The Arts Council by Dolly Gray Landon; The Writing Writes The Writer Taking Kev to Sizzlin' Meats and Salads by Kevin Cann

The Arts Council by Dolly Gray Landon 

 The Arts Council by Dolly Gray Landon is a bizarre book. It can't really be said to be highly recommended. It can't even be considered particularly good or well written. Instead it is a messy, loud, disturbing, darkly comic, vulgar, inappropriate, immature, witty, bizarre, trippy, unforgettable, sharp, and ruthless satire. You don't go into a book like this to like anyone or anything. You read it to cringe, laugh bitterly, compare it to real life, maybe think, and more than likely wonder “What the heck did I just read?”

The plot mainly involves Honoree Oinkbladder and Modesty Greedance, two high school artists who are constantly trying to one-up each other. It also concerns the Pimpleton Regional Arts Council who determines whose artwork is praised and promoted but are often swayed by famous family names, bribery, and other more nefarious means in selecting pieces. There are also various other subplots that involve cheating spouses, hook ups, break ups, murders, public humiliation, illicit lobotomies, and feral attack therapy dogs.

The Arts Council walks that strange line between being a very intelligent satire and an immature joke. There are savage takedowns everywhere from aggravating political figures, to pretentious artists and art experts, to judicial corruption, to inept intellectuals, to kangaroo courts, to depraved socialites, to obnoxious teenagers, and especially to a society which pays lip service to hard work and merit but lets money and names lead to success.

The attacks especially on the art industry are spot on. Landon skillfully dissects an industry which talks a big game about artistic integrity and free expression but only promotes art that is deemed acceptable when it is financially beneficial for collectors, council members, and gallery owners. 

They determine what is considered fine art and will try to assign an arbitrary meaning to make it more valuable. For example, a painting of Honoree’s that was defaced in the most horrible way during a bullying incident is considered a worthy piece. Honoree then displays it, despite its rancid odor and disgusting visuals. She periodically makes some slight additions and changes to make it look like an entirely new piece each time to the delight of her prestigious and unaware fans.

The intellectual satire is augmented by more childish humor making the book a bizarre concoction of humor. Various characters have double entendres and dad jokes for names such as Dweebaldo Van Boofus, Poppin’ Jay Godandy, and Ian Tickleman. The two protagonists named Honoree and Modesty suggest virtue but are conniving manipulative young women who have multiple sexual relationships.

There are moments that over emphasize scatological function and humor. Readers might be torn between sardonically smirking at the satire or rolling their eyes at an obvious dirty joke, sometimes doing both in the same paragraph.

There are many things that prevent this from being a highly recommended book or even a great work of satire and parody. The characters are off putting in that exaggerated way that is found often in satire where everyone is written to an obnoxious extreme and no one is particularly likeable. Some plot points go nowhere or are arbitrarily resolved. It's hard to care about anyone in a cast of shrill annoying caricatures who do stupid obnoxious things as plot devices.

That is probably the point but the incomprehensible plot and one dimensional characters also cause the book to run far too long. Readers might say, “We got the joke the first time. Can we move on please?” It's a book that is not well constructed but also revels in how ill constructed that it is. Technically that makes the book a potential work of genius.

Trigger warnings but there are also moments that are incredibly disturbing. A few characters get publicly humiliated in sexually and physically abusive ways that are treated as graphic and disturbing jokes. One could say that is the point and comedy is subjective. In a world that is becoming increasingly satiric on its own, those who point out society's flaws in arts and entertainment need to be more graphic, more satiric, and crazier to get their points across.

However, these are chapters that go to an extreme that is beyond humor. The excessive nature of these passages turn dark satire into psychological horror. The characters don't just suffer but others stand around, watch it happen, and take part in the humiliations. Once read, the reader can't unsee them and has a hard time focusing on the rest of the book. Because of them, the book could be considered recommended but with extreme reservations that it is definitely not for everyone. It is for people who like bizarre satire, dark humor, sexual innuendo, and have strong stomachs.

The Writing Writes The Writer Taking Kev to Sizzlin' Meats and Salads by Kevin Cann 

This review is also on Reedsy Discovery.

Spoilers: Some books capture large moments. Characters dealing with politics, life transitions like birth and death, trauma, and sweeping changes. Some capture little moments concerning friendships, couples, and daily life. 

That is the case with The Writing Writes The Writer: Taking Kev to Sizzlin' Meats and Salads by Kevin Cann. There isn't much in the way of plot but it's heavy in characterization.

The book mostly focuses on Kev and his best friends, married couple Jeb and Mae. Kev is legally blind and Jeb and Mae often drive him around. One of their favorite places to go is Sizzlin' Meats and Salads, the local eatery. It's just a few weeks of their lives punctuated with trips to Sizzlin.’

The three characters and setting are relatable and identifiable. Those who live in small towns will understand the comfortable routine found in a town like Peculiar, California. It presents a history of the town and how it got its, well, peculiar name. It's the type of story that townspeople know by heart and retell. Maybe celebrate it in historical reenactments and guided tours. 

There is also recognition of the important locations that give the town character. In this case Sizzlin' Meats and Salads. It's a local mom and pop place where people arrive every week, order their favorite expected meals so often that sometimes even the servers memorize it before they order, and recognize co-workers, classmates, neighbors, or just the regular gang of diners. It's so beautiful because it's so familiar and comforting.

The three protagonists are the type of characters who depend on daily lives and routines. This is especially vital to Kev. An intellectual and writer, Kev hates being dependent on his friends but still relies on them to be his contact with the world outside his house. 

He is such a devotee to this routine that he looks forward to it like a kid waiting for a trip to a theme park. When things get in the way like car trouble or a family issue, Kev makes them swear that they will go the following week and it's non-negotiable. Of course unlike most people, he doesn't have the luxury of going some other day because of his lack of transportation. It's just as aggravating for him as it is for them and the frustration is easily understood.

We also see Jeb and Mae as a couple that are comfortable with each other. They compliment each other with different personalities but a yin yang dynamic that recognizes each other's strengths and vulnerabilities. 

They have shared memories, inside jokes, unfinished sentences that they answer. They know each other so well and treat Kev like another family member that's welcome in their lives and not an unwanted third wheel. It's a power trio that relies on warmth, familiarity, and connections as their strongest assets.

The Writing Writes The Writer is a simple book. But sometimes the simple books tell the strongest truths.

BASH: Love, Madness, and Murder by Michael Bartos; Suspenseful Satire Flies Close to the Cuckoo’s Nest but Falls Flat

 

BASH: Love, Madness, and Murder by Michael Bartos; Suspenseful Satire Flies Close to the Cuckoo’s Nest but Falls Flat

By Julie Sara Porter 

Bookworm Reviews 

Spoilers: For someone to be placed in a mental hospital, they would have to be considered a potential harm to themselves and others. For someone to want to be put in there, they would have to be even more mentally ill, an investigative reporter looking for a story, or both. Ashley Roper, one of the protagonists of Michael Bartos’ novel BASH: Love, Madness, and Murder is both and he has a story to investigate.

The Blakemore Anderson State Hospital (BASH) is the site of several controversies. Accused murderer, Burton Peale escaped from there. Another, Tyler Goode languished there. There are reports of drugs being unwisely distributed and potential mistreatment. It's not a pleasant place to be sent to but it is a potential story so Ashley, a reporter for the lifestyle newspaper, Charley Town, decides to investigate it. He will impersonate a patient there and find out what's going on. Unfortunately, he finds getting admitted is the easy part. It's surviving and getting out of this environment that's the hard part.

