Return of the Weird #2: Merchants of Light and Bone (The Pentagonal Dimensions Book 2) by Erika McCorkle; A Family Drama From Another Dimension

 

Return of the Weird #2: Merchants of Light and Bone (The Pentagonal Dimensions Book 2) by Erika McCorkle; A Family Drama From Another Dimension 

By Julie Sara Porter 

Bookworm Reviews 

Spoilers: So we come to the next weird book continuation, the next installment in Erika McCorkle’s Pentagonal Dominion series: one of the strangest Fantasy/Science Fiction worlds put into book form, a world where few humans or humanoid characters exist so McCorkle was free to let her imagination run wild and wild it ran.

The first book, Merchants of Knowledge and Magic, is about Calinthe Erytrichos, a reptilian Merchant of Knowledge, and Zakuro “Pom” Rathmusen, a Godblood, demi-god and Merchant of Magic. The duo encounter many patrons, assignments, estranged family members, and totalitarian governments as they affirm their love for each other. While the Epic Fantasy/Science Fiction setting and world building was important, at heart Merchants of Knowledge and Magic was a Road Trip Comedy-Drama/Queer Romance set in a world of living gods and anthropomorphic people.

That's what is at play with its successor, Merchants of Light and Bone. It's not a direct sequel so much as it takes place in the same universe as Merchants of Knowledge and Magic. Besides one reference to Zakuro’s family name, those characters are not featured or mentioned. 

Instead this book focuses on The Last-Scrim-Den Family of Aloutia. They consist of Amiere Lasteran, his wife, Liesle Denwall and husband, Su Scrimshander (yes they are a throuple), and their seven children. They and their children are in mourning for their deceased daughter and sister, Tawny. They also have to deal with local bully Militico Svelt whose daughter, Usana Demiu, might be getting abused. Amiere, the eponymous Merchant of Light, notices that his crystal light business is expanding and going through some troublesome changes. Su, the Merchant of Bone and a Godblood, is keeping secrets about his history, gender identity, and divine ancestry. Meanwhile, Liesle, the Merchant of Faces, goes through extreme measures to protect those that she loves including her children and spouses. 

The approach to this book is similar to Merchants of Knowledge and Magic which is a Queer Romance set in a Fantasy/Science Fiction World. It is also similar to another previous favorite book of mine, To End Every War by Raymond W. Wilkinson which was a Feminist Women's Fiction Novel set in an Epic Fantasy Occult Academia world of Dwarves, Elves, Selkies, Fairies, Giants and others. Both novels put the prosaic and ordinary plots of regular people and dropped them into fantastic settings that turned the ordinary events into extraordinary circumstances.

Whereas the focus in most Epic Fantasy or Science Fiction novels is on quests or revolution, the majority of plots in this book like the death of a child, abuse, employment concerns, and spouse's hidden lives would not be out of place in a Family Drama. It's sort of like what would happen if The Waltons, or The Dunphys from Modern Family suddenly grew fur, sprouted wings, and gained electrolyte tails. After all, it happens. 

This book is comparable to other Fantasy novels when heroes go on epic journeys, spend a night in an inn, and the innkeeper rants about his marital problems or the dictatorial government is cutting into his business. Well Merchants of Light and Bone would be about that innkeeper and how he tries to live an everyday life in a world where magic exists and characters aren't human.

In fact the one journey narrative where characters go from one place to another has the more personal goal of saving a couple of children from slavery rather than a quest to save the entire world. 

There are some magical moments to remind Readers of the fantastic world that they are in. Su goes through a mesmerizing ritual where he communicates in person with a Water God. Liesle has conversations with a dark demon. Amiere is inflicted with a curse that when angered opens his more leonine side. But those are brief moments in a novel that captures the human, or human in personality though not in appearance, spirit.

The family goes through intense grief after Tawny’s death. They respond in different ways. One child, Kohaku, withdraws into her own private world. Others become more belligerent and quarrelsome. Liesle becomes physically ill and bedridden. Amiere tries to retain a brave front but can barely suppress his darker feelings. Su is the solid rock for the rest of the family but his vulnerabilities are present. The familial reaction to grief and how realistically McCorkle writes it would not be out of place in a traditional Earthling series. That the family has animalistic characteristics is almost immaterial.

Besides the grief, abuse is an ongoing theme within the book particularly in the story of Militico and Usana. Liesle and Amiere have to contend with the fact that Militico, a former childhood friend, has taken a darker, more violent turn as an adult. They have their suspicions that the caprine Militico is abusing his adorable leporine daughter. They recognize that the signs are there but as in the world of the Readers, it's not an easy thing to prove or stop. In many heart tugging moments Usana bonds with Su, himself a child trafficking and abuse survivor. The resolution leans to the fantastic elements but when removed from that angle, the real subtext brings up questions about self-defense, justice, and protecting the innocents at all costs.

The personal conflicts and struggles intermingle with the fantasy world in unique ways. Amiere’s occupation getting overtaken by bureaucrats who care more about the bottom line and getting rich than they do about the people working there is highly relevant even if the crystals are remnants of the gods. Liesle’s desire for vengeance and spell to protect her loved ones might be a magical solution, but it could also be seen as a metaphor for trauma survivors and how the trauma comes on them like a demonic figure. The trauma can be ignored, faced, or the survivor could attack the person who caused the trauma. 

