Children's and Young Adult Horror | Awake at Midnight

Children's and Young Adult Horror

← Older posts

Scary Books Review:
The Hole

Posted on May 11, 2013 12:15 am by JS Daly Comment

The Hole

by Guy Burt

Ballantine, 1993

152 Pages

Young Adult

Five teenagers take part in a school prank, hoping to become legends. Geoff, Mike, Liz, Frankie, and Alex are all to participate in an elaborate joke by class prankster Martyn. Martyn calls it an “experiment with real life.” They will allow themselves to be locked in a forgotten WWII bunker for three days to avoid a school field trip. Their parents will think they are mountain climbing while the school will believe they had stayed home. It seems like a flawless plan. Martyn’s plans are always perfect. But after three days pass, Martyn doesn’t show up to let them out.

Martyn’s a perfectly normal guy. A bright, articulate, charismatic guy who just happens to think he’s God and that other people are playthings.

The Hole will pull you in right away, and it moves quick because once you get lost in the mind of a master, there’s no putting the book down. Whether it’s Sherlock Holmes or Hannibal Lechter, a game of mental one-upsmanship is thrilling.

The narrative switches between the real-time experiences of a participant, Liz, and the flashback account she is writing of what happened in The Hole. There are also taped interviews with Lisa, Martyn’s girlfriend. It’s a slow burn, a psychological thriller, based not on action but the choices of the characters and the horror of the situation they find themselves in.

We feel the tension as nervous jokes turn into fear and anger. One by one, the things that give the students hope and comfort are removed. The water shuts off and the situation becomes deadly serious. Then the lights go out. It becomes a game of chess, Liz pitting her bluff against Martyn’s ego in a final gambit for their survival.

[It was] too unbelievable. You don’t examine every inch of a prank suggested by the school wit to see if it’s going to cost you your life; there’s no need.

If only we had, for some strange reason, done just that. If only one of us –for any reason– had decided not to do the Hole, the entire fabric of the thing would have been rendered useless to Martyn.”

It is a study of the mental processes not only of the participants locked inside the crucible of horror, but of the mindset of the genius sociopath who orchestrated The Hole. The story can be confusing if you aren’t paying attention, but stay with it, because the epilogue is a mind-blower that turns everything you think happened on its head. It makes a re-read well worthwhile, because the clues are there.

I ruminated over this book for days after I read it, going back to the ending because the resolution wasn’t clearly spelled out. Like Saw II*, the story lets you figure out what really happened, who the real mastermind really was, and what different motives were in play.

There was a movie made of the story back in 2001, directed by Nick Hamm, which I was unaware of when I picked up the book. (Not to be confused with Joe Dante’s The Hole (2001), which is also an excellent flick about a trap door in two brothers’ basement.) Unfortunately, Hamm’s movie was never released in US theaters. But Our Glorious Netflix offered us instant access to compare the stories!

The movie version focuses on the relationship between Liz and Mike, a minor sub-theme of the novel. It received an R rating in the US, but I’d have to say the book probably should, too. What it does offer (besides Keira Knightley from Pirates of the Caribbean,) is a dramatization of what happened at the very end of the experiment, which was purposely left vague in the novelization. It blatantly calls into question Elizabeth’s account of the story relating to the role Martyn played in the ordeal.

The movie is great on its own, though I prefer the book’s subtlety. The acting is seamless, and the characters well cast. Because of the major difference in the approach to telling the story, the book should be read before the you watch screen version if you plan to experience both, which I highly recommend. The novel is a psychological gut-clencher for which the movie is the catharsis.

Note: This novel was released in a later edition with the name After The Hole. It is not a sequel, but a different name for the same book.

*In Saw II, a similar story of people trapped in a house, the participants are required to work together to escape. If they can figure out the clues tattooed on each person’s neck, they get out alive. They don’t, of course, and the puzzle is never explained, though it can be figured out by the observant viewer.

