OCTOBER, 2012 REVIEWS
(NOTE: The "smell ratings" at the end of some reviews rate the actual SMELL of the book and have nothing to do with the story. Smell Ratings: 5 = excellent, 1 = odorless, 2-4 = you figure it out. Book Key: hc = hardcover / tp = trade paperback / mmp - mass market paperback / rarer forms described. Unless otherwise noted, all reviews are by Nick Cato)
LIFE RAGE by L.L.
Soares (2012 Nightscape Press / 228 pp / tp)
Colleen is living a
wasted life, sleeping with a different guy every night and wandering aimlessly
through her daily routines. But when she reconnects with an old friend, a
glimmer of hope arises, but it's short-lived: she witnesses him being torn
apart by a maniac whose face she can't seem to see. In a panic, she runs for
her life and finds herself on a private section of beach. She is friended by
the owner of the property (a former Hollywood playboy) and his strange
roommate, Viv, and is invited to stay until things settle down.
Across town, Sam
Wayne is a psychologist who deals with anger management. He has unique methods
for treating his patients and seems to have his life in order...but the
countless people he has treated is beginning to affect him in ways he could've
never imagined. He also wonders if the mass-murdering madman was/is a patient
of his, and if not, could he possibly help him?
And when the
mysterious maniac attempts to kill himself, he's only empowered more to release
his rage in ways that could mean the end of life itself.
Soares' debut novel
is a blend of sexually-charged psychological, supernatural, and extreme horror.
We're introduced to people who may or may not be demons and some seriously
hurting characters who are dealing with different levels of rage, anxiety, and
depression. While LIFE RAGE spends perhaps a bit too much time developing its
characters, the concluding payoff is worth the wait. The antagonist's rage
begins with "mini-massacres" of small groups of people, then the rage
itself starts to spread like a virus, infecting those around him, causing
innocent bystanders to beat one another to death in some cringe-inducing
scenes. It's like an apocalyptic take on the serial killer thing, complete with
almost half the United States falling victim to the proceedings.
BLEED ON ME
by Shane McKenzie (2012 Abbatoir Press / 106 pp / tp)
When it comes
to grotesque metamorphoses, Shane McKenzie’s definitely got the kind of
imagination that would make Hieronymus Bosch blink. Yeesh. I mean, YEESH. The
transformation scenes in BLEED ON ME … well, let’s let the novella’s main
character share some of the experience in his own words:
“Regardless
of what happened, I saw a corpse’s intestines try and drag you into its chest
mouth. Did you hear what I just said? Nobody should ever have to say that!”
And that,
folks, is one of the milder spectacles in store for our hapless hero. Meet
Chris, whose life is crappy enough even before all Hell breaks loose in the
apartment downstairs. At first, he thinks it’s his inconsiderate neighbors
having just another noisy party. Then he thinks it’s a drug deal gone bad. Oh,
if only. If only!
What follows
is a living nightmare as Chris and the sole survivor of the carnage find
themselves on the run from demonic reshaped corpses, not to mention Chris’ own
infuriated stepfather … or the thing that used to BE Chris’ own infuriated
stepfather …
But then they
discover there’s something different about Chris, something unusual, something
that makes him a walking weapon against these monstrosities. If, that is, he
can survive long enough to use it.
BLEED ON ME
is a wild read and a wild ride, from its sudden plunge-in-the-middle-of-things
start to its messy finish, with the descriptions alone well worth the price of
admission.
UNDERCURRENTS by
Robert Buettner (2011 Baen Books / 402 pp / tp & mmp)
The second in
Buettner's Jazen Parker military sci-fi series takes place two years after the
events of OVERKILL. Parker's now a saloon owner in a space station, when he's
enlisted back into action after one of his former partners, Kit, goes missing
on a corrupt, primitive planet where his father has much history.
The action comes fast
and furious (as it should in this subgenre) and rarely lets up. But there's
plenty of meat here, too; fans of Buettner's previous Jason Wander ORPHANGE
series will be in geek heaven as much of that series is referenced. We learn
more about Parker's father, and as always Buettner's way of bringing vintage
military vehicles/weapons into a futuristic story gives the whole thing a
unique spin. One scene inside an abandoned church's bell tower is to die-for
exciting.
With crab monsters,
all types of aquatic creatures, warring factions, traitors, a tough-as-nails 11
year-old girl (!) and some old-school tanks thrown in for good measure,
UNDERCURRENTS is yet another bone-crunching good time, and nicely sets up the
forthcoming third novel (BALANCE POINT).
