It's Time For a Change

For the last 13 years, The Underground has been a book review blog -- my own little slice of the internet where I could share my thoughts on the books I’d read -- but that’s not how things started. I originally created this space in 2009 to record the ups and downs of my publishing journey. It’s where I scribbled down my thoughts on new publishing trends, where I celebrated getting an agent, and commiserated about my book failing to sell. After parting with my agent in 2012, I decided to take a step back from writing, though I couldn’t let go of the publishing world entirely. Slowly, this blog shifted into a promotion space, where I tried to help both authors and readers connect over their shared passion. I treated every review like a mini book report – I analyzed plot, characters, writing style, what worked and what didn’t, all in an attempt to keep my skills sharp, so that when I returned to writing, I would be ready.

Through the years, I got the chance to connect with a variety of authors and industry professionals. I worked with publicists at Big 5 publishing houses who connected me to authors like Soman Chaini (The School of Good and Evil series) and Carter Roy (The Glass Gauntlet). I received numerous ARCs, which included Lauren Oliver's Vanishing Girls, Wesley King's OCDaniel, Deb Caletti's A Heart in the Body of the World, as well as hybrid books like Between Worlds, which integrated 'augmented reality' technology through a connected app. I've worked with a variety of indie authors, like Eliza Green, Cornelia Funke, Dani Hoots, and many others. I worked with indie publishers, like Slug Pie Stories, as well as book promotion companies, like Rockstar Book Tours and YA Bound Books. These connections ultimately led me to new opportunities, like working as a sensitivity/authenticity reader for Scholastic. 

And it has been a blast.

But the time has come for me to move on. Reviewing books has taught me so much about the craft of writing, but the itch to create has been nagging at me for many years now. It’s time to prioritize my own creative pursuits, in the hopes that someday, others will get the chance to return the favour and review something that I wrote.

So, The Underground is transitioning back to its original form – a blog where I can catalogue the ups and downs of my publishing journey, and a place for me to record my thoughts on the industry as a whole. That’s not to say I’ll never write another book review, but they’ll be occasional, one-off affairs, where I focus on celebrating the books that blow me away, instead of critiquing everything I read. I’ll also post short, opinion-based reviews on Goodreads, both good and bad, so if you’ve enjoyed my take on books, feel free to give me a follow there. I’d love to have you.

Finally, I’d like to thank you, my readers. It’s been a pleasure sharing my love of books with you. Whether you stopped by often, or stumbled through here once out of curiosity, know that I am grateful you took the time to click through. Sometimes running this blog could be a lonely affair, and it often felt like I was shouting into the void, but every once in a while, a reader would leave a comment, or re-tweet my reviews, and it brought me joy to know that people were connecting with what I’d written.

I’m not one to ask for engagement, but if this blog happened to benefit you in some small way – perhaps you found your next read, or learned something from my analysis, or found enjoyment in my cheesy puns – then please, leave me a comment and tell me about it. It would mean the world to me to know that my efforts benefited you in some way.

Thank you again, and I hope you’ll join me in the next phase of my journey.

Cheers,

Kyle 

Book Review: This is Where We Talk Things Out

 

Book Review: This is Where We Talk Things Out by Caitlin Marceau 

Goodreads Description: After Miller's father dies, she agrees to a girls' vacation away from the city to reconnect with the only family she has left. Although she’s eager to make things work, Miller can’t help but worry that her mother is seeing their countryside retreat as a fun weekend getaway instead of what it really is: a last-ditch effort to repair their relationship.

Unfortunately, that quickly becomes the least of Miller’s problems.

Sylvie's trapped in the past and if Miller's not careful, she will be too. A cross between Stephen King's Misery and Stephanie Wrobel's Darling Rose Gold, This Is Where We Talk Things Out explores the horror of familial trauma, mother-daughter relationships, and what happens when we don't let go.

My Review: Oh man, I knew I had to review this one. This novella has its flaws, but it's clear that Caitlin Marceau is a writer to watch. Her writing style combines elements of Shirley Jackson's domestic horror with Stephen King's thriller-esque tension, which allows her to redress the home as a site of unsettling evil. Marceau has an excellent sense for what makes horror horrific, which allows her to craft images that stay with you long after the book is over. I have no doubt that Marceau will make waves in the horror genre in the years to come. 

If I had to sum up this book in a single word, it would be: claustrophobic. Every aspect of the book feels suffocating -- the setting is small, the snow keeps the characters trapped inside, the relationship between mother and daughter is painfully enmeshed. As Miller tries to pull away, her mother clings harder to her and an imagined past that ignores the reality of their troubled relationship. This push-pull tension between mother and daughter is so deliciously fraught that it makes it hard to stop reading-- until that very last scene, when Marceau shows us the result of this unchecked, obsessive relationship. I finished this book a long time ago, and that final scene still gives me the creeps. 

