A creepy, uncomfortable, and masterful short story collection.
Cassidy’s (Curious Reality, 2015, etc.) short story collection puts the twisted, broken minds of adults and children on dark display.
Overweight George craves love to a dangerous degree but has never received a lesson in healthy affection from his dry, depressive mother. As a result, his sad life revolves around obsessions that bring him comfort in solitude: collecting objects, including stolen library books and action figures, and binge eating, during which he tells himself that his food orders are part of his imaginary work and social life. Caleb was born addicted to heroin, thanks to having an addict mother who died in childbirth, and his explosive, alcoholic father makes his life a living hell. Caleb takes out his hate on neighborhood animals until he graduates one day to a more familiar target. These two unfortunate men make several disturbing appearances in this collection, while other morose, maniacal, and morbid personalities take center stage only once each. They include Cinderella’s stepmother, who can’t be convinced that mutilating her daughters’ feet was a bad idea; Jared, who pushes himself and his bladder to their limits in order to have a sense of belonging; Kim, whose crippling migraine headaches and traumatic memories make her an emotionally hollow mother to her two young daughters; and Pria, who suffers from a compulsion to pluck things, including eyebrows, pigeons, and pickles. Cassidy’s roster of characters runs the gamut of emotional dysfunction and situational sadness, but just when the sorrow gets a bit too heavy, her easygoing prose and black sense of humor take the edge off. For example, in “Invisible Joy,” a melancholy woman named Joy mentally lists “things not to do today: Panic. Feel regret. Drink any alcohol. Take more than 2 naps.” With a few exceptions, though, none of these characters is particularly likable. The author isn’t in the business of redemption, either, as the upsetting story arcs have no happy endings. However, Cassidy writes with such nuance that no matter how foul the character, there’s always a bit of humanity shining through. These tales will certainly make readers squirm, but that’s a small price to pay for this poignant glimpse into how human lives can careen away from the norm.
A creepy, uncomfortable, and masterful short story collection.Pub Date: Aug. 15, 2014
ISBN: 978-1-941938-00-3
Page Count: 120
Publisher: Pluvio Press
Review Posted Online: June 8, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2015
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A tasty, if not always tasteful, tale of supernatural mayhem that fans of King and Crichton alike will enjoy.
Are we not men? We are—well, ask Bigfoot, as Brooks does in this delightful yarn, following on his bestseller World War Z(2006).
A zombie apocalypse is one thing. A volcanic eruption is quite another, for, as the journalist who does a framing voice-over narration for Brooks’ latest puts it, when Mount Rainier popped its cork, “it was the psychological aspect, the hyperbole-fueled hysteria that had ended up killing the most people.” Maybe, but the sasquatches whom the volcano displaced contributed to the statistics, too, if only out of self-defense. Brooks places the epicenter of the Bigfoot war in a high-tech hideaway populated by the kind of people you might find in a Jurassic Park franchise: the schmo who doesn’t know how to do much of anything but tries anyway, the well-intentioned bleeding heart, the know-it-all intellectual who turns out to know the wrong things, the immigrant with a tough backstory and an instinct for survival. Indeed, the novel does double duty as a survival manual, packed full of good advice—for instance, try not to get wounded, for “injury turns you from a giver to a taker. Taking up our resources, our time to care for you.” Brooks presents a case for making room for Bigfoot in the world while peppering his narrative with timely social criticism about bad behavior on the human side of the conflict: The explosion of Rainier might have been better forecast had the president not slashed the budget of the U.S. Geological Survey, leading to “immediate suspension of the National Volcano Early Warning System,” and there’s always someone around looking to monetize the natural disaster and the sasquatch-y onslaught that follows. Brooks is a pro at building suspense even if it plays out in some rather spectacularly yucky episodes, one involving a short spear that takes its name from “the sucking sound of pulling it out of the dead man’s heart and lungs.” Grossness aside, it puts you right there on the scene.
A tasty, if not always tasteful, tale of supernatural mayhem that fans of King and Crichton alike will enjoy.Pub Date: June 16, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-9848-2678-7
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Del Rey/Ballantine
Review Posted Online: Feb. 9, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2020
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK TO SCREEN
Amateurish, with a twist savvy readers will see coming from a mile away.
A woman accused of shooting her husband six times in the face refuses to speak.
"Alicia Berenson was thirty-three years old when she killed her husband. They had been married for seven years. They were both artists—Alicia was a painter, and Gabriel was a well-known fashion photographer." Michaelides' debut is narrated in the voice of psychotherapist Theo Faber, who applies for a job at the institution where Alicia is incarcerated because he's fascinated with her case and believes he will be able to get her to talk. The narration of the increasingly unrealistic events that follow is interwoven with excerpts from Alicia's diary. Ah, yes, the old interwoven diary trick. When you read Alicia's diary you'll conclude the woman could well have been a novelist instead of a painter because it contains page after page of detailed dialogue, scenes, and conversations quite unlike those in any journal you've ever seen. " 'What's the matter?' 'I can't talk about it on the phone, I need to see you.' 'It's just—I'm not sure I can make it up to Cambridge at the minute.' 'I'll come to you. This afternoon. Okay?' Something in Paul's voice made me agree without thinking about it. He sounded desperate. 'Okay. Are you sure you can't tell me about it now?' 'I'll see you later.' Paul hung up." Wouldn't all this appear in a diary as "Paul wouldn't tell me what was wrong"? An even more improbable entry is the one that pins the tail on the killer. While much of the book is clumsy, contrived, and silly, it is while reading passages of the diary that one may actually find oneself laughing out loud.
Amateurish, with a twist savvy readers will see coming from a mile away.Pub Date: Feb. 5, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-250-30169-7
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Celadon Books
Review Posted Online: Nov. 3, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2018
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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