And Then There Were Nine...

Once upon a time, King and Koontz were my DROP EVERYTHING AND READ THE LATEST BOOK authors, but after one disappointing read and another, I started looking for new GoTo authors. Hunter Shea quickly became one of them, especially with his cryptid novels. The other is Jonathan Janz. While I haven't read everything Janz has written, I am working on remedying. To date, Janz has not disappointed me. Which is why The Dark Game, Janz's latest, quickly moved to the top of my TBR pile.

The Dark Game tells the tale of ten writers hand-chosen by Roderick Wells, a celebrated but reclusive writer, to compete in a summer-long contest for a cash prize and a publishing contract. These ten writers have been chosen not only for their talent, but also because they each possess a dark secret, secrets that will be revealed as the competition progresses. Like all competitions, there are eliminations, but unlike other competitions, these eliminations are private. The remaining contestants are told who has been eliminated, and they're somewhat put off by the fact the the departing contestant didn't bother to say goodbye.

Early on, one might think they know where the story is headed, and chances are good that they'll be wrong. And that's one of Janz's strengths. He'll lead you into what you think might be a rehash of something you've read before, but then he'll rip the rug out from under you when you least expect it, leaving you in uncharted territory where you fumble along with the characters to figure out what the hell is really going on. But not to worry; you'll be in good company. Janz fleshes out his characters fully, and there are those you instinctively like and want to fall in with, while others you take an immediate dislike to and hope they'll be one of the ones eliminated early on. But if that were to happen, you would end up with a dull story, so you know some of the bastards are going to stick around.

At first glance, The Dark Game comes across as a potential reality show, only there are no cameras, but you'll soon learn it's so much more than that. There are ghosts aplenty haunting the characters, ghosts from their own pasts and ghosts from those who have gone before. So you might think this is a simple haunted house novel, and in a way you'd be right, but it's more. Janz pulls in enough otherworldly and supernatural elements to keep you on your toes and keep you guessing. Who is the actual bad guy here? Is it the contestants and their dark secrets awakening something within the house? Is it the house itself? Or is it their host? Or some of the other apparently minor characters who eventually take on more importance as the story progresses?

The story moves along at a brisk pace, and each chapter ends with enough mystery to keep you reading. You'll be telling yourself, "Just one more chapter. Just one more chapter." And before you know it. it's 4 o'clock in the morning and you have to be up in three hours to get ready for work. Yeah, it's that good. So do yourself a favor and sign up for the game. You won't be disappointed. If you've read other books by Janz, you'll know by now that he just keeps keeps getting better, so The Dark Game is Janz at his best (to date). I can't wait to see what he comes up with next.

Retail Hell

After seeing Grady Hendrix give a presentation a few weeks ago on Paperbacks from Hell, I figured I'd give one of his books a shot. I mean, the guy was hysterical and I could not stop laughing. And after hearing such great things about Horrorstör, I figured I give it a try. I went into it expecting more of what he gave at his presentation, and after a line like this, "Trinity was one of those happy, super-popular, high-energy girls who reminded Amy of the creatures from Gremlins: she was fun for about half an hour, then you wanted to stuff her in a blender.", well, it seemed to reaffirm my expectations. Sadly, my expectations were not met.

For folks unfamiliar with the premise of the book, it deals with an IKEA-type box store that is haunted, although the employees aren't aware of it. Yet. What they are aware of is somebody sneaking in at night and vandalizing the store in little ways that wouldn't be noticeable unless you stumbled upon it. Like poop on one of the display beds. Since Corporate is planning a visit, the General Manager has tasked one of the floor managers with putting together a team to spend the night in the store with the hopes of apprehending the intruder. Enter Basil, the manager; Amy, a sales rep who gets by by doing bare minimum and avoiding her supervisor (Basil) as much as possible; and Ruth Anne, an elderly dedicated employee who has manned a register for a good number of years and someone who everybody (staff and customers) adores. During their first tour of the floors, Amy and Ruth Anne stumble across "happy, super-popular, high-energy" Trinity and her boyfriend of the moment, Matt. We get the impression that they are just finishing up some business before getting down to business (if you know what I mean, wink, wink), which is trying to film some footage of some ghosts, which they plan on showing to the networks with the hopes of getting their own ghost hunting show. Needless to say, all hell breaks loose, but not before they locate the intruder, who Trinity is convinced is a ghost. What follows is a lot of screaming, a lot of running, and a lot of playing hide-and-seek with an army of ghosts haunting the store as the group tries to make it out of the store alive.

