Tag: Review

Jenna’s Side: Devil’s Eye (Review)

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Hi, it’s Jenna again with the latest edition of Jenna’s Side from frozen up Saskatchewan, Canada. With the temperature hitting minus 40 here this month (Before you ask, is that Celsius or Fahrenheit? Yes.) it’s the perfect time for me to curl up with a great book. So I did.

I have read voraciously for as long as I can remember, and was never really interested in picture books, except Robert Munsch because I’m a good Canadian and Mr. Men/Little Miss because of course.  Oh and The Cat Who Wore A Pot On Her Head. If anyone feels so inclined to get me a copy of that, I won’t refuse.  Ha ha I digress. I tell you this to explain why the sight of a 5 year old reading a chapter book was commonplace in my home, and why I read Treasure Island for the first time at that age.  Right around the same time I discovered Grimm fairy tales, but a couple years after I developed my life-long crush on Batman.  Yes, I was a weird child.  Now I’m a weird adult. This is fine.

So I’ll be brutally honest. A book about pirates? My first thought was, what am I, five again? I have never been so happy to be proven wrong.

Cameron Walker has clearly written Devil’s Eye as a labour of love, as his deep appreciation and enthusiasm for the subject matter shine through in every scene. He spent a decade writing and editing Devil’s Eye and it was a decade well spent. If I had to sum it all up in one sentence I would say its like Pirates of the Caribbean, but without the romanticism and Disney magic, much more raw and visceral.

The world of Devil’s Eye is well-researched and carefully crafted to be close enough to reality to be believable, but far enough away to be an escape that lets you forget you are reading and immerse yourself in it.  In many scenes, especially the battle scenes, it plays out like an action movie, which you watch between your fingers because you can’t decide whether or not you want to see what happens next. (Content note: there is a lot of blood and gore.  It’s not gratuitous; it all feels necessary. But if you’re more squeamish, you will struggle to get through.)

Ultimately, you’ll decide that you want to see and that’s because Cameron has put in just enough suspense to keep you hanging on. Every time you want to look away, you’re pulled back in. More than a few times, I had to put the book down–no, that did NOT just happen.  I don’t even want to know.  Oh who am I kidding, yes I do.

The characters are the real strength of Devil’s Eye. They make its world come alive and keep it from being the 5-year-old story I feared. They are all relatable in unexpected ways–I found myself just a little bit in love with the Devil’s Eye’s motley crew of antiheroes, especially Crimson Jack, and hoping despite myself through each twist and turn that things would work out for them. 

Crimson Jack has the charisma of his namesake from Pirates of the Caribbean, alongside the blood-and-power lust and wits of the likes of Ching Shih. Seriously, if you haven’t heard of her, Google her now. I’ll wait.

Was I right, or was I right? And that’s just one. The entire crew have the kind of stories that don’t quite make me want to join them at sea, but maybe meet up at a pub or something. Of course that would most likely lead to them drinking me under the table and dragging me off, because pirates, but that’s another story.

I love the complex moral code of the pirates as well. They could easily be out for blood, money, power, and booze, not necessarily in that order. And they absolutely are, otherwise what a boring story this would be. But they are also trying to support their families in a system that leaves them few other viable options.

I highly recommend Devil’s Eye as the kind of book you may not be able to read in a single sitting, but you’ll want to.

Rating: 5/5 Stars.

Through the Gates of the Silver Key: The Best Collaborations and Ghost Writings of H.P. Lovecraft (Review)

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Hi guys, It’s me, Forsaken Press Social Media Manager and Official Reviewer Jenna. Welcome to the second edition of Jenna’s Side, where I give my honest reviews of all the latest Forsaken Press releases. For round two I had the treat, and terror, of reviewing Through the Gates of the Silver Key: The Best Collaborations and Ghost Writings of H.P. Lovecraft. I must admit that prior to reading this collection I wasn’t too familiar with Mr. Lovecraft’s work, having only read a handful of his stories before and knowing him mostly by reputation. So this was a fun, interesting, exciting and certainly anxiety/fear invoking experience.

Preparing this anthology for release was truly a battle against the Old Ones, with the file now holding bits and pieces of the sanity of our editor in chief and our formatting staff.  Possibly some of the sanity of this reviewer too, but I leave that to you to decide.  It was definitely all worth it to share some of the most underrated works of one the most influential horror writers of all time. 

