Book Review: Taaqtumi: An Anthology of Arctic Horror Stories

Having been a long time fan of Horror and recent discover of Inhabit media, an Inuit-owned publishing company in Nunavut, Canada, I was thrilled to find this collection pop up on my FaceBook feed and then delighted to see my wife had already put an order in for it when I suggested we might want to buy it.

The stories included in Taaqtumi range from Thriller to Supernatural Horror and to Science Fiction/Horror. Standouts for me included Iqsinaqtutalik Piqtuq: The Haunted Blizzard, by Aviaq Johnston (who wrote a delightful children's story called What's My Superpower that I absolutely loved in 2017), and The Door, by Ann R. Loverock, although the book has stories that would work well for both Horror fans like me and those just peeking into the genre.

An excellent collection and from a company I hope does more like it in the future.

Movie Review: The Nun

So yesterday my friend Mike and I went to see the latest film in the Conjuring Universe The Nun, a film that works as a prequel to the series, but certainly requires viewers have seen the previous films or they will be spoiled.

The Nun is the fifth film in the series and although I wasn't quite as excited to see it as I was Annabelle Creation (mostly because I had seen other films by the director), in for a penny in for a pound as they say.

Set in 1952 the film follows Sister Irene (Taisa Farmiga) and Father Burke ( Demián Bichir) as they investigate a recent death at a convent in Romania. As can be expected in any type of horror film, there is a spooky old building, a number of jump scares and a sinister backstory for the duo to uncover.

In the end the film was a fun watch, but stand up as well as either of the main Conjuring Films or as well as Annabelle Creation (Still haven't seen the original Annabelle - maybe someday).

So if you're a fan of the series, check it out, otherwise perhaps check out some great classic Hammer films for a similar feel.

Blog: Sleeping Beauties

Stephen and Owen King's Sleeping Beauties begins with with a strange sleeping sickness occurring across the globe, women are falling asleep and not waking up, in fact, if disturbed in any way they get murderous and then immediately fall back asleep. With no end in sight society begins to shift, falling apart in some places and pulling together in others.

Much of the novel takes places in one small town affected by the sleeping epidemic, and the nearby women's prison. Following law enforcement we begin on night one and therefore a large part of the early chapters follow women attempting to not fall asleep.

The novel builds at a really nice pace and even the crazy things that occur later in the book (this is co-written by Stephen King after all), feel like they come from a logical (sometimes deranged logic) position.

A thrilling story that merges fairy tales with pulse pounding thrills - well worth a look.

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: Magic

Years ago I picked up the novel Magic by William Goldman for two simple reasons: 1) I'm a big fan of his films (Butch Cassidy & the Sundance Kid, All the President's Men, The Princess Bride, Marathon Man, etc.), and 2) I can never say no to a well received horror or thriller novel.

The story follows a young magician named Corky Withers who just can't seem to catch a break (Hey! I just got the pun on his name :) ) He's a technical pro at card-based illusion, but for some reason his audience presence is just no good; his patter isn't up to snuff, and his discomfort at the showmanship aspect of magic shines through much brighter than his skill set.

Just as he's about to give it up, he figures out a pretty creative new angle, and things start to look up for him.

Or do they?

First of all, what I really like about the book is how well it plays with expectations; everything from the narrative voice to the the shifting of time from past to present and future, really work as analogue for how a well-done card trick works. Just as you begin to piece together what's going on, the story shifts and you realize the author has just been distracting you.

A really fun read, and as I have never seen it, an excellent excuse to someday check out the 1978 film adaption starring Anthony Hopkins and Ann-Margret.

Movie Review: Get Out

After spending the last few months watching all sorts of Oscar-nominated films, it's finally time to get back into my regular viewing habits, which brings me to Horror, Science Fiction and Fantasy.

My first must-see film of the year was Jordan Peele's Get Out.

The film follows Black photographer Chris Washington (Daniel Kaluuya) on his first visit to his white girlfriend Rose's (Allison Williams) family home. Although friendly at first, things take a turn for the puzzling and then move towards terrifying throughout. As the story depends on a number of twists and turns, I hesitate to spoil anything, but I can say it's well worth the watch and left me quite impressed with how effectively comedy and horror can play off of each other.

A really good film.

Book Review: The Hatching by Ezekiel Boone

Ezekiel Boone's 2016 horror novel The Hatching can be broken down into two works...

Spider and Apocalypse, or one portmanteau

SPIDERPOCALYPSE!

