Book Review: Mountain Sickness by Frank Martin

Frank Martin is working on relaunching this book series with new graphics and comics included.
We’ve re-posted this review from 2017 to feature his book again and show this new artwork.
To find out more about Frank’s project, go to: www.frankthewriter.com

Mountain Sickness by Frank Martin

review by David Watson

Telluride is a small remote town in the Colorado Rockies and it’s a playground for the rich and famous. People come from all over to ski here and the city’s economy is dependent on tourism. It wasn’t always that way though, it started as a mining town but the mine was considered dangerous and closed down. Since then, Telluride has been a winter paradise until a mysterious plague starts to affect the guests.

Telluride isn’t an easy place to get in and out of, so when disaster strikes there is nowhere to run to. It starts with normal people turning into raving lunatics; it ends with them changing into flesh-eating zombies. To make matters worse, the town is being rocked by a blizzard and the locals and tourists alike will have to work together to survive and keep the zombie virus from spreading. If you ever wanted to know what the zombie apocalypse would be like in a blizzard than Mountain Sickness by Frank Martin is your chance to find out.

My first thought when I saw this book was: “Zombies in a snowstorm, sounds like fun.” I can’t think of any other zombie books or movies that take place in a cold climate so I found this idea appealing. My one complaint about this book is that it takes a long time to get into the action. There are so many characters being introduced in the beginning that it’s hard to keep track of everyone. Once we see the first person sick with the zombie virus the story gets good real quick.

It’s not just the setting that makes this zombie story different, it’s also how the people are before they change. The victims fly into a rage before they become zombies and in the beginning, they start as fast-moving zombies. One of my favorite scenes was when one of the ski resort’s employees named Chris goes to find his girlfriend as the people are turning into zombies. He finds her close to death and her dying wish is for Chris to save a boy named Ryan. Chris starts looking for Ryan and as he does he sees himself as a man who has never committed to the life he truly wanted and now he has to fulfill his girlfriend’s dying wish. This made me fall in love with the character Chris and as we see him try to rescue Ryan, he finds another survivor on the way, a 13-year-old girl named Stephanie.

Stephanie is another character in this story I fell in love with. In the beginning, she is a normal teenage girl but we see her become a different person as she deals with the loss of her family and is forced to become an adult as society collapses around her. One scene I loved has Stephanie walking up to someone changing into the living dead and knocking them out with one punch. Seems unbelievable but the zombie didn’t see it coming. The most interesting part of this book is seeing how all of the characters change as they realize that if the zombies don’t get them then they will probably die in the blizzard. The setting and the characters make Mountain Sickness  a must read.

 

 

THE BIGFOOT FILES| Chapter Two: Dweller

Oddly enough, Bigfoot was not the original creature that author Jeff Strand had in mind for his Bram Stoker Award-nominated horror novel Dweller.

“The concept of ‘the story of a lifetime friendship between a boy and a monster’ came to me before the actual monster,” said Strand in an exclusive interview for The Bigfoot Files. “I’d originally thought it would be a reptilian creature that lived at the bottom of a well. But that was too limiting for a book that covered sixty years, and I wanted the readers to fall in love with Owen, so I switched to Bigfoot. Well, something like Bigfoot. There’s a scene where they watch the Patterson-Gimlin film and try to figure out if Owen is the same type of animal. That gave me the whole forest to play around in and made the monster much more cuddly.”

Of course, since Dweller is a horror novel, Owen the Bigfoot is not as cuddly as Strand would have you believe.

Released in 2010, Dweller is a tragic tale of friendship between one lonely human named Toby and one lonely cryptid that Toby names Owen. What makes Dweller a cut and a slash above the average creature feature is that the novel chronicles a heartfelt relationship between human and beast over a period of six decades, starting with their first encounter in 1953.

Dweller is quite a remarkable feat of storytelling because of the time frame, but also because Strand’s tale is as tender as it is terrifying. Eight-year-old Toby initially encounters the creature (who he later names Owen) in the woods behind his home, but their friendship doesn’t begin until seven years later when Toby is a bullied, socially awkward teenager. Their ensuing encounters spark a relationship that Strand is able to ground in reality.

To me, one of the most poignant aspects of Dweller is why Toby chooses the name Owen for the Bigfoot creature. Strand writes:

“Owen – the human Owen – was the closest Toby had ever come to having a real friend.”

Toby had met a boy named Owen in sixth grade, and for about three months they played together every day until an incident ended their friendship. So, Toby has no friends now. How sad is it that the boy turns to a monster just to have a friend and then names it after the only human friend he ever had?

Owen’s story is even sadder as illustrated in the prologue of Dweller. A runt offspring, Owen is orphaned after watching humans kill his family. Owen runs from the killer humans, and Strand writes:

“When he stopped running, he wept.”

That last line of the prologue always gets to me. Can you imagine a young Bigfoot weeping — not crying, but weeping — after humans kill his family? It’s a heartbreaking moment.

One of the more interesting techniques employed in Dweller is Strand’s use of chapters titled “Glimpses,” which cover years of time in the lives of Toby and Owen in just a few pages. For example, in Chapter Eleven, Strand chronicles 1964 to 1972 in eight pages by describing a moment or two during each year. The glimpses are a surprisingly effective way to show time passing and to develop the characters.

One of my favorite glimpses in the book is when Toby is showing photographs from the iconic Patterson-Gimlin Bigfoot film to Owen. Toby thinks that Bigfoot shares a resemblance to Owen, but Owen disagrees. It’s such a “real” moment.

Dweller is among my top ten favorite novels of any genre, not just horror. I became an instant fan of Strand after reading it and have followed his eclectic career ever since. Known as a master of blending horror and comedy, Strand has written more than forty books, but Dweller remains my favorite (and probably always will). Strangely, his one mainstream romantic comedy Kumquat is my second favorite of his novels followed by the devastatingly dark Pressure.

Jeff Strand

I asked Strand if he believes in Bigfoot.

“I think the overwhelming majority of Bigfoot sightings are hoaxes or just mistakes,” Strand replied. “When I see a shaky video of an indistinct blur viewed through thick forest and the cameraman is saying, ‘That’s Bigfoot! Oh my God, that’s Bigfoot!’ I have to be skeptical. It’s easy to see what you want to see, and it’s easy to fool people, so I believe that very few Bigfoot sightings are legitimate. But ‘overwhelming majority’ doesn’t mean ‘all.’ As with aliens, I don’t believe or disbelieve either way — I’m open to the possibility. But I have not seen anything to make me say, ‘Yes! They exist!’”

I also asked Strand why he thinks Bigfoot continues to remain so prevalent in pop culture today.

“It’s just a fascinating idea, that there’s a creature living out there that may or may not be real,” Strand explained. “It’s mysterious and a little scary. Bigfoot is credible enough that you don’t have to be a complete whack-nut to think, ‘Well, maybe ….’ There’s way freakier stuff living in the oceans. So, he could be out there, and yet nobody has ever caught one or provided conclusive evidence that they exist. Even if you’re a hardcore skeptic, it’s a fun mystery.”

NEXT UP | Chapter Three: Swamp Monster Massacre. I review the horror novel Swamp Monster Massacre by Hunter Shea, featuring an exclusive interview with the author about how the Bigfoot legend inspired his story and how the book changed his life.

♦ ♦ ♦ ♦

RELATED LINK:

THE BIGFOOT FILES | Chapter One: The Idea of Bigfoot

 

Odds and DEAD Ends: Resurrecting The Queen

Resurrecting The Queen: Queen Tera in Bram Stoker’s The Jewel of Seven Stars,

When people think of Bram Stoker, they invariably think of Dracula. His novel, The Jewel of Seven Stars, is perhaps overshadowed simply by the importance of the vampire, but it is by no means an inferior novel. Detailing the attempt to resurrect an ancient Egyptian Queen, the novel went on to inspire movies such as Hammer’s Blood from the Mummy’s Tomb, and in some ways the Universal adaptation of The Mummy with Tom Cruise. In this article, I will discuss Queen Tera, and the way she is portrayed as a constant threat to patriarchal society.

To note, I’m using a copy of the novel which includes the original ending and the second, revised ending. I’m basing my discussion on the original ending because it’s darker and, presumably, the direction Stoker originally intended. Also, selfishly, because I much prefer it.

