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Book Review: Jigglyspot and the Zero Intellect by PD Alleva

Jigglyspot and the Zero Intellect by PD Alleva

Chamber Door Publishing, 2023

ISBN: 9781735168630

Available: Preorder hardcover, paperback. Kindle edition

Buy:  Bookshop.org  |  Amazon.com

 

Jigglyspot should be the runaway favorite to win “World’s Weirdest Horror Book” for 2023.  It’s a good read, but it is seriously out there: this is Clive Barker on hallucinogens.  About the only drawback is it could have used another quick edit, there are some syntax mistakes and misused commas throughout the book.

 

It’s not possible to tell much of the plot without spoiling the book, so let’s look at the starting threads.  Jiggly has a number of threads, and the chapters (which are short, each only about 4 to 6 pages) consist of the point of view for one of the main characters, written in the third person, past tense.  Surprisingly, with all the back and forth between viewpoints, it does NOT get confusing, to the credit of the author.  That’s pretty impressive, considering how all over the place the plot is.  The main characters and threads are:

  1.   Jigglyspot, a sadistic, part-warlock carnival clown who enjoys slicing and dicing annoying people with his scalpel, and is having an affair with a lady from another galaxy.  He also enjoys live extraction of hormones (this is written in graphic detail) from the skulls of people, to keep himself young.  A nice guy, he ain’t.  Jiggly makes Pennywise seem like a reasonable choice to babysit your children.
  2. Tyler, a high school student who channels his inner Charles Bronson to execute, vigilante-style, one of his classmates for unpunished crimes.
  3. Lilly, a nice suburban mom, trying to do right by her children after their dad shoots himself.
  4. Cassandra and Sharon: one a peon in a Hollywood talent agency, the other a struggling actress dreaming of the big time.  They soon split into two separate story threads.
  5. FBI agent John Mills, trying to solve a 20 year old cold case.

 

None of these seem related, for the first 200 of the 560 pages, and with the exception of Mills and Jiggly, they aren’t. It’s worth it to keep reading, because then the threads slowly draw together. Author Alleva clearly knows how to tension the plot strings at just the right time.  Even when the stories seem unrelated, it’s interesting enough that readers will want to know what happens to their favorite character next.  

 

Then the gloves come off and it all pulls together in bloody fashion.  Jiggly makes enough of a mess to keep gorehound readers happy, including sadomasochistic sex, cannibalism (complete with the marinating of people) babies killed, Satan and demons, and a bit of an interstellar tie-in.  In other words, the author threw in the kitchen sink, plus every other available appliance.  

 

With so much going on, you’d think this mess would careen off the tracks… but somehow, it doesn’t.  It’s impressive how Alleva manages to keep focused, and makes it understandable to the end.  There are a few parts that could have used a touch more explanation but that was likely the author’s choice, and not a blatant omission.   Readers will actually like and sympathize with the characters, even the not-so-nice ones.  Jiggly, scumbag that he is, does have a strange appeal, and Tyler, the schoolkid executioner, is actually one of the most likable, due to his “screw you” attitude problem, combined with an actual moral backbone.  

 

Bottom line time, folks!  Verdict is: Jigglyspot goes in many directions, yet somehow still works and is worth the read.  Recommended for fans of truly bizarro fiction that can handle some squish n’ splat.

 

Reviewed by Murray Samuelson.

Posted on August 16, 2023 by , Reply

Book Review: The Midnight Girls by Alicia Jasinska

The Midnight Girls by Alicia Jasinska

Sourcebooks Fire, 2022

ISBN-13: 978-1728209753

Available: Hardcover, paperback, audiobook, Kindle edition.

Buy:   Bookshop.org   |  Amazon.com

 

 

The Midnight Girls takes place in a fantasy kingdom based on the Kingdom of Poland at the end of the 18th century, which was torn apart by wars with Russia, Lithuania, and Poland.

 

Three sister witches terrorize the forest, each with a servant girl who desperately wants to please them. Black Jaga’s servant is Zosia, with the power of Midnight. Red Jaga’s servant is Marynka, with the power of Midday. White Jaga’s servant is Beata, with the power of Morning. The girls compete to seize the hearts of princes for their witches. Zosia, hidden away, is most successful. Marynka is desperately in competition with her as she is punished when she fails and receives affection when she succeeds. Beata quietly claims the spoils while Marynka is distracted. The descriptions of the servant girls’ powers and especially of their literally ripping hearts out of people”s bodies were really hard for me to read.

