Entries Tagged 'Horror Literature' ↓

Review by Fatally Yours

What is your deepest, darkest fear? Your worst nightmare that wakes you with your own screaming in the middle of the pitch black night? How far would you go to expunge this fear? Would you visit a website and talk to a person calling themselves the Dream Healer about your worst fears if they promised to help you get rid of that fear? Well, you may want to be careful who you tell your secret nightmares to, because you just may end up like the victim’s in Shane Briant’s stunning debut novel, Worst Nightmares!

In the book a serial killer known only as the Dream Healer stalks his victims from his website, worstnightmares.net. People come to the site to talk to him about their deep-set fears in hope that he can help them, but after their fears are revealed the Dream Healer brings them to agonizing life as he kills each victim according to their own worst nightmare.

Meanwhile, award-winning author Dermot Nolan has hit a rut. Though he seemingly has it all - beautiful, loving wife, critical acclaim, fame and fortune - he has been suffering writer’s block. With his publishers breathing down his neck for his next big novel, Nolan quickly spirals into depression and desperation. So when he finds a crudely scrawled diary about the exploits of a serial killer named the Dream Healer in his mailbox, he considers publishing it under his own name. As he conducts some research into the locations of the murders in the book, it becomes apparent that the events detailed in the diary actually took place!

Still, Nolan is driven to desperation and decides to publish the diary…as a fictional piece under his own name. Someone else knows the intimate details of the diary, though, and soon Nolan is engaged in a dangerous cat and mouse game with the Dream Healer, who is very, very interested in making Nolan’s own worst nightmare come true.

Worst Nightmares is so horrifyingly engaging that it reads like a dream you can’t wake up from! From the first few sentences you get so caught up in the world of the Dream Healer and Nolan that you won’t want to put it down. Page after page it consistently delivers thrills, chills and tension - just when you think you’ve figured things out, author Shane Briant throws a surprising twist into the proceedings that makes you reevaluate all your previous assumptions!

I also enjoyed the ingenious ideas of killing people based on their deepest fears and how the impersonal internet was used by the faceless killer to find victims. It really gives you pause to question the great number of personal facts we tell complete strangers on the internet. Also, the death scenes are pretty shocking, especially when Nolan revisits the sites and finds evidence to support they actually happened. A girl gets her teeth viciously yanked out without any anesthesia, an agoraphobic (someone afraid of wide open spaces) is left in the vast expanse of the desert to die, someone is attacked by snakes, another by creepy crawlies like spiders and scorpions, a man’s wife is killed in front of him before he himself is butchered…the list goes on and on and each of the murders are pretty chilling, especially considering the detached, emotionless voice the killer uses when he talks about them.

Along with the shocking murders, author Briant creates a great amount of tension between the characters of the Dream Healer and Nolan. Theirs is an intriguing and surprising cat-and-mouse game and you’re never really sure where its heading. The novel has plenty of twists and turns, and as you get deeper in a clearer picture emerges of the intentions of the Dream Healer. The build-up leads to a nail-biting conclusion and a cliff-hanger ending that will have you pleading for more! The last 50 pages or so were ecstatic agony as I rushed to find out what would happen to all the characters! And when I reached the last sentence, I was convinced that a sequel must be written to satisfy my curiosity! Luckily, Mr. Briant is hard at work on the sequel and I know I cannot wait to read it.

Worst Nightmares is a roller-coaster ride that you’ll be bragging about surviving if you dare pick up a copy. Care to share your worst fear now?

Visit Worst Nightmares‘ Official Site!

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Review by Fatally Yours

Did you ever had to read Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice for English class? Did you find yourself snoozing away while Elizabeth Bennet and Mr. Darcy slowly but surely fell in love? Did you wish that zombies, ninjas and bloody battles were a part of Austen’s novel? Well, wish no longer because author Seth Grahame-Smith has tweaked Austen’s classic book to include walking corpses, Shaolin-trained assassins and some sure-fire slaughter!

Grahame-Smith, who wrote the excellent How to Survive a Horror Movie, has injected a lot of action into Austen’s tome and this monster mash-up is perfect for romantics who like a little blood with their love. Grahame-Smith cleverly inserts zombie attacks, ninjas and the “unmentionables” into the polite English society of the Bennet’s and heroine Elizabeth Bennet isn’t just a smart, witty girl anymore…now she also kicks ass against hordes of zombies! She and her sisters have all been trained in the “deadly arts” of Shaolin and are relied upon to protect the countryside. An English regiment has also arrived in town to try and squelch the undead menace (as author Grahame-Smith says in an interview, “…we arrived at Pride and Prejudice and Zombies because, when you take a look at the original book, it’s almost as if, subconsciously, Jane Austen is laying out the perfect groundwork for an ultraviolent bone-crushing zombie massacre to take place. For instance, there’s a regiment of soldiers camped out near the Bennett household. In the book, they’re just there for characters to flirt with. But it’s not that big a leap to say, Okay, they’re there because the countryside has been overrun with what they call the ‘unmentionable menace.’”). Of course, lets not forget the societal mishaps the Bennet family experiences at the hands of the rakish Wickham, the amiable Mr. Bingley and the mysterious and misunderstood Mr. Darcy.  I loved how Grahame-Smith slightly changed Austen’s characters while still retaining their core personalities and actions. He made Elizabeth a highly trained zombie killer and gave other characters varing degrees of skill in fighting the undead. Even after all these changes the characters were still believable as “Jane Austen characters”.