Let us first note that, aside from Margaret Trelawny (and a brief mention of her mother), Queen Tera is the only female character in the novel, and she never utters a word. Her characterization is presented through the male characters of the novel; the documentation of Van Huyn’s book, or the recounting of Corbeck and Trelawny. The power that she exhumes, therefore, may or may not be interpreted to be being played up by the male characters to increase the sense of a threat that she poses. Note that before we are given a name, we have the warning that “‘The “Nameless One” has insulted them and is forever alone. Go not nigh, lest their vengeance wither you away.’” (P.84)

With all that in mind, what is initially deciphered from the sarcophagus reveals Tera to have challenged the male-dominated society of the priests, “‘who had by then achieved immense power’” (p.87). “‘In the statement, it was plainly set forth that the hatred of the priests was, she knew, stored up for her, and that they would after her death try to suppress her name.’” (p.88). Their motivation is her strength in being able to combat their overthrowing of the monarchy, “‘They were then secretly ready to make an effort… that of transferring the governing power from a Kingship to a Hierarchy.’” (p.87) The priests, to their own gain, attempt to get rid of her, “‘make out that the real Princess Tera had died in the experiment, and that another girl had been substituted, but she conclusively proved their error.’” (P.88)

Tera, however, shows incredible resilience thanks to her own determination and learning from her father, “‘He had also had her taught statecraft, and had even made her learned in the lore of the very priests themselves.’” (p.87). She even breaks the tradition of a male ruler, though others try to align her to it. “‘In the following picture she was in female dress, but still wearing the crowns of Upper and Lower Egypt, while the discarded male raiment lay at her feet.’” (P.88). She is very much her own woman, not afraid to show her sex, going against the patriarchy set up for the Kingship, and against the priesthood. “‘She seems to have seen through the weakness of her own religion.’” (p.113)

Her intelligence is noted by the present-day protagonists, who even say that the mummy’s gender may affect their knowledge of the situation, that “Men may find that what seemed empiric deductions were, in reality, the results of a loftier intelligence and a learning greater than our own.” (P.164) Mr. Trelawny also states that:

“We might have known that the maker of such a tomb – a woman, who had shown in other ways such a sense of beauty and completeness, and who had finished every detail with such a feminine richness of elaboration – would not have neglected such an architectural feature.” (P.95)

However, Queen Tera possesses a knowledge which the others do not, which ensures their eventual demise and her assumed resurrection. As is noted by Carol A. Senf, “What makes Tera so overwhelming is her violence and ability to over-power the assembled experts.” (p.107). The science and understanding of all the men in the room cannot save them from Tera’s avenging evil, just as the priests could not stop her eventual revival.

It is this knowledge of another world, knowledge beyond that of the priests and the protagonists, that they fear. Women’s rights movements are slowly gaining momentum at the time, and just a few years before the novel’s publication, in 1898, Stoker’s native Ireland had the Irish Women’s Suffrage and Local Government Association arise from the Dublin Women’s Suffrage Association. Gender politics is on the rise, and the female threats to patriarchal power could not have been far from Stoker’s mind.

This fear of female invasion to the modern patriarchal society is what makes Tera so terrifying. Killing dozens of people throughout the recorded events, based on a combination of ambition and supernatural power, fuelled by a wrath based on gender politics very closely linked to the rising gender politics of Stoker’s time, Queen Tera is an overshadowed classic villain of gothic horror. With gender politics still very much in the public consciousness in today’s world, perhaps revisiting this pushed-aside novel by one of modern horror’s founding fathers, is worth the time for all of us.

Article by Kieran Judge

Bibliography

Blood from the Mummy’s Tomb. 1971. [Film] Directed by Seth Holt. United Kingdom: Hammer.

Senf, C. A., 2010. Bram Stoker. Wales: University of Wales Press.

Stoker, B., 2009. The Jewel of Seven Stars. United States of America: Seven Treasures Publications.

The Mummy. 2017. [Film] Directed by Alex Kurtzman. United States of America: Universal.

 

 

David’s Haunted Library: Siphoners

 

Four people from different backgrounds, they have nothing in common except one big problem. They have the power to siphon people’s life force but sometimes they kill their victims. Little by little they are losing control over their powers and people are disappearing or dying.

Through a set of random encounters, the four siphoners: Donovan, Seth, Avanti, and Frederick find each other. They discover that someone is controlling them and there is more to their powers then they realized. They are now on a quest to find the source of what makes them different and along the way, they find a future they never expected

Siphoners by Evan Bollinger is a psychological horror novel with elements of Science Fiction. The Siphoners are never called vampires but to me they came acros as psychic vampires. This book was like a mixed bag for me. It is a good book but I felt it could have been better. There were some action scenes where I wasn’t sure what was going on and I got tired of the sex and drug references.

Out of the 4  main characters I only liked two of them and in all cases I would liked to have gotten to know their personalities better before we got into their powers. Avanti was one of the ones I liked, she comes across as a strong woman who happens to have a problem she doesn’t understand. The other one I liked was Donovan. My favorite part of the book was seeing him get to college for the first time and hearing about how he has been sick his whole life. We then see him realize how he is a fish out of water in his new dorm and he doesn’t really know how to act. At this point he doesn’t realize he has powers and thinks he’s just weird.

I would have liked to see more scenes where Donovan is trying to fit into his surroundings but can’t. Instead the story goes straight for his powers being out of control. This isn’t a bad book though. I love the concept of siphoning life force but I thought the story could have been told a little better. The book has its moments though and I would be interested in further installments of the series and I would read more writings of Evan Bollinger.

David’s Haunted Library: Mountain Sickness

Telluride is a small remote town in the Colorado Rockies and it’s a playground for the rich and famous. People come from all over to ski here and the city’s economy is dependent on tourism. It wasn’t always that way though, it started as a mining town but the mine was considered dangerous and closed down. Since then, Telluride has been a winter paradise until a mysterious plague starts to affect the guests.

Telluride isn’t an easy place to get in and out of, so when disaster strikes there is nowhere to run to. It starts with normal people turning into raving lunatics; it ends with them changing into flesh-eating zombies. To make matters worse, the town is being rocked by a blizzard and the locals and tourists alike will have to work together to survive and keep the zombie virus from spreading. If you ever wanted to know what the zombie apocalypse would be like in a blizzard than Mountain Sickness by Frank Martin is your chance to find out.

My first thought when I saw this book was: “Zombies in a snowstorm, sounds like fun.” I can’t think of any other zombie books or movies that take place in a cold climate so I found this idea appealing. My one complaint about this book is that it takes a long time to get into the action. There are so many characters being introduced in the beginning that it’s hard to keep track of everyone. Once we see the first person sick with the zombie virus the story gets good real quick.

It’s not just the setting that makes this zombie story different, it’s also how the people are before they change. The victims fly into a rage before they become zombies and in the beginning, they start as fast-moving zombies. One of my favorite scenes was when one of the ski resort’s employees named Chris goes to find his girlfriend as the people are turning into zombies. He finds her close to death and her dying wish is for Chris to save a boy named Ryan. Chris starts looking for Ryan and as he does he sees himself as a man who has never committed to the life he truly wanted and now he has to fulfill his girlfriend’s dying wish. This made me fall in love with the character Chris and as we see him try to rescue Ryan, he finds another survivor on the way, a 13-year-old girl named Stephanie.

Stephanie is another character in this story I fell in love with. In the beginning, she is a normal teenage girl but we see her become a different person as she deals with the loss of her family and is forced to become an adult as society collapses around her. One scene I loved has Stephanie walking up to someone changing into the living dead and knocking them out with one punch. Seems unbelievable but the zombie didn’t see it coming. The most interesting part of this book is seeing how all of the characters change as they realize that if the zombies don’t get them then they will probably die in the blizzard. The setting and the characters make Mountain Sickness a must read.

 

 

David’s Haunted Library: The Noctuary Pandemonium

Simon Ryan was a talented writer, he had a hard life and the dark muses in the underworld want to use him as a scribe. Now he writes words that aren’t his own and every horrifying sentence he writes comes to life in the real world. With his new power, he is given the chance to rewrite his dark past but some things can’t be changed and Simon goes missing.

A few years later, Psychiatrist, Dr. Desmond Carter finds a bloody manuscript from his former patient Simon, who he thought was dead. This sets off a chain reaction of events as the police are called along with Simon’s former agent Christina. Desmond finds out that if you write the manuscript in blood, what you write will come true, but at what cost? Now everything Desmond knew about himself and Simon is making him question his sanity and could lead to his damnation.

The Noctuary Pandemonium by Greg Chapman is an unapologetic horror novel. In the beginning, Greg describes the night as a shade of blood with people walking the street being stalked by their shadows. This is being described by someone who fears to lose his mind and he may be right. If this picture of darkness that Greg Chapman paints doesn’t sell you then this line will: “There is no finer art than the prose that terrifies! Fear is Primal!” With those words you know you are in for a gruesome read and the book doesn’t disappoint.

I love the concept here of muses from the underworld looking for someone to inspire darkness and destruction in humanity. What makes it interesting is how the people the muse chooses start to do it because they want to fix a problem. Good intentions don’t always lead to good results though and the chosen ones have to deal with the darkness that has always been inside them. The most interesting aspect to The Noctuary is that the spirits of the underworld aren’t really the bad guys, read it and you’ll understand.

There is a point in this novel where I had a lot of unanswered questions but all loose ends are tied up by the end. I loved the history behind the muses and how Hell is described almost as a living place. This book also gets into the idea of how what lies in the soul of man can be much darker than Hell and there is no escaping it. This book paints a bloody disturbing portrait that you will love if you’re a horror fan. The Noctuary Pandemonium is a dark thrill ride that will have you thinking harder about the consequences of every choice you make.

https://darkscrybe.com/

 

Ghost Of Manor House: A Review

Ghosts of Manor House by Matt Powers

Review by Stephanie Ellis

This novel was received free in return for an honest review.

A ghost story in October, what better time to read one than when the nights are drawing in and the wind howls mournfully outside. For such nights, of Ghosts Of Manor House is perfect. Between these pages, you will find the Haunted House and its equally disturbed companion, the old oak, Mr. Travels. Together they have been the site of many an unfortunate death and judicial hanging over the centuries.

