The Home Renovation Guide for the Supernaturally Inclined

I just finished the short story collection Home Improvement: Undead Edition, which features short stories from current authors in the urban fantasy and supernatural mystery genres.  I was a little unsure about writing a blog post on the book, given it's varied contents, but the collection was so overwhelming awesome that I decided to give it a go.

The Basics
Harris, Charlaine and Toni L.P. Kelner. eds. Home Improvement: Undead Edition. New York: Ace Books, 2011 Print.

Charlaine Harris is the author of several series, including the popular Sookie Stackhouse Southern Vampire mysteries and has won numerous awards for her skills. Toni L.P. Kelner writes the Where Are They Now? mystery series, lots of short stories, and is apparently a Green Lantern fan (always nice to pinpoint my fellow nerds). Together they have edited three other short story anthologies: Many Bloody Returns, Wolfsbane and Mistletoe, and Death's Excellent Vacation. I've read the first of those, and after this recent release, I'll definitely be picking up the other two some time soon.

Home Improvement: Undead Edition, as you might expect, features stories that relate (in some way) to the theme of home renovation and/or ownership.  Some stories feature characters from a continuing series or world, while others stand alone. The very best feature of these types of collections is that if you read them through you discover so many new authors to delight.  I picked this anthology up because it contained a Sookie Stackhouse short, but I put it down again with 4 or 5 more authors I wanted to read.

The Stories
I suppose I'll go in order and begin with Charlaine Harris's "If I Had a Hammer." Of course, I liked it; it's Sookie Stackhouse, the heroine of one of my favorite series (even if the HBO adaptations sucks. Har har, see what I did there?). It's not the best in the collection, but it stands alone well and offers a refreshing break from Sookie's normal vampire-steeped affairs. The story featured a dark little mystery, uncovered as Sookie helps her friend Tara create a nursery.

Next! In "Wizard Home Security," Victor Gischler offers an amusing tale of a wizard's struggle with/against his newly installed security system.  It was amusing, but didn't really grab me. It was farcical, but lacked the depth I need to want to be involved.

Patricia Brigg's "Gray" was a delightful little stand alone story. Maybe I'm a sucker for vampires (non-Twilight ones anyway), but Elyna was a great character.  She was tough yet emotionally fragile, with a great history behind her.  I liked the process of her revisiting the past through the renovation of her past apartment now turned condo. She's a darker, less happy character than Sookie, but she was super interesting. Briggs has been on my reading list for a while, and I'll definitely be looking into her books soon.

"Squatter's Rights" by Rochelle Krich, on the other hand, was not to my taste. It was written very well but fell squarely in the horror genre.  The details of Jewish orthodoxy were interesting and explained the house's issues. However, the story scared the pants off me, and I really wish I hadn't read it through. But maybe you like that sort of thing.

In "Blood on the Wall," Heather Graham combines a grisly occult murder set in New Orleans with a really cool PI, DeFeo Montville.  Despite his goofy name, I really liked the character and I wish she had more of him to offer right down to his odd obsession with the care of the family crypt.  I had the mystery mostly figured out, but the supernatural twist at the end was not expected and great fun!

Then we have James Grady's "The Mansion of Imperatives." I didn't like his lack of set-up or characters until I realized what he was up to in terms of plot.  In the story, a set of friends decide to flip a house only to discover it has a mind of its own and a keen sense of self preservation. It was a clever story but had too much horror for my liking.

"The Strength Inside" by Melissa Marr was another that I liked. It was different, featuring it's own unique supernatural creature to focus on.  There was also a lot of humor as the main characters, who've recently moved, deal with the local Home Owners' Association. There was a touch of horror, but it was the interesting kind rather than disturbing, especially since it related to the characters being supernatural creatures. Maybe she'll branch out from Young Adult writing to create an adult series centered on these characters.

E.E. Knight's "Woolsley's Kitchen Nightmare" was amusing, featuring a supernatural Gordon Ramsay-esque main character.  I didn't care for the numerous references to cooking and eating humans, but the story was a decent enough read despite the ick factor.

The next story was Seanan McGuire's "Through this House," which I really liked. I was only a page in when I added it to my like list. Needless to say I'll be checking out the October Daye series real soon.  This story follows Toby as she trys to reclaim the faire realm estate she's inherited that has been left to rot both physically and magically for a couple years. Despite the giant spiders, the story was my favorite in the collection and was filled with delightfully sarcastic humor and interesting happenings.

And then we have "The Path" by S.J. Rozan, which was just meh. It was long, boring, and couldn't hold my interest despite my determination.

