... the Soul of Wit - Short Reviews

I hope you're enjoying the beautiful sunshine which finally graces us, here are the new shorties!

Love and Pieces: A Supernatural Horror Story by Peter Topside

Roger Todger lost the one and only love of his life to cancer and it's hard to let go. Like literally, he can't let go of her body and takes the stinking, rotting carcass home after the funeral.

At the same time Camille seemingly survives a catastrophe, but while the world around her went down, she has been touched by the supernatural and is not unscathed.

The path of these two confused characters will cross in ways that seem predestined and miraculous, but not really good for either of them in the long term. So, what's it gonna be?

I have read the first two books of Topside's Preternatural series and was delighted to realize Love and Pieces is set in the same universe – though, by no means do you have to know the other books to enjoy this novella, it's just merely background. Knowing books in the previous series, I was blown away by how Peter's writing was perfected in this last book – a much more relaxed, easily flowing style, plenty of humor, characters so convincing...

I loved reading this complex mess of a situation turning into a fun, relatable little story about loss, grief, dead flesh and letting go and can't wait for the next Topside book.

The Devil Thinks I'm Pretty by Charlene Elsby

A teenage girl who, after the death of her mother, lives alone in a trailer, goes to school and works as a waitress, gradually lets friends into her life until four of them become inseparable, and start acting on a secret understanding towards a brutal act.

Elsby really sets a benchmark on how to build suspense in The Devil Thinks I'm Pretty. From the first page to the breathtaking finale, apart from a few breadcrumb clues, the reader has practically no way of guessing what this book is essentially about and where it leads; A coming-of-age story? Four friends messing around? The privation of a girl on the margins of society? Vice and evil? All of the above? The waiting pays off, I can tell you so far.

Outstanding. This definitely won't be my last Elsby book.

Echo by Thomas Olde Heuvelt

I love the catchphrase for this book: "Nature is calling—but they shouldn't have answered."

My German grandmother, who was a mountain kind of person, always used to say that before she dies, she wanted to fly above the Alps in a helicopter and enjoy the sight from above. She never made it, but I often think whether I should do it instead of her. And I would have if I wasn't permanently broke. But that was before reading Echo, because this book gave me serious mountain fear and besides, I'm a sea kind of person anyway.

Mountaineer Nick Grevers awakes from a coma with injuries so horrifying he needs and wants to be bandaged all the time and his climbing buddy Augustin presumably dead. He remembers all the terror they've been through at the summit of the Maudit and his whole nature and character has changed. His boyfriend Sam will try his best to save him.

This book definitely dragged a lot, although I thought there were genuinely really really scary moments in here. I like the horror moments Olde Heuvelt creates, he's very good at it, but this novel was simply too long for me to enjoy.

Nordic Visions: The Best of Nordic Speculative Fiction ed. by Margrét Helgadóttir

A pleasant anthology that covers a wide geographical range with 16 stories divided into six regions and/or countries, and offers a thematic variety too - little mysteries, ghost stories, folkloric parallel universes, animal myths woven into modern tales...
For some reason this collection didn't really grab me though, and apart from a couple of stories I couldn't really connect or warm up. This is a purely personal matter, as especially in short stories, I like writings which can convey powerful feelings which hit me hard, and these stories were of the rather mild sort.

My highlights were The False Fisherman by Kaspar Colling Nielsen (Denmark), which shows how to fake it until you make it as a fisherman; The Abyss by Rakel Helmsdal (The Faroe Islands), is about what I personally assume is a metaphorical presentation of life on The Faroe Islands and As You Wish by Tor Åge Bringsværd (Norway) which tackles a very interesting philosophical question, namely, "Do we have to exploit only because we can?". I was immediately drawn into this universe and would declare this last story my personal winner of the collection.

So, there was still a couple of writings which made this work worthwhile for me although most weren't to my personal taste.

Moon of the Crusted Snow by Waubgeshig Rice

A North American Anishinaabe community very suddenly finds itself cut off from the rest of the world with all means of communication gone and electrical power out. It is unclear what has happened out there, but, although these people are the best adapt to survive without technology, the coming harsh winter and the dwindling food resources cause the calm, friendly, almost idyllic nature of the village to crumble, leaving its place to tension, tension, tension. Plus, other people start migrating and settling from the South and they're kind of suspect.

The built up is slow, and very powerful because of it, and the narration very quiet and unassuming, but effective. I literally felt cold and hungry reading this (But that doesn't say much, actually, as I do feel cold and hungry most of the time). I liked how the Anishinaabe elements were woven into the story. Ultimately, the story was a little too slow for me, but as realistic as a post apocalyptic story can be.