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Book Review: SLAY: Stories of the Vampire Noire edited by Nicole Givens Kurtz

A note from the editor:

We are midway through October and Monster Librarian still needs to raise the funds to pay for our hosting fees and postage in 2021. If you like what we’re doing, please take a moment to click on that red “Contribute” button in the sidebar to the right, to help us keep going!  Even five dollars will get us closer to the $195 we need to keep going at the most basic level. We have never accepted paid advertising so you can be guaranteed that our reviews are objective. We’ve been reviewing and supporting the horror community for 15 years now, help us make it another year! Thank you! And now, our review of SLAY: Stories of the Vampire Noire edited by Nicole Givens Kurtz.

cover art for SLAY: Stories of the Vampire Noire

SLAY: Stories of the Vampire Noire edited by Nicole Givens Kurtz (   Bookshop.org  | Amazon.com )

Mocha Memoirs Press, 2020

ISBN-13 : 978-1735219554

Available: Hardcover, paperback, Kindle edition

 

The late L.A. Banks’ Vampire Huntress series, and her ability to transform common tropes of vampire fiction into stories that reflected the African-American experience, inspired many of the authors in SLAY: Stories of the Vampire Noire. Anthology editor Nicole Givens Kurtz continues that tradition here by showcasing Black writers and their imaginings of vampires, slayers, and hunters through their stories, giving Black readers the opportunity to be seen in vampire fiction that takes on the standard Eurocentric tropes and transforms them in a way that is uniquely relevant to Black people and also provides a window for other readers into what they have been missing because of the limited perspective of most vampire fiction. The stories come from all over the African diaspora, but the majority of them are by authors from the United States and Britain. Authors take various approaches to the concept of vampirism, inspired by Black culture, mythologies, history, and experiences, but there is nothing boring here. Interspersed between stories are beautifully calligraphed obituaries.

In the section of stories from the United States and Britain, strong stories include “Dessicant”, by Craig Laurance Gidney, takes place in a badly-kept up low-income apartment building that has red dust in the vents that is making its occupants sick and draining them of fluids. The negligent landlord can’t be reached and the protagonist, a Black trans woman ostracized by other residents, has to find a way to combat the dust, or whatever it is, on her own. “The Retiree”, by Steven Van Patten, is a funny, heartbreaking story that will give readers a new perspective on what goes on in a retirement home In “The Dance”,  by L. Marie Wood, the protagonist is surprised to learn there is more to her sexuality than she realized. In “A Clink of Crystal Glasses Heard”, by LH Moore, Neeka and her friends have a coming-of-age ceremony planned by their mothers that is not what they expected. “Diary of a Mad Black Vampire”,  by Dicey Grenor, puts the reader in the head of a bored, lonely and vicious Black vampire who finds herself intrigued by a fragile-seeming albino white girl. “The Last Vampire Huntress”, by Alicia McCalla, remixes the story of Kendra the Vampire Slayer, with Kendra the reluctant, prophesied, last vampire huntress who must accept her destiny and kill her vampire boyfriend after he attacks her friends. “Unfleamed”, by Penelope Flynn, tackles race and violence in the Victorian era with its take on the Dracula story. “Di Conjuring Nectar of di Blood” , by Kai Leakes, is a gorgeously written historical story of love and generational trauma. In “Snake Hill Blues”, set in 1927,  conjure woman Mamma Lucy eliminates a vampire who has been preying on dancing girls. I hope this author will bring her back in other stories!

The stories from African authors are also strong.  A few that stuck out to me included Oghenechovwe Donald Ekpeki’s “Attack on University of Lagos Law Faculty”, an entertaining story narrated by a pompous, egotistical law student who finds himself in the surprising position of vampire slayer, and “His Destroyer”, by Samantha Bryant, is a powerful rendering of the Passover story from the point of view of  the avatar of the Angel of Death. “Quadrille” is an engaging and occasionally darkly humorous story about friendship narrated by a vampire who has become a reporter in conflict zones in order to cover up his feeding habits, abetted by a djinn and a shapeshifter.

A last section contains stories about the future. These stories aren’t really horror, but they are compelling. In “Bloodline” scientists make a terrible mistake, enhancing a vampire’s powers.  “Message in a Vessel” is a science fiction story about the consequences of human enslavement to vampires, and “Blood Saviors” is a more fantasy-oriented tale in which an investigator for the vampires’ council discovers that a vampire has been enslaving and draining earth elementals to make a rejuvenating serum for humans, whose blood has become polluted, leading to vampires getting sick.

This is a great collection overall, with fresh takes on vampire lore that I really haven’t seen elsewhere, informed by Black experiences and perspectives. There’s enough here to love that it has taken me much longer than I expected to write this review. If you love vampire fiction or horror anthologies, and want to support Black authors, publishers, and readers of horror you should definitely pick this up. It’s a great way to discover some really talented Black writers, if you haven’t already. Highly recommended.

Contains: Animal killing, body horror, blood-drinking, torture, scientific experimentation, mutilation, murder, gore, violence, sexual situations, racism, sexual assault, rape, dehumanization, insects, genocide.

