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Book Review: Voices of the Damned by Barbie Wilde

Voices of the Damned by Barbie Wilde
Short,Scary Tales Publications, 2015
ISBN-13: 978-1909640351
Available: Hardcover (new and used), Kindle edition
Inside these covers are eleven slices of hell from the mind of a new visionary of horror. Barbie Wilde appears to have vacationed in Dante’s creation and taken terror a couple of steps further.

Voices of the Damned, Wilde’s first collection of short stories, picks up where The Venus Complex, the author’s excellent debut crime novel, left off.   First off, this is a gorgeous book. The cover art, by none other than Clive Barker, sets the tone for a book written by a Cenobite herself.  Introducing each story is an exquisitely disturbing full-size image by artists including Barker, Nick Percival, Steve McGinnis, Danele Serra, Eric Gross, Tara Bush, Vincent Sammy, and Ben Baldwin.

The collection kicks off with “Sister Cilice,” the tale of how a nun falls from grace, first seen in Hellbound Hearts, the tribute anthology based on Barker’s “Hellraiser” world. Wilde continues the story with “The Cicilium Pandoric” and “The Cicilium Rebellion”, creating a full trilogy that explores the existence of the Cenobite she portrayed in Hellraiser II. Other highlights in this collection include “Zulu Zombies” and “American Mutant”. These epitomize Wilde’s style and vision.

A Barbie Wilde story can be filled with as much eroticism as it is with horror, and this collection shows her skill at interweaving them. Her writing exhibits unbridled brutality and fresh honesty in characterizations, never shying away from the grotesque or weird.  Inhibitions are nowhere to be found here, which is a very good thing. This writer becomes darker and bolder by the story. One can only wonder where her imagination will head next. It will likely be a nightmare many will embrace for years to come. Highly recommended.

Reviewed by Dave Simms
Posted on November 30, 2015 by , Reply

Books I’m Thankful For

I had an article come my way yesterday in which authors answered the question “What book are you most thankful for this year?”

It’ s a different question, I think, than “What is your favorite book?” or even “What is the best book you’ve read this year?” And it made me think.

Each author in that article had to choose one book, but I write this blog, so I get to write about however many I want. Which is good, because I read a large and varied collection of books, old and new, from a variety of genres. To skip to just the list, scroll down to the bottom.
I am thankful for books I can read aloud, to my kids, and any nearby adults. My kids are 8 and 10 now, and the 10 year old is suddenly too cool to listen to Mom read aloud. This year, I turned 42, and I decided it was time to reread The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. It was the first time I was able to get him to sit down with me and his sister and listen to me read in MONTHS. I was also lucky enough to have a science-fiction loving friend who could recite large parts of the book from memory drop by every week to hear me read. It also allowed us to reach out to family– my aunt invited us over to watch the movie one night this summer, and that was a pretty neat experience. I don’t get to share enthusiasm over genre fiction with most of my family, and it was nice to have that opportunity.

I am thankful for books that come from people who really listen to me, both friends and family. My mom typically gets me books she thinks I ought to read, but she was listening to me when I was in a science museum in Louisville this past winter, and surprised me with Rosalind Franklin: The Dark Lady of DNA. I also apparently raved about Rainbow Rowell more than I thought I had: one day a copy of her (then) newest book, Landline, showed up in my mailbox, courtesy of my best friend.

I am thankful for the books that give me an escape, and also give me food for thought. This year, with the death of Sir Terry Pratchett, I started working my way through the Discworld books. Some are okay, some are good, and some are amazing: the best of them are both funny and serious. Going Postal is the one that stands out most to me at this point, although I haven’t read them all yet. I am also a huge fan of the character Tiffany Aching, and I am grateful as well that Pratchett’s last finished book, The Shepherd’s Crown, was a final Tiffany Aching novel, released this year.

I am thankful for books that strike a chord. Who knew that Isle of the Lost by Melissa de la Cruz would completely change my daughter’s perspective on princesses? And just a few weeks ago, I read Sahara Special by Esme Raji Codell with my daughter, and was struck by what a dead ringer she is for Sahara in so many ways. It has led to an entirely different way of seeking out books

I am thankful for the books that make me push my boundaries, and the people who make me want to try. I would never pick up a book like FUKUSHUU: Damaged Woman of Violence on my own, but Colleen Wanglund inspired me to try it. I’m glad that I had the opportunity to read Paul Tremblay’s A Head Full of Ghosts before it was released so I could recommend it to pretty much everyone in the world.

