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Book Review: True Story by Kate Reed Petty

cover art for True Story by Kate Reed Petty

True Story by Kate Reed Petty

Viking, 2020

ISBN-13 : 978-1984877680

Available:  Hardcover, Kindle edition, audiobook ( Bookshop.org | Amazon.com )

 

Alice Lovett is a strong, damaged character who survives by way of the life of a ghostwriter. It’s a thankless job, yet one she seems to relish. Living out the fantasies, triumphs, and tragedies of others might keep her sane.

 

It might help keep her own demons at bay.

 

True Story alternates between formats: narrative, screenplay, journal, and others: as the reader can discern, it might be a welcome defense mechanism against the horror that occurred one fateful evening when Alice was a teenager. The inventiveness of the novel, including the horror movie scripts where Alice displays her inner turmoil in a safe manner, makes it an entertaining read, as the forms come flying at the reader in a dizzying speed, yet each one fits perfectly into place in this puzzle of a story.

 

During a party in 1999 when the high school team celebrated their championship victory, Nick Brothers encountered Alice. Did something terrible happen?

 

Nick denies it. Alice can’t remember anything from the evening. However, the demons plague her. Nick and Alice both unravel over the course of the next sixteen years. With Nick devolving into alcoholism, and Alice struggling to trust anyone, life is bound to collide in disastrous ways.

 

While not a horror novel, True Story is an effective psychological thriller that mixes in other genres well and carries a strong message.

 

This one deserves all the accolades.  Recommended.

 

 

Reviewed by David Simms

 

Editor’s note: True Story is a nominee on the final ballot for this year’s Bram Stoker Awards in the category of Superior Achievement in a First Novel.

Posted on May 19, 2021 by , Reply

Book Review: The Taxidermist’s Lover by Polly Hall

cover art for The Taxidermist's Lover by Polly Hall

The Taxidermist’s Lover by Polly Hall

Camcat Publishing, 2020

ISBN-13 : 978-0744303810

Available: Hardcover, large print paperback, Kindle edition, audiobook (Bookshop.org  | Amazon.com)

 

There are books that just spin into something unique, something that could either crash and burn or catch fire and pull the reader into the pages from the opening chapter. The Taxidermist’s Lover claims to be a modern gothic horror novel, yet it is a bit more than that. Its brave form and writing elevates it from your typical horror yarn.

 

Polly Hall has penned a different sort of novel, with a second person point of view that, while not typical, works well for the story of Scarlett in her love with husband, Henry. Henry has the odd profession of a taxidermist, which obviously seeps into the relationship that undoubtedly turns twisted.

 

The readers follow the strange couple, along with twin sister Rhett and rival Felix, as true love has consequences.

 

Henry has a predilection for creating “special” animals for Scarlett, often mashups of beasts both beautiful and grotesque. She comes to develop a fondness for them, despite their nightmarishness.

 

As Scarlett’s psyche begins to fracture, the story spirals into a hypnotic ellipse that in lesser hands, would fall apart.

 

Hall has created a thing of beauty, with poetic prose that entrances as the sparse story and dialogue swell into a fever dream.

 

Recommended for all gothic horror fans, especially those who enjoy literary fiction.

 

Reviewed by David Simms

Editor’s note: The Taxidermist’s Lover is a nominee on the final ballot of this year’s Bram Stoker Awards in the category of Superior Achievement in a First Novel.

Posted on May 17, 2021 by , Reply

Book Review: Tome by Ross Jeffrey

cover art for Tome by Ross Jeffrey

Tome by Ross Jeffrey

Independently published, 2020

ISBN-13 : 979-8647504074

Available: Paperback, Kindle edition ( Amazon.com )

 

Ross Jeffrey has penned a thrilling, brutal Stoker finalist that pulls zero punches yet has the class of a Ketchum story.  Juniper Correctional facility, a blight on human’s blistered history, has long housed the worst of the worst, the people who operate below the level of human beings.

The story belongs to pair of characters who are both steered by Juniper, the machine that churns and spits out souls: Warden Fleming sits on one end of the spectrum, hoarding secrets that boil beneath the prison surface, and Frank Whitten, a guard who refuses to give up the last strand of light within him.

The story spirals inward up on itself, devouring everything in its path. Juniper is pure hell incarnate, infesting its inmates, guards, and others with a darkness that is more pitch than anything supernatural. It’s not for the squeamish: Jeffrey aims for the jugular, without much subtlety, yet somehow, still manages to build an effective, claustrophobic atmosphere to constrict our deepest insecurities. Juniper as a setting becomes the main character between the pages, an effective and frightening tool that likely scored this nomination.

For fans of brutal, effective horror, with echoes of Edward Lee, Richard Laymon, and Jack Ketchum, Tome will not disappoint. Recommended.

 

Contains: Extreme gore and violence, body horror, racism

 

Reviewed by David Simms

Editor’s note: Tome is a nominee on the final ballot of this year’s Bram Stoker Award in the category of Superior Achievement in a First Novel. 

Posted on May 16, 2021 by , Reply
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