Tales of Whythenwood by J.W. Hawkins; Bedlam Trances by Nicholas Wagner; Two Anthologies Reach the Dark Side of Human and Animal Nature

 

Tales of Whythenwood by J.W. Hawkins; Bedlam Trances by Nicholas Wagner; Two Anthologies Reach the Dark Side of Human and Animal Nature 

By Julie Sara Porter

Bookworm Reviews 

Spoilers: I have been reviewing a lot of anthologies this year. If you can't say it in a long novel, say it in a short story or novella and these authors do. Do they ever. 

Aside from being speculative anthologies J.W. Hawkins’ Tales of Whythenwood and Nicholas Wagner’s Bedlam Trances would have very little in common. Tales of Whythenhood is a fantasy about talking animals in an enchanted woods and Bedlam Trances is a Supernatural Horror and Crime Thriller about creepy people doing creepy things. But if we dig deeper, we discover that these books have a great deal in common. They are bleak looks that explore the dark side of human and animal nature. One is just more subversive about it than the other.

Tales of Whythenwood by J.W. Hawkins may be an anthology about talking animals, but don’t for a second think that it’s anything like Charlotte’s Web or Beatrix Potter. Think less Charlotte’s Web and more Animal Farm. Less Beatrix Potter and more Watership Down. Less Mickey Mouse and more Maus. It’s a very dark, at times disturbing and graphic fantasy novel that personifies animals with human traits and not very pleasant ones. Many of the traits that the flora and fauna represent include prejudice, avarice, wrath, vanity, aggressiveness, hatred, and vengeance. It is not some sweet adorable romp in the forest. Instead it is a commentary on human nature and it is forthright, savage, cruel, terrifying, beautiful, and captivating.

There are six stories total and the best are:

“Gerald the Mangy Fox”-What could be a decent variation of “Rudolf the Red Nosed Reindeer” where a misfit who is judged by their appearance becomes a hero by helping the people who insulted them instead becomes much more subversive and yet somehow more honest.

Gerald is insulted by other animals, particularly the other foxes because they have beautiful coats and his is covered in mange. The foxes are also facing conflicts with the Great Oak, who is the leader of the Whythenwood. They resent having to give back to the forest what they take from it. Gerald, angry at the other fox’s treatment, starts a chain reaction that affects himself and the other foxes.

Gerald is reminiscent of human outcasts, people who are turned away by others because of their appearance or place of origin. Gerald, like many, grows to resent the treatment that he has been given to the point that he wants bad things to happen to his tormentors and doesn't care if they inadvertently happen to him. He is filled with anger and regret towards those who made him miserable. It makes him an outsider but it also makes him understandable.

We have all had situations like that where we were scapegoated and treated horribly like others. Better people often forgive them and work towards positive things in spite of or because of that derision. Most people to be honest simmer with anger and justifiable hurt. They hurt us so we want to hurt them back. Gerald is like that to the point that he makes deals with wolves and the Great Oak to get even with the other foxes. 

The final pages drip with irony as the results are not what any of the characters expected. It shows a reversal of beauty and ugliness where true natures are shown and exposed. It becomes a test of honesty, kindness, and mercy which reveal the appearance of the souls underneath. 

“The Fall of the Orchid Copse”-This story takes a strange but meaningful look at interconnectivity within countries and how much people claim independence but we are often linked by economic, political, and social interdependence. No one truly stands alone. People buy and sell goods and services. We live off of each other’s work and survive because of those connections.

Some animals of Whythenwood live in the Orchid Copse which is a specific part of the woods that operates by its own laws and regulations. It’s the time of year when the animals of Orchid Copse must decide which one of three animals, selected by the Great Oak herself, will be the leader of the Copse and whether the Copse is to remain an independent area or become a complete part of Whythenwood. 

This novella represents the way various nations are formed and the struggle that many face to become an independent country to themselves or to remain with a larger one and if so which one. There are many questions and arguments made by the various characters whether this is a flawed system or one that works. It doesn’t give any easy answers and allows the characters and Readers to decide for themselves.

Most of this story is seen through the eyes of Sriya, a fiery mongoose that questions this system that she has been given. She wants to know whether choosing only animals that are selected by the Great Oak is a real choice or whether it’s just the appearance of a choice. Is the Great Oak a dictator, an apathetic disinterested leader, or a loving parent watching her children? What does the Orchid Copse gain from maintaining its own complete autonomy from the Great Oak and what does it have to lose? 

