Earnest tales with interesting ideas but uneven follow-through.
Chism’s (Medea Royal, 2016) short story collection focuses on the feminine experience, using protagonists based on old myths in modern settings.
This mixed bag of mythical retellings has a strong sense of place in the Deep South, and the tales tackle issues of gender discrimination, religious oppression, and inequality. “Medea Royal,” for example, takes a close look at the classic figure from the epic poem Argonautica as an opera singer/serial killer—a promising premise that yields a sometimes-clever recasting. However, it’s muddled by heavy-handed proclamations on the evils of organized religion, the importance of reproductive rights, and the damage of the patriarchy. Explorations of such issues can enrich a narrative and deliver important, timely commentary, but Medea, as presented here, is merely a vehicle for that exploration, rather than the nuanced villain that she could have been. The prose is uneven in these tales—sometimes sharp and other times stodgy, and the dialogue can be stilted at times. However, some do feature intriguing ideas, executed with care, and handle their settings, plot, and characterization quite beautifully. A story of an old woman haunted by the ghosts of the victims of 19th-century killer Madame LaLaurie, for instance, seems as if it’s right out of a Joe Hill horror collection. The title work takes a look at the Greek Muses’ mother, who raises nine girls alone and succumbs to Alzheimer’s disease near the end of her life. It’s perhaps the strongest story in the entire collection, and it effectively examines motherhood, the demands placed on single working mothers, and the realities of dementia. Each daughter is a vibrant, fully realized character, and Chism succinctly establishes their relationships with their mother.
Earnest tales with interesting ideas but uneven follow-through.Pub Date: Sept. 4, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-5496-5860-0
Page Count: 226
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: July 11, 2018
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Part of Hoffman's great talent is her wonderful ability to sift some magic into unlikely places, such as a latter-day Levittown (Seventh Heaven, 1990) or a community of divorcÇes in Florida (Turtle Moon, 1992). But in her 11th novel, a tale of love and life in New England, it feels as if the lid flew off the jar of magic—it blinds you with fairy dust. Sally and Gillian Owens are orphaned sisters, only 13 months apart, but such opposites in appearance and temperament that they're dubbed ``Day and Night'' by the two old aunts who are raising them. Sally is steady, Gillian is jittery, and each is wary, in her own way, about the frightening pull of love. They've seen the evidence for themselves in the besotted behavior of the women who call on the two aunts for charms and potions to help them with their love lives. The aunts grow herbs, make mysterious brews, and have a houseful of—what else?—black cats. The two girls grow up to flee (in opposite directions) from the aunts, the house, and the Massachusetts town where they've long been shunned by their superstitious schoolmates. What they can't escape is magic, which follows them, sometimes in a particularly malevolent form. And, ultimately, no matter how hard they dodge it, they have to recognize that love always catches up with you. As always, Hoffman's writing has plenty of power. Her best sentences are like incantations—they won't let you get away. But it's just too hard to believe the magic here, maybe because it's not so much practical magic as it is predictable magic, with its crones and bubbling cauldrons and hearts of animals pierced with pins. Sally and Gillian are appealing characters, but, finally, their story seems as murky as one of the aunts' potions—and just as hard to swallow. Too much hocus-pocus, not enough focus. (Book-of-the-Month Club selection)
Pub Date: June 14, 1995
ISBN: 0-399-14055-7
Page Count: 256
Publisher: Putnam
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 1995
BOOK TO SCREEN
A treat for fans of The Evil Dead or Zombieland, complete with affordable solutions for better living.
A hardy band of big-box retail employees must dig down for their personal courage when ghosts begin stalking them through home furnishings.
You have to give it up for the wave of paranormal novels that have plagued the last decade in literature; at least they’ve made writers up their games when it comes to finding new settings in which to plot their scary moments. That’s the case with this clever little horror story from longtime pop-culture journalist Hendrix (Satan Loves You, 2012, etc.). Set inside a disturbingly familiar Scandinavian furniture superstore in Cleveland called Orsk, the book starts as a Palahniuk-tinged satire about the things we own—the novel is even wrapped in the form of a retail catalog complete with product illustrations. Our main protagonist is Amy, an aimless 24-year-old retail clerk. She and an elderly co-worker, Ruth Anne, are recruited by their anal-retentive boss, Basil (a closet geek), to investigate a series of strange breakages by walking the showroom floor overnight. They quickly uncover two other co-workers, Matt and Trinity, who have stayed in the store to film a reality show called Ghost Bomb in hopes of catching a spirit on tape. It’s cute and quite funny in a Scooby Doo kind of way until they run across Carl, a homeless squatter who's just trying to catch a break. Following an impromptu séance, Carl is possessed by an evil spirit and cuts his own throat. It turns out the Orsk store was built on the remains of a brutal prison called the Cuyahoga Panopticon, and its former warden, Josiah Worth, has returned from the dead to start up operations again. It sounds like an absurd setting for a haunted-house novel, but Hendrix makes it work to the story’s advantage, turning the psychological manipulations and scripted experiences that are inherent to the retail experience into a sinister fight for survival.
Pub Date: Sept. 23, 2014
ISBN: 978-1-59474-526-3
Page Count: 240
Publisher: Quirk Books
Review Posted Online: July 22, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2014
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