THE BURNING GIRLS By C. J. TUDOR (REVIEW)

"Blake would say that there are some places in the Universe where the Fall has not occurred, the world has not turned upside down and Eden still exists. Here Mankind is not governed by the rules of reason, stupid and strict, but by the heart and intuition. The people do not indulge in idle chatter, parading what they know, but create remarkable things by applying their imagination. The state ceases to impose the shackles of daily oppression, but helps people to realize their hopes and dreams. And Man is not just a cog in the system, not just playing a role, but a free Creature."

Olga Tokarczuk, Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead

THE VIOLIN CONSPIRACY by BRENDAN SLOCUMB (REVIEW)

quickly: a young black master violinist has his fiddle stolen just before a world-class championship (grandma’s favorite grandson / families that prey / great-great-great-great grandfathers / traffic stops and crooked cops / SLAVERY! / italian masters (of music, of plantations) / hidden treasure and family secrets / lawyers, lawsuits, and legacies).

A praying grandmother can work wonders for a family. The story is anchored by Ray and his violin, but he is here because of Grandma Nora and her appreciation of lineage and legacy. While Ray is surrounded by family members who constantly demoralize him, Grandma Nora reminds him to be loving and respectful and to honor his gift—music. The conflict commences when Ray realizes his beloved violin has gone missing, and there is a multitude of leads… the new girlfriend? his money-hungry family? the family who used to enslave his great-great-grandfather?

The writing is easy and open. The kind of reading you can do on a Sunday afternoon, or a long car ride. Doesn’t require too much mental work to stay with the story. There’s a little bit of thrill, a little bit of crime and mystery, and even a little bit of romance. It is also very honest about the discriminatory treatment of black people in music and in world society. And, as with every truly American story, The Slaves come back to remind us that they were here. An enjoyable read!

★ ★ ★ ★

THE BOOKS OF JACOB by OLGA TOKARCZUK (REVIEW)

quickly: it’s a jewish cult in 1700’s poland (an astral traveling matriarch accidentally floating above all of existence / a man who prides himself on being no one and knowing nothing, a simpleton, yet attracts followers from all over / prophetesses who see prophecies fulfilled / sects that are cults that are sects that are cults / a security detail made entirely of women).

this book is as long as life, and just as monotonous, which is what makes it all the more enriching. it is truly a world and a time, encapsulated in 961 pages. it is a true story, with a thin glaze of magical realism drizzled on top. it reads like the bible (or should i say the Torah), slow, dry, and impactful. it is crowded, like a city street during lunch hour, but if you follow Yente and Jacob through the story, you’ll never get lost. 

★ ★ ★ ★ ★

more thoughts: SPOILERS!

Some personal context… this is the first Big Book I’ve read since reading Infinite Jest back in like 2015. I’ve read a handful of books randomly from 2016-2022, going years sometimes without reading a full book. I was gifted a set of Goosebumps books by a friend last Christmas and the nostalgia inspired me to get reading again. 

I went from Goosebumps to Fear Street to some brilliant new fiction (Sacrificio by Ernesto Mestre-Reed, The Boatman’s Daughter and The Hollow Kind by Andy Davidson). THE BOOKS OF JACOB is the longest book I’ve read in years, and it was almost nothing I thought it would be. After the delicious but “short” novels I’d been reading lately, I was craving the truly immersive feeling of that could only be captured in a 900+ page book. 

The synopsis excited me immediately: JEWISH CULT IN 1700s POLAND! BASED ON A TRUE STORY!

Now by no means do I have any serious education of Jewish culture. I’ve watched movies, read some books, but I am not versed. However, with the level and detail of writing that Tokarczuk achieves in this work (much of it based on fact), it made real some of the things that only existed in my mind as fragments of information. 

The entire story is broken up into books, books are broken up into chapters, and chapters each have their own subsections. Most of these subsections are prose, some are letters, and others are ‘scraps’ or behind-the-scenes moments captured by Nahmen, Jacob’s most faithful follower. 

THE BOOK OF FOG, is the opener. It sets the scene and introduces you to a network of characters that Jacob will soon be at the center of. 

