(pb; 1991)
From the back cover:
"Ghysla was one of the Old Folks -- shapeshifters and wielders of magic -- the last of her kind. She lived in the forest far from the dangers of humankind, content with her solitary existence, until she glimpsed Prince Anyr. Anyr's bravery and kindness touched her heart, and she vowed to win her love. But Ghysla dared not reveal her true form to Anyr for fear of frightening him, so she visited her beloved in the forms of the wild and beautiful creatures of the wood. Anyr was enchanted, and as Ghysla accompanied her Prince through field and forest, she became convinced that he returned her love though she had never revealed her true nature to him.
"When Sivorne, Anyr's betrothed, arrived for their wedding day, Ghysla was filled with despair. In desperation, she cast the ancient spell known as the sleep of stone over Sivorne, determined to assume Sivorne's likeness and take her place at the altar. But what would she do when Anyr, who loved Sivorne deeply, found out that he hadn't married the woman he'd waited a lifetime for? Indeed, that he had not married a human woman at all?"
Review:
Predictable, YA-in-spirit-and-tone fairy tale. Cooper's writing is solid, but the storyline is by-the-numbers; decent read for a tween reader, otherwise this is a so-so offering from the writer who created the excellent eight-book Indigo series.
Sunday, May 20, 2007
Wednesday, May 16, 2007
Rant, by Chuck Palahniuk
(hb; 2007)
From the inside flap:
"Rant takes the form of an oral biography of one Buster 'Rant' Casey, who may or may not be the most efficient serial killer of our time.
"A high school rebel who always wins (and a childhood murderer?), Rant Casey escapes from his small hometown of Middleton for the big city. He becomes the leader of an urban demolition derby called Party Crashing. On appointed nights participants recognize one another by such designated car markings as 'Just Married' toothpaste graffiti and then stalk and crash into each other. Rant Casey will die a spectacular highway death, after which his friends gather testimony needed to build an oral history of his short, violent life. Their collected anecdotes explore the possibility that his saliva caused a silent urban plague of rabies and that he found a way to escape the prison house of linear time..."
Review:
As subversive, LOL funny, horrific, memorable and clever as Palahniuk's finer works -- Lullaby; Fight Club -- the thematically-familiar Rant weaves seemingly-side trip plot sinews into a cohesive, mindblowing and landmark narrative that demands a second read just to capture all the exciting, plot-supportive minutiae that Palahniuk's crammed into it.
If you can get past the inherent ickiness (Palahniuk has a detailed fascination with bodily fluids) of the story, this is a unique and rewarding read that may easily rewire the way you view that alterable concept we call "reality".
By all means, check this out.
Side note: J.G. Ballard's Crash explored a similar-yet-differentiated theme. If you like Rant, there's a good chance you'll like Crash.
From the inside flap:
"Rant takes the form of an oral biography of one Buster 'Rant' Casey, who may or may not be the most efficient serial killer of our time.
"A high school rebel who always wins (and a childhood murderer?), Rant Casey escapes from his small hometown of Middleton for the big city. He becomes the leader of an urban demolition derby called Party Crashing. On appointed nights participants recognize one another by such designated car markings as 'Just Married' toothpaste graffiti and then stalk and crash into each other. Rant Casey will die a spectacular highway death, after which his friends gather testimony needed to build an oral history of his short, violent life. Their collected anecdotes explore the possibility that his saliva caused a silent urban plague of rabies and that he found a way to escape the prison house of linear time..."
Review:
As subversive, LOL funny, horrific, memorable and clever as Palahniuk's finer works -- Lullaby; Fight Club -- the thematically-familiar Rant weaves seemingly-side trip plot sinews into a cohesive, mindblowing and landmark narrative that demands a second read just to capture all the exciting, plot-supportive minutiae that Palahniuk's crammed into it.
If you can get past the inherent ickiness (Palahniuk has a detailed fascination with bodily fluids) of the story, this is a unique and rewarding read that may easily rewire the way you view that alterable concept we call "reality".
By all means, check this out.
Side note: J.G. Ballard's Crash explored a similar-yet-differentiated theme. If you like Rant, there's a good chance you'll like Crash.
