8. This Place: 150 Years Retold

7. V-Wars: Chronicles of the Vampire Wars

Edited by Jonathan Maberry

My BIL got me this hardback a couple of Xmases ago.  I thought I'd read it as it seems like the kind of book I'd read once and then trade at Encore (I like to amass a small pile to trade for my annual visit to the NDG bookstore).

I had never heard of V Wars before.  I believe John Maberry came up with the franchise idea of a kind global vampire takeover a la World World Z.  This 2012 book is the first of an anthology series edited by Maberry and featuring different horror and/or sci-fi authors.  The common link is that all the stories are set in the same world in which a global pandemic is turning humans into various vampire species. An ancient pathogen, released by melting Arctic ice, infects humankind and activates long dormant or "junk DNA," turning a percentage of people into vampires based on ethnic/genetic factors. Turns out the myths about vampires and monsters had a basis on historical fact, and the centuries of hunting has driven these human species to extinction. The franchise has expanded into graphic novels and comics, and there was even a 2019 Netflix series.

Because the book was so dense, I thought I'd try something different and take notes WHILE I'm reading.  This way, the burden of writing a review, esp for an anthology, would be less painful.  The problem was, after finishing the book, I wasn't sure if a long detailed review merited this book, which was overall a bit meh.  But since I took the time and effort taking notes, I may as well include them!

So far, the first story "JUNK" Pt.1 by the creator himself, Jonathan Maberry, was really quite bad, which was not a good start.  I get that the narrator Michael Fayne is an unlikeable person, a failed actor working at Starbucks who's always looking for his next sexual conquest, but the prose is composed like it came from the mind of a 15 year old boy.  Fayne says things like, she was just "a blonde chick to nail". It's the kind of cringey, hackneyed writing you'd find in a bad TV episode on the SyFy channel.  I think the book was produced as a series for Netflix a few years later.  

Thankfully, the next story "ROADKILL" Pt.1 by Nancy Holder was much better.  There was actual world-building and solid competent writing that kept you engaged with the narrative. The story is told from the POV of Thompson, an undercover DEA who has infiltrated a criminal biker gang known as the Ocotillo Militia, or the O.M., which control a region near the Mexican border.  Ever since the vampire epidemic, much of the local law enforcement had disappeared, and the O.M.s are the only organized outfit that has maintained a semblance of order among the string of border towns.  While the locals both fear and respect the O.M., the only problem is that the leader, Bobby Morrissey, is hell-bent on eradicating all Mexican illegals, claiming they're the ones who are bringing the vampire infestation into the USA.  Today, Bobby would be a hardline M4G4-lovin' Tr*mper (V Wars was originally published in 2012).  There was more to the story, but it was such a nice change from the previous story, which was just awful. 

"JUNK" Pt.2 was less obnoxious than Pt.1, so that was an improvement, mostly because it focused on the POV of Michael Fayne, just after he had gruesomely killed his first victim. The other JUNK stories mostly involve Michael Fayne being interviewed by Professor Luther Swann at the police station. Swann is a folklore expert specializing in supernatural vampires and werewolves, but he's beginning to suspect there's a scientific basis to what's happening with his interview subject.

"LOVE LESS" Pt.1 by John Everson is about a daytime TV host, Danika Dubov, who's just discovering the fact that she's a vampire. She would be racked by nausea, hot flashes and cold sweats at work, and have the strangest hunger pangs yet when she tries to eat something, she can't.  She finds out the hard way when she visits her sister Mila and before she could control herself, ends up drinking her blood. Danika is already somewhat of a sociopathic narcissist so even though she was super sad that she had unintentionally killed her sister, she also derived a lot of pleasure from her first kill as a vampire.  At the same time, she was hoping that she was sated enough to not have to kill another person. A couple of days later, the hunger pangs started up again.  What was funny was how Danika was more worried about feeling like total shit at work again than the fact that she'd have to take another human life to satiate her hunger.  Danika later learns that her sister had survived and also changed.  And they are both Russian wurdulacs, who can only feed on people they love or are close to (the Dubov sisters have Russian ancestry). Danika figures out how to grow her vampire "family", but her sister Mila doesn't reappear until the next installment. The prose is done in that generically mainstream, yet competent, style.  There was a chance for some dark satire, but was just beyond the skill of the writer, but it nevertheless the black humor was amusing and it was an entertainingly trashy read.  

"EPIPHANY" Pt.1 by Yvonne Navarro

Finally, something a little different and like "Roadkill" we're back in the desert. "Epiphany" centers on 17yo Native American Mooney who's living with her foster mother Mother Gaso on the Tohono O'odham reservation in the Sonoran Desert near the Mexican border.  The story begins not long after Mooney had been raped by three Mexican illegals while she was out in the desert harvesting pods in the morning.  As a way to help her recover, Mother Gaso allows Mooney to go on a trip to NYC, where she somehow ends up at the same Starbucks where Michael Fayne was working at and thus contracts the vampire virus from him.  Already a pretty far-fetched coincidence, the virus activates some ancient DNA in her body and she begins to transform.  Then shortly after she returns home, Mooney discovers she's also pregnant from one of the rapists.  Not only is she a teenaged girl undergoing dual changes of adolescence and vampirism!  Unlike Danika in "Love Less", Mooney has more of a moral center, despite being an loveless orphan/foster kid/outcast.  It's the first time a story has remotely delved into the moral quandary of what being a newborn vampire means.

There is a part of herself, the human part that has controller her existence until recently, that views the idea of drinking human blood as disgust and vaguely filthy. The new part of her, the DNA-activated mystery creature who just had its first decent meal, find it so appealing that her mouth instantly waters. A thousand horror movie images flip through her mind like a slide show on warp speed, and they all end in splatter and gore and death. Does she really want to go there, to kill other human beings in order to sustain herself?  ... But as much as she despises almost everyone in town, there is no one in Sells she hates so much that they warrant dying.

"LOVE LESS" Pt.2

We're introduced to one of Danika's kept "pets" from her little blood farm. Sister Mila realizes this inevitable fact: "Her sister's genetic transition had not simply been to change into a creature that fed on humans. Her physical alteration had turned her into a transmitter. When she bit friends and lovers... she somehow transferred a retrovirus that... inserted itself into their genes, initiating the deadly mutation in others. While by nature, the wurdulac was self-limiting, given its boundary of relationships, Danika had, as usual, found a way to play outside of the rules, and in doing so, had set loose a horde of wurdulacs, thanks to her insatiable appetite. Mila had no doubt that you could follow a thread of relationships from every Chicago wurdulac back to Danica." So "Dirty Mila" takes it upon herself to "clean up" after Danika!

