The A.V. Club - Books

Great Job, Internet!: Bid on newly hand-annotated first editions of books by J.K. Rowling, Yann Martel, and Nick Hornsby

Kevin McFarland — Tue, 21 May 2013 13:30:00 -0500

Even when a book gets published, becomes a bestseller, wins a glut of awards and launches successful film adaptations, it doesn’t mean that an author wouldn’t change a few things when given the chance, or offer up some commentary on their choices. That’s the thinking behind “First Editions, Second Thoughts,” an auction to benefit writers’ association English PEN, which offers the chance to bid on 50 first editions annotated by their authors. Tom Stoppard reveals an alternate title for Rosencrantz And Guildenstern Are Dead, Nick Hornby adds details about the Hillsborough stadium disaster to Fever Pitch, and Yann Martel still isn’t happy with the first line of Life Of Pi, but the big-ticket item is bound to be a J.K. Rowling-annotated copy of Harry Potter And The Philosopher’s Stone. Rowling reveals she originally planned to use a bear as Hufflepuff’s house mascot, and ...

Comics Panel: New releases include an alternative detective story and a new collection examining the collective urban subconscious

Noel Murray, Oliver Sava — Tue, 21 May 2013 11:00:00 -0500

Every two weeks, Comics Panel covers recent notable releases along the entire comics spectrum, from superhero/mainstream comics to graphic novels/art comics.

Similar to Super Spy and MIND MGMT, Matt Kindt’s graphic novel Red Handed: The Fine Art Of Strange Crimes (First Second) approaches a pulpy premise from a cockeyed angle, emerging with some surprising, penetrating insights into human behavior and how people relate to their surroundings. Ostensibly a riff on Dick Tracy, Red Handed is about a dedicated, officious cop named “Detective Gould,” whose confidence gets rattled by a series of unusual incidents that defy his conventional understanding of law and order. A spate of chair and sign thefts constitute actual criminal behavior (however odd), but what’s Detective Gould to make of the artist who tricks couples into having arguments and then photographs them? Or the elevator mechanic who surreptitiously takes pictures of women’s legs ...

Great Job, Internet!: Hear an excerpt from David Rakoff's posthumous novel read by Ira Glass and many others

Kevin McFarland — Mon, 20 May 2013 15:32:00 -0500

Longtime This American Life contributor David Rakoff died of cancer last August, inspiring a deeply moving tribute episode from Ira Glass and company. Now, in anticipation of the release of Rakoff’s posthumous first novel Love, Dishonor, Marry, Die, Cherish, Perish, Random House has put out an extensive book trailer featuring Glass, Jackie Hoffman, Jodi Lennon, George Stroumboulopoulos, and many other writers and comedians, reading Rakoff’s tale of the scorpion and tortoise from “Speak Now Or Forever Hold Your Peace.” There’s even a clip of Rakoff himself, looking haggard in the final stages of terminal cancer, reading the audiobook he scrambled to complete before his death, a haunting image to go along with the final act of This American Life’s tribute episode. The novel—say the title and “a novel by” to get the lyrical, Seussian rhythm of Rakoff’s verse—hits stores in July.

Nerd Curious: Why the essential collection Bradbury Stories explains how to live forever

Todd VanDerWerff — Mon, 20 May 2013 11:00:00 -0500

Nerd Curious is an occasional series in which Todd VanDerWerff tries the nerdy things he missed as a kid, either due to lack of access, time, or ability. He has a rough schedule planned out, but feel free to use the comments to suggest more nerd experiences he needs to have.

In 1932, at the age of 12, Ray Bradbury was told to become an impossibility.

The carnival had come to his little Midwestern town of Waukegan, Illinois, and he’d been there one night to see a performer named Mr. Electrico. In his blog account of the incident, written nearly 70 years after it occurred, Bradbury situates what happened in the midst of the clamor surrounding the funeral of a “favorite uncle,” which makes the fervor with which the event gripped Bradbury’s mind all the more understandable. The night before his uncle’s funeral, the boy went to ...

