Black Magic Woman

Black Magic Woman-Justin Gustainis
(Solaris Books-2007)

My friends love to recommend books to me. Usually they are pretty good. I have friends with great literary taste, which is to be expected, many of them are writers. Most of them have a similar taste to me, and can always be counted on for a good read or two. But once in a while a book is tossed in my direction that…well….just doesn’t do it for me. Not even a little. And you always feel slightly guilty that you didn’t like the book, because your friends like it, and thus there must be something wrong with you. And at times like these, you just have to remind yourself that book reviews and recommendations are, like so many things in life, subjective, and while the book is appealing to some, it doesn’t mean that it has to be appealing to you.

This is all really a big preface to say I was less than impressed with this book.

Gustainis’ story pretty much turned me off from the start. We are thrown immediately into a vampire story that introduces us to the tale's antagonist, Quincey Morris, something of a supernatural investigator who is the direct descendant of the character of the same name in Bram Stoker’s Dracula. This fact, while not immediately apparent, once introduced seems to be interjected without real explanation from time to time in the story. Morris initially comes off as a smart, (Princeton educated), though tough-as-nails sort of Texan who has inherited from his ancestor a no-nonsense approach to vampire hunting.

Except that isn’t what the story is about. The story is really about a witch. Go figure.

Once the vampires have been quelled, Morris returns to his office where he is being called on the case of the LaRue family in Wisconsin whose home is being ‘haunted’. Morris agrees to the job, and flies up north to assess the situation. It turns out the house isn’t haunted, rather it is cursed, by dark magic. Calling in his friend and white magic practicing witch, Libby Chastain, the pair begins to try piecing together what it is about the LaRues that has someone trying to very hard to kill them. Their investigation is impeded by the powerful witch responsible, who tries to kill them on multiple occasions, and the two are drug from New York, to San Francisco, to New Orleans, and finally to Salem, Massachusetts before they can get down to the bottom of what amounts to a long ago and nearly forgotten family feud with one nasty witch.

But that’s not all. As all of this is going on, there are a series of child mutilation killings taking place that have FBI Agent Fenton calling in Investigator Van Dreenan from the South African Police Force to come in and assist. Van Dreenan, who has a long history with the strange muti magics of his homeland, lends invaluable assistance and advice to the FBI during their search, especially when it comes to the fact that this rituals are more than just superstitions…they are real. And he knows from tragic and awful personal experience. Little does he know that the object of he and Fenton’s search has a direct tie to the very same witch whom Morris and Chastain are searching for at the very same time.

The story has a lot going for it; the plots, if taken individually, are compelling enough to make you want to read it. They are fast paced and energetic, and propel you through the investigation of the cases, just like a good crime story or mystery should. And if this was all I needed, wanted, or was asking for in a book, then that would be great. And in fact if that’s what you are wanting in a novel, then this is great for you. The plot is by far not the worst thing about this story, Gustainis has a great idea that he tries to run with, even if I feel that the two separate story lines here are perhaps a bit too disjointed for one story. I would have liked to see more unison to make this book feel that is was a whole, rather than two separate stories.

All that being said, I must admit I was looking for much more out of this story. I felt mightily unfulfilled, and it disappointed me that a story with this much potential sort of became quickly clichéd and fell a bit flat on me. Morris comes off as a million other supernatural detectives/hunters out there, with lightening quick reflexes, a long family history of fighting against the evil in this world, blessed with a good education, but is the sort of fellow who still can use “pondner” in a sentence. And it felt very, very hokey. Perhaps I’m becoming jaded after years and years of watching The X-files and Buffy: The Vampire Slayer, but part of my brain just shrugged and said, “eh, so what’s new.” I feel as if the genre has been over-saturated with Quincey Morrises, and they join the long lines of Anita Blakes and other such lonely, acerbic heroes, the ones who stand up against that great evil. Not that there is a thing against that, but…well make the fellow interesting to me. Outside of the Princeton education, and his phobia of snakes, (hey, me and Indiana Jones get that fear), there is nothing about Quincey Morris that is remotely engaging or creates empathy or a connection. And he’s boring to boot.

Libby Chastain I thought would be a great breath of fresh air. Finally, a character who is a witch who doesn’t own a mystic book shop and dress like a reject from the Stevie Nicks Fan Club! And yet, you never really get a very clear picture of who Libby is, outside of a witch who does private consultations. Who is she, what does she do with herself, what is her life? How does she know Quincey, they seem to have some sort of past together? And what’s the story behind the work she did with Van Dreenan? Some detail please, color, anything to make me really care about these people, please!

The lack of detail is I think Gustainis’ biggest flaw in the book. You are thrown into a world where supernaturals exist, but with very few explanations to the world itself, how it operates, or why. Even the most basic urban fantasy has some rules as to how the supernaturals operate, and what knowledge, if any, the regular world has about them. I would sort of think that if a whole town in Texas got taken over by vampires, someone might just notice, but throughout the book you get the distinct sense that the idea of monsters, magic users, and other things that go bump in the night are generally not widely known. And yet they seem to be well known enough that plenty of people seem to come into contact with them. There isn’t much clarity on how any of this works, except that it just does. And for the escapist fantasy nut in me, that is a big part of any story, and it is just left out, at least with the Morris and Chastain part. Ironically, in the sub plot with Van Dreenan and his past, much more care was taken in this quarter than it was for the main plot, and I think it added a great deal to that story line. Perhaps Gustainis could have just left it out all together, as it didn’t add much to the Morris and Chastain story, and created a whole new story just on Van Dreenan, who I felt was a much more compelling character all together. His story I would love to see someday.

Gustainis’s story contains a lot of literary ticks that would most likely not bother some people, but were jarring enough that it put me off quite a bit. Dialogue was often stilted, sometimes conversations felt as if information was being forced out of characters mouths to move the plot at its fast pace, making you feel even more so that there is little to tie or connect you to these characters. And then there are things such as Gustainis’s use of “podner” by Morris, rather than just using “partner”, which come off as cheesy, and even distracting to the reader. And I won’t mention the moment that I, the rampant The X-files geek, fell off the bed when I read a list of books on someone’s library shelf, complete with a title by authors Scully and Reyes, (yes, Mr. Gustainis, I did get that). OK, I did giggle a bit, but really, it was distracting.

I wanted to like this book, I really did. And there are some amazing stories in this vein that I highly recommend. But there was just nothing there to make me latch on to this novel and say, “I love it.” I can’t even say I like it. I can say, “eh, it’s OK.” Now, for those of you who just like a quick and dirty romp through witches, demons, and vampires, and you want a plot that seems to be good, then read this book, I think you’ll enjoy it. But I was looking for something more, something that wasn’t the same old, same old in this genre. And I fear that Gustainis for me at least didn’t quite deliver the goods.

Rate this wormy book: This one gets a Litte Worm rating. It's not that it's a bad book, it's just not a great book. And I was left feeling that it was cliched and rather unsatisfying.

A change in format....

Well I suck...I start a blog because I want to review books, and well, I fall off the wagon.

The reasons for this are numerous, all centering on real life issues, and all involving my lack of motivation.  However, as I'm beginning to offer up real book reviews for editors of ezines, I might as well start this up again.

So there will be a bit of a change in format, a bit of a difference, but I think I will be able to stick to this thing a bit better in 09...I hope.