"THE BALLAD OF BIG CHARLIE" Pt.1 by Keith R.A. DeCandido

Bronx D.A Hughes Charles aka Big Charlie is of Haitian descent and running for re-election.  The first few pages were devoted to setting and characters.  Journalist Mia Fiitzsimmons interviews Big Charlie and forms a professional relationship with him and his team, campaign manager Barel Grindberg and press secretary Judy Alejo. For several pages, you wouldn't think the world had been taken over by vampires.  Then at a press conference Charles reveals the rather shocking news he has contracted the I1V1 virus and he's now a loup garou, a Haitian form of lycanthropy, where one has full control of one's condition and can transform oneself at will.

"JUNK" Pt. 5 by Jonathan Maberry

With the subheading: Zero days until the V-event. This one was written from the POV of TV reporter Yuki Nitobe, one of the few characters who appears or is referenced in most of the stories so far.  Interestingly, Maberry was more convincing writing from Nitobe's POV than he was impersonating a douchebag in Pt.1.  Yuki has bribed some contacts so she could infiltrate the hospital where Michael Fayne is staying as a patient.  In the previous installment, Fayne had broke through a bullet proof window of a police station and had been shot. One of the security guards Jenkins is a real creep, and in one scene, she feels ill when she realizes he uses lipstick cameras to spy on some of the female patients and contemplates using her hidden stun gun on his nutsack. You can tell where the plot is gonna go. Ambitious reporter wants the big scoop, sneaks into Fayne's room disguised as a doctor to get up close for an interview and it doesn't end well for her and the poor orderly.

"HEARTSICK" by Scott Nicholson

About a redneck farmer who discovers 3 men strung up like cattle in a neighbouring barn and a vampiric "Injun" feeding on one of them.  The vampires are called heart-stealers in those parts, probably because the victims are found with their chest split open and emptied and there's a local Cherokee legend about Raven Mockers who eat men's hearts.  Artus returns home to his wife Betty Ann who's knitting something for a baby and watching Yuki Nitobe on TV talking about the "vampire virus".  Artus has a convo with Betty Ann but doesn't mention finding Billy Standingdeer eating someone in the McFall barn.  We suffer Artus' bigotry as he refers to Yuki Nitobe as that "Jap reporter", Billy as an "Injun" and belittles his wife. That is, until he gets his comeuppance.  Somehow Betty Ann is not as dumb as she seems and has been in league with the Raven Mockers as she offers them her horrible husband to feed on.  

"JUNK" Pt.6

Zero days until the V-event. Picks up where it left off at the hospital.  Luther Swann, Detective Schmidt and Dr. Alice Feldman are discussing Michael Fayne. Then one of the orderlies bursts into the room, holding his neck, which was been ripped open. Chaos ensues. Schmidt calls for backup and a SWAT team. When he hears a woman's scream, he goes in alone to see if he can save her. Turns out Yuki Nitobe's still alive but covered in blood.  Swann looks eyes with the monster that has taken over Michael Fayne's body.  The SWAT arrives to take down Fayne with some gunfire.

"ROADKILL" Pt.2 by Nancy Holder

The O.M.s were the real vampires of Sonrisa, flying over the sand in their trucks; running illegals to ground; swooping after the vans and SUVs of coyotes who still dared cross the vast, uninhabited wastelands to tranport their human cargo. Maybe the coyotes and wetbacks had heard ot he Ocotillo Militia, and maybe they figured, Orale, chinga, there were only seven of those biker guys in a huge desert.

Bobby becomes unhinged, seeing vampires everywhere, except within his own gang, and family.  His brother Walker, seems concerned about Bobby's escalating obsession with getting rid of illegals and vampires, often conflating the two. The gang members don't realize they may have been executing people, when they finally kill a real vampire, which was much harder to kill than with a single bullet.  Thompson, ever quiet, ever observant, figures out Walker has been planning something and that he's been hiding his vampirism from the gang.  The twist is that Thompson's a vampire himself, he's been one the whole time!  But it wasn't clear how long Thompson himself had been one.  Did he turn when he encountered Moncho, who had become a vampire, killed him and then took over his apartment? Who knows.  

"VULPES" Pt. 1 by Gregory Frost

An USAP (U.S. Antarctic Program) team of mountaineering climate scientists is taking core samples from an ice shelf that had calved two hours ago, introducing more than a thousand feet of glacial face that hadn't been exposed in millennia.  The title refers to the protagonist, Ruksana Vulpes.  The story begins with her and her ex-fling Vincent rappelling down the cliff face.  He drills into the ice and accidentally gets some green sludge on himself and her. When they return to base, they give samples of the sludge to the biologists to study.  As it was near the end of a four month stint, the long-term staffers throw a party for the 18-member team at the base.  It seems the vampires are already common knowledge as some were talking about a CNN story. Later, Ruksana flies back to Bucharest, Romania and reunites with her father Decebal and her musician boyfriend Costin.  Decebal happens to be a professor of folklore at the university. Ruksana gets it on with Costin and finds she's unusually horny and her hair is suddenly streaked with a shock of white. A couple of nights later, Ruksana is attacked by a rapist as she's getting into her car and she blacks out.  When she awakes, she's surrounded by police and is taken to hospital. The rapist appeared to be gruesomely killed by a feral dog while Ruksana was bloodied but unharmed. Ruksana returns home with Decebal still very upset as she has no idea what had happened to her.  But I think we all know where this plot line is going!

"ESCALATION" by Jonathan Maberry

Fifteen days after V-event. Luther Swann has been picked up by NSA agents and brought to the Oval Office of the White House to meet the Chief of Staff, who shows him case files involving victims having their throats and/or limbs torn off and all being drained of blood in various parts of the USA. The higher ups are starting to believe Swann's vampire theory is true.  I1V1 aka the Ice Virus is activating dormant human genes that were once responsible for the myths of vampires and werewolves.  At the direction of the president, Homeland Security is assembling a team to handle this outbreak of vampirism and is treating it as a form of terrorism!

"STALKING ANNA LEI" Pt.1 by James A. Moore.

This one was written in that colloquially ham-fisted way that a student would attempt in a creative writing class.  By this point, I'm wondering how many Pt 1's am I going to get? I'm already more than two-thirds into the book.  It features John Lei who's of mixed Asian ancestry and grew up in San Francisco Chinatown.  He's got claws, can climb walls and has pure white hair.  He contracted the "vampirus" at some point and became a kind of hopping Asian ghost who gets his sustenance from draining the life-force out of living beings.  So far, he has only fed on a poor stray dog.  He's tracking down some kind of green monster who's kidnapped his sister Anna and is using her to lure anti-vampire people and kill them.  One of the victims is from a rival triad gang in Chicago and another a politician, and of course, the police thinks it's Lei who did it.  There's not much more to say as I sped-read this one.  I appreciated that it was partly set in SF Chinatown with Chinese-American characters, but wished it was better written!

