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Book Review: The Marigold by Andrew F. Sullivan

 

The Marigold by Andrew F. Sullivan

ECW Press, 2023

ISBN: 9781770416642

Available: Paperback, Kindle edition 

( Bookshop.org  |  Amazon.com )

 

 

The Marigold is a book readers will probably either love or hate: there won’t be a lot of in-between.  It has a wildly inventive plotline revolving around city decay and revival, but its more literary style of prose may split readers: some will see it as genius, others as overly pretentious writing.  

 

As noted, the plot is a true original, a nice horror-spiked take on urban blight.  The book asks: what if there is a physical cause?  That’s where the antagonist of the book, a fungus (or is it?) called the Wet, slides in, invading certain buildings in Toronto.  Where the book really shines is playing with the possibilities throughout the book, never giving away too much.  Is the Wet just an annoying mold? Can it infect people?  Could there be intelligence directing it, or is it a sentient being in its own right?  Scary possibilities!  The author does a fantastic job leaving the avenues open, and it all becomes clear at the right time.  He also avoids the usual big reveal at the end, and the story is much better for it.  Tied in to this plot thread is another, the idea of actual sacrifices needing to be made to keep buildings standing upright.  The two threads together make for a very creative knot in terms of story.  Regardless of whether you like the book, one has to admire how well laid out the scenario is.

 

The book itself moves at somewhat of a “slow burn” pace, gradually picking up some speed, but it’s not a fast page-turner: it works best read in chunks.  The characters push the story where it needs to go. They include a mix of health investigators, unscrupulous land developers, some nosy ordinary citizens, and a conspiracy theorist or two.  All the pieces fit where they should in terms of character development, and there’s enough backstory for the characters to appear believable and generate emotion.

 

It’s the writing that is a blessing or a curse, depending on how you look at it.  This isn’t straight-ahead Stephen King style writing, it’s more in the vein of T.E. Grau.  The problem is, it doesn’t always work.  The author is capable of reeling off beautifully written passages that would do a literature professor proud, and does it often. However, there are plenty of times where it winds up bogging down the story, instead of driving it.  The main examples are the chapters dealing with how the Wet invades different apartments in the building called the Marigold, and what happens to the tenants.  These chapters could have been trimmed down or slashed altogether. They muddle the pacing, and don’t add to the story.  I started skimming those chapters, since I already knew how the chapters were going to end.  Some of the character dialogue scenes suffered the same problem. They needed less fluff and more stuff.   When it’s good, it’s very good, but the book lacks consistency.  

 

Bottom line time: The Marigold has a lot of good qualities, but also some glaring deficiencies to overcome.  

 

Recommended for readers who like what they read above.  It’s not for all, but definitely for some.

 

Reviewed by Murray Samuelson

Posted on May 6, 2023 by , Reply

Book Review: Black Planet, Vols. 1-4 by Nikki Noir

Black Planet Books 1-4 by Nikki Noir

Black Planet, Books 1-4, by Nikki Noir

Blood Bound Books, 2020

ISBN: 9798675368907

Available: paperback, Kindle edition ( Amazon.com )

 

With her short stories, author Nikki Noir has carved out a place for herself in the world of spleaze (that’s ‘splat and sleaze’) writing.  Black Planet was previously released electronically as four separate sections, now all combined into one paperback book.  It’s a decent effort, with the first two ‘setup’ sections being the best parts.  The third section, which carries the bulk of the story’s motion, is a bit of a letdown, with too many of the essential plot details held back.  Still, the first two sections help make up for the third.  The fourth section is basically just a lead-in to whatever comes next, as according to the author, there will be more.

 

The first section sets up the story beautifully, replete with the author’s usual trashy intensity.  Two teens eking out a living by doing sleazy online fetish films have the good fortune of a relative dying, thus giving them a dead body to use in their videos.  They hook up with a girl who is into the occult and crazier than they are. That concludes the excellent first section, and no question, it’s the best one.  Section 2 is a different thread but still setting the story up, and it’s almost as good as the first section.  This time it involves teen girl Haley, her younger brother, and weird mechanical owls in the woods.  There’s also a shade of what’s to come, with the introduction of the shadowy organization Stillwater.  

 

Where the first two parts ran at high speed, you’d expect the overdrive gear to kick in for the third section, where the plot threads start to tie together.  But, this section feels more like it’s stuck in neutral.  The author’s trademark freaky sex and messy murders are there, the writing is fine… it just doesn’t have the same sense of urgency as the first two sections.  Part of the problem is almost none of the “why” part is given in this section, and it would have been the perfect time to do it.  The organization called Stillwater keeps lurking in the background, but its presence is given very little time, or explanation.  To keep readers interested, an author have to give them something in the book for a bit of the ‘why’ things are happening.  Otherwise, it seems more like a linear sequence of events that happen for no real purpose, and it’s frustrating.  It’s playing the plot cards too close to the vest for a bit too long, you gotta throw a few cards on the table to keep the game going.  The storyline is good, it just needs to be less of a mystery.   

 

There’s some definite fun to be had with reading Black Planet, it just could have used a few tweaks to help keep reader interest higher.  Hopefully, the next sections will reveal more to the readers in terms of the overall plot.   

 

Reviewed by Murray Samuelson.

Posted on April 25, 2023 by , Reply

Book Review: The Den by Cara Reinard

The Den by Cara Reinard

Thomas and Mercer, Dec. 2022

ISBN: 9781542039765

Availability: paperback, Kindle

 

Cara Reinard’s The Den recycles a tried and true plotline used countless times, and keeps it entertaining enough to ignore that there really aren’t any original twists to the plotline.  You know exactly what you’re getting ahead of time, but it’s fun enough that you don’t care about the lack of originality.

 

In this case, the plot is the trope”‘rich dad with estranged children is about to die and leave inheritance to offspring, all of whom have reason to want him dead.” If you’ve seen the movie Knives Out, then you know the majority of the book plot.  In The Den, the only stab at something new is that if any of the four siblings die before the old man, their share of the inheritance is split among the other siblings.  The rest is standard fare in the book: all the kids have financial problems, and they are all screw-ups in one way or another.  

 

Any of “inheritance plotline” books just need to follow some simple rules to be worth reading.  One, everyone needs to be a suspect and have motive.  Two, the killer or killers’ identities are well hidden until the end of the book.  Three, the author can’t get carried away with their own cleverness and make the mystery too convoluted.  Finally, the book needs to be entertaining.  With The Den, the author succeeds on all four counts.  There are other suspects besides the siblings: the housekeepers, servants and their families all have reason for murder, so there’s a big enough cast of characters to keep the reader guessing.  The identity of the villain(s) is well-concealed until the very end: the majority of readers probably won’t guess correctly, and that’s what is supposed to happen in a book like this.  The plot is twisting enough and clues are scattered throughout, but it doesn’t get too difficult to follow.  Readers will get to the end and feel it made sense. Most importantly, the book is entertaining.  The pacing is quick enough with no wasted time or pointless plot offshoots, and it’s enough to keep the pages flipping.  With a book like this, that’s all you’re looking for.

 

Bottom line: this is predictable fun.  Readers who enjoy mysteries are likely to enjoy this one.

 

Reviewed by Murray Samuelson.

Posted on April 6, 2023 by , Reply
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