Book Review: Drew Magary: Someone Could Get Hurt

Kevin McFarland — Mon, 20 May 2013 00:01:00 -0500

Back when Tony Kornheiser wrote for The Washington Post, he published lengthy Sunday columns in the Style section, many of which expounded his family life and watching his children grow up, later collected into book compilations. The title of the third one, I’m Back For More Cash, at least had the decency to acknowledge its raison d’être. The world doesn’t need more parenting memoirs, but that’s not stopping the never-ending fount of new voices sharing their experiences with kids. Deadspin and GQ contributor Drew Magary’s brief new book, Someone Could Get Hurt, the follow-up to his debut novel, The Postmortal, falls directly into that sinkhole of a genre, notable only for his distinct voice.

There’s only a slim overlap between the audience for Magary’s work at Deadspin and parenthood nonfiction, but for anyone who falls into that category, Someone Could Get Hurt provides ...

Book Review: Brandon Sanderson: The Rithmatist

Samantha Nelson — Mon, 20 May 2013 00:00:00 -0500

Brandon Sanderson, the New York Times-bestselling author of Mistborn and Warbreaker, excels at building complicated fantasy worlds and intricate magic systems. Unfortunately his young-adult novel, The Rithmatist, is so bogged down in stale genre clichés that his knack for developing settings can’t save it.

The story follows Joel, a teenager who wants desperately to be a Rithmatist, someone capable of using chalk drawings to create impassable barriers or conjure creatures called chalklings that can defend humans and attack their enemies. But despite all his knowledge and talent with the drawings, he doesn’t have the magical gift to give them power.

Joel attends a school typically reserved for the children of the rich and powerful or for Rithmatists-in-training, but he is neither of those things, and was admitted because his father died while working on the faculty. His lack of clout, wealth, or magical power leaves him ...

Great Job, Internet!: Get involved, Internet: Help bring a 9-foot Hulk statue (and some computers) to a Chicago-area public library

Jess Greene — Fri, 17 May 2013 11:10:00 -0500

Faced with budget cuts, a greater demand for graphic novels than it could supply, and no giant superhero statue of its own, Northlake Public Library in Illinois has turned to crowdfunding via IndieGoGo. The library wants to buy more graphic novels, install a digital lab that allows patrons to produce their own comic creations, and (this is the best part) build a 9-foot Incredible Hulk statue to promote the collection and attract reluctant readers. In an email to The A.V. Club the library explains,

“We believe this one of the first times a library has done a crowdfunding campaign to supplement its budget. Hopefully this will catch on [and] open doors for more libraries to take a chance when trying to fill their budget. Also, yes this was partially inspired by the Robocop statue in Detroit. We figured if they can do that we can do something similar to ...

Big Issues: Ultimate Comics Spider-Man #23 jumps forward a year for an exciting new status quo

Oliver Sava — Fri, 17 May 2013 10:00:00 -0500

Each week, Big Issues focuses on a newly released comic-book issue of significance. This week, it’s Ultimate Comics Spider-Man #23. Written by Brian Michael Bendis (All-New X-Men, Guardians Of The Galaxy) and drawn by David Marquez (Fantastic Four: Season One, All-New X-Men), the issue takes a one-year time jump to enhance the central conflict and give the book a renewed sense of direction. Warning: spoilers ahead.

A few weeks ago, I wrote that Daredevil was the world’s unluckiest superhero, but he certainly gets some competition from Spider-Man, whose life has had just as many downs, but also a few more ups than the horned hero of Hell’s Kitchen. Tragedy is a major part of most superheroes’ DNA, but Marvel has a tendency to put its characters through the wringer in a way that DC tends to avoid, largely because it’s difficult to make such immensely powerful ...

Preview: Here's an exclusive first look at Brandon Sanderson's Steelheart

Brandon Sanderson — Thu, 16 May 2013 10:00:00 -0500

Prologue

I’ve seen Steelheart bleed.

