Digging deep

 So, as I've been slowly sorting boxes of books from the basement that came out of Mom's house, I found a high school favorite, Thrill by Patricia Wallace. Now, let me point out the obvious, it is a Zebra Imprint from the early 90's, and therefore generally regarded as supermarket pulp. To which I say, who cares? it's readable and memorable, even with a few formatting errors and a resolution that makes no sense at all. 

Anyway, the whole set up in that Billionaire Sheldon Rice has built an exclusive amusement park north of San Francisco, excavating a mountain to do so. ($3000 a day, 7 day stay for everyone coming.) Wesley Davidson, who's barely 20, designed all the rides. Part of Wesley's contract stipulates that once a month, 5 disadvantaged youth get to come for a week free. Which gives us child prostitute Celeste, tough guy Max, oddball Ben, good girl Betsy (who's being groomed by her principal), and Jesus, who slipped over the border from Tijuana after his family died. 

We have local doctor Taylor, who's father owned part of the mountain The Park is built on. When he sold it, he got harassed to death. We have Sheriff Young, who really doesn't want to deal with the headaches The Park brings. And then there's the enigmatic Ezra, the mountain man who Rice thinks is sabotaging The Park. 

Anyway, other than a few minor accidents on opening day, things go ok until the Thursday, when all hell breaks loose. There's quite a bit of "Did Ezra sabotage things? Did the insects do this acting on behalf of a deeper power? Was it an EMF pulse?" to go along with the known things, like the security guard who covers up crushing a man to death when the man breaks into a ride, or the software engineer who maybe was screwing with Wesley's code. 

I mean, it's a fun, in nonsensical at times ride, that brought back a sense of vicarious excitement I felt reading it years ago. Much love to an old classic.

Papa Loves Mambo

 I had picked up Greg Herren's Mardi Gras Mambo at Half Price Books a while back, but kept pushing it down the TBR pile for shinier books. While I will never regret my decisions on reading order, it wound up being better than I had anticipated.

Evidently there are two books in the series that precede this, and one follow up, so I jumped in at the middle of the ongoing metaplot. Scotty Bradley is the gay grandson of two wealthy New Orleans families, with very two hippie parents. As this book opens, he's works as a private investigator with his two boyfriends, which is his first real stable paycheck. (Evidently, both sets of grandparents cut him off from the family trust funds, thus why his previous jobs have been stripper and personal trainer.) One boyfriend is former FBI, the other has a rather cloudy past. Scotty can read tarot cards, and occasionally receives visions from the Goddess. 

Anyway, the book starts a few days before Mardi Gras. Scotty has convinced his two straight laced boyfriends to try Ecstasy for the festivities, while they run around in costumes that reveal how built they all are. Which is all well and good, until Scotty's dealer, Misha, winds up dead not long after Scotty buys the drugs.  

Which, since Scotty was the last one to see him alive, makes Scotty the prime suspect. 

There's a hell of a lot involved here, from nearly identical triplets all using the same name, to long buried family secrets. And the final disposition really doesn't make sense, since I can't figure out how a murderer could shoot someone from behind while standing in front of them. On the other hand, the tone of the book does a neat job of staying between total camp, total smut, and deadly serious, which is difficult to achieve in gay mystery fiction. 

Going to have to find the other 3 books now.

Violating a rule here

 So, normally I don't blog or list of good reads when I read something that qualifies as Intermediate Readings, since those reviews are generally better left to teachers teaching kids in the age range. However, after running across The Hardy Boys Ghost Stories while going through boxes in the basement, I'm going to go ahead and blog and log it, since I've actually had a lot of fun rereading this slim volume. 

Amazon has a better pic, but this is my copy.

 So I've probably owned this since second grade, and it remains in decent condition. (I have a few other volumes out of this particular set of adventures; you can click the tags on this to see the overly long essay I wrote about their history.) However, what surprised me on rereading was how well the stories in here have held up.

 That has nothing to do with the accidental homoeroticism involving Joe Hardy at all.