The novel works like a standard disaster movie, a number of characters are introduced in different places, jobs, etc. and through their eyes we view the disaster. The disaster in this novel, however, is a plague of man-eating spiders. My inner twelve-year-old could not allow me to pass this book by, so although I'm not a huge fan of spiders, I thought I would give it a go.

Following a Billionaire, an FBI Agent, The President of the United States Chief of Staff, various scientists, a mystery writer, and some doomsday preppers, the novel moves around the globe as mankind is plagued by a seemingly endless hoard of spiders - man-eating spiders.

The novel is filled with any number of gruesome deaths, a really fun sense of increasing tension, and a few scenes that left me, as a life-long fan of the horror genre, more than a little frightened.

The book is pretty much exactly as advertised, full of spiders, and not the kind you'll forget anytime soon.

Bookmonkey vs the Hoard: Post Five - Outcast

One of the titles I've been meaning to get around to the most in the hoard is Robert Kirkman's Outcast. This demonic possession story, written by the fellow who came up with both Incredible and The Walking Dead, has had me intrigued since I first heard about it back in 2014. The fact that a TV adaption began earlier this year just added to my interest, but as I've been on a Marvel kick as of late, I just couldn't seem to find the time.

Having now read the first two collections, A Darkness Surrounds Him, and A Vast and Unending Ruin, I've got to say I'm pretty impressed, and really creeped out. The series follows a young man named Kyle Barnes, who has twice had his life interrupted by demonic possession, first his mother during his childhood, and later his wife.

The series opens with a small family seeing the first occurrence of a possession, and then quickly moves into the troubled life of Kyle Barnes, a man desperately trying to make his way through the world day-by-day, and who seems almost completely disassociated with everyone and everything around him. The story follows Kyle as he joins a local Reverend to help in an exorcism, and then moves into an area of demoic possession fiction I don't think I've every come across before. What if the possession was real, but the exorcism only partly worked?

This series was incredibly immersive and had me pulling for Kyle and desperately trying to understand his new world. An excellent read, and one I hope to continue very soon.

Bookmonkey vs The Hoard: Post Four - The Midnight Meat Train

One of the first horror authors I actively began to collect in life was Clive Barker.  As a younger teen I saw both Hellraiser and Nightbreed, and somewhere in my teens I happened across the first of his short stories series The Books of Blood, and as the price was right, I snapped it up.

The very first story (after the framing story), was "The Midnight Meat Train", a twenty-page journey into one of the most terrifying concepts I had every come across.  It follows a man named Leon who happens to see something while riding on a train, something horrifying, methodical, and something that sees him back.

The story began my interest in collecting the works of Clive Barker, and over the years I've built up a pretty decent collection of his writing, so when I found they had made a film adaptation of "The Midnight Meat Train" I knew I'd have to check it out.

Due to the short nature of the story, the movie fleshes out the narrative, changing the main character from an everyman into a photographer, he's given a girlfriend, a job, and a goal - to see the reality of New York City.

The film works fairly well, but honestly, I think the story works if told quickly - an introduction to the horror that is about to be read by the reader.  In the end it wasn't a keeper, but an interesting adaptation of one of the most startlingly horrifying stories I read in my youth.

Bookmonkey vs. the Hoard: Post 1

As with many journeys, my blog this October began with a simple step. For the last year I've been excited for the day Ash vs the Evil Dead became available on DVD, and about a month ago it finally did! Snapping it up as quickly as I found it, I brought it home and prepared to watch the latest in one of my very favourite horror franchises, but then my wife hit me with a pretty good piece of logic.

You know, there's a lot of horror-themed things you've had around the house for a while now and haven't watched/read/played yet. How about you try some of them first?

And you know what? She was totally right.

So I went though my house collecting every horror-themed product I had purchased (or received as a gift) and hadn't got around to enjoying yet and realized something.

This is my October blog theme.

So here we go, a month cleaning up a pretty significant backlog of stuff, including comics, games, short stories, and films.

Welcome to Bookmonkey vs. the Hoard.

Book Review: Blood Kin

I picked up Steve Rasnic Tem's Blood Kin last month as it won the 2014 Bram Stoker Award for best novel, and I've been reading the winners of that list for years now.

My familiarity with the horror sub-genre of southern gothic is a little light to be fair; I loved Robert R. McCammon's Gone South, William Hjortsberg's Fallen Angel, and (although not a novel) Stan Winston's 1988 film Pumpkinhead all work well to show just how nicely horror can be used in the setting.

