If you are looking for a down and dirty Zombie novel, then look no farther. Provided of course that you can wade your way through multiple typos. The author has created almost the stereotypical archetype of a zombie book. Masses of undead, survivors banding together, total government breakdown, slow zombies, fast zombies, loud zombies, good survivors and bad survivors - it's all here.
The timeline leaps back and forth starting from within the walls of Eden, a sanctuary from the undead back to prior to the outbreak, then through various scenes of the pandemonium that followed. Some may dislike this format, I personally didn't mind it. The characters are very real, human, and flawed. Some are tortured by the loss of loved ones, others must deal with what they had to do to survive. The zombies in this book are what many zombie lovers would consider "old school" mindless shambling hoards of the undead.
What is interesting is that even though there isn't a single aspect of this novel that has not been done or seen before, this book reads as an all new story. I would consider this a must have for your zombie library. When I previously referred to typos, and there are plenty of them they mainly involve a lack of spaces between words at times, and at other times the leaving off of the last letter of a word, example the word "took" turning into "too." If you don't mind that then I highly recommend this book to the 15+ zombie fans.
Rated R for gore, violence, language both profane and racist, no sex is shown but it is very strongly eluded to.
Showing posts with label horror. Show all posts
Showing posts with label horror. Show all posts
Sunday, March 1, 2009
Saturday, February 28, 2009
Crimson by Gord Rollo
Gord Rollo's Second novel is in my humble oppinion, far superior to his first. Where Jigsaw Man was an interesting new take on the Mad Scientist tale, Crimson is much closer to the "small band of kids take on monster who lives in their small town" tale that so many horror writers eventually touch on. Stephen King's being the most notable IT then we have Dan Simmons with Summer of Night and even fellow Leisure Author Brian Keene with Ghoul.
Though Crimson starts out much as all of the others, we quickly take a different turn. The opening scene of this book is a real kick in the gut and will thrill the most avid of gore hounds. From there we travel to about 20 years later. The small farmhouse where our opening scene took place has sat abandoned for all of those years, quietly awaiting new blood to move in. When an unaware single mother and her young son move into the house, there is a stirring in the well out back. Soon four young friends end up playing at the house and discovering an ancient evil trapped away. The four boys fight for their lives as their worst nightmares come to pass.
Crimson follows these kids from the time they unleash the monster through their lives as it revisits them, bringing all new terrors with them each time it shows back up.
The writing in this book is very strong and the book is extremely interesting. I only had three minor annoyances that I was able to forget and still enjoy the book. The first being that there were too many characters who's name started with "D" I don't know why that bothered me, but for some reason it did. The second was that the characters age significantly from the beginnning of the book through the end, but they never seem to grow mentally to match their ages. And the third was that towards the end of the book there is a large bit of exposition that sort of explained everything that had been going on... I would have preferred for some of it to have been left to the imagination and other bits of it to have been figured out throughout the tale rather than having it all explained at once. Still that was not enough to keep me from really enjoying this read. I recommend it to anyone looking for a good fun scare.
Recommended reading ages - 15 and up depending on maturity
Though Crimson starts out much as all of the others, we quickly take a different turn. The opening scene of this book is a real kick in the gut and will thrill the most avid of gore hounds. From there we travel to about 20 years later. The small farmhouse where our opening scene took place has sat abandoned for all of those years, quietly awaiting new blood to move in. When an unaware single mother and her young son move into the house, there is a stirring in the well out back. Soon four young friends end up playing at the house and discovering an ancient evil trapped away. The four boys fight for their lives as their worst nightmares come to pass.
Crimson follows these kids from the time they unleash the monster through their lives as it revisits them, bringing all new terrors with them each time it shows back up.
The writing in this book is very strong and the book is extremely interesting. I only had three minor annoyances that I was able to forget and still enjoy the book. The first being that there were too many characters who's name started with "D" I don't know why that bothered me, but for some reason it did. The second was that the characters age significantly from the beginnning of the book through the end, but they never seem to grow mentally to match their ages. And the third was that towards the end of the book there is a large bit of exposition that sort of explained everything that had been going on... I would have preferred for some of it to have been left to the imagination and other bits of it to have been figured out throughout the tale rather than having it all explained at once. Still that was not enough to keep me from really enjoying this read. I recommend it to anyone looking for a good fun scare.
Recommended reading ages - 15 and up depending on maturity
Thursday, February 19, 2009
The Case of Charles Dexter Ward - HP Lovecraft
Lovecraft is a special writer, capable of twisting the mind of the reader in ways that all of the visual horror we are forever shown in this day and age can never accomplish.
What WAS the thing at the bottom of the pit? What was it that the good Doctor saw? So many open questions to let our minds fill in the blanks with the things that horrify us above all else.
The Case of Charles Dexter Ward is Lovecraft's longest work (at least that I've encountered) and there is so much in the meager 120 or so pages that it's amazing. We follow the Doctor as he relates the tale of his patient Charles Dexter Ward and his supposed decent into madness. In doing so we learn of an ancient relative who may have gone beyond dabbling in the black arts. Though the case revolves around Mr. Ward... the true story is that of his ancient relative.
Lovecraft has a grasp of the language that is beyond beautiful. He is eloquent, descriptive, engaging and thought provoking without ever coming across as pompous or arrogant. His description is effective without being obnoxious (Unlike J Fenimore Cooper), his dialog is realistic and meaningful (not like Jane Austin)and his plot is engaging, grabbing the reader from beginning to end (unlike "The House of the Seven Gables"). Highly recommended for those who like either the writing style of the time, or simple horror fans.
What WAS the thing at the bottom of the pit? What was it that the good Doctor saw? So many open questions to let our minds fill in the blanks with the things that horrify us above all else.
The Case of Charles Dexter Ward is Lovecraft's longest work (at least that I've encountered) and there is so much in the meager 120 or so pages that it's amazing. We follow the Doctor as he relates the tale of his patient Charles Dexter Ward and his supposed decent into madness. In doing so we learn of an ancient relative who may have gone beyond dabbling in the black arts. Though the case revolves around Mr. Ward... the true story is that of his ancient relative.
Lovecraft has a grasp of the language that is beyond beautiful. He is eloquent, descriptive, engaging and thought provoking without ever coming across as pompous or arrogant. His description is effective without being obnoxious (Unlike J Fenimore Cooper), his dialog is realistic and meaningful (not like Jane Austin)and his plot is engaging, grabbing the reader from beginning to end (unlike "The House of the Seven Gables"). Highly recommended for those who like either the writing style of the time, or simple horror fans.
Sunday, February 1, 2009
Traumatized by Alexander S. Brown
Traumatized is a short story book containing 15 tales of horror, and nothing else. The reader is saved from reading an introduction, any sales pitch for additional books, or even author information. The tales contained within the book range from thrillingly creepy and horrific to mediocre. There are stories of serial killers, demons, vengeful spirits, psychotic cults, voodoo curses, and even a bigfoot creature. Where Brown really shines is in his haunted house stories. The opening tale – “Bloodlines” is one of the two strongest in the book. A tale of four people called for a “treasure hunt” in a mysterious house learn that there is far more to the treasure than what they bargained for. Tied for my favorite is the story “It’s all True” another haunted house tale that ends is a terrifying and gruesome way. Brown is in his element when writing about haunted houses. I found his murderer tales to be the weakest in the book, specifically “April” which seems to have been written long before the author really hit his writing stride. It comes across as forced and stilted with problematic dialogue and unbelievable characters. The final tale in the book “Zoe’s Swan Song” is both gruesome and familiar, one knows how the tale of someone offering to show a vindictive person their “inner beauty” will turn out. Other than the haunted house tales, “The God Complex” was very interesting.
On the whole this was a collection of horror stories that is well worth the purchase. The percentage of excellent versus weak stories is in the reader’s favor with there being far more good than not. Any collection will have stories that are stronger than others. This is an excellent short story collection that I recommend to horror fans.
Rating is defiantly an “R” with profanity, gore, sex, rape and murder.
Original Review for Monsterlibrarian.com
On the whole this was a collection of horror stories that is well worth the purchase. The percentage of excellent versus weak stories is in the reader’s favor with there being far more good than not. Any collection will have stories that are stronger than others. This is an excellent short story collection that I recommend to horror fans.
