Scaaarrrrryyyyyyyyy................. Celebrate It

Well,

This month has been a "Horror Month" atleast for me ! Im celebrating Horror in print.No No dont get me wrong Im not reading crappy books which are better off as toilet paper and Im not reading M&B either.
Im talking of pure and real horror but in print.I began with James Herbert "The Ghosts Of Sleath" and moved on Stephen King "Tommyknockers" but then ,returned back to James Herbert ... I liked his horror better than Stephen King.

I got tired of waiting something to happen to Bobbi and Jim and the rest of the town , when Bobbi accidentally stumbles over a space ship in her backyard (Dont Roll Your Eyes Now) buried from time immemorial. A strange transformation grips the otherwise sleepy town of Haven in Maine. The very name "Haven" which must indicate tranquility itself has a wierd and violent background. The people in the town begin undergoing physical and emtional changes .... well, I could go on and on , but thats how the book is , its a long wait for the actual horror to begin , but then it leaves the reader disappointed, it falls short of all that it promises in the beginning, the ending is abrupt,some sequences in the climax could almost be unwarranted for , but then I had chosen to celebrate horror,

After such a damp beginning , I morosely picked up James Herbert, It helped that I had no preconcieved notions about this author.

"Ghosts Of Sleath" is one of the best and most beautifully wriiten horror books Ive read , few books have ever given me the kind of wierdness I got when i read this book, worth its salt I must say though not many reviews Ive read have been so kind to this book , but then ,I must be pardoned as I have not yet read his magnum opus "Haunted".
Ghosts of Sleath begins with a paradox,a lead charecter who begins by disproving the theory that a particular Old age home is haunted. David Ash is a no nonsense Psychic Investigator ( well, I'll just call him a ghost buster for my convienence)who has his deep dark secret kept locked away in the bottom of his heart which makes him fear for his own sanity when he enters the small literally untouched town Sleath.A child has died , only to return back in the form of a ghost and be haunted by another ghost ( that of his father) unto eternity , that is until Ash can help the ghost. Each villager has a past which involves atleast one gruesome death and extra ingredients like family secrets, rape, infanticide, necrophilia, the "Black Arts," a moldering mansion, a sinister yellow fog, drowning children, poltergeist pranks, a haunted painting, a tormented vicar, a neglectful doctor, even an evil knight. And these ghosts just refuse to lie down in the grave,drawing power from the psychic powers of Ash and that of his lover and the townsfolk, thses ghosts ar becoming less of images and more of flesh and blood (ewwwww).
the whole book is like a roller coaster to the food in your stomach , and more than once at James' description of the mutilation , decomposition etc your food would decide to come out sooner than it took to eat it , definetly not a book for people with weak stomachs and huge imaginations !
After living a daze for the next few hours after having finished the book , I was raring to go for another Horror story! Well, now I am celebrating Horror Am I not???

Well... more to come , '48 , Magic Cottage and Domain by James Herbert , Bag Of Bones by Stephen King, and though not in the same vein , The murder book by Jonathan Kellerman.
Keep your food in your stomach until then!