Horror

Thoughts on THE WHISPERWOOD LEGACY

~ shawnaborman ~ Leave a comment

Howdy, howdy! How’s everyone doing this wonderful Wednesday? I’m not going to complain. After all, it’s the last Wednesday of May and you know what that means. Book review time! This month, I decided to go with some dark fairy tale vibes. The Whisperwood Legacy by Jo Schulte was released yesterday (May 27th) from Little, Brown Books for Young Readers. As usual, I must thank them and NetGalley for access to an ARC in exchange for an honest and unbiased review. Let’s do the thing!

The Whisperwood Legacy follows Frankie through the turbulent time after her grandmother abruptly closes the family amusement park, the main source of the family’s income. Frankie spends most of her time carrying groceries and other necessities to her grandmother after the rest of the family basically disowns the old woman unless they need something from her. After a scene at an unwanted celebration, her grandmother disappears and things start going very wrong at the park, but Frankie and the rest of her family are trapped there along with the mysterious new groundskeeper. It’s up to her to figure out what’s going on and fix it before everyone dies.

The plot is interesting and there was a lot of potential with it. The story is built around fairy tale magic and family legacies and all that fun stuff. It sounds like it will be great. But the pacing is off. There are tiny hints of maybe magical things, but then the blatant magical stuff is just plopped on the page without any natural growth towards it. It’s abrupt and jarring and a bit unsatisfying. Also, there’s this big reveal that Frankie knows exactly what’s happening with the park even though she’s clueless about other things, but there’s zero foreshadowing to clue in the reader, so it totally feels like an afterthought. I was afraid I just missed something, but other people complained about it as well. Things are just awkwardly timed or have little to no build up. It’s meh.

As far as the characters go, Jem is pretty much the only decent person, but he just feels like a caricature of the “ideal dude.” Everyone else is disgusting and I wanted them all to die. If mommy/grandma was such a horrible person (which she was), then cut ties with her and get a job instead of relying on her money. Don’t just sit around wishing her dead, then get pissed when you’re left out of the not-will. And Frankie isn’t much better than the rest of her family, despite the fact that she pretends to be. The book itself was meh, but the characters ruined any chance I had of actually enjoying anything about it.

The writing was fine. It relied far too heavily on pop culture references that are already becoming dated, which I don’t particularly care for, but I guess some people like that kind of thing.

Ultimately, I was not a fan of The Whisperwood Legacy. I was originally just glad to be done with it, but the more I think about it, the more I actively dislike it.

Overall, I gave it 2 out of 5 stars. More like 1.5, but I rounded up. If you’re super into everything fairy tales, check it out. Otherwise, you’re not missing anything.

Thoughts on GRIM

~ shawnaborman ~ 5 Comments

Howdy, howdy! How’s everyone doing this lovely Wednesday? Things here are still very much dystopian, but I’m trying hard not to dwell on it all. So, let’s focus on the fact that it’s the last Wednesday of February instead! You know what that means… book review time! This month, I decided to try a little horror (not that I needed it with the state of everything, but yeah). Grim by David Cinnella is being released via The Book Whisperer today (the 26th). As usual, I must thank them and NetGalley for giving me access to an ARC in exchange for an honest and unbiased review. Let’s get to it.

Grim follows Gabe Matthews from childhood into those angsty teenage years. As a young boy, he loses his father, but discovers a secret silent friend dressed in black robes and carrying a scythe. The problem is that no one else can see this being. At 17, his mother is diagnosed with cancer. In a desperate attempt to save her, Gabe makes a deal with his friend. But can Gabe pull off his end of the bargain and save both his mother and himself?

The plot. It’s a pretty standard “deal with Death” scenario. Gabe’s a momma’s boy and doesn’t have the coping skills to deal with her potential death. He’s a bullied outcast in a small town. So, he talks to his Grim Reaper friend and ends up making a deal that doesn’t go as planned. There’s nothing new or surprising about it. Some of it doesn’t really make sense. Gabe’s leap to “I must murder people” instead of “I have to temporarily take over this dude’s job” when he sees the contract is weird, but I put it off to the whole being a teenager thing. The contract itself is pretty straightforward, so the ending felt like a giant leap. I mean… you wrote the contract. You can’t just randomly add something to it in order to create a plot twist. It feels like author interference rather than a natural progression of the story and that’s not good. It knocked the plot from a solid standard but not bad, down to mediocre.