Overall, my concerns with the book are fairly minimal. My biggest issue is that Marceau reveals the mother's instability far too early by showing her stalking Miller at the beginning of the story. Some of the writing is a bit clunky, with description serving little purpose outside describing appearances, and the pacing feels a bit off for the first third of the book. Yet these issues are quite small, and I can see Marceau quickly improving in these areas in future books. If you're a fan of domestic horror, this story is definitely worth checking out.  

TL;DR: The horrors of the home are never ending. 3/5 stars. 

Book Review: Horrorstor

Book Review: Horrorstor by Grady Hendrix 

Goodreads Description: Something strange is happening at the Orsk furniture superstore in Cleveland, Ohio. Every morning, employees arrive to find broken Kjerring bookshelves, shattered Glans water goblets, and smashed Liripip wardrobes. Sales are down, security cameras reveal nothing, and store managers are panicking.

To unravel the mystery, three employees volunteer to work a nine-hour dusk-till-dawn shift. In the dead of the night, they’ll patrol the empty showroom floor, investigate strange sights and sounds, and encounter horrors that defy the imagination.

A traditional haunted house story in a thoroughly contemporary setting, Horrorstör is designed to retain its luster and natural appearance for a lifetime of use. Pleasingly proportioned with generous French flaps and a softcover binding, Horrorstör delivers the psychological terror you need in the elegant package you deserve.

My Review: If you're looking for a novel version of the low-budget, B-grade horror movies that you watch when you want to turn your brain off, this book will be perfect for you. 

If you're looking for a story that says something about capitalism, consumerism, the psychology of surveillance, haunted houses, etc., then you will be disappointed. Horrorstor is a traditional horror that's not as much fun as the cover design and blurb would lead you to believe. Spliced between chapters are rather funny depictions of torture devices framed as furniture ads, yet the book doesn't play with these ideas of torture and consumerism at all. They just become objects in the story used to... you guessed it... torture. I assumed, based on the book's design, that the story would have an element of satirical humour to it, but it's written as a straight gore-porn horror, which was disappointing. The book's design and the actual story do seem disjointed in that way. 

Not only does the story take itself too seriously, but there's no substance to it. The beginning implies that the characters are going to "learn" something -- that the ghost will teach them "the error of their ways" -- yet this falls painfully flat because the character's are so two dimensional that there's no depth for Hendrix to explore. Characters are punished by the ghost for being bad workers, but the narrative isn't consistent on whether the ghost is right or wrong in punishing them. Amy, the protagonist with an anti-corporate mindset, is punished by the ghost for not being a "team player," but the book waffles on whether being a "team player" is actually a good change for her. Is the ghost right, does she need to change? Or is it trying to brainwash her into being a corporate drone? The book dabbles with these questions but drops them very quickly, making it unclear how Amy's character development should progress. For a book that marketed itself as looking at the "horrors of consumerism," it doesn't have a clear stance on the subject at all. The book pushes an anti-capitalist perspective through Amy, but it also routinely chastises that perspective. It's like the book wants to be anti-capitalist without understanding what that means. The ending also falls flat, both as a commentary on capitalism and as a conclusion to the narrative. It's a shame, because there's a real solid idea housed within these pages, but the execution was way off. 

TL;DR: All in all, 2/5 stars. All flair and no substance makes Horrorstor an underwhelming flop. 

Book Review: I Crawl Through It

Book Review: I Crawl Through It by AS King 

Goodreads Description: Four teenagers are on the verge of exploding. The anxieties they face at every turn have nearly pushed them to the point of surrender: senseless high-stakes testing, the lingering damage of past trauma, the buried grief and guilt of tragic loss. They are desperate to cope, but no one is listening.

So they will lie. They will split in two. They will turn inside out. They will even build an invisible helicopter to fly themselves far away…but nothing releases the pressure. Because, as they discover, the only way to truly escape their world is to fly right into it.

The genius of acclaimed author A.S. King reaches new heights in this groundbreaking work of surrealist fiction; it will mesmerize readers with its deeply affecting exploration of how we crawl through traumatic experience—and find the way out.

My Review: This book is certainly a product of its time. It was published in 2015, when internet meme culture began to shift away from XD rawr randomness, mustaches, and hipster irony. The book uses this "randomness" meme culture as a metaphor to explore domestic trauma, mental health, and the struggles of growing up, but it feels like a "fellow kids" moment, as King doesn't seem to have a clear grasp of the culture she's emulating. 

