The Red Sacrament by Sarah Hinkley - Book Review

 

'Paris, 1869. The Théâtre Saint-Siméon is the place to be, if you can get in. The black slips of paper that guarantee entry are rare and highly desired, and given only to certain persons. The actors on stage are magnetic and ageless, performing only at midnight and never seen during the day…

'Arnault and his clan of vampires have survived for as long as they have by observing a rigid set of rules. At night, they perform on stage at the Théâtre Saint-Siméon, picking off just enough people in the audience to survive. But they understand the city, and how to live in it without being noticed.

'Their peace is shattered first with a visit from Béatrice, a witch who forms a strange connection to Arnault; then with the arrival of Victor de Rouvray and his sister Françoise, vampires from a very different world. And, as Arnault grows closer and closer to the beautiful, enigmatic Victor, he risks becoming distracted from the constant bickering of his immortal friends, from the daily running of the theatre, and worse, from the premonitions of blood, death and starvation that he receives at night.

'For a terrible change is on the horizon, revolt and revolution are brewing in the streets and soon, the city, and Arnault will never be the same again.'

The Red Sacrament is a debut novel that you'd be hard pressed to believe was a debut novel. With many first works you can see where the author is still trying to find their voice and style, you can feel which parts were likely added or changed later down the line in the editorial process, and you can come away satisfied, but sure that the authors next work will be better. The Red Sacrament reads like Sarah Hinkley has been writing for decades. Hinkley delivers a depth of detail and flowing quality to her work that is impressive to see, even if you end up not being a fan of the entire work.

Borrowing inspiration from Interview with the Vampire, The Red Sacrament takes readers to Paris in the 1860's where we discover a coven of vampires that has taken up residence within the tunnels and catacombs of the ancient city, masking their presence and hunting victims by establishing the Théâtre Saint-Siméon, a secretive and exclusive theatre experience. Rather than being open to the public, the vampires, led by the Arnault, invite prospective victims to their performances via black invites, which cannot be purchased, and must be received as gifts. 

The theatre isn't just a cover for the vampires, however, instead becoming an expression of them. Their performances are made for audiences soon to be fed upon, and so the plays and operas they pick to feature become a part of their hunts, an expression of who they are. These are vampires that live and breathe the theatre, and so the book heavily features references to works of the era that fill the early sections of the novel. These early parts of the book are crammed with tiny details and quotes from plays, and it's clear that Hinkley is either a huge theatre nerd, or did a ton of research into what a theatre of the time could have been putting on in order to present it here. And whilst other theatre lovers will probably get a lot out of this, these early parts of the book were some of the hardest to get through for me.

The first half of The Red Sacrament did relatively little for me. Long passages were given over to theatre talk, to discussions about what plays should be put on, who should perform what roles, how the shows went, what should be in the next show, and so on. Despite being filled with characters these moments were so packed with these extra details and long passages that I felt somewhat lost as to who every character was. It didn't help that many of them had little to nothing about their personalities to set them apart. I don't know if this was a deliberate choice, some form of commentary about how a community that's been together so long ends up losing individuality and becomes one homogenised whole, but even if it was it wasn't particularly enjoyable to slog through.

There are some hints at a larger plot scattered through these early few hundred pages, such as a witch who comes to visit the coven, or a pair of vampire twins from outside Paris who arrive at the theatre one night; but these elements are so scattered and light that I'd sometimes forget they were happening or even cared about them. For example, the witch who visits has a deeply disturbing effect on Arnault, and he becomes determined to track her down, but between each small step of the journey to figuring out who she is or where she's from there's dozens of pages of theatre talk; which not only felt like it was dragging out the plot too long, but also made it look like Arnalut didn't really care about finding her.

There is more than happens in the book, but this ends up being much later into the story, and by then you'll be hundreds of pages deep into the book. The Red Sacrament is a long novel, over 500 pages, but if it's taking hundreds of pages to even get interesting it's not going to be a book that I'm going to be able to easily enjoy. If it wasn't for the fact that I had agreed to review the book I would likely have not finished it, bowing out at a much earlier point.

That isn't to say that The Red Sacrament is a bad book, I just think that it's not for me. There will be people who love the slow pace and the focus on the theatre, and for them this will be a perfect exploration of those areas. As someone who likes to find something, even something small, to get interested in early on I was sadly left feeling somewhat deflated whilst reading The Red Sacrament. I think that there's definitely an audience and fanbase out there for The Red Sacrament, and if you're looking for a slower book to really spend some time with then it's definitely worth trying out.

The Red Sacrament is available now from Titan Books. 

