gnashchick's review
3.0
Satan’s Fan Club introduces us to a traditional family: Father and mother, teenage fraternal twins and an innocent baby sister. Along the way, we meet God and Satan along with a serial killer, a temptresses and lots of dead bodies.
Alistair, the father, is a church pastor as well as a psychological counselor. His wife Valerie works in pharmaceuticals. The twins, James and Louise, rebel against their fundamentalist father by breaking every taboo they can manage without getting caught. Harriet, the baby of the family, has a slightly menacing imaginary friend. The au pair, Riika, seems to do very little other than being Finnish and beautiful.
Tired of his father’s sermons and social maneuvering, James declares that God doesn't exist, and his sister follows along willingly. But their father has a rebellion brewing for himself, a secret he also goes to great lengths to hide. Valerie tries to hold her family together, warning and worrying to no avail.
When Louise and James go to a fancy dress party at a club called, “Hell,” they meet a man named Nick who invites them to stop living the lie of conformity and join Satan’s Fan Club. To enter, they have to commit a crime tailored just for them, and they’re in. The idea thrills and terrifies the twins.
The tension between the converging stories is very well done. The twins worry about the task that “Nick” has given them. The pattern of serial killings is coming closer and closer to the End House/Doomsday Church grounds. Something is very wrong with Harriet, and one of Alistair’s patients is becoming more than he can handle. Between these plots, snippets of the killer’s hunt and the victims’ last moments give the story a chilling sense of dread. You know the cards will fall, and getting to the how-and-when is a satisfying ride.
There were a few things that jarred me out of the story. Alistair is the pastor of a fundamentalist church, called the Doomsday Church, and calls his own house, “The End House.” Other than a fairly standard, “bad morals are dooming us all” sermon, there is a remarkable absence of cult-like behavior from the father. Generally these sorts of cult/churches have absolute control over parishioners’ lives. Many will pronounce the day and hour of the upcoming apocalypse, and they’re universally wrong. Alistair’s manner and actions just didn't feel like an authentic apocalyptic church leader. There’s also a good bit of a classic morality play going on here, where characters embody virtues and vices, rather than real people.
I didn't feel the horror aspect was quite horrific enough. In “Psycho,” Alfred Hitchcock got away with showing us a shadow and a scream and a trail of blood going down the drain to imply a bloody murder. But that was a long time ago, and the horror genre has changed. At the beginning of the novel, there is a vicious murder, but in the following chapters, the author shies away from the business of killing, drawing the curtain on the scene before things get sloppy. It’s the same with sex. He takes the reader right up to the edge of foreplay and then closes the door with a wink and a nod and a peep through the keyhole. When the story finally climaxes, that’s all tossed aside and the blood and gore is back.
The ending left me unsatisfied. After the long build up of tension, the plot is resolved and doomsday is upon us. The novel should end with a bang, but or me, it was more of a whimper of defeat.
Overall, I liked Satan’s Fan Club and recommend it for readers who enjoy stories of serial killers along with dark religious overtones.
We received this book for free in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect the opinion of the book or the content of the review. http://www.bookie-monster.com/
Alistair, the father, is a church pastor as well as a psychological counselor. His wife Valerie works in pharmaceuticals. The twins, James and Louise, rebel against their fundamentalist father by breaking every taboo they can manage without getting caught. Harriet, the baby of the family, has a slightly menacing imaginary friend. The au pair, Riika, seems to do very little other than being Finnish and beautiful.
Tired of his father’s sermons and social maneuvering, James declares that God doesn't exist, and his sister follows along willingly. But their father has a rebellion brewing for himself, a secret he also goes to great lengths to hide. Valerie tries to hold her family together, warning and worrying to no avail.
When Louise and James go to a fancy dress party at a club called, “Hell,” they meet a man named Nick who invites them to stop living the lie of conformity and join Satan’s Fan Club. To enter, they have to commit a crime tailored just for them, and they’re in. The idea thrills and terrifies the twins.
The tension between the converging stories is very well done. The twins worry about the task that “Nick” has given them. The pattern of serial killings is coming closer and closer to the End House/Doomsday Church grounds. Something is very wrong with Harriet, and one of Alistair’s patients is becoming more than he can handle. Between these plots, snippets of the killer’s hunt and the victims’ last moments give the story a chilling sense of dread. You know the cards will fall, and getting to the how-and-when is a satisfying ride.
