The Ghost Tracks: Review of a book where terrible things happen AND CANNIBALISM!

 

You know how you have to willingly suspend your disbelief when you read fantasy or horror? I could believe the ghost stories in The Ghost Tracks, the weirdos Erasmo attracted after running an ad for being a paranormal investigator, but I couldn't not believe that he and his friend kept ending up in the hospital and were never once asked for proof of health insurance. Just doesn't happen in real life or in your wildest fantasy. What world are they living in where they weren't visited by the hospital's business office? Seriously, though, I enjoyed this book and the trouble Erasmo and Rat kept getting into. There's a lot a heartbreak and personal growth through the book and the boys come to terms with the life their less-then-desirable parents left to them. Plus, there's cannibalism! Lots of adventure, mystery, ghosts, and cannibalism! Actually, it is gory. Several incidents of people being beaten with a baseball bat, cut with knives, and cannibalism! A dog is hurt. The boys end up in the hospital after several gory incidences and the hospital never informs the police. Just ain't gonna happen in real life. But, I still believe the ghost parts. You know how it is when you see a movie and the audience yells, "Don't go in that house!" This is how Ghost Tracks is. Erasmo just kept getting into cars with the wrong people. I wanted to shout, "Don't get in that car!" Kids. You can't tell them anything. Good twists. Good mystery. Teenage angst but they work on it. If you can get over the flesh-eating and the fact that the hospital didn't call the police when a teenager has had a chunk bitten out of him (and eaten), then you'll enjoy this book. Just don't get into cars with people you barely know. Thanks to Netgalley and Inkshares for supplying me with an eARC of The Ghost Tracks in exchange for an honest review.

Review of The Splendor. The price you pay for luxury may be too high.

 What could be scarier than losing all your memories? How about having your memories taken from you? Hotel guests at The Splendor spend their days and nights living out their wildest fantasies, but they pay a steeper price than they realize for having their dreams come true.

I couldn't help but think that the owner of The Splendor could have accomplished the same thing if she just paid her employees a living wage instead of providing illusions. Use your money to fix the place up instead of pretending the dump was a prestigious hotel. Maybe I'm letting the economic situation of today cloud my mind but it does seem like the owner could have spent a little on upkeep. And not make your employees available 24 hours a day and have to sleep in the attic. Sheesh, the exhaustion of poor Henri made working in an Amazon warehouse look good.

One of the ways to gain sympathy when writing novels is to make the protagonist an orphan. Here we have two orphan protagonists, at least one thinks he's an orphan. And, they are likeable characters. For awhile their lives and problems slogged along for me, but once their lives were in danger the pace really picked up and became exciting. 

But, they did have a lip-biting problem. I think every character in the book bit his or her lip. My lip-bite-o-meter topped out. On top of that, the re-action to most things was to ball the hands into fists and dig the fingernails into the skin. I'm going to have to add a hurt-o-meter because the only way characters think in books today is when they intentionally hurt themselves. Why has this become a thing in YA? Are we all masochists now?

If I didn't burst into laughter every time someone bit their lip or dug their fingernails into their skin, I would have enjoyed the book  more. At least there wasn't much eyeball rolling. Thank God for small favors.

Thanks to Netgalley for loaning me an ebook of The Splendor in return for an honest relationship...er, review.

Glad I Didn't Live in the Past: The Madwomen's Ball

  

The last few books I've read made me realize that if I'd lived in past times, I'd probably be hanged as a witch or locked up in an insane asylum. The Madwomen's Ball is one of those books. 

The book made me so grateful that it is okay to be weird today. 

This is a historical fiction and ghost story based on a real insane asylum for women and it's annual ball where the women were displayed like a carnival sideshow. Some of the women were mentally ill, but many were there because their families wanted to rid themselves of opinionated women and girls. Others had epilepsy so families hid them away. Most of the women and girls were never released.

At this Paris asylum the only thing most had to look forward to was the annual Lenten Ball, also known as "The Mad Women's Ball." Even though they looked forward to it, the attendees from the outside world came hoping to see a freak show.

Although it's a story about a young woman who sees spirits, the book is really about the nurse who, after studying medicine and working at the hospital for 20 years, discovers that she is no more respected by the doctors than are the inmates. It's really a journey of discovery by the 50-year-old nurse. All in all, the inmates are the appealing characters and the doctors are horrific.

It's okay to be different now. It's okay. It really is. Go for it.

An intriguing book. Thanks to Netgalley, the author Victoria Mas, and The Overlook Press for allowing me to read and review this ebook.

Call Me The Beldam: Review of The Manningtree Witches

  

The Manningtree Witches is historical fiction, but boy oh boy did I learn a lot. Matthew Hopkins was the jerk Witchfinder General in real life, the Manningtree Witch Trial really happened and the unfortunate women were really hanged. Ms. Blakemore puts it all together in a way where we really care about these people. Well, maybe not Hopkins who really was a jerk. Blakemore has an epilogue that explains the real history behind the story. 

