jdbuffington 's review for:

The Secret of Ventriloquism by Jon Padgett

5.0

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This is a short story collection that contains a devious narrative through-line. Maybe it'll be immediately obvious to you, maybe it won't be until you've realized you're wondering if you might be able to follow some of the 20 SIMPLE STEPS TO VENTRILOQUISM yourself. THE SECRET OF VENTRILOQUISM is the Land of Oz if it were Centralia, PA, governed by Hunter S Thompson in a William S Burroughs fever dream. Everything is just a little too absurd to be real, but just recognizable enough to be acceptable. A horror that has flayed your mind so delicately you don't...mind. The imagery is evocative without being overbearing or stealing too much from your imagination. What can sometimes feel like the author has lost his way is actually a perfect study on how the average human mind just WORKS. Meandering thoughts lead to realizations lead to the ephemeral non-starter of action. Like the never ending ride of THE INDOOR SWAMP, Jon conveys thoughts and themes that are inescapable—life and death, anxiety and certainty, pollution and the illusion of cleanliness—and takes what should be unsettling and makes you want to go there. I want nothing to do with the particulate smog of the INFUSORIUM, but dammit do I want to see it, experience it, wave my hand through it slowly, and dig up blackened bones just to see for myself. Jon gives us that chance here. Dig through the loamy filth that is a nightmare, and if you don't find scattered remnants of what you didn't even know you feared, you'll certainly find an appendage or two willing to dig right back into you, and plant their seeds of convalescent madness.