I'm Thinking of Ending Things - Iain Reed

On a recent work trip to Portland, OR, I found myself at Powell's Books. I've you've ever been to Portland, you've probably visited here. It takes up an entire city block. It's shelves are filled of new and used books. There are helpful tags everywhere regarding staff picks and recommendations. Good God, I could have spent hours here. And so ironically, I'm Thinking of Ending Things was a book I picked up on the first pass through the first room I entered. It's one of NPR's 2016 Books of the Year. So I figured I couldn't go wrong. 

For all the hype, I guess the book was a bit of a let down. Although it does some things very well for what it is. I should probably stress that horror is not my go-to genre. I don't seek out opportunities to be scared. But if you're into that thing, this book sets up very nicely. We start with driving in the car with Jake and his girlfriend. It took me a few chapters to realize she doesn't have a name, even though the narration is from her point of view. She's thinking of ending her relationship with Jake, but then she describes all the things she finds wonderful about him. So the premise feels off. I was wary. And then after a while and they were still in the car, I was bored. 

This is a 210 page book and the first 100 pages of the book are of Jake and the GF in the car driving to his parent's house. Who decides to break up with a guy but still agrees to meet his parents? The GF is also keeping a secret from Jake in that she is getting threatening phone calls from someone she refers to as "The Caller", someone who calls from her own number and then leaves cryptic voicemails. 

So there is this overarching uneasiness that starts to develop in the drive out to his parents that then evolves into a more menacing feeling as the meeting with the parents is predictably awkward. Jake's mom is a bit off and the house seems empty and old. There is a building of menace and it's very well done. 

Getting you even further into the plot would ruin a lot of things and the final twist, but I admit I didn't see it coming, although I did have a feeling that something was definitely off. The plot twist seems a little gimmicky and overall is like a push to have you read the book again from the perspective of knowing the ending (almost like wanting to go back and watch The Sixth Sense from the beginning once you find out Bruce Willis has been dead the entire time).

3/5 Stars. 

He Is Legend: An Anthology Celebrating Richard Matheson - Edited by Christopher Conlon

Beware of found books. 

I found this book in our office kitchen area. Was it discarded - was someone hoping to rid themselves of a unwanted burden? Or was it someone, like me, who likes to leave reading material around when I'm finished in case someone else finds themselves in need? 

So this book sat in the drawer of my desk until I was abruptly called to a doctor's appointment and this went along as some last minute waiting room material. I've heard of Richard Matheson in the way that I was vaguely aware that I am Legend, the movie with Will Smith, was based on a book. I had no idea he was a well-known (by others) horror genre writer. 

Reading some of the stories in this book made me more familiar with his writing. This anthology is a collection of short stories inspired by his other works. The collection includes sequels, prequels and some others just along the same concepts as previous stories. 

The first story in the collection, Throttle, written by Stephen King and his son, Joe Hill, is about a biker gang that becomes the target of revenge. It is inspired by a Matheson story. 

Each short story is introduced by a short paragraph which details which Matheson story was the inspiration. These blurbs made me want to check out some of Matheson's original work.

As a collection, the anthology feels uneven. Some stories are superbly written and wickedly frightening, like Return to Hell House, which doesn't spare on graphic details but actually haunting scenes that was a bad choice to read right before bed. This and Throttle, really made the book. Others, including a take on the "Somewhere in Time" time travelling theme in which a man goes back in time to prevent his wife's suicide, were interesting and thought-provoking, if not exceptionally well written. 

Others, like the last story, Cloud Riders, were poorly written and seemed more like poor fan fiction than the worthy efforts of the authors who worked on the stories. 

I'll definitely be picking up some of Matheson's original work in the future, but for an already established Matheson fan, only a few of the stories included will probably do the man justice.

2/5 Stars.

Feed - Mira Grant

I'm really torn on giving this book three or four stars. I really enjoyed it. It was really well researched. Exhaustively researched. Exhaustive. Yeah sometimes I felt the details were exhaustive. The background research bogs down the story line sometimes and slows down the action.

Feed is an interesting offering in the zombie apocalypse genre. Following the combination of two miracle drugs each curing their own affliction but then combining to create a super-virus which, yep, reanimates dead people and causes them to hunger for others' flesh. Oops. Thanks science. The research into virology and epidemiology is so well done. It's amazing. But, it also reads a bit like a peer reviewed journal.

The thing that I love most about the book is that in the midst of the zombie outbreak, the country has recovered somewhat. The government is still functional. People still have jobs and live throughout the country, except Alaska (sorry Alaska). But it's sort of a life goes on and technology evolves rather than disappears angle that I really enjoyed.

The story follows Georgia and Sean Mason as they, in turn, follow the campaign of Senator Ryman as he runs for president. They become attached to the campaign as embedded media. Georgia, the "newsie" covers all the straight forward news for their combined blogging/news/multimedia site. Sean, the "irwin" is the part of the team that pokes zombies with sticks and films it for an adrenaline rush. Buffy, the fictional, writes poetry but also handles the team's technological needs.

The three team members each have their responsibilities covering the Senator's promising campaign. As they travel with him, they endure one zombie outbreak that starts to look a bit like sabotage and then uncover a plot to use the zombie virus as a weapon - terrorism in 2039. How much will their pursuit of the truth cost them? Well, it's not all hugs and puppies folks.

Still the inventiveness and thorough approach to the story deserve some well earned accolades for author Mira Grant. I imagine the next book in this trilogy (why is it always a trilogy!?) will likely flow faster since a lot of the background material is out of the way.

Let's call it 3.75 Stars because it's closer to 4 than 3.