Joy Reads Books

Tag: writing

  • All the White Friends I Couldn’t Keep: A Review and Reflections

    I recently encountered “All the White Friends I Could Not Keep” by Andre Henry (I listened to the audiobook version he narrated). It is an uncomfortable, painful and necessary read as Henry explores race, activism, and the philosophy and action of nonviolent political protest and the growth he experienced during this journey. But it is also the story of the many painful ways his white loved ones chose to react to his awakening. 

    Andre Henry grew up in Stone Mountain, Georgia, “under the shadows of Confederate Mount Rushmore”. He was studying theology, on course to a career in evangelical faith leadership when Philando Castille was unjustly murdered by Minneapolis police officers. This triggered a deep emotional awakening for Henry, one that saw him shed his Evangelical faith and lose friends and loved ones who were unwilling to accept the anti-racist, proud Black man standing before them, demanding they see and hear him and every other Black person crying out.

    If we know something we are doing is harmful and aligns us with racist views then we have a moral obligation to act and to change our behaviour. Reading “All the White Friends I Couldn’t Keep is one of those actions I think we, as white people, can take to understand and change the way we are interacting in the world so that it is anti-racist and intentional. This memoir-manifesto is a vulnerable look into the innermost feelings and reactions of Henry to his white friends’ actions. It is a rare opportunity to learn and understand directly what performative allyship means and the impacts it has on people. 

    Some of it is going to be a difficult read. It should be. It’s hard and painful to hear that the way you are showing up in a relationship is not working and it’s hurting someone you care about. Not only that, it’s because of your deeply held beliefs. That’s hard, uncomfortable and frightening. I felt shame, understanding, frustration and sadness as Henry described, with grace and a lot of love, his relationship with the Stone family and the eventual breakdown of it. I grew up in similar evangelical circles and there is nothing a white Evangelical, happy clappy Christian loves more than a token project to fuss over and hold up as evidence of their moral superiority (Look! I helped a Black person! I don’t see colour! I’m very capital-g Good). 

    There’s my bias and frustration.

    Andre Henry describes and dismantles the relationship between formal, White Christianity (and White Jesus), much better than I can. He has a very different take on how he has reconciled his personal faith and how I have chosen to step out and away from the tradition. I don’t think a god is necessary to your spirituality, faith, or morality. Frankly, I wouldn’t typically have read something by a faith leader but I am actually happy I did. I have little patience for formal, Western religion, in large part because of the white supremacy and gross amounts of damage done to this world and directly to people I love. That is my unconscious bias. 

    But. 

    Henry tries to figure it out instead of stepping out of it. That’s an increasingly difficult thing to navigate but I think he comes to articulate and understand faith in a more realistic and just way than he did when he was in theology school.

    Henry’s musical voice shines through and it was a special pleasure to listen to him narrate “All the White Friends I Could Not Keep”. To truly engage and hear what Henry is saying, readers will have to drop their inner defences and be open to absorb and reflect. It is like a welcoming sermon from an old friend.

    Recommended Reading Level

    Recommended to a general audience, though Andre Henry discusses violence face by BIPoC people, it is not gratuitous or descriptive. I don’t think an academic background is required, but I do think there are chapters that would work very well in a classroom of upper level high school to college level (of note, Chapter 5: We Do Not Debate with Racists and Chapter 10: How to Be Hopeful).

  • When Beautiful Writing Makes the Horror Deeply Disturbing: Review of Annie Neugebauer’s “You Have to Let Them Bleed”

    When Beautiful Writing Makes the Horror Deeply Disturbing: Review of Annie Neugebauer’s “You Have to Let Them Bleed”

    A quietly devastating collection of horror short stories.
    Cover of "You have to Let Them Bleed" by Annie Neugebauer
    Cover title of “You Have to Let Them Bleed”, from Bad Hand Books.

    It was a terrible and breathtaking  delight to read “You have to Let Them Bleed”, where the fear seeps in slowly, like spilled honey. In this short story collection, sprinkled with vivid and wild poetry, two-time Bram Stoker award winner and award-winning poet, Annie Neugebauer, is at her finest.

    Why this Horror Collection is So Scary Good

    Each story is carefully crafted to draw the reader into a world of the ordinary and recognizable but something goes terribly wrong. With every turn of the page, Neugebauer reveals how modern horror writing can be as beautiful and lyrical as any piece of great literature. 

