The Last Night of October - by Greg Chapman - A fresh Halloween

4 of 5 Stars

I am a fan of Halloween.  If you know me, or have ever read this blog before, this should really come as no surprise.  I think a big part of my affinity for the holiday is the chance to be someone or something else, if only for a few hours.

Then there's the dark side of Halloween.  One night a year when it's acceptable to revel in scaring and being scared.  Yep, I love Halloween.

Enter Greg Chapman, an Austalian artist and Horror writer, who grew up in a world without Halloween.  It's true, in Australia, Halloween just never caught on. No trick-or-treating, no costumes, no Halloween.  But, Greg's a horror writer and since Halloween is nearly synonymous with Horror, he's done his homework and the result is this gem of a novella about events that took place and continue to take place on The Last Night of October.

As with all good stories, this one starts with an opening line that draws you right in.  "Every Halloween, Gerald Forsyth's worst fear would come a-knocking."  The Last Night of October  is about friendship, survival, making choices and living with the consequences of those choices.

For someone who didn't grow up with the Halloween traditions, the author does an exceptional job of capturing the feel of the holiday. "Through the lace curtains over the front windows Gerald could see children, dressed as ghosts, zombies and princesses.  Pumpkins, mutilated, yet smiling, sat on porches; gatekeepers to the underworld.  People were laughing and frolicking, filling the children's baskets and bags with sugary junk, while others waited gleefully for the chance to open their doors to complete strangers."

The Last Night of October is available as a Trade Paperback and as an e-book from Bad Moon Books.

Highly recommended.

The Gate Theory - by Kaaron Warren - Five shorts from one of Australia's finest dark fiction writers

4 of 5 Stars    Review Copy

The Gate Theory by Kaaron Warren is the first release from a new publisher of dark fiction.  Based in Autralia, Cohesion Press, is the brainchild of writer and recent president of the Australian Horror Writer's Association (AHWA), Geoff Brown.

The Gate Theory is a collection of five shorts from the imaginative mind of Kaaron Warren, a well-known, award winning, Australian author.  All of these stories have appeared elsewhere, but are collected here for the first time.

All of the stories are all disturbing, even if I don't fully understand all of them.

"Purity"  Takes the saying, "laughter is the best medicine" to new heights.  But, like any medication, if not administered correctly, it could be dangerous.

"That Girl"  I hear the title and I automatically think of Marlo Thomas.  After all, I am an American of a certain age.  I would be rather surprized if Kaaron Warren has even heard of the '60s sitcom and that's just as well.  Her story, set in Fiji, as are many of her tales, is a bit esoteric for my taste, but I do become lost in the words and in the story.  But, is it a ghost story, the story of a missing girl, or something else?

"Dead Sea Fruit"  The story of the Ash Mouth Man.  A woman dentist kisses all of her "clients to learn their nature from the taste of their mouths.  Virgins are salty, alcoholics sweert.  Addicts taste like fake orange juice, the stuff you spoon into a glass then add water."

"The History Thief"  The perfect title and a wonderful opening line.  "Three days Alvin lay on the floor of his dusty lounge room before he realized he was no longer anchored to his body."  For me, this was my favorite of the five stories in the collection.  Original, wonderfully told, with a clever twist at the end.

"The Gaze Dogs of Nine Waterfall"  I will say this about Kaaron Warren, she certainly has an amazing imagination.  All five stories take me to places I've never been before, places I've never even begun to imagine.  Rosie McDonald specializes in aquiring hard to find dogs for her clients.  This time it's the vampire dog, found only on the island of Viti Levu, in Fiji.  The journey is dangerous and the task could prove deadly.

The Gate Theory is a fine introduction to Cohesion Press and, if you've not already discovered her writing, an excellent way to become familiar with Kaaron Warren.  Currently available at Amazon.com and if you're a member of Amazon Prime, you can read it for FREE through the Kindle Lending Library.

Highly recommended.

