prisons | Musings of the Monster Librarian

Tome by Ross Jeffrey

Independently published, 2020

ISBN-13 : 979-8647504074

Available: Paperback, Kindle edition ( Amazon.com )

Ross Jeffrey has penned a thrilling, brutal Stoker finalist that pulls zero punches yet has the class of a Ketchum story. Juniper Correctional facility, a blight on human’s blistered history, has long housed the worst of the worst, the people who operate below the level of human beings.

The story belongs to pair of characters who are both steered by Juniper, the machine that churns and spits out souls: Warden Fleming sits on one end of the spectrum, hoarding secrets that boil beneath the prison surface, and Frank Whitten, a guard who refuses to give up the last strand of light within him.

The story spirals inward up on itself, devouring everything in its path. Juniper is pure hell incarnate, infesting its inmates, guards, and others with a darkness that is more pitch than anything supernatural. It’s not for the squeamish: Jeffrey aims for the jugular, without much subtlety, yet somehow, still manages to build an effective, claustrophobic atmosphere to constrict our deepest insecurities. Juniper as a setting becomes the main character between the pages, an effective and frightening tool that likely scored this nomination.

For fans of brutal, effective horror, with echoes of Edward Lee, Richard Laymon, and Jack Ketchum, Tome will not disappoint. Recommended.

Contains: Extreme gore and violence, body horror, racism

Reviewed by David Simms

Editor’s note: Tome is a nominee on the final ballot of this year’s Bram Stoker Award in the category of Superior Achievement in a First Novel.

Dear Governor, Please Make My School A Prison

While you are in school, some days it feels like you’ll never escape. School feels like a prison sometimes, with a sentence that ends so far in the future, it seems like you’ll never get out. There’s actually been a fair amount of thought on the topic by education reformers, a sample of which you can see in this blog post by Deborah Meier(who for the record I really admire) about the similarities between public schools and prisons.

I am a licensed teacher and school media specialist, as well as a former public school student, and with most public schools, I think the benefits of making a free education available(as restrictive as it can sometimes be) outweigh the negatives (although the word FREE to me does not mean education constrained by centralized standardized testing). At least, I thought so until this open letter to Governor Rick Snyder of Michigan from the superintendent of the Ithaca Schools appeared in the Gratriot County Herald on May 12. You’ll have to scroll down the page to see his entire letter, but here’s the essential part:

Consider the life of a Michigan prisoner. They get three square meals a day. Access to free health care. Internet. Cable television. Access to a library. A weight room. Computer lab. They can earn a degree. A roof over their heads. Clothing. Everything we just listed we DO NOT provide to our school children.

This is why I’m proposing to make my school a prison.

Oh, Governor Snyder… Couldn’t you give these kids the same advantages prisoners have now? Why wait until they’ve been convicted and incarcerated to give them access to a library, information, and education?