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Book Review: I Hunt Killers by Barry Lyga (Jasper Dent, #1)

cover for I Hunt Killers by Barry Lyga

I Hunt Killers by Barry Lyga  (  Bookshop.org  |  Amazon.com )

Little, Brown, Books for Young Readers, 2013

ISBN-13: 9780316125833

Available:  Hardvover, paperback, mass market paperback, Kindle edition, audio CD

Jasper is the 17 year old son of notorious serial killer Billy Dent. The trauma of being raised by Billy teaching him the skills, knowledge, and thought processes necessary to become a successful serial killer has left him with significant holes in his memory, causing him anxiety over what he might have done in the past and may do in the future. His longterm best friend Howie and girfriend Connie are his greatest supporters, but Jasper constantly second-guesses himself over whether their relationships with him are really solid or are just the results of manipulation.

In addition to the anxiety Jasper feels about himself, he also is drawn to use his knowledge when a murder occurs in his town that appears to be a copycat of his dad’s first discovered kill.  Despite being discouraged by the police from interfering with the investigation, Jasper involves himself. While they initially object, when it becomes clear that the killer is a copycat, he becomes a resource for the investigation. Unfortunately this makes some of the people around him targets, including friends and teachers.  Jasper struggles to deal with his impulses and relationships and the effect trauma has had on him and the people around him. How unreliable is he, really? Is he, deep down, a serial killer? Will he become a killer by the end of the book?

For the most part, I was able to get past the completely unrealistic setup of the book (as compromised as social services may be, I have difficulty believing Jasper would be left with his grandmother, who obviously has dementia, or that Howie’s overprotective parents would allow him anywhere near Jasper, for instance) because this was a magnetic, compulsive read that left my hands shaking and heart racing, and a real tribute to friendship and the trust and protectiveness friends can feel for each other (something not often seen in depictions of boys’ friendships).  This is not an easy read; there is no way to climb inside the mind of a serial killer (or even a fictional character describing what climbing into the mind of a fictional serial killer is like) or a severely traumatized teen without being at least a little shaken up. But it’s a compelling, disturbing, and original tale that will appeal particularly to boys. I Hunt Killers is the first in a trilogy, so teens who get hooked don’t have to wait for another hit.  Highly recommended.

Contains: Mutilation, torture, body horror, murder, gore, animal cruelty, discussions of rape.

 

Posted on July 22, 2020 by , Reply

Book List: Black Authors of Speculative Fiction

This is not so much a book list as a list that will lead you to books.

 

I like to browse at the library (a pastime, unfortunately, that is on hold for the time being) and have discovered a lot of interesting authors that way. The new books section there is how I discovered Nnedi Okorafor, Rivers Solomon, and C.L. Polk. While I was encountering these authors for the first time, there was also a push for readers to deliberately work on including more diverse writers in their reading material.  Both then and now there’s an argument made that readers should just read what they want, without considering the race of the author.  It is valid to read just what you want to read, or to read the same kind of thing (or the same book) over and over– as Ranganathan says, every reader his book. But why not push your boundaries a little? If what you’re looking for is a good story, there are a lot of good stories you might miss out on if you aren’t deliberately seeking out Black authors. There is frequently a different aesthetic to their books, and the stories can catch you in ways you don’t expect. This difference leads to looking at speculative fiction genres through a new lens. In the case of Black people in the African diaspora, that aesthetic is generally referred to as Afrofuturism, a term first coined by Mark Dery. Nigerian writer Nnedi Okorafor recently differentiated that from the writing of Black Africans, which she identifies as Africanfuturism (you can read about that on her website, which I’ve linked to below, just scroll down to her name). Definitely, not everything Black writers come out with falls into this aesthetic. Considered althogether, Black speculative fiction covers a broad range of approaches to science fiction, fantasy, folkloric, and fluid fiction (a term coined by literary theorist Kinitra Brooks).  If you haven’t tried it,  look up some of these authors. I think you’ll find something you like.

I’m going to note that these are extremely brief and incomplete summaries, and it is a far from complete list. To learn more about these authors and their books click on the links. Enjoy!