Friday, May 11, 2007
Cardington Crescent, by Anne Perry
(hb; 1987: eighth book in the Charlotte & Thomas Pitt series)
From the inside flap:
"When George Ashworth is found dead over his morning coffee, it is clearly a crime of passion. It was unspoken, but common knowledge at Cardington Crescent that George was having an affair with Sybilla, his wife Emily's enchanting young cousin. But in refined Victorian Society, such domestic problems were usually handled quietly and discreetly, without the aid of of a dose of digitalis. Anxious to avoid further scandal, the genteel March family is all too willing to point the finger at Emily. After all, there is no better motive for murder than the wrath of a jealous wife, and indeed, she was never really one of them, having come from a family of inferior standing.
"That family, however, happens to include her sister Charlotte, the irrepressible wife of Inspector Thomas Pitt, and no stranger to murder and intrigue..."
Review:
Seven years after their sister (Sarah) was stabbed (in The Cater Street Hangman), the spectre of murder revisits Charlotte, Emily and their family. This time it's George, Emily's husband, who's killed, and the murder is more insidious because one of their family members is the killer.
As if that weren't bad enough, the fact that Emily (always shown as a heroine in the series) may have killed George -- who appeared to be having an indiscreet affair -- makes this one of the more chilling and tragic entries in the Pitt series, with references to Resurrection Row and Death in the Devil's Acre.
The killer isn't easy to spot, at least not initially, but the killer's identity isn't surprising, either.
Another winner from author Perry, followed by Silence in Hanover Close.
From the inside flap:
"When George Ashworth is found dead over his morning coffee, it is clearly a crime of passion. It was unspoken, but common knowledge at Cardington Crescent that George was having an affair with Sybilla, his wife Emily's enchanting young cousin. But in refined Victorian Society, such domestic problems were usually handled quietly and discreetly, without the aid of of a dose of digitalis. Anxious to avoid further scandal, the genteel March family is all too willing to point the finger at Emily. After all, there is no better motive for murder than the wrath of a jealous wife, and indeed, she was never really one of them, having come from a family of inferior standing.
"That family, however, happens to include her sister Charlotte, the irrepressible wife of Inspector Thomas Pitt, and no stranger to murder and intrigue..."
Review:
Seven years after their sister (Sarah) was stabbed (in The Cater Street Hangman), the spectre of murder revisits Charlotte, Emily and their family. This time it's George, Emily's husband, who's killed, and the murder is more insidious because one of their family members is the killer.
As if that weren't bad enough, the fact that Emily (always shown as a heroine in the series) may have killed George -- who appeared to be having an indiscreet affair -- makes this one of the more chilling and tragic entries in the Pitt series, with references to Resurrection Row and Death in the Devil's Acre.
The killer isn't easy to spot, at least not initially, but the killer's identity isn't surprising, either.
Another winner from author Perry, followed by Silence in Hanover Close.
Tuesday, May 01, 2007
Reefer Madness, by Eric Schlosser
(hb; 2003: non-fiction)
From the inside flap:
“The underground economy is vast; it comprises perhaps 10% – perhaps more – of America’s overall economy, and it’s on the rise. Eric Schlosser charts this growth, and finds its roots in the nexus of ingenuity, greed, idealism, and hypocrisy that is American culture. Her reveals the fascinating workings of the shadow economy by focusing on marijuana, one of the nation’s largest cash crops; pornography, whose greatest beneficiaries include Fortune 100 companies; and illegal migrant workers, whose lot often resembles that of medieval serfs.
“All three industries show how the black market has burgeoned over the past three decades, as America’s reckless faith in the free market has combined with a deep-seated Puritanism to create situations both preposterous and tragic. Through pot, porn and migrants, Schlosser traces compelling parallels between underground and overground: how tycoons and gangsters rise and fall, how new technology shapes a market, how government intervention can reinvigorate black markets as well as mainstream ones, how big business learns – and profits – from the underground.”
Review:
This is one of those ‘yeah… what he said!’ kind of reviews. An informative, interesting, should-read book, this, one that dramatically changed how I viewed America. Another great muckrake from the author of Fast Food Nation.
From the inside flap:
“The underground economy is vast; it comprises perhaps 10% – perhaps more – of America’s overall economy, and it’s on the rise. Eric Schlosser charts this growth, and finds its roots in the nexus of ingenuity, greed, idealism, and hypocrisy that is American culture. Her reveals the fascinating workings of the shadow economy by focusing on marijuana, one of the nation’s largest cash crops; pornography, whose greatest beneficiaries include Fortune 100 companies; and illegal migrant workers, whose lot often resembles that of medieval serfs.
