Horror World Book Reviews
January, 2009

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ELSEWHERE by William Peter Blatty
Review by David Simms

It’s been thirty five years since Blatty turned the horror world round on its head (and then spun that around a few times) with The Exorcist. Where has this guy been? Other than a spare novel that turned into semi-cult film and the sequel to his blockbuster, Legion (not the nauseating mess that was The Heretic), Mr. Blatty’s whereabouts in the realm of writing have been tougher to pin down than Lucifer himself.

The long-awaited new novel, Elsewhere, finally hits the shelves courtesy of Cemetery Dance, the folks who seem to never disappoint the horror crowd. Yet this entry is not a sequel nor does it have anything to do with possession, demons, Satan, or overactive little girls.

It’s a haunted house story. Before anyone automatically moans and groans, remember there’s always an exception to the clichéd rule. Of course, nothing can match 20 th century masterpieces such as The Haunting Of Hill House or The Shining, but this one does measure up quite nicely to Hell House and Bentley Little’s The House (which I believe took the concept in a very cool new direction). Yes, there are similarities to other books – that’s to be expected. Without spelling them out, one will definitely think he or she has picked up one of those aforementioned books. Give it a chance – there IS a difference.

The first thing the reader will notice is the writing. It elevates without sounding flowery or contrived. The characters and setting demand elegance and Blatty gives them that and more. Freeboard, the main female lead, tries to convince the industry and buyers that Elsewhere, a house with a tainted past, is not what speculation leads them to believe. She hires Terence Dare, a flamboyant author to write an article about the myth of its haunting. Both are extremely New York in personality, which at first may seem a turn-off but soon becomes amusing. Freeboard hires Dr. Case, a paranormal “specialist” to document the house’s activity, or lack thereof. A cross between The House, Hell House, and “Ghost Hunters” ensues, with electronics galore. To keep the situation grounded, Dare brings Ms. Trawley along, a medium complete with Ouija board. Rounding out the cast is Morna, Case’s housekeeper (don’t ask).

Very typical occurrences follow but keep track of the details. Some truly creepy moments jump out or crawl down the spine in tiny movements that detail the harsh, violent history of the house. Yet when it’s all over, the reader will be sure to feel satisfied. One could only wish that this octogenarian (yeah, he’s that old) produced more horror for fans.

Of course, it comes highly recommended by this reviewer.

Cemetery Dance

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DARK RIDE by Michael Laimo
Review by David Simms

Sometimes a book’s title hits the nail on the head. Michael Laimo’s new collection from Borderlands Press is dark, wild ride. Having only read his novels, I had no expectations from his short fiction. Some authors show stronger skills in one or the other and some just stretch their legs in ways they never could in novels, which I believe is the case here, with fine results. With an introduction by Brian Keene (another sign you’re in the big leagues), Laimo shows the reader what’s inside his dark mind.

Many of these stories have been published before in various anthologies during different stages of his career, from “Summer Fling” which was updated from one of his earliest rejections to a cool monster story that is more than just that to a brand new novelette, “The Startling Supplements of Brione Heloise’s Depictions.” This latter story is the strongest entry in Dark Ride in my opinion as it reads very much like something Lovecraft would do (Borderlands suggests it’s an homage to him and would make total sense). This tale alone would sell the book but Laimo delves deep into the human body and mind. “The Rash” sounds like a simple take off of a bad B-movie idea but reminded me of the movie “Bug” (but effective and much more entertaining). “Contact Lenses” probably is my favorite one here but what is great about the collection is the variety of types of story and various tones he chooses.

Collections are often tough to recommend but not this time.

Borderlands Press

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UNSPEAKABLE HORROR: FROM THE SHADOWS OF THE CLOSET Edited by Vince A. Liaguno and Chad Helder
Review by: Martel Sardina

Everyone knows the monster under the bed hides in the closet when parents come to tuck the kids in for the night. Why else would they bother to make sure the door is always closed before turning out the light? Closets are scary places, even in the daytime. Who doesn’t dread the task of cleaning out their closets? We put things in closets and forget about them. Closets are the instruments of willful forgetting. But every once in a while, something compels us to open the door and face our fear. And when we have the courage to do that, we are usually rewarded with treasure of some sort –a favorite old jacket, a long lost toy. Such is the case with Unspeakable Horror; treasures await those readers who dare to delve inside.

