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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: 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

Book Review: Bad Vibrations by Lucy Leitner

 

Bad Vibrations by Lucy Leitner 

Blood Bound Books, Oct.  2022

 

ASIN: B0BB86Y3G7

 

Available: Kindle edition (pre-order) ( Amazon.com )

 

Bad Vibrations is a wonderfully crazy, somewhat satirical look at a cult of health-crazed nuts that take it to extremes, and how the folks of rural Pennsylvania react to them.  It’s messy at times, and will make you laugh out loud at others.  This book takes the “crazy cult” plot to a whole new level, and does it in slam-bang fashion.

 

Poor Valerie!  She’s a nice young lady with a decent life and career, but she feels like she just isn’t reaching her true potential.  Like many, she turns to the Internet for help and falls under the spell of Doctor, another self-help/health guru, who promises his followers to unlock the secret of “energy” in their lives.  Valerie goes to the group’s compound for a weekend stay, but unfortunately, the local residents (who hate those damn health nut hippies) show up also.  As you might guess, all hell breaks loose.  

 

Part 1 of the book details Valerie and her introduction to the group, and that’s where most of the satire and humor is.  The group’s methods are truly hilarious.  Mastering that “energy” consists of things like hula hooping while bouncing on a trampoline, screaming sessions, sex with whoever is around, and the most important part… drinking each other’s blood each evening.  No wonder the locals call them vampires!  It’s highly entertaining, especially reading how the “healthies” insult strangers.  “You have so many free radicals it’s like your body just liberated a gulag!”  “Your vitamin D levels are so low they’re hanging out with you!”  That part alone is enough to justify the price of the book.

 

Part 2 is the action section, and that’s where the author puts the pedal through the floorboard.  Carnage abounds as tensions between the locals and “vampires” reach the breaking point, and it becomes a big mess of bullets, blades, bows, and flammable liquids.  Valerie has to decide who to side with: does she truly believe Doctor and his teachings, or is everybody but her truly nuts?  It’s non-stop excitement right up to the last page.

 

Bottom line: it’s nice to have a book that makes the old “psychotic cult” fiction trope interesting again, and Bad Vibrations does exactly that, it’s a thrilling satire that horror readers should flock to.  Recommended.

 

Reviewed by Murray Samuelson

Posted on October 11, 2022 by , Reply
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