Cat Step by Alison Irvine - Book Review

'One mistake can unravel everything…

'She only left her daughter in the car for a minute; just a quick minute whilst she ran into the shop. She barely thought twice about making the decision, but it soon began to consume her every thought. And not just her thoughts, but those of every neighbour, police officer and social security worker in a fifteen mile radius. But this is her child. Surely she knows best?

'After she’d made the move to a small town in Scotland, the rolling hills and blustery beaches seemed to be the perfect backdrop for her and her four year-old daughter, Emily, to start again. It wasn’t always easy just the two of them, but Liz was sure that she could manage this time. And now this?

'Sometimes, one mistake is all it takes to unravel everything. Cat Step is a lyrically sparse novel about judgement, inter-generational relationships, community, class, and the expectations that we place on mothers. With sharp prose Alison Irvine has crafted a compassionate narrative that compels you to read on.'

Cat Step was not the book that I was expecting it to be; I guess I came to the novel with a preconceived notion of what was going to happen from the tease of the blurb. I was expecting something big and dramatic, for Liz's choice to leave her daughter in the car alone to cause something awful to happen. I thought this was the set-up to her child going missing, and the terror and heartbreak that would bring. But I was wrong. Instead, Cat Step is a much more grounded novel, one that looks at a very ordinary and recognisable life, one that many people will be able to find a connection with, something familiar to their own life.

The book follows Liz, who has left her life living with her mother in London to travel to Lennoxtown, a small town in Scotland. Taking her four year old daughter Emily with her, Liz has gone to clear out the flat of her late partners grandmother, who passed away recently. Clearing a home and getting it ready to be sold on is hard enough, but when you've got a four-year-old to look after too, it begins to get a bit much for the single mother. 

When Emily falls ill with tonsillitis Liz does her best to carry on, as well as taking care of her sick daughter. All she does is make one tiny mistake in judgement, and things begin to unravel for her. Taking Emily to go get some much needed groceries, she leaves the sleeping child alone in the car as she dashes in to get what she needs. Unfortunately, this is the day a thief chooses to break into her car to steal her phone. The break-in leads to the police being called, and when they discover that Emily was left alone in the car Liz is reported to social services.

Now Liz has to try to keep her life together as she remains isolated, hundreds of miles from her only family, with a child that doesn't always make her life easy, and social services watching her every move. In the middle of all of this, Liz is desperate to find people who might have known her late partner Robbie, to learn more about the man she lost; but not everything she learns about him is a good as she hopes.

Liz has an incredibly difficult journey in Cat Step, and it's a book that really hammers home the stress and difficulty of being a parent, especially a single parent. Liz spends most of the book isolated, with her daughter being her only companion for much of the time. Other than a handful of pensioners she spends time with to teach dance most everyone she meets in her time at Lennoxtown is someone that she comes to see as an adversary. They're judging her, they're questioning her parenting skills, and they want to take her daughter away from her.

It's no surprise that Liz's mental health takes a heavy hit over the course of the novel, and the threads have already begun to unravel at the very start of the book. This isn't just through being in a new, isolating place, but we learn over the course of the story that Liz has had to deal with some awful tragedy when she lost her partner, and that that loss still haunts her almost five years later. The book speaks as much about the effect that grief can have upon a person as much as it does the trials of being an isolated mother, and these two issues are ultimately what leads Liz down a dark path.

Cat Step shows readers that loss and grief are something that in some cases doesn't just pass, but becomes a huge part of someone's life, colouring every part of their existence. It can cause you to want to live in that happier past, to struggle to make new connection, and can prevent you from living your life to the fullest. This is why when Liz learns that Robbie had some skeletons in his closet, some pretty damn bad ones, it begins to break her world. The man she loved and lost was the brightest spark in her life, someone who devoted themselves to her, who supported her dreams and made a family with her; the idea that he wasn't perfect is too much for her, especially as he's not around for her to talk about it with him. She's left grappling two conflicting ideas of Robbie, ones that she feels can't exist in the same person.

I saw this idea of duality a lot in the book, with a number of characters seeming to make dramatic shifts in their personalities and attitudes towards Liz. This, of course, could have been very much skewed by the perspective of a woman who's mental health is slowly deteriorating, but it could also fit in with the idea that some people can hold vastly opposing facets. The loving husband could have a criminal past, a man who did awful things and beat his mother can feel shame and seek forgiveness whilst trying to be a good father, a strong independent woman can fall to pieces where their child is concerned, and a kindly new boyfriend could be a cheat. The book likes to remind the reader that people aren't defined by one simple characteristic, that they're complex, and often flawed. Liz sees this in others during her time at Lennoxtown, and even shows it in herself as a devoted mother who some could see as a neglectful or even cruel parent.

Cat Step was simpler in its story than I was expecting, but had a lot more depth too. It took a very ordinary person going through a very ordinary life and used that to show the difficulties and complexities of life. It reminded the reader that everything you do can be seen in different ways, that one persons hero is another's villain, and that perhaps we should all take the time to consider things more carefully before we make snap decisions about people.

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Ashfall – London Korean Film Festival 2020

 

Originally published on Set The Tape

The line up for the London Korean Film Festival is an impressive one, with a broad range of genres designed to appeal to people who are fans of very different films. One that immediately jumped out from the list was Ashfall, a big, bombastic action adventure blockbuster that looked like a load of fun.

Ashfall (original title Baekdusan) follows bomb disposal technician Jo In-Chang (Jung-woo Ha), who’s planning to retire from his dangerous job to spend more time with his wife and their baby, who’s close to being born. However, when Mount Paektu, an active volcano on the North Korea/China border suddenly erupts, his plans are cancelled.

