PUNCH BY J.R. PARK REVIEW BY DAVID WATKINS

It’s carnival night in the seaside town of Stanswick Sands and tonight blood will stain the beach red.

Punch and Judy man, Martin Powell, returns after ten years with a dark secret. As his past is revealed Martin must face the anger of the hostile townsfolk, pushing him to the very edge of sanity.
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Humiliated and stripped of everything he holds dear, Martin embarks on a campaign of murderous revenge, seeking to settle scores both old and new.

The police force of this once sleepy town can’t react quick enough as they watch the body count grow at the hands of a costumed killer.

Can they do enough to halt the malicious mayhem of the twisted Punch? 
 

I recently bought a copy of Punch by J.R Park and whilst the short tale has been out since 2014, it is new to me. I wasn’t attracted by the garish cover, more the name on it: JR Park wrote one of the best novels I read last year – Mad Dog - so handing over my money was a no brainer. I later found out the film rights have just been bought for this, which is great news and also means I possibly bought the last copy to be sold before the announcement. Doesn’t mean anything, but still sort of cool (ok, maybe not that cool). Apparently, the person who has bought the rights, first discovered the novel by reading about it on this website. It seemed a good idea to me to write a new review to hopefully help it attract some new readers who might otherwise have missed it.

I knew nothing of the plot of Punch when I started reading, and I would suggest that any interested reader has the same approach. Basically, it’s a man returning to his hometown. Shit happens, people die. You can have that for the movie poster. I’m trying not to give away any spoilers here, however small.

Punch is not at all similar to Mad Dog (and if you haven’t read that, you really, really should) in concept, but both books share that they are brutal and uncompromising reads. It seems that Mr Park delights in creating characters just to do despicable things to them, which he does with frequent - and entertaining - abandon.

That is not to say that this is all mindless violence and gore, quite the opposite. Park takes his time building the story of Martin Powell and his life in Stanswick Sands. The scenes concerning Martin’s attempts to reintegrate are really well done, and sympathy builds for him throughout this first half. Some have criticised the first section for being slow, but I really enjoyed it and thought it anchored the carnage of the second half in an all too real world.

The whole book is around 200 pages long and it flies by. Sometimes, the dialogue tags can be overdone where a simple ‘said’ would have sufficed, but this is really nit-picking. As soon as Park switches gears and the body count mounts, you won’t be able to put this novella down. Highly recommended, unless you prefer your horror quiet to blood soaked.

(some spoiler filled musings below – do not read unless you’ve read the book!)
 
Spoiler filled thoughts:

Ok, so you’ve read the book, now you can read this bit. Park does such a good job of creating sympathy for Martin that it took me ages to lose it. I think it was probably when he kills Jo that I finally stopped feeling sorry for him – which is about four deaths in! The ending is every bit as devastating as the end of The Mist (film) and for similar reasons.

Should Martin have died at the end? Probably. Pippa? Definitely – it was all her fault after all, but the way the novel closes on her grim discovery is a masterstroke and means that this strong novella will live long in the memory. Now, even as I’ve written that last sentence, I’m not sure how much I believe it. Yes, Pippa’s lies led to Martin’s downfall and imprisonment, but he seemed – in the earlier sections at least – happy to be out and to be content to try and live his life. It was the reaction of the residents, and Polly, that really pushed him over the edge and that wasn’t her fault.

Clever stuff, Mr Park. This really is a fantastic novella.

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David Watkins is a horror writer based in Devon in the UK. His most recent novel is The Devil’s Inn (4* - Joe X. Young, Ginger Nuts of Horror). You can contact him on Twitter via @joshfishkins or Goodreads

The Devil's Inn Kindle Edition by David Watkins

“I don’t want to die in a pub in Devon…”

There is a pub in the heart of Dartmoor where a fire has burned every day for over one hundred and fifty years.

It is said the fire never goes out.
It is said that if it does, the Devil will appear and claim the souls of all inside.

Tonight, seven strangers are stranded there during a fierce snowstorm.
Tonight, the fire will go out…

Praise for David Watkins

"...gut twisting scenes...” 4* Joe X Young, Gingernuts of Horror

"..a damn entertaining read.." - DLS Reviews

"Great horror! I couldn't put the book down" 4.5*, Pamela Kinney, Ismellsheep.com

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