The Book of Etta and The Book of Flora by Meg Elison

I love the push for more diverse writers in modern publishing. While I have always thought I was a diverse reader, what I am exposed to is limited to what publishers think will appease to a mass audience. I have been reading more science fiction and literary fiction from women and BIPOC authors, because there are more and more publishers giving chances to none white male authors. 

And I love it.

Through her series Meg Elison does something that I wished for with a recent trilogy I read (Wool, Shift, and Dust), she gives voice to not just hetero women but also to queer and trans people. Which given the story she is telling seems to be a given, but is really a testimony to how good Meg Elison was with creating this dystopian world.

The Book of Etta is the second in the series stared with The Book of the Unnamed Midwife. A devastating flu kills most of the population, but especially women and female children. With societies collapsed, it focuses on the wasteland that is now America and how women and children are treated. The first book covers the initial events and foretells what to except. The Book of Etta picks up with one of the secret women cities/societies and what it means to be a queer woman (and maybe be even a trans man) in a society where reproducing and being a women is sacred if not a curse.

The entire series is graphic, but not in a way to re-traumatize readers, just to be realistic to why people are acting they way they are. The first book was so depressing that I had to sit on it for a year before I moved on. It is very much in tone like The Road. It is clearly a discussion of women’s rights and how quick the right we have is taken away in dire circumstances. There is no other way to convey the fear and urgency without including the different type of abuse the characters within the story face. 

As we move onto The Book of Flora, knowing the story was going to end and having immersed myself in the first two novels, I think most readers can see the reveal at the end. This book is important because it is filled with the guilt and turmoil of the trans experience. While I cannot say I know what that must be like, I can appreciate how she imagines it and tries to tell a story that is outside of her norm. It gave me the opportunity to contemplate what queer people may face in the remnants of a broken down society that didn’t accept them in the best of times. I also learned shit. This series had me googling something with each one and being very mind blown emoji about it.

A short review, that is vague because I do not want to spoil it. This is all to say, this series is worth it and one of the few apocalyptic books that depends on reality and science (and not magic or religion) to tell a dark story that wraps up with an ending that is neither bitter or to impossibly beautiful and perfect. 

The Living Blood by Tananarive Due

I am in some type of mood where the second book of the series seems to be hitting the spot. Maybe this is a new phase of my life, or just a coincidence. Since this book series is about supernatural events of course I am quick to declare not a coincidence - totally a sign of something!

The Living Blood is the second book in a series by Tananarive Due that was started in the 90s. My husband, who is not a reader, clocked this when I mentioned that the main male character so far has been described to look like Blair Underwood (so much so that he was tied to the movie adaptation and referenced in the book itself). 

The other way the time period is noted is that Tananarive Due does not limit herself to one genre when telling her story. It is clear that this is an epic thriller that is cross continental, and while it may be fantasy with some science fiction, it is also a way for the writer to tell a scary story via a black woman’s perspective. Even before the events that kick off the black lives moment, she took the horror of the civil rights movement to write some of the most terrifying torture scenes that I have read in a long time.

I have seen her and this series compared to Anne Rice, and I have also seen that Stephen King has given his quote/seal of approval for her writing. I kinda see the Stephen King endorsement as more fitting. This story is scary in the way that pet cemetery is scary. What would a parent do to save their child’s life? 

It is a “vampire novel” that takes place in South Africa and Ethiopia, all over the African continent in a way most white horror novels take place in Europe. It was written by a black woman and it is not the tired plot (though I do love it) of a talented young thing being selected by a hot vampire for intense sex the rest of their live. There is substance and this story is original enough that I could see it being a point of reference for writers the way that Anne Rice is. But I still insist that her writing is more like Stephen King, just the right amount of description and tons of fast moving action in comparison.

Without giving away too much: Jessica is a black American woman who comes from a strong family and has support after the devastating events that proceed this in the first book: My Soul to Take. Traumatized, changed by those events, and after learning that her husband was hundreds of years old by means of secret brotherhood of Ethiopian immortals, Jessica must start to find a new normal. At the same time, a father in America whose son is dying of leukemia, is chasing a magical cure whatever the cost. 

