THE DESCENT by Jeff Long is one of my favorite horror novels. Part horror, part grand adventure, and thoroughly imaginative and penetrating, it’s an amazing read.
First, this book should not be confused with the film of the same title, though the film borrows some of the same elements. I enjoyed the film for what it was, but the book is amazing. If you like horror–hell, if you like books at all and can stomach something tense and frightening–you should read it.
The novel begins with separate stories that suggest there is a predatory race of creatures among us that come out when it’s dark. It’s discovered they live in the ground under our feet. Exploration leads to discovery–the crust of the planet is laced with a vast labyrinth. After the creatures that live there seemingly vanish over the years, nations and corporations spill into the interior to exploit its rich resources. One corporation recruits a scientific expedition to march across a vast tunnel under the Pacific Ocean and claim it for itself. The scientists are being used but go anyway to reveal the underworld’s scientific secrets.
Then things go wrong.
THE DESCENT is a work of soaring imagination bordering on genius. The underworld Long creates is breathtaking in its scope, detail and dangers. The creatures that live there, possibly descendants of an underground civilization who regard humans as slaves and meat, are truly terrifying. The characters are interesting and we come to deeply care about them. The story combines the best of horror, survival fiction and a science fiction thriller in the vein of Jules Verne and H.G. Wells.
Highly recommended.
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THE BIRD BOX by Josh Malerman tells the story of a mother who must get her two children to sanctuary down a river while blindfolded. Because there are creatures out there, and to see them is to become violently insane … Concurrently, the book tells the story of what happened in the house where she hid with other survivors.
In SATI, a trucker picks up a beautiful young hitchhiker. She says her name is Sati. She claims to be God.
KOKO by Peter Straub is one of the most powerful works of fiction I’ve read over the past few years. I wouldn’t classify it as horror, though it certainly contains horror elements. I would definitely classify it as literature, a work of art lovingly crafted in which every sentence is perfectly designed.
In HEART-SHAPED BOX by Joe Hill, aging heavy metal rocker Judas Coyne, for whom music was a way to exorcise the rage of his abusive childhood, now lives in calm, ambling semi-retirement on a remote farm in New York State, where he manages his money with the help of personal assistant Danny, engages in serial monogamy with a string of young Goth girlfriends he nicknames after the state they’re from, and collects oddities, even a snuff film. When the opportunity to buy a real ghost online (with ownership attained by buying the dead old man’s suit) arrives via an eBay-type site, he grabs it.
20th CENTURY GHOSTS by Joe Hill, Stephen King’s son, is a collection of speculative fiction that amazed me with its psychologically disturbing and unsettling material. I’m not normally a fan of short stories, particularly anthologies by the same author, but nearly every story in this book grabbed me with its truth, realism and escalating tension. Recommended.