A Scout is Brave by Will Ludwigsen

 

Reviewed by Jeanne

It’s 1963, and the Castillo family has just moved from Queens, NY to a small backwater town in Massachusetts.  While most young teens would be upset at such a move, Bud Castillo is ready for it.  He doesn’t have a lot of friends, his dad has lost his job, and his mother is recovering from a miscarriage.  Bud is ready to move on, especially when his dad has just gotten a new job, one that will put his skills as a construction and demolition diver to good use, and the promise not only of good wages, but a place for the family to live.

Still, the town of Innsmouth is very different from any town Bud has ever seen.  There aren’t a lot of people and the ones he meets are a bit . . . odd.  There isn’t a school, the library is boarded up, and a lot of houses are empty. Then one day Bud slips into the library and discovers a boy just about his own age, Aubrey Marsh.  He’s the first kid Bud has seen, and he asks if there’s a Scout troop in town.  Aubrey doesn’t know what a Scout troop is, but he’s eager to learn and Bud is eager to teach him—even if they are the only two in the troop. Besides, scouting might give them both a chance to explore and maybe for Bud to discover what’s really going on in the town.

As I’ve said before, I occasionally like to pick up something a little creepy, something atmospheric rather than out and out horror.  This novella exceeded my expectations.  I can best describe it as Ray Bradbury meets H. P. Lovecraft.  It has Bradbury’s coming of age narrative, written from an adult’s perspective, remembering a pivotal time in his life, but surrounded by the mythology created by Lovecraft.

The writing is very evocative, and for me the story certainly delivered. There’s a very strong sense of place and time, just as in Something Wicked This Way Comes as well as a strong sense of innocence and decency.  Bud whole-heartedly believes in the Scout ideals and has tried to live them, and he finds a kindred spirit in Aubrey; but Bud is about to understand that not everyone else believes as he does.  This is also a story of friendship and innocence with an ending I found to be both melancholy and (perhaps oddly) sweet.

While I have read some Lovecraft, I am not particularly well-versed in that world but I didn’t have any trouble following the story. I very much enjoyed this book.   If you like Lovecraft and/or Bradbury, I think you will too.

Our Favorite Books Read in 2023: Rita and Tonia

 

Rita

 

The Four Agreements by Don Miguel Ruiz - This is a book that I have read multiple times. I find the insights to be enlightening, and I manage to take away something new with each read. 

 

Baggage by Alan Cumming - This is a very intimate look into the life of the Hollywood actor. He shares the tragedies and adversities he has overcome as well as many joyous moments. It is a very personal look at how life events shape the person one becomes.

 

Dolly Parton, Songteller by Dolly Parton  - I highly recommend listening to the audiobook and hearing the stories from Dolly herself.  It reads like the ultimate liner note with all of the stories behind the songs and the inspirations and influences. I believe this book is not just for fans of Dolly Parton, but for fans of music in general.

 

Mad Honey by Jodi Picoult and Jennifer Finney Boyle - I was, at first, drawn in by the abundance of amazing facts about bees. There is a wealth of knowledge about honeybees and beekeeping throughout the novel, but it also a story of love and acceptance woven into a murder mystery. With good character development and surprising twists, this book really held my attention.

 

Where the Deer and Antelope Play by Nick Offerman - There is a lot to enjoy in this book, from historical facts about the creation of the National Parks to humorous and often irreverent observations about the human spirit. Nick Offerman tells of three different trips taken across the country. One of those trips included Jeff Tweedy from the band Wilco and American writer George Saunders. I cannot read a Nick Offerman book without laughing out loud, and this was no exception.

 

Tonia

1.       Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia

2.       The Christmas Guest by Peter Swanson

3.       Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus

4.       The Marriage Portrait by Maggie O’Farrell

5.       Messy Roots by Laura Gao

6.       The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman

7.       At The Mountains of Madness by H. P. Lovecraft

8.       The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid

9.       The Devil Wears Scrubs by Freida McFadden

10.   We Used to Live Here by Daniel Hurst

11.   The Coal Tattoo by Silas House

12.   The Crossroads at Midnight by Abby Howard

13.   Ikigai by Hector Garcia Puigcerver

14.   Eerie Tales from the School of Screams by Graham Annable

15.   Pattern Behavior:  The Seamy Side of Fashion by Natalie Kossar

Shadows Over Baker Street edited by Michael Reaves and John Pelan

 

Reviewed by Jeanne

This wonderful collection of short stories imagines the worlds of Sherlock Holmes and H.P. Lovecraft colliding to deliciously chilling effect.  There’s a good mix of authors, from Poppy Z. Brite to Brian Stableford to Barbara Hambly, and as far as I’m concerned, there wasn’t a bad story in the bunch. I’ll confess outright while I have read a number of Lovecraft’s tales such as The Dunwich Horror, Rats in the Walls, and Pickman’s Model, I’m not well-versed in the world.  I’m sure I missed a lot of subtle touches, but even so I thoroughly enjoyed these tales.

