Review: Very Superstitious: Myths, Legends, and Tales of Superstition

Second Annual Month9Books Charity Anthology
Proceeds for first 5,000 sales go to SPCA Internation
Edited by Georgia McBride
Stories by Shannon Delany, Jackie Morse Kessler, Jennifer Knight, Stephanie Kuehnert, Mari Mancusi, Michelle E. Reed, Dianne K. Salerni, Pab Sungenis
Available now from Month9Books
Review copy

VERY SUPERSTITIOUS contains an excellent lineup of authors, which is what first caught my attention.  I was particularly excited to see a story by Stephanie Kuehnert, who hasn't had a fiction release since 2009's wicked good BALLADS OF SUBURBIA.  (Bonus: I got to interview her!)  Plus, it's a charity anthology!  How could I resist spreading the word about a book that helps animals?  I have a rescue dog, and he's the best ever.  (Okay, Patton is my mom's, but I'd steal him in a heartbeat.)

I wish the theme of VERY SUPERSTITIOUS were slightly more coherent.  Some of the stories involve animals, some don't.  Some are mythology, some folklore, some the Bible, some urban legends, some children's stories, you get the idea.  With only eight stories, so many different sources means stories with very different feels.  I like that they aren't all the same of course, but I wish there was more of a thread holding them together than "superstition."  (And sometimes that thread is very light indeed.)

I also wish that more of the sources were non-Western.   "Chupacabra" by Jennifer Knight draws on the Central American legend and is set in Puerto Rico, and was one of my favorites in the anthology.  It's a tale of revenge, hard choices, and the way human emotions can create the worst monsters.  It felt like a small piece of a larger world, which I appreciated.  "Midhalla" by Michelle E. Reed draws on Egyptian mythology, so it doesn't make much sense to have a title punning on Norse mythology.  [Edit: Reed contacted me about the title and said, "Midhalla is the Arabic word for umbrella, which is why I chose it for my story."] It was probably my least favorite story in the anthology.  It's core is extremely goofy, and the end is dark and sudden, jarring completely with the setup at the beginning of the story.  It never coheres.

I think most of these stories are one offs, which is nice.  "Thirst" by Jackie Morse Kessler does tie into her Riders of the Apocalypse series, but given that it's a retelling of Noah and the flood, it's easy to follow even without knowledge of that series.  I enjoyed it, as well as the stories from Shannon Delany, Stephanie Kuehnert, and Dianne K. Salerni.  And props to Delany's kids, who convinced her to change the story's traditional ending.  VERY SUPERSTITIOUS contains many unhappy endings, but at least it contains no unhappy ending for animals. Mari Mancusi's story plays with "The Gift of the Magi," a story that's been played with so much that it would take something really clever to get me excited about it.  Not bad, but standard.  Pab Sungenis's "The Silverfoot Heretic" played with The Wizard of Oz.  I thought the story went somewhere interesting, and touching, but I almost didn't finish the story because the beginning didn't capture me at all.

VERY SUPERSTITIOUS is a fine anthology for fantasy readers looking for something slightly creepy for Halloween reading.  I didn't love all of the stories, but there are some good ones by popular authors.  If you're a fan of any of these ladies, I'd pick it up.  Plus, you're helping out animals!  It's hard to resist books and animals, isn't it?

Review: Bad Blood

By Mari Mancusi
Available now from Berkeley Jam
Review copy provided by publisher



Since coincidence makes the world go round, a friend bought me the first three Blood Coven novels as a Christmas present a few weeks before I received BAD BLOOD. I'm happy that the series has been recovered, since the original covers were cute but lacked homogeniety. As for BAD BLOOD itself, I'm glad it focuses on Sunny rather than Rayne.

I'm not gonna lie; Rayne annoys me. I've always been a member of at least one subculture, but I have loyalties to a variety of groups. This usually leads to people claiming I'm not a real "_". And Rayne is one of those people. You've got to fit into her idea of what the subculture is, no deviations. And if you aren't a member, then you're contemptible. (She did get called out for it in GIRLS THAT GROWL, which makes me really happy.)

BAD BLOOD has my favorite book setting: Las Vegas. Sunny's boyfriend Magnus is required to blood a coruler, and Jane Johnson has been chosen. Now they have to go to a vamp convention in Vegas. But Sunny is suspicious of Jane, and takes the opportunity to visit her estranged father and his family. I enjoyed the family story and the mystery, but felt the romance was lacking.

The romance lacking, however, is a trend in the Blood Coven books. It got worse in GIRLS THAT GROWL and BAD BLOOD. The main couples treat each other badly, fight about it, then make up quickly in the end. I have trouble buying it. Instead of being a great love story, it feels like Mari Mancusi is afraid to break the characters up.

Once more, Mancusi ends with a reveal that sets up the next book. And yes, I will keep reading. The books are fun enough, but Mancusi (like almost all authors) has rough edges. Hers just tend to be the rough edges that rub me the wrong way.