BASH is kind of a mixed bag with some parts that work and others that don't. Some subplots get introduced and threaten to turn the book into something else but peter out before they pose any real effect on the narrative. Burton Peale’s escape promises to be thrilling but most of the points produce very little suspense and are only recalled after the fact. 

There are hints of abuse and corruption from the upper levels but the results aren't shown in a way that shows any after effects towards the patients. Maybe, in a drive to be satiric, Bartos ignored the human interest element that in such an environment people would be suffering, people who are often unable to function in the outside world and are at the mercy of their caregivers.

The plot that works the best is Ashley's. He is someone who is looking for a good story. He gained prominence because of his first person articles detailing his service in Afghanistan. This article could give him some more relevance and bring some much needed publicity to Charley Town, which with the exception of Ashley's military themed articles, has a reputation of being mostly local news and light fluff.

There is some humor and suspense with the process in which Ashley gets himself committed and the lengths that his girlfriend and friends have to use to get him released. It almost gives a gaslighting quality towards the possibility that Ashley's investigation could have gotten him committed for the rest of his life, even having doubts whether he imagined the circumstances that brought him there and slipping into the insanity that he feigned.

It would have been much more interesting if BASH was written as a terrifying place that deserves to be exposed so we would be much more concerned about Ashley's time there but the potential activities are more subverted and less upfront. It mutes the trouble that Ashley has gotten into for trying to expose the corruption but does show his determination in trying to reveal it.

BASH could be a better book but it needs to have more care in putting the ideas together to make a decent work.

Buckingham Mockup by Asif I. Shaikh; Humorous, Satiric, Warm, and Spiritual Journey of Hiding From The Law and Finding Oneself

Buckingham Mockup by Asif I. Shaikh; Humorous, Satiric, Warm, and Spiritual Journey of Hiding From The Law and Finding Oneself 

By Julie Sara Porter 

Bookworm Reviews

Spoilers: Asif I. Shaikh's Buckingham Mockup walks a thin line between humor and joy, satire and spirit, something to laugh at and something to think about.

Alan Haworth went on the run via plane with embezzled drug money. He makes an emergency landing on the island of McCoypuri. He befriends the various locals including Andrew and Marta, a couple that look after Alan during his arrival, Sikander and Hannah, who own Lala’s, the restaurant and hangout, and Laladip, a politician with designs on expansion. Alan becomes involved with his new surroundings while plotting an escape and getting more money.  But he begins to really like the place and people.

Buckingham Mockup takes a tone that might seem uneven but is also meaningful within the distinct divisions that separates them. It starts out as a satirical and even silly crime and political caper. It then takes a strange turn and becomes a meditative and spiritual journey towards finding oneself in a greater place than they were before.

While he is in McCoypuri, Alan plots to get enough money and plans his escape. He can't help but see the criminal possibilities for such an isolated island with plenty of resources, locals, and tourists to take advantage of. He acts appalled by that thought, but often goes back to it as though he may not mind the financial advantages that such a venture could bring. 

He is someone whose criminal history is somewhat laughable as he was a low level grunt who knew that he was in over his head but wanted to make a fast buck. When things got too dangerous, Alan fled for his life and crashed a plane into McCoypuri. If not for his new friends, his escape would have been a short one. It's a good thing that he becomes involved with various legit businesses because he was an incompetent criminal.

Alan is practically rescued and tended by the locals and is torn between his growing loyalty towards them and his own ambitions. He becomes involved with Sikander’s social media presence and local activism. He works with Laladip’s campaign and PR ops. He encourages Hannah's volunteer work and embraces her social consciousness. He also makes Laladip’s a home away from home. The longer that Alan stays in McCoypuri, the more that he feels accepted and involved.

There is a deeper spiritual connection that is understated but still captivating. Alan gets into deeper discussions with characters about altruism, faith, acceptance, and feeling a part of something greater than himself. 

The title Buckingham Mockup describes a model or rendering of a design or product that shows how it might look and function in real life. In the book, it is built for a hotel that Alan envisions for the island. It also serves as a double meaning for Alan himself.

The Alan that we meet at the beginning of the book is the design and model. He gives the impression of being shallow, materialistic, and longing for excitement and easy money. As Alan’s journey continues, we see the real Alan: the one who is empathetic, connected, involved, active, generous, centered, and calmer. In making plans for his new home, Alan realizes that he actually is home.

 

What Was Left of Her A Story of Ghosts by Victoria Hattersley; Whirl of Birds Short Stories by Liana Vraijitoru Andreasen

 What Was Left of Her A Story of Ghosts by Victoria Hattersley; Whirl of Birds Short Stories by Liana Vraijitoru Andreasen 

By Julie Sara Porter 

Bookworm Reviews

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

This is a summary of my review. The full review is on LitPick.

What Was Left of Her is very reminiscent of the old Gothic novels like Jane Eyre or Rebecca. It explores the outer atmosphere built on suspenseful austerity and the inner psychology of the troubled people within.

Two sisters, Cassie and Alex reunite after the death of their Aunt Lucie. While going through her house, the two recount their troubled and disturbed childhood with the loving but haunted aunt who raised them and their developmentally disabled potentially sociopathic cousin, Bella. While they remain in Lucie’s coastal home, strange things start happening. Cassie sees someone out of the corner of their eye, hears whispers, and things are mislaid. She is beginning to wonder if maybe Bella who was believed to have disappeared might still be alive. 

The characters inside are troubled miserable souls notably Cassie and Bella. Cassie is a recovering alcoholic with a fragmented memory. It’s hard to tell whether the ghosts are real and surround her or whether they are in her mind. 

Even though Bella is absent through most of the book, she is still very much in the family’s mind and consciousness. She was a seriously troubled woman who may not have been physically capable of controlling herself but also may have been and did not care. The description of her could go either way and is only provided by third person accounts from Cassie and Alex. 

The cousins' personalities and actions merge until it’s hard to tell how much of Cassie’s memories are accurate, whether they were things that Bella did or whether Cassie was projecting and who was haunting who.

Whirl of Birds: Short Stories by Liana Vraijitoru Andreasen 

This review is also on Reedsy Discovery.

Liana Vraijitoru Andreasen’s anthology Whirl of Birds Short Stories is an extremely difficult book that reveals complex narratives and themes.

It captures the abstract, the allegorical, the symbolic, and the metaphorical and turns them into understandable commentaries on the characters themselves and the societies in which they and the Reader inhabit. It's a book that isn't always easy to understand but it's impossible to get out of your mind.

The best stories are: 

“The Puppet Show”-This is a very creepy story that takes the whole “we are mere puppets on a string” metaphor literally. Kids enjoy a puppet show particularly the ongoing adventures of Princess Gina who gets in various cliffhangers that put her in peril. 

This is a very surreal short story that implies a theme of possessing someone's talent and soul. It's not a coincidence that Gina the Puppet shares the same name as Gina, who works for the puppet show and narrates the adventures. In the Puppeteer’s eyes, both Ginas are one and the same and he believes that in owning one, he has control of the other.

He controls Gina who is a brilliant performer and storyteller and tries to manipulate circumstances around her. He invites various male performers to play the character, Radu, to join them almost as though to test her fidelity. Each time they commit transgressions, the men disappear leaving Gina more isolated and dependent on the Puppeteer. 

Significantly, there are three men therefore three tests. Three is a magical number that appears often in fairy tales, like the kind of stories that the Ginas star in. The Puppeteer is writing his own story and controlling the narrative of Gina's life. He treats the human Gina like a character that does whatever he wants them to. She has no story beyond the one that he created for her.

