Book Review: Gutted by Various Authors, Edited by Doug Murano & D. Alexander Ward

With stories by Clive Barker, John F.D. Taff, Paul Tremblay, and Neil Gaiman, how can you go wrong? You just plain can’t. Add in a few authors who I was somewhat familiar with and a few more I had never even heard of and there’s a lot to love here. Murano and Ward have assembled a collection of what they call “beautiful horror stories.” Other than that, this is not technically a themed anthology. These stories are literary, they are poetic, they deal with themes all humans are familiar with and have been used over and over and over again. Yet—they are all still unique in their own way. As with any anthology, there are some stories that are stronger than others, but thankfully no stinkers.

The strongest story in my opinion is Paul Tremblay’s “A Haunted House Is a Wheel Upon Which Some Are Broken.” It is constructed like a Choose Your Own Adventure story about a girl visiting a house haunted by the ghosts of her past. Depending on how you decide to read it, the story could technically get locked in a forever-long loop, which is the most terrifying element. If I had been in a different state of mind when reading it, I might have still been trapped. Tremblay just has a wonderful style, and he hasn’t disappointed me yet. My second favorite story in the collection is “Picking Splinters” by Brian Kirk, an extremely dark and hopeless tale about a man whose lost daughter is found many years after she went missing. Yowza. I was pretty exhausted after reading that one. Kirk is now on my list of “Authors I Need to Read More Of.”

Style is a big deal in this book, perhaps even more so than plot. Yes, every story has some sort of plot (although some were easier to follow than others), but what’s most important about Gutted is that every writer has a distinct voice and approach to their pieces. They cannot be interchanged, which I think is one of the main keys to being a good writer. No one else can write your story as well as or better than you.

The cover art is pretty great (and appropriate), and each story is accompanied by a black and white Luke Spooner illustration (a man whose work I was definitely familiar with since one of his illustrations preceded a story of mine a few years ago). Nothing more to really say about this one except that you should probably pick up a copy. You know, because it’s real good and all that stuff.

Book Review: Madhouse by Various Authors, edited by Brad C. Hodson and Benjamin Kane Ethridge

Okay, so before I get started with anything else about this book, can we please talk about this cover art? You won’t get the full effect just viewing it on this blog, since it’s a mega-cool wraparound, but holy mutha this is one of the nicest covers I’ve seen for a horror book in such a long time. It’s so weird to think how many awful covers there are out there, uh…“gracing” the covers of various horror novels and anthologies, when the genre is more perfect than any other for the grotesquely gorgeous. Yet, somehow, so few get the visuals right. Makes no sense to me. But Brad C. Hodson and Benjamin Kane Ethridge got it right when they chose Aeron Alfrey as their artist. Luckily, that’s not the only thing the editors got right.

With Madhouse, Hodson and Ethridge have chosen to take an approach that is becoming more popular these days (an approach I’m all for and one I’m shocked was not more common in the past): the shared world anthology. However, Madhouse is more than just a collection of stories that happen to take place in the same universe. The shorts written by the various authors also share space with chapters written by the editors. The result: a fairly cohesive novel masquerading as an anthology. I know it sounds like I’m tickling the editors’ pink parts, but they really did a bang up job of creating this world and guiding the authors they chose to adhere to it and keep a certain amount of continuity. A few characters even appear throughout different stories (Drake is an especially memorable and detestable character). I imagine this was a serious pain in the tuckus to orchestrate, but the hard work paid off.

The premise? A major sandstorm hits a behavioral center in Arizona and things go batshit crazy from there. A lot of mysterious plot threads, most of which remain unexplained (which I’m fine with). Though there is no filler throughout Madhouse and it was difficult to choose standouts, there were a few stories I’d pick if a gun were pressed to my head: “Birdman” by R.B Payne, “The Writing on the Wall” by Robin Spriggs (less a story, more a brilliantly mad recital), “The Fraud” by Jeff Strand, and “Foodfight” by John Skipp. Skipp’s is the most peculiar to me. I recently read this same story in his collection The Art of Horrible People and couldn’t make any sense of it, I suppose because it was removed from its true context. It probably shouldn’t have been included in that collection, but reading it here, as it was meant to be, well let’s just say I really loved it. It’s just plain bonkers (not that the rest of Madhouse isn’t pretty bonkers, but you kind of have to expect a bit of next-level craziness from Skipp). In addition to the awesome stories, there is also a ton of additional killer art throughout by Alfrey.

