Home » Posts tagged "occult horror" (Page 9)

Booklist: Wedding Horror Stories

A lot of wedding proposals happen on Valentine’s Day. A typical online search for “wedding horror stories” turns up stories of terrible things that happened at actual weddings, so it’s not that outlandish to discover that a number of recent horror novels have revolved around weddings.

 

cover art for When The Reckoning Comes by LaTanya McQueen

 

When The Reckoning Comes by LaTanya McQueen

Harper Perennial, 2021

ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0063035041

Available: Paperback, Kindle edition, audiobook, audio CD

( Bookshop.org  | Amazon.com )

 

Mira’s high school friend Celine invites Mira to her wedding, which will be held at the recently restored plantation where Mira’s ancestor Marceline was enslaved. The ghosts of the enslaved who were murdered during an unsuccessful rebellion return to haunt the wedding, with brutal, bloody results. McQueen does an amazing job recreating Mira’s memories of her childhood friendship with Celine, who is white, and Jesse, a Black boy arrested for murder who is released after Celine intervenes, and of describing the horrific things that were visited on the enslaved people on the plantation. The racism, brutality, and hopelessness are reminders that horror isn’t limited to the supernatural.

 

cover art for Nothing But Blackened Teeth by Cassandra Khaw 

Nothing but Blackened Teeth by Cassandra Khaw

Tor Nightfire, 2021

ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1250759412

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

 

 

When you are ridiculously wealthy and well-connected, and your fianceé wants her wedding at a Heian-era haunted mansion, with the bones of a bride buried beneath, you make it happen. Wedding guest Cassie, our unreliable narrator, is disconnected and depressed, attending at the request of the groom, who is also her ex. Cassie is one of five people at the wedding: they all have the kind of entangled relationships that emerge from a small group dynamic formed in college, and attempting to summon a spirit in a haunted house the night before the wedding is not going to make it easier to get along. It’s been criticized for purple prose and lack of character development, but it is a wild, and vivid, ride.

 

cover art for The Death of Jane Lawrence by Caitlin Starling

 

The Death of Jane Lawrence by Caitlin Starling

St. Martin’s Press, 2021

ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1250272584

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

 

Jane approaches Dr. Augustine Lawrence with a proposal of marriage. She wants security and is willing to work hard. They plan for it to be just a business deal: no questions, no love, and never a night spent in Lindridge Hall, his family manor. The best-laid plans can go awry, though: the two of them fall in love. Set in an alternate version of England that has elements of both the Victorian era and post-World War II, this starts out structured as a rather predictable gothic romance and ventured into the territory of occultism, as Jane, trapped in the house with the increasingly paranoid Augustine, is abruptly awakened into a world of magical ritual by occultist friends of Augustine’s. They then leave her to deal with Augustine and whatever is causing the disturbances in the house, untethered to reality. The narrative, which was relatively straightforward until then, became mazelike and hallucinatory.  There’s significant body horror as well as blood and gore, so be warned. Readers who enjoy the version of occultism in this book might also appreciate Polly Schattel’s The Occultists.

 

Posted on February 15, 2022 by , Reply

Book Review: The Condemned by Jesse Rosenbaum

cover art for The Condemned by Jesse Rosenbaum

The Condemned by Jesse Rosenbaum

Fulton Books, 2021

ISBN: 9781649523228

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

 

The Condemned is an entertaining, although occasionally predictable debut novel from Jesse Rosenbaum.  It’s a decent story and worth reading, although it could have used one more edit to correct the grammatical mistakes that pop up from time to time.

 

The story itself is fun, and puts a few new ideas into the “ordinary guy dealing with angels and demons” plotline.  Michael is your everyday college student who has the misfortune to be visited by Orrix, one of Lucifer’s former high level demon flunkies.  Orrix was banished to Purgatory for insubordination, and he wants to return to Hell to give Lucifer a beating and take over his job.  Orrix gives Michael a choice: help him find an ancient book that will allow him to return to Hell, or Orrix will make Michael’s life miserable.  Not really having a choice, Michael and his friend Tom search for the book so they can get Orrix out of their lives and return to normal.

