Sanity Test by K.E. Adamus and Fate's Last Melody by Vanessa Smith

 

Sanity Test by K.E. Adamus 

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

Sanity Test is a short but very disturbing look at two very troubled, conflicted, and potentially delusional men

This is a series of emails between Hubert Kawka and Wlodzimierz Pawski. Their emails reveal a great deal about their characters and perspectives through the emails. 

It appears that Kawka is a mentally ill patient in a psychiatric hospital and Pawski is his primary carer, but as the emails continue they become more frantic and questionable. The reader starts to wonder who is sane and who isn’t and who exactly these characters are in relation to each other.

Kawka straddles between childlike impulsivity and frightening sociopathic behavior. Through his emails, he describes a series of dramatic means to get Pawski's attention. He harbors an unhealthy fixation to an unhealthy obsessive degree and is gaslighting the other man. 

However, Pawski’s emails also raise concern. He is more emotional and threatening from the initial emails. This is definitely a potential sign that things are not what they seem and adds to the overall uncertainty that we can’t trust either of these men.

As Pawski becomes more unstable, Kawka becomes more reasonable which leaves the reader with questions about who is real, who is fictional, who is sane, who is insane, and who we can trust. The book gives us no real answers and leaves the reader to make their own conclusions to understand this strange and disturbing duo, 

Fate's Last Melody by Vanessa Smith 

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

Fate's Last Melody has a strong sense of setting and tone by depicting Hell with all of its overall darkness, graphic violence, scares, and ominous energy coming out from every corner. There is a sense of abandonment, hopelessness, and desolation that exists primarily throughout the book. 

Melody is a woman who is abducted during a night on the town with some friends and a potential boyfriend. Her abductor is not a human psychopath. He is a demon named Nyx who takes her to Hell, where she learns that she is the daughter of one of the Fates from Greek Mythology. Melody has to find her way through Hell and learn how to use her inherited powers of seeing and changing other's Destinies before she meets The King of Hell who has his own agenda involving Melody. 

Melody’s first view of Hell is a dark desolate place shrouded in shadows. The descriptions aggravate the senses and the landscape shapes itself to torture those suffering. Needless to say, it's not a pleasant experience.

Smith makes her version of Hell a composite of different mythologies most notably Abrahamic religions and Hellenic Mythology. Hell is led by The King of Hell who is so vaguely described that he could be either Lucifer or Hades, so it could go either way. The Judeo-Christian influence is shown primarily through the 7 Deadly Sins while the Greco-Roman aspects are revealed mostly through the presence of the Fates and the Titans.

There is an overall feeling of helplessness and abandonment until the end when Melody and other characters are inspired to fight against The King of Hell. But there are some potential questions about the actions that were taken to do this which suggests that Hell might end up with another dictator, one who will also torture others for eternity, inflict pain, and control others.

The Last Ritual by Dragos Gaszpar; A Fantasy That Is Sometimes Too Dark and Somber For Its Own Good

 

The Last Ritual by Dragos Gaszpar; A Fantasy That Is Sometimes Too Dark and Somber For Its Own Good 

By Julie Sara Porter 

Bookworm Reviews 

Spoilers: When a book starts with the line “we killed God,” you know that you are in for a dark somber time. That's what you get with The Last Ritual by Dragos Gaszpar, a dark Epic Fantasy which is mostly set during extensive battles between mortal enemies.

A group of traveling companions have spent centuries fighting against the beastly Leath. After some of their companions are killed in their latest battle, they think that they have an advantage when one of their own, Tarra returns from captivity with a Leath named Skar in tow. Having one of their enemies in their camp gives them an opportunity to study and understand the Leath and fight them smarter rather than harder. 

The somber tone is the book’s biggest strength but oddly enough is also its biggest weakness. It answers a fundamental question of whether a book can be too dark for its own good. The Last Ritual says, “yes.”

The tone is what makes this Fantasy novel realistic which sounds like a contradiction in terms but in this case it works. It serves as a deconstruction of tropes which are often found in Fantasies.

While battles are the norm for many novels and death is expected, that's often a side feature of the conflict. In this case, victory in war gives way to endless slaughter and the heroism faced by the characters is switched instead for brutal inescapable violence. There are no wins when enemy armies have been fighting against each other for a long time. Instead, it is a resigned weariness that forces them to move forward because to end it would lead them to wondering what the point was in all of the fighting in the first place.

The constant battles can be weary not only to the characters but to the Reader as well. The book starts out suspenseful as some characters are met with death pretty early giving an intentional ill ease. But the fights and violence are so frequent and repetitive, that battle fatigue sets in. It becomes harder to remember strategies, motives, and actions. After a while, the battles are interchangeable. The Reader squirms with impatience and even boredom mirroring the emotions of the characters who live for the fight but are sick of it as well.

The dour nature can be found not only in tone and plot but in character as well. The companions face not only the Leath but disagreements from within. For example, Tarra who has spent time with the Leath suggests a more communicative and understanding approach that encourages dialogue and negotiation with them. Her colleague Silanna is more fiery tempered and is in favor of slaughtering every Leath and letting the god that they just killed rise from the dead to sort it out later. Melaan, who serves as the primary protagonist, hovers between the two ideologies, violent fury at the Leath and empathetic humanity, especially the more that he talks to Skar and sees a multifaceted complex individual and not a mindless monster. 

The characters face their own views about mortality, prejudice, xenophobia, and what happens when the enemy is more within than outside. They argue and bicker a great deal amongst themselves. Just like the battles they often go back and forth on a regular basis. However, just like the fights against the Leath, the characters' personal struggles become tedious and cringy. At one point they stop an emergency situation just to have another argument that gets more shrill, irritating, and makes the Reader root for the Leath to end it. The protagonists' feelings towards each other also plays into realism that the constant struggle against the Leath is what holds them together as a unit. Without it, they wouldn't be close or even friends. 

The Last Ritual is a book that thrives on being as troubling and morbid as possible. It works but it also goes a long way and leaves the Reader feeling hollow and empty.

