How To Be Ace: A Memoir of Growing Up Asexual by Rebecca Burgess - Book Review

 

'Brave, witty and empowering, this graphic memoir follows Rebecca as she navigates her asexual identity and mental health in a world obsessed with sex. From school to work to relationships, this book offers an unparalleled insight into asexuality.'

Every day the LGBTQ+ community becomes more and more mainstream, awareness becomes more commonplace, and queer people are more accepted than ever. This doesn't mean that things are perfect, and hatred towards the queer community is still incredibly prevalent, though more and more people are becoming open to learning about our community, and learning to accept us for who we are. One of the parts of the LGBTQ+ community that is often overlooked, however, is the ace community, people who fall under the asexual and/or the aromantic umbrella.

How To Be Ace focuses on the real life experience of its creator, Rebecca Burgess, who is themself asexual, and seeks to normalise asexuality. The book follows Rebecca through their teenage years and into their early adult life, showing the difficulties they experienced navigating a world obsessed with sex.

The book does a good job of highlighting just how much of western society puts a focus on sex and physical relationships, something that most people probably wouldn't even realise until it's pointed out to them. It shows what it's like for an asexual person, who has no interest in being sexually active and even feels discomfort at physical attraction, to exist in a world where movie and TV push romance, where songs are about finding love or having lost it, where if you're not in a relationship people will constantly ask you when you're going to find a partner. Rebecca shows that whilst these things might seem small or inconsequential to others, to a young ace person it can be a constant, painful reminder that they're different.

This difference is one of the main focuses of the book, and we get to see Rebecca trying to figure out what this difference means. They're told by others that they simply needs to give things time, that they'll eventually feel sexual attraction, or that once they 'gets over' having sex things will be okay. This advice leads them down the path of thinking that there's something wrong with them, that they must be broken in some way, or that they're not 'normal'. Sadly this is a journey that is all too common for ace people, and one that needs to stop.

That's the beauty of this book, it tries to normalise the experience of being asexual, to teach those who might be unaware of asexuality that it's a real thing. Rebecca, like most ace people, are left feeling alone and 'wrong' until they discover that they're part of a bigger community, and that there's nothing wrong with who they are. Books like this are important for helping raise awareness of the ace community, both for those who are members, and those who aren't. For members of the community it can help them find their community, and for others it helps to educate.

How To Be Ace has an engaging story, but that's not the important part, it's the push to help others like Rebecca that makes it special. This isn't a book that I'd recommend for the story, as good as it is, but as a resource to normalise asexuality, to allow younger people to learn about the ace community and to treat those who are a part of it as regular people.

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To Your Last Death – Film Review

Originally published on Set The Tape

To Your Last Death is a new horror film from director Jason Axinn, and one that if it was done any other way wouldn’t stand out half as much as it does. However, To Your Last Death is something pretty rare in the world of horror films, as it’s animated. Purposely animated in a way to evoke images of graphic novels, the film very much feels like someone threw together Saw, Groundhog Day, and Archer. And it’s pretty good for it.

The story begins where most would end, with our hero Miriam (Dani Lennon) walking out of a building, covered in blood and carrying an axe, having survived something awful inside. She’s picked up by police, and we next see her in hospital, where she’s telling her story to a detective. She reveals that she’d been summoned to the building by her father, Cyrus DeKalb (Ray Wise), who she and her siblings had not spoken to in years, ever since costing him a political career.

Cyrus has gathered Miriam and his other children together to announce that he’s dying, and that before he goes he wants revenge on them, trapping them in horrific and deadly situations. Fortunately, Miriam was able to escape. However, the police don’t believe her story, and think that she’s behind the killings. That’s when she’s approached by The Gamemaster (Morena Baccarin), a being of great power, who tells Miriam that she can send her back in time to try for a different outcome.

Miriam is sent back in time, and gets the opportunity to try to save her siblings. However, the Gamemaster isn’t doing this out of the goodness of her heart, as she and other powerful beings are watching events unfold, betting on their outcome. With killers out to get her, and god-like beings changing reality, can Miriam and her family make it out alive?

The initial set-up for the film sounded interesting enough, but the inclusion of this fantastical, science-fiction element changes it from something that feels like it’s been done before into a whole new thing. It makes the film unpredictable, and you never know what to expect to happen. And even then, there’s no guarantee that what has happened can’t be erased away and changed. It means that you’re always having to keep on your toes, and expect the unexpected.

The fact that the film is animated helps a lot too, not only in making the gore and violence more palatable, but making it stand out. We don’t have the gritty realism of early Saw films, or the awful CGI of later Saw films when the siblings are in their traps. Instead, things are either over the top vibrant, with bright colours, or they’re hyper stylised. The animation helps the grosser parts of the film for those who might not normally be up for a film full of gore and death traps, whilst also making it stand out amongst its competitors.

One of the best things about it is how open it is. It might be following Miriam and her story, but it establishes a much bigger world in the Gamemaster and her cohorts. It means that there could be more stories in this universe, more events where the Gamemaster comes for entertainment. Whilst this film is a stand alone I could easily see a slew of sequels, or even an animated series. Hopefully we’ll get at least one more thing set in this universe to see a bit more.

To Your Last Death might not be the most original or amazing horror film you’ll ever see, but it’s a hell of a lot better than it really has any right to be. It looks unique, it blends different genres together in fun ways, and it has a great cast. Definitely one that’s worth a watch.

To Your Last Death is out now on Digital HD, Cable VOD, and Blu-ray.

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Darkness Loves Company by Sarah L. Blair - Book Review

 

'Sidney Lake traded the glitz and glam of New York’s high society for a desk job at Manhattan’s premier paranormal investigation agency, and she’s tired of paperwork.

