A J.Z. Foster Special...Review of THE WICKED ONES, an interview with the author and a giveaway!!
J.Z. Foster...A new name in the genre who has tentatively taken 2018s horror fiction scene by the horns. To celebrate his arrival, we are going to be reviewing his latest book, chatting with him a bit AND GIVING AWAY THREE SIGNED COPIES OF HIS DEBUT!
Check out him out at jzfoster.com, or on his facebook page.
Read more below...
A REVIEW OF THE WICKED ONES: CHILDREN OF THE LOST.
This guy, J.Z. Foster, is everywhere, seemingly overnight, and rightfully so. He's working incredibly hard...already releasing his debut in January, WITCH HUNTER: INTO THE OUTSIDE (my review of which can be read here.)
Just one month later, we've got his follow-up, THE WICKED ONES: CHILDREN OF THE LOST. And he's got another book on the way this year, slated for March! Simmer down!
For someone dropping so many titles back-to-back, one may suspect a lapse in quality...that his debut may have been a fun, enjoyable little fluke and that the rest may be sub-par, given this Roger Corman-esque work ethic.
Nope. No lapse here.
THE WICKED ONES is equally enjoyable, but for very different reasons, while maintaining a lot of the things I enjoyed about WITCH HUNTER.
Foster's latest is a more traditional Horror tale, the mood is exponentially darker. A more gruesome endeavor with some good gross-out moments while remaining very emotionally involved.
It retains the plethora of villainous creatures, zooming pace and excitement from his debut while writing a decidedly more human novel.
Like only the best horror novels do, underneath all the carnage, entrail eating and horned-creature chasing...there's a very human story underneath. One of loss, grief, desperation and the transforming effects it can have on the psyche.
It is this quality that puts Foster's follow-up slightly ahead of his great debut for me.
Daniel is our main character who has recently lost his son to a mysterious illness, and essentially his life in the process. His wife is gone, he's isolated and considering taking his own life.
The plot thickens when he meets a band of monster hunting vigilante types, who share that he has lost his son to a murderous evil, as they all have. And it is up to this band of emotionally wounded eccentrics to save a town from an evil who is taking its children and turning them into something horrific...
It's classic Horror all the way here, with characters you'll recognize as bearing semblance to some of your favorites of the past. I couldn't help but cast this book in my mind with cult actors as a film. I got notes of The Evil Dead's universe of mythos pretty often while reading this, with the creature quotient turned up to eleven, bringing to mind Stuart Gordon's From Beyond...not necessarily in tone, but in it's constant bombardment of new, goopy monsters to attack our band of heroes.
The Wicked Ones would make a great film, but for now it's a great book. It could have benefited from a extra round of editing, as the book is a bit overlong. You feel it a bit more later in the book, highlighted by the fact it kicks off at a pace to be reckoned with, slowing down a bit too much in the middle.
However, it is never boring and even the slow parts keep you intrigued.
Overall, I highly recommend this book and keeping an eye on what J.Z. Foster can offer the horror fiction universe.
4.2/5
AN INTERVIEW WITH J.Z. FOSTER
JZ FOSTER: I’m JZ Foster, scribe of the new series’ Witch Hunter, The Wicked Ones, and the coming Mind Wreck. I’ve written both urban fantasy and horror, all contained within the same universe, the JZ universe.
Wait… That sounds a little stupid, doesn’t it? Yeah, that’s a little stupid. You know what though? Hell with it. I’m going to own it.
I write the freak’n JZ universe.
UI: Awesome! And how did you get into writing, Horror specifically?
JF: Writing is something newer, but I’ve been telling stories since as far back as I can remember, and I’ve always been drawn to horror because of the powerful themes I like within it. I like the extremes of the human condition. I like when characters are confronted with the unknown and have to rise to the challenge.
What better place than horror to see that?
UI: That being said, what are some of your favorite Horror Novels and biggest influences?
JF: Brian Keene’s novel The Rising is one I find myself recommending to people more than a decade after reading it. He has the quintessential mix representing all my favorite flavors of a story. Gripping horror? Yep. Overwhelming circumstances? Yep. Unpredictable story progression? Oh yeah.
That novel more than any other turned the gears in my head and showed me what a good story aught to be.
UI: I’m a huge fan of Keene’s work myself, with my favorite being Ghoul. You and Keene have something in common…workmanship! You've been busting your ass to get your name out there, with three books slated for this year! What else lies ahead for JZ Foster?
JF: Each of my first three books is the beginning of series that touches a different corner of the JZ universe. They’re going to weave in and out of each other, while I also write a few standalone books unattached to any of those series’.
UI: There's a pretty stark contrast in tone between your first two novels, with Witch Hunter being a bit more humorous, even tongue-in-cheek and The Wicked Ones being much darker. What is your preference as a reader, the fun stuff or the darker, more intense Horror?
JF: I enjoy both at different times, but I find myself aiming toward darker stuff when I read. The more horror is inflicted on the characters, the faster the pages turn for me. That said, they have to be good and interesting characters that I feel bad for.
It’s funny that I’m most interested in stories with terrible things happening to people I feel bad for.
UI: One of my favorite things about both books is the plethora of monsters, many of which you don't read about very often. As an avid reader of Horror, I appreciate reading such imaginative monsters... I think I can speak for most of us when I say I'm SICK of vampires and zombies...how about yourself? Where do you find all these cool new creatures?
JF: Well, I’d be a liar if I didn’t say I had a warm spot for zombies and vampires. When I write monsters though, I want them to be mysterious and threatening, the problem with vampires these days is that we all basically know and understand the typical version of a vampire; we need a retelling that really digs at the roots and the horror of being a vampire, that is to say we’ve over romanticized them and they’re not threatening anymore. If I do write a vampire novel, I would try to draw them back to their horrific roots.
UI: As a Horror nerd, my first love was Horror FILM...books came later. A lot of the characters in The Wicked Ones remind of some classic Horror film characters, particularly Rebekah and Greg... What's your favorite Horror flicks? Characters?
JF: Countless movies! The first two that pop into my head are ‘Tales from the Crypt: Demon Knight’ and ’28 Days Later’. I loved both of those, Demon Knight for its mythology, and 28 Days Later for the character progression.
UI: Dude, I Love Demon Knight! It was one of the first Horror movies I saw theatrically! Anyway…you’ve probably got some writing to do so let’s wrap this thing up. Any final thoughts?
JF: I hope that readers will look for the ways my stories reference each other, and maybe even see things I pointed too that will come later down the line. I’ll be really pleased later to see theories or detective work linking things together.
The last thing I’ll say though is that we indie writers are always fighting for attention, and one of the best ways a reader can help us is with reviews on Amazon and Goodreads. If you like the book, please leave a review!
Keep your eyes out for my JZ books to come!
UI: Great...Thanks for hanging with us!
THE GIVEAWAY!
To celebrate the release of The Wicked Ones, we are giving away three signed copies of J.Z. Foster's debut novel, WITCH HUNTER!
To enter:
1. Simply go to our facebook page at: https://www.facebook.com/UndivineInterventions/
2. Like the page.
3. Post on our page, let us know your favorite horror novel!
4. Tell all your horror reading friends about Undivine Interventions and J.Z. Foster!
5. The contest closes February 28th! If you're a winner, you will be directly messaged by us!
Thank you and good luck!
I can't wait to read!
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