The final pages show both the end of the Puppet Show and Gina's relationship with the Puppeteer. It depicts that the puppeteer can't control everything, that he is as much a pawn, a puppet, in larger games and larger stories that surround him. He can't control changing tastes, that children are always looking for the next big thing and once they find it, they throw out the old thing. He can't control when people get lives of their own and move on and away from him, in effect changing the plot. 

He especially can't control the outside world, when revolutions and violence can occur. Instead, he is left alone with his incomplete story and no one that cares or is even interested enough to listen to it.

“Stolen Light”-This story uses an ominous natural phenomenon as a metaphor for the family observing it. Jose Angel, a young boy, sees a mysterious cloud approaching Las Vegas. Terrified, many have theories but the boy has only certain things in mind. If the world is ending, he wants to get some nagging questions answered about his missing father.

What is particularly compelling and frustrating is the lack of answers that this story provides leaving events ambiguous. There are no definite answers to what the cloud is. In fact the characters' speculations say more about themselves than they do about the phenomena itself. 

Some say the cloud is a government experiment and it's a conspiracy. Others say that it's an impending alien invasion. Still others think that it's the Biblical End of Days. They act how most people would in such a situation. They make their own conclusions in the face of no answers or ones that they disagree with.

Jose Angel is like many teens. He wants his own life. He wants to satisfy those urges that he has for companionship and belonging. He is less concerned with the thing in the sky than he is with the things that are troubling his mind.

Among those questions are those about his father. He asked his mother about him and she gave non-answers which left him as confused as everyone else is about the cloud. Then conveniently an encounter might provide a solution but it only raises more questions and potentially puts Jose Angel in danger.

This story demonstrates how our thoughts can become cloudy with our own questions and speculation. We might get an answer but it may not be what we expected or liked. Sometimes it leads to more questions and makes things even cloudier.

“Whirl of Birds”-Birds usually represent color, flight, independence, and freedom. But sometimes they can also represent dread, violence, scavengers, predators, and death. This is what happens as Bianca is on a drive and is pursued by a very persistent flock of birds that keep following her towards an unpleasant encounter. 

The story is reminiscent of Alfred Hitchcock’s The Birds and Edgar Allen Poe’s “The Raven” as the birds hover around her. Bianca isn’t frightened of the birds. In fact she is enchanted by them and her own thoughts. She wonders where they come from and where they are going. She sees meaning in the sky but can’t yet articulate what it is. 

Her thoughts also drift towards various names like “Steve,” “Andy,” and “Sam.” We are not told of her specific relationships with these men though we can make inferences based on a phone call with Andy and that Sam enters her mind the most but dissipates upon encountering a car crash. These names suggest connections but quite possibly long gone ones of people who were once important to her but now no longer are. They flew away from her mind as she was driving down the road watching birds fly towards her. 

While the birds and Bianca’s thoughts suggest a liberating experience, there is something else that is at play. They could just as easily be symbolic of something more sinister. The birds are vultures, carrion eaters, usually associated with death. They circle over her car like they are waiting for something. Bianca, whose name by the way means “white” or “pale,” drives along with them, almost feeling spiritual and emotionally connected with them. It could very well be that she is symbolic of “Death on a Pale Horse” and it doesn’t care who the people around them are. They are just names that will come to an end soon, not people with experiences, stories. Her history with them doesn’t matter because it will end as all things do.

There is an eerie climactic encounter with an unnamed woman where once again we are told very little about which also parallels “Bianca and the birds as death” symbol. There is no personal connection and they are uncertain and afraid of each other. Bianca’s appearance frightens the woman but the story seems to apply that she is who Bianca is there for. She may resist but she will face Bianca, the birds, and death no matter what. 

“Mahogany”-This story is almost a modern day adaptation of the Greek myth, “Pygmalion and Galatea” in which a sculptor falls in love with his creation but this puts some commentary of modern life to the tale. 

Al, a woodcarver, is not a lonely bachelor like his ancient counterpart. In fact he has a nagging wife and disinterested kids. He has a life that Pygmalion might have envied of people surrounding him and he may have at one time loved. But life got in the way, voices were raised, comments were ridiculed, and arguments broke out. A family that might have been close once is disconnected from each other. They share a last name and a roof over their heads but that’s it. There is nothing but noise, misery, and despair. Al can only find silence and acceptance through his art.

Despite his assurances that he is not having an affair, Al is clearly in love: with his own creation. He carves a beautiful woman out of mahogany. This is someone who will not belittle, or disagree with him, will treat him well, and that can look, act, and say anything he wants. Like the puppeteer with Princess Gina, he has complete ownership of her. She is a fantasy, a story and it’s one in which he can create. 

However unlike the Puppeteer and Pygmalion, it’s a story that he would rather keep for himself. The Mahogany Figure represents the ultimate beauty represented in art. She can never be captured or possessed and certainly never be owned. In Al’s mind, he doesn’t want his carving to come to life, grow old, and become shrill, cold, and unloving. He wants to preserve her as she is, forever young, forever beautiful, forever innocent. 

“Driving With Sara”-This is a haunting story about age and loneliness and how desperate people sometimes do desperate things to make connections. The Narrator is an old woman who is irritated with her pestering daughter and diminishing life so she makes a connection with a stranger named Sara.

The Narrator realizes that her life is not what it was. It is breaking apart piece by piece from interests, to people that she once knew, to pets. She is seeing parts of her identity move away one by one. What is particularly sad and memorable about it, is that it is not from an illness like Alzheimer’s. These actions are caused by a daughter who thinks that she knows best and infantilizes her mother. The attention only seeks to isolate her and make her feel lonely. 

The Narrator’s connection to Sara is one of mutual strangers but she thinks that it gives her the love and support that she is looking for from her daughter. This woman is delusional but her mind is so troubled and traumatized that she can’t tell the difference between what is true and what she imagines about Sara.

The irony of Sara’s appearance is a grotesque and dark comic one that seems to put a fatalistic punch line to this poor woman’s life. In being unable to truly bond with her daughter, the Narrator seeks another very unhealthy and troubling bond with someone who is also rejecting her in her own way. Rather than acknowledging that, the Narrator would rather remain in this state than admit what is painfully true. 

“The Return”-Loneliness is also the culprit in this story of a father communicating with his daughter by phone. Unlike The Narrator and her mother who live a stifling isolating experience which leaves the mother longing for a connection that makes her feel less confined and lonely, Melvin’s relationship with his daughter, Ella, is already isolated. 

Melvin projects an image of a kind and efficient worker, but he is starting to slow down. His work is less noticeable and he is distracted. He slowly loses confidence and eventually his placement at work. As long as he had a role at the office, he was known but as it diminishes, he is made redundant, faceless, someone easily discarded. The job has deprived him of his humanity and left him alone and disenchanted with the outside world.

His home life is equally isolated. His wife is dead and he is separated from his daughter by distance. They only communicate by phone which Melvin hates. The results are that Melvin is desensitized and disconnected from the life around him. He is physically cut off from others, so mentally is as well.

He becomes involved with an experiment involving rats. This experiment is foreshadowed when he tells a disturbed Ella a story about rats committing violent actions out of love and respect. In his loneliness, he is personifying human interaction with animals. The things that he wants: love, respect, understanding, empathy are things that he believes that he sees in rodents. This isolation, unmet longing, and the desperate need to have those longings met cause him to go to extreme means to get them. Those means present a horrible lasting impression on Ella and the Reader.

“What Lingers”-This story personalizes one of the most historic tragedies by giving us two characters who experienced it and share an intuitive connection because of it. 

