Awakened (Awakened #1) by James S. Murray, Darren Wearmouth

A new subway line in New York City is being unveiled with fanfare, press coverage and even a visit from the President of the United States. When something goes terribly wrong, it becomes clear that an unspeakable evil has been released from the depths.

And they all said the devil didn’t actually exist…

Plodding dialogue and clumsy character development clog what otherwise would have been an action-packed science fiction read. The set up was so classic. The line, “the dwarves delved too deep”, kept running through my head.

“The workers shouted and pointed, but the noise of splitting granite drowned out their words. The ground beneath Grady’s feet disintegrated. He lunged for the cable, clutched it in a white-knuckled grip, and dangled over the newly formed black abyss.”pgs 8-9, ebook.

And once the evil emerges, I thought everyone took far too long to figure out what the heck was going on. For goodness sake, the President was right there. I mean, maybe in the face of unexplained phenomena, response times would be slowed down. But I had a hard time believing the incompetence.

“The majority headed to the food court while shooting nervous glances toward the train. Cops, now free from the burden of chaos, helped the injured to their feet and escorted them to triage. The five dead — one from the stampede, another shredded by the cafe window, and three at the hands of the Secret Service — were placed in a line and had jackets draped over their faces.” pg 18, ebook.

On the other hand, I did enjoy some of the tense moments. I liked the way journalists were portrayed, because of course they’d be there. Unless all newspapers go under… which, let me be clear, I don’t think anybody wants. But gosh, that’d make a good horror story, wouldn’t it.

“We’re sealing the second car of the train and taking refuge inside.” “Are you mad?” the Washington Post journalist called out. “There’s not a chance in hell I’m going near that subway train.” pg 37

If you take this story for what it is, like a summer blockbuster of a book rather than a serious work of science fiction, it’s fun enough. There’s thrills, chills and moments of terror.

“He had never subscribed to conspiracy theories or the far-fetched stories about monsters, but he couldn’t deny what he just saw. It hardly seemed believable. … This wasn’t terrorism. It was pure terror.” pg 52

Recommended for readers who are looking for a mildly entertaining book to pass the dark days of winter or the hot days of summer by a pool. This is like a “comfort food” option for horror and science fiction fans.

Thanks for reading!

Horrorstör by Grady Hendrix

Amy has a cash-flow problem and a desire to transfer to a different Ikea-like furniture store. If she can just stay on the boss’ good side for a few more days, she’ll be out of here.

So she was on her best behavior while her transfer request made its way through the system. She arrived on time each day. She smiled at customers and didn’t blink at last-minute schedule changes. … She fought her natural tendency to talk back. And, most important, she steered clear of Basil, determined to stay off his radar.” pg 17, ebook.

But the store has been under performing and, each morning, things are misplaced, wrecked or smeared with foul-smelling gunk. Someone has been in the store and Basil, the manager, is going to figure out what’s going on.

“I’ve asked you here because I need your help. I have an extra job for tonight. A side project. And I need you to keep quiet about it.”pg 27, ebook.

He’ll make sure Amy’s transfer papers go through if she stays overnight with Basil and a few of her co-workers. What could possibly go wrong?

Horrorstör is elevated from a typical horror novel because of its setting, which is really quite clever, and the way Grady Hendrix, the author, weaves the store manual into the narrative.

The haunting itself is spooky enough to give you chills, but doesn’t really cross the line into nightmare territory. At least, it didn’t for me.

“Churches are built where saints were martyred. A bridge requires a child in its foundations if it is to hold. All great works must begin with a sacrifice.” pg 96, ebook.

Amy is a strong female protagonist. She fights for what she wants, her coworkers and her sanity in this story. I liked how her character develops from entitled to vengeful.

Photo by Selim Can Iu015fu0131k on Pexels.com

Basil, Ruth Ann and Amy’s other coworkers are well-written too. As I read, I could imagine this cast of characters actually working at a store. There’s the tightly-strung manager with a heart of gold, the maternal push-over figure who may be tougher than she looks, and more.

