Word Garden Word List--Chouette

 

Hello my little life rafts! I have been drowning lately in a sea of disappointing--dare I say disgusting--books. Did I say a "sea"? It was just two, but allow me my dramatic moment. To begin: horror isn't a genre I read a lot of, and when I do it is almost always either Stephen King or Clay McLeod Chapman, author of the much beloved (by me) "Ghost Eaters." So, imagine my happiness when his new novel "Wake Up and Open Your Eyes" came out and I got my copy! It's about people who watch "Fax" News and turn into demented zombies. Sounds great, right? Well it wasn't. It was just gore, body horror, weird sexual situations, and did I mention body horror? right from page one. I got half way through and DNF'ed it when the family dog met a horrible end. Really, Clay? I'll never read you again. 

Claire Oshetsky. Stay away from me, Claire.

So I wanted to read something lighter and my eye came upon this 2021 novel called "Chouette" by Claire Oshetsky. The dust jacket features a wonderful woodcut of an owl sitting in some foliage. It's about a woman having an owl-baby and the problems that causes. It sounded like a charming little fable or fairy story involving birds--what could go wrong? Lots, as it turned out. This book was just as gory and disturbing--and even had a dog come to a horrible end!--as the one I just threw in the trash. 

This book shelf ain't safe!

Not wanting to DNF two books in a row, I hate-read this one all the way to the bitter end. Most reviews hail it as being some sort of genius statement on motherhood and feminism. My review differed. I saw it as the delusions of a mentally ill woman living in a fantasy world and exercising a destructive obsession regarding her owl-baby, who may or may not have actually been an owl or done any of the violent things the narrator claims. Don't read it, it's awful, a sort of cross between "The Bad Seed" and "Helter Skelter," but I do still like that woodcut. I may read "Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm" next, just to be safe!

What we do here is to use at least 3 of the 20 words provided in a new, original poem of our own. Then simply link up, visit others, and be kind to doggos. This prompt remains active until next Sunday.

And now, your List:

absent

cello

ceremonial

dream

flutter

gaze

giddy

golden

grit

miracle

napping

ominous

owl

shrieking

slippery

speak

stiffly

swoop

wild

yabber-yabber (talking without saying anything.)