It’s Day Fourteen of our fifteen day journey and I’ve got a real treat for you today. Two new books – and when I say new, I mean new, as both of these volumes have just come out in the last couple of weeks! One is a young adult tale from the acclaimed author of the Generation Dead series, Daniel Waters, that is also perfect for adults. The other is a supernatural western from newcomer Rob DeBorde that will satisfy fans of horror and dark fantasy alike.
BREAK MY HEART 1,000 TIMES
Daniel Waters
Living in the aftermath of the Event means that seeing the dead is now a part of life, but Veronica wishes that the ghosts would just move on. Instead, the ghosts aren’t disappearing—they’re gaining power.
When Veronica and her friend, Kirk, decide to investigate why, they stumble upon a more sinister plot than they ever could have imagined. One of Veronica’s high school teachers is crippled by the fact that his dead daughter has never returned as a ghost, and he’s haunted by the possibility that she’s waiting to reappear within a fresh body. Veronica seems like the perfect host. And even if he’s wrong, what’s the harm in creating one more ghost?
When the Event kills more than two million people in a single moment, life is forever changed for those still among the living. Losing that many people at once is a tragedy, but even that is easier to cope with that the fact that the ghosts of the dead begin to return to the living in the aftermath of the catastrophe. Just a few at first and then more and more, until a person can hardly turn a corner without running into another one. It is into this setting that Waters drops his protagonist, Veronica, and the chills and thrills don’t let up until the very last page. A creepy little thriller that’s perfect for the Halloween season.
PORTLANDTOWN
Rob DeBorde
Welcome to Portlandtown, where no secret is safe—not even those buried beneath six feet of Oregon mud.
Joseph Wylde isn’t afraid of the past, but he knows some truths are better left unspoken. When his father-in-law’s grave-digging awakens more than just ghosts, Joseph invites him into their home hoping that a booming metropolis and two curious grandtwins will be enough to keep the former marshal out of trouble. Unfortunately, the old man’s past soon follows, unleashing a terrible storm on a city already knee deep in floodwaters. As the dead mysteriously begin to rise, the Wyldes must find the truth before an unspeakable evil can spread across the West and beyond.
I love supernatural westerns and in the last couple of years there have been some really terrific ones. HALLOWED GROUND by David Niall Wilson comes to mind, as does Cherie Priest’s terrific western-zombie-steampunk series The Clockwork Century, especially DREADNOUGHT.
I’m happy to say that I’d add PORTLANDTOWN to that list. I picked up the day it came out, enticed by the terrific cover art, and finished it up pretty quickly. For a supernatural western, this one had it all – cursed guns, books of black magic, necromancy and the zombies it spawns, Native American spirit totems, you name it. The story moved along at a good clip and there were a few plotlines that were left hanging, hopefully to be deal with in later books. I’ll be looking for more from Rob DeBorde in the future!
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Joseph Nassise is the author of more than twenty novels, including the internationally bestselling Templar Chronicles series, the Great Undead War series, and the Jeremiah Hunt trilogy. He is a former president of the Horror Writers Association, the world’s largest organization of professional horror writers, and a multiple Bram Stoker Award and International Horror Guild Award nominee.
You can find him online at Shades of Reality.
