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, 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. 

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

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

By Julie Sara Porter

Bookworm Reviews

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

 

When Banana Stains Fade: A Jamaican Family Saga of Adversity and Redemption by Frances-Marie Coke

 

When Banana Stains Fade: A Jamaican Family Saga of Adversity and Redemption by Frances-Marie Coke 

Spoilers: When Banana Stains Fade: A Jamaican Family Saga of Adversity and Redemption by Frances-Marie Coke is the second book in a row dealing with intergenerational conflicts concerning mother and daughters after Red Gifts in The Garden of Stones by P.A. Swanborough. While the latter trod a thin line between the reality of the family in question’s situation and the fantasy of their pagan past, the former has no such detours into the fantastic. It is firmly set in the reality of racism, poverty, classicism, gender inequality, domestic violence, and generational conflicts. All of this is in a setting that is quite familiar with this blog. In fact, it was a setting that was quite common in the books that I read and reviewed last year: Jamaica.

In 2002, Zarah left New York for her childhood home of Jamaica. Her parents, Esther and Bradley and grandmother, Naomi are worried and anxious about their daughter's sorrowful return and her memories of an unhappy abusive marriage left behind in New York. Esther’s concern is also joined by loving but strident remainders that she told Zarah that her marriage wouldn't end well. Her kind anxious demeanor often features acidic attacks on Zarah’s choices and personality. This behavior causes their already volatile relationship to become even more strained and leads to threats of estrangement between mother and daughter. Naomi views the conflict with empathy and understanding. After all she had been through something similar with Esther, just as her mother, Pearlie and Aunt Eudora had been through with her, and their mother, Agatha had been through with them. So the Reader is treated to over 100 years of Jamaican history seen through the eyes of five generations of six fascinating women.

What is particularly fascinating and compelling about this book is that it ignores the touristy side of Jamaica. Oh, some of it’s there: the beautiful landscape, the friendly hospitable locals, the Rastafarian religion and its beliefs. There is even a shout out to author Sir Ian Fleming, who made Jamaica his home as he wrote his James Bond novels. But they are largely left in the background. Instead, we are shown what life was and is like for the locals and all is definitely not paradise for the people who live there. 

The forefront of the book features many of the truths that lie within Jamaica’s sandy beaches and reggae music. It is a history of colonization and racism. It is a present of poverty, economic disparity, and domestic violence. These issues are not treated with bold overlines and dramatic emphasis. Instead they are seen and experienced by the people, specifically the family that encounter them.

We are first told of Zarah’s return and her fractured relationship with her parents. We are then treated to a flashback of an affair that Esther had which ended in her divorce and Zarah’s anger at her mother. The majority of the book consists of flashbacks that begin in 1900 with Agatha, Zarah’s great great grandmother and Esther’s great grandmother. Through this family, we see the conflicts that mark one generation and cause friction with the next. 

Agatha works in a sleepy town and is dominated by her religious family, particularly her father. She is told by women around her to just accept whatever treatment that she gets from men. With only that advice in hand, she enters into a relationship with Mas’ Watson, a well-off farmer. Watson gives Agatha two daughters: Eudora and Pearlie. Agatha works to gather and tag bananas to help support her family but can’t avoid the stares and innuendo that people have about her daughters. 

People gossip about Pearlie’s darker skin compared to Eudora who is much lighter. They marvel at the latter’s perceived beauty and predict that she will go far in life. They shake their heads in dread at Pearlie and believe that she will have a future of hardship. Even Agatha’s attempts to straighten Pearlie’s hair or give her lemon juice to lighten her complexion do not hide her real appearance. 

Many degrade the young girl and Mas’ Watson shows preferential treatment towards Eudora. This shows that even when many people are from the same race, there is unfortunately still division within that race. Sometimes there are stereotypical racist beliefs about the difference between people who are from the same basic skin color but whose shades are darker or lighter and hair is straight or curly.

The scrutiny of Agatha’s daughter’s different skin tones and accusations of whether they had different fathers fill the sisters’ lives up to when they attend school. The outrage becomes so bad that after she is raped, Pearlie runs away. She resides in another village where she gives birth to her daughter, Naomi and enters into a relationship with Bertie, a man whose family helps the single mother get back on her feet. Unfortunately, Pearlie’s happiness is cut short and Naomi finds herself alone and friendless like her mother. 