 

Reaping By Numbers: A Dead-End Job by Nicole Givens Kurtz; Fun and Interesting Take on The Grim Reaper

 Reaping By Numbers: A Dead-End Job by Nicole Givens Kurtz; Fun and Interesting Take on The Grim Reaper 

By Julie Sara Porter 

Bookworm Reviews 

Spoilers: Nicole Givens Kurtz knows how to write mysteries set in unique settings or populated with unique characters. Her novel, Glitches and Stitches is set in the future where AI is so omnipresent that people have a hard time separating the orga from the mecha which complicates a murder investigation. Kill Three Birds is a murder mystery set in a world of anthropomorphic birds. Her latest Reaping By Numbers also has an interesting premise in which a murder is investigated by none other than the Grim Reaper, well a Grim Reaper anyway.

Note, I said a Grim Reaper, as in plural more than one. Kurtz’s take on Reapers is that it is a job like any other. They are mostly human but are led by demons who work for the original Grim Reaper, also known as G. They don't kill people or cause them to die so much as they are there at the point of death and escort them in the transition between life and lifelessness. 

Patrice Williams is one such Reaper. Her reaping skills come naturally because they are inherited from her father who was an excellent Reaper in his day. Her latest assignment puts her right in the middle of a murder investigation, a turf war between various demonic factions, a meddlesome angel, and demonic possession. Patrice has to use all of her skills particularly when her own family is involved, especially her niece, Brianna, whose body inadvertently becomes the vessel of a very angry and violent demon.

In a strange way, Reaping By Numbers is the complete opposite of my previous book, Secrets at The Aviary Inn by Maryann Clarke. Secrets explores an ordinary conflict of a woman researching her family history but gives it some enchanting touches in setting and character that almost makes it seem like a Contemporary Fantasy. Reaping By Numbers takes an otherworldly fantastic situation of reapers guiding people after death and finds a dark humor by exploring the ordinary mundanity of the situation. 

Patrice clocks in and out like everyone else, does her shift, takes her breaks, deals with co-workers and supervisors, some encouraging and others obnoxious, collects her earnings, and goes home. Okay she's dealing with the recently deceased but so do morgue attendants and funeral home workers. What's so strange about that? Alright, her bosses are demons that emerged from the darkest pits of Hell but aren't all of our bosses? Yes, she has to face some very unpleasant encounters with dark magic, soul sucking spirits, wrathful ghosts, and avenging angels but no job is perfect. The benefits are great, particularly when you are alive to enjoy them. 

The way that her family is portrayed is that of a loving supportive foundation but are divided on various issues. Patrice's father is proud that his daughter is following in his footsteps. He is very encouraging as they talk shop though he also sternly warns her about some of the more dangerous aspects of the job. 

Not all of her family is supportive, particularly her religious mother and intrusive sister. Her mother is concerned that her daughter is consorting with demons. Her sister is trying to live a normal life with her pastor husband and children and feels that Patrice's profession could bring unwanted trouble within their family circle. Her worst fears come true when her daughter is possessed by demons.

Brianna's possession is a central plot point in this book. Kurtz conveys the anguish and fear that her family has, particularly Patrice who has to actively remove the demon while dealing with her own guilt and uncertainty about her chosen path. Patrice's dialogue with Brianna is the strongest emotional core especially when the young girl shows some potential to be a Reaper herself. 

Reaping By Numbers conveys a lot of dark humor but a lot of emotions in this book about a woman who considers hanging out with the dead as just another day at work.

Vegas Arcana: Deck Runner's Gambit by James Anderson Foster; Las Vegas Setting and Interesting Concept Are Winners, But It Needs work to be an Ace in the Deck

 Vegas Arcana: Deck Runner's Gambit by James Anderson Foster; Las Vegas Setting and Interesting Concept Are Winners, But Average Plot and Dialogue Come Up Snake Eyes

By Julie Sara Porter

Bookworm Reviews

This review is also on Reedsy Discovery. 

Spoilers: Las Vegas is this year's Caribbean. 

In 2023, the top setting was the Caribbean with its scenic beaches, beautiful plants and animals, troubled history, and intriguing myths and legends and was the center of some brilliant, wonderful works. 

Well this year’s setting instead is an arid desert filled with neon lights, glitzy casinos, wild entertainment, and 24 hours of excitement, debauchery, and tackiness. Of course it’s a great setting for literature.Along with Jo Szewczyk’s Gen X and Richard R. Becker’s Third Wheel, James Anderson Foster’s Vegas Arcana: Deck Runner’s Gambit is the third book this year that has Sin City as its primary setting. It has also been the setting of previous books, Thunder Road by Colin Holmes, Psychonautic by Darren Frey, All Eyes on Me by Linsey Lanier, and portions of What Immortal Hand by Johnny Worthen. It is definitely a city of addiction, obsession, decadence, and the pursuit of temporary pleasure that feeds into tales of murder, violence, crime, lust, drug abuse, mental illness, unhappy home lives, and sometimes dark magic and supernatural night creatures. 

Deck Runner’s Gambit gives us a great setting and an interesting concept. However, there are some serious flaws in the execution that turn a promising book into average.

Malcolm “Mal” Byrne is lured out of his dull cubicle 9 to 5 job by a series of psychedelic threads of light and cryptic text messages from a mysterious number. During his pursuit, he is followed by some sinister magic users who attack him. He is rescued by his friend, Jake, who is gravely wounded in the process. In his grief and guilt, Mal meets Jake’s friend, Eli Hawthorne, who is part of a secret organization called the Deck Runners, magic users who use their impressive supernatural powers of energy manipulation to fight against another group called the Peerage. Eli and the other Deck Runners also sense magic inside Mal and he signs up. Good thing too, because a Peerage member, Cassie Draven, has found a way to use dark magic to destroy the modern world and build a magically run one around it. 

The strongest aspects of the book are the Las Vegas setting and the initial concept of people studying and using arcane magic in the modern world. It is a great idea to use Vegas as the primary setting because it is one of the American cities which typify modern life at its worst. Everything there is now, loud, bright, fast, and transient. Everything in Las Vegas from the games, casinos, food, entertainment, is a means to get rich and achieve personal pleasure. It would be the antithesis of studying something like magic which would require deep concentration, intellectual curiosity, solitude, and a deeper understanding into the subconscious beyond a quick win and a night of pleasure. 

