Return of the Weird #1: The Penny Arcade Mother's Care Orphanage by David Neuman; Kaleidoscopic Shades Strangeness Continues With Some Clarity

 

Return of the Weird #1: The Penny Arcade Mother's Care Orphanage by David Neuman; Kaleidoscopic Shades Strangeness Continues With Some Clarity

By Julie Sara Porter 

Bookworm Reviews 

Spoilers: For this and the next review, I am returning to the continuation of two of the strangest weirdest books that I read since beginning this blog, two books that were my favorites from 2022 in fact: Kaleidoscopic Shades Within Black Eternity by David Neuman and The Merchants of Knowledge and Magic(The Pentagonal Dominion Book 1) by Erika McCorkle. Both were bizarre, weird, eccentric, and unforgettable. Returning to those worlds with their sequels, Penny Arcade Mother's Care Orphanage for the former and The Merchants of Light and Bone in the latter could lead to more weirdness or more clarity. By and large they streamline the series by limiting the perspectives and giving some concrete and important information and exposition to make the series well slightly more comprehensible but still retaining their mystifying, unearthly, uncanniness.

In Kaleidoscopic Shades Within Black Eternity, a series of strange bizarre events occur particularly around the home of Bob and Susan Triplow and their son, Joshua. These seemingly random bizarre occurrences like people appearing and disappearing, a strange man haunting various children's dreams at once, balloons appearing in the sky, and the sound of disembodied bells were tied to Bob’s traumatic childhood growing up in a sinister orphanage with a history of abuse and neglect. He and Joshua traveled to Bob's childhood home of Kapunda, Australia and the Mother's Care Orphanage where he grew up and face some demonic forces and childhood fears that never really disappeared as he grew older. 

The sequel, Penny Arcade Mother's Care Orphanage is set three years later and things are far from settled. A new series of strange unearthly events are happening. However, instead of going global and affecting random parts of the world as before, they are mostly contained within the towns of Corona, California and Kapunda. This keeps this volume more self-contained and streamlined but also takes out the mystery and overall bizarre nature of its predecessor. It also makes the plot a bit easier to follow and understand though there still are plenty of frightening moments that make the Reader wonder what they just read and afraid to continue reading to find out.

Ralph Shaw, a young boy, disappears in a mysterious area in Kapunda called “The Playground.” A group of teens encounter a ghost car in which one teen later discovers is very similar to one in a photograph from almost 100 years ago, a photograph with a very disturbing message written on it. Constable Benjamine “Ben” McLevy’s investigation into these matters put her up close and personal with disturbing sounds and images. Meanwhile in California, Joshua Triplow is grieving for his missing friend, Sammy Debnar who disappeared in the previous book. He still feels Sammy's presence including having frightening audio and visual visions of and about him. Perhaps another trip to Australia is in order.

What Penny Arcade lacks in mystery and ominous energy when the scope is widened all over the world, it makes up for immediate urgency and personal connections to these strange events. The scary moments are plentiful but not as random as they were in the previous book. 

Many of the moments like the ghost car and the disappearance focus on the mental and physical torture of children. They center around the old orphanage and its former staff and residents and the terrifying moments are a reflection of the hatred and trauma that endured in the past. It even spreads to those who weren't there but are directly involved in protecting or investigating them like Ben. 

If there are sacred spaces which are filled with spiritual enlightenment and meaning, then The Playground is the exact opposite. The space inspires feelings of fear, anxiety, loneliness, and trauma. It is practically festered with a violent history which affected the entire environment. It's practically a gateway to Hell where if you don't lose your life, you are certain to lose your mind. It's a chilling setting just in thought let alone in action.

The presences that haunt this area and are responsible hover between the demonic and fanciful and the human and the painful realistic. One of those is a spirit that takes many forms and haunts people through various means like visions and whispers. Some of its more graphic moments are when it tortures the disappeared victims like Sammy and Ralph. Its most sadistic form is that of a grotesque jester that laughs at the pain that it inflicts on the young boys. It's also capable of changing shape and manipulating others for the added psychological and emotional torture. 

This creature is very similar to the Strange Man who haunted children's dreams in the previous book though clearly takes on a more active persona. Whereas the Strange Man was an observer who watched children, did not move or interact with them but still left an ominous eerie presence, the Jester is more hands-on. He gleefully tortures and abuses his targets, mocks people in their heads, and laughs at his unbridled cruelty. It is similar to other clown-like villains like The Joker or Pennywise but unlike the former who is human but psychotic, and the latter who is hampered by a chronological deadline to appear every 27 years, The Jester has those tendencies and all of the time in the world to use them.

