Elitist Book Reviews

I enjoyed John Hornor Jacobs' THIS DARK EARTH so much that I had to read more of his work. Fortunately Jacobs has two other published books on shelves - the southern gothic, Lovecraftian horror of SOUTHERN GODS (read the EBR review here), and the YA Horror THE TWELVE-FINGERED BOY. I'm eager to start SOUTHERN GODS but I couldn't pass the opportunity to read a Young Adult book about a kid with twelve fingers that has a form of telekinesis.

Shreveport Cannon has lived a hard life, at fifteen years old he's suffered more than his fair share. He's learned to look out for himself, and he's used his street smarts to keep his skin intact during his stint at Casimir Pulaski Juvenile Detention Center for Boys. When Jack Graves is introduced to the eco-system of Casimir Pulaski things get...weird. Jack has twelve fingers and twelve toes, but that's not the strangest thing about him. When he gets mad or feels threatened Jack explodes with telekinetic force. And there are those that seek to acquire Jack and his ability, nasty customers like the menacing Mr. Quincrux.

THE TWELVE-FINGERED BOY is told in the first person by juvenile delinquent Shreveport "Shreve" Cannon. Shreve's voice is highly unique. He's likable with an edged wisdom that bespeaks his difficult lot in life. For a fifteen year old he's had the majority of his naivety burned away by circumstance but what remains is intelligence and a surprising compassion. Shreve quickly takes to Jack, despite his reluctance to being saddled with fresh blood. Looking back I'm surprised at how little is learned about Jack over the course of the novel. He too, is likable, and the relationship that matures between the two boys is convincing.

It's a relationship that grows and changes as the boys grow and change. Half of the book is spent in Casimir Pulaski, as Shreve helps Jack adjust to life in juvenile correction. Things get much more complicated as Shreve learns about Jack's special ability and Mr. Quincrux is introduced to the equation. Mr. Quincrux is a creepy-bad-dude though perhaps a little shallow on the characterization and slightly cliche. He's dark and mysterious with a (seemingly) malevolent agenda, but never develops beyond that. Eventually Shreve and Jack break out of Casimir Pulaski and the rest of the book is spent fleeing Mr. Quincrux.

This is where things start to get (even more) interesting, as Shreve and Jack learn to survive and test the limits of their powers. Oh, did I not mention? Shreve ends up acquiring a power of his own due to his involvement with Jack and Quincrux. It's cool to follow Shreve and Jack as they learn how to use their abilities. In a lot of ways THE TWELVE-FINGERED BOY is like the indie flick Chronicle, an origin story of a couple not-quite-superheroes. Shreve's telepathy and Jack's telekinesis can be just as dangerous to the user as to the target. Shreve realizes that his telepathy is invasive and wrong but he uses it to provide and protect. Jack's telekinesis on the other hand requires anger to utilize and holding onto that much anger could prove to be damaging.

THE TWELVE-FINGERED BOY is a fast read, packed full of action and humor and a splash of darkness. It's not an average YA novel. Shreve and Jack aren't average YA protagonists. The plot is an effective mashup of Louis Sachar's HOLES and Chronicle. The ending suggests more novels to come, a prospect that I find greatly exciting. I'd love to see how Shreve and Jack progress from here and I need to know what is in Maryland!

Recommended Age: 14+
Language: A few words here and there.
Violence: There's some graphic comic style violence.
Sex: None.

Want it? Buy it here.

If there is one thing you Elitist Book Reviews followers are aware of about me, it has got to be the number of things I don't like in fiction--and how good authors can subvert these preferences and make me eat crow. So in another installment of "Things Nick Hates" I present you (drumroll please) zombies. I'm sorry, but they bore me. I used to like them and I still hold onto the belief that THE ZOMBIE SURVIVAL GUIDE and WORLD WAR Z are some of my favorite books of all time. Still, there is a saturation of zombies (sort of like the over abundance of vampires a couple years ago) and I find it tiring. There are only so many things you can do with zombies and it would take something different to interest me in another piece of undead fiction. THIS DARK EARTH by John Hornor Jacobs is that "something different" and it served to remind me how much I used to love the sub-genre.

The apocalypse has come and gone, ushered in by a zombie outbreak and attempted nuclear containment. The remnants of humanity live in a pre-industrial society, hunkered down in the ad-hoc fortress of Bridge City. The city is near impervious to the zeds, a marvel of ingenuity and medieval siege mastery. Humans though, have a capacity for evil that far exceeds the mindless, flesh eating, undead. An army of slavers has Bridge City in its sights and the survival of civilization falls to Gus, the young man that designed the very fortifications that have kept the wild at bay for so long.

Do you know how THIS DARK EARTH manages to be both a zombie novel and a book that I love? It's a zombie novel but it's not about zombies. Don't get me wrong, there are loads of zombies within the pages. Tens of thousands of zombies. There's plenty of bludgeoning and brain-destroying, with buckets of putrid gore and viscera. But that's not the focus of the novel. THIS DARK EARTH goes to show that even in the wake of global catastrophe, even with the cannibal dead roaming the earth, the living can still manage to take the whole evil cake. THIS DARK EARTH is a story of family, community, and survival.

The three main characters are Lucy, her son Gus, and Jim (aka Knock-Out). Lucy is cold and clinical. She is a brilliant doctor, with a highly analytical mind that leaves her detached from humanity. She is not delicate in the least. Lucy is almost robotic, but that's not to say she is stiff or thin as a character. When she exhibits a rare moment of tenderness it is touching. Knock-Out is a gentle giant, he was a trucker before the end of the world and becomes a loyal companion after. He is a genuinely kindhearted man that serves as the adhesive for the others. He's the sidekick to Lucy's superhero. And then we have Gus, the brilliant child that designed Bridge City who grows into the hardened man that must lead the free and the living. Gus shares much in common with his mother, his intense personality is only compounded by the trials of growing up in this post-apocalyptic world. He is a strange young man, extremely intellectual and still inexperienced in many ways. He has a lot to learn before he can become humanity's savior.

