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Horror

Review of Dracula’s Child by J.S. Barnes

September 20, 2020 by Roger Hyttinen Leave a Comment

Blurb:

It has been some years since Jonathan and Mina Harker survived their ordeal in Transylvania and, vanquishing Count Dracula, returned to England to try and live ordinary lives. But shadows linger long in this world of blood feud and superstition – and, the older their son Quincy gets, the deeper the shadows that lengthen at the heart of the Harkers’ marriage. Jonathan has turned back to drink; Mina finds herself isolated inside the confines of her own family; Quincy himself struggles to live up to a family of such high renown. And when a gathering of old friends leads to unexpected tragedy, the very particular wounds in the heart of the Harkers’ marriage are about to be exposed…

There is darkness both within the marriage and without – for, while Jonathan and Mina wrestle with the right way to raise a child while still recovering from the trauma of their past lives, new evil is arising on the Continent. A naturalist is bringing a new species of bat back to London; two English gentlemen, on their separate tours of the continent, find a strange quixotic love for each other, and stumble into a calamity far worse than either has imagined; and the vestiges of something thought long-ago forgotten is, finally, beginning to stir…

Review

“The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.” ~ Edmund Burke

I’ve always been a massive fan of Bram Stoker’s novel ‘Dracula’ so I was incredibly excited when I had to opportunity to read Dracula’s Child. The story takes place ten years after the original novel’s events after Abraham Van Helsing destroyed the evil Count Dracula. In this novel, we follow Jonathan and Mina Harker, who are still dealing with the trauma and aftermath of those horrific events. Then, something happens on the eve of their son Quincy’s 13th birthday leading to a descent into darkness for everyone involved as it quickly becomes clear that the evil may not be gone after all. Thus begins a fight not only for Quincy’s soul but for the lives of everyone around him.

What I loved about this captivating book is how it’s in the same epistolary format as the first and written in the form of letters, found documents, newspaper clippings, and diary entries. Like the original, the story is also told through multiple points of view, allowing us to experience the story from several different angles, viewpoints, and voices.

It was so true to the original and so atmospheric that I felt as though I were reading a sequel penned by Stoker himself. It even had that same suspenseful slow burn aspect to it as what was really going on was slowly revealed by the author.

Additionally, the characterization was spot on and utterly faithful to the original. It was so compelling to watch the new terror unfold as many of our favorite characters from the original story are forced to face an unspeakable horror and make some impossible decisions. There are also plenty of new characters as well as a new and original plotline to add to the intrigue of the story.

I thought this book really stood up well to the original and what we end up with here is a gothic story as timeless as the original Dracula. The story’s ever-darkening atmosphere had an increasing feeling of foreboding and menace to it as the events slowly unraveled, revealing quite a twisty, multi-layered heart-in-your-throat tale.

Though this book does stand on its own, I’d recommend reading the original first as there were plenty of references to that book’s events. It will also help the reader better understand the characters and their motivations.

All in all, I thought this was a phenomenal and unputdownable novel. Barnes has succeeded in creating here an intense, troubling, and complex story just as dark and creepy as the original, and I thought that the blend of human horror and the human heart is expertly achieved. Dracula’s Child is an outstanding balancing act that walks a thin line between being an ode to classic horror and a nightmarish and original modern-day suspense story all its own.

Purchase Dracula’s Child from Amazon

Filed Under: Horror, Suspense/Thriller, Uncategorized

Review of Laughter at the Academy by Seanan McGuire

November 23, 2019 by Roger Hyttinen Leave a Comment

Laughter at the academyI’ve read (and loved) Seanan McGuire’s Wayward Children series but had never read any of her short stories before this. What a treat they were! I’m typically not a fan of short stories as they tend to leave me feeling unsatisfied at the end, and oftentimes, I find that the majority of the stories in an anthology don’t resonate with me. That was so not the case here, and I loved pretty much every one of the twenty-two stories, though admittedly, I enjoyed some more than others.

I was genuinely impressed by McGuire’s ability as a short story writer and how she managed to pull me into every story in this collection. What made this collection especially fun for me was the mixture of genres. I went in, initially expecting them all to be sci-fi but was surprised (in a good way) to discover that there were also fantasy, horror, steampunk, and even mythology stories. It’s difficult for me to choose my favorite stories because I pretty much loved every one of them, which never happens when I read an anthology.

