The Ones Who Don't Say They Love You

Y'all know I'm obsessed with books set in the South, right?

Maurice Carlos Ruffin is a New Orleans Native, which means he's more than qualified to write a collection of short stories set there. Somehow, someway, Amazon suggested The Ones Who Don't Say They Love You and I jumped on the chance to read it. I grew up visiting my family there and have been desperately trying to find my way back.

Now, there were a few stories that I enjoyed more than others but I think that's just because I like longer stories. I've said it before, but when the story is longer the characters and storyline are just that much more complex.

Many of the stories in this collection are set in a Post-Katrina Louisiana. They deal with hardships families faced after the aftermath of the hurricane that rocked their world. Families were torn apart, memories were lost, homes were absolutely destroyed but they bounced back. It seems like most of the stories in this collection are about getting back on your feet, about rebuilding, about life after loss.

Another unique topic featured in these stories is the Pandemic. As of August 2021, we're all still recovering from a virus that has hit literally every part of the world. New Orleans thrives on in person gatherings like concerts and tours and Mardi Gras. During the Pandemic, no one could work. Parents couldn't send their kids to school and people all over the planet fell into hardships that they never expected. The story, "Ghetto University" details some of those hardships and in my opinion is one of the best stories in the entire book.

Night of the Mannequins

I'm honestly not sure how I feel about this book.

I actually was looking for new horror authors a few weeks ago and Stephen Graham Jones kept popping up. I decided I wanted to get his book, The Last Final Girl. The bookstore didn't have that one, but they did have Night of the Mannequins, so I figured I'd give this one a try.

It was weird.

This horror novella is 131 pages but honestly might have worked better as a full length novel. It definitely has the slasher feel to it, but working in the psychological aspect of the story line didn't really work given how short the story was. But it has a few promising traits.... like a unreliable, mentally ill narrator who happens to be killing all of his friends for the sake of their families.

In typical teenage, angst ridden fashion, Sawyer and his friends decide to prank their friend Shanna while she's working at one of the local movie theaters. They dust off their old friend, Manny (short for Mannequin), dress him up as a movie-goer, and let the staff freak out around them. Instead, Sawyer begins obsessing over their past summers with Manny, the antics of their friendship, the way they discarded Manny when they got "too old" to keep dragging him around.

Obviously, a teenager who is off his medication probably should have been stopped a lot sooner....but not for the sake of his novella. Honestly, I'll probably give Stephen Graham Jones another shot, but this wasn't a promising start for me.

Annie and the Wolves

I'll admit, I don't know much about Annie Oakley.

But a historical fiction book about her happened to catch my eye, so I grabbed a copy. That being said, I have no idea how much of her story was changed for this book, but the main character is a historian who has dedicated the last few years of her life to researching Annie Oakley. So I'm hoping it's fairly accurate.....

Annie of the Wolves in told through several different timelines by several different characters. The most important two are Annie Oakley and Ruth McClintock. Ruth is contacted by Nieman, a man looking into buying letters written by Annie Oakley but first wants to know the authenticity of them. He mails Ruth a journal that seems to be written by a psychoanalyst. The curious thing about this journal is when the doctor begins writing notes for patient ZN, an American woman who begins discussing her childhood; a childhood that sounds very similar to the one Annie Oakley wrote about in her unfinished memoir. In a moment of angst, Ruth tells the man not to bother buying the letters, they're obviously fake.

Days later, Ruth realizes she jumped the gun a bit and tries to research Annie's psychotherapy sessions a bit more before trying to get Nieman to purchase the letters. Along the way, Ruth is discovering new things about herself, her late sister, and even Annie. The parallels are uncanny when it comes to the violent events both Ruth and Annie survived. But that doesn't mean we should have been introduced to time travel more than halfway into the book.

Yeah, this happened.

I had heard a few things about it while reading reviews of the book but I thought, there's no way it can be that important for the book......but the entire second half of the book detailed Ruth trying to prove that time travel is possible and that she and Annie could both exist in multiple timelines. It was almost as if "what if" became fact and literally changed the course of history. The second half of the book still had a ton of information that I enjoyed reading, including the letters Nieman finally sent over to Ruth. But the time travel aspect of this book really was kind of frustrating.

Overall though, it's a pretty good book and I definitely will be reading more from this author.

Lying in Wait

I was fully unprepared to be reading a true crime story set in my home state, Alabama.

 

While there are six stories in this collection, the first three stories are probably the most intriguing ones. I think they just had more substance than the last three stories, which were roughly 10-20 pages a piece. So I've decided to focus this on the three in depth stories.