It is to this house that Edmund and Mary Wilder and their surviving child, Stephanie, go in order to come to terms with the death of their son Tommy, Stephanie’s twin. What Edmund doesn’t realize, however, is the arrangement Mary has entered into with the house in order to reunite her family. Once there, life becomes vague and Edmund’s sense of reality is distorted by both house and tree. He believes himself to be alone, working on a novel, awaiting his wife’s arrival unaware she is already there somewhere. The innkeeper, Lucas and ancient housekeeper, Mrs. Krane play their parts, convincing him he can never leave until eventually, Edmund realizes the step he must take to be with his family once more.

This chilling tale serves as a nicely done homage to the authors own heroes which include Stephen King and Shirley Jackson.

https://www.ghostsofmanorhouse.com/

 

David’s Haunted Library: Ancient Enemies

The world’s governments are a place of secret agendas and backstabbing politicians. It’s even worse when the ruling class is made up of vampires called the order. Their ruling council is called the Hegemony and they have been in charge of world politics for centuries. Every continental territory is ruled by a Hegemon, the Hegemon in charge of North America is a vampire scientist named Caroline.

Ancient Enemies by Brian McKinley begins with Caroline about to leave for a summit meeting of the Hagemony to talk about the future. She is leaving her lover Avery in charge of their home. Avery has been developing psychic powers and has been feeling out of place in Caroline’s world. Now with Caroline gone, Avery is faced with trying to protect Caroline’s scientific secrets and he has found a new woman who is attracted to him. Meanwhile, Caroline is trying to keep her position of power in government.

It’s hard for me to write a good summary of this book because it’s so complex. While its promoted as a paranormal political thriller that’s not what interested me as I started reading it. It starts off from Avery’s viewpoint and he describes his experiences in Overeater’s Anonymous and his feelings for Caroline. He loves Caroline but admits that they are very different people and he feels they are growing apart because intellectually he is not in the same league with her. We then get to Caroline’s viewpoints where she makes it known that she loves Avery but feels that he doesn’t belong in her world, she wants to keep him close and protect him anyway. Caroline tries to give him a position in her cabinet but he shows that he is unqualified for it.  While Avery may not belong in the world of politics he has shown his worth in other areas.

The love story between Avery and Caroline is what sold me on Ancient Enemies. I loved hearing from both viewpoints and how they want to stay together despite the fact that they are so different. Things get more complicated when Avery meets someone more like him and Caroline starts to realize some hard truths about herself. Just when I thought that the love story was the best part of the book we get more into the secret society of The Hagemony and how their government is made up along with the corruption behind it.

Each branch of the Hagemoney is described in detail and they are all different depending on what part of the world they are located in. The third point of view in Ancient Enemies comes from Neko who resides in Jade Tiger’s entourage. Jade Tiger is the Hagemon from China who doesn’t know she has people in her court who plan to take her down. Neko’s public persona is very different from how she is in private and her world is turned upside down when her secret plans get spoiled by another.

Ancient Enemies is a sequel that works as a stand-alone novel. This book is a love story, political thriller, action adventure tale and a horror novel. It looks at the complexity of what makes a relationship and makes you look at how corrupt government is. The characters may be vampires but everything works as a metaphor for real life.  You may want to get this book because you like vampire fiction but the great writing and surprise plot twists will keep you hooked.

David’s Haunted Library: Cold Cuts

Antarctica is a hard place to survive in, it’s even harder when there are mutant penguins with tentacles running around. Ozzy is a pop culture geek and a junk food junkie while Ben takes himself seriously and is Ozzy’s polar opposite. Both are environmental scientists working in a lab at the bottom of the world in Antarctica.

They thought that putting up with each other, the isolation and the cold temperatures would be the hard parts of this job, but they thought wrong. Little did they know that the terrorist organization called The Order Of The Red Wolf has a Nuclear reactor that is affecting the whole continent causing Penguins to become monsters. There are no happy feet in this story.

Cold Cuts by Robert Payne Cabeen has action, horror and comedy with a story that moves along at the speed of light. It also manages to give us some memorable characters. One of them is Ozzy who transforms from an overweight misfit to an action hero with a love interest by the end. The story also has some strong female characters such as Terra and Lorelei who aren’t trained to fight but do a good job of it when they have to. The only negative part of this story is that we aren’t given a lot of information on The Order Of The Red Wolf which is the group that created the mutants in the first place, but that doesn’t take away from the story.

What I really love about this book is how it goes from gruesome to funny. Every time there is a scene with Penguins tearing someone apart you also seem to get a scene that is laugh out loud funny. This book has one of the funniest sex scenes that I’ve ever read in a book and there was another great moment that will make you look at the paintings of Bob Ross in a whole new light. Another scene that I enjoyed was when one of the characters gets attacked and keeps fighting off the penguins and repeating to everyone that: “My guts came out.”

Looking at Robert Payne Cabeen’s bio you can see that he is an artist and a screenwriter and it shows in this book. At the back of the book there are several drawings of what the mutant penguins look like but also the way the action is described paints a picture for the reader. As I was reading this I found myself envisioning the whole thing as a rated R summer blockbuster movie. For example towards the end there is a great battle scene between the humans and penguins complete with background music.  I found myself laughing because I kept thinking how awesome this would look on the big screen. Cold Cuts is a lot of fun, it has that perfect mix of horror and humor that I like to find in a book.

David’s Haunted Library: Whispered Echos and The Devil’s Children

We all have something we’re scared of. In the back of our heads, we hear a little voice that reminds us about our darkest fears. It’s like a Whispered Echo that just repeats itself over and over again. Whispered Echoes by Paul F. Olson is an anthology that looks at things that scare us so much that we never forget it. This book contains 12 stories set in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula showing it as a place where strange things happen.

What’s interesting about this anthology is that the stories are presented in chronological order by the dates that were written. The first story was originally published in 1983 and the last one was written this year. So what you have in this book are stories from a horror writer who’s writing improves a little with each tale told. You also get a good look at what goes on in the mind of Paul Olson and how he has evolved as a horror writer.

Mr. Olson has a few different themes that he works with in this book. One of these themes is individuality. In a story called The Visitor, a man visits the town of Patterson Falls every year in Autumn and when he does, someone gets hurt. The people in town finally get fed up with this routine and decide to confront him but they don’t get the results they are looking for. This same theme comes into play in two other stories in the book with a man suffering the consequences of not being like everyone else.

My favorite story in this book is They Came From The Suburbs. You could call this a zombie story but its a little more complex than that. David Finley works in a mall and notices that the same people show us every day and seem to mindlessly wonder the mall and shop. He calls them the quiet ones but he soon finds out that if they can’t consume anything there will be hell to pay. I love the message about how some people go through life blindly doing things having no real life at all and how it affects others. This was a perfect little horror tale that had a Twilight Zone feel to it.

Another good story here was Bloodybones which includes ghosts, a serial killer and a mystery. What I liked most about this story is the descriptions of the setting. Michigan’s Upper Peninsula is as much a character here as the people in it and I loved reading the description of an area that I’m familiar with. Olson’s using of Michigan and Wisconsin in his stories reminds me a little of how Stephen King uses Maine in his stories.

Whispered Echoes could be looked at as a philosophy book disguised as a horror anthology. Paul Olson writes about staying true to yourself, loyalty, love and not letting the past define you. These themes are all presented in short horror stories that pack a punch. This is the kind of book that young horror writers should read because it shows that good horror can deliver a  message and your writing will get better over the decades if you stick with it.

Harry and Adam grew up together in a small New England town. They were never the most popular kids in school but they had a good time watching horror movies, drinking alcohol, exploring abandoned buildings and hunting imaginary demons. Flash forward to the present, life is not going well for either person and they decide to move back to their old hometown to relive their childhood. When they get there they discover that something strange is going on in their old stomping grounds.

People are seeing ghosts, Adam is having visions of his old teenage girlfriend who has been missing for 13 years and a local historian has sealed off a newly discovered tunnel that may have the answers to some old mysteries. We soon find out the demons that Harry and Adam hunted may have been real and they may be the only ones who can stop these strange happenings. As Halloween night rolls around, Harry and Adam put a plan into action to stop the evil that is plaguing their town.

The Devil’s Children by Benjamin Blake is the kind of book that I love reading. It’s a simple horror story about a couple of outcasts who notice something strange is going on and realize that they are the only ones who can stop it. I love the characters in this book, Adam and Harry reminded me of a couple of people I knew in high school and the way they both changed by the end of the book showed that they had a lot more depth than your average character in a horror novel. I also like how the story is told from the present with flashbacks showing how they use to be in the past. The one thing I didn’t like about the book is that it seemed to take a long time to get into the action of the story. While I liked the characters enough to keep reading, it could have used a few more scares in the first half of the book. The Devil’s Children is sort of a mixed bag but it has enough good parts to make it worth your time. Despite what I didn’t like about this book, I’m still looking forward to what else Benjamin Blake comes up with in the future.

 

 

 

Press Release: Demon with a Comb-Over

Press Release: Demon with a Comb-Over

Excerpt :

“Talk about a tough crowd.