'When an old flame mistakes her for the head of the agency, Sidney takes her chance to break into the field, but doing so means she must return to a life she left behind for good. Even the bright lights of the paparazzi fail to illuminate the dark underbelly of the city’s most privileged citizens, and Sidney quickly finds herself tangled in an intricate web of murder, lies . . . and hexed koalas.

'Finished with a career at the FBI, Mitchell Harris turned to the private sector to pursue his interest in a world of shadows the Bureau refused to acknowledge. However, one unsolved case still haunts him. A decade after he promised a young girl he would find the monster who killed her parents, Mitch’s vow remains unfulfilled. Now Sidney Lake is grown and determined to chase down the answers herself, even if it means running headlong into the darkness Mitch has tried so hard to protect her from.

'Faced with a devastating personal loss, all Mitch wants to do is retire for good. But his vow to Sidney isn’t the only oath he’s made. His powerful benefactors have their own interest in her, and Mitch begins to suspect their meeting was no accident.

'With Sidney on the road to becoming a full agent and Mitch’s past failure still heavy on his conscience, they soon discover the journey into darkness is better with company.'

Earlier this year I gave a pretty favourable review to Darkness Shifting by author Sarah L. Blair. It was a book that I'd had on my shelf for a long while but hadn't gotten around to reading, in part because I knew Sarah. I was worried that I would read her book and might not enjoy it, even though I could have just pretended that I still hadn't had a chance to read it and not mention it at all. Luckily for me I thought it was brilliant, and devoured the whole thing in a single sitting, something I rarely do.

All well and good until she tells me that she's written a prequel book whilst working on the sequel, and asked if I wanted to read it early. Of course I jumped at the chance to get my hands on it early, after all I loved the first book. It was only when I received the book that I suddenly started to think those same worried thought of 'what if I don't like it?' all over again. This time I wouldn't be able to pretend I hadn't had the chance to read it if I thought it was bad, and would have to tell her my thoughts on the book. Of course, I'm a complete idiot, and should have had more faith in Sarah's writing, as the book was great.

Darkness Loves Company jumps backwards a number of years, introducing Sidney Lake as a rookie agent instead of the veteran she is in the first book. This is a young woman who has been stuck in an office for years and hasn't been out in the field facing monsters and demons yet. I was honestly curious about what time period Sarah would set the book in. There were a number of reasons why she could have set the book during Sidney's childhood for example, or even going back hundreds or thousands of years into its past to explore the history of the universe that she had created. All of those options would have been great, and would have done a lot to expand upon the world and the lore, but there was something that seemed to be more important than world building to Sarah in regards to this book; character.

This might be a story about Sidney's first case, and her earning her stripes as an agent, but the heart of the story is her and Mitch, and their relationship. She chose to set it at this point to further explore their characters and what they meant to each other, and it was easily the better choice. 

The story has two main plots, one focuses on Mitch, an important character in the first book, who gets the chance to have chapters written from his point of view here. At the start of the book he learns that his ex-wife has died in a tragic accident, and then spends the rest of the book having to deal with that. The incident makes him question his place in the world, whether he's been making the right choices, and if he should continue what he's doing or simply retire.Knowing where his choices leads him in the first book it's a little sad that he makes the choices he does here, but despite knowing that he won't retire, but carry on with the agency, Sarah instead focuses on the emotional journey he takes, rather than any mystery about what he might chose to do.

The other story sees Sidney taking on a case of her own without Mitch's authorisation, investigating into the murder of a young socialite and charity worker who was engaged to an old friend of hers. The case not only puts Sidney out in the field and gives her the chance to show that she's capable of doing the job over Mitch's misgivings, but puts her back into a social setting that she's long put behind her, one that was leading her down a pretty destructive path. It also gives us demonic koala bears, so that's a hell of a bonus too.

These two stories come together a few times when Sidney and Mitch begin to explore their relationship, something that was already well established in the first book, and shows readers how the two of them get together for the first time. And yes, as Sarah answered during the virtual book launch, there is more sex in this book than the first one. I know that this is something that's a bit of a marmite subject for some readers, as some people feel a bit weirded out reading sex scenes in the middle of their urban fantasy book, but this is a book that's designed for adults over teen, and let's face it, these people would want to bang in real life.

Whilst there's much less mystery in this book than the first, as if you've read them in publication order you'll know a lot of what's going on and where things are headed, but there's still a good central mystery to keep you interested and engaged all on its own. And I definitely would advise that you read this in publication order, rather than how it's set chronologically, as there are certain things that will definitely read differently if you come to this book with no knowledge of the first.

Darkness Loves Company didn't have the same level of excitement and mystery that the first book had, and didn't grab me in the same way, and at first I thought that was a negative thing, but I was wrong. Instead it gave me a more personal narrative that I ended up caring more about because it put the characters front and centre and gave them a real chance to come into their own. 

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Someone's Listening by Seraphina Nova Glass - Book Review And Extract

 

'She wrote the book on escaping a predator… Now one is coming for her.

'Faith Finley has it all: she’s a talented psychologist with a flourishing career, a bestselling author and the host of a popular local radio program, Someone’s Listening, with Dr. Faith Finley. She’s married to the perfect man, Liam Finley, a respected food critic. Until the night everything goes horribly wrong, and Faith’s life is shattered forever.

'Liam is missing—gone without a trace—and the police are suspicious of everything Faith says. They either think she has something to hide, or that she’s lost her mind. And then the notes begin to arrive. Notes that are ripped from Faith’s own book, the one that helps victims leave their abusers. Notes like “Lock your windows. Consider investing in a steel door.” As the threats escalate, the mystery behind Liam’s disappearance intensifies. And Faith’s very life will depend on finding answers. '

Someone's Listening is one of those rare thrillers where I find myself trying to guess what's coming next, where I get sucked in and try to figure out what might be going on. I appreciate that this is something that most readers do when they read this genre, but I myself tend to be more passive in my journey in mystery books, enjoying the unfolding narrative and watching our heroes try to figure things out; as such, it tends to be a rare book for it to make me an active participant. But in this case I couldn't help but become so invested that I even cheered aloud at one point.