Naomi ends up living with her cold religious Aunt Eudora. Eudora at first doesn’t even want to take in the girl but she is convinced to do so because of her commitment to Christian duty and how it would look within her community to reject her own flesh and blood. Out of rebellion, Naomi attends the local Catholic church and rejects many of the spiritual teachings from her aunt. 

Naomi falls in love with Miles, a musician who spins fantasies within her about moving to America and starting a new life. That isn’t all that he spins within her. No sooner is she pregnant with her daughter, Esther, than she too is left behind like her mother and grandmother before her.

In the most harrowing section, Naomi enters an unhappy second marriage to Pastor Bloomfield. Bloomfield’s abusive and controlling nature is present as he micromanages her schedule down to prayer times and how long she can meet her friends. He won’t allow her to find a career outside of caring for his home and church. In a very classicist gesture, he forces her to stop using the Jamaican patois and speak the standard British English.

 Because of her limited relationship with her biological family and limited resources, Naomi is trapped in an abusive marriage with someone who she thought was a man of God but turned out to be someone who thought that he was God and had a private church of two worshippers: his wife and stepdaughter. 

A very terrifying encounter breaks Bloomfield’s hold on Naomi and Esther and the two rebuild their lives elsewhere. Naomi reverts to the spiritual beliefs that had always provided her comfort and in an act of defiance against her ex, reverts back to the Jamaican patois that he ridiculed. 

With the generations of Agatha, Pearlie, Eudora, and Naomi we see mothers struggling with problems of racism, poverty, religious dogma, and domestic violence. Each one works and hopes that the younger generation will succeed where they failed. With Esther and Zarah, we see the results of those dashed dreams, the desire to escape, and how that unhappiness and disappointment played into their relationships as mother and daughter and the men in their lives. 

Even though Esther had a comparatively happy marriage to Bradley as compared to her mother’s with Brookfield and great-grandmother’s with Mas’ Watson, even she had troubles. In 1988, Esther reunited with her former boyfriend, Patrick who lived an affluent life in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida. She had been living a meager existence with Bradley scraping for every dollar and was growing tired of the struggle. She dreamed not only of a different wealthy life in Florida but of the dashing man who could have given it to her.

 Thoughts become actions during a hurricane and Esther ends up with a miscarriage, a divorce, and a resentful daughter. What was truly heartbreaking in hindsight was that Bradley is an easygoing, steady, kind hearted man. His laid back nature could have provided a contrast to Esther’s more rigid strident domineering control over Zarah’s life. Zarah could have had an ally when arguing with her mother. Instead she reacted to strictness with rebellion and ran away. Esther only realizes when Zarah returns that Bradley has a peculiar strength in his blundering kindness that she overlooked. 

Zarah is considered the great hope of the family. Her mother puts enormous pressure on her to succeed well in school and have the right friends. She becomes something of an overachiever with dreams of escaping Jamaica. However, she also falls in love with Damien, considering him a reprieve from her mother’s tight control and secrets which caused her family to implode. 

Unlike her antecedents, who only dreamt of a life away from the island, Zarah managed to get away and form a life for herself. But her independence came with a price tag: that of being married to the abusive Damien. 

The freedom that Zarah thought that she would experience being away from Jamaica becomes even more of a trap in New York. She is beaten, insulted, and criticized. Worse, she is isolated in a new country where she is an immigrant and has very few friends. 

However, Zarah continues to work and study, raising money in secret. She befriends a woman who takes a maternal interest into her life and helps steer her into a good direction. Zarah’s drive to get out of the abusive situation shows her to be someone who learned enough from the earlier generation to plan an escape and make a new life for herself even if it means retreating to the homes of Mom and Dad for a while.

Agatha, Pearlie, Eudora, Naomi, Esther, and Zarah all lived very difficult traumatic troubled lives but they found strength in other places. Sometimes it was through close friendships, surrogate family members, their religious faith, future goals, or aspirations. Most importantly they learned from each other. Even when they didn’t always get along and fought endlessly, their inner strength and love for each other is always shown as are their hopes that the daughters will have better lives than the mother’s. 

Sometimes those dreams didn’t always come true and depended on the next generation to make it happen. Most importantly they had each other to find comfort, sanctuary, and guides to see them through the tough times and learn from them.

