Sinister Ascension by Marc L. Abbott; School Spirit (and Vampires and Mediums)

 

Sinister Ascension by Marc L. Abbott; School Spirit (And Vampires and Mediums) 

By Julie Sara Porter 

Bookworm Reviews 

Spoilers: Sinister Ascension Marc L. Abbott’s graphic eldritch Supernatural Horror novel involves a coven of vampires that infiltrate a University and interfere with mortal’s lives for their goals.

Todd, a mysterious handsome charismatic newcomer enrolls in Bruckner University and catches the eye of Kim Morris. She is in a tempestuous relationship with her boyfriend, Eric Tucker which Todd takes full advantage of. However, Todd's not just there to be the third point in a love triangle. He's a vampire with a secret plan for “ascension” and needs a mate. He has many who oppose him including his fellow vampires and coven mates, Kevin and Zeborah, Eric, Dayton Conner, Eric's best friend, and Carmen Guerra, Kim’s roommate. Carmen actually has a secret weapon. She's a medium whose grandmother taught her how to communicate with ghosts and read the minds of otherworldly creatures.

Sinister Ascension has all of the usual earmarks of a decent Supernatural Horror: spiritual encounters, horrific monsters that are beyond description, love triangles gone fatal, and a confrontation between a sinister otherworldly creature with unbelievable abilities and a courageous worried human, often the Female Survivor/Final Girl, also with unbelievable abilities. There technically isn't anything new with what is done with the material, but it is an engaging ride with its ominous moments and genuine suspense.

Todd is a presence that alternates between charming and chilling. There are moments where he plays the role of the sympathetic potential boyfriend to the hilt, maneuvering Kim and Eric’s relationship in his favor. They have personality conflicts about missed dates, spending more time with friends, and mixed signals. These are often minor moments that create tension with any couples, but Todd is a master manipulator. He exaggerates Eric's flaws, builds up his own virtues, and plays on Kim's insecurities and sexual longings. 

Todd almost doesn't need supernatural abilities because he makes for a very effective manipulator and potential abuser. But he is a vampire and is capable of various powers like shapeshifting, hypnosis, and telepathy. As a 21st century vampire, he updates his technique. He spends a lot of time in labs breeding leeches and a subservient fellow vampire to extract the mortal blood. He goes through an eerie metamorphosis that strips away the handsome manipulative exterior to reveal the monster that had been lurking underneath.

The characters that fight against Todd are effective, particularly his rival vampires and Carmen. Kevin and Zeborah hover between being as antagonistic as Todd and justifiable in their fights against him. Kevin takes a more pragmatic approach towards humanity and Todd's fanatic megalomaniacal ambitions run counter to that. Even though he was willing to work alongside Todd on behalf of their coven previously, Kevin realizes that his colleague has gone too far and sides with the humans, specifically Carmen, against Todd. 

Zeborah also has his reasons to side against Todd. There are spoilers involved, but let's say his reasons are more emotional. He still has a soul despite his vampiric tendencies and is also tired of following Todd's orders especially when they led to much previous destruction. His journey towards atonement is one of the strongest aspects of this book.

By far Todd's strongest opponent and the primary protagonist is Carmen. She is beginning college just as she is discovering and developing her powers. Her conversations with her grandmother often consist of her asking questions about these growing powers that she doesn't understand and can't always control. Her abuela gives plenty of heartfelt advice born from a lifetime of using otherworldly talent in an ordinary world. 

Carmen's powers manifest themselves in different ways. Her encounters with ghosts are so mundane that she at first believes that she's talking to actual human students until something gives them away, usually when someone else does not see whom she is talking to. There is such an eerie chapter in which she talks to someone revealed to be a ghost during a stressful shocking night. 

Carmen also has the ability of sharing thoughts with some supernatural creatures most prominently Kevin. This skill allows these two unlikely allies to be on the same page as Carmen tries to protect Kim from Todd and Kevin fights against his one-time coven mate. 

With the ghostly encounters, telepathic conversations with vampires, and the migraines that often precede the use of her powers, Carmen is often on edge. Her abilities are amazing but they are clearly not a pleasant experience. They bring physical pain, mental confusion, and emotional loneliness when she can't tell anyone about them. Carmen recognizes the pain and discomfort but also realizes that it is a calling to help those in trouble particularly her friend and ultimately everyone around her.

