Nicole CushingRecensioni
Autore di A Sick Gray Laugh
Recensioni
I had never read anything by Nicole Cushing and have been waiting the upcoming release of her book Child of No One so I wanted to get a preview of her writing.
Now I am REALLY looking forward to her new novel. This story was a sad and dark view of the bleak world of people that are not necessarily bad, but more accurately pushed toward cruel choices by their circumstances.
We start off with two women having a sexy internet relationship. One woman, Ellie, is the married wife of a very religious man and the other, Lori, a disturbed bisexual. How disturbed she actually is doesn't become apparent until later. The two have a plan to meet up in real life, have some mind blowing lesbian sex, and then kill themselves. Everything is realistic and understandable up to this point and then it all goes right off the rails; so far off the rails the train cars are in a smoking, wrecked heap about a mile away.
From here on out, a lot of the story is almost interactive with the reader. What I mean by that is that every reader brings their baggage and experience to a story. Depending on what you've read in the past or your past experiences in real life-these things may color your views on the second half of this tale. For myself, I see numerous influences and ways to interpret the last half of this book. A few examples of these influences, from my point of view, would be Lovecraft and Thomas Ligotti for sure. Perhaps a little bit of The King in Yellow and early Clive Barker as well. However, despite these influences the last half is pure Cushing, and this is a style I have grown to love and even adore over the last two years. I'm talking wildly imaginative and creative scenes-described so vividly that I can see them in my mind's eye as clearly as if they were on a giant movie screen before me. I'm not sure that current technology could even live up to Nicole Cushing's imagination-in fact, I doubt it.
This book was incredible. I don't know what else to say. I will include a short warning, this book is daring-in its vivid descriptions of sex and violence, (with both often combined), and also with its frank observations of "in the closet" lesbianism and religious guilt: it may not be for everyone. However, if you think the synopsis and my review sound interesting, I can't say it strongly enough: GO BUY THIS BOOK. (You can do so here: http://www.amazon.com/Sadists-Bible-Nicole-Cushing-ebook/dp/B01C6B9JG6/ref=sr_1_... sadist's bible)
My highest recommendation!
*I received a free e-copy of this novella from the author, in exchange for my honest review. This is it.*
I can say that I liked it, that it was literary, and that it was beautifully written.
There were deep, dark, and gray ideas explored. If I had to put labels on it, (which is difficult to do), I'd use these:
metafiction
dark humor
weird tales
somewhat nihilistic
dense
After reading a few other reviews once I was finished, it seems that my favorite part was the least favorite part of others, and that was the middle. The first and third portions were more involved with Noelle's, (Nicole's?), life, discoveries, and aspirations whereas the second portion focused on a cult-like veil-wearing group traveling to the U.S. by ship and then onward towards the midwest. The New Moses and his group made for fascinating reading and I was sorry when the author moved on.
Overall, I did enjoy this compelling piece of fiction, but I will admit to the fact that my mind did wander a bit, especially during the first and third parts. Did I like it? YES! Do I recommend it? YES!
Was it my favorite work of fiction from Nicole Cushing, no-but that's ok.
I never know what to expect when I read her work, but I ALWAYS know that it's going to be original, well written, and that it will make me think.
As I said above: Recommended!
Get your copy here: https://amzn.to/2R88Y0n
*Thank you to Nicole Cushing for the e-ARC of this book in exchange for my honest feedback. This is it.*
Nicole Cushing contacted me a while back and offered me the chance to read her first collection of stories. I was honored and I accepted, so here we are.
Wildly imaginative and creative, I'm stunned by the quality of this volume. The tales are consistently good-whether they be totally out of the realm of possibility, (invisible babies? see Non Evidens), on the verge of possibility, (purchasing a newly tattooed or tanned skin? see The Peculiar Salesgirl), or too late to stop, (see The Cat in the Cage), each one brings its own intensity to the reader.
