Book of the Month [March 2020]

(Dean Koontz' The Eyes of Darkness - the 'hype' book of the pandemic)

In these ever increasingly hard times, it's important to take stock of what's important and enjoy the little things. Reading for me has always been a form of escapism from the daily grind, and now in a world in the midst of a pandemic, that escapism is even more important. 

These monthly blog posts are turning into somewhat of a journal which is okay by me. January spoke to the horrific fires across Australia (of which I was fortunate enough to avoid), February was pure bookish innocence (reading the tone of that post) and upbeat hope. Now, as we enter the fourth month of 2020, the world is a different place - and one which will leave a long lasting scar on the lives of billions.

But life (and reading) must go on! 

In March I read 13 books; that's now three months straight of reading 13 books - must be my lucky number, which is fitting given my book for the month is, once again, a horror novel. This time it's The Pariah by Graham Masterton - a book which ticks all the boxes for horror junkies such as myself. 

From my review:

The Pariah fulfills all your horror needs and them some; ghosts, the reanimated dead, hauntings, demonic lore, and scares a-plenty.

From the blurb:

The quaint little seaside town of Granitehead seemed like a perfect place for John and Jane Trenton to start their life together. But disaster strikes and Jane and their unborn child are killed. John's grief is total, so when he starts to see the ghostly apparition of his wife he almost welcomes this supernatural phenomenon. Yet all is not what it seems, and this sinister spirit is not Jane, but something altogether evil and terrifying. In a bid to rid himself of this horrific spectre he soon finds that many more in the town have been victims of unwanted visitations. And when he discovers the body of a local busybody, impossibly impaled on a still hanging chandelier, he knows something must be done. But how do you kill the undead? As he searches for an explanation he uncovers a link to a mysterious ship, lost around the time of the nearby Salem witch trials. For three centuries the rotting wreck of the David Dark has lain beneath waves, but an awful secret is concealed in the chill waters...