I picked the book up to re-read a favorite story:  Neil Gaiman’s A Study in Emerald. I had read it in another collection some years ago, and then inspired by the graphic novel version of the story, decided I wanted to read the original and ended up working my way through the whole book. Gaiman’s story is set in a universe where, we gradually realize, the Earth is ruled by the Great Old Ones as royal families and the Great Detective and his Bosworth are called upon to solve the mystery of a murder of the Queen’s nephew. The writing is superb and the surprises are many.  I especially liked the advertisements that appeared from time to time.

 Some authors made more of the Victorian setting than others; The Curious Case of Miss Violet Stone by Brite and Ferguson which has Holmes and Watson investigating the case of a young woman who, it is claimed, has not eaten in three years is a reflection of the “fasting girls” of that era. 

Another uses Watson’s service in Afghanistan as a backdrop.  The Adventure of the Arab’s Manuscript by Michael Reaves had Watson encountering a woman who had once saved his life and who now is on the trail of a copy of a forbidden book. 

Usually in such a collection I’ll find a story or two that I consider a complete clunker, but not in this one. While I liked some stories better than others, there wasn’t a one I disliked.

If you like Holmes with a bit of a supernatural edge, this may be a collection for you. I think Lovecraft fans would also enjoy it.

A Study in Emerald by Neil Gaiman and Rafael Albuquerque

 

Reviewed by Ambrea

Defined as a cross between the world of Sherlock Holmes and the mythos of Lovecraft’s Cthulhu, A Study in Emerald follows the story of a man known only as “The Major.”  He meets London’s most brilliant detective and finds himself embroiled in solving a horrific murder – one with consequences that will ripple across the entire country and bring the full power of the throne to bear.

I’ve heard of A Study in Emerald.  I recall first hearing about it – or hearing of it, at least – a few years ago when Neil Gaiman responded to a Twitter thread about fanfiction.  The original poster, of course, didn’t like it; Gaiman, on the other hand, defended it.  “I won the Hugo Award for a piece of Sherlock Holmes/H.P. Lovecraft fanfiction, so I’m in favour,” he wrote.

 

So, I’ve known about A Study in Emerald for a few years without ever really knowing its title or its plot.  Mostly, I just knew that it existed, out there in the ether, maybe on the Internet or on a bookshelf.  It was somewhere – and then I stumbled across it on my library website and thought, “Oh, there it is.”

 

And then I promptly borrowed it.

 

A Study in Emerald was, truthfully, not what I anticipated.  It’s a mixture of mystery, horror, and weirdness that I can’t even begin to describe, but it’s beautifully illustrated and it’s very well-written and it’s absolutely fascinating.  If features characters known only as “The Detective” and “The Major” – a Sherlock and Watson substitute – who share a curiously similar dynamic to the original duo; however, they are individuals who have lived under the thumb of Cthulhu-esque rulers and so their demeanor is decidedly different.

 

A Study in Emerald features all the twists and turns one expects from Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, but with the flair – and curiously twisted imagination – one also expects from Neil Gaiman.  The Cthulhu mythos was an interesting element in the story.  I know only a little about Lovecraft and his writing, but, luckily for me, I didn’t have to know much to enjoy reading.

 

One of my favorite aspects from the illustrated version of A Study in Emerald were the chapter dividers.  It was a simple page between each section of the book that featured advertisements for Victorian era cures, treatments, and commodities, but given a slight twist.  For example, you have shoes from Spring Heel Jack or powders from Henry Jekyll or alternative medical treatments from V. Tepes.  I thought they were neatly done and very clever.

 

Overall, A Study in Emerald is an interesting – and, let’s be honest, weird – graphic novel.  Truthfully, I’m still processing my feelings about it, but I find that’s usually the way I feel about most books by Gaiman.  My initial feelings are always conflicted:  clear confusion – I’m not certain I like this, but I kind of do?  I mean, do I really like it? – followed by a deep, abiding appreciation for his work.

 

It usually takes me a few moments to collect my thoughts and realize how much I actually enjoyed the experience, because, truly, reading a novel by Gaiman is a completely unique experience.  His work, A Study in Emerald included, needs to be savored and chewed on, before one can really appreciate the twists and the weirdness and the sheer originality.

Smoke and Mirrors: Short Fictions and Illusions by Neil Gaiman

Reviewed by Jeanne

Let me start off by admitting that I am somewhat intimidated by Mr. Gaiman.  I often have the feeling that I am just too dense to understand some of his work.  Also, most of it has at least a trickle of darkness (if not a flood!) and I have to be in a certain frame of mind to read it.  For me, I find that his shorter fiction appeals to me a bit more.  Just because it’s short doesn’t mean it can’t pack a wallop.

And while there’s always a bit of darkness, that doesn’t mean humorless.  Gaiman has a great deal of wit and sly humor glimmering between the lines.

Smoke and Mirrors, as he explains in the don’t-miss introduction, refers to methods that stage magicians have used to fool viewers into believing impossible things.  Stories do the same thing; they appear to present a truth; but do they? Readers should be prepared to question everything as they fall through the author’s rabbit hole.

Or they can just enjoy the ride.

