Amalia Gkavea

To me, this seemed no better than the average melodramatic romance -which I avoid like the plague- fully equipped with one-dimensional characters and atrocious dialogue. Tru and Will are the most boring mother-son figures you'll ever come across. But these aren't the major issues. What made this a nightmare was the writer's audacity to include Emily Brontë and Wuthering Heights in her soap-opera/cry-me-a-river abomination down to a bad mimicking of names and themes. Have some common decency, writer....

It was heroic on my part that I was able to reach the 50% mark before I toss this one into oblivion. I don't rate a book I don't finish but this had a plotline related to the book I have been obsessed with all my life. Bear with me... Readers who are not as strict and obnoxious as I am will probably enjoy this much, much more.

Many thanks to Penguin Random House and NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

‘'Death is typically a European film. The scenes are evocative, the atmosphere and characters charged. But in my case, death took a different form.''

When you start reading a book and you feel the need to underline entire paragraphs from the very first pages, you know that an exciting reading experience is waiting for you. In the case of Mars by the Bosnian writer Asja Bakić ‘'exciting'' is too weak a word to describe this collection of short stories by one of the most talented writers in our beautiful Balkan neighborhood.

‘'Ι don't remember how many of us were in the cabin, but all the girls would scream for the teacher when, just as everyone was on the edge of sleep, I'd tell scary stories about witches and monsters. Look at that woman lurking in the window.''

Bakić uses elements of different genres to write about universal theme and issues that are relevant to the past and the present. Magical Realism, Science Fiction, and Literary Fiction. No matter the genre, Bakić creates a unique array of extremely powerful stories where Feminism, social issues, sensuality, mystery, and horror form a dark, macabre scenery. Women try to cope with choices that don't belong to them, when war and social restrictions place more and more obstacles in their way.

‘'You should have learned by now that you can't trust death, or people.''

In fluid, powerful writing, beautifully translated by Jennifer Zoble, Bakić touches on the lack of trust and the threats that are lurking for women who feel the need to step out of a society that wants to suffocate them and reduce them to a role where no expression, no liberation is allowed. In an environment heavily influenced by the absurdity of Sovietism and the insecurity that follows the fall of a regime. ‘'Literature is the primary link between life and death.'', a character states and the truth and gravity of these words permeate the collection. When the world becomes a difficult, dangerous place, hardships multiply if you are a woman.

‘'Everyone wants to go to heaven'', I said. ‘'It must be too crowded there.''

...Day Trip to Durmitor: A writer finds herself in a weird Purgatory, guarded by two demanding secretaries. She will be able to move on once she writes the perfect book. But what does ‘'moving on'' actually mean?

Buried Treasure: The adventures of a quirky family during a happy, sleepy summer as the nineties began. A story that makes you feel a bittersweet kind of melancholy when you know what is about to follow...

‘'It's not the season for walking'', I said. ‘'It's cold, and people are idiots.''

The Talus of Madame Liken: Can you get scared - and I mean, really, really scared- while reading a ten-page story in the Tube, in the middle of a beautiful April afternoon? Because this tale of violence, terror, and retribution will make you shiver. One of the most brilliant atmospheric stories I've ever read.

Abby: A woman loses her memory every five minutes and is forced to put up with a controlling husband. A brilliant story that mixes gender studies and Science Fiction.

‘'Why aren't you here?'', reads Asja's message, ‘'it's midnight.''

Asja 5.0 : In a world where physical contact has vanished and procreation is contacted in labs, two people try to return to a time when intimacy was undisputable. How can you survive in a society ruled by a regime that aims to extinguish every trace of feelings and personal identity?

Carnivore: What if two strangers decided to follow each other and arrange a weird date? What does meat have to do with an affair? This story is one more brilliant metaphor of isolation and desire.

‘'I'd always identified with Medea: I wrote like a betrayed, rejected sorceress, but in fact, I'd received Medea's gift - her poisonous truth.''

Passions: How many identities can a writer obtain through her work? What happens when a shady presence from the past reappears in a terribly unsuitable moment? A marvelous, mysterious story.

‘'You can't rebuild a world that's been reduced to ashes.''

The Guest: A journalist has to investigate a cult and its mysterious leader and contemplate on the possibility of being able to turn every thought into a tangible object.

‘'In the children's room, on the floor, sit two sisters, playing. There are no toys around them. The room's disorderly, dirty. They make all - too- familiar hand movements - they stab at something in front of them and then bring it to their lips. It quickly becomes clear that the girls are playing lunch. There's no food; they are only pretending to eat.''

Heading West: A family tries to escape severe hunger and war by trusting its fate into the hands of a suspicious- looking squad. A story about the tragedy of a war that still haunts us.

