Book Dragon is Reading - FaceOff, edited by David Baldacci

3. Gaslighted [Slappy the Ventriloquist Dummy vs. Aloysius Pendergast] by R. L. Stine vs. Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child

I dreaded reading this because I am not a fan of horror. It is a genre I am perhaps oversensitive to, one that lingers with me for days if I am lucky. A couple of years ago, for example, I read a short story by George R. R. Martin, “The Monkey Treatment” in The Year’s Best Science Fiction: First Annual Collection. That one gave me difficulty sleeping for a few weeks after and some of the imagery still haunts me.

In the case of “Gaslighted” it was not so bad. I was not affected by it like a horror story but still found much of it to be a difficult and unpleasant read because, as the title suggests, Aloysius Pendergast is indeed being gaslighted and that is almost always distressing even when I don’t know the characters concerned.

I was disappointed by this story not being really Aloysius vs. Slappy, in that Slappy’s appearance here is entirely as a figment invented through the true villainous doctor’s experiments in memory manipulation. Although being a horror anti-fan of course I have not read any of the Goosebumps books. Maybe this is true to Slappy’s usual presentation. But I had been looking forward to seeing such an excessively heroic character as Pendergast take on the evil machinations of an actual ventriloquist dummy.

Pendergast’s own exploits recounted here put me in mind of a reel of rejected X-Files plots, perhaps for being too outlandishly extravagant. I could not help but hear his speaking voice as played by David Hyde-Pierce, which I side might be fitting for this urbane, lethal, super strong albino FBI agent from New Orleans. I was a bit curious to read more of his adventures but am wary of how they might shade macabre enough to fall into the horrific. Plus despite a strong sense of adventure showing through it seems like he may just be a bit too perfect to be a satisfying read - this being why the narrative of his series was so plausible as the fantasy trauma retreat it was being presented as.

I also feel a need to mark hesitance regarding this character being from New Orleans. A place regarded in American folkloric and media culture as a source of dark magic and sinister happenings, it is not surprising this deliberately exotic albino FBI agent should hail from there but it is discomfiting. As a trend in fiction, as though that region is having its history washed away and re-purposed into the national mystery zone. Basically, African American culture and others raided for mysticism to fuel the adventures of white characters.