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Book Review: Voices of the Damned by Barbie Wilde

Voices of the Damned by Barbie Wilde
Short,Scary Tales Publications, 2015
ISBN-13: 978-1909640351
Available: Hardcover (new and used), Kindle edition
Inside these covers are eleven slices of hell from the mind of a new visionary of horror. Barbie Wilde appears to have vacationed in Dante’s creation and taken terror a couple of steps further.

Voices of the Damned, Wilde’s first collection of short stories, picks up where The Venus Complex, the author’s excellent debut crime novel, left off.   First off, this is a gorgeous book. The cover art, by none other than Clive Barker, sets the tone for a book written by a Cenobite herself.  Introducing each story is an exquisitely disturbing full-size image by artists including Barker, Nick Percival, Steve McGinnis, Danele Serra, Eric Gross, Tara Bush, Vincent Sammy, and Ben Baldwin.

The collection kicks off with “Sister Cilice,” the tale of how a nun falls from grace, first seen in Hellbound Hearts, the tribute anthology based on Barker’s “Hellraiser” world. Wilde continues the story with “The Cicilium Pandoric” and “The Cicilium Rebellion”, creating a full trilogy that explores the existence of the Cenobite she portrayed in Hellraiser II. Other highlights in this collection include “Zulu Zombies” and “American Mutant”. These epitomize Wilde’s style and vision.

A Barbie Wilde story can be filled with as much eroticism as it is with horror, and this collection shows her skill at interweaving them. Her writing exhibits unbridled brutality and fresh honesty in characterizations, never shying away from the grotesque or weird.  Inhibitions are nowhere to be found here, which is a very good thing. This writer becomes darker and bolder by the story. One can only wonder where her imagination will head next. It will likely be a nightmare many will embrace for years to come. Highly recommended.

Reviewed by Dave Simms
Posted on November 30, 2015 by , Reply

Book Review: Little Boy Blu by Cara Brookins

Little Boy Blu by Cara Brookins

The Wild Rose Press, Inc., 2014

ISBN: 978-1628306903

Available: Paperback, Kindle

 

Novels set in Appalachia will always hold a certain mystique: there’s a certain air about the location found only in a few places in America. In Little Boy Blu, readers will find themselves immersed in a dense atmosphere comprised of heavy forests, mountains, moonshine stills, and a culture that entices, amazes, and often frightens those outside of this geographic microcosm. This is what makes Cara Brookins’ tale so tantalizing.

Brookins is the author of the very successful Timeshifters series, and has now penned what just might become a staple in the genre. Based on true stories of the “blue” people of Kentucky, Little Boy Blu centers around a family living far away from the mainstream, deep within the woods, where time and civilization often fail to penetrate. Blu Tracey was born with an anomaly—he’s the only one in his family who does not sport the blue-tinged skin. This characteristic gives them a disturbing bond and also places a target on their souls.

Blu’s mother sold out her family for a reality show, but her pseudo-fame didn’t quite pan out the way she had planned. Her own story is chronicled alongside Blu’s during a journey where he discovers that someone is trying to kill him. But is the killer from the world outside their own, or from someplace much closer?

 Many threads weave together into a story as profound as the mountain song that echoes through the hills and flows down the rivers and streams which bisect Blu’s world. Little Boy Blu is Southern Gothic crossbred with a tight thriller. It sings with Brookins’ stylish writing, smoother than the ‘shine found in those hills, but just as potent. Her characters are the backbone of the story,   and will entice just before punching the reader in the heart with twists and turns that work on so many levels. Tough to categorize but very easy to love, I recommend giving this fine novel a shot. Recommended for age 15 and up.

Contains: N/A

Reviewed by David Simms

Posted on August 22, 2015 by , Reply

Book Review: Burning the Middle Ground by L. Andrew Cooper


Burning the Middle Ground by L. Andrew Cooper

BlackWyrm Publishing, 2012

ISBN-13: 978-1-61318-138-6

Availability: Paperback, eBook(Kindle)

 

Ronald Glassner is a successful web journalist who runs and writes a webzine called American Sane.  Publishers have been calling him to go to the next step, and    write a book. Glassner  decides to tell the story of Brian McCullough. Five years ago Brian was a small town teenager who came home from school to find that his ten-year-old sister, Fran, had murdered their parents. Then she killed herself in front of him. Brian did not speak for a year. Ronald goes to the small town of Kenning, Georgia to investigate, and get the facts firsthand for his readers. He meets with Brian, who is still living in the family home where the murders occurred. Brian seems to be a regular young man. That evening, Ronald stumbles into a pack of dogs that attack him, and he ends up in the hospital. Concurrently, a fight between two churches emerges. One is the established First Church, headed by the mysterious Reverend Michael Cox; the challenger is the New Church, run by the rebellious Jeanne Harper. Before he knows it, Ronald is caught up in the middle of small town intrigue that is more than he and his webzine readers bargained for.

This book started out well; the suspense built steadily and kept me interested. The characters were distinct; their voices were easy to separate. The pacing was good, the descriptions were adequate, the main theme, “good vs. evil” was developed nicely, and the book was well-written, with very few typographical errors.  But halfway through the story it lost me. It just didn’t work for me anymore. The religious aspects got too thick for me personally, and I just stopped caring what happened. Possibly, other readers might be more engaged.

 

Contains: homosexuality, profanity, adult situations

Reviewed by Aaron Fletcher

Posted on November 13, 2014 by , Reply
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