There were a few things that jarred me out of the story. Alistair is the pastor of a fundamentalist church, called the Doomsday Church, and calls his own house, “The End House.” Other than a fairly standard, “bad morals are dooming us all” sermon, there is a remarkable absence of cult-like behavior from the father. Generally these sorts of cult/churches have absolute control over parishioners’ lives. Many will pronounce the day and hour of the upcoming apocalypse, and they’re universally wrong. Alistair’s manner and actions just didn't feel like an authentic apocalyptic church leader. There’s also a good bit of a classic morality play going on here, where characters embody virtues and vices, rather than real people.
I didn't feel the horror aspect was quite horrific enough. In “Psycho,” Alfred Hitchcock got away with showing us a shadow and a scream and a trail of blood going down the drain to imply a bloody murder. But that was a long time ago, and the horror genre has changed. At the beginning of the novel, there is a vicious murder, but in the following chapters, the author shies away from the business of killing, drawing the curtain on the scene before things get sloppy. It’s the same with sex. He takes the reader right up to the edge of foreplay and then closes the door with a wink and a nod and a peep through the keyhole. When the story finally climaxes, that’s all tossed aside and the blood and gore is back.
The ending left me unsatisfied. After the long build up of tension, the plot is resolved and doomsday is upon us. The novel should end with a bang, but or me, it was more of a whimper of defeat.
Overall, I liked Satan’s Fan Club and recommend it for readers who enjoy stories of serial killers along with dark religious overtones.
We received this book for free in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect the opinion of the book or the content of the review. http://www.bookie-monster.com/
charshorrorcorner's review
3.0
When this book came up for review at Horror After Dark I was excited because I saw a blurb from Sandy Deluca on the book’s Amazon page and I also saw one from Ronald Malfi. With two authors that I respect providing blurbs, I figured I couldn’t go wrong. This story started out with a fairly standard prologue. But once the story got going I was intrigued. The writing in this book was good. The editing was also. I believe I only saw one error throughout the entire novel.
I had no idea what was going to happen in this story. So when it happened, I was shocked and grossed out. Seriously, this novel took an ewwwy turn. I have no problems with ewww, in fact, I love ewww, but it didn’t work for me with this book. After thinking about it for a few days, I figured out why. It’s because I didn’t care for the characters. I didn’t care what happened to them one way or another. Now this is a personal thing and another reader may feel differently. I can only write about my own experience.
This book started off a little slow, but then towards the middle the pace picked up and fairly raced toward the denouement. I will admit surprise at how everything turned out, and I am rarely surprised. I can’t say much more about it without spoiling it for the next reader.
There is one thing that I outright disliked and that was the cover. It just doesn’t work for me.
I’ve now read a few books published by Omnium Gatherum and I’ve enjoyed them all. This one was no exception. It was well written, the pacing was decent and the story itself was a nice change from the standard fare that I thought I was being served. I enjoyed it, I just did not connect with characters. I would be willing to read more from this author in the future.
I was provided a free copy of this novel to honestly review for Horror After Dark.
I had no idea what was going to happen in this story. So when it happened, I was shocked and grossed out. Seriously, this novel took an ewwwy turn. I have no problems with ewww, in fact, I love ewww, but it didn’t work for me with this book. After thinking about it for a few days, I figured out why. It’s because I didn’t care for the characters. I didn’t care what happened to them one way or another. Now this is a personal thing and another reader may feel differently. I can only write about my own experience.
This book started off a little slow, but then towards the middle the pace picked up and fairly raced toward the denouement. I will admit surprise at how everything turned out, and I am rarely surprised. I can’t say much more about it without spoiling it for the next reader.
There is one thing that I outright disliked and that was the cover. It just doesn’t work for me.
I’ve now read a few books published by Omnium Gatherum and I’ve enjoyed them all. This one was no exception. It was well written, the pacing was decent and the story itself was a nice change from the standard fare that I thought I was being served. I enjoyed it, I just did not connect with characters. I would be willing to read more from this author in the future.
I was provided a free copy of this novel to honestly review for Horror After Dark.
More...