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Tuesday, July 19, 2022

What I'm Reading: Ghost Eaters and Sallow Bend

This month's Booklist has 2 #HorrorForLibraries reviews by me. The first is a star and the second is just shy of a star. Both are going to be wildly popular with patrons. As usual, I have my longer draft review, three words, extra readalikes, and bonus appeal discussion.

Let's start with current Summer Scares author, Clay McLeod Chapman's upcoming release. I have read and reviewed his 2 previous Horror novels and while I liked all of them, I did not give them stars. This one though, this one is all STARS.

Ghost Eaters

Clay McLeod Chapman
Sept. 2022. 304p. Quirk, $21.99 (9781683692171); e-book, $12.99  (9781683692188)
First published July 2022 (Booklist).

Erin, Silas, Tobias, and Amara are best friends living in Richmond, VA. While three of them have begun their adult lives, Silas, their ringleader and Erin’s on-again, off-again partner, has been in and out of rehab. After Silas is found dead of an overdose, the group learns that he discovered a drug that allowed him to see the dead. Erin, wanting one more chance to see Silas, takes the pill and begins a descent into a squirm inducing world filled with desperate souls, wandering ghosts, and inescapable nightmares. Told entirely from Erin’s point of view, this is an original story of being physically haunted, but it is also depicts the true horrors of addiction. Is Erin an addict or is she actually surrounded by ghosts who want a taste of the drug that is taking over her body? Either way, Chapman has created an experience so anxiety inducing, immersive, and intense that readers will feel like something is actually there, lurking over their shoulder, as they turn the pages. A great choice for fans of A Head Full of Ghosts by Tremblay, Mexican Gothic by Moreno-Garcia, and the addiction horror anthologies edited by Matthews.

Three Words That Describe this Book: high anxiety, addiction, original twist on haunting

Further Appeal: This is an intense book. Really intense, but in a good way if you like Horror. As I was finishing it up, I was contemplating if it would get a star or not, and then I realized as I was reading it, I felt like there were ghosts everywhere, surrounding me, the claustrophobia and anxiety of the story was intruding upon my real life. As I realized this, I was like, well if that doesn't merit a star nothing does.

This is the story of what it means to be haunted, how the ghosts haunt a person not a place. That is terrifying on its own, but it is also a realistic depiction of the horrors of addiction. You can take this book on reality based face value that Erin is an addict who is too deep into her dependence to stay connected to the real world OR you can take it as the "Ghost" drug she is addicted to really does allow her to see and attract the ghosts surrounding her, us, everywhere we go. Either way it works-- this is also why it is a star-- and why it reminds me a lot of Paul Tremblay's work because this is what he does with every novel.

Readlaikes: Besides Tremblay in general and the specific readalikes above, there is an awesome list of books Chapman read for this book-- lots of excellent and related fiction choices. This is not just a research list; he lists a lot of novels that inspired him. 

Next up, the first American publisher release by one of the most popular Horror authors in Australia, Alan Baxter.



Sallow Bend

Alan Baxter

Aug. 2022. 336p. Cemetery Dance, paper, $18.99  (9781587678325)

First published July 2022 (Booklist).

School is out for summer, the Carnival has just set up, but the town of Sallow Bend awakens to darkness. Two girls from the high school have gone missing. When they return a couple of days later, they are now three, and yet no one but Caleb, the well-meaning, if socially awkward school janitor, thinks this is odd. Everyone claims they have always known the third girl, Hester, but no one can remember any details about her. Told from many points of view, but with a focus on Caleb and Tricia, a mother whose son went missing last year, Sallow Bend is an immersive, page-turner, where details about the characters, the place, and its eerie history, are effortlessly fleshed out, but paired with the unceasingly intensifying dread, quickly escalating from unsettling to terrifying and Baxter, already an award winning Horror author in his native Australia, seems poised to take over America as well. Suggest to readers who enjoyed other original entries into the small town Horror trope like Hex by Olde Heuvelt or Daphne by Malerman.

Further Appeal:  An excellent small town horror, page turner with folk horror elements. The sense of place is strong, and is huge part of what makes this book so immersive and awesome.

Multiple points of view add character development and increases the pacing. History of the town is VERY important. A Carnival in town as well-- for me personally this is a frame I LOVE!!!!

The tone begins very uneasily-- kids are missing but it escalates steadily and intensely to terror.

Missing children is the overall frame and there is harm to children, but it is not gratuitous.

Baxter wins awards and is very popular in his native Australia and this should be his coming out party in America. Buy this one. Your horror readers will love it.

This book was excellent-- 4.5 out of 5. The only things keeping it from 5 stars are-- I thought it took place in Australia because there were some words that are used in their version of English rather than American English, which was fine, but then somewhere in the middle Atlanta was mentioned and that threw me off. I was fine thinking it was Australia. This is editing, bit Baxter's issue and a very  minor detail because this could take place anywhere in any small town.

And this-- I don't want to spoil but there is a character from the Carnival workers who becomes important and I wish there was more time about who he really is and what power he holds. I'dd read a whole book about him. Maybe that is a good thing that I want more.

Three Words That Describe This Book: multiple points of view, small town horror, intensifying terror

Readalikes: This was Hex by Olde Heuvelt meets Daphne by Malerman. If you smooshed them together and added a carnival. Old school Stephen King fans will like it as well.

The focus here is on the adults, not the kids, and how they address the horror and come to terms with their own mistakes and choices. So while on the surface books like Something Wicked This Way Comes by Bradbury or even Children of the Dark by Janz may seem like comp titles, they might not be. For me they are, but those titles give the pov to the teens. This does not. I liked that and found it refreshing.

A must buy for every library. Just the Hex comp alone will draw in readers immediately.

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