Tag Archives: creepy

May7

The Glowing Hours by Leila Siddiqui

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The Glowing Hours by Leila Siddiqui

This 336 page adult gothic horror book frustrated me.  When I got stuck reading the electronic arc, I waited until publication and checked out the physical copy, when I got stuck reading that I switched to an audio version.  It had so much positioning and build up and details that I really was hoping I’d be rewarded with some fantastical imagining and historical fan fic bringing to life a period of history among real notable writers and a mysterious summer they spent together in 1816.  Told from a “Mohammedan” house maid, Mehrunissa Begam’s experience working for the Shelleys, shows us how her misfortune brings her into the company of Mary, Percy, Polidori, Claire, and Lord Byron at Lake Geneva and specifically the Villa Diodati. The author researched the people, the times, and the setting, and obviously took liberties to not only fill in the blanks, but to make a fictional story of it all. But so many threads and details left untugged on, made the book slow and drag in some places, and seem glossed over and underdeveloped in others.  The book is an adult read, with a mature scene, killing, death, power struggles, manipulation, haunting, and the like, and there is really no Islam.  Mehr doesn’t put the label of faith on herself even though she regular recounts her family lineage as being religious and the shrines that people come to pray to as being salvation for so many.  The crux of the hauntings, or at least a contributing factor, I think, SPOILER is not the literary folks Mehr looks down on, or the love and power triangles the house manipulates amongst them all, but the taweez, the amulet she wears from her deceased mother.  So culture more than religion is definitely a part of the story, but in an othered sort of way. The tale at hand hints at the horrors the house hosts and its inhabitance endure, that inspire the writings of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein and John Polidori’s The Vampyre.

SYNOPSIS:
I’m just going to copy and paste the blurb from the publisher, so as to not give anything further away. 

Summer 1816: London is a hostile place for the newly disembarked Mehrunissa Begum, who’s come to deliver her brother’s letter of inheritance before returning to her comfortable life in Lucknow, India. Only, she can’t find her brother anywhere and has no money for the return trip. With nowhere else to go, Mehr finds refuge in a boardinghouse for Indian maids. If she can’t find her brother, she reasons, she will get a job and start saving.

Mehr is soon hired at the English estate of Mary and Percy Shelley, young artists of burgeoning fame who are on the run from secrets of their own. Mary is brooding and quiet, but takes a curious liking to her new maid, asking her to accompany the Shelleys and her stepsister, Claire—as well as the eccentric Lord Byron and his physician, John Polidori—to Lake Geneva for the summer.

Almost immediately, Mehr notices strange, ghostly events at the villa. The walls breathe, portraits shift, and phantoms appear like unbidden guests who refuse to leave. The weather is fierce and foreboding, showing no signs of softening its relentless pall. And as Mary Shelley begins work on what will become her earth-shattering literary phenomenon, Mehr finds herself trapped in the villa as the rest of its inhabitants descend into madness.

WHY I LIKE IT:
I don’t find the last paragraph of the provided above blurb accurate, it takes a while for creepy to be fully recognized, and by the time it does, I felt short changed by all the hints that amounted to nothing.  It is highly possible I missed a lot of the symbolism or connections, I’m happy to be schooled on the literary merits, but key players being absent from scenes while everyone is in one house, conversations being stilted, random items being stressed, only to be of no consequence later, example: What was up with the grapes? The grape pickers? What did sleep quality have to do with it all? Why did Mehr even need to be there, she was a terrible maid, and wasn’t likeable.  I get trying to show the hold Byron had on them all, but so often I couldn’t make sense of Percy and Mary’s dynamic, seemed they were all sleeping with each other and trying to gain literary genius credentials, but it was almost like the showing and telling didn’t always match.  I love the premise and I do get that the historical truths and intertwining relationships and power struggles and emerging the reader in the time really do resemble world building, but it takes forever to get to any action, and once it does it seems too shallow. I reread the prologue at the end, and appreciated it much more after completing the book, so if you pick it up and it makes little sense, you aren’t alone.

As for the Islam, I understand a Westerner may have called a Muslim, a Mohammedan, but it felt icky that Mehr didn’t push back on it.  She mentions the athan, and that she is descended from Prophet Muhammad saw, but says she doesn’t believe in it.  She is prodded to do what she does because the inheritance that her brother is to receive is larger than hers per Islamic rulings, her Uncle is shamed by Mehr’s mother’s actions, marrying a foreigner, and, Mehr’s actions don’t ever imply that she is Muslim or that she views the world through an Islamic lens.  I hope it is clear that a taweez is not religious, but rather cultural practice, but since it ushers in the supernatural, I don’t know how it is perceived or intended to be perceived.