The book follows Faith, a successful psychologist with a popular radio show and book, who's ready to publish her second book. When Faith is accused of misconduct from a former patient she becomes harassed by the press, and found guilty in the court of public opinion. With her life spiralling out of her control around her, and everything she's doing being used against her, things become worse when she and her husband, Liam, are in an accident.

Faith wakes in hospital, having sustained serious injuries from the car crash, but there was no sign that her husband was in the vehicle with her. The police try searching for Liam, but find no trace of him. Months later Faith is trying to put her life back together, whilst searching for answers about Liam's disappearance. It's then when threatening notes begin to appear, passages taken from her own book. With this mysterious stalker closing in on her, Faith is pushed to the limit to try to find her husband, and stop whoever is trying to hurt her.

When I wake up, it’s black and still; I feel a light, icy snow that floats rather than falls, and I can’t open my eyes. I don’t know where I am, but it’s so quiet, the silence rings in my ears. My fingertips try to grip the ground, but I feel only a sheet of ice beneath me, splintered with bits of imbedded gravel. The air is sharp, and I try to call for him, but I can’t speak. How long have I been here? I drift back out of consciousness. The next time I wake, I hear the crunching of ice under the boots of EMTs who rush around my body. I know where I am. I’m lying in the middle of County Road 6. There has been a crash. There’s a swirling red light, a strobe light in the vast blackness: they tell me not to move.

“Where’s my husband?” I whimper. They tell me to try not to talk either. “Liam!” I try to yell for him, but it barely escapes my lips; they’re numb, near frozen, and it comes out in a hoarse whisper. How has this happened?

I think of the party and how I hate driving at night, and how I was careful not to drink too much. I nursed a glass or two, stayed in control. Liam had a lot more. It wasn’t like him to get loaded, and I knew it was his way of getting back at me. He was irritated with me, with the position I’d put him in, even though he had never said it in so many words. I wanted to please him because this whole horrible situation was my fault, and I was sorry.

When I wake up again I’m in a hospital room, connected to tubes and machines. The IV needle is stuck into a bruised, purple vein in the back of my hand that aches. In the dim light, I sip juice from a tiny plastic cup, and the soft beep of the EKG tries to lull me back to sleep, but I fight it. I want answers. I need to appear stabilized and alert. Another dose of painkiller is released into my IV; the momentary euphoria forces me to heave a sigh. I need to keep my eyes open. I can hear the cops arrive and talk to someone at a desk outside my door. They’ll tell me what happened.

There’s a nurse who calls me “sweetie” and changes the subject when I ask about the accident. She gives the cops a sideways look when they come in to talk to me, and tells them they only have a few minutes and that I need to rest.

Detective John Sterling greets me with a soft “Hello, ma’am.” I almost forget about my shattered femur and groan after I move too quickly. Another officer lingers by the door, a tall, stern-looking woman with her light hair pulled into a tight bun at the base of her skull. She tells me I’m lucky to be alive, and if it had dropped below freezing, I wouldn’t have lasted those couple hours before a passing car stopped and called 911. I ask where Liam is, but she just looks to Sterling. Something is terribly wrong.

One of the best things about Someone's Listening is that it almost feels like multiple books in one. There's the story of Faith's former patient accusing her of sexual misconduct and the affect this has on her career and personal life. There's the accident that she suffers through and Liam going missing. And there's this dangerous new stalker coming out of the shadows, leaving her threatening messages and shattering what little security she has left. Any one of these could have been the focus of the novel, and Seaphina Nova Glass is clearly skilled enough to take any of these plots and craft a novel around them; the fact that all of them are here though, is astounding.

Not only does she allow each of these stories have enough room to breath, to feel like full and satisfying narratives in their own right, but she weaves them in and out of the book to great effect. She's made it so that Faith is not only going up against one awful thing, any of which could ruin a person's life, but having to deal with them all at once. The effect is a series of events that's truly staggering, that would push any person to breaking point. Because of this, I can say with very little exaggeration that Faith Finley is one of the strongest lead characters I've read.

Over the course of this book Faith is pushed to some awful extremes, and as a result she does make some pretty bad decisions that I feel the character wouldn't normally make. She's supposed to be a well reasoned psychologist, a woman who is supposed to know better, yet repeatedly puts herself in dangerous and stupid situations. I've seen some reviews use this as a way to bash the character, to say that she's not very smart; but this is a woman who's at breaking point, who's lost damn near everything, and still has more awful stuff happening to her. Despite all that she not only manages to solve her problems but survives a killer. I'm pretty sure that's something that I wouldn't be able to do in her shoes. Even when close to defeated, when she's resorting to drink and drugs to survive she doesn't let things break her. She keeps on fighting throughout, and I found that astounding.

I was told before I started reading this book that it would be twisty, that I probably wouldn't figure out the ending. For a time I thought I had, and I actually cheered out loud when I thought my suspicions had been proven right to the point where I get a weird look from my wife. Unfortunately, I was too quick off the mark, and Seaphina proved to have completely tricked me. She set up a series of red-herrings and I'd blindly accepted them. When the real ending was revealed I was genuinely stunned, because it was something that I wasn't expecting at all. Not only had she drawn me into the mystery and made me actively excited to figure it out, but she then completely hoodwinked me. I loved it.

Someone's Listening was a book that I very quickly became invested in, with a lead who I was left wanting to see more from, and a mystery that had me scratching my head and left me stunned. Like I said earlier, not may mystery books manage to grab me in this way, so I was so grateful that this one did. I would definitely recommend it to any mystery and thriller fans, and am excited to see what the author does next.

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The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue by V.E. Schwab

 

'France, 1714: in a moment of desperation, a young woman makes a Faustian bargain to live forever and is cursed to be forgotten by everyone she meets.

