Undivine Interventions: Reviews of Horror Novels, Past and Present.

And so 2017 comes to an end. The inaugural year of this blog and a great year for horror novels. I want to thank all of you who trust my opinion and seek out the books I enjoy, as well as all of you who write them . Without material to read, we've got nothing. That being said, what's a horror book blog without a "best of" to wrap up the year? However, opinion is obviously subjective, so I am going to refrain from calling it a "best-of" and we will call it a "favorites" instead...because this is pure opinion. ALSO,   I am but one man with three jobs, a family, other hobbies and interests. I didn't get to read even mildly close to everything I wanted to this year. If your favorites aren't here, I'd love to hear about them below. So, let's get started. These are in no particular order, all things I just had a blast reading. I'd be hard pressed to name one of these better than the other...they are all solid reads and I highl...

Grimm Memorials!!! Holy WOAHHHHH! What a great book. This may be the last one I get to read and review in 2017, and as such, I couldn't be happier to close the year out with such a stellar choice. Grimm Memorials was put on my radar by several of my online friends at the Facebook group, Books of Horror, who generally have never steered me wrong. They certainly haven't here either, as this is pretty much everything I am looking for in a read. R. Patrick Gates' second and arguably most well-known novel, a cult-classic of sorts that delivers all it promises in spades, is just perfect reading for a guy like me. I was a huge fan of his first book, Fear, which I reviewed here on Halloween. Now, on Christmas Eve, I review this...which takes all of the things I enjoyed about that book and turns it up to 11 by refining every quality Gates seems to carry, mastering it and throwing it in the reader's face. This is the literature equivalent of abrasive punk rock, taking a fai...

I'm gonna just come out and say it. The Nightrunners has a reputation for being a classic piece of Horror fiction. I'm proud to say, It meets all of those expectations. It is a perfect book in every sense of the word. Fantastically written, paced, design ed (for lack of a better word)... I am disappointed that I didn't read this years ago. There's not much to say about the book that hasn't already been said and I am sure a significant portion of the readership of the blog has read the book before. BUT, let me say something anyway. It's books like The Nightrunners that make this blog exist. The impetus of the blog itself is the wonderful community of horror readers who recommend it...had I not engaged with said community, I may not had ever known of the book. Originally published in 1987, with it's mass market debut in 89, there's nary a reason the common reader in 2017, 30 years later to bat an eye at a book like this. Without the communication with...

2017 is coming to a close and, on this early Sunday morning, I reflect on the year gone by. Lots of awful stuff happened, mostly socio-political in nature, but I won't go into it, as this is a Horror Fiction blog with a largely American readership, not a blog on my world views. You know what's up. Just kidding, long and short is as follows: Donald Trump and his billionaire crew of demonic halfwits have profoundly affected me; I can't stop ruminating around the bastards and their cruel, oppressive policies threatened each day... I wish awful things for the White House at this time. But, Let's move along. We will keep it positive. 2017 is the year I got married! The year I started this blog! The year I could walk into Barnes & Noble, the last major bookstore in my area, and buy a book like A God In The Shed! I didn't even have to special order it! Horror fiction is slowly creeping back to life, and the retailers are taking notice. It was grim for a few year...

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...

It's official. I think I've burned myself out on Laymon. Or over outgrown him or...I don't really know. Laymon month is really doing a number on me and my relationship with what I thought was my favorite author. I think some of that notion, the "favorite author" thing comes from a place of nostalgia and comfortable familiarity. He was the first author I collected, the first I felt I just had to read and own all of his stuff. But as I delve further into horror fiction and get older...I start realize his shortcomings more than ever before. And the things I initially discovered and loved Laymon for, all those years ago...well, there's just so many authors I have learned of, discovered and loved that may just do all the things attributed to Laymon better than Laymon did himself. This isn't to takeaway anything from him and what he did for horror fiction... I personally feel he's the originator of bringing a purely cinematic quality to genre literature. ...

After coming of the just barely luke-warm Allhallow's Eve, I needed something to guarantee me a good time...a reminder of why Laymon is my favorite author, something that illustrates the talent the author had to turn out books that zipped by; no nonsense b-movies in prose format with the blood, guts and bizarro factor blaring at top notch. A reason why I'm doing a Richard Laymon month in the first place. Midnight's Lair is one of the first books I read by the author, borrowing it from my local library in high school under the pen name, Richard Kelly. I didn't even know who Laymon was at that point, much less that he wrote it. 15 year old me thought this book was the bee's knees, thinking it was all I had ever wanted in a book. And to my chagrin, I couldn't find another Richard Kelly book in the library, nor did I care that much...let's be honest, I was in high school. As much as I dug books then, the 15 year old conscience was far more concerned with more...