Have You Read This? Doorways to the Deadeye by Eric J. Guignard

One of the reasons I love to read fiction is because I know that fiction is more than words on paper, more than the descriptions attributed to a character or a scene. Stories, whether they're novels, novellas, short stories, or heck, even limericks, become more than the words that compose them. They grow from mere words into people, worlds, universes when they are read, pondered, absorbed, and especially shared. I happen to be a particular fan of this particular brand of metafiction (shout out, of course, to Clive Barker's story "The Forbidden," which in turn birthed Candyman). Eric J. Guignard takes this idea of fiction becoming real and creates a fantastic and exciting universe in his novel Doorways to the Deadeye. 

Guignard focuses not on literature, per se, but on uniquely American legends. These aren't tales of Pecos Bill and Paul Bunyan, however. These are tales of gangsters, lawmen, heroes, and Luke Thatcher, riding the rails in Depression-era America discovers through the Hobo Code that these legends gain flesh-and-blood reality in a world of Anathasia, also called the Deadeye. Luke Thacker is no Pecos Bill but he becomes one as he unlocks the secrets of this other world, using it to help the love of his life and to protect it from those legends who seek to do it harm. In Anathasia, the more the living remember you, the more powerful you become, and there are those who seek to expand their legend to the point where it supersedes all other folklore. 

This is a great book for people who love their worlds fun and fantastical. Guignard has also avoided pigeonholing the various legends Luke encounters into the tropes their legends happen to fit. In other words, nefarious gangsters can become your allies, stalwart lawmen might be hunting you, and the greatest enemy of all is one of our nation's founding fathers. Apart from creating a consistent yet entertaining universe in the Deadeye, Guignard fills his tale with characters brimming with personalities, especially the legends who have tics and quirks they might not have been initially known for. One of the joys of reading this book was to wait and see what legend Guignard reinterprets next. While this book definitely falls more on the fantastical than horror, there is a scene involving a very unassuming yet infamous axe murderer that would make any gorehound salivate. Overall, this is a book for fans of horror and fantasy as well as for people who believe fervently in the power of imagination.