The Reapers Are the Angels by Alden Bell. © 2010 Henry Holt and Company. ISBN 9780805092431. Trade Paperback. Horror. 225 pages. Source: I received an ARC from Henry Holt, but this review is based off a finished copy I won. The unread ARC will be given away in one of our Halloween prize packs.

Synopsis: Zombies have infested a fallen America. A young girl named Temple is on the run. Haunted by her past and pursued by a killer, Temple is surrounded by death and danger, hoping to be set free.

For twenty-five years, civilization has survived in meager enclaves, guarded against a plague of the dead. Temple wanders this blighted landscape, keeping to herself and keeping her demons inside her heart. She can’t remember a time before the zombies, but she does remember an old man who took her in and the younger brother she cared for until the tragedy that set her on a personal journey toward redemption. Moving back and forth between the insulated remnants of society and the brutal frontier beyond, Temple must decide where ultimately to make a home and find the salvation she seeks.

Review: Temple was born into a world of chaos. In all her 15 years, she has never known anything more than the dilapidated cities, ruthless citizens fighting to survive and the zombies that are the cause of it all–and how to kill both. Armed with her Gurkha blade, a childlike-faith in God and haunted by her inner demons, The Reapers Are the Angels follows Temple on a journey through a post-apocalyptic American South, where there’s more to fear than meatskins, there’s thugs, rapists and just plain crazy people. This is not a happy story—think The Road meets The Walking Dead—but it is so absorbing.

Alden’s writing is amazing (and I think this is the first story ever that I have read that did not include one single quotation mark). His power of description is stunning, and he somehow made a novel about zombies … beautiful. The psychological depth of the novel is fantastic and realistic. Temple may not be book smart, but she is a soulful poet and is deeply haunted by the mistakes of her past.

If you are looking simply for a book with gore and walking dead people, I’d suggest looking elsewhere. The book has that, but it’s really a book for those who like a little, pardon the pun, meat alongside their horror. I’m giving this a 4/5.

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Teresa

Teresa (nom de plume: Torrance Sené) is a self-proclaimed geek, a Janeite, a lover of werewolves and bad-ass angels, an aspiring novelist and an avid book reader who freelances as a web designer. You can follow her on Twitter at @eireannoir.

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Deliver Us From Evil by Tom Holland. © 2000 Little Brown UK. ISBN 9780751518610. Paperback. Historical Fiction / Horror. 579 pages. Source: purchased from Amazon UK

Synopsis: Wiltshire, during the dying days of Oliver Cromwell’s Republic. Robert Vaughn is the son of a Parliamentary officer, investigating a series of grisly murders which suggest a link with Satanic rituals. Led along a dark path to vampirism and beyond, he attempts to fight an evil killer.

Review: Robert Foxe is witness to a number of horrible, ritualist killings during the mid-1600s, near the village of Woodton, where his father is sheriff. He witnesses something even more horrible during the fourth killing at Stonehenge, and what the killing summons.

Robert is found by two travlers, Milady and Lightborn, the next day, and taken into their care. His quest for vengeance leads him from England to Prague to the New World.

I wasn’t sure for a bit if this was a vampire novel, or just horror. There are certainly zombielike creatures (yay)! But yes, Milady and Lightborn are vampires (and I figured out who Lightborn really is, but then the clues were there if you know the history) and Robert, well, he’s something else. We even learn of the beginnings of Vakel Pasha, who has a much larger part to play in Lord of the Dead, which I very highly recommend. The fact there are vampires, though, is nearly incidental since this is Robert’s story. I was highly amused by the full story of Milady’s tranformation though–should have seen that coming!

Excellent book.

Jennifer

Jennifer works as a production editor for a major publishing company in NYC but will not review any books put out by the company (under any imprint) on this site since that can be considered a conflict of interest. Areas of interest include Robin Hood, pirates, zombies (and horror in general), Beowulf (and other early English literature, though Beowulf has a soft spot in her heart), medieval history, Celtic history and literature, history of diseases, and some odd subjects like bog bodies. She lives in New Jersey with a husband and a cat. You can find her on LibraryThing, Twitter, and Goodreads.

