Only and Ever This

by J.A. Tyler

A mother clings to twin sons, desperate to keep them from becoming their father, a pirate forever sailing away. In this rain-soaked township, she will attempt to mummify them, piece by piece, to stop them from growing up, a hope founded in magic and immortality. Meanwhile, their father obsesses the seas with his own belief in ever-lasting life, learning too late that his heart belongs on shore. In Only and Ever This, a family must endure father loss, a mother’s grief, and roiling adolescence, slipping as it does into arcades, caves, and the young love for a ghostly girl up the street.

208 pages, Paperback

Published February 21, 2023

About the author

J. A. Tyler is the author of The Zoo, a Going (Dzanc Books). His work has been published in Denver Quarterly, Hayden's Ferry Review, Black Warrior Review, Fairy Tale Review, and New York Tyrant among others. He is also an interviewer for Ploughshares.

Reviews

[C · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book sounded intriguing and I loved the cover -- A piratical father, two twin boys with pirate aspirations and a ghostly mother live in a town that is constantly raining. Along with some other subtle hints to classic movie monsters... not the creature from the black lagoon though... (though there is a lagoon!) I thought this would be a moody book, but it's almost a type of horror. Very dark at times, if this sort of story is unsettling to a certain reader. Sometimes I can't handle darkness of a certain flavor at certain reading times in my life. A horror based on Parenting and what parents will sometimes do to save their children. I began to think of Tyler as an Oulipo writer whose particular "writing restraint" is mentioning "rain" at least once on every page. I think Tyler does write books of poetry, so who knows if I'm correct. I did enjoy the writing on a poetic sentence level, but again, a lot of that rain could have been cut out. Overall, the plot reminded me of a missing season of the show 'Channel Zero'. (I'm a fan of 'Channel Zero'!) If you're looking for a moody, heavy on pirates, body horror, type of magical realism fable, give this a try.

[Justin Hall · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book will be with me for a long time.
I very briefly looked at the synopsis so I did not know what to expect. This book felt like some personal family trauma fleshed out with a tale of pirates and reanimation. Each scene had a haziness and eeriness almost like a romanticized montage. At first I was really wondering if this book was for me but I kept REALLY liking it. The family relationship all starts to make sense. The hero worship of Our Father, the vanishing relationship to Our Mother. And the familial bond between brothers and the jealousy and partnership they have. How they all end up makes sense too.. I dunno, I think you need to read this book and talk to me about it?
Thanks so much to Dzanc books for letting me read and review this book!

[Charles Cohen · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a beautiful and ugly. I could see this as an Ari Aster film, with grief and broken love and absolutely horrifying imagery. I'm not surprised Matt Bell and David Ohle blurbed this, because there are a lot of similarities to their work. It hurt to finish, but only because in and among the fog and rain the words were spiky and drew blood.

[Jaye Viner · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was stunning and beautiful in its horror, the way it burrowed into so much that creates and can uncreate a family. Perfect for fall.