Even the questions about Su’s origins carry a lot of resonance. Liesle and Amiere love their husband as he is and formally respect his privacy but still they are curious. They observe him and pick up clues about his powers to learn who his divine parentage actually are. Even though Su identifies as male and currently uses “he/him” pronouns, there are suggestions that this wasn't always the case so even his gender identity is a question. As much as he is a sweet, even tempered nurturing third parent to the children and loving spouse to his husband and wife, Su’s identity is a mystery that neither Amiere nor Liesle can entirely avoid. In a world where people’s identities are precious and are currently being held under scrutiny because of recent executive orders, the questions and acceptance of Su’s identity is very relatable to some Readers.

Merchants of Light and Bone tells Readers that even in a Fantasy or Science Fiction novel populated with non-humans, human Readers can still recognize the relatable struggles that are similar to their own.

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. 

 

The Blue Girl, Candy Lee Caine by Mickey J “Mike” Martin; Fascinating Portrait of a Troubled Marriage

The Blue Girl, Candy Lee Caine by Mickey J “Mike” Martin; Fascinating Portrait of a Troubled Marriage 

By Julie Sara Porter

Bookworm Reviews 

Spoilers: If ever there was a book that was made for the cliche that the road to Hell is paved with good intentions, The Blue Girl, Candy Lee Caine by Mickey J. "Mike" Martin would be it. 

It tells the story of a troubled marriage that gets worse because of the well meaning but thoughtless action of one spouse to another.

Mike Holder met Candice Lee “Candy” Caine Wilson at a college conference in 1969. The staid steady Mike was intrigued by Candy’s vivacious personality, her home life with doting adopted parents, and their mutual desire for a stable home life. The two married one year later.

What starts out as a seemingly happy marriage quickly becomes troubled as Mike climbs the academic ladder for an administrative position. This requires the couple to move around from college to college, town to town, state to state. At first Candy takes the moves in stride being complacent, uncomfortably so. She acquiesces by playing the supportive spouse externally but internally she displays symptoms of Anxiety, Depression, and Bipolar Disorder. Mike is unable to cope with the changes in his wife's emotional and mental state, so he tries to look for a solution or even a cause. His curiosity gets the better of him as he looks into Candy’s background and researches her life before her adoption, despite her repeated urges for him not to. The search for Candy's family history reveals some unpleasant things and inadvertently leads to a violent confrontation that tests the Holders’ marriage.

This is a marriage featuring a couple that loves and cares for each other but still are capable of causing great damage towards one another. Candy's mental health issues cause her to lash out and act unpredictably. She isn't always able to control herself and doesn't get the psychiatric care that she needs. Neither her adopted parents nor her husband encourage her to seek mental health services. Instead they attribute her emotions as just quirky personality traits that are just her being herself. 

Mike and Candy's parents don't see the potential danger until it's too late and the danger comes forward. They love her undoubtedly but her parents attributed it to her upbringing (more on that later) and errantly believed that once that was fixed then she would magically recover. They don't account for the long term post traumatic complications that would result or that when she reaches certain milestones in her life like marriage or a career, that she would be unable to handle them.

Mike also inadvertently puts a lot of pressure on her. He commits himself to his academic career and the material gains from it. He assumes that as long as Candy acts supportive and doesn't argue, that she actually is supportive and doesn't have reservations. The constant relocation where she often feels like an outsider isolates her and makes her more dependent on her husband. She feels like if she objects or disagrees, she will seem at best like a nagging shrew or at worst a mentally unstable person. She keeps it all inside and Mike is ill equipped to see beyond that and ask if something is actually wrong or what her actual feelings are about things.

 With some exceptions that peer into Candy's family history, the majority of the book is told from Mike’s first person point of view in hindsight. It's clear that he realizes that he made some colossal mistakes and regrets them. This keeps the Reader from seeing him as an abuser or a sadist who delighted in the pain that he caused Candy. He knows that he was a thoughtless heel and admits it. 

While their marriage is fraught with unspoken tension, it is when Mike researches Candy’s family history that he crosses the most lines. He is repeatedly told by Candy to drop it and that she doesn't remember or want to talk about it. 

He looks up records, newspaper announcements, and talks to distant relatives and family friends without Candy's knowledge or permission (which brings a plot hole that Mike would be unable to find most of that information, particularly official records without Candy herself being present and granting permission but no matter). 

Even when he gets the backstory to Candy's ancestry, that still isn't a clue to drop the subject. He is told about three generations of racism, alcoholism, trauma, mental illness, abuse, and neglect before getting to Candy's immediate family and childhood. It should have been enough to connect the dots and realize that chances are Candy's upbringing was not sunshine and roses but no Mike can't let the search die.

Mike feels that he has to be the problem solver, that learning about Candy's family will get to the root of her problems and she will get better. It becomes a mystery that his mind wants to solve but doesn't account for his wife's emotions or that maybe he's better off not knowing. For a time, the problem is more important than whether the solution leads to more unhappiness.

Mike confronts Candy using some of the most toxic language to do so. He does the “If you love me, you would do this” routine. He guilt trips her that marriage should be built in trust and honesty and browbeats her into talking about her childhood. It's a very emotional chapter that makes the Reader turn against the designated hero and question his motives. 

Is he willing to jeopardize his marriage and his wife's fragile emotional state to find out the truth? Is he potentially an abuser without realizing it? Are they better off separated instead of trying to work through a marriage that is this bad? 

