Harbinger by David J. Bright

A thick fog has descended on the small, quiet town of Rowley. This is no ordinary fog, however, and no matter how hard the inhabitants try, they cannot leave town. With the fog thickening rapidly and urged on by the mysterious murky cloud, the towns folks’ hate and anger bubbles to the surface. Not only do they have to be afraid of what each of their neighbours are now capable of, but also of the dark deadly monster lurking within the sinister grey shroud...

Harbinger is almost a psychological study of what might happen to a small town when long-standing hate, conflicts and jealousies are brought to the surface, wreaking havoc in a town and turning its once good-natured inhabitants against each other.

The novel started out strongly and the first chapter was brilliant; it hooked me and left me eager to read more. It opens with a man venturing outside to embark upon his daily jog when he notices an unusual amount of ominous fog has settled over the town. The tension builds slowly, and it is a very intense and exciting prologue. After the opening, however, I found the plot to be rather slow and it doesn’t pick up again until about the midway mark, about 200 pages through the novel.

Harbinger is overall very well written, with the exception of spelling and grammar errors on most pages, but these would be down to editing rather than Bright’s talent as a writer - nonetheless I found them annoying. The dialogue is a little forced and awkward at times, especially where the central character - Ben - is concerned.

The horror aspect is enjoyable and has plenty of gore to satisfy fans of the genre. However, on top of the high level of terror and blood involved, Harbinger also contains a facet which I rarely enjoy in horror novels - romance. I really disliked this aspect of the book, and although I can appreciate that it was important to the plot, it ruined the novel for me. The romantic aspect felt incredibly forced and unrealistic - Ben and his long time ‘friend’ Elise go from constantly assuring their parents that they are ‘just friends’ to not being able to refrain from declaring their love for one another every few minutes, which was irritating as well as cheesy.

In conclusion, for a debut novel from a 22 year old, Harbinger is a success. Bright clearly has oodles of writing skill and I think this is a novel that a lot of horror enthusiasts will enjoy. It is well written and has a very unique and interesting premise that forces you to consider the condition of mankind - with a strong message that hate and jealousy have sufficient power to destroy people, perhaps even more so than the monstrous Harbinger itself, and I appreciated this added depth. I would have really liked this book if it wasn’t for the contrived and cringe-worthy ‘romance’ between Ben and Elise, plus the fact that the conclusion fell a little short for me. Other than these two gripes, Harbinger is worth a look.

Rating: 6/10

Off Season by Jack Ketchum

When a group of friends stay in a lonely cabin on the coast of Maine, they are unaware of the horrors that will ensue when they unwittingly catch the attention of a local family of cannibals who live in a nearby cave. Silently stalked by the animalistic tribe, the group of six rapidly diminishes...the cannibals are hungry, and they won’t stop until they have fully sated their appetite for human flesh!

The premise of Off Season is familiar, and the story is reminiscent of numerous cannibal stories such as The Hills Have Eyes. However the unoriginality of the plot can almost be forgiven by the brilliant writing; Ketchum succeeds at making the situation feel real and scary, albeit a little bit B movie at the same time. Ketchum’s descriptions of the cannibals are fantastic; he paints them almost as a pack of vicious, powerful animals, and some of the things they do are incomprehensible and shocking. In particular the ‘recipes’ described - such as sausages made from human-meat - were inventive and gruesome.

Despite there being an abundance of visceral horror in this novel, I couldn’t help but feel a little disappointed by the level of gore - after the hype surrounding Ketchum’s debut novel I was expecting something a little more extreme than what I read. For the majority of people though, Off Season will push their limits; it is definitely not for the squeamish. The original release of Off Season in 1980 had much of the gory parts cut out and it even had a completely different ending - something which Ketchum discusses in his ‘Afterword’ to the novel - yet it remained highly controversial in spite of this. It was interesting to read about how much the novel was changed before its initial publication, as Ketchum outlines some of the specific sections that were cut or edited. However this unexpurgated edition, first published in 1999, is much closer to Ketchum’s original manuscript, and has all the gross stuff added back in.

