OCTOBER 2009 REVIEWS
(NOTE: Unless otherwise noted, all reviews are by Nick Cato. ALSO note that "smell ratings" at the end of some reviews rate the actual SMELL of the book and has nothing to do with the story. Smell Ratings: 5 = excellent, 1 = odorless, 2-4 = you figure it out. Book Key: hc = hardcover / tp = trade paperback / mmp - mass market paperback / rarer forms described).
TROLLY NO. 1852 by Edward Lee (2009 Bloodletting Press / hc) Have you ever wondered: "What would it be like if H.P. Lovecraft had written smut?" If you hadn’t wondered that, and now you’ve had to, and your brain went places Man Was Not Meant To Know, leaving you curled up in a ball whimpering … sorry. If you had wondered it, well then, wonder no more! Because Edward Lee has given what’s got to be pretty much the most decisive answer to that question. Lee, drawing upon his incredible knack – or curse – for vivid description, may be the only one who could have taken such a notion and done it justice. Squishy justice. Utter, eldritch, squamous, cyclopean, cthonian, rugose justice. And lewd, perverse, freakishly-titillating, disturbing justice. Trolley No. 1852 is set in 1930s New England, with Lovecraft himself as the protagonist. Though, in true Lovecraftian form, the book takes on a nesting-doll kind of aspect, tales within tales. So, the outermost nesting doll begins with the talented writer is in dire financial straits when he receives an invitation to contribute to a "privately-circulated periodical" titled Erotesque. It’s smut … but it is smut that pays well … and with the buffer of a pseudonym, he chooses practicality over any sense of prudish pride. The piece Lovecraft devises to submit to this magazine is "Trolley No. 1852," by ‘Winfield Greene.’ This brings us to the second nesting doll, the story itself. It’s a first-person accounting from the point of view of one Morgan Phillips, who ventures into the sordid underbelly of New York life in search of his sister. The quest eventually leads him to ‘The 1852 Club,’ an exclusive brothel reached by private trolley car. It’s like no house of ill repute he’s ever heard of before. The whores are young and beautiful, their services are entirely free, and the mysterious madam has the peculiar habit of collecting all the used prophylactics. Mr. Phillips, proving to be a man of unusual endowment and stamina, is an instant hit with the working girls. But when he stows away on the trolley instead of going obediently home like the brothel’s other patrons, his continued efforts to find his sister lead him to discover the madam’s secret, and the otherworldly beings the madam serves. Just about every act, combination and position imaginable – and some that probably would be better off left unimagined – are described in great detail. The style and language throughout are eerily true to Lovecraft’s own, no mere imitation or even homage. Trolley No. 1852 is exactly what H.P. Lovecraft would have written, if H.P. Lovecraft wrote smut. And that, really, says it all. If such an idea appeals to you, you’ll want this book. -Christine Morgan
PREVIEW
THE ASS GOBLINS OF AUSCHWITZ by Cameron Pierce (2009 Eraserhead Press / 77 pp. / tp)
If you thought INGLORIOUS BASTERDS was a strange taste of revisionist history, wait till you check out the second novella from the demented mind who brought you SHARK HUNTING IN PARADISE GARDEN.
Okay, so this technically isn't "revisionism," but a wickedly surreal action-adventure set at a reimagined concentration camp (and it's Alice in Wonderland-ish underground). The entire book reads like an acid-trip WW2 escape-story, packed with dazzling creatures, disgusting villians, and a cool new meaning for the term S.S.
Otto and his co-joined-by-the-ribcage brother are our main prisoners in Auschwitz, a camp where all kinds of freakazoid children are being kept as prisoners and forced to work at a toy-making factory (the unlucky ones are used for experiments in the mysterious Surgery Lab). Their captors are Ass Goblins, a violent race of "soldiers" under the command of Adolf (who is away for most of the story) and also under the eye of The White Angel (a sort-of right-hand man to Adolf). When Otto and his brother are separated, Otto is turned into a giant spider creature by the Ass Goblin surgeons, and his brother learns to use his large wings (and aquired flesh-bike) to begin a revolt against the camp and its leaders.
Pierce once again shows off his amazing imagination and gift for non-stop excitement. The final battle is every bit as twisted and strange as SHARK HUNTING, and while I didn't at first quite know what to make of the ending, I came to find it perfect after re-reading the last two chapters.
If bizarro's your thing, THE ASS GOBLINS OF AUSCHWITZ is a must read.
