Let's Go Play at the Adams'

Mendal W. Johnson
Crowell
Reviewed by Nancy
5 out of 5 stars

Summary

Surely, it was only a game. In the orderly, pleasant world Barbara inhabited, nice children -- and they were nice children -- didn't hold an adult captive.

But what Barbara didn't count on was the heady effect their new-found freedom would have on the children. Their wealthy parents were away in Europe, and in this rural area of Maryland, the next house was easily a quarter of a mile away. The power of adults was in their hands, and they were tempted by it. They tasted it and toyed with it -- their only aim was to test its limits. Each child was consumed by his own individual lust and caught up with the others in sadistic manipulation and passion, until finally, step by step, their grim game strips away the layers of childishness to reveal the vicious psyche, conceived in evil and educated in society's sophisticated violence, that lies always within civilized men.

More than a terrifying horror story, Let's Go Play At The Adams' is a compelling psychological exercise of brooding insights and deadly implications.

My Review

“No one can bear to know humans and bear being human.”

This is an unpleasant, nasty book. Nevertheless, it was difficult for me to put down. Comparisons have been made to Jack Ketchum’s The Girl Next Door which I haven’t read yet, as both books are apparently loosely based on the 1965 murder of 16-year-old Sylvia Likens. The difference here is that the five children acted on their own, without any adult influence.

After looking at the lurid cover pictured in Grady Hendrix’s Paperbacks from Hell: The Twisted History of '70s and '80s Horror Fiction, I knew I had to find a copy. Copies start at over $80 on Amazon, so I was very fortunate to find one at my local library. I expected low-quality pulp fiction writing, but was surprised what a smart, taut thriller this was. The violence and savagery is understated. What is deeply disturbing and unsettling, however, is observing the children’s behavior and interactions with their captive. Through alternating viewpoints, the reader gets a glimpse into the minds of the children, as well as their 20-year-old babysitter’s physical and emotional suffering.

I was finishing up this book while visiting with my stepdad today. A 10-year-old neighbor came over and brought a few items from the corner store along with his change. I then warned my stepdad about trusting kids with his money and the danger of letting them step foot into his house. He just looked at me funny. When I got home, I side-eyed my 13-year old neighbor who was sitting on the balcony and wondered just what cruelties he was capable of inflicting on the adults in his life.

I’ll be fine in a few days.

Age of War

Age of War by Michael J. Sullivan
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

The Fane and the Fhrey loyal to him intend to wipe out Nyphron, his followers, and all of humanity. Nyphron is preparing to use humanity to overthrow the Fane and take over the Fhrey. In order to do that Nyphron needs the keenig Persephone and he proposes marriage to her in order to gain control over humanity through her. Persephone, despite her feelings, seriously considers the proposal to protect her people from the wrath of the Fane. The Age of War is upon them all and sacrifices must be made in order to survive.

Age of War is so so good. This was one of those books that kept me reading late at night and early in the morning. Sleep simply wasn't necessary while I was reading Age of War. I never imagined I could enjoy a prequel book so much and it's making me want to reread Percepliquis because I just know I'm missing all kinds of tie-ins.

If the deaths in Age of Swords were too heavy a weight for anyone to bear then be warned that Age of War may leave people crying. The weight of events picks up significantly as Nyphron reclaims Alon Rhist. He allows those inside the choice to simply do nothing rather than attempting to capture or kill The Galantians. His fellow Instarya agree and war preparations on both sides begin. Persephone is forced to deal with the various Rhunes, their needs, and distrust for one another.

The world building, tie-ins from Riyria Revelations, and the characters really made the book stellar. The world is growing steadily and Michael J. Sullivan does an excellent job bringing his various writings about this world together. The characters are amazing, but in Age of War one stood out to me most. That character is Tesh. The starved Dureyan survivor has taken his chieftain's advice and is learning all he can about the Fhrey in order to exact revenge. Tesh trains seemingly endlessly and his progress is showing. He's become one of the best archers and has gained the name Techylor from the great Sebek for his prowess with a sword.

Age of War is a great story and a necessary book for anyone who enjoys Michael J. Sullivan's writing in the Riyria world.

