'The moon has always been with us -- tempting us, enticing us, and enthralling us through the ages. Here you'll find thirteen stories involving this heavenly body -- sometimes tragic, magical, and other times mysterious, or horrific, but always, memorable.'
Moonlit Dreams, Moonlit Nightmares is one of the more interesting anthology books that I've read. Most anthologies have a theme that connects them, even if it's something as basic as being the same genre. This book is connected by the moon, and the stories within its pages are so varied in style and genre because of this that it makes for such an interesting and eclectic collection, one that I really enjoyed reading.
'A Consultation by Moonlight' by Thomas Vaughn is the first story in the book, and has a very dark tone. It follows a group of Roman politicians who have travelled a long way to talk to a witch, a woman who has the ability to glimpse into the future, so that Clodius can find out if he will come to rule the empire. The tale takes place in a creepy graveyard on a moonlit night, and is full of atmosphere and horror. The story builds up with a slow sense of dread, before it devolves into full horror. The story is great for setting the tone for the rest of the book, letting the readers know that they should expect stories that will take you by surprise, and go to some dark places.
'A Visitation' by Parineeta Singh is also a horror, but takes a more subtle approach, and doesn't rely on some of the shock and gore that the previous story does. In the story flora is a young woman who has travelled to spend Christmas with her boyfriend and her family, but because her partner is a bit shit, she has to find a hotel to stay in. She finds the Bull's Eye, a small hotel, and begins to see a strange spectral dog in the lounge area night after night. Flora begins to doubt her sanity, questioning if what she's seeing can really be true.
Lori Tiron-Pandit's 'Receiving Room' is a hugely fascinating story. It's presented in the form of a journal that logs a series of dreams that a young woman is having about her recently deceased friend Margo. Margo had been struggling with mental health struggles for years before she passed away. Over the course of these journal entries we learn more and more about Margo and her life, as well as getting a hint that something isn't quite right about the dreams being recorded on these pages. Each dream gets progressively darker, moving closer and closer to nightmares, and begins to hint at something dark on the horizon. It's a story that will definitely stick with you once it's done.
'The First Victims Club' by Shaun Avery is a very different feeling story, one that takes a strange and unique take on the classic slasher horror story. The story follows Greg, the victim of a vicious killer who wakes up in an afterlife where he and other 'first victims' have been brought together to view events back on earth following their deaths, allowing them to see how things have continued without them. Greg finds out that his girlfriend, Sindy, has turned Greg's death into something that she can profit from, and has made Greg into a villain. Alongside another first victim, Arabella, Greg must find a way to save his mother's life, and bring Sindy down. The story is so different from others in this collection, and takes such an interesting approach to death and the afterlife that it really stands out as something fun and different.
'Todd P. Taylor's 'The Experiment' is a particularly dark tale, one that sees the narrator becoming obsessed with a homeless man that he nicknames 'The Ratman'. The narrator decides to see how the homeless man will react to being left food, and devises a little experiment that he can perform. I won't say too much about what else happens in this story as it will spoil things, but I will say that the events are certainly disturbing. It's probably one of the darker and more upsetting of the stories because it doesn't rely on the supernatural like most of the other tales collected here, but is very grounded in the real world. The fact that a lot of this story could actually happen makes it scarier.
These are just some of the stories available in this collection, and show off the variety of stories that the book represents. Whether you're into stories that will make you think, that explore insanity and the extraordinary, or stories about ghosts and killers, Moonlit Dreams, Moonlit Nightmares will have something that will appeal to you, and a number of stories that could surprise you too. A brilliant anthology with something for everyone.
Bloodstone is the latest eighties’ release from Arrow Video that’s making the leap to Blu-ray for the first time, giving a whole new audience the chance to see it. Set in India, the film follows newlyweds Sandy (Brett Stimely) and Stephanie (Anna Nicholas) as they travel by train. They’re joined on their journey by a man who’s transporting the famous Bloodstone, a giant ruby that was taken from India by the British in the 18th Century, but was recently stolen. At the train station, the ruby is slipped into Stephanie’s bag to get past the waiting police.
Both the newlyweds, and their taxi driver Shyam (Rajinikanth) are targeted by criminals who want the Bloodstone. When Stephanie is kidnapped, Sandy and Shyam must work together to try to save her.
The basic concept for the film is pretty good, and whilst it has some slight ridiculousness to it, it’s the kind of misunderstanding or someone’s after the mcguffin type plot that’s been done countless times. What makes Bloodstone stand out, however, is the fact that it’s a joint venture between American and Indian production teams. Whilst this means that the film has a very different look and feel to other 80’s action fare, it also has a very Indian film style about it too (which the film’s extras do go into a little).
This is somewhat evidenced by the fact that the film’s biggest star is Rajinikanth, who plays Shyam. Rajinikanth was a huge star in Tamil cinema at the time, and still works to this day. With over 200 acting credits to his name, as well as a number of action roles, he was a big draw for Indian audiences. In the interview with producer and co-writer Nico Mastorakis, he talks about how crowds were so big when Rajinikanth was on set that there was even an accident where people caused a house to collapse. The film comes with a video essay about him, and it’s one of the most interesting parts of the set.
The extras prove to be more interesting than the film itself for a lot of the background details they included. I spent most of the film thinking that something about Brett Stimely’s voice sounded off, only to find out that they’d completely re-dubbed him with David Soul from Starsky and Hutch to make him sound more rugged.
Sadly, the film itself didn’t entertain as much as the extras did. The plot seemed to meander around a lot, and the story felt like it could have been tightened up a lot more, and the action sequences never really had a sense of energy to them that really sold them. They felt like stage fights rather than real fights because something about them felt slow and sluggish half the time.
One of the biggest things that drew out of the film, however, was the rather strange tone that it had. It was like the film wanted to be a straight action thriller, yet had moments of slapstick comedy that felt completely out of place. This was chiefly due to the main police character, who Mastorakis described as being a Clouseau-like figure. Not only were these scenes pretty bad because they didn’t fit the tone of the rest of the film, but because the character was played by Charlie Brill, complete with blackface, and a bad Indian accent.
Worst of all was the way he’d make his head sway around whenever he delivered a line. There were scenes with him where other characters would look fed up with him, and I wonder whether this was an acting choice to show his fellow officers didn’t like him, or was actually the Asian cast members being annoyed about his awful blackface impressionism.
Overall the film wasn’t the best I’d ever seen, and whilst it was interesting to see a co-production between a US studio and Indian film, I’d rather just watch an Indian-made action film instead. Luckily the disc has some good extras that I found to be more engaging than the film itself, otherwise it would have scored lower.
