Playing Possum

Folks who know me know that I love Nature Strikes Back movies and books, but they also know I hate books and movies that show violence against animals, which might seem like a contradiction. And sometimes it is; I've been known to stop reading books because animals have been killed, but there are other books that I've devoured. The difference? I guess it has to do with the reason the animal was killed. If you kill a dog for the sake of killing a dog (for shock value?), I'm done. But if the animal is killed in an act of self-defense, that's a different story altogether. Or so my brain tells me.

When I first stumbled on Alan Baxter's The Roo and heard the backstory about how it came about, I knew I had to read it. Likewise with Stephanie Rabig's Playing Possum. I was curious to see what she could do with opossums that would make them scary. I mean, other than just have them bare their teeth, because when they do that, they're freaking terrifying.

Rabig wastes no time throwing the reader into the thick of it when a young woman, after fighting with her boyfriend, is attacked and presumably killed by a bunch of opossums. Then we slow things down a bit when we're introduced to the main character, Vanessa, her family (aunt, uncle, and cousin), and her girlfriend. Things start to ramp up again when Vanessa's girlfriend is attacked. She's taken to the hospital, given the all clear, and is sent home. But all isn't clear, and she starts to feel sick. Vanessa wants her to go back to the hospital, but finances prevent her from doing that. So she stays home...and gets worse. Meanwhile, the opossums are launching attacks all over town, and things go from bad to worse when Vanessa's young cousin is attacked and disappears. Figuring there's safety in numbers, a number of townsfolk head to the clinic. They're scared and confused, and they want to know why the opossums are attacking. They aren't normally pack animals, and the don't usually attack unless threatened, so what's changed. One woman thinks she knows; in fact, she's certain she knows who's behind the attacks and why. And then it's a race against time. Can one old woman and Vanessa's family put a stop to the attacks before the entire town falls victim to the rampaging marsupials.

In Playing Possum, Rabig has created a thrilling take of jealousy and revenge. It moves along at a brisk pace, and rarely lets the reader come up for air before launching them into more mayhem. With Vanessa, she has created a strong, independent woman who is not without flaws. She's fully fleshed out and believable, but alas, she's the only one who is. The other central characters are fleshed out enough so that the reader comes to care about what happens to them, but they don't reach the full three-dimensional nature that Rabig reached with Vanessa. This might have been intentional, in that they feel more like cannon fodder, which means we're guessing all throughout who's going to live and who's going to die. That and the suspense of waiting for the next attack makes for a nail-biting thrill ride that will keep you gripping the roll bar until the ride comes to a complete stop. Be forwarned, Rabig does set things up for a possible sequel, and we can only pray that she follows through and delivers. Final rating, 5 out of 5 stars.

 

Bigfoot Takes a Holiday

Folks who've read my reviews know I'm Cryptid Crazy, so when I first stumbled across Kristopher Rufty's Bigfoot Beach, I had to add it to my TBR list. But because of a previous experience with one of Rufty's books, I was hesitant to start it. But after watching Primal Rage again, I knew it was time for another killer Bigfoot book. But let me start off by saying, when I first saw this cover, I thought it was going to be a horror comedy. Boy, was I wrong. Well, kind of. The only thing funny was Gunner's ogling of every woman he came across, but I'll get to that later.

Like any slasher-style book, we start off Bigfoot Beach with an attack on an amorous young couple. The young man is savagely butchered and the young woman is carried off. Based on the title of the book, it's no secret what the attacker is. Then it jumps to the arrival of Paul Thompson, his hunky teenage son, Gunner, who apparently doesn't know how attractive he is, and his eight-year-old daughter, Natalie.