5 out of 5 stars

I received this ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

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A Mixed Bag From Block

The Thief Who Couldn't Sleep by Lawrence Block
Reviewed by Jason Koivu
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Is this a caper comedy? A spy thriller? Revolutionary tract? Social commentary? Who the hell knows, but it doesn't matter. The Thief Who Couldn't Sleep by Lawrence Block is just good, solid fun!

Evan Tanner is a complicated fella. A war vet with terminal insomnia, Tanner put his eight hours -give or take- to learn and practice a good many things. He's a multi-talented individual who decides to use those talents to steal a massive pile of gold. Will he put it to good use? Probably...perhaps. That's not really the point. This is about good old action-adventure good times...I think.

At times I felt like I was reading a James Bond novel. This was assisted by Block mentioning Bond about a dozen times. Then the story will take a comedic turn and it feels more like Candide. The comedic turns pile up so much that when the book switches gears and becomes very For Whom the Bell Tolls with a dryly-related and graphically bloody revolution it's somewhat jarring. Hell, it's very jarring to have women and children getting cut in half and heads blown off by gun fire after you've settled into a lighter, more humorous style.

This is the first in the Tanner series and one of Block's earlier books. Not earliest. I believe he had at least ten years of published work under his belt already. So, while this is rougher than his later work and a bit stiff, The Thief Who Couldn't Sleep is still competent material with an exciting flair that makes for flat out fun reading. I'll probably continue on with the series in the future.

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The Sound of Broken Ribs

The Sound of Broken Ribs by Edward Lorn
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

When Belinda Walsh's husband leaves her homeless and penniless, she goes out looking to ruin someone else and runs down writer Lei Duncan. Only Lei Duncan lives and isn't in the mood to be ruined.

The Lorn hit me up to read an ARC of this and I was game. After all, he's never let me down before. This books kicks the Lornography up several notches.

The Sound of Broken Ribs is a horror novel about loss, revenge and pain. If you had the chance to get revenge upon someone that wrecked you life, would you do it? How would you go about it?

Edward Lorn's writing has always reminded me of a young Stephen King's: lean, evocative, and powerful. Actually, this reminds me of Stephen King in another way. Lei Walsh is run over while running along the road.

Anyway, the writing is lean and mean and the twists cut right to the bone. Every time another twist hit me like a speeding car, I'd look at the number of pages left and wonder "What the hell else can happen to these characters?" Sure enough, worse things were always lurking around the curve.

Lei's road to recovery and revenge was painful. I even felt sorry for Belinda's hit and run ass. This book is one calamity after another and almost impossible to put down.

I can't praise this book enough. If I hadn't already anointed Edward Lorn the Future of Horror, I would with this book. Five out of five stars.

* You can buy The Sound of Broken Ribs here.



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Sinner's Gin

Rhys Ford
Dreamspinner Press
Reviewed by Nancy
3 out of 5 stars

Summary

There’s a dead man in Miki St. John’s vintage Pontiac GTO, and he has no idea how it got there.

After Miki survives the tragic accident that killed his best friend and the other members of their band, Sinner’s Gin, all he wants is to hide from the world in the refurbished warehouse he bought before their last tour. But when the man who sexually abused him as a boy is killed and his remains are dumped in Miki’s car, Miki fears Death isn’t done with him yet.

Kane Morgan, the SFPD inspector renting space in the art co-op next door, initially suspects Miki had a hand in the man’s murder, but Kane soon realizes Miki is as much a victim as the man splattered inside the GTO. As the murderer’s body count rises, the attraction between Miki and Kane heats up. Neither man knows if they can make a relationship work, but despite Miki’s emotional damage, Kane is determined to teach him how to love and be loved — provided, of course, Kane can catch the killer before Miki becomes the murderer’s final victim.

My Review

Miki St. John has had a really hard life. He was abandoned as a child, shuttled between foster homes, and eventually adopted by a man who sexually abused him. He joins a successful rock band, achieves fame, and then barely survives a car accident that killed his entire band shortly after they won a Grammy Award. As if that isn’t enough, the corpse of the man who abused him happens to be in Miki’s car.

All Miki has right now is the warehouse he calls home, his stray dog and a bum knee. Thanks to his nuisance dog, Dude, he now has Kane.

