Home » 2022 » June

Book Review: Toadstones by Eric Williams

 

Toadstones by Eric Williams

Malarkey Books, 2022

ISBN: 9781088017302

Available: paperback, Kindle ( Bookshop.org )

 

If you thought you’d read all the possible plotlines available for short stories, think again.  Eric Williams’s Toadstones obliterates that notion.  The book relies wholly on originality and a deft touch with the writing, no gore or sex needed.  For horror fans, this is a can’t miss.

 

It’s only the beginning of the book that runs flat; of the first three stories, two are easily forgettable.  After that, in terms of imagination, all the stories are loaded with enough horsepower to redline a Peterbilt freight truck.  You can catch traces of the author’s influences (a touch of “The Mummy” and  “Invasion of the Body Snatchers” here, a trace of Lovecraft there) but he’s managed to create something entirely new with them.  The closest to a theme for this book would be ‘ordinary dudes running into REALLY weird things.’  Some examples:

 

1.  A man on a nature hike in Utah happens upon one of the Greek gods, and shares beer and conversation with him.

2.  A showing of a crime noir film turns all too real for some of the theatre viewers.

3.  A corrupt cop robs corpses of their limbs to sell for voodoo charms.

 

If that isn’t enough, there are also two bus-obsessed students tracking a phantom bus on an abandoned route, an oil rig crew drilling a seemingly pointless hole for an eccentric billionaire… the list goes on.  All these stories are very creative, and highly entertaining.  A special mention is needed for “Doomstown”, the best story in the book.  It involves two crazy grad students on a quest to locate one of the mock-up towns left over from the days when the military tested high powered bang-bangs in the Nevada desert.  This story has the highest scare factor of all of them: it’s off the charts.  If you thought mannequins were even remotely creepy, read this story.  You’ll never walk past a department store window again.  “Doomtown'” should win every award available for best horror short story this year, it’s that good.

 

All the stories are well written; they flow fast and smooth like the Jack Daniels at a Kennedy family party on Cape Cod.  There’s a nice touch of humor thrown in on occasion, and the characters are well sketched and feel authentic; there are no cardboard cutouts anywhere.  The author does have a mild touch of Dickens-ism (aka using too many overblown words) on occasion, but that’s easily overlooked, as it only shows up a few times.

 

The bottom line?  Just read it.  One of the best of 2022 so far. Highly recommended.

 

Reviewed by Murray Samuelson.

Posted on June 25, 2022 by , Reply

Book Review: I Am Margaret Moore by Hannah Capin

I Am Margaret Moore by Hannah Capin

Wednesday Books, 2022

ISBN-13: 9781250239570

Available: Hardcover, Kindle edition ( Bookshop.org  )

 

 

In comparison to the other two books I’ve read by Capin (Foul is Fair, retitled Golden Boys Beware, and The Dead Queens Club) I Am Margaret Moore is more experimental, slower- moving, and more pessimistic. Margaret Moore has attended the same naval-themed summer camp with her friends Flor, Nisreen, and Rose for nine years, and what happens at camp is supposed to stay at camp. Margaret breaks that rule when she falls in love with a boy from a wealthy family, resulting in an inconvenient pregnancy. Now there are stories that she drowned in the lake from heartbreak.

 

Her friends have uncovered most of the story, including the name of the boy responsible, who has faced no consequences and is admired in the camp. They decide to tell what they know but it backfires on them. Flor and Nasreen, who are in love, are separated, and the names of all four girls are stricken from the camp records.

 

Margaret’s ghost narrates most of the story and isn’t great at keeping track of time or stringing events together coherently. It is unclear through most of the book how much time is passing until the end (62 years). Figuring out what actually happened is complicated by the changing stories about Margaret the campers tell as time passes as well as the jumping around in time and Margaret’s unreliable memories and interpretations of events.

 

This was not an easy book to read, not just because the characters felt ephemeral, the stream-of-consciousness style of writing or because the topic was difficult and heartbreaking but because it took time to piece together what actually happened and how. In many ways this book is as much about the way we tell stories and how they change as anything. Those readers looking for a fast-paced, straightforward narrative aren’t going to find it here.

 

Margaret and her friends are made to feel small, worthless, erased for the convenience of the entitled white guys in this timely book. The story at the center of the book takes place in 1957. That abortion wasn’t an option for Margaret Moore leads to tragedy. It could not be more timely, with today’s Supreme Court decision at hand.

 

Recommended, for readers willing to take their time.

 

 

 

Posted on June 24, 2022 by , Reply

Book Review: Poesy the Monster Slayer by Cory Doctorow, illustrated by Matt Rockefeller

Poesy the Monster Slayer by Cory Doctorow, illustrated by Matt Rockefeller.

Every page of this book made me laugh.

Cory Doctorow is the author of Pirate Cinema, Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom, and Little Brother, three books I love, among many others. He’s also an activist for the EFF. This is totally different from his previous work that I am familiar with. It is a sweet picture book about a little girl who has done her research into how to defeat monsters and waits until bedtime to take action. Poesy is not afraid of the monster under the bed and doesn’t want to befriend it– she has creative plans to use what she has at hand to defeat them, and puts them into action, much to her exhausted parents’ dismay. It is short, funny, sweet, and easy to understand, with colorful, slightly cartoony illustrations. Poesy is determined to save the day, tiara in place, armed with bubblegum perfume and a butterfly net.

For early educators, here’s an opportunity to define parts of a book near the beginning of the book as Poesy and her dad debate the beginning, middle, and title page of the monster book he is reading her.

A side note, both Poesy and her mother are Black, adding a little diversity to children’s book illustration.

Highly recommended for children of all ages.

 

Reviewed by Kirsten Kowalewski

Posted on June 21, 2022 by , Reply
12 » Last