Book Review: The Night Marchers by Daniel Braum

Wow.

Technically, I could just end this review there, but that one word is just a bit ambiguous and likely does disservice to Braum’s creation.

For writers: these 13 stories contain a quality of writing that is so good it’ll either make you want to quit for good or make you strive to be infinitely better. This is all depending on how committed you are to your craft, naturally. Prose or pose—you decide.

For readers: this is the kind of book that will bring new mysteries into your life and make you question the fabric of reality. You’ll likely come back to it multiple times and find new meanings in certain passages and discover new phrases that resonate with you each time.

The stories in this collection do not fit conveniently into a neat box. The Night Marchers is full of sadness, beauty, and unprecedented wonder. Two cups of literary dark fiction, a heaping scoop of magical realism and urban fantasy, a tablespoon of horror. Yet, these genres only scratch the surface of what Braum seeks to accomplish. All of the tales are so equally strong that it is truly difficult to choose any standouts. A song that lasts forever, crocodile gods desperately swimming through a sea of jellyfish and charging a populated beach, a man who finds sensuality and solace in arson, phantasmal fish that want to return to the deep, a cat-faced demon killer, a mummified body that spawns mighty crops, giant sphinxes that lackadaisically stroll the earth. I’m taking some liberty with Braum’s ideas here, but hopefully it’s enough to pique your interest.

I noticed more than a few motifs throughout these stories. Braum seems to have a(n) (un)healthy obsession with the sea and Ancient gods, almost as if he seeks to create his own mythos, except I think many or all of the strange things in his stories are based on tales from forgotten or ignored cultures (this theme runs deep throughout the collection). Braum tackles racial issues without being heavy handed, and he also appears enamored with writing about exotic lands. Most of these stories take place outside of America in places I have never been and will likely never go. Braum has either done a lot of traveling or some really extensive research (or both), because these faraway places and their respective cultures feel fully realized, as do the characters.

It’s rare I find zero to complain about in a book, even in those I adore, but somehow The Night Marchers escapes even the most minor abuse I can summon up. I mean—the worst thing I can think to say about this book is “Why aren’t there more stories?” Braum is already a master of his craft. It almost scares me to think how good he’ll be in the coming years. There never really is any true justice in this world, but if there were, in a few years college creative writing students would find Braum’s short stories on the required reading lists of their syllabi.

This comes as no surprise, but Grey Matter Press and Cemetery Dance (who released the e-book version) have another winner on their hands here. If you’re looking for something visceral, The Night Marchers is probably going to confuse you because it’s far too quiet for that (but you should buy it regardless because it’s good to get out of your comfort zone every now and then). If you’re looking for something thought-provoking and elegant, yet still dark and somewhat mad, you’d be a fool to pass this book up. Buy it yesterday.

Interview with Yours Truly

Hey everyone. Stephanie M. Wytovich is posting a blog series featuring interviews with the 5 featured poets from the upcoming Volume 3 of the HWA Poetry Showcase. This week's post is an interview with me! Check it out here:

http://stephaniewytovich.blogspot.com/2016/06/hwa-poetry-showcase-iii-meet-chad-stroup.html

(Whoah...I finally learned to hyperlink...so easy an infant could do it...now I need to go back and change other links! Please note my neglect was due to laziness and perhaps blindness, but not complete idiocy)

Book Review: The Fireman by Joe Hill

A plague of spores begins to spread, creating gold-flaked, tattoo-like marks across the skin of the infected and eventually causing these poor people to spontaneously combust. This is not your daddy’s apocalypse. The plot centers on a twenty-something woman named Harper and her journey through this dark new world, her own development of the virus known lovingly as “Dragonscale,” and her relationship with the mysterious Fireman.

I expected certain things out of this novel because Joe Hill is one of the better horror/dark fiction writers out there right now, and not all of those expectations were necessarily met. Now that may lead you to believe a bad review is forthcoming, but you’ll be disappointed if you’ve come to read some trash talk. Is this a glowing review? No. But I definitely liked the book. I’ve seen a few complaints about it, and perhaps some of them are worthwhile, but none of them affect my opinion much. Do I think it’s Hill’s best book? Not by a long shot. It’s just on a different tip from the other novels of his I’ve read.

One of the biggest complaints I’ve seen about The Fireman is that it’s too long. Fair enough. I happen to disagree. It may have a lot of pages, but it didn’t feel long to me at all. It read very quickly despite being over 700 pages. I think that’s because Hill chose to pace this book with (mostly) very short chapters. I appreciate this approach in general, but I think it worked especially well in this book. Long, drawn out chapters might have sunk this tale and made it stale. However, I would have liked an extra scene or two with the Cremation Crew, the Marlboro Man, and Harper’s ex-husband Jakob.

Without spoiling the story, the character of The Fireman is what surprised me the most. I think I expected him to be a villain, but it’s clear from the moment he first appears that he is quite the opposite. And even though he is not the main protagonist of the book (that would be Harper, naturally), he is a dynamic and interesting character.

