(btw, I probably won't read this voraciously for the rest of the year. Due to a fluke of perfectly timed vacation days and a light month of publicity work, I was able to spend almost all of my downtime in January reading!!)
Chloe Caldwell
SF/LD Books
(Oct 2014)
5 Stars
SF/LD Books sent this to me ages ago in a care package with another title I had been excited about reviewing. Yes, it took me until this christmas, while rearranging my shelves and rediscovering that I had it, to get me to pick it up out of the pile.
The book is fucking adorable, no wider than the palm of my hand, and it holds our narrator's heart hostage from the get go. She finds herself totally falling for a woman for the first time, one much older, more experienced, and who's already in a committed relationship. It's about discovery and identity, and as you'd probably expect, it's a wonderful hot mess. We know it's not going to end well and we don't care.
Chloe is like the female equivalent of Sam Pink. In their stories, they are tortured souls in shitty relationships that they obsess and die over. They are manic. They are depressive. They see the glass is slowing draining of alcohol and order another. And then another. And then they are home, hung over, in bed, alone sometimes and sometimes with someone else, and they are wondering how in the fuck they got there, in their life, in this particular fucked up version of their life. They write their fiction autobiographically, pulling the reader right up to the table, conversing with us as though we are part of their story and it works so hard, like you wouldn't fucking believe.
Adam Lauver
Plays Inverse Press
(Released January 24th)
5 Stars
Hot damn. A mother fucking apocalypse of the mind told in three distinct parts, within five wickedly deceiving acts. Lauver has cleverly placed you smack in the middle of this bizarre yet captivating dreamscape of broken characters in the midst of their own mini existential crises - what meaning lies within our dreams? what does it mean to "be"? to what lengths would we go to unbreak what is broken within us? - and a pretty badass game of chess taking place between a young kid and Eleanor Rosevelt outside of a quickmart that plays out through eternity.
Robert Kloss
Self Published
(Nov 2017)
5 stars
I cannot think of a greater example of an author who was once traditionaly published making the move to self publish in order to retain the integrity of the vision for their book, refusing to release it any other way. The way Kloss abuses language, entirely spinning out this tale in abrupt em-dashes, whittling down the prose to what is only, absolutely needed. And it reads seemlessly, feverishly, beautifully. Evoking, crushing, tugging at you. I thought The Alligators of Abraham was untouchable. Here, Kloss has quite possibly given that debut a run for its money.
Nick Cato
Bizarro Pulp Press
(Released January 25th)
4 stars
Holy hamster sex, batman, and mayhem, madness and mysterious monsters galore!
Nick Cato lets it all hang out in this collection of compellingly ludicrous and grotesque short stories. Within these pages, we find ourselves partying inside the walls of a hexed musician's ever-expanding penis; drumming alongside a vacationing family man who's trying to save humanity from the end of the world; gunning down a tobacco field's worth of toilet zombie teens; and cringing along with the last surviving man of a group of bigfoot adventurers when a run-in with the giant beasts goes badly.
The stories, which appear to have been previously published elsewhere and many of which have strange sexual themes throughout, work incredibly well with one another. Cato knows just how far to stretch things, sprinkling just enoughbody horror into these absurdly bizarre situations to make our heads spin but keep our eyes firmly stationed in our sockets!
Nick Cato lets it all hang out in this collection of compellingly ludicrous and grotesque short stories. Within these pages, we find ourselves partying inside the walls of a hexed musician's ever-expanding penis; drumming alongside a vacationing family man who's trying to save humanity from the end of the world; gunning down a tobacco field's worth of toilet zombie teens; and cringing along with the last surviving man of a group of bigfoot adventurers when a run-in with the giant beasts goes badly.
The stories, which appear to have been previously published elsewhere and many of which have strange sexual themes throughout, work incredibly well with one another. Cato knows just how far to stretch things, sprinkling just enoughbody horror into these absurdly bizarre situations to make our heads spin but keep our eyes firmly stationed in our sockets!
Steve Anwyll
Tyrant Books
(Released January 8th)
5 stars
Tyrant Books is cranking out some really amazing literature.
Welfare is a manic, depressive, highly infectious novel about a runaway teenager on the cusp of adulthood who is incapable of giving a fuck about growing up. I mean, sure, he thinks about giving a fuck, he thinks about giving a lot of them. But when push comes to shove, he's inexplicably unable to actually give them.
Our narrator Stan spends a lot of time wallowing in self-pity, painfully aware of how he got to where he is - living in a shitty dump with a roommate he sorta hates, penniless, always on the verge of starving. He's knows how dire his siutation is. He's humilitated that he's had to resort to collecting welfare checks, yet he refuses to apply for jobs that he believes are beneath him, and harbors this bizarre fantasy that he's owed better. Everything he touches or tries to accomplish turns to shit, mostly because he half-asses everything. And when his case worker starts putting the pressure on, he suffers from a near-paralization and over-rationalization of ridiculous reasons why he shouldn't have to search for a job, convincing himself that they are super reasonable excuses and so refuses to give a fuck.
