GoodRead - Cruel Summer

As you guys are probably aware, I'm a bit of a fan with James Dawson. Last year, he wrote one of my fave books of 2012, Hollow Pike. And this year, his second novel is out. And that is called Cruel Summer.

But does it live up to my high expectations?

Janey fells to her death. Suicide, the Police said. One year later, her friends - Ryan, Katie, Ben, Alisha, Greg and his current girlfriend, Erin - go on holiday in Spain, all bar Erin (who met Greg months later) hoping to put the past behind them. That is, until Roxanne Dent crashes the party and throw out a shocking confession: Janey was murdered and she has proof.

The events that follow throws doubt on everyone in the villa. One of the them is a killer and not all of them will survive the Spanish sun...

I loved this book. I think this, dare I say it, is better than Hollow Pike. A huge statement to make, I know, but I devoured this book within 3 or 4 days. It was addictive reading!

Does anyone remember Point Horror from the 90s? Well, imagine that with a teen drama (The OC, One Tree Hill, Gossip Girl, etc) and make it British, and you have what Cruel Summer is about. I'm not sure how else to describe this. Although I haven't watched it, am pretty certain you guys who have watched the Scream movies will love this book because it's very similar. Murder! Doubt! Chatty humour! Even cattier characters! Tongue firmly in cheek!

So, did I guess who the killer was? Kinda, but I was always unsure of myself. I kept jumping between two and three characters. But when it was revealed and why, I was SHOCKED! I was speeding through the last 100 pages going "WHAT?! HOW?! GET THE HECK OUT OF THAT VILLA!!! RUN!!!"

This book would be PERFECT for a movie (hint hint Film4/Kickstarter). And as someone who HATES reading/watching horror, I would go see this!

Oh dear, this is turning into one of those gushy review but I loved this book! If you are a fan of Scream or like the idea of a "What if Point Horror had a child with TV's Gossip Girl?", this is the book for you.

#MurderOnTheBeach - In Defence of Suspense

WELCOME BACK TO #MURDERONTHEBEACH! So, you guy have read James Dawson's Defence of Horror (if not, why not?) but now, it's Kate Harrison's turn and here, Kate is fighting in defence of suspense.

So, take it away Kate!

*

Here’s the thing.

I don’t know what horrifies you. I only know what scares me:

• Plane crashes.
• The Returned.
• Wasps.
• Extreme temperatures.
• Things that squelch.

So. I could write a horror novel in which our heroine finds herself in a crashed plane in a strange French town inhabited very stylish zombies. She could run away from the tres chic zombies into a swarm of wasps, before finding ‘safety’ locked in a pitch dark sauna surrounded by unidentified squelch.

It would scare me. But there’s quite a high probability you might just get a fit of the giggles…

That’s my problem with graphic horror. It’s all or nothing. It’s the big close up on blood and gore.

Whereas suspense is all about what lurks in the dark. Your own private fears, waiting for you down that dark alleyway, or under the bed. In horror, what emerges is covered in snot and makes a gurgling noise… but sometimes it’s scarier if the frightening thing stays put.

For now…

The perfect example for me was the first episode of the new series of the BBC’s Luther.

A hand appeared from under the bed. Terrifying.

I’d have cut the shot right there. But no. This script was as subtle as a werewolf on the 5:2 diet.  By the middle of the show a guy had destroyed his hands in a whirring blender to avoid being fingerprinted. The end of the episode featured a man being slammed down so hard against the attic floor that his body broke through the ceiling where his wife was on the bed below. I jumped, for sure, but I also felt irritated. The scariest bit in the whole show came before that, when ceiling man was rummaging around in the loft, not knowing what was there.

It’s why I’ve never gone for gore in Soul Beach. Sure, my dead characters have been through the mill, with murder, plane crashes, kidnapping and the rest. But I portray them as beautiful –  it’s up to the reader to imagine what Guests might have suffered, to tune into their own emotions and fears.

And as my heroine Alice is stalked by her sister’s killer, I focus on the murderer’s state of mind, not their violent visions.

Horror serves up the details, like a slithering bowl full of entrails.

Whereas suspense makes your imagination do the work, summoning up personal terrors that will last long after you’ve put the book down…

#MurderOnTheBeach - In Defence of Horror

HELLO! Today, the #MurderOnTheBeach tour has come to my little blog and I am THRILLED that I am taking part!

Today, authors James Dawson (Hollow Pike and Cruel Summer) and Kate Harrison (the Soul Beach trilogy) will be battling it out, answering the question that is on everyone's lips! The question - which is better: suspense or horror? Both authors are taking over the blog in two posts. James will be fighting in defence of horror (down below) and Kate will be fighting for the defence of suspense (this will be up at 1pm UK time).

So, without further ado, let James talk to you about horror.

*

‘Horror’ is such a dirty word at the moment. If you go into any branch of Waterstones, you’ll see that the ‘Horror Shelf’ is little more than a collection of weighty Stephen King doorstops. I think the genre got a bad name for itself during the late eighties and early nineties which saw clichés such as man-eating animals, rape, misogyny, gore and excruciating torture become commonplace.

But while the novel had a makeover and became ‘psychological thriller’, horror was doing better than ever at the cinema. Franchises such as Scream, Saw, Hostel and Paranormal Activity rake it in at the box office proving there is a hungry market for scares.

It’s simple: people want to be scared witless. The adrenaline is the same rush you’d get from a rollercoaster or work-out. There is a thrill in ducking behind your loved one’s shoulder as someone’s having their eye gouged out. What’s more, the loathsome Human Centipede went to show that if a concept is shocking and grisly enough, people will watching out of morbid fascination.

Morbid fascination, in fact, is a good way of describing what brings fans back to horror. We all have a monster inside and the creature is baying for blood. At the start of a horror film or novel, we earmark characters for death and then revel in their ultimate demise. It’s part of the agreement between the author and reader: ‘it’s OK, this is brutal, but we all know it’s fantasy so enjoy all the maiming.’ Horror is, in many ways, related to fantasy – we KNOW the contents aren’t especially real world so we can enjoy the torture in the same way we enjoy dragons and wizards.

This is why I’m confused by attacks made by censors on violence and gore, especially in YA. Katniss, for example, lives in a fantasy world and she kills people with MUTANT BEES – literally no one thinks this is non-fiction. The end of Cruel Summer is violent, I can’t deny that, but the novel isn’t set in the world of you and I – it’s YA world – the teens are glamorous and riddled with juicy secrets. The final showdown is so over the top I find it hard to believe anyone is going to think it’s a particularly real-life situation.

The horror genre, with its flesh-eating slugs steers clear of reality for our comfort. When the horrors become real – murderous sons (We Need To Talk About Kevin) or abusive relationships (Gone Girl) we refer leave the horror tag behind and call it psychological thriller. These horrors are actually too close to home – but look at the thriving market for misery memoir. I find that far, far darker than Freddie Kruger or Jason Voorhies.