Quick, Send in the Clowns... Don't Bother, They're Here

I've seen the name Jon Athan floating around on Facebook quite a bit, especially when it came down to recommendations for extreme horror. Some folks love him, and others have stated that they gave up after only a few chapters because they felt he was too extreme. Too violent. Too gory. Upon hearing that, he automatically went on my list of authors to check out. Do Not Disturb is my first read by this author, and it won't be the last.

First off, this is not quiet horror; the author himself classifies this as a slasher novel. I would take it one step further and describe it as torture porn, much like the Saw films and what I have seen of Rob Zombie's work. so I can understand why some folks would be turned off to something like this. It's more visceral than your normal slasher, and the author seems to relish the graphic descriptions of violence his antagonists administer to their victims. So if that's a turn off, than this particular novel is not for you. I can't speak to his other works because, as I mentioned previously, this is my first book by the author.

The story appears to be inspired by the rash of clown sightings that was sweeping the country a few years back, but where those appeared to have been harmless pranks, they aren't in Jon Athan's world. So that's the background against which the story is set.

The central characters are Colton and Lacey, a young twenty-something couple traveling cross country to attend a friend's wedding in Vegas. In a scene out of the Jeepers Creepers movie, their tire blows, and upon investigation, Colton declares the object piercing the tire to be a piece of bone. So automatically you begin to think that this was a trap deliberately set. They ride the rim, hoping to make it to the nearest town, where they can get the tire fixed, but then they happen upon an RV parked on the side of the road. Think the Creeper's truck. The RV is garishly painted and sports a clown sticker, so right away you know something is up. Our young couple seeks help from the driver, but it appears nobody is home, even though they "sense" somebody is in there and they are being watched. Lacey, an avid horror buff, begins to imagine every worst case scenario she has ever seen and applies it to their situation, pulling into her theories killer clowns, as they've been in the News lately. And now the game of cat and mouse begins. Our young couple continue to ride the rim, determined to make it to the next town, when the RV appears in the distance, bearing down on them at great speed, forces them off the road, and continues on. Finally, they manage to make it to a rest stop populated by a run-down hotel, a greasy spoon diner, and a road-side convenience store. Now that the stage has been set, the author proceeds to introduce the other characters.

What follows is a graphic blood bath, one room after the other at the roadside hotel, some of which is so over the top that you can't help but roll your eyes. Yet, you can't stop reading. It's literally a road-side accident, the kind you know you should look away from but can't.

One of the things I enjoyed most about this novel is that fact that the author keeps you guessing, and not just in the who lives/who dies situations. At one point Colton hears one of the clowns speaking in a normal tone and recognizes it. The reader's mind makes the connection, and if it's the same leap my mind made, you'd be wrong. The pacing is excellent once we get to the rest stop, traveling at a break-neck speed like a run-away truck going down a steep hill with no brakes. And you barely have time to catch your breath before you're thrown into the next scene. The characters are cardboard stereotypes you find in just about every horror movie, and you learn just enough about them to develop a feeling toward them so you know who to root for: I like these guys, but I hate that guy; that one's a bitch, I hope she dies first, but I hope that one survives. We don't learn enough about them that we become emotionally invested in them, which is what makes something like this work. You may react to a certain character's death with a, "Oh damn it, he died," but you aren't emotionally devastated by any one character's death. It's not like Hermione in Harry Potter being killed off, although I know plenty of people who would have preferred it if the snooty little kid met her maker.

My only issue with the book, and it's one that at least one other reader pointed out, is the chronic use of medical terminology to describe mutilations. And they are things the average reader would have to stop and look up if they wanted to verify the use was accurate. Things like (and this is only a minor example), "His bursa--the fluid-filled sac between his clavicle and humerus bones--burst." Would the average reader know if this is accurate? Most likely not; they would accept that the author knows what he's talking about. Others will stop reading to look up the accuracy of this information. But more importantly, would the characters know this is what's happening within their bodies? I don't know if this is the author's style, but it happens enough throughout the book that you begin to wonder if the author is just trying to pad his word count.

