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Book Review: Counted with the Dead by Peter O’Keefe

Counted With the Dead by Peter O'Keefe cover art

Counted with the Dead by Peter O’Keefe

Grendel Press, 2024

ISBN: 978-1960534118

Available: Paperback, Kindle edition

Buy:  Bookshop.org | Amazon.com

 

Set in the 1990s, Jack Killeen, working in the dirty Detroit underbelly, is the mob’s hired gun. He hates his job.and wants to make a change. Victor Moravian, art collector and businessman, will be his last kill. However, things do not go as Jack plans. A mad doctor has created a monster using body parts from Jack’s victims, and animates it with Victor’s brain. Jack, accompanied by his brother Marty, has to stop the monster Jack is partially responsible for unleashing in the city.

 

DeRon is the assistant to Dr. Drettmann, a mad doctor, working in a secret lab. He initially believes in the professor’s mission, but a mishap with an experimental surgery on DeRon’s mangled leg, and Drettmann’s new project, have him questioning his role in everything.

 

After Victor’s transformation into the beast he is, he retains his own memories as well as of those parts of whom he is composed. Angry and lost when he escapes the lab, he leaves a trail of blood and gore wherever he goes. Lonely, and with memories of the love of his life, he goes back to the doctor and demands a mate.

 

Marlene, beautiful Marlene, was the love of both Victor and Jack’s lives. Married to Victor, she has an affair with Jack, who refuses to tell her the truth about Victor’s disappearance. She inevitably becomes a target of the beast’s desire for a bride. He takes vengeance on the other women in Jack’s life to obtain other pieces for his new companion.

 

This was a surprisingly fast-paced story. To be honest, I was not sure that a modern Frankenstein story would meld well with a mobster crime story, sprinkled with a bit of tech horror and body horror, but O’Keefe made it work. The action reads very much like it is would be easily adapted for the big screen. The characters, while not particularly likeable, are distinct and memorable. Something that I found particularly interesting was the way Jack put together a team to confront the beast. It felt more like the building of an adventuring party. In fact, other works that did this well, such as Lord of the Rings, are mentioned in tongue-in-cheek ways. O’Keefe does an amazing job with making Detroit looming and oppressive at the same time. This will be a good read for those looking for a different interpretation of the typical Frankenstein story. However, readers who do not deal with animal death to approach this with extreme caution, as it does happen in this book. Recommended.

 

Reviewed by Lizzy Walker

Posted on May 21, 2025 by , Reply

Book Review: The Little Season by S.C. Mendes

cover art for The Little Season by S.C. Mendes

The Little Season by S.C. Mendes

Blood Bound Books, 2024

ISBN: 9798878808958

Available: Kindle edition

Buy:  Amazon.com

 

You have to give S.C. Mendes credit: in a genre that has some repetitive plotlines, he always comes up with an original one, and this is no exception.  It’s quite imaginative, and trying to figure out how it ends will keep the reader busy till the final pages.  There are enough questions on life in this one that it would actually make for a good choice for a horror book club discussion group.  The book isn’t shallow: it has some good depth to it.  There are some pretty nifty illustrations, too!

 

The protagonist, Jordan Carter, is one of those aimless sorts drifting through life, just hopscotching from one job to the next, with no real clear plan, other than trying to help take care of his ailing mother.  He finds an ad that seems like a godsend– get paid to eat one meal, (sponsored by a company called Talons) give reactions, and pocket $600, with the possibility of further meals.  His problems start with the horrible physical and mental reactions he has to the meal, but the possibility of money is too good to turn down.  It becomes a mystery, with Jordan trying to find out why the food causes such odd reactions.

 

That’s where the story really hits its stride, since there are a few competing ideas as to why the meals cause reactions.  Jordan’s New Age, mystic, neighbor, Michelle, has a theory; the occult doctor in the story has another; and of course, there is the actual reason behind Talons, which the reader will get eventually.  This is a good example of combining a few different ideas into one new one, with parts of all included.  Most people have heard the idea of ‘good karma’ and ‘bad karma’: most people know that everything is made of atoms that vibrate under certain stimuli; and, most people have heard of demons and angels.  What Mendes has done is combine seemingly disparate ideas into one that makes perfect sense for a fiction story, and tied that in to a new definition of what exactly sin is, and why bad things happen in the world.  It’s a good amount of material to ponder over in a 150 page book, and it certainly holds your attention until the end.  Surprisingly, this actually has a sort of happy ending, not something usually found in a Mendes book!  The whole book is a strong contrast in light and shade, in terms of the characters.  None of them are really bad people, but they aren’t saints either.  They are what they seem to be– realistic people, each with there own strengths and flaws.

 

The bottom line is, this is quite good, and won’t bottom you out, like the author’s masterpiece The City did.  For readers of this book: for a bonus, try finding the Easter egg hidden in there referencing Mendes’s fellow author Lucy Leitner.  It’s well hidden, but it’s there.

Recommended.

 

 

Reviewed by Murray Samuelson

 

 

Posted on August 28, 2024 by , Reply

Graphic Novel Review: When I Arrived at the Castle by Emily Carroll

Cover art for When I Arrived at the Castle by Emily Carroll

When I Arrived at the Castle by Emily Carroll

Silver Sprocket, 2024 (previously published by Koyama Press in 2019)

ISBN-13: 9798886200409

Available: Paperback, Kindle edition

Buy:    Bookshop.org | Amazon.com

 

On a dark and stormy night, a cat woman arrives at the mysterious Countess’ castle on an unspoken mission. The Countess mentions that this attractive visitor is not the first to come on this mighty errand. She is offered a warm bath after being out in the rain for so long, for which she accepts, and this is interrupted by loud knocks on the door. The cat woman ventures out to search out her prey, peeking through a keyhole, where she sees the Countess shedding her skin. When the Countess catches her at the door, a violent and erotically driven confrontation happens between the noblewoman and the cat.

 

I appreciate Carroll’s attention to Gothic literature tropes in her sequential art. The structure of the story flows in such a way that the eyes do not have time to rest most of the time. The frenetic pace blends with the reader’s sense of unease as the cat woman explores the castle and is dragged along the halls by the Countess, and when the final battle ensues.

 

Something else I enjoy about Carroll’s work is her use of color, as she uses the most bold selection almost as another character itself. In the case of When I Arrived at the Castle, she uses black, white, and red. The red acts as solid backgrounds, text bubbles, the text itself, outlines of various figures, doors, flooring, skin, blood, and more. Spending a few minutes exploring the red in the pages was an interesting exercise in reading images without words.

 

If you are looking for a standalone Gothic horror graphic novel for your collection, you can’t go wrong with When I Arrived at the Castle. If you have not picked up Carroll’s Through the Woods, I encourage you to do that, as well. Recommended.

 

 

Reviewed by Lizzy Walker

Posted on June 1, 2024 by , Reply
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