(WARNING: Here is yet another dual Bentley Little review from Nick & Christine!):
HIS FATHER'S SON by Bentley Little (2009 Signet / 384 pp. / mmp)
Steve Nye's father is sent to a psychiatric ward after assaulting his mother. While Steve has never been close to either of his parents, he still feels the need to visit them and find out what's going on. The doctors think Steve's dad is losing his mind, especially when he starts saying strange things that make little sense. When Steve's dad dies, he begins to dig into his family's past and discovers that his old man has left a trail of bodies in every town they had lived in.
For its first 100 pages, HIS FATHER'S SON reads like a standard mainstream suspense story; but this is exactly where Little lets you know this is going to be anything but. We see Steve become twice the monster his father was, at times told from some wickedly head-trippy viewpoints, and much of the violence is genuinely disturbing (especially one scene in a backyard where Steve is trying to escape from the police). Chapter 22 is arguably the spookiest thing the author has written to date.
Although I liked how Little branched out from his standard style with his 2005 release, DISPATCH, this time he managed to keep his classic macabre voice, yet in a fresh way. HIS FATHER'S SON is one of the more original and bizarre serial killer novels I've ever read, and is a fine example of why Little has been my favorite horror author for quite some time.
Add two pluses here for the creepiest use of Clowns in years, and for a nod to one of my favorite bands, Missing Persons!
A must read.
HIS FATHER'S SON by Bentley Little (2009 Signet / 384 pp. / mmp)
As someone who works in a psych facility, the initial summary of this book and the back-cover text had me hoping that it’d be another of Bentley Little’s sardonic, scalpel-sharp commetary on American life.
That it was supposed to be titled The Asylum, but someone had made him change it for some reason or other, and that reading it would be an eerily-familiar and chillingly-creepy look inside the muddle that is our mental health system.
Alas, no such luck! His Father’s Son is about madness and insanity, all right, but not so much about the clinical inpatient side of things. It’s the solitary journey of a man going crazy in what seems like a pretty reasonable, rational way.
That man is Steve Nye, a writer for a company that specializes in yearbooks, reunion booklets and other alunmi publications. He’s also an aspiring writer of short stories. On the outside, his life seems normal enough. Decent job, steady girlfriend, buddies to go out with for the occasional boys’ night.
His relationship with his parents might not have been the warmest, devoid of any real connection or affection. But when his mother calls with the news that his father attacked her, and has been hospitalized, the thin veneer of normalcy they’ve kept up is finally stripped away.
Visits with his ailing father bring strange revelations, hints at a mysterious, murderous past. Steve’s own investigation teeters him onto a slippery slope. One action after another, that mostly make sense at the time, get him deeper and deeper into a morass of lies and violence.
It’s a blood-curdling tale because of its plausibility. This is how madness could happen. How it could grow, develop, quietly evolve and flower. The inclusion of some of Steve’s short stories further reflect what’s going in in his head.
His Father’s Son is an unsettling book, sure to make you look at yourself, not to mention those around you, a bit differently. I wouldn’t rank it among my faves of Little’s works – I’ll also keep my fingers crossed for The Asylum to happen some day! – but it’s well-written, a good read, and does make for plenty of cold shivers down the spine.
-Christine Morgan
CURSED by Jeremy C. Shipp (2009 Raw Dog Screaming Press / 214 pp. / tp)
This outstanding novel is about a guy named Nick who:
1. Makes lists about everything.
2. Is dealing with a strange curse placed on him and his friends.
and
3. Is one of the more interesting characters I've come across in a horror novel in quite some time.
While the first half of CURSED reads like a bizarre mystery, the second dives into unique psychological horror, written in Shipp's witty, dark, and (at times) head-scratching style. While not as difficult to follow as his impressive first novel, VACATION, CURSED is:
1. Scary
2. Wonderfully original
3. At times, hysterical
and
4. Highly recommended if you're thirsting for something truly different.
One highly enjoyable scene pits Nick and co. in a surreal, SAW-like death trap, while the ending manages to be dark yet highly positive. The prose is quick, sharp, and makes this 214-paged novel read like a 20-paged short story.
Shipp's got the goods.
VICIOUS VERSES AND REANIMATED RHYMES: ZANY ZOMBIE POETRY FOR THE UNDEAD HEAD edited by A.P. Fuchs (2009 Coscom Entertainment / tp)
Vicious Verses and Reanimated Rhymes is a collection of over ninety poems on the fear, gore, pain, and horror that are zombies. Edited by A.P. Fuchs for Coscom Entertainment, this is a must-read for any zombie fan. It’s a quick read with poems ranging anywhere from two lines to four pages. The poems run the gamut of emotions, from funny, to sad, to scary. Some are from the standpoint of the zombie and others from their human victims.
