ericderoulet's reviews
64 reviews

The Butcher of the Forest by Premee Mohamed

4.75

Disclaimer: The author sent me an ARC of this book, no strings attached. Thus, I am reviewing it.

In The Butcher of the Forest, Premee Mohamed's exceptional ability to describe fae creatures, fae laws and norms, and boundary-crossing spaces shines through. This, to me, is the most obvious reason the story succeeds as a dark, decidedly adult fairytale. Mohamed builds a world in crisp, sharp detail but not to excess—Mohamed employs vivid imagery while still leaving enough to the imagination that we feel like we're in a dangerous fae world. As fairytale retellings and new fairytales are rarely to my taste, I expected this to be my least favorite book by Mohamed (though still a good one). I was pleasantly surprised.

Comparisons between this story and the Brothers Grimm fairytales have been popular among early reviews but might fall flat in explaining what exactly Mohamed has accomplished here. Whereas modern fairytales and retellings are known for being overly sanitized, and the original Grimm tales for being macabre, Mohamed's tale vacillates between the hopeful and the terrible to write a story with a better texture than either. Better still, the MC (Veris) and the children featured in The Butcher of the Forest are not merely vehicles for the plot, as I've tended to see in actual fairytales, but are sufficiently humanized to make me care about what happens to them. (Crucially, without this characterization, the twist near the end wouldn't have anywhere near the impact it does.) Veris is quietly extraordinary and doesn't quite understand her gifts herself, and both her buried traumas and her aging joints made me cheer her on throughout her adventure. The children Veris is charged with rescuing are neither flawless nor helpless, having what I think is a fitting amount of agency for children being escorted out of a scary, otherworldly place.

I'll admit I didn't quite like how Veris' primary trauma is partly hidden from us until the end, given that the narrative is very much zoomed in on her POV. That may just be a personal preference, though, and is my only real gripe with respect to plotting. The narrative is about as tight as can be for a secondary-world setting, and the adventure feels sufficiently perilous given that the time-and-space-bending nature of the Elmever allows some suspension of disbelief. After all, "all the world is a fable."

I highly recommend this piece of dark fantasy, and I continue to look forward to Premee Mohamed's several upcoming releases.

Clarkesworld Magazine, Issue 201, June 2023 by Neil Clarke, Neil Clarke, Carrie Vaughn, Dominica Phetteplace

5.0

Rated primarily for "Day Ten Thousand" by Isabel J. Kim. This is, quite simply, a piece of art that belongs in a gallery somewhere, at least if a short story could be put on display in an art gallery. Sci-fi can be so, so much more than a showcase of futuristic technology and strange creatures, and we really see that here.

I don't think it'll ever be the case that I like every single piece in a given magazine issue, but sometimes an issue brings such a groundbreaking story to light that it deserves all five stars.

No One Will Come Back For Us: And Other Stories by Premee Mohamed

5.0

Premee Mohamed's adventurousness in both genre-blending and literary craft really shines through in this collection. For one thing, she provide enough breathing room for really compelling world-building, something I often find lacking in the short story format, particularly in science fiction and fantasy. But there's plenty else that's daring in terms of her writing decisions here. Several stories dispense with supposedly sacrosanct "rules" of plotting for the sake of writing stories that turn out to be more memorable than they likely would've been if Mohamed had followed Save the Cat-style beat sheets or the usual admonitions one might hear in a college writing course. I can hardly think of a more successful (recent) example of the artistic principle "learn the rules so that you can break them." If you want to immerse yourself in absorbing stories about old and older gods and internecine conflicts while also learning what literary quality speculative fiction is capable of, by all means, pick up this book.

Short story collections are always difficult to rate because they contain multitudes. Yet I unreservedly give No One Will Come Back For Us and Other Stories a five-star rating: While obviously there were some stories that left a stronger impression on me than others, not a single one of these stories was put-downable for me, and Mohamed's writing powerfully stands out from the pack.

For anyone who's interested, I've written a lengthier commentary on literary "rules," the makings of exceptional writing, and a breakdown of several stories from No One Will Come Back for Us here.

You Are My Sunshine and Other Stories by Octavia Cade

5.0

I received an advance review copy of You Are My Sunshine for free from BookSirens without any obligation to leave a review.

Grief and dread seep through the climate horror stories in this collection, and even in the pieces that are lightest in tone, the grim optimism underlying them feels hard-won. The stories in You Are My Sunshine are far from light, easy reads, but there's much to appreciate here, not only in the collection's timely themes but in the impressive prose and writing craft demonstrated.