Some of the stories I especially enjoyed included:

  • An LGBT ghost story in which a high school girl is having a difficult time letting go of her dead girlfriend. – Childhood toys that start a war – a real one.
  • An intergalactic schoolteacher who protects the planet.
  • A murderous plant woman who is not what she appears to be
  • A woman who live tweets from a haunted house. This one definitely fell into the horror category.
  • A robot with a mission who poses as a high school student and tries to blend in. An interesting take on the theme of bullying.
  • An endless, eternal game of football and Halloween– an interesting and modern take on the Norse Valkyries Valhalla.
  • A creepy urban fantasy reimagining of the Wizard of Oz.
  • A dark spin on the Peter Pan tale.
  • A collection of office memos – with an interesting and creepy catch.
  • A portal story where a character has to decide whether to go or stay.
  • A microbiologist who intentionally releases a deadly virus into the world.
  • Sea creatures with not-so-good intentions – another horror story.
  • An emotional story about a little girl and the world’s last tuna fish.
  • There was also “From A to Z in the Book of Changes,” which is literally a collection of twenty-six one-word prompts for each letter in the alphabet, that Seanan McGuire then turned into a series of brief short stories. It’s something I’ve never seen done before and was a truly unique experience to read.

All in all, I found these stories engrossing, addicting, and spooky. I also loved that the author added in a brief introduction at the beginning of each story, providing background and her reasons/inspiration for writing the story. For me, Laughter at the Academy is an amazing collection of eclectic stories, some of them eerie and macabre, others heart-wrenching but all well worthy of a read. I appreciated the author’s lush, luminous prose, and her extraordinary storytelling, and I definitely plan on checking out more of this talented author’s short stories in the future.

Purchase Laughter at the Academy at Amazon

Filed Under: Fantasy/Urban Fantasy, Horror

Review of Edge of the Known Bus Line by James R. Gapinski

December 2, 2018 by Roger Hyttinen Leave a Comment

Edge of the known bus line book coverI won this novella in a Goodreads drawing and wow…what a strange, disturbing little book it was.

This is a dystopian/apocalyptic novel that follows a woman — I don’t think we ever even learn her name — whose daily bus commute takes an abrupt detour one day, ending up in the town of “Not in Service,” population 66.

She and her fellow passengers are forced off the bus via gunpoint, and she learns pretty quickly that the town is brutal, gruesome and horrifying. The townsfolk, who were all at one time passengers like herself, are dressed in rags, appear sickly, live in tattered tents or huts and in order to survive, they eat bugs, rats…and each other.

They’ve developed a strange sort of surreal society divided into two main factions: the Chicago Faction and the Pittsburg Faction, and if you want to survive, you need to join one of them. The people in the town, who for the most part have been stripped of any human dignity (though they convince themselves otherwise), have created a crazy religion around the idea that someday a bus will arrive with the destination of Chicago or Pittsburg — somewhere other than Out of Service.

So from the moment our main character arrives, we follow her as she desperately searches for a way out of the hellhole, refusing to believe that there is no way to escape, as the other townspeople have claimed. Fearless and hopeful, she makes one failed attempt after another to escape which renders the story all the more horrifying. So in this way, the book was sort of a survival story. What’s interesting is that our main character ends up being kind of an anti-hero as she’s harboring some pretty serious secrets of her own.

This truly messed up world was also fascinating in a morbid kind of way — it was gross, disturbing and super cringe-worthy. Yet, this story with its twisted plot was also a page-turner as we want to see if our heroine would finally manage to escape the nightmare in which she’d been unwillingly placed. It’s like the morbid fascination one has with a car accident: I can’t bear to look yet I can’t look away.

It’s also interesting that no matter how dark and twisted the story was, there was a good peppering of humor thrown in. Dark humor, mind you but humor nonetheless, and I actually did catch myself laughing out loud several times. But still, you’ll want to keep in mind that the book was filled with grotesque scenes of violence and cannibalism and is definitely not for the faint of heart.

All in all, Edge of the Known Bus Line is a great read! I found this a dark, compelling and mesmerizing story with rich, multi-faceted characters with an enthralling storyline. The world-building is phenomenal, and the delightfully twisted and chilling plot sucked me right in so much so that I read the entire novella in one go. This unsettling story certainly provides a lot of think about well after the last page has been turned.

