Nowhere Burning A Dark Tale of Family, Friendship, and Survival by Catriona Ward

 Nowhere Burning by Catriona Ward

Nowhere Burning book cover

Author and master storyteller Catriona Ward

Big thanks to Tor Publishing and NetGalley for sharing an advanced copy of Catriona Ward’s dazzling new novel Nowhere Burning. I previously read and was stunned by Sundial, and last year, I read the Shivers Collection, in which her story “Night and Day in Misery” stood out to me as the best story in the collection. I had high expectations for this book, and Ward does not disappoint. Nowhere Burning is a compelling and propulsive novel that deals with families, friendships, and fidelity. In fact, there were elements of the story that reminded me of some of the best parts of Sundial. Needless to say, as one of the best horror and thriller writers I’ve read in the past few years, Ward has created a dark story about death and rebirth that also features a clan of rejected kids who make their own society in the mountains in the abandoned estate of an alleged serial killer who died years earlier in an attack on one of his houseguests that resulted in a massive fire. The killer, Leif Winham, is an actor and star whose loneliness and need for attention lead him to keep his houseguests indefinitely and subject them to gruesome experiments. Leif’s story is one of the three different timelines we see in the story. While we don’t learn a lot about Leif, we encounter him through his hiring of Adam, a handyman whom is hired to build a hidden staircase in Leif’s estate, Nowhere. Through this part of the narrative, we learn about how Nowhere came to be, and we understand the ruins of Nowhere in which the current group, the Children of Nowhere, live. Riley and her half-brother Oliver, were living with Cousin, an abusive family member who doesn’t allow Oliver to attend school and subjects him to harsh physical labor. After a mysterious visit from a floating child named Noon who Riley isn’t even sure if she is real or a hallucination, Riley makes a plan to visit Noon’s group, the Children of Nowhere, in the mountains. Noon provides Riley with vague directions through the park, and Riley makes a plan to escape Cousin’s abuses and join the Children of Nowhere. There’s another story line with Marc and Kimble, true crime documentarians, who are interested in the story of the Nowhere Children, and want to visit the ruins of Nowhere for their next documentary. These story lines converge in an exciting and surprising ending. 

Much like Sundial, I couldn’t put this book down once it started. It’s an exciting story of survival amidst trauma and tragedy, and the kind of terror that groups can inflict on outsiders when they experience external and existential threats to their survival. In a lot of ways, the setting of Nowhere Burning, an abandoned estate that initially had grand intentions as a kind of refuge for Leif Winham, literally a kind of nowhere where Winham wished to escape, but also to inflict pain and torture on those he felt where either taking from him or planning to leave him. Like the home in Sundial, Nowhere operates both in the past and the present, and despite its decay it remains a site of life and activity for the runaways that populate Nowhere. I also liked how both novels examine revisiting the sites of past traumas and tragedies. Although Riley and Oliver don’t experience trauma at the original Nowhere estate, their lives as orphans whose mother tragically passed away and whose lives were neglected and abused at Cousin’s house reflect the same kind of harsh existence that some of the characters in Sundial experienced. In fact, both stories look at the impact of a childhood lost to violence and misguided parenting. It’s interesting that the children of Nowhere seek out abusive and neglectful parents in the town and try to either punish these parents or bring their children to Nowhere to live a more idyllic, yet challenging existence, relying on nature, hunting, and farming to survive. I love how both novels challenge the idea of families, calling into question whether parents and other authority figures really know best for how to raise and care for children. 

Furthermore, both Sundial and Nowhere Burning feature an incredibly eerie setting that takes place in ruins. While the novel is being compared to Lord of the Flies, I also think there’s something Dickensian about Nowhere. It reminded me a little of Miss Havisham’s house, and how the children are both afraid of the house, yet seek to maintain it, not really cleaning the ruins, but keeping the decay and filth, maybe as a reminder, but also as a way of their hope that Leif Winham will eventually return. I loved the eerie and haunting, tragic mood of this story, much like the other texts of Ward’s I’ve read. Also like the other texts from Ward I’ve read, there’s quite a few twists and surprises that these characters encounter. While I was able to pick up on one surprising reveal, I didn’t anticipate the ending. Once I hit the halfway part of this book, I couldn’t put it down, and I found the story to be really propulsive and moving. I especially loved the connection that Riley has with her brother Oliver, and how Riley tries to navigate the challenges of belonging to a new group after leaving Cousin’s abusive home. 

Nowhere Burning is an amazing story that includes a strange and famous serial killer, as well as a kind of strange cult of kids who worship him in his abandoned estate. There are traces of folk horror, cult horror, and true crime in this story, but it is also a story about family and bonds, and how even among tragedy and trauma, those bonds that we forge with our family can be important. Riley is a great main character whose resilience and fortitude enable her to navigate challenging situations. I also loved the different children of Nowhere. A group of kids eking out living amidst the ruins of a once great estate was fascinating. There are elements of folk tales and other stories like Peter Pan in this story, but it is a much darker take. The only thing I wished there was more of was the connection the children have to Leif Winham. I don’t remember a clear explanation about how or why they came to appreciate him. There’s also some ambiguity about how the children of Nowhere eventually came to be. We know that there was a power struggle, and Noon and her group eventually won out, but I wondered if there was more to that story than Ward included here. Nevertheless, this was a great book that I couldn’t put down once I really got into the story. Highly recommended!

