Horror and Dark Fantasy Blog
- Category: Dark Fantasy Blog
Usually I write about horror fiction. This time I’m writing about real-world horror and how author and self-termed “violence expert” Tim Larkin would have us prepare for it.
“Violence is rarely the answer, but when it is, it’s the only answer.”
Thus begins this fascinating self-defense book, in which Larkin discusses two types of violence: social aggression and asocial violence. Both are best avoided, but are far different in terms of lethal intent. Social aggression, as Larkin defines it, involves showy, chest-beating behavior (usually between males) and is basically a jockeying for position in the social hierarchy. Larkin stresses there’s only one intelligent way to deal with it. You back down, apologize for whatever the guy thinks you did, and buy him a drink. Better than a lawsuit for involuntary manslaughter or a lengthy hospital stay for yourself. In short, when it comes to these displays of male dominence, fighting is rarely worth it.
With asocial violence, on the other hand, there’s no talking your way out of it. It comes at you from behind at an ATM or in a dark parking garage, with a bigger, stronger, faster assailant who has no qualms about maiming or killing you. In fact, maiming and killing may be the goal.
For this kind of kill-or-be-killed situation, Larkin presents a wealth of anecdotes: the kind where the good gal or guy triumphs in a terrifying situation and the kind where, tragically, the opposite occurs and the wrong person ends up in a puddle of blood.
So how does the average Jane or Joe disable a much stronger attacker?
Larkin goes into great detail, with diagrams for good measure, about how all human bodies, nomatter how formidable-looking, are vulnerable to certain devastating injuries if the other person knows how to inflict those injuries and is able and willing to do so (a crushed trachea and gouged-out eyeball being two examples.)
In his classes, Larkin reports that seventy percent of the people who sign up only do so AFTER surviving a violent attack. The proactive student just wanting to be prepared is rare in his experience, and Larkin wants to change that. Aside from detailed explanations of how to crush, snap, and generally destroy various parts of an attacker’s body, he also offers some obvious but important tips: ditch the earbuds and put down the phone in public, listen to your intuition, and avoid the ATM after dark. Like jungle animals, we need our senses on high alert; the distracted are easy targets.
At the same time, Larkin himself comes across as a fundamentally non-violent sort who reminds the reader over and over that violence is the last resort, no matter how highly trained you may be.
- Category: Dark Fantasy Blog
Take four of the world’s top horror writers, add an ambitious media mogul and his tech-savvy girlfriend, mix in a creepy old house where two savage murders took place and a dash of spookery in the form of two deceased sisters, and you’ve got the ingredients for KILL CREEK, Scott Thomas’s terrific debut novel.
Thomas’s premise is both straightforward and intriguing: media tycoon Wainwright invites extreme horror writer T.C. Moore, Christian YA novelist Daniel Slaughter, legendary horror writer Sebastian Cole, and famous but faltering gothic horror writer Sam McGarver to spend Halloween night in the notorious Finch House. No one is any too keen about the idea, but each can use the publicity, not to mention the cash.
The fateful night in the haunted Finch mansion proves disturbing enough, with a few genuinely scary moments as well as a mean-spirited on-air interview by their host, but the next day all four writers leave the house, shaken but apparently unscathed.
The Finch House has let them off easy. Or so it would appear.
The real horror begins later, first foreshadowed by a tragedy that strikes Daniel Slaughter on the day they depart the house. After that, all four experience a period of writing so obsesssive there’s barely time to eat or sleep as each creates their own version of a novel based upon the Finch House. Soon it becomes apparent the Finch House was only toying with them that first night, letting them leave in order to lure them all back for a final, deadly battle with the supernatural.
Thomas’s writing is vivid, even at times lyrical, despite a plot that doesn’t shy away from violence and gore. His characters reflect the reality behind their work and the urgent creativity that’s sometimes rooted in trauma, loss, and physical abuse. To a person, they cover their scars carefully, and the Finch House is all too ready to expose each painful truth.
KILL CREEK is Thomas’s debut novel and a finalist for Best First Novel for the 2017 Bram Stoker Awards. It’s a brilliant beginning that left me already looking forward to his next book.