Take Charlie Broadmoor’s life. Please. Charlie sucks at stand-up comedy. He gets by, though. Things are okay. His life is decent. Until the night he makes fun of a demon’s comb-over. Big mistake. What kind of demon wears a comb-over? The sensitive kind. The kind who’s not going to let an insult slide. A demon who’s going to take Charlie down. As in down to Hell. And he intends on dragging everyone Charlie cares about along for the ride.”

Amazon link

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David’s Haunted Library: Imago Mortis

Milan Italy can be a romantic place but it also has a dark and sinister side. Augusto Ghites has been working the mean streets of Milan as a private investigator and he has seen things that would terrify most people. He’s good at what he does, he can talk to ghosts and has the power to relive the ghost’s last moments on Earth. This is a good skill to have as a P. I. but it comes with a hefty price tag.

Augusto is a junkie, his addiction is sniffing the ashes of the dead and this is how he can interact with spirits. Business isn’t exactly booming for his detective agency but he makes enough money to support his addiction. The latest case to come his way is from an old prostitute who wants him to investigate the death of one of her colleagues. It looks like it will be an easy case but there are dark forces at work and Augusto may be in over his head.

Imago Mortis by Samuel Marolla is a hard-boiled occult mystery novel that has the feel of a 1940’s murder mystery. Everything in this book is described beautifully. There are some great scenes of Augusto going to a cemetery to get more ashes to sniff that are so detailed that you feel like you are there with the character. The way his visions are described when he is done sniffing the ashes are horrifying. Samuel Marolla has done a great job of creating some dark imagery that will stick with you when you are done reading.

Reading this book was like looking at a work of art but that was also a bit of a problem. It felt like everything was overly described and not as much detail was put into the story itself. There are pages of descriptions of ghosts, the city of Milan and how Augusto feels about the other characters in the book and his addiction but there wasn’t much action to tie it all together.

All in all though this is a well written book but you get the impression that telling a story wasn’t as important to the author as painting a picture with words. I loved how the city of Milan is like a character in the book. I got the feeling that if the setting was in a different place it would have changed everything. Milan in Imago Mortis can be compared to Maine in a Stephen King book or New Orleans in an Anne Rice book. Meaning the setting is a character as much as the people are characters. This book has enough going for it that I would recommend it, there is some good world building here but it needed a little more suspense.

Ink

Brian is the creator of a series of popular graphic novels starring a character named the highwayman. The Highwayman is a supernatural being who comes to earth when a person is unjustly killed and his motive is to help the victim get the revenge they desire. Success for Brian came with a price, after being continuously stalked by an obsessive fan, he became a prisoner in his own home.

This all changes though when he is talked into going to a convention and meets a female illustrator named A.J. Hart. A.J. has demons of her own but the two hit it off and decide to collaborate on a project. One day a mysterious bottle of ink arrives on Brian’s doorstep, they use the ink and it starts to bring their creations to life. They now have to stop the creatures they created from destroying everything in their path and bringing on the apocalypse.

First thing I thought when I read the description for Ink by Glenn Benest and Dale Pitman was that it was a great idea for a book.  There is a lot going on in this story, we have a love story between the two artists, we have the highwayman’s story from the graphic novel and an apocalypse story in the real world. There is almost too much going on here, Ink is a mixed bag, the characters are all interesting. This includes Brian’s dog who has a big part in the story, I can’t say I’ve read to many books that focused on the dog’s viewpoint, but this one does.

While I loved the characters the story was slow-moving and the sub plot of the Highwayman didn’t really interest me even though I did like the character. I got the impression while reading the Highwayman’s story that the author just threw it in because it was important to show what kind of book that Brian and A.J was writing. Every time we cut away to the Highwayman I found myself being bored and just wanting to get back to Brian and A.J.’s story. That being said I did enjoy hearing the reasons why Brian created the Highwayman.

The best part of this book is the love story between A.J. and Brian and this is coming from a person who doesn’t like love stories. When you hear what they’ve gone through in their lives you can’t help but root for them and you get to see how the two of them working together makes them better people. There are some great horrifying moments in this book such as when Brian’s obsessed fan sneaks up on him in a dark theater and again in a parking garage. Then what really tops it off so well was when the fan says why she is doing what she is doing.

This book has its share of scary moment but best of all it works as psychological horror by getting into how A.J. and Brian are effected by their stalkers.  One good scene that was in this book that really showed how Brian was affected by his obsessed fan was when we see him making an elaborate meal for two and then find out that no one is joining him and he is eating alone. Another part of this book I loved was when Brian was reading letters from his fans and you see how caring for his fans affects his life. While I have to say I had my issues with Ink, it was pretty good and I look forward to more from these two writers.

Kbatz: Vampires versus…Vampires?

Vampire versus…Vampire?

by Kristin Battestella

So often vampires and werewolves are pitted against each other in the battle of the genre beasties.  However, more often then not, these terror titans work in tandem in fiction and media, creating a broader, richer tug and pull sharing in the horror medium.  My 2008 Eternal Press novel The Vampire Family has a family of vampires that can shape shift and transform into wolves and scary weres- and scary werecats, too.  My follow up series Fate and Fangs: Tales from the Vampire Family serves up vampires who prefer their wolf shapes in Book 3 Struggle. 

While it is easy to have books and ebooks either have all the monster magic together or for readers to find literature specific to vampires and werewolves and all the mixes in the spectrum, films have also scored on the presumed animosity.  The Underworld franchise tells of ancient vampire and werewolf wars- but fans of either creature can get their fill in these features.  Likewise Twilight has made the Team Edward and Team Jacob themes top sellers.  Vampires versus werewolves ideologies are good for business, simply put.  Whether for or against, reluctantly working together or struggling to love or hate one or the other, in the end, vampires and werewolves are good for each other.

Unfortunately, the current subdivision of the vampire genre is getting too divergent for its own good.  The watered down, lovely dovey, youth and glitter love vampire movement spurred by the Twilight craze has helped the vampire literature and media culture just as much as it may have damaged the genre.  Book, television, and movie markets are now flooded with vampire material- all in the same youth, teen romance driven trends.  As knock off begat knock offs, the quality pool has dropped considerably.  People are tired of vampires.  They think horror has been played, and all the sudden the same editors, publishers, and powers that be are now turning on the massive overdrive they helped to create.  Backlash is inevitable.

Soon people even forget what came before the glitter vampire.  Readers are afraid to take on another vampire story because ‘they all suck now’.  (No pun intended) The quality vampiric horror gets lumped into the problematic downward glitter spiral.  And when you the writer submits your hard worked, scary horror, medieval furthest thing from contemporary teenage vampire vampire manuscript, what does the publisher tell you?  The worst thing a writer can possibly hear:

No.

And it isn’t just the ‘no’ that is the worst part.  It wasn’t that your story wasn’t well written or not just good enough.  It might be damn decent perfection and fit in just perfectly with what this publisher’s interests are.  But no, it is the fact that the marketing, timing, and overblown played mayhem of that other vampire type has just ruined your publication chances.  Well, doesn’t that just suck? (Pun intended)

So then, you see, the vampires versus werewolves theory is not what hurt your novel’s chances.  Rarely does a publisher say, ‘we already have a werewolf book, so we can’t take your vampire story.’ In fact it is quite the opposite, editors often look for both together to balance out  their catalogue and reader varieties.  They might even prefer books or series dealing with both monsters so they can cross reference all their categories.  How many times have you clicked on a publisher’s store links for both ‘vampire’ and ‘werewolves’ and seen the same books? Quite a bit I suspect.

Now, have you ever seen separate links for ‘vampire horror’ and ‘vampire romance’? The breakdown between the vampire medium is almost nonexistent in appearance, even if those readers and writers and vampires lovers in the know immediately know there is a difference.  How many times have you been in conversation with a fellow vampire lover and they say either ‘oh, that was too scary for me!’ or ‘This vamp was too lovey dovey for me.’  What’s sad is how many times has a reader passed on your book because they like one or the other and dismissed your book as being the wrong vampire type for them.

What then, must a vampire author do to remain relevant in a subgenre at war with itself?  Keep writing damn good copy!  Whichever side of vamps your on- either pure horror or paranormal romance- keep it good.  Keep your universe, characters, and tales true to what the manuscript needs to be its best.  Don’t give in to the mislabeling and trends.  Vampires rise and fall, go underground and subculture or rise up from the dead and reign supreme over media. Not too long ago, everyone wanted exclusively paranormal light and vampire romance, now call outs are returning to pure horror and uniqueness.  Make your creatures of the night stand out from the pack.  Keep them worthy of the hand in hand werewolf antagonism.  Good competition is healthy in fiction, writing, selling books, and reader’s choice.  Write crap copy and no creature wins!

To read more about Kbatz’ vampires, read her contribution to The Great Vampire Dispute.

Review: Time Of Death: Induction

Emma lives in Florida and has a pretty average life. She is 37 years old, married to a man named Jake and has a dog named Daphne. Emma is close to completing her nursing degree and has just lost her first patient, or did she? When she gets home from the hospital she is surprised to find out that her patient has come back to life and is trying to eat the hospital’s staff. From there Emma’s life goes from average to tumultuous, not only does she have to deal with the undead coming back to life but there is also a hurricane destroying Florida. As civilization collapses, Emma and her family have to try to survive and hopefully build a new life.

