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Book Review: Dark Seed by Simon West-Bulford

Dark Seed by Simon West-Bulford

Medallion Press, 2016

ASIN: B01JMJLOPO

Available: Kindle edition

 

Simon West-Bulford has written an intriguing, historical, Gothic tale of an ancient evil that threatens to engulf the world through the foibles of humans.  The story is told through the journals of a British archaeologist, Lord Edward Cephas Hargraven (1891), and a teacher, Dr. Alexander Drenn (1923).

We learn that despite ominous warnings from a colleague, Hargraven brought a relic back from a dig in South America.  Years later, Hargraven disappears, and Drenn awakens one night during an earthquake and finds his village enveloped in darkness and fog.  Villagers are missing, or were grotesquely slain by monsters.  Drenn and four villagers– a chaplain, an actress, a housekeeper and a strongman– are trapped in Hargraven’s manor.  Someone, or something, is gruesomely murdering them, one by one, as in an Agatha Christie mystery.

What evil did Hargraven bring to the village?  Is it a catastrophic product of Darwinian evolution?  Can Drenn and his companions stop it from destroying England and the world, village by village, and city by city?

Bulford’s characters have convincing voices appropriate to their era and backgrounds.  For example, Drenn writes in his journal, “ I am an educated man, though unremarkable in achievement; my legacy will be appreciated only by those whose make acquaintance of my students; and should any of them speak kindly of their tutor, Dr. Alexander Drenn, then this is satisfaction enough for me.”

The author’s descriptions are vivid and inventive.  Drenn witnesses the destruction of his village and watches a demon murder a young girl.  He himself kills a crazed, possessed villager.  His thoughts are in turmoil while he rests, sleepless in his deserted home.  “My mind could not settle.  It seethed and swayed and spun through churning seas of events and emotions that vied for attention like the endless tuning of an orchestra denied a performance.”

Dark Seed is an entertaining, chilling read.  West-Bulford has written several other novels, novellas and short stories encompassing fantasy, science fiction, mystery and the occult. Recommended.

Contains: graphic violence and gore

Reviewed by Robert D. Yee

Posted on October 12, 2016 by , Reply

Book Review: The Grownup by Gillian Flynn

The Grownup by Gillian Flynn

Crown, 2015

ISBN-13: 978-0804188975

Available: Hardcover, paperback, Kindle edition, and audio.

 

If anyone can write an unlikable woman character and make her seem sympathetic for even a moment, that person is Gillian Flynn. The Grownup is narrated by a con artist who gives hand jobs for a living, and is retiring due to carpal tunnel syndrome.  As a sex worker, she has a client who loves to read and, in a little metafictional foreshadowing to the events that follow, lends her Gothic supernatural tales to discuss during their time together. In her new career as a psychic, she hopes to expand her business into the homes of upper-class women who want their homes “cleansed”.

Enter Susan Burke. While at first Susan is skeptical, she is soon convinced that there is something wrong with her house, and, possibly, with her stepson. Susan is convinced that she has found blood on the walls, that her stepson is disturbed, and that it all comes down to bad vibrations in the house, a former Victorian manor that has been gutted, renovated, and modernized.  The narrator convinces Susan that she can get rid of those bad vibrations… for a price.

Soon, it appears that the narrator may have conned herself into believing the house is haunted. Or has she? Research turns up a gore-filled history on the house, and the stepson, an angry fifteen-year-old, is saying and doing bizarre and threatening things. For the first time concerned for someone else, she goes to Susan and urges her to leave the house immediately. When Susan runs from the room, and her stepson enters, reality really starts bending. The ending of this story is surprising and disturbing, both in what it says about the Burke family and the narrator. Even the last sentence doesn’t seem like an ending as much as the beginning of another twisted tale.

Fast-paced and compelling, The Grownup is a trainwreck from which the reader can’t turn away.  Those looking for a sharp, fast (it’s just 69 pages), unsettling, Gothic tale will find that Gillian Flynn has hit the mark. Recommended.

