Camp Carnage by Elliot Arthur Cross & Joshua Winning

Formats - Print, Digital

Publisher: CreateSpace Independent Publishing

Genre: Killer/Slasher, Comedy Horror

Audience: Y/A

Takes Place in: Colorado, USA
Diversity: Gay and Lesbian characters

Content Warnings:  Body Shaming, Bullying, Child Abuse, Child Death, Death, Drug Use/Abuse, Forced Captivity, Gaslighting, Gore, Homophobia, Mental Illness, Racism, Sexism, Slurs, Suicide, Violence, Verbal/Emotional Abuse (Highlight to view)

Blurb:

In the summer of 1986, Billy Collins is sent to his own personal Hell – summer camp. The remote Camp Genesis offers desperate parents a place to “straighten” out their gay teenagers with the help of the puritanical Katherine Creevey. Besides the typical horsing around, campfire tales and summer games, the Genesis program forces gay and questioning teens into humiliating gender-based lessons. While Billy wants nothing more than to escape Camp Genesis, he can’t help worrying that something even more sinister is hiding just out of sight. Unknown to Billy, two campers were murdered three years ago. Just days after Billy and the new campers arrive, people start to go missing, and it’s up to Billy and his new friend Jem to find out what’s really going on. Is a maniac on the loose? Is history repeating itself? One thing’s for sure – at Camp Genesis, you have to fight to survive…

Eid Mubarak! I hope all my Muslim readers have a happy Eid Al-Fitr, and that Ramadan brought you peace and prosperity. In honor of the holiday my next review will feature a book from Salaam Reads a new publishing imprint that focuses on books for Muslim kids and young adults. For now, let's finish up pride month with a gay camp slasher story.

It's an unfortunate fact of life that the majority of self-published books are bad. Really, REALLY bad. Like, any movie remake with Matthew Broderick in it bad. I get that not all self-published books are mind-numbingly awful, and there are definitely benefits to self-publishing (better royalty rates and creative control) over the traditional model. But for every The Martian there are about a million crappy Dinosaur/Alien Romances with bad grammar and a cover that looks like someone tried to illustrate their bad LSD trip in MS Paint. So I was skeptical when I first picked up Camp Carnage and saw it was *gasp* self-published.



It's like J.J. Abram's and Rob Liefeld made cover art for some bad fanfic.

But it's actually pretty good! No poorly photoshopped cover, no obvious author self-inserts, the text has been edited for spelling and grammar, and the story is solid and enjoyable. There are still some issues, but overall it's a fun throwback to campy 80's horror classics, with a largely queer cast. The characters should be familiar to horror fans, there's the virginal hero, the hero's best friend, the mean rival, the love interest, the "cool" best friend, the stoner who acts as the comic relief, the brooding loner, the creepy caretaker, the sole black guy, and the fat kid (yeah... there's a lot of body-shaming in this book). But in this story, the virginal hero and promiscuous bully, usually female-only roles, are both gay men named Billy and Kyle, respectively. Meanwhile, the handsome, mysterious jock whose attention they're vying for is still in serious denial about his sexuality, while Billy's best friend is a bad ass lesbian and probably the toughest person in the camp.  Of course, not everyone sticks to their assigned "role". Without giving too much away, suffice it to say that literally anyone can die, so don't get too attached to anyone, and flipping the genders of the "virgin" and the "whore" isn't the only way Cross and Winning invert horror tropes.

No! Everyone gets one character trait, and that's it! Now go take your clothes off until you get stabbed.

The rest of the cast is pretty much just there to bring up the body count, so the authors didn't bother to give them much in the way of personalities. It would have been nice if they were slightly more rounded, or had more than one character trait, but honestly, they're just cannon fodder, so who really cares. Though it'd be great if the fat kid could have been characterized by something other than his weight (seriously, what is with all the fat shaming!?). I get that many of the characters are stereotypes, but c'mon. Everyone else got to have an actual personality trait as their one defining characteristic, as opposed to a physical attribute! At least the sole black guy got to be the flaming kid, as opposed to a racist caricature.

As far as killers go, the murderer isn't very creative, though they do manage to bump off the majority of the cast without anyone noticing.  Like, to the point where no one finds a dead body until the last few chapters. I'd hope someone in charge would be at least a little more concerned by a number of strange disappearances, but nope. Did people just not give a shit about their children back then? Were teens sent off into the wilderness en masse, and everyone just hoped some of them would make it out alive? I know adults were more laid back about unsupervised kids in the 80's, but you'd think a child that went missing in the woods for days would at least warrant a phone call.

