"The Best Horror of the Year – Volume One" - читать интересную книгу автора (Datlow Ellen, Lewis E. Michael, Bowes Richard, Duffy Steve, Spencer William...)

Notable Novels of 2008

The Resurrectionist by Jack O'Connell (Algonquin) is the author's fifth novel, and as with his previous ones his lucid prose easily carries the reader into realms of the phantasmagoric. The story begins with a man taking a job at a very special clinic, hoping that the doctors there can miraculously help his comatose son, who is a patient. A second strand of the story follows the adventures of a group of circus freaks on the run from hostility and discrimination-a graphic novel series the man's son loves. The third strand involves a motorcycle gang, one of whose members has infiltrated the clinic. The strands tenuously come together to create a moving finale.

Sharp Teeth by Toby Barlow (Harper) is a werewolf novel told in verse, but don't let that scare you away. It's free verse, not rhyming, and the book is wonderfully gripping, in part due to the compression of language. Go and read it, you'll not be disappointed. Highly recommended.

The Gargoyle by Andrew Davidson (Doubleday) is a dark, offbeat love story about the deepening relationship between a male, ex-porn-star hideously burned in a terrible accident, and a brilliant sculptor of gargoyles who claims to have been a reincarnated nun from the middle ages where they were lovers. The woman (who most people in the novel believe is mentally ill, but is quite obviously not, to any fantasy reader) tells wonderful stories within the overarching story of their love to both entertain and teach the recovering man. Not really horror- although there are horrific descriptions of the accident that maimed the man and other dark bits- but always absorbing.

The Man on the Ceiling by Steve Rasnic Tem and Melanie Tem (Discoveries) is an expansion of the multi award-winning novella by the Tems, published in 2000. A kind of fictionalized family memoir, their story is told in sections by each of them. It is imaginative, harrowing, moving, and always thoughtful about transmuting one's life experience into fiction and how that reflects back onto the creator. The book doesn't really add to the brilliance of the novella, but for those who missed that gem this is a worthwhile substitute.

The Ghost in Love by Jonathan Carroll (Farrar, Straus) is about a man who should have died, but didn't. There's a glitch in the system, so he's still around, but he's got a ghost who lives with him (although he doesn't realize it). The ghost-which can manifest as anything it likes, including a fly-is in love with the dead guy's ex-girlfriend. The Angel of Death is not happy. And of course, as in almost all of Carroll's novels, there's a dog.

Severance Package by Duane Swierczynski (St. Martin 's Press) is a clever, violent, fast-moving romp that, if the reader stops to actually think about it, makes very little sense. An executive invites his key personnel to a mysterious Saturday morning meeting in the office and then offers them poison-laced juice to drink-or face a more violent death. Why does he want to kill them and will anyone get out alive?

Infected by Scott Sigler (Crown) is an sf/horror thriller about a series of horrific homicides committed by seemingly normal, happy citizens. The story alternates between the governmental and medical teams tracking down and studying the plague, and a newly infected victim and his efforts to rid himself of what's ailing him. Entertaining, but with large plot holes that hopefully will be plugged in the sequel, titled Contagious.

Sway by Zachary Lazar (Little, Brown) miraculously projects the reader into the lives and minds of some of the prime movers of the sixties: underground filmmaker Kenneth Anger; Brian Jones, Keith Richards, and Mick Jagger of the Rolling Stones; and would-be rocker/Charlie Manson follower Bobby Beausoleil. By doing this, Lazar creates something that reads almost like a memoir of the era that started with love and promise, culminating in darkness, with the murders of Bobby Kennedy and Martin Luther King, the Manson killings, and the near-riot at the Stones' concert at Altamont. The voices are so authentic-sounding, it's as if the author is channeling his characters.

The Shadow Year by Jeffrey Ford (William Morrow) is a satisfying expansion of Ford's novella " Botch Town," creating a sharp snapshot of growing up on Long Island, New York, in the early 1960s. Two brothers and their young sister investigate mysterious occurrences in the neighborhood, partly with the help of the sister's seemingly preternatural powers of detection. The adult narrator looking back at a dark year in his family's hometown, never intrudes on the story and the characters are so realistic that it's almost painful to read about them. Highly recommended.

Pandemonium by Daryl Gregory (Del Rey) is an impressive first novel that's a dazzling mix of science fiction, fantasy, and horror. In an alternate reality, archetypical "demons" appear on earth in the mid-1950s, possessing ordinary citizens. There are faint echoes of O'Connell's The Resurrectionist (mentioned above). A young man who was possessed by such a demon when he was a young boy has been troubled ever since, believing that the demon never left. His voyage of self-discovery is traumatic and moving.

The Man in the Picture by Susan Hill (Overlook Press) is a well-packaged little hardcover novella. It's an absorbing ghost story of spurned love, vengeance, and a mysterious painting, but like Hill's more famous The Woman in Black (adapted into a long-running play), its ideal readers are those unfamiliar with the classic ghost stories of the last century and a half. For most everyone else, there's nothing remarkable about Hill's work.

Ghost Radio by Leopoldo Gout (William Morrow) is a marvelous prose debut by a Mexican graphic novelist about a call-in radio host with a strange and tragic past who becomes caught up by the true ghostly experiences that his callers reveal. Haunting, and with short, snappy chapters, fast-moving.

Let the Right One In by John Ajvide Lindquist (Quercus) was originally published in Sweden in 2004. It came out in the United States and the United Kingdom in 2007, and the movie based on the novel was released in 2008. I saw the movie first and although I ended up enjoying the movie more than the novel, the novel is also quite good. Oskar, a bullied twelve-year-old, lives with his divorced mother in a housing complex, just outside Stockholm. Mysterious neighbors move next door, heralding several brutal murders in the area. Oskar meets one of the new neighbors, Eli, a 200-year-old vampire child as lonely as he is. There are some nice touches as their relationship develops. And there are also some terrific scenes indicating what happens when a vampire doesn't follow its own kind's rules, such as when it enters a dwelling uninvited. Both novel and movie do a terrific job of depicting pre-teen loneliness and the cold, bleak Swedish winter.

The Sister by Poppy Adams (Knopf) is a subtle first novel of psychological suspense narrated by a fascinating voice. Virginia and Vivian are sisters who are unexpectedly reunited after almost fifty years, when Vivian returns to the family home in Dorset where her Ginny has lived alone for decades, continuing her father's work as a lepidopterist. The return of the vivacious and selfish Vivian churns up memories and causes a major upheaval in the measured ordered life that Virginia has constructed for herself.

Rain Dogs by Gary McMahon (Humdrumming) is the author's first novel, although he's written some fine short stories over the years. A rain dog is a dog that cannot find its way home because its trail has been washed away by the rain. This definition serves as the epigraph for the short novel, and perfectly describes the plight of the two main characters. An ex-con returns home, hoping to redeem himself in the eyes of the wife and child he left behind in the aftermath of the violence that sent him to prison. A broken, battered woman who can see ghosts returns to the family she fled two decades ago, sensing that she has unfinished business to attend to. A third, and possibly most important "character," is the never-ending rain plaguing the area. A deluge of Biblical proportions has been brought forth by the inadvertent actions of a grieving woman, unleashing a supernatural power that cannot be controlled. As the storylines converge, the importance-and sometimes poison-of familial relationships is brought into sharp focus.

The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman (HarperCollins) is a charming yet scary coming-of-age story about an orphan brought up by the ghosts in a graveyard after his family is murdered by a mystery man. It's got enough nastiness to scare the pants off kids (the intended audience) and should also be thoroughly enjoyed by older readers. (It won the Newbery Medal and the Hugo Award).