The Midnight Library by Matt Haig; 1,000th Blog Post is About a Captivating Enchanting Library of Lives

 

The Midnight Library by Matt Haig; 1,000th Blog Post is About a Captivating Enchanting Library of Lives

By Julie Sara Porter 

Spoilers: Wow, 1,000th blog post! 9 years! It has been quite a ride! I have been a Book Reviewer longer than I have been anything else and I love it! 

There have been so many authors, so many books, and so many stories that I shared. I feel like I have lived thousands of lives vicariously. So it is fitting that my thousandth review should be The Midnight Library by Matt Haig, a Contemporary Fantasy novel about a library that tells of several potential lives of one woman. 

Nora Seed attempts to take her own life. When she wakes up, she finds herself inside The Midnight Library. The librarian, Mrs. Elm tells her that it is filled with books that represent the various lives that Nora lived had she made different choices. All she has to do is choose one and she is transported to become that particular Nora in that particular reality.

This book has an amazing concept with wonderful themes of choice, regret, memory, loss, possibility, personal happiness, and finding one's true path. The library itself is filled with an endless collection of books, lives, that are untitled and unmarked. They seem to convey sameness and monotony, but instead the stories inside provide a variety of lives with different situations, experiences, and memories.

Nora is the right character for something like this to happen (even if her surname, Seed, and Mrs. Elm’s names are a bit on the nose.) Nora works at a music store and despairs over missed opportunities and lost career paths. She has broken romantic relationships and is estranged from family members. Her life is just going through the motions and feeling like she isn't a part of anything. She feels that her life is one of past regret and barely living in the present.

The lives take Nora through various situations. In many ways, this book is similar to the movie Everything Everywhere All At Once, which presents another woman entering various realities based on different worlds and choices. The realities come from different initial choices. Then those choices result in other outcomes. Some good, some bad but eventually lead to her becoming a more sagacious and perceptive person because of her experience with them.

Nora becomes a pub owner, animal rescue shelter worker, an Olympic swimmer turned public speaker, rock star, climate change scientist, and philosophy professor among other careers. Her family and love life fill the gamut from single, cohabitating, in romantic relationships, married, divorced, to widowed. Her friends are still in touch, grown apart, connected on social media, lost because of breakups, or are completely out of her life.

She is childless, had various miscarriages, has one or two children. She has plenty of pets, allergic to animals, or had pets that died. Her parents are divorced, widowed, still together, both dead, or out of her life. Her brother is estranged from her, supporting her, acting as her manager, alive, or dead. She can be healthy and destined to live a long life, sickly and dying, physically healthy but suffering from various psychiatric disorders, or caught in a serious catastrophic accident.

It's exhausting and also exhilarating keeping track of the various realities, moving along Nora’s life paths, understanding the changes, and finding out the knowledge and wisdom that she obtains from them. Each reality is different but tells a complete beautiful story of a woman receiving the opportunity to explore all of her potential lives to find the one that fulfills her the most.

That is the secret to the various realities. All of them have positive and negative aspects. One where she is rich and famous could also see her as depressed and suicidal. One where she married an ex boyfriend that she still has feelings for gives her lots of friends but various marital problems. 

One where she travels and sees many great places reveals that she experiences them alone. Another where she works for important humanitarian causes puts her in Nihilistic despair when she believes that nothing will improve. Even when she is in a mostly happy reality, there is something that she lost or gave up on. Even when a possibility leads to negative results, she can find something positive inside it. 

The point of the novel is not to find the perfect life or the life where Nora left the biggest impact. It's to find the possibilities that surround her and in turn us. It's for all of us to recognize the hardships and appreciate the pleasures. To find meaning and existence in living no matter the reality. To find everything instead of nothing. In my case, to find the meaning and possibility that exists in every story. All 1,000 of them.

Tom Ryan's Shoes Legend of The Banshee Castle by T.A. Keenan, Sketch by Ros Hill, and Whispers of Blue Ridge by Nina Purtee

 

Tom Ryan's Shoes: Legend of The Banshee's Castle by T.A. Keenan

This review is also on Reedsy Discovery.

T.A. Keenan’s Tom Ryan's Shoes: Legend of The Banshee Castle is a gentle slice of life, a dramatic account of life at the beginning of the Irish Potato Famine, and an engaging folktale involving witches, curses, and finding true love. Most importantly, it is a masterful example of storytelling by Keenan writing the book the way someone would verbally relate their family history.

In 1933, brother and sister, Tommy and Molly find a steamer trunk full of papers that belonged to their mother, Lizzie. Most of them consist of Lizzie's handwritten accounts of their family history, stories that she told her children out loud. Molly’s thoughts wander to a specific story that Lizzie told in 1897.

Lizzie's story focuses on her father, Tommy and Molly's grandfather, Tom Ryan in 1846 during the Potato Famine. After being rejected by his girlfriend’s parents, Tom goes to work on his family farm, mostly walking the family pig to market. Along the way, he is accompanied by his cousin, Frank. During this day, the cousins encounter various people and situations. 

The most fascinating person that the Ryan Cousins meet is the Bean Feasa or the Hag, a woman of knowledge, witch, healer, and midwife who crosses their path many times. As they are going about their business, she is going about hers blessing or cursing various people and requesting that they leave specific offerings as a reward, bribe, or a peace offering.

The story of the Ryan Cousins and the Bean Feasa conveys various situations that run the gamut from commonplace, humorous, romantic, tragic, disturbing, eerie, bizarre, uncanny, and magical. Keenan weaves the ordinary and mundane with the ethereal and otherworldly rather well. He depicts the voice of Ireland in a specific point and time by interacting the natural physical world with the unseen and invisible world.

Keenan captures the Irish milieu well by making each character unique. We see the peaceful farmlands, rolling hills, the recognizable accents and colloquialisms. Above all, there are the quirky characters.

 There is a crotchety taciturn neighbor who makes his opinions about everything known. A couple carry on an extramarital affair under the clueless husband's nose.There is a snobbish nun who can't believe that she is stuck in this backwater area. She is from France for crying out loud! Trouble making twins plan bullying shenanigans for the lulz.There is a lot of humor and charm in these looks at everyday life.

However this is not a book about fluffy nostalgia with only a postcard look at rural Ireland. All of the charm and humor is used as a front for the darker edges that appear because of the trying times of English oppression, crippling famine, and religious dominance. Sometimes the humorous moments are intertwined with the tragic. 

Tom and Frank see the various struggles that their friends, neighbors, and others are going through. Many characters are facing unemployment, starvation, and are considering leaving Ireland forever. While alcoholism is prevalent throughout, the historical context suggests that it is used for people to sedate their troubles away when they can't move up, out, or forward.

 There is an ongoing English presence of upper class land owners who look down on the locals with disdain and ownership that they can do whatever they want to these people and face no repercussions (at least until 1916 but that's another story entirely).

The cousins see lads and lasses kept from each other by income, religion, or their own personalities perhaps in desperate attempts to either move up a social status that doesn't include hunger and poverty or to hold onto a family legacy and culture before it's forced into extinction.

 A Magdalene Laundry is an important scene as we encounter young unwed isolated expectant mothers. A pharmacist sells abortifacients and other medicines on the side for those who don't want to bring children into such an uncertain world. A single mother is resorted to begging for food with her children. 

By far one of the most heartbreaking moments occurs when Tom and Frank see the bodies of an elderly couple floating down the river. It is implied that they committed suicide. Besides this image, the most disturbing aspect is the indifference displayed from Tom, Frank, and everyone else.

 Aside from the usual duties that come with fishing the corpses and planning for the burial, there's no grief, no mourning, no investigation. Just talk about whether the burial will be a church burial. It's a weariness that accepts that things are bad and are only going to get worse. 

Thankfully the darkness is only a part of the story and is tempered by the quirky charm mentioned earlier and the fantastic aspects. There is talk about ghosts and spirits in the atmosphere. A little man appears in various pages and dispenses uncanny advice and might be a leprechaun. A beautiful woman is compared to a leannain sidhe, a beautiful fairy that takes a human lover. There are references to a castle that might be haunted by the banshee, the wailing female spirits that predict the death.

By far the most enchanting character of the story is the Bean Feasa. She is able to see what people are really worth, recognizing their virtues and vices by sight and a few words of dialogue. She knows secrets that many hypocritical authority figures hide and calls them out on their promiscuity, crimes, corruption, and abuse of power. 

She acts as the words of vengeance, perhaps the voice of a people who have had enough. She curses them then offers to remove them in exchange for food and other items. She uses her own fierce reputation as leverage.

However, the Bean Feasa is not unkind. She also rewards good behavior and foreseeable fortune such as when she tells Tom that he will find true love. As before, she does this in exchange for food and other goods. While they probably are for her (even witches have to eat after all), we learn that there are more heartwarming reasons. They reveal that this stern, baffling, eccentric crone is probably the most moral ethical character in the entire cast and the real heart of the book.

