Spooky Book Reviews

Sorry thought I posted this.

These are two books I read in the October that I'm just going to give short reviews of as they were good scary and bloody reads and among standouts in my October Reads, will try not to spoil but may slip up. My image tries to invoke some idea of what's in each story but not good with graphics so forgive me.

Lusus Naturae By Chris Coppel

Now I rated this a 4.75 but that's just because of a bit near the end that made me mad. Otherwise this was a good creature read, I got drawn in by the blurb expecting a werewolf story at the most but no this is more of a secret wartime experiment that went wrong, so this has a historical element but most of the story happens in modern times, while looking for one shipwreck leads to finding an WII shipwreck and a stone sarcophagus. The stone sarcophagus is where the trouble comes from cause it wouldn't be a true horror story if people don't mess with something that obviously is bad news, chaos erupts and many deaths happen as a creature that was created to deal with wartime enemies begins eating through the small town. Soon the town is put in a lockdown by the military to deal with the situation, Jay the marine archeologist and his team who found the sarcophagus along with his ex wife Emma who was sent as a expert for the French when the Lady Lovibond was thought to be the shipwreck found are trapped in town. Jay offers his knowledge of a network of old smugglers tunnels to the military as he knows that the creature is using them to get around. The creature can shift into humanoid form and has the ability to learn, we learn more of it's origins when the scientist who created it is brought to give info, he is very old man but was a young genius during the war explaining how he is still kicking about. Like I said this was a good read but knocked it down due to a bit at the end that got me mad, but if you like creature horror this might be for you.

Helpmeet By Naben Ruthnum

This was an audiobook I listened to on Spotify and I think it was a suggestion from something else I listened to can't remember what, but it was a good weird short listen that I rated a 5 even though I really didn't understand half of it, it centres around Louise Wilk who is taking care of her sick husband Edward an doctor who is literally falling to pieces from some unknown disease that no medical expert can diagnose and they make it clear it's not syphils which as you listen to the story and get an idea why Edward and Louise's brother think it's the clap as Edward had many illicit encounters. We watched as Louise takes care of her ailing, rotting husband and arranges their transport to the upstate orchard estate that Edward grew up in as they financial status has dwindled due to his illness making it difficult to work and also he is just losing bits some bits were hard to listen because of his condition such as his eyes but also a bit of his knob. It was hard for me to understand why Louise was taking care of him especially with knowing of his romps with ladies of the night, but when you get hints of Louise's background you get some idea that maybe she saw her marriage to Edward as a way up from her former drudgery working in service and nursing, also thought she be able to enjoyed a more well off life which is why she overlooked Edward's indiscretions. It's hard to know if her actions in taking of him are love or having some sort of power over him, if it's love it's a mess up one. Honestly I don't know what I expected from reading the blurb but when it starts to heat up I guess it does in a direction I was not thinking, I was guessing the body horror was leading into a wendigo/creature sort of situation, but no it's more alien/botanical type dealio. The ending is interesting and I would recommend this if you like, weird body horror with a historical edge.