Tweet

This entry was posted in Frightening Film Scary Book Reviews and tagged maniacs Bookmark the permalink
Scary Books Review:
Plague Nation

Posted on April 30, 2013 6:56 pm by JS Daly Comment

Plague Nation
(Ashley Parker #2)

Dana Fredsti

Titan Books, 2013

336 Pages

Young Adult

The coolest thing about Ashley Parker, Zombie Slayer, is that she carries a katana as well as her M4. This sequel to Plague Town is -not- a paranormal romance; it’s action-packed, and filled with squishy, zombie-gut goodness! We see Zombies used to demonstrate new weapons, and watch them killed with everything from a tanto to a pickaxe, sometimes a sledge hammer (“Thor’s Wee Hammer,”) and sometimes they’re even (yuck!) …stepped in.

Ugh. Kind of hard to ignore it when you step into the middle of a flash-fried rotten corpse. Just when you think things couldn’t get any grosser.

Targeted at younger women and chock-full of pop-culture references, this series reads like Charmed or H2O in Hell. (Any book that mentions the Ponn Farr finds a place close to my heart.)

“You watch the Walking Dead?” Simone said. “I’d have thought you were more the type for The History Channel, or perhaps old Star Trek marathons.”

“Know your enemy,” Nathan replied. “After Kyrgyzstan, [ A nod to World War Z] there wasn’t a lot on the subject that I didn’t read or watch. I also watch Game of Thrones and The Borgias. Those help me understand the DZN.”

The focus of the book is the Dolofonoitou Zontanous Nekrous (or DZN) and their crack team of “Wild Cards:” people who have survived zombie bites due to some genetic circumstance that it is hoped will offer a cure to the infected. But they aren’t just immune to the virus, they also develop heightened senses and unnaturally fast healing ability after the painful transition. While that means they can see in the dark, it also means they can smell the necrotizing flesh of the zombies, or as Ashley puts it, “the stinkathon.”

One of the scientists studying the Wild Cards is Simone Fraser (who “has the hots” for one Capt. Nathan Smith,) another is Dr. Phineas Albert. He’s the one responsible. It’s his vaccine for Walker’s Flu, his decision to push it out under falsified test data. It’s his vaccine that makes people rise from the dead.

Among the Wild Cards are Lil, an eighteen year old who just lost her mom in the zombie outbreak (and is discovered to be on anti-psychotic medication, which leads to dangerous temper tantrums in the field,) and Tony (“X-box”) and Kai, a pair of young pranksters. Then there are Mack , Gentry, and of course, Ashley Parker.

DZN Capt. Gabriel, (the love interest,) has been a real jerk since he and Ashley finally made it at the end of the last book. (She calls him a “douche” repeatedly, and then says “I couldn’t believe that three days ago he and I had engaged in hot monkey sex, and then fought the zombie swarm.”) It turns out the reason he’s so grouchy is that he’s off his meds. Meds for being a zombie, that is. He’s a rare “half-deader” who has been taking anti-serum to maintain his humanity. Otherwise he has to eat living human flesh in order to prevent his own body from rotting.

We see the humanity of the Wild Cards as soon as the action starts, when they are assigned to clear a trailer park of the undead. Amid tons of gore, Ashley ends up killing a baby, and [SPOILER] fun-loving Kai gets shot and killed by a freaked-out civvie.

We also get the character building scenes we love: a wise guy jerk makes a comment about Ashley and discovers the hard way that she’s got the chops to be a leader of the crack unit.

Along the way we are introduced to a new character, the psycho Griffin, or “Typhoid Mary” as the bad guys have nick-named him, some sort of carrier for the virus and a sociopath who enjoys infecting others –by making love to them if by choice– and then watching them turn.

Then the research center catches fire. Simone is nearly killed and there is a kidnapping attempt on Dr. Albert. It is obvious from the open doors and destroyed research that it was arson. The California DMZ now needs to find and “clear” a new base of operations. The nearest place with the necessary research facilities is San Francisco, Redwood Grove College (“Big Red”) no longer a viable lab.