'Thus begins the extraordinary life of Addie LaRue, and a dazzling adventure that will play out across centuries and continents, across history and art, as a young woman learns how far she will go to leave her mark on the world.

'But everything changes when, after nearly 300 years, Addie stumbles across a young man in a hidden bookstore and he remembers her name.'

The first time I heard of The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue was at a book signing event in 2019, where Victoria was talking about the re-release of her first novel, The Near Witch, as well as several of her other books. There were a number of questions about the upcoming book during this talk, and despite talking passionately about all of her books there was something different whenever she spoke about Addie LaRue. There was a passion there that showed this was a project that meant a lot to her, and during the talk she mentioned that this was a book that she had been working on for the better part of a decade. 

Jumping forward in time, it was announced that it would be coming out in 2020, and so many people in the publishing community, especially readers and reviewers, were getting very excited for the release. With all of the hype that was being built up around the book, I have to admit I became really nervous going into it. What if the excitement wasn't justified? What if I'd hyped myself up for something amazing that could never meet those expectations? I was worried that I'd built this monolith in my mind that the finished novel could never actually compete with. Luckily for me, I was worried for nothing, and Victoria Schwab has proven once again that she is a masterful storyteller.

The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue begins in the summer of 1714, where our protagonist Adeline is running away from her problems, quite literally. We get little context for what's happeneing, except for how desperate the young woman is. From here events jump forward three hundred years, where Adeline, who now calls herself Addie, is in New York City, in the bed of a man who doesn't remember bringing her home the night before. We learn that this isn't because of drink or drugs, he can't remember her because no one can. As soon as anyone stops looking at Addie she erases from their memories.

Over the course of the next several chapters we skip between modern day and three hundred years before, where we get to see both lives that Addie is living. In one she's a young woman living in rural France, fighting against her parents expectations to go off and get married, and in the other she's a ghost, walking through the world without anyone realising she even exists. Through her past we learn that in her desperation to escape her upcoming wedding she prayed to the old gods of the woods, made them offerings to help her, but none would. When she accidentally prays too long, offering up her prayers after darkness falls, she gets a response from something she should have never asked for help from.

This entity offers Addie a deal, a way to escape from the life everyone has planned for her and to be free for as long as she likes, in exchange for her soul. Desperate and out of options, Addie agrees, little realising just what she's agreeing to. Addie is given freedom, she can go anywhere, but the cost is that everyone has forgotten her. Alone in the world, the young woman begins to drift, a journey that will last centuries.

In modern day New York Addie is simply going about her usual routine, taking what she wants, going wherever she feels, and trying to enjoy her bizarre existence. However, when she's caught stealing a book from a used bookstore she thinks nothing of returning the next day, after all, the owner isn't going to remember her is he? Except he does. After three hundred years alone, three hundred years able to observe the world but leave no mark of her own she hears the three words she thought she would never hear again, 'I remember you'.

The narrative of The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue makes great use of having a character exist for centuries, jumping backwards and forwards through Addie's life in order to tell her story. Schwab uses it to good effect, not only setting up hints at things to come in each narrative, but teasing out reveals. Some of these are moments that you feel you know are coming, things that are hinted at in the future fairly early on in the book, but that you have to wait hundreds of pages to get to in order to finally learn these secrets. I would say that it's a great way to keep a reader interested, but honestly, I found the narrative engaging enough that these little mysteries weren't what kept me hooked at all. If anything, I found them a little frustrating because I wanted answers straight away; but this was frustrating in a good way.

It wasn't the mysteries of Addie LaRue that kept me reading, but the character herself. Fictional characters, just like real people, are shaped by their experiences; where they go, what they do, and who they interact with. Whilst you could go through your entire life never interacting with someone I'm sure there are very few people who have. Everyone needs to talk to someone some of the time. When that option is taken away, what kind of person would you be? This is what made Addie herself so fascinating, as I think she's one of the few literary characters who is so completely alone for so long, even whilst surrounded by people.

I'm sure there are some people who are waiting for the chance to jump in now and say 'but Amy, she can talk to people, she's forgettable, not invisible', and you're right, she can interact with people, but this is in very limited ways. If you cannot form any lasting relationships with people how can you have any real, meaningful conversations? If people forget you as soon as they're not looking at you, how can you have any conversations that are anything other than a first meeting? And how long until you just get so tired of having a first meeting over and over again?

Addie is very different in 2014 to her time in the 1700's, and this isn't just because she's grown older and wiser over time, but because you can see the effect of bring has had on her. She doesn't look at people the same way that you and I do. She doesn't treat people the way we would. This goes beyond simple things like having to steal to survive, to at times not even really seeing people as people all the time. Everyone else is so removed from her world that she at times doesn't even consider herself one of us anymore.

This is explored in great detail with the introduction of Henry, a young man working in a bookstore who can somehow remember Addie. The reasons for this do get explored during the book, and add to the mystery that plays out over the novel; but much like Addie I think it's him as a person that's more interesting than his mystery. He, much like Addie, has detached himself from the world around him. He's had troubles in love and doesn't seem capable of letting anyone else in again. But when he meets Addie things change, for both of them. We get to see not only how she improves his life, but how he humanises her. Sometimes it's simple things, like her having to confront the morality of stealing from people in order to make her way through the world, but other times it's smaller, more personal things like her being able to wake up beside someone and see recognition in her eyes, and the peace that that brings her.

I sometimes have trouble getting into books that have romance be a central component, and can find some love stories to be overly dramatic and draining, but the story that plays out between these two is genuinely beautiful and fascinating. 

I don't want to talk too much about the story though, as there's so much that's best learnt as the narrative unfolds. There are reasons why Schwab chose to keep certain things back until certains points in the book, and I know talking about them in a review will ruin that experience for you. All I can say is, this isn't just a book about love, it's not just a story about a woman living through centuries. There's so much here that you don't realise at first. It's big and expansive, with layers, and it's so damn beautifully written.

