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Book Review: Clear by Ray Leigh

Clear by Ray Leigh

Bad Press Ink, 2020

ISBN: 978-1-9168845-1-3

Available: Kindle

 

Twenty years ago, writer and then youth worker Ray Leigh saw firsthand the brutal lives of addicts, dealers, prostitutes, and thieves, as well as police and “government men” gone bad, and wrote Clear to capture the dark side of 1990s London. Leigh writes in a style he calls “distilled prose” which seems like a hybrid of a long narrative poem and a screenplay. The text is arranged to cross the length of the page rather than the width, and transitions in the action, dialogue and descriptions are marked by small, black daggers.

 

In a patchwork of quick scenes and character sketches, Clear captures the conflict, violence, dread, and horror in a part of the city that some people only glimpse on the news and that other people actually experience as a nightmare they are trying to get “clear” of but never will. Leigh includes the expected crime and poverty, but he also makes the fragments of story poignantly relatable by incorporating the ordinary parts of the characters’ day, things like what and where they eat or their interaction  with their children. This is a dysfunctional community with its own definitions of life, relationships, and values.

 

Leigh suggests that this work is, in part, a “love story.” That makes sense because there is so much attention paid to the heartbreak, sadness, and disappointment of these people that it is easy to conclude that Leigh knew and cared about them. Clear is so terrifying because there is a certain normalcy to this nightmarish flip-side to typical city living. To fully realize that both the typical and nightmare lives go on simultaneously, each a sort of parallel universe, is chilling and should only be the stuff of science fiction. Recommended.

 

Contains: violence, sex, crude language, adult subject matter

 

Reviewed by Nova Hadley

Posted on June 5, 2020 by , Reply

Musings: Making Sense of Horror

One nice thing about reading is that a story has a beginning, a middle, and an end (except for a few left unfinished when the author died, like The Mystery of Edwin Drood). If the story is messy on the page, I can skip it, I can choose another. Outside the conventions of storytelling or the covers of a book, I have to live in an increasingly messy world that does not make a lot of sense (as do we all), and is frankly quite terrifying. I grew up in a nice little bubble where the ugliness of the world really didn’t infringe on my daily life and even now, despite many challenges, and with a lot more knowledge of the world, it doesn’t touch me the way it does for many, many others.

The past few years, and especially the time since the pandemic became a prominent part of our lives, have revealed a lot of that ugliness, but many of us thought surely there was a way forward for change. One story would end, we would get to start another with a new political season where we could change the system without tearing it apart. A vaccine for the coronavirus would be found, our lives could go back to the way they were. Not a happily ever after, but a story does end, even if another one begins right away.

There is a cloud of horror around the events taking place in Minneapolis and surrounding areas, and in other cities (including two in my own state) where peaceful protesters have been attacked with tear gas and rubber bullets. In a city near me, a medic center had its supplies taken by the police (including milk, used to treat tear gas) just before they sprayed tear gas on protesters. The rage and disorder have been building for a long time and the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis was the spark. I can’t make it coherent and I can’t see ahead.

Who are the monsters who come next in our fiction? Originally, Godzilla was a response to dropping the atomic bomb, zombies and vampires have come to mean different things as time has changed. Even as people are already writing pandemic fiction, there are still inequities the pandemic exposes, and the wounds it opens and salts provide a lot of fresh material. What horror awaits us in fiction that isn’t already here?

 

A note: Be kind to one another and give each other grace. We all need it, especially now.

Posted on May 30, 2020 by , Reply

Graphic Novel Review: Frankenstein: Junji Ito Story Collection by Junji Ito

Frankenstein: Junji Ito Story Collection by Junji Ito

Viz Media, 2018

ISBN-13: 9781974703760

Available: Hardcover, Kindle, comiXology

Junji Ito, the master of horror manga, adapts Mary Shelley’s classic, Frankenstein in this graphic collection. Victor Frankenstein is obsessed with creating life from death. He stops at nothing to create his giant, only to be repulsed by his design. Abandoned and angry, the creature takes his revenge on those Victor loves.

I read a few reviews that were critical of Ito’s adaptation, indicating that they felt that adapting Shelley’s novel restricted his horrific artwork and storytelling. I would have to disagree, particularly regarding the art. While it is true Ito is skilled at the grotesque, his ability to draw beautiful characters seems to go unnoticed. For instance, is titular character in Tomie is gorgeous, which I think makes the horrific scenes in the manga so effective. The same can be said of his art for Frankenstein. The Creature, and moreover the companion Victor creates for him, are horrific. The character designs are signature Ito. Ito takes some liberties with the story, but not enough that it takes away too much from Shelley’s original novel. Purists may be disappointed, however.

Included in this collection are six short stories that center on a high school student named Oshikiri who lives alone in a strange mansion while his parents are away. In “Neck Specter”, he murders his best friend Kojima over petty jealousies and buries him on his family’s land, only to discover that when he unearths him that his neck has grown longer. Soon he is seeing everyone around him growing long, winding necks and accusing him of his crime. “Bog of Living Spirits” tells the tale of a small body of water near Oshikiri’s high school where it is rumored the ghost of a jealous girl drowns handsome boys that wander into the area. In this story, Kojima is alive and followed relentlessly by the high school girls who adore him. When he volunteers to help the other students tidy up the land around the bog, the girls are distraught and beg him not to go. Were they right, especially when they witness him falling in and not resurfacing? Oshikiri becomes friends with a seemingly lonely girl in “Pen Pals”. The young girl begins receiving insults and death threats in letters after she tells them of her new friendship. Oshikiri finds out the disturbing truth when he visits her at home. In “Intruders”, Oshikiri befriends some classmates who are interested in alternate dimensions, and who want to explore his mansion after he describes the strange footsteps he hears. There, they discover their own graves, complete with rotting corpses.

“Hell of the Doll Funeral” is the shortest story in the book, but one of the most gruesome. Children are starting to turn into dolls, and parents burn them before the affliction completes its cycle. One mother refuses to do so, and the result is terrifying.

The last two stories in the book gives the reader an uncommonly light-hearted look into the Ito family, specifically the family dog. The Matlese named Non-Non was clearly the ruler of the family.

While this volume is a departure from works such as the aforementioned Tomie, Uzumaki, and Gyo, it is still very enjoyable. Ito’s art style is unique and highly detailed. I would recommend this title for those who like graphic adaptation of classic horror, body horror, horror manga, and interesting stories.

Contains: blood, body horror, gore, nudity

Highly recommended

Reviewed by Lizzy Walker

Posted on May 27, 2020 by , Reply
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