Scapegoat [Book Review]

Scapegoat - yet another phenomenal book! (I am going to have a tough time narrowing down a "best of" list, at the end of the year.)

Genre - Horror
Year Published - 2018
Published by Honey Badger Press
Length - 224 (digital) pages
Written by Adam Howe & James Newman

Plot Summary:
March 29, 1987. . . For metalheads Mike Rawson, Lonnie Deveroux, and Pork Chop, an RV road trip to Wrestlemania III becomes a one-way ticket to hell. While delivering an illegal shipment of counterfeit wrestling merchandise, an ill-fated shortcut through the Kentucky backwoods leads them to a teenaged girl carved head to toe in arcane symbols. Soon our unlikely heroes are being hunted through the boonies by a cult of religious crazies who make the Westboro Baptists look like choirboys. . . a cult that will stop at nothing to get the girl back and complete a ritual that has held an ancient evil at bay for centuries. . . Until now.

Review:
I am a huge fan of Adam Howe's work. (He has never written a bad book!) If you have read his stories before, then you know how difficult it is to peg him into one genre. This is not a problem with this book. This one is straight-up horror! (No need to worry though, as there are still plenty of Howe's signature twisted moments of humor.)

As for Newman, I had not yet read anything by him, though his name has been on my radar (I own Odd Man Out, I just haven't read it yet - that's going to change.)

The collaboration of these two authors is near perfect, and you will understand why once you have read the Story Notes (another Howe staple).

On with my review. . .

First, I just have to say that any book that starts off with a Stryper quote from To Hell with the Devil is a win in my book.

After a completely harrowing Prologue, we are introduced to the main characters of the story - three best friends, since highschool (who formed the Metal Band Wrathbone), who are reuniting years later (the year is 1987) for an RV roadtrip to WrestleMania III (to watch the epic battle between Hulk Hogan and Andre the  Giant). Along the way, they of course end up getting lost and end up taking a shortcut through the woods, and we all know that nothing good ever comes from doing that!

Being a fellow metal-head, I immediately connected with these characters, each of whom are fleshed out enough where you truly care what happens to them. As for the story itself - it is written at a break-neck pace and ultimately hits you like a locomotive! There is an ominous, terrifying portent given half-way through the book and from there on out it becomes a rising crescendo of horrific insanity. (Chapter 47 is extremely difficult to get through!) And the end. . . I just thought to myself that Clive Barker would be proud!

Rating: 5/5 Skulls