Leisure Book Reviews and Random Thoughts

Here in New York spring is in full bloom, and much like this season, which gives us both new blooms and the re-emergence of perennials, we have a book by the relatively new John Everson, and a novel by one of horror's icons, Graham Masterton. I was able to take advantage of the warm weather and read these two very different books out on the deck while getting started on my summer tan. In a way, you could say these two are the start of the summer beach read books.

Death Mask by Graham Masterton

One nice thing about Masterton's writing is you never have to worry if you're picking up a stinker or not. He always comes through, even on the occasions when he doesn't produce a masterpiece. At his worst, he was better than 75% of the paperbacks sitting on the shelves during the 1990s. The good news is that his writing seems to have found new life in the new century, and Death Mask continues this trend. I give it a solid B.


Death Mask starts off like a traditional slasher/serial killer novel, but quickly builds into a supernatural thriller with an interesting twist. And by twist I'm not talking about a manufactured surprise ending, but rather a different take on how to the story's antagonist is created.

Masterton does a great job of weaving superstition, the power of the mind to influence the world around us, and just enough blood and guts to create an intriguing, well-paced read. The characters are developed superbly, and the ending nicely opens the possibility of a sequel down the road, while at the same time providing complete closure for the story.

If I have one complaint with this book, it's the use of italics whenever the supernatural baddie is talking to the heroine of the story, Sissy. It's a pet peeve of mine; I understand the need to use italics in writing, but between dream sequences and conversations, it got to be a bit overdone at times. Of course, this is no reason not to buy or read the book. It's just a minor blemish on an otherwise expertly-crafted canvas.

For me, one of the best points of Masterton's writing has been his ability to balance gore and suspense. Many of his books, going all the way back to the classic Manitou (a childhood favorite of mine), deal with supernatural creatures taking revenge on humans, often in violent, horrific ways. Yet Masterton never falls too deep into the blood pool, the way writers such as Ed Lee or Richard Laymon do. Instead, Masterton takes a page from Hitchcock, never pulling that curtain back too far - although it definitely gets pulled further than old Alfred would ever think to do.

Death Mask is no different in this regard. Take this excerpt for example:

The red-faced man stabbed Marshall again and again - his hands, his arms, his shoulders. Marshall grunted with every stab, but although he was so badly wounded, he lunged forward with his head down and football-tackled the red-faced man around the hips, hugging him tight.

The red-faced man didn't hesitate. He stabbed Marshall in the back of the neck, between the atlas and the axis vertebrae, with an audible chop that severed his spinal cord. Marshall dropped heavily onto the floor, and the red-faced man turned around to face the rest of them, whirling his knives in both hands.

Now, it would have been so easy to add another paragraph of description there, detailing the dangling spinal cord, or perhaps having unlikely Marshall's guts flopping onto the floor or his blood splashing all over the other people in the room. Instead, it's left to our imagination, and sometimes that's a lot more effective.

In a genre that seems filled more and more these days with the outrageously violent, outrageously weird, or just plain old boring, Masterton's books are welcome additions, solid performers in an unsure world.

Death Mask is a book all horror fans should add to their collections.

***

Sacrifice by John Everson

Sacrifice is the sequel to Everson's Bram Stoker Award-winning debut novel Covenant, . A story of sadistic spirits trying to enter our world and cause mayhem and destruction, Sacrifice is chock full of violence, sex, frights, and religion. I found it to be a great follow up, with no sign of a 'sophomore slump.' If you like your horror with healthy doses of blood and sex, this is the book for you. A sexy B.

In Sacrifice, we follow the exploits of hot, horny, and depraved Ariana, who wants to open our world for a race of demons known as the Curburide, and the people opposing her, a possessed man named Joe and a young witch named Alex. But unlike most protagonists, Everson gives us some great back stories for these two, especially Alex, who has already chopped her abusive religious parents to pieces. And then there's Joe, who has a demon named Malachi (can't anyone come up with new demon names?) living inside his head.

There's no black or white among Everson's characters, which makes their actions and interactions all the more interesting. Ariana, in particular, is a superb villainess, equal parts erotic slut and serial killer. As she attempts to fulfill her goal of destroying the world, she leaves a trail of butchered corpses in her wake.

The Curburide are demons whose ideas of fun include necrophilia, mutilation, sadomasochism, and other hellish pastimes. With that in mind, it's to be expected that the book itself is not for the weak of stomach. Everson fills it with gore, sadistic sex, and perversions galore. But no matter how far he goes, it never veers into the 'extreme' category, because he's deftly set up the premise of having all the characters being depraved in their own individual ways. In fact, the story wouldn't make sense without all the graphic sex and violence.

I found Sacrifice to be a fast and enjoyable read, one that readers of Covenant will find satisfying, and one that will bring in lots of new readers as well. Here's hoping that Everson's next book is as good.

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JG Faherty is a writer of dark fiction. His credits include Cemetery Dance, www.wrongworld.com, Shroud Magazine, Doorways Magazine, and numerous anthologies. He writes regular columns, book reviews, and interviews for the Horror Writers Association newsletter, FearZone, and several other online and print venues. You can visit him at JGFaherty.com