At first we aren’t told where Alex and Katya  are and what disaster has befallen them. There are hints with words like “radiation,” and references to the odd sky color and opening valves. The clues start piling up until proper names like “Pripyat” and “Three Mile Island” enter. Then it becomes more apparent what is going on and what the characters are experiencing. It’s a universal thing. No matter what the tragedy is, people who are associated with such an event will always feel connected to it.

Besides giving clues for the Reader to guess where they are, this approach demonstrates the humanity that such tragedies bring. It doesn’t matter when or where they are, but those who have been through them will share a bond of mutual survivors. It creates links of kinship that go beyond friends and family. 

Alex and Katya’s link is explored in an intuitive and possibly psychic manner. They are brought together by this tragedy and their relationship. Even though they are in another place, they recognize each other as someone who understands and has been through the ordeal. They reach beyond that memory and are able to connect on a more personal level. 

“Valley of the Horse”-This story presents an ominous energy found in nature and how it parallels grief. Zak is haunted by his various interactions with a judge and a dying horse on his way to and from work. 

Judge Ivy and the horse seem to be cut off from the edge of the world. Zak pities the horse who is clearly suffering and Ivy who can do nothing but watch her die. Their interactions run the gamut between casual, revulsion, indifferent, sympathy, anger, depression, defiance, and ultimately acceptance. Ivy is a man who wants to believe that he is doing his best for his horse and wants to be with her during his painful experience. He doesn’t want to hasten it, but suffer through it with her.

Zak is drawn to this man because he recently suffered the loss of his partner, April. Even though he is with someone else, his thoughts of April never diminished. Ivy and the horse are constant reminders of the person that he lost and the guilt that he felt for things that he did and didn’t do with April. In some ways, Zak is reliving his own experiences including the life that he didn’t have with her. Zak and Ivy are parallels in loss and the emotions that are associated with it.

One of the most telling moments is when Zak rages at Ivy and a crowd gathered around the horse. Since Ivy is a judge, Zak is calling him out on his treatment of the horse and how he can let her suffer. It’s a bit heavy handed, but he is also comparing Ivy to God, who is often described as a judge on why April died as well. He wants to know why she died and why Zak didn’t recognize the signs to help her until it was too late. He wants to know why he, like Ivy, just watched her suffer instead of helping her. 

“Exorcism”-The title suggests one thing but the text of this story tells something else. At first it appears that Mrs. Mitchell is the titular exorcist and she is there to extract a demon from Tony Reyes, a young man. That is not what happens. 

What we are given instead is a character study of a young boy through the perspectives of his father and his English teacher. They both share memories of Tony as they knew him. Mrs. Mitchell saw a bright, polite student who answered questions and had a deep understanding of literature. His father saw his son who was a happy jokester but became troubled, quiet, and withdrawn as though he were possessed. 

Senor Reyes’ descriptions of Tony’s subsequent behavior are eerie as it details a teenager who might be losing his grip with reality and sanity. He is troubled by voices and destructive thoughts. It’s a traumatic nightmare told from the point of view of an anguished parent wanting to take the pain away from his child but who is helpless with not knowing what it was.

It’s left purposely ambiguous whether or not Tony was possessed, showing signs of schizophrenia or depression, or was just simply acting out as a troubled teen. All that is known is that he is gone, was not the same person that he was before, and has left behind two authority figures who bonded with him but could not understand what he was going through. They had a limited frame of reference based on their own associations and experiences and were unable to communicate with Tony or find helpful solutions that may have saved him. Instead, they are left wondering why. 

“At Taft Point”-This story is reminiscent of Shirley Jackson’s “The Lottery” in that it demonstrates the futility of blind obedience and never questioning what one knows isn’t right.

A group of tourists visit Taft Point. At first it seems like a pleasant visit to nature. It’s beautiful and imposing. There is a deep spiritual connection as the visitors feel God’s presence in the view around them. It's almost a meditative but disconcerting experience. 

There are hints that not is as it seems within the group. The women are dressed alike with long skirts and braids. There are a lot of children. They speak often of God and their leader gives a speech filled with metaphor and generalities but no specifics about the group or their motives. It’s not outright scary but it may put the Reader at a distinct unease that there is something that is off about these people. 

As the characters talk to each other, their reason for being there and motivation becomes clear. It is a terrifying experience not just because of what is being done but the willingness of the people to do it. There is a slight bait and switch as one of the group tries to disobey and one expects that those closest to them would rally to their side. Instead, they ally with the rest of the group, not the outsider leaving them to their fate as a final decision is made. These people are so driven by their leader’s view that they lost their free will and are willing to follow him to commit atrocities. 

This blind obedience is so prevalent in society today whether it’s through religion, politics, nationalism, philosophy, and any group that provides thought and identity. If one is so drawn to the group, they will surrender everything: friends, families, beliefs, faith, laws, work, country, relationship, money, intelligence, standards, morals, ethics, common sense, and finally their own lives just to be a part of it. The less they question and research only the sources that they are told to, the more likely they will surrender everything to someone who will profit off of them and end their lives rather than be seen as anything less than a deity. 

“Rabbit in the Hat”-One thing that this anthology has is an ongoing theme of people using their art to make their voices heard. This is particularly scene in this story of Bill Morris, who has worked in a museum for over 40 years and has shown artistic talent himself. His closest friends and colleagues attend an exhibition of his work. 

Many of the people use their frames of reference on how they see Morris: as a quiet unassuming single man that had been just there in their lives, faded into the background. They didn’t know him. They only knew what they saw in him. His real self is explained through his art.

Morris’ art covers three rooms. The first two are more ordinary, landscapes, still life. They represent the exterior. A man who quietly observed everything around them and was able to capture it. The words that no one heard, the man that no one saw showed them the outside world that he saw.

The third room explores a darker more subterranean consciousness inside Morris, one that is honest, naked, violent, sexy, and more real than what they had previously known. They are forced to confront their own secrets, inner lives, thoughts, and insecurities and lay them bare. It is a joke, maybe, but it is also a chance for Morris and the other characters to face their inner truths and authentic selves. 

“Sound Waves”-Another ongoing theme in this anthology is whether forms of communication brings us together or drives us apart. This one explores the power of changing technology as seen through radio. A spooky night at a radio program. DJ Charlie Tainter receives a mysterious phone call that causes his colleagues to question the man and where he comes from.

The entire setting is in the radio station during the program so it’s  a compact and limiting environment. Charlie and his co-workers can only go by the voice on the radio, the Internet, and Charlie himself to piece together what they are given. Charlie says one thing. The caller says another. The Internet says yet another. The accounts don’t tell a complete story instead it’s all accusation, denial, and information that is later discredited. It’s hard to tell what the truth really is and if the characters don’t know, the Reader certainly doesn’t. We are left to our own conclusions.

 It seems that this device, radio, like other technological marvels is created to be a source of communication. Unfortunately, it can only communicate so much. Fittingly, another form of communication is used, the Internet. Both can create and distort sound and images. Both can tell you what’s considered good or bad, right or wrong and shape views. They provide information as it is given not necessarily what is true but what people want to believe. Because of that, we don’t know what to believe.

A possibility is presented in the final pages, one that transcends space and time and relies more on imagination than information. It calls for the characters and Readers to think beyond what is laid out in front of them and look for possibilities that are beyond what they are told. Words, news, voices, information can be altered and subjected to reinterpretation. When faced with that information, a person should weigh their own options and look inward for what they perceive and believe. 