I've enjoyed everything I've read of Schwab's so far, and have made a point to but all of her books because she's an author I know I'm going to get something good from, but if I wasn't already a fan this is the book that would make me one. It's a book that will take you on an unexpected and shocking journey, a book that you'll be thinking about days and weeks after, that you'll want to recommend to all of your friends. I can understand now why Victoria was so excited when she spoke about this book, I can understand why it meant so much to her. This is the kind of book that comes along very rarely, and you'll definitely regret missing out on it if you don't grab a copy.

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The Witching Stone by Danny Weston - Book REview

 

'Beneath this stone lie the remains of Meg Shelton, alleged witch of Woodplumpton, buried in 1705.

'After a messy breakup with his girlfriend, Alfie needs to get away for a while – so he decides to spend the summer holidays with his dad in a tiny village in the North of England. In the local church graveyard, he chances upon a boulder with a strange inscription – and meets Mia, who then tells him about the local superstition surrounding the stone.

''If you walk three times around the stone and say 'I don’t believe in witches,' Meg will come after you.’ Alfie, in a reckless attempt to show his bravery, accepts the superstition as a challenge. He thinks the story is nonsense. But it soon becomes apparent that he’s just made the biggest mistake of his life'

The Witching Stone tells the story of Alfie, a teenager who's in a bit of a slump and doesn't know what to do with himself. He's recently broken up with a long term girlfriend after she left him for one of his friends and needs to get away from home. So when his father is commissioned to travel to the village of Woodplumpton for several weeks to update the offices of a local business Alfie jumps at the chance to go with him.

When exploring the village Alfie comes across a strange grave in the local churchyard, a huge boulder with a plaque saying that a witch is buried beneath it. Not sure what to think, Alfie is told the local legend of Meg the witch by one of the local girls, Mia, along with the story that you can summon her spirit if you walk around her grave three times saying 'I don't believe in witches'. Being something of a non-believer, and wanting to show off a bit to the pretty girl, Alfie does what he's warned not to do. And of course, it works.

Alfie begins to suspect that the spirit of Meg is following him, leaving muddy footprints in his hotel bathroom, and leaving bruises on his skin where she's grabbing him in his dreams. Desperate and unsure what to do, he turns to Mia for help, and the two of them set out to find a way to break the curse that seems to be hanging over Alfie, and solve a three hundred year old murder.

I was expecting this book to be a scary story, the set-up seemed like this was going to be a very tense and creeping horror of a boy being haunted by a ghostly witch; and to be fair, it does do this for a little while, giving readers some very creepy moments. But then things change. This becomes less a horror story and more of a mystery when Alfie just straight up confronts the witch and asks her what she wants. And this was such a good choice.

This story could have very easily been about a malevolent spirit that needed to be stopped, but instead Meg is presented as a victim, a woman who was unjustly killed hundreds of years ago, and now needs Alfie's help. Not only did this change the expected horror formula, but it also broke with tradition of having witches being evil figures. So many innocent women were murdered for being witches when they'd done nothing wrong, over the centuries since people have come to understand that the victims of witch trials were ordinary, innocent people; but horror seems slow to adopt this view. Danny Weston's decision to present a more realistic view on witches, that they were unfairly victimised, is so refreshing.

That's not to say that Meg isn't completely toothless, however, and over the course of the book she proves to be a being with a lot of power, and the willingness to use it against others. Her ability to appear and disappear at a whim, to cause destruction and chaos around Alfie, prove to make her threats of worse feel real, and justifies Alfie trying so hard to get her what she wants. Whilst I wouldn't call her a villain by any means, she certainly makes for an interesting and engaging foe for our protagonist.

The other characters are equally as engaging, and Alfie proves to be an interesting protagonist. He's going through some tough stuff at the beginning of the book, and these issues are only compounded over the course of the narrative, but he always seems to try and do the right thing. There are moments where he loses his cool in situations where he should probably have stayed a bit calmer, but when the ghost of a witch is threatening people you love you can't really blame him. His reactions make sense, and are relatable, and this makes him one of the better YA protagonists I've read in a while.

Weston also manages to make the central mystery play out at a great pace, and doesn't spoil things by giving away too much too early. He knows to draw the reader in with the slow horror before turning things on their head and setting Alfie and the reader out on this mission. And there's enough clues given along the way that things don't just come out of nowhere. There was a small mention of something earlier in the book that proved to be the answer that Alfie needed, and it was obvious enough to pick out for me, but made sense that Alfie could have skipped over it in his panic. Some writers have great ideas for a mystery story, but stumble a little in the execution, but that certainly wasn't the case here.

The Witching Stone wasn't what I was expecting when I went into it, but I think I enjoyed it more when it broke away from horror and became a mystery. It had some engaging and interesting characters, all of whom had moments to shine and stand out, and the story moved at a well crafted pace. Definitely a book worth picking up, and I'm going to be looking through more of Weston's work because of it.

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She Lies Close by Sharon Doering - Book Review

                             

'Five-year-old Ava Boone has been missing for six months. There have been no leads, no arrests, no witnesses. The only suspect was quiet, middle-aged Leland Ernest. And Grace Wright has just bought the house next door. Recently divorced, Grace uprooted her two small children to start again and hopes the move will reset her crippling insomnia. But now she understands bargain-price for her beautiful new house.

'With whispered neighbourhood gossip and increasingly sleepless nights, Grace develops a fierce obsession with Leland and the safety of her children. Could she really be living next door to a child-kidnapper? A murderer? With reality and dream blurring more each day, Grace desperately pursues the truth - following Ava's family, demanding answers from the police - and then a body is discovered... '

Whenever a book is written from the point of view of one of the characters their narrative becomes incredibly important, they're the person that we're experiencing the world through after all. We only have their word that the events we're reading are true, that they're not twisting things to make a narrative more palatable, or to shape themselves into a hero or victim. When a narrator becomes unreliable, when you're not sure what you can trust, a book takes on a very different feel, and you're left constantly on your toes. This is something that Sharon Doering does with flair in She Lies Close.