The Unholy Trinity: A Collection of 99 Stories by L. Marie Wood; Horror Anthology Delivers on Shocks, Scares, Twists

 The Unholy Trinity: A Collection of 99 Stories by L. Marie Wood; Horror Anthology Delivers on Shocks, Scares, Twists 

By Julie Sara Porter 

Bookworm Reviews 

Spoilers: L. Marie Wood’s Horror Anthology, The Unholy Trinity: A Collection of 99 Stories is practically Tales From The Crypt in book form. So much so that I expected a wisecracking skeleton puppet to pop up from the pages and start quoting ghoulish puns. 

Well that didn't happen but The Unholy Trinity carries many of the same great qualities that Crypt does: easy digestible stories of fears brought to life with spine tingling plots, graphic images, and engaging twists. These stories combine Wood's three previous horror anthologies, Caliginy, Phantasma, and Anathema. They are written to raise that slight chill in the back of the mind, the one that tells you that despite knowing that you are alone in the house while you read this book that maybe you should give that window, or that closet, or the door locks a second look. They remind us that watching horror is a fun and interesting pastime but reading horror lets your imagination fly off into dark and forbidden dimensions that turns your sleep into an unpleasant one.

All of the stories are terrifyingly well written and are certain to scare and delight the Reader but the best are: 

“A Bat Out of Hell”-Right out of the gate, the first story is a mesmerizing thrill ride of shocks, scares, and screams of fright. Carly goes to the County Fair with her boyfriend and just can’t resist the roller coaster called A Bat Out of Hell.

This story draws the Reader right in with its atmosphere that promises fun and adventure but hints at something else. The Fair should be fun but there is darkness. The description and tone remind the Reader that these rides may be exciting but they also dare riders to defy death by going too high or too fast inside metal contraptions put together and inspected by people that may not be entirely trustworthy. 

As if the regular suspense of a theme park isn’t bad enough, the roller coaster itself is far worse. The demonic Goth motif hints at its true intentions. There are bits of foreshadowing like the blood red seats and screams that sound less like the “fun to be scared” screams and more like the “being tortured and begging to be let go” screams. The final pages deliver the gore that reveals that this ride was literally meant to scare the Hell into you. 

“The Dance”-“The Dance” mixes subtlety and eroticism. Gillian, the Narrator is mesmerized by a seductive dancer named Vanessa who fills her with desire especially after the two dance together.

This story is filled with descriptions of Vanessa and her dancing. She is beautiful and otherworldly. Her hair, body, face, and figure give off the impression that she is almost too perfect. Gillian feels stirrings within her that she ignored because of fears of being outed but they are brought forward  the more she and Vanessa interact. 

 Vanessa awakens those longings that Gillian put away, the longings to be with someone without judgment, to be pleasured sexually and emotionally, and to feel that rush that one individual can bring to another individual. It is a truly erotic story that also serves as a metaphor for fulfilling one’s longings and living authentically. 

“The Inn By the Cemetery”- This is a delightful, creepy, and surprisingly romantic story about the past haunting the present. Modern couple Sharon and Mitch go on a romantic weekend getaway to historic bed-and-breakfast. While visiting a cemetery, Sharon picks up an old bracelet. Meanwhile, Mitch has unexplained dreams of the past and visions of a ghostly woman. 

This is a haunting, beautiful, and almost wistful story that delivers feelings of sorrow and uncertainty rather than fear. Sharon’s imagination is activated as she researches the past of the town for a book. The research consumes her to the point that she has trouble separating herself from the past. 

Meanwhile Mitch’s encounters with the past are found by esoteric means. The images of the ghostly woman aren’t really scary. They emphasize her sadness and isolation from the world of the living. She inspires empathy rather than scorn. The couple’s visit practically makes them the unwanted intrusions instead of the ghost.

“The Black Hole”-As many know some of the best anthology stories are ones that like to offer social commentary inside a memorable story. In this story, a group of young African-American men are invited to a paintball tournament by one’s white co-workers. The true intentions of the night are revealed as the men find themselves running for their lives.

This story is very reminiscent of Jordan Peele’s movies by turning a supernatural occurrence into an insightful commentary on racism. The players are evenly divided in strength and athleticism but the white players have advantage over their black counterparts because they know the true meaning behind the game. The weapons become more realistic and the game becomes bloodier and more violent as we peer into the dark hearts of those playing it. 