Time Of Death: Induction by Shana Festa is a book that starts with a slow burn and ends with an explosion. In the beginning we see all the characters going about their normal life and then the zombie apocalypse happens and the book becomes non-stop action. I loved how Shana makes us care about the characters before she puts them into danger. Once the hurricane hits and the zombies started to rise, I didn’t want to put the book down.

I liked how with the action moving along like a freight train, Shana  still manages to insert humor into the mix. For instance as Emma and Jake are driving around looking for shelter, Emma takes a sniff and thinks her husband has just passed gas. The smell doesn’t belong to her husband but we get a couple of good laughs before the action starts again. Another scene has Emma traveling with a group of soldiers on a reconnaissance mission and they use a series of hand gestures that Emma doesn’t understand. After a bit the soldiers start to laugh and Emma realizes that the soldiers are messing with her.  In a book about the collapse of society I like how the humor in Time Of Death breaks up the tension. Even when the world is ending I think people would still use humor to lighten the mood, so it was a nice touch.

Time Of Death: Induction is a first novel and it does show. I thought some of the action scenes were confusing and at times the story felt rushed. At one point a human is using a pole to keep zombies away from a boat and the zombies pull him to his death , I thought this was something zombies shouldn’t be able to do. Also there is one point where I almost stopped reading because the title of the chapter gave away what was going to happen next. It’s hard to feel suspense when you know what’s coming.

All this being said  I enjoyed this book. The characters were excellent, you see Emma and Jake have their differences and don’t always work as a team, but you still see that they love each other. One of the best scenes in the book is when you see the couple try to make an escape and  clash over what should happen with the dog Daphne. Daphne may be a dog but she is a good character in this book. If you’re a zombie fiction fan you will love Time Of Death: Induction. The way the apocalypse starts made this book worth it for me. This is the first in a series and its a good first novel.

Kbatz: A Christmas Carol

A Christmas Carol

By Kristin Battestella

One small review of one small book. 87 pages I’ve taken time out of my busy holiday schedule for every year since 2000: A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens. This year has been the same. People say, “Oh, you’re reading that? Again?!” Sometimes I myself begin reading with a sigh. Such a silly tradition I’ve placed upon myself! Sometimes I rush to finish on Christmas Day, other times I’ve read through in a few cold December days. Regardless of my mood when I start, I’m hooked once I read a sentence. I read faster, wanting to get to my favorite lines and scenes. Even though I know what’s coming on each page, I also know exactly where my lip’s going to tremble, too.

Call me many things, but never predictable. Despite all the excellent film portrayals- Bill Murray’s Scrooged included- one has not truly experienced Scrooge, Marley, Tiny Tim, and the ominous Ghost of Christmas Yet To Come until you have read the book. Alistair Sim, Kelsey Grammar, and Patrick Stewart just won’t do.

Even if you are not a Dickens fan or don’t have the Department 56 Dickens’ Village light up houses like I do, Carol defines everything the holidays are about. After Thanksgiving I begin disassembling our year round Village display. I clean each house-Scrooge and Marley’s Counting House, the Flat of Nephew Fred; every figurine-Fezziwig and the graveyard with the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come. I put them all up again with fluffy snowscapes and cobblestone roadways. The Flat of Ebenezor Scrooge is meant to look shabby, ugly, unkempt. Yet the house representing the residence of Charles Dickens, Gad’s Hill Place, is three stories of all the bells and whistles.

Despite his future success, Dickens often wrote about life in debtors prison and his 1843 portrayal is spot on in relation to today’s over zealous commercial shopping season and bottom line obsessions. Scrooge is like today’s store managers, keeping the heat down and demanding clerks arrive early the day after. I thought of Scrooge, upset for his ‘ill use’ of paying a day’s wages on an unworked Christmas when I saw 4 a.m. Black Friday sales. Scrooge will never become cliché, no matter how many performances glorify him or send him up. Why? Because at some point, everyone has had a little bit of Ebenezer in them, regretted the fact, and redeemed themselves. You say you will donate here, volunteer there. Sometimes you do, sometimes you genuinely are busy or forget. Other times you simply skip doing good because you just don’t feel like it. The word Scrooge has become part of our vocabulary.

We all know the story of Ebenezor’s ghostly visitors who show him the true meaning of Christmas. In fact, A Christmas Carol was name one of the Top 100 horror stories of all time. Carol’s past memories of happy childhoods gone by from the elderly but childlike Ghost of Christmas Past and the bittersweet memories of those enjoying life around you courtesy of a trip with the robust Ghost of Christmas Present are sappy enough to make even Scrooge warm, but the gothic and frightening images of Ignorance, Want, and silent The Future Yet Undetermined can indeed scare anyone back to goodness. Dickens himself spent time in a Debtor’s Prison, and the reveal of the boy Ignorance and the girl Want hidden under the aging Christmas Present’s robe gets me every time. Skin and bones and claws for hands that could have been prevented by Scrooge’s donations. His own evil words are turned back on him. How often do we quell ourselves into not doing good by saying that someone else will? You need only go to a school for a day and spot the coatless, scrawny, un-brushed hair among the classrooms for inspiration. Amazing all the advancement’s we’ve made since Dickens’ time and some things unfortunately do not change.

This is scary, upsetting stuff in A Christmas Carol, yet I still recommend this story as a family read this holiday season. As deep and mature as Dickens’ Tale is for us older working folks, picture your children gathered around the fire each reading a stave. It might be the best gift you give them this season. Showing them how to recognize the needs of others before they grow up in the commercial Christmas rush. Potter reading children will take the good versus evil story at its basic, core values. Poor Bob Cratchit and ill Tiny Tim had no material things of value to begin with-less than that in the Future’s horrible vision, yet the family is grateful. They have hope, love, belief. Maybe poor Nephew Fred has no heat in his flat, but the packed party and jubilant laughter is enough to keep his company warm. Both these families toast to Scrooge-not because he deserves it, but because it’s the right thing to do. These warm wishes juxtaposed against the notion of the clothes being taken right off Scrooge’s dead body at his end mirror his contrary, inconsiderate nature. Which would you choose? A Christmas Carol reminds us that one is never too old for a lesson in gratitude, redemption, and awareness of the world around you.

Reading A Christmas Carol this holiday will remind you and yours of all the good things about the Season. Why the good things are good, and why they should be treasured and spread. Not exuberant gifts like those Zales and Lexus commercials. A Christmas Carol gives us the things that can’t be bought-or even seen.

Dark Blossom

The year is 907 A.D. The Tang Dynasty is ending and life is hard in China. Ava cares nothing for China, at a young age she was kidnapped and sold to a brothel as a sex slave. She hopes to save her children and escape the brothel. Things don’t go as planned and she is left with little hope.

With things at their worst, Ava gets a visit from Jigong, the beggar god. Jigong needs her help to save China. Ava agrees to help but now she is breaking one of Heaven’s most sacred laws in conspiring with a god. She is a fugitive to Heaven and China even though she is trying to save them both. To make matters worse The most feared deity of them all, Zhong Kui the hunter god is stalking her.

The real horror in Dark Blossom by Vincent Stoia didn’t come from the demons and ghosts that are in China. The true horror was watching Ava deal with the day-to-day real life horrors. Some of the people in this story that she deals with were far more scary than any supernatural being.

Dark Blossom has its human and supernatural monsters. The people such as Liu the main villain  and Shadow show they have a much greater capacity for evil than anything in the underworld. In my favorite part of the book a vengeful demon comes into the Brothel where Ava lives and we get to hear what the demon thinks. The demon can sense the evil in the brothel and wishes to leave. Shadow who runs the brothel doesn’t see herself as evil but the demon does. You could take the demons and ancient gods out of this book and still have an effective horror novel.

Another thing that I enjoyed in this book was how the supernatural and the real world were connected. All of the demons in Dark Blossom were once human and it was something tragic that happened to them that made them what they are. One girl becomes a demon because her baby was killed and she cursed the village and came back as a demon. Its hard not to feel sympathy for the evil spirits in this book. In the beginning we here Zhong Kui’s story, he was wronged by the Chinese government and went crazy killing people in the Imperial palace. He comes back as a demon hunter who walks the earth to slay other demons and spirits that have escaped  the underworld. Despite the fact that he is a demon he still cares for humans. As he walks the streets of a village and sees how poor the people are he wonders why the government wont help but he is doomed to protect the empire. When he hears that his new mission is to hunt and destroy Ava, he feels bad for what he must do.

Ava is an excellent character, in a time when women weren’t supposed to be strong, she is tough, caring and intelligent.  Life was always tough or Ava but she still manages to do the right thing and doesn’t lose hope even though there is a voice in the back of her head telling her life will never get better. Two scenes that I loved in this book was when Ava grabs a sword and goes after the much bigger Liu and when she is in the underworld and questions the gods. Real life is scarier than anything supernatural and Ava has to deal with it all. Dark Blossom brings Ancient China and Chinese mythology to life in one great horror novel that shouldn’t be missed.