"THE BALLAD OF BIG CHARLIE" Pt.2 by Keith R.A. DeCandido

Lots of socio-political commentary in this installment which is comprised of multiple media segments, including the Helen Lashmar show hosting a round table discussion featuring Mia Fitzsimmons from the New York Daily News, a public information office for the Blessed Church of Enlightenment (the famous Reverend called for the death of Hughes Charles because he was no longer human and shouldn't run for public office, an ACLU lawyer, a New York senator, and Manhattan borough president, Emma Jaffe, against Big Charlies being in politics. In a later segment, Jaffe is killed by a wolf-like creature in her own apartment. There's an Op-ed piece by Fitzsimmons on Big Charlie.  A year and a half ago, he won the Democratic Primary, as well as the virtually uncontested general election, despite having revealed himself to be a loup garou. Big Charlie sees those who suffer from the virus, who's genetic makeup became altered from the virus, as a minority group that's being unjustly persecuted and wants to fight for their rights to exist as people. There's a narrative segment where Charles invites Barel Grindberg to his office to hire her as this campaign manager again. Confused, she says that the next D.A. race isn't for three years.  That's when she learns Big Charlie wants to run for Senate!  She blurts out, are you out of your fucking mind?

"If you run, you will be absolutely destroyed. Remember what happened with Reverend Mann? Picture that mishegoss every single day. Public opinion on vamps is going down into the drain with every passing day, and if you try to run, you will be ruined. Hell, they'll probably force you to resign. People with I1V1 are getting lynched out there, Hughes!"

"SPECIES GENOCIDE" by Jonathan Maberry

Subheading: Congressional Subcommittee on the V Epidemic - Washington, D.C. - 22 Days after the V-Event. Luther Swann is back explaining things to senators like he's teaching Vampires 101, ie. vampirism isn't limited to blood-drinkers but they're the most famous of their ilk.  Vampires can feed off of life essence, breath, or sexual essence. Some even feed off of emotions, faith, knowledge... and a few are flesh-eaters.  

"STALKING ANNA LEI" Pt.2 by James A. Moore.

The writing quality in Pt 2 has improved probably due to being subjected less inside the protagonist's mildly insufferable internal dialogue.  He interacts with other characters more and there is more action as he tries to intercept the green haired ogre and track down his sister, but the green ogre outclasses him in strength and speed.  There's a twist at the end when he realizes the green ogre and his sister are one and the same, a Hsi-Hsue-Kuei.  Basically little sis wants to be a badass mofo and took over the Chinese mob in Chicago. She wants her big brother by her side but thinks he's a big wimp for refusing to feed on humans.  She tricks him to feed on a henchman and sees how much he loved it, but is disgusted that he still doesn't want to follow in her demonic ways and basically tells him to fuck off and leave her alone. John returns to San Francisco and tries to have a "normal" life while subsisting on a plant-based diet. He's afraid of feeding on a person again as it may overwhelm his sense of right and wrong.  I appreciated the attempt at substance, but it was ultimately an action-oriented story.

"THE BALLAD OF BIG CHARLIE" Pt.3 by Keith R.A. DeCandido

Mia Fitzsimmons gets a tip from a detective about Jaffe's murder.  "If a wolf-like creature had killed both Senator Kapsis--whod just critized Big Charlie on the air--and President Jaffe--who'd just started a nasty ad campaign against Big Charlie--then things did not look particularly good for the Bronx D.A." Mia and Judy figure out that Big Charlie isn't a loup garou, it was his dear mama, and he had been trying to protect her the whole time. Unfortunately Big Charlies lost big time in the senator race.  Soon after, Big Charlie's Bronx apartment is set on fire and both he and his mom disappear (no bodies were found in the charred remains of the building). The story ends with an Op-Ed piece from Fitzsimmons:

"Today, Mickey Solano is the new junior senator for New York State. Whe he is sworn in early next year, he will be expected to vote on legislation against the very virus that gave him his job.After all, if not for I1V1, Alex Kapsis would have finished his term and likely been re-elected, opposed only by the same Frank VanDerMeer who only managed 30% of the vote against Solano. If not for I1V1, Big Charlie would probably not been opposed by Solano in the Bronx D.A. Race, which raised his profile.

Now the Bronx will have an inferior D.A, NewYork has an inferior senator, and a good man whose only mistake was that he was powerless against a virus he couldn't help contracting, has disappeared, leaving only ashes in this place. Worse, those who have I1V1, who had put their hopes in at last having representation in Congress, have gone even further underground lmvilified even more by the Reverend Manns and MIckeyn Solanos of the world."

"EMBEDDED" Jonathn Maberry

Very short, only a few pages long!  128 days after V-Event. Luther Swann accompanies a V-Team on a mission somewhere in Philadelphia where they break into a vampire hideout.  It ends in carnage.

"VULPES" Pt. 2 by Gregory Frost

An improvement over Pt.1.  Some Twilight-esque action with a werewolf vs a coven of vampires.  It picks up where Pt.1 left off.  Ruksana is recovering from the attack.  Her father Decebal, being a folklorist, has an inkling of what she is before she does. Vincent has contacted her, imploring her to fly to Paris, stat.  Ruksana thought some of her team got what she has and are running tests, etc. While she's waiting for a connecting flight, Decebal informs her over the phone of her werewolf ancestry and how she's actually a scourge to the vampiri.  When she arrives in Paris she's surprised to learn that Vincent has organized everything.  In a park area, she's greeted by a dear colleague who leads her down to the underground catacombs. Turns out, that's where all the teammates who had suddenly turned into vampires are hiding!  Their source of food are unsuspecting Cataphiles, trespassing teens who camp out underground so they can explore the tunnels!  A few, like Vincent, can't go out in sunlight and rely on the day vampires to run errands for them. Maybe these newborn vampires are naive or uninformed, but they all assumed that Ruksana had also become a vampire, which was why Vincent contacted her.  When Ruksana removes her clothes and starts transforming, Vincent goes "what kind of hairy-ass vampire are you?".  When he realized she was a werewolf, it was too late!  This synopsis makes it sound sillier than it actually is... well no, it was quite silly, but still entertaining, like how the Twilight series was entertaining.

