[Book Review] An Invitation to Darkness- Hailey Piper

Hailey Piper’s An Invitation to Darkness is part of the A Short, Sharp Shock! series by Demain Publishing. Set in the late 1800s, Piper tells the story of Captain Jamie Thames, a woman who has made a successful living as a captain at sea, all while disguised as a man. Ready to retire with her riches, she begins searching for a place to settle down. In this search she comes across Leavenworth Manor, a somewhat rundown estate in a quiet ocean side village. Inquiring about purchasing the estate, Jamie meets and immediately falls in love with the lady of the Manor, Elizabeth Leavenworth. Elizabeth lives with just her bedridden father, who agrees to let Jamie stay at the manor for a short while. During her stay, Jamie starts to realize that Elizabeth and the Manor have a dark secret. She investigates the dark happenings at the Manor, hoping to protect her newfound lover and make a future together.

Despite the overarching love story, this isn’t quite a romance. The romance is what enables and drives the plot, but the plot itself is plenty dark and scary. Piper crafts an extremely unique antagonist, unlike anything I’ve read before. The twist of what the antagonistic force actually is comes as a successful surprise. There are even some clues that lead you away from the truth. It is refreshing to see such an interesting and unique dark force. 

The prose and writing style Piper employs is rather beautiful. The story is told through first person, past tense narration. The word choice and tone definitely invoke the character and the time during which the story takes place. It can be a bit flowery at times, but it fits in with the overall mood of the story.

An Invitation to Darkness is a dark and creepy tale full of ominous overtones and mystery. It’s a quick read, and one that hooks you right away and keeps you invested till the end. While it was a bit more romance driven than most of my typical reads, that did nothing to detract from the interesting antagonist and dark story. An Invitation to Darkness is a perfect tale to take in on a dark, stormy night.

You can purchase a copy on Amazon for $0.99 (Kindle). Also available free with Kindle Unlimited.

[Book Review] The Damned Place- Chris Miller

Chris Miller’s epic coming-of-age horror novel The Damned Place centers on a group of young kids in small town Texas. Just trying to enjoy their summer vacation, the kids are pursued by a gang of psychopathic older kids out for blood. While fleeing the bullies, the young kids stumble upon an ancient, world-destroying evil in a strange, abandoned house in the woods. As the kids learn more about the evil place and the darkness that occurred there, they realize that they may be all that stands between their world and violent destruction. 

Miller’s story is clearly influenced by Stephen King’s IT and the Stranger Things franchise. This is especially apparent in the first quarter or so of the novel. A group of young boys and a girl, being hounded by brutal bullies seems very familiar. That same group stumbling upon and fighting against an ancient, evil terror only brings the likeness home. Miller really hits his stride and brings out his own voice in the second part of the novel, which I’ll refer to as the historical interlude.

This historical interlude is where Miller’s writing really starts to shine, where I started getting invested in the story. The interlude tells the tale of what occurred in that house in the woods nearly a hundred years ago, and serves to shed some light on the evil that resides there. The interlude is told in the form of journal entries written by Johnathan Michael Brogan, a member of the family who built the house in the early 1900s. The entries do an excellent job of depicting Johnathan’s slow descent into madness as his family’s situation grows darker and darker. Miller skillfully applies the use of first person narrative passages interspersed among the journal entries. While it seems like an odd stylistic choice at first, it serves to better illustrate certain moments that wouldn’t have been well captured by a journal entry. The historical interlude section was so captivating, it could have easily been a stand-alone novella. 

One of the more interesting things to note about Miller’s writing style is his ability to write believably through the eyes of a child. In the first few chapters of the novel, I noticed a very childlike prose and word choice. The writing seemed rather immature. It was almost a turnoff, until I realized how rare and skillful it was. Most books with small, preteen kids as the protagonists are written sort of unbelievably. The kids think, talk, and act like adults. They are shown to be incredibly mature, brave, smart and responsible. They are the stars of the story, right? Miller’s writing is much more believable. His kids are immature, scared, and flawed. They think and act like actual kids. Of course, this leads to some immature word choices and narration. Overall, however, it’s much more believable and likable. 

The one thing that detracts from the story for me is the human antagonists. Of the three bullies, two of them, Jake and Bart, are literally psychopathic. Jake takes things to an entirely different level. The things he does and the things he thinks about are extreme, to say the least. His home life is especially hard to believe. While none of it is poorly written, I feel as if Jake could have been toned down by a notch or two and still served his purpose in the story, but more believably. 