The appeal of horror novels is that it can scare you on so many levels, superficially and with its deeper meanings.

This book imagines what healing blood would mean to a good but also naive black woman who has suffered personal loss. She would want to save as many children as possible from preventable deaths. It makes me think how few books imagine a world without illness, cancer, or AIDS. I think that is the real taboo, and imagining a cure for some specific illness can be trite. It is easier for writers to imagine characters dying from a made up disease than to imagine a world where we could do something about AIDS and how that would look like. Reality is easy and dreams can seem so lofty and childish. This book embraces the naivety of the main character Jessica and helps drives the plot and actions. It works. 

I would say the trigger warning is that this book is about reality - the fear of losing a child and the physical acts of racism that cannot be escaped. Most of the main and supporting characters are black, wealthy, educated, strong people, needed in their communities, and there is a range in appearance (some lighter than others). Removed of its fantastical elements, this could still be a news story of how Dr. Lucas Shepherd was treated during a protest or how Sarah was found as a passenger in a car during a run in with cops. There is torture, but this is the reality within Tananarive Due’s writing, making this book feel close to a place we inhabit today.

Anyway I loved it, I want to read the rest. I want to read all her other books. I am now a huge fan.

Everything horror that I read in October

Maybe it was the season, the cumulation of depressing current events, or I am just in that way - but I felt as everything I read could have been horror related in October. To try to group this flimsy observation into a single post, I would like to pick apart my recent reads til I find the tiniest example that could be used to bolster that opinion.

Yellowface was the first real ghost story that I read in October. It was a good stepping stone for how I would end my month, more humor than dark it is a clear example of satire. I think if you are a writer then the scariest part of the book is to realize you could be any of the shitty characters, this is a tale about the publishing industry, our current response to social media disasters, and how racism can still make bank. At times I was convinced that it would turn into a modern American horror classic to be revered like Poe or Jackson, but it is so much more. 

I am not trying to buy anymore books, so I of course bought several more. I have picked up Babel so I can read more from R.F. Kuang. With each book that I finished recently, I was very tempted to pick this up, but it is fine to languish on my tbr shelf a little longer.

I listened to the audiobook version of Minor Detail. It is a fictional story based on real events, of a young Palestinian bedouin girl who was raped by the Israelis during the taking of Palestine in the 1940s. This novella is unsettling in how the author takes you there and is a ghost story of sorts as well. Horrific for the truth and how current events proves the fictional portion was not an exaggeration but a prediction based on observations. 

These next two were mothers day gifts from my husband, he swooped up a themed table at Book People and we were clueless to the mother horror journey I was about to embark. I appreciate the gifts but they may be too close to reality when it comes to female writers articulating the common horror shared among women when it comes to families, trauma, and motherhood.

Motherthing introduced a science term I had heard but never conceptualized until it was used to show the extremes the main character Abby goes to find the comfort she deserved as a child. With a dirtbag mom, but a funny and loving husband Ralph, Abby is primed to be the best daughter in law. Too bad Laura has her own shit and makes her depression a curse they must now live through. Domestic horror with a lot of taboo and jarring scenes, it is hard to know if the ending is happy or even resolved. Happy Mothers days indeed.

Just Like Mother is a surreal take on our current time or world or reality, however you want to see it. Taken separately - the different sensationalist elements that make up the story (for example a motherhood cult lead by killer women, a young woman with a deranged past reconnecting with her cousin after all these years, a series of unfortunate events that could not possibly be related but so clearly are to everyone else…) could be pulled from fucked up headlines and stories out there. This book had me thinking “don’t do that, don’t trust her Maeve, why are you going back there,” but still I read on and was traumatized.

I read the second in a series I started last year, it wasn’t until The Living Blood that I understood the beauty of the series. This novel is one that could be hard to describe because it can be classified under several genres. Overall, the tone to me was classic thriller and horror. This series based on immortals has so far followed Jessica, a successful journalist with a big heart for social justice and family, as she learns her husband and children are not what she thought. This book does have violence and should be avoided by anyone grossed out by the concept of blood.

