Review – This Skin Was Once Mine by Eric LaRocca

A collection of four short stories, each concerned with the damage and hurt that humans do to one another, Eric LaRocca has created an intense, prosaic series of horror tales.

Opening with the eponymous This Skin Was Once Mine, the idea of trauma, but more importantly the lasting effect it has, is never more so poetically captured. Soaked into her skin, Jillian’s perspective is saturated in victimhood though she sees herself as a monster. This odd contradiction plays out in a number of ways: her parents and her feelings toward them; her treatment by others. Called back to her childhood home after a twenty year absence, her father’s funeral peels away the past to reveal something quite awful.

Deftly crafted, with little said explicitly until the end, the dread of the story is palpable yet frustratingly out of sight. As Jillian cuts through the obfuscations, she discovers layers of monstrosity right at the heart of her childhood and, thereby, within herself. It’s the disgusting and nasty cycle violence that family abuse creates laid bare in the words of a fairy tale. And, for that, it’s brutal.

Slightly more obscure in its telling, though clear in its meaning, Seedling is, once more, concerned with the death of a parent. Left completely anonymous, the narrator is never really known; a device that works well considering the direction the story takes. The father calls after the passing of the mother and, immediately the character goes to make sure he is alright.

What happens thereafter is a strange, mesmerisingly dark fantasy tale of wounds and hurts and the silences between people that are broken by shared grief. It’s not a complex idea, this notion of being let in to understand another’s suffering but it’s the twist in the story that makes it so much more. Those wounds fester; dark things are born there. In Seedlings it’s the revealing of those grievances, the releasing of them, that is so shocking.

Using an old fashioned quality to the writing, All The Parts Of You That Won’t Easily Burn reads like a classic. Propriety and social accountability permeate the story as Enoch immediately critiques a shopkeeper he has sought out. Looking to gift his husband a chef’s knife to mark a special dinner party they are hosting, Enoch, instead, finds himself beguiled. The shopkeeper, sensing something within Enoch, offers him a deal; the knife for a favour.

He wants to cut him and, though Enoch is initially repulsed, he acquiesces. Revelling in this strange new fetish, Enoch can’t get the man or the sensation out of his head. Obsessed with it, he finds his way back to the shop becoming more deeply embroiled in the activity. A disturbing yet compelling series of events, of opening up strange new associations, and breaking down of socially accepted codes, it’s a story that is as insidious as it is well crafted.

Prickle is hard define. There’s a sense of something more hidden behind the story and yet on the surface it’s two old friends reacquainting. In their seventies, both have past their prime yet their minds seem as sharp and as cruel as ever.

Playing a game to cause slight harm to unaware people, the two men enjoy the strange power they hold over the unsuspecting. But when one of them goes too far, it highlights a madness the other hadn’t seen before. What it says about the rationale and reasonings behind human games isn’t really clear but, for a short story, it’s an unsettling ending to a dark collection.

Swirling with malevolent and dangerous thoughts, This Skin Was Once Mine is a poetically written set of stories. Tinged with an atmosphere of the past and touching on some twisted truths, it’s a strange and gripping group of horror tales.

Review copy

Published by Titan Books

Review – The Reformatory by Tananarive Due

A dark and emotional historical horror, The Reformatory is a thousand injustices that bleed across the page. An astounding work that blends post-colonial literature, civil rights, human monsters and supernatural mysteries into a single, gripping narrative, it’s a book that deserves high praise.

Set in Florida, 1950s, Gracetown is a segregated and insular community. White residents are afforded the American dream of education and justice and prosperity whilst the black community still fear the oppression of a politically privileged elite. Red McCormack is one of those few; a rich and hugely influential farmer, his connections across the town, both black and white, run deep. For the Stephens family, they are bound to him by a history of slavery, their house given to their grandfather upon his freedom. However, that history isn’t far removed and, in all but name, black men, women and children are still treated like slaves.

When McCormack’s son makes inappropriate advances on Gloria Stephens one innocuous morning, her younger, twelve year old brother, defends her. Despite the fact that these children grew up together, the minor scuffle lights a terrible fire. The complex background behind this small event unravels, highlighting the monstrous attitude of a time and place steeped in ethnic hatred, political ignorance and contradictory beliefs. Robbie Stephens, whose father was run out of town for inciting black worker rights, and whose mother recently passed from cancer, suddenly finds himself at the mercy of men who would use him as an example to justify oppression and sufferance.