Vampire movies are always popular. Whether it’s something dark and horrific, or a comedy, or even a romance story, there’s just something about these creatures that seems to grab people’s attention. One type of vampire that hardly seems to get any attention, however, is the Jiangshi, or the Chinese hopping vampire.
Mr Vampire is not just one of the best examples of a Jiangshi film, but is the movie that led to something of a Chinese vampire film revolution, spawning four sequels, and countless imitators. Lovingly restored and presented in high definition, this new release from Eureka Entertainment is a must for horror-comedy fans, and anyone interested in the golden age of 80’s Hong Kong cinema.
The film follows Master Gau (Ching-Ying Lam), a Taoist priest, and his two bumbling assistants Man Choi (Ricky Lau) and Chou Sheng (Chin Siu-Ho). Master Gau is a well respected member of the community, and uses magic to help maintain control over harmful spirits and vampires. When he’s approached by a local businessman to help rebury his father, in order to bring better prosperity to his family, Master Gau agrees. However, when the coffin is raised from the ground they find that the body hasn’t decomposed, leading Gau to suspect that it has become a vampire. When the body is brought back to his home for further study it revives and escapes. Now it’s down to Gau and his assistants to find and stop the vampire that’s terrorising the town.
Mr Vampire is a great movie. It manages to walk the line between horror and ridiculousness very well, especially thanks to the strangeness of the Jiangshi. Due to rigor mortis in the body, Chinese vampires have to hop to get around, leading to tense moments of people being stalked by vampires feeling a little silly. Rather than fighting against this the movie embraces this silliness and actually has some great comedic moments too.
You get small moments, like a ghost stalking Chou Sheng getting knocked off the back of his bike by a low branch, but also entire scenes that are just there solely to get a laugh. There’s one moment where Chou Sheng thinks a woman coming into the shop to buy make-up is a sex worker, and the conversation they have is laugh out loud funny when she’s telling him how she learnt to put on make-up as a child thanks to her mother, and he thinks she’s talking about sex work. It’s so farcical and ridiculous, but it made me so endeared to the characters and set up early on that the film didn’t take itself too seriously and had a good sense of humour.
The film also has some great action sequences, and the fights with the vampires are creative and fun. There are some especially impressive stunts that make great use of the environments to make the sequences more dynamic, and it’s easy to see why Hong Kong cinema has some of the best practical stunt work in the world.
The new Blu-ray comes with some great interviews with cast members that goes into some of these moments in greater detail too. In one of the interviews Chin Siu-Hou tells the audience how he had to do a 14 foot jump with no crash-mats a number of times, despite hurting himself on the first jump. These interviews give great little background titbits like this that makes the film interesting to watch a second time around, having learnt a little more about the production of the movie. The extras also come with a full commentary from Asian film expert Frank Djeng that’s incredibly informative and fascinating.
I had a great time watching through Mr Vampire, and the extras on offer on the disc just added to this enjoyment as I found myself wanting to learn more about this crazy, fun movie that went on to have such a big impact on Hong Kong cinema. The film was fun and entertaining, with genuinely great comedy, some cool horror moments, and action sequences that really impressed. I hope that Eureka give the same kind of treatment to the other movies in the franchise too, as I’d love to see more.
Anthology books are a popular form of entertainment. They let you read several stories from a number of different creators, and allow you to pass the time experiencing quick tales that don’t take long to consume. With how popular the format is it’s a little surprising that this form of entertainment hasn’t made more leaps to the big screen. Creepshow 2 is one the few films that’s brave enough to break away from the traditional film structure, and go for an anthology instead.
The film is a follow up to the 1982 original, and is once again brought to life by George A. Romero and Stephen King. Whilst the first film gave us five stories, Creepshow 2 was the victim of a budget cut, and only has three horror tales to its name.
The first story, ‘Old Chief Wood’nhead’ has a group of young hoodlums kill the kindly owners of a small town convenience store. The wooden Native American statue out front of the shop comes to life and starts to exact revenge on the three men responsible.
The majority of this story is given over to set up, with long scenes establishing who the store owners are, and why we should care about them. The scene where the three criminals hold the store keepers hostage is probably the longest scene in the film, and despite the fact that these kind folks are being held at gunpoint it actually lacks tension. The scene drags quite a bit, so by the time the statue actually comes to life to get revenge there’s not much time left and we get a quick montage that only lasts several minutes.
It’s sad that so much time and effort was given over to the set up, yet so little time was given to the revenge scenes. The moments with the living statue came and went so quick that there wasn’t time to build tension or play up the horror of the moment.
The second story, ‘The Raft’, is probably the best of the bunch. It’s got a pretty simple premise, and sees four teens heading out to a lake to swim, have fun, and try to get laid. The four of them swim out into the lake to a raft in the centre. It’s then that they notice a strange substance in the water, a weird kind of oil slick that moves around the raft, circling them. One of the teens falls into the water and is enveloped by the slick. It strips the flesh from her body and devours her. The rest of the teens try to formulate a plan to get back to shore, but are slowly picked off one by one over the course of the story.
This is the kind of schlocky story that just wouldn’t work in another kind of format. There’s not enough here to make a full film out of this premise, but for the time it’s on screen it’s probably the most consistently good of the three. That’s not to say it’s perfect; the effects of the creature are a bit flimsy and it sometimes looks like a pool cover floating around, and there’s a scene of sexual assault. But despite this it manages to entertain and keep the tension throughout.
The final story is ‘The Hitch-hiker’, which follows a cheating businesswoman on her drive home late one night after visiting a sex worker. Desperate to get home before her husband realises she’s been out late she doesn’t pay attention and hits a hitch-hiker, killing him. Choosing to get out of the area rather than face the consequences, she takes off. During the drive, however, she keeps seeing the bloody hitch-hiker, and he begins attacking the car, trying to get in at her, repeating the phrase ‘Thanks for the ride lady’.
I know this story is supposed to be scary, but there were times where it felt a little farcical. The number of times that the hitch-hiker is knocked off the car, or thrown into a ditch, then comes back saying ‘thanks for the ride lady’ whilst hanging from the door actually started to get a little funny. Despite this, it was still a good story, and was probably more fun because it made me laugh a few times rather than it trying to keep the tension. Whether that was the intention or not, I can’t say.
Overall Creepshow 2 is a fun anthology movie. It has some good stories that didn’t wow me, but kept me entertained, and the animated interludes between them were pretty cool and had a very retro feel to them that brought a lot of 80’s fondness with it. A pretty good movie, though one that I’d say is more comedy than horror for the most part.