On the outside, it doesn't sound like a bad book, but it's not what I was looking for. I wanted funny ha-ha ghosts, and instead I got scary EEEEEK!!! ghosts, so you'll have to excuse me if I feel a little disappointed. I know, get over it, right? I'll try.

While I try to do just that, let's discuss the book itself. While effective on its own, it fails when you compare it to other books (and movies) that tell a similar story. And when I say it fails, I mean it doesn't deliver anything new, which, I admit, is hard to do when you are dealing with one of the oldest tropes in the horror genre. While reading it, you can't help but notice the influences of films like Poltergeist and The Haunting. Recently I read another haunted house novel, The Siren and the Specter by Jonathan Janz, which really creeped me out. Again, it didn't offer anything ground-breakingly new, but what it did have was atmosphere, and while reading it, I actually caught myself starting at every sound and getting up to turn up the lights. Toy Box, a film I recently watched, attempted to take the haunted house a step further, and the creators gave us a haunted motor home. And I felt that was missing from Horrorstör. You get the impression that Hendrix was more concerned with the chain of events than developing a genuinely creepy atmosphere. And he tended to rely on the tried and true rather than risk trying something new. In so doing, he gives us a supernatural adventure story rather than a creepy (or funny) ghost story.

His characters are quirky when we are introduced to them, which provided ample opportunity to venture into the Ha-Ha territory, and while he may have tested the waters by sticking a toe in, he refused to take the plunge and kept us in the EEEEK! territory. And normally I prefer when an author keeps us within the mindset of one central character, Amy turns out to be a rather blah! character once the story gets going, and you come close to not liking her because she's only out for herself. About three quarters of the way through the book, she redeems herself. She's still blah, but not nearly as selfish as she was in the beginning. I can't help but wonder, though, what would have happened if somebody like Trinity was the central character, or if we had the opportunity to see things from the POV of other characters.

So is Horrorstör worth reading? Despite the issues I had with it, it was a fun, fast-paced read (not as great as everybody made it out to be, but enjoyable enough even if it wasn't funny), and if you're looking for a way to pass the weekend, this is an ideal book. However, if you're looking for something to chill you late at night, I think you'd do better looking elsewhere.

Angel of Death

As part of my "Don't Go Near the Water" summer reading, I decided to follow up Steve Alten's Meg with the second book in his living fossil series, The Trench.

The Trench picks up four years after the events that transpired in Meg. Angel, the baby megalodon they captured, is now a permanent resident of the Tanaka Institute. Jonas and Terry are married, but their marriage is in trouble due in part to Jonas's obsession with the dinoshark and his being consumed, eaten alive, by his survivor's guilt. The miscarriage Terry suffered during the numerous trials and lawsuits didn't help matters. In fact, when everything was said and done, the Tanaka Institute is on the verge of bankruptcy, and is bought by Benedict Singer, an unscrupulous businessman with a hidden agenda--an agenda that includes Jonas.

At about the same time Jonas is being approached by Singer and his protege, a knock-out blonde, Celeste, who has her eyes on Jonas, Angel is becoming more agitated within her enclosure. They think it's because of the migrating whales passing by, but it's more than that. Angel is in heat and is feeling the call of the wild. Her agitation grows, and eventually Jonas's worst fears come true: Angel escapes. Torn between his obsession over the shark and his duty to his new boss, Singer, Jonas opts to pursue the shark, determined to put an end to it before it can kill again, which leaves his wife to fill his shoes with Benedict Singer, making her the only woman aboard the underwater research station.

What follows is a dogged pursuit of the shark while becomes Singer's prisoner once she realizes there's more going on than just planting the UNIS robots.

The Trench is an ambitious book in that it's more than just a Moby Dick-like tale of obsession. There's government conspiracies, international intrigue, and games of cat and mouse, both aboard the William Beebe as it pursues Angel and aboard the underwater research station, and Alten handles it all flawlessly. We learn the real reason why Jonas was in the Mariana Trench eleven years ago, when he had his first run-in with the megalodon, and who the divers were who were killed. The problem is, Alten's Big Bad in The Trench is not as fleshed out as one would hope and becomes a caricature of the villain holding the damsel in distress.

As the novel progresses, we know there's another major predator loose within the Mariana Trench, as it already destroyed one sub. This is the reason why Terry is aboard the research station. She needs to file a report, but her report, while complete, isn't entirely truthful, as information has been hidden from her. She's given just enough to come to the conclusion that the destruction of the submersible was pilot error and not because it was attacked by some unknown creature lurking in the shadows. While Alten has to opportunity to bring another megalodon into the picture, he chooses not to, and brings in another prehistoric life form that's been thriving beneath the thermocline. Which makes you wonder what else is loose down there. If you've read The Loch, then you know some of what will be encountered in future books, as the sequel to The Loch, Vostok, is also the prequel to Meg: Nightstalkers, you'll have some idea of what's to come. So I am eager to jump into Primal Waters.

