ghosts

The Keening

priyanka — Sat, 11 Dec 2010 00:00:00 +0000

A. LaFaye’s The Keening is one part poem, and one part novel. Though the narrative is strong, it is the layered, considered language, and the dance with fantasy that make this novel something special. Both a modern-day ghost story and young adult novel, the book is complex, something that can’t be tied to just one genre.

This book’s protagonist, Lyza, lives with her father on the fringe of a Maine fishing village. With the family’s feet dug deep into fantasy and another foot tipped towards reality, the village doesn’t quite understand them. After her mother’s death from the 1918 influenza epidemic, Lyza has to decide whether she will head to Portland to take a college examination or stay and save her father from those who do not understand his obsessions.

Like many teenagers, Lyza is unsure of her place in the world. Often, she feels as though she has been “orphaned” from her family’s talents and creativity: her mother’s knack for sewing and her father’s carvings. This feeling of otherness or isolation is not helped by her oddball parents who are content to live away from the village. Mater and Pater, as Lyza calls them, do not care that the town ostracizes them or that they are talked about. They are comfortable in their world of sewing, carving, and creation.

Once her mother passes, Lyza’s search for her identity intertwines with the plight to save her father from being institutionalized. Soon, she taps into her family’s heritage and sees the souls in her father’s wood carvings. Like many children who shy away from the thing that makes them different, Lyza realizes that she is not unlike her father, her talents are otherworldly, and that much will need to be done to mend the wounds between her mother’s family, her father, and the different worlds between which she is caught.

The joy of this book is when the descriptions are subtle yet layered. The characterization in this novel is punctuated by sharp descriptions. For example, LaFaye writes “...Mater liked her meals with the tides—breaking her fast as it went out, setting down to supper when it came in, preferring to eat as gulls do between times—pecking at this or that...” In just a few sentences, Mater’s personality is chiseled to perfection.

If there is a misstep to the novel, it is its ending. Here, the speaker tries to wrap up each string or piece of the future: mentioning “the staircase leading up the cliff to home. To college. To anywhere the spirits and the Good Lord cared to lead me.” The final sections of the novel explain too much: The speaker’s realizations about paths—whether or not Kingsley Cove could be emptied out—seem too loud for such a dream-focused novel. The strength of the novel is diluted when the speaker puts her feet on the ground.

It’s moments like when Lyza’s Pater looks up and sees “angels in meteors” or when the writer describes her friend, Jake, and his inability to stand up to his father as “folding like a church lady’s fan” that this novel shines. The poetry in this novel is sharp and layered like Pater’s wood carvings. When Lyza finally learns not to “trip over her talent,” it’s like the glow of a lantern on a dark day. Soon, Lyza learns that if she paddles long enough, keeps her eyes, mind, and heart open, and listens to what’s around her, the shore is sure to come.

Written by: Lisa Bower, December 10th 2010

A Chopping Block

admin — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 17:01:00 +0000

By Pree

Kora Records

The death of Jim Henson was probably one of the single most traumatic events of my childhood. By that time, I was old enough to realize that Kermit was created by Jim Henson, but still young enough to have a certain amount of love for Sesame Street. (Okay, I was ten, which is a bit old for Big Bird, but I was a late bloomer.)

You are probably asking yourself a variety of questions at this point. One of them is probably: “Why the hell are you bringing up this utterly horrible nightmare from your childhood when I was expecting to read a review of Pree’s album A Chopping Block? Do you also like slapping kittens when watching Oprah?” Really, though, stick with me here.

I still watch (and love) all things Jim Henson. But no matter how silly or sweet the show is, I still get this feeling of sadness. I can’t watch Gonzo or his girlfriend Camilla without thinking about Jim Henson. I can’t look at my Kermit doll (yes, I still have a Kermit doll) without wiping a little tear from the corner of my eye. It’s kind of the same feeling with musicians like Joanna Newsom and Regina Spektor—and also bands like Pree.