I mean, it's not like he got murdered in the woods by the camp serial killer. Probably... 

Now, obviously you don't want the victims to figure out they're being picked off too early in the story. There needs to be time to draw out the suspense, and let the reader get to know the soon-to-be corpses a little better. But let's face it, if you're reading slasher horror it's because you want to see the bodies hit the floor. Any time spent on character development and plot is just making sure you have a nutritious meal before gorging on cake and ice cream. Yeah it's important, but it's not the good stuff. And Cross and Winning just waste too much time on boring camp activities when they could've been writing about terrified campers trying to escape the killer. Besides, most of the characters are so flat and boring I really don't want to spend any length of time with them, I just want to see them get murdered in the most gruesome, over-the-top way imaginable.

The camp itself is a lot less horrible than I expected a pray-away-the-gay camp to be. Then again, if it were anything like the places you read about on the news, it would be a completely different kind of horror story, and a masked murderer would seem silly and unnecessary in comparison. That's not to say there wasn't some pretty disturbing homophobia from the adults trying to "convert" their poor charges. They're not being electrocuted, beaten, or medically tortured (big trigger warning for those links by the way), but being told who you are is wrong and unnatural is still really damaging. One scene, where one of the camp counselors, Father Norton, has the campers repeat homophobic insults they've received and direct them at Kyle, was really upsetting. It was an incredibly dark moment in an otherwise goofy horror story, and much more disturbing than a silly, fictional slasher. I had to go hug my wife after reading that part. But, over all, Camp Carnage is still a fun homage to 80's Slasher films, with plenty of nods to nerd culture, gore, and humor.

Bleeding Earth by Kaitlin Ward

Formats: Print, digital

Publisher: Adaptive Studios
Genre: Blood & Guts, Apocalypse/Disaster, Psychological Horror, Romance
Audience: YA
Diversity: Lesbian characters, Hispanic/Latinx character
Takes Place in: New Hampshire, USA
Content Warnings: Alcohol Abuse, Bullying, Child Abuse, Child Death, Child Endangerment, Death, Forced Captivity, Gore, Homophobia, Mental Illness, Racism, Suicide, Verbal/Emotional Abuse, Violence (Highlight to view)

Between Mother Nature and human nature, disasters are inevitable.  Lea was in a cemetery when the earth started bleeding. Within twenty-four hours, the blood made international news. All over the world, blood oozed out of the ground, even through the concrete, even in the water. Then the earth started growing hair and bones. Lea wishes she could ignore the blood. She wishes she could spend time with her new girlfriend, Aracely, in public, if only Aracely wasn't so afraid of her father. Lea wants to be a regular teen again, but the blood has made her a prisoner in her own home. Fear for her social life turns into fear for her sanity, and Lea must save herself and her girlfriend however she can.

Happy Pride month! Here's something fun for queer horror fans, after Netflix accidently featured the Australian indie horror film, The Babadook, on their LGBT movie page, the titular creature has quickly become a Pride meme and it's wonderful. If you haven't seen the film, it's awesome, go watch it.

Artwork by Muffin Pines at http://muffinpines.tumblr.com/

For June I'll be reviewing two horror stories with queer characters, the first of which is Bleeding Earth. And oh man, did this book mess me up good. I was expecting a gory, end of the world sort of book, and instead I got a heartbreaking survival story about love, family, and humanity (yes I know how cheesy that sounds, shut up). It gave me so much anxiety, and so many emotions, and I'm still trying to process what the hell I just read. But I know it was good. It was really freaking good. And there was so much blood. Blood, and bones, and hair. I love blood. And bones. Not wads of hair though, I have my limits.


I was going for a "Carrie at the Prom" kind of look.

Lea, the novel's protagonist and narrator, is enjoying the blossoming relationship she shares with her girlfriend, Aracely, when the blood first appears. Now, normally teen romances in dystopias and apocalyptic fiction seems tacked on and out of place. I mean, who worries about crushes when their life is on the line? But in Bleeding Earth, it works beautifully. Surrounded by chaos and despair, Lea wants to hold onto one of the few good things she has left to keep her going, because no one knows how long they have left. The girls are still in their honeymoon phase, so everything still feels wonderful and new, a sharp contrast to the reality around them. When Lea starts experiencing night terrors and hallucinations from stress and isolation, talking to her girlfriend on the phone is the only thing that helps her. And when she wants to give up, it's Aracely that keeps her going. And I just can't bring myself to begrudge her that one little bit of happiness. Who wouldn't want to spend time with someone who makes you feel safe and lets you forget your problems for a while? It gave my cold, little heart all the feels. 

