112 pages, Paperback
First published June 20, 2017
Reissued 4/2024
Bram Stoker Award for Best Long Fiction (2017)
World Fantasy Award Nominee for Novella (2018)
Video of interview on Mapping...g
So part of the idea of this book being re-released is the book is on sale for a month at Barnes and Noble in the cafe for $5 with a drink . Just saying. I just interviewed Stephen for the podcast with the same name as this blog, it will be posted one day after this review...
In the canon of SGJ books MTI follows makes great sense as a sampler, and when his latest masterpiece Buffalo Huntet Hunter is in those racks of hot new releases new the front of the store, this whole cafe read makes sense for the bookseller, author and publisher. SGJ has plenty of titles deeper in the store and it is a safe bet with this sampler readers will return.
SGJ has done werewolves with Mongrels, haunted houses with the Babysitter Lives, Slashers over a whole trilogy. After releasing this novella he would do a masterpiece that could be argued to be a ghost story, but this novella fits nicely in the gothic tradition of a short and creep exploration of the host that feels trapped.
“I was twelve the first time I saw my dead father cross from the kitchen doorway to the hall that led back to the utility room.”
SGJ doesn’t find ghost very scary but that is why this mission statement on page 37 is so powerful. “Because - a ghost, it's basically useless, it's just a vision, a phantasm. It doesn't even make sense that it could interact with light, much less a floor for a person or clothes. Meaning it had to have some kind of organic beginning, right?”
The ghost in this story simply refuses to stay a spectre…
I tend to love authors who, just like Rodney Dangerfield don’t get no respect. It is a by-product of doing a Philip K Dick podcast I suppose but PKD died with a bibliography a mile long and a few awards but the respect for his genius didn't happen until years after his death. SGJ is the opposite. He is getting respect in awards and his continues to publish not just in the small presses but has had mainstream success a string of bestselling books.
This story also has coming of age elements and kicks off when a young man, Junior, sees a ghost of dead father late night in his kitchen. Clocking in just over 100 pages, this is a powerful and emotionally rich tale of a family haunting. It also involves the struggles of a native American family, struggling with sleepwalking and seizures. Junior has to step it up to take care of his brother because his mother is working multiple jobs to support them. He is desperate to get answers or to get close to his dead father. As I lost my mother at a young age I could relate and found these moments heartbreaking. The worst part is as Junior gets closer to his father, it seems to have a painful effect.
For my readers looking for PKD themes. There is a thematic connection with an early PKD story The Father-Thing. I brought it up to Stephen and he said it was unintentional. Missing parents is often something of a theme in great authors.
SGJ has proven himself to be one of the great authors of genre working today, and this is a sampler.
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