In fact, it begins to look as if the entire outbreak was orchestrated. Could it have been a coincidence that the Walker’s vaccine was sent out to all the areas where there were DMZ outposts? Was San Francisco infected deliberately?

Citizens of Salt Lake City reeling at the sight of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, ripped to pieces mid-performance. So much for magic underwear.

On the way there, both of the DMZ helicopters go down, again victims of obvious sabotage, and the race begins. Dropped in the middle of zombie central, Ashley’s team begins working their way past the mile-long lines of vehicles migrating out of the city to rescue the second team, many of whom were wounded in the crash. They clear the nature conservatory where the second helicopter team has taken refuge, then shelter in a home near their target, UCFS Medical Center.

Then another character joins them, an energy bomb and parkour master named JT, who appears to be a valuable asset, though none of the team seems quite sure about him.

The final rush towards the Medical Center is fast-paced and deadly. Zombie action at its best. When the united DMZ unit finally reaches their objective, they find more than one painful surprise, and a whirlwind of change flies in their faces. The evil villains behind the arson and the vaccine distribution have the upper hand; it’s the perfect cliffhanger to get us drooling for the next installment.

The book makes fun of Episode Two [Star Wars], but then pretty much comprises the same transitional bridge for its own trilogy; (Plague World, forthcoming.) Sometimes I felt like the story could have been told in about half the space, but I found myself enjoying being in Ashley’s world, sharing her crushes and fears, her friendships and the action, looking at a world of horror that might still be salvaged and having the power to do something about it… if she can just hold her mind together in the face of children being pulled out of cars by undead ghouls.

A female zombie wearing a “Team Edward” T-shirt and jeans staggered out from a doorway, reaching for the nearest warm body, which happened to be mine. I automatically shoved the business end of my katana into its left eye, using my foot to brace against Edward’s sparkly white face as I pulled the blade back out, really wishing there was a way to do it without the nasty suction sound.
Shlorp!
Ugh.

I really looked forward to the short vignettes at the end of each chapter. Unrelated to the primary narrative, we are shown small, slice-of-life snippets describing how people first encounter the spread of the “zombocalypse”. Just like in a movie, we get have privileged knowledge which lets us scream “No! Don’t open the door!” just as a poor, unsuspecting innocent opens it and lets one of the living dead take a big, juicy bite out of them. Some of the shorts are frightening, some are funny, and they add to the satisfaction of a good zombie thriller.

Note: There is a movie out there titled Plague Town (2009), but it is not related to the Ashley Parker novels.

Tweet

This entry was posted in Scary Book Reviews and tagged zombies Bookmark the permalink
Scary Books Review: Slither

Posted on March 21, 2013 10:00 pm by JS Daly Comment

Slither

The Last Apprentice:
Book 11

Joseph Delaney

HarperCollins, 2013

397 Pages

Young Adult

In the opening scenes, a man called Old Rowler dies, gorged by the family’s bull in a tragic accident. Seeing her father in a pool of blood and attended by a huge, devil-like beast, his daughter Nessa becomes scared and runs away. The creature is Slither, a being that has been to the farm before and traded with her father, and who elects to stay with him for companionship as he dies. During those last moments, Slither makes a promise to deliver Old Rowler’s two younger daughters (Susan, 16, and Bryony, 8) to the safety of their aunt and uncle, but only in return for his eldest daughter, Nessa, whom he plans to sell at a slave auction. Later, he does not let Nessa forget her momentary weakness.

To Nessa:
I’ve promised the beast that he can have the farm and you. In return he’s promised to deliver Bryony and Susan to your aunt and uncle. I’ve tried to be a good father, and had it ever proved necessary, I would have sacrificed myself for you. Now you must sacrifice yourself yourself for your younger sisters.
-Your loving father

Though this is the eleventh book in the series ( ! ), Delaney keeps things fresh with a complete departure from his regular formula and even the characters we love, inventing new mythological beasts and exploring new lands in the same world as the young apprentice, Tom Ward. As always I am shocked at the strength of the imagery that can come from such a short book and stay with you in the dead silence of midnight. The story is told in turns by both Slither and his charge, Nessa.