I can’t recommend this book enough. In many ways, this level of creativity and quality is what I expect of modern horror, so I offer a hearty thank you to everyone involved in the project for delivering on the promise quite a few other writers/editors/publishers do not.

Horror Writers Association Poetry Showcase Volume 3 Now Available

I'm pleased to announce the third volume of the Horror Writers Association Poetry Showcase is now available for purchase. Not only have I been fortunate enough to appear in all three volumes, but this time around I am one of the five featured poets. I'm very proud of my poem "Nuclear Winter Kiss," and it makes me feel warm and fuzzy inside to see it getting this level of appreciation. You can purchase the Kindle version on Amazon right now, and the print version is coming very soon:

https://www.amazon.com/HWA-Poetry-Showcase-Michael-Arnzen-ebook/dp/B01JWZ13QS/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1471102206&sr=8-1&keywords=hwa+poetry+showcase#nav-subnav

Book Review: The Ruin Season by Kristopher Triana

Venturing outside of my comfort zone, but still sticking within the realms of dark fiction for the purposes of this blog (think Southern Gothic in this particular case). With The Ruin Season, Triana offers a no-punches-pulled approach, and it works on many levels. This is Triana’s first novel, and it’s a sign of great things to come. Jake Leonard, the protagonist, is near 40 and somehow managing to maintain his composure despite living with bipolar disorder. He’s been divorced from his wife for a few years and has been hooking up with a girl half his age who has a bit of a drug problem and listens to too much death metal (personally I find the latter attribute to be less then problematic, but Jake doesn’t seem to be too pleased about it…different strokes, eh?). After the death of a close friend, Jake and his ex-wife meet again and things become a bit…knotty (there’s a homonym here that would also apply). Plenty of sex and violence throughout these 305 pages, which I certainly appreciate, but Triana digs deeper than that, which takes this book to the next level.

One of the greatest strengths of this novel is that Triana doesn’t just settle for one simple linear plot line. There are a multitude of things going on in this story, sub-plots building into main plots, almost intersecting with non-plots (is that even a thing or did I just make that up?), occasional chapters told (years?) later by Jake’s barber/friend, etc. Though some readers might disagree with me, I prefer this approach because it feels closer to real life, which is even more crucial in a book without fantastical elements such as this one. However, this device is not as easy to pull off as it sounds. In the wrong hands this book could have become trite and boring without that oh-so-important overarching plot taking control, but Triana has crafted characters that feel like real people and there’s plenty of story going on without the need to qualify it as something more than it is.

It’s also interesting to read about a character (we’re still talking about Jake here) who has a serious mental illness, but it’s not the most important thing about him. He’s majorly flawed, but ultimately is trying to do the right thing. His illness definitely plays into the story, but it’s almost incidental. Aside from a few key scenes, this book could have been almost the same (albeit slightly less dark) without the mental illness angle, but it’s a character trait that gives more depth to Jake. Honestly, I do wish the illness played a slightly larger role in the story, but ultimately it’s a pretty minor complaint. I know this story was very personal to Triana and likely cathartic to write, and he succeeds in addressing the stigma of mental illness without furthering it. I highly recommend reading this article Triana wrote called Broken Mirrors: Mental Illness in Fiction and Film. In the article, Triana opens up a bit about his own personal struggles and discusses examples of movies and books that depict mental illness with realism and/or care. You can find the article here:

http://spaceythompson.blogspot.com/2016/06/kristopher-triana-guest.html

Overall The Ruin Season is a great debut and I’m looking forward to reading what Triana does with horror in his upcoming novel Body Art.

New Short Story Published in Capricious

Hey everyone. My new short story, "Acquired Taste," has just been published in issue #4 of Capricious. It's one of the strangest things I've written. Very dark and dystopian. You can purchase the Kindle version on Amazon for $2.49 here:

https://www.amazon.com/Capricious-Issue-4-Jamie-Lackey-ebook/dp/B01ILQD0RO#navbar

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)