I stamped the snow off my boots, cursing the cold winter, as I entered Raven’s End Books, Winnipeg’s best horror book store. I was looking for something spooky, something supernatural perhaps, with punk vibes, bloody, it’s got to be bloody, something mysterious, something unexplainable, something unresolved, like maybe the main character, researching for a book he’s writing, comes across an author whose post-humous publications describe his own life eerily well, and as he searches, and finds, new texts, he learns more about what horrors may be in store for him.
I told this to the owner, and she said, “I’ve got the perfect book for you. It’s called Ghosts at the Rave’s End, by Stephen Arndt.”
I thanked her and looked at the book. It was about a rave that happened in 1996 at the St. James Civic Centre on Ness Avenue. Only one person survived: a young author, who was only ever known as Rave. The first part of the book seemed to be about the author’s life, and the second part was about another author discovering his posthumously published books.
The cover art was a photo of the bookstore. And not just any book store – it was Raven’s End Books on the book’s cover. I looked closer. In the photo, behind the stand was a shadow – an outline – of someone looking down at a book in their hands.
It couldn’t be, I thought. I looked closer still.
It was an outline of me. I was looking at a photo of myself looking at a book with a photo of myself on its cover.
When I looked up, I saw the book store was empty. And oddly quiet.
I turned the book over again, and continued to read the back jacket.
The author of the second part, whose name was also Stephen, was researching paranormal activity in Winnipeg, and stumbled across Rave‘s posthumously self-published books.
I flipped through some of the pages and saw that these two narratives jumped back and forth in time.
“Hello?” I called. “I’m – uh – I’m ready to settle.”
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To read the rest of this review — and more by Steve Schmolaris — visit his website Bad Gardening Advice.
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Steve Schmolaris is the founder of the Schmolaris Prize, “the most prestigious prize in all of Manitoba,” which he first awarded in 1977. Each year, he awards the prize to the best album of the year. He does not have a profession but, having come from money (his father, “the Millionaire of East Schmelkirk,” left him his fortune when he died in 1977), Steve is a patron of the arts. Inspired by the exquisite detail of a holotype, the collective intelligence of slime mold, the natural world and the suffering inherent within it — and also music (fuck, he loves music!) — Steve has long been writing reviews of Winnipeg artists’ songs and albums at his website Bad Gardening Advice, leading to the publication of a book of the same name.