Slither is a haizda mage, a Kobalos who has dedicated himself to perfecting his soul through study and contemplation. These magic users are generally isolated from the rest of their kind, tending to their haizdas, or people-farms, which are usually a village where the Kobalos watches over the humans who live within and takes what he needs for blood and mating as he sees fit.

On the journey Southward, the weather turns bad for Slither and the girls, forcing the party to stop for shelter at a Kobalos stronghold, a tower owned by the High-Mage Nunc. But Slither is double-crossed when Nunc attempts to murder him for the prize of the three young purras (human women) he is transporting.

Nessa saves Slither’s life by sacrificing some of her blood, but he still has to contend with not only the High-Mage, but his Shaiksa Assassin as well. Why is a Shaiksa so dangerous? They are telepathic, and can convey knowledge instantly, communicating their cause of death and the face of the one responsible to all other Shaiksa. After Slither does his impression of Conan the Barbarian, he is a marked mage.

He decides the best course of action is to travel to the central city of the Kobalos, Valkarky, and plead his case rather than wait for another assassin to kill him and take the girls. (This was kind of a contrived point, because Slither knows the only way to achieve justice in Valkarky is trial by combat with an undefeatable monster.)

Another rough point is that no one we like ever seems to get hurt. Like a John Wayne movie, the good guys survive every attempt on their lives, no matter the size of the threat laid before them. No challenge is too great. Until Valkarky, at least.

Then, out of the annals of Tom and Alice suddenly appears who else but our favorite witch assassin, captured by the Kobalos while seeking out the star metal she saw fall from the sky in a vision. In return for her weapons and freedom, she promises to help Slither win his combat. (And the bag with the Devil’s head in it, too. You can’t forget that little item.)

There was a blinding light so fierce that I feared my eyes would be burned from my head. Then a voice told me where and when it would fall– and then, once it was in my possession, what I must do with it… so I will forge a new blade!

The two triumph, but not everyone in the party survives. And Justice is lost even in victory when one of the High-Mages of the ruling Triumvirate takes issue with Slither’s win.

I was aware of Grimalkin’s cuts and thrusts as if they were my own; no doubt she too felt my strikes at the enemy that confronted us. It were as if I was floating just above my body, watching us do battle below.

It is a requirement of the Laws of Bindos that each citizen sell at least one purra at market every 40 years, and so Slither and Grimalkin travel together, first to the safe haven of Stoneleigh to meet Nessa’s aunt and uncle, then to the slave market. On the way, they face the greatest of the Shaiksa assassins, Eblis, sent by the vindictive High-Mage. As an end result, Slither decides there is a lot he could learn from the human witch, but also that one day he must fight her as the “summit of his endeavors as a haizda mage.”

Shaiksa assassins do not scream. And yet Eblis, the bravest, strongest, and most ruthless of them all, cried out. His screams went on for a very long time.

The Wardstone books have been misunderstood and called misogynistic before. This story will bring out the worst of the critics. The Kobalos, you see, have no females. Long ago in the dark of the early times, all their women were horrifically slaughtered by the Kobalos men, believed to be a source of weakness. (Grimalkin, of course, has a problem with this and, indeed, the very idea of the enslavement of women.) Yet the story is one of strength. All the women in the book overcome their weaknesses and show fortitude of mind, body, and spirit as they grow.

Nessa’s fate is forecast by her relationship with Grimalkin; but what ensues is much different than I had imagined. Though Slither is horrifying and eats people like the born-savage that he is, he, like Grimalkin, shows a sense of honor that made me want him to come to terms with his admiration of Nessa. In fact, he ends up risking great loss to his own well-being for the sake of delivering the girls to safety. No spoilers, but the way I thought this story would end was far outdone by what really transpires.