I also loved the violence and gore that Grahame-Smith added! Talk about grabbing your attention! We’ve got half-decomposed corpses stumbling around that the Bennet sisters must dispose of…which usually results in a bloody, gory mess that stains their pretty gowns, not to mention the scandal it causes within the neighborhood! Not only are there zombies, but ninjas also stalk the pages of Pride and Prejudice and Zombies. Elizabeth has to battle several to prove her worth to Mr. Darcy’s aunt, the Lady de Bourgh. There are lots of wonderfully brutal and bloody scenes and Grahame-Smith really delivers on the gore! And yet, it seems to fit so seamlessly into the original context of the novel!

For Austen or classic literature fans that bemoan that this mash-up tramples all over their much cherished Pride and Prejudice, have no fear. Grahame-Smith masterfully combines his new vision with Austen’s classic. The result is subtle but startling and one thing is for sure…you’ll never look at a Jane Austen novel the same again!

I really can’t recommend Pride and Prejudice and Zombies highly enough. It still retains the biting wit of Austen’s classic work, but it also contains quite a few biting zombies. Seth Grahame-Smith has started an amazing new trend here, and I can’t wait to see where it takes us next! Pride and Prejudice and Zombies is an absolute delight to read…perhaps high school students will be able to get away with reading this instead of Austen’s original!

Review by Gabrielle Faust

In an age when movies like The Matrix and Saw have become mainstream film fodder and independent directors such as Nancy Savoca (True Love) and Michael Keller (Defying Gravity) are not only accepted at major film festivals, but have their work acknowledged by the industry with awards, it is easy for us to forget that forty years ago films such as Brokeback Mountain or Monster never would have been even considered by Hollywood for production, let alone win an Oscar. We often take for granted the ease with which films are made and the general public open-mindedness when it comes to pushing the creative envelope. And perhaps we have even become a little jaded and now take our current freedom for granted. A little over forty years ago The Sound of Music was considered the most popular movie of the time. Try to imagine that; in a way, that would be like the recently remade Escape to Witch Mountain being nominated for an Academy Award for Best Picture this year.

Forty years ago Hollywood was content to remain within the box it had built for itself, gleaming like a wingtip shoe with the polish of its stylishly lacquered representation of reality. Movie executives were comfortable with the status quo, their bank accounts fat and their public seemingly well sated with the safe idealized product they delivered. To their ears, there were no complaints. They had no incentive to change. However, below the high-gloss surface a revolt of the creative class was brewing. The actors and directors, writers and stuntmen who lived and breathed film as not just a paycheck, but the truest of passions were rebelling against the oppressive blandness of mainstream Hollywood. They craved film as art, pushing the artistic format to its limit on shoestring budgets and their own blood, sweat and tears. They took terrifying risks, some of their greatest work never seeing the light of the silver screen, and challenged the public with their raw stories of life as it had never been depicted before. They desired brutal, undeniable honesty and complete creative freedom; they would settle for nothing less. These outlaws of 20th century cinema broke the sterilized mold of the time and transformed the landscape of every genre from horror to westerns. Without their vision and dedication to the industry, the face of cinema as we know it today would not be the same and many of the films we have come to know and cherish, films that have shaped who we are and the world we now live in, simply would not exist.

Gary Kent was there in the beginning of the revolution and still, to this day, is fighting the good fight for independent film. In his autobiography Shadows and Light: Journeys with Outlaws in Revolutionary Hollywood, he takes us on a ride through the uncharted waters of those early years when nudity and profanity were forbidden and silver screen cowboys still wore fringe, all the way to the slickster edge of Quentin Pulp Fiction and the bizarre set of the cult hit Bubba Ho-Tep. Through Kent’s poetically honest personal experiences he introduces us to the faces of the key players who invested their hearts and souls into tearing down the monotonous façade of the previous movie industry. From his experiences working with such legends as Jack Nicholson, George Lucas and Monte Hellman to Chuck Bail and Esai Morales, Kent takes the reader on the most amazing and unforgettable ride that spans four decades working in the movie industry as an actor, stuntman, director, producer and writer. One comes to a miraculously deep appreciation, within a matter of pages, for the truly remarkable degree of determination and dedication these pioneers had to their dreams. You taste the grit and sand of long production weeks in the Utah desert, you smell the smoke and scotch and hear the rowdy conversations of The Raincheck and Barney’s Beanery, you feel the pain of the injuries absorbed by the courageous stuntmen and women. You feel their pride, their joy, their love, their maniacal, intoxicating, contagious enthusiasm, not just for film, but for life in general, and it is, in a word, inspiring.

Kent is a masterful storyteller and his emotional connection to the industry is evident in the beautiful way he delivers each detail, each observation with a mixture of personal, emotional connection and vivid historical facts that give this autobiography a rich soul that is lacking in many such books. Shadows and Light will make you laugh out loud and, only a few pages later, bring you to tears. Indeed, filmmakers and moviegoers alike would be wise to pick up a copy of this book for it is a rare gem that moves the reader to pursue their own rebel cause and creative journey. No matter if you are a novice to the industry or an old pro, you will be inspired by Gary Kent’s exquisitely rough story of the men and women who redefined the world with their pursuit of independent film outside of the conservative Hollywood machine. You will never look at the movie industry the same way again.

Shadows and Light: Journeys with Outlaws in Revolutionary Hollywood is currently scheduled for release in July from Dalton Publishing in Austin, Texas. This has been a greatly anticipated new release and Gary Kent will be kicking off his 2009 book tour with the Gary Kent Film Festival out in LA, also in late July.

For more information on Gary Kent and his work visit: www.garykentfilmmaker.com.

Review by Fatally Yours

Joseph D’Lacey follows up his stunning debut novel Meat (review) with an equally aware new horror novel, Garbage Man! This time around, instead of focusing on people’s blind faith and ignorance as to where their food comes from like in Meat, D’Lacey addresses people’s wastefulness and what happens to all the trash that is so irresponsibly disposed of.

