Books to Die For

Mike Mignola and Christopher Golden's JOE GOLEM AND THE DROWNING CITY

As we've seen in the preceding weeks, many different elements can make a book one to die for, sometimes it's something as simple as a story that takes you into a whole other world, one beyond your imagining. This is certainly case in this week's selection, JOE GOLEM AND THE DROWNING CITY, which I first wrote about in Rue Morgue #121.

Imagine that half of New York City sank into the ocean back in 1925 but people continued to live in the buildings that were tall enough to poke out of the water, constructing elaborate rope bridges and walkways between them. Now, imagine that these people - cut off from the rest of the city and the world - formed their own society, creating a post-apocalyptic, steampunk-esque ghetto out of the debris and whatever valuables they could scavenge from the ruins.

This is the alternate history into which we are cast for Hellboy creator Mike Mignola and author Christopher Golden's illustrated novel JOE GOLEM AND THE DROWNING CITY. And the setting is far from the only unusual thing in the story, which tells the tale of fourteen-year-old Molly, an orphan whose life is thrown into danger and disarray after the magician/medium she works for is kidnapped by a pack of wetsuit-clad, gasmask-wearing, not-quite-corporeal entities. But before they can snag her too, she's rescued by Joe, who is the muscle for an evil-fighting, half-mechanical old man. The pair are able to confirm that her boss, Felix, was kidnapped by a mad scientist with apocalyptic intentions, and she agrees to join forces with them to stop him and get Felix back. What comes next is a veritable roller-coaster of science-gone-wrong atrocities, cannibalistic trees, inter-dimensional intrigue, wholesale urban destruction and tentacles.

JOE GOLEM AND THE DROWNING CITY is every bit as pulpy as it sounds, and its combination of action-packed narrative, easily accessible language and teenage heroine make it feel very much like a young adult novel - not that that's any reason to avoid the book. Good stories are universal in their appeal and the creativity on display here will no doubt win over monster fans of all ages, as will the dozens of black-and-white illustrations Mignola contributed to the book.

Just be warned: once you are done reading, you won't want to leave The Drowning City.

JOE GOLEM AND THE DROWNING CITY can be purchased on Amazon in paperback format for less than $16 and digitally for less than $10, so there's no reason not to submerge yourself in it today. Happy reading!