Breach of the Soul (2026) by Richard T. Wilson - Horror Novel Review

When I heard that the author of the Halloween Girl graphic novel series was releasing another book, I was of course interested to check it out. To my surprise, Breach of the Soul turned out not to be a graphic novel, but was instead a full blown novel set within the Halloween Girl universe. Skimming press releases once again led to surprise and delight. My question was; would a novel be able to do justice to the moral and magical world without the use of art to sell its ideas? For transparency, I was quoted not once, not twice, but three times at the back of the book about Wilson's prior works in the series.

The novel, over 198 pages, is split into two interconnected stories. The first of these is the 80 page long 'Part 1 - Julie and the Devils'. Here, a teenage runaway - Julie ends up in the woodland home of an evil witch. Luckily for her, there is a friendly ghost there to help her escape. She then learns that the witch is part of a Satanic cult who intend to bring ruin to the town Julie lives in.
'Part 2 - Fallen Masks' then takes place a little while later in the nearby town of Crystal Springs, where in a large graveyard, a certain teenage ghost - Charlotte, lives, alongside her much older friend Poe. They sense a darkness spreading over their town, with it felt that something evil must be responsible for causing the mild townsfolk to become embittered and lose their empathy for their fellow man. In the midst of the change, a killer emerges, determined to punish those he believes to be impure.

Breach of the Soul was such an easy book to read. The clear and simple words and fable-like layout of the story me getting through the breezy novel like a hot knife through butter. To begin with, I thought maybe this was more geared towards a teenage audience, but with plenty of swearing and some scenes of bloody terror, this wasn't actually the case. The two stories were very inter-linked, with the same characters reappearing in both. The stories also did feel quite separate, each one with its own adventure. Wilson's trademark 'heart' is on show in these stories. A universe where Heaven and Hell do actually exist in the afterlife. The heroes here aren't vengeance filled with hate towards their enemies, instead they do what they need to for the betterment of the innocent; acting both noble and selfless. Topics here in a roundabout way cover real life things that from an outsiders perspective have made America seem like it is in a death-spiral with itself. Covid and how people acted during it is mentioned, and more specifically it speaks of political divisions that have led people's relationships with each other fraying. It is nice in the Halloween Girl universe that this is able to be attributed to be literally caused by evil forces, and so can be fixed more easily than reality.

Julie, despite some bad judgements (she is just a teen after all), was a protagonist easy to like, and easy to root for. Like the graphic novels, Charlotte, Poe, and Alma were really likeable - nice characters full of kindness and understanding. These characters were the perfect foil to the evil of the Satanists and witch McKenna.

The book flew along at a fast pace, well written to the point that in my minds eye, I could see these events playing out. This may be a horror, but is one that keeps a positive outlook on mankind. Dark things do happen during the events of the book, but it never felt like good wasn't going to triumph over evil.

Breach of the Soul was a lovely read from start to finish. The story told effectively, the returning characters translated into purely words in a natural and entertaining way. I really enjoyed reading this. Breach of the Soul released on June 3rd.

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Life After: Shorts Anthology Volume 1 (2023) by Bryan Way - Horror Anthology Book Review

It was back in 2022 when I first heard of horror author Bryan Way's Life After series of zombie stories. Life After: The Arising featured an unlikeable lead and told a relatively (for a zombie apocalypse) mundane story but something about it just worked. This was followed up by a sequel - Life After: The Void that was even better and showed the first novel wasn't just a fluke. So far that has been it in the main line series, but the author has also put out six short stories over the years set within the world of Life After and written in a more traditional third person form rather than the first person perspective of the novels. As the title hints at, Life After: Shorts Anthology Volume 1 brings together those first six short stories into one volume. Even more exciting is that there is an exclusive seventh short story set several months after the events of the second main novel.
I used my own photo of my battered and coffee stained copy of the book for the cover image as a mark of respect. It has been taken to my work to read on my lunch break countless times, and even travelled with me earlier this year when I went to Normandy with my father. I feel a sign of having enjoyed a book is how used it naturally comes to appear.