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Marion by Leah Rowan - Book Review

 

'NORMAN WAS HER FIRST. Marion is in deep. She's stolen money from the Manhattan ad agency where she works in a desperate bid to help her sister escape an abusive marriage, but the bus breaks down before she can make it to Saratoga Springs. It's late at night, and the only place with vacancies is an old set of cabins on the outskirts of town. She pays for a room in cash, and ends up chatting with Norm, the young innkeeper who's handsome, charming and a touch hung-up on his elderly mother. Back in her room, she steps into the shower, scrubbing off the late-summer heat, when the curtain is pulled back...

'Norm Billings is there with a knife. He raises his arm to strike, but before he does, Marion knees him in the balls, grabs the knife, and stabs the life out of him. Now, she's covered in blood, and she's a woman on the run—not just a thief, but a killer, too. Where will she go? How will she save both herself and her sister? And what mysteries will she uncover as she does?

'In Psycho, Hitchcock shocked audiences when he killed off his protagonist. But what if the leading lady had fought back? Marion offers an alternate history of the most famous dead blonde to ever grace the silver screen. Only this time, the knife is in her hands—and she's no victim.'

The original Psycho is a classic of cinema, not only spawning multiple sequels (which are all really good films too!) but inspiring staples of cinema going forward, such as the slasher genre, and the pretty blonde victim trope. The fact that the film followed its supposed lead, Marion Crane, for the entire first act, and that Hitchcock cast major star Janet Leigh in the role made her sudden murder at the hands of Norman Bates one of the biggest shocks in cinema history, especially at the time. It changed what people thought films could do, and it made the brutal stabbing of Marion Crane a piece of history. 

But, what could happen if Marion didn't die? What if she fought with Norman over the knife? What if she managed to not just survive, but became the only person to come out of that bathroom alive? These questions, built around a modernisation, are what lies at the heart of Leah Rowan's Marion, a novel that turns cinema's most memorable victim into a fierce survivor.

Marion tells the story of two women, across shifting points in time. The main focus of the book is 'Marion', a woman whose real name we never learn over the course of the story. Marion works in New 
York City at a major advertising firm, where her boss brings her into a secret meeting with a rich new client. Agreeing to take $100,000 in cash there and then to work on a new campaign, Marion's boss sneakily tells her that he's doing it off the books, looking to break away from the firm and use this client to set up his own business; a business he wants Marion to come and work for. Giving Marion the money, with instructions to take it to the bank and put it in his personal account, he leaves Marion with the cash whilst he takes the client for a night on the town.

However, when Marion is turned away from the bank and is unable to deposit the cash without her boss present she's left holding the $100,000 over the weekend. To make matters worse, Marion learns that her sister, Lauren, who was staying with her for the week after her husband hit her, has decided to go back home without telling her. Knowing that her sister is in danger, and that she needs a small fortune to leave her abusive husband without losing her business, Marion sets out to save her sister, the stacks of cash in tow. Thanks to a broken down buss, Marion ends up stuck in a small town named New Paltz overnight, where she manages to find accommodation in the Billings Motel, ran by a strange but charming man named Norm. Trying decide what her next move should be, Marion soon finds all of her plans, and her entire future, at risk when Norm attacks her in the shower with a knife. Now Marion not only has a sister to save, a stolen $100,000 in her luggage, but also a dead body to deal with.

Interspersed with Marion's narrative is the story of Hannah Pierce, a private investigator trying to find a missing young woman who may have stopped in New Paltz. Set two weeks after the events of Marion's story, Hannah's investigation into the missing girl leads her into a mystery that involves murder, and the twisted lair of a serial killer.

Those familiar with Psycho will understand how the story is supposed to go, and know that after Marion's death at the hands of Norman her sister eventually comes looking for her at the Bates motel weeks later. Marion takes the structure of the film and plays with it in delightful ways, using the shifting times and different character perspectives to play homage to the original story whilst being hugely creative in its own ways. There's very little that I can actually say about the book beyond the initial set-up and comparing it to the original as the book does so many interesting new things that create its own new narrative that discussing them would spoil parts of a mystery that readers will be wanting to try and solve themselves. All I can say is that I was surprised at how much the novel was able to avoid just being a retelling or a modernisation, and managed to create a story that felt inspired by the film whilst being its own animal.

Leah Rowan does a phenomenal job with the shifting narrative, and creates an interweaving story that adds the twists and surprised that readers get to experience. Every time I thought that I knew what was coming, or what I was seeing, something happened that not only subverted those expectations but took the plot in a new and unexpected direction that made the book so much more fun. There were a few times where I'd find myself yelling 'what?!' out loud, or flipping back to an earlier part of the book to see just how Rowan had managed to mess with me so wonderfully.