This book uses the power of Lizzie’s storytelling to ensure that these people, their real world, their legends, their world will never be gone. Not as long as there is another generation to hear and read it.

Sketch by Ros Hill

This is a summary. The whole review is on LitPick.

Sketch is on the surface a witty meta fictional satire about superheroes and the comic industry but underneath it is a deep nuanced clever work about creativity, free will, and finding one's own purpose and agency.

In 1967, Charles, an illustrator, while on a trip to Egypt received a bottle of magic ink. Heba, the mysterious seller, suggests that with all of the problems in the world, he should draw a superhero. He does and creates Sketch who comes to life and is given powers through Charles' drawings. However, where there are superheroes, there are always supervillains and Sketch is no exception. His archenemy is the Finger Gunman who knows about the ink and wants to use it for his own destructive means. This rivalry ends in grief and tragedy.

40 years later Sketch finds Sid, a young man with a connection to all of the goings on from the past and needs him to confront his former enemy once more for their final battle.

There is some brilliant commentary about superheroes and comic book culture such as Sketch and The Finger Gunman playing their expected roles to the hilt particularly the end when The Finger Gunman has Sketch and Sid captive in his lair and monologues because of course.

Despite the humorous references, there are some interesting questions raised about the creative process, maturity, and choosing one's path.

In their first few minutes of creation, Sketch and The Finger Gunman only possess the knowledge their creators gave them. They know names and goals but don't have the ability to understand why or how to act towards them. In both cases, they have to make the choice to be a hero or a villain.

This shows that a creator, or a parent, gives the tools but they have to decide what to do for them. Charles may have drawn and wrote Sketch's powers, but he had to choose to use them and take the path of a hero. The Finger Gunman was created for the same purpose, but he chose the alternative. 

Whispers of Blue Ridge by Nina Purtee 

This is a summary. The whole review is on Reader's Views 

Nina Purtee’s novel Whispers of Blue Ridge has a beautiful rural Southern small town setting. It has a charming romance between a couple that goes from meet cute and flirtation, to making love, to making long term plans, to potential soulmates. It's a nice trajectory but underneath all of the light surface sweetness, there is a dark undercurrent of actions that are results of secrets, affairs, the failures of maintaining perfection, and death.

Vintner Savannah Gray runs Graystone Winery in Blue Ridge, Georgia after the deaths of her parents and grandmother. The upcoming wine tasting festival is an important event and coincides with the arrival of rodeo champion Jake Rollins who is looking for sponsorship from Graystone. Jake’s arrival opens family rivalries and long buried secrets that resulted in a serious car accident that took lives and left many physically and emotionally destroyed. The memories force Jake, Savannah, and other characters to come to terms with the revelations that could change their lives forever.

Jake and Savannah are a fairly decent couple. Savannah struggles to hold onto her family business and care for her aging grandfather. She also has her own personal goals that put her in conflict with her family responsibilities. She is torn between her loyalty to her family and pursuing her own happiness. 

Jake fits the rugged outdoorsy cowboy and love interest without much depth beyond that type of character. He doesn't come into his own until he reveals that he was involved in the accident that left him scarred, traumatized, and amnesiac.

The accident forces the characters to come to terms with the difference between the reality and the image that they tried to convey. The setting of Blue Ridge is one of those idyllic small towns that live off of maintaining an image of beauty and perfection. . It is a small town where status quo must be maintained at all costs and serious issues are brushed aside unless forced to face them.

When the true events that led to the accident and the subsequent aftermath are revealed, the characters have to weigh the consequences of earlier lies and secrets. Jake, Savannah, and the others have to confront the truth of what happened and how the subsequent years of artifice, pretense, and maintaining a perfect idyllic facade contributed to this catastrophe. 

And Then They Fell in Rome by C.L. Rosario; Magical Realism Novel About Love, Coincidence, Fate, and The Power of a Great Bromance

 And Then They Fell in Rome by C.L. Rosario; Magical Realism Novel About Love, Coincidence, Fate, and The Power of a Great Bromance

By Julie Sara Porter 

Bookworm Reviews 

This review is also on Reedsy Discovery.

Spoilers: C.L. Rosario's novel And Then They Fell in Rome, is a powerful Magical Realism Contemporary Fantasy book that says a lot about love, romance, fate, coincidence, synchronicity, and maturity. Mostly it's a book about the importance of friendship between men. A novel that is largely concerned about romance is told primarily from the points of view of a group of male friends, a circular bromance if you will.

A group of friends called the Troubadours meet up in 2021. They are Freddy Bustamante, Juan Fernandez, Charlie Costa, Brian Verdugo, and Jan Luis Larose and are reuniting for the first time since their Senior year in college three years prior. In the middle of their drinks, laughter, and reminisces, a woman appears. She is called “La Bruja” (“The Witch”) or “The Stranger.” She says that she had been following them for some time, entered the minds, and took the forms of people that they met. 

La Bruja has a challenge for the guys. One of them, Jan Luis, was “compromised on a cosmic level” and is in danger of dying young. The only cure is love. The other Troubadours need to help him find love. To make things even more complicated, La Bruja removes the memories of their conversation from The Troubadours’s minds. So they know that they have to help Jan Luis but not how or why.

The book is rich with moments of magical realism with more emphasis on the realism than the magic with the exception of the appearance of La Bruja who comes straight from the latter. Her presence is reminiscent of Latin American novels that fit the magical realism subgenre. She is a mythical and legendary creature in a real world setting. The guys are talking about everyday things in a commonplace setting then BAM, she appears and moves things in a different direction. 

Most of the book focuses on situations that can be magical, mundane, coincidental, or from a more cynical perspective contrived. When the characters, except Jan Luis, go to Rome, a series of serendipitous moments lead them to the right people at the right time. After one relationship is threatened, one of the Troubadours encounters another woman who is connected to his previous lover.

Conversations and encounters are told through multiple perspectives so we don't realize that characters are supposed to meet and fall in love until it happens. Going down the right street, visiting the right cafe, and looking up at the right time leads to a meeting with the love of a lifetime. Even Jan Luis’s later trip to Rome seems to be fated to occur at that specific moment in time.

Similar to works like One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez and The House of the Spirits by Isabel Allende, La Bruja 's presence is tied to the real world conflicts concerning the characters. However the two books merge magic with politics, war, colonization, authoritarianism, and other global issues. 

The focus of And Then They Fell in Rome is exclusively on personal friendships, romantic attachments, and the interactions between men and women. Romance in and of itself can be considered magical with people looking and acting like the best versions of themselves to attract and enchant someone else. Sexual and emotional attachments are often described in fantastic ways (“She enchanted me.” “He's so charming.” “I am drawn to your presence.”) 

Even the ideas of creating lasting relationships, finding compatibility, and finding that perfect partnership are actions that often resist being analyzed and quantified because there are always exceptions, variables, emotional experiences and situations leading to other potential outcomes. So this book just injects literal potential magic where figurative magic already existed to give a slight nudge to the characters.

Speaking of characters, this book has some well written multifaceted characters. While La Bruja is my personal favorite, the Troubadours and their love interests convey richness and complexity.

The Troubadours are a group that doesn't play on conventional male stereotypes when guys get together. They aren't looking to drink, party, have wild and crazy adventures, and score as many hot willing babes as possible. They are ready to enter the next stages of their lives, as professionals, committed boyfriends, potential husbands, and maybe someday fathers. They aren't looking for one night stands. They are looking for a lifetime.

The complexities of modern relationships are shown through the Troubadours’s romantic experiences as they look for their potential partners. Juan goes through three separate romances before he realizes that he let his jealous assumptions interfere with what could have been a great relationship. One woman leads him to face his regrets so he can change his future. 

Cinephile Brian keeps comparing his love life to favorite films and hopes to find the leading lady in his life. He is faced with the reality that real people don't act according to a script. They need to be recognized for their frailties, flaws, and insecurities, not his fantasy projections of them.

Former frat boy Freddy is caught between two women: Maddy who represents his lost wayward wild youth and Katelyn who offers a chance at adulthood, maturity, realization, and authenticity. He also has a previous close association with La Bruja and is the only one who remembers her conversation with them and sees the truth that no one else does. 

Charlie is tempted to cheat on his girlfriend with unexpected results. This encounter forces him to confront his own thoughts about fidelity, desires, commitment, and adulthood.

 What about Jan Luis, the central focus of these romantic journeys? His past of an unhappy childhood with separated parents and a previous break up of his own have made him reluctant to seek or accept love. He is in danger of closing himself off emotionally and achieving fulfillment only in dreams and fantasies.

The love interest characters are just as brilliantly written. These are characters with their own stories, identities, and agencies. They aren't there solely to fulfill the Troubadours’s romantic desires but are meant to stand toe to toe in equal footing with them. The relationships happen because the characters work on improving themselves as individuals before they become coupled. 