"EPIPHANY" Pt.2 by Yvonne Navarro

Most of the Pt.2's have been better than their Pt.1 counterparts, which isn't saying much, but mostly because many Pt.1's are focused on setting things up. In Pt.2, Mooney is about 4 months into her pregnancy, still living with her foster mom, attending school and subsisting on live animals she hunts in the desert. At some point, she realizes her baby is slowly starving, so she sets off one night and preys on two illegals camping in the desert.  She doesn't feel too bad about it and wonders why she hadn't done this sooner. Shortly after, Chief Delgado suspects it was Mooney who killed them, but can't prove it. When hunger pangs set in again, Mooney goes night hunting and goes further out into the desert, and a few hours later, she finds the three men who had raped her.  I had to wonder, why are the men still camping out in the desert? it's been four months!  Does it matter when Mooney gets to exact revenge AND satisfy her cravings!  Not to mention, "how fitting that this child should be nourished by the blood of its father." !!

 Soon enough, Chief Delgado comes for her with some backup.

     "Mooney finds the fact that Chief Delgado has brought Border Patrol as backup insulting, their very presence as contradictory as her own modern day existence as a Native American... Instead of being American, Mooney is Native American, instead of being Tohono O'odham, Mooney is an outcast; instead of being human, she is a vampire. Each layer of classification results in more separation, uncompromising and isolating."

Here's twist: Border Patrol is there to offer her a position as an ICE Homeland Security Investigations agent!  (Had to remind myself Obama was still in office). They want to make use of her vamp skills - she can hunt down criminal drug-runners and human traffickers as a source of food AND keep these low-lifes out of the U.S. of A!  The story ends with: "It's taken eighteen years and a genetic modification, but finally Mooney has found her place in the world."  

"LAST BITES" by Jonathan Maberry

Washington, DC - 188 Days after the V-Event. Luther Swann is recovering from the ill-fated V-Team mission in the previous installment and facing a roomful of concerned senators.  Swann is explaining how he believes there are probably many more species of vampires and the numbers of infected are much greater than they know because many are in hiding or are passing as normal because the government are labeling the infected as terrorists.  Swann is trying to convince his nation's leaders how it would be unwise to launch a full-scale war because neither side will win; we'll have to find some way to co-exist.  It seems to be setting the tone for the next books.  So people who have been expecting actual war between humans vs vampires in this book will surely be disappointed!  

I wouldn't be surprised if Maberry wanted to call his anthology Word War V, but World War Z was already taken, so he had to make do with V Wars.  It really came across as a vampire version of World World Z, was more derivative, not as well-written and not was well thought-out.  It was also too long, yet wasn't able to immerse me in its rather superificial world-building.  In comparison, World War Z was entertaining, able to explore some strong socio-political themes and was much shorter. 

 

Overall, V-Wars was a low-key fun read, though rather uneven in execution, which is expected from multiple authors of varying competence. Some stories were better than others, but even with the good ones, I was trying to finish this as quickly as possible, because I wanted to read a book that was actually well-written. I think if you read enough mass market fiction, you become inured to it, but I've been reading a lot of quality fiction lately, so when I come across subpar writing, the contrast is stark. Editing-wise, it felt like a rushed job as the book was rife with minor typos - I came across at least one misused word in almost every story, so the editing work left a bit to be desired.  There are four more books like this one - and I'm relieved I have zero interest in them - there are way to many better-written books out there so spend my precious time on!

6. Alas, Babylon

By Pat Frank

There's a Montrealer who has a sidewalk sale about once or twice a year in the Plateau -- at 4096 Coloniale to be precise. I assumed he lives in that building, but Olman told me he just uses that space to store his finds.  It had just occurred to me to ask Olman about this mysterious collector/scavenger, but he didn't even know if he lives in the Plateau as he doesn't reveal much of his personal life in his blog and FB page.

I'm a professional scavenger making a living selling curbside garbage. This blog details my finds and sales. It also acts as an archive for things beautiful and historic that would otherwise have been destroyed.

Apparently, the yard sales are a way for him (I think his name is Martin) to move smaller stuff that he's amassed during the spring as he sells the larger or more valuable items privately via his site or DMs. From what I've perused from his blog, he finds quite a bit of silver. You'd think it's mostly old silverware that no one uses anymore, but sometimes he finds nice jewelry, even gold!  Once he found an 18k gold necklace weighing in at 28 grams. With the high price of gold these days, that'd be worth $2500-2800, which is a month's rent, and then some.

Anyway, I brought up Martin the Scavenger because it was at one of his sidewalk sales where I acquired this nearly pristine 1976 paperback of Alas, Babylon (1959) for just 2 bucks.  I also got a vintage glass ring holder for my daughter (also for $2).  They seem to go for $15-40 on sites like Etsy and ebay.

I've been aware that Alas, Babylon is a pioneering PA classic, though I'm late to the game in reading it.  Olman and Mt Benson had read it back when we were all active on the now defunct Ramblekraft and the 50-Book blogging club.  Enough time has passed since Olman had read it that he confused the premise of Alas, Babylon with another PA classic, Earth Abides.  Since Olman and Mt Benson had already summed up the novel nicely, I'll go on another tangent.

 

I think it's fitting I found my copy of Alas, Babylon at a scavenger sale.  I imagine if the Troubles came, Martin would still be scavenging away, but for survival as well as a livelihood. In the real world, I picture the kind of (lazy, thoughtless) people who would throw out valuable yet no-longer-wanted things instead of donating them as a mindful way of supporting a circular economy.  Martin the Scavenger would scope out homes for sale knowing that people in the midst of selling often need to get rid of things in a hurry (either their own possessions or those of their loved ones who had passed on), and often they don't have (or make) the time to drop off donation items at a thrift store or charity organization.  The old adage "One man's trash is another man's treasure" really applies here.

The value of things are not only relative, they are suddenly upended after a catastrophic event like The Day in Alas, Babylon.  The idea of a nuclear apocalypse was so inconceivable for the average person that it was impossible to properly prepare for such an event. The protagonist, Randolph "Randy" Bragg, was was privy to a coded message sent via telegram from his older brother, Colonel Mark Bragg, a U.S. intelligence officer.  The brothers had established that "Alas, Babylon" would signify that a Russian attack was imminent as the biblical phrase was often used by a local preacher for his fire and brimstone sermons.  

 

Even with the warning, Randy had less than 2 days warning to prepare, not only for himself but for Mark's wife and two kids, who were arriving from Omaha later that night.  Randy just had time to take out a large amount of cash from the bank to buy a shit load of food and supplies.  As a steak lover, he had purchased a lot of expensive meat to store in the freezer, not thinking that electricity would soon fail if bombs hit key targets. His sister-in-law Helen had to think fast and salt all the meat before they start to turn, but Mark had to go barter a bag of salt because they didn't have enough to preserve all that meat.  The Bragg's then invited their neighbours for a BBQ to use the remainder of the thawed meat.

Money immediately became worthless as people soon resorted to bartering as a way to acquire the things they need, and everyone needed something because you'd have needed weeks, if not months, to properly prepare for such a disaster.  Disaster wasn't even the right word, as it was more like the end of civilization as everyone knew it.  Once power was out permanently, appliances also became worthless. Some people, like Rita and her brother Pete, had hoarded fancy TVs and appliances, thinking that once things "returned to normal", they could sell them for a killing, not yet realizing they were stuck with a new abnormal.

The people who were most self-sufficient and practical were the Henrys, the African-American family living next door to the Bragg family home.  They have "poor folk" skills, ie. hunting, fishing, farming, etc. In short, the ability to live off the land, unlike the privileged white folk who can only use money to buy groceries and pay for the manual labour and domestic services that people like The Henrys provide.  Most importantly, the Henrys metaphorically have liquid gold underneath their property, an underground artesian well that provides an uncontaminated water supply, which they end up sharing with their neighbours. I find it interesting that the Henrys play such a crucial role in the survival of all the white characters yet they aren't even mentioned in the Wikipedia plot summary!

Coffee and gas also became super valuable commodities.  Gas was valued, not just for transport, but for recharging batteries needed to power Admiral Sam Hazzard's shortwave radio, which was the only source of news from the outside world. Months later, when reserves became low and people were sweating out salt from their pores, salt became the most prized item until a natural source was discovered.  

In his foreword, author Pat Frank wanted to realistically portray what life would be like if people survived a nuclear attack.  Even though the small town of Fort Repose was in a contaminated zone, the town was ideally situated in a way that did not receive much harmful fallout.  Thankfully, the novel didn't dwell too much on radiation poisoning, as I got enough of that from the 1984 British film, Threads. The few characters that suffered from radiation had stolen loot from a jewelry shop, unaware they've been hoarding radioactive bling in their own homes.

Author Pat Frank also embued many progressive values into his novel, particularly in the positive portrayal of African-American characters and the inclusion of strong female characters in leadership roles, despite being a product of the 1950s with some dated, traditional gender roles. This review takes a deeper look at how Alas, Babylon was ahead of its time yet also a product of its times.

5. The Tenant of Wildfell Hall

By Anne Brontë 

4. Grotesque

By Natsuo Kirino

 

3. 84, Charing Cross Road

By Helene Hanff

I do love second-hand books that open to the page some previous owner read oftenest. The day Hazlitt came he opened to “I hate to read new books,” and I hollered “Comrade!” to whoever owned it before me. 

I wanted to start off with this lovely review that perfectly captured my feelings of 84, Charing Cross Road (though I dispute the "aging" bit as Hanff was only 33 when she began her correspondence with Frank Doel in 1949!):

Epistolary fiction had always captured my fancies, but I never knew non-fiction of a similar kind could possess far more power to entwine the reader in its vast web of human intricacies ranging from the art of letter-writing, to the art of conversation and how human compassion can traverse miles and miles of oceans to make a mark on people one has never met, seen, or even heard about. The potency of words is such that seemingly polarized people are woven together in a relationship that transcends the barriers of friendship and love and all other abstract notions mankind has come to acknowledge and define.

 

Such is the relationship between an aging scriptwriter hailing from New York, the vivacious Helene Hanff and a certain Frank Doel of Marks & Co., booksellers located in London at the eponymous 84, Charing Cross Road. Ms. Hanff has an unquenchable thirst for English literature and in search for now obscure classics does she begin her acerbic albeit sidesplitting correspondence with the booksellers situated miles away from her shabby apartment. Ms. Hanff stumbles upon the book dealers through an ad placement made in the Saturday Review of Literature. From here onwards starts a warm and compassionate relationship between her and Mr. Doel on whom the responsibility of delivering her books falls on. This relationship is penned down in form of letters spanning almost twenty years.

 

I loved loved LOVED this book!  It was SUCH A DELIGHT.  Charming, witty, cozy and yet brimming with intelligence and affection.  And this unlikely friendship between a brazen NYC writer and reserved English bookseller, which spanned decades and the vast expanse of the Atlantic ocean, was real. I think I read it within 24 hours as the breezy, epistolary format made it very easy. And I didn't want it to end. It had to though, as Frank Doel unexpectedly passed away from illness in 1968.  This was not a surprise for me as I had already the watched the film adaptation back in May 2024. 

Apparently, 84, Charing Cross Road was one of Anne Bancroft's faves and her husband Mel Brooks bought the rights to the book for her birthday, which was how we ended up with the wonderful film starring Bancroft and Anthony Hopkins (with a young Dame Judi Dench as Mrs Noel). I was so fond of the adaptation that I put the book on my list. When I'm not in a rush to read something, I prefer ordering secondhand books from the USA as there is much more range and choice. Sure enough, I found this paperback Penguin edition for only $4.75 USD ($5.23 total with tax!) in great condition.

 

I had ordered the book to be delivered to my MIL's address when we were there during Xmas but I left it somewhat late and the book arrived shortly AFTER we had already returned home. It languished at my mother in law's for several months. I never told anyone to look for it until my SIL found it, still in its unopened envelope, during a summer visit after the Patch-Addario family had left. Hubs was finally able to bring it back in September!  By then I had lost my momentum. Some more months passed before I finally remembered I wanted to read 84 Charing Cross Road, and here we are.

 

I learned later that Hanff was an Anglophile and autodidact. Unable to afford a college education during the Great Depression, she undertook a comprehensive, self-taught English literature course that lasted over a decade. She was then in her early thirties, scraping a living as a freelance scriptwriter and magazine journalist. Her unconventional education was structured around the writings of Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch ("Q"), specifically his lectures at Cambridge University. Hanff discovered On the Art of Writing by "Q" in a library and used his recommendations as her syllabus, covering authors and texts he admired.  Under ‘Q’s gentle, ghostly tutelage’, the self-study process took approximately 11 years because she would stop her study to investigate unfamiliar references and texts, as the scholar had assumed the reader would be already familiar with these books.  

So I started reading Q. Who assumes I’ve read The Fairie Queene and Paradise Lost. So I read Paradise Lost and find I need to have read the New Testament. So I read the New Testament and find I need to read the Latin Vulgate. And my Latin reader says the rules governing the ablative are the same as in English. A-ha. Thanks a LOT!

Hanff didn't want to bother with the library because she wanted to have her reference books within easy grasp.  When she inquired at local booksellers, she discovered that the American editions of the English books she wanted were of lesser quality and/or over-priced. When Hanff spotted the Marks & Co ad, she wrote to them and the rest was history.  

Gentlemen: Your ad in the Saturday Review of Literature says that you specialize in out-of-print books. The phrase ‘antiquarian book-sellers’ scares me somewhat, as I equate ‘antique’ with expensive. I am a poor writer with an antiquarian taste in books . . .

It's a niche genre, I guess, but I love reading about under the radar autodidacts, like The Elegance of the Hedgehog.

Another fact I learned was that Gene, Hanff's editor, was mentioned in her letters as being Chinese.  It was well-known that editor Genevieve Young was instrumental in getting 84, Charing Cross Road published. Young also had a fascinating legacy and bio of her own, entering the publishing business in the early 1950s, when there were few female editors and even fewer Asians.

It was bittersweet how Hanff finally made the journey to London well after Frank Doel had passed on and Marks & Co had long been shuttered. Even though Hanff made enough money to support herself relatively comfortably and was setting aside money for her trip, minor emergencies kept eating away at her savings. I think air travel was still prohibitively expensive for the average person during the 50s and 60s and ocean travel took longer.  Ironically, it wasn't until after 84, Charing Cross Road was published in 1970 that Hanff would afford to finally travel to London!  She wrote about her experience in her 1973 book The Duchess of Bloomsbury Street, which is now on my list.

 

There are so many wonderful online reviews of 84, Charing Cross Road.

From A Literary Love Affair:

By the time she wrote to Marks & Co., Hanff ’s pursuits had become, frankly, arcane. Her first few letters include requests for a very particular edition of Landor’s Imaginary Conversations, the Sir Roger de Coverley Papers, de Tocqueville’s Journey to America and Jowett’s translation of Plato’s Four Socratic Dialogues.

But Helene Hanff is no dry old blue-stocking. She reads with the seasons, ordering ‘Dear goofy JH’s’ (John Henry Newman’s) The Idea of a University for Lent, and Pepys’s Diary for long winter evenings. On 25 March 1950, she writes to say that, with spring coming, she requires a book of love poems:

 No Keats or Shelley, send me poets who can make love without slobbering . . . Just a nice book preferably small enough to stick in a slacks pocket and take to Central Park.

Had she ever been in love? Rumours after her death suggested that her heart had been broken by some high-ranking American whose identity she kept under wraps for the sake of his wife and family. Was she lonely? We cannot tell. All that is clear from her letters is that for this single woman in her ‘moth-eaten sweaters and slacks’ books are friends and companions, and antiquarian books especially so. She loves ‘inscriptions on flyleaves and notes in margins’; she rejoices in the way that the books sent by Marks & Co. ‘open to the page some previous owner read oftenest. The day Hazlitt came he opened to “hate to read new books”, and I hollered “Comrade!”’

In response to these wild, wise-cracking, passionate outpourings, ‘FPD’ of 84, Charing Cross Road is, at first, stiff: ‘Dear Madam’, his letters begin, and they are cautious almost to the point of curtness. Undaunted, Helene Hanff works at puncturing his reserve. ‘I hope “madam” doesn’t mean over there what it does here’, she writes, and on the rare occasions that she does not like the books he sends her, she makes no bones about it...

And that is how providence seems to operate, blocking the paths we think we want to take and then introducing unexpected openings in the form of opportunities and delights more wonderful than anything we could have dreamed up for ourselves. This was Helene Hanff ’s experience and, since meeting her through the pages of this book, it has been mine too. Nowadays if I find myself on Charing Cross Road it is with a sense of gratitude and wonder; and the knowledge that the best things come unbidden.

From A Life in Books:
 

The funny thing about Helene as an author is that she could not write fiction. She never made it as a playwright, though Lord knows she tried, and studied her art. She wrote scripts for TV shows, and reviewed books for film companies to advise on how well they might be adapted as films. The Lord of the Rings was one of her great ordeals, because she absolutely hated it, and charged her employers ten times her usual fee as recompense for the mental torture of trying to summarise the plot. (This explains clearly to me why she was not able to write fiction.)

I realized that there were many, many authors, and books, in the long history of English as a literature, that she just had to read. But the New York libraries couldn’t supply what she needed (she had a passion for eighteenth- and nineteenth-century essayists), and she began to order books from Marks & Co, who had advertised their services as an antiquarian book-finding service in the New York Times Saturday Review of Books.

If you like the sound of 84 Charing Cross Road, but want to find out more about her, try Underfoot in Show Business, and Q’s Legacy. There is also a what-I-did-in-London book, called The Duchess of Bloomsbury Street, about when Helene finally gets to visit London, to see the BBC filming her book, and there’s also a book of New York reminiscences, Apple of My Eye. I’ve also found, to my great delight, that there’s a biography of Helene’s life, by Stephen Pastore, which I now have to read after a lifetime of vague guesses. 

 

2. The King in Yellow

By Robert W. Chambers

Saw this hardcover edition while browsing Walden Pond Books in   Oakland.  We (the Purves-Brebner clan) were in the area to pick up a Christmas tree at Brent's near the Grand Lake Theatre and had also consumed some delicious Asian-inspired pastries at Bake Sum.

So yes, I saw The King in Yellow and got Olman to pick it up for me as a Xmas present.  I also found a used copy of The Tokyo Zodiac Murders, which happened to be on Olman's list.  Too bad for him though, finders keepers!
I first heard about The King in Yellow as a literary influence on True Detective S1, and it's been on my list ever since.  

Recently, I acquired a HP Lovecraft box set under purely consumeristic circumstances. I was taking advantage of Black Friday sales to do some early Xmas shopping and Indigo had a sale on Kpop albums, which is what my daughter is into collecting now.  Albums qualify for shipping, but I needed another $12 to reach the minimum amount for free shipping.  I saw that certain paperback box sets were half price so I got a HP Lovecraft box set for only $12.50 and as a minor horror buff, I've always been curious about his work.  Anyway, I was aware that author Robert Chambers was an early influence on Lovecraft, so I thought it was a nice coincidence when I saw this nice Pushkin Press edition from 2017 at Walden Books.

