Cats, Witches, and Fairy Tales

            

A lot of serendipitous events have been happening around me lately, and I am happy to report that one such event involved the arrival of 3 wonderful books back to back. I say serendipitous for a few of reasons. First, I don’t read much poetry anymore, unfortunately, and when I do, it’s usually not “current” poetry.  Victorian is about as current as I typically get. Yet, all of these books were released post 1930!  Second, I don’t read much children’s literature anymore, unfortunately, and when I do, it’s usually from the way back, too. Third, I love, love, love, love illustrated books, and all 3 of these books have absolutely wonderful illustrations. And lastly, 2 of the 3 came to me via friend, poet, and novelist Richard Cambridge. How great is that? Friends who read cannot be beat.

Available Dark

Let’s get one thing straight up front.   Liz Hand is not playing around.  This is some dark shit.  How dark? Dark net; 14 hours of dark a day; dark, dangerous men; available dark.  So dark that Cass Neary, a woman her creator describes as “your prototypical amoral speedfreak crankhead kleptomaniac murderous rage-filled alcoholic bisexual heavily tattooed American female photographer” is the brightest spot in the story.  Dark.

Lost Memory of Skin

Lost Memory of Skin is one of the most interesting books I have read in a long time.  It’s an odd piece of fiction for me to read, in that it addresses a real, ongoing problem taking place in our world right now, told in a very realistic way.  As you can see from my other reviews, I tend to read stuff that is a little more metaphorical and fantastical.  Still, this one stuck with me, and I think it raises a lot of important questions that we, as a society, are not addressing, all while brilliantly pointing out why that might be.

Heart Shaped Box

Ok, I’m going to try really, really hard to write this review and not mention Joe Hill’s dad. Damn. Failed already. Ok, let’s start again.