Sentenced to six months at the Reformatory the true horror of the prevailing political system comes to bear. Offered no representation, Robbie is given over to an institution where corporal punishment and slave labour is the norm. Seen through the perspective of Gloria, a sixteen year old, desperately seeking justice, and Robbie trapped in a place where there is none, the emotional impact and helplessness of their shared plight is palpable. However, intertwined amongst all of these human abuses is a gothic, supernatural element whose effect is equally profound. Ghosts haunt the very soil of Gracetown, reminders of all the grief and grievances that are weaved through the landscape and community of the place. As a metaphor for the terrible past that the black community share, the spilt blood and terrible memories that haunt families, it is a stark reminder that, in certain places, these things are yet to be put to rest.

Weaving Robbie’s story of survival against men who embody the very definition of evil, as he navigates the ghosts that seek peace, alongside Gloria’s battle against a system designed to oppress, The Reformatory is a layered and powerful narrative. Drenched in the history of the American south, of political subjugation, the true horror of men given freedom to act with impunity is a terrifying combination. It’s not hard to comprehend how it is humans who do the real harm whilst ghosts (and memories) direct things in ways that both help and hinder.

A complex and compelling retelling of a terrible history, The Reformatory is a powerful example of what horror can achieve. Dripping with dread and exploding with terrible violence at times, the conflagration of human and supernatural terrors creates an engrossing narrative of huge and important scope. Stunningly crafted and truly meaningful, it’s a exceptional work of fiction.

Review copy

Published by Titan Books

Review – The Shuddering by Ania Ahlborn

A bitterly cold, uncompromising horror, The Shudddering is a terrifying creature feature that brings originality to a classic trope. Sharp, self-aware and suffused with dread, it’s a brilliant and fast paced read.

Hoping to bring together his twin sister, Jane, and best friend, Sawyer, for one final snowboarding holiday in the Colorado mountains, Ryan hasn’t told any of them that their father has sold the family hideaway. But, Sawyer brings his new girlfriend and Jane invites her friend Lauren to soften the blow of her broken heart, creating an awkward dynamic. There’s history amongst these friends and all manner of unspoken truths swirling under the surface though most is left unsaid until it’s too late.

Determined to enjoy it for the last time before he leaves for a life in Switzerland, Ryan gets the group up the slopes. It looks like it’ll be an idyllic weekend. Only Sawyer’s girlfriend, April, becomes jealous, determined to leave during a huge snow storm. It’s a decision that acts as a catalyst for a brutal ending. With a blizzard closing the friends off from the road, miles away, and the house’s Wi-Fi and phones already disconnected, the isolation leaves them vulnerable. After April throws a tantrum and decides to walk out, disappearing, things go from bad to very worse. Lauren and Ryan attempt to find her but what they encounter out in the frozen woods is a nightmare made real.

Building the dread perfectly as one couple argues and another begins their first steps into romance, The Shuddering is classic survivor horror. Smart adults making informed decisions in the face of abject terror, it’s unforgiving. The awareness of its own genre makes the story somehow more effective as the group’s choices are whittled down. And, the things in the woods, are both awful and original in equal measure adding up to a great, gripping read.

Brutal and dreadful, The Shuddering is a captivating and classic horror with an icy bite.

My copy

Published by 47North

Review – Artifical Wisdom by Thomas R. Weaver

A near future, sci-fi thriller, Artificial Wisdom creates a terrifying world of climate change, manipulated information and the emergence of A.I. Blending genres, it’s a well thought out look at a grief and truth in a maelstrom of political and ecological chaos.

Tully, a hard nosed investigative journalist lost his wife and unborn child in a devastating catastrophe that struck the Middle East. Millions died as a humid heat wave combined with infrastructure collapse resulted in devastation. When he’s contacted by an anonymous source, ten years later, claiming to know how the deadly event happened, his grief forced him to chase it down. It leads him to confront a former American president, a man now in line to become the first world dictator; a position designed to get humanity out of the climate collapse brutalising the planet. Most countries are ruined and few places are safe. However, a group of new states – floating islands that are havens for the rich and intellectually elite – also have a contender for dictator; an A.I called Solomon.

As Tully and his team seek the truth behind the claims of a genocide caused by untested tech, it leads to the sister of one of his team. The very same woman who created Solomon. But, just as he begins to unpick the incident that killed his wife, the inventor is murdered. Just how those things are linked becomes the thread he has to pull upon.

