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Book Review: Hares in the Hedgerow (The Gardening Guidebooks Trilogy #2) by Jessica McHugh

Hares in the Hedgerow (The Gardening Guidebooks Trilogy #2) by Jessica McHugh

Ghoulish Books, 2022

ISBN: 9781943720767

Available: Paperback, Kindle edition

Buy:  Bookshop.org

 

Little did readers of Rabbits in the Garden, the first book to introduce Avery and her crazy mother Faye in The Gardening Guidebooks Trilogy, realize the full extent of the horror to come. As Avery tries to face her demons in the next book, Rabbits in the Hedgerow, by beating them out of her willing counselor while raising her sister’s daughter (Sophie), she slowly learns her mother Faye’s backstory as leader of a demented cult devoted to St. Agnes.

 

The central character in the new narrative, Sophie, is in terrible danger because she has been the victim of her boyfriend Liam’s machinations to bring her into the cult as its central figure. Sophie is blinded by her love for Liam as well as what she believes are her mother’s past crimes. Luckily, however, Sophie is smart enough to sort fact from fiction in time to make important decisions before Faye, her grandmother, leads everyone to their doom. 

 

In Hares in the Hedgerow, McHugh drives us full force into the psychological twists and turns of a cult’s sickness and the damaged minds of its victims. There is no shortage of physical violence in this book. We see the devastation of human lives up close, and it is unrelenting. The plot is a carefully layered history of three generations of women who have been their own worst enemies as well as destroyers of the people around them. Anything can happen, but none of it is going to be good.

 

Just as in the first book in the trilogy, the second is fast-paced with past and present events illuminating our understanding of the characters and leading to yet another explosive ending. But, just as compelling as the momentum is the way McHugh makes us believe we are looking into the minds of real people, the type that would have followed someone like Charles Manson. There is the fear we feel for the characters but also the fear we feel for ourselves knowing that fanaticism and a skewed perception can, in fact, exist side by side in the real world and that everyday people sometimes create horror and then willingly enter into it in senselessly appalling ways. 

 

Reviewed by Nova Hadley

Posted on October 18, 2023 by , Reply

Graphic Novel Review: Lucky Devil Volume 1 by Cullen Bunn, art by Fran Galan, lettering by El Torres

Cover art for Lucky Devil volume 1 by Cullen Bunn

Lucky Devil Volume 1 by Cullen Bunn, art by Fran Galán, lettering by El Torres

Dark Horse Comics, 2022

ISBN-13: 9781506721996

Available: Paperback, Kindle edition, Comixology   (  Bookshop.org | Amazon.com )

 

Stanley has terrible luck. His three-year relationship is tainted by an affair his girlfriend is having. He’s a gofer for a corporate organization where his higher-ups constantly demean him. Then, he gets possessed by the demon Lord Zedirex the Tormenter. After Zed causes a particularly grisly massacre at a burger joint, Stanley goes for an exorcism, but it all goes horribly wrong. The demon lord is definitely shunted from Stanley’s body, but Stanley retains Zed’s powers. After Stanley takes his wrath out on everyone who wronged him, he uses his newly gained power to form a cult, joining forces with the existing International Church of Lucifer. However, Stanley’s message, that God and Satan are no longer important if humans can obtain power on their own, gets him the wrong kind of attention.



When Stanley gets a bit too comfortable with his new role, the legions of Hell take notice. Zed tries to warn Stanley that he is garnering too much attention. The hapless human needs the former demon lord’s help, but Stanley’s hubris might get in the way.

 

There is so much to like with Bunn’s Lucky Devil. The exorcism gone wrong, resulting in the displacement of demonic power, was an interesting plot point and drove the story along well. Stanley is a sympathetic character, even when he is relishing in the attention he gets from the power he wields. He never becomes insufferable, and he remains human, despite his demonic powers. Zed acted as the voice of reason for Stanley at times, something which I didn’t expect.

 

Lucky Devil is necessary for Cullen Bunn fans. Readers who are looking for a unique take on demonic possession or who like a bit of humor in their horror will enjoy this.

 

This volume collects issues #1-4.

 

Recommended.

 

Reviewed by Lizzy Walker

Posted on January 2, 2023 by , Reply

Book Review: Bad Vibrations by Lucy Leitner

 

Bad Vibrations by Lucy Leitner 

Blood Bound Books, Oct.  2022

 

ASIN: B0BB86Y3G7

 

Available: Kindle edition (pre-order) ( Amazon.com )

 

Bad Vibrations is a wonderfully crazy, somewhat satirical look at a cult of health-crazed nuts that take it to extremes, and how the folks of rural Pennsylvania react to them.  It’s messy at times, and will make you laugh out loud at others.  This book takes the “crazy cult” plot to a whole new level, and does it in slam-bang fashion.

 

Poor Valerie!  She’s a nice young lady with a decent life and career, but she feels like she just isn’t reaching her true potential.  Like many, she turns to the Internet for help and falls under the spell of Doctor, another self-help/health guru, who promises his followers to unlock the secret of “energy” in their lives.  Valerie goes to the group’s compound for a weekend stay, but unfortunately, the local residents (who hate those damn health nut hippies) show up also.  As you might guess, all hell breaks loose.  

 

Part 1 of the book details Valerie and her introduction to the group, and that’s where most of the satire and humor is.  The group’s methods are truly hilarious.  Mastering that “energy” consists of things like hula hooping while bouncing on a trampoline, screaming sessions, sex with whoever is around, and the most important part… drinking each other’s blood each evening.  No wonder the locals call them vampires!  It’s highly entertaining, especially reading how the “healthies” insult strangers.  “You have so many free radicals it’s like your body just liberated a gulag!”  “Your vitamin D levels are so low they’re hanging out with you!”  That part alone is enough to justify the price of the book.

 

Part 2 is the action section, and that’s where the author puts the pedal through the floorboard.  Carnage abounds as tensions between the locals and “vampires” reach the breaking point, and it becomes a big mess of bullets, blades, bows, and flammable liquids.  Valerie has to decide who to side with: does she truly believe Doctor and his teachings, or is everybody but her truly nuts?  It’s non-stop excitement right up to the last page.

 

Bottom line: it’s nice to have a book that makes the old “psychotic cult” fiction trope interesting again, and Bad Vibrations does exactly that, it’s a thrilling satire that horror readers should flock to.  Recommended.

 

Reviewed by Murray Samuelson

Posted on October 11, 2022 by , Reply
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