This strange dichotomy between the setting and the character’s pursuits is first explored in the opening chapter. Among the neon signs, the blaring games of chance, the excited screams and disappointed cries of gamblers, Mal sees the threads of magical energy leading him to the Deck Runners. Once he is attuned to the idea of magic, he sees it all around him. It becomes more real than the artifice that he usually experiences. This acceptance of the metaphysical world gives Mal purpose that a drab office life in such a glitzy city would not bring. He is excited and enraptured by this adventure. While it’s scary and ultimately filled with consequences, Mal sees  that it is preferable to the previous life of quiet desperation he lived where he was surrounded by noise and longing to be heard. Magic gives him a voice and a drive that he would otherwise not have had. 

Deck Runner’s Gambit is a book that is not without its flaws and oddly enough they become noticeable once Mal joins the Deck Runners and begins practicing magic. The powers are pretty interesting and some are even unique. For example, the Runners draw specific cards and bring forward whatever magic they need from them such as light, or fire, water, whatever is necessary. It requires thought, concentration, and some improv especially when the Peerage also has access to such powers. The concept of two competing teams of magic users is pretty interesting and raises the question whether which side is truly right or wrong, or if they are  simply separate schools of magic with different philosophies but similar practices. But this world comes at the expense of the characterization within it.

Once Mal is introduced to the idea of magic however, his transformation from student to master is a little too rushed. This is a man who spent his whole life not believing, a skeptic, someone who probably never questioned or explored the unexamined life. He was just content to work, flirt, eat, go home, get money, hang out with friends, and sleep. It’s great that he is open to this new world and admirable that he wants to be a part of it. But it would also make sense for there to be more reluctance and timidity about his pursuits, a hesitancy to fully embrace or believe in what is in front of him. After all, living in Las Vegas, he would have seen plenty of illusionist acts and one would imagine that he would look for a nonexistent curtain, expect a lovely assistant to pop up, or wonder about the tricks behind the magic.

 It could also work the other way as well. Mal could be so open to the pursuit that he acts recklessly. He could lose his temper or consider using his magic for selfish means before he wises up. But he adjusts and adapts too quickly to be believable. There should be more development in his steps between Magician Padawan and Magician Jedi Knight. 

There is some cringy dialogue that borders on cliche. (“Welcome to the final act,” Cassie taunts. “..:Looks like your runner has run out of deck.”) It’s to the point where if you have read these types of books before, you can predict exactly what the characters are going to say before they say it. (“This isn’t over, Cassie!”) Some of it’s fun in a cheesy action fantasy sort of way but after a while it gets repetitive and makes one wonder if the book was written while watching too many movies or TV episodes. That may also account for some of the plot points that are meant to be twists that are all too easy to guess.

Vegas Arcana Deck Runner’s Gambit is aces when it comes to setting and concept but it needs work to really come up a winner. 

Journey of Souls by Rebecca Warner; Composite of Medieval Historical Fiction and Dark Fantasy

 

Journey of Souls by Rebecca Warner; Complex and Compelling Composite of Medieval Historical Fiction and Dark Fantasy

Julie Sara Porter

Bookworm Reviews 

This review is also on Reedsy Discovery 

Spoilers: Rebecca Warner’s Journey of Souls is a composite of Medieval History and Fantasy that works-for the most part.

It captures a widening schism between religions, politics, class, race, spouses, and parents and children. Within these divisions in the political, religious, and social spheres, there comes division in the supernatural sphere. This is where corrupt people use magic to meet their needs and in reaction, that magic itself becomes corrupt. Both the summoner and the spirits that are summoned fall into envy, rage, revenge, and insanity.

After her son and daughter die, the Countess of Mirefoix (only known as the Lady)  in the Pyrenees Mountains decides to use a spell that restores a person’s soul and mind into another's body. She uses some unfortunate “volunteers” (young people that are recruited to serve or kidnapped and taken to Mirefoix) for their body needs. While she thinks at first that she is unsuccessful, spirits do actually enter the bodies of the donors. 

One of them is Christine, a modern woman from the 21st century who ends up inside the body of the Lady's niece. While Christine adjusts to Medieval life, she becomes involved in a triangle with Garsenda, the Lady’s daughter, and Bon, a loyal soldier with a secret connection to the Mirefoix Family. Meanwhile, the Lady  is becoming unhinged, paranoid , and more obsessed with practicing magic to achieve her ends. 

Journey of Souls draws fantasy and reality in equal measures creating a novel that works for Readers who like Dark Fantasies and for those who like more realistic Historical Fiction. The book is awash in historic detail. The Count of Mirefoix is coming home from the Third Crusades to a wife who doesn't love him and vice versa. He is a verbally, physically, and sexually abusive monster who cares more about the estate that he inherited by marriage (Mirefoix is actually the Lady’s by blood) than he does about his wife. 

The Count does little to care for the people that reside on the lands the way the Lady and her daughters do. He cares about his family lineage. After his legitimate son, Jehan, dies he decides to name his possible illegitimate son, Bon, to inherit rather than his daughters who have already been named as heiresses after Jehan. He is so intertwined with the idea of primogeniture, that his heir must be a son, that he ignores that he has two able bodied, intelligent, strong willed daughters that can inherit the land. He also ignores that Bon is romantically involved with Garsenda, then Christine and is so loyal that he would give up his claim in a heartbeat if they asked him to.

One of the most realistic moments is when the Lady grieves for her lost children. She holds out vague hope when a messenger reports that “Jehan” survived, but that hope is dashed when she sees a blacksmith with the same name and realizes that her son has died. When she and the Count fight, he collapses and succumbs to his pain. While she doesn’t miss her unloving husband, it is a reminder of how much the Lady can lose in such a brief time. 

As she is reeling from those losses, the Lady nurses her sickly daughter, Alienor with the fervent determination of one who has already lost one child and a husband. When she too dies,  she realizes that she is left alone with Garsenda, a daughter who doesn’t get along with her mother and believes that she murdered her father, the parent that she preferred. It is a lot to take and the Lady’s anguish is understandable. It also reminds us of how life in the Medieval era was very short and often ended in violent unpleasant death either from illness or in battle. 