Once Candy talks about her life with her birth parents, the Caines, it becomes apparent why she didn't want to talk about it. She opens up memories of addicted abusive parents, a large unruly mob of loud angry delinquent siblings, and intense poverty and neglect. Candy's past was so traumatic that even though she was adopted by loving parents, the Wilsons, the long term damage was already done. 

Again to his credit, when she finishes Mike regrets asking her and is empathetic towards her suffering. He also sees that the confession of Candy's upbringing, tears open old wounds which never healed. What had once been forgotten or rather forced to the back of her mind is now put out in the open. Her mind regresses, so the comfortable middle aged woman disappears. In her place is the troubled young girl who reacts to violence with escalating violence.

Candy's breakdown leads to some actions that change the course of the book which for spoiler’s sake won't be revealed. But it changes her and Mike's status considerably and forces him to objectively look at his wife's upbringing and his own thoughtless actions in contributing to her downfall. He sees a woman who was let down not only by her birth family and society but by the people who loved and were closest to her.

 This revelation that Mike unwittingly contributed to Candy's unhappiness makes the ending a bit hard to swallow. It suggests hope and potential support between an older and wiser couple than we met before. However, it is established that they made each other miserable and added to their problems by acting happy when they weren't. 

Candy needed psychiatric evaluation and to face accountability but Mike needs help too. He needs to recognize his own controlling and potentially manipulative nature that led to this conflict. It might do him some good to seek counseling himself and spend time apart from Candy.

Perhaps they needed to temporarily separate and work on themselves instead of staying together. Mike and Candy need to work out their issues apart, strengthen their individuality, and then maybe discuss getting back together. That would have made a better more realistic ending for a couple who may love each other but sometimes love just isn't enough.

 

Said The Spider to the Fly by Findlay Ward; Moving, Honest, and Triumphant Contemporary Literature About Intergenerational Domestic Abuse

Said The Spider to the Fly by Findlay Ward; Moving, Honest, and Triumphant Contemporary Literature About Intergenerational Domestic Abuse

By Julie Sara Porter

Bookworm Reviews

Spoilers: Findlay Ward’s Said The Spider to the Fly covers a very important and very familiar topic for this blog: domestic abuse. In fact, this is the fifth book this month alone after A Cat's Cradle by Carly Rheilan, A Woman Like Maria by Gabriel Costans, Red Gifts in The Garden of Stones by P.A. Swanborough, and When Banana Stains Fade by Frances-Marie Coke deal with some form of abuse. (Other books about domestic violence this year include American Odyssey: Devil's Hand by B.F. Hess, I Was a Teenage Communist by JC Hopkins, Dancing in the Ring by Susan E. Sage, Freeze Frame by Rob Santana, Virtuous Women by Anna Goltz, How We Were Before by Jonathan Kravetz, Boy From Two Worlds by Jason Offutt, Tipani Walker and The Nightmare Knot by Jessica Crichton, Masters of the Star Machine by Joe Crawford, Somewhere East of Me by Sean Vincent O'Keefe, Girl in a Smart Uniform by Gill James, The Peacock’s Heritage by Sasha Stephens, Journey of Souls by Rebecca Warner, and What Happened at the Abbey by Isobel Blackthorn). 

Domestic abuse is a very difficult thing to discuss and opens such raw emotion and trauma in a person's life. It also opens dialogue on this and other connected concerns such as problems within the legal system, the restrictions of gender roles, the negative aspects of marriage and divorce, the conspiracy of silence within certain occupations and communities, how religious views, social status, politics and economics play into the abuse and aftermath, and the psychological after effects of that trauma.

Said the Spider to the Fly is the kind of book that reveals how domestic violence can be felt through three generations of the same family by either tolerating abuse, becoming abused themselves, or being traumatized by such a situation in their past. 

After Rachael’s grandmother, Dorothy,  dies, she goes through her things, particularly her journal. Dorothy’s book recounts a traumatized childhood, marriage, vacations on Turtle Island, and a secret that the island possesses. Reading this account, causes Rachel to recognize the connections to her own unhappy relationship.

Said the Spider to the Fly weaves the past and present with similar themes. It shows Readers how abuse takes many forms, can still be experienced years even decades after the abuse ends, and has two interesting characters that represent separate generations and how they treat those conflicts.

Dorothy represents an older generation that grew up in a tempestuous toxic home life during the 50’s-60’s. Her father was a bad tempered violent man who hurt his wife and children. Dorothy became an expert in remaining silent, docile, and obedient to avoid her father's rages. Her older brother, Jimmy, took on an almost parental role by engaging Dorothy in various activities like fishing and hiking to keep her away from their father. Because of the time period, Dorothy’s mother was unable to leave or file for divorce, so they had to endure it.

Fortunately, Dorothy has a much happier marriage with her husband, Bob who is a kind empathetic loyal man with a corny sense of humor. (He told dad jokes before the phrase was coined.) Despite this, Dorothy can't quite shake the trauma of her childhood. She is anxious about her children's welfare and second guesses herself when her daughter, Lisa, starts seeing a man who sends red flag signals. 

Dorothy is a woman with PTSD and while her opinion about Lisa's boyfriend turns out to be true, she is also shown to be very anxious and hyper vigilant of the signs. It's natural to protect one’s younger relatives from the same trauma that had been faced before and Dorothy explores this.

Rachel represents the current generation. While she has more options about whether she can leave an unhealthy relationship, she chooses to stay with her partner, Bradley. The reason, that she stays with him is not because of society pressure but within her own mind, psychological pressure.