Marion was described to me as a 'feminist retelling of Psycho', and I can't think of a better way to sum it up. The book has so many good women characters in it that are not only standing up to terrible, shitty men, but in doing so discovering a fierceness and strength that they never knew they had before. The book showcases these transformations incredibly well, it makes them believable, and it even kind of has you wanting to see them come out on top despite it meaning getting away with murder. It was fantastic to see such strong women not only getting the centre stage, but seeing terrible men get put in their place. 

Marion was an incredibly fun read, one that was filled with twists and turns that keep the narrative from ever feeling stale, yet also serving the characters stories well. If you're familiar with the original story you won't be able to predict what happens throughout the book, and you'll get to have just as much fun as someone coming to this completely fresh. As someone with a great deal of respect for Psycho this felt like not only a brilliant reinvention of it, but a carefully crafted love letter to it.

Marion is available now from Titan Books.

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This is Where the Future Bleeds by Mike Brooks - Book Review

 

'Kitt Carver is one of the best diviners in the business at finding destinies for the rich and powerful. When she’s nearly killed, and her regular broker is murdered, it becomes clear that someone has an issue with the last destiny that she found. 

'Determined not to let anyone else die, Kitt gathers a mismatched group – including Two Tongue Derna, her childhood friend and now a renowned street duellist; Sulian the Swallowmage, powerful but plagued with intrusive visions of futures; and Donal Klae, Kitt’s one-night stand who was accidentally responsible for her near-murder – and sets off across the Timeless Lands to warn the destiny’s recipient.  However, unbeknownst to Kitt, she has her own destiny; one which might spell disaster for everyone.'

Destiny and fate are often used in fantasy stories as a main driving force for heroes and villains alike. Whether it's the chosen one, predicted by prophecy who has to leave home and heed the call to adventure, or the wicked villain who's out to prevent their downfall that fate seems to have engineered the concept of people bound to certain paths in life is a theme that writers explore time and time again. And whilst This is Where the Future Bleeds is all about fate and destiny, it goes about exploring these concepts in wonderfully original ways.

Many generations ago the future was broken. A powerful god used their divine sword to shatter the very concept of fate, breaking the mechanism of destinies finding people; as well as leaving a whole part of the world perpetually frozen in time. For those brave enough, and equipped with magical devices that allow them to exist in this land where time has stopped, the high moors contain some of the most valuable commodities around, destinies. Kitt Carver is a diviner, someone with the magical ability to sense and find destinies, and along with her crew she's able to search the high moors for these valuable pieces of the future and sell them on to the rich and powerful who'll pay good money to secure a grand future for themselves.

Kitt's life is fairly simple despite the constant dangers that going onto the high moors brings, but that all changes when someone tries to kill her. Thankfully, her old friend, Two Tongue Derna, the vicious swordfighter, is around to keep her alive, despite her hatred for Kitt's choice in work. The two of them learn that Kitt isn't the only person involved in the destinies trade who has been killed in town over the last few days, and discover that someone is trying to track down everyone involved with the sale of a particularly powerful destiny that Kitt discovered. Fearing that her life might still be in danger, and not wanting anyone else from getting killed, Kitt sets out to travel across the high moors, something no one has ever done before, and head to the distant city of Derrigsmoot. Along the way she'll be joined by some members of her old team, Derna, the magic wielding Swallowmage, and another diviner who's also been targeted by her would-be assassins. But little does Kitt know that killers are the least dangerous things that she will have to face, and that her actions could end up changing the future for everyone.

This is Where the Future Bleeds is fairly bold, as it drops you into things with little to no background information and makes you keep up with the world as the story progresses. Mike Brooks, who's no stranger to writing stories in complex and fantastical settings, doesn't hold your hand and take things slowly. The very first chapter introduces you to key characters, the concept of the destiny trade, the high moors where time stops, the strange creatures that inhabit it, a number of non-human races, as well as the world that the story takes place in. It would be easy to get bogged down in lore dumps and huge passages of explanatory text, but instead Brooks relies on his evocative storytelling to draw you in and get you invested in the characters, allowing you to instead discover the world as and when things become relevant.

It's this enjoyment of the central characters that made This is Where the Future Bleeds one of those books that I didn't want to put down. As much as I wanted to learn more about the setting and see more of the central mystery it was Kitt that had me coming back, had me reading long beyond the point that I should have put the book down to do something else. Kitt is something of a flawed young woman, someone who's trying her best to get by in a town where she doesn't have many opportunities, nor many friends. She understands why people like Two Tongue Derna might not like the work that she does, how it can be seen as potentially destructive or unfair, yet has to do it because she's someone with very few real opportunities to do much else. Thankfully, she's such a warm, caring person that you almost never think about these parts of her, instead seeing the person who's braving extreme danger to try to save the lives of strangers, who's concerned with the safety of those on her quest with her, and even wants to be liked by people who you can definitely say are much worse people than her; such as Derna.

