Home » Posts tagged "Stoker Awards 2018" (Page 11)

Book Review: The Night Weaver (Shadow Grove, Vol. 1) by Monique Snyman

The Night Weaver (Shadow Grove, Vol. 1) by Monique Snyman

Gigi Publishing, 2018

ISBN-13: 978-1643163031

Available: Paperback, Kindle edition

 

Seventeen-year-old Rachel Cleary lives in the isolated community of Shadow Grove (it’s unclear how isolated, or how large, it actually is, as it has suburbs, a trendy downtown, three grocery stores, multiple chain stores, and a rundown nine-story apartment building, but also wooded areas and farms)  next to a mysterious wood that people know better than to explore. Disappearances and strange deaths, especially of children, go without investigation by the sheriff’s department and are apparently unnoticed by the town’s population… except for the local high schoolers, who have organized to protect younger children and impose a curfew, and Rachel’s eccentric neighbor, Mrs. Crenshaw.

Mrs. Crenshaw’s delinquent nephew, a good-looking Scot with an impenetrable accent, happens to be in town. While he and Rachel are driving home from a party, they are attacked by a creature he recognizes from Scottish folklore, a Black Annis (also known as the Night Weaver), which steals and eats children. Although Mrs. Crenshaw tells Rachel the town council has conspired to eliminate all records of past incidents, it turns out that Rachel’s deceased father, a historian who didn’t believe in computers, has boxes of handwritten journals on the history and legends of Shadow Grove that are stored in her attic. They discover a pattern: the disappearances have happened before.

Then Rachel notices that her mother, and a number of other women in town, are behaving oddly: they have all emptied their closets and dressed in gray. She decides to consult her estranged friend Greg, whose family has strong roots in the town, and see if together they can find additional information about the Night Weaver and, possibly, what both of them have been calling the “moms’ club.” Greg realizes the factor all the women have in common is that they participated in the same grief support group, and after Rachel witnesses what appears to be a nighttime visitation to her mother of her father, they discover together that the Night Weaver feeds on grief and despair. Rachel and Greg realize that the Night Weaver is manipulating the members of the “moms’ club” into taking and delivering children to it, in order to have visitations from their deceased loved ones. And then a drug-dealing fairy prince named Orion gets involved, and things start to get REALLY convoluted.

Before I ever started this book, I knew the author, Monique Snyman, was from South Africa, and I was curious to see what she would come up with. Interestingly, she chose to set her book in the United States (I’m guessing Michigan, although she never actually says where it is located). Her premise is original– I hadn’t heard of the Black Annis, and the idea of a creature that plays on the feelings of members of a grief support group is interesting to me (although on a personal level, I have difficulty suspending my disbelief that grieving parents would intentionally cause the same kind of grief to others) I also liked that the high school students were portrayed as independent and resourceful (for the most part). There is also some very impressive full-color artwork representing the Black Annis in different places in the book, which definitely added to the creepiness factor.

However, I also found some real issues with the book. The first noticeable issue was that the book is written in present tense, which is jarring at times, especially at the beginning. The second is Dougal’s nearly impenetrable Scottish accent. I understand this is supposed to reinforce his background, but it really disrupted the flow of the story for me to have to translate in my head before I could move the story forward.

Outside of these two issues, the setting is problematic. Snyman refers to Shadow Grove as an isolated small town– to me, that evokes a setting like Twin Peaks. And the story itself seems intimate. The town has a single law enforcement official (a sheriff) and a relatively small group of people are involved in the actual story– my mental picture was maybe a few thousand at most. But what she is describing is more like a small city, which can’t be terribly isolated if it has multiple grocery and chain stores and most certainly would have federal agents on the ground with so many missing children.

Snyman also seemed to leave her various male supporting characters at loose ends. I like that Rachel is the leading character, and that the supporting male characters aren’t all necessarily love interests, but when Rachel moved on from working with Dougal (whose bad-boy persona dropped pretty quickly) to Greg (who she had a history with) they just kind of stopped whatever it was they were doing until the next time they were needed for a plot point. It’s still sort of unclear to me why Snyman had Greg lead Rachel to Orion and then leave her alone with him.

There were also a few comments and incidents that rubbed me the wrong way. Early in the book, Dougal makes a reference to spoiled American girls and Rachel says. “Well, that’s mildly racist.” I’m surprised an editor didn’t catch that, as “American” is not a race.  Shortly after meeting Rachel, Orion, the drug-dealing fairy prince, pins her up against a wall, against her will, drugs her, and takes her cell phone.  Afterwards, he claims it’s because he needs to do this in order to share essential memories, but starting these two out with a nonconsensual assault made it hard to believe they could be equal partners in defeating the Black Annis.

Despite these problems, I found Rachel’s relationships with Dougal, Greg, and Mrs. Crenshaw interesting enough to want to learn more about these characters. As this is the first book in a series, I expect that Shadow Grove and its denizens will be fleshed out and smoothed over more successfully in future volumes, and it will be interesting to see where Snyman goes with it.

Editor’s note: The Night Weaver is on the final ballot for the 2018 Bram Stoker Award in the category of Superior Achievement in a Young Adult Novel.

Book Review: Bitter Suites by Angela Yuriko Smith

Bitter Suites by Angela Yuriko Smith

Self-published, 2018

ISBN-13: 978-1721546800

Available: Paperback, Kindle edition

“Bitter Suites is supposed to entrich your life, not sap it.”  That’s what the desk clerk, and owner, of  Bitter Suites, a hotel specializing in “renewable death experiences” tells a client. It certainly is a popular enough place, but having read Angela Yuriko Smith’s novella, I can’t say that the owner accomplishes her goal. It certainly changes lives, but I don’t think I would say that’s necessarily for the better.