There's a good amount of experimentation with style and form here, with the first few pieces straddling the line between poetry and prose. Likewise, stories range in scope from vignettes to full-fledged narratives, but even those shorter pieces which are relatively light on plot and characterization succeed at communicating the themes and moods that are central to the collection. (I suppose a reader who's unaccustomed to climate fiction might find this off-putting, but as I understand it, sounding preachy isn't really a concern when writing about ongoing crises and their ample evidence.) Ultimately, Cade employs an impressive variety of literary forms to embody grief over our planet's condition as well as possibilities, grim and otherwise, for our future.

"You are My Sunshine," the title story of this collection, is particularly impressive in its writing, taking us on a macabre, somewhat surrealist journey with surprises, parallelism, and foreshadowing all at once. If there's one downside to this colleciton, it might be that "You Are My Sunshine" outshines the other members of this collection, yet this is understandable given that the care that Cade clearly put into its craft.

Tell Me Pleasant Things about Immortality: Stories by Lindsay Wong

4.0

While this wasn't really the collection for me, the stories are generally well written by any reasonable metric. Some of the stories belabored their gross and macabre elements (note: I read some body/medical horror but am partial to psychological horror), but Wong certainly has a knack for vivid imagery. Perhaps this collection is better read piece by piece rather than in one or two sittings.

The titular story is quite strong as a standalone piece, and the theming across the collection is pretty cohesive despite the range of settings and situations from one story to the next.

The Year's Best Dark Fantasy & Horror: Volume 4 by Paula Guran

4.0

Opening with the usual disclaimer that no reader will be satisfied with every story in a collection, this volume nicely rounds up some powerful meditations on grief and loss, all from very distinct perspectives. The stories I'd most recommend out of this lot are:

“Swim the Darkness” by Michael Kelly. Resonantly painful in a way I'm glad to read in fiction and would prefer not to experience for myself. And I'm always a sucker for gorgeous imagery.

“Douen” by Suzan Palumbo. This one's genuinely distressing at several points and empathetic throughout. I also can't recall the last time I've seen the voice of a child character written so convincingly. Readers who struggle with the dialect used throughout the story will benefit from broadening their horizons anyway. :)

“The Long Way Up” by Alix E. Harrow. The only issue with this story might be the none-too-likeable main character, but some stories work best with a main character who isn't likeable!

The Siege of Burning Grass by Premee Mohamed

5.0

I've received an ARC of this book and am thus reviewing it. Alas, I'm behind on my reading and hope to finish it this week.

I'll update this review if my mind changes, so but so far, I adore this novel. So far, we have a richly imagined internecine conflict, a compelling main character, clever worldbuilding (that doesn't suck up lots of oxygen from the narrative), and most of all, a profoundly important premise and subject matter. The setup takes a bit of time, but the first pages aren't wasted.

War stories are a dime a dozen in SFF, but not war stories about conscientious objectors, nor war stories that so effectively magnify the effects of war on civilians, regular life, and culture itself. I'm eager to finish this story and see what else awaits me!

A Voice Calling by Christopher Barzak

4.0

Nota bene: Psychopomp (the publisher) sent me an ARC of this novella; thus, I'm reviewing it.

In my experience, it's generally difficult to find haunted house stories that break any new ground as far as haunted house stories go. While I wouldn't say A Voice Calling is a revolutionary piece within the haunted house subgenre, the novella is a good read overall. The narrative voice is strongly rooted in the author's Midwestern background, the setting in World War II helps ground the story, and the history of multiple families living in and being haunted by Button House over time makes A Voice Calling more layered than its counterparts. I also found the reading experience as a whole to be pretty smooth; I was turning pages fairly quickly, not turning back to prior pages to review info very often, and I only found myself slowing down during especially tense moments.

Perhaps most importantly, as the story's events are viewed from the perspective of outsiders (several residents of the rural town), the narrative nicely reflects on how people in such settings feel (or fail to feel) communal responsibility and look out for each other. Other reviewers seem divided on the narrative voice, with some objecting that it's not clear who exactly is telling the story or that there's too much distance between the narrator(s) and the events. Personally, I found the narrative voice added substance to the story, and the question of who is speaking is hinted at well enough and then resolved cleanly in the final act.