Sinister Ascension is a worthy addition to any Supernatural Horror book collection. It has a lot of depth, scares, and plenty of spirit.

New Book Alert: That Was Before by Dan Lawton; Strange Mixture of Obsession, Love, and Domestic Terrorism

 

New Book Alert: That Was Before by Dan Lawton; Strange, Deceiving, but Disappointing Mixture of Obsession, Love, and Domestic Terrorism

By Julie Sara Porter

Bookworm Reviews

Spoilers: Dan Lawton's strange thriller novel That Was Before has plenty of explosions of the emotional and literal variety.

Various love triangles take place at the same time that a bomb explodes in a supermarket bringing all of the emotions at the forefront.

Married man, Randolph is ready to have an affair with cashier Sheila when a bomb explodes at the supermarket leaving Sheila hospitalized. Throwing caution to the wind and reeling about his vicious divorce from his soon to be ex-wife Patricia, Randolph decides to take a spontaneous road trip with Sheila so they could get closer with a sinister man following them that has the demeanor of a private detective but Sheila insists is merely a former boyfriend. Meanwhile, Benji, a barista with some expertise in computers is worried that he hasn't heard from his girlfriend, Shay and keeps harassing her with phone calls. However, he also has another girlfriend, the older and more unpredictable Cheyenne by his side. Then there is Sheila's strange behavior that suggests that her mind is on something or someone else and may be more dangerous than Randolph is willing to admit.

The danger is present throughout. Even when things are quiet, there is a suspicion that something else is going on. During a night of pillow talk while Randolph and Sheila are baring their souls, Sheila's answers seem to imply more than she is admitting. It's clear that various characters are hiding something from others.

This subterfuge makes the book suspenseful but the resolution is somewhat confusing. Some characters are revealed to have double identities and are involved with more than one person, making the circumstances somewhat contrived with how the same characters not only encounter each other but hook up. The cause for the explosion is somewhat arbitrary and goes against previous facts in the narration, unless Lawton is pulling the unreliable narrator card which doesn't make much sense since the book is third person omniscient and such tricks are unnecessary for such a narrator except to fool and annoy the Reader. 

Also, the book ends with a transparent means to bring about a sequel which is unnecessary since the Reader knows the characters' real identities and agendas. At the very least, there better be some PTSD involved since the character who may get the sequel will certainly be traumatized knowing that everyone around them (including people that they have known for years) have lied to them. At least some character development should be called for.

For a strong suspenseful beginning and clever deception and disguise, That Was Before gives a truly disappointing ending. Before it was good. Now it is a missed opportunity.

Classics Corner: Jazz by Toni Morrison; A Book That Sounds As Good As It Reads

Classics Corner: Jazz by Toni Morrison; A Book That Sounds As Good As It Reads




By Julie Sara Porter

Bookworm Reviews




Spoilers: If ever a book needed a soundtrack, it would be Toni Morrison's Jazz.

The book not only pays tribute to the freestyle music in the title but in the narrative as well. Characters call and respond to each other by telling the same events from different points of view, repeat phrases like a chorus, and the paragraphs read almost like a musical vibe. For example:

“Crumpled over, shoulders shaking Violet thought about how she must have looked at the funeral at what her mission was. The sight of herself trying to do something bluesy, something hep, fumbling the knife too late away…She laughed til she coughed and Alice had to make them both a cup of setting tea.

Committed as Violet was to hip development even she couldn't drink the remaining malt- watery, warm, and flat tasting. She buttoned her coat and left the drugstore unnoticed at the same moment as that Violet did, that it was spring. In the City.”

You can just hear the accompanying saxophone, guitar, and drums in the background. Feel free to snap your fingers and tap your toes if you like.

The book's narration is excellent but so is the rest of the book. In many of Morrison's other works like Sula and my favorite of her novels, Beloved, she gives us memorable characters caught up in the social issues of their day like slavery, racism, violence, and frictions within friends and family. Morrison does the same with Jazz.

Morrison provides the book with three characters, three sides of a love triangle that are caught in the struggles of unhappy marriages and the power plays between men and women in a relationship.
The three characters: hair stylist, Violet Trace, her husband, Joe, a cosmetics salesman, and his 18-year-old mistress, Dorcas are compelling as they navigate their relationship with each other during the affair and the violent end in which Joe not only shoots and kills Dorcas, but Violet disfigures her at her funeral.