Most of these stories work on a few different levels-there's a lot of social commentary going on here, if the reader wants to analyze things. For instance, what are homeless shelters like in the future? (See White Flag). There were a number of things to reflect upon here-there are still homeless shelters in the future? Will they still be so crowded? Do they get there by flying buses? (Turns out they do.) On top of the entertainment value, many of these tales start your mind to thinking and I've always enjoyed that.
I rated each story as I read it-none of them was lower than 3 stars. However, I don't want to post a simple recitation of story titles, (even though these titles are AWESOME), and ratings. SO, these were my favorites:
The Suffering Clown -Just picture a sad clown sitting in a nearly empty parking lot-at night, asking you if he could perform for you. Creepy, right? This story worked SO well for me, I actually clapped with delight at the end. (I'm a geek, what can I say?)
Subcontractors-This story, to me, seemed to be- just making the best of a bad situation. Making lemonade from lemons, that whole thing. It was just so...weird and compelling. I don't know what else to say. You should read it.
I mentioned Non Evidens above, but it was just so out there I had to bring it up again. Just think about it-Invisible Babies. Babies that grow into adults, as lucky babies are wont to do. What's life as an invisible person like? Nicole explores that question as well as exploring the more generic, yet REAL questions of parenting and understanding. More claps at the end of this one.
I imagine that I see a lot of Ligotti here, maybe some Laird Barron and a pinch of Aickman. Maybe some Poe, too. Like I said, it's possible that's just my imagination. I like and respect all those guys, but Nicole has a voice of her very own and I'm digging it.
This collection is expected out on July 1st, from Cycatrix Press. I give it my HIGHEST recommendation!
*I received this e-ARC free, in exchange for an honest review.This is it.*
This was one of the most profoundly dark and disturbing stories I have read in some time, redefining love, lust, faith, judgement, punishment, heaven, hell, pleasure, and pain. I feel like anything else I would say at this point would move my review into spoiler territory, so I will sum things up with this blurb from the back cover; "Remember: He wants us broken"
By Nicole Cushing
Word Horde
Reviewed by Karl Wolff
This book is messed up. I say that with the highest praise. Mr. Suicide by Nicole Cushing is the story of teenage kid living in suburban Louisville, Kentucky. He endures the emotional and psychological abuse from his fundamentalist Christian mother. With an absentee father and a stay-at-home brother, the kid retreats into his mind as a means of escape. One day a voice starts talking to him. The voice calls himself Mr. Suicide and occasionally insists the kid kill himself. He can't stand living at home, he's bullied at school, and his grades are slipping. Unfortunately for Mr. Suicide, the kid remains a stubborn target.
What follows is the story of the kid growing older, waiting until he can move out. Written in second person, the story constantly forces you to confront the ugly, jagged realities the kid has to endure. Writing in second person is a risky gambit that pays off. It reminds me a lot of Nic Kelman's girls: A Paean, also written in second person. The novel perspective doesn't give the reader distance from the subject, creating a claustrophobic intensity. Nicole Cushing's novel is like diving into someone's unalloyed id. Slowly and methodically, the kid goes from being troubled to developing into a full-fledged psychopath.
And he's not likable. At all. But good writing isn't about creating likable characters and writing what you know. Yet the kid's story is compelling. He also has a lot of valuable insights, even if he is an emotionally stunted, violence-prone little bastard. As he reaches rock bottom in the high school pecking order, he becomes acutely aware of what he calls The Ladder. He sees it in people going to work as well. He wants nothing to do with it. This book reads like a demonic love-child of Jean Paul Sartre's Nausea and Jim Thompson's The Killer Inside Me. Unlike Dexter Morgan, who followed Harry's Code and killed bad guys, this kid makes no qualms with his contempt for middle-class proprieties, Christian morality, and basic hygiene.
As the book progresses, it takes on aspects of a quest narrative with Lovecraftian overtones. The kid shucks off the seductions of Mr. Suicide and becomes enamored with The Great Dark Mouth. I won't spoil the details, but an otherwise garden variety extreme horror novel meanders into the insanity-inducing labyrinth of cosmic horror.
