Sacrifice Island is about two ghost hunters who are conducting research on various haunted locations around the world for their next book. Alex and Jemma, a team for a number of years, decide to travel to the Philippines to examine a nearby island which served as a religious retreat center before some visitors started killing themselves on site and others began disappearing. Expecting an island jam-packed with ghosts, they set out to dig up unusual accounts of hauntings for their upcoming anthology. What they find, however, is far worse than they could have possibly imagined.

Author Kristin Dearborn spins an engaging tale in this short novella from DarkFuse. The pacing is quick, the setting is unique, and the “thing” haunting the island is a fresh creation. The outcome is fairly predictable, but the ride is fun just the same. While I enjoyed the narrative overall, I felt the characters were a tad weak. The character of Jemma is unusual – she is haunted by her own childhood abuse and cannot be touched physically, but her quirks do not seem authentic and are easily abandoned in the services of the plot. Alex is even less developed. His background is sketchy, and I had no idea what he looked like (until late in the book) or how old he was. More importantly, the exact nature of their relationship was never really explored or developed. I realize the author intended to place more emphasis on the plot, but some of these human characteristics would have been rounded out the story a bit more. So, an engaging 3 star kind of read.

I suppose I should be embarrassed – a person my age loving snow as much as I do. No one anywhere remotely near my age seems to share my childlike enthusiasm for winter precipitation as much as me. In fact, most people can’t understand it. My neighbor gives me a dirty look every time we run into each other shoveling driveways – as if I am to blame for the snowfall.

I loved it as a kid of course. I grew up in Port Chester, NY, a village just northeast of New York City, bordering Connecticut – and sits right on Long Island Sound. The ocean has a huge influence on snowfall, and it is usually adverse. Unless positioned just right with an adequate amount of cold air to the north, the storm systems moving up the coast have a habit of drawing in the relatively warmer air over the Atlantic. This typically turns falling snow into rain about midway through the storm. I just hated that – and it happened more often than not. I always felt cheated as a couple of inches of pristine snow turned into a slushy mess as the air mass warmed and turned the flakes into raindrops.

There were some memorable snowstorms and blizzards, however, when I was a kid. My favorite was dubbed the Lindsay-Storm in February 1969. Mayor Lindsay of New York City was widely criticized for his ability, or in this case, inability to clear the metro area of over 20 inches of snow. The worst hit was Queens which was snowbound for days.

I remember the storm vividly. There was a chance for an inch or two before it was forecasted to turn to rain. That didn’t happen, and the meteorologists were taken by surprised by the intensity of the storm. As it turned out, I broke my arm three days before in a track meet. I was a freshman in high school and I was tripped within the first 10-20 yards of a 440 yard run. In bracing for the fall, my left elbow took the brunt of the force. Snap. I got up and finished the race, and it was only after I calmed down that I realized how much my arm was hurting. Incidentally, I badly scraped my right arm at the same time – it was almost like a burn. The scar still remains visible.

Anyhow, with a broken arm, I couldn’t shovel the driveway. That task was left to my father. The snow was so heavy, that school was closed for days (4 if I remember correctly). The snow fell on a Sunday and school was cancelled through Thursday.

Another memorable storm, one that can never be experienced again, was the blizzard of 1978 which hit the Midwest. I was a graduate psychology student at the University of Notre Dame. South Bend, Indiana received nearly 40 inches of snow - a total that I will never forget. I believe there was also about a foot of snow on the ground before the storm hit. Classes at Notre Dame were canceled for the first time in its history – and they were shut for a number of days.

You can probably sense my love for snow – who else can remember such stupid facts. When my wife and I moved to Milwaukee in 1986, I was hoping to living in a land of heavy snow. Sadly, that hasn’t been quite the case. True, it snows a fair amount in Milwaukee, but we don’t seem to get the huge storms. There have been some nice 10-15 inch snowfalls over the years, but Milwaukee seems to get a lot of 2-4 inch snowfalls – which add up of course. Generally, though, we seem too far north with no big or particularly close source of moisture (the biggest being the Gulf of Mexico). Sigh.