With the hangings, she doesn't spare us. They didn't know back then how to snap a neck quickly, so the many hundreds, if not thousands, of people (mainly women) died slow, painful deaths of suffocation.  I've seen too many historical fictions that get this wrong, but not Blakemore. But, she did get the word wrong. People are hanged, not hung.

Speaking of words, I learned a lot of new words. A few weren't even in the dictionary, at least not on the kindle dictionary. There's lot of looking up to be done while reading this. This is how we learn stuff, right?

Here's my favorite new word. Pay close attention. The protagonist's mother was called The Beldam. The Beldam West.  Beldam is French for "beautiful dame" or "beautiful woman." It was used ironically, though, to mean an old ugly woman. I really like that word. The Beldam.

So, I've decided to call myself The Beldam. I, personally, hope it means "beautiful dame" but if you want to use it to mean ugly old woman, I don't want to know about it.

At first, I thought the story was a little slow, although the protagonist has a sly sense of humor. Once the action got going, it really got going. Exciting and horrifying. Poor Vinegar Tom! Beautiful language, too. Picture a book that is both literary and scary. 

Thanks to Publishers Weekly "Grab-a-galley" and Netgalley for allowing me a digital ARC in return for an honest review.

A good place for horror writers. Why not enter a flash fiction contest?

 

JUN 18, 2021 AT 11:38 PM

Your July theme is...

Myths, Monsters, and Fantastic Folklore

Authors, we’re looking for fantastical tales of mythical monsters and legends from around the world.

Since this is a flash challenge, your word count is 1,000 words max. I'll personally read all the submissions and post the best 10 to 20 stories here on Patreon (to our $5 a month and higher tiers). Our patrons will then read all the entries, posted one per day, and vote for a winner.

The winner will receive 3c USD per word, publication in a future Crystal Lake publication (anthology or magazine), and an author spotlight in our newsletter and here on Patreon. Please email your submission in the body of an email to crystallakepub@gmail.com. Your email subject should be the title of your story. The deadline is end of June, whatever time zone you live in.

Until then, be sure to also check out OF MEN AND MONSTERS by Tom Deady, “A heartfelt, perfectly executed coming-of-age story about surviving trauma and what it means to be a monster”—Christopher Golden

Lots of Smelly, Gooey Stuff in House of Hollow

 

It took me a little while to get into House of Hollow, but about 50% through the story became quite adventurous and moved along at a galloping pace. You'd move fast, too, if a dead guy with a bull's skull for a head was chasing you! There's all kinds of gooey stuff in here: floaty souls bobbing around in murky water, mold, dead leaves, and ants stuck in throats, stinky flowers growing out of wounds, and one character who rolls his eyeballs a lot. If you follow my reviews you know that the massive amount of eyeball rolling in YA drives me nuts. I've climbed on curtains and chewed furniture from all the eyeball rolling.

Fortunately, my eye-ball-o-meter barely clicked past annoying on House of Hollow, and my smirk-o-meter only wiggled. So, thank you to the author for not making me crazy.

This is kind of a "life is unfair" book, but nobody reads horror thinking they'll get Little Mary Sunshine. Except me, maybe.

People rarely thank their libraries, so thank you to my local library for making House of Hollow available on Overdrive. I can check out books in my pajamas. How the books got into my pajamas, I'll never know.

Women's Healthcare Has Been a Horror Story

  

I read a lot of horror, but the most horrible thing is what people do to other people. Reading Unwell Women would almost be funny until the reader remembers that all these bizarre things really happened to women and happened to women for thousands of years. Even until the 1950's most medical problems of women were blamed on their reproductive organs and problems with their reproductive organs were blamed on mental illness. Even today, with autoimmune diseases, it takes only two years for a man to be diagnosed but 7 years for a woman to be diagnosed with diseases like MS or Lupus. Why? Because men's pain is considered to be real and women's pain is considered imaginary. 

One of the most bizarre things was that doctors used to think that a uterus could travel through a woman's body and caused all kinds of havoc, including strangling her. I can see myself writing a story about a wandering uterus that commits crimes. I'll call it Murderous Uterus. To Womb it May Concern.

I would buy this book to keep on hand for research. The strangest things have been done to women, and believed about women, in the name of medical care.

Thank you to Netgalley for allowing me to review a digital copy of Unwell Women.

From The Guardian

 

How Could I Forget to Mention This?

 My flash fiction, Deeper, is a finalist in Crystal Lake's monthly contest. This month's theme was Trapped! I wrote a story about a guy buried at sea. Unfortunately, he wasn't dead when they buried him. 

You'll be able to read Deeper if you subscribe to Crystal Lake's Patreon page. It's well worth it, although I don't subscribe because I'm freakin' poor. So, buy books with my stories in them so I won't be poor all my life.

In fact, I have a story, Boohag, in Shallow Waters Volume Eight. 99 cents! 99 cents! 99cents! At that price, I'll buy it even though I'm poor. 

