Boy howdy, August just ripped right past us, didn’t it? I personally had a lot going on between work at the campground, keeping our little monsters alive, and a couple of signing events I took part in. If you want to hear more about that sort of stuff, sign yourself up for my monthly newsletter. You’ll get updates about what’s going on with me in my personal life, sure, but you’ll also be privy to what’s happening with various projects I have on the go, get news about upcoming and past appearances and events, and receive early access and the occasional special offer.
But you’re here to read about what I read about last month, so let’s get to it.
I somehow managed to get through six books last month. Several of them were audiobooks, which I listened to the bulk of during my trips to and from the events I was taking part in. Up first…
The Sun Down Motel by Simone St. James
The Sun Down Motel recounts the tale of a young woman digging into the mystery of her aunt, who disappeared at around the same age many years ago. The book shifts back and forth between the points-of-view (and time periods) of the young woman and her aunt.
Honestly, this book was like Nancy Drew with ghosts. That’s the best thing I can say about it. I don’t want to spend a bunch of time poo-pooing someone else’s work, so I’ll just say this book was not for me. Lots was left unresolved, mysteries were sealed up in the least satisfying ways possible, and the only interesting characters were treated as throwaways. It was a frustrating experience.
Let’s move on from it.
Poirot Investigates by Agatha Christie
I may have said it before, but I love Agatha Christie. I especially have a special place in my heart for the oft-prissy Hercule Poirot. Even though her Poirot stories and books are relatively predictable—at least as far as the story formula goes, if not eventually in how the mysteries are solved—I very much enjoy the banter between Poirot and his loyal assistant Hastings. The latter’s constant amazement at Poirot’s methods of investigation becomes a familiar sort of funny after the first couple of stories, like a loveable uncle who tells the lamest jokes.
Poirot Investigates is a collection of mysteries featuring the titular detective, all narrated by Hastings. The cases presented are generally lighter mysteries, solved almost as quickly as they’re presented. I can’t say any of them really stand out to me, but the book provided a couple of evenings of light-hearted, mystery-solving amusement.
Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel
This book came highly recommended to me by a couple of bookish friends and relatives, and I’m very happy I took their suggestion. I don’t typically chase after the top “list-making” books. I’m one of those people who is often put off by excessive hype, especially when it comes to general fiction, which I would say this only barely qualifies as.
Station Eleven is one of those absurdly prescient books. Published in 2014, it tells the story of a traveling theatre group in post-apocalyptic North America. What caused the apocalypse? You guessed it: a flu-like illness very much like Covid (or like The Stand’s Captain Trips virus).
This novel jumps back and forth in time, telling stories of before and after the illness claimed the majority of the world’s population. Most of the time, this keeps things pretty interesting; as soon as things get dicey in the post-apocalyptic timeline, we’re given a reflective reprieve with some anecdotes from the pre-apocalyptic times, most of which take place in Toronto, Ontario and focus on an aging film star.
I was kept pretty entertained by most of this book, and found myself reflecting on a number of passages, especially those relating to fatherhood and the balancing of the loves of art and family. As entertaining as most of the book was, I never really felt connected to the characters and it never truly felt like there was any danger. There was danger, and (spoiler) people do die, but I was never taken to the point where I feared for a character or cared when their ticket was punched.
But that’s me being picky. In all, this was a pretty darn good book.
The Mobius Door: A Novel of Supernatural Terror by Andrew Najberg
This is more like it.
Najberg is a fellow indie author out of Tennessee who I heard about through one of the many horror-lovers groups I’m a part of online.
The Mobius Door tells the tale of a small town that becomes the focus of an otherworldly entity trying to break through from the “other side”. The story comes from multiple points-of-view from young kids to seasoned police officers, none of whom are safe from the horror threatening the town.
The terror starts on page one of this book and doesn’t let up throughout. From body-morphing horrors to doorways into a bleak unknown, this is like something dreamt up by John Carpenter, Stephen King, HP Lovecraft, and David Cronenberg.
Andrew’s next book, Gollitok, comes out November 24.
Cackle by Rachel Harrison
I don’t know what it is about Rachel Harrison’s writing that keep drawing me back to her books. This is the third of hers that I’ve read and I am no closer to understanding. Her books often (always?) feature female protagonists going through some sort of existential crisis that invariably leads them to some kind of monster, be they ghosts, werewolves, or—as in Cackle—witches. On top of that, her main characters aren’t particularly likeable.
And still, I’m drawn to them.
There’s nothing bad about her books, and her success can’t be denied. So what bugs me about them? And why do I keep coming back in spite of that apparent ire? Let me state here, in case it needs to be said, that it has nothing to do with the fact that the author and her protagonists are female. Some of my favourite books are written by women and feature women as their main characters, so shut up.
I think it’s probably that I want to not like the books because I don’t really like the main characters. But the fact is that Harrison crafts an entertaining story full of witty prose and has some pretty cool ideas. This book, for example, is full of super cool, if somewhat whimsical, magic.
Cackle tells the story of Annie, a young woman who is mourning the fact that she has just turned thirty and was broken up with by the apparent love of her life weeks before her birthday. She flees to a small town where she meets an exotic older woman who takes an immediate shine to her. It doesn’t take much to figure out right away that the older woman is a witch and soon she is grooming Annie to also be a witch.
There are some pretty cool spooky moments in this, and a lot of neat settings that should appeal to any fan of witchcraft fiction. Nothing about this book really scared me, and I kind of saw where the whole thing was going from early on, so there were no surprises, but the ride was a fun one.
I’ll likely be reading her recently released book Black Sheep before the year is up.
I Found a Circus Tent in the Woods Behind My House by Ben Farthing
Yes, this book is about exactly what the title says. Yes, it is probably as bizarre as you’re thinking. And yes, it scared the hell out of me.
I Found a Circus Tent… is a very short book about a father playing in the woods with his son when they happen upon, you guessed it, a circus tent. The pair wind up becoming trapped in the tent and are then subjected to some of the most nightmarish situations a parent can find themself in with their child.
I tore through this book in a day and have been thinking about it ever since. The boy featured in the book is the same age as our oldest son and it was hard not to picture the two of us going through what the main characters of Farthing’s book are put through.
I Found a Circus Tent in the Woods Behind My House was a tough, rewarding book to read and I can’t wait for the next in the series, titled—I shit you not—I Found Puppets Living in My Apartment Walls.
——
So that’s it. All told, some really good books, a couple of okay ones, and one definite stinker.
Have you read any of these? What are your thoughts? Let me know in the comments, or by dropping me a line through the contact page, or by hitting me up on one of the billion social media sites I feel obligated to stay active on. My Facebook and Instagram handle is @authorchristophersweet and, because some sneaky devil out there already snagged that one, my TikTok handle is @christophersweetauthor which definitely never gets confusing.
Anyway, thanks for reading. Hope to hear from you and that you have an awesome September!
-Chris
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