Blood Kin is a multi-generational story, taking place both in modern day and in the 1930s, using both a male and a female protagonist, and really focuses on the ideas of the sins of the father being visited upon the sons (or grandsons) and moves deftly between straight horror and dark fantasy elements.

A word to the wise, some of the horrific scenes in the book made me quite uncomfortable (and I read horror monthly, so that's saying something), so it may not be the best thing to read before bed, but I strongly recommend it if your interested in giving it a try.

Novella Review: Death Leaves and Echo

It’s funny, one of the first Charles de Lint books I ever purchased (my wife had read most of them years before me, but did it by using our public library), was pretty much an accident.

Café Purgatorium is a collection of three horror novellas by Dana Anderson, Ray Garton, and Mr. de Lint, which I originally picked up as I’m a fan of horror short-story collections. It then sat on my “To Be Read” shelf for years while I moved through other titles and it was only when looking through Charles de Lint’s website when I saw the cover and thought “Hey, don’t I already own this?” and tracked it down.

The novella begins with a terrifying concept; what if you woke up one morning and found you were no longer together with your spouse? And worse, what if you although you remembered your entire relationship, it appears as if they never existed at all?

The story had a really creepy “Twilight Zone” meets Phillip K. Dick sort of feel to it, and although I won’t give spoilers, it was definitely worth a look. As I’ve found with his other entries into the horror field, Charles de Lint can deliver the creepy just as effectively as he can the awe and wonder that exists in his fantasy fiction.

Book review: Angel of Darkness

Having finally reached the point where Charles de Lint crossed over into my favourite genre, Horror, I have to say I was pretty excited about reading the first of the three horror novels he wrote under the pen-name of Samuel M. Key (also side note - his reason for choosing that particular pen name is near and dear to my heart!)

The first of the three novels, Angel of Darkness, feels an awful lot like the video game series Silent Hill - except for the fact that this book was published almost a decade before the first game in that series. The story follows the first responders to a horrible murder, who seem cursed to shift between their own world and two increasingly darker versions of the world after being exposed to the crime scene. (For non-gamers, the three shifting worlds is a pretty big part of any game in the Silent Hill franchise).

The open sequence is pretty gruesome, and may scare away readers, but trust me, if you can make it through the first chapter this is an intensely good read, forever keeping you off balance but playing fair in terms of a good horror novel.

The characters are well written, both good and bad alike, and the story definitely gave me a serious case of the heebie jeebies.

Choosing my next Horror Series

So this week the universe answered my Necroscope question from a few weeks back, the copy I had purchased from my local used book store was a few pages shy, actually five pages, the last five pages, which meant that if I wanted to read the third book in the series I would have to find another copy.

So now I get to decide which horror series I'm going to follow next - although to be fair it may not be a specific series by one author, maybe I'll hit the award winners again or just go through my ever-increasing shelf of books I mean to get around to reading someday.

One quick stop in the horror genre I'm definitely going to be making however, is Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips series Fatale, which melds film noir-style crime stories with H.P. Lovecraft style horror.  At this point I've read the first collection and it was pretty amazing; moody, intriguing and really, really creepy.

So, while I'm looking for great horror series, if you happen to know of any, feel free to send a comment my way!

Bookmonkey vs Hack/Slash: Day Thirty

Conclusion

Having spent the last month reading and blogging about Hack/Slash, I thought I should finish by going back to the beginning. As a life-long fan of the horror genre, I’ve often wondered how best to handle these stories within the guidelines of library work. In school (Kindergarten through grade 12) horror stories are often limited due to graphic content, and as good horror “…allows the reader to feel the action and fear with all their five senses, and [comic books] use of illustration to help tell [the] story adds a new element to the appeal” (Spratford, 2012, p. 133) it is even easier to quickly pass judgment on a title and consider it inappropriate for young readers.

My first interaction with horror fiction, and not just YA fiction with scary bits in, was back in Junior High (middle school for my American readers) when I was sitting in the school library reading fantasy fiction and noticed another teen return a book called The Shining to the librarian, who immediately slipped it behind her desk. Gathering up the courage to talk to her, I was informed that although the school had a small collection of Horror novels, they were kept behind the library desk to ensure that they didn’t alarm uninterested students. Of course, finding out that my library had a secret library collection, and that it was deemed too dangerous for the average student, had me interested in seconds, and within a few months horror was the genre for me.  Over the next few years I became a fan of the stories, plays, games and films of the genre, and yes, that included the Slasher film.