One of these days, though, maybe we’ll get on of those Midwest super-bombs like 1978….

Three Elkheart siblings, Kyle, Eric, and Shawna (all twenty-something) are called back to their childhood home on the Cree Indian Reservation in the wilds of British Columbia by their uncle. Their estranged father, an anthropology professor, has gone missing along with his research and expedition team in the nearby wilderness.

The timing is terrible for Kyle. He is mourning the death of his wife who died in a tragic accident and has descended into a pattern of agoraphobia where leaving his apartment is very difficult. His depression is palatable, and it interferes with his ability to write. He is a bestselling horror novelist and is currently stuck in a desperate case of writer’s block. To top it all off, Kyle sees ghosts, a “gift” he has had since childhood – and this doesn’t help his current frame of mind any. But Eric, Kyle’s younger brother who is a hotshot up-and-coming attorney, convinces Kyle that the family is needed on the Cree reservation. So, the two of them, along with their goth, tattooed, rock band-member sister are off to rural Canada (accompanied by Eric and Shawna’s current love interests).

Once on the reservation and in the nearby village, Kyle realizes things aren’t right. All of the Cree inhabitants have deserted the reservation, except for Kyle’s uncle and grandfather. The villagers are tense. Indian legends about something evil – something monstrous – living in the forest (The Devil’s Woods) seem to be coming true. Kyle is starting to see all kinds of ghosts, and when he touches certain objects in the village or the woods he senses that something horrible has recently occurred. One particularly effective passage has Kyle running his hands over tombstones in a graveyard – tombstones that are not inscribed with names – and hearing the cries and screams of those who are buried in that location. Creepy stuff.

The first half of the book is rather deliberate in pacing. There are hints of the terrors to come, but much emphasis is placed on location and character development. Kyle is nicely portrayed – he is a very broken and haunted hero. Eric is a narcissistic shithead, and Mr. Moreland makes it easy to start disliking the guy. Shawna, the young sister, starts out like she might just be window dressing – a goof-off character. But, she blossoms into a full flesh and blood person who plays a critical role in the narrative. Likewise, her goth boyfriend, Zack, is a nice complement to the story. Finally, there is Jessica, the med student who is in a relationship with Eric. She is a little too “golden” to have fallen for a jerk like Eric. But, Mr. Moreland has something else in mind when she and still-grieving Kyle start exchanging more than just admiring glances.

Midway through the novel, the tempo changes. The last half shifts into maximum overdrive as the true nature of what is actually happening in The Devil’s Woods comes to light. There are numerous plot twists that I didn’t see coming, and the action keeps accelerating to the point where you wonder how much longer the author can keep this up. Just when you think he can’t do it anymore, something more bizarre than what had just happens occurs.  The effect is like a roller coaster that doesn’t quit. I don’t want to give any plot lines away, but suffice it to say there are ghosts, demons, monsters, foreign mercenaries, secret passageways, subterranean caves, weird religious ceremonies, weird sexual trysts, explosions, and heaven only knows what else I am forgetting.

You would think an author might lose control of the story given all this stuff going on. But, Mr. Moreland manages the entire thing with aplomb because he has spent the time developing his characters and he does such a fine job setting up the location. You can see this village quite clearly. And, the woods and caves are so well described that they come alive with the characters. The other reason that the novel works so well is that Mr. Moreland has such an unsettling and devilish imagination. He has concocted an incredible storyline that will leave you gasping for breath.

The Devil’s Woods is truly a thrilling read.

Here is a very positive review of my novel, Birth Offering, by Jean BookNerd.com. This review also has an author interview and a giveaway! Take a look...