It's a bizarre triangle with an even stranger resolution but none of the three characters are portrayed as long-suffering victims or a negative stereotypes. Instead they are fully developed. They may be self-centered and even violent and dangerous at times, but the reasons for their behaviors are clear. Like a good jazz song, the second verses explain their pasts and contribute to the first verse about the affair and it's graphic end.

Violet is probably the one who gets the Reader’s sympathy the most but even she has her issues. She is a 50ish married woman who settled into City life with a husband with whom she constantly argues and maintains a silent existence. She is capable of great compassion such as caring for her pet birds including one that says, “ I love you” and she bonds with many of her clients including developing a friendship peculiarly enough with Dorcas's aunt after her death.

However Violet also has difficulties in her past such as her mother's suicide and a troubled relationship with her grandmother whose stories of caring for her former white mistress and her mixed race son seek only to confuse Violet rather than uplift her.

Violet is deeply troubled and at times seems to verge on the edge of sanity.

The possibilities of mental illness comes into focus into Violet's adult life when she suffers three miscarriages and exhibits odd behavior like sitting in the street for hours on end, growing attached to her birds, and at one point contemplating kidnapping a child. Knowing about her past and her emerging psychological issues allows the Reader realize that her behavior was a long time coming and to learn that it was a matter of when not if she would attack and earn her nickname, “Violent.”

Joe's story is just as traumatic and just as understandable as his wife's. We learn that he was abandoned by his parents at a young age and he chose his surname Trace because his adopted parents told him that his birth parents disappeared “without a trace”. He figures that he was the “trace (his) parents left without.” When he finally meets the woman that he suspects may have given birth to him, this meeting provides neither comfort nor resolution as she is a disheveled mentally unstable recluse nicknamed “Wild.”

Joe spends most of his life feeling rootless and while he settles into married life with Violet, it is still fraught with problems. Besides the aforementioned miscarriages and years of silence, the two frequently moved until they were drawn to the allure of the City. (Never named but implied to be Harlem.)

The confusion and aimlessness of Joe's early life and continues into his adult life to the point where one of the first things that he does after meeting Dorcas is compare notes about their parentless past suggesting that Joe wasn't just looking for a lover, he was looking for a kindred spirit.

Dorcas is also brilliantly realized according to Morrison's excellent writing. She is the character who is most influenced by the music of the title and it shows. She begins as an innocent quiet daughter of two parents who were killed in a race riot in East St. Louis, Illinois.

When she moves in with her Puritanical aunt, Alice, Dorcas longs to break free from her aunt's rigidity and gain some independence in her life. She and her new friend, Felice then sneak out to jazz clubs and enjoy the flapper lifestyle. It is at one of these clubs, where Dorcas meets Joe and their affair begins. Dorcas finds Joe's casual demeanor a sharp contrast to her excitable nature as a man who is smooth, kind, and can calm her down.

Dorcas is like many other young people in literature and culture and real life. She wants to experience a life of her own and all that comes with it. Her relationship with Joe brings her excitement but even she knows it won't last. (Hence why she gets involved with another man, Acton, before her death.)

Violet, Joe, and Dorcas's story is like many a sad song about love gone awry. Their paths seemed fated, the lives hard, and the end inevitable. But it is Toni Morrison's ability to capture her tritagonists that make this a song worth hearing again and again.

Weekly Reader: Other Kingdoms by Richard Matheson; A Brilliant But Slightly Flawed Fantasy About Witches, Fairies, and WWI.

Weekly Reader: Other Kingdoms by Richard Matheson; A Brilliant But Slightly Flawed Fantasy About Witches, Fairies, and WWI.

By Julie Sara Porter

Bookworm Reviews




Spoilers: Richard Matheson's Other Kingdoms could go down in that legendary file marked “Modern Fairy Tale” in which characters encounter fairies, magic, and other situations in the 20th and 21st century. Luckily, he does so in a book that is clever and brilliant but with some flaws that keep it from being a perfect retelling.

Much of the cleverness lies in its protagonist. Alex White AKA Arthur Black, a popular author in his 80’s, retells his past of when he was an 18-year-old WWI vet. Many times he comments on his past actions with a self-aware wryness and wit such as when he calls his younger self an idiot for doing certain things. Alex also is found of complimenting his own writing by referring to a particularly poetic quote as “worthy of Arthur Black.”

One particular moment that displays Alex (and Matheson's) clever narrative is that he at first refuses to go into too many gory details about trench warfare by saying “it's too horrifying” and that he “will tell (The Reader) later.” When later comes and he graphically describes the death of a fellow soldier, Harold Lightfoot complete with intestines blown out of his body and rats scurrying from the approaching bombs, Alex then adds “I told you it would be horrifying.”

The self-awareness of the genre also continues when Alex moves to Gatford, England, Lightfoot's childhood home. (Alex, an American, has nothing to go back to except an abusive widowed father whom he dubs “Capt. Arthur Bradford White USN” or sometimes “You Know Who.”) At first he is confused by the superstitious locals who warn him of fairies which he mocks. It is only when he encounters the fairies for the first time that he realizes that they have reasons to be superstitious.


Far from being a stereotypical Fairy Tale, Matheson turns the genre on its head by making the Fairy Tale stock characters more relatable and interesting than most of the human characters except Alex. He is warned at first away from “The Witch in the Woods” but when he encounters, Magda Variel, he sees a kind beautiful woman who is in mourning for her late husband and son. She also explains that she is a Wiccan telling him about the nature based religion (earning this Wiccan's gratitude). Finding her to be beautiful yet troubled and her magical practice to be fascinating and not scary, the much younger Alex engages in an affair with the middle-aged Magda. (Leaving the older Alex to be both proud of his younger self for getting lucky with an older woman and appalled because he knows what is to come.)

Matheson is also brilliant in reconstructing the Fairies making them very developed and somehow...human. Alex encounters Ruthanna, a lovely Fairy and falls in love with her. He is warned by everyone including Magda that the fairies are shape shifters and mischief makers who will use any trick to lure a human because it amuses them. So when he encounters Ruthanna, he and the Reader, are on guard for any mischief.

Instead Ruthanna reveals herself to be a complex misunderstood being who genuinely falls in love with Alex at first sight. She and the others of her kind explain that many of their tricks such as shape shifting are survival instincts to avoid the human race that have been known to hunt the Fair Folk down to potential extinction.

Matheson's complex writing is particularly noticeable when Magda and Ruthanna both confront Alex. They both say they can be trusted and the other is lying. Alex (and the Reader) are not sure who to trust. All of thee stereotypes surrounding them have been challenged so who is right and who is wrong? It becomes a well-written dilemma as Alex is uncertain so Magda makes the decision for him.

Unfortunately, Magda's decision leads to the book's huge glaring flaw. Once it is made, Alex joins Ruthanna in her Fairy World. There are many beautiful moments as the two explore the world together and Alex learns about Fairy culture from her Uncle Garal. (He also learns the late Harold Lightfoot was her brother who died fighting for a human country in which he felt a deep connection). Their romance would be complete if not for Magda.

Once Alex gets involved with Ruthanna, Magda just kind of disappears. In her final confrontation with Alex, she reveals some graphic secrets that the Reader never learns if they were true or just a blatant attempt to push Alex away because she is angry with him. The book never tells us and she fades into the background becoming an afterthought. For a character to begin so brilliantly realized to have such an anticlimactic resolution is wrong somehow.

However Alex and Ruthanna's romance is solid and is movingly felt even long afterwords when Alex becomes exiled from the Fairy World after a confrontation with Ruthanna's bad tempered kinsman.

Despite the lack of resolution with Magda, the book is an excellent modern fairy tale that gives compelling characters, plenty of magic, and an ending that may not be happily ever after but for Alex White and Ruthanna might be as close as they are going to get.

Banned Books Special: Drama by Raina Telgemeier; A Cute Charming Graphic Novel About Love and Identity at a Middle High School Drama Department

Banned Books Special: Drama by Raina Telgemeier; A Cute Charming Graphic Novel About Love and Identity at a Middle High School Drama Department

Spoilers: Callie, the excitable protagonist of Raina Telgemeier's graphic novel seems to be born for the stage so the 7th grader is a part of Eucalyptus Middle School Drama Department. However unlike many other starstruck teens, she does not want to be center stage singing and acting. (In fact an early moment reveals that she can't carry a tune.) Instead she turns her interest into set design. She pores over coffee table books and art books revealing the intricate sets of the old Ziegfeld and Broadway shows and strives to make her productions just like them. (with a third of a budget for a school production.) The intrepid teen deals with her grandiose ideas and the complicated love lives of herself and the other students in this charming and cute graphic novel which deals with friendships, romances, and discovering one’s identity in the world of the theater.

