Joey Madia, New Mystics Reviews

  (Naples, FL: Speaking Volumes, 2016). ISBN: 979-8-89022-307-4 It was at the West Virginia Writers Conference in 2012 that I first met Western writer R.G. Yoho. We’ve stayed in contact ever since, as he’s steadily gathered awards for his ten classic Westerns, including this one, written for young audiences. Not only am I a lifelong fan of Westerns on the screen and page; I love and write in numerous genres, which are a special type of literature where the tropes are not only expected—they are the criteria by which the reader judges the writer’s specific contributions. While I was reading Destined to Ride Alone , I was also reading the seventeenth book in Louis L’Amour’s Sackett saga and Comanche Moon , the second book in Larry McMurtry’s Gus and Call tetralogy. Although they are each writing for different audiences, Yoho, L’Amour, and McMurtry are all masters of the Western trope. Destined to Ride Alone (the title itself is the trope of all Western tropes) takes as its cent...

   (Stories I Found in the Closet, 2022). ISBN: 979-8-5424346-7-4 About a month ago, I had the opportunity to review Book One of this series, Psycho Hose Beast from Outer Space , which I am hoping will be at least a trilogy. In that review (of a book I thoroughly enjoyed), I talked about the classic roots of the series—Stephen King’s Stand by Me , ET , Goonies , and Stranger Things —and the great appeal to the American psyche of middle and high school kids coming together to beat the Big Bad in an inspiring Coming of Age adventure. It’s right up there with the mystique of the Hollywood Western. Revenge of the Space Surfing Butt Monkeys (as I said about the first book, don’t let the title throw you—there is plenty of substance here) lives up to the myriad pressures that a second book in a series must manage. Similar to the follow-up to a Triple Platinum debut (music is a core part of this series, from chapter subtitles being songs of the era to the characters’ teenage obs...

  “School-Age Heroes”: A Review of Psycho Hose Beast from Outer Space (Gale Harbour Book One) by C.D. Gallant-King (Stories I Found in the Closet, 2020). ISBN: 979-8-6476872-3-4 I am going to be up front at the start: I grew up in the eighties and it is my position that there was no cooler time to be a teenager. Not for movies, music, clothes, and just plain being a kid. We didn’t have the Internet or cell phones, and video games were still confined mostly to arcades—which we had aplenty at the Jersey Shore—and life was just simpler and more pure. I still remember hanging out with friends and listening to new cassette releases like Def Leppard’s Pyromania and being completely blown away by the lyrics and guitars.   Although Psycho Hose Beast from Outer Space takes places in the early nineties, there were plenty of culturally cool things still going on. For instance, each chapter takes as its title that of a popular song from that time. Some of the songs are obvious in th...

 (www.malvevonhassell.com, 2020). ISBN: 978-1-73710-110-9 With a classic beginning—"Once upon a time, there was a young turtle called Oliver”—this book for young listeners and readers is a journey of discovery and self-confidence written with a subtle energy that sets it squarely in the realm of the Coming of Age story. Illustrated by Marie Amelie Marquaire in soft pastels that perfectly complement the tone of the text, Turtle Crossing tells a tale of changes, challenges, and triumphs as our hero, Oliver, navigates his life with his mother and father. Inquisitive and adventurous, Oliver is happy to learn what his parents, Ma and Pa Turtle, have to teach him, while finding simple pleasures in activities like his daily search for strawberries. As many children face—often numerous times—Ma and Pa one day decide that what is best for the family is for them to move. As any of us are when faced with the uncertainty of change, Oliver is upset, despite his parents’ best efforts to ca...