Chock full of beautiful, at times frightening and enchanting, and always iconoclastic tales, featuring heavy-hitting genre authors at the top of their games….
Being a Gen-Xer, I could not help but be excited about the book 120 Murders: Dark Fiction Inspired by the Alternative Era, edited by Nick Mamatas, which is a loosely- themed dark fiction anthology based on alternative music and culture of the 1980s and 1990s. This type of music and culture includes punk, grunge, new wave, and other alternative styles. Within its pages contains nightmarish revelatory visions that may be of particular interest to anyone that grew up with the music and culture of Generation X. Throw away the treacle pop-music and get ready for a meaty, bloody, brooding delight of epic proportions in 120 Murders.
From Libby Cudmore’s curious and gritty “Tornado Mother” to William Boyle doing his Brooklyn kitchen-sink crime realist thing in “Just Like Fire Would,” every story contributes something uniquely, distinctly, and nostalgically sinister or macabre inspired by this era. Boyle’s story weaves a tale of the streets involving a volatile exchange between a tough Brooklyn bartender and her unpredictable and violent brother-in-law in an early drunken morning. Not a word is wasted in this brief, but riveting contribution to the genre. Cudmore’s tale begins subtly and then turns transgressive as the protagonist finds out disturbing knowledge of his treacherous “tornado mother” who tries to bury disturbing revelations of abuse and murder including the disappearance of his twin sister. This is set to the impending doom of a tornado forming in the distance.
The genres in this book transcend geography, race, gender, culture, and ethnicity as a diverse set of crackerjack authors deliver a walloping punch of noir, horror, magic realism, and pulp. New and established authors emerge to create a dark, twisted, hallucinatory, and often horrific book coinciding with the music of Garbage or Soundgarden or The Smiths or Iggy Pop or Rancid or myriad variations of “alternative” culture as we know it.
Ultimately a mash-up of diverse themes and styles, with the bonus of author notes at the end of each story….
120 Murders is ultimately a mash-up of diverse themes and styles. For example, Sylvia Moreno-Garcia’s “Superstition” inspired by Garbage’s “I Think I Am Paranoid” treads into magical realism as the protagonist provides a disposal service for mystical items, while Maxim Jakubowski opts for the grim territory of a sympathetic hitman with a conscience in the tragic “Love Will Tear Me Apart” with the title referring to the Joy Division song.
What is also incredibly cool about this collection is the addition of author notes at the end of each story explaining the origin and song(s) or playlists that inspired these “visions.” I have become familiar with many of the authors in this book over the years, and some I have even interviewed. It was a great privilege to see this themed anthology work so cleverly.
Meg Gardiner’s “All My Life” is a crisply moving tale told in first-person narrative about a widow, mourning the loss of her husband. Already on edge, she vengefully busts up a texting scam network. The story is imbued with a sense of dread and concludes with venom without much blood or violence. A Hitchcockian yarn with 1990s sensibilities, Gardiner credits Foo Fighters as inspiration for this piece.
Chris Terry riffs on a wide range of influences as explained in the author’s note, including the punk-band, Rancid, and with this comes the punk-infused chaos of “House Meeting.” It is a bone-shattering story of a group of punks cohabitating in an apartment. The protagonist is a ticking-timebomb (literally) and we find out about her cohorts via her vitriolic narration throughout the piece.
Paul Tremblay’s piece “Do It”, is a standout for me, and the one work that sums up the spirit of the anthology in my opinion. The story is full of Gen-X allusions that anyone from the era can relate to and establishes a cool, teen anti-hero, Kelly G. who embodies alternative culture of the 1990s. Kelly G. works at a pizza store, and she is just waiting to be confronted by the town bad ass. Eventually, for the unfortunate thief, Kelly G. in state of reality and fantasy, unleashes a cool fury on him. Tremblay interweaves various commentaries on what Gen-X means and what is does not, seemingly existing in Kelly’s head. Tremblay comments in these sections on the Beat Generation, the Lost Generation, and the Hippie generation. It is a fun read but also has a razor-sharp element of suspense in an abrupt ending.
Also, worthy of note is Veronica Schanoes’ “Wendy, Growing Up,” which is a dark fantasia-like departure from the usual coming of age story. “Growing up is survival and survival is growing up,” explains Schanoes in the story of Della, a neglected girl who dreams of escaping her own private trap. The abstraction of the story brings a unique style to the collection. Schanoe’s comments on the disdain of Kurt Cobain’s former wife, Courtney Love in her note. Michael Marano’s Boston-set “Land of Glass Pinecones,” offers a rich, dark blend of genres-a chiaroscuro of sorts that fits well here.
Overall, this outstanding collection has something for everyone whose tastes run to the dark side of fiction. The book is chock full of beautiful, at times frightening and enchanting, and always iconoclastic tales, and features heavy-hitting genre authors at the top of their games. Make no mistake, 120 Murders is like a cookie full of arsenic…the visions are bitter, tasty, and lethal…take a bite.
William Blick is a literary/crime fiction and film critic; a librarian; and an academic scholar. He has published work in Senses of Cinema, Film Threat, Cinema Retro, Cineaction, and is a frequent contributor to Film International. He is contributing editor to Retreats from Oblivion: The Journal of Noircon. He is also an Associate Professor/Librarian for Queensborough Community College of CUNY.
Retreats from Oblivion: The Journal of NoirCon 