Our Share of Night by Mariana Enriquez

translated by Megan McDowell

As a child from a poor background and with serious health issues, Juan is 'adopted' by the wealthy Bradford family, ostensibly to give him the care he needs but actually to exploit him and his 'magical' abilities - for behind the facade of respectability and money the Bradford family are members of a strange cult, known as The Order, participating in demonic, horrific rituals, and Juan is a natural medium, able to make contact with the Darkness they worship. 

As he grows up, he falls in love and marries into the family, but when his son, Gaspar, is born, Juan is determined that The Order will not manipulate another generation, and he begins to lay plans to ensure Gaspar's safety.

This disturbing book is hard to quantify - part horror, part political tale with parallels to Argentina's military regime, part a story of love between father and son, and the lengths one will go to to save the other. Overall though I'd say it's an examination of the corruption that too much power and wealth can bring. 

It's told in sections, moving backwards and forwards in time, and the Bradford/Reyes family emerge as an untouchable clique, acting beyond moral or legal restraints, with a total disregard for anyone outside the family; imprisoning, torturing, and executing them with impunity.  There are definitely echoes of Argentina's troubled past here. 

Be warned - it's not a book for the squeamish. The rituals are bizarre and grotesque, full of blood-letting and mutilation.  At the time of reading, I found them so disturbing that I wondered whether or not to continue, but I'm glad I did, as the story is about more than the horrors people can inflict on each other. In retrospect, I'd go so far as to say it's life-affirming; that such cruelty is now in the past, and won't be allowed to infect the future.

All The White Spaces by Ally Wilkes

Jo was always envious of older brothers Rufus and Francis; the freedom they were allowed while Jo had to stay at home, their shared plans for the future, particularly their intent to join an expedition to Antarctica led by famous explorer, James 'Australis' Randall. When Rufus and Francis are killed during the Great War, Jo resolves to take up their plan and journey south - even if that means stowing away.

As the expedition leaves any signs of civilisation behind, tension aboard the Fortitude increases. Despite his reputation, not everyone totally trusts him, and the weather conditions are not looking good with too much sea-ice for the time of year, but it's once the Ice proper is reached that things start to go really wrong. A fire forces the crew to leave the ship, taking sleds and heading for the base of a rival German expedition, but this is found empty, and seemingly haunted by ghosts which call men out onto the ice and into terrible danger.

Set in the early 20th century period of great Polar exploration, all The White Spaces is a story of self-discovery and -determination set against a backdrop of  icy wastes and encroaching horror. Arctic/Antarctic stories always have some sort of pull over me - the everlasting days of summer, the equally lengthy nights of winter, the necessity for self-reliance and courage against almost over-whelming odds. So naturally I loved this. The ice and its hazards, the gradually shortening days, the complete isolation are all brilliantly captured, and make the reader feel there in this last human outpost.

The horror is finely balanced - not too much left to the imagination, not too self-explanatory (for want of a better word). Maybe it grows from the men, from their deeply hidden fears or desires, or their memories of the horrors of war - maybe it truly is something lurking in that remote place - but the men's reactions to it feel honest and believable. 

It's a story for both readers of historical adventure and horror. From the historical perspective there are similarities with Shackleton's doomed frozen-in-the-ice expedition, whose outcome I half-expected this story to follow (it doesn't). In fiction, an obvious comparison is Dan Simmons' The Terror, and if you loved that, either in book or on TV, you'll love All The White Spaces, but I preferred this as it doesn't take a real-life mystery and add unnecessary 'make-believe' horror. That element is an integral part of All The White Spaces, and the story better balanced for it.

The Cottingley Cuckoo by A J Elwood

 

 Charlotte Favell, one of the elderly residents at Sunnyside Care Home, has taken a strange interest in Rose, the new member of staff. With an interest in literature and fairy tales, Rose is lured by the old lady's talk of the infamous Cottingley fairies hoax, and the hints that she has letters which prove the existence of the fairies beyond all doubt. More experienced staff at the home warn Rose that Charlotte has played similar tricks before, causing trouble for her carers, but Rose's curiosity is insatiable, even though she feels she's being dragged into a dark web of, perhaps, supernatural events.

I accidentally came across The Cottingley Cuckoo on Twitter, and it probably isn't quite like my usual read but I really enjoyed it. There's a slightly slow start to the story but like Charlotte herself it gradually works its spell and hooks the reader.

