A Slow-Moving, Bleak Tragicomedy

On the Shores of Darkness, There is Light by Cordelia Strube (ECW Press, 2016, 372pp.)

Life hasn’t been fair to 11-year-old Harriet. The adults in her life are too consumed by their own thwarted desires to pay attention to her needs, and her hydrocephalic little brother, Irwin, faces a life of pain. Just as unbearable is her mother’s insistence in dating the awful Gennedy, a man convinced that Harriet is trying to kill her brother—which might be true, but when everything she’s faced in her too-short existence has convinced her that a life of pain is not worth living, how could she not try to free the brother she loves? The story, divided into two parts, first covers Harriet’s unhappy living situation, and then follows her brother years after a devastating family tragedy. On the Shores is a book that is as hard to read as it is to review. If I had to cover my opinion of it in a single sentence, I’d call it an incredibly bleak, though sometimes redemptive, tragicomedy. While some parts of it are very touching and almost subtly quirky, some readers will be unable to see past its slow-moving pace and depressing content. Readers who encounter this unusual novel will either treasure its discovery, or discard it before they even reach the story’s half-way point.

Moving Creep-Fest Serves as Tribute to Female Friendship and 1980s Pop Culture

My Best Friend’s Exorcism by Grady Hendrix (Quirk Books, 2016, 336pp.)

Ah, the ’80s. When most people think of this decade, they probably think of three things: shoulder pads, big hair, and the distinctive sound of its pop music. They probably do not automatically think of Satanic cults. Alas, thanks to a commonly shared belief that lack of religion and sleazy pop culture was causing teens to turn to Satanism, the concept of demonic possession isn’t that far a reach.

The story told in My Best Friend’s Exorcism belongs to Abby and Gretchen, two childhood friends who grow up sharing late-night phone marathons, forbidden Judy Blume novels, Seventeen Magazine, make-up techniques, and later, drugs. During one drug-fueled evening at a friend’s lake house, Gretchen, a sweet, loving girl, gets lost in the woods and emerges hours later, a cruel, sadistic wraith. When Abby later learns that the woods by the lake was once the rumored site of a Satanic sacrifice, she is left to wonder: is the Devil at work?

Although the story suffers from a slow start, patient readers will be rewarded with a surprisingly moving creep-fest that is as much a tribute to female friendships and 1980s pop culture as it is to the joys (and terrors!) of high school. Yet while the heroines are both teens, I definitely would not shelve it in the teen section of your library. As I said before, the beginning is a little slow, and the plot itself is so steeped in '80s nostalgia that most teens probably wouldn't appreciate the references. That said, although it exhibits drug-use, discussions of sexual activity, and several gross-out scenes, it's nothing that most older teenage horror fans won't be able to handle.

Try Not to Breathe

Source: Publisher Website

Try Not to Breathe by Holly Seddon (Ballantine Books, 2016, 368pp.)

Alex, a struggling freelancer, is visiting the Neuro-Disability ward of a local hospital when she stumbles upon former media sensation Amy Stevenson. A little more than a decade ago, news channels captured the unfolding drama of then 15-year-old Amy’s kidnapping and brutal assault by an unknown assailant. Miraculously, Amy survived—but just barely. For the last 15 years, she’s been in a coma at Tunbridge Wells Royal Infirmary. Her only regular visitor is Jacob, her now-married high school sweetheart who still surreptitiously visits her bedside. Inspired by the story that haunted her own youth, Alex decides to put Amy’s story to paper, and in doing so, ends up digging up dirt that some people don’t want exposed. Narrated by multiple points of view (including the comatose Amy herself), Try Not to Breathe is a fast-paced stand-alone thriller, as well as an intriguing character-driven mystery. It will mainly appeal to fans of Paula Hawkins’ Girl on the Train, and similar mystery/thrillers.

Poetic and Grotesque

Source: Publisher Website

The Vegetarian by Han Kang (2007; Hogarth, 2016, 192pp.)

Mr. Cheong finds his mild-mannered existence interrupted when his wife, Yeong-hye, wakes up from a horrifying nightmare where she is surrounded by meat—bloody, dripping meat. The dream so disturbs her, she declares that she will henceforth live as a staunch vegan. Her family, who see vegetarianism as an unnatural act of social deviancy, is shocked and upset. Her artist brother-in-law, however, sees her as the key to completing his next masterpiece—an act that could destroy his peaceful marriage.

Ponderous, poetic, and grotesque, The Vegetarian is a short novel that flowers into a kind of intellectual horror story over the course of just 192 pages. Being psychological fiction, it may prove boring to lovers of slasher stories, however those who like their books slow and surreal will find it to be a literary treat. Just don’t read it while you’re eating.

Hangdog Hero Pilots Great Supernatural Noir

Source: Publisher Website

Drake (Burned Man #1) by Peter McLean (Angry Robot, 2016, 320pp.)
 
It’s safe to say that Don Drake, a London-based diabolist-turned-hit-man for hire, has certainly made a lousy life for himself. He’s stuck in a miserable partnership with a raucous, foul-mouthed archdemon that he keeps locked in his study; he self-medicates with alcohol to forget the people he’s killed; he’s hung-up on an old girlfriend who won’t give him the time of day; and he’s under the thumb of Wormwood, a nasty demon and local club-owner whom he happens to owe quite a bit of money. Yes, life is hell. And it’s about to get a lot worse: before the story ends, Drake will find himself tied to a chair and interrogated with a power-drill; seduced by a kinky red-head with a thing for whips; get jumped outside a night club and beaten up by aforementioned red-head; and contend with a nearly-fallen angel who has an annoying penchant for Russian cigarettes. And that’s all before a climactic trip to the underworld. What’s a demon-plagued magician to do if he wants to survive in this business?

I have to say, I really enjoyed this novel. When the story first opened, I thought Drake was going to be just another stoic Sam Spade type. Not so! Imagine if Jesse Pinkman, the young, sensitive delinquent hero of Breaking Bad, was in the soul-destroying business of dark magic instead of making meth. Yes, you’re right. It wouldn’t end well. And unfortunately, this too is the case for Drake. Another thing I must mention is narration. With some first-person stories, a narrator describes events and you never really get a sense of his character. This author, however, does it right, allowing the hero’s hang-dog personality to really shine through as he narrates his ensuing misadventures with sarcasm and self-deprecation. Drake is a bang-up job indeed.

Now, while I could just haphazardly recommend this for any fan of urban fantasy, I won’t. The story deals with a variety of seedy characters, and the plot itself takes several dark turns. Therefore, I can really only recommend it for fans of dark fantasy, or for hard-boiled mystery lovers who don’t mind a lot of supernatural elements thrown into the mix.