The Hunger by Alma Katsu - Book Review

'Evil is invisible, and it is everywhere. Tamsen Donner must be a witch. That is the only way to explain the series of misfortunes that have plagued the wagon train known as the Donner Party. Depleted rations, bitter quarrels, and the mysterious death of a little boy have driven the pioneers to the brink of madness. They cannot escape the feeling that someone--or something--is stalking them. Whether it was a curse from the beautiful Tamsen, the choice to follow a disastrous experimental route West, or just plain bad luck--the 90 men, women, and children of the Donner Party are at the brink of one of the deadliest and most disastrous western adventures in American history.

While the ill-fated group struggles to survive in the treacherous mountain conditions--searing heat that turns the sand into bubbling stew; snows that freeze the oxen where they stand--evil begins to grow around them, and within them. As members of the party begin to disappear, they must ask themselves 'What if there is something waiting in the mountains? Something disturbing and diseased...and very hungry?'.'

The Donner Party is a name that brings some very clear images to mind, a group of people travelling across the vast wilderness of America, falling victim to bad weather and poor directions until their only course of action was to resort to cannibalism to survive. Just on its own it's a disturbing and somewhat horrific story, one about the desperate need to survive. Alma Katsu adds a whole new layer of horror to the story with her novel The Hunger when she makes the group the victims of something much more evil.

Katsu mixes together historical fact with fiction, and real life people with her own creations incredibly well. I was familiar with the story of the Donner Party before reading this book, and was able to pick out certain places and people that I remembered, but those that were fabricated were done so with a huge amount of skill. There's no obvious moment where you can tell a person if completely new to this story. Katsu is able to bring a great deal of life to all of the characters in her book, making the factual and fictional feel alive.

The story of The Hunger begins with the wagon train already on their journey west, trying to find a better life, when tragedy hits in the form of a missing child. The mutilated body that they find is only the beginning of their woes, and almost becomes something you forget about as things worsen for the group, not realising that this dead boy hints at so much more to come.

Along their journey the group begins to fracture, falling to infighting and various mishaps, such as broken equipment and lack of supplies. People turn against each other, protecting their own and suspecting all those around them of wanting to harm them. It's a very real and believable set of events, one that highlights humanities ability to quickly turn on itself when it feels threatened. This fractured and disheartened group discover that their own squabbles are far from the worst thing that can befall them on the journey, however, when strange creatures begin to stalk them, picking them off one by one.

The reveal of the supernatural elements in the book is slow, choosing to let readers get to know the characters first, to understand their motivations and personal conflicts before it turns more towards horror. The horror elements are quite subtle too, with often only one or two people seeing what's happened and the rest of the group finding it hard to believe. The fact that there aren't monsters terrorising the entire wagon train or big set pieces helps to make things feel more believable, perhaps even part of the real events. The fact that some of the people who see these outside forces are considered to be unreliable by other members of the group, for various reasons, and that people are beginning to fall into depression and desperate hunger makes you begin to question if certain things are even happening. Maybe it's psychosis brought on from hunger and fever that's really tormenting these people?

The Hunger is not a fun book to read, it's depressing, grim, and creepy. This isn't just because that's what the author set out to do, but because you know whatever happens isn't going to end well before you even open the book. The story is based upon a tragedy, so when characters suffer and die awful deaths you don't feel shocked or outraged, but a sad resignation. There were characters that I liked, that I wanted to see live because they seemed like good, decent people, and seeing them slowly suffer and die felt like it was eroding me away too. You can enjoy the book, take pleasure in the well told story and great characters, but you're not going to finish it with a sense of happiness; unless perhaps at being happy the awful events are finally over.

Alma Katsu merges together historic fiction and horror in a great way with The Hunger, taking one of the best known tragedies in US history and putting a new spin on events. Whether you're familiar with the story of the Donner Party or not, this story is sure to chill you.

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Hot Splices by Mike Watt - Book Tour

'Hot Splices features eight interwoven tales about the Film Addicts, the flicker freaks, the Cinephages - they devour film for the high, to connect to the art on the granular level...the bleeding perforations in their skin is just part of the game. There are five forbidden films, when run together, can induce madness, or release the Dark Gods that created them, speaking through the psychopathic director.

'There is a man on the run, with a lost movie that others would kill to obtain. He barely escaped with his life. There is a tower, once housing for students, now a crumbling, rotting monument to film history, and the men and women who returned to the tower, to die watching their favourite films. Beneath the tower, there lies something made of light and shadow. It does not love its worshippers...'

