A Northern Town in England. It smells, prospects are grim, and the sun never shines. Each day blends into the next, and residents have settled into a resentful acceptance, assuming things cannot get any worse. So when the sky starts raining blood and a sinkhole appears in the middle of the main road, spitting out demons from their past, you can forgive them for being a little pissed.
Dark bleatings, my lovely tribe. I’m back today with a review of a novella from one of my favourite authors, Mark Towse. As the synopsis above indicates, there’s not a lot going for the town our fable is set in. It’s kind of a crap hole, to be honest. Some might think that blood rain, if anything, might at least make things a bit more interesting. Obviously though, no one wants to stand around in blood rain, and a small band of unlikely pals assemble in the local pub to wait out the world’s gloopiest storm. However, they have more problems than just the slight matter of the skies pouring blood.
Each of them is confronted with a demonic force that takes the form of something or someone from their past. I won’t spoil any details but there is most definitely a theme to why these apparitions take the shape of these particular subjects. Inner demons become outer demons, you might say. I quite enjoyed the metaphor of it all – I imagine that this is what Mark Towse might consider a form of horrific therapy, a lesson in self-reflection, if you will.
There’s not a lot more that I can say about the story itself without veering into spoilers, so let’s move on to some general thoughts. Towse, as usual, is really on point with his character work here. One of his greatest strengths as a writer, in my humble opinion, is his ability to seemingly just put real people on the pages for you. It’s one thing to know people, it’s another to translate them so well into the minds of others. Appearances, how they talk, how they sit, how they interact with each other – all that is crafted beautifully, as well as the setting. I particularly enjoyed that the majority of the story is set in a local pub because that, combined with the apocalyptic scenario, combined with the author’s flair for dark comedy, gave me serious Shaun of the Dead vibes. And everyone knows I love Shaun of the Dead.
I think this is a great little novella that I would recommend to fans of apocalyptic fiction, people who enjoy character-heavy stories, and those just looking for a jolly good horror romp. If you’d like to check out the book or the author, I’ve popped some links below for you:
Happy Goat Horror 
Leave a comment