All in all, though, I enjoyed this book more than I thought I would. I'm not usually a fan of "human monsters," preferring my Big Bads to be of the creature or supernatural type, but I enjoyed it enough to search out other books by the author. Would I recommend it? Absolutely, but only if you're one of these readers who don't require trigger warnings (which, to me, defeats the whole purpose of horror), as some of the scenes, like the one involving the rubber chicken (and I'll leave it at that), can easily set some people off. So quick... Send in the clowns. Don't bother. They're here.

 

Burn It at the Stake...

I first encountered Tony Evans and Sour on Instagram through someone's Bookstagram post. Burnt out on zombies and vampires, I was looking for a good werewolf book to read, but figured witches were different, and I hadn't read a good witch book in what seemed like forever, so I figured, "Why not?" I mean, could it be that bad? The cover, after all, is totally bad ass. Sadly, the cover is the best thing about this book.

The first thing I noticed when I started reading the book was that it obviously hadn't been edited. The typos, the missing words, the words that should have been removed and hadn't been... I checked to see who the publisher was, and it turns out it was self-published. Figured. Don't get me wrong. I'm not saying all self-published books are bad, far from it. In fact, most of the books I read nowadays are either self-published or published through small presses, and many of them are quite good. But the ones plagued with as many errors as there are in Sour are usually self-published. 

The second problem I had is that it seemed to take forever to get passed the first half of the book. The characters just seemed to constantly be dancing around each other. "You shouldn't have gone there." "I know I shouldn't have, but I did, so there's no point fighting about it." "But why did you go there is you know you shouldn't have?" Lather, rinse, repeat. That's between husband and wife, and you find yourself hoping the witch shows up and kills them both so the reader no longer has to suffer from their verbal waltz. Then, when the book jumps to present day, the conversation is between two friends. "You know you don't have to do this." "I know I don't but I said I would." "Yeah, but you really don't have to." "I promised you I would, so I'm here." "But you can leave it you want to." "I'm not going anywhere. I said I would help you, so I'm staying." "But you don't have to." And round and round we go until the subject switches to the witch, and then it's a constant reminder that you shouldn't listen to anything the witch says, that she can get into your head and play with you thoughts, your memories, makes you see things you either are afraid of in an attempt to break you, or she'll show you what you most want to see in an attempt to trick you into doing what she wants, so don't listen to her. You got that? Don't listen to a thing she says because she can get into your head, make you see and hear things. So try to keep your head clear of any thoughts she could use against you because she can see into your head, and whatever she says, don't believe because she's lying. You got that? Don't listen to her. You finally get to the point where you want to scream, "We got it already, not shut the hell up and move the story along!"

The second half of the book, if you can manage to get that far, moves at a faster pace than the first half, but it seems like the author gets caught up in his own excitement, and he's racing to catch up with his thoughts; as a result, this is where the errors are most evident. And they create stumbling blocks that end up throwing the reader out of the story. Given the effort it's taken to get that far, it's a shame because it makes you hesitant to pick up the book again.

Another reason why it's a struggle to pick up the book every time you put it aside for the day is because you don't care about the characters. By the time you get to the midway point, where you should be rooting for the father to get his son back, you find yourself rooting for the witch so you can end this nightmare. The only reason you keep reading is to see Daddy fail because during the first half of the book, with all their dancing around each other, you've become so annoyed with them that you want them to die. And should you actually make it to the end, the author torments you even more by not ending things. Instead, he leaves it wide open for a sequel.

I went in to Sour with high expectations, especially after reading the reviews, and sadly, my expectations were dashed upon the rocks, where they shattered all to pieces. I was expecting some typos, as a number of reviewers had mentioned it in their reviews, but they made it seem like there was an occasional error here and there. Guess what? They lied. The pacing in the first half is uneven and drags worse than a dog with no back legs, which at times makes for tedious reading. And this after so many readers said it was non-stop action from beginning to end. Yawn! Many of the problems I had with Sour could have been easily corrected had the manuscript been handed over to a good editor. So unfortunately, as much as I would love to recommend this, I can't, as the author failed to cast a spell upon me.