I am a huge Neil Gaiman fan and was happily surprised when I saw he had a new book out. I was going to put it on my wish list in Audible, when my fiancée told me not to. Then she gave me my Valentine’s Day present a little early. Not hard to guess it was the hardback of Trigger Warning.
This is a book of short stories, with a few poems added in. As he is noted for, Gaiman’s stories are all more than a bit unearthly. He has a way of subtly raising the hair on the back of my neck, all unnoticed. Unnoticed, that is, until the story’s climax.
Included in the collection are a Doctor Who story, a story about Shadow (main character of Ameican Gods—a must read), a rather different take on Sherlock Holmes, and the award winning “Truth Is a Cave in the Black Mountains…”
The title comes from the Internet. Often a post is prefaced by the words “trigger warning” as a way to let readers know it contains disturbing material that could trigger “flashbacks of anxiety or terror.” The power of words to sculpt and shape our emotions and our emotional responses is always amazing to me. In the hands of a master like Gaiman, that power is multiplied.
If you are a Gaiman fan, I don’t need to tell you to get the book. If you haven’t read his work yet, this is a good an introduction as any. I don’t think I’ll put it in the classroom library, I think some of what is in here is a bit too much for most seventh graders. I will definitely keep it as a proud part of my collection of Gaiman’s works.
No comments:
Post a Comment