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Book Review: Dear Mothman by Robin Gow

It’s the first day of the #TransRightsReadathon, so to start it out right here’s a review of a recent favorite middle-grade novel I really enjoyed. You can’t go wrong with cryptids!

 

cover art for Dear Mothman by Robin Gow

Dear Mothman by Robin Gow.

Harry N. Abrams, 2023

ISBN: 9781419764400

Available: Hardcover

Buy:  Bookshop.org

 

 

This middle grade verse novel dealing with grief, identity, and monstrosity is lyrical and vivid. Sixth graders Lewis and Noah (closeted trans boys) have been best friends for years. Lewis has a great imagination and Noah is pulled along in his wake in exploring all kinds of strange things. In the time just before Lewis was killed in a car crash, he had been obsessed with cryptids, especially Mothman. Noah deals with the loss by writing journal entries to Mothman in a journal he leaves in the woods each night. He wants to believe that Mothman is real even if he can’t see him, and decides to do his science fair project on whether Mothman exists.

 

Noah also begins to make friends with Molly, Hanna, and Alice, and develop feelings for Hanna, while slowly coming out and deciding how much of himself, and Mothman, he wants to share.

 

Although he is outed to his classmates before he’s ready, the people around him accept the news pretty quickly, even if they don’t entirely understand. Unfortunately, they are not as accepting of the existence of Mothman, which leads him to run away to do a solitary search in the woods that changes him, helps him deal with his grief over Lewis, and move forward.

 

Noah is autistic and that comes through clearly and is written with respect and sensitivity, as is the bisexuality of two of the characters.

 

Noah’s grappling with monstrosity, magic, and the unknown isn’t subtle, but Gow gets the kinds of thoughts on paper that you would expect a journal of private thoughts (or written to a cryptid of dubious existence) to contain. In the acknowledgements. Gow credits a childhood fascination with monsters with his ability to understand his own identity. Recommended for grades 5-8.

 

 

Reviewed by Kirsten Kowalewski

 

 

 

 

Posted on March 22, 2024 by , Reply

Book Review: Shagging the Boss by Rebecca Rowland

Shagging the Boss by Rebecca Rowland
Filthy Loot, 2022
ISBN-13: 978-1088029046
Available: Paperback ( Bookshop.org )

 

Before anyone starts quoting Austin Powers in a bad accent, the shagging Rebecca Rowland refers to is quite different. The title does fit the novella though, yet I can’t divulge too much. It’s unique and a quick read, easy for one sitting but this story stuck to me like a great meal– more on that later.

 

Publishing is a bloody business. It makes strolling through hell feel like petting puppies in a field of flowers. It’s not for the weak-hearted or those who want validation. When the unnamed main character arrives at a book conference, fresh in the field and looking for bites, she’s looking for a foot in the door, something to break into a world that is full of monsters of the human kind. What she finds isn’t exactly what LinkedIn typically suggests. A strange man, Daniel, greets her at a book convention and invites her back to his hotel room, but the favor he offers isn’t exactly the sexist situation that too often occurs in the corporate world. It’s something much different. He makes her an offer after she awakes to find he took something from her– something physical– but reassures her all will be well, because of what he is, a boogeyman of sorts. To be specific, a yara-ma-yha-who, a creature of opportunity who consumes their prey, only to expel them– somehow changed. To say more would ruin the novella’s magic. The relationship and interplay between the apprentice and Daniel is pure fun to read. The book begs to be completed in one enjoyable sitting (yet I’ve gone through it twice and picked up on some cool nuances I missed the first time).

 

Rowland has been moving like a banshee, editing anthologies left and right (her Generation-Exed is perfect for the best group of people out there!), but this is my first time reading her prose. It won’t be the last. Comparisons are not necessary, yet one could be drawn between Elizabeth Massie and Joe R. Lansdale due to the smooth writing and easy dialogue.

 

Highly recommended, especially for anyone who is involved in the shark-infested world of writing and publishing.

 

Reviewed by David Simms

Posted on December 17, 2022 by , Reply

Book Review: It Came From the Swamp: A Cryptid Anthology edited by Joey R. Poole

Cover for It Came From The Swamp: A Cryptid Anthology

It Came From the Swamp: A Cryptid Anthology edited by Joey R. Poole

Malarkey Books, 2022

ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1088025321

Available: Paperback ( Bookshop.org | Amazon.com )

 

This short story anthology is themed around cryptids and folkloric creatures. Mermaids and Bigfoot make multiple appearances, but so do more locally known creatures.

 

Standout stories include: “Flood Tide”, in which a maid for an anti-abortion senator feeds him and his handsy son to a carnivorous mermaid. I felt vicarious pleasure reading this one.In “Ceasing”, a lizard man and a Boo Hag go on a Halloween date. In “Soo-Soo Go Bye-Bye”, a father rushing to Wal-Mart on icy roads for baby supplies thinks he’s spotted a Sasquatch. “Der Butzemann” takes a figure from Pennsylvania Dutch folklore and uses it to enact vengeance on those poisoning the land. There’s some excellent writing in some of the other stories but they don’t quite feel like all the pieces fit together.

 

In any book themed on cryptids, they are really the stars, and “The Monster Beneath” and “The Valley Where the Fog Has Hooves” both have incredible, lyrical, descriptive writing about the cryptids in the stories. For readers into cryptids and folkloric creatures looking for something a little darker than Harry Dresden’s “Working for Bigfoot”, this is a title you’ll want to check out.

 

Reviewed by Kirsten Kowalewski

 

 

Posted on September 26, 2022 by , Reply
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