“All three industries show how the black market has burgeoned over the past three decades, as America’s reckless faith in the free market has combined with a deep-seated Puritanism to create situations both preposterous and tragic. Through pot, porn and migrants, Schlosser traces compelling parallels between underground and overground: how tycoons and gangsters rise and fall, how new technology shapes a market, how government intervention can reinvigorate black markets as well as mainstream ones, how big business learns – and profits – from the underground.”
Review:
This is one of those ‘yeah… what he said!’ kind of reviews. An informative, interesting, should-read book, this, one that dramatically changed how I viewed America. Another great muckrake from the author of Fast Food Nation.
Tuesday, April 03, 2007
Blood Runs Cold by Robert Bloch
Overall review
This excellent seventeen-story collection showcases Bloch’s trademark cleverness and dark humor, as well as his economic, effective use of words. Check this out.
Standout stories
“The Show Must Go On” (a womanizing actor is confronted by the outraged father of one of his conquests).
“The Cure”: A trio of criminals, waiting for their heist money in the tropics, encounter macabre complications).
“The Masterpiece”: A painter gets revenge on his treacherous lover.
“Where the Buffalo Roam”: On post-atomic war Earth, buffalo herders are shaken out of their happy reverie when a burning light fills the night sky).
“Is Betsy Still Alive?”: A suspenseful tale about a burnt-out writer, a shady Hollywood player and a dead movie star.
“Word of Honor”: Darkly funny occurrences happen when a plague of truth-telling takes over a town).
“The Pin”: Creepy tale about a painter who rents a loft in a supposedly abandoned building, and discovers he’s not alone.
“The Big Kick”: Two beatnik con artists play a “creepnik square”.
“Sock Finish”: Great work about an aging silent film-era star who’s used and dumped by his Hollywood “friends”).
Other stories include
“Daybroke”; “Showbiz”; “I Like Blondes”; “Dig That Crazy Grave!”; “Final Performance” (with its Dead Silence-like denouement); “All on a Golden Afternoon”; “The Gloating Place”; “I Do Not Love Thee, Dr. Fell”.
Bimbos of the Death Sun, by Sharyn McCrumb
(pb; 1988)
From the back cover:
“Even before the murder of the world’s most detestable cult author, Rubicon was destined to go down in fen history as the most outrageous fantasy convention ever. The great chronicler of the fantasy adventures of the noble Viking warrior, Tratyn Runewind, was suddenly no more. Appin Dungannon was dead – a bullet through his heart and a spilled bottle of scotch at his side. Who hated him enough to kill him? The answer: Practically everyone.
“James Owens Mega, creator of that deathless tome, Bimbos of the Death Sun, dons the role of Dungeon Master, and solves this uproarious whodunit in the ultimate role-playing game climax.”
Review:
Less a mystery than a good-natured spoofing of geekdom, Bimbos focuses on humor, not murder.
Read strictly as a mystery, Bimbos fails. The writing’s good, but the identity of the killer is obvious way before the Thin Man-like finale. Combined with its comedic elements, it’s an innovative (with its con backdrop), fun beach read.
Worth your time, this.
Followed by Zombies of the Gene Pool.
From the back cover:
“Even before the murder of the world’s most detestable cult author, Rubicon was destined to go down in fen history as the most outrageous fantasy convention ever. The great chronicler of the fantasy adventures of the noble Viking warrior, Tratyn Runewind, was suddenly no more. Appin Dungannon was dead – a bullet through his heart and a spilled bottle of scotch at his side. Who hated him enough to kill him? The answer: Practically everyone.
“James Owens Mega, creator of that deathless tome, Bimbos of the Death Sun, dons the role of Dungeon Master, and solves this uproarious whodunit in the ultimate role-playing game climax.”
Review:
Less a mystery than a good-natured spoofing of geekdom, Bimbos focuses on humor, not murder.
Read strictly as a mystery, Bimbos fails. The writing’s good, but the identity of the killer is obvious way before the Thin Man-like finale. Combined with its comedic elements, it’s an innovative (with its con backdrop), fun beach read.
Worth your time, this.
Followed by Zombies of the Gene Pool.