Demons Also Dream: Summoned (Deadly Sins Book 1) by Ava Lock; Meta Dark Fantasy/Horror is Also an Effective How To Writer’s Guide

 Demons Also Dream: Summoned (Deadly Sins Book 1) by Ava Lock; Meta Dark Fantasy/Horror is Also an Effective How To Writer’s Guide

By Julie Sara Porter

Spoilers: Ava Lock’s Demons Also Dream: Summoned is not the first time that I have reviewed a How to Writer’s Guide disguised as a novel. That honor would go to D-L Nelson’s Lexington: Anatomy of a Novel which features author Nelson’s Historical Fiction novel about a British soldier during the Revolutionary War while giving us the process in which she created, researched, wrote, and edited said novel. Technically, Jasper Fforde’s Thursday Next series flirts with that concept as well, especially in the books, First Among Sequels and One of Our Thursdays Are Missing when Thursday’s adventures are put in book form and she has to contend with an even more fictionalized version of herself. Jen Finelli's Becoming Hero gives us a graphic novel in which characters argue with each other and the authors about the directions in which the graphic novel is going. 

But Lock’s book Demons Also Dream, takes that step even further. She wrote an effective sharp witty satirical Fantasy but also offers advice how a Dark Fantasy novel should or shouldn’t be written by having the protagonists talk and argue about it during the action. 

Our Literary Deadpools are Jocelyn B. “Joss” Wild, best selling Horror and Fantasy author, and Azazel, AKA Fury, a demonic genie, former lover of Lucifer, and Joss’s muse. Joss shares a psychic connection with Fury and Hell’s denizens so she can see what’s going on down there and this in turn gives her inspiration for her works. Joss however wants to write her final Fury novel and move onto other works. This does not sit well with her favorite subject as Fury questions Joss’ novel and what this untimely end would mean. While this is going on, Fury bids to collect a bounty on Roger Ford Garrison, the escaped soul of a news anchor who in life kidnapped, tortured, and murdered members of the LGBT+ community. Joss encounters April S. Showers, a fan and aspiring author who is not exactly the picture of perfect sanity. 

Demons Also Dream is a Hell of a fun time, particularly because of its two leads. Joss is a cerebral sardonic character who probably would have preferred to experience Hell, demons, psychopaths, and psychic energy through the pages of the books that she writes. She would rather be an author of best selling novels and go to the bar to cruise for an attractive woman to sleep with. What she gets instead is Fury, an aggressive sexually charged denizen of Hell who lives up to her name. She reacts with passion and fury inspiring Joss with her experiences and her energy. It's a difficult life one of demonic encounters , kidnappings, torture, and frightening psychic visions but Joss endures it, reports on it, and even makes money off of it. The two bounce off each other really well in these insane situations in which they find themselves. 

The book is ripe with deliciously juicy bits that add to the overall tone of the story. Lucifer is described as looking and sounding like George Clooney. Roger works for, what else, Fox News. Hell is less a place of torture than a place of ineffective bureaucracy. When April holds Joss captive she submits her to the worst torture imagined: she makes her read her unfinished sappy Princess Fantasy novel! This book is a hilarious and savage delight.

The best parts are the meta commentary which reveals that this is a smart novel about how to write a Dark Fantasy novel. Characters call attention to various plot points that happen particularly Fury. It's one thing to kill off a lead character as Joss was planning to do in her novel. But when said lead character sits up and argues with you about it is something else entirely. It's particularly good when in the end Joss changes the name of her intended book from Demons Also Die to Demons Also Dream implying that the book that we just read is the one that she wrote. It makes one wonder how Lock’s actual creative process went in putting together her book.

The most brilliant and savage commentary is when Joss reads April's manuscript which, let's just say, makes the Vogons from Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy and The Mentor’s William Lansing look like misunderstood literary geniuses. Rather than outright attack the banal work, Joss gives her captor smart advice. She tells her to make her Mary Sue protagonist more real by giving her flaws. Put her into a conflict that raises the stakes and changes her outlook. Happy endings are fine but make them well earned by having her struggle. This is all good advice that any author needs to hear and the fact that it is written inside a novel that plays with and illustrates these conversations is really telling

 Demons Also Dream: Summoned is an amazing and effective Master Class on writing a novel that is Trojan Horse disguised as a fun and exciting novel.

The Crystalline Crucible by Adam Rowan; Witty and Satirical Treasure Hunt with A Quirky Cast of Seekers

 The Crystalline Crucible by Adam Rowan; Witty and Satirical Treasure Hunt with A Quirky Cast of Seekers

By Julie Sara Porter 

Bookworm Reviews 

Spoilers: The Crystalline Crucible could be considered one of those treasure hunt adventures in the tradition of Cameron Jace’s Anne Anderson and Avanti Centrae’s Van Ops Series. Though instead of going for thrills, it goes for laughs. Instead of the prize being an ancient and valuable object or buried wisdom, it's a few minutes of Internet fame.

Max Jacobs is definitely an odd one. He is an amateur treasure hunter who belongs to various social media groups where members look for hidden prizes. Max’s latest hunt is for the Crystalline Crucible, a prize offered by a mysterious organization that is rumored to be the Illuminati. To help him, Max recruits two acquaintances: Rosie Shaw, his would be girlfriend and Khalil Ahmed, a coworker and rival.

Everything about this book is both odd and strangely adorable in its oddness. The treasure hunt itself has some intriguing clues that require knowledge and accessibility to various English locations. (It’s a good thing England is a somewhat small country so the Crucible hunt can be completed in such record time. One can only imagine how long the hunt would be if it was set in the United States.) Max and Co. find themselves in some pretty uproarious situations to achieve the clues. The book begins as Max breaks into a local museum to receive a clue, only to be arrested and  interrogated, and to later learn that the actual clue was on the museum’s website all along.

The hunt is made even stranger by the hunters themselves. The emphasis on most hunts is wealth and knowledge. There is some potential wealth that could help them. Max wants to provide funding so the local library won’t be shut down. Khalil wants to support his family and get some dangerous gangsters off his back. Rosie wants to travel the world and fulfill a lifelong dream by having her children’s book published. But equally important than the money that they hope to gain is the fame. If they find the Crystalline Crucible the trio will achieve the pinnacle of niche success: the achievement of looking cool among their army of social media treasure hunting nerds. You have to take the victories where you can find them. 

Naturally a strange hobby would feature strange people pursuing it and we are given some weird ones. Max is probably the strangest of the trio. He is obsessed with Medieval history, carries a sword, and speaks in faux Middle English. The treasure hunt gives him a chance to fill out his quixotic fantasies of being a hero on a noble quest. His obsession with certain things like trivia and the Miss Marple series add to his overall quirkiness.

His treasure seeking cohorts are quite colorful themselves. Rosis is a Math teacher and is called to lend her expertise when the clues become numerical and analytical. Rosie’s fascination with trivia is greater than Max’s own to the point that she is the founder and leader of a group called the Quizties who participate in trivia tournaments and she is just as obsessed with that as Max is with finding treasure. Her children’s book consumes her thoughts so much that she sometimes visualizes her friends as anthropomorphic animals. 

Khalil is somewhat of the normal one of the group but he also has his eccentricities. He is a photographer and first encounters Max during a nightly photo session of the local area. Partly because of his history with criminal activity and partly because of his suspicious personality, he is on the lookout for any sort of rivalry, competition, or troubling activity. Even something as innocuous as working in a co-op market causes him to sense conspiracy when he is forced to work with Max and then when Max recruits him to join the hunt. The subplot concerning Khalil’s involvement with gangsters gives a dark perspective to a book that did alright without it but it also emphasizes Khalil’s different status from the rest of his friends. They live in their fantasy world of medieval quests and anthropomorphic animals. He lives in a grittier, more realistic world of a crime thriller. He can’t hide in his imagination like they can. He has to face the violence especially when his friend’s lives are in danger. 

