Horror | Stacy Alesi's BookBitch.com™

THE TROOP by Nick Cutter

July 3, 2014

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Dr. Tim Riggs and the boys of Troop 52 look forward to their annual camping trip with great anticipation. For Tim, it means a chance to get away from it all. For the boys, it means a weekend in the wild without their parents watching over them. But this year is different. A starving and sickly man arrives at the cabin begging for food. As a doctor, Tim feels it’s his duty to help; as troop leader, though, he knows he must protect the boys. He keeps them isolated at first, but soon realizes that the man is carrying a parasite that he himself has already been exposed to. Soon the boys are alone, forced to fend for themselves on an island cut off from the world with a terrifying infection spreading amongst them.

Nick Cutter (aka Craig Davidson) has created a tale that is truly the stuff of nightmares. The Troop is creepy as all get out – something one always hopes for with new horror – but it’s also incredibly gross. I think it’s safe to say that readers without a strong stomach may take issue with this one.

As I said, it is the stuff of nightmares. Five teenage boys and their troop leader camping on a remote and uninhabited island off the coast of Prince Edward Island with supplies for a three day trip as well as a radio for emergencies would seem to be fairly prepared for just about anything. Anything except a raging stranger riddled with parasites who then destroys said radio and infects the only other adult on the island. The first symptom of infection: unquenchable hunger. You can imagine what happens next.

In a move definitely inspired by Lord of the Flies the boys turn on their troop leader and then one another. Cutter/Davidson does an excellent job spinning a tale packed with gut-clenching tension and gory detail. The characters are compelling, especially once we REALLY get to know a few of them (that’s an added wrinkle to an already twisted story), and the use of interviews, articles, and testimony adds an extra layer to the story development that I thought was particularly engaging.

The Troop may not be the best book to take on a summer camping trip (or maybe it is if you’re a glutton for punishment) but it’s certainly one any hardy horror fan will not want to miss.

7/14 Becky Lejeune

THE TROOP by Nick Cutter. Gallery Books; First Edition edition (February 25, 2014). ISBN 978-1476717715. 368p.

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I REMEMBER YOU by Yrsa Sigurdardóttir

April 13, 2014

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A Ghost Story

For Líf, Garðar, and Katrín a week in Hesteyri fixing up their newly purchased house was supposed to be an adventure. It was Líf’s husband’s idea. A hiking trip to the area proved to be inconvenienced by a serious lack of accommodations. He’d suggested that they buy a house—the only empty one in the small seasonal village—and fix it up for guests. But then Einar died. Líf, Garðar, and Katrín decide to push forward with the idea, part in honor of Einar and part in hopes that their investment will pay off. As soon as they arrive, however, they realize there’s something amiss with the house they’ve purchased. Strange sounds haunt them throughout the night and morning reveals shells, seawater, and sand strewn about the rooms. Plus, in spite of it being off-season and the town completely abandoned, all three of them have seen a child running around the otherwise empty village.

At the same time, in nearby Ísafjörður the police have asked a local psychologist to consult on the vandalization of a school. Freyr isn’t at all certain what kind of help he might be able to offer, but a chance encounter with an elderly patient leads him to believe this isn’t the first crime of its kind. The problem is that the previous case is over fifty years old. As he digs further, Freyr finds more strange connections, this time between the recent disappearance of his son and another child who’d gone missing decades earlier.

The stark setting and Sigurdardóttir’s particular style blend perfectly to create a chilling (literally and figuratively) ghost story. There’s a sinister feel from the very outset of the book: three friends left for a week in an abandoned town, cut off from all outside contact, and the parallel story of a doctor whose son has been missing without a trace for three years. As the connections between the two storylines are slowly revealed, the tension increases dramatically.

I Remember You does have a slower build than some readers may like. I found that the pacing not only allows time for character development (which can be neglected in horror for sure) but gives the reader multiple instances of false security—a calm before the storm so to speak in between instances of intense creepiness.

Sigurdardóttir is best known for her Thora Gudmundsdottir thrillers. I Remember You is a stand alone.

I Remember You won the Icelandic Crime Fiction Award and also was nominated for The Glass Key Award.
4/14 Becky Lejeune

I REMEMBER YOU by Yrsa Sigurdardóttir. Minotaur Books (March 25, 2014). ISBN 978-1250045621. 384p.

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FOREST GHOST by Graham Masterton

April 3, 2014

Masterton spins a tale of horror that moves from the U.S. to Poland, and probably begins in ancient times. His style to deliver the proper atmosphere is to understate the events and feelings.

The narrative opens when a troop of Boy Scouts and their leaders commit suicide in a forest area and leave no clue as to what motivated them to take their own lives. Jack Wallace’s son Sparky was friends with one of the boys that did away with himself and he wants to travel to the scene to come to grips with what happened.

Sparky is stricken with a degree of autism, but has a knack for forecasting the future by reading the alignments of the stars and planets. His appeals to his father draws Jack into an investigation of the reasons for the mass suicides and causes both to undertake a journey to Poland.

It was in a forest during the second world war that Jack’s grandfather killed himself while fighting the Nazis and is believed to be due to the same cause that occurred with the Boy Scouts. While in Poland Jack and Sparky believe they actually see the evil that caused the suicides of both their grandfather and the Boy Scout troop. They return to the states and begin a full investigation finding that contact with the evil that is the cause of the suicides may be a worldwide phenomenon and have been present in the world since the beginning of time.

For those readers that enjoy a well done horror story they have one with Forest Ghost that will not be forgotten in a long time.

4/14 Paul Lane

FOREST GHOST by Graham Masterton. Severn House Publishers; First World Publication edition (April 1, 2014). ISBN 978-0727883445. 256p.

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DREAMS AND SHADOWS by C. Robert Cargill

December 28, 2013

Ewan Thatcher was just a baby when he was taken by the fairies that dwell within the Limestone Kingdom. The fairies had plans for Ewan, plans that would take years to be realized. While Ewan was learning the ins and outs of living with the seelie and unseelie, however, Colby Stephens was left much to his own devices for friendship and entertainment. So when Colby stumbled upon Yashar, a cursed djinn in search of a child to remember him, he believed that his wildest dreams were finally coming true. When the two boys’ paths finally crossed it set in motion a course of events that would haunt both of them well into adulthood. Cargill’s debut is dark and utterly unique. A blend of folktales and fairy lore mixed with Cargill’s seemingly signature gruesome twists, Dreams and Shadows is a welcome mix of fantasy and horror sure to please fans of both genres. This first from Cargill is addictive reading so it’s fortunate that the follow up, Queen of the Dark Things, is due out next spring.