Last week I wrote a couple of reviews here. I’m going to be only on here.
I tried the Substack thing. It’s just like being on here, but there are fewer readers. I had almost zero engagement on there. Twitter is the same way. I’ll probably leave there soon.
I’m considering leaving every social media I have except for this one. Substack is a blog. You can dress it up and add fancy things, but it’s still a blog. It’s why I deleted my account yesterday.
I can devote time to writing or social media, not both. I know SM is supposed to help me gain readers. I understand that, but I’m at the point where I’d rather write and publish what I want. It could be the next Jax Reed novel, a horror collection/novella/novel, or something else.
Jax’s book came out almost a year ago, and I haven’t written his next book. I know what it’s about. I have an outline. I’ve been worrying so much about finding connections on SM that I didn’t write it. I’ve written a lot of horror stories. Those will be coming out later this year and early 2024. I’ve created the covers for them. This is for the novella coming in October/November.
It’s been through a bunch of rewrites and revisions. I’ll be inputting those this week. I should have it up for preorder in early August. I’ll post here when that happens. I’ll have the other covers up soon, but the edits aren’t done for those yet.
You’ll be seeing more of me in the future. This is the only place I’ll write.
I have read two of Josh’s books, Bird Box and Daphne. My wife has read almost all of his books, but I’ve had trouble with them. At least, I used to. I intend to revisit his books after reading this collection of novellas.
Spoilers Ahead
Let’s start out with the first story. This one felt chaotic at first. As I settled in, making my way around the story as the characters makes their way around the house. It made me uncomfortable in a way I’ve tried to put into words. This has become difficult, at least with this story. The presences within Half The House Is Haunted made me think about my childhood.
There are numerous throughlines in this story. It’s longer than some of the others. I wonder if Josh thought of expanding it into something longer. It feels like it could have been longer.
My uncomfortableness with this story lies with the telling of it. The first sequence is about childhood and what we find in our house. It’s about discovering the parts of your house your parents forbid you from, siblings, and how we don’t get along with some of ours.
It reminds me of one of the houses I grew up in. We were forbidden from going into our parent’s room. Which is normal. But discovering the house between the siblings and their interactions scared me more than the story itself.
I’ll move forward to the next story, Argyle.
Have you ever had those thoughts? The ones you shouldn’t speak about? What if you decided to come clean on your deathbed. How would that go?
Luckily, Josh has done that for us, but if you want to spill your secrets, go for it. I won’t hold you back.
I enjoyed the hell out of this story. We’ve all had those uncomfortable thoughts. Or maybe it’s me. I love Shawn in this story. He was honest about letting go of who he wanted to be and not letting anyone know until the end of his life. The struggle of keeping those secrets is similar to the first story. It’s about secrets.
Doug and Judy Buy the House Washer
Doug and Judy worked their whole lives to have the best of everything, but they’ve sacrificed themselves to get there.
The house washer cleans everything up. It doesn’t hold back from those little things you’ve kept in drawers, literally and figuratively. As the cleaner makes its way through the house, we see the darkness within Doug and Judy. We see what they’ve done. Who they’ve done it to, and how far they’ve gone to get where they are. It was a fantastic exploration of what people will do to get ahead in life and business and to be better than those around them.
The scenes in the bubble gave me that claustrophobic feeling. It’s as much of us, the reader, watching them, and them watching their lives.
Jupiter Drop
I’d like to see Josh do more science fiction like this. The claustrophobic feeling of the box. I was fascinated by Steve and what happened to him and all the little details. This was a great exploration of doing anything to escape your problems, only to find them waiting for you.
Egorov
This was my favorite story in the collection. I recently finished The Brothers Karamazov and found the writing in this story similar, but one particular scene stood out. When one brother returns to a house to find a woman living in it, there is a scene in Egorov similar, or at least gave the same vibes.
The story of revenge is an almost Dickensian tale of scaring someone to get revenge for what they’ve done. It reminded me of many classic mystery and revenge books I’ve read.
I would like to see Josh write a novel-length book like this one. A revenge/mystery book.
I read this through NetGalley, but I will buy it when it comes out. I want to reread this last story.
Josh is a great writer, and I’ll go to Goblin soon.
“Adults are children with both more and less autonomy.”
The above quote was early in the book and stuck with me.
We meet our main character, Val, at a ranch owned by her father. It’s unclear why she’s there. There is a lot of mystery around her childhood and her father. Her father was the controlling type, but we discover something else as we delve deeper into the story.
I grew up where most of the book is set. I was an outsider looking at the LDS(Mormon) faith. I picked up on her innuendos that maybe others may not have seen.
But I’m getting sidetracked.
Val meets her friends Isaac, Marcus, and Javi early in the story. They inform her she was once a part of a TV show.
She leaves the only life she’s known to discover what she may have lost. There is a stream throughout the book about losing things and about trauma. It’s on how they talk about the show and won’t say Mister Magic’s name. This thread runs throughout the book.
This book has a lot to say about faith, religion, cults, and trauma. It may have been me reading into it, but I found the descriptions of how religion wants their kids to be a certain way. How they will do anything to make sure their kids behave, don’t talk back, and don’t use profanity. It felt like the life I watched friends grow up with while I stood outside the LDS faith.
I don’t like to give a book report or go chapter by chapter. I’ve done that. It doesn’t feel right to me as a reviewer. I’d rather put my personal touch on reviews. Which is why I stated the above.
The author knows her way around the subject without bludgeoning the reader.
Sometimes I read a sentence or paragraph and was like, yep, I remember that. The way people talk about how when a woman isn’t married by a certain age, there might be something wrong with her. My wife dealt with that. I watched family members marry early only to divorce later. It’s prevalent in Utah culture to marry out of high school, especially for women. If you don’t, something is wrong with you, or so they say.
The idea of a secret. Of something being held back from one another, a certain trauma coalesces at the end of the book. We never remember our childhood perfectly. There are bumps.
In the end, we want what’s best for our own kids. The hope that our kids have better childhoods than our own. That we give them something better than we had. That’s the hope of every decent parent.
I hope you enjoyed this review. If you have any questions, leave them in the comments. I’ll be posting this on my substack as well. Happy reading.
I hate to leave anyone hanging. I didn’t write the post that was supposed to go out today. I lost my train of thought on a few things. I’m sure you recognize that from Friday’s post.
I’m working on fixing all of this. I’ll keep you posted.
Brian B Baker, Writer 