GINGER NUTS OF HORROR'S BOOKS OF THE YEAR: JIM MCLEOD'S PICKS PART 2: NOVELS AND NOVELLAS

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In my round up of my favorite collections and anthologies of 2019 I mentioned how this year had been particularly hard for me in terms of both reading and in physical and mental health.  And true to form I have ended up closing out this year by being physically and mentally crippled thanks to a nasty dose of sciatica, and the mental fugue brought about by the cocktail of six pain killers that I have been put on to manage the pain.  I had hoped to do all of the books on this list justice bu writing new mini, or in some cases the first, reviews for them, but since it has taken me over a week to just write this introduction, I'm going to have to cheat by copying in either the synopsis of the book, or the final closing paragraph of the original  review, if the book was previously reviewed on the site. 

My heartfelt apologies goes out to the authors and publishers, I had hoped to make this a bit special, but sadly the pain is too much and I wanted this to go out before the end of the year.  

All of these books are exceptional, and all of them are deserving of your time and money, so if you fancy purchasing any of these books, please click on the titles, as the links to purchase them are embedded in them.

​So in no particular order, except for the very last entry which is my book of the year, here my my pics of 2019 

The Plague Stones by James Brogden

A dark and eerie tale of vengeance that explores what evil really is. Fans of M.R. Carey, Tim Lebbon, Sarah Lotz, and Lauren Beukes will revel in the underlying tension and deep-seated paranoia that runs parallel to the hellish scenes of murder, death, and decay.

After a brutal break-in that left her family traumatised, Trish Feenan jumps at the chance of a fresh start in a charming historic town. But in the back garden of her new cottage sits an unsettling reminder of past wrongs: a standing stone, once one of the markers that kept plague sufferers outside the village bounds, its ‘powers’ renewed every year in a ritual that seems to be more than just local oddity.

As the Feenans settle in, they experience unexplained accidents, accompanied by sightings of a girl who vanishes into thin air. Soon, it becomes obvious that there is a reason traditions must not slip, and that all acts of betrayal, even those committed centuries ago, have consequences...

The main themes of The Plague Stones are how we are never truly free of our past, and how our past sins will soon catch up with us.  And Brogden handles these with a deft flair, allowing the dual timelines of the narrative to flow and interlock with each other revealing just enough information and action to keep the reader hooked as the horror unfolds.  However, Brogden also uses this book to tackle some other essential themes, such as the unjust nature of social injustice.  The parallels between the Hasewell's haves and have nots of both times lines are heartbreaking, with modern day slumlords standing in for the fearful village fathers of yore.  

Brogden also manages to convey a believable thread of, for want of a better word, kitchen sink drama.  The dynamics of the interpersonal relationships between the members of the Feenan clan are exceptionally well done, from the mother who just wants the best for her family, to the son struggling to find his way in life, never having both feet planted firmly in any social strata. Or the father, who also wants the best for his family, but also feels resentful for not being the one who has done it.  He is a man driven by a pride that is shackled by having to toe the party line. The sense of fury and frustration bubbles just under the surface of all the scenes in which he plays a vital role.  

The Plague Stones cements Brogden's reputation as both an accomplished storyteller and as a master of the modern folk horror tale.  They say you are never more than ten feet away from a rat, and after reading this book, you'll wish you never knew that fact.

Full review can be read here   

All My Colors by David Quantick

​From Emmy-award winning author David Quantick, All My Colors is a darkly comic novel about a man who remembers a book that may not exist, with dire consequences. A bizarre, mind-bending story at the intersection of Richard Bachman, Charlie Kaufman and Franz Kafka.
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It is March 1979 in DeKalb Illinois. Todd Milstead is a wannabe writer, a serial adulterer, and a jerk, only tolerated by his friends because he throws the best parties with the best booze. During one particular party, Todd is showing off his perfect recall, quoting poetry and literature word for word plucked from his eidetic memory. When he begins quoting from a book no one else seems to know, a novel called All My Colors, Todd is incredulous. He can quote it from cover to cover and yet it doesn’t seem to exist.
With a looming divorce and mounting financial worries, Todd finally tries to write a novel, with the vague idea of making money from his talent. The only problem is he can’t write. But the book – All My Colors – is there in his head. Todd makes a decision: he will “write” this book that nobody but him can remember. After all, if nobody’s heard of it, how can he get into trouble?
As the dire consequences of his actions come home to both Todd and his long-suffering friends, it becomes clear that there is a high – and painful – price to pay for his crime.

Quantick keeps the story flowing fast, with his assured use of dialogue rather than long descriptive passages to move the narrative forward, which is not surprising considering his background in script writing.  Balance the absurd, and nasty with a razor sharp wit Quantick has written a book that can be read and enjoyed by a wide fanbase.  There are enough horror and cosmic shenanigans to please the horror crowd, and there are enough humour and reflective analysis to appeal to the broader audience.  