The kids are tasked to perform Moon Over Mississippi, a musical/love story. Callie is thrilled not only to design the intricate Antebellum sets but that she also gets to fire a prop cannon. (She hoped to fire one with pyrotechnics, but the stage manager and director/faculty advisor had to remind her of the potential damage to the auditorium and potential loss of life.) Her best friend, Liz is excited because as costume designer she gets to watch classic films like Shenandoah and Gone With the Wind to sketch the beautiful hooped skirt gowns and handsome Union and Confederate uniforms and to find details for the costumes even if it means going into the creepy prop and costume vault. Callie's friend Max is excited in his role as spotlight technician and that he also gets to boss the other kids around including Liz and Callie.

The fact that most of the main characters are crew members instead of part of the cast shows that these roles are just as important if not more so than the ones onstage. The people who contribute to these roles are just as creative and talented as the performers.

Besides the hijinks onstage, the Reader is drawn into the hijinks off and Drama begins to take on the attributes of a teen sitcom or light-hearted soap opera with the requisite love triangles, more like Love Dodecahedrons, present.

Let's see if I can get this straight (deep breath): Callie is at first in love with Matt’s older brother, Greg who sees Callie mostly as a friend. Greg has an on-again-off-again relationship with Bonnie, the most popular girl in school who also plays the female lead in Moon Over Mississippi. Bonnie eventually begins dating West, who plays the male lead. Callie befriends two twin brothers, Justin and Jesse. Justin, who gets the part of a comic relief, is openly gay much to Callie's initial confusion and eventual acceptance. Callie develops a crush on Jesse, who assists her in constructing sets. What Callie doesn't know is that Jesse is also gay and is developing a relationship with West. Meanwhile, Matt harbors a secret crush on Callie which he hides behind snide remarks and deadpan sarcasm.

While as in many programs the love triangles, or whatever shape, is overdone, many of the characters are prone to hysterics and melodrama. (like most teens particularly ones involved in drama already). However the characters are so cute and likeable that it's easy to root for them despite them being thrown into the non-stop pairings.

Standing out in particular in the cast are Callie and Jesse. Callie is practically the engine, the driving force, behind the production. She gets excited by even the minute details such as tossing magnolia leaves at the young lovers during their big love song. She knows, loves, and studies Broadway musicals enthusiastically turning her hobby  int an obsession and a potential career.

She draws the other crew members into her enthusiasm by getting them excited and thinking this is going to be the best production ever. She makes suggestions for the various departments from lighting, to costumes, to acting and they take them willingly. Partly because many of her ideas are good, with the exception of the pyrotechnics cannon.  For example, she suggests soft lights for romantic scenes instead of red because “it looks too much like danger.” Also the others relent to Callie's suggestions because they know she will pester them until they agree.

 She is also persistent in creating the various facets of the set design. She obsesses over the cannon filling it with confetti and sound effects so it could create the perfect explosion that would startle the audience out of their seats. She uses the cannon not only in the play but in the cafeteria as free publicity advertising the play which creates a long line of students buying tickets.

Jesse also stands out in this charming cast. While his twin, Justin is a bit of a gay stereotype with his exuberant personality and love of being center stage, Jesse is very shy and standoffish. While he has a good singing voice and has the musical memorized (thanks to he and Justin having the soundtrack at home.), Jesse has tremendous stage fright and is content to stay behind the scenes.

Jesse’s shyness also pertains to his sexuality. Even though Callie pursues him as energetically as she does everything else, he is too terrified to tell the truth. He continues to follow her around because he is uncertain with how he feels and who he wants to be.

 It is only in the end when after Bonnie has a meltdown backstage and refuses to go on, that Jesse assumes her red gown and plays the female lead. He finally becomes comfortable with himself.

 In assuming a female identity, Jesse recognizes his own real identity as a gay young man and pursues a relationship with West.

While Drama is cute and charming and filled with laughable moments, at heart it tells a sweet story about how romance can be found only when people are being their true selves.