**EDITED TO ADD: You guys, if you got the free copy at Smashwords ages ago, you probably spotted the typos. Good news! You can go and redownload the u**EDITED TO ADD: You guys, if you got the free copy at Smashwords ages ago, you probably spotted the typos. Good news! You can go and redownload the updated version! Which I am totally going to do now, because I have so much love for this story.
I read it again last night and yes, I am afraid to go back in the water, thanks for asking. **
Original review: Oh FML. I just wrote out a whole review and then deleted it by mistake.
I think these were the important points:
You guys, read this book. It's proper horror creepy. Same vibe as Soulless.
I thought I knew was I was getting into -- a smutty piece of fluff with a man who is molested by a tentacle monster but it's okay because he likes it in the end. That is not this book. This book is creepy. I said that, right? It's the word I keep coming back to.
It has the following elements:
1. A monster. See title. Check. 2. An isolated location. An island. Check. 3. Creepy locals. You know those assholes know exactly what's going on, but you don't know whose side they're on. Check. 4. A guy who wanders into the middle of everything and happens to be the next chosen sacrifice. Check.
But that's not all this book has got. It's got a fantastic sense of place -- the descriptions of the landscapes weren't just visual, they were visceral. The island has it's own history, of both its people and its industries. And the atmosphere just gets creepier and creepier, like the rolling fog in a 1940's gothic film. The details here are fantastic. I don't want to give any spoilers, so I'll just say -- the birds! Oh my god, the birds! There are so many layers here, that I will definitely be rereading it, and at a slower pace this time so I don't miss a thing.
Read this book, you guys. It's currently FREE on Smashwords, which must be a terrible mistake, because M. Caspian deserves some cash for this effort. And it's not short either - it's novel length.
Also read this book because I want to talk to someone about how awesome it was.
The blend of historical and paranormal/horror was absolutely seamlesMy review is three simple words: What Sea said.
The rest of this is just rambling.
The blend of historical and paranormal/horror was absolutely seamless. Most of the time when I read a paranormal it's kind of meh. But the was one was so grounded in realism that it was all I could do not to seethe in sheer jealousy at the writing skills here.
That's a lie. I totally seethed in jealousy.
Also, I am now scared of birds.
How's this for brilliant entrance for a character: "There was a dead man on a dead horse at the edge of the field..."
OMG, you guys. Remember when vampires were actually scary? And not pretty? Remember when they were properly creepy dead things? T. Baggins does!
Okay,OMG, you guys. Remember when vampires were actually scary? And not pretty? Remember when they were properly creepy dead things? T. Baggins does!
Okay, so Ban is not ugly. Except when he's being tortured by his maker, Sebastian, who is ugly, because of a whole fire issue several centuries ago. But Ban is scary. Not as scary as Sebastian though, who made me read this book with the lights on. Sebastian is proper horror grotesque.
Sebastian is in town to try and buy a manor house, and Ban acts as his agent, since Sebastian is currently doing that whole gross animated-corpse thing while he heals from his burns. It's through this that Ban meets Nicholas, a man who, thanks to a nasty accident considers himself only half a man. I have to admit, at this point I figured Ban's smoking-hot-but-evil-sexiness would cure all Nicholas's injuries, but...gasp...it didn't! Certainly Nicholas isn't as incapacitated as even he thinks, but there is no magic fix.
And I should probably point out here that the torture scenes in this, and the death scenes, are...um...very detailed. Which I didn't mind, but that goes back to my love of horror. YMMV.
The historical setting was great, in all its smelly glory. I do love it when historical settings aren't made sterile. Guess what? In the past, people used chamberpots, and dogs pissed on the floor, and life was kind of filthy, by many of our modern standards. And that's all here!
Okay, so I liked the horror and the filth. What I also liked was the love story. Or love stories, since Ban's dead lover Serafino plays such an integral part, not only in influencing Ban's behaviour, but...well, you'll have to read it to find out.
I took a star off for the ending. While I liked how (view spoiler)[Ban gets his ultimate revenge on Sebastian by siring a bunch of mongrel vamps, I wasn't that keen on it being with Martha, who the whole way through the book had been portrayed as asexual. (hide spoiler)] But I did enjoy the resolution of the love story, and the last lines were wonderful.
If you're sick of shiny, sterile, straight-out-of-a-fashion-magazine vampires, then this may just be the book for you.
But, talking of perfect half-clothed models, what's with this cover? It didn't say historical setting to me (in a thumbnail, that jacket really doesn't stand out), which meant I was pleasantly surprised. Anyone who doesn't like historical settings might be less impressed, though. ...more
This book is not m/m. There is no sex in the book. I'd say it was safe for children, but only if you don't like the children and want to give them nigThis book is not m/m. There is no sex in the book. I'd say it was safe for children, but only if you don't like the children and want to give them nightmares.
Holy crap.
Have you ever read a book and gone, "Shit, I wish I'd thought of this?"
That was this book for me. It's only short, but it's dark. Unrelentingly-fucking-dark. The creepy factor here was so high I had to go and make sure my back door was locked.
I won't give any spoilers here. Honestly, this book ends the only way it can...as it trudges unrelentingly through that darkness I mentioned before.
Creepy as hell.
It's only very short, but you'll think about it for a long time, I promise. ...more
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