[Book Review] Dust- Chris Miller

Reviewer’s Note: This book is part of the Splatter Western series being published by Death’s Head Press. These books all share a common theme, but are NOT a connected series. Though each book has a series number attached, they do not need to be read in any particular order and are not all within the same world. The book covers are all gorgeously illustrated by the talented Justin T. Coons. You can find more of his work on Instagram @justintcoons.

Chris Miller enters the splatter western scene with a bloody bang. Set in Texas in the year 1879, Dust, the third book in Death’s Head Press’ Splatter Western series tells the tale of a mysterious stranger hell-bent on finding an elusive town called Dust. James Dee will stop at nothing to find this town and stop the cosmic evil lurking there from spreading across the world. With such high stakes, Dee is willing to do the unthinkable in order to save the world.

Miller gets the blood flowing right off the bat. With several over-the-top, bloody and explosive deaths all within the first chapter, Miller wastes no time demonstrating exactly what “splatter western” means. This story is full of violence, blood-spewing mayhem, guts and glory. While some of it is a bit exaggerated, isn’t that the point? The overall tone of Dust is pretty serious, but the ultraviolence adds a fun flair to the dark narrative. It isn’t quite the most disgustingly bloody narrative I’ve ever read, but it’s got its fair share of gore. I think you’ll be able to enjoy it even if you’re just a bit squeamish, but if gore is an absolute deal-breaker for you, you’ll likely need to pass.

As with other stories I’ve read by Miller, the tone and voice of the narrative really fit the story. This is the third novel I’ve read from this author, and each one has had such an incredibly unique voice. Miller has slipped with ease from writing through the eyes of young kids (The Damned Place) to religious nuts and psycho killers (The Damned Ones) and now onto the rough-and-tumble characters in Dust. I’ve never read a western before, but Miller truly captures the tone of a rough and unforgiving frontier in all its gunslinging glory.

The two main players here are James Dee and Gear Dreary. James Dee is our troubled hero. Though he has a pure goal in his heart, the realities of the world force him to do evil things in order to save it. This internal struggle between having a pure heart and being a good man is one of the major themes of the novel. Dust isn’t just some blood-soaked cosmic western. It’s also an introspective look at what it means to be a good person, and on the consequences of doing bad things with good intentions. Contrarily, we have Gear Dreary- a bad dude with a cool name. Dreary is on a quest that parallels Dee’s; he wants to find Dust as well. His intentions, however, are much different. Dreary wants to find Dust in order to help bring a terrible cosmic evil into the world.

Speaking of evil in the world, Miller does not shy away from the terrible realities of this period of American history. Along his way to Dust, James Dee encounters a man named Denarius King. Denarius is a black man, in a time that treated black men and women with incredible cruelty. Miller does not glaze over this. The characters in Dust are pretty much all racist. Denarius is constantly insulted, treated as less-than-human, and called some horrible slurs. If this sort of portrayal would stop you from reading a book, I think it’s only fair to warn you now. But it’s important to note that Miller is not glorifying or siding with these racists. Too often, people misinterpret an author’s use of such unacceptable themes as supporting them or as a projection of the author’s own personal beliefs. This couldn’t be further from the truth. Miller paints a brutally honest picture of the way people acted in this time period. On the bright side, our hero James Dee isn’t exactly from around this part of the world, and absolutely does not stand for the mistreatment of his new friend Denarius. Watching Mr. Dee violently defend his pal Denarius’ honor is pretty cool.

Perhaps my favorite thing about Dust is its connection to Miller’s other work. If you’ve read The Damned Place or The Damned Ones, you will be pleasantly surprised reading Dust. I won’t let on what the connection is, but as the book went on and I started to guess the connection being hinted at, I absolutely loved it. If you’ve read those other works, this story will have an additional depth to it. But if you haven’t read them, fear not. They aren’t necessary to understand the plot. However, I’ll warn that there are some minor spoilers in Dust for The Damned Place and The Damned Ones. I highly recommend reading those two books first, so that you fully appreciate the story.

One last thing I’ll cover is the cosmic horror aspect of Dust. The story follows the pretty traditional theme of some bad dudes trying to bring an ancient, cosmic evil into the world. Nothing too revolutionary there, though Miller does it fairly well and in his own way. I did particularly enjoy the concept of the town of Dust itself and the role that it plays. In addition to this Big Bad Cosmic Horror, there are smaller terrors that are particularly brutal and cool. These lesser horrors were reminiscent of monsters from a Resident Evil game, in my opinion. Pretty killer stuff.

