Temporary Anne

Temporary Anne
by Briane Pagel
(5/5 stars)

Another chilling tale from the author of The Scariest Thing You Can't Imagine. This novella is about a formerly beautiful woman who becomes a ghoul in order to avoid going to Hell. The lengths she goes to in order to avoid her fate defy the imagination. Since I've read a lot of Vonnegut this year, I kept thinking Pagel's style reminds me a lot of Vonnegut's work in that while the narration seems jaunty with its humorous asides and such, there's a lot of hidden depth to that narration.

Besides the novella, there are also short stories from Andrew Leon, Rusty Carl, Nigel Mitchell, and some guy named PT Dilloway.

That is all

The Whole Bloody Affair

The Whole Bloody Affair
by Tony Laplume
(4/5 stars)

This omnibus captures the whole trilogy of a young girl named Yoshimi who has to uncover who murdered her parents and then take her revenge.  In kung-fu movie style this is accomplished by working with various masters on technique and then applying those techniques on hapless would-be assassins.  This ultimately leads her to learn about herself and to question some things she had taken for granted.

Most of the story is good, especially if you like kung-fu, Tarantino's "Kill Bill," or the Flaming Lips's "Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots."  At times, especially before the final battle, it gets a little too windy, to the point that a lot of the air goes out of the drama.  It could also use another editing pass.  Overall though it's a good read.

I was also relieved that in book 2 there's a pink robot reference.  Finally!

That is all.