Dread of Night – Book Review

When fellow indie author Joshua D. Boeringa reached out and asked if I would review one of his books, I immediately said yes. I was in the process of preparing my own novel for publication and I knew how much the support of fellow authors is needed and appreciated. He told me that one of his books was a collection of short horror stories for middle-grade readers. I chose it because I thought it would be a quick read while navigating my own murky indie publishing waters, but mainly I chose it because I love to be scared and I think scaring our kids from time to time is a good thing. Maybe it’s the writer in me, but I feel that a good scare works wonders for your imagination and creativity. What is writing fiction if not a series of what ifs? Why not spark our teens’ imaginations with a little what if there really is something under the bed or what if that little old lady is not what she seems?

I settled in to read Dread of Night: Vol. 1 on the one night that a) I was sleeping alone and b) there was a terrible thunderstorm assaulting the windows and cutting out the power. I thought, “It’s for teens so how scary can it be?”

The answer? Very.

Dread of Night is comprised of 13 short stories and is a very quick read – not just because of the number of tales, but because you won’t be able to put it down. I told myself I’d read one or two and then go to sleep, but instead I read more than half. (And then found myself peering into the dark shadows of the master bathroom from my bed, making sure no one was standing there.) Each title perfectly captures what is so great about the short story: they’re snapshots of a few moments in time in a bigger story. They should provide you with enough history so that you feel as if you have a sense of who the players are and leave you wanting more – or at the very least, leave you thinking about what you just read Snow-Blind, about a young motorist who finds herself stranded in a snowstorm, will have you wondering about what happened on that isolated road long after the last word.

Adults may find some of the stories predictable – especially if horror is their thing, but this book isn’t for us. I think it provides the perfect introduction to horror novels for your teen reader if you’re not ready for them to dive into the worlds of Koontz or King. There’s a bit of gore (Teddy – a little boy does the wrong thing and lets in a stranger when he’s home alone), but nothing too heavy. Boering does an excellent job of leaving some bits to your imagination. And even to a seasoned horror fan like myself, a few stories like The Yard Sale offered up a nice surprise ending.

I enjoyed how Boering displayed a different writing style throughout the book. Some stories like The Fishwife may call to mind Stephen King as Boering expertly places us in the minds of young kids who go looking for trouble and find it. There are some that are straight out of Creepshow like It Reminds Me of You (a young man is followed by a mysterious woman) or Their Father’s Grave (a trio of siblings are plagued by their father’s madness even after he has died). One – the book’s opener, Crunched For Time – will even make you laugh as the end scene is like something straight out of a Choose Your Own Adventure book should you make all the wrong decisions.

My favorite was a piece titled Turning the Soil - a widow becomes attached to her quiet young boarder. I love the way it was written and went beyond a scare and caused me to think about unhealthy attachments, mourning and loneliness. Robert Forest’s black-and-white illustrations provide the right amount of fright with their tone and shadows. One image in particular – the man in Teddy – almost had me toss the book across the room and call it a night!

You can head over to Boeringa’s site and hear audio recordings of some of the shorts included in Dread of Night. You can purchase it for your Kindle here.

Deathly Hallows Book Review

Am I the only one profoundly sad?

I realized three or four books ago that Harry’s existence was a sad one. An existence filled with death and loss. As the books went on we were given a taste of minor catastrophes upon peripheral characters; like the death of Amelia Bones and Bill Weasley being horribly scarred by Greyback in H.B.P, and major ones; the deaths of Cedric Diggory, Sirius Black, and Albus Dumbledore in G.O.F, O.O.T.P., and H.B.P, respectively. The rumblings of war had been slowly growing louder.

As Deathly Hallows begins Harry knows there is no turning back. With the two people he cared for the most, aside from the parents he never knew, dead and the knowledge now common that Lord Voldemort has not only returned, but is building an army to take over as he failed to do before, he knows there is no going back to the life he once lived. If the readers were not aware of this, we’re definitely hip to the game by the end of chapter five, Fallen Warrior, as we’ve said goodbye to the Dursleys, 4 Privet Drive, Hedwig, Mad-Eye Moody, and George’s ear.

The primary focus of Deathly Hallows was set up in the final chapters of Half-Blood Prince. Harry would not be returning to Hogwarts for his final year of education. Instead, he will try to find and destroy the remaining Horcruxes; items magically containing bits of Voldemort’s soul as tasked to him by Dumbledore, with the help of his trusted and courageous friends, Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger.

Harry, Ron, and Hermione

J.K. Rowling could have easily left it at that, but instead readers are treated to a 759-page journey through history. Characters we thought we knew were revealed to have layers beyond any we imagined. Motives behind actions taken as far back as Sorcerer’s Stone are made clear. Whether we like them or not. Peculiar items left to Harry, Ron, and Hermione in Dumbledore’s will prove vital in the three heroes uncovering the legend behind The Deathly Hallows; three magical items said to provide the power to defeat death once possessed.

With very little to go on, and those they love left behind to live in constant mortal danger, Harry and his friends go on the run faced with a decision. Do they try and uncover The Deathly Hallows and are they the key to Harry defeating Voldemort? The words of the prophecy, “neither can live while the other survives,” ring in Harry’s head. Or should Harry soldier on, fulfilling Dumbledore’s wishes, and destroy the remaining Horcruxes, wherever they are and whatever they may be?