The scariest thing about Bleeding Earth isn't the blood, hair, and bones seeping up from the ground. It's the feeling of isolation, uncertainty, and powerlessness. At least with zombies, aliens, and diseases there's always something you can do, a safe zone to flee to, a cure, an end in sight. But with the blood there's nowhere to escape, no way to fight back, and no stopping the blood. No one knows what's causing it, or if it will ever end. There are no answers or explanations to soothe the scared populace. And while I normally hate it when a story doesn't give me an explanation, here it actually works. It's so much more frightening when you don't know what's happening, and there's literally nothing you can do about it. Will things get better? Is this the end of the world? Did humanity piss off the earth so much it's finally rejecting them? Even at the start of the bleeding, when everyone is still doing their best to "keep calm and carry on," fear is already causing people to take desperate actions. Lea's mom obsessively measures their water and screams at her friends when they drink some, her father nails boards over all the windows so they're in complete darkness, a man attacks Aracely with a bone over a breathing mask, and some jerks at an Apocalypse party try to get an inebriated girl to drink the blood. It starts with fights over tampons in the grocery store, then looting Home Depot, to violence and riots, and it only gets worse from there. Much, MUCH worse.

Now, I know poor decision making seems to be a staple of Y/A fiction (one that annoys me to no end), but here, it makes sense. Everyone is absolutely terrified, struggling with isolation and the horror of what's happening around them, while still trying their damnedest to pretend like everything is going to be fine. And scared, stressed people do not behave in a rational manner. At various points the teenagers in the story become so desperate for normalcy and human contact they're willing to brave the blood and all its dangers just to be together. Is this a good idea? No, absolutely not. But is it understandable? Completely. Humans are social creatures, so much so that isolation can actually be deadly. And here's the original research to back it up. I'm an introvert who prefers a quiet night at home, and even I felt stressed and nauseous when poor Lea described being trapped in her boarded up home for weeks on end, with little to no outside communication. Honestly, if I had to go through a bloodpocalypse, I probably would've snapped after a few hours indoors and gone blood hydroplaning (hemiaplaning?) in a stolen car while throwing human skulls at pedestrians. And that's speaking as someone who willingly goes for days without human contact, I can't imagine what a non-homebody extrovert would go through. So kudos to Lea for keeping it together as long as she did! If you're probably going to die anyway, it's better to die among friends and go out with a bang.

I showed this drawing to my wife, and now I'm not allowed to drive her car. 

While I really enjoyed Bleeding Earth, it did have some problems that got to me, and kept me from giving it the full five stars. Like Lea's dad. He learns that the mom has become unhinged, and Lea fears for their safety, but instead of going to help his wife and child, he tells his frightened daughter to get her unstable mom, slip through the looters and people willing to kill for water, and come to him. So of course a ton of horrible things happen because Lea can't get her sick mother to leave the house, and her dad is apparently too lazy to drive the 40 minutes to help her. Like, I get they need everyone they can get to keep the power going, but for fuck's sake man, you can take an hour to go rescue your wife and daughter. He's just so frustratingly blasé about the whole thing. And then there were a bunch of weird little plot points that didn't go anywhere. Like Lea's hallucinations. Ingesting the blood is discovered to cause hallucinations, night terrors, lost time, and mental breaks. Lea starts to have horrible nightmares, imagining blood in the house, but it's unclear if it's an effect from the blood or the isolation. While she does spend part of the book questioning her sanity, and it's definitely stressful and unsettling, it doesn't really go anywhere. Was she infected by the blood? Yeah, we never get an answer for that one either.

Hey, Sudoku IS work!

The lack of explanations will be a major turn off for a lot of readers, and I can understand that. But honestly, I didn't feel like it was needed, because that really isn't the point of the story. This isn't a sci-fi novel with an omniscient narrator about a world-wide disaster. This is Lea's story. It's about her fears, her loneliness, her confusion, and her crush on Aracely. She's terrified and frustrated because she doesn't know what will happen, her parents can't reassure her, and she just wants to be able to take comfort in something. It's a sweet, sad story of survival, isolation, and just trying to enjoy a simple teen crush in a world that's gone to hell. 

