Review: Pride of Baghdad – Brian K Vaughan

I need a minute to catch my breath after that one.

Written in 2006, Pride of Baghdad was written during the height of Vaughan’s two successful series Y the last man and Ex Machina. Vaughan is no stranger to politically charged, controversial story lines, bringing LGBT characters into the spotlight, as well as attacking the issues of gay marriage and marijuana, racism, and islamiphobia. 

Pride looks at the Iraq war through the lenses of four lions living in the Baghdad zoo.  At the beginning of the story they are discussing escape with the other zoo animals. Serious tension exists between the lions due to their past experiences before the zoo, including a violent rape between the alpha lion and an older lioness. 

The bombing of the city destroyed the zoo walls, freeing all of the animals. Not all of the animals survive, notably a giraffe, who, chanting to the other animals about their deliverance, takes a missile through its neck in a particularly gruesome scene. 

As the lions make their way through the city, the come across a turtle in the Tigris river and it tells them this is not the first time such an event has struck the city, alluding to his own childhood when he lost his family to the first gulf war in a particularly traumatic panel showing the family of turtles drowning in oily river. 

Further travel through the city leads them to the palace, where they encounter a lion chained to a wall, dying of starvation and exposure. A bear, also palace entertainment attacks the lions, gouging out the other eye of the older lioness.  The alpha lion and the cub succeeded in killing the bear, with the help of a stampeding pack of horses, and make their way to the roof to view the sunset. The alpha lion is nearly how dead from the fight, and is finished off by a group of American soldiers who kill the group with assault rifles.  The final pages show that the story was based on a true story.

The power of the story and the images shown struck me like a slap in the face. The lions symbolize the innocent lives that were swept away in the bombing, and the careless nature and destructiveness of war.  Pride of Baghdad Is to the Iraq war what Grave of the Fireflies was for world war two: a reminder of grim war is.

Rating: 9/10

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Book Review: Cruel Devices – George Wright Padgett

Just finished up Cruel Devices, and I really enjoyed it. I meant to get into this one earlier, I received a copy through the publisher’s ARC program but December was so crazy that had to wait until now to get into this one. (See my post later on December’s readings) I only recently got into Horror through Stephen King’s The Shining, and you can see a lot of the same themes in this, the struggling author trying to identify himself and meeting scary and strange situations along the way made for a fast paced but engaging read.

Cruel Devices – George Wright Padgett  : 7/10

Available Direct from Grey Gecko: http://store.greygeckopress.com/products/cruel-devices

Review: Blood Gravity – Gayle Towell

Trigger warning: this review is of a book containing graphic depictions of rape, incest, self harm, and suicide.

A little while back I read the collection Burnt Tongues, and enjoyed it so much that I emailed a few of my favorite authors and offered to review any future work. The first author to graciously send me a copy of their next project was Gayle Towell.  Gayle’s new piece, Blood Gravity, Is the first installment in an ongoing series focusing on two brothers subjected to abuse by their father.

The story clocks in around a hundred pages, and focuses on the first born, Jake Smith. Jake is 20, a successful college student living with a heavy burden, he has been sexually abused by his father for the last 10 years.  Jake visits home often, mostly to watch out for his younger brother Ben.  Ben is 5 years old and suffers from chronic bedwetting and thumb sucking. Jake worries this might be an early sign of abuse.

Throughout the story we find Jake struggling with extreme anxiety and self harm as copingmchanisms to deal with his father’s abuse. Late in the story Jake visits home and goes camping with his father and brother, during the camping trip his father rapes him, telling him it’s alright, and that it can’t be wrong if he enjoys it.

After the camping trip, Jake spirals into increasing depression, his roommate discovers his self harm and attempts to connect Jake to help, but he is too afraid. Jake  runs away and considers suicide, but eventually talks himself down from a literal cliff. Through a chance turn of events he drops out of school and begins working as a shop assistant and gets his own apartment, much to his father’s disapproval. The story ends with Jake kidnapping his brother to bring him to safety.

This story is important for many reasons. It tackles the problem of abuse in boys as well as in girls. It also discusses the dangers of self harm as a way of dealing with abuse.

I greatly look forward to the continuation of Gayle’s work, and will certainly keep reviewing further releases.

Blood Gravity : 8.5/10
Availbile from the authors website
http://gayletowell.com/scars/bloodgravity/