I don’t think I’m going to be taking a bus anytime soon.

In the spirit of disclosure, I won this book in a giveaway and was under no obligation to write a review.

Purchase Edge of the Known Bus Line at Amazon

Purchase Edge of the Known Bus Line at The Book Depository

Filed Under: Horror

Review of The Dreadful Objects by Chris Cooper

November 26, 2018 by Roger Hyttinen Leave a Comment

The dreadful objects book coverThe Dreadful Objects follows our main character Jamie Lawson who has been in a major rut and has been unable to move on with his life, following the death of his girlfriend a year earlier. He then learns that his uncle, a famous and quite wealthy horror author, has committed suicide and has bequeathed Jamie all of his possessions including a couple of million dollars and a big, creepy and spooky mansion, filled with macabre horror memorabilia.

From the cover, I thought that this might be a haunted house story, but it wasn’t. It was more about haunted objects, which made me think of the television show a few years back entitled Warehouse 13.

So Jamie inadvertently discovers that the events in his uncle’s horror books actually happened in real life. Now that might not seem all that surprising except that all of the events that took place in the books occurred after the books were written.

Jamie decides to dig a bit to see if he can discover further connections and learns that two items that are locked in glass cases appear to be linked with real-life deaths and might hold the key to figuring out why his uncle killed himself. As Jamie puts together more pieces of the puzzle, he begins to realize that the mystery may be even stranger than he’d initially thought and may, in fact, be paranormal in nature (hint: it is)

I’ve read a ton of haunted house novels, so I found the idea of haunted objects to be a refreshing change of pace from the usual haunted house trope (though I have to admit that I do have a soft spot for haunted house stories). I also really enjoyed the vivid and vibrant descriptions of the house and all of the spooky off-the-wall objects contained therein, which I felt added to the richness and the atmosphere of the story.

Though this novel is classified as a horror novel and it is a bit on the scary side, true horror fans may be tad disappointed. It’s true that the story is dark at times and definitely tells a suspenseful, spooky tale, but it does so in a more lighthearted way. As such, I felt that this novel might be better placed in the cozy mystery genre (or perhaps the cozy horror genre, if there is such a thing).

All in all, The Dreadful Objects was a twisty, wildly entertaining story with relentless pacing, rich, lifelike characters and a brilliant ending which made this novel a real page-turner for me. It’s a wonderfully mysterious thriller that I had a difficult time putting down right until the surprising and utterly satisfying conclusion. Recommended!

In the spirit of full disclosure, I won this book in a Goodreads drawing and was under no obligation to leave a review.

Purchase The Dreadful Objects at Amazon

Purchase The Dreadful Objects at The Book Depository

Filed Under: Horror Tagged With: cozy horror, Cozy Mystery

Review of The Heart-Shaped Box by Joe Hill

November 18, 2018 by Roger Hyttinen Leave a Comment

Heart shaped box cover imageFor those of you who don’t know, Joe Hill is Stephen King’s son. This was my first Joe Hill novel, and I definitely plan on reading more.

The Heart-Shaped Box follows an aging rock star, 54-year-old Judas Coyne who is a collector of macabre objects. So when he sees a notice on an auction site stating that they are selling their stepfather’s ghost to the highest bidder, how could he refuse? So for a thousand dollars, Jude becomes the proud owner of the dead man’s suit, which, the ad claimed, is haunted by a spirit.

So yeah, that didn’t work out so well for him.

When it arrives, Jude and his most recent girlfriend Georgia (whose real name is Mary Beth – he always nicknames is girlfriends from the state their from: Florida, Georgia, etc.) quickly learn that this suit isn’t some relic that you can tuck on the top shelf of a closet and ignore.

Nope. This is the real deal, and they soon learn that the ghost’s name is Craddock McDermott and he isn’t only impossible to get rid of, he is vengeful and extremely dangerous — and he is scary as hell.

The ghost soon begins messing with their minds and taking over their thoughts (turns out he was a sadistic hypnotist in life) all the while bringing that gleaming razor blade that he dangles on a chain from his bony hand ever closer. I found this part especially terrifying: how in the hell can you battle a ghost that has the ability to take over and control your mind?