How is it that I can come away from a story about an evil, sadistic witch who cuts the thumb bones from her enemies, still alive, …with scissors… so deeply in love with her character? Perhaps it’s that I live in a culture that celebrates poetic justice achieved through savage acts, that holds punitive authority in such high regard, that is in love with Charles Bronson and Rambo and the nameless drifter from the Clint Eastwood westerns. But that is contemplation for another blog.

I am sure that Slither will be turning up again in the Wardstone Chronicles, with him and Grimalkin as a matched pair of anti-heroes.

Those who pursue me will die a death such as this! I am Grimalkin!

Tweet

This entry was posted in Scary Book Reviews and tagged delaney Bookmark the permalink
Scary Television for Kids:
A Video Retrospective

Posted on March 15, 2013 1:43 pm by JS Daly Comment

This week’s post is a retrospective of horror for kids on television. Part of the reason I love children’s horror so much is the memory of these great gothics. This nostalgic collection of opening themes will bring back some dark and delightful memories!

Eerie, Indiana

Goosebumps

Deadtime Stories

The Haunting Hour (R.L. Stine’s)

Are You Afraid of the Dark

The Munsters

Groovie Goulies (with Sabrina)

Beetlejuice

The Addams Family

The Addams Family (Cartoon)

1973

1992

What were your favorite shows? Are there any I am missing?

Tweet

This entry was posted in Terrifying Television Bookmark the permalink
Scary Books Review:
Under My Hat

Posted on February 28, 2013 1:24 pm by JS Daly Comment

Under My Hat: Tales from the Cauldron

Johnathan Strahan, Editor

Random House, 2012

Young Adult

413 Pages

An anthology of short stories by some of the most talented crafters of fantastic tales, this book showcases some truly thought-provoking stories as well as a few pieces that are not so representative of their skill. All the stories deal with witches or witchcraft in some form or another, and each is as unique as their authors. I wanted to star what I felt were the best stories, but realized that each one has its own charm. A choice October read!

Stray Magic – Diana Peterfreund
A heartwarming story about a woman in a shelter who discovers she can talk to one of the strays brought in. The dog is a familiar, and his glamour is fading increasingly the longer he is apart from his master, a master the warden worries may have abandoned him. The quick, almost deus-ex-machina resolution is forgivable in light of the happy ending.

Payment Due – Frances Hardinge
A tiny tale of revenge and shape-changing. I often find the fairy tale form to be difficult, especially when bad things happen to the protagonist at the beginning of a story, though it may end in a cathartic and fulfilling comeuppance. A fun kind of magic twists round a heartless collections agent and his cat. I always warm up to a story involving antique photographs and jackdaw familiars.

A Handful of Ashes – Garth Nix
An absorbing adventure reminiscent of The Worst Witch (or even Winx Club!) Ancient magics are invoked at an ancient college for witchcraft, and they may bring about more harm than the young students bargained for. I sat up into the night rapt in one of the best stories in the book.

Little Gods – Holly Black
Though I began to grow bored with the beginning of the story, (as I have actually lived it, almost to the letter, many times over,) this is a deep look into the hearts of those who practice Wicca. It is a charming story, with a happy, subtle ending. Holly Black is a richly descriptive author. (I only wish, just once, she could write about something other than fairies.)

Barrio Girls – Charles DeLint
One of the stronger pieces in the anthology, De Lint delivers what I was hoping for in this story about two goth chicks who run into some real trouble and turn to a local shaman for help. In this one, the witch is evil and the shaman is just a regular Joe. The twist is that the girls belong to The Family.

The Threefold World – Ellen Kushner
A young scholar gets stabbed in the leg with scissors and learns the Finnish secret of Steel. Not sure that this story really fits in with the theme of the anthology, but I love how it explores how words and stories are the true spells that can change reality.

The Education of a Witch – Ellen Klages
Lizzy has a new baby sister. When Lizzy is offered to choose a toy for herself before the baby shower, she picks out a puppet of Disney’s Maleficent. Soon Lizzie decides she wants to be a witch when she grows up, just like her new friend and confidant. She probably won’t have to wait that long.

