Clickity, click, click... a creepy tale of witchcraft

Clickity, click, click, click...

Forsaken was given to me by Maxine Booklover Catlady Publicity for an exchange of an honest review.It is important to mention first  that I'm not a keen fan of witches, sorcellerie, witchcraft horror. Like vampires and werewolves, I find that witchcraft is so overused in the genre that it lost its scary glamour. However, I should add that very few writers proved to be an exception to that as they knew how to employ their crafts smartly to surpass the mediocre clichés and succeeded to introduce strong plots with real frights. Their witches are real, very wicked and so evil to make the devil their apprentice. And, I found that in few books such as Banquet for the damned by Adam Nevill, a book crafted to perfection for a debut and in Forsaken by J.D Barker which also strives to deliver the eager readers a dreadful atmosphere, a hideous witch and a family at stake.

In the beginning it was a journal and a promise.

Thad McAlister is a famous horror writer living with his family in Charleston Sc. This time, he has written his masterpiece, a dreadful book journal about the trial of a very evil witch who terrorized the Shadow Cove township. It is a book that poured itself in his mind. A tale which was told by someone inside his head without any intervention or assistance from him. That's  when the problems started and the gates of hell began to open. When Thad leaves to New York in order to sign a movie offer, terror and nightmares will shake the life of McAlister family. Separately, they will engage on a journey of horror where the evil character of Thad's  doomed book is taking shape in this world  through her familiars and lunatic followers, and turn McAlisters' nightmares real. On her side, Rachael, Thad's pregnant wife, is left to live the most dreadful moments of her life, alone with her daughter and housekeeper, isolated from the outside world, under the watchful eyes of evil minions of the witch.  At that moment, Rachel needs to fight back if she wants to save her life and those of  her daughter and her unborn baby against a pure evil that is waiting to claim something that Rachael had promised to give long time ago.

The  book has built up an atmospheric psychological tension starting with the prologue where the author gave us a direct hint about the actual sources of the problem; it is an old  journal and a secret promise who brought all that.

A fast paced book where actions follow without a break. Short chapters have infused the sense of rapidity in laying out the story. That also has created an eagerness in the reader to turn the pages without stopping in order  to know what is going to happen next. The style is well written with nice short sentences, fine prose. Description is not burdened with long boring phrases, the premises between the McAlister house, the forest of Shadow Cove, the unstoppable rains and the bougainvillea are perfectly displayed. The elements of earth, water and fire are smartly used to enhance the sense of the witchcraft. A feeling of creepy enchantment reigns along the chapters where the characters are no longer in possession of their will nor freedom and that is scarier then any other spooky things, when someone fully controls you is another form of possession. The description of the witch, shifting between old woman and beautiful girl, her long nails clicking, her rottenness, her hissing voice are so real, and when her dark shadow comes to exist through her followers, the reader can't help but to feel with the protagonists a dreadful unease. Their desperation is morbidly contagious. Pregnant in contractions, Racheal comes to face alone a pure evil, she is trapped with her daughter and housekeeper in their house unable to leave as it  became quarantined by thorny nasty bougainvillea, and guarded by wicked minions, Racheal is desperate but she has to fight for her family's sake. From his side, Thad is struggling to keep his sanity when his world is invaded by his main wicked character who manifests herself through Christina, a fatal beauty that reeks of foul manipulation and pure evil. She lures Thad into her world by sex and threats sending him to the hell-mouth.

I loved the way the author weaved in two stories in one, chapters that vary between the present and the very far past when those witch trials took place. The author represented those trials in the form of chapters taken from the journal of Claytone Stone_1692  of  Rise of the Witch, Thad's evil masterpiece. There is  an eerie cold atmosphere in those chapters and the very disturbing facts regarding the witch and the town are creepy. A feeling of hesitation and doubts are floating in the air, and together with the scribe, the readers  do not know how to react towards the accusations of the residents of Shadow Cove against the witch who looks only like a sixteen year old girl, an orphaned child. The readers find themselves dragged  with Claytone by the deceiving innocent look of the girl/witch who  controls his mind and whereabouts. Thus, readers are perplexed to believe or not the atrocities inflicted by the witch whose angelic beauty deemed  frightening and creepy. I love the fine sentences used in those chapters, they have a bit of  lyrical  with an eerie enchanting ambiance.