While the human antagonists are perhaps a bit off, the inhuman antagonists, and the lore behind them, is fascinating. Miller does an excellent job of balancing the seen with the unseen; the explained with the imagined. I thoroughly enjoyed the historical interlude segment, where Miller really fleshes out the mythos and history of these monsters. 

Despite its somewhat familiar beginnings, The Damned Place quickly becomes its own. Miller’s ability to write believable young protagonists is unmatched. His successful portrayal of these kids and their relationships serves to fully invest the reader in their struggles. Miller does an excellent job of getting inside the head of whoever he is writing about and explaining their thoughts and emotions. You genuinely feel for these kids, and root for them. The action is quick and the monsters are dark and bloody. Miller does not shy away from brutality in support of the story, but is not overly graphic. The Damned Place is a well written, epic horror novel with great characters, terrifying monsters, and true emotional depth.

You can purchase a copy on Amazon for $6.98 (Kindle) or $19.59 (paperback).

[Book Review] Under Rotting Sky- Matthew V. Brockmeyer

Reviewer’s Note: This is unrelated to the review itself, but for this book I tried something a little different. I read the book aloud with my wife, taking turns reading different stories. It was a great way to spend time together, and to involve her in my interests. I highly recommend you try it. 

Winner of the Home Grown Horror Awards 2019 2nd Place!

Under Rotting Sky: Stories is Matthew V. Brockmeyer’s debut collection of short, dark fiction. With an emphasis on dark. These stories are shockingly disturbing and brutal. I legitimately cannot recommend this book without giving that warning upfront. That being said, I absolutely loved this collection, and highly recommend it. Brockmeyer has no qualms whatsoever about crossing every line imaginable, and he does so with brutal bluntness. These stories make you feel. They hurt the soul and make you question the decency of the human race. If you aren’t afraid to be taken to some dark, bleak and terrifying places, this is the collection for you. 

One thing about this collection that I found interesting is the publication history included at the end of the book. A large number of the stories were originally published on various online horror forums over the last 5 years. I think it’s fascinating and inspiring that Brockmeyer seems to have gotten his start writing stories in horror forums, and now has such a well received collection, as well as his novel, Kind Nepenthe. In fact, my top three stories originated on those forums. 

Of the 20 stories included, I absolutely loved 13 of them, quite liked 5 of them, and there were only 2 that didn’t really do it for me.

My Top Three Stories

Under Rotting Sky- The namesake of the collection, Under Rotting Sky tells the tragic story of a punk-rocker named Garbage. He falls madly in love, and of course, that is his downfall. This story paints a vivid picture of the 80s punk-rock subculture. The ending is haunting and terrifying and tragic.

The Number of Darkness- This story is told through the journal entries of Charles Cooperton, a member of an entrepreneurial family in California in the late 1800s. After the Cooperton family moves across the continent to California to etch out a living in farming and milling, a series of misfortunes dwindle their funds and the members of their clan. When Charles’ two young daughters fall ill, he exhausts all other options before eventually calling for a priest. The stylistic voice Brockmeyer uses for Charles’ journal entries really adds a different layer and perspective to this classic tale of demonic possession. 

The Abalone Thief/ Call- I’m including these stories together, despite appearing as two seperate tales. The Abalone Thief is a cosmic horror story that takes place in the small fishing town of Shelter Cove, California. Here, our main character Theodore is conducting research for his PhD in marine biology. His specialty is the red abalone, a type of sea mollusk. During his research, he notes a sudden mass disappearance of the red abalone. Determined to discover who poached the large quantity of abalone, Ted stumbles upon the dark, cosmic secrets of the town. Call takes up where The Abalone Thief left off, describing the aftermath of the horrific events from the perspective of a new character, Jimmy. I’m a big fan of cosmic horror, and the mythos and creatures that Brockmeyer has come up with for these stories really did it for me.

A Note On The Stories That Weren’t For Me

There were only two stories in the collection that just didn’t do it for me. Those stories were Carried Statues and Mall Santa. I think it’s worth mentioning that both stories were well written and interesting. Carried Statues just didn’t really resonate with me. Perhaps if I had a bit of a different life perspective, it may have worked better. The issue that I took with Mall Santa was actually the ending. I felt it simply wasn’t dark enough. It was a stark contrast to the rest of the stories in the collection. Perhaps that juxtaposition is why it didn’t quite do the job for me.

