Book Review: Tales from the Darkside

One of the fun things about growing up in the 80s was the mass popularity of horror films; Freddy, Jason, and Michael Meyers had all become household names and yes, I had a Freddy Krueger poster in my childhood bedroom (Junior High years to be exact). In terms of television however, rather than horror series that followed one simple story, anthology series were king - Tales from the Crypt and Darkside, Friday the 13th, and Freddy's Nightmares all brought horror to our TV screens regularly (with varied levels of success).

For me, Tales form the Crypt and Tales from the Darkside, were both series to have heard about, but never actually seen (I didn't have HBO, and Tales from the Darkside started airing when I was eight). So a few months ago when I noticed a copy of Joe Hill's Tales from the Darkside I was definitely intrigued.

The book contains three scripts for a proposed reboot of the series, and each story is interconnected. They range from Twilight Zone plot twists to some really interesting Frankenstein-themed stories and were well worth the read. If you've never tried Joe Hill before, these stories are short, interesting, and a good gateway into what you can expect from some of his larger works.

Book Review: The FIreman

Joe Hill's latest novel, The Fireman (2016) focuses on a pandemic of spontaneous combustion.

Just take a moment and think about how awful that would be; people, seemingly at random, simply erupting into flame and burning to death. Then imagine it on a global level.

Having been a long-time fan of dystopian future and post-apocalyptic fiction, I think I can honestly say this is one of the most terrifying concepts I've come across in horror fiction. The Superflu, vampire plagues, and nuclear or zombie strikes are all excellent ways to force regular characters into extraordinary circumstances, but the world Joe Hill has stuck his character Harper Willowes into may be one of the worst I've seen.

What surprised me so much about the book was how much hope and love was able to be exist in this terrible circumstance; as Harper travels through this new terrible world, everything has not simply gone bad, in fact, somethings may even be a little better.

The novel was compulsively readable, and as with his previous fiction had me hooked early. A great read, and definitely stick around through the credits and acknowledgements at the end, as the novel still has one more treat in store for the devoted reader.

My October is starting to shape up!

One of my favourite horror writers right now is Joe Hill, writer of Herat-Shaped Box, NOS4A2, and the comic book series Locke & Key, but my personal favourite of his novels is the 2009 title Horns.

Although I've known about the film adaptation for a while now, today I came across the trailer, and you've definitely got to check it out.

Genre Character of the Week: Ig Parrish

So I literally just finished Joe Hill's second novel, Horns about five minutes ago.  Although it was his second novel, and I'm usually quite big about readings an author's work in publishing order, I was introduced to the author with his first novel, Heart-Shaped Box (excellent, by the way), and then moved on to his comic book series, Locke & Key.

Horns follows our Genre Character of the week: Ig Parrish, a young man who has just woken up from a really bad drinking binge and finds he now has horns growing out of his head.

Ig has spent the last year of his life being a "person of interest" in the rape and murder of his long time girlfriend, so it's safe to say he is pretty much hit bottom at the point the novel begins.  The interesting thing about the horns, however, is that people seem to act differently around Ig now, telling him secrets they would never share with anyone else, and asking for his permission to act on their darkest impulses.

What I really like about Ig is that through this entire strange, hellish novel, he always comes across as a real person, a three dimensional human being doing his best to understand a world that no longer makes any sense at all.

A film adaptation of the novel will be coming out later this year, and I'm definitely interested in seeing how it turns out.

Genre Character of the Week: Margaret Leigh

As a soon-to-be librarian myself, I’ve always been a sucker for librarians in fiction.  Whether the love interested of a time traveler on a mission in Stephen King’s 11/22/63 or the supportive mentor for a young girl in trouble in Jo Walton’s Among Others, I simply start to smile when any book I’m reading introduces a librarian as a character, rather than simply a stereotype.

In Joe Hill’s NOS4A2, that librarian is Margaret Leigh, and unlike a lot of fictional librarians I can think of, she has a pretty unique ability.

The problem is, I really don’t want to spoil any of the story of NOS4A2 – which went on sale yesterday, as the book is just so darn good. In simplest terms, I like Margaret because she comes across as a three-dimensional character, and even though there are shades of the mythical Cassandra in her, she seems very much a person with her own identity.

The novel follows a young woman, Victoria McQueen, through an incredibly dark experience in her childhood and then races forward to her own parenting years and puts her in an even darker spot, as this time her child is at risk.

The novel is definitely Dark Fantasy, is clearly influenced by the works of Stephen King (in a great way), and had me putting an immediate hold on the only Joe Hill book I haven’t read so far, his 2010 Novel, Horns.

Thing's I've Noticed: I'm ahead on my reading!

It's the strangest thing, once I didn't have classes (and the assigned readings for classes) I blew through my list of readings for April incredibly quickly - I'm just finishing up the last one right now which means I get to pick another Fantasy, Horror and Science Fiction title to read this month!!!

So next up for me will be a fantasy novel I've been meaning to read for a while now Down the Mystery River, by Bill Willingham, an advanced readers copy of the new Joe Hill novel NOS4A2, and one of the many science fiction novels that have been sitting on my "to be read" shelf.

Finishing stuff is awesome!

Genre Character of the Week: Bode Locke

A few months ago while listening to the Scotch & Comics podcast, I was introduced to Joe Hill’s Locke & Key. The story, following the Locke family after a terrible incident involving the murder of the husband/father, involved the family relocating to the family home in Lovecraft, MA, and the mystery they discover there. Although all the characters are incredibly well conceived and fleshed out, my personal favourite is the youngest of the three children, Bode Locke.

Bode is the archetypal little-kid character often found throughout horror and dark fantasy stories, and although there is a lot going on with his older two siblings as they explore their new home, Locke House, it is Bode who begins to find the secrets of the home, including the thing in the Well house and a strange key which opens a door that sends the keyholder on quite a journey.

What I like best about Bode is that for all the horror that has gone on in his life (the death of his father was extremely traumatic, read the series to find out more), he sees the house, the key and his new life exciting. Things that would terrify the normal person (me included) are simply considered “COOL!” by Bode. Let me tell you, that little kid is pretty amazing.

If you haven’t checked out this series yet and are in any way a fan of dark fantasy and horror, you are really missing out.

Book Review: The Five

It’s not a secret that Robert McCammon is one of my favourite authors. Whether he’s scaring me with novels like Mine, or Stinger, giving me a sense of wonder with a story like Boy’s Life, or simply looking at history from a different (and sometimes fantastic) point of view like the Matthew Corbett novels or The Wolf’s Hour, I know when I pick up a new McCammon novel, I’m in for some fine storytelling.

The Five might be my favourite book of 2011.

It’s a little hard to tell right now, as I just finished it this morning, but the story, which follows a rock and roll band called The Five on a nightmarish road trip through America creeped me out, made me feel sympathy for all of its characters (even the bad guys) and did the amazing trick of being a book about music that had me feeling the way I do when I hear great bands play. The band felt real to me, in fact, overall I can’t think of any character’s who came out as two-dimensional in the story. It was really great, in both the big thrill and quiet character development moments.

In the end, the book does an amazing job of being a dark fantasy novel about rock and roll that shows the transcendent power of music.

Seriously, a great read.