"Baby Seller"

This immediately grabbed my attention because it's set in Alabama and other Southern states. In the 1980's, several young women were killed and their newborn babies were kidnapped. Jackie Schut posed as a photographer for a newborn baby competition. She wandered around with her own children and husband, looking for babies who might make them a quick buck on the black market. Besides the obvious trouble of this scam, Schut actually killed a woman in front of her own child. This whole story was crazy from start to finish. They started in Alabama, worked their way over to Louisiana, Texas, and wound up in Washington before all this came tumbling down.

"Secrets of the Amorous Pizza Man"

This was your classic tale of husband kills wife and moves his mistress in. Al Baker and Kathie Hill met while working together in Antarctica. Both were well into their 50's but they were absolutely smitten with each other. Kathie had been burned in the past but knew the screening process for the company they both worked for, therefore she knew he couldn't be hiding anything devious or he wouldn't have been granted employment. Somehow, Al slipped through the cracks. Days after Kathie went missing from their Whidbey Island home, Al picked up their mutual friend Trudi from the airport. Police showed up a few days letter to perform a wellness check on Kathie. That's when they discovered Trudi believed Al and Kathie were divorced. She was told Kathie no longer lived in the house. Al had been feeding lies to Kathie, Trudi, and detectives. It wouldn't take long before Kathie was found and Al was trapped in his own web of lives.

"Road Trip to Murder"

This story was crazy from start to finish. DeeDee Pederson welcomed everyone into her home with open arms. When her husband's son came into town with his girlfriend she welcomed them in without asking any questions. It didn't matter that they were both recently released from prison. She was willing to create a relationship with them. How could she have known they were planning to kill her in her own home? After DeeDee was found, it was discovered that her husband, Red and his car were both missing. By the time they found video surveillance of the trio, Red would be dead and so would an innocent 20 year old boy.

Looking for other books by Ann Rule?

The Stranger Beside Me

Lust Killer

Without Pity

Carmilla

Let me tell you about Carmilla.

Months ago, I started looking for a book featuring a female vampire. Mainly because male vampires are just so overdone, and honestly are kind of creepy. So when I stumbled upon Carmilla in the horror section of my local bookstore, I snatched it up.

This book is a mere 139 pages with gorgeous illustrations throughout.

Carmilla is a young, beautiful girl who needs a place to stay after her carriage crashes outside Laura's home. Laura's father immediately takes in this poor girl without thinking of any of the nefarious things that could happen right under his nose. While the story is told through Laura's perspective, it's implied that the disease spreading all over town is the result of vampirism.....which happens to coincide with Carmilla's arrival.

Laura was desperate for companionship and found Carmilla to be charming, thus starting their mild love affair. When Laura begins showing signs similar to the illness running rampant through the town, her father calls for the doctor to come and check out both girls.

Chaos ensues soon after.

The only thing that I didn't love about this specific edition was the editor's explanations found within the footnotes. Some of the things Carmen Maria Machado interprets differ from my own interpretation. But regardless of what edition it is, the storyline itself is exactly what I was looking for.

What amazes me is that this story was originally published in 1871. It's also believed that Carmilla may have been the inspiration for Dracula.

Music for Chameleons

This definitely just became one of my favorite Truman Capote books.

 

Music for Chameleons is a collection of short stories, all of which feature Truman Capote himself. It honestly kind of felt like I was reading his journal and then consulting him for more details. It was downright amazing.

 

It features a slew of his acquaintances such as aristocrats from New Orleans, to Bobby Beausoleil of the Manson Family, to Marilyn Monroe, he even includes an interview with himself. I found myself drawn to the way he told these stories. Capote wrote these stories as conversations with his friends. There were several stories that I was actually upset to see end. "Handcarved Coffins" was one of my favorites because it had a true crime narrative. "Dazzle" was another one that I quickly added to my favorite stories. It was an early confession as to who Truman Capote would become. "Then It All Came Down" was another true crime story that surprised me by Capote interviewing a member of the Manson Family on Death Row. I thoroughly enjoyed "A Beautiful Child" which shows his friendship with Marilyn Monroe and really paints a picture of who she was through his eyes. It was honestly my favorite story in this book.

 

If you've never read Truman Capote this book might be a good place to start.

 

Looking for other books by Truman Capote?

In Cold Blood

Other Voices, Other Rooms

The Grass Harp

Breakfast at Tiffany's

The Complete Stories of Truman Capote

Answered Prayers

 

Looking for other book about Truman Capote?

 Tru & Nelle

Tru & Nelle: A Christmas Tale

No Saints in Kansas