Of Monsters and Men, by Tom Deady

I've been following the writing career of Tom Deady with a fair amount of enthusiasm. I really liked his debut, Haven, which had the distinction of being published by Cemetery Dance. Haven is a big, juicy, 80s-influenced horror story that stands above most of the rest of the retro genre materials out there.

I've liked the other stuff by Deady, and I continue to buy and read him. His latest, Of Men and Monsters, is just out from Crystal Lake Publishing.

Of Men and Monsters is a non-pretentious tale of a boy and his family running from an abusive father in the mid-1970s. It's engaging enough, and I liked the youthful protagonist and his efforts at love in a their new beachside home. The lad orders a sea monster from a comic book ad, which quickly grows into a vicious monster.

There are nice touches about addition and child abuse that are handled in realistic ways. All well and good. But.

Yeah, but. On the boy's first day of beachcombing he finds a preposterously unrealistic amount of treasure. I'm talking necklaces, nearly twenty gold rings, medallions, earrings, and a wedding band. Oh, and two skeletons.

Now, I've done my share of beachcombing and mudlarking, and I have friends seriously into the hobby. No one has a day like that. No one. I found this to be more unbelievable than the mail order sea monster plot device.

Fans should be able to suspend their disbeliefs when reading a horror story, but this was too much. The supernatural should descend into credible circumstances. Maybe I'm making too big a deal of it, but it bugged the shit out of me.

I still like Tom Deady and I will continue to follow his career. I just hope he--and his editors--are more careful in the future.

Written by Mark Sieber