Reading the novels and the shorts I had in my mind a certain image of what the characters looked like, I admit that some of them didn't have the most flattering image in my mind, especially when it came to the main books protagonist character of Jeff Grey. This anthology introduces portraits of each of the main characters drawn by artist Seth Lang. If it had just been images based on what Way himself and Lang had imagined the characters had looked like I would have probably still defaulted to the images in my mind, but in a genius move Way cements these pictures by stating that that they were actually drawn by one of the characters in the books, meaning I have no excuses to discount them as not complete canon.
I won't go into too much detail for the first six short stories as I have previously given them their own review. I wasn't too sure if going back to them would be as exciting second time around. In another cool move though, Way has put the stories in the order they take place within the Life After universe, not in the order they were originally written. This makes them much more interesting as you are able to follow the flow of the unfolding apocalypse a lot better. 

Each story and each chapter within that story begins with a date, making it easy to see how far along things have progressed. One of my few complaints is that I wish that each individual page had these dates as I found myself constantly flicking back to see how much time had passed between the individual stories. Anyway, it starts off with The Cemetery Plot that occurs even before the start of the first novel. Telling a story about a greedy man taking extreme measures to get his deceased relative's inheritance. I enjoyed this one about as much as the first time reading it. The same was true for the next few, The Phoenix (guy meeting his ex-girlfriend at her place of work gets caught up in the unfolding zombie crisis) and the excellent The Line of Duty (the perspective of the apocalypse from an embattled police station, this one I still think would be excellent as a short film). While Zugzwang was still a little bit confusing due to the amount of characters introduced, I thought this side story that takes place during the events of Life After: The Void had improved a bit, and becomes one of the more important stories in the anthology as many of the same characters reappear in the new seventh story.

The Maze was a purposely disorientating story first read around as it starts in the middle of a action packed situation. On a second read I picked up on so much more that I hadn't noticed the first time around due to the eventual revelations the story provides. Of the original shorts that just leaves The Basement which is certainly Way's most depraved story. Perhaps it was knowing what was to come, but I found this had improved massively on a second read through, plus since reading it the author has confirmed that the belief of certain characters as to what caused the dead returning to life was actually incorrect. I do dislike it when there is a neat and tidy explanation given in zombie stories, always takes away some of the mystique.
New and final short The Siege really was a case of saving the best till last. This features a story featuring the main novel characters, but used in an interesting way. I thought the cleverest idea was to not feature protagonist Grey in the story. Instead he is often referenced by other characters, and even glimpsed in the background at one point. The story here was exciting, without too many spoilers it is about the influx of new survivors to the school the rest are hiding out at, set to the backdrop of a siege from the walking dead who are all too aware that there are living in the school. It was a bonus that my favourite character - former national guard soldier Anderson features a lot in it.

Going into this anthology I was a bit worried that I had a biased opinion of the stories having enjoyed speaking to the author over emails. That worry was dispelled with The Siege, it really was a great story, and has made me really want a third main line entry, something I believe Way is currently working on. As always, you will get a lot more out of this anthology if you have read The Arising and The Void, but even without having done that, there is plenty to enjoy here.

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Garth Marenghi's TerrorTome (2022) - Comedy Horror Book Review

I love Garth Marenghi's Darkplace, a very funny comedy horror show that was purporting to be showing lost episodes of an eighties horror TV series about a haunted hospital, starring (fictional) master of horror Garth Merenghi (Matthew Holness), intercut with talking head segments from the cast and crew. Last year, seeing that there was to be a book released I was very happy, and was interested to see how the purposeful over the top terribleness of that show would translate into book form. I almost got a chance to see Garth Merenghi at my local theatre doing a reading from his book as part of a promotional tour, several reasons why I didn't end up going, not least that I got pretty bad Covid the week he was coming to Northampton. Garth Merenghi's TerrorTome is an anthology of three separate tales of terror that sticks very pleasingly to the formula of Merenghi believing he is writing the most terrifying masterpiece ever, when in actuality the book isn't scary or edgy at all (again, this is all part of the joke).