This Darkness Light review by D.J. Pitsiladis

Hello Horror Addicts! This is D.J. Pitsiladis with a review of “This Darkness Light” by Michaelbrent Collings. It is a story about an apocalypse at the outset, one in which normal everyday people are turned into horrific creatures for a short period of time before they die off. The story starts out with a man waking from a coma without any memories of who he is, how he got to the hospital, or even why he is there. A glance at his chart lists his injuries as multiple gunshot wounds, but doesn’t feel as bad as he should after a trauma like that. He’s vaguely able to recall that he has a mission, and that he needs to go to Kansas immediately. He doesn’t know anything else except that it is important for his mission. As an assassin enters the man’s room and stares in shock at the John Doe in the bed before he aims a silenced gun at him. As this is going on, a nurse arrives for her shift and discovers every one of her co-workers on her floor executed. She enters John Doe’s room and provides enough of a distraction for the injured man to subdue and kill the assassin. They escape the hospital, but are just as quickly hunted by an assassin named Isaiah, a former priest, who is blackmailed into chasing them by a shadow organization within the government in order to save the world.

I found this a very hard book to put down. It started like it might be a zombie style story, but just as quickly changed to a mixture of Stephen King’s “The Mist” and the 1989 movie “Leviathan”. The priest’s story was well-played out as the man who believes he is so unworthy that he tries to make things right by eliminating people who he knows for sure are abusive to other people. The back story on why is a well told story and very believable. The way John Doe’s character is painted keeps up just enough of a mystery to keep you wondering who he is and what his mission is. The nurse is a tag along who helps John in a couple of instances, but feels more like just a damsel in distress to be rescued. It read through good and very enthralling, but the ending just felt a bit anti-climactic. Up to that point, I thought it was a great read. My ranking is 3.75 out of 5.

Until next time, fellow addicts…

 

Press Release: No Tears For Old Scratch

Bully Press releases: No Tears For Old Scratch by Ken Wohlrob

“Welcome to Knob’s End—The Holiest Town in America.”

So reads the sign that greets a mysterious stranger as he steps off a bus one dark night in upstate New York. But life is not so great in the small town of Knob’s End. The economy has tanked, jobs are drying up, and people are losing their homes. Led by their local pastor, Father Balano, the citizens’ only source of pride is an award-winning community display—”The Graveyard of the Innocent.” Once the stranger arrives, however, things go from bad to worse. Soon, a child is missing and the sins start stacking up. As the stranger stirs the pot, he can’t avoid confrontations with menacing old ladies, anarchic metalheads, pugnacious Christians, and the ghosts of his own past…

No Tears for Old Scratch is a dark and humorous literary tale about an outsider who suddenly finds himself lost in a veritable dead-end.

http://kenwohlrob.com/

Carnival 13

“There is no hell, only Carnival.” This is one of the quotes in the book Carnival 13 and it’s a good description of what you can expect from this book. What could be more fun then going to a carnival? Brian doesn’t think its fun but his girlfriend Polly does. Brian is not happy and he gets even unhappier when they meet up with a group of friends at the Carnival and decide to explore together.

They soon find out that this is no ordinary carnival. Brian finds himself getting violently ill in a freak show and he doesn’t remember certain things. It gets worse when he imagines pushing one of his friends off a building and then sees a sadistic clown do the deed. The group starts dying one by one, they can’t escape the carnival and the freak show wants to keep Brian permanently as a serial killer clown.

Carnival 13 is a different kind of book, its a novel written by 13 horror authors with each one wrote one chapter and their goal is to shock you.  Think of it like a group of horror authors sitting in a circle, one starts the story and then the next one continues it trying to be scarier then the previous author. Carnival 13 is a fun experiment in writing with all profits from the book going to Scares That Care.

I was excited when I heard about Carnival 13 because I love books about sideshows and carnivals and I like a lot of the authors involved in the project such as Julianne Snow, Armand Rosamilla, John Everson and Anne Michaud. All the authors in this book manage to deliver some scary moments using a classic horror setting of a traveling carnival. This book has a set of conjoined twins that are a little crazy, a perverted midget, a bearded lady, the fattest man on earth, killer clowns and deformed babies that are just as vicious as they look.

Carnival 13 is a fun creepy roller coaster and I found myself thinking that it would make a great cheesy horror film. Because you have 13 authors telling the story, I found it got a little confusing at times. There were things that didn’t get explained well and some of the characters were underdeveloped. If one author was writing the book it would have bothered me but I think the main point in this book was to scare you and try something that hasn’t been done before. Make no mistake about it, Carnival 13  delivers some great scary moments.

My favorite parts of this book were the scenes in the freak show when Polly and Brian see a mermaid and other oddities. I also liked in the beginning where a man is making fun of the freaks in the carnival and a clown comes up behind him and makes him sorry. I also liked how Brian debated on whether to listen to the clown that controls him or help his friends escape the carnival.

The absolute best part of the book was Terrence and Agnes trying to survive after a test of strength. The two are given a little backstory that makes you care about them and then they have to escape from some pretty frightening creatures. The Fattest Man On Earth will really make you cringe. If you don’t buy Carnival 13 for the horrifying moments get it because it’s a good experiment in fiction writing or because the profits go to a good cause.

www.scaresthatcare.org

The Colony: Renegades

Its only been a few hours since society has collapsed and already the zombies are evolving. They are smarter, faster, stronger,  they spit acid and there are more of them. Things look bleak for Ken Strickland and the other survivors, but they have hope and they will do what it takes to survive the zombie apocalypse. This is the story behind book 2 in Michaelbrent Colling’s zombie trilogy, The Colony: Renegades. 

In book one of this series, the zombies were not as strong and the the thing you wondered about most was will Ken find his family? In The Renegades the main point I wondered about was how were the characters going to survive in this new world where there are zombies at every turn. These zombies aren’t the kind that stumble through the street and walk slow, they are smart, they work as a team and can communicate with each other and they can attack you even when you dismember their bodies..

In most horror novels you find a character that is dealing with something that is much stronger than them and they’re fighting against the odds to survive. Michaelbrent Colling’s book takes it to the extreme. While reading I was constantly thinking  that there is no way that the humans can survive. There is a scene where they survivors are trapped in an elevator shaft while zombies are climbing up the walls to get them. At one point they look down from a window and see so many zombies that they can’t see the ground. There is also a scene where the zombies are climbing up a construction crane to get to their prey.

While writing this trilogy Michaelbrent must have thought to himself what is the absolute worst situation that I can put a human in? The answer to that is the Colony trilogy. I don’t think I’ve ever read a series of  books where the humans had to go through so much to survive. These characters go through hell and back, they lose hope and regain it, they fight among themselves but then have to work together to survive. The Renegades is a hardcore thriller that you can’t stop reading because you have to know how the humans will make it through.

The nonstop action in this book is what really makes it a good read but I also liked the relationship between the characters. For instance the way Ken and his wife act towards each other in the story I think is how most married couples would act in this situation. I also liked how the characters change  in the story. Despite a short period of time passing, everyone changes into a different person by the end.

It’s hard to find any bad things to say about this book. I love the way the story is told and I love the characters. True horror in a novel is watching a character you like have to survive an impossible situation and The Colony: Renegades is filled with impossible situations. My only complaint is that I felt that some of the scenes were over described and the book ends on a big cliffhanger. This didn’t bother me too much, if you made it this far in book 2 than book 3 is already a must read. Michaelbrent Collings has made one masterpiece of a zombie story.

Press Release: Exoskeleton

A convicted felon is given a choice following his sentencing… Serve a twenty-five year conventional prison term, or spend 365 days in a new, experimental corrections program… He opts for the latter, only to realize he has made a horrible mistake.

A dark tale of science spun dangerously out of control, EXOSKELETON will leave even the most jaded of readers quaking in their boots.

” … a cleverly executed [blend] of science fiction, suspense and horror. … a certified dark journey into madness.” – David Gammon, HORROR NEWS

“Stadler – an experimental physicist by trade – effectively uses his background working in government and defense labs in painting vivid, appropriately clinical looks at the very base concept of torture. He spins it, however, into a horrifying tale of supernatural vengeance, one wrought with complex questions of faith, spirituality, and the after-life.”- Chris Hallock, CHIZINE

“Exoskeleton utilizes several science fiction and horror tropes: the medical experiment gone horribly wrong, the malevolent secret government organization that will stop at nothing to achieve its aims, vengeful spirits against which the fleshbound have no defense, [still] Stadler never lets the story devolve into cliche, but instead uses these tropes with originality and energy.” – Tracie McBride, EXQUISITE CORPSE

Find EXOSKELETON online: http://www.darkhallpress.com/exoskeleton

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Shane Stadler is an experimental physicist. He has worked at numerous government research and defense laboratories, and is currently a professor of physics at a major research university. EXOSKELETON is his first novel.

ABOUT DARK HALL PRESS:

Dark Hall seeks to promote a diverse body of quality works, advancing the tradition of Horror storytelling as well as providing exposure for up-and-coming writers.

Our list includes works of supernatural and non-supernatural horror, as well as cross-genre pollinations (sci-fi/horror, fantasy/horror, noir/horror, etc.) and experimental works.