My only real complaints are pretty minor. First, there are way too many references to The Chronicles of Narnia. One or two I could have lived with, but there must be at least half a dozen here. I have to believe they were all intentional and not something that was missed in the editing process, but I can’t figure out for the life of me what significance they held. Also, I think Harper wasn’t having enough of a physical struggle during the later days of her pregnancy. Once she hits the 9-month mark, it becomes evident, but I feel she should have been a lot less agile a couple of months prior to that. But what do I know? I’ve never been a pregnant woman before.

As with Hill’s other books, there are moments of poetic and literary genius, but overall I think The Fireman is perhaps a little less literary and a tad more mainstream than his previous work. His style still seeps through, but it is a little more toned down than usual. He’s working a little more in his dad’s territory here, which is not the case in his other novels. This book could probably be considered his version of The Stand.

Overall, The Fireman is an above average book by an exceptional writer and worth reading if you are a fan of Hill or want to check out a unique take on a post-apocalyptic tale.

Book Review: The Art of Horrible People by John Skipp

I guess if the only real complaint you have about a book is that it’s too short, it’s probably a book worth owning, right? And, yeah, I definitely think this book is too damned short! Let’s just get the bitching done and over with right at the beginning. A few more stories would have been a nice addition. Blahblahblah. Okay…moving on…

John Skipp is a legend amongst fans of strange horror (splatterpunk, bizarro, etc.), and for good reason. The man knows how to write a story that can make you think while you’re puking your guts out in disgust. The two great tastes that taste great together. The Art of Horrible People is a recent collection of stories (though I’m not certain how recent the actual stories are, they all appear to have been published elsewhere). And it’s a varied bunch. All weird and dark, though not necessarily all horror. There are some undeniable horror tales in here like “Art Is the Devil” and “Depresso the Clown,” the latter of which being my favorite of the entire collection (talk about dark and uncomfortably, exhaustingly violent…yikes!), and then there are also pieces that defy characterization, such as the anti-Hollywood diatribe “Skipp’s Hollywood Alphabet Soup of Horror.” All of it is interesting, so who cares what genre certain stories might fall into?

Also included at the end of this book is a long list of artists Skipp is inspired by (which includes writers, bands, illustrators, directors etc.). I have to say this endeared me even more to him, not just because many on his list would also be on my list, but also because it’s just such a nerdy thing to do that I pretty much have to love it. He’s eager to share the things he loves without being overbearing about it. I appreciate that.

However, the biggest shock of this short (Yes! Short! I’m complaining again!) collection is that Skipp made me come close to shedding some tears toward the end of the book. In “Scoob’s Last Will and Testament,” he writes a eulogy to his beloved dog that passed last year, and it just got me real bad. I mean, I’m a sucker when it comes to dogs, so it’s a given something like this is going to affect me in the worst way, but kudos to Skipp for allowing himself to be so vulnerable in a book that might have otherwise only let readers in to one aspect of his personality. I just wanted to give him a big hug after reading that piece.

John Skipp will not appeal to those looking for a commercial sort of fiction, but if you’re seeking something off the beaten path that will still give you some sense of fulfillment after reading it, The Art of Horrible People is a solid purchase.

Book Review: The Library of the Dead by Various Authors, Edited by Michael Bailey

So here we have the first anthology I’ve reviewed on this here blog o’ mine, and it’s a mix of a few authors I’ve read and mostly authors I was previously unfamiliar with (though I have seen many of those names around before). That’s typically the case with most anthologies I read, though. However, The Library of the Dead is a bit different than your average anthology. This is not just a random collection of stories with zero connection or even a collection of stories that more or less fit a particular theme (both are approaches I’m totally fine with, by the way). This book goes one step further and creates a single work out of multiple stories.

Allow me to explain…there is a main (albeit short) “narrative” throughout, focused on the ghostly librarian of the Chapel of the Chimes (which, I didn’t realize until finishing the book, is actually a real place in Oakland), and the unnamed “you” being led through the tales of the dead (yes, you become part of the story this way…it totally works). In between these little interludes are the short stories that make up the bulk of the text. All of them are about completely different topics, yet I discovered about halfway through the book that all of them make some connection to Oakland (or at least the Bay Area as a whole). There are also images accompanying each story, something I always appreciate. The end result is a cohesive piece of fiction written by multiple authors, even if it doesn’t seem so on the surface. It flows pretty consistently if you let it, though. From what I know of Michael Bailey and Written Backwards, he prefers an unorthodox approach to his anthologies, something I support to the fullest. Like I said above, I’m completely fine with your basic everyday anthology so long as the stories are good, but why not take it to the next level if you have the itch to do so? And Bailey has an itch that cannot be satisfied. I say bring it on. He also won the Bram Stoker Award this year for this very book, so he’s obviously doing something right.