While the romance and magical realism are important aspects of the story, by far the central relationship is not between the Troubadours and their significant others. It is among the Troubadours themselves.

These are five friends, who are brothers in heart and spirit. The conflict of helping Jan Luis find love becomes a catalyst that leads to their own conflicts and questions. They would be unable to evolve without each other. It's easy to recognize that these men deserve romantic love when we see that they are capable of maintaining a filial love. They are there for each other through university, work, romance, and marriage. Chances are their future kids will have not only loving fathers but four honorary uncles that will protect them with their lives.

It's also a kind of brotherly love that inspires change in each other. They aren't afraid to give one another advice or criticism to say exactly what they did wrong and how they can be better people. It is among the best bromances that I have read in recent novels. They aren't just there for each other in good times but bad as well.

And Then They Fell in Rome is a book that is magical, realistic, romantic, and bromantic.

Rising Karma by Eugene Samolin; Pulverize Aiko Rising Book 2 by D.B. Goodin; The Dark Chronicles by Karmen Spiljak

 Rising Karma by Eugene Samolin; Pulverize Aiko Rising Book 2 by D.B. Goodin; The Dark Chronicles by Karmen Spiljak 

Rising Karma by Eugene Samolin 

Spoilers: Eugene Samolin wants to say something with his spiritual novel, Rising Karma. He says it well with a clear message and a protagonist who is caught up in a vision but still retains his humanity. However there are concerns with how the message is shared from a storytelling point of view. It's clear that he wanted to say something important first and write a compelling novel afterwards. Unfortunately, the deficiencies found in the narrative keep the main point from being shared.

Rodney Real is part of a Jewish family who emigrated from Russia during a pogrom and settled in Australia. He is interested in his Creative Writing college class and Missy, an attractive Muslim student. One day he has a vision of the Biblical Tree of Life. This vision and subsequent research leads him to the conclusion that all religions are the same. Particularly the Abrahamic religions of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam come from the same source.

 He is driven to create a new sect, Sion, based on the three paths that combine them. Unfortunately he receives derision and attacks from classmates, professors, members of these faiths, his own family, and the College's Administration Board especially one of its members who has a personal grudge against him.

It's clear that Samolin put a lot of thought into writing about the Tree of Life vision. The Afterward reveals that it was based on a dream that he had and Rodney is a wish fulfillment character who acts in ways that Samolin wishes that he did.

The Tree of Life chapter is the highlight of the book. It is described as a giant tree with uncounted human bodies acting as branches with a strong powerful presence of God to the side. Rodney sees Biblical figures and ancestors all the way to his grandfather. It is a vision of warmth, belonging, history, and acceptance. Rodney sees it as the kind of vision that reminds him of hisvimportance and charges him to find a way to change the world around him.

For a character like Rodney who is curious about his faith and history, this vision is very appealing. He asks questions about his heritage that are dismissed by his father. His dad wants nothing to do with the spiritual path in which he was born into and in turn open up the traumas of Antisemitism and genocide which his family had to carry all of these years. Rodney’s religious calling could be seen as an act of rebelling against his father's retreat away from faith.

It's worth noting that Rodney is wholeheartedly committed to combining various faiths. His relationship with Missy is based on an emotional and spiritual connection that transcends their religions which are often at odds. He goes through the initiation rites for Judaism, Christianity, and Islam as he is learning how to incorporate them into Sion. He is not blinded by one following but seeks wisdom from all of them. Sion seems to be a compromise which takes various teachings, philosophies, rituals, and traditions from other religions to create a new inclusive one. 

As a one on one personal relationship of one man with his chosen path and a spiritual and historical guide, it is well written. Perhaps if Samolin marketed it as a nonfiction narrative of his own experience, it might be better. Unfortunately that is not what we get.

As a writer of Jewish history and spirituality, Samolin is fine. As a novelist, he needs work. 

Because the book is written from Rodney’s third person point of view, we see everything from his eyes. Therefore, the book is written without any nuance, subtlety, or character depth.

Everyone is over written as either enemies or followers with no in between. Antagonistic characters, particularly one of the Administration Board members, are not just against Rodney's views. They are maliciously bound to silence him. 

There is no understanding of why they take such an approach and one is even possessed by a demon. This is a subplot that raises more questions and concerns about personal human responsibility. They are just evil because they oppose Sion. That’s all without any understanding about why they oppose it. The objections that are raised end up being hand waved without any real resolution.

The book raises some interesting concerns. Sion is a loaded term and many who emigrated from Palestine like Missy’s family are not unreasonably troubled by it. They came from a country where Zionism was often cited as a reason for people to get away with horrible crimes. In fact all three religious branches have histories of cruelty, murder, and animosity which may take several generations to heal. 

On paper, it's not a bad idea to bring them together. Helping them find some common ground and talk about concerns and prejudice is a good start. There are also plenty of historical and mythological commonalities that actually suggest that various pantheons and faiths have similar stories, archetypes, and beliefs. 

But it is naive and overly idealistic to assume that the people who follow those faiths will instantly abandon their old beliefs to embrace this new one.

 Rodney’s ideal plan only treats the spiritual aspects but ignores the very real physical, political, and historical conflicts that surround them. This is one of those types of situations where Rodney should let his actions do the talking. Instead of creating a new religion, he could have created an interfaith organization that bridges those divisions rather than force more contention on them. Perhaps he could incorporate social events and have real conversations with people who practice these faiths instead of assuming that he knows best and speaks for all of them. Not to convert them but to understand them.

The other concern is that the objections that many of the antagonists give can be reasonable from an outside point of view. If someone suddenly started going on about a religious vision, wanted to create a new sect even to the point of creating an official religious organization, and started using loaded, absolute, and exclusive terms could lead to quite a few possibilities. One is that it's a genuine vision and could lead to enlightenment. But another strong possibility is that we are reading the origin story of a cult leader especially when Rodney throws out more volatile, absolute language like insisting this vision leads to the one true faith. 

To his credit Rodney is never written as someone fatalistic or dogmatic. He is a nice guy who wants to share this vision with others but like many with a new outlook lacks the patience, foresight, or subtlety to gently lead people to it on their own. He is like many young people who grab an idea and won't let go of it. He lacks the filters to be gradual in his interests. As he faces continual challenges, however his character becomes muted by his views and becomes less of a person and more of a mouthpiece for his views or more specifically Samolin’s views.

Samolin clearly wanted to write a book that dealt with his personal spiritual journey then he should have written that book. Unfortunately, he gave this belief to a novel that is too unfocused and too one sided to be a compelling work of fiction.

Pulverize (Aiko Rising Book 2) by D.B. Goodin

Spoilers: Pulverize the second book in D.B. Goodin’s Aiko Rising series is an unsettling Science Fiction and a solid Family Drama.

13 year old Aiko Takahashi wakes up from a coma to find herself accused of a crime that she didn’t commit and sentenced to juvenile detention. Malcolm, a sinister figure at the center of this conspiracy, wants access to Aiko’s mother’s research and technology. 

When Aiko refuses, she is subjected to mind control experiments which awaken hidden powers, rage, and a desire for revenge inside her. Meanwhile Aiko’s uncle Hiroto is looking to save the girl with the help of his AI Kaen. 

The book is very disconcerting as certain moments occur out of time and place because of Aiko’s fracturing mind. She has nightmares of abuse, accusations, and torment which might be real but could be just as easily implanted into her head. While in prison, she compulsively writes numbers and phrases that she doesn’t understand like she is possessed.  

All of this is meant to fill Aiko with unease. If she can’t trust her own thoughts and actions, how much of a defense can she build against outside forces like Malcolm and his cohorts?

If torturing Aiko doesn’t work, Malcolm isn’t above using others to break her. He threatens her adopted family so that even when her sisters visit, there are suspicions that they are being manipulated by outside forces. A fellow prisoner that befriends Aiko is set on fire right in front of her. An enigmatic character named Operator 47 seems to know more about Aiko than he is telling. 

Aiko can’t trust her mind and body and now can’t trust that the people around her won’t betray her or get killed right in front of her.

Despite all of the uncertainty, there is a concrete more straightforward subplot. That of Hiroto researching his niece's whereabouts. He is a steady presence throughout the novel gathering information and interrogating others with dogged perseverance and obvious affection for this girl who is like a daughter to him.

In the chaos surrounding Aiko’s captivity and betrayals, Hiroto is the much needed order and sanctuary. He is the home that she needs and the adult who sees Aiko as a person not a means to an end.

Dark Chronicles by Karmen Spiljak

Spoilers: Sometimes with anthologies, the whole package is great. The set-up is immediately gripping, the characters are memorable, the plot builds in a proper manner, a twist is revealed which makes sense because of the evidence that was previously provided, and a resolution neatly ties up loose ends. Because it's a short work, the details have to work together or the whole project often falls apart. That isn't always the case and sometimes the work can survive with some weak details but it is still very noticeable. That is what is at play with Karmen Spiljak’s Horror/Dark Fantasy Dark Chronicles.

