ELJ Publications released this recursive Neo-Noir Slipstream novella about an eccentric criminal landlady who turns to occult practices from the Dysmorphic Grimoire, and her boarding house denizens. It's now available. Read about it.
Word Riot review of Equinox Mirror by Lisa Holden " "Tantra Bensko’s latest novel, Equinox Mirror, released in 2014 by ELJ Publications, is transcendent, surreal and enthralling.....The narrative skitters back and forth in a loose-meshed fabric that weaves us closer into the loss and craziness of Lucky’s experience. Overpowered by a sense of everything happening at once, she tries to imagine what life is to other people, ‘moment by moment, trapped in those lives. She wants to be the space in between them, empty.’...Lucky’s being and not-being, Boy-Lucky and Girl-Lucky, the dollhouse with its teeny spying mirrors and hairballs and Andrew the Troll and Dungeonella, linger in our minds long after the final page. The lyrically patterned prose and spiralling narrative forever pull us back to the liquid silver of the Mirror where time slows or hastens."
Lucky Lavaggio takes her magic scrying mirror on a trip through the time zones to where it is already Autumn -- a ritual to see one's self clearly enough to know the future. Mystified by her flashing awareness of a male Lucky Lavaggio who fights the Void, she counts on the reassuring continual presence of a woman she keeps imprisoned in the oubliette at all times through subterfuge. The eccentric characters at her boarding house, who resemble those who populated her childhood dollhouse, patiently suffer through her weirdness -- but for how long? This recursive book explores physics theory, Stockholm Syndrome, passionate longing, and precarious mortality.
Here is the book in a library in Olesnica, Poland, with its lovely curator, who asked me to include it.
“In noir fiction, the protagonist is usually not a detective, but instead either a victim, a suspect, or a perpetrator. He is someone tied directly to the crime, not an outsider called to solve or fix the situation. Other common characteristics of this sub-genre are the emphasis on sexual relationships and the use of sex to advance the plot and the self-destructive qualities of the lead characters. This type of fiction also has the lean, direct writing style and the gritty realism commonly associated with hardboiled fiction.” George Tuttle
What people are saying:
"Amazing book! So unique and very thought-provoking. The characters Bensko has created, Lucky in particular, are both fun and fascinating in their eccentricities, and Tantra's style - her voice - is intelligent yet at the same time so down-to-earth approachable. I love it!" Jason Rolfe Synthetic Saints
"Equinox Mirror is a unique story with vivid characters. The plot takes the reader through a world where time and identity are fluid, therefore possibility is ever-changing, all reaching toward an ending that is unexpected and yet makes complete sense when all elements are tied together. An intelligently written, thought-provoking story." Jennifer Holdbrook, author
"It grew on me. That's the sign of a truly great work. The best stuff always takes me a few readings to get into and then it takes me over!" Dominic Ward Prism and Graded Monotony
"It is an interesting boarding house to visit. And the trouble with mirrors is something else. I am enjoying the read; its weave of story-lines, the cast of characters and the peppering throughout with references to the fluidity of time. Quite appealing.
Its structure is unstructured, yet there remains enough frame to grasp, to guide you through without getting lost. that's a fine line to draw. A quality that I like, is that you elevate the reader, treat them with a bit of respect and provide writing that is cleaver, intelligent. A quality that is hard to find these days. . . a created world, like looking though a filter.its own sense of logic. it was fun to be kept guessing where ti might turn." -- Paul Barnett Cosamodo's Travels
"Miss Bensko, I finished your book a day or so ago. I really liked it! It made me feel weird. Like I'm weird already so it's hard to make me feel weird. But besides this book it was the same feeling as finishing Diary of a Genius by Dali decades ago. Was very clever. I'm glad I read it. It's totally unique and I'm so glad I found it." -- Chris Stibrany.
Amazon Reviews:
"Each time I read this brilliant little novella, I discover something new. I attempted to write a review a couple of months ago - I failed because, at that time, I had not yet understoof the story. This is one of those books that reward big with a second (or third or fourth) reading. Dealing with the often difficult themes of identity and psyche as well as themes and devices associated with the occult (the titular mirror, a scrying or seeing mirror, allowing the viewer to look into the past, future and places far away), Tantra takes us on a merry dance through the post-psychedelic world of Lucky, equipped as she is with her near-magic mirror. This is the kind of book that provokes both thought (it is a brilliant study of the metaphysics of possibility) and enthralls as a story. The book deftly straddles the gap between the fantasy of genre, the whimsy of experimental and the technical prowess of mainstream. I highly recommend this book - add it to your collection now! -- Dominic Ward
Equinox Mirror, Tantra Bensko’s latest novella, is transcendent, surreal and enthralling. Suffering from Alice in Wonderland Syndrome, Lucky lives in a house uncannily similar to her childhood doll house; a house full of borders and boarders where rats scrabble within walls and hair demons slug drain cleaner. A house which, “If we cut away a wall… would look like a child’s dollhouse imagining itself as real”. Bensko reels us into Lucky’s Wonderland where perceptions of the body, the sizes of objects and the sense of time are distorted. Vision, hearing – every sense can be affected, and Lucky has “visions of other people at a distance, other directions she could have gone, quantum stories that each molecule dreams.” In this house more labyrinth than dwelling, where time is fluid and Lucky’s potential lives and selves flicker in and out of focus, the rooms are populated by mirrors that reveal a smaller, bigger, older or younger Lucky depending on the speed with which the mirror’s liquid moves. And certain mirrors reveal a Lucky so titanic that, like Alice, she threatens to burst the confines of the room. But Lucky can’t discern her true appearance, “almost as if she doesn’t exist, but is just poorly imagined.”
