horror

Monochrome Noir: A Gathering Storm by Jack Wells

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Monochrome Noir: Book 1 (A Gathering Storm) introduces us to a world just like our own, but where everything is black and white, and color is of such priceless rarity that people will kill to own items that have been imbued by those who have the gift to bring color to life in the monochromatic items of everyday life.

When a strange and grisly series of killings begins, private detective Henry Hardcastle is hired by a mysterious woman with secrets to keep, and a deeply personal stake in the resolution of these terrible murders. As Henry struggles to navigate a world that isn’t quite what he believed it to be, a young woman, Charlie Grant is struggling with her own nightmare. As their independent journeys for understanding spiral around the central crux of the deranged killer stalking Angel City, we’re forced to wonder if they can fill in pieces of the puzzle for one another if they’re able to come together before one or both of them winds up dead.

Jack Wells does a fantastic job of building a world that’s as captivating as it is unreal, populating this world with characters sure to appeal to readers from a wide variety of tastes, and breathing new life into the hardboiled detective genre many of us adored when we were younger–and some of us never stopped adoring.

This is only Part 1 of the four book series, so there’s much more to come if you manage to weather the gathering storm.

The Perfectly Fine House by Stephen Kozeniewski & Wile E. Young

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Imagine living in a world where the dead remain side-by-side with the living–whether it’s animals or people, the dead remain tethered to the world and free to interact with it. This is the only world you’ve ever known–the way it’s always been. Imagine you find a house without any spectral presence–a place ghosts fear to tread–where any ghost unfortunate enough to cross a certain boundary is snuffed out. Would that place be as terrifying to you as a “haunted” location is to those of us in the more familiar world?

That is where this story begins, the discovery of a place that is not only devoid of spiritual entities but fatally harmful to them. Where it ends is far worse.

Kozeniewski and Young created a fantastic vision of a world in which things are quite different from our own, a society that is familiar enough to feel real yet so wildly different as to provide the reader with a sense of adventurous thrill as they learn how things work when the dead don’t leave us. We’re provided adequate time to explore this world before we’re forced to fear that it’s all going away, as whatever unknown force transformed the un-haunted house into a place of certain death for spirits begins to spread.

It’s a story of family, unanticipated romance, and the five stages of grief played out on a global scale…as humanity is forced to learn–for the first time–how to mourn the loss of those they loved in life. It’s a story of the sudden fear of mortality striking home everywhere, all at once…with devastating consequences. It’s all of those things, and so much more. There’s humor, there’s heart, and there is ample horror too.

Master Of Pain by Wrath James White & Kristopher Rufty

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I’d like to say something right away. I’ve been consuming audiobooks a great deal for the last few years. I listen to them when I’m driving, I listen to them when I’m at the gym, and I occasionally even listen to them when I’m relaxing at home. Normally, I’m a fan. In this case, I think I would have been better off reading the book in either physical or digital format. If you’re familiar with my reviews, I typically focus on the story first and mention the audiobook narrator at the very end. I’m deviating from that here. In most instances, an audiobook narrator should be virtually invisible–like the word “said”–in that they neither add nor subtract from the quality of the narrative they’re reciting. In the best cases, they elevate the narrative with the caliber of their performance. This is neither of those scenarios. I was not impressed with Louise Cooksey’s narration. Most of the performance was great, but her attempts to capture the individual voices of the male characters within the story left a lot to be desired. They universally sounded like whining, nasal, teenage boys who had recently been dumped. This was suitable for the character of SLAVEMASTER, but it made the audiobook harder to listen to than if she’d simply used her general narrative voice instead. None of this is meant to suggest she’s a bad audiobook narrator–she definitely was not–just that her voices for a couple of characters made it a bit of a challenge to stay in the story.

As far as the story is concerned, it was almost a cautionary tale about the online fetish websites of the 1990s and early 2000s…much of it focusing on the worst elements within that world. Naturally, that makes sense, when you’re familiar with the case of John Edward Robinson…the inspiration behind the story’s antagonist.

Rufty and White introduce readers to a world of depravity and torture–only some of it consensual. Readers familiar with bondage, domination, and sadism aren’t likely to be squeamish…and much of the content will be less shocking than one might expect from the authors. I don’t think the purpose was to be shocking…but rather to guide readers into a world they may not be familiar with–or may only have a 50 Shades of Grey introductory-level understanding of–before taking them beyond their comfort levels and urging them to shout out a safe word that will only fall on deaf ears.

It’s the hellish conclusion of the story where White and Rufty come out to play, no longer satisfied to play tour guides in the well-trod ground of S&M and B&D…desperate instead to take you somewhere you only accidentally discovered. If you’d only stayed somewhere safe, somewhere comfortable, somewhere you knew the rules…you would have been fine. But you let them take the reins.

You asked for this, after all?

