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.