For me, I should say, Forsaken excels more in the psychological terror than the supernatural evil dark powers. When you are stripped of your will, of your strength and ability to even move and fight is very scary. Scarier than those Minions scattering around. I couldn’t find them frightening despite their sharp teeth and beady eyes. However,  the portrait of the witch the writer gives is very unsettling.In a quick note, I found the homage given to Stephen King's  famous work Needful Things amusing for being myself a huge reader of King.

Finally I will be definitely waiting for the next book in the series of Shadow Cove Saga  to be released because J.D Barker has become  among those who are constantly on my radar.

Thank you again Maxine for sending the book. You definitely rock.

Clickity, click, click, click...

بالعربي: الفتاة الضائعة لآدم نيفيل، رحلة الانتقام والدم

رواية "الفتاة الضائعة " Lost Girl للكاتب البريطاني "آدم نيفيل" Adam Nevill هي من الروايات الأدبية التي تندرج تحت ادب الديستوبيا أي الواقع المرير أو المدينة الفاسدة. تستحق هذه الرواية أن نقف عندها لأنها تحفة أدبية رائعة ذات حبكة درامية متقنة من حيث الموضوع والأسلوب السردي واللغوي المميز الى جانب الوصف البليغ سواء على مستوى الاشخاص أو الامكنة.

انه العام 2053 عالم مثقل بالكوارث البيئية والفياضانات في كل مكان نتيجة للتغير المناخي، هناك نقص في الغذاء والماء، الحروب والحرائق لا تنتهي وملايين من اللاجئين يجتاحون بريطانيا التي أصبحت ملاذا للمتاجرين بالبشر والمتحرشين ,وحاضنة للأمراض والاوبئة.

يبدأ الأب، بطل الرواية، رحلة الانتقام والدم في هذا العالم الموبوء لإيجاد ابنته التي إختطفت قبل سنتين من حديقة منزله، فيغوص القارئ في غور النفس البشرية المعذبة للأب التي يصورها الكاتب بشكل عميق. يبقى اسم الاب مجهولا وذلك رغبة من "نيفيل" لتجريده من شخصيته القديمة ليجعل منه فقط والد الفتاة الضائعة، فهو باختصار يعرّف نفسه ب "والدها" وهو أيضا "الأب الأحمر" الذي يدفعه حزنه البليغ وغضبه المشتعل ورغبته في الانتقام لمعاقبة المذنبين في رحلة البحث فيجد نفسه وجها لوجه مع عصابة ملك الموت التي تتفشى كالوباء في كل مكان.

يجدر القول بأن ما يميز كتابات "نيفيل" هو إبداعه في الوصف العميق والقوي لشخصياته! حيث يرسم صورة شاملة ومخيفة لوحشية أفراد العصابة الذين "يعيثون الفساد" في كل زاوية ويبثون الرعب بالتعذيب والقتل الجماعي وقطع الرؤوس. كما أن طقوسهم الغريبة التي تتجلى في رسومات عرًافيهم التي تغطي الجدران والتي تصور كل ما هو دمار وموت وقتل ترمز الى قرابين لملك في ثياب رثة ينتظرهم في ظلمات ما بعد الموت. كل هذا يدل على مسحة ميتافزيقية أراد الكاتب إضافتها على الرواية ليخلق شعور بالخوف والرعب والغموض.

كثيرة هي المواضيع التي تطرحها هذه الرواية ونذكر منها فلسفة العدمية! الموت يأخذ كل شيء والبشر هم أشبه بلطخة في هذا العالم لا قيمة لها، مجرد غبار، باختصار هم لا شيء. كما يغلب الطابع الإنذاري فيها ويهدف منه الكاتب بشكل غير مباشر الى التذكير بالواقع المرير الذي نعيشه الان من قتل وإرهاب وحروب على الأرض واحتباس حراري مخيف. أنه المستقبل المشؤوم الذي ينتظر البشرية. 

