Book Review: The Forgotten Girl by Rio Youers (Author interview TBA)

The Forgotten Girl by Rio Youers

Hardcover, 368 pages

Published June 2017 by Thomas Dunne Books

This is the second novel by Rio Youers that I have read and as much as I liked the first one Westlake Soul it had been five years since I read the last one. Westlake soul was a very slow burn deeply spiritual novel. It was not a easy-breezy read, that I really enjoyed but it was one that I only suggested to fans of very serious horror literature. Not that it didn't have fun and like hearted moments, because it did. That said the tone was deep and introspective.

The Forgotten Girl is very different from that. It is absolutely Rio Youers but this feels like the arthouse film director who makes an excellent popcorn blockbuster. The serious horror lit fans will like this and I believe the mainstream readers looking for a thriller for their flight in the airport bookstore will too. At times it doesn't feel like it could possibly be the same others and then there are moments that it is clear. Youers was always a talented writer he has reached a new level here.

Some novels feel effortless, the pages turn fast and easy and before you know know it have read 60 or 70 pages read in a sitting and with great ease you feel the story flow over you. I know that is the ideal, but I think novels like that are rare. I still enjoy books that require dedication, but it nice when a book breezes by feeling effortless.Sarah Pinborough, David Morrell and Robert McCammon are examples of authors who make very easily readable books. The prose and narrative have a McCammon like flow that helps this book fly.

This is one hell of a novel. The publisher seems to be marketing it as a thriller and that is true the book is also very much A science fiction horror novel. The story is about Harvey Anderson a street musician is suddenly attacked by thugs who want to know about his girlfirend, that oddly Harvey has no memory of. The thugs are sure they were a couple and Harvey must know where she is. The problem he doesn't remember her at all.

Mystery is one best served cold so I nervous to tell you more plot but Sally the woman in question was in his life. The thugs have pictures, people around he remember her, and the couple were happy long time friends. The mystery of why Harvey doesn't remember her sets of journey that takes Harvey cross country. The story is very clearly influenced by and modernizing classics like Stephen King's Firestarter and the John Farris Classic The Fury. If you read those novels you understand we are talking about psychic conspiracy road trip thrillers. The strength of this novel is less about the plot and more the characters. Not just Harvey and Sally but thankfully the romance between the main characters was believable. Youers had a interesting challenge having the main character in love with a woman he couldn't remember and it was really interesting to watch him fall in love while solving the mystery and recovering lost memory. Some of the most interesting aspects of the writing and story structure came in these moments. Youers used the romance effectiely to tell the story build characters and ratchet the suspense cutting half a dozen carrots with one knife.

For that reason the novel works as fun story but if writers and storytellers unpack what is going on there is a deeper level happening at the same time. Dominic Lang is a vicious villain whose motivations and arc take him to a almost mythic status instantly, think Khan in Star Trek. That level of well rounded bad guy helps lift the novel as well. He also adds a political connection expands the scope.

Some of the best moments of character for Harvey come in the moments with his father. Harvey's father seems like a crazy person but he in a sense humanizes Harvey better than anything else in the novel. He is a minor but great character who adds weight to the novel as a whole. Excellent example of a character who is not in the whole story but adds so much.

The Forgotten Girl is a next level step for Rio Youers. It was a excellent reading experience and I think we'll be talking about it again come best of the year time.

Book Review: The Sympathizer by Viet Thanh Nguyen

The Sympathizer by Viet Thanh Nguyen

Hardcover, 371 pages

Published April 2015 by Grove Press

Pulitzer Prize for Fiction (2016)

California Book Award Gold Medal for First Fiction (2015)

Edgar Award for Best First Novel (2016)

The Center for Fiction First Novel Prize (2015)

Andrew Carnegie Medal for Fiction (2016)

Asian/Pacific American Award for Literature for Adult Fiction (2015)

International DUBLIN Literary Award Nominee for Shortlist (2017)

If you look at the list of awards this novel has been given you probably have seen all the reasons why this is a good and important read. I first had this book on my radar when Elliot Kalan of the Flophouse podcast recommended it instead of a movie on a episode of that show. It sounded like something I would be interested in. I put it on hold at the library and being 10 persons down the list I forgot about it until it came in.

