no formal structure at all at times, but then some form of structure and then a combination of the two in terms of meter. Cool.
Very earnest and bare yet figurative collection.
4 bubblegums
Ramus by Tony Ryan
1/7/20
Ramus started out really great and then took a turn for the ... Not quite worse (maybe the storyline itself), but I didn't like the second half. I have my days with fellow humans, but it takes a lot of craft to pull off an irredeemable idea of the human condition. I found issues with believability, both in how the story translates within the framework of a novel (and not just life), and with the character J.L. I just didn't believe enough was established to believe what he did. The "twists" were also a little over the top.
What the author does well is capturing the moral and depressing ambiguity of law enforcement. (Think a movie like Mystic River, something Dennis Lehane-ian) The story also moves right in, quickly. Good pacing throughout. I thought the author also did a good job with omniscient and character narration so that the brunt of my own emotions and judgments fell fully on me. The author was able to "get out of the way" in other words, which is important for this genre.
OK read. Some minor errors, a bit "sloppy" at the end and also a jarring change of font toward the end.
3 bubblegums
Malicious Mates by Raz Andrews
12/9/19
Malicious Mates reminded me a lot of the British movie Trainspotting, which I don't remember much of, but which I still think can be summed up as a bunch of wacky mates cussing, fighting, shi*ting, vomiting and bleeding all over the place. What's interesting is that for all its harshness and "toxic masculinity" (laughing), it's a great look into how much of what women do dictates, literally, the whole story and direction of everything. (Do better men)
This is the second book I've read from an English-speaking author from a different country (than America), and this is the second time I've been confused ... by the colloquialisms (sometimes without much context) mixed in with scenes that really seemed to come out of nowhere—like train wrecks, sometimes literally—and random breaks of weird poetry/detached streams of consciousness. ? But I guess I'd rather be accused of things not making sense than inconsistency, so I guess I'll call this a literary style that ironically "makes sense" for the overall impulsive tone of the book. I will say though that the abrupt and impulsive nature of scenarios detracted a lot from their credibility. I found scenes like "the envelope", for example, to be non-believable.
Without giving too much away, I consider the flight of Jackson and his friend to be the saving grace and catharsis of the story. I think their fleeing and subsequent lostness while arguing and walking (to try to find their way) gives great insight into male friendships and the vulnerability still apparent behind the "roles". It kinda brought the whole theme of purposelessness and aimlessness to a head and gave everything some humanity. After all this complicated living, it turns out that what all people need acknowledgment for is quite simple.
3 bubblegums
Meet Sinead Danbush by Stevie Shaw
11/11/19
At the beginning, this book reminded me a lot of Judy Blume's Wifey, and then it sorta rounded out with Rupert Holmes' "If You Like Piña Coladas" (see lyrics). I grew suddenly irked by the cover more than halfway through the book (for non-obvious reasons) until I found that everything had been tied together pretty expertly and cleverly at the very end. Which is very befitting of the cover in a way that has everything and nothing to do with the cover at the same time.
I really liked the author's treatment of a comfortable yet unfulfilled twenty-year marriage set in both the humdrum location of an everyday life in England, and at a holiday resort that seems to offer a getaway, confrontation & resolution and tragedy simultaneously and repeatedly. It's a boring and at times slow-moving story, but, luckily, that works as a great mirror for (the) marriage and literary fiction.
This book could stand some editing—for more than occasional word omissions, and sentence structure and word choices that made an almost 200-page book read like a very long short story. It's hard to call though at times because I believe the author is British, the language and colloquialisms differing from American English. For example, people in this book are often "stood at" the door (instead of "standing at" the door) or "sat at" the table (instead of "sitting at" the table). ¿
Overall, Meet Sinead Danbush is solid literary fiction, and a good example of a good story that could be made a lot better by appropriate editing.
3 1/2 bubblegums
So Your Boss Can't Lead?: A Practical Guide to Be the Leader You Want by Stephanie German
12/14/19
I got hooked right away with Amazon's "Look Inside" feature, and how the author immediately disambiguated "management" and "leadership". I'm not usually into nonfiction or such topics, but it made me think because I'd never considered a difference between the two. I also never considered that management is something done *to people, whereas leadership is something done *through people.
What I loved was how the author was able to clarify concepts so as to create a nuance to common sense. For instance, I never considered another angle to the scenario of someone walking by and bumping into you, causing your coffee to spill everywhere. Coffee is everywhere because someone bumped into you, right? Well, no, the author explains. The coffee is everywhere because you didn't have tea in your cup, otherwise tea would be everywhere. The nuance is literally in your cup, whatever you are putting into your cup. Boom. See what I'm saying? The cleverness just sneaks up on you.