Religion is intrinsic in the Medieval way of life and the Readers are beginning to experience what happens when religions and religious sects collide and challenge each other. The Count returns from the Crusades, bragging about how he and the soldiers fought against the Muslims whom they saw as “barbaric  i!%$#ls.” Then he brags that they took jewels, ancient books, and other valuables  of the people that they conquered (making one wonder who the real barbarians actually were). He uses the magic that Muslim caliphs practice to transfer his soul into a young body. Then after he dies, the Lady is willing to use it herself on her own children. For a seemingly religious Catholic family, they don’t mind co opting others’ abilities for their own benefit, even if they claim to be morally against it. Religious hypocrisy: not just a modern thing!

There are also divisions within the Christian religion itself. This comes about because of the war between the Catholics and the Cathars. Catharism was a sect with Gnostic philosophies such as the existence of two deities: God of Heaven and God of the Earth, a personal relationship with the Spirit, and that one can achieve spiritual and knowledge enlightenment, or  become a “Cathar Perfect,” through mystical means, most notably reincarnation. This schism would later be echoed in European history in the struggle between the Catholic and Protestant churches.

In Journey of Souls, the Cathars are at first seen as a religious sect that is outside the fringes of society and is gaining popularity. They are at first seen as weird, bizarre, and potentially a threat to the Catholic status quo. The outlook changes when the Lady, after a series of misfortunes including death, insanity, and despair converts to Catharism in a final attempt to save her soul. The fact that one of the main characters, inarguably the central character, becomes a Cathar shows how vast this religion has spread and becomes centralized. It foreshadows the eventual destruction of Catharism by the Catholic Church, and the subsequent trials against heresy such as the Inquisition and the Witch Trials. With powerful people converting to religions that challenged the Catholic authority, the church leaders recognized a threat to their leadership.

There are plenty of  other details about Medieval life that spill into the book. One of the most intriguing is that the Count and the Lady are never addressed by their first names. Even the narrative never refers to them by name, just by title. This suggests the remoteness of nobility that even their closest friends and family refer to them by title rather than name. 

Another interesting detail is how many misconceptions about the Medieval era are challenged. As if in anticipation of Readers’ complaining about “wokeness,” Warner wrote a detailed essay with citations and references in the last few pages of the book that challenges those ideas suggesting that European history was more diverse and multifaceted than many believed. Among them are the presence of people who aren’t White and Christian in Medieval France. There are dark skinned characters who emigrated from African and Middle Eastern countries. Some retained their Muslim beliefs and previous customs while others assimilated into the European culture around them. Bon himself is half-Chinese and was trained by a mentor who taught him about Buddhism, Eastern philosophies, and fighting techniques.

The power of women in the novel counters the common belief that women were usually thought of as subservient to their husbands. As mentioned earlier, the Lady holds more authority over Mirefoix rather than the Count and is able to make political and military decisions over her people. Her daughter, Garsenda also has a strong sense of leadership in particular when she is forced into hiding, taking the lead within her small group to ensure their survival. Christine quickly adjusts to her new 12-13th century life and commandeers various situations by coming up with various plans and making some tough decisions. In fact, the presence of women in authority is so prevalent that the Count is made to look like a fool for insisting on primogeniture rather than it being seen as the standard of the day.

Besides History, the other aspect of the book that captivates is the Fantasy. As the Lady becomes involved in casting spells, she encounters the jinni, Arabian spirits of great power and mischievous nature but can be subservient to the humans who control them. They are also known as genies. The jinn originally serve her needs but they also display some dangerous undertones. The Lady falls into madness and avarice (particularly when she learns that the jinni and the souls bleed rubies). It is possible that the creatures are driving her insane but it is just as possible that her madness was already within herself and she is bringing out the darker aspects of these beings rather than the other way around. 

The spell calls forth various souls like Blodeweth, a priestess whose entrapment in another woman's body makes her bloodthirsty and vengeance seeking and Corvinus, a conniving slave turned nobleman who finds himself inhabiting the body of a raven and is forced to serve as the Lady’s spy. The more that they work for the Lady, the more unhinged that they become until their rage and paranoia results in them turning on each other. 

Then there’s Christine. It’s kind of strange for a spirit from the future to inhabit a body in the past. But a few things allow that concept to squeak by in this context. Among them is that it plays into the Catharist view of reincarnation. A spirit who lived in a future time and place alludes to the belief that the soul lives on throughout time in the past and the future. 

The other meaning behind Christine’s presence in the past could also play into a Medieval concept of disorder being passed from one sphere to another. From the moment that the Lady casts the soul transference spell, what was seen as a world of human dissension throws the supernatural into the struggles. It is similar to a concept that actually was believed in the Medieval Era and was often echoed in later literary works such as Shakespeare and Marlowe’s plays. Trouble in the natural physical world, in politics, society, status, spills into the supernatural world. For example the murder of Hamlet’s father leads to the presence of the ghost and the uncertainty of Hamlet’s sanity. So the disorder among the realms could also factor into the disorder of time and space that even those spheres are affected by the Lady’s actions. Christine’s presence could be another symptom of the disruption rather than a random occurrence caused by a spell being used in the wrong way and accidentally punching a hole into the future. 

While it is easy to say that the presence of the supernatural, the jinn, the resurrected souls, Christine’s time travel, are caused by dark demonic forces, the truth is there was a dark undercurrent before the Lady cast her first spell. Before the Count even picked up the spells and found a caliph who would assist him. It is there in the first few pages in a Count who bragged about destroying a whole culture while playing lip service to his own religion. It is there when a Lady whose hatred for her husband, grief at her children’s death, and desire to hold on and control everything she has overpower her reason, love for her remaining family, her role as a Countess, and her own health and sanity. It is there in a feudal system that has fallen to corruption, self-righteousness, and bigotry with the desire to destroy or deride anything that does not fit the status quo. 

This is the imbalance that causes the subsequent disintegration between the natural and supernatural world, human and jinni, living and dead, past and future, fantasy and reality.

