The Book of Bunny Suicides by Andy Riley

 

(pb; 2003: humor/cartoon book)

Review

This fifteen-minute, fast-read cartoon collection is a darkly hilarious, goreless and simply illustrated work for those of us with an appreciation of black-but-relatively-gentle wit, suggestive of horrible death but not explicit. (I’m a reader/media viewer who get ticked off at media that kills animals, even “off-camera”, to make an unnecessary plot point, but doesn’t mind a dead bunny joke.) If you share that darkly silly sensibility, then you may be a prime reader for Riley’s Book, which has a sequel Return of the Bunny Suicides.

Dune: The Heir of Caladan by Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson

 

(hb; 2022: third novel in the Caladan trilogy. Twenty-third book in the Dune series.)

From the inside flap

“In Dune: The Heir of Caladan, the climactic novel in the Caladan trilogy. . . we step into the shoes of Paul Atreides. Not yet a man in years, he is about to enter a world he could never have imagined.

“The story that began with Duke Leto’s rise to power, then continued with the consequences of Lady Jessica’s betrayal, will now conclude with Paul becoming the leader that he needs to be on the way to his pivotal role as Muad’Dib.”

 

Review

 The third and final entry in the Caladan trilogy is a slick, well-edited action/adventure space opera, an entertaining, direct lead-up to Frank Herbert’s original Dune (1965). In Heir, readers can see the seeds that come to character- and event-based fruition in Frank Herbert’s Dune (1965). While not vital to the Dune timeline—it’s been a while since any Dune book has been—Heir, like most post-God Emperor of Dune (1981) books, is a thrilling, steady-build and twist-effective ride by excellent writers, with recurring, beloved and beloathed characters. Worth seeking out, this.

Dawn of the Dead by George A. Romero and Susanna Sparrow

(pb; 1979, republished 2020**)

From the back cover

“The world is being devastated by zombies. No one knows how far they have spread, or how to stop them. And as the living fight to save themselves, society collapses.

“Four people escape the chaos of downtown Philadelphia and find shelter in a shopping mall. But as the survivors exhaust their greed and the undead scrape at the doors, the refuge becomes a prison.

“And soon there will be nowhere left to hide.”

 

Review

Romero and Sparrow’s movie tie-in novelization of Romero’s 1978 landmark undead film is intense, immediately immersive, splatterific (at points), action-punctuated and character expansive (when compared to the film), a worthwhile companion work to the film. There isn’t a lot that’s different from its cinematic source-work (that I remember), but it’s a fun, fast and slickly written (and slightly icky) read, one worth seeking out.

[**republished/included in Second Sight’s 2020 seven-disc Blu-Ray Dawn of the Dead set]

In the Scrape by James Newman and Mark Steensland

 

(pb; 2019)

From the back cover

“Most kids dream about a new bike, a pair of top-dollar sneakers endorsed by their favorite athlete, or that totally awesome videogame everyone’s raving about. But thirteen-year-old Jake and his little brother Matthew want nothing more than to escape from their abusive father. As soon as possible, they plan to run away to California, where they will reunite with their mother and live happily ever after.

“It won’t be easy, though. After a scuffle with a local bully puts Jake’s arch-nemesis in the hospital, Sheriff Theresa McLelland starts poling her nose into their feud. During a trip to the family cabin for opening weekend of deer-hunting season, Jake and Matthew kick their plan into action, leaving Dad tied to a chair as they flee into the night. Meanwhile, the bully and his father have their own plans for revenge, and the events to follow will forever change the lives of everyone involved.”

 

Review

This 94-page novella, told from the vivid perspective of thirteen-year-old Jake Bradersen, is a straightforward tale of abuse, violence and redemption, with a few effective twists in the mix—a solid read by excellent writers, it’s a dark, wrong-side-of-the-woods coming-of-age work.

Carnival of Spies by Robert Moss

 

(pb; 1987)

From the back cover

“In the seething cauldron of Germany between two world wars. . .

“Young Johnny Lenz found his manhood and his cause. Loathing Fascism, growing up in chaos, he became a valued soldier of the Communist revolution. Fiercely loyal to his Moscow leaders, he fought, killed, and bled for them. Until Stalin’s bitter pact with Adolf Hitler brought disenchantment. . . until murder, torture and corruption revealed to him the great Communist lie.

“Rio De Janiero, 1936. . .

“An exotic city celebrating Carnival with extravagance and abandon. . . and a country in the midst of one of the century’s most daring attempts at revolution. Now Johnny Lenz will make his own life a perfect lie, balancing on a razor’s edge between rival agents and two sisters whose urgent passions could betray him. Now he will engineer a violent coup in the name of Communism—as a double agent for British Intelligence.”

 

Review

Moss’s complex, ambitious political thriller is one of those rare works where the personal and the political come together in an effective, harmonious manner. Johnny Lenz, an anti-Nazi and (relatively) kind-hearted believer in Communism, joins the party and rises quickly in the ranks, only to discover that his political party is riddled with corruption and other vices, vices that not only erode his initial hopes, but affect the love of his life (Sigrid Eckhardt, an artist), threatening to drive them apart—not unlike the way international politics and espionage, and national temperaments are split and exploited. His broken-faith/double-agent journey spans decades and continents, flavored with vivid descriptions of danger, rich characterization, sudden bursts of violence, romance, and locations, without any lags in the pacing and storyline. (Fans of barebones, lean-writing thrillers may disagree, but given Carnival’s scope, this is another excellent work by a master thriller writer, one worth owning, and perhaps in a few years, re-reading.)

Elvira: Camp Vamp by Elvira with John Paragon

 

(pb; 1997: YA novel. Second book in the Elvira trilogy.)

From the back cover

“Me? Elvira? Camping? Take a hike!

“Sleeping outdoors in nature is not my idea of a good time—it sounds so unnatural. But how could I refuse the Happy Campers? The girls were desperate enough to ask me to be their chaperone. And why not? I’m as campy as they come!

“First, I followed the Happy Camper Motto (Be Over-Prepared) and packed the three basic beauty groups: clothes, make-up, and plenty of hairspray. The essentials. Then, we headed for the hills at the crack of dawn (my bedtime).

“Someone tried to warn us about the legendary killer beast. But did we listen? Not. Even the human skulls along the trail didn’t scare us. But when our tents got shredded by giant claws, I knew this was no secret admirer. This freak needed a manicure!

“Now it’s up to me to soothe the savage beast—or the Happy Campers could be turned into an unhappy meal.”

 

Review

The second Elvira novel is a fun, fast-moving, wordplay- and double-entendre flirty YA (think mid-to older teens readers) work, more low-key than Elvira: Transylvania 90210 until its last-few-pages and briefly PG-violent and bloody Reveal/climax which fans of The Hills Have Eyes (1977), My Bloody Valentine (1981) and Wrong Turn (2003) may appreciate. Some of these elements might run a big dark for non-horror fans, but the elements, along with Elvira/Cassandra Peterson and Paragon’s effective use of iconic horror imagery, are mostly tell don’t show, so it’s generally adolescent friendly.

Camp Vamp, like Transylvania, works as a standalone, 169-page book, one that’s worth checking out, whether you’re an Elvira fan or a general PG-rated horror fan—bear in mind Transylvania, Camp Vamp and its follow-up, Elvira: The Boy Who Cried Werewolf, are out of print and often pricy.