The eruption causes extensive damage across the Korean Peninsula, destroying cities in North and South Korea. When it’s discovered that this is only the first of four eruptions, and that the final one is going to be large enough to cause massive devastation and loss of life, the Korean government must come up with a plan to prevent this.

Jo In-Chang and his team get dispatched to travel into North Korea, contact double agent Ri Joon-pyeong (Byung-hun Lee) who’s in one of their detention centres, and discover the location of North Korean nuclear weapons. They will then have to steal one of these weapons in order to detonate it beneath the mountain, providing enough pressure relief to prevent the final eruption.

This plan sees Jo and his team travelling into hostile territory, that puts them against both the North Korean forces, and those of the USA who have travelled to Korea to take part in nuclear disarmament procedures. But when things go wrong, Jo and his technicians, who are not trained for combat, must complete the mission, alongside a double agent intent on escaping and screwing over the team if it means his freedom.

Ashfall opens big, with the first eruption of Mount Paektu within the first ten minutes causing massive damage across Seoul. Buildings come crashing down, cars crash, and Jo is left dashing through the destruction as carnage and ash rain around him.

From here the film hardly lets up, and uses the constant threat of follow-up destruction to keep the cast of characters moving forward at all times, fighting towards their end goal. However, it doesn’t just rely on the threat of geological disaster, but throws a lot of action, espionage, buddy comedy, and even some surprisingly emotional moments into the mix too, meaning that the audience never has a chance to get bored with events.

The film really picks up when Jo and his team encounter Ri, who doesn’t seem to care about anything but his own personal goals throughout. He’s constantly at odds with Jo and his team, and this means that you’re never sure which side he’s going to be on at any moment. The interplay between Jo and Ri is great, and keeps the audience guessing right up to the end; an end that manages to hit a perfect note.

These constant shifts in tone, jumping from action and espionage to silly moments where the two leads are battling against each other and trying to get the upper hand, mean that Ashfall never feels dull or takes itself too seriously. This helps to balance out against some of the stark and realistic depictions of destruction, and the massive stakes that Jo has on his shoulders.

Ashfall is the kind of film audiences often get from big budget American studios, where it would be the US Army riding in to do the impossible and save the day, so it’s refreshing to see that formula subverted a little, where not only is it another country that gets to play at big budget heroics but the US military is an active antagonist.

Overall Ashfall is a really enjoyable film. It has some great pacing, big action and disaster sequences that work really well, and a central cast who are a genuine delight to watch. Definitely a film that I would recommend.

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Relic – Film Review

 

Originally published on Set The Tape

Relic is the feature film debut of writer/director Natalie Erika James, and takes a look at the very real pain of seeing a loved one lose themselves to dementia, told through a deeply disturbing horror lens.

The film begins with Kay (Emily Mortimer) and her daughter Sam (Bella Heathcote) travelling to the remote town of Creswick, when Kay’s ageing mother Edna (Robyn Nevin) suddenly disappears from her home. Kay and Sam join in with the police and local residents in their search for Edna in the surrounding woodlands, but no sign of her is found.

Kay does what she can to cope with the sudden vanishing of her mother, and works on clearing up her house, going through all of the things her mother has been hording in her deteriorating state. When Edna suddenly reappears in the house one night Kay and Sam are grateful to have her back, but are still worried about her mental state and physical well being.

The mother and daughter try their hardest to do what’s best for Edna, but find her lapses in memory and sometimes violent mood swings too much to cope with. When Edna starts talking about the strange thing trying to get into her home the two of them chalk it up to her dementia, but strange things begin to happen in the house, and Sam discovers a mysterious mould covered maze of corridors and rooms within the walls of the home. Is this where Edna went missing, and is there something else in there trying to break through?

Relic is a film that relies on dread to get under the skin of its audience, and from its very start builds a sense of unease that never goes away during its run time, culminating in a finale that will leave you feeling disturbed and affected. The very first scenes establish the rules for the movie, relying on slow, lingering shots, a quietly discomfiting musical score, and superbly crafted sound effects to straddle the line between disturbing reality and the world of the paranormal and horrific.

The whole of Relic is like this, confidently walking this line between the mundane and the nightmarish, never allowing the viewer to gain enough information to know what’s going on, but allowing what it does give you to be uncomfortable enough that you never stop feeling on edge.

Based on the content of the film and on background information, this would seem to be intentional on the part of writer/director Natalie Erika James, who is trying to show the horror of watching a loved one slip away due to dementia; something she herself has some personal experience with. The film seems to be trying to put you into both the mindset of having to watch someone you love slip through your fingers, and the emotional toll that would take upon you; as well as having the viewer experience not know what’s going on, and questioning whether everything they experience is real, much like someone going through dementia.

Because of the way that Relic grapples with the theme of dementia, and the amount or explanation it offers for the events on screen, I came away unsure of what I’d just watched. What I do know is that what I saw didn’t sit right with me. It left me feeling uncomfortable. Which means that it worked as a horror film.

Yes, there were moments that included jump scares, but this isn’t the kind of film that relies on loud bangs to make you feel frightened, nor does it have some kind of monster or foe chasing characters around to make you feel on edge; it relies on a much creepier feeling to get to you, and this makes it an incredibly subtle and affecting film.

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Mighty Morphin Power Rangers/Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles by Ryan Parrott - Book Review

'THE TEENAGERS WITH ATTITUDE MEET THE HEROES IN A HALF SHELL FOR THE FIRST TIME!

