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A rough draft of what will be in my YBFH #21
Recommended by Liz Hand, thank you: Sway by Zachary Lazar (Little, Brown) miraculously projects the reader into the lives and minds of some of the prime movers of the sixties: underground filmmaker Kenneth Anger, Brian Jones, Keith Richards, and Mick Jagger of the Rolling Stones, and would be rocker/Charlie Manson follower Bobby Beausoleil. By doing this he creates what reads almost like a memoir of the era that started with love and promise, culminating in darkness with the murders of Bobby Kennedy and Martin Luther King, the Manson killings and the near-riot at the Stones’ concert at Altamont. The voices sound so authentic it’s as if Lazar channels his characters.
The Shadow Year by Jeffrey Ford (William Morrow), is a wonderful expansion of his novella “Botch Town,” that creates a sharp snapshot of growing up on Long Island, New York, in the early 1960s. Two brothers and their young sister investigate mysterious occurrences in the neighborhood, partly with the help of the sister seemingly preternatural powers of detection. The adult looking back at a dark year in his family’s hometown never intrudes on the story and the characters are so realistic that it’s almost painful to read about them. Highly recommended.
The Gargoyle by Andrew Davidson (Doubleday) is an dark, offbeat dark love story of the deepening relationship between an ex porn-star hideously burned in a terrible accident and a brilliant sculptor of gargoyles who claims to have been a reincarnated nun from the middle ages where they were lovers. The woman (who most people in the novel believe is mentally ill, but is quite obviously not to any fantasy reader) tells wonderful stories within the overarching story of their love to both entertain and teach the recovering man. Not really horror, although there are horrific descriptions of the accident that maimed the man and other dark bits, but always absorbing.
The Man on the Ceiling by Steve Rasnic Tem and Melanie Tem (Discoveries) is an expansion of the multi award winning novella by the Tems, published in 2000. A kind of fictionalized family memoir, their story is told by each and by both is by turns imaginative, harrowing, moving, and always thoughtful about transmutation of one’s life experience into fiction and how that reflects back onto the creator. The book doesn’t really add to the brilliance of the novella, but for those who missed that gem this is a worthwhile substitute.
The Ghost in Love by Jonathan Carroll (Farrar, Straus) is about a man who should have died, but didn’t. There’s a glitch in the system and so he’s still around, but he’s got a ghost who lives with him (although he doesn’t realize it). The ghost --which can manifest as anything it likes-- including a fly is in love with the dead guy’s ex girlfriend. The Angel of Death is not happy. And of course there’s a dog.
Severance Package by Duane Swierczynski (St. Martin’s Minotaur) is a clever, violent, fast-moving romp that if the reader stops to actually think about it, makes very little sense. An executive invites his key personnel to a mysterious Saturday morning meeting in the office and then offers them poison-laced juice to drink-or face a more violent death. Why does he want to kill them and will anyone get out alive?
Infected by Scott Sigler (Crown) is an sf/horror thriller about a rash of horrific homicides committed by seemingly normal, happy citizens. The story alternates between the governmental and medical teams tracking down and studying the plague and a newly infected victim and his efforts to rid himself of what’s ailing him. Entertaining, but with large plot holes, that hopefully will be plugged in the sequel titled Contagious.
Recommended by Liz Hand, thank you: Sway by Zachary Lazar (Little, Brown) miraculously projects the reader into the lives and minds of some of the prime movers of the sixties: underground filmmaker Kenneth Anger, Brian Jones, Keith Richards, and Mick Jagger of the Rolling Stones, and would be rocker/Charlie Manson follower Bobby Beausoleil. By doing this he creates what reads almost like a memoir of the era that started with love and promise, culminating in darkness with the murders of Bobby Kennedy and Martin Luther King, the Manson killings and the near-riot at the Stones’ concert at Altamont. The voices sound so authentic it’s as if Lazar channels his characters.
The Shadow Year by Jeffrey Ford (William Morrow), is a wonderful expansion of his novella “Botch Town,” that creates a sharp snapshot of growing up on Long Island, New York, in the early 1960s. Two brothers and their young sister investigate mysterious occurrences in the neighborhood, partly with the help of the sister seemingly preternatural powers of detection. The adult looking back at a dark year in his family’s hometown never intrudes on the story and the characters are so realistic that it’s almost painful to read about them. Highly recommended.
The Gargoyle by Andrew Davidson (Doubleday) is an dark, offbeat dark love story of the deepening relationship between an ex porn-star hideously burned in a terrible accident and a brilliant sculptor of gargoyles who claims to have been a reincarnated nun from the middle ages where they were lovers. The woman (who most people in the novel believe is mentally ill, but is quite obviously not to any fantasy reader) tells wonderful stories within the overarching story of their love to both entertain and teach the recovering man. Not really horror, although there are horrific descriptions of the accident that maimed the man and other dark bits, but always absorbing.
The Man on the Ceiling by Steve Rasnic Tem and Melanie Tem (Discoveries) is an expansion of the multi award winning novella by the Tems, published in 2000. A kind of fictionalized family memoir, their story is told by each and by both is by turns imaginative, harrowing, moving, and always thoughtful about transmutation of one’s life experience into fiction and how that reflects back onto the creator. The book doesn’t really add to the brilliance of the novella, but for those who missed that gem this is a worthwhile substitute.
The Ghost in Love by Jonathan Carroll (Farrar, Straus) is about a man who should have died, but didn’t. There’s a glitch in the system and so he’s still around, but he’s got a ghost who lives with him (although he doesn’t realize it). The ghost --which can manifest as anything it likes-- including a fly is in love with the dead guy’s ex girlfriend. The Angel of Death is not happy. And of course there’s a dog.
Severance Package by Duane Swierczynski (St. Martin’s Minotaur) is a clever, violent, fast-moving romp that if the reader stops to actually think about it, makes very little sense. An executive invites his key personnel to a mysterious Saturday morning meeting in the office and then offers them poison-laced juice to drink-or face a more violent death. Why does he want to kill them and will anyone get out alive?
Infected by Scott Sigler (Crown) is an sf/horror thriller about a rash of horrific homicides committed by seemingly normal, happy citizens. The story alternates between the governmental and medical teams tracking down and studying the plague and a newly infected victim and his efforts to rid himself of what’s ailing him. Entertaining, but with large plot holes, that hopefully will be plugged in the sequel titled Contagious.
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