Newest Horror Reviews
From TheBookbag
Horror
Bitten to Death (Jaz Parks) by Jennifer Rardin
Slash – the sound of vampires lashing out at each other – a noise and activity you'll have to get used to when reading this book and the three prequels. Vayl is a vampire working on behalf of humankind, despatching the nastier side of the undead as and when required.
Crunch – the past colliding with the present in this latest mission, as Vayl and his human counterpart Jaz encounter a Grecian troupe of vampires, about to be taken over it would appear by the baddy of baddies, Samos. Jaz has to face up to the fact that Vayl has a history with this band of vamps. Which is nothing compared to the present he and a certain female among them are to share. Full review...
Blood Noir (Anita Blake Vampire Hunter) by Laurell K Hamilton
I don't think all this can be blamed on Mr Bram Stoker. Of course there is a sexual element to the exchange of bodily fluids of his Dracula and his victims, but this has become too much in this example of what can only now be loosely termed vampire horror. Anita Blake, US Marshall with distinction in killing unwanted undead, due to some part-supernatural skills of her own, lives with at least one regular sexual partner, Nathaniel, but takes herself off with Jason, an occasional lover and full-time werewolf, to help him. Full review...
Angel Fire by Chris Blythe and Steven Parkhouse
John Dury and his partner Zee are businessmen you would find it hard to like. Hard-hitting, go-getting types, they spend their leisure hours taking drugs, and their company time making smash-and-grab raids on family firms, carving them up and selling the relics off piecemeal. Their boss, Mr Belial, rewards their more amoral business successes with escorts in their scanties, and yet more narcotics – the trendiest street drug of which is Angel Fire, a new chemical that can easily take you to heaven. Full review...
Feast of Souls by Celia Friedman
Whilst I tend to read fantasy more than any other genre these days, my first love has always been the horror genre. So when an author promises me a fantasy novel with a dark twist, then I am always likely to be interested. Full review...
Biting the Bullet by Jennifer Rardin
Things aren’t getting better for Jaz Parks, and her gang of undead, near-dead and just plain odd hunter-killers. The uberbaddy prevalent throughout the series seems to have got a new dogsbody, The Wizard – one who is able to bring the reavers – soul-eating nasties – back to life as zombie versions that are even harder to kill. A trip to hell (or a dream resembling that) has brought suggestions from Mum that things aren’t going to be getting better, or easier, and tells of jobs unfinished. Full review...
Half the Blood of Brooklyn (Joe Pitt Novel) by Charlie Huston
The scratchy maps at the start of the book show how the world of Brooklyn and Manhattan has been separated into gang territories – gangs of Vampyres, the undead forced that way through some form of viral contagion. The Society, that Joe Pitt works for as a gopher, hard man and possibly just mule, able to be played like a puppet on a string, that have their world centred on Greenwich, are rebuffing an approach from the Docks, over the Brooklyn Bridge. This is easily done, with a few quick axe slashes, but no-one, not Pitt, not the moll of the gang, Lydia, and not even the head honcho, Terry, can predict just how volatile the whole of New York is becoming. Full review...
Unmarked Graves by Shaun Hutson
This horror book certainly raises questions. How can the author so successfully manage to tie in the initial threads into what boils down to a zombie novel?
A tall, charismatic African political leader (or terrorist, depending on whose side you're on) leaves the scene of a woman he has butchered to death in a gruesome little episode, and flees across the continent as any emigrant would. An emigrant with armed bodyguards willing to take any amount of bullets, that is. Full review...