'The Power Rangers arrive in New York City to find their missing teammate Tommy Oliver – AKA The Mighty Morphin Green Ranger – but soon discover he’s joined forces with the villainous Shredder and the Foot Clan! But the Rangers must also deal with another unexpected (fr)enemy – the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles! Can these heroes find a way to work together to defeat the bad guys and save the world from total destruction?!

'Written by Ryan Parrott (Power Rangers: Necessary Evil) and illustrated by Simone di Meo (Power Rangers: Beyond The Grid), the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers fight – and maybe team up with – the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles for the first time ever.'

Boom! Studios have done a fantastic job at breathing new and exciting life into the Power Rangers franchise with their works on the comics, introducing new characters to the lore more than twenty five years since Mighty Morphin Power Rangers was on television. One of the writers on the Power Rangers comics is Ryan Parrott, who's currently relaunching the books with two new, exciting series, and here fans get to see him tackle another beloved children's martial arts franchise, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.

Mighty Morphin Power Rangers/Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles opens with the Rangers fighting Rita's latest monster in downtown Angel Grove. During the fight we learn that Tommy, the Green Ranger, has taken a leave of absence, and the Rangers have no idea where he is. On the other side of the country, in New York City the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles are battling a number of Foot Clan ninja's. However, one of these ninja's manages to get the upper hand over Raphael, and make their escape.

We soon learn that this new ninja is, in fact, Tommy, who has travelled to the city to infiltrate the Foot Clan to help a childhood friend who's become mixed up with the criminal organisation. In order to prove himself to the Foot's leadership, Tommy must infiltrate a secret research lab and steal some tech. He's able to make it inside the building, but finds the Turtles waiting for him. When he's forced to morph in order to take them on the Power Rangers are able to detect this, and teleport to New York to assist him.

After a brief fight between the two teams they quickly realise that they're on the same side and join forces, however, Tommy has already fled the scene, returning to the Foot Clan with the stolen tech. Coming face to face with the leader of the Foot, Shredder, Tommy discovers that Shredder knew of his real identity the whole time, and is captured. Using tech from his allies in Dimension X, Shredder severs Tommy's connection to the Morphin Grid, and takes on the Green Ranger powers for himself. 

With Tommy missing, Shredder now a Ranger, and Rita Repulsa seemingly allied with him, the Rangers and the Turtles must work together to stop these powerful foes, rescue their friend, and save the city.

I'm going to be honest, I wasn't sure what to expect from this book when it was first announced. This isn't the first time that these two franchises have met, with an episode of Power Rangers In Space featuring the turtles from the 90's television series Ninja Turtles: The Next Mutation. The crossover episode was admittedly, pretty bad, thanks in large parts to in both not making much sense for the two series to suddenly cross-over, but also because of the low effort put into it. I was slightly worried that this series could become another half baked way of putting these two groups into the same space. Luckily, I was wrong.

Parrott has come up with great ways to bring the characters together in this story, and not just the main teams either. Having Tommy travel to New York to help a childhood friend, and having to infiltrate the Foot to do it is a really good idea, and it gives him reason to keep going back on his own, without Ranger back-up. And whilst the two teams do do the almost obligatory fight upon first meeting because they don't know they're all good guys comic cliche, they actually work really well together.

Jason and Leonardo get time to bond over being leaders, and there's a few fun conversations between the two of them comparing sword fighting techniques and their love for martial arts. Michelangelo and Zach both seem to have some dubious food love, and get to have fun coming up with bizarre and downright disgusting pizza toppings together. Billy and Donatello are a perfect pairing as the teams two techies, comparing their inventions, talking science, and getting excited over giant robots. And there's a really good scene where Trini and Raphael discuss some of his emotional issues; though this felt like it was never resolved with another similar scene, which is a shame as I think Trini would have been an amazing friend for the deeply caring Raph. The only Ranger who doesn't really get a Turtle to pair off with is Kimberly, but she has a number of scenes where she and April O'Neil spend time together, and get to discuss guy trouble. 

The bad guys even get to team up too, with Rita and her lieutenants getting the chance to fight against Shredder and his forces, before ultimately agreeing to an uneasy alliance to bring down their respective foes. 

One of the best things about the book, however, is how Parrott really changes things up, and does stuff that would never happen on the TV screen. Using the same device that broke Tommy's connection to his powers, the other Rangers are similarly affected, which causes issues when one of Rita's monsters arrives in the middle of New York. To solve this issue the Turtles, and April, borrow the morphers and become the Mighty Morphin Ninja Turtles. Similarly, the de-powered Rangers join Casey Jones on a mission to infiltrate the Technodrome, kitted out in ninja gear borrowed from the Turtles.

The designs for both groups are absolutely brilliant, and I love the work that Simone Di Meo does here. The Turtle Rangers are all instantly recognisable as the Power Rangers, but still look like turtles, with some gold elements similar to the Green Ranger thrown in in places like their shells. Speaking of the Green Ranger, the design for Shredder using that powers is amazing, and the way that both iconic designs come together to create something completely new, without losing what makes either character recognisable, is astounding. Even April, who's just another human using the Pink Ranger powers gets a slight redesign, even if it's something as simple as removing the skirt.

Not even the Megazord gets away unscathed from the awesome redesigns, as it gets to merge with a giant version of Metalhead getting to combine with the Megazord to create the Turtle Megazord. I really hope that if Hasbro start doing more comic characters as part of their Lightning Collection of figures we get a set from this book, because the designs on offer here are some of the best Power Ranger designs I've seen in years. And I want them as toys.