Sriya represents the rebel, the one who recognizes the flaws in the system and has the passion to fight against and change it. When a violent action takes place, she is able to gather enough interest and a following for the Copse citizens to seriously consider breaking away from the Great Oak. But it comes at a great cost to their own freedom and security. 

Because it is based on the Hong Kong Umbrella Revolution of 2014, it also recounts what happens when rebellion falters and asks whether idealistic ideas are enough to sustain a community. It’s all well and good to break away from a government, but if there isn’t anything substantial to back it up and an actual plan in place, ideals and arguments are all that remains. 

“The Artfulness of Stupidity “-With all of the sweeping themes of politics, prejudice, and other important issues, Tales of the Whythenwood doesn’t lose sight of capturing good characters inside their fur and feathers. This is a particularly strong character driven piece in the anthology. 

In a colony of beavers, everyone does their part to build their dams and contribute to their community, everyone except Indoli. His outsider status, avaricious manipulative nature, and his insistence on obfuscating stupidity ends up causing problems for everyone in the woods, especially the beavers and himself.

Indoli, similar to Gerald and Sryia is also an outsider but unlike his appearance and his ideals, it is Indoli’s personality that makes him different. Instead of doing the hard work of his fellow beavers, he prefers to scheme and manipulate others. He plays dumb but is actually very clever in seeing problems and potential solutions. 

He is the type that knows where to point and put others in certain directions to acquire his own benefits, retain his own sense of leadership, or sometimes just to get even with others. He is a character who in other stories would become an outright villain. He could be reminiscent of corporate CEO’s or oligarchs who become wealthy not from their own merits, but from the labor of others. They control things from behind the scenes and are so drunk on their own power that they would rather hurt others, even if it means destroying all that they have worked for. They don’t see the danger that could backfire on them and in destroying others, they ultimately destroy themselves.

There is another possibility of Indoli’s character, one that is more positive towards him.Hawkins subverts those expectations of making Indoli a full villain by giving him certain character strengths and also a son, Pickwick whom he truly loves. Instead of being seen as a symbol of corruption and manipulation, he could also be seen as creative. He has a different mindset from those around him that causes him to function differently from the rest of the colony. He may not fit in, not because he chooses not to but because he can’t. This mindset allows him to come up with creative solutions that could be beneficial to the other beavers if they were implemented. Those traits that Indoli has gives him the ability to think and act differently, but also keeps him away from everyone else.

One of Indoli’s most positive characteristics is his love for his son, Pickwick. The young beaver is Indoli’s main confidant and sees the more vulnerable side that he keeps hidden from others. The two are at odds with Indoli’s means and methods, but they are still devoted as father and son. Pickwick doesn’t see a corrupt influence or an iconoclastic eccentric. He just sees his father. Likewise, Indoli doesn’t see a disappointment or one of the mindless herd working on the colonies. He sees his son. He gives Pickwick the love that he often felt was denied him by the rest of the colony and the Wood.

Bedlam Trances by Nicholas Wagner Bedlam Trances by Nicholas Wagner is familiar territory to the blog. It involves graphic horror in many different forms. Most of the stories focus on manipulation and control. One party uses violence and threats in their greatest extremes to control another. There is a feel of unease in each story as the truly violent means are executed and characters are left with broken lives, minds, hearts, and souls.

“Crown of Switchblades”-This story combines crime thriller with psychological horror and does both genres rather well. A criminal gang is caught up in a war between their employer and another upstart. What starts out as a crime spree of violence, public property damage, drunkenness, and debauchery becomes much darker as they run into a strange, morbid, and terrifying cult. 

“Crown of Switchblades” runs on two tracks and because of that the tone is drastically different. The first part is a black comedy along the lines of the Italian Job, Lock, Shock, and Two Smoking Barrels, or any Quentin Tarantino film. It consists of seedy characters having clandestine meetings, bodies tumbling out of cars, and plenty of f bombs shouted by no-hopers. It’s a grim but weirdly comic situation as the gang, particularly the main protagonist, Doss hit spots like pubs and football clubs as though they were just having a Lad’s Night Out rather than breaking the law on behalf of their leader. 