I’ve never been a big poetry fan, nor do I understand its "rules," however I enjoyed this collection so much I read it twice. Some standouts include EVOLUTION OF THE DEAD by Sheldon S. Higdon, ROMERO BOUQUET by Zed Zefram, and THEM by Eric Ian Steele, all homages to the Romero films; I, ZAMBI by Kyle Hemmings with it’s twist on the Frankenstein theme; DEADLY RELATIONSHIPS by Patsy Collins which deals with "real" zombification in Haiti; and BED AND BREAKFAST by Joe Nazare with its hilarious tale of a morbidly obese zombie.
Some other favorites of mine include THE VIRUS and THE DAY OF REBIRTH by Sheri Gambino, SLOW BITES by Steve Vernon, THE END IS COME by Zombie Zak, ECHOES OF IDENTITY by John R. Platt, and DEVOLVEMENT by Ginger Nielsen. There really isn’t a poem in this collection that I didn’t like.
-Colleen Wanglund
(The Horror Fiction Review welcomes Colleen Wanglund to the staff!)
STARKWEATHER DREAMS (LANDSCAPES WITH FIGURES) by Christopher Conlon (2009 Creative Guy Publishing / 74 pp / cb)
Based on real-life Nebraska/Wyoming serial killer Charles Starkweather and his young girlfriend Caril Ann Fugate, Conlon crafts a 3-section tapestry of brief, dark poems to recreate their disturbing reign of terror.
Standout pieces include 'Countdown,' a reverse telling of one of the couple's murders, and 'Climax: Charlie,' where the reader truly begins to feel the twisted mind of Conlon's electric chair-bound subject.
Despite its brief length, Conlon delivers high-quality prose that's artistic yet still able to give you the willies (especially the "dreaming-of-redemption" ending). 'Tis a devilishly good time.
THE CANNIBALS OF CANDYLAND by Carlton Mellick III (2009 Avant Punk / 151 pp. / tp)
When Franklin was a kid, he witnessed the brutal murder of his siblings at the hands (and teeth) of a woman who looked like she was made of candy. He has spent much of his time since trying to find this woman, and has even spotted what he calls "candy people" in various parks and wooded areas (and naturally his friends mock him).
But now Franklin has discovered the subterranean lair where they dwell, and is bent on bringing a candy person back as proof to the world of their existence.
Before long, the candy woman ("Jujy") from his childhood makes Franklin her love slave, and to complicate matters, they begin to fall for each other. A monkey wrench is thrown into the cotton candy when Jujy becomes pregnant with the first human/candy person hybrid. When Franklin tries to escape, he reluctantly saves a bully from his neighborhood
TCOC is another fine bizarro outing from Mellick III, with plenty of twisted imagery, sex scenes, and outlandish violence. While I think it ends kind-of abruptly (and I wanted to see or learn more about the hybrid baby), CANNIBALS is a satisying read for fans of the demented.
MIDNIGHT WALK edited by Lisa Morton (2009 Darkhouse Publishing / 258 pp. / tp
The goal behind this 14-story anthology was to feature horror stories that are anything but the "same old crap" (as editor Morton puts it in her short and sweet introduction). But...does it succeed?
The opener, 'Monsoon Devil,' by Armand Constantine, while a fine, well written tale, is a familiar supernatural revenge yarn. Weird that WALK starts with this right after the aforementioned introduction. Same goes for the second story, 'The Tennatrick,' by John Palisano; it's a fun monster mash, but nothing you haven't read before.
But by the third entry, things begin to get a bit different...and the rest of the antho. follows suit.
One of the best here is Mike McCarty's 'The Grieving Process,' a tale that leads you one way then ends up being a fresh take on a classic horror icon. Richard Grove's 'Silver Needle' is a neat little Halloween tale featuring a one-eyed cat and a mysterious house full of even stranger treats.
Other memorable tales come from Vince Churchill, Kelly Dunn, and I think THE best was saved for last: Joey O'Bryan's 'The Svancara Supper Society,' an extremely grim take on a death row inmates last meal.
While it's hard to stick to a single topic (or concept) in any anthology, Lisa Morton has done a fine job delivering some solid horror stories that are fresh . . . and a few are actually scary. Check it out.
COMING NEXT MONTH:
We should FINALLY be finished with the extra-large collection, EXPERIMENTS AT 3 BILLION A.M. by Alexander Zelanyi. We'll also look at DUBAKU by Edward M. Erdelac, THE WORLD IS DEAD edited by Kim Paffenroth, REVOLT OF THE DEAD by Keith Gouveia, and FEAR THE WOODS: BOOK ONE by Jerrod Balzer.
We've been hit with a flood of review material (both books AND magazines), so please be patient if you don't see your submission here. We WILL get to them. We'll have a large magazine review soon in our Odds and Ends section.