Have You Read This? And Then I Woke Up by Malcolm Devlin

 

We trust reality. Or at least we hope reality will always be reliable, that the same rules that governed it yesterday will govern it today and so on. It can be quite upsetting when the little daily bargain you make with reality is suddenly broken. Honestly, if you can’t trust reality, who or what can you trust? That question is what drives this zombie-adjacent novella And Then I Woke Up by Malcolm Devlin.

This story is about monsters and about survivors. After a plague that turns ordinary people into monsters strikes, bands of survivors roam the countryside, stealing what they can and taking out any monsters they come across. These monsters might have been friends, neighbors, lovers, or family, but they are no longer human. Spence learned all these hard lessons as a survivor and he’s killed many monsters, but the plague might be something different and he might also have a different kind of body count on his hands.

Devlin’s book is a quick read, but it’s not necessarily an easy one. This is largely because of how it consistently erodes the trustworthiness of its narrator Spence. Spence’s story might not be what he thinks it is, meaning the reader will start to question what exactly is real in Devlin’s book. About the only answer Devlin gives is that reality is ultimately subjective, but this realization is of little comfort to poor Spence. Fans of shorter works like Sara Tantlinger’s To Be Devoured and Joe Koch’s The Wingspan of Severed Hands should like this particular break from reality.

Graphic Content: Harrower by Justin Jordan and Brahm Revel

Slashers are back in a big way, and killers wielding life-ending weapons are in. Whether it’s Stephen Graham Jones reinventing the genre in his Indian Lake trilogy or streaming service Shudder pumping out contemporary slasher along with their library of slasher classics geared for gorehounds, maniacs are making a bloody splash. Nowhere and no one is safe, not even graphic novels. One of the latest to capitalize on the slasher renaissance, and seemingly the closest to a traditional slasher, is Harrower, a book of small town savagery written by Justin Jordan and drawn by Brahm Revel.

The small town that is to be the center of carnage is Barlowe, New York. Jessa Brink, along with her friends, are ready to cut loose this Halloween night despite warnings from their parents and the local legend about the Harrower. The Harrower is Barlowe’s resident boogeyman. For generations, the Harrower has stalked the shadowy streets of Barlowe, looking for young men and women who stray from the path of puritanical purity. Unfortunately, Jessa and her friends find themselves in the Harrower’s bloody, destructive path.

Fans of slasher movies will find a lot that’s familiar in this book, from the secondary characters who are only there to add to the body count to the killer and his distinct weapon (in this case, a medieval battle axe swung with deadly precision). Jordan’s story doesn’t necessarily break new ground, but there is also comfort in the familiar. Fans might even feel nostalgic watching the Harrower use brutal methods to enforce a moral code, remembering how Jason Voorhees killed teens who have sex and/or do drugs on his campground. The twist at the end even references how slashers are often portrayed as purity enforcers. Along with Revel’s depictions of carnage, Harrower is a feel-good kind of slasher for fans who long ago wore out their VHS copies of Friday the 13th and A Nightmare on Elm Street, along with those lucky enough to have just discovered the slasher genre.