Saturday, March 24, 2007
Prizzi’s Family, by Richard Condon
(hb; 1986: second book in the Prizzi quadrilogy)
From the inside flap:
“We join the Prizzis, the ruling house of organized crime in the late sixties in New York: Charley Partanna, the thoughtful hit man who is in love with love; the devious, dangerous Maerose Prizzi who is in love with power; the deceptively doddering Don Corrado who is in love with the honor of his family – a family busy with gambling, extortion, narcotics, pornography, loan-sharking, prostitution, as well as such endeavors as recycling U.S. postage stamps into a $40-million-a-year industry, as the scene shifts from New York to Miami, to Dallas, to New Orleans, to Seattle and Yakima.
“All of this is under siege from the Electronic Church and one of its bizarre practitioners, George F. Mallon, a mayoral candidate running on a platform of corruption-free New York. To effect his clean-up crusade, Mallon must crack the family’s suzerainty, and his first target becomes Prizzi enforcer Charley Partanna.
“Mallon is not the only menace stalking Charley: Maerose, hot-blooded granddaughter of the ancient don of dons, is determined to marry Charley so she can take over leadership of the family and become an impossibility: the first woman don in Mafia history. Charley, meanwhile, has been hugely diverted by the mesmerizing beauty of Mardell La Tour, a mega-statuesque showgirl with more than a touch of madness in her otherwise ravishing head, an adventuress who is in love with fantasy. With Maerose, Mallon, and the extravagantly gorgeous Mardell all after his hide, Charley finds himself caught in a complex and desperate bind from which only a Houdini could escape… maybe.”
Review:
This prequel to Prizzi’s Honor is just as satirical, romantic and difficult to put down as its source novel. The returning characters and their attendant interlocking dramas are reader-involving and just as fresh as the first time around.
As with Honor, the finish is at once electrifying and funny, with an eye towards future Prizzi novels.
Followed by Prizzi’s Glory.
Another landmark work about the Life, this: well worth your time.
From the inside flap:
“We join the Prizzis, the ruling house of organized crime in the late sixties in New York: Charley Partanna, the thoughtful hit man who is in love with love; the devious, dangerous Maerose Prizzi who is in love with power; the deceptively doddering Don Corrado who is in love with the honor of his family – a family busy with gambling, extortion, narcotics, pornography, loan-sharking, prostitution, as well as such endeavors as recycling U.S. postage stamps into a $40-million-a-year industry, as the scene shifts from New York to Miami, to Dallas, to New Orleans, to Seattle and Yakima.
“All of this is under siege from the Electronic Church and one of its bizarre practitioners, George F. Mallon, a mayoral candidate running on a platform of corruption-free New York. To effect his clean-up crusade, Mallon must crack the family’s suzerainty, and his first target becomes Prizzi enforcer Charley Partanna.
“Mallon is not the only menace stalking Charley: Maerose, hot-blooded granddaughter of the ancient don of dons, is determined to marry Charley so she can take over leadership of the family and become an impossibility: the first woman don in Mafia history. Charley, meanwhile, has been hugely diverted by the mesmerizing beauty of Mardell La Tour, a mega-statuesque showgirl with more than a touch of madness in her otherwise ravishing head, an adventuress who is in love with fantasy. With Maerose, Mallon, and the extravagantly gorgeous Mardell all after his hide, Charley finds himself caught in a complex and desperate bind from which only a Houdini could escape… maybe.”
Review:
This prequel to Prizzi’s Honor is just as satirical, romantic and difficult to put down as its source novel. The returning characters and their attendant interlocking dramas are reader-involving and just as fresh as the first time around.
As with Honor, the finish is at once electrifying and funny, with an eye towards future Prizzi novels.
Followed by Prizzi’s Glory.
Another landmark work about the Life, this: well worth your time.
Let the Northern Lights Erase Your Name by Vendela Vida
From the inside flap:
“On the day of her father’s funeral, twenty-eight-year-old Clarissa Iverton discovers that he wasn’t her biological father after all. Her mother disappeared fourteen years earlier, and now Clarissa is alone and a drift. The one person she feels she can trust, her fiancé, Pankaj, has just revealed a terrible and life-changing secret to her. In the cycle of a day, all the truths in Clarissa’s world become myths and rumors, and she is catapulted out of the life she knew.
“She finds her birth certificate, which leads her from New York to Helsinki, and then north of the Arctic Circle, to mystical Lapland, where she believes she’ll meet her real father. There, under the northern lights of a sunless winter, Clarissa comes to know the Sami, the indigenous population, and seeks out a local priest, the one man who may hold the key to her origins.
