The Bad Seed's Got Nothing on Nora!

Jack-In-The-Box

Author;  William W. Johnstone

Publisher: Zebra

Publication Date:  9/1/86   Reissue: 9/13/16

A hideous jack-in-the-box.

Murderous Nazis.

And the most evil little girl in print.

William Johnstone brings them all together in a gory, chilling, and very scary roller coaster ride of a book.    The horror starts slowly as you realize that something is terribly wrong with young Nora.  This beautiful young child is warped and wrong – and her family will pay the price.

The book is extremely violent.  I should also warn you that there’s one scene involving Nora that is truly awful – it definitely breaks some taboos.  But this is an excellent piece of horror fiction that will keep you reading breathlessly to the end.  Just don’t expect to get any sleep that night.

I’m extremely happy that the publishers are reissuing these old horror novels.  Old as they may be, they stand up against today’s modern horror wonderfully – in most case surpassing them.

And excellent (and scary) read.

·          ARC Provided by Net Galley

Epic Chilling Horror

Rockinghorse

Author: William W. Johnstone

Publisher: Zebra Books / Kensington Publishing Corp.

Publication Date:  1986 - Reissue 9/13/16

I am so very pleased that books from horror’s golden age (lol – okay, the 1980’s) are being issued, and Rockinghorse is one of the best!   I read many of these books when I was a kid, but completely missed this one, so I’m even more pleased that I had a chance to read this one.

In pure William W. Johnstone style, the most innocent of items – in this case an adorable rocking horse, becomes a tool of great evil.   The book is fast, violent, and extremely scary.

If you’ve read Johnstone before, you’ll recognize his horror formula.    A community must take sides between good and evil – and it’s not always clear who’s on which side.  Then comes isolation and an epic battle of good vs. evil.

Johnstone puts many of today’s shock horror writers to shame.  He knew how to deliver the perfect combination of shocks and chills and this one is guaranteed to keep you reading.

I hope the publishers continue this trend.  I’ll read all they can throw at me!

·         ARC Provided by Net Galley

Humans Make Good Snacks!

Devour

Author: Kurt Anderson

Publisher: Pinnacle

Publication Date: 5/31/16

I just had the fun of reading Devour by Kurt Anderson.

Now, those who know me know that I love books where giant chompy things decide that humans make the best snacks and this is a good one.   I try not to divulge the exact nature of our chompy things in my review.  I’ll just say that this is big.  Very, very big.  And very, very hungry.

Anderson does a bit of a slow build up in this one.  While you get a bit of blood in the beginning of the book, Anderson spends a bit more time developing his characters.  You have to wait for the majority of the action.  But when it comes, it comes in spades.  The body count is high.  Bullets fly.  Teeth gnash.  And you’ll grab your popcorn and race through to the end of the book.

So, kind of a slow start, but once things get going, you’re in for a wild and bloody ride.  I hope the author brings us more chompy things in the future!

·         ARC Provided by Netgalley.

The Hunger of the Wolf

Title:  The Hunger of the Wolf

Author:   Stephen Marche

Publisher:  Simon & Schuster (February 3, 2015)

(Book provided via Amazon Vine program)

The editor of this book has compared the author to both Neil Gaiman and to Colson Whitehead. The Gaiman reference is not at all accurate and I fear that Gaiman fans will be left scratching their heads at the comparison. The Whitehead comparison is apt.

In The Hunger of the Wolf, Marche turns a horror sub-genre into a literary novel. How successful it is, will depend, I think, on your own literary preferences.

While the horror trope that defines the underlying 'illness' of the brothers Wylie is presented as real in the story, in truth, it's just a metaphor for the wildness within. One brother learns to wield that wildness, turning it into a blessing that results in untold wealth. Another brother can't tame it, and the beast within causes horrors.

For those of you who love a literary family saga, I think you'll really enjoy this. The writing manages to be lyrical, while still somewhat scornful of the practices of the world's richest men. And since the horror trope in question is more a metaphor, you'll find there's nothing genre - or popular fiction - about this.

For those of you who love horror lit, you'll likely find this lacking. You may find yourself bored with the intergenerational saga of riches lost and earned, and of strong men and stronger women who hold a family together through terrible things. This is definitely not horror, though there are horrible things that happen.

As for me, I can appreciate the beauty of the writing and the scope of the saga presented, however I did miss the horror. Just my preference.