 

The plotline is solid, and it’s a nice change from the usual good vs. evil.  Instead, it’s “good mixed up with evil” vs. evil, as Lucifer does play a role in the book, and neither he nor Orrix are shining paragons of virtue.   It’s quite fun, with both Lucifer and Orrix making their case for why each should win, since both of them are pathological liars.  The author shows good creativity with the descriptions of the afterlife, and there’s some good imagery.  The upside-down trees growing from the bottom of precipices (complete with bodies hanged from them) are a good example.  The dialogue between the characters fits in nicely and fills in the plot, keeping the story moving at a brisk pace.  For generating reader interest, Orrix and Lucifer steal the show.  Poor Michael seems a bit hapless and somewhat puppet-like, since he really isn’t given much choice in… anything, really.  He’s a likable character, but he should have been given a little more free will: his lack of control over his destiny makes him somewhat one-dimensional.

 

All the good points make for a perfectly good story, but the way the dialogue is written could have used a bit more spit and polish.  It is written in more of a script form, as opposed to a story form.   It’s just dialogue, with no indication of who the speaker is.  It never gets confusing as to who said what, but the style detracts from the emotion of what the characters say.  Of course, it could be a stylistic choice by the author, although it’s one not seen very often in fiction.

 

Overall, it’s a likable first effort from a new author.

 

Reviewed by Murray Samuelson

Posted on December 15, 2021 by , Reply

Book Review: Ratio of Brookes to Ashleys by Wol-vriey

Ratio of Brookes to Ashleys by [Wol-vriey]

Ratio of Brookes to Ashleys by Wol-vriey

Burning Bulb Publishing, 2021

ISBN: 9781948278454

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

 

Where his last novel, Women, was the equivalent of ten cans of energy drink, Ratio of Brookes to Ashleys is equal to a pitcher of sugar-free iced tea.  The gore factor (for Wol-vriey, at any rate) is remarkably tuned down and the sex is minimal.  Instead, this is a dialogue-oriented story, with more focus on the characters than an action-packed narrative.  It’s a decent read, just a change of pace from his usual smashmouth, in your face style.

 

While playing the dating game in his late 20’s, Mike Broadman dates Ashley Brooke Cummins, a vindictive woman with serious mood swings.  He has the good fortune to stop dating her after a couple of months, followed by the misfortune of being cursed by her before her suicide.  The curse?  He can only date Brookes or Ashleys for the rest of his life.  The curse seems to work… too well.  Not only do people Mike knows start getting murdered, people he dates with the correct names start getting killed also.  While Mike is convinced the curse is real, the police suspect an actual human killer.  Or, possibly, a combination? That’s the mystery at the heart of the story, as Mike tries to prevent further deaths and find out the true cause.

 

It’s an original idea, and the story moves at a slower, more measured pace than Wol-vriey’s previous novels.  Character interactions and dialogue account for the majority of the book.   The characters are fairly one-dimensional people in their late 20s, but they are able to carry the story well enough despite the lack of character depth.  The character of Ashley Cummins’ ghost does provide some entertaining contrast, and it would have been nice to have seen her developed into a bigger role.  The Siamese twins (Brooke and Ashley, of course) also provide a bit of extra color.  The violence is at a much lower level that Wol-vriey’s usual work.  There are a couple of messy knifings, but most of the rest of the violence comes from people getting hit by cars; nothing too unorthodox.  It’s minimal enough that readers who dislike splat stories may be fine with this one.  Occasionally, the story does get a bit hokey (finding online hexes that actually work, for instance), and there seems to be an abundance of females named Brooke or Ashley in the book, but hey, it’s fiction.  The story does wind up nicely with a climax that has a twist, and a hilariously amusing curse that causes a real predickament for the person involved.

 

Overall, it’s a fun read, just a different style from the author’s usual work.  This is one the average horror reader can enjoy, but fans of the hardcore stuff may want to stick to his other works.

 

Reviewed by Murray Samuelson

Posted on December 6, 2021 by , Reply
First « 7891011 » Last