2016 was truly the year of the Coming-Of-Age novella. A sub-genre that is very much my favorite.  When John Skipp mentioned to me that I ought to read Nathan Carson's Starr Creek, that it was a odd twin to my own novella, Jedi Summer With the Magnetic Kid, I took it to heart and struck up a friendship with Carson.  Long story shot, I got his book and tore through it an a few evenings (I mainly read at bed time) and Man, what a fun romp it is.

We open with a small group of friends plotting an excursion into the woods to take acid and explore,  while they make their plans there is a more sinister plan unfolding involving a man named Puppy and revenge against a biker who wasn't very nice to him.  While those two threads threaten to converge in a hostile and horrific manner, we meet two boys with a penchant for porn and the creature they discover in the woods. 

Starr Creek is a veritable smorgasbord of all things glorious about growing up in the 80's: muscle cars, heavy metal cassettes, dirty magazines and junk food and probably for some drugs.  Carson uses these nostalgic linchpins to hold together a wild adventure that involves alien creatures, unbridled violence and a strange commune.  The writing is rich and very clearly from the heart--as the best writing should be. He has an unwavering eye for nostalgia, for the interaction between youth and adults and events, all realistically painted.

While I finished Starr Creek, wishing it were a bit longer, It had the hook baited enough that I will sign up for and read anything Carson puts out.   If you've got that coming-of-age itch,  Starr Creek will scratch it...and probably draw blood.

Starr Creek is available from Lazy Facist Press.

​"STARR CREEK is a phenomenal weird fiction debut. Laird Barron meets Jack Ketchum in David Lynch's TWIN PEAKS. I loved it!" - Brian Keene, best-selling author of THE COMPLEX and THE RISING

"Carson is a fresh new voice in Lovecraft country, and his prose dazzles." - Wendy Wagner, author of STARSPAWN and SKINWALKERS

Starr Creek is the debut novella by Portland writer and musician Nathan Carson. Set in 1986 rural Oregon, Starr Creek features Heavy Metal teens, Christian biker gangs, and hopped up kids on 3-wheeled ATVs. They all collide when strange occurrences unveil an alien world inhabiting the Oregon woods.

​We all have our own personal version of hell.  For some Hell is other people, for others, hell is the drudgery of an unfulfilling job.  For writers, hell can be a goldmine of ideas and inspiration, hopefully allowing the author to create a unique and fascinating vision of Nether region.  Sadly in some cases, the author fluffs it am I pointing one giant finger at a certain Scarlet Gospels, thankfully we have writers like Simon Kurt Unsworth, whose vision and detailed world building are capable of creating a version of Hell that isn't torture to experience.  Simon Kurt Unsworth's The Devil's Evidence  is the sequel to his excellent novel The Devil's Detective, which sees him return to the Hell of one Thomas Fool, Hell's very own Miss Marple.  

The post-apocalyptic novel has always been a firm staple of the genre, and with the way things are going in the world today, it seems as though they may soon be transitioning from fiction to "How To" status.  

However, as a genre, it is a hard one to get right, let alone rise above swathes of Mad Maxes, and  Randal Flagg clones all jostling to get centre stage.  It is  a genre that probably suffers more from the long shadows of its past than any other. Yes the vampire genre has the likes of Dracula and Vampire Lestat, and zombie genre has The Rising and Autumn looking over it, but the post-apocalyptic horror genre always seems to be living in the stark stare of The Stand and Swan Song.  

It is a hard place to be, but when a debut novel makes you sit up and take notice, and shed your preconceptions of the genre, that's when you know you are on to a good thing.  

Defender by G.X Todd is one such book....