The Graveyard Apartment by Mariko Koike, translated by Deborah Boliver Boehm



Formats - Print

Publisher: St. Martin's Press

Genre: Ghosts/Haunting, Thriller

Audience: Adult

Diversity: Japanese characters

Takes Place in: Japan

Content Warnings: Animal Death, Child Death, Child Endangerment, Suicide, Verbal/Emotional Abuse, Forced Captivity (Highlight to view)

Blurb:

A terrifying tale of a young family who move into an apartment building next to a graveyard and the horrors that are unleashed upon them. One of the most popular writers working in Japan today, Mariko Koike is a recognized master of detective fiction and horror writing. Known in particular for her hybrid works that blend these styles with elements of romance, The Graveyard Apartment is arguably Koike’s masterpiece. Originally published in Japan in 1986, Koike’s novel is the suspenseful tale of a young family that believes it has found the perfect home to grow in to, only to realize that the apartment’s idyllic setting harbors the specter of evil and that longer they stay, the more trapped they become. This tale of a young married couple who are harboring a dark secret is packed with dread and terror, as they and their daughter move into a brand new apartment building built next to a graveyard. As strange and terrifying occurrences begin to pile up, people in the building begin to move out one by one, until the young family is left alone with someone... or something... lurking in the basement. The psychological horror builds moment after moment, scene after scene, culminating with a conclusion that will make you think twice before ever going into a basement again.

Next up for Asian and Pacific American heritage month, is a new translation of Mariko Koike's popular 1986 horror novel, The Graveyard Apartment.

The Graveyard Apartment had a great premise; a married couple and their young daughter move into a haunted apartment near a cemetery and creepy shit keeps happening, but they're unwilling to move due to their financial situation, societal pressure to appear normal, and the husband's deep denial that anything is wrong. The book explores their feelings of emptiness and isolation and their struggle with their fears, both mundane and supernatural. But what should have been amazing ended up being very, well, "meh". So how exactly does one manage to fuck up what should have been a fool proof haunted house formula? 

You had ONE JOB.

To be completely fair, much of the awkward writing present in the English version could very well be due to translation problems. But unless the translator of The Graveyard Apartment pulled a 4KIDs Entertainment and just started making up random shit and cutting out half the story, there's only so much you can blame on her. The problems with the book go far beyond a language barrier issue. The biggest setback is that half the story seems pointless (maybe the translator should have cut some of it out after all). Koike spends more time on random details, like what her main character, Misao, is wearing, than she does on the evil entity haunting the building. There's even an entire chapter, later on in the book, dedicated to visiting a realtor's office and looking at new apartments. Can you handle the terror as her husband, Teppei, walks their daughter to school? Shiver as the doomed couple look at rental listings within their budget! 

The story takes place in the 80's so I tried to give her poofy 80's hair. I was not successful.

And even when Koike does finally get to the creepy stuff, it's a crapshoot whether or not it actually has anything do with the plot or just more random detailing. For example; early on in the book we discover Teppei's first wife, Reiko, committed suicide because he was cheating on her with Misao. So you'd think that Reiko's vengeful spirit would somehow be involved in the plot. Well, you'd be wrong. The suicide backstory serves no purpose other than highlighting what a remorseless dick Teppei is. We also learn that at one point there were plans to build an underground shopping center, but they were abandoned after the initial tunnel was built. So maybe the project disturbed the graves above and angered the spirits? Nope. The project was abandoned because people didn't want the cemetery relocated, so the graves were pretty much left alone. Actually we never learn why the ghosts (or demons, or monsters, or whatever) are such huge assholes. Usually ghosts haunt the living because they're pissed off about being murdered or moved, or having a Taco Bell built over their remains, but these entities just like to lock doors, mess with the elevators, and put handprints on the glass, because.... reasons. I dunno, maybe they just really hate whoever does the building maintenance, or they're a bunch of drunk frat boys.

Not so much evil as incredibly irritating.

The story and characters are well written enough, it just isn't scary. Well, except for the ending, where all the horror gets crammed into the last few chapters of the book. It's like Koike suddenly went "Shit! I've got four chapters left, and the scariest things in the book so far are a creepy basement and being forced to into awkward social situations!" (Granted, awkward social situations are much scarier than any demonic entity). So then the ghosts (or demons, or whatever) go from mildly irritating to eldritch abominations with god damn superpowers and a lust for blood.