She Lies Close follows Grace Wright, a recently divorced mother of two who's living with her children in a new home that she purchased to give them a fresh start. Having left her husband following a string of infidelities, she's struck out on her own to make a life she can be proud of, and one that her kids will love. Unfortunately, this plan doesn't get to come into being when Grace learns that her neighbour, Leland Ernest, was recently questioned by police about the disappearance of five-year-old Ava Boone.

Despite having no charges placed against them, and apparently only having been questioned the once, Grace begins to obsess over her neighbour. She begins to feel that her new home, her fresh start, is unsafe. That her own young daughter might be in the sights of a child killer. There's no proof that Leland is involved, or that Ava is even dead, but with her having been missing for months Grace becomes convinced that her murder at Leland's hands is the only explanation.

What follows is a narrative that slowly descends into madness, as Grace's psyche begins to fall to pieces. It begins with trouble sleeping, and obsessing over articles online about child kidnappings, and ends up with a woman barely keeping things together, trying desperately to maintain her job, her children's safety, and her own sanity.

This is what makes She Lies Close instantly jump out at me from other similar books like this. This isn't so much about the mystery of Ava Boone's disappearance, though that does play a major role, but the affect that this has on someone completely unconnected to the case.

Grace isn't involved in this case, she doesn't know the Boone's or have any information that could help, yet it begins to consume her life. It's something that I'm sure we can all recognise, whether within ourselves or others. There's always that one news story, that one event that causes panic or makes a stir within people. I remember a few from my childhood that caused differing degrees of panic in adults, that changed the ways that they acted or treated their children's safety. This is the main narrative thread of this book, a woman who's fear for her children causes an obsession that could cause more harm than good.

The changes that it causes in Grace a pretty dramatic, but because you're along for the ride, seeing her sanity slowly unravel you almost don't realise how bad things have gotten for her until she interacts with another adult, someone on the outside of her obsession. It's in these brief moments that you realise just how off the rails Grace has gone, how extreme her actions have been; actions that even the reader might have found justified just pages before.

The fact that Grace's grip on her life becomes so tenuous makes the mystery so much juicer too, because you begin to question the things that she's experiencing. Did these events actually happen, has she blown things out of proportion, or is she bang on the money? There were times during the book where I genuinely couldn't tell you what would happen next, because I found myself second guessing everything; and in some cases third and fourth guessing. I could have seen the book ending with everything Grace had seen and experienced being one hundred percent true, it could have all been part of her delusion, or perhaps a mixture of reality and her unravelling mental condition.

Sharon Doering has managed to take a fairly simple and relatable story, a woman worrying about her children's safety, and managed to craft it into a tale with more twists and turns that a maze, where you can never be sure of what you're reading, and you'll be unable to figure out what's coming next. A brilliant debut that shows that this is definitely a writer that you'll want to keep your eye on.

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The Head of Mimir by Richard Lee Byers - Book Review

 

'Before Heimdall became guardian of the Bifrost he was just another warrior, until he turned rogue to save all of Asgard… in this heroic fantasy novel set in Marvel’s incredible Legends of Asgard

'It is a dark time for Asgard. The Allfather is trapped in a bewitched Odinsleep, inspiring an all-out assault from the Frost Giants. They evade the gods’ defences with uncommon ease, as if guided by augury. Heimdall, a quick-witted young warrior still finding his place, believes it no coincidence that Odin lies enchanted and that the Giants are so well-informed. Breaking into Odin’s chambers, he discovers that the severed head of Mimir – a great source of wisdom – is missing. Accompanied by his sister, Sif, Heimdall must quest across the Nine Worlds to retrieve it, and defeat those besieging his home.'

The world of Marvel's Thor is an interesting one, one that manages to mix together super heroics, Norse mythology, and in later years, science fiction. The recent big screen adaptations have very much pushed the sci-fi angle, which I've enjoyed, but the downside of this is that viewers got very little fantasy with their Thor. The Head of Mimir, in contrast, has very much embraced the mythology behind the original comics, and has provided readers with a high fantasy adventure that's sure to thrill.

The story is bookended with Volstagg, one of the Warriors Three, telling his son a story about Heimdall in order to teach him that a warrior is more than a strong sword arm, and that being smart enough to take a step back and think things through is perhaps even more important than martial skill. His story takes readers back through time, to a place long before the events of the Thor comics, where Heimdall and his sister Sif were just regular soldiers in the Asgard army during a war with the Frost Giants of Jotunheim.

The war is not going well for the people of Asgard. Odin has been in the Odin-Sleep for weeks, longer than ever before; and without his wisdom and power the forces of Jotunheim have been encroaching further and further into the kingdom of the gods. The Frost Giants have been using more and more cunning tactics than ever before, and are simply overwhelming Asgards forces. Looking at what's happening, Heimdall is convinced that something more must be at work here, that Odin being away for so long must be a sign of something awful going on behind the scenes.

Approaching Queen Frigga, he implores her to enter Odin's chambers and make sure that something awful hasn't been done to the king. Under the advice of court enchantress Amora, the queen dismisses Heimdall's concerns; which prompts the young soldier to take matters into his own hands. Sneaking into the Odin-Sleep chambers, he and his sister must overcome the magical defences and illusions within before coming face to face with their king. Unable to see anything wrong with him, they do notice that someone must have entered before them, as the magical Head of Mimir has been stolen.

Knowing that this magical artefact is able to dispense amazing advice and knowledge Heimdall concludes that a traitor must have sent the head to the Frost Giants, explaining their change of tactics. Unfortunately, entering Odin's chambers is high treason, and when he and Sif are seen leaving they must go on the run from their own people, setting off on a mission to retrieve the head whilst being hunted by Asgard too.