While Stan is a total piece of shit, the book itself is a fucking riot. Much in the same way Sam Pink can take a a peice of shit asshole and make us love then, Anwyll's a master at making us give a crap about someone who certainly doesn't deserve it. He's created the perfect mooch - that guy that you'd let crash on your couch because you just feel so damn sorry for him. In fact, he tells Stan's story so well I have to wonder how much of what I've read is autobiographical.
Welfare is a manic, depressive, highly infectious novel about a runaway teenager on the cusp of adulthood who is incapable of giving a fuck about growing up. I mean, sure, he thinks about giving a fuck, he thinks about giving a lot of them. But when push comes to shove, he's inexplicably unable to actually give them.
Our narrator Stan spends a lot of time wallowing in self-pity, painfully aware of how he got to where he is - living in a shitty dump with a roommate he sorta hates, penniless, always on the verge of starving. He's knows how dire his siutation is. He's humilitated that he's had to resort to collecting welfare checks, yet he refuses to apply for jobs that he believes are beneath him, and harbors this bizarre fantasy that he's owed better. Everything he touches or tries to accomplish turns to shit, mostly because he half-asses everything. And when his case worker starts putting the pressure on, he suffers from a near-paralization and over-rationalization of ridiculous reasons why he shouldn't have to search for a job, convincing himself that they are super reasonable excuses and so refuses to give a fuck.
While Stan is a total piece of shit, the book itself is a fucking riot. Much in the same way Sam Pink can take a a peice of shit asshole and make us love then, Anwyll's a master at making us give a crap about someone who certainly doesn't deserve it. He's created the perfect mooch - that guy that you'd let crash on your couch because you just feel so damn sorry for him. In fact, he tells Stan's story so well I have to wonder how much of what I've read is autobiographical.
Stephanie Allen
Shade Mountain Press
(Releases February 5th)
3 stars
Set in my home state of Pennsylviana in the early 1900's, Tonic and Balm is the tale of Doc Bell's Miracles and Mirth Medicine Show, which is cleverly told from the perspective of each of Doc's motely crew - a collection of talented, traveling misfits who wow the nightly crowds with their acrobatics, sword swallowing, and dancing routines. Highlighted throughout each personal account is the mysterious heart of the show, the sideshow freak Miss Antoinette, a woman who suffers from hydrocephalus and whose silence and strangeness creates much unease and uncertainty amidst the group's members.
While wholy intriqued with Stephanie's approach to storytelling, the diversity of the cast which includes LGBTQ and POC lead characters, and the descriptions of the common chaos that seems to naturally rise up within the group, I found myself longing for more... I dunno... more sparkle? more subterfuge? just.... more.
While wholy intriqued with Stephanie's approach to storytelling, the diversity of the cast which includes LGBTQ and POC lead characters, and the descriptions of the common chaos that seems to naturally rise up within the group, I found myself longing for more... I dunno... more sparkle? more subterfuge? just.... more.
Meghan L Dowling
Univeristy of New Orleans Press
(Released January 25th)
4 stars
This is the story of a sister, daughter, grandaughter and her collection of memories - of things remembered, of stories shared, of physical and sexual violence witnessed and suffered and assumed. It is a story of strength and survival and secrets. Bouncing back and forth in time and perspective as the narrator decountructs her family history, beginning with the relationship between herself and her older sister yet reaching as far back as that of her grandmother Agnes and Agnes' estranged husband Gene, Dowling beautfully unpacks their truths (or fictions?) in a series of vignettes, letters, dated article snippets, and photograph notes.
Benjamin DeVos
Dostoyevsky Wannabe
(Sept 2018)
5 stars
Deceptively short, overflowing with awesomeness, The Bar is Low is the story of an amputee who takes his pegleg to work at a pirate-themed resturant. It's the humdrum life of a guy determined to make things easy for himself - living in a rented apartment with a roommate he despises, working a humilating job with a boss he can't stand, killing time at support group for people with missing limbs.
Not one word is wasted. Not one sentence is fluff. Ben has cut right down into the bone and marrow of everyday nuances. Shit, we all know this guy! The one who's got so-so hygeine, who's always cracking jokes and daydreaming about ridiculous shit, who never seems to sweat it while the rest of us dumbasses are breaking our backs to get ahead, to get the girl, to make ends meet...
Karen Thompson Walker
Random House - Audio
(Released January 15th)
2 stars
Oh man, this was such a difficult book to listen to.