This new set also comes packed with a whole host of extra features and behind the scenes info. The film has a full audio commentary by director Michael Gornick, and there are a load of behind the scenes interviews with actors, make-up effects artists, and even George A. Romero himself. The special features are definitely worth the time, and really pack in the value for money with this set. If you’re anything like me you’ll love learning more about the film, and this set really delivers on that.
At a time when television shows seem to be competing to be the next Game of Thrones, big budget shows filled with sprawling storylines and massive casts, it’s nice to get a series that feels a little smaller. Vagrant Queen feels like a show that would have been at home in the 90s or early 2000s. It’s more concerned with having fun and telling a good story than wowing the audience with empty visual spectacle.
The show follows Elida (Adriyan Rae), a scavenger and outlaw. It’s revealed, however, that Elida is actually princess Eldaya, the ruling monarch of the planet Ariopa, who’s been forced into hiding following a political coup. When her longtime friend Isaac (Tim Rozon) arrives with information about Elida’s mother she sets out to find her with the help of Isaac and mechanic Amae (Alex McGregor), whilst being hunted by the deadly Commander Lazaro (Paul du Toit).
Despite the serious nature of the show, and the dark themes that it deals with, Vagrant Queen has a great sense of humour, and isn’t afraid to throw some downright silly moments in to break up the main quest to find Elida’s missing family. There’s an episode towards the end of the series that turns into a drunken murder mystery inspired by Cluedo, complete with the playing pieces, it’s so good.
The fact that the show doesn’t take itself one hundred percent seriously is a major bonus towards making it a lot of fun. The humour is well used, and doesn’t ever really feel forced, and it helps to balance out what could otherwise be a quite dark story. The humour also makes some of the more serious moments stand out too; there are some episodes that explore the backstory of characters like Elida and Lazaro that show that they’re more than just hero and villain, and that there is a lot more abuse and moral grey in their backgrounds that helped to shape them into who they are now.
The series clearly doesn’t have the same level of budget as some of the other sci-fi shows on offer at the moment, and there are times where some of the effects don’t quite fit, but this was never a problem for me, and actually went a long way towards adding to the charm of the series. The smaller budget, its sense of fun, and the amusing little detours it has amidst a series-long arc reminded me of shows I grew up watching in the 90s like Farscape.
The series has currently not been renewed for a second season, and fans are campaigning to bring Vagrant Queen back for another year. If this happens it’ll be great, as I’d love to have more of the show, but if not then this box set represents the complete show. Whilst it’s great to have the series all together in one set I was slightly disappointed that there was nothing on the discs other than the episodes.
Where other shows include trailers, behind the scenes details, and even commentaries, this is a pretty bare set; you can get more behind the scenes details by looking at the social media of the series’ stars than on these discs. This is the only thing that really brings down the box set from a full 5 star rating. The show is amazing, but I’d have loved to learn a little more about it with some extras.
Vagrant Queen was a ton of fun, and it’s got some great moments that still stand out as some of the most entertaining I’ve seen on TV this year. I really hope that season two does go ahead, but if not I’m really glad that the show has come to home release.
This month sees the release of Axiom's End, the new novel by YouTuber and film critic Lindsay Ellis, who has become popular online for her video essays and fun loving personality. Axiom's End centres on Cora, a young woman whose father is on the run from the government for leaking sensitive information, including claims that the government has made first contact with aliens. When Cora gets dragged into this mystery, however, she will learn a truth that will not only change her life, but the entire world.
I got the chance to sit down with Lindsay and talk about the book, her process of writing it, and some titbits about the next book in the series.
In the blurb for the book it talks a lot about the cover-up, and -
And that's not what it's about (laughs).
Yeah, it makes this big thing about the leaks and trusting the government.
I feel like I'm getting dinged for that, but I think thematically that's what it's about. It's kind of like a Simpsons episode where it starts in one place and veers in a very different direction. That was my call, my deep dark secret is that I pretend I don't have any control over it but I have all of the control over it because I wrote that into my contract. I had to be if not in charge of the marketing, then I needed to sign off on the marketing, they can't do anything without my permission. I have to okay everything, so I wanted to push it in this bury the shit out of the lead direction because I wanted to draw in an audience that might not think they're into that sort of thing. So it's like 'come for the government conspiracy, stay for this bizarre love story'.
I also wanted it to be un-gendered, because early on when they were doing the covers it was girly to the point that the first few covers that I got back were very 'is this for 10-year-old's?' They were pink and purple. We pushed it in this Saul Bass direction in the marketing because I wanted it to be as a-gendered as possible. I didn't want it to look girly or masculine, I didn't want it to look like a thriller, I wanted it to look like a vibe. So I guess I pushed it in that direction because I think burying the lead would allow people to accept it on it's own terms because it wasn't marketed like The Shape of Water.
One of the things that very quickly started jumping out at me was the relationship between the two leads, Cora and Ampersand. You'd spoken in some of your videos about misunderstood monsters and romances with monsters, was that the kind of story you've wanted to tell for a while, is that a theme that connects with you?
Yeah, totally. In the previous life of this book that's what I wanted, but was a total chicken-shit about it. The emotional core of it was buried and non-existent. So the result was, in my opinion, a story that was way more boring. Just people doing things in a sequence, not because they're motivated by any emotions. So it wasn't until Kayleigh Donaldson at Pajiba started tweeting about The Shape of Water and this other graphic novel that came out around the same time around the end of 2018 and she was like 'our day has come, monster fuckers of the world unite'. And there was this giant thread of people being like 'yeah', and I thought maybe that's what the kids are into. So I guess that's kind of what galvanized me to approach this story the way I always wanted to but was too cowardly to do in my younger years.
But also I wanted to play it completely straight. That's the other thing that makes this really challenging, because I didn't want it to be like a joke. But I also didn't want it to be like a hot boy that says he's a monster sometimes because that's really popular still. So that was my personal challenge, can I make this work, and not just for people who are already into that, but for a mainstream audience.
Did you ever get any push back on that, because as opposed to things like Twilight or Warm Bodies where they're a monster but still a hot boy Ampersand is so alien?
Yeah, I wanted to make it as physically alien as I could go without it being distracting or unbelievable, though I guess it is fundamentally unbelievable. Visually I like to think of him as this exact middle ground between Geiger's Xenomoprh from Alien and Eve from Wall-E. So whatever the exact middle point is where he lives. But I don't think you ever really see anything like that outside of movies because in books it does tend to be very conventional, they're almost always white, they're always young, they usually have brown hair; it's a very specific look. I just read one where his flaw was he had a scar on his cheek but he was otherwise the sexiest boy who ever sexied, and I just don't find that interesting.