    In “Churn the Unchurning Tide”, a story of quiet mob mentality running through a group of middle-aged women in an outdoor pool, the visceral descriptions of the tarantula that interrupts the women’s class is disquieting. She draws the reader into the women’s demented and unsettling world and sprinkles just enough hope and light to settle your breath.

    Decorative image of black, pencil-drawn style butterflies, beetles, and dragonflies on a sepia toned background.

    The tight writing of “Cilantro” conveys a depth of meaning, sorrow and horror. My favourite of the collection, I was absorbed in the telling of Jason’s grotesque metamorphosis. The narrator’s lament of their relationship breakdown is real and terrible, the kind of reflection that takes place when a relationship comes to an end. Neugebauer expertly takes us to unexpected and rather horrifying places, weaving body and insect horror with her marvellous play with words to create a masterpiece of dread.

    Who this short story collection is for

    Recommended to an audience equipped to handle horror. At first I wrote “mature audience” but really, if you can’t handle some blood, light cannibalism, or clowns, this fine collection of short stories are not for you. There is something about a rite of passage as a reader to start reading horror far too young. We all have a story about a Stephen King or Shirley Jackson story that ruined a little part of our childhood and still unsettles us to this day. 

    Annie Neugebauer is not a graphically violent writer but she explores some themes that might be tough for some readers. She’s also such an exceptional and talented writer that “You Have to Let Them Bleed” has to be read.

    Early editions with signed bookplate are available from Bad Hand Books mid-February, so get in there and pre-order. The full publication date is March 17,2026.

    Special thanks to Bad Hand Books for providing me with an advance copy. The team over at Bad Hand is fighting the good fight and they publish stunning horror that ruins my sleep and forces me to read in the daylight hours (in the best possible way).

    Check out my review of Things That Go Bump and The Atropine Tree, also published by Bad Hand Books.

  • Things That Go Bump: A Review of Horror Short Story Collection “Long Division”

    Things That Go Bump: A Review of Horror Short Story Collection “Long Division”

    Cover art for the horror short story collection, "Long Division: Stories of Social Decay, Societal Collapse and Bad Manners". Image is of two skeletons standing in front of a tomb with the title of the book on it.

    The short story collection, “Long Division: Stories of Social Decay, Societal Collapse and Bad Manners” is an incredible collection from independent publisher, Bad Hand Books. A shivering delight from start to finish, each story plays on the different fears and unsettling creep of societal breakdown. This anthology pulls you into the darkness, quickly and fiercely. I was a massive horror reader for the longest time, I don’t think there was a Stephen King or (going back now) R.L. Stine book I didn’t read. I don’t typically gravitate towards horror now, even though I love it and my own short fiction writing is quite dark. I’m really happy “Long Division” landed in my inbox, because it was such a fun, heart pounding, sometimes disturbing read. 

    Featuring tales from familiar voices like Chuck Palahniuk, there were new to me voices like Anna Taborska with “Third-Time Lucy” and Lora Senf with “Blight.  Palahniuk’s “Celeste” is raunchy, absurd and everything I think you can expect from a Palahniuk romp.

    Anna Taborska has created a bleak and dim world where classism has gone completely awry, she builds incredible tension and confusion. She explores the impact of dehumanization and how notions of class and worth are still upheld as the infrastructure of our known world collapses.

    “Blight” is a story of a mother’s sacrifice and the ways men will destroy everything around them and ultimately the world with their own hubris. The little girl with the fortune telling skin is fascinating with lyrical prose that pulls the reader into this mysterious world.

    Cynthia Pelayo’s Mrs. Darling  in “Fire of Roses” is delightfully ominous, I think this was my favourite short story in the collection because of the way it builds and plays with the reader. Horror doesn’t always have to be gory bloodshed, in fact it’s more effective when the horror comes from how people behave.

    I really enjoyed Andy Davidsons “The End of the World, After All” for the fluidity in the writing style, it has a feel of Stephen King’s “The End of the Whole Mess”. Deeply flawed people greeting the end of the world in some of the only, typically damaged and damaging, ways they know how.

    Recommend to horror and short fiction lovers!


    Thanks to Bad Hand Books for providing an early copy for me to review! As of publication (6 November), you can pre-order “Long Division” via their site, it’ll be available to order 12 November.