 It's a difficult novel to pin down by genre - it has the suspense and twists of a psychological thriller, a tinge of supernatural horror, a subtle lack of clarity over whether Rose is being manipulated, or just an unreliable narrator. There's a clever interweaving of Rose's present day story as she falls under Charlotte's spell, and the old letters, purporting to be written by a Cottingley resident  who actually saw the fairies himself, and could attest to their disruptive and occasionally malevolent ways. At times it seems like everything is merely Rose's imagination, and that Charlotte is just the troublesome old lady the other carers she her as; at times it seems like fairies could be real, and Rose is caught up in something sinister. 

And, although there are hints and common sense alone should raise a warning flag in the reader, the ending still comes as a shock.

Witchbottle by Tom Fletcher

 Once Daniel had a family - a wife and child - and a career, somewhere in a city vaguely 'down south', but now he's living alone, working as a milkman in the rural north-west of England. His job is undemanding, monotonous, but he likes the lack of pressure, and being out driving round the countryside. Recently though odd things have begun to happen - Daniel's seeing ghosts, and it seems like many of his customers are too, and although Daniel's girlfriend can help out with a 'witch bottle' to keep phantoms and nightmares at bay, it seems to be just a stop-gap measure. There's also the mystery surrounding the men driving the Fallen Stock vans, ostensibly they're collecting dead animals from the farms for safe disposal, but Daniel feels they're up to something far more sinister.

It's a synopsis that feels full of dread and suspense, but for my taste it took just too long to get round to the creepy bits. The detail about milk rounds and the quirks of the customers would have been all very well in a different sort of book but here they just seemed drawn out, and unnecessary. When the story eventually gets round to Daniel's nightmares, and the ghostly presences appearing all over the neighbourhood, the chill factor cranks up a notch or two, but it was too little, too late for me. 

Imaginary Friend by Stephen Chbosky

Christopher and his mum Kate never seem to stay in one place very long. He's just started yet another new school, and having trouble finding friends and fitting in.
Then he 'meets' an imaginary friend, the Nice Man, and follows him into the woods near his home; the same woods in which a young boy disappeared 50 years ago. Christopher, too, disappears, but only for six days. On his return, he isn't the same boy. He's suddenly much cleverer than before and now has an obsession with building a treehouse in the middle of the woods - a treehouse which will provide a link between worlds, letting all sorts of evil out ...



Now, I haven't read The Perks of being a Wallflower, but I've seen the film and assumed that this new novel from Stephen Chbosky would be something in a similar vein. Well, fair to say Imaginary Friend wasn't at all what I expected. What you've basically got here is a horror story. It's not a genre I'm a huge fan of - the right story can make my hair stand on end, but so many seem to overdo the build up of tension and I just get irritated with it, and start skipping huge chunks. Sadly, Imaginary Friend falls into the second category. And then God and the Devil somehow got involved, and I really lost interest.


It's far too long. Reading a e-copy I hadn't realised just HOW long - 700+ pages - I'd just felt it dragging on and on. Maybe, just maybe, if it had been shorter it would have held my attention, but it wasn't and it didn't, although I did struggle on till the end.

Maryom's review - 2 stars - though horror fans will probably love it!
Publisher - Orion 
Genre - adult horror, fantasy

The Terror by Dan Simmons

review by Maryom

In 1845 Sir John Franklin led an expedition to discover the North-West Passage, a sea-route passing through the maze of ice and islands that make up Canada's northern coast to reach Alaska and the Pacific Ocean. His two ships - Terror and Erebus - were equipped with the latest steam technology and ice-breaking hulls, but even that wasn't enough to cope with treacherous Arctic conditions, and the ships became trapped in the ice - not just over winter, but throughout an exceptionally cold summer too.
At that point, history leaves the crew marooned with no real explanation of what happened to them - and that's where Dan Simmons steps in with The Terror ...
After two years stuck in the ice, food and coal supplies are getting low, but a greater danger is stalking the expedition; a huge, nameless, formless thing that attacks and kills crew members one by one.