As Meat was, Garbage Man is an eye-opening experience that asks relevant but difficult questions. Garbage Man further establishes D’Lacey as one of the most socially aware and most important horror writers of our time!

The town of Shreve is most well-known for its gigantic landfill. Every day more waste is heaped upon the already bulging area, with the denizens never really questioning where their waste will go once the landfill has reached max capacity nor really caring that they are poisoning the ground and surrounding countryside.

Mason Brand, once a famous photographer but now a reclusive hermit living in Shreve, hears “the calling.” Where once before he ignored it, this time he will heed the call and help usher in a new age as a new type of creature is born from people’s unwanted trash. This creature is fashioned from bits of rusty pipes, old appliances, scraps of rag and bone, garbage bags, food wrappers and anything and everything else that was put in the landfill. With Brand’s help, this creature and its brethren seek to rise up from the wastefulness of humans and establish a new order…

Eco-horror is poised to be the next big thing, and I believe that D’Lacey is at the forefront of such and important and frightening sub-genre. If you think about it, now is the perfect time for this sub-genre to emerge, with the crisis of global warming, devastating droughts, increased hurricane and tornado activity, mass pollution, extinction of animals, deforestation and on and on. Everyone should be concerned with these issues that hit close to home. I think that eco-horror and socially relevant horror novels like Garbage Man could make a big difference. Hell, D’Lacey’s Meat novel made me go vegan and I’ve no doubt that Garbage Man will make me take a closer look at my consumption and what I throw away.

I really admire D’Lacey for incorporating such tough issues into horror novels. Without being “preachy” he makes his readers question actions as seemingly mundane as what you eat and what you throw away. As you read his novels, a self-realization will take over that will make you question your own actions and how they effect your environment and the world at large, as well as how they effect yourself. D’Lacey is never forceful in his views, instead letting you come to your own big “ah-ha!” moment.

Garbage Man is no exception, with D’Lacey writing some very powerful prose. The novel is also extremely entertaining, creeping under your skin with the description of the “Garbage Man” and his slithering yet awkward brothers and sisters in the first stages of their lives. From otherworldly and weird these garbage creatures quickly turn menacing as they begin to grow and pose more a threat to Shreve.

The novel kind of feels like it is in two parts…one is the story of the citizens of Shreve, including Mason Brand, while the second part tells of the birth of the garbage monsters and their attack on the town. The characters are extremely well-developed, but I will say that maybe too much time is spent on the human characters as opposed to the creatures. I would have liked to see more creatures early on. Also, some of the characters’ secrets that are revealed in the first part of the book are never really brought up again…I was expecting their “secrets” (like a father that is a pedophile and a mother that has an affair with a much younger boy) that had been buried in the landfill were going to somehow resurface to haunt and torment them once the creatures were released. Unfortunately, they aren’t really touched upon again.

Other than that, Garbage Man was another stunning work from Joseph D’Lacey and a book that I could barely put down! It was a real page turner and really makes you think, just what if Mother Nature gets tired of our trashing her and decides to cleanse the planet…?

Better start recycling…

Visit Joseph D’Lacey on Horror Reanimated!

Visit Joseph D’Lacey on Myspace!

Review by Fatally Yours

In Gabrielle Faust’s second installment of her cybergoth vampire series Eternal Vigilance, she builds upon main vampire-savior Tynan’s story and the plight of the world as the evil Tyst organization prepares to usher a horrifying vampire god named the Vicinus into the world. Tynan must battle against and defeat the Tyst’s advanced technology as well as facing the Vicinus in its own realm before it is birthed by the Tyst’s Queen and unleashed upon the world to wreak chaos and destruction.

Tynan must also deal with the weight that being the savior of the world places on his shoulders and taking orders from his Immortal Elders as well as the rebel leaders of the Phuree. He also wonders at the relationship between himself and the Tyst Queen Moria, whom he rescued from the Tyst fortress when he was just supposed to end her life and that of the Vicinus inside her.

As the time quickly approaches for the Vicinus to tear into this world, can Tynan defeat the vampire god that was responsible for creating his kind before the world is lost to chaos?

As with her first Eternal Vigilance novel (read review), Faust has woven a gorgeously gothic tapestry that glimmers with pieces of cyberpunk placed into the fabric of the story. This mix of old and new, crumbling and glittering, creates a very exciting backdrop to the story. It really does feel like a whole new world, from the underground tunnels where hackers live to evade the Tyst’s advanced tracking systems to an old cave that used to be a tourist destination where Tynan hides Moria to the castle the Immortals reside in to the Tyst fortress.

I also enjoyed how Faust could now put more action and battles into this book. As the previous book established all the characters, the second book is all about fighting the Tyst and the Vicinus instead of just planning for these battles. Though more time is committed to these exciting battles, Faust still manages to keep her characterizations strong. Of course we get to see reoccurring characters from the first novel, but we are also introduced to a few new characters, including Queen Moria. Faust continues to make things interesting by complicating the relationship between Tynan and Moria and throwing some twists and turns to other relationships within the novel. There are quite a few surprises in Eternal Vigilance 2: The Death of Illusions!

Faust continues to use an elegant, almost elevated, way of speaking that we saw in the first book. There are times when this penchant for the dramatic becomes overly pretentious, but this captures the formal way of speaking that Tynan is used to and really helps to show us his character.

My only real complaint was with a few misspelled words, especially the incorrect use of the word “until.” In the novel it is spelled “till,” instead of the correct way of ” ’til.” This misspelling is a big pet peeve of mine (almost as bad as spelling “grisly” like “grizzly” - god, that annoys me!), so it stuck out a lot and detracted from my overall enjoyment of the novel.

