The Haunting of Velkwood by Gwendolyn Kiste
I picked this one up based on the strong recommendation of a friend. Otherwise, I might have let this one pass by. I read The Rust Maidens by Ms. Kiste in the last year or so, and didn’t enjoy it as much as everyone else seemed to. It mostly has to do with something I seem to talk a lot about: first person limited narration. That style of narration just doesn’t seem to do it for me, for all the reasons I’ve brought up in previous posts, so I won’t beat a dead horse here.
The Haunting of Velkwood is also written in first person limited narration and, even though I enjoyed the story, I couldn’t help but wonder what could have been added to the story if we’d gotten more perspectives than just Talitha Velkwood’s, our narrator.
That being said, I thought it was a good story that did something a little different than your standard ghost story. I can recommend this one.
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The Werewolf at Dusk and other stories by David Small
A collection of three illustrated stories, The Werewolf at Dusk was a very enjoyable read, though over too quickly.
I read through the collection in three sittings, though you can definitely power through it in one. However, what I enjoy about reading graphic stories is to linger over the drawings, rather than just glance over them as you read and digest the words. This is probably a hold over from how I read children’s books like Where the Wild Things Are, The Man Whose Mother Was a Pirate, and The True Story of the Three Little Pigs, just to name a couple.
The stories themselves were grim and gritty and were definitely something that I continued to ponder after I closed the book. I highly recommend this book.
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I’m still working my way through Downhills Don’t Come Free, but don’t have a lot to add to what I’ve said previously.
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Administrations of Lunacy by Mab Segrest
When I finished Ghost Eaters, I was reading the acknowledgment section and McLeod had a whole list of books that contributed to the writing of that story and it occurred to me, “I don’t think I’ve ever read anything on purpose based on the story I was writing. Maybe I should try it.”
My WIP, conceived with the subject of memory and dementia in mind, feels like it’s taken a turn toward the schizophrenic. I did some research on obsessive compulsive disorder, not being satisfied with the Hollywood interpretation of OCD as simple germophobia.
What started as researching existentialism and Sartre led to Albert Camus, which led to Administrations of Lunacy, which is what I settled on. I’ve always been fascinated and saddened by the fact that, in the absence of appropriate care, mental health often falls to the penal system and as still often happens, the answer is sedation and incarceration. It’s why I’ve enjoyed movies like Shutter Island, the best parts of 12 Monkeys, and One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest.
I’m looking forward to reading this book, but also anticipate a slog, since its nonfiction and, since I haven’t started reading it yet, I’m not sure how engaging the style will be.
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The Chimerical Dark 