Kiss-Off the Devil: 9 Short Stories by Terrance Aldon Shaw

(pb; 2015: erotic story anthology)

From the back cover

"The truth isn’t always 'nice,' and those who would dig down to the roots of human folly should expect to get their hands at least a little dirty.

"This collection transports readers to the realm of the forbidden, probing the dark, seldom-explored reaches of illicit desire and obsession where opposites attract and lust burns on any fuel it can find. Ranging in mood from the comically macabre title story, to the poignant realism of  'All the Things They Never Got to Say'. . . and 'Another Detour (Alternate Timeline),' these tales challenge our comfort zones and scandalize the earnest little angels sitting on our shoulders, while inviting their opposite numbers to come out and play.

"If the stories in this book were made into movies they would no doubt be rated somewhere between R and NC-17. Not so much for graphic content (though there is a fair amount of that) as for “adult situations.”


Overall review

Kiss-Off is a superb, memorable, vivid, entertaining, erotic and taboo-bursting story collection, one worth owning – if you are a mature, non-PC reader, not put off by works that are fearless, sensual and provocative.

Stories

"All the Things They Never Got to Say”: Cinematic-vivid tale about three foster siblings whose cruel adoptive mother drives them to tender and dark extremes. Excellent, erotic work that integrates close-to-taboo topics with Bible-based abuse. This is one of my favorite reads in this collection.

“Birthday Girl”: A fickle and cruel young woman with a sleazy, alcoholic family tries to sexually “play” her her godfather, with dangerous results.

“Muse in the Neon Twilight”: Good read about a young woman (Julia) who finds she has a strange attraction to her boyfriend’s long-winded and freak-minded professor.

“A Girl From White City”: During a game of Truth or Dare, a young woman (Danni) tells her fellow players about her first interracial affair. What sets this work apart from other tales of this setup/ilk is Shaw’s brief-but-effective exploration of the inconsistencies of the human mind and desire.

“Kiss-Off the Devil”: Excellent, plot-twisty work about a disgraced teacher with a penchant for adolescent girls, a sexy Tinkerbell (who seems to be of legal age), and her ex-boyfriend. This story is a hybrid genre piece that is often funny, always dark and un-PC, fearless in its just perversity. This is one of my favorite entries in this anthology.

 “All the Surveys”: A physically unattractive and pervy-erudite educator speaks about his divorce, Wild Orchid (film, 1989) and sex in this eighteen-page “interview,” where the female interviewer remains unheard. This first-person point-of-view story read like an intentional, alternate version of “Kiss-Off the Devil” in certain parts.

 “Becoming Roxanne”: Seventeen year-old Lois works her first escort gig with her best friend (Tegan). Their clients: the savvy, sexy Mr. Silverman and a grotesque, brusque Russian named Bruno. “Roxanne,” like other tales in this collection, is un-PC. It embraces sex and its professionals, without being cliché and cheap; this is an outstanding read, as long as you do not require romance and are not put off by smart, adolescent-themed desire.

“The Why in Everything”: Chatty work about familial mortality, socially inappropriate urges, human nature and the thematic layers of the 1989 film Dead Calm. Excellent, unsettling and wise story.

“Detour (Alternate Timeline)”: Two of the characters from “The Why in Everything” – siblings Dave and Traci – are shown in a variable take of events. This, like its co-dependent tale, is full of unsettling conversations about familial matters, the differences between lust and love, the underying BDSM themes of John Norman’s “The Chronicles of Gor” series, and how people – with their surprising layers – change over time. Excellent, provocative, standout stuff.

Post Office by Charles Bukowski

(pb; 1971)

From the back cover

"It began as a mistake." By middle age, Henry Chinaski has lost more than twelve years of his life to the U.S. Postal Service. In a world where his three true, bitter pleasures are women, booze, and racetrack betting, he somehow drags his hangover out of bed every dawn to lug waterlogged mailbags up mud-soaked mountains, outsmart vicious guard dogs, and pray to survive the day-to-day trials of sadistic bosses and certifiable coworkers.

This classic 1971 novel--the one that catapulted its author to national fame--is the perfect introduction to the grimly hysterical world of legendary writer, poet, and Dirty Old Man Charles Bukowski and his fictional alter ego, Chinaski.


Review

Bukowski’s first, semi-autographical novel is a lusty, drunken and don’t-give-a-frak politically incorrect work that often made me laugh out loud. In it, Henry Chinaski drinks too much, loves and fraks numerous women, and sometimes works at the US Post Office. Post is a book that – had it come out today – would have been protested for its raw, honest and sometimes ugly depictions of a ne’er-do-well whose heart is evident even as he acts like a don’t-give-a-damn bastard. Excellent, focused and landmark with its humor and outlook, this is one of my all-time favorite reads. It is not recommended for the politically correct, the otherwise easily offended, those certain of their purity, and those who are oh-so-certain that there are no gray areas in life.

Vic Valentine: International Man of Misery by Will Viharo

(hb; 2017: seventh book in the Vic Valentine series. Published by Thrillville Press.)

