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46 obres 134 Membres 3 Ressenyes

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Inclou el nom: Alan Spencer

Obres de Alan Spencer

Sledge Hammer!: The Complete Second Season — Creator — 8 exemplars
B-Movie Reels (2012) 7 exemplars
The Doorway (2015) 6 exemplars
B-Movie Attack (2012) 6 exemplars
Protect All Monsters (2013) 5 exemplars
The Body Cartel (2009) 4 exemplars
The Ravager 4 exemplars
Hexed (2005) 3 exemplars

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writer

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When I read the summary of the book, I had to order it rightaway and start reading. The beginning was creepy and suspenseful and I was eager to discover what lay behind that mysterious doorway - an ancient ghost? Some power or memory traces trapped in the house itself?.

However, once the protagonists crossed the threshold, the story made a turn into a seriously bloody nightmare - quite literally. While I do enjoy gory stories, I was disappointed to read how a gripping premise turned into a mindless sequence of torture scenes, more or less boring dialogues, and an almost standstill in the plot. I really cringed each time the red light and its meaning was brought up again, because the more it was mentioned the more ridiculous I found it to be.

At the end, I was disappointed by the solution, as there was absolutely no way to figure it out in some way, no small hints or anything - the author just threw in a new character. I would have loved for someone of the group to be the guilty one, though on the other hand that surely would have been too obvious.

Unfortunately, this book did not work for me.
… (més)
 
Marcat
misspider | Hi ha 1 ressenya més | Aug 26, 2015 |
Review copy

AlanSpencer has published more than 30 books in the horror genre and he has a rather simple mission statement, to cover you in blood. If The Doorway is any indication, he's very good at fulfilling that mission.

The opening to this book pulled me right in...

"The dead work in mysterious ways.

Morty Saggs is desperate when his wife, Glenda, turns up missing. But all evidence points to Glenda never having left the house. Soon, odd smells permeate the property, and sometimes the doorway to his bedroom burns a hideous red. Is Morty going crazy, or did the house do something with Glenda? Is there some connection to the house's previous owner, a vicious murderer named Ted Lindsey? All of Morty's questions will be answered on the night the burning doorway opens--the night when the trap is sprung."

In The Doorway, Alan Spencer wastes no time in building the drama. At first, what is happening inside Morty's house is just rather creepy, but by the time we get to the halfway point, things are completely out of hand and I found myself reading my first splatterpunk novel. If you're unfamiliar with the term, splatterpunk is a movement within horror fiction in the 1980s, distinguished by its graphic, often gory, depiction of violence and "hyperintensive horror with no limits." With some terrifying forms of torture, unlike anything I've read before, this work certainly fits the definition.

While The Doorway is one of the most outlandish horror stories I've ever read, I still found it to be oddly satisfying.

The Doorway is published by Samhain Horror and is available in both paperback and e-book formats.

Recommended, but only if you're in the mood for some truly devastating horror.
… (més)
 
Marcat
FrankErrington | Hi ha 1 ressenya més | Aug 2, 2015 |
I recently received a review copy of The Body Cartel by Alan Spencer. Neither the book nor the author were familiar to me, but the premise of the book was intriguing and the cover art was absolutely phenomenal (you all know I am a sucker for a sweet cover). Fortunately, when I actually began reading the book, I wasn’t let down – indeed, I was in for a very pleasant and entertaining surprise. But, I am getting ahead of myself. First, a little bit more about the book itself; The Body Cartel is published by a smallish independent publisher called Damnation Books. After doing a little bit of research, I am way impressed with this little publishing house. They specialize in ebooks, and they have a very creative pricing strategy for their downloads – the first download purchased of any given title is free, and the price goes up by a nickel with each additional download, until the full retail price is reached. It is a great incentive for avid readers to get in on the newest releases as quickly as possible, and it’s also a great way to increase early sales for new and up-and-coming authors.

Additionally, Damnation Books exclusively focuses on what I love above all else – dark fiction. Yay!!

Now, back to The Body Cartel. The book is about a middle-aged couple, Jericho and Maddy, who relocate from Colorado to Ray City, Arizona after an unfortunate fire disrupts their livelihood and their lives. Fortunately, they receive a big enough insurance payout to put some money down on their dream home, a delightful property in a remote area, as well as on a resort hotel that they plan on operating until retirement. Unfortunately, their dream quickly turns into a bizarre, surreal nightmare when they notice that their basement wall has sprung a putrid leak and soon thereafter begin to hear what sound like human wailing from within the same walls. Perturbed and angry that their new home appears to be suffering from an expensive structural defect, the couple begins to contact experts to determine the source of the ever-increasing leak.

Unfortunately, the source of the leak and ghostly noises is far more disturbing than the couple could ever imagine, a fact that becomes apparent only a couple of days after moving in, when Maddy is home alone. After awakening from a nap, Maddy begins to hear steady and increasingly loud noises emanating from her basement. Confident that the basement door is locked, she attempts to call the police for assistance, only to be brutally attacked.

When Jericho returns home, he is shocked to find his home overrun by police, a huge hole in his basement wall, and his wife missing. After being forcibly removed from his own house, he enlists the assistance of his police officer cousin Alex in order to figure out what is going on and to find his wife. It immediately becomes clear to Jericho that he and his wife have unwittingly become tangled up in a world of cartels, drug smuggling, violence, torture, murder, and police corruption. And if he ever wants to see his wife again alive, he is going to have to rescue her without the assistance of law enforcement.

What follows is a macabre and unbelievable dissent into a world that may very well exist under our feet at this very moment.

All in all, I really enjoyed The Body Cartel. It was fast paced, but still left enough room for character development, so I actually cared what happened to the Maddy and Jericho. (Nothing is more off-putting to me than a book with a great plot and crappy characters). Also, in addition to the personal story involving Maddy and Jericho and their struggle to survive, readers are treated to a sneak peek into the dark, seedy and violent world of drug smuggling and cartels. It makes you question the lengths human beings will go to build their wealth, and also makes you wonder what is really going on in the oft-ignored world of organized crime and missing person’s cases. (There are currently thousands of unsolved missing person’s cases in Arizona*** alone…and nobody just vanishes. So, where do they go, and how long do they languish there after their loved ones stop searching?) I give this one a 4 ½ star rating. I tore through it in about 2 ½ hours – it was very engrossing – and it also made me think, which I love.
… (més)
 
Marcat
em18966 | Oct 5, 2009 |

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Estadístiques

Obres
46
Membres
134
Popularitat
#151,727
Valoració
½ 3.4
Ressenyes
3
ISBN
14

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