The 7th graders at Washington Academy Middle School “stage” a coup (read, are assigned to create a 7th grade experience after a bloodless revolution) and spend a chapter or so trying to determine what an optimal 7th grade experience would be (by committee). While voting on a proposal, the 7th graders discover that the FBI has, surreptitiously, evacuated the rest of the school and are preparing to search for a treasure of national importance. What ensues is a race against the clock as the 7th […]
Twelve metres of shorn grass
Darren Keefe is “…a talented freak with no mooring,” a bad boy cricketer that never quite reaches his potential. As a young player rocketing towards the pinnacle of Australian cricket, Darren had little oversight or true coaching – no one wanted to change what was working, and if a coach tried to reel him in, his mother switched him to another team. When he starts making money, the troubles start: drugs, drinking, corruption in cricket, toxic masculinity, and so forth. There is a noir mystery […]
“Civilization is the way one’s own people live. Savagery is the way foreigners live.”
How to begin? I have wanted to read books by Octavia Butler for years and somehow never picked one up until now. Wild Seed wasn’t’ an easy read, although the language is beautiful, the characters are compelling and change over time (in many ways!), and the plot is complex and interesting. The story takes place over several hundred years and the characters mostly live day-to-day having children, falling sick, getting married, eating food – with powerful ancient beings living day-to-day next to more “ordinary” psychic […]
Deep wells of loneliness
Silas Jones and Larry Ott are two sides of a coin in a small Mississippi town. They meet as children, where Larry is the town comic book reading, horror aficionado weirdo and Silas is the new kid – poor, black, and new to country life. They become friends for a time, bonding over proximity, loneliness, and a shared love of nature and horror. Over time, however, Silas moves on to sports and other friends. Fast forward to adulthood, where ‘Scary’ Larry is a pariah because […]