This is not a quick read. It's more the meandering book that you read while sipping a cup of tea and appreciating a well turned phrase.

I just wanted a little more popcorn.

Fans of Jeremy Bishop's Jane Harper series need to make some noise!

I hate when I get hooked on a book series only to find out that the publisher may not think it has sold enough to be worth continuing.  Bad enough when each book in the series stands more or less alone, but really frustrating when the last book leaves you with a bombshell cliffhanger ending!

Right now, this is how I feel about the Jane Harper series written by Jeremy Bishop (pen name for Jeremy Robinson).  He self-published the first book, The Sentinel and in 2013 the Amazon imprint 47North picked up that book plus the second book in the series, The Raven.  The third book is in limbo.

I need more Jane Harper and if you like feisty sarcastic ass-kicking zombie-fighting heroines, you need more Jane too.  Not to mention that these are not your stereotypical slow stupid shuffling zombies.  The zombies in The Sentinel are ancient Viking zombies awakened on an island off Greenland.

And the zombies only get better in The Raven.  Two words:  zombie whales.  Zombie. Whales.

I don't want to spoil the book so I'll just say that you really have to experience yourself the awesomeness of zombie whales.  And then there is the bombshell dropped in the last sentence that makes me want that third book so much.

So just as Peter Pan called on all the children in the world to clap their hands and believe to save Tinkerbell, Jane Harper needs all the zombie book fans to tell 47North they want more Jane.  Tweet them (@AmazonPub) or email them (47north-pr@amazon.com). Make some noise so we can get the third book.

And if you haven't read the Jane Harper series, do yourself a favor and read them now.  Zombie Vikings.  Zombie whales.

I received an ARC of The Raven free from Amazon's Vine program in exchange for a review.

Connect...Or Else!

Title:  The Phone Company

Author:  David Jacob Knight

Publisher:  DJK

* Note: Reader copy provided by the authors for impartial review.

Steve's life isn't what it used to be.  His wife died from cancer and his relationship with his kids seems to be dying along with it.  When the phone company comes to town, giving everyone in town a new phone called a Tether, it seems like a godsend. 

Students thrive as information is at their fingertips.  The local police can get an instant background check (and lie detector and breathalyzer) immediately.  Instant popularity apps? Check!  An X-ray feature so that you can see if students in school have weapons?  Check!  Track your children anywhere?  Check!

But it turns out the connection may be from a very darker place as everyone Steve knows seems to descend into some sort of horrific madness.

The Phone Company mixes the surreal social conscious horror of Bentley Little, with the epic, in depth eeriness of Stephen King.   While certainly ratcheted up a level or two, the things The Phone Company's Tether can do in this book are scarily plausible.  In fact, the social commentary on our current world - a world where 'likes' matter more than actual opinion and where your entire social life is based on online 'friends' - is biting, timely, and all too accurate.

Now, I used the word epic before and that's not hyperbole.  This is one of those great big reads that leaves you feeling like you've entered another world for a while.  It's a little gruesome in parts, while not being splatter-filled, and should even please those folks who are new to modern horror.

An excellent read and highly recommended!

Review: THE BOY WHO DREW MONSTERS

3.43 STARS — 571 GoodReaders

THE BOY WHO DREW MONSTERS is an interesting book. It's part horror novel and part drama. The setting is a small island. The sort of place where the population explodes during the summer months, but where homes can be isolated and alone during the winter.

Involved in the story are two families. Both have only children who are boys, but there's a tremendous difference between the two tweens as one has been diagnosed as having Aspergers Syndrome.

This latter comes into play as it becomes a source of friction between the boys. Nick, the boy without Aspergers, is beginning to feel oppressed by their friendship which frequently seems a one-way street.  And the friction is not relegated to just the boys. As strange unexplained events begin to creep into their lives, both marriages are stressed, and we find out that there were infidelities between the couples.

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From Kirkus Review:

Jack's parents and Nick are beginning to hear and see things that seem otherworldly, and it becomes clear that Jack's drawings reflect, or perhaps even create, the odd sounds and creatures. His parents, Tim and Holly, baffled by the happenings and frightened by the cracks in their marriage, try desperately to solve the growing mysteries.A sterling example of the new breed of horror: unnerving and internal with just the right number of bumps in the night.

