Consequences Review

Consequences by John Quick

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


Did you miss John Quicks debut, Consequences? Fear not, the wonderful people at Poltergeist press have got you covered.

Teenage friends decide to throw a little party in a secluded cabin to celebrate graduation, one last hurrah before they go their separate ways. Things don’t go as planned, an accident happens and one of them ends up dead. Someone is out to make sure they suffer the consequences of their mistake.

The book opens fantastically. We start off with a bit of history of where the local “crazy Freddy” legend comes from, and then from there on out the book moves at a break neck pace, it doesn’t feel like 300+ pages.

Quick elected to make a slasher without supernatural elements, and I believe it was the right choice here. The killer is brutal, but he’s not invincible and it makes the tension thick, but you feel as if the kids might have a chance.

I also enjoyed the characters here, they’re typical slasher fare, but Quick developed them well enough that when bodies start dropping you worry for them.

I enjoyed my time with Consequences. This is an excellent homage to slashers. I know people will think of 70’s and 80’s slashers but to me, this felt like a written version of something like I know what you did last summer. It’s an absolute blast and I highly recommend

4.5 stars

We Are Monsters

We Are Monsters by Brian Kirk

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


We are Monsters, by Brian Kirk is the latest flametree release. This one a reprint of Debut previously published through the now defunct Samhain. If you haven’t read it, it’s time to fix that.

The Apocalypse Killer, recently deemed unfit to stand trial by way of insanity has been sent to Sugar Hill Psychiatric hospital for treatment. Dr. Alan Drexler is developing a cutting edge drug that help cure schizophrenia. Things look to be going Drexler’s way, but there are unforeseen side effects.

I was blown away by how much I enjoyed We are Monsters. I mentioned this to people while I was reading it, and I’ll say it here in this review. This book doesn’t read like an authors debut. It’s well thought out. Kirk spends a good portion of the book building his characters and the world they live in. This causes to make the first half read a bit slow, but I’m ok with that. You can’t complain about books with under-developed characters but complain when an author takes the time to actually develop his book.

As I said before, the characters are well done. As for the rest of the book? Once the ball gets rolling it really picks up steam. It would have been very easy for this book to go off the rails, and it does but just enough to make it a good kind of crazy. Kirk never loses control of his story, he gives it room to go nuts without ruining what he built in the first half.

I’m being a bit vague here, and that’s by design. I want to stay as spoiler free as possible. Fans of psychological horror MUST read this book.

The whole time I was reading this I would think to myself, this is what a horror movie written by Christopher Nolan would be like. I mean that in the best way possible. BUY THIS BOOK.

4.5 stars