I've had The Terror sitting around on my 'to be read' shelf for a long while, and picked it up just before Halloween thinking it would be a fitting read, but at over 900 pages, it's taken a while to get through. I would say though that at no point in all those pages was I bored!
As you've probably surmised, the story is a mix of historical adventure and horror - and to be honest I found the history of the expedition fascinating and didn't think the story needed the horror aspect.
I was aware to a certain extent of the Franklin expedition and its search for the North-West passage, but only in the briefest way. Simmons brings those bare facts and dates to life; the conditions on board ship, the extensive supplies designed to last five years, the hopefulness and enthusiasm at the beginning of the voyage and gradual decline in moral as both officers and men realise that they're stuck not merely overwinter (which is to be expected) but through summer and at least another winter in the ice. I was particularly impressed with how Simmons used a mix of flashbacks and conversations to flesh in the details of past voyages to both Arctic and Antarctic, without having to fall back on just listing events. The descriptions of long, dark endless nights, the sound and feel of ice moving and cracking bring the almost alien surroundings vividly to life.
The horror didn't grab me, or frighten me as much, but I wasn't worried; the whole story of the Franklin expedition is a mystery, and fascinating as such, so this is an excellent read as a fictional version of an intriguing piece of history. (For anyone interested, I read somewhere recently that the Erebus may have been discovered at last, making this a doubly timely read)

Maryom's review - 4 stars 
Publisher - Bantam Press
Genre - adult, exploration, arctic 

The Ice Lands by Steinar Bragi

review by Maryom

Four thirty-something friends have headed off into the wild interior of Iceland on a camping trip. The two guys, Egill and Hrafin, have been friends since childhood, and over the years have had their falling-outs and getting-back togethers but old resentments still linger; their partners, Anna and Vigdis, are comparative strangers who don't really get on. The trip is supposed to be a time to bond, as a group, and with nature, but Icelandic nature can be inhospitable, tempers are quick to flare, and an argument and the sudden dropping of heavy fog lead to their jeep crashing into a farmhouse. The four seek refuge inside, but the elderly couple who live there seem strange, insisting on barricading the only door at night for fear of something which lurks outside. As the group's attempts to get back to 'civilisation' fail time and again, the behaviour of the couple becomes even weirder, and the odd things found in the vicinity - dead animals, an abandoned village, piles of bones - lead them to wonder what exactly they've inadvertently discovered.

The Ice Lands is a mix of psycholgical thriller and horror tale following that well-tested plot in which city folk head off into the wilds and encounter more than they'd bargained for - think Blair Witch Project or House of Wax, depending on your preference in horror. So, I'd expected something straight forward along these lines (and if it's done well I do love a good horror) and there are a lot of very creepy moments as, splitting into various sub-groups, the friends explore the area, try to drive or walk to the nearest town, and end up circling back to the strange farmhouse that sits at the centre of this puzzle. Intermittently the story line is broken by flashbacks to the past histories of the four, and I somehow assumed these were irrelevant - just so much padding to lengthen what would have been a short story - but the ending made me realise I'd been wrong-footed; I changed my mind, decided they WERE an integral part of the overall plot, and wished I'd paid closer attention to them. For this is a story with a very odd ending - the sort that makes you reassess everything that's gone before and leave you wondering how much was 'real', and how much was taking place in someone's mind.

The other stand-out feature is the barren, sandy terrain of Iceland. The volcanic landscape is totally hostile to life; no trees or grass, just mile after mile of empty dessert where a breeze can easily whip up and impenetrable sand storm. Definitely not the place for your car to break down! 

Maryom's review - 3 stars 
Publisher -  Macmillan
Genre - Adult Translated Fiction, horror, psychological thriller

The Loney by Andrew Michael Hurley

review by Maryom

In the north-west of England lies an empty, flat stretch of coastline known as the Loney; a place where few people live, sand shifts with the tides sweeping across the bay, and the unwary are caught out by rapidly rising water. When storms cause a landslide on the tidal island of Coldbarrow, and the body of a baby is discovered, the narrator is drawn back into events which unfolded thirty years ago. He and his family were part of a church group visiting a shrine in this remote area, in the hope that his brother, Hanny, born with speech and learning difficulties, would be miraculously cured, but boys left to find their own amusement tend to gravitate towards trouble, and things didn't go quite according to plan ...

The Loney was one of the options offered as a read for my book club, and, having heard so much praise for it, I was eager to read it.

Hurley creates the setting brilliantly - the desolate coast, mud flats quickly covered by incoming tides, inhospitable locals, strange objects and hidden rooms found in the holiday house. It all adds up to a tense, eerie atmosphere. I could feel the wind whipping in from the sea, the sands shifting beneath my feet, and imagine the causeway leading out across the flat expanse of mud, but as the story progressed I felt the creation of atmosphere wasn't enough.
It's clear that events are moving towards a big reveal, but somehow it didn't deliver for me,and this is what . A lot of the set up - people revisiting a place after several years absence, strange behaviour of the locals who appear to be part of a pagan cult, remote setting -  all these things feel familiar even if only from films such as The Wicker Man or Hot Fuzz, so there's ample warning of what might happen as events unfold. Even when the crucial event, on which the whole plot revolves, is revealed, I thought, yep, seen that on Babylon 5 (though it's a fairly common sci-fi/fantasy trope which you might have encountered somewhere else).
Although I felt the ending just a little too predictable, the writing makes this book worth a read, and I actually wonder if my rating of it might improve another time - after all, for the second, third, subsequent readings I would know how events unfold, and not be expecting a big surprise.

