The Horror Bookshelf

BOOK INFO

Publisher: Samhain Horror

Length: 282 Pages

Release Date: April 5, 2016

Review copy provided in exchange for an honest review as part of the blog tour for Blood Sacrifices

I have heard nothing but great things about Brian Moreland’s books from both other readers and horror authors for a while. So when I was approached to join the blog tour for Blood Sacrifices, a collection of four previously digital-only titles, it seemed like the perfect opportunity to start reading his work.

The Girl From The Blood Coven is the first story in the collection and takes place in June 21, 1972 in the pine country of East Texas. After a night of dealing with the usual traffic accidents and drunken domestic disputes, all Sheriff Travis Keagan can think about is drinking an ice-cold beer and watching the rest of the Texas Rangers game. Sheriff Keagan is enjoying a dinner at the Lazy Armadillo, a local bar and it seems like a typical, mundane night in Buck Horn. However, the night takes an ominous turn when a girl soaked in blood arrives claiming that her family was massacred. Her name is Abigail Blackwood and she lives in the towns infamous Blevins House. Abigail claims that all twenty-four of the other residents were massacred by a single entity that definitely wasn’t human. When Sheriff Keagan heads over to investigate, its dark and gloomy with lighting flashing through the sky and creates a perfect backdrop for the horror that is about to unfold. When they arrive at the Blevins House, Keagan and his officers discover a scene of carnage that stuns them. It isn’t long until Keagan finds himself involved in a deadly cat and mouse game.

One thing that immediately stood out with this story is the effortless characterization and a perfect depiction of small town life. Moreland is able to achieve both of these things through the eyes of Sheriff Keagan when he arrives at the Lazy Armadillo. He knows everyone in the restaurant by name and knows just about everything there is to know about their personal lives. These quick one sentence descriptions of the townspeople not only make the characters come alive, but give readers an accurate portrayal of just how small of a community Buck Horn really is.

I was also impressed with the spooky atmosphere that surrounds the Blevins House. The house has a reputation around town and the stories that swirl around the Blevins House are scary enough to make the sheriff feel uneasy. The house was owned by Lenora Ravenmoon Blevins, a witch with a reputation around town as a trouble maker. The house itself is pretty spooky. It is an old, three-story rock house that is set on two hundred acres of forest land, making it an isolated location that adds an air of eeriness to its checkered history.

This was a perfect short story to start the collection with its breakneck pacing that grabbed my attention instantly and left me excited to continue reading Blood Sacrifices.

The Witching House is a continuation of the events that occurred in The Girl From The Blood Coven set in the present day. While the Blevins House always had a reputation, it wasn’t until the massacre back in ’72 that the houses legend reached mythic proportions. The townspeople of Buck Horn avoid the property at all costs and the mere mention of ghosts or witchcraft causes people to cross themselves as a precautionary measure. Otis, the sole survivor of the massacre at the Blevins House returns in The Witching House and takes care of the infamous house as an adult, though he doesn’t live on the property. People call Otis crazy and wonder why he continues to maintain the property, but that’s because they don’t know the sinister truth that drives him to maintain the house.

The storyline of The Witching House alternates between Otis’ story of taking care of the house and the history behind what really happened in 1972 and the story of Sarah Donovan, who goes with her boyfriend and his friends to check out Blevins House. Sarah’s boyfriend Dean and his friends are adrenaline junkies and have dubbed themselves the Ghost Squad, since their favorite activity is to explore abandoned buildings that have a reputation for being haunted. Sarah wants to fit in and prove to her boyfriend she is adventurous, but her decision to go along with this expedition proves to be a mistake as the group finds themselves face to face with an unimaginable evil.

I loved The Girl From The Blood Coven, so I was glad that the sequel was next up in Blood Sacrifices. One thing that I enjoyed about this novella was the switch in perspectives. While The Girl Girl From The Blood Coven is told from the perspective of a local resident, The Witching House is mainly from the perspective of a group of outsiders. It may seem like a minor thing, but I thought it was cool how the Lazy Armadillo is portrayed as being a warm and welcoming place in The Girl From The Blood Coven, but that Sarah sees it as an ominous place when she stops there.

Trying to pick a favorite novella out of Blood Sacrifices is close to impossible, but if I had to choose, I would go with The Witching House. Moreland does an amazing job building tension as the group makes one startling discovery after another upon entering the Blevins House. Just when I think things can’t get any creepier, Moreland continues to up the ante with some of the scariest scenes I have ever read, especially when the group comes face to face with the entity responsible for the massacre in 1972. Moreland puts his own unique spin on the witchcraft genre and I think horror fans will love the entity he creates in The Witching House which is pure, unfiltered nightmare fuel. The novella works well as a standalone story, but I can’t help but wish there was a novel length story centered around the Blevins House!

Darkness Rising opens with a couple who are savagely attacked by a group of killers wearing animal masks, which instantly reminded me of the movie You’re Next. Opening with this brutal scene helps prepare readers for the violence and depravity that is about to unfold, but not before meeting some key characters.

Marty Weaver is a maintenance guy at St. Germaine. He is the same age as most of the students but he doesn’t go there, but he is saving his money to enroll and get his degree to achieve his dream of being a professor. When he isn’t working, he is hard at work on his poems. The poems are his outlet at expressing himself and his true passion. He is also in love with Jennifer, a student at St. Germaine that he has been tutoring. They have a flirtatious relationship, but Marty is unsure of whether to confess his feelings to her as he thinks she is way out of his league. He is picked on relentlessly by students and his co-workers and it takes every bit of self-control to keep Marty from snapping as he battles his inner darkness. The only things that help keep him grounded and offer him happiness is his relationship with Jennifer and his poems. Mentions of his dark side make the reader wonder just what Marty is hiding.