Recommended for readers who enjoy some thrills and furniture-related chills. If you’re into Ikea, you may never look at your home furnishings the same way again.

Thanks for reading!

The Atrocities by Jeremy C. Shipp

“You see, Ms. Valdez, we require a governess with very specific qualifications. And this goes beyond a mastery of math and science and linguistics.”

Ms. Danna Valdez is summoned to a gothic mansion filled with grotesque artwork to tutor a girl who has died.

But no one told her about the special circumstances of her pupil before she arrived.

“Isabella isn’t coping well with this new phase of her existence. A few months ago, she started breaking things. At first it was only a lamp or a vase every few weeks, but things are… escalating.” pg 29

Within the mansion lives Mr. Evers, an artist and the creator of many of the grotesques, and his wife, Mrs. Evers, a cook named Robin and a gardener/handyman named Raul.

The emotionally-charged atmosphere of the place gives Danna nightmares as soon as she arrives. And something seems to be a little off…

The premise of this story was very exciting, but I didn’t enjoy its execution or ending.

The grotesque artwork seemed to hold more meaning than I was able to glean from it.

“The parishioners would stop and reflect on each Atrocity. And what would they see? Not a hideous statue. They would look beyond the violence and suffering to the metaphysical core of the image. They would see a manifestation of God’s power.” pg 13

The artwork is creepy, disturbing and sets the scene. But it didn’t make the story.

“Each canvas houses an emaciated figure draped in tattered strips of gossamer. Wings made of human fingers spread out from their backs, and their ashen skin stretches tight over their bones like shrinkwrap.” pg 16

Recommended for readers who prefer complex imagery over plot development.

Thanks for reading!

Here’s some other horror stories I have reviewed:

The Murders of Molly Southbourne by Tade Thompson

Hyde by Daniel Levine

All Darling Children by Katrina Monroe

The Motion of Puppets by Keith Donohue

The Motion of Puppets is a clever play on an ancient Roman myth.

Orpheus was a musician who was so talented he could charm the birds from the sky and make the forest spirits weep. He madly loved a woman named Eurydice.

One day, she stepped on a serpent and died. Orpheus nearly lost his mind out of grief for her. So, he made his way to the underworld to beg Lord Hades for his bride.

Orpheus plays such sweet music that Persephone weeps and Hades allows the bard to take the shade of his dead wife back to the living world. There’s one condition, he can’t look back to see if she’s following.

I think we all know what happened then. This book takes that tragedy and places it in the modern world.

Everything is fine until Theo’s wife, Kay, goes missing. “She should be more responsible, should know that he would worry, but he could hear her laughing it off when she came home. You’ll give yourself ulcers, she’d say. You fret too much. I just went out for croissants.” pg 18

He assumes she stumbled into the bed of one of her coworkers and is sleeping off a hangover. But the truth is much worse.

Kay has been transformed into something else, something magical and monstrous. “We lucky few can move about as long as the people are not watching. Midnight to first light, we are free.”pg 41

She is trapped in a metaphorical “underworld,” ruled over by an ancient power and his minions. “You cannot go home,” he said. “You cannot ever leave the Back Room.” pg 76

Even if Theo can figure out where she’s gone, how on earth will Kay go back to the shape she had before?

Keith Donohue has crafted a clever and haunting novel, putting a horror-tinged lens on the myth.

“And, besides, let me tell you a secret: all art needs a little sadness in it, a small tragedy to balance the human comedy.” pg 111

Like Moulin Rouge, Baz Luhrmann’s musical take on Orpheus and Eurydice, the elements of the original story are in both works of art. I think The Motion of Puppets is more weird and other-worldly.

To truly enjoy this tale, you have to be willing to believe in magic.

Highly recommended for readers who like twists on mythology or not-too-terrifying horror stories.

If you like mythological re-tellings, you may also enjoy The Snow Child or Circe.

Thanks for reading!

