A Stir of Bones by Nina Kiriki Hoffman

"House has a mind of it's own," said Nathan, "and I don't know what it's thinking right now.  This isn't the way things are supposed to go."

"So what's supposed to happen," Julio asked.  His voice shook.  "Are we all supposed to die?"

"No.  You run away screaming, and tell everyone how scary it is here."

"But we can't."  Deirdre jerked the doorknob.

Susan slipped away from Edmund and went to the kitchen wall.  She placed her hands flat on it.  The house was breathing more rapidly.

She leaned against the wall, wondering at it's warmth.  It felt welcoming.  She sensed a laugh inside it.  She pressed her cheek against it, closed her eyes, breathed deeply in time with the house.

The house was alive, and the boy wasn't.  Page 35

This is the first novel by Hoffman I've read and I may have messed things up from the very start.  A Stir of Bones is a prequel to A Red Heart of Memories which was written four years before.  While reading the books in order of publication may impart some deeper attachment or meaning, I didn't feel short changed in anyway.

While not exactly dense the story is well controlled and the pacing reflects a style that I've encountered before with many of Hoffman's longer short stories.  That alone makes me think that this story about children and a haunted house is for adults, but the novel's sense of magic and wonder are certainly strong enough to appeal to any reader.

Susan, the main character, is perhaps the most boring girl on the planet.  She's endearing in that her lack of personality isn't necessarily her fault, but her fathers.  Her life is so tightly controlled by her father that she never has a chance to develop a personality.  She is Daddy's most prized possession; an angel; a 'princess.'

She is fourteen and learned at an even younger age that acting out, being an individual, a kid, or going against her father in any way, shape, or form, meant that bad things would happen to her mother.  Sometimes her parents had to make late night hospital visits due to Susan's behavior or she may notice her mother carrying herself in an awkward manner the next morning due to bruises easily concealed by clothing.  To escape the pain that Susan could bring about, her mother seeks alcohol.  To escape her abusive father and her mother's drinking--of which she is made to believe are directly related to her behavior--Susan seeks out a haunted house, a dead boy, and paradoxically, that which has been most explicitly forbidden to her by her father: friends.

Julio is an aspiring magician.  Unknowingly, Susan is something akin to a medium.  Alone with some other friends they spend time in a long abandon house with it's lone inhabitant: a long deceased suicide victim, Nathan,  a boy who died when he was their age.  Susan grows.  She develops as a person and finds that life--and even death--have more to offer her than the ridiculously harsh strictures that she lives under with her father.  As she learns the power of friendship and as her friends enable her with her own fey abilities Susan ceases to see the house as an escape, but as a symbol of power she can wield.

It's amazing how quickly we come to understand her father considering the minimal amount of time given to him.  While he is hyper possessive and controlling of Susan there was never a doubt that he loved her in his own way.  Susan can't stand up to him in any literal, physical sense.  Any opposition means horrible things for her mother, but through the house and her friends Susan finds that she does have the power to aid her mother.

It's a dark book but not overtly so.  There is plenty of reading in between the lines to be done and despite the fact that there is magic and children named 'Susan and Edmund' I'm not sure this book should be passed off to the kids.  I'll never know what anxieties and tensions I've missed by not reading these books in order of publication, but that doesn't mean I didn't enjoy A Stir of Bones and it certainly won't keep me from reading A Red Heart of Memories.

Permeable Borders by Nina Kiriki Hoffman

For two or three years now Nina Kiriki Hoffman has been a name that I've regularly come across in short story collections and 'year's best' anthologies.  I read her contribution, love it (usually) then move on; never giving further thought to the author.  It was a sort of New Year's Resolution for me to remedy this issue.  Part of my purpose in reading anthologies and various collections is to come across new writers that I like who work in genres I'm comfortable with.  To that end I found success with Hoffman so it only makes sense that eventually I'd want to look further into her works. 

Permeable Borders is a short story collection that contains 16 of the author's works from 1993
-2012.  There are many unifying elements both in a greater sense of the entire collection and on a smaller scale.  We see reoccurring characters and stories collected under sub-headings such as: 'Fairy Tales' and 'Finding Each Other' and the titular 'Permeable Borders.'  All the stories deal with acceptance either of a character or sometimes acceptance of those surrounding the main character who profess to care yet have great difficulty understanding a character's oddities.  While this theme becomes more transparent as the collection goes on there is enough variance in each story's scenario as to not only indulge interest, but also to make the reader anticipate the twist that might strongly differentiate one seemingly similar story from another. 

I'm not surprised that my favorites came from the 'Fairy Tale' section of the book.  Switched is an excellent re-telling of Cinderella in which the wicked step mother is as forth coming in her intentions as possible and the poor abused pushed-to-the-side, Cinderella finds power, prominence, and most surprisingly contentment in her 'frog kissing' station.  Strikes of the Heart deals with an aging all-powerful witch.  While she had previously never done anything that could be conceived as less than a 'good' act, she has difficulty controlling her power while battling some obvious signs of dementia or at least something that looks like Alzheimer's.  It is up to her granddaughter to assume her power and deal with her grandmother's health and the responsibility and roles she must assume.

'Finding Each Other' is a section of the book that held seven stories all of which were connected by more than themes but characters as well.  Matt is a not witch (as Matt is made to say repeatedly), nor the young adult vagrant he seems.  (I cracked up for a solid minute when Matt's biggest secret was revealed).  Matt can talk to inanimate objects and he persist he doesn't give them life only alerts them to the fact that they are alive.  Matt's occasional--and certainly accidental--friend Terry most certainly is a witch. 