We start with "The Walking Scarecrow", which gave me nightmares as a kid. Boys are on their way home from hiking, break down, decided to walk to the farmhouse they saw to use the phone, but feel like the scarecrow warned them away from the house. Seriously, while not a ghost per se, the Scarecrow seems to be doing its best to drag Joe and Frank out the farmhouse. Which, at the end, we find out is because lightning strikes the house as they return from a wild goose chase and the house burns down. 

Next is "Mystery of the Voodoo Gold", in which Frank and Joe get told by a Fortune Teller in Underground Atlanta not to do a few things, which they promptly do, which leads to nearly drowning in a root cellar where Simbo, a voodoo protection doll, watches over his master's treasure. 

Then comes what it likely my favorite of all of them, "The Disappearance of Flaming Rock". Joe and Frank are in Arizona, near a town that vanished off the face of the Earth. Literally. Seems a prospector his Flaming Rock, and found the town deserted, but things like dinner on the stove still cooking, and a swinging light in the church bell tower. When people went to look, they found the town gone, as if it never existed. Frank and Joe drive up, and guess what they find? Seems the town hanged the local Apaches, so the Great Spirit cursed Flaming Rock and all its inhabitants to wander the spirit world for all eternity homeless. 

Fourth story is "The Phantom Ship", wherein Frank and Joe's fishing boat dies and they get taken aboard an 18th Century Whaler. Inhabited by 18th Century Crewman. Who think the modern boys are insane, and somehow manage to get everyone really confused as to where the are. This is also an old favorite, since honestly, the ghost ship should have made them walk the plank for mutiny.

Then comes the illustration from the front cover, "The Haunted Castle", where Frank and Joe wind up in a Haunted Castle in Scotland. Their appearance winds up fulfilling a prophecy, which sets the ghost free of a witch's curse. 

We finish with "The Mystery of Room 12", in which Joe is haunted by the ghost of a sailor's son. Joe finally gets the boys flute back to him, and resolves the ghost's fetter. 

Now, while all of this is really really improbable, not the least of which is how two high school kids can be all over the globe for this stuff to happen (a problem with the entire series, that you don't particularly think about when you're in the age range), it's still fun reading, with more than a little learning hidden in the bare bones stories. (You get an age appropriate lesson in whaling, information on Widow's Walks, exactly how poorly settlers treated Native Americans, why you listen to the gypsy lady with the crystal ball.) Even nearing 50 though, this scratched a nostalgia itch I was unaware I had, and brought back some childhood wonder that the series of this era inspired in me. 

But Seriously, I blame Joe Hardy illustrations for much of my sexual awakenings.

Puttanesca

 I finally got around to reading Morgan Brice's Last Resort (which is what I meant to buy when I accidentally bought a book in another series I already own), and was not disappointed. 

We're joining Erik and Ben as they have officially moved in together in Cape May, New Jersey. While they're in love, there are adjustments to arranging a life together in one space. Add into this anonymous mailing of haunted poker chips to the store Trinkets, and the murder of a former mob accountant at Ben's rental property, and it's a bit more. 

Basically, the crux here is that the accountant hid a large stash of money somewhere in the area, and managed to get killed upon returning to Cape May to get some more. His ghost isn't happy. The Mob ain't happy because it was their money. The Accountant's nephew ain't happy because he needs to apy off a debt. 

Given this is Morgan Brice, you have a general idea of what's going to end up happening by the end, although this is the second book where I feel like the ending got a lot rushed. (I mean, the story is great and engaging, and I can see the ending, but it still feels a bit like "Oh shit, I'm over my word limit, so let's cut out some of the climax so I don't go over."

Still fun, and I love the connected world here. 

I've got that Evil Spirit DOWN IN MY HEART!

 When I was growing up, I missed reading the Fear Street Cheerleader cycle, which is sad, since the original cover art belonged in a Grady Hendrix review. 

I mean...

 

 The trilogy, now reprinted as one volume, unfortunately loses the cool cover art in favor of this.

 

 Not as cool.

