Cavallaro's Cavalcade of Carnage
Scares That Care Weekend is a charity horror convention in Williamsburg, VA that I attend every year, and so should you. Especially if you like horror books. The only negative side of going is that I always spend more money than budget myself for. This year, I walked away from STC this year with 11 books purchased. I decided it would be a good idea to try to read them all in one month (success!) and rate them.

Here are the contestants:

1: MY PRETTIES, by Jeff Strand **B** One of Strand's better novels.
2: GROWING THINGS, by Paul Tremblay **C** Collection. A few standouts in here, but I'd recommend his novels first.
3: INVISIBLE FENCES, by Norman Prentiss **B** This guy is good.
4: GOOD BOY, by Thomas R Clark **B** Fun, animal-themed novella.
5: LIFE IN A HAUNTED HOUSE by Norman Prentiss **B** I really should read more Prentiss.
6: GATEWAY, by Frederik Pohl **C** Nebula/Hugo winner?
7: CATTYWAMPUS by Robert Ford/John Boden **B** Unique story, with quite a few left turns.
8: THE CON SEASON by Adam Cesare **C** TRIBESMEN remains my favorite Cesare book.
9: RITES OF EXTINCTION by Matt Serafini **C** Great idea, just lost momentum for me.
10: WALK THE DARKNESS DOWN by John Boden **C** This surprised me. Boden is usually a homerun for me.
11: WHERE STARS WON'T SHINE by Patrick Lacey **C** Another good story idea that I thought ran out of steam.

Bad news first.

WORST OF THE MONTH: GATEWAY by Frederik Pohl

It's times like this where I feel like I am the problem (and maybe I am). Pohl won both the Nebula and the Hugo awards for this one. Granted: I typically don't like sci-fi as much as horror, but I have read a lot of this genre and do like a lot of it. The reason this book did not do it for me is simple: first person narration from an unlikable protagonist. Furthermore, the nature of the plot dictates that empathy for the main character was vital for the story to have any impact. Still...the book did have some mind-expanding ideas.

BEST OF THE MONTH: INVISIBLE FENCES by Norman Prentiss

I'm ashamed of myself for taking so long to read this Stoker-winning novella. Truth be told, I actually had a hard time picking between this one and LIFE IN A HAUNTED HOUSE for best-of-the-month. I wouldn't categorize any books read this month as "bad" but it did seem that both Prentiss books appeared to be one level above all of the other books that I read this month. INVISIBLE FENCES felt like Prentiss really dug deep emotionally and wrote a story that may be fiction, but is true in the ways that count. It's worth your time to track this one down.

Reviews by Jason Cavallaro
jcavallaro42@gmail.com
Twitter: @pinheadspawn

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