I like V.E. Scwhab. I think as a writer, the stories and the technique are amazing and well written but I just like it. I worry that I almost border on feel apathy to what I am reading. Gallant is a hard word for me to say and most least favorite of the books by this author that I have read. It does fit the tone as it is a haunted house story similar to Motherthing, this is about family and curses and ghosts that call us back home. And yet, eh. And also, a well written ghost tale.

Carmilla is the most tasty of all the reads. I was skeptical about its history, a vampire story that predates Dracula? A novella written in the 1800s that is about tantalizing lesbians? It is all those things, a classic horror read that I am ashamed I did not know about sooner.

My final read that scared the shit out of me was another second in the series The Book of Etta. This series about an illness that wipes out most of the population leaving few survivors and even fewer women is disturbing in the ways you can imagine. The first book is so hard to read, it is not a surprise to me that I had to wait awhile to brave the second one. Even though it is full of despair and misunderstandings, the fact that a woman writer gave voice to this nightmare and also did not ignore how much of an impact this would have on all identities and genders makes this second story one that I am glad I attempted to read. The darkest of all the books, somehow seems to me the one that had more hope in the end.

So far The Book of Flora has been crushing that.

A month that felt like nonstop dread and I was grateful that I had the chance to read all the words that I did.

How the García Girls Lost Their Accents by Julia Alvarez

My latest obsession is trying to be like the cool kids by talking about books on TikTok since the majority of my interactions is with a toddler. I need to be part of a community that is older and not so tyrannical and demanding. Also I want it to be able to speak and write and think. 

I am picking the lingo up. I am getting hip with it, and one of the terms I am swilling around in contemplation is mood reader. Is that how I go about life? I used to think I was like Matilda but what if my self diagnosis is inaccurate and ignoring a real phenomena out there that I am a part of? 

I think that after reading How the García Girls Lost Their Accents I realized that mood reader is a more apt term for how I move from book to book. Although it is known for being the first novel of Julia Alvarez, I only just “discovered” her writings last year and read out of sequence - I read the sequel to this novel first. As clueless as I am/was, I enjoyed that and this first story concerning a family of mostly girls escaping a political regime intent on stamping out their father and his views in the Dominican Republic. I learned something while exposing myself to a talented writer of domestic fiction.

Although I started out of order, it does not seem that absurd since her writing has a flow. Even when revealing the characters and their setting, it leads the reader to a growing sense of familiarity. Her first novel makes uses of going backwards to tell the journey this family makes when they immigrate to the United States. So reading the novel Yo first, about one of the older girls the fictional writer and poet Yolanda García, matches the method Julia Alvarez deploys in her first novel.

Going forwards, backwards, or jumping around in time, it is not a decision meant to mask the writer’s inadequacies, Julia Alvarez is a gifted storyteller. Her narrative style seems effortless and cinematic, when I read her words I have the ability to envision the places and the people, their movements through the pages. Altogether you can see the story she is trying to capture about this family. Yet if each chapter was taken as an individual read, they would come off as a full short story. Both novels tell a cohesive story even if they jump from perspective to different moments in time. 

These are for the most part, entertaining tales of one family - their legends and defining events that make up their collective history . Each person is flawed, brilliant, fucked up, strong, perpetrator of an -ism, and victim of an -ism. Alvarez is able to say a lot through this family and you can see the commentary she is making even in class, race, beauty, xenophobia, and sexism. 

I made a note of page 197 in my copy, since the section about the father and the annoying dad jokes/games he would play felt so tangible even if this was never my experience. It helps to show the complexity of their interactions when it comes to the retelling of his actions and reactions with his daughters. I also made a note of the saddest story, the chapter that was about Carla’s American surprise. This clear example of classism in the Dominican Republic, like the dad joke scene, are paragraph long novellas of scenes we should all be close to since they are not too unique to life and thus so believable.

