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Book Review: Of Foster Homes and Flies by Chad Lutzke

Of Foster Homes and Flies by Chad Lutzke

CreateSpace, 2016

ISBN-13: 978-1535073363

Available: Paperback, Kindle edition, Audible audiobook

Fatherless Denny Christopher Newman, age twelve, just wants to win the spelling bee. The only thing that may stand in his way is the death of his often-drunk, neglectful mother, rotting in her recliner, during the beginning of a hot summer in New Orleans. Denny’s only friends are the family dog, Ingrid; his classmate, Carter; and Sam, a carefree girl traveling to the west coast, whose words have a positive effect on young Denny. The story is told through Denny’s perspective, after he finds his abusive mother dead.  Despite their blood ties, he only feels dread that he won’t be able to participate in the spelling bee. She always told him his studying for such a thing was a waste of time, that is was a pointless activity. He sets out to prove her wrong, and do something worthy of making his father proud.

Sitting here writing this review, I can still experience the emotional roller coaster when I think about what he went through from the very first page. The horror comes in subtle ways: in the realization that despite that he will never have to be demeaned by his mother’s words and inaction, her body is decomposing in the living room; the need to make his parents proud of something, anything; recognizing he can’t provide for the family dog but not wanting her to remain in the hot house, overheating and suffering herself; and when he finds his mother’s notebook, with her scrawls and terrible words…I wanted to save Denny from the rest of the story.

My emotions were all over the place reading this novella. At times I empathized with Denny, at others I was Denny. Lutzke is an expert craftsman at getting just the right emotional emphasis at the right time. I don’t know how he does it, but Lutzke is able to tap into that awkward part of childhood for those of us who never quite fit in, who experienced strained relationships at home, and who always tried their damnedest only to be batted off into the corner by a few of the adults in our lives. Highly recommended.

Contains: child neglect, some physical and olfactory description of rot

Reviewed by Lizzy Walker

 

Posted on September 28, 2017 by , Reply

Book Review: Down Among the Sticks and Bones by Seanan McGuire


Down Among the Sticks and Bones (Wayward Children #2) by Seanan McGuire

Tor, 2017

ISBN-13: 978-0765392039

Available: Hardcover, Kindle edition, audiobook

Down  Among the Sticks and Bones is a companion novella to Seanan McGuire’s award-winning novella Every Heart a Doorway. Every Heart a Doorway explored the question of what happens after children who walk through a door to a fantasy world return to our own. In that novella, the main character was sent to a boarding school specifically for children who have returned, to help them readjust. It’s a spare, magical, heartbreaking, and brutal mystery that explores identity, destiny, and desire in multiple ways.

Down Among the Sticks and Bones is the story of Jack and Jill, twins who play major roles in Every Heart a Doorway, and their lives in the world they walked into. The girls escaped a life of strictly enforced gender roles by entering a door to a world with many dangers called “The Moors.” There, the girls are able to discard their parents’ expectations, although they are shaped by new ones.  Unfortunately, what the girls’ parents wanted for them affected not just their outward actions, but their interior thoughts and emotions, so the characters are very flat. Jack has a little more self-awareness and develops a genuine loving relationship with another girl, so her character is slightly more developed. The story is more of a fable than a work requiring deep character development, but it means the reader feels much less invested.

In Every Heart a Doorway, Jack and Jill are a mysterious and disturbing pair, but Down Among the Sticks and Bones dispels a lot of that mystery, in the process making their actions, or lack of them, more explicable and sympathetic. The story also lacks tension: it’s the story of growing up over time, and doesn’t have the urgency or bloodiness of the mystery in the earlier novella (this isn’t to say it lacks blood and gore: in a Gothic world of vampires and mad scientists, there’s always going to be blood and gore, but I feel like it’s dialed down in this story).

Seanan McGuire is a fantastic writer, and I’m glad she wrote this second novella, because almost the first thing I wanted to know after finishing Every Heart a Doorway was Jack and Jill’s story. Despite the events of Down Among the Sticks and Bones taking place first, though, and although it can stand alone, readers should read Every Heart a Doorway first, to prevent spoilers and preserve its suspense and wonder. Recommended.

Contains: murder, gore.

 

Posted on September 13, 2017 by , Reply

Book Review: High Moon, Volume 1: Bullet Holes and Bite Marks by David Gallaher, art by Steve Ellis

High Moon Volume 1: Bullet Holes and Bite Marks by David Gallaher, art by Steve Ellis

Super Genius, 2017

ISBN: 9781629918419

Available: print

High Moon, the horror adventure webcomic from Zudacomics.com, full of werewolves, hoodoo, and supernatural mystery, is now in graphic novel form. In the first chapter, set in the Old West, bounty hunter Matthew Macgregor investigates the strange occurrences in Blest, Texas. Plagued by drought, famine, and hardship, Blest’s townspeople are suspicious of newcomers, especially when they are acting as the hand of the law. However, Matthew’s unwanted presence is the least of the town’s worries. Matthew discovers unnatural creatures stalk to town in the dark of night. Not one to cower from a fight, he pushes to bring light to the darkness, and chase the monsters out, while he tries to bury his own supernaturally driven past.

The second chapter centers on outlaw Eddie Conroy, who happens to be under the curse of the werewolf. The story opens with a train robbery in Ragged Rock, Oklahoma that yields mysterious cargo. A series of grisly murders follows in its wake. Things get even weirder when Tristan Macgregor, Matthew’s brother, arrives in town, with a mechanical arm, and hid face obscured by goggles and a mask. What does this mysterious figure want in this town? Another key part of the story is a violent love triangle between brothers, August and Frederick Kittel, and the beautiful Vivian. Conroy, while attempting to make amends for his past, discovers a dark secret about the strained relationship in the small town of Ragged Rock.

I am not normally a fan of Westerns, or of werewolf tales, but this is a great combination of the two genres. Ellis’ artwork provides the perfect atmosphere and tone for Gallaher’s well-crafted story of the supernatural in the Old West. If you want to read another amazing title by this team, pick up The Only Living Boy, the survival story of 12-year old Erik Farrell, who finds himself in an unknown, dangerous world where nothing is as it seems.

 

 

Contains: some blood, violence in the Old West

Reviewed by Lizzy Walker

Highly recommended

Posted on September 7, 2017 by , Reply
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