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Book Review: The Worst Is Yet To Come by S.P. Miskowski

The Worst Is Yet To Come by S.P. Miskowski.

Journalstone/Trepidatio Publishing, 2019

ISBN-13: 978-1947654464

Available: Paperback, Kindle edition

Small town horror. A coming of age novel. The good girl/bad girl conflict. Readers have read it all before, right? Not so. S.P. Miskowski turns the tropes on their heads in this wrenching novel.

The little town of Skillute, Washington, might remind horror fans of other odd little towns, ones drawn by Shirley Jackson and Charles Grant, although King’s Derry might come to mind a bit as well. In The Worst Is Yet To Come Miskowski returns to the setting of her Skillute Cycle (comprised of Knock, Knock; Delphine Dodd; Astoria; and In the Light).The Davis family has moved there to get away from the big city. It’s definitely not Seattle, and one might think it has left reality. The focus is thrust squarely on middle school daughter Tasha, who must find a way to fit in, and let’s face it, there aren’t much bigger circles of hell than middle school social lives. The friend she discovers is the badass Briar Kenny, who lives on the “wrong side” of town, in a trailer park with her mom and sleazebag boyfriend. Through a series of brutal events, the two girls find themsevles bound together, much more tightly than either would have expected. To say more about the plot would ruin much of the suspense, but the twists and turns emerging between the pages are well worth the journey.

There is a dark force in Skillute that begs to be heard and felt, that is far more original than in most horror novels. Miskowski brings it to life in a manner that echoes the past work of Jackson and Grant, but carves out  her own style here that, while quiet, cuts like razor wire, wounding deep, before the readers, or characters, know they’ve been affected.

What makes this novel burn is the construction of the characters. Each of them relates to some piece of the reader: some of it in light, but much of it in shadow. Miskowski knows how to touch upon the darkest parts of humanity. Bullying and abuse are handled skillfully here, affecting more than the typical horror elements.

The surprises here are Tasha’s mother, Kim, and Briar’s relationship with Tasha’s family. Kim’s demons are real, unfolding and dug out with ragged nails until a scar is born (pun intended). Many of the characters have unlikable traits that conflict with their core beings, eliciting a beautiful dissonance that drives the impact of The Worst Is Yet To Come much deeper than most recent novels. Highly recommended.

 

Reviewed by David Simms

Posted on June 26, 2019 by , Reply

Book Review: The Rust Maidens by Gwendolyn Kiste

The Rust Maidens by Gwendolyn Kiste

Journalstone. 2018

ISBN-13: 978-1947654440

Available: Paperback, Kindle edition

 

If there’s someone out there who is unfamiliar with Gwendolyn Kiste’s gorgeous prose of the macabre, The Rust Maidens would be a great place to start. After last year’s stellar collection, And Her Smile Will Untether The Universe, Kiste steps out with her debut novel, which rattles the soul in a disturbing, yet beautiful read.

Set in Cleveland in 1980,  this tale unwinds in a muted, depressive state that feels utterly claustrophobic, brought to life by Kiste’s exquisite, yet unobtrusive, prose. A group of girls in the neighborhood has contracted an illness that defies logic and science. What begins as something relatively innocuous, dripping water from their bodies, becomes much more dangerous and frightening: skin breaking open, revealing glass-like shards and rusted metal where bones should be. The horror is quiet here, like the best of Shirley Jackson and Charles Grant, as Kiste dissects the rotting body of the area which mirrors the internal strife of the people who live within the crumbling town.

The dual narrative of our protagonist, Phoebe, past and present, is a haunting one, as she returns home to revisit the bones of what she escaped long ago. The mystery of what happened to her best friend and cousin Jacqueline looms large over both timelines. The true antagonists of this novel are vague, and should be: the women who strive to hold power of the lives on Denton Street, the government agents who appear to investigate, the Rust Maidens themselves, the self-destruction of the town.

To give away more would strip away the power of this beautifully written novel by one of the best new writers out there today, a tale both unsettling and gut-wrenching. Kiste wraps her story in a veneer that feels like a mix of rust with the dust that has settled over the dying town, and the emotional heft between the covers weighs down on the reader like the crush of a rust-riddled steel beam, suffocating in mood but resulting in a story that begs to be read and savored. Kiste is a star, and The Rust Maidens is a slam dunk as a finalist for this year’s Stoker Award.

Highly recommended for lovers of any any genre.

 

Reviewed by David Simms

 

Posted on February 17, 2019 by , Reply

A List of Lists: Links to Booklists Recently Shared on Facebook

October is a busy month, and it kind of wore me out. One thing I did to make it easier to share some of the great booklists out there during the time that includes Teen Read Week and Halloween was to post them on our Facebook page. Over the past few years we haven’t really posted there very much but it is an easy way for me to post a link to something cool right away when I find it. Unfortunately, our Facebook page doesn’t actually have a lot of viewers, which means that if the only way you get information from Monster Librarian is through our blogs, then you probably missed out on seeing some pretty cool stuff (even if you “liked” our page, Facebook’s evil plan to force us to pay for advertising means our reach isn’t necessarily all that great, so actually visiting every once in a while instead of waiting for us to show up in your news feed is a good way to see what’s going on).