Charla by Alex Beresford

There are two things that really drew me to  Charla by Alex Beresford. The first item was a warning in the beginning of the book that said you shouldn’t read the demonic summoning at the end of chapter two. Because if you do an unwanted demon will come into your life. The second item was the first line of the story which was: “She always hated her daughter.” That got my attention right away how can a mother hate her daughter. Well Charla hates her daughter Amelie and has since day one. Amelie is now an adult and Charla has decided that its time for her to destroy Amelie once and for all. She does this by summoning a demon to ruin Amelie’s life.

Things start off slowly, the demon starts doing things like making noises, showing small glimpses of itself and then he causes Amilee to hurt herself. Little by little Amilee starts to lose her mind and then things get even worse. Amilee has no idea that her mother is the cause of all her problems or that her mother hates her, she gets some help from a friend but it may not be enough to stop the demon or her mother.

Charla is one disturbing read. It starts as psychological horror and then turns into a hard-core horror fest. This novel is excellent but it’s not for everyone. If you like romance don’t look here, if you like comedy, don’t bother, if you like sunshine and happiness forget about it. If you want a well written novel with fascinating characters and great pacing that keeps you on the edge of your seat, then Charla is for you.

I loved how the action builds slowly throughout the book and the atmosphere was creepy. There is one scene I enjoyed where Amilee and a friend uses a Ouiji board on a stormy night that was subtle but scary. You knew something was going to happen but instead of the author delivering a big scare he hints at things to come by having a spirit communicating with them and then showing a glimpse of something which makes Aimilee question her sanity. I felt the scariest part of the book was how Aimillee starts questioning everything she believes. There is nothing scarier then doubting your sanity and Charla really showcases that fear. I think even if you took the demon out of this book, it still would have been a great psychological horror story.

Another thing I loved about this book was the depth behind the characters. You kind of want to feel sorry for Charla after you hear her life’s story but then you see what she does to her daughter and you can’t. You also see Charla react to her husband wanting to divorce her and you can relate to her, but at the same time her attitude about how life has wronged her and how she reacts makes you hate her. Then there is Amilee who on the surface seems to have everything going for her, but then you see how insecure she is and you see how wrong her mother’s perceptions of her daughter is and you feel sorry for her.

If you read Charla your still going to be thinking about it long after your done with it. I think it’s a powerful novel that takes your worst fears and brings them to life. If I had a list of favorite horror novels Charla would have to go on it, but its not for the faint of heart.

Free Fiction Friday: Blood Feud

Our Free Fiction Friday selection for this week is Blood Feud by Sam Siciliano. This book was originally released in 1993 and tells the tale of two ancient vampires that will not rest until the other is destroyed.

Blood Feud is set in Portland Oregon where two vampire’s final battle will take place. One vampire is a master of manipulation and he now thirsts for the death of the vampire woman he once loved. The  woman in question is dangerously seductive and uses her body to possess her victims and now she wants revenge on the vampire who cursed her with immortality. They have been driven through the centuries by the desire to bathe in the other’s undying blood and now the final battle is drawing near.

Some other books written by Sam Siciliano include: Darkness, Blood Farm and The Angel Of The Opera: Sherlock Holmes Meets The Phantom Of The Opera. To find out more about Sam Siciliano go to:samsiciliano.net.

If you want this book leave a comment on this blog post. The first comment gets the book. This is for US residents only.

Free Fiction Friday

This week’s Free Fiction Friday selection is Matters Of The Blood by Maria Lima. Keira Kelly, half-breed descendant of a powerful paranormal family has chosen to live apart from her clan and among humans in the Texas Hill Country. Where she lives there has been several animal deaths and she starts having prophetic visions of her brother being murdered. Keira starts to investigate whats going on, but in the process she uncovers some long kept secrets that raise more questions then answers.

Matters Of The Blood is the first in a series of five books that include everything from shapeshifters to vampires. The series combines horror, mystery and romance and some of the reviews that I’ve read compare Maria to Nora Roberts and Charlaine Harris. If you want to know more about the author check out marialima.com

If you would like a copy of this book leave a comment on this blog post. The first comment gets the book. Good luck.

The Nightmare Project

There is nothing more horrifying then not being in control of your own mind and body.  Julia Montgomery has to live with that fact everyday. She suffers from nightmares and two years ago she killed her husband and has been a patient in an insane asylum ever since. Julia wants to get back home to her two children but she might be a danger to herself and her children.

There may be one way out of the asylum for Julia and that is The Nightmare Project. This experimental procedure uses subliminal messages and aggressive psycho-therapy to control a person’s unconscious behavior. There is one person who the project didn’t work for and her name is Kaitlyn Summers. Kaitlyn was the youngest participant in the Nightmare Project, she didn’t survive but a part of her is still in the hospital and she is looking for a new body.

Jo-Anne Russell’s The Nightmare Project is a psychological horror novel that has some violent moments that will make you cringe but the scariest part of the book is the characters. Everyone has a dark side, for instance you have Kaitlyn who comes across like an innocent victim but you also see that she has a vicious temper and has murdered before. You also have Julia who just wants to be a mother again, but she has killed before and she wonders if she can be trusted around her children because she doesn’t have control of her mental state. There are also several doctors and patients in the story who all seem to have their own agendas and Julia doesn’t know who she can trust. Each person in this book is intriguing because they keep you off-balance wondering what their motivation is and if they are good or bad.

Another thing I liked about the book is the way the nightmares are described and how at times you are not sure if what is going on is a dream or reality. Like when you hear about why Julia killed her husband, you realize what Julia remembers is a dream and the reality of the situation is much scarier. While there are a lot of suspenseful moments in this book the two scariest moments for me were parts that weren’t meant to be scary. There is one part where an orderly named Ben tells Julia that she should not do the Nightmare Project. Julia says she has to so she can see her kids again  and Ben asks if she really thinks that will happen. At this point in the story you see the hopelessness  of Julia’s situation. You also see Ben as someone who can help her, but you soon find out he has secrets of his own. The scariest part for me though was when Julia is thinking about the feel of her husbands arms around her and how safe she felt with him. She may have killed her husband but she never stopped loving him.

If you find the  concept of mental hospitals, experimental therapies and not being in control of your thoughts fascinating and chilling at the same time you will love The Nightmare Project. This book is no light read, it will leave you with an uneasy feeling and you may not look at hospitals the same again. This is the first book in a series and I am really curious where Jo-Anne Russell will take this concept in the sequel.

How I Started The Apocalypse

Chaz Singelton woke up from the longest sleep he ever had in what looked like a hospital room and he had no idea how he got there. His body felt numb and he had the worst headache ever, but that was the least of his problems. Chaz is the world’s first smart zombie and he is part of a government experiment to create an army of super soldiers who can’t be killed.

This is the story behind Brian Pinkerton’s How I Started The Apocalypse. Chaz is trapped in a secret underground lab, he wants to escape to see his family again but there is no way out, until the government decides to shut down the experiment by killing all the zombies along with the workers in the lab.  With the need to eat human flesh and the power to destroy mankind, Chaz escapes and goes on the run to find his wife and son.

How I Started The Apocalypse is an action packed zombie thriller from the point of view of the zombie. Chaz is a multi dimensional character that you can’t help but like. Chaz never wanted to be a zombie and he tries to fight his zombie nature, he just wants his life back, but he soon realizes that his wife has moved on and he can’t fight what he is.

To make matters worse he is being stalked by Breck Palmer, the man in charge of the super soldier experiment and the one who destroyed the secret lab.  My favorite part of this book was how there was a point where you feel sorry for Chaz and his hopeless situation and you hate Breck for what he has done.  As the story progresses and Chaz has more trouble controlling himself,  he starts to become the villan while  Breck becomes the sympathetic character and the only one that can put a stop to the zombie pandemic.

I did have some issues with How I Started The Zombie Apocalypse, some of the dialoge in places seemed a little cheesey and didn’t fit certain situations. Also there was a scene where Chaz finds his wife that I didn’t care for. Without giving any of the story away I felt that what happened with their relationship was too far fetched. Though the last scene with Chaz’s wife was hilarious and left a smile on my face. Another scene I had issues with was when Chaz tries to end his zombie problem. I felt he should have known it wouldn’t work but his attempts at doing it were very funny.

How I Started The Apocalypse is an original take on the zombie genre. The book is  fast paced with a lot of humor and gore thrown in for good measure.  There are a lot of great action scenes here, and a commentary about how humans act like zombies. I liked Chaz’s escape from the secret lab and there was a scene in Yankee Stadium that was very good. One of my favorite scenes is when Chaz makes a childhood bully suffer giving him his just desserts. There was also a scene towards the end with a goth girl who wants  to turn him into be a celebrity that was very good.  Best of all I liked the way the story ended. The storyline gets wrapped up but it hints at a sequel and I would love to see where Brian Pinkerton goes next with this idea.

The Haunted

On top of a hill in a forest surrounded by tall trees that look like green soldiers was a beautiful old house with a dark past. A long gravel driveway leads to the house and occasionally people drove down the highway to admire the home’s beautiful architecture. They didn’t stay long though because the house had a sinister feel to it and the people in town were afraid of it. The house had a for sale sign in front of it for a long time but one day the sign came down and a young couple expecting a child moved in.

