Enjoy the latest short reviews!
The Vile Thing We Created by Robert P. Ottone
Because all of their friends have children and they feel left out of their group activities (!) Lola and Ian, who had a pretty decent life up until that point with vacations, dinners, genuine intimacy... decide to have a child. After half of a book of pregnancy woes and supernatural appearances, they finally welcome their perfect son Jones to this world. He doesn't cry, he doesn't whine - he does observe. Oh and then there's Ian's mom, who strangely begins to like Lola, treating her nice and bringing her presents (with a seven pointed star motive).
Now, I thought everybody in the world saw Rosemary's baby, apparently the people in this book didn't (even though they claim to be avid horror fans) because nobody realizes the parallels between the two stories, but that's not the only problem with these characters.
Ian and Lola are just horrible. "Let's have a baby so we can hang out with our friends again", seriously? Horny Ian constantly leeching on Lola, constantly touching her as if to remind her what she's there for, namely sex only - just imagine this scene; you just gave bloody, shitty birth, your genitals have been ripped off and sewn together, you're drained and on top don't really like the baby you gave birth to and when you come home the first thing the father of the baby says is "You look so hot, baby!" Seriously?
Of course, everyone can do as they please. And I can think as I please and think that in life, there are two kinds of behavior which are particularly ridiculous and pathetic. One is, unless they're twelve years old, publicly and performatively putting on display how much couples love each other by constantly touching, kissing, holding hands, hugging in front of others. Like, we get it, you're together. And the other is thoughtlessly bringing kids into this world and then acting like they're the victims as if it wasn't their choice. Lola and Ian fulfill both these requirements. Unless you are being forced by someone, raped or in any kind of other oppressive situation (and not a "oh, everybody is having babies, let's make one too" situation), you should know we're autonomous beings and have control over our bodies. The two characters should never have made a kid and they learn the hard way that, in the words of the wonderful Bill Hicks, birth is no more a miracle than putting food in your mouth and turd coming out of your ass. When they did have a baby, they should have given it to someone who can and wants to take care of him and go on with their lives.
So, hating them so much, the first half of the book, the pre-Jonesy part was a drag and the story only really gains momentum once he exists. As much as I couldn't stand the two, I really liked Jones, the evil kid. The breath-taking second half totally redeems the first half; Jonesy is probably the best character I've read this year.
Don't get me wrong, there are seriously creepy parts in this book, and Ottone has a knack for writing the scary. I just really hated his characters, they were essentially douche bags. In Ian's mother's words: "If you weren’t such a joke, you could’ve been the one to usher in the new world."
The White Guy Dies First: 13 Scary Stories of Fear and Power ed. by Terry J. Benton-Walker
Playing with conventional tropes in horror used to be fresh and quirky five or ten years ago but meanwhile it has become somewhat of a trope itself. And although it has lost its initial originality and excitement, it is always interesting to hear own voices, so I was excited about this anthology. Unfortunately I have found that except for a couple of stories which were really good, the horror in the stories was generally watered down to fit a YA audience, which isn't my cup at all. I wish there was a better tagging system for books for younger audiences.
My favorites were, beside the introduction which ties the 13 stories together in a kind of fun horror blog commentary section, the first story All Eyes on Me by Faridah Àbíké-Íyímídé following a young couple visiting a circus and being confronted with scary clowns, and Best Served Cold by H.E. Edgmon which slowly develops into a hallucinatory cannibalistic nightmare. Unfortunately there wasn't more to get for me here.
Suicide: An Anthology ed. by Jon Lindsey (Editor), Cory Bennet (Editor)
This anthology written by suicide survivors reads expectedly sombre and profound.
There was a slight confusion about the term "survivor" on my part before starting this as I was assuming it would be people who tried to kill themselves but were saved. Apparently survivor means also the friends and family of someone who killed themselves, and most of the stories in this anthology are written by these.
Needless to say, not to read if not in a good mental space as some of them might hit close to home, as a couple of stories are indeed written by people who serious considered or attempted to take their own lives. Though all stories read sincere and genuine, some writings had an obituary- like quality to them, which isn't necessarily a bad thing, just unusual.
The Night Guest by Hildur Knútsdóttir
A young woman consults her doctors about recurring extreme tiredness, bruises on her body, stiffness, blood stains... Having found a doctor who'll take her seriously, a normal struggle for all women all around the world, she slowly starts figuring out what is wrong with her - thanks to the activity app on her watch.
My mom uses a step tracker and it drives me insane how important it is to her how many steps she walked in a day, but who knew it can very concretely and literally save a life though?
This little novella is well paced and keeps the attention. Unfortunately I thought the ending was soooo unoriginal, a real let down which will make you gasp and throw the book to the next wall.
I received an advanced listening copy from Libro FM via the Otherland Bookstore. The audiobook is narrated by Marie Robinette Kowal who also translated the book, and that was a big plus for me, as I have listened to audiobooks read by her before and I really click with her voice and narration style.
I'm often asked where I find and how I select the movies I watch and the books I read, so if you ever wondered, listen up! For movies I go to Bloody Disgusting among others (For weekly/monthly releases and very personal reviews worth gold I also like to watch the YouTube channel 365 Horror Vlog).
Phantom Limbs is a (I think) weekly series Jenkins created on Bloody Disgusting to focus on movies whose release dates were kept on being delayed during repeated lockdowns and expanding its focus from there to general horror sequels who ended up never being produced.
Unlike the web series, this book concentrates a little more on interviews with the creators of these unmade films, which is especially of interest if you're rooted in or interested in filmmaking with lots of behind the scenes anecdotes and stories. It features 25 projects which include Psycho II (1980), The Wrath of the Gods (2010) (sequel to the Wicker Man), Hellraiser (2011) (2012), Chopping Mall (2011), and Silent Night 2 (2012). Some extra visual goodies include lesser known movie posters, excerpts from storyboards and some concept art.
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