 Horror was doing big business in the bookstores in the 1960s. This was largely thanks to gothic literature which promised gentle tales of haunted manors and melancholy spirits on their covers. Things took a more devilish turn towards the end of the decade with the release of ‘Rosemary’s Baby’ in 1967, followed by William Peter Blatty’s ‘The Exorcist’ and Thomas Tryon’s ‘The Other in 1971, but the real fun began in 1974 with the release of two books that would open the floodgate for pulp horror. Jaws (Peter Benchley) and The Rats (James Herbert) proved that there was an appetite out there for books that weren’t ashamed to be all-out horror. The publishing industry took note and throughout the 1970s and 1980s, companies such as Zebra, Tor and Pinnacle published a seemingly endless supply of books promising unspeakable terrors and sporting covers that had to be seen to be believed. Sometimes the content was great, other times… not so much, but one thing that you could always be guaranteed was a fun and entertaining read. By the mid-90s, horror paperbacks were seemingly out, and thrillers were in. Gone were the lurid covers of skeletons, evil dolls, creepy kids and flesh hungry critters. The horror was still there, it just wasn’t marketed as such, treated like a shameful secret. As titles fell quickly out of print, many of the horror authors and their work became increasingly forgotten by all but the most avid fans and collectors. Enter Will Errickson, Grady Hendrix and ‘Paperbacks From Hell’. In 2017 Hendrix and Errickson released their seminal love letter to the horror paperbacks of a bygone era, shining a light on some long-forgotten classics and renewing interest in the mass market horror paperbacks of the 1970s and 80s. Not content to simply share their passion for these oft maligned but much missed books, thanks to their partnership with Valancourt Books, we are being treated to new reprints of the best of these decades-old, forgotten gems. To date, fourteen reprints have been published, retaining the original cover art and boasting brand new and insightful introductions from Hendrix and Errickson. In this series I’ll be reading each and every one and posting articles at Ginger Nuts of Horror looking back at the best books two decades of horror has to offer. It wasn’t too long ago that I posted my five-star review of Lisa Tuttle’s’ short story collection ‘A Nest of Nightmares’ as part of this series. That stellar collection was my first-time reading Lisa Tuttle and, as I mentioned in the review itself, left me with sky-high expectations for this, her first published horror novel. Familiar Spirit embraces some of the themes she touches on in ‘A Nest of Nightmares’, whether that be the breakdown of a relationship (‘Need’, ‘The Nest’), helplessness against an outside force (‘The Other Mother’, ‘The Horse Lord’) or placing an ordinary, female lead character in extraordinary supernatural peril (pretty much all of them) and digs a little deeper. Sarah is a graduate student who, up until recently, had been sharing an apartment with her long-term boyfriend, Brian. The dissolution of their relationship once Sarah discovers Brian has been unfaithful is quick, but painful and Sarah rushes to find a suitable place to live. The large, weathered house on the edge of town seems too good to be true at first. It offers peace and quiet and more space than she knows what to do with, and the rent is unbelievable. The opportunity is so good that she ignores the warning signs. The creepy former tenant who avoids her questions and seems too eager for Sarah to move in, the odd symbols drawn on the floors, and the horrific nightmares she suffers as soon as she’s settled. The longer Sarah stays the more she begins to feel as if her mind is not her own. She no longer recognises her own thoughts and cannot rationally explain her increasingly erratic and unpredictable actions. As she looks deeper into the house’s history, she finds answers in the form of grisly murder and black magic. Will the answers come too late for Sarah to save her sanity, and her soul? Novels about possession were in plentiful supply on horror stands in the Paperbacks From Hell era, particularly in the 1970s following the breakout success of ‘The Exorcist’ (William Peter Blatty) and ‘The Entity’ (Frank De Felitta), which spawned numerous (and often lesser) copycats. By the time Familiar Spirit came along in 1983 it was a fairly packed marketplace for this kind of book. I was glad (but not altogether surprised) to find that Tuttle delivers a strongly written book with enough surprises to set it apart from the crowd. The back cover copy promises that Sarah’s possession will fill her with “screaming horror one moment, and relentless, burning pleasure the next”, so plenty of sex and horror seems to be on the menu, and I can confirm that Tuttle doesn’t skimp in either department. The books prologue is a harrowing read, with plenty of blood and violence, while also being incredibly effective from a psychological perspective. In fact, later scenes struggle to live up to the dozen or so opening pages, so effective are they. Tuttle is far from prudish with the sex scenes either, which are as plentiful as they are explicit. When Sarah first meets Valerie, the young woman who first unleashes the entity in the book’s prologue, she has driven up to show her round the now vacant house in a new Ferrari. Which raises some interesting questions that you rarely see in possession novels, namely, is it really all downside and no benefit? In the opening pages the (then) unseen presence inhabiting Valerie says “there is much I can do for you, many benefits that can be gained by accepting my presence in your body”. Given we next see her in a brand-new sports car, there may be something to that. Sadly, it’s touched upon a few times but never fully explored. As the novel goes on and we get to learn more about this seemingly malevolent entity, the story starts to go into more unexpected and interesting directions, separating itself from the plethora of other demonic possession novels on the stands at the time. The reveal of what is trapped in the house and possessing whoever enters it doesn’t come until later, and it was one I wasn’t expecting, and perhaps sheds a slightly different light on what precedes this revelation. There is a lengthy section of exposition in the form of a diary around the midway point, taking us back around fifty years into the past and giving an origin story of sorts that increases the stakes in the present day. In a lesser book, this side track may have felt jarring or out of place, but in Tuttle’s hands it actually proves to be a highlight, telling an entertaining and self-contained story that adds to Sarahs own, which is just getting started. Familiar Spirit is an interesting spin on the demon possession genre and one that boasts a more well-rounded cast of characters than you would typically expect for the sub-genre. It’ll terrify and titillate in equal measure and leave you with the burning question “If I were possessed by a demon, what luxury car would I ask for”? Join me next time when I’ll be sharing my thoughts on The Auctioneer by Joan Samson If you’d like to read along with this series and want to pick up copies of the books, or learn more about Valancourts’ Paperbacks From Hell line, visit their site at www.valancourtbooks.com/paperbacksfromhell FAMILIAR SPIRIT BY LISA TUTTLE THE BIG OLD HOUSE WAS PERFECT FOR SARAH Now that her life with Brian was over, she would have a home of her own. She could begin again. But something was waiting for Sarah in her new house, waiting to welcome her, to make her feel at home. Something was waiting for Sarah in the night with golden eyes that glowed and burned, commanding her obedience, demanding her soul, promising her ... Sarah tried to escape the power, but night after night it drew her back, filling her with screaming horror one moment, and relentless, burning pleasure the next. Sarah tried to escape the house, to fight the evil. But she came back. She will always come back. Because now Sarah is never alone ... This reissue of Lisa Tuttle’s first novel Familiar Spirit (1983) features the classic cover art by Lee MacLeod and a new introduction by Will Errickson. TODAY ON THE GINGER NUTS OF HORROR WEBSITE JASON OFFUTT SAYS DON’T BE AFRAID OF THE DARK, BUT DON'T BELIEVE HIM HE MIGHT BE ONE OF THEM THE HEART AND SOUL OF HORROR BOOK REVIEWSComments are closed.
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