Maryom's review - 3.5 stars

Publisher - John Murray (Publishers)

Genre - Adult Fiction, horror

The Creeper Man by Dawn Kurtagich

review by Maryom

Silla and Nori have run away from their London home, seeking refuge from their abusive father, and heading for the only place Silla can think of - their Aunt Cath's country manor house. At first it seems like a haven, but Aunt Cath is afraid of the surrounding woods and the Creeper Man who lives in them, and gradually her fears overcome her. She retreats to the attic, leaving the girls to fend for themselves, as the trees appear to move closer to the house and the shadows take on the form of a man creeping along...

Admittedly, I'd expected something scary from the cover but I was surprised just HOW tense and horrific this turned out to be. 
The atmosphere is spooky from the start - an isolated old house in the middle of a wood is just the ideal location for anything mysterious, and this one is painted the colour of blood outside, and dark and cobwebby inside, with strange noises in the night; the perfect setting for a horror movie!
After a brief lull, Kurtagich starts to raise the tension bit by bit, with Aunt Cath's descent into madness, and the arrival of a boy, Gowan, who claims to offer help, but whom Silla feels she daren't trust. Meanwhile, the trees creep ever nearer, claustrophobia builds, and the terrors outside work their way into the house. 
I don't normally consider myself a reader of horror stories but this really grabbed me. It's told mainly in the first person from Silla's point of view, with occasional flashbacks to when her mum and Aunt Cath were young and first summoned the Creeper Man, diary entries written in the 'Broken Book' and snippets of Nori's thoughts; they all add to the atmosphere, and keep the reader guessing whether events really are unfolding as SIlla imagines, or if the horrors are only in her head.
It's obviously not a book for the easily frightened or squeamish, but for lovers of the dark, twisted and creepy it's a must-read ... just maybe not alone, in the dark ...




Maryom's review - 5 stars 
Publisher - Orion Books
Genre - teen, horror thriller

North of Porter by Kirkland Ciccone

Review by The Mole

Porter's parents decide to move to Castlecrankie because they see an opportunity. He arrives in a car he can't get out of because his parents have removed the door handles to ensure he doesn't escape. Porter's life is not a happy one - but you can guess that. Castlecrankie is a placed troubled by strikes, mysterious deaths and Aliens. But that is why his parents have taken him there; they see an opportunity to make money out of this and Porter will help them - whether he wants to or not.

Porter is a child who doesn't make friends easily and is on medication after his breakdown - a breakdown not helped when he discovered his brother in a suitcase.

With this, Ciccone's third book, the plotting is stronger (not that it was ever weak!), the story more believable and the characters more easily identified with.

I loved the quirkiness of this story - not humorous fantasy, which is a genre I love - but more conspiracy theory put into context. Porter has personal issues. And voices. It took me a little while to understand that the speech that was crossed out in the text is actually the voice inside his head - is it his brother? And Porter is OCD and it manifests itself, in part, by a terror of walking on cracks in the pavement. And Porter makes a friend at his new school - a full-on kleptomaniac who tries to shoplift an ironing board!

Quirkiness and bizarrity in every corner of this book but it's a serious story, told with a little humour, that will have you sitting back and wondering about the ending.

Well done Kirkland - another great story very well told.

Publisher - Strident Publishing
Genre - YA/teen horror, mystery

Slade House by David Mitchell

review by Maryom

" Turn down Slade Alley - narrow, dank and easy to miss, even when you're looking for it. Find the small black iron door set into the right-hand wall. No handle, no keyhole, but at your touch it swings open. Enter the sunlit garden of an old house that doesn't quite make sense; too grand for the shabby neighbourhood, too large for the space it occupies."