The story then takes a severe turn into something else as Doss and his cronies end up farther away from their city environment into a rural area dotted with abandoned buildings and metal sculptures called the pipe men. They then encounter the people behind the pipe men, a cult who is looking for someone called “The Prophet.” 

Once Doss encounters the cult, he is put in a situation in which he is not prepared. Before he and his friends were able to face these conflicts. They can deal with crime bosses, drug deals, and the occasional violent act. But this cult isn’t like that, they have darker purposes. They have no motives and they don’t care who fits their vision. They want to fulfill it and they draw Doss in a way that is incredibly bone chilling and ominous.

““The Tragic Events Befalling Lizaveta”-The darkness that these stories encounter carries over into the Medieval Era as Oresetes, a monk investigates some strange happenings in a monastery after a novitiate turns up dead. 

The murder mystery is effective as Oresetes and his superior, Wittelsbach investigate the murder and the various leads. The setting of the monastery is deceptively described in the first page which features children playing. It gives the impression of a good kind giving place which welcomes all. But the more that the protagonists visit the cold austere stone walls and the monks keeping secrets, the more an ugly side resonates. 

Things become more apparent when they enter an area called “The Hurting Place.” In a few pages, the secrets are revealed in a bloody violent confrontation. It shows the ancient outdoor Pagan subconscious inside the Gothic indoor Christian surface. It says that inside many law-abiding seemingly upright pillars of the community hides souls that seethe with wrath, sexuality, violence, anger, and hypocrisy.

“Notes from the Yucatan”-This is a very short story which makes the most of its setting to show the eerie sense of dread when one is out on an unfamiliar landscape and how it mirrors the dark souls that inhabit it. The Narrator is searching for a man named Sir Reginald with the help of a guide, Bartholomew. 

The setting has many descriptions of sinister trees, ruins, particularly pyramids, and harsh rain. It seems like the end of the world where someone is listening to every sound and seeing every shape and is in fear of what could be out there, whether it is animal or human. Whatever it is, it is coming for you. Worst of all, the body could be thrown somewhere and never be found.

The fear and paranoia in the setting is mirrored in the behavior of the characters that surround it. It  is like an Edgar Allen Poe story in which the Reader explores the Narrator’s fractured psyche and we see the violence in the main character is just as prominent as it is without. If anything it was even greater within the Narrator. He is not acting out of any motive or or reason. He is violent for violence’s sake, almost like a force of nature around him.

“Hecato’s Dream”-This story takes us to the decline of the Roman Empire.Two guards, Hecato and Rufus chase after an assassin and come face to face with their own mortality. 

This is set towards the end of an era and that is felt throughout the story. There are discussions about Gauls, invading armies, cults springing up, and lawlessness. The Empire that maintained such a wide control over various nations is on its way out the door. With that decline became a decline of structure, rules, regulations, defense things people like Hecato and Rufus were familiar with but had long taken for granted. 

Now during these times, bloody crimes occur but not in a way that feels justifiable or understandable, not for any specific reason. It is because there is no structure and the one that remains is so fatigued by the forces outside that they don’t care about the struggles within. If there are no laws, no one can be punished. If no one can be punished, there is no fear of being caught. Hecato and Rufus’ world is crumbling so they are taking what they can. They know that their time is short, just like that of the Empire and the only thing that they have left is their own violent avaricious angry urges that need to be satisfied. Once those are spent, they truly meet their ends in an afterlife in which they know but can’t accept that an inevitable end is coming. 

“Ceremony”- This story covers similar ground with “Crown of Switchblades” in which a seemingly badass group is undone by a supernatural presence and all of their braggadocio becomes a joke, whereas “Crown of Switchblades” excels in a shift in tone. “Ceremony” excels in dark comedy dialogue. Declyn, an investigator, is looking into  the rock group “The Raging Bastards. His lover, Misty, who is involved with not only him but the three guys in the group is his main contact. Declan’s time with the Raging Bastards begins with plenty of sex, drugs, and rock and roll and ends with blood, guts, and terror, especially after Misty disappears.