All My Colours is the perfect companion to TV's Black Mirror, and may just give you an insight into why authors and creatives can be a bit messed up in the head .

Full review can be read here 

Coyote Songs by Gabino Iglesias 

In this mosaic horror/crime novel, ghosts and old gods guide the hands of those caught up in a violent struggle to save the soul of the American southwest. A man tasked with shuttling children over the border believes the Virgin Mary is guiding him towards final justice. A woman offers colonizer blood to the Mother of Chaos. A boy joins corpse destroyers to seek vengeance for the death of his father. These stories intertwine with those of a vengeful spirit and a hungry creature to paint a timely, compelling, pulpy portrait of revenge, family, and hope.

“Call him the Barrio Palahniuk, a badass Henry Miller, Charles Willeford in Cholo-land—whatever the moniker, for my money Gabino Iglesias is one of the most fearless, original and riveting writers working today.” – Jerry Stahl, author of Permanent Midnight 

“Iglesias is a master of compact phrasing and perfectly paced suspense.” - Los Angeles Review of Books

When people say that horror doesn't haven't the ability to create a powerful novel that tackles the problems and injustices faced by a whole population of people, while still delivering a tight and thrilling narrative I point them to this book.  Be warned this book will leave you angry and raw 

THE COLD BY RICH HAWKINS

It was an English summers day like any other until the snow began to fall and kept falling. Within hours, the entire country was buried beneath a freezing white blanket. And hidden within the blizzard conditions things began to move and kill and feast.

Seth is one of the few passengers to survive the train crash. Now he and his fellow survivors face a new world of snow, ice and freezing fog, where they will be hunted like prey in the ruins of Great Britain.
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They must run.
They must hide.
They must survive THE COLD.

When it comes to bleak fiction there is none so bleak as Hawkin's bleak.  Hawkin's minimalistic narrative and exceptional pacing lends this book a soul crushing denouement.  Existential despair and cosmic monsters combine for a powerful tale.

Read Tony Jones' and George Illet Anderson's reviews here 

THE FINITE BY KIT POWER 

“The Finite started as a dream; an image, really, on the edge of waking. My daughter and I, joining a stream of people walking past our house. We were marching together, and I saw that many of those behind us were sick, and struggling, and then I looked to the horizon and saw the mushroom cloud. I remember a wave of perfect horror and despair washing over me; the sure and certain knowledge that our march was doomed, as were we.

The image didn’t make it into the story, but the feeling did. King instructs us to write about what scares us. In The Finite, I wrote about the worst thing I can imagine; my own childhood nightmare, resurrected and visited on my kid.” – Kit Power

I still find it hard to think about this book without welling up inside, think of this as an updated companion piece to the classic When the Wind Blows.  This is one of the most emotional pure and raw stories I have ever written, it could only have come from an author with a heart as big as Kit's.  This book will devastate you, the horror, the hopelessness and beauty of this the prose is a wonder to read.  

Maria The Wanted and the Legacy of The Keepers BY V CASTRO 

Maria is a wanted woman. She's wanted by and Aztec trafficker, a cartel boss, the people she fights for, and now the Devil she can't resist.Her journey begins as a would-be immigrant turned vampire in Juarez, Mexico until the injustices of the world turn her into something else. She's not just out for blood, she wants answers.Maria spends twenty-two years in motel cleaning purgatory trying to keep her faith and sanity intact. When she feels all hope is lost she meets an ex-boxer that offers her a new job and teaches her to fight. During this time, she becomes an unlikely bad ass enforcer of justice for the community that has embraced her. Is she a saint or an old God from a forgotten past?

Not only does she evolve into the woman she always hoped to be, but she finds her creator – Adam- he is nothing like she imagined.  He invites Maria to travel with him to England to join The Keepers, a vampire organization led by the ancient Mordecai and Dr. Elizabeth Appleton.

Learning that the true vampire way isn’t destruction but the safety of humanity, Maria joins The Keepers as they uncover a plot set into motion by Lucifer himself. The Keepers must end his corruption through political manipulation or watch as the world hurtles towards self-destruction.

If you had said to me that I would be reading a vampire novel in 2019, that did something new and different with the genre I would have called you crazy.  But V.  Castro's unique voice and point of view has created a book that while it ticks all of my vampire boxes, ancient vampire societies, a kick ass hero, whose journey is played out realistically and the threat of an apocalypse. 

Skein Island Paperback by Aliya Whiteley

From the author of The Loosening Skin and The Beauty, Aliya Whiteley, Skein Island is a powerful and disturbing look at the roles we play, and how they form and divide us. This new edition features a brand new novelette set in the same world as Skein Island.

Skein Island, since 1945 a private refuge for women, lies in turbulent waters twelve miles off the coast of Devon. Visitors are only allowed by invitation from the reclusive Lady Amelia Worthington. Women stay for one week, paying for their stay with a story from their past; a Declaration for the Island's vast library.

