{"id":13927,"date":"2020-01-13T07:00:41","date_gmt":"2020-01-13T12:00:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.cemeterydance.com\/extras\/?p=13927"},"modified":"2020-01-09T13:52:07","modified_gmt":"2020-01-09T18:52:07","slug":"review-spungunion-john-boden-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cemeterydance.com\/extras\/review-spungunion-john-boden-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Review: Spungunion by John Boden"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-attachment-id=\"13928\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/www.cemeterydance.com\/extras\/review-spungunion-john-boden-2\/spungion\/\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.cemeterydance.com\/extras\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/spungion.jpg?fit=880%2C1360&amp;ssl=1\" data-orig-size=\"880,1360\" data-comments-opened=\"1\" data-image-meta=\"{&quot;aperture&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;credit&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;camera&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;caption&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;created_timestamp&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;copyright&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;focal_length&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;iso&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;shutter_speed&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;orientation&quot;:&quot;0&quot;}\" data-image-title=\"spungion\" data-image-description=\"\" data-image-caption=\"\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.cemeterydance.com\/extras\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/spungion.jpg?fit=663%2C1024&amp;ssl=1\" class=\"alignright size-medium wp-image-13928\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.cemeterydance.com\/extras\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/spungion-226x350.jpg?resize=226%2C350\" alt=\"\" width=\"226\" height=\"350\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.cemeterydance.com\/extras\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/spungion.jpg?resize=226%2C350&amp;ssl=1 226w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.cemeterydance.com\/extras\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/spungion.jpg?resize=663%2C1024&amp;ssl=1 663w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.cemeterydance.com\/extras\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/spungion.jpg?resize=768%2C1187&amp;ssl=1 768w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.cemeterydance.com\/extras\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/spungion.jpg?w=880&amp;ssl=1 880w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 226px) 85vw, 226px\" \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Spungunion-John-Boden\/dp\/1621052982\/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=Spungunion&amp;qid=1578595287&amp;sr=8-1\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><em>Spungunion<\/em> by John Boden<\/a><br \/>\n<\/strong><strong>Fungasm Press (January 15, 2020)<\/strong><br \/>\n<strong>106 pages: $9.95 paperback<\/strong><br \/>\n<strong>Reviewed by\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/SadieHartmann\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Sadie \u201cMother Horror\u201d Hartmann<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Once every blue moon, a reader will encounter an author who possesses a storytelling style that works for them every damn time. I have a few of these authors. Let\u2019s call them the \u201cDo-No-Wrongs.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">John Boden is a &#8220;Do-No-Wrong.&#8221;<\/span><!--more--><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Whether he\u2019s lending his voice to a collaboration with Chad Lutzke or Bob Ford or one of many authors with a story in an anthology&#8212;whatever the case may be, I\u2019ll be a fan of it. Having read almost everything I could get my hands on of Boden\u2019s work, it\u2019s my opinion that <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Spungunion<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> is the pinnacle. You could start here and have the best possible representation of Boden\u2019s unique way of telling stories; his special brand of character development, and that magical sadness he weaves throughout.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Deke Larch is a man on a mission. It\u2019s not a noble mission. It\u2019s a self-serving quest to restore what little sanity the man has left and damn the consequences. Quite remarkably, Boden\u2019s protagonist follows a disturbing rendition of the \u201chero\u2019s journey.\u201d There\u2019s a mentor figure with an unusual occupation. There are obstacles and enemies that try to distract Deke from his mission, and then there is that threshold moment when our unlikely hero must make difficult choices and either return home the same as he was, or push himself harder and forever be changed.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">As the reader bearing witness to the whole affair, I can assure you that you impossibly hope for the best. Your heart is given to Deke on page one and it\u2019s hard to watch him run away with it. There\u2019s one scene where I wanted to cry out, \u201cUncle! I give! I give!\u201d but Boden doesn\u2019t pull any punches for you, sorry to say. It\u2019s another one of those trademark moves you can assign to certain authors. John Boden will not let you off the hook easily. There\u2019s no sparing of feelings here.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">How all of this happens in about one hundred pages is mind-blowing.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It\u2019s that magical sadness I mentioned earlier. Somehow, some way, Boden is able to infuse authenticity and sincerity into everything. By the end of this novella, my emotions were a tangled heap; tears were shed, my heart broken.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">But it\u2019s what I expect with John Boden\u2019s stories. It\u2019s what fans of his work show up for time and time again. I can\u2019t wait to see what\u2019s next in 2020 for this author. I will read all of it. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">If you\u2019re an emotional reader who enjoys investing in well written characters going through heartbreaking trials, I highly recommend <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Spungunion<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> to you. You will never forget it.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Spungunion by John Boden Fungasm Press (January 15, 2020) 106 pages: $9.95 paperback Reviewed by\u00a0Sadie \u201cMother Horror\u201d Hartmann Once every blue moon, a reader will encounter an author who possesses a storytelling style that works for them every damn time. I have a few of these authors. Let\u2019s call them the \u201cDo-No-Wrongs.\u201d John Boden is &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cemeterydance.com\/extras\/review-spungunion-john-boden-2\/\" class=\"more-link button bg-gold white\">Continue Reading!<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;Review: Spungunion by John Boden&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[80],"tags":[786,782,1572,79,1545,1942],"class_list":["post-13927","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-reviews","tag-fungasm-press","tag-john-boden","tag-mother-horror","tag-reviews","tag-sadie-hartmann","tag-spununion"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.6 - 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