“Along her travels she meets an elderly Sami healer named Anna Kristine, who has her own secrets, and a handsome young reindeer herder named Henrik, who accompanies Clarissa to a hotel made of ice. There she is confronted with the truth about her mother’s past and finally must make a decision about how – and where – to live the rest of her life.”
Review:
Northern is an offbeat, melancholic and delightful book. What thrilled me the most about Lights is not so much what Vida wrote, but what she didn’t write -- that is not to say that she does not bring this story to life with vivid images and effective understatement. Readers who require their authors to spell everything out for them should probably avoid it; readers who do not need to be spoon-fed their entertainment should check it out.
Wednesday, March 21, 2007
Blink, by Malcolm Gladwell
(hb; 2005: non-fiction)
From the inside flap:
“… Blink is a book about how we think without thinking, about choices that seem to be made in an instant – in a blink of an eye – that actually aren’t as simple as they seem. Why are some people brilliant decision makers, while others are consistently inept? Why do some people follow their instincts and win, while others end up stumbling into error? How do our brains really work – in the office, in the classroom, in the kitchen, and in the bedroom? And why are the best decisions often those that are impossible to explain to others?
“In Blink we meet the psychologist who has learned to predict whether a marriage will last, based on a few minutes of observing a couple; the tennis coach who knows when a player will double-fault before the racket even makes contact with the ball; the antiquities experts who recognize a fake at a glance. Here, too, are great failures of ‘blink’: the election of Warren Harding; the New Coke; and the shooting of Amadou Diallo by police. Blink reveals that great decision makers aren’t those who process the most information or spend the most time deliberating, but those who have perfected the art of ‘thin-slicing’ – filtering the very few factors that matter from an overwhelming number of variables.”
Review:
Life-changing book about not only trusting one’s gut instincts, but being aware of one’s surroundings – and of the subconscious information that's making itself available to us, if we’re open to it: we simply have to read whatever signs are unveiled to us.
Gladwell backs his exciting ideas with scientific data, psychology and historic events, making for a great read, possibly one of my all-time favorite non-fiction books.
Pick it up, already!
From the inside flap:
“… Blink is a book about how we think without thinking, about choices that seem to be made in an instant – in a blink of an eye – that actually aren’t as simple as they seem. Why are some people brilliant decision makers, while others are consistently inept? Why do some people follow their instincts and win, while others end up stumbling into error? How do our brains really work – in the office, in the classroom, in the kitchen, and in the bedroom? And why are the best decisions often those that are impossible to explain to others?
“In Blink we meet the psychologist who has learned to predict whether a marriage will last, based on a few minutes of observing a couple; the tennis coach who knows when a player will double-fault before the racket even makes contact with the ball; the antiquities experts who recognize a fake at a glance. Here, too, are great failures of ‘blink’: the election of Warren Harding; the New Coke; and the shooting of Amadou Diallo by police. Blink reveals that great decision makers aren’t those who process the most information or spend the most time deliberating, but those who have perfected the art of ‘thin-slicing’ – filtering the very few factors that matter from an overwhelming number of variables.”
Review:
Life-changing book about not only trusting one’s gut instincts, but being aware of one’s surroundings – and of the subconscious information that's making itself available to us, if we’re open to it: we simply have to read whatever signs are unveiled to us.
Gladwell backs his exciting ideas with scientific data, psychology and historic events, making for a great read, possibly one of my all-time favorite non-fiction books.
Pick it up, already!
Monday, March 19, 2007
Death in the Devil's Acre, by Anne Perry
(pb; 1985: seventh book in the Charlotte & Thomas Pitt series)
From the back cover:
"When a doctor is found brutally murdered in the lurid section of London aptly named 'Devil's Acre,' even its most hardened residents are stunned. But shock soon turns to mroe bodies with the same gruesome 'calling card': a stab wound in the back and a rather inexpertly executed mutilation...
"As Pitt and his wife Charlotte race against time to find the killer, a treacherous mystery unfolds. And no one, not the lowest brand of ruffian or the most established aristocrat, will come out unscathed."
Review:
After Pitt starts investigating the murder of a well-to-do doctor in a dangerous slum (called "Devil's Acre"), he discovers that the doctor wasn't the killer's first victim. It seems that the killer's first victim was Max Burton, a seductive footman-turned-pimp (from Callander Square). Not only that, but more victims -- bearing the same wounds and mutilations -- are appearing, the details of their sordid sanguineous deaths splashed in newspaper headlines.