 Rachel at first doesn't recognize that Bradley is abusive. She reads about Dorothy's memories of beatings and slappings and other symptoms of physical abuse and thinks that it has nothing to do with her. Instead of being physical, Bradley mostly relies on verbal and psychological abuse. He belittles Rachel, acts condescending towards her opinions, makes fun of her when she makes a mistake, gaslights her, and leaves her feeling isolated, worthless, and dependent. This also is a similar pattern with her mother, Lisa, and Lisa’s husband. 

By the time Rachel recognizes Bradley's behavior, she is so beaten down by his words that she won't leave him. Not that she can't but that she won't. His manipulation and verbal abuse has worked to the point that he left her in a mental prison unable to see an escape.

This book goes out of its way to show that abuse is abuse. It doesn't matter if it's a punch, a purposely hateful word, an unwanted demand for sex, withheld money, it's still abuse. In fact verbal abuse is one of the hardest to prove and leaves long lasting mental and emotional scars. The fact that both Lisa and Rachel, mother and daughter become involved with similar men shows exactly how those scars are recycled.

While abuse is a frequent motif in this book, another is nature particularly that of Turtle Island. Turtle Island is a frequent setting in this book. It is the source of many happy memories that Dorothy experiences over the years with her family as they go on entertaining vacations. It is a source of joy but a source of pain as well. It is also where the Intergenerational tensions within Dorothy's family are resolved in violent ways.

Turtle Island has a strange hold on the people that visit it. The appearance of a raven and a mysterious boy suggest something supernatural but it is not overdone. Instead they are manifestations of the toxic home life that Dorothy, Lisa, and Rachel have to endure. 

The more that abuse is present within the people, the more nature adapts to it. The shouts, slaps, accusations, name callings, punches, lies, and isolation become fuel for something vengeful and violent that had long been buried but needed to be addressed.

Said The Spider to The Fly is a moving, honest, and complex book on how domestic abuse affects generations of families in a seemingly endless cycle but it is also triumphant when the cycle finally stops.

 

In The House of A Demon: A Memoir Book 1 by Tina Soctoy; Tension and Sense of Immediacy Fill Memoir About Kidnapping Victim

 

In The House of A Demon: A Memoir Book 1 by Tina Soctoy; Tension and Sense of Immediacy Fill Memoir About Kidnapping Victim

By Julie Sara Porter 

Bookworm Reviews 

Spoilers: Tina Soctoy’s Memoir, In the House of a Demon is probably the closest that many Readers will ever get to experiencing Stockholm Syndrome. It tells of a kidnapping through a survivor’s point of view with all of the tension and Immediacy that situation would provide.

When Soctoy was six years old, she was recruited to join a secret Soviet program to create child soldiers and spies. The book is set primarily within the first few months when she was held captive by a soldier named Sasha who molested and isolated her. Despite arguing and trying to escape, Soctoy eventually capitulated to her captors and became their willing pawn.

Throughout the book there is a sense of immediacy that puts us on the same level with Soctoy, the child. We are not given the particulars of her predicament within the text of the book itself, only in the "About the Author" section. In reading the book and not knowing the situation beforehand, the Reader is left uncertain who has Soctoy, for what purpose, what they are going to do to her, and when, if ever she will be free. We only see this situation through her terrified and confused six year old mind. 

She doesn’t know her captor’s names except one is called Sasha. The others are just the Men. We don’t know where she is being held except a few context clues suggest that it’s an isolated and wooded area. This adds to the overall suspense that we are kept in the same ignorance as Soctoy and can almost visualize ourselves looking upward at these larger men who overpower her.

Her captors are master manipulators. They appear nice one minute by giving her food or speaking in an almost tender tone of voice. Then the next minute they threaten her and her mother. This puts her in a false sense of security so she becomes obedient rather than do something that will change their moods. She is raped and then made to feel like she was willing to do it, so she will consider herself fallen and damaged beyond all repair. The sex is humiliating and a sign of dominance that says that Soctoy can’t even feel alone in the comfort of a bed. 

The captors also deceive her by promising that she will be reunited with her mother then put suspicion on her towards her parents. Since we aren’t given much background information, we are put in the same situation as Soctoy where we question her family’s loyalty as well. We wonder if Soctoy returns home, whether she will be put in a similar or worse situation than the one in which she is in.

Many times the dialogue and action between Soctoy and her captors get repetitive but it adds to Soctoy’s mental state. The more her captors repeat the same scenario over to her, the more Soctoy starts to believe it. Time and space are altered so she doesn’t know what day it is or how long that she has been there. Even basic facts like whether it is day or night are unknown to her. She becomes dependent on her captors to tell her anything. 

A few times Soctoy manages to fight her captivity by arguing and escaping but these become hollow victories. They always catch up to her and they use physical and psychological torture to silence her objections. The more that she remains with them, the less likely she is to run away. 

By the end, she is completely broken and is theirs to do whatever they want to her.

Soctoy wrote two more books about her young life. Maybe we will get more concrete answers to what happened to her, what the ultimate goal was, and what resulted from it. For now, we just received her six year old perspective and that was scary enough. The rest of the memoirs are bound to be even more horrifying. 

