Black Cocktail by Jonathan Carroll
My rating: 4/5 cats
“What do you think the name of the god of Lovely Little Things is? The god of brownies and Earl Grey tea? Wouldn’t you like to meet him? The god of good movies, your plane leaving on time, puppies, women walking by wearing great perfume…I’d like to know him.”
this novella is a really twisty little piece of dark fantasy. for me, the best thing about jonathan carroll as a writer is his energy. he’s not the most disciplined of writers—he doesn’t do that whole raymond carver “every word has import and every story is tightly edited with no extra meat” thing, but he does have this enthusiasm, this wild exhilaration. his work is always rife with asides, anecdotes, backstory that frequently goes nowhere in terms of contributing to the plot or theme, but it all adds richness and depth to his stories that just make them feel good to read.
this story is closer to horror than many of his other works, and it has a momentum that carries the reader away into this slipstream riptide where the past catches up to its characters, the attraction we feel towards certain people is explained, and increasingly creepy and violent events occur until it’s all over but the screaming.
it’s not his strongest work, but i just love the way this one moves. there are so many unexpected turns and evasions here, and the finale is completely unexpected. michael billa can make me brownies any time.
3.5 rounded up because jonathan carroll.
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