As for the stories within, like most anthologies, there are some that are stronger than others, but there were definitely no badly written stories within, just some that appealed to me more than others. For me, the clear winner here is “Reliving Through Better Chemistry” by Weston Ochse. He takes an “Oh shit, why didn’t I think of that?” idea and sends it to very dark places no one wants to visit. Beyond that, I really enjoyed his overall style, which to me is just as important as the story. Ochse also had one of the standout stories in the Midian Unmade anthology, so maybe it’s time I checked out one of his longer works? Any recommendations, folks? The story that follows this one, “Cthylla,” by Lucy A. Snyder, is also a standout. Maybe it’s because I don’t really read much Lovecraft/Cthulhu-influenced fiction, but I found this story to be a very refreshing take on the Mythos. Again, like Ochse’s story, it really gelled with my stylistic tastes as well. The most surprising story here was “The Last Things to Go,” a collaboration between Brian Keene and Mary Sangiovanni. Most of the stories in The Library of the Dead fall on the “quiet horror” spectrum (not the type of stuff I typically read, but I’m always open, naturally), which is exactly the opposite of what comes to mind when you hear the name Brian Keene, and this story is perhaps the quietest of the entire collection. Very odd, but cool. Always a good idea to buck expectations. Maybe it was the influence of Sangiovanni? Who knows?

Overall, if you want subtle creeps wrapped up in a solid overall collection, this anthology is a top-notch example.

Poem Featured in Horror Writers Association Poetry Showcase

I completely forgot to post about this here a couple of days ago, but I'm excited to announce that my poem, "Nuclear Winter Kiss," was not only chosen to appear in Volume 3 of the Horror Writers Association Poetry Showcase, but it was also chosen to be one of the 5 featured poems. Bonus!

The showcase will be published in the near future as an e-chapbook (and possibly print edition) with many more poems, but for now you can read my poem for free on the HWA website here:

http://horror.org/hwa-horror-poetry-showcase-iii-featured-poets/

After you've checked out my poem, please read the other featured poems. They're all excellent!

Book Review: Mister White by John C. Foster

Okay…so, full disclosure: even though this book was released by the same publisher that is releasing my novel and was written by a man who basically owes me his life for teaching him how to properly use his Square credit card reader despite never using one myself, this is still intended to be an honest and unbiased review. That being said, if I didn’t legitimately like the book, I just wouldn’t review it because I wouldn’t want to be a jerk. It’s kind of an unspoken (until now) policy of mine.

On to the review…

If you’ve ever wanted to read a seamless mash-up of spy thrillers and supernatural horror, you’re going to want to go ahead and stop reading this review and pick up Mister White right away. I never wanted to read something like that, to be perfectly honest. I’m personally not super familiar with the former genre (certainly not in its literary form), so I was initially skeptical I’d even enjoy the book when I first heard about it because it was outside of my usual taste zone. However, I would have been missing out big time. It’s good to branch out after all, kids.

Though there is a strong focus on the international world of espionage, the main plot deals with one spy in particular, Lewis Edgar, and the family he is somewhat estranged from. Sound kinda ho-hum so far? Well, throw in this mysterious force/demon/creature/supernatural being called Mister White (I honestly don’t know what the hell he is, but I’ll address that in a minute) who is out to get Mr. Edgar and his family, and I think you’ll discover something pretty darned interesting. And frequently terrifying. Like, seriously, can books have jump scares? Is that even legal? They’re pretty cheap moves in a filmic format, but pulling off something like that on the page is pretty amazing.

At times, this book is viscerally violent enough to please splatter fiends, and Foster pulls no punches in these scenes, but the book doesn’t rely solely on gore to get by. There are characters here worth caring about. Why? Because they are flawed and human. They make regretful decisions and do their best to rectify them (at least some of the time…not every loose end is neatly tied up, much like real life). However, I think Mister White’s primary strength is its pacing. That’s probably the first time I’ve ever made a statement like that about a book. Not because all other books lack pacing, but because this book would not be the same without its ShKAS speed. Mister White is a 256-page rollercoaster that delivers almost nonstop action without sacrificing story and character development. And, realistically, this would make one hell of a movie. I’m not sure if Foster wrote this book with this in mind, but I could picture almost every scene as a perfect image on the screen.

Now I must air a couple of grievances, albeit minor ones. First, the only real problem I had with the book (which may have been the one drawback of the frenetic pacing) is that I wasn’t always sure where in the world the characters were (like, literally where in the world). There seem to be various scenes taking place in various countries and spies of various nationalities, but at times I lost the sense of place. Perhaps this is completely normal for international spy thrillers and this is a case of reader failure. I do not know. Either way, not a huge deal. The only other thing that bothers me is Mister White is almost too shrouded in mystery. I definitely prefer this approach to the alternative (overexplaining everything about the character to the point the reader starts groaning as if they’ve just been taught a lesson they learned last week), but I would have liked just a few more details about his origins and intentions. I really want to know: Who is Mister White (I don’t think I’m supposed to say that…I think there’s some sort of Bloody Mary-type thing going on there that is also not fully explained). Perhaps there is a sequel in mind, and Foster is holding off on releasing some of these specifics until then? If so, I’ll let him slide. This time.

You will not be bored reading this book. The prose is tight, the pace is quick, the blood is red as an abattoir’s kill floor.