Just in case you thought you knew everything Lovecraft had to offer, Cameron Walker painstakingly chose some of the more obscure Lovecraft writings, poring through the ghost-writings and collaborations.  Then he combined them to take the reader on a journey through the fantastical horrific visions Lovecraft is known best for, with some more traditional horror-magick sprinkled throughout.   Anthologies can often read like textbooks with dull introductions, but Walker uses his introductions to add humour, insight, and controversy, keeping it from being a dry academic book.

I decided to review each story individually and then give an overall score at the end of the review to sum things up. So let’s get to it shall we?

Under the Pyramids

Under the Pyramids is a fascinating tale of horrific visions.  As Walker writes in his introduction, Lovecraft lost his original draft and had to spend his wedding night hurriedly rewriting the commission with help from his wife.  It reads, therefore, with a breathless energy which serves it well, making it almost seem as though Houdini, the ostentatious narrator, were telling the story aloud from memory.

Rating: 4/5

The Curse of Yig

Let me preface this:  I can handle a lot of stuff in books.  I’ve only stopped reading one book due to the imagery and that was The Partner by John Grisham because of its great attention to detail in its description of exactly what would happen when someone was tortured with electrical current.  It’s not pretty.  The Curse of Yig is wonderfully disturbing in a similar way.   So I finished it, but then I was done with reading for a while.  As well, I’m usually pretty good at figuring out what is about to happen, but this had two twists I didn’t see coming…

Rating:  Shudder.  5/5

The Mound

Walker’s introduction describing The Mound as being akin to writing by Jules Verne got me hooked, as I have loved Jules Verne since  A Journey to the Centre of the Earth was my favourite book when I was 8.  I was not disappointed, as this turned out to be my favourite story in the anthology.  I definitely saw the parallels with Verne in Lovecraft’s descriptions of the world below as beautiful and terrible all at once.

Rating:  Can I cheat and give this one 6/5?  I really do love it so.

The Man of Stone

The Man of Stone is an easy, entertaining read, which reminded me of some of Neil Gaiman’s darker short stories, one of the best compliments I can give.  It doesn’t contain any of the fantastical imagery of the previous three stories, but it doesn’t need it—it is, instead, a tale of humanity’s inhumanity toward humanity, with just a little magick.  It’s just disturbing enough to keep your attention even though it feels like you know what’s happening next.  Plot twist, you don’t.  Or at least not in the way you think you do.

Rating:  5/5

The Horror in the Museum

Remember how I said I can handle lots in books?  The Horror in the Museum was where I went “Nope.”  Here, Lovecraft has perfected his eldritch horrors, removing much of the sense of the fantastical, almost beautiful, which is found in the works that precede this in the anthology, leaving a simple terror.  As Walker describes, this is a story of revenge for wounded pride.  It feels as though it would not be out of place on an incel forum—they don’t love me, accept me, understand me, give me what I want; I’ll show them and they’ll all be sorry —which adds to the terror for these female eyes.

Rating:  5/5

Winged Death

Usually I’m pretty eloquent.  Not about this.  About this:  GAH.  I haven’t even decided if that’s good or bad.  Winged Death has no fantastical creatures, no beautiful madness.  A simple housefly.  Or is it?

Rating:  Is GAH a rating?  No? Then I reluctantly give it 5/5 for getting itself stuck in the same part of my brain as cicadas and huntsman spiders. Twitch.

Through the Gates of the Silver Key

The Silver Key, to which this story is a sequel, speaks in depth of the shortcomings of the popular interpretation of post-modern existentialism:  if nothing is real and nothing truly exists, then there is no reason or meaning to anything.  In Through the Gates of the Silver Key, a solution is posited, which Lovecraft both relished and feared:  to escape into fantasy.  More than in any other story, here the fantasy dream world Lovecraft inhabits so often is understood as both joy and horror, almost as though he has forgotten it is a world of his own making.  No one gets out unchanged, and Lovecraft is no exception.  This realization is terrifying to him, and he shares this deep fear with us who read, including a scene which, for me, perfectly describes the awful sense of a night terror.