At times, that struggle became a bit too much for me to swallow. Harry’s willingness to mistrust what he knew of Albus Dumbledore because of the poison quill biography of him written by Rita Skeeter, of all people, seemed unrealistic. Hadn’t we been through this before with his refusal to open himself up to the Dumbledore suggested occlumency lessons with Snape in O.O.T.P. (which led to Sirius’ death), and his reluctance to work on Slughorn as Dumbledore asked, but rather worry about what Draco Malfoy was up to in H.B.P? That last one was especially frustrating as we know now Dumbledore had that well under control.

Harry’s tendency to react as a hothead and assume he knew better was frustrating through much of the middle portion of the book, but one could suppose it further goes to prove that he was, after all, his father’s son and still just a boy. When it counted though, Harry ultimately makes the right decision having had a sense of clarity after burying Dobby the house-elf (three-hanky moment 20) and realizes that in order to defeat Voldemort he must finish what he started; destroying the Horcruxes.

It is a testament to Rowling’s great talent that a tale so full of death, loss, and sorrow can still find ways to rally the heart. I’ve always found some of Ron’s lines, usually delivered out of his living in the shadow of louder, funnier, and smarter brothers the funniest. Deathly Hallows did not disappoint on that score.

“Why the hell,” panted Ron, holding up the Horcrux, which swung backward and forward on its shortened chain in some parody of hypnosis, “didn’t you take this thing off before you dived?”

And after Harry dreams about Gregorovitich for the first time…

“I think Voldemort’s looking for him.”

“Poor bloke,” said Ron fervently.

However, as much as it is a tale of good versus evil, at its heart the Harry Potter series is about friendship, trust, loyalty, bravery, and family. Which is why I found myself with a funny feeling in my stomach when I thought, “Hedwig won’t make it till the end of the book,” while reading chapter two, and teary-eyed when the owl didn’t make it past chapter four. It’s also why I cried when Fred Weasley, Lavender Brown, Colin Creevey, Remus Lupin, Nymphadora Tonks, and Dobby died. (Though I didn’t shed a tear when Crabbe bit it.)

It is, too, why the story of Snape touched me so deeply. Over seven books we came to love, hate, loathe, and care about, the people in this world and the reasons behind their actions. How tragic, how brave, that Snape would live a life where everyone thought him to be a traitor because his misguided beliefs helped kill the woman he loved. How sad that he devoted himself to help protect the life of her son who had her eyes. How truly remorseful must he have been to allow the world to believe he had killed the only man to really trust, believe in, and know him, in malice.

I read once, either in some how-to book on being a fiction writer or during some writing class, that you never introduce a loaded gun in act one if you don’t plan on firing it by act three. Maybe Rowling read the same book for she definitely addressed every plot point, every landmark, and damn near every character, ever introduced in the Potterverse in this final installment. Even better, one never gets the feeling that she was just making stuff up as she went along. It was evident that each character, even the evil ones, were carefully crafted, loved, and respected, for they were each given history and some even life after death. Albus Severus Potter? That would be three-hanky moment 40, thank you very much.

Some might say that Deathly Hallows was a bit heavy on the message of tolerance. No one can say they didn’t immediately think of concentration camps when reading about the Muggle-Born Registration Commission. Though, there was a lovely moment during a scene in which Harry, Hermione, and Ron gather around to listen to a pirate radio show aimed at getting the truth out while Voldemort has taken over the Ministry of Magic and all media. Kingsley Shacklebot suggests that those in the magical world also protect the unsuspecting Muggles (non-magical folk) by placing protective charms around their homes.

“And what would you say, Royal (Kingsley), to those listeners who reply that in these dangerous times, it should be ‘Wizards first’?” asked Lee.

“I’d say that it’s one short step from ‘Wizards first’ to ‘Purebloods first,’ and then to ‘Death Eaters,’” replied Kingsley. “We’re all human, aren’t we? Every human life is worth the same, and worth saving.”

Let’s face it, there is no perfect ending to a story you never want to end. And there’s no mistaking that it had to end. I mean, how menacing could Voldemort continue to prove to be if he never succeeds in killing Harry, or how impressive is it to be The Chosen One and The Boy Who Lived if you never vanquish the bad guy? It would become comical.

No, no ending would be perfect. But Rowling gets it damn near perfect in Deathly Hallows. Sure, in the epilogue I would have loved to have learned more about what happened to Luna (I imagine her off running The Quibbler married to Dean Thomas), how the Weasley’s coped with Fred’s death, how was the revelation that Snape was a hero received, did the Dursleys ever see Harry again, and more, but I don’t mind having some of it left to my imagination either.

I’m happy with where these beloved characters were left. I called it after seeing the movie, Order of the Phoenix, that you’d never see Harry performing Avada Kedavra on Voldemort. That’s not his style. Everything was left as it should be. But that’s not to say that if five years from now Rowling ever has the desire to pick up a new tale in the halls of Hogwarts, the streets of Hogsmeade, the lanes of The Burrow, the cobblestone paths of Diagon Alley, I’d be complaining.

The final Potter book