Shine on...

Here at IRR, we are gearing up for my favorite holiday, Halloween! To start the scary book parade off, here's a review of the Master, Stephen King's latest offering, a long-anticipated sequel to his classic, The Shining!

Stepping in to guest review is my amazingly talented husband, Kevin. I always said I'd only marry someone who read more than me and I'm so happy I found that guy!

I have been reading Stephen King a long time.  After watching the “Salem’s Lot” miniseries in November 1979, I went to the local bookstore and immediately bought and read the book.  And by this time King had already published such classics as “The Shining” and “The Stand,” so I had more books to obsessively read during the remainder of 1979 when I should have been studying for finals and writing term papers like a Good English Major.  I still haven’t recovered from those initial reads: I can’t look out a darkened window without seeing the Glick boy’s floating body scraping his fingernails against the glass and asking me to let him in.  And I NEVER use a bathroom without first opening the shower curtain and making sure the bathtub is empty.  The dark is not and never will be my friend.

But I approached the sequel to “The Shining:” “Doctor Sleep” with some trepidation.  I have kept up with King in the decades since I first read him, but ran hot and cold with his novels.  Some I loved, some I liked, and some I didn’t even finish.

And a few of the early reviews made me wary.  “The Guardian,” for instance, praised the novel but also noted that unlike the first book it was just “not scary.”

And I have to agree that “Doctor Sleep” is not a particularly scary book.  Sure, it has moments that got the blood running a little cold – in particular when some of the less pleasant guests of the Overlook Hotel come south and visit Danny in his new home in Florida - but this novel is more thriller than horror story.

In the book’s Afterword, King does an excellent job of summing up his own trepidation about revisiting the character  from “The Shining” as well as the task of writing a sequel:

“I like to think I’m still pretty good at what I do, but nothing can live up to he memory of a good scare, and I meannothing, especially if administered to one who is young and impressionable.”

However, King is a better writer than he was back in the 1970’s and he knows how to tell a story and move a plot.  And this is a good one.  In the early section, as noted, he revisits the events of  “The Shining” and in doing so brings us up to date.  Danny Torrance has grown into Dan Torrance, and like his father (and King) he has grown into an alcoholic.  In an effective but mercifully short section, we see Dan hit rock bottom.  Living with his unique powers turns out to be bearable only when those powers are dulled by drugs and alcohol.

But then Dan has the opportunity to use his “Shine” to help a young girl in need, much like he was helped by an Overlook Hotel cook with a special gift named Dick Hallorann.  As it turns out, there are a group of unpleasant individuals called “The True Knot” who gain strength and a form of immortality from the suffering and death of people and in particular those with the Shine.  This young girl, Abra Stone, has an unusually strong Shine and has attracted the attention of the True Knot.

The meeting with Abra happens after Dan’s travels take him to New England to a post card pretty town where he takes up residence and works as an orderly at a local hospice.  King borrows the recent headline-grabbing story of the cat that seemed to know when patients are going to die and would crawl into bed with them.  In “Doctor Sleep” the cat is named Azzie, and works as kind of a partner to Dan.  Azzie gets in bed with those about to pass and waits for Dan to arrive.  Azzie then hops off and leaves Dan to help the dying pass peacefully into whatever it is that comes next by sending them to a peaceful and final sleep.  Sounds trite but King handles this with a deft hand that doesn’t feel sentimental or contrived.  He also handles the relationship between Dan and Abra Stone with a nice touch.  King does coming of age and the growth of the young from innocence into experience particularly well and that is evident here.

Battles between good and evil can be trite, but King deftly handles this battle by creating three-dimensional characters that have shades of gray.  Even the members of the True Knot have bits of humanity compassion – if only for each other.  One of the things I like most about King is his basic humanity and that shines through in this book.  We see the dark side but also on display is the better side of humanity.  And this book contains a spirituality that even an agnostic like myself can feel comfortable with experiencing.

There is also a good bit of humor here.  Making the True Knot into members of an RV Camping club – retirees driving around the country in their Winnebago’s and Bounders while killing children and living off the pain and suffering of the people (who they derisively refer to as “rubes”) - has a dark humorous irony to it.

Ultimately, I think readers who enjoy King the writer who gave us “Joyland” or the earlier novels and stories such as “The Dead Zone” or “The Green Mile” or “Hearts in Atlantis,” will find much to like here.

Well done, Kev!  The only way I could think of to improve The Shining would have been to add a cat and I'm thrilled that King has covered that element in the sequel.  King fans, have you read Dr. Sleep?  What did you think?  

Look for more horror book reviews in the next week as we gear up for All Hallow's Eve!  Got a spooky book suggestion? Please leave it in the comments, I'm always looking for my next good scare!

Back in Black!

