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Book Review: Synchronicity by Michaelbrent Collings

cover art for Synchronicity by Michaelbrent Collings

Synchronicity by Michaelbrent Collings

Written Insomnia Press, 2021

ISBN: 38744369R00197

Availability: paperback, Kindle edition ( Amazon.com )

 

Synchronicity, the newest thriller from Michaelbrent Collings, succeeds in most areas, while missing in a few.  His trademark skill of writing action sequences and maintaining a fast pace is on full display, but the story does skimp a little on fleshing out the plot for the reader.  It’s a decent read, just not quite to the level of excellence of his most recent novels.

 

“Book” Malcolm is a small-time pickpocket and thief who drifts through life, taking what he can.  One day, unknown people try to kill him on a subway platform.  With their light-speed method of fighting, abnormal healing powers, and the ability to shift consciousness from one body to another, they resemble the characters in The Matrix.  Then, Book is on the run, pursued by some and aided by others, as he struggles to answer the question: “why me?”  Later, Book becomes aware of his own powers, and tries to stop the villains from using the consciousness-shifting device to achieve world domination.

 

Collings has always been good at making a story move quickly and providing plenty of action along the way, and Synchronicity continues the trend.  As always, it starts off fast; the destruction on the subway platform happens in the first few pages, and the pace never lets up until the end of the story.  The numerous action sequences (and there are a LOT) are well detailed and thought out, and show the author’s usual flair for bone-crushing intensity, as well as violent gunfights.  In terms of a straight thrill ride of a story, Synchronicity hits the target dead-on.

 

However, it takes more than just breakneck speed to engross some readers start to finish, and that’s where Synchronicity falls a bit short.  It’s almost too fast, and doesn’t allow the plot enough time to breathe, in terms of explanation.  It’s written so the reader never knows more than Book himself throughout the story, and that’s good for character development, but frustrating for the reader.  There is little backstory or dialogue between other characters to give readers some explanation prior to the big reveal at the end.  This makes it harder to get interested in the characters, since you don’t know much about why they are acting like they are.  It’s a shame, because the reason behind the consciousness-jumping technology is quite clever, but it doesn’t get much page time.  More breaks from the hyper-speed of the narrative to detail the plot would have gone a long way.  It’s a good action book, just a little more one-dimensional than Collings’s usual writing.

 

Synchronicity will probably keep his legions of fans entertained, but first-timers might want to start with Scavenger Hunt or the Stranger series instead, to get a better perspective on his writing.

 

Reviewed by Murray Samuelson

Posted on September 20, 2021 by , Reply

Book Review: Burning Girls and Other Stories by Veronica Schanoes with a foreword by Jane Yolen

cover art for Burning Girls and Other Stories by Veronica Schanoes

Burning Girls and Other Stories by Veronica Schanoes with a foreword by Jane Yolen

Tor.com, 2021

ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1250781505

Available: Hardcover, paperback, Kindle edition, audiobook ( Bookshop.org  |  Amazon.com )

 

 

In Burning Girls and Other Stories, Veronica Schanoes brings the present day into a literary and folkloric past that brings fairytales, history, and Jewish tradition together to form something new and unique.  I don’t think I have ever  encountered new tales that blend Jewish tradition, history and religion in a way that feels familiar to me as a Jew, and the stories in the book that use this technique are, I think, the strongest ones in the book.

 

I had read the titular novella, Burning Girls, when it was originally published, and was wowed by it at the time (I was not the only one, it was nominated for a Nebula and World Fantasy Award and won the Shirley Jackson Award for best novella). In this story, a young woman who has been trained by her grandmother in herb lore, Jewish women’s rituals, and witchcraft, immigrates to the United States. Her sister has signed a contract with a lilit, a demon that steals children, and must discover the lilit’s name to break the contract. In addition to the religious lore, Schanoes interweaves the sewing factories’ unsafe conditions in the early 20th century, the growth of socialism, and the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire. The transformation of a Grimm’s fairytale into a story of Russian Jews’ immigration to and intergration in America created a stunning, tragic, and relevant story.