The twenty-three tales are told by a diverse group of authors, some famous in the horror genre, their counterparts in the GLBT communities, seasoned pros and newly discovered talents. The styles and voices are very different from one story to the next, but the underlying theme of the impact of the closet experience remains.

The scariest story, in this reviewer’s opinion, is Rick R. Reed’s “Sublet.” Perhaps it’s because the tale could be ripped from newspaper headlines. Ian, a young man who has recently moved to Manhattan, finds an apartment at an unbelievable price. It isn’t much to look at, but at least he’d have a place in the city to call home. The landlord’s insistence that the place will no doubt be snapped up causes Ian to overlook the apartment’s obvious flaws in his quest to find something affordable. As Ian settles in to his humble abode, panic sets in when he realizes that he’s going to get more than he bargained for.

Another favorite was “I’m Your Violence.” Lee Thomas pumps new life into the police procedural, giving readers great dialogue, and leaving enough of the details out so the reader has to fill in the blanks. The imagination has a great way of making what you don’t know worse than what the author may have intended.

Kealan Patrick Burke takes the theme of the closet experience and gives it a different twist. What if we lived in a world where being heterosexual was not only not the norm, but also a crime? In “A Letter from Phoenix,” Burke uses one man’s desire to avenge past wrongs as a way to challenge readers to examine their views on sexuality and think about the stupidity of discrimination in all of its forms.

While the stories mentioned above represent some of the standout pieces, this is by no means a complete synopsis of all the great fiction represented within Unspeakable Horror. Rather than give an in-depth analysis of the work at hand, this reviewer prefers to let the readers discover the remaining treasures on their own. But she would be remiss not to mention the fine work of some of the outstanding ladies in the horror genre. Unspeakable Horror also features tales by Sarah Langan, Lisa Morton and Maria Alexander. Maria’s story, “In Her Mirrors Dimly,” is a beautiful and heart-wrenching journey filled with sorrow and loss, and the realization that even in the midst of tragedy, hope will prevail.

Whether you’re a fan of crime, mystery, fantasy or straight-up horror, chances are something that lurks in this anthology’s closet will reach out and grab you. And if you wind up sleeping with the lights on, then like this reviewer, you will have gotten your money’s worth.

Dark Scribe Press

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INSTITUTIONAL MEMORY by Gary Frank
Review by David Simms

Horror novels come in various forms – ones that scare, ones that stretch the mind, ones that make the reader question beliefs, and ultimately, ones that entertain. Institutional Memory may not change readers’ philosophies of life, but it’s a great view on corporate life and its effect on American life as well as a damn enjoyable read. I went to bed with it halfway done and the next two hours disappeared – something that’s becoming less and less common in horror these days.

Gary Frank is one of the frontrunners in Medallion Press’ rapidly increasing impressive stable. His second novel vaults over his first and deserves a wide audience, written in fine cinematic scope. I can’t imagine life in corporate cubicle USA but I bet it’s as draining as Frank depicts it to be. Even before the true horror appears, he sets the dreary tone but populates the story with people working right next to you. Characters likable and despicable, always damaged, a story unto themselves, he gets the reader to care who survives (if anyone truly can escape a corporation with their soul intact!)

The Howard Phillips building (how’s that for a “Love”-ly play in “craft”-ing words? I apologize – it had to be said) is sick. We all know the buildings; we work in them. The places that suck the energy from us, the vampire-like places which leave us as empty husks – Gary Frank shows us a very cool vision of the reason behind it all. Employees are being taken, used, drained, even slaughtered by living tendrils of the building. Jon, Marcy, and Betty head up the cast of characters who investigate the mystery. Each has their own story and interests the reader: Marcy, a meek, mousy woman whose past hinders her every move, Betty, the punk rocker by night who provides sex appeal and the strength to the cast, and Jon, stuck in a bad marriage (and unsure writing career). Once the pieces are set in motion, the author hits the gas and the ride begins to swerve around corners and two wheels and hit the loops of this rollercoaster story at full speed. The characters grow with the plot and are easy to feel for (I know I felt for Betty and commiserated with Jon’s plight!).

