2025 book number 0.5- The Deep- Nick Cutter

 

I started this on 30th December but only finished on 5th of this month so to solve issues on numbering for the year, it's a half. 

I read The Troop a couple of years back and it pretty much set the bar for body horror in literature for me.  This is my second outing into his world of horror.

A pandemic is sweeping the world.  Called the 'gets, it's like dementia on steroids. in it's end stages, people forget everything including how to eat and breathe and just die.

In an attempt to find a cure a team of scientists are working 8 miles below the surface of the Pacific, trying to harness a miraculous new substance they call Ambrosia.

Dr Luke Nelson is a vet. His brother is one of the scientists in the deep sea lab. When all contact s lost with the lab shortly after his brother sends a message asking to see him, Luke takes the perilous trip to the bottom of the ocean. He will soon come to regret that decision.

Things have gone very wrong indeed in the Trieste lab. In the darkest and deepest part of the ocean, something is emerging that is more terrifying than any disease.

Cutter manages to create the most cloying atmosphere of claustrophobia I think I've seen in a book. The sense of dread is palpable.

It's nowhere near as gruesome as The Troop but it is a lot more atmospheric. You can almost feel the walls pressing in and smell the stale air. 

 The Troop was a great ensemble piece, where this one sticks to Luke's POV almost continuously throughout. Luke is a good character and well drawn but I did find myself wanting the POV from  some of the other characters.  This only happened briefly in a section where he reads the diaries of one of the scientists.

This is an impressively bleak novel. Hope is a hard thing to come by eight miles under the sea facing a Lovecraftian entity. The body horror, when it comes, is effectively gruesome and mainly concerning the lab specimens so if that's a trigger, maybe avoid this. 

One of the blurbs on my copy says how this book gives you a reason to be scared of the dark, and I have to say I agree with that statement.

Overall this was a good end/start to the year's reading.

2024 picks of the year

 This (last year) has been a good year for reading for me.  I've completed 107 books and got a good start on number 108. I've read a good mix of genres and have really enjoyed the vast majority. There were 4 that I managed to finish despite hating (they were shortish) and my first DNF since I started the blog.  All my full reviews are a simple scroll away.

In the order that I read them, my top 10 for the year are

A very short but satisfying tale of supernatural detectives.  A great start to the year

Another novella, this one told from the point of view of a mountain lion living above LA. I love that weirdness like this is now available in mainstream book shops.

Paul Auster's final novel is as good as anything else he's written.  A beautiful and moving character study.

Adam Nevill's All the Fiends of Hell is one of the two most terrifying reads of the year.  Possibly the scariest book he's written to date, with some truly hair-raising set pieces

I expected to hate this but loved it.  A gorgeously told story of Shakespeare's son's death.

The other one of the most terrifying books I read this year.  It had me jumping at shadows looking for Other Mommy.

This one is genuinely disturbing. Great writing and needs to be experienced to be believed.

Based on the true story of a medical hoax where a woman was allegedly giving birth to rabbits.  This is an odd one, brilliantly told.  The eponymous Mary might be the most mistreated character I've read about all year. 

Cthulu, mysterious corporations, black magic detectives in the big city.  This book has it all.  One of the most mind-bending things I've read in years.

Finally, this one- a crime story without cops. Brilliantly written.  It turned my internal narrator into the cast of Father Ted. A multi-layered story of small town secrets in Ireland.

So there we have it, the 10 best books I read last year.

The DNF was Almost White by Simon Thirsk. The worst book I finished by an absolute country mile was The Breast by Philip Roth.  How that guy has a career in literature is an absolute mystery to me if that is typical of his work.

Number 107- House of Slaughter vol 3- The Butcher's Return- Tynion et al

Jake Boucher the Butcher is back to wreak havoc on the various monster houses. 

Last seen in volume 1 of the HoS spin off, he's been off grid, saving children and trying to keep them safe from the houses.  Of course, it can't last forever and his old house, the House of Butchers, picks up one of his young proteges.

The scene is set for a violent clash of ideologies.

The script by Brombal is very good indeed, building the mythos of the houses and the interrelationships nicely. The artwork is the best to date.

This series is highly recommended.