Nonetheless, Eternal Vigilance 2: The Death of Illusions is a wonderful addition to the Eternal Vigilance series. The characters are so likable and intriguing that I just can’t wait until the next in the series to see what happens to them all!

Screw Twilight! Eternal Vigilance is the vampire series everyone should be reading!

Visit Gabrielle Faust’s Official Site!

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Review by Fatally Yours

In 2041, the government, or what’s left of it, has banned all fatty foods, making a pound of real chocolate worth more than a kilo of cocaine on the black market. Groups of Good Humor Men, government-sanctioned vigilantes, patrol the country and destroy any illegal contraband foodstuffs they find. Meanwhile, shady nutraceutical company MannaSantos controls the market with genetically engineered foods, but people and animals are still wasting away from a mysterious, quick-spreading disease that is a result of a MannaSantos experiment gone horribly wrong.

Only Dr. Louis Shmalzberg, a fallen Good Humor Man and plastic surgeon, begins to uncover the evil behind MannasSantos and holds the key to humanity’s salvation - in the form of Elvis’ liposuctioned belly fat from a surgery his famous plastic surgeon father performed. Yet, Dr. Shmalzberg must travel across the country, getting entangled with an assassin who wants the Elvis fat for a foreign dignitary, a cult evangelizing anorexia, clones from MannasSantos, a voodoo queen, hit-men dressed as Elvi and a woman addicted to liposuction, to hunt down the preserved Elvis fat.

Will Dr. Shmalzberg track down the Elvis before he is captured, killed or before it becomes too late for humanity?

The Good Humor Man is an amazing novel that tackles serious issues like obesity, nutrition, genetically engineered food, the agricultural business, body image and many, many other important topics in a very entertaining, darkly humorous way. In the tradition of Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451, The Good Humor Man makes us question just where we are headed as a nation and what we can do to prevent author Andrew Fox’s vision.

We all know that America as a country is F-A-T. We are one of the most obese countries in the world and in September 2008, the World Health Organization named the United States as #9 in a list of the most obese countries, with 74.1% of adults, or 237 million Americans, being overweight. So, what if all fatty foods were outlawed in the U.S.? What if a huge agribusiness like MannasSantos took over and made genetically engineered foods like “Leanie Lean” meats for the masses? Sure, the nation’s overall health would probably improve and people would lose weight, but at what cost? What if some genetically engineered experiment went awry and millions of people and animals began to waste away? This is the kind of catastrophe Dr. Shmalzberg must deal with in The Good Humor Man, but the threat of this happening in real life is definitely a possibility. Which is why the book is so engrossing and entertaining. It may be fiction, but author Andrew Fox weaves enough facts and “what if’s” about the possibility of this really happening to the U.S. to completely capture the reader’s attention.

Fox also captures the reader’s attention by giving them a wild ride with The Good Humor Man. Though he puts Dr. Shmalzberg into impossible after impossible scenario, you can’t help but keep reading to see just how he’ll get out of his next scrape! Fox deftly writes the character of Shmalzberg, along with the multitude of other colorful characters, so that they are all believable.

The book is also extremely fast-paced, though it took me a few chapters to really get into it. As soon as Shmalzberg hits the road in search of the Elvis, though, I was hooked. Shmalzberg deals with so many different characters, settings and predicaments on his journey that at times I felt too much was crammed into the book, but Fox somehow makes it work and continues to entertain the whole way through.

My only complaint was towards the end when the book did begin to drag, weighted down by too many old characters that decided to pop up for one last showdown with Shmalzberg. I felt that the ending was drawn out and could have been pared down for a smoother ending.

Other than that minor issue, The Good Humor Man is a very satisfying read that gives you plenty of food for thought!

For more info, visit Tachyon Publications’ official The Good Humor Man page!

Review by Fatally Yours

After Bill Hussey’s stunning debut novel, Through A Glass, Darkly, I proclaimed Hussey to be “a new master of horror” (review). So, when I found out he had a new novel, titled The Absence, I was ecstatic to check it out! Through A Glass, Darkly was such an amazing work, I wasn’t sure how Hussey could do better…but now that I’ve read The Absence, I see that his immense talent continues to grow!

The Nightingale family has been beset by tragedy as of late. Eldest son Joe is tormented by a horrific car accident that took his mother’s life and that he blames himself for. Father Richard is a closet alcoholic that doesn’t have a close relationship with his sons and believes his wife was claimed by what he called “the absence” far before her death. This “absence” has haunted him for years. Then there is younger son Bobby, who uses drug as an escape and blames himself for a former friend’s recent suicide.

When Richard discovers that they’ve inherited an old millhouse in the country from his late wife’s distant relative named Muriel Sutton, he decides to take his family there for summer holiday to restore the property and hopefully bring them all closer together.

Little do the Nightingales know that the old millhouse is swathed in dark shadows and has a long, tragic history of murder and death. Muriel Sutton herself murdered her young sister Alice in the millhouse and there has been a rash of disappearances in the vicinity of the house for years. Just what old evil hides in the house’s shadows and why has it lured the Nightingale family to it?

Bill Hussey yet again succeeds in creating a darkly gothic tale that features ghosts, guilt, and a god that hasn’t forgotten those that have forsaken him. Hussey’s prose carries a palatable, building dread that will send shivers down your spine and have you looking over your shoulder long after you’ve closed the book.

The story focuses mostly on the Nightingale family but also takes time to establish Muriel Sutton’s story, along with the millhouse’s dark history with missing persons and murder. The story moves from just-plain-creepy ghost story to a far deeper place of age-old evil. Make no mistake, this is no run-of-the-mill (pardon the pun) ghost story, but a book that offers so much more. If this book doesn’t give you chills, I don’t know what will!

