Yeah, I'm Scowling

Scowler by Daniel Kraus
New York : Ember, 2014.
289 p. ; 22 cm.     

I wish I could say I liked this book - I really do.  It's supposed to be a devilishly good Midwestern Gothic tale. It is an intense, twisted, psychological horror story of human depravity and domestic violence - which just didn't move or captivate me.

It's an odd tale of a 19 year old young man who at age ten survived his father's attempts to kill him after beating and torturing his wife.  Unfortunately for us and for the young man, his psyche is a twisted bin of delusions, violence, sexual frustration and anger - embodied in his three vividly imagined "living" playthings - a bear, a little Jesus, and a toothy, vile looking toy with very sharp edges - yep, Scowler.  All of this comes exploding to the fore when there  are the surreal impacts of several small meteorites in rural Iowa where this tale takes place.  This cosmic event breaks open the prison where his father is being held - setting him free to come after the family again, and plants a weirdly magnetic and never cooling meteorite on the farm where the family lives.

There were times as I read it that it just felt sordid and creepy.  I'm okay with dark and violence, but for me it has to have more than the goal of just entertainment or creating the "ick" factor (which this book definitely does).  However, I think I'm in the minority in my lack of enthusiasm for Scowler.  The book has received many rave reviews (check out the book's official page), and is popular with those wanting mature and gruesome horror tales.

It's not a book I'll be pushing, but if someone finds it and likes it, that's okay with me.

Honey and Dream

Bone Gap by Laura Ruby
New York, NY : Balzer + Bray, an imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers, 2015.
345 p. ; 22 cm.

What a fine and unusual novel this is.  In some ways I think I should end my review here and say, "Just read it for yourself, and see."

I read Bone Gap after seeing it come up several times - a finalist for the National Book Award and a Printz Prize winner this year.  As you can see on the author's website, the book has received a great deal of high praise - and I'd have to concur.  The author both employs - and cleverly does away with - realistic narrative.  Several reviews acknowledged "magical realism," but it is more than that - dreamy, psychological and mythical.

I love that the novel is set in a town that actually exists in my home state, and yet it really only exists between the covers of the book. I also appreciate that the novel could well be a lovely little adult novel and not just a young adult novel.  It tells the story (stories) of two brothers, the likeable and unlikable characters of the town, a Polish immigrant, a kidnapping, a romance (two romances?) and the magic of love and imagination.  What more could you want from a simple, and not so simple, coming of age story.

The novel made me think a bit of Bradbury's Something Wicked This Way Comes, Master's Spoon River Anthology, and even works of Günter Grass.  If you like well written novels, with a touch of romance, mystery, magic and danger, then Bone Gap should definitely be on your to-read list.