Numbers 103 a,b and c- Ghost stories for Christmas- Galley beggar pocket books

 

These were my Christmas day read (I said I was playing catch up). They arrived in early November but were far too pretty to open, so I waited till Christmas day to unwrap them  and the books were just as pretty inside the packaging.

They're all famous enough that I probably don't need to describe the stories (although they're all very slight in terms of plot and I'd end up giving more spoilers than I normally like to give). These are traditional tales of hauntings and premonition. They're all told in very a formal, and arguably quite dated, style. I certainly didn't get chills down my spine from any of them.

However groundbreaking or scary they were at the time, they feel quite cliched and predictable now. That's not to say that they're not worth reading, they certainly are. The stories have hung around for a reason.

The packaging and binding of the books is absolutely top notch and these are perfect stocking fillers for next year if you know someone who loves their old school ghost stories.

I know it's a me problem that I didn't find them more than mildly creepy. 

Number 103- All My Precious Madness- Mark Bowles

 

Quick bit of housekeeping, need to post the last few books from last year. Starting with this-

From that minimalist cover, regular readers of this blog will know this  is a Galley Beggar Press book.

This is Bowles's first novel and I have to say he knows how to string a sentence together.  Whether he knows how to plot a novel is up for question.

In this book, the narrator rails against modern society and all the ills he perceives.  We follow him back and forward through his life in a series of flashbacks and digressions. He becomes more and more annoyed by a particular man he sees as being the symbol of all that's wrong until he snaps and takes violent action.

It's frequently very funny and he does make some valid points. But it is a bit rambly and didn't always hold my interest. 

The final section was certainly the most compulsive in the book.

It's beautifully written, as are all GBP books, but this one didn't completely hit the mark for me. 

6/10 - less ramble, more plot please.

Number 102- Mr Sandman- SJI Holliday

 A quick cheat read and a very good one at that.

Sophie is bored of her safe and predictable boyfriend Matthew. When she meets the eponymous Mr Sandman, a Haitian priest, on a boring day out at the beach that Matthew has arranged, she makes a wish for him to be less boring.

As is par for the course in these stories, be careful what you wish for is very quickly an appropriate piece of advice (albeit delivered far too late).

This is a fast moving and entertaining novella with good pacing, nicely drawn characters and an amusing sense of natural justice. The ending is very darkly funny.  

Holliday's prose is uncluttered and easy to read, and her imagination is nice and twisted.

I had great fun in the 82 pages of this novella, and I think most sensible people will too.

Number 101- House of Slaughter Scarlet- Tynion et al

 

A new miniseries set in the house of Slaughter, and some of the best artwork so far.

We learn more about the running of the House as one of the Scarlet masks, normally a backroom worker, is sent out on a mission.

The artwork has been changed up again, and is again a vast improvement on the art in the original series.

All nicely done and a good way to kill 45 minutes or so.

Number 100- The Institute- Stephen King

I realised I'd gotten 100 books into the year and hadn't read a King, so I had to fix that.

This has been on my shelves since it came out so I know I'm very late to the party in reading this one.

The story opens with an ex-city cop Tim Jamieson choosing randomly to take a payment to leave an overbooked  plane and travel by rail up the country. he stops and settles in a small town in the arse end of nowhere in South Carolina, getting a job with the local police force.

Meanwhile, across the country, a genius boy, Luke Ellis, is kidnapped in the middle of the night and his family murdered.

He wakes to find himself in The Institute of the title. His intellect is not his only gift.  His other gift is the reason he's been chosen. There are half a dozen similarly gifted children here in the front half of the Institute. The staff perform cruel experiments on the children for reasons that become horrifyingly clear as the book moves on.

When a new child joins with extraordinary telepathic powers, the scene is set for a situation the management of the Institute had never predicted.  

When Tim's and Luke's paths cross, the shit really hits the fan. The last 200 pages of this are amongst the most action packed sequences I think King has ever written.

I'm not one of these people who thinks King has never written a bad book, but his hit rate is incredibly high.  I  think this is easily another hit. Tim and his fellow captives in the Institute are some of his most sympathetic and mistreated protagonists to date.  The staff at the institute are more complex than just bad guys doing bad things. They genuinely believe they're doing good for the world and if they can get their sadistic tendencies out once in a while, that's just gravy.