New Book Alert: Psychonautic by Darren Frey; Deep Psychological Vampire Dark Romance

 

New Book Alert: Psychonautic by Darren Frey; Deep Psychological Vampire Dark Romance

By Julie Sara Porter

Bookworm Reviews

Spoilers: Alright, I give. I surrender. I used to hate Vampire Romances. Since high school, the very names of Dracula, Lestat, Buffy Summers, and Angel made me roll my eyes long before Edward and Bella had their first sparkle. I thought the Dracula movie starring Gary Oldman, Anne Rice's The Vampire Chronicles and Buffy The Vampire Slayer were some of the most overrated pieces of entertainment ever. If I ever saw another romance starring a dark brooding Byronic vampire antihero, it would be too soon. I often joked that the only vampire that I ever liked was C.D. Bitesky from Mel Gilden's Fifth Grade Monsters.

Well, I am willing to admit when I am wrong. I found that there is room in the saturated vampire subgenre to intrigue and impress me. I found that out twice this year. First, with The Genius of Our Wiles by Blythe Gryphon. It was a historical fiction about a vampire falling in love with the woman that he transforms. The two spend the changing centuries studying the history of vampires, including looking for the original vampire.

 The second book that changed my perspective is Psychonautic by Darren Frey. In contrast to The Genius of Our Wiles, Psychonautic is a modern psychological drama about a damaged human who is accepted into a coven of vampires and feels the love of family, friendship, and romance that had long eluded him.

The human who becomes closely encountered with the undead is Julian Frost. He has a coffin full of problems. He was a child of abandonment and abuse having been left by his father and abused by his mother, her boyfriend, and his grandfather. The only family member that he felt close to was his loving grandmother and other relatives kept her death from him out of spite. He just ended a long term relationship when he caught his ex in bed with another man, and not just any man but her brother. Not only that but he has Retina Pigmentosa (RP) and is therefore legally blind. Many, including relatives and his ex have used his disability against him and mocked him.

Julian is trying to put his life together. He spent time with a shaman and took Ayahuasca, hallucinogenic drugs, to deal with his pain. He also got as far away from his Virginia home as possible to attend college courses in Las Vegas. Why, he even has a new potential love interest in classmate, Violet Trouton. 

Things are starting to look up.Okay, Violet panics and retreats into a bathroom when the sun rises. But she is gorgeous. Sure, she can read his mind and knows a lot about his dreams. But she's so sweet and understanding about Julian's past. And okay, she can float in the air and fly, but nobody's perfect.

 It takes a while, almost a comically long time, for Julian comes to terms with the truth that his new potential girlfriend is really a vampire. Oh yeah and Violet takes him to New York (flying on her back, instantly in less than an hour) to meet her vampire family. There they get involved in a civil war with other vampire clans and vengeance seeking humans who are out for blood, vampire blood.

A psychonaut is described as someone who explores an altered state of consciousness, especially through hallucinatory drugs and that is what Frey's book excels at. Yes, of course there are times where Julian takes hallucinogenic drugs to deal with his troubled past. But what really stands out is the exploration of Julian's mind. In some ways, vampirism becomes a metaphor for this exploration and how Julian emerges as a stronger person who challenges his past.

Julian suffered tremendously from the abuse, abandonment, and betrayal in his past. He became closed off and rejected close intimacy. He has been clearly scarred and is unable to move forward with such baggage behind him.

His taking of drugs allows him to open his mind and recognize those issues. It identified the problem, but his friendship with Violet and her family allows him to take action.

Naturally, when he discovers that Violet is a vampire, he is a little concerned and terrified. After all, can he be sure that she doesn't want a snack or will attack him? He even has nightmares about her mocking him, like his ex did, before attacking him. 

This is before he gets to know Violet and realizes what a sweet kind person she is. She also has many difficulties from her past including an abusive childhood and the betrayal from one human friend who turned on her and her family.She just happens to have a penchant for blood and sleeps during the day. 

Julian also develops a kinder more empathetic personality in his relationship with Violet and the vampire world. He meets Xavier, the vampire who transformed Violet and whom she calls "Dad," and various others in their clan. He develops a surrogate father-son relationship with Xavier as his love for Violet increases. He finds in them the family that had long eluded him. 

Because of this familial connection, Julian is able to confront his past. When vengeance seeking humans threaten the vampires in their club, Julian defends them then takes it upon himself to hide his new family in his aunt's house in Virginia. He is now in close proximity to members of his birth family, including his abusive grandfather and neglectful aunt and uncle. Strengthened by his new family's love and support, in one of the best passages, he confronts his relatives with all of the hurt that they caused him over the years. 

Many of Julian's experiences in seeing the world through the vampire's perspectives are some of the highlights. For example when they fly to New York from Las Vegas, it is a psychedelic experience as Julian feels his third eye open. He feels like they broke barriers in sound and his own self, his ego, is being melted away. It's clearly an exhilarating experience.

The transformation of becoming a vampire is described throughout the book. It begins with death, as though the old self were dying to make way for a newer higher plane of existence. Next is an intense thirst, a heightening of the senses, and an increased awareness of all that is around the newly made vampire. It's a beautiful description and shows that depth of the inner journey into the subconscious and the higher being that could emerge.

Frey excels at writing a psychological drama and exploration of the subconscious of an individual who sees a new higher perspective in the world around him. There are hints of a more action oriented tone if he continues this series. The vampire hating humans seem like many hate groups, formed because they fear what they don't understand. Also, the conflicts between various clans suggest that just because someone becomes a vampire doesn't mean that their problems are over. They will still be surrounded by hatred, prejudice, and some who would use these heightened gifts for revenge or to satisfy their sadistic pleasure.

