#storyeachnight Let’s Play White by Chesya Burke
Let’s Play White by Chesya Burke is an excellent collection of nameless myths, darkness and hope. Burke tugs readers through shadowy places where hope still tries to linger, even if the people have given up. She also takes us to places where light is strong and vibrant, but people can’t accept it. A wonderful collection, highly recommended, my favorites are the urban voodoo-themed ″Chocolate Park″ and the powerful rural fantasy novella ″The Teachings and Redemption of Ms. Fannie Lou Mason″.
Jan 12- ″Walter and the Three-Legged King″ by Chesya Burke (Let’s Play White, Apex Book Company). Something of a gritty-urban magical realism tale (like Gene O’Neill’s Taste of Tenderloin) with a down and out man fighting depression, both economic and emotional, I can totally relate to this tale. Can’t say it was enjoyable, but it was definitely truthful.
Jan 13- ″Purse″ by Chesya Burke (Let’s Play White, Apex Book Company) is a truly vicious tale. Burke unsheathes her claws in this collection right about here.
Jan 14- ″I Make People Do Bad Things″ by Chesya Burke (Let’s Play White, Apex Book Company). I LOVED this story. While it almost hits the point of telling more than showing, there’s a good reason for it embedded in the story’s soul (which is brilliant).
Jan 15- ″The Unremembered″ There is so much going on in this story. The focus character is autistic, but due to being spiritually cut off from her people’s memory. It’s such an apt, interesting metaphor for autism, and Burke nails the bits that a lot of people don’t know, like the feel of ones body being outside of ones control, and being given so much information at once that your mind can’t cope. It’s a very good, very strong connection to make. The tossing in of a touch of religion changes the story, a bit before I was ready as a reader, but I can’t fault the ending being not what I expected because as the parent of an autistic child I was so intensely immersed in the story I think I needed it to veer elsewhere to not end up sitting here crying.
Jan 16- ″Chocolate Park″ I really enjoyed this longer story of how a group of occupants of a housing project each deal with overwhelming depression and poverty. Not exactly uplifting, but definitely engaging.
Jan 17- ″What She Saw When They Flew Away″ is one of the more uplifting stories of the collection, ironically about a mother helping her daughter cope with the loss of her twin.
Jan 18- ″He Who Takes the Pain Away″ pretends to be a religious story, and maybe it is. It’s also a chilling, exposed look at the traditions and habits of people that harm more than help.
Jan 25- ″Cue: Change″ This is more a Borg story than a zombie story. In fact it’s the least gory, and possibly the least horrific zombie story I’ve read. Instead Burke makes a completely different kind of statement.
Feb 6- ″The Room Where Ben Disappeared″ is a surreal, haunted house tale that might be uncomfortably creepy (even for dark fiction tales) but isn’t quite as dark as it seems. An interesting juxtaposition.
″The Light of Cree″ is an absolutely beautiful tale with a core of religion, but it manages to be soulful and not religious. If the rest of the stories here are about struggling this one is about the promise of redemption.
″The Teachings and Redemption of Ms. Fannie Lou Mason″ is my favorite of the collection (not surprising). It’s a novella length story of a proper witch (think of Terry Pratchett’s translation, Granny Weatherwax) determined to help people even when they’re hateful, ignorant people. She’s come to a town to try to help twins who also have the gift, who need to be trained before their power draws dangerous things to them. Even if I hadn’t enjoyed the rest of the collection this addition would have been courtship enough to make me a Burke fan.