The Head of Mimir is a hell of a story, more in line with the epics of legend than anything I've read in the Thor comics, but it fits so well with the universe and characters that Marvel have adapted over the decades. Richard Lee Byers clearly know not just the world of the comics, but the original myths too, and manages to weave them together in great ways. And one of the things I liked the most, there was never a sense that he was trying to make it feel like science was at work here. Unlike the films, which tried to explain magic away as advanced science, this book embraces its fantasy roots and says 'no, this is magic'. People cast spells, monsters from myth wield powers, and the world tree exists. 

I adored this decision. I never like it when writers try to make magic feel less special, when they try to make it feel practical and real. Give me Frost Giants with ice staffs casting spells on battlefields, giant dragons scaling the sides of a magical tree that holds different worlds in its branches, and teleporting Pegasuses over that. Let me feel awed and in wonder, rather than waiting for a scientific explanation for things. It's so nice to have a book that embraces the fantastic and presents them without feeling like it has to give reason or make it understandable. It makes the journey that the two heroes go on feel so much bigger and more amazing.

Heimdall and Sif make for some excellent protagonists too, and their relationship is explored well throughout the book. I have to admit, before reading this I never knew that the two of them were siblings, and to have that relationship not just included, but made central to their story, is great. We see two soldiers who keep fighting for each other, who refuse to give in or leave the other behind because they're not just brother in arms, but family. There are a few occasions in the book where lesser relationships would have really been put to the test, where lesser characters would have broken apart, but the two of them never give up on each other.

The focus on their relationship also gives some stakes to the book. These are characters that we know from the comics, we know that they don't die here, that they go on to bigger positions in Asgardian society. So instead of having to worry if they'll die or not the concern shifts to their relationship. Will the two of them end up falling out? Will events push them to the point of hating each other, even if only temporarily?

The Head of Mimir wasn't what I was expecting going into the book, but it was such a pleasant surprise. In a time where comic heroes revolve around science and realism it's so good to get a story that embraces the fantastical, that doesn't feel the need to be gritty and true to life, but is content to be wondrous and over the top. Comic book fans will love seeing more about the kingdom of Asgard and learning more about some of it's inhabitants, and fantasy fans will feel right at home here too, even if it's their first time trying out the Marvel universe. 

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Domino: Strays by Tristan Palmgren - Book Review

 

'Sharp-witted, luck-wrangling mercenary Domino takes on both a dangerous cult and her own dark past, in this explosive introduction to the new series of Marvel prose novels

'The job: infiltrate a Chicago conman’s cult to liberate some brainwashed twins. For former X-Force operative Domino, that’s a “hell no”. Fanatics are bad news. She still has nightmares about Project Armageddon, the super-soldier program that wrecked her life and destroyed her family. If only she’d had someone to help her back then, someone… like her. It’s a total pain in the ass, but maybe it is time to finally face those demons. With her probability manipulating superpowers she can turn even the worst of situations to her advantage.'

Comics are a great medium, they're designed to be easy to read and to be accessible to readers of all ages, and they've evolved over the years to become a storytelling medium that's hard to translate to other formats. You only need to look at how many comic book films have been less than good to see that. Whilst comic book movies have become big business, one of the mediums where comics rarely make the leap is in prose novels. I've seen some people argue that comic characters and their stories just wouldn't work as prose, and I've always disagreed with that; and now I'll be able to point to Domino: Strays as a perfect example of how these characters and their stories not only work in this format, but excel at it.

Domino: Strays follows the mutant mercenary Domino as she's hired to rescue a pair of twins from the clutches of a cult leader by their desperate mother. Initially unwilling to take on a mission that's not her normal kind of thing, Domino eventually agrees, and sets out to infiltrate the cult's facility in order to rescue them. Whilst this story alone is interesting enough, and it's very entertaining to see Domino and her team infiltrating this compound in the middle of Chicago, where the book really shines is the other stories that play into this.

The book is written from Domino's point of view, and she makes it clear to the reader early on that her writing style is a bit hectic, and will jump around the place a little. As such, we get two other narratives weaving into the story of her infiltrating the cult's compound. One is Domino's childhood being raised as a subject in part of some shady experiment, and her eventual escape to a Chicago orphanage; and the other is her travelling to the Florida Everglades to track down a woman who might be her mother.

Now, on the surface these three narratives don't really have very much in common, but as these stories unravel we learn that not only is Domino's mission to Florida deeply connected with her own traumatic past, and her time in the orphanage, but is also one of the reasons why she chooses to take on her current assignment in the first place. Over the course of the book we get to see her past, the way her mind works, and how she has a great deal of empathy for people trapped in a prison by authorities out to control them.

I have to admit, I've not read massive amounts of comics with Domino in them, so only have a basic understanding of the character (and also understand that this isn't the same continuity as the Marvel 616 universe) but I felt like this book taught me so much more about her than any comic could. This isn't just because it went deep into her history and showed the reader parts of Domino's past that most comics don't, but because the whole thing is narrated by her, and as such we get to understand these events through her eyes, and understand the impact it has upon her.

Tristan Palmgren seems to really know the character well, and they've put a lot of effort into humanising her in new and interesting ways. Domino isn't just a mercenary out to make money, spending her time between missions partying and living life to the extreme because she's a wild person, but because her actions are influenced by the trauma that she's lived through.

Palmgren also makes a point to make Domino's powers interesting in some new ways. Much like was made a joke of in Deadpool 2, luck isn't very cinematic, and Tristan seems to want to make this a point. They have Domino explain more than once that she doesn't control how her luck works, and whilst it can ultimately help her out of some sticky situations, it isn't perfect. She describes times where her luck powers have had her leap from a vehicle to safety, but crash into a wall and nearly knock herself out; how does that help her? Well, the person chasing her doesn't see her laying on the floor and runs past her. It got the job done, but it doesn't make her untouchable. There's lots of little moments like this peppered throughout the narrative, where Domino is able to use her luck to her advantage, but still comes out of her adventures battered and bruised.