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The part of this book that really worked for me was not the horror. I never found this book scary or even tense. What I did like was the mystery of figuring out where the monsters were coming from and why they were there. What drew them from the old sunk wreckage, and why were the dead were tormenting the boys and their families.

What I actually loved was the backstory. I think Donohue perfectly caught the difficulties and emotion that comes from of dealing with a child who is 'different'. He captures the parents' anguish about not being able to help their child-- to 'fix' their child. And I felt for Jack's parents. How difficult it must be to have 'well meaning' strangers make the situation worse with their thoughtless comments.

Soooo.... good characters with a classically style horror/mystery attempt.  I found it an enjoyable read but those looking for gory horror are going to be disappointed .

**More Adult themed and nuanced.  This book is suitable for the older YA crowd.

Pam~


THE BOY WHO DREW MONSTERS
by Keith Donohue

**all ratings from GoodReads 

Reading Information:
Page Count: 288
--See Excerpt here

Excerpt: THE BOY WHO DREW MONSTERS

THE BOY WHO DREW MONSTERS
by Keith Donohue

One

A pale yellow sun hung low in the salt sky. Winter had blown in overnight, and the cold gave an air of lonesomeness to the empty roads and deserted vacation homes. Tim loved the dying light of December and the absence of the people and set about his business with a kind of gleeful freedom. He had a dozen properties to take care of in the village and another dozen scattered on the eastern edge of the peninsula, and he had worked his way through three of the four homes on his list for the day with not a soul to bother him.

Interview: Sebastian Gregory

As a Halloween treat, we are pleased to bring you an interview with dark fable writer, Sebastian Gregory:

A Portrait of the Author and Friend.

Seb, thank you so much for joining us on our blog today.  I'd like to start by telling you how much I enjoyed both The Asylum For Fairy-Tale Creatures and The Boy in the Cemetery.    They were wonderfully creepy tales.   What is it about fairy tales and fables that inspires you?

Thank you for having me and taking the time to read my stories.  I think the thing I like about fairy tales as inspiration is how they can lend themselves to different situations and stories.  They can be re told a thousand times over and still be fresh, or they can be changed completely while retaining certain themes that make them instantly recognisable.

Your books certainly do have violence, but they aren't overly graphic.  What's your opinion on some of the more graphic, spatter horror that's out there?

I think violence can be a necessary part of a story, however personally I prefer something to be sinister than gory, I think it makes a more interesting experience.  

On a serious note, with the exception of horror's golden period in the 1980's and 1990's, horror has always been sort of considered the bastard child of the publishing industry.  It's harder and harder to find bookstores with horror sections.  Dean Koontz, a past president of the Horror Writer's Association (HWA), decided that he didn't want to be known as a horror writer and many mainstream publishers simply stopped publishing it.  But you seem to revel in the genre.  Why take on what may be an uphill battle?

I wouldn’t consider myself a horror writer as such.   I just happen to write dark themes, strangely though I would say they are a playful type of darkness, yes I have a zombie boy in my story, but he’s very childlike and real.  I think the scenes grounded in reality are more horrid than the supernatural ones.   However  when I was younger I did emulate the classic horror writers, Stephen King, Clive Barker,  Dean Koontz, Shaun Houston.  I think that kind of horror still exists today but in other forms, it’s become more sophisticated and psychological, this most evident in movies than anything.

What do you see as the future of the genre?  More zombies?  Realistic horror?  New Monsters?

I can see the generic monsters always being relevant because the way the stories are told.  Just as a creature becomes tiresome, someone will make it interesting again.  The walking dead is the best example of this.  On paper its just zombies again, however it is so much more than that on many levels.   Then of course they will be new creatures waiting in the shadows to drag us in.

And on a lighter note, have you had any real experiences with 'things that go bump in the night' that you can share with our readers?

Everyone has a bump in the night story or something they cannot explain.   I am not sure if this makes it supernatural or not, however life would be dull if the supernatural did not exists in one form or other.   I do share my experiences however, they are in my books!

If our some of our readers haven't had the chance to experience your books yet, where should they start and why?

I would start with The Boy in the Cemetery as this the most accessible and the one more personal to me. From then on Alice or Asylum are very similar in scope and style. All my books would be good for anyone who likes fairytales with a touch of the macabre.

Finally, what's in the future for Sebastian Gregory?  What can our readers look forward to next?

