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Book Review: Miscreations: Gods, Monstrosities, and Other Horrors edited by Doug Murano and Michael Bailey

cover art for Miscreations edited by Doug Murano and Michael Bailey

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Miscreations: Gods, Monstrosities, and Other Horrors edited by Doug Murano and Michael Bailey

Written Backwards, 2020

ISBN-13 : 978-1732724464

Available: Hardcover, paperback, Kindle edition

 

 

In the foreword to Miscreations, Alma Katsu writes that “we’re told from childhood that monsters exist… we don’t need anyone to tell us they’re real”. Collected within the pages are 23 tales of monsters of all kinds, from the traditional to the unconventional, from the literary to the personal.  Interspersed is artwork from HagCult, who also did the cover art for the book.

Josh Malerman gives us a werewolf tale in “One Last Transformation” with an engaging, murderous narrator addicted to the change, and a number of writers approach the Frankenstein story in different ways. My favorites of these tales were Stephanie M. Wytovich’s poem “A Benediction of Corpses”  in which the Creature addresses his creator directly, and “Frankenstein’s Daughter”, by Theodora Goss, with its surprising and satisfying ending. Christina Sng takes an unconventional approach to an evil Russian water spirit in “Vodoyanoy”.

More personal monsters also appeared.  Michael Wehunt’s “A Heart Arrhythmia Creeping Into A Dark Room” was an effective and creepy tale about the anxiety and dread that accompany someone living in the shadow of a potential heart attack. The story was flawed by the author’s insertion of a fictionalized monster and victim in a story that was far too realistic. Victor Lavalle’s “Spectral Evidence” touched on the way grief lives on, and Scott Edelman’s “Only Bruises Are Permanent” tells the story of a woman who has the bruises left from an incident of domestic violence tattooed on her body.

Monstrous mothers also appear, in Joanna Parypinski’s brutal “Matryoshka”, in which a family tradition of giving each mother and daughter a matryoshka doll goes dramatically wrong, and Mercedes M. Yardley’s ironic “The Making of Asylum Ophelia”, in which a mother raises her daughter to resemble Hamlet’s Ophelia with plans to also replicate her fate.

Other strong stories I especially enjoyed include Nadia Bulkin’s “Operations Other Than War”, Usman T. Malik’s “Resurrection Points”,  Lisa Morton’s “Imperfect Clay”, and the disturbing “My Knowing Glance” by Lucy A. Snyder, which went in a much different direction than I expected it to.

Miscreations is overall a strong collection. The authors have come up with imaginative creatures using a variety of creative approaches, and readers will find sitting down with it well worth their time. Highly recommended.

Contains: murder, torture, violence, gore, body horror

 

Reviewed by Kirsten Kowalewski

 

Editor’s note: Miscreations: Gods, Monsters, and Other Horrors is a nominee on the final ballot for the 2020 Bram Stoker Award for Superior Achievement in an Anthology. 

Posted on March 5, 2021 by , Reply

Book Review: Storm-Star (Storm-Star Lore Book 1) by I. N. Morgan

cover for Storm-Star by I.N. Morgan   (Bookshop.org | Amazon.com)

Storm-Star (Storm-Star Lore Book 1) by I.N. Morgan

Heavy Rush Media, September 2020

ISBN: 9781732876514

Available: Paperback, Kindle

 

Storm-Star is a decent horror debut from rookie author I.N. Morgan.  It’s a werewolf story (well, sort of) with a touch of sci-fi added in.  The elements in the story are nothing new, but they are combined in the right proportions to make the story fun.  The book won’t blow casual readers away, but they will probably find it enjoyable enough to be worth the time.

Set in 1997, Ash Jagerhund is a down-on-his-luck 23 year old with no family, relatives, or future.  He receives a letter from a lost uncle, Jasper, who invites him to live with him, in an effort to rekindle old family ties.  Ash does so, and they reside in the Midwest town of Rust Springs, a town recently plagued by a series of gruesome pseudo-ritualistic murders.  The nature of the murders suggests they may not have a human source.   Ash makes two new friends, Attila and Daisy.  The three of them are unwillingly pulled into the search for the killer, who has ties to the Loupcroix family, a bunch of meth dealers on the outskirts of town.  The Loupcroixs believe that the world will end when a creature called the Storm-Star comes across the galaxy and trashes the Earth for the benefit of the Loupcroixs, who will of course then rule the world.  Add in Ash’s later revealed family history, and you have a fair amount of plot elements, which the author manages to fit into all the right places.

The writing is solid enough and keeps focused on the plot without detours, but there are times when a bit of detail would have helped connect the plot dots better.  Example: the cops somehow find a website all about the Loupcroixs and their beliefs, but there was no one to give them any hint of the site.  Besides, how many meth dealers maintain a website?  The characters are developed well enough, and are interesting, although the reader may get a few of the secondary characters mixed up on occasion, as the character cast is around 10-12 people.  The plot is nice and linear, and has enough action (and just a touch of gore) to keep the reader flipping pages.  It’s not a breakneck thriller, but it’s enough to make it worth reading.  One annoyance is that a good editor should have corrected is the grammatical and sentence structure errors that crop up from time to time.  It’s not enough to pass on the book, but it is aggravating.

Reading this, you can tell it’s written by a first-time author with talent, but who is still learning the craft.  As long as the reader is willing to tolerate the minor problems, Storm-Star is worth a look.  The author did leave a tractor-trailer sized opening at the end of the book for a sequel, and it would be great to see a sequel that focuses on the most exciting characters (Ash, Attila and Daisy) and whittles down the number of secondary ones.

Contains: violence, gore, profanity, drugs

 

Reviewed by Murray Samuelson

Posted on December 29, 2020 by , Reply

Book Review: Invisible Chains by Michelle Renee Lane

Invisible Chains by Michelle Renee Lane

Haverhill House Publishing, 2019

ISBN: 978-1-949140-03-3

Available: Hardcover, paperback

 

Jacqueline, an enslaved Creole growing up on a Louisiana plantation in Michelle Renee Lane’s Invisible Chains, learns all too soon what it means to be black and female. She is beaten, raped, and terrorized but manages to survive by using the secrets of Vodun her mother taught her and by tapping the powers of the vampire and werewolf who assist her on the flight toward what she hopes will be a rescue.

Even though monsters help Jacqueline, she is still threatened by them and in constant danger, even from love. Lane uses these relationships, including a flirtation with the vampire, to highlight the suffering, marginalized groups depicted in this novel. This includes enslaved people and monsters but also mixed race people, Spanish Jews, Irish immigrants, circus performers, Gypsies, seers and couples in interracial relationships. People who are considered different by the larger white society are powerless and can survive only by appeasing and imitating their oppressors or using magical or supernatural powers against them.

Although the book often moves quickly from one terrifying event to the next, Lane effectively traces Jacqueline’s growing sense of her own talents and strengths. Jacqueline learns that each horrific experience enhances her abilities as a conjurer and intensifies her understanding of herself, thus making it possible for her to voice her demands and choose what she needs to live. She also learns that she must protect her mind and soul most of all and that she has a certain power in knowing the future in which her true freedom will never be a reality. However, she continues to be brave, heroic, and unstoppable. Recommended.

Contains: Graphic violence including rape and torture; sexual situations

 

Reviewed by Nova Hadley

Editor’s note: Invisible Chains was nominated to the final ballot of the 2019 Bram Stoker Award in the category of Superior Achievement in a Novel.

Posted on April 12, 2020 by , Reply
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