This week on DearReader.com’s Horror Club, we are getting the first section of a book called Halloweenland by Al Sarrantonio.

Halloweenland	Halloweenland Author: Sarrantonio, Al Format: Mass Market Paperback Page Count: 307pp. Pub. Date: October 2, 2007 Publisher: Leisure/Dorchester
In Orangefield, Halloween is never normal — and this year is no exception. For Orangefield is now the home of Halloweenland, a bizarre carnival run by the mysterious Mr. Dickens. No one who sees the carnival doubts that it’s a very strange place, but its real secrets can hardly be imagined. Orangefield is also the home of Detective Bill Grant, who thinks he’s seen it all. He’s on the trail of an odd little girl, a girl who could hold the end of the universe in her hand. The trail leads Grant to Ireland, the ancient home of the Lord of the Dead, then back to Orangefield, where, on what may be the last Halloween, the ultimate battle between Life and Death takes place. The Undead Rat’s Notes: Part one of Halloweenland is a reworking of a short novella called The Baby. The Baby was originally published by Cemetery Dance Publications in hardcover as the third book in their special Cemetery Dance Signature Series. It is currently out of print. The rest of Halloweenland is new material. At the end of the book is a page explaining the history of the story The Baby and then the actual novella as it originally appeared. As Mr. Sarrantonio writes: I had, in the end, two versions of the same basic story with utterly different conclusions. Both stories are now a part of the rich Orangefield Cycle by Al Sarrantonio. He also points of that a reading of the two stories, side by side, each with different endings to serve different objectives would be a valuable lesson for fledgling writers. For readers interested in the rest of the Orangefield Cycle Leisure/Dorchester published Hallows Eve and Horrorween both of which collect the rest of the stories and are still in print. Together they make for chilling Halloween reading.

Interested in Halloweenland?

It’s not too late to sign up for the DearReader.com’s Horror Club, and get this week’s e-mails with the first section of Halloweenland. Read the beginning for free and decide for yourself if you like it. And if you’re joining in the middle of the week, you can click on this link to get the first e-mails you missed or look at the top of your very first e-mail for instructions.

If you find you want to read more of Halloweenland, you can check with your local bookstore, library or purchase it on-line through one of the links provided above.

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MONSTROSITY
by Edward Lee

“The Ponoye worshipped lower demons out of the same mechanics of formative superstition that influenced all species of early man. They believed in them, yes.
But demons did not exist.
When Professor Fredrick turned on the flashlight, he saw that he was clearly wrong.
Demons did exist.
And one such demon was reaching for him now…”

GENRE:

Horror Fiction, Adventure

DESCRIPTORS:

Monsters, Government Installations, Security Team, Science, Genetics, Sex, Rape, Mutations, Drug Addictions, Thieves

SUMMARY:

This novel is divided into four parts. Heading each part is a vignette detailing Dr. Fredrick’s excavation of a Ponoye Indian cenote where he finds the perfectly preserved remains of an inhuman demon-like hand. This hand, seemingly emerging from a wall, offends the scientist’s sensibilities. To find out more, they try to unearth the entire body . . .

A year ago, Stuart Winster, the son of Colonel Harold T. Winster, raped Air Force Security Chief Clare Prentiss. The young man had a deformed hand, (just a thumb and forefinger) and limited mental capacity. But he was cunning enough to drug her with a paralyzing drug and perverted enough to enjoy raping and biting her before. He was stopped before he could start killing her with the awl.

The men of the camp blamed Clare for the attack. Instead of the trial for rape, the judge turned it into a Court Martial and she was dishonorably discharged. Homeless for a year, Clare welcomes Dellin Daniel’s offer of a job as security chief of Alachua Park, where a cure for cancer has recently been discovered.

The drug was entering the test stage and concerns over industrial espionage as well as problems with poaching and the local drug stealing meth-heads would be Clare’s job. Clare’s job starts out low key, but odd things begin to happen from the first day: she catches her two officers, Joyce and Rick, in a sexual clutch while on patrol, meets Mrs. Grable, the victim of spousal abuse, encounters fanged mutant toads as large as huskies and mysterious deliveries to the base which she has to sign for.

