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.
Tequila’s Sunrise as a novella and a brief collection is a forgotten little treasure Brian Keene fans will enjoy if they haven’t picked this one up before.
Several familiar names receive their thanks. Dave Thomas was the original name mentioned in the dedication. He is missed as his loss was recent as of the time I’m writing this. Keene just posted in his newsletter that he’s about the business of cataloging books for Dave’s estate. He’s also working on some releases for J.F. Gonzalez’s estate. Keene finds himself often serving the memory and legacy of his friends these days even as he continues working into his own legacy.
There are seven bonus stories that follow the titular novella. These largely came from his other out-of-print short story collections. I was glad to catch these. They were all fun.
Tequila’s Sunrise
Opens in a fairytale style. Maybe more of a fable. Again, as with all of Keene’s works, the setting is presented rich, complete, detailed, and immersive. It’s as clearly described as if he lived among the ancient Aztecs before moving to Pennsylvania just in time for the 1980s. Both worlds’ settings are described in equally clear and sensory terms.
The mythology of Behemoth, the 13, and the Labyrinth are here. Unlike previous mentions, we get to take step through the door and see what worlds are connected inside. We get one corridor of the Labyrinth and several doors in this story. The doors open on Keene’s worlds and we get a little bit of a whirlwind tour as our young hero seeks to change the course of history for his people on the level he calls home. We learn that these supernatural beings and entities we are constantly seeing pop up in Keene’s tales are not truly gods or demons, but something else left over from the universe before this one.
There are interesting implications of all the gods being one with many names in different pantheons. And maybe grunge music was more significant to the universe than any of us might have originally thought.
Keene weaves us an interesting fable where changing history is tough business even with the gods on your side.
Burying Betsy
A twisted little opening paragraph that unfolds in a sordid tale that is far darker in its reveals than the supernatural bent it seems to starting out on. It’s so much darker and worse than it first appears.
Dust
This is Keene’s September Eleventh story. I’ve written stories that touch on the pandemic, but I never attempted a 911 story myself. I suppose I wasn’t writing back then. Stephen King wrote one too. I think Keene’s 911 story is arguably better.
Fade to Null
I find this fever dream of a story quite disturbing. Well-written but unnerving as I struggle with similar issues addressed in this tale. It is a great example of surreal storytelling done well.
Bunnies in August
This may be the strongest story in the whole collection, the wonderful title story included. It touches on one of my greatest fears and in Brian Keene fashion, it twists it even darker before the end. I’ve only attempted a story that touches on this fear once and it was difficult for me. Keene never stops going for the darkest reaches of his own imagination and pain.
I had a similar but less traumatic experience while mowing. Mine involved a frog. Keene and I joked about parallel lives with certain things we have gone through. I suppose that must extend a bit to our imaginations. He was harder on his body than I was on mine as I avoided most vices. I wouldn’t be here if I’d done a fraction of what Keene did in his life. Even living healthy, I’ve barely made it. I’m no Brian Keene.
Fucking LeHorn’s Hollow again. Nothing good ever comes out of that place and no good comes from visiting it. We return to the infamous setting of Dark Hollow for one drop off in the tale.
Keene went dark on this one. I suppose at this point it would save time if I just told you the ones he didn’t go dark on.
That Which Lingers
A pretty cool ghost story exploring some controversial territory. A quick punch in the belly like most of his flash fiction pieces. The shorter a Keene story the more you should have your guard up, I think.
Two-headed Alien Love Child
Keene has some fun in this one. It fits its tabloid-like title. It’s a funny story with a farcical premise.
Golden Boy
Great opening line and great closing line. Keene did well with connected those two with the story between.
All these stories have insightful and informative author notes at the ends that are worth checking out.
My next post in this series will be Dead Sea #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.
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I first read a lot of these stories in his now out of print collections Unhappy Endings and Fear of Gravity back in 2009. I was still in the infancy of my Brian Keene fandom back then and these stories were a nice little fix for me. Tequila Sunrise was a nice little surprise of a voyage into his Labyrinth mythos and was FULL of juicy stuff that I was desperately wanting to know about. Some of the mysteries of the Labyrinth were finally revealed. I even remember asking him at a convention in 2009 when we would see The Seven and he didn’t know yet but I had no clue I’d have to wait over a decade for it to finally be released.
Dust and Bunnies in August are also two of my very favorites in this collection. And I love how with Golden Boy he had the first line and the last line in his head before he fleshed the rest of it out. That’s why I love reading the story notes in these collections. I’m a big fan of seeing where the seed of the idea came from.
Aside from the big zombie books, I was very late coming to his other work. I really love his short fiction, especially some of the later stuff. I enjoy what he shares on Patreon too for that reason. I’m excited to fill in all these gaps in my reading now.
You’re in for a lot of great short fiction!