I am thankful for the books I find in libraries. The new books shelf in my library is where I found the memorable and terrifying novel The Book of Phoenix by Nnedi Okorofor and the creepily gothic Bellman & Black by Diane Setterfield. I also tried, and loved, the work of Seanan McGuire, especially Sparrow Hill Road. A wander through tThehe children’s books led me to discover The Cavendish Home for Boys and Girls by Claire Legrand. Just in case you thought children’s books were all light and cheery, I’m here to tell you that they are far from it, and this is one of the most disorienting and disturbing books I have read this year.

Oh, I could go on and on about the books I’ve had travel through my hands this year, that have been given to me, or shared, or recommended, or sent. I’m so grateful that I have the opportunity to have them come my way, and to share them with you. It’s a privilege to be able to read, to own and have access to books, and to be able to pass that love of reading on, and I thank you all for being a part of it. Here’s to another year of great books!

 

Books I’m Thankful For, 2015 Edition

 The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams

Rosalind Franklin: The Dark Lady of DNA by Brenda Maddox

Landline by Rainbow Rowell

Going Postal by Terry Pratchett

The Shepherd’s Crown by Terry Pratchett

Isle of the Lost by Melissa de la Cruz

Sahara Special by Esme Raji Codell

FUKUSHUU: Damaged Woman of Violence by Colleen Wanglund

A Head Full of Ghosts by Paul Tremblay

The Book of Phoenix by Nnedi Okorofor

Sparrow Hill Road by Seanan McGuire

The Cavendish Home for Boys and Girls by Claire Legrand

 

Posted on November 28, 2015 by , Reply

Banned Books Week: Children’s Books and the End of Innocence

 

Something I see a lot in arguments about whether kids should have access to a particular book is that, as parents and guardians of children, we want to protect their innocence. If you live in a middle class family that was relatively intact, in an area where everyone seemed to be pretty much like you, controlling your kids’ reading might help to preserve that innocence for a while, but if you take a closer look at the individual families there, what you see is that under the surface, children have already faced, or learned about, some pretty terrible things. Even at school, they’ve faced lockdown drills, practice for what to do if the school is invaded by a shooter. The terrible things we live among are so commonplace, and many of us are so numb to them, that it may be difficult for adults to realize how affected some of our kids really are.

I was in the library with my daughter, who is a huge fan of the 43 Old Cemetery Road books and was looking for something similar. The librarian kept making suggestions and asking questions: is this one too dark? Are you looking for something scary, or something funny, or both? I can’t remember what it was the librarian pulled off the shelf that I looked at and said “I think that one might be too dark and scary for her”. My daughter put her hands on her hips, looked at me with exasperation, and said “Mom, my dad died. Nothing is sadder or scarier than that”.  Okay, then. Keeping kids away from the media doesn’t preserve their innocence. Fiction is a safer place than fact. And let me tell you, there is a lot of scary stuff, and a lot of death, in children’s fiction. Even Little Women spends a lot of time on death.

Children’s writing has gotten a lot edgier today, so I can see where some of the discomfort comes from, but we are living in an uncomfortable world. It is a scary place. We can respect that our kids are dealing with a lot of the same things that make the world a scary place for us, and help them choose the reading material they want, or maybe even need, in hopes that even scary books will give them a space in their lives for hope.

If a kid doesn’t think he’s ready to read a scary book, there’s time yet. And certainly there are choices that need to be made about what’s developmentally appropriate: for instance, most Holocaust fiction is not recommended for elementary students (the one exception I can think of is The Devil’s Arithmetic) but if you take your kids to The Sound of Music, you are going to have to come up with a reasonable explanation of who the Nazis were. But that means having dialogue with your child about that, not making choices for him or others to protect his innocence. For a lot of kids, that innocence just isn’t there anymore. Taking books out of their hands can’t save that. Talking to kids about them can help a lot.

For a partial list of banned children’s books, from picture books through Young Adult, go here.

Posted on October 2, 2015 by , Reply
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