Gross, Creepy, Downright Terrifying: Six Books To Make You Question Reality

1. Lost Souls and Exquisite Corpse by Poppy Z Brite
Yes, right off the bat, I'm giving you a two-for-the-price-of-one entry. Can't help it. I can't pick just one book from her, but I can pick two. (Drawing Blood is also fantastic.) Poppy has such intensely beautiful command of the language. Lost Souls gives me chills every time I read it and I can't enjoy Dexter (the books or the show) without thinking about Andrew and Jay. (If you want to directly support the author, you can visit the Poppy Z. Brite eBay page.)

2. My Life with Corpses by Wylene Dunbar
The only entry on this list that is just creepy and disturbing, this novel is entirely underrated and under-appreciated. I haven't met anyone else who has read it and that makes me sad. It's such a good book. Funny, weird, beautiful, and thought-provoking, this novel is less horror and more existential, but it still makes the air feel a little colder.

3. American Psycho by Bret Easton Ellis
This is my favorite modern American novel. Yes, it's about a serial killer. Yes, it's about excess and self-indulgence. It. Is. Amazing. The first time I read it, I thought I was going crazy. That is, until I got to the first explicit murder scene. Then I realized that it wasn't me, it was Patrick, and holy shit this guy is fucked up. If you have the stomach for it, this is the sort of novel that will drag you bodily from your real world and throw you unceremoniously into the world the author has created. 

4. Naked Lunch by William S. Burroughs
If American Psycho grabs you and drags you into Patrick Bateman's world, Naked Lunch bashes you in the head, knocks you out, and forces you to wake up cold, alone, and scared in the world Burroughs created. I've never done acid, or any other hallucinatory drug, but I imagine it can't be much different from reading this book. 

5. Splatterpunks II: Over the Edge edited by Paul M. Sammon
All right, this one isn't a novel, it's a short stories collection. "A mosaic of viscera, excrement, sex, and degradation whirls before our eyes in this anthology of stories and essays that run the gamut from lame and pretentious to genuinely stunning." Reading this book is a lot like being suckerpunched repeatedly.

Book Review: Anathema (Cloud Prophet Trilogy: Book One) by Megg Jensen

Anathema by Megg Jensen is a prime example of what a good book cover can do for your sales. I bought this book purely on impulse because I liked the cover. It didn't matter to me (because it didn't occur to me, the cover really did that) that I have enjoyed only a handful of YA fantasy novels and almost all of them were written by Madeleine L'Engle. I wanted to read this book.

It wasn't bad. I was really interested in the Malborn/Serenian struggle, and I kind of hope that she has plans to write the initial Malborn takeover, because I'd really like to read that. Reychel, the main character, was quite compelling; I just do not like her name at all. (In all fairness, I just came off of several months examining baby names, so "unique" spellings make me cringe. It's a personal issue, not a book issue. Her name actually makes sense in light of some revelations at the end.) She's a good girl with a good heart. Her "gift" is pretty awesome, and her ignorance was, I thought, sensible. I feel like Ms. Jensen wrote a pretty solid character. Reychel made sense to me. The way she thought and felt about her position, the way she went about learning new things, and her transformation in the end seemed plausible.

There were so many twists at the end I felt like my head was spinning, but it was a good kind of spinning. It made me curious about the second book, which I think is the point of a well-done first book ending. The little love triangle even appealed to my inner teen girl.

I think my favorite thing, though, was the villain. I'm not going to give it away, but I really, really liked that particular twist.

If you're the sort of person who reads and likes young adult fantasy, this book is worth checking out. I'm really glad I read it.

Science Fiction Books Worth Reading Right Now

If you've read my blog or Twitter, you probably realize that I like science fiction. Star Wars. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. I may even have mentioned Star Trek, I'm not sure. So today, I'm going to share a list of some of my favorite science fiction books.

1. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, The Restaurant at the End of the Universe, Life, the Universe, and Everything, So Long and Thanks for All the Fish, and Mostly Harmless are the five books that make up Douglas Adams' Hitchhiker's Guide "trilogy." I read these books for the first time when I was about twelve, and I nearly died laughing. I own so many copies of these books, and I have owned even more since I first read them. These books. They are so funny. Seriously. If you haven't read the, go pick them up at the library or buy them or something and read them immediately. Go on. I'll wait. Then come back here and tell me how you died laughing.

2. Ender's Game and Ender's Shadow by Orson Scott Card

These two go together because they tell the same story from two different points of view with two different backstories. In Ender's Game, we meet and follow Ender Wiggin, the hero of the war against the Formics. He's a child selected for military training and, in the end, proves to be the military genius the international fleet was hoping for. In Ender's Shadow, we meet Bean, a street urchin from Rotterdam who is recruited into the Battle School and basically becomes Ender's right hand man. Each book stands alone as a brilliant piece of hard military science fiction, but the fact that they star children makes them, I think, far more thought-provoking than they would be if Ender and Bean were a couple of twenty-something Navy officers. We think of war as an adult thing, but here the Battle School exists to train very young children to do adult work. If you read none of the other books in the Ender series, these two are must-reads.

3. Heris Serrano trilogy by Elizabeth Moon

Heris Serrano probably deserves a post all to herself. At the very least, I should have included her in my Heroines post. She's strong, brave, competent, and a total badass. I discovered Elizabeth Moon's work when I was seriously considering joining the Navy, and I admired Captain Serrano for her leadership skills. She stars in Hunting Party, Sporting Chance, and Winning Colors, first as a disgraced officer from the Regular Space Service of the Familias Regnant hired on to command a rich old lady's personal yacht, then continuing in that role as she and Lady Cecelia foil various political plots, and finally as a restored commanding officer in the Fleet. The books are full of military action, political action, and fabulous character development.

4. Esmay Suiza trilogy by Elizabeth Moon

Once a Hero slightly overlaps Winning Colors, but focuses on Esmay Suiza, a junior officer in the RSS. Whereas Heris is an established adult, we actually get to watch Esmay grow up. Esmay's books--Once a Hero, Rules of Engagement, Change of Command--focus more on RSS military action, on the development of Esmay as a command officer, and on her character development. There aren't a lot of horses in this trilogy. I loved watching Esmay come into her own, and, of course, Elizabeth Moon's space navy action is second to none. As a bonus, check out Against the Odds, which is the seventh book in the Familias Regnant series.

5. Star Wars: X-Wing books by Mike Stackpole and Aaron Allston

I still remember the exact moment I became a Star Wars fan. We rented the first movie in the summer of 1997 because my dad wanted me to see the original films before he took me to see the re-release. It was the Battle of Yavin, and Garven Dreis (Red Leader) said, "Lock S-foils in attack position." The X-wings opened up and I was hooked. The series contains nine books and a tenth one is due out next year. Rogue Squadron, Wedge's Gamble, The Krytos Trap, The Bacta War, and Isard's Revenge (book eight, not five) were all written by Mike Stackpole, an astonishingly talented technical writer. Wraith Squadron, Iron Fist, Solo Command, and Starfighters of Adumar were all written by Aaron Allston, a writer I always imagine to be the bastard child of Mike Stackpole and Douglas Adams. They're a fantastic introduction to the Star Wars expanded universe even though they don't focus on the main characters of Luke, Leia, and Han. They're technically sound, full of compelling characters, and even if none of that is worth checking them out to you, Aaron Allston's humor should be.

6. Journey to the Center of the Earth by Jules Verne

Jules Verne is probably my favorite science fiction author. Journey to the Center of the Earth is a prime example of why. It's fun, it's adventurous, it's interesting, it's everything I like my science fiction to be and it places an emphasis on science. The thing about his books, though, is that you have to be careful. There are some crappy translated versions out there, and a bad translation can ruin your whole read.