I went into this book with pretty low expectations, but hoping for something that would be good, and I got something that was so much better than I was even hoping. I loved reading this book, and I want them to do a sequel. Do it again a season later, using the White Ranger and the Stone Canyon Trio to add something new into the mix, do it with Lord Zedd, or even go pick another team of Rangers all together. Either way, I want Ryan Parrott to do another of these, because this is brilliant.

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Sleepwalkers – Blu-ray Review

 

Originally published on Set The Tape

This week sees the release of Stephen King’s Sleepwalkers on Blu-ray for the first time in the UK, and proves to be the perfect set for some classic horror just in time for Halloween.

The film follows mother and son Charles (Bian Krause) and Mary (Alice Krige) Brady, who have recently moved to the small town of Travis, Indiana. Despite looking like regular human beings the two of them are actually Sleepwalkers, a pair of shape-shifting energy vampires who feed off the life force of virgin girls. The pair have set their sights on local girl Tanya (Madchen Amick) to be their next meal.

Over the course of the film Charles uses his charming personality to win Tanya’s affection, trying to lure her into a situation where he can feed off her. However, when his plan doesn’t go as expected he and his mother find themselves being hunted by local law enforcement.

Sleepwalkers marks the first time that Stephen King wrote an original screenplay, rather than having one of his existing works adapted to film, and because of this it definitely feels a lot tighter than some other films with his name attached. It moves at a pace that is sometimes lacking in other King films, and seems to have a much more relaxed feel to it, even going so far as to embrace some dark comedy, rather than trying for an oppressive atmosphere. Though this will also in part be down to director Mick Garris, who before this film worked on Critters 2, another horror with a comedic tone.

The film itself is, despite the dark tone of the subject matter, is quite a bright and lively piece, and even includes a car chase in the middle of the day, something that I wasn’t expecting from a film with King’s name attached. It seems to know that the very concept, two shape-shifting cat-like entities that suck the soul out of people, is ridiculous, and doesn’t try to make it anything else. That’s not to say there isn’t a decent level of threat though, as the Sleepwalkers themselves are still dangerous foes, and there are a number of scenes in the film that show off how vicious and powerful these entities are, with some good effects work involved.

The biggest downside, however, is that as an animal lover, and someone who has cats, it is at times pretty hard to watch. The film opens with a scene where there are dozens of murdered cats hanging in a tree, in various grotesque states, and towards the end Mary snaps a cat’s neck (something that Krige, in the extras, admits was a hard scene for her to film). Whilst I know these moments are fake, and that no cats were hurt, it still made the film difficult to watch and tainted some of my enjoyment.

Despite these moments, one of the best parts of the film is a cat; in this case Sparks, who plays Clovis, who belongs to one of the local police officers. Clovis absolutely steals every scene he’s in, and even has a few heroic moments that would have meant the death of Tanya if he wasn’t there to save her. It’s not often a cat gets to play a hero, but I love it when they do.

This new release comes with a number of new special features, including interviews with the director, three lead actors, and special effects team, all of which shed some interesting light on the production of the film. The interview with Krige is particularly interesting as it gives viewers an insight into how she, as a classically trained actor, gets into the head-space of the characters she plays. The disc also includes two new audio commentaries, both of which are a lot of fun to listen to, and provide even more information on the production of the film than the extras.

Sleepwalkers is definitely one of the more interesting King films, and it’s a fun piece of early 90’s horror with some great actors and a bag full of cameos. If you’re not normally a fan of Stephen King movies this might be one that’s worth a watch, as it’s definitely a lot of fun.

Sleepwalkers is out on Blu-ray on 26th October from Eureka Entertainment.

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Race To The Finish Line by Aisha Yusuf - Book Review

Originally published on Set The Tape

'Aaleyah Ahmed had her senior year planned out. She would focus on diplomas, apply to universities, graduate, and take a road trip around Canada with her best friends. What was not a part of her plan was moving to a small town in America she’s never heard of because of her dad’s job.

'What she wasn’t prepared for was discovering the town’s dark history that threatens the safety of her and her family.

'Aaleyah and her friends vow to uncover the truth. However, they discover more than they bargained for. They realize they might be in over their heads, but they’re in too deep to stop.

'One thing is for sure; everyone is hiding something.'

Race To The Finish Line is one of those books where the cover instantly jumped out and made me want to learn more about it; there are probably few covers as instantly grabbing as a Black Muslim girl standing up to a member of the KKK, especially in 2020. When I discovered that the author is herself a young Muslim woman of colour, and that she was choosing to write about life as a member of that demographic in the US, I was instantly on board.

The book follows Aaleyah, a seventeen-year-old Black Muslim girl living in Canada with her family. When her father gets a new job in the US Aaleyah and her parents move to the town of Anderton, Arkansas. Upon arriving Aaleyah is shocked to find that the town is more then 90% white, and incredibly racist.  She's subjected to stares in public, muttered insults, and full blown verbal assault at school. And this is only the beginning of the abuse that she receives. Digging into the town history she discovers that there's an alarming trend of missing persons reports for minorities in Anderton. Teaming up with her two new friends, Brianna and Matthew, she sets out to dig into this past, all whilst trying to survive the racists that infest the town.

I have to be honest, at first I wasn't sure what to think of the book due to the writing style. The lead character is in her teens, yet the writing often felt like it was aimed at a younger audience. This was largely due to the simplicity of a number of the scenes, the way that Yusuf would gloss over certain details and jump around the narrative very quickly, not giving events a chance to breath before moving on to the next. For the first few chapters I was unsure if I liked the book or not.

However, once Aaleyah reached her school things changed. Suddenly events were a lot more interesting, the things that Aaleyah was experiencing had me on the edge of my seat, and the faster pace began to work a lot better. It felt like I'd found the meat of the story, and the first few chapters were Yusuf quickly getting through the set-up so that she could focus on the important stuff.