We're nearing the end of our Halloween scary book extravaganza and I've saved one of the best of the lot to finish up with.  The Woman in Black by Susan Hill is a wonderful ghost story in the tradition of both M.R. James and Shirley Jackson.  The first time I read the book, I was living alone in an apartment in a big, old, Victorian home and I absolutely could not sleep.  I couldn't turn off  the lights.  I couldn't close my eyes for fear of what might be waiting when I opened them.  Isn't this sort of reaction what we all want from a good ghost story?

This classic ghost story is, at it's heart, as simple as they come.  It is about a menacing and malevolent spirit that haunts a small English village.  Our story begins with the successful young solicitor, Arthur Kipps and his journey to the remote village of Crythin Gifford to represent his firm at the funeral of one of their clients, a Mrs. Alice Drablow.  As Arthur attempts to settle Mrs. Drablow's affairs at the eerily named Eel March House, a series of dark and disturbing happenings serve to distract and unnerve him.  As these events escalate and Arthur struggles to uncover the secrets of Eel March house and the dreaded Woman in Black,  the reader is racing toward an ending that is both tragic and shocking. 

The level of terror and suspense that Hill creates in The Woman in Black is almost unmatched in any modern ghost story.  The book has rightfully become something of a classic and it has been made into an incredibly successful play, as well as a television film and, coming in 2012, a major motion picture starring one of my favorites, the extraordinarily talented Ciaran Hinds and some guy who played a wizard or something as the lead.  Here's a quick look at the trailer:

I am crazy excited about this film, as it appears that they have followed the book fairly closely and the look of the film is deliciously spooky!  I can't wait!  In the mean time, if you haven't read Susan Hill's The Woman in Black, you simply must.  Why not get an early start on your Halloween celebration?  Just be sure and leave the lights on!

Don't Look Now...

If you base your opinion of Daphne DuMaurier's writing talent on seeing the films based on her work, mainly Don't Look Now and The Birds, stop it at once and go and get this book of her short stories.  Included in this lovely NYRB edition, edited by Patrick McGrath, are the stories on which those two films are based and they are so much scarier and way more bizarre than the films.  I loved Du Maurier's novels, but it is in the short story arena that her genius really shines.

The printed version of Don't Look Now and The Birds are both far more frightening than  their film counterparts.  The Birds, especially, is an amazing piece of work.  The sense of tension and isolation that DDM builds throughout that story is chilling.  When the end comes, sad as it is, it is also quite a relief.  Pretty much every story in this collection is a winner.  One of my favorite DDM short stories, The Blue Lenses is included, and for those who haven't encountered this one before, you are in for a treat!  A woman goes into a London hospital for some routine eye surgery and awakes to see the world in a new and horrifying way.  Another favorite, Kiss Me Again Stranger finds a young man who becomes obsessively attracted to an usherette that he sees in a theater.  He follows her onto a bus and let's just say he ends up regretting this attraction in the denouement of this very dark tale.

So, if you haven't experienced the wonder of Daphne DuMaurier's short stories, I cannot recommend this amazing collection strongly enough.  Yes, they are creepy and dark, but they are also amazingly well-crafted and thought-provoking.  I guarantee you'll enjoy them as much or more than the classic films that they inspired!

The Lot...

Today's entry into the Halloween countdown of scary books is from an author who I will admit up front, is not a favorite of mine.  I admire many things about Stephen King and I love reading his non-fiction, but I have always felt that his horror stuff was much in need of a good editor.  The one major exception to this  would be Salem's Lot.

King's foray into the world of vampires provided me with more than a few sleepless nights when I was a kid.  The idea of this small town in Maine (a foreign world to a Florida kid) cut off from the rest of the world and being overrun with vamps was just terrifying to me. I've re-read King's classic through the years and I still think it holds up pretty well.  In no other book does King use the isolation of a small town to such effect.  Also, his vamps were scary vamps.  I'd read Dracula and a few other vamp books by this point and one of my first childhood crushes was on the wonderful Dark Shadows vamp, Barnabas Collins, but King was the first writer who made vamps less sexy, more evil.

My feelings about this book were only enhanced by the 1979 production of a miniseries based on Salem's Lot.  The series followed the book very closely and thanks to images like this one:

provided me with even more sleepless nights.  Yikes!  Baby vamps!  So freaking scary!  So, if you have some free time this pre-Halloween weekend, and you're looking for something to get you in the proper moods for All Hallows, maybe it is time that you revisit The Lot.

It began in sunshine...

How could I put together a list of scary books to honor Halloween and not include a work by Dean Koontz?  I've read Koontz for a zillion years and I have always found his stuff consistently entertaining and spooky, although I tend to prefer his early titles to his later, kinder, gentler work.  If I have to pick the scariest Koontz, I'm going to go with The Servants of Twilight.  It may not be the best or even the most interesting book DK has ever produced, but the book gave me chills, mostly thanks to the very ambiguous ending.