The World As It Should Be by Lee Ann Kostempski; Witches, Kelpies, Demons, and Ghosts Haunt Post Apocalyptic Fantasy Landscape

 The World As It Should Be by Lee Ann Kostempski; Witches, Kelpies, Demons, and Ghosts Haunt Post Apocalyptic Fantasy Landscape 

By Julie Sara Porter

Bookworm Reviews

Spoilers: Lee Ann Kostempski’s The World As It Should Be is a strange but effective mashup of Post-Apocalyptic Science Fiction and Dark Fantasy. It's one of those strange concoctions that takes the best of two or more genres and creates an awesome work of its own.

Charity Olmstead is wandering around a wasteland that used to be Salem, Massachusetts. The world ended in earthquakes and dragon-fire 48 hours prior with few survivors. Charity was kicked out of her studio apartment by her ex-boyfriend, Dean and his mother. She also comes from a witch family and has psychic abilities so ghosts have been bothering her, especially those that have recently died because of the attacks. Charity is in despair when she encounters a kelpie, a shape shifting horse creature originated in Irish and Scottish folklore. Since kelpies are known to consume flesh, a suicidal Charity offers herself to the creature. The Kelpie at first refuses but then strikes a bargain with her. His mate has been killed and he can't find his colt so if Charity helps him look for his child and the monster hunters who killed his mate, then he will eat her. As the two unlikely partners travel through the fallen world, powerful authority figures from Salem have their own theories about who or what caused the end of the world and they want to resurrect the trials that once made their town infamous.

The World As It Should Be is definitely among the darkest Fantasies that I have ever read. The post apocalyptic setting pulls out all the stops with its disturbing graphic imagery and the impact of what it means to those who suffer and try to survive through it. The fact that the protagonist is so suicidal that her main goal is to seek death also adds to the grimness. 

What is particularly disturbing about the setting is the immediacy and cause of this scenario. The end just happened only two days prior and it shows. Charity wanders around a world in a daze because she still remembers the stores and houses that were standing there a week ago. Still remembers friends that she kept in touch with a few days prior and still wouldn't have minded meeting for lunch on a typical day. Still remembers the world that was two days ago. It reminds the Reader of tragic events when the world seems to stop and we remember and long for the normal that happened before.

The cause of the end is terrifying and is even more so the longer one thinks about it. For spoiler’s sake, I won't reveal too much. But let's just say that a hurt soul and an errant wish made out of anger, no matter how righteous it is, caused much damage. It's frightening to imagine someone with that much power and was pushed into such a situation that compelled this thought.

Of course what makes the setting stand out is the presence of fantasy characters and magic users. It's also rather clever that the human characters treat their presence as a non-event. They act like talking to Kelpies and hiding from dragons is simply an everyday occurrence which it probably is. The implications are that they weren't created because of the apocalypse. They have always been there and this is a modern fantasy world that just got hit with a science fiction dystopian situation.

This relative ease between humans and fantasy creatures explains the casual acquaintanceship between Charity and the Kelpie. Humans like Charity are aware of the kelpie’s carnivorous situation so they stay away from them, the way most humans stay away from dangerous animals that could attack them. Charity however shows her death seeking tendencies by approaching him and setting herself up as a meal. The Kelpie is part of a species with animalistic instincts but human-like reason and intellect. They have an urge to feast but know when to do so and decide not to. The Kelpie weighs his options and eventually his growing loyalty towards Charity and his concern for her situation causes him to rethink their bargain. 

The presence of witches and witchcraft is brilliantly handled. Charity reacts like her magical and clairvoyant abilities are something that she has always had to the point that she's tired of them. She walks away from ghosts not out of fear but out of annoyance that they keep stalking her. She has a group of childhood friends called The Coven Kids-sounds like a great YA series-who, like her, are the children of prominent witches in this area of Massachusetts. While Charity grew apart from them upon adulthood, she now pleads with and seeks solace from them for magical assistance and to reclaim her spellcasting heritage. 

Of course where there are witches, there are witch hunters and in Salem that is a definite given. The humans of Salem react the way that humans do when they are faced with a deadly situation, look for a scapegoat, a minority to lay all the blame on. Being prominent Salemites, they revert to their past to find the current scapegoats and resurrect the witch trials that made their town so notorious in the annals of history. The misogyny and authoritarianism of the Salemites is laid bare in the present as they try Charity and the past as a frightening spirit seeks violent vengeance for past sins. It will take all of Charity's magic and intelligence and her friendship with the Kelpie to face her enemies and her own deep depression and suicidal tendencies.

The World As It Should Be is a dark, disturbing, but detailed and endlessly fascinating blend of Post-Apocalyptic Science Fiction and Dark Fantasy. It brings the best of both genres to make one whole wonderful book.

Weekly Reader: Weep, Woman, Weep by Maria DeBlassie; Female Driven Dark Fantasy Takes on La Llorona

Weekly Reader: Weep, Woman, Weep by Maria DeBlassie; Female Driven Dark Fantasy Takes on La Llorona

By Julie Sara Porter

Bookworm Reviews

Spoilers: The legend of La Llorona is one that is frequently recounted in Mexico and the American Southwest. The legend is about an indigenous Mexican woman, usually named Maria, who fell in love with a Spanish conquistador or vaquero. They became lovers, married, and she gave birth to two children. One day, Maria caught him with another woman and in a rage drowned her children. Consumed with guilt, she drowned herself. She is then cursed to roam the Earth forever to find her children. Her ghost is usually heard wailing from grief and is seen dressed in a wedding gown and veil. The story goes that if she is seen and heard by water, someone, usually a child or a young single woman, will later drown. 

La Llorona's story has been told in art, books, movies, music, and various tv series. She is one of those fantastic characters from American myth and legend that has entered the national lexicon like Bigfoot, the Ghostly Hitchhiker, the Jersey Devil, Champ the Lake Champlain's monster, The Bell Witch and others. 

Some have interpreted her story as a criticism of colonialism with the Spanish conquistador controlling the indigenous La Llorona and leading to her death. Others have interpreted it to be a feminist tale of a woman drowning by the patriarchy around her. It is an interesting story and opens up many possibilities of what it means and says a lot about the culture that it comes from and the people telling it.