Illuminated by glow of Lovecraft’s mythos (possibly), Institutional Memory turns the light back on us, the readers. There is terror in corporate world but it doesn’t always reside in living, sadistic cables ready to tear us to shreds. Gary Frank slices open the underbelly of the monster and shows us what lives inside. It ain’t pretty, but it makes for one very recommended read.

Medallion Press

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KILLERS edited by Colin Harvey
Review by Mario Guslandi

A theme anthology (killers) from a small independent publisher (Swimming Kangaroo), assembling eleven cross-genre stories from a bunch of respected, although not quite famous writers. Enough to elicit the interest of any dark fiction reviewer.

Predictably, not everything is top-notch. Some stories, ambitious as they may be, actually miss the target, such as Sarah Singleton’s ‘Dead Wood’ a disjointed piece about dead things and dead people resurfacing from the soil of a solitary forest , Charlie Allery’s ‘Hunter-Killer’, revolving around a high-tech murder in the cyberspace and Philip J Lees’ ‘Virtual Analysis’, a bizarre SF tale trying to mix virtual and actual reality.

There are stories which fail because of a confused, hazy narrative style (Jonathan Maberry’s ‘Doctor NIne’, featuring a little girl who, obsessed with a murderous bogeyman ,poisons her little sister), others which despite a solid storytelling suffer from a lack of plausibility (‘The Good and Gone’ by Lee Thomas, where a man comes out of his body lying in a hospital bed to discover the dirty secrets of an old pervert) .

Much more accomplished are the short, but cute ‘Pushover’ by Bruce Holland Rogers, efficaciously depicting an apparently harmless killer and the delicate, poetic ‘Beautiful Summer’ by Eugie Foster, showing how beauty must die in order to not to be spoiled.

The excellent ‘Index of An Enigma’ by Gary Fry is a complex story about a man back home for a psychology convention meeting the ghost of his unborn brother. As it is often the case in Fry’s fiction, supernatural and psychology mix very effectively.

The best stories in the volume are Gwen Veazey’s ‘ Losing Paradise’ , a deeply unsettling piece set in a mental institution hosting, among its various inmates, a woman who’s not really human and ‘Just Another Day’ by the anthology editor Colin Harvey, a beautiful, tense and sad tale disclosing the hidden truth behind the death of a famous scientist in Iceland.

Definitely,in spite of a few misfires, a book worth reading.

Swimming Kangaroo Books

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SERPENT GIRL by Ray Garton
Review by David Simms

Another offering from Cemetery Dance comes from one of the stalwarts of the horror boom in the 80’s – Ray Garton. While many have waned in the 90’s and new century, Garton keeps impressing. Live Girls still feels relevant and Sex & Violence In Hollywood has got to be one of the most grossly underrated novels in horror. Now, CD gives us Serpent Girl.

Novellas seem to be the weapon of choice for so many talented horror authors & Cemetery Dance produces some of the finest work (besides amazing artwork). However, disregard any supernatural expectations based on the tantalizing cover. Serpent Girl is straight suspense so don’t expect the titular character to slither through the pages (okay, she does, but in human form). Garton leads the reader on a psychological mind screw with two characters who are not what they seem to be.

Steve Benedetto meets Carmen, aka “The Serpent Girl” in a small town carnival during a “business trip” to L.A. Almost immediately, she’s connected to a string of murders and may be long time serial killer. He “rescues” her and begins a drive that unravels his plans of retirement in a peaceful existence. She has an addiction that needs feeding and since Steve’s hooked on her sexual prowess (where are these women? I might go to some more carnivals now!), he attempts to lend her some of his “skills” to keep her out of trouble.

Garton always entertains his audience and Serpent Girl is no exception.

Cemetery Dance

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BLOOD OF THE DEAD by A.P. Fuchs
Review by William A. Veselik

Most of Blood of the Dead by A.P. Fuchs is a cookie-cutter zombie tale—except for the zombie plague beginning with a mysterious, gloopy gray rain that turns most people into undead flesh-eaters while leaving a handful of humans unaffected, and the unexpected appearance of an angel at the end. Yes, an angel.

Blood of the Dead follows the exploits of four survivors of the zombie rain: Joe, a former comic book writer who has become a self-appointed zombie slayer; Billie, a pink-haired babe who keeps in touch with the world via the Internet; Des, Billie’s friend, who is more at home in the virtual world of a computer game; and August, an older man who lost his entire family to the zombies and who is undergoing a crisis of faith in a God who has apparently abandoned the world to the brain-munchers.