لغة محكمة تم توظيفها في إبراز أدق تفاصيل الرواية، و"آدم نيفيل" يبرع بشدة هنا، الصور المجازية رائعة وعميقة ، ترابط الجمل محكم وبليغ حيث على سبيل المثال يشبه الناس بالقوارض والزواحف، عيونهم خرزية ماكرة وجلدهم لزج مخادع ليبين الجشع والانحطاط الأخلاقي في أبشع صوره. أنه وصف يتجاوز الحدود المادية للكتاب فتتحول كل كلمة الى صورة حية أمام عين القارئ. أكثر ما اعجبني في الرواية هو الحب الأبوي المثقل بالذنب والحزن، المتسم بالإصرار والنضال والمقهور باليأس لكنه مفعم بالأمل، وقد أظهره الكاتب بشكل طبيعي خال من مبالغات أو تجميل. باختصار انها رواية ملحمية لأحد أكثر المؤلفين المعاصرين تفردا وإبداعا في أدب الرعب والخيال العلمي والديستوبيا فهو كما تصفه جريدة "الغارديين" The Guardian بأنه الشبيه البريطاني ل"ستيفن كينج" .Stephen King.

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Don't Breathe, where literally you won't breathe

In the beginning it was Evil Dead. A movie that scared me witless when I was only 12 years old. First attempt to watch it was a total failure as I only saw the first part, was too frightened! 

Couple of years later, I gathered my courage boosted by the presence of my siblings and the daylight of course, to watch it with the sequels. And after more than a decade, I went "solo" to the cinema to watch the remake, because my people of friends of family were and are still unable to enjoy good frights, something I savour thoroughly. 

This long introduction is simply written to point out at the two genius behind that masterpiece, Sam Raimi who founded Evil Dead franchise and Fede Alvarez who made the remake, and to say that when those two met, the outcome was tremendously terrific for Don't Breathe' proves to be a master horror thriller.

Indeed a master horror from the opening until the closing scene, tension and horror create together a chilling ambiance and an uneasy feeling of entrapment where every breath is hold in a dreadful anticipation of what is coming next.

In Don't breathe, we meet Roxie, Alex and Money, three delinquents living off the things they steal from the houses they burglarized, houses secured by the company where Alex's father works. When the three decided to go to a new level, their next target would be a blind war veteran who is living on top of 300,000 dollars, received as a settlement money for the death of his daughter who was killed in a car accident by a reckless wealthy woman.They think that this one will be an "easy" robbery that would start by breaking into the blind man's house which is located in an abandoned block in Detroit and by drugging him and his Rottweiler, the money would be theirs. Little did they know that by entering the den of the lion, their worst nightmare is going to materialize, and the roles will be swapped and the prey becomes the hunter in chase of every escaping breath they draw.

It is important to mention that the audience will be left with mixed feelings towards unsympathetic characters from both sides, protagonists and antagonists. Money is an arrogant idiotic criminal, Alex, is trying to gain the audience trust because he is obliged to go along with them because he is in love with Roxie, who is the least despicable, and he wants to help her to get her little sister out of a miserable reality of a neglectful mother and her alcoholic boyfriend. As for the blind man, an emotional confusion will fill us as we remain for a long time unable to define exactly how we really feel about him. Is it sympathy, pity, anger, hate, fear? Shall we give him excuses for his revenge or should we be in great shock about his reactions? The performances of Jane Levy as Roxie and Stephen Lang as the blind man deserve to be highly praised.; we are thrown in their world, following carefully their acts. In one scene we are fighting to hold tight our breath with Roxie, imitating her fear involuntarily by covering our mouths with both hands, petrifying in our seats for fear to be heard by Lang who excels in the world of the blind, where his world of darkness rules and all his concentration are directed to every sound around him, to which his body language perfectly reflexes with each muscle and twitch.

The setting and premises are nothing but the old house with his bolts and locked doors in an abandoned derelict neighborhood and those elements are used cleverly to intensify a feeling of trapping and isolation from the outside world. Once the three were in, the audience knew that they are trapped with no way to get out. Very efficient cinematography and visuals from a heated chase, a struggle and fight, black pitch darkness, along with a astonishing soundtrack of hard breathing, creaks betraying dead silence, nasty barking of a dog, deep shouts of enraged anger mixed with pitiful sorrow and muffled whimpers and cries.

