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Flesh and Blood
Matt's home life is falling to pieces as his mother seeks refuge from divorce by returning to the seaside town where she grew up. Separated from his friends, bored and discontented, Matt gradually becomes aware that his mother's family are the keepers of a terrifying secret.
224 pages, Paperback
First published February 3, 2004
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
March 4, 2014
Teenaged Matt's parents are splitting up, so Matt and his mum go to stay in the small seaside town, Bathside, where she was born and where various members of her family still live -- her recently bereaved father, her sister and husband, their two small daughters and their near-adult adopted son. Matt doesn't want to be there, and it's clear none of the others much want him and Mum there either . . . except Gramps, who sees in Matt something of the family sensitivity to a fiendish otherworld, The Alternity, which must never be allowed to leak into this one. It's almost happened a couple of times before, and whole families have been wiped out during the brief incursion of madness . . .
Supernatural horror is very hard to pull off effectively, but the author's managed it here not just through the pace and energy of the storytelling but because the tale has a backbone of topflight fantasy. Sure enough, Matt spends some time in Alternity (desperately trying to get free of it), and it's a marvelously realized world:
The real threat of Alternity, as an elder version of himself whom he meets there explains, is not so much a physical invasion of our reality by the otherworld's denizens but "all the trapped, tormented souls in Alternity bursting out . . . Far too many escaping souls -- all breaking out . . . they drive people out of their own heads." And the elder Matt goes on to tell him that this otherworld, no matter how horrific it might seem to Matt, is only "Alternity's dream of itself" -- that the real Alternity is something far more terrifying, something beyond human comprehension . . .
This was my first encounter with Gifford's work, and it certainly won't be the last. Some of his more recent books, like Tomorrow (noticing which was what led me in a roundabout fashion to Flesh & Blood), seem to have an SF/thriller rather than a horror underpinning, which makes them even more attractive to this reader.
Whatever the case, this one scared my socks off -- which is of course exactly what it was supposed to do! -- while at the same time offering some fine fantasy notions for my mind to play with. More, please.
Supernatural horror is very hard to pull off effectively, but the author's managed it here not just through the pace and energy of the storytelling but because the tale has a backbone of topflight fantasy. Sure enough, Matt spends some time in Alternity (desperately trying to get free of it), and it's a marvelously realized world:
And suddenly he knows where he is. This isn't Bathside, it's an alternative, a Bathside that has never existed but which contains all the darker, twisted Bathsides that might have existed if things had been different, if things had been far, far worse.
The real threat of Alternity, as an elder version of himself whom he meets there explains, is not so much a physical invasion of our reality by the otherworld's denizens but "all the trapped, tormented souls in Alternity bursting out . . . Far too many escaping souls -- all breaking out . . . they drive people out of their own heads." And the elder Matt goes on to tell him that this otherworld, no matter how horrific it might seem to Matt, is only "Alternity's dream of itself" -- that the real Alternity is something far more terrifying, something beyond human comprehension . . .
This was my first encounter with Gifford's work, and it certainly won't be the last. Some of his more recent books, like Tomorrow (noticing which was what led me in a roundabout fashion to Flesh & Blood), seem to have an SF/thriller rather than a horror underpinning, which makes them even more attractive to this reader.
Whatever the case, this one scared my socks off -- which is of course exactly what it was supposed to do! -- while at the same time offering some fine fantasy notions for my mind to play with. More, please.
March 21, 2016
I’d forgotten how much I enjoyed this book. I reread it as I’m getting rid of some of my books for younger readers, but after finishing it I was really tempted to keep it and wish that I’d read more of Gifford’s work (though I can still do this). As usual, I left it a little rate to review this book so I can’t remember it all that well, other than the fact that I thoroughly enjoyed it.
Some of the characters seemed a little unrealistic, Vince particularly. He started off as my favourite character as I seem to always route for the black sheep, but towards the end he became less. There is the possibility that this was because he wasn’t a ‘normal’ character, seeming unstable and seen from what his grandfather said about him.
Overall I did like the different characters and the slightly dysfunctional family. They all had their flaws and I felt that, mostly, there was good characterisation with Matt on the other hand, came across as a believable and likable character.
The book didn’t reveal all its secrets right away and kept some to the end. It kept you wondering what was going on and what would happen next. It was the sort of book where you could see more than the character, not because you were shown but because you had more of an outside view than the main character
I still can’t believe that I forgot this book existed as it kept me hooked from a few chapters in (slow start) until the end. I’d definitely recommend it to young teenagers that are fans of horror as a strange alternative world is created where perils lie around every corner and you don’t know if the main character will ever escape the nightmare.
Some of the characters seemed a little unrealistic, Vince particularly. He started off as my favourite character as I seem to always route for the black sheep, but towards the end he became less. There is the possibility that this was because he wasn’t a ‘normal’ character, seeming unstable and seen from what his grandfather said about him.
Overall I did like the different characters and the slightly dysfunctional family. They all had their flaws and I felt that, mostly, there was good characterisation with Matt on the other hand, came across as a believable and likable character.
The book didn’t reveal all its secrets right away and kept some to the end. It kept you wondering what was going on and what would happen next. It was the sort of book where you could see more than the character, not because you were shown but because you had more of an outside view than the main character
I still can’t believe that I forgot this book existed as it kept me hooked from a few chapters in (slow start) until the end. I’d definitely recommend it to young teenagers that are fans of horror as a strange alternative world is created where perils lie around every corner and you don’t know if the main character will ever escape the nightmare.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews