What Fears Become: An Anthology from The Horror Zine edited by Jeani Rector

Published by Imajin Books

What a variety of short stories! All of them within the horror or paranormal genres, every story completely different. This great collection comes from some newer authors, and several well-known authors. Jeani Rector has collected from among the best of the contributions of stories, poems and artwork from The Horror Zine. Some are just plain scary, some are psychological, some feature ghosts, monsters, werewolves, vampires, all the favourite demons of our nightmares and stories to be told around a campfire or at Hallowe'en. An anthology to bring shivers and have us listening to bumps in the night. Some even come with a bit of humour... ghoulish humour.

Reviewing an anthology is always somewhat difficult. Do I review them individually? Group them? Authors have contributed over 30 short stories, 18 poets contributing one or more poems each and 9 artists contributing. I think I will just say that this book will entertain the deepest fears hidden in the corners of the psyche. Great tales to tweak the imagination, make us feel something is watching, digging into our souls, acquainting us all with what fears become. Is your heart pounding and your spine tingling yet?

The Strain by Guillermo del Toro and Chuck Hogan

Wow! This is going to be a great trilogy! Written by two masters of the genre, this is book one in The Strain trilogy. This is also film-maker Guillermo del Toro's debut novel, co-authored with excellent, established author Chuck Hogan. Great writing, total attention grabber, completely absorbing. I was very reluctant to put it down. A story that will fit the genres of suspense, medical thriller, paranormal, horror and more. An ancient legendary tale with a twist, not my usual genre but I really enjoyed the book and am happy to review it. The book opens with a legend told to a young child in Armenia prior to WWII. The story begins in 2010.

A very large passenger plane arrives in New York City at JFK airport with a perfect soft landing, immediately loses all power, and nobody gets out. Everything begins for the reader from this unusual event and the tension and horror builds steadily throughout the book. Hundreds of instantaneously dead passengers and crew with no sign of trauma and no detectable reasons. A strange virus which doesn’t fit anything known and defies identification. Will the human race survive? I’m hooked, will definitely have to read the full trilogy and expect to enjoy every minute; I may even have added another genre to my list of favourites. There is not a lot I can write in this review without adding spoilers. That said, in this preview copy I love the way the sections are divided by black pages and a symbol, very impressive and fitting the drama well. The use of technology, mixed with ancient tools, is fascinating; the combination of heroes is interesting and fun, and perfect for the task. Each with their own talents and knowledge, this ragtag team must work together quickly while at risk by both good and evil. There is so much going on in this book, more depth than might normally be expected, it will carry you away, yet this first book in the trilogy only covers four, possibly five days and nights. Incredible story-telling, twists and turns, darkness and light, good and evil, all wrapped up tightly for our enjoyment. Exciting and disturbing, in a class by itself!

Darren Shan's Trials of Death & The Vampire Prince (Books 5 & 6 of Cirque du Freak series)

Darren Shan's book came as a complete surprise to me. I have not read a vampire book since a condensed version of Darcula in the 1950s, although I did enjoy Buffy... and Charmed when they were on TV. Consequently, I did not know what to expect.

This version of Shan's writing included "Trials of Death" and "The Vampire Prince", books 5 and 6 of the Cirque du Freak series. "Trials of Death" in particular, reminded me somewhat of "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire". These books are aimed at older children/young adults and as such I found them very entertaining, vastly different from my previous impressions of vampire stories. Putting these two books together was a good move as they can be read as one story. There are, as far as I know, 12 books in the series. I think Shan (who writes the stories with himself as the main character and in the first person) has a wonderful understanding of what young people like in a story. There is a lot of action, interaction, communication, and relationships. Putting the book down was very difficult, I kept coming back for more. I certainly recommend the series to young people who enjoy fantasy books.