 

All three girls are sent to the city during Karnaval season to claim the pure heart of Prince Josef, a source of powerful magic when eaten. In their competition, Marynka and Zosia inadvertantly keep saving the prince in order to gain the opportunity to claim his heart. It would be funny but it is deadly serious. In spite of their antipathy, they develop a close connection. Zosia plans to run away after taking this last heart and asks Marynka to come with her.

 

Prince Josef wants his kingdom to rebel and fight the tsarina of Rusja in order to preserve Lechija’s national identity and freedom from its oppressors, while the king is tired of fighting and willing to make concessions. His life is complicated by the return to court of Kajetan, his closest friend, who supported his family and turned against him on the battlefield. Both Zosia and Marynka and Josef and Kajetan harbor strong and contradictory feelings for one another. Josef and Kajetan’s story had unexplored potential. Marynka and Zosia feel more like they are characters from a folktale, and as one would expect in a folktale, are relatively one-dimensional. Their rivalry and romance are the primary focus of the story, so the political situation Josef and Kajetan were navigating, while intriguing, didn’t get much attention. The Midnight Girls has a similar feel in places to Katherine Arden’s.The Bear and the Nightingale, but that book balances these elements better.

 

This was a clever premise with great world building, and it wasn’t an easy book to read. Regardless of their home environment or your investment in the story, these girls really are monsters. They don’t try to justify their actions. It is really something that Jasinska has humanized them.

 

Reviewed by Kirsten Kowalewski

Posted on August 12, 2023 by , Reply

Book Review: Shakespeare Unleashed (Unleashed, #2) edited by James Aquilone

Shakespeare Unleashed (Unleashed, #2) edited by James Aquilone

Monstrous Books, 2023

ISBN: 9781946346193

Available: Hardcover, paperback, Kindle

Buy:   Bookshop.org  |  Amazon.com

 

This is the second book in the Unleashed series, the first being Classic Monsters Unleashed, previokusly reviewed for this website.  Like its predecessor, the stories are re-imaginings, continuations, or inspired by the Bard’s work.  How does it fare?  Pretty well, the book starts slow but gets better throughout, with the real bangers finishing out the book with a flourish.  If you haven’t read Shakespeare since being force-fed it in high school, it really helps to at least read the Wikipedia entries for his most famous works before reading the book.  Otherwise, a sizable portion of the stories might seem confusing.

 

The stories pull from a variety of Shakespeare’s work, with none of them used as a subject more than three times.  The usual suspects, like Macbeth, Romeo and Juliet, and Hamlet are represented, as well as lesser-known ones like A Midsummer Night’s Dream, The Merchant of Venice, and A Winter’s Tale.  Some stories add a prequel or epilogue, or a separate story involving one of the characters.  The best ones tend to be the ‘inspired by’ variety, where the basic concept is used in a different setting.

 

The first quarter of the book may be the weakest, and the hardest to follow, with the story ‘All Hallowed Tides Break Upon These Shores,’ a coda to The Tempest, being a bloody exception.  The story quality becomes better and more consistent the rest of the way.   Lavinia from Titus Andronicus features in a well-written tale of female revenge, “The Body, The Blood, The Woods, The Stage”, and the lecherous Sir John Falstaff gets a darkly comic dose of payback in “The Hungry Wives of Windsor”.The last quarter of the book is full of excitement and good writing.  Standouts are the Macbethian “Case of the Bitter Witch”, the Romeo-esque “Timeless Tragedy,”, and the King Lear inspired “Fortune”: all are outstanding.  They take the basic Shakespeare premise and run off in an entirely new direction, with excellent results.  It’s worth noting that with only an exception or two, the authors did NOT try to emulate the Bard’s writing style, but wisely stuck with their own styles.   The stories do get slick with blood at times, which is fitting, since Shakespeare’s work could be violent at times.  He just didn’t write graphically, which is something modern authors can certainly do!

 

Bottom line?  The book is a mixed bag, but there are enough good stories to justify the purchase.  Just re-acquaint yourself with Sir William ahead of time before getting the book, then watch the curtain rise on some truly twisted tales.

 

Reviewed by Murray Samuelson

 

Posted on August 11, 2023 by , Reply
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