As the story progresses more and more colourful characters join Kitt on her mission, characters that are absolutely delightful in their weirdness; though they're that much more flawed people than Kitt that they make her look absolutely normal in comparison. Whilst there are a few that I really like, but can't say much about as even their inclusion would spoil aspects of the story, the one I loved the most was Derna. Presented as something of an antagonist in the very first chapter due to her interfering with Kitt's destiny harvesting, she quickly becomes Kitt's fiercest ally and eventual love interest. Watching the evolution of their strained friendship, seeing Kitt realise that she has feelings for Derna, and then her trying to carefully navigate this new awkwardness was absolutely delightful and had me rooting for the two of them to get together. 

Kitt and Derna's relationship isn't even the only queer representation in the book, however, as there are multiple queer characters, as well as non-binary and trans characters throughout the book, integrated in ways that made it clear that this was a world where queer identities and expressions were perfectly accepted and normalised. I absolutely adored this aspect. Yes, more books are including queer characters, and queer leads, in ways that weren't done years ago, but having as many as this book does, and with it never being treated as different or other in any way is the kind of representation that I was screaming out for as a frightened, closeted queer child, and I'm so happy that its on the shelves now for anyone to pick up and experience.

My main criticism of the book is that the pacing in the final chapters isn't the best, and it does feel a tiny bit rushed for the final pieces of the plot. This pacing issue felt even worse as it was a book that I was really loving, and so would have been happy to have it go on for longer so that these moments had longer to breathe, had more set-up time, and even something of an epilogue so that we can see where the characters end up and how their lives are different once the main story comes to a close. As it is, it almost felt like Brooks had a hard cut-off where he couldn't take the time to do that, or he had to wrap things up fast due to some circumstances outside of his control. Like I said, I'd have liked to have had more of these characters anyway, so perhaps this feeling is just a reflection of that, and others won't have any issue with the pacing.

This is Where the Future Bleeds is the first thing of Brooks' I've read outside of the Warhammer IP, and I wasn't sure what to expect as that was my only frame of reference for his work; but I'm happy to say not only was I thoroughly impressed and engrossed with the book, but it felt so thematically different that it really highlighted how versatile and talented Brooks is as a writer.

This is Where the Future Bleeds is available now from Titan Books.

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Cold Prey Trilogy - Limited Edition Blu-ray Review

 

I recently watched my first Norwegian film recently, Insomnia, thanks to the recent release from Second Sight, and now I've been able to expand that number even further thanks to their latest release, collecting together the three Norwegian slasher films Cold Prey. 

Originally released at a time where bland remakes and gory torture porn were the headline horror offerings from big studios, Cold Prey gave viewers something a little different; a smaller scale slasher movie that felt more in line with the iconic franchises of the past, yet managed to deliver it with a visual flare and style that felt refreshing and new to those not used to Norwegian cinema.

The first Cold Prey follows a group of friends who travel to the Jotunheimen mountains in the middle of winter to go snowboarding. One of the group, Morten Tobias (Rolf Kristian Larsen) takes a nasty fall down the mountain and ends up breaking his leg. With the nearest town too far to reach before night falls, the group decide to take shelter in an old hotel nestled in the mountains. The five of them are able to care for Morten Tobias' wound as best as they can, stay warm, and even find some alcohol inside to help while away the long night. 

Disturbingly, however, they find evidence of the lodge having been abandoned decades before after the owners young son went missing in the mountains a few weeks before the parents were killed in an apparent avalanche whilst searching for him. As the group explore the sprawling building someone else is watching them. This hulking, fur clad figure, enters the hotel and begins to hunt the group through its halls, picking them off one by one with traps and his pickaxe. 

The second film picks up almost immediately where the first film leaves off, with the lone survivor of the massacre, Jannicke (Ingrid Bolsø Berdal) found wandering the mountain roads, barely alive. Taken to a hospital in the small town of Otta, the police question her as to what happened. When a search party is sent up into the mountains they discover the icy grave of her friends, and the monstrous Mountain Man (Robert Follin) responsible for killing them. When the bodies are brought back to the hospital Jannicke is faced once again with the trauma that she just lived through. But, when the Mountain Man begins to show signs of life the hospital staff work to revive him; a decision that will lead to a new night of terror and the Mountain Man works his way through the hospital, targeting doctors, patients, law enforcement, and Jannicke once again.

