Please note that I received this via NetGalley. This did not impact my rating or review.
Well crime/horror is definitely a new genre for me. I have to say that all in all I give this collection 3 stars. Some of the stories I thought were really good and others I felt lost while reading. I did like that Simmons is entirely focused on showing crime in urban areas with most of the characters we follow are Black. I would definitely read something by Simmons again since I think his short stories definitely give us a point of view that I haven’t seen before in the horror genre like this. Some things to note included in the foreword to the collection is that Fetty is a slang term for fentanyl and switch is small device that can be attached to the rear slide of a Glock handgun changing the semi-automatic pistol into one that can be capable of full automatic fire.
Frog Money (5 stars)-Super crazy story that sets the pace for the rest of the collection. We are with a class of 8th graders and a teacher who apparently has zero boundaries. And instead of dissecting frogs, they decide to dissect something else.
Gigi’s Hands (3 stars)-This one was weird to me. It’s about a man that somehow has the body of a woman named Gigi in a room where he lives. He goes in there and places Gigi’s hands in his mouth which somehow gets him through his day. The whole thing I think is a metaphor for drugs, but again, this one was weird and I didn’t follow the whole thing.
Fetty on the Switches (5 stars)-It shows an unnamed person locked in a room with a guy he names Dito Ramirez who is strapped down with a doctor that is there, doing something. The person is focused on hurting possibly killing Dito as he has been hired by an unnamed employer to watch Dito. The story flips slowly though to show you who is strapped down and how they got there.
Whole Time (4 stars)-It’s similar to those tales that kids in my neighborhood would make up about someone or something that sounded fake. It’s also tied into FEMA coming to this neighborhood to “help” those in need due to bad drinking water that seems to be turning people into something else.
Sugar Foot (3 stars)-The first part of the story starts off with a guy named Chauncey who likes to freebase smack since it allowed him to not think and it’s likened to having Alzheimer’s. From there the story just takes on a stream of consciousness story that you are being told about just insane things going on with Chauncey and the unnamed narrator with him. It just didn’t hit right as I was reading it for some reason.
The Language of Goats (5 stars)-We follow someone named Hrandis who is talking to his therapist about seeing the eyes change in people. I honestly thought most of this story reminded me a bit of Daphne du Maurier’s story, Blue Lenses with more horror/urban though the whole story does take a deeper/sinister turn than that story ever did.
Glock Dookie (2 stars)-This was really gross to figure out what a glock dookie was. But honestly the story was just not hitting while I read it. I think because the fantasy part (prisoner that is a wasp) just felt way too hard for me to even wrap my head around.
Love in the Time of Fentanyl (1 stars)-A doomed love story between Marley and someone unknown. Living on the streets, taking drugs, and doing whatever is necessary to eat. I think for me this one could have been longer to make you really sit with the characters. It was only about 3 pages so not a lot there to work with to immerse you into the story before you move to the next one.
Vonyetta Mosley’s Marzipan Palace (2.5 stars)-Discussion between two men about setting up two gangs who right now are doing diss videos, but the idea is to get them to actually kill each other and film it so they can make money off it on YouTube. This story was hard to get into honestly and I had to keep re-reading sentences. It just goes on a little too long I think unlike the last story.
Liturgy (5 stars)-A church service that goes really bad for a young boy.
Djingo Bottom Belfree (3 stars)-I think the title of this story which follows said character is a type of bug. I don’t know. I just got confused again halfway through this story.
Quinoa (5 stars)-Honestly I just gave this 5 stars for the line about the character of Palaver DeGroot hating the word quinoa since it’s not pronounced how it’s spelled.
The Wheel of San Geronimo (3 stars)-Story about exchanging cheese for smack. I would probably accept cheese for a free book. But that’s me. Honestly buy this point, I started slowing down on finishing this collection and it took me a few weeks to get back to it.
Nobody Gives a Shit About Donald Dafoe (1 star)-This just was another stream of consciousness story that is about a man named Donald Dafoe who is questioned about not watching Boondock Saints. I assume this is some inside joke I don’t understand but I just was glad to be done with the story.
Food is Poison (3 stars)-Story about a people taking something called juice that allows them to keep running without breaks and no withdrawal symptoms. A woman named Eliza she is near has to complete her tasks before she can get juice and the whole thing of course shows that juice is just as addictive as anything else.
Freon Kids (2 stars)-Super dark story about a boy watching his father deal with kids who keep stealing I assume the freon from his AC unit. The story is over much to soon to get a sense of it one way or the other.
For Paulie (2 stars)-Another story about drug addiction that I just found confusing to read.
The Death of Sean Taylor (5 stars)-I really enjoyed this one and it plays with you having you wonder what is real and not real.
King Von (1 star) I didn’t get this story even a little. It was just confusing.
Archipelago ( 2.5 stars)-A man named Archipelago appears to be the jailer of an unnamed man. The story jumps back and forth between Archipelago who is there to do something painful to the man and the man talking about a book he has read (I assume) called A Treatise on Windows and Doors by someone named Rathke. I don’t know if this is a metaphor for something or not. But it honestly made me think of the Tell Tale Heart somewhat, but not entirely.
