Sublimely understated frights, both brooding and indelible.
This debut collection offers a series of disconcerting tales in which characters experience horror that’s more metaphysical than palpable.
In many ways, this book is populated by prisoners, beginning with “Angel of Mercy,” in which quadriplegic Marcus Ambrose is at the mercy of his caretaker wife, Elena. But as the story reveals, he may have already been locked inside a seemingly cold relationship. Fate often directs the characters, leading them to unavoidable dark conclusions and making all the tales rather gloomy. In “The Butterfly,” for instance, Benedict and Star’s sexual congress is enhanced when she demands he bite her fresh wound. But once the cut heals, Star will inevitably crave much more. Similarly, the unnamed female narrator in “Satan’s Lure” tends to the hungry and helpless Vern, hiding in the cellar from her father. But it isn’t long before the two give in to their primal urges. There’s religious allegory running throughout the volume, but like the stories’ horrific elements, Pizzarello effectively downplays it. Two of the more notable examples are the successive “The Silence” and “Fugues.” With shades of Kafka’s The Trial, the former follows an unknown man who may be facing punishment but is unaware of any crime (or sin) he’s committed. In the latter, Arnold is so intent on appeasing his Roman Catholic parents that he’s hiding within himself, an entity that sticks close to the marrow and sees Arnold as an automaton, only occasionally taking over. A standout among a stellar series is “The Stranger,” in which Nugent becomes fixated on a stranger who has way too much clout for having just arrived in town. Nugent’s paranoia turns dangerous, as he starts seeing anyone with a smirk like the stranger’s as a “minion” and himself as the people’s savior. It’s astounding that Pizzarello manages to end every story with a punch. There’s definite resolution in each case but always with a lingering uneasiness: what if, say, there’s merit to Nugent’s obsession? The book’s other tales, “The Gift of Life” and “Tabula Rasa,” are tender but ultimately unnerving companion pieces, featuring, respectively, a man with terminal cancer and a guy asking his best friend to be a sperm donor.
Sublimely understated frights, both brooding and indelible.Pub Date: Nov. 24, 2014
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: 223
Publisher: Book County Distribution
Review Posted Online: March 2, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2016
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
The emotions run high, the conversations run deep, and the relationships ebb and flow with grace.
When tragedy strikes, a mother and daughter forge a new life.
Morgan felt obligated to marry her high school sweetheart, Chris, when she got pregnant with their daughter, Clara. But she secretly got along much better with Chris’ thoughtful best friend, Jonah, who was dating her sister, Jenny. Now her life as a stay-at-home parent has left her feeling empty but not ungrateful for what she has. Jonah and Jenny eventually broke up, but years later they had a one-night stand and Jenny got pregnant with their son, Elijah. Now Jonah is back in town, engaged to Jenny, and working at the local high school as Clara’s teacher. Clara dreams of being an actress and has a crush on Miller, who plans to go to film school, but her father doesn't approve. It doesn’t help that Miller already has a jealous girlfriend who stalks him via text from college. But Clara and Morgan’s home life changes radically when Chris and Jenny are killed in an accident, revealing long-buried secrets and forcing Morgan to reevaluate the life she chose when early motherhood forced her hand. Feeling betrayed by the adults in her life, Clara marches forward, acting both responsible and rebellious as she navigates her teenage years without her father and her aunt, while Jonah and Morgan's relationship evolves in the wake of the accident. Front-loaded with drama, the story leaves plenty of room for the mother and daughter to unpack their feelings and decide what’s next.
The emotions run high, the conversations run deep, and the relationships ebb and flow with grace.Pub Date: Dec. 10, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-5420-1642-1
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Montlake Romance
Review Posted Online: Oct. 13, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2019
BOOK TO SCREEN
BOOK TO SCREEN
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
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