The plan is to reread all of Brian Keene’s available works in roughly the order that they were published. I’m doing it because I’m an author in need of improvement and a reader who enjoys a storyteller willing to bleed out on the page in a powerful and interesting way. I’m a fan of Keene’s work. I think there is something to be learned through this process.

You can also go back to the Introductory Post: A Gathering of Books to read more about the how and the why of this or any of my other posts up through this one and beyond by checking out the Master List of all my #BrianKeeneRevisited posts.

Shades was cowritten by Brian Keene and Geoff Cooper. It combines elements of both their mythologies including the town from Cooper’s stories and small hints of the Labyrinth from Keene’s universe. I believe the side mention of a group call the “Kwan” must be from Cooper’s universe.

The book was dedicated to Norman Partridge with additional acknowledgements from both authors. I’m reading the Poltergeist Press version of this book. The back of the book has advertisements for books and authors no longer working together due to one of many blow-ups in the horror industry that come along from time to time.

Keene has always spoken highly of Cooper, giving the impression that he believed Cooper to be a far better author than many people realize. I know him/ know of him, but not a great deal. I seem to recall a discussion at some point at some convention that Cooper had stopped writing for a period of time, maybe due to some disillusionment with the writing industry as it was. I didn’t hear this directly from him and my memory is far from reliable. Feel free to correct me in the comments. I could use the engagement.

This has a different voice from Keene’s solo work. Any great collaboration should. I almost believe that I might be able to identify which sections were written by which author. Reading all of Keene’s work in order up to this one probably has something to do with that, like learning the style of a musician or painter.

Keene is fascinated with feeding seagulls Alka Seltzer. I believe this is the third book it has come up in.

Setting the book in the 1980s, we have Ronald Reagan and the clapper. Bruce Springsteen is touring Born in the USA, and we have the Paperboy video game in the arcade among other things.

Don’t you hate when you’re skipping school to gather crabs to help pay for a dirt bike and you run across a dead body that sets off a war between the two magic users in town? What’s a boy to do? Danny trying to help his mom and finding out the real reason he wanted to earn up and get the dirt bike was some very strong character work, the best in the book.

There are a number of parallels between the characters and the story to Ghoul. It wasn’t a copy or derivative of that story by any means, but “rhymed” so to speak. We have a mention of a killer dog feared by the child characters. This dog in Shades plays a smaller role in the story. The team of kids is a little less cohesive in this one, which serves the story fine. The other friends play a smaller role as well. This also works for the story. We have a similar flawed mother archetype in this story although there is more redemption in this story. If you like Shades, you’ll likely love Ghoul. If you loved Ghoul, you’ll probably like Shades too.

“Michael Bedrik cast no shadow.” Great introduction to the character and the stakes in this section. It is well written here, but maybe a little self-indulgent. The narrative within sections takes its time. The descriptive prose gets luxuriant and even a little purple, but well-written just the same. At the same time, the plot itself moves fast. Each action rolls very quickly into the next beat of the story with no filler chapters. The apprenticeship moves fast, but the explanation for that closer to the end of the book makes it make sense.

Shadows as monsters is well-done. The story holds together nicely on this with all the implications of this choice of monster.

“The girl in the basement.” This is a great drop-in line in the midst of one of those luxuriant sections of description to catch the reader off guard, and yet, all the elements of this twist were just given to us the moment before. Great writing.

Magic is a tool like a gun. Magic has teeth. As far as urban fantasy tropes go, I believe these authors did a fine job of placing a price on the use of magic. It made the ending stronger even though the final confrontation and the overall ending ran a little hot and cold for me. I can’t really imagine a Keene or Cooper reader not enjoying this story and its pace though.

My next post in this series will be Jack’s Magic Beans #BrianKeeneRevisited which can be found on the Master List of all my #BrianKeeneRevisited posts. Note: The photo of Brian Keene used in the banner image of these blog posts was taken by John Urbancik and used by permission of both Keene and Urbancik.

Jay Wilburn

Jay Wilburn has a Masters Degree in Education that goes mostly unused since he quit teaching to write about zombies. Jay writes horror because he tends to find the light by facing down the darkness. His is doing well following a life saving kidney transplant. Jay is the author of Maidens of Zombie Kingdom a young adult fantasy trilogy, Lake Scatter Wood Tales adventure books for elementary and middle school readers, Vampire Christ a trilogy of political and religious satire, and The Dead Song Legend. He cowrote The Enemy Held Near, Yard Full of Bones, and The Hidden Truth with Armand Rosamilia. You can also find Jay's work in Best Horror of the Year volume 5. He is a staff writer with Dark Moon Digest, LitReactor, and the Still Water Bay series with Crystal Lake Publishing.

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