Marianne's invitation arrives shortly before her quiet life at the library is violently interrupted, the aftermath leaving her husband David feeling helpless. Now, just like her mother did seventeen years ago, she must discover what her story is. Secrets are buried deep on Skein Island. The monsters of Ancient Greece and the atrocities of World War II, heroes and villains with their seers and sidekicks, and the stories of a thousand lifetimes all threaten to break free.

But every story needs an ending, whatever the cost.

Where to start with this brooding novel?  It mixes Greek mythology, with secrets and lies, and the need for some men to feel that they are always in control of everything and everyone in their lives.  This multilayered mythical story, keeps it secrets close to its heart, nothing is given away casually, it requires the reader to become fully immersed in its angry beauty.  
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Ormeshadow Paperback by Priya Sharma

Acclaimed author Priya Sharma transports readers back in time with Ormeshadow, a coming-of-age story as dark and rich as good soil.

Burning with resentment and intrigue, this fantastical family drama invites readers to dig up the secrets of the Belman family, and wonder whether myths and legends are real enough to answer for a history of sin.

Uprooted from Bath by his father's failures, Gideon Belman finds himself stranded on Ormeshadow farm, an ancient place of chalk and ash and shadow. The land crests the Orme, a buried, sleeping dragon that dreams resentment, jealousy, estrangement, death. Or so the folklore says. Growing up in a house that hates him, Gideon finds his only comforts in the land. Gideon will live or die by the Orme, as all his family has.


Every now and then a book breaks out from the horror genre, and finds an audience outside of our community, and out of all of the books on this list, this is book most likely to do this.  It taps into the wider psyche of the reading population,  and while we can still see it as being one of our own, it can be embraced by others, because they don't see it has horror.  This folk horror tinged novel of family, of not fitting in, of obligation and the need to be your own person, is a haunting and oppressing look at those trapped by the circumstances of their lives.

Read Kit Power's review here 

The Old One and The Sea by Lex H. Jones

Howard is a lonely, isolated boy who lives in the run-down seaside town of Innsmouth. Most of the town’s men left to fight the Great War and didn’t come back, and those that did, like Howard’s neighbour Mr Derleth, brought their own scars and strange stories with them. None quite so strange as what is about to happen to Howard, however.

An undersea earthquake brings a strange black reef to the surface just off the coast of Innsmouth, and with it something else.  Something old, and forgotten, and every bit as lonely as the young boy who discovers it. What follows is a unique and secret friendship that will change the life of both Howard and his bizarre new friend forever.

Books for this age range rarely even attempt to tackle any themes, they are generally insipid books with no substance, so to find a book filled with emotional depth, and a strong message about friendships and our place in the universe is an utter joy to discover.  

Lex's writing is assured, and poetic, allowing this book to be both respectful to the source material without ever coming across as a pastiche. Aided by illustrations that capture the tone and sentimentality of the book perfectly from Liam "Pais" Hill, The Old One and the Sea is novel that should be read by all ages, even the most hardened of horror fans will get "the feels" from this exceptional emotionally packed tale. We all struggle to find our place in the universe, and without a doubt, this book should find a place on your bookshelves.  

Read the full review here 

Cannibal Nuns from Outer Space! by Duncan P. Bradshaw

The summer blockbuster book! Probably.

With an encyclopaedic knowledge of cake, and exclusive access to the church’s stockpile of holy weapons, the Order of the Crimson Rosary are on the frontline in the eternal war between good and evil. Whether it’s repelling demonic possession, judging the authenticity of supposed miracles or having the final say on the colour of bunting at church fetes, the organisation's members sacrifice their own freedom to keep the world safe.

Father Flynn, the top operative in the UK, has been responsible for a number of recent high profile gaffs. Given an ultimatum, he must choose between returning to his old job of preserving the last microfiche machine in the church’s library, or submit himself for rehabilitation.
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Yet evil doesn’t take a ticket and wait in line, as the dreaded cannibal nuns from outer space land to begin their annual harvest. Can Flynn get himself sober enough to repel their evil machinations? Or will another idyllic British village become the nun’s latest buffet?

One thing’s for certain, to beat them, Father Flynn is going to have to kick the habit.


In a year where every other book that has appeared on this list has been on the more serious end of horror fiction, it may seem odd that my book of the year should go to the most stupid and silly book I have read in a long time.  

But in year which has been crap both personally, and globally, this book has been a much needed antidote to all that has gone on.  Don't let the stupid and silly description above put you off, this is a masterclass in absurd storytelling, and despite the batshit crazy premise of the book, and the irreverent nature of the plot, this is a wonderfully written piece of pure escapism.  It takes a huge amount of talent to produce a book so out there, without it turning into one big mess.  

Read my full review here