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Book Review: Whispers in the Dark by Laurel Hightower

Whispers in the Dark by Laurel Hightower

Journalstone/Trepidatio Publishing, 2018

ISBN: 978-1-947654-61-7

Available: paperback, Kindle edition

 

Rose McFarland has had a convoluted life.   Growing up, she was often tormented by the Whispers, voices that only she could hear, and sometimes see.   Her parents felt she was a child of the Devil, and made her childhood a living hell, often locking her in the basement for days at a time.  When their house burns down, with only Rose and her mother surviving, her mother dumps her in a psychiatric hospital and forgets about her.  The Whispers eventually stop, and Rose is released, determined to avoid her mother forever, and make her own way in the world.

Fast forward roughly 15 years: Rose is a sniper for a S.W.A.T. team, and divorced with two kids, although she maintains an excellent relationship with her ex-husband for the sake of the kids.   Suddenly, she’s confronted with two problems: the Whispers return, this time to torment her 4 year old son Tommy; and her latest sniper victim turns out to be a half-brother she never knew about, who also doesn’t want to stay dead.  The two unrelated problems later tie into a larger plot concerning the fate of humanity, and whether Rose and the few people she trusts can help her son and save humankind.  Giving away any more of the plot would spoil the book: this is one where you don’t want to know about it until you read it.

Whispers in the Dark is a classic mystery/thriller, where every element of the plot and character development is done to just the right level.  The plot itself is done perfectly: it’s a relatively complex set of ideas, but the author never gives away more than is needed, giving you just enough hints and clues to keep you reading into the next chapter…and the next…and the next… until you find yourself at the end, asking where those 300 pages went.  It’s a testament to Hightower’s skill that the plot doesn’t scream at you to keep going, it…whispers, pulling you gradually from chapter to chapter to find out what’s going to happen.  The mystery isn’t an easy one to figure out, either: most readers will probably not guess the totality of the plot until the end.  Thankfully, Hightower avoids the cliché of throwing in a cliffhanger at the end of every chapter, and then switching character perspectives, as some authors are prone to do.   There are some good chills in the book also: all the parts involving people going into basements are genuinely eerie.  It’s enough to make going to bed at night with the lights off just a little bit more difficult.

The strength of the characters is worth noting also.  None of them are one-dimensional: they are all cut from shades of gray and seem completely realistic.  Rose herself is a great example. She shoots people for a living, swigs beer with the guys, indulges in occasional flings, and has a foul mouth.  But she also sings her kids to sleep, and loves to cook breakfast for them whenever she can.  The secondary characters (especially her ex, Sam) are done just as well: they all seem like actual people, not caricatures.  You’ll find yourself caring for all the protagonists in the book and rooting for them.

Overall, Whispers in the Dark is a perfectly done mystery/ghost story, and one you won’t want to miss.  Keep an eye on this author; she’s one to watch in the future. Highly recommended.

Contains: violence, profanity.

 

Reviewed by Murray Samuelson

Posted on July 13, 2019 by , Reply

Book Review: I Dream of Mirrors by Chris Kelso

I Dream Of Mirrors by Chris Kelso

Sinister Horror Company, 2019

ISBN-13: 978-1912578078

Available: Paperback, Kindle edition

 

File this short novel under the “mind-blowing, mind-boggling, weird horror” category. There. It’s done. Attempting to classify I Dream of Mirrors is nearly impossible to explain or put into a genre box.

It’s one of the cool stories of weird fiction, which can include horror, dark fantasy, sci-fi, or bizarro fiction. Readers who crave the out-there settings and characters of Jeff Vandermeer, Neil Gaiman, and John Langan will find plenty to lose themselves in here, with a tale that, while heady and intelligent, keeps itself grounded.

Kurt wakes up to an apocalypse caused by Dunwoody, a manic billionaire who has changed the world through technological brainwashing.”People” who have been affected at first appear to be zombies, but are actually willing participants in Dunwoody’s new world order, that harkens back to an 1984 motif. The ones who resist are the outsiders: those who have crushing pasts that leave them strugging to survive. Kurt teams up with Kat to battle the People and Dunwoody, along with a bevy of other odd characters, each with his or her own mind-bending backstory.

