Abhorrent Siren by John Baltisberger

 Summary:

Something is mutating the aquatic wildlife on the South Texas border, making the animals larger, hungrier, and more vicious.

Something is mutating the people of Texas, turning them into cannibalistic monsters driven by their basest instincts to feed, nest, and reproduce.

Something approaches San Antonio, shaking the earth with each step, driving the mutating power forth and poisoning everything it comes across.

Something . . . abhorrent.

My Thoughts:

This was...an interesting experience. It is also my first time reading this author. This book is yet another example of why I love extreme horror/the splatterpunk genre. Everything from the vivid descriptions to the amount of characterization each main character is given. It is a novella, so I would have loved more characterization, but it is done so well in such a short book. Lisa, Ferdinand, Mike, and Barbara were the characters that I rooted for the most.

The imagery around the siren is breathtaking, and the creature itself is intriguing. Of course, we don't learn everything about it, but what is there is written so well.

I would definitely recommend this for fans of extreme horror and splatterpunk. This is not one for the faint of heart.

My Rating: 5 stars

Along the Path of Torment by Chandler Morrison REVIEW

Summary:

Ty Seward is a sick man. Anorexic, sexually aberrant, and haunted by a ghostly apparition residing in his closet. Living in the shadow of an in-remission cancer he fully expects to return, Ty bitterly earns his meager living by working as an assistant to his uncle, a business-and-media mogul who runs a lucrative child prostitution ring catering to the Hollywood elite. When Ty's line of work introduces him to a precocious teenage girl who seems to possess a shrewdly keen insight into his inner machinations, he is forced to confront his hidden demons and repressed trauma, embarking on a bleak and harrowing odyssey of self-discovery in the decomposing City of Angels.

My Thoughts:

One of the reasons why I love Chandler Morrison's works is his willingness to write sick and twisted characters that are generally taboo for other writers. Ty is a bad person, and Morrison doesn't mask that or try to get the reader to sympathize with him. He is just horrible, period.

Ty is complacent toward the horrors that his uncle inflicts upon minors, as he used to do the same. Now he doesn't do everything he used to, but he still does things with underage girls. The further in the book, the more we learn about Ty's childhood trauma and how the ghost is a reflection of it. When Ty was a child, he was sexually abused by his aunt and uncle, but those memories only surface when he confronts the ghost in the yellow dress. This is more of an explanation of why he did it, not an excuse.

Beatrice/Dolly is the teenager he meets while working for his uncle. She is kind towards Ty, and they slowly become friends. She is, to me, a representation of what a lot of child stars had to go through to get fame. Beatrice doesn't really want to be a star, it is her mother who pushes her to do it and is okay with her daughter being assaulted by older men in order for Beatrice to be casted as an actress.

This is a bleak novel that includes heavily realistic content about the entertainment industry. So if that is something you can't handle, skip this book. Otherwise, I would recommend it. It is not for everyone though.

My Rating: 4 stars

The Girl by Victory Witherkeigh REVIEW

 Summary:

The parents knew it had been a mistake to have a girl. At birth, the girl's long, elegant fingers wriggled and grasped forward, motioning to strangle the very air from her mother's lungs. As she grew older, she grew more like her father, whose ancestors would dream of those soon to die. She walked and talked in her sleep, and her parents warded themselves, telling the girl that she was evil, unlovable, their burden to bear only until her eighteenth birthday released them.

The average person on the streets of Los Angeles would look at the girl and see a young woman with dark chocolate eyes, curly long hair, and the tanned skin of her Filipina heritage. Her teachers praised her scholarly achievements and extracurricular activities, from academic decathlon to cheer.

The girl knew she was different, especially as she grew to accept that the other children's parents didn't despise them. Her parents whispered about their pact as odd and disturbing occurrences continued to happen around her. The girl thought being an evil demon should require the skies to bleed, the ground to tremble, an animal sacrifice to seal the bargain, or at least cause some general mayhem. Did other demons work so hard to find friends, do well on their homework, and protect their spoiled younger brother?