It's a lot more of a challenge to make this believable. Because that's another problem I had with The Shape of Water was that there wasn't really a curve. In The Shape of Water Elisa and the fish man just instantly have a connection, they have an E.T. heart bond, and there's no real period of mistrust. There is a kind of learning about each other but it's always in complete good faith so their relationship doesn't really change as the movie progresses. And I think that's more appealing to me in this type of narrative, in a Beauty and the Beast story like 'barely even friends then somebody bends', that's the appeal.
Were there any monsters that helped inspire Ampersand or played into your creation of him and the other aliens?
Well the ironic thing is, and I'm sure this is coming down the pike, I had sold this book about a month after Bumblebee came out (laughs) and as I was watching Bumblebee I was enjoying the shit out of it as it's the only good Transformers movie, but I was also like 'oh no, I'm going to get accused of plagiarism' because similarities are there. There are a lot of similarities, but from a character perspective it is honestly kind of rare because usually it'll be for kids. If there's a sympathetic monster character it'll be E.T. or the Iron Giant, so usually whenever you have any genuinely inhuman looking character it's for children's media.
I think the Transformers movies are these weird outliers, but it totally does that, it doesn't do it well but it tries. Then Arrival kind of does it, but I think the thing about Arrival is the aliens are still kind of like ideas more than characters with personality, and I think that's the real trick, crossing the line from being almost like a plot device to having a personality and having understandable motivations that change over the course of the narrative. So I think its something that you don't really see, and a lot of people felt it was like YA, but it doesn't; it feels younger than that because you don't see that sort of thing in adult media very often, but it doesn't feel like YA because you never see anything outside of a hot white boy as the love interest.
But no, I can't say that he was. I think any media is kind of a reflection of the author, so I think he's sort of like that part of myself that's really distant, and self contained, and controlling, and micromanaging; and I guess fearful. I liked this idea of it being a mutual disgust. I think that's also something you don't see very often outside of thought experiments. 'We assume that the aliens are scary and bad, and are here to kill us but what does the reverse look like? What is potentially frightening about us?' And so I felt that at least in the first half a lot of his motivations are dictated by that.
Yeah, I enjoyed how there's that moment where he mentions about her being a meat eater and it seems to freak him out, and you realise he's just as scared of her, and seeing that change was great. There's the 'nesting' scene -
That's funny because that's what we called it too (laughs).
That moment where you realise he's figured out he doesn't have to be scared of her, and she's having almost the same realisation. That's the point where I thought 'okay, these guys are falling in love', and I suddenly realised I was starting to love this book.
Oh it's one of those (laughs). I had some many of my friends who were sort of like the Arrested Development scene with dead dove do not eat where they're like 'well I don't know what I expected from you'. I had one friend DMed me after finishing it saying 'you sneaky bitch, you wrote a monster boyfriend book', and I'm just like 'what did you expect?' (laughs).
Are there any designs for Ampersand? I had a really clear image of him in my head and I thought Lindsay's probably got a really clear idea what she wants him to look like and I don't know if my version is like that, but I can't translate that to drawing.
I think it's one of those things where it's out there, that's how prose works, you write the thing and however somebody reads it is correct. There's no wrong way to read a description and visualise it. But it's also kind of tricky. I did hire a concept artist to help me just get it down so I could have something to work from when I'm describing not just Ampersand, because there's about 30 of them in there and they're all roughly the same shape but different sizes. And it was really hard because instead of describing them the way I do in the book I was pulling from visuals like 'this more, or this dinosaur', stuff like that, and it was this back and forth that I found really hard because it kept not being correct and eventually I was kind of like 'well this is good enough' because working with a concept artist I could never get it quite right.
I feel like it's always going to be this wildly different thing in your head, or anybody's head, and that's fine, that's not wrong. It might not be what I had in my head, but it's sort of like this death of the author thing where I did the best I could but if the descriptions aren't vivid enough that's on me.
When I finished the book this was one of the first books that elicited quite a strong reaction in me. Film or TV I'll cry at the drop of a hat, but books don't tend to do that but there was something about this story, and I realised after sitting and thinking about it for days was that it's the way you wrote a 'monster' who turns out to be a really kind person and it's the fear of the unknown. And that connected with me because like most of these kinds of stories as a minority you kind of get a lot of that in real life and people have that kind of reaction to you. Did you think about that kind of thing while writing it or is that something that evolved in the process?
A lot of the details and the way things go down changed over the course of revising this over however many years the basic plot points, especially in regard to their dynamic were always set in stone. I'd see some reviews talk about how Cora's this really unsympathetic character which strikes me as very odd because to me the thing that makes her unique, her defining moment is basically an act of compassion which happens towards the first third of the book. She can't really articulate why she does this thing but it felt like the right thing to do, and that sort of being the catalyst for how their relationship develops.
Basically it takes Ampersand a while to see that for what it is, let alone place any value on it, because you can from this outside perspective see it as this arbitrary decision but the fact that it happens more than once and the fact that this is helping you more than the reason you came here and I think that was intentional and important. I think it does make her somewhat unique where you see this thing and you don't get it, and in some ways will never get it, but your instinct is to show compassion rather than aggression. That's sort of the central core to their relationship, compassion versus fear.
I'm sure the answer is going to be no, but are you able to tease anything that might happen in Truth of the Divine or where the characters might go?
I guess I had one friend kind of compare it to Into the Woods act two because effectively the second book is the one I had in my head before the first one. The second book is about the fallout. This is kind of a light spoiler, but one thing that I hadn't seen done very often, again except for Transformers, is how does society cope with the existence of first contact and the fact that it happened? The world didn't end, we have our economy, we get on with our lives and for all we know this is just the world now. You don't really see that happen. What I was interested in was how it shapes society, which is part of the reason why it's an alternate history so we can almost sort of have fun tracking the way the two different timelines diverge.
I wanted to tell a story that was just about that, how society copes with this change in our understanding of ourselves, and in order to do that I had to write the first one because I had to set it up. But at the same time it's also fundamentally about the relationship of these two characters. So I guess the second one is much more about the societal fallout, because that's in the background of the first book but it's not really front and centre. In the second book it's much more front and centre. These two have a fundamentally impossible relationship because they're so different and it's really frustrating and so the difficulty of having this relationship with this other being is also very front and centre. It's also a lot darker.
That's a bit worrying as this gets dark at times.
Really? I thought this was was the fun one.
No, there's a moment towards the end where I almost put the book down thinking 'if this goes the way I think it's going to go I can't finish this', but luckily it wasn't that dark.