Oh, and just as the story is starting to get scary and suspenseful? It finishes with a vague, open ending and we STILL don't know what the fuck is wrong with the building! To top it off, the ending isn't even part of the actual story, it's a freaking epilogue! WHAT? There was all this slow buildup up for the most underwhelming payoff ever. Way to get my hopes up, Koike! Look, The Graveyard Apartment isn't a bad book overall, which is why I didn't knock it down to "not recommended", it just doesn't work as a haunted house story.

Cacy & Kiara and the Curse of the Ki'i by Roy Chang

Formats - Print

Publisher: Beach House

Genre: Ghosts/Haunting, Thriller, Comedy, Myths and Folklore

Audience: Children

Diversity: Asian American characters, Hapa characters, Native Hawaiian characters, Pacific Islander characters

Takes Place in: Hawaiʻi, USA

Content Warnings: Verbal/Emotional Abuse, Bullying, Animal Death, Child Endangerment, Violence, Death (Highlight to view)


 Blurb:

Cacy and Kiara are sixth grade cousins who couldn’t be more different from each other. When their two schools take the same field trip to Hawai‘i Volcanoes National Park, Cacy and Kiara are thrown into an adventure filled with mystery and murder. In order to save the park--and themselves--from certain destruction, they call upon their family ‘aumäkua (personal gods), receive guidance from the Goddesses Hi‘iaka and Pele, and befriend the inhabitants of a secret Menehune village. Throughout their adventure, they learn the power of their connection to ancient Hawai‘i and the importance of working together. Over sixty manga-style illustrations accompany the story adding another layer of action to an already action-packed tale.

Happy Asian-Pacific American Heritage Month! With the recent popularity of Pokemon Sun and Moon, and Disney’s Moana, I figured I'd cover a Polynesian book this time. Luckily, I recently visited the big island of Hawaiʻi* with my wife (we were on our honeymoon, and as a newlywed I have to mention my marriage approximately 50,000 times) and made a stop at Basically Books while in downtown Hilo, because no honeymoon is complete without picking up a few scary stories at the local bookstore!


Of course I had to get something by Glen Grant and Rick Carroll, two of Hawaii's most prominent horror authors, but I also picked up a children's chapter book by a local comic artist, Roy Chang, entitled Cacy & Kiara and the Curse of the Ki'i. Although it's much more of a crime thriller than straight horror, (though it does have its moments, like the ghostly hitchhiker *shudder*), I enjoyed it enough that I wanted to include it on the site. The story stars two 11-year-old cousins, the brave and brash Cacy, and the intelligent, yet aloof Kiara, who stumble upon a crime in progress and accidentally release the curse of a long forgotten idol. Now they're in a race against time to undo the curse before Pele destroys the island in her anger. Oh, and they're being chased by an international crime syndicate who wants the idol for themselves, just in case you thought things were too easy. Luckily the girls are aided on their adventure by the Menehune, ʻaumākua, and other figures from Hawaiian mythology.


When I first started reading Chang's book, I thought it was self published. The entire thing was riddled with run-on sentences, awkward phrasing, grammatical errors, and even a few typos. But nope! Cacy & Kiara went through an actual publishing house, which means, presumably, there was some sort of a professional editing process. Though, in this case, "professional editing process" most likely means that they waited until the last minute, panicked, and decided to just run the manuscript through spell check. That, or someone accidentally hired a walrus in a hat and made them an editor. Granted, Beach House is a small publisher, but you'd think that would mean their projects would get more attention and care, not less. 

Yeah, I'm going with the Walrus theory.

Poor editing aside, the book isn't bad. It's creative, humorous, and I love the concept behind it. But Chang is clearly a much better artist than author, used to telling his stories through images rather than words. His art is so full of energy and expression that it does a much better job at capturing his creative ideas than the long, awkward, blocks of text he writes. In all honestly, I'd love to see the story done as a graphic novel because the ideas behind it are solid, the action scenes captivating, and the characters of Cacy and Kiara are bursting with energy and life. It'd be interesting to compare his Steampunk comic book series, Highball and Pepe, with Cacy & Kiara and see which one does a better job at telling the story. But, Chang, for the love of all that is holy, please erase your pencil lines! It just makes the art look messy and unfinished. Maybe the editor just published the rough draft instead of waiting for the final product? Because his other artwork doesn't seem to suffer from the same problem.