The characters were mostly fine. I didn’t really connect to Gabe because he was pretty stupid for a supposedly smart kid. I had no idea where his anger at his stepdad came from. Basically, there were far too many things that I had to attribute to his being a teenager rather than being shown why he was the way he was. It was all very surface level. His stepdad was awkward but nice enough. Mom was the perfectly imperfect mother in the hopes that the reader would empathize with Gabe’s plight. Everyone played the role they were made for without much work to flesh them out. They were solidly standard which isn’t bad, it’s just not memorable. And that’s fine.

I’m going to be honest. I finished this book about a week ago and I don’t remember much about it. I remember the parts that didn’t quite make sense and the general story, but nothing really sticks out. Which means I didn’t dislike it, but I didn’t particularly like it either. Nothing about the writing sticks out. I’ll forget it entirely in a few days. A lot of books are like that.

Ultimately, Grim is a thing that exists. It’s neither good nor bad enough to hate. It just is. I’m not going to go looking for more books by Cinnella, but I won’t actively avoid his stuff.

Overall, I gave it 3 out of 5 stars. Actually, 2 and a half. I don’t think you’re missing anything if you skip it, but it’s not something I’ll tell you not to read. Unless you take issue with the whole “killing off/harming a woman simply to motivate the hero/villain” trope. Then you should probably steer clear of this one.

Thoughts on OUR WICKED HISTORIES

~ shawnaborman ~ 3 Comments

Howdy, howdy! How’s everyone doing this lovely Wednesday? Things here are usual. But I realized this is my 500th post. That’s a lot of rambling about nothing! So, before anything else, thanks for reading my randomness. Whether you’re new here or have been around since the beginning, I appreciate it. Now, onto the book review! That’s right. It’s the last Wednesday of July. Can you believe it? Anyway, this month, I decided to go with a YA horror mystery mishmash. Something I would’ve devoured as a kid. Nostalgia. You know the kind of stuff. Our Wicked Histories by Amy Goldsmith seemed to fill the requirements. It was released yesterday (July 30th) from Delacorte Press. As usual, I must thank them and NetGalley for access to an ARC in exchange for an honest and unbiased review. Let’s do the thing!

Our Wicked Histories follows Meg as she tries to salvage her friendships and reclaim her place at a prestigious art school after she’s suspended and on the verge of being kicked out permanently. Luckily for her, her bestie and one half of the Wren twins, Lottie, invites her to a party at the Wren’s ancestral estate with a plan to help Meg make amends. But the estate is dark and dank and creepy. And according to rumors, it may or may not be plagued by a certain spirit intent on revenge. What has Meg gotten herself into? When bodies start showing up, she begins to question whether the school and her so-called friends are worth all the drama and death. But she’s stuck in the middle of nowhere with no means of escape.

As far as the plot goes, young me probably would’ve loved it. It’s pretty standard horror mystery fare. If you’re familiar with this type of book, it’s not hard to guess the killer or the motivation behind the murders. Two storylines unfold at once, the present with the murders and all that, plus the event that put the present events into motion. It’s pretty easy to follow once you realize what’s going on. Personally, I preferred the past plotline. It wasn’t difficult to figure out what was going on there either, but it wasn’t as blatantly obvious. The horror part of the story is nice until the end. It ends up feeling like it was just something thrown in so Meg didn’t have to save herself. However, this wasn’t written for post-MFA brain, it was written for high school brain. High school brain me wouldn’t have cared that she guessed everything. She would have enjoyed it.

