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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: I Know What UFO Did Last Summer by Kevin Garone

cover art for I Know What UFO Did Last Summer

I Know What UFO Did Last Summer by Kevin Garone

Temor Press, April 2025 (not yet released)

ISBN: 9798991328401

Available: Paperback, Kindle edition

Buy: Bookshop.org

 

Part adventure, part sci-fi, and all childlike charm, this book is for young readers, but perfect for young-at-heart adults.  With its irresistible characters, it’s a reminder of a time when you were young and could believe in anything with all your heart, no matter how outlandish it might have been.  Simply put, this is magic.

 

It’s the three pre-teen lead characters, Marvin (code name: Gold Leader), Jace (code name: Baller One) and Nora (code name: Space Cadet) that make the story such a joy.  The author clearly knows kids and how to write them. His insights are so good, you’ll wonder if the book was written by a teen with advanced writing skills.  The main character, Marvin, truly believes aliens will one day infiltrate the earth, so he spends his spare time searching and preparing for them, along with his less enthusiastic friends.  Jace and Nora don’t really buy into Marvin’s obsession, but searching the night sky during campouts and building an anti-UFO catapult is fun for them.  That’s what buddies do: go along with the ideas of each other, in the name of friendship.

 

Things change when the three of them do find something unusual in the woods. It isn’t actual aliens, but it does somewhat fit into Marvin’s beliefs.  The author wisely doesn’t hide the fact that it isn’t an extraterrestrial invasion, but he has Marvin play his role to the end, and that’s where a lot of the story’s charm comes from.  It’s hilarious when adults in the book occasionally ask “what’s wrong with this kid?”” when Marvin accuses them of being from another planet.  The answer is, nothing at all.  He isn’t written as crazy or stupid, but as a kid who believes, wholeheartedly, in aliens coming to earth.  It makes the character interactions between the three kids more powerful than a laser bolt from Han Solo’s blaster, as Jace and Nora are perfect foils to Marvin.  Jace has fun with the whole alien thing, but would rather play basketball, while Nora is new and town and just needs a friend.

 

The storyline is quite good: call it sci-fi light.  There are a few weird creatures and a bit of teleporting, plus, of course, an EEEEVIL mastermind behind it all.  There are some stock elements, but they are used extremely well.  A few characters do get chomped by something, but nothing messy.  This book is perfect for grades four through seven, roughly. (I’m basing that on my teaching experience)

 

However, since this review is mainly for adults, the bottom line is, this is perfect for those who haven’t let the world dampen the joy of imagination.  It’s a good reminder that magic of a sort still does exist, if you still believe.  Often, that magic is found in the friendships you make, as the book’s characters discover during their adventure.   Most definitely recommended!

 

Reviewed by Murray Samuelson

 

 

Posted on January 19, 2025 by , Reply

Book Review: Earworm by Aaron Thomas Milstead

cover art for Earworm by Aaron Thomas Milstead

Earworm by Aaron Thomas Milstead

Blood Bound Publishing, 2019

ISBN: 9788397672245

Available: Paperback, KIndle edition

Buy: Amazon.com

 

An earworm is loosely defined as “an annoying pop song you hate and loathe, but somehow the damn thing gets stuck in your head and keeps boinging around.” Example: Taylor Swift’s entire catalogue.  (I make no apologies to Swift fans)  In Earworm, it’s a bit more: it is an actual annoying voice that talks and responds to you (or is it?).  Protagonist Ripley McCain had better listen, since he might need to help save the human race, as well as himself.

 

Earworm is a good horror/thriller read, with some surprising emotional depth: there are a few spots where readers might start sniffling and reach for a tissue.  Ripley is an excellent lead character: it’s impossible not to like him, due to his struggles.  He does everything he can to win back his wife, overcoming the bottle…and finds out he has six months to live.  Fate intervenes in the form of the earworm.  Important: it’s a symbiote, not a parasite.  For readers that flunked Biology 101, that means each creature feeds off the other, to the mutual benefit of both.  These aren’t Star Trek 2’s brainworms.  However, Ripley’s earworm does have a task for him: protecting the worm from certain other worms that want to destroy it, and destroy all people as well.

 

The story is a nice split between Ripley’s actions to stop the evil earworms of the world, and the dialogue with his own worm.  Their conversations are always entertaining. The worm is certainly not a formal voice of wisdom, it’s more like his new best friend, for a guy that desperately needs friends.  The emotional part comes from Ripley’s scenes with his wife and daughter as they try to settle things, and some of the dialogue with the earworm.  These parts are very well done, and raise the story above the standard horror novel.  It helps to get readers invested in Ripley’s character, and they will cheer him on till the end.

 

That being said, there’s plenty of action along the way: walking corpses, tentacles blasting out of people, and possessed chickens.  The supporting cast helps move the action along and provides a nice contrast, the doctor who knows the secret of the earworms stands out, and Ripley’s drunken sort-of friend who is along for the ride helps the story also.

 

The only drawback is that there are too many analogies to pop culture. They are useful tools in moderation, but detract from what is good writing, and they should have been whittled down to a manageable number.

 

The bottom line? Earworm is worth the read. It’s entertaining and unusual enough that most people will enjoy it.  Bonus: you get an interesting discussion on how on Gilligan’s Island, the characters can’t escape because they are actually in hell.  Recommended.

 

Reviewed by Murray Samuelson

 

Posted on January 21, 2024 by , Reply
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