I think we all know who to blame here.

But, when I finally put down my red pen and stopped nitpicking, I really enjoyed the book. About halfway through I got caught up in the action and suspense, and the novel really hit its stride. It made me think of the awesome cartoons from the 80's - sure the writing was absurd and hackneyed, and the animation was full of errors, but we didn't care! The action, fun characters, and creativity is what made us love them, and what made such an impression on us as kids. I can just picture Cacy and Kiara teaming up with the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles or piloting a nēnē goose mecha. Honestly, the book is intended for kids, and most kids are not going to care about Oxford commas or the flow of dialogue when Kiara's flying a giant owl and Cacy is trapped in a truck that's about to explode.



I would so watch this cartoon

Even better, Chang has made the story educational without being preachy, unlike some of our childhood favorites (looking at you Captain Planet). This would be an awesome book to hand to a kid before a visit to Hawaiʻi Volcanoes National Park, because learning about Hawaiian myths and ecology is a lot more fun when it involves high speed chases and international crime syndicates. There's even a glossary of terms in the back (though I question why eruption was included but musubi wasn't). Anyone familiar with the Big Island will be delighted to see references to popular locations such as Ken's House of Pancakes, the Thurston Lava Tube, the Volcano House, and Pu`uhonua O Hōnaunau (all places I got to visit during my honeymoon). So, if you want to read an awesome adventure story about two spunky, tween girls, while learning about the big island of Hawai'i (and you’re not a huge grammarian) I would definitely recommend this book.

*At the time of writing this I didn't realize how much tourism is hurting Hawaii, even before Covid and the water shortage, and how most Native Hawaiians don't want people visiting their illegally occupied land. 

The Drowning Girl by Caitlín R. Kiernan

Please note, I found out recently that Caitlín R. Kiernan has expressed racist views on Twitter, detailed here. - 5/10/24

Formats - Print, audio, digital

Publisher: Penguin

Genre: Monster, Werewolf, Romance, Ghosts/Haunting, Psychological Horror, Mystery

Audience: Adult

Diversity: Lesbian characters, trans character, mentally ill character

Takes Place in: North Eastern US

Content Warnings: Mental Illness, Self-Harm, Mentions of Transphobia, Suicide, Emotional Abuse (Highlight to view)

The Drowning Girl is a beautifully written, psychological horror novel about a young woman, Imp, whose schizophrenia is making it difficult for her to determine the nature of the mysterious woman haunting her. Is she a siren using her charm to lure Imp to disaster? A werewolf? A human stalker who can blur the lines of reality? Imp struggles to sort out the truth before she loses herself. Queer romance, myths, and art combine to create this award winning novel.

So did I like it? Well.......

Sort of?

In theory I should have loved it. It takes place on my home turf of New England, the main character is a queer artist (like me!), she's dating an incredibly well written trans character, the story has a creepy mystery, gorgeous imagery, and one of the best representations of mental illness I've ever read. But I struggled to get through the Drowning Girl. I'd pick it up, read a chapter, and then forget about it for a month. I don't know why I didn't devour this book as quickly as I do others, there wasn't really anything I disliked about it, and it wasn't boring, but it just didn't seem to capture my attention. It reminded me of one of those award winning art films that critics love and you have to sit through in college film classes. There's nothing bad about it per se, but you'd still rather be watching Bad Boys II, or some other equally ridiculous action flick.

Ugh, I should've just watched Sharknado again

Maybe I'm just not sophisticated enough to appreciate the non-linear, stream of conciseness (i.e. all over the place) writing, or perhaps I'm too clueless to fully comprehend the subtly and symbolism of the story. But I found it really jarring to have Imp describe her girlfriend, Abalyn, play Kingdom Hearts one minute, and then have a poetic, jumbled passage full of fairy tale metaphors the next. And I get it, the writing style is intended to represent Imp's mental illness by showing the disorganization of her thought process, the random associations she makes where none exist, and her difficulty remembering what's real and what's imagined. But that doesn't always make for an enjoyable read.
I guess I'm just incredibly picky when it comes to "artsy" prose and magical realism. When it works, it works well, but when it doesn't, it just becomes a confusing, irritating erratic mess, and with the Drowning Girl it was kind of a crap shoot.

WTF is going on? Did I take expired cold medicine again?