Kane Morgan is a police inspector renting space next door for his woodworking projects and is immediately taken by Miki’s belligerence and his haunted eyes that give just a glimpse at the pain inside him. Though the murder investigation brings both men closer, there are many difficulties ahead.

Is it just me, or is it possible that a fictional character can be burdened with so many problems that he no longer seems realistic and therefore is difficult to empathize with? Sure, Miki has difficulty trusting others, but I would have liked to see more evidence of the psychological, sexual and emotional problems that occur in victims of childhood sexual abuse. Even though Miki and Kane didn’t rush into a sexual relationship, I felt their sex was a little too easy and spontaneous, making me feel that Miki’s deeper needs were not being met. He’s a broken young man who needs the help of a good therapist. Kane is simply not enough. I love reading about damaged characters, but they have to be believable.

Kane’s close-knit, suffocatingly sweet Irish family was just a little too perfect. There is no such thing as a perfect family. Sometimes you have to look a little deeper below the surface to find the problems, but you can be sure they will be there.

It’s OK to use personal pronouns. I had quite enough of the man, the singer, the cop, the inspector which was often annoying and took me out of the story.

Then there was the murder investigation that eventually led to a perpetrator who seemingly came out of nowhere and an arson incident that made absolutely no sense.

The word “exotic” to describe Miki’s Asian features really rubbed me the wrong way. It is a fine word to use to refer to plants, wildlife, landscapes. It is such a loaded word when used for people. To me, exotic implies “other”, “foreign”, “different”, and why should races other than white be considered exotic as if white is the default, the norm, when whites make up less than 25% of the world’s population?

I liked the song lyrics at the beginning of each chapter revealing the depth of Miki’s friendship with his best friend and fellow band member, Damien, and was totally surprised by that twisty ending that makes me curious about the direction this series will take.

Clash of Iron

Clash of Iron by Angus Watson
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

The Romans are coming, the Romans are coming

After defeating Zadar and becoming the Queen of Maidun, Lowa must now figure out how to defeat the Romans. The Romans are heading to Gaul before they make their way to Britain, so Lowa sends three of her best soldiers to help Gaul defeat the Romans. At Maidun Lowa attempts to train her people to face off with the Romans while also attempting to unite all of Britain's tribes to face against the coming invasion.

Clash of Iron is almost exactly what I expected from Age of Iron. It's nearly all brutality, torture, misery, and ancient warfare. Unfortunately what it lacks that Age of Iron had was simply Dug. Dug just made Age of Iron worth reading with his sunny attitude despite the world falling down around him. Dug is largely in the background of the large scale conflict. Most of his early moments are spent with him having girl drama. Dug loves Lowa and Lowa loves Dug. Through a series of unfortunate events and misinformed statements, the two simply drift apart. They each believe the other doesn't care about them. It went on for a long long time.

Clash of Iron increases it's point of view characters adding Spring, Chamanca, and Bruxton to Lowa, Dug, and Ragnall. Spring was a good addition. Chamanca and Bruxton were necessary for the story to be told even though they kept the attention off Dug. Lowa and Dug were strong as expected even overall. The surprise came from Ragnall, who simply put is one of the most obnoxious characters I've ever encountered. His point of view chapters were necessary, but I wish he fell down a well and stayed there.

Even though Clash of Iron was what I expected Age of Iron to be like, I longed for the simplicity and heart of Age of Iron. The scope of the story increases leading the reader to Rome, Gaul, Murkan, and Eroo. I understand the need to expand the story, but I simply preferred Age of Iron to it's sequel.

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KAPUTT BY CURXIO MALAPARTE

Kaputt by Curzio Malaparte
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

”Naked Germans are wonderfully defenseless. They are bereft of secrecy. They are no longer frightening. The secret of their strength is not in their skin or in their bones, or in their blood, it is in their uniforms. Their real skin is their uniform. If the peoples of Europe were aware of the flabby, defenseless, and dead nudity concealed by the Feldgrau of the German uniform, the German Army could not frighten even the weakest and most defenseless people.”

Menacing isn’t it?