The story moves at a cracking pace for  King novel. I found it difficult to put this book down in the closing stages. And all in King's traditional, easy reading style.

He really is one of the great storytellers and this is one more example of why

Number 99- BRZRKR - Keaunu Reeves et al

 

Second time this year I've read this story. The first time was in the China Mieville novel a few months ago.

This is volume 1 of the comic that started it all off.

I wondered how closely China had followed the storyline, and it turns out so far that it's very close indeed. there are a couple of plotlines that haven't appeared yet, but it's very early day days.

instead of the stylised flashback chapters, we have B talking to a therapist and his memories coming to the fore.

Instead of Mieville's luscious prose, we have some efficiently violent artwork. it all looks good, the story is easier to follow than in the novel (how much of that is familiarity with the story, I'm not sure) and it's a satisfying read.

I'm still not sure if Keanu writing about an immortal warrior and killing machine that happens to look like an idealised version of himself is a sign of hubris or not, but it's entertainng enough I will be picking up the follow on issues.

Number 98- Orbital- Samantha Harvey

 Another Booker winner.  This was the book group read for this month. 

It's very short.  It follows one day in the life of a group of 6 astronauts in a space station, watching the Earth below as they orbit it several times in a day.

It doesn't really have any plot or story.  It's literally just a day in the life of these astronauts.  Nothing they do is different to any other day. 

They're asked to take pictures of a developing weather system on the planet below them.  that's about as much plot as this book contains.

The prose is gorgeous, verging on the poetic. The monotony of living in a space station is captured brilliantly without ever feeling monotonous.  You could possibly argue that there is some repetitive content in this book, but only in the same way that Beethoven's 5th could be considered repetitive.  It's variations on the theme, which sound similar but just different enough to keep the interest. In the case of  any direct repetition, it doesn't sound wrong, it's because its the right thing to do at that point and it all sounds beautiful anyway. 

I actually thought of that particular comparison a couple of pages before that tune was specifically referenced as one of the pieces of music included on Voyager for alien species to potentially enjoy at some point. The direct reference makes it quite an appropriate analogy IMHO.

It's meandering and plotless and filled with philosophical musings.  But thanks to the prose, it's never actually boring. Don't expect action packed sci-fi where the brave astronauts solve all our problems and relax into the mood of the writing and this book becomes a relaxing spa bath of a read. 

There are warnings about the way we're treating the planet, and the super-tornado they witness is explained as a result of global warming, but it never feels like the writer is preaching to the reader. 

Harvey has a remarkable ear for language and a similar skill at transcribing it to the page.  Whether she can write a story or not, I'm not sure. But this is a book you experience rather than read. If you'd told me before I read this that I would like a meditation on infinity, man's place inside it and the impact we're having on our environment as much as I enjoyed this, I'd have laughed at you. A true triumph, in the best possible sense of the word, of style over content (although that said, she does make the content rather thought provoking and interesting in any case).

As per my previous comments about Booker winners, this is not necessarily an easy read. You have to let the mood of the writing take you, then it will take you to orbit if you let it.

Number 97- Kala- Colin Walsh

 

I was a bit nervous about this book.  The plot did not sound overly promising.  Small town, teen friend group, one of them disappears, friend group blown apart. Years later, all of them back in the town and things start happening again, yada yada yada.

So far so tropey, verging into cliche.

Once I started reading it, all my worries were wiped away.  This is one of the top three books I've read this year. 

The plot is not as simple as summarised above. Obviously, most stories do rise above the tropes if they're competently written.  this isn't just competently written though.  there were times reading this that I had to stop and read a paragraph again, not because I didn't understand it, but because it was so well phrased i needed to read it again.

This is just gorgeously written.

A group of 6 childhood friends are blown apart when the eponymous Kala disappears without trace. Life in the town of Kinlough continues as always. Fifteen years pass.

Joe has returned to Kinlough to open a nightclub.  He's a successful music artist and famous in his own right but still has issues with confidence.

Helen has been living in Canada and returns to the town for her sister's wedding. She's had moderate success as a journalist and has exposed a few major controversies in the last decade.  She might not be doing as well as she lets on. but she knows how to investigate when things are wrong. So she thinks.