You consented.

https://www.audible.com/ac/Master-of-Pain-Audiobook/B0CDY1V4VB?action_code=ASSGB149080119000H&share_location=pdp

Killer RV by E. H. Obey

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Killer RV is not the first book to tackle the subject matter at the core of this story, but it’s also not the worst. What would you do if you were diagnosed with terminal cancer and had only months to live? If you have at least a momentary urge to suggest that you might hunt down and torture and/or kill sex offenders–first of all, you’re not alone, but secondly, this book is for you. I suppose you’ve guessed what this one’s about.

Delilah is a bored housewife/music producer who happens to notice a new RV parked in her neighborhood, and she decides she wants to be a friendly neighbor. This is how she meets Peggy and also how her life takes a turn she couldn’t have anticipated. Peggy is dying, and she has a bucket list she wants to fulfill before the cancer takes her down…but we don’t learn what the items on that list happen to be until a little further into the story. Initially, it’s mostly focused on Delilah–her marriage and her burgeoning friendship with the mercurial Peggy. It isn’t until after Chekhov’s epilepsy makes an appearance, that Delilah becomes an integral component in Peggy’s mission. You’ll understand why I say that if you read the book.

Once things start going down the violent path, they never really stop until the book concludes. We’re introduced to a world where sexual predators of all stripes lurk wherever one chooses to look…and it’s a veritable buffet of monsters just waiting to be tossed into the bucket.

I have a certain sentimental connection with this story, in that a significant portion of it takes place in South Dakota, where I spent most of my life…and most of that portion of the narrative is in the Black Hills and Badlands region that I called home for most of my 45 years. The seemingly neverending path that I-90 carves across the state, through Wyoming, and into Montana is one I’m intimately familiar with–so I could visualize a lot of the surroundings into which the characters were placed.

It’s a short read and well-paced…so you don’t have much excuse to avoid it.

This All Ends Horribly by Mike Salt

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I had the pleasure of reading this novella before the official release date to provide the author with a blurb. When I say it was a pleasure, I am absolutely sincere. The title is by no means misleading…everything does come to a horrible end, but that should be no surprise once you’ve made your way even a quarter of the way through the hellishly phantasmagoric tale Mike Salt has shared with us.

Coming home from vacation can often feel like returning to Hell. I think, upon reading this story, you might have a different perspective on that matter. A group of old friends spend a drunken and debauched vacation at a Disney theme park, sans children–only to return home, exhausted and thoroughly unprepared for the gift that awaits them. As they struggle to contend with forces they neither understand nor invited into their lives, they quickly learn that there are things in the darkness that are far worse than anything they might have imagined.

Salt holds little back in his depictions of torture, both physical and psychological–and he packs a whole lot of both into this slim volume. The characters come to life before your eyes only for you to witness as those lives are devastated and ripped apart with the same confusion and uncertainty the people on the page experience for themselves. Each step of the way, you find yourself wondering what comes next…and how much worse it can get. I assure you, it does get worse.

Three Little Pigs by Edward Lee

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When you frequent literary circles you find yourself asked questions like, “What is the best opening line you’ve ever read?”

For many years now, my answer to that question has invariably been The Pig by Edward Lee. I won’t include the quote here, because it’s sure to force one algorithm or another to reject my review of this single-volume trilogy. Suffice it to say, it’s irreverent, humorous, captivating, and vile…all things that virtually insist that the reader keep on going. The discerning reader will be satisfied to discover that the rest of the tale is similarly irreverent, humorous, captivating, and vile. I had the pleasure of reading The Pig and The House in a single volume quite some time ago, but this new edition from Evil Cookie Press is a trifecta, in that it includes an additional installment, picking up the loose threads left behind and running with it until anything sane is unraveled. If there’s a trigger warning out there, this volume contains the associated trigger.

The meta commentaries from the perspective of the author are an excellent touch in this new installment, providing an amusing insight into the creative mind behind this perverse and sordid tale of an isolated house on an isolated tract of land where truly awful things have taken place over a handful of decades. If you had the pleasure of experiencing this unlikely vacation spot in the previous glimpses of the 1970s and the early 2000s, you won’t be disappointed. There’s a sense of coming home as Lee invites us to revisit the haunted house in the modern day–when everything comes full circle and we are truly introduced to the monstrous forces at work. If this is your first visit–well, then–I truly envy you the opportunity that awaits.

Flesh Communion and Other Stories By Holly Rae Garcia

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Holly Rae Garcia includes such a variety of stories within this collection that there’s no doubt any discerning reader will find something to enjoy–many somethings, more than likely. From short poems and flash fiction to novelette-length tales, Flesh Communion and Other Stories is suitable for any attention span. Regardless of length or subject matter, the author will captivate you and dare you to turn away…knowing there’s no chance you’ll do any such thing.