The black men try to strategize and work together to survive the night and maybe even fight their assailants. It’s truly gut wrenching as they get taken out one by one because they live within a system that does not value them as people. They are regarded by their hunters as nothing more than targets meant to be slaughtered. 

“The Keeper of Souls”-This story is similar to a dark fairy tale that personifies Death as an actual being. The Narrator has been haunted by a creature that he calls The Keeper of Souls. Now at age 88, he fears that the Keeper is coming for him.

The Keeper’s dark clothing and silent demeanor deliver a slight chill. The overall impression is that of a character that you can barely see out of the corner of your eye and swear he was there a second ago. Then upon closer inspection, he’s gone at least according to your eyes. But somewhere in your heart, you know he’s still there watching and waiting. 

The Keeper is like one of those fair folk who operate on their own rules and standards. He collects souls, that’s what he does. He no more has any feeling or compunction about it than he does about the heads that he carries. He is not someone who can be reasoned with, challenged, or argued against. He just is. 

“Dear Monique”-This story is brilliant at subversion and shifting the Reader’s thoughts towards and then away from the characters. A long letter recounts the friendship between Monique and the narrator, Christine. 

Christine’s narrative starts out sweet and nostalgic. She captures various moments that solidified the friendship between the two women through school, marriage, and motherhood. There is at first a sisterly bond between them that appears unbreakable. It’s sweet until we remember that sisterhood can have negative qualities as well as positives. For every March Sisters there are also Cinderella and her Wicked Stepsisters.

The letter takes a severe turn as Christine’s memories become more fragmented, darker, and more accusatory. Buried resentment and envy come forward and the two friends confront one another in a tragic conclusion. At first, it seems abrupt and jarring but upon closer inspection, the letter reveals that there was always something brewing under the surface of this friendship. Their end isn’t a surprise as it is inevitable.

“Baie Rouge”-This story is a continuation of and sequel to “The Dance” by carrying many of the same themes of sexual attraction and undying love. Sandra remembers her relationship with Vickie and still mourns her death. One night during her grief, Sandra gets a surprise visitor that completely changes her outlook.

The couple are very close and Sandra’s memories are pleasant. She recalls Vicki’s positive and negative qualities cherishing those former times as a means of holding onto her deceased lover. Sandra makes Vicki a real person and not a caricature or a model of perfection. That makes her death all the sadder. 

The resolution is easy to predict but at the same time intriguing. Because of what we are told about their relationship, the results are not something to be feared. Instead it is seen as a triumph. 

“To Die A Fool”-Like “The Black Hole,” this is social commentary wrapped inside an engaging story. Only this time religion is given this bitter satiric treatment. A religious man finds his  beliefs tested when confronted with his own mortality.

This story is a savage and brutal takedown of religion and the willful blindness that it sometimes brings. The Narrator spends the first few pages trying to convince the Reader that his faith is constant and unyielding. He arrogantly describes his devotion almost to the point of parody.

The final pages counters the Narrator’s view and give him an ironic hell. It’s a complete contrast to what he talked about without understanding. It forces him to look at himself and learn that his religious behavior was just simply surface without substance. 

“Last Request”-Some of the darker stories in this anthology takes the Readers into the mind of characters who are human and far more dangerous than any supernatural entity. Willie Dean Campbell sits on death row awaiting his last meal and execution.

Campbell’s story is one of using violent means to satisfy one’s cravings and desires. He is written as someone who has a hunger that needs another thrill to satisfy it. Those thrills start out minor and then get progressively worse. He is inhuman as he looks at his victims as simply means to satisfy those longings.

The most troubling aspects of this story are revealed when Campbell admits that he didn’t come upon his homicidal tendencies on his own. In fact, they were drilled into him by his mother. She created the desire and the cravings and got him started on the path. Campbell just simply followed it to its obvious conclusion. 

“One Night Stand”-Some of these stories are flash fiction and have only one page or even a few sentences to capture a mood. In this one, a woman contemplates the aftereffects of a murder.

Despite the short length, Wood manages to capture a truly diabolical situation. The description is extraordinarily graphic and evocative in its violence. In a few short sentences a nightmare is created.

The final sentence is meaningful enough to be a twist ending. In this brief story, we learn as much about the characters and their situation as we would have if we had been given more pages. 

