Book Review: The Love Story

The Love Story. Stenetta Anthony. Tate Publishing/Children’s Division, May 6, 2014, Trade Paperback, 24 pages. 

Reviewed by Sue Roupp.

This is a sweet Christian children’s book about how Jesus equals love. Through illustrations and brief dialogue designed for children 3-to-7 years old, the book tells the story of God deciding to send his Son Jesus to “show my people on Earth how much I love them.”

Jesus agrees to go to Earth, arriving as an infant in Bethlehem. He grows up and some call him King, others call him pure love sent from heaven. He carries his message of love all over the world, healing the sick and helping everyone he touches. God then decides to tell his Son he needs to show people how much he loves people on the Earth.

God tells Jesus he must die for people so everyone would have eternal life. Jesus is crucified, but it shows how much the Heavenly Father loves everyone.

The narrative in this book is fairly simple, and Jesus being sent to Earth to show God’s love is a nice concept for kids to understand. They might have a bit of trouble with why Jesus had to die to show that love, and the idea of eternal life. I am sure sensitive parents, Sunday school teachers, extended family, or older siblings would answer those questions. Having the digital download available so children can hear the story is a great idea. It can be downloaded to a smart phone, iPad, or computer.

The writing is clear, the illustrations are very well done, and the typeface is appealing. I am sure kids will want to own this book and have it read to them. Enjoying the book by listening to the story will be another gift kids will enjoy whenever they want to listen to the story again by themselves. 

Book Review: Why? A Courtroom Drama of Self-Discovery

Why? A Courtroom Drama of Self-Discovery. R.H. King, Jr. Winnetka, IL: Walden Road Publishing, May 27, 2014, Trade Paperback and E-book, 318 pages. 

Reviewed by Mary-Megan Kalvig.

At a time when horrific crimes happen every day, you can’t help but wonder why these things happen. R.H. King, Jr. uses his background as a lawyer to take you into the fictional courtroom to figure out why one person, who has no history of violence, would suddenly pull a gun on his classroom and kill multiple students.

Dan Jackson, a visiting professor at Dartmouth College, opens his briefcase in order to deliver midterm exams when he discovers two handguns. In an almost out-of-body experience, he takes out the guns and fires, killing fifteen students and injuring five others. While he knows what has just happened, he doesn’t know why it happened. He has no memory of purchasing those guns or putting them in his briefcase. He realizes what he’s done and is prepared to face the consequences of his actions, except for the fact that he doesn’t know why he did it. Dan hopes that by pleading “not guilty by reason of insanity,” he’ll be able to figure out why he killed those people and find the peace he needs to accept his punishment.

While it might be hard to sympathize with someone who killed fifteen people, King does a great job making Dan sympathetic. This whole novel seems removed from the crime and the horrors it created. The tragedy is not glorified, and while that sounds insensitive in light of so many school shootings, this novel isn’t really about the crime. To be honest, any crime could have been committed in this book, as long as it got Dan Jackson in the courtroom with his life on the line. This crime, though, works to tug at the emotions of the reader because instinctually we know he’s a horrible person and want him punished. However, he is clearly a lost soul desperate for answers, and it makes the reader torn in terms of what should happen to him.

King’s experience as a lawyer helps to bring the courtroom to life without losing the reader along the way. Everything gets fully explained so that Dan and the reader know what is happening. At first, it seems as if Dan isn’t all that smart since he repeatedly says, “I don’t understand.” As a professor, you would expect him to be a little bit more worldly and smarter, but he has just committed a horrible crime and probably isn’t altogether there. This ignorance also works for the reader, who might want to fully understand psychiatric or legal language. This strategy keeps the story going and doesn’t alienate readers.

With this novel, the author does a great job of drawing the reader in and getting the reader invested in the characters. There’s enough drama in the courtroom that it doesn’t grow stale or monotonous listening to testimony. I was grateful for the twist near the end of the book since I didn’t like the way it would have ended otherwise. However, with the twist, everything finds a way to be neatly tied up in a bow. Not giving anything away about the ending, the twist starts working out great for the story, but then it just works too hard to make everything right and is too picture-perfect for my taste. The novel is not destroyed by the ending, though. In some ways the ending really works to drive home the novel’s theme about forgiveness.

