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B. HORROR

Name: B. HORROR
Author: Wendell Mayo
ISBN: 0-942979-62-1

AND OTHER STORIES

by Wendell Mayo ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 30, 1999

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paper 0-942979-61-3 Top-drawer horror stories, by the author of Centaur of the North (1996), that distance themselves from the genre routine by depending largely on fantasy, fun, and a wonderfully supple prose style. This is grand writing conveyed in the simplest words without the faintest hint of pulp fiction, although much of the subject matter comes from pop culture. In the title story, B. is a kind of horror vaudevillian who entertains at high school parties and other social affairs by giving the guests a taste of famous film monsters in memorable scenes from their best pictures. Thus, garishly costumed as the Creature from the Black Lagoon, or a Teenage Werewolf, or Karloff’s Frankenstein monster, he reenacts passages that have him violating a young girl, who is played by the narrator, a small-bodied young man who can shriek like Fay Wray or any other scream queen. The eponymous male protagonist of “Robert’s Bride” works at the Oldsmobile factory, fastening emblems onto new cars, and is engaged to a beautician who faces endless reengineering (like an Olds) to bring her utterly dead beauty to its deepest polish. “Woman Without Arms” stars a poet who wears prostheses to write her poems or even to slip a stick of gum from a pack. She’s so imbued with the metallic qualities of her arms that her very being, her mind and sexuality, shade off into metal. Another can—t-miss tale is “Mary Magdalena Versus Godzilla.” Horror fans, do not pass this by. Others should note that this off-offbeat sheaf from a university press has strong literary worth.

Pub Date: Oct. 30, 1999

ISBN: 0-942979-62-1

Page Count: 144

Publisher: N/A

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 1999

Categories:

GENERAL FICTION

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BETWEEN SISTERS

by Kristin Hannah ‧ RELEASE DATE: May 1, 2003

Briskly written soap with down-to-earth types, mostly without the lachrymose contrivances of Hannah’s previous titles...

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Sisters in and out of love.

Meghann Dontess is a high-powered matrimonial lawyer in Seattle who prefers sex with strangers to emotional intimacy: a strategy bound to backfire sooner or later, warns her tough-talking shrink. It’s advice Meghann decides to ignore, along with the memories of her difficult childhood, neglectful mother, and younger sister. Though she managed to reunite Claire with Sam Cavenaugh (her father but not Meghann’s) when her mother abandoned both girls long ago, Meghann still feels guilty that her sister’s life doesn’t measure up, at least on her terms. Never married, Claire ekes out a living running a country campground with her dad and is raising her six-year-old daughter on her own. When she falls in love for the first time with an up-and-coming country musician, Meghann is appalled: Bobby Austin is a three-time loser at marriage—how on earth can Claire be so blind? Bobby’s blunt explanation doesn’t exactly satisfy the concerned big sister, who busies herself planning Claire’s dream wedding anyway. And, to relieve the stress, she beds various guys she picks up in bars, including Dr. Joe Wyatt, a neurosurgeon turned homeless drifter after the demise of his beloved wife Diane (whom he euthanized). When Claire’s awful headache turns out to be a kind of brain tumor known among neurologists as a “terminator,” Joe rallies. Turns out that Claire had befriended his wife on her deathbed, and now in turn he must try to save her. Is it too late? Will Meghann find true love at last?

Briskly written soap with down-to-earth types, mostly without the lachrymose contrivances of Hannah’s previous titles (Distant Shores, 2002, etc.). Kudos for skipping the snifflefest this time around.

Pub Date: May 1, 2003

ISBN: 0-345-45073-6

Page Count: 400

Publisher: Ballantine

Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2003

Categories:

GENERAL FICTION

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TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD

by Harper Lee ‧ RELEASE DATE: July 11, 1960

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A first novel, this is also a first person account of Scout's (Jean Louise) recall of the years that led to the ending of a mystery, the breaking of her brother Jem's elbow, the death of her father's enemy — and the close of childhood years. A widower, Atticus raises his children with legal dispassion and paternal intelligence, and is ably abetted by Calpurnia, the colored cook, while the Alabama town of Maycomb, in the 1930's, remains aloof to their divergence from its tribal patterns. Scout and Jem, with their summer-time companion, Dill, find their paths free from interference — but not from dangers; their curiosity about the imprisoned Boo, whose miserable past is incorporated in their play, results in a tentative friendliness; their fears of Atticus' lack of distinction is dissipated when he shoots a mad dog; his defense of a Negro accused of raping a white girl, Mayella Ewell, is followed with avid interest and turns the rabble whites against him. Scout is the means of averting an attack on Atticus but when he loses the case it is Boo who saves Jem and Scout by killing Mayella's father when he attempts to murder them. The shadows of a beginning for black-white understanding, the persistent fight that Scout carries on against school, Jem's emergence into adulthood, Calpurnia's quiet power, and all the incidents touching on the children's "growing outward" have an attractive starchiness that keeps this southern picture pert and provocative. There is much advance interest in this book; it has been selected by the Literary Guild and Reader's Digest; it should win many friends.