Recent Reads From HELL!

It's been a while since I wrote about the recent books I've read. In this post I will focus on the horror boom books I've recently read. The first two I actually read earlier this year. I started this post and never finished it.

Ever since reading Pin by Andrew Neiderman, I have been trying to include his books in a somewhat regular rotation (there really is no regular rotation--I read many different authors). At the end of last year I read his book The Immortals (Pocket Books, 1991). I have a theory about Neiderman's work. He was published by about every mass market publisher in the 80s, namely Pocket Books, Berkley and Zebra. So far the Zebra books I've read by him are terrible. I mean, they're so bad I feel like he hired a sixth grader to write them. The Pocket Books novels are written and edited well. Maybe he had a shit editor at Zebra. Maybe those are first drafts and his Pocket Books editor worked magic. Who knows.

The Immortals (Pocket Books, 1991) is a story about vanity and the greed, plain and simple. How far will a man go for riches, and to what ends will vain people go for looks. Seems timely, doesn't it. I won't get into the nitty gritty of the story or plot. Basically a salesman takes a job selling miracle cream that works almost instantaneously...but to what end? People become addicted to the stuff, the salesman becomes addicted to the money, and shit goes downhill quickly from there.

It was a fun read. Nowhere near as good as Pin, but probably a runner up for me. The themes are just as relevant today as when he wrote the book, which I found interesting. The best scene has to do with a dolly that the man's employer gives to his daughter. I won't give it away, but I gotta say that was some gruesome shit. It's a fun read, but nothing groundbreaking.

I also read Ronald Kelly's Something Out There (Zebra, 1991) earlier this year. Above I mentioned that it seemed as if Neiderman had a crummy editor at Zebra. This is certainly not the case with Ronald Kelly. That or Ronald is just a far superior writer. This is my second Kelly book, the first being Fear, which is a stand-out coming of age story. Something Out There aka The Dark'Un, is about A family secret on Pale Dove Mountain concerning a race of beings that have lived in concert with humans for many years, but are being pushed to their breaking point by greedy developers. Again, a timely theme, or perhaps a theme that never loses its potency. I live very close to where the story takes place and I see the destruction greedy developers wreck on once beautiful hills, and it's heartbreaking.

I don't want to get into the plot too much. I enjoyed this book, though in the third act it sort of became a men's adventure novel. I'm not a fan of action movies or books, so that part didn't appeal to me. Otherwise, the story is well crafted from beginning to end, with and array of interesting and memorable characters. After reading a couple of Ronald Kelly novels I'm truly shocked that he wasn't rubbing elbows with King and McCammon on the New York Times bestseller list with his work coming out in shiny hardback editions. If you are a fan of those authors, you absolutely have to give Ronald Kelly's books a try. You won't be disappointed.

My most recent Paperback From Hell read was Child of Darkness by David B. Silva (Leisure, 1986). What en excellent story this was. A coming of age story about two young brothers taken in by their aunt and uncle after their parents are torched in the family barn. One of the brothers is suffering from some darkness within, a darkness that is responsible for the fire. Now that they are under a new roof with auntie and uncle, the darkness wants out.

 I liked this one a lot. It was dark and moody, fueled by rich atmosphere. A slow burn that really gets under your skin. There is a small cast of characters, namely the two brothers and their aunt and uncle, which I really like. Too many characters can be hard to focus on (although Ronald Kelly does that with expertise in the aforementioned Something Out There). I really like books that get into the characters' psyche, and Silva worked wonders with a kid who has a few psyches in him. Though Silva's books aren't easy to find (I'm really not sure if they're in print or not, but this old Leisure paperback I have is the only one I've ever seen), but this one is well worth keeping your eye out for.