The Murders of Molly Southbourne by Tade Thompson

The Murders of Molly Southbourne is a short story about a girl who is born with a horrifying condition. Whenever she bleeds, the blood changes into a homicidal version of herself that won’t stop until it, or Molly, is dead.

“The rules are simple. If you see a girl who looks like you, run and fight. Don’t bleed. If you bleed, blot, burn, and bleach. If you find a hole, find your parents. Molly recites the lines to herself many times.” pg 24.

I’m not sure I understood what the author was going for with this short story.

Yes, what happens to Molly is horrific. I guess I didn’t make the connection between what was happening to her and the broader meaning the story was reaching towards.

Photo by Badulescu Badulescu on Pexels.com

Because it was certainly reaching: “She cannot stand children. They remind her of the mollys, with their innocence and their half-formed personalities, and she expects them to burst into violence any minute. They never do, but they might.” pgs 63-64

Or, beyond the death-through-your-children angle, I could use this story to consider the futility of life itself. “How is it that humans bleed so much? Or maybe Molly herself bleeds more than the average human. The rule are useless, an attenuation at best. Lifeblood escapes all the time, minor hemorrhages, a little a day. Maybe that is how we age. Maybe that is how we die.” pg 91

It is creepy and could fit the bill if you’re looking for one more short and spooky pre-Halloween read. I just didn’t connect with it.

Thanks for reading!

All Darling Children by Katrina Monroe

All Darling Children asks the question: what if something corrupted the ‘boy-who-never-grew-up’?

Peter Pan is one of my favorite fairy tales and it has featured in quite a few beautiful re-tellings. (Tiger Lily is one.)

All Darling Children is a masterful, twisted take on a literary classic. I loved this for its horror filled examination of the spiritual cost of eternal youth and the strong female lead.

From her first moments in Neverland, Madge, the grandaughter of Wendy, can tell that something isn’t right: “Neverland. It seemed a hodgepodge of landscape ripped from a dream. Or maybe a nightmare. On one side, lush forest grew dense with heat and energy. Flowers bloomed in a rainbow of colors. They shuddered as Madge gazed at them, and then, as Pan looked in their direction, shriveled to pale, dry nothings.” loc 525, ebook.

This is not Disney’s version of Neverland.

Peter and his Lost Boys are dangerous in this world. Immature and wild, they try to force the traditional gender role of ‘mother’ on Madge (because they don’t know how to handle girls otherwise) and she resists: “Outsiders aren’t supposed to know how to find the tree house until they’ve been initiated.” “Initiated?” Madge’s stomach fell. “What’s that mean?” “It means you’re in the club, not that you’d ever get in, being a girl and all.” loc 692.

I never questioned the ‘Father’/’Mother’ roles of Peter and Wendy from the original book but, if the authority of the position was abused… it gets so creepy very quickly.

Madge’s story is told in-between entries from Wendy’s old diary. Here’s one of the passages: “I’ve learned much about (Peter), and while he is erratic and inconsistent in most ways, in one he is steadfast. Predictable. Peter must always be forced to try harder. If one gives in, he loses interest. I will never give in.”loc 921.

The back and forth from the story that the reader thinks she knows that is presented in Wendy’s diary, to the new story that Monroe is weaving with Madge, is awesome. There are enough similar elements drawn in from the original that the whole thing feels chillingly familiar- a mirror version of the classic.

Peter’s bragging about his exploits is presented as charming in Barrie’s version- Monroe takes a far more modern view: “Who wants to hear the story of how I cut off Captain Hook’s hand?” The boys whooped and smacked the table. Madge paled. He’d cut off someone’s hand? What was worse, he was bragging about it? Psycho.” loc 973

If you like twisted fairy tale re-tellings, you may love All Darling Children. I did. Another one that you’ve got to pick up if you liked this is Alice by Christina Henry. It’s an incredible, dark re-imagining of Alice in Wonderland and it’s also amazing.

Thank you to NetGalley and Red Adept Publishing for a free, digital ARC.

Also thank you to my Goodreads friend, Rosemarie Short, for writing a fantastic review that convinced me that I just had to read All Darling Children. You can see her review here: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show…

And, thank you for reading!