The key advantage is the dialogue. Many characters dance around the truth with plenty of strong language, sexual overtones, and violent metaphors. Many of the phrases like when Bastards member, La Roe sarcastically describes the group as “tree huggers preaching peace and love” brings ironic smirks. Other comments like “If I had your eyes, I’d drive us off a cliff” carry an edge of suspense undertones hidden inside the dark comedy overtones.

One of the more interesting aspects of the dialogue is the amount of foreshadowing. After the story is over, it’s worth going back and putting together the tantalizing clues that the characters dance around. The constant references to blood, animals, violence, and aggressiveness spill some of the tea before the entire kettle is knocked over. There are also warnings when people tell Declan that he should stay away and that he doesn’t want to know what Misty and the Bastards are up to. It’s one of those stories that lays the plot in front of you so when you go back and reread it, you think, “Of course, it was there all along!” 

The violence is graphic but detached in a way that makes it more grotesque or comic than scary. The moment when Declan reaches the truth is dripped in irony and gore. The final line is blunt in violence that comes out of nowhere leaving Readers to sort out the aftermath.

The Adventures of Ruby Pi and The Aviation Girls: A Brief History of Flight, Nine Challenging YA Stories by Tom Durwood; Rupa and Her Fellow Geniuses Take to The Friendly Skies in Third Installment

 

The Adventures of Ruby Pi and The Aviation Girls: A Brief History of Flight, Nine Challenging YA Stories by Tom Durwood; Rupa and Her Fellow Geniuses Take to The Friendly Skies in Third Installment

By Julie Sara Porter

Bookworm Reviews

Spoilers: Rupashana Lal Pyradhakrishnan AKA Ruby Pi is back and she brought more geniuses with her. In this third installment in Tom Durwood’s The Adventures of Ruby Pi series, the girl geniuses who conquered the Geometry and Mathematical world now take to the skies. In The Adventures of Ruby Pi and The Aviation Girls, Readers are given nine stories in which characters explore flight in its many forms: through birds, kites, balloons, airplanes, rockets, and spaceships.

Durwood appeals to his strengths by giving good characterization, plot, and setting to help his young Readers understand the mathematical, scientific, and historical themes and concepts introduced in each story. He fits the role of an educator who makes learning fun. 

The best stories in this volume are: 

“The First Manned Flight”- In 1820, Germany, Anke had to use her recent invention of a battle kite to rescue her older sister, Romy, when she was kidnapped by a lecherous nobleman.

In his attempts to drill an educational lesson into his young Reader’s heads, Durwood never loses sight of telling a good story and here he gives an interesting protagonist. Anke is a multifaceted character. She is argumentative with her siblings during their daily routine but fiercely protective of them when it matters the most. She is lazy and slovenly but also industrious during her scientific pursuits. She is arrogant, dedicated, obsessive, curious, intuitive and brilliant, all of the things that make a good scientist and inventor and fortunately for Romy, a good rescuer.  

We get a glimpse of the scientific process as Anke uses trial and error to build her flying machine, calculate its trajectory, and use it to attack the fortress and rescue her sister. 

“Gia Finds a Love”-In WWII, Gia Tomasso a young Italian-American mathematician is called into service to partake in a secret mission to study the trajectory of Japanese fighter planes before they attack Aleutian villages in the Arctic. 

Gia is a sharp, memorable protagonist with immense brain power which she uses in her personal and professional life. She takes charge of the family finances to save them from bankruptcy and her only request before she takes part in this assignment is that her family’s debts are cleared so they now own their apartment building and business. 

The way that Gia takes part in the war effort is very strategic and analytical. She studies the photographs of Edweard Muybridge and is inspired to have step by step photographs taken of the Japanese aircraft. She and Tayra, an Aleutian hunter, fly to various locations to leave tree-mounted motion detector cameras. Then she studies the photographs to find the plane’s weaknesses. It’s a smart plan that ultimately pays off when her information is right on the money.

Besides Gia, the story is rich with other characters. There’s Tayra, who not only guides Gia but uses his hunting skills to save her life and becomes a love interest. Her handler, Sheila and colleague, Tessa show courage and sacrifice in times of great conflict. Above all there’s Daichi Yamada, a Japanese pilot who is on the offensive. He is someone who doesn’t have any extreme devotion to the Emperor (in fact he disagrees with him most of the time) and bears no animosity to the other countries, but he knows that he must serve his country. Daichi is also devoted to his girlfriend and keeps her picture in his cockpit for luck. It’s refreshing to take time in a WWII story to develop both sides of the conflict and see human beings instead of propagandistic stereotypes.