Their arrival in Seashell Cove is supposed to be a new start for them. We learn that Paul is a hunky hero cop and is in town to take on the role of deputy to his big brother's sheriff. We also learn that Paul's wife has suffered a breakdown and attempted to kill him, so she's out of the picture for good. He's soon to learn of the town's local celebrity, a legendary Bigfoot that appeared a little over a year ago and is the scapegoat for many of the town's disappearances and killings. Why Bigfoot and not a bear or some other wild animal? The footprints left behind. As the story progresses, we are introduced to the other key players: Howie Thompson, the equally hunky sheriff and Paul's big brother; Trish Thompson,the sheriff's wife who has movie star looks; Mayor Caine, a pompous ass who sees the Bigfoot as a way to spur the town's economy, provided they can keep the murders under wraps; Becky Aniston, the local reporter (who also happens to be drop-dead gorgeous -- maybe the new Mrs. Thompson?) who dreams of breaking that one big story that will land her a job with the big boys; Megan Caine, the mayor's daughter, also drop-dead gorgeous and often runs around in a bikini top -- yeah, I'll come back to this; Striker, the rugged bounty hunter who has been on the trail of the Bigfoot for some time; and a host of assorted cannon fodder.

As the body count rises, the sheriff and Paul, along with Becky, Mayor Caine, and Striker, lead a search for the creature, which leaves them through a labyrinth of caverns not too far from the Mayor's mansion. Meanwhile Gunner is making goo-goo eyes at the Mayor's daughter and ogling his aunt's tits. Yeah, of all the characters, I like Gunner the least and hope he turns into Bigfoot chow before the end of the book. It all leads up to a thrilling chase across the beach and to an abandoned miniature golf course. Like all slashers, there are some unintentionally funny scenes, as well as several eye-roll moments, but all in all, Bigfoot Beach was a solid story. There were only a couple of things I took issue with.

First of all, I read an e-book version of Bigfoot Beach, and the formatting was awful. Like this post, there were blank lines between every paragraph, which, in the case of this post, is unavoidable as they don't allow for paragraph indents (or if they do, I haven't figured it out yet). But in the book, it was distracting enough to pull you out of the story, especially when there's a series of short lines of dialogue. Second was the adolescent way Gunner's fawning over women was handled. I mean, Gunner is supposed to be 17 years old, so why does it feel like he's 13 and has never seen a woman before, especially one in a bikini, let alone naked? And his ogling of his aunt comes across as sleazy/pervy. It's almost like there was a blatant attempt here to emulate Richard Laymon, which, to me, is not a good thing. These scenes could have been lifted directly from Laymon's Island, with only the character names changed. Practically every Gunner scene had me praying Bigfoot would break in and rip his head off to save me from any more eye-roll moments. Paul is almost as bad with Becky and Trish. Almost. But not nearly as bad as Gunner, so he was allowed to live in my mind.

Those issues aside, I enjoyed Bigfoot Beach, but taking these issues into account, I feel the need to subtract a point, so a solid 4 star read becomes 3 stars. Given how I feel about these issues, would I recommend the book. Definitely. Especially if you're a fan of killer Bigfoot stories. It's the perfect summer beach read.

Savage Seas

Last summer I started what I called my Don't Go Near the Water Summer Reading List, but unfortunately, when it comes to series books, I find I am unable to binge read any series. Eventually, I grow bored and put the book aside, quite possibly to never go back to it again. That's why, with Steve Alten's Meg series, I decided to space them out because I enjoy them so much that I don't want to get bored with the characters. So some six months after reading The Trench, I tackled Meg: Primal Waters, book 3 in the Meg series.

Unlike The Trench, which takes place a few years after the events in the first book, eighteen years have passed. Jonas Taylor is more or less a has-been, struggling financially and reluctant to admit that, although he loves his wife and kids, his marriage is in trouble. So when Jonas is offered the job as a consultant on a daredevil reality show, he jumps at the chance. Terry is against it, but reluctantly agree -- provided he takes their seventeen year old daughter with them. No way is she going to allow him to spend six to seven weeks away in the company of a bunch of wild young women. Neither of them realize Jonas, and by extension his daughter, is being set up so he won't return.

While Jonas is away, Angel returns, which inadvertently causes the death of Terry's father. And somewhere between Jonas's shooting location and the Tanaka Research Institute, another Meg has surfaced, which prompts Terry to confront her fears to do her part to save her family financially. Which leaves their fourteen year old son, together with Mac, to try to recapture Angel.