I did see one review that wished it had gone the way I think you thought it was going to go and they said it would have been a lot braver and that it was the cowards way out, but I've got five books, come on. Other than this series do you plan to do more writing, is there a chance Commercial As Fuck will come out at some point?
No. This is kind of a difficult conversation to have because you have to be careful what you say, but part of the issue with Commercial As Fuck was very much 'stay in your lane'. I talked to my publisher about having this other book, and I that I was feeling kind of iffy on it. The only thing I told him about it was that the main character was a woman of colour who was also disabled, and he was like 'I'm going to stop you right there, no' and that was the end of that. He didn't need to know anything else. The answer was no.
We're in this ecosystem right now, and I don't want to start to claim that I have the answers, but we saw this big controversy around American Dirt and who gets to tell who's story. And when I was writing it in 2016/2017 it didn't really ping to me as a bad idea but then as time passed I grew more and more uncomfortable with it. Right now I think were, rightfully so, in a phase where Own Voices, the people who are living these experiences should be in charge of who tells their own story. Plus it also dealt with some other scientific things that are like an ethical minefield because it was near future and had to do with genetic engineering. That's the main reason why I don't think that one will be revisited anytime soon. But, I'm in talks with some more mainstream publishers to do some licensed work with characters that are not mine.
That's a very cool tease, I look forward to finding out what that might be.
It will surprise you (laughing), whatever you're thinking you're probably wrong. You'll be like 'wow, I did not see this for you'.
So you're not going to be writing the better sequel to Phantom of the Opera than Love Never Dies?
No joke, my co-writer Angelina and I have been sort of joking-not-joking about this for years. I think we might have gotten scooped because Netflix are doing a Phantom mini-series. But we're constantly joking that there is no good adaptation of Phantom of the Opera, the best we've got is the Andrew Lloyd Webber musical so we would always talk about how we would make it work and make a Phantom of the Opera adaptation that is good and works. We've seen it done in fan fic, we know it can be done, but we never stated it. But maybe if this book does well I'll be in a position to say 'hey, I hear you like phantoms, I've got a pitch'. (laughs)
You were saying the second book is exploring more of the fallout and that that's what initially drew you to it, is that the reason why book one is set in 2007, did you have to jump backwards so that the second one would be closer to the point where you were coming up with the idea?
The second one takes place in 2008, so that's why. I have this thread of neologisms of terms that didn't exist back then and I think people wrongly think that thread's about Axiom's End, and it's not, it's about Truth of the Divine, the second one. But no, it was more of an aesthetic thing, and the fact that the idea of the story happening now in Trump's America is more absurd than any of the alien shit (laughs). Because its like second Trump got elected people were saying we know there not aliens because he would have blown the lid off that in two seconds.
But also because a lot of the background stuff that happens in this in regards to the political fallout and keeping this thing secret depends on the assumption of political decorum and honouring ideals. Right now we have a scandal every day but you look back at the 90's where Bill Clinton got impeached for a blowjob and it's impossible to imagine that happening now. So it needed to be at a time where there are actual consequences for lying, and I think people are so used to this concept of aliens as a trope that it's hard to appreciate how much that would really shake society. At least for a little while. I think Carl Sagan oversold it, I think he thought it would completely change everything, but I don't know, I think it would for a little bit but it would settle back into new normal very quickly. That's just human history, that's what happens. It just couldn't happen now. After 2016 everything's just dashed on the sidewalk.
Is there anything that you changed along the way from previous drafts that you regret losing?
Not really. I think the axiom 'kill your darlings', I don't agree with that. It's only your darling when you write it, but then if it needs to go you realise it does. Although there is one exchange in this that I had to cut. There's a YouTube comedian called Chris Fleming. If you're a Phantom of the Opera fan google Chris Fleming Phantom docks his boat for the winter. I had an exchange that was an extended quote from that video, and the ten people who'd get it would have thought it was a knee slapper, but I had to cut it. So little things like that where if the scene doesn't work and there's a line or two that I had to cut that'll be kind of a bummer, but in general nah.
At first it was just coming up with this hypothetical civilisation and an evolutionary history for them, why there language is what it is, why there physiology influenced what we would call 'trans-human' or 'post-human', what an alien version of that might look like. In earlier drafts of the book I didn't spend a lot of time thinking about motivation, especially on Ampersand's part. What was he doing during this month or so before he enters the narrative proper, and why was he doing it? How does he feel about it? How does he feel being here? And I think it's much richer for me having thought about all that and working in biases.
Like being human we don't really think about what an anti-human bias would look like. Because a lot of times it'll be like 'you're inferior', but the narrative doesn't really explain why. But for him to have really concrete reasons to feel this way that makes sense. Like if you're descended from herbivores the idea of an omnivorous alien would be horrifying. And also if you were descended from a race that isn't as jealous or competitive; because I think if you take a step back our competitiveness is why we have advanced so quickly, and I can see where that would seem terrifying to outside eyes if that's a value they don't hold as a good thing.
When you were developing the alien race and thinking about their backstory, you mention in the book that there are three space faring races and two of them get explained. Did you know what the third one was going to be or did you leave that open for something that you could come back to later if you needed it?
Well, I know what it is. Ampersand describes them as post-biological and kind of leaves it at that. A lot of it is based on science fiction and future humans and speculation on where we might go. So effectively we had this one ancestral species and broke off and had a shit million attempts at establishing a civilisation, of which three have survived. But it's one of those things where if it feels like set-up it's because it is. The sister species we will meet eventually because they are very heavily foreshadowed in this one.
Other than Ampersand are there any of the aliens that jumped out at you as favourites of yours who you enjoyed writing, or might be looking forward to writing more of if they come back?
There's a new main character in the second one who is mentioned once in the first one, offhandedly and very quickly, and I hope that one will be a favourite with readers. He's a lot more eccentric than any of the other ones. Woodward and Bernstein, people really seem to like them, even though they're barely there. I like Esperus, but I think because I know what his deal is and the reader doesn't, so I guess that'll be a thing that gets explored.
In your YouTube video where you talked about the process of getting published you said about how people assume having a platform can help, and how it didn't help in the early stages. Did you ever consider doing something like publishing under a pseudonym to separate your YouTube from your writing?
No. Basically what my agent told me, and I think that this turned out to be true, is no publisher is going to buy your book if they would not have bought it anyway. It has to be good enough to stand up on its own. But, if you have a platform they might give you more money, and I think that's turned out to be true. So I don't think that would help, at least for this sort of thing. I think the only reason to do that is if you're trying to create a totally different brand that your established audience would not be interested in. But I think it doesn't really help because it's getting more and more to the point where publishers kind of assume you need a platform, even a modest one. It's becoming more and more of a prerequisite that was not the case five years ago for fiction writers. But it is becoming more and more the norm. So when I say it didn't help what I meant was it didn't help because they assume that's what you need to get your foot in the door.