I very much enjoyed the backstory of the Fens (land where old marshes have dried up due to humans diverting the marsh water elsewhere or building dams) in England and the old superstitions and beliefs of the marshland people. This really added much more depth to the story and made the “villain” that much more terrifying. Hussey’s descriptions of the once-lush marshland as well as the millhouse shrouded in shadow and secrets create an atmosphere of slowly building dread and carry that creepy tone throughout the novel.

The contrast between the hot summer and the cold interior of the millhouse was not lost on me, either. Despite the harshness of the exterior weather, Hussey still manages to create a menacing presence within the interior of the millhouse, a place where even the harshest sun cannot penetrate deep shadows. The unrelentingly bright exterior only manages to magnify the shadowy, unknown interior of the millhouse, making it even more frightening. Even with the hottest summer recorded in England as a backdrop for the story, Hussey still manages to send cold chills up the characters’ and readers’ spines.

Much care is devoted to developing each of the Nightingales, so that the reader knows their hopes, dreams and nightmares. We feel we know them quite well from beginning to end and yet also know how the millhouse will distort and use their secrets and sins. The millhouse itself and its related characters are fascinatingly fearsome, each clouded in mystery and made extremely scary. Little ghostly Alice, sitting in her small rocking chair in the millhouse and dripping black water, is extremely menacing and will make your skin crawl! A few other frightening characters pop up, but I can’t say any more for fear of giving too much away!

I am afraid that no amount of words could ever adequately describe the masterpiece of horror that Hussey has created with The Absence. Once I picked the book up I loathed to put it down again! It wraps you in a shroud of dark dread that you will find hard to escape from. Yet, Hussey’s writing makes me a happy prisoner and I can’t wait to be a slave to his words with his third novel!

Visit Bill Hussey’s Official Site!

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Review by Fatally Yours

Remember the golden years of giant monsters? When everything from giant insects, giant people, giant rodents, giant spiders, giant aliens and giant monsters rampaged across the cinematic landscape? While most of these films from the ’50s don’t hold up today (some didn’t even hold up back then!), I think that something ginormous overtaking Earth and usurping humans’ place at the top of the food chain is still a fear ingrained in all of us.

Which is why Permuted Press’ new anthology, Monstrous: 20 Tales of Giant Creature Terror works so well! The 20 tales strike fear and awe into the reader and transport them back to a time of drive-in theaters that showed giant monster movies. The anthology recreates this feeling of nostalgia so well, in fact, that while reading your mind acts as a projector and the stories play out like flickering old black and white movies in your head.

Editor Ryan C. Thomas has done a fantastic job compiling the best and most diverse giant creature tales and never once does the book feel repetitive or boring. On the contrary, I could barely put Monstrous down once I started reading! I am also glad to see Permuted Press expanding beyond their tried and true zombie anthologies. It is quite a treat to get something so different from them!

All of the short stories are stellar, and while there aren’t any that I didn’t enjoy, there are a handful that really stood out to me. My favorite would probably have to be The Cove by Gregory L. Norris. It combined elements from crime capers, government conspiracies and cover-ups, treasure hunting and giant monsters into a nail-biting tale. In it, two thieves on the lam head to an isolated stretch of coast that isn’t on any maps…but for very good reason. For what comes out of the ocean is much more terrifying than the goons after them or the government operatives that try to stop their progress.

Other favorites include: A Plague From the Mud by Aaron Polson (editor of anthology Tainted [review])where giant beetles invade an Oregon logging town, Present Tense, Future Imperfect by D.L. Snell (author of Roses of Blood on Barbwire Vines [review]) that deals with time travel, giant insects and saving the world, Attack of the 500 Foot Porn Star by Steven L. Shrewsbury that is just as outrageous as it sounds, Keeping Watch by Nate Kenyon, a creepy story about something evil lurking in the dark depths of a lake, The Long Dark Submission by Paul Stuart about fishermen who remain submerged in the ocean for months looking for a specific fish but instead come face-to-face with a terrifyingly large monstrosity, Extinction by Evan Dicken, a tale set in Medieval times where dragons are pitted against each other and machines for sport, Gone Fishin’ by John R. Platt that finds a farmer damming a river to spite his neighbors but ends up trapping a bloodthirsty monster and Six-Legged Shadows by David Conyers and Brian M. Sammons where explorers return to Earth after living in space for many hundreds of years only to find that everything is giant-sized.

Monstrous is a delight to read, combining the nostalgia of ’50s giant creature movies with modern-day science, storytelling and twists! As you can see, the stories offer much variety and even though I can’t mention them all, every single one was is worthwhile to read. What horror fan can resist giant ants, towering porn stars, huge crabs, hulking felines, gigantic fish and other larger-than-life creepy crawlies?  Monstrous comes highly recommended!

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Review by Gabrielle Faust

What is the price of desperation? In our darkest hour, when it seems impossible to change the course of some terrible path or fate, be it death, disease, poverty or pain in our lives, what price are we willing to pay, whether consciously or unconsciously? I would give anything… We’ve all whispered those words at one point or another when we have reached our breaking point, when the world simply seems too much of a weight to bear and the pain too great to survive. However, upon reflection, one must wonder just who or what might have been listening to those wretched, hopeless pleas? Demons? Angels? The Devil himself waiting in the wings to swoop in and “comfort” us with promises and bargains, bargains that inevitably leave us more damned and destitute than before? It is said that we should be careful what we wish for, but is wishing and hoping the same thing? Could the incessant need to cling to hope unfortunately mutate into a selfish wish that could cause us to forsake our dignities and, even worse, at times our souls? In our darkest hours are we destined to become damned?