The mystery deepens when Clare and ranger Adam Covey run into a naked, half dead Kari Ann who spent the night being repeatedly raped and dragged around by a hideous monster. More pieces of the puzzle fall into place when she uncovers the mysterious history of the former security chief and he two staff members who disappeared without a trace. No longer sure who she can trust, Clare pursues her investigation until she uncovers a truth more horrific than any she could imagine — and the reason why she was hired as security chief in the first place.

APPEAL:

The pacing is fast. There is plenty of detail in the story but more dialog and action to hurry the story along. Lee uses medium to short sentences and paragraphs. Lee also switches back and forth between the main story and a vignette. Most of the vignettes are of local meth-heads who poach or steal drugs on Fort Alachua Park land and meet bad ends from the horribly mutated animals lurking there. The vignettes are often faster pace with sexual or horror titillation to spur the reader on.

The characterization is focused mostly on Clare. Joyce, Rick and Dellin have some development but not a lot. Clare benefits from the bulk of the story being told from her point of view. And she is the one who must face her worst nightmares if she’s to get out alive.

There are plenty of monsters — human and otherwise. There is also some disturbing sexual scenes. The story is divided into four parts each beginning with a frame story about an archaeological discovery which ties into the main narrative at the end.

The plot of Clair’s story begins slowly and builds up while at the same time, Lee peppers his story with vignettes of people who sneak into the off-limits park to poach and are victimized by the monstrous wildlife and other abominations that live there.

NOTES:

Labeled “the ultimate pulp novel” by Lee, this one has it all and the kitchen sink.

READALIKES:

Edward Lee has written several books that are over-the-top horror including City Infernal and its sequels Infernal Angel and House Infernal. Very few writers are as graphic as he is. Try The Void
by Teri A. Jacobs, and Teratologist written by Lee and Wrath James White for authors who are as extreme as Lee.

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“I reach for my baby . . . But my hands are melting.”

A pregnant woman, fraught with nightmares, rides a train through a destroyed wasteland towards an uncertain future.

TITLE:

FROM INSIDE

WRITER:

by John Bergin

ARTISTS:

by John Bergin (art)

PUBLISHER:

Kitchen Sink Press

GENRE:

Graphic Novel (collection), Horror, Apocalyptic Horror

DESCRIPTORS:

End of the World, Pregnancy, Childbirth, Sickness, Radiation Poisoning, Trains, Tunnels, Death, Survival, Fear, Nightmares, Survivor’s Guilt, Children, Wives and Husbands, Ghosts

SUMMARY:

A pregnant young woman rides a train which is full of survivors, many who are sick and injured. They search for a safe place to settle, for food and supplies of various sorts. Most of the passengers have been heavily traumatized, as has the narrator who seems to exist within herself looking out at others but not talking to anyone.

To the narrator, the other passengers are scary and threatening. There is a heavily bandaged man who adopts a faceless dog and calls it Hobbs. Is he watching her? Is he a threat? Why did she not notice before that he has a bunk next to hers? Who is leaving her small gifts of a book on pregnancy and food rations?

She lost her husband when the world was destroyed in a fiery holocaust. She survived relatively unscathed but with child. She is fearful about the prospect of giving birth to her child in a dying world. What is left for the child? What kind of existence can it have. But there are deeper fears. Will the child be healthy or born sick and deformed? Will it survive outside of her body and can she let it go?

The nameless woman is caught between a nightmarish world and her own nightmares as the time for her delivery draws nearer.

APPEAL:

This powerful comic has stayed with me for several years. Every so often when I put my children to bed, I remember scenes from this story.

Having become the father to two children, I found myself sucked into the nameless woman’s world of fear. The fear of a sick, even grotesquely sick baby hit home for me and made this a compelling, if uncomfortable reading.

The pacing was steady and fast. The dialog was sparse, letting the illustrations do most of the work. Mostly told in pictures and captions.

The stories are told 1st person point of view, told by the unnamed woman. Most of her dialog is to the reader and put in captions which are usually blue or black. Dialog from other characters or her to other characters is in circular, usually white captions and is very sparingly used.

The images are powerful, sometimes surreal. Bergin depicts hopelessness and fear and loss in brutally stark and surreal ways with his art. The paintings are, admittedly, sometimes overpowering, but it fits in the framework of a destroyed world.

This is a mature comic in words and pictures

NOTES:

In his acknowledgments, John Bergin thanks his best friend James O’Barr who seemed to have guided John’s development of this project.