A Thrilling Folk Horror Spy Serial Killer Combining Genres: No Man's Land by Szymon Kudranski

 No Man's Land by Szymon Kudranski

No Man's Land book cover

Author and artist Szymon Kudranski

Huge thanks to Image Comics and NetGalley for sending me an advanced copy of Szymon Kudranski’s paranoid, dark, evocative horror thriller No Man’s Land. I wasn’t sure what to expect from this comic, but the fact that this story featured a mysterious, ritualistic death in 1963 on a remote land bridge near Alaska that required investigators from the KGB and the FBI to investigate seemed really intriguing. I imagined that with 1963, the story had something to do with US-Soviet tensions and possibly the Kennedy assassination. However, I wasn’t anticipating the kind of occult and folk horror elements that haunt the pages of these issues. The story is especially compelling once FBI Agent Collins is dispatched to the remote area of Diomedes in Alaska to investigate this mysterious ritual-like murder of a young woman. Her body appeared on a land bridge that only emerges for 3 months out of the year. This bridge is literally a “no man’s land” since it spans Alaska and the USSR, but it was also the land bridge that enabled older generations of early humans to cross from Asia to the Americas. Since the local law enforcement cannot investigate, Collins is partnering with a KGB agent in a joint effort to maintain diplomatic relations during a heated cold war. 

I loved the story and plot twists in this graphic novel. The story is rooted in history, so it incorporates elements of political thrillers and spy stories; however, it also captures elements of serial killer and folk horror films. In fact, some of the alternate covers include homages to Silence of the Lambs and John Carpenter’s The Thing. I also couldn’t help but think of the most recent edition of True Detective that is set in remote Alaska. Collins’ investigation takes him to some of the indigenous people of this remote arctic region who maintain their traditional beliefs and practices and are not really a part of the Soviets or the US. One of the eeriest parts of the book is a young girl who may have encountered the killer. The girl is somewhat catatonic, and she only scribbles on paper with a twig. Her skin has erupted in odd rashes, and she claims to have seen an ocean of blood. All of these clues along with the ritualistic killing of the woman who was disemboweled and positioned with her hands pointing like Baphomet, add a kind of apocalyptic tone to the story. This also makes sense when we consider that this killing happened amid the nuclear threats from both countries, a kind of threat that promised mutually assured destruction. I won’t get into more details about this story, but I felt like it had so many of the great elements of genre stories that I enjoy. There’s mystery, horror, espionage, and folk horror, and apocalyptic dread. 

What also makes this comic stand out is the incredible artwork from Kudranski, who is also the author as well. I loved the artwork and how it has almost a kinetic feel to it as the images zoom out to give readers a sense of the vast openness of the arctic wild, making the characters seem insignificant and weak, but then zooming in to closeups to give readers a better sense of their stress, worry, dread and fear. In addition, Kudranski includes some newspaper clippings, maps, and government documents in the background to give the story both a realistic and a kind of collage like feel. This was another strength of the story for me. I loved how this created a realistic and historical feel to the story. While most of the story is in black and white, Collins visits the blood ocean, and it is done in a glorious deep red, along with other deaths and kills. The artwork complements, if not leads, the story, to make this a great historical horror thriller. Highly recommended!

Connecting the Dots on Two Unsolved Murders: Sisters In Death by Eli Frankel

 Sisters In Death: The Black Dahlia, The Prairie Heiress, and Their Hunter by Eli Frankel

Sisters In Death book cover

Author Eli Frankel

Many thinks to Kensington Publishing and NetGallery for sending me an advanced copy of Eli Frankel’s exciting new true crime book Sisters In Death: The Black Dahlia, The Prairie Heiress, and Their Hunter, which takes a new look at infamous murder of Elizabeth Short, also known as the Black Dahlia. In particular Frankel’s book seeks to link Short’s gruesome murder with another murder six years prior in Kansas City, MO. While he presents some interesting and compelling circumstantial evidence, it’s hard to say that the evidence definitively points to Carl Balsiger, a man who seemingly had connections to both victims and was in both locations at the time. I’m relatively new to the case of the Black Dahlia murder, but I recently read Leila Taylor’s amazing book Sick Houses, which discussed another suspect of the Black Dahlia case, Dr. George Hodel, and the house he lived in. Taylor’s book piqued my interest in the case, and Frankel’s book provides a detailed look at Short’s brief peripatetic life and focuses on the last few months leading up to her disappearance and the gruesome discovery of her body that eventually changed Los Angeles. However, prior to discussing this case, Frankel presents the details of the case of Leila Walsh, a young, popular girl from a prominent Kansas City family who was brutally murdered in her room. Frankel’s writing is compelling and engaging. Her does well detailing the character and life of Welsh and her family members to create a sense of empathy and understanding so that when Frankel describes the murder, it is truly shocking and brutal, not only for the gore and violence, but also in how her loss impacts others with whom she was close. One of the other aspects of Frankel’s writing that I enjoyed was that he contextualizes the politics of Kansas City to better understand the kind of corruption that was pervasive in the politics of the time. This kind of bias and shoddy criminal investigation allowed the focus to point to Welsh’s brother, who didn’t really have a valid motive (they claimed it was for Leila’s cut of the inheritance) nor was there much evidence that pointed to him. However, Frankel’s detailing of the fallout from Leila’s murder shows the depths to which some prosecutors might sink to either punish perceived enemies or try to bring a show trial to appease the kind of public angst that often follows these brutal and well-publicized slayings.

