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stygian

Book Review of Stygian, by Santino Hassell

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StygianI bought a copy of Stygian, by Santino Hassell.

Description from Goodreads:
Jeremy has been isolated and adrift since the death of his brother. Most people just see him as the skinny emo kid who wears eyeliner and plays drums. No one gets him. Nobody tries. He thought the indie rock band Stygian would become his anchor, but—lost in their own problems—they’re far from the family he sought.

Still, hoping to get close to Kennedy, the band’s enigmatic guitarist, he follows Stygian to northern Louisiana for a summer retreat. They had planned to spend six weeks focusing on new music, but things go awry as soon as they arrive at the long-deserted Caroway mansion. Tempers flare, sexual tension boils over into frustration, and Jeremy turns away from the band to find a friend in his eerily beautiful landlord Hunter Caroway.

Kennedy suspects there’s something off about the creepy mansion and its mysterious owners, but Jeremy thinks he’s finally found somewhere he fits. It isn’t until Kennedy forces the Caroways’ secrets into the light that Jeremy realizes belonging sometimes comes with a price.

Review:
This one ticked a lot of boxes for me. I have come to love Hassell’s writing style and his basic….I don’t know what to call it, tone maybe. Just the way everything I’ve read by him, regardless of the genre, has a certain feel to it that I love. It’s gritty. It’s real. It’s maybe even a little nihilistic. It pretends happily ever after can’t exist, even if a character gets it in the end. Maybe you’d have to read his stuff for that to make sense.

In Stygian, Hassell has created a host of seemingly unlikable characters. I mean all of these guys repelled me at some point, some so much I didn’t think they’d be redeemable. But Hassell pulled that off too. The whole thing is as creepy and atmospheric as you’d expect a gothic style, Southern horror novel to be, with a villain that’s maybe a little more complex than first appearances suggest.

My only real complaints are that the narrative is a little conversational at times and I didn’t really feel the connection between Kennedy and Jeremy. A lot of it is pre-existing, based on events prior to the time frame of the novel. I definitely felt what Hassell is doing here, but I had to just take his word for it. As much as I liked Kennedy and Jeremy (and I did), the strength of emotion seemed sudden. (Though some of this feeling was ameliorated after reading the prequels.)

Lastly, there had better be a sequel or I may have to go a little Annie Wilkes on Hassell. (Ok, not really, but please be a sequel.)

As an additional bonus, if you read the book and want more, there are two prequels available. One from Dreamspinner (Feeling You) and one posted on Binge on Books (A Night in the Life). And though not quite out at the time of this posting, I’m told there will also be a Stygian related story in the free anthology Lead Me Into Darkness.

Book Review of Stalked (The Slayers #2), by H.C. Brown

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StalkedI received a copy of Stalked, by H. C. Brown, from Netgalley.

Description from Goodreads:
Who’s more dangerous – a stripper, an assassin, or a serial killer?

The Stripper Ripper is stalking the streets of New York City, preying on male strippers, and the press is making mincemeat of a helpless police force.

In desperation, the police refer the serial killer’s case to the Slayers, a team of enhanced, undercover super soldiers. The commander of the Slayers puts his team on the streets to watch over the Ripper’s favorite targets.

One of these targets is Micah, a twink stripper and a desirable sub. Micah’s baby sitter is one of the newest members of the Slayers, Sorren, as cold-blooded an assassin as they come, and the last person you’d expect to harbor feelings for his charge.

True to form, Sorren is as surprised as anyone at his new infatuation, but Micah is hiding something. Will Micah learn to trust his protector, or is he destined to be the next victim on the Stripper Ripper’s list?

Review:
When I finished this book and went to Goodreads, to write this review,  I discovered that this is a second in a series. I wouldn’t have picked it up if I had known that. I like to read series in order. But I don’t think having read the first book would have made me like it any more. But I am always baffled why publishers don’t put that information on book covers. It’s freakin’ important!

Anyhow, this book was a fail for me. My overall impression was of overpowering, almost unbearable cheesiness. Everything about The Slayers was too perfect. Sorren flashed cash constantly, bought Micah new clothes, pampered his cat, had an easy solution for everything, etc. As an example, at one point Micah demands $1,000 a night as a fee in order to accept a job. This is apparently the going rate for a skilled dancer. (I don’t know.) The counter offer was an apartment in the five star building, food, living expenses (hair cuts, clothes, massages, sex are listed as examples), and $5,000 a show. Um….too good to be true and painfully unbelievable. But pretty par for the course of a book trying too hard to be like a fairy tale.

But my main complaint was with the characters. There was no depth at all, no history, no development. And as much as I like the occasional growly alpha a-hole, Sorren was just a dick. Here’s a quote: “No! I refuse to discuss limitations, or contracts. I am a Dom and in my dungeon, we go by my rules. I will push you to the edge and you will trust me to give you pleasure.” That pretty much sums the book up. That’s the level of trust and communication presented as the norm. Keep in mind that these men have known each-other less than a day and this is his response to Micah’s request for boundaries.

There’s an earlier scene, in which they had known each-other less than an hour and Micah asks Sorren if he’s into edge play, ’cause for Sorren Micah claimed to be willing to learn it. Micah had never done more than be spanked and they were no discussing kink, but hey let’s throw this random one out as an invitation. No matter that less than an hour earlier he’d watched his best friend get his throat slit and been stabbed himself. Of course knife play is gonna be exactly what the reader expects him to be fantasizing about. WTF? What the actual f*ck?

