Difference between revisions of "Newest Horror Reviews"

The Mercer family are on the holiday of a lifetime at the somewhat remote Blundstone Lake in Nebraska. It is all the things a camping holiday should be; tranquillity and beautiful scenery in spades and lots of good old-fashioned family fun. When another family arrive, the Mercers try not to feel disappointed that their solitude has been encroached upon and do their best to keep out of the other family's way, but when the newcomers' family disharmony becomes violent and murderous, The Mercers have no option but to become rather more acquainted with them than they had bargained for. And so their lives are forever altered. Full review...

The Society of Blood (Obsidian Heart book 2) by Mark Morris

In order to find his kidnapped daughter Alex Locke still needs to find the Obsidian Heart. The trail leads back from 21st century gangland London to the dark, dirty 19th century version of the capital. Here the streets that witnessed Jack the Ripper's murders only a couple of years before are just as lethal but the danger isn't totally human. Alex doesn't quite know how you'd classify it, but it stands between him and the person who means the most to him so walking away isn't an option. Full review...

The Undesired by Yrsa Sigurdardottir and Victoria Cribb (translator)

Thrillers

If you're lucky enough to go to Iceland they will tell you, even in this day and age, that the place is heavily populated with trolls. Yrsa Sigurdardottir may or may not agree with that, but she certainly peoples her world with ghosts. Here is Odinn, and to some extent his ghost – certainly there's the ghost of 'what if' around him, and the man he might have been if he hadn't abandoned the young mother of his child. Here is that very wife, who is now dead herself. Here is the spirit of failure as he takes over a job at work from someone else who had a fatal heart attack – that task, to investigate a children's care home in the 1970s to see if anything nefarious went on. And that place certainly should be haunted – already a dead child has been disposed of, and more is to come… Full review...

Slade House by David Mitchell

Once every nine years Jonah and Norah Greyer entertain a guest; each time a different person… or persons. Each visitor walks through the small black door of Slade House for various reasons of their own. Or at least they think they know why they're there but only Jonah and Norah know the real reason – the only reason. Full review...

The Undesired by Yrsa Sigurdardottir and Victoria Cribb (translator)

Thrillers

If you're lucky enough to go to Iceland they will tell you, even in this day and age, that the place is heavily populated with trolls. Yrsa Sigurdardottir may or may not agree with that, but she certainly peoples her world with ghosts. Here is Odinn, and to some extent his ghost – certainly there's the ghost of 'what if' around him, and the man he might have been if he hadn't abandoned the young mother of his child. Here is that very wife, who is now dead herself. Here is the spirit of failure as he takes over a job at work from someone else who had a fatal heart attack – that task, to investigate a children's care home in the 1970s to see if anything nefarious went on. And that place certainly should be haunted – already a dead child has been disposed of, and more is to come… Full review...

Demon Road by Derek Landy

Amber Lamont was a relatively ordinary 16-year-old, living a pretty quiet, uneventful life; she went to school, had a part-time job, and a decent relationship with her aloof but loving parents. But over the course of just one day everything goes completely to hell. Amber discovers that she can turn into a demon, a genuine, red-skinned, satanic monster, with horns and talons that can rip a human to shreds. Her demon side is the least of her problems, however. For Amber's parents are also demons, and now that her powers have manifested, they are intent on eating her and absorbing her power for themselves. Amber finds herself on the run, travelling the Demon Road across America in a desperate attempt to escape her parents, accompanied by Milo, an enigmatic guardian, who has dark secrets of his own. Full review...

Darkest Night (Department 19, Book 5) by Will Hill

Zero Hour has passed. Despite throwing absolutely everything they had into a full on assault on Dracula's forces, the combined might of the supernatural departments failed to destroy the ancient vampire, and he has returned to full strength, ready to strike at humanity with unadulterated violence. Secrecy is no longer an option as the entire world reels from the revelation that vampires are real. Department 19 has been through so much, shaken to its core by secrets, betrayals and losses. With the public eye now firmly upon them, the very fundamentals of the Department come under fire, as issues of morality that have long writhed beneath the surface finally burst to the fore. Jamie, Larissa, Kate and Matt have always found themselves at the centre of the chaos, and despite each struggling with their own demons, their friendship and companionship has helped them survive and even thrive within the department. Humanity's last stand will need them at their very best, will need every force that the supernatural departments of the world can muster, whether it be human, machine, monster or vampire. For failure simply isn't an option when the entire future of humanity is at stake. Full review...

13 Coins by Michael B Jackson, Martin Brennan and Simon Bisley

Graphic Novels

For the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil. There, I've done it – quoted the Bible in a review. It's certainly pertinent in the world of this graphic novel, where the fallen angels have one get-out clause they have been seeking since those very lapsarian events. They turned a little section of chain holding their leader eternally captive into the titular coins, which can influence the human holders into sheer evil, but might just cause an open war on Heaven, whether they or the best of the holy on earth use them all. The best of the holy then, offspring of the good angels, are culled as a routine, but not one – John Pozner, who of course has no idea of his place in the celestial circle of life… Full review...

