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Book Review: Vampires, Hearts, and Other Dead Things by Margie Fuston

cover art for Vampires, Hearts, and Other Dead Things by Margie Fuston

Vampires, Hearts, and Other Dead Things by Margie Fuston.

Margaret K. McElderry Books, 2022

ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1534474581

Available: Hardcover, paperback, Kindle edition, audiobook

Buy: Bookshop.org  | Amazon.com

 

Victoria and her father have always shared a special love of vampires(each chapter starts with a vampire-related quote). At the end of a long year fighting pancreatic cancer, chemo has failed. While the rest of her family seems resigned to his dying, Victoria decides to visit New Orleans, vampire capital of the world, with her estranged friend Henry, in hopes of finding a real vampire willing to turn her so she can turn her father and save his life. Eventually she meets Nicholas, a vampire who tells her she must accomplish daily challenges before he can decide whether he is willing to turn her.

 

I was so angry with Victoria. She put Henry’s safety, and possibly his life, on the line, without blinking, to accomplish these challenges. She deserved to deal with her grief in the way that worked for her, but she wasn’t just cruel, she acted indifferent to this kid who had been her best friend most of her life.

 

I did like the challenges and the accompanying poems that were intended to show Victoria life was worth living and feeling. Not only did they lend a sense of optimism, they were a way to see New Orleans through Victoria’s eyes, and Fuston does a great job of describing it so that it feels like you are there.

 

Fuston has created an accurate, wrenching, and heartbreaking portrayal of grief. However, Victoria’s treatment of the people around her, especially Henry, was what made this a difficult book to read to the end..

 

 

Reviewed by Kirsten Kowalewski

 

 

 

Book Review: Temporary Planets for Transitory Days: Poems of Mykol Ranglen by Albert Wendland

cover art for Temporary Planets for Transitory Days: Poems of Mykol Ranglund

(  Bookshop.org  |  Amazon.com  )

Temporary Planets for Transitory Days: Poems of Mykol Ranglen by Albert Wendland

Dog Star Books, 2020

ISBN: 978-1-947879-18-8

Available: Paperback, Kindle

 

Mykol Ranglen, adventurer, talented finder of rare Clips left behind by the Airafanes, keeper of secrets, and central character of Albert Wendland’s science fiction books The Man Who Loved Alien Landscapes (2014) and In a Suspect Universe (2018) has always been a poet. In the first book, he describes one alien landscape as “dazzle” running through “the dew-laced savanna” with “scents of basil and almond” as the grass makes “soft cracking sounds like static electricity.” In the second book, apocalyptic visions from his poems become real and threaten the safety of the woman he loves. So, it is no surprise that Wendland was inspired to write a third book, a collection of speculative poetry, supposedly written by this enigmatic character.

Temporary Planets for Transitory Days is a more concise version of ideas introduced in the novels. In all three books, Wendland looks at what might happen in futuristic human/alien worlds that continue to be influenced by past civilizations and mythologies. He imagines these worlds as places which have devolved. They are inadequate for living and never change because they are controlled by technology and lacking in what we might recognize as a humanizing touch. Creatives like Ranglen and his lover Mileen, a painter, are living in worlds that the reader can still recognize as having links to our times with “aircars” for speedy transportation, competitive people using “card-links” to make business contacts, and gangsters who traffic “the deprived and homeless.” At the same time, these new worlds are nightmarish developments of what might have once seemed like exciting possibilities such as teleportation (but with time glitches, so at what point is Ranglen in his relationship with Mileen in a certain place?) or the projection of the imagination into harmful and even deadly objects or scenarios that cannot be controlled (was someone killed by a unique type of aircar that only existed in a poem Ranglen wrote?).

The poems are divided into groups and include some that directly reference characters and events in the books, some that might be about the author’s actual life, and others that seem inspired by Wendland’s own reading and teaching as a professor of literature. There are even poems involving superheroes, Native American mythology, and vampires. Overall, Wendland and Ranglen seem to be attracted to writing about their eclectic, science-fiction infused personal interests as well as sudden, intense encounters and events that are best captured as poetic memories. In addition, the poems even predict Ranglen’s future because Wendland notes that these poems will lead to two more Ranglen novels “yet to be written.”

In the poem “Notes Toward a Supreme Science Fiction,” we learn what Wendland values most in writing science fiction: “The obsessed, the pursued, / And the space / In between.” He sees, as he says in “Negotiating a Dream” an opportunity when we might be able to “Maybe even appropriate/ Some other era’s / Lost stellar dreams.” In contrast, the love poems in the Planetary Love section of the book are more immediate, focusing on what loving someone means and how that love is an action and unifying force rather than being an exploration of complicated emotions. Ranglen talks about that “singular moment” when the “world of another person is open” (“In a Moment”) and about loving in a “language” “that came before words” (“The Touch”). The poem that defines Ranglen best has the same title as the first novel and appears toward the end of the collection. However, there is also an excellent introduction to the poetry that helps the reader for whom Ranglen is a stranger to understand, in broad strokes, the context of the poems as a whole.

If you want to experience a pleasant feeling of recognition, like a memory, read the novels first. If you decide to read the poems first, it would be worthwhile to avoid dipping into the book randomly so that the poems will unfold in a logical way, thus providing enjoyment and understanding through a narrative approach as spare and direct as the prose of the novels.  Recommended.

 

Reviewed by Nova Hadley

Book Review: Betty Bites Back edited by Mindy McGinnis, Demitria Lunetta, and Kate Karyus Quinn

Betty Bites Back: Stories to Scare the Patriarchy edited by Mindy McGinnis, Demitria Lunetta, and Kate Karyus Quinn

Demitria Lunetta, 2019

ISBN-13: 9781733666749

Available: Paperback, Kindle edition

 

Betty Bites Back contains sixteen short stories and poems about girls and women who are done being held down, stepped on, and demeaned by a world that favours misogyny and the patriarchy. Stories include dark fantasy, body horror, murder mystery, and more. I found each of the stories in this anthology to be unique and well written. A few of my favourites are the following.

In “Vagina Dentata” by Mindy McGinnis, a woman talks with a plastic surgeon’s physician’s assistant about a unique opportunity.In  E.R. Griffin’s “What She Left Behind” a teenage girl discovers that the house she and her mother moved into is haunted by a girl whose trauma bridges the gap between them and pushes an act of violent revenge. In Jenna Lehne’s “@Theguardians1792”, a teenage girl is tired of being harassed by boys about her changing body and standing up for herself, leading to her getting punished for their actions. She discovers a group calling themselves @Theguardians1792 on social media, and boys in the area are found beaten, bloodied, or worse. In “The Whispers” by Lindsey Klingele, set during the time of the suffragettes fighting for the woman’s right to vote, a small community faces a boisterous, loud, and assertive group of young women, quite the scandal of the time. After they are silenced by a mysterious and ill-meaning doctor, murders of prominent community members occur, and women in white are seen around the edges of town.

There is a short author biography at the end of each of the stories, as well as a brief statement by the authors about their inspiration and influence for writing their particular tale. Though short, they provide a great insight into the authors’ processes, and other works that they have written for further reading. I highly recommend Betty Bites Back readers of feminist horror, especially indie horror.

 

Contains: blood, gore, misogyny, murder, racism, rape, sexual assault, sexual content, suicide

 

Highly recommended

 

Reviewed by Lizzy Walker