Women in Horror Month: A Review of “How to Recognize A Demon Has Become Your Friend” by Linda Addison
How to Recognize A Demon Has Become Your Friend by Linda Addison
Linda Addison is the first African-American to receive the HWA’s Bram Stoker Award for her poetry collection, Consumed, Reduced to Beautiful Grey Ashes, and has received multiple awards since then. You can read more about her on her website.
Have you ever read a book and, once you finished, sat back in your seat, blinked for an indeterminate amount of time, and then mumbled, “...Huh,” before flipping back to the beginning to start it over?
That’s me with Linda Addison’s How to Recognize a Demon Has Become Your Friend. And rest assured, I do mean that in a complimentary way, albeit it a somewhat puzzled one. I’m not sure what I was expecting when I started this collection of poetry and prose, and I’m honestly not sure how I feel about it. I’ll need a second (and maybe a third) read-through before I think I can parse it all. There’s a chance that may be more of a testament to my headspace while reading than the writing, so we’ll see!
The writing itself is interesting, as it not only alternates between poetry and prose, but within both of those styles it shifts between layers and layers of winding metaphor and relatively short, almost clipped sentences and narrative structures. On top of that, the collection runs the gamut of speculative fiction. These varying elements all interacting means that each piece of writing feels like a jolt to the senses; just when you've gotten your bearings, a new story starts and you’re flipped back to zero to begin anew. Some of the prose pieces in particular often feel like excerpts from something much larger, but they still manage to grab your attention with both hands and leave you wanting to see the rest of that world.
In the end, whether you like this one or not, you definitely can’t say it isn’t interesting.
Personal favorites from the collection include “Mourning Meal,” “Alien Bathroom,” “The Box,” “Live and Let Live,” and “Unrequited.”
Rating: B-
Review by Kayla Martin-Gant
Twitter: @poultryofperil
Instagram: @kmartingant
I purchased this book via the Kindle store.