This strange building, Slade House, lies at the heart of David Mitchell's latest novel like an evil witch's hovel in some ghostly horror tale - and every nine years someone is enticed within its walls and never seen again! In 1979, a mother and son are invited to a musical garden party; nine years later, Detective Inspector Edmonds is following up a lead to their disappearance; another nine years, and a group of students investigating paranormal activities find their way to Slade House; in 2006 the journalist sister of one of those students comes seeking further information; and in 2015 a Canadian psychiatrist with an interest in abduction psychoses finds her way into the mysterious garden of Slade House. With each section the tension builds, a little bit more of the House's origins are revealed, and the horror that lies at its heart grows....

 I've been longing to read this book since I heard David Mitchell read the opening section at Hay Festival last May, but as always there seemed to be something else that needed to be read first so it's taken me quite a while to get round to it. That taster definitely set the tone for the book with that 'read if you dare' feel of a good ghost or horror story, which terrifies you but encourages you to carry on reading; you know that no matter how scary, you are NOT going to put this book down till the end!
 I've fairly recently read The Bone Clocks for my book club, and while I enjoyed it, it was a slow drawn-out read; Slade House is the opposite. Possibly because at 230 or so pages it's a lot shorter than other David Mitchell books, possibly because of the way the story falls into five almost self-contained parts, possibly because each section lures the reader towards both its own climax and then the next 'episode', I raced through it.
 With the book splitting into five self-contained sections, you might expect a slight skimping on character development, but no, with the skill of a short-story teller, Mitchell develops each and all of them, relating the stories in first person to make the reader privy to their thoughts and attitudes. We're introduced to an autistic boy struggling to quite 'fit', a world-weary policeman still gullible enough to be seduced by an attractive woman, students with their mix of attitude and cool, a journalist plagued by guilt, - every one a believable 'real' person.
 Slade House inhabits the same 'world' as The Bone Clocks, and makes several passing references to events and characters from it, but stands alone, so there's no real need to have read one to enjoy the other. I actually think if you've heard of David Mitchell, and been intending reading his novels but been put off by the length, Slade House is a brilliant place to start.



Maryom's review -  5 stars
Publisher -  Sceptre
Genre - ghost/horror stories,

Sand Men by Christopher Fowler

Review by The Mole

Lea, Roy and their 15 year old daughter, Cara, have moved Dubai as Roy searches for work. Roy has been recruited to help build a luxury and exclusive holiday resort for the super rich - but health and safety standards are poor and workers keep dying deaths that should not be happening.

Lea is a journalist but is now expected to be a "stay at home" wife focussed on cooking and hosting dinners, but that's not enough for her - she wants to get into local journalism and pursue her own career. She starts to write articles for a local magazine, focussed on how great life is, and will be, at the resort when she hears about children who have gone missing from the construction town.

Christopher Fowler is probably best know for his Bryant and May stories -  stories of murder and detection with a fair bit of humour on the side - but this is a very different kind of novel. From the start the reader is aware that there is at least one mystery death and we are waiting for more. Lea, the main voice of the story, is unaware for a while and when she does hear then these "industrial accidents" are explained with a full technical cause. The pace starts slowly as Lea suspects nothing untoward and it takes a while before the pace really starts to race towards the book's conclusion but is it all paraphrenia?

Having read only the Bryant and May books before I was taken aback by the significant change of style in this book - everything is done differently - and once I got over that I thought it worked magnificently. Fowler is described as a master of horror and crime and this story reaffirms that title. A brilliantly plotted and told story of truly horrific crimes.

Put aside any expectations from Fowler's previous books and you will enjoy this from page one.

Publisher - Solaris

Genre - adult fiction,  crime mystery

Bird Box by Josh Malerman

 

 review by Maryom

"Something" has been driving people to madness and suicide. At first there are just a few isolated cases but soon it builds to epidemic proportions. The only way to avoid the madness is to not see this unknown "thing", which leaves the few survivors huddled behind backed-out windows, and only venturing outside blindfolded. Malorie has survived alone in these conditions for four years, and raised two children. Now she feels it's time to strike out and meet up with other survivors, so, with eyes tightly blindfolded, the three of them head for the river and a terrifying journey in search of safety.

 When Birdbox first came out, I somehow had this logged in my mind as horror fiction which isn't really my kind of thing, so I didn't bother reading it. Then I heard people talking about it on social media, describing it as more of a post-apocalyptic dystopian story, and this was reinforced by a first chapter sampler which left me wanting to read more, so at last, having spotted a copy at the library, I've read it!