Unputdownable, this rush of raw Victoriana -- one of the best entries in Perry's Pitt series, with a fresh sense of physical danger and a Paragon Walk-like finish.
Preceded by Bluegate Fields.
Followed by Cardington Crescent.
From the back cover:
"When a doctor is found brutally murdered in the lurid section of London aptly named 'Devil's Acre,' even its most hardened residents are stunned. But shock soon turns to mroe bodies with the same gruesome 'calling card': a stab wound in the back and a rather inexpertly executed mutilation...
"As Pitt and his wife Charlotte race against time to find the killer, a treacherous mystery unfolds. And no one, not the lowest brand of ruffian or the most established aristocrat, will come out unscathed."
Review:
After Pitt starts investigating the murder of a well-to-do doctor in a dangerous slum (called "Devil's Acre"), he discovers that the doctor wasn't the killer's first victim. It seems that the killer's first victim was Max Burton, a seductive footman-turned-pimp (from Callander Square). Not only that, but more victims -- bearing the same wounds and mutilations -- are appearing, the details of their sordid sanguineous deaths splashed in newspaper headlines.
Unputdownable, this rush of raw Victoriana -- one of the best entries in Perry's Pitt series, with a fresh sense of physical danger and a Paragon Walk-like finish.
Preceded by Bluegate Fields.
Followed by Cardington Crescent.
Wednesday, March 07, 2007
Heart-Shaped Box, by Joe Hill
(hb; 2007)
From the inside flap:
“Judas Coyne is a collector of the macabre: a cookbook for cannibals… a used hangman’s noose… a snuff film. An aging death-metal god, his taste for the unnatural is as widely known to his legions of fans as the notorious excesses of his youth. But nothing he possesses is as unlikely or as dreadful as his latest discovery, an item for sale on the Internet, a thing so terribly strange, Jude can’t help but reach for his wallet…
“For a thousand dollars, Jude will become the proud owner of a dead man’s suit, said to be haunted by a restless spirit. He isn’t afraid. He has spent a lifetime coping with ghosts – of an abusive father, of the lovers he callously abandoned, of the bandmates he betrayed. What’s one more?
“But what the UPS man delivers to his door in a black heart-shaped box is no imaginary or metaphorical ghost, no benign conversation piece. It’s the real thing.
“And suddenly the suit’s previous owner is everywhere: behind the bedroom door… seated in Jude’s restored vintage Mustang… standing outside his window… staring out from his widescreen TV. Waiting –with a gleaming razor blade on a chain dangling from one bony hand…”
Review:
Stunning debut novel, one that doesn’t redefine the boundaries of mainstream horror fiction, but possesses a nerve-rending uneasiness – of ghosts both real and born of past traumas – that grabbed me and made me loath to set the book down until I’d finished it. Can’t recommend this one enough – Hill is a writer to watch for
The resulting film is set for release in the near future.
From the inside flap:
“Judas Coyne is a collector of the macabre: a cookbook for cannibals… a used hangman’s noose… a snuff film. An aging death-metal god, his taste for the unnatural is as widely known to his legions of fans as the notorious excesses of his youth. But nothing he possesses is as unlikely or as dreadful as his latest discovery, an item for sale on the Internet, a thing so terribly strange, Jude can’t help but reach for his wallet…
“For a thousand dollars, Jude will become the proud owner of a dead man’s suit, said to be haunted by a restless spirit. He isn’t afraid. He has spent a lifetime coping with ghosts – of an abusive father, of the lovers he callously abandoned, of the bandmates he betrayed. What’s one more?
“But what the UPS man delivers to his door in a black heart-shaped box is no imaginary or metaphorical ghost, no benign conversation piece. It’s the real thing.
“And suddenly the suit’s previous owner is everywhere: behind the bedroom door… seated in Jude’s restored vintage Mustang… standing outside his window… staring out from his widescreen TV. Waiting –with a gleaming razor blade on a chain dangling from one bony hand…”
Review:
Stunning debut novel, one that doesn’t redefine the boundaries of mainstream horror fiction, but possesses a nerve-rending uneasiness – of ghosts both real and born of past traumas – that grabbed me and made me loath to set the book down until I’d finished it. Can’t recommend this one enough – Hill is a writer to watch for
The resulting film is set for release in the near future.
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