...the Soul of Wit - Short Reviews

I finally made the time and gathered the concentration to write this post about my last few reads in 2021 and my more recent reads. Hope you enjoy the first shorties of this year!

Unfortunate Elements of My Anatomy by Hailey Piper

I was lucky last year for discovering Hailey Piper, who, very industriously, has published various novellas, one novel and one short story collection in the past three years.

Having devoured her longer fiction earlier in the year I finally got my hands on the latter last month and was not disappointed - yet again. Typical for Piper her short stories too focus on gender, women's and lgbt issues set in speculative settings and times - witches in space, vampires who only want to do their grocery shopping in peace, a woman who is followed by her psycho stalker through various reincarnations, but also apocalyptic music, gods and goddesses crazy and destructive in love, hilarious exorcisms and a final, strange but delicious folk horror story. Always weird, always humorous, always aware. I loved Piper's stories just as much as her longer fiction.

 Horrorstör by Grady Hendrix

Horrorstör is one of those books I have been recommending to everyone forever but admittedly (and to my shame) I had never finished - that changed over the holidays and I finally made it. This time I listened to the audiobook instead of eye-reading and I'm seriously glad I chose that mode of reading! Why? Because there were, especially in terms of pronunciation, some word plays that I, as a non-native speaker, hadn't really realized were word plays until I heard it from someone with an American pronunciation. Take the title for example, here in Germany everybody pronounces it in German as Horrorstör [hɔɹ.ɚʃtøɐ] while it is supposed to be read "horror store" all along and doesn't that change the meaning in a... well, meaningful way? If you already knew this, you're obviously smarter than me, and we can move along after saying our "Good Morning, glad you woke up İnci" and carry on with the review:

This was a typical Grady-Hendrix-horror; likable characters, unabashed, a hint of social commentary and fun, fun, fun! If you were struggling to decide before, wait no more and read it!

There Is No Death, There Are No Dead, Tales of Spiritualism Horror, Ed. by Aaron J. French & Jess Landry

I was equally thrilled to see this story collection on spiritualism opening with Gemma Files’ eerie but friendly medium Carraclough Devize as I was to encounter horror’s favorite professional bad-ass final girl Jessica Maze (as written by Laid Barron) in the last story. Nice touch, there. If you’re not familiar with the two protagonists don’t worry, this is not a class reunion for indie horror lovers. It is a fresh anthology of sometimes classic scary, sometimes sad and sometimes quirky short stories revolving around people who can communicate with ghosts. And you can find them everywhere; in amusement parks, in morgues, traveling, going to work, writing newspaper articles, studying or being haunted themselves.

If you’re a fan of old school gothic hauntings, there are plenty of séances, creepy kids, Ouija boards from the late 19^th century here. But the stories that I personally enjoyed most were the more unusual ones set in our times; “Mad Munk” by Gwendolyn Kiste where the ghost of Rasputin haunts a working class housing complex in the Chicago area; “Talitha Cumi” by Chesya Burke where pain is explored through the lens of the African-American experience and “The One Word I Can’t Say” by S.P. Miskowski – especially those who have an annoying sister who steals your stuff will enjoy the ghost of this annoying sister. With Michelle Belanger’s “The Shape of Her Soul” I have read my first piece of writing which acknowledges the COVID19-pandemic; here the face mask which bears an almost political symbolism in the USA is used in various ways, and that was the first time I read about the “new normal” in literature. Makes you feel weird. And finally, in “A Feather for Mrs. Edmond” by David Demchuk I found the most evil and creepiest kid ever, I don’t think I’ll ever want to meet that boy. 

I am recommending There Is No Death, There Are No Dead very highly to anyone who is a lover of ghosts, mediums and anything related.

Ararat by Christopher Golden

A group of people go on an expedition on the mountain Ararat, where remnants of Noah's Ark are supposed to rest. What they find instead, though, is a coffin with a horned demon in it and oops, they should have left that one alone, for sure. Especially with a snow blizzard going on which keeps them from running away. 

