A serial killer is roaming around Chicago murdering people in wheelchairs by absorbing them into his chest. A person with a mental disability and his self mutilating friend decide to put a stop to this.
I wanted to like this book, but it didn’t really work for me. The supernatural element of the story, the method of killing, is bizarre and unnecessary. It’s quite confusing and doesn’t add anything to the suspense of the story. The plot would have been easier to follow if the murderer was using a dirty needle or something to kill his victims.
The biggest problem here is that here’s far too many characters. It only becomes clear in the last 3rd of the book who the main characters are. Up until that point the reader is seeing new names every few pages and struggling to figure out which ones are important to remember.
This is one of those books that includes lyrics from songs. I hate when authors do that. Stephen King and Shaun Hutson do it too. It’s lame. We get it. You like music. The problem is that your taste in music sucks. Keep it to yourselves, dorks. The author also gets too literary for his own good. This book features a prostitute with 2 heads. This is not the place for stream of consciousness and diary entries. You’re not James Joyce bro.
I read a short story by Wayne Allen Sallee in the Splatterpunks collection years ago. I can’t remember it specifically, but reading this book definitely reminded me of the stuff in those collections. There’s a kind of edgy self awareness to the writing that feels a bit contrived. At the same time, while most of the writing in the Splatterpunk collections focuses on punching down, this book does not stoop to those depths in its depictions of disabled people. I mean, they do get murdered, but they’re not disparaged or belittled. I wouldn’t say this is a particular tasteful novel, but at least it’s not completely morally repugnant.
Ed Gein always seemed like the least offensive “serial killer” to me. He only killed 2 people for sure, and while these murders were horrible, what old Eddie did to the corpses was so absolutely repulsive that it makes me feel quite sorry for him. I know that’s a weird way to look at things, but the man dug up women’s graves and took the rotting corpses home. Then he cut off their skin and used it to patch together a lady suit that he would wear around his house. These weren’t spur of the moment, impulsive acts. This dude spent a huge amount of time playing with festering corpses and amputated body parts. This was his hobby. What was going through this man’s head as he greased his collection of amputated vaginas to keep them supple? He claimed that he never had sex with the corpses; he just liked chopping them into little bits and pretending they were part of his own body. I find it hard not to feel sorry for a man as completely unhinged as Eddie Gein.
I guess Eddie just seems more fucked up than evil. The stuff he did was so disgusting that I find it really hard to imagine him taking pleasure in it. There was something very wrong going on in his brain.
I’ve known about Ed Gein for as long as I can remember. I grew up listening to Slayer and Blind Melon songs about him, and I watched a movie about him when I was a teenager that featured a dance scene that stuck in my head. When I was 21, my girlfriend dumped me, and to make myself feel better, I spent an inordinate amount of money on an Ed Gein style hunting cap. I used to wear it when I went camping. I suppose my familiarity with him also relates to the impact that his story had on modern horror. Norman Bates from Psycho, Leatherface from Texas Chainsaw Massacre and Buffalo Bill from Silence of the Lambs are all based partly on Gein.
My Ed Gein hat
Harold Schecter’s book on Gein was decent. It felt a bit sensational at times, but the events it’s describing are so fucking gross that it was probably hard to avoid that. A lot of the stuff about Gein’s family life seemed hard to swallow, but I’m sure that has something to do with how it was so similar to Psycho. It is actually hard to believe in somebody being this messed up. There’s a lot of detail included here, and parts felt repetitive and boring, but it’s also nice to read an exhaustive account that covers every imaginable aspect of the case.
There was one part of the book that made me laugh heartily. It’s a passage explaining how psychologists asked Ed to explain the meanings behind common idioms, kind of like a linguistic Rorschach test. His responses to most of the phrases are the kind of interpretations that you’d expect from a stupid person, but one was absolutely incredible. When asked to explain his understanding of the phrase, “a bird in the hand is worth 2 in the bush”, Ed’s response was, “If you have a bird in your hand, you might squeeze him too much and kill him.” This reminded me of the scene in Of Mice and Men when Lenny crushes the mouse in his pocket.
Deviant seems to be considered the definitive book on Ed Gein. It’s not particularly eloquent, but it did the job for me. Give it a read if you’re interested in this kind of thing.
It’s been a while since I read something by Sarrantonio, and I thought this title would be suitable for this week.
Bantam – 1990
The first few chapters of this book were a little off putting. They’re about 4 different people who seemingly have no relationship to each other. A famous actor has run away from Hollywood and is hitchhiking across America. A troubled teenager is in trouble with the police. A local professor’s teaching position is at risk, and an old woman is sitting around having a think. To make things more confusing, she has Alzheimer’s and her narrative jumps back and forth. This element reminded me of reading Faulkner back in college. Things take a while to get going, but everything does manage to come together in the end.
