Title: The Strange

Author: Nathan Ballingrud

Publisher: Saga Press 2023

Genre: Science Fiction; Horror

Pages: 304

Rating: 3/5 stars

Reading Challenges: Spooky Season; I Read Horror - Black, Gray, Orange, or Red Cove

Where I Got It: Library

Since Anabelle’s mother left for Earth to care for her own ailing mother, her days in New Galveston have been spent at school and her nights at her laconic father’s diner with Watson, the family Kitchen Engine and dishwasher, as her only companion. When the Silence came, and communication and shipments from Earth to its colonies on Mars stopped, life seemed stuck in foreboding stasis until the night Silas Mundt and his gang attacked.

At once evoking the dreams of an America explored in Ray Bradbury’s The Martian Chroniclesand the harsher realities of frontier life in Charles Portis True Grit, Ballingrud’s “brilliant” (Paul Tremblay, New York Times bestselling author of The Cabin at the End of the World) novel is haunting in its evocation of Annabelle’s quest for revenge amidst a spent and angry world accompanied by a domestic Engine, a drunken space pilot, and the toughest woman on Mars.

Next up on the TBR pile:

Title: North American Lake Monsters

Author: Nathan Ballingrud

Publisher: Small Beer Press 2013

Genre: Short Stories Horror

Pages: 300

Rating: 2/5 stars

Reading Challenges:

Nathan Ballingrud's Shirley Jackson Award winning debut collection is a shattering and luminous experience not to be missed by those who love to explore the darker parts of the human psyche. Monsters, real and imagined, external and internal, are the subject. They are us and we are them and Ballingrud's intense focus makes these stories incredibly intense and irresistible.

These are love stories. And also monster stories. Sometimes these are monsters in their traditional guises, sometimes they wear the faces of parents, lovers, or ourselves. The often working-class people in these stories are driven to extremes by love. Sometimes, they are ruined; sometimes redeemed. All are faced with the loneliest corners of themselves and strive to find an escape.

This was a bit more psychological than I was hoping for. I wanted some super scary horror stories; not necessarily people-behaving-badly stories. Once I got over my initial setback, I tried to settle in and really read these stories. Unfortunately I couldn’t connect with any of them and most were very problematic. I don’t want to read about racists and sexists. I wanted to see people encountering horrific things. Most of the time, those horrific things were themselves. I’d be hard-pressed to find a single character that I liked. Add on the fact that most of these stories end seemingly mid-thought and I did not enjoy this collection at all. Oh well. One to the next book.

Next up on the TBR pile:

The Strange by Nathan Ballingrud

North American Lake Monsters by Nathan Ballingrud