- Category: Dark Fantasy Blog
Leila Slimani’s Prix Goncourt-winning novel delves into the tormented mind of Louise, the ultimate nanny, who doubles as housekeeper, gourmet chef, and organizer of childrens’ parties and outings, without extra pay. She’s also a working parent’s worse nightmare: a woman whose doll-like, Mary Poppins exterior conceals a damaged psyche rife with resentment, obsession, and rage.
THE PERFECT NANNY chronicles the relationship between Paul and Myriam, two ambitious professionals in Paris’s tony 10th arrondissement, and Louise, the nanny too good to be true who does the unthinkable.
“She’s our employee, not our friend,” Paul reminds his wife, but because Louise has become so invaluable, it’s a point they both keep conveniently overlooking.
There’s no mystery here as far as the crime. On the first page, we’re told, “The baby is dead.” The question, of course, is not who murdered baby Adam and his older sister Mila, but what demons drove Louise to kill them. To that end, Slimani takes us into her stark and lonely world, the sparse apartment where she spends as little time as possible, the abusive husband who left her with crushing debts, the landlord who hounds her for money.
Her days spent in her employers’ chic apartment mean freedom to Louise, and she makes the most of them. With the older child at school and the parents working, she luxuriates in a long, hot shower, then glides nude around the apartment, her skin pearlescent with Miryam’s expensive creams.
Only occasionally does the unseemly surface, as when Paul comes home to find Louise has tarted up his daughter in full glamour make-up. Disgusted, he pulls away from Louise after that, but by then the unequal relationship has progressed too far, making Louise almost impossible to dislodge. While Louise obsesses over whether Myriam is pregnant again, the parents ponder ways to gracefully let her go. It’s that terrible disparity – the nanny’s fantasies of being part of a family when she is, in fact, hired help – that brings the novel back full circle to its devastating opening lines.
Although the ending disappoints, leaving the reader to the observations of the police detective going over the scene, as a whole I found the novel engrossing on many levels – as a crime thriller and as a social commentary on class distinction, economic disparity, and motherhood.
- Category: Dark Fantasy Blog
The paperback edition of THE BEAUTY OF DEATH – DEATH BY WATER, edited by Alessandro Manzanetti and Jodi Renee Lester for Independent Legions Press, is now available through Amazon.
This gargantuan anthology includes thirty-nine stories by “some of the greatest writers of horror and dark fiction,” in which water plays the role of both accomplice and executioner. With accidental drownings, irresistile calls of sirens from the deep, strange whispering from household plumbing, faces of the dead in droplets of water, rabid fish, leviathan monsters, and more, these stories will make you think twice about taking that long-awaited cruise, going for a midnight swim, or taking your next shower.
Take a look at the Table of Contents:
HIPPOCAMPUS by Adam Nevill
YOU WILL COME TO NO HARM IN WATER by Lucy Taylor
ANTUMBRA by Lucy Snyder
TO TAKE THE WATER DOWN AND GO TO SLEEP by Frazer Lee
THE DROWNING OF COLIN HENDERSON by Stephen Gregory
THE OLD WOMAN AND THE SEA by Marge Simon
THE EVERLASTING by Anthony Watson
THE BALLAD OF BALLARD AND SANDRINE by Peter Straub
THE DEEPEST PART OF THE OCEAN by Joanna Parypinski
WALKING ON WATER by Dona Fox
A SONG ONLY PARTIALLY HEARD by John Langan
THE WASH by Lisa Morton
WET SEASON by Dennis Etchison
THE TARN by Simon Bestwick
WINGS MADE FROM WATER by John Palisano
RAISED BY THE MOON by Ramsey Campbell
EVEN THE STARS FALL by Nicola Lombardi
COME UP by Brian Evenson
UNDERWATER FERRIS WHEEL by Michael Bailey
RIVER WATCH by Bruce Boston
PERISCOPE OF THE DEAD by Paolo Di Orazio
GILLS by David J. Schow
ORI by Adam Millard
BY THE SEA by Alessandro Manzetti
DROWNING by Gregory L. Norris
SEA SLUG by Edward Lee
THE HIKER by Jeremy Megargee
EVERY BEAST OF THE EARTH by Time Waggoner
SCAPE-GOAT by Clive Barker
THE FOURTH BELL by Daniel Braum
SIREN by Jonah Buck
THE DOUBLE LENS by Lisa Mannetti
JUST WATCH ME NOW by Jodi Renee Lester
BORN OF DARK WATERS by Michael H. Hanson
THE GORGE OF CHILDREN by Daniele Bonfanti
FRESH CATCH by Michael Arnzen
A JOURNEY OF GREAT WAVES by Eric J. Guignard
IN THE DREAMTIME OF LADY RESURRECTION by Caitlin R. Kiernan
- Category: Dark Fantasy Blog
A simple question that sets in motion a hellish evil and a code word an unhappy wife hoped never to see precipitate the action in this impossible-to-put-down mix of occult horror and espionage thriller.