Graphic, at times, as the body count is high in this one, it doesn't detract from the narrative, which is evenly paced and thrilling. Meg was a fun read, The Trench is even better: more action, higher body count, underwater battles between leviathans. Definitely a must-read for fans of killer shark fiction.

Jaws on Steroids

After reading Steve Alten's The Loch, I felt it was time to re-visit Meg: A Novel of Deep Terror, especially after I found out that the sequel to The Loch was a prequel to one of the Meg novels.

The novel opens in prehistoric times with the meg taking down a tyrannosaurus rex. Then it jumps to present day with a deep sea explorations of the Marianna Trench, considered to be the deepest part of the ocean that has never been explored. As is the case with many horror novels (yes, Meg is a horror novel), you don't go sticking your nose where it doesn't belong because you end up releasing some sort of monster you can't lock away again. And sure enough, isolated from the rest of the world by a layer of freezing cold water is a tropical world containing many species long thought extinct. The Meg being one of them.

Right from the start we are told there's more than one giant shark, and we know one is male and the other is a pregnant female. The male is unintentionally killed, which allows the female to rise to the surface as she travels through the icy waters in the warm bloodstream of the butchered male. The body count starts to climb almost immediately once this living fossil surfaces, and it is up to Jonas Taylor to hunt down this monster.

Taylor was, at one time, considered the best submersible pilot around, until an encounter with the megalodon traumatized him so badly that he retired from the sea and devoted his life into the study of the prehistoric shark. He's become quite the renowned paleo-biologist whose theories were often greeted with ridicule from others in the field. But he's also a man haunted by his past. His actions during his previous encounter cost the lives of two men, and while he firmly believes that he'd come face to face with a giant prehistoric shark, there's the niggling of doubt that continues to eat away at him like a cancer. But with the surfacing of the meg, he's vindicated, and all those who laughed at his theories and those who accused him of murder because he overreacted in a stressful situation are forced to swallow their pride and admit they were wrong.

What follows is a thrill ride as Taylor and his team pursue the meg in an attempt to capture the beast so they can study her. They are in a race against time, as they know the meg is pregnant, and they need to catch her before she gives birth. They are also in a race against time with the military, as the military is hunting the shark with every intention of killing it before it can kill again.

While the focus of the novel is the hunt for the giant shark, there's more going on than just the chase. You have Taylor's disintegrating marriage, the betrayal by his wife (who's just as vicious and hungry for success as the meg is for flesh and blood) with his best friend. She's an overly ambitious news reporter who will stop at nothing as she climbs the ladder to fame and fortune, and that includes setting up her husband to look like a laughing stock. He's a man on the edge thanks to the events of his past, and she unashamedly is making every attempt to push him over the edge so she has grounds for a divorce. She wants to paint herself as the victim to Jonas's villain. In Heller, who personally holds Jonas responsible for the death of his friends, you have a Captain Ahab-type character. After witnessing the death of his brother in the mouth of the shark, he loses it; now it's personal, and he will not stop until he kills the megalodon. And lastly, you have the budding relationship between Jonas and Terry Tanaka, a woman reeling from her own losses; they are thrown together in the pursuit of the shark and take comfort from each other as their losses become more personal.

If you are only familiar with Meg from the god-awful movie (which I've seen dozens of times--it's really not THAT bad), forget about everything you saw. The only similarities between the book and the movie is the shark, and even that wasn't adapted accurately. While the movie is a family friendly flick about a giant shark where the body count is downplayed. the book is most definitely a horror novel that takes great relish in describing the deaths in grisly detail. It is Jaws on steroids, so if you liked Jaws, you'll LOVE Meg. If you thought Jaws was meh!, you'll like Meg. Start your summer off right. Read Meg.

Don't Mess with the Ness II

I had bought Steve Alten's The Loch a number of years ago, shortly after finishing The Trench. I had tried to read it then, but it just wasn't grabbing me. But recently I picked it up again to give it another shot. I don't know what my problem was back then, but this time I could not put it down.

The Loch opens with marine biologist Zach Wallace diving into the Sargasso Sea with the hopes of discovering the mythical giant squid. He dies indeed discover the giant squid, but he's also discovered something else. what the US Navy has named Bloop. Before he has a chance to document his find, the creature attacks his submersible. During his escape, Zach dies but is resuscitated. This is the second time Zach had drowned. The first time was seventeen years prior, when, at the age of nine, something attacked him in Loch Ness. He knows it was Nessie that attacked him, but over the years he has come to accept what the doctors and other involved have told him, that he had become entangled in a coil of barbed, which would account for the teeth-like scars that encircle his waist.