I imagine some readers might also object to the length of the story (lots of readers seem to prefer novels to shorter fiction!) and having to keep track of all these different family histories bundled into one house. On the first point, I feel the story is roughly the length it needs to be; backstory is supplied where needed, and not too many pages are spent on past Button House families who don't figure prominently into the plot. The histories of those who've lived in and visited the haunted house sometimes gave me a lot of names and info to keep track of, but I thought Barzak presented all of this info well; the story put my brain to work but didn't give me information overload. I dare say a certain amount of complexity in literature is a good thing!

I do have a few criticisms, though the issues I identified in the story didn't ruin the reading experience for me, far from it.

Odd as it seems to say this, the setup for the fate of

Spoiler

Bernadette

made me think her story would end in a really ghastly, shocking event, but her actual demise feels like

Spoiler

a fairly standard tragedy

and falls flat somewhat.

The button motif is interesting given the story's characterization and historical context, but I was unsatisfied with how this was worked into the ending.

Spoiler

Once the ghost of Bernadette (who worked at a button factory) has done what she set out to do, and the evil/haunted orchard and house are burned down, the fact that perfectly intact buttons continue to be found in the ashes of the house is somewhat bizarre. The buttons seem to be a manifestation of Bernadette haunting the house, yet the house is burned down and Bernadette accomplished what she needed to. If there's one cross-cultural consistency in the lore surrounding ghosts, it's that their spirits stick around only because of something unfinished or unresolved in their former life.

Again, some relatively minor objections aside, I liked A Voice Calling better than the average haunted house story. I imagine enthusiasts for the subgenre will be pleased with the overall arch of the story while finding some refreshing elements in it.

The Mysteries by Bill Watterson

2.0

I wanted to like this. Certainly, the book's concept is worthwhile (even if the theme is far from unprecedented), and the art direction on display here makes for a good coffee table book or perhaps a portable art gallery. I'm also not especially surprised that the text in this book (really more comparable to a graphic novel) is sparse; it's normative, after all, for comics and graphic novels to do at least as much storytelling through the visuals as they do through their text.

Unfortunately, I thought both the visual and the textual storytelling fell short here. The text is so terse that it amounts to a vignette with not much of anything substantiated. I understand that the abstractness of the village, the forest, and most everything else is intentional—the book is clearly an allegory, applicable to any society, for hubris and our obsessive desire to be in control of our circumstances—but it results in characters I can't feel invested in and a world that doesn't feel lived in. The narrative style, as I've said elsewhere, provides less a bird's-eye view of the situation than the view of overlooking the landscape from the window of a passenger jet. It's pretty to look at, yet far too distant. Worsening matters is that most of the art panels, rather than supplementing the (again, terse) text, merely illustrate it for the most part. There are a few eye-catching visual paradoxes (society modernizes yet holds on to its old institutions), and the caricatured character art is interesting to look at at first, but these visual elements aren't enough to elevate the story into something noteworthy.

Again, I liked the overall message and the art for the most part. There just isn't much substance to this story, even compared to other works of its length. And I'm trying not to evaluate The Mysteries based on prior expectations, as many other reviewers have, but that's a tall order when the writer and co-illustrator is arguably the most influential comic artist of the last half-century or so.

Zen in the Art of Writing by Ray Bradbury

5.0

A number of reviewers here seem to have expected Zen in the Art of Writing to be a detailed guide to writing. Certain, Ray Bradbury offers a number of recommendations, some more concrete than others, but this book (really a collection of essays) is better understood, perhaps, as (1) an autobiographical piece on how Bradbury came to be a writer, and (2) a commentary on passion, inspiration, and how they come naturally to those writers who deliberately nurture them.

Not only does Bradbury write with zest and passion, but he effectively puts into words how becoming/developing as a writer is a deeply individualized process. Arguably, there isn't anything resembling a formula for becoming a writer, and even less so a commercially successful one; surely, creative work that's true to the creator won't come from following the same process as everyone else. Instead, what Bradbury does well here is offer a detailed, vivid slice-of-life view of the process of nurturing one's creativity and then pursuing a creative career.

If there's anything universally useful for writers here, it might be the reality check that becoming a skillful writer involves a daunting amount of work; Bradbury apparently wrote several million words' worth of stories before he reached adulthood, and even this didn't instantly lead to a career as a published author. I also appreciate Bradbury's self-enrichment program of sorts: Finding inspiration and subject matter in fiction, sure, but also in poetry, nonfiction, and being both observant and introspective while experiencing the real world. Here, too, there's arguably no one-size-fits-all solution, but plenty of writers struggle for lack of personal enrichment or else because they never read outside their favorite sub-subgenres.