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Book Review: The Beauty: Volume 1 by Jeremy Haun and Jason Hurley, art by Jeremy Haun

The Beauty: Volume 1 by Jeremy Haun and Jason Hurley, art by Jeremy Haun

Image Comics, 2016

ISBN: 9781632155504

Available: print, Kindle & comixology ebook

 

The Beauty proposes a few questions. With society’s obsession with external outward beauty, what if there was a way to guarantee someone could become more attractive? What if the way to accomplish such beauty was through a sexually transmitted disease? In the world of Beauty, most of the population has taken advantage of the STD. Why not? After all, the only known side effects are increased hunger, a low-grade fever, and the benefit of being drop dead gorgeous. Detectives Vaughn and Foster discover the less than appealing side effect: the “drop dead” part is literal.  As the detectives start getting closer to solving the mystery, the danger to their lives increases. Certain parties attempt to launch a cover-up, but newly-infected Detective Foster isn’t having any of it. After a heavily publicized press conference announcement goes wrong, he’s got a shiny new target on his back.

The Beauty reads like a typical noir crime novel at times, but the story is compelling and unique. I thought there would be more of a focus on the people who voluntarily contract the disease rather than on the law enforcement angle, but it still made for a decent exploration of what happens when a disease that has been around for a few years starts exhibiting deadly consequences. I think it helps that the artwork is fantastic. This is not a story for children; violence, sex, and death are shown in detail, thanks to the magnificent art. Recommended.

Volume 1 collections issues #1-6.

Contains: blood, exploding bodies, body horror, nudity, violent content

Reviewed by Lizzy Walker

 

Posted on July 29, 2017 by , Reply

Book Review: Dark Screams: Volume 7 edited by Brian James Freeman and Richard Chizmar

Dark Screams: Volume 7 edited by Brian James Freeman and Richard Chizmar

Hydra, 2017

ISBN: 9780399181948

Available: Kindle edition
 

After reading Dark Screams Volume 6, I knew I had to read Volume 7. Freeman and Chizmar have another great anthology here.

Robert McCammon weaves a tale of the “Lizardman”, who thinks he is the mightiest predator living in the Florida swamp, until he meets the real “big bad” lurking in the waters. Old Pope can drive people to madness and devour them quickly. What will become of the Lizardman when he meets the great beast?

James Renner’s story, “A Monster Comes to Ashdown Forest (in Which Christopher Robin Says Goodbye),” is both heartbreaking and terrifying at the same time. A caretaker working at a hospital at Dartmouth meets the real Christopher Robin, a seventy-five year old senile man who lived as a recluse so no one could find him and torment him about that silly old bear. There’s a very good reason why he wanted to forget the bear, the forest, and the carnage wrought beneath its trees.

Death comes to four families in “Furtherest” by Kaaron Warren. Grandpa Sheet, the old man living in one of the houses, rewards children who wander the dunes the furtherest where they find the graves of the boys who died. How far is the girl from House 1 willing to go out past the dunes?

Brian Hodge’s “West of Matamoros, North of Hell” is probably the most brutal story of the anthology. After the success of their latest album, Sebastián, Sofia, and Enrique head to Mexico for a photo shoot at a shrine to Santa Muerte, but instead they find themselves tormented and held prisoner by worshipers of the Saint of Death with others who have met the same fate. One by one, prisoners are dragged out of their dark enclosure. Unfortunately for those remaining it isn’t dark enough. Through one small window looking out to the giant statue of Santa Muerte, the prisoners witness the grisly sacrifices their captors make to their deity. However, when Sebastián and Enrique’s turns come, things are a little different.

A wolf is stalking Lieutenant Dietrich Drexler and his men through the Carpathian Mountains in “The Expedition” by Bill Schweigart. When Drexler is the only man left, he must take the news of what happened back to the Führer. Fortunately for Drexler, another fate awaits him.

Mick Garris’ story, “Snow Shadows,” revolves around a schoolteacher’s affair and a student’s infatuation that teaches a lesson in death and revenge.

While I enjoyed the sixth volume of the anthology more, Dark Screams Volume 7 was outstanding. I particularly enjoyed the story of Christopher Robin and the dark version of Pooh and the rest of the gang from the Hundred-Acre Wood. This volume is not to be missed if you have found this series. Recommended.

 

Contains: blood, brief sex, gore

Reviewed by Lizzy Walker

Posted on July 26, 2017 by , Reply

Book Review: The Fifth Doll by Charlie N. Holmberg

The Fifth Doll by Charlie N. Holmberg
47North, 2017
ISBN-13:978-1477806104
Available: Paperback, Kindle edition, Audible, MP3 CD

 

The Fifth Doll is an excellent fantasy novel for pre-teens and young adults.  Charlie N. Holmberg has written several novels about young heroines who face the trials and tribulations of life and magic.  The current novel gives readers not only an interesting plot that keeps them guessing, but also a bit of cultural history about what life might have been like in an early 20th century Russian village.

Matrona, the daughter of a dairy farmer, is unusual in at least two ways.  She is an only child, and, at age 26, isn’t married yet.  Her family and the carpenter’s family have arranged a marriage for her.  She hopes she will come to love her aloof betrothed, but she is secretly attracted to the potter’s son, Jaska.  Matrona’s village is unusual, too.  No one has ever left, except Slava, the tradesman.  Slava leaves the village periodically with his horse and cart, into the surrounding forest, and returns with goods from the outside world.  No one else knows what that world is like.

The weather is almost perfect.  The villagers have never experienced a freezing winter and have no concept of what snow is, but Matrona has nightmares of gray skies, rows of box-like houses unlike the village’s colorful farmsteads, trodden dirt roads and the sound of tramping feet.

Matrona accidentally enters Slava’s house and discovers a room full of nesting, or matryoshka, dolls.  Each doll has the painted face of a villager.  Slava has a secret plan, and Matrona is an unwilling part of it.  Each doll has power over its original.  Slava forces Matrona to open her own doll one doll at a time every three days.  When she refuses, he threatens her family.

When Matrona opens each doll, there are disturbing consequences.  Her secret thoughts are revealed to the entire village, she has excruciating headaches, and hears an inner voice chastising her for her faults.  Her vision is alerted.  She sees faint lines in the sky and snow for the first time!  Matrona can’t escape through the forest.  Each path she tries leads her back to the village.

If she opens the fourth doll and reveals the fifth, Slava’s plan will be complete and Matrona will be his substitute.  What is his plan?  What is in the outside world?  Can Matrona and Jaska save themselves and the village? Holmberg keeps the reader guessing until the very end. Highly recommended. 

 

Reviewed by Robert D. Yee

 

 

Posted on July 12, 2017 by , Reply
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