The Gorge by Jason L. McPherson

The Gorge by Jason McPherson

This week’s selection reminded me of an old saying every state likes to claim.  If you don’t like the weather, wait five minutes and it will change.  I don’t know how true that is for weather, but it is dead on for The Gorge by Jason L. McPherson.   The book is a plot heavy page turner that effortlessly pulled me into a world of supernatural warfare, religious fanaticism, and all kind s of brutality.  Without a doubt, the stand out strength of The Gorge is its continuously evolving plot.  Readers can expect to be carried from one harrowing event to the next, and just when you say this story is like a supernatural Southern Comfort with Keith Carradine, it changes to another well-loved B movie.  But the story keeps its continuity throughout.

We begin with Nathan Mires, a seemingly ordinary family man in Raven Falls, North Carolina, being compelled by a strange voice to commit heinous acts of murder.  This road of carnage leads him into hiding in the Blue Ridge Mountains where the outdoor skills passed onto Nathan by his grandfather come into use.  As he becomes the pawn in ancient Native American curse, he must face various foes for his survival.  His bloody path brings him to join forces with a Cherokee Medicine Man and a former enemy.   Together they set out on a mission of dread with all the odds against them.

Sometimes the story sacrifices characterization for plot, but the action makes up for it.  I think Spore Press should have edited the first chapter slightly differently, and the book would have been even better. There are a few typos that I noticed, so if you really don’t like those, I encourage you to overlook them in order to have a great time.  Don’t waver in chapter one, put on your seatbelt because two onward makes you want lots of popcorn and Cherry Coke.  At about 95%, I wasn’t sure I was going to be happy with the ending, but then in McPherson fashion it changed right before my eyes.  The last sentence gave me chills..

I give it a solid three severed heads.  Of course these severed heads have bad ass Indian war paint and timber rattlers crawling into their gaping mouths.  Look for a future interview with Jason L. McPherson on writing Appalachian Horror.

Heads Will Roll,

Everette Bell

     

   

Sudden Death Overtime by Steve Vernon

Sudden Death Overtime by Steve Vernon

Good evening Horde,

I finished up Steve Vernon’s Sudden Death Overtime today.  At first I was kind of iffy about the whole thing.  But it turned out to be a very inventive novella.  I don’t know anything about hockey, but Steve’s first chapter set a great stage for what he describes as Paul Newman's Slapshot thrown in a blender with Steven Niles 30 Days of Night.  I think that mixed treat has a hefty serving of 1987’s Lost Boys in a geriatric sort of way.

I was immediately drawn in by the mentality and setting of Labrador.  The hard living style of the washed up old hockey players made them dam ready for the mysterious black bus of hell spawn, vampires that drove into town.

The down side of this story for me was a far too simple plot for what I wanted.  You could say the visiting team was a bunch of blood sucking assholes that disrespected a home team player, so the locals got very fucking rough on the ice to teach the bastards a lesson.  The novella felt like a straight line to the ending.  We got a lot of back story on the guys, but they didn’t do anything.  Everything just fell into place a little too easily.

For me this book was all about the beginning and the end.  We got a great atmosphere and a cool image of the bad guys rolling into town.  Then we get the showdown.  The ending could have been more satisfying, but even so, I never felt like putting it down.  However, I never had any doubt either.  It almost felt too easy when our washed up old hockey players took on the role of the Frog Bothers from Lost Boys and whipped ass.

Steve’s got a lot of books, and I have no doubt this is not his best one.  I cared enough that I will read more.  As a matter of fact, I’ve already pestered him for more.

I give Sudden Death Overtime by Steve Vernon three severed heads stomped off by hockey skates.

Heads Will Roll,

Everette Bell

Love's Bright Star by Virginnia de Parte

Love's Bright Star by Virginnia de Parte

I really struggled with Love’s Bright Star by Virginnia de Parte.  It is the first true romance novella I have ever read.  I thought years of watching romantic comedies with the women in my life would prepare me, but I was wrong.  The genre aficionados among the horde may find it amusing that I loved it.  Then I hated it.  Then I loved it.  Then I hated…

The basics are a future setting in which there are two classes of humans, normals and g-altereds.  Siobhan is a photographer with cat genes who is being attacked by a man in a night club when James, a University Lecturer, who can stop time comes to her rescue.  From here the first half of the book is their growing passion for each other.  I found it a little tiring and superficial.  Siobhan is supposed to be 28, but she came across as very juvenile to me.