The characters were all pretty unlikable. It’s your basic poor scholarship student trying to fit in with the uber rich kids scenario. All the rich kids are douchenozzles (even the ones who aren’t supposed to be) and Meg is annoyingly clingy. Typical teenager stuff. The only one who has any potential redeemable qualities gets stuck in the gay bestie stereotype and isn’t fleshed out at all. For adult me, it was eye roll inducing. Teen me wouldn’t have really cared. She would have been annoyed that none of the characters were relatable, but she still would’ve enjoyed it for what it is.

As far as the writing goes, it was a smooth and pretty quick read. Teen me probably would’ve gotten through it in a couple of days. It takes adult me way longer because I can’t read a book without studying it anymore. Ugh. Thanks, English professors.

Ultimately, Our Wicked Histories was okay. I enjoyed it enough to satisfy my weird nostalgia mood. It wasn’t great and it wasn’t bad. I’ll check out other stuff by Amy Goldsmith if I run across anything.

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Overall, I gave it 3 out of 5 stars. If you enjoy this type of story, by all means try it out. If you have a teenager who’s into the genre, let them check it out. There are mentions of sex that happens off the page, but nothing explicit. In case you need a warning about that.

Short Story: Homecoming

~ shawnaborman ~ 3 Comments

Howdy, howdy! How’s everyone this first Wednesday of November? As I’m writing this, it’s Halloween. So, I thought I’d pull an old short story from the trunk to share with you. I wrote it in 2014 and it’s in second person POV. No idea why I wrote something in that POV. I guess I was just experimenting at the time. Anyway, enjoy! Or don’t. But feel free to leave your thoughts and comments here or on my social media pages!

Homecoming

by: Shawna Borman

“We all deserve a place where we can feel safe.” You smack the wooden table hard enough to draw attention from half the cafeteria. “I mean, shouldn’t we be allowed to blast our favorite songs as loud as they’ll go while we’re in the shower without worrying about some asshat sneaking in and stealing our stuff? Where do people get off doing that shit?”

The story you saw on the news last night fuels your rant, but none of the people you’re eating lunch with care. Still, you ignore the eye rolls and the attempts to change the subject and ramble on. No one wants to acknowledge that there are no safe places in this world. Even you, the one who so vehemently believes in the idea of a perfect world, turn a blind eye to the shadows around you whenever possible.

In your perfect little world, people would have nothing to fear no matter where they were. There would be no murder, no rape, no beatings. Humans would be nothing but happy puppies who chase each other around the park and spread sweet puppy kisses to anyone willing to scratch behind their ears. But this isn’t your perfect little world.

It’s mine.

#

The bass thumps all around you as you grind against horny frat boys who think they have a chance with you. A neon green mixture of God knows what sloshes from the red Solo cup you hold above your head as you sway and sling your hair around, totally oblivious to the actual rhythm of the music. Some strange force of gravity that only applies to college parties and raves keeps the liquid from running down your tube top and mini skirt, and instead has it splashing all over the eternally sticky floor.

As one song fades into the next, you freeze. The fine hairs on the backs of your arms stand on end and the sweat trickling down your spine turns icy despite the heat of the bodies jostling around you. Scanning the room, you search for any eyes lingering on you. No one is staring. You glance down into your cup, hoping for a sign, a smell, anything at all to explain your sudden nerves. There’s nothing there. Dropping the cup, you shove your way out of the throng of people and toward the front door.

Your roommate sits in a rocking chair on the porch, nursing a beer. She jolts up at the sight of you and grabs you by the shoulders.

“What the hell?” Her voice draws your attention away from the panic that’s been etched deep inside your bones. “You look like you’ve seen a ghost or something. Do I need to go in there and cut off someone’s balls?”

You shake your head and an unexplainable shiver rocks your body, causing you to hold yourself. “No, no. I’m fine.”

“Are you sure?” she asks, draping her coat around your shoulders. “I’ve seen fine and this isn’t what it looks like.”

“Have you ever felt like someone was watching you, but no matter how hard you searched, no one was there?” Your eyes catch hers, sympathetic but confused, and you force a smile. “Listen, I hate to be a downer, but could we head home for the night? I think I’m just super tired.”

Without another word, she guides you across the street to her parked car. Your apartment is only a ten-minute walk across campus, but she had insisted on driving. She’s cautious and smart. Getting past her will be difficult.