In The Price by Alexandra Sokoloff, a prestigious Boston District Attorney by the name of Will Sullivan finds himself teetering on the brink of such desperation when his young daughter is brought to the edge of death by a ravenous, untreatable illness. His entire life Will has been the high-powered DA, a man with a beautiful wife and his sights set on becoming the next governor of Massachusetts. However, after weeks wandering the halls of Mercy’s Children’s Hospital watching the tragic patients in the rooms around his daughter’s deteriorate into madness, Will has found himself questioning everything he has ever believed in, including the very fabric of reality. Suddenly, he has noticed a strange new trend amongst the patients after meeting a darkly elegant “counselor” by the name of Salk. Quadruple amputees are seen with limbs again, an officer fatally shot and brought to the hospital D.O.A. is up and walking around the next day, a boy with incurable leukemia is suddenly sent home as his illness goes into remission. Will also begins to stumble upon hallways that seem destined for another time and place, nuns with hollow eyes and twisted faces and strange gardens with statues that seem to move and follow him in the darkness. These delusions only add to the panic the “miracles” Will has witnessed inspire in him until he is driven to seek out the guidance of the mysterious counselor, Salk, who continues to encourage Will to cling to his hope.

The elegant madness with which The Price transports the reader into the shoes of the main character is mesmerizing. Sokoloff’s enchanting ability to weave a tale as old as time itself with such an invigoratingly fresh voice is brilliant. I found myself instantly drawn into the novel from the very first paragraph, captivated by Sokoloff’s masterful writing style and swift-flowing, silken storytelling that made me long to read more when I found myself away from the novel. It is a rare occasion these days when a story ensnares my attention so that I actually crave sitting and reading it, but The Price had this wonderful effect on me. The characters are solid and believable, their actions flawlessly realistic and intensely relatable. The contrast Sokoloff defines between the starkness of the actual hospital and Sullivan’s supposed hallucinations is breathtaking heavily underscoring the division between reality and insanity he is struggling with. However, despite the cyclone of fantastic darkness The Price delivers page after page, Sokoloff manages to keep a tight grip on the bridle of this horse, reining it in at just the appropriate times to keep the pace consistent and straightforward, something I felt her previous novel The Harrowing failed to do at times. Sokoloff has definitely refined her mix of the ultimate surreal with mysterious, suspenseful horror to create a stunning new literary creation. The Price is a novel you can easily lose yourself within and is a tale you will long remember, even after the last page has been read. I highly recommend this book to anyone with a love of horror or suspense novels.

Visit Alexandra Sokoloff’s Official Site!

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Review by Fatally Yours

In Tainted: Tales of Terror and the Supernatural, editor Aaron Polson presents a macabre tableau of bone-chilling tales from masters of horror Edgar Allan Poe, E.F. Benson, Ambrose Bierce, Algernon Blackwood and H.G. Wells as well as tales from more modern authors who surprisingly hold their own against such literary heavyweights.

In fact, Polson wanted these modern authors to base their spook stories on five classic tales from the authors listed above. Contributors were asked to write a tale inspired by the masters’ classic tales. The only caveat being was that their new stories were to be set in modern times. The result is a timeless tome that is tainted with immense talent.

Instead of just basing their stories on the five classics contained in the anthology, the authors went above and beyond in creating original, unique and spine-tingling tales that stand well on their own. The inspiration is no doubt there, but the originality and deftness of each author’s story is jaw-dropping.

While all of the stories were excellent, I do have a few personal favorites (excluding the five classics in the anthology, of course). My number one favorite would have to be Natalie L. Sin’s “Fish Balls and Mushrooms.” Set in Hong Kong, it tells the tale of two friends who are roommates. One becomes successful and owns several fish ball food carts, while the other one is wallowing in unemployment. The unemployed friend becomes horribly messy, leaving dishes, food, etc. all over his room. One day, the other friend notices some mushrooms growing in the friend’s room…and they soon spread from room to body. This was an exciting read that packed a lot of description and character development into 13 short pages.

Other favorites included “Station 13,” by Camille Alexa, which put a decidedly sci-fi twist on a haunted house-type story, “The Lion Roared,” by Jodi Lee, a creepy, unnerving story about child ghosts and “The Tethering,” by W.D. Prescott, about the search for life-eternal from the pendant of an occultist.

The only tale that I didn’t care too much for was R.S. Pyne’s “Carmine Skeptic,” which I felt didn’t differ enough from its inspiration, H.G. Wells’ “The Red Room.” Other than that, all of the tales contained in this anthology were excellent!

I dare you to read the Tainted alone on a dark night and not get scared out of your wits!

For more information, please visit www.strangepublications.com

Review by Fatally Yours

Fog-shrouded cemeteries, crumbling old castles, eerily-burning candlelight and an unmentionable evil lurking in the shadows - don’t you miss Gothic-styled horror novels? Well, editor Alan Draven certainly has and comes to the rescue of those that like the gloomy atmosphere of these type of stories. Draven has compiled some utterly amazing stories for this anthology. From ghosts to demons to serial killers and beyond, Draven has collected some of the finest modern-day, Gothic-tinged stories.

