Category: Book Reviews

COMING SOON. MONTHLY BOOK REVIEW OF ONE BOOK READ DURING THE MONTH.

Book Reviews

Scribbling Scrivener Reads: Hard Day’s Knight by John Hartness

DH Hanni

Since I was in the mood for something more comedic for this month’s book review, I decided to pick up the first book in John G. Hartness‘ Black Knight Chronicles series. Hard Day’s Knight is a brisk, vampire buddy comedy centered around James (Jimmy to everyone) Black. Along with his best friend and fellow vampire private investigator, Gregory W. Knightwood IV, they make up Black Knight Investigations.

I got the impression most of their cases do not involve the supernatural but the case in this first book does.  Set around Halloween, Jimmy and Greg are approached by a teenager desperate to be turned into a vampire so that he can save his family from a witch’s curse. It’s easy to dismiss the kid’s claim until Jimmy and Greg encounter the fourteen-year-old girl who put the curse on the kid and his family. It’s immediately apparent that something is off with her beyond some bored teenager messing around with magic. All hell begins breaking loose once they confront her as they learn a string of kidnapped kids is connected to the demon Baal being summoned. From there the book rapidly progresses toward trying to prevent Hell on Earth from happening.

My favorite part, and where I think the strength of the book lies, was Jimmy and Greg. I loved that while they are vampires, they don’t fit into any of the stereotypes. In fact they fit more in with the nerd/geek stereotype more than vampire although they do have typical vampire enhancements like speed and strength. Also, they aren’t bad guys. And while they became vampires against their wills, they don’t mope about it at all. Instead they have embraced it and view it anything else. Just shit they’ve got to deal with. There are lots of other spins on the vampire trope that I enjoyed including how their best friend is a priest, their special vampire powers are not distributed equally between the two of them, and how Greg stays away from feeding off of people choosing instead to stick with the packets of blood they get from the hospital.

Another thing I enjoyed were many of the supporting characters. Mike, their priest best friend that they’ve known since childhood, is a nice companion to Jimmy and Greg. Because they grew up together, Jimmy and Greg don’t really treat Mike any differently just because of his association with all that is good in the world. Nor does Mike view either of his friends as evil and abominations despite their undead status. I also liked Detective Law even though she does come across as somewhat stereotypical hard-nosed, no nonsense cop. I also found it a little hard to buy into how quickly she accepted being around vampires, fallen angels, and actual witches before encountering demons.

The plot of the book was easy and mostly straight forward although I thought the pacing was a bit too brisk at times for me. I found myself re-reading some parts because of confusing action sequences or because people would just randomly pop in. I know that Jimmy and Greg have only a few days to stop Hell from bubbling up, but I would have liked the book a more if parts of it had been slowed down. The beginning was paced quite well it was once we got into what was going on and who was possibly behind it that things became too frantic and a little hard to follow. Also, I think the brisk pace didn’t allow for the kind of character development I typically like especially for the first book in a series. Jimmy, Greg, and Mike we get a good picture of, which makes sense. It’s the supporting characters like Phil, Lilith, and even Detective Law that would have benefited from a slightly slower pace.

Overall, if you are looking for a fun, quick read with characters that don’t take themselves seriously, except when the situation requires it and even then, Hard Day’s Knight would be a good choice. I’m definitely interested in reading more books in the series especially when I’m in the mood for something light. On a scale of one to five pencils, I give it three pencils.

Book Reviews

Scribbling Scrivener Reads: The Duke Don’t Dance by Richard G. Sharp

DH Hanni

The Duke Don’t Dance by Richard G. Sharp spans more than fifty years following the lives of a group of friends representing the Silent Generation. The book opens with the funeral of Frank as the group is reunited for the first time in many years. But even though it’s a funeral and it’s been a long time since everyone has seen each other, the air is thick with tension as old wounds, rivalries, and loves (or flings really) come together. Beginning with chapter two, the rest of the book spends time recounting the long, varied, and chaotic history of these people while major historical events play on in the background.