Witch Work – Neil Gaiman
Here are reflections on life and love. This short poem is to me the most powerful piece in the book. To produce meaningful writing in simple verse is so difficult, yet Gaiman makes it look as easy as Fred Astaire.

Felidis – Tanith Lee
A man becomes infatuated with a cat-headed healer. The Bast-like witch is herself a hermit surrounded by cats, including her favorite, Jehankin. The man stays with her for over a year, learning that she has a true magical gift. When it is finally time to go, he decides to spy on her, and learns a special secret.

Witch in the Wood – Delia Sherman
A woman living on the borderlands alone falls in love with a shape-shifter. In order to protect him from the magical creatures who are hunting him, she must journey into a forbidden forest where she learns about herself and her strengths. A story about place magic.

Which Witch – Patricia A. McKillip
A band made up of young witches accidentally summon up “a monster Crow-God thingie” and rely on their familiars to get away from Trouble. It is a great exploration of the communication between familiars and their bonds and equally a great story about crows and their magical society.

And we were not just any tree full of gabbling city crows. We were a gathering from all over the land, most of us experienced, some of us with powers, and a few of us scandalously older than we had any right to be.

Carved Forest – Tim Pratt
A boy goes to bring his sister back when she runs away, but discovers she has chosen to become a witch’s apprentice. Wood totems of each of the townspeople stand in the backyard. Will the witch cut the memory of his sister from their minds? Ultimately a story about coping with the pain of loss, I found the ending difficult. It came too easy, and an ancient, powerful witch doesn’t deserve a TV sit-com resolution. Nonetheless, one of the stronger pieces in the anthology.

Burning Castles – M. Rickert
A short entry about a girl who’s mom plays up being a witch. (I envisioned a Stevie Nicks type.) Turns out her daughter is the one with true sight. I felt instant frustration for the daughter’s plight, but then the story abruptly ends.

Stone Witch – Isobelle Carmody
A woman who “can’t stand kids” finds herself seated next to one on a plane that is about to crash. She is offered a chance to cross the threshold and become a witch, but she’ll need the power of a familiar to draw on. A warm fantasy romp about the need to understand one’s self before loving another.

Andersen’s Witch – Jane Yolen
A tribute to Hans Christian Andersen that could stand equally well with nameless characters. A twist on the Western notion of “witch,” this tale is about the Ice Princess, who offers a boy three wishes. Then, like Faust, the boy must find a way to avoid the painful price she exacts. Kinda wishy-washy ending, but then, I wanted the Ice Princess to win.

B is for Bigfoot – Jim Butcher
Bigfoot has a son who is only half Sasquatch with the appearance of a regular, if tall, human boy. Unfortunately, there are some other bully ‘scions’ in his high school that are “sharpening their teeth” on him. Can a wizard PI give him the motivation to stand up for himself? A bizarre story, but the ride is enjoyable on every level.

Occasionally desperate clients demand that I prove my powers by telling them what their problem is before they even shake my hand– in which case, the problem is that they’re idiots.

Great-Grandmother in the Cellar – Peter S. Beagle
A boy’s sister is cursed by a witch-boy (anyone remember The Demon from DC comics?) who demands her hand in marriage. So what does he do? He wakes up his great-Grandmother, who is buried in the cellar and is a powerful witch (or maybe demon.) Grandmother has so much potential for further stories, I loved her character. More! The ending here is predictable, but still the best finale in the anthology!

Crow and Caper, Caper and Crow – Margo Lanagan
More poetry than story, this tale follows a Wise Woman on her journey to bless her newly born granddaughter. The surprise is waiting when she arrives. Her daughter-in-Law is not what she pretended, and the granddaughter is more than expected. Named after the nursery rhyme couplet inThe Baby’s Dance by Ann Taylor, (meaning to dance and shout in frivolity) this is a beautiful ending for the collection.

Tweet

This entry was posted in Scary Book Reviews and tagged witches Bookmark the permalink

← Older posts

Follow

Follow Awake at Midnight

Get every new post delivered to your Inbox

Join other followers