Much of the humor of the Crystalline Crucible lies in the meta commentary. This book knows what genre it is in and what tropes are at play and they acknowledge them even by adhering to and playing with them. When Max and Khalil agree to join forces, Max scoffs that this doesn’t mean that they will become friends bound together by their journey. Of course not even a few chapters later, they admit to becoming friends. When Max receives some disappointing news at the end, he lampshades the “it’s the journey not the destination” cliche right before he gains some enlightenment from his search to show him that yes it was the journey. The meta commentary is both parody in pointing out the tropes and respectful by paying them a touching tribute. 

The Crystalline Crucible is a fun delightful read in which Readers might find that treasure can be found in a good laugh just as well as in a  hidden bejeweled objet d’art.

New Book Alert: Pagan Worship by Patrick Beacham; Political and Religious Satire Has Great Start But Broad Cartoonish Ending

 

New Book Alert: Pagan Worship by Patrick Beacham; Political and Religious Satire Has Great Start But Broad Cartoonish Ending

By Julie Sara Porter

Bookworm Reviews 

This book is also reviewed on Reedsy Discovery 

Spoilers: Let's face it, Donald Trump is a man that is screaming to be made fun of. An oversize toddler who threw a temper tantrum because he lost the last election and even though it was investigated to the nth degree refused to accept it, (as far as I know still hasn't), promised his followers that he would pardon them for participating in a violent insurrection (one that I might add included a hangman's noose and chants to hang Mike Pence his Vice President), insults, bullies, threatens, and intimidates everyone on Truth Social, and believes that somehow he should be granted immunity and not seek any justice. All of that and he still has devotees that venerate and deify him instead of moving on to another candidate as though they were afraid to lose without him (or worse are afraid if he wins and their loyalties are questioned).

If he weren't so dangerous, the man would be a total joke and really he is both a joke and dangerous.

The best place to mock someone, especially a controversial contentious figure like Donald Trump, is through satire and parody and that's where Patrick Beacham’s Pagan Worship comes in.

Pagan Worship is a book that starts strong by satirizing Trump and many of the aspects that run adjacent to him like religious hypocrisy, herd mentality, and cult of personality. However its plot and characterization are askew and meanders to an out of place and jarring ending.

David is the son of Britt Hastings, the pastor of the Church of Divine Friendship in Orem, Utah which has made his family very wealthy and famous. Despite the pleasant seeming name, it's definitely a cult. Britt has a tight psychological hold on his congregation and his family including his wife, Maureen, David, and his daughter, Angel. However, his followers supported Donald Trump during the 2016 and 2020 elections. Britt hops on the Trump Train and before too long his family is enthralled by a much larger cult than their own and David questions his own allegiances.

This book is a savage call out to current Conservative politics and what happens when it intertwines with religion. It takes aim at religious leaders and followers who pay lip service to such traits as humility, charity, ethics, values and then back someone who exhibits none of these. When church services are used to disparage political enemies and vilify so-called “sinners” because they look or think differently than them instead of speaking anything about Christ’s love or compassion. When they live in billion dollar mansions yet insist that their flock give more than 10 percent and remain in squalor. When they call liberals snowflakes and scream about “identity politics” but expect separation of church and state to not apply to them because Christians are somehow “special.” When they complain about federal government overreach but want to restrict reading and learning materials in school, strip LGBT rights, and won't let women decide for themselves what to do with their own bodies. They claim to be pro-life when it comes to an unborn fetus but offer only self serving thoughts and prayers when it comes to preventing full grown children from being shot. When mental health is only addressed in deflecting from gun control or vilifying LGBT people but seeing actual mental illnesses as due to a “soft and permissive upbringing” and a need to “pray the illness away.” 

Coming from an Evangelist Baptist upbringing, this is not new to me. As an elementary school aged child, I was familiar with the Jimmy Swaggart and Jim and Tammy Faye Baker scandals of the late 80’s. I was raised a Baptist and had a front row seat in the 90’s when the Evangelical Movement began to taste political power and pastor's sermons became darker and more judgemental by preparing the faithful for the End of Days. This was also when cults like the Branch Davidians and Heaven’s Gate and militia members like Timothy McVeigh made the news. 

I left the church in the early 00’s as Christians used their religion as a tool of vengeance after 9/11 and justification for hate crimes against Muslims and immigrants. I have been very critical and outspoken against the Evangelical Movement ever since. If a religion has to scare you or guilt trip you into joining and forces you to look down and degrade everyone else as deserving of Hell, then in my opinion it's not a religion worth having. 

I have been there and this book is 100 percent dead on. If anything it understates the movement's main actors.

Britt is an example of such an Evangelist. He was raised in the Church of Latter Day Saints but found the Mormon religion “impure.” What he did see however was that starting one's own religion could be a great source of wealth and power. After comparing other religions, Britt created one, financed by Maureen’s family and based on his own interpretation of the Ten Commandments and the Gospels. He tells his flock that they need a friend to guide them to Jesus and who else would be that friend but surprise surprise none other than Britt Hastings himself.

Britt’s arc is one of gaining power and money through his religion. His limited understanding and perception of Christianity appears to strip down to the fundamentals and provide an easy path for others to follow. However, it puts him in a position of power over the followers. Acting as a buffer or an advocate between them and God gives him an advantage in interpreting religion for his benefit. As with many cult leaders, he at first acts like he was sent by God. Then he becomes the only communication with God. Afterwards the leader usually sets themselves up as a Messiah, one who is sent to save the people and was chosen or declared a child of God. Then they make their followers believe that they are God. By that time all bets are off and as Voltaire said “anyone who can make one believe absurdities can make them commit atrocities.”

That's what people like Britt Hastings and Donald Trump demand: complete and utter obedience, devotion, and worship. The monetary gain is the start but the real nucleus is the following, getting gullible desperate people to obey them without question. Setting them apart from others, feeding on their hate and prejudice, causing them to question everyone else around them including friends and family, and mobilizing that hatred and isolation into their devotees. Anyone can get rich by scamming people but not just anyone can create a cult with themselves as Supreme Leader and God. Britt and Trump are masters at that.

While Britt is suspicious of Trump and the church’s involvement at first he is still a large part of it. It is certain that he recognizes the same mentality in Trump that he does in himself. But there is also something else at play. While others see God in Trump, Britt sees the Antichrist. He doesn't want to save the world, he wants Trump to destroy it to fill Biblical prophecy. There is only room in Britt’s cult for one God but that doesn't mean that Trump can't play a crucial part. 

Britt's arc is one of gaining power but David's is one of gaining knowledge beyond what he is taught. His parents mold him and his sister into their good little Christians and while Angel morphs into a perfect little Neo-Nazi inheriting the worst of the Evangelical religious traits, David questions his upbringing. 

In school two teachers gave social experiments that opened his mind up to group mentality and a distinct unease for the people who implement it. This foreshadows his eventual hatred for people like his father and Trump, those who use and control people for gain and deification. 

During homework assignments, he willingly reads news from various sources that his parents had previously forbidden. These acts open up his mind to other perspectives and issues that his church minimizes or derides. However, David's search for knowledge becomes more personal when his friend dies and a schoolmate reveals secrets about his father. David brings forward things that he previously ignored or handwaved and recognizes the hypocrisy and evil that people like his father and Trump represent.

The book definitely has some great potshots at religious hypocrisy and the role that it plays into politics and the satire and commentary is top notch. However on a mechanical level, there are some huge flaws in the book’s presentation especially in the final chapter.