The current attack also triggers his night terrors again, and he develops of phobia toward water, not a good thing for a marine biologist. His world spins out of control as his "partner" in the dive made it look like everything that went wrong with the dive was Zach's fault, which is not the case. Spiraling into depression and taking comfort from the bottle slowly had him turning into his father, who he hasn't seen in over a decade. But then, suddenly, he is summoned back to Scotland because his father is on trial for murder, and it isn't until he arrives "home" that he realizes his father, an abusive, womanizing alcoholic, has set him up. You see, dad's blaming Nessie for the man's death, and he's hoping his son will go out and find the creature to prove he's telling the truth. Is he? Maybe. As reluctant as Zach is to go chasing after a legend, that's exactly what he ends up doing because the body count is starting to rise. The big question he has and wants answered is why has Nessie suddenly started attacking and eating those people.

If you go into The Loch expecting a straight forward monster hunting novel, you're going to be disappointed. Yeah, that's a part of it, but there's so much more going on here. The novel is about family; it's about loyalty and conspiracies, and it's about history. Not being a historian, I don't know how much of the history laid out within the novel is accurate and how much is a result of creative license, but Alten weaves it all together seamlessly and delivers a thrilling ride. I see so many reviews comment on the historical aspect of the novel dragging it down, but you need that background in order to make the rest of the story work. Without it, the driving motivations of many of the characters becomes pointless.

I also see comments nitpicking the science and its inaccuracies, and to that I say, get over it. It's fiction, and while a certain amount of research is required, it is, after all, a novel. It's not a How To guide, and it doesn't claim to be a scientific text. The average reader isn't going to know all the intricacies of submersibles and diving gear, and quite frankly, I don't believe they care. What they are looking for is an engrossing, believable tale, and that's what Alten delivers. The only real stumbling block I came across in the novel is the dialogue. I've heard it said that writing for the ear is sometimes a sign of lazy or poor writing, that a writer should be able to establish a Scottish accent based on structure and rhythm. But Alten writes dialect, which can sometimes have readers wondering what he's trying to say. Would you rather read "Ah dinnae ken" or "I didn't know"? Or, for that matter, would you even know what "Ah dinnae ken" means? It takes some doing, but eventually you figure it out, and once you figure it out, it no longer becomes an issue. However, there is a learning curve needed, especially if you've never heard a Scotsman speak. For some readers though, it's enough to stumble them right out of the story.

And the only other thing I had issue with is the romance aspect, which I found to be a bit unbelievable. Zach's been away from Scotland for how long? And suddenly he's head over heels in love with his best friend's sister? There's nothing early on that prepares you for this, and there's a point in the novel where you get the impression that True is whoring out his sister. It's mentioned that the sister was thrown out of the house when she was sixteen. Wouldn't Zach have known this if he had such deep. long-lost feeling for this woman? But he doesn't. In fact, there's so much about her that he doesn't know and you feel he should if they have this history. You could probably cut out this romance aspect and not lose anything story wise.

All in all, though, The Loch is a thrilling adventure/horror novel that will keep you on the edge of your seat, and it's something I would highly recommend if you're into cryptid fiction.

The Sound of Silence

Not too long ago I stumbled upon a Netflix original movie. It was an adaptation of Tim Lebbon's The Silence. For me, it was a rehash of movies like The Happening, and more recently A Quiet Place and Bird Box. But it took it one step further, at least for me, which made me curious about the book, so I picked it up.

To say I was immediately captivated by the novel would be a lie, but I pushed on because I was curious to see how it differed from the film. I'm doing things backwards here, because normally I would read the book prior to seeing the movie, but when other people are involved, things don't always go as planned.

In both the novel and movie, the story focuses on a young deaf girl and her family and how they survive against a sudden invasion by a previously undiscovered species of... Well, nobody knows for certain. They've been slapped with the name Vesps, meaning wasps, but there's nothing insect like about them. They resemble bats, but are larger and more voracious. They are blind and hunt by sound. And they have an appetite for blood. Where did they come from, and why have we not heard about them until there are too many to control? They were sealed in a cavern,locked away from the world until a mining team ripped through the ceiling of their enclosed ecosystem and unleashed them on a world not prepared to handle an invasion of this sort. For Ally and her family, they already live in a world partially ruled by silence. But for the rest of the world? Tell someone to be absolutely quiet for one hour. No noise whatsoever. Many won't be able to do it, not even if they know their lives will depend on it.