This is the opening to Michaelbrent Collings The Haunted. The young couple’s names are Sarah and Cap. As they move in they experience strange occurences that they can’t explain, such as radios turning on and off, a truck turning itsself on and objects moving on their own. On the second night an all out assault begins and the couple is attacked by a legion of homicidal ghosts who want them dead. Among the army of spirits that try to enter the house is one with a noose around its neck, one with a slashed throat, and one in a long hooded robe that seems to be the most evil of all. The couple tries to escape but there is nowhere to run; the only help they receive is from the local preacher who may be in over his head.

There are a lot of horror novels out there that can be considered a roller coaster ride but The Haunted is more like a freight train out of control. The opening reminded me of Shirley Jackson’s The Haunting of Hill House and did an excellent job of creating a mood of spookiness and impending doom. Right from the start before anything happened I found myself hoping Sarah and Cap would leave the forest and not look back. Ounce the mood is set, The Haunted kicks into a terror filled thrill ride and never lets up, leaving the reader breathless and fearing for Cap and Sarah.

While the plot unfolds you learn more about Cap and Sarah, the author gets inside their heads and makes you feel what they’re  feeling. I love the way Michaelbrent Collings presents his characters. you know their fears, their weaknesses and what there thinking at all times. You fear for them because you relate to them and you know you would probably be thinking the same if you were in their situation.

The only things I didn’t like about The Haunted was that the story was a little confusing and I was able to predict the ending. Despite this, The Haunted is still an excellent horror novel. This is the second book I’ve read by Michaelbrent Collings and in both cases I found myself thinking that this book would make a great scary movie. Michaelbrent’s writing paints a horrific picture and his characters are always memorable. This book has plenty of frights, the descriptions of the ghosts are terrifying and one ghost in particular is scary enough to keep you from sleeping for a night. So if you like a good ghost story then check out the works of Michaelbrent Collings.

Worth Their Weight In Blood

There are several different king of vampire novels out there. Some are meant to be scary, some lean towards the romantic side and some vampire stories can be considered urban fantasy. Just when I thought that I’ve read every kind of vampire book there is; one comes along that takes a different look at the genre, combining evolution and vampires.  I’m talking about Worth Their Weight In Blood by Carole Jahme.

Life hasn’t worked out as planned for Scarlett Fox, she went away to college and came back to the town of Radfield a single unemployed mother. She lives with her mother Red and daughter Ruby and feels like an outcast among the townspeople.   Her luck starts to change though when in the middle of the night the Zomnifiers Blood Research Institute moves into town looking for new employees. Scarlett applies and gets a job taking care of a chimpanzee with a rare blood disease.

Scarlett has an interest in evolutionary psychology and is ecstatic to have a job studying chimpanzees, but she slowly finds out that something isn’t right at the Zomnifier’s institute. They only work at night, the chimp is afraid of the scientists and there is a skull on display with large canine teeth. Everyone at Zomnifiers is a vampire and Scarlett is faced with the decision to become one of them or her and her family will die.

There is a lot more going on in Worth Their Weight in Blood then the storyline. The book gets deep into evolutionary psychology and also gets into philosophy.  My favorite part of the book was when Scarlett debated with the vampires weather they had souls or not. The vampires believe that they are better then the humans because they live longer and they do not have egos. Scarlett says that because the vampires can’t self reflect they can’t relate to anyone. They can’t feel true compassion and because of it they have no soul. This part of the story is well told and the suspense builds as the vampires grow more agitated at Scarlett’s claim.

Whether you like  Worth Their Weight In Blood or not depends on what your looking for in a story.  I liked all of the characters in the book. I enjoyed the relationship between Scarlett and her mother and hearing how Scarlett feels about the townspeople. She doesn’t fit in and longs for change and to be better then she is, but when change comes she finds that she looses more then she bargained for.

I did think the story moved a little slow but because I liked the characters enough, it didn’t bother me. What the story lacks in action it makes up for in great dialogue between everyone in the story. Also there are some horrifying scenes such as when Roman attacks someone on the highway and when Scarlett and Helios play “trouble with vampires” on a troublesome neighbor. The book also has a very steamy sex scene and a great battle in the end.

I also loved the two rouge vampires, Helios and Roman. Roman is a mystery and Helios is funny and manipulative.  Despite the fact that they were not major characters in the book, I thought they were very interesting and would like to have learned more about them.  Worth Their Weight In Blood is a very original character driven vampire novel and I’m hoping for more installments in the future.

Free Fiction Friday: Welcome Back To The Night

This weeks Free Fiction Friday selection is Welcome Back To The Night by Elizabeth Massie. Family reunions aren’t always a happy occasion, especially for the Lynch family. Three cousins are about to meet up with a deranged woman who was also part of their family not long ago. This woman is not back to join the clan, she wants to remind the cousins of their horrible past and warn them about their deadly future.

I’ve read reviews for Welcome Back To the Night that called it a psychological thrill ride and one person called it part supernatural and completely sick. Most of the reviews agreed that Elizabeth Massie does a great job of showing how derranged people can be and what kind of evil and bigotry can be hiding in a small town.

I’ve read Elizabeth Massie’s anthology Shadow Dreams and really enjoyed it. Besides horror novels, Elizabeth Massie has written some TV tie in novels for Buffy The Vampire Slayer and The Tudors and a few historical fiction novels.

If you would like to have your very own copy of Welcome Back To The Night, leave a comment on this blog post. First comment gets the book.  To find out more about the author go to elizabethmassie.com

A Peter Giglio Doubleheader

I’ve just finished reading two books by Peter Giglio who fans of this blog may remember was featured in episode 69 of Horror Addicts. The first novel I want to talk about is from Hydra publications and is called Anon. Rory hates his job, the town he lives in and the woman he’s married to. He would like nothing better then to fix everything that went wrong, especially his relationship with his ex-fiance Faith, but he feels trapped and doesn’t know how to fix it. Then one day he gets called into a meeting with his boss at Anon Financial services. Anon gives him the opportunity to fix all of his problems but the question is what does Anon want in return?

Faith has moved on to a happier life without Rory. She is married to a minister named Cale and they have twin daughters named Dawn and Michelle. Michelle has a strange gift and knows something evil has arrived when Rory reappears in Faith’s life. In order to stop the terror that is invading her family, she will have to listen to ghosts from Rory’s past, learn to use her powers and put down an evil corporation. Rory also has powers and will stop at nothing to get the life he missed out on, with Faith.

The thing I loved most about Anon was how Rory’s story is presented. The book follows Rory from when he was a child to the present and you start to like the character despite the fact that he isn’t always a good person. I found myself sympathizing with him when he breaks up with Faith and goes to work at Anon. I also found myself wanting to see him change his life and get what he wanted even though it meant the destruction of Faith’s Family.

What made the book so much better then the average horror novel are the characters in the book. Peter Giglio does a great job of making you fall in love with a character weather he is good or bad. I also liked Faith’s family and wanted to see them survive what they we’re going through. Most of all I hoped Rory would overcome Anon’s influence and become the hero.

Though I mainly liked Anon there were a few parts that I didn’t care for. I would have liked to see more from Faith’s point of view and I would have liked  more description on how how Anon’s power worked. A description is given but I found it a little hard to follow. There were also two scenes that I didn’t like in the book one was when Rory and Faith take Michelle away from their grandparents and there was a gunfight in a hotel that I thought was unnecessary. Another thing I would have to tell reader’s of Anon is to stick with the story and don’t stop reading. There was one point where I felt the story was getting confusing and almost stopped, but as the story went on everything did get explained.

Anon is a good psychological horror story that makes a great point about all of us having evil and good within us. We make the decision on what path we want to take but there are others that can influence are decisions and control us.

If you don’t care for psychological horror and you want your horror bloody and over the top, then you might want to check out Peter Giglio’s Balance from Evil Jester Press. The Blast, a worldwide snowstorm that blanketed the whole planet and brought with it a terminal virus. It came without warning in October and left just as suddenly, but before it left, infected humans started to change and eat the flesh of the living.

The story takes place after the blast and follows six main characters in the zombie infected world, as they try to find balance in their lives. The characters include Geoff, a sad man trying to find what he wants in life and is in love with Amanda, a woman who doesn’t really know what she wants either and is about to be in a fight for her life. The next couple is Ginny a young mother who is trying to save her family and her husband Shane who seems to know more about the zombie virus then anyone, but has his own agenda. The last couple is Cassandra who is a romance novelist having an affair with a married man named Joe who loves his car more than his wife or mistress.

Balance follows the stories of these six people and during the course of the book you see them all go through changes, some of them even become zombies and part of the story is told from the zombie’s point of view. This is what I think makes Balance one of the best zombie stories I’ve ever read.

My only complaints about Balance was that there was one time where the story changed from being in the present to the past which confused me and I was curious as to how much Shane knew about what was going on. Besides that Peter Giglio does what he seems to do best, he creates characters that you can’t help to fall in love with wheather they are good or bad. My favorite character in Balance is Cassandra who doesn’t let a little thing like being a zombie stop her from helping two people in love.

I don’t know of any zombie stories that look at the zombie’s point of view which to me made Balance an original take on the zombie genre. I also liked that the fact that the main hero in Balance was a zombie. Balance is a fun bloody zombie tale that I think you will enjoy even if you don’t like zombie stories.