Category: Book Reviews

Categories
Archives Book Reviews Posts

The Vagrants

image

 

So, I know that I sound like a broken record, but I’m really not much of a horror fiction gal. It’s just too much for my sensitive, little imagination to take sometimes. Or worse than that, it isn’t scary or creepy at all. Basically, unless your name is Joe Hill, I am going to be a pretty hard sell when it comes to reading horror.

Lucky me, though, Brian Moreland had a new book come out this month and he is on the same list as Mr. Hill. No joke. I have loved everything that Moreland has written and I was truly looking forward to starting his new book, The Vagrants.

The Vagrants brings us the story of Daniel Finley, a journalist who believes that he can save the homeless. Determined to completely submerge himself in their reality, Daniel lives among the homeless for six months. While living under a bridge, he learns the many spoken and unspoken rules of this world that our world chooses to ignore.

He also learns of something else; something deadly. One day, a mysterious man by the name of Mordecai shows up with his group of followers. Daniel keeps a safe distance from Mordecai and observes what seems to be a quickly growing cult. After observing some truly terrifying things, Daniel returns to his life, writes of his experience living under the bridge and becomes a published author.

Just when he begins to start enjoying his accomplishments, he is thrown into a dangerous position, trying to protect his father from mobsters. Concurrently, Daniel begins seeing some of the vagrants that he knew and he finds himself in a war between an Irish-American mafia and the deadly underground cult led by Mordecai.

While there is a certain Clive Barker story that I was reminded of while reading The Vagrants, this story stands on it’s own and is as equally creepy and unsettling. Moreland has a knack of dialing up the horror and gore without going over the top. Just when you start to feel your skin crawl, he draws back and leaves you with those mental images that have just burned into your brain. Never passing the point of good taste just for the sake of gore is an elusive ingredient in many horror novels, but Moreland nails it every time. He never spends too much time on a character’s background, only to kill them off in the next chapter, and he writes characters that are easy to invest in and identify with. The story moves at a great pace and has a satisfying ending. Look no further for your new horror author; I have already found him for you.

 

Categories
Archives Book Reviews L.C Lives and Loves Horror LGBT

Pale Hunter by C.J. Sellers

image   Pale Hunter, a horror novella from C.J. Sellers is an unsuspecting gem of a story. What presents itself as a historically set piece of horror fiction is really so much more. Everything begins innocently enough in 1666 with Bernard and Clem, traders traveling New France, who come across two runaway boys. It is this chance encounter that will set off a sequence of events that no one, especially our beloved narrator Clem, can anticipate. I’ve said it before and I will say it again: I am a really hard sell when it comes to horror literature. I realize that doesn’t make a ton of sense, but the written word penetrates the mind in a way that film visual never can; for this girl, anyway. I try to begin every new experience with an open mind and heart, but I am human and I have prejudices. Namely, horror fiction usually tries too hard to be scary or gory or somehow over the top, or perhaps I always choose poorly when selecting a title. My point being, I began reading Pale Hunter without any expectations. Positive or negative. Imagine my surprise and delight when I read it in one sitting and was completely unaware of what was going on in my home while I read. Granted, it took me a minute to really get into the story but I think some of that has to do with the character names and backgrounds. We have Cree and Chipewyan’s, who are enemies, and we have characters named Five Tails, Long Summer, Wild Song and Sister. Kind of the same as Gryffindor becoming a normal word after a few chapters, it’s a bit awkward at first, but then you get into the rhythm. Just when all of this becomes normal vernacular, we are introduced to the story of the witiko. “Voracious now, the witiko/manitou ate evil thoughts and preyed on those who did the most cruel deeds, sometimes by possessing evil humans and stirring up discord.”   As Clem and Bernard’s story collide with the tale of the witiko, we are taken on a unique horror tale that also touches on some very common, yet very impactful, commonly accepted familial and cultural standards. Quite frankly, it is the ever present undertone of accepting diversity that I really latched on to in this story. I really enjoyed the different cultural aspects and I found the horror to be just right; it suited the story and the characters quite nicely. This is the kind of story where a lack of gore adds to, rather than takes away from, the story.  Sellers has included some  comments on society and culture, but it is not done with a heavy hand.  This is a tight, little horror story that also happens to touch on the everyday adversity that all of us face, but never think much of,  because it has become our “normal”.  Or, if you prefer something a little bit lighter, it can also simply be read as a story of what becomes of two travelers on their way back to New France in 1666 and how they navigate the various roadblocks, human and supernatural, that are put in their way.

 

Pale Hunter is available on Amazon

 

Categories
Archives Book Reviews

Carnival 13

The Carnival 13 is a very interesting concept. 13 different authors each contribute a chapter while attempting to maintain cohesiveness to the story. The entire idea takes me back to my childhood of telling ghost stories with friends. One of us would start the story and the next person would keep it going. By the end of it the story would be so completely different from how it started that it felt as though it were a different story entirely. I’m happy to say that Carnival 13 never feels this way.

The strength in this novel is the coherence from chapter to chapter. This is a concept that had every opportunity to fall on its face but it never does. Each author does an effective job of building upon the groundwork that was laid in the previous chapter.

