Vermont Book Reviews: Short Takes on Five New Reads
Nov 27, 2024
Seven Days writers can't possibly read, much less review, all the books that arrive in a steady stream by post, email and, in one memorable case, a shrewdness of apes. So this monthly feature is our way of introducing you to a handful of books by Vermont authors. To do that, we contextualize each book just a little and quote a single representative sentence from, yes, page 32. Black Days Jackson Ellis, Green Writers Press, 204 pages. $19.95 The acid in my stomach bubbled up into the back of my throat. Biblical sadboi Job has nothing on Daniel Fassett, a divorced factory worker in the fictional Vermont town of Granbury. On Christmas Eve 1992, Fassett's car skids off the road and plunges into the icy Mad River. The accident leaves him in a coma for four months — and thwarts his Florida Keys retirement dreams. Faced with the prospect of living out his days across the street from his ex-wife, Fassett does what any reasonable person would do: He enlists the help of a local doctor to freeze himself for the winter in his backyard sugar shack. When he wakes up, he discovers that the media has caught on to his hibernation experiment, and his tribulations multiply. Black Days, Burlington author Jackson Ellis' second novel, is both a thriller and an unexpectedly moving portrait of small-town Vermont life. When reporters descend upon Granbury to track down Fassett, the post office puts up a sign announcing: "No Directions to the Hibernation House." And Ellis renders Fassett with a genuine tenderness that makes up for the occasional clumsy line of dialogue. Fassett's unshakable, commonsense morality will keep you rooting for him to the very last page. — Chelsea Edgar Let's Go, Coco! Coco Fox, Harper Alley, 236 pages. $24.99. Are you okay?? I know of no one who would voluntarily travel back in time to middle school, that life chapter of raging hormones, awkward crushes, poisonous cliques and zits. This is where readers find Coco, the young doppelgänger of White River Junction cartoonist Coco Fox and the likable title character in Fox's debut middle-grade graphic novel. Fox, a Center for Cartoon Studies alum and occasional Seven Days contributor, conveys the angst and triumphs of a young person struggling to build confidence and understand herself and those around her. Deep in the pubescent stew, Coco dreads the departure of her best friend,…