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Book Review: The Changeling by Victor Lavalle

The Changeling by Victor Lavalle

Spiegel & Grau, 2017

ISBN-13: 978-0812995947

Available: Hardcover, paperback, Kindle edition, audiobook.

 

 

There are few horror authors who get the reader to sit back in awe of their pure storytelling, using language that flows in an enthralling, dark manner. Victor LaValle ranks near the top of the list. Sit down with The Changeling, and be warned that the hours will disappear. The novel is a masterful reworking of a dark fairy tale, but reads like it’s entirely original.

Apollo Kagwa’s father left many years ago, leaving behind only a box of memories labeled IMPROBABILIA. Now Apollo has his own family, but the odyssey has already begun. When his wife, Emma, leaves following the birth of their son, after committing a terrible act, Apollo finds himself on his own hero’s journey. This story is more like Homer’s tale than anything Grimm put to paper, but the Gaiman-esque conversational voice that LaValle wields pulls the reader along the journey with him to strange places, meeting even stranger people. What Apollo discovers is both breathtaking and heartbreaking, a rarity in the genre. Each chapter is a mirror Lavalle uses to reflect us so we can see ourselves: the good, the bad, and the just plain awful. The characters, all of them, have been deftly drawn, with compassion, then dragged through horrors in a way reminiscent of Stephen King, although it’s entirely Lavalle’s own. Apollo and Emma’s tale is one worth telling, and should be savored, even though it is tough to slow down.

Do yourself a favor and pick up The Changeling. The subtlety may be lost on those expecting pure horror, but for those who want more than the standard fare, you will be highly rewarded. Once you’ve finished with it, be sure to look for Lavalle’s previous works, The Ballad of Black Tom and The Devil in Silver.   Highly recommended.

 

Reviewed by Dave Simms

 

 

 

 

Posted on November 30, 2017 by , Reply

Book Review: Bloody Kids by Andrew Holmes

Bloody Kids by Andrew Holmes

Sasquatch Books, 2017

ASIN: B078437KK2

Available: Kindle edition

 

Bloody Kids by Andrew Holmes is a gory thriller about a rural English town that is rotten to its core.  A rich farmer controls the town and most of its inhabitants, including the police, much as lords of the manor did in medieval England.  He entertains and controls many of the village men with annual hunting bacchanals and a clandestine brothel at the Lizard Farm.  A sadistic widow runs the Farm and is the madam for comely ‘cleaning women’.  She physically and psychologically abuses her orphaned or abandoned ‘foster children’, who work the Farm.

 

Things begin to go awry when the widow becomes demented, and loses control over the once-cowed children.  As they take control of the Farm, their base instincts come to the fore.  Think of William Golding’s Lord of the Flies.  The children begin to abuse and torture the prostitutes.

 

The rich farmer’s son-in-law takes his young son on a winter picnic in a field near the Farm, and the boy disappears.  An intensive search leads nowhere, and a local veteran Detective Inspector is ordered to investigate.

 

It’s a tangled web.  The DI has had a midlife crisis and an affair with a hostess-prostitute at the bacchanals, who is also the nanny/cleaning woman for the children.  Although she ends the affair, she still communicates with the DI by cell phone, until the boy disappears.

 

A boy’s body is found in a gravel pit.  It seems that no one is innocent.  Mutilations (yes, even with a chainsaw), torture, and murder, crescendo to a gory, blazing denouement on a bone-chilling, snowy night.  As in a morality play, most of the malefactors get their just deserts.

 

The story is fast-paced, and keeps the reader engaged.  Setting his story in England, Holmes treats the reader to many English colloquialisms, such as “twee” (quaint), “gutted” (upset) and “gob” (spit, mouth).  Holmes has written many other action/adventure/fantasy/horror novels under the pseudonyms Oliver Bowden and A. E. Moorat.

 

Recommended for teens and adults

 

Contains: violence, gore and sex

Reviewed by Robert D. Yee

 

 

 

 

 

 

Posted on November 29, 2017 by , Reply

Book Review: Injection, Volume 1 by Warren Ellis, art by Declan Shalvey

Injection, Volume 1 by Warren Ellis, art by Declan Shalvey

Image Comics, 2015

ISBN: 9781632154798

Available:  Paperback, Kindle edition, and comiXology ebook

Injection centers around five eccentric geniuses dealing with the paranormal, and the consequences they must face after inflicting The Injection on the planet. Years earlier, Maria Kilbride founded the Cross Culture-Contamination Unit (CCCU), funded through a partnership between the British government and an up-and-coming company. She hand-selected the members of this new unit: computer geek Brigid Roth; Vivek Headland, a logician and ethicist; folklore expert Robin Morel; and Simeon Winters, a strategist and double agent for the Foreign Office. Fast-forward to the time after The Injection: everyone has established new lives and secured new employment allowing them to track progress on The Injection. The supernatural encroaches more quickly as the days pass, threatening humanity’s time on Earth. The former members of the CCCU must come together to investigate a case of a possessed laboratory and a mysterious disappearance.

This first volume is slow to start, but it definitely picks up. As with Ellis’ previous work, he gives very little away until he’s ready to hit you with something. When he does, it’s intense. I wouldn’t recommend picking up the first volume unless you are a die-hard Ellis fan and are willing to continue with his storytelling regarding this story. I’m not going to give anything in the subsequent volumes, but I would recommend giving this a chance.

Volume 1 collects issues #1-5.

Contains blood, gore, and nudity

Reviewed by Lizzy Walker

Posted on November 21, 2017 by , Reply
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