Having only started contributing to the Ginger Nuts website for a little over half a year, the general impression you might get is that I haven’t really read that much. Six or so book reviews doesn’t exactly indicate a quick reader now does it? The truth of the matter is that whilst I have read a shed load of books this year not all were horror and more than half were not published this year. If I did a full breakdown on all the great books I’ve read this year then this list would easily be three or four times the size so I think I’ll concentrate on the ones published this year.

So I guess this is a tradition now. Here’s my year end round up. First, housekeeping; this is based on what I read for the first time in 2015, not necessarily material released in 2015, so bare that in mind. The categories are similarly arbitrary, and in part reflect what I have and haven’t been reading this year in terms of form (and of course, these are the opinions of just one tired, forgetful, slightly deranged indie writer, so please don’t be offended by omission or, indeed, surprised by eccentricity - both are inevitable).

Knockout

One of England’s stranger seaside traditions is that of the Punch and Judy show. Ostensibly a Victorian pre-runner of Tom and Jerry cartoons and their violent slapstick, this puppet show revels in its ability to dish out abuse and trauma to its cast of characters. Which is apt as this is precisely what J.R. Park puts his characters through in his deliriously brutal and dark revenge novel “Punch.”

You have to feel sorry for Phil, his boss is an idiot who is a slave to performance projections rather than the cold hard reality of the job at hand.  His daughter is rebelling against his split with his wife, in the only way that a daughter can, and to top it all off his patients are mysteriously dying on him.  which sadly, isn't a great thing for a crisis team psychiatric nurse practitioner.  

However, a chance meeting with a tenebrous Daniel opens Phil's eyes to a conflict that is raging just beyond the veil a conflict that could see the end of us all.  To win, we must destroy The Night Clock.  


If there is one thing that this reviewer truly enjoys is a good wainscot fantasy.......

 Tribesmen is a jet black shot of espresso straight to the heart - a visceral, bloody, intense novella with lightning pacing, deft characterisation, and brutal violence.

I have to admit, I was a bit nervous going in. I’m a fan of Cesare’s work to date, but having read the synopsis of the book, I guess it’s fair to say I had some concerns. When a story talks about a film crew in a remote location, and implies bloody violence, and with that title.. Well, let me put it this way - the ‘30’s King Kong is a hell of a movie, but the racial politics sucks. And I went in with concerns. Without providing any spoilers, for my money Cesare dealt with those concerns admirably, providing a neat twist on what I’d been expecting, as well as a wry commentary on what has gone before in the genre.

And with my liberal guilt assuaged, I was freed up to just enjoy the ride.

And what a ride.

The characters are superb - just the right side of larger than life, appropriately inflated egos with equally appropriate inverse proportions of the talents involved. Cesare has a deep rooted love of genre and filmmaking that shines out through all his work, but perhaps never brighter than here, as he plays with the boundaries of found footage horror and exploitation cinema. It’s knowing, fiercely intelligent writing, but never pretentious or overwritten - he wears his knowledge lightly, and deploys it carefully, adding authenticity without ever taking the focus away from where it should be - the characters and the story.

The story itself is a belter - the relatively quick running time meaning there’s not an ounce of fat. The pacing is relentless, as events quickly spiral totally out of control. There’s references to Cannibal Holocaust, Lord Of The Flies, and no doubt others I missed, but this is no mere pastiche. Cesare has his own tale to tell here, and tell it he does, with skill and an admirably iron stomach. The reveal of the central conceit was very well handled, and the subsequent twists and turns kept me guessing right up to the finale - no mean feat, given the kind of tropes in play.

Tribesmen is a real beast - fierce, passionate, bloody, smart. It is emphatically not for the weak stomached. But if you like your horror rare, there’s a lot to recommend here. I thoroughly enjoyed it.

 Purchase a copy here 

KIT POWER

I wasn't going to do one of these as I didn't think I'd read enough this year, but then I was thinking of novels for some reason, and it occurred to me that I could make a top five about anything. So I'm going to quickly make mention of the five things - in no particular order other than as they occur to me as a write - that have affected/impressed me in particular this year. As always, your mileage may vary, but I tend to have pretty decent taste (oh, yes I do) so might well be worth checking out my recommendations...

(click on the images to purchase these rather fine picks) 



1. One of the few novels actually published in 2015 that I read was The Last Outpost by Rich Hawkins, and published by Crowded Quarantine Publications. I make no bones about the fact that Rich is a good friend - as are most people in horror and the small presses; that's how it works - but I also maintain my objectivity in regards to his work. This book, the first sequel to his debut and BFS nominated novel, The Last Plague, is near perfect. Leaner, more confident than its predecessor, and one of the most consistent depictions of the bleakness of humanity and horror I've ever read, it's a near-literary post-apocalyptic masterpiece (yes, I used 'masterpiece', a word I hate; bite me). I think Rich is an astonishingly gifted writer, someone who knows how to draw detailed images with the minimal of words, and he is not afraid to push his writing every time he creates. He's also very, very humble, and doesn't promote himself nearly as much as he should; he deserves to be much better known than he currently is, but I have no doubts he'll get there. The Last Plague may not have won the BFS award for best novel this year, but The Last Outpost could be a very serious contender in 2016.