Each of the three stories follow on from each other, and all star horror author Nick Steen (an obvious stand-in for the author) and his battles with his own creations that have bled forth from his extensive literary works. Helping him is his long suffering editor, Roz, whose depiction is a reflection of Marenghi's deep set sexism. I enjoyed all three stories, but the first one was definitely the weakest. 'Type-Face (Dark Lord of the Prolix)' sees Nick coming under the ownership of a cursed typewriter that states it will allow Nick to unleash his darkest works yet. After a year long bizarre sado-masochistic relationship with the typewriter, Nick comes to understand it has no intention of helping him out. With a cenobite figure that had typeface keys instead of pins in its face, this was a rift on Hellraiser. I liked the author interjects that included referring to sections at the end of the novel where some of his more extreme ideas got relegated to. This first story took up around ninety five pages and neatly sets things up for the other two.

'Bride of Bone' was the second story and ramped up the comedy for me. The sheer arrogance and self-belief that Nick has in everything he does makes for some funny moments, especially with Marenghi hellbent on making him seem amazing, but by doing so inadvertently showing how pathetic he is. In this one, a serial killer named Nelson Strain has escaped from the pages of Nick's novels. This killer doctor is enacting a plan to have himself a 'bride of bone' through use of his expertise on avascular necrosis. With Roz kidnapped by the man, Nick teams up with fictional detective Capello in order to mount a rescue. I thought the actual author really got into the flow of things with this one. The meandering and too in-depth way Nick has of talking really reminded me a lot of the style from the TV show, with Marenghi going into far too much detail and exposition constantly.

After another hundred pages it was time for final story, 'The Dark Fractions', which was also my favourite. This was an obvious parody of Stephen King's fantastic novel The Dark Half, and took the idea of a horror author having an evil persona come to life to ridiculous levels. Here, Nick finds himself up against an army of evil personas, his idea having been that his evil persona who was hunting him, also had their own evil persona that was hunting them, who in turn had their own evil persona hunting them, making for a convoluted story. This concerns Nick, who is being hunted by his dark fractions. He knows if he destroys all the copies of the unreleased novel the beings are from they will be destroyed, but his pride about how good his novel is, has him really not willing to do that. I love all the parts about Roz saying how the book was far too confusing, and Nick's gradual acceptance throughout the ridiculous situations he finds himself in (such as being attacked by a small army of cardboard cutouts of himself, and being trapped in a strange mirror world.

I thought Garth Marenghi's TerrorTome was a fantastic book, it remains very funny without ever seeming like it is being that on purpose. The absurd characters and surreal moments give the feeling of a unified world. Each of the three stories felt different to each other, with their similarities often mixed into the meta talk of the author not having enough different ideas. The unshakeable self belief of Nick make for a protagonist who you can't help but enjoy following, despite being very very flawed. Some of the writing was just so darn funny. I will end with a little excerpt from a car chase in 'The Dark Fractions' which just shows so well the style of silly writing with regards to the high stakes the author is describing, ' If Nick happened to clip a passer-by, it would mean an instant fine, licence points and a possible jail sentence, depending on the severity of damage to the wounded party, but Nick no longer had a choice'.

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The Dark (1980) by James Herbert - Horror Book Review

Despite loving horror films it was a long time coming before I started reading horror books, and it took me a while to realise who I liked to read and who I didn't. To my surprise I found Stephen King (so far) to be mainly very overrated. Thankfully there are some good horror writers out there. Obviously David Moody (the Autumn series) and Duncan P. Bradshaw (Cannibal Nuns from Outer Space!) have zombies and comedy horror covered, and for more broad horror you have authors like Sean E. Britten (Tik), hit and miss Dean Koontz (Intensity) and James Herbert ('48). The Dark is a 1980s horror novel from Herbert and continues the common trend I've noticed in his books of both being a good read, and featuring an enemy that uses some aspects of the zombie genre.