Dan Jackson’s quest for the reason why he suddenly killed his students is a story that delves into someone’s motivation and the things from our past that still haunt us. It is a great novel that draws you in with Dan’s mystery and the tug-of-war with your emotions as you try to figure out what the best outcome would be for this character whom you can’t help but hate on an intellectual level but feel sorry for on an emotional level. This is a book worth picking up.

Book Review: The New Black: A Neo-Noir Anthology

The New Black: A Neo-Noir Anthology. Richard Thomas, ed. Dark House Press, May 13, 2014, Paperback and e-book, 344 pages.

Reviewed by Marie Becker.

Like the proverbial little black dress, noir, or “neo-noir,” seems to go with everything. It’s a genre, it’s an aesthetic, and it’s a know-it-when-you-see-it creeping sensation at the back of your neck. The New Black: A Neo-Noir Anthology, a twenty-story anthology edited by Richard Thomas, contains stories from across the genre boundaries, veering from horror and crime to magical realism, science fiction, and the grotesque. This flexible approach may make it hard to boil the book down to a pithy description, but it also allows for a collection of well-written and thought-provoking stories.

For sticklers, “black” or “dark,” might feel a more fitting label than the film-saturated word “noir”; the anthology skews in the direction of horror over hard-boiled, and while a few stories linger over grisly physical details (I wanted the ability to read parts of Matt Bell’s “Dredge” with my inner eye shut tight), the bulk of the horror in this collection is in the unseen shadows or even entirely inside the battered brain. Particularly striking is the number of stories centered on children and childhood.  In some cases, the unknown horror is darkly twined with the ordinary unknowns of childhood, in which hunkering down in a possible apocalypse is no more or less confusing to a toddler than dozens of other odd things mommy and daddy do; in others, drawing on the primal terror of parenthood gone irredeemably wrong. Darkness can also be horribly, brutally funny, as in Tara Laskowski’s “The Etiquette of Homicide,” a sort of Emily Post meets Hints from Heloise for the workaday hit man.

As in any anthology, some stories stand out—although the quality is high enough overall that the stand-outs will likely be a matter of taste. I was still thinking of the lyrical, taut descriptions cranking up the tension in Craig Wallwork’s “Dollhouse” long after I finished the book, as well as the lush portrayal of an idyllic boyhood turning hellish in “The Familiars” by Micaela Morrissette. Other readers might prefer the twisted and claustrophobic family dynamics in Roxanne Gay’s “How,” or “Children are the Only Ones that Blush” by Joe Meno (The Boy Detective Fails and Hairstyles of the Damned), or the glimpses of futuristic black market mind-molding in “Christopher Hitchens” by Vanessa Veselka, or the beautifully titled “His Footsteps are Made of Soot” by Nik Korpon.

The collection is set off by a thoughtful introduction by Laird Barron about the many roads of genre and influence leading up to this collection, as well as a detailed introduction by Thomas about the selected authors (although the level of detail makes it a more effective postscript than opening salvo). Additionally, each story features a small and sketchy black-and-white illustration by L.A. Spooner, often with an ominous, deadpan quality I found almost reminiscent of the nightmare-inducing illustrations from my childhood copies of Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark. As a child, I wouldn’t even let those books stay in my room while I slept.  If my copy of The New Black hadn’t been an e-book, it might have shared the same fate—and I mean that in the best possible way. 

Book Review: Pants on Fire: A Collection of Lies

Pants on Fire: A Collection of Lies. Clayton Smith. Dapper Press, January 1, 2013, Trade Paperback and Kindle Edition, 155 pages.

Reviewed by Heather Adair.

As the title promises, Clayton Smith’s book of short stories centers on lies: lies that others tell us as well as ones that we tell ourselves. Judging from his inscription to me on the title page, Smith is sending his readers a message: be careful whom you trust. And, borrowing a phrase from the author, beware, dear reader, as Mr. Smith pulls a playful fast one on you too.