The collection includes poetry as well as stories, but the poems are just as haunting.  The fiction ranges from very short—just a smidge over a page—but most are around ten pages.  Some knowledge of Lovecraft will enhance appreciation for a couple of stories, but knowing a bit of folklore will almost always help. I find them all to be very visual, a veritable marathon of “Twilight Zone” or “Alfred Hitchcock Presents” episodes. In the introduction itself, Gaiman briefly discusses each entry.  I bookmarked that section and would go back to read what he’d said about a particular work after I had read it.  Then sometimes I would read the story again.  Most of the stories were written for particular themed anthologies (fantasy erotica, retellings of Grimm folktales, computer fiction, etc.) while others came from more general suggestions—cats and angels are popular, so why not write a story about a cat who is an angel? (The resulting story didn’t appear for some years and then in quite a different form.)

There’s really not a clunker in the whole collection, but for me the standouts were:

·         The Wedding Present which appears as part of the introduction is a tale Gaiman intended to write as a wedding gift for friends until he decided that perhaps they’d rather have a toaster. What would happen if, as a wedding gift, you received a book which wrote the story of your marriage—or rather, a story? One that might or might not be true?

·         In Chivalry, Mrs. Whitaker finds the Holy Grail.  It was right there under a coat in the thrift shop and quite pretty it is, too, but this young man keeps coming up and asking for it so he can fulfill his quest….

·         The Price is an unforgettable tale of a black cat and his devotion to his family.  By all means, though, go back and read Gaiman’s comments on the story in the introduction. It made me feel a lot better about the whole thing.

·         Shoggoth’s Old Peculiar is a bit of a cautionary tale in which one can be led astray by relying too much on guidebooks.   The first sentence is a delight, and I thought the story just got better from there. I forced a colleague to listen to me read parts of it aloud because I thought it was so funny.

·         The structure of Murder Mysteries gave me pause because I made the mistake of starting it and then not finishing it the same day.  Our narrator meets a man in the park who tells him a story in return for a cigarette, and his story so dominates the plot that after my break I had forgotten that he was telling the tale to someone else.  He was, he says, an angel—Raguel, to be specific, the Vengeance of the Lord, and it was his job to investigate the death of another angel.  It’s a mesmerizing tale and one indeed to consider long after the last page has been turned.

As I said at the beginning, I find Mr. Gaiman’s work to be a bit of a challenge so I sort of take a deep breath before I plunge in—but it’s definitely worth it.  I shivered, I laughed, and I pondered.  That’s more than I can say about a lot of stories.

Ghosties and ghoulies and long-legged beasties

Comments by Jeanne

"From ghoulies and ghosties and long legged beasties

And things that go bump in the night,

Good Lord deliver us."

variously attributed as a Cornish, Scottish or Irish prayer

There’s something about the chill in the air, the falling leaves, and the ever-early evenings that makes people want to read something spooky. Here are some true creepy classics:


“The Monkey’s Paw” by W.W. Jacobs was written in 1902 but a hundred and ten years later it can still chill. A couple is given a charm which will grant them three wishes. . . but each wish comes with a cost.

“The Black Cat” by Edgar Allen Poe gives me the screaming meemies. I can’t tell you much about it because I really just don’t like to think about it. Most anything by Poe is a good read this time of year.

“The Screaming Skull” by F. Marion Crawford is a first person narration by a man who has an unusual little souvenir, the skull of an acquaintance. He may also have given someone the idea for a murder.

H. P. Lovecraft shows up on a lot of lists of seminal horror authors, having influenced folk from Stephen King to Neil Gaiman. Try “Rats in the Walls” or “The Dunwich Horror” to get an idea of his work.

He doesn’t sparkle and he’s not exactly high school age, but Dracula by Bram Stoker really started something. His book wasn’t the first tale to feature a vampire, but somehow Stoker’s Count from Transylvania captured the public’s imagination. There have been innumerable sequels, retellings and crossovers with other characters (Sherlock Holmes in particular) which just goes to show you can’t really keep a good vampire down. As sequels go, a personal favorite is Fred Saberhagen’s An Old Friend of the Family.

Of course, the other great influential classic is Frankenstein by Mary Shelley.  People tend to forget it's named for the scientist and not for his creation, which begs the question as to who is the real monster.  This story too is still going strong in films like Frankenweenie, on stage, and in books by authors like Dean Koontz.

Finally, if I had time to curl up and reread some good books before All Saints’ Day, here’s what I’d choose:

• It’s dark. The wind shakes the dead leaves and causes the bare branches to wave. Two young boys heading home after school come upon a carnival that seems not quite right. . . . Something Wicked This Way Comes by Ray Bradbury

• A young lawyer is sent to settle an estate in an isolated English village. He doesn’t believe in ghosts. He will by the time he leaves. And no, the movie ending isn’t the same. Try The Woman in Black by Susan Hill.

• At a Halloween party, a young girl brags that she once saw a murder. Most people don’t believe her, but apparently one person does: the girl is found drowned in the apple-bobbing tub. Clearly, this is a case for Hercule Poirot in Agatha Christie’s Hallowe’en Party.