 

Anyway, the story centers at first on Bobbi and Corky, two teenage girls transplanted from Missouri to Shadyside, where they audition for the Cheer Squad, against the wishes of a few of the girls. (This came out long before Bring it On, so I can't blame that for this.) They get on, which means the Freshman on the squad gets bumped to alternate. On the way to the first away game, Bobbi realizes she left the fire batons at her house, so the bus makes a run to Fear Street so they can grab them. Or attempts to, since the bush crashes into the Fear Street Cemetery, and Cheer Captain Jennifer gets thrown from the bus and lands on Sarah Fear's tombstone. Jennifer survives, but is paralyzed. Bobbi, the older sister, becomes cheer captain, sparking jealousy in Kimmy. Then Bobbi gets locked in a shower and drowned in scalding water. (This is one of the very few Fear Street novels with actual deaths of major characters. Generally, if someone dies, it's a villain or a random adult.) 

This of course, makes Corky go a little nuts, but she eventually finds out who did it, and gets the bonus of finding out the responsible party was possessed by and Evil Spirit. Said spirit supposedly gets trapped again in the grave of Sarah Fear. Except, no, in book two the spirit is back, possesing another cheerleader and tormenting Corky again. We eventually find out who's hosting, get rid of the spirit, and head into book 3, wherein someone else gets possessed, we go to cheer camp, we learn how Sarah Fear got rid of the spirit, and we get a few The Exorcist homages. 

So,m while I'm aware my love of the Fear Street series is mostly nostalgia, since most of the books don't quite hold up to my memories of reading them, these were not particularly good, even for nostalgia. The three installments, while continuing a story line, really have some fairly glaring continuity errors, or at least unanswered questions, like, if the possessed in book 2 doesn't remember anything that happened at the end of the book, why is she still besties with a girl she loathed in book one when she wasn't possessed in book 3? It all works best when we focus on the jealousy and envy in the squad, although when Hannah joins in book 3, Corky never acknowledges particularly that her feeling about the new recruit outshining her mirror how others felt in book one. That, and Corky and Bobbi's family are almost non entities, occoasionally popping up to give them something to worry about.

 

Honestly, I enjoyed it for what it was, but it really missed a lot of opportunities.

Lighthouse trolls

 Morgan Brice's BadLands series continues with Thunder Road, in which newlyweds Simon and Vic get mixed up in weird vanishings among a motorcycle club and protections from certain Carolina lighthouses failing.

Basically, the thrust of this is that certain North Carolina Lighthouses form a 7 pointed star, while several lighthouses down the South Carolina coast provide energy to those to keep bad things at bay, both natural and supernatural. Seems that as lighthouses either got shuttered or automated, the lighthouse keepers weren't reinforcing the protections, thus they started fading. Which means a certain primal elemental is getting enough function back to start making vanish in thin air. 

Fun read, and what I've come to expect from the author.

Book Review

 I wound up checking out Paul Tremblay's Horror Movie since it was on a lit of suggested books based on stuff I've been reviewing. Saw that he write a book I heard good things about but already knew the ending to, and figured I'd give this one a try.

Let me see if I can explain this book. Our narrator is never named, so I, like probably everyone else, thinks of him as The Thin Kid, the name of his character in the movie that forms the central point of the book. We spend the book bouncing back and forth through time, with a reboot/remake of a movie that never really got released, titled Horror Movie. Seems at some point, Valentina, the director, edited and released 3 scenes from the movie on YouTube and dumped a PDF of the script in a few horror forums, and it got interest in the movie going. In the past, TTK narrates the filming of the movie, and we get excerpts of the shooting script. The script is art house horror, with everyone playing roles named after the actor, one murder scene involving a 5 minute shot of an empty doorway, lots of notes from Cleo (the screenwriter) about what is actually supposed to be implied from each shot, and how she thinks the audience will react. Shortened down, 3 kids lead a 4th to an abandoned school, make him wear a mask, and torture him. He eventually becomes a masked killer who turns on his creators, eventually vanishing into the shadows under the survivor's bed. 

