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Women in Horror Month: Book Review: Dying With Her Cheer Pants On: Stories of the Fighting Pumpkins by Seanan McGuire

cover art for Dying With Her Cheer Pants On: Tales of the Fighting Pumpkins

( Amazon.com  |  Subterranean Press  limited edition hardcover  | Subterranean Press ebook edition )

Dying With Her Cheer Pants On: Stories of the Fighting Pumpkins by Seanan McGuire

Subterranean Press, 2020

ISBN-13 : 978-1596069978

Available: Direct from Subterranean Press (limited edition hardcover, ebook edition), and Kindle edition

 

Into every high school class a cheerleading squad must come to fight against the forces of darkness: aliens, mud monsters, and eldritch creatures.  Squads that don’t survive until graduation are forgotten, and a mysterious force chooses a new cheer captain to recruit a new squad. This tight-knit group of cheerleaders, who may or may not be supernatural themselves, are the Fighting Pumpkins of Johnson’s Crossing, California. These are their stories.

The stories have been published over time, in different places: I first encountered them in the story “Away Game”, a clever, if predictable, story that appears in A Secret Guide to Fighting Elder Gods, edited by Jennifer Brozek, and have been seeking out their stories since then. I’m so glad they have now been collected together. Originally a limited edition published by Subterranean Press, the collection is now available as an ebook.

Because there have been many cheerleading squads over a long period of time, the stories can be set in a variety of time periods, with different characters. While the majority of the Fighting Pumpkins stories are linked stories about the same varsity squad, with half-vampire cheer captain Jude, squad historian Colleen, Laurie, who has a command voice, supernaturally strong Marti, and undead Heather, a few take place in other time periods and with other squads, such as the titular “Dying With Her Cheer Pants On”, in which the team dies calling Bloody Mary from a mirror during an alien invasion to exterminate the aliens, and “Switchblade Smile”, which features Jude’s mother Andrea, a vampire, as a cheerleader in the 1930s.

Character development is strong, and there is a lot of humor (how can there not be with a team called the Fighting Pumpkins?). McGuire draws from a kitchen-sink universe where any creature of the imagination can be real,  and remixes tropes to create her stories, but the sisterhood of the girls on the cheer squad is what makes the stories of the Fighting Pumpkins really enjoyable. Although a story might center on a specific character, these stories aren’t about a single individual or chosen one bound to save the world on her own. The girls are a team, and they stick together even when things are scary, or dangerous, or one of them turns out to be a monster. Two related stories that involve cheerleader Heather Monroe stood out as favorites, “Gimme a Z”, in which she rises from the grave and defends her sister Pumpkins from an undead mob, and “Turn the World Around”,  an often poetic story in which she helps a girl who mysteriously shows up in a Fighting Pumpkins uniform make a life-and-death decision that will affect the entire community. “School Colors” covers a cheerleading competition between the Fighting Pumpkins and an alien cheerleading squad that could decide the fate of the planet.

The stories of the Fighting Pumpkins are a little scary, but mostly a lot of fun. Those looking for a break from heavy or intense reading will find a lot to like, as will Buffy lovers.  YA readers may enjoy this collection as well.

 

Contains : strong language, violence, some gore. The story “Fiber” received some criticism from First Nations people regarding McGuire’s interpretation of the wendigo.

 

Reviewed by Kirsten Kowalewski

Posted on February 21, 2021 by , Reply

Women in Horror Month: Book Review: Wicked Women: An Anthology by the New England Horror Writers edited by Trisha J. Wooldridge & Scott E. Goudsward

Wicked Women: An Anthology of the New England Horror Writers by [Trisha J. Wooldridge, Jane Yolen, Hillary Monahan, Lynne Hansen, Scott T. Goudsward]

( Bookshop.org | Amazon.com )

Wicked Women: An Anthology by the New England Horror Writers, edited by Trisha J. Wooldridge and Scott E. Goudsward.

NEHW Press, 2020

ISBN-13 : 978-0998185446

Available: Paperback, Kindle edition

 

February is Women in Horror Month, a time to celebrate both those who have altered the dark landscape and pioneered the path forward into nightmares anew, and who are blazing fresh trails into the abyss. Note: this should not just be relegated to one month– it’s tough to highlight all the new stars in the genre while looking back to those who paved the way.

Writing groups these days are a mixed bag, with many floundering with jealousy and stale efforts,  without the passion that should drive each member forward into the realms of publication and stellar storytelling. The New England Horror Writers are the only group I have witnessed firsthand to be that dark fire that consistently raises the bar for both newbies and veteran authors. Of course, it’s New England, so they have a leg up on the shadowy inspiration.

Wicked Women is a brilliant showcase of the group, many of whom should be and likely will be better known in the days to come. There is not a weak entry in this collection, which make highlighting a select few excruciatingly difficult. Between the covers, there is something for everyone, from the classic to the experimental, the subtle to brutal.