From the back cover

"Vic Valentine, Private Eye is back in business -- as a dog walker. A really, really bad one. While drunk in a dive bar one rainy Seattle night, one of his canine clients tied up outside goes missing. The twisted trail leads him from Vancouer to Minneapolis to Houston to Mexico City and then all the way down to Costa Rica. Along the way he encounters nefarious businessmen, dangerous drug dealers, tropical cocktails, flesh-eating zombies, voracious vampire women, and a luscious Latina bombshell that may or may not turn out to be the long lost love of his life."


Review

International is a dark, delightful pulp novel. In it, Viharo weaves wild elements and sub-genres into an addictive, fleet-footed and hallucinogenic read: sexploitation, P.I. intrigue, conspiracies, zombies, dog-centered writing, vampires, divine(?) intervention (hello, Ivar!) and – as promised – international travel. Of course, all of this is punctuated with Viharo’s recurring characters, quippy-sometimes-silly humor, and an awareness of life’s underlying melancholy. 

What makes International one of my favorite Viharo books is how, over the course of seven books, he has evolved Vic’s character by making him wiser, even as Vic continues to embrace his inner freak-up.

As is often the case with Viharo’s works, this a heady brew, excellent and timely work, one worth owning. If you have not read earlier Vic Valentine novels, International works as an entertaining, stand-alone read. Followed by Vic Valentine: Lounge Lizard for Hire.

In the Miso Soup by Ryû Murakami

(pb; 1997, 2003. Translated from Japanese to English by Ralph McCarthy.)

From the back cover

"It is just before New Year's. Frank, an overweight American tourist, has hired Kenji to take him on a guided tour of Tokyo's sleazy nightlife on three successive evenings. But Frank's behavior is so strange that Kenji begins to entertain a horrible suspicion: that his new client is in fact the serial killer currently terrorizing the city. It isn't until later, however, that Kenji learns exactly how much he has to fear and how irrevocably his encounter with this great white whale of an American will change his life."


Review

Miso is an unsettling, excellent and off-beat take on the serial killer theme, with an oddball villain (of sorts), personal and provocative notions of politics and culture, darkly engaging and repulsive points of views, with occasional displays of Grand Guignol splatter. This book is one of my all-time favorite serial killer reads, unafraid to break established horror structures.

Quicksand House by Carlton Mellick III

(pb; 2013)

From the back cover

"Tick and Polly have never met their parents before. They live in the same house with them, they dream about them every night, they share the same flesh and blood, yet for some reason their parents have never found the time to visit them even once since they were born. Living in a dark corner of their parents' vast crumbling mansion, the children long for the day when they will finally be held in their mother's loving arms for the first time... But that day seems to never come. They worry their parents have long since forgotten about them.

"When the machines that provide them with food and water stop functioning, the children are forced to venture out of the nursery to find their parents on their own. But the rest of the house is much larger and stranger than they ever could have imagined. The maze-like hallways are dark and seem to go on forever, deranged creatures lurk in every shadow, and the bodies of long-dead children litter the abandoned storerooms. Every minute out of the nursery is a constant battle for survival. And the deeper into the house they go, the more they must unravel the mysteries surrounding their past and the world they've grown up in, if they ever hope to meet the parents they've always longed to see."


Review

Quicksand is an excellent mixture of mystery, science fiction, horror and bizarro fiction, one worth owning. What Mellick has that so many other bizarro authors lack is tight editing, good characterization (which lends itself to a strange sense warmth, bond between key characters) and a willingness to experiment with genre expectations. This is one of my favorite reads of 2017.

Lovecraft Country by Matt Ruff

(hb; 2016)

From the back cover

"Chicago, 1954. When his father Montrose goes missing, twenty-two year old Army veteran Atticus Turner embarks on a road trip to New England to find him, accompanied by his Uncle George—publisher of The Safe Negro Travel Guide—and his childhood friend Letitia. On their journey to the manor of Mr. Braithwhite—heir to the estate that owned Atticus’s great grandmother—they encounter both mundane terrors of white America and malevolent spirits that seem straight out of the weird tales George devours.

"At the manor, Atticus discovers his father in chains, held prisoner by a secret cabal named the Order of the Ancient Dawn—led by Samuel Braithwhite and his son Caleb—which has gathered to orchestrate a ritual that shockingly centers on Atticus. And his one hope of salvation may be the seed of his—and the whole Turner clan’s—destruction."

Review

 Lovecraft is an entertaining, mainstream and cinematic collection of event- and character-linked stories that seamlessly weaves Lovecraftian horror, leavening humor and racial violence into a word-efficient tale with a climax that brings together all the characters and plot strings that came before it. This is an excellent fractured novel, one of my favorite reads of 2017.

#

In May 2017, it was announced that Lovecraft will soon be the basis for a forthcoming HBO horror anthology series, produced by Jordan Peele, J.J.Abrams and Misha Green.

Dog Eat Dog by Edward Bunker

(hb; 1996)

From the back cover

"Dog Eat Dog, Bunker's fourth novel, follows Troy Cameron, a reformatory graduate like Bunker. A terrifying and brutal narrative, the novel tracks his lawless spree in the company of two other reform school alumni, Diesel Carson and Mad Dog Cain. . ."


