Reviews :: Book Genre :: Horror :: Page 7

Believe it or not, a lot of thought goes into our selection of Elitist Classics.  Our selection of Classics goes beyond our personal likes and dislikes. The funny thing is how, many times, each member of the EBR crew will say, “This is totally a Classic!”… and none of the others have read it. And by others I usually mean me. Especially in the realms of Science Fiction.  The reason? Heck if I know. I think I tend to focus on new releases, and there’s nothing wrong with that.
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I a little ashamed to admit that I was late to the works of Robert McCammon (and honestly Horror in general). I mean, what kind of reader worth his weight in books hasn’t read McCammon? I was a member of that downtrodden and sad club until a few years ago when I found an excerpt on the Subterranean Press website of a novel titled MISTER SLAUGHTER (EBR Review). If that title doesn’t grab your attention, then you should probably go back to reading emasculated sparkly vampires.
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Dan Wells has had quite the run. The John Cleaver series — starting with I AM NOT A SERIAL KILLER (EBR Review) — was a fantastic blend of Horror and Fantasy with a YA tone (although it wasn’t really marketed as YA in the US). His novel PARTIALS (EBR Review) has been getting some really strong reviews. So I was pretty excited when I got my hands on an ARC of his latest work, THE HOLLOW CITY (Amazon).

I’d heard him describe the basics: a story told from the point of view of a paranoid schizophrenic, Michael Shipman. A man who literally can’t tell what’s fantasy and what’s reality. He’s seeing faceless men, and is convinced they’re trying to kill him. But no one else can see them, and he hasn’t been taking his medication in months. To make things worse, there’s been a serial killer at work in the area. Someone’s been killing people and essentially destroying their faces, and Michael is a prime suspect.
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“What are you still doing at that house?” she bellowed.

“Trading Pokémon cards with the vampire hunters.”

Oh, Joe Ledger, how I love you.

Ever since reading PATIENT ZERO (EBR Review), one of the things I’ve looked forward to the most every year is a new Joe Ledger novel by Jonathan Maberry.  The series has tons of action, humor and monsters.  Even more that that, the series is full of terrific characters that compliment Joe Ledger.
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Growing up I watched this horror movie called Frailty with my mom. The movie had no cheap scares or gore, but every night for of the following week I had nightmares that eventually led to me sleeping with a light on for years to come. Ever since then it seems as though horror flicks just can’t phase me. Directors are too focused on the gore-factor to see what is really important. The psychological thrills. INFECTED by Scott Sigler (Amazon) promised to be a mind bender, a truly terrifying read. Promises aside, it doesn’t quite deliver.
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Sarah Pinborough, I could hug you. Should we run into each other again, just expect a completely gleeful hug from me.

Think back on all of the Horror novels you’ve ever read. The vast majority of them are standalone novels. The vast majority have also likely sucked. Horror has issues–you know it, and I know it. Horror authors tend to get so caught up in “How much blood and guts can I show” or “Satanism is scary” that their books turn into giant clichés. They all fall back on the same, tired tropes of the genre, and they forget that great Horror is really defined by characters and story. I’m convinced this is why most Horror is limited to stand alone novels. Guys like McCammon, Wells, Wilson and Lumley have crafted excellent series because they focus on the right stuff. They are able to carry a focused story over several novels.
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I have Plants vs Zombies on my iPhone. As I read THE FIRST DAYS: AS THE WORLD DIES (Amazon), I’d occasionally switch to my smaller version of the zombie apocalypse. Why? I guess because the story is better.

In a desire for full disclosure you should know this is my first zombie book, even though I’ve watched my share of zombie movies. So I may not be the best judge of this sub-genre. But I do know what makes a book good.
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Horror writers often get a bad stigma attached to them. It seems like no matter who you are (with a few notable exceptions), once you are a “Horror author” you are looked at as not being a good writer. I’ll admit that I was one of those super judgmental folks before I began this blog. I’ve since learned that genre has nothing to do with writing quality.
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By now most of you faithful readers should have picked up a copy of Jasper Kent‘s novel, TWELVE. If you are like me, TWELVE (Amazon) completely blew you away with its terrific blend of Historical Fiction and Horror. I mean, come on, that ending? That was freaking awesome. And the twist made it even more horrific and awesome. TWELVE easily became one of my favorite books last year. The sequel, THIRTEEN YEARS LATER (EBR Review), was awesome in its own way, but fell juuuuuuust short of its predecessor.

And now we get book three, THE THIRD SECTION (Amazon).
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As much as I liked zombies, I think there was a point where I reached my limit. I used to get all sorts of excited when I read the back of a novel and the golden word “zombie” jumped out at me. But then things got a little out of control. Zombies were everywhere; TV, movies, books… wherever you looked a zombie was staring back at you. So I cut back. I stuck to AMC’s The Walking Dead and the excellent comic it is based one. I limited my zombie novels to those by two authors: Mira Grant and Jonathan Maberry. A month or two ago I started feeling an itch. A desire to read about zombies. Right when I was about to give in, I got Maberry’s new, straight-up zombie novel in the mail, DEAD OF NIGHT. Not only did I get to indulge my slight itch for zombies, but I did it by reading one of my favorite authors.
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