From this point on the story moves with a spine-tingling urgency. Jude wants the ghost gone, and the ghost wants Jude — and anyone who interferes — dead.

It’s difficult to talk too much about this type of book without giving away the story. Let me just say that pretty much each chapter is a battle for survival and this fast-paced story grows more and more intense and more and more frightening and vivid. The tension continues to escalate as there is a desperate race to somehow stop this relentless ghost before it kills both Jude and Mary Beth. This is a haunting that goes to extremes.

The Heart-Shaped Box wasn’t just a scary ghost story. It also ended by being a deep and self-revelatory story for our characters and Hill took us on an amazing ride to do so.

A word of warning — this is by no means a cute little ghost story. The novel is a gritty, dark and sinister tale of revenge from beyond the grave with some gory bits even thrown in. The characters of Jude and Marybeth were flawed, real, and relatable and Craddock….well, Craddock was utterly chilling…spine-tinglingly so. So in this way, the book was an excellent characters study as well as a frightening ghost story.

All in all, I loved this engaging book though it scared the hell out of me. It had a clever plot, gripping twists and turns, beautiful prose and the ultimate creepy villain. This is the kind of book that makes you want to keep all the lights on.

Purchase Heart-Shaped Box on Amazon

Purchase Heart-Shaped Box on The Book Depository

Filed Under: Horror Tagged With: ghost fiction, ghost stories

Review of Cabin at the End of the World by Paul Tremblay

October 6, 2018 by Roger Hyttinen Leave a Comment

Cabin at the end of the world book coverCabin at the End of the World is a horror novel that follows Seven-year-old Wen and her parents, Eric and Andrew who are vacationing at a remote cabin on a quiet New Hampshire lake.

One afternoon, as Wen catches grasshoppers in the front yard, a large stranger named Leonard unexpectedly appears in the driveway. He is young, friendly, and he wins Wen over almost instantly. They talk and play for a while until Leonard abruptly apologizes and tells Wen, “None of what’s going to happen is your fault.”

Then, three more strangers then arrive at the cabin carrying menacing homemade weapons. As Wen runs inside to warn her parents, Leonard calls out: “Your dads won’t want to let us in, Wen. But they have to. We need your help to save the world.”

The four strangers plead with Wen, Andrew, and Eric to let them in, that they have to, that the fate of the entire world is at stake, but they refuse. Eventually, the four strangers manage to forcibly break in, and there are injuries as a result. The story then turns into a tense and gripping home invasion tale of survival, which is personally a trope that scares the bejeezus out of me.

Once the four of them have subdued Wed and her dad, they explain that the Wen, Andrew, and Eric need to make a sacrifice – an ultimate sacrifice within the next 24 hours or so. If not, the world will be destroyed. So the question is: Are the four strangers cultists or crazies? Or is the world on the brink of the apocalypse?

The book did an excellent job at building up suspense and paranoia as the remote little cabin turned into a house of horrors complete with a torture chamber. I was on the edge of my seat the entire time, to see what was going to happen next and whether that which the four had predicted would come to pass — that is, whether the world actually was on the brink of collapse.

Now I will say that some of the violence that takes place is described in very gory, vivid and disturbing ways so more sensitive readers might want to pass on this one. I do like a good horror novel, so it didn’t bother me too much — though it definitely was disturbing.

This was an uncomfortable book – a real psychological thriller — whose tension escalated as time passed in the cabin. It was tense, suspenseful and gut-wrenchingly horrifying, the kind of book that will either give you nightmares or keep you up at night.

Though it was a suspenseful and gripping read with well-developed characters, at the end of it all, it didn’t quite work for me.

The main reason was the ending: Let me just say that if you like a nice, tidy resolution to a story, then this book is not for you. This is the kind of story that leaves you with more questions than answers, and leaves you with an unsatisfied feeling after turning the last page — or at least it did for me.

It seemed like the author spent the entire novel building up this incredible amount of suspense only to have it fizzle out at the story’s end. I expected more of a dramatic ending — or at the very least, an answer to the story’s central questions.

But the payoff just wasn’t there. Now if you don’t mind somewhat vague endings or experimental stories, then, by all means, give Cabin at the End of the World a try. It just wasn’t the novel for me. ⭐⭐

Purchase Cabin at the End of the World at Amazon

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Filed Under: Horror

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