I loved how genuinely scary that demon was! We all complain that recent horror books aren't that scary anymore, but Christopher Golden certainly can give a good scare! On the other hand, I didn't like most of the characters and wasn't really interested in what happens to them. Honestly, I didn't even understand what many of them were even doing up there and why they were sent. Ararat has won the Bram Stoker Award in 2017 and although there have been better books to win that award, there have been worse too, so I'd place it somewhere in the middle.

Rules for Perfect Murders by Peter Swanson

An FBI agent informs a bookseller that there has been a series of murders based on a blog article written by him about eight perfect fictional murders, and they start investigating.

Rules for Perfect Murder is definitely a very good introduction to crime literature. It's weird how I feel about this book - it starts off brilliantly, then somehow loses oomph and becomes entangled in a weird way but still kept me reading the whole time. It was clever and cliché and innovative and classic and all of these together. It was also interesting to read about the owner of a bookshop about crime and whodunnit novels who loses interest in the books he sells and gathers all the information about them from blogs and book sites. I know a person or two like that and the whole feeling about the main character was very spot on. 

Finally, I will certainly add a lot of crime books to my TBR based on the books mentioned here.

Inhuman by Eric Leland

InHuman by Eric Leland revolves around a Central Asian evil which is discovered by a handful of US soldiers during the Vietnam War.

A tough one to review...  While Leland's writing, the book's structure and the character arcs are technically next to impeccable I had a bad taste in my mouth reading this. I came to the conclusion that I'm just not American enough to comfortably read a book where the Vietnam War, specifically US soldiers insulting, beating, torturing and killing local people (but then being mad and playing hero when the VK tortures those same people) is described in such a realistic way. Even if it is for the purpose of building the character arc and showing how much the experience has changed them, I just couldn't get passed that. It is not a book that has a critical outlook on war and military invasions at all and in the end that bothered me and kept me from enjoying it. 

Mistletoe by Alison Littlewood

Mistletoe follows the story of Leah who, having lost her husband and her son under tragic circumstances, moves alone into the country house they had bought together when they were alive. She is preparing to spend her first Christmas there but gradually sees weird things happening and regularly has inexplicable blackouts sending her to another time, witnessing the lives of past people. Maybe the reason is the unruly and unwanted mistletoe growth?

What you see is what you get; Mistletoe is a Christmas-themed ghost story that deals with concepts like the loss of loved ones, pain, letting go, starting anew, finding comfort. It is really well written and my only point of critique would be that it is extremely slow-paced, bordering on tedious. It can be a great read if slow-paced doesn't bother you.

Secret Santa by Andrew Shaffer

It's mid 80s and the publishing houses are ruthless! Lussie Meyer, a young horror fangirl for life, has a plan - find a job as a senior editor at Blackwood-Patterson, the most intimidating of all publishers, find the next Stephen King and take the genre to the next level. Although that's not easy in a world that disparages horror and wants to undermine it, she gets a little boost from unexpected places.

Aww, this was a really sweet book that sweetened my end of the year... I really enjoyed the atmosphere, the characters and the monster too! Fun, light-hearted Christmas horror, much recommended! 

The Dead Girls Club by Damien Angelica Walters

Child psychologist Heather Cole’s life is about to be turned upside down when she finds, in her mail, a relic from her childhood, a time she absolutely wants to forget. Who sent it to her? How much of her past do they know? And what do they want?

The Dead Girls Club is a very captivating read that has you in its tight grip, but that ending though… I liked the main character’s struggles, the fact that she makes wrong decisions too, makes mistakes like everybody. But I was at least hoping there would be some kind of redeeming qualities to her past, which unfortunately didn’t happen. Although I generally like stories about best friends as well as mothers and daughters, here, I don’t know, wasn't mine at all. Definitely Walters’ short writing is more recommendable than this coming of age novel. Try Cry Your Way Home instead, it's intense.