Ancient Horror History Unearthed: The Summoned by Steven Ray Fulgham REVIEWED

So, I forfeited Richard Laymon month. Then I forfeited another book. Then I decided to read this.

I don't know if it's work stress, life stress, the weather change in New England, cheesy Horror overload or what....but I've been pretty unimpressed with much of anything I've read lately.

I mean, The Summoned was fine. Just fine. Lots of gore and sex and a pretty cool story-format. It just was so...like everything else?

By 1991, when the book was released to minimal fanfare, this tale had been well worn ad naseum. And that's okay in 2017...I don't think any of us are really expecting a groundbreaking horror tale from close to 30 years ago that noone has heard of. I might just be spoiled at this point, but this thing was just not particularly engaging on the story front.

It was a lot of flashy gimmick and not enough intriguing moments. But good enough to read to completion, I suppose.

Anyway, The Summoned plays a bit like three novellas all tied together by the same villain. We have the main story from the 70s (although absolutely nothing in the book makes use of that time setting), where a bullied teenager summons a demon to wow his friends and scare his tormentors. It plays like a particularly gory standard slasher.

Most interesting of the three stories being told here, is the backstory of the demon, who we find out is an Incubus born in the 1500s to a young nun essentially being used as a sex slave to monks and priests during the Inquisition.

And finally, the story of how the Incubus made it's way to the teens, by being summoned to meet the desires of a lonely librarian.

Lots of nasty moments spread through the three, which easily make for the books most entertaining moments.

Unfortunately, the least interesting plot is the one that gets the most time on the page, the boring stalk-and-slash of the teens. It's just very... whatever...ya know?

The Summoned isn't without it's memorable moments, particularly those great gory set pieces. There's one sequence where the Incubus sucks out a wicked nuns lungs in gory detail. Another where a couple has there coitus interrupted by the demon...ending with the guy getting his penis ripped off and shoved all the way, demon arm and all, down his still alive wife's throat.

You get the idea of what you'd be reading here.

It's cool enough to get through. But I think I'm moving away from the gore for gore's sake type of reading I once enjoyed.

You could do worse, you could do better. A standard, middle of the road horror paperback from the tail end of the boom is what you've got here.

I'm giving it a 2.5.