Happy Goat Horror

Dark bleatings, my lovely tribe. Both C.C. Adams (Hug Master General) and Kit Power (He of Excellent Taste in Everything) have released new books within two months of each other. Both released their new projects through French Press Publishing, both are writers whose work I absolutely love, and both are all around good eggs, great guys, and great authors.

So, quite unnecessarily and without their knowledge, I’ve decided to pit them in battle against each other in a sort of Top Trumps style fight. One caveat: I am not a skilled enough artist-type to make cool stat cards, so bear with me as I botch my way through what is possibly the silliest post I’ve ever written.

A bit about both of their new books first:

Gifts Between Us

This little beauty is a novella about an older guy facing his mortality, when he forges a quite unconventional relationship with a younger guy that seems troubled, but also claims to have the answer our elder gentleman seeks…

Excellently drawn perils, human interaction, weird and scary “oh dear, that’s not right” elements, and body horror.

Cover art by Kealan Patrick Burke

Exploring the Labyrinth: Volume One

This expansive work plays to Kit’s strength as an unbelievably engaging non-fiction writer, and contains 30 essays about the first 30 pieces of longer fiction by Brian Keene. He takes us through his first-time reading experience of each of these books, and then caps it off with a lovely exclusive interview with the main man, Brian.

Introspective, nice-natured, wholesome, analytical, and insightful.

Cover art by Coco Lincoln

So, you might be asking, how could I possibly compare these books – so vastly different – enough to pit them in battle against each other. Well…

I thought I’d go with the ranking categories as laid out in The Simpsons Top Trump cards, and also the ones used for a horror pack I found online. I’m ignoring the ‘Smartest’, ‘Fattest’, and ‘Walk of Fame’ ratings from The Simpsons categories, and using everything except ‘Killing Power’ from the Horror ones. But how can I possibly rank my friends, you might be asking? With arbitrary parameters for said rankings, and a temporary disregard for common sense, that’s how. Anyway, let’s get on with it.

Most Lovable

This one is a no brainer, and if you’ve ever met the winning author for this category, you’ll already know why.

Kit Power is exceedingly lovable – his wholesome nature, his capacity for kindness, his moral outrage when he sees injustice towards people. I’ve known Kit for a number of years now and find him to be one of those glorious humans that is just exceptionally lovely and a deeply good person.

But CC gives those hugs…you know THE hugs. If you’ve ever met him you will have had one of his cuddles, and if you haven’t met him, you will have heard rumour of them. Glorious, comforting, lovely hugs. And the other thing I find so lovable about CC is his love of food, which even has me beat, and I’m someone that spends at least 95% of my waking hours daydreaming about snacks. I once walked with him to two different bakeries (he bought me a lovely snack, by the way), and he was stressing over there being enough chicken in his slices and baguettes (there was not enough chicken). It really reminded me of how, to this day, if I’m in line for a buffet for any reason, I panic that the mini pizzas will be gone before I get my turn. And that relatability for me gives him the edge on this one.

CC: 9 || Kit: 8

Biggest Nerd

Lol, it’s Kit. Don’t get me wrong – they are both lovable mega nerds. Book nerds, writing nerds, horror nerds, and if you get either of them started on a topic they’re interested in, you’ll be amazed.

But have you ever heard Kit talk about, say…oh, I don’t know, Brian Keene? Exploring the Labyrinth is 30 essays long and it’s only the first instalment. So, enough said.

CC: 8 || Kit: 10

Greatest Anarchist

Neither of these dudes use the regular playbook for life, but Kit wins this one, too. The non-fiction writing is what shoves him over the top for this one because in writing non-fiction, he’s frequently airing opinions and views, and his views inform his approach to critical analysis.

CC: 6 || Kit: 10

Physical Strength

You’d think I’d judge this one based on who out of the two guys I think would win in a fight, but I immediately abandoned that thought exercise because I’ve got no idea what kind of ninja moves Kit might whip out in this scenario.

Instead, I’ve imagined what might happen if I tried to fight them both myself. CC is a very physically, visibly fit and strong person, and I don’t know what Kit’s fitness regime entails but I do know that he’s spent a good deal of time through his life thrashing around in mosh pits, which makes him a formidable foe. Realistically, they would both annihilate me.

However, I think I might be able to give Kit the slip. I run a lot and would like to think my stamina is pretty good, and my speed has been increasing nicely over the last few months. If I pointed and yelled, “Look, free Clive Barker books!” I think I could get a good enough head start that Kit couldn’t catch up. However, (and if you’ve seen his muscles you’ll probably agree), CC would probably chase me down like a cheetah and catch me in seconds.

CC: 10 || Kit: 6

Fear Factor

This one is based on how scary their books are. Gifts Between Us takes on themes of mortality, illness, desperation, envy, body horror, inhibitions, and lines being very deeply and immorally crossed. Misery and Other Lines (also by CC) is a collection of short stories all set around the London underground during one Halloween, and is disorientating and disturbing. Downwind Alice (CC) not only features a violent, toothy, clawed beast with a vendetta, but is a comment on cause and consequence, and how people justify very extreme consequences. It’s all pretty scary, very thematic, and very visceral.

Kit’s books deal with the very worst in human horror, often featuring characters that are ethically defunct, sociopathic, and there’s a lot of human on human pain infliction and suffering. Millionaires Day takes what could be an amazing, life-changing blessing and twists it into what would realistically happen if everyone woke up knowing there were millions of pounds floating around. Breaking Point features first-person perspectives about people at their breaking points, and demonstrates what happens when thresholds are crossed.

I love them both for different reasons, but with all elements considered, I think I have to hand this one to CC, just because he tends to feature more actual monsters, which can up the fear ante.

CC: 9 || Kit: 8

Horror Rating

After much thought, I simply cannot rank either of them lower than a 10, so this is a tie. Both are excellent writers, both experiment with story telling in totally different but equally awesome ways, and the horror they explore differs and is great.

CC: 10 || Kit: 10

DAMN IT, IT’S A TIE! Well, that settles it, the authors and their new books are equally awesome. Suppose we’ll all just have to read both of them….

This was a very silly post but in all seriousness, I love these guys and their work, and they’re both very worthy of your time.

If you’d like to check them out, I’ve popped the links below for you:

GIFTS BETWEEN US by C.C. ADAMS

EXPLORING THE LABYRINTH: VOLUME ONE by KIT POWER

Bleeeeat!