Normally, when it comes to adaptations, they always say the book is better than the movie. Most times, I agree. However, in this case, I have to weigh the balance. In the novel, the story takes place in the UK, with the creatures being released in Romania (vampire, anyone?). In the movie, the location has been switched to New Jersey, with the creatures being released in Pennsylvania, which to me makes the family's decision to flee their urban environment for a more isolated area more believable. The threat is closer to home, only a state away, as opposed to being on another continent and being separated by thousands of miles and a large body of water. And the actual invasion of the vesps comes more in the movie than in the novel. In the book, we're more than half way through before the vesps are actually encountered by any of our central characters. And even though it might only be a matter of a couple of days, it seems to take forever to get to the meat of the matter. Once the vesps actually attack, the novel flies. And while character development normally isn't an issue, in this case to have it so isolated in the beginning instead of spread throughout, it slows the pace of the narrative. Lebbon has created a hook but then leaves the reader hanging. Not even the tidbits of information gleaned from news broadcasts and social media is enough to keep the reader (at least this reader) enthralled, and I found myself tempted to skip ahead until the vesps finally appeared.

Many of the elements of the novel have been transferred successfully to the film, and the film has even added a few scenes for dramatic impact. The rattlesnake in the drainpipe, for instance. But I found the pacing of the film to be more balanced than in the book. And thus is the curse of seeing the movie first. Had I read the book first, I probably wouldn't have found an issue with the pacing of the first half.

So is The Silence worth reading? Absolutely. Provided you haven't seen the movie first, The Silence is a captivating read, and if you're a fan of apocalyptic fiction, it's definitely one to add to the list.

Don't Drink the Water!

I wasn't expecting much when I saw this listed among the Amazon Prime selections, especially after getting stuck with one stinker after another, but Jim Ojala's Strange Nature took me pleasantly by surprise.

The film starts off with a typical scenario of a young mother returning to her childhood home to take care of her terminally ill father. With her is her son, who is none to happy about being uprooted from the city and transplanted to the middle of nowhere. Little do they know, they have just landed at Ground Zero for a series of genetic mutations.

They start off simply enough, with a few frogs with extra limbs being found. Mama Sweet is obviously concerned when they start showing up in greater number. After all, she has a young son to be worried about. The local science teacher explains that mutations among reptiles and amphibians are relatively common, but even he has to admit that they seem to be a larger than normal population of mutated specimens. Then the kids start disappearing. The mayor doesn't link the two incidents, opting to believe they are on the lookout for a serial killer or psychopath who gets off on kidnapping and torturing folks. The only thing is, the bodies are never found. It isn't until the Sweets' family dog give birth to mutated puppies that folks begin to wake up to the fact that there just might be something wrong. And when the first birth defect among the townsfolk occurs, panic begins to set in. A group of rowdy locals turn their attention to a deformed father living on the outskirts of town with his young daughter, who also happens to be deformed. They're more convinced that the father did something to the water to cause all these deformities so they wouldn't be the only "freaks" in town. They're no looking at the bigger picture; if they were, they'd have noticed that this is a cycle that is occurring along the river, effecting town after town after town. But there's an even bigger threat than a few local roughnecks trying to get a little rowdy. There's something in the woods, something that is responsible for all the disappearances. Will they wake up to the fact that there's something going on, something on a grander scale than what their little minds are currently imagining. or will they be the next to fall victim to whatever is stalking the woods?

The movie is kind of a slow burn for the first half, then gradually starts to pick up. While there's enough going on to hold your interest, it misses the opportunity to make a social commentary on the dangers of pollution. The questions is asked if this could be caused by the use of pesticides, but then shifts its focus to parasitic infections that are naturally occurring. But why, suddenly, are they so concentrated in one area? We're never given an answer, but it is under investigation, which means we just might be seeing a Strange Nature 2 in the future. The film also glosses over social acceptance of those who are different and paves the way for the "surprise" ending, but one I saw coming as soon as a certain reveal was made during the course of the movie. Is it worth watching? I'd say yes. Given Amazon's rating system, I'd give it 4 out of 5 stars.

We're Gonna Need a Bigger Book

A couple of years ago, I saw this book posted quite a bit on Facebook. Since I liked Jaws and movies like Deep Blue Sea, I made note of it and knew I'd eventually get around to it. And since summer is right around the corner, I figured now would be a good time.