The characters are quite one dimensional and I kept forgetting who was who at the beginning, but this doesn’t really matter considering so many of them die, and this isn’t a character-driven plot. An aspect of this novel I really like is that as a reader it is impossible to predict who will survive - characters who you think will live probably won’t, and vice versa. Off Season starts with a bang and doesn’t let up until the final page, making for an engrossing read.

To conclude, Off Season is a good read if you’re after something shocking, gory and disgusting, but not much more than that. Once the mayhem begins, a fast pace is maintained that keeps the reader interested throughout, and is very well written as to render this almost clichéd subject matter feel new again.

Rating: 7/10

My other Jack Ketchum reviews:
The Girl Next Door

The Witches by Roald Dahl

The Witches is a children’s book which tells the story of an orphaned boy living with his Grandmamma, who delights in warning her grandson of the terrors of child-eating witches through the medium of some rather scary stories. One day the boy becomes entrapped in the room where all of the witches of the UK are holding their annual meeting, led by the fearsome Grand High Witch herself. Overhearing their vicious plot to turn all of the children of England into mice, the boy is caught by the evil witches and swiftly transformed into a mouse himself. With the severe disadvantage of being a tiny rodent, the boy and his Grandmamma concoct a cunning plan to eradicate the witches from the planet.

The story is well wrought and imaginative - it is inventive how in Dahl’s world the witches look exactly like regular women. The way that Dahl makes the tale appear as though it happened in our own world, playing on childish fears and presenting the witches to us as real, normal women not only makes the book much more terrifying, but also may teach children that though a stranger may look nice and friendly they might not be!

“In fairy-tales, witches always wear silly black hats and black cloaks, and they ride on broomsticks.But this is not a fairy tale. This is about REAL WITCHES... REAL WITCHES dress in ordinary clothes and look very much like ordinary women. They live in ordinary houses and they work in ORDINARY JOBS.That is why they are so hard to catch.”

“For all you know, a witch might be living next door to you right now. Or she might be the woman with the bright eyes who sat opposite you on the bus this morning. She might be the lady with the dazzling smile who offered you a sweet from a white paper bag in the street before lunch. She might even - and this will make you jump - she might even be your lovely school-teacher who is reading these words to you at this very moment. Look carefully at that teacher. Perhaps she is smiling at the absurdity of such a suggestion. Don’t let that put you off. I could be part of her cleverness.”

The Witches is quite dark; like most of Dahl’s work there is a sinister aspect to it and the book certainly has the potential to scare young children. For example at the beginning the boy is being told a story about what witches do with children, and his Grandmamma tells him that one girl became trapped inside a picture for the rest of her life, which I found quite creepy.

The characters are lovely and charming; the boy and his adorable Grandmamma, the detestable Grand High Witch and greedy little Bruno Jenkins make up a compendium of delightful personalities. The close relationship between the boy and his grandmother is heart-warming and one a lot of children will be able to relate to and appreciate.

The Witches is a really delightful, fun and light-hearted story that can be enjoyed by young and old. It is scary, funny and incredibly endearing, with an inventive plot - and on top of all that the illustrations by Quentin Blake are wonderfully charming.

Rating: 8/10

Horns by Joe Hill

Despite there not being enough evidence against him, Ignatius Perrish remains the prime suspect in the brutal rape and murder of his girlfriend, Merrin. Believing  Ig to be guilty, his friends and family have abandoned him, and in the eyes of the public he is a demon; Ig’s life has become hell. A year on from Merrin’s death, Ig wakes up from a night of heavy drinking with a bad hangover, a blurred memory, and large devil-horns protruding from his temples.

The concept of Horns is strange, original and intriguing, and the plot itself lives up to the premise; it is completely engaging and exciting. There is not a dull moment and I felt eager throughout to know what was coming next; the numerous twists and turns really kept me on my toes.

Horns is brilliantly written and the style is reminiscent of Stephen King's (Hill's father). If you enjoy King’s works, I should say you will definitely appreciate Hill’s genius too. There is a lot of depth to the narrative and it is littered with hidden meaning; every tiny thing that happens is relevant and important to the overarching plot, and it sometimes feels as though Hill is leaving little clues for us to ponder over. The characters are well painted and realistic - I particularly appreciate how well Hill wrote Lee Tourneau, Ig’s ex-best friend and possibly the most interesting character.