Servants opens with single parent Christine Scavello and her young son Joey being confronted in a mall parking lot by a  crazy old lady who claims that Joey is the Antichrist.  After her home is invaded and the family dog is killed, Christine begins to take the situation seriously and hires private detective, Charlie Harrison to protect Joey and help her figure out why these people are after her son.  Harrison links the attacks to the crazy lady from the mall who turns out to be Grace Spivery, the charismatic leader of a fanatical religious cult, The Servants of Twilight.  As Charlie and Christine go on the run to protect Joey from the relentless pursuit of the Servants, the novel speeds toward what at first appears predictable but eventually turns out to be a surprising and disturbing finale.  

As is usually the case in a Koontz book, there is more going on here than a simple scary tale about religious obsession.  Just when the reader believes that good and innocence have triumphed, and they are ready to sit  back and smugly enjoy the righteous conclusion, Koontz provides a twist that makes one question everything that has come before.  Definitely gives the complacent reader a good kick in the pants!  

So, if you find religious fanaticism of any sort as scary as I and if you enjoy some moral ambiguity with your thrills and chills, then The Servants of Twilight may very well prove a delicious Halloween treat for you.  Either way, take my advice and read some of Koontz's older stuff.  There is some truly entertaining and original horror to be found in his backlist.  

He Hath led me and brought me into darkness...

Today's terror filled tale is  from one of my very favorite horror writers, Jonathan Aycliffe.  Aycliffe may not be as well know as King or Straub, but he is every bit as talented.  Aycliffe wrote about eight horror titles throughout the 90s and almost all have achieved cult status amongst horror fans.  His books are absolutely chilling and there isn't one that I wouldn't recommend to a reader looking for a good scare.

One of my faves is The Vanishment.  The Vanishment tells the story of Peter and Sarah Clare, a young British couple who rent a lovely old house on the Cornish coast in hopes of rebuilding their very troubled marriage.  Their plans for an idyllic vacation are soon dashed when Sarah begins to feel uncomfortable in the house. Peter dismisses her fears until she vanishes without a trace and he is forced to confront the evil that seems to emanate from the old house in order to try and discover what has happened to his wife.

Mr. Aycliffe's books are twisty, complex and extremely dark.  Just when one feels that they have the situation figured out, he throws in a twist that we never see coming.  His narrators are notoriously unreliable and in some cases, probably deranged.  One is never quite sure if the supernatural terrors found in the stories cause the psychological breakdown or if the mental illness was there all along, feeding and in some cases, inviting the presence of the evil.

Unfortunately, Aycliffe's horror titles have been out of print for many years.  If you consider yourself a true fan of the horror genre, take my advice and track down a copy of any, or more advisedly, all of his work.  Although these out of print titles can be a bit pricey, they are worth every penny!

Works by Jonathan Aycliffe:
Naomi's Room - 1991
Whispers in the Dark - 1992
The Vanishment - 1993
The Matrix - 1994
The Lost - 1996
A Shadow on the Wall - 1999
The Talisman - 1999
A Garden Lost in Time - 2004

PS.  Jonathan Aycliffe is a pen name for the British writer/scholar Denis McEoin, he also writes suspense thrillers under the name of Daniel Easterman.

And whatever walked there, walked alone...

Today's terror filled title has been a personal favorite of mine since I first read it when I was about 11 years old. The Haunting of Hill House by the brilliant Shirley Jackson deserves every bit of the praise and popularity it has received since its publication in 1959. It is a deep and terrifying story of haunting and possession that still rates as one of the scariest books I have ever read.  As with the James story that we discussed yesterday, Jackson leaves a lot to the reader's imagination and that, in my opinion, accounts for much of Hill Houses's impact.  

"No live organism can continue for long to exist sanely under conditions of absolute reality; even larks and katydids are supposed, by some, to dream. Hill House, not sane, stood by itself against its hills, holding darkness within; it had stood so for eighty years and might stand for eighty more. Within, walls continued upright, bricks met neatly, floors were firm, and doors were sensibly shut; silence lay steadily against the wood and stone of Hill House, and whatever walked there, walked alone."

-- The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson (1959)

The Haunting of Hill House is a deceptively simple tale rendered in Jackson's lovely, almost sparse prose, of four strangers who come together to study the potential supernatural forces at work in an old, deserted and reportedly haunted manse.  Throughout the novel we are left to wonder if the house is truly haunted or if the haunting takes place within the delicate and possibly damaged minds of the characters, especially the shy and complex Eleanor. Neither the characters nor the reader are ever completely sure what happens in Hill House and that is a big part of what makes the story so terrifying.  

