{"id":19336,"date":"2024-11-20T07:00:13","date_gmt":"2024-11-20T12:00:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.cemeterydance.com\/extras\/?p=19336"},"modified":"2024-11-17T14:23:34","modified_gmt":"2024-11-17T19:23:34","slug":"review-kill-your-darling","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cemeterydance.com\/extras\/review-kill-your-darling\/","title":{"rendered":"Review: Kill Your Darling by Clay McLeod Chapman"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-attachment-id=\"19337\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/www.cemeterydance.com\/extras\/review-kill-your-darling\/kill-your-darling\/\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.cemeterydance.com\/extras\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/kill-your-darling.png?fit=189%2C300&amp;ssl=1\" data-orig-size=\"189,300\" 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=\"kill-your-darling\" data-image-description=\"\" data-image-caption=\"\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.cemeterydance.com\/extras\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/kill-your-darling.png?fit=189%2C300&amp;ssl=1\" class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-19337\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.cemeterydance.com\/extras\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/kill-your-darling.png?resize=189%2C300&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"cover of Kill Your Darling\" width=\"189\" height=\"300\" \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Kill-Your-Darling-McLeod-Chapman\/dp\/B0D38V2H9K\/ref=sr_1_1?crid=AF0PHDJ5A1VG&amp;dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.s3Db1a0i5DwmwwmJFWXheg.lFn0ZAA4adD1Yj1KQd57WLetj9xFu8qdXWWx80Fwy48&amp;dib_tag=se&amp;keywords=Kill+Your+Darling+by+Clay+McLeod+Chapman&amp;qid=1731869012&amp;sprefix=kill+your+darling+by+clay+mcleod+chapman%2Caps%2C174&amp;sr=8-1\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><em>Kill Your Darling<\/em>\u00a0by Clay McLeod Chapman<\/a><br \/>\n<\/strong><strong>Bad Hand Books (September 2024)<br \/>\n<\/strong><strong>Reviewed by\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/HaleyNewlin22\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Haley Newlin<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>It took thirty-eight laps around Billy\u2019s skull to empty the roll of duct tape. They drew two lopsided and unblinking black ovals over his eyes.<\/p>\n<p>Twenty years later, Glenn\u2019s dogged mind runs on a constant loop &#8212; Billy kissing a girl at the dance, that squeal of peeling tape, his grim imaginings of his son\u2019s final moments, where his soul may lie, and silvery ghosts. How can he and his wife, Carol, move on with every suspect\u2019s fabric of guilt pulled at like a loose thread and then discarded? Without a conviction? A who or why?<!--more--><\/p>\n<p>Glenn won\u2019t give up. He calls the police religiously, cycling through generations of deputies, detectives, and sheriffs, each less concerned with Billy\u2019s murder than the last. This was an\u00a0especially\u00a0nice\u00a0touch from Clay McLeod Chapman. He crafts one-way avenues and dead ends of hope in\u00a0<em>Kill Your Darling.<\/em>\u00a0The dread is inescapable.<\/p>\n<p>But Carol isn\u2019t quite ready to give up. Her and Glenn\u2019s marriage, after the death of their son, becomes an agreement to grieve together and maintain one another. So, she signs her dissociative husband up for a creating writing course, hoping expression will offer relief.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>\u00a0<strong>Tell the story you\u2019re dying to tell!<\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Chapman explores a playful narrative structure in Glenn\u2019s creative writing courses. He employs familiar phrases like \u201cwrite what you know\u201d or \u201cyou must grab your reader\u2019s attention from the first sentence\u201d to remind readers he knows the rules and tackles them with lyrical, haunting prose. He pins his audience against the wall, trapped like flies to adhesive tape, from the get-go. I love the opening chapter\u2019s final line: \u201cHow\u2019s that for a hook?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In shock, I muttered, \u201cHoly f*ck,\u201d after reading it.<\/p>\n<p>Glenn is determined to tell his son\u2019s story,\u00a0<em>The Book of Billy<\/em>, and soon finds himself sinking into the depths of his grief. Everything has to be just so until it can no longer be. But how far is too far in the name of healing?<\/p>\n<p>Believe me, Chapman will show you.<\/p>\n<p>As the author did in his novels\u00a0<em>What Kind of Mother<\/em>\u00a0and\u00a0<em>Ghost Eaters,\u00a0<\/em>he evokes such emotion from readers, with his raw exploration of pain and trauma. There are ghosts everywhere. The meaning is clear. Pain is horrific. It feeds. And it\u2019s all-consuming.<\/p>\n<p>If you want a book that will make you weep, something tragic, unsettling, and filled with ghosts, it\u2019s\u00a0<em>Kill Your Darling<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>Fans of\u00a0<em>Hereditary\u00a0<\/em>will eat this up.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Kill Your Darling\u00a0by Clay McLeod Chapman Bad Hand Books (September 2024) Reviewed by\u00a0Haley Newlin It took thirty-eight laps around Billy\u2019s skull to empty the roll of duct tape. They drew two lopsided and unblinking black ovals over his eyes. Twenty years later, Glenn\u2019s dogged mind runs on a constant loop &#8212; Billy kissing a girl &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cemeterydance.com\/extras\/review-kill-your-darling\/\" class=\"more-link button bg-gold white\">Continue Reading!<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;Review: Kill Your Darling by Clay McLeod Chapman&#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_post_was_ever_published":false,"_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}},"categories":[80],"tags":[2267,2299,3287,79],"class_list":["post-19336","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-reviews","tag-clay-mcleod-chapman","tag-haley-newlin","tag-kill-your-darling","tag-reviews"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.5 - 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