“Issue”-This story is one that many authors may relate to, especially when their characters seem so real. While writing his latest mystery novel, Maurice White seems to feel the presence of Charlie Carver, his protagonist. 

The story begins with many creepy moments like when Maurice begins speaking in the accent that he gave Charlie and taking on some of his mannerisms. He is afraid to look in the mirror or go about his daily activities because he thinks that he will see Charlie appear to him.. As the snippets of Maurice’s novel are meant to keep his readers in suspense, Maurice’s journey does the same to us. The Reader isn’t sure if Charlie’s fears are justified or we are reading the thought process of a paranoid schizophrenic. Is Charlie a fictional character or an alter ego that Maurice tries to suppress but is begging to come forward. Or more than likely could both be simultaneously true?

The ending spins the story in a different direction from entering the mindscape of a writer to blurring the lines between the real world in which they live and the fictional world that they create. Charlie Carver takes on a more demonic persona as he confronts his author. He is unfinished because his story is and he demands a resolution. This story shows that people, authors especially, can create their own demons and are often at their mercy. 

“Noon”-This story takes a trip into panic during the end of the world. The Narrator searches through a zombie apocalypse for his brother, Corey.

The story captures the panic and tension that one would have in a situation where their entire world has ended. The Narrator recalls the moments when  the creatures attacked the humans and chaos ensued. He’s still in shock and denial trying to reconcile the world that he once knew with the one before him. This leaves him defenseless when he isn’t adequately prepared for the new normal. All he can do is find his brother and hide. 

The tension contrasts with the Narrator’s feelings towards Corey. His memories of the two raising each other and sticking together through hardships fill him with hope. He hangs onto those memories because they are all that he has. He wants to think of Corey as the man that he once was and not a corpse or worse. That hope turns to despair and fear when he realizes that the times have changed his brother too.

“Patty”-Unlike many of the stories in the anthology that  cannot be found in reality, this one explores a monster that is very human and unfortunately very common. In this one, Patty recalls her unhappy and abusive marriage to her husband, Troy and the violence that ensued from it.

Who needs ghosts, demonic roller coasters, and zombie apocalypses when the fear of domestic violence is all too present and real? Patty’s marriage starts out badly even before the ceremony when she overhears Troy make disparaging comments about  her appearance. Troy’s abuse towards Patty escalates from sharp criticisms, to outright insults, to gaslighting, to physical and sexual violence. The characters fall into a pattern that is frequently echoed in reality. 

The worst part about the abuse is the toll that it takes on Patty. When we read about her, she is a faded withered woman who is deprived of the ability to think for herself because of the erosion of her self-esteem. She wears clothing, fixes her hair, and manages the household in ways that he approves of. She is not even allowed the privacy of her own thoughts without his domineering voice and harsh hands entering her mind. As with many abuse victims, she has lost the ability to fight him and in this case her obsession to please him takes on violent proportions. However, the story makes us side with her because Patty is not the monster. Troy is. He took her identity, mind, independence, self-respect, and left behind an empty shell. He did far more damage than any zombie ever could.

“Idol”-Many of these stories are at their core about obsessions, but none explore that concept more than this one. In a long monologue, Iris recounts her obsession for a famous woman to the point that she wants to look like her and goes to desperate lengths to achieve her goal.

The story straddles the line between darkly comic and extremely grotesque,  Iris talks about her injuries and body mutilations like they are a day at the spa. She is alarmingly nonchalant about the fact that her complexion is burnt to a crisp,, that her hair and eyebrows are gone because of disastrous dying techniques, and parts of her skin has been hacked off to trim the fat. It’s terrifying and pathetic to imagine this poor woman putting herself through such torture to look like her idol.

This story is a commentary on the beauty industry and the lengths that people, especially women, go through to look perfect. In a world where eating disorders, plastic surgery addiction, compulsive shopping, and images and videos that exploit insecurities in the name of beauty are all too common, are Iris’ actions really that far off? Many destroy themselves to obtain a perfect image that doesn’t exist, that never existed. They just don’t do it as graphically as Iris does. 

“Abstract”-If Art can capture life, then it can capture death too and that is what is explored here. Matthew and Cameron go to an art exhibit from a controversial artist whose paintings leave quite an impression on those who observe them.

