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9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
"You're Travelling through another dimension...", October 24, 2009
This review is from: Pumpkin Teeth (Paperback)
-- a dimension not only of sight and sound but of mind. A journey into a wondrous land whose boundaries are that of imagination." R.Serling(The Twilight Zone)
I knew from reading Cardamon's 'The Werewolves of Central Park' that this writer was different.
I could almost hear Rod Serling's voice(You Tube) as I read this amazing collection of surreal stories from the fertile imagination of Tom Cardamone.The end of each story left me breathlessly dazed and thinking "what just happened here?" I'd have to read the story again!
Ever live next door to a Sphinx? What do you do when you get her mail by mistake?
What happens when lightening strikes the sand? Does a boy become the lightening?
"I woke up floating in an egg." a quote from the first sentence of a story.
Read about the ultimate in submission - Suitcase Sam
A small sampling of the speculative gay and not so gay fictional stories gifted to us by this very creative writer.
"Look out! That's a signpost up ahead!" Tom Cardamone's Mind!
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Pumpkin Teeth is horrifyingly good, December 24, 2009
This review is from: Pumpkin Teeth (Paperback)
If ever I see Tom Cardamone's muse walking down the block, I'm not sure whether I'll kowtow or leave skidmarks in terrified flight. Pumpkin Teeth is horrifyingly good.
The stories cover quite a range, yet amidst the wonder and horror, it is the characters' humanity that take center stage (even when they are human monsters). Tom offers tender-hearted tales alongside ones requiring a strong stomach. An example of the latter, Suitcase Sam, yanks you through the ultimate in self-mutilation, dangling its dark themes like bait for the tragically curious.
Every story is memorable, but my personal favorites are the one that juxtapose characters in love beside the truly bizarre: Lightning Capital, The Sphinx Next Door, and River Rat. LGBT themes run through the collection although the book transcends any need for labeling. If you're willing to be amazed or terrified, you will enjoy this book.
Uncompromising and haunting, Pumpkin Teeth brims with the fears, the depravity, the loneliness, and even the heroic love that lurks behind our eyes. It offers a great spread: acts of magic and madness, some governed by surreal circumstance, some self-inflicted, and others destined to happen when people simply behave true to themselves.
This book is a Pandora's box of disturbing delights. Surely it can't hurt to buy it and peek?
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Sank My Fangs into These Stories!, August 30, 2010
This review is from: Pumpkin Teeth (Paperback)
Pumpkin Teeth
Tom Cardamone
©2009
Lethe Press
'Lo Peoples,
For me, a stimulating short story anthology makes me want to start writing. I dunno. I guess imagination is catching. I should probably add absurdity and a penchant for pushing the barriers of reader comfort to my extremely communicable fiction list. The only item that left me perplexed about some of the stories were some endings in medias res. I found myself scanning the page for more words that simply didn't appear. Take this as evidence of Cardamone's ability to create immersive story worlds rather than a slight. Thirteen different times, I floated down the rabbit hole. I don't think one can fall into a Pumpkin Teeth story.
These were the journeys that I found most delightful in a wicked sort of way. I'm sure you'll choose your own.
Bottom Feeder presents a first person narrator who has evolved or devolved into the kind of "retirement community" that could be best described as a human version of Flipper or Namu engaged in proctophilic activities and singing.
In Suitcase Sam the first person narrator allows the reader a view into an oddly logical development of the ultimate in sexual submission and objectification. Paraphilia anyone?
Some mythical time ago, in the Far East, the first person narrator in Royal Catamite undergoes a transformation due to the imbibing of too much divine seminal fluid. Now there's a thought.
River Rat features a multi-person POV. IMHO, this is the sweetest of the stories. For those of us who adore outlandish comic book type characters, zaftig women, and free love between humans and former humans are in for a distinctly cupcake-with-sprinkles-shaped treat. I read, I chuckled and cooed in delight, and then I raided the refrigerator.
Since I already believe in the veil between the worlds of the Living and those who have passed on, Cardamone did not have to sell me. The Next Bardo brings its first person narrator "back" to another era filled with regret. What's so wonderful about this piece is the details of travel writing, gay marketing, the isolating effects of being closeted, all set against the loss inflicted by the appearance of AIDS.
Dare I say I look forward to reading the next Cardamone collection?
Peace,
Her Tangh-i-ness
Note: This copy of Pumpkin Teeth was an electronic ARC acquired from an editor upon the reviewer's request. Her Tangh-i-ness reviews on a for-the-love basis. No lucre has been involved.
Pumpkin Teeth
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