At the heart of this story is a search for identity, as Kurt has no recollection of his life before the change– who he was, or what he did. The transmissions from Dunwoody’s tower and hallucinations attempt to convince him that he’s merely a part of the system, a figment of humanity’s imagination that never existed in the physical world. What could be considered an exercise in finding one’s identity morphs into something that reaches much deeper, yet still can be completed in one surreal sitting.

What raises I Dream of Mirrors above the mass of weird fiction floating through the stratosphere is Chris Kelso’s writing. He crafts every sentence into something that both engages the reader and detaches them from reality. Add him to a very short list of newer authors to place on the “must read” list. Recommended.

 

Reviewed by David Simms

 

Posted on June 21, 2019 by , Reply

Book Review: I Am the River by T.E. Grau

I Am the River by T.E. Grau

Lethe Press, 2018

ISBN: 978-1-59021-445-9

Available: Paperback, Kindle edition, audiobook

 

If there are such things as literary horror novels’ I Am the River would be the poster child.  This is the equivalent of a 70’s era acid trip washed down with a fistful of amphetamines.  It’s a dizzying trip through the reality (and unreality)  of one man’s mind and actions, as he struggles to deal with his shattered life, post-Vietnam.  Written with exceptional skill, I Am the River is a novel the reader won’t want to miss.

The story centers around Israel Broussard, an American GI who suffers with a severe case of PTSD, as he drifts though life in the slums of Bangkok, five years after the war’s ending.  The story runs two threads concurrently throughout the book, and the chapters are split along the threads.  One thread is written in the first person from Broussard’s point of view, and shows him trying to make sense of his reality in the seamy underbelly of Thailand.   He is clearly unbalanced and has severe mental problems, but he can’t remember what happened to him in the war that left him so unstable.  The author’s skill is on full display here, as he moves between using full sentences/paragraphs, to using short, jagged sentences when he describes the thoughts running through Broussard’s head.  It does an excellent job of making the reader feel the madness Broussard is suffering from, as it comes at you in quick snippets, much like the thoughts in his head. The other thread is written in the third person, and tells Broussard’s story during the war.  He was a disgraced GI who was hand-selected for an off-the-books mission, and he had no idea why he was picked, or what the mission was.  It then builds towards the objective itself, and how it is supposed to end the war.

Some of the highlights include the expositions by some of the characters concerning what winning a war actually entails, and how to “win” it without firing a shot.  I Am the River is very well thought out: it is written so well that you might find yourself questioning your own ideas about what a war is, and what winning actually means.  Other characters help to lend more to the overall discussion in this section.  The reader will get hooked quickly here, as you’ll want to know more about the mission and the nefarious idea behind it.

The author wisely does not give away the reasons behind either plot thread at the beginning.  It is like reading two stories at once: both build in excitement at roughly the same level, and each hits its climax within a chapter of the other at the end.  Both threads tie their plots together for the last chapter, and the reader gets a beautiful, open, ending that does not completely resolve the story, but does leave a note of hope for the future.  It also leaves a setting tailor-made for another book in the story of Israel Broussard, as most readers will be clamoring for more.

As good as everything concerning the plot is, it’s Grau’s skill as a writer that makes this book so impressive.  His prose is fluid and extremely polished, and shows a skill that many authors can only hope to achieve.  It’s hard to believe this is his first novel, as he writes like a seasoned veteran.  As an example: describing a helicopter landing, he writes, “the choppers shed altitude fast, handing it off to the slow rising sun as an even trade with the break of dawn over the eastern mountain range.” The whole book is written with this type of skill, and it’s impressive to behold.  The bottom line is, you want to read this one.  Highly recommended.

Contains: violence, mild gore.

 

Reviewed by Murray Samuelson

 

Editor’s note: I Am the River is a nominee on the final ballot for the 2018 Bram Stoker Awards in the category of Superior Achievement in a Graphic Novel.

 

Posted on May 6, 2019 by , Reply
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