Another round-up of my summer reads. Today we have some deep French/Korean literature, a fresh cozy mystery, a history of pulp horror, and a graphic novel about supernatural battling scouts. Enjoy!
Winter in Sokcho by Elisa Shua Dusapin (2016), translated by Aneesa Higgins (2020)
French Literature, Korean Literature, Contemporary Fiction
The language is sparse but beautiful, subtly complex and a fitting companion to the characters in Winter in Sokcho.
Sokcho, situated just south of the DMZ, is a bustling tourist town in the summer. But in Dusapin’s novel, it is a place of cold isolation in the winter where everyone lives in a self-imposed exile, sinking in their constructed loneliness. These are all people who are capable of changing their circumstances, but actively choose the destructive seclusion that is grinding away at their souls. It is devastating and glorious.
Dusapin’s unnamed narrator may be a proxy for the author, both of French and Korean parentage and living somewhere in the middle of two disparate cultures. She is fully aware that her life could and should be different, but she readily relies on the excuses that keep her stuck. Sharing the novel with her, while never fully sharing a scene, is Kerrand, an illustrator from France looking for something unclear in his travels. He is constantly looking for things as he imagines them to be, uninterested in the more brutal and mundane realities of existence. Neither character feels comfortable in their lives, nor do they know how to form the connections to break away from this mental and physical state. Together they are presented with new choices, and alone they continue to choose wrong. Heartbreaking and relatable.
Arsenic and Adobo by Mia Manansala (2021)
Cozy Mystery, Filipino Cuisine, Family & Friendship
The hallmark of cozy mysteries for me is that they exist in a space that is inviting despite the threat of lethal violence. These are the fantasies where comedy, friendship, family, and good food are the perfect coping mechanisms for otherwise traumatizing events.
Arsenic and Adobo, the debut novel from Manansala, is about Lila and her eccentric but loving extended family and the restaurant they own. When Lila’s ex-boyfriend is seemingly poisoned in the family restaurant, Tita Rosie’s Kitchen, she and her friends need to solve who murdered him before she is pegged for the crime.
There’s strong friendships, a feisty grandmother, a love triangle, an adorable dog, and so, so much food, all detailed just right to make your stomach growl from hunger. But there is a lot of heart in the relationships, and the scenes where characters simply gather for a meal and conversation are some of the most rewarding. Even the murder victim, a typical cozy mystery entitled man-boy who made peoples’ lives miserable before faceplanting in his lunch, is humanized above cartoon villainy. That’s a refreshing twist in a genre that is usually over reliant on formulas.
The mystery is OK. I solved it a bit too early for my liking and key threads are introduced way too late in the story, but it was still a good ride. As a debut mystery I can reconcile with the character development overtaking the plot a bit.
At the end of the book is a set of recipes of some of the Filipino favorites served at Tita Rosie’s. I had to copy the recipe for Salabat-Spiced Banana Bread to try later. It sounds delish!
Paperbacks from Hell: The Twisted History of '70s and '80s Horror Fiction by Grady Hendrix (2017)
Pulp Horror Fiction, Art, 1970s and 1980s, Nostalgia
Violent, raunchy, bizarre, hilarious.
In Paperbacks from Hell Grady Hendrix leads readers through the horror paperback boom of the 1970s and 1980s. Full cover reproductions of their outlandish covers printed throughout this volume makes this a multi-sensory experience. Hendrix treats these materials with a loving reverence, even when he acknowledges their flaws or when illustrating their silliness. He lets his own sense of humor fly on topics like disappointing Christmas horror:
Holiday paperback horror turned out to be that terrible boyfriend who wraps an
Applebee’s coupon in a Tiffany’s box (p. 217)
or, when slayer fetuses, terrifying toddlers, and killer teens became a popular nemesis in 70s horror:
Of course, every mother thinks her baby is perfect, but at some point, as her home fills
with dead bodies, she has to face facts and admit that the fruit of her womb is a face-
eating beast spawned from the deepest recesses of hell (p. 54).
Hendrix examines why the genre became so popular in this era. Rather than reflecting societal anxieties back to their readers, did these novels instead exploit and deepen them in exchange for maximum profits? Which came first: The Satanic Panic in the news or the Satanic Panic in pop culture? It’s a blurred line and it can be argued that there may have been an equal exchange. The genre eventually went bust in the 1990s, when these boundary-pushing storylines crossed one boundary too many. Hendrix presents a very complete, and very entertaining history.
Side note: good luck not getting the theme from Stranger Things stuck in your head while reading.
Lumberjanes: To the Max Edition, vol. 1 by Noelle Stevenson, Shannon Watters, Grace Ellis, Faith Hicks, Brooke A. Allen (Illustrator), Kat Leyh, Carolyn Nowak (Illustrator), Carey Pietsch (Illustrator), Ayme Sotu-yo (Illustrator), Maarta Laiho (Illustrator) (2015)
YA, Middle School, Graphic Novel, Adventure
The Lumberjanes are a group of scouts investigating supernatural mysteries near their camp over the course of one manic summer. Ancient curses, yetis, possessed boy scouts, friendship bracelets, badges! There’s nothing these girls can’t handle as long as they have the power of friendship on their side.
This is a reread for me. I enjoyed this series when I started collecting the single-issue comics years ago. This collection will make you nostalgic for the adventures of youth, even if you never went to camp. The friendships of the characters are inspiring, and their escapades are fun and mysterious. I didn’t love the art style when I began reading it years ago, but it grew on me and now I can’t imagine these characters any other way.
And if you love this series, I would also like to direct you to Nimona, another graphic novel by Noelle Stevenson, and one of my favorite books from the past few years.
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