Out of 10/9.0
http://www.cclapcenter.com/2016/05/book_review_mr_suicide_by_nico.html
The Sadist's Bible is a new novella from Nicole Cushing. Nicole is rapidly becoming one of my go-to authors for a solid story. In the last year, I've enjoyed both her novel, Mr. Suicide, and her collection, The Mirrors.
I love a great opening line and they don't get much better than "Do u really think u ready to die? I don't want u chickening out." This is part of a conversation which takes place on The Buddy System, an online place to find a suicide partner.
This is the place where Ellie meets Lori and where they plan their "escape."
Nicole Cushing writes about real people, not necessarily people like me, but real people none-the-less.
The Sadist's Bible is extremely sexual. Ellie has spent nineteen years in a stupid marriage and would like to have a same-sex fling before ending it all. Lori is willing, but she's also just plain crazy.
At times the story made me uncomfortable, and this is a good thing, writing should have some kind of impact on the reader.
At some point on the way to their liaison , Ellie turns off the highway and ends up deep in the Twilight Zone and the climax (yes, I used that word intentionally) is rather surreal.
Admittedly, The Sadist's Bible is not for everyone. Adult themes abound, but still an enjoyable read.
The Sadist's Bible is available as an e-book from 01Publishing.
Nicole Cushing is a Shirley Jackson Award finalist who's written a number of stand-alone novellas and dozens of short stories. Nicole has been referred to as the literary equivalent of the love child between Jack Ketchum and Poppy Z. Bright. Raised in rural Maryland and now living in southern Indiana, Nicole counts master storyteller Edgar Allen Poe as having had a big influence on her as a writer.
Nicole Cushing is a Shirley Jackson Award finalist who's written a number of stand-alone novellas and dozens of short stories. Nicole has been referred to as the literary equivalent of the love child between Jack Ketchum and Poppy Z. Bright. Raised in rural Maryland and now living in southern Indiana, Nicole counts master storyteller Edgar Allen Poe as having had a big influence on her as a writer.
In recent weeks, I'd noticed a bit of a buzz about her debut novel and knew I had to check it out. I'm so glad I did. When I opened the book I right away noticed some very positive blurbs from authors I respect a great deal, including Ray Garton and the aforementioned Jack Ketchum.
After finishing Mr. Suicide, it's difficult to believe this is her first published novel. The kind words from so many of her contemporaries are certainly not mere hyperbole. Nicole Cushing delivers the goods in a compelling story told completely in the second person. A bit of an unusual style, but it works so well in this case as we hear the story of a boy who's had thoughts of suicide from the time he was ten until he leaves home at eighteen, and beyond.
Growing up in a mentally abusive family, with no real friends, bullied by kids at school, it's no wonder he's the way he is. Despite all this, the boy manages to deny Mr. Suicide over the years, until his brother introduces him to a low-budget pornographic magazine called Perfect Monsters. The cover features a geriatric, female amputee, naked, heavily wrinkled and doing unspeakable things with her detached artificial leg. That's when things take a marked turn, as Mr. Suicide takes a backseat to a new entity, Great Dark Mouth, who offers something more.
The protagonist in the story is definitely depraved, there are some very disturbing images here, but it's all right at home, in the context of the tale. Filled with richly demented and deformed characters, Mr. Suicide is dark storytelling at it's finest. Just when I thought it couldn't get any better (worse), it does. I loved the use of the Looney Tunes and other cartoon character voices at the end of the book.
By the way, kudos to Zack Mccain for his stunning artwork on the cover.
Mr. Suicide is available in both paperback and e-book formats from Word Horde Publishers.
I can't recommend this book enough. One of the best I've read this year.
The theme of Children of No One I find especially fascinating: art can be abused to horrific effect. It has always been true that what one person thinks of is artful and outrageously original is another person’s garbage; “My kid could do that!” is a phrase that has been directed toward any number of modern pieces, such as, say, the splatter paintings of Jackson Pollock. But there have also been discussions about whether certain art is cruel and unworthy of a mentally healthy audience. Some of Francis Bacon’s paintings, for instance, can easily be classified as horror — look at Three Studies for a Crucifixion, for instance. But when an artist engages in performance art, and uses human beings as his raw materials, the horror immediately escalates to criminal heights.