“A Corpse in the Moon Colony Saraswati”- One of the more intriguing aspects of this book is that Durwood is moving out of his comfort zone and exploring other subgenres in his work. The first story, “Flight of Birds” is a mythological tale with no humans that is told from the point of view of birds. The story, “A Corpse in Moon Colony Saraswati” leaves the Historical Fiction past and journeys into the future. It is a Science Fiction short story set in the year 2076 on a lunar colony.

Teen botanists, Mahi Jaat and Saanvi Yadav and their journalist friend, Dhruv  Masal discover a dead body while on routine assignment studying the produce, grain, and orchards in the Botanical Gardens. They receive permission to investigate the body, which is identified as a Russian security officer. The investigation leads them to discover some secrets and conspiracies involving those around them.

There are some memorable descriptions of the Moon colony itself and the details that such a place would have including the topography, industry, technology, population, sociopolitics, education and other facets. Durwood put as much thought into a fictional location as he did to his real ones. He also explores Mahi and Saanvi’s interests in magnetic flight, showing that even in outer space, there are always new theories to test, new inventions to try, and  new discoveries to make. 

Mostly, this is a top notch murder mystery where Mahi and Saanvi use their scientific minds and Dhruv’s communication skills to find the various clues and answers to their investigation. They are intelligent and clear headed enough to find a solution and dedicated to the pursuit of justice to reveal the truth.  

“Ruby and the London, Paris Air Race”- Of course, where would this series be without its eponymous protagonist, engineer, botanist, inventor, mathematician, scientist, genius, amateur detective, know-it-all, Rupa Lal Pyradhakrishnan? This time she is recruited by Lloyd’s of London to do risk assessment at the famed London, Paris Air Race. 

Her detailed notes on aircraft such as the Voisin, the Zeppelin, and the Wright Military are fascinating. She observes each airplane and provides a lot of fascinating information about the aircraft that was available in the 1900’s. Also to think that this was a few short years after the Wright Brothers took their first flight at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina shows how quickly the idea of airplanes took and how engineers and pilots adapted and changed their original concept to fit their needs. 

Rupa also receives another assignment at the Race, one of espionage and suspense. While the race shows a positive side of progress this investigation gives us a darker more negative side. It reminds us that this time was also one of feuding countries whose simmering hatred for one another would soon explode into two World Wars. It also reminds us that those fascinating beautiful airplanes that were once technological marvels would later be used as weapons that would increase with every subsequent war. 

“The Price of Flight”- Rupa isn’t the only character to return in this volume. Another returnee is Isoke, the 18th century Beninese architect from the story, “Isoke and the Architect.” The previous story showed her ascendancy as she was recruited by Queen Nala to create and oversee the construction of water pumps. It ended with triumph for Isoke and a fine patronage from and friendship with the Queen. 

Now, Isoke’s status is diminished. She has been cast out from her village and forced to live in exile. She cares for an injured falcon and faces her own personal insecurities and inner strength. 

Isoke’s relationship with the falcon is beautiful as she tenderly nurses it and teaches it to fly. She also gains the courage and insight that she needs to return one day  to the village and fight for her position. 

Each story comes with notes and commentary from Durwood and other academics that lend their knowledge and expertise to the subjects. We learn more about the concepts that are written and where they fit in with a technology that will always be able to take off. 

September-October Reading List

 September -October Reading List 

Last month started well but illness, injury, bad weather, and a depressive episode postponed the finish until now. So this list covers both September and October

The Fourth Victim (A Belfast Murder Mystery Book 7) by Brian O'Hare 

Tales of The Whythenhood by J.W. Hawkins 

Among Stars and Shadows by Diane Farrugia

Buckingham Mockup by Asif Shaikh

Trigger Point (An Angela Hardwicke Science Fiction Mystery Book 5) by Russ Colchamiro

Whirl of Birds: Short Stories by Liana Vraijitoru Andreasen

What Was Left of Her: A Story of Ghosts by Victoria Hattersley*

BASH: Love Madness and Murder by Michael Bartos

Sailing By Gemini’s Star (The Constellation Trilogy Book 3) by Katie Crabb

Bedlam Trances by Nicholas Wagner

The Serpent's Bridge (The Serpent Series) by S.Z. Estavillo

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Well that's it. Thanks and as always, Happy Reading.