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Winterwood by Patrick McCabe. © 2008 Bloomsbury Publishing. ISBN 9781596915138. Paperback. Horror. 256 pages. $14.95 US. Source: purchased

Synopsis: In this chilling and unforgettable novel, Patrick McCabe shows us that nothing—and no one—is ever quite what they seem. Shortlisted for the Irish Book Award for Novel of the Year, Winterwood is a disturbing tale of love, death, and identity.

Review: One (professional) reviewer said he felt like he needed to take a bath after reading this book. I really have to agree with him. This was a wonderfully written book, the words just rolled off the page with the lyricism of a poet. But dear god it creeped me out, and not in a good way. Mind you, I *like* being creeped out. I love ghost stories. But the ghost of Ned Strange just inhabits the book the way he inhabits Redmond and it might leave you up at night.

So while I give this book high marks for the writing and for getting inside the head of someone possessed by the horrors of a dead man and driven to, well, things, I’m not entirely sure I can actually recommend this book to many people. It depends on what the reader can take.

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Jennifer

Jennifer works as a production editor for a major publishing company in NYC but will not review any books put out by the company (under any imprint) on this site since that can be considered a conflict of interest. Areas of interest include Robin Hood, pirates, zombies (and horror in general), Beowulf (and other early English literature, though Beowulf has a soft spot in her heart), medieval history, Celtic history and literature, history of diseases, and some odd subjects like bog bodies. She lives in New Jersey with a husband and a cat. You can find her on LibraryThing, Twitter, and Goodreads.

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The Blood Harvest by S.J. Bolton. © 2010 Minotaur Books. ISBN 9780312600518. Hardback. Horror. 384 pages. $25.99 US. Source: LibraryThing Early Reviewer Program

Synopsis: The Fletchers’ beautiful new house is everything they dreamed it would be. Built between two churches in Heptonclough, a small village on the moors that time forgot, it ought to be paradise for this young family of five, but they barely have a chance to settle in before they find that they’re anything but welcome. Someone seems to be trying to drive them away–at first with silly pranks but then with threats that become increasingly dangerous, especially to the oldest child, ten-year-old Tom Fletcher, who begins to believe that someone is always watching him.

The adults in Tom’s life are trying to help, including his parents; the vicar next door, younger and more dashing than you’d expect a vicar to be; and a therapist, Evi Oliver, who believes him more than she wants to.  But there are other clues that something isn’t quite right in Heptonclough, including the mysterious accidental deaths of three toddlers over the last ten years.  It is not until Tom’s siblings, two-year-old Milly and five-year-old Joe Fletcher, go missing in turn that the little village’s evil secret turns the Fletchers’ dreams into a nightmare.

Review: This is easily one of the best books I’ve read in ages. I had a very hard time putting it down. It’s got everything a good gothic horror story should have: creepy atmosphere, a strange ghostlike creature, an old church, someone in trouble, even English moors!

The Fletchers have moved into the tiny village of Heptonclough. It wasn’t exactly easy, as the town’s “ruling” family, the Renshaws, didn’t want them moving in at all, let alone building a new house on the moors near the churches (one a medieval ruin, the other “new”–Victorian-era).

The Fletchers’ two boys, Tom and Joe, take to playing in the church and the graveyard as it’s been abandoned for quite some time. But not long after the Fletchers move in, a new vicar is installed in the church. He likes the boys and takes an interest in their welfare and that of their sister, Millie. Which is a good thing because he starts to hear that Heptonclough isn’t a safe place for little girls.

Add to this a young woman who believes that her daughter who died in a fire a number of years ago is still alive and living on the moors (and the psychiatrist trying to help her), disembodied voices, strange medieval (or older) rituals that take place in the town, and a strange creature only seen by the Fletcher children, and you’ve got one creepy story.

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Jennifer

Jennifer works as a production editor for a major publishing company in NYC but will not review any books put out by the company (under any imprint) on this site since that can be considered a conflict of interest. Areas of interest include Robin Hood, pirates, zombies (and horror in general), Beowulf (and other early English literature, though Beowulf has a soft spot in her heart), medieval history, Celtic history and literature, history of diseases, and some odd subjects like bog bodies. She lives in New Jersey with a husband and a cat. You can find her on LibraryThing, Twitter, and Goodreads.

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