"Rick the Brave" by Stacia Kane was good, though not the best. It has an interesting and unique premise, revolving around ghosts that haunt and terrorize a dystopian world now run by The Church.  The story was well written and action packed and left me at least a little curious to know more.

In "Full-Scale Demolition," Suzanne McLeod provides a sidhe heroine who works as a sort magical problem solver for the Spellcrackers organization.  It was, again, different from the other offerings and was humorous with just the right amount of action and bite, literally (not the vampiric kind, either). It ties with "Through this House" for favorite. And again, I'll be promptly investigating the series the characters are from.

Simon R. Green's "It's All in the Rendering" was entertaining, but fairly middle-of-the-road compared to the other stories in the collection.  It features a house that acts as gateway and sanctuary between our world and the Nightside. I liked the premise but wanted more meat to the story.

"In Brightest Day" by Toni L.P. Kelner was cute and fun, but made it hard to avoid comparisons to Anita Blake's chosen profession of zombie-raising.  It was different enough, I suppose.  Again, I was left wanting a little more oomph to the story, but I really liked the heroine.

There are too many authors to do an extras section real justice, so I'll skip that this time.  But I highly recommend that you pick this book up and acquaint yourself with a few more top notch supernatural writers.  Or, if that's not your thing, investigate a collection featuring your favorite author.  It's a great way to expand to new authors in genres that you love!

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More from the Land of Faerie

The fourth installment of Karen Marie Moning's Fever Series, Dreamfever, sees our heroine finally begin to rise up from the dark, moving on to some more triumphant moments (though its still not all peaches and cream).  I have to say that blogging about a series is quite challenging; I was pretty gung ho when I started, since I love series. However, it's difficult to continue finding new topics or fresh ways to discuss old themes. I imagine its a smaller scale version of some of the challenges an author faces when writing an actual series, a challenge, I am pleased to say, that Moning continues to live up to.

The Basics
Moning, Karen Marie. Dreamfever. New York: Delacorte P., 2009. Print.

Dreamfever opens with Mac making a slow recovery from what was done to her in the previous novel, Faefever, helped along by our favorite enigma, Barrons.  The walls between Faerie and the human world have come crashing down after Halloween. The book follows Mac as she tries to organize and fight her foes, introducing Dani, a character from the previous books, as a more involved character and a sort of sidekick/ kid sister for Mac.

The Book
Speaking of Dani, she has quickly become one of my favorite characters, going from a not-so-developed side character in the earlier books to a more active figure in Dreamfever.  From the moment she takes over the first person narration of the book (briefly and during one of Mac's less than lucid moments), readers have a good idea of her spunky, brooding nature. It helps that the know-it-all, moody thirteen-year-old occupies a liminal space in life, with which many female readers will be familiar and can identify (and I'm sure my parents could recognize it as well. Heh heh).  Dani is both worldly, having the life experience to back up some of her bad attitude, and youthful, lacking the self-possessed maturity that only growing up can give you.  Aside from being an entertaining and engaging character, Dani serves a couple purposes for Moning's writing.  Firstly, it sets up Dani as an excellent lead for Moning's next set of Fever books. Secondly and most importantly to this particular series, Dani's sisterly relationship with Mac nicely mirrors Mac's relationship with her deceased sister Alina.  We are told in the earlier books that Mac looked up to her sister, a situation that is now reversed by Mac looking out for Dani and Dani's admiration of Mac.  This weaves a subtle signal throughout Dreamfever that indicates to readers Mac's new, stronger position and growth as a character.

In order to grow and continue, however, Mac must first recover from what was done to her.  This is a touchy part of the book, since after her return to awareness, Mac practically ignores what she suffered, only occasionally thinking about it with a tinge of horror.  I could see how this could be quite controversial, and some might suggest Moning sweeps the terrible violation Mac endured under the rug.  And yet, while I am by no means comfortable with the events in question, I think sometimes a great book should make you squirm. Furthermore, Moning's handling of the situation is in perfect keeping with Mac's character and her ostrich-like tendency of denial - her fatal flaw.

Barrons and Mac's relationship continues to be a delightful clashing and simultaneous attraction of wills. He helps Mac recover but immediately reverts to the distant and immutable character once she has.  Meanwhile, Mac continues to resent him, avoiding him for much of the book.  While this period apart is essential to the development of Mac's character, allowing her to grow a little on her own and test herself without Barrons to act as buffer and safety net. Only after she strikes out on her own for a while is Mac finally able to admit that there is more strength to be found in partnership with other characters.

