horror novellas | Musings of the Monster Librarian

Book Review: F.U.B.B by Daniel Volpe, Candace Nola, and Jasper Bark (Dark Tide Horror Novellas Book 14)

F.U.B.B. by Daniel Volpe, Candace Nola, and Jasper Bark (Dark Tide Horror Novellas Book 14)

Crystal Lake Publishing, 2024

ISBN: 9781957133928

Available: Paperback, Kindle edition

If you’re going to title a book F*cked Up Beyond Belief, you had better back it up. And man, do they ever in this one. These three hardcore novellas are exactly that: blood-drenched gorefests, with excellent stories and writing to boot. These are like Eli Roth films, the main difference being these actually have good plots and are addicting to read. Let’s look at the basics, shall we?

“Church of the Splatter Spray Saints” is a crazed take on modern tent-pole revivals, although the basic theme fits with some real-life ones, like ‘screwing the people for fun and profit (mainly profit).’ In this case, the revival is run by organized crime, and they have a sentient virus to contend with that may bring the whole house down. For a horror novella, it has a fairly intricate plot, and all the pieces fit perfectly. Body parts fly and pain abounds as people pay to witness voluntary suicides, all in the name of worshipping the Blood. Totally screwed up, and totally fun.

“Double Feature” is my personal favorite. Combine a typical Friday night at a hick town drive-in with a group of redneck nuts somewhat resembling the lunatics from the movie Wrong Turn, and you have a story, and a very well written one it is. A good setup and absolutely breakneck pace keep this one firing till the end. It’s frightening to think of any people actually being like the antagonists in this one: they have absolutely no remorse for the warped things they do. And, their motive? Money. The best part is that author Candace Nola excels in misdirection. Every time you expect the story to zig, it zags instead, right to the hilariously ironic ending.

“The Chatter of the Night Bugs”: is an agonizing story of “white trash”, snuff films, and black magic. Fair warning: this one is the most difficult to read of the three. The torture sequences are brutal, made all the worse by the fact that you care about the victim in this one. However, payback is a wonderful thing, and old mountain magic provides the means for punishing the evildoers a hundred times over, in the form of bugs, and… something else. This was a creative take on old Appalachian legends. Revenge has never been sweeter than in this story.

The ol’ bottom line? This book should win some sort of award for best horror story collection this year. For horror fans in general, and gorehounds in particular, this is a can’t miss. Highly recommended (to those with a strong stomach, that is).

Reviewed by Murray Samuelson

Book Review: Dogs by Mike Sullivan

Dogs by Mike Sullivan

Muddy Paws Press, 2022

ISBN: 9798986056913

Available: Paperback, Kindle edition ( Amazon.com )

Dogs is one of those little novellas that work fine for a quick blast of excitement that requires no thinking. At only 114 pages double-spaced, any reader will be through it in an hour or two. There’s no real character development, no twisting plot, but it does have excitement and a touch of gore, and that’s really all readers are looking for in something this short. For a quick shot of diversionary reading, Dogs rolls over and does the trick.

The plot: Tom comes home to visit his parents, who live in a gated community. The family dog goes crazy and tries to attack him, and Tom quickly finds out that all the dogs in the neighborhood have gone canine-crazy and now regard humans as fleshy Milk-Bones. Tom needs to survive and escape. The end.

That’s all there is, and that’s all that’s needed. Again, this is just action. It’s kind of like the old Jean-Claude Van Damme films: you never watch them for anything deep, you just want ass-kicking and excitement. That’s what Dogs delivers. There is plenty of bloodshed between the dogs, Tom, and a couple neighbors, and the author writes the attack sequences well enough to keep reader interest up, it’s not just ‘the dog mauled and killed the person’, though. There are some face-offs and tactics in the human vs. dog duels. This isn’t totally brainless: it’s just meant to tear along at a good pace, and it does that just fine. There are plenty of unanswered questions by the end of the book, so don’t expect a wrap-up that explains everything. Obviously, if you love dogs and can’t stand fiction that involves them getting hurt, you may want to skip this (even though they are bad dogs).

File this one in the category of “fast reads that involve nature biting back”. Alongside other books of that ilk, such as Grizzly and The Roo, the novella Dogs will fit in just fine. Worth it for the quick fun.

Reviewed by Murray Samuelson