Basically, I found the plot anemic, the use of “I’m a Dom” to excuse and explain almost everything in life irritating and artificially highlighted, the cheesy ‘Dom-speak’ like sandpaper, the villain cliche beyond words, the events predictable, Micah was TSTL, there are a number of inconsistencies/contradictions, and the whole thing (almost every aspect of it) rushed and underdeveloped. The actual writing itself was fine. The book is easy enough to read, but not much of what was written actually appealed to me personally.

Chained Melodies

Book Review of Chained Melodies, by Debrah Martin

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Chained MelodiesAuthor, Debrah Martin sent me a copy of Chained Melodies for review.

Description from Goodreads:
“Chaos is about rejecting all that you have learnt, chaos is about being yourself.” Emile M. Cioran

If chaos theory applied to anyone, it’s Will and Tom. Best friends since childhood, life takes very different courses for them until they’re thrown back together in the middle of their own individual chaos. Surviving the terrors of war in Northern Ireland and the heartbreak of childlessness and a broken marriage, Tom learns that bravery isn’t about daring death, it’s about facing life. For Will, it’s about being yourself – or in his case, herself, as he starts an unusual journey towards being just that; the woman, Billie.

Review:
Spoiler Alert: I’m not planning to give anything significant away, but I do plan to discuss the ending.

I have some real mixed feelings on this one, because some aspects of it I really loved and others not so much. Before I get to any of that, let me just say the writing here is marvelous and the late 70s-through 80s was a wonderful setting. My only real complaint, writing-wise, is that Will/Billie’s journaling didn’t really work for much of the book. His/her* POV is provided in the format of a diary, and it works in the beginning. But as the book progresses his entries become longer and more narrative-like, until eventually they no longer read like diary entries at all. The language is too florid, the descriptions too rich, the details too frequent to be a believable diary entry. It was a pleasure to read if you ignored the fact that it was supposed to be what it was supposed to be.

I liked both characters a lot and I really liked their…I’ll call it a romance, even though it’s not really. Neither acknowledges it as such. But their thoughts about eachother are sweet in a romantic (though not erotic) kind of way. I liked this a lot.

I did have some trouble believing Will’s transsexualism. And I don’t think I should have. The author’s research was apparent…a little too apparent at times. Some of his experiences were just a little too textbook. But mostly my trouble arose because his self-exploration took the form of some kind of soft focus, bemused curiosity. There was no anger, shame, disgust or bad feelings about himself or his body at all. Not to suggest all transgendered individuals must feel this way, but every real-world account I’ve come across or interview series or personal account, etc all heavily accentuate this as part of recognizing they are not residing in the correct body. Will just sort of floats along wondering if he’s gay or not and then suddenly meets a transsexual and decides that’s what he is. I couldn’t buy it.

I understand that up until a certain point he can only consider himself in ways he has a perspective for, and sexuality was something his worldview presented as possible for exploration and gender was not. I understood that, but I never sensed he had any real issue with his body, until suddenly he did. It all felt kind of sanitized.

This was all exasperated a little bit by the fact that he’s described as being so obviously feminine. This is emphasized to such a degree that I felt that having a feminine appearance was integral to being transgendered, as if he couldn’t have been if he was 6′ 2″, 200lbs and balding. Don’t get me wrong, I really liked him as a character and I was willing to accept what I was being told, but I had to make a conscious decision to do so.

Tom, however, Tom I bought completely. I really enjoyed his oblique self-revelations. I liked that he tried so darned hard to be a good man and failed over and over again. I loved his self-reproach and cowardice. He was a shit (and I’m pretty sure that’d be the word he used to describe himself), but he was a shit who was trying to learn to be a better man. But this is part of why I had trouble with the events involving his ex-wife that led to the ending. It’s not that I don’t think he would do it in some circumstance, but I thought that bridge had been burned a little too thoroughly for a man trying to break free to cross again. Especially since the ex-wife was such the cliché manipulative harpy.

Actually, I had a lot of trouble with the end. I have to just come out and ask, what is with all the unnecessary tragedy? I mean, it’s the story the author wanted to tell, so it’s not pointless per se, but a very real part of me wants to ask why non-cisgendered/heterosexual characters almost never just get an unmitigated happy ending. It’s like they’re the Red Shirts of the romance realm. Why do they have to suffer (be punished) before being given a little scrap of happiness they are expected to be thankful for, even in books like this one, that I’m confident was written in support of such characters?

I did really appreciate how richly the characters lives were depicted and how visceral the time period was shown to be. People have real problems—mental illness, abuse, neglectful parents, alcoholism, hopelessness, illness, infertility. And I liked that these are realistic blue collar people. Tom joins the army then works in a factory. Nothing glamorous in that, but it’s real-life for so many people.

All in all, I had a few rather major complaints about the book (or certain aspects of it), but I generally really liked it. I liked Will/Billie and Tom. I liked their slow realizations. I liked the depth of writing and the patience with which the plot progresses. I think the book is well worth picking up.

*I use both pronouns here, instead of just the feminine, because for much of the book Will is unaware of his gender dysmorphia and Will and Billie are almost presented as separate characters. To ignore Will (him/he) would leave out an integral part of the story.