The book features 18 chilling tales from new and up-and-coming authors, plus prologue from editor Draven (who also contributed one of his own stories to the anthology) explaining the genesis of this collection and a welcoming introduction from author Andrea Dean Van Scoyoc. After that it’s time to let the shadows envelope you as you enter Sinister Landscapes…

My favorites include Thad Linson’s “Polite Society,” a Jack the Ripper story with a werewolf twist, Gordon Anthony Bean’s “From a Whisper to a Dream,” where two young brothers wait to have their souls eaten in their dark and foreboding house, Jeani Rector’s “The Spirit of Death,” where two teens steal a skull to perform a dark magic ritual for eternal life, Bret Jordan’s “Ghost in the Hardware,” in which a ghosthunter using the latest equipment to communicate with the dead gets more than he bargained for, “The Widow’s Curse,” by Jessica Lynne Gardner that adds a nice gothic-Asian flavor to the collection, and last, but certainly not least editor Alan Draven’s “Beyond the Doomed Cave.” Despite the silly sounding title, this is easily the best work in the anthology, as Draven expertly weaves a macabre web for the reader to get wrapped up in.

There are but a few stories that didn’t quite have the same caliber as the rest, but those didn’t really hamper my enjoyment of this anthology all that much. compared with the overwhelming talent contained in the rest of the collection, the less well-written stories are a minor quibble.

If you are looking for a horror anthology to give you the chills, Sinister Landscapes couldn’t come any higher recommended!

Visit Alan Draven and Sinister Landscapes‘ Official Site!

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Review by Fatally Yours

Lucid Nightmares is a delightfully dizzying collection of author David Byron’s short stories from 2001 to 2008. Everything from possessed clown dolls to the living dead to necrophilia to serial killers are represented in this terrifying tome. From the first story I was completely immersed in Byron’s work. Each story is expertly crafted to wring out the nastiest, most unexpected surprises that will leave you paralyzed with fear and eagerly begging for more!

In the first story, “Electrocuting the Clown,” two high schoolers, Melly and Orin decide to electrocute Melly’s clown doll collection because she believes the clowns are inhabited by the evil soul of her dead ex-boyfriend Collin, a black magic practitioner. Things go a bit…wonky for Orin, though…

In “The Sweet Spot,” a woman luxuriates in the home of her abusive ex-husband after killing him…she feels fantastic, until she notices a teeny-tiny detail she missed…

“Waiting for the Train” details where those hole-in-the-wall diners that seem to populate struggling towns get their meat from.

“Inside Out” tells of a girl who just didn’t feel pretty enough, so she decided to rip other people’s faces off and wear them as her own.

In “Breaking Up is Hard to Do,” a locked-up con’s ex-girlfriend wrongs him, not realizing that he is skilled in astral projection and can leave his prison at any time. He hunts her down, inhabits her body and makes her do horrifying things…all in the name of revenge.

A lurid murder waits at the end of “Dance Hall Days.” Better be careful who you decide to dance with these days, lest it be your last dance…

“The Last Seductress” preys upon our fears of our bodies being helpless and vulnerable after death. Just what happens to us on the autopsy table? You might not want to find out…

“Blood Ties” tells of a murderer with a terrible compulsion, a need, to kill…but his ghosts are finally coming back to haunt him.

“Buzzardmeat” is a unique take on the zombie tale. After a world-wide catastrophe almost everyone is a zombie, but if you drink a special substance it makes you look, feel and act like a normal human…you almost can’t tell the difference between a zombie or a human if you can get the pricey stuff…

Lucid Nightmares is an excellent collection of short stories and really highlights Byron’s diverse writing styles. Even the name of the book perfectly captures the essence and nightmarish qualities of the stories.

Lucid Nightmares comes highly recommended!

Visit David Byron at NVF Online!

Review by Fatally Yours

WALLS CLOSING IN

CROWDING BLOOD SOAKED RECOLLECTION

NESTLED IN THIS TORMENT ANOTHER DAY

A TASTE OF SIN

THICK ON THE TONGUE OF CANNIBAL LUST

CHOKING BACK THE BREATH OF SANITY

SWALLOWING MINUSCULE TOKEN REMAINS OF SUCH

A LUNATIC’S PRAYERS

DISEASED WET SYLLABLES

COLLECTED ON THE CEILING OF A GRAND CATHEDRAL

OH WHY DID I ABANDON THEE MY LORD

FOR NOW I AM SIMPLE PREY CRIMSON SOLDIERS

THEY HAVE COME TO CLAIM MY SOILED SOUL

ETERNAL SLUMBER

ESCAPE

PEACE

MERCY

This opens Christopher A. Durish’s The Lobby, a novel that had me engrossed from beginning to end. It covers themes in religion like Heaven and Hell, damnation and salvation, sin and redemption and, of course, demons and the Devil. Durish’s novel has a strong story-telling style and is a fast-paced book that puts you smack-dab in the sinful shoes of the main character.

The Lobby tells the tale of Zachary Bell, a rising young star in the world of advertising and his trendy, often controversial commercials that are a direct reflection of his personal affairs. A married father of two daughters, Zach is anything but a family man. A blossoming career and a sordid lifestyle of infidelity and Hollywood-style parties are a common substitute for school plays and family picnics. One stormy September night, while driving home from a party with his co-worker and mistress Judith Sample, Zach falls asleep at the wheel. When he awakens a few seconds later, his car is careening out of control toward a steep embankment. As the car plunges over the hillside, it plunges Zach’s life into a realm of unspeakable terror. While in a comatose state, the result of trauma suffered during the accident, Zach experiences an evil only Hell itself could unleash.

The book gets off to a rocky start in the first chapter or so (it starts off a bit generic for me after the stunning prologue), but once you get past that bump in the road it is a fast-paced ride to Hell in a handbasket! Durish keeps the reader on their toes and never lets us know what is behind Bell’s suffering (though we all have a pretty good idea!). Like Bell, we aren’t sure if what he is experiencing is a nightmare, a vision of what’s to come or what has already happened…essentially we don’t know what is real and what isn’t. This creates a real thrill of tension throughout the book that had me racing through the pages to find out the Truth in the last few pages.

