Kristyn DunnionRecensioni

TW: neglectful parenting; sexual assault by a stepparent; physical assault and implied sexual assault by a cop; drugs; alcohol; robbery; car crash; others.
SPOILERS.
I write this review in the grips of a covid subvariant where I am coughing and just very tired and detached, but I somehow still feel totally fine. It's an odd mix. Been going on for two weeks. I read this as a teenager and was utterly fascinated by it. I was convinced the cover model was related to Fairuza Balk. Twenty years later, I got my hands on a copy again. It was bland but somehow I whipped through it in less than two hours. Things that are normally triggering for me, in this, did nothing. The writing was just that bland. I was trying to find this book and turned to goodreads, and remarked in the post that "the author writes similarly to Francesca Lia Block, but it's not her." At the time, I couldn't remember what made me say that.
I read the book and instantly remembered: Dunnion's writing in this book is like a cheap version of FLB who is actually not trying to be edgy, but is actually being genuine to the story, but comes off as trying too hard somehow. I disliked the writing style. I couldn't connect to anyone. In the hands of a more engaging author, this might have been a gritty thriller considering the robbery for drugs and somehow, the kidnapping of a baby that occurs.

The character blabs about drugs, booze, sex work, her crush on and resentment of Cherry; and abruptly starts talking about being interested in a new gal. I liked this new gal a lot. Go new gal! I cheered for the two to get and stay together, thinking MC would learn a better life was possible. She was a great character foil for Cherry, whose nickname appears to exist because of a jacket she wears while moshing. Nicknames come from all kinds of places but here, it was just kind of stupid. If she had other clothing with cherries on them, I'd be less grumpy.

Cherry is sixteen. She insists that she seduced a thirty-year-old. Honey. Not how that works. He blatantly uses her and chases whoever he wants, and whoever will deliver drugs for him. Cherry ignores this. I was so, so annoyed at her for this. In another book, I would feel bad about myself for that. This adult man convinces Cherry to rob houses with him and sell the belongings for drug money. They do this, the police try to find them, and then they rob...a grocery store....and kidnap...a baby, who was....hidden under the register. The mom took the baby to work because she couldn't afford a sitter.

WHAT?!
WHY?! WHAT THE FUCK. And also, seriously, whole chapters are dedicated to the mother of the baby having this really supportive and wonderful, normal family, and how they coordinate babysitting. No one was available to babysit on the day the mom took her baby to work. I just--it--you know what, no. That's--I'm sorry, but that's not possible -to take a baby to a grocery store and hide it under the cash register.- It would cry, need to be changed, cry, need to be changed, need to be fed, and cry. Loudly. Managers would -not- approve. Even in modern-day, having a baby in a chest sling thing wouldn't be allowed. I like chest sling things for babies, I think it's great for everybody. Win-win. Not as a grocery employee though. And why the fuck did Cherry kidnap the baby? Ransom is never mentioned. She's on coke as well as other stuff and whines about the baby being there. So she just--grabbed the baby and the cash and headed out?
AND NO ONE NOTICED OR INTERVENED?!
And then she crashes the car of the adult man who's preying on her and I just did not care. I hate to admit it, but I was kind of hoping this fictional character would die after it. No, she's fine and just yowling about how unfair the world is. Baby's fine too, though, and I was relieved.

This book is terrible, stupid, and until the last hundred pages, I couldn't put it down. Please skip this. I'm wondering if it ever should have been written. Gross.

I'm a sucker for stories about cults and oppressive religions and women in these situations, AND retelling of the Lilith story.

Tarry This Night hit all of those buttons, and did so in a terrifyingly bleak, realistic and unblinking way. The truth is, living in a bunker for years with no specified end date and expecting to replenish your population from the same dwindling, starving supply of women is unfeasible and yet people try it or want to try it all the time.

The sense of hopelessness and inevitability is suffused throughout, hitting the women and children differently (but of course not Father Ernst) but equally severely. The fact that they had to resort to cannibalism and fasting is presented and an inevitability and a horrifying one.

Ruth, Paul, and Susan were great characters, flawed and strong. Cults prey on the vulnerable and lonely, and Susan fell into that trap, seeking safety and family and belonging. She had it for a short while, but when the matriarchs died, it was too late for her to escape. Ruth and Paul were born into the cult, and while Paul has had a chance to grow with Father Ernst's influence, Ruth has not and struggles with being a good "Christian" and reconciling her desires for freedom and love.

Father Ernst was definitely a villain, but a three-dimensional one, who clearly believed in what he was preaching and his vision for the future. Silas was... interesting, and I wish we knew more about him.

