Saturday, November 30, 2019

Hollow Heart: A Horror Novella

I am a big fan of Crystal Lake Publishing. You can pretty much randomly pick any book out of their library and know that you are going to enjoy it. 

With that said, Hollow Heart was a bit of a misfire for me. I love small town/cosmic horror stories, but I just wasn't invested in the characters in this story (except for Mary, maybe). 

Aside from the disconnection, Ben Eads writing was on point. His style sparks the imagination, and he was able to hold my attention as my curiosity (to what was going on - snow/redwood trees in Florida, a mysterious letter, power outages, vanishing roads, etc) never diminished.

3/5 Skulls

Here is the book's synopsis:

"Welcome to Shady Hills, Florida, where death is the beginning and pain is the only true Art…

Harold Stoe was a proud Marine until an insurgent’s bullet relegated him to a wheelchair. Now the only things he’s proud of are quitting alcohol and raising his sixteen-year-old son, Dale.

But there is an infernal rhythm, beating like a diseased heart from the hollow behind his home. An aberration known as The Architect has finished his masterpiece: A god which slumbers beneath the hollow, hell-bent on changing the world into its own image.

As the body count rises and the neighborhood residents change into mindless, shambling horrors, Harold and his former lover, Mary, begin their harrowing journey into the world within the hollow. If they fail, the hollow will expand to infinity. Every living being will be stripped of flesh and muscle, their nerves wrapped tightly around ribcages, so The Architect can play his sick music through them loud enough to swallow what gives them life: The last vestiges of a dying star."

Friday, November 29, 2019

Resurrection Man

My favorite independent horror author, Franklin E. Wales, has just released a new novella titled Resurrection Man, available in paperback as well as digital. All bias aside, this one will, most-likely, get my vote for "Best Novella of the Year".

It is a story told in first-person (from a Pathologist's point-of-view) with a hard-boiled detective feel to it. Due to its size (under 120 pages) I do not want to give anything else away, though I will tell you that I absolutely love the Epilogue to this story! (It would make for a killer Pilot/TV series!)

Here is the book's synopsis:

"For two hundred years, pastors of unknown origins have set up tent revivals on the outskirts of small towns, preaching their messages of salvation and healing. Are they really seeking to save your soul? Are they hustlers who just want your money? Or, is it something even more sinister? Although he’d attended many such revivals as a child, city morgue pathologist Cornelius never gave it much thought… until the dead woman on his table spoke to him."

5/5 Skulls

P. S. If you are unfamiliar with Wales' work, he is a master story teller! I have read every single one of his books, and NONE disappoint!