The Abominable: a Novel by Dan Simmons

The Abominable by Dan Simmons is a historical fiction novel about mountain climbing and a mystery that is set, for the most part, during the early years of World War II.

The story reads like less of an adventure novel and more like an homage to the sport of mountaineering.

Dan Simmons takes his time building the tension of the tale with back stories and detours until I nearly lost interest in the whole thing. But, to be fair, I have never been a serious mountain climber, having injured myself the first and only time I tried it.

I do enjoy long hikes in beautiful spaces. I don’t like risking my life or the lives of my companions in the process. So, not my thing, but maybe it’s somebody else’s.

If hiking is your jam, the long and technical descriptions of climbing techniques, knots, and methods in The Abominable might be just the read you’ve been looking for.

Here’s a pretty passage about viewing the night sky, high up in the mountains: “When you look at the stars near the horizon…especially when it’s really cold.. they tend to jitter around. Jumping left, then right… all while they jiggle up and down at the same time. I think it has something to do with masses of super-cold air lying over the land or frozen sea acting like a lens that’s being moved…” pg 18

One of the many passages that literally made my hands sweat in fear for the characters: “It’s tricky playing out the rope to Jean-Claude as I crab-shuffle to the left. Most of it is in my rucksack, which keeps trying to pull me back and off the face with just the weight of the extra rope and a few other small things in it, but some I’ve had to loop over my right shoulder to keep playing out to J.C. …

I’ve made it a little more than halfway to the pipe ledge when I slip…” pg 111

There are hundreds of pages with writing like that. I found it stressful, but again, I’m not a mountain climber.

Photo by eberhard grossgasteiger on Pexels.com

There’s a lot of wry humor in this read too: “…why are they so eager to get this blessing from the monastery’s holy man, Dzatrul Rinpoche? If everything’s predestined for them anyway, what difference will the abbot’s blessing make?” Pasang smiles his small smile. “Do not ask me, Mr. Perry, to make sense of the internal contradictions that are common in all religions.” pg 341

More love for mountain climbing: “Machig Labdron once wrote, Unless all reality is made worse, one cannot attain liberation… So wander in grisly places and mountain retreats… do not get distracted by doctrines and books… just get real experiences… in the horrid and desolate.” “In other words,” I say, “face your demons.” “Exactly,” says Reggie. “Make a gift of your body to the demons of the mountains and wilderness. It’s the best way to destroy the last vestiges of one’s vanity and pride.” pg 346

This book in two lines: “We were metaphorical inches from hypothermia-which has a wider range of terrible symptoms than merely going to sleep and freezing to death, not the least of which would be intemperate belligerence and a need to rip our clothes off as we froze-and literal inches from a 9,000-foot drop to our south side and a 10,000-foot drop a few more feet away to the north side. But for the moment, we were very happy.” pg 554

Photo by Aleksandr Slobodianyk on Pexels.com

And some people call that fun.

So, beyond being terrified during the climbing portions and bored by the never ending, rambling style of story-telling, I wanted much more of the fantastical in this tale, for example: the abominable snowman!

I’m not going to say anymore about yetis because I don’t want to spoil the surprising twists and turns of this tale for those who do choose to pick it up. Prepare yourself for one hell of a climb though- because it’s a long and meandering one.

Thanks for reading!

The Help Desk Book Blog

Sharing reviews and deep thoughts about life.

Category: Horror

Awakened (Awakened #1) by James S. Murray, Darren Wearmouth

Horrorstör by Grady Hendrix

The Atrocities by Jeremy C. Shipp

The Motion of Puppets by Keith Donohue

The Murders of Molly Southbourne by Tade Thompson

All Darling Children by Katrina Monroe

The Abominable: a Novel by Dan Simmons

Menu

Sharing reviews and deep thoughts about life.

Share this Blog:

Share this Blog:

Share this Blog:

Share this Blog:

Share this Blog:

Share this Blog:

Share this Blog:

Menu