I'm also in Volume 7, so buy that one, too. Buy all of them! That's only eight dollars for eight anthologies of flash fiction horror. 

Mr. Tibbs Deserves So Much More Review of Blood in Electric Blue

 What about Mr. Tibbs? WHAT ABOUT MR. TIBBS!

Dignon is a nice guy who loves his cat (Mr. Tibbs) but people around Dignon, through no fault of his own, (except for one guy) keep dying.

Blood in Electric Blue is one of those horror books where it's hard to tell if the horror is really happening or if it's a figment of the protagonist's imagination. There is a prologue where a siren comes out of the sea, but since Dignon has several horrible nightmares throughout the story, it's hard to know what's really happening and what he thinks is happening.

This is not a bad thing. There are lots of classic horror stories where the reader isn't sure if it's a ghost story or a mental instability story. Are his siren and his criminals monsters or are they regular people that Dignon has imagined to be monsters?

His nightmares and his reluctance to be out in the world stem from horrific child abuse--terrible child abuse. This may cause triggering, so beware.

The writing was very good. A few times Dignon's sister seemed a little preachy, kind of like one of those affirmation folks, but, as she was a victim of child abuse (and abuse as an adult as she was attracted to that kind of man) I think she was trying to make herself and her brother feel better.

But, Dignon, leave some food and water out for Mr. Tibbs and a note for your sister to come and take care of him. After all, Mr. Tibbs deserves it.

But, damnit, leave some food and water out for Mr. Tibbs and a note for your sister to come and take care of him. After all, Mr. Tibbs deserves it.

My Smirk-o-Meter has Topped Out.

 If you follow my reviews here, or on Goodreads, or on Netgalley (that's me all over the place,) you'll know that I'm greatly peeved, irked, annoyed, and flabbergasted by current books having their characters all react in the same ways to everything that happens to them. I thought novelists tried to be different than each other, but I keep reading the same shortcuts to characters' emotions. 

I just read The House of Salt and Sorrows. By page 17 the characters had already smirked, bit their lips, and rolled their eyes. I burst out laughing at the second smirk. Since a funeral had taken place and the family was in mourning, laughter probably wasn't what the author aimed for. 

I swear, in most modern books, somebody will eventually bite their lip until it bleeds. Why? Nobody really does this unless they get hit with a baseball in their mouth or fall on their face. It hurts! So why does every book have someone biting their lip until it bleeds? Everybody is copying everybody else.

In one book I read (Long Way to a Small Angry Planet) three different characters smirked on one page. That's three smirks in 250 words!

Here's the words that are overused instead of showing real emotions.  Smirked. Rolled her/his eyes. Balled their fists. Bit her/his lips. Bite lips until they bled. 

Coming up fast in being overused in every book is:  He rubbed his thumb along her jawline. (My God, that's been in all the most recent books I've read.) "Words, words, words," she hissed.  And now writers are using sneered to mean someone said something, as in "I hate you," she sneered. But, sneer is a curl of the lip. Anyway, sneer is growing as a way of saying someone said something angrily. Why not say, "I hate you," she said as she poured a bottle of India ink down his favorite white Colonel Sanders' suit."

Recently I read Klara and the Sun by Nobel Prize for Literature winner Kazua Ishiguro. The story is full of teenagers but there is no eyeball rolling, no smirking, no hissing, no lip biting, no balling of fists. It was refreshing. 

There is a reason some writers win the Nobel Prize for Literature while most of us don't.

I'm begging people to think when they're writing and not use the same thing everybody's using.  Maybe if I read one book a year I wouldn't notice this. But, I read about 100 books a year and my smirk-o-meter needs oiling from all the overwork.

Mad, Bad, and Dangerous to Know Review of Flowers for the Sea.

 It's not that I didn't like Flowers for the Sea, it's that it didn't seem to have a character arc. I felt like this would be a better story if it had been another 100 pages longer. (It's only about 100 pages long.) Iraxi is angry, and she has a right to be as she and her family have had unspeakable things done to them, but there seems to be no inner journey for her, where she builds up to her greatness. She 's angry, as I said, she hates being pregnant, doesn't want the child she's carrying, calling it a parasite, hates all the men she has sex with (but keeps copulating anyway) and then her newborn child tells her she's destined for greatness and then marvelous, supernatural, violent things happen. The newborn baby has quite the vocabulary.!

What I mean is, Iraxi is rewarded without rising above her anger.  I didn't see a hero's journey, or it was a very compressed hero's journey. A longer story would have given her room to transform, where we would see her transformation from anger to heroism. The writing was fine.

Flowers for the Sea was medium on my smirk-o-meter. There was some smirking, eye-ball rolling, hissing, and balling up of the fists, and a couple of people had to bite their lips. Not as much as most modern books.

Thank you to Netgalley, Tor, and the author for loaning me an ebook of Flowers for the Sea in exchange for an honest review.

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