 Have you ever, ever felt like this? Have strange things happened, Are you going round the twist? If you are from Gulpepper, strange things happening to you should be the least of your worries, for this is no quaint odd Australian town where seagulls mass poo on your head or the outside dunny has a friendly ghost. You see, this is the real side of Australia, the side where even their so-called cute national animals are really evil, vicious creatures; if you don't believe me, just check out Alan Baxters Roo or Zachary Ashford's Sole Survivor. And that's where we have an inherent problem with Australian horror fiction. How can anything even begin to compare with the reality of living in a country where everything has the ability and desire to kill you. Those of you who have been following Ginger Nuts of Horror will already be aware that Alan Baxter is an author that we all look forward to reading; he is one of those authors with a rare gift of writing stories that are instantly accessible while also being filled clever twists on commonplace tropes and themes. For example, Devouring Dark is a crime, horror mystery that manages to be all three, yet something altogether different from its component parts. That capacity to find fresh takes on the genre's staples, his ability to turn the familiar into the fantastic, the average into the extraordinary! And that's where a lot of the strength of Alan's writing comes from. The Fall is the sequel to last year's excellent The Gulp, a portmanteau novel that introduced us to the weird, wretched and woebegone town of Gulpepper, a town that will literally swallow you whole if you fail to heed the warnings of the locals. Like all tremendous first books in a series, The Gulp ends on a pernicious cliffhanger that left this reader desperate to know more bout this masterful modern mythos. The Fall, like the previous volume, consists of several disparate stories that at first glance seem entirely isolated and unconnected to each other, as the encompassing narrative that links each of these stories together comes to the fore in the final act of the novel, Baxter weaves all of these seemingly isolated tales into a richly woven fabric of alarming proportions. Those of you who read volume one in The Tales of the Gulp will know that it ended with one of the best cliffhangers in recent years; the revelations about the truth of The Gulp and how the lives of its residents are so intrinsically intertwined will leave you sitting there with your eyes wide open gagging to know more, it's a wonderfully cinematic end to a brilliant novel. The Fall doesn't pick up directly where The Gulp ended; that would be far too simple of a literary device. Instead, it takes its cues from volume one and presents the reader with five seemingly separate stories, but we know, we all know this isn't the case and as we devour these stories with a rampant desire to see the truth. One of the joys of having previously read volume one is you kind of know what is going to come. However, you never truly know, other than nasty things are going to happen, So when Andrew McDermott ignores the warnings of so many locals and stays in the Gulp rather than getting on his motorbike and getting the hell out of town, you will be doing the almost impossible and reading this opening story through your hands, will screaming "you goddamned idiot, what are you doing." This opening novella sets the mood perfectly for the rest of the novel. Baxter builds a suffocating sense of dread and foreboding horror as Andrew visits the local junkshop antique business. Why do people do this? I thought it was common knowledge that places are filled with evil shopkeepers or cursed objects. I will say that when Gulpepper Curios takes a massive handbrake turn into the weird, you won't ever be prepared for what you are about to read. Like a nasty version of Tales of the Unexpected, this opening story is delivered with such a brilliant sense of timing, and, as Baxter rips away the curtain to reveal the truth of Gulpepper, you just know that you are in for another wild ride. The Fall truly is one of those novels where the less you know going in, the better your experience will be by the time you close the back cover and take a massive gulp of fresh air, steadying yourself on something solid as you allow yourself some time to take in what you have just read. Because, trust me, no matter what you think you will encounter, or even if you think you know exactly where this story is going, Baxter will give you a wry smile as he hits you over the head with another brilliant reveal. Some authors have what I call an instant readability factor; I've never managed to explain what I mean by this fully. But Baxter has it in buckets. His narrative style has an effortless grace to it. It picks the reader up in its arms and carries the reader through many stories, filled with nerve-wracking tension, dry as a desert black humour, and some masterfully horrific set-pieces. While still managing to touch on some powerful issues such as domestic abuse and suicide. This is a powerful and thought-provoking tale that Baxter handles with an empathetic eye for the subject matter. As The Fall reaches its conclusion, you can tell that Baxter is having as much fun writing this story as we, the readers, are reading it. He gives it to us while still being able to sidestep us and surprise us with some fist-pumping revelations and the appearance of some well-beloved characters from the previous volume. I love it when an author has this level of synergy with their readers, and he knows what we want. Baxter hints in the afterword that he may not be finished with The Gulp; I hope he isn't, as I would gladly purchase a timeshare in this messed uptown; the Gulp is more than welcome to swallow me up whole. The Fall: Tales From The Gulp 2 |
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