A solid compilation that will satisfy avid fans of a range of horror subgenres.
The editor of the award-winning 1970s and ‘80s horror magazine Deathrealm presents a collection of eclectic stories.
Rainey helms this set of spine-tingling and sometimes stomach-churning works from 20 authors. As with many anthologies, not every tale works, but it hits its stride in its third offering, Timothy G. Huguenin’s “To Fear and To Rage,” about a father and son whose remote mountain town is slowly overrun by unsettling faceless, eyeless creatures. Later, readers are transported to the Wild West in Larry Blamire’s “The Murder Wagon,” which ends with an unexpected and satisfying twist. David Niall Wilson’s “I Was Going to Tell You Tonight” is a delightfully disgusting foray into body horror, telling of a twisted relationship between two pest exterminators—one of whom has an increasingly strange obsession. The standout of the collection, Maurice Broaddus’ “The Running People,” is unflinchingly tense and brutal in its story of a mother’s daily run to the suburbs from a sequestered cabin in the woods to pick up rations for her and her daughter; it masterfully blends themes of inequality, bigotry, climate change, and cosmic horror in an all-too-believable postapocalyptic setting. “Bloody Roots” by Brian Keene is a fun, inventive twist on classic haunted-house stories with its tale of an ex-Amish exorcist/medium/occult detective who’s called in to rid a family of malevolent force terrorizing their home, and Kasey Lansdale's “The Disappeared" is an effectively atmospheric study in suspense in which two young girls investigate a mystery after discovering a body at a local creek. Others are a mixed bag, with some premises that don’t meet expectations or endings that lose momentum. Overall, though, this is a serviceable anthology for readers looking for a scare.
A solid compilation that will satisfy avid fans of a range of horror subgenres.Pub Date: Oct. 17, 2023
ISBN: 9781959565178
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Shortwave Media
Review Posted Online: Oct. 11, 2023
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
It's almost enough to make a person believe in ghosts.
A disturbing household secret has far-reaching consequences in this dark, unusual ghost story.
Mallory Quinn, fresh out of rehab and recovering from a recent tragedy, has taken a job as a nanny for an affluent couple living in the upscale suburb of Spring Brook, New Jersey, when a series of strange events start to make her (and her employers) question her own sanity. Teddy, the precocious and shy 5-year-old boy she's charged with watching, seems to be haunted by a ghost who channels his body to draw pictures that are far too complex and well formed for such a young child. At first, these drawings are rather typical: rabbits, hot air balloons, trees. But then the illustrations take a dark turn, showcasing the details of a gruesome murder; the inclusion of the drawings, which start out as stick figures and grow increasingly more disturbing and sophisticated, brings the reader right into the story. With the help of an attractive young gardener and a psychic neighbor and using only the drawings as clues, Mallory must solve the mystery of the house's grizzly past before it's too late. Rekulak does a great job with character development: Mallory, who narrates in the first person, has an engaging voice; the Maxwells' slightly overbearing parenting style and passive-aggressive quips feel very familiar; and Teddy is so three-dimensional that he sometimes feels like a real child.
It's almost enough to make a person believe in ghosts.Pub Date: May 10, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-250-81934-5
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Flatiron Books
Review Posted Online: March 1, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2022
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Vintage King: a pleasure for his many fans and not a bad place to start if you’re new to him.
The master of supernatural disaster returns with four horror-laced novellas.
The protagonist of the title story, Holly Gibney, is by King’s own admission one of his most beloved characters, a “quirky walk-on” who quickly found herself at the center of some very unpleasant goings-on in End of Watch, Mr. Mercedes, and The Outsider. The insect-licious proceedings of the last are revisited, most yuckily, while some of King’s favorite conceits turn up: What happens if the dead are never really dead but instead show up generation after generation, occupying different bodies but most certainly exercising their same old mean-spirited voodoo? It won’t please TV journalists to know that the shape-shifting bad guys in that title story just happen to be on-the-ground reporters who turn up at very ugly disasters—and even cause them, albeit many decades apart. Think Jack Torrance in that photo at the end of The Shining, and you’ve got the general idea. “Only a coincidence, Holly thinks, but a chill shivers through her just the same,” King writes, “and once again she thinks of how there may be forces in this world moving people as they will, like men (and women) on a chessboard.” In the careful-what-you-wish-for department, Rat is one of those meta-referential things King enjoys: There are the usual hallucinatory doings, a destiny-altering rodent, and of course a writer protagonist who makes a deal with the devil for success that he thinks will outsmart the fates. No such luck, of course. Perhaps the most troubling story is the first, which may cause iPhone owners to rethink their purchases. King has gone a far piece from the killer clowns and vampires of old, with his monsters and monstrosities taking on far more quotidian forms—which makes them all the scarier.
Vintage King: a pleasure for his many fans and not a bad place to start if you’re new to him.Pub Date: April 20, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-9821-3797-7
Page Count: 448
Publisher: Scribner
Review Posted Online: March 14, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2020
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
PERSPECTIVES
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