If you’re looking for a quick, fun read, Pants on Fire: A Collection of Lies is a great choice. Although I took my time with this 155-page book, you could read it easily in an afternoon. Smith keeps the reader’s interest by offering unique twists on topics such as death, fate, and religion. If you like science fiction, satire, and fantasy, this book is for you.

The book begins with one of my favorite stories in the collection, “The Death (or Life) of Hattie Dunweather,” where the Grim Reaper comes to harass a single woman and her cat, with help from a painfully thin cohort who drives a beater. Death himself is crafty, but not as crafty as other tales make him out to be, and his partner in havoc is comically naïve. All in all, this story provides several laugh-out-loud moments.

Another favorite begins about halfway through the book. In “The Saloon at the Edge of Gehenna (A Story in Three Parts),” Smith provides an original take on imaginary friends and secondary characters in creative works. These fictional beings lack free will and are forced to bend to the demands of those in the real world who dictate their fate. Characters like the cowboy, with his crude speech and practical take on his place in the world, and the spaceman, who is just learning that he doesn’t exist in reality, come to life on the page. This story is unique and refreshing to read.

As a minor criticism, readers familiar with the genre might wonder whether some of Smith’s pieces are premises for short stories instead of complete works. For example, “Hugs or Drugs” and “American Sideshow” resemble monologues due to their lack of conflict. And in the case of “Stranded,” the conflict that Smith so richly creates is left unresolved, resulting in an abrupt ending that leaves the reader with too little information to assemble the meaning of the piece. Still, “Hugs or Drugs” and “American Sideshow” offer clever insights on American culture, delving into self-medication in the former and capitalism in the latter.

Overall, I found Pants on Fire to be enjoyable to read. Smith’s stories are unique and entertaining, especially for those looking for a quick and quirky read. Other works by Chicago-based Clayton Smith include Apocalypticon, a novel, and Death and McCootie, a play that debuted at the 2013 New York International Fringe Festival.

Book Review: Khaki=Killer

Khaki=Killer. Connie Corcoran Wilson. Book 3 in The Color of Evil Series. Quad City Press: Moline, Illinois, 2013. Paperback and Kindle editions. 235 pages.

Reviewed by Caryl Barnes.

Khaki=Killer is the third and most recent book in this excellent paranormal thriller series for young adults. The three books focus on Tad McGreevy, an Iowa high school student, and his friends and enemies. The characters are exceptionally well drawn.

I received copies of all three books from the author in order to write this review and read them with enjoyment, interest, and a jumpy stomach at some of the suspenseful parts. Although I am 75, decades older than the intended audience, I recommend the books for adults, too. The rollercoaster plot lines will grab everyone who likes thrillers.

A personal note: I don’t know many teens at this stage of my life and especially appreciated Wilson introducing me to some great contemporary kids. Wilson has a vast wealth of teaching and writing experience, and it shows. It turns out that modern kids are not so different from my friends and me at their age! In the fifties, most of us didn’t go as far with alcohol and sex as kids do now, but the risk-taking impulse was definitely there. Like them, we did what we could get away with plus a bit more. Over Wilson’s three books I saw the teens grow and develop, making lots of mistakes, of course—that’s a crucial part of growing up—and also making brave and wise decisions.

From the first book forward, one of the plot lines concerns a purely evil character with a khaki aura. It was fascinating to watch Tad struggle to overcome his terror of this horrible man who wants nothing more than to murder Tad. Tad’s fear remains, as well it should, but he learns to face the fear in a hair-raising scene in Khaki.

My favorite character was Stevie, Tad’s best friend. Stevie’s transformation from a miserable sexual victim of three men—a teacher, a principal, and a kidnapper—to a loving young man with guts and integrity was touching and entirely believable. Wilson writes us inside her characters, even the baddies.

I learned something important as a reviewer from Wilson’s books, which is to wait a couple of weeks to start writing about a book and see what has stuck with me. It’s never the punctuation, grammar, spelling, and occasional factual errors I’ve noticed in the act of reading. Wilson has her share, as do I and most of the other authors I’ve read. What sticks with me from Wilson’s book is my wish to know more about her characters. I think a fourth book in the series will be forthcoming; I hope so, and I won’t miss it.