Rating is defiantly an “R” with profanity, gore, sex, rape and murder.
Original Review for Monsterlibrarian.com
The Chair - Graphic Novel
I'll admit that I own no graphic novels other than the spawn compilations, so when they sent me a copy of "The Chair" to review, I was rather excited. The cover is well drawn, although the printing on my copy seems to be shifted to the left, cutting the last letter of each of the authors/illustrators names half off. A quick flip through reveals that the entire book is in black and white, nice touch.
Now our story follows a man on death row, surrounded by the criminally insane of the worst types, awaiting his final trip down the hallway. Quickly we determine that the prison is not all that it seems, the body count is too high with out anyone making a trip to the room containing the chair. Reality twists and churns as our perceptions of what is really happening bubbles in the foam.
The concept of this novel is excellent... unfortunately the execution leaves something to be desired. The background artwork is fantastic, unfortunately the artwork of the people in the story is weak, they are improperly proportioned and sadly all look too similar to distinguish anyone other than our main character... and that's only because he has a beard and is almost always sitting. Another negative is the Dialogue, which is cryptic and bland. Sure the reader gets the gist of what is going on, but having more fluid and specific dialogue would have greatly added to the reader's enjoyment. Though this is not the worst graphic novel I have read, it certainly does not rank among the best.
Kiddie rating for this book is PG 13 possibly R for profanity, violence and adult subject matter along the lines of child murder/rape/serial killers.
Originally reviewed for www.monsterlibrarian.com
Now our story follows a man on death row, surrounded by the criminally insane of the worst types, awaiting his final trip down the hallway. Quickly we determine that the prison is not all that it seems, the body count is too high with out anyone making a trip to the room containing the chair. Reality twists and churns as our perceptions of what is really happening bubbles in the foam.
The concept of this novel is excellent... unfortunately the execution leaves something to be desired. The background artwork is fantastic, unfortunately the artwork of the people in the story is weak, they are improperly proportioned and sadly all look too similar to distinguish anyone other than our main character... and that's only because he has a beard and is almost always sitting. Another negative is the Dialogue, which is cryptic and bland. Sure the reader gets the gist of what is going on, but having more fluid and specific dialogue would have greatly added to the reader's enjoyment. Though this is not the worst graphic novel I have read, it certainly does not rank among the best.
Kiddie rating for this book is PG 13 possibly R for profanity, violence and adult subject matter along the lines of child murder/rape/serial killers.
Originally reviewed for www.monsterlibrarian.com
Thursday, January 22, 2009
A Clockwork Orange - Anthony Burgess
I had “viddied” this “sinny” many times at a young age “Oh my brothers” and it was real “horrorshow” but I had never read the book. Let me tell ya… the language takes a bit to sink in. Even at the end of the book there were bits and peaces that I had to mentally translate to myself. Burgess wrote this from the POV of Alex, a nasty little 14 year old who enjoys theft, burglary, assault and battery, rape and then the dabbles into manslaughter. I say manslaughter because I don’t believe that Alex and his friends intended to kill anyone, they just laid on the beat down a bit too hard.
Oh, and Alex speaks directly to us… the readers, who he refers to as “my brothers” but Alex speaks in a slang that I hear is a mish-mash of Eurasian languages, particularly a lot of Russian thrown in. It takes a while for your brain to process this language. It’s not hard to figure out through context what each of the words means, but it will certainly slow down your reading. The version I read was 149 pages (the original European publishing that DID include the final chapter) and it took me close to a week to finish it. Now I had been told that this was an ultraviolent book… and at the time it may have been… but I didn’t find it to be any more violent than “In Cold Blood” or some other classics that I was encouraged to read. However, the book keeps referring to the goings on as “ultra-violence.” True there are several beatings, a knife fight, a few rapes, drug use, etc… but with the mental translation it took to figure out exactly what was occurring… sure I knew it was wrong, but it didn’t “horrify” me. Then again I grew up in an age where this kind of thing actually does happen. I believe that when this was written, they had a belief that the world was a better place than those of us from later generations believe.
The underlying theme is the question of – if you could force someone to be good… force them to only be capable of doing the right thing… is that good? Or is it better to allow them the option to do evil, provided they have options. What is the “Christian” thing to do in this case? Would God be pleased to see his creations only doing good when they have no choice but to do it? There are other themes running amok through this book, childhood, growing up, the violence inherent in the system, and the futility of rehabilitating prisoners when our prisons are overcrowded and unmanageable to name just a few. There is a lot of meaning in this book, if one can manage their way through it. Some will be turned off by the difficulty of reading the made up language, others will be turned off by the violence… but those who make it through certainly are left with quite a few tidbits to mull over in their minds. I would suggest reading this with someone, or a group, because I assume that the most enjoyment can be reached by really discussing this book with someone. Good luck, enjoy and know that this is a very interesting, vile, yet purposeful book.
Oh, and Alex speaks directly to us… the readers, who he refers to as “my brothers” but Alex speaks in a slang that I hear is a mish-mash of Eurasian languages, particularly a lot of Russian thrown in. It takes a while for your brain to process this language. It’s not hard to figure out through context what each of the words means, but it will certainly slow down your reading. The version I read was 149 pages (the original European publishing that DID include the final chapter) and it took me close to a week to finish it. Now I had been told that this was an ultraviolent book… and at the time it may have been… but I didn’t find it to be any more violent than “In Cold Blood” or some other classics that I was encouraged to read. However, the book keeps referring to the goings on as “ultra-violence.” True there are several beatings, a knife fight, a few rapes, drug use, etc… but with the mental translation it took to figure out exactly what was occurring… sure I knew it was wrong, but it didn’t “horrify” me. Then again I grew up in an age where this kind of thing actually does happen. I believe that when this was written, they had a belief that the world was a better place than those of us from later generations believe.
The underlying theme is the question of – if you could force someone to be good… force them to only be capable of doing the right thing… is that good? Or is it better to allow them the option to do evil, provided they have options. What is the “Christian” thing to do in this case? Would God be pleased to see his creations only doing good when they have no choice but to do it? There are other themes running amok through this book, childhood, growing up, the violence inherent in the system, and the futility of rehabilitating prisoners when our prisons are overcrowded and unmanageable to name just a few. There is a lot of meaning in this book, if one can manage their way through it. Some will be turned off by the difficulty of reading the made up language, others will be turned off by the violence… but those who make it through certainly are left with quite a few tidbits to mull over in their minds. I would suggest reading this with someone, or a group, because I assume that the most enjoyment can be reached by really discussing this book with someone. Good luck, enjoy and know that this is a very interesting, vile, yet purposeful book.
Friday, January 2, 2009
Jake's Wake - John Skipp and Cody Goodfellow
So I started and finished my first book of 2009, and it looks like this is going to be a good year. Jake's Wake is a fun filled horror fest of zombie-riffic magnitude.
Short Synopsis - Jake is a Jerk... see how close the words are? Jake is scum of the most terrible sort, womanizing, abusing, just plain evil nasty guy. But he's got charisma... and he decides to throw his rock band plans to the wayside and use this charisma to run a church, being a psychotic television evangelist and massing quite a few fervent followers. Then Jake's penchant for womanizing gets the best of him and he ends up dead... but not for long! Those who were closest to him, and thrilled to be finally out of his evil clutches will have an evening to remember when Jake comes home from his own wake... even nastier than before.
This book is hard to put down, it's so out there and yet so engrossing all at the same time. There is plenty of sex and gore in this book to keep those who worship the red stuff happy. As I said... Jake was not a nice guy before he died. We follow three of the women in his life and their new men as they find themselves trapped in Jake's old house with his living and not quite breathing corpse. And Jake has plans for them.
At first the characters are so aloof and filled with hatred that I wasn't sure there was going to be anyone for us to root for, but as the evening plays on several of them begin to shine and give us hope. There are even one or two that the reader will become attached to. We don't get much background on anyone other than Jake, Gray, and the three women, but it's the ones that we don't get the background on that we end up caring the most for.
