Review - Acquired Taste by Clay McLeod Chapman

 *These are some note from my review which will appear in an upcoming issue of Library Journal. 

Strange addictions, the darker side of family, ghosts, and baby carrots scramble through this gathering of Clay McLeod Chapman's previously published stories. It's a Five Hour Energy shot of Chapman which will delight existing fans while also allowing the curious to taste what travelling through his longer works is like. Readers will do a double take at the start of these stories and will end up with the same sense at the end. 

He finds horrors beyond belief in ordinary places while also showing us a sense of humanity and grasp of human emotion that helps to balance these disturbing and gruesome stories. In some cases, you will think you know what is happening and will be terrified as you discover how wrong you are as Chapman leaves you trapped in a horrifying place along with his characters. 

Standout include the Shortwave Chapman Chapbook reprints Baby Carrots and Knockoffs as well as the novella Stay On The Line, the latter demonstrating where desperation for connection and those we have lost can lead. There is body horror in Debridement and Sweetmeat which takes Trick or Treating and somehow makes it more unsettling than anyone could imagine. Department store Santas become a conduit for heartbreak and fear in Psychic Santa as Chapman mixes the ghosts of children with a seedy, rundown department store at Christmas. 

This collection is a treat for existing fans as well as those who have enjoyed stories by authors like Eric LaRocca. It would also be an onramp for bizarro authors like Michael Allen Rose. 

Review - The Autumn Springs Retirement Home Massacre by Philip Fracassi

An official review will be available in Library Journal but here are some notes that make for a more casual review. 

"My whole world is a crime scene" - Rose DuBois

This novel is a romp with both a vibe that slasher fans will love along with those who enjoyed The Thursday Murder Club or An Elderly Woman is Up to No Good. It's definitely a book to recommend to those readers who are waiting for the Golden Girl mystery as well. The humor and clever kills reminded me of Brian McAuley.

While it is a slasher with bloody kills and terror, many mystery and suspense readers have found the same level of violence in that genre. 

The ensemble cast surrounding the final girl, Rose DuBois, are diverse and fun. Fracassi is able to make us love them even as we are terrified that they might be next to fall victim to the killer. Rose in particular is a complex, smart, and wonderful character. 

This is a perfect book to bring on a trip or to the beach. (Listen, I live 15 minutes from the beach so I have more authority here.) It is both full of heart and will make your heart race. It's one of those books that will draw you in and make you not want to stop reading because you have to know who might be next. Blame the author and not me if you stay up all night. 

**In this great slasher, Fracassi mixes some of the dark humor and kills that slasher fans appreciate along with a nuanced look at how the elderly are treated by society. Each trope of the slasher that is introduced is turned on its side, even having a final girl in Rose. Beyond the fun that slasher fans will have, fans of The Thursday Murder Club series by Richard Osman or Helene Tursten's Elderly Lady is Up to No Good will find much delight in the world of Autumn Springs. 

Three brief reviews : Coup de Grace by Sofia Ajram, Kill Your Darling by Clay McLeod Chapman, and Candy Cain Kills Again by Brian McAuley

 I recently finished three horror novellas and thought I would write up something about them here since I didn't review them for Library Journal.

Kill Your Darling by Clay McLeod Chapman (Bad Hand Books) is up first. 

The summary from the publisher is: 

The body of Glenn Partridge’s 15-year-old son was discovered in a vacant lot nearly forty years ago. The police are still no closer to finding the murderer decades later.

Glenn refuses to let the memory of his son fade—or let anyone else within this small working-class community forget. His long-suffering wife signs him up for an amateur fiction-writing workshop at the local library, just to get him out of the house and out of his own head.

Rule number Write what you know—so Glenn decides to share his son’s story. The class offers him a chance to make sense of a senseless crime and find the fictional closure life never provided. But as Glenn’s story takes on a life of its own, someone from the past is compelled to come out of hiding before he reaches…

It is a perfect example of grief horror - the tight, suffocating, deeply personal nature of grief when a loved one dies. There is a terror when it overcomes you and it can transform you as much as any supernatural transformation. Glenn Partridge is changed by the death of his son into someone he would not have recognized. The devastation of grief has made him a man obsessed with finding what happened to his son and he learns what happens when the story wasn't meant to be completed.  No one writes about grief better than Clay. This book will break your heart as it fills you with dread. 

Candy Cain Kills Again by Brian McAuley is a sequel to his previous work for Shortwave Publishing's Killer VHS series. From the publisher:

After surviving the horrors of Christmas Eve at the Thornton house, Austin, Mateo and Fiona head to the Church of Nodland to get some confessions from Pastor Wendell and his congregation. Little do they know that Candy Cain is coming to town to wish one and all a very merry axe-mas!

It's a horror romp that will delight those who miss the experience of going into a video store with friends and pulling slashers off the shelf. In this fun, violent ride, the kills come quickly and are wildly creative. This is the kind of book that can smash a reading slump. The characters' relationships are complicated as they deal with the repercussions of the first book. The emotional fallout is handled with care and a deft sense of character development.  

We will end with Coup de Grace by Sofia Ajram. From the publisher: 

Vicken has a plan: throw himself into the Saint Lawrence River in Montreal and end it all for good, believing it to be the only way out for him after a lifetime of depression and pain. But, stepping off the subway, he finds himself in an endless, looping station.

Determined to find a way out again, he starts to explore the rooms and corridors ahead of him. But no matter how many claustrophobic hallways or vast cathedral-esque rooms he passes through, the exit is nowhere in sight.

The more he explores his strange new prison, the more he becomes convinced that he hasn’t been trapped there accidentally, and amongst the shadows and concrete, he comes to realise that he almost certainly is not alone.

A terrifying psychological nightmare from a powerful new voice in horror.

The book has the best sense of depression of any book I have read recently. Readers have the sense of Vicken's dark hopelessness and the endless, gray trap of his existence. Within this novella, Ajram is able to explore the movement between hope and despair within the claustrophobic, confined space of the subway system. The reader is brought along as Vicken wanders in the surreal labyrinth in which he's been trapped. This book is well deserving of the praise which has been heaped upon it. Settle in for an evening and lose yourself within the text. Hopefully, you will make it out. 

Talk About the Books You Love

 On his Twitter account, author Joe Lansdale shared some ways you can help your favorite author promote their books. I thought I would note them here and mention ways you can have patrons help give their favorite authors the spotlight. 

1 - Preorder their books. 

2- Put titles on your Goodreads "Want to Read" shelf. 

3 - Good reviews on more platforms.

4 - Social media posts about the books you love. Tag the publisher and the author. 

5 - Let your local library know that you are interested in their book

For library purposes, 1 and 5 function the same. Set up a display and social media posts promoting your Patron Suggestion form. Let your patrons know that they can recommend titles for your collection. Your patrons may make you aware of books you have not heard about, in genres you are less familiar with, and emerging trends.

Regarding number 2, if you have book clubs at your library, you can set up a group on Goodreads for it. Those staff who lead book clubs can spend a little time at one of their meetings showing Goodreads, StoryGraph, and any other book tracking sites you like, demonstrating how to add books and indicate what forthcoming titles they are interested in. 

There are some passive programming ideas in 3 and 4. Set up a way either on paper, via email, or an online form by which patrons can submit book reviews to you. Establish a system for posting those reviews on your social media and in your building. This will help develop a community of readers at your library and will allow your patrons to help each other find great reads. You can tag the author and the publisher in these positive reviews. 

There are two things to note about patron book reviews. The first is that you should never post or put out negative reviews on your social media or in your building. Negative reviews are helpful in finding books you might love because the reason someone hates a book could be why you would love it. If someone seeks out reader or professional reviews, it can be assumed that some will be negative. This program should be about building positivity. If someone comes into your building or looks at your library's social media and sees their favorite book being trashed, that could color how they feel about the library. 

The second is that you need to decide if you are going to redact the patron's entire name, use initials, or just first names. Make certain that participants are aware that you will be posing them for other readers to see. With younger readers, you may need to get parent or guardian approval. 

Follow Joe's suggestions and help your readers generate hype for the books they love and the authors whose work has inspired them.