This book's approach to trauma is... interesting, to say the least. It features a cast of protagonists that are all coping with their personal traumas, though even after finishing the book, it's hard to tell what each character is actually dealing with. The book cloaks the reality of what happens in surrealism, and then relies on that surrealism to convey the emotional fallout and coping methods of each character; how they "crawl through it," if you will. But either King is scared of naming the traumas outright -- perhaps that would shatter the denial-like illusion -- or she has little understanding of how to express traumatic experiences through surrealism due to a lack of personal experience -- or both. Because of that, the surreal elements lack metaphorical significance to the events at play. Everything feels disjointed and purposeless -- random without any understanding of what made "randomness" meme culture work. Some of the metaphors used did connect back to the subject in a powerful way, such as China turning herself inside out as a response to anxiety, but so many elements feel completely disconnected. Several characters escape to a "genius-land" on an invisible helicopter, and while I could see the intention behind this subplot (escaping the stressors of reality through an imaginary paradise), the metaphor completely falls apart once they arrive and it fails to communicate anything meaningful about escapism, the myth of genius, academic/career pressures placed on youth, etc. 

It's a shame, because surrealist fiction can effectively express the confusion and intensity of traumatic emotions, but King doesn't dive deep enough into the emotions to achieve that. It's just randomness for randomness' sake, with no thought behind the arrangement of surrealist elements. There's no emotional gut punch here, no interesting metaphorical take on life, or even cool magical realism vibes. The book pretends to be deep, but it's shallower than the kiddy pool. 

TL;DR: All in all, 1/5 stars. Painfully underwhelming. 

Book Review: Code Name Verity

Book Review: Code Name Verity by Elizabeth Wein 

Goodreads Description: Two young women from totally different backgrounds are thrown together during World War II: one a working-class girl from Manchester, the other a Scottish aristocrat, one a pilot, the other a wireless operator. Yet whenever their paths cross, they complement each other perfectly and before long become devoted friends.

But then a vital mission goes wrong, and one of the friends has to bail out of a faulty plane over France. She is captured by the Gestapo and becomes a prisoner of war. The story begins in “Verity’s” own words, as she writes her account for her captors.

My Review: Classifying this book as YA was a bit of a strange choice. While the coming of age and friendship aspects are very YA, the voice feels off. The book spends a lot of time on female war pilots -- how they lived, worked, and were promoted -- to the point where it slows down the narrative. It adds to the historical accuracy at the cost of pacing, and makes me think this book would fit better in the adult market. It often reads like a report more than a novel, and while that works with the WW2 setting, it doesn't really jive with a teenage voice. Wein does insert some obvious teenage moments to make the characters feel younger, but these moments stick out, and read like they were added later in order to age the manuscript down. 

Other than that, the book is fairly solid. The framing of "Let me tell you how I ended up in this situation" is a little cliche, but Wein shakes it up by focusing the story on Maddie, the pilot back home, rather than Verity, the spy captured by the Nazis. This creates an air of mystery around Verity and her circumstances, as we only learn about her through the way she tells the story of her friend. Honestly, my biggest gripe with this book is that it's not sapphic. There's a weird romantic tension between the two main girls that I wish would have been expanded on. It would have deepened the stakes and tension while also exploring queerness during the time period. I have no problem with friendship stories -- in fact I love them, and wish there were more -- but these girls did not read like friends. Friendships feel more genuine to me when there's a sense of unconditionality - when people know that they can fully be themselves, because the other person loves them for who they are. Yet with romantic interest, there's always a bit of tension and the players are more cautious, because they can sense something powerful building, and they have no idea what's going to happen to their relationship when that "something" comes to light. In every scene with Maddie and Verity, I could feel the weight of that romantic tension, but it never boils over into anything real, leaving me rather unsatisfied by the end. It felt like eating a dish that was missing a key ingredient.

 

All in all, if you're a history buff, then absolutely snatch this up. If you're not interested in WW2 history, you're not missing much by passing on this one. 

TL;DR: 3/5 stars. A deep dive into WW2 pilots in novel form. 

Book Review: The Memory of Animals

 

Book Review: The Memory of Animals by Claire Fuller

Goodreads Description: In the face of a pandemic, an unprepared world scrambles to escape the mysterious disease’s devastating symptoms: sensory damage, memory loss, death. Neffy, a disgraced and desperately indebted twenty-seven-year-old marine biologist, registers for an experimental vaccine trial in London―perhaps humanity’s last hope for a cure. Though isolated from the chaos outside, she and the other volunteers―Rachel, Leon, Yahiko, and Piper―cannot hide from the mistakes that led them there.