There are very strong religious themes in this book that might irritate those who hate reading anything along those lines. The book never approaches "preachy" but it's hard not to get into religion when the main baddie was a fake evangelist. There is a lot of subtext here on people who are searching for hope being easily lead, and charismatic leaders who preach the right words being able to control them. The book never degenerates into Christian bashing, nor does it wave the Christian recruiter flag, it is more a commentary of the Jim and Tammy Fay Bakers in the world. But never fear... this book really doesn't rise much beyond a fun filled horror novel, no real thought required.
I have to admit that the ending was unexpected, not all of it, but a chunk of it was out there... strangely if you had told me that the book would end like that, I probably would have said "No, that's a terrible ending!" but as I said, I didn't expect it... and it worked for me. On the whole this is a very strong book with a lot of enjoyable parts and a satisfying ending.
Short Synopsis - Jake is a Jerk... see how close the words are? Jake is scum of the most terrible sort, womanizing, abusing, just plain evil nasty guy. But he's got charisma... and he decides to throw his rock band plans to the wayside and use this charisma to run a church, being a psychotic television evangelist and massing quite a few fervent followers. Then Jake's penchant for womanizing gets the best of him and he ends up dead... but not for long! Those who were closest to him, and thrilled to be finally out of his evil clutches will have an evening to remember when Jake comes home from his own wake... even nastier than before.
This book is hard to put down, it's so out there and yet so engrossing all at the same time. There is plenty of sex and gore in this book to keep those who worship the red stuff happy. As I said... Jake was not a nice guy before he died. We follow three of the women in his life and their new men as they find themselves trapped in Jake's old house with his living and not quite breathing corpse. And Jake has plans for them.
At first the characters are so aloof and filled with hatred that I wasn't sure there was going to be anyone for us to root for, but as the evening plays on several of them begin to shine and give us hope. There are even one or two that the reader will become attached to. We don't get much background on anyone other than Jake, Gray, and the three women, but it's the ones that we don't get the background on that we end up caring the most for.
There are very strong religious themes in this book that might irritate those who hate reading anything along those lines. The book never approaches "preachy" but it's hard not to get into religion when the main baddie was a fake evangelist. There is a lot of subtext here on people who are searching for hope being easily lead, and charismatic leaders who preach the right words being able to control them. The book never degenerates into Christian bashing, nor does it wave the Christian recruiter flag, it is more a commentary of the Jim and Tammy Fay Bakers in the world. But never fear... this book really doesn't rise much beyond a fun filled horror novel, no real thought required.
I have to admit that the ending was unexpected, not all of it, but a chunk of it was out there... strangely if you had told me that the book would end like that, I probably would have said "No, that's a terrible ending!" but as I said, I didn't expect it... and it worked for me. On the whole this is a very strong book with a lot of enjoyable parts and a satisfying ending.
Wednesday, December 31, 2008
Succulent Prey - Wrath James White
Across the internet I've seen this book rated both 1 to 5 stars... people have loved it, people have loathed it, people have called it the next step in horror, people have called it literary torture porn... so of course with all of the varied reviews, I had to read it.
Short Summary: We follow Joseph Miles from his childhood, where he is abducted, tortured and then released, to his college years where he begins having terrible urges to gnaw on lovely co-eds. He belives that being a serial killer is a contagious disease that he caught as a child... and now he's hunting for a cure before he starts chomping on the woman he loves.
This is the first book by Mr. White that I have read, and he has a very interesting style. This book is VERY gory, and filled with sexual deviance and perversions, cannibalism, rape, sodomy, and just about any other type of sickening thing you can imagine reading about. I don't consider myself actually hardened from all the horror I have read, Ketchum and Masterton have made me squemish before... so I was confused at first as to why all of this gore didn't really affect me. And there is a LOT of gore, just about every page is smattered with it. I almost wonder if there wasn't too much gore, actually I'm almost sure there was too much gore, it hit a point where the reader just ends up numb to it and all of the shock value is gone.
I also didn't particularly care for any of the characters... we follow the serial killer as our main character... but we never really get to know him so we're not all that worried if he gets caught or killed... perhaps if this had been more first person, or if our character had shared more thoughts with us beyond his cannibalism. There were no dreams, hopes for a future, relationships or anything for the reader to root for. Our Heroine was almost likeable, but any hope she had of being memorable in the long term ended with the second to the last scene. Speaking of which... I would have probably given this book 4 stars had the last two scenes been cut from the book. They were both completely unnecessary and they blew much of the premise that the book appeared to be working toward. I would have rather not known where certain people ended up then to have their ending seem so oddly out of line with where it felt like it should have been.
I can't go into much more then that without mentioning any spoilers, so I apologize if it seems vague. I think there are a lot of people out there who will really enjoy this book, Laymon fans in particular may now have a new author to thrill over. I will probably read more by Mr. White, though I hope in his next book he tries harder to scare me rather than just gross me out.
Short Summary: We follow Joseph Miles from his childhood, where he is abducted, tortured and then released, to his college years where he begins having terrible urges to gnaw on lovely co-eds. He belives that being a serial killer is a contagious disease that he caught as a child... and now he's hunting for a cure before he starts chomping on the woman he loves.
This is the first book by Mr. White that I have read, and he has a very interesting style. This book is VERY gory, and filled with sexual deviance and perversions, cannibalism, rape, sodomy, and just about any other type of sickening thing you can imagine reading about. I don't consider myself actually hardened from all the horror I have read, Ketchum and Masterton have made me squemish before... so I was confused at first as to why all of this gore didn't really affect me. And there is a LOT of gore, just about every page is smattered with it. I almost wonder if there wasn't too much gore, actually I'm almost sure there was too much gore, it hit a point where the reader just ends up numb to it and all of the shock value is gone.
I also didn't particularly care for any of the characters... we follow the serial killer as our main character... but we never really get to know him so we're not all that worried if he gets caught or killed... perhaps if this had been more first person, or if our character had shared more thoughts with us beyond his cannibalism. There were no dreams, hopes for a future, relationships or anything for the reader to root for. Our Heroine was almost likeable, but any hope she had of being memorable in the long term ended with the second to the last scene. Speaking of which... I would have probably given this book 4 stars had the last two scenes been cut from the book. They were both completely unnecessary and they blew much of the premise that the book appeared to be working toward. I would have rather not known where certain people ended up then to have their ending seem so oddly out of line with where it felt like it should have been.
I can't go into much more then that without mentioning any spoilers, so I apologize if it seems vague. I think there are a lot of people out there who will really enjoy this book, Laymon fans in particular may now have a new author to thrill over. I will probably read more by Mr. White, though I hope in his next book he tries harder to scare me rather than just gross me out.
Tuesday, December 23, 2008
The Black Cathedral - L.H. Maynard & M.P.N. Sims
This is my first venture into the world of Maynard and Sims, so I don’t know if this is part of a series or not. The little blurb under the title of “A Department 18 Novel” implies to me that there are more novels (or intended novels) about the group from Department 18.
So who is Department 18? Why they are a government group of Psychics, telekinetics, and ghost busters… not that we get to see them bust any ghosts or anything. So what is Department 18 doing? Well when they aren’t bickering amongst themselves and puffing up their petty egos, they are investigating why a bunch of people have disappeared on a Scottish island with no traces left… not even the helicopter.
This book opens well; the first scene with Robert in the house is almost wonderful. The bugs, were a chilling touch… and the way it wrapped up… well it was disappointing but it was still a fun scene. Then we get into the real meat of the tale… disappearing people on an island! This book seemed like it was really going somewhere… then we have about half the book of them researching and monologue after monologue of back story, personal feelings, previous relationships, etc… it bogs down quickly. By the time we get to the island I was thrilled to see how these annoying folks were going to meet their end… and even that turned out to be a letdown.
This book suffers from what I like to think of as “Too much magic.” We have the psychics… and that has to be explained to us, as well as their powers, and how their powers affect them, etc. Then we have to learn about ley lines, and have that explained to us… then we have to look into the malevolent evil on the island and that takes pages and pages of exposition and explanation. By the time we are done everyone seems to have some sort of super power, the baddie is a superbaddie, and people disappearing isn’t all that scary to begin with… mainly because there is always the chance they could reappear.
