Lit List Wolf at the Door by Joel McKay; The Devil Took Her: Tales of Horror by Michael Botur

 

Lit List Wolf at the Door by Joel McKay; The Devil Took Her: Tales of Horror by Michael Botur

Wolf at the Door by Joel McKay

Joel McKay's short novel, Wolf at the Door is like one of those horror movies where a small group of characters, each with their own personal problems have to band together to fight some creepy monster. It's so formulaic that there isn't anything that we haven't seen a hundred times. It's predictable but the kind of predictable that is almost comforting in a strange odd sort of way. Like a favorite horror film that you might watch to have a good scare and a fun time.

Married couple Doug and Char Deerborn are hosting a Thanksgiving dinner party. The attendees include their troubled teen Charlotte Jr., Tommy their young son who is afraid of monsters outside their window, Mike and Marleen, their friends who are soon to be divorced, Dan, Doug's ex con brother, Randy, Doug's friend and a nervous bachelor, Craig and Amy, a couple with health problems, and both sets of their parents: Doug's conservative parents, Fred and Mable who do not approve of Doug taking his wife's last name and Judy and Owen, Char's parents who just don't like Doug.

All of these personality conflicts become inconsequential when the party is rudely interrupted by the presence of a werewolf who wants to have its own Thanksgiving feast.

Wolf at the Door plays with all of the horror conventions to a T or I guess to a W for werewolf. There is the couple tha ext hooks up before one gets brutally attacked. There's the sassy teen blossoming into young womanhood and her bratty kid brother who knows about the monster thanks to his interest in manga and horror movies. The disapproving in laws that tote guns proudly. All there and all soon to be a wolf's buffet.

I will say that it is a good change for the monster to be a werewolf. Werewolves haven't been as overused as their horror cousins, vampires. So it's nice to see the furry antagonists grab the spotlight. In fact, the werewolf is the highlight of this book. Many of the other characters are so painted by numbers, self centered, and obnoxious, that the moment when the werewolf regrets their actions is the one bit of humanity in the book. 

Wolf at the Door isn't a great book but it's good for a scare and a howling good time.

Spoilers: With few exceptions, the short stories of Michael Botur's The Devil Took Her: Tales of Horror, do not involve the supernatural. Instead they involve human monsters with all of their perversions, lusts, paranoia, and obsessions. And by the gods, they are graphic. 

Even the few that do involve the supernatural, hint that what the protagonist encounters may not be real but could be instead the product of an unhinged mind who is suffering from a terrifying hallucination that forever changes them.

These stories come with the obligatory twist ending. However with the graphic horror that precedes them, they are not the Twilight Zone or Outer Limits endings that provide a sense of wonder and need to learn a lesson. Instead, they are more like Tales from the Crypt type of gut punch endings that leaves the Reader fainting or vomiting with the realization of how monstrous real life and real people can be. 

The best stories in this anthology are: 

"The Writing on the Rat"-Joyce Koh is an urban explorer who explores abandoned places and posts her findings on her social media account. Her latest interest is to examine St. James Church. Unfortunately, she falls into the cellar door and is locked inside.

Joyce's story turns from one of a foolish adventure into a fight for survival. Joyce remains for days inside the cellar reduced to the most savage acts to remain alive. She succumbs to insanity and self- mutilation until she is reduced to a bloody shell of her former daring self.

"The Devil Took Her" -This is one of the few short stories in this anthology that may involve the supernatural and despite or because of that, it's the best of the bunch.

Melanie, an investigative journalist, is missing and her husband, Patrick, hired a private investigator. In typical hard boiled detective noir narration, the detective cynically tells  Patrick to put his money away and that he found Melanie's journal. Oh and he's not going to like what he's going to read.

The majority of the story involves Melanie's narration and her obsession with catching who she dubs the Golden State Dementor who potentially murdered eight people. 

The book is an eerie cat and mouse chase as Melanie sneaks near dumpsters and dark alleys around fast food restaurants to catch her elusive prey. She goes through dangerous lengths and watches the most violent acts against humanity before she makes the fateful decision to set herself as bait and follow the Dementor into his lair. 

The killer and Melanie's pursuit are terrifying as she puts her sanity and life on the line to capture something that behaves inhuman and might just be demonic. 

"Fake ID"-There are a couple of stories in this anthology that take full advantage of the first person narration by having the narrator start as a sardonic worldly troublemaker that transforms into a barely functioning captive. This one is the better story.

Oliver, a student, buys a fake ID from rich kid Matt McAnulty to get some booze and coke. Unfortunately, he gets more than just Matt's ID. He gets all that comes with it including Matt's very eccentric neurosurgeon parents.

This story is sort of like Get Out Meets the Stepford Wives as Oliver struggles to leave a very terrifying situation before it transforms him forever. It's a scary prospect that if a child disappoints their parents, then they can make a new one as though they were buying a new toy or pet.

"The Strange Paper"-Think of this as QAnon Times Ten if such a thing is possible. While in high school, the narrator becomes obsessed with The Strange Paper, a periodical with stories of UFO's, Big Foot, Loch Ness Monster, Fairies, Secret Societies, and the like. He becomes so fascinated that as an adult, he goes to meet the editor, Maxwell Winckle, to work for him as a writer.

The Narrator's dream job turns into a nightmare as Max's articles go from harmless speculation to paranoiac fantasies. He is convinced that vaccines turn people into reptilian shapeshifters. By the time, the Narrator realizes that he is in the employ of a deranged lunatic and not the hero he thought, it's too late. Maxwell has millions of followers ready to do his bidding thanks to his protegee's articles that portray him in a leader like and cultist manner.

This story shows the gruesome danger of hero worship and cult of personality when one admires someone so much that they let them do the thinking for them. Sometimes when they surrender their free will, they can do the most unthinkable things that they would not have even dreamt of on their own.

"Mengistu"-Violence is the same the world over and anyone can get caught in it, whether they have lived in a country all their lives or are just visiting. While in Ethiopia, Kevin is court ordered to teach ESL to some young students. Through his students, Kevin becomes involved with the political struggles between various tribes and the remnants of leaders like Haile Selassie, the founder of the Rastafarian movement and Haile Mengistu Mariam, AKA The Butcher of Addis Ababa. 

Kevin acts like the worst kind of visitor, acting like he knows everything from Wikipedia and lecturing the locals about their own history. He pays for his ignorance when he says the wrong things to the wrong people and gets swept up in historic violence that has been going on for decades.

"Itching"-This story features a prank war gone horribly horribly wrong.

Jasmine, a coding student, puts itching powder on Warwick, an obnoxious rival's seat. This immature stunt sets off a chain reaction of one upping that gets progressively weirder and more serious thanks to the pranksters' knowledge of hacking and coding.

Things finally come to a violent, gruesome, and considering the previous stories inevitable ,conclusion as Warwick's attitude changes from jocularity to sociopathic as Jasmine's daughter, Saffire gets caught in the middle.