Rachel Deering

About two years ago, I met Rachel Autumn Deering at a Horrible Saturday event at the York Emporium used book store. I picked this up at the time and it kinda got buried on my ever-growing TBR pile and just never got read. Today, I finally corrected that error.

This novella is one of the most compelling and heartbreaking things I've read in recent memory.

Husk is some damn fine writing. The kind that gets under your skin, makes you think, makes you downright angry. Just because our servicemen show more and women come home doesn't mean the battles have ended. For many, they have just begun...

"They got me seeing a doctor down to the VA hospital every few weeks. Poking and prodding and asking me all kinds of questions a man hopes nobody would ever ask him. Keeping me doped up and all, trying to put me back together, I guess. I got a pill to help me sleep, one to perk me up, one to calm my nerves, and one to make sure I don't just fly plumb off the handle."

A tragic tale that left me reeling.

Strongly recommended.

Husk is available in both paperback and Kindle formats. If you subscribe to Kindle Unlimited you can read it at no additional charge. Also, if you are an Amazon Prime member you can read it for FREE using the Kindle Owners Lending Library.

From the author's bio - Rachel Autumn Deering is an Eisner and Harvey Award-nominated writer, editor, and book designer from the hills of Appalachia. Her debut prose novella, Husk, was published in 2016 and drew praise from critics and fellow writers alike. Her upcoming novel, Wytchwood Hollow, is set for publication in 2018. show less

At first I was a little wary of attempting to write a review of 'Husk,' Rachel Autumn Deering's prose debut. I wasn't sure how I'd be able to approach it, seeing that, in the interests of full disclosure, we are friends (Transatlantic friends, but friends nonetheless).

I needn't have been wary. Nope, not in the slightest. I'll get to the point (hopefully forgoing my usual verbal diarrhoea in the process); Rachel's work as a comic writer stands her in good stead for the transition to prose. show more The writing in 'Husk' is lean and to the point, with no messing about or dwelling on anything that needn't be there. Instead, Rachel's twisted imaginings (I don't think she will be offended by my saying so) are conveyed with a punchy, almost sparse enconomy. For the most part eschewing more traditional terrors and steering well clear of traditional genre tropes, instead, 'Husk' focuses upon what, to me at least, is the real stuff of horror: addiction, guilt, and hopelessness, all underpinned with a crushing sense of inevitability.

A debut novella that promises of great things to come, with 'Husk,' Rachel Deering almost makes this whole writing thing look pretty damn easy, and certainly leaves me wanting more. If you're looking for a brisk, entertainingly chilling read, you'd do well to pick up a copy show less

The authors of these short stories are clear masters of their craft, as each story captured my attention and left me wanting so much more. I especially loved how so many of these stories involving witchcraft also centered around an idea that women stick together. This was a great book to help me get out of the reading slump I had fallen into.

Prelim Review: While this isn't a perfect book, this is a book to be damned proud of. This isn't just an anthology of short comics and pin-ups with a glib theme of 'Women Empowerment' or a collection of stories that prove women are as cool as men (if not cooler). This is a book filled with stories about characters who face problems every girl goes through and yeah sometimes superpowers or magic helps to make things better, but it just as easily comes down to whether that young girl or woman show more is brave enough to embrace the ability to make a change.

Prelim review full review to be posted on Poisoned Rationality show less