List of Publications
Horror Movie, June 2024
The Beast You Are, Short Story Collection, 2023
The Pallbearers Club, 2022
The Little Sleep, (Mark Genevich 1) 2021
Survivor Song, 2020
Growing Things, Short Story Collection, 2019
The Cabin at the End of the World, 2018
Disappearance at Devil’s Rock, 2017
A Head Full of Ghosts, 2015
Floating Boy and the Girl Who Couldn’t Fly, 2014
Swallowing a Donkey’s Eye, 2012
No Sleep Till Wonderland, (Mark Genevich 2) 2021
Introduction
I first discovered Paul Tremblay in 2022, when I was searching for ‘good’ ZA or apocalyptic stories (which, it has to be said, can be hard to find) and Survivor Song popped up. It sat on my TBR pile for six months before I got around to reading it. When I eventually did, it rocked me to my core. Since then, Mr Tremblay has become one of my favourite horror writers.
The Author
Tremblay is a 52-year-old American who worked as a maths teacher before becoming a published author. He got off to a faltering start (if the reviews are anything to go by) aged 39 with his first novel, a crime story, No Sleep Till Wonderland, followed by a dystopian satire, Swallowing a Donkey’s Eye. A collaboration with Stephen Graham Jones (another favourite of mine), produced Floating Boy and the Girl Who Couldn’t Fly, a young adult sci-fi adventure published under the penname P.T. Jones. I haven’t read any of these. I’m not a crime fan and the other two sound a bit weird!
Things really seem to have got going for him with the publication of A Head Full of Ghosts in 2015 which won the Bram Stoker award that year. In 2017, Disappearance at Devil’s Rock won the British Fantasy Award for best horror novel. The Cabin at the End of the World won the 2019 Bram Stoker award and the Locus Award for best horror novel, as well as being adapted into a M. Night Shyamalan film called Knock at the Cabin. His other two novels, Survivor Song and The Pallbearers Club have also been received with high critical acclaim.
He has also revitalised his Mark Genevich crime series with The Little Sleep and No Sleep Till Wonderland, published a couple of short story collections, Growing Things and The Beast You Are, and featured in various other anthologies. 2024 will see the publication of his latest novel, Horror Story. I can’t wait.
The Books.
So far, I have only read his horror novels and I didn’t read them in chronological order. As I said, I started with Survivor Song in 2022 and loved it. I quickly went on to consume A Head Full of Ghosts, followed by The Cabin at the End of the World, that same year. I didn’t get around to Disappearance at Devil’s Rock and The Pallbearers Club until 2023.
I loved them all, but my favourite is still Survivor Song closely followed by Disappearance at Devil’s Rock which really freaked me out! I have reviewed them in the order that I read them.
Survivor Song.
Survivor Song follows two women over a period of just a few hours during an outbreak of a lethal, rapidly spreading rabies-type virus. Natalie, who is eight months pregnant, has been bitten and Ramola, her best friend who is a doctor, is trying to save the lives of Natalie and her unborn child. Survivor Song is not a ZA novel but, in many ways, it feels and reads as one. Although it was written pre-Covid, it echoes our own recent experiences of PPE shortages, overwhelmed healthcare services and unprotected workers.
It is not deep or pretentious, just a damned good story.
The book is a high-speed roller coaster of trials and disasters in the context of a shockingly violent societal breakdown. The pace is frantic. The race to save Natalie and her baby never slows or stops. An almost unbearable level of fear, tension and desperation is present throughout, but the book is really about pain and loss and the love and loyalty we see in the friendship between the two women. I adored Ramola for her unfailing loyalty to her friend that pushed her past terrible limits she could never have imagined.
But in the middle of all the horror there are also lashings of comedy. I laughed out loud at Natalie’s scathing sarcasm and dark humour in spite of the terrifying situation she found herself in. I loved the ‘Bill and Ted’ duo they met on their journey with their creatively quirky hydrophobia test. It was only later that I discovered the two boys were actually Josh and Luis from Disappearance at Devil’s Rock.
For me, one of the most memorable parts of the book was when the style and structure of the writing ‘broke with convention’ in a way that created a vivid picture of the extreme shock, fear and confusion the character was experiencing. The contents of these pages stayed with me for a long time, and I have even contemplated stealing the technique in my own writing. You’ll know exactly what I’m referring to if you have read the book or if, after reading this, you go on to do so.
I loved this book and would definitely recommend it if you are into dystopian survival horror – and even if you’re not! Like all Tremblay’s books though, be warned, it is not for the faint-hearted!
A Head Full of Ghosts
A Head Full of Ghosts tells the story of a family going through a period of financial and emotional stress. In the middle of it all the teenage daughter, Marjorie, has what seems at first to be a mental health breakdown, but which they come to believe is in fact a demonic possession. Their situation is picked up by the media and becomes the subject of a reality TV show. The story is told fifteen years later through the perspective of Merry, the younger sister.
I read this after reading, and absolutely loving Survivor Song. A Head Full of Ghosts was different, and it didn’t blow me away like Survivor Song did, but I still really enjoyed it. With elements reminiscent of The Exorcist, The Blair Witch Project, Feed by Mira Grant, and many more books and movies it was a brilliant nod to all of these but still retained its own originality and identity. It has an undercurrent that touches on some serious issues such as sexism, patriarchy, religious mania and media exploitation.
It is beautifully written. Atmospheric. Descriptive. Creepy. Sad. Disturbing. And, at times, darkly funny. Mr Tremblay keeps us guessing throughout the course of the narrative and beyond.