Typical of any shark book (or movie), there's gotta be a shark attack. Usually at the beginning. And Shark Island is no exception. The victims are a young woman and a surfer. The woman survives minus a leg, the surfer doesn't. The girl just so happens to be the daughter of a local politician. And so the attack becomes high-profile news.
The presence of and the aggression of the sharks is blamed on the seals, which seem to make the Cape their home during certain times of the year, much to the dismay of the local fisherman. A local oceanic research facility sees this as an opportunity. They present their research, receive funding, and then we jump eleven months into the future. The four-man research team is ready to carry out a field test of what we can assume they spent the last year working on. There's no putting it off a day or two, it has to be today. Why? Who knows. Logic and common sense would have them postponing the project because they're in the middle of a Northeaster. But Science must march on.

Along with the ship's crew of two, which includes the Captain, there's also a young reporter, or journalism student, who just so happens to be the girl who survived the attack back in Chapter One. She's there to document the research team's experiment. But more than that, she's trying to face down her fear of the water -- and sharks.

Whatever funding was received turns out to be money well spent, and it comes as no surprise when the experiment proves successful. Before long, the ship is liked the Pied Piper of Hamlin, leading all the seals northward toward Maine, where they hope the seals will stay on the islands the team has chosen to be their new home. The research team is thrilled to see all the seals following in their wake. But where there are seals, there are also sharks, and before long, the herds of seals become a buffet for the sharks. It takes the team a while to realize something is very wrong with these sharks. They are hyper aggressive, and before long, they've lost interest in the seals and launch an attack against the ship. Sharks win, of course. They breach the hull and the team is forced to abandon ship and take refuge on this small island with an old, rusted watchtower. Do they all make it to the island? Maybe. They hope when home base attempts to contact the research team and gets no answer, folks back home will realize something is wrong and they'll send help. But will help arrive in time? You see, the sharks are bad enough, but the tide is rising, And there's the storm surge, which will cause the water levels to rise higher than normal. The only place left to go is up as the tiny island is gradually claimed by the sea.

And the sharks continue to attack. Who lives, who dies? You'll just have to read it to find out.
I'm not going to deny that Shark Island is a page turner, because once the sharks start attacking, the narrative flies. The failing here is the lack of science, which becomes a problem when the majority of the characters are research scientists. We know part of their research is behavior modification, but that's about all we know. We know nothing of the research, the trial and errors of their experiments. We only know they've developed some sort of sound wave or beacon that has a profound effect on the seals. They abandon the locations their instincts cause them to return to year after year and swim without fear. Not even when the sharks start attacking are they swayed to break ranks and try to escape. And what is it about this mysterious sound pulse that also effects the sharks, making them more aggressive and possibly more intelligent, because they seem to be working together to bring down the ship, and later on, on their attacks on the tower.

Like any adventure/disaster novel, the characters are not fully fleshed out, as the focus is on the chain of events that move the story forward, so we don't really care who lives and who dies. We're not emotionally invested in any of them. We learn early on that Naomi, the politician's daughter and shark attack survivor, is a lesbian. To what purpose? Is it crucial to the story? No, and since she's alone through much of the novel, it seems rather pointless. It's like the author wanted to make the character a lesbian for no other purpose than to show some diversity among the characters. The same applies to Walter, one of the fisherman we encounter later on. We get the impression he's bi but is currently involved with a guy. We do get a couple of chuckles at his expense when they talk about sucking dick when the conversation between him and his friend gets a little too emotional than is comfortable for either of them. It's like the author decided to assign their sexuality to show he wasn't afraid to have gay and lesbian characters. Naomi's relationship at the beginning comes across as platonic, so why not just make the love interest a guy? And since there's been all this talk among the horror community about diversity, it comes across as a feeble attempt to placate a select audience. But Jameson doesn't cross the line to give the reader an intimate look into their lives so there's no risk of alienating the balance of his audience.

That aside, and if you don't mind the lack of scientific explanations, Shark Island is an enjoyable read perfect for a summer vacation on the beach. However, if you're the type who requires an explanation as to the what and why of the research, you're going to be disappointed and it would probably be best if you look for your shark action in books like Jaws and Meg.

I Ain't Scared of No Ghosts...

...because there's no such thing as ghosts.

That's what celebrated debunker David Caine is probably thinking as he drives to his new assignment -- the Alexander House.

Built in the 1700s, Alexander House, like all "haunted" houses, has a history, and it's not a pretty one. Judson Alexander was a seriously sick dude with a depraved sexual appetite, and the crimes he committed left a permanent stain on the house. But that's not enough to deter Chris Gardiner and his wife from wanting to turn it into some ghoulish tourist attraction. And what better press could they receive than confirmation from one of the most celebrated skeptics that the house is indeed haunted. Caine, on the other hand, would like nothing better than to prove it all a hoax. He also hopes he'll be able to solve the mystery of what happened to John Weir, another famed skeptic who disappeared while investigating Alexander House. The man's journal was the only thing found, and that seemed to indicate that Alexander House was haunted by Judson Alexander. But is the journal authentic or a forgery created to deepen the mystery of the house?

