Twelve Days And Twelve Books Of Christmas - Day 10

Day 10 - October Book - They Move Below by Karl Drinkwater

Horror lives in the shadows.

It exists under the earth’s surface in ancient caves; below the vast sea’s undulating waves; under dense forest cover; within a storm’s thick, rolling clouds; downstairs in our homes, when we hear the knife drawer rattle in the night. Even our minds and bodies harbour the alien under the skin, the childhood nightmares in our subconscious.

In this collection of sixteen tales Karl Drinkwater sews flesh onto the bones of our worst fears whilst revisiting some of horror’s classic settings, such as the teen party, the boat in trouble, the thing in the cellar, the haunted museum, the ghost in the machine, and the urban legends that come true. No-one is safe. Darkness hides things, no matter how much we strain our eyes. And sometimes those things are looking back at us.

My Thoughts

Oh. My. Goodness, This book! This book made it difficult for me to go to the loo in the night because I kept thinking back to Just Telling Stories! I was making notes as I read each short story and the exact notes for this particular story was "Holyyyyyy Crap!" 

They Move Below consists of sixteen short stories that vary in types of scary and each and every one of them is excellent. I even wrote a mini review for every story which I wouldn't normally do, usually just a over view of the whole book, but I really felt these stories deserved the time. You can read the whole review here.

I hadn't read any horror for a few years before picking up They Move Below and it just reminded me how much I love the genre. (The last horror book I read was by Richard Laymon). Yes I do read them by daylight so I don't get scared at night, ha! But I enjoy the rush you get as the tension builds and the action or non action happens. 

Another reason I loved this book is that the beginning of one of the stories, Harvest Festival, was turned into an online interactive read your own story by Karl and it's one of the most fun things I've read/played through in a long while. It is still available if anyone fancies trying it out and seeing which way you'd deal with the situation - Interactive Harvest Festival.

Overall just such an enjoyable book and one I think has something for everyone. Not all fears are paranormal and In Truth Forebears this is very true and made for uncomfortable (in an enjoyable way of course) reading. Also as it's Christmas then you could always choose to read Living In The Present which has some very....interesting Father Christmas imagery! 

So that's my October stand out book, do you enjoy the horror genre? Do you choose to read spooky books around October and Halloween? Just two more days to go! 

About The Author

I was lucky enough to interview Karl back in July, so for more information about him, please go out check out that blog post here. 

Karl Drinkwater is originally from Manchester but has lived in Wales for over fifteen years, ever since he went there to do a Master's degree: it was easier to stay than to catch a train back. His longest career was in librarianship (25 years); his shortest was industrial welding (1 week).

He started writing stories when he was 9, and hasn't stopped. His writing sometimes spends time in the sunlit patches of literary fiction, where it likes to picnic beneath an old oak tree, accompanied by a bottle of wine, some cake, and soul-searching peace. At other times his words slope off into the dark and tense shadows of horror fiction, and if you follow them you might hear chains rattling behind locked doors and the paranoid screams of the lost echoing in the distance. There is no obligation to enjoy both of those avenues. His aim is to tell a good story, regardless of genre, but it always comes down to life, death, and connection.

When he isn't writing or editing he loves exercise, computer games, board games, the natural environment, animals, social justice, and zombies; not necessarily in that order.

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They Move Below by Karl Drinkwater - Review And Super Exciting Announcement

Being Halloween I wanted to read and review something a little (or a lot) creepy. I decided on They Move Below by Karl Drinkwater. They Move Below is a collection of 16 short stories and contains some of the creepiest tales I've read in a long time. Before I get into my review though I want to share something EXTREMELY exciting! Earlier in the year I reviewed Harvest Festival, one of the stories in this collection and I absolutely loved it. As an amazing treat Karl Drinkwater has turned the first half of this story into an online interactive experience (think read your own story books, but online)! I cannot tell you how much fun it is reading through the story and making decisions for the characters, I get so involved each time I play/read through. This experience is now available for everyone to go and check out so I advise you to go do it and please let Karl Drinkwater (and me) know what you think! 