Siobhan becomes pregnant against James’ wishes seemingly destroying their relationship.  I couldn’t help but side with James.  I was clearly too focused on the sci-fi back story of the second class citizenship that the child would be burdened with.   

For me, the climax of the book took place well before the end when Siobhan was having her initial ultrasound.  Virginnia gave us a very exciting moment that had me white knuckling my kindle, but unfortunately, it didn’t last. 

A cat and mouse game follows in which an organization known as the Defense Department takes extreme interest in the former couple and their unborn child.  James and Siobhan come back together, and the book gradually ends.  I think there is a sequel in the works.

The book was short and well written, so you won’t feel it is a total waste of time.  But it is not complete blissful escapism either.  Severed heads is not the best scale for this one, and my feelings are mixed.  So I give Love’s Bright Star by Virginnia de Parte somewhere between 2 and 3 cupid arrows.

Heads Will Roll,

Everette Bell

The Pied Piper of the Undeadd by Michael Whetzel

The Pied Piper of the Undeadd by Michael Whetzel

This week I had the feeling.  I know you’ve had it, all readers have.  When you read a book that is so cool and so everything you love, you are practically vibrating with excitement.  Several times I had to consciously stop myself from writing a one line review.  “Go get this book now.”

The Pied Piper of the Undead by Michael Whetzel is a book seemingly based on the principal of going back in time and undoing some of the features that have becomes staples in the zombie apocalypse genre in order to give us a fresh start.  He leaves out the armies of survivalist psychos. He takes out zombies that are more powerful than humans.  He leaves out the drawn out predictable description of the end of the world.  He leaves out the religious dogma.

So you are wondering, what’s left?  Glad you asked.  There is a sense of mystery that drew me in as I was confronted with a world inhabited by only one human survivor, a thirteen year old boy named Peter.  He lives on top of a water tower at the edge of his small town, and the horde of the living dead ambles below.  As he looked down at them, waiting for him, in some cases signaling for him to climb down the ladder they do not have the motor control to climb, I was reminded of I AM Legend.  The undead calling to Robert Neville is my most enduring memory from reading the 1954 classic, and I felt that again.  Just like in the classic, we don’t know why Peter is there.  We don’t know any of the circumstances, and Micjael shows us instead of telling us boring back story.

The novella also delivers a young protagonist that offers a totally different emotional backdrop than the twenty to forty something plot of fighting for survival in order to reach the haven.  Peter is in that puberty time of immortal thinking.  He doesn’t fear his circumstances because in his simple, non developed mind he has figured out the system of how to get supplies and how the zombies “work”.  His view of the zombie apocalypse allows for different interactions with the undead. 

It is pretty standard for characters in these stories to struggle with one of their loved ones becoming a corpse and having to go through the mental anguish of killing them.  However, Michael Whetzel goes beyond that struggle with Peter’s interaction and feelings about the dead.  And the reason he was able to make this emotional landscape so rich is that he zooms in a small fragment of Romero’s description of mall zombies in Dawn of the Dead.  It all wraps up into a nice coming of age zombie story.

I will say that if you like the caravan quests of zombie killers driving around in endless search of bullets, gas, and other supplies you might not be into this story.  It’s a small scale character experience that I thoroughly enjoyed.  If I had a genie wish, I would have wanted the big ending to slow down just a touch, but that is mainly because I didn’t want the great read to come to an end.

I happily give The Pied Piper of the Undead by Michael Whetzel five rotten severed heads.  Because I loved Michaels work so much, here is a link for you to check out all his fiction.

Other fiction by Michael Whetzel

Heads Will Roll,

Everette Bell

   

Dark Confluence by Rosemary Fryth

Dark Confluence by Rosemary Fryth

This week I began my adventures in the genre of Paranormal Romance.  Other than listening to my wife talk Twilight and Hunger Games with her friends, this world is foreign to me, so I was very excited when a member of the horde asked me to review her latest book.

Conflict came at me from all sides as I read Rosemary Fryth’s Dark Confluence.  The story begins with a jolt of adrenaline as Jen McDonald narrowly avoids driving into a strange woman dressed in black.  This event leads her into a web of paranormal activity and warring factions of faeries just below the surface of the pristine tourist town of Emerald Hills.