#

Fluorescent lights buzz overhead, casting a sheen across the biology books scattered on the table in front of you. Notes sit discarded in the chair beside you as you flip through the latest sci-fi thriller. After studying for an hour in an empty library, you deserve a break. At least that’s how you rationalize it to yourself.

The ticking of the clock on the wall above the door infiltrates the edges of your awareness. It sets you on edge. When did it get so late?

Tucking your “for fun” book into your bag, you lean over an open page that explains the dissection of a frog. You haven’t thought about such things since high school, almost three years ago. The way the blade slipped right through the dead amphibian’s flesh. The thrill that ran through you as you took the poor thing apart piece by piece. The fleeting wonder at what it would be like with a human. You push these memories away as you move to a different book.

But it’s too late. Your heart dances in your chest, as if chasing the old thoughts. I’ve seen the inclination in you and I want you even more.

Something slams to the floor in the stacks behind you. A jolt of fear surges through you, erasing all your naughty desires. You pack up everything as quick as you can and flee the deserted building.

#

Stars twinkle in the sky as you cross the quad after a late-night study group. Your roommate had offered to pick you up, but you insisted on walking. The night air rustles the leaves of the trees that dot the lawns in front of the oldest building on campus. Breathing deep, you pull your jacket tight around you.

A door shuts somewhere behind you and a second set of footsteps echo on the sidewalk. You resist the urge to look over your shoulder but strain your ears to determine which way the other person is going. They’re following you. Slipping your phone from your pocket, you pretend to check your texts while you turn on the camera. You angle it so that you can just see over your shoulder.

The figure behind you is wearing jeans and a baggy sweatshirt with the hood up. Their hands are in their pockets. It’s impossible for you to decipher a sex. Still, your heart climbs up into your throat as they match your pace. The fingers of your dominant hand wrap around your keys until they protrude from your knuckles like cheap Wolverine claws. Muscles tense, ready to fly or fight. Whichever the situation calls for. You automatically speed up but force yourself not to break into a run. After all, the chase is half the fun.

Part of you wishes they would hurry up and make a move, give you a reason to jam the pointed metal tip into their eye. You lick your lips, mouth dry, and check your camera. They’ve fallen behind but are still within attacking distance. Your apartment building is within sight. As you prepare to dash to the door, your follower veers left toward the building next to yours. A shaky breath escapes your throat as you mount the stairs two at a time. Your roommate welcomes you home with Chinese takeout and Netflix. When she asks how your walk was, you simply say “invigorating.”

#

Your limbs protrude from the fleece blanket you’ve tangled yourself in. Breaths flow from your lips in a steady rhythm of exhaustion. It’s been weeks since you’ve been tired enough to sleep soundly. I suppose a sustained state of heightened fear has a way of wiping a person out. You don’t even stir when your roommate leaves for work.

The gentle shush-shush of my footsteps on the carpet don’t register in your dreams. My presence hovering over your bed goes unnoticed. Even when I click my tongue against my teeth and pat my thigh, you remain undisturbed. A soft growl precedes a glint of red eyes as my hound steps into the room. She’s everything an animal should be, not like your ideal little puppies. You don’t make a move until her teeth are at your throat.

But it’s too late.

Hazel eyes stare up into the shadows that I lurk behind. You don’t even see me or my hound as you open your mouth to scream. The only noise that escapes is a quiet gurgle as you choke on your own blood mixed with her saliva. Your thoughts turn briefly to the ease at which her teeth open your flesh, the tug at your insides as I coax your soul through the shadows. Then, you see me. Your fear flickers. You see her. Your fear novas.

Welcome home.

END

September Books

~ shawnaborman ~ Leave a comment

Hello, hello! How’s everyone doing this lovely Wednesday? This summer is never-ending. I like the heat, but even I’m tired of triple digits. Plus, I feel anxious for no real reason, so there’s this sense of impending doom lingering over me. That’s how I am! So, instead of rambling about anything remotely personal, I thought I’d share my book list for September. It’s not much, but I like it.

