There are some books that are just so good that when it comes time to write reviews about them I’m simply left speechless. Gord Rollo did this to me with the first book I read of his titled THE JIGSAW MAN. This may sound familiar and if does not it’s your loss because I praised the hell of THE JIGSAW MAN only a few months back. It is still the best book I’ve read so far this year and I can’t recommend it enough. But wait; Gord Rollo simply did not crawl into a hole after writing the greatness that was THE JIGSAW MAN and wait to see how people would react to it. Oh No folks, he’ll be unleashing more horrific nightmares on us this coming March with his next book to be released from Leisure Fiction called CRIMSON. This book my friends is a whole other level of horror that takes place over a lifetime.
A lifetime! Could you imagine living a nightmare for a whole lifetime and having no control of anything. Your whole life being controlled by someone or something else, and you being is a same state of mind can’t do a dam thing about it but live the nightmare and have no choice but to live it day by day. That’s simply what this story is about, and I’m going to only give you a little taste on how it starts out. Four friends meet together one day to hang out on Johnny’s farm. The farm house Johnny lives in has a very bad history that all three of Johnny friends know about. Sure the murders occurred there that is fact, but the way in which the story goes has always been a myth, and the things people have seen on the farm have made the farm a place of legend. The four friends want to start their own club, and decide to build an underground fort. While digging next to a well, they uncover a hidden bomb shelter, and the boys are fascinated by the find. They discuss plans on how they will decorate their new hideout and all are very excited. Until a crack in the shelters wall opens up and out from the nearby well water spills in to the fort along with a man sized creature with Crimson eyes. The creature does not attack them, but simply gives them a good lecture on how life from here on out is going to be one hell of a ride for them. I’ll leave it at that. because from here on out the story gets very twisty and very, very crazy.
To simply put it folks CRIMSON pretty much is Stephen King’s “IT”, THE BODY” & SHAWSHANK REDEMPTION, Brian Keene’s “GHOUL” Richard’s Laymon’s “THE TRAVELING VAMPIRE SHOW”, A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET, HELLRAISER and WISHMASTER all thrown into a blender; blended together; and out came this horrific masterpiece. Now don’t think the story is bits and pieces of those books and films thrown together in one big unoriginal story. It’s far from that, this is an original horror story like no other, but the elements in which it takes to get there, all echo the greatest moments of the stories and films listed.
Crimson is a book that I simply am scared to write a lot about because I don’t want to spoil the story for anyone. There is a lot more to the story than the synopsis on the book tells you and what I have written above. The first chapter alone will hook you in and you’ll be be either to frightened to continue or you’ll simply have a hard time putting the book down. It’s very character driven to the point your really get to know the characters very well. You even get to know the creature, his origin and how he became to be. The story is very detailed oriented and very deep. This is a book that really drags the reader right in to the prolonged nightmare that the characters in this book are living. It’s that dam frightening and scary.
THE JIGSAW MAN left me pumped up about this new guy on the block Gord Rollo, That was a book with one hell of an amazing story that rivals Mary Shelley’s FRANKENSTEIN. CRIMSON is a book that lets us know that Gord Rollo is no one hit wonder; Rollo is the best new horror writer I have come across this year. If he continues to horrify us with his brutal and amazing tales of the macabre, then I believe we have a new master of horror on the rise.
– Horror Bob
- Interview with J.R. Bookwalter - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Andrew J. Rausch - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Rick Popko and Dan West - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Director Stevan Mena (Malevolence) - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Screenwriter Jeffery Reddick (Day of the Dead 2007) - January 22, 2015
- Teleconference interview with Mick Garris (Masters of Horror) - January 22, 2015
- A Day at the Morgue with Corri English (Unrest) - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Writer/Director Nacho Cerda (The Abandoned, Aftermath) - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Actress Thora Birch (Dark Corners, The Hole, American Beauty) - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Actor Jason Behr, Plus Skinwalkers Press Coverage - January 22, 2015