This part of the book wasn't exactly enjoyable, because I don't think you could ever class this kind of story as enjoyable, but it was certainly grabbing. Yusuf didn't shy away from showing the realities of the racism and Islamophobia that Aaleyah faces. There are times where she is verbally attacked, complete with racial slurs, physical assaults, vandalism, and appearances from the KKK. This is a book that will test you, it will make you feel angry and on edge, it could even hurt you, because despite being a work of fiction this is a very real story.

It's a sad thing that this kind of story isn't relegated to the past, but is still happening today. The Ku Klux Klan are active across the US, Black people are murdered by white supremacists and cops (with the two often indistinguishable), and the Black community have had to take to the streets in protest across the world to demand equality and justice. The way that minorities are treated in the US is fucking abhorrent, and this book doesn't shy away from that.

I don't know what it's like to be treated differently because of the colour of your skin, to face such vile hatred simply because you look different. I can't understand how hard this kind of thing must be for people like Aaleyah, like Aisha Yusuf. I experience some discrimination because I'm a disabled trans woman, but I know that what I face is a far cry from what Black people in the US suffer through every single day, where you honestly don't know if you're about to be murdered or not if a cop stops you. I don't understand how someone can live with that kind of pressure and hatred thrown at them and remain so strong and so compassionate, and even after reading this book I still don't get it.

Reading Race To The Finish Line made me angry at time. It made me so fucking angry that this is daily reality for some people, and for so many people. It made my heart race as the anger and despair of that kind of life washed over me, and it had me close to tears. This might just be a fictional story, but it's also a window into the lives of so many people, people whose only crime is the colour of their skin. 

Race To The Finish Line might not be the most polished book I've ever read, and there might have been moments where I wish things were done differently in the narrative, but it's also a book that moved me. It had a hell of an impact on me, and is one that I know is going to stick in my head for a long while. I know racism can be a scary subject for white people, it can be something that you don't want to admit is as bad as it is, something that still has such a stranglehold on society, but it's important that you at the very least start to look at it. We can't make things better if we just bury our heads in the sand and pretend it's not happening. If the news is too scary, if real life accounts are too awful to get you engaged, start with this book, and learn a little of what it's like to have to live with that hanging over your head everyday.  A must read.

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Zoey Punches The Future In The Dick by David Wong - Book Review

 

'The latest--and greatest--sci-fi thriler in the Zoey Ashe Series.

'Nightmarish villains with superhuman enhancements. An all-seeing social network that tracks your every move. Mysterious, smooth-talking power players who lurk behind the scenes. A young woman suddenly in charge of the most decadent city in the world--and her very smelly cat.

'Zoey Ashe is like a fish so far out of water that it has achieved orbit. She finds herself struggling to establish rule over a sprawling empire while Tabula Ra$a's rogue's gallery of larger-than-life crime bosses and corrupt plutocrats smell weakness. Tensions brew across the city.

'A steamer trunk-sized box arrives at Zoey's door, and she and her bodyguard Wu are shocked to find that it contains a disembowelled corpse, and even more shocked when that corpse, controlled by an unknown party, rises from the box and goes on a rampage through the house. After being subdued, it speaks in an electronic voice, accusing Zoey of being its murderer. Soon, it makes the same claim to the public at large, along with the promise of a cash reward for proof that Zoey and the Suits are behind the crime.

'Now Zoey is having doubts of her own: Is she 100% sure that someone on her team didn't do this? She also doesn't even have a complete list of what businesses she owns, or what exact laws her organisation is still breaking. So what does she really know?'

Sometimes coming into a series after the first book can be something of a challenge, wither the book can be too dense with things left over from the previous entries that it becomes hard to know what's happening, or it can become so bogged down with trying to explain everything that it can alienate new readers under an info-dump. Zoey Punches The Future In The Dick could easily have faced these issues, it's set in a world where the fantastical is the norm, and society is pushed to the extreme, so suddenly being thrust into that with characters and a set-up that you don't know is a daunting prospect; however, I never once felt lost or overwhelmed reading this, which speaks volumes to how well Jason Pargin (writing under his pen-name David Wong) writes the book.

The book returns readers to the city of Tabuala Ra$a, a mostly lawless metropolis formed by gangsters and powerful businessmen in Ohio. It's here that were introduced (or reintroduced to returning fans) to Zoey Ashe, a young woman in her early twenties who grew up a regular poor, working class girl in a small town, but discovered her father was the billionaire founder of Tabula Ra$a when he died and she inherited everything he had. Now Zoey finds herself not only heading up a business empire, but also all of the shady and illegal dealings her father had, including his former enemies.

The story begins with Zoey having to respond to a hostage situation in one of the businesses she now owns when a cybernetically enhanced man smashes his way into the building and threatens to kill everyone inside unless Zoey gives herself over. Zoey manages to help bring the volatile situation to a peaceful conclusion, but is still hated by much of the city, who have taken to harassing and bullying her whenever they get the opportunity.

When the hostage taker turns up at her home, dead inside a trunk, a month later Zoey's problems get even worse. Stripped of organs, and made to attack her via his cybernetic implants, the victim blames Zoey for his death. Pretty soon rumours spread throughout the city that Zoey has had him killed so that she can eat his organs, and a million dollar bounty is put on her head to make her confess to these heinous crimes. Now Zoey not only has to try to get to the bottom of this mystery, but needs to keep herself alive as she is targeted by every bounty hunter and hate group in the city.