Bell’s anguish is also artfully articulated by Durish. The reader can almost feel his confusion and fear in response to what he has seen and experienced. Durish’s expansive imagination of Hell is also very effective and I liked that he didn’t just stick to “fire and brimstone” visuals. The first paragraph alone should give you a good sense of the tricks and treats you are in store for. The rest of the book is sure to give you plenty of chills and thrills as well (I know that’s what it gave me!). As mentioned earlier, I like the fact that the reader, along with Bell, is lost in what is seemingly a nightmare. This creates a disorienting, disassociated feeling that really ramps up the tension!

Christopher A. Durish’s The Lobby is definitely a place I wouldn’t mind waiting in…as long as you are okay with shadowy demon figures polluting your periphery and horrifying scenarios that drive you madder and madder constantly playing out right before your eyes.

Visit Christopher A. Durish on Myspace!

Visit The Lobby at Rock Publishing!

Review by Fatally Yours

It’s been a while since I’ve had the pleasure of reading a good occult-themed horror novel. Luckily my dry spell has been broken by Justin Gustainis’ Evil Ways, the second book in his Quincey Morris Supernatural Investigation series.

Quincey Morris and his partner, white witch Libby Chastain, are investigating a series of child murders where the victims’ organs are removed…while the children are still alive. These ritualistic murders are occurring throughout the country and obviously being perpetrated by an organized group of black magic practitioners. Equally troubling are the murders of many white witches throughout the United States.

It is obvious that those behind the ritualistic killings are extremely skilled in black magic and preparing to unleash hell on earth, unless Morris and Chastain, along with their allies, FBI agents Fenton and O’Connell and assassin Hannah Widmark, can stop them before they complete their ritual on Walpurgis Night.

Evil Ways is a quick read, made all the more enjoyable by Gustainis’ effective handle on prose, dialogue and characterizations. Gustainis wrote Evil Ways so that it stands on its own and you don’t have to have read the first novel in the series to grasp the characters’ relationships and motivations. The characters are fleshed out just enough for newbies, but not overly so where fans of Gustainis earlier work would feel like the information is repetitive. The writing style is quick and snappy, and filled with witty (and believable) dialogue between characters.

It is obvious that Gustainis did some pretty hefty occult research before writing the book. The novel is filled with spells, symbols, rituals, incantations that all operate under a certain set of rules (for example, white witches cannot harm anyone with their magic). Gustainis was extremely consistent with all the tenets of magic and because of this consistency made the novel that much more believable. It is hard to pull off a novel about witches, wizards and the occult without coming off as cheesy, but this is definitely one of the best fiction books I’ve read on the subject and was a definite joy to read. The spells cast and rituals performed got downright nasty (resurrecting victims as zombies and sending them to attack someone) and some were very inventive (conjuring a water sprite in the shower to attack some hit men).

I also enjoyed the wide variety of characters. There were many different storylines happening simultaneously to all the characters in the book that helped quicken the pace of the novel. Something was always happening to someone, whether it was the evil wizard Pardee preparing for Walpurgis Night, the white witches that were being hunted down, the hit men doing the witch hunting, investigators Fenton and O’Connell trying to get to the bottom of the child murders, badass assassin Hannah Widmark or the colorful Morris and resourceful Chastain. Even the characters that were only around for a chapter were well developed!

If you are looking for a fast-paced, intense, thrilling and fun book to read, look no further than Evil Ways. I am definitely going to keep my eye on Gustainis’ future novels and plan on going back to read Black Magic Woman!

Visit Justin Gustainis’ Official Website!

Review by Fatally Yours

Chris Morrow’s When Darkness Falls is a thrilling, suspenseful short story that really makes me eager to check out more of Morrow’s writing. Set in the remote Ozarks, it tells a different vampire tale than most of us are used to. Instead of a “Dracula’s castle” type of creepy location, the setting of the Ozark wilderness is used, giving the story a different and more terrifying flavor.

Marty is having one last fling with his buddies before getting married and they have planned to spend a weekend camping in the Ozarks. The guys run into a group of sorority girls who are staying at the same campsite. After a day of canoeing and drinking, everyone gathers around the campfire at dusk…but when darkness falls some other campers arrive, including a creepy old man and his entourage of seductive “models” that can’t wait to sink their teeth into those gathered.

When Darkness Falls is a superbly crafted short story sure to delight genre fans. It begins with a hint of foreboding before jumping into the seemingly idyllic camping story. Morrow puts us at ease for the first part of the story, focusing on the fun the characters are having. When certain characters show up at sundown, though, the light-hearted mood suddenly turns somber and the tension mounts. The last half of the story is filled with fear, dread and plenty of suspense.

Despite the fact that is a very quick read, Morrow takes the time to develop his characters and offers us glimpses into their past as well as what they hope for the future. He makes each of the characters very realistic and so that they are easy to relate to. His descriptions of the surroundings bring the book to life and make us feel like we are there in the middle of everything. And yet he doesn’t over-explain, instead weaving descriptions into the story like he is painting a picture.

I also liked how the story stayed away from the typical vampire demises of crosses, garlic or stakes and instead went for something that doesn’t get mentioned in a lot of modern vampire books or films - running water. You see, ancient vampire lore states that vampires cannot cross running water because it was seen as pure, holy and able to wash away all magic. I thought the use of this little-known/little-used fact was quite inventive and made the story much more interesting than had it stuck to conventional vampire repellents.

When Darkness Falls is a strong, suspenseful story that makes me eager to see what Chris Morrow does in the future…

Visit Chris Morrow’s Official Site!