You might not be able to answer this because you mentioned you've got something in the works, but if you could write in any universe is there one that you'd go for?
Transformers (laughs). Ten out of ten, definitely Transformers. You can never plan for where opportunities will come from but I feel like that's the only one that I know the universe well enough that I'd feel comfortable.
Do you have any advice to anyone who wants to get into writing?
It's funny because every time I do people get disappointing because it's never fun stuff. You don't need advice on the fun stuff, you already know what you like. But you've just got to get really comfortable with rejection. I found that the only way that I could move forward with it was to get really comfortable with the idea that this might never happen. You have to prioritise other things, otherwise you'd resent the shit out of the fact that people aren't reading your work the way you want them to. And you just have to be okay with the fact that you might be the only person who gives a shit, and that's the truth, most people who try to get published won't. We're not doing anybody any favours by pretending that's not the case.
I think the other truth is that people get really hung up on these extreme outliers of people that get a six figure book deal right out of college, like Tomi Adeyemi or Veronica Roth. People are like ' it does happen', so they'll get really disappointed when your first try doesn't sell, or your second try, or your fifth try. The only way to stay sane is to think that it might not happen this time, and it might never happen. You might be way too into a niche thing, because a lot of time it's genuinely not your craft. And it's impossible to tell too.
That's the dark secret of mine. When I was querying it last summer, and it was a very tepid query, but all the ones who requested came back saying 'I don't think I know how to sell this'. Which is funny because it sold in a week, which is really fast for a debut author. But the issue was Cora's age, because in the first draft that my agent read she was eighteen and was in college, but then i changed it to she's a drop out and temping. So we aged her up to nineteen, and then in the end aged her up to twenty one, and I'm glad we did that for a lot of reasons, but it was just this three year age difference that was the difference of being able to get an agent and selling it in a week. So that really is kind of arbitrary. My agent looked at it and said people are going to be a little squidgy about this because it feels a little YA curious and the genre is a little too borderline. But that was a really easy fix, and in hindsight it's bonkers to me that nobody saw it that way.
I guess I never thought about the age think making such a big difference, but certain books get lumped into being YA because the characters are a certain age.
Yeah. It is a marketing term. And people are like 'what's YA', but it doesn't really matter because it doesn't mean anything. It's just a marketing term, but it matters to publishers because they obsess over this sort of thing and they don't want to be having to push this thing that's in the wrong category. And that's another thing that I did, focusing more on the political angle to make it feel more adult. All of that was there in the earlier draft but it got played up. My point is that it's really hard to tell how much of it is you needing to improve your craft and how much of it is agents not thinking they can sell your work.
If this got picked up to be adapted into a film or TV show is there someone who you think would be best to capture what you've made?
I don't know. I'm not selling it as a film. This was a conversation I had, I told them it's TV or nothing. I don't trust film anymore, I think it's way too sprawling to work as a two hour film. I think television would afford a lot of opportunity to actually spend time with all of the stuff that happens off screen. Since you have one point of view character there's a lot of stuff that happens off screen that I feel television would afford the opportunity to expand on and make the world feel more realised. Because right now Cora's father Nills doesn't actually engage in the narrative, he's almost like this god figure that's dictating the events of the book from across the ocean, but in a TV show you would be able to actually spend time with him, see where he's getting his information and what his machinations actually are, what his plans are, and introduce new characters altogether. That would be my thing, but I'm not holding my breath. Ignoring the fact that we are in a plague year streaming television is a bubble, it's about to burst. But if I could sell the option for some money for doing literally nothing that would be nice.
Hiroshima isn’t your average film. It’s not the kind of movie that you’re going to throw on to be entertained for a couple of hours. It tells the story of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima on August 6th, 1945, an event that began the end of World War 2, but that many now consider to be a war crime due to the huge number of civilian deaths.
The film was made shortly after the official US occupation of Japan ended in 1951, and the country was allowed to freely talk about the horrors of the event. Until then the fact that American aid centres did little to help victims, but rather studied those who suffered after-effects of the bombing was little known, and censorship was that harsh that one newspaper was completely shut down because of its coverage. This film was the first chance for the nation of Japan to talk about this event on film.
Hiroshima is based on the written eye-witness accounts of children that survived the attack, and much of the film is shown through the eyes of the youngest victims. Even those sections of the film that take place after the event follow the children who have grown into teens, and the long lasting effects they have suffered, such as leukaemia. The only character who is followed for any real length of time is a father whose wife burnt to death in the ruins of their home, who then searches the devastated city for his three children.
The fact that the film is based on eye-witness events, was filmed only seven years after the attack, and employed a number of survivors as extras, hammers home how realistic the film is. Setsuko Thurlow, who spoke at the film’s recent screening at the Toronto Film Festival, said that the only thing that the film didn’t quite capture was the eerie silence that fell over people, instead depicting many crying and wailing survivors. Other than perhaps adding this small element, the film doesn’t shy away from the very real horrors that took place, and shows the devastation that occurred. Broken buildings and debris litter the streets, with burnt bodies lying among the ruins. Children lay dead in their homes and at the remains of their schools, whilst babies covered in blood and ash cry for help. The images are supported by a haunting score by Akira Ifukube, who would go on to score another film that addressed the horrors of nuclear attacks, Godzilla.
I honestly lost track the number of times that the film brought me to the point of tears, and I wanted to turn it off at times, yet felt obliged to sit through it, to see some of the horror that was inflicted upon the people of Hiroshima. This was a city that was chosen as a target because of its factories that made munitions for the war, but it was innocent men, women, and children who suffered. There’s been much discussion over the decades of whether the strike was justified or not, and whether it should be considered a war crime; this film helps to put a human face on that discussion, to show the victims of this act. The film even posits the idea that perhaps the Japanese were chosen to suffer at the hands of the A-Bomb because they weren’t seen as the same as white people by the Americans, who used the attack on Pearl Harbour as justification.
One line that stuck out for me when watching the film came from a wounded man sitting surrounded by the hurt and dying in one of the hospitals. He looked at the suffering around him and said ‘This is Hell’. This might be one of the most succinct ways of describing Hiroshima. It’s hell. It’s a film about the pain and suffering of this awful event, made by the people who lived through it. Films made decades later always have a sense of detachment, but that’s not the case here. Hiroshima hits you hard.