I normally like this kind of tale, but the problem was that there was so much explaining going on, that I really didn’t care about what happened anymore. I was also a bit disappointed in the ending… rather over the top without the heart. The actual writing style was good enough… but they never managed to pull me into their story… rather it seemed like they kept pushing the reader out and reminding them “it’s just a story; don’t invest too much in to this.” I’m not quite sure why that wall was there, perhaps the characters, perhaps the exposition, or maybe the story just went too far for me to lock in on it. Still there are plenty of people out there who will like this novel… it just wasn’t for me.
So who is Department 18? Why they are a government group of Psychics, telekinetics, and ghost busters… not that we get to see them bust any ghosts or anything. So what is Department 18 doing? Well when they aren’t bickering amongst themselves and puffing up their petty egos, they are investigating why a bunch of people have disappeared on a Scottish island with no traces left… not even the helicopter.
This book opens well; the first scene with Robert in the house is almost wonderful. The bugs, were a chilling touch… and the way it wrapped up… well it was disappointing but it was still a fun scene. Then we get into the real meat of the tale… disappearing people on an island! This book seemed like it was really going somewhere… then we have about half the book of them researching and monologue after monologue of back story, personal feelings, previous relationships, etc… it bogs down quickly. By the time we get to the island I was thrilled to see how these annoying folks were going to meet their end… and even that turned out to be a letdown.
This book suffers from what I like to think of as “Too much magic.” We have the psychics… and that has to be explained to us, as well as their powers, and how their powers affect them, etc. Then we have to learn about ley lines, and have that explained to us… then we have to look into the malevolent evil on the island and that takes pages and pages of exposition and explanation. By the time we are done everyone seems to have some sort of super power, the baddie is a superbaddie, and people disappearing isn’t all that scary to begin with… mainly because there is always the chance they could reappear.
I normally like this kind of tale, but the problem was that there was so much explaining going on, that I really didn’t care about what happened anymore. I was also a bit disappointed in the ending… rather over the top without the heart. The actual writing style was good enough… but they never managed to pull me into their story… rather it seemed like they kept pushing the reader out and reminding them “it’s just a story; don’t invest too much in to this.” I’m not quite sure why that wall was there, perhaps the characters, perhaps the exposition, or maybe the story just went too far for me to lock in on it. Still there are plenty of people out there who will like this novel… it just wasn’t for me.
Friday, December 19, 2008
The Reach - Nate Kenyon
Many have likened this novel to King’s “Firestarter” and it is very easy to see why. We have a little girl, with unimaginable power, an evil institution trying to bend and wield her power and an unlikely hero trying to save the child. Kenyon even named a secondary character “Charlie” as if to acknowledge the similarities and give homage to King. But “The Reach” although it shares so many similarities, reads as an entirely different story.
Short Synopsis: Jess Chambers is a star student in Psychiatry… she has come to the attention of her professor, Dr. Jean Shelley. Dr. Shelley decides to put Jess to the test on a very special patient… a little girl by the name of Sarah who has spent her entire life in an institution, the girl is diagnosed as schizophrenic and has not spoken in months. “Just try to befriend her, see if she will open up to you” Dr. Shelley tells Jess. What they didn’t count on was the door they opened by inviting Jess into Sarah’s life, and what it would lead to in the end. A series of twists and turns later… we come to an explosive ending that would make for great film.
From the opening scene I loved this book. It was fun, exciting, and elicited a concern from the reader for many of the characters. Who is good, who is bad, who is lying, who is truly in need, who can be trusted… the tables turn over and over as Jess tries to piece together the life of Sarah, and help her to come into her own. Men in dark suits with guns and scientists with nasty ambitions soon come into the picture and Jess finds that no one can be trusted. Is Sarah evil? Is she truly the antichrist as her family believes? Or is just a scared little girl with an unholy power?
The book moves quickly, you will find yourself whipping through the pages until you explode into the ending. The author has said that this is the first in a series of possibly 3 books, but don’t let that stop you. Kenyon DOES wrap this one up nicely – no cliff hangers to leave you angry or frustrated. To be honest, I did not find this book to be scary – I found it to be more entertaining than anything else. I highly recommend this book, Kenyon was good when he wrote “Bloodstone” and he is even better with “The Reach” I look forward to his next novel.
Short Synopsis: Jess Chambers is a star student in Psychiatry… she has come to the attention of her professor, Dr. Jean Shelley. Dr. Shelley decides to put Jess to the test on a very special patient… a little girl by the name of Sarah who has spent her entire life in an institution, the girl is diagnosed as schizophrenic and has not spoken in months. “Just try to befriend her, see if she will open up to you” Dr. Shelley tells Jess. What they didn’t count on was the door they opened by inviting Jess into Sarah’s life, and what it would lead to in the end. A series of twists and turns later… we come to an explosive ending that would make for great film.
From the opening scene I loved this book. It was fun, exciting, and elicited a concern from the reader for many of the characters. Who is good, who is bad, who is lying, who is truly in need, who can be trusted… the tables turn over and over as Jess tries to piece together the life of Sarah, and help her to come into her own. Men in dark suits with guns and scientists with nasty ambitions soon come into the picture and Jess finds that no one can be trusted. Is Sarah evil? Is she truly the antichrist as her family believes? Or is just a scared little girl with an unholy power?
The book moves quickly, you will find yourself whipping through the pages until you explode into the ending. The author has said that this is the first in a series of possibly 3 books, but don’t let that stop you. Kenyon DOES wrap this one up nicely – no cliff hangers to leave you angry or frustrated. To be honest, I did not find this book to be scary – I found it to be more entertaining than anything else. I highly recommend this book, Kenyon was good when he wrote “Bloodstone” and he is even better with “The Reach” I look forward to his next novel.
Saturday, November 22, 2008
Bite - Richard Laymon
Boo to whoever wrote the synopsis on the back of this book, and Boo to Richard Laymon for what this book turned into. This book is sold as a vampire novel… it’s not, in fact the “vampire” has metal fangs and spends 90% of the book in the trunk of a car with a stake through him, looking very very dead. This book follows Cat and Sam through a series of bad luck and even worse choices. The choices they make are so dumb, that the reader will find themselves hoping that the vampire WOULD come back and do the two of them in before they have a chance to breed and create anyone else as dumb as the two of them.
Short Summary: Cat shows up out of nowhere on the front steps of her long forgotten ex-boyfriends house. She asks him (after not seeing him for 10 years) to slay a vampire for her… so without a single question he goes “Okay” and they slay the vampire. Then they pop the Vampire’s body into the trunk and head off to who knows where to try to bury the body. But they get a flat, and meet up with a serial killer, and some hostages, and some other nastiness… but they laugh and have sex through all of it.
It seems like this should have been at least an okay book. But it wasn’t… in reality this was a very boring book with little to no action, lots of whining and Cat yapping about the 57 or so times she has been raped, bitten by vampires, beaten by men, forced into abortions etc, and Sam just sort of nods at her and says something along the lines of “well that sucks” and she nods. These have to be two of the dumbest, and most boring characters ever put into a horror novel. And the sad thing is that if either of them had a lick of sense this book would have only been about 50 pages long… and better for it. The dialogue is terrible, the plot is full of more holes than a cheese grater, and the ending leaves the reader wondering – why did I just read that… I could have put it down and read something else… or picked my toes for 3 hours and had a better time.
Sorry, I can’t even recommend this to Laymon fans. The gore isn’t up to his standards… there is of course lots of sex and body descriptions… and I think it is a Laymon requirement to use the word “Rump” at least 30 times per book. I won’t say that it’s the worst book I’ve ever read… but it will be one that I quickly forget.
Short Summary: Cat shows up out of nowhere on the front steps of her long forgotten ex-boyfriends house. She asks him (after not seeing him for 10 years) to slay a vampire for her… so without a single question he goes “Okay” and they slay the vampire. Then they pop the Vampire’s body into the trunk and head off to who knows where to try to bury the body. But they get a flat, and meet up with a serial killer, and some hostages, and some other nastiness… but they laugh and have sex through all of it.