It happened ten years ago; I was eight. My father and I were at the First Union Bank on Adams Street. We used the old street names back then, before the Annexation.

The bank was enormous. A single open chamber with white pillars surrounding a tile mosaic floor, broad doors at the back that led deeper into the building. Two large revolving doors opened onto the street, with a set of conventional doors to the sides. Men and women streamed in and out, as if the room were the heart of some enormous beast, pulsing with a lifeblood of people and cash.

I knelt backward on a chair that was too big for me, watching the flow of people. I liked to watch people. The different shapes of faces, the hairstyles, the clothing, the expressions. Everyone showed so much variety back then. It was ...

For Our Consideration: Are oral histories a good way to write about music?

Jason Heller — Tue, 14 May 2013 11:00:00 -0500

“We were in L.A., but we all hated glam,” says Slayer’s Jeff Hanneman in the new book Louder Than Hell: The Definitive Oral History Of Metal. “I was listening to a lot of hardcore, but I still loved classic metal like Judas Priest and Iron Maiden. Kerry [King, also a guitarist in Slayer] was more into the metal. So when we started writing songs, we combined the best of both.”

Louder Than Hell comes out this week, but Hanneman won’t get to see it. He died on May 2 at the age of 49, his trailblazing career cut short by liver failure. The book’s authors, Jon Wiederhorn and Katherine Turman, surely had no idea that Louder Than Hell would serve as one of many eulogies for Hanneman. Yet that’s partly what it is. Instead of waxing grandiosely about Hanneman’s innovations and songwriting, though, Wiederhorn ...

Great Job, Internet!: Da Vinci Code author Dan Brown wrote a song about phone sex, and here it is

Sean O'Neal — Mon, 13 May 2013 15:29:00 -0500

Before he combined the conspiracy theories of a hundred Geocities sites with the point-and-click puzzle-solving of a dozen CD-ROM games, thus creating literature, The Da Vinci Code’s Dan Brown was a pop singer. Like a clue in one of his bestsellers, Brown’s musical past was hidden in plain sight, with it being easily accessible Wikipedia knowledge that he released two CDs—including one called Angels And Demons, its title and cover art later reworked into a thriller that helped so many pass the time on the bus. Still, recorded evidence of this early career false start remained scarce. Until today, when the sun hit the Internet just right, and BuzzFeed cracked open to reveal the song Dan Brown wrote about phone sex.

Titled “976-LOVE,” a testament to Brown’s lasting fascination with numerology, the song is earnest in that early-‘90s soft-rock sort of way, boasting the requisite ...

Book Review: Julie Sarkissian: Dear Lucy

Noah Cruickshank — Mon, 13 May 2013 00:01:00 -0500

Writing from the perspective of the mentally handicapped without falling under the shadow of The Sound And The Fury is a difficult task. Benjy Compson is one of American literature’s greatest characters, and William Faulkner depicts him so perfectly that anyone who tries a similar project will undoubtedly raise comparisons. Dear Lucy is no exception; from the first page, Julie Sarkissian’s tale about a special-needs girl who lives on a farm alludes to the Faulkner masterpiece. But instead of taking a familiar setup in a new direction, Sarkissian plows right into Faulkner’s wheelhouse, tackling issues of gender, perspective, incest, and family. Playing on such well-worn ground only makes Dear Lucy pale in comparison.

After her behavior becomes too much of a burden for her mother, Lucy moves to a farm run by an elderly couple only known as Mister and Missus. The couple also houses a pregnant ...