Like any skeptic, David believes the journal is a forgery, and he hopes to disproves its claims and find out what happened to the man. Proving the house isn't haunted would just be an added bonus. But when faced with the mounting evidence, David still refuses to believe. He thinks it's all an elaborate plan cooked up by the house's new owner to make him look foolish. And discoveries made during the investigation only serve to deeply root that belief in his mind.

So is Alexander House haunted? You'll just have to read and find out.

I have to admit, I had reservations going into this particular haunted house. As much as I love Janz's writing, I've been disappointed with the last few haunted house novels I have read. They've just been a rehash of things that had been done before. But the wickedly cool cover lured me in, and I'm glad it did. Well... Ultimately.

As I progressed through the novel, I had the sinking feeling that I knew exactly where Janz was taking it, and despite the chills the book gave me, and the need to turn up the lights and check the doors while reading, I was tempted to put it aside several times. But Janz had never disappointed me before, so I pushed on, and I'm glad I did. Did it go where I thought it was going? Well... Yes. But then it went beyond. There's that two steps forward that make you believe the house is actually haunted, then that step backward that makes you question whether or not it really is. And you find yourself rooting for the house because Caine isn't really a likable character. You want to be able to rub his nose in the fact that everything he he has come to believe throughout his life has been a lie and that ghosts are real.

In fact, very few of the characters in The Siren and The Specter are what I would call likable. They all harbor secrets, and in Caine's case, his life is an open book, as we see everything from his POV. We KNOW how he treated his last serious girlfriend (so does everybody else, it seems), the same way he treated all of his relationships because the man has serious commitment issues. You get the impression that the new girl he's interested in is just toying with him because of the secret she is keeping. The Shelby family proves to be just as depraved as Judson Alexander, and even the elderly neighbor, the only character you can really come close to liking, proves to be a despicable human being. So naturally you want the house to be haunted and all these terrible people to get their comeuppance.

With all the twists and turns in the novel, you get to see Janz's skill as a writer as he weaves them all seamlessly together into a well-crafted, creepy tale that will have you sleeping with the lights on. You may go into The Siren and The Specter boldly proclaiming that you ain't scared of no ghosts, but by the time you come out, you'll be babbling, "I do believe in spooks, I do believe in spooks."

Bigfoot Walks Tonight

 As a fan of all things Bigfoot, I'm always on the lookout for awesome films about rogue Sasquatches. The problem is that sometimes I have to endure hours of dreck before finding a pearl. Well, this weekend I did the unachievable -- I found two pearls in a row without having to filter through hours of bad movies.

The first movie, Primal Rage, came recommended to me by a Facebook friend. I'd seen the poster before on Amazon and kept bypassing it figuring it was going to be another waste of time. I couldn't have been more wrong.

The story driving Primal Rage is that of a husband and wife lost in the wilderness of the Pacific Northwest, home of Bigfoot. In their attempts to find their way back to the highway where they hope to flag down some help, they fall in with a bunch of poachers, and here, safety in numbers isn't always a good thing as the poachers come across as more menacing than any creature roaming the woods. You'd expect them to kill or incapacitate the husband and have their way with the wife, but before things can escalate that far, the group is attacked by... You guessed it. Bigfoot. Most of the hunting party is killed and the wife is abducted. My first thought at this point was the tabloid headlines: I Was a Bigfoot Sex Slave. And I wasn't that far off. Yes, there is a downplayed rape sequence with Bigfoot as the perpetrator. The remainder of the film is the hunt for Bigfoot and the rescue of the Mrs.

The production quality of Primal Rage is surprisingly good, especially when you stop to consider the film is billed as a low-budget production. The acting, while stiff at times, is passable. The setting is gorgeous. No CGI (thank God!); everything here is old-school makeup and special effects. And the creatures... They don't look like men in bad monkey suits. In fact, they are probably the best creature effects I've seen in a long time. The thing to keep in mind, though, is that these are not your traditional Sasquatches. They don't explain them as a lost race or the missing link; instead, the Oh-Mahs in this film are the spirits of dead Indian chiefs come back to Earth in a physical form, so don't expect your shy, simian-type creature; these are intelligent beasts with the ability to create and use tools and weapons, and their camouflage abilities can rival the most experienced solider or survivalist. So if you are looking for a bloody, non-traditional killer Bigfoot film, this one is definitely one to check out.