It's not a terrible anthology. The set-ups are well done and the paces are kept at just the right speed. They draw the Readers with the ominous energy and the dark presence of the fantastic unsettling images and words. Unfortunately, the resolutions aren't that great.

The plot twists are mostly predictable and pretty easy to guess especially if you watch and read similar anthology series like Twilight Zone, Outer Limits, Black Mirror, Tales From The Crypt, and so on and so forth. Most of the stories just kind of stop with no real pay off. 

To Spiljak's credit other speculative fiction authors have this same problem. Stephen King’s works are notorious for their lacking resolutions, but great build ups. What do we remember the most about IT, Pennywise the Clown dropping in and out of pictures and peering at Georgie from inside the sewer or the weird spider thing that can be taken out by a simple slingshot? I always found the ambiguous fear of an H.P. Lovecraft cosmic horror demon far scarier before arrival when the mention of its name and hints of its appearance spread insanity rather than the actual presence of an ancient god taking the form of a giant squid.

Spiljak is still new and has plenty of time to improve her craft but she's in good company when it comes to having difficulties ending her work. 

Spiljak knows how to grab a reader's interest.She knows how to keep them there. But she isn't the best at sending them off. Nonetheless, there are some decent stories to recommend.

The five best are: 

“A Celebration”

This story makes use of the sight of a limitless barren road and the sound of an intrusive podcast to create a sense of unease.

Donald, a businessman, returns from a triumphant day at work to his loveless marriage. Along the way he drives down an unusual stretch of road and hears a podcast host reveal some things that hit too close to home for Donald.

Quite possibly, this story is a dig at another infamous Donald with a dubious reputation and overall unpleasant behavior but for now this is mere speculation. What it is is an exercise in how a limited setting and a small device can create a terrifying discomfort with their juxtaposition.

The twist is easy to guess which makes the resolution anticlimactic but the paragraphs before reveal the spiraling descent of a man who is on top of the world only to fall down. He is haunted by a place in which he is unfamiliar and a voice revealing things that are all too familiar.

“Andy”

The rivalry between humans and AI has never been more relevant than now with AIs not only looking and sounding like us, they are able to take on human thought, emotion, creativity, analysis, and physical and verbal nuances.

Fre, an executive, volunteered to test Andy, an AI personal assistant. Fre thinks that Andy will do the boring admin clerical work while he does the Big Picture visionary thinking of a CFO in the making. Unfortunately, that's not what happens here as Andy takes on more human characteristics and responsibilities.

Now under normal circumstances, this type of conflict conditions us to side with the human and there is some of that here. It's perfectly natural for Fre to fear for his job and size Andy up as his competition. But there is something paranoid about his process from the beginning.

 Even while Andy is only doing the original admin work, Fre is already suspicious about him. It makes one wonder if Fre’s tension isn't because Andy is AI. Would he feel this way about a human colleague? Is this less about oversaturation of technology and more about one man's ego? This thought puts some of Fre’s later actions under suspicion. He isn't trying to reject or adjust to a tech heavy world. He is trying to own and control it.

“The Blaze”

While most of the story's endings are anticlimactic or arbitrary, the endings to this and the next story kind of work particularly within the context of the stories themselves.

Anita Del Rey, an aspiring actress visits the grave of her favorite movie star, Lilian Gladstone, and thinks about her own stalled career particularly her rivalry with Tatiana, another actress. At Lillian's grave, Anita lights a candle and wishes for fame and for Tatiana to have a little accident that puts her on leave. Anita's wish comes true almost instantly.

Anita's journey is fantastic but it is also an extended metaphor for the real life rise to fame which does not require a lit candle and spoken wish. It is usually talent, attractiveness, determination, who you know, notoriety,continuous presence, and/or a combination of all of the above.

Anita goes through the constant media presence, the micromanagement of her life, the fast pace, and especially the jealousy of another rival with breakneck speed because of her wish. Fame arrives before she is prepared for it, making her climb and her fall even faster. 

It also is indicative of the times that she can't enjoy a slow rise or a long career in the spotlight. As quickly as Anita rises, someone else climbs. Someone  younger, better looking, more conniving, impatient, and also has a candle, a lighter, and a need to spend time with the dead. The ending works because it reveals that the cyclical nature of fame is the same for everyone. It is continuous, unstoppable, and only the faces and names change.

“The Reply”

Like the previous story, the arbitrary end also works here for different reasons. While “The Blaze’s” ending was a commentary on the continuous cyclical nature of fame, “The Reply’s” ending is revelatory, calling to question everything that we have learned.

Francesca, a scientist, is emailed messages from a woman named Fran who knows about her research and wants her to end it. She claims to be Francesca from a parallel universe but is she?

The conflict between the two Frans shows how different choices and experiences affected these two women. One has only known tragedy and wants to end it with her actions. The other has scientific curiosity and longs to satisfy it with her research.

The ending calls to question how much of the alternate Fran’s claims are real and what her actual goals were. It suggests that in her universe, she lost her empathy and humanity and became a literal danger to herself.

“For a Good Price”

You know those stories about the quaint little shop full of magical items and arbitrary prices? Yeah this story is about one of those. I admit, that is among my favorite tropes because I always enjoy visiting out of the way, book, antique, and New Age/Occult stores. I always imagine what I would do if such a fantastic shop existed in real life.

The Narrator visits a strange convenience store where Nick, the mysterious owner, sells Nick a hat. The price: time from The Narrator's life. It's a strange request, but The Narrator agrees until he realizes that the deadline for his lost time is approaching and he needs to give something else away for the price.

This story has dark edges but isn't as consumed by graphic supernatural horror like the other stories are. Instead, it is more akin to a slightly dark fairy tale in which a character obtains a magical object and finds out too late that everything has a price.

The Narrator is reminiscent of an addict. Now that he has been introduced to the concept of magic solving problems, he keeps going back for a new enchanting solution. He is on a constant mental loop and it's interesting to wonder how much of himself will be given away to feed this fix. Unfortunately, the story ends just as his addiction starts and before we get the full impact. 

Hope in Paris (The Teddy Bear Chronicles Book 1) by Donnalyn Vjota; The Adventures of The We Really Care Bears

 

Hope in Paris (The Teddy Bear Chronicles Book 1) by Donnalyn Vjota; The Adventures of The We Really Care Bears

By Julie Sara Porter 

Bookworm Reviews 

Spoilers: I am going to give a warning before I begin the review. Bear with me now.

Donnalyn Vjota’s book Hope in Paris: The Teddy Bear Chronicles is NOT a children’s book. Yes it is narrated by three plush teddy bears. Yes, it’s a cute concept and there are even some moments that could be considered adorable. But this is a book that is written for adults (maybe teens but adults are the central target audience.) Adult themes like domestic abuse, mental illness, sex, stalkers, mid-life crises, familial abandonment, addiction, and murder are important plot points. Now that's over, on with the review. 

The idea of an adult novel told from the point of view of stuffed animals has potential to be an overly cutesy saccharine fluff piece or a Contemporary Fantasy in which the humans interact with the toys ala Ted or the toys talk to each other ala Toy Story. But despite the odd premise, Vjota actually writes the book, Hope in Paris, as straight and as realistic as she can. With of course the added caveat that the narrators of the book are a trio of stuffed bears belonging to some damaged and helpless humans that need some assistance to make their difficult lives more bearable. 

The three bears are:

Fair Bear was won at the Illinois State Fair by Mark as a gift for his girlfriend, Haley. Haley left and now Fair Bear lives with Mark and his new girlfriend, Kelly. However, the relationship between Kelly and Mark is becoming toxic and abusive and Fair Bear has to be an eyewitness to various violent acts, particularly getting thrown around by this pair of angry humans.

Love Bear is owned by Richard, who is perpetually unlucky in love. He promised his deceased mother that he would settle down and marry the right woman but his ideas about romance are overwhelming. On the third date, he tried to give an expensive gift and Love Bear to them as a marriage proposal which they turn down leaving him alone with his plushy ursine friend.

Sleepy Time Bear is the companion of Ms. V, an American former actress turned drama teacher living in Paris and working at an orphanage. She has mental health difficulties and a mysterious past that gets revealed through the course of the book.

 The three bears and their humans are thrown together in Paris where they end up linked to each other in surprising ways that will give them and the Readers great paws.

One of the most interesting and endearing touches to the book are the bears themselves, their narrative voices, and their relationships with their human companions. It's particularly amusing how the humans take their bears everywhere they go to the store, to a cafe, on a date, on vacation, and just about everywhere else. Of course Vjota did this for narrative purposes so the bears could report on important plot points but there are deeper possibilities. It could be that they are that lonely and desperate for someone, anyone to talk to, confide in, and hold onto even if they can't move or talk back to them. 

