A Forest, or a Tree by Tegan Moore - A Short Story Review

Four city women go on an overnight hiking trip into the woods.  Most are ill-equipped for the task.

Once the discomforts of camping set in, real stresses between the hikers manifest.  Spooky stories around the campfire set things in motion. 

I thought the story was very well written and the characters believable and understandable.  The deep-dark woods, bad weather and a feeling of danger made for a creepy experience. 

But, truth be told, I wasn’t happy with the ending. It felt forced and did not fit with how the story was told.  I did like the open ending.  Perhaps there is a sequel in the works?  I’d gladly go back to this world

Tegan Moore’s website - https://alarmhat.com/

Tegan Moore

Loneliness Is In Your Blood by Cadwell Turnbull

Oh!  Yuck!  The opening scenes of this story made me cringe.  Yup, I still don't like horror.

But I read on and it became something more, something sadder.

If you consider that even monsters, be they human or otherwise, have a backstory and needs, then you can appreciate some of the consequences of being immortal.

There was a gloomy, twisted logic to the narrator's life.

This made the story worth telling but I was still disturbed by every word of it.

Well told but icky.

Cadwell Turnbull's website - https://cadwellturnbull.com/

Cadwell Turnbull

Book Report #64 - World War Z by Max Brooks

I read this in anticipation of the big Brad Pitt movie and after Nathan Fillion suggested it at the Calgary Comic and Entertainment Expo.

It is not the usual linear narrative, instead it is a collection of interviews with key players who survived the events of the zombie plague.

At first this felt like a collection of short stories but after a little bit I started to get into, not so much the rhythm of the book, but how each interview would raise questions in my head and succeeding passages would go to answer them.

This was my first zombie book, I'm not usually a fan of this kind of thing.  I have to admit that this novel is a step up from the, "Man meets zombie, man runs from zombie, man gets eaten by zombie" type of thing.  If you take the "idea" of a zombie plague and run with it a bit; how would society react and deal with such a calamity?  Would law and order survive?  How would our daily lives be affected?  Would there be an economy left behind?  Would functioning governments maintain order and power?

What's fun is that the solution is very easy - kill the zombies.  It's not like waiting for some lab somewhere to discover an antidote will end the conflict.  Each person has the power to "remove" the infected.

What humanity had to deal with was the overwhelming numbers of infected and this was made more interesting by showing how individuals dealt with a loved one who'd fallen to the disease.

If you get over the whole zombie thing, then you are reading a fantastic mental exercise that intelligently delves into serious matters while being a ripping good yarn at the same time.

Looking forward to the re-imagining the movie will present.