It was Sarrantonio’s short stories that made me realize how much he was influenced by Ray Bradbury, and the Bradbury influence is strong here. I also read a review of this book that points out the clear influence of Stephen King’s It, itself a homage to Bradbury. By the end I could definitely see the similarity.
In truth though, this book wasn’t great. My favourite Sarrantonio stuff is his short stories and shorter novels. October wasn’t terrible, but I think it tried a little too hard to be literary and fell a bit short on the thrills. It wasn’t awful or anything, just nothing special. This is the second of Sarrantonio’s October/Halloween books I have read. Maybe next year, I’ll do his Orangefield series.
Some kids in the town of Nebulon start acting up. One of them accuses her mom’s boyfriend of trying to finger her, another tortures a frog to death, and yet another drowns a baby. Their parents aren’t sure what’s going on, but they think it might have something to do with the creepy old woman who the kids hang out with after school.
This book was basically exactly what I expected it to be. It was a bit like dinner before doing the weekly shopping. It filled my hole, but it wasn’t super delicious. I didn’t really love it, but neither did I have a bad time reading it. It was fine. It’s most memorable feature was how mediocre it is. I’ll forget about it in a few weeks. I am in no rush to read anything else by Hugh B. Cave, but I probably will at some point if it’s convenient.
I really don’t have much more to say about this one.
When I was 11 years old, I went to my best friend’s house to play the first Resident Evil game on his playstation. I remember being blown away by the cut scene for the first zombie. The violence in this game was like nothing we had seen before. Unfortunately, the game was actually quite hard, so I never got past the first few zombies. It was only about a year and a half ago that I bought a pair of USB game controllers and went back and played the game through. It’s pretty clunky, but still enjoyable. Last spring, I went through all of the main games in the series up to and including Resident Evil 4. I really enjoyed the games, and I thought about doing a post on them here, but I don’t really want to get too much into video games. I was pretty happy to find out that novelizations had been written for the first 5 games of the series.
Titan Books Editions – 2012
Resident Evil: The Umbrella Conspiracy – 1998
So the S.T.A.R.S. Alpha team, a group of soldiers disappear in the woods. A second team, the Bravos, including Chris Redfield and Jill Valentine, are sent in to rescue the Alphas, but they find a mansion full of zombies and monsters. Chris manages to find one of the Alpha team, a girl named Rebecca Chambers. They figure out that a local pharmaceutical company has been performing atrocities in the name of science. The Bravos’ team leader, a lad named Wesker, is a slippery individual who seems to know more than he should. Things go horribly wrong, and a lot of blood is spilled.
Resident Evil: Caliban Cove – 1998
After escaping from the mansion, the remaining S.T.A.R.S. return to the city to find that Umbrella has convinced the public that the S.T.A.R.S. are dangerous criminals who caused a massacre. The S.T.A.R.S. vow to take revenge and head to one of Umbrella’s secret facilities in Caliban Cove. Unfortunately for everyone, this facility is run by a mad scientist with a plan to turn the entire human race into zombies. Rebecca Chambers is the main character here even though she only played a minor role in the first book. Caliban Cove is an original story. It was ok.
Resident Evil: City of the Dead – 1999
Resident Evil 2 is my favourite game in the series. The music in the main hall of the police station is my favourite. In this one Leon Kennedy, a rookie cop, shows up for his first day of work at Raccoon City Police Station. On his way he is attacked by zombies and meets Claire Redfield. Claire is the sister of Chris Redfield from the first book/game. Nearly everyone in the city has turned into a zombie, and Claire and Leon need to find a way out.
Resident Evil: Underworld – 1999
This is another original story. Leon Kennedy, Claire Redfield, Rebecca Chambers and some of the non-game S.T.A.R.S. from the Caliban Cove book break into another secret Umbrella facility. This facility has another mad scientist and a bunch of new monsters living in weird habitats. There’s also a dinosaur. The S.T.A.R.S. have to defeat each of the monsters. This one kind of felt like reading about a minigame that doesn’t actually exist.
Resident Evil: Nemesis – 2000
This is actually set a few days before the events in City of the Dead. Jill Valentine is back in Raccoon City. The streets are filled with zombies, and there is a giant monster stalking her to try to kill her. Resident Evil 3 was a bit of a disappointing game for me. The game play style was too similar to the previous 2 games, and while I did enjoy it, it didn’t feel as groundbreaking as other games in the series. The novel version was also a bit underwhelming.
