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Blu Gilliand

The Reach of Children

by Blu Gilliand on February 5, 2009 · 2 comments

True fear is the kind you can’t escape in the daytime. It’s easy to dismiss the boogeyman hiding under the bed or the shapeless thing crouching in the closet in broad daylight. But true fear — such as the fear of losing someone you love — never quite goes away. This is the fear that Tim Lebbon examines in his poignant, powerful novella THE REACH OF CHILDREN.

REACH concerns Daniel, a thoughtful 10-year-old boy who essentially loses both parents on the same day. He loses his mother to death; his father, wrapped up in grief, descends into the madness of depression and alcohol, leaving the young boy to fend largely for himself. His father’s longtime friend Gary fills in where he can, but in the days after his mother’s death, Daniel is largely adrift, trying to somehow make sense of his enormous loss.

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All You Despise

by Blu Gilliand on January 14, 2009 · 1 comment

Family ties can bind exceedingly tight. Sometimes, they bind you to someone that’s only going to drag you down. Just ask the narrator of ALL YOU DESPISE, Tom Piccirilli’s new novella from Shroud Publishing.

Danny shows up at his older brother’s place one night, incoherently drunk. While this is not an unusual state, the condition of Danny’s Mustang — a family heirloom that has traveled a circuitous route from their father to the older brother (our narrator) and finally to Danny – is most unusual. For one thing, there’s the enormous dent in the hood. For another, there’s the blood dripping from the grill. Danny’s brother takes it all in and begins doing what he always does: cleaning up his brother’s mess. Doing so comes naturally; after all, “Take care of your brother” was one of the last things their father said to him.

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