I won't reveal too much but events happen without any build up or foreshadowing. It comes out of nowhere and would have been accomplished much better with a distinct arc leading towards this confrontation. There are also some frustrating questions and logistics with these events that remain unanswered or undeveloped.

For example another far better book which satirized Trump was Paul Chasman’s Lakshmi and the River of Truth. It was not only a good satire but a good story because it followed a consistent path. Because it was set in a dream world, even the illogical became logical and moved the story forward. There was some inconsistency and one plot point left unanswered but for the most part, the book was able to provide a coherent and consistent narrative that flowed.

With Pagan Worship, however, the plot point had nowhere to begin and nowhere to end. It is almost too broad and cartoonish how it was written as well.  It's uncertain whether its meant to be darkly comic or serious. Either way, it is confusing and arbitrary. It probably is meant to shock and provoke but it is very hollow without any meaning behind it and there could have been. This could have been a moment where David recognizes the similar situation between what he witnessed and what he lived through. He could have had an important conversation that could have been filled with irony and double meaning in hindsight. It's almost maddening how much this affects the novel especially when it's the most important turning point and is simply revealed without any setup and minimal following.

The final moments however provide a dramatic irony in the form of an emotional gut punch. David finds himself in the very position that he was trying to get away from and plays the last role that he ever wanted. He becomes a tool in both his father's and Trump’s plans and gives them exactly what they want. In David's drive to be independent from his family and his former politics, he becomes more beholden to and identified with them. In destroying his link to his past, David ends up destroying himself. 

New Book Alert: A Festive Juxtaposition by Paul R. Stanton; The Devil Takes a Holiday (So Do Formatting and Editing)

 New Book Alert: A Festive Juxtaposition by Paul R. Stanton; The Devil Takes a Holiday (So Do Formatting and Editing)

By Julie Sara Porter

Bookworm Reviews

Spoilers: Come on, even Satan can’t be the Odious Spinner of Lies, Prince of the Power of the Air, Leader of All That is Evil, Tempter, Ruler of Hell, and King of the Bottomless Pit forever. Every once in a while the Dude from Down Under (not Australia) needs to take a break and why not during the Christmas season?  In Paul R. Stanton’s dark comedic satire, A Festive Juxtaposition, that is exactly what he does. This book is a brilliant concept and idea that is mostly carried out rather well, but is unfortunately hampered by bad formatting and some technical issues that could have been resolved with better editing and proofreading. 

The Devil materializes out of thin air at 6:27 PM Greenwich Mean Time at Charing Cross Station. He forgoes the usual pitchfork, cape, horns, red skin, cloven hoofs, and scent of sulfur effect. Instead he takes the name Nick and opts to dress like a normal  Londoner: nice suit, quiet demeanor, unassuming behavior, the guy you might say hello to but then forget about a few minutes later. Since this is his time off, he just intends to enjoy a holiday stroll while actually (gasp) doing good for some desperate Londerners and punishing a few bad ones.  He gets involved in the lives of those that he calls “The Dispossessed” and changes their lives in many ways. It’s sort of like Touched By A Devil (minus the unfortunate implications of the title). 

Stanton has a gift for darkly comic writing that questions the Reader’s assumptions about religion, God, the Devil, and the concepts of good and evil. In some ways, A Festive Juxtaposition is very similar to Good Omens by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett with its all too human demonic protagonist and its biting commentary on religion. The Devil is written very similarly to Crowley, the demon from Good Omens. He is a very slick sardonic figure who has grown to like humanity to the point of actually wanting to help them out of the messes in which they are in. In fact, he even challenges the remoteness of God by wondering how a seemingly loving deity can be standoffish towards the people that he created and not doing anything to help them on Earth. After all, the Devil may be (incredibly and completely) flawed but at least he’s there. He sees the suffering and tries his best (and admittedly worst) to provide some form of aid and comfort. 

The Dispossessed are the usual grab bag of city dwellers from all walks of life and all in need of some help or a sympathetic ear towards their problems: addicts, the lovelorn, mentally ill, the suicidal, career criminals, people who are doubting their faiths and beliefs. These are people who are in need of help right away and help comes from the strangest of sources. 

The formula from each story is the saame. A human is in some kind of trouble or desperately needs something. They meet a strange man who seems to know more about themselves than they do. He assists or offers them advice on their particular predicament, sometimes providing the means for the solution. The person is left trying to decide whether to take that offer. The epilogue then catches up to that person to say whether they  took the initiative and how it changed their lives for better or worse. 

There's Nigel, a young stubborn runaway whom the Devil has to use some tough love and all caps to get him to go home to his parents and make him realize that whatever disagreement that he has with his pater and mater familias can't be as bad as sleeping on the streets and dying from hypothermia. 

Nick also helps May, another young runaway, by posing as a private detective who had been hired by May’s parents. He even presents letters from her mother and stepfather to complete the effect.

There's Old Meg, a former prostitute who has lost her looks and charisma. She also seems to recognize “Nick” but it is purposely open for debate whether she knows that he's the Devil, thinks he's a former client, or doesn't really recognize him at all and just thinks that she does. Either way, Nick is enough of a gentleman to send her to better surroundings.

The Professor is a former academic whose career was ruined by a sex scandal and has fallen into the bottle ever since. He gets into an intellectual debate with the Horned One over the existence of God and source of Creation before he receives a potential answer to his crisis.

Nick isn't there just to help others. He's also there to mete out punishment to those with evil intent and do not have the excuse of saying “the Devil made them do it.” People like Ed, Barry, and Razors, a trio that like to rob and harm others just for the lulz. They realize too late that robbing the Devil is not a good idea. In one of the darkest and most humorous dialogues in the book, after the trio ask who the Devil Nick is, he gives a sinister grin and tells them to turn their question into a declaration, reverse “are” and “you,”  put them at the head of the sentence, drop “who,” and then they will have their answer.

Next on Nick's Nice List are Lucy and Dominic, a pair of addicts who desperately need to get Dominic to a hospital. Nick helps them while putting Laz, a soulless career criminal with a penchant for hallucinogens and taking advantage of the troubled couple, on his Naughty List.

Miriam is a domestic abuse survivor who is in the process of getting herself and her beloved dog Tigger evicted. Maybe, that mysterious slightly demonic representative from her husband's law firm can help. Unfortunately, the news is not what Miriam suspected and may only make her life worse.

While Nick spends much time with the impoverished, even the more economically advantaged need diabolical intervention. His latest mortal is Michael Asquith, a well dressed man caught up in a conundrum. He is engaged but during a night of drunkenness, he had an affair and now is debating whether to tell his fiancee and end the engagement or live a lie. All of this is figured out by the Devil’s talent for deductive reasoning. (Sherlock Holmes had to learn it from somebody. Why not the Prince of well not Darkness but slightly Charcoal Gray?)

To prove that the Devil can be a good sport, he even lends a claw to a member of the Rival team by helping Rev. Adrian Noble. Noble’s church has been closed, left desolate, and is in the process of renovation. His church is low on funding and parishioners and Noble is hovering towards despair and doubts in his faith. Even the Devil is willing to forego an ancient rivalry to help a truly good man.

After messing with time travel and getting the better of a DoomSayer on the street, Nick encounters the final Dispossessed: Peggy, an anxious sad woman. Posing as a police officer, Nick questions her about her possible involvement in the death of a young woman. Peggy is confused and frightened about this line of questioning, but it becomes clear that this conversation is more personal than she thought.

14 lost souls. 14 lonely people in dire need of help and some lessons that they need to learn. Help comes in the form of a devil of an aid. 

