Norm’s Top Of The TBR Pile

Including Reviews of: JUDAS GOAT by Greg F. Gifune and THE DAMNED by William Ollie

Written by Norm Rubenstein

Between my gigs as a reviewer and/or columnist for Horror World, Fear Zone, Pod Of Horror, SHROUD Magazine, and here at The Horror-Mall, as well as the additional books and magazines I regularly read just for sheer pleasure, I manage to do a lot of reading in the Horror Genre each month. Considering the volume of pages that cross (both figuratively and literally) my eyes every month, it should be no surprise that the titles I encounter run the gamut from awful to brilliant.

In talking with Larry recently I mentioned, in passing, how surprised I sometimes am that certain titles that I read which make an enormously favorable and lasting impact, neither receive the appropriate level of advance notice nor seem to generate the kind of advance sales such exceptional works should merit and deserve. Larry responded by indicating his potential interest in posting my occasional observations and selections here at The Horror-Mall, if I’d be willing to write them down and organize them into an article. Thus, the genesis of this, my “Top Of The TBR Pile” column, where I’ll periodically attempt to bring to your attention and notice new titles that I’ve read which truly stand out and are worthy of being placed at the very top of your respective “To Be Read” (TBR) piles. I hope that you will find my discussion and choices entertaining, and hopefully useful.

Greg F. Gifune is one of the best authors currently writing fiction in the Horror Genre. I cannot express myself any clearer or plainer than that. The early promise he displayed in his short fiction and subsequently built upon in his early novels such as Drago Descending, Saying Uncle, and The Bleeding Season has come into full bloom with his recent works, including the excellent novels, Deep Night, Blood In Electric Blue, and Dominion. Gifune’s books are not only all well written and demonstrably frightening, each new title exhibits further growth and refinement by the author in his writing, and his continued ability to say something fresh in each new story.

I therefore approached Gifune’s new novel, Judas Goat, with a mixture of excitement plus a little trepidation, as he had already set the bar rather high with his recent novels. I needn’t have worried. Judas Goat succeeds on all levels, and is as entertaining and engrossing a read as any experienced and even jaundiced horror aficionado could hope for. This is horror fiction at its finest and most mesmerizing.

Leonard “Lenny” Cates is celebrating his thirty-ninth birthday, yet is not at all sure that he has much to celebrate. Twenty years ago, he was a talented young man with his entire future ahead of him; a college student who already knew that he wanted to become an actor, and who had met a fascinating girlfriend, at college, Sheena, who loved him, and for whom he also had feelings. Now, twenty years later, all his acting dreams and ambitions have failed. He holds down a demeaning job as a night desk clerk in a decidedly seedy and disreputable New York City fleabag hotel. His relationship with Sheena had ended suddenly and tragically nearly two decades previously and his current live-in girlfriend, Tabitha, is a nasty drunk. A former professional dancer who blew out a knee and ended a once-promising career, Tabitha spends most of her time now bemoaning her fate, drinking, and bitching to and at Lenny. Poor Lenny is depressed and feels that his life has hit an iceberg, and that he is sinking.

Suddenly, fate throws Lenny a totally unexpected potential lifeline. From out of the blue, he is contacted by attorney Alec Kinney, and informed that his former college love, Sheena, who he hasn’t seen or heard from in the last twenty years, has died — and that curiously and fortuitously, has left Lenny her entire estate consisting of approximately fifteen thousand dollars cash, plus a two-story, one bedroom, one bath cottage with three acres of land in the small picturesque town of Trapper Woods, New Hampshire. Lenny needs to go to Trapper Woods to wrap up the probate estate and sign some papers in order to obtain the cash and to put the property up for sale. Lenny drives from New York to New Hampshire and finds that Trapper Woods is a very small, rural, quiet town of only five hundred persons, but with a long history, the town having been established back in 1782.

Lenny, who believes it is incredulous that Sheena would have still remembered him, let alone left him all her worldly possessions, begins to seek answers as to why and how Sheena died, and just why she would have remembered him in such fashion. He soon learns that Sheena died somewhat mysteriously in what the local sheriff has labeled a tragic, freak accident. A colorful cast of local characters adds to the mystery, and Lenny soon begins to suspect that the troubled Sheena may have been dabbling into black magic, with fatal and horrific results, and that she might have awakened an ancient and powerful demonic evil. Just who, or what, is the Judas Goat? The answer might well leave the more impressionable among you with very real nightmares.

Judas Goat is about to be released by Morning Star, an Imprint of Bloodletting Press, in a limited, signed, and numbered hardcover edition of only four hundred copies, at a cost of forty-five dollars. With Larry Robert’s and BLP’s long, innovative, and distinguished history of producing stunningly beautiful limited edition hardcover books, one can purchase this new Morning Star title secure in the knowledge that they will be getting more than their money’s worth in the design and construction of the book itself. As to Gifune’s writing, the novel itself is just hellish, in the very best sense of the word. This is, in short, a novel that should be at the very top of every horror reader’s and collector’s TBR pile. It is the very essence of what a great horror novel should be, and is. People should be jumping all over the available copies of this masterpiece, while there are any that remain, and definitely not wait until our only option is to purchase them, if available at all, at inflated prices on the secondary market. I may not be a psychic, but I really don’t believe one has to have “the gift” in order to know, after reading the novel, that Judas Goat is going to be not only another feather in Greg F. Gifune’s authorial cap, but a much sought after and coveted book. My suggestion and recommendation, purchase at least one, and make sure to put it at the very top of your TBR pile.

