Chasing the Boogeyman, By Richard Chizmar ~ 5.0 Stars

Tags

Adult Fiction, Horror, Metafiction, Mystery, Serial Killers, Suspense

Thanks to NetGalley and Gallery Books for providing an eARC in exchange for an honest review.

Release Date: August 17th, 2021

336 Pages

Synopsis: The New York Times bestselling coauthor of Gwendy’s Button Box brings his signature “ thrilling page-turning” (Michael Koryta, author of How It Happened) prose to this story of small-town evil that combines the storytelling of Stephen King with the true-crime suspense of Michelle McNamara.

In the summer of 1988, the mutilated bodies of several missing girls begin to turn up in a small Maryland town. The grisly evidence leads police to the terrifying assumption that a serial killer is on the loose in the quiet suburb. But soon a rumor begins to spread that the evil stalking local teens is not entirely human. Law enforcement, as well as members of the FBI, are certain that the is a living, breathing madman—and he’s playing games with them. For a once peaceful community, trapped in the depths of paranoia and suspicion, it feels like a nightmare that will never end.

Recent college graduate, Richard Chizmar, returns to his hometown just as a curfew is enacted, and a neighborhood watch is formed. In the midst of preparing for his wedding and embarking on a writing career, he soon finds himself thrust into the real-life horror story. Inspired by the terrifying events, Richard writes a personal account of the serial killer’s reign of terror, unaware that these events will continue to haunt him for years to come.

A clever, terrifying, and heartrending work of metafiction, Chasing the Boogeyman is the ultimate marriage between horror fiction and true crime. Chizmar’s “brilliant…absolutely fascinating, totally compelling, and immediately poignant” (C.J. Tudor, New York Times bestselling author) writing is on full display in this truly unique novel that will haunt you long after you turn the final page. (Goodreads)

I loved Gwendy’s Button Box, which Richard Chizmar coauthored with Stephen King so as soon as I saw Chasing the Boogeyman on NetGalley, I immediately requested it. It’s the second metafiction novel I’ve read this week, and it’s another that’s knocked my socks off!

The majority of the story is fiction but I had to continually remind myself of that the entire time I was reading. When you first start this it actually seems more like an autobiographical and true crime novel and that’s because it actually is. Edgewood, Maryland is a real small town in Maryland, and while it has the same issues that plague many communities across the country, overall it’s a picturesque slice of Americana. You can feel the love that Chizmar still has for it and its residents and his descriptive writing immediately drew me in with it’s nostalgic look at his boyhood home and family and friends. The horror starts with some mysterious and creepy events that actually occurred between 1986 and 1990. Using this as a jumping off point, the author than turns this into a haunting, supernatural tale unlike any other I’ve read. What transpires is unreal, mesmerizing, and utterly mind blowing and adding to this are the photos included at the end of each chapter. An absolute must read at the end of the book is the author’s note where Chizmar goes into detail regarding how and why he decided to write this, and the ingenious way the photos were created.

In the end, Chasing the Boogeyman is simply a brilliant piece of storytelling. I guarantee it will be one of this summer’s most talked about books, and I HIGHLY recommend it for fans of authors like Stephen King and Robert McCammon, and of the true crime and horror genres.

Hell of a Book, By Jason Mott ~ 4.5 Stars

Tags

Adult Fiction, Bullying, Humor, Metafiction, Police Shootings, Publishing Industry, Racism

Thanks to NetGalley and PENGUIN GROUP Dutton for providing an eARC in exchange for an honest review.

Release Date: June 29th, 2021

336 Pages

Synopsis: In Hell of a Book, an African-American author sets out on a cross-country book tour to promote his bestselling novel. That storyline drives Hell of a Book and is the scaffolding of something larger and more urgent: since his novel also tells the story of Soot, a young Black boy living in a rural town in the recent past, and The Kid, a possibly imaginary child who appears to the author on his tour.

Throughout, these characters’ stories build and build and as they converge, they astonish. For while this heartbreaking and magical book entertains and is at once about family, love of parents and children, art and money, there always is the tragic story of a police shooting playing over and over on the news.