This novel is a part historical fiction, mystery and throughout it is a novel of deep social importance. Sympathizer starts off in the last days of the US occupation of Saigon. The story is narrated by a man whose name we never learn. He works for an important general, while born in South Vietnam, he was educated in the U.S. caught between two worlds. One time spy, working both sides the nameless character at the center of the novel comes to LA as a refugee.

Some of the most interesting parts of this novel centered around The General and his wife the Madame. The Idea that they were rich and powerful during the war and end up owning a hole in the wall restaurant was interesting to me. Our hero however gets a job as a consultant on a war movie called the Hamlet.

This subplot is about 100 pages of the novel and was the storyline that most interested me. If anything really counted against the novel for me was this part was not a little more in depth. It is clear that Nguyen is writing about Francis Ford Coppola and this incitement of Hollywood taking on the war deserved more time and attention.

The writing is pretty amazing but took me some getting used to. There are no quotation marks. My general rule is that pretty much only Kathy Acker and Cormac Macathy can get away with such things. I hated it for the first 30 pages, and it slowed me down alot. Once I got over it the novel flowed faster.

It is a excellent story, well plotted and carried out. It won awards for a reason. It is funny because I didn't think was that much better than most of genre books I have read this year. It maybe a personal taste thing, but just this writer is considered literary I don't think makes his work better. Now this author unique heritage (compared to mainstream pop culture fiction) certainly gives this novel more weight. Voices from this culture responding to the vietnam war is certainly welcome and the most important reason to read this novel. The fact it was a good story with excellent twists and compelling characters was a bonus. Certainly worth the time.

Book Review + Author Interview: Entropy in Bloom by Jeremy Robert Johnson

Entropy in Bloom by Jeremy Robert Johnson

Hardcover, 272 pages

Published April 2017 by Night Shade Books

We have had a few authors in the horror genre really make huge strides in the last year. Some notables include the massive success of Paul Tremblay's Head full of Ghosts and Sarah Pinborough's Behind her Eyes. It is true That Jeremy Robert Johnson could be considered a part of a new wave of horror field to mainstream publishing success, but he is also the first to come out of the Bizarro scene with a major hardcover release. Stephen Graham Jones, Laura Lee Bahr and Brian Evenson are authors who I think walk this line that some times touches Horror, Bizarro and fine Literature all in the same stories. But Jeremy was a flag holder for the movement in the early days so this feels different.

Sometimes when a writer takes the next step in there career it is important to look back and see where they came from. Entropy in Bloom is that book, it features some of the best short stories from Jeremy Robert Johnson's two previous independently released collections both reviewed on this blog. Angeldust Apocalypse and We Live Inside You.

In that sense I have read all of these stories except the new novella Sleep of judges before. I read The Oarsmen and Flood of Harriers when they were first published in Dark discoveries and Cemetery Dance as well as well as when they were collected. I have to say both those stories worked the third time. The Oarsmen still continues to be a favorite of mine, the sci-fi setting is really subtle and I admit I would love to see JRJ explore space a bit more, but of course that is not the point of the story. The story is a tone piece that gives a otherworldly feeling the emotions of monks after the apocalypse.

Flood of Harriers has been frustrating to read all three times. The two stories that hit me harder than before were the ghost story "the Gravity of Benham Falls," and Snowfall. I mean I have read them before but this time it come off as really effective. It is funny if you listen to the audio interview I thought Snowfall was about something totally different from JRJ's intention.