Tales of Whiskey Tango from Misery Towers by James Aylott; Politics, Love, Crime, and Weirdness Come Together in St. Louis Apartment Building

 Tales From Whiskey Tango of Misery Towers by James Aylott; Politics, Love, Crime, and Weirdness Come Together in St. Louis Apartment Building 

By Julie Sara Porter 

Bookworm Reviews

Spoilers: I am quite giddy over the fact that one of the frequent settings this year is my home state of Missouri. It is even better when books are set in St. Louis, the closest city to where I live and consider my home. James Aylott’s anthologized novel, Tales of Whiskey Tango from Misery Towers is the fourth book this year to be set in Missouri, following Somewhere East of Me by Samuel Vincent O’Keefe, The Girl in the Corn, and The Boy From Two Worlds by Jason Offutt. In fact the only books that I reviewed previously that had a Missouri setting were Shaare Emeth (The Gates of Truth) by T.A. McLaughlin, Toward That Which is Beautiful by Marian O’Shea Warnicke, Chasing Dragons: The True History of the Piasa by Mark and Laurie Bonner-Nickless, the short story, “Jewel Box” in Sympathetic People by Donna Baier Stein, and The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn from 2019-2023. So this year definitely made up for the minimal Missouri representation in previous years.

Missouri, particularly St. Louis, makes a heck of an appearance in Tales of Whiskey Tango. It is practically a character itself in a book that is filled to the brim with fascinating characters. It boasts of a group of fascinating weird characters that inhabit a St. Louis Apartment and deal with issues with love, politics, economics, and crime in the Gateway to the West.

In Missouri Towers, nicknamed Misery Towers, a downtown St. Louis Apartment that overlooks the Arch and the Mississippi River, a group of residents are contemplating their life choices: Nick Pipeman is standing on a bridge thinking of the crises that led to his despair; Colton Chesterfield III was the victim of a very strange crime and is currently inside a coffin alive; Mike Love is thinking about some serious love affairs and is racing towards the one who might be the love of his life; Daris Ballic is drunk and prepared to defend his property Missouri Towers with violence if necessary; Sam Robinson is in despair about an affair that ended; Butterfly wants to dance at her job and forget about her troubles; Gloria McKendrick is at the City Museum is anxious about an important decision regarding her love life; Tyrone Booker is covering his police beat preparing for what could be a rough night; Madison Stone is sitting on the rooftop of Missouri Towers observing the chaos underneath and the approaching storm on the horizon. 

The most important character is certainly the city itself. Readers are treated to the various tourist spots like The City Museum, Busch Stadium, The Arch, and Forest Park, and the Enterprise Center, and the teams like The Blues and the Cardinals. But we are given more than that. Aylott knows the city and its people.

We are immersed into the local culture like the food (toasted ravioli, gooey butter cakes, thin crusted pizza, and pork steaks), areas (the wealthy Central West End, suburban South side, working class North side, and impoverished East side, along with neighborhoods like the Loop, The Hill, Dogstown, Ferguson, Soulard, Clayton, Bellefontaine, and enough St. name schools and towns to fill an entire Catholic yearly calendar), colloquialisms (“Where did you go to high school” instead of college and the endless debates whether the state is pronounced “Missouri,” “Missoura,” or “Misery.”), music (many blues, alternative, and hip hop artists got their start there), sports (The Blues winning the Stanley Cup in 2019, The Cardinals winning 11 World Series), celebrities (Jon Hamm, Chuck Berry, Veruca Salt, and Nelly are shouted out), controversies (the tempestuous school board meetings and local elections, the Michael Brown shooting and Ferguson police protests, income inequality, the political division between Conservative Republicans and Liberal Democrats with most of Missouri on one side and St. Louis on the other). 

Aylott gives a total sensory journey for Readers to experience a city that, unless they are local, many may not think about very often. Once read about it, few Readers will forget this fly over city. They may even want to stop by and visit once in awhile.

