Reviewette: Unearthed Anthology: Illusion by Edmond Cheng

Publisher: Midnight Showcase
Pages: 92-171

From the cover: A haunting, a vision, a nasty headache, and a murder…
What’s next? Illusion will distort and re-shape your view.

Author’s Bio
Edmond Cheng, nationality: Chinese currently living in Hong Kong, he
is interested in writing mystery. Illusion is his first story.
Apart from writing, he teaches English as a full time job.

Thomas and Karen are happily married or so he thinks. But could it all be an illusion? When Aunt Wai Ha comes to visit, he becomes disturbed by her allegations. Jonathon and Helen, his best friends, are also concerned, but then again, is it all just an illusion?

As the story continues, it becomes more and more convoluted and confused, reality and illusion mixing until one is hard to tell from the other.

Accusations fly, is Helen having an affair and plotting Jonathon's murder? Is Karen who she appears to be? Is Thomas being haunted by ghosts, spirits, apparitions? As the story unravels, confusion ensues, life and death struggles begin and end. Who will remain?

Illusion by Edmond Cheng is just what the title states, it's all an illusion, the fevered imaginations of the protagonist in the story, Thomas. As Thomas' life ebbs and flows, the reader begins to see that all is not right. His story, his reality contradicts itself as a way of preserving his sanity. Because, instead of seeing what it before his eyes to believe, he chooses to look through rose colored glasses to perceive what he would like reality to be.

Illusion is a fun little read that was confusing at times. The use of American English is not perfect, nor are the speech patterns. It entwines Chinese mysticism and Western ideas, bringing us a story that is unique in it's rendition. I once read a Chinese fable about an attacking army, and while reading this story, I was reminded of the fable in the manner in which it was told. There is strong cultural influences used in the story that increase the enjoyment of the reading, but at the same time, cause to reader to stop and re-reading passage to gain the full impact of it's meaning. It was almost like reading a fast pace action movie filmed in Hong Kong, which just happens to produce some awesome movies that includes some of my favorites. It's a twisting, turning, gut-retching read. This is Mr. Cheng's first attempt at writing and since English is not his first language, it is my opinion that he did an excellent job. I truly enjoyed reading this novella, the story is exciting and a real psychological thriller. The use of imagery was good though sometimes simplistic, and at other times, bold and engaging. I loved the influences of his Chinese culture throughout the story. It was pleasure to read something, though Americanized, retained it's cultural influences. If you looking for an uncomplicated read, try something else. If you don't mind an involving read, give it a try, you might enjoy it, but be prepared for the fast pace and tone.

I received this book in ebook format from the author. All opinions expressed are my own.

What Lies Beneath by Charles Bice

Publisher: Wimabi Press
Pages: 201


In the summer of 1976, thirteen-year-old George Moody visits his scientist grandfather. There he is introduced to precocious distant cousin, Liza, who is George’s age and also staying with Grandpa. The other member of the household is Kizzy, the mystical housekeeper who charms animals, possesses healing powers and lives in the coal cellar. George finds friendship and diversion with Sammy Sweeney, the neighborhood oddball. Their numerous misadventures include dodging the local bullies, risking life and limb in Sammy’s tree house and snooping around Grandpa’s off-limits shed, which is at the center of strange occurrences.

A second summer at Grandpa’s will change George’s life permanently as he uncovers the nature of the household in which he has been passing his carefree vacations. And not until decades later will he comprehend the full, bewildering truth.

"A late night incident draws George Moody into the dilapidated shed behind the home he inherited from his grandfather, forcing him to confront long-buried family secrets and to relive two extraordinary summers of his early teens. Seasoned with magical realism, What Lies Beneath is a coming-of-age novel for anyone who has ever been a kid."

George doesn't even remember the father that perished in the Vietnam War. All he does remember is the triangle shaped flag given to his distraught mother with his last goodbye. Stewie Nye, the carpet guy, with his garish grin soon came into their lives and became his step-father. George's family was never really close, no hugging, at arms length, he grows up missing what most kids find natural.

Until he gets to spend the summer of 1976 at Grandpa Moody's Durham house. George is thirteen years old, ready to try a little independence and not all that happy to visit Grandpa. Cousin Liza from Aberdeen is the opposite of him and what he has grown with. She hugs, smiles, and though grown up beyond her years, she slowly becomes what George has been missing, companionship. Sammy from next door becomes a constant companion with whom mischief can be found. Too soon, the summer time at Grandpa's is over and George returns home but Liza keeps up with George through letters and phone calls. It becomes something that George looks forward.

The only thing that George is the most curious about is the small shed behind Grandpa's house where Grandpa seems to spend all of his spare time. What does he do in there to all hours of the night? He and Sammy managed to sneak into the shed only to discover it's not exactly what Grandpa said it was.

The next summer comes and though Stewie, with the same vicious yellow grin invites George to work at the carpet store, he chooses to return to Grandpa after talking to Liza. She can't return, but her sister Ann who is seventeen will be there and is dying to meet him. Cousin Ann turns out to be an exact copy of an older Liza and turns out to be just as sweet.

