Head Injuries (Frontlines

by Conrad Williams

Three friends return to the bleak English seaside town of Morecambe, where the ghosts of the past have caught up with them, and try to discover the source of the violence in their lives

Genres: Horror

206 pages, Paperback

First published October 1, 1998

About the author

In 2007 Conrad Williams won the International Horror Guild Award for Best Novel for The Unblemished. In 2008 he won the British Fantasy Award for Best Novella, for The Scalding Rooms. In 2010 he won the British Fantasy Award for Best Novel for One.

Reviews

[Jonathan Briggs]

Conrad Williams runs with a pack of relatively new British writers who -- influenced by M. John Harrison, I suspect -- all share a certain bleakness of tone. In their books, everything is grey. Everything is decayed. Everything is fading. There are no strong emotions, no joy, no love, no rage or terror. Just a detached numbness. Why get wound up? It's all hopeless anyway. "Head Injuries" fits right in with this morbid bunch. Three sort-of friends who don't seem to particularly care much for one another reunite in a rotted seaside town in the offseason, sort of afraid of some vague something that feels sort of semi-threatening. In an unspecified way. There's some dodgy dialog, and Williams needs to study up on the proper usage of "me" and "I," but the man can write, no doubt. He and his fellow Brits, dour as they are, offer some of the few rays of hope for a horror genre being overrun by knuckle-dragging, sub-literate Leisure cheezers. But all the mopiness tends to get monotonous. If none of Williams' characters can get excited about anything, why should the reader? Please, Connie, you and yer mates, try to get somewhere sunny for awhile. Inject a little color into the palette.

[Jerrod]

Definitely his first book, rough around the edges and slow in a few spots, doesn't have that kick your teeth story line that I've grown accustomed to with his later work, still good story.

[Lyndsey]

I remember reading this about 13 years ago and being intrigued by its bleak and slightly gruesome tale. Williams hasn't popped up on my radar since but I intend to look out for his later books now.