As well as combining dark fantasy with horror, Horns offers an interesting juxtaposition of dark humour with raw emotion. The demonic Horns give Ig certain powers, with which he hopes to find and take revenge on the real culprit of Merrin’s murder. When people speak to him, the Horns compel them to gush their innermost secrets and darkest desires which at times result in some amusing, if slightly sickening, confessions. At the same time though, Horns is a resonant and emotional novel. Once the story gets going, Hill lays off the humour and focuses on the horrific grief that can shatter people’s lives when trying to come to terms with bereavement. Hill also highlights the devastation that is felt when those you love abandon you when you need them the most - at the very beginning some Horns-compelled confessions are amusing, but later on when Ig hears what his family truly think of him they are extremely saddening. Horns, although enjoyable, was at times incredibly heartwrenching which was something I was not expecting going into it.

Horns is not your average horror novel in that it is not particularly scary or gory, and has a distinct romantic and emotional aspect. Don’t let that put you off though; it is one of the things that make it stand out. This dimension adds another level to the novel that a lot of horror books, focusing more on shocks or carnage, often fail to achieve. Horns is a superbly written, original and imaginative novel, with an interesting supernatural revenge-fuelled plot which manages to balance dark humour, horror, fantasy, romance and poignancy perfectly.

Rating: 10/10

My other Joe Hill Reviews:
In the Tall Grass
NOS4R2

In the Tall Grass by Stephen King and Joe Hill

In the Tall Grass is a collaborative supernatural-horror short story by father-son duo Stephen King and Joe Hill, and it hearkens back to King’s earlier short stories such as ‘Children of the Corn’, when he was at the top of his game.

While on a road trip to stay with some relatives, brother and sister Cal and Becky DeMuth hear a child’s voice calling for help from deep within the ominous-looking field of tall grass by the road. Despite another voice - presumed to be the boy’s mother’s - warning them to turn back while they still have the chance, Cal and Becky decide to venture into the grass to help the boy find his way out. But the grass is not all that it seems; its supernatural nature means that they soon become separated, and can’t seem to find one another again - then panic sets in, and the siblings realise they have made a big mistake.

In the Tall Grass starts out as creepy and disorienting, progressing steadily to a shocking and gruesome final quarter - the level of gore in the latter part is so extreme and disturbing that some readers might find the material highly offensive. The first half is great; it is intense, highly suspenseful and succeeds at tapping into the common fear of becoming lost and separated from our loved ones in precarious or potentially dangerous situations. The grass makes for a foreboding and dangerous foe; it is approximated by Becky to be about 7 feet tall - a suffocating, dense maze of green closing in on the characters as they cycle through several emotions - frustration, fear and panic being at the forefront. The authors play not only on the anxiety of getting lost, but also the uncomfortable idea of lurching into the unknown: the pair have no idea what might be lurking within the forbidding greenery - smelly mud, biting bugs, slithering snakes, a lunatic or two perhaps, maybe even a monster...the possibilities are endless.

This 60 page story is certainly not for everyone; you should not read this if you are easily offended or squeamish. However for fans of King’s oldies who have a strong stomach, this is a fantastic short story that is definitely worth your time. It even includes extracts from King’s upcoming release Doctor Sleep and Hill’s new book NOS4A2, as an added bonus.

To sum up, In the Tall Grass may be sick, twisted and gruesome, but I loved it; the concept is original and scary, and the writing is skilful, tight and engaging. It elicits a profound feeling of disorientation, claustrophobia and panic, culminating in some grisly blood and guts.

Rating: 9/10

My other Stephen King reviews:
11/22/63
Christine
Gerald's Game
Misery
The Running Man

My other Joe Hill reviews:
Horns
NOS4R2

The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman

Inspired by Rudyard Kipling’s The Jungle Book, Gaiman’s macabre tale about a boy who lives in a graveyard offers a dark twist on a classic children’s story. Despite being aimed at a young audience, The Graveyard Book opens with a shocking triple homicide by the villain of this whimsical tale called ‘the man Jack’. With his parents and older sister freshly murdered, an adventurous and curious toddler slips out of the house and stumbles upon an old graveyard close by, where he is adopted by a kindly ghost couple and christened Nobody, or Bod for short. For now Bod is safe in the confines of the spooky graveyard, but the man Jack is still out there, and he intends to finish what he started...