Looking at the mechanics of Hack/Slash, I loved the crossovers, involving Cassie and Vlad with characters from film, fiction and both print and web comics in a way that made sense and probably introduced a lot of new readers/viewers to the crossed over material. The series played with horror movie concepts ranging from horror movie logic, sequels, and trailers, and then moved on to questions of how a horror movie-themed world would really work and what regular people could and would do in incredibly tense situations.

What I love most about Hack/Slash is the honest love it has for the genre, and specifically the slasher sub-genre. Considering that slasher movies are often considered to be bottom-of-the-barrel films, this series treats its source material with great care, pointing out some errors yes, but working the whole way to increase the emotional connection the reader will have with Cassie, Vlad, and every other human character it introduces, and getting the reader to care about what happens to these characters, and in the end, what else do you want from any story?

IMAGE USED

McDevitt, M. (2013) Bookmonkey vs Hack/Slash [Image].  Retrieved from http://wisdomofbookmonkey.blogspot.ca/2013/10/bookmonkey-vs-hackslash-day-thirty.html

WORKS CITED
Spratford, B. (2012). The Readers’ Advisory Guide to Horror. Chicago, American Library Assocation.

Book Review: Night Film by Marisha Pessl

As a fan of the Horror genre, I tend to get pretty excited when a horror text hits the mainstream, so even though it was billed as a literary thriller, Marisha Pessl’s Night Film caught my attention a few months ago, and when a friend offered to loan me a copy I couldn’t possibly say no.

Having just finished the book, here are my key impressions (also it’s important to keep in mind that I haven’t read the author’s previous book, Special Topics in Calamity Physics, and came to this book as a fan of Horror novels, both of which will likely colour my opinion).

In a nutshell, the novel follows a disgraced journalist’s investigation into the death of the daughter of a major horror film director.  In the world of Night Film, this director, Stanislas Cordova has created a body of work that is both so influential that one of his films won an academy award in 1971 (sorry Kramer vs. Kramer), and so terrifying that his films are all now banned and only shown at night by enthusiasts to fans with the knowledge where to find these screenings.  Our narrator, Scott McGrath, follows an immersive journey throughout the book as he tries to find the solution to Ashley Cordova’s apparent suicide, which takes him through the young woman’s life and the films (and making of the films) which were created by her father.

The novel most reminded me of Falling Angel by William Hjortsberg (adapted into the 1987 film Angel Heart), and Rosemary’s Baby by Iran Levin (also adapted into film in 1968), with an awful lot of similarities to Mark Z. Danielewski’s House of Leaves (still one of my favourite immersive horror novels, period).

Much of the information given about the Cordova family in the book is done is a format where webpages and articles have been reproduced, which is neat at first, but a little tiring after a while (and sometimes tricky to read due to font size or dark grey on black text) and thankfully doesn’t pop up much in the second half of the book.

As a mystery I found it to be a lot of fun, it definitely kept my interest through the entire 600 pages, and as both a film buff and horror fan, there was enough material to keep me interested – although to be clear, there are not that many horrific moments in the book – a few to be sure, but this book is clearly mystery/thriller with horror elements, rather than a horror novel of its own.

Goodbye to 2012

Looking back over 2012 I had a lot of exciting things happen for me: 1) I’m now halfway through the process of getting my MLIS, 2) I saw a lot of great Fantasy, Horror and Science Fiction, and 3)My wife and I celebrated our 15^th wedding anniversary, which means my marriage is now old enough to go to high school (I hope the popular marriages will let us sit with them!)

In classic genre works I discovered Zombi 2 and Shadow of the Colossus, and in terms of new stuff I loved there was Warm Bodies, The Cabin in the Woods, Chronicle, Safety Not Guaranteed, Old Man’s War, and The Hobbit.

The Third Season of The Walking Dead blew me away and both of my kids shocked me with how good they are getting at videogames, work, reading and life.

So Happy 2012 everyone, and let’s have an amazing 2013!

Bookmonkey Saw: Day 25

Before we get to the final Saw film (and a minor rant I'll have about how to number sequels in a franchise - you have been warned), I wanted to spend a little time explaining why I decided to choose the Saw franchise as my focus for the last month.

1) I am a fan of the horror genre - since I was a child I've always loved scary things - it may come from being the only boy growing up in a houseful of women, or maybe because there was always something forbidden about the idea of seeing scary films and books (Stephen King novels were kept behind the librarian's desk in my school library growing up), and therefore when a new series or must-see title comes out, I'm asked by friends for my opinion. As the Saw franchise dominated theatres for seven straight years, I felt that I should take some time to check these films out.

