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.

Tender Morsels

I read Margo Lanagan’s Tender Morsels weeks ago, and am just now getting around to reviewing it for a reason: I have no idea, still, how I feel about it. It seriously left me a jumbled mess. The only other books I can think of that have come anywhere close to haunting me like this one are Never Let Me Go by Ishiguro Kazuo and The Road by Cormac McCarthy.
 
And yet, Tender Morsels is nothing like either of these two novels. It is a re-telling of the fairy tale Snow White and Rose Red. In this version, it is Liga, the girls’ mother, who is the focus, rather than the daughters, and if you’ve got visions of Disney’s plump little dwarves and sweet and sleepy Snow White, stop now. The source material for this version is the far more sinister Grimm tale, and the brothers’ last name describes it to a tee.

The Map of Time

I once read a craft theory book (doesn’t that sound riveting?) that discussed the shape of stories –square, spiral, and, of course, circular. The Map of Time by Felix Palma is definitely circular. The storylines and plots run circles around one another, over one another, and beside one another, which is a great metaphor for the time travel premise of the novel. But like anything that runs around in circles, the whole thing soon becomes tired and dizzy, and feels a little lost.

The Night Circus

Considering the recent disappointment I experienced after buying into the mega-hype of a new book (see first review), I was reluctant to take a chance on another.  But Erin Morgenstern’s debut novel, The Night Circus, is a lovely book, and more than lived up to expectations.  While totally original, the tale does recall the mood and imagery of some pretty heavy hitters, namely Ray Bradbury’s Something Wicked This Way Comes; Angela Carter’s The Bloody Chamber, The Magic Toyshop, and Nights at the Circus (ahem); and lastly, perhaps my favorite book of all-time, Susanna Clarke’s Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell. 

There are even shades of The Hunger Games, for those of you who like your popular fiction really popular.  Here, two children, Marco and Celia, are pitted against one another in a magical battle to the death, the outcome of which will settle an ages old argument regarding magical theories between Celia’s father, Hector, and the eccentric AH__.