Did it live up to my expectations? Well, a little bit 'yes' and 'no'.
Josh Malerman certainly knows how to build up tension and fear, and keep it cranked up! Imagine someone or something was stalking you but that the one thing you shouldn't do was open your eyes to see if this 'thing' was there! In this respect I found it playing on my fears of absolute darkness the way Michelle Paver's Dark Matter did, coupled with a terror of what might be lurking outside my windows. It is most definitely a book you won't want to put down!
The downside for me came when I felt the author had milked the horror for all it was worth, and the post-apocalyptic story-line fell in to the same-old, tried and tested way of such things; a group of survivors make it to a safe house but ultimately everything goes pear-shaped (this isn't a plot spoiler as we know from the outset that Malorie has been living there alone for several years).
It isn't a book I'd re-read, there aren't enough plot twists or character development for that, but on the other hand I'd be very willing to read another by the same author.



I've tagged it as 'adult' which is its target audience, but horror-loving teens will delight in it too.


Maryom's review - 4
Publisher - Harper Collins (Harper Voyager)
Genre - Adult, horror, post-apocalyptic,



harpervoyager

Endless Empress by Kirkland Ciccone

A Mass Murder's Guide to Dictatorship in the Fictional World of Enkadar 

Review by The Mole

Portia was attacked by a serial killer as a child but managed to escape with her life after being tortured. Now she is suffering from the effects of Post Traumatic Stress and has created an imaginary world - Enkadar. Slowly she has drawn her friends into her imaginary world.

Being "different" at school is always troublesome and Portia, the now self-styled Endless Empress, is bullied and ridiculed along with her friends. Revenge is on the cards and did I tell you that this group of friends contains the academically astute in the school? Revenge will be planned, revenge will be sweet, revenge will be awesome and deadly.

With over one thousand dead in the school will the real world let it stop at that or are Enkadar and The Real World of Milordahl at war? And where will it stop? Will it stop?

Many moons ago I was walking in Glen Nevis with the family when I stepped between some tall rocks and there before me was a hidden valley - it was a shock and a truly awesome moment and Kirkland's first book Conjuring The Infinite contains such a moment when the book suddenly, within a paragraph, swings around. It did go on to win a Catalyst Award. This being Kirkland's second book I was intrigued as to what I would find - more of the same? Travelling to that hidden valley a second time was nothing like as impacting.

What I got was something totally different but still as mind-jangling. Mind-jangling and frightening at the same time. Frightening? We have all known Portia at some point in our lives... that kid who is "different" to the point they are best avoided for our own comfort - although they are often made fun of and bullied. What if they decided to take revenge?

Molly, a self styled journalist, acts as a focus to gather the history of the Endless Empress together and to try to find her because while some say the Empress is dead, many say she is not. It's difficult to understand at first why Molly is so persistent but let's not discount the X39 bus either.

The story has many threads winding through it and as a reader I found it confusing to follow each thread into the next knot for Molly to untie but when she does all becomes clear except that there is another knot looming. Lots of action and explosions and sandwiches - there really is something for everyone in here.

A second book every bit as good as the first but every bit as different too. I absolutely loved it and expect it to do as well as his first. Brilliantly conceived and executed.

Publisher - Strident Publishing
Genre - YA/teen horror, Fantasy

Sugar Hall by Tiffany Murray

review by Maryom

 Following the death of his father, young Dieter Sugar is now the heir of the rambling family home, Sugar Hall, on the English/Welsh border within sight of the river Severn. Left penniless, his mother Lilia decides the best thing to do is move from London to Sugar Hall, to see if it's possible to live there with her two children, selling off family heirlooms and valuables as necessary. More things have been inherited though than bricks and mortar or works of art....
 Exploring the grounds and outbuildings of his new home, Dieter meets a silent boy wearing nothing but a silver collar. At first he's terrified but still something drags him back, and he decides he and the boy will be friends; Dieter finds him clothes and food, and the boy grows in size and substance, begins to speak and lead Dieter off on dangerous games....

Now, I don't usually get on well with ghost stories written for adults - they either fall flat for me and aren't scary at all, or go too far the other direction ending up so over the top they're comic. So, since reading Chris Priestley's The Dead of Winter , a 'teen' book, and Michelle Paver's Dark Matter, I've being searching for another ghost story that truly sent the shivers up and down my spine - and I'm happy to say I've found it at last.
There's no doubt that right from the start we're dealing with ghosts at Sugar Hall - Dieter's terror on the first page convinces the reader of that, even if his family don't realise. The hook here is what horror will this ghostly boy unleash on the family?