The story starts out like one of those urban legends. Matthew and Cameron debate about the stories that they heard that they swore happened to a friend of a friend. Like other urban legends, this set up opens up a real fear but puts a story around it that is hard to believe. We may not believe the legend, but it scares us all the same. 

Things take a turn when the duo look at the painting. It is not described very much, just in splashes of colors. It’s an abstract which one may look at in any museum and  ponder its meaning, but leave it behind in pursuit of other works. With this one, it’s not so much the painting itself but how it makes the viewer feel. There is a haunting creeping coldness that symbolizes death. It can’t be expressed into words and barely into visuals beyond an abstract. It can only be felt and as it is felt, it remains. 

“Skin”-”Folie a deux” means shared psychosis and is particularly felt among two or more people who work together to commit crimes. In this story, Karen, a former psychiatric nurse, recalls her troubled obsessive relationship with Jeremy, a patient.

Karen and Jeremy are like many killer couples, most notably The Joker and Harley Quinn. They fill a need for each other and those needs often end in murder. Jeremy lives for his obsessions and addictions that are only satisfied by killing and devouring his enemies. He lives on emotion and impulse and doesn’t care who he hurts. 

Karen on the other hand is smarter and more methodical and calculating. She delivers certain things and pays favors to Jeremy to earn his trust. Then when she has it, she becomes an accomplice to his deeds. While Jeremy is not personally invested in the people he attacks, Karen is. She has a specific target in mind and puts them right in Jeremy’s path. In some ways, that makes her worse than Jeremy. He may live totally in darkness but she can control it. 

“Worthington Court”-This is reminiscent of those old ghost stories or campfire tales about that person or that area in town which are cursed. In this story, the cursed area is Worthington Court and the only person who knows its dark devastating secret is Alma Roberson, a 96 year old resident who reveals the secret to Henry Goode, a skeptical historian.

There is a nostalgic old world quality to this story, the kind which is shared by a storyteller to their listeners. Alma tells the story with a compelling narrative that captures both history and horror. She tells it in a way that makes you want to listen even though you are afraid of the ending. 

The story has a parallel point of view from Henry. After Alma finishes her story, he researches it to determine the veracity. He  methodically and thoroughly searches archives, town records, newspaper articles, census reports. He is convinced that he knows the truth. He forgets that there is something out there that resists being researched and can’t be analyzed or understood by academic means. 

“Detour”-This story has one of the usual stock endings found in horror but the journey to get there can’t be missed. Stuck in traffic, Cheryl takes a detour along the mysterious Palatial Lane only to get the fright of her life. 

“Detour” is almost hypnotic as it describes the long drive with the roads and endless traffic. It’s meant to put the Reader and Cheryl into a false sense of monotony during an everyday situation in which we are all too familiar. 

Palatial Lane is purposely the opposite of its name. Cheryl expects a wealthy road with big mansions, manicured lawns, and fancy cars. Instead, she finds an unkempt wood, old houses, dead grass, and an overall sense of abandonment. It is a place that fills her with fear and loathing and only towards the end does she realize that her fears are justified. 

“The Morning After’-This is another flash fiction which takes two sentences to capture a mood, a thrilling creepy mood. A woman hears a singer’s voice on the radio and it causes her mind to wander to a specific memory.

In the brief time in which we are given, we are told what we need to know about the woman, the singer, and what happened. The information that we are given gives us the important details and lets our minds wander about the rest. We don’t know who they are, the motives, or what led to it. That is left to the imagination. All that is known is something horrible happened and the Woman is not at all remorseful. In fact, she is jubilant.

“A Glimpse”-This is a very strange story which leaves a lot to the imagination. A woman is frightened by the appearance of a stranger but there may be more to this stranger than she thought.

We aren’t given a long story, just a few paragraphs. Most of it is devoted to the woman’s theories about this figure so it’s hard to tell what is real and what isn’t. This adds to the ominous feeling throughout. 

We are led to believe one thing, but then we are told something else that pivots us into another direction. In the end we aren’t given any clear answers and are left with the unknown. In a way that’s what makes it scarier. We are left to our own interpretations and to make our own conclusions. 

New Book Alert: Lost to The Lake by Anna Willett; Psychological Thriller Peers At The Paranoia of a Fractured Marriage

 New Book Alert: Lost to The Lake by Anna Willett; Psychological Thriller Peers At The Paranoia of a Fractured Marriage

By Julie Sara Porter

Bookworm Reviews 

Spoilers: Anna Willet's The Family Man focused on a police officer investigating a snuff film created by a man living the guise of a decent family man and moral center of the community. It offers an outsider peering into that facade and exposing the dark truth underneath.