Inventory: The adventures of Tookie De La Crème: 13 surprising celebrity novelists

Mon, 13 May 2013 00:00:00 -0500

1. Lauren Graham, Someday, Someday, Maybe (2013)
For those who have accrued even a modicum of fame, it’s practically a requirement to write some kind of book. Most end up being some kind of memoir or that other favorite celebrity accessory, a children’s book—few people attempt to write novels, and even fewer do it without a professional collaborator or writing thinly fictionalized romans à clef. Although actress Lauren Graham (Gilmore Girls, Parenthood) denies that her debut novel is autobiographical, it’s easy to read her life into it: Like the lead character, Franny Banks, Graham was a struggling actor in New York in the mid-’90s, and the book is set in 1995, just before Graham moved from New York to L.A. and landed her first TV gig. Even if the other elements of the story aren’t directly autobiographical, they’re familiar to the “struggling actor ...

Book Review: John Le Carré: A Delicate Truth

Phil Dyess-Nugent — Mon, 13 May 2013 00:00:00 -0500

When the Berlin Wall came down in 1989, some observers who might have had their priorities a little scrambled expressed concern that the end of the Cold War would be a devastating blow to spy fiction. As far as most of the reading public is concerned, this amounted to a concern that it would be a devastating blow to John Le Carré. Twenty-four years later, it seems clear enough that the Cold War needed Le Carré more than Le Carré needed—or wanted—it. The hero of Le Carré’s 1989 novel, The Russia House, ends up betraying British intelligence and the CIA for the sake of the woman he loves. And he does it with a clear conscience, not because he thinks there is no moral difference between the West and the Soviet Union, but because what George Smiley used to call the “Great Game” is winding down, and ...

Book Review: Christopher Hacker: The Morels

Kevin McFarland — Mon, 13 May 2013 00:00:00 -0500

Though Edward Albee has won three Pulitzer Prizes for drama, he should probably be best remembered for his two foolishly snubbed masterpieces: Who’s Afraid Of Virginia Woolf?, and The Goat, Or Who Is Sylvia? The latter, originally produced in 2002, initially depicts the breakdown of a marriage due to a husband’s infidelity, but then quickly turns into something more visceral and disturbing, pushing the boundaries of liberal morality when faced with extreme sexual taboos. But Albee’s play, stunning though it is, only introduces questions meant for further discussion. By contrast, Christopher Hacker’s arresting and haunting debut novel, The Morels, picks apart every last detail of the taboos that The Goat uses for shock value.

Arthur Morel is a former violin prodigy with a murky past, the son of two extremely free-spirited parents, now a man so out of step with the world that he barely relates ...

Big Issues: Ales Kot builds a better Suicide Squad by breaking its members

Oliver Sava — Fri, 10 May 2013 10:00:00 -0500

Each week, Big Issues focuses on a newly released comic-book issue of significance. This week, it’s Suicide Squad #20. Written by Ales Kot (Wild Children, Change) and drawn by Patrick Zircher (Mystery Men, Shadowman), it’s a brutally intense issue that puts the supervillain team in a position to grow by tearing down the individual members. Warning: Spoilers ahead.

When John Ostrander’s Suicide Squad debuted in 1987, it was a revolutionary title that took DC’s most despicable villains and put them in a position to reduce their prison sentences by working for the U.S. government. The original series mixed superhero action with political commentary and remarkable character development, lasting for 66 issues but continuing to impact the DCU long after its cancellation. Titles like Checkmate and Secret Six were indebted to Ostrander’s work, but when Suicide Squad launched as part of the New 52, it ...

Newswire: Here's an exclusive look at the first issue of Ghostface Killah's comic Twelve Reasons To Die

David Anthony — Tue, 07 May 2013 12:00:00 -0500

In April, Ghostface Killah partnered with composer Adrian Younge on Twelve Reasons To Die, an album-length narrative that showcased Ghostface's love of gritty B-movies and revenge fantasies, and now Black Mask Studios is offering up a companion piece to the album in the form of the Twelve Reasons To Die comic series.

Writers Patrick Kindlon and Matthew Rosenberg constructed a six-issue arc that sees a veritable who's-who of illustrators contributing art, with Breno Tamura (Pigs) and Gus Storms (Space Creep) kicking off the first issue. Twelve Reasons To Die doesn't rehash the album's success. Instead, it offers up a compelling look at the work of Ghostface and Younge in an ongoing form.

