Monsters of Horror Book Group (Hackensack) - 2016 Books Read Thread

[Phil]

This is the Thread for Books Read by the Monsters of Horror Book Group in 2016:

THE CASTLE OF OTRANTO........................................Horace Walpole....................11/07/16
PET SEMATARY...........................................................Stephen King.......................10/03/16
UNDEAD AND UNSURE (Betsy 12).............................MaryJanice Davidson..........09/01/16
THE RHESUS CHART (Laundry 5).............................Charles Stross......................08/04/16
HORRORSTOR..............................................................Grady Hendrix......................07/07/16
FOREVER ODD (Odd 2)................................................Dean Koontz........................06/02/16
LONDON FALLING (London 1)....................................Paul Cornell.........................05/05/16
THE DETAINEE (Detainee 1).......................................Peter Liney..........................04/07/16
NIGHT OWLS (Night 1)................................................Lauren M Roy......................03/03/16
SILVER BORNE (Mercy 5)............................................Patricia Briggs....................02/04/16
MIDNIGHT CROSSROAD (Crossroad 1)......................Charlaine Harris..................01/07/16

[Phil]

The following accounts are reprinted with permission from THE STARSHIP EXPRESS Copyright 2016 Philip J De Parto.


PET SEMATARY
The author's introduction detailed how much of the book was based upon King's life. He relocated to a house just off a heavily-traveled road when he taught at the University of Maine. Behind the property was a Pet Sematary (sic). His daughter lost her cat to road kill (the name and grave marker appear in the book). His toddler son nearly lost his life on the road. He developed a relationship with an older father-figure while he was there. But he did not have any supernatural experiences, encounter a wendigo, or have anyone / anything come back from the graveyard.

Liz was disturbed by the death of the protagonist's son, Gage, which caused at least one other member of the group to skip the gathering. Phil was impressed with the crispness and clarity of the author's observations about mortality (chapter 7, page 22), the changing of the seasons (8/24), the evoking of horror and dread (multiple places, but especially the encounter with the wendigo in chapter 55). Recommended for those seeking a well-crafted horror story, but definitely not for everyone.

UNDEAD AND UNSURE
The duo had very different frameworks for evaluating this eleventh book in the Betsy, the Vampire Queen chic lit/vampire series. This was Jacqueline's first encounter with the author while Phil had read the ten previous books in the series.

The work was not Jackie's usual cup of tea, but she appreciated the funny dialogue and how Sinclair works out Laura's plan. Phil really liked it on multiple levels. He enjoyed Betsy's idiosyncratic Stream of Unconsciousness, the broad farce of Betsy worship of shoe designers, Sinclair's love affair with his dogs, and the more serious meditation on people who learn better and the Parable of the Prodigal Son. He was also impressed with the author's ongoing disregard of the rules of writing, The first half-dozen chapters are essentially a group of undead doing nothing except chatting.

THE RHESUS CHART
The Laundry is Briton's secret Torchwood / Men in Black agency dedicated to preserving the realm from occult dangers. The early books focused on Cthulhu, but Stross has been broadening his canvas as the series progressed and this book gives his take on vampires. When a ruthless, brilliant M & A banking executive becomes a vampire, he turns the rest of his team. The group treats their new situation as a research project, developing a plan to explore their powers and vulnerabilities with post-it notes, Power Point presentations, and all the procedures of a multi-national corporation. Not everyone's cup of tea, but I like it a whole lot.

HORRORSTOR
The novel is set in a haunted, thinly-disguised Ikea superstore built on the grounds of a prison which had been run by a crazed, sadistic warden. Supervisor Basil Washington selects two employees to remain with him after hours to discover who has been wrecking havoc on the store when it is closed. One of the employees is our point-of-view character, Amy Porter. Amy has had a string of unfortunate events happen to her over the past few years. Things will get a lot worse for her before they get better.

Jeni thought the premise was interesting but the execution cliched, rating it okay (2/5 on GoodReads). The rest of us thought better of it. Pam liked the concept and thought the writing was clean. She enjoyed the inserts and names and description of the furniture. Jacqueline found the book darker than she expected but liked the characters. Phil enjoyed the structure and pacing of the book, as well as the floor plan, employee evaluations, and other extras, as well as admiring the structure of rising stakes as the book moved along. Definitely recommended by 3 of the 4 of us.