Hill House was so popular that it is no surprise that Hollywood decided it had to become a film.  There have been two film adaptations of the novel.  The first, Robert Wise's 1963 The Haunting is considered something of a horror classic. The film is a faithful adaptation and one of the scariest movies I have ever had the pleasure of shivering my way through. The 1999 version by Jan de Bont was more of a typical special effects laden modern horror movie. It was certainly the weaker of the two versions, mostly because it seemed to ignore the very subtlety and suggestion that made the original story so compelling.

Well, there you have it, book number two on our terror filled list!  If you have read Hill House, I'd love to know your thoughts, if not, grab a copy, settle in and enjoy one of the most frightening and subtle tales ever written.

The Oldest and Strongest Emotion...

"The oldest and strongest emotion of mankind is fear, and the oldest and strongest kind of fear is fear of the unknown."

Supernatural Horror in Literature (1927) - H. P. Lovecraft

Yes, my dears, it is that time again. My favorite holiday, Halloween draws nigh and with it I start thinking about the many fictional scares that I have enjoyed through the years!  I love Horror writing  with a true passion, however there seems to be a dearth of truly scary stuff out there these days. Many contemporary horror writers seem to equate gross violence with suspense or terror and that approach just doesn't work for me. Violence is scary, but that isn't the kind of scare I'm looking for from suspense or horror writing.  

So, if like me, you are seeking a different sort of scare. A scare that creeps up on you and makes you leave a light on at night and double check your doors and windows even though you know that locks won't stop what scares you. If you're looking for a book to provide that kind of scare then you're going to love my week long celebration of Halloween!  For the next eight days, I'm going to offer up my favorite scary bits. These titles are perfect for this time of year. When the winds howl outside and the frost is on the pumpkin, what more can you ask for than a warm cozy spot and a terrifying read?  

We're going to start off this week of terrifying titles with a classic work of short fiction by the immortal British horror master, M. R. James.  James is known as the originator of the antiquarian ghost story. Most of his stories deal with gentle, scholarly protagonists who stumble onto antiquarian objects and manage to call down the wrath of the supernatural on their poor unsuspecting heads. Such is the plot of one of his most famous stories, O' Whistle and I'll Come to You My Lad.  The link I've provided will take you to a lovely free copy of this simple, yet terrifying, tale. When you read this classic, and hopefully more by James, notice how much restraint he practices. He leaves plenty of room for creative readers to fill in the blanks and we lovers of horror know all of the terrifying possibilities that our own minds can conjure up.  

Reticence may be an elderly doctrine to preach, yet from the artistic point of view, I am sure it is a sound one. Reticence conduces to effect, blatancy ruins it, and there is much blatancy in a lot of recent stories.

-M. R. James

Enjoy the story!  And don't forget to check back every day this week for a new spooky title to get you ready for All Hallow's Eve next Monday!

PS.  Check out one of my fave authors, Neil Gaiman's blog featuring his modest proposal for celebrating halloween by giving away scary books!  I love this idea and certainly Neil is an expert in all things spooky!

Oh and be sure and leave me your favorite horror or suspense titles in comments!  Share the scares people!

Things that go bump in the night...

Halloween is probably my favorite holiday! I love the fact that we celebrate scary stuff and you get candy. What more can one ask of a holiday? To honor the day, I'm going to give you with my scariest suggestions to help you get in the mood. Just a note, today we're going to expand the formats, I'll give you a film and an album as well as a book title. I want this to be a Halloween that provides thrills and chills, whether you choose to read, view or listen...

Naomi's Room by the amazing British writer, Jonathan Aycliffe remains one of the scariest books I have ever read. This book has achieved something of a cult status, and deservedly so. Do not plan to read through the night if you are alone in the house, especially if you have an attic.  IJS. Terrifying stuff and well worth hunting down, cause it is out of print.

Amazing ghost story from writer/director Conor McPherson, starring the equally excellent (and incredibly hot) Ciaran Hinds. No one does ghost stories better than McPherson and this is a doozy.

Even though I am a fan of classic country music (from the 50s through the 80s), I was never big on country crooner Wagoner, except for this classic of dark, violent and depraved love. This is an amazing concept album where every song works to support the idea that life and love is a sad and violent, although passionate, undertaking! With lyrics like "lord, you should have seen their frantic faces, they screamed and cried please put away that knife..." and "I dug and dug for hours and then I planted flowers on the first Mrs. Jones..." this is light years away from the insipid dreck that passes for country music today.  Chilling!

If you enjoy a good fright and a visit with the darker side on occasion then I highly recommend these three titles.  Here's wishing everyone a spectacular Halloween and if you want to leave some scary suggestions yourself, I'd love to have them.

The Eclipse
Naomi's Room
Cold Hard Facts Of Life/Soul Of A Convict