 

Steven Barnes (Goodreads):  Barnes writes alternative history, science fiction. horror, nonfiction, sometimes with Tannarive Due or other co-authors.

Tannarive Due (author website) : Due writes horror and nonfiction, sometimes with Steven Barnes. Due is an academic who teaches and writes about Black speculative fiction, particularly horror.

Jewelle Gomez (author website) : Jewelle Gomez is best known as the author of The Gilda Stories, about a black lesbian vampire. She has written poetry, plays, and essays.

N.K. Jemisin (author website): N.K. Jemisin writes Afrofuturistic science fiction and fantasy. Jemisin won three consecutive Hugo awards for Best Novel for the books in her Broken Earth Trilogy.

Walter Mosely (author website): mysteries, science fiction, nonfiction.  Mosely is best known for his Easy Rawlins mystery series but has written in a variety of genres.

Samuel R. Delany (author website): science fiction, LGBTQ+ fiction, nonfiction. Delaney is the first Black person to be recognized as a modern science fiction writer.

Wrath James White (publisher website). interviews at Monster Librarian : extreme horror. Click on these links to see our reviews: Yaccub’s Curse, Succulent Prey, The Resurrectionist, Sacrifice, Sloppy Seconds,and Vicious Romantic

Sumiko Saulson (author website): horror, graphic novels, nonfiction on black women in horror. In addition to writing fiction, Saulson is the compiler of 100 Black Women in Horror (click here to see our review)and editor of the anthology Black Magic Women: Terrifying Tales by Scary Sisters. 

Octavia Butler (official website of the Octavia Butler Estate): science fiction, alternative history, dystopian fiction Butler was the first recognized black woman author of modern science fiction and an inspiration for many Afrofuturist authors. See our review of her Earthseed Trilogy, which includes Parable of the Sower and Parable of the Talents here.

Tomi Adeyemi (author website) : YA Africanfuturist fantasy. Adeyemi is the bestselling author of the Legacy of Orisha series.

Evan Winter (Goodreads), interview at Tor.com: Africanfuturist epic fantasy.

Nnedi Okorafor (author website), Goodreads: Okorafor is an award-winning Nigerian-American science fiction and fantasy author who defines herself as an Africanfuturist and Africanjujuist (visit her author website for her explanation)

P. Djeli Clark (author website): Clark is an academic who writes nonfiction on Black speculative fiction, as well as a writer of Black speculative fiction, including alternative history, science fiction, and fantasy.

Victor LaValle (author website): Lavalle teaches at Columbia University. He writes horror, science fiction, and fantasy. Lavalle has won the Bram Stoker Award for his novella The Ballad of Black Tom (for our review click here) and the graphic novel Victor Lavalle’s Destroyer (for our review, click here).

Nalo Hopkinson (author website): Born in Jamaica, Nalo Hopkinson describes herself as a writer of fantastical fiction. She’s written nine books, including the award-winning Brown Girl in the Ring. She’s a professor of creative writing at the Univeristy of California Riverside.

Alaya Dawn Johnson (author website): is the author of YA and adult urban fantasy and speculative fiction, including the Andre Norton award-winning Love Is the Drug at the Nebula Awards.

C.L. Polk (author website): C.L. Polk is the author of the Kingston Cycle, a fantasy which takes p;ace in a steampunk-like setting similar to Edwardian England. The first book, Witchmark, won the World Fantasy Award and was nominated for the Lambda, Nebula, Locus, and Aurora awards.

Daniel Jose Older (author website) : Daniel Jose Older’s writing includes historical fantasy for middle-graders, the award winning YA Shadowshaper series, and adult urban fantasy .

C.T. Rwizi: C.T. Rwizi is originally from Zimbabwe and Swaziland, lived in Costa Rica and the United States, and now resides in South Africa. His debut fantasy novel, Scarlet Odyssey, was just released. Read our review here.

L.L. McKinney (author website): McKinney is the author of the YA Nightmare-verse dark fantasy books, beginning with A Blade So Black.

Rivers Solomon (author website): Solomon’s first book, An Unkindness of Ghosts, was a finalist for the Lambda, Tiptree, Locus, and Hurston/Wright awards and won a Firecracker Award. Their novella, The Deep, a collaboration with the musical group Clipping (which includes Daveed Diggs, formerly of Hamilton) is an outstanding work of Black speculative fiction. Read our review here.