The story Trigger Variation was one I commissioned for an anthology I co-edited called the Vault of Punk Horror. I have a really strange relationship with this story. It is a long story, but JRJ was writing this piece about a fictional faction of straight edge that was a photo negative of the movement I spent the 90's in. In many senses I had a very hard time with this story, but if you want to hear more about that...listen to the audio interview. That part of the discussion is more interesting if you have a back ground in punk or hardcore music.

A writer this talented is rare and it is incredibly exciting as a long time reader of his work and friend to see this happen. I mean he deserves it for many reasons. But I wonder sometimes how or why it happens to a certain artist? Certainly Jeremy himself would agree Cody Goodfellow and Laura Lee Bahr are equally deserving of this kind of attention and notice. Without his talent it would not be possible but often it is timing and luck...I couldn't be happier the stars aligned for him.

I don't want to take away from what JRJ has accomplished. It is exciting and important that these works reach a wider audience. The level of drug laced paranoia that drips off the pages is one thing but when you match it with fine tuned prose, intelligent with and skillful mechanics of suspense you quickly figure why Johnson is so readable.

Check out this interview recorded over skype on 8/3/17 I did about this book with Jeremy:

Soundcloud (with a download feature)

Youtube:

New Video praise for Punk Rock Ghost Story!

Book Review: The Stars are Legion by Kameron Hurley

The Stars are Legion by Kameron Hurley

Hardcover, 380 pages

Published February 2017 by Saga Press

The Stars are Legion is a space fantasy novel that is high on concept from the first to the last page. Kameron Hurley is an award winning author and this is my second time reading her work. The first novel of hers that I read I remember thinking was good but honestly can't remember the title right now which is not the best sign. None the less I liked it enough to come back and read this.

The story takes place in a region of space called the Legion. Is this our future? Is it a totally different new civilization? Not sure. The legion seems to be a couple worlds and habitats in space. We are introduced to a woman named Zan. She is our hero and it becomes clear that she has no memory of the life she lived but remembers enough to be a badass warrior. We understand quickly that this has happened to Zan before. There is a woman Jayd who might be able to help her but it is possible Jayd is the reason Zan is in this spot in the first place. She is given a mission to board a space station/ world ship called Mokshi with the mission to liberate it. Her entry to the world requires a giant battle and only succeeds in getting Zan stranded deep in the bowels of the ship.

It about 100 pages I realized that this culture is devoid of men folk...more on that later.

In this novel the women of this universe don't talk about dying but being recycled, which on Mokshi means being ejected into the deep down below levels. Thus begins Zan's quest to climb the levels. Fighting monsters and the weird ship based ecology. Each chapter begins with quotes from The legions historical and or religious texts. These are not throw away motifs. They are important to the story and give clues of the direction the story is heading.

I read that Hurley is normally thin on plot but heavy on details, these chapter headers may have have been added later but as a fan of intensely plotted books I loved that detail. There are clues even in the first couple pages that pay off, I had to go back and re-read. I got a laugh when I listened to Luke Barrage on the Science Fiction book review podcast said he did the same thing. The second half of the book is pretty much a heroes quest, with moments of political intrigue. If you paid close attention in those early pages the second half is a bit more powerful.

Now I get why Hurley was making jokes about this book being lesbians in space. She was just kidding so don't get the wrong idea. This world is not soft gentle feminist utopia or nerd fantasy. This book depeicts a brutal society that worships war lords. It was not the book I would have expected if I had known that it was Matriarchal space opera. It is not that I needed the novel to constantly be exploring gender issues, it is probably better than just naturally exists as a feminine culture. Some of the most interesting moments revolve around body control and issues of reproduction. I am not sure Hurley was trying to express here, reproduction in this future comes almost randomly and is always painful.

I am sure this is not the first entirely matriarchal space opera, but it is the first I can remember reading, I know it has happened before and in a moment of zeitgiest I know Stephen Kozeniewski's new sci-fi horror novel THE HEMATOPHAGES is free of dudes too. I think this a neat part of the novel but I would not entirely define it as such.