The demon was patient. It could afford to wait, to remind the girl when she was hurt that power was hers to take. She needed only to embrace it. It could wait. The girl's parents were doing much of its work already.

My Thoughts:

I fell in LOVE with this book. The writing was captivating and beautiful, and I wanted so badly to finish it in one sitting (but I'm a college student, so that didn't happen). 

The girl (whose name is never revealed) have parents who have hated her since she was born, and constantly remind her of it, verbally abusing her at every opportunity (basically, all the time). The novel shows the girl growing up until college age. She constantly wishes that her parents loved her, and that they would give her as much love as they did to her baby brother. The girl ends up trying hard at school, and the teachers praised her, but the reason was she hoped that her parents would acknowledge her as a human being. Of course, this doesn't happen. Her parents neglect her, and so her middle and high school years were a living hell. The girl's love life was awful, because all she wanted was to be seen and loved, making her a target for boys who want to take advantage of her. 

The demon/fantasy element of the novel is very small compared to the girl's normal life. The summary hypes up this element, but spends very little time on it. One ability that is mentioned is the one that the girl can see premonitions of those close to death, but it seems to have forgotten this plot point for most of the book. The demon is also barely in this novel, making me hope that the author will write a sequel.

I loved this read, but I also can't ignore the problem that, for a book that promises a constant presence of a demon, it is so small compared to the rest of the novel. However, since it was so good, I do recommend it. I would warn that the fantasy elements are far and few in between though.

My Rating: 4 stars 

Audition by Ryu Murakami REVIEW

 Summary:

Aoyama, a widower who has lived alone with his son since his wife died seven years ago, decides that it is time to remarry. Since Aoyama is a bit rusty when it comes to dating, a filmmaker friend proposes that he stage auditions for a movie he never intends to produce in order to cast the perfect woman as his bride. Only one of the applicants catches Aoyama's attention: Yamasaki Asami, a striking young ballerina with a mysterious past. Blinded by his infatuation, Aoyama discovers too late that she is a far cry from the innocent young woman he imagined her to be.

My Thoughts:

I do know this was a film, but I wanted to read the novel it was based on first. This isn't the first Murakami book I have read; I have previously read In the Miso Soup.

Aoyama is still grieving the loss of his wife, even though it has been several years. He was not faithful to her when she was still alive, but he never wanted her to die. His son, now in high school, notices how miserable Aoyama is and suggests he remarry. Aoyama originally rejects the idea, but soon realizes that his son is right. When he tells his friend Yoshikawa about this, the friend decides to create an audition for a film that likely will not happen so that Aoyama can find his ideal type. Asami blows him away, and he falls in love with her. Unfortunately, he finds out too late about her past.

I really liked the relationship Aoyama has with his son. It is something that we don't see very often in the horror genre (or most genres really). Asami was abused growing up, and she tells Aoyama that she healed through dancing. But it turns out that she has not actually healed. Asami wants to be loved by Aoyama, but she also wants him to ONLY love her. He doesn't really understand what she means until she leaves after he tells her about his son.

I definitely loved this book, and I hope to find more compelling novels from this author.

My Rating: 5 stars

Everything Will Be All Right In the End by Paul Michael Anderson REVIEW

My Thoughts:

Short story collections, as you probably know by now, are very difficult to review/rate. But I did fall in love with Anderson's writing.

One of my favorites is "The One Thing I Wished For You". It revolves around a new father, who wants to protect his newborn child whatever the cost. His wish was for her not to feel pain, and it was granted by a mysterious man. Instead of his child feeling the pain, he would. But he learns later what a curse that is when his daughter grows up and dates an abusive man. That meant she would not feel the pain, and it ended up killing her. But the end showed that it was only a vision of what could happen.

Another favorite is "A Questionable Act of Compassion", where a girl (who seems to be artificially made) is being experimented on by two doctors, one of which is kind. She ends up escaping on her own.

Other notable favorites include "Requiem Is A Vocab Term",  "Well, You Asked For A Miracle", and "I Can Give You Life".

I would wholeheartedly recommend this book.

My Rating: 5 stars