So Your Boss Can't Lead? was a very interesting and thought-provoking read that I recommend. I especially love it because it advocates for something very absent in the workplace today, which is moral leadership, and shows the role everyone plays in being a great leader even when their boss isn't.
(P.S. I would've preferred endnotes to footnotes in this book)
4 1/2 bubblegums
Small Town Kid by Frank Prem
1/21/20
This collection was very reserved and, for lack of a better and more erudite word, poetic, which made it less entertaining for me. I think I prefer more expressive poetry, especially for the genre of memoir, but I don't read a lot of poetry so I find myself wondering if poetry style is more about style and craft or an expression of the author's personality. Or both. The collection put me in mind of, say, a violinist who is technically proficient in the violin and plays well, but I can't connect because there seems to be a feature missing that makes it distinctive to them specifically. Or I wonder if I feel this way—at least partly—because this collection is very good at creating mood: I felt a mood of memory that had been created, of a sort of sad nostalgia that blanketed everything without actually smothering everything. Very beautiful pieces and beautifully intimating language at times. I also like how time progression was addressed and handled, as in, I felt a solid beginning, middle and end of a life instead of just a slice of life (characteristic of memoir).
Beautiful and well-written collection.
4 bubblegums
Storytellers by Bjørn Larssen
10/20/19
I was excited to begin this book and to have it to travel to every night before bed. How cool to be transported to another place that I haven't encountered (apart from Björk and The Northern Lights)—to a culture that demonstrates its value of storytelling by doubly storytelling via a story within a story. And the fact that the "inside" story becomes integral to the "outside" story by literally jumping out of itself to become the main story is super cool. And great cover. The ending wasn't really on par with the awesome buildup of the beginning and middle. I felt that the events at the end became somewhat ridiculous. However, this book is a great example of showing and not telling. I learned a lot about Iceland just by the way the narrative was crafted.
P.S. I didn't need all of the author end matter.
5 bubblegums
Strange Affairs, Ginger Hairs by Arthur Grimestead
12/25/19
This book is hilarious, ok? I mean, I genuinely laughed out loud—and kept laughing—at certain parts; bonus points for a book and author with British backdroppings able to convey universal humor. And since this book is the second (indie) I've read by a British author, I think I've solved the mystery of someone being "sat at" a table or "stood by" the door as British colloquialisms rather than grammatical gibberish. What's really hilarious is how I worried that I'd have nothing to write since I found Strange Affairs to be ... 'great' is not the word, and neither is 'good' ... but it's free of errors, well and professionally written and pretty entertaining, which is interesting since there is endless plot while the book still manages to pull off a literary vibe. The cover is also pretty kick a*s.
But then there's the end, oh the end. Out of all the twists and turns and bumps and lumps, there's the end, and this paragraph, which caught me completely off guard:
I smiled to myself. The only music Syd ever liked was about niggers, guns and big assed booty bitches. I doubted he’d ever set foot in a church.
I mean, I'm on the fence, but not in a way so as to detract from the literary merit of this book, but in a way that says I'm pro free speech and loyal to that, logically, in whatever context, but this just felt off. Kinda like the language of "nigger" is more the sentiment of the author and not the character. But it sorta fits with the white lower economic class of the main character and his family, but it kinda doesn't with the tone of the whole book. Or maybe it's a literary device that makes you totally rethink the main character. After all, I was swaying toward sympathy until I read that paragraph. So yeah,
Bravo I suppose.
4 1/2 bubblegums
Me and The Japanese Beauty Standards by Tomomi Tsuchio
10/28/19
This was a quick and interesting read. At times, my reading pace was interrupted by weird comma placements, and the content was all over the place. But then I wondered if any of this mattered since the tone of the author is warm, kind and sincere in promoting healthy self-esteem (for women).
What was interesting was the title, and how it wound up meaning something totally different than what I initially thought it would. While I did wish the author went into more detail about Japanese standards of beauty, "the Japanese beauty standard" is really about beauty standards specific to a culture and country as compared to the standards of other countries and cultures, which totally renders any standard obsolete since it varies according to ... culture, geography and, well, the beholder.
I'm glad that the author learned to love herself, and it was a breath of fresh air to "hear" the perspective of an unconventional Japanese woman balancing the standards of two cultures.
3 bubblegums
Myth Agent by L. A. MacFadden
9/20/19
Excellent editing, firstly. There were, however, parts in the book where the author's name appeared under paragraphs. ?
