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Book List: Horror Novellas You Don’t Have To Put Down

I’m a pretty fast reader, but sometimes a full length novel is just too long. It’s so hard for me to stop once I start, even if I know I need to! I’ve had to swear off certain authors or series because the books were so long, and compelling, that they consumed entire days of my life (I will never forgive George R.R. Martin for the loss of two weeks of my life to a series where he still hasn’t written the conclusion SIX YEARS LATER) If you aren’t a fast reader, then long novels can be intimidating. That’s what makes novellas great. If you’re a fast reader, you can speed right through them and go back to truly enjoy them again at your leisure. They’re just about perfect for travel– small enough to pack away and long enough to keep you engaged on your flight or train, without taking over your entire vacation. The novella length is perfect for a certain kind of horror story, too– it has to move fast and the words have to be carefully chosen in order to have maximum impact in a compact size. I asked for some recommendations from the people following Monster Librarian’s Facebook page,and checked with a few other horror lovers, and a number of them mentioned the same titles.  Here’s a short list of 14 novellas recommended by horror lovers, that will be perfect for your summer reading, if you haven’t picked them up already. And if any of them pique your interest, feel free to click on the book’s image. It will take you straight to Amazon, and since we are an Amazon affiliate, you’ll be helping us out, too. As always, not every book is appropriate for every reader, and while we’ve reviewed some of these, you read at your own risk.

If you feel that the list could use some additions, feel free to contribute your suggestions below!

 Cabal by Clive Barker

  The Hellbound Heart by Clive Barker

 A Boy and His Dog by Harlan Ellison
The Grownup by Gillian Flynn (reviewed here)

 Final Girls by Mira Grant

  Kingdom of Needle and Bone by Mira Grant

 Strange Weather by Joe Hill (technically this is a collection of four novellas) reviewed here

Mapping the Interior by Stephen Graham Jones

 Agents of Dreamland by Caitlin R. Kiernan

  The Mist by Stephen King

 The Ballad of Black Tom by Victor Lavalle

 The Case of Charles Dexter Ward by H.P. Lovecraft

 I Am Legend by Richard Matheson  (reviewed here– you’ll have to scroll down)

 The Murders of Molly Southborne by Tade Thompson (a sequel, The Survival of Molly Southborne, comes out in July)

Posted on May 20, 2019 by , Reply

Book Review: Sherlock Holmes and the Servants of Hell by Paul Kane

Sherlock Holmes and the Servants of Hell by Paul Kane

Rebellion/Solaris, 2016

ISBN: 9781781084557

Available: Paperback, Kindle edition

 

Sherlock Holmes and Cenobites sound like a combination that would be truly awful together, but I have to say, Sherlock Holmes and the Servants of Hell blew my assumptions out of the water. With an introduction by Barbie Wilde, I was put at ease.

The book opens with a man solving the Lament Configuration. That man is Sherlock Holmes.

It’s 1895. Moriarty is declared dead, and Holmes miraculously survives the tumble off the cliff in his final adventure. Holmes and Watson are engaged by Laurence and Juliet Cotton, newlyweds with a strained relationship, to investigate the disappearance of Laurence’s brother, Francis. Their investigation leads them to look into a series of unusual missing persons’ cases, in which the missing parties vanish in impossible ways. One man disappears from a locked room, the only traces left behind being the faint scent of vanilla.

This is just the beginning of an investigation that will draw the pair into contact with an organization whispered about and known only as ‘The Order of the Gash.’ Clues lead the sleuth and the doctor to an underground club that services the most depraved of the upper crust of society, a sinister asylum in France, and the underworld of London. They encounter shady operators, meet old acquaintances in the strangest of circumstances, enter a world of depravity and pain, and make dangerous associates—the Cenobites, from hell.

