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Book Review: Shapeshifters: A History by John B. Kachuba

Shapeshifters: A History by John B. Kachuba

Reaktion Books Ltd, 2019

ISBN-13: 978 -1789140798

Available: Hardcover

 

 

Do you know the origin of the word berserk?  Have you heard about a community of vampires in Buffalo, New York? Do you think of Jesus as a shapeshifter? These are some examples of information from the ancient past to the present that you will find in John B. Kachuba’s Shapeshifters: A History. This is a short book packed full of interesting details from myths and legends from around the world, historical research that sifts through the beliefs about shapeshifters in different cultures, and many brief stories of the exploits, drama, and dangers associated with these sometimes frightening creatures whether animal, human, or supernatural in form.

 

Kachuba presents a wide-ranging array of shapeshifters that stretches the definition of the word from physical transformations to psychological anomalies. He branches out to consider masks and costumes as ways people attempt to shape shift. Individual chapters suggest narrow categories such as the shapeshifting powers of gods, goddesses, and faeries, even gender transformations, but within the chapters, there is an attempt to pull in so many different categories, time periods, cultures, and religions that some sections become descriptive lists interspersed with storytelling and repetitive analysis. The vampire and werewolf chapters contain mainly information that will be familiar to most seasoned readers, but even so, there are fresh perspectives and analysis.

 

As Kachuba takes us back and forth through the centuries, he provides historical perspective and takes time to examine the origins of the beliefs and how they have been related to morals, values, education, and parenting. He notes the positive and negative influences that a belief in shapeshifting has had around the world and over time. The section on literature and the media provides young adult readers with information on related books, films, art, and television shows that will reveal how shapeshifting is still interesting to us today. Overall, this entertaining book is the type you’ll want to dip into according to your whims and use to further your own explorations on the topic. Recommended.

 

Reviewed by Nova Hadley

 

Editor’s note: Shapeshifters: A History was nominated to the final ballot of the 2019 Bram Stoker Award in the category of Superior Achievement in Non-Fiction.

Posted on April 7, 2020 by , Reply

Graphic Novel Review: Moonshine Volume 2: Misery Train by Brian Azzarello, art by Eduardo Risso

Moonshine Volume 2: Misery Train by Brian Azzarello, art by Eduardo Risso

Image Comics, 2018

ISBN: 9781534308275

Available: Paperback, Kindle and comiXology editions

 

I need to be up front about a few things in this volume. There is racist language, and physical and threatened sexual violence against PoC.

The second volume finds gangster Lou Pirlo, Delia, and some of her family in a train car, running from the police. With Hiram Holt missing or dead, with his family wanting revenge, and the gangsters back in New York City equally wanting his head on a pike, Lou  finds himself clapped in chains and thrown in a different type of gang altogether. He also has another problem; he was bitten by a werewolf. When a cottonmouth snake strikes him, and doesn’t end up killing him, his fellow prisoners know something is not quite right. The gangsters are also wise to the werewolf menace in Appalachia, and have sent a deadly monster hunter on their trails.

 

Volume 2 is better than the first, with a more cohesive story and intense action. One of the gangsters from volume 1, L’Ago, is much more front and center dealing with the Holt family. However, the story is still missing something. I still can’t get invested in the characters, perhaps because they are too flawed and stereotypical. I had high hopes, since it is a 2018 Stoker nominee, but I don’t feel invested in any of the characterss. As much as I enjoy reading about flawed characters, there needs to be something redeemable, or at least worthy of respect, for me to engage with the text. I don’t get that here. If you want a good noir crime series by this team, pick up 100 Bullets. Recommended, with reservation.

 

Contains: blood, nudity, racism, threatened rape violence

Reviewed by Lizzy Walker

 

Editor’s note: Moonshine Volume 2: Misery Train is a nominee on the final ballot for the 2018 Stoker Awards in the category of Superior Achievement in a Graphic Novel.

Posted on May 5, 2019 by , Reply

Graphic Novel Review: Moonshine Volume 1 by Brian Azzarello, art by Eduardo Risso

Moonshine Volume 1 by Brian Azzarello, art by Eduardo Risso

Image Comics, 2017

ISBN: 9781534300644

Available: Paperback, Kindle and comiXology editions

 

Editor’s note: This volume contains racist language, which is especially jarring coming from a child character.

 

Moonshine Volume 1 is set in Appalachia during Prohibition. Lou Pirlo, a gangster from New York City, is sent to negotiate a deal with the best moonshine hustler in the region, Hiram Holt. The boss back in the big city, Joe Masseira, wants to increase supply and sales of alcohol, and needs Lou to seal the deal. Lou thinks it will be an easy in-and-out trip, believing he has more brains than the backwoods hicks he will be dealing with. Unfortunately for Lou, he underestimates the iron-fisted Holt and his family, as well as the family secret. However, Holt also underestimates most of his sons, who want to double-cross him. Then, there’s Holt’s daughter, Tempest, who has her blue eyes set on Lou, which Lou tries to keep from the overbearing father. A black man ends up dead, Lou has Joe breathing down his neck, other gangsters show up to help their “friend” out, and more people end up drunk, imprisoned, or dead.

Azzarello and Risso created 100 Bullets, a noir crime comic series that was very well executed. I was hoping for more of that with Moonshine. The first volume is a bad guys versus bad guys shoot ’em up story…werewolves. In fact, the werewolf storyline could have been left out altogether. Oh, and Lou is haunted by the ghost of his dead sister. The characters are relatively dull and I didn’t care about what happened to any of them,  with the exception of Delia, a black woman who takes care of Lou after he ends up almost drowning when his car runs off the road. She would be a great character to follow. As far as the rest, flawed characters can be done well, and I know Azzarello can deliver on that better than he did here. I did like Risso’s art throughout, and his color palette lent the proper tone to what was going on in each scene. Moonshine Volume 1 may have an audience, but it just doesn’t do it for me. Recommended with reservations.

Contains: blood, gore, nudity, racism

 

Reviewed by Lizzy Walker

Posted on May 4, 2019 by , Reply
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