Review

Caveat: Do not read this book if you are put off by racial epithets (which ring character-true), sexism, graphic brutality, ex-con honesty and noiresque endings.

Dog is a compelling, nihlistic crime thriller with fated, larger-than-life characters, raw language and violence, and other human-born darkness that contribute to the lead characters' certain doom. Its pace is swift, its prison-harsh rules ironclad and its bloodshed repentless (in regards to the characters inflicting said punishments). This is an excellent, rings-true read, one worth owning if you like your genre thrills gritty, wild and black-as-tar. Dog is one of my favorite reads of 2017.

#

The film version was released stateside on November 11, 2016. Paul Schrader (who also played Alex Aris, a.k.a. "El Greco") directed the film. Matthew Wilder wrote the screenplay.

Nicolas Cage played Troy Cameron. Christopher Matthew Cook played Charles "Diesel" Carson. Willem Dafoe played Gerald "Mad Dog" McCain.

Robert Maples played Jimmy the Face. Louisa Krause played Zoe. Reynaldo Gallegos played Chepe. Louis Perez played Mike Brennan. Magi Avila played "Nanny" [to Brennan's infant].

The EC Archives: Weird Science Volume Two by various authors and artists

(hb; 2007: graphic novel. Foreword by Paul Levitz)

From the back cover

"The second volume of Weird Science features classic stories written by Al Feldstein, and illustrated by such master artists as Wally Wood, Joe Orlando, Jack Kamen, Harvey Kurtzman and Feldstein himself. This stunning collection reprints issues Weird Science #7-12, a total of 24 complete breathtaking EC science fiction stories, originally published in 1951 and 1952."


Review

This graphic novel is a art-nostalgic, wondrous gem of a book. Its space-themed morality tales, which borrow from pulp, horror and Biblical genres, are -- for the most part -- excellent works. There are a few stories whose twists and endings are disappointing, but even they are well-illustrated and entertaining in cheesy/genre-centric ways. It is worth owning.

Followed by The EC Archives: Weird Science Volume Three (by various authors and artists).

Every Time We Meet at the Dairy Queen Your Whole Fucking Face Explodes by Carlton Mellick III

(pb; 2016)

From the back cover:

"Known for his cute, disturbing, and utterly absurd novels, cult author Carlton Mellick III returns with a tale of childhood love and spontaneous face explosions.

"Ethan is in love with the weird girl in school. The one with the twitchy eyes and spiders in her hair. The one who can't sit still for even a minute and speaks in an odd squeaky voice. The one they call Spiderweb.

"Although she scares all the other kids in school, Ethan thinks Spiderweb is the cutest, sweetest, most perfect girl in the world. But there's a problem. Whenever they go on a date at the Dairy Queen, her whole fucking face explodes. He's not sure why it happens. She just gets so excited that pressure builds under her skin. Then her face bursts, spraying meat and gore across the room, her eyeballs and lips landing in his strawberry sundae.

"At first, Ethan believes he can deal with his girlfriend's face-exploding condition. But the more he gets to know her, the weirder her condition turns out to be. And as their relationship gets serious, Ethan realizes that the only way to make it work is to become just as strange as she is."

Review:

This sweet-natured, physically icky, original and fast-moving novella is a joyous, sometimes laugh-out-loud read, an R-rated romance for those with bizarro, flirting-with-horror leanings. Every, a near-impossible-to-set-down work, is one of the best strange books I have read in a long while -- worth owning, this.

The Kingdom by Fuminori Nakamura

(hb; 2011, 2016: translated from the Japanese by Kaulau Almony)


From the inside flap:

"Yurika is a freelancer in the Tokyo underworld. She poses as a prostitute, carefully targeting potential johns, selecting powerful and high-profile men. When she is alone with them, she drugs them and takes incriminating photos to sell for blackmail purposes. She knows very little about the organization she’s working for, and is perfectly satisfied with the arrangement, as long as it means she doesn’t have to reveal anything about her identity, either. She operates alone and lives a private, solitary life, doing her best to lock away painful memories.

"But when a figure from Yurika’s past resurfaces, she realizes there is someone out there who knows all her secrets: her losses, her motivations, her every move. There are whispers of a crime lord named Kizaki—“a monster,” she is told—and Yurika finds herself trapped in a game of cat and mouse. Is she wily enough to escape one of the most sadistic men in Tokyo?"


Review:

Kingdom -- Nakamura's tenth novel -- is a thematic-sister work to The Thief (Nakamura writes this in his "Author's Afterward" at the end of the book). Structurally, it follows the same storyline blueprint as Thief, with several characters from that earlier novel populating Kingdom. While it maintains the same gritty, desperate tone of Thief, it has a different undertone to it: much of this undertone springs from its lead character's personality and her story, told from a first-person perspective. And, like Thief, it is a waste-no-words, pulp-centric and character centered story that is hard to set down.  This is a book worth owning, another perfect offering from Nakamura.