Bookmonkey vs The Hoard: Post Ten - Fatale

Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillip's Fatale is pretty much a comic that fits very nicely in the space between Horror and Crime(specifically Cosmic Horror and Film Noir), and unlike the rest of the titles in The Hoard, this one I've actually read before.

But back when I read it (for a book club), the series hadn't finished yet, so although I knew how the story ended, I was unaware of how it finished.

The series focuses on a woman named Josephine, or "Jo" and as with the portrayal of the traditional femme fatale archetype, Jo has the ability to ensnare men with her charms.  Unlike the traditional character however, Jo's abilities are extreme, largely uncontrollable, and come from a very dark origin.

As with many film noire stories, Fatale is largely told from the point of view of the men in Jo's life, which allow the reader to slowly, but surely put together a picture of this woman for themselves.

The pairing of crime fiction with Lovecraftian horror is pretty ingenious, as it allows the reader to see a world running parallel to our own, and one that is frankly terrifying.

I first read Brubaker during his run on Gotham Central, a police procedural comic which takes place in Batman's Gotham City, but focusing on the day-to-day operations of a police department.

Fatale is a really great read, and one I've been happy to have in my collection for a few years now.  As I've now finished the series, I've got to say it's definitely earned it's place and won't be leaving anytime soon.

Book Review: The 37th Mandala

For years now I've been reading my way through two separate horror lists - The Bram Stoker Awards for best novel and the titles in Kim Newman's Horror: The 100 Best Books.  Both of these have been a great way to read books I may not have heard of before and introduce me to all sorts of new authors.  Then last year I came across an entirely new one - The International Horror Guild Award, which ran for fourteen years from 1995 - 2008.  Although I had read a few books off the best novel list There were more than ten I had never heard of, which lead me to today's book The 37th Mandala by Marc Laidlaw.

The book is really great - starting with a terrifying incident in Cambodia and then quickly moving on to a new age author named Derek Crowe at an author signing.  A big part of what I liked about the book was the slow build up to the reveals - the story and characters get laid out first before anything really awful happens and then the narrative begins building momentum like a snowball to an avalanche, which a payoff that actually hit Lovecraft levels for me.

A fantastic read about the dangers of blind faith and importance of responsibility to others.

Strongly Recommended.

Bookmonkey x Penguin Horror Day 17: The Thing on the Doorstep

Following a reading of The Raven, the first thing that struck me about Lovecraft’s prose was just how modern and engaging it seemed; yes he sometimes got bogged down in detail, and his characters are not the most well drawn, but wow could that guy build a sense of dread. The collection contains two novellas “The Case of Charles Dexter Ward” and “At the Mountains of Madness” and ten short stories, all of which work amazingly to showcase the sense of overwhelming dread and sheer terror he was so good at producing.

The book itself, although missing a filmography like Frankenstein, is by far the most annotated of the imprint so far, giving each story at least a four paragraph contextual description in the notes (discussing year published, written, and any information the author gave on inspirations for the story) as well as point by point notes for geographic, historic, literary, and folklore-based information which may be unknown to the casual reader. All in all the book is a great resource and introduction to the authors work, containing some of my more favourite stories (“The Temple” being an incredible standout, and a great introductory story for those who haven’t ever read Lovecraft before as well).

Of the series, it is by far the biggest text, and with all of the extra information given, including a “further reading” section both in general and for every story as well, it may be my favourite edition of the imprint so far.

Bookmonkey x Penguin Horror Day 14: My Introduction to Lovecraft

As I begin to read the new Penguin Horror imprint of The Thing on the Doorstep and other Weird Stories by H.P. Lovecraft (and only now do I realize how I should have spent a little more time thinking of a title for this post),  I think of all the ways I could tackle this post - about how his writing was one of the first examples of horror I came across in my teens that really, seriously terrified me, or perhaps how, as a biracial reader, his all-too-common references to the evils of interbreeding really kind of make me sick, or maybe just how sad it must have been to have lived as hermetic a life as he did.

Let's go back to the beginning, where as an eighth-grader I came across my first example of his writing in an anthology of horror stories.  The story "Polaris" (1918) which not only terrified me in its implicitly, but in the fact that (sorry for the 96-year-old spoiler) it turned my understanding of how a story worked on its head.  The twist (and I don't want to wreck it if you haven't read the story) is something I've now seen in other places, but never as effectively, and as a kid the concept sat with me for weeks, insidiously eating at my mind while I tried to read other stories and ensured that I would continue to visit and revisit Lovecraft's work for the rest of my life.

In the end, I can't think of another writer who so strongly grabbed my attention, and introduced me to just how terrifying horror fiction can be.

Book Review: The King in Yellow

For years now I’ve been working through three books of “The 100 Best” book in the genres of Fantasy, Horror, and Science Fiction. Although my own tastes going into these lists leaned towards horror, I have to admit that reading the SF list has been a suprisingly rewarding experience, and as I’m working my way through that list in publication order as well, I think I may be getting more out of those reads as well.

The horror list has been a bit more hit and miss for me – unlike the other two books, the selections are not actually made by one person, but are instead books recommended by other horror authors – in the introduction It was stated that they each had to pick individual titles or it would simply be called “Why these 100 authors love Dracula”.

This month I read the book recommended by H.P. Lovecraft (who wrote of a review of the book well before this top 100 title, or even its editors existed), called The King in Yellow, by Robert W. Chambers. The book, published in 1895, contains ten short stories, the first bunch of which are connected to a fictional play called “The King in Yellow”, a being called The King in Yellow, and mention of something called “The Yellow Sign”. These stories are both really readable, and pretty darn creepy, which was a delight for me after sludging my way through weeks of Melmoth the Wanderer last month.

The concepts of these stories, and especially a play which after being read or viewed drives its audience crazy, was used by H.P. Lovecraft in his Cthulhu-mythos based stories, as well as in the recent HBO series True Detective and in all sorts of games, stories, and music throughout the various genres I enjoy.

Although the book was a little tricky for me to track down, it was definitely worth the read (even the romance stories in the end were kind of fun), and will sit on my purchase list until I come across it in a used-bookstore run.