The story itself is incredibly dark and the atmosphere is built from the opening few paragraphs.

I almost feel sorry for the author that started everything off. Despite how strong it opens each chapter feels almost better than the one that preceded it on an individual level and it manages to come to a very satisfying end. I’m not entirely sure if I’d read another book with this concept because of the incredible room for error but if they managed to get most of these authors involved then I’d absolutely give it a go.

Highly recommended.

Categories
Archives Book Reviews Short Stories

Review of The Horror by R.L. Shaffer

The Horror by R.L. Shaffer as reviewed by Renfield Rasputin

51smbYJHcjL__AA160_

Haunted attractions across the nation bring in millions of dollars every Halloween season. If done well, many of the operators can keep their facility open all year round allowing thrill seekers the ability to scare the living crap out of themselves whenever they feel the urge. The good ones that feature animatronics and method actors who are plastered in liquid latex and stage blood, chasing guests through a maze in near pitch black darkness can alter one’s sense of realism and cause them to convince themselves “These are just actors and all this is will stop when you get to the end.” Well, according to Randy Shaffer’s short story, The Horror, “Madness is 24/7.”

The Horror differs from other Halloween horror shorts in the way that it avoids the standard formatted trends today that are forcing the same story down the reader’s throat while only changing the cover of the story.  Shaffer steers away from the apocalypse themes, senseless violence, and over the top gore gags. The Horror offers fresh scares within the tradition feel of the scary story.

Made for the Halloween season but yet it works well for anytime of the year that you crave that spooktacular fix, the short story is a tale of a young couple that attend their town’s haunted house. The usual tension mounts as the characters encounter the usual suspects of line entertainers at such an attraction, like zombies, mad butchers, and everyone’s favorite, the chainsaw maniac. But it is inside where the couple realizes that not everyone in the attraction is on the payroll. The two must attempt to escape the deranged psychopath inside the maze of terror before they themselves become part of the set.

The Horror moves along quickly, but yet in a pace that still allows the story to breathe without the reader feeling rushed toward the ending.  Like all other things in life, timing is everything in writing. Shaffer works each chapter to flow smoothly as the characters work through each room in the house but leaves the reader only wanting more as the chapter ends at a cliffhanger.  I found myself procrastinating chores only so I could finish the next chapter. Needless to say, the next chapter kept having the same effect on me until I found myself running late for an afternoon.

The characters come across as authentic, with convincing histories of small town young adults. Over the top heroes are avoided as they never work to capture the reader’s attention. However there is another character in the story that most writers would not think to develop like Shaffer does; and that would be the haunted house itself. Like all the human characters, the house has its own history and features that entertain as well.

Shaffer’s technical approach to detail paints a vivid picture for the reader so that even the worst ADD case can be easily immersed into the scene. Shaffer is no beginner, the self professed “Novelist, screenwriter, nonfiction writer, traveler, comedian, nerd, husband, and cat owner” has multiple stories under his belt and knows that an amateur move such as showering the reader in too many details will only drown out their imagination, thus causing a case of humdrum boredom. The omnipotent third person narration takes the time during the death scenes to get into the character’s heads and reveal their final thoughts.  Rather than pouring on the blood and gore details of the death, this move creates sympathy from the reader and begs the question “What would their final words be?”  Many up and coming writers should read these chapters as use this structure as a teaching guide for how a real kill scene should be done.  

Shaffer has possibly ruined haunted house for most of his readers, but in a good way. They should probably thank him as well as new writers for laying out a believable format for a good slasher horror tale for anytime in the year.  So the next time you attend a haunted attraction, think of The Horror and ask yourself, “Is everyone here an actor?”

Visit his website http://rlshaffer.com/ where you can purchase this and other stories.

Follow him on twitter at @rlshafferwrites

 

Renfield Rasputin is the Master of Scaremonies at Horror-Writers.net and does not care what Kanye bought Kim for Christmas.

Categories
Archives Book Reviews Posts

The Girl From Blood Coven by Brian Moreland

“The Girl From Blood Coven”, a short story by Brian Moreland, brings us the origin story of the Blevin’s House.  As Sheriff Keagan tucks into a cold beer at his local restaurant,  a young woman covered head to toe in blood appears in the doorway of the restaurant. As we follow Sheriff Keagan and the young woman, Abigail Blackwood, through their night, we learn the story of Lenora Ravenmoon Blevins.

Abigail explains that she has been living at the Blevins House, which is better known in the small community as a hippie commune.  Abigail corrects Sheriff Keagan  by telling him that they prefer for their family to be referred to as a coven.  To reveal much more would be a disservice to this taut and concise story. We are given just enough information to be drawn into the story and feel compelled to move directly on to  “The Witching House”:the novella which follows up this short story and goes into greater detail about the history of the Blevin’s House. This is a 19 page story that manages to pack a lot without being overwhelming or confusing. Truly, I started immediately on The Witching House after finishing this short story.  This is not the kind of story that you put down at the end and walk away from if you have the follow up waiting in the wings.