Despite her acceptance of Barrons as an acceptable aid towards the end of the novel, he still remains shrouded in mystery. Only the tiniest of clues are revealed, never enough to solve him but always enough to keep us wanting to know more.  Nevertheless, I am convinced that Moning has finally provided us with some tangible evidence about Barrons essential nature in the last few chapters of Dreamfever.  The beast that comes to Mac's aid is surly and aggressive yet possessive and protective of Mac.  This interaction coupled with the references to Barrons's animal nature that have pervaded the series has me convince that Barrons and the beast are one and the same. Mac's horror at the end of Dreamfever only confirms this for me, since Barrons is the only character I can see her expressing such strong emotions for aside from Dani (who is clearly not involved here). But, due to a monstrously eeeevil cliffhanger, I will have to wait for Shadowfever before I find out if I'm right.  It makes me grateful that this part of the Fever series has already reached its conclusion with the fifth and final novel.

Now, since this is also a blog about food, I think I must address a recurring theme in the series: the cannibalization of Unseelie.  First and foremost, I must say blegh, blarg, and mumph. But let me explain.  Eating the foully evil Unseelie imbues the character with remarkable healing abilities and superhuman strength, stamina, and etc.  Great, right?  The Unseelie are all jerks and bad guys anyway, so who cares? Let's just say it's a rare book that I can't eat while reading, but I routinely have to stop when I encounter parts describing the imbibing of Unseelie.  Unseelie flesh is always living, even when removed from the body of its original owner, so it goes down . . . wriggling and trying to escape.  As if that weren't already enough for my overactive imagination, Mac informs me that Unseelie flesh is also primarily made up of chewy gristle, popping cartilage, and scads of bursting pustules.  Mmmmmm . . . tasty! But, Moning takes her delight in this theme a step further (clearly writing these books was getting to her) by appending a set of recipes to the back of Dreamfever.  These feature instructions for Irish soda bread; traditional Irish stew; buttermilk/strawberry scones; tea, aka finger, sandwiches; and Shepherd's pie.  All of which call for Unseelie flesh.  Needless to say I'm planning to feature the results of that Irish soda bread recipe as my next blog post.  Aren't you excited? (I can tell by your barely suppressed gags that you are. *nods head*).

Extras

• For a synopsis of and excerpt from Dreamfever, see the book's webpage. I also recommend following the links on the sidebar to the previous books and to any deleted scenes offered.
• Because every good fantasy realm need its own conference, I direct you towards Fevercon. (Frankly, though, the idea makes me giggle, but who am I to judge.) 

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You Give Me . . . Fever?

Today's book is Darkfever by Karen Marie Moning.  I have been tempted once again by the siren call of a series.  There's just something about being able to immerse myself in a fictional world, not once but repeatedly, that holds and almost endless appeal for me.  I'm already looking forward to the next book (I already have all 5 stacked on my coffee table fresh from the library) so much that I can hardly force myself to write this before moving on.  Ironically, this is a blog post that almost wasn't, since I was initially put off of the Fever series by repeated descriptions and classifications of the books as Romances. (Blegh. Yucky!) But after reading a more detailed summary, I decided that these books might be for me after all.

The Basics
Moning, Karen Marie. Darkfever. Detroit: Thorndike P., 2006. Print.

Karen Marie Moning a #1 New York Times Best-Selling Author is the author of two successful series and the recipient of the RITA award. The Highlander series, which I am given to understand feature time-travel and ruggedly handsome Scotsman, are a set of paranormal romances.  Her second series, which we'll be concerned with here in my blog, begins with Darkfever, an Urban Fantasy set in Ireland.  In this book, our intrepid heroine travels to Ireland to avenge the death of her murdered sister, discovering in the process a world filled with dangerous fae and her own recently uncovered power to see such creatures.

The Book

So, funny story, my mother was over at my apartment last night with my Aunt, who was looking through my book stack.  My mom saw Darkfever sitting on the table; the author's last name is the most prominent thing on the cover.  She saw this and exclaimed, "that's not how you spell it!" To which I replied, "Mom! That's her name!  She can spell it however she likes." She had mistaken it for the book's title and thought it should have been "moaning," which given the cover art on this edition* would, indeed, seem apt (see extras).