The house itself is the perfect setting for a horror story; it's meant to be lived in by a large family with an even larger staff, so, with only three people there, it's spooky enough on its own. There are too many rooms, filled with disused furniture, stuffed animals and collections of pinned-down butterflies and moths; furniture and ornaments seem to move about of their own volition; odd noises are heard at night; the giant moths on the wallpaper seem to flutter in the lamplight; - there's no wonder that Lilia decides everyone is best sleeping in one bedroom!
Part of what I loved was that it's not just a 'simple' ghost story. There are hints at how the money behind Sugar Hall was made, with glimpses of the desperate lives of its slaves,while in its 'current' timeline, there's the buzz surrounding the trial and death of Ruth Ellis. Lilia, having already built a new life in England as part of the Kindertransport, is trying to build another after the death of her husband, while daughter Saskia is full of teenage dreams and wants to escape back to London. Interspersing their stories with Dieter's ghostly encounters, increases the growing feeling of dread, a sense that something evil has been unleashed - and not for the first time. It all adds up to a spine-shivering, unputdownable read.


Maryom's review - 5 stars
Publisher - Seren Books
Genre - adult horror ghost story

Krabat by Otfried Preussler

Review by The Mole

Krabat is a young beggar boy who, when he is 14, hears a voice inside his head calling him to a mill in the middle of a fen. He leaves his friends and sets off to find the mill. When asking directions he is warned about it's mysteries but heedless of the warnings he goes to the mill and is apprenticed to the miller. But this is no ordinary mill or miller for this mill is a "Black School" and the miller is its teacher of the black art of necromancy. Krabat lives and eats with the 11 journeyman living there.

And then, at new year, Tonda - one of the journeymen who has become Krabat's friend and advisor - dies mysteriously and the remaining journeymen advise and instruct Krabat to forget about Tonda, something he cannot do. The very next day, released from his apprenticeship, Krabat and the journeyman find a new apprentice on Tonda's bed.

Exactly one year later the cycle starts again and this time it's Michal that is killed. Once again the advice is to forget Michal but instead Krabat swears to avenge their deaths. As the year goes round Krabat starts to wonder if he is next and what, if anything, he can do about it.

Originally written in 1972 this is a book that will, I'm sure, remain a timeless classic. Its start introduces us to a young innocent beggar who carol sings to earn money - not beg or steal or even scavenge and the reader immediately warms to this young lad. The events of the story unfold continuously and the reader really is compelled to just keep on reading - perhaps Preussler has studied some black art himself to achieve this?

The book is dark and tense throughout but has no really terrifying parts at all. Although Krabat ages at a faster than normal rate (something caused by the mill) I was never in any doubt that this was a children's book - even when the end came or deaths occurred I was still in do doubt.

A book for Halloween? Definitely - although not JUST for Halloween but for any time, especially those long, dark, cold winter evenings... Don't let it spoil your dreams though. Did I say dreams?...

Publisher - The Friday Project

Genre - Children's horror, 12+

The Dead Men Stood Together by Chris Priestley

 review by Maryom

Lured by tales of adventure and far-off lands, a boy jumps at the chance to join his uncle's latest voyage. This trip won't be like any he's previously made with his father, up and down the coast - and before long, he's wishing he'd never set sail! A storm takes the ship and blows her hundreds, maybe thousands, of miles off course into a frozen waste where icebergs loom and the sea freezes. As the ship becomes held fast by the ice, the crew become restless and bored. The monotony is only broken by the visits of an albatross, who quickly becomes a pet of the crew. Then the unthinkable happens, showing off about his skill with the crossbow, the Uncle shoots the bird - and the real trouble starts. Suddenly freed from the ice, the ship is blown to an area of intense heat and lies becalmed, at the mercy of whoever, or whatever, may find them.

In case you hadn't guessed by now, The Dead Men Stood Together, is a re-telling of Coleridge's The Rime of the Ancient Mariner. If you've memories of a dull, dragging, endless poem, stumbled through in the classroom, then think again. While keeping a 'period' feel to it, Priestley casts a fresh eye on the tale; telling it from the point of view of the Mariner's unnamed nephew - sharing his delight at heading off to sea and then his growing horror as events unfold. I was absolutely gripped!

A story to delight lovers of both sea-faring and horror stories, although aimed at older children and teens, its wonderfully tense and atmospheric style will have adults hooked too. With most children's books I try to get inside the head of the supposed reader, but with Chris Priestley's I don't have to - he doesn't talk down to his readers and his The Dead of Winter is one of the scariest books I've read!