Movie lovers, I can simply say that Don't Breathe is your movie of 2016. Check it out now.

Mine -Uncut Version: Potential veering towards disappointment

Mine Uncut Version was sent to me by Maxine-Booklover Catlady Publicity in order to give an honest review of it. The book is about Jenna, a young beautiful woman, married to an older sadistic man, Ben, a cold violent abusive husband, starts an affair with Andrew, their lawyer, a charming man who will turn her life upside down. Unfortunately, I didn't like the book and couldn't give it more than 1 and that was for the following:

1. Despite that the book has good potential ideas to make it interesting and enjoyable, however the author failed to develop them or even make them convincing. For instance, the abuse, the fear, the desperation, genuine feelings were just kept at the surface just floating themes without any depth.

2. The writing style was poorly done and suffers from basic simple sentence construction, unvaried syntax, to flabby descriptions and boring repetitions of words without any efforts to swap out overused words, adjectives. Briefly, the book is built on very simple basic phrases, monotonous dialogues, limited vocabulary with no sign nor proof of editing.

3. Illogical and absurd situations and the book abounds with incoherent transitions, vague incidents, plot holes almost every other chapter. For instance, condoms are always at ready everytime they have sex, even at a benefit, the unexplained interruptions of Eric barging in everywhere Andrew and Jenna are about to do something, another example of plot errors in the book is one of the scenes where Jenna donned a "SUMMER DRESS", she meets with Andrew, he reaches for the hem of her "SKIRT". Example of absurdity and illogical scenes are when Ben hurts Jenna really bad that her Achilles tendon is ruptured and her leg is put in a cast, she is fit enough to clean, tidy up Andrew's house, JUMP DOWN from the kitchen counter, cooks!!! Andrew with his friends broke in Jenna's house to save her and the author forgot to explain how they managed to pass the crazy senator and his bodyguards, etc.

4. The characters are flat, unconvincing and one dimensional. The author failed to build up good deep characterization to relate to or feel for. From the abuser husband to the victim wife and the savior lover. The author didn't deliver convincing personality traits of each. Starting with Ben Krammer, wife beater and abuser but doesn't show convincing paranoid and jealous side, for example, as a paranoid abuser, he won't send his wife to submit some documents to Andrew, a very handsome man. An hypersensitive controlling crazy would pay more attention to every small detail that may point to her affair. As for Jenna, although she is an abuse victim and has been battered for years, she shows contradictory characteristics. Someone who lives in constant fear of her husband, should be socially isolated and has trust issues, however she was able to open up quickly to Andrew and after few days of their meeting, she ended up in his arms, an alpha male with traits to be hated for and not be trusted for being arrogant, rude, domineering.

The only thing I liked about the book is the message and information left by the author with regards to abuse victims.

Ice Twins: Enchanting read

This is a book that will move you from the first chapter. Beautifully written, S.K Tremayne delivers a poignant story of a family shattered by the loss of a daughter, a tale of betrayal, hatred and lies. All displayed with the bleak backdrop of Eilan Torran, the Thunder Island as the locals call it, where the reader will feel suffocated by the sense of isolation and cold grayness. The mystery revolves about the absolute perplex of a bereaved parent before confused identities of her twins: the terrible question that haunts the protagonist Sarah Moorcroft; who actually died in that doomed day? Kirstie or Lydia? the living and the dead meet in Eilan Torran which is haunted by coldness, infested by rats, surrounded by water and mudflats.

who really died there?

The author succeeded amazingly to tell this heartbreaking story in a very poetic and lyrical way. Starting from the beautiful yet cold Scottish setting, the sensations and senses find their home in the book, the cold nips at your fingers, the isolated place gives you a feeling of despair, the thunder screams in your ears, those sensations are perfectly described along with the feelings of guilt, anger, despair, anguish and grief that overwhelm Sarah and Angus before the confusion of their surviving twin.
The last chapter should be praised alone for its intensity that I had to read it twice in order to absorb each sentence and fact about an answer that will be left to the readers to decide on.
Book lovers, I highly recommend this one to read, it will really fulfill your reading buds.
S.K Tremayne will be absolutely on my radar.