A clandestine operative named Lewis watches a terrifying video where a captive is forced to torture himself to death. The man in the video asks the fatal question “Who is Mr. White?” and Lewis, not understanding the danger, later poses the same question to a fellow agent. Not a good idea, for merely by questioning Mr. White’s identity the speak has summoned a malevolent force into her or his life – which will probably not last much longer at that point.
In one brief, significant excahange, a puzzzled operative is asked what tactic his mother used to frighten him as a boy — why, she invoked the bogeyman, of course, ready to punish even a small transgression in unspeakable ways. Mr. White is the real life version of that monster under the bed, except now he’s no fairy tale, but a malignant entity equipped with a diabolically sadistic bent along with a penchant for creative impalements.
Suffice it to say, you do not want to snag Mr. White’s attention.
Foster begins the novel with graphic horror and only ratchets it up from there, using multiple viewpoints and settings in Europe and the US, including a harrowing scene where Lewis rides the Berlin Night Express in a desperate bid to reach his family. Two major plotlines intertwine – while Lewis is fighting his way across Europe, his wife Cat and daughter Hedde face horrors of their own. In an attempt to escape Mr. White’s relentless pursuit, they seek refuge with their Uncle Gerard, a Christmas tree farmer in the moribund town of Flintlock, New Hampshire, and a man who harbors secrets of his own.
Outstanding among a host of memorable characters is teenaged Hedde, who learns about self-sufficiency and survival from her gritty uncle and secretly dabbles in the occult behind the red door in the attic.
MR. WHITE is so good I found myself reading more slowly as I neared the end. Foster’s writing is superb, and I wanted to savor every sentence. Truly a stand-out novel not to be missed!
- Category: Dark Fantasy Blog
THE DISAPPEARANCE OF ADELE BEDEAU, a dark and elegantly written literaray crime novel, is set in a small Alsatian town as drab as the book’s protagonist. Here Manfred Baumann plods through his never-varying daily routine: lunch at the Restaurant de la Cloche, bridge game with the boys on Thursdays, a surreptitious visit to a brothel once a week, where he manages to accomplish his mission fully clothed while his ‘partner’ remains almost motionless.
Burnet’s attention to detail and the precision with which he builds the character of Manfred and his nemesis, Detective Gorski, make for a fascinating and compelling read. Skillfully, Burnet pits them against each other, the unstable loner Manfred and the dogged Gorski, still tormented by the murder case he was unable to solve years ago.
The novel is also a cautionary tale about the perils of spending too much time immersed in one’s own dark thoughts, and Baumann’s mind is clearly a dangerous place to dwell. Adrift in an ocean of beer, wine, and paranoia, he fancies the world is watching. Should he deviate from even the smallest detail of his routine – say, ordering a different dish on the day he habitually orders something else – he frets that this will elicit gasps of amazement from the restaurant’s other patrons and soon become town-wide gossip. Comical at first, it becomes more sinister as we learn more about Baumann’s early life, his controlling and contemptuous grandfather, and the dreadful secret he carries with him.
Where the novel falls short is in the lack of attention paid to its female characters. Alhough Adele Bedeau’s disappearance provides the catalyst for all that follows, in her brief appearance in the book, she’s a cipher, a sullen young woman who apparently dislikes her job and has a secret boyfriend, but little else. Even Baumann, who obsessively observes her, acknowledges he’s never given any thought to what her life is like or who she is. There’s also a brief and rather puzzling love interest for Baumann that, given his personality, goes about where you’d expect it to, and a look at Gorski’s snobbish and unpleasant wife who regrets her marriage to a lowly law enforcement officer.