Resident Evil: CODE Veronica – 2001
Claire Redfield still hasn’t managed to find her brother Chris, but has been kidnapped and imprisoned on a secret island. She breaks out, but this island is owned by Umbrella, so there is obviously an outbreak of their zombie virus, and everyone gets all messed up. There’s also a creepy mansion, and the “couple” who own the mansion are actually a creepy brother and sister. Chris shows up at the end, but so does Wesker. I really quite enjoyed the game of this one, but the novel was forgettable.
Resident Evil: Zero Hour – 2004
This is actually a prequel to the entire series. It tells how Rebecca Chambers ended up at the mansion in the first book/game. She was chasing down a handsome convict that turned out to be good, and the pair of them had to fight off a gross slug man.
The novels follow the games pretty closely, and while I was moderately entertained and comforted listening to the audiobook versions while doing household chores, I can’t imagine these having any appeal for people who didn’t enjoy the games. They don’t really add much to the story. There’s a mysterious character named Trent that shows up a couple of times, but despite the author’s best efforts, he never has much of an impact. Honestly, if you liked the games, these books are mindless fun, but otherwise steer clear.
There’s a new Resident Evil movie coming out next week. I went back and watched the 2002 movie a few months ago, and while I was decently amused, I didn’t bother with the sequels. The trailer for the new movie looks pretty good to me. I know there is some controversy over the fact that it isn’t a straight adaptation of the games, but I really don’t think that would work. I really liked the director’s other horror movies, so I am hoping to go see this new one in the cinema.
Things have been a bit choppy over the summer, but life has settled down again, so weekly posts have resumed. Next week’s post will be about some freaks.
I’m back. Sorry for the lack of posts recently. I was on holiday and dropped my phone into a pool, so I wasn’t able to log in to anything for a few weeks, and I’ve had pretty bad jet lag since I got back. The good news is I never stopped reading and have plenty to post about in the coming weeks.
The Midwich Cuckoos
Michael Joseph – 1957
Thanks to The Simpsons, I’ve had a rough idea of the plot of Village of the Damned since I was a kid. I only recently realised it was based on a book, and I remembered enjoying Day of the Triffids and The Chrysalids by Wyndham when I read them years ago, so I gave The Midwich Cuckoos a go.
This one starts off with an entire village being mysteriously knocked unconcious. 9 months after this, all of the women in the village give birth to weird children that all look and act the same. It turns out they’re psychic aliens or mutants or something, and they’re up to no good.
This one was more creepy than scary, but I quite enjoyed it.
The Day of the Triffids
Michael Joseph – 1951
I reread after finishing The Midwich Cuckoos because I knew I wouldn’t have much to say about that book alone. I genuinely did not remember how miserable this book gets. It’s awesome.
A dude wakes up after an eye operation and discovers that almost everybody else had been blinded. This scene reminded me of the opening of 28 Days Later. It turns out that movie was very much inspired by this book. So a few of the people who are able to see start trying to restart civilisation, and everything goes to Hell pretty quickly. I really liked this element of the book. The inherent selfishness of human nature is definitely the biggest threat to these characters. There’s also some sentient carnivorous plants with legs. This is an extremely enjoyable post-apocalyptic novel that blurs the lines between science fiction and horror. It reminded me a bit of that book Feral I read a few months ago too. I’d be shocked if Brian Evenson hadn’t read this one.
I’m actually going out of town again for another little while, but I have posts on freaks, zombies and a sinister statue coming up, so check back again soon.
I should be packing for my vacation, so I only have time to write a short post this week. Luckily enough, I devoured a particulary nasty novel earlier on in the week.
Scribner – 2020 (Originally published in 2017 as Cadáver exquisito)
This book has been on my radar for a few years. It seems to be considered a classic of modern horror. Somebody at work actually recommended it to me last August, and I’ve been meaning to read it ever since. Tender is the Flesh is set in a world where it is now illegal to eat animals because of a virus, so people are eating humans instead. Factory farms are now filled with people instead of cows and pigs. The plot here centers around an employee in one of these farms. I won’t go into further detail because I reckon you’re better off not knowing much about what will happen.
I am happy to report that what occurs in this book is thoroughly bleak and upsetting. This is a massive bummer from start to finish. I loved it. I read the whole thing in a day. I’ve seen people complaining that it’s too much or that it tries too hard, but those people obviously haven’t read Cows. I feel like Bazterrica’s book is what I wanted Stokoes book to be. This novel is emotionally distressing instead of just gross.
