Premee Mohamed

I'm finding one of my favorite "genres" is a good underappreciated Speculative Short Story Collection. I just love the bite sizes of weird. This is one of those and I'm happy to have found it! It's a mix of horror and sci-fi, with slight hints of fantasy elements. All good stuff. It definitely is influenced by Lovecraft at times. The author describes some of these stories as "kids vs. Eldritch monsters". I haven't watched it, but if your thing is the show Stranger Things, these stories are probably for you. Otherwise, the stories seem to mostly feature journalists and the ethics of scientific research, when a story isn't about children battling Eldritch. The scientist angle is fun though, as Mohamed's bio says she is also a scientist. Occasionally, I would feel like part of a story was too jumpy, as if I lost my place on the page or skipped a few sentences. But overall, this is a very solid collection of stories! Then the stories also remind me of Neil Gaiman, Susanna Clarke, Jeff VanderMeer and many sci-fi films. It's hard to pick favorites in this collection. I was going to try, but I would end up listing most of the stories. I love when that happens. And that cover! I already have a few books with 'tiny astronaut' covers in mind to be reading quite soon.… (mer)

A book that leaves you with a sense of having visited a different world, a haunting memory, and a longing to return is certainly one in which I can say the author accomplished their goal of telling a damn good story. And this book by Premee Mohamad does that. With lyrical, flourishing prose it paints a picture, sometimes one as cloying as the perfumes I imagine which linger in the hall of the capital-h House. A woman who doesn't stay dead, and upon realizing the power she holds by being outside of the societal structures, it could be an allegory for the lives of those today who choose to operate outside of the bounds of our capitalist, patriarchal society. Especially since the world of this book, the world outside of the House, definitely could be considered our own should things be allowed to continue unchecked and the people disposed of, uncared for.

I'm not sure we cheer for any of the characters, but their journeys certainly are intriguing. Their motivations sometimes fully on display and other times elusive and chameleon-like. Revenge may be a dish best served cold, but it can also taste sweet, and sometimes as heady as a rich, whiskey.

If there's one complaint I have about this title, it's that the writing with it's reliance on over-long sentences combined with the flowery prose almost becomes too much at points. And to my editor's eye, it took a couple of chapters before I quit looking at just...how...long... the sentences were and became swept up in the story. This book won a Nebula award for best novella, and I can see why, if nothing else than for the fact that it had a very literary feel to it, more atmosphere and mood, and not so much a play-by-play of the action. Which, to be fair, in this story, I'm not sure a play-by-play would be warranted.

In the end, this is a book which kept me reading and drew me into its strange and twisty world that I'm still thinking about the morning after. So while I may still be having extensional thoughts about sentence length and grammar rules, I have to say, that if the story pulls in the reader and leaves a hunting memory, do the mechanics really matter that much? The story worked.… (mer)

For those of you who are like me and see Science Fiction and it scares you away…let me introduce you to this novella that has left me more curious now than ever before of a genre that I typically don’t read!

Checking in at only 168 pages, I did a combo reading and listening to this one and yes the story was told in the future. However, the meaning behind it was very relatable and moving.

A young woman struggles and contemplates her thoughts about staying at home or going to a place no one has ever been or seen before in her town. She has duties and responsibilities at home, but imagines how much knowledge and wisdom she could gain by doing something that only 1 and a million get a chance of being able to accomplish!
… (mer)

When Jewel's best friend and fellow courtesan dies at the hands of a client, the last thing they expect is for Win to come back from the dead and take revenge.

To me, this felt like Fight Club crashing into The Past is Red – but with courtesans.

The language employed in the story is poetic and floral. It's beautiful. In my head, it was narrated by Marla from Fight Club, which is part of why it reminded me so strongly of that book. But poetic and flowery language is difficult for me to connect with, so I end up feeling outside the story. But because of my inability to engage, I couldn't even picture the world on the page.… (mer)