1. Murder in an Italian Village by Michael Falco. This is my September review book, so you’ll get to hear my thoughts on it on the 27th. I’ll say this, it’s extremely dense. So many words and factoids. I have thoughts already. Not sure if that’s good or bad.

2. Carrie by Stephen King. Danielle and I have started a kind of informal book club thing, so we decided to rotate through craft books, masters of their craft (originally started as just Stephen King because she hasn’t read much by him, but we thought it might get boring so we decided to include authors who are most well known in their genres, like Agatha Christie, Anne Rice, etc.), and randomness (just whatever we want to read). Last month she chose a craft book, this month I chose Carrie, next month she’ll choose a random book, then I’ll choose a craft book, and so on. I figured we should start at the beginning with King and it’s been a long time since I read this one, so yeah.

3. The Battle of the Labyrinth (Percy Jackson and the Olympians, book 4) by Rick Riordan. A new book in the series is coming out, so I decided to reread the first five. That’s all. I’ll probably start book 5, but won’t finish it until October.

4. Alicia Alonso: Prima Ballerina by Carmen T. Bernier-Grand. I do those stupid Kindle Challenges where you collect virtual bookmarks as you complete reading challenges and one of the challenges this season is to read something from their Hispanic and Latino Voices section. The challenge is over on the 30th, so I chose one of the short books to squeeze in. If they’d have revealed this particular challenge earlier, I would’ve read Mexican Gothic.

What are you planning to read this month? As always, feel free to leave your thoughts and comments and questions here or on my social media pages!

Thoughts on DEAD ELEVEN

~ shawnaborman ~ 4 Comments

Howdy, howdy! How’s everyone doing this bright and hot Wednesday? Things here are about the same as usual. Luckily, we’re not here to discuss the monotony of life. It’s the last Wednesday of June, so it’s book review time! This month, I decided that something on the horror side of things would be nice, so I requested a copy of Dead Eleven by Jimmy Juliano. It was released yesterday (the 27th) by Dutton (an imprint of Penguin Publishing Group). As usual, I must thank them and NetGalley for access to an ARC in exchange for an honest and unbiased review. Let’s do the thing!

Dead Eleven follows Harper on his search to find his missing sister, Willow. She struck out on a mission of her own, but disappeared from a mysterious island where everyone seems to be stuck in the past, 1994 to be exact, and Harper is determined to find out what happened to her. But he discovers far more than he bargained for in this creepy little place.

The book opens with a note to the reader, which honestly… I almost skipped it. I rarely read stuff like that because it’s usually useless, but I stopped and figured I should at least make sure it wasn’t important. It’s actually part of the book and not something tacked on by the author or the publisher at the last minute, but still. Skip it. I wish I had. It basically just tells you right up front that the ending is going to be vague and unsatisfactory. I didn’t want to keep reading. Vague endings are not my favorite thing, so that little note made me dread going on. Luckily, things weren’t left as open as this implied, but certain things were definitely not wrapped up at all.

Let’s talk structure. This book is set up as a collection of data and anecdotes, so it’s a little strange to get into, but I mostly liked it. There’s one part from the viewpoint of Jennifer Larson-Quint which comes super late in the book and from nowhere. And it ends up being kind of important. She should’ve been introduced earlier and built up a bit. The random appearance felt like an afterthought. But the rest of the data was collected in an interesting way and the layout of everything else felt natural.

Pacing! This book dragged so much and was so very repetitive. It was just far too slow until the last quarter of the book, then things picked up. But combine that with characters who were mostly unlikable and it makes for a tough read. Then, the monster is kind of disappointing. I almost felt like it would’ve been better not to see the actual monster at all. The “dead things” were cool and creepy, but the thing behind them was best left to the imagination, especially since nothing was really done to defeat it. I’m sorry, but I was far more creeped out by what I had conjured in my head than I was by what was described on the page. It was a let down.

As far as the writing goes, it ranged from really good to sleep-inducing slow depending on the sections. Rita only had a couple of sections from her perspective, but they were the slowest. The rest of the viewpoints were okay. The opening (after the note) was weird and worked really well to create interest. I’m not sure I would’ve kept reading if it weren’t for that scene.

