​Horror is a funny old genre; you can get as much satisfaction from a cerebral work of fiction such as Chris Kelso's Unger House Radicals as you can from a good old fashioned piece of pulp horror.  It's what makes the genre so vibrant. And just when you think you have read it all, along comes horror's very own rapscallion Jasper Bark with a novella that will have you squirming with uncomfortable glee, as you reach for the sick bucket.  Run to ground by Jasper Bark is a book that wears its pulp horror roots with great pride.  

Jim Mcleod ( yes that Jim Mcleod) is a man on the run, from his past and his responsibilities.  He has taken refuge in the village of St Leonards, where he lives and works in the local church's graveyard as a groundskeeper. Yes, Jim Mcleod has been transformed into Groundskeeper Willie.  He keeps himself to himself and only counts Sloaman and the Church's vicar Reverand Power has the closest things he has to friends. Things have been going pretty well for him until a scientist shows up and wants to test his theory about the action of the moon's pull on the effect of the earth's morphology.  Soon Jim is running for his life from creatures hell bent on ripping his world apart.  

Run To Ground is best described as a fun-filled piece of glorious piece of over the top extreme horror.  Bark is a sick man, not content with giving the characters of this book a nasty death; he has also given Mcleod one sick personality trait. I was genuinely chilled at the perverse things that my namesake got up to.   Where he gets these ideas from I  have no idea but I am glad he does.  Mcleod is not an easy character to like; he is a coward and a fool, yet despite this you still root for him, even though you want to grab him by the shoulders and shake some sense into him.  

The narrative mixes a breakneck pace with ancient monsters and even more ancient secrets, all capped off with a perfect twist in the tale with cameos from some of my dearest friends, I couldn't help but love this story.  However, don't let this put you off, as the high writing as this fun filled monster caper is riotous read from start to finish. Run To Ground is a twisted Tales of the Unexpected that delights the reader with its playful use perverse horror.  

Writing reviews should be easy, especially after almost seven years of doing it.  A varied and widespread reading within the gene should prepare a  reviewer for almost anything the genre throws at them, or so I thought.  Yes, there has been the odd struggle with a bothersome sentence or a poorly worded paragraph, but in the main the reviews have come fairly easily. That was until I came upon Unger House Radicals by Chris Kelso, it is a book that made me question my abilities both as a reader and as a reviewer.  It pushed me to the limit, knocked my confidence for six and cost me close to 12 hours of deep thought just to get the opening paragraph of the review down on paper.  It's a book that will prey on my mind for a long time, but is this for good or bad reasons?  Did I find the book challenging, or was the book just a challenge?.....

You read it here first: there is a new kid on the block in the world of YA horror. I was mightily impressed by this debut novel of Amy Lukavics “Daughters Unto Devils” that I am already looking forward to her second book “The Women in the Walls”  is slated for a September 2016 release. And the good news: it sounds like another horror thriller.
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I randomly stumbled upon Lukavics on a random Amazon search and the striking cover caught my eye as did the smart and the rather different sounding plot. I read a lot of YA, and it’s rare to see a horror/ghost story set on the plains of the pioneer era American outback.  This American author’s website is called “Inky Creepings” and she is aiming herself at the teen horror market.  Which is a great thing as there isn't a lot of great teen horror around at the moment.  "Daughters Unto Devils" is a breath of fresh air for both the teen reader and maturer reader of horror.   ​