The book doesn’t have one main character as each chapter head hops between at least two characters, sometimes more. While it’s Frank’s funeral which brings everyone together, he is not the main character although much of the early parts of the book features him more. Overall the book follows the lives of Frank, Lillian, Ted, Sam, and to lesser degrees, Inga and Beth. The relationships in the story quickly become convoluted with Frank having been married to Inga before divorcing and marrying Lillian who had had a fling with Ted and Sam who then in turn both had crushes on Ari who later uses Frank as her baby daddy. Throw in some other minor characters who are either married, had had some kind of relationship, or who pokes their nose into the personal lives of other characters, you get a confusing and messy set of “friendships” going on. And I use the term “friendship” loosely because honestly I have no idea when any of these people talk to each other let alone hang out.

The book doesn’t also center on anything I would consider an actual plot which makes it really hard to consider it a novel at all. The reality of it is The Duke Don’t Dance is a series of vignettes with the only connection being we are following a group of friends. Often times this group goes years without seeing or hearing from each other so then the reader gets another vignette to get us caught up with the lives of everyone else. Often times these vignettes felt like an opportunity to use a major historical event or time period to give the reader information rather than developing characters. There is no climax to the story and therefore no real resolution which again makes it difficult for me to consider it a novel.

This lack of a plot and a main character is one of several issues I had with the book as it felt very hard to refer to it as a novel despite involving fictional characters. Overall the biggest problem I had with The Duke Don’t Dance was the writing style. It’s all exposition and telling the reader rather than showing the reader who these people are. There’s also very little dialogue and when there is dialogue, it’s a scant few sentences that does nothing for the story or characters. The detached, head-hopping narrator style doesn’t really work for me as a reader as it was impossible for me to develop any kind of emotional attachment to anyone in the book. Even the historical events are treated in a detached way despite the fact the book spans the ’60s to 9/11. That’s an incredibly tumultuous time in American history with major events which have had long-lasting impact upon American culture even in 2016.

The characters themselves are hard to care about as they all sound the same. I think this is because of the narrative style which doesn’t allow for each character’s voice to come out. As a result, everyone sounds and thinks the same and with an ensemble this large, everyone starts blurring together. For example, up until the very end I had a hard time keeping Sam and Ted straight. It didn’t help that much of the time their stories intertwined and they both were half in love with the same woman from their college days.

I also found it difficult to relate to any of the characters because pretty much everyone is rather unlikeable. Everyone has their guard up and is so emotional stunted and angry for reasons not quite clear in some cases that it becomes incredibly taxing to the reader. Many times I wanted to tell these people to get over themselves and get into some therapy. All the women hate their mothers or are hated by their own daughters. Somehow the male characters with children were at least liked by their kids when we do see father and child together. It’s hard to believe all these people could be this monumentally messed up and I don’t think being part of the Silent Generation is the reason why.

Overall, this book simply didn’t work for me. At times the prose itself is quite lovely but when all of it is exposition and telling the reader then that gets overshadowed. I as a reader had I been shown who these characters are and formed my own opinion, I would have enjoyed a lot more. While I don’t shy away from large ensemble books, I think in the case of The Duke Don’t Dance it would have been better if the book had focused on two or three characters especially given the book is about 232 pages. It’s a lot to cram into such a short space with as many characters there are in the narrative.

On a scale of one to five pencils I give The Duke Don’t Dance two pencils.

Book Reviews

Scribbling Scrivener Reads: Spook Lights – Southern Gothic Horror by Eden Royce

DH Hanni

Spook Lights: Southern Gothic Horror by Eden Royce is a collection of horror short stories. Since Ms. Royce grew up with in Charleston, South Carolina she tries to capture the style known as Southern Gothic. Southern Gothic is a style which relies heavily on the spirits and magic, average people, depressed settings, and most importantly, utilizes Southern locations.

With Ms. Royce, her Southern Gothic is flavored with the Gullah culture of Charleston as well as dark witches and magic. Every story revolves around average, everyday people either caught up in extraordinary circumstances or for whom calling upon magic is not big deal. The people live in what some people would consider the outskirts of town and society. Some might even consider the people and situations to be grotesque and macabre.

I did enjoy the collection and felt it was just the right length and had a diverse group of characters. That being said, with any short story collection or anthology, I had a few favorites.