One night, Marty heads down to read poetry to the lake, a ritual he developed back when he was a teenager. It was a special place for his family and reading his poems helps him deal with his struggles. While at the lake, Marty is cornered by a sadistic trio that taunts him and makes it clear that they intend to torture Marty. This chance encounter will change Marty’s life forever.

I absolutely loved the character of Marty. He is a character that I was rooting for the entire length of this story. Marty has dealt with hardship for his entire life from being constantly teased, losing his parents and suffering horrible abuse throughout his stay in foster care as a child. I felt terrible for everything Marty had to endure, but those awful experiences help prepare him for his encounter with the trio of killers he meets in the woods. Marty is a badass despite his seemingly harmless nature, and  he fights back against his attackers with a vengeance even when faced with impending death.

I also loved the originality on display in Darkness Rising. It is a revenge tale at heart, but Moreland puts a brilliant and original spin on the genre that I definitely didn’t anticipate. Darkness Rising is a perfect blend of both real-world and supernatural horror and offers plenty of twists that will keep readers on the edge of their seats! Also, while there are plenty of examples of evil and depravity that permeate Darkness Rising, Moreland balances these with some powerful moments of hope that help make this novella a powerful read.

The Vagrants is the final novella that makes up Blood Sacrifices and was one that has been on my “to read” list for a long time. Daniel Finley is a journalist chronicling the daily lives of the homeless and has been living with them for the last 6 months. His goal for living with them and reporting on their lives is to write a book that would shine a light on homelessness. Throughout his time living on the streets, Daniel begins to form friendships with some of the people living in his camp and finds his preconceived notions of them stripped away as he spends time with them and learns their stories.

During Daniel’s last month of living on the streets, a nomadic group named “The Seekers” arrive and are led by an enigmatic man named Mordecai. Daniel begins to chronicle The Seekers instead of documenting regular homeless life. Within 2 weeks of their arrival, the Seekers take over the settlement and Mordecai converts all of the residents to members of the Seekers group. Daniel finally goes to check out one of Mordecai’s sermons and despite Mordecai’s best efforts to get him to join, Daniel resists and is left behind as Mordecai leads his group to another city.

The story then flashes forward 2 years after Daniels time on the streets and his work chronicling the homeless is being published into a book. He is enjoying success beyond anything he could imagine and has a girlfriend. After leaving a meeting with his agent to celebrate his publication, Daniel runs into a homeless man who mentions the same Judgement Day promised by Mordecai which causes Daniel’s blood to run cold.

Not long after, Daniel has a chance encounter with Dr. Rupert Holloman, a professor at Harvard who wants to use Daniel’s book to teach a class. Dr. Holloman tells Daniel of a hidden world beneath Boston centered on abandoned subway tunnels and shows him a mural in one of the tunnels that is connected to the Seekers and features Mordecai at the center of the painting. It is here that Daniel realizes from Holloman’s stories that Mordecai’s group has reached cities all over the country. Ever since that initial encounter with Holloman, Daniel is being followed by homeless who are trying to get him to join the Seekers and keep referencing Mordecai’s vision of the apocalypse.

While Daniel is back in town, he also attempts to reconcile with his father who he hasn’t seen in years. It is during this visit that Daniel learns his father owes the Irish mob boss Drake O’Malley a ton of money. These events place a lot of pressure on Daniel as he finds himself caught between the mafia and the Seekers in a situation that will push his sanity to the limits.

The Vagrants was definitely a highly entertaining novella and lived up to the hype I had built for it in my mind after reading the synopsis. Mordecai is an interesting character and there is an air of mystery that surrounds him up until the novella’s final moments. Despite his slight frame, he is a formidable fighter and is able to take on men twice his size. He also is a charismatic speaker and is able to hypnotize anyone who crosses his path, even those who initially resist him. This ability to cultivate a large cult following in such a short amount of time makes him a truly frightening character and the mystery behind his motivations kept me hooked.

After I finished reading Blood Sacrifices, I couldn’t stop thinking about how great these stories were. This was my first experience reading Moreland’s work and I was blown away by his storytelling abilities. Every novella featured in this collection displays traits of everything I love about the horror genre and is packed with action. I also loved the fact that even when I thought I knew where the stories were going, there were no shortage of surprises lurking just around the corner. Moreland also conjures up some of the most frightening antagonists/monsters I have read in quite some time, especially the witch from The Witching House. I suspect sometime in the near future some of those scenes will work their way into my nightmares. Blood Sacrifices is an essential addition to any horror fan’s library and one of my favorite collections so far this year!

Rating: 5/5

LINKS:

Brian Moreland’s Official Website

Samhain Horror’s Official Website

Purchase Blood Sacrifices: Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Samhain Horror, or your favorite bookstore!

Use these hashtags to help spread the word about Blood Sacrifices! – #BloodSacrifices #4TalesofTerror #BrianMoreland

Blood Sacrifices Synopsis

Blood Sacrifices houses four tales of terror by one of the masters of horror, Brian Moreland. Previously only available in digital format, these stories are compiled into one book and can now be ordered in print!