Whilst the mystery within Artifical Wisdom isn’t hard to guess, it’s the narrative behind it that really has the most impact. A considered look at climate change and those that would deny it, the author really digs into conspiracy theories and how easy it is to propagate misinformation in a world determined by unregulated media. It makes the MC, Tully, and his claims about getting the truth out regardless of consequences, such an interesting prospect. Highlighting ideas around deep fakes, fake news and false information, Artificial Wisdom doesn’t shy away from the current political reality we live within and for that it’s a smart approach to a knotty social issue. Wrapping it up inside the problem of artificial intelligence and what that might mean for humanity allows the novel to explore other, frightening possibilities. Ultimately positing the notion of whether human, emotional intelligence is enough or whether detached, statistical calculation will be the saving grace, Artifical Wisdom ends on a rather worrisome and very political note.

Full of social commentary and unafraid to look at a frightening future, Artifical Wisdom is an intriguing cli-fi thriller.

Review copy

Published by Chainmaker Press

Review – Toxxic by Jane Hennigan

Sequel to the excellent Moths, a hugely successful indie novel that was taken up by Angry Robot Books, Toxxic digs deep into the world ravaged by a terrible disease. Considered, fiercely feminist and distinctly dystopian, it’s a complex tale of a world built on trauma.

Set months after Moths, itself based forty years after the emergence of a poisonous species of moth which affected men, Toxxic continues the narrative in a fascinating way. After the virus decimated the male population, many dying quickly whilst others became violent maniacs, female society has been slowly rebuilt on the ruins of what was left. Institutes for males to live in sterile environments are the only safe place for them and the only way to continue the existence of the human race. But the development (and concealment) of a vaccine has caused huge repercussions with those for and against it. Generations of woman have never been around or known men, and men themselves are very different to the ones that existed before the apocalyptic infection decades ago but there are those that remember. In a world where men are only useful for breeding, kept isolated at a high cost, the society that has emerged is a fascinating one that flips patriarchy on its head.

Split between perspectives, from Tony, a man chosen to take part in the vaccine programme, his foster carer Evie and an unnamed activist set against men’s freedoms, Toxxic creates an engrossing narrative. Those against allowing men back into society remember not only the way things were before the infection, but the terrible and devastating violence the diseased wrought on women. Tony, born and raised in a closed environment, and conditioned to obey and behave, offers an intriguing insight into the institutionally conditioned, the vastness of the world he’s never known but, importantly, a male perspective that isn’t violent and sexualised. Evie’s story is vastly different. A woman of the new world caught in a broken marriage with a wife she’s drifted apart from, her insights show a society that is fractured and complex and struggling to emerge from the past.

Set against a fascinating piece of post apocalyptic world building, the knotty issues of male violence and trauma run up against liberal ideas of freedom and equality. The social commentary on women’s fears is intrinsically woven into this story and powerfully articulated. The ordeal of the apocalyptic infection is similarly considered and it’s depth of thought is another powerful reminder of the physical and mental scars that violence leaves upon a person. Giving weight to the different reactions the catalyst of the vaccine creates, the complex responses woven throughout the narrative are captivating. In a world where men are not safe, one built on the wounds of the past, a dark but profound story emerges.

A brilliant piece of “what-if” science fiction that tackles some hugely important social concerns, Toxxic is a dark and fascinating novel. Wonderfully crafted characters, it’s the interplay of perspectives, the harrowing pasts and the strangeness of the future, that paints such a powerful picture. Clever, complex and captivating.

Review copy

Published by Angry Robot Books

Review – Full Dark, No Stars by Stephen King

Deciding to finish this collection, I read the last two stories back to back. If the title doesn’t give you enough of a clue, these stories are dark, gripping and unapologetic, making for a great set of novellas.

Fair Extension, the shortest of the four collected here, is a mean spirited tale of jealousy and hidden feelings. Suffering late stage cancer, Dan Streeter who seemingly is a morally upstanding husband and father meets a stranger on a quiet road at the edge of town. That man offers him a deal, an extension on his life. He thinks the man is insane, especially when it’s revealed that for the deal to be complete, Streeter must choose someone he hates to transfer his pain upon.

It’s this point that’s so important and so hard to swallow. Choosing his best friend against whom he’s harboured all manner of ill will since childhood, reveals something awful. That friend relied on Streeter to help him through school, stole Streeter’s girlfriend who he married and ended up coasting into a massively successful business. The deep seated resentment Streeter feels pours out, much to the strangers glee. Weeks later, the man’s cancer is gone but his friend’s life begins to deteriorate in truly terrible ways, classically narrated in King’s inimitable style.

Less complex than other stories it still retains that central kernel; a pivotal moment that changes everything and the consequences thereof. But, the darkness here is of much different quality and is more brutal for it.