But suddenly Ann becomes sick and must return to Aberdeen where she spends a week and returns still not herself. And as the summer progresses, she becomes weaker and has to return home again. Grandpa seems more and more preoccupied with his little shed. It's not until Grandpa's refugee from a Nazi concentration camp and housekeeper, Kizzy, sends him to the shed that George begins to unravel the mysteries surrounding the small building and what it houses.

What Lies Beneath by Charles Bice is an excellent mystery that put me in mind of something in between Dean Koontz and Robin Cook. Young George never really knew his grandparents and with the death of his father and the remarriage of his mother, he soon loses contact with Grandpa Moody who lost his wife soon after the death of their only son. George is kind of an outsider, a loner, it's the way he's been brought up. What he discovers at his grandpa's is the love he's been missing. Liza, and then Ann, envelop him in their shining light and become an important part of his life. When Ann becomes sick, he is at a loss. Kizzy is a mystery all on her own. She appears to be ancient, older than Grandpa, yet never seems to age, living in Grandpa's basement apartment and strange beliefs about souls. It's all odd to George who is baffled in his youth. It won't be until George reaches adulthood, after the death of his grandpa and Kizzy, that he comes to understand everything that has happened.

What Lies Beneath is an excellent YA coming of age story that brought back memories of my own youth and forgotten times. There are many twists and turns throughout the story that lead to it's eventual conclusion and George's discoveries. It was a short read and it ended being a page turner that I couldn't put down. It was an excellent little thriller that I would recommend to anyone who enjoys a good mystery and the thrill of discovery. For more information about this author and his books, please visit his website.

I received this book for review from the publisher, Wimabi Press, and Library Thing. All opinions expressed are my own.

Knowing Starring Nicolas Cage

Running Time: 130 minutes
From: Escape Artist and Summit Entertainment
Genre: Thriller/Science Fiction

From the Movie Poster: What Happens When The Numbers Run Out?

As the movie opens it is 1959, the William Dawes Elementary School is finally finished with construction and to commemorate the occasion, they're burying a time capsule with drawings of the future kept safe inside. That is except for Lucinda Emery, she's burying numbers....

Flash to present day - 50 years later - Caleb Koestler (Chandler Canterbury) is participating in retrieving a time capsule. Inside are pictures, except for one that ends up in Caleb's hands. His father, MIT Professor and astrophysicist John Koestler (Nicolas Cage) sees correlation between the numbers and catastrophes throughout history. Hurricanes, plane crashes, the Kennedy Assassination, floods, fires, 911, shootings, and the death of his wife one year earlier in a hotel fire. And there are three dates left on the paper. He soon discovers that a second group of numbers gives location in longitude and latitude. Who will he tell? What will he do? Caleb has started having visions and visitors who wanted to take him away, to protect him.


John tries to contact Lucinda, but she has died from a drug overdose due to medications prescribed for her presumed mental illness. Her daughter, Diana Wayland (Rose Byrne), first rebuffs John only to seek him out later, saying her mother always told her the day she was going to die....it will happen in just two short days. And her daughter, Abby (Lara Richardson - also plays young Lucinda), has started to have visions and visitors who want to take her away, protect her. What is happening?

As John further works with the numbers, more information is discovered, in two days 33 people will die, maybe one of them Diana. It will be a mass catastrophe like the Earth as never seen. John is an astrophysicist who has been predicting solar flares, but the flare that is to occur is the biggest recorded in history, it was suppose to happen in space. But something has happened and now it is directed at Earth. John discovered with Diana's help that instead of 33, it is actually EE, Diana's mother's term for Everyone Else. It would seem the destruction of Earth is at hand and no one can prevent it. The visitor are only interested in the children who have had the visions, to rebuild on another planet, another tree of life.

Nicolas Cage happens to be one of my favorite actors since Valley Girls and Peggy Sue Got Married. The 1980's were a long time ago, but that's when I discovered him. I have seen nearly all of his movies, a few I wish I hadn't, but only a few. In Knowing, he is the one who figures out all the events that have happened and that are yet to come. He has fallen away from his pastor father since the death of his wife. He can't accept that there is a God that would take someone so important away from him. Later, after remembering his wife's wishes, he makes peace with his family as they wait together for the end to come.

Knowing is a scifi thriller that can be viewed as just that, a thriller. Others have said it should be viewed through a biblical eye, viewed as the hand of God and the rebirth of mankind. I'll let you choose. I knew none of this before agreeing to go see the movie. It was an excellent movie as long as you're a viewer who enjoys massively destructive movies. The special effects were amazingly well done. This movies brings CGI to a new level, in that the opening scene of the movie shows the Earth imploding in on itself, the viewer just doesn't realize what it is, that it is in fact the Earth, and doesn't know why.........yet.

Here's the trailer for Knowing.


And some fun from Valley Girl in 1983.


And to back 1986 for Peggy Sue Got Married.