Book Review: THE BLUE BLAZES, by Chuck Wendig

In The Blue Blazes, by Chuck Wendig, the Underworld–a series of caverns, tunnels and bolt-holes–lurks beneath New York City and burrows deep into the earth toward the mythical Vast Expanse. This space is inhabited by goblins, Snakefaces, the living dead and those that defy being named. Often, these beings venture out among the humans. Some are good at their disguises. Others are not. Most often, these entrepreneurs from the Great Below intermix with the shadier side of NYC–mobsters, enforcers, drug-pushers and gangs–a force united together as the Organization.

Uniting the two Underworlds is a substance called Cerulean, also known on the streets as peacock powder, Smurf and the Blue Blazes. For some, it’s the irreplaceable upper, allowing them to see unimagined sights, to feel like a god among mortals. Others realize it tears away the veil to their third eye, allowing them to see the hidden world behind the “real” one. One thing is for certain, a dose will change your life forever.

The Blue Blazes is an intense exploration of these Underworlds. Within its first pages, you meet Mookie Pearl, a soldier for the Organization, managing their supply to Cerulean. However, when the Organization is upset by the eminent death of their Boss and the arrival of unexpected outside consultants in the form of Candlefly and his Snakeface companion, Mookie inadvertently rises to thwart everyone’s plans. Set this along with Mookie trying to mend fences between himself and his daughter, Nora–herself a shooting star in the Underworld, both above and below–you have a four-wheeler of a ride threatening to spill itself on the side.

Into this world, the reader follows an over-muscled enforcer of the Organization with more morals than appears to be healthy for him. That’s not to say he’s nice. He’s a terrible father and husband, and he’s killed his fair share of people. In fact, no one in this story is simply good. They all have a complexity that adds depth to the characters and story.

Like Wendig’s previous work, Mockingbird and Blackbird, The Blue Blazes is a work of urban fantasy that defies the kick-butt woman in leather with a sword stereotype. That does not mean the story is lacking of kick-butt women. You get your fill in Nora, Mookie’s daughter with an axe to grind, Skelly, the leader of the Get Em Girls–a gang of rockabilly roller-derby women, and a number of others. Neither do you find yourself inundated in a world of vampires and werewolves. The world Wendig constructs is both unique and well-developed, but it’s not pretty. Horror is an essential part of this story, and if you stumble upon something pretty, rest assured that there’s something worse beneath.

When you boil The Blue Blazes down to its essence, this is a story about loyalty. To whom do you owe your loyalty? How far are you willing to go for them? Are you willing to hurt the ones you love to protect them? To spell out how these questions fit into the story would spoil the narrative, but they are an essential part of Mookie Pearl and the world that revolves around him.

The only weak spot in the story involves the plotting of the mystery. Early on, the Boss’s heir to the Organization gets murdered, and the murder gets pinned on Nora. As the characters attempt to discover who actually killed the heir, the reveals are a little too contrived for the unfolding of the tale. It doesn’t make a bad story. It just reveals the gears behind the movement of the plot.  That being said, Wendig does a great job at seeding the details needed in the big reveals later on the story without appearing to do so.

If you’re looking for a fast paced story that drops you into a weird world in our own backyard, I recommend this story. If you’re attracted to the idea of urban fantasy, but you’re turned off by what it is, I recommend this story. If you like conflicted characters whom you should hate as much as you love them, I recommend this story. If you’re looking for an adventurous rump to fill your summer reading, I recommend this book.

If you haven’t figured it out by this point, I recommend this book.

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Review by John W. Oliver

Bio:

A writer of fantasy and horror fiction, John W. Oliver has been bent by many years of playing role-playing games like Dungeons & Dragons, Shadowrun and the World of Darkness. He holds a B.A. in English Literature and Creative Writing from San Francisco State University and has seen his short fiction printed in publications like Dark Discoveries and Robots Beyond. He, too, is working on the obligatory novel. If you want to hear the details, you’ll have to hunt him down and buy him a drink or two. He can be found online in all the usual places, like Facebook, Twitter and his self-aggrandizing blog.