THE BOOK OF SAND, sees families start to form, and Yente turns into a goddess of the air as she astral travels through time and space. Jacob is introduced and we see his travels (culturally and geographically). His followers witness ‘the great spirit’ descending into him, causing his entire body to shed. This book is filled with miraculous stories and acts.

THE BOOK OF THE ROAD, sees Jacob leading his followers into a new land, and initiating some of his followers by secret rituals. Their practices make them enemies of local Jews and they are soon pursued by The State. Jews issue curses against them, and Jacob sends curses back. 

THE BOOK OF THE COMET, sees a comet that appears, with many seeing it as an auger of end times. More rituals. The Shekinah, feminine goddess, is witnessed descending into a gold statue, plague erupts, and Jacob and his followers are held for questioning in regards to their religious practices, eventually banishing him to prison in a monastery. This is where Jacob starts to fray.

THE BOOK OF METAL AND SULFER (my personal favorite for some reason?), sees Jacob sent to prison, yet his followers still cling to him, setting up a village around him. They all wait for the Shekinah to appear from a painting in the church monastery where he is being held. Jacob is ill, a lot, getting older and losing his glow. He is not himself sometimes. Eventually, war breaks out, giving Jacob an opportunity to negotiate his freedom. 

THE BOOK OF THE DISTANT COUNTRY, Jacob once again enters a new land, lord of a castle now, where he lives on the lower floors as an old ailing man. The toll of prison manifests in his body. His practices alarm some and enamor others. This book sees the death of Jacob. 

THE BOOK OF NAMES, is almost a denouement, biblical style, rife with anecdotes of the deaths of Jacob’s closest followers, and some of their children. Yente, the goddess, closes the story from high above us, somewhere in the afterlife.

In all, I was moved by the beautiful lacing of Jewish lore and mythology throughout the story. I found Jacob to be repulsive, arrogant, wise, contradictory, and ridiculous. Not much different from today’s cult leaders. He eventually endures that long hard ego death that only the body can devise. Throughout the story we see women who guard the knowledge of paternity, all women guards, Yente who knows all, Hayah the Prophetess who sees all, the holy trinity’s fourth part—the great divine feminine, and so on. I found the magic of the feminine, the resistance to “tradition”, and the movement of a people, to be incredible to read about. 

I understand and sympathize with those who say they couldn’t read past the first half and were confused and lost in the sea of characters, especially when the main characters decide to switch names mid-story. 

A SECRET: There are really only two names to keep up with in the story. Yente, and Jacob. Yente is easy to remember… she is Jacob’s grandmother, and she is also the sky, the wind, the air, and the ether. She is everywhere at all times, at any time, like God. So it’s hard to lose her in the story. Then there’s Jacob. The star upon which all other stars orbit and constellate. If you watch them throughout the pages, all others move around him, forming the loose, lingering, and prescient story arc that only life can form. Everyone else can be identified by their actions.

BOYS IN THE VALLEY by PHILIP FRACASSI (A REVIEW)

quickly: a visitor in the night brings chaos to a catholic boy’s orphanage (a young priest in training / a dark child with many faces / contamination and contagion / evil whispering / demonic entities and unclean spirits / scarred bodies and souls / solitary confinement / starvation as punishment / founding fathers / crosses falling from walls / good vs evil, light vs dark / the compelling power of christ / the cleansing power of fire).

The snow of a brutal winter storm starts to fall, and like “The Long Night”, a battle between the world’s oldest forces begins. As the few adults in charge become increasingly debilitated, the fate of all the lives at the orphanage is left to the oldest teenage boys who must gather their limited life experiences to fight against incredible odds.

This is classic horror, of the demonic excorcism variety. No comedic relief, no quirky literary devices, and no rushed ending. I’m surprised this doesn’t have a Stephen King endorsement review, as they seem to be given out generously. (But I’ll take an introduction by Andy Davidson over a Stephen King review any day!) For a coming-of-age novel, it is remarkably honest about the hardships of abuse, abandonment, and death. Honest displays of grief and trauma, especially in horror stories, require a delicate hand. The plotting and navigating of these themes was well done.