This novel is the first of a planned trilogy from Fuchs, so much of the story serves as a setup for the coming books, including a lengthy introduction of the characters, their back stories, and how they interact with one another. Joe saves the lives of Billie and Des from a zombie attack and then August saves Joe, Billie, and Des from a horde of flesh-eaters that should have been fatal to the three. The latter scene in the book is particularly imaginative in that August manages to successfully use computer components and gravity as an effective weapon against the walking dead.

The real surprise of the novel occurs near the end. Fuchs introduces a metaphysical aspect to Blood of the Dead that truly comes out of left field and leaves the reader wondering how the battle between Heaven and Hell will play out on the zombie-infested earth.

Fuchs’ writing style isn’t frilly. It’s intended to get the job done—telling the story without any attempt to impress the reader with fifty-cent words no one uses in everyday conversation. He particularly likes the comic book sound effect—noises depicted by words—which gives the reader an audio perspective that doesn’t often come through using only descriptive language. It works well, just like a flying brain striking a brick wall with a wet thwack.

There are a few moments that require the reader to stretch his or her disbelief (even beyond the presence of the zombies) in order to swallow certain events. For example, Joe is a comic book writer who somehow manages to build a sophisticated firearm using plans he finds on the Internet; when the group finds a helicopter on the roof of a building, August miraculously can fly the machine thanks to his having been a pilot in Vietnam; and Billie picks up a nail gun she uses in a running battle with the undead, despite the fact that there is no air compressor attached to fire the large nails she drills into the faces of the zombies. These are small matters, though.

The only real criticism one can make concerns the rather one-dimensional nature of the zombie battles. In most cases, the zombie horde moves in, surround the heroes, and grab at them while Joe blasts them with his pistol and Des whacks them with his lead pipe. In the early parts of the book, Billie and Des keep getting into tough scrapes only to have Joe come to the rescue at the last minute. Except for back stories, in fact, there is actually very little biting and ripping and chewing of entrails to be found.

The real appeal of Blood of the Dead lies in the promise of things to come. The novel ends with a cliffhanger, leaving the reader to imagine what great things may be coming in books two and three, especially in light of the metaphysical storyline that reared its head at the end of the first book. Here’s hoping that A.P. Fuchs’ horror muse continues to inspire him as he births the balance of his Undead World Trilogy
Coscom Entertainment

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BETTER OFF UNDEAD Edited by Martin H. Greenberg & Daniel M. Hoyt
Review by JG Faherty

When I found out this book was available for review, I jumped at the chance. Throughout the 1980s and 1990s, I was always a huge fan of Martin H. Greenberg’s themed horror anthologies. Vampire detectives, sexy vampires, ghosts, mysteries, classic horror, devil worshipers, witchcraft, and so much more, and that’s not counting the fantasy and science fiction anthologies he’s edited. I always looked forward to seeing one of his anthos on the shelf at the local bookstore, because I knew I’d not only be treated to a collection that, unlike many other anthologies, contained a high percentage of stories I’d enjoy, but would also introduce me to new writers. (This was before the internet and online shopping!)

And the concept for Better Off Undead - separating the book into separate sections for the afterlife, hauntings, vampires, and zombies - seemed guaranteed to provide me with a couple of hours of escapist enjoyment over the Thanksgiving long weekend.

Having finished the book now, all I can say is, ‘oh, my god.’

And I don’t mean that in a good way.

This was possibly one of the worst collections of stories I’ve ever had the misfortune to read. Out of the 18 stories, I enjoyed exactly four.

Four.

That’s 22%. Not a good grade. If this book was a math test, someone’s parents would be getting a letter from the teacher.

It got so bad that after the third or fourth story, I flipped to the back of the book to read through the author bios, hoping to find a reason for why the stories had been chosen, that perhaps they were reprints from magazines, or award-winning stories.

I quickly found my reason, and it disappointed me perhaps as much as the stories themselves.

Better Off Dead is a Daw publication, and, lo and behold, pretty much every contributor to the anthology has been previously published by Daw, usually more than once.

Can you say nepotism?

