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Book Review: Doorways to the Deadeye by Eric J. Guignard

Doorways to the Deadeye by Eric J. Guignard

JournalStone, 1919

ISBN-13: 978-1947654976

Available: Hardcover, Kindle edition

 

Novels about riding the rails can be exhilarating journeys in the right hands. Eric J Guignard is fresh off his first Bram Stoker win for best fiction collection, proof he has the skills to terrify his audience. Luke Thacker is a victim of the Great Depression, scraping by to survive on the dangerous rails of America. Along the way, he learns many secrets to staying alive, from a code left by other hobos, often warning them of strangers who would sooner leave them bleeding in a ditch or a friend ready to help out a guy in need through symbols carved into trees. When he discovers one odd symbol, an infinity sign, he learns that reality is a bit broken.

He meets a gangster ready and armed, John Dillinger, who had perished just months ago in a hail of bullets. Luke  has entered the Athanasia, the realm of the deadeye.

The dead don’t exactly haunt but can be dangerous. The spirits that linger are the ones who are remembered. Dillinger hires Thacker to be his driver for a bit, before being rescued by Harriet Tubman who ferries him to safety through the corridors of the deadeye. The stronger the person was in life, the longer they linger in Athanasia, where the living can see them, hear them, and be hurt by them.

Some are them are pretty angry and vicious.

Luke takes to the rails and meets up with the semi-gentle giant Zeke, and the woman who entrances his heart, Daisy. Together, they explore more of the deadeye world, encountering the Wyatt brothers, bank robberies, and the worst memory of the rails, Smith McCain, a brutal rail worker who made his living tossing hobos from moving trains. In death, his viciousness only has amplified. He tracks down riders to send them into the deadeye where most of them don’t have the strength to remain remembered. They simply fade away into nothingness. McCain is a beast straight out of the best thriller and horror movies, a former man who can never be stopped.

Fifty years later, another former hobo, King Shaw,  is keeping the stories of Luke alive as he tells them to a reporter, and hopefully keeping himself alive, too.

This novel is a stunner. Horrifying and suspenseful throughout, what makes it work is the strong writing of Guignard. Having never read any of this author before, it was shocking to see how powerful his lines were, how well-drawn the characters had become.

This guy is more than someone to watch in horror. He’ll be winning plenty more awards.

 

Reviewed by David Simms

Editor’s note: Doorways to the Deadeye was nominated to the final ballot of the 2019 Bram Stoker Award in the category of Superior Achievement in a Novel.

 

Posted on April 12, 2020 by , Reply

Book Review: How Quickly She Disappears by Raymond Fleishmann

How Quickly She Disappears by Raymond Fleishmann

Berkeley, 2019

ISBN-13: 978-1984805171

Available: Hardcover, Kindle edition, audiobook

 

This novel has been billed as the cross between The Dry and Silence of the Lambs.  That’s a boast if I ever read  one. Is it accurate? Read on to find out. If nothing else, it’s a fine thriller that has a great comparison line.

Set in 1941 in the wilds of Alaska, the story begins with Elisabeth Pfautz living in a small town with her husband who works as a teacher, and her daughter. Everything seems normal– boring, even– but they’re content with life.

The postal plane arrives on a regular schedule, their only connection the outside world. One day, a different pilot and carrier, Alfred Seibel, lands and asks a small favor: to be put up in the family home as the agreement states as part of an old town rule. Alfred departs the plane and inserts himself into Elizabeth’s life. With Alfred being German, the situation could get ugly, easily, for both sides.

Once he’s settled into the house, Elizabeth is plagued by dreams of her twin sister, Jacqueline, who disappeared twenty years prior, never to be found.

Alfred quickly inserts himself into her family, and the town. Yet one day, he murders a local, a close friend of Elizabeth’s. Once in prison, Alfred tells her he has information about Jacqueline and how he might be able to solve the mystery that has plagued Elizabeth for most of her life. With a poor marriage and no life in the desolate land, she accepts his request to visit him in prison.

He offers her this: for each gift she gives him, he’ll take her one step closer to her sister.

She accepts, and finds that although Alfred begins innocently enough, he quickly steps up his game. As Elizabeth discovers the cost of each gift she gives, he has her hooked with the puzzle he hands her.

Alfred turns out to be a quality villain who is much more than he seems to be, full of flaws that Lecter never revealed. Elizabeth is no Clarice. but she’s not meant to be. Her surroundings, family, and town, all serve as antagonists in her quest to find her sister, or at least the final piece of the puzzle. This literary fiction novel masquerading as a thriller/horror hybrid lulls the reader into a stark place that ultimately delivers in all three genres.

A challenging, yet highly rewarding, read for this new year.

 

Reviewed by David Simms

 

Posted on December 31, 2019 by , Reply

Graphic Novel Review: Bitter Root, Volume One: Family Business by David F. Walker, Chuck Brown, and Sanford Greene, illustrated by Rico Renzi and Sanford Greene

Bitter Root, Volume One: Family Business by David F. Walker, Chuck Brown, and Sanford Greene, illustrated by Rico Renzi and Sanford Greene

Image Comics, 2019

ISBN-13: 9781534312128

Available:  Paperback, Kindle, comiXology

 

The Sangerye family combats monsters called Jinoo, people who have been infected by hate. However, a deadly tragedy struck the family, and the survivors can’t agree whether to kill or cure the monsters. With a new breed of monster stalking the streets of 1920s Harlem, the Sangeryes need to come to terms with their feud and face their new foe, or watch all of humanity lose the fight.

The characters in Bitter Root are fantastic. Ma Etta, the matriarch of the family, is a badass, protective of her family and not afraid to defend them. Berg is a poetic and gentle giant who can wield a wicked staff. Blink is a strong-willed, brave woman who desires to take a more active role in the family’s monster hunting. Cullen seems to be in training and is struggling to get his footing. Then there is Ford. He is most definitely a loner, and has his own deadly ideas of how to deal with the Jinoo.

There are so many great scenes in this book, which is a fast paced #OwnVoices read. The reader is thrown into the action when Sweet Pickin’ Jazz Club is attacked by an unseen monster. The next night sees one sect of the Sangerye family attacked by monsters, and Ma Etta telling Blink she can’t go out to help her Cullen and Berg fight a great horned beast. Blink proves herself by using a staff to beat the crap out of the monster. She is by far my favorite character in Bitter Root.

I recommend this highly for anyone looking for a great supernatural #OwnVoices graphic novel. The story is full of monster fighting, family politics, social commentary, and racists and KKK members getting their asses kicked.

Volume 1 collects Bitter Root issues 1 through 5. Also included are essays about the origin of the story, Afrofuturism, the tradition of rootwork, and more. Interspersed between the essays are variant covers and fan art.

Highly recommended

Reviewed by Lizzy Walker

Posted on November 21, 2019 by , Reply
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