Lucky’s being and not-being, Boy-Lucky and Girl-Lucky, the dollhouse with its teeny spying mirrors and hairballs and Andrew the Troll and Dungeonella, linger in our minds long after the final page. The lyrically patterned prose and spiralling narrative forever pull us back to the liquid silver of the Mirror where time slows or hastens. -- avid reader
Interview at Speaking of Marvels
Slipstream fiction arises from post-modernist worldview and combines Speculative without the traditional tropes, with a more Literary voice.
"Amazing book! So unique and very thought-provoking. The characters Bensko has created, Lucky in particular, are both fun and fascinating in their eccentricities, and Tantra's style - her voice - is intelligent yet at the same time so down-to-earth approachable. I love it!" Jason Rolfe Synthetic Saints
"Equinox Mirror is a unique story with vivid characters. The plot takes the reader through a world where time and identity are fluid, therefore possibility is ever-changing, all reaching toward an ending that is unexpected and yet makes complete sense when all elements are tied together. An intelligently written, thought-provoking story." Jennifer Holdbrook, author
"It grew on me. That's the sign of a truly great work. The best stuff always takes me a few readings to get into and then it takes me over!" Dominic Ward Prism and Graded Monotony
"It is an interesting boarding house to visit. And the trouble with mirrors is something else. I am enjoying the read; its weave of story-lines, the cast of characters and the peppering throughout with references to the fluidity of time. Quite appealing.
Its structure is unstructured, yet there remains enough frame to grasp, to guide you through without getting lost. that's a fine line to draw. A quality that I like, is that you elevate the reader, treat them with a bit of respect and provide writing that is cleaver, intelligent. A quality that is hard to find these days. . . a created world, like looking though a filter.its own sense of logic. it was fun to be kept guessing where ti might turn." -- Paul Barnett Cosamodo's Travels
"Miss Bensko, I finished your book a day or so ago. I really liked it! It made me feel weird. Like I'm weird already so it's hard to make me feel weird. But besides this book it was the same feeling as finishing Diary of a Genius by Dali decades ago. Was very clever. I'm glad I read it. It's totally unique and I'm so glad I found it." -- Chris Stibrany.
Amazon Reviews:
"Each time I read this brilliant little novella, I discover something new. I attempted to write a review a couple of months ago - I failed because, at that time, I had not yet understoof the story. This is one of those books that reward big with a second (or third or fourth) reading. Dealing with the often difficult themes of identity and psyche as well as themes and devices associated with the occult (the titular mirror, a scrying or seeing mirror, allowing the viewer to look into the past, future and places far away), Tantra takes us on a merry dance through the post-psychedelic world of Lucky, equipped as she is with her near-magic mirror. This is the kind of book that provokes both thought (it is a brilliant study of the metaphysics of possibility) and enthralls as a story. The book deftly straddles the gap between the fantasy of genre, the whimsy of experimental and the technical prowess of mainstream. I highly recommend this book - add it to your collection now! -- Dominic Ward
Equinox Mirror, Tantra Bensko’s latest novella, is transcendent, surreal and enthralling. Suffering from Alice in Wonderland Syndrome, Lucky lives in a house uncannily similar to her childhood doll house; a house full of borders and boarders where rats scrabble within walls and hair demons slug drain cleaner. A house which, “If we cut away a wall… would look like a child’s dollhouse imagining itself as real”. Bensko reels us into Lucky’s Wonderland where perceptions of the body, the sizes of objects and the sense of time are distorted. Vision, hearing – every sense can be affected, and Lucky has “visions of other people at a distance, other directions she could have gone, quantum stories that each molecule dreams.” In this house more labyrinth than dwelling, where time is fluid and Lucky’s potential lives and selves flicker in and out of focus, the rooms are populated by mirrors that reveal a smaller, bigger, older or younger Lucky depending on the speed with which the mirror’s liquid moves. And certain mirrors reveal a Lucky so titanic that, like Alice, she threatens to burst the confines of the room. But Lucky can’t discern her true appearance, “almost as if she doesn’t exist, but is just poorly imagined.”
Lucky’s being and not-being, Boy-Lucky and Girl-Lucky, the dollhouse with its teeny spying mirrors and hairballs and Andrew the Troll and Dungeonella, linger in our minds long after the final page. The lyrically patterned prose and spiralling narrative forever pull us back to the liquid silver of the Mirror where time slows or hastens. -- avid reader
Interview at Speaking of Marvels
Slipstream fiction arises from post-modernist worldview and combines Speculative without the traditional tropes, with a more Literary voice.