I read this over the course of about eight months and so my memory of the earlier parts may be a little fuzzy, unavoidable spoilers to follow. Basically, there is a house of evil that exists on a street in London. Years previously a crazed cult leader and his followers committed ritualistic suicide there and it's now said to be haunted. Chris Bishop is a debunker of supposed supernatural events and he has been hired to prove there is nothing wrong with the house. He also just so happens to be the man who discovered the aftermath of the cult suicides a year or so previously. He teams up with a psychic named Edith, as well as a blind paranormal expert, Jacob Kulek and his daughter Jessica. All along the street where the house resides people have been going insane and committing senseless crimes, after the investigation the decision is made to destroy the house, not realising that this releases an evil force known as 'The Dark' which slowly spreads its corrupting influence over the surrounding city.

Seeds of the Dead (2020) by Andy Kumpon and Gary Malik - Zombie Horror Book Review

Seeds of the Dead is a zombie horror novel with a humorous edge to it. It was written by Andy Kumpon along with Gary Malik and takes a gore soaked look at the issues of GMO foods through the lens of a small town undead outbreak. Despite being on the lighter side of things this still features plenty of death and violence, even if the sometimes comic book like depictions of good and evil mean this can feel a bit light on the horror side.

Peter Malik is a scientist working for the powerful Moonstar Foods Inc. who specialise in GMO foods. Peter decided to leave his small hometown to work for them, genuinely hoping he would be able to help the world. Instead, one day he is horrified when the latest batch of food he had been working on transformed the labrats into flesh hungry monsters. His sociopathic boss siblings, Richard and Sofia are pleased with this outcome and make Peter a generous offer in exchange for his continuing assistance. Given time to contemplate things he is granted some leave, with which he travels back to his hometown to see his parents. Not able to be party to the unethical experiments, he publicly speaks out about Moonstar Foods, which turns out to be a bad move. The powerful company swiftly cause an undead outbreak in his town via contaminated food, doing it both to punish Peter, but to also show potential clients what they are capable of with their biological weapon. Cut off from the outside world, Peter and a handful of other survivors must find a way to both survive the outbreak, but also find a way with which they can escape the doomed town.

There are no real surprises with Seeds of the Dead, it isn't going to stand out as something unique, and the way events play out fit in well with the tropes of the zombie genre. Sometimes that is no bad thing, sure I have read so many books like this, but this is still entertaining, and feature plenty of the walking dead with a few things to set them apart from others. This was written in a simple style, again no bad thing as it means that events can keep going and going without getting too bogged down. From the start of the outbreak to the finish there is no downtime, characters bouncing from one situation to another. Along the way characters make noble sacrifices, while others have more abrasive roles, of course at some point a character is going to be bitten and hide their wound, as is written in stone for this genre. Characters and situations here were pretty black and white, a couple of characters get some decent development, in particular one who I disliked to begin with but who really came into their own. Others are not so well developed, in particular the antagonists. Richard and Sofia are so comically evil that it is hard to really take them seriously as a threat. Anderson is a hired goon who seemed to be the character type of a recurring unstoppable villain, but I never felt he made as much of an impact as he should have done. He pops up every now and again but he really doesn't get enough page time to build him up into as memorable a foe as I would have liked. Continuing with the black and white feel is Moonstar Foods where no attempt is made to give them layers, they are just an evil company. Then at some point the hacking group 'Anonymous' get inserted into the story, made out to be good and just rather than the more neutral reputation the collective have in the real world.

Onto the zombies. These are more disgusting rather than scary, they are often described secreting a slime type substance of pus and other bodily fluids from all their orifices. I don't really like icky stuff but it did lead to one of the more interesting ideas, Everywhere the zombies have travelled gets coated in an almost slug like trail of slime, this impacts the story at several points as both characters and vehicles slide around on this stuff which makes a dangerous situation even more so. Initially it seemed these rotting dead were a scary foe, with their body parts still able to function when severed. Around the halfway mark a weakness is discovered and while this made for some fun moments it did drastically remove the threat level these shamblers conjured.

Seeds of the Dead may not break the mould when it comes to the zombie genre, but it was still an entertaining read, one whose simplicity works in keeping things always entertaining from the beginning to the end. Seeds of the Dead was released on 29th June thanks to Killerbeam Entertainment.