For people like Julian however, vampirism allows him to explore deeper meaning, getting rid of the old frightened Julian to become a stronger person.

Psychonautic is a great book. That being said, I still find Gary Old man's Dracula, Buffy Summers, and Lestat intensely overrated.

New Book Alert: Cinema 7 by Michael J. Moore; Nightmare Inducing Zombified Children Are The Ultimate Fear In This Dark Disturbing Supernatural Horror

 

New Book Alert: Cinema 7 by Michael J. Moore; Nightmare Inducing Zombified Children Are The Ultimate Fear In This Dark Disturbing Supernatural Horror

By Julie Sara Porter

Bookworm Reviews

Spoilers: I really thought after all the psychological thrillers and supernatural horrors that I have read and reviewed over the past five years, I thought that surely nothing could scare me. Yes folks, I was immune from nightmares. 

Clearly, Michael J. Moore was on a mission to prove me wrong.

Because no sooner than I began reading the first chapter of Moore's gruesome dark disturbing horror novel, Cinema 7 a chapter in which Kim, a little girl stabs her mother and mother's boyfriend at the behest of a monstrous figure in her room than my subconscious became severely affected. 

Not only does that lovely image begin the book but three other children do the same to their families leaving six parents dead and four children self made orphans and missing. Oh and right before these not so adorable tykes commit these horrific murders, they go through a change that seems to be a composite of the evil monster sexually abusing them then eating them alive.

 Not only do these kids become undead psychopaths but their bodies are altered to make them almost demonic with gravelly deep voices and orange lights in place of eyes. Ah yes, reading this book late at night with the lights off does wonders for an already fragile psyche that imagines killer demon children with glowing eyes. (The description does not do it justice. Trust me, Moore's writing style definitely makes the Reader shiver with unbridled terror.)

Unfortunately this attack is not an isolated incident. Kyle McIntosh, a local high school boy with a tenuous connection to where the murders take place (his former girlfriend, Claudia, lives in the same trailer park where they happened), runs into the children in their demonic glory. Terrified, he tells the police who surprisingly believe him (video camera footage also showed the kids). Unfortunately, attacks are starting to increase as this strange monster possesses more kids and more family members turn up violently murdered leaving Kyle, his friends, family, and his new girlfriend, Marie, to face this seemingly unstoppable army bent on violence, mayhem, and revenge.

The Nightmare Fuel is palpable throughout this book. It's the type of book where a seemingly happy family could one night fall prey to violence by their youngest child who barely understands what they are doing before they pick up a knife and slaughter their parents, older siblings, and pets.

 There are some ghoulish images of small infants unable to walk, all of a sudden springing up to commit murder. A toddler whose neck is broken during an escape attempt has a conversation with his older brother with his head leaning over what remains of his neck. And those eyes, the glowing eyes burn from the page into the Reader's souls. 

What also makes this situation more monstrous is how it starts and how it continues. I won't reveal too much but the monster is motivated by hatred at someone. Someone human did something horrible to begin this rampage and was never caught. Sometimes as horrible as the supernatural is, the natural, the human can be far worse.

There is also the fear over how unstoppable this attack is. The monster goes throughout the town attacking family after family. Even the protagonists' families are attacked. It is not understated how this attack traumatizes everyone involved. Almost a whole generation of an entire town's childrens are possessed and parents are violently killed. Those that survive are certain to have the worst kind of PTSD imaginable. All because one character did something horrible and another sought revenge by punishing everyone around them.

The fear factor of the monstrous children and their leader's motivations and origins are the most memorable parts of the book. It overshadows some of the downfalls of the book. Kyle's romance with Marie is the stuff of typical teen angst and brings down most of the plot, except when the attacks affect them personally. Also his earlier relationship with Claudia ends up being unnecessary, especially since she herself barely appears in the book and is mostly talked about barely shown. Kyle and Marie also make some questionable decisions that are probably meant to make the Reader suspicious, but since they are proven to not be important. They don't lead to anything except for the Reader's exasperated sighs over how foolish these characters act.

But what can't be forgotten is how terrifying the monsters in this book are. It is the type of book that is best read in the dark for a good scare but only after checking the hallways, through the windows, and the children's bedrooms for pairs of eerie glowing orange eyes.

Weekly Reader: All Eyes on Me: A Miranda and Parker Mystery Book 1 by Linsey Lanier; An Eye For A Good Gruesome Murder Mystery About The Trappings of Fame

 

Weekly Reader: All Eyes on Me: A Miranda and Parker Mystery Book 1 by Linsey Lanier; An Eye For A Good Gruesome Murder Mystery About The Trappings of Fame

By Julie Sara Porter

Bookworm Reviews

Spoilers: For all those who love graphic gruesome murder mysteries especially when the victim is a divalicious star laid out in a grotesque way say "Eye!" Then read All Eyes on Me A Miranda and Parker Mystery Book 1 by Linsey Lanier.

Miranda Steele has had a traumatic past. She survived an abusive first marriage, the abduction and return of her daughter, and a near death experience. While most would be justified in wanting to cower into their home and hide, Miranda instead teams up with private investigator Wade Parker. Their relationship has gone from associates, to lovers, to a married couple. When one is called, the other is there as an equal partner.

