Necrologue

Helen Sandler, ed.

Completed 8/31/2020, Reviewed 8/31/2020

3 stars

With this book, I’ve completed my quest of reading all the Lambda Literary Award winners for Science Fiction/Fantasy/Horror to present, except for the first two which were mysteries, when that genre was included in the mix.  Subtitled “The Diva Book of the Dead and Undead”, this anthology of short lesbian horror fiction was an uneven mix.  Some of the stories were tremendous, others felt pretentious.  Some were gripping, others tedious.  Some were well written, others not so much.  In general, the stories got better as the book progressed.  There was a progression to the stories which the editor notes in the introduction.  It begins with women thinking about lost or dead people, then moves onto stories about actual death and dead people, and culminates in stories about ghosts.  This book won the Lammy in 2004. 

The following is a list of stories which I found particularly moving, frightening, and/or very well written.  Rated individually, I’d give these stories four or five stars.

The Glowing by Elizabeth Woodcraft.  A story about a woman dying of cancer.  She asks one of her caretaker friends to gently make love to her, as it will be the last time she will ever be able to.  It was a sweet story, very gentle.

What She Left Behind by Cara Bruce.  A woman has an extensive collection of snuff films.  She also worked in the business.  When she was younger, a woman volunteered for a snuff film, asking her to make sure her daughter gets the resulting very large paycheck.  Years later, the dead woman’s daughter comes back asking to watch the film.  A very disturbing story but extremely well written.

Daddy’s Girls by Ellen Galford.  Two daughters of lesbian families bicker at school, which becomes an excuse for the families to meet.  A lively discussion follows where the narrator’s mothers reveal that the father may have been the ghost of a famous historical man.  A silly but sweet story.

Owl-blasted by Julie Travis.  A gay man and his woman friend get lost in the side streets of London and come upon an old pub.  He convinces her to go in.  There they come upon a talking infant and a man who beats a woman for talking to them.  The man threatens the gay man.  They leave, but then the gay man disappears and his friend goes looking for him, only to find the supernatural truth of the pub and its denizens.

Your Ghost by Kim Watson.  A woman whose partner recently left her meets a ghost in her new house, a lesbian whose partner was killed during the WWII raids of London.

The Passing Guest by VG Lee.  A woman goes into a church, hears noises in a locked room, rushes out, tells her partner who is not emotionally abusive, but not kind.  They go back, the sextant lets them in, and they find nothing.  She goes back alone and of course sees them again.

Touch Pain by Cecilia Tan.  A woman named Mary sees ghosts associated with painful situations.  She starts dating a woman named Lizette who has night terrors.    When Mary figures out her gift, she comes to understand the horrible memories that plague Lizette, and figures out what she must do.  This was by far the most moving piece in the whole book.  I had to pause for a while and shake this one off.  Well written and profound.

Deep Night by Teana D Johnson.  Marie, a black woman and her daughter Evangeline have vivid dreams of the suffering of black women from the past.  The grandmother, Mama Luella, tries to explain this to Evangeline but Marie wants nothing to do with this supernatural stuff.  Marie tries to block it from herself and her daughter to a tragic end. 

I give this book three stars out of five.  If the first quarter or so of the stories were cut, this would have been a four-star book.  But those six or seven stories put quite the damper on the book as whole.  It was such a relief to get to the really good ones.