4.0 out of 5 stars
Great horror debut, March 10, 2014
Susanne Leist does a wonderful job of setting
her debut novel The Dead Game, in the sweet seaside town of Oasis, a
place where one would never expect evil to lurk.
At the beginning of
the book we are dropped into a historical piece showcasing the gruesome
capabilities of End house, this sets the novel up nicely for our
introduction to recent times.
Oasis is a town which should require
little by way of regular law enforcement, but it has suffered a
disturbing history of disappearances and unexplained phenomena that have
been covered up. Interestingly, the sheriff deputy has a habit of
sneaking away when there's work to be done!
The story progresses to
tell us a bit about Linda and her perception of the town and its
residents. A sense of menace builds quickly and there are surprises to
be had when she and her friends accept an invite to a party at End house
(unbeknown to them as the locus of the original horrors) A property in
which everything defies the natural laws, the friends are subjected to a
host of horrors that they try to attribute to mere ghoulish humour on
behalf of their host. Vampire, Wolf, sets his eyes on the prize, (Not
world peace!) and progressively works his evil machinations against the
young people.
In Leist's town we find that humans, vampires and vampire humans have come to coexist.
This
is a book where the characters have more guts than sense! and in true
horror fashion I read this book on the edge of my seat, willing and
hoping for them to seal their fate by disregarding the warnings and
jumping into the crises that could have been avoided. I was not
disappointed!
Among the horrors, Leis introduces black magic and
hallucinogenic apparitions; the walls bleed and pointy cages drop to
trap the partygoers, and many other horrors follow. I loved how Linda
and Todd's romance blossomed through the midst of it, and how Todd's
true nature is hinted at throughout before being revealed.
There are
many characters in Leist's horror, and though I could have happily
strangled some of them, (Par for the course) I was kept involved in true
morbid fascination. I must confess that evil vampire, Wolf was my
favourite character in this book, and I was entertained throughout.
This is a must read for horror lovers.