There are other characters, three of the chapters are told from their perspectives, but they serve primarily to forward the story of Lucy, Gus, and Knock-Out. In this way THIS DARK EARTH felt like a collection of short stories based around a central thread. It's not, but the shifting narrative (between first person, third person, and one chapter told in journal format) gives an interesting, multifaceted view of proceedings. The first half of the novel is a somewhat standard post-apocalyptic/zombie affair. One of the blurbs on the back of the book likens THIS DARK EARTH to Cormac McCarthy's THE ROAD and WORLD WAR Z by Max Brooks. The first part of the book definitely relates to THE ROAD, as Lucy and Knock-Out scramble to survive in a world only recently turned upside down. It's at the halfway mark that I became fully absorbed in the read. It is here that we are introduced to Bridge City and the looming threat of the slaver army. From here Gus and the city council race to find a way to stop the army's progress and defend all that they have built. This is where the novel takes on a bit of the atmosphere of WORLD WAR Z, but really I couldn't help but think of the CBS action/drama Jericho. I loved the creation of Bridge City and the society that the survivors had established in the aftermath of the outbreak and nuclear fallout.

THIS DARK EARTH is a dark book (go figure). It displays the worst that mankind has to offer, from rape to slavery and greed. There is heavy violence (mainly zombie slaying but some living on living action too) as well as a grisly torture. Despite all this there is also a silver lining of hope. Despite all the death and despair it shows that we can survive and adapt as a species - we can look out for our own.

Recommended Age: 17+
Language: You betcha.
Violence: Shooting, bludgeoning, burning, and a painful torture/crucifixion.
Sex: Sex and sex talk.

Want it? Here's you link:

THIS DARK EARTH

Every so often I buy a novel purely based on the cover. I don't read the synopsis on back of the book. I don't read any reviews. Nothing. Now granted, you can get a fairly decent idea of the type of novel from the cover art, but buying based purely on cover alone has made for some interesting reads in the past.  Usually they end up being novels I would normally avoid, but that please me nonetheless. So, real quick, look at the cover of John Hornor Jacobs' SOUTHERN GODS. Do you see what I see? Do you get the impression I got and say, "Huh, that looks cool"? Can you see why I bought the novel without knowing anything about it?

To me, it looks like the blending of Horror and 50's music. Everything about the cover--from the pose, to the macabre figure, to the tentacles, to the night club look--literally forced me to buy the novel.

And then I started reading.

SOUTHERN GODS follows WWII vet, Bull Ingram. He provides muscle for persuading people to do various things (or give back certain things...). Sometimes he goes out and finds lost people. After an opening scene that perfectly establishes Ingram's character and skills, he is hired to find a missing promotional guy, Earl Freeman, that was out delivering records to radio stations in Arkansas.  Ingram is also tasked with finding a musician named Ramblin' John Hastur. Rambin' John's music is said to cast a spell over the audience. And not a good spell. This is the kind of spell that makes you want to murder the man next to you. It makes you despair and want to end your own life.

Maybe it can even make the dead walk.

The premise is refreshing. It's promising. The writing, while rough in a small number of spots, conveys the horror and confusion Ingram feels as he witnesses a sequence of increasing horrible things.

I was absolutely riveted as I read the opening of SOUTHERN GODS. The prologue itself could be considered some of the better works of short fiction Horror I've read. Ingram is instantly likeable and recognizably flawed. But then we get introduced to Sarah Williams and her daughter Franny. Sarah is escaping her abusive husband and taking her daughter back to her ancestral home outside of Little Rock. The problem here resides with Sarah not having anything interesting happen to her for half the novel. She is just filler until the final parts of the novel where she becomes important to the plot, but not as a character herself. I could have read any story involving Ingram, because he was such a solid character. Sarah was just a bit too flat and lacking for my tastes.

Fortunately the majority of the novel follows Ingram, and his proximity to Sarah in the latter chunk of the book makes Sarah a much easier character to read.

I want to stress that this novel is Horror. It is violent, and often very disturbing. There is a light Lovecraftian vibe throughout the novel, but the horror is much more visible and physical than being psychological. There is some psychological horror elements in SOUTHERN GODS, and those moments are some of the best, but the novel lands more firmly on the gore and shock-value side of the fence. Usually I prefer the psychological because I think it requires more skill to do right. In SOUTHERN GODS, Jacobs does a terrific job of making the shocking and terrible equally shocking to both the characters and to the readers. It has to do with timing. The reader feels the emotions simultaneously with the characters in the novel, and the effect makes what would otherwise be cheap, shock-value horror feel genuine and actually more horrific.

SOUTHERN GODS is a story about people in a world where gods are constantly in opposition to each other. It is a story about how a family's past can come back and haunt its innocent descendants. Some parts of the novel I absolutely LOVED--usually anything to do with Ingram. The Sarah sections--no matter how hard I tried to like her--were a disappointment to me and hurt the overall experience. Instead, SOUTHERN GODS is good but not great.

Recommended Age: 18+.
Profanity: Lots.
Violence: Tons. Some of it is shocking and sudden (the first walking dead portion should leave you in awe over it's execution). There is quick a bit of violence and gruesome description that has a sexual lean to it. The ending is extremely disturbing. This book is not for the faint of heart.
Sex: One explicit scene, and then a ton of very disturbing descriptions that come from various texts that Sarah reads.

Want to give it a try?  Here's your link:


SOUTHERN GODS