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The Bedwetter: Journal of a Budding Psychopath (2019) by Lee Allen Howard - Horror Book Review

From the very first page of Lee Allen Howard's The Bedwetter: Journal of a Budding Psychopath I was repulsed; a graphic description of a sordid dream featuring urination, self pleasuring, and death. But then the clue is in the books title, this is written from the twisted perspective of a psycho and so this opener was like a statement of intent for the course the book would chart. It's not new to have a story told by a terrible person, ones such as Hubert Selby Jr's The Demon, and of course Bret Easton Ellis's American Psycho (of which this sometimes feels similar to). Despite that though it is done rarely enough that it sticks out from the more traditional tales.

Russell Pisarek is a damaged twenty-six year old both haunted and shaped by the awful abuse he suffered at the hands of his mother as a child. He works at an animal testing laboratory and shares a house with his sister Becky and her young son Aiden, but is lost, and prone to frequent uncontrollable fits of anger. Over the course of The Bedwetter he comes to realise his true sinister calling in life and sets out on a murderous path from which there is no returning.

There's no getting away from the fact that Russell is a truly nasty protagonist but the book goes at least some way to clearly explain why he happens to be this way. The abuse he suffered shaped him, and as such he is trapped. Coming from his viewpoint you can at least see why he is like he is even if you find his actions disgusting. It would have been easy to make a one dimensional villain, but this past makes Russell into someone more fleshed out. This is all told via conversations he has with family members, frequent dreams and nightmares that plague him, and his own dark thoughts. While I could never get on board with his actions, at least with the thoughts he provides you can kind of understand his reasoning for them.

First Communions (2016) by Geoffrey Girand - Horror Anthology Book Review

What I used to say when accepting eBooks for review is that due to a backlog it would take some time to get around to reading it, but that no matter how long it took I would eventually read it for review. I received a copy of Geoffrey Girand's horror anthology First Communions back in April...2016, my tardy self has just finished reading it, so a review is in order! I will say what I always say for book reviews - I don't review many books and so I never feel I do a good job at these, but practice makes perfect so they say.

First Communions is made up of sixteen short stories, each of which has previously been published in various collections over the years. These were all well written, though some I found to be a little too abstract, or flowery in how they were crafted. Luckily for me this anthology includes a few zombie tales which are a perfect fit for my blog. So I may as well start with the zombie ones. For Restful Death I Cry gives a unique sci-fi twist to a typical undead story. Here in what seems to be a post apocalyptic world a man explores a retirement home from a previous golden age in human history, his aim is to scavenge the technology. Medical chairs in the past were used to artificially keep alive the elderly residents of these former homes, some of them are alive even up to the day the story is set. Unto The Lord A New Song takes place after zombie apocalypse has happened, the protagonist of this one discovers the son of a preacher who has created a contraption to make severed zombie heads 'sing'. That was a fun one to read. The best story in the whole book for me though was Dead In The Water that features a zombie outbreak occurring on a pirate ship. Zombies and pirates combined are not a new idea, but I found this one to be quite the entertaining read, I loved how it was paced out, and the final few sentences were great.

Then there were a few stories that tapped into the vibe of H.P Lovecraft. He remains to me to be the writer of the most legitimately terrifying stories ever written, no one has ever even come close to the soul wrenching horror of his stories. Saying that I always love a good homage to this master and there are a few here. The anthology starts off with Translatio that features a cursed writer forced to write down the words of an ancient God, the horrors he puts onto paper come to pass in real life. Psychomachia was about a mine whose miners appeared to have accidentally tunnelled all the way down to Hell itself. These same miners then get possessed, or changed by the experience, this reminded me of the ghouls from horror comedy Peelers. This was all told in a roundabout way long after the events had occurred. If I recall rightly it ends with a bit of a needless twist end. Release Me is the one most inspired by H.P Lovecraft, Girand even states this saying he tried to write the most Lovecraftian story he could. In this one a cursed house on top of a hill is home to a literal sleeping giant contained within the basement, great stuff!