Chris Miller’s Dust is a solid offering in both the cosmic horror and the splatter western genres. The old west setting is fun, and Miller clearly enjoyed the world he built. The characters are all very well done, and their actions and dialogue fit the setting perfectly. If you’re looking for an introduction to splatter westerns, this is a great start. Fans of cosmic horror will love this one for sure, as will splatterpunk fans. If you don’t like ultraviolence, you probably won’t enjoy this one too much, and should avoid any subgenre with the word “splatter” in it anyway. Also, if you’re looking for more psychological, slow burn horror, this isn’t the one. Dust is a fast paced, action packed cosmic horror blood bath, and an absolute must-read.

You can purchase a copy on Amazon for $4.99 (Kindle) or $11.99 (Paperback). Also available free with Kindle Unlimited.

Love what I do? Want to help keep me promoting indie horror? Click above to show your support!

About the Author

Chris Miller is a native Texan who has been writing from an early age. He began publishing in 2017 with his first novel, A Murder of Saints, and since then he has published several novels–including the Amazon bestselling Splatter Western, Dust–and has also been inducted into many anthologies. When not writing, Chris enjoys playing guitar, watching movies, and reading. He is first and foremost a family man and is happily married to the love of his life (and best friend) Aliana. They have three beautiful children and live in Winnsboro, TX.

Check out his website here.

_{Photo and text from Chris Miller’s Amazon Author Page- https://www.amazon.com/Chris-Miller/e/B0764K9YH3?ref_=dbs_p_ebk_r00_abau_000000}

2nd Annual Home Grown Horror Awards

It’s been a hell of a year. But despite all the horror of the real world, at least we’ve still got good ole horror fiction to help us escape. This year has brought some truly amazing works across my desk, and it’s been incredibly difficult to narrow down my top three. Every author whose works I’ve read deserves recognition; that’s what Home Grown Horror is all about. I started this little site to help shine a spotlight onto the little guys in this game, and these awards are just a small way of doing that. Before I get into the awards, I’ll go over some details.

Eligibility

In order to be eligible for the Home Grown Horror Awards, a work simply must have been read and reviewed by Home Grown Horror during the applicable calendar year. That’s it. It can have been published at any point, so long as it crossed my desk this year. I do not take specific award consideration requests. Anything that I review will be officially in the running. There are no entrance fees or formal processes. Works that I review will be considered whether a review was solicited by the author or publisher or not.

What are the categories?

This year, there are no categories. Simply a 1st, 2nd and 3rd place winner. A work of any length can be considered. A work of any length can be chosen to take the prize. In future years, I do hope to add categories such as Novel, Novella, Collection, etc. It will all depend on the reception of this year’s awards, and next year’s participation.

What do the winners get?

All three winners will be presented with a small plaque as a token of my respect and admiration, should they choose to accept it. In addition to this, winners will be given permission to use their respective Home Grown Horror Awards winner logo, and will be able to proudly call themselves winners. Hopefully I will be able to add more value to the winner package in future years.

The 2020 Home Grown Horror Award Winners

3rd Place- Cailyn Lloyd’s Shepherd’s Warning

Shepherd’s Warning is a powerfully riveting, yet slow-burning new take on the haunted house story. Lloyd crafts interesting and intricate characters. Laura is strong but flawed; Shepherd is mysterious and intriguing. The plot has a lot of the dressings of a classic haunting, but presented in an entirely new way. Fans of hauntings, magic, and mysterious will love this one. If you’re looking for a lightning-paced thrill ride, this is certainly not the book for you. However, if you’re interested in tense, character-driven stories with interesting twists and fresh ideas, you’ll be right at home with Shepherd’s Warning.

Click here for the full review.

2nd Place- Carver Pike’s Grad Night

I don’t usually like to throw around cliches like “a real page-turner” or “impossible to put down”. I feel like those phrases have a tendency to be overused, and it dilutes their meaning. That being said, Grad Night is a real page-turner, and impossible to put down. Right from the start, Pike draws you into his world. He masterfully builds the suspense while exploring the inner workings of both the good and bad characters. When things start to boil over, they go absolutely insane. Pike is a mastermind of creative brutality, weaving an engrossing tale of horror and revenge. Keeping you guessing right up to the end, you won’t be able to tear yourself away from Grad Night.

Click here for the full review.

1st Place- Chris Miller’s The Damned Ones

The Damned Ones is a beautiful, violent, wild ride. Like returning to your hometown after years abroad, the setting and characters are comfortably familiar, but time has had its effect. Being back with the characters we know and love from The Damned Place really adds a punch to this one, but it would be a solid work even without reading the first novel. Miller has stepped up his game in the bloodshed department while managing to keep the story character-centric. Fans of slashers, cosmic horror and religious mania will absolutely love it. No doubts about it, you need to read Chris Miller’s The Damned Ones.