Their current case is a pretty violent one that puts them right in the forefront of public consciousness. Ambrosia Dawn, a famous pop singer/diva has been found the desert outside of her Las Vegas home, dead, bruised and possibly poisoned. As if that wasn't bad enough, her eye has been gouged out by a melon baller. Kind of ironic since one of her biggest hits is the love song, "All Eyes on Me." The killer certainly has a sick twisted sense of humor and possibly a desire for revenge against the beautiful famous singer.

All Eyes on Me combines a great protagonist with a gripping mystery. The best detectives for these type of mysteries are the ones that have personal demons of their own or where the case involves them specifically. In this case, we have Miranda whose emotional baggage is ever present. After what happened before with her ex and daughter, Miranda's nerves are on edge and her senses are sharply acute all symptoms of PTSD. However, she is also able to use that private pain to help others. She can put herself in their situation, because she had been in their situation before. Miranda empathizes with the victims and sometimes with those who commit crimes because she can see where they are coming from.

Besides her observational and empathetic skills, Miranda is a good detective good enough that Parker puts her in charge of the investigation. Besides leading the inquiries, she answers media questions and challenges the mysoginistic Sgt. O'Toole who isn't happy about working with a woman.

Parker isn't as developed as Miranda, but he proves to be as competent and dedicated to the pursuit of justice as his wife. He is caught between believing in Miranda's abilities to solve the mystery and concern for her because of all that she had been through. One nice touch that the duo have is they use their original last names and don't let people know that they are married. It's hard enough for a woman like Miranda to be taken seriously in detective work, acknowledging their marriage would only further complicate things. When police officers or suspects look at Miranda, they are able to see an investigator that happens to be a woman rather than the lead private investigator's wife. Their hidden marital status make them equals.

Besides the detectives themselves, the mystery is pretty fascinating. The deceased, Ambrosia Dawn, is the typical murder victim that spent a lot of time cultivating a public image of beauty, charm, and kindness but those closest to her could see the bad tempered violent bitch underneath. There are plenty of suspects that could have killed her because they have all felt her wrath. Her husband, Cameron, a former Elvis impersonator is very emotional but seems to be keeping extra company during the grieving period. Ambrosia's sister, Blythe, stood behind the scenes and now has her chance in the spotlight. The cook, Suzie, who has been at the bad end of Ambrosia's rants and knows Ambrosia's favorite treats and how to make them just right. Scottie, the bodyguard, has had a few flings with staff members and is just the kind of muscle to drag a woman's body through the desert and hold her down if necessary. It is a house and staff full of potential leads that lead to other clues. Since multiple suspects look possible to be the killer, the resolution is a genuine surprise and is very well handled.

All Eyes on Me is a great mystery in the hard boiled detective genre. It is definitely worth a read. After all, the eyes have it.

New Book Alert: The Family Man: Getting Away With Murder by Anna Willett; Efficient and Engaging Psychological Thriller About Cold Unsolved Crimes Finally Becoming Warm and Solved

 New Book Alert: The Family Man: Getting Away With Murder by Anna Willett; Efficient and Engaging Psychological Thriller  About Cold Unsolved Crimes Finally Becoming Warm and Solved

By Julie Sara Porter

Bookworm Reviews

Spoilers: No matter how long ago a crime occurred, there will always be a demand for it to be solved.  A deceased John or Jane Doe finally has a DNA match and is reburied under their real names. A murderer or pedophile who long ago escaped justice is finally held under scrutiny, has their day in court, and victims are finally vindicated. Sometimes it takes many years for a cold case to get warm.

Anna Willett's The Family Man: Getting Away With Murder shows just such a situation. It is an engaging and efficient psychological thriller about the resurrection of a long ago kidnapping and murder case that has been screaming to get a resolution and how that resolution is finally answered.

Married couple, Marcy and Dustin just moved into a new house. While cleaning out the attic, Dustin sees an old VHS tape. The curious couple watch and are horrified by what they see. No it's not a home video of an embarrassing Christmas or a Tommy Wiseau film. It's much worse.

What they see are four people, two men and two women, bound, hooded, and dressed in their underthings. Three of them recite the same lines and the fourth is defiant to her captors. It doesn't matter. The results are the same. The screen goes dark and it doesn't leave much to the imagination as to what happens to them.

Marcy and Dustin turn the VHS into the police. DS Veronika Pope leads the investigation. They immediately find out that the house once belonged to Thomas Malicourt, a deceased businessman with a wife, April, and daughter, Hannah. To all intents and purposes, he was the ideal family man. But this tape opens up another darker side to him, one that is depraved and violent. 

Unfortunately, Malicourt is dead and has been for sometime. But this case is far from over. The four victims are not identified. There is also a good chance that Malicourt had an accomplice that is not identified and is wandering around unchecked and not caught, looking for a new opportunity to feed off their lust. 

The Family Man intensely pits Veronika's courage and dedication to her job against Malicourt's violent tendencies and sociopathic ability to cover his crime even after two decades. 

Veronika is presented as an interesting lead character without her personal life taking over her role of solving this case. She is a single mother of a teenage son. Both she and her son live with her mother who helps look after the boy when Mom is on duty. Being both a police officer and a mother, Veronika feels very strongly about this case especially after the victims are identified and some of them were only a few years older than her son. This protectiveness allows her to focus on the case at hand until it is solved.

The more Veronika and her colleagues peer into Malicourt's private life, the more that they see what a sick sadistic person that he really was and spent much time hiding that depravity behind an unimpeachable good name. It turns out that the name was all that was good about him. 

