W hat is horror? Usually something calculated to terrify a reader, watcher or listener. But the ‘something’ seldom succeeds in scaring modern audiences witless. Not with our familiarity with vampires and aliens and ghosts and things that go bump in the night. Very few movie makers, writers or other exponents of horror keep us awake at night. But horror author Stephen King manages in the extreme. The creator of Carrie, The Shining, Pet Cemetery, The Stand, etc, is a master of horror. IT has been on the top of the shock-pile for more than three decades and has been adapted for film once again. Lately, South African authors have also weighed in. Foremost among these is Lauren Beukes, Capetonian novelist, writer of comic books and screenplays and winner of the coveted Arthur C Clarke Award for Science Fiction Literature in 2011.
Beukes does not flinch from the macabre and gruesome, nor does she shy from explicit language. But far from gratuitous, it’s all delivered in stunning dialogue and a compelling style that will keep you riveted. With Broken Monsters, she achieved what most published authors yearn for – she followed an international best-seller (The Shining Girls) with another completely engrossing read.
Detective Gabi Versado faces a harrowing case: a killer who confronts the world with his 'artistic' messages. One of which is a child’s torso fused with the hindquarters of a deer – the broken monsters of the title. This and other hybrid bodies turn up in Detroit.
A broken city, Detroit society’s moral compass has disintegrated. The city has gone from riches to rags and its dilapidated buildings reflect this gritty despair. Very much alive in this city of the
broken and maimed is a vibrant cyber world.
In this work, Beukes addresses the issue of how the complexities of social media have influenced humans.
Stephen 'The King' himself called the novel “scary as hell and hypnotic”.
Joe swims in the same waters as his very well-loved father, Stephen King. But he’s not trading on the old man’s success. Hill is, in fact, a phenomenal horror/fantasy author in his own right and has built a massive and loyal following without using the King name. He has thrilled us with 20th Century Ghosts, Horns, Heart-Shaped Box, NOS4R2 and last year, The Fireman.
Hill offers us a whole new kind of post- apocalyptic dystopia. In what appears at least partially to be a nod to Robert Frost, mankind is being consumed by a plague of fire. A new type of disease is causing people to spontaneously combust. Black streaks cover the skin of the infected and eventually burst into flame, reducing the victim – and their surroundings – to ash in an instant.
Everybody is blamed for the epidemic. Fox News says ISIS released the destructive spores invented by Russian scientists. MSNBC blames religion – engineers developed it, some crazed religious maniacs stole it and released it into the population to bring on The Rapture. Everybody has an opinion. And they are fast becoming extreme.
Our heroine is school-nurse Harper Grayson – brave and steadfast even after she has seen a man burn to ashes in front of her. Harper discovers she is pregnant at the start of the 'Dragonscale' outbreak and in her struggle to survive the barbaric decline of society around her, she encounters John Rookwood, The Fireman – who seems
to know far more about Draco Incendia Trychophyton than he lets on.
An added allure of this book is the climax upon climax, horror after horror, but also some enlightening commentary on human behaviour when societal controls break down. Few men fight for solutions in this dystopia, most form gangs and victimise the infected. Nobody is left unscathed by the Dragonscale; it’s brother against brother and lover against lover. The burning issue is the preservation of the self.
But there are a few good people who struggle to preserve their humanity and Hill pushes his point on society: the good get better and the bad get worse. A highly provocative introspection. What would you do in a world burning itself to death?
IT is one of King’s scariest. Have you read it, seen the TV miniseries or the two big-screen (scream) versions? If not, now is the time – stay in bed or curl up on a comfy chair clutching the 1 300 pages of IT.
The story appeared more than 30 years ago. And readers everywhere are gorging on it again – and are petrified anew.
IT takes place in Derry, a quiet little town in Maine, America. It is your usual town, unremarkable, but with a horrifying history. People die there on an unusual scale, kids and youths, and strange and alluring voices are heard. As the blurb says: “They float... and when you are down here with me, you’ll float, too.”
Where is 'down here'? The sewers, the storm drains, the river, the streams, a talking wash-up sink, a toilet, water pipes. Soft murmuring and maniacal laughter sound everywhere and maimed corpses pop up regularly in this ordinary
place. And the 'me' is a child’s delight – a clown with orange hair and balloons in his hand and a wicked smile.
Grown-ups don’t notice the evil that permeates Derry. But the children know. Not the bullies, mind you. Instead the observers are the terrified but brave little group of town 'losers' : the fat kid, the misfit, the stutterer, the asthmatic – the ones who are different.
We meet them as young people and then as adults. King’s scenarios jump away from that year, 1958, to some 30 years later. The losers are now grown- ups. They are all successful, have forgotten about Derry, forgotten that they had made a circle and a heartfelt promise to one another. Clutching bloodied hands, they had sworn they will come back if the evil appears again.
The time has come to uphold that oath. They are called to return and are scared witless. Read IT and shudder.
Chizmer is probably an unknown to most horror readers. He has been writing for more than 30 years, though, and is a prolific exponent of the short story.
Chizmer knows how to weave people and places into a chilling atmosphere, but has the uncanny ability to keep the reader attuned to the characters. His horror is contemplated, not just gory and bloody.
Stephen King recognised Chizmer’s expertise and co-authored a book with him called Gwendy’s Button Box, earlier this year.
A Long December, the title piece of the 35 intriguing short stories in this compilation, is beautifully written and worth the price of the book. And Chizmer is more than worthy of your time and emotions.