The first Twelve Reasons To Die book comes out Wednesday, May 8, but we've got an exclusive look at the first 11 pages. Check 'em out.

Comics Panel: New comics releases include several superhero debut issues and an impressive graphic novel exploring family and history

Noel Murray, Oliver Sava — Tue, 07 May 2013 00:00:00 -0500

Over the past few years, more and more high-profile creators have been making their way to Image Comics, and Frank Quitely is the latest comic-book all-star to make his debut at the publisher with Jupiter’s Legacy. Written by controversial blowhard Mark Millar (the back of the comic proclaims it as “the greatest superhero epic of this generation”), Jupiter’s Legacy #1 (Image) builds a new superhero universe where the old guard is trying to keep the world together while the young squander their potential. Focusing on three of Millar’s favorite topics—superheroes, celebrity, and politics—it’s a story that explores the shift from Golden Age idealism to Modern Age cynicism, something Millar did remarkably in his Superman: Red Son. Like that comic, part of Jupiter’s Legacy takes place in the past, and Millar does some of his best work when he’s working under the constraints ...

Newswire: Harper Lee sues her agent for allegedly cheating her out of To Kill A Mockingbird copyright

Sean O'Neal — Mon, 06 May 2013 12:45:00 -0500

Proving that there’s just one kind of folks—folks who screw you over at the first opportunity—author Harper Lee has been forced to step out of reclusion to sue her literary agent, Samuel Pinkus, after he allegedly swindled her out of the copyright to To Kill A Mockingbird. As Lee once wrote, “People generally see what they look for and hear what they listen for,” and this is even more difficult when you’re 87 years old and your agent is taking advantage of your declining eyesight and hearing, as Lee’s lawsuit says Pinkus did, when he had her sign over the copyright to her Pulitzer-winning 1960 novel to him without payment. Pinkus’ “scheme to dupe” Lee is said to have taken place in 2007, after Lee’s longtime agent (and Pinkus’ father-in-law) grew ill and Pinkus began siphoning away some of his clients.

Even worse, Pinkus ...

Newswire: Here's an exclusive peek at the book about The Room

Josh Modell — Mon, 06 May 2013 08:00:00 -0500

You experienced it only after it had become a "dark comedy" instead of an "absurdist disaster," but Greg Sestero was there from the beginning of the cult film sensation The Room. Sestero has written a book about his experiences with Tommy Wiseau and the cult that popped up around the movie called The Disaster Artist: My Life Inside The Room, The Greatest Bad Movie Ever Made. It doesn't come out until October (can you wait that long?), but we've got an exclusive look at the cover right now. Gaze at it longingly as you wait for the stories it will one day reveal.

Book Review: Marc Maron: Attempting Normal

Kyle Ryan — Mon, 06 May 2013 00:00:00 -0500

With some exceptions, books by comedians seldom aspire to be more than bits presented in a different medium. A lot of that probably comes down to audience expectation; even though it’s a wholly different format, funny people are expected to be funny—so here’s some leftover material.

If anyone could rise above tradition and write something more interesting, it’s Marc Maron. The comedian has enjoyed a career resurgence thanks in large part to his candor: On his popular WTF podcast, he makes his personal issues plain, even when—especially when—he has baggage with a guest. His excellent 2011 album, This Has To Be Funny, put his personal life front and center, be it the prurient way he met his current girlfriend, or the horrible thing his mother said to him that inspired the title. (When the audience gasped at what she said, Maron paused and said ...

Book Review: David Sedaris: Let’s Explore Diabetes With Owls

Phil Dyess-Nugent — Mon, 06 May 2013 00:00:00 -0500

The good news about Let’s Explore Diabetes With Owls, the latest from David Sedaris, is that it’s not a collection of modern comic fables about talking animals. (Readers of Sedaris’ previous book, Squirrel Seeks Chipmunk, might be forgiven for taking the new book’s title as something between a taunt and a warning label.) Instead, it’s a mopping-up of all the New Yorker casuals and other magazine and newspaper essays that Sedaris has published in the last few years. The not-so-good news is that it’s the sixth time Sedaris has done this since 1994’s Barrel Fever.

