Experimental Film by Gemma Files — A Slow Burn of a Gothic Tinged Folk Horror Tale.

 A slow burn of a supernatural mystery that takes place in the world of film as art (and not standard storytelling), the actual storytelling can be profoundly deep at times. I feel like this piece is meant for a niche audience, and yes, I just happen to fall into that category.

Cover Image courtesy of 
ChiZine Publications

The protagonist is an art film historian, a student and teacher of the movement, and me, having graduated from a state school with a film degree—under the mentoring of the likes of Ken Jacobs and Ralph Hocking, felt comfortable in the environment that author Gemma Files has created.

Within that regard, this is an interesting story. You have a mother, torn between her passion for art and her special needs child Clark. Lois, the mom, finds an important discovery in the world of underground film and film history in general, when she stumbles upon a woman who was present at the start of it all, Iris Whitcomb. But because of her mysterious disappearance, after the disappearance of her own son at a young age, Whitcomb's potential mark on the history of filmmaking has been lost. That is until Lois connects some significant dots and garners a grant to suss out the entire story, and to prove it.

Lois becomes obsessed with the project, leaving the rest of the family —her mom and her overly patient husband Simon, to do the lion's share of caring for Clark. The trick here is empathizing with Lois in her quest to find the story for the sake of film history and women in film history, and I’m not sure Files pulls it off entirely. It’s important to note that the character Lois feels guilty about Clark in some ways, never feeling like Clark quite connects with her as a mom and always feeling like he is the way he is because of her own potentially neurodivergent inadequacies.

Clark, by the way is wonderfully portrayed in my opinion. And the culmination of the secondary story and of what Lois learns and accepts—because of Clark—is worth the time to tackle this otherwise slow paced read. The horror and supernatural elements have more of a haunting gothic quality rather than outright gore, so if you’re looking for a slow unraveling of creepy ambiance, this read might be for you. But solving the mystery of Iris Whitcomb's disappearance, and its connection to an ancient folktale of a goddess who needs to be seen and worshipped is the main story, and it takes time to link it to Lois's struggle with her responsibilities as a parent to Clark.

Click on the book cover above for a link to the book's GoodReads page. 

Cunning Folk by Adam Nevill -- A Horror Novel about How to NOT Deal with New Neighbors

Cover Image courtesy of
Ritual Limited

Beware of your neighbors. They’re exactly who you think they are. That’s essentially what this book is about.

When a young, financially struggling family finds a fixer upper in a wealthier countryside neighborhood, they dismiss the previous owner's suicide to achieve the dream of being homeowners. But it’s a challenge to live next door to the most perfect estate on the street, especially when the elderly couple living there has prejudices and standards and snooty rules. Grudges build quickly, and window watching from a house that falls apart faster than it can be fixed exposes creepy WTF suspicions and revelations that build with every new peek. There is something terribly wrong with the neighbors, and their poisonous ways are seeping into the new family's back yard.

I have witnessed (and been through) enough cringeworthy neighbor confrontations and unintentional glimpses to understand the increasing madness that our MC Tom experiences. He's driven to that madness because of one niggling disagreement. Then another. And another. Each, building on the other toward a horrific end.

This book is weird. And funny. And heartbreaking. And splattery. A worthy folk horror read. 

Click on the cover image above to check out more reviews on Goodreads, and to find links to your favorite bookstores.

Sacrilege by T. N. Vitus — Another Brief Book Review

Folkloric fantasy with a touch of magical realism and horror, Sacrilege is a well written novel with atmospheric charm. Emelie lives in a secluded village, cut off from the world surrounding it because of the religious elders who run it by sowing fear. When her childhood friend Halvar returns, having been banished along with his father when he was a boy, Emelie saves him from the wickedness of rumors and gossip by claiming he has returned to ask her hand in marriage. 

You see, the village has been increasingly under attack by what the elders claim are shifters and wolves, and Halvar's return coincides with a recent, and grisly death. This leads to an on the spot, forced marriage between two broken souls who…are ultimately meant for each other. Maybe Emelie's primary goal is to escape the control of her pious family and this repressive life, but leaving it under a ruse of a marriage to face the dangers of the outside world is daunting.

