Book Review: Enjoy Me

Enjoy Me. Logan Ryan Smith. Transmission Press, January 14, 2015, Trade Paperback and Kindle, 236 pages.

Reviewed by David Laipple.

Enjoy Me is a collection of thirteen short stories skilled writer Logan Ryan Smith crafts from what is broadly called speculative poetry or speculative fiction. The writer himself describes his work as unclassifiable. Set in modern day San Francisco, dark versions of a fantasy urban jungle inspire the stories offered. Logan Ryan Smith’s protagonist, Luke, guides us through all thirteen stories.

Luke is struggling through a lot of personal issues at the edge of his imagination while using any available mind-altering substance. The combination either transforms people around him into insects, psychopaths, and zombies, or the insects, psychopaths, and zombies have transformed Luke. Luke acts out compulsively, occasionally for better, but more frequently for far worse. 

The magic in Enjoy Me is finding the lessons in the parallels between Luke’s fantastic world and the conventional world we all inhabit. Comfort yourself with the knowledge insect-people aren’t real and read Enjoy Me fearlessly; the horror of Luke’s next act as he works his way through his struggles will be balanced by an adequate measure of comic relief and your eventual acceptance of Luke as our hero.

Speculative poetry or speculative fiction written as skillfully as Logan Ryan Smith does is an excellent introduction to a genre you might enjoy. Read it before your next pub crawl, and take it literally. The characters populating these short stories with Luke offer up a gritty urban fantasy to prepare you for anything.