The overall pandy (aka pandemic) storyline was interesting enough. Small college town succumbs to a sudden and highly contagious new super-virus that puts its victims into a deep, dream-filled slumber. You gotta admit, that sounds pretty awesome, right? But I could tell right from the start that this book was going to be a struggle. The net was too widely cast, initally. There were waaaay too many character introductions, much too much backstory into each one of them before any of the real action began. But I hung in there. The author is just setting the stage. You can see that she's going to pull everyone together. That soon, it'll all start connecting. I was also hopeful that, once people start getting sick, things would speed up a bit. But nope. As storylines began merging and people started falling ill, I swear... the book started going even slooooower.
Doubly irrating was the fact that I had downloaded the files for the audio directly to my phone, so I was unable to speed up the narration, which, under normal circumstances I NEVER do, but I'm wondering if it would have helped in this case? The audiobook's narrator speaks in a slow, lilting voice which, when paired with the author's slow, meandering style of telling the story, just made this book draaaaaag on. It felt like it was never going to end.
I felt like I might have been better off catching the Santa Lora virus myself.
(note to self - stop reading popular big five books. you know you'll just end up being disappointed. why keep putting yourself through that?)
The overall pandy (aka pandemic) storyline was interesting enough. Small college town succumbs to a sudden and highly contagious new super-virus that puts its victims into a deep, dream-filled slumber. You gotta admit, that sounds pretty awesome, right? But I could tell right from the start that this book was going to be a struggle. The net was too widely cast, initally. There were waaaay too many character introductions, much too much backstory into each one of them before any of the real action began. But I hung in there. The author is just setting the stage. You can see that she's going to pull everyone together. That soon, it'll all start connecting. I was also hopeful that, once people start getting sick, things would speed up a bit. But nope. As storylines began merging and people started falling ill, I swear... the book started going even slooooower.
Doubly irrating was the fact that I had downloaded the files for the audio directly to my phone, so I was unable to speed up the narration, which, under normal circumstances I NEVER do, but I'm wondering if it would have helped in this case? The audiobook's narrator speaks in a slow, lilting voice which, when paired with the author's slow, meandering style of telling the story, just made this book draaaaaag on. It felt like it was never going to end.
I felt like I might have been better off catching the Santa Lora virus myself.
(note to self - stop reading popular big five books. you know you'll just end up being disappointed. why keep putting yourself through that?)
Alex Difrancesco
Civil Coping Mechanisms
(Releases February 15th)
4 stars
In Psychopomps, Alex swings wide the doors, letting the reader crawl deep down inside, sharing with us their confusion, frustrations, losses, and ultimate relief as they move along their journey to self discovery.
An impressively powerful collection of essays on gender exploration and identity, finding and losing and rediscovering religion, and the always problematic quest for love and understanding as one is still learning to love and understand themselves. And it's courageous as all fuck if you ask me. Shedding your skin like that in front of everyone? What a big hot beautiful mess!
An impressively powerful collection of essays on gender exploration and identity, finding and losing and rediscovering religion, and the always problematic quest for love and understanding as one is still learning to love and understand themselves. And it's courageous as all fuck if you ask me. Shedding your skin like that in front of everyone? What a big hot beautiful mess!
Tyler Barton
Split Lip Press
(Released January 31st)
4 stars
The Quiet Part Loud is a punchy, powerful little thing. It's about blowing your youth wide open - turning a freshy lawned cemetery into a temporary getaway, breakdancing on rooftops, suffocating the crushing boredom of being on the run by pranking everyone who rides the hotel elevators, and wreaking havoc down sleepy neighborhood streets on trash night....Each story showcasing both the beauty and brashness of shedding ones childhood on the strangest of stages.
Shane Jesse Christmass
Apocalypse Party
(Released January 31st)
4 stars
I really have no idea what I just read. It's one of the more refreshingly experimental fiction titles I've read in a while. The narrator and the characters with which they engage all appear to switch genders throughout the text, and engage in a ridiculous amount of sex... rough, kinky, oh my god some of that must have hurt sex.
Though the story is linear - it appears to have a start and an end - there isn't actally much of a "story". Shane cleverly hynotizes his readers with an onslaught of short, incomplete sentences that hit you like repetitive bursts of color behind the eyelid, in rapid, manic succession. Honestly, the book is one giant paragraph of paranoia.
This is certainly not going to be for everyone. I bet it won't even be for you, my dear loyal readers. But holy hell it was a fun fucking ride for me!
Though the story is linear - it appears to have a start and an end - there isn't actally much of a "story". Shane cleverly hynotizes his readers with an onslaught of short, incomplete sentences that hit you like repetitive bursts of color behind the eyelid, in rapid, manic succession. Honestly, the book is one giant paragraph of paranoia.
This is certainly not going to be for everyone. I bet it won't even be for you, my dear loyal readers. But holy hell it was a fun fucking ride for me!
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