Smell Rating: 5
POPULATION
ZERO by Wrath James White (2010 Deadite Press / 112 pp / tp, hc, and eBook)
I made the
mistake of settling down to read POPULATION ZERO just after writing a nice
scene in which an expectant couple discusses their future. But at least I
didn’t make the greater mistake of reading it BEFORE that …
As you might
guess from the title, the theme of this one is overpopulation and birth
control. As you might guess from the author, well, let’s just say it takes
things to a bit of an extreme.
Todd
Hammerstein is very committed to saving the planet from its greatest hazard –
us. Working as he does in the welfare office, he day in and day out sees a
steady stream of humanity at far less than its best – poverty, abuse, drugs,
neglect, and an endless cycle of breeding, breeding, breeding. Someone’s got to
do something. Even if it’s just one small gesture, one good deed at a time.
In a way,
he’s the most terrible kind of villain, because it’s hard at first not to kind
of see his point, sympathize, even agree with him. Until he puts his plans into
action. Sure, it might start off with talking crack-whores into abortions … but
soon Todd’s on the slippery slope to involuntary sterilizations and worse.
All written,
of course, with vivid, graphic, up-close-and-personal, very very very TMI
attention to detail guaranteed to leave you curled up in a corner, whimpering.
CEMETERY CLUB by JG
Faherty (2012 Journalstone / 252 pp / tp)
20 years ago (here we
go!), 4 high school friends unknowingly woke evil spirits by playing with a
ouija board in a cemetery while smoking pot. Violent deaths broke out, but one
of the teens took the rap for the murders and went to a Sanitarium.
Todd is now released
and back in his small hometown of Rocky Point. Coincidentally, similar murders
as those that happened all those years ago have started again, and the town
eyes Todd as the main suspect. But Todd and his 3 old friends (who had named
themselves The Cemtery Club) soon reunite to once again battle the evil that
nearly killed them all.
CEMETERY CLUB is a
fun, fast, creepy tale that throws every horror trope into the mix: mad
doctors, zombies, possessions, and demonic spirits all set against a small town
mentality. When our Club researches what they're up against, they discover the
town's dark past goes back much further than 20 years, and each of their
families had battled these spirits before.
I'd give this more
than 3 out of 5 stars if not for the fact the whole thing is just
so...familiar.
Smell Rating: 1
MONSTER LAKE
by Edward Lee (2005 Little Devil Books / 208 pp / tp)
“This book is
for readers ages 8-12” is, frankly, NOT something one might normally expect to
see on the cover of anything with Edward Lee’s name on it! Yet, boom, there it
is. Edward Lee, best known for backwoods depravity, diabolical perversity, and
Lovecraftian horrors that would have made Lovecraft’s own eyes pop … Edward Lee
wrote a kids’ book? Seriously?
Seriously. MONSTER
LAKE is the story of Terri, a normal enough girl doing her best to enjoy what
she can of summer vacation despite her parents’ recent divorce and her dad
losing his job and how she hasn’t even SEEN him in months.
Then, there’s
her mom and uncle spending so much time at work on whatever it is they work on
down in the boathouse she’s forbidden to go near … which naturally throws down
the gauntlet of temptation for curious pre-teens like Terri and her friend
Patricia. And there’s the icky wildlife that keeps turning up. Toads and
salamanders. BIG toads and salamanders. With TEETH.
So, yes, a
spooky kids’ book by Edward Lee. And, yes, even without the graphic language,
sex, or gore, it’s a great story, well-written, intense, pushing to the edge of
what might be the scare-limit for this age group without going too far.
Then again,
I’m the mom whose daughter did a book report on CITY INFERNAL her freshman year
in high school, so, my ideas about age-appropriate fiction might be slightly
askew …
Still, for
teens and tweens who like the gross stuff, with squishy toothy slimy critters
and intense shivers, MONSTER LAKE will be a winner!
SORROW CREEK by Christopher Fulbright and Angeline Hawkes
(2012 Delirium Books / 62 pp / eBook and limited edition hardcover)
Cassandra and her husband Max move to an isolated swamp
region in Louisiana on the advice of Max’s therapist. The victim of an
unexplained breakdown, Max is now on hiatus from his teaching position at LSU.
Soon after Cassandra finds their dog mutilated in a box,
Max begins seeing a young woman running through the woods on their property.
Cassandra thinks she has seen her too, but chalks it up to her imagination.
When she leaves Max for a couple of days, Max has an encounter with the strange
woman that leads to his abduction.
With the help of the local mailman and an anonymous note,
Cassandra searches for her husband through treacherous swamplands and
eventually comes face to face with something much more terrifying than your
average ghost.
SORROW CREEK is another solid spook-fest from the husband
and wife team of Fulbright and Hawkes, this time giving their take on a classic
voodoo tale, complete with plenty of chills and atmosphere so genuine you’ll be
swatting mosquitoes from your neck as you read.