There are trigger warnings, this book covers a range of traumas that they have survived: minor and major, of their own making and not. But the overall tone is not one of despair so much as this is the life they are living. I love this work for the writer and the stories that she tells, for being able to write about the different lives from the Dominican so that way people like me can have a peek. I recommend you read it and also embrace whatever method you have to picking your reads.

Scythe, The Thunderhead, and The Toll by Neal Shusterman

I try to jot down notes throughout my reads on my phone, this is a new habit I am building as a mother and an aging person born in the nineteen hundreds. I was used to scribbling aggressively in cursive when a thought came to me, because back then I was able to stop what I was doing in order to transcribe my thoughts. But then I had a family. 

And also there was that one time I tried to write for a local blog and the much younger tech bro who was recruiting my free and desperate labor was like “Whoa pen and paper!” when I pulled out of my journal from my bag several years ago. I still have many journals and always carry my current one on me, I just hide it in my outdated carpet bag of shame, only those who know me best are aware of my lame habit (so you).

If this combined review for all three books seems disjointed - the above paragraphs are my attempt to explain that. I read all three within a couple of weeks, but also with other novels in between. Overall, I enjoyed them all and am regretting ignoring this recommendation for as long as I did. (Which is to say was at least a couple of years.)

Initial impression is that this is novel about a fucked up dystopian future society in which we have conquered death and have not been conquered by an all knowing AI. Two teens, male and female, are selected in an unusual apprenticeship to become one of the Scythes responsible for keeping the population within manageable means. You follow their journey and are introduce to a potential future - if aging and death were working the way we would want it to - within our control.

 In most trilogies the first book pulls you in, but fizzles out on the story and momentum as it moves on. It gets trapped in trying to get back to the same incredulous setup that was the premise of the first book, even if the characters had spent the entire first book escaping from said hellscape. This series does not fall into that trap.

As a series, it does a good job of setting up the events, how such an unbelievable premise would work, and integrating serious plots and motivations for the characters. All three books work, make sense, and overtime let you in on the scene. I would get lost in the worlds.

Even when I think I know where it is going, there is still a surprise to the set up and use of popular tropes seen in this genre by use of deflection and sleight of hand. This is a new world and future from a talented writer, Neal Shusterman can answer questions about how this works, while keeping the story moving along with his action sequences very well. 

The writing is built on conversations and following different characters POV, leading to this being a quick read. But do not be mistaken, the execution is astounding and come from an amazing imagination. It starts off dystopian but is a science fiction novel at heart. Speaks of AI, where technology could lead us potential, ethics, how power and people will always be corrupt no matter the utopia presented. It speaks to racism, borders, gender binaries, biases, religion, politics, and institutions. 

It is a good series because I feel it is optimistically realistic, for the most part. Which is a weird thing to say since it is about death, ethics and morality, amongst other serious and complex subjects. Plus when the death gets going in some of the books it gets going and is final. There is not a complete happy ending, but there is closure.

For readers who are willing to give young adult books a chance, this is the style book that you will be able to love and recognize for what it is. I believe this is one of those situations in which because the main characters are young adults, this is why it is grouped in science fiction and marketed to teens. This is not just a young adult novel, do let that limit you from reading it.

So in summation, one of my favorite young adult series in a long time. I loved and love it and think you might as well.

Our Share of Night by Mariana Enríquez

It is rare for me to not like a book. Especially one like this, Our Share of Night has elements that I love: a woman writer, represents the latinx community, is of another country and time period, uses historical events to tell the story of very complex issues, is spooky and could be seen as horror, and has a diverse group of characters that does not seem to be pandering. It is sad. It is told from different perspectives, meaning that everyone has their own truth. It is well written.

This is a book that I picked up from recommendations based off of TikTok, though from the title and cover I would have wanted found it appealing. I can not wait to read other works by Mariana Enríquez, it is clear from this and how her works are being lauded, she will be gracing us with amazing works to mull and learn and be transported to.