Since I'm starting to feel bad for picking on this book so much (and it's by no means a bad book), I want to address one of the things I did really like about the story, how Imp's mental illness was treated. It wasn't romanticized, it was just a part of her that could make her life more challenging, but not horrible. Medication made her illness manageable, but didn't make it disappear entirely, and she was able to continue working, date, hang out with friends, pursue hobbies, and lived on her own. She would go through rough patches, some she could handle on her own, and some she couldn't. Her therapist was supportive, without telling Imp what to do. Overall, I felt like it was a very realistic depiction of a woman with a mental illness, which is rather uncommon in fiction where the mentally ill are usually written as either asylum inmates, criminals, or manic pixie dream girls.

Overall, I really, really wanted to love this one. It had all the right ingredients, rave reviews, a talented author, but the final result was disappointing, at least for me. It wasn't bad, but I just couldn't bring myself to give it a "highly recommended". That doesn't mean other people won't find this book amazing, and I strongly encourage others, especially those with more sophisticated taste than mine, to give it a read. Because you may love it. Or you may find it "meh", but at least you won't regret reading it.

A Banquet for Hungry Ghosts by Ying Chang Compestine

Formats - Print, digital

Publisher: Tumbling Dumpling Media

Genre: Monster, Killer/Slasher, Crime, Ghosts/Haunting, Psychological Horror, Blood & Guts, Historic Horror, Anthology

Audience: Children

Diversity: Chinese and Chinese American characters

Takes Place in: China

Content Warnings: Physical Abuse, Animal Death, Animal Abuse, Child Endangerment, Child Death, Body shaming, Verbal/Emotional Abuse, Cannibalism, Gore, Torture, Medical Torture, Violence, Death (Highlight to view)

There are many types of Chinese ghosts, including the spirits of deceased loved ones who may bring blessing and good fortune if properly honored, vengeful specters searching for those who wronged them in life, playful and troublesome spooks, and Hungry Ghosts, unhappy spirits with insatiable appetites.  During the seventh month of the Chinese calendar, known as Ghost Month, the gates to hell are open and these spirits are able to cross over to the realm of the living. To avoid hauntings and misfortune, people will leave offerings of food in the hopes of appeasing the Hungry Ghosts who wander the streets at night. If these spirits are pleased with the food offered to them, they may leave the household in peace. But what if the Hungry Ghosts aren't placated?

He'll eat garbage, but he draws the line at oatmeal raisin.

Author Ying Chang Compestine explores both Chinese cuisine and angry spirits in her book, A Banquet for Hungry Ghosts. Ah, delicious food and gruesome horror, two of my favorite things! Admittedly, not things you'd usually think of combining, but hey, I'm not complaining. Each ghost story is dedicated to a food you might typically find in a traditional Chinese eight course banquet, and includes a recipe at the end. Okay, so maybe those with weaker stomachs may not want to try whipping up a batch of Tea Eggs right after reading about some poor guy getting disemboweled. But I'm the kind of person who can watch surgery videos while eating breakfast, so I wasn't put off my appetite. If anything, the book made me crave cha siu bao the entire time. Oh, and by the way, the steamed dumpling recipe? Sooooooo good. I've got to try making the Jasmine Almond cookies next.


  

I also get hungry watching Hannibal. Don't judge me. 

In addition to recipes, each chapter also includes an afterword that expands on aspects of Chinese culture and history discussed in the story. There's information on the rules of Mahjong, Mantis fighting, Qingming (Tomb Sweeping Day), the Cultural Revolution, and even anecdotes from Compestine's own life growing up in China. Also ablation surgery, arsenic poisoning, and ancient Chinese tombs containing the victims of human sacrifice. Fun, right? Hey, it's a book of scary stories after all, it's to be expected. Every country has its share of atrocities from the past and present, and Compestine adds even more horror to her already spooky ghost stories by including some of China's darker practices, such as illegal organ harvesting from prisoners and corruption at Buddhist monasteries. It's actually quite clever how Compestine addresses certain Chinese social issues by turning them into ghost stories. At least in fiction, we get the satisfaction of seeing justice done, albeit by Hungry Ghost who enact terrible, and often gruesome vengeance.

