Ghost Station by S. A. Barnes

I was going to say this was a first for me in terms of genre: space horror. But now that I think about it, I was introduced to space horror in the 90's when I went in cold to see Event Horizon and walked out of the theater in horrified silence. THAT shit was space horror. 

But we'll take it down a notch and talk about Ghost Station, which is set on an alien planet with a long lost civilization. We follow a team of explorers to this planet which includes psychologist Dr. Ophelia Bray, who is there to help them deal with the recent loss of a team member. But she is also there to screen them for signs of ERS, a debilitating space disease that results in psychosis.

While it can be assumed Dr. Bray won't immediately be accepted as a part of this already established team, she can't help but feel like there is more they aren't telling her. The leader of the team doesn't support her presence and the others' treatment of her range from indifference to outright resentment.

As they explore this long abandoned planet, the team's grief over their lost teammate, coupled with disturbing discoveries, make it difficult for Dr. Bray to discern if someone's behavior is due to grief, deception, or emerging signs of ERS. 

Of course, Dr. Bray isn't immune to developing ERS either, and her past, which slowly unfolds for us, makes her wonder if she might have a predisposition for it, because her team aren't the only ones acting strange at times...

While this wasn't Event Horizon level space horror (and let's be real, thank God for that), it was a solid read. I'd pick up another one by this author, who apparently writes a variety of genres, from YA and Romance (as Stacy Kade) to horror (as S.A. Barnes).

  

Greenlights by Matthew McConaughey

I'm not a memoir reader. But this was gifted to me during a happy hour, when my defenses were down and I was probably more excited than normal to receive a gift. All jokes aside, I will admit that one of my favorite books, The Glass Castle, is a memoir, so when Greenlights arrived in my audible account, I decided to waive judgment. But I felt like, of all the memoirs out there, is McConaughey's really going to be the one to change my life (as promised during said happy hour)?

I'll admit, having McConaughey narrate his book makes it ten times better. You literally hear his drawl and get all the nuances, jokes, and emotions he conveys on the written page. His penchant for writing is clear, as his stories, anecdotes, and poems roll off the tongue with ease. He has the voice of a spoken word performer, and given that his upcoming book is a collection of his poems, that doesn't surprise me.

His stories show his free spirit and big heart. His entrance into acting and later success seem oddly coincidental, as he got into acting in his 20s and might have just been in the right place at the right time. His overall theme of recognizing the green lights in your life and turning red and yellow lights into green was a great metaphor for life's ups and downs. And it was fun to hear him tell a story and then proudly declare, "green light!".

But at the end of the day, will this book change my life? No. Was I entertained while reading it? Yes. I'd definitely recommend the audio version though to get the full effect.

The Southern Book Club's Guide to Slaying Vampires by Grady Hendrix

Grady Hendrix and I have an on-again off-again relationship. I didn't like Horrorstor, but I appreciated the premise and the book itself in terms of the illustrations included. I enjoyed How to Sell a Haunted House enough that I decided to try The Southern Book Club's Guide to Slaying Vampires and give him another chance. I will give him credit for being an author that I picked a random book from because of name recognition. So there's that working in his favor.

But we are back in a slump, unfortunately. Here's my list of notes during reading:

• All the characters are terrible
• When trying to figure out if James is a predator, all kinds of excuses are offered to let him off the hook, but the fact that Patricia actually SAW him violating a girl is just ignored
• Patricia's husband treats her like a child
• Book relies on coincidences (like a nosy neighbor logging license plates)
• "...it was a white monstrosity painted white..." What color was it again?
• Patricia had a sex assault victim take a shower before going to the hospital (she is a NURSE obsessed with true crime novels)
• Husband upon hearing his daughter has a drug problem "This is from YOUR side of the family" It was just a stupid line, which I get is the point, but it grated on me
• This poignant quote: "...'Mary Ellen!' Mrs. Green shouted, using her first name..." 
• The women act like female Peanuts characters (i.e. bitchy, frowny-faced, accusatory children)
• Patricia KNOWS James is a predator and is trying to convince everyone of this, yet it's ok for her son to stay at his house.
• The husbands' solution to the women accusing James of heinous things is to have him join the wives' book club...like, what?