Weep, Woman, Weep by Maria DeBlassie gives her interpretation of the legend from the point of view of two Mexican-American women who are afraid of but at the same time drawn to this mysterious ghost.

Two women, Mercy and Sherry, live in a small desert town in New Mexico near Esperanza. They are dealing with the challenges of puberty and exploring their sexuality while discussing the legend that haunts them.

In this version of the legend, the women who La Llorona drowned don't die. Instead, they become shells of themselves, docile, obedient, God fearing, and submissive women. Mercy thinks of it not as a "drowning but a baptism." Things get worse when as an adult, Sherry is the next woman to go through this odd transformation. Could Mercy be next?

Mercy is the first person narrator and it's clear that she is a woman in great pain and filled with anger. She is surrounded by poverty, domestic violence, and a strict patriarchal society. Sherry has no idea who her father is and often keeps away from her alcoholic mother and her pedophiliac boyfriends. Mercy's father abused and walked out on her and mother, causing her mother to retreat into depression. It's a sad existence in which Mercy and Sherry just survive and dream of better things like marrying rich and wealthy men, traveling, having great careers, and living in big beautiful houses.

They live such dysfunctional lives that when they see Sherry's aunt and her boyfriend, they are surprised that he doesn't beat her. Instead, he kisses her. They have never seen an adult couple act loving and affectionate towards each other in public, even rarely at home.

Mercy tells her story with a dry cynicism that displays a world weary humor. She describes Esperanza as a place "where you went when you want to be forgotten by the place you came from." Her interpretation of the La Llorona story is that the spirit "regretted giving up her power to a man. And she regretted being bested by him….Instead all he brought her was more shame."

Of the women who had been transformed by La Llorona, Mercy describes them as "Jesus loving self-righteous prigs who called themselves Spanish-the closest thing to white they could be ... .Their eyes were forever red rimmed like they'd been crying though they never did. That's because their hearts stopped once they were baptized, and feelings were left at the bottom of the river along with their souls." 

Mercy and Sherry try to avoid being seen or taken by La Llorona, but constantly talk about her. Mercy does everything that she can to not transform like the other women around her do. She makes a blood pact with Sherry that they won't be like the other women. Mercy works on a farm because she is a hard worker and also to take on seemingly "masculine" work to make herself less likely to become one of La Llorona's victims. 

It's significant in this version that those that are taken by La Llorona do not die. Instead, this is more interpreted as a living death, the death of the women's personalities and individuality. 

La Llorona is a metaphor for the patriarchal society in which Mercy and Sherry live. The women's transformation causes them to be willing participants in the system around them. They are like Stepford clones deprived of their thoughts and independence. 

There's a possibility that La Llorona isn't real and is the product of a developing mind filled with PTSD from her abused past and anxiety about womanhood in such a restricted situation. After all, since the women's transformation is described as a baptism, it could be a reflection of Mercy's feelings towards religion, particularly Christianity, and the limitations towards women when they follow such dogma. They go to church, get baptized, and conform to the patriarchal society surrounding them. 

As she matures, Mercy has few options: allow La Llorona to take her and conform, retreat into depression, alcoholism, and defeat like hers and Sherry's mother, or live an independent life. In retaliation against the spirit and the patriarchy around her, Mercy opts for independence.

Mercy lives on a farm outside of town that she runs herself. She makes herbal and homeopathic medicines and health and beauty aids. The price that she has to pay for rebelling against the society around her is to live outside of it. She is referred to by the locals as a "spinster, "whore," and "witch" (which she wonders how someone can be described as both a whore and a spinster). Mercy lives a lifetime of solitude knowing that La Llorona (or her fears and anxieties) is out there waiting for her to drown. She also tries to maintain her friendship with Sherry even though they have emotionally grown apart and Sherry is in an unhappy marriage with an abusive philanderer. She leaves gifts and words of strength and encouragement. 

In trying to live her life to spite La Llorona, Mercy ends up living her life more authentically than most other women around her.

Weep, Woman, Weep transforms the legend of La Llorona into a feminist novel of women who are given the option of falling into the patriarchy or turning away from it and be themselves.

 

Weekly Reader: Flint of Dreams by Charles Peterson Sheppard; Involved Thriller and Dark Fantasy About Harnessing One's Own Power

 

Weekly Reader: Flint of Dreams by Charles Peterson Sheppard; Involved Thriller and Dark Fantasy About Harnessing One's Own Power

By Julie Sara Porter

Bookworm Reviews

Spoilers: Lucid dreaming is the ability to control one's dreams by knowing that the sleeper is dreaming. Remote viewing is seeking impressions about distant or unseen subjects with the mind. 

These are powers that are investigated in Flint of Dreams, Charles Peterson Sheppard's deeply thought and tightly woven thriller and dark fantasy about a young man who is the subject of intense scrutiny because he possesses these abilities.

Asa "Flint" Spencer, the young man with said abilities, is a Seneca Iroquois who spent a lot of time in trouble with the law. He was once part of a gang of car thieves and now is trying to live a somewhat decent law abiding life with friends and a white girlfriend whose bigoted mother does not approve of him. Unfortunately, his felonious past isn't as far behind him as he was hoping. Crystine Nagata, a college student, is raped and her assailants are dead. The police arrest Flint for the crimes. Meanwhile, a local counselor and government agents are interested in Flint's abilities and there is also a gangster who has some unique powers of his own and harbors no qualms about using them to his advantage.

Flint of Dreams puts a fantastic situation in a realistic setting and shows how people react when they are faced with it, reflecting the way many would behave in real life. Some want to study it. Others want to profit off of it and use it to their advantage. Others would fear it and think that it brings evil. Those who have it may embrace it as a sign that they are meant to do great things while others want to run from it because it gets in the way of living a normal life. 

Flint is the type who would rather run. Many of his lucid dreams involve himself in the woods or near a lake with some mysterious characters, including a beautiful seemingly ageless woman and plenty of waterfowl. He gets images of things that happen even when he isn't there to witness it. He rejects most of these abilities partly because he wants to live a normal life, but also because they remind him of his tribe and the old ways. The dreams and visions are a part of his life but they are tucked away in his mind as he deals with the reality of being a young impoverished indigenous man with very few prospects.

