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Musings: The Stranger Inside by Jennifer Jaynes

The Stranger Inside by Jennifer Jaynes
Thomas & Mercer, 2017
ISBN-13: 978-1477817919
Available: Paperback, Kindle edition, Audible, Audio CD

Well, it’s happened. The Monster Kid, soon to be 12 years old, picked up, secretly read, and was completely engrossed in his first adult horror novel (why he thought he needed to hide this from me is beyond my understanding, but maybe keeping it underground is part of the allure). Technically, it’s the second one he’s read, but he was unimpressed by I Am Legend (I think he didn’t actually understand what was happening, which I am grateful for). And I suppose purists would say it’s more of a mystery thriller than a horror novel, but it was sent to me for review, and it has some pretty terrifying moments. The Monster Kid is a re-reader; once he finds a book he’s really fascinated by, he reads it over and over. I note that he has been sneaking it to school in his backpack, so obviously this is one of those books.

A Stranger Inside introduces us to the Christie family: widowed mystery writer Diane; her adopted 15 year old son, Josh; and her college-aged daughter, Alexa, who struggles with anger at her mother, grief, depression, and addiction. Diane and Josh have just moved to the college town where Alexa attends school, and Diane is struggling to adapt to small-town life and changing family dynamics. She’s also finally trying to move beyond her grief and anger at her husband’s suicide, and starting up a new relationship. Add to this mix the sudden murders of girls at Alexa’s school, and you have a recipe for disaster.  What else would you expect in a town named Fog Harbor?

Jaynes’ slow-building characterization of the men in this story is what makes it creepy to me (obviously, this is not what appeals to my kid). Every single one of them gives off that “wrong” feeling, which only escalates as the events of the story, and the murders, continue. It is amazing to me is that Diane, a mystery writer, takes forever to pick any of this up. There’s Lance, a volunteer at the suicide hotline where Diane volunteers; Wayne, the grocery store manager who invades personal boundaries; Rick, her “perfect guy”, a former sniper who suffers from PTSD and has a houseful of guns. Even Alexa, who spends a good chunk of time in a drug-and-alcohol induced stupor, has more of a clue than her mom does.

While he picked up on the total lack of likability of any of the men in the book, I’m pretty sure the Monster Kid missed out on most of this, for obvious reasons. This is a kid who fast forwards through movies to get to the action scenes and giant explosions. This book is a really fast read, and if he did something similar, in skipping the character-building parts, that could explain why he sped through it in an evening.  For him, it was the suspense, ratcheted up in part from not being able to tell which person in the book was the killer, the pacing, and the interspersed scenes of the killings, from the killer’s point of view. These aren’t graphically gory, but there’s definitely a focus on the stalker’s thrill at the chase that could leave your heart pounding.  The killer was a character that completely surprised the Monster Kid, although based on his short, non-spoilery summary, I guessed it pretty quickly. The final scenes of the book are not ones I would have ever guessed, though.

This is an adult book, and there are a few sexual situations, although most of that is off-screen (can I say off-screen when writing about a book?). His primary pickup from this was the phrase “The room smelled like sex and french fries”, with the focus on the french fries. There’s also a date rape, which we see from Alexa’s point of view, which is pretty muddled since she’s drugged.

It’s kind of astonishing to me that, with all the horror novels in this house that he has hidden from view because of the covers or that even are just floating around, the Monster Kid picked this one, and is enthralled with it. It’s a sign that he’s growing older, I guess, and if he had to choose a book to start with, this wasn’t a bad one. In fact, the most disturbing part to me is the teenage boy and his role in the story, and maybe that’s because it hits so close to home. If he stays with books that have this level of violence and sex, it’ll be a relief. But I’ve been hearing a lot of mutterings about Stephen King…

 

 

Posted on May 19, 2017 by , Reply

Book Review: Scary School #3: The Northern Frights by Derek the Ghost, illustrated by Scott M. Fisher

Scary School #3: The Northern Frights by Derek the Ghost, illustrated by Scott M. Fischer

HarperCollins Children’s Books, 2013

ISBN-13: 978-0061960987

Available: Hardcover, Kindle edition

There are several books in the Scary School series, and Monster Librarian has reviewed others, but this is the first one I have read myself, and it is a gem. The books are set in a school for children who are a little out of the ordinary: zombies, vampires, werewolves, and other creatures. Jason Boorhees wears a hockey mask and carries a chainsaw; Fred Kroger seems to think he is always in a dream. The teachers are pretty scary, too: King Khufu spends his lunch hour in a sarcophagus, a hydra monitors the hallways, and Mr. Acidbath creates frightening concoctions in the classroom.  Scary School also has its fair share of ordinary humans, like Charles Nukid, the main character of this book. In The Northern Frights, six human students from Scary School, including Jason, Fred, and Charles, are chosen as exchange students at the even scarier Scream Academy, located in the freezing north. Can they survive and succeed where so many other humans have failed?

