Home » Posts tagged "addiction"

Book Review: Shiny Happy People by Clay McLeod Chapman

 

Shiny Happy People by Clay McLeod Chapman

Delacorte Press, 2025

ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0593904084

Available: Hardcover, ebook edition, audiobook

Buy:  Bookshop.org

 

 

I find Clay McLeod Chapman’s work uniquely disturbing. While Shiny Happy People, his foray into YA horror, isn’t as gruesome as some of his previous projects it is a natural fit with his other work, especially Wake Up and Open Your Eyes. 

 

Kyra was abandoned by her addict mother at a young age and is now the adopted daughter of a loving family. Her father works long hours at a large pharmaceutical company, BoTanic, which employs most of the town. She has terrible anxiety and panic attacks, and a supportive “black sheep” best friend, Halley.

 

Kyra’s need for control and family history of addiction mean she’s completely straight-edge even in the face of peer pressure, so when a new party drug starts making the rounds at school, she’s one of the few who hasn’t taken it and can observe the effects it is having on the people around her. Kids who have taken the drug go into violent convulsions, followed by becoming artificially happy and calm, causing an uncanny valley effect that Kyra feels but can’t explain to the adults around her, who are also acting very strange. With the people around her all gaslighting her, Kyra starts doubting her grip on reality. The only person who seems to be on her wavelength is new boy Logan, who is clearly hiding something.

 

Flashbacks to Kyra’s abandonment in a dark room infested with bugs, mold and fungus are truly claustrophobic and creepy, On a personal level, as someone who lives with epilepsy, the descriptions of violent convulsions created a visceral response. Kyra’s description of her anxiety as “ivy threaded through my ribcage” is vivid, and when it gets entangled with already-creepy fungal horror, becomes terrifying, with its network spreading wider and wider. This horror is not limited to one school or even one town.

 

There is so much going on in this book: it comments on addiction, Big Pharma, hive mentality, peer pressure, corruption, mental health, and more, but messaging doesn’t take over the story. Chapman follows Kyra’s narrative thread all the way through at a fast pace. It’s an uncomfortable, disorienting ride, and one that’s well worth taking.

 

Highly recommended.

 

Reviewed by Kirsten Kowalewski

Posted on March 12, 2026 by , Reply

Book Review: Sacrilege by Barbara Avon

Sacrilege by Barbara Avon

Self published, 2020

ISBN: 9798690309411

Available: Paperback, Kindle edition

Buy:    Bookshop.org | Amazon.com

Sacrilege is a depressing psychological drama that takes you down, down, and further down.  There are no monsters or boogeymen in this one, just the mental demons that inhabit the characters.  It’s a pretty good read for those who prefer human interest/interaction stories.

 

Almost the entire story focuses on the two leads: wayward priest Cris Corelli, and Jules, the lady who owns the boarding house he stumbles into.  The author sets the tone right out of the gate: mentally, these two are trainwrecks, for various reasons.  As the story progresses, the death of someone close to both of them pushes Cris and Jules further down into depression.  They start drinking and drugging to numb the pain, only finding minimal comfort in each other.  However, it’s the best either of them can hope for, unless they somehow are able to use each other to pull out of their respective tailspins.

 

The stark manner in which the dialogue between Corelli and Jules is written is an unusual choice.  Often, books like this rely on fairly long and in-depth conversations, as a way to explain how the characters became, and where they are heading.  The author goes against the grain here, as most talks are fairly quick and clipped, not really revealing a lot about the characters.  Then again, maybe they don’t need to, the characters’ actions may speak louder than any lengthy dialogue in this case.  It’s an interesting choice for this type of book, and works reasonably well for the narrative, giving it a unique flavor.

 

I felt the “big reveal” at the end of the story was anticlimactic. You could tell it was supposed to be fairly important, due to Corelli’s actions after he discovered it, but it just didn’t seem like anything that should alter the story’s trajectory, or what the characters do for the rest of the book.

 

The bottom line is…this will appeal to a certain segment of readers.  If you enjoy depressing psychological dramas, this might work for you.  If your idea of horror is fast-paced, with monsters and supernatural craziness, then this probably isn’t your cup of black ichor.

 

 

Reviewed by Murray Samuelson

 

 

Posted on February 3, 2025 by , Reply

Book Review: Deep in Providence by Riss M. Neilson

cover art for Deep in Providence by Riss L. Neilson

Deep in Providence by Riss m. Neilson.

Henry Holt and Company Books for Young Readers

ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1250788528

Available: Hardcover, paperback, Kindle edition, audiobook

Buy:  Bookshop.org  |  Amazon.com

 

 

Taking place in Providence, Rhode Island, Deep in Providence introduces Miliani, Natalie, and Inez, whose friend Jasmine was recently killed suddenly in a car accident, Miliani is determined to bring her back. Inez and Natalie are skittish about it, but it seems so important to Miliani they agree and swear a blood pact. The story is told from the alternating points of view of the three girls.

 

Miliani’s family is Filipino. She has witchcraft in her blood but did not learn how to use it before her grandfather died, and her mother has forbidden it, and visits to her “dangerous” aunt, Lindy. Despite this, Miliani visits Lindy, who says it may be possible to anchor Jasmine’s spirit to another person if Miliani and her friends will do enough spells to thin the boundaries between worlds. Knowing her friends would not consent to anchoring Jasmine to another person, when she tells them, she omits that from her explanation.

 

Natalie is a half-Black, half-white biracial girl with a younger brother, Devin and an emancipated older half-sister. Her mother is a heroin addict and disappears for long periods of time. Her sister contributes to the household financially and wants Natalie and Devin to stay with her. Natalie refuses, and does a locator spell to find her mother, who they discover fatally overdosing. The girls do a spell and reverse her mother’s coma, but Natalie can’t control her mother’s addiction long-term. Natalie also does a truth spell on her sister and learns that she is a stripper and that’s how she is able to make the money to help them.

 

Inez is a Dominican-American citizen whose father was deported. She plans to sponsor him once she turns 18, but she has unprotected sex with her boyfriend and becomes pregnant. She tells him, and finds he is selling drugs. She does a spell to stop her boyfriend, and he is arrested and jailed for armed robbery. Inez also casts a spell to cause a miscarriage that nearly kills her.

 

Although her friends are seeing spirits, Miliani’s mother has been casting spells of protection to keep spirits away, so Miliani doesn’t see the damage her plan is causing. The issue of consent hung over the book and I was relieved to see it resolved.

 

The book goes into some pretty dark places: drug addiction, abandonment, grief, miscarriage and abortion are never easy to read about. But the girls’ friendship as they navigate  difficult situations and their grief over Jasmine is powerful, regardless of their magic.

 

Reviewed by Kirsten Kowalewski

 

 

Posted on August 16, 2024 by , Reply
12345 » Last