Griffin Hayes

I was lucky enough to win an electronic copy of Dark Passage by Griffin Hayes in a Librarything Giveaway.

Lucky isn't really the word. I am an avid lover of all things horror; horror films , horror and zombie video games and novels are highly ranked amongst my favourites. Yet very few things I watch, play or read actually scare me. This novel is one of those elusive creations that actually horrified me; such a rare treat cannot be commended enough.

Dark Passage is very well written, with show more hardly any spelling or punctuation errors at all. The style of writing is captivating and engrossing, creating a very vivid (unfortunately, at times!) image in the reader's head. The main idea within the story is dealt with exceptionally well, and Griffin Hayes manages to craft his words with a precision which invokes mental images for the reader that must be akin to those that gave him the idea in the first place!

A wonderful, scary, gory and utterly horrifying book that I would recommend to anyone who likes a bit of a scare - but I wouldn't advise reading it just before bed!! show less

It’s a new post apocalyptic world out there. Chemicals dumped into the water to calm us had an opposite and monsterous effect, basically turning people into Zees (zombies). The time frame for this book is a couple hundred years after the apocalypse, and Azina is a mercenary on a rescue mission to find some missing Prospectors.

In this beginning of this book it took me a few moments to catch my bearings and grasp the terminology. Mercs, Prospectors, Keepers, The Order… it is a lot to take show more in, but when you get the classifications down it all makes perfect sense. This is my second book by Griffin Hayes, and I am now positive he is fantastic in the horror genre. This story was so different from Bird of Prey, but both were fantastic. In Hive its all about the zombies, and of course I love that.

“Entrails and clumps of flesh ooze from the walls like some macabre painting.”

Griffin Hayes does gross and disgusting fabulously! Sometimes I just want to read a horror story, and Hive delivers. Azina is a wonderful character, I just really enjoyed reading everything from her point of view. Her? Oh yeah, her. I am not sure why, but I am just fascinated when a male author writes a female lead character and doesn’t muck it up. Is that sexist of me? Possibly. But I don’t care, I still dig it. And in this book Azina is tough and strong, and she rocks. You gotta love a girl whose weapons of choice are a repeater rifle and a Katana!

This book was very smartly written. There is a twist to these zombies that most zombie stories don’t have, which lends itself to the title, Hive. Another thing that I thought was pretty interesting was the references to the past, which to us is current time. The views that the future civilization has of the past civilization (our current time) is not entirely favorable. It’s an interesting commentary on our current times when the very thing that tore us apart is the additive of chemicals to our water supply. Mr. Hayes very intelligently points out how we have no problem adding things like fluoride to our water supply, so what is next? What else will we be ok with, under the guise of it being better for us? One character points out how in the past we had “computing machines that do the thinking, mechanical doors that opened and closed, and all the food they (we) could eat” and that we must have weighed 850 lbs. I really thought it was quite interesting to sort of have a magic mirror to gaze into and picture how our descendants may possibly view us. Cause you see, Hive isn’t all blood and guts, and shock value. There’s quite a message in there. Well, at least, that’s how I view it.

In a story that’s roughly eighty pages long you don’t normally expect to get a lot of story. But this author definitely gives enough detail and history to not make it feel like we are reading a scene from a larger story. Do you know what I mean? Sometimes novella length stories take on the feeling that we are only getting a glimpse. Now, I’ve just looked on Goodreads and I do see that there is a Hive 2. While I am about to go buy that for myself, I could easily see how just this story could have stood alone. I think this was a great story. There are more than enough twists and a lot of action to keep you very interested. The end was terrific, but now I am even more excited to see that it’s not actually over. Halloween is coming up, so if you are in the mood for something quick and in the spirit of scariness, I think you should check this out. Especially if you are a zombie fan. Like I said, there is a whole different aspect to these zombies that I’ve not seen yet. It’s a good read, and I’m a definite fan.

And one more thing, before I close this review out. Take a moment and look at this cover. Then go to Griffin's site or on Goodreads and check out the rest of his covers. They are artistic, terrifying, and beautiful all at the same time. In all honesty, I feel this is an author who is developing a great body of work, and it would be wise of you as the reader to give him a read and see what you think. show less

Hugh Howey, author of Wool, wrote the blurb that hangs above Griffin Hayes's name on the cover of Dark Passage. It reads: "Nail-Biters beware." Though I haven't read any of Howey's work (yet, as Wool is on my TBR 2013 list) the man obviously knows good horror when he sees it.

