I posted a review of the novel Ghosts of Eden by Keith Deininger on my blog yesterday, November 20th. My practice is then to tweet the blog, post it on Facebook and Google plus. I also post the review on Amazon and Goodreads as a service to authors.
As you can see by the photo, I received an email from Amazon thanking me for my review of Kotex Natural Balance Light Pads. In addition, they post my review of Ghosts of Eden right next to the picture of the Kotex product.
Okay, this has to be user error on my part. I emailed Amazon but have yet to hear back from them. I hope Keith gets some good publicity out of this...

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 just finished watching Room 237, a documentary developed around various theories of film critics and academics. I must say I enjoyed it tremendously – but not because of the content. There were five or six film experts discussing their individual analyses of the film and pointing out various messages and symbolism. I honestly don’t have the intelligence or the creativity to see all of these symbols while watching films – including this one. Whenever I had to write a paper for high school or college about symbolism in books or movies, I struggled. I relied on the old standbys – light and dark, good and evil. In my high school, which was an all-boys Catholic school, you could get a lot of mileage out of the symbolism of Christ figures in literature (e.g., think Simon in the Lord of the Flies – amazing how I still remember that).

These film experts were way out of my league. They were describing how the film version of the Shining represented genocide (of the American Indians, of the Jews by Hitler), the history of humankind, minotaur symbolism (I didn’t quite get this), and my personal favorite – how Kubrick was informing the world that he worked for NASA and faked the pictures of the moon landing in the summer of 1969.

Evidently, Stanley Kubrick was a very particular film maker. Anything in a particular shot had a meaning. Nothing is there by accident. So, I guess it is possible to comb over every frame of the movie and find various examples to fit a particular symbolism or theme. I don’t know. As I’ve said, this stuff is way beyond me, so I will leave it to the experts. I can say that the film was enjoyable as these narrators were pointing out all of this symbolism.

The most enjoyable portions, however, were the spooky shots that I never noticed before. For instance, when Danny and Wendy were watching Summer of ’42 on the TV in the lobby, there is no electric cord. When Jack goes into the manager’s office for his interview at the beginning of the film, there is a window behind the manager’s head. So? Well, from the preceding shot, you can see that this window is impossible. The structure of the hotel would have made that office internal to the building – so no window with a view. Finally, some guy had the idea to play the movie backwards and superimpose the backwards film over the film as it played the correct way. I mean, who would think of doing this? Nonetheless, some guy did. And, the outcome was pretty interesting… I’ll let you see it for yourself.

So, in preparation for Doctor Sleep (which I fear I may not be able to read until Christmas time given my schedule – sigh), watching this movie was a bit of a warm up. An interesting diversion with the Kubrick version, prepping me for the King sequel.

When I read The Shining, I was ecstatic. Here was probably the scariest novel I had ever read, and coming on the heels of Carrie and Salem’s Lot, I anticipated having a lifetime of unbelievably good reads coming from the mind of Stephen King. The latter expectation did not come true however, and I realize I was placing the author on a pedestal of my own lofty expectations.  After all, impressions vary as to what is scary. In addition, King is only human after all, and he wouldn’t always hit it out of the park. The best baseball players are successful only 35% of the time. Why would I expect him to be in top form all of the time.  Besides, I never took into account that my 20 year old self (or however old I was when I read The Shining) would change over the years after facing new experiences - all of which would color my viewpoints and reactions to what I read. 

While King and I have had our ups and downs (and we’re currently on the ups as I’ve really enjoyed the past three or four releases), one thing has remained true and that is my perception of The Shining. It still is one of my scariest reads. I haven’t reread it in probably 25 years, however, and I’m apprehensive about doing it. So, I think I will jump right into Doctor Sleep without sitting down to The Shining first. I’ll ground this reading experience as it is occurring to the character, Danny. Evidently, this is based many decades after the incidents that took place in the Overlook Hotel. So, I will treat it the same way – experience this plot many years after experiencing the horrors at that hotel.

The Hole by William Meikle is another blockbuster lead from DarkFuse. The novella is about a series of massive holes that begin swallowing up a small town. Casualties are high, and the survivors are haunted by something terrifying…demons, ghosts, aliens - no one knows for sure. The survivors know one thing: that the situation is likely to kill them and they must find a solution before it does.

This synopsis seems pretty simple, but the narrative is anything but simple. The plot is exciting, the tension is overwhelming, and the story is quite unpredictable. The characters are terrific – nicely drawn and very individual. The story line contains elements of horror and disaster/adventure and Mr. Meikle uses these to their fullest extent. Who lives and who dies is not foreseeable.

One minor criticism is the author’s portrayal of rural townspeople. Everyone uses “ain’t” quite frequently, and many have the habit of using singular pronouns with plural verbs (e.g., he weren’t).  The author seemed to be painting with an awfully broad brush to characterize nearly everyone in this manner.

I strongly recommend this novella. The pacing is excellent, the scares are timely, and the story is jaw-dropping fun.