If you have ever worn a costume, you will have experienced some of the freedom of being someone else. Masquerade balls and the famous Carnevale di Venezia are fun because people feel released from their normal lives, their personas, and even in some cases their morals. Adolf Hitler liked the pageantry of those impressive uniforms, many of which he designed personally. He was a starving artist before he decided to become an evil dictator. (The film Max with John Cusack explores the life of Hitler when he was still a normal mensch.) A man in a uniform becomes a different person. They can be emboldened and dehumanized and capable of committing great atrocities. It is almost as if the crimes against humanity are perpetrated by the uniform.

Curzio Malaparte was born Kurt Erich Suckert, but changed his name to Malaparte as a pun on Buonaparte, meaning ”he of the bad place.” As you read this book, he is going to take you to some very bad places. You will see through his eyes the ghettos in Poland, a close encounter with Heinrich Himmler, firing squads, and dinner parties with people out of their frilling minds. His descriptions of scenes of destruction and horror are vivid.

”By the roadside, and here and there in the cornfields, were overturned cars, burned trucks, disemboweled armored cars, abandoned guns, all twisted by explosions. But nowhere a man, nothing living, not even a corpse, not even any carrion. For miles and miles around there was only dead iron. Dead bodies of machines, hundreds upon hundreds of miserable steel carcasses. The stench of putrefying iron rose from the fields and the lagoons. The smell of rotting iron won over the smell of men and horses--that smell of old wars, even the smell of grain and the penetrating, sweet scent of sunflowers vanished amid the sour stench of scorched iron, rotting steel, and dead machinery.”

This book was published in 1944 while the war was still going on. It is a tribute to his charm and ability to make friends in high places that he was not shot long before this book was ever published. The odyssey of this manuscript actually making it to print is harrowing and related in the intro to this edition.

Malaparte was a fascist, and then he wasn’t.

He disagreed with Il Duce on tactics that he found abhorrent. In 1933, he was stripped of his membership and exiled to the island of Lipari. I would say it is a mystery why he wasn’t shot, hanged, and drawn and quartered at this point; the vitriol of his pen was very annoying to Mussolini, but then I discovered that he was friends with Galeazzo Ciano, the son-in-law and heir apparent of Mussolini. Ciano eventually saved him from his island of exile, and he came back to the mainland of Italy in 1938. He was then jailed in 1938, 1939, 1941, and 1943.

He refused to be quiet.


Two boys playing dress up. It would be cute if they weren’t psychopaths!

Mussolini should have had him shipped out to the nearest war zone with a target painted on his face, but instead, I can only believe with the intercession of Ciano, he was assigned to the diplomatic corp as a correspondent and sent to cover the action in the Ukraine. In the course of his new duties, he visited all of the central European countries as he chased down stories and observed with such a discerning eye the very worst of war. His perspectives of the conflict are unlike anything I’ve ever read before. ”Kaputt does something unique in the literature of the war; it crosses the lines of battle. Malaparte’s essentially treacherous mentality enabled him imaginatively and at times even physically to look at conflict simultaneously from the vantage points of opposing camps.”

And he shares scenes like this:

”The lake looked like a vast sheet of white marble on which rested hundreds upon hundreds of horses’ heads. They appeared to have been chopped off cleanly with an ax. Only the heads stuck out of the crust of ice. And they were all facing the shore. The white flame of terror still burnt in their wide-open eyes. Close to the shore a tangle of wildly rearing horses rose from the prison of ice.”

These Soviet horses were stampeded by a barrage of artillery fire into the water at the very moment the water was beginning to freeze. A tragic scene, but at the same time, how can we not be struck by the beauty of it? Ice sculptures of hundreds of the most exquisite creatures on the planet, preserved until the spring thaw as works of art.

There are dinner scenes where friends of the Axis Alliance were gorging themselves on a rich banquet of food while postulating about the Jews living like rats, starving to death mere miles from their table. Malaparte visited the Jewish girls who have been forced into whore houses for the pleasure of German soldiers. He was sitting and holding one girl’s hand as she told him that she had to submit to forty-three soldiers and six officers that day. Why she distinguished the officers from the regular enlistment was a bit baffling? She was counting down the days when she would be released. They only used them for twenty some days, then fresh girls were brought in. She was looking forward to when she would be allowed to go home, but what Malaparte did not have the heart to tell her was that she would not be going home.


