Tortures of the Damned By Hunter Shea

 

Tortures of the Damned
By Hunter Shea
2015 Pinnacle
Paperback, 439 pages

 

                I like short books; 170 to 180 pages is ideal. I have the attention span of a gnat. But when Hunter Shea is the author, I don’t even balk at a 439-page book. He is one of the few authors who knows how to write an interesting and exciting page-turner. Short chapters, many of which are cliffhangers, and a breezy writing style. As I have said many times… Hunter Shea gets it.

 

                A series of explosions rock the East Coast, releasing poisonous gasses and taking out all of the electricity. It is quickly evident that the world is forever changed, and the story follows the Padillas, another close-knit family in the Shea tradition, and with their neighbors Buck and Alexiana, trying to survive Yonkers in a post-apocalyptic setting. After being forced out of Buck’s well-prepared bomb shelter (by crazed rats!), the motley crew, including the Padilla’s young children, try to make sense of the situation and get to safety… wherever that might be.

 

                For readers familiar with Shea’s crypto-zoological masterpieces… no, there are no Bigfoots (Bigfeet?) or Jersey Devils, but nature does indeed run amok in this one. The poison gasses make many species of critter go bonkers. Besides the crazed rats, we have vicious horses, alley cats, bats, and birds all making it tough for the survivors. Surviving humans are no less of a threat to the family. The body count is massive and the isolation the family feels is palpable to the reader. One touch of horrific realism- human ignorance and hate are still the most dangerous things, even in the post-Apocalypse.

 

                Some reviews have been pissy about the ending because they expected or wanted something different, but I found it perfect and satisfying. Could a sequel be in order? It doesn’t need one, but there’s definitely room for one. I will buy it if it should materialize, but if it doesn’t, I’m perfectly happy with the story as it is.

 

                One. More. Time… Hunter Shea gets it! He knows how to write an exciting and heart-wrenching horror story.

Snowman By Norman Bogner

Snowman

By Norman Bogner

1979 New English Library
Paperback, 160 pages

                Who doesn’t like a good Yeti book, anyway? Especially when the Yeti is an invincible super monster who can travel from continent to continent and live for thousands of years! Well, that’s the Yeti you get in this book.

                Snowman starts out as a ripping horror tale, with the Yeti settling into the California Mountains above a new, exclusive ski resort. Gory killings happen. It seems like the whole thing was going to be a satisfying “set ‘em up, knock ‘em down” slaughterfest, but the resort’s money men think pretty quickly, and the middle of the book is more about putting a group of Yeti hunters together than about bloodshed. Daniel Bradford, the leader, who faced the Yeti in the Himalayas and (barely) survived, builds his dream team and since money is not an issue, equips them with some ass-kicking hardware.

                So, yeah, the book went from horror to high adventure half way through, but with well rounded, if familiar characters (Bradford’s love-interest/ liaison to the resort, the tenacious reporter, etc.) and an interesting monster, it’s all good. I suggest saving this book for the warmer weather because when the crew is up in the icy, thin air on the mountain, freezing their asses off, you feel it!

                This book was first published in 1978 by Dell Books but, like me, you should hold out until you find the New English Library edition with the nifty cover monster cribbed from Terror in the Midnight Sun (Sweden, 1959). Snowman is  New York Times best-selling author Bogner’s only novel that could be considered horror and it’s pretty durn good.

Talia By Daniel J. Volpe

Talia
By Daniel J. Volpe
2021 Self-published
Paperback, 211 pages

 

Blood makes the best lube!

                Evidently, Talia is a prequel to Volpe’s 2020 book Billy Silver, but I didn’t know that going in and it certainly made no difference to me, the reader. If you haven’t read that one yet, you’re still good to go.

                Talia is a midwestern gal transplanted in New York searching for fame in the bright lights of the big city. Well, she finds fame (of a sort) after being taken under the wing of Mike (never a name one should trust!), an underground specialty pornographer. She performs her jaw-dropping sleaze on camera for Mike and his psycho henchman Sally with no complaints until it gets bloody. Y’see, Mike has started to make snuff-porn. And if you don’t like it, Sally’s razor has something to say.

                Volpe lays the sleaze on thick and the fluids and depravity flood from the pages. The porn is gratuitous as fuck but we’re not reading Bambi here, kids… this is Splatterpunk Supreme. I mean, the first line in the book is “The strap-on dildo was nearly the size of a fire extinguisher”. Not just blood is splattering here, either. Once it does, however, the story became a lot more interesting for me. In my horror eyes, blood > cum.

                Admittedly, with little backstory on Talia (maybe there is some in the previous book), she sure seemed to get into the swing of things in the heavy-porn scene for such an innocent farm-girl. But she is badass and after a run-in with Sally, she gets even more violent. The book takes a supernatural turn that leaves the pages dripping with gore and satisfying revenge.

                Talia is filled with various bodily fluids, rape, murder, torture, gore, and nihilism… just exactly what you want when reading an extreme horror book. This one can be torn through in a sitting or two. Volpe is a heck of a nice guy in person but has one fucked up and twisted imagination. Soon to be a certified National Treasure.

                This edition has a nice, eye-catching cover by Mr. Michael Squid.