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Book Review: As The Night Devours Us by Villimey Mist

 

As the Night Devours Us by Villimey Mist

St. Rooster Books, 2022

ISBN:  9798834327097

Available: Paperback, Kindle edition ( Bookshop.org |   Amazon.com )

 

Villimey Mist, an Icelandic writer with wide-ranging interests, presents creative, gory, horror-filled stories in As the Night Devours Us. These are short stories that pack a plot punch against a backdrop of contemporary life that is sometimes mixed with folklore and mythology. In addition to Icelandic monsters including an evil whale, a monstrous cat, and a Loch Ness type creature, there is a story that includes a Greek goddess and one that features a Native American skin-walker.

 

The book’s characters are usually rather one-dimensional in a way that allows Mist to focus on the horrors of the events, themes and situations she culls from real life, such as a volcanic eruption, crimes, serial killers, cults, bullying, and even the author’s personal fears. They are accompanied by practical, albeit dramatic, life lessons, that won’t soon be forgotten.

 

The variety in this collection is one of its strengths. A wife is forced to prove her culinary skills by preparing meals with parts of her husband’s dead body; life-like mannequins turn out to be dead bodies; rape victims are offered a chance to take their revenge in an unusual way.  There are zombies, vindictive powers of Nature, and imps that eat people’s fingernails. Scary plot twists, unreliable narrators, and vivid descriptions spark fear through strong emotions, weird revelations and unexpected thought processes as the characters are faced with tough choices and plenty of self-sacrifice.

 

Some of the stories are accessible to young adult readers, but there are also some themes that are more appropriate for mature readers. The author’s comments on each story are provided at the end of the book. Whether the action includes torture, human sacrifice or just mean girls run amok, these tales will surprise, shock and horrify you.

 

Reviewed by Nova Hadley

Posted on November 26, 2022 by , Reply

Book Review: Interface by Scott Britz-Cunningham

cover art for Interface by Scott Britz-Cunningham

 

Interface by Scott Britz-Cunningham

Keylight Books, Nov 1, 2022

ISBN: 9781684428816

Available: Hardcover, paperback, Kindle edition

(  Bookshop.org  |  Amazon.com )

 

Interface is a good old-fashioned thriller with a sci-fi bent to it.  If your idea of horror is what people have become due to cell phones and information/social media overload,, this is perfect for you.  Author Cunningham has put together a rollicking, fun ride in the possible future, with some pretty profound insights about the dumbing down of society thanks to the Internet, mixed in.  This is good stuff, and it’ll make you think.

 

 

It is the near future, and everyone over the age of 14, by law, is connected to the Interface.  Imagine everything your cell phone can do hard-wired into your brain through a tiny implant.  You can do anything online through the power of thought.  Instant news feeds, file shares, non-verbal communication: all without pressing a button.  Trouble strikes when isolated cases of individuals going mad and killing people start., Detective Yara Avril suspects that the Interface implants may be the cause.  The rest of the book is a madcap run as Yara, and sleazy yet intrepid reporter Jericho Jones, pursue the truth and try to prevent further deaths, while every power of what’s left of the government opposes them.  

 

 

There’s really nothing to find fault with in the book.  The pacing is fast, and the characters do an excellent job representing their factions, while blurring the lines between good and evil.  Egon Graf is the head guy for the government, which needs the Interface to stay in power.  Opposed to him is his brother Taiki, who is bent on taking down the Interface, which he created years before.  The story does a nice job playing on the axiom “the ends justify the means”, when it comes to how much murder can be justified to prevent the future idiocy of humanity.  The author’s vision of the  future is scary: it’s a future ruled through human emotion, not logic. Why have politicians debate and vote when the public can just vote online, regardless of whether they understand anything?  No need for criminal trials, just throw up a quick infomercial online detailing the case, and let the people decide their fate.  It’s a scary thought, and maybe not that different from where we are today..  

 

 

It’s worth noting that for a thriller, there is some pretty deep thought in the dialogue sections.  The insights into social media and being “connected” are well thought out, the kind of material you can ponder on your own long after you finish the book.  I wound up bookmarking five or six different pages along the way to go back to and re-read, it’s that well done.  People will enjoy this book for the ride, but it’ll linger with them long after the ride’s over.  

 

Bottom line: don’t miss this one.  Recommended

 

Reviewed by Murray Samuelson

Posted on November 9, 2022 by , Reply

Book Review: Jawbone by Monica Ojeda translated by Sarah Booker

cover art for Jawbone by Monica Ojeda

Jawbone by Monica Ojeda., translated by Sarah Booker

Coffee House Press, 2022

ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1566896214

Available: Paperback, Kindle edition

( Bookshop.org  | Amazon.com )

 

Fernanda wakes up, disoriented, to discover she has been kidnapped by Miss Clara, her literature teacher. Figuring out how she got there is the first step in navigating a twisty narrative.

 

Fernanda, her close friend Anne, and their friends had found an abandoned, isolated house where they told horror stories, participated in violent dares, and worshipped the White God (as friend groups of teenage girls do). Fernanda and Anne pushed their limits further than the other girls, but Fernanda finally reaches hers.

 

Anne is forced to take extra lessons from Miss Clara after the teachers discover an irreligious drawing of an insect god in drag. Miss Clara has closely modeled herself on her mother and has anxiety and frequent panic attacks that result in repetitive and neurotic behaviors and self-harm, making her a perfect target for Anne, who is angry with Fernanda for drawing boundaries. Anne uses her conversations and assignments with Miss Clara to manipulate Miss Clara’s anxieties and turn her focus on Fernanda as a villain victimizing Anne…

 

The writing varies in style. Parts of the book record Fernanda’s therapy sessions; conversations between Anne and Clara;  and a long essay on “white horror” by Anne for Clara. Others get into the mental state of Clara or Fernanda which are quite disorienting, vivid, and sometimes gut-punching, with insect and body horror. The descriptions of physical responses to anxiety and panic attacks are hard to read. It gets harder and harder to trust any perception of events.

 

There is so much left to the imagination that it creates a real sense of unease. The violence keeps escalating but a lot of it happens off the page. This is generally effective but left me confused with the ending. There is so much left to the imagination that it creates a real sense of unease.

 

This is far from being a straighforward narrative, Readers who enjoy experimental narratives and unreliable narrators will find much to recommend it, though. ,.

 

 

Reviewed by Kirsten Kowalewski

 

Editor’s note: Jawbone was a finalist for the 2022 National Book Award in Translated Literature. 

Posted on November 9, 2022 by , Reply
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