It seems like this should have been at least an okay book. But it wasn’t… in reality this was a very boring book with little to no action, lots of whining and Cat yapping about the 57 or so times she has been raped, bitten by vampires, beaten by men, forced into abortions etc, and Sam just sort of nods at her and says something along the lines of “well that sucks” and she nods. These have to be two of the dumbest, and most boring characters ever put into a horror novel. And the sad thing is that if either of them had a lick of sense this book would have only been about 50 pages long… and better for it. The dialogue is terrible, the plot is full of more holes than a cheese grater, and the ending leaves the reader wondering – why did I just read that… I could have put it down and read something else… or picked my toes for 3 hours and had a better time.
Sorry, I can’t even recommend this to Laymon fans. The gore isn’t up to his standards… there is of course lots of sex and body descriptions… and I think it is a Laymon requirement to use the word “Rump” at least 30 times per book. I won’t say that it’s the worst book I’ve ever read… but it will be one that I quickly forget.
Wednesday, November 19, 2008
Beware - Richard Laymon
This is Laymon's most recent re-release (as of Nov 08). This feature story is shorter than most standard Leisure books, coming in at about 266 pages. The rest of the book is a teaser for "Dark Mountain" which is being re-released in March of 2009. I am not sure if this original story was published while he was alive or if it was one of the many that was dug out of some mysterious safe and published after his death.
Short Summary: Lacey is a reporter for the local paper in a small town. When something strange begins happening at the market she, along with several other townsfolk go to investigate. What they first assume to be vandalism quickly escalates into murder and rape, with a trail of bodies piling up and no sign of a killer anywhere. When things get even worse for Lacey, she goes on the run...
Though the book started out okay, by the time I got to the end, I was ready to put it down. I quite enjoyed the opening, when I believed our problem to be a malevolent ghost. Then they brought in the voodoo and I sort of nodded and thought, okay a little voodoo can cause the ghosts, I can live with that. But then we crossed the line and just kept on going... when the reality of what was being sold to me came about... I was pretty well beyond my ability to suspend my disbelief. You can add too much fantastical crap into one novel and end up with garbage. I won't say this became utter trash, but I really wasn't happy with the outcome. I remember reading in a screenwriting group that you can only have 1 truly magical bit in a story and have people buy it... that you can have aliens, or you can have mermaids, but you cant have aliens AND mermaids or the audience won't remember what they've seen. That's pretty much where this novel failed to me. We had Voodoo cults/government groups? We have sacrifices, we have invisible people, we have random good guys who pop up out of nowhere and just happen to know a guy already working on the case, there is just too much for me to have to choke down to believe it...
I'm not sure where in the scheme of things Laymon wrote this novel, it's not his best and it's not his worst. There are plenty of rapes, and naked women... not so much gore as one might expect with a serial killer/rapist and a handful of Voodoo sacrifices. Mostly we just have a sadistic rapist and a bunch of naked women and a whole lot of running around. I think what disappointed me was that I was really excited about the beginning when I thought it was going to be a ghost story. Now I have read the original Jules Verne book that he took this idea from, and I have to say... that Laymon's treatment really didn't impress me at all.
His characters are still stiff and unbelievably one sided. The woman does a lot of running, screaming, trying to fight back, and getting raped anyway. The men are either complete dolts, or they are sadistic rapist murderers. And when Scott and his buddy come onto the scene, I couldn't help but roll my eyes and think "how convenient." In fact I found myself thinking that quite a bit through this book. Still, it's only 266 pages and if you are a Laymon fan, you won't be able to get your fix again until March of 09. For rabid Laymon fans, I would say go pick this up and get your fix. For first time Laymon readers, I would start somewhere else because this is nowhere near one of his best works.
Beware
Short Summary: Lacey is a reporter for the local paper in a small town. When something strange begins happening at the market she, along with several other townsfolk go to investigate. What they first assume to be vandalism quickly escalates into murder and rape, with a trail of bodies piling up and no sign of a killer anywhere. When things get even worse for Lacey, she goes on the run...
Though the book started out okay, by the time I got to the end, I was ready to put it down. I quite enjoyed the opening, when I believed our problem to be a malevolent ghost. Then they brought in the voodoo and I sort of nodded and thought, okay a little voodoo can cause the ghosts, I can live with that. But then we crossed the line and just kept on going... when the reality of what was being sold to me came about... I was pretty well beyond my ability to suspend my disbelief. You can add too much fantastical crap into one novel and end up with garbage. I won't say this became utter trash, but I really wasn't happy with the outcome. I remember reading in a screenwriting group that you can only have 1 truly magical bit in a story and have people buy it... that you can have aliens, or you can have mermaids, but you cant have aliens AND mermaids or the audience won't remember what they've seen. That's pretty much where this novel failed to me. We had Voodoo cults/government groups? We have sacrifices, we have invisible people, we have random good guys who pop up out of nowhere and just happen to know a guy already working on the case, there is just too much for me to have to choke down to believe it...
I'm not sure where in the scheme of things Laymon wrote this novel, it's not his best and it's not his worst. There are plenty of rapes, and naked women... not so much gore as one might expect with a serial killer/rapist and a handful of Voodoo sacrifices. Mostly we just have a sadistic rapist and a bunch of naked women and a whole lot of running around. I think what disappointed me was that I was really excited about the beginning when I thought it was going to be a ghost story. Now I have read the original Jules Verne book that he took this idea from, and I have to say... that Laymon's treatment really didn't impress me at all.
His characters are still stiff and unbelievably one sided. The woman does a lot of running, screaming, trying to fight back, and getting raped anyway. The men are either complete dolts, or they are sadistic rapist murderers. And when Scott and his buddy come onto the scene, I couldn't help but roll my eyes and think "how convenient." In fact I found myself thinking that quite a bit through this book. Still, it's only 266 pages and if you are a Laymon fan, you won't be able to get your fix again until March of 09. For rabid Laymon fans, I would say go pick this up and get your fix. For first time Laymon readers, I would start somewhere else because this is nowhere near one of his best works.
Beware
Monday, November 10, 2008
Children of the Night - David Stuart Davies
The Vampire, more than any other creature of gothic folklore, has been defined by the fiction written about it. This book contains many of the short stories that were defining moments in Vampire lore. The first to mention staking a vampire, the first female vamp, talk of burying them at a crossroads minus their heads, the first where they shapeshift. For true vampire lovers, this book is a must read. There are a total of 12 tales in this book beginning with the "Vampire of Croglin Hall", and then moving on to such famous tales as "Varney the Vampyre," "The Curse of the Vourdalack," "Carmilla", and "The Horla." There is even an excerpt from Stoker's "Dracula" titled "Dracula and the Three Brides" which is in my oppinion, one of the most horrific scenes in that illustrious novel. Each of these tales is by a different author, and they range in time from the mid 1800's through Edith Wharton's Bewitched which was written in the 1900's. I am not counting the story of "The Welcome Visitor" which was written by the man who compiled these tales... it is not up to the quality of the other stories that inhabit this fine collection. My personal favorite is "The Curse of the Vourdalak" which I immediately recognized as the foundation for the beginning of almost every modern Vampire tale (you can see it is almost identical to the opening of McCammon's Vampire tale "They Thirst"). I also had a fondness for "Carmilla" which was odd because it was so clear to me what would happen. I could not even imagine the horror readers must have felt reading these stories for the first time back when they were written. In this day and age we have been bombarded by Vampire tales and movies... but the horror that readers must have felt back in the 1800's when they read these for the first time must have been amazing. Each of these stories is deserving of a read by itself, but to have them all compiled together in a single book makes this a must own for any fan of the Vampire legend. You will not find your debonair, suave vampires who woo women with their charms... instead you will find the horror of destroyed villages, children hiding in their beds as beasts lurk through their towns, women wasting away in terror from unknown assailants, men being stalked by invisible beings who drain their life as they sleep. If you are looking for a quick and easy read, this is not it... having been written in the late 1800's through early 1900's, the language will take a bit to sink in. Once it does you will regret that we have long ago lost the beauty of our language.
Children of the Night (Wordsworth Mystery & Supernatural) (Wordsworth Mystery & Supernatural)
Children of the Night (Wordsworth Mystery & Supernatural) (Wordsworth Mystery & Supernatural)
Saturday, November 1, 2008
The Stepford Wives - Ira Levin
I can handle watching or reading just about any level of horror... so what was it about this tiny little novella that I read in an hour that truly chilled me? First, I have never seen the movies... so I had no real preconceived notions other than having seen the commercials. Something about being a girl, who was raised in a society where everything tells you that you have to be beautiful, you have to be talented, and above all you have to be perfect or you are nothing... this book really taps into that mantra. The feeling that every little girl has that "I'm not good enough" most of us (hopefully) follow that up with "but at least I'm ME" and that is where the terror of this book lies.