Problem being there were problems on the shoot, including TTK actually getting his pinky chopped off in real life, and ya know, an accidental chainsaw death during filming the final scene. 

 Or was there?

A few passages suggest TTK is a very unreliable narrator. (Add to the conceit here, he's supposedly dictating the narrative as an audiobook.) He discusses having his finger chopped off during filming, but then discusses someone else chopping it off much later in the timeline. Music listed in the script wasn't written when the script was released, suggesting the person who leaked it had done some revisions. Stuff like that. Frankly, about the only narration that feels honest in here by the time we get to the end is his description of signing autographs at a Horror Convention. (One gets the distinct sense the author was relaying his own experiences through the narrator here, minus the whole getting confronted about the missing finger thing.) And the ending... Well, I guess it fits in with the original movie script about finding the meaning for yourself, as much as figuring out how much of the final chapter you're willing to take as honest has meaning. 

I enjoyed this one, even if it did leave me with more questions than answers, but I think that was the point of this narrative. Worth checking out if you're inclined.

Once again, I got behind

 Evidently Valdemar (book 3 of Mercedes Lackey's The Founding of Valdemar trilogy) came out in 2023, and I missed it. Well, that has been remedied, and I can now say I have finished the story of how Baron Kordas of of the Duchy of Valdemar became King Kordas of Valdemar, First of his name. 

The book picks up roughly ten years after the last book, with the remnants of the escape living in what they're calling Haven. While many people who came on the journey either stayed at the lake or moved elsewhere, the remnants are fairly well organized and establishing a kingdom. The Hawkbrothers are less present, but still able to be in contact. An Adept of not quite known hostility is north of the kingdom, running their own city, and absorbing some of the groups unhappy with Valdemar. 

We get a lot of watching the children grow into their roles, and Kordas does eventually deign to let them crown him King, against his better wishes. This leads into a very strange magical firework show against the shields, which in turn leads to Valdemar's legendary prayer that births the Companions. Amusingly, the first companions share some information that later on in the timeline Valdemar Heralds don't get until much later. 

Speaking of, the Adept turns out to be a missing Hawkbrother Prodigy who vanished after learning her first Fire spell. (AKA tying it in with Mage Winds, where we find out this was the legendary Ma'ar's trick to eternal life.) 

It's a really fun and quick read, although it is very much a Lackey Valdemar novel. You know what you'e in for when you pick it up.

Reform School Girls

 Grady Hendrix is one of the authors I enjoy reading as soon as I find out a new book is available, which is amusing, since a few of his listed beta readers are authors I don't understand the appeal of particularly. 

His last book was really nerve touchy though, and I found this one hitting a few nerves I didn't know I had, which indeed heightened my enjoyment,other than wanting to slap a few characters. 

Witchcraft for Wayward Girls is set in 1970, with unwed mothers from the south arriving in Saint Augustine, Florida, to deliver their babies for waiting adoptive parents. (I know one of the comments I read prior to reading this was wondering how a male author was going to tackle this subject matter. While I can't comment from experience here, he seems to do well with it.) Neva, our major focus character, arrive at the home and is promptly assigned the name Fern. (The mistress of the home, Miss Wellwood, assigns plant names to all the new arrivals, discouraging the girls from knowing anything about their lives outside their shame.) We have a nurse on sight, a doctor who does wellness exams through the pregnancy, a housekeeper/cook and her sister, and a social worker as staff. every two week, Miss Parcae comes with the Bookmobile. The girls don't leave the home until it's time to go "Downtown", and are discouraged from the woods, due to the murderous hippie encampment  back there.

About a third of the way through, Miss Parcae slips Fern How to be a Groovy Witch, with instructions to keep it hidden from the adults. The first thing the coven of four Wayward girls does is cast a spell allowing Zinnia (the only black girl at the home; the cook is black, but she is a bit out of child bearing years. Zinnia is also almost force to stay in the home's attic until hippie Rose switches rooms with her) to transfer her morning sickness to the doctor. (This is actually pretty funny, and doc kind of deserves it; he keeps insisting the sickness is mental and a sign of her compromised morals.) Then it gets more serious, as we find out Holly, the youngest, is bearing her pastor's baby, and the pastor is planning on adopting the baby with his wife so he can continue molesting Holly and her daughter. 