The third film decides to move to the past, telling a prequel story instead of trying to somehow justify the return of the Mountain Man a second time (something that would be even harder to explain away following the conclusion of the second movie). The film opens with flashbacks to the Mountain Man's childhood, where it's shown that his parents tried to kill him in the mountains due to his psychopathic tendencies. However, after surviving their murder attempt he returns home and kills his own parents, vanishing with their bodies. Twelve years late, the Mountain Man remains hidden in the wilderness of the Jotunheimen National Park, where a group of young friends are travelling to, wanting to check out the long abandoned hotel with strange rumours attached to it. 

Despite not staying in the hotel, and leaving it almost immediately (a pretty smart choice for horror protagonists), the group still attract the attention of the Mountain Man, and begin to fall prey to the traps he's left out in the wood. As the group realise that someone is hunting them down they attempt to make their way back to safety. Unfortunately for them, the Mountain Man has been hunting in the forest for years, and now that he's decided to switch from animals to humans he won't abandon his prey.

Cold Prey isn't really anything new or original when you look at the bare bones of it. It's a group of friends with very broad, archetypal characteristics who travel to a remote location, go somewhere they shouldn't, and then get picked off one by one. It's adhering to the expectations of the slasher genre, even if it has a Norwegian flavour to it. What makes the film stand apart from other on offer, especially against other horror films of the era, is how visually unique the film feels. Where the US is offering things like The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and The Hills Have Eyes remakes, and new slasher franchises like Wrong Turn, films set in warm summer locations such as the forest and deserts, seeing a movie shift to the middle of winter, to the cold barren wilderness of the Norwegian mountains feels like the complete tonal opposite.

The new type of setting offers what feels like more realism in some ways too. Our protagonists can't just head for the nearest road and try to get help because the road is miles of trekking over the mountains away, and no one is using them anyway. They have to break into the abandoned building they find because if they don't they'll freeze to death outside, meaning they don't have to go into the obvious murder house simply because they're curious idiots. Where other films have their group of victims making stupid choices because they need to for the story here it feels like the creators are trying to justify why things are happening, which leads to a much more grounded and relatable story. Plus, just having the amazing visuals of the snow covered mountains is such a pleasant change that gives the movie its own character.

I also have to give the franchise points for trying something different with each movie too. The choice to shift location from an isolated mountain resort to a small town in the sequel is a bold move. Yes, there's still a sense of isolation in some ways thanks to the small hospital that's in the middle of closing down so only has a handful of staff for even fewer patients, and the snow and darkness outside gives the impression that it's cut off from the rest of the world, but it's still in a place where our protagonists can literally flee the building, run down the street to someone's house and ask for help, or where a dozen police can turn up to help (something that does actually happen in the movie). Considering most horror franchises will try and stick to the same kind of formula for several films before opening up the world, taking things from a distant isolated location to a more populated one, Cold Prey made the bold choice to do that.

This willingness to change their formula is also present in the third film in the series. Set decades before the events of the first film, Cold Prey 3 changes things up by moving from winter to summer. This simple shift in season changes the bleak white wilderness of snow covered mountains to luscious green forests and grassland. This immediately gives the prequel film a flavour of its own, making it instantly unique from the others just at a simple glance. I found the locations that were used for the third film to be the most gorgeous of the trilogy, presenting an amazing look at some of the stunning wilderness that Norway has to offer. And whilst the third film might be more limited in terms of its storytelling (we know that anyone who sees the Mountain Man has to die as he's an unknown entity in the other films) this simple change in visual style keeps it fresh and interesting. 

Alongside the films each movie comes with brand new audio commentaries on each of the films that feature directors, actors, and film academics who offer some fantastic insight not only into the making of the franchise, but also on Norwegian cinema as a whole. The first film has the most extra features to accompany it, featuring some original behind the scenes videos, an alternate ending, new interviews with cast and crew, visual effects breakdowns, and two short films. The second movie also comes with new cast and crew interviews, cut scenes, and original behind the scenes featurettes, whilst the third film sadly only has some short original behind the scenes features to go alongside the commentary track.

On a whole, I really enjoyed the Cold Prey Trilogy. It was a lot of fun to discover horror cinema from a country where I'd never experienced it before. They stood out against other films of the era, and made me come away wanting to see more of what Norway has to offer, especially in genres that I love. This new blu-ray set offers a fantastic way to either discover these films for the first time, or add an updated version to your home collection.

The Cold Prey Trilogy Limited Edition Blu-ray set is available now from Second Sight.

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