Flint is not always the most likable protagonist but it is easy to understand where he is coming from. His father is gone and his mother is an alcoholic who couldn't care less about her son. His education and employment history is spotty. Even when he tries for legitimacy there are always bullies who challenge him to fights or remember him from the bad old days, racists,like his girlfriend Denise Nash's mother, who see his skin color and ancestry and don't want to give him a chance, and cops who arrest him because of his history regardless of whether he did the crimes or not. 

With that many decks stacked against him, it's understandable that he would want to go through life fighting and breaking the law.

 If no one believes in a person when they are ordinary, why should he do anything for them when he has something extra that could help them? Why should that person believe in themselves? The moments when Flint actually does investigate his abilities and uses them to help others are that much greater because of how much stands in his path. 

It also helps that Flint has some understanding friends and allies that want to help. With the exception of the racist snobby Mrs. Nash, the rest of the Nash family is close to Flint. Denise is a supportive girlfriend even if she doesn't always specifically understand what Flint is going through. Her brother, Chance, is one of Flint's best friends but isn't afraid to call him out on his behavior when his self-pity and bad attitude get too much. 

Denise and Chase's father, Van Nash, a psychiatric counselor, is the first to notice Flint's abilities and make some attention known about how astronomical they are. While most of the police officers and government agents are standard characters there is one that stands out, a woman with the great name of Jill St. Jillian. Once she follows Flint's case and understands his powers and what he's going through, St. Jillian is empathetic enough to give him shelter when others are looking for him.

There are a couple of other characters who are tangentially related to Flint's story but still are brilliant characters in their own right. One is Cristina Nagata, the aforementioned rape victim. She is the daughter of a former Yakuza member who, similar to Flint, is putting a felonious past behind her while studying glow worms and fireflies. She is also in a relationship with Keith Habalo, a chemical assistant for a pharmaceutical company that is creating a pill to give the users certain abilities like lucid dreaming, remote viewing, and enhanced ESP.

Another fascinating character is Brizio "Essy Breezy" Pachachi, a foil and in some ways a shadow self of Flint's. Like Flint he too has extrasensory perception, usually involving telepathy. Like Flint, he had a terrible childhood with a mother who gave birth to and then abandoned him in a gas station restroom. Afterwards, he was fostered by two parents who used his powers in their street performance act. Breezy grew up abused and exploited, and fully aware of the gift that he has so unlike Flint who locks it away, he used it. He used it in his criminal career and for his own gain becoming more powerful and terrifying than the average gangster. After all, it's hard to arrest or shoot someone who can read your thoughts. He is the worst case scenario of someone that Flint could be if he doesn't keep his powers and ego in check.

Some of the later chapters get kind of convoluted and the book meanders a bit by running too long, but still Flint of Dreams is a brilliant book about the cost of having and living with abilities that makes a person different from anyone else.

New Book Alert: The Girl With The In-Sight by William P. Mills; Suspenseful and Lovely Urban Fantasy About a Magical Young Girl And Her New Family

 New Book Alert: The Girl With The In-Sight by William P. Mills; Suspenseful and Lovely Urban Fantasy About a Magical Young Girl And Her New Family

By Julie Sara Porter

Bookworm Reviews 

Spoilers: The Girl With The In-Sight by William P. Mills is a suspenseful and lovely modern fantasy novel with plenty of magic. It has a girl with magical abilities but it also reveals the magic of lonely people who get together to become a family.

Mirari Ramirez is a sweet young girl with intuitive and empathic abilities. She is attuned to the feelings and needs of others. She can also see auras and colors floating above other people's heads. However, her abilities can't protect from a dark sinister creature that she dubs the Bloody Dragon who stalks her. Nor can she prevent her mother from being killed.

Terrified, Mirari runs for her life and hides. However, she finds two protectors in  Sharisse, a beautiful nurse and Virgil, a scarred recluse. The three strangers bond together to protect each other from the dark terrifying creatures, learn deeper secrets about Mirari's origins and powers, and become a newfound family by choice.

This book is similar to The Book of Uriel by Elyse Hoffman, Fearghus Academy: October Jewels by I.O. Schaeffer, and The Prophecy Has Begun: Donum by Alexandra Lane about a magical child and their loving protectors. In each one, it shows the child having this marvelous ability and how their parents and guardian accepts and protects this child in their care, even when they don't always understand what they are going through. They are the true definitions of families that accept and unconditionally love each other despite their abnormal behaviors, appearances, thought process, and abilities.

Through his three leads, Mills shows the making of a sweet loving family. Mirari is an adorable bright girl without being overly cutesy or cloying. She has seen poverty and hardship and is well aware of the darkness that surrounds her, both human and demonic. She just chooses to look for the goodness and light within others. She refers to her guardians by nicknames that reveal what she sees in them, "Angel Lady" for Sharisse and "Friendly Monster" for Virgil. She sees better things within them than they see in themselves.

Her guardians are also well written, especially with how their relationship with Mirari helps them with their personal struggles. Because of his appearance, Virgil withdraws from most people, women in particular. He had a misanthropic nature in which he imagined other people hurting as much as he was hurt. All of that changes when he meets Mirari. The girl opens up a loving and paternal side to him. He begins to care for her and others.

Sharisse has problems from the opposite end of the appearance spectrum. She is someone who fits the saying about "beauty being a curse." People dismiss her kind and intelligent nature by seeing her as a vapid pretty face. She is often physically assaulted and believes that it is some sort of punishment for her looks. Mirari and eventually Virgil see the real kindness inside her and see a person who is  beautiful both inside and out.

The family aspect of the book is the strongest part of  though there are some interesting other facets as well. There are some creepy suspenseful scenes against the dark demons after Mirari and the truth to her origins is fascinating.

However, the real magic and insight in the story is the creation of a new loving family.

New Book Alert: Cardinals by Ian Conner; Lesbian Vampires and God's Wife are Highlights of This Seductive Mesmerizing Dark Fantasy

 

New Book Alert: Cardinals by Ian Conner; Lesbian Vampires and God's Wife are Highlights of This Seductive Mesmerizing Dark Fantasy

By Julie Sara Porter

Bookworm Reviews 

Spoilers: "God's Wife is a Lesbian Vampire!" 