I love the setting of The Graveyard Book: a scary old English graveyard, surrounded by ghosts from all time periods and backgrounds - including the ghost of a witch and the spectre of Caius Pompeius, as well as vicious ghouls. In real life, graveyards are normally avoided and people don’t like being there, so I thought Gaiman’s idea of having a young boy live in one was very intelligent as well as interesting and original. Furthermore this macabre setting allows for a juxtaposing of the living and the dead, offering some wonderful tidbits of wisdom shared from the ghosts to the young boy:

“You're alive, Bod. That means you have infinite potential. You can do anything, make anything, dream anything. If you can change the world, the world will change. Potential. Once you're dead, it's gone. Over. You've made what you've made, dreamed your dream, written your name. You may be buried here, you may even walk. But that potential is finished.”

The novel itself reads, at least for the first half, very much like a collection of short stories. They focus on the many mischievous adventures Bod gets up to in his unusual home, and don’t advance the plot a great deal. It is not until towards the end of the novel when the man Jack makes his reappearance and the story progresses.

Despite the high acclaim of this book, I dislike the writing style and this major issue made The Graveyard Book a bit of a boring read for me. It was not very engaging, and the dialogue fell a bit flat; I found this was the case with Stardust too - the only other Gaiman I have read. This is a huge shame because the premise is brilliantly imaginative and, as I have already said, the creepy setting really appealed to me; this book certainly had the potential to wow me, but unfortunately it failed to do so.

Ostensibly The Graveyard Book is a children’s story, but it is incredibly dark - the murder of Bod’s family in the opening chapter is not graphic, but nonetheless it is disturbing and sinister in context, and I would not recommend it for young children or for sensitive older kids as it may scare them and give them nightmares.

In conclusion, my second outing with Gaiman was a bit of a letdown, and despite the high acclaim of The Graveyard Book I didn’t enjoy reading it too much due to the dull writing style. However the concept behind this is truly brilliant and it boasts an array of charming and interesting characters; had this been written in a way I can get on with, I’m sure this would have been one of my favourites. I remain underwhelmed by Gaiman’s work but I am determined to find one that I love!

Rating: 6/10

My other Neil Gaiman reviews:
Coraline 
How to Talk to Girls at Parties

The Running Man by Stephen King

The Running Man is a ‘Bachman Book’ - one of the 5 novels Stephen King published under the pseudonym Richard Bachman in the late 70’s and early 80’s to see if his work would sell as successfully without his famous name plastered on the cover.

The Running Man is a gritty sci-fi thriller set in a not-too-distant dystopian future where the poor are viewed as pests that need to be disposed of by the heartless authorities. A key feature of King’s fictional future is the ‘Games Company’, which enlists the lower class in life threatening games for money and the entertainment of the rich.

The protagonist - Benjamin Richards - is one of the unlucky poor folk. He has been blacklisted from working due to his leaving a job that was likely to make him sterile, his baby daughter is dying from flu because he cannot afford medicine and the government does not believe in welfare, and his wife has resorted to prostituting herself to make ends meet. Eventually Ben decides to take matters into his own hands and heads down to the Games Company to try and win his family some money; after rigorous mental and physical tests, he is selected to take part in the most dangerous, challenging and formidable event the company have to offer - The Running Man.

The concept of the game The Running Man is this: after being demonised on TV (or FreeVee as it is called) to rally the public against him, the Runner is set loose and after a 12 hour head start he is pursued by skilled Hunters who once they find him won’t hesitate to murder him. He can go absolutely anywhere in the world, but here’s the catch: the public receive a monetary reward if they spot the Runner and report his whereabouts, making it incredibly difficult for the newly made enemy of the state to get very far. Furthermore, the Runner must send two video tapes of himself each day to the Games Company, or they won’t win any money at all, but will still be hunted. If Ben can survive for 30 days he receives 3 million ‘New Dollars’ - King’s less than imaginative name for future money - but so far this has never happened in the entire history of the game so his chances look slim.

