Rhiannon

Inventive but also deeply irritating! Weird architecture is always fascinating to me, from liminal spaces to cosmic elder god cities to structures with hidden rooms and passageways, so this book, on the surface seemed right for me.

Unfortunately, the characters’ wildly hysterical speculations that just somehow magically seem normal(?) and not at all histrionic (my god so over the top) was making my eyes roll so much. It kinda reminded me of how my best friend and I in our late teens and early ‘20s would make up wildly silly conspiracy theories about the most mundane of things and then laugh at our nutty inventiveness.

I mean, strange architecture is strange, sure. But this book’s absurdities just go on and on and somehow the two earnest amateur sleuths amazingly are never too over the top in their melodramatic hypothesizing. I'd have actually bought into it more if it had turned out to be a liminal space trope. Alas, this is not that.

And then when you get to the actual history and motivations behind the alleged perpetrators it’s just more implausible nonsense and behaviour that I was giggling at, which I don’t think was the writer’s intention? Meh, what do I know though?

The book is a very fast read even though it’s at a fairly normal 200 pages. This is because the drawings of the house are redundantly repeated over and over. Some of the illustrations do have differences, but honestly the main drawings (like the one on the cover) must be repeated at least 8 or 9 times in the book, which is kind of unnecessary padding.

Weirdly enough, I think I'd still read some of Uketsu's other books. They're kind of like junk food? Anyway, it was a mildly entertaining fast read, but I do wish it hadn’t been so over the top in its plot. Just don’t go in expecting too much from this.

I had so many thoughts on this book and what I would say in my review. First, things to know: Big Country is and has been my all-time favourite band from the moment I first heard them at the age of 13 back in 1983. That has never wavered, not once. I have remained devoted to them (I had bought every album and 12” and special editions in both vinyl and CD) regardless of all the other music in my life, of which there is So Much, despite my wildly varying tastes, and despite the band not being ‘cool’ or ‘popular’ (here in North America, anyway). This Scottish band has remained true for me.

So, when Stuart died in 2001, I was broken. I was 31 and absolutely devastated by his death. I was never able to follow Big Country with the various lineup changes they made after Stuart was gone though – it never felt right for me. Back in those days we didn’t have mass media or social media so there were only vague rumours and hints of what had led up to it, and what really happened. I have waited literal decades, like so many other fans, with great apprehension and trepidation for the story.

And here it is. And it’s made me feel no better, although it has answered some questions and confirmed some things. What it has done is made me realize that this band that I thought was so close was in fact in constant chaos and disarray. That they weren’t at all this cohesive unit musically or thematically. That members of the band often didn’t like the music they were making. The dark and tragic lyrics that Stuart so poetically conveyed were always his words, and his alone. None of the others felt the depth of them as much as he did, beyond recognizing that he was an amazing poet and storyteller. And some barely even thought of him as a friend…

I knew this book wouldn’t be a happy one – how could it be? But I wasn’t expecting it to be so scarce in joy, when the music they made brought me and so many others such delight and wonder. I am sad but not surprised. The music won’t change for me.

I give it 4/5 – I did find the writing uneven and a bit jumpy at times. But I am so very grateful that the author was able to finally get access to the principal players in this story – band, family and friends. I can’t imagine how hard it was for them to be this honest about Stuart’s life and death.

First, I have to preface this review by saying that, with very few exceptions, I’m generally not one to read urban-fantasy-light-horror books. I usually find them too forced, too twee, too repetitive. And yes, this book leans much more to the light side of things and is only horror adjacent in that it does have ghosts, entities, witches, and supernatural shenanigans.

So, when I surprisingly realized by the second chapter of this novel that I was absolutely smitten with it, I suspected I had been lured in by nixies and held hostage by a group of pesky chaneques… somehow Debra Castaneda had won me over to her magical world in just a few pages!

Along with creatures and entities from a wide and wild variety of world mythology, it’s packed with Mexican folklore and witchcraft, which I was rather unfamiliar with, and which I’ve discovered to be rich with complex, but engaging, tradition and culture. And it’s set in a real historical neighbourhood, Chavez Ravine, in the Los Angeles area – albeit in an alternate reality. And the (real) history of that neighbourhood is, itself, intriguing and tragic. Castaneda has done a fantastic job altering the history just a bit in a bid to bring in the supernatural elements, as it were. And she’s done it with a charmingly effortless blend of magic and the mundane. This is a world where magic and spirits are par for the course and wholly believable.

I loved the lighthearted humour. I adored the very real characters in this world – Maddy felt absolutely relatable and someone I’d want to hang out with – she’s weary but determined. She has real flaws and tragedies in her past that don’t overwhelm her character or the story, but rather make her the strong person she is without boxing her into a trope.

The humour is subtle and clever, the mystery intriguing, and the overall tone has just the slightest hint of darkness amongst the whimsical without it being overbearing. I loved this book and can’t wait to continue on with a new favourite series!