I used to struggle with reading when I was in my early teens, and had to have a lot of help at school to catch me up with my peers. It's kind of ironic that one of the things I struggled with most and didn't enjoy is now one of the things I love most in the world. Because I struggled to pick up a book and enjoy it I found much of my entertainment through films, and devoured as many as I could. Over the years I drifted away from cinema until it became an occasional indulgence, but I can still remember what it was like in my teens, watching three or four films a night, comparing notes with friends, and seeking out new and interesting things to watch. As such, I was able to understand to a certain degree the love and obsession with film that fills the pages of Hot Splices.

Hot Splices is a strange mixture of horror and the surreal, almost bordering on science fiction. The main narrative focuses on the search for five secret films from early cinema, hidden away for decades. Said to contain actual murder footage, and with the power to drive those who watch it insane, the films are a holy grail for fanatics. It's one of these fanatics, and his group of equally film obsessed friends, who sets out to bring these films together and screen the ultimate banned movie.

The 'haunted' films that can send you mad, and the spirit of their evil creator who is trying to break through into the real world, is trippy enough, but then the narrative adds Flixing to the mix. Flixing can only really be described a film fuelled drug trip, where you allow a single frame of film negative to dissolve on your tongue until the chemical mix sends you into an altered state. Flixing can enhance the experience of the films you're watching, can alter your moods and emotions based on what film they're from, and can even help you to enter the film itself. The true power, and nature, of the phenomena isn't explained in the book, and adds to the disturbing nature of the narrative.

It's never clear exactly what Flixing does, whether the characters are in some kind of drug addled stupor, or if reality is actually changing around them. This plays into the powers of the forbidden films, as it's not clear if the affects they seem to have are actually supernatural, or perhaps the results of the characters being in an altered state. Thanks to this strange mixture of supernatural, drug use, and a complex, jumping narrative, the book keeps the reader on edge throughout, always questioning what's real, and what might happen next.

To compare the book to the films that it clearly loves and wants to celebrate, reading Hot Splices reminds me of how it felt watching films like Videodrome and Jacobs Ladder. The book feels like a warping of reality, a descent into madness.

The book isn't just a great horror story, but a goldmine of references and shout outs for film fans, filled with insight into films from across multiple genre's and decades. Even without looking into Mike Watt's background it's clear that he's someone who not just loves cinema, but knows it incredibly well. Here's an author who's writing about something that he's deeply passionate about, and this translates onto the page. Even if you're not a huge film buff you'll find yourself drawn into the conversations the characters have bout the subject, fascinated by how deep their knowledge on the subject is, and how much you're learning about the subject.

One of my favourite parts of the book is the three short stories that are included after the conclusion of the main narrative. Connected with the main narrative through side characters or small events that are referenced, these stories can easily stand on their own, yet also manage to flesh out the universe in new and interesting ways.

Hot Splices is one of the more interesting horror stories I've ever read. It doesn't rely on monsters lurking in the shadows, or ghosts creeping around the periphery. Instead it creates a pervading sense of unease that keeps you unsettled. The book drips with atmosphere and manages to really mess with your head because of it. There's very few moments where you're not waiting for something awful or twisted to happen. Because of this near constant tension I found myself struggling to put the book down, and wanted to devour it as quickly as I could.

I'm still not sure what to make of the book, other than I really enjoyed it. I feel like this is a novel that I will find myself coming back to more than once, just to try and see if I can learn more about what's really going on. It messed with my head in the best way, and I think it's going to stay with me for a long while because of that. A stunning love letter to cinema and the art of film.

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Dracula by Bram Stoker - Book Review

I first tried to read Dracula during my teen years. I think like many moody teens, I was drawn to what some would call consider Goth elements, despite never actually being a goth myself. However, there's something that teens seem to find appealing about dark and depressing media that meant I picked up Dracula expecting to be wowed by what I read. Unfortunately, I was unable to get to grips with the prose style and never finished the book.

Now, years later, I decided to pick it up again and give it another try. I've come to enjoy Victorian fiction over the years, and have read a number of books that are written from different perspectives, such as this book is, that I wasn't put off by the style of the writing and was finally able to read the father of modern vampire mythology.

I'm not really sure what I was expecting from Dracula, I knew a little about the story before going into it, how he captures Jonathan Harker in his castle before travelling to England aboard the Demeter, that Abraham Van Helsing eventually battles the monster. However, much of the smaller details of the story were unknown to me and I was excited to discover what else the story held.

What I wasn't expecting, however, was the length of the story. I don't mean the physical size of the book, but rather the amount of time that passes during the course of the narrative. I expected that once Dracula had arrived in England and began feeding on Lucy things would unfold at a fairly fast pace. I was shocked that the process of the count feeding on the young woman, and her eventual demise, took place over several weeks.