In the story, the nameless woman reads a child’s book called “The Little Fire Engine” which was written by Jawn Henry, which in the acknowledgments was said to be illustrated by Carolyn Bergin and written by John Henry Bergin.

In the last paragraph of the acknowledgments, John Bergin lists music that you could listen to while reading this graphic novel.

READALIKES:

The Crow by J. O’Barr immediately comes to mind. Both are artistic meditations on love and loss. The Crow is evocative in the narration — often poetic at times — while From Inside is sparse in narration but evocative in powerful dark paintings. Both take a long time to read.

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“We’re dealing with the criminally insane, Mr. Stein. His logic may not be exactly on par with yours. But then again, you do work for the mayor.”

TITLE:

VIOLENT MESSIAHS: THE BOOK OF JOB

WRITER:

by Joshua D. M. Dysart

CREATORS:

by William O’Neill and Joshua D. M. Dysart

ARTISTS:

by Tone Rodriguez (pencillers)
Marlo Alquiza, Walden Wong, Mostafa Moussa, John Stangland, Jay Leisten, Jonathan Glapion, Digital Chameleon (inkers)

PUBLISHER:

Image Comics/Hurricane Entertainment

GENRE:

Graphic Novel (collection), Horror Fiction, Thriller Fiction, Science Fiction, Crime Fiction

DESCRIPTORS:

Political Control, Social Control, Individuality, Theology, Poetry, Serial Killers, Police Detectives, Conspiracy, Secret Organizations, Violence,

SUMMARY:

Lt. Cheri Major is a no-nonsense, workaholic woman little loved by the Rankor police department. She is also assigned to the Citizen Pain task force. After three months, she thinks she has his pattern and lays a trap for him. But it turns out that Pain set a trap for Lt. Major. He has her dead to rights offers her the other serial killer stalking Rankor, The so-called Family Man who she can capture and make her career on and all she has to do is stop chasing him — before he’s forced to kill her.

Citizen Pain confronts The Family Man. He seeks to know why Jeremiah is killing while Jeremiah discovers that Pain is actually Job — they were brothers, genetically engineered to take punishment and heal rapidly and programmed to kill. They fight and are interrupted by the police. Both escape but a clue, a picture of the North End Mansion (where Jubal resides) leads the police to check out the place.

Job returns home where he faces Jubal, his “father” who had to field police questions and is not happy. He had to call in Keepers of the Family — three old men who have been in and out of Job’s life and who wield considerable power. They rip off Job’s mask and threaten him with the what lies behind the great door in the center of the house.

Lt. Major combines forces with Detective Houston and they decide to visit the North End Mansion one more time, this time carrying enough fire power to bring the monstrous Citizen Pain to justice. Meanwhile, surviving Job’s attack and healing with alarming speed, Jeremiah returns home to the mansion to put an end to his treacherous brother once and for all.

APPEAL:

I enjoyed this collection. The story starts in the middle of things, and you barely have time to get settled in when the ride begins. The pacing is fast. The pictures propel the story rapidly, although a few times I needed to slow down and look carefully at an illustration to understand what I was seeing.

“If you hear a human under here . . . then you’re not listening!”

There is characterization through dialog and illustration. For example, Family Man spends his “down” time in his apartment completely naked, and when Citizen Pain arrives (before and after he learns that Pain is his brother), he is unabashed about his nakedness. That says a lot about Jeremiah. We also get to see Job’s face which, without ruining the surprise, spoke volumes about his character and the reasons he approached Lt. Major the way he did.

The stories are told 3rd person omniscient. There is some reliance on captions as the narrative strand and lots of dialog. The visuals and action convey what’s going on although sometimes the angles are odd or the coloring is too dark, the inks a little too busy to make understanding the image easy. But that only slows the reader down, it wasn’t serious enough to interfere with the enjoyment of the story.

More difficult than the occasional dark graphic, was the relationship between Pain, Family Man and Jubal. I had trouble understanding what Dysart was conveying. It was there but I think I was a little slow.

NOTES:

On the back cover it reads: “A genre bending theological sci-fi love story about criminal politics, the nature of violence and man’s search for individuality.”

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“It’s not the same as killing the dead ones, Daddy.”