2) I kept coming across references to the franchise throughout my regular non-horror reading and viewing habits.  Three quick examples - a) A character from one of my favourite sitcoms dressed up as the Jigsaw Killers doll (pictured right), b) I came across a reference in a book I was reading about healthy living:

"At the start of my project, I considered a triathlon but dismissed it.  I'd even watched a few YouTube videos on triathlons, including one that purported to be a motivational video.  It featured stumbling runners collapsing on the road and convulsing.  There was a woman on a stretcher.  With an IV in her arm.  That kind of motivation does not work on me.  When I watch Saw III, I don't say to myself, "Hey, I really want to be chained up in a sociopath's basement."  Same idea. (p.250)

3) The fact that the franchise stretches across Television, Comics, Movies and Video games really interested me, and unlike a series like saw Resident Evil, which has six games, almost a dozen novels, a couple animated films, and comic books as well, it seemed possible to explore the franchise in a month.

In the end, Saw has become a short-hand for popular culture to refer to extreme violence in horror films as well as the genres tendency to spawn multiple sequels - like Nightmare on Elm Street, Halloween, Friday the 13th, etc., and I believe that any text which gets that degree of reference throughout popular culture deserves a critical view.

Works Cited

Jacobs, A.J. (2012) Drop Dead Healthy: One Man's Humble Quest for Bodily Perfection. New York, NY: Simon & Schuster.

Bookmonkey Saw: Day 1

Okay, so lets join your pal Bookmonkey for a talk about the Saw-franchise of horror films.

In 2004 Lions Gate Films released a horror film which would dominate the horror genre in film for the next seven years and touch upon other formats ranging from comic books and video games to reality television.  It all began with...

Wait, first let’s go back to the beginning.

In 1979 Australian Cinema hit the mainstream with the film Mad Max.  The finale of this car-chase / revenge film has ex-cop Max Rockatansky (played by Mel Gibson) come upon one of the villainous thugs who murdered his wife and child early in the film.  Forcing the man to handcuff himself to a car, Max sets the vehicle on fire, brandishes a hacksaw and states:

Max: The chain in those handcuffs is high-tensile steel, it’ll take you ten minutes to hack through it with this. (tosses villain the hacksaw) Now, if your lucky, you can hack through your ankle in five minutes. 

Walking away from the vehicle as it burns, the audience hears the scream of the thug followed by the vehicle exploding.

The creators of the 2004 horror film Saw, Australians James Wan and Leigh Whannell, were both two-years-old when the first Mad Max film was released, but both state that the film, and specifically this scene “...was definitely a big, direct influence”(1) on Saw (2004) which has two men handcuffed to pipes in an abandoned building and facing the same dilemma.  

It is these connections, along with the fact that the Saw franchise had a new motion picture out the Friday before Halloween every year for seven straight years, and that the story expanded into other areas, including significant aspects of popular culture, that drew me to want to make an examination of the series.

As a long-time horror fan myself, but definitely one who prefers the monster movie sub-genre, I was of course familiar with the general idea behind the series, but until this month have not seen any of the central or related texts.  

1. Hartley, M. (Director and Writer) (2008). Not Quite Hollywood: The Wild, Untold Story of Ozploitation! [Film] Australia: City Films Worldwide.

Things I've Noticed: Horror fans are everywhere

So I’m sitting in my class last night (LIS 598 Managing Financial Resources) and Meghan, one of my fellow students leans over and asks me what I’m reading (and no, class hasn’t started yet, so I’m perfectly within my rights to read whatever I like), so I pass her the book The Keep, by F. Paul Wilson (1981 – review will be up next week), and when she sees the premise, wherein some-thing is killing Nazis in a strange Romanian Keep (small castle) in 1941, she asks me if I’ve seen the 2009 Norwegian film Dead Snow (Zombie Nazis attack vacationers) and although I haven’t seen it yet (just added it to my library hold list), I felt pretty great since my love of horror seems to be something I share with a smaller and smaller group of friends (and you, dear readers).

Years back I created an account on LIbrarything (I’m pretty easy to find – just click the book to the left or go to librarything.com and look up bookmonkey) and in one thread I started about classic horror novels I think everyone should read I had a response that suggested I should calm down on my love of horror as it’s pretty much a phase everyone goes through in their teen years…

I was 33 when I received this comment.

Anyway, I’m mostly just happy to see that my love of all things strange and monstrous isn’t just me and a bunch of Saw-crazed teens (and yes, chances are really great that this October will be the year I take in that franchise).

So thanks fellow student, you brightened my day!