Creepy Irish ghost story...

Three dead women are found by the postman in a house at the end of a lane, in a small town just outside Dublin. One woman died from having her head bashed in, presumably by the shovel found upstairs, next to the emaciated bodies of her two nieces who had been imprisoned, fed rat poison, and slowly starved to death. Shortly after the grisly discovery, Niall, an aspiring graphic artist who works at the post office, finds an unclaimed package in the dead letter bin, mailed by Fiona Walsh (one of the dead girls) to "anyone at all" in the post office. It turns out to be Fiona's diary, and once Niall opens the book and begins to read, he is dragged into a world of fairy tales and evil. Fiona and her sisters grew up in a town in West Cork, and Niall goes there to follow the story.

How much of the tale is fanciful or exaggerated? How much is just a romantic telling of something very real and horrible? Fiona and her sister are dead -- and so is their Aunt Moira. They all had been involved with a traveling storyteller named Jim. And it is Jim's story that forms the spellbinding tale which leads to the final chapter of doom.

Read this one with the lights turned down low -- to get into the mood of horror and things-that-go-bump-in-the-night. Or keep all the lights on to their full brightness so you won't get too freaked out. I give this book 3 1/2 stars for spinning such an intriguing yarn.

Back in time -- to look forward?

I have always loved the short stories of Ray Bradbury. From Something Wicked This Way Comes to Martian Chronicles, his stories combine vivid descriptions of life-as-we-know-it with realistic portrayals of space exploration. And beneath those "flights of fancy" is a shared conviction between Bradbury and his readers that no matter where humans go or to what extent we advance our technologies, we will carry with us our human failings and faults. Which will bring about our downfall.

By telling the stories of individual characters, he communicates his opinions about issues of the day, such as racism and civil rights, technology, class systems, the importance of creativity and freedom, and the importance of the arts. In many of his stories, it is evident that he believes that science, big government, and "progress" are trying to quell creativity, fantasy, and fun.

But I like his books mostly because he doesn't make any grand pronouncements. His themes don't blast the reader too strongly. Instead, we get drawn into the lives of his characters. Like the astronauts flying through space in "Kaleidoscope" -- without the benefit of a rocket, after theirs has blown up and thrown them out into space. They are flying in different directions at hundreds of miles per hour - some destined to re-enter Earth's atmosphere in a trail of fire -- others to collide with meteors or to continue moving toward other planets. Their communications technology allows them to continue to talk to each other as they fly along, and in a few short sentences we have a clearly-painted image of their personalities and what they've gone through to get to this point. And what a title -- doesn't the word Kaleidoscope immediately conjure up an image of little dits and dots twirling against a background? To think of those random images in a black sea of space as being humans creates a quirky (humorous and yet horrific) mental image.

Another story, "Zero Hour," raises memories of the long days of childhood summers spent outside playing with friends. And the mother inside doing her chores or attending to the kids when they run in and out looking for something, getting a drink, or telling her about their games. They are playing 'invasion," which sounds very creative and imaginary -- but we soon come to realize that the kids are more in touch with reality than the adults. Martians really ARE planning to invade -- tonight. The kids are prepared to help them take over the Earth -- and that is unbelievable, horrible, and yet fits into every kid's childhood fantasy.

If you haven't yet tried out a Bradbury, stop by the library and check one out. We have 5 of his books.
I'm rating Illustrated Man 3 1/2 out of 4 stars.