Besides using DNA, the police have to rely on old articles and reports of missing people in the Perth area. (Interesting fact: this is the second suspense thriller  that I reviewed this year that is set in Perth, the first being Robert News' The Colours of Death: Sgt. Thomas's Casebook.)

They also interview friends,coworkers, and family members of Malicourt and the victims. The quiet unassuming man of their descriptions becomes a violent unrepentant monster the more that his private life is investigated.

Some witnesses and interview subjects are grateful to finally see justice done and receive answers to the disappearance of their loved ones. Some like Malicourt's daughter, Hannah, are openly hostile and don't want to reopen bad memories. Ultimately, it's Hannah and her family that become the catalysts that result in a break in the case. 

The Family Man is the type of book that reminds their Reader that sometimes it takes time, but justice will be met. 

Weekly Reader: The Love of The Tayamni (The Love of The Tayamni Series Book 1) by T.A. McLaughlin; Complex Science Fiction Series Begins in Outer Space, Ancient Egypt, and 1960's Mississippi

 Weekly Reader: The Love of The Tayamni (The Love of The Tayamni Series Book 1) by T.A. McLaughlin; Complex Science Fiction Series Begins in Outer Space, Ancient Egypt, and 1960's Mississippi

By Julie Sara Porter

Bookworm Reviews

Spoilers: T.A. McLaughlin's The Love of the Tayamni series is complex in theme, narrative structure, and world building but the complexity is what makes it memorable. 

The first book, The Love of the Tayamni, offers an introduction to the overall narrative, story arcs, and characters. Millions of years ago, a species of cyborg humans were forced to leave their home galaxy because of war, disease, and apathy. A group called The Nine or the First Ones brought them to a new world to save their  people. That world is revealed to be Earth and the Nine have names like Osiris, Isis, Nut, Sekhmet, Hathor, and so on. (You might have heard of them.)

The beings that arrived on Earth are called The Tayamni. They  spliced their DNA and taught sacred languages with species that were on the brink of extinction.  Many Earthlings in fact have Tayamni ancestry.

 Many of the Tayamni settled in Kemet AKA Egypt and are human in appearance. They are very spiritual but technologically minded. They believe in reincarnation believing that the body, or ba, dies but the spirit, or ka, will be reborn as is projected for their deceased Matriarch.

Because of their technological advancement, the Tayamni also have far seeing abilities which allows them to see potential destruction in the future and to travel through time into the future to fix the problem. This occurs after the Matriarch dies. Her ka is foreseen to be reborn in the 20th century to a male child who will reconcile both his masculine and feminine sides into a being that exists beyond gender. This future Matriarch will lead the Earth into a new age of peace and spiritual prosperity. 

Unfortunately, the Tayamni also see an alternate timeline in which another alien human hybrid species, the Potacas are going to kill the reincarnated Matriarch as a small child. So the late Matriarch's daughter, Batresh is assigned to go forward to 1960's Tupelo, Mississippi to protect the future Matriarch who goes by the name of Denny Shields. 

Meanwhile, Batresh's husband, Amun, sister, Namazu, and other colleagues are investigating other leads that could bring catastrophic consequences in this timeline that occur on other parts of Earth like Yellowstone National Park, Charleston, South Carolina, and Vietnam. The leads concern another species,The Tlaloc that are also bent on destroying or controlling the planet and are working with or controlling the Potacas to achieve those goals.

The world building that goes into creating The Love of the Tayamni is well crafted with amazing detail. The Tayamni are dissected through their interpersonal relationships, social structure, morality code, and their overall impact with the Earth and their home world. Their species combines ancient spiritual beliefs with futuristic technology. The Tayamni's  connections to Earthlings becomes beneficial for both. The Tayamni are able to preserve their dying race and humans are able to adapt and evolve thanks to the Tayamni influence.

The theory of aliens coming to Earth centuries ago and becoming involved with ancient cultures is almost a joke or a meme now. However, McLaughlin presents a book that not only explores that possibility but does so in a way that becomes believable. 

The Tayamni have a code in which they cannot harm others. However it is not absolute and some like Batresh are told that they can go against the code to achieve the larger picture. This becomes more complicated when the Tayamni reveal themselves as ancient people who still need to learn and that  code is questionable when the enemy wears a human face.

The conflict and themes make the series complicated but McLaughlin wisely limits the first volume to Batresh's experiences. Through her, McLaughlin shows a woman raised as a human with no memories of the home world questioning her existence when her family tells her that they are from another world. She questions her identity and even more so when she is given the task of protecting the future Matriarch (who remember was once her mother but is now a small boy).

While in the 1960's Batresh questions her identity and purpose. She is mated to another Tayamni, Amun, and like all Tayamni is polyamorous. When she meets Jerry, a Mississippian who helps her protect Denny, she has to reconcile her Tayamni lifestyle with her developing human emotions for him. 

Batresh has to struggle with more than the Potacas and Tlaloc who want to do away with the future Matriarch and by extension the future. She has to accomplish her assignment in Mississippi in the grips of segregation during a shameful time of hatred and prejudice in which the Potacas and Tlaloc feed off of. They use that hatred to influence and control humans to do theit vile works for them. Of course in reality, we don't need alien species to commit hateful deeds. On Earth, there are many who are more than capable doing that on their own.

The Love of the Tayamni eases the Reader into the more difficult far reaching complications in the subsequent volumes without insulting the Reader's intelligence and pulls them into the immediate story. It is the first easy step into an increasingly more difficult but 

well written universe.