Ultimately, I was disappointed by Dead Eleven. I was hoping for ’90’s nostalgia mixed with creepy horror, but there wasn’t really anything nostalgic about it and the horror was meh at best.

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Overall, I gave it one star. I started at three stars, but the more I think about it, the more I find wrong with it. I can’t even find a reason to recommend it to others. It just wasn’t very good to me.

More Book Talk

~ shawnaborman ~ Leave a comment

Hello, hello! How’s everyone doing this lovely Wednesday? I’m sure it’s lovely somewhere. Here, it’s hot and humid and generally blah. But the cicadas are doing their screeching thing, so that’s nice. Anyway, today I’m here to ramble about the last “Ask me about…” thingie. Unless someone picks another number before July 4th (feel free). So far, we’ve covered 13 (you can find the prompt list there), 31, 41, and 54. Today, we’re doing number 7: Ask me about my favorite book.

I think you all know my reading tastes by now. Anything Stephen King or Neil Gaiman. I’ve loved everything I’ve read by Rainbow Rowell. The Scorpio Races by Maggie Stiefvater. Rick Riordan. Stuff about gods and demons. I’m not picky about genre, though I do lean towards fantasy or horror or cozy mysteries. Adult, YA, MG. I don’t particularly care about the target age range. As long as I enjoy it, that’s all that matters. But if you’ve been reading my blog, you know this, so I think I’ll approach this question in a different way and tell you a little about my favorite book that I’ve written so far.

None of my novels have been published (not for a lack of trying), but I do have a couple that are query ready, one that’s ready for revisions, and a handful of others that are at least partially written. Out of all of those, I’m particularly attached to one tentatively titled A Taste of Cyn: A Dreamscapes Novel. It’s a darker version of a cozy mystery with paranormal elements (vampires). And it has been rejected… a LOT, but I keep sending it out. Any personal rejections it’s received boil down to “We love the characters and idea, but have no idea how to market it.” I’m gathering that’s code for “it crosses some weird ass genres and we don’t know what to sell it as.” Which I thought might be a problem when I started writing it. Then again, it might just suck and no one wants to say that (I wish they would). But I still love it.

Here’s the blurb I’ve been using when querying:

Love bites and stalkers suck.

Lucynda “Cyn” Moseman wants nothing more than a quiet life running Dreamscapes, the first and only host club in Dallas. Unfortunately, Cyn’s life is anything but normal.

When she was eighteen, Cyn used college as an excuse to flee from Marfa, an awkward relationship, and her dysfunctional family. It’s been twelve years since she left, and she rarely looks back.

Three years ago, Cyn opened Dreamscapes, and now, the cozy nest she’s built around herself is being torn apart. Someone is picking off her customers and draining them of blood. With a staff consisting primarily of vampires, Cyn fears the worst.

Dragged into the middle of a murder investigation despite wanting nothing to do with it, Cyn’s life is spiraling out of control. Throw in a detective she may or may not have feelings for, the unexpected arrival of her clingy ex, and a box of hair appearing on her doorstep, and Cyn tells herself things can’t get worse.

She’s wrong.

I like it. I guess that’s what really matters. The second book in the series is actually plotted and partially written. It has more beasties than just vampires. I like it too, but stopped working on it after so many rejections. Maybe I’ll get back to it. Or maybe I’ll start working on the slightly more traditional cozy mystery that’s been banging around my head. It has ghosts, but I don’t think that’s too far out of the genre to make it unsellable. I mean, they have ones with talking dogs and others with witches now, so why not ghosts?

Anyway, that’s my current favorite book that I’ve written. I’m sure that’ll change. As always, feel free to leave your thoughts and questions here or on my social media pages!