Zinnia is unhappy with the pact the coven signed, and keeps looking for ways to help Holly without magic. Rose ends up taking another path after she has her child; I won't spoil the surprises here, but her treatment is horrifying, and her revenge is just as horrifying. On the other hand, her revenge gives us a much better understanding of Miss Wellwood, and shows us Hagar, the black cook, is a rootworker who can counteract some of the more damaging coven magic. Eventually everything resolves, and no one really gets a happy ending, but things sort of work out for the best-ish. (An epilogue brings us several years into the future and shows us some of what happened after everyone left the home.)

The horror in here isn't just the The Craft style slip into power beyond their ability to understand or control, or the designs of the older coven; there's plenty of accurate non supernatural horror to go around here as well. The molestation, the girls trying to hide when they're going into labor to ry to keep their babies, mothers getting threatened to get locked up so they can have the baby taken away due to insanity, the episiotomy and stitches the doctor tells the mother her future husband will appreciate, the treatment of unwed pregnant girls by outsiders, the fact that all the mothers to be be chain smoke, the way the fathers of the babies and the fathers of the mothers treat them...I mean, the amount of people I wanted to smack in here was horrendous. I realize it's a fairly accurate representation of the homes and the attitudes of the time, but wow, it's ugly. Also got me thinking about my grandmother's support of the home here in Columbus, and realizing it wasn't just a southern thing. Also the lack of any kind of sex ed for the characters hurts.

A very good book, and frankly way more serious than what Hendrix usually produces.

The nightmare begins

 So, one of the purchases I made with birthday money was the omnibus Fear Street: The Beginning featuring the first four novels in R. L. Stine's Fear Street series. (To be fair, I know I owned all of these as a teen, but they've vanished over the years.)

We open with The New Girl, in which gymnast Cody falls in love with Anna, the eponymous New Girl who lives n Fear Street in Shadyside. Anna is a bit... old fashioned, and Cody's best friend/neighbor Lisa doesn't like her. Anna's brother Brad keeps insisting Anna is dead, and pushes Lisa down a flight of stairs at the Sadie Hawkins dance. In the end, we find out Anna is actually Anna's sister, who killed Anna because Anna got all the attention. Lisa and Cody wind up dating.

Next is The Surprise Party, wherein Meg finds out an old friend is coming back to town a year after her boyfriend died in the Fear Street Woods. Meg decides to throw a surprise part for Ellen. Meg keeps getting death threats because of the party. Party happens, we find out Meg's boyfriend thought he killed Ellen's boyfriend, but it was actually somebody else. We also get a whole bunch of nearly Satanic Panic shit about D&D. 

Continuing on, The Overnight involves the Shadyside Outdoors Club taking an overnight without adult supervision on Fear Island. In this one, Della runs into psycho, thinks she kills him, finds out when everyone goes back to get rid of evidence that the guy was still alive, as was his partner. 

We finish with Missing, we get twin narration from Cara and Mark, who live on Fear Street with frequently moving parents. Said parents fail to come home one night, or for several days thereafter. Come to find out the police officer they've been talking to is a crooked cop, Mark's girlfriend's father runs a White Supremacist Cult, and Mom and Dad are FBI. 

So, while there are volumes in this series I really enjoyed, the ones collected here reminded me of how I learned as a teen that a great cover might be the only redeeming quality of the volume within. I do remember thinking Stein was trying to edge out Christopher Pike in the YA Horror glut of the late 80s early 90s. While this is partially true, I have more than a few volumes from much earlier with an author name that's belied by and R L Stine copyright. Also, while Pike had no issues adding the supernatural into his writing, Stine mostly avoided doing so. (I think later volumes added hints of things, but his YA never really went all out. his Tween books, notably the whole Goosebumps series, on the other hand....)

 These may have started it, but they're really not up to what would come later.