The end of the novel is classic space opera and in some ways reminded me of sword and sorcery classics. It all comes together for a super entertaining read. This is not light reading sci-fi, the appeal would not be as board as say Old Man's War. This is not mainstream or for a beginning sci-fi reader. This book will lose some readers, but if you stick it with it pays off.

Book Review: Binti by Nnedi Okorafor

Binti by Nnedi Okorafor

Paperback, 90 pages

Published September 2015 by Tor.com

Hugo Award for Best Novella (2016)

Nebula Award for Best Novella (2015)

Locus Award Nominee for Best Novella (2016)

Binti is an amazing experience on every level. When you close the book for the last time it will amaze you how much story, character and world building were put into the short 90 pages. I came to this book in a funny way having accidentally read the second book first, so this became a prequel for me. I think many ways it was a good way to read them, I think I might have been a little let down by the second one. But that is hard to say. I loved both. I am excited to finish the trilogy. Okorafor is at top form here and it is clear why this book sweep the major awards. I have read that it was intended for a YA audience, the book doesn't skim on deeply cultural ideas and far out Science Fiction concepts. I am not sure that it was meant to be YA.

The Afrofuturism is very well realized with details kept to a minimum we have to fill in some blanks but it is clear that this is African future we are seeing. The spirituality of Benti's people is fresh for a science fiction experience. I am well read in the field and I think this is a brand new level for me. I have heard some compare this to Octavia Butler's Xenogenesis series - It would silly to deny the influence but the African roots are so much more a part of Binti. The stories are very, very different.

Binti is a coming of age novel, the title character is leaving home and her planet for the first time and is instantly thrust into a traditional space opera. For me some of the strongest moments were how well the scenes of arriving on a another planet how wonderfully they were realized, more than any other moment I felt like I was in the book at that time. Great descriptions of the alien world and her arrival. The non-human species are not as well realized but I felt the sequel answered some of the questions I might have had if I read this one first.

This is a perfect short read but I think I could have read a 300 page version of this story. It is rare when I close a book and wish it was three times longer but I did. Binti is amazing experience.

Book Review: The Voices of Martyrs by Maurice Broaddus

The Voices of Martyrs by Maurice Broaddus

Paperback, 250 pages

Published September 2016 by Rosarium Publishing

If you read this blog all the time you might notice that I am trying to read genre from more diverse sources. Maurice Broaddus was one the early black voices in modern Horror, although African Americans had made a impact in Science Fiction with Samuel Delany and Octavia Butler being the most well known. Butler dipped her toes into horror for sure but the long overdue introduction of black voices really started with Wrath James White and Broaddus.

I have enjoyed work by both but I deeply love the writing of Broaddus. The Voices of Martyrs will largely be over looked because short story collections rarely sell as much as novels. This finely tuned collection is a must read for anyone interested in high quality dark literature. The most powerful collection I have read since Brian Evenson's Collapse of Horses. Both are important reads however Voice of Martyrs goes beyond just being good, it is a book of deep meaning.

There is much of this book that the largely white audience in the horror community could stand to learn. Experiences that Broaddus shines a light on throughout the book. The book is divided into three parts past, present,and future. The stories in the past often get the horror elements from brutal realities of history, this includes two slave narratives highlight this section and the strongest being Rite of Passage. The story about a boxer was also very powerful. I enjoyed that several of the present stories that were set in Indianapolis.

My personal favorite section was the future, yes I love science fiction but these stories are so very unique I just loved every word of them. They are true science fiction, but MB brings his take of afrofuturism to every page. The level of inventiveness balanced with finely tuned story telling makes these stories sing. Most important is they feel like they could only be written by one person, totally 100% the voice of Maurice Broaddus.

Is it weird that I proud of an author I never met? Look I have read and enjoyed the work Maurice Broaddus before. I knew he was good but he is a Hoosier, and the fact that he lives a hour drive from my home town gives me a connection to his writing. This book is some next level stuff and I love reading along as a person from Indiana hits that next level. This author is going from great to amazing. Read this book!