FLAGS:

Very adult

TOOLS FOR LEADING THE DISCUSSION:

As odd as it is, I actually would love to talk to someone who read this.  I really hope I just missed some crucial, aha moment, and that it really wasn’t just sadly underdeveloped for what it set out to do.  I maybe might have enjoyed this article interview with the author more than the book itself.

https://www.lapl.org/collections-resources/blogs/lapl/interview-author-leila-siddiqui

Nov28

House of Yesterday by Deeba Zargarpur

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House of Yesterday by Deeba Zargarpur

house of yesterday

While reading this 320 page YA supernatural/contemporary book-I couldn’t turn the pages fast enough.  When finished- I was bothered that certain threads weren’t resolved, now that I’ve ruminated a bit- I think the vagueness of the author’s prose in sharing her “fever dream” on paper has lingered and the gaps not as troublesome.  The author’s OWN voice Afghan-Uzbek Muslim identity adds layers to a story that is both haunting in the literal sense and familiar in the immigration inter-generational traumas and secrets shared.  Even deeper though, the book pokes at universal themes of regret, holding on to the past, family, friendships, and grief.   The book’s characters identify as Muslim, but the story is not Islamic, nor is there much religion save a few salams and mentions of Eid.  The supernatural elements in the book, whether you understand it to be ghosts, or personified memories, or jinn, are a large part of the book, but are not framed in a belief or spiritual manner, and while some may find it Islamically off-putting, I felt the book explored what the main character was enduring and what the weight of the past was doing to her, didn’t necessarily cross the haram line.  Her father has a girlfriend he is looking to marry, but it isn’t celebrated, and there are close male/female friendships, but the book is relatively clean for the genre and would be a good fit for high school readers and up.

SYNOPSIS:

Summer on Long Island has Sara retreating into herself.  Surrounded by nearly a dozen aunts and uncles and numerous cousins, it is the separation of her parents and trouble with her best friend that makes getting out of bed every morning a challenge.  As a result, her mother ropes her in to helping with her latest remodeling project.  When she enters an old crumbling house one morning to take “before” pictures, she starts seeing things, and feeling things.  Things about her past.  Things about her beloved grandma, Bibi Jan, who is alive and deteriorating from dementia.  What is the house trying to tell her? Why won’t anyone tell the truth?

WHY I LIKE IT:

I love the mystery and the chills of the story.  As the reader you aren’t entirely sure where the story is headed, what you are to do with the bits of the puzzle you are given, but the intrigue to find out pulls you forward.  That being said, the book does reads debut, a few of the side story lines are not fleshed out enough to feel important, satisfying, or resolved and they come across as being abandoned.  I would have liked to see more of Sara and her father’s relationship, the details don’t seem to fit, and the continuity seems halfhearted.  At times so does the “night” it all changed with Sam.  I like the interpretive vagueness of the supernatural threads and that they are up for interpretation amongst readers not just at the end, but throughout the book.  I also like the family’s closeness even when they are disagreeing. For most of the book Sara and her cousins aren’t portrayed as particularly close and I didn’t invest time to differentiate one from another, but by the end, I felt that they were grounded and different and relatable, and I am not sure when that change occurred.  At times the writing seemed a bit repetitive, but the lyrical style would then catapult the story ahead.  There was one place that the fourth wall was broken though, and I was bothered by that slip.

Overall I loved that the Uzben Afghan culture sprinkles showed immigrant nuances, and that the love between the generations countered the trauma being shared as well.  The messaging is subtle but powerful long after the last page has been read.

FLAGS:

For the most part the book stays clean, the father has moved on and has met someone he would like to marry, the mom and aunts briefly recall sneaking out to attend a prom decades earlier.  There is mention of a child bride, and swimsuits, tank tops, and cocktail dresses being worn with no second thought.  For a YA book, the flags are incredibly minimal, save the “ghosts”(?). There are flags of a death that is detailed, the book is “spooky” at times, there is mental health, divorce, pain, dementia, abandonment, theft, running away, and fear.

TOOLS FOR LEADING THE DISCUSSION:

I would love to read this book with some high schoolers.  It is a quick read that would allow for a lot of self reflection, arguments, and entertainment.  The book is available here and releases in a few days, so if planning to purchase, please consider preordering and showing your support.

Jun29

My Own Special Way by Mithaa Alkhayyat retold by Vivian French translation by Fatimah Sharafeddini illustrated by Maya Fidawi

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A mainstream Early Reader book with a cute little muhajaba on the cover and a premise that she’ll be a big girl when she wears hijab seemed like a book I should adore.  And while it isn’t bad, and I’m glad it was in the library,  really I’m not sure how I feel about it.