Valjeanne Jeffers (Goodreads), (author website): Jeffers is the author of the Immortals series. She has published fantasy, science fiction, and erotica, particularly in Afrofuturist subgenres such as steamfunk and cyberfunk

Justina Ireland (author website): Ireland is the author of the YA alternate history horror novel Dread Nation and its sequel, Deathless Divide. She has also written other YA fantasy novels and writes for the Star Wars franchise.

Nicky Drayden (author website): Drayden writes Afrofuturist science fiction and fantasy.

Andrea Hairston (author website):  Hairston is a playwright, novelist, and professor of theatre and Africana at Smith College. She is a feminist science fiction writer who has published novels, plays, and essays. Her book Redwood and Wildfire won the Tiptree and Carl Brandon Society awards.

Rebecca Roanhorse (author website): Roanhorse is an award-winning speculative fiction writer who has both Ohkay Owingeh Pueblo and African-American heritage. She has written post-apocalyptic urban fantasy and middle-grade fantasy, and writes for the Star Wars franchise.

 

 

Posted on July 13, 2020 by , Reply

Book Review: The Fourth Whore by Ev Knight


The Fourth Whore by Ev Knight (Bookshop.org | Amazon.com)

Raw Dog Screaming Press, 2020

ISBN: 978-1-947879-16-4

Availability: paperback, Kindle

 

The Fourth Whore is the debut novel from Ev Knight.  It’s the eclectic, and often bloody, story of Kenzi, a young, woman with hard luck, caught up in a centuries-old struggle of the gods.  Written from a number of character viewpoints, The Fourth Whore is a dark tale combining the ugliness of humanity with the insanity of the deities who are involved with it.

 

Kenzi is the focal point of the book, and her life sets the overall grim tone of the story in the first few pages.  She’s saddled with trying to pay for a slum apartment and supporting her junkie mother, which she does by peddling dope.   She also peddles herself to the landlord for rent.  Despite the fact that she’s quintessential street trash, it’s easy to like her.  She does have dreams of a better life, and her upbringing hardly resembles re-runs of The Brady Bunch.  Her pseudo-guardian, Sariel, is also intriguing; he’s a study in contrasts.  Kenzi knows him as the ‘Scribble Man,’ but he’s actually Death, the collector of souls for God.  However, he’s no faithful servant: his job is a punishment, not a blessing.  Also, his occasional sympathy for the dead, and sometimes aiding Kenzi in her times of extreme need, render him all too human.   His collecting allows for some hilariously bleak humor at times, such as when he grows impatient waiting for a young man to throw himself into a river with a load of heavy chain, thereby drowning himself.  Very morbid, but the thoughts Sariel voices are also quite amusing in a twisted way.

 

Kenzi and Sariel’s lives are quickly tied into the ‘god’ story thread, as both of them become targets of Lilith, a demi-god.  The story takes a nice turn here, as the author has re-worked the Bible story of Adam and Eve.  In this version, Lilith was the original wife of Adam, but she was tossed from Eden and tormented for failure to be a 1950’s style, submissive housewife to Adam.  Needless to say, when freed from her prison, she’s angry and wants revenge on…everything, and everyone.  She’s the closest thing to pure evil in the book, although some readers, especially women, may actually find her quite sympathetic, perhaps more so than any other character.

 

Therein lies Knight’s primary strength: she’s very good at painting her characters as somewhat sympathetic, or at least relatable, to all types of readers.   The story itself is good, but it’s the characters and how they feel that carry the book to its conclusion.  The only minor drawback is the occasional lack of cohesion around some of the plot elements in the book.  Things happen, but the reader might be questioning how they happened, as no hint of reason is given.  Events don’t always relate to each other, and seem occasionally random.  A little more explanation for some sections would have helped boost the story to the next level.

 

Overall, a solid first effort from Ev Knight, and worth reading.

 

Contains: profanity, graphic violence and gore, graphic sex.

 

Reviewed by Murray Samuelson

 

 

 

 

Posted on June 12, 2020 by , Reply
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