Tales From Whiskey Tango is a brilliant ensemble of a novel that explores the characters through their interests, personality traits, obsessions, and occupations. They stand out in different ways. Their personal journeys connect with one another by various means. Mike Love is a real estate agent who compares his life to his favorite Bruce Springsteen songs like “Born to Run,” “Born in the USA,” and “Thunder Road.” 

Gloria is a trapeze artist, newly arrived from Kansas and is fascinated by rom coms, specifically those starring Molly Ringwald. Mike and Gloria are weighing a potential romance but workplace conflicts, old flames, and different expectations throw challenges their way.

Mikes’ boss Daris is a Bosnian immigrant turned naturalized citizen and is hyper aware whether he seems American enough to his employees and clients. He treats his properties and sales leads like they are battlefields and his agents like Mike and Nick are soldiers in a war. 

Daris’ top agent, Nick is considered charming but has some very odd fetishes that affect his relationship with Zoe, a former circus clown and Gloria's roommate and is involved in criminal activity that could jeopardize his career.

 Nick and Zoe and Mike and Gloria's romances are observed and gossipped about by Madison whose favorite activities are sunbathing topless and spying on her neighbors.

Sam has an obsession with prostitutes and when he has an assignation with Alice, his latest, he has a notion to make her over Pretty Woman-style to be an ideal companion. But Alice is no Julia Roberts. She gets very tired of being controlled.

 Colton is a billionaire and ex-con whose darker side and hidden disreputability come back to haunt him when he is caught in a bizarre crime involving Reginald, a desperate gunman and Butterfly, an aging exotic dancer. 

As Tyrone tries to keep the peace in a city that is simmering with hatred and racism, he has to get to the roots of various crimes that involve many of the other characters.

Tales of Whiskey Tango isn't afraid to explore the beauty and ugliness of its setting and characters. Everyone is left to their own devices to make choices towards their own conclusion. They and the city lie in wait. 

The book explores each character and what led them and the city into this precarious position where they are waiting for romantic closure, crushing despair, escalating violence, delayed justice, waiting for a decision, to move forward, to live, to fight, or to die. Just like those storm clouds in the horizon, the characters will come and decide fates that they had been moving towards.

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 Samuel 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.

 

The Mantis Variant Book 1 in The Mantis Gland Series by Adam Andrews Johnson; Lunar Naturals: Alpha Squad by V.S. Hall; Two Allegorical Satirical and Topical Science Fiction Novels About People With Special Abilities

 

The Mantis Variant Book 1 in The Mantis Gland Series by Adam Andrews Johnson; Lunar Naturals: Alpha Squad by V.S. Hall; Two Allegorical Satirical and Topical Science Fiction Novels About People With Special Abilities 

By Julie Sara Porter 

Bookworm Reviews 

Spoilers: The Mantis Variant Book 1 in The Mantis Gland Series by Adam Andrews Johnson and Lunar Naturals: Alpha Squad by V.S. Hall are two novels that combine two frequent tropes found in Science Fiction: the existence of people with unusual abilities and an allegorical storytelling style that comments on the fictional world in the book and the real world surrounding the Reader. It is how the two works are approached in content, style, storytelling, and inspiration where the differences lie.

The Mantis Variant is an empowering novel that uses special abilities to comment on marginalized communities and the control that religious institutions have on the people underneath. 

The Mantis Variant focuses on three women who represent different statuses in futuristic Teshon City. Agrell is a member of the Messiahs, a cult that controls the city around them and has brutal means of enforcing that control. During a ritual, Agrell becomes sickened and runs away. Dozi is a street smart thief living by her wits and wants to be a Demifae, a mystic with special powers. Ilya is a Shift who has the ability of flight and has to take cover as her commune of Shifts is destroyed. The three women meet and become involved in the larger struggle between the Messiahs and those that they want to crush like the Shifts and Demifae.

The Mantis Variant touches on many current issues that exist in this fictional environment. The most prominent issues concern the stranglehold and fear mongering that groups like the Messiahs have over the people. They use their narrow minded world-view as a means to control and gain dominance over others, particularly marginalized people like the Shifts. The Messiahs’ influence is vast as Shifts are treated as second class citizens and either huddle up in homeless enclaves or are rounded up to serve their purposes.