The bears awaken those inner children who used their imaginations to find a temporary escape from their sadness and despair. Having a Bedtime Bear Care Bear on my bed who watches with Grogu, Sadness, Hilda The Plush Witch, and Trixy The Plush Black Cat as I work from home, get depressed, have panic attacks, stress about deadlines, get lost in a book, and ruminate about middle age, I completely understand the need to have those comfort objects when we just can't bear it any longer. 

These characters’ emotions run the gamut between too hot, too cold, and just right.They alternate between childlike naivete and deep awareness. There are things that they don't completely understand about the human world that surrounds them. For example, Sleepy Time Bear confuses one of Ms. V's psychotic breaks with a play rehearsal. It just assumes that she's talking in character and playing a role when one of her alternate personalities or delusions take over.

This childlike innocence gives them an empathetic understanding towards their human friends. Sleepy Time is presented by Ms. V at night to orphans who can’t sleep. It is also there as a friend shaped shoulder to cry on when Ms. V is overwhelmed by her illness and estrangement from family members. Sleepy Time Bear is a silent observer that loves her and never judges her and instead opens its furry arms in comfort and acceptance.

Sometimes the bears are wiser than the humans. That is particularly true with Love Bear and its relationship with Richard. While it is a bear that represents romance, Love can be very sardonic and frequently snarks about the human friend. After observing Richard missing flirtatious cues from a woman named Rachel, Love Bear practically face-paws with embarrassment from inside its bag. “The man does not know flirting even when it's standing in front of him and named Rachel,” Love fumes. 

At times, Love practically acts as Richard’s wing man uh bear observing his companion’s dates and commenting on his failures and successes. However, Love is also aware that Richard is lonely and wants to love and be loved. He just doesn’t know how to pursue it and has overblown fantasies about what it should mean. Once he learns to slow down and let a relationship take its course, Richard is able to show himself to be the nice sweet slightly geeky but solid dependable guy that Love Bear knows him to be. The type of man who anyone would be interested in taking their relationship fur-ther.

The book gets incredibly dark particularly during Fair Bear’s chapters that focus on Kelly and Mark’s troubled relationship. There are moments of anguish when Fair observes Kelly getting beaten and threatened by her boyfriend. It wants to do more to help but knows that it is limited since it's just an inanimate object and unable to physically help her. It’s just an object for her to cuddle and pour her heart out to when she can't take it anymore.

However, a twist occurs in which Fair turns out to contribute more than just comfort for Kelly. In fact, it becomes an important clue that inspires Kelly to leave Mark and find evidence against him when she learns of his criminal history. She is grateful for Fair Bear’s unintentional assistance and when she finally departs, she takes the grateful bear with her. Kelly definitely chose the bear but this time the bear also chose her. 

The teddy bears in the book may be inanimate and unable to actually communicate with their human friends but they are also catalysts for them to change and improve their lives. To leave broken relationships and dead end jobs. To find real love. To rediscover their roots and reunite with people they thought were gone from their lives. To reinvent and rediscover themselves. To become self-actualized and authentic. They reached for the bears for companionship and to soothe aching hurts and instead changed their lives for the better. Thanks to their furever friends. 

The Fallen Dreamer: The Seers Storyteller Edition by Kevin G. Broas; Philosophical and Metaphysical Themes Are Highlights of Magical Kids Novel

 The Fallen Dreamer: The Seers Storyteller Edition by Kevin G. Broas; Philosophical and Metaphysical Themes Are Highlights of Magical Kids Novel

By Julie Sara Porter 

Bookworm Reviews 

Spoilers: Okay yes, Kevin G. Broas’ The Fallen Dreamer: The Seers Storyteller Edition, is another book in which teenagers obtain supernatural powers and explore the consequences and responsibilities that are tied to them. But there are some deep philosophical and metaphysical questions, details, and themes that are intrinsic to the book and keep it from being a hoary superhero/magic user plot.

Johnny is a teen who emerged from a cave collapse possessing extraordinary abilities such as flight, precognition, and clairvoyance. They are activated by Johnny manipulating clusters of invisible blue energy strands around his body. Excited by this discovery, Johnny shares the news with his best friend, Jake and girlfriend, Brooke who also gain those abilities. As the trio become more powerful, they discover darker purposes for these powers. Not only that but others become involved. Other people also possess these gifts. Supernatural creatures, called Spooks and another creature called The Taker absorb their powers by destroying the human body. Then there's Johnny who is acting stranger and more unpredictable the longer he has these powers.

This is a Contemporary Fantasy about kids discovering magical powers that isn't afraid to get deep and touch on various themes such as the ego, human nature, dreaming, the subconscious, the notions of good and evil, and what it means to truly have godlike powers inside a human body with its vulnerabilities, frailties, and best and worst personality attributes.

Johnny explains that they have to shift the blue energy strands that surround their clusters to harness these abilities. The key he says is in learning control and not letting worries, distractions, and anxieties or other thoughts and emotions drain their energy. Most importantly, it involves killing the ego and foregoing material and physical trappings. That includes relationships which feed the ego and binds the soul to the illusion of the physical world. 

Once the ego falls, so does the energy that holds them to the physical world. They are able to then access a higher metaphysical existence and manipulate forces outside their limited experiences. It requires a lot of self-examination and reflection before the strands can be accessed and those powers can be used.

Once Johnny, Brooke, and Jake become acquainted with the idea of seeing and using clusters, they see them everywhere and in everything (though because of their practices, theirs are stronger and brighter). Seeing the clusters surrounding other people gives the trio a rare opportunity to control others. In one chilling chapter, Jake tests his powers by moving a bully’s strands so he is severely injured with headaches, nose bleeds, and temporary loss of breath. This causes a slippery slope as they discover that they can use these powers for nefarious purposes like creating hallucinations or telekinetically fighting someone. 

Johnny, Jake, Brooke and the other characters are teenagers. Teenagers by nature are argumentative, surly, emotional, unpredictable, immature, and intolerant. Now give someone with that attitude the powers of a god or goddess and it makes sense why they do what they do with their strands. 

Many people like to think that if they had any type of magical superpowers they might do good things with it like stopping crime or helping people. They might but more than likely they would use it to their advantage the way these kids do to defend themselves against bullies, receive a passing grade, or to win a football championship. In a meritocratic society where we are told to use our talents and win at all costs, many would use whatever advantage that they have to succeed even if it is an otherworldly advantage. 

As they control their strands, they gain higher perspectives. The usual teen talk, high school social hierarchy, dates, and material possessions that once identified their placement in society become mere distractions. It’s practically an ascension into a higher plane of existence. 

Part of this elevated ascension involves altering time and space. One of the most interesting aspects of the book is the continuous references to dreams and astral travel. The characters explore The Dreamer's World which is exactly what it says in the title. It is a vast endless land of silver sand dunes and aurora borealis filling the night sky. This land exists out of time and space and looks like a world before awareness and consciousness. It appears to be barren as though waiting to be filled with memories, fears, moments, the things that dreams store and decode.

The land in the Dreamer’s World shifts as they are faced with challenges like climbing cliffs, fields of grass, and seemingly endless seas. The world is connected to their subconscious and alters itself accordingly. 

The Dreamer’s World is also where The Spooks and The Taker emerge from. They represent their fears, insecurities, all of the ego trappings that had been removed from them. They haunt the protagonists so they can torture them psychologically before they ruin them physically. The fact that they strive to drain Johnny and the others of their powers before destroying their bodies is highly significant. They weigh them down with the egos that they once held so they descend into their human states before they are faced with their mortality. 

In one terrifying chapter, The Taker becomes so powerful that it becomes a natural storm that obliterates Johnny, Jake, and Brooke’s school. This happens during a very key moment as the characters are questioning their own loyalties, allegiances, and self worth. The Taker is fueled by their worst emotions and this threat spills out into the world around them. It changes the physical as well as metaphysical world and creates schisms within both.

Besides the supernatural creatures that threaten the protagonists, they also face threats from within. Some characters take frightening turns with their strands and become intoxicated with power. They use different means from violence to mental manipulation to sway events in their favor. Because of their detached ascended nature, they no longer respond to emotions like empathy, trust, understanding, friendship, or love. They may have removed their egos but they also stripped themselves of their humanity. 

The Fallen Dreamer may be a Fantasy about kids embracing the magic around them, but it also reveals a lot about the constant struggle to achieve awareness and enlightenment while also retaining one’s humanity and the reason that they began this ascension in the first place.

The Girl in The Corn (Girl in the Corn Series Book 1) by Jason Offutt; Set Up is Just as Chilling as The Climax in This Contemporary Fantasy

 

The Girl in The Corn (Girl in the Corn Series Book 1) by Jason Offutt; Set Up is Just as Chilling as The Climax in This Contemporary Fantasy

By Julie Sara Porter 

Bookworm Reviews 

Spoilers: Warning: Before I begin this review, I insist that you read my review of the book, Boy From Two Worlds as this book will reveal important spoilers in this series. I will also reiterate that this review contains MAJOR HEAVY DUTY SPOILERS!!!