Sedaris appeared in the early ’90s, seemingly full-blown, with a stockpile of observations and stories based on a family background like no other, and a work history that was undreamt of even for the most highly sought-after Creative Nonfiction grad student. The fact that he was so funny about ...

Book Review: DC Pierson: Crap Kingdom

Kevin McFarland — Mon, 06 May 2013 00:00:00 -0500

Norton Juster’s The Phantom Tollbooth is the ultimate adventure-fantasy for a bored, uninspired child: It’s about making friends in a magical world, saving it from ruin, and discovering a love of learning along the way. DC Pierson’s second novel, Crap Kingdom, is the anti-Phantom Tollbooth, imagining a world so bereft of gleeful wish-fulfillment that the protagonist, prophesized savior of its denizens, begs for the dubious honor to be rescinded.

A high-school sophomore living with his single mother, Tom excels at drama, but not much else. His grades threaten to keep him from performing in another play, he struggles to talk to the drama girl he likes, and he clashes with his mother constantly. But Tom longs for a fantastical journey to another world. Lucky for him, a mystical being from another dimension arrives to steal him away to just such a world; unfortunately, it’s a ...

NOT OPTIONAL: A book by a Wonder Showzen guy, a mind-bending video game, and more essential entertainments

Josh Modell, John Teti, Phil Dyess-Nugent, Will Harris — Fri, 03 May 2013 10:00:00 -0500

NOT OPTIONAL takes a quick weekly look at some essential releases, some recent, some not.

Mindsploitation
Vernon Chatman is half the brains behind the insanely wonderful Wonder Showzen as well as an important behind-the-scenes player on both South Park and Louie. (In other words, he’s someone whose weird impulses are worth paying attention to.) A few years ago, Chatman released Final Flesh, in which he sent ridiculous scripts to porn-film companies that would then film them. Mindsploitation, his new book, does something similar, though less horrifying: Chatman attempts to see what kinds of crazy requests the companies that write college papers for desperate students can handle. The answer is that they will essentially write anything, and badly, to make a sale. Mindsploitation gathers the back and forth between Chatman and these companies; he gives them “assignments” like writing a paper on the death of his grandmother, which they dutifully ...

Big Issues: Just in time, Kieron Gillen’s Iron Man soars with a new arc and artist

Oliver Sava — Fri, 03 May 2013 10:00:00 -0500

Each week, Big Issues focuses on a newly released comic-book issue of significance. This week, it’s Iron Man #9. Written by Kieron Gillen (Young Avengers, Journey Into Mystery) and drawn by Dale Eaglesham (Fantastic Four, Justice Society Of America), the series begins a promising new storyline and boosts quality just in time for Iron Man 3. Warning: spoilers ahead.

After learning its lesson with the first X-Men film, Marvel has made sure to release a slew of tie-in comics in the months leading up to and following its superhero movies. That means new miniseries and one-shots, and recently Marvel has simply relaunched ongoing titles so that there are new #1s for any potential new fans after the films. For Iron Man 3, Marvel started early, releasing a new Iron Man #1 by Kieron Gillen and Greg Land as part of Marvel Now! back in November. It was a smart ...

AVQ&A: The books you’ve loved longest

Fri, 03 May 2013 00:00:00 -0500

Welcome back to AVQ&A, where we throw out a question for discussion among the staff and readers. Consider this a prompt to compare notes on your interface with pop culture, to reveal your embarrassing tastes and experiences, and to ponder how our diverse lives all led us to convene here together. Got a question you’d like us and the readers to answer? Email us at avcqa@theonion.com.

What books did you discover earliest in life that are still on your favorites list?

