Today’s review as part of the Apex September Back Catalog Blog Tour (I’m still all excited that I got asked to do this–makes me feel so important) is Sing Me Your Scars by Damien Angelica Walters. I found this one myself looking through the catalog and fell totally in love with the title story, which you can read online if you need a preview before buying. I am not sure what genre this would be classified as. It’s definitely dark, but if it’s horror, apparently I love horror after all.
Apex Back Catalog Blog Tour: Sing Me Your Scars
I feel like Sing Me Your Scars is more than just a title of the lead story in this collection. It’s a theme of what the author has perhaps done in writing the stories that appear in the collection. Because this is what they do to me–they sing to my scars. Not the physical ones necessarily, but to the emotional ones from my own past and some of things I have accepted and choices I have made.
I love some books because they expand my world. Others I love because they remind me who I am and who I need to be. This goes in the latter category.
I find myself struggling to put words on how I feel about this collection. It resonated. My mood has been difficult for a while and since I finished reading this one, I’ve had some more luck getting back to my own words. The stories touched something in me that needed it more than I realized. And they inspire me to want to try to do more on the emotional level with my own work.
When I first looked at the collection, I was afraid it might lean too much to horror for me. It doesn’t. So either it’s not horror or horror isn’t what I’ve always thought it was. However, it is a pretty dark collection and I can imagine some people may need to spread the reading out if the stories provoke your emotions like they did mine.
So I strongly recommend this collection and I’d really love to see more work from this author. But be prepared–she might just make your scars sing too. Sometimes that’s what we need from great fiction: a reminder that it’s okay to feel stuff, even if we think we’ve put it behind us, and the reminder that we’re not alone.
I can only dream that some day I will produce words that touch someone else like these did me.
Once again Apex is making me break into my hoard and give out a 5 star review. They seem to be making a habit of this. Go buy the book. Or beg your local library to put it on their shelf.
If you are interested in this book or in other amazing publications from Apex Book Company, I can give you a little tip. In connection with this book tour, Apex is offering 25% off everything in the Apex store all month long with discount code SEPTEMBER. So this is a great time to check out the tour, pick some favorites, and do a little shopping. If you’re on twitter, search for the hashtag #backcatalogblogtour to find all the reviews and interviews throughout the month.