Favorite tales vary by the day and mood so I will focus on what resonated on the second read-through.

“Milk Time” by Elaine Pascale recalls classic Shirley Jackson in a story about a school that handles its students in a manner thatwill leave the reader with chills.

“Bad Trip Highway” by Renee DeCamillis harkens back to the best of wicked, sharp, classic horror of the eighties in the vein of Elizabeth Massie, a story about a woman and a strange hitchhiker that veers off the path of the well-trodden into something special.

“Souls Of The Wicked Like Crumbs In Her Hand” by Suzanne Reynolds-Alpert focuses on a woman who discovers there is another in a cafe that only she can see. What ensues twists into something evil and Twilight-Zone-ish, like the best of Yvonne Navarro.

“Arbor Day” by Kristi Peterson-Schoonover begins with the line “On Linden Island, kids are never told someone has died.” There’s a good reason for this, and the family tree that the community focuses upon holds secrets that outsiders should never discover. This story reminded me of the best of Tamara Thorne.  Again, choosing a favorite from this collection depends on the reader, and was a tough task when just about any could rise to the top. I expect several of the lesser-known authors to become much better-known in the days to come. Highly recommended, especially for fans of short stories.

 

Reviewed by David Simms

 

 

Posted on February 17, 2021 by , Reply

Book Review: Conquer (John Conquer Series, Book 1) by Edward M. Erdelac

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Conquer (John Conquer Series, Book 1) by Edward M. Erdelac

Independently published, 2020

ISBN: 9798579334848

Available : Paperback, Kindle edition

 

Harlem, 1976: an era of bad clothes, bad habits, and bad music.  From this scene emerges John Conquer, private investigator, and the baddest brother around.  How bad?  Well, “didn’t he kung-fu Frankenstein off the marquee at the Apollo, and bust him to pieces with John Henry’s hammer?  Didn’t he go fishin’ and catch the Creature from the Black Lagoon, and throw him back because he was too small!  He played ball with Dr. J in Rucker Park, and let him win!”  Conquer is a folk hero to Harlem, and his exploits have grown into legend among the locals.  These are his stories.

 

Conquer consists of seven short stories, three were previously published in Occult Detective Quarterly in 2017.  The stories are consistently entertaining, if a bit formulaic at the beginning of each story.  They usually start with Detective Lou Lazzaroni of the NYPD being assigned a case.  Lou realizes that the cases have a supernatural bent to them, and that’s where John Conquer steps in.  Although he’s a standard PI, Conquer also has a deep knowledge of voodoo, hoodoo, and all kinds of occult stuff, as he was partially raised in Louisiana, America’s capital of pagan weirdness.  It’s up to Conquer to solve the cases and save the day.

 

Author Erdelac has done a nice job writing a horror period piece: his portrayal of the late 1970s feels quite authentic, both in terms of setting (ox-blood leather coats, linoleum, lava lamps, etc.) and dialogue.  The dialogue feels very accurate with its terminology and phrasing, and does a good job transporting the reader back to another time in American history.  After Conquer is brought onto each case, the author shifts gears and shows a strong flair for creativity.  Readers might assume that voodoo automatically means zombies, but only one story actually has the undead.  Instead, Erdelac does a nice job cross-pollinating various African and Asian mythologies into the story.  Examples include a Slip-Skin Hag (or ‘boo hag’), a Popobawa (a bat-wing creature) and a monster based on Dahomeyan beliefs that defies easy categorization.  He did an excellent job researching these creatures for the book, but there are times when a little more explanation would have helped.  Unless you’ve read Wade Davis’s The Serpent and the Rainbow, terms like bokor, vodoun, veve, and Papa Legba are likely to sail over the heads of most readers, sending them scrambling for Wikipedia.

 

The stories are fast with no wasted time. Conquer dives right into the action, destroying villains with often-creative methods, such as cigarettes laced with sage for exorcising demons, and a pocket-coating powder that renders pickpockets immobile and subject to Conquer’s commands.  Part of the character’s appeal is that he doesn’t just blast away with his Colt Python, but often relies on his own magic methods to beat the baddies at their own game.  Special mention must be made of a fantastic secondary character, in the form of the ghost of a dead pimp that haunts Conquer’s car, and speaks to him through the radio.   This also allows Conquer to control the car through voice command, when the ghost agrees.  It’s like a bizarre 1970s version of the television show Knight Rider, and the back and forth squabbling provides unexpected and welcome hilarity.

 

Overall, Conquer is a welcome horror novel throwback to another era.  Let’s hope for more from Conquer and company in the future.  Recommended.

 

 

Contains:  violence, profanity

 

Reviewed by Murray Samuelson

Posted on February 16, 2021 by , Reply
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