Cushing’s novella opens with two teenage boys arguing in Nowhere, Indiana, about the possible existence of light. In their world, there is no such thing, but one of the boys believes that once there was. All these boys know is a completely dark world in which the oak walls move, making it difficult to find food delivered each day by “Angels” — employees of the artist of whom the boys know nothing. We quickly learn that the boys are two of dozens purchased by Thomas Krieg as small children and enclosed in his underground labyrinth as “art.” McPherson is a “patron of the arts,” as he calls himself, who pays an enormous amount of money to get a preview of this “masterpiece.” In a conversation with Kitterman, the security guard who greets him, McPherson shrugs off the security problems posed by the type of art that Krieg specializes in, though he acknowledges that an artist with a reputation as “Krieg the Torturer” and “Krieg the Sadist” has to be careful.
This setup is bad enough, but things go from bad to worse when the occult, aided by drugs, enters the picture. A man named only as “the Englishman” (he says he doesn’t have a name) claims to be a magician who wants to use Nowhere, Indiana, as a battery for a magical engine that will reveal the nothingness that lingers beneath our universe. He wants this Great Dark Mouth to enter the universe and gobble up “our tacky delusions of light, life and meaning.” McPherson has perhaps bitten off much more than he can chew. Krieg is willingly cooperating with the Englishman’s effort, but only because he thinks they’re harmless.
The twists are plentiful as the novella proceeds inexorably toward a perfect, and perfectly chilling, ending. Cushing deals expertly with all the plots and subplots she has set in motion. She tells her story with a distinctive voice, using description to good effect for a story full of light, darkness, color and the absence of color, appropriate to her artistic theme. I’m now eager to read Cushing’s first novel, I Am the New God, released by DarkFuse last month. This is a new voice in horror that promises some dark, scary reads.
Originally published at http://www.fantasyliterature.com/reviews/children-of-no-one/
Darkfuse Publishers continues to put out some of the best dark fiction available for today's market and they've done so once again with this novella from Nicole Cushing.
I Am the New God tells the strange story of two, young, disturbed individuals who become inexplicably linked, with one as a heirophant and the other, the object of his instruction and adoration.
OK, allow me to save you the trouble of having to look up the word heirophant. It is an interpreter of ancient mysteries and arcane principles. In this story, it's one who is tasked with encouraging a new god in preparation for his becoming.
Hard to tell which of the two primary characters is more crazy, the heirophant who believes he's in communication with, and following in the footsteps of, John the Baptist or the young man he is trying to metamorphose.
The author does a great job of allowing the reader to see that even though the premise of her story may be out there, given the circumstances this is entirely plausible and the outcome is believable and inevitable.
I Am the New God is available now from Darkfuse, for the kindle, at Amazon.com and, if you are an Amazon Prime member, you can read it for FREE through the Kindle Lending Library.
Strongly recommended.
Published By: DarkFuse
Age Recommended: Adult
Reviewed By: Arlena Dean
Rating: 4
Book Blog For: GMTA
Review:
"Children Of No One" by Nicole Cushing was one creepy horror novella. I am still wondering why I chose it... oh, I remember ....I think it was the title. Let me say up front this is not a novel for the 'faint of heart' even though this author does it well with its deliverance of weirdness. This setting was in Nowhere, Indiana where we find a 'twist man' that was looking for something new in the world of art. This Mr. McPherson hooks up with a Mr. Krieg and with No One.
Mr. Krieg and No One "create a exhibit with Mr. McPherson as the very excited audience of one. After all, there is no art without an audience, right?" No, if you can be that far into this read I will say you must pick up the rest of this read to see where this author will take the reader. Be ready because this is a dark fiction novel, with a omg 'science fiction at a slant.' This author know how to write because believe this "Children of NO One was well written read. The characters were well developed and colorful and a good plot.