The last story, A Good Marriage, is truly intense and deeply unsettling. An unassuming and pleasant girl, Darcy, meets a young man and together they build a life full of marriage’s little quirks and compromises but also joys and love. A nice house, two beautiful children – now grown – and a routine that includes Bob, her husband, going on frequent trips to trade for rare coins, his passion. An accountant, a little soft in the middle, he’s a man of careful routine.

It’s whilst he’s away on one of those trips that Darcy makes a discovery. A bondage magazine hidden amongst old catalogues in a box kept in the garage. A box that was left out. A box that Darcy tripped over looking for batteries. That first uncovering peels back the veneer on Darcy’s quiet but happy life. It’s the consequences, once again, that have such profound ramifications; the implications of which pierce through the story and make it so harsh. Realising her husband, the person she loves so deeply and has shared her whole adult life with, is something completely other is brutally portrayed.

A fascinating look into the notion that you never truly know another, that there’s always another side to the looking glass, A Good Marriage is a terrifying moral dilemma and a visceral tale. Yet, once again, like Big Driver, though the evil is vanquished the required action leaves it’s mark; another irrevocable change.

Dark, personal stories cleverly crafted and reaching into the depths of human psyches, Full Dark, No Stars is an immensely captivating collection.

My copy

Published by Hodder & Stoughton

Review – Big Driver by Stephen King

The second story in the Full Dark, No Stars collection and the grittiest I’ve read from King in a while. A wonderfully written character but an awful scenario combine into a gripping, and dark, tale of revenge.

Whilst I’m not a fan of books that reference films as a way to signpost ideas, what King has produced in Big Driver is a meta fiction worthy of praise. Taking the collective consciousness around horror stories and, rather than using it as a crutch, using it as a framework, he displays an insightful connection between reality and fiction and that liminal space where imagination rests. What unfolds is a fascinating look into the mind of someone forced to endure and solve a terrible situation.

A cosy mystery writer, Tess subsidises her income with speaking events. Offered a short notice gig, not far from home, that meets her criteria, she accepts. A particular but pleasant woman, Tess does everything with honesty from her meet and greets to making sure her cat, Fritzy, isn’t left alone too long. When her host offers to show her a shortcut home, she readily accepts, a fact upon which everything turns.

The backroad she travels is quiet and the debris in the road causes her to suffer a flat tyre. It’s here that Tess’ imagination begins to wander and when one of the biggest men she’s ever seen arrives to help her, she’s suddenly gripped by a fear she derides herself for feeling, worrying her overactive mind has snagged on a horror movie theme. It’s not unfounded.

Tess survives. What King then does with the story is intriguing. A tale of a woman’s perspective including shame and guilt but also privacy and self-preservation, there’s a cold logic about Tess’ point of view that is both maddeningly and sadly real. It’s also one of an unravelling and that’s to be expected; the incident is a changing point with out the option to return. Tess displays a strength and character that’s immense and it’s less the revenge and more about how she goes about it that is so compelling.

Not an easy read but a gripping work of fiction, Big Driver is all about character and, yet, whilst the collection is titled Full Dark, No Stars there is some light at the end of this one despite its source.

My copy

Published by Hodder & Stoughton

Review – The Pollutant Speaks by Alex Cochran

An intriguing blend of science fiction and philosophy, specifically language, The Pollutant Speaks wasn’t what I expected. An enormous undertaking stuffed with massive ideas, it’s a considered and left field work of fiction.

On the seven, overpopulated human worlds, people are mentally and physically crushed by the intensity of existence. Space, resources, freedom are all scarce. It’s something Evans knows all too well. Author of an incisive and controversial poem (the eponymous “The Pollutant Speaks), he’s also suffered from the mental illness that the collision between poverty and marketability creates in this hard cyberpunk future. Nothing is owned, everything is controlled and open to purchase, including one’s privacy. When Evans, still struggling from his stint in a mental hospital, finds himself out of funds and about to be sent to a Life Basic institute, things get much worse. A bizarre cult, the Cannots, who have appropriated his poem, decide to kill him for being a traitor to his own words.

It’s not the first convoluted twist on logic within The Pollutant Speaks but it does force Evans to seek an off world escape to Border. A satellite planet built as a training ground for ambassadors, it’s a place designed for those about to met a vast alien Union; to learn their language and customs and, hopefully, help humanity enter the community and, by extension, end people’s suffering. It’s the language that is the central tenant here. A perfect form of communication so multilayered as to be unmistakably clear in intention. Philosophically speaking, it’s an astounding prospect. A language with no deviation of meaning would be free of deception or misinformation and, therefore, would form the root of a better, fairer society. Yet, humanity lacks the innate ability to speak its complexity and only a few, like Evans, can achieve it.