Mush has never left the town. he still runs the local café with his mother. His face is horrifically scarred for reasons we don't find out till very late on.

Soon after Joe arrives back in town. human remains are found in a building site in the woods on the outskirts of town. Events start to build which draw the three of them together again.  The town's ugly secrets will soon be laid bare.

What makes this book stand out is the prose, the characterisation and the unexpected twists and turns of the narrative. Colin Walsh is an absolute genius when it comes to foreshadowing. the hints dropped through the narrative are so enticing it's almost impossible to put this book down. What caused Mush's scars?  What happened to Kala? Has there been another unexplained disappearance?

This is a crime novel without a policeman at the heart of it.  These are beautifully drawn characters. each chapter is told from the perspective of either Joe, Helen or Mush. Their voices are so distinct you can tell in a couple of lines which character is the focus of any randomly chosen page. Joe's narration is a great example of second person writing.  two books in a row that nailed it....

The tension Walsh builds is remarkable. The treatment of the new disappearance is absolutely perfectly handled. the savvy reader knows something has happened a long time before the  characters catch on and the delay in taking action feels so real and adds to the atmosphere.

I always worry when the build up is so good, is the writer going to blow it all in the final act, but he doesn't.  He lands this ending absolutely perfectly. It's one of the most perfect endings.  None of the characters suddenly develop miraculous fighting prowess to deal with any violence that occurs and it all feels totally real.  The secrets the town is hiding are suitable nasty and there's a reveal that I'm still kicking myself that I missed.

I can not find any issues with this book. The rhythm of the prose (especially for Mush) reset my inner narrator to the cast of Father Ted. That's a good thing by they way. And this is a debut novel! How does someone come straight out of the posts with something this good?

I've no idea what the answer to that is. But you all need to buy this book, or borrow it from a legal source, and read it.  You won't be disappointed.

Number 96- Damnatio- SP Somtow

 

And the story of Sporus and Nero continues. 

This epic trilogy now has something in common with Hitch-Hiker's guide to the Galaxy in that there will be at least 4 parts to it.

Somtow has been unable to complete the series this year as promised for reasons explained in the foreword, but he has given us this volume which covers Nero's time in Greece with Sporus as his Empress at his side to be going along with until the conclusion next year. 

It's an eye opening trip around the Hellenic isles and the signs are growing that Nero's days are numbered. 

This is a fascinating insight into one of the most famous of the insane Caesars of Rome. In this volume he orders the Olympic games to be held in his honour while he's in Greece, just so that he can compete. 

The phrase "power corrupts, absolute power corrupts absolutely" has never been truer.

The research that has gone into this series is evident but never weighs the story down. It just makes it more compelling.

By this point it's impossible to feel anything but sympathy for poor Sporus. He might be free and an Empress, and therefore a Goddess since Nero proclaimed himself a god, but he's more trapped and enslaved than he was a a slave boy.

From the overarching narrative technique- he is telling his story to the make up girl as he waits to be executed publicly in the Coliseum- we know he is almost certainly doomed, but I'm hoping so much that something might save him. I can only wait for the next volume to find out. 

Number 95 - The seven Moons of Maali Almeida - Shehan Karunatilaka

 

This was the Booker Prize wimer in 22.  Winning that particular prize is not necessarily a guarantee of a good read, and is never a guarantee of an easy read (in my experience).

This book is no exception to part two of that statement. This is written in second person (you did this, you did that) in a freewheeling, almost stream of consciousness style that did not always make it easy to realise what was going on.  Add to that a complex plot involving lots of characters and groups, and lots of Sri Lankan politics from the 80s and 90s, and the potential is there for something totally unreadable.

However this was actually a very good read and well worth the effort. I kind of remembered something about the politics of the book from news reports when I was growing up which made some of the book easier to follow.

Maali Alneida is a photographer.  He's just been murdered prior to the story beginning. Bu who, or what organisation is not going to be revealed quickly. Neither is the why. The list of people with reason to kill him seems to grow with every page.

Despite being dead, Maali has his own problems still.  In the afterlife he has seven moons to sort himself out and try to communicate with those he left behind on the mortal plane. Can he guide his friends and loved ones to the photos he left behind which could change the face of the country? If he doesn't go through the light inside of the seven moons, he could find himself stranded "in between" and prey to demons and worse creatures that roam the afterlife.

