Return of the Weird #1: The Penny Arcade Mother's Care Orphanage by David Neuman; Kaleidoscopic Shades Strangeness Continues With Some Clarity

 

Return of the Weird #1: The Penny Arcade Mother's Care Orphanage by David Neuman; Kaleidoscopic Shades Strangeness Continues With Some Clarity

By Julie Sara Porter 

Bookworm Reviews 

Spoilers: For this and the next review, I am returning to the continuation of two of the strangest weirdest books that I read since beginning this blog, two books that were my favorites from 2022 in fact: Kaleidoscopic Shades Within Black Eternity by David Neuman and The Merchants of Knowledge and Magic(The Pentagonal Dominion Book 1) by Erika McCorkle. Both were bizarre, weird, eccentric, and unforgettable. Returning to those worlds with their sequels, Penny Arcade Mother's Care Orphanage for the former and The Merchants of Light and Bone in the latter could lead to more weirdness or more clarity. By and large they streamline the series by limiting the perspectives and giving some concrete and important information and exposition to make the series well slightly more comprehensible but still retaining their mystifying, unearthly, uncanniness.

In Kaleidoscopic Shades Within Black Eternity, a series of strange bizarre events occur particularly around the home of Bob and Susan Triplow and their son, Joshua. These seemingly random bizarre occurrences like people appearing and disappearing, a strange man haunting various children's dreams at once, balloons appearing in the sky, and the sound of disembodied bells were tied to Bob’s traumatic childhood growing up in a sinister orphanage with a history of abuse and neglect. He and Joshua traveled to Bob's childhood home of Kapunda, Australia and the Mother's Care Orphanage where he grew up and face some demonic forces and childhood fears that never really disappeared as he grew older. 

The sequel, Penny Arcade Mother's Care Orphanage is set three years later and things are far from settled. A new series of strange unearthly events are happening. However, instead of going global and affecting random parts of the world as before, they are mostly contained within the towns of Corona, California and Kapunda. This keeps this volume more self-contained and streamlined but also takes out the mystery and overall bizarre nature of its predecessor. It also makes the plot a bit easier to follow and understand though there still are plenty of frightening moments that make the Reader wonder what they just read and afraid to continue reading to find out.

Ralph Shaw, a young boy, disappears in a mysterious area in Kapunda called “The Playground.” A group of teens encounter a ghost car in which one teen later discovers is very similar to one in a photograph from almost 100 years ago, a photograph with a very disturbing message written on it. Constable Benjamine “Ben” McLevy’s investigation into these matters put her up close and personal with disturbing sounds and images. Meanwhile in California, Joshua Triplow is grieving for his missing friend, Sammy Debnar who disappeared in the previous book. He still feels Sammy's presence including having frightening audio and visual visions of and about him. Perhaps another trip to Australia is in order.

What Penny Arcade lacks in mystery and ominous energy when the scope is widened all over the world, it makes up for immediate urgency and personal connections to these strange events. The scary moments are plentiful but not as random as they were in the previous book. 

Many of the moments like the ghost car and the disappearance focus on the mental and physical torture of children. They center around the old orphanage and its former staff and residents and the terrifying moments are a reflection of the hatred and trauma that endured in the past. It even spreads to those who weren't there but are directly involved in protecting or investigating them like Ben. 

If there are sacred spaces which are filled with spiritual enlightenment and meaning, then The Playground is the exact opposite. The space inspires feelings of fear, anxiety, loneliness, and trauma. It is practically festered with a violent history which affected the entire environment. It's practically a gateway to Hell where if you don't lose your life, you are certain to lose your mind. It's a chilling setting just in thought let alone in action.

The presences that haunt this area and are responsible hover between the demonic and fanciful and the human and the painful realistic. One of those is a spirit that takes many forms and haunts people through various means like visions and whispers. Some of its more graphic moments are when it tortures the disappeared victims like Sammy and Ralph. Its most sadistic form is that of a grotesque jester that laughs at the pain that it inflicts on the young boys. It's also capable of changing shape and manipulating others for the added psychological and emotional torture. 

This creature is very similar to the Strange Man who haunted children's dreams in the previous book though clearly takes on a more active persona. Whereas the Strange Man was an observer who watched children, did not move or interact with them but still left an ominous eerie presence, the Jester is more hands-on. He gleefully tortures and abuses his targets, mocks people in their heads, and laughs at his unbridled cruelty. It is similar to other clown-like villains like The Joker or Pennywise but unlike the former who is human but psychotic, and the latter who is hampered by a chronological deadline to appear every 27 years, The Jester has those tendencies and all of the time in the world to use them.

The other sinister presence is found in a human being, Anthea who worked at the former orphanage. She has a history of abusing the orphans that were once in her care.

We are given something of her backstory that thankfully does not absolve her though it does provide some clarity and understanding towards the events in both books. In fact her history makes her actions appear worse. 

Since the previous book, Anthea’s rage affected her mentally and physically. She boils over with dreams of revenge that have taken a toll on her body. She becomes an ugly person in appearance and personality. Her hatred and abusive nature become the nucleus in which the strange supernatural events were formed. The land becomes the living embodiment of the pain that she once inflicted on innocent children and now inflicts upon herself. Though they are on opposite sides of human and supernatural, Anthea and The Jester are mirror parallel images consumed with the desire to hurt others and are collaborators in spreading pain in their own way.

Despite being an important character, the primary protagonist, in the previous book, Bob is mostly absent from Penny Arcade. Much of the main character energy is instead provided by Ben and Josh.

Ben is the standard cop protagonist found in these types of novels, tenacious, courageous, kind hearted, observant, and skeptical until they are face to face with the bizarre. Ben’s evolution through the book is that of someone who is confident in her career and the investigation process but is out of her element when encountering something inhuman, something that by nature cannot follow human standards and resists being caught or contained. It's always there and will always be there.

Since Bob takes a minor role, his son Josh inherits his Protagonist Genes and does a pretty good job. When he is haunted by memories of Sammy, he decides to enter a student exchange program to study in Australia with his friend, and potentially more, Ethan. 

Josh is experienced with this supernatural activity to the point that he acts like a jaded veteran with hard won wisdom and massive PTSD. His return to Australia is not just a rescue mission for Sammy, it's a chance to gain some closure for what happened to him last time.

Penny Arcade Mother's Care Orphanage brings some reason and logic albeit illogical logic, towards Kaleidoscopic Shades Within Black Eternity. It isn't necessarily better than its predecessor, but it clears up the events in both books and makes them understandable.