Home » Posts tagged "Bram Stoker Awards" (Page 5)

Graphic Novel Review: Road of Bones by Rich Douek, art by Alex Cormack

cover art for Road of Bones by Rich Douek

Road of Bones by Rich Douek, art by Alex Cormack

IDW, 2020

ISBN-13: 9781684055982

Available: Paperback, Kindle edition, comiXology  Bookshop.orgAmazon.com )

 

It’s 1953. Roman Ivanovich Morozov is a prisoner in the Siberian gulag of Kolyma for slandering Stalin, given 25 years of hard labor as punishment. He and his fellow prisoners are forced to work in harsh conditions. If the frozen environment doesn’t kill them, the guards certainly will. One evening, Roman is caught leaving food out for a domovik, a creature from fairy tales that protects a household.

This is survival horror at its finest. The story continually keeps the reader on their toes, wondering if the creature stalking the escaped prisoners is real or if it lives solely in Roman’s head. The isolation and paranoia the men experience both in and out of the gulag is intense. The artwork is excellent, but at times it is confusing to decipher who is communicating. I had to continually go back and reread a few sections to make sure I was keeping characters straight. It was somewhat easier to track at the beginning. The escaped prisoners have similarities in appearance. There are very subtle differences, including the color of different pieces of their clothing and even eye color. The landscapes and color choices are amazing. Even the panels when the men are sitting around the campfire are effective. The shadows are deep and definitely add to the oppressive atmosphere. Cormack is clearly a talented artist. Highly recommended.

This volume collects issues #1-4.

 

Contains: blood, cannibalism, gore

 

Reviewed by Lizzy Walker

Editor’s Note: Road of Bones is a nominee on the final ballot of this year’s Bram Stoker Award in the category of Superior Achievement in a Graphic Novel. 

Book Review: Worst Laid Plans: An Anthology of Vacation Horror edited by Samantha Kolesnik

cover art for Worst Laid Plans: An Anthology of Vacation Horror edited by Samantha Kolesnik

Worst Laid Plans: An Anthology of Vacation Horror edited by Samantha Kolesnik

Grindhouse Press, 2020

ISBN: 9781941918708

Availability: Paperback, Kindle edition Bookshop.orgAmazon.com )

 

Worst Laid Plans is a collection of “vacation gone wrong” stories. It’s a lot like an actual vacation, in terms of story quality. There are some serious high points, some decent times, and some mediocre, forgettable times. The stories vary in terms of reading enjoyment, but the stories that are outstanding help offset the others.

The first three stories are undoubtedly the best in the book. S.E. Howard’s “You’ve Been Saved” is a frightening look at a road trip gone wrong, and a grim reminder that normal-looking psychopaths do occasionally haunt the American highways. Asher Ellis’s “Expertise” goes in somewhat of the same direction, using a tropical tour guide instead of highway ramblers. Both are excellent stories, with well-written, simple plots and a nice twist to surprise the reader. The true knockout is Greg Sisco’s “Summers With Annie”.  Beautifully written, it’s what might have happened if the queen of summer beach reads, Elin Hilderbrand, decided to write from a darker and supernatural perspective. Set against the backdrop of young love and mysterious disappearances, this story alone is worth the price of the book.

The other stories are generally satisfactory, although some are skippable. The writing is decent and there are some original ideas, the stories just don’t pack the same punch as the first three. Of these, Jeremy Herbert’s “Taylor Family Vacation 93”, Hailey Piper’s “Unkindly Girls”, and Patrick Lacey’s “Caught a Glimpse” are probably the best of the rest. The rest of the stories are somewhat interchangeable in terms of quality. While some good ideas are there, some of them lack of coherent finish, and others are too quick to finish after a long buildup.

Worst Laid Plans is truly a varied collection in terms of story quality, but the few outstanding ones compensate nicely for the others.

 

Contains: violence, profanity, mild gore

 

Reviewed by Murray Samuelson

 

Editor’s note: Worst Laid Plans: An Anthology of Vacation Horror is a nominee on the final ballot for this year’s Bram Stoker Award in the category of Superior Achievement in an Anthology. 

Book Review: Bloody Britain by Anna Taborska, illustrated by Reggie Oliver

 

cover art for Bloody Britain by Anna Taborska

Bloody Britain by Anna Taborska, illustrated by Reggie Oliver

Shadow Publishing, 2020

ISBN 978-0957296299

Available: Paperback Bookshop.org )

 

The legends and lore of ancient Britain are an essential part of its history, and in Bloody Britain, Anna Taborska shows us that its dark past is never really dead. In a disturbingly calm, conversational tone, Taborska reports the details of torture, murder, revenge, and punishment that evolve from familiar stories and settings into new short story plots with a contemporary feel.

 

Some of the best stories in this collection find horror in the midst of everyday encounters while their innocuous titles belie the violence to come. Who would expect the nice man collecting money for a cancer charity in “Teatime” to be a serial killer who revels in making people suffer their greatest fears? What would make anyone think that a giant worm would be waiting for an opportunity to pop out of a church crypt like the monster in “Cyril’s Mission” does?

 

Two of the most inventive tales, “Rockstar” and “Daylight Robbery,” also give us something deeper to think about as we ponder the characters’ behavior. When the singer in “Rockstar” secretly pays an anonymous writer for lyrics that end up describing real murders, it calls to mind the bad choices some people make for fame and profit. “Daylight Robbery” also focuses on status. It paints the picture of a futuristic, divided society, one in which designer babies become privileged adults who drive around in electric cars wearing “smart suits” while poor immigrants are literally blind and persecuted as terrorists.

 

There are also traditional ghost stories in Bloody Britain. The ghosts include a woman who died in a meat packing factory (“The Haggis Queen”), a young wife and her servant, falsely accused of being her lover, who were both murdered by her husband (“The Gatehouse”), and even ghost dogs that roam around a pet cemetery (“A Walk in the Park”).

 

Although the events are rather predictable in a few of these short stories, they are still  entertaining due to Taborska’s writing style and skillful use of dialogue and description. For example, in “Night of the Crone,” a gang of degenerates gets what’s coming to them when they disturb a monolith in a stone circle. There is also a man who gets into trouble when he dares to inspect a shipwreck at “Formby Point,” and an innocent person imprisoned in the Tower of London who has an encounter with the ghost of Lady Jane Grey. In “The Cat Sitter,” a woman is targeted by a witch who haunts the woods nearby, and in “The Lemmy/Trump Test,” people of low social status are killed for sport. Even the curious student in “Out of the Light” can’t avoid disaster when he becomes addicted to reading a fascinating, evil book he’s borrowed from the bowels of the Bodleian Library.

 

So, light the fire, lock the door, and curl up with a diverting story and a nice cuppa. Recommended.

 

Reviewed by Nova Hadley

 

Editor’s note: Bloody Britain is a nominee on the final ballot of this year’s Bram Stoker Awards in the category of Superior Achievement in a Fiction Collection.