I find it an interesting experience to read a book series out of order. Sometimes, it can be very confusing. Sometimes, it can be tedious if the exciting parts happen in the earlier volume so we have to encounter the exposition. Other times, it actually makes the books better especially if you think of them as though they were meant to be written out of order. 

An example of the latter experience falls in The Girl in the Corn by Jason Offutt which is actually the first book in Offutt’s two part series but is actually the second book that I read in the series after its follow up Boy From Two Worlds. Reading the two books in the proper order works in a linear storytelling fashion in which the plot points are introduced, conflicts begin, action builds up to a climax, the events expand in the next volume, characters evolve, the scope of the threat expands, solutions are given, and resolutions are made. 

But Offutt gives his books a unique gift in which they are just as well written out of order as they are in. Instead of thinking of the books as an ongoing series, one can instead look at Boy From Two Worlds as the main book that tells the important story and Girl in the Corn as the prequel that sets up the situation retroactively. They can be read in order or out of order and the Reader would still be just as fascinated either way. 

In Boy From Two Worlds, a mass murder committed by Bobby Garrett sets up a chain reaction that includes the birth of his son, Jakey, by a woman named Marguerite Jenkins, the disintegration of the relationship between Thomas Cavannaugh and his girlfriend Jillian Robertson, and a series of strange events that get stranger. It is eventually revealed that there are fairies that are violent predators who feast on human flesh and live for their suffering. Jakey inherited some of their powers which the fairies want to take full advantage of in their campaign against the mortals of St. Joseph, Missouri

Girl in the Corn takes us back in time to when 6-year-old Thomas first encounters a fairy in his mother’s garden who tells him that he is special. The fairy girl appears throughout his life telling him that he must defeat Dauor, a dark creature from her world. Meanwhile we are introduced to Bobby, who pre-murder is a teenager with violent impulses that are nurtured by a mysterious creature who takes the form of a Girl Scout. Throughout the years, Thomas and Bobby are encouraged, tormented, cajoled, persuaded, and shaped by these strange creatures who eventually pull them into a battle between supernatural forces, the lives and souls of many, and their own sanity. 

One thing that Boy From Two Worlds did well was expand the universe. Weird things didn't just happen to Thomas or Bobby. They happened all over St. Joseph. Through that we got to explore the town itself and particularly its obsession with Wild West outlaw/infamous native son, Jesse James. Exploring the daily realistic life of St. Joseph's residents builds up tension when the otherworldly action begins.

The supernatural incidents vary including bloody ritualistic murder, cattle mutilations, abductions, lost time, mass murder. If you didn't know going into the book series what happened in the first volume, you would be led to believe that anything could be responsible for the strange happenings.

Instead of expansion, Girl in The Corn focuses on intimacy. The events specifically happen to Thomas, Bobby, or someone associated with them. While we lose something in the setting, we gain something in character. It is not so much the supernatural invading an unprepared small town as it is the supernatural affecting two specific young men who happen to live in that town.

Through their separate experiences, the Reader is given contrasting characters that will end up confronting one another. 

When Thomas first encounters the fairy, he is a little boy. She appears as a sweet innocent little girl, one who promises to befriend the young boy. She plays on the portrayal of old fairy tale concepts where fairies were seen as beautiful,helpful, charming, adorable, and innocent creatures. 

As Thomas matures, his meetings with the fairy become more intense and less fanciful. She now appears as a troubled young woman who appeals to Thomas's good guy helpful personality and his insecurities about being average. She builds up his confidence by saying that he is destined to fight Dauor. This plays on Epic Fantasies where ordinary people are given the Chosen One narrative where they are the ones destined to fight evil for…reasons. Of course, this book is a clever subversion of that trope because it asks the question whether the figure predicting the heroism can be trusted and whether they have ulterior motives for what they do.

As with Boy From Two Worlds, Girl in the Corn builds on different genres. While Thomas's journey compared to Fairy Tales and Fantasy novels, Bobby’s story is more grounded in Occult Supernatural Horror. He comes from a religious family and has his own complicated spiritual beliefs so the fairy builds on that. It first appears as a disembodied voice that builds on Bobby’s anxieties and fears of God's judgment. Bobby begins to commit violence to silence those ever growing fears.

As Bobby ages, his spiritual encounters become angrier, more fierce, and graphic. They are reminiscent of his diminishing mental state and growing blood lust. It takes on horrific images like the body of a murdered girl to taunt and rage at Bobby until he does what it wants. If it weren't for knowing what would happen in the next book, it could be entirely possible that this fairy is in Bobby's head. But since we do know, it's a matter of seeing where it's going to go before it reaches its foreseen explosive conclusion.

Reading the series backwards, turns this book into an unfinished jigsaw puzzle. We see all of the sides and colors and are waiting for the whole image to show. “Okay we see Thomas and Bobby,” the Reader might think. “What about Jillian and Marguerite? When is Jakey conceived? What about the mass murder?” All of those questions are answered and the pieces fit in ways that make the Readers look at them differently in Boy From Two Worlds or deepen understanding in the second book if we read them in the right order.

Cleverly, Thomas and Bobby's journeys seem to be a battle of good vs. evil but once they face those final confrontations, those lines are less defined. The two young men realize that they were led to this conclusion by not only the magical influences but by their own choices. They were given great gifts to see another world, obtain intuition and knowledge, and to decide what to do with that information. In reading the two books, it becomes apparent that the trouble didn't start with a mass murder in a hospital. It started when a six year old boy met a fairy and chose to follow her.

Red Gifts in The Garden of Stones: A Tale of Grief and Ghosts and One Small Dog by P.A. Swanborough; Mystical and Relatable Novel About Mothers and Daughters

 Red Gifts in The Garden of Stones: A Tale of Grief and Ghosts and One Small Dog by P.A. Swanborough; Mystical and Relatable Novel About Mothers and Daughters

By Julie Sara Porter 

Bookworm Reviews 

This review is also available on Reedsy Discovery.

Spoilers: I come from a family of mostly women with my mother, myself, and four other sisters as well as two brothers. So I understand what conflicts between mothers and daughters are like. That's probably why P.A. Swanborough’s book, Red Gifts in The Garden of Stones: A Tale of Grief and Ghosts and One Small Dog resonates so much with me. It's about four generations of mothers and daughters who get on one another's nerves but still love each other.

The Coombe Family that resides in Ty Merched (The Women's House) are the type of family that invites suspicious rumors and haunting stories from the other residents in the town of Swansea, Wales. There is just something odd and peculiar about them. 

 Lizzie, the matriarch is celebrating her 100th birthday and she spends most of her time talking to the ghosts that live around her house. Her daughter, Myfanwy feels things strongly and is barely hiding an explosive temper. Myfanwy’s daughter, Sarah Maud practically lives in an alcoholic stupor and haunts the local pub. Sarah Maud’s daughter, Jenner wanders through the woods on endless treks and is fascinated by ancient powers that her ancestors might have had. 

The Coombe women have a love-hate relationship that threatens to explode during the week of Lizzie's birthday when Jenner goes missing, old lovers are reunited, pastor Rev. Morgan incites his flock against the Coombes, a group of hippies and other outsiders show up and befriend the family, a friendly dog appears as a guide, and the family ghosts are begging to be heard by the living.

Red Gifts in the Garden of Stones treads a thin line between Contemporary Fantasy and Historical Fiction/Reality. It describes the real conflicts of a family of women in the late 1960’s in rural Wales but there is always a poetic mystical sense of the other world in the background.

At the forefront, we are given a story of four generations of mothers and daughters who vie with each other and the society around them. These are women who alternate between loving and irritating each other.

Lizzie is in mourning for her late husband and family members. Because of her deep grief, she finds it hard to be emotionally close to the living, often creating friction between herself and her descendants. One could see her behavior as signs of Alzheimer's or dementia but there is just as much evidence that she hangs onto those old memories of her ancestors for emotional reasons. The present is too difficult to live with so she prefers the past and willingly withdraws from those around her.

Lizzie's behavior has been going on since her daughter Myfanwy was very young so naturally she would be bitter and resentful. She is caught between her distant mother and troubled daughter and granddaughter. She is someone who may have had dreams of getting away but family responsibilities tied her down. Now she is stuck at Ty Merched looking after a barely functioning family and becoming more resentful. She too feels abandoned by the man who left her and Sarah Maud and is isolated from the community that spreads rumors about her behind her back and sometimes to her face. 

To face the world around her, Myfanwy barely bites back sardonic comments and expressions and a rising temper that strikes back at everyone else in ire.

Of all of the family members, Myfanwy is the one who has the most potential to one day snap and commit violence, like a vengeance goddess raining her wrath on those who would hurt her and her family.

