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Book Review: Five Midnights by Ann Davila Cardinal

Five Midnights by Ann Cardinal Davila

Tor Teen, 2019

ISBN-13: 978-1250296078

Available: Hardcover, paperback, Kindle edition, and audiobook

“When the U.S. gets a cold, Puerto Rico gets pneumonia.” In the United States, the mainland tends to forget that Puerto Rico is part of the country, and many Puerto Ricans have learned that federal government agencies don’t really want to get involved when disaster hits due to this (witness the travesty of the aftermath of Hurricane Maria). Five Midnights takes place before the hurricane hit, but it is easy to see that mainlanders, mostly white and wealthy, are viewed with suspicion due to their contribution to gentrification, which is driving locals out of even middle class neighborhoods to areas where gangs, drugs and crime are profitable and attractive tp teenagers trying to make it in a struggling economy. It’s no surprise when Vico, a successful teenage drug dealer, dies violently while on his way to a deal, but what only the reader knows is that the death is due to a shadowy, clawed, supernatural creature.

Enter Lupe, a half-Puerto Rican, half-white teenager who has traveled from Vermont to Puerto Rico to spend the summer with her aunt and uncle (who is also the chief of police). Lupe is independent and contrary, and fascinated by crime, an interest her uncle has previously encouraged. The case of the drug dealer touches on a family member, her cousin Izzy, who has disappeared, and her uncle does not want her involved, but that only makes Lupe more determined. Lupe is feminist in a very teenage girl “I can do it myself, don’t you dare help me” kind of way, an attitude that made an otherwise independent young woman seem like she needed to be rescued (for instance, walking into traffic because it was suggested she wait, and having to be pulled out of the street after nearly getting hit by a car). Her character does grow a lot as she meets a variety of people and experiences parts of Puerto Rico she wouldn’t have seen as a tourist and begins to understand the impact the mainland, and especially mainland investors, are having on the country. Cardinal does a great job in describing pre-Hurricane Maria Puerto Rico. I almost felt like I was there. I want to give her props, too, for her portrayal of adults in the story. YA fiction frequently depicts adults as clueless and closed-minded, but when these teens really needed them, the majority of adults listened, and stepped up, without taking over.

Because Lupe resembles her white mother instead of her Puerto Rican father, she also gets a lesson in colorism. Although she sees herself as Puerto Rican, the other teens she encounters call her “gringa”, white girl. It’s confusing to her at first, because she identifies as half-Puerto Rican, and can’t understand why no one else understands that. However, she comes to recognize that she does have white privilege and as a mainland American takes some things for granted that many Puerto Ricans cannot. At the same time, the friends she makes come to recognize that there are parts of her that are very Puerto Rican after all, even if they’re not immediately visible.

Our other major character is Javier, who grew up with Vico and Izzy, but kicked his drug habit and is working hard to stay clean and make up for the damage he did while he was involved with drugs. Despite a rocky beginning, Lupe and Javier decide to team up to find Izzy and solve Vico’s murder. They become more and more convinced that El Cuco, a shadowy supernatural creature bent on retribution is after Javier and his friends. It is refreshing to see a monster grounded in local folklore, appearing in a contemporary story, instead of the same tired tropes.

I loved seeing Puerto Rico take center stage when so often it’s ignored, and enjoyed watching Lupe and Javier puzzle out the mystery and each other. The climax is an outstanding, terrifying, mystical, and visually evocative piece of writing. This was Cardinal’s debut novel, and I look forward to her next one, Category Five, set in post-Hurricane Maria Puerto Rico. This is a truly Stoker-worthy book. Highly recommended.

Contains: violence, murder, mild gore, drug abuse

Editor’s note: Five Midnights was nominated to the final ballot of the 2019 Bram Stoker Award in the category of Superior Achievement in a Young Adult Novel.

Book Review: Lady Bits by Kate Jonez

Lady Bits by Kate Jonez

Trepidatio Publishing, 2019

ISBN-13: 978-1947654815

Available: Paperback, Kindle edition

Lady Bits is a collection of stories with struggling female protagonists: daughters, mothers, sisters, young women with dreams, cynical and desperate older women. In addition to their other fears and strategems, almost all of them are living in poverty, without a support system. They are the invisible women and girls, inhabiting the shadows in an uncaring world. Jonez’ spare language leaves space for the reader to wander and wonder through the words. This means that while some stories, like “Francie”, where a runaway teenage girl is offered a potentially lucrative job, are predictable, the writing is enough to keep the reader going. Many of the stories have an imaginative creature, such as a hobgoblin, fairy, or demon, at the center, but in an everyday environment that throws the fantastic into sharp relief. “Mountain”, in which a former diner waitress returns from college to discover the owners’ new baby is a nightmare, is a gruesome example of this. Other stories have protagonists who have an unreliable grip on reality. “Fairy Lights,” in which a mother discovers the perils of partying with the fairies, and “A Thousand Stitches”, in which a young seamstress is encouraged by her colorful coworker to escape to the city, use this to advantage.

Jonez is not afraid to venture into the gruesome and squicky, as she does in “Rules for Love”, in which a woman prepares for an unusual Valentine’s Day with a helping of arsenic and body horror, and in “Envy”, in which a wealthy white woman uses her privilege in disturbing, extreme, and deadly ways. “Accidental Doors”, in which a woman who botched her business partner’s murder finds she can step through portals to the past to fix her mistakes, also gets pretty gory. When Jonez’ women decide to do evil, they aren’t worried about getting their hands bloody.

I did start to feel beaten up by the number of stories featuring murderous or uncaring mothers. “A Flicker of Light on Devil’s Night” and “The Moments Between”, in particular, felt very repetitive, and the choice to put one right next to the other was not well thought-out. Followed by the gripping, if incoherent “Poor Me– And Ted”, this is a trio of stories that nearly did me in from exhaustion.

Other stories in this collection included the colorful “All The Day You’ll Have Good Luck,” an entertaining and exasperating story about a girl who is flattered into a dangerous position by a strange young man; “Effigy”, in which a job interview for a nanny position goes very, very wrong; “By the Book”, in which a murderous babysitter discovers patience; “Like Night and Day”, in which Marla Ann’s new neighbor turns out to be more dangerous than he seems, although not enough to keep her from inviting him in for sweet tea; “Silent Passenger”, in which a truck driver discovers a way to alleviate her pain and grief over her husband’s death; and “No Fear of Dragons”, in which the narrator encounters a girl who is not what she seems.

It’s nice to see a variety of female characters taking on different roles in the story, instead of always being passive or victims, but I also wish some of the characters had been easier to relate to. Although feelings were communicated clearly, many character motivations seemed unclear, and that made it hard to get into the flow of the story. This isn’t a collection you can just power through; it takes time to explore what’s going on in each story, and it’s difficult for me to do that and also feel the intense emotions Jonez is trying to evoke. Lady Bits is an interesting, if imperfect collection, and moving forward, I hope we’ll see more strong stories with varied female characters.

Contains: Violence, murder, rape, necrophilia, child murder, terrorism, body horror, sexual situations.

Editor’s note: Lady Bits was nominated to the final ballot of the 2019 Bram Stoker Award in the category of Superior Achievement in a Fiction Collection.