FOREVER ODD
The story picks up six months after the first book. Our young (21) hero has been traumatized by the mass murder in the mall and the death of the girl he loved. He is in so much psychic anguish that he cannot even maintain his job as a short order cook. Things go from bad to worse when a charismatic madwoman learns that Thomas can see the dead and falsely believes that he has other preternatural abilities. Most of the book is set in an abandoned gambling casino which is home to man, beast and ghost.

Thomas is an engaging mixture of wisdom and naivete, strength and vulnerability who is full of odd insights into life. Some of his gems: "The joys of life can be found anywhere. Far places offer only exotic ways to suffer (Page 7); "The blood of violence ... creates infinite Rorschach patterns ... (to) which the observer reads the same Meaning: the fragility of existence, the truth of his mortality. (Page 11); "Having by now eaten in excess of five thousand bananas, she might understandably have lost her taste for them ... she had approximately 710,000 more bananas in her future. I find it much easier being a Catholic.

The work is full of quirky characters, vivid descriptions of nature, and sad, tragic ghosts. Highly recommended.

LONDON FALLING
The book is the first in a series of urban fantasy police procedurals set at the Gypsy Hill Police Station in London. Superintendent Rebecca Lofthouse organizes Detective Inspector James Quill, Detective Sergeant Kevin Sefton, Detective Constable Anthony Sostaini and Intelligence Analyst Lisa Ross into a special occult investigation team after a series of murders leads her to believe in the power of the supernatural.

The book definitely held my interest, but there were two things which bothered me. The first is that the characters were all a bit distant to me. This may be excused as an example of British reserve vs American openness. The other was my ignorance of the structure of law enforcement in the UK. The author had a glossary of terms as an appendix, but it would have been most helpful if the first page had held a simple organization chart so that you knew that a DS was under a DI but above a DC,

THE DETAINEE
We were all surprised how much we enjoyed the book. While there were definitely plot holes and logic lapses in the world building, the novel has a memorable narrator with a compelling voice. The author employed some unexpected plot twists and, unlike many series kick offs, this book came to a true conclusion.

Our here is Big Guy Clancy, a 63-year-old former mob enforcer who found himself unemployed and penniless after a colossal financial crisis wiped out the assets of most people. Economic undesirables are confined to rehabilitation reservation whose boundaries are secured by taser- and laser-equipped drones and satellites. The devices cannot penetrate the heavy fogs which periodically roll in from the sea. Then it is every man for himself in the Killing Fields.

The Big Guy recruits an improbable assortment of former drug addicts, ex-soldiers, computer wizards and others to overthrow evil head honcho De Grew and his fellow Waste Lords. Recommended.

NIGHT OWLS
Everyone found this book more enjoyable than the previous volume, BONE CROSSED. The earlier work focused primarily on vampires. This one was on werewolves and, to a lesser extent, the fae community. Pam felt the book's plot was cleaner, more orderly and better organized than some of the author's other novels. We learned more about the background and motivations of various werewolf pack members. Mercy and Samuel both made strides in surmounting their emotional traumas. There were several crisp set pieces, Everyone enjoyed Yo Yo Girl. Recommended.

MIDNIGHT CROSSROAD
Phil posited that instead of looking at the work through the lens of urban fantasy, it should be approached as a "cozy" mystery. A group of people go about their day-to-day business and solve a murder around tea time. Of course, in this particular case, a town in middle-of-nowhere Texas is the setting and the quaint villagers include a vampire, a witch, a psychic, and another dozen people, all of whom have their own secrets.

The book also operates as a bit of fan fiction. The author pulls in minor characters from the Sookie series, her Lily Bard mysteries, her Harry Connelly mysteries, and her Aurora Teagarden mysteries. Toss in a missing woman who later turns up dead, a white surpremacist cult, and a few other supernatural creatures. Allow to slowly simmer.

Anyone expecting something along the lines of TRUE BLOOD is going to be very disappointed, but viewed on its own terms, the cooking is good. We'll schedule the sequel in 2017.

[Jacqueline]

NIGHT OWLS
I'd like to add a few points about the Night Owls ending. The Brotherhood members that the Jackals had, turned out to be who I suspected them to be. The next book appears to involve ghosts, but I doubt that they're the only ones making a appearance. The way vampires are created seems unique compared to usually vampire fiction. I'm not sure that the book issue with Justin is totally solved either.