The King in Yellow was my first completed book in 2026 (not counting The Antifa Comic Book) and I was able to finish it within a few days.  It's really a collection of four short stories.  The original 1895 publication contained more stories but apparently it's just the first four that are thematically connected by a cursed play called 'The King in Yellow' which somehow ends up in the hands of various characters. When someone reads the second act, terrible things befall them, ie. they start losing touch with reality and become haunted by a ruined, mythical city called Carcosa, unwittingly serving a cult-like deity known only as Hastur, the Yellow King.  Apparently, the world of Carcosa was inspired by Ambrose Pierce. 

The first and probably best story was "The Repairer of Reputations".  The setting is a dystopic 1920s America that has become quite militaristic and Randian (before Ayn Rand and the military-industrial complex came about).  People of Jewish descent and other undesirable foreigners have been deported and a state has been established for African-Americans. The narrator, Hildred Castaigne, observes the official opening of a "Lethal Chambers" at a public park in Manhattan, for anyone who wants to painlessly end their life so as not be a burden on society.  We soon learn that our dear Hildred is not quite right in the head.  Not only had he suffered a head injury from a fall, he had also been committed for a period of time inside an asylum.  At some point he had also read "The King in Yellow" and often visits the creepy Repairer himself, a Yellow King devotee who happens to live above the store that's run by the father of his brother's fiancée.  I like the part when Hildred thought he was alone inside his shabby apartment admiring himself in mirror as he wore his golden crown but when his brother came upon him, he was really just wearing a cheap, dime-store trinket. The reader is basically plunged inside the unraveling mind of a man who's becoming more and more paranoid and deranged until he commits a terrible act.

As a Goodreads reviewer wrote: it is a bracing and imaginative bit of darkness on the page and, to me at least, quite wonderful. the style is so breezy, the pacing so brisk, the imagination so fertile and so oddly modern, the experience was pure pleasure. it is hard to believe that this story was written over a 100 years ago.

The next story, "The Mask", was ok and probably my least favourite as it was more melo-dramatic than creepy or chilling.  It takes place in Paris and involves a love triangle between young painter named Alec, a sculptor and would-be alchemist named Boris, and their love interest, Genevieve.  Boris has discovered or created a magical solution that can transform any organic object or living thing into lightly veined white marble.  It's unclear how the golden liquid came about, but it's strongly implied that it came from the same world that brought about "The King in Yellow".  Tragedy soon befalls the hapless trio. 

Next was "In the Court of the Dragon", also set in Paris, about a man pursued by a sinister church organist who is after his soul.  That pretty much sums up what is probably the shortest of the four stories and the least developed.

Last was "The Yellow Sign" and we're back in Manhattan (Greenwich Village) in "contemporary" times, ie. the 1890s. This time, an artist and his model are troubled by a sinister churchyard watchman who resembles a "plump white grave-worm".  Tessie keeps having the same recurring dream where she sees Scott lying inside a funeral casket being taken away by a horse-drawn carriage.  As their relationship develops, Tessie gives Scott "a clasp of black onyx, on which was inlaid a curious symbol or a letter in gold", which she happened to find one day near Battery Park.  Then soon after, Scott finds The King in Yellow in his collection, "a book bound in serpent skin, standing in a corner of the top shelf of the last bookcase." It is, inexplicably, "The King in Yellow", a book he has studiously avoided: "If I ever had had any curiosity to read it, the awful tragedy of young Castaigne, whom I knew, prevented me from exploring its wicked pages."

So we have come full circle, and our two young lovers are doomed towards a sad demise. This wiki site has a good plot summary.

The King in Yellow collection was an enjoyable read.  I did not expect it to be so readable.  TBH, I expected it to be less accessible and weirder, because after all, The King in Yellow is supposedly a classic example of weird fiction.  The stories were macabre in tone, full of creeping dread and gothic romanticism, with characters who are often artists or decadents, inhabitants of the demi-monde.  But the supernatural or occult references were very subtle and minimal.  This was not a bad thing, just not what I expected.  Still, very glad I read this.
 

1. The Antifa Comic Book (Revised & Expanded)

By Gord Hill

In mid-November, Olman and I visited the Expozine Fair. It used to be conveniently held in the Plateau inside a church basement but in recent years it's been taking place further north, like the Villeray area.  

This year's fair was really crowded - at least during that Saturday afternoon.  I was hoping to look at some D&Q publications but their tables were packed making it hard to stop and browse due to the steady motion of moving people.  There wasn't anything that stood out for me as I circumnavigated the crowded space.  

I finally found refuge at the Anarchist Bookshop section as they had arranged their tables into a C-shape, so that I could actually take my time in their little area, which was thankfully empty of people for some precious minutes.

This was how I came upon The Antifa Comic Book.  I didn't buy it right then and there though it was the only item I ended up purchasing at the fair.  The guy manning the table was friendly and handed me a flyer for a left wing book sale happening the following month near Metro Pie-IX. I didn't stay long at the Expozine fair as it was impossible to browse at your own pace without being jostled, or having to side-step someone, or wait your turn to do anything. I ended up leaving and met Olman near an Asian import shop in St-Hubert Plaza that was going out of business. We had tacos at a Mexican deli mart down the street.

The Antifa Comic Book was first published in 2018, and the copy I got was the 2025 revised and expanded edition containing new material that depicted events such as the 2021 U.S. Capitol attack, the 2022 convoy protests in Ottawa, even the 2017 mosque shooting in Quebec.  You could also tell which entries were new by how the graphics had been illustrated. The newer pages (like the one on the right) were drawn with thinner black lines and printed with less saturated colours compared to the older pages (like the one on the left). 

There was an odd entry that didn't seem to fit with the previous content in the Canadian section. It went from a brief history of fascist movements in Canada (from 1930-1990), the A.R.A Toronto (Anti-Racist Action), and then the following page portrayed the 2011 Norway Attacks -- when a far-right extremist set off a car bomb in Oslo, then traveled to a Labour Party youth camp on the island of Utøya and went on a shooting spree killing dozens of people, mostly teenagers, simply for being "privileged" progressives.  Then the pages went back to the USA.  So the Norway section was an add-on and should've followed after Sweden.  Pragmatically, it was probably simpler to append the new pages rather than insert them between older sections, even though content-wise, it didn't make sense geographically.

In any case, I'm really glad I picked up The Antifa Comic Book.  Many reviewers, like this one, agreed how timely a book like this is during these turbulent times.  It was a fascinating read and very informative, covering key historical moments, like the birth of anti-fascist movements in Nazi Germany, continuing into the Spanish Civil War, even touching on the Second World War’s British Blackshirts and Anarchy in the U.K. and ending on Trump's presidency and Elon Musk taking over Twitter. It also gave an overview of the rise of nationalist right-wing groups on a global scale and how they use propaganda and technology to spread their ideas.