It is a story that takes place over several decades and focuses on a family high up in a darkness cult that resembles what old Europeans obsessed with the occult wished they were successfully doing - conjuring demons through the mediums to enact their wishes. This novel is about a family impacted and impacting the “Dirty War” in Argentina, but adds a fantastical element to discuss a real event in modern history. It does this well and the trigger warnings to give for this is that it can be grotesque and talks of child victims. Had the writer not used the occult and just told a fictional story of one of the colonizer families would it not be more truly terrifying to realize that people justified their destruction of life by saying those different from them were not human? 

This is not a heavy handed analogy but an apt way to educate readers on the real events of Argentina in the 1970s to 1980s. Our Share of Night manages to humanize some of the generational players while exposing the colonizers and their damaging tactics for the darkness that it is. Although I was ignorant of the historical context, the story and the realization of what it was about hit me hard, and I believe this was intentional so that way uninformed people like myself could be forced to learn and mourn something that we should have known about. Not knowing, even if we do not contribute to the decisions or regimes, is still some form of complicity.

There are themes of ableism, homosexuality, colonialism, and racism. These are sensitive topics, so even when calling out colonialism by talking about how resources and people were plundered, stolen, assaulted, it could be hard to read. This is a writer who I have faith to show nuance in her tone, she acknowledges rape and does not then use it as a way to go into depth the acts on her fictional characters - when discussed it is mean to horrify the reader not to tantalize.

There is also death, this book starts off with a parent having the opposite conclusion the father makes in Something Wicked This Way Comes. This book shows how ugly the fear of death and of aging is, how greedy and hungry colonizers and people become - how it consumes them in the end. While Ray Bradbury may have been holding back and thinking of his audience, Mariana Enríquez does not hold back because she is aware the audience will need this.

This seems to be a retelling of the message pushed with Elizabeth Báthory, there is something dark in society in which people panic and feel that they must live forever. If there is any type of other-worldly force in this world, it does seem to be darkness that feeds on this to begat more darkness. Through different periods of time, and amongst different groups of people, we can find countless examples of this story. The story with darkness (and dark magic) has always been that you can bargain and make plans, only to find it means nothing to the monsters in control.

There is a lot going on with novel. And it is a hardy book, for the majority of the book, the first 300 pages it is broken up in sections and not chapters. There is one paragraph that goes across a page or two. It is not until section IV that you have something within it, a few spaced out numbers to denote possible chapters. I do not mind this, I love and have read everything by Jose Saramago. I mention this, for those who may need a little more structure to their reading. Heavy subject and no chapters, I know that could be a deal breaker for some. But if you have it in you, try, this is a tale and writer worth stepping out of your comfort zone for.

Something Wicked This Way Comes by Ray Bradbury

I think of myself as a Matilda reader, anything and everything, methodical as I try to read whatever comes my way. I feel there are different types of books for different types of people, for the most part everything should be read for some reason or another. 

I tried to recall the books that were required reading for my high school experience. Since it was a conservative town, state, time, and war - the reading list seemed more intent on reprograming the students to associate it with torture. They were the classics, a lot of white male authors, and the picks seemed to be the driest of the writers’ catalogue. The topics were academic and removed from the reality we were in.

For the most part, any great must-read-because-it is-on-the-school-lists books that I have read, where the ones I found grouped together on the Barnes and Nobles table towards the front. I do not recall any units really touching on Fahrenheit 451. Texas doesn’t shy away from book bans, and this was when the parents were concerned that Harry Potter was satanic and not yet seeing the camaraderie they would be feeling over JK Rowlings shit views. I read it because I should and then found out that everyone should read it because it is good and meaningful (and not just because they should).

This is a round about way to say that Ray Bradbury is still too controversial of a writer to be in a schools, and that is why he stays on these lists year after year. A much better education for all would be more diverse units and ones that uses the best of the novels on the lists to reach different type of students and maybe expose them to the new things that they can love and grow and learn from. Those of us living in this state are having to educate ourselves, meaning we waste time or miss out entirely on words and beauty and life.

Yes, I am blaming Texas and conservative politics on why I did not realize that Ray Bradbury is not a one trick pony. Fahrenheit 451 was not the only timeless concept that he was the first to capture. He did it with other novels, embracing science fiction or fantastical elements as a means to show society’s emotional response and reaction, but he did it in a way that makes all other attempts seem like an imitation.

