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From: rickk@emu.com (Rick Kleffel)
Subject: The Bile File -- Horror Fiction Reviews
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[This is a nice collection of reviews.  I've moved all the bibliographic
info to the bottom of the article for easier reading.  --AW, moderator]

			Nocturne
			Mark Chadbourne

New Orleans seems to be a staple for horror writers who live or have lived
there.  Poppy Z. Brite and Anne Rice use their familiarity with the city to
evoke those steamy nights, labyrinthine mansions and shadowy residents with
consummate skill.  British writer Mark Chadbourne takes a decidedly
different approach to The Big Easy in 'Nocturne.'  He doesn't evoke New
Orleans -- he tours it, from the perspective of a lonely, tortured young
British man who wakes up on a New Orleans trolley with no memory of how he
got there.

As David Easter gathers his memories, he gawks and gapes at his peculiar
American surroundings, tries to fit in and gets a job in a New Orleans bar.
The change of perspective from what we've come to expect in a New Orleans
horror novel is refreshing, and the opening sections of the book evokes a
nicely alienated sense of mystery.  Unfortunately for David, and the reader,
David discovers that he's come to find the Great Love of His Life, the
Eternal Passion For Which He Would (Will?) Sacrifice Himself.  That's
Fermay, the mystery woman, whose association with some unsavory Occult
Criminal Types condemns David to see dead people all the time, in crowds,
museums and skankin' jazz clubs.  Unfortunately, the dead people seem like
refugees from a bad Romero movie.  And then there's the other Thing that's
pursuing him, the bird thing, a cool monster that is chilling and yet
somewhat restrained.

Much of this book is far too mild for its own good, and then, by the time
the mildness itself becomes charming, Chadbourne puts in some horrific
scenes, that are not particularly shocking.  It's rather a nice touch.  But
he follows this up with some standard splatter that seems very out of
keeping with the rest of the book, and the revelations that follow seem
unrevealing.

Chadbourne does write some nice prose, but his characters seem to be on the
trite side, searching for the meaning of life when they should be looking
for a job.  'Nocturne' is a readable novel, but it's not likely to set any
fingers on fire turning the pages, and its depths are still, for the most
part, child-safe.


			Candlenight
			Phil Rickman

The paperback racks of your local grocery store are no longer the haunt of
quality original horror that they used to be.  One might see the latest
novel by ubiquitous best-selling authors, but not much more.  That's part of
what makes Phil Rickman's 'Candlenight' an unusual grocery store find.  But
Candlenight shines on its own, with the soft light of a full-blown novel of
whisper-quiet horror.  'Candlenight' is a novel notable as much for what
isn't there as what is.

'Candlenight' is another entry in the 'town with a secret' genre, the town,
in this case, being Y Groes, a small village in Wales.  For a 'quiet horror'
novel, 'Candlenight' is quite briskly paced.  But even in the first few
pages, where a priest dies investigating a tomb in one of the local
churches, Rickman shows that he's going to work the horror angle with
atmosphere and suggestion, not gore.  Unfortunately, over 500 pages of
suggestion can lead even the most patient and squeamish reader to wonder
when something is going to happen.  Atmosphere is thick and heavy in this
novel, and Rickman sometimes seems to think that readers can live on
atmosphere alone.

Fortunately, he supplies the reader with interesting, entertaining
characters to stroll through his ghoulish weather.  Claire and Giles are the
sacrificial innocents who, upon inheriting an Y Groes house, move to the
village.  In spite of Giles' attempt to learn the Welsh language so that he
can better fit in, things go pretty miserably.  But this gives Rickman a
chance to describe the fascinating politics of Wales, with its ingrown home
favorites and violent thugs looking for a reason to beat up outsiders.  Guto
and Bethan are the villagers who haven't succumbed to whatever it is that
makes Y Groes idyllic and dangerous.  They supply the insight into Welsh
version of 'locals only' with a good deal of wit and entertaining dialogue.
And finally, Berry and Miranda, Giles' friends from his days in the London
press, supply the quirky American outsiders' point-of-view.  Once Rickman
gets the ball rolling, slowly, it's a treat to watch each of the characters
move in the predictable round-robin description of their escapades as they
slowly but surely converge upon the final scenes in the novel.

'Candlenight' is a big, safe, enjoyable horror novel.  Rickman's prose is
evocative, his characters entertaining, and his situations are mildly
dangerous and slightly weird.  In 'Candlenight', Rickman offers a heaping
dose heavy breathing and thick fog, good characters and bad vibes.  Too late
for the beach, but just in time for your first big fire in the fireplace,
'Candlenight' will keep the lights on and the pages turning.


			Nailed by the Heart
			Simon Clark

What the vampire is to horror novels -- incredibly common and increasingly
tired -- the zombie is to horror movies.  But there's no corresponding
collection of zombie novels in horror.  Of course, the zombie lends itself
to cinematic treatment.  Throw some stage blood on an extra, let him grimace
and voila, instant zombie to get you.  But zombies, by definition are dead
and mindless, and dead, mindless beings don't lend themselves particularly
well to the process of literary characterization.  In 'Nailed by the Heart',
British writer Simon Clark succeeds at translating a low-budget Italian
zombie movie into a novel set in an English seacoast village.
	
This success is a mixed blessing.  Clark's supernatural premise is as old as
the legends it describes.  Chris and Ruth Stainforth, with their son David,
are moving into the ancient Roman 'sea fort' that lies derelict in Manshead.
They've saved and scrimped, and they're going to turn the fort into a hotel.
The first time the locals hear of this is, naturally, when the Stainforths
show up to move in.  Out in the waves, they see shadowy figures that they
think must be seals.  The reader knows better, as do the townspeople.
	
Yes, it's the village-with-a-secret novel, with zombies.  Chris and Ruth are
believable characters, and quite well drawn, as is their son David.  And
some of the more subtle effects that Clark tries are quite effective, as
when David sacrifices his favorite toys, putting them in a small, orderly
pile and letting them be taken out to sea.  The villagers are a more
predictable and sketchier bunch, with a drunken priest, senile general,
all-knowing villager, and displaced American straight out of Zombie Movie
Character Casting.
	
Eventually, those shadows start coming out of the sea, and the old god who
really runs the joint begins to make himself known to the characters.  The
'zombie lurking and threatening' scenes are readable but too familiar.
Clark has a penchant for putting his characters into situations that make
the reader want to scream "You MORONS!", which is as annoying in print as it
is in a movie.  He does get in some interesting cancerous gore, but it seems
more like a last minute injection of big-budget special makeup effects than
an integral piece of the plot.
	
Clark's real strengths are in mixing his characters' fear and desire of the
power that is running the whole shebang.  Though he does his best to make
this an all-out 'zombies shredding' festival, his most effective scenes are
those in which the Chris, Ruth and David feel the almost tidal pull of the
old god, the need for sacrifice.  There is some excellent writing in here,
and if you don't mind yelling at the novel occasionally, 'Nailed By the
Heart' is a pleasant enough diversion, with some nice grace notes that keep
it from being just another uncredited zombie sequel.


%T Nocturne
%A Mark Chadbourne
%I Gollancz Paperback
%G ISBN 0-575-05793-9
%P 398 pages
%D 1992
%O UK paperback; US $13.95 UK5.99

%T Candlenight
%A Phil Rickman
%I Jove Horror
%G ISBN 0-515-11715-3
%D 1995
%P 463 pages
%O US paperback; $5.99

%T Nailed by the Heart
%A Simon Clark
%I New English Library
%G ISBN 0-340-62573-2
%P 360 pages
%D 1995
%O UK paperback; US$13.95; UK 5.99