Although once the mystery is solved, some readers may be tempted to skip the Afterward, don’t do this, for Burnet isn’t done with us yet. He provides an entire history of the novel’s supposed author, one ‘Raymond Brunet” who had a life oddly similar to Manfred’s.
Altogether a gripping little mystery, both stylish and macabre!
- Category: Dark Fantasy Blog
Travels to the lands of the living, the dead and the damned describes the stories in Fatal Journeys. The Butsudan, included in the new signed Limited Edition, is a story about sex, death and the ghosts of Japanese ancestors. Here is The Butsudan for your enjoyment:
Hiroshi-san died at the start of the New Year. Now, nine months later, it is the beginning of Obon, the festival of the dead in Japan, and he is due to come home for a visit.
As I trudge back from the market, I can sense the happy excitement and anticipation of the people around me, many of them already wearing yukatas, lightweight summer kimonos, in preparation for the dancing that will start tonight, but all I feel is a profound, stomach-turning dread.
- Category: Dark Fantasy Blog
MY ABSOLUTE DARLING, Gabriel Tallent’s debut novel, is the gripping, often shocking tale of Turtle, a fourteen-year-old girl attempting to survive in two worlds: that of her school, where she struggles over vocabulary words and treats female peers with a casual misogyny and that of her home, where her father’s tutelage in firearms, survivalist training, and the kind of mental and physical toughness that would do credit to a hardened commando, has come at a terrible price.
Turtle’s love/hate for her father Martin has evolved in a climate of physical abuse, casual camaraderie, and constant indoctrination in his toxic world view. Martin is a fascinating, yet terrifying character, a man so damaged that he nicknames his daughter ‘kibble’, like the food fed to dogs, and prepares for an end of the world that one senses he’s more than a little eager to see.
Turtle is not, however, without allies. An alcoholic grandfather in the trailer nearby attempts to help her, a perceptive teacher offers sanctuary, and a schoolmate named Rilke, herself the victim of Turtle’s bullying, makes overtures of friendship. Each is foiled by Turtle’s fierce insistence that nothing is wrong at her home.
- Category: Dark Fantasy Blog
I’m a latecomer to Malerman’s gripping novel, BIRD BOX, which was published in 2014, but perhaps some other fans of horror and post-apocalyptic fiction have missed out on it, too.
BIRD BOX, which gets its name from the caged birds whose cooing is supposed to warn of approaching intruders, is a fast-paced, intensely creepy tale that starts with an ambitious premise – the world is suddenly populated with creatures that, once looked upon, drive humans into a suicidal rage.
We meet Malorie, a young woman on a twenty mile boat trip upriver with her two children, the unnamed Boy and Girl. All are blindfolded. Malorie relies on the children’s preternaturally keen sense of hearing to tell her when danger is near. Malerman does a fine job of ratcheting up the suspense as the trio approach potential threats. Is that rustling in the bushes a human being? Is that musky smell a prowling wolf or dog? Malorie and the kids are never sure, but to give in to temptation and remove the blindfolds could mean a swift and violent death.
- Category: Dark Fantasy Blog
The scariest thing about Underdown’s gripping novel isn’t that it’s based on the historical record of one Mathew Hopkins or that his crusade against witches is (in Underdown’s fictionalized version of his early life) possibly motivated by trauma he suffered as an infant, but that the disempowerment and silencing of those considered to be inferior beings feels so familiar today.
The year is 1644, in Essex, England, a time of political and religious upheaval. Alice Hopkins, the narrator, is a widow who seeks shelter with her brother Mathew, a preacher’s son bent on ridding the countryside of women suspected of witchcraft.
The world Alice was born into has trained her to be meek and subservient toward men. As Mathew’s unwilling assistent, she faces a daunting task: bear witness to the horrors of the interrogations while still trying to help the women escape their fate. Her efforts do not go as hoped. When we meet her, Alice is locked in an attic, keeping a journal which opens with, “Nine months ago my brother Mathew set himself to killing women.”