That sounds less like the plot of a good dark fantasy novel and more like one of those weird cheesy tabloid headlines that could be found in any supermarket in the 80's-90's. But actually that's what Cardinals by Ian Conner actually is. Uh not a cheesy tabloid headline but a compelling mesmerizing dark fantasy about a goddess cast out of Heaven and ready to seek vengeance on the deity who abandoned her and now insists that he is the only way to Salvation.

As he did with his previous novels, Dark Maiden and The Long Game (An Amy Radigan Mystery), Conner proves that no two Ian Conner novels are alike. He can jump from an eerie supernatural horror to a complex political thriller in no time at all. His latest, Cardinals, is a dark fantasy which takes some clever savage gut punches to religion. The only thing that these books have in common are that they all have LGBT characters, particularly lesbians, but even those characters vary in terms of personality and relationships. It's nicely refreshing when an author takes on various genres and writes them so well.

In Conner's book (and according to some theological scholars) God's wife's name is Asherah. She was an actual deity who was worshipped in Canaanite religion. She also appeared in Mesopotamian religion as Ishtar and Egyptian as Isis.

 In Cardinals, it is she and not Lucifer (as told in the Bible) who sparked the angelic rebellion and is cast out of Heaven. Yahweh is so threatened by her demands of equal status,  goal to be acknowledged as co-creator, and her dislike for the humanity that he created to worship him, that he orders her to not only be cast out but not to be referenced in the records that humans are transcribing. This explains therefore why she had scant reference in the Bible and why despite other myths and religions that feature a God and Goddess, the Abrahamaic religions are one of the few that have a solely male deity.

Asherah's story in Cardinals is similar to that of Lilith, Adam's reported first wife who was thrown out of Eden after she refused to take a subordinate position to Adam. Afterwards, Lilith was referred to as the mother of monsters and later metamorphosed in Hebrew myth and legend as a demon who takes the souls of men and children at night. Asherah's in this book story is also analogous to the many religions that began with a goddess as the creator of the universe in agrarian society only to have her fall in status in favor of the male gods. This archetypal story can be found in various myths such as the conflict between Gaia and Zeus in Greek mythology, the war between Tiamat and Marduk in Mesopotamian, and Isis' relinquishment of her duties to Horus, her son, in Egyptian. 

Similar to the female characters in many of these stories, particulary Lilith and Tiamat, Asherah is not only removed from Heaven and very existence is denied, but she becomes demonized. Once she arrives on Earth, she sports a pair of fangs and obtains an unquenchable thirst for blood. She uses her newfound abilities to attack Sharit, a woman who takes her in but becomes her first victim.

 Asherah is not alone however. Once they fell, her fellow angels transform into rubies. Later, Adam's son Seth and his son Enoch gather the rubies and create the Amulet of Cassiel which the prophet Elijah later uses to call the flaming chariot. The rubies are later separated so the Amulet could never be used again. Asherah resolves to get back the rubies, call the chariot, and return to Heaven to have more than a few words with God, even if it takes thousands of years. After all she has an abundance of time to get the job done.

Asherah is a fascinating character. She is seductive, alluring, manipulative, and hypnotic. She is a character that the Reader can't look away from. She is a cunning strategic planner, spending centuries creating a financial empire and entertaining herself with various lovers, mostly female.

She ends many of her encounters by biting other humans which probably is a lot of fun in later centuries. Some guy cuts her off in traffic? Just feed on him. She fights with someone over the latest dress at a sale? Just have Sangre ala Karen. Jehovah's Witnesses or MAGA fans won't leave her alone? Just eh-maybe not. Who wants to be stuck with them for Eternity?

 Asherah isn't likable, in that she often attacks and kills innocent people and cruelly uses others, particularly Amara, a girlfriend in the 21st century. However, her allure is unmistakable. She is one of those type of characters that is so memorable and so fascinating in her badness and single-minded pursuit that she steals every moment that she is in. You are drawn to her and almost, almost are rooting for her. So much so that the book is not quite the same when she isn't around and the plot shifts to the other characters.

However, the other characters are interesting as well, many of which are Asherah's former victims and are doing their best to thwart or aid in her attempts in putting back together the Amulet. There are: Lady Kellena Donnachaidh, a 14th noblewoman turned 21st century CEO who has a personal grudge against the former Mrs. Yahweh,  Suzette Allard, Kellena's loyal assistant and wife,  Yasmeen Obiad, Kellena's bodyguard and head of security who displays ruthless tactics to get the information that she needs,  Sharit Hagel, Asherah's first victim who is still around in the 21st cenury and seeking vengeance and Amara Korkolis, Asherah's current girlfriend who loves not wisely or well. 

Not to mention there various groups after Asherah such as:  The Cardinals , those who have been fed on by a vampire but not given vampire's blood in return (almost more like zombies), The Witches of Tenerife, a coven who are interested in not only Asherah but Amara as well, and the Roman Catholic Church particularly Cardinal DiScotti (the religious kind of Cardinal though she's a vampire too), the first female Cardinal and is on her way to becoming the first female Pope.

With all of these different characters and groups, sometimes it's hard to tell what are the character's real motives. Betrayal piles on top of betrayal and characters shift allegiances almost as fast as they change addresses. Sometimes it's a chore to go back and remember who is allied with whom and whether they are stopping or helping Asherah (or unintentionally helping her even when they think that they are stopping her). Sometimes the plot rubs away with itself.

There is also another flaw in the book. There is an earlier chapter that looks as though it will lead to something important but ends up having only a small impact in the final confrontation. If it had a larger importance and if the character featured in the chapter had actually become a part of the overall narrative, it may have made more sense to have it. Otherwise, it's just a baffling inclusion and seems to be only added to provoke and create controversy rather than exploring it to its fullest potential. 

Other than those flaws, Cardinals is a dark fantasy that like its lead character is impossible to ignore and hard to forget. In the vampire horror subgenre, it, and Asherah are goddesses among vampires.