Rating: 4.5/5  I actually found myself drifting off reading this, because the scenery was oddly comforting.

Out of the Aeons

I love a good twist.  If I couldn’t see it coming, bring it on.  Out of the Aeons kept me guessing, second guessing, hoping I was wrong, then wishing I had been right because I was wrong and the reality was worse than my guess.  Rinse and repeat, up until the end.

Rating:  4/5

Till A’the Seas

While I sincerely hope that this is not a view of an inevitable future, I read this story as the nightly news presents me with stories of an apocalyptic hell on earth in Australia.  Our mythical frog is quickly turning into soup, and this story from Lovecraft eerily describes the nature of environmental degradation we are now seeing, and the apocalypse it is leading to unless things change.  Strangely, Lovecraft apparently in all of his most horrible visions could not imagine humanity doing this to ourselves, instead blaming the changes on the sun growing toward supernova.  Yet again, truth is stranger than fiction.

Rating: 4/5

The Disinterment

I wonder what it would have been like to experience this story for the first time from Lovecraft’s pen.  Although I wouldn’t call The Disinterment a warm fuzzy read, it is now a familiar tale, having inspired so many similar ones.  As such, you know what is coming and though it is still horror, it is almost comfortable.

Rating: 4/5

The Night Ocean

A story where nothing happens and yet everything does!  Oh be still my absurdist heart. Wait, not that still.

Rating:  I expected to love this from Walker’s brilliant introduction, but unfortunately I found myself…bored. 3/5 but with the caveat it was probably just as much me as it was the story.

The Diary of Alonzo Typer

Perhaps due to his attempts to keep to the style of his collaborator, this is unmistakably Lovecraft, but significantly faster paced than the other stories, save the panicked frenetic energy of Under the Pyramids.  Although it is another story of meeting the old ones and their terrible gods, this one differs as it focuses on the fascination and dread Alonzo feels before he descends rather than on the journey or the destination.

Rating: 4/5

In the Walls of Eryx

As Walker writes, this is the least Lovecraftian story in the collection—were it not for his signature use of strings of adjectives, it could pass as having been written by any sci-fi author.  Lovecraft leaves you to figure out what is happening along with the protagonist, only one step ahead, keeping you holding on to faint hope for him—if you could figure it out, so can he.

Rating: 4/5

Bothon

In his introduction, Walker introduces the controversy of just how much input Lovecraft had into this story before his death.  If nothing else, Bothon is set in Lovecraft’s world and informed by his fantastical horrible beautiful madness.  However, the hand of Whitehead, the collaborator, is evident in that the characters are not the least bit afraid of this other world and face it head-on.

Rating:  4/5

Overall I give this anthology a 5/5. I loved it. XD

Jenna’s Side: The Roots of Marvis Jedd (Review)

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Hello, my name is Jenna, welcome to Jenna’s Side, the Official Forsaken Press reviews page.  I’m 33 and I’m the Social Media Manager for Forsaken Press.  I live in a small town in Saskatchewan, Canada, and I’m slowly but surely working on my first novel.  I like books more than most people, and I also like books more than most people.  Ba dum tish.  So when Cam asked me to write regular reviews for the Forsaken Press blog, I jumped at the chance.  Let’s start with our newest release, The Roots of Marvis Jedd by Ken Dixon.

The book’s blurb:

“Returning apprehensively to his home town of Thune, writer Clay Reston endeavors to document the early years of enigmatic musician and fellow Thune native, Marvis Jedd. At every turn, he is reminded of the many reasons they both left as soon as they could.

The Roots of Marvis Jedd is a satirical, somewhat absurdist portrayal of small town life in the United States. Baring similarities to the work of existential philosopher Albert Camus, Clay Reston struggles to find a sense of meaning and purpose to his own existence and the people and events taking place around him, while writing a biography on his home town’s most famous son, Marvis Jedd.”

Do you love music? Mysteries? Stories of dysfunctional families and what passes for drama in small towns? The Roots of Marvis Jedd by Ken Dixon has all of this, and since I love all of these things, I love it. It turns the traditional literary pilgrimage story on its head, when Clay Reston somehow gets more and less than he bargained for at the same time.

