I saw some people praising a book out now from Tor/Nightfire. I'm always interested in new talent, so I looked into the author. Her work was described as dealing with sexual revulsion. That talked me out of it.
I did the transgressive thing in the 90s. In those days I was much more prone to read something from Dell/Abyss than a book from Charles L. Grant or Ramsey Campbell. Now I've done a turnabout. I don't mind when a writer plays rough, but I'm not interested in writers who appear to have an express interest in extreme horror.
Am I missing out? Enough people I respect have praised the book in question, so I have little doubt it is well done. But I do not feel as though I am missing a thing. There is a plethora of great work out there to be found. Inside and out of the horror genre. No one can read it all, and we all should read what suits us.
I was thinking these thoughts when I realized I hadn't read Ramsey Campbell's latest novel yet. It's called Somebody's Voice, and I've owned it for months. I need to be in a certain mood to enter Campbell's oppressive world. The time had come.
And so I began reading a book that deals with some pretty revulsive sex.
Child Abuse is a main theme in Somebody's Voice. There are some strongly executed passages that, while not graphic, specifically focus on sexual abuse of a minor. However, this is Ramsey Campbell I am talking about here, not some kid jumping up and down trying to get people's attention with shock tactics.
In Somebody's Voice a crime writer has written a book that features an abuse survivor who transitions from female to male. The public is irate that a writer who did not personally experience these things should dare to write about it. To avoid total cancellation his publisher suggests he co-write a nonfiction book with a person who really has the history he detailed in his book.
The writer, Alex Grand, is plunged into a nightmare of deception, paranoia, delusion, and madness. He begins to doubt his subject's accounts, and in fact some of it is proven to be false. His own life and mind become confused as the opposite desired effect happens, and people are angrier at him than ever. Grand becomes desperate to not only discover the truth, but to save his sanity.
Paranoia is a stock in trade for Ramsey Campbell. He can make the ordinary appear sinister. Somebody's Voice sneaked up on me until I was unsure of what was really going on. Its depictions of blurred identity brought Dan Chaon to mind, and the plot could be something by Sarah Pinborough. Pinborough, however, writes in a popular style, and Campbell is too smart and weird for the masses.
Ramsey Campbell has always alternated supernatural fiction with psychological stories. I enjoy the former more, but I find the latter more disorienting and disturbing. As I said about Campbell's previous novel, The Wise Friend, Somebody's Voice is as good as anything this prolific author has ever written. Which makes it some of the best fiction ever published.
Written by Mark Sieber
I did the transgressive thing in the 90s. In those days I was much more prone to read something from Dell/Abyss than a book from Charles L. Grant or Ramsey Campbell. Now I've done a turnabout. I don't mind when a writer plays rough, but I'm not interested in writers who appear to have an express interest in extreme horror.
Am I missing out? Enough people I respect have praised the book in question, so I have little doubt it is well done. But I do not feel as though I am missing a thing. There is a plethora of great work out there to be found. Inside and out of the horror genre. No one can read it all, and we all should read what suits us.
I was thinking these thoughts when I realized I hadn't read Ramsey Campbell's latest novel yet. It's called Somebody's Voice, and I've owned it for months. I need to be in a certain mood to enter Campbell's oppressive world. The time had come.
And so I began reading a book that deals with some pretty revulsive sex.
Child Abuse is a main theme in Somebody's Voice. There are some strongly executed passages that, while not graphic, specifically focus on sexual abuse of a minor. However, this is Ramsey Campbell I am talking about here, not some kid jumping up and down trying to get people's attention with shock tactics.
In Somebody's Voice a crime writer has written a book that features an abuse survivor who transitions from female to male. The public is irate that a writer who did not personally experience these things should dare to write about it. To avoid total cancellation his publisher suggests he co-write a nonfiction book with a person who really has the history he detailed in his book.
The writer, Alex Grand, is plunged into a nightmare of deception, paranoia, delusion, and madness. He begins to doubt his subject's accounts, and in fact some of it is proven to be false. His own life and mind become confused as the opposite desired effect happens, and people are angrier at him than ever. Grand becomes desperate to not only discover the truth, but to save his sanity.
Paranoia is a stock in trade for Ramsey Campbell. He can make the ordinary appear sinister. Somebody's Voice sneaked up on me until I was unsure of what was really going on. Its depictions of blurred identity brought Dan Chaon to mind, and the plot could be something by Sarah Pinborough. Pinborough, however, writes in a popular style, and Campbell is too smart and weird for the masses.
Ramsey Campbell has always alternated supernatural fiction with psychological stories. I enjoy the former more, but I find the latter more disorienting and disturbing. As I said about Campbell's previous novel, The Wise Friend, Somebody's Voice is as good as anything this prolific author has ever written. Which makes it some of the best fiction ever published.
Written by Mark Sieber
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