Why didn’t anyone tell me that after reading his one book, I need to read them all? Why didn’t we talk about Something Wicked This Way Comes in school? Banning books may not be a subject for Texas, but what about a book that discusses fear and aging, and time passing? We all know why this was also avoided, as a military town (Killeen/ Harker Heights Texas) we are not to acknowledge these things, especially the boys. Where else are the going to get their recruits then from the pool of under-education and emotionally stunted souls it churns out. 

Everything was a surprise to me, from learning how many writers are inspired by this story, being in awe of his mastery of phrases and his ability to create fear without using extreme body horror, to identifying with everyone in the story. Though it might be considered young adult fiction, I think that is the pitfalls of being on school lists and having two 13 year old boys as the main characters, it is a story that could be read at any age and still feel compelling. The story telling device of a dark carnival that has come to haunt this small town places it in the dark fantasy genre, though soft horror feels more apt. As a fan of Needful Things by Stephen King I am ashamed I professed my love for that novel before even reading this one. I was naive and not understanding what I was enamored with. 

This story is perfect for Halloween, this time period, and when moving through major life milestones. I hope I make time again to read this novel throughout the years. What else can I say, then I wish to read everything he wrote now. I wish I could re-read this for the first time. I wish we would do better by our kids and let them read things like this over the Grapes of Wrath. It wasn’t even John Steinbeck’s best work for Christ’s sake. This review is to say, don’t let the fallacies of our broken educational and political system win, there is more out there that was all deserve. Time has been working on us, but that is just the way of some people. We all still have time to fight our fears and the Republican party that is gutting Texas worse than any slasher novel could. Read this book, read all his books, read all the books.

The Terror by Dan Simmons

This is going to be a love letter to this novel. I cried five times while reading this book, yes I am an easier crier, but the story is just that good.

It has the elements that I like: it is long historical novel, based on real events, and is considered to be part of the horror/supernatural genre. It is full of evil men and their poor choices, yet it still humanizes the men to the point that you are devastated. This is not a happy ending.

I pick books based for the most part on their cover and title, I am okay with the briefest of synopsis, and I am chasing a random whim. If anyone recommends a title, and I have not read it, I will add it to my list.

I bought the book after I watched the first couple of episodes of the show and read the wikipedia page for the failed Franklin expedition, being snagged by book to show tie in. I decided to buy the book so I could compare it to what I had already watched. If you haven’t noticed already, I am a sucker for a book that is being made into a film or show.

I had already read the Hyperion Cantos series years back, based off a recommendation someone made when I said I wanted to read more sci-fiction. I did not connect the author as being the same until I was already a hundred pages into The Terror, when I decided then to look up his other works.

This is all to say I am not sure if Dan Simmons is problematic, please let me know so I can be informed. I hope the author is not though, because I am a fan and these books will always be something I will recommend. It is amazing to me when a writer can get their message, and complex ones at that, across varied genres. His imagination to build multiple worlds and tie in all the events to the very end, is something that many people struggle with in their singular genre. 

The Terror is the name for a ship that was part of a lost expedition led by Captain Sir John Franklin in 1945 that was meant to explore the Northwest passage. From what they found at several sites (there were still sites being discovered as of 2014 that might indicate what happened to the men) it is an incomplete accounting as to why they men did not survive. 

There are several major timeline points and educated conjectures based off the different contributing factors to their deaths. Over the course of three years, the men faced the same unexpected winter conditions that would trap and make cannibals out of the Donner party. A factoid pointed out in The Indifferent Stars Above: The Harrowing Saga of the Donner Party which at his point is the more optimistic story of the two. If you have not read this nonfiction novel add it to your list as well. 

 To tell this story, and scare the shit of you, there are elements of: medical and body horror, cannibalism, stalking and overwhelming prey, and random acts of cruelty. There is no reprieve between the factual details over what they men would face and the monster that is reaping the men in dire conditions. 

I think it is important to read the page first if you wish to read The Terror, since this is a narrative taken from history. What is documented is a series of error after error. 