Having said all of that, Hendrix might be turning into a guilty pleasure for me...because I was interested in the story. Even though I hated all the characters and could use the plot to strain spaghetti, I still wanted to know how it ended. And it didn't irk me enough to write off Hendrix forever. By managing my expectations and not taking his books too seriously, I'm in a better headspace to handle the annoyances and let the absurdity wash over me. And I suppose there's a place for that in my reading life, with the right mood and expectations.

FantasticLand by Mike Bockoven

 

If you strand a bunch of (mostly) 20 something year old adults who work in a theme park for 35 days during a natural disaster, what do you think would happen?  If you're hoping for Temptation Island level hijinks, you'll be sorely disappointed. But if you're leaning toward murder and heads on a stick level violence, then this is the book for you! Think Lord of the Flies, but with adults and multiple tribes.

This book works for a lot of reasons. First, you have basically everything you need at a theme park, food, water, shelter, commercial goods...and then you have a lot of other fun things too, like pirate coves and circus tents and underground tunnels. So there are a lot of different directions things can go, and they certainly do. 

What doesn't work for me though, is the format of the storytelling. The book is a series of interviews conducted after said events. While this is great in that you get a lot of perspectives, you also don't get too much depth from anyone in particular. And the book reads more as a series of short stories rather than a cohesive narrative. 

Another point, if you're listening to the audio book, each chapter is told by a different person. Since these are interviews with "normal" people, there is a lot of throat clearing and "but you're not asking about that..." or "I'm getting off track" sort of comments. It's fine every now and then, but it's an overused device, in my opinion. Obviously, this is written into the book as well, but it came across more as a bad reader's theater (remember those!?!). 

And while the story is overall entertaining, it's over the top. As I already mentioned, the people stranded at the park pretty much have everything they need to ride out the storm. Why then, do they devolve into tribes that resort to murdering each other pretty much on day one? We are talking cutting hands off and branding people level of depravity. But if you're willing to overlook the obvious "but why" issues and don't look too deep into the mechanics of the story, this can be an entertaining read. 

Take the tribes, for example. After the initial hunkering down, people split into various areas of the park. Those who inhabited the circus area are the Freaks, (my favorite of the tribes, by the way, for creating a circus-themed horror show). The most vile and violent went to the Pirate's Cove. There are also the shop girls, the Fairies, the Deadpools, the mole men, and the robots. Why the Deadpools have multiple amazing archers or the Pirates have an actual working cannon is beyond me, but we aren't here to look too deep into this.

Of course, not everyone is ascribed to a tribe, so there are a couple of miscellaneous but compelling stories peppered in. Like from a man who inhabited an empty hotel but was stalked by a mysterious couple or the story of a woman who helped run the med tent. 

This book seems like a great idea to spawn a TV series or movie. I feel like the ideas are there but could be developed into something more. While it was overall entertaining, but just had me wanting a little more.

Grown Women by Sarai Johnson

Sarai Johnson teaches writing and literature courses at Howard and American Universities in the DC Area, and apparently wrote Grown Women, her first novel, in her free time. In my free time I do things like sleep, or sit around and do nothing, or make lists of things I should be doing. Okay okay, I also read the product of other people's free time.

Which bring us full circle to Grown Women, a novel about four generations of women, with the story beginning in 1974 when 19-year old Charlotte leaves home after giving birth to her daughter, Corinna. Out on her own, Charlotte struggles to create a stable life for her and Corinna. Despite Charlotte's upscale upbringing, she doesn't reach out to her mother, Evelyn, for support. And she never talks about the reasons she left home for the backwoods of Tennessee. When Corinna turns 18, she conceives her daughter Camille with a man whose life trajectory doesn't include them, at least not publicly.  Together, the three generations of women navigate life, often through increasingly contentious moments.  

After things between Corinna, her husband Isaac, and Camille come to a head, Corinna turns to Charlotte for help. Seeing that her help can only go so far, and wanting to provide Camille the best possible outcome, Charlotte eventually turns to Evelyn for help, which makes them face their past and reconcile it with the present.

