Hardly Getting Over It

Paul Tremblay is at his best when he’s making you question what’s actually happening in his novels. Was the teen girl in A Head Full of Ghosts really possessed?  Was it really the apocalypse in The Cabin at the End of the World?  That’s what he’s doing here in The Pallbearers Club; a story about a friendship that starts in the late 1980s and lasts until the present day. He first peppers you with the main characters recollections only to refute them a few pages later.  You will go back and forth about the character of Mercy Brown until the very last chapter.

Art Barbara is a skinny, acne prone teen who sleeps in a back brace and listens to hair metal. As if he weren’t already uncool enough, he decides to start The Pallbearers Club; an after-school group that acts as pallbearers for poorly attended funerals. Although the club itself isn’t successful (shocking, I know), he meets a seemingly effortlessly cool girl named Mercy Brown. They form a tight friendship throughout high school, drift apart and then come back together over the next few decades. This is not all that unusual for your average teenage friendship except Art doesn’t stop contacting Mercy because he’s too busy at college or starting a family. Art comes to believe that Mercy is a vampire.  At some point in the 2000s Art begins to write down his recollections of this strange relationship in a memoir (or novel, depending on what you believe).  The Pallbearers Club is Art’s manuscript which includes notes from Mercy herself as she as she drops in to tell the story from her point of view.  Is Mercy a vampire? Is Art blaming his best friend for his own health and personal issues?  You won’t know until the end of the book.

I listened to this on audiobook, and I highly recommend this if audiobooks are your thing.  The actors voicing both Art and Mercy are a great fit for the characters.  Art as the nerd turned punk musician and Mercy as the mysterious, too cool for school commentator.  She frequently takes aim at Art’s prose which can be a bit navel-gazey at times.  It’s an interesting gimmick that could be annoying and hard to read in the wrong hands but Paul Tremblay is more than able to keep the story moving forward to it’s conclusion.  This would be great to listed to (or read on paper, if you must) as we approach spooky season.

I Just Can’t Get You Outta My Head

Black Water Sister is a standalone book written by the Zen Cho, the author of the Sorcerer to the Crown series.  It may qualify as a sort of urban fantasy or a modern-day folk tale.  It takes place in modern day George Town which is the capital of the island of Penang in Malaysia.  It involves vengeful gods, sacred shrines, a dead grandmother speaking to her granddaughter and lots of shady corporate dealings.  It’s also a story about a family and about the relationships between mothers and daughters and the secrets they keep from each other.

Jessamyn Teoh has a lot going on right now. She’s recently graduated, unemployed and broke. She’s extremely closeted and her girlfriend is in another country. She’s just moved back to Malaysia, a country she hasn’t lived in since she was a toddler, living with her parents, an aunt and uncle along with lots of visiting relatives asking her what her plans are. As if all that weren’t enough, her estranged dead grandmother Ah Ma starts talking to her. It seems Ah Ma has unfinished business on the corporeal plane.  A local business tycoon has done something to offend one of the gods and Ah Ma wants to stop him and maybe exact a little vengeance as well.  Unfortunately, Ah Ma is very insistent and is not above taking over Jess’ body when it suits her.  Soon Jess finds herself running afoul of local gangsters, corporate thugs, and powerful gods all while trying to navigate her complicated family life, find a job and salvage her relationship with her girlfriend. 

I have not read Zen Cho’s other books though they come highly recommended.  But I know that this is a departure from her more “high fantasy” selections.  It has a lot to offer including family drama, a glimpse of Malaysian culture and a grandmother so salty she could garnish a margarita. There are a couple of parts where the action drags a bit and I would like to have seen more about Jess’ relationship with her girlfriend. Aside from that, Black Water Sister was a thoroughly enjoyable read.