(NOTE: This review originally appeared at THE CROW'S CAW )
And now, another look at a fan favorite...
A
REQUIEM FOR DEAD FLIES by Peter N. Dudar (2012 Nightscape Press / 292 pp / tp &
eBook)
When
Lester and Gordon are just kids, they are sent to stay with their grandmother
at her farm due to their mother’s miscarriage. Expecting a fun summer with
their loving grandmother, it turns out to be the most terrifying summer of
their young lives.
Battle
View Farm used to be a fun place, but that all changed that fateful summer when
Grandma Vivian went mad. She becomes convinced dead flies are communicating
with her. As Grandma Vivian gets worse, the boys’ lives are threatened - but is
it their grandmother trying to harm them, or one of the farm’s ghosts?
Now
adults, Lester and Gordon return to the farm to start a bourbon-making
business. But the farm is still haunted, the dead flies still communicating.
And the MacAuley brothers are in danger once again.
A REQUIEM FOR DEAD FLIES is Pete Dudar’s
first novel, but you’d never know it.
The story had me hooked from the first page and wouldn’t let me go until
I reached the end. There are some horrifying and intense scenes - you may not
want to venture into a dark basement again. The twists and turns throughout
will keep you guessing until the last page.
This
is a fantastic book, one of the best I’ve read this year so far.
PREVIEW:
TWICE SHY by
Patrick Freivald (to be released 10/26/2012 by JournalStone / hc, tp, and
eBook)
TWICE SHY is
a YA novel packed with teenage angst … cliques and outcasts … social life drama
… drinking and drugs … romance problems … grades, school, teachers … parents,
rules, rebellion …
Oh yeah, and
zombies. Which, when you ARE one, makes dealing with all those other issues
even more complicated.
Meet Ani
Romero, teen zombie. If anybody knew the truth, she’d be shot and incinerated,
since hers is a world where the outbreak happened years ago, scientists busy
ever since trying to contain the infection.
Scientists
such as Ani’s mom, who’s dedicated herself to the search for treatments and a
possible cure. For Ani, this means regular regimes of injections to keep her
hungers under control, formaldehyde baths to prevent decay, and a thousand
different tricks designed to keep her secret and allow her to lead a
normal-seeming life.
The trouble
is, Ani doesn’t want a normal-seeming life. She doesn’t like having to pretend
she’s into the whole Goth scene as a coverup for her pallor and scars, or being
friends with the weirdos instead of the cool crowd. It doesn’t help that the
guy she really likes is dating a bitchy-but-popular girl, or that a creepy
death-obsessed stalker has fixated on her.
All in all,
it makes for a nice twist on the usual tropes. If it struggles in places over
things that could easily be resolved by characters just TALKING to each other,
well, that fits too; kids that age tend to believe nobody will understand what
they’re going through, and adults tend to underestimate what teens can handle.
MAD MANNEQUINS FROM
HELL by August V. Fahren (2012 Broken Star Books / 80 pp / eBook)
Burton's a special
effects artist in Portland with his young son Max. A ritual gone out of control
causes demons to inhabit mannequins. Burton--with a handy flame thrower--meets
up with 3 sexy nuns (one a hermaphrodite) and together they battle possessed mannequins,
sex dolls, and even a Satanic nativity set.
Like a bad b-movie,
MAD MANNEQUINS FROM HELL is a lot of fun, although much of the dialogue is
Saturday morning cartoon-silly and a lot of early filler (that explains scenes
from Burton's videos) were unnecessary. Lots of characters show up for no other
reason than to become mannequin chow, causing us not to care too much for what
little we learn about the main cast.
I like Fahren's
imagination and sense of cult-movie fun, and at times this is quite funny. I
enjoyed this quick novella despite it being all over the place; I have my eye
on Fahren in the hopes his next book is a bit more focused.
UNCOMMON
ASSASSINS edited by Weldon Burge (2012 Smart Rhino Publications / 290 pp / tp
and dBook)
It’s
shameless, but, when I keep getting accepted into these awesome anthologies, I
want to brag, and I want to give shout-outs to my fellow contributors, so,
here’s another review of one that not only do I have a story in myself (“Thyf’s
Tale,” yay Vikings!), but a friend of mine got into as well (Doug Blakeslee’s
“Madame,” his first sale!) after I pestered him into submitting!
So. Assassins.
But not just ANY assassins. Not just any cold-blooded hitmen, black widows or
killers-for-hire. These 23 stories are all about the quirky murders and bizarre
deaths … from the ones carried out on top-tier governmental orders to the very
personal.