Does Stephen King need my review? Probably not, but I will provide one anyway. No mincing words: I loved Doctor Sleep. While I couldn’t say the novel was scary (after all I’ve been reading horror since I was a kid – and that was a long time ago – so I may be jaded to some degree), Doctor Sleep was gripping and thrilling. The villains in the story, the True Knot who are vampire-like inhuman creatures that survive on the life-force of kids who have the gift of “the shining”), are a devilishly creepy creation. Their presence in the story infuses the story with a very palatable sense of dread and danger. More importantly, however, is our chance to find out what happened to Danny Torrance who survived the hellish events in the Overlook Hotel many years ago. King develops a true flesh and blood adult Dan Torrance, and King does not coast along with a rosy picture of a favorite hero from one of his best works. Dan has had a difficult life and has numerous emotional and behavioral scars to prove it. His dirty laundry is described for everyone to read. Yet, he is a beloved character in a King novel, so he must learn despite all of his flaws to survive in a tale inhabited by the unthinkable. The story is taut and hair-raising with a plot that will not let you go.  

Authors have hits and misses when it comes to their works (let’s face it, everyone is human) – although to some extent what defines a hit or a miss is often highly correlated with the preferences and tastes of the reader. I am a huge fan of Sandy DeLuca’s horror stories (her recent title Messages from the Dead was a great read). However, I’m sorry to say that her most recent DarkFuse title, Hell’s Door, is a bit of a miss, although sections of the book are creepy as hell.

The plot involves two homicide detectives on the trail of a serial killer who specializes in eating and decapitating his victims – who are all prostitutes. The killer, who goes by Gabriel, makes you squirm. He is a devious creation and his inner dialogue is chilling – both when he is recounting his near and distant past and explaining his current actions. Ms. Deluca does a great job illustrating how the identity of the killer changes with each murder. The creep literally adopts the characteristics and behavioral quirks of the victims. When Gabriel is talking about his “passions”, the story is quite gripping.

I was not enamored with the detectives however. There interactions, emotions, and dialogue rang false. They weren’t believable as characters or even detectives. In fact, the police procedural aspects of the story did not make sense. I am no detective, but after years of watching Law and Order SVU, Criminal Minds, and CSI-NY, I was scratching my head as to why these two were doing what they were doing. I realize that my use of TV police shows as a frame of reference for fictional accuracy is questionable at best. Still, the investigative activities were a little on the lame side.

Finally, while I was commenting positively on the characterization of Gabriel, the descriptions of decapitated heads and vicious murders of women left me a little queasy. Here is where reader preferences come in, I suppose. I like my horror to be more oriented towards the supernatural and less focused on the reliance of gore and violence. For those who love the latter, this could be your cup of tea. All in all, about 3 stars. 

I probably do not represent the typical demographic of horror lovers (but really, who does - the fan base is more diverse than I originally thought). Nonetheless, I have found that the current trend in horror movies towards atmospheric chills instead of gore and torture porn is much to my liking. I watched Insidious 2 last night and loved it - as much as I enjoyed the original Insidious. Also this year, Sinister, Mama, Dark Skies, The Conjuring, and Jug Face were all pleasant surprises. I suppose you cannot call these subtle films, but they are creepy and spooky instead of blood fests. Anyway, they have been excellent examples of horror - great characters, fine acting and technically well accomplished. I hope to see more of these similar films in the future.

A number of reviewers and friends have noted that my novel Birth Offering qualifies as a YA novel. Granted the main character is a teen, but I would not have considered the book to be YA. I always thought that young adult fiction had certain distinct qualities, the most obvious having a youth or youths as the main character(s). In addition, though, I often thought that the narrative was written in the first person – and entirely from the adolescent’s perspective.  I’m not sure where I got that idea from, but there it is.

Birth Offering has multiple limited third person perspective, with 14-year old Ryan the most central character. But the point of view shifts to a special agent and the boy’s mother. So, just because the main character is an adolescent (and probably 50% of the story is told from his limited, third person point of view) could this novel “qualify” as YA (or a crossover, if that is such a term)? Maybe I am missing an audience…