One of the chief, and most delightful benefits of being a regular reviewer and advance reader, is coming across new writing talent. While it is easy to become comfortable with reading known authors who have proven their worth, and it can even be enjoyable to revisit familiar ground with familiar author-created universes and/or characters, there is a real thrill that comes from discovering something – and someone – new and unique. For instance, over the past months, many Horror-Mall customers and Forum members have “discovered” and embraced Gina Ranalli, a young, fresh, and very talented author with a unique and compelling voice, whose first five books have deservedly become best sellers among H-M shoppers. Just as I became aware of Gina’s work early on through being asked to be an advance reader and a reviewer of her work, the same such requests introduced me some months back to the work of another new young author, William Ollie. After having been asked to read two of Mr. Ollie’s forthcoming novels, The Damned, and KillerCon, I infamously commented a few months back that:

“I think that if it were possible to have a son by Ed Lee and Wrath James White marry a daughter of a breeding between Richard Laymon and Jack Ketchum, and these two would mate and have a son, you may well wind up with William Ollie.”

Yes, I stand by that statement. William Ollie is an example of everything that can go right and keep the Horror Genre exciting, innovative, and entertaining for readers. The Damned, which is about to also coincidentally be released by BLP’s Morning Star imprint as a limited edition, numbered hardcover book, is an example of why I, along with many, many other reviewers and advance readers, have been singing William Ollie’s praises.

Without revealing any major “spoilers” so as not to hamper anyone’s enjoyment of the novel itself, The Damned quickly introduces readers to its “everyman” protagonist, Scott Freeman. Scott is having a bad day; a very bad day. After having given five years of his life over to a job he doesn’t particularly enjoy, an inadvertent and relatively minor slip has suddenly caused Scott to lose his job. If being unfairly fired weren’t bad enough, Scott gets stuck behind an oblivious cell-phone wielding “nutcase” on the highway while driving home to break the bad news to his wife. This idiot driver causes a serious multi-car accident from which he escapes intact and still oblivious, as does Scott, barely. Scott then snaps and pursues this driver. Scott loses track of the car he is chasing momentarily, but soon catches up with it and forces it over. As Scott is getting out of his own car to confront this nemesis, he hears the voice of a seemingly lunatic old man break onto his radio and begin ranting that the end of the world has come. Scott confronts the person he has pulled over and suddenly and unexpectedly becomes the victim of a road rage incident resulting in his being shot in the head.

Scott regains consciousness approximately seven weeks later in an abandoned hospital, his head wrapped in old bandages, surrounded by corpses. Scott investigates and slowly comes to the realization that the entire world has changed, drastically. He has, quite literally, slept through the Apocalypse. Apparently, the old man was not quite a lunatic. Indeed, the biblical Rapture has occurred, and God has removed all deserving humans from the face of the Earth for places unknown. All those humans remaining upon Earth are evil, and the planet has been left to these evil damned, including the none-too-innocent Scott. However, the readers and Scott soon learn that, as with virtually all else, there are degrees of evil as well, and some of those left upon Earth make Scott and so many others appear as saints by comparison. Ollie wisely does not focus on the biblical aspects of this post-apocalyptic Earth, but rather spends the vast majority of the novel examining the practical realities that might well exist in such a circumstance, and introduces readers to a number of very compelling characters, including Dub, the charismatic and very evil leader of a nasty motorcycle gang who sees the opportunities that this new world presents.

Ollie is able to keep the novel’s pace moving along at a very steady clip throughout. There are thus no boring patches a reader must wade through to get to the next “good” part. The novel has a good mix of action, suspense, terror, and fighting. Unlike many a debut novel, The Damned is written quite well, and with a nice bit of style to it. It is the strong and powerful kind of debut novel that most novelists dream about writing. Evidently, noted artist Alex McVey may have had similar thoughts concerning The Damned, as his cover art for the novel is easily one of the most visually striking and brilliant pieces of art I’ve seen in many years. It is rare, indeed, when, as here, a piece of cover art becomes so compelling and persuasive as to make one want to purchase the book without knowing anything more.

I readily admit to being lucky. My position is such that I sometimes have the opportunity to read preliminary manuscripts and proposed forthcoming novels by young talent and thus obtain advance knowledge as to whether a particular story, novelette, novella, or novel might just be a single “flash-in-the-pan” or if a given author displays a consistent degree of writing talent. Having been able to read Mr. Ollie’s forthcoming second novel, KillerCon, it is evident that not only is this young author extremely talented, he is consistent and ever improving. My crystal ball is probably as cloudy as almost everyone else’s. However, I have more than a suspicion that in years to come, copies of Ollie’s very first novel, The Damned, might well sell for exorbitant premiums on the secondary market. While such might, or might not, come to pass, I do know that the book stands, and stands out, on its own self as a great read and well worth the money, which is reason enough to purchase a copy.

Both Judas Goat and The Damned are two about-to-be-released novels that are both very well written and extremely engaging and compelling examples of great Horror Genre writing. Just so you know, I actively follow my own advice, and have already purchased my own copies of each of these two titles, and am looking forward to receiving them in the very near future. Both Greg R. Gifune’s Judas Goat and William Ollie’s The Damned are well worth obtaining and reading, and both deserve to be placed at the very top of your TBR piles.