The collection contains truly fascinating tales of revenge, relationships, and reminiscence…sometimes on their own and sometimes blurred together. There are cryptids of various kinds–including one I’m sure you’d never conceived of in your wildest fever dreams–lurking within these pages. The titular “Flesh Communion” delves into a dark and horrific conception of what was happening in Waco, TX during the Branch Davidian stand-off, and who are we to question the veracity of this fictional survivor’s account? One story that resonated with me more than the others focuses on a particularly sympathetic photographer pushed beyond her limits by an altogether too plausible family demanding portraits.

You’re making a mistake if you don’t give this collection your attention. It’s one hell of a ride, but one you will no doubt consider more than worth the price of admission.

The Ecstasy of Agony By Wrath James White

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Brutality, poetry, sex, and wry humor are swirled together in a dizzying cacophony of horror in a way that could only come from Wrath James White. As much fun as it is to run a marathon, by delving into his longer-form fiction, there’s something truly delightful about accompanying the man on a sprint–or a series of sprints, as is the case in The Ecstasy of Agony.

I’d previously had the pleasure of reading a couple of the stories in the anthologies where they’d first been published, and the even greater pleasure of hearing him recite a couple of the poems that he’s included in this collection, but there was so much more in store. From a fitness routine adopted to survive a zombie apocalypse, to a violent video game that feels all-too-real, to the tale of a man who uses his penis as a weapon, this collection has a little bit of everything. If you’re familiar with White’s work, you really should have some idea what to expect.

It’s not all violence and gore, though. There are strangely touching and somber tones within the cacophony, including a sad reflection on how “dead or in prison” can turn out and how a monster can experience a change of heart. That isn’t to say there’s any shortage of violence, gore, sex, and body horror all throughout…because it just wouldn’t be Wrath James White without it.

A masterful collection by a masterful writer, but trigger warnings are in order–this is not for the overly sensitive reader.

Afterlife: Ghostland Trilogy Book 2 By Duncan Ralston, Narrated By Joe Hempel

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Months have passed since the dramatic cataclysm at Ghostland, and the world has not yet come to an end…but the once tranquil life for people living in Duck Falls is over, as the town becomes a beacon for both activists and curiosity-seeking tourists. Ben Laramie has become a hero following the sacrifice of his life to get his best friend, Lilian Roth, to safety…and to keep Rex Garrote and the monstrous etherials he commands trapped within the confines of the former amusement park.

While Ben may have died, that hasn’t stopped him from striving to fulfill his mission to stop Garrote, as he and Lilian work alongside Ghosts Are People Too in order to assemble an army capable of fighting Garrote when the inevitable war arrives. With each day that passes, fewer people believe in Ben’s prediction of a coming battle or the danger Garrote still poses…but nothing will sway him from the mission at hand, not betrayal, torture, or even the convincing manipulation of Rex Garrote himself, as he shows Ben they may have a common enemy in Garrote’s former benefactor.

When a ghost-hunting reality television crew ventures into Ghostland, the true danger of the place becomes painfully obvious to people everywhere. Events are set in motion that could bring Garrote closer to achieving his ultimate outcome, but if Ben can’t find trustworthy allies, the war may be lost before it begins.

Taking the story out of the amusement park was a bold and necessary move. Ralston introduces us to a whole new cast of compelling characters while we follow Ben and Lilian in their quest to save the world from a threat it refuses to acknowledge exists. The frustration is palpable, and the stakes feel higher. Ralston guides us through a narrative replete with twists and turns, stumbling blocks, and dead ends…making it feel as if the haunted house aspect has simply grown to encompass the surrounding environment. In all ways, this is an excellent follow-up to the fantastic tale the author brought us with Ghostland.

As always, Joe Hempel provides excellent narration, a voice with richness and tone that brings the story to life for the listener.

Transcendental Mutilation by Ryan Harding

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It’s worth taking time to meditate upon Ryan Harding’s Transcendental Mutilation. The author is an absolute master of body horror. He builds from an unsettling tone with the carefully selected words he uses to build the nightmares he’s crafted for the reader’s exploration…nudging you along until you find yourself trapped in the phantasmagoric prison from which the only way out is through.

While the influences of Clive Barker and David Cronenberg are infused throughout, Harding takes the reader on a journey only his feverish imagination could birth. Fans of his previous work will be pleased to see references to familiar characters, organizations, and concepts sprinkled throughout the stories contained within this collection. But Harding isn’t content to rest upon his laurels and retread the same ground, he boldly ventures off the beaten path and veers away from anything comfortable and familiar, to bring us an offering suitable to the monstrous deity lurking beneath some forgotten, abandoned town…and within the author’s mind.

There’s a lesson in some of these tales–one that a great many people could stand to learn–that is to behave in a civilized manner and treat people with respect and empathy, or risk finding a truly hellish reward awaiting you…perhaps sooner than you expect.

Revenge porn, shipwrecks, the dangers associated with new technology (and the abuse thereof), and tantalizing–terrifying–glimpses through the thin shroud that separates our world from a place far more chaotic and monstrous are only some of the things you’ll find scattered throughout these pages…but I assure you there’s nothing that will disappoint.