TITLE:

THE WALKING DEAD: DAYS GONE BYE

WRITER:

by Robert Kirkman

ARTISTS:

by Tony Moore (penciler, inker and gray tones)
Cliff Rathburn (additional gray tones)

SERIES:

The Walking Dead

PUBLISHER:

Image Comics

GENRE:

Graphic Novel (collection), Horror Fiction, Psychological Fiction, Suspense

DESCRIPTORS:

Horror, Zombies, End of the World, Survival, Psychological Studies, Life and Death, Disaster

SUMMARY:

After being shot in the line of duty some weeks before, police officer Rick Grimes wakes up from a coma and finds the world as he knew it overrun with life-eating, disease spreading zombies.

Desperate to find his wife, Lori, and sever-year-old son Carl, he makes his way out of a zombie infested hospital and discovers his house abandoned. From a squatter who moved in next door, he finds out what little there is to know about the first days of the rise of the zombies. Together they raid the police station for guns, ammo and cars and Rick sets out to Atlanta where Lori has family, hoping to catch up with her there.

What he ultimately discovers is that Atlanta is overrun by zombies and only a quick save by a teenager named Glenn saves his life. Glenn takes him back to his camp where Rick finds Lori, his son and his partner, Officer Shane. Almost immediately he starts helping out the community including launching a terrifically risky foray into Atlanta for guns. What he doesn’t realize is that Lori and Shane have secrets and they’re about to explode in his face.

APPEAL:

Although some scenes naturally flow quickly, many are of a moderate to slow pacing because Kirkman’s interest, and ours, isn’t so much the numerous ways to dispatch zombies, but what becomes of people without civilization and under constant danger. The comic is heavy in dialog, but knows when to stop and let the illustrations tell the story.

This is definitely a character driven book. Kirkman spends the most time with Rick as we watch him grow and mature into a role he never wanted. But the people around him are not slighted. The ensemble is large and changing as people die or leave but they each present their story and some change before our eyes.

This is a drama masquerading as melodrama. Kirkman has genuine interest and love for the people he introduced in the pages. But it is a story that uses a zombie trope to reveal certain truths about the human condition. It is serial in that it is an on-going storyline centered around Rick.

Throughout the book you see people surviving the best way they know how. You may pick-up a survival tip or two, but the unpredictability of the human psyche and the mindlessness of the zombie defeats most tactics. Despite the possible nihilism inherent in the zombie sub-genre, the general tone of the book is upbeat. Most characters believe that soon the government will reassert itself and rescue the survivors as they cleanse the southern states.

NOTES:

This is a black and white comic with greytones.

Readalikes:

If you like The Walking Dead: Days Gone Bye you might also enjoy the brooding Damn Nation or The Abandoned by Ross Campbell where anyone 21 years or older dies and comes back as a zombie. If you like superheros and color in your comics, try Ultimate Fantastic Four Volume 5: Crossover and Volume 6: Frightful — which were surprisingly effective for a super hero comic. Less tense and filled with more black humor is Marvel Zombies also by Robert Kirkman.

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Last week I added two new author pages.

Gary Frank

Lawrence C. Connolly

I also began updating pages. I’m excited to be adding a Horror Mall icon to each book they’ve got in inventory. I hope you’ll check them out.

These authors had changes or updates added to their pages:

Brian Keene

Fran Friel

Mary SanGiovanni

Brandon Massey

Brett Alexander Savory

Bryan Smith

Alexandra Sokoloff

There is more to come.

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This month Nanci Kalanta and the good folks at Horror World are celebrating their fifth anniversary and you’re invited. Besides the wonderful features normally available at Horror World such as the message boards, the columns, the interviews, the book reviews, the stories and the ever popular Pod of Horror, Nanci is running — not one, not two, not three but four contests!

Horror World’s Fifth Anniversary Contests

The big anniversary contest can be found on this page. Click on the mail link above the image of the Halloween Tree. The link will open up an e-mail, already addressed and given a subject title — just add your name and mailing address in the body of the e-mail and send it off. There are lots of horror related prizes to win including books and magazines.

The other three contests are for books:

• Click here to win a free signed copy of Institutional Memory by Gary Frank.
• Click here to win a free copy of Found You by Mary SanGiovanni.
• Click here to win a free copy of Freezing Point by Karen Dionne.

So stop by and sign up to win free gifts — stay awhile and find out why Horror World is the place where all the cool horror writers hang out.