It brings such life to it, that even though Dan Simmons is imagining what may have happened, he crafted so many distinct voices that it seems just as plausible as what did happen. I love The Crucible for the same reason, Arthur Miller has the same skill at taking history and molding it to his vision as a means to replace the story so that we cannot tell fact from fiction.

In between the action, that in such a clean matter pieces together the story all the way to the end and leaves no detailed unexplained or unexamined, the characters are so full it is almost impossible to believe that this did not happen. 

This is about a group of white explorers, so that colonizer attitude is not ignored. If you want to see a book where men mansplain to other men, only to ensure their deaths in a land that was not theirs to fuck around without proper esteem and resect, this is the comeuppance tale for you. This habit of allowing prejudice and judgement to rule when it comes to their choices, is not just cruel against women, it was something that en masse men will have to turn away from in order to same themselves from themselves. Even back then they were doing it, but to each other! 

I feel the moral is don’t do it, don’t be so obstinate, get your head out of our ass, and be ready to listen or else you are going to die. But also no one really deserves to die of scurvy, starvation, hopeless, and far from home. No one should have to carry the burden of such graceless and cruel deaths. 

Unlike some other recent stories I read (Shifts), there is a range of loves in this story. There is range of competence, malevolence, and deserving of their fate. But in the end, even for the worst of the men, I did not want them to succumb as I knew they would. 

One of the gay relationships described is soul crushing. I cried several times, and even now I can think about them without feeling sad. This is like anytime I have a conversation about the old man in Shawshank Redemption, I work myself up and feel it as much as the first time I sobbed at that scene. Listen, I cried so hard. 

Why do I like survival novels in which no one survives? Why put myself through the anxiety only to come out knowing it wouldn’t matter? I can only say that it is worth it with book to go on that journey even knowing that is will be impossible to survive. 

Read it, read it, read it. 

The Witching Hour by Anne Rice

The thoughts you are about to stumble through is meant to be more for those who have already read the book or series. There are some spoilers, which I think are needed if this is something you would like to get into. 

I fell for Anne Rice and vampires in high school, like all the cool kids do. After I read every book involving Lestat, while listening to the Queen of the Damn soundtrack on repeat on my discman, I needed to move up in my addiction to her other novels. My mother had the second book, and not knowing what it was about or that I was reading out of sequence, I picked it up. I enjoyed it, but this was also the first time that I thought Anne Rice was kind of fucked up.

Nearly two decades later, the beauty that is the AMC show Interview with the Vampire brought me back to the series, just like before. Clearing the mental cobwebs I moved from The Mayfair Witches show to buying the first book in the series. While I believe that the movie, show, and novel for Interview with the Vampire are all beautifully written in their own ways and are amazing adaptations, The Mayfair Witches show does not hit the same way. The book is much better.

With that being said it does not change the following trigger warnings: incest, pro-life, rape, and child sexual abuse. 

I am a bit iffy on the racism, it is a white woman writing a time period that a lot of other white people idolize for all the wrong reasons. If you feel it is racist, I can see your point. And if you do not really think about those things… like maybe you should?

The causal racism, leaves me feeling confused. But maybe that it the point. It is honest to what white people were thinking about in that time period in the south, even liberal ones. The racial slurs the white characters use, and their interactions with those of color, belays the attitude that others don’t concern or impact them. 

I love Anne Rice but it fucking unsexy. This is not a steamy book and I feel that it was written to be so. Especially knowing now that she also wrote bondage erotica under a different name. I found this out reading a friends copy while she was attending her UT classes, hanging out in her room at one of the UT dorms across the street from the mall. AND YOU BET I JUDGE HER WHEN SHE CAME BACK (even though I was wrong to do so). 

I believe she did write it to voice some people’s fantasies. I have to remember the time period. of when she wrote it, the time period for my high school experience, and how I think now. I was a product of a toxic environment and time, I have fetishized paleness or leaned into what plays for the male gaze, over exploring what I really enjoy. No one is born with a healthy sexual appetite and a woke mindset so they can avoid the pitfalls of racism, sexism, and ableism - it all has to be learned. It is just easier for us to learn how to be fucked up, racist, sexist, and ablest.  