This was a challenge to read but well worth it. The second person narration grew on me despite the weirdness of a whole novel in this narrative voice.  It's quite possibly the best complete story I've read in this voice.

The story winds personal struggles and loves with the politics and factions in a horribly violent section of human history. This is gruesome enough to satisfy the horror fan in me. Maali is not a likable character, but he's certainly compelling. there is a reason that so many people have so many good reasons to want him dead. This book also has one of the finest pieces of misdirection I've seen in the final chapters. The solutions to the questions are convincing and totally satisfying.

I'm very glad I read this. It was a worthy winner of the award. It weaved actual events and attacks into the storyline seamlessly enough that the fantastical events become so much more viable. It's a nightmare vision of what might come after, but there is a glimmer of hope present.

If you like a challenging but worthwhile read, this is a very good option.

Numbers 92, 93 & 94- Snow Angels, Black Beth, The Breast

 

Snow Angels- Jeff Lemire & Jock

Yet another post apoc from Jeff Lemire. This time we’re in a frozen wasteland with an apparently never ending trench built into the snow. A village full of people live there with three rules to obey-

1- The Trench Provides

2- You must never Leave the Trench

3- The Trench is endless

When they return from a hunting trip to celebrate Milliken’s 12th birthday, a violent tragedy has struck the village and the perpetrator- the allegedly mythical Snowman is still there. Milliken, her dad, and younger sister, Mae Mae have to run for their lives.

This is up to Lemire’s usual standards, tense, exciting and an intriguing set up. The artwork from Jock is pretty good too with some gorgeous double page spreads and nice character work, especially since, given the setting, our characters are all dressed like they live at the North Pole. To keep them looking recognisable is a talent by itself.

Highly recommended.

Black Beth- From the pages of Scream

Not so recommended. The most interesting part of this is the introduction explaining how the original story found its way into a Scream annual a couple of years after the comic died a death.

The original story itself is beyond cliched nonsense and the artwork is not great. It’s really not surprising that it was discovered in a random drawer in the publisher’s and no one would claim responsibility for writing it.

The continuations written by Alex Worley who wrote the introduction are actually worse on all counts. Lucky this was cheap.

The Breast- Philip Roth

Well the interwebzes well and truly lied to me about this one. In more ways than one. When I was looking to see if there was any context for it, a google search advised that this story was the source of the “Breasted boobily down the stairs” quote. It isn’t. That quote is just a misandrist straw man pisstake- written by a woman. That’s all the context that quote actually needs.

The interwebzes also suggested that this was a book that might be worth reading. It isn’t. It makes Black Beth read like a masterpiece.

The story is a rip from Kafka. Professor David Kepesh wakes up to find himself transformed into a giant breast rather than a monstrous insect. Whereas the Kafka story has something to say that’s worth saying, this doesn’t. Whereas the Kafka is well written and makes the reader feel for sorry for poor Gregor Samsa’s plight, this is pretentiously overwritten and just makes the reader (this one at least) irritated with the central character and a bit grossed out (not in a good way). The fact that he fantasises about naked preteen girls in the last few pages was a particularly unwanted image. 

The only good point is that the transformation is described as being particularly painful. Kepesh deserved it.  I can think of very few literary characters I have despised more. I don't think he's supposed to be hated though. I think Roth wants us to sympathise with his plight.

There is a potential in the idea. It could have been a surreal comic look at existence. Instead, it was 70 pages of a guy wondering how to masturbate without hands. It was tedious in the extreme and if it had been any longer than 70 pages, I would probably not have bothered finishing it.

If you want a really good variation on the Kafka, try The Cockroach by Ian McEwan- which reverses the roles and a cockroach wakes up to find it's an MP... That's a brilliant take on it.

My first, and certainly last, book by Philip Roth.

Number 91- The Feast of All Souls- Simon Bestwick

 

Regular readers of this blog will know I hold Mr Bestwick in high esteem. His books normally guarantee a good creepy read, and this is no exception.