The Northern Frights is not great literature. It’s sketchy in its world-building and, with a few exceptions, characters are pretty one-dimensional. It’s narrated by Derek the Ghost, a student who died during a disastrous science experiment and now haunts the school. However, I frequently forgot that the book was supposed to be written in first person, because except for occasional asides it reads like it’s written in third person. None of that really matters, though, because it’s funny, punny, fast-paced, and smart.  This is a book that parents and kids can both enjoy, reading independently or together (I hope most kids in the target age group don’t watch slasher films, but the Jason and Fred characters’ behaviors give those of us who do know the movies that something extra to appreciate).  It’s also extensively illustrated, with both full-page and in-text illustrations that complement the story. If you have a reluctant reader on your hands, or are looking for a fun read-aloud with your middle-grader, this is a perfect choice. Highly recommended for children’s collections and elementary school library media centers.

Reviewed by Kirsten Kowalewski

Previously reviewed:

 Scary School #1 by Derek the Ghost

 Scary School #2 : Monsters on the March by Derek the Ghost

 

Posted on June 5, 2016 by , Reply

Kaiju Lovers Are The Best: G-Fest Report

The Monster Kid chatting with a kaiju at G-Fest’s Dojo Studios

This past weekend we went to G-Fest, a Godzilla fan convention in Chicago. The Monster Kid comes by his love of monsters honestly– he inherited it from his dad. The Monster Librarian has been a kaiju lover since before I met him, and in our first apartment I couldn’t walk through our shared study without some crazy looking critter falling on me. Boxes more of them in boxes were stacked in the closet until we moved out and my mom, over his intense objections, took all of them out of their original packaging to make them fit better in the packing boxes (all collectors wince now). The monsters were packed away in boxes again when we transformed the study in our first house into a bedroom in preparation for the arrival of the Monster Kid, and when we moved to a bigger house, they were packed into a closet. But not forgotten.

When the Monster Kid was about four, Dylan pulled out a giant tub of action figures and said, “I don’t think I can count on these being collectibles anymore. I want to take them out and play with them with the kids.” I was a little wary of this as toddlers and preschoolers aren’t generally known to be gentle with their toys. But his enthusiasm was contagious. Suddenly the Lego table became a battleground for King Ghidorah, Godzilla, Mothra, and friends (if you can call them friends). It was the beginning of a beautiful friendship between father and son, although, unsurprisingly to me, many of the action figures were battered or broken (Dylan always seemed taken aback). They watched all the movies, then American 1950s science fiction monster movies. The Monster Kid discovered Ultraman, and a new obsession was born. We all discovered (or rediscovered) the coolness of Ray Harryhausen and stop-motion animation. Kaiju and giant robots appeared in the Monster Kid’s drawings and stories. I still have the piece of paper on which he wrote, for the first time, “Godzilla” (the letter z is backwards). Other creatures and characters have come and gone (although Harry Potter has had some considerable staying power), but the kaiju are always there. With the release of Pacific Rim, the collecting kicked up a notch, and interest in creating stop-motion videos caught on (it’s possible that our family is the only one in town to consider Pacific Rim a family film). Before he died, Dylan was building paper-mache mountains, painting models, and going through spray paint at an alarming rate. And for the first time he decided it would be fun to go to a fan convention. He and the Monster Kid were very excited about the movie they were making (the story was never actually written down) and going to the convention. We planned to go as a family. And even though Dylan couldn’t be there with us, we went to G-Fest.

I have to say that going to G-Fest really put fandom in perspective. We went to “Dojo Studios”, where fans were filming an original kaiju movie that they had been working on for something like five years. There was a life-size spaceship cockpit made, basically, out of cardboard, styrofoam, and spray paint. I saw the prices on some of the kaiju the Monster Kid has been playing with (and breaking) which bring a whole new meaning to what it meant for Dylan to bring out his collection for the kids to play with. I saw other kids who were as obsessed as the Monster Kid. I saw a lot of fathers and sons getting excited– in fact, there were several pairs in the costume contest (there were also mothers and sons, and brothers and sisters). It’s possible that this is the only time they get to be around other kids who love kaiju so much. And I saw the incredible font of information that my son possesses on the movies and monsters that populate the world of Japanese fantasy film.

I want to thank the organizers of G-Fest for making it possible for us to come this year, the fans I encountered who were pleasant, generous, and compassionate, and my non-fan friends who gave up vacation time so we could go. Kaiju lovers, and their friends and families, really are the best.

 

 

 

Posted on July 15, 2014 by , Reply
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