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Book Review: Goblin by Josh Malerman

cover art for Goblin by Josh Malerman

Goblin by Josh Malerman
Del Rey (May 2021)
ISBN-13 : 978-0593237809
Available: Hardcover, Kindle edition, audiobook  ( Bookshop.org | Amazon.com )

 

After several blockbuster novels, and with Malorie, the sequel to Bird Box still fresh in readers’ minds, Josh Malerman finally gets to introduce the town of Goblin to fans everywhere.

 

Goblin is Derry. It’s Oxrun Station. It’s Cedar Hill. It’s Green Town. It’s all of us in our hometowns and yet, it’s something brand new, where the greats would likely fear to live. Think of Goblin as Derry’s disturbed little brother.

 

This book, comprised of a sextet of short novellas, takes the small town motif and shreds it, molding it into something which fills the reader with uneasy pleasure from cover to cover. Malerman seems to display more skill, more darkness, with each story.

 

“A Man In Slices” shows how friendship can be a tricky concept. One boy does whatever he can to help his lonely friend, at any cost.

 

“Kamp” is a lighter tale about a man petrified of a seeing a ghost. Everyone in his family has, and he knows his time is coming. How Walter copes with the expectation will make many readers feel a bit better about their own issues with things that go bump in the night.

 

“Happy Birthday, Hunter” displays the heart and obsession of a man who cannot give up the hunt. Nash’s addiction comes to a boiling point during his 60th birthday party when he decides to kill Goblin’s most prized game in the north woods, a place from which no one ever returns.

 

“Presto” is a love affair with magic, the oldest and darkest kind where a young boy seeks to learn the secrets behind his favorite performer in a story which channels classic Bradbury.

 

“A Mix-Up at the Zoo” details the inner struggle of Dirk, a man who switches jobs to become a tour guide in a zoo, a far cry from his other employment in the slaughterhouse. He finds a talent for understanding the mighty beasts within the cages, but feels a certain darkness brewing when he drifts off in thought.

 

“The Hedges” is the final story in the collection. Mazes built in corn and the famed topiary in the film version of The Shining emerge here. Young Margot claims to have solved the unsolvable creation by Wayne Sherman. What she finds at the end causes her to alert the Goblin police, a decision that might be worse than keeping the secret to herself.

 

The mythology of Goblin’s history is richly drawn within these stories, and connects them with a style that keeps the reader turning pages. Malerman has created a town which may even be darker than King’s, Grant’s, and Bradbury’s nightmares. Goblin is all Malerman and should be listed on every horror reader’s itinerary of places to visit, with the lights turned low and the night breeze creeping into the room. Highly recommended.

 

Reviewed by David Simms

Posted on March 22, 2021 by , Reply

Book Review: Glamour Ghoul: The Passions and Pains of the Real Vampira, Maila Nurmi by Sandra Niemi

cover art for Glamour Girl by Sandra Niemi

Glamour Ghoul: The Passions and Pains of the Real Vampira by Sandra Niemi

Feral House, 2021

ISBN-13: 9781627311007

Available:  Paperback, Kindle ( Bookshop.com  | Amazon.com )

 

Glamour Ghoul is the biography of the woman who was Vampira, Maila Nurmi, written by her niece, Sandra Niemi. Pieced together from diaries, notes, family stories, and an unexpected family connection, Niemi weaves a fascinating tale of the late horror icon. She provides a glimpse of her aunt’s childhood,  Maila’s strict Finnish father and alcoholic mother, and how she tried to break free of their grasp. In 1941, Maila began her tumultuous journey into Los Angeles, hoping to find fame and fortune, but instead found heartbreak and betrayal, the first committed by Nurmi’s screen crush Orson Welles.

Nurmi’s creation and development of the Vampira character is discussed in the book. From entering a Halloween costume contest donning an outfit like that of Charles Addams’ Morticia (from his cartoons, not the television show), to appearing on the Red Skelton Show, to her own show and beyond, the tale of Vampira is told. There is also considerable time spent on the lawsuit between Nurmi and Elvira/Cassandra Peterson.

Interspersed between accounts of Nurmi’s life are short biographies of those who entered her life. Her relationships, platonic as well as romantic ones, with Orson Welles, James Dean, Marlon Brando, Anthony Perkins, and Elvis Presley make for an interesting read. Later in life, she was embraced by the punk community, and she, in turn, embraced the community. Her life was not glamourous: she often struggled with poverty, and was barely able to afford to scrape by. She occasionally had to return home, living with her mother and never speaking to her estranged father. Despite that, she lived on her own terms. Niemi is quite candid in telling her aunt’s story, not shying away from such things as a confrontation and violent outburst by Nurmi toward her grand-niece’s snobbish behavior during a visit to Los Angeles. Nurmi was not afraid of making her voice heard. Highly recommended.

 

Reviewed by Lizzy Walker

Posted on March 20, 2021 by , Reply

Book Review: A Complex Accident of Life by Jessica McHugh

cover art for A Complex Accident of Life by Jessica McHugh

A Complex Accident of Life by Jessica McHugh

Apokrupha, 2020

ISBN-13: 979-8647146519

Available: Paperback, Kindle edition ( Amazon.com )

 

The ghost of Mary Shelley haunts the pages of A Complex Accident of Life by Jessica McHugh. With words insightfully culled from Frankenstein, the blackout poetry in this brilliant jewel of a book captures the tragic intensity, dark fervor, and dramatic suffering of Shelley’s life as well as something totally new, inspired, and relatable.

 

Through startling images of struggle and determination, this collection also reveals the essence of Shelley’s creative imagination as a writer and her mind and heart as a woman. McHugh tells us, “She felt hope like a moon: / A bright heart nothing could extinguish. / She embraced its bounty / And settled passion upon purpose.” Shelley’s words, like gold deposited decades ago in the novel’s text, are mined and skillfully transformed into a contemporary memoir by the talented McHugh.

 

On each page of the book, the reader will find an entire printed poem and then, below it, a copy of the blacked out (in color) page from Frankenstein from which the poem was taken. The pages from Frankenstein are in numerical order, which is astonishing when you realize that the poems do not reflect a narrative that parallels that of the novel, and yet one poem smoothly flows into the next encouraging a slow, thoughtful reading.

 

McHugh has carefully shaped each eloquent verse to stand alone, a sort of reflective snapshot in time. There is something so tender and wounded about these poems; they sometimes seem like private thoughts that should not have been divulged: honest, raw, and deeply felt. McHugh draws us into that place where those thoughts and feelings are simultaneously hers and Shelley’s, and together, they become an expression of universal truths.

 

Jessica McHugh has truly lifted blackout poetry to an entirely new level of remarkable craftsmanship. Highly recommended.

 

Reviewed by Nova Hadley

 

Editor’s note: A Complex Accident of Life is a nominee on the final ballot for this year’s Stoker Awards in the category of Superior Achievement in Poetry.

Posted on March 19, 2021 by , Reply
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