Terry is thirty years old and lives at home with her mother.  While her mother is okay with Terry being a witch and unconditionally loves her as her daughter she, and everyone else who knows Terry, has problems with Terry's manipulative nature, the way she uses people so selfishly, and her complete lack of respect for others.  Terry's witch powers are considered dark and corrupt added to which she's very powerful, however she'd tell you she's not a bad person.  She's merely acting on her own inclination and interest; as most other people in the world do.  Her nature and personality make for some very stark contrast with Matt's tendencies to help and look for the good in people.

Edmund is a third reoccurring character in the 'Finding Each Other' stories who is even more of a wandering hippie that Matt.  Edmund has powers too but they are unlike Matt's or Terry's.  He seeks to make the environment he's in at peace with itself.  Sometimes it's a person that needs help, sometimes it's a wall that needs tending too.  Edmund's stories were easily the most subtle in terms of what was accomplished, also the most densely written and perhaps his stories resonated the strongest when collectively looking at the 'Finding Each Other' stories.  These stories work so well due to all that Hoffman doesn't share.  There is an immediate story she wants to tell and she never stops to tell us about Matt's powers, Terry's ultimate objectives, or how exactly Edmund does something so simple as exist in today's world.    

One could ask for more variety in the collection or considering the authors' total output being great than 250 short stories more of the occasional, startling originality such as How I came to Marry a Herpetologist, in which every time Fanchon talks she is greeted with a reptile equal to the number of words she speaks.  What's given is a touch repetitious and lacking in overt conflict that some readers may expect, but each story is consistent, excellently executed, and if not terribly different from each other these stories are certainly not what you'll come across from most other writers. 

Random Free Reading, Shopping, Putting English in it's Place and my First New Year's Resolution

In my reading of short stories I regularly come across the name Nina Kiriki Hoffman.  I'm always blown away by her writing.  I never follow up on her; only to stumble across her name in a later anthology or year's best collection to start the process over again.  I'm calling myself out: my next book purchase will absolutely contain something by Nina Kiriki Hoffman.  She is awesome and a favored author of mine; why have I not treated myself before?  

I looked around for what to buy and why by Ms Hoffman and, in addition to answers to those questions, I came across a buncha free reading by the author.  Should anyone else be curious (which you should be) and can tolerate reading on a computer screen (sometimes I can't) Futures in the Memories Market (great title don't you think?) is at Clarkesworld; Ghost Hedgehog is at Tor.com; and Firebugs is from Eclipse online.  They are all great short stories though none rival my favorite from Hoffman.  After linking to all those stories I think I'll be getting a novel and a short story collection in my new year's Hoffman purchase.  

I went shopping today to trade in a few books and upon entering Books for Less second store, a local bookseller I give all my money to, I was rendered unable to shop.  I'm so accustomed to the other store, the layout, 'clutter,' the excessive inventory, and the slightly claustrophobic feeling of the store that the Alpharetta location's open spaces breathing room actually worked as a turn off.  Go figure that one out... I think this store had more stuff than the one I'm inclined to like but none of the past years worth of history and romantic involvement to make me like it.

What's wrong with me?  

So to get a dose of 'normal' I went to a Barnes and Noble and while I didn't buy anything I did take notice of a bit of bookstore layout that really appealed to me.  The young adult books (resisting the urge to preach about how stupid this, and other, genre appellations are) were separated by "New Young Adult Books"; "Young Adult Books" which I took to be anything not 'new'; and "Paranormal Young Adult Books".  Perhaps they could do so as the store didn't stock the same physical quantity of all things young adult as they did adult, but whatever the reason, I really liked this distinction.  At a glance I could find the young adult stuff without a trace of vampires, werewolves or any fantasy elements.  (Not that there is anything wrong with that it's just not what I'm feeling right now.)  As cool as I thought this separation was, woe betide the poor book clerk that has to make such a distinction in the "adult fiction" area should ever such a mandate come down... 

Oh, before I left Books for Less I did by Coraline by Neil Gaiman.  It was on the checkout counter and I didn't have to shop to find it.  I'll finish it tonight.  Speaking of Gaiman I found this while looking for Hoffman short stories.  Haven't read it yet but I'm looking forward to it.  I think the title is supposed to be a play on the first sentence of Robert Graves I, Claudius a book that I, and anyone else who has read it, loved.  Okay fine, some of you didn't click the link; I'll entice you with the story's title:    I, Cthulhu, or What's a Tentacle-Faced Thing Like Me Doing In A Sunken City Like This (Latitude 47 9' S, Longitude 126 43' W)?

With the completion of The Club Dumas I'm pretty sure that Arturo Perez-Reverte has become my second most read author behind Gene Wolf.  (I'm not counting David Gemmell, Michael Crichton, or John Grisham as I haven't reading anything by any of them in years.)  I feel stupid saying this but Perez-Reverte has a blog: it's in Spanish.  Ya know; because he's Spanish if the name didn't give it away.  This thought never occurred to me before.  I like him.  He blogs regularly and says interesting things and when I'm not being super lazy, I can make myself read Spanish.  It boggles my mind to think I hadn't come across this before... as if I'm surprised the whole world doesn't speak English. 

The final bit in today's exposé of randoms: I could swear I owned a copy of Michael Chabon's Wonderboys.  I know I do!  I can't find it and it's what I want to read right now.  It's possible I'm dreaming I own something I don't or it's possible it's in my collection and I can't find it.  (Not likely...)  


Where did that book go?!?!