It's made pretty clear very early on during the book that you don't have to take things too seriously in the world Pargin has crafted here. There are some brutal and disturbing moments yes, but these tend to occur rarely, and the book instead relies on an almost satirical sense of silliness to keep things fun and entertaining. The stakes are big, but the characters always manage to keep things feeling light. There's a high speed vehicle chase where our heroes are under attack, but it features a human glider flying around, there's a brutal fistfight as Zoey tries to stay alive, but her opponent also has an electric crotch whip. The whimsy manages to make scenes that would otherwise be too intense manageable, and will have you laughing out loud more than once.

I liked this sense of humour the book had, and the way it was also used in the world as well as the characters. More than once Tabula Ra$a reminded me of Mega City One from Judge Dredd, in the sense that anything felt possible. Even though the book is set around Halloween Zoey makes it clear that much of the bizarre costumes and over the top people walking the streets wouldn't be out of place on any day of the year, and the constant social media monitoring and giant electronic billboards made it feel like a crazy future to live in.

Thanks to the brilliant world building, interesting cast of colourful characters, and a plot with more twists and turns in it than I was expecting, the book was a pure joy to read, and I blasted through it faster than I thought I would. I'm definitely going to be going back and checking out the first book because of this, and really look forward to seeing more from Zoey in the future. As long as she's done punching it in the dick.

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After Sundown by Mark Morris - Book Review

Originally published on Set The Tape

'This new anthology contains 20 original horror stories, 16 of which have been commissioned from some of the top names in the genre, and 4 of which have been selected from the 100s of stories sent to Flame Tree during a 2-week open submissions window. It is the first of what will hopefully become an annual, non-themed horror anthology of entirely original stories, showcasing the very best short fiction that the genre has to offer.'

Short story collections are good ways of finding new authors to try out, I've lost count of the number of times I've read an anthology book and ended up putting a load of new books onto my list of things to eventually get round to reading. After Sundown is a great example of this, as not only was there only the one writer in this book that I'd already known of, but with no connective theme, other than horror itself, to bring these stories together, there was a huge variety in the tone, style, and feel of all of them. 

The book features twenty stories in all, sixteen of which come from already established writers, and four from an open submission to the publisher. I honestly wouldn't have been able to pick out these four submitted stories, as all of them were of such high quality. There was also a great variety here, with stories that felt very modern and relevant to events going on in the world today, to stories with a science fiction bent to them, some traditional ghost stories, a Victorian chiller, and some very strange and 'trippy' entries too. What ever style appeals to you most, there's definitely going to be at least one story in this collection that appeals.

'Butterfly Island' by C.J. Tudor is the first book in the collection, and one feels very different to many of the others. It centres on characters in some kind of apocalypse like scenario. It's not clear what's happened to the world, but it seems like there aren't many people left around, and that life has become something of a cheap commodity. The lead character murders a couple of thugs at the start of the story, and this see,s to be something that no one bats an eyelid at. This narrator, along with a group of his friends and some other survivors, decide to head to Butterfly Island, a remote island that was shut off by a reclusive millionaire before the end of the world. However, once they arrive on this deserted island they find brutalised remains, and begin to be hunted through the jungle by more than one killer assailant. This story has a much more action adventure feel to it, and it's makes me think of brightly light movies of the early 2000's that seemed to love using tropical locations to film in. 

In contrast to this story 'Creeping Ivy' by Laura Purcell is much darker and more gothic in tone. Told in the form of a journal recovered from the ruins of Hindhead Manor, it tells the story of a man in the 1800's, the former master of Hindhead Manor. The story recounts the events following the death of his much older wife, a woman he describes as having hated, and who spent all her time in her greenhouse tending to her beloved plants. The author of the journal is happy with the passing of his wife, finally feeling free of her, yet also harbours guilt at being responsible for her death. Dismissing all of his staff, he chooses to be alone in the Manor, yet begins to sense that there is some other presence there with him, one that could be responsible for the sickness overtaking him. This story is much darker in tone and setting, and made me think of classic ghost stories like The Woman In Black, thanks to the creeping madness that seems to be setting into the lead, and the isolated setting of the story.

'Murder Board' by Grady Hendrix is in comparison a much more modern story, and one that feels a little comical in places. Following an aged rock star and his much younger wife in their isolated modern mansion, the two of them play a game during a torrential storm. They use a Ouija board. The older rock star claims that this board has advised him through important decisions throughout his life, and believes in it completely. However, when the board spells out 'i will kill u', this leads to a dangerous situation. Convinced his wife wants him dead, the rocker convinces his assistant to murder her, which leads to a domino event that just leads to worse and worse as the story unfolds. 'Murder Board' is one of those stories where things spiral out of control, and where you wish the characters would just talk to each other, but their misunderstanding and desperation are ultimately what leads to tragic events, rather than any obvious outside force.

My favourite story in the book has to be 'Branch Line' by Paul Finch, which sees a man recounting the story about the time he and a childhood friend walked up an abandoned train line during the 70's in order to get a load of porn mags (what else were kids in the 70's supposed to do?). During this journey one of the teens recounts a few stories about how the track is supposed to be haunted, one of which is particularly chilling. Thinking it's just the usual kind of local stories, they forget about the supposed ghost and focus instead on the prize awaiting them, but when they have their own horrific encounter the story takes a terrifying turn. The slowly building atmosphere of this story, along with the very normal, recognisable setting, made it incredibly creepy. I'm so glad I'm not able enough to walk along abandoned train lines, because this would have put me right off it.

This collection has some amazing stories in it, some that were a slow burn, others that had visceral fear. It had ghosts, monsters, and very human horror. It presented a range of stories that included the fantastical, and made the everyday into something that could inspire fear. 