★ ★ ★ ★

"Everyone in the world was programmed by the place they were born, hemmed in by their beliefs, but you had to at least try to grow your own brain. Otherwise, you might as well be living on a reservation, worshiping a bunch of bogus gods."

Scott Westerfeld, Pretties

can you tell that it’s spooky season reading list:

A FAMILY OF KILLERS by BRYCE MOORE SURVIVE THE NIGHT by RILEY SAGER EYNHALLOW by TIM McGREGOR (not pictured) THESE SILENT WOODS by KIMI CUNNINGHAM GRANT YOU LIKE IT DARKER by STEPHEN KING

RUN MAN RUN by CHESTER HIMES (REVIEW)

quickly: a witness in a cold-blooded murder case is stalked and hunted by the gunman (1960’s new york city vice patrol / a bigot with a badge / working the night shift / automats and lunch counters / crossing 110th street / crossing the blue line / cats vs. mice / “did he use a silencer or was he silenced” asked oprah / going by way of Fat Sam / double crossing and double-talking / hot head with a hot rod / stairwell chases / parking lot shootouts / man against the world).

Jimmy is a Harlem youngster working nights at a cafeteria factory when a drunken maniac detective is overcome by white psychosis and kills all of his co-workers in cold blood. By a stroke of amazing grace, he survives the attack, but his survival places him in the crosshairs of a certified psycho who is set on eliminating all witnesses.

Don’t pick this up if you aren’t ready to sprint. This one-day read is a fast-paced NYC crime thriller full of race-based angst, socioeconomic division, and catchy 50s and 60s one-liners. Reading between the lines of this action-packed thriller, you’ll find poignant observations on race and interesting opinions on gender. Add a tablespoon of sex, jazz, and liquor, and you’ve got yourself a good time.

★ ★ ★ ★ Short, fast, and loud.

MIDDLE OF THE NIGHT by RILEY SAGER (REVIEW)

quickly: unresolved childhood grief leads to irrepressible ghosts in adulthood (grief and regret / friends and foes / backyard campouts / shaken suburbs / “don’t go chasin’ waterfalls…” / strangers in the woods / kisses kept secret / occult dinner parties / marriage and miscarriages / talking ghosts).

A quiet night in the summer heat turns into a lifelong nightmare for young Ethan Marsh. After his neighbor Billy disappears into thin air, the neighborhood is left traumatized, and Ethan is left wondering what he could’ve done differently for his weird, ghost-obsessed neighbor. Now 40 and moving back into the house where Billy disappeared, Ethan is starting to see things… shadows, messages, and warnings.

An enjoyable and easy read. Great for warm weather weekends. It was like Fear Street but for grown-ups… the highly emotional and angsty decisions of teenagers and adults, the blurred lines between the horrors of human nature and the supernatural, and the well-paced page-turning thrill of discovering what truth lies at the heart of the mystery. Looking forward to more Riley Sager.

★★★★

“Oh yes, suddenly I realized what a good thing death can be, how just and fair, like a disinfectant, or a vacuum cleaner.”

Olga Tokarczuk, DRIVE YOUR PLOW OVER THE BONES OF THE DEAD

comfy culty cozy library haul for fall:

THROUGH THE NIGHT LIKE A SNAKE (LATIN AMERICAN HORROR STORIES) by VARIOUS AUTHORS

A FEW RULES FOR PREDICTING THE FUTURE (ESSAY) by OCTAVIA E. BUTLER

PARABLE OF THE TALENTS by OCTAVIA E. BUTLER

THE GATHERING DARK (FOLK HORROR ANTHOLOGY) edited by TORI BOVALINO

THE SALT GROWS HEAVY by CASSANDRA KHAW

BLACK OBSERVATORY (POEMS) by CHRISTOPHER BREAN MURRAY

PARABLE OF THE SOWER (GRAPHIC NOVEL) by OCTAVIA E. BUTLER*

*read Parable of the Sower earlier this year, ★ ★ ★ ★ ★!! The story is even more poignant, now that her predictions have come true. Rereading this in graphic novel form before I move on to the sequel, Parable of the Talents!