Home Away From Home

~ shawnaborman ~ 13 Comments

Howdy, howdy! How’s everyone doing this fine Wednesday? It’s the first week of November. Can you believe that? Thanksgiving will be tomorrow, Christmas next week, and 2023 the day after that. At least that’s how it feels. Another year slipping by. But that’s okay! We’re not here to be all maudlin just because time’s a jerk. We’re here today to ramble about bookish things! I found another one of those pick a number things, so that’s what I’ll be blogging about for the foreseeable future. I only posted the request for numbers between 1 and 15 a few minutes ago, so I’ve only got 13 and 7 so far, but I’m sure at least a couple of more people will choose something. You can choose too by commenting here or on my social media profiles or telling me or carrier pigeon. Whatever. The first picture will be the prompts. It’s from national book lovers day (I’m late, I know), so you may have seen it already. Anyway, the lovely Ana chose 13, so I will be rambling about books that make me want to live in fictional worlds!

Which book made me want to live in a fictional world? Most of them? People usually say Narnia, Hogwarts, or Middle Earth and I can’t exactly argue. I know it’s a problematic world (it always was, even before JK went off the deep end), but I would’ve been down for Hogwarts as a kid. Magic provides a lot of work arounds to being cripple. It would’ve been great. Middle Earth would’ve been cool too. Who doesn’t want to live with elves? At least as a kid. Now, I’d be a hobbit all the way. Never have to leave the shire? Live quietly? PO-TAY-TOES! I am so there. Narnia, on the other hand, never appealed to me. Even as a kid. It was a fun story, but I never wanted to join in.

I’m trying really hard to think of worlds I wanted to join when I was younger, but considering I mostly read Stephen King… no thanks. I was perfectly happy watching those stories from the outside. And now that I’m older (read that as ancient), mostly of the fictional places that I want to live are idyllic small town USA spots or tiny English villages. Both of which are hotbeds of murder with some nosey chick who solves all the crimes before the police. I’d gladly be a background character in one of those worlds.

Mostly, I’m into worlds that are only slightly different from the one we live in. A medieval adventure sounds great, but even if I weren’t cripple, I wouldn’t survive a week. I’d eat the wrong berries or mushrooms and die. And a future world? Probably dead within a week as well. Not sure how it would happen, but it would. I love reading about those worlds, but nah.

What about you? What fictional worlds did you want to live in growing up? What about now? As always, feel free to leave your questions or comments or whatever here or on my social media pages! And pick a number. Since I’ve been writing this post, we’re up to 13, 7, 2, 8, 3, and 10!

Thoughts on THE FERVOR

~ shawnaborman ~ Leave a comment

Howdy, howdy! How’s everyone doing? It’s the last Wednesday of April. Can you believe it? That means it’s book review time! This month, I tried something a little different. I’m not usually into historical stuff, but I wanted a little horror, so I requested an ARC of The Fervor by Alma Katsu. It was released on April 26th from Putnam. As usual, I must thank them and NetGalley for giving me access to an ARC in exchange for an honest and unbiased review. Let’s get to it!

The cover is okay, but feels a little meh to me.

The Fervor follows a handful of people including Meiko and Aiko, a mother and daughter stuck in one of the internment camps in the U.S. during World War II; Archie, a preacher who lost his wife when a mysterious balloon exploded during a trip to the mountains; and Fran, a reporter following a story despite numerous warnings against doing so. A strange illness spreads in the internment camp before flowing over into the nearby towns. Throw in visions of demons and strange spiders to spice things up. It’s all just strange enough that our protagonists decide they need to figure out what’s going on.

Multiple POVs are used until they all eventually converge into one. It takes a lot for me to get into stories that are structured like this because I usually hate at least one of the characters. This time it was Archie. And Fran didn’t exactly grasp my attention either. So, I found myself wanting to skip their sections. But I didn’t. Don’t get me wrong, I understand why people use this method. I even understand it in this particular book. But, for me, it breaks up the tension in a way that slows the story down too much. I wasn’t able to get into a flow where I wanted to keep reading beyond what I needed to read in order to finish in time. On the other hand, I also never dreaded picking it back up the next day, so it wasn’t like it was bad. Just slow.