7. 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea by Jules Verne

At one point, I wanted to be a marine biologist. I loved Journey to the Center of the Earth, so I figured that a book about a submarine should be right up my alley. I didn't know the narwhal existed before I read this Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea. Captain Nemo is one of my favorite sci-fi characters of all time, so complex and compelling. What is most interesting, I think, about Verne's writing is how far ahead of its time it is. This book was written in the 1860s, and it stars a submarine. How cool is that?!

8. Shade's Children by Garth Nix


This is one of those books that haunts me. I read it twice in the late 1990s and I haven't touched it since, but I remember it, and thinking about it still creeps me out. Shade's Children is about an uploaded brain and personality and renegade teenagers in a post-apocalyptic world run by Big Baddies. Ella in particular caught my attention (I guess it's obvious that I have a type) and the Drum/Ella non-relationship has stuck with me. I wouldn't recommend this book to anyone under about twelve or thirteen, but I bet if I were to go back and read it now, I would notice a ton of new things. This is a thoroughly creepy, fascinating novel.

YA Flashback: How Far Would You Have Gotten If I Hadn't Called You Back? by Valerie Hobbs

How Far Would You Have Gotten If I Hadn't Called You Back? is a young adult novel from Valerie Hobbs, released in October of 1995. It's one of my favorite books and is easily my favorite young adult book not written by Madeleine L'Engle.

Set in 1960 Ojala, California, it centers around 16-year-old Bronwyn Lewis and is, as you'd expect from any teenager-coming-of-age novel, all about Bron finding herself and learning her place.

She and her family are from New Jersey, but after her father tried to kill himself, they packed up and headed west. They finally settled in the sleepy desert town of Ojala, where her parents open a family restaurant and she and her little brother start school locally. She references being "the girl from," laments the effortless cool of her California classmates, resents her parents for uprooting her and her father for shaming the family, and abandons her academics and piano playing in favor of cars and boys. She ends up in a love triangle with local cowboy and eventual West Point student Will Harding on one point and drag-racing bad boy J. C. on the other point. In the end, of course, Bron does discover who she is and where she belongs, but not before she makes plenty of mistakes.

The end of the book makes me cry every time. It doesn't matter that I know what happens, I still read it hoping it won't end the way that it does.

It's an excellent book. There's frank discussion about sex, sexuality, and even a mention of an abortion, and there are lessons to be learned about the value of family and the dangers of peer pressure. It's a book I plan to offer my daughter when she hits the same age I was when I first read it, twelve or thirteen. If I were to teach a middle school or high school freshman English class, I would want it on the syllabus. It stands up well over the years.

Book Rec: The Book of Lost Souls by Michelle Muto

When I was a teenager, I was into the whole vampires/werewolves thing. Buffy the Vampire Slayer was one of my favorite shows. I never really grew out of this phase. This is why I decided to download The Book of Lost Souls by Michelle Muto. I did it partly for research and partly because it was described in several places as "like" Buffy, and the author is pretty fun on Twitter. Plus, it was only $0.99, so it seemed like I couldn't lose.

What I liked about The Book of Lost Souls:

• The characters. Ivy is immensely likable, as are her best friends, Raven and Shayde. Don't let the names put you off, this is not some Mary-Sue filled author wankfest. Ivy's and Shayde's names are plot points, and really good ones at that. (No, I'm not going to spoil it.) The supporting characters are great, too. Raven's brother, Gareth, and Shayde's brother, Bane; Gareth's pet, Spike; the demon, Nick; and Ivy's pet Beezlepup, Devlin. 
• Vlad the Impaler and Bloody Elizabeth. If you heard a fangirl squeal, that was me. I will confess to always wondering what would happen if the two of them got together, and they really didn't disappoint. 
• Treating magic and monsters like they were special, but not unusual. Does that make sense? A lot of times, an author makes too big a deal out of magic and magical abilities when it wouldn't make any sense for the characters to make a big deal about it because it's just normal to them. Ivy and her friends all have specific talents, but if those magical talents were removed and replaced with more mundane skills, the story would have worked just as well. I really like that. The characters felt real and relatable to me. 
• The story. It was a really good balance of self-absorbed adolescent concerns and more selfless adult concerns. Ivy is worried about boys, but she's worried about her mother, the Regulars (people in town without magical abilities), and her friends. It progressed well, there were plenty of twists (more than once I kept reading when I shouldn't have, just because I wanted to know what happened next), and the ending was satisfying. Everything made sense and there weren't any holes that I noticed.
• The relationships. Ivy's relationship with each of her friends, her relationship with her mother, and the relationships between the other characters felt real and believable. I really liked that. I also liked that not everything was Ivy-centric. My favorite relationship revelation came near the end. I won't spoil it, but I had been rooting for it and suspecting it all along, and when it was revealed, I couldn't stop grinning.  
• The tone. This might be the best part. The author at no point talks down to her reader. It's a young adult novel featuring sixteen- and seventeen-year-olds, which means a younger audience is going to read it, and at no point did it seem like the author was trying to talk down to her readers. It also wasn't too old, either. It was very age appropriate. That brings me to the one thing I dislike. 