Almost everyone in Stoop City, Kristyn Dunnion’s pulsating collection of short fiction, is approaching a crisis of one sort or another: a crossroads where a reckoning is imminent or life-altering decisions are looming. Dunnion’s characters tend to be misfits and rebels: people on society’s fringe struggling against communal norms, people who have given up trying to fit in because they know they don’t and never will. Still, they see what others have and yearn to experience that same love, that same sense of belonging. In “Now is the Time to Light Fires,” the grieving narrator is convinced her dead lesbian lover, Marzana, has returned and is trying to make up for past bad behaviour and win back her love. In “How We Learn to Lie,” cynical, materialistic Julia, a real estate agent, is all business: wearily accommodating her recently widowed client’s bereavement as she sets about the task of preparing the client’s condominium for presentation and sale. Then, true to form, when her own love life suddenly crumbles, Julia responds not with tears, but with decisive action and steely resolve. Teenage Ohio, in “Daughter of Cups,” is just starting to awaken to the fact that there is more to life than what goes on in the boring, ramshackle lakeside town where she and her distracted mother make their home. Confused by feelings for an older teen named Kevin Moody, who ignores her, and craving affection, she gives regular hand jobs to a biker: the only adult in her sphere who seems to take any interest in her. And “Tracker and Flow” is the taut story of a young professional couple, Kelly and Tom, whose latest failed attempt at in vitro fertilization sparks a disastrous series of events that ends in the collapse of their life together. Some of the stories are loosely connected—gay teen Pauly, a subordinate character in “Light Fires,” turns up in “Adorno To Devoto” playing the tragic lead—lending the collection dramatic as well as thematic unity. But as engaging as they are, these are not stories for the faint of heart. Dunnion’s characters are deeply flawed, sometimes misguided, often morally compromised, and battling a variety of physical and psychological demons. They are unsure of themselves and their place in a world that seems to offer only menace and censure. But when they declare themselves and try to assert their independence, they leave themselves alarmingly vulnerable. Only Jimmy, in the collection’s final two pieces, acts as if he is at home in his own skin, but this level of comfort comes at a steep price. Kristyn Dunnion is a sharply observant chronicler of the marginal urban experience. In these tightly written stories, nobody gets a break. Even her well-adjusted characters are stretched to the limit by challenging circumstances. What comes through loud and clear though is the author’s empathy for people whose lives are spinning out of control through no fault of their own.

I thought this was a very interesting cult fiction with dystopian elements thrown into it. The summary is quite apt: there is a cult with its leader living in an underground bunker waiting out the civil unrest happening above ground, but tensions are high and they are on the brink of starvation. It's the perfect setting for desperation to settle in and for something climactic to happen. I really liked that the story was told from multiple perspectives; it allowed us to understand the main characters better, while also showing us the situation they were in and how being a part of this cult had changed them. There are characters across all ages, each with their own unique experience and viewpoints. This is a gritty story that explores many different themes: the divide between blind faith and the ability to make one's own choice, the loss of innocence, the desperation to survive, and the meaning of happiness and freedom. I really enjoyed the story but I just wish it had been longer! A longer story would have given more tension, and would have made me feel more satisfied about the ending. Overall, a really good story that I wish had been longer so that I could have enjoyed it more! 3/5 star rating from me!

For more reviews, visit: www.veereading.wordpress.com

In The Dirt Chronicles, Kristyn Dunnion writes brilliant, moving stories about a diverse crowd: anarchist punks, dumpster-diving freegans, a First Nations lesbian teenager, queer brown kids in foster care, trans sex workers, middle-aged ostensibly straight men with intense homoerotic cross-cultural bonds, and tireless activists living in abandoned buildings. The subjects of Dunnion’s stories are the kinds of people you don’t usually come across even in queer literature, those outlaws who are on the fringes of sub-cultures. The Dirt Chronicles is a stunning collection of often sexy but also challenging literary stories...
See the rest of my review here: http://caseythecanadianlesbrarian.wordpress.com/2012/07/27/a-collection-at-once-...

Big Big Sky tells the story of a pod of five brainwashed teenage soldiers in the future. Part one is them figuring out that the aliens who pull their strings aren’t telling them the truth, and their breakout from the facility that imprisons them. Part two tells about the pod fighting the higher level soldiers sent to bring them back, dead or alive. And part three, well, I won’t spoil this part.

The beginning was okay, though somewhat of a drag. In the middle I was hyped! This was awesome! I’d finally gotten used to the language, the characters were fighting and interacting and I wanted to see what was going to happen. But at the end I just kept asking myself "what the hell?" and "what happened to this?"

I would so read a Kristyn Dunnion book if it were put out by Tor or Orbit or Night Shade or Prime. I’m sure it would be awesome! I have to believe a good editor would have worked with Dunnion to turn Big Big Sky into gold. Hell, maybe it wasn’t the editing that went wrong. Nalo Hopkinson is listed as the editor, and her writing is top notch. I don’t really know how the sausage was made. For something I loved in the middle and where I liked the ending itself, but not how it was presented, just feels like "could have been".

Full review at my blog: http://reading.kingrat.biz/reviews/big-big-sky-kristyn-dunnion

Excellent novel. Great insight into the "lesbian culture".

Book Description
Juliet meets her Juliets in this raw look at punk, young love and the sometimes cloudy road to adulthood. Mosh Pit, a compelling story of rebel girls in the modern city, stars Simone - torn between her loyalty to her rebellious heart - throb Cherry and her feelings for Carol, streetwise and distant enough to be alluring. This edgy young adult novel takes Simone through the modern equivalent of Hades where she gradually gains a sense of who she is and more importantly who she can be.

"Teens will devour it, parents will fear it and smart booksellers will stock it."
-- Canadianbookseller
"Dunnion assembles a memorable cast of dykes, she_males and wannabe rock stars with an authentic teen vibe."
-- Herizons

"Dunnion brings to light a punk sub_genre with an authenticity that can astound unaware readers in this affecting novel."
-- Calgary Herald

"Reminiscent of S. E. Hinton_s The Outsiders."
-- Montreal Mirror

http://www.amazon.com/Mosh-Pit-Kristyn-Dunnion/dp/0889952922