My personal
favorites of the bunch (not counting mine and my buddy’s, of course!) include:
“Everybody
Wins,” Lisa Manetti’s twisted look at suicide hotlines VERY determined to help.
J. Gregory
Smith’s “The Pepper Tyrant,” an eye-watering, stomach-burning foray into
high-stakes competitive eating.
Matt Hilton’s
noirish “Misconceptions” in which an atypical femme fatale looks to hire
someone for a case.
“For the Love
of Boys” by Rob M. Miller, even when you think you know where it’s going,
you’re in for some surprises.
Laura
DiSilvero’s “Mercy Killing,” which is just beautifully and creepily done with
some amazingly light touches.
All that and
lots more, lots more, stories by F. Paul Wilson and Monica O’Rourke and a dozen
others, a grab-bag variety pack of death on demand!
THE FINAL FAILURE OF
A PROFESSIONAL SMALL ANIMAL INSIDE-OUTER by MP Johnson (2012 Cloud City Press /
40 pp / chapbook)
I've been enjoying
Johnson's quirky tales for some time now, and his latest chapbook offers 3 more
stories of darkly humorous bizarro horror.
The title tale deals
with a Norman bates-like taxidermist (of sorts) who lives with his grandmother.
He takes on his first willing, live human project--a flute-player named
Elizabeth--to oddly funny results. This is genuinely weird fiction done right.
'Crabaroo in Lesbo
Vamp Land' looks at the creator of a Spongebob-like cartoon character and how
he deals with his creation being more famous than himself in the wake of a new
Crabaroo film/series. Needless to say, things get way out of hand...
'Through Time,
Knuckles First' is a wickedly funny and original story about Geoff Cooper, a
guy who owns a talking alien head that he keeps on his turntable. To explain
any more would be a disservice to the author!
BOOK OF THE MONTH:
STILL LIFE: NINE
STORIES by Nicholas Kaufmann (2012 NECon E-Books / 185 pp / eBook)
Author James A. Moore
gives one of those introductions that seems to good to be true. But by the time
I finished the third of these nine tales, I was in complete agreement with him:
these stories are absolutely masterful.
Collecting tales that
go back eleven years, this is an excellent primer for those looking for a taste
of a truly underrated writer. Opening story 'Under the Skin' is one of a couple
of tales that blends the author's Jewish background with horror, this time to
gruesome effect in a disturbing piece about a goth-chick and her twin sister.
Kaufmann weaves a tale of kid looking for acceptance as her father attempts to
hold the family together around a Seder. 'Mysteries of the Cure' centers around
a man who meets a strange woman who helps him deal with his cheating wife.
Picture an old EC horror comic with better story-telling.
'Street Cred' gets
major kudos here, mainly because I'm beyond sick of zombie stories and this
urban street-gang tale gives the subgenre a truly unique spin. The one piece
that impressed me the most is 'The Beat of Her Wings,' not only due to it's
intracacies, but that a tale featuring a prehistoric creature can actually be
scary is nothing short of amazing. This one's worth the price of the book
alone.
At first, 'Toad Lily'
seems like a standard ghost story, about a mother thinking she sees her dead
child everywhere she looks. But Kaufmann turns it into a parent's revenge tale
that's second to none. 'The Jew of Prague' is the author's take on the noir
thing, yet it still manages to get the goosebumps going as well as bring a
classic Jewish folklore creature into the mix.
Former porn starlet
Amber Fox is the subject of Kaufmann's erotica entry, 'Comeback,' and while I'm
not a big fan of the erotica genre, this one ends on a supernatural note that
gives meaning to the sex that proceeds it. Brilliant stuff. 'Go' tells the tale of an intelligent lab
baboon who manages to teach the others to escape from their cages. Kaufmann
brings the claustrophobic chills on and makes us cheer for the protagonist as
he attempts to save his son and the other children stuck in the lab's daycare
center. The author notes most of his readers hated the ending, but I thought it
worked just fine.
STILL LIFE ends with
a tribute to Asian horror titled '(F)earless,' about an author concerned the
film version of his best-selling manga will ruin not only his book, but a
historic Japanese folk tale. Fans of 'J-Horror' won't be able to get enough of
this one.
Having only read
Kaurmann's novella CHASING THE DRAGON, this was my first look at his short
stories, and I have to say I haven't enjoyed a collection this much since Joe
Hill's phenomenal 20th CENTURY GHOSTS (2005), and that, my friends, is truly
saying something.
NEXT MONTH:
We're finally getting to the end of this past summer's HUGE batch of review submissions, so chances are you'll see YOUR book here within the next two months...submissions, however, are still closed. Please see the bottom of the main page for updated information.