‘'In this divorce between us writers and other people'', I said, ‘'the moon belongs to us.''

The Underworld: An intergalactic society where writers and, consequently, freedom of speech are restricted and persecuted.

Mars...The Roman equivalent of Ares, the ferocious god of War. The other half of Venus, forming the unbreakable bond between Love and War. The god that gave its name to the month that stands upon the edge of winter and the beginning of spring. The strongest planet in terms of astrology. And the title of an outstanding collection by the immensely talented Asja Bakić.

‘'Where does a woman go, if she doesn't know what's in store for her?''

My reviews can also be found on https://theopinionatedreaderblog.wordpress.com

I have read hundreds of books on the Paranormal and hundreds of books on Irish Culture. This volume is one of the most informative, haunting, moving and scary reads I’ve ever had the pleasure to spend time with. Not only does it offer rare information on the contemporary perspectives of the paranormal in Ireland, but it also allows us to compare and contrast stories and phenomena in different cultures. What makes this book unique is that most of the incidents narrated took place between the mid-20th century and the early 2010s.

The Introduction (which is beyond brilliant, by the way) offers an interesting, thought-provoking comparison between British and Irish reactions to the Paranormal. What do we learn from this wonderful book? A multitude of views and experiences. The shadows of the Irish Revolution, the Troubles falling on hospitals, execution sites, even houses. The tragedy of the Great Famine. Haunted priories, abbeys, boarding schools. What I truly loved was the detail and the attention placed on experiences related to haunted houses, hotels, and inns (some of which had no bloody past to explain the phenomena). There is also a deep feeling of sadness permeating the accounts. Parents losing their children, visitations and omens of death, strange and menacing dark oddities, contemporary sightings of the Banshee and the ghost lights on the bogs. There is even an entertaining section of extraordinary phenomena recorded between the 12th century and the 16th century.

This book is pure perfection. From the atmospheric front cover to the vivid writing and the stories included, a haunting trip to Ireland has never been better!

  ‘'In life, there are only two paths: to act or not to act. Humans must choose one.''
The Son: A little boy, who had to experience his parents' divorce, wants to go back in time to show them he is happy no matter what. He wants to show them his smile, although I doubt they would actually care. Meet two of the most self-absorbed parents in Contemporary Literature. Meet two of the most realistic parents of our modern, unethical age...
The Nameless Child: In one of the most heart-rending stories of the series, a widow wants to return to the past to show her deceased husband the son he never had the chance to meet. Bring out the tissues for this one, it will haunt you to the very end. Marvelous and bittersweet.
The Father: A complex family drama of a father who refused to give his consent to her daughter's marriage and a daughter who is devoid of any kind of personality, good judgment and common sense. A girl who can't say ‘no' to anyone is a recipe for disaster. Add idiocy and an inferiority complex to the mixture, and you have no one to blame for your ordeals but your miserable self. Plain and simple. 
The Valentine: Two friends meet each other in the past, having fallen victim to their hesitation, misunderstanding and low self-confidence.
The fifth instalment of our beloved series is the darkest yet. There are a few utterly shocking moments that left me speechless (and that's an understatement...), and the themes of loss and death permeate the four stories. Regret in not expressing what you truly feel, insecurity when your parents cannot make you feel safe and protected, the distance between a wife and a husband when he cannot understand that maternity isn't the be - all and end - all of a woman's existence. The irreparable loss that strikes like a thunderbolt, the harshness of a father that makes everything worse, the low self-esteem that can lead us to serious mistakes, deepening an irrational inertia.
However, do not think that all is pure doom and gloom. We have the precious moments spent with our parents that no one can take away from us. The deep love that death cannot erase. The important lesson of making mistakes and learning since our parents cannot shield us from every evil in the world. We never know when Fate will decide to take matters into her own hands with irreversible results. Let us be aware of this and move on.
In addition, Toshikazu Kawaguchi offers new aspects of the Funiculi Funicula magic, twists that we were not aware of and interesting insights into the Japanese society, customs, and urban legends.
Healing doesn't come from lovey-dovey, fairytale situations. Healing comes through turbulence, pain, deep sorrow. So, if you think that this part of the series is ‘too dark' to belong in the Healing Fiction genre, congratulations on building your own bubble. Now it is time to wake up and face the world.
‘'Regret comes in two flavours: actions taken and opportunities missed.''
My reviews can also be found on https://theopinionatedreaderblog.wordpress.com/
 

“Cowards die many times before their deaths;The valiant never taste of death but once.Of all the wonders that I yet have heard,It seems to me most strange that men should fear;Seeing that death, a necessary end,Will come when it will come.”