My friends and I used to affectionately refer to a fun escape as a “turn-off-your-brain” story, and that’s what this is. But don’t mistake that for stupid or poorly written. The characters are engaging, although most of them would consider that an insult rather than a compliment. I relate strongly to Clay’s position as an outsider, wondering when or if he had ever belonged in the town, and trying to decide if he even wants to belong.

If you grew up in a small town like I did, you’ll recognize Thune.  The only thing everyone can agree on is Things need to be Done. But what things, and how?  Shrug.

If, like me and like Clay, you left and then came back, you live in Thune.  “No one ever comes back,” seemingly ignoring the many who do. I can hear the coffee row gossip at the diner in Thune now:  there’s Something Wrong with that boy. It’s said in hushed tones not quite hushed enough, because it isn’t just gossip, it’s public shaming with plausible deniability.  Because no one ever comes back really means no one leaves and gets away with it.

In addition, Ken Dixon perfectly captures the small-town waiting for something but pretending you’re not, caring deeply but pretending you don’t vibe, in a way that is slightly reminiscent of a combination of Waiting For Godot and Corner Gas, or like a town from a David Lynch or Terry Gilliam movie, for those of you not familiar with the prior examples.  Nothing ever happens, of course it doesn’t. Except for when it does.

Although he writes that he doesn’t live in Thune, I bet Ken Dixon did at some point.  He handles all of this with the dark humour of someone who has been there. This makes what could be a really depressing story into one which allows you to laugh at the absurdity of it all.

So if you’re looking for a good fun quick escape read, look no further, you’ve found one. If you are looking for some social commentary, you’ve found that too.

Rating:  5/5.

Solitary Confinement (Issue 6)

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The official weekly Forsaken Press Newsletter:

Issue 6: 07/12/2019

From the desk of the President and Editor in Chief, Mr. Cameron Walker.

Hello all,

It’s been a very chaotic week outside of Forsaken Press for many of our staff. What with people losing employment, having university finals, financial issues, sick pets and high anxiety provoking jobs. That’s without even getting to the issue of me trying to find more work to support myself and having both of my cats be sick and lose their appetites because of the haze of smoke that lingers over the city of Sydney. So as you can see its all on behind the scenes, but through it all we will persevere and do our very best to bring you some excellent new reading material from unknown writers.

First thing’s first. As per Murphy’s law of “If something can go wrong, it will,” we’ve had a few complications with the release of the paperback version of Devil’s Eye that was originally slated for release on December 14th. To cut a long story short, to ensure the novel is of the very highest quality we’re currently re-editing it in order to bring you a more streamlined, exciting and vibrant tale of high seas adventure. This process is taking longer than originally anticipated, hence we have had to cancel the December 14th release and reschedule it for December 30th instead. In addition to this the Ebook version of the novel will reflect the changes made in the paperback edition and will feature a brand new cover specially designed for the physical book.

We’ve had to reshuffle things with our release schedule around a bit as a result of that and other external factors, but the good news is all three of our promised releases for December will be still happening this month and we have another release slated to take Devil’s Eye’s place for a release date of December 14th.

On December 14th we will be releasing Ken Dixon’s, The Roots of Marvis Jedd. Which is a satircal look at small town life in American, seen through the eyes of journalist Clay Reston, as he seeks to write a biography on his home town’s most famous son, the mysterious Marvis Jedd. The novella will be launched for a pre-release on the 7th of December.

Other than that we are happy to announce the beginning of two new Forsaken Press programs to help promote the company on Facebook and Social Media. The first being our “Promotional Partnerships” program with other individuals, pages, companies and entities as a mutual promotion program. I am very happy to announce that our first promotional partnership is with our very own consultant and accomplished Indy writer Roxanne Bland, who’ has won numerous awards for her work.

The second being the Official Forsaken Press Web Team. Which is a group of dedicated supporters helping to promote Forsaken Press on Social Media by liking, commenting on and sharing our posts across Social Media to help expand our presence and let more people know who we are.

That’s it from me for now, but before I go I would just like to point out that we have now reached 500 followers on Facebook, which is a huge accomplishment. Thank you so much to everyone who liked our page and we hope to see you getting involved in the fun.

Warm regards and sincerest thanks,

Cameron Walker,
President and Editor in Chief,
Forsaken Press.