• Goth Girls of Banff

Goth Girls of Banff

by John O'Neill

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978-1-988732-95-4 | 2020 November | 208 Pages

ABOUT THIS BOOK

    John O’Neill’s gothic short stories, set in the Canadian Rockies, are haunted by the violence inherent in nature and humans. The mountains are majestic and impassive. The characters are surprising, bent, but also empathetic. Their survival is tenuous. A two-sister team of goth tour guides offers guided excursions up switchback mountain trails; a paroled convict thumbs his way into the life of a family driving west; and an animal pathologist, while performing a necropsy on a grizzly bear, has an unusual encounter with both technology and humanity.

    Goth Girls of Banff is a superb collection, sharply written, with plot turns as consequence-laden as those on an iced-over mountain road.

    “Beautifully executed and organically driven, these stories borne of the Canadian West captivate from the beginning and linger long in the mind. From Marilyn Monroe to encounters with wildlife to Castle Mountain Internment Camp, O’Neill is a storyteller whose tales carry an edgy grace and shimmering surefootedness. A compelling and visceral read.“
    — Catherine Graham, author of Quarry and The Celery Forest 

    "John O’Neill’s characters are thoughtful, at odds with their environment, and above all, deeply human. His prose is lyrical and imaginative, empathetic, with surprising moments of humour. The Alberta landscape is depicted with precision and awe. Well-shaped, character-driven plots build towards powerful emotional endings, in these stories that explore loneliness, fate, and subtle, prickly, human relationships.”
    — Shashi Bhat, author of The Family Took Shape

    “O'Neill's Goth Girls of Banff should be as essential to the mountain visitor as The Canadian Rockies Trail Guide.”
    — Lee Gowan, author of Confession and The Last Cowboy

    “The depth and variety of perspectives O'Neill writes make this collection a staggeringly endearing pastiche.”
    — Courtney Eathorne, Booklist

    “Whether looking for a story about the Rocky Mountains’ breathtaking (often literal) nature, or for some stories to pull on your heartstrings and teach you about what makes us human, O’Neill’s Goth Girls of Banff is a collection that has something for everyone.”
    — Skylar Kay, FreeFall Magazine

    “Like a moguls champ, O’Neill seamlessly glides over narrative twists and turns to deliver thrilling short stories of authentic mountain flavour.”
    — AMA Insider Magazine

    “The characters who populate this winning collection make the pilgrimage to Banff with expectations, usually of salvation. What they find is something distinctly less divine. Any hope of communion with nature is either thwarted by mundane human interference or the revelation of violence that lurks just below all that beauty.”
    — Zachary Abram, Canadian Literature

    “O'Neill is a skilled stylist. His use of language and image is vivid and crisp, the narratives are deeply imaginative and unpredictable.”
    — Steven Ross Smith, Alberta Views

    “These stories are thoroughly engaging, inventive and often wryly humorous. But there is violence in these pages too. In Goth Girls of Banff nature is freely available for anyone to enjoy, but only the naïve and reckless turn their back on it.”
    — Ian Colford, The Miramichi Reader

    “If you’ve ever wanted to visit Banff, I suggest picking this book up. It will frighten you and inspire you and, in the end, you might just yearn for a slice of that adventure too.
    — Myshara Herbert-McMyn, The Ormsby Review 

    “The inner lives of the characters in these short stories are what pull you in, and the relentless towering mountain scenery and the almost overwhelming wildness is what keeps you there.”
    — Gerilee McBride, SubTERRAIN Magazine

    "The tourism industry is, in certain respects, a series of stage sets. The ten sharp stories in John O’Neill’s collection Goth Girls of Banff often build on this concept."
    — Jeanette Lynes, University of Toronto Quarterly "Letters in Canada 2020"

    "You will discover how to be willing to embrace the unexpected, whatever your predispositions are towards it."
    — Katharine Mussellam, CAROUSEL Magazine (full review)

    Wanna add some edge to your mountain experience? To sharpen the dull blade of things, and let darkness descend, like beautiful sleep but with your eyes wide open? Call the Goth Girls of Banff. Available for photo shoots, social events, hikes, campfires, singly or in groups. Fully outfitted in deepest and darkest Gothwear, we can be more or less Vampiric, more or less Victorian, more or less Silent Film Man-Eaters and Vamps, and more or less Necromantic and Living Dead, according to special requests. If you’re tired of silly Tilley hats and Gore-Tex, cotton and khaki and crave a touch of leather and lace, we’re the gory Goth girls dressed up just for you. We’re all about Goth aesthetics, no funny business, no sticky situations, no touchy-feely or long longing gazes, and absolutely no fiddly long-term relations. Interactions start at $100 per hour. Prices negotiable for entire afternoons. Can talk evenings for a fee. Request times, locations and nature of encounters. Terms and conditions apply and must be set prior to engagements. Goth Girls of Banff. We’ll wrap dark wings around your wilderness day.

    1. The story “What is Written” is narrated by a paroled convict. Which of the other characters does he most connect with, and why?
    2. In what ways does the landscape reflect the relationship between the two sisters in “Athabasca”?
    3. Describe the central conflict of “Attacking the Bear.”
    4. In “Rudy,” what is the protagonist trying to accomplish? Why does he believe it so important to connect with the couple on the trail?
    5. Why does the narrator of “Three Places” finally “modify” his wife’s wishes?
    6. How does the style of “Marilyn in the Mountains” contrast with the other stories? Why do you think the author uses this approach?
    7. “From Castle Mountain” dramatizes a little known chapter of Canadian history—why do you think this history is not better known?
    8. In “Goth Girls of Banff,” what are the reasons that Linda quits the self-styled profession of Goth Girl, while her sister continues?
    9. In “Natural Selection,” the character of Ronny is associated with images of evolution, as in the title of the story. Why does the author include these details?
    10. Why does the narrator of “The Book About the Bear” answer the phone? Are his actions appropriate or questionable?
    11. What are some of the elements that unify the stories in this collection, aside from the location?