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Book Review: What Waits in the Shadows by Wil Forbis

Cover art for What Waits in the Shadows by Wil Forbis

What Waits in the Shadows by Wil Forbis

Self published, 2024

ISBN: 9798877647923

Available: Paperback, Kindle edition

Buy:  Amazon.com

 

 

Remember all those stories as a kid about the monster in the closet?  In the case of What Waits in the Shadows, there actually is a monster in the closet.  Not only can it talk, it rips heads off people and tosses them out like a basketball.  This makes for a pretty good story,

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Ever since Lisa Kallman, as a kid, witnessed the above treatment of her dad by the monster, she’s been trying to put it behind her, and after years of therapy, she seems on the verge of a normal life.  This part is a little paint-by-numbers: of course she works in mental health, has the new house, a great fiancée, and so on.  It gets more fun when the monster shows back up again and starts not just going after her, but those around her as well.  There is some decent suspense here, and the scenes where the monster destroys someone in bloody fashion are good fun.  The secondary character of Jeremiah O’Brien adds a nice flavor to the book: he’s the guy wrongfully imprisoned for killing Lisa’s dad.  Would you really expect the authorities to believe a story about a closet monster ripping off heads?  Of course not!  Jeremiah’s story thread, as he is hell-bent on revenge for a stolen life, adds a good perspective to the book and helps keep it from becoming too predictable.

 

The end of the book is wrapped up nicely, and the big reveal about the monster shows good imagination: it’s a nice twist on the story.  This book might have been a bit more fun if a few hints had been sprinkled throughout the story: little clues are good for keeping readers hooked.  As it is, you’ll think it’s just a garden-variety monster until the end.

 

The one part that really should have been fixed is the strange formatting.  The book has 1.5 spacing for the lines, but is double-spaced between each paragraph, which is not normally done. Also, there are no indents for paragraphs in the entire book: all the type is slugged to the left hand margins.  As a result, the book comes in at 245 pages, although it would probably be closer to 150-175 pages if formatted correctly.  I’m not sure if this was the author’s choice or an error, but it should be corrected in future printings.

 

Bottom line::it’s worth a look.  While not a must-read, it is good enough to check out when you have the time.

 

Reviewed by Murray Samuelson

 

Posted on August 18, 2024 by , Reply

Book Review: Dear Mothman by Robin Gow

It’s the first day of the #TransRightsReadathon, so to start it out right here’s a review of a recent favorite middle-grade novel I really enjoyed. You can’t go wrong with cryptids!

 

cover art for Dear Mothman by Robin Gow

Dear Mothman by Robin Gow.

Harry N. Abrams, 2023

ISBN: 9781419764400

Available: Hardcover

Buy:  Bookshop.org

 

 

This middle grade verse novel dealing with grief, identity, and monstrosity is lyrical and vivid. Sixth graders Lewis and Noah (closeted trans boys) have been best friends for years. Lewis has a great imagination and Noah is pulled along in his wake in exploring all kinds of strange things. In the time just before Lewis was killed in a car crash, he had been obsessed with cryptids, especially Mothman. Noah deals with the loss by writing journal entries to Mothman in a journal he leaves in the woods each night. He wants to believe that Mothman is real even if he can’t see him, and decides to do his science fair project on whether Mothman exists.

 

Noah also begins to make friends with Molly, Hanna, and Alice, and develop feelings for Hanna, while slowly coming out and deciding how much of himself, and Mothman, he wants to share.

 

Although he is outed to his classmates before he’s ready, the people around him accept the news pretty quickly, even if they don’t entirely understand. Unfortunately, they are not as accepting of the existence of Mothman, which leads him to run away to do a solitary search in the woods that changes him, helps him deal with his grief over Lewis, and move forward.

 

Noah is autistic and that comes through clearly and is written with respect and sensitivity, as is the bisexuality of two of the characters.

 

Noah’s grappling with monstrosity, magic, and the unknown isn’t subtle, but Gow gets the kinds of thoughts on paper that you would expect a journal of private thoughts (or written to a cryptid of dubious existence) to contain. In the acknowledgements. Gow credits a childhood fascination with monsters with his ability to understand his own identity. Recommended for grades 5-8.

 

 

Reviewed by Kirsten Kowalewski

 

 

 

 

Posted on March 22, 2024 by , Reply

Book Review: Siren Queen by Nghi Vo

cover art for Siren Queen by Nghi Vo

 

Siren Queen by Nghi Vo

Tor.com, 2022

ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1250788832

Available: Hardcover, paperback, library binding, KIndle edition, audiobook

Buy:    Bookshop.org  | Amazon.com

 

 

This is not so much a horror novel as it is an homage to classic monster movies and a critique of golden-age Hollywood. Readers looking for blood and gore will not find it here. What they will find is a dark, beautifully written warning about the dangers of ambition. Told in first person by the protagonist, the story reads like a memoir.

 

CK is a Chinese-American girl obsessed with acting in the movies, at the beginnings of the talkies. She is working bit parts for children off the books for a director at Wolfe Studios, who wants to present her as his new discovery once she turns 18. CK is impatient and tracks down a retired actress who gives her information that will get her an audience, and a contract, with Oberlin Wolfe, using blackmail photos. Due to this leverage she is able to demand that she not be cast in stereotypical roles for Asian women (an issue faced by real-life Chinese-American actress Anna May Wong in this time period).. She takes the stage name Luli Wei, a name that happens to also be her sister’s.

 

Getting a studio contract is similar to making a bargain with faeries. In exchange for fame and fortune, the studio owner controls your life (this is a fairly accurate description of the Hollywood studio system at the time, even without faeries’ involvement). There’s even a version of Tam Lin that takes place within the story.

 

Directors don’t know how to cast CK since she can’t be cast in stereotypical roles, but finally she is cast as a monster, the Siren Queen, and the movie and its sequels are blockbuster hits. Despite her ability to cause scandal and her defiance, the studio can’t get rid of her. CK has a lesbian romance with rising star Emmaline Sauvignon which the studio ends because it interferes with their narrative of the kind of person Emmaline is supposed to be. Later, she gets involved with a scriptwriter hired to do edits on the script of the last Siren Queen movie.

 

Despite knowing her contract would eventually have negative consequences for her, I couldn’t help loving CK for her ambition and refusal to let studio officials and directors walk on her, and for her own love of playing the role of a vengeful monster and loving it. The classic monster movies are clearly an inspiration to the author, and the critique of racist stereotypes and queer erasure in casting at that time is something I am glad to see brought to the attention of modern readers. Highly recommended.

 

 

Reviewed by Kirsten Kowalewski

Posted on March 7, 2024 by , Reply
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