What if the ultimate deceiver, the true villain is the one person who should love you the most, your protector, your partner, your husband. What if he would change you... take away your identity for his own pleasure... and what if everyone was on his side. How would you hold on, how could you escape?
As you can tell this book really hit a nerve with me... true I was born in 1978, so this was a little before my time, but it hasn't changed all that much even though we want to think so. The book is really about men's desires, or Levin's interpretation of them. That they would be willing to sacrifice their wife's very identity, her being, to make her a mindless barbie that did what they pleased. The men in this book are truly horrifying beings... but even more frightening is that this is a doubt shared by all women, across the globe. From a young age we are taught to doubt ourselves, our physical appearance, our mind, our talent, the love of others. I know women with genius IQ's who act like idiots because that is what men want from them. Though there is no magical overnight drug that can do this to a woman... there is the lifelong barrage of the media and society which does a pretty good job in and of itself.
Off my soapbox now. This book freaked me out... it was very well written, very tight and compact, and rediculously short for the price. I would advise getting it from a library, a used book store, or a friend rather than spending the cover amount on it. Mainly because it is so short. Still, I think this book has a lot of meaning, this book should be read and discussed with others... and to the ladies out there... odds are you will end up a bit unsettled and a bit angry at the end of it all.
What if the ultimate deceiver, the true villain is the one person who should love you the most, your protector, your partner, your husband. What if he would change you... take away your identity for his own pleasure... and what if everyone was on his side. How would you hold on, how could you escape?
As you can tell this book really hit a nerve with me... true I was born in 1978, so this was a little before my time, but it hasn't changed all that much even though we want to think so. The book is really about men's desires, or Levin's interpretation of them. That they would be willing to sacrifice their wife's very identity, her being, to make her a mindless barbie that did what they pleased. The men in this book are truly horrifying beings... but even more frightening is that this is a doubt shared by all women, across the globe. From a young age we are taught to doubt ourselves, our physical appearance, our mind, our talent, the love of others. I know women with genius IQ's who act like idiots because that is what men want from them. Though there is no magical overnight drug that can do this to a woman... there is the lifelong barrage of the media and society which does a pretty good job in and of itself.
Off my soapbox now. This book freaked me out... it was very well written, very tight and compact, and rediculously short for the price. I would advise getting it from a library, a used book store, or a friend rather than spending the cover amount on it. Mainly because it is so short. Still, I think this book has a lot of meaning, this book should be read and discussed with others... and to the ladies out there... odds are you will end up a bit unsettled and a bit angry at the end of it all.
Morbid Curiosity - Deborah LeBlanc
Leblanc has a knack for writing horror that is accessible to both the young and old. In Morbid Curiosity she once again creates real characters who the reader can really hold on to. The ride is a fun one, and as always her use of the language is interestingly simplistic yet beautiful.
Short Summary: A set of twins, Haley and Heather, have had a bad year... their father passed away and their mother mentally shut down after his death. They have been sent to live with their grandparents and now have to not only adjust to the death of their father and mother's new insanity, but also a new school, new friends, and an entirely new lifestyle with their Grandparents. When the popular girl in school asks them to hang out with her they gladly accept... when she starts talking about Chaos Magic and what it can do to change your life, they are interested. But soon Heather is afraid that they may be in over their head and Haley is not behaving the way she normally would.
If you (like me) hate snakes, be forewarned... they are in this book by the hundreds... creepy crawly things that send shivers up my spine. The simplistic writing style that Leblanc uses makes this an easy book to fly right through. The characters are fairly well defined, though I would have liked to have felt more from the twins on the recent loss of their parents, that aspect felt rather brushed over. Mark, their art teacher, who is the first to consider that something may be going on... reacts rather strangely to the whole affair. It was rather odd to me that he immediately believed in the power of Chaos magic, rather than just worrying that the girls were into some cultish behavior that might lead them down the wrong path. And I was a little surprised that he never "called home" to discuss his fear that the girls were "in a cult."
I also would have liked a little more info on our bad guy... his transition from the opening scene to the final scene would have been and interesting trek to follow. Unfortunately I can't place together how the one became the other. I have some guesses but nothing in the book supports them as either right or wrong.
Who is this book for? I would say for the 12 and up crew (maybe older depending on reading level) there is a bit of lust, but it isn't overt or overly graphic. There is no sex, and I don't recall any over the top profanity. As far as violence, there is some (it's a horror novel after all) but I didn't find it gory. Probable movie rating would be PG-13. Also this novel follows along with LeBlanc's "the good guys and bad guys all get what they deserve in the end" leading to slightly Hollywood-esque endings. Still this is a fun and light read, if you are looking for something that won't strain your mind, and will entertain without grossing you out, give this book a try.
Short Summary: A set of twins, Haley and Heather, have had a bad year... their father passed away and their mother mentally shut down after his death. They have been sent to live with their grandparents and now have to not only adjust to the death of their father and mother's new insanity, but also a new school, new friends, and an entirely new lifestyle with their Grandparents. When the popular girl in school asks them to hang out with her they gladly accept... when she starts talking about Chaos Magic and what it can do to change your life, they are interested. But soon Heather is afraid that they may be in over their head and Haley is not behaving the way she normally would.
If you (like me) hate snakes, be forewarned... they are in this book by the hundreds... creepy crawly things that send shivers up my spine. The simplistic writing style that Leblanc uses makes this an easy book to fly right through. The characters are fairly well defined, though I would have liked to have felt more from the twins on the recent loss of their parents, that aspect felt rather brushed over. Mark, their art teacher, who is the first to consider that something may be going on... reacts rather strangely to the whole affair. It was rather odd to me that he immediately believed in the power of Chaos magic, rather than just worrying that the girls were into some cultish behavior that might lead them down the wrong path. And I was a little surprised that he never "called home" to discuss his fear that the girls were "in a cult."
I also would have liked a little more info on our bad guy... his transition from the opening scene to the final scene would have been and interesting trek to follow. Unfortunately I can't place together how the one became the other. I have some guesses but nothing in the book supports them as either right or wrong.
Who is this book for? I would say for the 12 and up crew (maybe older depending on reading level) there is a bit of lust, but it isn't overt or overly graphic. There is no sex, and I don't recall any over the top profanity. As far as violence, there is some (it's a horror novel after all) but I didn't find it gory. Probable movie rating would be PG-13. Also this novel follows along with LeBlanc's "the good guys and bad guys all get what they deserve in the end" leading to slightly Hollywood-esque endings. Still this is a fun and light read, if you are looking for something that won't strain your mind, and will entertain without grossing you out, give this book a try.
Lowlife Underdogs - Dustin LaValley
Lowlife Underdogs is a short story book in the strictest sense of the word. Many of these stories are one page, with some only being a paragraph long. There are a total of 32 stories the longest being the title story which is the last in the book coming in at 23 pages long. With there being no Author information in the book, I couldn't gauge the age of the author, though I would guess at between 18-23 based off of what I read. The stories in this book are short, and very familiar, it is easy to guess where they are going to end up almost from the first couple of sentences. The writing style and tone is reminiscent of something that a depressed emo would write while spending a month in the local inpatient "happy house." There are several stories about suicide, murder, and difficulty having children. If the writer is actually very young, then we have a lot to look forward to, because the actual writing is very good. My main complaint is that the execution in each of the stories actually undoes the terror that they should induce. Also most of these stories are tales we've heard before, either urban legends, or scenes we've all viewed in various "B" horror movies. I'm not sure if they were meant to be tributes, but if we all know what is going to happen, then they cease to have the ability to shock and horrify.
This book would be most highly entertaining for the 15-18 year old group, 12 and up would enjoy it, but the language and sexual matter is far to harsh for me to suggest handing it over to a 12 year old.
Contains: Murder, Suicide, Violence, Profanity, Sex, Low level Gore (predominantly aftermath).