The majority of the story is split between the actions of Jen and a woman named Carma who serves in a local political action group as well as runs a new age shop.  Carma dabbles in low level magic, and an encounter with a customer brings her into the supernatural drama unfolding in the town.

 

Without a doubt, the near car crash is exciting and kicks off an involved plot that many readers will enjoy, but I felt like the action began before I could develop a reason to care about the main character.  As a result I read along as a distant observer.  I was never able to become immersed in the story.

As Jen learns more about the Faerie folk and their involvement in her small town, we are introduced to lots of characters, way too many for me.  They would be here, then gone.  I got tired of looking for a way to connect to all of them.

Rosemary writes believable characters that are interesting to follow.  Jen has a wonderful relationship with an elderly widower named Tom that reminded me of millions of Baby Boomer daughters caring for aging parents and learning about their pasts.  But she also has a fiery desire for a mysterious young man named Fionn that provides the story with a backdrop of sexual tension.  The same is true for Carma.  She is fun to watch as she carries out her self-interested plans.  As much as the characters were interesting to me, I never lost myself in the story.  I was always very aware I was reading fiction.

Readers will appreciate Rosemary’s writing.  The story is pleasantly linear.  She is quite sensual in her descriptions.  She has a magician’s ability to manipulate time with her words.  She lingers us through scenes of desire between Jen and Fionn, and she harrows us through deadly encounters with the paranormal. 

The final conflict for me was faeries.  I don’t like them accept in children stories.  I never could get over it.  I do not see them as grown up.  I do realize that is a character flaw on my part.  When I discovered Dark Confluence was the first in a trilogy, my jaw dropped.  I can tell you now the other books don’t interest me, but it’s because of the faeries.  I would love to know how things end up for Jen and Carma.  I really would.  

Rosemary is a writer I could enjoy, but this is not a book for me.  If you don’t have a faerie hang up, this is probably a fun read.  Even though this is the end of the road for me, I think Dark Confluence by Rosemary Fryth is a solid three …hmm…severed fairy heads.  That might be too much.  Let’s just say three.

Heads Will Roll,

Everette Bell

The Misunderstood And Other Misfit Horrors by Jason Brannon

The Misunderstood And Other Misfit Horrors by Jason Brannon

My biggest problem with Jason Brannon’s, The Misunderstood And Other Misfit Horrors, is the title.  It would be all too easily, unfortunately, to scroll right past this super collection of fiction because of the generic title.  I am very grateful Jason sent it to me for a review because I might have been one of the people that missed out.  I also feel “horror” is a little bit of a misnomer.  I do realize I’m splitting hairs, but it stuck with me.

Rest assured Jason’s brief collection of nine stories is dark, but its foundation is imagination and mystery rather than terror.  Each of his fiction gems focuses on an atmosphere that is genuinely creepy.  I really liked the quiet settings of most of the stories.  I could almost feel the foreboding silence.  I was happily reminded of several Bradbury and Matheson stories.

My favorites of the collection included “Beware The Death Angel” and “The Misunderstood” for their great additions to Halloween mythology.  “Follow The Leader” was downright sinister in its delivery giving it an awesome Richard Laymon feel.  I didn’t like the ending of “The Fourth Key”, but the delivery was perfect for a late night read on a quiet couch.  “The Oracle” was a great traditional tale of terror, and “The Juggler” could have been an episode of Tales from the Darkside.

I immediately started hounding Jason for copies of his other books, and thank goodness he offered a few.  This collection really wet my appetite for some of his longer works.  I give The Misunderstood And Other Misfit Horrors by Jason Brannon a solid four severed heads delivered on a silver platter by Rod Serling.  Don’t miss it.

Heads Will Roll,

Everette Bell

   

Call For Submissions

I am primarily interested in reviewing novellas of any genre but will consider novels and collections.  Please query with title, genre, type, (novella, novel, collection) and blurb/synopsis.  Word count should be included.  If your book is selected, I only review Kindle versions of books.  All reviews are based on a severed head system.  My best rating is five decapitated heads.  The severed head system can be amended for different genres such as five teddy bears, five French kisses, or five bullets to the back of the head-whatever the situation calls for. 


I can't wait to see what you've got.


Let's Get Some Heads Rolling,
Everette Bell
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