HARVEST FESTIVAL INTERACTIVE ONLINE STORY

Ok so if anyone is still around (I don't blame anyone who isn't because I'd be over there reading through right now myself) I'll share my review of the 16 stories contained in They Move Below. 

The first story is Transmissions Part 1 and it is a kind of introduction to the book with a narrator contemplating darkness, the man is very philosophical and really makes you think, even when you have an idea of what he's actually about to do. 

If That Looking Glass Gets Broken, starts off innocuous enough and then then further into the story you get, the more messed up things become. By the end I wasn't 100% sure if I was dealing with a woman with mental issues or something a lot more sinister which made the reading very unsettling.

The title story, They Move Below, is set on a small boat on the ocean containing just two people. I did struggle with the dialect at first but I soon fell into the rhythm of it. This story definitely shows how important it is not to mess with things that you don't understand and that a fear of the deep is a sensible one to have.

I've always thought that museums can be creepy places and I couldn't put into words how creepy they may be at night...Karl Drinkwater however has done just that in Creeping Jesus! As a parent this also terrified me as the thought of school trips gets closer as my Nerdling gets older.

I don't want to say much about Harvest Festival as you have the opportunity to experience the first half of it above, but if you do want to know more, my review of that is here and it also has a Q&A with Karl.

"Holyyyyyy Crap" - these are the exact notes I write about Just Telling Stories. This story was absolutely terrifying and I think pretty much everyone's worst nightmare (or definitely mine at least). I struggled going to the bathroom in the night after reading this for a good while and probably will again now I've thought about it to review it! It really has stuck with me. There are also some really nice nods to Dean Koontz and other popular horror tales.

In Claws Truth Forebear the main character really learns a hard lesson about not taking things that aren't yours, I don't want to spoil what the feeling you get through this story is, but I will say that I felt it extremely intensely and it was a very difficult read to get through as I felt like I was suffering with the main character. A really excellently written story.

Breaking The Ice was extremely tense and I was never really sure what happened. I think that really adds to the horror of something, when you can only guess and your imagination does the work for you, usually with terrifying results.

I really liked how How It Got There was written and I liked the idea that the threat doesn't always come from where you would expect. Very clever!

Web is another story along a similar vein as If That Looking Glass Gets Broken in that you aren't sure if what is happening is the result of hallucinations from too much Nutmeg or if it is the slow mental breakdown of a woman who has suffered so, so much. Either way a painful read and you really feel for the main character and just want it to be ok for her.

With the story, Scissor Man, Karl Drinkwater has created a classic urban legend that could easily rival the bogey man as the Scissor Man seems even more horrifying to me personally. It also leaves you questioning what really happens right at the end.

I absolutely loved Sinker! This story was so incredibly well thought out and I don't think I've ever read anything like this before. What happens comes so out of the blue and was nothing like what I was expecting with a hunter becoming the hunted story. Though only a short story, I could picture the village clearly as well as the main character and I felt like I was right there with him.

With technology and the access everyone has to information all the time, it is a lot harder to scare the current generation, but in Overload, this technology and access is used as the horror. Overload is written in a very interesting way and reading it as if you were the main character really helps with the immersion.

Regression was really interesting and looks at whether childhood fears can be a reality and what would happen if they came true when you were an adult and had managed to avoid them for a long time.

I really like stories written in interview format and Second Transcript really works well being written this way. I like the way it makes it feel like you are there as it is happening and are listening to the conversation backwards and forwards between the policeman and the witness. This story also adds more information to the How It Got There story and makes you question just how big this thing really is.

In Living In The Present we have another story where the threat does not come from where you expect it and when it does come, it definitely does not come in any kind of form that would even cross your mind. There was definitely very strange Father Christmas imagery used in this story which made it extra creepy.

