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Loved the first three stories!
Prominent editor Ellen Datlow has chosen my friend Laura Blackwell's story, "Bitter Perfume," from the woman-authored, Lovecraft-inspired "She Walks In Shadows" anthology as one of her best of 2016 long-listed stories.
The anthology is getting super reviews, Laura's an awesome writer, and this is a great, well-deserved honor.
If you like Lovecraft, horror-fantasy, or just plain old good stories, please check it out.
-cg
Are you familiar with obscure experimental Canadian film? Yeah, me neither.
I really hate to say this, but the story just couldn't keep my interest. At first their is a lot about Canadian film, which probably is interesting if a) you know something about it and b) it doesn't turn out to be completely fictional. The second part is a ghost story, based on an old European myth, which was more interesting but I felt it was still lacking something.
The writing is confusing, on purpose, at times, but I probably wouldn't have minded if I were more invested in the story. It's really a shame. I chose this book, even though it seemed quite out of my comfort zone, because Chi in the past has surprised me with some really good books. However, this particular one didn't work for me, although I'm quite sure there will be fans.
Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for providing me with a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review!
I bought this at the first Readercon I attended, wandering through the dealer room, with Gemma sitting at her autograph booth. She was starting out on her career, although this wasn't the first piece she'd had published, and I was completely and utterly unaware of her existence.
I probably had that look on my face, the one that told her I was new, unaccustomed to the glitz and glamor of the dealer's room. (It's a huge room full of books and authors signing books in a corner, or at the dealer tables. It's hella glamorous to me just for that.) I vaguely recall staggering around, staggered by the enormity of this convention - not in size or number of attendants, but by the enormity of being able to meet so many bibliophiles and authors and editors and publishers, and it hit me hard.
Anyway, I don't remember much of the conversation with Gemma. I don't remember much of that convention, in fact. I do remember she mentioned this has a Wolverine reference, and pretty much her hook being, 'it's just two dollars! What can you lose!' Anyway, I bought it, she signed and personalized it, and it was love. I read this in a frenzied half hour, rereading favorite lines, and ever since I've reread it now and then just because I love it, it's twenty pages, and I get taken back to that Readercon and how Gemma lured me into her trap. (I remember her beckoning me over, but I was very shy about approaching authors during my first con, plus I was mind blown, so I may be remembering that incorrectly. I believe it was probably accurate because I think I would have been too embarrassed to approach Gemma on my own. Either that, or she said something as I stood in line waiting to see whoever was next to her. There are two signature tables, right next to each other.)
Which says nothing about this short. Which is a fun, quirky take on drugs turning people to zombies. It's not even the concept, it's the small details, the two main characters who are in a lesbian relationship, the gore of it at the end, the popular culture references. It's a short, sweet pulp. The cover announces, 'A Lurid Melodrama!' and it delivers on its promise.
In addition, and I can't say this enough, I absolutely adore this author. And nothing's better than learning that a favorite author is also a wonderful person - or knowing that going into her first story.
I never told Gemma, and I don't think I even realized it until I actually typed out that story, but she was one of the first unknown-to-me authors I talked to at Readercon. I do believe she approached, or initiated, the contact, and I'm in her debt. I learned a very important lesson at that table: that the authors that I don't know at Readercon are just as amazing as the ones that I went there to see. She helped me approach other authors, even if only to tell them I liked their story, or I liked a concept for a story - and I believe that it helped me enjoy the other cons more than I would have otherwise. I owe her so much more than I realized until right now - and I hope to be able to tell her so in person next year!
PS - it's more like a magazine than a book: a short story with a glossy covered stapled together. I knew this when I bought it, but it's getting in a bit of a rough condition, edges folded over, etc, so if it ever falls apart completely, I will cry!
This was a bit of a tough one. Wildly inventive, beautifully written... but sometimes a bit hard to follow, and suffering from an acute case of the too-many-awesomes-itis. I mean, I love gunslingers, and magical woo-woo, and Mayan death gods, and corrupted preachers, and historical au's, and gay romance, and apocalyptic westerns as much as the NEXT girl... but maybe there's just a little bit too much going on here for one book? Seriously... I think that the ideas and concepts stuffed into this book could have been comfortably spread over at least 4 different novels. And when you factor in a timeline that flops back and forth willy-nilly, and prose that frequently veers into the purple, you end up with... well, a tension headache, to be honest. I had to stop in the middle and read something light and frivolous, before I could come back and finish it.With all that being said, I DID finish it, and I will most likely go on to read the next book in the series (after a break.) The author has an undeniable gift for inventiveness and originality, and really lovely prose at times. And I just really dig her overall aesthetic. I'm going to keep an eye out for this author in the future, because she has oodles of talent that could be honed to a lovely edge. Just... dialed back a little. Or a lot.