Their music is really, honestly great, heartfelt, and sort of cute in a quirky way, but there’s something deeper to all of their songs—something that makes you feel a little bit like you are watching a butterfly dying in a jar. Pree talks an awful lot about things like ghosts, and graveyards, and worrying too darn much. Pree has real talent and a creative and original ear behind their songs. While they do sound quite a bit like Newsom or Spektor, they also manage to keep an original voice.

There is absolutely no question that their songs sound like their songs—not like someone else’s. Pree mixes piano, guitar, violin, glockenspiel, melodica, and drums together in a way that is modern, while whispering sweet nothings from folk music of the past. They also manage to keep that sing-songy cuteness, while making you think of ghosts, and graveyards, and worrying too darn much. Like Kermit the Frog, or Big Bird, or Gonzo the Great, it is comforting while being really, incredibly sad at the same time—like hugging the afghan that your dead grandma knitted. Trust me, their music is worth the time, and the Kleenex.

Written by: Emily S. Dunster, June 5th 2009

Unusual Suspects: Stories of Mystery and Fantasy

admin — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 16:36:00 +0000

Edited by Dana Stabenow

Ace Books

Unusual Suspects is an eclectic assortment of stories ranging from mystery to the supernatural. Editor Dana Stabenow, also a contributing author, and eleven others lend their twelve tales to this compilation. The collection is heavy on the fantasy and even heavier on the entertainment. While each story had a different theme, they all came together to form a cohesive collection.

Within the pages of this book, you are bound to encounter all sorts of characters and situations, some you may already be familiar with. I was excited to read the new Sookie Stackhouse story by Charlaine Harris, as I am familiar with her work with the Southern Vampire Mysteries series. Harris does not disappoint either as we find Sookie and her roommate and friend Amelia investigating Insurance company break-ins. The two characters just may need a little bit of luck to help them out in this mystery...

Another story that I particularly loved was “The House of Seven Spirits” by Sharon Shinn. This isn’t your average ghost story with the balls and chains and gore, but one that is lighter and a bit more on the comedic side. The narrator must solve the mystery of the murders that occurred in the house so that all of the spirits can be set free. The story has a surprise ending as well, which I did not see coming.

With each story, your senses will be immersed into the world of fantasy that each author weaves and creates. You’ll find out what Santa Claus does on his vacation and what happens when a serial killer is on the loose in Nightside, a short story from the Nightside series by Simon Green. I truly enjoyed this compilation of contemporary fiction.

Written by: Adrione N. Council, March 26th 2009

No Humans Involved

admin — Thu, 19 Apr 2007 00:46:00 +0000

By Kelley Armstrong

Bantam

A home in Brentwood, California is being used to house the stars and staff of the TV reality special Death of Innocence, where three mediums demonstrate their powers. Only one of them Jaime Vegas is the real thing, a talented necromancer who can see and talk to the dead. The climax of the special is to contact Marilyn Monroe, but Jaime’s interest in the show is that she is touched by ghosts and hears their chatter, but can’t make out what they are saying, which has never happened to her before.

She can’t reach out to them, but through empirical evidence she comes to the conclusion that they are children who were killed using blood magic. They are stuck in between places and neither another medium nor Jaime’s ghostly friends can reach them. The demon Aratron tells Jaime that the magic being used to keep the children in limbo is something unheard of. Now Jaime and her allies and her werewolf lover Jeremy, the North American alpha werewolf, try to set a trap that would bring the magic practitioners out of hiding so that Jaime can find a way to let the children pass over.

Jaime has some interesting allies on both sides of the veil including a half demon with chaos powers, a spirit in life that was a practitioner of the dark arts and now works for the Three Fates, and a werewolf. All of these characters are well developed, play significant parts in the story and are powerful beings not to be trifled with. Kelly Armstrong writes spellbinding supernatural fantasy in the tradition of Laurell K. Hamilton, Kim Harrison, and Charlaine Harris. There is plenty of action and a heated romance in No Humans Involved.

Written by: Harriet Klausner, April 18th 2007