In December Carinauk will be publishing “A Christmas Horror Story.” It’s about three children left alone on Christmas Eve, when Das Kinderfresser ( a German folk tale monster)  comes to visit.   I am not sure what 2015 holds yet, but I have a few ideas.

Thank you so much for taking the time to talk to us today.  We look forward to your next creepy tale!

About Sebastian:

Sebastian Gregory (Pronounced Gre-gory) writes from a cabin in the middle of a haunted wood. His inspiration comes from the strange and sorrowful whispers amongst the ghastly- looking trees. From the shadowy candle light of the cabin Sebastian is only permitted to leave once a story is complete, where it is unleashed upon the world of the living. Sebastian writes for the younger readers as they are easier to terrify than adults whose imaginations died long ago. When not writing in a cabin in the middle of a haunted wood, Sebastian lives in Manchester with his family and various animals. You can email Sebastian on writtenbyseb@hotmail.co.uk, he would love your feedback. You can follow him on Twitter @wordsbyseb

THE BOY IN THE CEMETERY is only .99 for a limited time on Amazon, Apple and other retailers.

THE ASYLUM OF FAIRY TALE CREATURES is free for a limited time on Amazon, Apple and other retailers.

THE GRUESOME ADVENTURES OF ALICE IN UNDEADLAND is .99 for a limited time on Amazon, Apple and other retailers.

Look out for A CHRISTMAS HORROR STORY, coming in December.

Want Some Chills?

Title:  The Boy in the Cemetery 

Author: Sebastian Gregory

Published: October 29th, 2014 by Carina

Carrie Anne and her family are on the run. Hiding dark secrets and an even darker shame, they move to a new town where she's told by her parents - act normal. But nothing is normal in her live.  She looks for comfort in the cemetery behind her house.  But secrets don't hide in the shadows for long.  Something else is in that cemetery…and it's been waiting for someone like her.

*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*

With The Boy in the Cemetery, Sebastian Gregory proves that he isn't just a one trick pony.  This book is creepy, macabre, and heartbreaking.

Like his very successful The Asylum for Fairy-Tale Creatures, The Boy in the Cemetery has a very fable like quality to it.  But the issues the story deals with are anything but fairy tales.  The sub-plot is disturbing, heartrending, and all too real.  And Gregory proves he has the chops to deal with it.

The story is violent and gruesome, but stops short of being terribly graphic  - a good thing as the atmosphere is eerie enough as it is.

And though it's a short work, the characterization is spot on.  Your heart bleeds for Carrie Anne, even as you are horrified by what happens.

This is a macabrely beautiful work and well worth the read.  

Space Zombies? Really?

For a little pre-Halloween fun, I decided to revisit an old favorite:  Black Redneck vs. Space Zombies!

Jefferson Balladeer has spent his life running from his redneck roots, feeling out of place as a black redneck in a world full of whites.  However, when he returns home to deal with his brother's estate, his little town is in danger from a horrific invasion - and only his redneck roots can save Jefferson and his town from the...Space Zombies!

When the author of Black Redneck vs. Space Zombies contacted me, offering a copy of his book in exchange for a review, I'll be honest - I hesitated.  I mean...it's called Black Redneck vs. Space Zombies.  How good could it be?  But I looked at the cover, which was darned good.  It reminded me of the old Pulp SF novels back in the day.  I downloaded the sample and saw that it seemed to be well written.  So I took the chance.

Well, I've now found myself telling everyone I can about this little book.  Steven Roy has an obvious love for horror and science fiction and presents us with a story worthy of those pulp fiction greats.  The book is funny, clever, gruesome and even has heart.  If I had to put it in movie terms, I'd say it's a little mix of Robert Rodriguez and The Blob.

One of the things I feared was that the book might be stereotypical when it came to the rednecks in the story.  I needn't have worried.  Roy presents us with a group of people who are down to earth, full of fire, and who love family - no matter the color of their skin.  Ssh...don't tell, but Chapter 44 actually brought tears to my eyes.

As for the Space Zombies - they work.  They are gruesome yet so much fun!  Roy didn't hold back on his aliens, but rather than feel old fashioned or hackneyed, they felt just right for the tale.

I'll be looking for books by Steven Roy in the future.  He brought back the fun to the genre and I'm so happy I had a chance to read this!