Doc Buzzard’s Coffin – First off that title is just plain cool. Someone’s coffin? Come again? Okay, let’s read this one and see where it takes us. In a nutshell, it wasn’t what I was expecting.

One of the biggest reasons why I liked this story is that it starts off with a woman and her two children putting Doc Buzzard into a coffin. It’s presented as such a normal family-bonding experience as the children argue as one would expect two twelve-year-olds do. Things are fine until a local cop shows up and inquiries as to what is going on.

The story is told through Jezebel’s point of view and we learn why burying Doc Buzzard is no big deal. What worries them most is Doc Buzzard and what will happen since his coffin is confiscated, sitting in the police station while mom is being questioned.

Through Jezebel we learn the family deeply believes in magic and this isn’t the first time Doc’s been dead. It isn’t until the end does the reader learn why Doc Buzzard was in a coffin and it is done so subtly that I had to re-read it a couple of times to make sure I understood what the reasons were.

I appreciated that as well as feeling the heat and stickiness of the setting. I also think the horror aspect of it was enough. After all it is a kid telling the story. I think because this type of thing isn’t unusual for the Jezebel and her family that’s why the horror isn’t over the top.

Homecoming – I like this one a lot because it was different. It’s probably the least horrorish of all the stories but that doesn’t mean it doesn’t have scary parts.

The story centers around a couple dealing with their son being a convicted serial killer. The father believes they shouldn’t have anything to do with him because not only is their son a monster, he feels guilty for raising a monster.

On the other hand, the mother visits their son on a regular basis and believes, as most mothers probably would, she needs to stay by his side. She’s also a little delusional in that she believes he will get out of jail and return home.

Nothing in the story is really given to show they were abnormal in their parenting. They spoiled their son but unfortunately quite a few parents do that. Most of the children raised in such an environment don’t turn out to be serial killers. Perhaps there is more to that spoiling than the reader is initially led to believe?

That premise alone kept me interested. How often are stories told from the parents of a serial killer viewpoint? What do they think about the situation in private? How do they act? Do they keep up hope, like the mother, or do they have disgust and anger, like the father? I liked that dichotomy and thought it was done well in a short amount of time.

With the Turn of a Key – This story starts off with a typically unhappily married couple. The husband works six days a week and tries his best to keep his wife happy. The wife is nothing but a shrew described as having a “surgically enhanced chest”. Nothing he does will make her happy and she lets him know.

A key mysteriously turns up one day and neither of them knows where it goes to or whom it is from. The harpy of a wife accuses the husband of having an affair, projecting her own cheating ways. Where she believes he has time to have an affair when he barely has any time to sleep puzzles the husband.

Yet they keep the key. More specifically the husband leaves the key in his room. When he goes to sleep later that night, a mystery woman, who clearly is from the sea, visits him in his dreams. Naturally she says nothing and leads him under the sea up to a coral gate which the key must unlock. He hesitates that first night by not following her, but on subsequent nights follows the sea woman deeper into her world.

The ending has an interesting twist which left me wondering if what happens was a good thing or a bad thing and if so to whom?

 

One of the strengths of Spook Lights is the diversity in the situations and the people involved. These are average, ordinary people, in some cases what most would consider the “ugly” side of life. With the exception of the couple in With the Turn of a Key, everybody lives on the outskirts of town and life. This immediately draws the reader into the various worlds in Spook Lights.

Another strength is, in the stories I liked the best the horror was subtle, more psychological than anything. That doesn’t mean I didn’t appreciate the more graphic and overt horror, often I did, but for me personally, I like it when things are rooted in realism when it comes to horror.

Something I felt was both a strength and a weakness was the how many of the stories featured women getting revenge against men who did them wrong. A couple of stories with this theme I would have been fine with, but more it gets repetitive. Also it makes women come across as petty and incapable of just moving on.

It also felt to me some stories were incomplete and with parts of the story physically missing. I re-read quite a few pages again to make sure it wasn’t something I was not reading correctly.

Overall, on a scale of one to five pencils I would give Spook Lights: Southern Gothic Horror a solid three pencils.