As London descends into chaos outside the hospital windows, Neffy befriends Leon, who before the pandemic had been working on a controversial technology that allows users to revisit their memories. She withdraws into projections of her past―a childhood bisected by divorce; a recent love affair; her obsessive research with octopuses and the one mistake that ended her career. The lines between past, present, and future begin to blur, and Neffy is left with defining questions: Who can she trust? Why can’t she forgive herself? How should she live, if she survives?

My Review: Written in the wake of Covid, this novel captures the emotional uncertainty of quarantine and ramps it up to a nightmarish, apocalyptic extreme. It strikes an interesting balance between the external and internal - between the mystery of Neffy's past and the mounting apocalypse outside her window. While this book has speculative elements, it's a literary novel first and foremost, with most of the narrative focused on reflection and introspection. The characters do eventually contend with the chaos outside, but the climax primarily revolves around the emotional and internal conflicts, rather than large scale action. 

This book has excellent tension and pacing. The narrative flip-flops between the past and the present at just the right moments, creating a series of mini-cliffhangers that kept me devouring pages. At the beginning of the book, I found the flashbacks to be the most engaging part of the story, but near the end, it was the present timeline that I was eager to return to, which mirrors their roles in the story. Neffy retreats into her memories at the beginning of the novel as a form of escapism, but eventually it becomes a maladaptive coping strategy which ends up taking her away from what she needs to focus on. I'm curious if other readers felt the same way towards the flashbacks, because the effect certainly seems purposeful, but maybe that was just my experience while reading. 

I would recommend this book on vibes alone, because the writing is GORGEOUS! The atmosphere, the prose, the very likeable and very flawed people trapped together. The climax doubles as a reveal, where the people we thought we knew turn out to have committed heinous acts out of fear, yet in order to survive the very real apocalypse outside, Neffy still has to find a way to work with these people. The end comes with this loss of innocence, yet despite everything, Neffy is able to pull her crew together and forge ahead. Even in the face of tremendous uncertainty, loss, and betrayal, the book seems to say: we will persevere and life will go on. I found that really beautiful. 

TL;DR: 5/5 stars. An introspective sci-fi that explores the psychological and interpersonal effects of quarantine.

Book Review: Self-Portrait With Nothing

 

Self-Portrait With Nothing by Aimee Pokwatka 

Goodreads Description: Abandoned as an infant on the local veterinarian’s front porch, Pepper Rafferty was raised by two loving mothers, and now at thirty-six is married to the stable, supportive Ike. She’s never told anyone that at fifteen she discovered the identity of her biological mother.

That’s because her birth mother is Ula Frost, a reclusive painter famous for the outrageous claims that her portraits summon their subjects’ doppelgangers from parallel universes.

Researching the rumors, Pepper couldn’t help but wonder: Was there a parallel universe in which she was more confident, more accomplished, better able to accept love? A universe in which Ula decided she was worth keeping? A universe in which Ula’s rejection didn’t still hurt too much to share?

My Review: What a weird little book. 

If I had to sum up this book in a single word, it would be: contrived. Everything in this book is so forced that it was difficult to read at times. Characters often acted against their own established motivation in order to advance the plot. Pepper, the main character, acts on flimsy assumptions that turn out to be correct, making it feel like she's pulling answers out of thin air. She also comes across as a Mary-Sue in the sense that nearly every character falls over themselves to help her. Characters she's never met approach her with critical plot information because she "seems nice." Some even wait on her hand and foot, literally, like in the scene where a supporting character rubs Pepper's feet. Her boyfriend has no life outside her, people fall over themselves to help her for no reason-- after a certain point, it all started to feel a little narcissistic. Perhaps this story works as wish-fulfillment for people who dream of being the center of the universe, but it just reminded me that this was some writer's fantasy, which kept pulling me out of the story. 

It's a shame, too, because there's an interesting idea at the core of this story -- painted portraits as portals to parallel worlds-- but sadly Pokwatka doesn't do anything interesting with this concept. It ends up being a lame excuse to make clones, as Pepper soon finds herself overrun with multiple versions of her mother. This could have been an interesting analysis of motherhood -- how does each version respond to Pepper, and what does that say about her relationship with the mother from her own universe? Instead of exploring the concept with any depth, the book focuses on the 'wacky hijinks' of a bunch of clones who need to do a Serious Job™ yet can't stop fighting like the Three Stooges.

TL;DR: All in all, 2/5 stars. A great concept wasted through a horribly contrived execution.