Even though I was already aware of how easily democratic freedoms and rights can be taken away, how important anti-fascist movements are and how history is always repeating itself, the book really helped give me a clearer overview by portraying key historical events and how it led to our somewhat frightening world situation today. 

Back in September, a certain so-called US president issued a statement defining “Antifa” (which hardly exists as a formal organization) as a domestic terrorist organization.  Hmm, I wonder why.  So much crazy shit has gone down since then, it's been overwhelming and fatiguing.  Minneapolis had been under seige by ICE since December and barely a week had passed in 2026 when a number of American citizens got shot and killed by ICE agents, most notably a mother.  And now so-called POTUS is obsessed with buying Greenland. Greenland! It just never ends, and there are no limits to what the wrong people in power can and will do.

Other things I learned from The Antifa Comic Book:

• It was Mussolini who granted state sovereignty to Vatican City. I had always assumed this as done centuries ago, but turns out this was done as recently as the mid-20th century.
• This I already knew, but the book confirmed that it's always the privileged and wealthy (monarchists, industrialists, aristocrats, high-ranking military and police officers, church officials, nationalists) who tend to fund and/or establish fascist movements.  Today, the list includes tech oligarchs and corporate billionaires, like Ronald Lauder (CEO of cosmetics giant Estée Lauder) who gave DT the idea of acquiring Greenland as he has vested interest in Arctic expansion and access to resources.
• I did find one small factual error. The July 24 mass stabbing in England that resulted in the deaths of three little girls did not happen at a school, but at a dance studio that was having a Taylor Swift theme day.  I could see how "school" was a quicker way to summarize the incident as it involved elementary school aged girls, but it wasn't accurate.

I'm certainly now interested in checking out The Anti-Capitalist Resistance Comic Book by Gord Hill.  The question I have though is, can I be anti-capitalist and also still love shopping? 

18. The Ant World Chronicles (Book Two)

By JH

17. The Midnight Library

By Matt Haig

It’s nice to read an international bestseller now and then, to consume something "of the now" so I can feel like a part of the crowd or something (and also have an opinion if the occasion arises).  The Midnight Library was one of two bestsellers I’ve read this past year (the other being Gone Girl).

 

The Midnight Library was also chosen for the last book club meeting at my workplace.  Although I haven’t participated in the book club for some time (I tried once with Wherethe Crawdads Sing),seeing that they were doing The Midnight Library spurred me to read it on my own as I had a copy thanks to my last visit to Encore Books.

 

As expected, The Midnight Library was a breezy read, like a feel-good version of Ken Grimwood’s Replay.  Instead of dying of a heart attack at 43 and reincarnating 25 years earlier in your younger body with all memories intact, with each "re-awakening" having the opportunity for a new do-over, Nora Seed overdoses on sleeping pills and ends up in The Midnight Library, a magical place containing an infinite number of books each representing a parallel life of yours had you made different choices, big or trivial.  The library is managed by someone who was dear to you (in Nora’s case, her school librarian Mrs. Elm, and is also a place where time stops at midnight as you hover between life and death.  While you’re in this state, you can slip into another version of your life in a parallel universe simply by choosing a book and reading the first line.

 

What reminded me of Replay was in one of Nora's lives as a glaciologist, she met a man named Hugo, who was also a “slider” or “life jumper”.  He had the same ability as her, except that he’d done this a lot longer, having sampled dozens, if not hundreds, of lives.  Instead of a library though, Hugo’s quantum Shroedinger-esque in-between state was represented by a Midnight Video Store.  Pretty cute, huh?

 

While Replay was an awesome sci-fi/fantasy novel, The Midnight Library was appealing and cute, as author Matt Haig clearly had aspirations for his novel to be inspiring, life-affirming, etc. etc. I've read feel-good books that have really rubbed me the wrong way, like The House by the Cerulean Sea, which I truly regret reading.  Had I known it was going to be such a saccharine piece of tripe, I wouldn't have read it.  Actually that's not fair to tripe, which I would've probably derived more enjoyment out of consuming.  But The House... was something that would've belonged in my very own Book of Regrets.  Or more like Book of Books I Regret Reading!

 

In any case, I don't regret having read The Midnight Library. It was better written than The House by the Cerulean Sea, and I even got emotionally caught up in parts of it.  Also, Matt Haig is really British while TJ Klune is American trying to write British.  I also, by default, like any book featuring a cat.  Still, The Midnight Library had its flaws.  There were parts that were a little too simple, or indulgent, or went on for too long.  For example, the part where it listed all the lives that Nora lead.  Whatevs - I just skimmed that section.  Also, some of the lives Nora lead were a little far-fetched.  In one life she was the Olympian swimmer she could’ve been. Ok fine. But in another, she was a famous rock star who was as big as Radiohead (and had dated a famous Hollywood star)!  Some metaphors were also a little too pat.  Like the protagonist's name, for instance.  Nora Seed.  She has to experience the multiple branches of her life before she can truly appreciate her “root life”.  Get it?

 

I can also see how The Midnight Library would’ve been The House by the Cerulean Sea for some readers, as it really does over-simplify the complexities of why someone would want to end their life.  One Goodreads reviewer summed it up nicely:

I liked this book until it suddenly decided to moonlight as a self-help manual, replete with messages that would look great and profound on an Instagram post next to a well-posed cup of coffee with those foam pictures on top. Or embroidered on a pillow — pick your poison.

And these messages have the subtlety of a sledgehammer.

Another Goodreads reviewer also had a good point about how The Midnight Library could even be problematic in regards to mental illness:

I also have issues with the core messages in this book. Nora finally learns her lesson, but it's only after having fixated on each regret, remade every decision, and lived all subsequent lives. Like come on, at some point, you just have to be okay with who you are and the decisions you've made without knowing every single possible outcome.

 

But my biggest issue is that I'm really uncomfortable with this book's implication that if you're depressed, you only need to change your mindset and you will feel better. That goes against everything we understand about mental illness, including that it's important to seek professional help, that it can be chemically based, and that it's not a matter of not trying hard enough.

 

We already have enough trouble as a society getting depression and mental illness taken seriously, without a "feelgood" book coming along and implying that you need nothing more than an attitude adjustment to cure it. That puts the blame squarely where it doesn't belong, on the hundreds of millions of people who are suffering from depression. But it isn't just the layman who harbors such misunderstandings. It also includes people who work in the mental health field, and even some therapists and psychiatrists. So you can understand my dismay at the continued popularity of this book, which further perpetrates this extremely toxic point of view 

In any case, I wanted to get this review done so I can pass this book on, probably resell it even.