Reviews and Comments

It seems strange to review a universally hailed classic, but here it is: this is a truly, deeply unsettling novel. Apart from the ghost story, the social horror they Jackson also brought to The Lottery is what gets under the skin. How much of Eleanor's story is real? How much of Eleanor herself is real?

The doubt is as pervasive as the dread, and the dread runs very deep.

This is a lushly worded, mind bending story about time, reality, and death. It is equal parts X-files thrill and Ligotti-esque nihilistic dread, and I loved it.

The issuing was spot on, and the characters were fully realized in a way not many popular works achieve. The ending turned the mind-f#@k up a little high, perhaps, but the journey there was truly unforgettable.

As with any collection, there are hits and there are missed, but even the low points in this one are worth experiencing.

The setting of Punktown is one of limitless, if grungy, possibility. High tech, low brow, alien and human: the intertwined elements are always interesting, and often deeply affecting.

At times, though, it seems like the science fiction workers are utterly unnecessary. Face, for example, could just add easily take place in New York, but that doesn't make it any less emotionally powerful.

A great collection.

Scathing. Withering. Bleak. Unrelenting. It's relatively well written, but spiritually rotten to the core. Which is maybe the point? I mean, the name is pretty apt.

I turned to this collection out of a search for comforting cozy mysteries. The BBC series was so pleasant (mostly) that I thought I'd give the side stories a try.

I am, on the whole, glad I did. The tales recognizable from the tv series have been substantially changed, especially the characters of Valentine and Flambeau, but Father Brown is still as sweet and clever.

However, since points have not aged well at all. There is, frankly, a strand of bigotry that runs through some of these stories that stains Father Brown most deeply. It's all well and good to consider the cultural milieu of a story's writing, but there is an overt nastiness here that seems particularly strong. Read with care, I think.

While it has a certain gift of imagination and phrasing, in the end the sense of edginess for edginess's sake overpowered everything remotely enjoyable about this one.

The Willows is a tale in the cosmic horror tradition, but could just as easily fall into folk horror (as many older cosmic horror stories could) for its bucolic European setting and use of natural landscapes to create a sense of dread.

And there is dread here, in the graduation dissolution of the very ground, not to mention the sanity of the two protagonists. But in the end, I felt much of the buildup dragged on, while the resolution was over in an instant. Worth reading, but not exactly satisfying.

This was glorious blasphemy, a religious melange with a dash of Shaolin ballet. Jesus as Tripitaka, as warrior monk, as the Hebrew Fist. It was such fun, and full of such irreverent erudition, it makes me wish for further adventures.

Walking the Tree is less a traditional novel with an arc structure, than as a story about stories. The journey is one of discovering the stories that build cultures, and following then Beck to they're roots to discover how history becomes myth. It has the bones of a Bildungsroman, as well, but the growth is almost hidden by the choppy timeline and glacial pace.

There are also overtones of the hero's journey, especially in terms of facing fears as a tool of growth, but there is none of the action that usually entails. The only antagonists are fear, ignorance, and deception.

It's an interesting book, with fascinating world building, but in the end feels somehow half finished.

A lovingly historical story about genius, the frayed edges of civilization, and underwear.

The Honjin Murders
By Seishi Yokomizu, Translation by Louise Heal Kawai

This locked-room mystery was written in 1947, but feels fresher than that-probably due to the smooth, excellent translation by Kawai.

This is a short, clever little tale that plays with the genre tropes in a self conscious way. I wouldn't call it hugely original, but it's fast, invited by interesting characters, and introduces the iconic (in Japan) detective Kosuke Kindaichi in a memorable way.

It was a pure pleasure!

While it offers a valuable perspective on trans issues in appreciative fiction with the essay and introductions, the actual story strikes me as somehow dated. It reads like something from Harlan Ellison's Dangerous Visions.