I’m sure this book makes statements on the meat industry, misogyny and capitalism, and while I agree all of those things deserve to be critiqued, I know others more knowledgeable on those topics have already discussed them. As a horror novel, this was excellent. You should definitely read it. I plan on reading more from this author soon.
This had been on my radar for a few years. I generally avoid descriptions of books after hearing that they’re good, and apart from assuming it involved a house, I went into Maynard’s House with no idea what it’d be about.
A Vietnam veteran inherits an isolated house from another soldier. He returns to the States and takes up residence there. The house is clearly haunted, and his neighbours are quite weird. He falls in love with a teenage girl who may be a fairy. It’s hard to distinguish between supernatural events and the symptoms of his PTSD.
This book was great. It’s quite funny in parts, and the characters are interesting and believable. This is definitely a cut above a lot of horror novels from this era. Honestly, this was such a breath of fresh air in comparison to the last 2 novels I read. I actually looked forward to sitting down to read this one. If you haven’t read this, you should check it out. I always feel like I have less to say when I enjoy a book, but that’s ok because I have other news for you today!
Weresatan – Infernal Hymns of the Sodomite Cultist
A few months ago, I mentioned that I had been working on a musical project. I recorded 5 songs of ultra-Satanic death metal, and I am happy to announce that tape copies of Weresatan’s first release, Infernal Hymns of the Sodomite Cultist, are now available from Defiled Altar.
I picked this up last week because I wanted a short horror novel to read and this looked the part. There’s a creepy dude with some devilly looking horns hovering above him and a comparison to Rosemary’s Baby on the cover. I started reading it without hesitation. I assumed it was going to be another horror novel about the birth of the Antichrist.
Nope. This is a book about a guy named Herman who gets pregnant. Well, his wife gets pregnant, but she doesn’t have any of the normal symptoms. The dude gets the morning sickness, cravings and mood swings. It’s implied that he has some weird psychological disorder that makes him believe he is pregnant because he is jealous of his wife. This causes a lot of tension between them.
Sphere Books edition retitled Black Marriage
This was a really weird book. It’s not really a horror novel, but I’m not sure what genre it actually belongs too. It’s far too boring to be a thriller or a fantasy novel, but it’s also far too weird to be a straight drama. The writing is dense, and I spent a long time wondering when things were going to pick up, but there’s never any proper explanation given as to what is going on. Also, none of the characters seem as surprised by what’s happening as you’d expect them to. At no point does Herman contemplate how he will actually give birth when the time comes. That’s the first and main thing I’d worry about if there was a bun in my oven. I’d spend hours a day stretching out my hoop in preparation. There is a Psycho style surprise ending here that is pretty horrific, but that horror lasts for 2 short paragraphs. The hardback edition of the book’s cover is far more suitable for this very odd work of fiction.
W. H. Allen – 1972
Honestly, the most horrifying part of this book was how much alcohol the mother drank while pregnant.
While I’ve read a lot of horror novels from the horror boom of the 1970s and 1980s, most of these have either been Stephen King novels or relatively obscure texts from authors who only published a few books. I’m actually unfamiliar with the work of most of the popular horror authors of that era. I’ve never read anything by Dean Koontz, Anne Rice, Robert McCammon, John Farris or V.C. Andrews. This is largely because those are the only books I regularly see on charity shop shelves any more, and I’m quite sure all of their work is easily available as e-books. I plan to read them all at some point, but I have been focusing on harder to find stuff because I know those author’s works will be accessible at any point.
The other horror author whose books are always available is John Saul. Like Robin Cook, I had heard that Saul’s work became painfully formulaic as time went on but that his first novel, Suffer the Children was worth a read. It also shares its title with a Napalm Death song, so I decided to give it a go.
Dell – 1977
So the Congers are a weird family with 2 little girls. (This was too close to home for me.) One of the girls stopped speaking because her father assaulted her. The other one gets possessed by the soul of one of her ancestors who was also abused by a parent. This kid tortures some other kids in a surprisingly brutal manner.
I didn’t like this book.
I don’t enjoy reading about kids getting hurt. I get that sometimes this kind of thing is used as a plot device to get the reader to feel a certain way about the bad guy, but when that happens, it usually pays off at the end when he dies horribly. This is not how Saul’s plot works. Here the suffering is the point of the book. It’s truly sadistic stuff.
Some of it’s rather unbelievable too. There’s a part where Mr. Conger tells his wife that he wanted to rape their kid and then tries to rape his wife but his dick won’t get hard. 5 minutes later, the couple are having a friendly chat. The family are cursed, but the curse is never really explained. It’s just a curse that makes people want to rape and murder their kids.
No, I didn’t like this at all. I’m probably not going to bother with any more Saul.
