I was going to start this post by saying that it’s been a long time since I read a Shaun Hutson book, but then I checked and realised that I read both of his terrible Uninvited books only a year ago. They were unbearable garbage, but I quite enjoyed Renegades when I read that in 2024, so I decided to give him another chance. I chose Relics because it’s old. I had no idea what it was about going into it.
Some archaeologists come across a Celtic burial site containing a huge number of decapitated children. This happens near a town where a local group of drug addicted Satanists is commiting a series of horrible animal sacrifices and a local scumbag is breeding violent pitbulls for dogfights. Somebody starts a killing spree. I expected the three different plots of the story to come together into a cohesive whole, but that never happens. I remember having a similar complaint about the plot of Spawn when I read that.
This is fairly graphic stuff. There’s lots of gouts of blood and steaming intestines. Somebody gets their face melted with acid, and a woman is raped in a pile of dogshit. There’s also a few romantic sex scenes. They were perhaps the most uncomfortable parts. Honestly, I can imagine 13-14 year old boys being really impressed with this, but as an adult it was excruciating.
This is not a good book. I wasn’t remotely invested in the plot or characters. I’m not going to say that I won’t read another book by Hutson, but it will probably be a few years before I revisit his work.
Nocturnal Revelries 