So now, as a more healthy version of myself (who will hopefully continue to grow and evolve) I say with ally my conviction that one of the main characters and love lead, Michael, ain’t shit. Some of the thoughts she gives him is gross and leads me to side eye Anne Rice for writing him that way. But what Wytch or Vampyre book doesn’t have horrendous sex scenes written by women that makes you go “damn” while you clutch your pearls? 

It is also clear how heavy Catholicism plays on her foundation, because the pro-life scenes are rough. As we all know with J.K. Rowling, women can have some really shit and regressive opinions when given a platform to write. That is not fair though, Anne Rice is still a more skilled, intelligent, and innovative writer. 

On that thought, like the consumer that I am, I would die for Universal to acquire the Immortals universe and plop the right next to Hogwarts in the park. I can see myself, and other millennials, stumbling out of the castle through the gift shop taking a turn into the French Quarter heading towards the young, attractive, would be actors performing songs from The Queen of the Damned soundtrack in the Admiral’s Arms. Though my body was never made for Aaliyah’s outfit, I and many others would be heading over to pay top dollar for a costumed version to shove ourselves into. 

If you like Anne Rice, you will enjoy this book though. It has all the elements that she is known for, descriptive, well researched, and even through the boring or gross bits, you are transported to wherever the characters are.

On page 258, she plays with us in a way that made me appreciate that she was able to write all of this even with her dubious plot choices. We see Anne Rice describe herself and her writing style via a comment on Petyr van Abel’s style. I became more forgiving because of this, with a quick paragraph I was in love again with the technique. It also helps that this is where the real meat of the book starts. 

It is a thick book, and I have so many other novels to clear off my to be read list. I will be buying the second novel, to do a re-read, at some point. This is a series that I need to finish as I find it hard to believe that the show will come to completion or be able to swing their storylines back to what as in the original series. 

Shift and Dust by Hugh Howey

These are my thoughts:

1. I am not going to be getting rid of the books anytime soon. 

2. For me personally, this series was the kind of writing that made me say, “well if he could do it and get published then I could.” 

3. I read that it started off as a short story. That the first novel (or maybe the whole series?) was requested from readers to elaborate on that idea and that the author worked on it while you know working a real job that is demanding and paying the bills. This makes sense if true.

I want to start by saying, I will probably read more from this author in the future. There are just some elements of this series that I would not have made or attempted to write. It is amazing that he has a community interested in his idea and his work. It is amazing that he kept at it and finished three books. These are all goals that any writer would wish to achieve. 

These are the reasons why it was not for me:

1. Around chapter 80 in Shift I was very much “why would you do that?” about the whole thing. This happened in each book. There are certain actions the characters take to drive the plot that seems narrowing, frustrating, and hard for me to understand the motivation or logic behind it and the world.

2. In Dust it was pretty much immediately, but chapter 32 really stands out as to me as being eye rolling.

3. The story was very heterosexual in that there is no gayness and the romance or love between characters was lacking in chemistry. Not to spoil the set up of the novels but Shifts really ignores a concept of sexuality and society that is everywhere. Basically there is a lot of men and not a single comment, story, or motivational plot point around the possibility that any of them are gay - be it open or closeted. 

4. To go in more on the lacking of chemistry: all the characters are flat. Regardless of sex, villain or hero status, how interesting or invested I should be in them they all seemed to be part of the same hive mind in this universe and I was not in tune with it as others might be. Nobody had main character energy, it was the literary equivalent of NPC.

5. Also it was too much math to be that illogical. I am horrendous with math, and time progressing is not something I like to think about, but if my understanding of the timeline is anywhere near close to accurate that was a lot.

Should you read it? I guess if you are into the story idea or show. 

Should you watch the show? Totally up to you! I am going to. Already there have been changes. (Do I think it is going to drive the plot forward in a way that will make me say they did it better? Hell no!) This is one of those situations where the book is better, but who knows maybe I could be wrong.