This isn't a story with a specific destination or bad guy. It's more about how life can be good sometimes and bad other times. It's about the decisions we make daily and those closest to us. Amidst the usual struggles of making ends meet, raising a child, and finding a partner, Johnson peppers in the unusual struggles of suicide, homicide, and abuse. She also examines generational trauma and how it spreads for decades in unspoken ways. We experience how these women try to overcome that trauma and stop perpetuating the pain it inflicts, and the messy process that comes with all of it.

I'll be honest, this isn't a book I would normally pick up. It doesn't have a catchy premise or strange twist. But it's about struggles we have all dealt with and is told in an engaging way. And for a debut novel, it makes me curious about what Johnson writes next.  

The Power by Naomi Alderman

This is a story that Alderman describes as feminist science fiction - a type of speculative fiction that I like to call a "what-if" story.

The Power examines how power comes in various forms - whether physical, societal, something you are born into, something you can take from someone...and the list goes on. Alderman explores what happens when women develop an organ called a skein that enables them to deliver electrical shocks. Their inherent ability to physically overcome any man changes the balance of power in the world entirely. 

The Power is written as a manuscript of these events, having taken place thousands of years earlier. It catalogs the emergence of this new power eight years prior to a cataclysmic event. There are several stories we follow including a journalist's careful observations of women's use of their power, two women in government positions, one in the US and another in the fictional Bessaparra, and other women who have experienced violence by trusted men in their lives including Roxy, the English daughter of a mobster, and Allie, whose grasp of The Power leads to her god-like status among some.

As you can imagine, each take a different approach to what they think women's new role in the world should entail. Of course there are some who are more militant than others and some who are more benevolent than others. I guess the overarching question is, will things be different with women in charge? Or will those in power fall into the same traps as their male predecessors?

The Power has a televised series (on Prime Video) that is fantastic. It might be one of those rare instances where I prefer the televised version to the book. But that's not to say the book isn't worth reading. It's an interesting premise that explores a lot of thoughtful questions, but you'll want to check out the show after reading the book

Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno Garcia

Moreno Garcia does an amazing job setting the right mood in this newer gothic tale. Set in Mexico in  the 1950's, you forget that the world is more modern than what Noemi Taboada experiences. Having grown up in Mexico City to an affluent family, Noemi's life is more about finding a worthy suitor and getting married than education or developing skills to join the workforce. 

Despite this, Noemi is a confident, charming, smart woman who would like to study at the University. While she enjoys fancy parties and delightful banter, much like a Disney princess, she wants moooooooore...Her father reluctantly agrees if she will first travel to a rural town to check on her recently married cousin, Catalina. 

What follows is a tale set in an isolated home on a treacherous hill complete with a foggy cemetery. Although it's the 1950s, the home doesn't have electricity and is intentionally kept dark and quiet. There don't seem to be telephones as everyone corresponds by letter. And dinner is in silence at the behest of the family patriarch, the mysterious Howard. There's also a lot of snake references, botany, nightmares, old mining lore, and a family secret.

Speaking of family, we have the wistful and delicate Catalina, who only speaks in riddles (because why can anyone speak plainly to explain a situation), and who has brought Noemi due to the strange letters she sent. There are also servants who act like NPCs, Catalina's seductive and questionably evil husband Virgil, the strict buttoned up Aunt Florence and her meh son Francis. Throw in a few doctors and a mysterious healer who trades town gossip for cigarettes and you have your complete cast of characters.

At the end of the day, this is a strange story and I'm not sure what I think about the punchline. It's somehow not based on a novel idea, but definitely different in execution. If you've read Children of Ruin or The Girl with All the Gifts, you'll definitely see some parallels, and these are all really different genres. I'm also reminded of Riley Sager's books, which have similarly interesting, if not a little fantastical, stories. 

This book took me awhile to finish. I'd start and then get distracted and start again and finally got the audiobook and powered through it. I don't know if I'm just better at listening to audio books or if was a great narration, but I enjoyed my final attempt much more than the first two. But not getting hooked right away makes me ambivalent when it comes to seeking out Moreno Garcia's other books. While I won't go out of my way to reach for another one, I'd be open to a recommendation.