I enjoyed the mixture of Japanese mythology with the horrors of WWII. The blending of historical fiction with a subtle layer of supernatural horror was excellent. I confess that I’m not a big history fan, so I don’t know much about WWII beyond the basics. In other words, this book is my first experience with the Fu-Go (fire balloons) that Japan sent to America. They are weirdly fascinating. And the way the book used them to further the supernatural elements of the story was great. I love it when books teach me odd things.

The real horror of the story is, of course, people. The way hate and fear spreads so quickly with just a tiny push. The illness that causes paranoia and irritation that eventually becomes hostility and outright rage. It serves as a magnification of what was already going on at the time. And how people will use that fear and hate to further their own whims. It’s awful. People are awful. Yet, somehow the story ends on a hopeful note with people willing to do what’s right. I didn’t actually believe the ending, but maybe that’s because I’m a bit cynical. But the hope is still there regardless of how I feel.

The writing itself was strong. Everything flowed and made for a nice read. Like I said, it was just slow. That’s not bad. It helped focus me on what was happening more than if I had flown through it.

Ultimately, I liked The Fervor. I’m pretty sure I have a couple of Katsu’s other books on my TBR list and I’ll keep them there because her writing is worth another look.

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Overall, I gave it 4 out of 5 stars. It was slow, but enjoyable. If you’re into historical fiction with a twist, I recommend giving it a shot.

Thoughts on THE BONE CUTTERS

~ shawnaborman ~ Leave a comment

Howdy, howdy!  It’s the last Wednesday of August, which means it’s book review time!  This month, I received an Advance Reader Copy (ARC) of my friend and fellow Stonecoast alum Renee S. DeCamillis’s new book.  It’s called The Bone Cutters and it’s due out on September 1st from Eraserhead Press.  I must thank Renee and the press for the opportunity to read this in exchange for an honest and unbiased review.  Anyway, I stepped slightly outside of my comfort zone with this one since I haven’t read much bizarro horror.  I’m more into traditional horror, but I do love me some psychological horror, which this book definitely falls under.  Now, onto the review.

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Lovely cover, though I’m not entirely sure why she’s naked.

The Bone Cutters follows Dory (our unreliable narrator) as she wakes up to find herself confined in a psychiatric hospital.  When she’s put in a counseling group for a very specific brand of junkie (one who snorts bone dust to get a “free” high), it has her literally pulling her hair out (something she has issues with anyway).  As if that’s not bad enough, the nurse who put her in the group refuses to believe that Dory belongs elsewhere.  Luckily, there’s a janitor who seems to believe Dory and even wants to help.  From there, things just keep getting weirder.

The story is nicely paced and keeps the tension up fairly well throughout the whole thing.  It’s a novella, so you could easily finish it in one go.  I broke it up into multiple reading sessions, but I really think it would benefit from reading it beginning to end.  I admit that I lost a lot of forward momentum each time I put it down, which was my own fault (stupid life getting in the way).  But every time I picked it back up, I enjoyed the ride.  In fact, I’ll probably pick a day in the next couple of months to sit down and read it all the way through just to see how the experience differs.

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The characters are interesting, but I wanted a little more flesh on some of them.  While we’re in Dory’s head, we don’t get to learn much about her.  Sure, she isn’t a Duster, and she’s super protective of the people she trusts, but she doesn’t really seem to grow much over the course of the story.  Her relationship with Tommy grows, but while she becomes more coherent, she still feels basically the same at the end.  Tommy, the janitor, is the most fleshed out.  We get to know his past and his motives.  The villains, on the other hand, are basically just junkies looking for a fix who are being manipulated by the big bad in the shadows.  I had no feelings about them one way or the other.  That being said, I like that the big bad in the shadows remains a distant mystery.  It really worked for the story.

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I like it when characters level up.

As far as the writing goes, it is lovely and poetic and musical.  The way Renee breaks up her paragraphs pulls the reader forward and aids in creating tension in all the right spots.  It’s a story worth reading to study the writing alone.

Ultimately, I really enjoyed The Bone Cutters.  I can’t wait to see more from Renee in the future.

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Overall, I gave it 4 out of 5 stars.  If you enjoy psychological horror with some bizarro thrown in, pick it up.  If you like beautiful writing that combines both poetry and prose, pick it up.