This book would be most highly entertaining for the 15-18 year old group, 12 and up would enjoy it, but the language and sexual matter is far to harsh for me to suggest handing it over to a 12 year old.
Contains: Murder, Suicide, Violence, Profanity, Sex, Low level Gore (predominantly aftermath).
Tuesday, September 16, 2008
Covenant - John Everson
So you are a reporter who has already committed career suicide once, now you find yourself working at the local paper in the sleepy little town of Terrel. Bored to tears from covering garden parties, you finally catch wind of something interesting… a teen leaps to his death from the cliffs overlooking the town. When you ask a few questions you get very strange responses from the townspeople so you do a little investigation… suddenly discovering a string of yearly suicides going back over 100 years. Convinced you have a story on your hands, you start to investigate, even though everyone in the town warns you against it… because sometimes secrets are kept for your own safety.
From what I understand this is Everson’s first novel, I personally have never read anything by Everson before but I like to try new things, so I dug right in. The book itself is just under 300 pages with a teaser of his next novel at the back. This book is a very quick read that I started about 8pm and finished before 11 that night. The story is an interesting one, as the reader you know something is going on, and you are able to figure it out more quickly than our dear reporter, Joe Keirnan… just in time that you’ll know when he’s about to make a serious error. But who can he trust when everyone is hiding something. This book has a very supernatural edge to it, and though the grand finale felt that it should have had a few more bodies racked up… it was a satisfying conclusion. This book is not as gory as most that I have read, though there are several supernaturally induced rape scenes which may be upsetting to more sensitive readers.
The setup for the ending is fairly clear to guess from early on in the book, which takes out any chance of a “shocker” ending, but it really didn’t bother me all that much. The book was well written and managed to keep my attention from beginning to end. Though I always felt that I knew what was about to happened, it never really irritated me as it does with some books. Some of the characters could have used a little more meat to them, had he thrown in another 30 pages or so I feel the book could have been even better. The tale unfolds similar to a haunted house story, with the haunted house being a cliff instead of a house. I would have liked for a higher creepiness level, I never really had the vibe that the characters were truly in that much danger because it just felt like they were going to make it from the moment you met them. “Covenant,” though highly entertaining, and well worth the read to a horror fan, does not really break any new ground. I would be happy to read a second book about the incidents 100 years before, I feel that he had a very interesting tale there and actually the little blurbs from the journal were probably my favorite part of the book.
Recommended to fans of the general horror genre (King and Koontz), I’m not sure that the extreme horror crew (Laymon, Ketchum, Lee) will find as much gore here as they would like. In all this is a very tightly written novel with excellent pacing, and fairly descent characters for a horror tale. I consider this to be a wonderful first novel and hope that the author has many more in store for us.
From what I understand this is Everson’s first novel, I personally have never read anything by Everson before but I like to try new things, so I dug right in. The book itself is just under 300 pages with a teaser of his next novel at the back. This book is a very quick read that I started about 8pm and finished before 11 that night. The story is an interesting one, as the reader you know something is going on, and you are able to figure it out more quickly than our dear reporter, Joe Keirnan… just in time that you’ll know when he’s about to make a serious error. But who can he trust when everyone is hiding something. This book has a very supernatural edge to it, and though the grand finale felt that it should have had a few more bodies racked up… it was a satisfying conclusion. This book is not as gory as most that I have read, though there are several supernaturally induced rape scenes which may be upsetting to more sensitive readers.
The setup for the ending is fairly clear to guess from early on in the book, which takes out any chance of a “shocker” ending, but it really didn’t bother me all that much. The book was well written and managed to keep my attention from beginning to end. Though I always felt that I knew what was about to happened, it never really irritated me as it does with some books. Some of the characters could have used a little more meat to them, had he thrown in another 30 pages or so I feel the book could have been even better. The tale unfolds similar to a haunted house story, with the haunted house being a cliff instead of a house. I would have liked for a higher creepiness level, I never really had the vibe that the characters were truly in that much danger because it just felt like they were going to make it from the moment you met them. “Covenant,” though highly entertaining, and well worth the read to a horror fan, does not really break any new ground. I would be happy to read a second book about the incidents 100 years before, I feel that he had a very interesting tale there and actually the little blurbs from the journal were probably my favorite part of the book.
Recommended to fans of the general horror genre (King and Koontz), I’m not sure that the extreme horror crew (Laymon, Ketchum, Lee) will find as much gore here as they would like. In all this is a very tightly written novel with excellent pacing, and fairly descent characters for a horror tale. I consider this to be a wonderful first novel and hope that the author has many more in store for us.
Dracula's Guest - Bram Stoker
I had never heard of this book before, but when I ran across it and saw who the author was, I snatched it up and started reading. What we have here is a series of short stories published by Mrs. Stoker after the passing of her husband. The stories range from the disturbing supernatural tale of “The Judge” to the vampiric title tale of “Dracula’s Guest” some versions of this book include the “Lair of the White Worm” which although it is not one of my favorite of Mr. Stoker’s Cannon, it is still a very creepy and disturbing novella.
This is a VERY short read, and can be completed in a day without trouble. As with all short story collections some will be more to your taste than others. None really packed the punch of “Dracula” but then few tales do. My personal favorites were “Dracula’s Guest” in which a British fellow fails to head the warning of the locals and ventures into a hellish evening of wolves and the supernatural… and we are left with the feeling that his next venture may prove even worse for him.
“The Judge” was also interesting… though I really would have liked for there to be more to this story. A learned man takes up residence in the local haunted mansion to get some peace and quite while studying. He gets more than he bargained for in the end. This was a very interesting and dark tale with “Twilight Zone” or “Tales from the Crypt” written all over it. It is very cinematic in tone and could have been much longer.
In all there are tales of vengeance, redemption, the supernatural, pacts with the Devil, angry black cats, beggars run amok, murderers, insanity… if you love the short stories of Edgar Allen Poe, then you really need to pick up this collection. If you have read and re-read Dracula and can’t get enough, then pick up this book… it’s hard to find (my copy came from a used bookstore and it looked like a dog had gone to town on the cover) but it is well worth the hunt.
This is a VERY short read, and can be completed in a day without trouble. As with all short story collections some will be more to your taste than others. None really packed the punch of “Dracula” but then few tales do. My personal favorites were “Dracula’s Guest” in which a British fellow fails to head the warning of the locals and ventures into a hellish evening of wolves and the supernatural… and we are left with the feeling that his next venture may prove even worse for him.
“The Judge” was also interesting… though I really would have liked for there to be more to this story. A learned man takes up residence in the local haunted mansion to get some peace and quite while studying. He gets more than he bargained for in the end. This was a very interesting and dark tale with “Twilight Zone” or “Tales from the Crypt” written all over it. It is very cinematic in tone and could have been much longer.
In all there are tales of vengeance, redemption, the supernatural, pacts with the Devil, angry black cats, beggars run amok, murderers, insanity… if you love the short stories of Edgar Allen Poe, then you really need to pick up this collection. If you have read and re-read Dracula and can’t get enough, then pick up this book… it’s hard to find (my copy came from a used bookstore and it looked like a dog had gone to town on the cover) but it is well worth the hunt.
Thursday, September 11, 2008
Charnel House – Graham Masterton
I just finished skimming the other reviews and I don’t know if I read a different version of the book or what, but I know that what I read wasn’t the same thing as what is mentioned in some of the other reviews out on the internet. First – there is no private investigator; and second - the baddie is not a shaman or witch doctor and it certainly isn’t out to “get back at the white people.” Granted I read the older printing of the book, with the really bad cover art… so maybe the newer version was highly edited.
Quick Summary – an elderly man comes to the city sanitation department because his house is breathing, he’s been everywhere else and no-one can or will help him. Out of curiosity more than the intention to fix anything John Hyatt (the city sanitation worker – NOT a P.I.) takes a co-worker to the house to see if maybe it is a rodent problem. The infestation turns out to be much more than rodents as Native American Mythology takes a for-runner in this story. People start getting injured in strange ways as the group of “believers” who hope to do something about it grows to a Sanitation worker, a book seller, a Doctor and a Shaman/Witch Doctor, can they combat the ancient Native American evil before it destroys mankind?
