Banquet For The Damned by Adam Nevill
A mixum-gatherum of witchcraft and academia in this indifferent novel. Nevill has written ‘Apartment 16’ (very good), ‘The Ritual’ (soggy), ‘Last Days’ (excellent) and ‘House of Small Shadows’ (awful beyond words) and this reprint of his 2004 first novel is equally awful beyond words.
Set in the university town of St Andrews, two boorish losers show up and get caught up with nonchalantly evil and inappropriate types. But it is so boring and badly written that if you want a good cosmic horror on campus story, you should read Edward Lee’s ‘Coven’.
Best Lines:
“But who can say how old it all is? Older than the Greeks. Gods are only renamed. They can still be called by the old names.”
“What else has a crazy paranoid shut-in got to do, except read freaky books?”
“Once worshipped as a god. And then forgotten.”
~
Black Wings of Cthulhu 2 edited by S.T. Joshi, part 1
Another collection of Lovecraftian horror.
When Death Wakes Me To Myself
A shrink gets an unusual patient. Soon the patient’s tales become alarmist and the frailty of identity is made clear. Good.
View
A couple apparently desensitised to danger go house hunting and are urged to see the tantalising view. Consequently the order to view the basement is accepted with little rationalising. Nice.
Houndwife
By Caitlin R. Kiernan. A creepy non-linear tale of a cult member’s experience and consequent change. This is excellent and disturbing.