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. 

Number 84- The Dead Take the A Train- Cassandra Khaw and Richard Kadrey

 

Cassandra Khaw writes like no one else about eldritch horrors. They're at their best when writing inhuman central characters. Their prose has an unworldly quality that suits the bizarre and extreme.

Richard Kadrey (in the one book of his I'd read previously) writes a hard boiled fantasy noir crime stories with a tough edge that would make Sam Spade quiver in fear.

Together they've written this and it plays up to both of their strengths.

From the opening page we're thrown into the life of the rather blandly named Julie,  a demon hunting freelancer in New York who uses magic based in pain to earn a crust, taking on the dirty jobs other demon hunters shy away from.  

I knew I was in for something very different when, with zero explanation, on the very first page,  a bride was mentioned with blood spurting from the stump of her missing hand, whilst her mother complains to Julie about the mess.

Meanwhile Julie's ex-boyfriend is making a power grab in a supernatural agency. His actions are going to cost Julie dearly, and possibly bring about Armageddon.

This book is a near perfect blend of Khaw's wildness and Kadrey's noir plotting. It does flag slightly in the second act, and Julie's romantic subplot taking centre stage maybe softens up the character a touch too much. But that's a minor quibble and never made me want to stop reading.

This is the first part in a duology, but still manages to give a satisfying ending. there are enough plot threads still open to make part two a definite "read and buy immediately" title when it emerges from the pits of this pair's imaginations.

The book is gory, wild, mind-blowing and exciting. The prose isn't as extreme as Khaw normally writes and may well convert some of those who read and hated Blackened Teeth. The demons are pretty damned scary, and the human villains easily give them a run for their money.

If you want a real wtf piece of writing with demons, angels, evil corporations in living buildings, and world threatening danger, this is an easy choice.