Six of the Best: A Hellish Half-Dozen - by Kevin G. Bufton

4.5 of 5 Stars    Review Copy

A few weeks back I was offered a book by an author I was not familiar with, but decided to take a chance.  Kevin G. Bufton, from Birkenhead in the United Kingdom, is the real deal.

Six of the Best: A Hellish Half-Dozen may only contain six tales, but they are six of the best I've read this year.  Well, what do you know, truth in advertising.  The collection has three stories with zombies (each from a distinctly original perspective), and three more with totally original themes that are just as scary.

The book starts with "Mother's Milk."  A graphic, cringe-worthy, yet thought provoking zombie story with a rather cute ending.

Then there's "The Shoot," the story of a writer who gets the interview of his dreams with wrestling's Masked Marauder. With the interview, come some series sutprises. This is proof that Bufton can really deliver the goods as he hits every mark, never missing a beat.

Back to zombies with "53 Minutes."  Once I got into this one the title made perfect sense, and yet again, the author finds a niche in the zombie genre I've not seen explored before.

There's also "The Root's" where Bufton manages to turn in an exellent tale which will have you giving tumbleweeds the right of way the next time you´re in the wild, wild west.

"The Wren" is another great story, this time of an age old secret tradition carried on by the men folk of the community.  A young man thinks he's discovered what they're up to and when he's found out, they ask him to join them, much to his surprise and misfortune.

And finally, "Hooked."  Another twist on the zombie story.  This time on the high seas.

Overall, I was quite impressed with Kevin G. Bufton's work and look forward to reading more in the future.

Six of the Best: A Hellish Half-Dozen is avaiable now for the Kindle and in paperback from Amazon.com.

Highly recommended.

Summer's End - by Lisa Morton

5 of 5 Stars    Review copy

What a great way to kick off the Halloween season.  Can you think of anything better than a new novella from the writer who's become synonymous with the holiday?

Lisa Morton is the author of Trick or Treat: A History of Halloween which was awarded the 2012 Bram Stoker Award for Superior Achievement in Non-fiction, and also won the Grand Prize at the 2012 Halloween Book Festival causing her to become affectionately known as the Queen of Halloween.

Summer's End is unique in that the writer is also the protagonist in the story which leads to this epic opening line. "My name is Lisa Morton.  I'm one of the world's leading authorities on Halloween.  And this year I discovered that everything I thought I knew, was wrong."

The title explanation was was pretty good, too.  "...the Celts had celebrated 'summer's end' (the literal translation of 'Samhain') with a three-day long party of drinking, feasting and horse racing."

What follows is an entertaining blend of real-life Lisa and story Lisa as the author finds herself caught up in desperate attempt to set history back on it's proper track.

Plenty of scarey moments and a few that can best be described as cringe-worthy.  Summer's End by Lisa Morton is officially available on October 4th, 2013 from Journalstone Publishing.  If you'd like something fresh to kick-start your Halloween spirit, this is the one.

Strongly recommended.

Trust: The Hero Chronicles (Volume 2) - by Tim Mettey

4 of 5 Stars    Review copy

Trust: The Hero Chronicles is the second entry in this YA series and is every bit as good as the first, Secrets: The Hero Chronicles. 

It's been three months since Nicholas learned he was a part of the Thusians, an ancient group of secret guardians of mankind, destined to sacrifice their lives at any given time, to save those around them.

Book two, further develops the mythos of the Thusians, their mission and those that would stand in their way.  At the same time it's about relationships, the importance of trust in those relationships and learning who to trust.

Tim Mettey does a very nice job of weaving life lesson's into his storyline.  Without being heavy-handed, there are teaching moments which many YA readers can benefit from.  The story itself is rather simple, with Nicholas meeting a number of challenges while dealing with the normal ups and downs of life as a teenager.

The climax of book two has several nice twists and some big surprises.  One thing, I'm still trying to figure out is the Tic Tac effect.  If you read the book 1 or 2, you'll understand what I mean.

