Home » Posts tagged "grief in fiction"

Book Review: The Forgotten Dead (OutFoxing the Paranormal #1) by Jordan L. Hawk

Cover art for The Forgotten Dead (OutFoxing the Paranormal #1) by Jordan L. Hawk

The Forgotten Dead (OutFoxing the Paranormal #1) by Jordan L. Hawk

Independently published, 2022

ISBN-13: 979-8430224660

Available: Hardcover, paperback, Kindle edition, audiobook.

Buy: Amazon.com

 

The Forgotten Dead takes place in an alternate timeline where parapsychologist J.B. Rhine successfully established an Institute of Parapsychology at Duke University.

 

Dr. Nigel Taylor desperately needs a grant to save his assistant professorship. Patricia Montague offers him the money on the condition that he convince the face of the ghost hunting web series OutFoxing the Paranormal, Oscar Fox, to explore the Matthews house, where a mass killing of the family took place, followed by the killer’s suicide. Nigel, a friend of young Mike Matthews encountered the killer after the murders but escaped. Montague believes Oscar is a medium and Nigel’s personal connection will stir up any ghosts.

 

Nigel hires Oscar to investigate the house. Without telling Oscar that he is observing him to see if he is a medium, or what happened in the house, he, Oscar, and the two other staff members for the show, Tina and Chris, head there. Unsettlingly, nothing has been moved or changed: even blood spatters from the murders are still there. Cold spots, bad feelings, and drained batteries suggest that something is very wrong.

 

It’s clear to Nigel that Oscar is a medium but Oscar denies it, afraid that admitting his visions would end up with him in an institution, but finally he has to face the truth. He, Nigel, Tina, and Chris decide they will try to clear the house of spirits: easier said than done when one is a killer.

 

This wasn’t as horror-themed as Hawk’s Widdershins books, but it has some inventive and terrifying moments (razor blades in the walls, yikes!)  and touches on heavy issues, including mental illness, suicide, and grief. There’s also the beginnings of a romance between Nigel and Oscar. Hawk’s books are addictive for me and I look forward to the next book in the series.

 

In terms of representation, Nigel is a trans man, Chris is nonbinary, and Oscar is gay. Author Jordan Hawk is also trans, making this a great choice for the #TransRightsReadathon this week.

 

Reviewed by Kirsten Kowalewski

 

Posted on March 27, 2024 by , Reply

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: Through the Witches’ Stone by Scott A. Johnson

Cover art for Through the Witches' Stone by Scott A. Johnson

 

Through the Witches’ Stone by Scott  A. Johnson

Timber Ghost Press, 2023

Available: Paperback

Buy:  Bookshop.org  |  Amazon.com

 

 

12 year old  Hadley and her younger twin brothers are stuck for the summer on her grandma’s isolated farm. It isn’t as boring as she expects: she learns she is descended from a long line of witches, and her grandmother starts teaching her magical spells. Hadley’s grandma has only three rules: stay out of the locked rooms upstairs, stay out of the woods, and don’t invite strangers into the house. But while the twins have each other, Hadley has no one her age to talk to, until one night she spots a girl in a white dress and sneaks out to meet her.

 

Although her brothers are uneasy, Hadley keeps it a secret from her grandma. There’s a magical barrier that prevents the girl from crossing between the house and the woods, so she lets the girl lead her into the woods, and they become friends. Then Hadley makes the mistake of inviting the girl into the house. She turns out to be a changeling, who kidnaps Hadley’s brothers and grandma. Hadley must go into the inhospitable woods alone and attempt to find and defeat the changeling to rescue her brothers and grandma. She saves a pukwudgie (a short creature with hedgehog quills down its back and a large nose that originates in Native American mythology) She is also accompanied by a duo of brownies she calls Tom and Jerry. Despite the unfriendly folk and forest, Hadley wins them over and eventually, after some really creepy and compelling adventures, rescues her family.

 

There’s a lot of grief work going on. Hadley’s father was killed in a car accident she blamed her mother and herself for. Her mother is grieving her sister, husband, and father. The pukwudgie is grieving his family. Much of this is about making peace and letting go of grief and fear, but it does not overwhelm this fantastical, scary tale reminiscent of Mary Downing Hahn’s books, the Spiderwick Chronicles, and Outside Over There.

 

 

Posted on December 31, 2023 by , Reply
12345 » Last