This book is a wonderful concept and weaves the various diverse characters with the Devil making the book a fascinating ensemble. However, what could be a perfect work is seriously hampered by poor editing and formatting. Words are spelled differently sometimes within a few paragraphs. Passive voice is used over active voice and creates too many filler words (“had seen” instead of “saw.”) 

The worst issue is the formatting. The text is pushed upwards right underneath the cover, putting the pages out of order from the table of contents. There are little sprigs of holly that were probably intended to be paragraph breaks but some of them are inserted in the middle of sentences and even words. This makes the narrative visually confusing and deters from an otherwise potentially great story.

A Festive Juxtaposition is mechanically flawed, but the concept and themes are brilliant and challenges what we think that we know about God, The Devil, Good, Evil, and Mankind.

New Book Alert: Asparagus Grass by Adrian Deans; Surreal Satirical Science Fiction Reveals The Aliens Behind Earth's Scenes

 New Book Alert: Asparagus Grass by Adrian Deans; Surreal Satirical Science Fiction Reveals The Aliens Behind Earth's Scenes

By Julie Sara Porter

Bookworm Reviews

Spoilers: Since Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Science Fiction has shown us that if an alien invasion is ever upon us, then we should look for some unassuming idiot because apparently that idiot is the galaxy's pick for the one who will save us all.

The Idiot Du Jour in Adrian Deans' Asparagus Grass is Mitch Kuiper, a gardening assistant in New South Wales' parks department. Besides cleaning up the grounds, his daily activities usually consist of trying to stay out of his super Garrett's bad side, avoiding suck ups like Timmy O'Toole, drinking with his best mate, Cam, and sleeping with any woman who looks his way. The sleeping with is what gets him intergalactic interest because he slept with Martina Vader AKA Marty Mindshadow. Marty works in the office of the parks department and is considered drop dead gorgeous but strange. 

It is only after they are together does Mitch realize how strange Marty actually is. She takes him in a mini shuttle, called a shell, and takes him to a space station  to tell him the truth. She is part of the Aelur, an alien race that lived on the Earth for thousands of years. However, another race, the Xyk, took over Earth by using their own greed, ambition, and dominant nature. Because of this, the Aelur plan to destroy Earth. Mitch manages to get a negotiation that if the current head Xyk is taken out then Earth will be spared. Marty and the other Aelur agree except now Mitch has seven days before the planet goes boom boom bye bye.

Asparagus Grass is one of those novels that will describe the potential end of the world but does so in a satiric or farcical light to keep things humorous. Part of the humor is in its lead character. Mitch is the last guy anyone expects to be a savior of anything, which Marty insists means he's perfect. The Aelur are a race that believes in equality so much that no one strives for leadership positions. They consider that a Xyk trait. Mitch definitely is not leadership material. In fact, he only attends a leadership seminar because his boss, Garrett, cajoles him into it.

 Most of Mitch's actions consist of either making dumb decisions or getting out of them through chance and luck.

In one chapter, he decides that Marty's news is so grave and could put him in danger, that it would be best not to tell anyone. In the very next paragraph, what does he do? Tell Cam after a few drinks. He also foolishly sleeps with another woman, Lisa, and continues to talk to her even after he learns, oops, she's a Xyk.

He's supposed to be a hero. No one ever said that he was smart.

Marty is also a fascinating character. At first, she appears to be a vapid and spacy airhead, or possibly has ADHD, but when she reveals her truth, she is a lot smarter than many give her credit for. She becomes a source of wisdom for the information that is going on but she also lives a hedonistic lifestyle free of Earth restraints. She boasts of many lovers and doesn't care if Mitch has any (though certainly gives him an "I told you so" about Lisa). In fact, she says that because she spent so much time on Earth with hedonists, she developed her vague "Mindshadow" persona. 

Asparagus Grass has some fun with conspiracy theories by making the Xyk members of a secret organization that of course plan on taking over the world. Of course, they happen to be meeting right when the infamous Bilderberg group is also meeting, leaving Our Heroes to infiltrate a protest group against them. They have to find out which Bilderbergers and protestors are really Xyk and where the ones who are Xyk are having an even more secret meeting. The plot points and twists are enough to give one a headache.

Despite that the book is mostly played with laughs, there are some genuine moments of suspense. The fact that the Xyk could be anyone that they know definitely carries a lot of paranoia within the characters, not to mention that a character who was once very friendly is now ready to kill them because their Xyk Overlords insist on it.

There are also some moments of genuine warmth between Mitch, Marty, and the friends they make on their journey. It isn't just one laugh per page. There is time for plenty of other emotions.

Asparagus Grass is one of those books that describes a potential end of the world but does so with plenty of humor so the Reader doesn't mind.

Weekly Reader: Luck by Chris Coppell; Lucky in Premise, Unlucky in Execution

Weekly Reader: Luck by Chris Coppell; Lucky in Premise, Unlucky in Execution

By Julie Sara Porter

Bookworm Reviews

Spoilers: Luck by Chris Coppell has so many things going for it: a suspenseful horror tale about someone with the power of mental manipulation even before they are born and a savage political satire about an inexperienced presidential candidate winning people over with those same abilities. However, somewhere this idea gets lost in a narrative of inconsistencies, plot contrivances, and possibilities that would have made a better story than the one we ended up with.

Daniel Trapp is born lucky, so we are told in the first line, and he would be. I mean after all if your father and seven months pregnant mother are killed in their car by an incoming train and you are saved by an emergency Cesarean section, yeah you'd be considered lucky too. He is adopted by his mother's sister, Mary and her husband, Henry and it isn't too long before they notice something odd about Daniel. Daniel also notices that he can see auras surrounding people, usually red or blue, and if he gives those auras a slight tap, he can get people to do whatever he wants. As he grows, so do his power and ambitions.

The book starts out promising. When Mary and Henry arrive in Colorado where Daniel is born, there is a self-awareness that borders on parody. Once they visit the hotel in which they are staying in, they compare it to the Overlook in The Shining. The bartender, who bears a strong similarity to Lloyd in the film, even jokingly refers to Henry as "Mr. Torrance."  

The locals practically have to hit the couple over the head with signs that Daniel's parents were "troubled" and something weird is going on. There is a genre savviness in this book but apparently not enough when the main characters stumble right into such a scenario.

It is kind of fascinating to read as Daniel learns how to use his powers to get what he and his family wants. He is able to get teachers to give him good grades, kids to play with him, or bullies to back off. He influences future nannies to display their worst qualities until he finds one, Christy, that he sees the blue aura around.

Good luck doesn't just benefit Daniel. Henry's hologram technology takes off and he gets a great position at CERN. Mary's house flipping business is a success and Daniel gets involved while still a teenager. Daniel and his adopted parents have the world at their feet.

Everyone follows them and if they don't  or the lad feels that they "outlived their usefulness" they have a tendency to disappear or take their own lives. 

However, the plot loses something as the tone shifts from horror to political satire. The commentary about someone using their cult of personality to gain power is interesting and very obviously patterned off of certain real life figures but that's also when the book loses itself. What could be its strongest asset becomes its greatest weakness because the plot falls apart under the political commentary.

A character gets introduced who finally proves to be a match towards Daniel's abilities and could be just as powerful as he is. Unfortunately, they are removed in a very anticlimactic manner before we get any answers to their abilities.

While one character is removed in an actually moving passage, another gets sidelined until they are useful to the narrative. Daniel's story gets resolved in a manner that had no hints of foreshadowing or points leading to this denouncement. Instead, it's a twist ending just to provide a twist. It's a book that starts strong but could be so much better.

What else can I say but paraphrase the old gambler's motto: Chris Coppell's book is unlucky in plot but lucky in premise.