If you're a younger reader, or know someone who is in middle school and up, I can strongly recommend Trust: The Hero Chronicles (volume 2), but I would consider reading book 1, Secrets: The Hero Chronicles first and, as of the posting of this review, it is available for FREE for the kindle at Amazon.com.  Click here.

Horror Without Victims - An Anthology from DF Lewis

3.5 of 5 Stars    Review Copy

An interesting collection of stories that came from the following call for submissions.

"Horror Stories, Weird Literature, Ghost Stories, Literary Fiction. Each story must either subtly or directly reflect the title of the anthology."

Unfortunately, only a handful of stories seemed to pull that off. It's possible I didn't fully grasp the concept, but the anthology definitely got started on the wrong foot for me as the first story seemed to be more of an essay on reading and how weather or music can compliment the reading of a book.  Since the first story in any anthology should really set the tone, I was not looking forward to the rest of the tales and nearly decided not to read them.

For the most part, the stories were of a more literate nature than what I'm used to, that's not a bad thing, but I kept coming came back to the title of the anthology.  If the title is Horror Without Victims and the protagonist is dead at the end of your story isn't there something wrong with that?

Don't get me wrong, there are some very entertaining pieces here.  Take "Clouds" for example.  The clouds are erasing buildings and soon much more.  The tale is quite original, it's entertaining, there is certainly an element of horror, but again, there are victims.

If you've ever tried to come up with a horror story without a victim, it's a lot tougher than you might think.  I applaud the authors in this collection who succeeded where others failed. Alistair Rennie was one such writer who contributed, "The Carpet Seller's Recommendation" to the anthology.  You get plenty of horror and in the end, there is no real victim.  Another story that delivers on the anthology's theme is, "The Yellow See-Through Baby," by Michael Sidman.  A ghost story told by a toddler going through potty training.  A charming horror tale that works on many levels.

To sum things up.  I enjoyed more stories than I didn't, but I was bothered by what I saw as a lack of faithfulness to the theme of the anthology in many of the tales.

Horror Without Victims is available as a paperback from Amazon.com or directly from the printer http://www.lulu.com/shop/d-f-lewis/horror-without-victims/paperback/product-21070495.html

If you enjoy literary horror there is a lot to like in this book, just don't be surprised if you find a few victims along the way.

Montrosities - by Jeremy C. Shipp - 10 shorts in the bizarro fiction sub-genre

4 of 5 Stars    Review Copy

Having read some some shorts from Jeremy C. Shipp in the past, when I saw he was looking for reviewers for his newest book of short fiction, I jumped at the chance.

When you're reading one of his stories there's no telling where your going to end up.  You just know it's going to be strange...bizarre really.  Combine that with a stream of consciousness style of writing and there's really no way of knowing what's around the next corner.

Here, Jeremy has collected ten twisted tales for our enjoyment. Each one more demented than the last.  Not all of them hit the mark for me, but enough do to make Monstrosities worth your time.

I particularly liked, "The Little Glass Soul," the story of Ash, her stepmother and stepsisters. A rather perverse retelling of the children's classic "Cinderella," and both "Clown Hands" and "Googly" were both out and out creepy.

Another good entry from this collection is "Cold."  From that story... "Here's Shark, pointing his 22-caliber phone gun at the dead-eyed department store mannequin, and here I am, trapped in a chair made of ice, held down with rope that isn't there."

I would say, if Bizzarro Fiction is your passion, Jerremy C. Shipp is your man.  If you're not sure if it's your thing and feeling adventurous, take a chance on Monstrosities.  If your still not sure this is up your alley read a few of the author's shorts for free at the author's website http://jeremycshipp.wordpress.com/free-stories/ If this definitely isn't for you, then steer clear.  Thus, the 4 of 5 stars.  Recommended for mature readers.

Monstrosities is available now for the Kindle at Amazon.com.