Books: Tender Morsels, Pontypool Changes Everything, The Glister, Castle
Yes. I am spamming LJ. It's becasue I'm too freaking hot to do anything else. it's 90 degrees IN MY HOUSE.
And now back to our regularly scheduled programming. I just realized how badly I've been neglecting my book reviewing duties. Yes, I DO read--I don't just watch horror movies. I read a whole lot. Here are some of my recent favorites.
Tender Morsels by Margo Lanagan
This is a fantasy. I hardly ever read fantasies. But this one was amazing. I could say it's a feminist take on fairy tales, but that would be selling it short. It's an extremely complex and multilayered book. I have to warn you--the first couple of chapters are incredibly hard to get through. Horrendous things happen to a very young girl. I almost put the book down in disgust. I'm glad I didn't, because later I realized that the trauma our heroine goes through is crucial to forming her as a person, and explaining the choices she makes.
Great stuff, and actually not totally depresssing.
Pontypool Changes Everything by Tony Burgess
Wow. I did not see this book coming. It's a highly experimental novel by an English professor. The guy takes the language and tosses it like a demented Caesar salad. And the subject? Zombies. An entirely new type of zombies.
If you can't tolerate experimental lit, don't go here. If you are easily queased, shocked, squicked or offended, don't go here. If you want your understanding of the English language (and zombies) kicked squarely in the ass, go here. I was so amazed by this book that I finished it, closed it, said "DANG!" really loudly on the bus, then started it over and read it again.
EXTRA! There is a terrific movie based on this book. It's just called "Pontypool." It hasn't been distributed yet, but see it as soon as it's out, if you're a zombie fan. Oh, and it's nowhere near as hard to grok as the book.
The Glister by John Burnside
This is some freaky-ass horror. It's LITrature, but really, it's horror. What kind, you ask? Erm...dystopian Scottish industrial gothic. No really. This book is beautifully written. The prose is graceful, highly original, and disturbing. (Burnside is primarily known for his poetry.) Many of the events in the story are open to interpretation. The ending is WIDE open for interpretation. If you need your loose ends tied, this will drive you crazy. If not, dive in. I loved it.
Note: I just finished Burnside's The Devil's Footprints. I was rather disappointed. It started to go to a lot of interesting places, then stopped short. I found the ending weak, not because it was open ended (it really wasn't) but because the character's story arc just kind of fizzled.
Castle by J. Robert Lennon
Hey look! Another horror novel disguised as LITrature! This one is seriously creepy. Much to Lennon's credit, his totally unsympathetic main character completely rivits your interest, because he is himself so interesting, and because he is a highly unreliable narrator. Some of his Poe-like reactions to the terrors he's confronted with are disturbing and hilarious at the same time.
A lot of people didn't like this book, because they felt that it completely changed genres at the end. I have to disagree. It remains horror, just not the horror you expect. I was also shocked--SHOCKED I tell you--by how many people, some of them professional reviewers, failed to miss a crucial plot point that happens about 2/3 of the way through the book. Either they're totally unfamiliar with the model of the unreliable narrator, or they just weren't paying attention.
Or they're dumb.
Just sayin'.