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Book Review: Shagging the Boss by Rebecca Rowland

Shagging the Boss by Rebecca Rowland
Filthy Loot, 2022
ISBN-13: 978-1088029046
Available: Paperback ( Bookshop.org )

 

Before anyone starts quoting Austin Powers in a bad accent, the shagging Rebecca Rowland refers to is quite different. The title does fit the novella though, yet I can’t divulge too much. It’s unique and a quick read, easy for one sitting but this story stuck to me like a great meal– more on that later.

 

Publishing is a bloody business. It makes strolling through hell feel like petting puppies in a field of flowers. It’s not for the weak-hearted or those who want validation. When the unnamed main character arrives at a book conference, fresh in the field and looking for bites, she’s looking for a foot in the door, something to break into a world that is full of monsters of the human kind. What she finds isn’t exactly what LinkedIn typically suggests. A strange man, Daniel, greets her at a book convention and invites her back to his hotel room, but the favor he offers isn’t exactly the sexist situation that too often occurs in the corporate world. It’s something much different. He makes her an offer after she awakes to find he took something from her– something physical– but reassures her all will be well, because of what he is, a boogeyman of sorts. To be specific, a yara-ma-yha-who, a creature of opportunity who consumes their prey, only to expel them– somehow changed. To say more would ruin the novella’s magic. The relationship and interplay between the apprentice and Daniel is pure fun to read. The book begs to be completed in one enjoyable sitting (yet I’ve gone through it twice and picked up on some cool nuances I missed the first time).

 

Rowland has been moving like a banshee, editing anthologies left and right (her Generation-Exed is perfect for the best group of people out there!), but this is my first time reading her prose. It won’t be the last. Comparisons are not necessary, yet one could be drawn between Elizabeth Massie and Joe R. Lansdale due to the smooth writing and easy dialogue.

 

Highly recommended, especially for anyone who is involved in the shark-infested world of writing and publishing.

 

Reviewed by David Simms

Posted on December 17, 2022 by , Reply

Book Review: Two Truths and a Lie by Sarah Pinsker

Cover art for Two Truths and a Lie by Sarah Pinsker

Two Truths and a Lie by Sarah Pinsker

Tor.com, 2020

ASIN:B089FTG8MS

Available: Kindle edition  ( Amazon.com )

 

When her high school friend Marco’s “weird older brother” Denny dies, Stella offers to help clear out his things. Unbeknownst to her, Denny was a hoarder, and sorting through his things, even in just a few rooms, is a huge challenge, requiring latex gloves to go through his things and a mask to keep out the stench. Starting in the dining room, it is Stella’s job to sort the junk and broken things from the items that might be personal or potentially valuable.

 

Stella is a pathological liar. She doesn’t know why she does it, but she’s good at it. She lies about her job, her family, where she lives, what she’s done with her life… and she doesn’t get caught. While sorting through items in the basement rec room, such as DVDs, VHS tapes, and cassettes, she finds an old television set built into a cabinet and makes up a creepy kids’ television show from their childhood to ask Marco about, The Uncle Bob Show, only to discover that she didn’t make it up; it’s real, and most of the little kids in town appeared on it at some time, including her and Denny. Marco remembers it, Stella’s mother remembers it, and when she checks, there are records in the archives of the local television station. Stella is unnerved: if she can’t remember the show despite the nightmarish stories Uncle Bob told on his show, what other memories could she be missing?

 

This is a very short piece on the dangers and nature of storytelling and memory, but so well done. Pinsker doesn’t waste a word in this unsettling tale. While most of the characters are sketches, Denny and his house are vividly recreated, and the realization of how unreliable Stella’s narrative actually is makes the story even creepier. How much of what and who in the  is real and how much is in her head? Readers will have this crawling around their brains well after the last page is turned.

 

As a final note, it would certainly be interesting to see Pinsker revisit some of the other grown children who appeared on the Uncle Bob Show, in connected novellas. Recommended.

 

Reviewed by Kirsten Kowalewski

 

Editor’s note: Two Truths and a Lie is a nominee on the final ballot for this year’s Bram Stoker Award in the category of Superior Achievement in Long Fiction.

Posted on April 5, 2021 by , Reply

Book Review: Eight Cylinders by Jason Parent

cover art for Eight Cylinders by Jason Parent

Eight Cylinders by Jason Parent

Crystal Lake Publishing, 2020

ISBN: 9781646693061

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

 

A motor with eight cylinders represents power, a strong machine that can outrun the competition with minimal difficulty.  That being said, Eight Cylinders is closer to a six, maybe seven cylinder story.  It’s a solid piece of machinery that will give readers a smooth ride to the destination, but it could have used a few more ponies under the hood to turn the story into a real road-burner.

 

This is one of those stories with little explanation for what happens: it’s a classic ‘here’s a crazy situation, how do we get out of it?’ story.  Seb McCallister is a lifetime crook who winds up on the wrong end of a shootout in a dope deal gone bad in Las Vegas.  Badly wounded, he powers out of Vegas behind the wheel of his V8 Dodge Charger SRT Hellcat, driving off into the desert.  He passes out from loss of blood, and wakes to find himself in a dilapidated camp in the middle of the desert, surrounded by mountains on all sides.   The camp itself is inhabited by a small group of vagabonds, some of whom have been there a long time.  When he tries to escape, Seb quickly learns that the mountains are riddled with caves occupied by a huge, tentacled monster that somewhat resembles a crazed land squid, and the squid makes mincemeat of anyone who tries to leave.  Within a day, Seb helps to convince the camp residents to make a run for it.  What follows is the inevitable Mad Max-style race across the desert, complete with tricked-out vehicles packing plenty of blasting power, both under the hood and in the form of armaments.  Seb and his new friends must outwit and outfight the monster if they want to escape the desert.

 

Everything in the story is a quick setup for the final chase, and thankfully, it’s worth it.  Jason Parent knows how to write an exciting, end of the book blast.   Complete with awesome vehicles, firepower, nitrous, and some nice creative touches with parachutes, the last forty pages are a full roar towards the finish, with all the excitement anyone could want.  This part of the story isn’t running on eight cylinders, it’s running on twelve.   It’s the part leading up to the end where the story could have used a little chrome and paint, in the form of more detail.  Little explanation is given for the backstories of the other characters, or the camp itself, or even where (or when) the camp and characters exist.  Another twenty pages or so to flesh out the beginning and middle sections of the story could have turned this one into a real monster.  Eight Cylinders is a perfectly good, exciting story, but it almost feels like a test run for what could be a much bigger version in the future.   The parts are all there in terms of character, mystery, and storyline, and the way the story ends, it could easily keep going.  The question is, will it?

 

This is certainly worth the read, and will likely leave readers clamoring for a novel-length sequel (this is only 100 pages)  There are a lot of unanswered questions in the story, and it would be nice to see where it goes next.  Recommended.

 

Contains: violence, mild gore, profanity

 

Reviewed by Murray Samuelson

Posted on March 23, 2021 by , Reply
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