Trigger Warning

For the past fifteen years I have placed Neil Gaiman somewhere on my list of favorite writers. After looking through the list of his published work in the front of this new collection, it turns out I have read almost nothing: Coraline, The Graveyard Books, parts of Sandman, scattered short stories, and that's it. I've read none of what he labels as "For Adults." Trigger Warning is the most in depth look I've had at his work.

And so I can now say with a bit more assurance that Neil Gaiman is among my favorite writers. This selection shows Gaiman trying out approaches that include modernized fairy tales, poems, creepy horror, traditional ghost stories, and meta-fictional approaches. On that last front, there is a story that consists entirely of a young woman's responses to what seem to be questions in a police interrogation. It's an engaging tale of her sister's transformation into a glowing red goddess who is eventually abducted by others of her kind.

Trigger Warning is an enticing title, and it will sell more books that would Engaging Tales, a phrase that pretty well sums up what Gaiman offers. Even the story of a young man that the reader realizes is soon to be eaten by his new girlfriend's younger brother is engaging. Another young man who lives a life of fairy tale adventure slips into a modern existence as a pub performer. A young man on a walking tour finds himself stranded in a village populated with a smattering of bohemian escapees from London. A ghost and a herd of mummified cats lead him to uncover a serial killer. A very engaging plot.

That young man is Shadow Moon, identified in the extensive notes Gaiman provides in a preface as a character from the novelAmerican Gods. That books and the rest of Gaiman is now back on my list. I need to get it read just in case the long-announced cable mini-series ever makes it into production.