Book Reviews and More: Sugar Skull

Thursday 3 October 2024

Sugar Skull - Cedar Sanderson

Sugar Skull

Cedar Sanderson

StonyCroft Publishing

ISBN 9781311558091

ASIN B00HMA1LQS

This is the twenty-second volume from the masterful pen of Sanderson that I have read. To start at the beginning I first encountered the works of Cedar several years back in Cracked: An Anthology of Eggsellent Chicken Stories, and after reading her piece there knew I had to track down and read more from her pen. And to date everything I have read has been entertaining and some have just been amazing stories. I since found out that she is friends with a number of authors I love and respect. And working my way through her catalogue has been wonderful.

But back to the short story at hand. The description of this volume states:

“Sally, whose full name was Alessandra Padilla Rivera, and who had been raised by a grandmama on stories of El Cucuy, the chupacabra, and the jaguar god who hunts in the night, knows how hard good jobs are to find, and keep. She has a mother to support, and a new job to prove herself at. A couple of problems, though… She is working in a morgue where strange things are happening. The only person she can talk to is her boss, her mother just turns the television volume up, and her friends are grossed out by her job. But Sally is convinced her boss isn't fully human…”

This was a really intriguing story. It feels like it could fit very well in the world of the Groundskeeper Trilogy that began with Raking Up the Dead. And I cannot help but wonder if Mr. Cruor from that series and Pedro Enriquez in this volume have encountered each other before and if they might in a future story? And I can easily picture Sally and Chloe sharing stories about their various work adventures.

This is a very moving an powerful story. Especially if you know some of Cedar’s past, or have experienced domestic violence, or have supported others who have. It is an intriguing story about finding your place in the world, even if that place might be a morgue at a large hospital, and with an even more unusual boss than normal. I knew I would love this story when it began with:

““Hi, my name is Sally, and I work in the morgue. I’m a diener, which means I move bodies, clean them, and generally assist. It’s not that I’m obsessed with death or anything, it’s just that I really needed a job, and this one pays pretty well, because, as you can imagine, it’s not for the faint of heart. You know how the hospital assigns each department a color of scrubs? Well, ours were supposed to be black, but my boss, who, by the way, isn’t human, I’m pretty sure... Anyway, he laughed at that, and the next day I came into work to find hello kitty skull scrubs in my locker.””

The characters are well written. Sally is a strong character and has a deep commitment to her work. Even after finding out surprising things about her boss. In this one she plays mediator and becomes a confidant. This short story moves at a steady pace. It is another intriguing world Sanderson had created.

To date I have been very impressed with all of Sanderson’s writing that I have read, and have very much enjoyed her recently works published under the name of Lilania Begley. I can easily recommend this story if you like it and have not read them check out her Groundskeeper Series.

Books by Cedar Sanderson:

Lab Gremlins

Warp Resonance

The Dwarf's Dryad

One-Eyed Dragon

Memories of the Abyss

Little Red-Hood and the Wolf-man

The Violet Mouse

Stargazer

The Eternity Symbiote

Plant Life

Sugar Skull