I found this story had hints of Beauty and the Beast in terms of the relationship between Halvar and Emelie, but make no mistake. The story and the relationship stand firmly on their own two feet. If you are more akin to romance over horror, well…this story is probably for you. The intimacy between Halvar and Emelie is perfect. Except that Maybe Halvar is too perfect. He's fairytale perfect. 

The story mostly touches on themes of being outcast and manipulated and repressed by religion—which is something I tend to gravitate to when I read (and write). Emelie is allowed to grow upon leaving her village, but ultimately she must return to face her past and the judgement of the village residents. If those are topics that you frequent, by all means check out Sacrilege.

Horror Movie -- A Brief (Book) Review of Paul Tremblay's Latest

Cover Image courtesy of
William Morrow

 Horror Movie by Paul Tremblay is one weird book, the kind that deserves a bit of serious contemplation after all is said and done, a true example of what some people like to call elevated horror. Horror Movie is only my second Paul Tremblay book, the first being The Pallbearer's Club, and this story has similar vibes. It cleverly tells the story of a young group of post college age adults who set out to make a low budget horror film, and our narrator is the man behind the movie monster mask thirty years later. He's only known to us as The Thin Kid.

The Thin Kid is our narrator for reasons. He's about to embark on a journey to make a "reboot" of a film that was never officially completed but had become a cult hit from leaked footage online. So what we get is three different narratives; our kid retelling the past during the shoot, then him revealing bits of the present and where the major players of the movie are now (including himself), then finally the horror movie itself as written in the form of the screenplay.

It's a slow and creepy unraveling of events as told by an unreliable narrator, and it's full of triggering topics including suicide, body horror (as in Pallbearers Club), bullying and ostracizing. Thematically, it touches on identifying the monster behind the mask, how those monsters just might be a reflection of ourselves in some ways, or how we as a society just might be responsible for creating the things that we fear.

It can get confusing with all the story jumping from the Then to the Now, plus a screenplay that feels like it would get thrown in the DNF heap if it was an actual real live submission (I've read a lot of screenplays, so I'm a little biased on this point). BUT this was a low budget horror shoot from a young writer character, so in that context, I need to give the script part of it some leeway. The plot twists show up through the last half of the book, and man are they some crazy, confounding and heartbreaking plot twists.

I want to thank Mr. Tremblay and William Morrow for approving ARC access via NetGalley. Look for it at all major and independent book retailers.

Daughter of the Beast—A Quick Review

 

Cover image courtesy of
DieselPunk Creative

Zyntael Fairwinter is a young Kimora girl whose village is raided by a rival race of wolflike beasts known as the Vulkari, then groomed to become a potential warrior among their kind in this well written folkloric fantasy tale. It’s a 3+ read for me while not quite tipping into 4 territory.

High marks for characterization and world building. Greaves builds a solid YA world for a high school junior through new adult reader. It's in tune with many an old world fantasy novel with its dwarves and goblins and the like in an ages old battle for domination. The Vulkari leader Karthak, who becomes Zyntael's teacher and surrogate mother, is an admirably complex antagonist who has a purpose for kidnapping and enslaving little Zyntael even though we might not entirely know what that purpose is by story's end.

The bulk of the story, though, feels like the backstory to a bigger epic, and since it’s the first of a trilogy that makes sense. But because of it, the middle half of the book dragged a bit for me. It focuses mostly on Zyntael's journey from unassuming 8 year old girl to her role in a war between nations by the time she reaches adulthood. The girl was enslaved, then accepting of her decided role among the Vulkari without question. Granted, she's eight at the beginning, and her life path, as decided for her, is unique—an admirably strong female character most definitely, but the one thing that nagged me (and which is eventually touched on in the last quarter of the book), is why she never sought out the life she had before, or the people in it. Because of this, I never developed a deeper connection to Zyntael. 

But this is a trilogy. This first book feels like it’s meant to be the setup for the real challenges to come. Zyntael makes connections from both her past, and most definitely for her future that might sway other readers to continue.

Also, I’m less of a fantasy reader and more of a horror reader, so I easily recommend fans of the genre to check it out.