It’s Halloween, and it would be remiss of me not to give a shoutout to some fine halloween reads. This pair of Halloween Scares is sure to delight fans of the spooky season.
All Hallows – Christopher Golden
What a fantastic Halloween read! It’s a touch on the chunky side, with some 380 odd pages, and it takes a little while to get going, but once it does, it’s relentless. The reason it takes a little while to get going is that there’s a huge case of characters. The Barbosa, Sweeney, Koenig and Montez families all play a key part in the narrative. That extra time spent getting to know them and their lives is well worth it, though. It makes it all the more harrowing when it all starts to kick off with The Cunning Man, and the strange kids who attach themselves to others under the guise of seeking protection from this malevolent threat.
What I really like about this is the combination of real-life horrors with the supernatural element. It’s become a bit of a cliché to start down a horror route only to reveal that the horrors people do to each other are far worse. Yes, it can still work when done well, but it was kind of refreshing to engage with people being bloody awful (and one character here comes across as a particular bastard), but then for the supernatural element to rise up and show us that actually, monsters really can be much worse.
This is the first Christopher Golden book that I’ve read, and it won’t be the last.
Misery and Other Lines – C.C. Adams
I’m so glad to see this collection available again. Originally released by the Sinister Horror Company, Misery and Other Lines does two things really well: the London Underground and spooky shit happening on it.
For the first few stories I was really enjoying the aesthetic. C.C. Adams quickly presents us with interesting characters who then encounter something odd, and it only gets odder until it turns downright nasty. But then there’s another layer to it. We start seeing characters again, elements from one story blend with another. It’s such a well-constructed collection.
C.C. Adams gives each of the fourteen tales room to breathe. We get to know the characters before they suffer some kind of awful fate. I was going to say that character work is among the strengths of the collection, but the sense of place is right up there too. While there’s similarity in terms of places, the collection does offer plenty of variety. Some stories are psychological, some uncanny, some downright nasty, and some with a touch of eroticism – though of course, it’s anything but normal. And it’s not just the protagonists who are well drawn. The evils we face here aren’t 2D horrors. Each has its own motive, each is interesting in its own way.
This is a collection which captures the confinement of a carriage. Then, while we’re all trapped together, it dials up the horror from sinister, slithering things to time slips, and more monstrous beings. That Halloween vibe is all over it.
I’ll be checking out more of C.C. Adams‘ work soon, with Downwind, Alice a recent acquisition for my Kindle.