Posted on October 20, 2020 by , 1 comment

Book Review: Whitechapel Rhapsody by Alessandro Manzetti

A note from the editor (that’s me) :

We are midway through October and Monster Librarian still needs to raise the funds to pay for our hosting fees and postage in 2021. If you like what we’re doing, please take a moment to click on that red “Contribute” button in the sidebar to the right, to help us keep going!  Even five dollars will get us closer to the $195 we need to keep going at the most basic level. We have never accepted paid advertising so you can be guaranteed that our reviews are objective. We’ve been reviewing and supporting the horror community for 15 years now, help us make it another year! Thank you! And now our review of Whitechapel Rhapsody by Alessandro Manzetti.

cover art for Whitechapel Rhapsody by Alessandro Manzetti

Whitechapel Rhapsody by Alessandro Manzetti   (Amazon.com)

Independent Legions Publishing,  2020

ISBN: 978-88-31959

Available: Kindle edition, Paperback

Ever since Jack the Ripper prowled the streets, he has been the worst kind of nightmare, the shockingly brutal and chilling reality that monster-men can be living among us unnoticed, watching and freely choosing fresh victims. In his new book of poetry, Whitechapel Rhapsody, Alessandro Manzetti uses words from The Ripper’s letters to the police, information about the women and their possible murderers, and even one of the autopsies to access the mind of a killer who has never been identified for certain.

In “The Lair”, which begins the book, and in the rhapsody poems (“Sick Rhapsody,” “Entangled Rhapsody,” and “Madhouse Rhapsody”) which appear at intervals throughout the collection, we are plunged into the ugly, sordid, sick environment of physical and spiritual contagion that was the setting for the murders, if not the spawning ground of the murderer. Against this background, the poems describe the killer as a macabre artist who vows to his victims, “I will make art of you” and causes them to be “carved” by his “iron brushes,” his “long-bladed knife accurate like a Mozart composition.” True to The Ripper’s artistic vision, there is a focus on color, especially shades of red blood and the textures of the organs of the human body in each “still life.” This is the portrait of a demented artist whose imagination is a “giant” that “can feel the vibrating legs of a grasshopper ready to jump on a leaf of a remote island.”

This extreme sensitivity is on display in “She Knew My Name” which riffs on Poe’s “The Raven.” Both poems are about the narrator’s mind and what is happening inside it, how each is processing his experiences. Both narrators indulge in their madness, and that has an emotional impact on the reader. Manzetti confirms that it is not the facts of blood or death that most inspire terror in a reader but the evil imagination of the poem’s speaker igniting the active imagination of the reader’s “dark side.” This fascination that ordinary people have with horror is apparent in “Madhouse Rhapsody,” a reminder of Bedlam where the English citizenry actually went to enjoy the suffering of the imprisoned mentally ill as live entertainment. Also, many of the poems mention the opium, syphilis, perversions, and abuses which were common at the time and could be the source of madness.

Even though it is unlikely we will ever know Jack the Ripper’s identity or what caused him to kill, Whitechapel Rhapsody pulls back the curtain enough for us to fully feel the evil behind the facts and sense the cold, hard facts behind the dark poetic imagination.

Recommended.

 

Reviewed by Nova Hadley

Posted on October 11, 2020 by , Reply

Book Review: Night of the Mannequins by Stephen Graham Jones

cover art for Night of the Mannequins by Stephen Graham Jones

Night of the Mannequins by Stephen Graham Jones (  Bookshop.org  |  Amazon.com )

Tor.com, 2020

ISBN-13 : 978-1250752079

Available: Paperback, Kindle edition

 

Night of the Mannequins is a short book, a rocket-fuel ride from beginning to end. It is narrated by teenage Sawyer, one of an offbeat, close-knit group of friends who have known each other forever and are about to graduate high school and go their separate ways. Stephen Graham Jones does a genius job with Sawyer’s narrative voice: it really feels like he is talking right to you. After they’re thrown out of a movie theater where their friend Shanna works, the friends come up with the idea of sneaking a discarded mannequin in to prank Shanna and the manager. Instead, the prank fizzles, the mannequin disappears, and Sawyer is certain he saw it walk out of the theater. After one of the Shanna is killed, along with her family, when a truck plows into her house, Sawyer is convinced the mannequin is the culprit and that he and his friends and their families are all in danger of death by mannequin. He is certain he has seen the mannequin and that the mannequin is stealing and eating Miracle-Gro to turn into a gigantic monster. Sawyer decides he has to act before the monster mannequin can. Jones takes us far down the rabbit hole in this surreal and disturbing tale as Sawyer’s perceptions become more and more skewed,  especially once he starts covering his face with a mannequin mask.

We don’t get to know the other friends well, but Sawyer’s feelings for them seem genuine, so you feel for them and their families when gory tragedy strikes. And wow, does it strike. Sawyer describes it in detail, and Jones does not pull his punches.

This is not intended to be a YA book but it very easily could appeal to YA horror readers looking for a bite-sized read. It’s short, fast-paced, and, unusual in YA horror these days, has a teenage boy as protagonist. With Night of the Mannequins you could hook someone who loves slasher movies but hasn’t shown much interest in reading.  Recommended for ages 15+

 

Posted on October 2, 2020 by , Reply
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