Wednesday, September 12, 2012

Peaceable Kingdom by Jack Ketchum

Description

This landmark collection gathers more than thirty of Jack Ketchum's most thrilling stories. "Gone" and "The Box" were honored with the prestigious Bram Stoker Award. Whether you are already familiar with Ketchum's unique brand of suspense or are experiencing it for the first time, here is a book no aficionado of fear can do without.
This novel contains graphic content and is recommended for regular readers of horror novels 



32 short stories that won't let you down.  My favorites were Megan's Law, about a man who is informed that a sexual predator has moved into his neighborhood, The Rifle, in which a mother finds her own way to deal with her very troubled child, and The Great San Diego Sleazy Bimbo Massacre, a dark but humorous story of a woman who enlists the help of a friend in her plan to do away with her husband. Peaceable Kingdom will haunt me for a while.

Thursday, August 2, 2012

Coven by Edward Lee

"Born in darkness, they arise. Seductive angels of murder, madness, and horrors beyond imagining. COVEN Bathed in moonlight, they feed their darkest hungers in a festival of perversion and death, demented orgies that serve a cruel, unspeakable will... COVEN They are irresistible sirens in black, corrupting the living and raising the dead. Now the silent town of Exham will surrender to their loving embrace, their haunting beauty, and their ravenous need for human flesh. Surrender--and die... COVEN Beauty is only skin deep. More like a revved-up gross-out ‘70s B-movie, COVEN revels in its ultimate editorial no-no: it’s science-fiction dropped into a contemporary horror plot, something that horror editors seem to never buy. Maybe this one sold...because it works. Originally entitled THE WOMEN IN BLACK, this "turgid," original take on the There’s Something Fucked-Up At The College plot highlights Lee’s gross-out skills early on and demonstrates that pulp horror writers really can create fresh, well-developed, easy-to-realize characters. Cameos of Lee’s then-favorite beers--during his beer-snob days--appear in abundance, and Lovecraftian symbols abound (it’s fun just picking them out), but wait till you meets the gals in this book. This is the only existing novel that Lee wants to sequelize"




I wish I had looked into this before I bought it, but I saw the title and Edward Lee's name and automatically clicked the "buy now" button. I mistakenly thought it would be to do with witches or at the very least vampires since some authors don't use the term "nest."  However that was not the case. The story started out well enough, but turned silly fairly quickly. It is more of a gory comedy/sci fi than the horror I was expecting. Coven is actually a story about Aliens who plan to repopulate the earth. Had I known I would have passed. 

Friday, July 20, 2012

Halo Of The Damned by Dina Rae

A chain of advertising agencies, a new breed of humans, and a fallen angel to worship…

Andel Talistokov is known for his slick advertising agencies across the globe. He is a fallen angel that uses advertising as a weapon for Satan's work. His growing power emboldens him to break several of Hell’s Commandments. Furious with his arrogance, Satan commands him to return to Hell after finding his own replacement. Yezidism, an ancient angel worshiping religion, quietly expands throughout the West. Armaros appears as a guest of honor during their ceremonies. He mates with young women to produce nephilim, a mixed race of humans and angels. They are alone and unprepared for their supernatural power. Joanna Easterhouse, a recovering drug addict, steps out of prison shortly after her mother's fatal accident. She and her sister, Kim, unravel their mother's secretive past. Intrigued, they learn their bloodline is part of a celestial legacy. Both worlds collide. Halo of the Damned is a horrifying tale that weaves research together with suspenseful twists and turns.


I noticed a few people are quite worked up over the subject matter of this book. My guess would be they are not horror fans. If you can't take it don't read it. It would be like me leaving a review for Eat Pray Love.....and complaining that it was nothing but some woman trying to deal with her emotions. If you don't like horror why read it? If you do like horror, here you go. This was a fast paced story of angels, demons, nephilim, and Satan himself, with a bit of romance, and suspense thrown in for good measure.

Saturday, June 30, 2012

Tatterdemon by Steve Vernon

Description
"In 1691 the town of Crossfall taught the witch Thessaly how to die. They beat her, they shot her, they hung her - but nothing worked. When they finally tried to bury her alive Thessaly set the field against them. The first man died as a gust of wind harrowed the meat from his bones. A root,flung like a dirty javelin, cut a second man down. Many more deaths followed. The Preacher Fell impaled the witch upon her very own broom but she dragged him down into the field to wait for three more centuries. Three hundred years later Maddy Harker will murder her bullying husband Vic. She will bury him in the field as she buried her abusive father years before that. The very same field where the revenant spirit of Thessaly Cross lies waiting. In three days Vic will rise again - a thing of dirt, bone and hatred. Men will call him the Tatterdemon. And hell - and Thessaly - will follow."

Welcome to Crossfall, where 300 years of festering hatred has just boiled over. Nearly everyone in this book has a nasty little secret that they are waiting to share with you, so come on in. The characters are dark, gritty, and in your face. Everything a horror lover could ask for, be it voodoo,murder, or bodies in the freezer are neatly wrapped for you in this well told tale.