The other sinister presence is found in a human being, Anthea who worked at the former orphanage. She has a history of abusing the orphans that were once in her care.

We are given something of her backstory that thankfully does not absolve her though it does provide some clarity and understanding towards the events in both books. In fact her history makes her actions appear worse. 

Since the previous book, Anthea’s rage affected her mentally and physically. She boils over with dreams of revenge that have taken a toll on her body. She becomes an ugly person in appearance and personality. Her hatred and abusive nature become the nucleus in which the strange supernatural events were formed. The land becomes the living embodiment of the pain that she once inflicted on innocent children and now inflicts upon herself. Though they are on opposite sides of human and supernatural, Anthea and The Jester are mirror parallel images consumed with the desire to hurt others and are collaborators in spreading pain in their own way.

Despite being an important character, the primary protagonist, in the previous book, Bob is mostly absent from Penny Arcade. Much of the main character energy is instead provided by Ben and Josh.

Ben is the standard cop protagonist found in these types of novels, tenacious, courageous, kind hearted, observant, and skeptical until they are face to face with the bizarre. Ben’s evolution through the book is that of someone who is confident in her career and the investigation process but is out of her element when encountering something inhuman, something that by nature cannot follow human standards and resists being caught or contained. It's always there and will always be there.

Since Bob takes a minor role, his son Josh inherits his Protagonist Genes and does a pretty good job. When he is haunted by memories of Sammy, he decides to enter a student exchange program to study in Australia with his friend, and potentially more, Ethan. 

Josh is experienced with this supernatural activity to the point that he acts like a jaded veteran with hard won wisdom and massive PTSD. His return to Australia is not just a rescue mission for Sammy, it's a chance to gain some closure for what happened to him last time.

Penny Arcade Mother's Care Orphanage brings some reason and logic albeit illogical logic, towards Kaleidoscopic Shades Within Black Eternity. It isn't necessarily better than its predecessor, but it clears up the events in both books and makes them understandable. 

 

Weekly Reader: After Alice by Gregory Maguire; Sequel to the Alice Tale Lacks Sparkle, Magic, and Alice

Weekly Reader: After Alice by Gregory Maguire; Sequel To The Alice Tale Lacks Sparkle, Magic, and Alice

By Julie Sara Porter

Bookworm Reviews

Spoilers: There's an episode of Mad Men in which the characters watch an ad for Patio soft drink which features a jingle parodying the opening to the movie musical, Bye Bye Birdie complete with an Ann-Margaret look-alike caterwauling the jinglized version of the opening song. The client and advertisers look at it and say, “It's not right. The song's right. The camera angle’s right. The setting’s right. But something’s not right. Something's missing, what is it?” Sterling-Cooper’s womanizing Accounts Director, Roger Sterling (John Slattery) comes up with the answer. “(The look-alike) isn't Ann-Margaret.”

That's exactly how I feel about Gregory Maguire's novel, After Alice. Maguire has made an excellent career of deconstructing popular fairy tales and children's literature to give them a fresh perspective. His OZ Quartet/Wicked Years is probably his best known work. They retell the story of L. Frank Baum’s OZ books from the points of view of Brr, The Cowardly Lion and particularly Elphaba, the presumed Wicked Witch of the West and her family including her son, Liir and granddaughter, Rain. The original and best novel of the series, Wicked, was also the source of the popular Tony winning musical of the same name. Maguire also took a hand at retelling Cinderella (Confessions from an Ugly Stepsister), Snow White (Mirror, Mirror) and A Christmas Carol (Lost). In his most recent work, Maguire tackles Lewis Carroll’s Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass. But unfortunately unlike many of his other works, Maguire suffers a major misstep in his writing.

To paraphrase the advertisers in Mad Men, something is missing. The world is right, the Wonderland characters are right, the wordplay is present (Several times the riddle “when is a door not a door?” “When it's a jar” is repeated once literally), and even the oddities of size and depth perception that marks the journey as a Dreamworld are there. But something Isn't there. The protagonists are not Alice.

