BOOK REVIEW - MISFITS BY HUNTER SHEA

The undisputed king of monsters Hunter Shea is back…
bring on the Melon Heads!

 
I’ve been a fan of Hunter Shea for a few years and was originally attracted to his dumb, fast-paced creature features, which were often very humorous and violent horror novels which were great forms of escapism for a few hours. However, his recent output has upped the ante, blending a similar type of schlock horror, but with stronger stories and more importantly characters which are fully developed, and considerably more than the brief sketches given in some of his earlier books. Shea’s previous novel Slash, a clever play on the final girl myth (with monsters) was a fine example, with an outstanding heroine. Misfits takes this to another level, bouncing a third person narrative around five friends in their final year of school in a no-name small town, Milbury, they would all love to leave. And, of course, monsters. Lots of them in all shape and sizes, well almost.
 
This novel has an outstanding opening chapter which takes up back to Christmas Day 1977 and Chris who has just got a new bike and is taken out by his much older teenage brother to give it a spin. They head to the infamous ‘Dracula Drive’ an area of town which is boarded up and encroaches on the forest which most people avoid. Chris does not want to cycle there but is dared by his brother who has his own, yet unknown, agenda for taking him there. Once they are close to the woods Dylan slashes his little brother’s bike tire and abandons him. But why? And for what purpose? What follows is an unpleasant bolt from the blue, but there will be no spoilers from me.
 
Misfits then jumps to 1993 where most of the novel is set, and it kicks to a convincing grunge soundtrack which I know very well. Music throbs throughout the story and Shea makes a fine job of bringing 1993 back to life, where Nirvana dominated the airwaves, backed up by the likes of Soundgarden and Alice in Chains.  And the halcyon days of underage drinking, flannel shirts and long greasy hair. Every small town has a dive which serves kids without ID and this is one of the hangouts featured in the early stages of the story. I could identify with this, the town I grew up in had many such fine establishments, but hey, that’s Scotland and few others knock it back like we do.
 
After a while you’ll realise where 1977 connects with 1993, meantime we’re introduced to the five best friends of Mick, Marnie, Chuck, Heidi and Vent. For the most part they are very different characters and may very well be the ‘misfits’ of the title and have one major thing in common: the love of smoking dope. They are serious stoners and spent a lot of time together, chilling, going out and listening to music. Of course, you may decide that the ‘misfits’ of the title appear later….
 
Mick has the toughest story and has been abandoned by his mother and stepfather, living in a caravan in the forest which has no running water. He shoots squirrels with a bb-gun for food, sells dope, and is helped particularly by Vent who comes from a steady family and excels at school. The dynamics between the five characters is highly convincing, floating between the different voices, their crushes, problems and dreams. Where is the horror you might ask?
 
Every small town has its own myths and legends, many are very localised and in Milbury it goes along the lines of “If you don’t watch out the Melon Heads will get you”. Lots of towns will have their own variations of an old wives’ tale of creatures lurking in the forest, Big Foot or some other long-lost ghost of a dead hitchhiker, whatever it might be.  After a horrific incident where one of the five is raped they decide to take revenge on the assailant by driving them out to the woods. Big mistake. Things do not go as they planned.
 
At that point Hunter Shea really begins to move through the gears and although it sounds corny ‘nobody does it better’ blending bone-crunching action sequences with vicious body horror.  Arms get screwed off, others eaten alive and this is no holds-barred stuff. This is even more hurtful as you really care about the five teenagers who end up fighting for their lives, especially in the brutal closing stages. In between the chase and fight sequences the author still finds time to develop the characters, their personal interactions and the other casualties as the body count begins to mount up.
 
If I was to spell out what happens I would not argue if you labelled it dumb, however, this author is an absolute master of turning very far out plots into slick pieces of violent fiction. Yup, it is stupid, it is not believable, but at the same time you get behind the characters and it is very easy to be swept along with the brutal action sequences as family members are picked-off one by one. At 288 pages Misfits comes in at a perfect length, lean, very mean and although the action sequences are numerous, they never become repetitive, this is probably because all the characters are fighting for their lives and are deep out of their comfort zone as they’re being mercilessly stalked.
 
Misfits was a very enjoyable piece of horror trash from one of the most reliable voices in the genre. Keep them coming Hunter!
 
4/5
 
Review by Tony Jones

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During the height of the 90s grunge era, five high school friends living on the fringe are driven to the breaking point. When one of their friends is brutally raped by a drunk townie, they decide to take matters into their own hands. Deep in the woods of Milbury, Connecticut, there lives the legend of the Melon Heads, a race of creatures that shun human interaction and prey on those who dare to wander down Dracula Drive. Maybe this night, one band of misfits can help the other. Or maybe some legends are meant to be feared for a reason.

FLAME TREE PRESS is the new fiction imprint of Flame Tree Publishing. Launched in 2018 the list brings together brilliant new authors and the more established; the award winners, and exciting, original voices.

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