Since Mr. Deininger’s novella, Fevered Hills, was such an incredible read, I was really anticipating his first full length novel, The New Flesh. Overall, I found the novel to be a very strong work despite some structural flaws that hindered the flow of the story to some degree. More on these later.  

The story involves 10 year old Jake who is experiencing a wide range of strange happenings involving a creepy Melting Man who is somehow connected to a place of fire and torture. While his experiences begin as dreams, they become increasingly real and Jake is thrown into a macabre world that is unsettling to both Jake and the reader. The story was gripping, and I finished it at a rapid pace. Mr. Deininger’s storytelling has an indirect slant to it, which I found very refreshing (and very similar to his earlier novella Fevered Hills). He allows readers to make connections between events, and he does not provide explanations for every odd circumstance. The result is a haunting sense of mystery which keeps the reader invested in the story. 

So what were the flaws?

Unlike his previous novella, I found his characters to be internally inconsistent. Their emotions and behavior often switched abruptly from one extreme to another to satisfy the shifting demands of the plot. For instance, Jakes parents alternated between being all-American parents and complete losers (dad produces pornographic movies, for Pete’s sake) at the bat of an eye. At times they care deeply for the child and at other times they couldn’t care less about his well-being. (Jake, too, was a little too sophisticated for a 4th grader – although an endearing character). Minor characters conveniently come and go to fit the scene – but I must say many of these minor characters were incredibly fascinating. One character is brutally killed (and witnessed by Jake, to boot) and the result should have been police investigations and traumatized reactions on the part of the family, but no…the event is a minor inconvenience.

While I found these flaws bothersome, I remain enthusiastic about Mr. Deininger’s fiction. His imagination is fresh and exciting – and after reading these two stunning works I can only expect him to push the boundaries of the horror genre even further. I look forward to his upcoming books with great anticipation. 

Kealan Patrick Burke has written another humdinger. One of his earlier works, The Turtle Boy, is one of the most creative and original ghost stories I have ever read. The Tent, his latest novella, is a masterful experience in creeping terror.

A family camping trip rapidly descends into a nightmare. A raging thunderstorm destroys the tent of a couple and their son, and they flee the scene only to get lost within minutes. With neither parent noticing, the boy disappears. Their backs are turned from their son while they argue, and when they finally realize the kid is missing, the situation is well past dire.

The Tent is a striking novella on a number of levels. 

First, it works as unnerving horror story. The atmosphere is thick with dread and a barely controlled sense of panic. The parents’ anxiety over a missing child is well described. The fact that the reader is aware that something other-worldly is probably involved adds a hidden layer of intensity. 

Second, Burke is a master of portraying the inner workings of his characters. Much of the narrative is internal: emotional distress, physiological reactions, and trains of thought. Everything rings true, grounding the sequence of events in a believable reality. When the pieces fall into place with the stunning conclusion, the reader is helplessly drawn in for the full impact. Highly recommended.

(Graphic courtesy FreeDigitalPhotos.net)

When I was a senior in high school, I read The Other by Thomas Tryon and The Exorcist by William Peter Blatty. Up until that time, I never really knew the thrill of reading horror fiction. As a younger kid, I was a dinosaur nut which morphed into a horror movie fan, and I had seen just about every dinosaur-running-amok-in-the-city movie and every Universal and Hammer horror movie. But reading horror novels? That never really took off until Tryon and Blatty scared the living daylights out of me while keeping me glued to the page. Then it was off to the races. I grabbed Rosemary’s Baby off the book case at home. Stephen King came along and I devoured his work. Between his novels, I supplemented my taste with every available publication. Some were excellent: Burnt Offerings, the Search for Joseph Tully, Dragon Under the Hill…

Somewhere along the line, I remember thinking I’d like to try this. Of course, millions of Americans say “I’d like to write a novel” but rarely attempt it. I fell into that category. I had other interests that took priority. I discovered the field of psychology in college (I entered thinking I would be a lawyer), but then took Intro to Psychology my freshman year. And the rest, as the saying goes, is history. I went to graduate school, obtained by PhD in psychology, did a post doc working with delinquent adolescents, then veered into academia where I’ve spent the past 27 years – and loved every minute of it. Since the mid-nineties, I changed my research focus to pediatric psychology to study issues concerning teens with chronic illnesses. This has been a truly exciting research program for the past 20 years. At the same time, I have had the opportunity to train scores of students – a remarkable experience.

Still, the urge to write horror never really left. I ran plots through my mind – stored some in long term memory, discarded others. In 1995 when my family and I were vacationing in Edisto Island, South Carolina, I came upon a road that was off the beaten path. The road was heavily wooded in live oak trees, complete with Spanish moss. I remember thinking, what would it be like to be chased by something down this road, with no one around? That was the first inkling of a plot that I kicked around for 15 years. Then, when my wife and I became empty nesters, the half-hearted attempts to write became serious. A few years later, Birth Offering was completed. I am very excited to announce that it is being published by Damnation Books and will be released in September.

More on this book and other issues that come to mind will appear in this space. Please come by and check it out.