Tasha Robinson
I’ve already talked about the big ones in previous AVQ&As on children’s entertainment we still love today, and art our parents passed down to us. So I’ll skip getting into C.S. Lewis’ Narnia books, Roald Dahl’s Danny, The Champion Of The World, Diana Wynne Jones’ Dogsbody, and Richard Adams’ Watership Down yet again. They’re all longtime ...

AVQ&A: What are you reading this month? (May 2013)

Tasha Robinson, Nathan Rabin, Marah Eakin — Wed, 01 May 2013 11:00:00 -0500

We’ve further expanded the definition of AVQ&A—our Monday and Friday discussion prompts—by asking you (and two of our regular contributors) a simple question once per month: What have you read in the past month, or what are you currently reading? If you have suggestions for AVQ&A questions, big or small, you can e-mail them to us here.

Among the notable May new book releases: Sidney Poitier makes his fiction debut with Montaro Caine, a novel about how a baby born with a coin in her hand changes life, and the perception of life, for a loosely connected group of people. Sounds downright odd, but intriguingly ambitious for someone coming to fiction for the first time after such a long and successful career in another field entirely. Dan Savage returns to books with American Savage: Insights, Slights, And Fights On Faith, Sex, Love, And Politics, which ...

Newswire: The return of Elfquest and a tiny Hellboy mark a big weekend for smaller things at this year's C2E2

Oliver Sava — Mon, 29 Apr 2013 15:35:00 -0500

Marvel and DC have long been considered the “Big Two” of comic book publishers, but they had a small presence at this weekend’s Chicago Comics and Entertainment Exhibition (C2E2) compared to companies like Dark Horse, IDW, Thrillbent, and Valiant. Marvel showed up with some interesting announcements, but they were primarily creative team changes and crossover tie-ins, including a new X-Men event celebrating the team’s 50th anniversary. “X-Men: Battle Of The Atom” will cross over into Brian Wood’s X-Men, Brian Michael Bendis’ All New X-Men and Uncanny X-Men, and Jason Aaron’s Wolverine And The X-Men, following a group of future X-Men who come to the present. (Marvel sure is big on time travel these days.) New ongoing creative team Charles Soule and Jefte Palo are coming to Thunderbolts just in time to tie in to August’s Infinity event, and the husband-and-wife duo of artist Declan Shalvey ...

Book Review: Joe Hill: NOS4A2

Tasha Robinson — Mon, 29 Apr 2013 00:02:00 -0500

For the first decade of his writing career, Joseph Hillstrom King, writing under the name Joe Hill, managed to avoid being outed as Stephen King’s son. He built his career entirely on the basis of his inventive horror stories (collected in 2005’s 20th Century Ghosts) and the creepy angry-ghost novel Heart-Shaped Box, rather than by capitalizing on his connection to a world-famous bestselling author. But looking back on his work—especially Heart-Shaped Box; his second novel, 2010’s Horns; and his terrific comics series, Locke & Key—it also feels like he made a conscious decision to establish his own voice by avoiding his father’s style and tics. Hill’s prose is more elaborate and artful, less machine-gun blunt. With Heart-Shaped Box in particular, he pointedly revealed his antagonist’s nature and intent early and directly, where King typically makes his protagonists spend entire novels uncovering that sort ...

Book Review: Ryan McIlvain: Elders

Samantha Nelson — Mon, 29 Apr 2013 00:01:00 -0500

Toward the end of Elders, one of the novel’s protagonists muses about how he sometimes views his life like a storyteller. When he does a good deed or works on a project, he tries to take in the details around him so they can be woven into a future narrative. As a result, he’s horribly disappointed when that effort is wasted because those moments don’t turn out to provide a satisfying story at all. It’s a self-aware moment for first-time author Ryan McIlvain, who is more concerned with painting an honest portrait than providing the action or drama that makes a traditional good story.

Elders splits time between the perspectives of Elders Passos and McLeod, a pair of young Mormon missionaries working in Brazil. Passos is a Brazilian who converted to Mormonism because after his mother’s death, he found comfort in the message that he ...