Morbid Romantic

Book Review & Personal Blog

In the Miso Soup by Ryu Murakami (Paperbackswap)
Easygoing young Kenji makes good money guiding Americans through Tokyo’s seamy nightlife. His teenage girlfriend has no objections, as long as he reserves New Year’s Eve for her. But Kenji’s latest client, a simmering psychopath called Frank, disrupts those holiday plans. He wants to regale Kenji with crazy monologues as he hypnotizes low-level sex workers. A fat man with superhuman strength, skin that’s metallic to the touch, and an unsettling habit of telling contradictory lies, Frank immediately raises the guide’s hackles. Kenji even suspects that this ugliest of Americans dismembered a local schoolgirl and immolated a homeless man. But until he can prove his suspicions–and for a disturbing while after–Kenji will keep leading this monster man from one bizarre scene to another. It’s a compelling nightmare for Kenji and the reader, who both hope he’ll either wake up screaming or escape and alert the cops. Instead, everyone remains in evil’s thrall until it’s too late. A wicked meditation on the worst traits of American and Japanese society, this is a creepy culture clash indeed.

Bleak History by John Shirley (Pocket Books Blog Tour)
As far as Gabriel Bleak is concerned, talking to the dead is just another way of making a living. It gives him the competitive edge to survive as a bounty hunter, or “skip tracer,” in the psychic minefield known as New York City. Unfortunately, his gift also makes him a prime target. A top-secret division of Homeland Security has been monitoring the recent emergence of human supernaturals, with Gabriel Bleak being the strongest on record. If they control Gabriel, they’ll gain access to the Hidden — the entity-based energy field that connects all life on Earth. But Gabriel’s got other ideas. With a growing underground movement called the Shadow Community — and an uneasy alliance of spirits, elementals, and other beings — Gabriel’s about to face the greatest demonic uprising since the Dark Ages. But this time, history is not going to repeat itself. This time, the future is Bleak. Gabriel Bleak.

The Calling by David Mack (Pocket Books Blog Tour)
Near the start of this uneven supernatural thriller from Mack (Kabuki: The Alchemy), Tom Nash, who can hear long-distance prayers that oblige him to respond, leaves his near-term pregnant wife and his handyman job in Sawyer, Pa., after receiving a telepathic plea for help from a kidnapped 11-year-old girl somewhere in New York City. Luckily, Nash soon comes across a poster depicting the missing girl, Phaedra Doyle, and manages to talk his way into the Brooklyn townhouse of her wealthy widowed mother, Anna. While the kidnappers have warned Anna not to go to the FBI or police, Anna trusts Nash enough to authorize him to do what he can to recover her daughter. While Erin Sanchez, a supportive local who shares his gift, tells Nash its source, Mack never adequately explains such issues as why Nash isn’t overwhelmed by prayers or why he should hear ones far away but not closer by.

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