Click here for the full review.

I want to sincerely thank everyone who reads these reviews, and everyone who writes the stories that have helped get us through this wild ride of a year. Readers, I hope that you enjoy my reviews and that they’ve helped you find some great stories and new authors. Authors, I hope that these reviews have encouraged you to keep writing, and have helped get your work out there. My goal will always be to provide exposure and spotlight talented authors within the community. I will never charge for the reviews that I write or for any publicity I help provide. However, there are costs associated with running this site. If you would like to help support this passion project, please check out the Donations Page, or for a click the Buy Me a Coffee button below for an easy way to help out. Either way, I hope you enjoy what I do here. I sure do. You keep writing, I’ll keep reviewing.

Sincerely,

Will Blosser

[Book Review] The Damned Ones- Chris Miller

Reviewer’s Note: The Damned Ones is the second book in Chris Miller’s cosmic horror series. See my review of the first book, The Damned Place here.

In The Damned Ones, Chris Miller returns us to Winnsboro, Texas and reacquaints us with the surviving heroes of The Damned Place. Twenty-six years after the horrific events that nearly resulted in the end of the world, Jim, Freddie, Ryan and Honey are all grown up. They’ve spent most of their lives trying to forget what happened out at that damned house. Unfortunately for them, something huge is coming and they might have to save the world again.

One thing that is apparent when reading The Damned Ones is just how much Miller has come into his own as an author since The Damned Place. That isn’t to say that The Damned Place wasn’t a damned good story; well-written with excellent characters and plot. It’s just that in the first book of the series, Miller’s influences were clear. The undertones of Stephen King and Stranger Things were undeniable and evident. With The Damned Ones, Miller has completely come into his own. The story is wholly original and 100% Miller, and it’s great.

Rather than the main plot thread being the conflict between kids and their bullies, The Damned Ones sees a grown Jim Dalton as the Chief of Police trying to solve a string of brutal murders. The two major points of view here are Jim’s and Norman’s. If the name Norman sounds familiar, it’s because Norman Reese is the younger brother of Jake Reese, the head bully from book one. A small side character in the first book, Norman takes the stage front and center in The Damned Ones. Just like in the first book, a Reese boy is the main human antagonist. I absolutely loved Norman as the big baddie. All his life, he has been convinced by his mother to believe that he is God’s chosen, and will play a pivotal role in bringing His word to all of creation. To keep this spoiler-free, I’ll just say that she was not entirely wrong.

Quite possibly the most successful aspect of The Damned Ones is Miller’s horrifying portrayal of absolute religious mania. The Reese family is nuts. Norman’s mother Cherry is convinced beyond all doubt that her loving boy has been called upon by God Almighty to fulfil a Great Purpose. That core, unshakable belief is what drives her every move, and what shaped Norman into who he had to be in order for this story to take off. Being inside both of their heads is surreal. The absolute delusion, the ridiculous mental gymnastics of justification are genuinely terrifying. Miller managed to get inside the head of this perfect storm of delusion, narcissism and grandeur. The scariest part is that it all seemed so real. People like this could actually exist. Religion has been behind some atrocious acts throughout history, and that level of realism really hit home with Norman and Cherry.

When it comes to blood-guts-and-gore, The Damned Ones is in a whole different league than its predecessor. Obviously with the plot being a grisly string of murders, there’s gonna be some blood. Miller writes these violent gore-fests with grace, balancing beauty and blood, passion and pain. The murder scenes were easily my favorite scenes in the novel (except maybe the climactic finale). Miller gives just enough background on each victim so that you can really put yourself in their shoes before he brutally chops you down while you’re there. The murder scenes were somehow both fun and haunting and actually scary all at once.

When it comes time for the final showdown, Miller cranks it up and just lets it fly. The final few chapters get progressively more brutal and wild and unpredictable. By the time the end came, I was flying through pages at 3 AM, practically inhaling the story. In my opinion, the way Miller chose to end the book is damn near perfect. This ending hit heavy. This is no story where the heroes hold hands and use the power of love to come through unscathed. Miller uses your heart as a punching bag, just letting you have it. Maybe I’m a softy, or maybe it’s cause I’ve got my first kid on the way. But the epilogue moved me damn near to tears.

You can purchase a copy on Amazon for $5.99 (Kindle) or $15.98 (paperback).

[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).