Book of the Week (10/2/2023)

The Japanese Box and Other Stories by Jennifer Ann Gordon (Bowker, 2023)

NH author Jennifer Ann Gordon's newest release is a collection of short stories contemplating horror, grief, and trauma.

Short stories featured in the collection are:

Simulacrum is a dark comedic tale about college life, and love. It is the story of what happens when two sociopaths attend art exhibits, drink lemon vodka, and spar over everything and anything. Periods. Coloring books. Art. This is the story of our unnamed narrator…an origin story of a would-be, hopes to be, serial killer.

The Japanese Box is a story that blends memoir, creative nonfiction, and the horror of a coming-of-age story, and a coming of middle-aged story. Imagine growing up with a reflection that is often absent, and a Japanese box that is filled with things that should never have been there. Memories. Violence. The Japanese Box is a love letter to anxiety, trauma, grief, and longing. It is a story of a child becoming an adult, and all the ghosts and misfortunes that happen in order to survive.

The Lithium Moon: Simone is an artist by day, and an emotionally abused wife at night. She is a successful artist with a long history of schizoid effective disorder with bipolar tendencies. When her marriage goes from good to bad, she suffers her first miscarriage. The tragedy coincides with a wolf moon—Trauma and magic converge seem to converge in Simone’s head. This story explores sadness, illness, hallucinations, full moons, and the creative process.

What Stage of Grief is not a poem, or a song, but a dirge. Fantasy and facts, this poem walks a fine line between nightmares and memories. Grief stories and love stories. Dogs, and drama. Nightmares, and nevermore. -- Publisher's blurb

Join Jennifer Ann Gordon on Thursday, October 26th, 2023 at 6:30 pm at Gibson's Bookstore where she will be joining other New England horror authors on a Queer Horror Panel!