What I disliked:

• As far as I can tell, it isn't available in paperback. This bums me out because I've already started my daughter's book collection, and this is a book I really want for her. Ivy is an excellent role model.

I definitely recommend this book. It would be a perfect beach or poolside read. It would also be a perfect cemetery-in-October read. 

It's also available on Nook if you have one of those instead of a Kindle. 

Monday Miscellany

The situation with Strawberry Moon is as follows: I have printed it out and am making notes, edits, and revisions on the hardcopy. I've done 80 of 133 pages, which seems more impressive than it is because the pages are double-spaced (to allow room for notes--there are a lot of notes). The good news is that I have a much better grasp of characterizations and that I have identified three peaks in the conflict. The bad news is that it most definitely will not be done by the end of the month.

I've learned quite a bit about the story over the last few days. I have discovered that this story isn't for my fourteen-year-old self, it's for my sixteen-year-old self, and because of that, I have given myself permission to be slightly darker and more mature than it originally was going to be. It's still a young adult novel; the worst of the vampire's behavior will be off-screen, so to speak. I've learned that Jessica is in denial and Victoria and Amy are a lot alike. I've learned what drives Victoria and more about what drives Vincent. I did this by writing meta until I understood.

Meta: useful.

This morning, I read Chuck Wendig's blog post "25 Things You Should Know About Writing a Novel" and it eased my fears and insecurities about Strawberry Moon. Well, sort of. I'm still a bundle of raw nerves when it comes to the story, but I'm a lot less stressed about it. I swear that makes sense. The post also helped me realize that it's okay to see other stories--which is great, because I have a fantastic idea for stories featuring a demon-hunting ex-priest, a series of shorts featuring the smutty escapades of an Ohio native on Route 66, and a handful of others. It also helped me to accept that I won't make my self-imposed deadline, but that doesn't matter, because I will finish the novel, I will get it out there, and it will probably be read by people who are not my family and friends. Even though I'm stressed, anxious, and driven to drink over this novel, none of it matters, because in the end, I will be win. I've never not succeeded when it comes to story-writing. Why would I start now?

In other news, I started reading Michelle Muto's The Book of Lost Souls, and I am hooked. I love everyone so far, even Ivy's mom, and even though I'm not very far into it (the kids have just brought the books back from the graveyard), I am already dying to know what's going to happen next. I wish I had discovered it when my kiddo slept more; I would have finished it by now!

The other night, I bought and read Delilah Devlin's short "Handy Men". I have to say, if you're looking for really good smut, she is second to none. I first read her short story collection Texas Men a couple of years ago, and since then, have gone back to her writing every time I wanted something hot and well-written.

I am addicted to downloading free books for my Kindle, and I recently downloaded The Bad Widow from Barbara Elsborg. The story didn't do much for me; it wasn't terrible, it just wasn't my style. (I did find the witch aspect of it interesting, though.) The best part, for me, was her author bio at the end. You can read it at her site, here. I laughed so hard.

And last but not least for today: I'm on goodreads. You should be my friend. I'm still working on listing all the books I've read, but I'll get there.