BOOK REVIEW: DO NOT WEEP FOR ME BY TONY TREMBLAY

‘Do Not Weep For Me’ -
The triumphant return of Tony Tremblay

Back in 2018 I very favourably reviewed Tony Tremblay’s wild debut The Moore House which later reached the Final Ballot of the Bram Stoker Award in the First Novel Category. It was a superb haunted house yarn, which was backed up with exorcisms, dodgy priests, sexy nuns, demons and some superb characters, on both sides of the fence, good and evil. You can find the full review here:



I sped read Do Not Weep For Me so quickly I had to double check it was not a novella by the time I finished! Ultimately, not a word was wasted in the 252 pages which, I would have thought impossible, even tops The Moore House for violence, over-the-top action and crazy demon inspired kill scenes, stunning decapitations, detached talking heads and enough gross bodily fluids to drown you. That previous sentence makes this story sound very trashy; but it was nothing of the sort and was a very clever and absolutely perfectly paced horror novel in which the unbelievably becomes perfectly acceptable within the boundaries of the story. Tremblay’s publisher should give this novel to Sam Raimi to check out and I would envisage the final result to be something akin to Drag Me To Hell but with bigger, meaner, and nastier demons.


Although Do Not Weep For Me is not a direct sequel to The Moore House they are strongly connected and the consequences of what previously occurred lingers in the background. The exorcist Father MacLeod returns and the action once again takes place in Goffstown (New Hampshire) and more crucially the owner of the Goffstown Pawnshop is back and with a larger role this time around. The owner’s true identity is never truly revealed (Mr Smith or is it Jones?) but his shop seems to have mysterious supernatural properties and can sense when demons or evil is around and relocate within the boundaries of the town. Smith/Jones really stole the show and I found myself wanting to know more about him and his peculiar, fortified shop which is built to withstand assaults from powerful demons. Towards the end of the novel there were some absolutely outstanding scenes in the Pawnshop which would not have been out of place in the gore horror classic Evil Dead 2. This was an outstandingly cool location and it was a delight to see the shop have a more substantial role than it did in Moore House.


At first glance Do Not Weep For Me sounds like a trashy b-movie horror story, but do not be deceived, as it is a very cleverly plotted story which knits together perfectly in the latter stages. In the opening pages we see a demon possessed woman murder a child in front of her parent before being killed herself, with the possessed woman then heading to Gofftown. In another story-arc a disabled woman who survived a long kidnapping (and multiple rapes) promises to reveal her story to reporter Manuel Chance, but only if he helps investigate her husband, whom she suspects is involved in a series of child kidnappings. However, nothing is what it seems and the ‘Duck Lady’ is far from an innocent old granny, as the reader will find out in a particularly filthy, but very funny, scene.


A spate of child abductions around Gofftown are the focus of the most riveting story-arc, with every parent’s nightmare coming true for single dad Paul Lane when in an unguarded moment his young daughter Cindy disappears from the back garden. In the aftermath of the incident Paul connects with a mum of one of the other snatched kids and the two go on a truly terrifying journey which eventually links to what I have previously mentioned. This part of the story was incredibly absorbing, seen from the point of view of both Paul and Cindy and at various stages of the disappearances. If you struggle with violence inflicted on children, then perhaps this might not be the book for you when things take a darker supernatural turn. However, the direction the kidnapping story heads into was one of the strongest of the book and if you’ve ever seen the Disney film Freaky Friday, that gives a slight hint where it goes, but change the name to Evil Friday and you’re more on track!


In the background Tremblay nicely develops his version of the classic ‘Good Vs Evil’ battle of the ages, as there are rumblings of discontent in Hell with the pawnshop being stuck in the middle. I appreciate this book sounds mightily ridiculous, but it was so stupidly enjoyable I found it totally irresistible. Some of the scenes, where the twitching and swaggering demons sauntered into the fortified Pawnshop and the uber-cool sidekick Rex (another awesome character) were so entertaining I was glued to the page. The level of brutality was also wildly over the top, with Tony Tremblay viciously and ruthlessly butchering a substantial number of his leading characters (undoubtedly rubbing his hands with glee!) If you are a fan of exorcist/demon style fiction Do Not Weep For Me is unmissable.   


Tony Jones

Do Not Weep For Me 
by Tony Tremblay  

Goffstown, New Hampshire has seen its share of supernatural mayhem, murder, and monsters. With the banishment of the demon James Moore, some in the town believed their bloody past was behind them. The devil knows better.


For weeks, an old crippled woman hesitates then waddles past the window of the Goffstown News building. On the day she finally enters the office, she has one hell of a story to tell the editor, Manuel Chance, but there is a caveat to publishing it. Manuel is skeptical of the bizarre tale and suspicious of her motives. When she removes her clothing to provide evidence for her story, his skepticism vanishes, but when he hears the basis for her caveat, his suspicion grows. She wants Manuel to investigate her husband to determine if he is behind the disappearance of four local children.


 As Paul Lane steps out of his home, uneasiness overwhelms him. While he's distracted, his daughter Cindy asks to play on the swing set in the backyard. In the unguarded moment, Paul agrees, making it the biggest mistake of his life. After Cindy disappears without a trace, a woman approaches Paul with an identical story. Together, they wait for the return of their children. When the two girls are found and returned to their parent's, relief turns to confusion after the two girls make an astonishing claim.  Confusion turns to horror when they discover the children have brought someone else back with them.


A battered, bruised, filthy, woman pulls her stolen Subaru into a parking lot across from The Goffstown Pawnshop. With two decomposing bodies in the back of the car, she has driven non-stop from the Midwest to procure an item from the owner of the pawnshop. Possessed, she will stop at nothing to retrieve it. Inside the shop, the owner and his assistant Rex, notice the woman on a surveillance camera. When the three of them do battle inside the pawnshop, it will be the first volley in a war to decide who will rule in Hell.


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Shaken from his conflict with the demon residing in The Moore House, the pawnshop owner in Goffstown had hoped for a reprieve from supernatural carnage. Instead, when a possessed woman enters his shop demanding an item he is sworn to protect, violence remains his only option.  Three of those who had assisted him in the defeat of the demon James Moore will be pulled back into battle. They, along with three innocents who have been sucked into this new vortex of evil are the only ones preventing an overthrow of Hell. The problem for the pawnshop owner is... God isn't the one on their side.

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