Home » Posts tagged "horror book review" (Page 4)

Graphic Novel Review: Blackwood, Library Edition by Evan Dorkin, art by Veronica Fish and Andy Fish

Cover art for Blackwood Library Edition by Evan Dorkin

Blackwood, Library Edition by Evan Dorkin, art by Veronica Fish and Andy Fish

Dark Horse Comics, 2022

ISBN-13: 9781506731834  

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

Wren Valentine, Reiko Oyuki, Dennis Wolchinski, and Stephen Heller, teenagers with mysterious pasts and otherworldly abilities, enroll in Blackwood College after they receive hefty scholarships. Blackwood is no normal college, as they soon discover. The odd old lady at the train station is more than she seems. A well on the property has the power to resurrect the dead. The dean transforms into… something… shortly after the new students arrive, and then curses them and the acting dean, Dean Colby, binding them to the fate of the college. A two-headed monkey named Chimp Ho Tep wreaks havoc with the investigation into the mysteries of campus. Deadly mutant insects attack the school. Bodies go missing, or are stolen. Ins.P.E.C.T. (the Institute for Psychic Experimentation, Combat, and Training) is trying to encroach on the investigation. All hell breaks loose at a widely attended funeral when portals open and creatures overrun the campus. 

 

Lies and betrayal can be found around every corner. And nobody can find the Book of Despair. All the while, Dean Crosby, former Dean Ogden’s assistant Sherry Allen, Sherry’s son Jamar, and the rest of the faculty, plus the campus librarian, are trying to keep everyone safe and sane. 

 

There is so much going on in Blackwood, but the threads of each storyline are surprisingly easy to keep untangled. The characters are well written. It’s easy to like the students, and their interactions with each other and faculty fit well for their ages and the life experiences we are privy to. Sprinkled throughout are some amusing genre references. Keep an eye out for these.

 

This deluxe library edition includes the first two volumes of Blackwood and a sketchbook with character references, storyboards, and alternate covers and pinups by Jordy Bellaire, Becky Cloonan, Tyler Crook, Andy Fish, Andrew MacLean, Peach Momoko, David Rubín, Declan Shalvey, and Evan Dorkin with Sara Dyer. Artwork within and between the chapters is vibrant, and beautifully rendered. I read an electronic version of the book, so I have not seen a physical copy. It is advertised as an oversized format with 232 pages. The price tag on this is $39.99. Photographs I have seen show a gorgeous book, but it might be worth it to lay hands on the book before committing to it. Highly recommended.

 

Reviewed by Lizzy Walker

Posted on February 25, 2023 by , Reply

Book Review: The Last Days of Salton Academy by Jennifer Brozek

Cover art for The Last Days of Salton Academy by Jennifer Brozek

The Last Days of Salton Academy  by Jennifer Brozek.

Speaking Volumes, 2022

ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1645406822

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

 

I at first thought this might be dark academia, and it technically qualifies, but really it’s zombie survival horror that happens to take place mostly at an isolated boarding school. The premise is that 26 people were trapped at the school when a zombie outbreak hit (it’s unclear exactly when that was, but the novel starts after they’ve had a first freeze, and need to go on a second supply run before it snows, so it starts in mid-to-late October).

 

The book has been praised for character development, but it is fairly short and with so many characters it would be difficult to fully develop them all. Jeff, the boy in charge of guarding, rationing, and distributing food, is an interesting character to watch. Another memorable character is Evan, who keeps a zombie dog (nothing can go wrong with that, right?) and is running out of the medicine that keeps his JRA at bay (it’s not specifically mentioned, just described). Mr. Leeds, a predatory, hebephilic teacher who takes advantage of the isolation and vulnerability of the girls at the school, and Mrs. Hood, a teacher interested in protecting them, are also important to the plot. A few others worth mentioning are Shin, who doesn’t get a lot of page space but is very strategic, Maya, who is secretly stashing supplies in her room, and Nurse Krenshaw. (spoilers below)

 

Jeff decides residents will have to be eliminated in order for the food to last through the winter, and carefully plots to make it happen. He and  his fellow student Ron, a psychopathic killer, plan to kill off the weakest. They plan to send four students out on a supply run, then off the principal, Evan and his dog, and the teachers. They don’t count on Evan letting the dog loose and turning into a zombie, taking a couple of other kids with them.

 

In the meantime Mrs. Hood and the nurse conspire successfully to kill Mr. Leeds for his predatory behavior. In the end only Shin and Maya survive. Of the four on the supply run, two are infected and kill themselves, but the others encounter friends with a map to a well stocked bunker where they stay until spring.

 

This is what I’d expect from an old-school zombie novel– short and fast-paced. Despite its characters mainly being teenagers, this doesn’t read as a YA book to me. A similar YA title I can highly recommend is Marieke Nijkamp’s At The End of Everything, which is better developed and has a more hopeful ending.

 

Reviewed by Kirsten Kowalewski

Posted on February 13, 2023 by , Reply

Book Review: The Fervor by Alma Katsu

Cover art for The Fervor by Alma Katsu

The Fervor by Alma Katsu

G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 2022

ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0593328330

Available: Hardcover, paperback, Kindle edition, audiobook

( Amazon.com | Bookshop.org )

 

 

The Fervor takes place during World War 2 and alternates between five points of view. Meiko Briggs is a Japanese immigrant married to a white man, Jamie Briggs, a pilot in the army. She and their daughter Meiko are living in the Japanese internment camp Camp Minidoka, where residents are becoming infected with an illness that makes them violent and murderous. Archie Mitchell is a pastor who saw his pregnant wife and several children killed in an explosion thought to have been a Japanese bomb, who was friends with Jamie and has now gotten entangled with local white nationalists. Fran Gurstwold is a Jewish woman reporter who witnessed a similar explosion and decides to investigate locations where she suspects other explosions have happened. These alternate with journal entries from 1927 by Mieko’s father, Japanese scientist Wasaburo Oishi, who discovered poisonous spiders related to the yokai jorogumo, that cause the illness now spreading through the camps and nearby towns. The story follows Mieko, Aiko, Archie, and Fran as their stories intersect and begin to make sense in the context of Oisho’s writings, while dealing with a coverup by the government.

 

Katsu notes that this book differs from her previous ones because rather than portraying a specific historical event she was using a wider lens to explore the bigotry and violence against Asian-Americans in the past as a way to deal with it in the present, so while period details are correct , events and places may have been moved around for plot purposes.

 

This was a fascinating book, and better than The Deep. I am a fan of yokai whenever I see them, and I enjoyed the way Katsu incorporated this into the book. The portrayal of Archie as a person who is drawn into a white nationalist group due to weak character rather than malice, was accurate and well-written. Unfortunately, there continue to be too many people like him today.

 

Contains: racial slurs and violence

 

Reviewed by Kirsten Kowalewski

 

Posted on January 26, 2023 by , Reply
First « 23456 » Last