Conclusion

Matthew V. Brockmeyer has put together an astoundingly diverse collection of horror here. I thoroughly enjoyed glimpsing into such dark and depraved worlds. If you have a weak stomach or are easily offended by extremely difficult topics, you should absolutely not pick up this book. There were several stories that were hard to read at times, especially reading aloud as I did. If you think you might enjoy sinking to the depths of filth and depravity, Matthew V. Brockmeyer is a fine tour guide. 

You can purchase a copy on Amazon for $5.99 (Kindle) or $14.87 (paperback). Also Available free with Kindle Unlimited

[Book Review] The Festering Ones- S. H. Cooper

In S. H. Cooper’s debut novella, The Festering Ones, we learn the tragic tale of Faith York. After years of begging, a young Faith is finally allowed to accompany her father on his annual hunting trip. What begins as a wonderful bonding experience quickly turns sour when her father is attacked by an impossible looking creature. He is never seen again. Years later, Faith returns to her home town in the wake of her mother’s death and stumbles upon a collection of research that her mother had been conducting into the circumstances surrounding the disappearance of Faith’s father. She becomes determined to finish what her mother started and learn the complete truth behind the monsters that took her dad. Her search takes her down a rabbit hole of family secrets and cults; kidnappings and murders, all in the name of the terrible eldritch god Gorrorum.

My absolute favorite thing about Cooper’s world is the Gorrorum mythos. Cooper has crafted a well thought out and structured series of realms, creatures, and even competing gods. The Gathered, the cult who worship Gorrorum, are creative, dark and terrifying. I love the way Cooper implements dream-visions of the Ibsilyth realm. Dreaming of the cosmic dimensions that the big bad monsters come from is a staple in the cosmic horror genre, but I’ve never seen it quite done like this. It’s Cooper’s ingenuity and originality that made this such a fun read. However, don’t be misled by my calling this a fun read. It is horror, through and through. The characters endure some seriously dark happenings. The Gathered does not shy away from brutality and bloodshed in the worship of their rotting god. The violence in this novella is not particularly graphicly or gorily described, but the viciousness is there. The scenes where we learn more about The Gathered and Gorrorum are like a twisted history lesson, and when the action gets going, it is absolutely gripping.

A particularly noteworthy aspect of Cooper’s writing is in that of the main character, Faith. Faith is a relatively normal girl at the beginning, despite her very troubled childhood. She isn’t shown to be amazingly strong or capable. She isn’t a hero type; she’s a classic everyman (everywoman?). That, in and of itself, isn’t unique or noteworthy. In most fiction where the hero is an everyman, they quickly step up and become a hero when destiny calls. Faith is a little different, and that’s where she shines. Faith never becomes the Perfect Hero. Throughout the entire story, she is terrified and confused. She practically spends the whole novella on the verge of a breakdown. She still does what she needs to do, and that indicates incredible strength and fortitude. But her real, human weakness and fear never go away. It’s so much more believable that this regular person, when thrust into incredible circumstances, still behaves like a regular person. 

With such realistically crafted characters and inspired cosmic mythos, Cooper will certainly draw you in and make you hungry for more. My biggest complaint here is with the ending. It seemed to come rather abruptly, and left me wishing for the story to continue. When I looked down and saw that I had reached 96% completion, I wasn’t sure how there could be a satisfying conclusion in such a short space. As it turned out, there wasn’t enough room to fit a complete and satisfying ending, and we are left wanting. That wanting could possibly have been satiated if this had been expanded to a full length novel. Hopefully, we are granted a continuation of the story by means of a sequel. To clear, the ending isn’t poorly crafted. There is no unsatisfying Deus Ex Machina, or blatant plot holes hastily covered. The ending, as it is, simply pumps you up for what is to come next, and then refuses to provide it. Of course, perhaps that is Cooper’s intention. If so, it definitely served to leave me hooked and awaiting the next course. If there is a next course, I’ll be first in line. 

You can purchase a copy on Amazon for $2.99 (Kindle) or $5.99 (paperback). Also available free with Kindle Unlimited.