The second film, Big Legend, is one I happened upon by pure luck. What drew me to it was one of the actors -- Adrienne Barbeau. Yeah, she's been in a lot of schlock, but she's one of my favorite scream queens, so naturally I had to check it out. The other name that caught my attention was Lance Henriksen, another actor known for his roles in horror movies, and like Adrienne, he has appeared in more than his fair share of bad horror movies, so naturally I had to check it out. What did I have to lose besides an hour and a half of my time.

Big Legend opens with a couple venturing into -- where else? -- the wilds of the Pacific Northwest. While there, the guy proposes to his girlfriend and she says yes. Right away you know something is going to happen to destroy this happy moment. And sure enough, that night, while camping out under the stars, they hear something knocking against the trees. He goes out to investigate, and he ventures away from the camp. probably further than he intended, because when he hears the scream, it takes him a while to get back to the campsite. When he arrives, he finds the tent -- and his fiancee -- missing.

The film jumps ahead a year and Ty is just being released from a psychiatric facility after finally admitting to the doctors that his wife was killed by a bear. After all the release forms have signed, he looks at the doctor and more or less admits that he lied just to get released by saying something about survivor's guilt implies that somebody died. They never found his fiancee's body. Left with a bunch of questions with no answers, Ty's mother (Adrienne Barbeau) encourages his to look for answers to those questions, so he heads out to where he last saw his bride to be. He encounters a trapper on the trail of the "Big Man," and they join forces. Pretty soon, the hunters become the hunted as the creature in the woods starts stalking them, and ultimately there's a showdown between man and beast.
Lance Henriksen makes an appearance at the end of the film and opens the door to a sequel, and it even states that Ty will be back in The Monster Chronicles.

One would assume that this film, despite its name "stars," would also be included in the low-budget category. Nevertheless, the setting is beautiful, the acting is solid, and, like Primal Rage, the effects are old-school. The creature, while not as stunning as the one in Primal Rage, also looks better than some of the other Bigfoot creations I've seen, although this one reminds me more of the Swamp Thing than Bigfoot. That aside, I would still say it's worth the watch. They both are. So next time you're in the mood for a double feature, give these a shot.

It's All the Rage

A while back I had heard that, in the light of all the school shootings, Stephen King had requested to have Rage pulled from publication. Ever since then, I had been on a quest to find a copy and read it. Well, I finally was able to find a copy, and I sat down to give it a read through. The story line is relatively simple: a slightly off-balance high school student, Charlie Decker, snaps one day, kills two teachers, and takes a classroom of students hostage and threatens to start shooting if he doesn't get what he wants. The problem is, there's no clear indication of what he wants except to toy with the police and the administration. Then four hours later, he lets them go. Very anti-climactic.

Personally, I don't see why this relatively short novel has been pulled from publication. It's tame compared to what's going on in the world today. And the copy on the cover... "His twisted mind turned a quiet classroom into a dangerous world of terror." You don't get that feeling at all. Well, maybe in the beginning, but eventually you get the idea that these kids are all friends and they know Charlie isn't going to do anything to them. Hell, one girl even leaves the room to go to the bathroom. Instead of making a break for it, which any normal individual would have done found in the same situation, she actually comes back to the room and takes her seat. Reading it, I felt more like I was in an AA meeting or something other 12 Steps program, where each student confesses something about their past or their home life, maybe something they're not too proud of. All very touchy-feely. Well, all the students but one -- Ted Jones. He seems to be the only one reacting poorly to the situation, and he harbors so much anger and hatred for Charlie, yet it's never clear why. Yeah, the guy's a psycho and he's got a gun and anything can set him off so we should all be afraid for our lives, but nobody else seems to feel that way. In fact, they all seem to sympathize with Charlie's situation. Sure, he's a troubled kid, but based on what we've learned about him, nothing in his past prepares us for the situation we find ourselves in. **SPOILER** And unless I'm missing something, it's unclear as to why the students turn on Ted in the end. Maybe he's a scape goat, and by tormenting and traumatizing him, they're really transferring their emotions toward Charlie onto Ted, but the reader doesn't get that feeling. It's also unclear as to why Ted had such a reaction to what the students did. Maybe it was something they said to him, but we're not privy to that.

All in all, it was a good book, but hardly the scandalous read I had been expecting, especially after hearing so much about it. But then again, that seems to be the trouble with hype. So much stuff fails to live up to the expectations you have after hearing so much praise for a book or movie. Rating: 3 of 5 stars.