The House by the Cemetery by John Everson REVIEWED

I'm excited. And The House by the Cemetery is my reason.

It's not because the book is groundbreaking or great or remarkable. No, it's not. But it's a solid throwback to simple times, where one could traipse into a Borders or Waldenbooks and find a novel like this one by the dozen.

The best part is that it just might be exactly that. Not at those retailers, but whatever brick-and-mortars remain.

You see, The House by the Cemetery is my first taste of a new horror line to be widely distributed by Flame Tree Press, who seems to have made a name for themselves in other facets, before deciding to roll out their line of horror last month. This is amongst the flagship titles of that endeavor, and they are doing it right.

They've enlisted Don D'auria, reknown editor of several horror lines, most prominent being Leisure and Samhain to handpick the titles, as well as some top of the line authors to spear-head the operation. These include Jonathan Janz, Ramsey Campbell and Hunter Shea.

And this one, by John Everson. Everson is a writer I first read in high school, with his pretty fun Stoker-winning title, Covenant. I've always enjoyed his work, particularly one nasty little thriller, The 13th, which I recommend.

House by the Cemetery is not quite up to par with those earlier titles, but still good fun for the month of October. It's a fast, gory one with tons of nods to the genre, perfect for reading in the spooky season. The key thing going for it on my end that gets my absolute "yes, go buy it", is the fact it's part of this new line. You should know by now that I love the genre and want to see it prosper. The only way that can be is if we as readers by the books. In droves. So. Yes, buy it.

The story is a bit too trite for me to howl its glory, but it fits the bill for a decent read on a rainy fall night...

Mike is your classic down-on-his-luck working class dude who seems to always end up in god awful situations in these books, a carpenter with a passion for booze and a broken heart. His buddy attempts to help him out by hooking him up with a good paying, steady job, rehabilitating the local haunted house of the title and urban legend, where lots of grisly murder has occurred over the years, into a money-maker for the month of October, a haunt that's gonna bring the money bags in.

Of course, this is to the chagrin of some of the local paranormally-inclined...but we wouldn't have a horror novel if anyone gave a damn what they had to say. 

Mike's working on this haunted attraction to be, when hestarts stumbling upon all sorts of warning signs to absolutely not open this joint up and get the hell out of there. These get ignored because a sexy, young mysterious woman appears and they hit it off. Mike's wife left him a little while back, as they often have in these things, so he's a bit vulnerable, ya know?

Soon enough, the house is open and people are loving it. It's pulling in the money, everyone's having a great old time...and everyone's getting sacrificed in increasingly nasty ways.

You know how it goes.

The strengths of the novel lie within the house itself, which is as much a character as anything else in the book. The rooms are described with vivid detail, paying homage to all of your favorite horror movies. That's fun enough, to acknowledge all the nods to Craven, Hopper, Fulci and Argento, but it also lends itself to a fantastic atmosphere when the book spins from spooky ghost story to full-blown supernatural slasher in it's last act.

It's a classic haunted house story that plays it very straight, with a final quarter dedicated to the hack-and-slash stuff we tend to love around here.

The weaknesses lie in it's overwhelming predictable nature, leaving me feeling like I've read this exact book many times before.

Yet, I remain excited. Because, well, not everyone writes a blog dedicated to horror novels. So, lots of people haven't read this before and if Flame Tree Press plays their cards right, maybe a whole bunch will pick this one up.

For me, the jaded long-time horror reader that I am, it's a 3/5.

But maybe someone new will come along and this will be their first rodeo thinking it's better than that. And I want that.

So. Go buy House by The Cemetery, out October 6th from Flame Tree Press!