 
As horrific as I've made the book sound, it is actually intended for children. Like a more educational, Chinese, epicurean version of Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark, complete with its own gorgeous, creepy, black and white illustrations. I know the blood and guts may be too much for some children (though it's not much worse than your standard German fairy tale or Roald Dahl story) but the gore is definitely going to appeal to others. Hey, whatever gets them to read, right? Plus, it's educational, so that's always good. Even adults will find the stories informative; while reading Banquet for Hungry Ghosts I frequently found myself running off to Google the construction of the Great Wall or Chinese medical practices.

Although the overall stories were rich and interesting, the writing could be a little simplistic, which, unfortunately, I felt detracted from the horror and kept me from giving this book the four stars it otherwise would have earned. But, again, it is a kid's book, and it's difficult to write something that's elegant, interesting, and easy to read. Children reading A Banquet for Hungry Ghosts are already going to have enough trouble trying to sound out "Hemorrhagic shock", no need to make the writing too flowery and complex. So let's just say I'd give the writing three stars for adults and four stars for kids.

My only other complaint is that the author also tended to rely heavily on gore to create scares. Being gross and being scary are two different things, and you can't just add blood to a story and expect it to be frightening. If that were true, I could just read a medical textbook to give myself nightmares.

What are you talking about kid? Hemorrhaging is terrifying.

Like any horror anthology, some stories are much better than others. "Tofu with Chili-Garlic Sauce",  "Steamed Dumplings", and "Beef Stew" were all excellent. "Long-Life Noodles" and "Jasmine Almond Cookies"? Not so much. But overall this is still a great book, and the combination of ghost stories, history, and cuisine make a fun and unique combination. A must read for both young horror fans and foodies.

Skeleton Man by Joseph Bruchac

Formats: Print, audio, digital

Publisher: HarperCollins

Genre: Mystery, Thriller, Crime, Monster, Myth and Folklore

Audience: Children

Diversity: American Indian (Mohawk/ Kanien'kehá:ka) characters, Black character

Takes Place in: North Eastern US

Content Warnings: Child Endangerment, Cannibalism, Gaslighting (Highlight to view)

Please note, other Natives have brought into question Bruchac's identity as Abenaki

I'm so used to getting my scares from more mature media I often forget how scary "kid friendly" horror fiction can be, and get completely caught off guard. Supposedly terrifying films like Jaws, The Blair Witch Project, and Poltergeist have all failed to phase me. But Return to Oz, a PG Disney film, still gives me nightmares. And don't even get me started on the first time I saw Over the Garden Wall.  

 For children!

The problem is, I seem to have selective memory when it come's to being traumatized by children's books and television. So of course, when I picked up the young adult book Skeleton Man, by Joseph Bruchach, my first thought wasn't "Huh, R.L. Stein says this book gave him nightmares, this might actually be scary". Nope. It was "Tch, kids books can't frighten me! I've seen all the Alien movies!" "And hey" I mused, determined to keep up my string of poor decision making, "I might as well read the whole book at night, during a thunderstorm, when I'm home alone. That seems like a good idea. Yup."

Well it seemed like a good idea at the time!

This quick, suspenseful story stars Molly, a clever and resourceful Mohawk girl, who wakes up one day to discover her parents are missing. The police seem to have no leads about their disappearances, and Molly is sent to live with a sinister man who suddenly appears, claiming to be her uncle. Soon, the events in her life begin to parallel an old Mohawk tale about the Skeleton Man, until the legend seems to bleed into reality. 

While the fantastical elements in the story are creepy, the truly terrifying part was the apathy shown by most of the adults in the story towards Molly's predicament. They completely disregarded her concerns because of her age, and placed her in a dangerous situation. The sense that she was alone, helpless, and ignored by those who were supposed to help and protect her was realistic enough to make my chest tighten in fear for her. Seriously, who hands a child off to some random stranger without a proper background check?

Pretty much what happened

Thankfully, Molly does have one adult who listens her, her teacher, Ms. Shabbas, who provides both guidance and emotional support to the frightened young girl. Just knowing her teacher believes her and is there to help is enough to give Molly the courage to free herself and find her parents. 

The book reminded me a lot of Neil Gaiman's Coraline, a creepy and atmospheric children's story about a brave little girl who saves her parents from a monster. Except in Skeleton Man it's never clear wether Molly's monster is magic or mundane. And I like that. It leaves things open to interpretation and it's a lot creepier if you don't wether the villain is a creature from myth, or just an evil, greedy man. Either way, it's a fun, quick, read, perfect for a dark and stormy night. Or in the middle of the day with all the lights on. You know, whichever.