Who has been killed? Who is The Kid? Will the author finish his book tour and what kind of a world will he leave behind? Unforgettably powerful, an electrifying high-wire act, ideal for book clubs, and the book Mott says he has been writing in his head for ten years, Hell of a Book, in its final twists truly becomes its title. (Goodreads)

Hell of a Book definitely lives up to its title! I started this Tuesday night before bed, thinking I’d get a few chapters in and before I knew it, it was 2:30 in the morning! This is metafiction at its best. Mott’s characters: an unnamed African-American author who’s on a book tour to promote his bestselling novel, Hell of a Book, and a young ten-year-old Black boy known only as The Kid, who may or may not be a figment of the author’s imagination, and young Soot, bullied unmercifully because of the darkness of his skin. There’s obviously a connection between them, but it’s quite a journey to get to what that is. To be honest it’s difficult to go further into the story without giving anything away. I will warn you that it explores quite a few themes that certain readers may have trouble with including: bullying, racism, and police shootings. There are some flashes of humor, especially regarding the publishing industry, but for the most part this is a reminder that we live in a country where people are judged by the color of their skin and Black families have to sit down with their children and have The Talk, to explain how to react if they’re stopped by police. It truly is a quirky, at times perplexing, yet always thought-provoking read that is perfect for book groups and upper high school and college literature classes. I guarantee that if you try Hell of a Book, you won’t soon forget it!

Or What You Will, by Jo Walton ~ 4.5 Stars

Tags

Adult Fiction, Fantasy, Florence, Metafiction, Shakespeare

Thanks to NetGalley and Tor Books for providing an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Release Date: July 7, 2020

320 Pages

Synopsis: From the Hugo, Nebula, and World Fantasy Award-winning author of Among Others, an utterly original novel about how stories are brought forth.

He has been too many things to count. He has been a dragon with a boy on his back. He has been a scholar, a warrior, a lover, and a thief. He has been dream and dreamer. He has been a god.

But “he” is in fact nothing more than a spark of an idea, a character in the mind of Sylvia Harrison, 73, award-winning author of thirty novels over forty years. He has played a part in most of novels, and in the recesses of her mind, Sylvia has conversed with him for years.

But Sylvia won’t live forever, any more than any human does. And he’s trapped inside her cave of bone, her hollow of skull. When she dies, so will he.

Now Sylvia is starting a new novel, a fantasy for adult readers, set in Thalia, the Florence-resembling imaginary city that was the setting for a successful YA trilogy she published decades before. Of course he’s got a part in it. But he also has a notion. He thinks he knows how he and Sylvia can step off the wheel of immortality altogether. All he has to do is convince her.

I absolutely LOVED Or What You Will, but I have to caution that this isn’t a book for everyone. If I say this is a book for serious readers who live and breathe books, I hope I’m not coming off as a condescending, pretentious snoot. It’s just that you’re not a big time reader, particularly of the fantasy genre, there’s a lot that will just fly by you. Also, if you’re not familiar with Shakespeare’s The Tempest and Twelfth Night, there’s going to be even more you’ll miss out on. Even Walton’s title harkens back to the full title of Twelfth Night which was Twelfth Night, Or What You Will.

The novel is really two stories woven together. There’s Sylvia’s story, where we learn everything about her from her childhood, her marriages, and her time in Florence. The second is the new story she’s working on which is a fantasy version of Florence called Illyria, and it’s where Shakespeare’s characters come into play. While I enjoyed the imaginative world building of Sylvia’s new creation, my favorite chapters are the ones featuring the unnamed Narrator who began as Sylvia’s childhood imaginary friend, and is now her muse as well as the starring character in all her novels. Their discussions are intimate, playful, and utterly fascinating and I felt as though he knew her better than she knew herself at times. Whenever the book moved back to Illyria, I found myself impatiently wanting to get back to the Narrator and Sylvia.

In the end, Or What You Will is one of the most meta of meta fiction novels I’ve ever read. It’s a sumptuous ode to readers and writers, Shakespeare, and the beautiful city of Florence. It’s a tale with characters I will not forget anytime soon. This is my first book by Jo Walton, but it’s apparent to me that she is a consummate storyteller and I’m looking forward to reading her other books. I’m just going to finish by saying that if you choose to pick this up, be prepared for a reading experience quite unlike any you’ve had before.