Hell on Earth

Apart from developing a deep and abiding passion for all things speculative in my mid teens, another thing that I developed a deep interest in was History. To me, it wasn’t just about past events but all the different layers, intricacies and dynamics that went into influencing and shaping those events. Whether that was from a social, economic, political and cultural or a personal perspective, History just sparked my interest in whole range of different topics and subjects. As much as I enjoyed reading about history when it came to reading historical fiction my interest fizzled out. It just felt superfluous to read about fictitious characters and events set against the backdrop of history when there was already a surfeit of richly detailed and interesting stories waiting to be told.

Take for example Camp Sumter, or as it became known, “Andersonville”, a Confederate prisoner camp located in Georgia during the American Civil War.

Overcrowded with squalid and unsanitary conditions disease, brutality, starvation and death were constant companions for the tens of thousands of Union soldiers imprisoned there throughout 1864 -1865. If ever there was a distillation of how monstrous humanity can be in times of war, it was this place. A forerunner of things to come in the early twentieth century, Camp Sumter was the true definition of horror. To create a novel that weaves elements of demonology, religion, sorcery and Old World horrors into the fabric of reality without demeaning it takes a rare set of skills. And that is precisely what is on display with Edward M. Erdelac in his novel Andersonville.

At the centre of the story is Barclay Lourdes, a free black man on a secret mission to investigate alleged war crimes being committed by Confederate soldiers in the aforementioned camp under the leadership of the enigmatic and mysterious Colonel Wirz. As Lourdes discovers, the mistreatment of prisoners of war is but a piece of a far more disturbing and intricate puzzle that will have repercussions far beyond the perimeter of the camp. From the word go, the overriding atmosphere is tense, grim and uneasy. This is no small part due to Erdelac’s skill at painting a vivid picture of the brutal and squalid reality faced by the thousands of prisoners crammed into the confines of the stockade. Where having something as simple as boots can be the difference between life and death, compassion is an illusion and violence is king. Andersonville is a seething, primal and raw existence for the inmates and the personification of man’s evil

A sense of perpetual menace and a brooding and tense atmosphere permeates the first two thirds of the book as Lourdes infiltrates the camp and its hierarchy in an attempt to understand just what in the hell is going on. The overwhelming brutality, casual racism and violence of the place dominates proceedings as Lourdes encounters a variety of compelling characters in his quest to discover why the death rate is so high within camp. The focus on the brutal reality of the camp diverts your attention away from the fact that there is something far more insidious and sinister at play. Erdelac subtly weaves in clues that the real evil is lurking just out of reach and over the course of the novel layers these dark elements until they erupt into a maelstrom of sorcery and old world horror that makes reality look tame by comparison.

So should you have a read? Well if history, intrigue, espionage, voodoo, sorcery, religion, demons and magic don’t float your boat then this is probably not going to tickle your fancy. If however those words have got you mildly interested then what you have in Andersonville is a richly detailed, atmospheric and grim slice of alternate history storytelling. As the saying goes, the devil really is in the details…

PURCHASE A COPY HERE 

I seem to have stumbled into a tradition here - around this time last year, I read and subsequently reviewed Mr. Millard’s rather good ‘Vinyl Destination’. Here we are, one year later, and ‘Larry’ has finally made it to the top of my TBR pile, after I picked up the paperback at Edge Lit.

Bloody hell, that was fun.

I think most of all, what I’d forgotten is just how ludicrously readable Millard is. His prose just zings, that’s all - conversational, broad, and bloody funny. I found myself tearing through the pages at an incredible rate. And he is funny - often giggle-out-loud funny, and occasionally put-the-book-down-for-a-second-until-I’m-breathing-properly-again funny. The tone and style is conversational - not a million miles away from the sly editorialising of Douglas Adams or Terry Pratchett, actually - yet also infused with a genre awareness. It’s clear that Millard loves horror, knows it inside out - and is also aware of its flaws and absurdities. With ‘Larry’, we have what amounts to a damn near surgical dissection of the inherent flaws of the slasher movie. With jokes. Many, many jokes.

 And I just adored it. Millard does occasionally break character and talk directly to the audience (though rarely, and somehow without annoying me, even though that’s normally a ‘fling-the-book-across-the-room’ offence for me) but for the most part here the commentary is provided within the story itself, either from the characters or by their circumstances. There are, of course, lots of in-jokes - the names of the unlucky teenagers holidaying at ‘Diamond Creek’ campsite will raise smiles of recognition for any child of 80’s horror - but the book does not rely on these, and indeed I think this book would be accessible and amusing to anyone with even the most passing of familiarity with slasher movies.

Don’t get me wrong - there’s plenty of big, broad humor here, and it’s about as far from pretentious as it’s possible to be. But I also think this book is actually a fair bit smarter than the surface may suggest. It’s certainly funny on a number of levels, fantastically paced, and left me in a far better mood than I had been when I picked it up.

I don’t think you can fairly ask for more than that, to be honest. Lovely work.