The new year resolution was to read more, so what better way to start than the first chapter of Dead Endings, a new series of supernatural themed fiction, written by Jessica Chavez and beautifully illustrated by Irene Flores.
You can check it out by subscribing through:
www.sparklermonthly.com
or read the first chapter at:
http://sparklermonthly.com/prose_chapter/dead-endings-chapter-1/
The setup is… well not quite as simple as you might think. The star of the show is Cailen a mid-something young lady (I can’t help feeling grown up and depressed Velma from Scooby Doo) who from the outset has a lot of difficulty in her life. This stems from the fact that she can see and experience the trauma of ghostly apparitions who have been left hanging around. Based on a near death experience, Cailen now has to deal with the attention of such spirits as she attempts to go about her daily existence.
The rules of the ghosts seem to be as follows:
- They are formed by an act of violence (which begs the question of why Cailen would live in a big city? Doing her degree by correspondence while living in an Amish village would seem like a smashing choice)
- There are three types of spirits, virtual recordings of an action, ghosts taking the piss dicking around with people (which are brushed aside in the story so far, but I’d love to learn more about their purpose!) and those that would interact directly with her.
- It is the third type that causes her problems. They seem to “want” something of her given the connection, but can’t communicate it to her directly. This causes them to do things like take control of her body or make her relive their terrifying experiences, often with chilling or mentally draining results.
As Cailen demonstrates when she readies her middle finger to flip one off, it doesn’t exactly make for a good life.
How this all comes together can be a little confusing over the course of the chapter. The information is revealed piece by piece as she goes about her regular activities, such as a diversion to get some noodles or reflecting while drinking a coffee. While we get there in the end, it does cause some initial confusion as she bounces between resentment at the lengths she has to go to to avoid the attention of the ghosts and her surprise about how they ultimately control her. While the rules of each confrontation may be quite fluid, this isn’t evident to date and makes you wonder why she is a lot better prepared and accepting of the second scene compared to the first (which is seemingly a lot more innocent).
Of course being episodic, all may be revealed in good time. The fact that I was found asking questions and caring about the answers is the best sign yet of a quality bit of work.
In general the writing is excellent, adopting an easy to read style that gets across a good understanding of the colourful characters and their relatable motivations. While Cailen and especially Everett (the young journalist) assume some prior knowledge of cynical city dwellers, anybody who has ever watched a TV show ever will feel right at home here.
She yanked it up into a messy bun and gave not a fuck.
The other main character Everett is introduced extremely well through a clever mechanic of phone messages and then a sudden pace-preserving appearance. He is important because he can smell dead people, forming an unusual pair between the cynical older women and the eighteen year old boy. It is here that the series begins to carve its own identity from other similar stories and leads them to eventually head off to investigate a murder together.
While the rapport between the pair is snappy and very well written, it isn’t quite clear yet why Cailen would choose to go along with it all given her earlier misgivings. I can only imagine her internal conflict over her abilities will form a central theme moving forward and this will be explored in detail at some point.
This setup all leads us to the climax of the episode as the unlikely pair enter room 3C to combine their abilities to learn about what went on. But what happens? You’ll need to read to find out, but you can be assured that it is riveting stuff.
So if you are a fan of ghost themed fiction or are just partial to the use of the word “exsanguination” (which lets face it, is never used quite enough), be sure to check out Dead Endings. While anything episodic is always as frustrating as hell to me (it is lose/lose generally, if it is good you need to wait!) but some things, like this, are really worth waiting for.
The Toddhunter Report 