Unfortunately, I found that this longer pace meant that once the villain had arrived in England much of the tension seemed to disappear for me. I thought the chapters where Jonathan was trapped in Darcula's castle were some of the best in the book, and had a lot of creepy tension that built up the more things went on. After that, however, it didn't strike me as a horror story anymore, but rather a group of people trying to get to the bottom of a mystery, albeit one that's based in the supernatural.

I'm not sure if perhaps it's a product of the time the book was written, or just Bram Stoker's style, but the characters always seemed a little too over the top for my liking too. They turned a lot of their conversations into grand gestures and hyper emotional monologues. Van Helsing didn't just promise to protect Lucy or Mina, but had to declare how much he loved them and would protect them because they're such amazing lights in the darkness. It felt a little bit much when everyone acted to arch and more like caricatures than real people.

Despite this, I found that the story was fairly good, and unfolded in interesting ways. It was also clear how much this book has gone on to influence so many other stories, and not just other vampire fiction either. Dracula is a classic, a book that paved the way for a lot of others, and left a lasting influence on the world of fiction. Unfortunately, I felt that the actual book was unable to live up to such a legacy, and was not the world changing novel that I was expecting. A decent read that will keep fans of vampire fiction entertained, and will be interesting for those who want to experience the original vampire novel for themselves; but one that might not be as engaging or exciting as some other works available.

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The Elemental Masters: The Case of the Spellbound Child by Mercedes Lackey - Book Review

'The fourteenth novel in the magical alternate history Elemental Masters series continues the reimagined adventures of Sherlock Holmes in a richly-detailed alternate 20th-century England.

'While Sherlock is still officially dead, John and Mary Watson and Nan Killian and Sarah Lyon-White are taking up some of his case-load--and some for Lord Alderscroft, the Wizard of London.

'Lord Alderscroft asks them to go to Dartmoor to track down a rumor of evil magic brewing there. Not more than four hours later, a poor cottager, also from Dartmoor, arrives seeking their help. His wife, in a fit of rage over the children spilling and spoiling their only food for dinner that night, sent them out on the moors to forage for something to eat. This is not the first time she has done this, and the children are moor-wise and unlikely to get into difficulties. But this time they did not come back, and in fact, their tracks abruptly stopped "as if them Pharisees took'd 'em." The man begs them to come help.

'They would have said no, but there's the assignment for Alderscroft. Why not kill two birds with one stone? But the deadly bogs are not the only mires on Dartmoor. '

I've not read any of The Elemental Masters series before picking up this book. I wasn't sure what to expect going in, especially as the fourteenth book in a series is probably not the best place for most people to start reading. However, I found the concept of the world that Mercedes Lackey has created to be very interesting, and knew that I wanted to read the book. I'm a bot of a sucker for Sherlock Holmes stories, and one that mixes in the paranormal is always going to tickle my fancy even more.

Luckily for me Lackey has written the book to be incredibly accessible to new readers, something that she didn't have to do. The book begins with a man being killed in London, and discovering that he's now a ghost. Over the course of this little story the reader gets introduced to some of the rules of the universe as this new ghost discovers them. It might only be a taste of things to come within the book, and doesn't cover any of the elemental magics that appear later, but it eases the reader into how The Elemental Masters actually works. By the time more magical elements were introduced I'd already discovered enough about the world that it wasn't a huge shock when characters like John Watson were performing magic.

The characters are also introduced slowly, with each one given a brief explanation as to who they are, and how they fit into this world. I only learnt a small amount of their back stories, such as Nan and Sarah working with Lord Alderscroft, or Sherlock Holmes pretending to be dead and Mary Watson having to masquerade as a man because of a previous adventure that involved Professor Moriarty. I didn't know everything about the series, but I knew enough to be able to enjoy this adventure without being weighed down by a ton of history. It felt like the perfect amount of backstory to introduce new readers without alienating people that have been reading the series from the beginning.

The history of The Elemental Masters aside, and how well the book introduces new readers; this story is actually quite a slow burning mystery. A good portion of the book goes by before the heroes even become aware of the missing children on the moors, and we follow them through a few smaller investigations before they even get involved in the central plot. I can see how this could upset a few people, and possibly feel like the book is slow paced, however, I really liked this approach. It showed that the heroes of the series aren't always involved in big adventures that involve saving the world, and that sometimes their lives can even be quite dull. The fact that one of the cases they investigate turns out to not have anything supernatural about it was, I thought, a great choice. It demonstrated a bigger world outside of the main plot.

The central plot itself was interesting, with the story of the missing children unfolding at a steady pace. At first you think that it's just these two missing children, then you discover that there's more, then you find out that they're being used to supply 'the Dark One' with magic, then you learn more about their captor. The book doesn't give you all of the answers up front, and lets you get your head around what you've already discovered before adding more layers to the mystery.

