REVIEW: Bury Me Deep by Christopher Pike

 

I've never known a character to sleep so much in a book as poor, gorgeous, Jean, an 18yr old student, fresh out of school after finishing her last exam, who trades in text books for a bikini and the promise of a care free week in Hawaii with a couple of her girlfriends. However, rather than lapping up the sun, she ends up napping and missing all the fun. 

First nap: en route to Hawaii aboard the airplane. Seems fair enough, however Jean's nap comes within minutes of the passenger seated next to her having died following some sort of seizure....her sleep isn't shock induced, rather, she's just tired. Poor Jean. 

Second nap: Hawaii here we come! After catching up with her two equally gorgeous/supermodel-like friends, Jean visits the land on nod again after unpacking at the hotel. It's so draining getting from the airport to the hotel! 

Third nap: Following a crash course in scuba diving with a two attractive/supermodel guys (there's a theme here...), Jean just can't keep her eyes open! I mean, she's only had two naps today and a third is definitely needed after all this physical exertion in the training pool!  

Then, after a busy day of napping, witnessing a young man die horribly on the plane, partying with the hot scuba instructors it's time to hit the sack for the night - being Jean is hard work dammit and she needs her beauty sleep to maintain her, um, beauty? It's not really clear why she sleeps so much... 

Sleep aside, the Hawaii trop is an ill-fated holiday destination if ever there was one. When she's not napping her life away, Jean is carelessly throwing herself in front of danger. Be it in the form of merciless killers or playing Russian roulette with her oxygen supply during a deep dive at night, alone, and in a dangerously tight and twisty underwater cave system...not the brightest crayon in the pack is Jean. Then there's the supernatural element to the story...conversations with a ghost (could be a talk show) in a strange otherworld realm...Naturally her friends think she' batsh!t crazy when she tries to apply logic when recounting said conversations, and really, she kind of is...

Bury Me Deep, despite the emphasis on the land of nod, is a pretty decent light-hearted thriller with some horror thrown in for good measure. Reading it is like slipping into a nice warm bath on a cold day, it's relaxing and enjoyable and you can check your brain out at the door and leave the real world behind for a while. 

REVIEW: The Keep by F. Paul Wilson

 

A Nazi occupied Keep, high in the Transylvanian Alps is the source of mystery and murder. Each night a solider is brutally murdered, coming to light each morning and bringing with it a fresh serving of terror. For Woermann, the commander in charge, the night terrors are even more disturbing given the lack of evidence to support foul play. With panic mounting among the troops, Woermann has little choice but to seek the assistance of the SS. However, not even the extermination squad can stop the killings, that is, until, a Jewish academic and his attractive daughter are brought to the Keep to solve the mystery...

Professor Theodor Cuza and daughter Magda are reluctant to assist the Germans, especially given the backdrop of WWII, however have little choice but to go along with the SS's demands for answers. With a handful of recently discovered ancient text books to wade through, the Cuza's know their success is limited and that both could very well end up as casualties in the world wide conflict. Set to work in a cold, dark and dank room in the Keep, the two have no idea what awaits them when the sun goes down. 

Enter Molasar, a vampiric-like entity who somehow manages to restrain himself from taking a bite out of the every so sweet Magda, to be the eventual saviour, or so it seems... 

The Keep (1981) has a gothic feel to it while still reading like a traditional vampire story. The mysterious Molasar is the typecast Dracula (at least for a while) with Theodor Cuza assuming the role of Renfield and Magda, of course, the forbidden fruit, succulent, sexy and incredibly desirable - her innocence begging to be taken away by the Nazi occupiers (at least from the perspective of said Nazi occupiers, Magda, for her part wants nothing to do with them). 

As you'd expect the supernatural element is the story's backbone and it fits in seamlessly with the WWII setting, meshing otherworldly horrors with the very real and present ones made of man. I won't spoil the finer details, but needless to say, the horror is amped up once Molasar is unearthed so to speak.

Shambling corpses, vampiric-like war lords, Nazi occupiers, a good verses evil battle to the death, and a cast of intriguing and well written characters make for a fun read full of scary moments. I highly recommended checking this one out! 