After posting on Goodreads that I had started and was enjoying Dark Passages, Griffin contacted me, asking me to be completely honest with my review. I fully intended to, whether he had asked or not, but I'm going a show more little further with this critique than I normally would. I'm going to discuss formatting and typos, which I rarely ever do. So, before I get into the meat of my review, I would like to warn the nit-pickers out there. This book is not perfect, as it suffers from repeated words (He frantically scanned frantically the shadows...), missing words (He found a shotgun inside locked gun rack), misused words ("wadding" instead of "wading", "flood" instead of "floor"), two issues with missing quotation marks (One example: But instead of answering, Tyson grabbed her by the arm. Run!" he shouted.)and several formatting foibles where new paragraphs are not indented or indented so much that the text looks to be centered. I only noticed these things because I read every word on the page. I do not skim or skip around. Also, I was paying close attention after having been contacted by Griffin. Now, does any of that matter? That's subjective. What I will say is, Griffin Hayes is a storyteller of the highest quality. Dark Passage is so good that I am not adding the dozen or so mistakes I found into the rating for this book. Here's why.

Dark Passage is a terrifying story, brutally intense and unflinching with its portrayal of stomach-turning events. Griffin Hayes is the type of author that truly unsettles me. No one is off limits in this book. Bodies amass quite quickly, and I loved every minute of it. I'm one of those people who like being scared by my entertainment. I enjoy the relief that comes when I put the story down. Breathe in, breathe out... it's only a book.

It's been a long time since I've read about a creature as utterly terrifying as the one in Dark Passage. It has all the markings of a successful monster; a chilling precursor lets you know when it's coming, though I won't spil what that event entails; the way it moves; a hint of innocence, yet it's consumed by a ravenous bloodlust. Yeah, Griffin's monster is money. Honestly, the last supernatural monster that terrified me as much as Griffin's was Pennywise the Clown, from Stephen King's It. Yeah, it's been that long. There have been other scary monsters along the way, but none anywhere near the level of the one in Dark Passage.

I don't do plot summaries or spoilers (you can read, so go check out the synopsis). I will say, though, the twist at the end of Dark Passage was brilliant. I've read my fair share of mysteries and thrillers, so I'm not green when it comes to figuring out what's really going on, but Griffin shocked me stupid. I actually laid the book down, went outside for some fresh air, then came back in and surfed through the earlier sections of the book to make sure he hadn't screwed something up. Everything tied together nicely. If there's a plot hole, I missed it.

In summation, I will be reading everything this man writes. Last year, I had the joy of stumbling upon Kealan Patrick Burke. This year, it seems I've found a different author to throw my money at.

Thank you for the nightmares, Griffin.

E.

(P.S. This part will not go in my Amazon review, but I wanted to add that everyone who enjoys my work, should check out Griffin Hayes. It's odd... Griffin and I sound very similar in voice. He uses witty vulgarisms in his metaphors and similes, and there's even a slight sarcastic humor to some of his character's inner thoughts. Don't get me wrong, though, as Griffin is a unique talent. He definitely will not bore you.) show less

Bird of Prey is a good, fun, pulp as a buddies versus monster brood story. Slightly ridiculous, occasionally Aliens style disgusting, and definitely a David versus Golaith scenario. In the process of removing some metal sheeting from an abandoned factory, a man is attacked by a strange flying creature. He recruits his buddy to return to investigate the weird birdlike attacker, and discover there is more than one of the things. Rather than report this to the authorities, as they would take show more forever to act, the two go and collect two more buddies, and some old weapons to take care of the creatures themselves.

This novella read a bit like a screenplay, and could really have done with a bit more fleshing out, particularly when it came to understanding the flying creatures. I didn't really get a sense of them being an ancient evil, and despite the scene at the bar, we're not really given an understanding of the threat they propose. I did enjoy the interplay and dynamics between the men, especially their more comedic moments.
3.5 stars
Review copy received from the author a part of Librarything's Member Giveaway Program. show less