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The Book of Malachi by T.C. Farren - Book Review

 

'Malachi, a mute thirty-year-old man, has just received an extraordinary job offer. In exchange for six months as a warden on a top-secret organ-farming project, Raizier Pharmaceuticals will grant Malachi a new tongue. So Malachi finds himself on an oilrig among warlords and mass murderers. But are the prison-donors as evil as Raizier says? Do they deserve their fate? 

'As doubt starts to grow, the stories of the desperate will not be silenced - not even his own. Covertly, Malachi comes to know them, even the ones he fears, and he must make a choice - if he wants to save one, he must save them all. And risk everything, including himself.'

The Book of Malachi is a story set in some undefined near future, where science has advanced to a point to allow the growth of human organs in order to provide needed transplants, however, the practice seems to be less than legal, and as such leads to some shady and frightening practices. This is where Malachi comes into this story.

Malachi has spent years working in factories and on production lines, and has an impeccable work record. Thanks to his skills he seems like the ideal person to work for Raizier Pharmaceuticals, but the thing that makes him the perfect candidate is that he has no tongue. Raizier offers to give Malachi a new tongue if he comes to work for them for just six months, helping to take care of the prisoners on their off shore oilrig. Malachi agrees, believing that it's a good trade, that those people locked away in cages, used to grow new organs and go through rounds of surgery deserve their fate. They're murderers and rapists after all, why shouldn't they suffer if it means that they can save other people's lives?

However, Malachi quickly begins to discover that despite their pasts, the things that they have done, these people are still people; and they deserve basic compassion. Stripped naked, kept in cages, fed through tubes, their conditions are barely better than animals. And when they begin to tell Malachi their stories, the things that led them to this place he not only begins to see that they're in some cases victims of circumstance, people who have been forced into awful decisions, but some of them are just as much victims as he is.

One of the best things about The Book of Malachi is the surprising twists the narrative takes. I wasn't too surprised that Malachi comes to see the caged criminals as more than just incubators for organs, but it was the way their stories affected him, the parallels he saw to his own life that took me by surprise. We learn over the course of the book that Malachi wasn't born mute, but suffered something awful that led to him losing his tongue. Malachi eventually reveals the reasons for this to both the reader and the prisoners, and you see that this is not only the first time that he's ever shared this information, but just how much it affects him.

Malachi's journey through the book isn't just him learning to see the prisoners as people, but learning to see himself as one too. He's walked around with incredible guilt and self hatred for years, putting himself as the reason for the suffering he has been through, and lives that have been lost. It's through his interactions with these killers that he learns to let go of this pain, to start to see himself as a person worth loving, worth being proud of.

There are some characters amongst the prisoners that I don't think we're supposed to like, some whose crimes are completely unjustifiable, like the resident rapist, but with others it's not so clear cut. There's a character who admits to having killed his wife and her lover when he discovered them together, who lashed out in a moment of blind rage and deeply regrets what he's done. He's presented as a very clear headed and decent person, and one who's torn apart inside by the regret and grief over his past actions, and you can't help but feel a little sorry for him, acknowledging that this is a situation that you yourself could find yourself in. There are others who have more extreme stories, but who still manage to feel sympathetic, victims of circumstance.

Thanks to the duplicity and intentional harm being caused by some of the people working at Raizier, and the way they even treat some of their staff the people who think of themselves as being the 'good guys', as doing something shady in order to help others, it means that there's not really anyone in this book who can be seen as a good person. Every character here is a shade of grey, a victim or an offender in some way. They've all done bad things, or turn a blind eye to bad things. Because of this, the book ends up being an incredibly complex character study, even for the minor characters. It's a story where I don't know how I feel about the people involved, and at times don't know who to root for.

T.C. Farren has done a spectacular job at crafting a story that's going to test its readers. You're going to come away thinking about your own morals, about what you feel is good and bad, and how those ideas can easily be twisted to opposite means. Yes, some people have done awful things in their lives, and you might think there's nothing wrong in those people suffering a little if it leads to a good outcome, but does that make you a bad person if you allow that? The Book of Malachi asks if the ends justify the means, and if people are every truly evil or irredeemable. It's a book that will make you feel uncomfortable, but in a good way, in a way that will leave you stunned.

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Slay: Stories of Vampire Noire by Nicole Givens Kurtz - Book Review

'Mocha Memoirs Press is proud to present Slay: Stories of the Vampire Noire - a revolutionary anthology celebrating vampires of the African Diaspora. Slay is a groundbreaking, unique collection and will be a must-have for vampire lovers all over the world. Slay aims to be the first anthology of its kind. Few creatures in contemporary horror are as compelling as the vampire, who manages to captivate us in a simultaneous state of fear and desire.

'Drawing from a variety of cultural and mythological backgrounds, Slay dares to imagine a world of horror and wonder where Black protagonists take center stage - as vampires, as hunters, as heroes. From immortal African deities to resistance fighters; matriarchal vampire broods to monster hunting fathers; coming of age stories to end of life stories, Slay is a groundbreaking Afrocentric vampire anthology celebrating the rich cultural heritage of the African Diaspora.'

Slay: Stories of Vampire Noire presents readers with a collection of vampire stories that often get overlooked, stories that are important, diverse, and engaging; stories from Black voices.

One of the things that is made immediately clear with this anthology, from the very blurb on the back using the phrase Diaspora, is that even though the stories in this collection are united by their blackness, that there is a huge difference in how that plays out in these stories, and what it means to be Black for different people. Diaspora refers to the forced dispersal of a people from their homeland, in this case it would be of peoples from Africa during the Transatlantic Slave Trade that took place over hundreds of years. 

