Book 83
Camp Arcanum by Josef Matulich
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
I got this from the author several Ohioana book fests ago and it should have been right up my alley with a renn setting (kind of) and Paganism but I had some serious issues with some of this. Marc Sindri is a contractor hired to clear a large wooden area in Arcanum Ohio which has a large pagan population to make a renn fair. He has a very short time frame for this project and he's assisted by his two employees (friends?) Michael the gay artist and Eleazar, the over-sexed jongleur. As they set up their encampment of Airstream campers, they run into Brenwyn the head witch in town.
The first half of this book is the budding relationship between Brenwyn and Marc where he doesn't believe in magic but the reader knows her magic is very much real. What we learn quickly is Marc fears schizophrenia which claimed the life of his brother (content warning, suicide) It doesn't help that Brenwyn starts talking about Qliphotic beings which is what his brother was terrified of. they are from Kabbalah but Marc didn't know that. Also in town is the wealthy wizard Jeremiah, who wants to bring some cosmic horror into the world.
I almost wished Matulich had spent more time on Jeremiah and his plans because it would have been more interesting that way. I didn't care for Brenwyn and Marc's relationship and I think that's down to some heavy duty stereotypes especially for Marc. He's a 'man's man' that rough and rugged 'real man' vibe that I find so off-putting. I really wanted to slap him into next week. He's all about power tools but really he IS a tool.
In both senses of the word and that's the problem. In the jerk sense of it, he drives me nuts and in the working side of things, Marc is a magically tool. His noumena acts like a magically booster which is why Jeremiah wants to use but and taunts Marc that that is the reason Brenwyn wants him.
Naturally rather than talk to her about whether or not this is true, he tells her to piss off and nearly dooms everyone. Eye roll. And honestly if any man spoke to me like he did, I wouldn't be hiding out in my shop/home weeping and moaning about it like she did. That would be a man I'd cut out viciously. Also the blurb calls this a love triangle. I disagree (or at least it's only in Jeremiah's head) because Brenwyn is 100% over him. Speaking of love, Brenwyn and Marc start saying it way too fast for me, like after one true (and disastrous) date.
I can also see hints of Ash (Evil Dead) in Marc, especially with his choice of a shovel to go after demons and cosmic horrors. There is supposed to be humor in this, and there is some, especially if you like bro-humor. It wasn't a bad story, more like not-a-me story.
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