I've read books in the past that have tried to cash in on the reality show setting, and some authors have handled it successfully and others not so successfully, so I have to admit I went into this one with some reservations. Not that I had any doubt that Alten would create a thrill-ride worthy of Universal's theme park; I just wasn't sure the reality show setting was going to work for me. All my worries were for nothing. Three parallel story lines, each featuring their own megalodon (that's right, folks, you get not one, not two, but three megs in this one), race toward one explosive finale, and Alten skillfully weaves them seamlessly together. There's even a hint of something more dangerous than the meg living in the depths.

My only question is why the eighteen year span between The Trench and Primal Waters? It seems like a rather heavy-handed plot device to keep the story oriented around the Taylor family -- unless Alten knows something about the Meg reproductive cycle that wasn't made obvious in the narrative. You see, Angel is cycling through estrus, and the one male that Terry at first thinks is Angel, is in pursuit of the female. And Angel, having been raised in captivity, is returning home, like a salmon, in the hopes of spawning.

And there's something I must confess. Originally, I had no plans on reading past The Trench, which I had read when it was first published and recently reread to prepare myself for Primal Waters, but not too long ago, I read The Loch, and wanted to read Vostok, which is the sequel to The Loch, but it's also the prequel to Nightstalkers, so I figured I had some catching up to do. I'm not sorry. I had at first though Meg was going to be a tired rehash of Peter Benchley's Jaws, but I'm enjoying this a helluva a lot more than Jaws. Alten focuses on his prehistoric shark and the events surrounding its hunt and capture, and everything that happens serves to move the story thrillingly forward. There are no tangents to the stories, unlike Jaws, which gets bogged down in a Mafia storyline and a pointless affair, which often has the reader tempted to put the book aside. So if you're looking for a thrilling sea adventure, Alten's Meg series is the obvious choice. Next up, Hell's Aquarium, but I need to put some distance between Primal Waters and the next adventure. Stay tuned.

The One Who Got Away

I'm not normally a fan of King's non-horror work, but I wanted to have an introduction to Holly Gibney before venturing into The Outside, and since she was introduced in the Bill Hodges trilogy, I figured I'd give it a go.

Mr. Mercedes is basically the story of a retired detective who comes out of retirement to pursue the one who got away -- The Mercedes Killer -- after being goaded to commit suicide by the killer.

The book starts off strong, with the Mercedes Killer driving a stolen Mercedes to drive it into a job fair, killing 8 and wounding so many others. Then we jump to retired detective Bill Hodges sitting in his living room toying with the idea of swallowing a bullet when a letter comes through the mail slot, a letter that more or less tells him to go ahead and do it. Which means the killer has been watching him. Instead of pushing Hodges over the edge, it invigorates him, and before you know it, he's back on the case again, even if unofficially.

The novel moves along at a swift pace, well, for at least half the book, and then I have to admit, King kinda lost me, and I was tempted to put the book aside. It was a real eye-roll moment for me, and that was when Janey seduces Bill. It was so out of the blue, but so contrived. You can't even call it spontaneous, and you just sit there in dumb disbelief and ask yourself, "Really?" After that, I more or less lost interest in the book, but then I had to remind myself why I started this one in the first place, and that was to meet Holly, and I still hadn't done that yet. So I pushed on, but from this point on, the story never got back on track for me. It just kept moving further and further into the unrealistic. Hodges knows there's a point where he should hand everything over to the police, but stubborn pride doesn't let him. This HAS to be his collar, and it doesn't matter who gets hurt in the process. Not even the death of his "girlfriend" is enough to make him turn it over to the police. He continues his investigation, putting the lives of a teenager and a middle-aged, emotionally challenged woman at risk. It's at this point I found myself turning against Hodges, which I'm sure wasn't King's intention, and found myself rooting for the crazy killer. You WANT Hodges to get his comeuppance, but sadly, it never happens. It all builds up to a totally unrealistic ending in a packed concert hall.