 

In Among the Thorns, Schanoes responds to an antisemitic story that appears in Grimm’s Fairy Tales, “The Jew Among Thorns”, in which a youth is rewarded by a dwarf with a fiddle that enchants anyone who hears it into dancing, a fowling piece that never misses, and the ability to have any request granted. He meets a Jew in the road and forces him to dance in nearby thornbushes and hand over his money. When the Jew lodges a complaint in the nearest village, and the youth is sentenced to hang, he plays the fiddle again, enchanting the town into dancing and using his power to have the Jew hanged instead.  Schanoes’ story is told from the point of view of the daughter of the victim, who agrees to a bargain with the Matronit, or Shekina, the goddess of Israel who appears in the Jewish Kabbalah, so she can take revenge on the fiddler and the town. What’s most chilling in this story is the context in which it’s set. While much of the story may seem just a tale, the first page mentions names and dates: the actual incidents may be fictional, but the antisemitism and antisemitic violence were not.

 

Emma Goldman Takes Tea with Baba Yaga is a wonderful metanarrative in which Schanoes plays with the conventions of fairytales and narrative nonfiction. Emma Goldman was a Jewish immigrant from Russia in the early 20th century who was a notorious anti-capitalist anarchist and was deported back to Russia after many years of activism in the United States, only to become disillusioned with the Russian Revolution. Schanoes begins by attempting to write Emma’s story in a fairytale format, but Goldman is a real and vivid figure in American history, and the details of her life are too important for that. Schanoes imagines Goldman, tired and disillusioned, meeting another controversial and legendary figure, Baba Yaga, and what that meeting would be like.  As a fan of both, I really enjoyed this.  Schanoes also takes this opportunity to speak directly to her readers about the impact of Marxism and revolution on the present day and her own beliefs, an interesting choice.

 

Phosphorous does not touch on Jewish religion or tradition, but is also a strong story. It describes the events and environment of  the London matchgirl strike of 1888, both from a third-person narrator’s point of view and from the point of view of Lucy, one of the striking workers who is fatally ill, deteriorating quickly due to her close contact with the white phosphorous the matches are made with. Her grandmother comes up with a terrible plan to keep Lucy alive long enough for her to see the end of the strike. Schanoes grounds this story in historical fact by including real people such as Annie Besant as characters, and suggesting that physical artifacts exist as evidence of the story.

 

Schanoes’ ability to seamlessly draw real events and people together with folklore and fairytale, even while breaking the fourth wall,  is impressive.  Other stories I haven’t described in detail seem hallucinatory, playing with language and imagery while also using literary or folkloric elements, such as Alice: A Fantasia and Serpents. Jane Yolen’s praise in the introduction that these stories have a “lyric beauty” that “bleeds onto the pages” is well-deserved.

 

Highly recommended.

 

Reviewed by Kirsten Kowalewski

Posted on September 17, 2021 by , Reply

Graphic Novel Review: American Cult: A Graphic History of Religious Cults in America from the Colonial Era to Today edited by Robyn Chapman

American Cult edited by Robyn Chapman

Silver Sprocket, 2021

ISBN-13: 978-194550963

Available: Paperback (  Bookshop.org | Amazon.com )

 

American Cult is a graphic history of American religious cults dating from colonial America to the present. According to editor Robyn Chapman, the eighteen pieces in American Cult turn a critical eye to the cults and their behavior, but recognize the very human faces that entered into these dangerous groups.