After the tragic loss of her daughter in an accident leads to the end of her marriage, Alice moves back up North to her hometown of Salford to start over again. She buys an old hose in the borough of Crawbeck (a thinly disguised version of an area close to where I live).

Unfortunately, the site her new home inhabits was once home to Arodius Thorne, an industrialist and occultist who was not the most pleasant chap you could hope to meet. Thanks to his activities, there are ghostly children and other presences which all seek to hurt Alice for their own reasons.

Along with John, an ex-boyfriend who reluctantly comes to her aid, she faces a fight for her life and her sanity.

Meanwhile, in a parallel timeline, we hear the story of a woman who fell under the spell of Arodius and learned to regret it.

This is mostly written in Bestwick’s usual gritty and compulsive style. The 19th century sections are convincing enough in the language and provide extra texture and shade to the prose.

Alice’s reaction to the escalating events seems reasonable. She doubts her own sanity rather than abandoning her entire belief in the rational overnight. All the characters are nicely drawn . Thorne is a remarkably nasty villain, and our good guys are sufficiently complex and 3d characters that we can relate appropriately. I felt truly sorry for Alice when we finally learned the reason for the break up of her marriage.

The location is described well enough that I recognised the location despite the name change. When the explanations started coming in, I found myself looking to see if there were any actual urban myths of this type around the area. It felt so convincing. Sadly, it seems that the entire thing is Simon’s invention.

As usual with Simon's work there is a lot of substance behind the story. There are some flashes of black humour present too.  The scene with the local vicar was a particularly dark comic highlight. He juggles several timelines with consummate ease.

Simon Bestwick is one of the unsung talents on the British horror scene and more people need to be reading his books. You really can’t go wrong folks.

Number 90- House of Slaughter Vol 1- James Tynion IV et al

 

Volume 1 of the spin off from Something Is Killing the Children delves deeper into the history and politics of the eponymous agency.

We follow Aaron, one of Erica's friends from the flashback issues of the original series. He's sent on a mission to kill The Butcher, another rogue ex member of the House of Slaughter. As we find out, this time there is a very good reason they want this particular ex-agent dead.

The artwork is much better in this volume than it is in the original series.

The story is interestingly told, swapping between timelines from panel to panel, reflecting how history repeats itself. 

It's a very good introduction to the new series and Aaron makes for an interesting new hero. The House of Slaughter is as morally skewed as ever and it's going to be great fun seeing if he can maintain this level of intensity. 

These are bad people trying to do good things in bad ways.  It certainly makes for a different dynamic in the storytelling. 

Number 89- Winterset Hollow - Jonathan Edward Durham

 

I love that cover.  Weird, minimalist and effective.

This is my first experience of JE Durham, and probably not my last.

Eamonn and his friends Mark and Caroline go on a pilgrimage to the island where his favourite author lived, and where the landscapes apparently inspired his only book - Winterset Hollow.

However, the idyll of Addington Isle turns out to be a false paradise.  The book was based on a horrible truth and someone is going to pay. It's Barley day and the hunt is on.  

Eamonn and his friends find themselves in a fight for their lives.

I loved the slow build up in the early chapters. When the book to a sharp left turn into fantasy I was completely sold and could barely put the book down.

This is an action horror.  For the last 200 plus pages the action is almost non stop.  It comes with all the storytelling issues that action films and books are prone to.  The lead characters are virtually immortal and can take immense amounts of damage and still get up and fight back.  The villains similarly seem almost impossible to kill. One villain in particular probably comes back from 7 certain death situations (a couple less than Eamonn).

There is a good balance of humour to leaven the violence of the hunt.  The interplay between the cook and the host at the banquet they find themselves invited to early on is hysterically funny in places.

I thought this was an incredibly entertaining book.  The story is excellent.  the action well paced and the humour is genuinely funny.  However the author has some verbal tics that were well annoying.  One of those was the repeated use of well in the place of very.  It's well bad writing imho. If he'd used very in all those places it would have been an overuse of the word.  For it to be a well irritating phrase like "well", was well worse.

There were a couple of other repeated phrases that caused minor annoyance, but "well" was by far the most egregious.

Having said that, it wasn't enough to spoil the fun I was having with the story. It's an easy and undemanding read with some nice (if a touch predictable) twists and turns in the narrative. There are a couple of glaring plot holes too... but again, not enough to spoil it for me.