I found "Children of NO One, " for me... quite a uncomfortable and disturbing read most of the time. But at the same time if you are in for a horror read then this author would be right down your alley. Would I recommend this one, well its not for me...see, I don't care for horror or creepy but if you do...this one is for you!
This is all very strange even by the standard of the other bizarro books I've read. It's certainly interesting though. After reading this book you'll never look at squirrels the same way again.
I bought this book.
The chances of readers not being familiar with either bizarro fiction or the “flying circus” storytelling form is pretty high. So let's start there. Bizarro is a pseudo-genre that embraces Absurdism, irony, satire, surrealism and even outright silliness. Think Roald Dahl, Lewis Carroll, Jean-Paul Sarte, Samuel Beckett meets The Twilight Zone, Lovecraft and David Lynch. In fact this book comes out through Eraserhead Press.
The flying circus is an homage to Monty Python. It's a collection of related (thematically, directly through characters and worlds, or merely grammatically) shorts that come together as a whole. How to Eat Fried Furries supposedly is a pamphlet included in the goodie bags at the American Association of Furry Farmers convention.
Cushing's shorts start out as silly riffs on religion and genre (alien squirrel invaders led by the Squirrel Pope, readers will get that the stories are absurd, as is the bits of religion they're reflecting). It disarms the reader with over-the-top stunts then subjects them to some pretty serious shorts that challenge the nature of human status quo and pretentiousness. In these darker pieces Cushing establishes that there are three people in the world: the Flesh, who uphold and define the status quo; the Flayed to reject it to the point of rejecting their own skin; and the neutral who are very screwed indeed.
While the premise might seem silly (and honestly the first mini-tale is quite far gone) Cushing deftly slices apart the reader with a wicked wit and almost playful viciousness. The power packed second act makes Furries an excellent, rattling read and a chance to get in on the ground floor of what will be a stellar career.
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In Nicole Cushing's I Am the New God this is exactly what we get. Slowly, things are revealed about Gregory's background, such as his stint in a mental institution, that he's been on medication, and that he's recently stopped taking that medication. Gregory at first does not believe the Hierophant, but slowly begins to warm up to the idea as he begin to complete the seven tasks the Hierophant has laid out for him to complete his rise to become the new God. But the question becomes whether this is real or if this is all part of Gregory's (and the Hierophant's) madness.
That's what was so fascinating about it. The reader is genuinely left in the dark through most of the book about whether this is real or if we are simply reading the mind of a certifiable madman. From the violent mutilation of his roommate to his creation of a new life form named Hop Frog (clearly a tribute to [a:W.H. Pugmire|3064456|W.H. Pugmire|https://d.gr-assets.com/authors/1342560875p2/3064456.jpg]), we don't know what's real and what's not, especially given that it's written mostly from a shifting first person perspective. It becomes both fascinating and disturbing to see into the mind of the potentially insane.
The book is still a horror novel and there are many incidents of violence and gore, so reader be warned. Admittedly, the gory violence is not as much as it could have been, and Cushing seems to have exercised some restraint in order to put a greater focus on the story. In fact, I can't say that any of it is gratuitous. All the violence, while creepy and horrifying, actually serves a point and furthers the plot. Like a slaughtered buffalo, nothing is wasted. The text has a good flow and the story ramps up to the ending at a pretty smooth pace.
If I have a criticism, it would be the changing perspective. While it can be interesting switching first person narratives between Gregory and the Hierophant, as well as the third person perspective of police investigators, at the same time the effect is also jarring and can pull the reader out of the book with the sudden shift. I respect Cushing for this bold choice, but I don't think that it quite had the effect she was looking for.
A sublime piece of horror fiction, I Am the New God is definitely worth a read. With only minor quibbles, I can heartily recommend this book, especially for horror fans for a unique take that leaves the reader guessing until the end, even if they think they've figured it out.
I Am the New God by Nicole Cushing earns 4.5 completed tasks out of 5 (because, really, who's got the time for 7 tasks).
Note: This review is based on a review copy sent for free from the publisher through NetGalley. This did not affect the content of the review in any way.