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STRANGER
by Simon Clark

“There was another question, too. A weird, twisty one. One that lurked in the background but seemed every bit as sinister as the rest. What had gone wrong with that human head we found tangled up in the branch? How could it bud an extra pair of eyes?”

GENRE:

Horror Fiction, Adventure Fiction

DESCRIPTORS:

Plagues, Isolation, Survivalists, Government Installations, Drugs, Psychological Warfare, Mutations, Evolution, Hive Minds, Collapse of Civilizations

SUMMARY:

The world as we know it is gone, destroyed in just a few months by a highly contagious plague called Gantose Syndrome (nicknamed Jumpy) which causes uncontrollable fear and results in deadly murderous rage. People who haven’t contracted it are targeted to be killed or captured by those who have it.

The town of Sullivan is curiously unaffected by it, being isolated by the fact that it sits in the middle of a lake on a peninsula. They’ve further isolated themselves from the tattered remnants of the outside world and protected by a former stranger named Greg Valdiva. Valdiva instinctively senses any new arrival who is afflicted with Jumpy — even if they aren’t showing any symptoms — and kills them in a murderous rage beyond his control.

However, the paranoia and fear that grips the town has begun eating at its moral core and forces Greg and his friend Ben to leave quickly or risk capital punishment. They flee to a nearby dead city named Lewis. There they encounter the hornets, people enthralled by something hideous to procure food for it, especially if it means hunting and killing.

In the outside world, they are befriended by Michaela and her ragtag band of survivors. In their search for a safe haven they stumble into a government underground bunker; one designed for scientific and medical research in the time of crisis. It is a bunker run by the enigmatic Phoenix. Slowly they discover the full and terrifying nature of Jumpy: The evolution of mankind into something terrible.

APPEAL:

This story starts with the horror already present. The world is already dead. People with a scary infection exist. There is build up because from that very bad point you watch things get worse for the protagonists as they find out more about the plague that destroyed civilization.

Clark uses a moderate pacing with lost of description interspersed between bouts of explosive action. Only a few characters like Greg, Ben and Michaela are developed over time into fully fleshed out people. There is a single plotline with a few flashbacks. The story is told in 1st person past tense, limited omniscience. It is Greg’s narration of events. He clearly makes out when he is going into flashback.

The focus is on several lives intertwined by fate. The reader is seduced into a slow identification with the protagonist, Greg Valdiva. Greg is usually a level headed, sane individual who is given to explosive murderous rages when he gets near someone with the plague. Then you begin to find out the truth about the plague which begins to cast an uncomfortable light on Greg.

Simon Clark writes about a place somewhere in America. The characters are American. However, sometimes he slips and uses a British turn of phrase.

NOTES:

Simon Clark is a British horror writer.

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On Sunday, October 12, 2008 at 7:00pm eastern standard time, The Writer’s Chatroom will host a chat with author Mary SanGiovanni. A door prize will be awarded to one lucky participant.

To attend, go to http://www.writerschatroom.com/Enter.htm. Then scroll down to the Java box. It may take a moment to load. Type in the name you wish to be known by, and click Login. You do not need a password. The Writer’s Chatroom is hosted by: Audrey Shaffer, Renee Barnes, Kim Richards, and Lisa Haselton.

Mary has published two novels: The Hollower and its sequel Found You. Both were originally published by Leisure Books in mass market format. Found You came out late last month. She is currently working on a ghost story.

Over the years, she has published a lot of short stories many of which have been collected in Under Cover of Night by Flesh and Blood Press.

Mary SanGiovanni recently edited an anthology with horror author Gary Frank called Dark Territories published by Garden State Horror Writers. She is a member of the Garden State Horror Writers. She received a Masters in Writing Popular Fiction from Seton Hall University in 2007. She lives in New Jersey with her son.

If you’ve never had a chance to read anything by Mary SanGiovanni, she has made a short story of hers available for free on her website:

Letting Go

Please understand: This story has been posted for you to read for free but Ms. SanGiovanni still holds the copyright to them. Please do not steal them. Don’t repost them elsewhere without first obtaining her permission. This is a kind gift and we shouldn’t abuse it.

For further information check out the Mary SanGiovanni Author Page. You can also visit Mary SanGiovanni’s Web Site and Where the Wild Things Are: Mary SanGiovanni’s MySpace page.

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