If Myfanwy reacts in outward anger, Sarah Maud does so inwardly. She isn't a potential danger to anyone but herself. Like her mother and grandmother, she too had been abandoned by the man that impregnated her. Even worse, he was a prominent towns member who refused to acknowledge his one-time mistress and illegitimate daughter. So Sarah Maud lives every day in the same town as the father of her child who is well known but ignores her. She lives with a constant reminder of a moment of youthful indiscretion and weakness which became a lifetime of regret. 

Sarah Maud is practically the living embodiment of a wailing ghost. She drowns her sorrows in alcohol and takes to her bed to escape sleep. She retreats into Depression like her mother does to her rages and grandmother does to her memories.

The fourth member of their family, Jenner, is also a product of this difficult environment of three older women who are in their own worlds. Since Jenner finds no comfort at home with a melancholic mother, choleric grandmother, and nostalgic great-grandmother, she has often had to rely on herself. This is an upbringing that she takes all too easily to heart.

Jenner does what her antecedents are too afraid or too tied down to: she leaves Swansea. She goes on long nature walks, sometimes for hours and even days on end. On one of those trips, she is accompanied by a small dog called, originally enough, Smalldog. Her trips are a way of distancing herself from the problems at home and give her a chance to get away from it all, even if temporarily. Her connection to nature gives her the emotional connections that her family cannot provide.

As striking as their unhappiness is, the Coombes’ loyalty resonates just as strongly. There are moments where the character's love for each other is clearly visible. Lizzie defends Jenner in front of a nosy Rev. Morgan. Myfanwy and Lizzie hover over a bed ridden Sarah Maud. Myfanwy barely restrains a clenched fist as she hears a hate filled speech directed at her family particularly her mother and daughter. 

The older women realize many of their flaws in parenting led to the moment when Jenner goes missing and vow to be better people, which they take to the letter. This is a family that are experts in supporting each other and driving each other crazy. Anyone who is a mother or a daughter can certainly relate to the “I love you, even if I don't always like you” mindset.

There are other traces of the real world of the 1960’s around them. A group of hippies arrive and take some of the weird labels often given to the women of Ty Merched. In a case of one outsider group bonding with another, they befriend the Coombes to the point that Sarah Maud in particular bonds with one of them, hovering close to a romance.

The status and roles of women have changed, particularly as we see Jenner. Unlike her older relatives, she isn't contented to stay where she is and is more self-assured when it comes to dealing with men. She won't be caught up in a haze of romantic nostalgia, rage, or despair when a relationship ends. She will just move on and forward.

One of the more humorous anecdotes in this book is the Swansea residents' reaction to the historic Moon Landing. A world shaking news event may be important to most people, but not them. It barely gets a mention in the book, just a non sequitur sentence solely to say when this book is specifically set. It has that rural town attitude in which world events sometimes are seen as not as important as the events around them. “Forget that Armstrong fellow. Did you hear what Lizzie Coombe did yesterday?! That's the real scoop!!”

That realistic view of small town life doesn't just play into their interest in local gossip but also in how easily mob mentality takes hold especially when influenced by religious figures. Rev. Morgan, the latest in a long family line of pastors, is particularly influential towards his parishioners. One of his favorite topics is suspicions towards the Coombe Family. 

Morgan creates dissent within his flock and drops hints here and there that the four women are witches and highlights the strange things that happen around them. The appearance of a dead body and the women's history of missing men provide enough fuel for Morgan's accusations. Sure enough he creates enough kindling of hatred and judgment to set all of Wales on fire.

The religious intolerance to witches isn't the only supernatural trait in this book and that's where the poetic mysticism comes in. While the forefront of Red Gifts in The Garden of Stones is in the real world, there is a more metaphysical element in the background, one that is firmly entrenched into the Old World of Welsh Mythology and Pagan practices.

There are a lot of descriptions of mist and grayness making the Reader instinctively feel haunted. The characters, particularly Jenner’s, connection to nature calls to mind Wicca priestesses or early witches who meet in the woods and pay reverence to nature in their spells. This is a world that may be approaching modern times but hasn't lost its sense of the ancient world.

What is particularly compelling about the supernatural events in the book is how anticlimactic most of them are and how they can easily be seen with a more scientific explanation at least by the Reader. Jenner’s dog, Smalldog, could be a lovable spirit guide leading her on her solitary journeys but it could just as easily be a friendly stray dog who found a new human friend. There is a mysterious woman, Blodeuwedd, who appears in and out of the book and who could be a friendly but reclusive neighbor, a ghost, or a character from Welsh Mythology helping the mortals who still believe in her and her kind. 

What about those ghosts Lizzie talks to? We read her conversations with them but are they real? Are they proof that Lizzie and the rest of her family have clairvoyant abilities or are they signs of dementia or an emotional desire to live in the past? What are we to make of some of the events prophetic, synchronicity, or coincidence? Even though we are given some theories, ultimately we are left to make our own conclusions.

One of the strongest links with Paganism is that this is a book which is led entirely by women. The fact that this book has a large cast of women of different ages and has significant ties to paganism is not a coincidence. The four Coombe Women reflect the different stages of the Triple Goddess which is a strong belief in modern Pagan movements and was often told in myths and legends as well.

Jenner is the Maiden, innocent, virginal, adventurous, reckless, naive, emotional, immature at times, and always ready to move ahead and forward in life

Together Sarah Maud and Myfanwy form different aspects of the Mother. Sarah Maud parallels the Nymph side, sensual, earthy, existing for physical pleasures, melancholic, self-centered at times, driven by passion, romance, and emotion.

Myfanwy reflects the Mother, warrior, protector, nurturer, something of a martyr complex, temperamental, combative when necessary, and choleric

Last but not least Lizzie is the embodiment of the Crone, wise, experienced, resigned, nostalgic, family leader, filled with sage advice, guide and has seen it all. They embody and are the Goddess.

Red Gifts in The Garden of Stones is a book that is very meditative and lyrical but at the same time relatable and contemporary. It reflects a poetic dream-like world of spirits, magic, and ancient traditions but also faces a reality of addiction, abandonment, grief, and intergenerational conflicts. It doesn't fit nearly into any one particular category or genre so much that it crosses them and opens a veil between reality and fantasy. 

The Boy From Two Worlds (The Girl in the Corn Book 2) by Jason Offutt; Contemporary Fantasy Brings Magic and Macabre to Missouri

 The Boy From Two Worlds (The Girl in the Corn Book 2) by Jason Offutt; Contemporary Fantasy Brings Magic and Macabre to Missouri

By Julie Sara Porter

Bookworm Reviews 

Spoilers: I love Contemporary Fantasies and I am always interested in books set in my home state of Missouri, so I feel like Jason Offut’s The Boy From Two Worlds was written specifically for me to read and review. It definitely delivers the magic of a Contemporary Fantasy and the macabre of a Supernatural Horror to the Show Me State.

In 2016, Bobby Garrett rigged a chain of explosives which resulted in the deaths of 462 people in St. Joseph, Missouri. Found at the center of the attack were a couple, Thomas Cavannaugh and Jillian Robertson, and Marguerite Jenkins, who was pregnant with Bobby’s child. One year later, Marguerite gives birth to a boy, Jacob AKA Jakey and Thomas and Jillian move in together. 

Over the next four years some strange things start happening. There are cattle mutilations. Some people are mysteriously murdered in a very horrible and graphic manner. A transient mumbles about some dark force coming. Jillian is acting very distant from Thomas and has a very bizarre conversation with his mother. There are parts of Thomas’ past that he doesn’t remember such as something traumatic that he blocked out, but has to do with his girlfriend. 

Then there’s Jakey. Ever since he was born, there has been something off about him. He has dark eyes with no irises and very sharp teeth, some of which he had at birth. Marguerite laughed when he came out and the boy was born with no umbilical cord and navel already intact. As if his physical abnormalities weren’t odd enough, there’s his weird precocious behavior. He is quite knowledgeable in mature subjects and has a taste for violence. He has a sadistic sense of humor that frightens many around him. It’s no wonder that Marguerite is afraid of and withdraws from her own son. Eventually, all of this creepy weird stuff culminates with the discovery that there is ancient magic afoot and fairies that will use it. But these fairies are far from the pleasant wish granting Disney fairies. Not even close. 

This book is a Grimm Fairy Tale combined with a Stephen King novel and I couldn't be happier that it's set in Missouri. It cannot be overstated how perfect the setting is for a book like this. Not just because Offutt lives in Maryville so knows the territory. Not just because it's my home state which is a huge draw for me. It's because of how much Missouri’s basic averageness plays into the thematic elements of dark sinister supernatural things happening to ordinary average people and scaring the living Hell out of them.