REVIEW: Coma by Robin Cook

 

Savvy and seductive third year medical student, Susan Wheeler has just started working at the Boston Memorial Hospital when, on her first ward round she falls for a patient about to head into the OR for surgery. Little did she know that her all too brief conversation with the dreamy patient was to be her last, as, like too many other patients at the Memorial, he falls into a coma during surgery. 

Something isn't right, Susan just knows it - and it's not her overly active womanly emotions leading her astray (though she does consider this; the ever-present conundrum - am I simply a woman or a doctor? hmmm...). Unfortunately for Susan, every medial head of unit (including the doctor tasked with babysitting the med students) thinks Susan is a woman - I mean, she has curves! and is cute! So how can she possibly be taken seriously by any of the dinosaur male chauvinistic pigs running the place! In their wise eye's she's trouble.

In a book where an attempted rape is warranted because the intended victim gives off vibes of wanting 'it', where woman's rights are nonexistent, where too many patients are comatose following surgery, and where a secret state funded facility is purpose built to house said comatose patients, there's little reality to the horror/thriller story - so, don't take it too seriously. Much of the premise is laughable and won't appeal to many readers in this day and age, however, taken for what it is - I had a lot of fun - if not for the sheer audacity of the portrayal of Susan's character and the cookie cutter males who interacted with her. This is another worthy entry into the annals of the paperbacks from hell! 

REVIEW: Evil Eye by Ehren M. Ehly

"Looks like a plague hit New York, man. An' if you catch that old woman's evil eye, you might as well be dead, because she'll get you in the end, one way or another."

Who knew that some terse words and a loaf of bread is all it takes to extract a curse from a dying man? Well, in an unnamed Egyptian city in 1919 – that’s how a mysterious presence was forcibly removed from some poor soul thanks to the dedicated chanting of a crazed priest. Absorbed into said loaf of bread, the intention was to divvy the evil bounty among a handful of clearly delusional servants who would promptly die following consumption. It looked like a win-win for the church and city at large; evil curse thing goes away, and, as a bonus – there’s a few less mouths to feed.

 

Fast forward some 60-ish years (the timing isn’t really a thing with this story), and what seems to be a random one-eyed hunchback homeless person putting a curse on equally random upper class people is anything but! No! This random weird looking angry lady is in fact from said unnamed Egyptian city! And is now scaring the crap at passers by on the streets of upper-class New York. Turns out old hunchback stole the cursed bread and ate it all – the greedy b!tch! Rather than die, she became cursed with the evil eye, and is rather well known in the criminal underworld…somehow…plot, like timing, isn’t much of focus here…

 

The centre of attention revolves around a prominent family business ran by the Forrester brothers; ruthless real estate moguls who double as shady incestuous businessmen and the many curses bestowed upon them by the scary hunchback lady. There’s a link to characters which plays out over time but you need to suspend your belief; think Bold and the Beautiful Halloween Special and you’ve got a good starting point.

 

Throw in a handful of mobsters, a pizza delivery guy, and a Chinese women held hostage by some very bad men and you’ve got a soupy mix of strange bundled into some awesome sauce of b-grade horror.

REVIEW: Dog Kill by Al Dempsey

Man's best friend becomes it's worst enemy in story about household pets (with some generically enhanced modifications) turning into bloodthirsty predators. 

Mel Ryan, former animal control agent, and new assistant to the Superintendent of the Brown County State Park was removed from his previous position after a harrowing incident involving stray dogs and an elk. Having thought he left the confronting incident behind, he finds himself once more embroiled in a brooding battle between man and animal.

With little rhyme or reason, household pets leave the safety of their homes to bond with strays, forming packs in dense woodland and spending their days searching for females in heat, fighting with one another, or brutally attacking rabbits. There's not a whole lot going on story-wise, however I did like the alternating chapters which switched perspective from dog to human and vice versa.

Dog Kill is full of over-the-top bloodthirsty action involving those lovable canine creatures (who aren't so lovable here...), with one particularly manic scene playing out at a primary school where a baseball and volleyball session becomes a game of doggy dodge ball as the small bales of pent up aggression seek solace in the flesh of easy targets. Parents and dog owners would do well to skip this chapter. 

Dog Kill is a difficult book to read at times, particularly the ending which pits man verses our humble companion in a showdown that's unsettling and tough to swallow. Anyone who shies away from confronting acts of fictional violence should take note before delving into this one; a light-hearted horror this isn't.