Her novel, Lost to the Lake, shows the insider perspective of what it is like to live in a family like that. It shows what happens during a chilling vacation when a married couple discovers that their spouses aren't all that they appeared to be. They are married to complete terrifying strangers who wear familiar faces.

Marty and Beth seem to have a perfect life together. He owns a thriving business in financial planning. They have a nice home and though childless, they have a loyal dog, Angel whom Beth loves and does upon. Everything seems okay until the night when two men break into their home and hold the couple hostage. Marty apparently "took something from (them)" and now they are here for payback.

The opening is very tense as the two struggle in the dark against their assailants. This also begins to open some subtle cracks in their marriage as Beth begins to see Marry, a man that usually takes charge and can be dependable, as a coward who may abandon her if given the chance and has certainly been keeping secrets from her.

The results are a seriously injured dog who needs veterinary attention and at least one of the intruders dead on the floor. Beth wants to call the police, but Marty refuses since Angel more than likely attacked the man in defense of his humans. Marty says that he is an innocent pawn and didn't know these men were criminals when he did business with him. He could be considered an accomplice

This could be enough evidence to have Marry arrested and Angel put down. The best thing then, Marty suggests, would be to bury the body and get out of town for awhile. Why he even booked a room at the White Mist Lake Retreat while Beth took Angel to the vet ("It will be like couple's therapy," Marty insists, after they drag the dead body into the trunk.) As for the other guy, well he ran off and as long as he doesn't know where they are going, he'll be out of sight and out of mind.

I have read many thrillers and mysteries set in Australia but none have taken advantage of the setting more than Willett has in Lost to the Lake. The White Mist Lake Retreat is one of those places in the middle of nowhere where you could just sense something sinister lurking behind every tree or in every cabin. It's perfect for a thriller or horror.

If your imagination and paranoia doesn't get you, nature will. Remember, this is set in the Australian Outback where there is a lot of land to bury somebody and you can be miles away from anyone who would take a glance. 

The Retreat being in this rural out of the way place and near a dark forbidding lake gives the novel a strong sense of abandonment. You could be left there and no one would find you for weeks, if they found you at all. 

This sense of abandonment carries over from the setting into Beth and Marty's marriage. As the book continues, Beth begins to see another side to Marty, one that up until now she tolerated. He is snappish, irritable, distant, and suspicious of her friendship with Craig, White Mist Lake's maintenance man. Marty tells lies on top of lies about the night of the break in and his actions afterwards to the point where Beth doesn't know if she can trust him.

It doesn't take long for Beth to review the early times of their marriage and realize that what she once thought of as protective is now controlling. 

When Marty was once daring and passionate, she now sees him as temperamental and abusive. What she saw as an intellectual analytical mind is now cold-blooded and arrogant. It takes the break in and their "vacation" for Beth to realize that she had been in an abusive relationship all along and never acknowledged it until now. Beth is not just in a state of physical abandonment from the setting around her but emotional abandonment from the one person that she thought that she could trust.

Lost to the Lake ironically gets lost towards the end after revelations are made and characters double and triple cross each other. The endings go on and on and perhaps a few chapters could be trimmed. This isn't a book that is strong on reveal and resolution, so much as it's strong on atmosphere and dissecting the marriage between the two main characters. 

New Book Alert: Light of Hope by S.T. Collins; Inspirational, But At Times Questionable Book About Survival After Domestic Abuse

New Book Alert: Light of Hope by S.T. Collins; Inspirational, But At Times Questionable Book About Survival After Domestic Abuse

By Julie Sara Porter

Bookworm Reviews


Spoilers: S.T. Collins's novel, Light of Hope is about people going through a difficult time as survivors of domestic abuse. It also covers the organizations and people that help them get back on their feet and look for new careers, homes, and lives beyond the abuse. Collins succeeds, sometimes.

This book is hopeful and inspirational because it proves that abuse isn't the end of the story. That there are many brave kind people helping survivors get ahead in life, many of whom had been abused themselves. This book captures the brave and kind characters that work in such an institution.