The next section details Elizabeth Short’s life and times leading up to her murder. While Leila Welsh lived a somewhat privileged life and attended college, Elizabeth Short’s life was starkly different, and her vast travels and somewhat nomadic existence seems almost like it wouldn’t be possible today. In some ways, Short reminded me of another conspiratorial and mysterious figure- Lee Harvey Oswald, whose strange and itinerant lifestyle only added to his mystique after his violence and death. However, Frankel also does well to contextualize the historical times that Short lived in, and his writing also helps to challenge some of the myths about Short’s life that have perpetuated since her brutal murder. In fact, Frankel regularly defends her life in the ways that some of Short’s own acquaintances did. Her notes that Short avoided drinking and drugs, and was not highly sexual, especially since some of the reports seemed to suggest that Short was promiscuous. Rather, Frankel paints the picture of a young woman whose abandonment from her father and whose loss of a fiancé in a plane crash left her adrift and emotionally distant, wanting to connect with others, but also somewhat hesitant to develop deeper bonds. Frankel’s treatment of Short also presents her as naïve and too trusting in some ways, which may have been her downfall. As I was reading this book and learning more about who Elizabeth Short was, I couldn’t help but wonder whether David Lynch based Betty (a nickname Short used at times) from Mulholland Drive on this case. Betty, whose naïve and cheerful midwestern appeal is contrasted with her dark doppelgänger who seems to live amongst the trash in LA’s underbelly, seems like she shares many similarities with Elizabeth Short. Regardless, Frankel’s writing, especially his characterization from his research into Short’s life and times, elicited a lot of connections from me.

The last section of the book details Carl Balsiger, a scion of a prominent grocery and bakery family from Kansas City. Despite coming from a semi-aristocratic background, Frankel paints Balsiger as a failure in many ways. Filled with character flaws, Frankel presents us with an individual who only experiences success during World War II in developing a baking system that provided bread and nourishment to soldiers in the Pacific. I wasn’t aware of this topic in the war, but Frankel presents fresh baked bread as one of the factors that may have tipped the pacific campaign to the Americans. Although Balsiger used his background experience in food service to support the American effort, it seemed like every other opportunity he had in America was wasted and Balsiger could never live up to his father’s expectations. Throughout these chapters about Balsiger’s life, Frankel presents instances where Balsiger may have participated in violence against women and family members. For one, Balsiger’s sister died in a mysterious drowning incident when they were children. The implication from Frankel was that Balsiger could have been responsible since there was no real investigation into the details. Furthermore, Balsiger was involved in strange paddling incidents in college, suggesting that this showed his early proclivities for violence against others. Frankel also presents instances where Balsiger seemed to hover around the periphery of Leila Welsh, attending the same college and living just blocks from her. Balsiger’s connections Short are more significant, and he was viewed as a suspect in her murder, although he was never officially charged. I can’t say whether I know Balsiger is guily or not, but Frankel presents some compelling research and details, both circumstantial and evidentiary, to make his case.

I enjoyed this book and read through it quickly, often wanting to continue reading the chapters to find out what would happen next. Frankel’s writing is engaging, and he does well creating a historical context as well as some deeply engaging and human characters based on the historical records, artifacts from the case, and even interviews with family members and relatives of those involved in these cases. Although there is some evidence that points to Balsiger’s involvement especially with Elizabeth Short, his connections with Leila Welsh seem more tenuous. Nevertheless, it is an interesting connection to examine. At times, Frankel’s reporting and contextualizing can go a little too far. There were a few times when I lost track, especially with the Short section, when there were many different individuals involved. The only other aspect of the book was the brutality of the murders. Both murders were incredibly violent and graphic, and Frankel’s writing goes into depth about the violence and brutality. I’m usually one who enjoys a good scare, but maybe because these events really happened, I found myself gasping at the descriptions of the victims’ murders. Regardless, this was a compelling read, and it made me want to read more about the Black Dahlia case, especially to see what kind of evidence might point to other suspects. While Frankel makes an interesting case, I’d like to explore some other theories related to this case. Nevertheless, this is a really good book that I highly recommend.