Malaparte in uniform, not looking very menacing in THAT hat!

I’ve always heard good things about Curzio Malaparte’s writing, but I had no idea how compelling his writing was going to be. I would pick this book up intending to read a chapter or two, and the next thing I know, I’ve blown through 100 pages. Even when he is relating tragedy, he does so with alluring and, at times, stunning prose. For those who feel they know all there is to know about World War II, you are still missing some insights if you haven’t seen the war through Curzio Malaparte’s eyes.

I’ve been accused of being an intellectual before, so I particularly enjoyed this exchange.

”’I often ask myself,’ said de Foxa, ‘what the function of the intellectuals will be in a new medieval period. I bet they would take advantage of the opportunity to try again to save European civilization.’”

Yes, yes, we will!

If you wish to see more of my most recent book and movie reviews, visit http://www.jeffreykeeten.com
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Hallowed Knights: Plague Garden (Age of Sigmar) By: Joshua Reynolds

Hallowed Knights: Plague Garden by Joshua Reynolds
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

While I was tooling around in Warhammer world (one day I will explain my weird habit of reading game manuals for fun and not necessarily to play said game) I jumped off into age of Sigmar. I have read Warhammer fantasy and enjoyed it, but honestly at first glance, Sigmar seemed like space marines in fantasy land, while.....I am a fan..not what I wanted to read.

However, Josh Reynolds is one of my favorite Black Library writers and the tale he tells here is TOP notch. We get to see into the world of the stormcast and get to know them a bit, which in my readings so far, is not that common.

And...the trip into Nurgle's realm...wow. For some reason the plague lord is my favorite of the chaos baddies, and I loved the gross look at his armies.

IF you are a Warhammer fan, this read is for you. for sure (and yes, I broke my review rules a bit)

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Sedaris Goes Back in Time for New Material

Theft by Finding: Diaries 1977-2002 by David Sedaris
Reviewed by Jason Koivu
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Theft by Finding is like a b-sides and rarities album, a retrospective that includes a bunch of old stuff, rough cuts, alternative versions of the hits, etc. It's designed for preexisting fans of the artist. They're the ones yearning for this sort of material. I'm one of them.

This might also be enjoyable for non-fans, who just like a good salacious diary, something that feels gossipy and gives you the sense that dirt has been properly dished. Most of this dirt however is on himself and the dirt-poor. Theft by Finding covers Sedaris' early years when he was a down-and-out drug addict. There were times when he was a few bucks away from being homeless. But rest assured, he brings out the funny in it all.

The early years are fascinating when his struggle was hampered by personality and bad habits. Many will not enjoy this because of that. Or I should say, many do not enjoy this because of that. Source: I've read reviews of his previous books that touch upon this era of his life.

If nothing else this is an interesting rags to riches story, which ends about the time that his life turns into one unending book tour. There's only so much one can write about that life style before it bores. However, there's PLENTY of juicy diary material prior to that, so dig in!


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Welsh Myth Reimagined in Fantasy

The Book of Three by Lloyd Alexander
Reviewed by Jason Koivu
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

The Book of Three is one of those classic fantasy novels you see on "Top ___" lists and the shelves of used bookshops with a fantasy section of any redeeming value. However, it doesn't rank up there with the best of the bunch and you don't hear people raving about it. I needed to find out what was up with this little book and so I did.

It's a fun, mostly-light fantasy adventure about a headstrong boy who wants to live life, not wallow in the wake of a blacksmith or spend his days as an assistant pig keeper. He gets more than his wish in a fast-paced, action-packed journey that pits him and his new friends in a battle with the land's greatest evil.

The Book of Three is indeed fun, as well as interesting for its take on Welsh myth. It is however a little more silly than I care for these days. It treads too much on gags, like a toady's repetitive speech pattern and a bard's truth-detecting instrument that breaks a string whenever he lies. He must break nearly ten strings throughout this book and such a short book is just not long enough to sustain that kind of repetition. One last quibble, the only female figure in the book is annoying. Everything that comes out of her mouth sounds like "I told you so!" and that sucks.

Right now I'm up in the air about continuing on with the Chronicles of Prydain series, but I've wanted to read this book for as long as I can remember and I'm glad I did.

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