There’s not a huge amount of extras on the disc in regards to the making of the film, save for an interview with one of the actresses, Yumeji Tsukioka. However, it has a feature length documentary featuring interviews with some of the survivors of the event that’s amazing, and adds a lot to the viewing experience, acting as a companion to the film.
This is not a release that’s for a casual moviegoer looking to relax with a film, but it is an astonishing piece of cinema that gives a very personal voice to such a well known event. If you have interest in the history of cinema this will be a standout release, and if you want to learn more about the real event this is well worth the watch, but it’s certainly not for the faint hearted.
'Truth is a human right. It’s fall 2007. A well-timed leak has revealed that the US government might have engaged in first contact. Cora Sabino is doing everything she can to avoid the whole mess, since the force driving the controversy is her whistle-blower father. Even though Cora hasn’t spoken to him in years, his celebrity has caught the attention of the press, the Internet, the paparazzi, and the government—and with him in hiding, that attention is on her. She neither knows nor cares whether her father’s leaks are a hoax, and wants nothing to do with him—until she learns just how deeply entrenched her family is in the cover-up, and that an extraterrestrial presence has been on Earth for decades. 'Realising the extent to which both she and the public have been lied to, she sets out to gather as much information as she can, and finds that the best way for her to uncover the truth is not as a whistle-blower, but as an intermediary. The alien presence has been completely uncommunicative until she convinces one of them that she can act as their interpreter, becoming the first and only human vessel of communication. Their otherworldly connection will change everything she thought she knew about being human—and could unleash a force more sinister than she ever imagined.'
The description for Axiom's End makes the story sound like it's about truth, that it'll ask questions of whether or not the public has the right to know everything the government knows. Whilst these are important questions, and ones that the book does address, this isn't what the book meant to me, or what I really took away from it. Anyone who's watched through Lindsay Ellis' videos will be aware that one of the topics that seems to come up a lot is that of monsters, and about loving them. This is probably best explored in her video essay 'My Monster Boyfriend', but is by no means the only time that she talks about it.
Monsters used to be surrogates for fears, for the worries of the times when they were made. Whether it's the fear of people of colour taking the 'virtue' of white women that was at the heart of films like Creature From The Black Lagoon, Birth of a Nation, or even King Kong, or the fear of american values being replaced by communism in Invasion of the Body Snatchers, monsters have stood in for real life people for decades. But as long as that's been a thing so has monsters being a source of love. Stories like Beauty and the Beast, to even further back and myths like Eros and Psyche which dates back to the 2nd century AD, tell stories of people falling in love with inhuman creatures.
Lindsay Ellis talks about these themes a lot, whether it's when she's discussing Disney movies, or her love of Phantom of the Opera, as such I shouldn't have been surprised to see these themes featured so heavily in her book. But damn it all, she managed to draw me into a monster romance without me realising it.
One of the two leads of the novel is Cora, a young woman who's having to deal with the fact that her absentee father is on the run from the authorities, and that his quest for 'the truth' has made the lives of his family difficult to say the least. They're investigated by the authorities, tailed by shadowy figures, and hounded by the press. Add on to this Cora's difficulty with having recently moved back home with her mother, and her trouble keeping a job, and we meet a woman who's dealing with a lot. Because of this, I wasn't quite sure what I felt about her at first.
At times I was able to identify with her, I could look at some of the struggles she was having and see similar things from different times in my life. But there were also times she came across as naive and foolish, and seemed to not really have her life together. But then really who does?
The other main character is Ampersand. He's a little less easy to describe. He's an alien. And not like any kind of alien that I've experienced before. The way that Lindsay describes him makes him so inhuman, more akin to combination of animal and machine; or as she described in my interview with her, a mix of the Xenomorph and Eva from Wall-E. Yet I pictured him with a strange sense of beauty and almost regalness. I saw this alien creature that at times made me think of an insect, at others he was quite feline, or even deer-like. But through it all there was something about him that fascinated me and grabbed my attention.
Much like Cora, when we first meet Ampersand he's not the nicest of people. He can communicate with Cora, but barks orders, comes across as threatening at times, and doesn't seem to have any kind of interest in people beyond using them to achieve his end goal. He certainly never seemed to regard any of them as being worthy of thought or care.
But when these two came together something magical happened. Cora had to grow up all of a sudden, she had to step up to responsibility and put herself in a position that would test her beyond her limits; and Ampersand, he had to learn that his initial opinions of humans were wrong, that we're not just violent, animalistic creatures, but were worthy of his attention a,nd care.
The relationship between the two of them never felt strange, and the fact that he's so alien helped this. This isn't a girl falling in love with a vampire or a zombie because he's a hot boy, or even something resembling a boy. This is two beings learning to like each other from an intellectual level. They connected through their minds and personalities. Because of this the love that seemed to form between them never felt cliched or hackneyed, it felt real.
Whilst they seem to form an attachment like a working relationship, bordering on friendship, there's a scene where Cora is scared and feeling alone, the weight of everything crushing down on her, and Ampersand comes to comfort her. He sees this being that's so alien to him, who he barely understands at time, and he sees that she's suffering and can't help himself from helping her. The tenderness that this alien creature shows this young woman is so genuine and earnest that that was the moment I realised that these two could fall in love. Not a physical love, driven by hormones or sexual desire, but a love for who the other is, driven by a desire to see the other happy and safe.
There's something that happens towards the end of the book where it looks like Ampersand might be revealed to be a villain, and it made my heart break. I was so hurt that this creature I'd fallen in love with alongside Cora could have been evil this whole time that when this is proven to be false I was so unbelievably happy. I could't have dealt with that level of betrayal from him. And I'd probably never be able to engage with any of Lindsay's work again either if that had happened as she'd have betrayed me in the worst way.
The book ends with the two characters closer than ever, with an undeniable connection that's so akin to love that I couldn't see it any other way. These last moments of the book, with the two of them together, caring for each other made me cry. Physically cry. I'll cry at tv and film all the time, hell, half the stuff on the internet gets me; but a book has never gotten me like this. It's never made such a raw emotional connection with a book before.
I spent much of the rest of that night and the day after thinking about this, considering why this story connected with me so much, about why I came to care about Ampersand to the point of desperately wanting to read more about him. I went back and watched the video essay Lindsay made about loving monsters to see if that might help me figure some things out.
Monsters are shunned by society. They're seen as ugly. It's assumed that they're threats to the way of life, that they're here to do awful things. And whilst sometimes this is true that's not always the case. Because monsters don't have to represent our fears anymore, they can represent us too. They can act as stand ins for marginalised people, people who are shunned by society, who are seen as threats. I realised that I connected with Ampersand so much because I'm a monster too. At least in the eyes of some people.
