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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

Book Review: Olivia: The Sequel to Doll House by John Hunt

Olivia: The Sequel to Doll House by John Hunt

Black Rose Writing, 2022 (to be released October 27)

ISBN: 9781685130473

Available: Paperback, Kindle edition ( Bookshop.org |  Amazon.com )

 

If the first book in the series, Doll House, was a sleek sports car purring down the highway at an acceptable rate over the speed limit, then Olivia is a smoke belching, fire breathing locomotive roaring down the tracks that flattens anything in the way.  This book will run you over.  When you read it, block off enough time to read 200 pages in a sitting.  Once you start, you won’t want to stop.  

 

As in Doll House, the book features an extremely patient and methodical killer, but this one preys on the hikers of remote trails, abducting and then killing them.  A young lady named Bibi is the first to escape him, but five years later she is still an emotional mess.  Detective Davis, who worked on the Doll House investigation, introduces Bibi to Olivia, the heroine of the first book, in hopes they might be able to bond and bandage each other’s mental scars.  However, it also causes them to be drawn into the investigation of the ‘hiker killer’  It then becomes a question of stopping the killer, and whether Bibi and Olivia can ever live what passes for normal lives.

 

Doll House was good, but this is that rare time when the sequel betters the original, in every possible way. The story structure is one example. Doll House was narrative heavy, and more dialogue would have improved it.  With Olivia, the author does exactly that. The book is a perfectly balanced blend, and it makes the characters much more real, real enough you will react to them.  You’ll scream in anger at some parts, and possibly shed a tear or two at times, especially if you love animals.  That’s a mark of outstanding writing when you react as the characters do.

 

The author also did a better job on the police investigative material this time: he clearly did a lot of research.  It’s more detailed, but not overwhelming, and shows how the legal system can be exploited by the wrong people.  Olivia also nicely builds the elements of chance and randomness into the investigation.  In the book, as in real life, it can be the smallest things that trip a killer up.  You simply can’t account in your murder plans for nosy neighbors, or where someone decides to take a leak in the woods.

 

Finally, the scare factor is higher in this book, for two reasons.  One, it’s written better than the original.  Two, the plot is all too plausible, and it has happened. Australia’s ‘Backpack Killer,’ Ivan Milat, springs to mind. That’s why books like this can horrify: they remind us that the worst monsters do not merely exist in our imagination, they often live right next door to us.  Hunt understands that, and writes some truly chilling scenes.  The killer in the book knows how to prey on people’s worst fears, and it will prey on the reader as well.  

 

Bottom line: this is horror writing of the highest caliber. Read Doll House first, then be sure to get this one when it is published.  This is mandatory reading for horror fans: you won’t be disappointed.  It’s enough to keep hikers who read it out of the woods for a good, long time. Highly recommended, and then some.

 

Reviewed by Murray Samuelson

Posted on September 28, 2022 by , Reply
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