Now I am biased, I will admit that Alice is one of my favorite literary characters, probably my favorite female literary character. So I take great care in observing how other authors and filmmakers portray her. In Carroll's books, she is a bright, inquisitive, imaginative young girl even before she enters Wonderland. She is fond of pretending to be two people, gives herself very good advice but seldom follows it, engages in games of “Let's Pretend”, and rambles off as much nonsense as the Wonderland residents. (unsure of what Latitude and Longitude are but “finds them grand words to say.”) She also has some pretty strong character flaws such as stubbornness, a quick temper, and a willingness to argue with anyone even authority figures. (Queen of Hearts: Hold your tongue. Alice: I won't!). In other words, she is just as interesting a character as are the eccentric creatures of Wonderland.

That’s why the protagonists of After Alice are so disappointing. There is no spark nor fire to them. They are dull gray protagonists in a world that screams for a lead that is as bright and vibrant as the world around her.

Alice is missing throughout the Maguire book, on her Magical Mystery Tour. So her place is filled with two characters who had minor roles in Carroll's book: Alice's older sister, Lydia (the one who read “a book without pictures or conversations” at the beginning and started Alice off on her journey) and Ada, a friend of Alice's who gets one mention in the original book. (When Alice is trying to figure out who she is, she is certain that she's not Ada “for Ada's hair goes into ringlets and (Alice's) hair doesn't go into ringlets at all.”) Ada is determined to find Alice who she considers her best friend and Lydia, well Lydia, is concerned about her sister but also wants to catch the eye of her father's house guest, Mr. Winter.

There's nothing wrong with retelling a story through the supporting character’s point of view, in fact I love it. Last year I wrote a list of “Our Sides of the Story: Favorite Books and Stories Told From Alternate Points of View.” (Both Wicked and Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister are on that list). But like any other protagonist, the author can't just rely in name recognition. They have to give them their own story, their own motives or the book just becomes a rehash of the original and the Reader is left wondering why bother writing it.

The problems with Ada and Lydia are there is nothing there that is interesting. Ada gets to see Wonderland but the beginning tells us that she is a sensible girl, a vicar's daughter, so she doesn't interact or engage with the Wonderland residents in a way that is meaningful. It seems more like Maguire wanted the Reader to say “Oh look there's the Walrus and the Carpenter!” “There's the White Queen” rather than, “What is Ada going to do with them?” While there are some interesting aspects to Ada's character (She is consistently described as a “large and heavy girl” and she has a limp which implies she has some physical and psychological issues.).

There are also some clever references to the original book such as Ada bringing the orange marmalade that Alice finds while falling through the rabbit hole. (and doesn't drop for “fear of killing somebody underneath.”).

However unlike her predecessor, Ada is extremely dull: an ineffectual tour guide to a world we already know about.

Lydia’s half of the book is even worse. Because Lydia doesn't visit Wonderland herself, there is almost no purpose to her story. Her infatuation with Mr. Winter seems more to spring from the comedy of manners from Jane Austen rather than the satiric nonsense of Charles Lutwidge Dodgson. She goes to humorous extremes to get Mr. Winter’s attention including befriending Winter’s African-American ward, Siam and considering Ada’s governess, Mrs. Armstrong, a rival for his affections. Like Ada, Lydia has some interesting traits such as taking a maternal role towards her younger sister after the death of their mother, which she determines as a reason that Alice behaves so flighty and wild. (It makes perfect sense.) But Lydia's story is more of a distraction to add more pages to the book than to serve any real purpose. Not to mention, Lydia’s relationship with Mr. Winter doesn't really go anywhere in the end so there's almost no reason for it.

There are a few new Wonderland characters like a Tin Ballerina and a Tin Bear that seem to belong more to OZ than Wonderland. Even Queen Victoria has a cameo to engage in a first person plural “Royal We” conversation with Ada. But these characters are out of place in Wonderland's milieu.

The only interesting original character is Siam. A former American slave, the young boy was freed and unofficially adopted by Winter who is almost suffocatingly overprotective of the boy. After accidentally falling down the rabbit hole and running into Ada, he learns to embrace a childlike nature and falls in love with the place. The resolution to his story is extremely open ended, but he makes the choice that many Readers of Carroll's book no doubt wish they could.

I had such high hopes for this book. I really wanted to love it. As mentioned Wicked and Confessions are among my favorite books that tell stories from Alternate Points of View. (though I can't say the same for the other Wicked Years books.) Mirror Mirror takes an interesting historic perspective to Snow White. Of course as I said I absolutely love the original Alice books.

But After Alice was a true disappointment. There was no magic to the tale. Not enough nonsense. Not enough Alice.