Kane, previously editor of the tribute anthology Hellbound Hearts, clearly has a familiarity with and love of the Hellraiser universe. In this book, in addition to new Cenobites, Kane includes storylines and characters from Barker’s novella The Hellbound Heart, as well as the Hellraiser films.  I was pleasantly surprised to also find an authentic Holmes feel and pacing that shows a familiarity with the characters and style of Holmes’ stories. Kane was able to keep with the atmosphere and period sensibilities of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s style while still creating the feel of Clive Barker’s world of Cenobites–  and he makes it work. Recommended. Reader’s advisory note: Fans of both Sherlock Holmes and Hellraiser should enjoy this. Other horror/Holmes crossover titles include Sherlock Holmes: The London Terrors and others by William Meikle, and Gaslight Arcanum, edited by Kim Newman and Kevin Cockle.

Contains: mentions of body horror, allusions to sexual activity and gore

Reviewed by Lizzy Walker


Posted on August 31, 2016 by , Reply

Book Review: The Scarlet Gospels by Clive Barker (audiobook)

 

The Scarlet Gospels by Clive Barker

St. Martin’s Press, 2015

ISBN-13: 9781250055804 (Hardback)

ISBN-13: 9781427261571 (Macmillan audiobook)

Available: Hardback, Macmillan audiobook, paperback, Kindle edition, Audible edition

The Scarlet Gospels marks Clive Barker’s long awaited return to adult horror fiction. This novel has a long history, and he’s had fans on tenterhooks since the 1990s when he first hinted at this work in progress. The story revolves around two of Barker’s iconic characters, Harry D’Amour, his tattooed implacable investigator of the supernatural, and the eloquent Cenobite Hell Priest, better known as Pinhead. Joining Harry is a group of magic users, the Harrowers, who help him along the way after Norma Paine is abducted by the Hell Priest and his misshapen minion, Felixson. Harry finds the Lament Configuration, that damned box, and is pulled into a Dante-esque mission put forth by the Hell Priest himself. At first it is unclear what the Hell Priest wants to do with D’Amour—kill him or use him. He needs a witness, an archivist, who will chronicle his usurping the throne of Hell. While there were of course several colourful characters to the story, the main action revolves around Harry and the Hell Priest. Most other relationships remain secondary.

The book was fast paced, and very cinematic at times, especially regarding gore, body horror, and the scenes in Hell. One of the best and bloodiest sections of the novel is the prologue, only matched by what he wrote in the Books of Blood series. The reader is introduced to the magicians who resurrect the magician Ragowski, one of their dwindling number that the Hell Priest tore apart. Ragowski reveals that the Hell Priest is killing all of them off after torturing information out of them as to the location of magical talismans and grimoires and collecting the world’s magic, but to what end? The violence is incredibly visceral and graphic, and the Hell Priest’s curses and speeches to the magicians are intelligently delivered. The prologue really drew me in and made me want to continue reading.

Despite Barker’s writing the Hell Priest as a departure from what we are familiar with most of the films, it was difficult not to imagine Doug Bradley’s face and voice overpowering my reading. If you are expecting the Cenobite from the films, you will be disappointed. This writing of the Hell Priest of the Order of the Gash relishes in the abuses and torments he puts his victim through, which seems like the complete opposite characterization from the distinguished, duty bound Cenobite from the first two Hellraiser movies, let alone The Hellbound Heart. The character in the films was more reserved, even reverent when visiting pain on others, as it was his duty.

I wish the novel would have been much longer, especially regarding the space devoted to D’Amour’s and the Harrowers’ journey through Hell, and the epic battle between the Hell Priest and Lucifer. My main complaint seems to be echoed by other Barker fans: while the book is good, it could have been much longer and given the reader a lot more content.

As a side note, the narrator of the Macmillan audio book version of the novel is John Lee. He pulls out some fantastic voice acting for The Scarlet Gospels.

As an avid Clive Barker fan, I recommend this book, but with reservation. Recommended for adult readers

Contains: Body horror, gore, graphic violence, rape, sex, implications of child abuse.

Reviewed by Lizzy Walker

 

 

Posted on December 9, 2015 by , Reply
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