This book is very much about class segregation. King paints a vivid picture of the underbelly of this futuristic America, and the dreadful lives that the poor have to suffer at the hands of a greedy and selfish government. This classic theme makes the story relatable, and King executed it very well. Ben is very bitter towards the authorities and he has no qualms with showing it, making for several quite amusing moments when he displays his rebellious feelings.

The Running Man is an intense story, with the Hunters hot on Ben’s tail and the constant fear that at any moment he could be caught and murdered. To enhance this feeling, each short chapter is headed by ‘Minus 100...and Counting’ and so on until it reaches zero, which is an interesting way to split up the story and adds a sense of urgency. However despite the dangerous and exciting premise - and the fact that it is quite short (my copy was some 200 pages) - to my surprise parts of the story were a bit boring and slow. On the other hand the ending was action-packed, gruesome and immensely satisfying; it boosted my opinion of the novel from ‘OK’ to ‘Wow, that was brilliant!’

In conclusion, The Running Man is a great little read that has a powerful message and good writing; ultimately the slow and dull middle is more than redeemed by an explosive, gory, and truly memorable ending.

Rating: 7/10

My other Stephen King Reviews:
11/22/63
Christine
Gerald's Game
In the Tall Grass
Misery

Let's Go Play at the Adams' by Mendal W. Johnson

Let’s Go Play at the Adams’ is a horror novel often compared with Jack Ketchum’s The Girl Next Door, since they are both loosely based on the Sylvia Likens case. Johnson’s rendition of the case has a much stronger psychological aspect than Ketchum’s, which is much more gruesome and violent. 

20-year-old Barbara Miller has been left in charge of 13-year-old Bobby and 10-year-old Cindy Adams while their parents are holidaying in Europe. Everything is going smoothly and Barbara is enjoying her new role of bossy babysitter however, about a week before the Adams’ are due to return, Barbara wakes up drowsy from a heavy dosage of chloroform and finds herself to be completely immobile. Her two young charges and three neighbourhood children have tied her tightly to the bed, and giddy with their new found freedom, they aren’t going to release her until they have fully enjoyed their ‘game’.

The premise might not sound so scary - how harmful can a group of kids be anyway? Well this is what Barbara thought initially, but she soon learns how dangerous it is to underestimate children. At first Barbara thinks the kids are simply playing a prank and will free her soon. She quickly realises this is not the case and, as the youngsters adjust to their new roles as the ‘grown-ups’, they become gradually bolder and more ferocious with their new toy; the mental torture of the earlier part of the book progressing steadily to callous physical abuse.

Let’s Go Play at the Adams’ starts off very well - the writing flows nicely and is easy to read. Once the youngsters have taken Barbara captive however, the novel moves quite slowly; some parts were a little dull and at times my attention wavered. A great portion of the novel consists of Barbara pondering the situation and for large chunks there was a profound lack of progress; it reminded me of Jessie’s somewhat tedious inner dialogue in Gerald’s Game - Barbara even imagines conversations with her friend Terry much like Jessie talks to her inner voices.

An interesting aspect of Let’s Go Play is that we not only get inside the victim’s head, but we also observe events from the point of view of each of her captors. The childrens' characters are written well and it is interesting to observe their development through the entire process. Dianne is the eldest at 17 and is black-hearted and quite terrifying; her brother Paul is well on his way to becoming a fully fledged psychopath, being very weird and unnerving. The Adams children themselves - Bobby and Cindy - are mostly victims of peer pressure, and once the situation starts to get out of hand it is interesting to watch their very different development in attitude as Barbara begins to deteriorate. Barbara’s slow degeneration is harrowing and sad and, as the novel advances, she becomes less of a person to the children and is more like a giant Barbie doll to them, making for a shocking and deeply disturbing read.

Due to its unsettling nature Let’s Go Play is neither easy to read nor a novel everyone will want to try. It reminded me a little of Lord of the Flies in the way that the children behaved savagely without adults to keep them in check, and did things just because they could - some of the things they do to their babysitter are completely void of emotion and humanity. The fact that the villains in Let’s Go Play are a group of normal children exacerbates the level of horror with innocence being corrupted and completely destroyed when parental guidance is absent. This novel is dark, compelling and highly chilling, and although it is not too graphically violent, it will burrow into your psyche and leave you thinking about its uncomfortable content for days. 

Rating: 8/10