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Book Review: The Residence by Andrew Pyper

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cover art for The Residence by Andrew Pyper

 

The Residence by Andrew Pyper ( Bookshop.org | Amazon.com )

Simon & Schuster, 2020

ISBN-13 : 978-1982147365

Available: Hardcover, paperback, Kindle edition, compact disc, audiobook

Historical horror can be a mixed bag. The immediacy of the terror tends to be removed in a period piece, while dialogue and characterizations, not to mention obsolete settings, can deflate any true scares or dread from the tale at hand, no matter how well it is written.

However, The Residence rises above these obstacles to take up, well, residence, in the reader’s head. It’s in the vein of The Hunger or The Terror, both of which are recent landmarks in the genre.

Andrew Pyper knows how to deliver the horror in a novel. His Demonologist rivaled the best possession stories, and his other titles have been entertaining, chilling books.

This time out, Pyper ventures into terrifying territory– the White House. No, not the current administration. but that of Franklin Pierce, the 14th president of the United States. Pierce stars as a reluctant leader, one not expected to win, but turns out to be a popular man amongst his fellow Americans. A Democrat, he takes on the task of hoping to mend a divided nation.  Pyper transports the reader back to 1853, when Pierce and his family are headed to Washington for the inauguration. Pierce’s wife, Jane, senses that the move might not help them, especially after she and Franklin have already lost two sons.

Eleven-year old Bennie is excited to stand beside his father at the ceremony and live the dream of any young boy, but the train, and possibly external forces, literally derail any hope of happiness for the Pierce family during his presidency. At the bottom of the ravine, only one casualty is found– Bennie.

Grieving the loss of her son, Jane escapes into herself, building herself a “grief room” within the White House, and refuses any duties of a First Lady. Instead, she calls for a pair of psychics, the Fox sisters, to help communicate with Bennie. and salvage any hope she has for remaining in the land of the living.

What they achieve, though, invites something far more sinister: something that becomes a paranormal entity in the capital that threatens to destroy much more than the Pierce family.

Pyper sidesteps any pitfalls that could undermine the horror in this tight, family-centered story that is closely tied to actual history. The White House is reported to be haunted, by several spirits, and much of what is spun here actually occurred. Pyper doesn’t allow himself to become bogged down with an excess of period details or historical overload, rather focusing on the hauntings and how what is unleashed threatens to destroy the Pierces– and much more. Recommended.

 

Reviewed by David Simms

 

Posted on October 23, 2020 by , Reply

Book Review: The Good Demon by Jimmy Cajoleas

Life would have to be pretty awful and lonely for a person to agree to be possessed by a demon, but Clare has had a pretty traumatic life, and her demon not only takes her away but protects her from danger. Several years after she discovered her addict father dead from an overdose, her secret is revealed, and her stepfather, an abusive alcoholic, has the demon, who Clare calls her Only, exorcised by an evangelical preacher and his son, Roy.  Bereft, Clare is on a mission to retrieve and reintegrate with her Only, the one being who truly knows and loves her, but clues left by the demon instruct her to make friends with Roy, and despite their rocky beginnings, Clare and Roy become friends.

The One Wish Man has the power to grant Clare’s wish, but there is always a price.  In her eagerness to reunite with her Only, Clare chooses to overlook some obvious red flags: a cardinal crucified upside down at the entrance to the One Wish Man’s property, a nightmarish walk to his house, a stolen scroll of human skin, and others. As Clare’s investigations reveal a rottennness and lust for power at the center of town that is more than its terrible place in history (the Trail of Tears, the KKK, and tornadoes, among other disasters). Clare has to decide how far she can trust her Only, and whether her Only’s love is worth enough to sacrifice the new relationships she is building.

The Good Demon takes place in the deep South and has some great Southern Gothic trappings, and the trope of rottenness under the surface of a small town plays out well here. Clare is an unreliable narrator, and there’s a strange feeling of unreality enfolding her story. Oddly for a book set in the South, outside of Clare’s brief mentions of the town’s history with slavery, the KKK, and Native American genocide in the context of “terrible things happen here”, there aren’t actually any identifiable African-American characters and the book doesn’t really touch on race, which would pretty much flavor everything there. Of course, we are seeing all of this from Clare’s point of view, which is pretty narrow, since her life appears to be basically doing nothing at home, stealing from the secondhand store, or going to the library, and rarely encountering people other than her mother and stepfather, who spend much of their time drunk and arguing, so maybe she is really just that isolated from her community. The more time you spend with her, the more you can see why Clare wants her demon back so badly, and that any child would be in that position may be the saddest and most terrifying thing of all. Recommended for YA collections.

Contains: occultism, body horror, sex, gore, mild violence, attempted rape, references to suicide, drug and alcohol abuse.

 

 

 

 

Posted on January 11, 2020 by , Reply

Book Review: The Festering Ones by S.H. Cooper

The Festering Ones by S. H. Cooper

Independently published

ISBN-13: 978-1693388583

Available: Paperback, Kindle edition

 

The Festering Ones by S. H. Cooper is a horror novella featuring an avenging heroine, straightforward action, and plenty of gore. In this story, parallel realities exist alongside, but mostly separate from ours. One of them, however, is inhabited by hideous monsters that can invade our world by dreams, illusions and possession of our bodies. Human cults strive to open doorways for the monsters, who will destroy all normal life if they gain control.

On a hunting trip in Pennsylvania, a young girl, Faith, sees her father ambushed and killed by a spider-armed, Woken Daughter of the monster Gorrorum, but no one believes her story. Years later, she discovers more disappearances in the mountain town, and uncovers a local cult. On the trail of another cult in Florida, she teams up with Janice, who is seeking her kidnapped boy, and Sasha, who is searching for her missing sister. The women fight factotums of a rival monster. Faith and Sasha return to the mountain to avenge their loved ones, but they meet more than the Woken Daughters in the tunnels and cavern of the mountain.

Cooper’s writing is simple and direct. The plot is straightforward. Although her characters are not complex, the female heroines are determined and strong.

 

Contains: violence, gore

 

Robert D. Yee

Posted on October 29, 2019 by , Reply
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