Maryom's review -  5 stars
Publisher - Bloomsbury
Genre - children's fiction, horror


Buy The Dead Men Stood Together from Amazon

Conjuring The Infinite by Kirkland Ciccone

Review by The Mole

The Cottage is a home for troubled teenagers, ones who haven't fitted in to other care institutions - a last resort - and it's run by a woman known only as Mother. One of their number, Seth Kevorkian, has been murdered and after the funeral the staff and residents start to open up about the Seth they knew - the Seth Mother thought was faultless and kind. But it appears that Seth was planning some form of Armageddon and has it started?

This book was very different to the book I expected. I can find it very hard to write a review for a book I liked - does that sound silly? It's easy to write a glowing review as a sycophantic favour but here we won't do that so when you get a book you really enjoy then how can you underline sincerity? Let's try.

The story starts a little slowly and we meet each of the characters one at a time and unlike so many books I found I couldn't 'get inside their heads'. As I read on I realised that was because Ciccone didn't want us going there - these teenagers were mentally damaged we weren't welcome. As the story builds up we get swept into believing the story as the plot unfolds. I found myself expecting, and wondering how Ciccone was going to manage this, when suddenly one of the characters enters again and Ciccone manages to somehow use this person to make fun of the whole thing. Or does he? Or does Seth get the last laugh?

A real breath of fresh air in the horror story line. Tense and exciting yet down to earth and realistic with perhaps just an inkling of satire at the same time - and maybe a little more horrifying for that. Described as Young Adult/Adult or 'crossover' I found this really worked for me. But unlike so many books that you put down and you want to know more and keep reading I felt that I knew enough, thank you, if not too much. Pass me a book on comic Guinea pigs please!

Publisher - Strident Publishing
Genre - YA/Adult horror, Fantasy

Buy Conjuring the Infinite from Amazon

Transformation by Rab Swannock Fulton

We're moving today from friendly fun-loving ghosts to a far more sinister, shape-shifting creature from Irish folk-lore, the Pooka....

review by Maryom

Donnacha and Eimir meet, fall in love and plan to marry. A happy ending is in view until they realise that they've inadvertently antagonised an evil spirit which is now bent on their destruction. At first Donnacha tries to pass it off as an hallucination but as it grows in power there's no denying it's physical presence and impact on their lives.

As in all good horror stories, Transformation is told in the first person with Donnacha reflecting on the seemingly trivial mistakes that brought him to the dreadful point he's now reached. I found things started rather slowly - there was a lot of setting up the background and getting the romance going - but after the incident where Donnacha offends the pooka I was gripped by the rising tension leading to a truly terrifying ending. Unusually, I couldn't see where the story was leading - though I don't really want to mention more of the plot as that, obviously, would spoil things. Just be warned this isn't a nice, grown-up yet cutesy fairy tale but a violent, blood-curdling one!
It's quite short - novella length at 117 pages - so you could download it and read it tonight - just the thing to scare yourself for Halloween.

Maryom's review -  4 stars
Genre - Adult, Folk/Fairy tale

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The Daylight Gate by Jeanette Winterson

review by Maryom


"Can a man be maimed by witchcraft? Can a severed head speak? Based on the most notorious of English witch-trials, this is a tale of magic, superstition, conscience and ruthless murder. It is set in a time when politics and religion were closely intertwined; when, following the Gunpowder Plot of 1605, every Catholic conspirator fled to a wild and untamed place far from the reach of London law. This is Lancashire. This is Pendle. This is witch country."

I discovered this book via a post on the Beauty Is A Sleeping Cat blog  about the level of violence portrayed in it and thought I'd read it as a) the Pendle Witches have always intrigued me and b) it's not possible to comment without having read a book. So I nipped off to the library and ordered a copy. I didn't find it too gruesome. I felt the violence was presented in a rather cold clinical way from the perpetrators' view not the victims' - which made it very cold, calculated and callous - but not really stomach churning.

My main reaction to this novel sadly was one of disappointment. From the back-cover blurb quoted above I'd expected an uncovering of socio-economic, political and religious issues leading to the victimisation of the so-called witches. This is what I've always believed to have been at the heart of these witch trials (in fact most such trials) but instead this is a story where magic DOES exist, where pins stuck into a rag doll really CAN harm a man and spiders can talk and offer advice.

I only realised as I started to write this review that the publisher was Hammer - of horror movie fame. If I'd noticed I'd maybe not have been surprised that the horror element was played up at the expense of dull reality.

Maryom's review - 3 stars
Publisher - Arrow Books in association with Hammer
Genre - Adult, Horror, Witchcraft, Historical Fiction