People like myself, and many others, others who are viewed as 'different' and 'strange' get told that we're not normal. We're told that we're more violent, that we're a threat to women and children, that we're predisposed to violence, that we'll always be alone in the world because we're freaks. For a long while I was alone, and couldn't help but hear those kind of things and believe them. Maybe I was a monster, maybe I was doomed to be alone forever. I never dreamed that I'd find a loving connection with someone and be happy.
So when I saw this happening with Ampersand, when he and Cora began to form this friendship, which would go on to blossom into love I couldn't help but project a little onto him. Ampersand means so much to me because I was that monster at one point.
Axiom's End became a story that meant something to me. It connected with me on a personal level that I never thought it would. The characters came to mean something important. If I could meet Ampersand in real life I would in a heartbeat. I'd love to see how beautiful he is, to see those wonderful eyes he has, to be held by him like he holds Cora, because I've gone and fallen in love with him and what he represents.
Axiom's End might be a story about truth, it might have stuff to say on government accountability and censorship, it might have amazing aliens and an intricate story, but to me first and foremost this book is about love. It's about showing people that no matter how you see yourself, or how others might see you, no one is really a monster, that we're all deserving of and capable of love.
I doubt that Lindsay herself will ever read this review, but if she does I just want to say thank you. From the bottom of my heart, thank you. This book is special. It means something. And I love it. Words can't do my feelings on this book justice. It is everything I never knew I needed and more.
Make sure to check back tomorrow, when I'll be talking to Lindsay about the book.
Last year was a big year for fans of Deep Space Nine. We got an amazing new documentary, What We Left Behind, but we also lost two amazing actors in Aron Eisenberg and Rene Auberjonois. This new comic is the first piece of DS9 media since, and focuses on the character of Odo, who was played by Auberjonois; as such it felt like the book was going to have a lot on its shoulders. Thankfully, this proves to be a really good first issue.
The issue starts with Doctor Bashir and Garak meeting up for lunch, though long term fans will notice it’s strange that they’re not going to their usual haunt of the replimat, instead going to one of the restaurants on the promenade. The two of them briefly discuss how the war with the Dominion is going, before a bomb detonates in the restaurant. Garak and Julian are thrown out the window by the blast, but eight others are killed.
Odo, the station’s chief of security is then tasked with getting to the bottom of the crime. He does some investigating, and learns that the explosive was filled with Rodinium Darts, jagged shards of metal designed to rip apart anyone within the blast zone. The station’s security sweeps should detect anyone trying to bring these on board, so Odo concludes they must have been smuggled on. By the end of the issue Odo has few suspects, but it’s revealed that a second shipment of darts has been discovered in Quark’s cargo shipment.
It’s pretty clear that this cliffhanger isn’t going to result in Quark being the guilty party, as anyone who watches the show knows whilst he’s certainly dodgy, he’s not a killer. It’s likely this is going to either be a false flag, or lead to another step in the mystery, but it doesn’t feel like a dishonest turn of events, as Odo would definitely consider Quark a suspect in any crime on the station.
Writers Scott and David Tipton clearly know the characters well, and every one of them feels very natural and much like they did in the show. Garak and Julian have their fun dynamic at the start of the issue, Sisko is concerned about events but is still the hardened commander, Dax and O’Brien are both smart and add to the investigation, using both of their specialities. But Odo is the character that really matters, and they’ve captured him perfectly, right down to his annoyed harumph whenever things aren’t going the way he likes.
They’ve also managed to make the station feel busy and alive, and the opening scenes on the promenade are full of different aliens and people going about their business. Artist Greg Scott manages to make the place feel like there’s a lot going on, and it certainly captures the idea that this is a busy airport in space.
This is a strong first issue that clearly sets up the central mystery, gives readers some basic information, and several potential guilty parties to choose from. However, it’s clear that there’s a lot more information that’s going to be needed to reach any kind of conclusion, and it certainly makes you eager to read the next issue and find out more.
Too Long A Sacrifice is a great return to the Star Trek universe, and one that fans of the series will definitely enjoy.
'The creeping horror of Paul Tremblay meets Tommy Orange’s There There in a dark novel of revenge, cultural identity, and the cost of breaking from tradition in this latest novel from the Jordan Peele of horror literature, Stephen Graham Jones. 'Seamlessly blending classic horror and a dramatic narrative with sharp social commentary, The Only Good Indians follows four American Indian men after a disturbing event from their youth puts them in a desperate struggle for their lives. Tracked by an entity bent on revenge, these childhood friends are helpless as the culture and traditions they left behind catch up to them in a violent, vengeful way.' I'm going to have to be honest, this is not going to be an easy book to review. This isn't because it's bad, or I didn't like it; but because I'm not sure how much I can talk about without giving away too much of the plot.
The Only Good Indian follows four men who were involved in a hunting incident ten years before the events of the book, an event that would go on to shape their lives significantly. The book spends time with each of these people as these events from their past catch up to them, and a supernatural being comes after them for revenge.
I don't think I can say much more about the plot than that, as anything else might give away too much, and this is definitely the kind of book where you want to go in as blind as you can. Writer Stephen Graham Jones is very careful about just how much the reader knows at any given time, slowly teasing out not just the events of the past that set everything in motion, but exactly what's happening now.
This sense of mystery, of not knowing everything is definitely a big part of the horror of this book. Yes, there are moments of obvious horror, of strange and disturbing things that happen, but it's the creeping sense of dread throughout that makes you really uncomfortable. There are times when you think you've finally figured out if not what precisely is tormenting these men, but at least how it works; but then there'll be a shift in the narrative that turns things on its head, that makes it clear that actually, anything you think you've learnt is wrong. This means that the narrative is constantly unpredictable, and you're never sure if you can quite believe what it is you're reading.
The Only Good Indian reminded me of horror stories that take a turn for the surreal, like Tetsuo The Iron Man or even some of the works of Lovecraft. There are times where you don't really know what you're reading, and it feels like you're in some kind of fever dream that simply can't make sense.
The central characters all get a chance to shine during the narrative, and even though you spend differing amounts of times with each you get a very clear sense of the types of people they are. You begin to see not just how the events of their past shaped them into who they are, but how they feel about their own identities and their culture. Each man has a different connection to their native heritage, and these connections inform their stories.
Stephen Graham Jones has created a story that's very odd, that at times feels very fantastical and nightmarish, yet works so well because it's grounded with realistic and engaging people. The book disturbs and fascinates with equal measure, and draws you in to the world that he's created. A unique and stand out horror novel.
