HASTY FOR THE DARK: STORIES by Adam Nevill

There are dedicated, vocal fans of Adam Nevill among horror readers, with praise that I’ve been hearing for a while. His work has always looked interesting to me, so when I felt like reading another short story collection, I jumped into this one as my introduction to Nevill’s work. 

Each story in this collection has an elusive quality, a creeping, disorienting feeling that really lends to the horror. Each stands out in how little they spoon-feed the reader, challenging our ideas of horror and story form. One of the standout stories here, “Hippocampus,” reads like a found-footage movie in prose form, with no dialogue or characters, just pure mood and discovery as we explore an ship of death adrift in a storm. And most of the stories take everyday circumstances of discomfort and take them to the extreme, pulling pure horror out of the day-to-day, like a horrible subway commute in “On All London Underground Lines,” abusive relationships in “The Days of Our Lives,” or aging and Alzheimer’s in “Little Black Lamb.”

Not everything here is great, as some of the stories are just plain boring, but it’s a solid collection and if you’re looking for challenging stories that aren’t your usual fare, give this one a look. 

GRADE: B

THE BOOK OF THE MOST PRECIOUS SUBSTANCE by Sara Gran

I’m pretty surprised that a novel about rare books and sex magic would be so compelling…

...or maybe it shouldn’t be a surprise? 

Because on second thought, that sounds awesome. And to top it off, it’s written by the great Sara Gran. 

This novel follows a successful author-turned-book-dealer who is hired to track down a mysterious rare grimoire detailing a complicated sex spell that promises the practitioner unimaginable power after the successful completion of five acts.

Sara Gran has a serious talent for writing with a  powerful efficiency in characterization; she really knows how to introduce and illustrate a character to the point where you immediately understand who they are. She’s detailed and engaging in her descriptions and astute in her observations. She’s a stand-out and better at this than most authors I’ve read, and it makes her work immediately readable. Just like with Gran’s masterful horror novel, Come Closer, the power here is in the subtleties. The plot and the way it evolves is actually deceptively simple, but it leaves room for Gran to focus on what’s really going on here which is the spiritual and emotional reawakening that Lily goes through in the search for the book. And the author does this in a subtle, well-paced way. 

Yes, it’s a book about greed, sex magic, and rare book-selling, but it’s also a sometimes touching look at getting past grief. 

GRADE: A

MAN WITH NO NAME by Laird Barron

During this entire novella, Barron had me entranced by his writing. His prose is equal parts efficient and deliriously lyrical in this strange crime story about an enforcer for the Heron clan of the Yakuza and his colleagues as they kidnap an ex-celebrity wrestler during a gang war. From the start, I got a sense that this story was not going to be your run-of-the-mill crime thriller, as the author infuses the tale with a sense of existential dread that just gets worse and worse as it goes on. And once the climax hits, it becomes something way more creepy than I ever expected. 

The first thing I attempted to read by Laird Barron was the story collection, Swift to Chase, which I was disappointed by but which I now understand was more advanced, grad school-level Barron, especially with the fact that Barron’s books reference each other. Well I’m still in Barron high school so this short book was my next choice, and although I still might not understand all of its mysteries, I enjoyed it much more. And there’s even a bonus story that was just as impressive, “Blood and Stardust,” which played like a really twisted Frankenstein. I’m excited to read more Laird Barron soon.

GRADE: B+

PIECES OF HER by Karin Slaughter

A good novel is hidden somewhere in here. I know it. Karin Slaughter’s book starts off with a promising and provocative opening sequence as our main character Andrea witnesses her speech therapist mom take down a mall shooter. 

But once the book attempts to move past this opening, and I started to be increasingly irritated by one of the least compelling protagonists I’ve ever read, it started to go downhill fast. Not only does Andrea have the personality of a sea slug but Slaughter falls into the habit of trying to telegraph drama by detailing her inner monologue of worrying and whining and it goes on and on. It’s tiresome to read. 

And I knew I was in for a bad time when someone asks Andy a question about something and her reply is:

“I don’t know… About anything actually.”

And then it got even worse when a new parallel flashback storyline is introduced and the main character there is just as irritating in the same way. Then, when I got to the 65% mark and I realized that nothing much had happened, it was the final straw. The book is painfully boring and actually tedious to read. 

GRADE: D