Much of The Pollutant Speaks concerns itself with this idea; of speaking and becoming like the Paraunion. The pursuit of clarity and meaning through unknowable knowledge. Yet, human politics continue in the background. The Cannots growing in popularity despite the contradiction of their own ideology. The desire to break whilst wanting more, to cease production whilst decrying a lack, to quote the poem of an author they want to kill. It’s this strange double standard, cult of the leader, law based politics that lays the social commentary upon which the novel then considers another way. A way which threads analytical philosophy throughout its narrative, quoting some of the greats in a sidelong gaze at what could be.

However, Evans’ own journey, from the Crush to Border and beyond is an interesting one. And, it’s his and his colleagues desire to help free humanity from its own entanglements that keeps the engine of the book humming along. Intriguing concepts on a vast scale are overlaid on the human condition vie for space as language, that root of all thought, takes centre stage.

Well written and cleverly considered, it’s a hard cyberpunk, far future sci-fi that’s seeks to portray both the expansive and the individual within its remit.

Review copy

Published by Bee Orchid Press

Review – 1922 by Stephen King

Once more looking toward reading more recent Stephen King stories, I picked up this collection of novellas Full Dark, No Stars secondhand. Opening with 1922 it set the tone with a dark, insidious story that had me gripped from the outset.

Written by Wilf, as a confessional eight years after the fact, the story is a first person and very personal insight into an extremely grim series of events. After his wife inherits a large plot of land, the couple argue about whether to add it to their small farm or, as Arlette would prefer, selling it all and moving to the city. Determined to remain a country man, he recruits his teenage son to his cause hoping to sway the conversation in his favour. But months of disagreement turns, becoming bitter and hateful as both seek to get their own way. For Wilf, his determination curdles into something murderous, adamant that he’ll keep his family farm and refuse to let developers pollute the land around him.

Setting himself on a path, he manages to convince his boy to help him; made easier by his wife’s behaviour. The pair commit to the killing but it’s a vile affair; the reality of it more brutal than either could imagine. The son, distraught and disturbed changes from a bright, hopeful young man. Wilf, realising the poison he has poured into the well, does all he can to look to the future. But, as 1922 plays out, it’s the worst year the spells the beginning of the end.

A cleverly constructed first person narrative, it’s a window into self- conviction and an act of appalling consequences. Greed or stubbornness or a desire to just be free set his hand but Wilf’s plan is a descent into darkness steered by the memory or ghost of the woman he killed. Spiralling away from the vision he had, the murder is a catalyst of destruction taking everything away from him. But whilst the horror of the killing, the guilt and lies weigh heavy, it’s the thing he thought buried which truly haunts him.

Wonderfully woven and told with such a first person presence, 1922 is a forceful and captivating novella. Once again putting King’s character work on display, it’s a story that contains that dark seed that makes his work so compelling.

My copy

Published by Hodder & Stoughton

Review – Zero Kill by M.K. Hill

An action packed, popcorn thriller that reads like a blend of Jason Bourne and Salt, Zero Kill hits the ground running and never stops. Fast, cinematic and dramatic, it’s big screen entertainment.

When Elsa Zero’s boyfriend proposes in the middle of a packed, expensive, London restaurant she couldn’t think of anything worse. That is until the same boyfriend tries to kill her mere minutes later. It’s the beginning of a tumultuous night and the start of a horrifying series of events that sees her hunted by every secret service agency native to the UK and abroad.

A former operative for a private company that specialises in infiltration and clandestine activities, Elsa isn’t completely unprepared. But, she’s had nine years out of the game and is now a mother with a middling career as a physical trainer. When she tries to uncover what’s happening, the stones she overturns merely expose more grim players in the game. Russians, gangsters and others are suddenly all out for her blood and the one man she thinks she can trust, Max Saint, turns out to be a broken down alcoholic living in a shelter.

Desperate doesn’t begin to describe it. Every turn is a double cross and no one and nothing seems to play it straight. The result is breathless car chase after bruising encounter as Elsa tries to protect her children and discover the truth about why, suddenly, everyone wants her dead. Different agencies step in, either to help her or capture her but through it all she, along with the bumbling Saint, manage to stay one step ahead until the net closes in too tightly and the final revelations sweep her feet from underneath her.

Written in a highly cinematic style reminiscent of some great spy thrillers, there’s gunfights, car chases and close combat galore. As it builds to its explosive and suitably nefarious conclusion, Zero Kill hits all the beats you could want from a secret agent, action adventure. Twists, reveals and treachery abound in this fast paced, fun read cleverly left open for a sequel.

Review copy

Published by Head of Zeus