 “We’d been in the house two weeks when Tommy pulled the first bones from the garden” I first reviewed Andy Cull back in January 2018, when I was mightily impressed by his debut novella Knock And You Will See Me, and have had an interested eye on his fledgling horror career over the subsequent three years. His debut novella was republished within his excellent collection Bones, which also featured a range of other impressive short stories. However, these tasters were merely building towards the main event, Remains (2019), his debut novel, which was an absolute knockout and one of the bleakest and terrifying novels of 2019 which I placed easily within my top three of the year. I am sure Andrew Cull has much more in the literary tank, and if you have never come across him before, this is the perfect time to jump aboard as he is undoubtedly a major new voice in horror fiction and this latest release, The Cockroach King, is a quirky introduction to his bag of talents. If you follow Cull on Twitter, you will already be aware that he often gives proceedings of his book sales to charity and this latest novella, released by Beneath Hell Publishing, will be donating all profits to UNICEF. It is also great to see top reviewers already getting behind The Cockroach King, with Gavin Kendall (of Kendall Reviews) saying “The Cockroach King is one hell of a read. This is Andrew Cull doing what he does best” and Shane Keene (of InkHeist) continues “A chilling heartrending twisted little creature feature. Another must read from a darkly brilliant mind.” Both Gavin and Shane are reliable and very experienced reviewers, and I would echo their thoughts entirely. Although it lacks the overall fear factor of Remains, which has a level of intensity difficult to match, this latest novella is a tight and very fast read which should be devoured in a couple of sittings. I loved the first sentence so much “We’d been in the house two weeks when Tommy pulled the first bones from the garden” I had it added at the top of the review as a teaser to suck you in! It quickly sets the tone for a very dark story which starts immediately after single parent Cassie and her young son move into their new house on Cedar Street. It goes without saying that their dream home and fresh start, after the recent death of Cassie’s mother, soon turns into a nightmare and it is riveting stuff seeing how it pans out. If you do not like cockroaches look away now. Nobody likes the horrible little bastards, do they? You will like them even less after reading this novella, even if for the most part they lurk in the background and increase the anxiety of the already stressed Cassie who finds the filthy creatures creeping around her young son. When our daughter was small we lived in a flat with a serious roach infestation and supermarket kill-sprays were not effective enough to eradicate them and I remember checking on my girl one night, and was shocked to see the biggest roach I had ever seen lounging on the pillow inches from her face. It was so large I swear it winked at me before I flicked it away! Eventually a product called Boric Acid killed them off, but not before a lot of stress. Poor Cassie badly needed some Boric in this story! This high level of stress is fed directly into The Cockroach King, Cassie is short of cash and options, and desperately needs the new home to be a success. But the clever thing about the story is the fact that these cockroaches are only part of the problem, and even though they seem intelligent and particularly aggressive, the story actually revolves around what is going on in the garden, and that takes us back to that outstanding opening sentence. Everybody wants moving into a new home to be a fresh start, turning over a new page, nobody expects to dig up a former family pet in the back garden. Cassie has her old friend Tommy helping around the house, who deals with the uncovered bones, and they then quickly realise that there is more than one dead animal in the garden. Perhaps many more, and Cassie begins to ask questions of the guy who lived in the house previously. This story strand was terrific and was probably more interesting than the cockroach infestation, but Andrew Cull will keep you neatly on tenterhooks on how the two come together as a few clever clues drop here and there. As Shane Keene correctly notes this is a “twisted little creature feature” and you will have a fun read in the build up to the big reveal which is cleverly held back until well into proceedings, but along the way there is plenty of good writing to admire. The sense of loneliness and isolation Cassie feels is palpable and is not dissimilar to the protagonist in Remains, who is dealing with a much more horrific bereavement. Cassie’s backstory was convincing and the feelings of protection she has for her little boy was skilfully crafted into a plot which on certain levels was very realistic; where do you go if you have nowhere to go? I would describe The Cockroach King as a creature feature with heart and it certainly had the potential to be worked into a longer story, one might argue it ended a little too early, and a couple of further twists and turns might have been added into the mix. Cassie was a great main character, there were some solid scares and the blending of the two stories of the dogs buried in the garden and the cockroaches was nicely done with skilful ambiguity. For the most part the reader is unsure whether they are reading a ghost story or not, with the author keeping his cards close to his cards for the great finish in the final quarter. Andy Cull is a great writer, seriously one to watch, and The Cockroach King is a solid introduction to his fiction. Tony Jones  “We’d been in the house two weeks when Tommy pulled the first bones from the garden.” When Cassie Baker buys the house on Cedar Street, it’s partly because it reminds her of the house she grew up in in the ‘80s. It reminds her of happier times, when her Mom was still alive, before the cancer had taken her. It seems like the perfect place to raise her baby boy, Sam. That is, until a friend unearths the remains of a dog, buried in a shallow grave in the backyard. After the bones come the cockroaches… THE COCKROACH KING is a new novella written by Andrew Cull, the award-winning author of REMAINS and BONES. All profits from sales of THE COCKROACH KING will be donated to UNICEF.   Comments are closed.
|
Archives
May 2023
|
RSS Feed
|
|