The Cabin at the End of The World.
The Cabin at the End of the World is a violent home invasion story with supernatural apocalyptic overtones. It is possibly my least favourite of Tremblay’s books. I still really enjoyed it though and have recently watched the movie version by M. Night Shyamalan, Knock at the Cabin, which was largely true to the book and just as frightening.
Andrew and Eric, a same sex couple are on holiday with their eight-year-old adopted daughter, Wen, in a remote cabin in the woods. They are visited by a truly creepy foursome who try to force them to make an unimaginable decision that, they claim, will prevent the end of the world.
The book is dark and creepy and, at the start at least, a fast paced and easy read. As with Mr Tremblay’s other books, there are moments of extreme tension, horror and shock. However, while it started well and contained some intriguing ideas and plot threads, for me, this one just didn’t come together in a satisfying way. In fact, towards the end, it felt as if it fizzled out in terms of the plot. A strange story that left me with so many unanswered questions I was left baffled and dissatisfied. (The movie provides a slightly more satisfactory conclusion).
Disappearance at Devil’s Rock.
After the relative disappointment (I stress the word relative) of The Cabin at the End of the World, it took me a year to get around to my next foray into the work of Mr Tremblay. But this time I was not disappointed. Not in the slightest. Disappearance at Devil’s Rock absolutely blew me away!
It’s a long time since a book has made my skin crawl and my eyes well with tears of terror, but this one did just that. I consumed it in two spine-tingling nocturnal sessions. It totally creeped me out, especially as I couldn’t put it down and ended up reading it in the middle of the night when the house was dark and everyone else was asleep. I found myself peering over my Kindle into the darkness looking for unnatural or unfamiliar shadows and edging closer and closer to the comforting warmth of my husband’s sleeping form beside me.
Tommy, a thirteen-year-old boy, disappears in mysterious circumstances that become increasingly disturbing as the story progresses and his mother discovers more and more about her son and the events leading up to his disappearance. The book hints at a number of possible explanations ranging from a tragic accident or suicide to the possible involvement of evil monsters and demons, or other sinister and paranormal forces.
For me, the power of the book lies in the economic subtlety of the writing, the wonderfully authentic characterisation, the widely varying and different perspectives, the mix of vehicles the author uses to provide us with insight and information, the disquieting visual images, the slow and terrifying reveal, the shocking climax, and the ambiguity that haunts the reader long after the book is finished.
The Pallbearers Club
And so, after the sheer delight of Disappearance at Devil’s Rock, I moved quickly on to the last of Tremblay’s horror novels available at the time, The Pallbearers Club.
The Pallbearers Club is established by Art Barbara (not his real name) to qualify as a hobby that he can add to his CV for college applications. Mercy soon joins the club, and this marks the start of a long relationship between the rather ‘unattractive’ Art and the cool and mysterious Mercy. As the book progresses the relationship develops from a seemingly innocuous friendship into something weird and scary and ultimately supernatural and dangerous.
The book takes the form of a memoir written by Art that has been found and subsequently edited and commented on by Mercy, who deems it a novel because in her view it is more fiction than fact. The format of the book was slightly problematic for me, as it took me a long time to work out what was going on. Once I did, I settled into it but never fully liked or engaged with either Art or Mercy.
The book was clever but maybe, for me at least, just a bit too clever for its own good. Its cleverness became a slight irritation and at times a distraction from the plot. As a result, I never really felt as scared, shocked or disturbed as I did when I read Survivor Song and Disappearance at Devils Rock. I have to be honest that this was a teeny weeny disappointment.
The story was a good one though and even prompted me to purchase and read the non-fiction book that Tremblay acknowledges as his inspiration, Food for the Dead: On the trail of New England’s Vampires by Michael E. Bell.
Summary
The reasons why Paul Tremblay has become one of my favourite authors are all about the quality of his writing and the way it makes me feel. Horror is a peculiar genre that does throw up some truly awful books that get by on gore and bloodlust and ridiculously violent, fantastical and far-fetched plots. Tremblay’s books, on the other hand, skillfully take the ordinary to another, much darker place, and this is what makes them relatable, disturbing and often terrifying. He is a versatile writer. All his books are refreshingly different. Different ideas. Different stories. Different themes. Different characters. I will never grow tired of his storytelling. After each book I read, I am always left wanting more.
Postscript – Horror Movie
As a greedy consumer of Mr Tremblay’s work, I couldn’t wait to get my teeth into this one. I was not disappointed. Spectacularly creepy and deeply disturbing. Like his other books the book is unique and unusual and the terror subtle but insidious.
Again, like most of his books, it was written in an unusual form which, at first, was slightly distracting but in the end truly enhanced the reading experience.
The story jumps back and forth between various time periods and centres around a cult horror movie that was filmed in the past (but never released) by some amateur filmmakers and is about to be remade. The central character ‘The Thin Kid’ was in the original version of the film and is involved in the remake.
It’s hard to unravel exactly what it is about this book that ‘messes with your head’ in such an unsettling way. A big part is the blurring of past and present, fact and fiction and fantasy and reality. For example, in the original film all the characters appear to be based on younger versions of the film makers real selves. Another is the drip-feed of titbits of information that gradually reveal what happened to afford the movie its notoriety and help to create to the slow build-up of dread as we move towards the horrifying climax.
I can’t, and actually don’t even want to try, to say more about what makes this such a brilliant book. If you want a reading experience that makes your skin prickle with anxiety, your skin prickle with fear, your jaw drop with shock and thoughts and images that bubble inside your head for weeks after you’ve finished, just read it!
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