The Unnoticeables by Robert Brockway

Paranormal

Carey is a punk living in New York City, 1977. Sick of watching his friends be abducted and killed, he doesn’t care about the rumours of strange monsters and supernatural happenings – all he wants to do is drink beer and kick ass. In the present day, Kaitlyn is in Hollywood. A stuntwoman, she has a missing best friend, has just escaped an attempt on her life, and an angel is waiting outside her door. The survival of the human race lies in the hands of Carey and Kaitlyn. We are, all of us, well and truly screwed… Full review...

The Evil Within by Ian Edginton and Alex Sanchez

Graphic Novels

What do you fear most? And when you've answered that, think on why – is it something that happened to you, something you saw or read, or something you yourself did? The nature of horror is looked at in this graphic novel, which spins the usual web of nightmares around some fit young adults, and tests them with graphic death on the cards at the same time as keeping them in the dark about what has brought the doom and gloom to them. Starting with Dana, a college girl seeking her kidnapped best friend, things get darker, weirder, and forever more violent… Full review...

Wake by Elizabeth Knox

Theresa – a policewoman investigating a helicopter crash, finds herself in Kahukura, a New Zealand settlement that on first appearances is relatively calm and beautiful. However, as soon as she arrives, a wave of violence and madness hits the town – with the locals intent on destroying both themselves and each other. As the wave of madness passes, it becomes clear that there is a field surrounding the town – trapping the survivors inside. They must work together to grieve, come to terms with what they have done, and to find a way out of the situation. As the madness threatens to return, the fear that the violence may return becomes an increasing reality… Full review...

The Grindle Witch by Benjamin J Myers

Deep in the woods something evil is stirring...

You can say that again. Jack Jolly's father is a pathologist and neither he nor the armed police with him have ever seen anything like Tom Moore's body. Whoever or whatever killed the old man has carried out the most savage attack anyone has ever seen. And Jack, who has just moved to the remote village of Grindle from the city, had thought it a boring and dull place with unfriendly people, where nothing ever happens. How wrong could he have been? Full review...

Beyond the Trees of Gulavstadt: A Gothic Short Story by B Reid

Politics and Society

Amy works for Claralingua, a London education company that runs English schools all over the world, and Amy is travelling to Gulavstadt, a remote town in Eastern Europe, to inspect one of the schools. Gulavstadt is a town of myths and the setting of a recent horror film, The Thing Behind the Trees, exploiting them - featuring medieval, flesh-eating ghouls with mouths lined with the sharpest of teeth. But myths don't bother Amy... Full review...

The Death House by Sarah Pinborough

Toby would appear to be lucky, having the run of an isolated country mansion on a small island off the coast of Britain. But no. His domain only exists at night, and only then because he sleeps in the day and refuses to take the 'vitamin' pills given him by the staff of an evening. He is a captive of a mansion that works as a place of exile for teenagers with the Defective gene. Whatever it would normally lead to, even having it risks becoming suddenly really quite ill, and being the cause of the night-time lift ride on the one way route to the top floor Sanatorium. But Toby has it good as these things go, the teenaged head boy almost out of the small collection of children in his Dorm, the only one not to have suffered a loss of life. But things are about to change – new inmates arrive to bulk up the numbers, and one of them, Clara, is the agent of that change. For when she stumbles on Toby's nocturnal habits she doesn't want to sleep either… Full review...

The Devil's Detective by Simon Kurt Unsworth

There are some obvious things in life (and death), but one of the most clear is that Hell will be Hellish. This is a place that sinners go to be punished. However, for every Dante’s Inferno, there is a depiction of hell that is not so bad. Who really wants to read something depressing about the desolation of souls, apart from those pesky 14th Century types? According to The Devil’s Detective, people in the 21st Century do too. Full review...

ZOM-B Bride (Zom B Book 10) by Darren Shan

Confident Readers

REPEATING STANDARD WARNING! If you haven't read the first book in this series, STOP READING NOW! NOW! Spoilers ahoy! Full review...

Frozen Charlotte by Alex Bell

When Sophie and Jay play around with a ouija board app that Jay has downloaded to his phone, things go awfully wrong. Sophie asks to speak to Rebecca, a cousin of hers who died in mysterious circumstances. But what Rebecca has to say is not good. And that very night, Jay drowns in the canal after falling from his bike. A tragic accident. Or was it? Full review...

Jekyll's Mirror by William Hussey

Sam is doing his best but he feels the Wrath inside him all the time. If your father had beaten your mother to death, wouldn't you? He tries to concentrate on schoolwork and his art and keep that anger locked away deep down inside, but it's not easy. His aunt Cora does her best to support him but his uncle Lionel is distrustful, sure that the (violent) apple in Sam hasn't fallen far from (his father's) tree. Full review...