Now for the review, as with all of Masterton’s books that I have read so far, the opening is VERY good. Creepy, chilling, the haunted “breathing” house is fun and positively frightening. The problem is that the house isn’t where we spend most of our time. As characters are added it seems that they are too quick to believe in the far-fetched and too willing to do something about it. All but one character that the “explanation” of the goings on was explained to almost immediately said – “Okay, I’m coming to help.” I know that this was one of his earlier works, and that he really hadn’t hit his writing stride yet, but it was still fun. And it is short (under 250 pgs), so if you don’t like it… you can finish it quickly and move on to something else.
My biggest complaint is that the second half of the book (away from the house) became WAY to far fetched for my brain to buy into. If the baddie was what they explained it to be… we never saw the carnage, we never saw its capabilities, and it wasn’t nearly as bright as they let on. There was a lot of talk and build up to something that really didn’t do what they expected. As far as I can tell the body count was about 7-8 (I’m not sure if the one guy made it or not) which isn’t very high for the build up of – “It’ll destroy mankind.” All in all, this was one of Masterton’s weaker novels, but still worth the read if you are bored. I would suggest borrowing it though rather than paying for it.
Quick Summary – an elderly man comes to the city sanitation department because his house is breathing, he’s been everywhere else and no-one can or will help him. Out of curiosity more than the intention to fix anything John Hyatt (the city sanitation worker – NOT a P.I.) takes a co-worker to the house to see if maybe it is a rodent problem. The infestation turns out to be much more than rodents as Native American Mythology takes a for-runner in this story. People start getting injured in strange ways as the group of “believers” who hope to do something about it grows to a Sanitation worker, a book seller, a Doctor and a Shaman/Witch Doctor, can they combat the ancient Native American evil before it destroys mankind?
Now for the review, as with all of Masterton’s books that I have read so far, the opening is VERY good. Creepy, chilling, the haunted “breathing” house is fun and positively frightening. The problem is that the house isn’t where we spend most of our time. As characters are added it seems that they are too quick to believe in the far-fetched and too willing to do something about it. All but one character that the “explanation” of the goings on was explained to almost immediately said – “Okay, I’m coming to help.” I know that this was one of his earlier works, and that he really hadn’t hit his writing stride yet, but it was still fun. And it is short (under 250 pgs), so if you don’t like it… you can finish it quickly and move on to something else.
My biggest complaint is that the second half of the book (away from the house) became WAY to far fetched for my brain to buy into. If the baddie was what they explained it to be… we never saw the carnage, we never saw its capabilities, and it wasn’t nearly as bright as they let on. There was a lot of talk and build up to something that really didn’t do what they expected. As far as I can tell the body count was about 7-8 (I’m not sure if the one guy made it or not) which isn’t very high for the build up of – “It’ll destroy mankind.” All in all, this was one of Masterton’s weaker novels, but still worth the read if you are bored. I would suggest borrowing it though rather than paying for it.
Books of Blood Volume 1 – Clive Barker
This was my first venture into the world of Barker’s short stories, and although I was very excited to read the book, I found that it was as many short story books are, hit and miss.
The book opens with a story titled “The Book of Blood” which I suppose would be an intro, though it is almost a short story in itself. It is a good intro, drawing the reader in lots of ghosties, a haunted house, paranormal phenomenon and lots of blood. Excellent intro to amp up the reader and get them ready to dive right through the book. I’d give this short 4 of 5 stars.
The first story is “Midnight Meat Train.” I wasn’t overly impressed with the title but what the heck, it was a good story. A serial killed of the most disgusting kind, an unwitting accountant who finds his way into that serial killers world, and then bam, strangeness abounds as the supernatural makes its appearance. Excellent story again, 4 of 5 stars.
The second is “The Yattering and Jack.” I would in no way call this a horror story… it’s closer to something you would find in a Christopher Moore book, in fact I think he based the entire book “Practical Demonkeeping” off of reading this short. This story was a humorous tale of a lesser Demon sent to torment a man to insanity… the problem is that the man just doesn’t seem to care about anything the Demon does… including exploding a few household pets. I found myself giggling through this story. I don’t felt that it fit all that well with the rest of the book, but it was highly entertaining. 4 of 5 stars.
Third you have “Pig Blood Blues” if I recall the title correctly. This one was strange, but predictable. An ex-cop goes to work at a school for delinquent boys and finds himself mixed up in a strange sacrificial mess. The story seemed familiar, sort of like the Wickerman meets “Children of the Corn.” I can’t say that it was my favorite, but every short story book has at least one mediocre story in it. 3 of 5 stars.
Fourth is “Sex, Death, and Starshine” and interesting story about the life and death of Theater. Sex, murder and ghosts abound in this story. I think Dionysus would be pleased. Though this may have been the longest story in the book, I enjoyed it. I like ghosts and the theater, and I was very happy that it didn’t turn out to be another “Phantom of the Opera” which is what I was concerned with in the beginning. Though at times the story drug a bit, I think this was probably my favorite. 4 of 5 stars
The final story “In the Hills, The Cities” was completely bizarre. I can’t even begin to explain it because I couldn’t for the life of me comprehend it. I didn’t find it frightening, or even disgusting… just perplexing. Two gay guys go out into the middle of nowhere and find… um… two cities? I tried with all of my might to picture what was being described in my mind… but it just wouldn’t go together. I felt this story was by far the weakest in the book and a sadly pitiful note to end on. 2 of 5 stars.
All in all, I would say this is a 4 star book, the majority of which is very entertaining to read. I think the only scary stories in it were “The Book of Blood” and “Midnight Meat Train” but the others were good for what they were, except for the finale which was very disappointing.
The book opens with a story titled “The Book of Blood” which I suppose would be an intro, though it is almost a short story in itself. It is a good intro, drawing the reader in lots of ghosties, a haunted house, paranormal phenomenon and lots of blood. Excellent intro to amp up the reader and get them ready to dive right through the book. I’d give this short 4 of 5 stars.
The first story is “Midnight Meat Train.” I wasn’t overly impressed with the title but what the heck, it was a good story. A serial killed of the most disgusting kind, an unwitting accountant who finds his way into that serial killers world, and then bam, strangeness abounds as the supernatural makes its appearance. Excellent story again, 4 of 5 stars.
The second is “The Yattering and Jack.” I would in no way call this a horror story… it’s closer to something you would find in a Christopher Moore book, in fact I think he based the entire book “Practical Demonkeeping” off of reading this short. This story was a humorous tale of a lesser Demon sent to torment a man to insanity… the problem is that the man just doesn’t seem to care about anything the Demon does… including exploding a few household pets. I found myself giggling through this story. I don’t felt that it fit all that well with the rest of the book, but it was highly entertaining. 4 of 5 stars.
Third you have “Pig Blood Blues” if I recall the title correctly. This one was strange, but predictable. An ex-cop goes to work at a school for delinquent boys and finds himself mixed up in a strange sacrificial mess. The story seemed familiar, sort of like the Wickerman meets “Children of the Corn.” I can’t say that it was my favorite, but every short story book has at least one mediocre story in it. 3 of 5 stars.
Fourth is “Sex, Death, and Starshine” and interesting story about the life and death of Theater. Sex, murder and ghosts abound in this story. I think Dionysus would be pleased. Though this may have been the longest story in the book, I enjoyed it. I like ghosts and the theater, and I was very happy that it didn’t turn out to be another “Phantom of the Opera” which is what I was concerned with in the beginning. Though at times the story drug a bit, I think this was probably my favorite. 4 of 5 stars
The final story “In the Hills, The Cities” was completely bizarre. I can’t even begin to explain it because I couldn’t for the life of me comprehend it. I didn’t find it frightening, or even disgusting… just perplexing. Two gay guys go out into the middle of nowhere and find… um… two cities? I tried with all of my might to picture what was being described in my mind… but it just wouldn’t go together. I felt this story was by far the weakest in the book and a sadly pitiful note to end on. 2 of 5 stars.
All in all, I would say this is a 4 star book, the majority of which is very entertaining to read. I think the only scary stories in it were “The Book of Blood” and “Midnight Meat Train” but the others were good for what they were, except for the finale which was very disappointing.
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