So I thought I’d share some of the links to booklists that I posted there that I don’t think got posted here while I was working on developing original content here. Some of them are pretty cool, and all of them are just a little different.

 

Bewitching Tales: Great Books for Halloween Reads from School Library Journal.

Pretty self-explanatory.

 

The Devil’s 10 Best Appearances in Literature at Flavorwire.com.

I’d argue with some of these choices, but it is an interesting list. Actually, it’s an interesting idea for a list as well.

 

Find Your Next Supernatural Read by Carli Spina at The Hub, the blog for the Young Adult Library Services Association (YALSA).

A nice list of YA choices.

 

Horror in YA Literature is a Staple, Not a Trend by Kelly Jensen in School Library Journal.

I love this article. If you are interested in YA at all, read it!

 

Genre Guide: Horror for Teens at The Hub.

It’s really nice to see teen horror get its own genre guide. And about time.

 

Ten Best Halloween Read-Aloud Picture Books for Kids at BookRiot.

There are some nice choices here, and it’s always nice to see the early elementary crowd get some recognition– they love the scary stuff, too!

 

Top 10 Horror Fiction for Youth: 2013 by Gillian Engberg from Booklist Online.

Pretty self-explanatory.

 

Top 10 Horror Fiction: 2013, by Brad Hooper from Booklist Online.

Also self-explanatory. It’s nice to have a summary of good recent titles, though.

 

RA for All: 31 Days of Halloween– Love for Monster Librarian by Becky Siegel Spratford at RA Horror for All.

Becky had a different post on reader’s advisory in horror fiction every day of the month, including a very interesting series of guest posts from the folks at Booklist. I just happened to link to this particular day because I’m proud to be included here, but really, anyone interested in reader’s advisory in horror fiction ought to visit here regularly.

 

10 Novels That Will Scare the Hell Out of You by Julie Buntin at The Huffington Post.

These are all titles that tie into the haunted house subgenre.

 

The Top Ten Horror Stories by Stephen Jones from Publishers Weekly.

Anthologist Stephen Jones, editor of A Book of Horrors, shares his top ten favorite horror short stories.

 

Halloween Reads @ your library from MonsterLibrarian.com

This is not the only original booklist I’ve produced over the last month or so, but it is one that’s directly related to Halloween. I put together new and original content and booklists every year at this time, so it’s worth it to browse not only this year’s archives for October, but past years as well. This list is part of something new I’m trying where I focus on a particular topic or creature (I’ve already touched on The Phantom of The Opera, The Invisible Man, and witches) for a list of books or media that can be used to promote horror through library collections, so look out for the “@ your library” posts for related booklists.

 

Halloween Reading: Joseph D’Lacey’s Top Ten Horror Books from The Guardian.

This is a list of choices made by horror author Joseph D’Lacey.

 

Quiet Horror, Still the Darling of the Horror Genre by Paula Cappa.

Paula writes about a genre of horror that has gone unnoticed for some time and is just recently gaining a little recognition– quiet, or atmospheric, horror. Paula’s blog is a great place to visit for older examples of stories in this genre, but more current titles (like Alison Littlewood’s A Cold Season) are now sneaking into the mainstream as well.

 

5 Must-Read Werewolf Novels from Barnes & Noble.

The werewolf genre is another one where the audience is depressingly underserved. Here are a few titles to give you a place to begin in making suggestions. The essential word there is “begin”.

 

The 5 Scariest Short Stories on the Market!

The title here is misleading, as these are not new stories by any means, but the list does show that quiet horror is starting to get some notice again.

 

13 of the Year’s Creepiest Books from The Book Case at BookPage.com.

This is a list of recent titles, and you’ll probably recognize some of the names.

 

The 5 Creepiest Anime Series of All Time from Geek Magazine.

Yikes. I’ll stick with Fruits Baskets, thank you very much.

 

9 Children’s Books That Absolutely Terrified Us from The Huffington Post.

It’s always nice to see Der Struwwelpeter on these kinds of lists. Well, maybe nice is not the right word. The author here made some interesting choices that I suspect many people may disagree with.

 

10 of the Creepiest Books That Kids Love at Babble.com.

I love this list because it contains books outside the usual suspects, like Heckedy Peg by Audrey Wood, a book that I LOVE and used to read aloud in storyhours all the time.

 

Horror Stories: 25 Must-Read Books that Inspired Scary Movies at Complex.com.

Very cool list– the author comes down on the side of “the book is better than the movie”, but either way, I think it’s a win.

 

So there you have it. Lots and lots of links to booklists of all kinds, for children, teens, and adults, from creepy anime to haunted houses. It takes a long time to compile a month’s worth of booklists, so please visit us on Facebook to see what other treasures I turn up!

Posted on November 9, 2013 by , Reply
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