The last two fall spooky seasons celebrated genre author Richard Chizmar has owned the bookshelves with his Boogeyman novels. As the weather cools and leaves begin to turn autumn orange Chizmar returns with an original new novel, MEMORIALS. Terror trips into the wilderness are nothing new to horror fans. From recent novels such as The House Across the Lake to the recent indie hit film, In A Violent Nature, doomed journeys into the frightening forest are still amongst the most popular sub-genre in horror. Set in the desolate areas in and around Appalachia in 1983, MEMORIALS takes the reader to a simpler time. A time of innocence. A time of tight-knit communities where neighbors were more family than strangers. A time when people communicate face to face rather than through a text. A time when evil lurked not only in the shadows of the thick wilderness, but suspiciously behind each door of perfectly peaceful homes.
Billy is starting to put his life back together after tragedy chased him away from his hometown to the plush campus of York College. With new friends and an exciting new project for his American Studies class, Billy is ready to bury his past once and for all. Along with his new favorite classmates, Melody and Troy, the three eager students venture along the isolated roads of the Appalachians to gather stories about roadside memorials. With each daunting tale of tragedy, the trio begin to suspect something more sinister is at play, something more than awful accidents. One odd event after another drives the students deeper and darker into not only the vast wilds where the thin veil of legend and truth flutters like frail branches that encompass the region. Glares from unfriendly locals to familiar faces that are obviously masking lies behind cheeky grins set off serious psychological suffering that start to drive the filmmakers into madness. Can Billy, Melody, and Troy unravel the mystery of the darkness before it escapes the woods, making them just another chapter in the book of ancient evil that has been passed down through generations?
MEMORIALS is a terror trek through ancient Appalachia, one that will leave the reader shivering like a fern in that forest that has survived a storm. Chizmar invites us to his campfire terror tale, the author starts by throwing in fright filled twigs before launching logs of dread that explode into a bonfire straight from the depths of hell. MEMORIALS is paced to perfection, each page playing like a sinister song that leads to a full-blown horror opera. Told through first person narrative from lead character Billy, the plot unravels day by day, with each segment introducing more legend around the mysterious area of the United States. Chizmar brilliantly builds empathy for his characters before putting them on a runaway terror train. Set in 1983, the author inserts fantastic elements to exemplify the era. From answering machines to references of long forgotten stores such as Kmart and Hect company, fans of the era will enjoy the steady stream of references placed throughout that novel. MEMORIALS not only takes the age-old tale of people discovering evil in the forest but brings the genre a brand-new frightening saga of dark legend and lore.
Daily social media post from the public yearn for a return to simpler times, MEMORIALS is an in-your-face reminder that those times held horrors that remained hidden for decades. Hidden in a time where evil, both human and supernatural, are not desensitized by a world that is recorded at every turn. The novel exemplifies that as long as humans roam the earth, evil will stride alongside its flesh covered counterparts. If Rosemary’s Baby and The Blair Witch Project had a dark love child, that demonic entity would be MEMORIALS.
Scream Score: 9.6/10