 However, it's not enough for the Messiahs to have complete control over their people. They want the Mantis Glands, the glands that give Shifts their powers. Despite fearing the Shifts’ abilities, the Messiahs want to swallow those glands so that they can obtain power. That's what causes Agrell to run away. This inhuman process of not only denying a people's rights to live but to eat them like they were cattle is too far for her.

While the Messiahs represent the upper class in power, the Shifts stand for every minority, immigrant, LGBT person, person with disabilities, anyone who is considered an outsider or the “other.” The Shifts look different because some of their abilities manifest themselves in physical abnormalities. Their thought processes alter so they have highly elevated perspectives. Above all, they are often loyal to each other forming surrogate families to survive this oppression. 

Agrell, Ilyana, and Dozi are taken in by Mystic and his husband,Theolon, a pair of Demifae who give them unconditional support and a plan for the future. They are part of a resistance against the current government and for the first time in a long time or ever, the trio are able to visualize a life without their oppressors. They also have another reason to bond with the young women. The couple’s Shift daughter, Lahari is missing and they need the trio’s help to find her.

Agrell, Ilyana, and Dozi form a formidable trio that aids the resistance, their new friends, and each other. They begin to see the larger picture of fighting for others rather than their survival as individuals.

They also learn to adapt to their surroundings and evolve as characters. Ilyana has felt cast aside, ignored, and hated by others, particularly her family. Now with her new allies, she accepts her abilities and finds a new family that understands her. 

Agrell was ashamed of her past and what her people did, often hiding much of herself like an empathetic nature or the extent of her powers. With her new friends and partners, she accepts those parts of her nature and personality that have been hidden because of prejudice. 

Unlike the others, Dozi doesn't have any special abilities and actually wants them. She feels insignificant and unimportant surrounded by people who do amazing things. Her evolution comes when she realizes that her street smart intelligence, physical dexterity, and survival instincts are valuable and no less important because she was trained to use them rather than being born with them. 

The Mantis Variant is a brilliant novel that reminds us that there are people who gain control by spreading fear and ignorance. But there are other people who counter that by accepting, understanding, and learning about others and fighting alongside them.

Lunar Naturals: Alpha Squad is definitely inspired by anime with its characters with wide ranging abilities, multiple action plots, and themes of young people rebelling against a tyrannical system.

Vin Sylo is a refugee from Earth and has pyrokinesis. After a fight in which his powers are revealed, Vin is recruited by Roy, the leader of Lunar, an organization inside a space colony dedicated to ensuring peace despite the violent terrorist factions and dictatorial governments that exist. Vin meets his future compatriots: Lae, who is an expert markswoman,  Kyo, who can control darkness, and Kaz, who has extra fast reflexes and movement.

Fans of manga and anime will especially love this book which is a love letter to the Japanese born art form. Many of the situations, characters, and plot points aren't too dissimilar from works like Rurouni Kenshin, Yu Yu Hakusho, The Gundam franchise, Dragonball, Get Backers, and Naruto. It is flashy, exciting, deep, and filled with tension and drama just like its film, television, and literary predecessors.

Vin is the archetypal lead in such works. He is a young hot head who had to get by his wits. Since he's been independent for so long, he isn't used to working with a team. Recognizing other's strengths, weaknesses, and his role within a group setting are the first tests that he must pass.

Most of the book is spent on Vin’s training which involves strategy and combat techniques. He learns to harness and increase his powers. He also learns when to attack, when to defend, and when to retreat. 

One of the best fighting chapters details a match between Vin and Kyo when both of their dark natures are unleashed. Watching the release of Kyo’s alternate demonic personality unnerves Vin but also pushes him to release the physical and psychological toll that his friend had been suppressing. He empathizes with his friend's plight and also recognizes the parallels between Kyo and himself with his own unchecked powers.

He has a similar situation with Lae when he is sent on assignment with the rest of his crew, Alpha Squad. At first he minimized Lae’s contribution and abilities while at the same time becoming attracted to her. When she takes their enemies down, he recognizes the full extent of her abilities and that she in many ways is Vin’s equal even superior in leadership and is able to even out some of the rougher edges of Vin’s personality as he does for her.

Anime fans in particular will love Lunar Naturals: Alpha Squad. But anyone looking for a good Science Fiction novel that explores young people discovering their own power against oppression will also enjoy it too.