In someways, I’m just confused.  Why would you pick one of the characters to be named Hind, in a book urging readers away from picture books and into chapter books, it isn’t going to be pronounced with a short i sound, it is going to be pronounced like a “be-hind,” umm not so good for the age demographic you are trying to show another culture to, there will just be giggles and jokes.  Also, many of the illustrations are cute, but what is wrong with the dad and with Jamila’s sleepy eyes, they kind of border on creepy. And not the creepy, in a cool way, more like creepy in an awkward way.  And finally, with an author, a retold by, and a translator, and presumably a ton of editors and proofers at Orion Children’s Books, I found veil to be a very formal word to use throughout.  It does say it is a scarf at one point, but the word of choice throughout is veil, and I think to be culturally accurate, hijab would have been a better choice.  Even for English readers, scarf would have been a better fit.

The book is 62 pages, there is no glossary and it is not AR, but is a transition early reader book for kindergartener and first graders.

SYNOPSIS:

Little Hamda wants to spend time with her four big sisters, but they all say she is little and have other plans.  When her mom reminds her that they were small at one time too, she realizes that when they were small they didn’t wear hijab, or in this book, a veil, and now they are big and where one when they go out.  So, in her mind, once she starts wearing one, she too will be big, and thus the challenge of finding a way to wear it comfortably begins.  She is helped and supported by all her family and finally she finds her own special way to wear her veil.

I like that it is a mainstream book trying to include some diversity.  The family is relatable and the themes universal even if portrayed in a minority muslim framework.

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WHAT I LIKE ABOUT IT:

I love the premise of the book and that it is very clearly Hamda’s idea to wear a veil, no one is forcing her.  The text and illustrations align to show the girls cover when they go out, not in the home.  The dad needs help at one point finding his shoes to go to the mosque.  However, it doesn’t tell what a mosque is, or explain that the family is Muslim and wearing hijab is an Islamic act, which might be a comprehension block for young readers.

I really go back and forth on the illustrations.  On the first reading I thought they were creepy, when I went back to write the review they were kind of cute.  When I asked my kids, two said they were fine, and one said they were ugly and was positive I am the only one to have ever checked out the book.  Yeah.

FLAGS:

Fine, and Islamically nothing erroneous.

TOOLS FOR LEADING THE DISCUSSION:

Obviously not a book club level book, but I would be very interested to have some first and maybe even second graders read it and give me feedback, like I said I’m on the fence with this one.  Check to see if your library has it, read it, have your kids read it, and let me know.

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Mar1

Samira and the Skeletons by Camilla Kuhn

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Samira and the Skeletons by Camilla Kuhn

samira.jpg

Quite possibly there is nothing Islamic about this book, but the main character’s name, Samira, is traditionally an Islamic name and thus it caught my attention.  I also think one could argue that the mom in one of the pictures (see picture below) is possibly wearing a hijab.  So, probably I shouldn’t include it on the blog, but the book is so disturbingly creepy, in a fantastical way, that I thought, why not.

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Samira learns that everyone has a skeleton and bones one day at school, and it frightens her.  She starts seeing everyone’s skulls instead of their outward body parts and she refuses to accept that she has such morbid parts or that her friend Frida does too.  Knowing that she is chewing with teeth, skeleton parts poking through, at lunch is too much and she can’t even be near Frida.  When she gets home she tells her mom she wants to be free of her skeleton, and her mom agrees.  Yes, agrees! They resolve the tooth fairy will be delighted to get a whole skeleton, not just a few teeth.  So the mom, gets some tools and preps a table to perform the surgery required to remove her skeleton.  Luckily Samira runs for it and finds Frida, and alas the girls accept that they have skeletons and use humor to diffuse the fears they have of what lurks beneath their skin.  That is of course until the next day at school comes, and they learn that they have muscles, just like steak.

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The imagination of the girls is quite remarkable.  I love that it starts with a lesson and that information about skeletons and animals, such as jelly fish that don’t have them exist, is sprinkled through out.  I also like the approach, its weird, but in a delightfully fun way.  It also lends itself well to a discussion of how we are more alike than different.  Our outward appearance doesn’t define us when we are all made up of bones and muscles.  The story doesn’t address it, but some kids might infer it or connect the dots with a little prodding.    img_3064

The book is not AR, but I think most 5 year olds and up can read it or follow along giggling all the way through.  It probably isn’t for every child, but those with a darker sense of humor will enjoy all 34 pages.