This seems to play out in the division of the stories within the book, with three main sections that inform and influence the stories within, those set in the United States and Britain, those set in Africa, and those that look to the future. These sections take some very different experiences of being Black, and the hopes for Black communities in the future, and uses them to inform the work within.

The very first story in this collection, 'Desiccant' by Craig Laurance Gidney, lets readers know right away that this book isn't going to have stories that you'd be instantly familiar with if you don't read diverse fiction, and that not every vampire in these stories will be the kind you recognise. The story follows Tituba, a young Black trans woman, who's been forced to move into the run down and forgotten Bellona Heights Apertments after being thrown out of her last place thanks to the transphobic views of her sister's boyfrind. 

Tituba is having to scrape by in a building where it's reinforced how little society thinks of her, a trans woman of colour. She receives scorn and muttered insults from the others who live in the building, and no one seems to take her seriously when she notices that she and other residents are getting sick. The cause of this sickness seems to be a strange rust-coloured powder that she finds coating many of the surfaces in the building, a powder that seems to sometimes move on its own, and comes out at night. Through her investigation she comes to believe that this dust is somehow draining the residents, leaving them sick and dying. Despite having figured out the cause of this sickness the story leaves Tituba facing this danger alone, knowing that no one will be coming to help her, because of who she is, and how little the world cares about Black bodies.

'The Retiree' by Steven Van Patten jumped out at me because it felt a lot like this was the kind of story that could both be the end of a longer series, and the start of something more to come. It follows Gideon Hastings as he is being taken to stay in a retirement home by his daughter Mona. Over the course of the story Gideon comes across as a grumpy, displeased man, one who isn't happy with where life has led him, or the choices his daughter has made. However, over the course of the story we learn that there is something more to Gideon than meets the eye.

It transpires that Gideon is an old demon hunter, one who has killed a lot of vampires and monsters over his younger years. However, he knows that one day the forces of darkness will be coming for him to enact revenge. Having made his home on consecrated ground he's been safe most of his life, but now that he's in a retirement home he's open to attack from these evil beings. Gideon's story here feels a lot like the final chapters of a series of monster hunting stories, one where readers finally get to find out what fate awaits a man who's never lost a battle against the forces of evil, but can't fight forever. It also feels a lot like this could be a great jumping on point to a series, a pilot episode for a show where a young Black woman discovers her father was a demon hunter and decides to take on his mantle and continue the fight following his passing. Either way, it's definitely a story where I found myself wanting to read more about Gideon and his family, and wanting to see more of the world that Steven Van Patten managed to craft in these few pages.

This kind of feeling was also present in 'Beautiful Monsters' by Valjeanne Jeffers, who's story felt like a small part of a much broader tapestry; and one that was instantly grabbing. In this story we follow Sanyu, a vampire living in the wild west style town of Passion, where monsters rule the streets. Passion is run by the Adze, a type of vampire from Ewe folklore, who oppress the other supernatural beings who live there. 

Sanyu is a member of the underground resistance, who are fighting against the Adze to gain better rights and free the other oppressed supernatural beings from their evil grip. The story follows her over the course of a night where her mission goes wrong, and she's forced into open conflict with these deadly creatures. As with the previous story I talked about, this one feels like it's taking a small step into a much bigger world, one that brings together a number of different folklore's and myths in new and interesting ways.

'His Destroyer' by Samantha Bryant is one of my favourite stories in the entire collection, despite being one of the shortest included. The story follows Dienihatiri, a woman who has been beaten to death following the birth of her daughter, for having displeased her husband by giving him another daughter instead of a son. The story opens with her suddenly regaining consciousness wrapped in a burial cloth, left for dead. Crawling from her grave, she finds the streets of her home city deserted, but it is in this city, on the bank of the Nile, that she discovers a bright pillar of light in the darkness, a pillar of light that calls her it's destroyer.

Walking through the sleeping city she thinks of how Pharoah has been given chances to do the right thing, been given warnings from a higher power, but chose to ignore them. It's then that she realises that she's the punishment that has been sent upon him. Walking through the city she is driven away from the homes with blood above their doors, made to feel sick. But those that don't, she is drawn to, to the sleeping first born sons within, whose blood could help sate her desperate hunger.

The idea of throwing a vampire into the myth of Moses and Ramses II, to have a vampire created by the powers of heaven stalking through the streets, killing the first born sons of Egypt, is a bold move. I would have never have thought to combine these two ideas, but it really, really works. The idea of blood being what drives her away from certain homes, yet her desire for the blood of others that drives her to her targets is brilliant, and makes it so that I'll never look at this story the same way again.

Steve Van Samson's story 'No God But Hunger' that's included in this collection actually fits into his Predator World series, and features his character Mirhèla Nanji as she travels across the African Savannah tracking down a leopard. She and her companion are hunting the big cat down for food, trying desperately to survive in a world more than two decades into a vampire plague that has all but eradicated the human race. However, when the hunt goes wrong, Mirhèla finds herself fighting off a swarm of deadly vampiric children.

Slay: Stories of Vampire Noire brings together a lot more stories than this, and I could have talkes about how good they all are all day; but I had to draw a line somewhere. The stories in this book feature new tales that stand on their own, as well as stories that tie into bigger series and other novels. The stories subvert traditional themes and tropes, they draw upon African culture and heritage, and focus on a group of people that often don't get given the chance to star in this genre. We have Black vampires, Black vampire hunters, and everyday people drawn into nightmare scenarios, who get to take the spotlight in a series of stories that will have you adding a load of new authors to your list of people whose work you need to check out. A brilliant, and much needed collection.

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