Whilst this central story is engaging, and at times very creepy, it does feel like it gets resolved a little too quickly. The heroes have travelled to the moors and are slowly investigating potential suspects and eliminating areas where the children could be held, which is all great, but then Sherlock Holmes suddenly turns up and provides them with the location of the missing children. It had been established earlier in the book that he was in the area conducting his own investigation, but it does feel a little like he swoops in at the last moment with the solution when the others are already working on it.

I love that Sherlock has a presence in the story, and gets to be with his friends to wrap up the mystery and catch the villain, but it does feel like he was brought in to wrap up the book a bit quicker. Perhaps if the book was a bit longer, and has more of the main group investigating and getting closer to the villain it would have felt a little more natural. As it is, they could have sat around and waited for Holmes to provide them with the solution and they'd have been fine.

This isn't a huge criticism, however, as I still enjoyed seeing how these characters worked together, and how they went about an investigation without the worlds greatest detective. The end where they all have to work together on a sneaky plan that involves disguises, misdirection, and perfect timing, is thoroughly enjoyable, and feels like a Sherlockian heist in the best way.

The Elemental Masters: The Case of the Spellbound Child is my first foray into this series, but it certainly won't be my last. I enjoyed the book so much that I'm definitely going back to check out the previous entries in the series, as will be reading the new releases as they come. A great combination of Victorian era mystery and magic that shows how well Sherlock Holmes can work with the supernatural.

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Slender Man by Anonymous - Book Review

'One man’s search for the truth about one of the most intriguing urban legends ever—the modern bogeyman, Slender Man—leads him down a dark, dangerous path in this creepy supernatural fantasy reminiscent of Night Film, House of Leaves, and Illuminae, that will make you question where the line between legend and fact begins

'A young man is desperate to find his missing friend . . . desperate enough to resort to the darkest means. But just how much is he willing to pay the Slender Man in order to save her?'

Chances are pretty good that if you've been on social media during the last decade you'll have heard about Slender Man. Beginning life as an online spooky story, the modern day myth has gone on to be the subject of games, movies, and books. Slender Man from Harper Voyager and it's unnamed author, uses the mythology of Slender Man to tell a slow building and chilling story.

Set within the bustling heart of New York City, a place one would not expect a story about Slender Man to be set, the book follows Matt Barker, a teen whose friend, Lauren, suddenly goes missing one night. Plagued by strange nightmares, Matt begins to try and figure out what happened to Lauren, stumbling across something that he never expected.

Slender Man chooses to ignore the standard novel narrative structure, and is instead presented as a collection of journal entries, social media conversations, and transcripts of audio recordings and interviews. This format made the book stand out straight away as something slightly different, and it must have presented a number of challenges for the unknown author.

Despite the limitations placed upon them by this format, the book managed to tell a well crafted narrative, including more details and characterisation than you'd first expect, and managing to be incredibly creepy in places too. It also used this format to make the reader think one thing, whilst doing something else entirely, something that you only realise come the end of the book. I won't say too much about this so as to not spoil any plot points, but the way the book has been structured means that the author is able to play a nice little trick upon the reader, and means that the book will read differently a second time around.

The use of emails and journal entries reminded me of older horror books such as Dracula and Frankenstein, with their narratives being relayed to the reader through personal correspondence. Whilst harking back to these literary classics, it also made me think of modern horror films, particularly found footage films. Slender Man felt like the written version of a found footage movie, where we're guided through the story by the central character and their point of view (camera being swapped out by written documentation). As such, it puts you into their shoes more than a standard novel does, even a first person book, and really makes you feel the disturbing nature of the events Matt is going through.

The book is also quite subtle in how it plays its horror, and the first third of the book doesn't really have anything supernatural going on at all. I thought that perhaps there would be no 'real' Slender Man in the book, but would rather be an exploration of modern internet mythology and how it can affect people; much like documentary film Beware the Slenderman did with the real world stabbing of Payton Leutner. However, this is not the case, and the book chooses to spend time setting up the characters and the story before introducing the horror elements.

Slender Man itself is done well within the book, and it's never 100% clear if the events we're being witness to are completely real or not. It plays into the psychological aspect of the entity, and you begin to question whether or not it might all be delusions inside Matt's head. The book leaves enough real evidenced that it might actual be happening that by the time you're finished reading it you'll have to make up your own mind.

Slender Man was not what I was expecting going into the book, but I was impressed with the story it managed to tell. Not only was it engaging and interesting, with some great creepy moments, but it managed to tell its story in a different way that made it stand out. We don't know who wrote the book, which helps add to it's found footage style feel, but whoever they are, they did a damn good job.

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