Bitter Suites consists of a number of stories about customers of the business, some isolated and some linked. It reminded me a bit of Neal Shusterman’s Scythe, in that technology is used to bring back the dead in that book as well, but in Bitter Suites,  this is an unusual technology available only to the very privileged, and different people have different reasons for booking a room. Early stories include a teen excited to experience his first “renewable death”, a romantic couple who choose a “Romeo and Juliet” experience that has unexpected consequences (except for the reader), a driver’s ed class that has a disturbing ending, and twins whose parents are hoping the experience brings them together (also not an especially surprising ending for the reader) Other stories are linked together as a “death junkie” finds himself banned from the hotel.

The concept is interesting, and the idea of presenting individual choices and reactions to death knowing that it will be a “renewable death” was original. However, I wish the linked stories had told us a bit more about the owner, Azreal (although the author includes a story at the end that she says will explain the origins of the Bitter Suites in a forthcoming volume). I also feel that, while this would succeed as a novella had the author left this as a standalone book, her explanation that there will be a forthcoming volume that completes the story makes what would have seemed like a finished product seem only partially complete, and somewhat of a disappointment. Rather than presenting it as one of two volumes, she would be better off including a longer collection of stories in a single volume, such as presented in the collection Machine of Death. Still, I very much enjoyed the concept. I have not read any other work by Angela Yuriko Smith to date, but I will certainly be on the lookout for volume two of Bitter Suites. 

 

Contains: Violence, gore, graphic depictions of murder and suicide.

Editor’s note: Bitter Suites is on the final ballot for the 2018 Stoker Awards in the category of Superior Achievement in Long Fiction.

Book Review: It’s Alive! Bringing Your Nightmares to Life edited by Joe Mynhardt and Eugene Johnson

It’s Alive: Bringing Your Nightmares to Life by Eugene Johnson

Crystal Lake Publishing (December 14, 2018)

ISBN-13: 978-1684545452

 

There are books on writing that inspire, ones that feed the muse, ones that teach, but rarely has there been one that encompasses all three aspects, resulting in a must-read, must-have companion for the writer’s lair.

Last year’s Where Nightmares Came From came pretty close, with articles and essays on the horror genre from a writer’s perspective. It’s Alive continues that journey, but burrows deep within the authors’ psyche to where the story lives and breathes, and pushes its way out into the world. The massive collection of articles and interviews has something for every fan and everyone who has ever thought of writing, in this genre or others. Yes, it’s a book on horror, but its knowledge can easily be transferred to other genres as it focuses on the true ART of storytelling, something most reference books fail to acknowledge.

The following pieces are highlights for this reviewer, but in no way do I mean to diminish the others. Wherever the writer is in his or her career, or whatever stage of the story they may gravitate towards, any chapter could hit the bullseye for them. Tomorrow, a new favorite may emerge, which is the beauty and accessibility of the book. Some chapters at first appear to cover similar material, such as the age-old “show versus tell” argument, yet how it’s approached varies in style and application. Reading how so many greats in the field carve into their imaginations and create something from nothing proves there are infinite paths to travel to arrive at the story’s end.

Jonathan Maberry kicks off the book with his recollections of learning from two of the greatest writers of the the twentieth century, Ray Bradbury and Richard Matheson. His experiences as a child playing the “What If” game with these giants sounds simple but delves into the crucial questions that every storyteller must answer.

Yvonne Navarro tackles the “to outline or not to outline” in a sensible manner that doesn’t demonize either and shows how both can aid the writer in distress. For the artist who abhors one method or the other, this should be mandatory reading as it can redirect a story over the roughest terrain.

“The Horror Writer’s Ultimate Toolbox” by Tim Waggoner at first looks simple for the seasoned writer but when read  thoroughly, it takes on different meaning. There exists here a trio of articles on characterization that all bring something special to the table,even though the initial premise is similar.

Paul Wilson, Brian Kirk, and Kealan Patrick Burke pen intelligent, easy to apply tutorials on how to craft the characters that will stand out in a short story or novel. Creating empathy, conveying the true heart of that main protagonist or villain, or simply adding layers to an existing person that will keep the reader engaged is something every writer strives for yet often comes up short on. The applications by Wilson bring to mind his iconic “Repairman Jack” character, who could have been a terribly bland player on the page, but by utilizing the suggestions in the chapter, force the writer to dig deep and give the characters life in ways he or she likely had not even considered. Kirk and Burke delve further into this, stoking empathy for even the toughest characters to love.

Delivering the writer’s voice onto the page is something that’s been written about in countless books, yet Robert Ford almost makes it sound easy. Del Howison’s interview with Heather Graham, Mick Garris, Steve Niles, Maria Alexander, and Mark Anderson unravels their methods of getting the idea stuck in the writer’s head onto the page or screen.

Finally, there’s the interview with the elusive, but legendary, Clive Barker, by Tim Chizmar. While several pieces can be pointed to as the pinnacle of the book, this one hits home with just one bit of advice from the master. Barker’s insight into the macabre art of creating is worth the price of admission.

It’s Alive creates something special here. Crystal Lake continues to prove why they’re at the top with this.

Highly recommended reading for anyone who feels the need to create—it should be required reading for the anyone starting out in the field.

 

Reviewed by David Simms

Editor’s note: It’s Alive: Bringing Your Nightmares to Life is on the final ballot for the 2018 Bram Stoker Awards in the category of Superior Achievement in Non-Fiction.