Domino: Strays is a really inventive and engaging dive into the character, one that puts her personal journey and growth at the forefront of the narrative, and manages to weave three connected stories together in ways where the jumps in time not only feel natural, but play into each other well. I really hope that this won't be the only time that Tristan gets to write the character, as I'd love to see more of her explored in this way. If this is the last time Tristan writes a Domino book, I at least hope that they get to write more adventures set in the Marvel Universe.

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The Nobody People by Bob Proehl - Book Review

'When a group of outcasts with extraordinary abilities comes out of hiding, their clash with a violent society will spark a revolution—or an apocalypse..

'Avi Hirsch has always known his daughter was different. But when others with incredible, otherworldly gifts reveal themselves to the world, Avi realizes that her oddness is something more—that she is something more. With this, he has a terrifying revelation: Emmeline is now entering a society where her unique abilities unfairly mark her as a potential threat. And even though he is her father, Avi cannot keep her safe forever.

'Emmeline soon meets others just like her: Carrie Norris, a teenage girl who can turn invisible . . . but just wants to be seen. Fahima Deeb, a woman with an uncanny knack for machinery . . . but it’s her Muslim faith that makes the U.S. government suspicious of her.

'They are the nobody people—ordinary individuals with extraordinary gifts who want one only thing: to live as equals in an America that is gripped by fear and hatred. But the government is passing discriminatory laws. Violent mobs are taking to the streets. And one of their own—an angry young man seething with self-loathing—has used his power in an act of mass violence that has put a new target on the community. The nobody people must now stand together and fight for their future, or risk falling apart.

'The first book of a timely two-part series, The Nobody People is a powerful novel of love and hope in the face of bigotry that uses a world touched by the fantastic to explore our current reality. It is a story of family and community. It is a story of continuing to fight for one another, no matter the odds. It is the story of us.'

One of the things I see people talk about in book reviews is how cinematic a novel can be, how it feels like reading a grand movie; and sometimes people will say it's like reading a season of a television series. The Nobody People isn't like either of those. Instead, it's like reading several seasons of a grand, sweeping television series; one that expectations and goes to places you'd never expect.

The Nobody People begins following Avi, a reporter who used to cover warzones around the world until he was caught in a bomb explosion and lost his leg. Now he's trying to get back into writing whilst supporting his wife and daughter, still trying to get used to the changes in his life, and pining for the days of his past. When Avi gets a tip from a friend working in Homeland Security he begins to discover that two recent bombings might be connected, and soon discovers that these bizarre attacks, where matter itself seems to have been simply vanished from existence, were both performed by the same man; who was at the centre of both attacks. His investigation soon leads him to a group of people with amazing powers, called Resonants, and learns that his own daughter is one of them.

On the surface The Nobody People jumped out at me as being quite like the X-Men comics, it is after-all about people with amazing powers and abilities hiding in plain sight across the world, and a school where these people can go to learn to control their abilities. I have to admit that I was making these kinds of comparisons in my head when I first started reading the book, but it quickly became clear that whilst the two books shared some surface level similarities they take very different approaches to the same topics. This isn't about super heroes, costumed adventurers that go out into the wider world to battle villains. No, this is a story about real people and the prejudices that minorities face.

The book opens with the brutal lynching of an entire family, a  family who helped to save the lives of dozens of people, all because they were different from 'normal' people. This is a theme that flows through the entire narrative, whether it's a family discovering their daughter has abilities, or radio personalities calling for internment camps and registration, or radicalised young people deciding to take matters into their own hands and shooting innocent people in the street. No matter how fantastical the narrative got I kept coming back to the same idea that this book is about being 'other' more than it is about fantastical powers and grand narratives that cover years.

This is explored in the larger narrative, where we get to see the public reaction to Resonants and the calls for action to be taken against them, but we get some very personal insight into how it is to be one of these people through one of the main characters, Fahima Deeb, a queer Muslim American. Through spending time with Fahima we see what she's already had to live with, not because of being a Resonant, but through being Muslim in the US. She talks about seeing people turn against her family after 9/11, former friends shunning her and her family. She tells readers how government officials broke into her home and dragged family members away, simply for the suspicion that they could have been doing something wrong. This gives a very real grounding to the events that happen in the book, and remind readers that whilst this might be fantastical, many of the things that happen to Resonants happen to people in real life. Families turn their back on their children because they reveal a part of themselves that was previously hidden, police treat you with mistrust and refuse to help you, pundits call for your rights to be taken away in the press, the notion of putting people like you in camps is discussed. All of this sounds awful and too impossible to be true, but it's all real. You simply have to replace Resonants with another group and you'll finds so many documented cases of it happening in real life.

I think this was a large part of why this book spoke to me. In a time where people are taking to the streets to fight for their rights, their very lives, even during a dangerous global pandemic you can't escape the very real facts of oppression and othering that's happening across the globe. People are denouncing the fight for racial equality, trans rights are being opposed at every turn, people claim all members of religious groups are going to kill you, queer people are branded as deviants. It's all happening now, and it gives The Nobody People an added weight. It doesn't necessarily mean it's an easy read, but it makes it so much more relevant.

If you're a part of a minority you'll see a lot of yourself and the struggles that minority face in this book, and it might not be an easy read for you, but the book does manage to contain some hope, that there are some people out there that are fighting for the right thing, to make a better world. The book doesn't give us a happy ending, as it's the first part of a duology, but leaves readers waiting to see how society might resolve its issues of hate. Like in real life, I'm hopeful for a happy ending, but much like real life I'm not sure that's possible for this narrative; either way, I'm eagerly waiting to see how it all ends.

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