Which brings me to my single gripe (that is no fault of the book): why was this billed as a romance in some places?  Is it because Moning is well-known for romance?  Do romances simply sell?  Moning's website, certainly doesn't caste the book this way; there it is billed as Urban Fantasy, a category that makes much more since.  But perhaps I am in the minority when I am repulsed by heaving bosoms being ripped from their bodices by the burly Brawny man.  Yes, I realize that not all romance novels fit that bill and some are quite good fiction, but that stereotype was roughly how I first saw this book described. I suppose I am indignant because I came so close to missing out on a truly wonderful and absorbing book. According to the Romance Writers of America website "all romances contain a central love story," which was conspicuously absent from Darkfever.  Although, I suppose there is potential for one to develop over the course of the series.  I must admit to some confusion about the romance genre.  Tons of books feature a romance but are categorized as mysteries, fantasy, or just plain fiction.  I guess I just don't see the point, and maybe more research is in order.  Ultimately, I like my books with plenty of plot and character with just a smidge of romance, like a condiment, to add a little extra spice.

But enough about genre, because this book is far too good to get caught up on that.  For the first time in quite a while, I found myself so completely absorbed in a book that everything around became irrelevant.  Time and being directly addressed were completely ignored. Rather than being able to read while at the same time surfing the net and watching my boyfriend play video games, I was unable to peel my eyes away from the page.

Narrated in first person by the heroine, much of the book relies on character development.  And Mackayla Lane is delightfully flawed.  A tiny bit selfish and initially lacking in motivation, Mac is spunky and full of bluster, and we follow her along as she slowly learns her way around the world she's stumbled into.  Her constant urge to stick her head in the sand and enter a state of denial can be especially frustrating, but it's also what makes her character. As the plot forces her toward a state of enlightenment, we get to watch her character grow, and this makes her entirely believable.  Rather than jumping in with a strong kick-ass heroine who jumps in and out of an unbelievable number of scrapes only to come out scathed but even badassier than before (*cough* AnitaBlake*cough*), we instead have a character whose innocence and capacity for denial starts her from a weak point and we get to see her grow gradually stronger, learning as she goes.

It also helps that Mackayla is highly relatable.  I had my doubts from the moment I first read her name and thought, "Mackayla? Seriously?" However, after a little poking around I discovered that this is an Americanized spelling of the traditionally Irish name, Michaela.  I decided that maybe it might be okay, and I could forget about my associations with that ill-mannered country girl who smacked her mouth loudly as she chewed her gum in 10th grade political science.  Also, the nickname of Mac is way cool. But I digress.  Mac is relatable as a thoroughly modern heroine, who listens to her ipod and can actually use a computer (I'm looking at you Sookie Stackhouse). I also like that she's distinctly southern; being from the South myself, southern heroines hold a special place in my heart.  She comments on such topics as manners and hospitality that leave me giggling: "When I opened my door, I discovered someone had been busy while I'd slept. A bakery bag, a bottled latte, and my luggage were outside my door.  Down South store-bought food outside your bedroom door isn't a treat - it's an insult. . . . Stay out of my kitchen, the bag said, and don't go looking around. Down South it meant, Leave before lunch, preferably now. (161).  The expression of her grief over the loss of her sister also helps make Mackayla a relatable human rather than one-dimensional. Moning depicts this so well that it feels as if it's the expression of real emotion rather than the made up mourning of a non-existent character.

As much as Darkfever relies on Mac's character, it is also driven by plot, particularly mystery.  Jericho Barrons's (stop snorting at the name, please; nah, go ahead) could be accused of being a one-dimensional character, but I would argue otherwise.  His character is instead left intentionally shrouded in mystery, so that the uncovering of tidbits about his character becomes an essential plot element as well. It helps that his physical presence in the book is every bit as vivid for the reader as it is for the characters he interacts with; he exudes energy, brio, and menace.  It is only at the very end of the book that the reader can stop flip-flopping about whether his character is good or not . . . maybe.

And the mystery of Barrons's character is only one of many plot threads that Moning weaves into her story.  We follow Mackayla in her efforts to discover her sister's murderer.  We watch as Mac learns new truths about herself.  We delve into a whole new world right along with her. We doggedly keep following Mac as she traces the whereabouts of ancient Fae relics and ultimately as she discovers herself participating in the beginnings of an underground war.  Fun, right?

The whole book is about discovery, and it drags the reader in, captivating them as much as any Fae. Urban fantasy, with the occasional mirror-fogging scene, Darkfever was a great read.  And now, I'm going to abandon further blogging in favor of the next book!

*Please note my page numbers may seem odd since I'm working from a large print edition as it was the only one in the library when my greedy little paws proceeded to check out the entire series. Heh heh.

Extras

• For more information about the author and/or her series, please consider her website.
• For information on Romance and its sub-genres see the RWA website.
• Looking for name information? Try this webpage.
• This is the picture from the cover of the large print edition my mother saw.  I couldn't get the freaking thing to format properly in the post above, hence it's position down here. *shakes fist at blogger interface*

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