Note: The Grownup originally appeared as “What Do You Do?” in the anthology Rogues, edited by George R. R. Martin.

 

Reviewed by Kirsten Kowalewski


Posted on September 30, 2016 by , Reply

Book List: Schools for Peculiar Children

      

 

Miss Peregine’s Home for Peculiar Children hits theaters this week, and it will be interesting to see how it measures up to the book. It looks cool– click here for a link to the trailer. For me, the letters and the real photographs used, and the scrapbook-type format, were much of what made it intriguing, and I can’t imagine how that will translate to the screen. But the trailers look pretty awesome, so even if the movie doesn’t turn out to be just like the book, perhaps it will stand well on its own.

Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children is far from the first book to be set in a school or home intended for particularly unusual children, though– some really excellent books for middle grade and teen readers exist in this category.  Here are a few you might check out.

 

Down a Dark Hall by Lois Duncan

Kit Gordy is attending an extremely exclusive, isolated, boarding school. Spoiler: it’s also haunted by ghosts who take possession of the students to create amazing works of art. Nothing could possibly go wrong here, right? This is a good one for tweens and middle schoolers, although, in my opinion, you don’t outgrow Lois Duncan.

 

 

The Cavendish Home for Boys and Girls by Claire LeGrand

This is a disturbed fairy tale of a book. Victoria, a perfect 12 year old in every way, living in a picture-perfect community, has chosen just one friend, the very imperfect, messy, and musical Lawrence. When Lawrence disappears, Victoria goes on a search for him, uncovering some very unpleasant things. As more children disappear, and creepy creatures start invading, Victoria becomes even more determined to solve the mystery. She discovers that the orphanage across the street is actually a deeply disturbing, magically operated facility with the mission of turning all the imperfect children that have disappeared, including Lawrence, into identical, perfect children, Stepford-style. Mrs. Cavendish, the headmistress of the school, is truly diabolical, and the school itself is creepy, disquieting, and disorienting. This one is not for the faint of stomach, but people who liked Coraline  or the more nightmarish writing of Roald Dahl might very well like this. This is Gothic children’s horror at its best– highly recommended, but for no younger than age 10.

Contains: body horror, cannibalism, insect hordes, torture.

 

Matilda by Roald Dahl

Speaking of Roald Dahl, Matilda is surely every book lover’s favorite story of a peculiar child. While her school isn’t specifically for peculiar children, the people who work there certainly qualify as peculiar, especially the headmistress. You can’t help cheering for Matilda as she uses her unusual powers to defeat the sadistic Miss Trunchbull.

 

The Grounding of Group 6  by Julian F. Thompson

What’s a parent to do when a child repeatedly breaks the rules, gets thrown out of school again, or breaks that last straw? You send them to the school of last resort– Coldbrook County School– and then never worry about them again. That’s right, the school will take care of your problem child for you, in a permanent way, while the students are out on retreat in a wooded area full of sinkholes. Nothing supernatural in this book, all the horror is in the way humans treat each other.
I’d wait until high school to read this one– it’s got some harrowing moments. There’s also an implied sexual relationship between one of the students, in her late teens, and her “counselor”, who is in his twenties.

 

A Great and Terrible Beauty by Libba Bray

After the death of her mother, Gemma Doyle is sent from her home in India to a young ladies’ boarding school in Victorian England. Gemma has visions, and her unusual upbringing and uncanny knowledge mean a chilly reception from the other girls. Gemma learns to control the visions so she can visit magical realms. As she makes friends, she involves them in her journeys, but while the girls enjoy the power and escape they have in the realms, Gemma learns there is also a darker side. This is the first book in a trilogy: the other two books are Rebel Angels and The Sweet Far Thing. Recommended for middle school and up.


Posted on September 28, 2016 by , Reply
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