However, the characters make some questionable decisions and do impulsive things that put themselves and others in danger. While their goals and the work they do is admirable, sometimes they behave very foolishly and recklessly. They could use some therapy themselves before they even think about helping others.


The protagonist is Vikki Nelson, a divorcee who suffered from two unhappy previous marriages. Her first marriage ended because her husband had an affair with a friend. Her second marriage, after a long time of psychological and emotional abuse. She is currently staying with her sister, Lily a nurse and single mother who ended a physically abusive marriage. The two sisters depend on each other for strength and support.


Vikki intends to better her life. After receiving a Bachelor's degree in Social Work and working as a waitress, she is interviewed by Robert Cuccio, Director of Light of Hope, a shelter that helps economically disadvantaged women receive public assistance and new jobs. Many of these women heve been abused by husbands and boyfriends. They are afraid and suffer from low self-esteem, so they need someone to help walk them through the process of economic and personal independence. Vikki passes her interview and receives the job as caseworker at Light of Hope.


Vikki does very well at the job. She befriends her colleagues, particularly Rhonda, a saucy case manager who also has relationship troubles. She takes charge of many important projects such as a job fair and bonds with many of her clients like Nikoleta Janovic, a Bosnian immigrant with two children and a stalker ex-boyfriend.


In her personal life, Vikki is able to use what she learned from Light of Hope to help and encourage Lily. We also get peeks into hers and Lily's unhappy marriages and why they led them to the choices they made and the lives that they now lead.

Vikki emerges as a strong character, because of her genuine concern and willingness to help others. As someone who had been in that situation, she wants to be a guide for other women.

The work that the characters at Light of Hope do is beyond admirable. They help these woman move themselves forward from their pain and see possibilities. They are good characters, but unfortunately they make many bad decisions that produce quite a few plot holes and would be questionable in real life situations.


Vikki comes to care about Nikoleta and wants to protect her from her absuive stalker ex so she invites her to stay at Lily's house! First, it wasn't her place to make that decision (though Lily does agree to it.) Second, because of Nikoleta's ex being a stalker, she is putting Nikoleta, her family, Lily, Lily's son, and Vikki herself in danger. Third, why not check her into a battered women's shelter? The option isn't even addressed. They purposely don't reveal their addresses so people can't find them and they have better protection in case they do! Fourth, it doesn't work out anyway because Lily's son and Nikoleta's oldest daughter are two hormonal teenagers and are caught making out by Lily. (That was a factor that should have gone into consideration.) While it shows Vikki's concern, sometimes her thoughtless impulsiveness comes through much clearer. This is one of those times.


Another irritating plot point is Robert and Vikki's romantic relationship. At first, Robert seems like a nice guy, dedicated to helping others, willing to offer advice, and cares about his employees and clients. But then the farther the book goes, the more that there seems like something is..off about him. He has a tendency to be everywhere that Vikki goes. While,Vikki does a good job he promotes her really quickly as if to ensure that they have plenty of alone time. It's not a surprise when he and Vikki have a sexual relationship.

I don't really blame Vikki for this relationship. He is good looking, but there's more than that. Vikki has been through two unhappy marriages. Her emotions are off-kilter. It is easy to look for love and romance with the first man who has ever been nice to her, especially when he recognizes her talent.

The one who is questionable in their behavior is Robert. He is a director of a shelter that helps troubled women. He should be able to recognize the signs of a woman going through a troubled personal life. Also, he is in a position of power and should put the brakes on a workplace relationship.

Besides that even after they get together, he behaves in a way that throws some red flags. When they eat out at restaurants, he orders for both of them (an early sign of controlling behavior.). He makes eyes at a pretty waitress but becomes jealous when Vikki speaks to an old friend. When Vikki want to cool off the relationship,Robert openly promotes one of the other female co-workers to accompany him on a trip instead of Vikki. It's not good when the director of a shelter helping troubled women exhibits abusive controlling behavior himself.

I look at these issues with the plot and I wonder if they were intended to move the plot along. They were there for the sake of a novel rather than making any actual sense. I can't help but wonder if Light of Hope might have fared better as a nonfiction book exploring these type of shelters and what they do to help women. Maybe also offering cases of people who had survived abusive situations. Of course confidentiality is an issue with these stories, but Collins could use pseudonyms.

Light of Hope is an encouraging book that tells the Readers that life after abuse is possible. But, as a novel it dims really quickly.