Don't get me wrong. Missouri has its charms with lovely natural settings and interesting tourist spots, and definitely has a complicated and fascinating history. Not many cities like St. Louis boasts a zoo, an art museum, a history museum, and a science center with free general admission and an outdoor amphitheater that hosts musicals during the summer and has free seating. I'm proud to live in the St. Louis area even when I don't agree with much of the right wing politics. But I will also admit there is no better state that emphasizes the “mid” in the Midwest and the “over” in flyover state. 

Missouri is a very thoroughly Midwestern state. Middle of the country. Middle of the road. Very average. I mean a more traditional setting for a Fantasy or Horror Novel would be possible. Take Louisiana which must have "a belief in the supernatural" written in their state constitution. California is certainly off beat enough.  Stephen King and H.P. Lovecraft   made quite use of the dark fantastic natures of their states of Maine and Massachusetts respectively. But Missouri is noted for not being very noteworthy.

 State residents may have favorite spots but non residents don't go out of their way to come here. They drive through on their way to other more interesting states. Michael Che summed it up in an SNL Weekend Update monologue: “Missouri is the Show-Me State as in Show-Me-the-Way-to-Chicago.” It is probably only surpassed by Kansas, Nebraska, Iowa, the Dakotas, and Idaho in overall average normalcy and blandness. Missouri is probably the last place that you would expect something weird, spooky, or particularly magical to happen which means it's perfect.

The clever selection of Missouri as the state setting is only augmented by Offutt choosing St. Joseph for the city. St. Joseph is the home of one of Missouri's most infamous residents, Westerns outlaw, Jesse James and St. Joe is not a town that will let you forget it. The house in which he lived and died is now a Museum dedicated to the outlaw's life and career. Visitors can see his grave, whose epitaph is quite colorful in describing James's death at the hands of Robert Ford. They can even see the bullet hole in the wall that came from Ford's gun and killed James. There are Jesse James Festivals nearby. It is not an understatement that St. Joseph has a huge crush on the man.

The point is not so much outlaw fascination (though come to think of it, that might be a factor) but the idea of locals turning anything into a tourist trap. In my review of Somewhere East of Me by Sean Vincent O'Keefe, I wrote about those strange tourist traps that are found in out of the way locations in flyover average states. They are like these off the wall eccentric bright spots in what would otherwise be an endless sea of boring roads and rural farmland. Not only that but there is something bizarre, off putting, even macabre about them. When you stop to think about it, it is weird that a town pays such tribute to a man who was known for robbing and killing people. 

That's what The Boy From Two Worlds explores: the weird, macabre, and ultimately scary in a very average ordinary basic location. It explores how the people are unprepared for this weirdness. They would be content to work, go to the grocery store to shop and catch up on local gossip, binge watch their favorite show, have a drink or two, and spend quality time with their family or friends before going to bed. 

They are unprepared for a very human tragedy in which a psychopath with skewered views takes multiple lives. They are even less prepared for the otherworldly events that happen afterwards. They are plunged into a nightmare which subverts everything that they ever thought and believed. No wonder that the human characters suffer from alcoholism, addiction, PTSD, Depression, parental withdrawal, paranoia, Schizophrenia and other issues. Even Jakey’s earlier sociopathic tendencies which cause his mother to withdraw from him could be symptomatic of the bizarre otherworldliness which manifested itself before he was born.

The Boy From Two Worlds excels at using its creepy images and storytelling to subvert our expectations. When we first learn about the Garrett Murders, the book has shades of a Psychological Thriller. We also see Supernatural Horror with the strange potentially not human child and the brutal cult-like murders. There are even traces of Science Fiction with the appearance of cattle mutilations and abductions where the victim recalls bright lights, painful surgical experiments, and lost time. Like the characters, the Reader thinks they know where the plot is going based on information from other genres. Then we are left surprised by what approaches.

However, the Horror elements don't end once we learn that Fairies are involved. If anything, it makes things worse

The book has plenty of magic and magical creatures, but it reminds us that these creatures are powerful, menacing, and extremely dangerous. These Fairies have sharp teeth, shape shifting abilities, duplicitous ethics, and a hunger for human flesh. They are less animated family friendly Fairy Tale Faire Folk and more graphic nightmarish early Celtic and Teutonic legend creatures. They are powerful, immortal, hungry, deadly, obsessive and have a whole town of delicious mortals to play with and feast upon. 

The Boy From Two Worlds is a Dark Fantasy that knows exactly how to scare its Readers and offers the right setting in which to do the scaring.

New Book Alert: For All of Us by Jillian Rose; Reincarnation Romance is Centered by Spiritual Connection and Meaningful Characterization

 

New Book Alert: For All of Us by Jillian Rose; Reincarnation Romance is Centered by Spiritual Connection and Meaningful Characterization

By Julie Sara Porter

Bookworm Reviews

This book is also reviewed on Reedsy Discovery 

Spoilers: Here's a theme from two years ago: reincarnated lovers reunited in modern day, reveling in their timeless love and weighing whether they should be together in the current timeline. This time, it is captured by Jillian Rose in her Romance/Magical Realism novel, For All of Us. Technically, Rose’s version is nothing new, but it is a spiritually centered and captivating character driven novel. I suppose like its lovers, the theme itself is timeless, that love never dies and that there may be some existence beyond physical death.

Cora is a Yoga instructor, seemingly happily married to Emerson, an architect. She is assigned by Emerson’s partner, Natasha, to teach at the Catskills Retreat Center to encourage creativity and unity among their co-workers. Neither Emerson nor Natasha can come but Cora is sure that she can handle it. While there, she meets the participants in the class and the Retreat staff, particularly its owner, Kai. As she spends time with Kai, she begins to feel an emotional and spiritual connection that causes her to evaluate her marriage and realize that there are things that were unsaid and unacknowledged between her and Emerson. While this is going on, there is another story set in the early 20th Century about a couple named Juliette and Asher who fall in love and have a child, Pearl, before going through a devastating loss. In the present, Cora and Kai share memories of Juliette and Asher, further complicating their relationships both past and present.

There are some moments where the Reader feels a sense of spiritual calm. The chapters at the Retreat are filled with moments like these. Cora and Kai take walks in the woods and mountains and their senses are activated by the nature surrounding them. Cora’s classes are lessons in poses as well as mindfulness and transcendence.

These classes and her time at the Retreat benefits her as well as her students. Cora and Emerson suffered tremendous loss in their life, one that they don't talk about but causes a strain in their marriage. They keep the pain and sadness locked away and never acknowledge it. But the more that they don't talk about it, the more it pulls on them revealing the fractures between their happy facade. It is only in the safety of the Retreat and communicating with Kai that Cora finds the catharsis and emotional release that she needed. 

It also is at the Retreat in which Cora and Kai awaken their past life memories as Juliette and Asher. Now I will admit that while I don't necessarily dislike reincarnated lovers tropes, I have however seen times when it is done badly. Bram Stoker’s Dracula for example. Just because they were lovers in one life does not mean that they are entitled to be together in the current one. Let's not forget about things like consent and they may already be in a loving relationship. Where many people saw Gary Oldman speaking passionately about “crossing oceans of time,” I just saw a sexual predator who raped, assaulted, and brutalized a woman that he felt entitled to have because she resembled his dead wife.

I have also seen reincarnated lovers as a trope done with the theme that just because you were happy in one life or thought that you were, doesn't mean that you really were or guaranteed to be in the current one. Nikki Broadwell’s novel, Rosemary for Remembrance is a brilliant take on that in which a married couple live simultaneous lives in the 19th and mid-20th century and get all the baggage that comes with it including the arguments, infidelity, incompatible personalities, separations, trauma and so on. 

Actually Rose’s novel contains that as well when both Cora and Juliette suffer similar deaths in their lives. Those simultaneous moments of grief, anguish, and the aftermath on how both women and the men in their lives deal with the tragedies in different ways are some of the highlights.

What saves For All of Us from falling into the simplistic style of reincarnated lovers done badly is that Jillian Rose does not shy away from the actual consequences that occur when the lovers are reunited. If they are in another relationship, someone is going to get hurt. Also just because they resemble that person and share those memories doesn't mean that they necessarily are that specific identity. They are an entirely different person with different current memories, have been through different experiences, and have a different personality than the one who went on before.

For All of Us knows about this conflict because exploring Cora’s complex feelings towards Kai and Emerson. It's not a binary “either or” choice. They are both great guys. While yes she recognizes that there are unspoken cracks in her marriage, that doesn't make Emerson an irredeemable monster, just a flawed human being. One that acknowledges those flaws and is willing to work on them. 

What helps this particular version is the care that Rose shows all parties in this situation: Cora, Kai, Emerson, and even Natasha who is also affected by these events (and of course Juliette and Asher). They are well written with no direct protagonist/antagonist conflict. They also strive to be their most honest authentic selves in their relationships and finally reach that point with each other. They are paired not just by passion, love, or previous memories but by that honesty and authenticity.