Myth Agent incorporates parallel stories that I don't think were told and so tied together in the most efficient way, especially with normal numbered chapters: it confused me and left the different moving parts of the story feeling disjointed from the whole story arc. Usually, authors handle telling concurrent stories by labeling a section with that character's name, etc., but I'm not sure that would've worked for this book either. As a whole though, I enjoyed Myth Agent. It's about time travel, but told in a casual way that made time travel seem more like a philosophical concept that occurs in everyday life rather than something grossly fantastical that's hard to believe. It was written well and entertaining enough for me to look forward to reading it every night before bed.
4 bubblegums
Shift Change by Mark Hunter
8/18/19
I counted five typos in this book either by word omission or addition, and I'm ecstatic because that's very good considering many indie books and considering the page count, and ... I really loved this book: memoir veiled as fiction, virtuousness and self-righteousness veiled as thin disguises for fear of apathy and contempt in the slow realization of being ordinary in the worst way.
As the description tells you, the setting is a gas station, and the tone and overall voice of the protagonist matches perfectly with the pacing—or not—of the daily humdrum you might expect from working (the night shift) at a gas station. What's surprising though are the razor-sharp insights and glittering self-consciousness that comes from it since we also learn that the protagonist is a youngish white guy with a since-declining genius IQ who often gets pulled over by the cops and whose choice to work at a gas station is a deliberate attempt to avoid asking too much of life. Cha-ching! Shift Change to me was reminiscent of H. Selby's The Demon in that it's a character study of what happens to an otherwise successful guy with a seemingly harmless obsession (for not aspiring), and the rapid descent the psyche takes in following the obsession. In the protagonist's case, the descent is into the self-loathing that apparently occurs when one has to manually apply meaning to one's work because the work is otherwise unfulfilling and so meaningless. Oh, and thievery.
It was cool how each chapter begins with an anecdote from the author's past and then trails off ... seamlessly blending into the gas station again in the next paragraph. The unexpected twists and turns are even more cool because they're being filtered through the protagonist's continued insight, which continues to progress to an ultimate climax despite seemingly experiential regression.
Can working hard and honestly not make sense? Does virtuous behavior always have an expiration date? Do you dare to believe that this world can be good? That people can and will do the right thing?
In the end, I think, you can't cheat life. The author won though because he seemed to be able to retain his sense of decency and integrity in the biggest way after all, despite.
5 bubblegums
Nowhere Girls by Teuta Metra
8/2/19
Amazon's "Look Inside" feature hooked me! The characters drove a compelling plot that had me excited to read every night. I haven't encountered much about Albania, so it was interesting to learn something new … about the wide-scale corruption similar to most other (ethnically homogeneous) countries. ? In any case, I did appreciate the perspective given of asylum-seeking and immigration. The University of Intelligence made it thrillerish or scary in a dystopian way.
Nowhere Girls could stand more editing as there were several errors throughout that included verb-subject agreement and misspellings. The story also became unrealistic for me at the second half when Sara traveled to retrieve Johan. I understand the concept of family, but this part seemed unbelievable to me. *Spoiler* All that Sara goes through so suddenly just to retrieve the son of a woman not related to her? Maybe this concept doesn't translate as well across cultures? The pacing also seemed rushed.
3 bubblegums
A Bear in November by Alice Holness
7/5/19
Written in a whimsical, magical style that evokes equally whimsical and magical imagery, I enjoyed A Bear in November. I also really like the cover and concept of a bear adjusting to the new normal of waking during the winter and making his way with other animals. There were a few typos, and I didn't prefer review requests both at the front and back of the book. But I am wondering how this tale will unfold! Will Caspian be awake the entire winter? We shall see!
4 bubblegums
On My Papa’s Shoulders by Niki Daly
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I first received On My Papa's Shoulders from Edelweiss, thanks!
It's weird because even though the illustration style didn't resonate with me, I absolutely LOVED how touch was somehow conveyed very viscerally through the page. I could feel it! I loved it! And I still downloaded this book with a smile and read the whole way through the same!
I love the concept and the homage to dads, and the cool ending of a son copying his dad. I also loved the inclusion of other parts of family and how their personalities were conveyed through how each uniquely walked him to school.
3 1/2 bubblegums
Theodore the Unfortunate Bear by Cory Q Tan
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3 bubblegums
The Depth of the Lake and the Height of the Sky by Kim Jihyun
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I first "read" this gorgeously illustrated picture book on Edelweiss, thank you!
3 bubblegums