It’s all well and good to publish an anthology from in-house writers, but why not say it? Why not put it on the cover - great horror from some of Daw’s best-selling writers?

Even more troubling, one of the stories is by Daniel M. Hoyt, who also happens to be a co-editor. Now, I’ve stated in the past, publicly, I personally have no problem with an editor of an anthology including one of their own stories, but the horror community chastised me publicly for that statement. So how come no uproar over Mr. Hoyt including one of his own stories?

Some of the authors included in this book were familiar to me - Alan Dean Foster, Jay Lake, Nina Kiriki Hoffman, Laura Resnick, Chelsea Quinn Yarbro - and I gathered from reading the author bios the others are all popular in the fields of fantasy, which I admit to not being a big reader of. And that leads me to my next issue - I found it rather odd that a collection of horror stories featured hardly any horror writers. It made me wonder if the problem with these stories was these writers don’t often write in this genre, or if perhaps these were just trunk stories, selected more for author name than actual story quality.

On top of everything else, the writing in general was of poor quality, mechanics-wise. Most of the stories would benefit from a good proofreading. In particular, the continued excessive use of the word ‘that’ throughout the collection grew more annoying with each story, to the point where it became a distraction. This is editing 101, folks.

In any case, what I’m going to do now is provide a quick review of the four stories I enjoyed.

1. ‘My Tears Have Been My Meat,’ by Nina Kiriki Hoffman. This story starts on page 145 of the book, and it was the first story I liked. That means the first 50% of the booked didn’t thrill me in the least. But Ms. Hoffman’s story knocked me on my butt - in a good way! Zombies, murder, revenge, and the concept of evil beyond the grave and before birth. If the first half of the book was this good, I’d consider the book a classic. Ms. Hoffman even manages to toss in some unexpected twists, something hard to do in a short story.

2. ‘The Perfect Man,’ by Fran LaPlaca. This one cracked me up. Humor and horror are hard to pull off, but Ms. LaPlaca does it with deft ease in this tale of a female Dr. Frankenstein wannabe, told from the POV of the monster, whose different pieces all retain their individual identities and who have to balance their wants with their evil creator’s needs.

3. ‘Two All Beef Patties,’ by Jay Lake. Another humorous twist on the zombie trope. A man who’s recently come back to life as a zombie has to find a way to revive his love for life, and his taste for food. How that ends up happening in this dark comedy will leave you chuckling.

4. ‘Walking A Fossil,’ by Robert A. Hoyt. Possibly the weakest of the four stories I liked, mainly because it peters out at the end, as if the author either lost steam or didn’t have a final ending in mind. But it’s heads and tails above the remaining 14 stories in the book, and one of those reasons is it deals with a zombie dinosaur. That alone endeared it to me.

All in all, Better Off Undead was one of the biggest disappointments of the year. All I can hope is that it’s a burp in Mr. Greenberg’s otherwise excellent career, rather than a sign he’s jumping an undead shark.

DAW

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SHARP TEETH by Toby Barlow
Review by Steve Middaugh

Sharp Teeth is by far a very different book, unlike any other werewolf novel I've read. It's fast paced and violent, moving with certain melancholy. It is at times heart breaking but other times, outrageous. Let's face it, it's a crime novel with fur, fangs, and claws. The big difference is that it's all written in free verse.

It starts off with a newly hired dogcatcher, Anthony, noticing how strange that there are so many dogs lurking about in dark and cruddy neighborhoods, meets up with a odd woman with a secret past. A cop named Peabody also notices the dogs in increasing numbers. He also notes two other dogcatchers before Anthony had disappeared without a trace. Unbeknownst to all, there are werewolves lurking about under the guise of humans. When the lupines launch an attack, they don't mess around. They're efficient killing machines. One ringleader by the name of Lark has been running the usual business scams until somebody decides to double-cross him. He escapes the attempts on his life but most of his pack have been killed by a rival pack. So now he's laying low with the few loyal friends he still has.

All in all, a good book, sleek with noirish verse. Lots of black dogs that lurk in every cornerAt the closing end of this sanguine song, there are some loose ends that are not solved, more likely dropped or forgotten. Still not too disappointing. But it does call for a sequel. It'd be interesting to see what happens next with Barlow's characters and I'm definitely looking forward to his next book.

Harper

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