Well recommended.  Not perfect but great fun.

Numbers 87 and 88- Something is Killing the Children Vols 6&7- Tynion et al

And a couple of cheat reads- my return to this continuing series.

Erica Slaughter continues her one woman mission to fight monsters whilst her old agency chases her down.

The story is what carries this through, even if it does feel a bit like Buffy with an evil watcher's council.  Erica is a really good kick-ass character and I felt genuinely sorry for her by the end of this story arc.

The artwork fluctuates between really sloppy looking and really very good indeed.  there are some panels with the monsters that are truly disturbing, but then in other panels it looks like the artist was running out of time so anything would do.

There's one full page panel in particular where there's a great detailed drawing of one of the characters, full musculature, nice detail, but the blood on her hands is just the same uniform red and really doesn't match the rest of the image.

So a mixed bag. Read for the story.  If you like the art better than me, you'll enjoy more than I did.

Number 86- Interview with the Vampire - Anne Rice

 

This one certainly needs no introduction. Unbelievably, this is the first time I've read it.  It was a shameful gap in my reading experience.

The vampire Louis spills his guts about the blood he's spilled since he was converted by Lestat in the 18th century.

This book certainly has an awful lot to answer for.  This marks the beginning of the end of the vampire as a terrifying creature of the night and paved the way for Twilight and its countless imitators.

I remember the days when we laughed at clowns and were scared of vampires.  That seems to have reversed itself, and this book was the start of that switch.

At the time it was written, the theme of the horror of immortality was pretty revolutionary I suppose. It's unfair to judge this on what I feel to be its negative impact so I will try not to do that.

The book is told as the titular interview.  It's a long conversation between the unnamed boy with his cassette recorder, and Louis. 

Louis tells of his first meeting with Lestat back in the days when he (Louis) ran a plantation in New Orleans. After Lestat turned him, they moved in together and while Louis ate mostly animals, Lestat was happier using the slaves as his own personal livestock. 

We are then told of their escape from New Orleans once the slaves cottoned on (it was a sugar plantation so no pun happening there as much as I wish for it to be) and their subsequent travels and further conversions- including the creation of Claudia the child vampire. I did not realise how much the film version had aged up the character of Claudia until I read this.

Louis' whining begins to grate after a while.  I do think that there's a fair bit of repetition in his list of woes and the book could have been more effective if it was a bit shorter- or if the French sequence had been longer.  I liked the larger crowd of vampires and thought there should have been more interaction there. 

There are a lot of unanswered questions going on in this book- something I quite like since they didn't feel like the links into potential sequels that they probably were.

I thought it was occasionally very overwritten.  there were places where Louis would pontificate on the moral implications of his next decision for so long that by the time he'd made his mind up I'd forgotten what he was trying to decide...

It was never less than readable and occasionally very good indeed.  But there are definitely bits where I thought it dragged.  This book has been added to that very small list of books where I prefer the film.

There I said it.

Number 85- We have Always Lived in the Castle- Shirley Jackson

 

This probably doesn't need much introduction to fans of horror fiction. Shirley Jackson's final novel in a rather handsome edition.

Merricat lives in a big house on the edge of an unnamed town with her sister Constance and her Uncle Julian.

They're not well liked by the townsfolk since Constance was cleared of poisoning the rest of the family several years before the events of this book. Uncle Julian spends his time writing the events of that fateful night. Constance finds solace in cooking while Merricat performs her strange little rituals to keep the family safe and contained.

When Uncle Charles arrives at the house, the balance Merricat needs is disturbed.

This book features probably Jackson's greatest opening paragraph, even beating Hill House in my opinion.

Merricat is a wonderfully deranged and distinctly unreliable narrator.  How much of the villager's hate is real and how much is her paranoia?  Later events may well show that she wasn't paranoid (that and the rhymes the village children sing at her as she passes...

It's written in Jackson's typically dense style, so fans of more visceral horror will probably not get much from this book.  Personally though I love the slow psychological build up and the sense of wondering what exactly is going on.

It's low on incident in the first half of the book, but it build the characters so beautifully that I was never bored. 

I think this is up there with Hill House as Jackson's finest work.