Letters to Lovecraft : Eighteen Whispers to the Darkness by Jesse Bullington (editor)

Howard Phillips Lovecraft was, to me, the author of ruinously mediocre post-Victorian penny dreadful horror fiction, concerning far too numerous many-tentacled, secretly-worshipped, extra-dimensional monster threats to mankind for his – and our – own good. It's little wonder that he lived and died in poverty, and only became of note posthumously. That note seems to be building, however, hence this collection of stories by many award-winning modern writers of the dark and macabre, all looking back yet going much further, and pretty much all providing us with a showcase for their own, contemporary talent. Full review...

Cat out of Hell by Lynne Truss

Meet Alec Charlesworth. He's retired and decamped to an isolated coastal cottage with just his dog and loving memories of his colleague wife, now that she has died before her time. But the fusty librarian cannot rest too long before engaging in exploring some unusual computer files that were pinged across by someone at the college he worked at, just before he left. Bizarrely they show photographic and audio evidence of a talking cat called Roger, replete with Vincent Price voice – although they are also damaged by being included alongside some bad screenplay attempts about said cat. Worryingly, we soon see what at the most only a few of the characters can, that this cat is being accompanied by unusual and unexpected death – much like Alec's wife. It's only when Roger testifies to having been pushed through the ends of endurance and out the other side that we begin to doubt where the true evil in this story lies… Full review...

Dead Funny by Robin Ince and Johnny Mains (editors)

In a world of nightmares, disasters, death and ignominy there is a book called Dead Funny. Invented purely to satisfy the remit built into its title, it collects some horror stories written by comedians, both household names and those more up-and-coming. Like all horror books it comes out at the time of year best suited for horror – Halloween, when we read with the darkest corners in our rooms, with the longest evenings outside – but is only suited for Halloween because it is a worthless, hellish piece of dross. It never excites, it is the most self-serving vanity project, and the only funny thing about it is that some idiot ever decided it was worth publishing. Now I know you know, courtesy of those bright shiny stars alongside this review, that this volume, Dead Funny, is not that Dead Funny. But just bear in mind the horror story this could have been, if these pages were not so surprisingly adept at taking those said nightmares, disasters, deaths and ignominy and presenting them to us so competently. Full review...

Burnt Tongues: An Anthology of Transgressive Short Stories by Chuck Palahniuk, Dennis Widmyer and Richard Thomas

Short Stories

Saying certain things out loud just don’t sound right. Some things are so disturbing or politically incorrect that you are best off leaving them inside your head, or better yet not thinking of them at all. When these words are spoken they could lead to the sensation of Burnt Tongue; an aftereffect of knowing what you said was wrong. Are you prepared to enter the world of Transgressive Fiction that aims to disturb, alienate, disgust and question? Full review...

Printer's Devil Court by Susan Hill

Susan Hill is by far the master of the old fashioned ghost story. If you've ever read or seen The Woman in Black, then you’ll already know that, but her other ghost stories are a little less famous. That doesn’t make them any less good, and I for one am a big fan. I think there’s a lot to be said for a good old fashioned scare, with apparitions, goosebumps and cold chills up the spine. I always feel like I should be reading these books around a campfire, wrapped in a blanket and eating marshmallows because it very much reminds me of sharing ghost stories with my friends when I was a child. What I like to call a ‘proper scare’. Full review...

The Quick by Lauren Owen

The Quick is the debut of author Lauren Owen, and set in the gothic world of Victorian London. Owen guides us through the lives of several characters, but specifically James and Charlotte, siblings living in a Yorkshire mansion. Left to fend for themselves due to a dead mother and an absent father, the two grow up close, playing dark games to pass the time. It is only when James, the younger child, moves to London, that the games become very real indeed, and both brother and sister must fight to save not just themselves, but their humanity. Full review...

The Strain Book One by Guillermo del Toro, Chuck Hogan, David Lapham and Dan Jackson

A liner ends its journey from Europe in a port city, and waits, silently, holding whatever secrets it had with little signs of life. It is found to contain a heavy box, almost coffin-like, containing mud – and something else. But this is not the coasts of England, and this is not Bram Stoker. This is also not a sailing boat, but an airliner – a Boeing 777, stuck at JFK airport with no signs of life. The CDC and one man – Dr Ephraim Goodweather – are tasked with looking into it. But he won't like what he finds – and nor should anyone. The problem is, some do… Full review...

The Remaining by D J Molles

When reading ‘The Remaining’ by I had a warm feeling inside, not due to the psychological terror in the book, but because it seems that I am not the only person who is prepared for the inevitable zombie apocalypse. No more an illustrious group than the US Army itself is prepared. In each of the mainland States of America a trained soldier is moved underground whenever a potential disaster is on the horizon. Captain Lee Harden has found himself in his bunker several times, but has always climbed out again a few days later, until now. Full review...

Sentinel by Joshua Winning

In many ways this book is not as typical of fantasy and mild horror as the summary might suggest. Unlike a lot of stories where we join the main character in the aftermath of a major event, this one begins before Nicholas is orphaned. The ever-increasing tension as his parents leave for a train journey, coming so soon after a menacing and mysterious prologue, makes it pretty clear to us that they won't be returning, and that Nicholas will soon be in deadly danger himself. Full review...

The Quickening by Julie Myerson