 

The book opens with “The Monk in the Cave” by Steve Teare, relating the history of mystic Johannes Kelpius, also called the “Wissahickon Wizard”, who led the Society of the Woman in the Wilderness in Philadelphia in the 1690s. “Inside Oneida” by Emi Gennis addresses the eugenics experiment that the founder, John Humphreys Noyes, demanded of his followers and the incestuous relationship Gennis carried on with his niece, Tirzah, and how it affected her in her own life. In “Fruitlands: The Little Cult that Couldn’t”, Ellen Lindner relates the Alcott family experience and a failed experiment had a profound effect on Louisa May Alcott’s adult life. “Children of God!” by Rosa Colón Guerra presents the case of sexual abuse ran rampant in this cult at the behest of the leader, David Berg; Ricky “Davidito” Rodriguez, a child of the cult leader and also a victim of abuse, later as an adult found one of his abusers as an adult, killed her, and then killed himself. The cult still exists as a Christian church.

 

“Death Valley ’69” by Janet Harvey and Jim Rugg discuss the Manson Family. There wasn’t anything really new came out of this, but what volume wouldn’t be complete without mentioning one of the most famous American cults? In “Source Family Values”, Andrew Greenston discusses the Source Restaurant and how easy it was for them to garner followers. “Mindbending: A Story about the Process Church of the Final Judgment” by Lara Antal shows further subtle ways a cult can lure in someone. “Cults Reoriented” by Josh Kramer and Mike Dawson discuss Sufism Reoriented (SR), a cult comprised of white, wealthy Baby Boomers located in Walnut Creek, CA, and its connection with The Cheesecake Factory. In “Walk a Mile in My Shoes: A Jonestown History” by Ryan Carey and Mike Freiheit outlines Jones’ time leading up to the establishment of Jonestown, subsequent travel to Guyana, the physical and psychological torture he put followers through, and the mass suicide or murder that ultimately resulted; the narrative is told through a faceless member of Jones’ congregation, and the last two pages make some profound statements. “Playing the Game” by Lisa Rosalie Eisenberg discusses Synanon, tracing the history through Synanon III, or the Church of Synanon, all the way to the cult’s demise. The author ties the “troubled teen bootcamps” to Synanon.

 

“MOVE” by Ben Passmore presents the rise and fall of MOVE founder John Africa. The police aren’t shown in a good light here, either, considering after the death of a police officer they arrested nine members of the group after a standoff and the courts convicted them, even though no evidence supported the decision. Police also used C-4 to burn a building MOVE members were hiding in, and killed all but two.

 

“That’s Not What We’re Called” by Jesse Lambert focuses on Sullivanians and modern day effect on offspring of the adults involved in the sex cult. “The Last Days of Mount Carmel” by Vreni Stollberger, told in second-person, regards the Branch Davidians and the ATF/FBI raid that ended in tragedy. “Making Sense of Heaven’s Gate” by Robyn Chapman includes something particularly touching in the 2-page visual obituary of the victims of the mass suicide. Instead of just leaving them as the faceless covered bodies wearing jumpsuits and sneakers, we see the smiling faces of those who died believing they were being taken to the heavens.

 

“God Hates Me: A True Tale of the Westboro Baptist Church” by J.T. Yost, is told by the child of a parent who was converted by the WBC, and is particularly difficult to read. “Keep Sweet: On Warren Jeff and His Mormon Fundamentalist Splinter Group” by Robert Sergel presents the disturbing history of the FLDS. “Orthodox Judaism is a Cult” by Lonnie Mann provides a firsthand account of growing up as an Orthodox Jew in New York. He discusses his falling out with his religious parents, and how his life changed for the better after accepting himself. “Call Me Vanguard” by Brian “Box” Brown presents disturbing practices and initiation of NXIVM members.

 

Chapman outlines very well-defined criteria used to determine if a group is a cult. Regarding the content, Chapman states, “When it comes to creating this sort of nonfiction, I feel you should approach these stories with 50% empathy and 50% justice”. She and the other contributors to American Cult create this balance well. There is a particularly eye-opening sentiment that brainwashing doesn’t just effect the gullible. The chapter on Westboro Baptist Church by J.T. Yost illustrates this frighteningly well. I would recommend this for readers who want a deeper look into these cults. Recommended.

 

Reviewed by Lizzy Walker

 

 

 

Posted on September 10, 2021 by , Reply
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