Would I recommend Mr. Mercedes? If you're a die-hard King fan, of course, but if you're one who has been disappointed with his later works, or one who, like me, finds him hit-or-miss (mostly miss, especially in his later books), I'd recommend approaching with caution; the first half worked for me, the second half didn't. Now I have to decide if I want to follow up with the second book in the trilogy.

It Sure as Hell Ain't Meg

There are times when I binge read a certain category of books. Coming off of Jaws, Meg, and The Trench, I was still in the mood for something dealing with sharks, but I wasn't ready to dive into Meg: Primal Waters just yet, so I tooled around on Amazon for a bit and discovered Rick Chesler's Hotel Megalodon. Story sounded interesting, so I picked it up.

I have to admit, the book had potential, and in the hands of Peter Benchley or Steve Alten, I think we would have had a hit on our hands. The story is simple: the development and building of a "luxury" underwater hotel disturbs a megalodon, that then proceeds to launch its attack on the hotel on opening weekend, methodically cutting off any means of escape for the guests and staff. The focus of the book, besides the shark attacks, is trying to get the guests safely out of the hotel and back on land. Sounds thrilling, right? Yawn. Wrong.

The problem we have here is the author not having a firm grasp on his subject matter. And if he does, something got lost in the translation as he put words to page because it doesn't come across. The setting is supposed to be a luxurious underwater hotel, but you don't get the feeling that the place is that luxurious. A kid in the book describe it best: it's like a Habitrail for humans. For those unfamiliar with Habitrails, it was a plastic prison for hamsters, gerbils, and mice. It was made up of a central "living area" with

tubes that led to other smaller compartments. And that's exactly what the hotel feels like, nothing luxurious about it. AND it's opening weekend and the guest list is all A Listers, so they need to impress. And make an impression they do. In the fact that nothing, and I mean nothing, has been tested for functionality, so you know when they attempt to activate something, it's going to fail. Of course. Like the escape pods -- that sink.

The other problem is the characters. You really don't come to care for any of them. The "hero" of the story is a young marine biologist, described as being in her mid twenties, but when you first meet her, she comes across as a fifteen or sixteen year old during a Bring Your Daughter to Work day. She's obviously out of her league here, so you hope she becomes shark chow soon so they can bring in the real star. James White, the man running the whole show and the resident villain, is so inept at his job, you have to wonder who he slept with to get the job. Maybe Mick, the supposed love interest, who breaks the heroine's heart when she walks in and finds him in a compromising position with the dolphin lady -- Carrie, Clarrie, Clarice, whatever the hell her name is. She's not important.

You also get the impression that the only knowledge the author has of marine equipment and sharks has been garnered from reading Steve Alten's books and Jaws, or maybe from an Atari 2600 simulation. When Coco is piloting the sub, it just doesn't seem real. And the megalodon? There were times I felt like I was watching SyFy's Supershark, especially when the shark was breaking windows and attempting to swim into the hotel to get at the guests. It would get itself wedged into a place, then swim backwards to free itself (sharks mobility is limited to forward motion), and often it seemed like the author lost track of his shark. In one scene, he says it slipped from window, and the body was more or less acting like a plug because suddenly the water was pouring in, but then the shark is back to snapping at Coco. Uh, didn't it just extract itself from the window to allow the water to flood the hotel? And every so often the author would throw out terms from out of the blue just to make it sound like he knew what he was talking about. And all you could do was chuckle.

And the ending?!?! OMG, I wanted to throw the book across the room . If I hadn't been reading a digital copy, I probably would have, but I didn't want to damage my Kindle. It was probably the worst part of the book. It's literally like giving a kitten a boop on the nose and telling it to be good.

Sadly, though, the author doesn't pursue what could probably have been one of the more interesting aspects of the book, and that's the old tribesmen that appear at the beginning and the end. You get the feeling that the megalodon is kind of a guardian spirit that rises up to protect the islanders and their way of life, almost like Godzilla defending Japan, but that aspect is never explored.

Overall, this book was a major fail for me, and if you are in the market for a big fish story, I'd suggest looking elsewhere.

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.