In Bleeding Sunset, Dancing Snowflakes, the tension builds up slowly and then is released with an unexpected bout of childish glee and playfulness before the horror then kind of hits you in the face. Were vampires the cause of what happens or did the teacher do it all herself? Either way a really well written story.

The final story is Transmission Part 2 and it is the one that goes big before you go home. To me the scary thing about this story is the smallest possibility that it could actually happen. No one knows what's out there in the vastness of space and no one really knows the repercussions of everything that we do here on Earth and how it can affect other things or beings.

Overall an absolutely excellent collection and one I would definitely recommend to lovers of horror. There is also extra bits at the back where Karl Drinkwater talks about the inspiration behind each story and I thought that was incredibly interesting and actually answered some of my ponderings from while I was reading the stories.

I gave this book 5 stars.

Other good news is that just in time for Halloween, Harvest Festival is also available as an audiobook! Click HERE for the links.

They Move Below Blog Tour - Karl Drinkwater

Today is my stop on the They Move Below & Other Dark Tales by Karl Drinkwater blog tour. I'm really excited to bring you a review of one of the sixteen short stories contained, Harvest Festival, as well as an interview with the author! 

I read Harvest Festival on possibly the best or the worst day possible, depending on how you look at it. The story starts off with Callum dealing with family life on his farm. During the night he wakes up covered in sweat due to how warm it is and there is quite clearly a storm coming. As I read this there was an actual storm brewing outside and it was extremely close so it was very warm. So for me the atmosphere I read the book in certainly helped add to the overall effect of the story - read that as I was really creeped out. 

As I don't want to spoil anything about the story I won't be saying anything else about that, I will however say how much I enjoyed the writing. The story is incredibly well written and it was a very easy read. The characters are also very well fleshed out even though this is a short story. I felt that I really got to know the whole family really well and understood their motivations and actions. I particularly liked Callum the main character, he seems like your normal dad and husband who does what he needs to protect his family. 

I really enjoyed this story and I flew through it holding my breath when the action started, waiting to see what would happen next. I would recommend both Harvest Festival as a story on its own, but the whole of They Move Below as the stories and the writing is just all so good. 

That is my very short and cryptic review of Harvest Festival so it's time to move onto the interview:

When did you first know that you wanted to be an author?

I've been writing since I was about 9. Once I gave up the career options of spaceman, rock star, secret agent and police man, all that was left was librarian and author. People close to me soon got used to it. I’ve been a librarian for over 20 years, so it’s time for the author part to come to the front.

Have you always been a fan of horror? What is it about horror that draws you to it?

I loved horror as a kid. I liked nothing better than reading ghost stories with a torch under the duvet, or climbing the weeping willow with a collection of monster tales and letting the sighing branches take me to spookville. I think it was pure escapism. Nothing transported me from real life as quickly as something scary. I think I wanted to believe in things beyond this world; and if they were reflections or cast-offs from this world, I would expect them to be dark. And so any horror story was already halfway to convincing me that it could be true.

They Move Below is a collection of short stories, what made you choose short stories over a novel as I believe writing them can be a lot more difficult as you have to get so much information into a lot fewer words?

Different but equally satisfying. When there are limits they force you to be creative in different ways. Poetry is a good example of this – any restrictions of line length, rhyme, rhythm and so on lead you to write differently from your normal pattern, and like any detour that change of pattern can lead you to exciting places. In my case I had a lot of stories already written and just needing a polish – I felt that I needed to get them out in the world so I could move on to new projects.

Where do you get your inspiration, does it come straight from your imagination or do you take from real life?

No single place. It could be a news article, or a dream, or a real event. In the notes section of They Move Below I gave the example of the time I saw a huge jellyfish below my kayak – the image stayed with me, and eventually worked its way into my fiction. Ideas simmer and only rise to the surface when they’re ready. I’m always having conversations in my head, especially when washing the dishes, and they can spark ideas for characters or scenes.

When writing, do you have to set the mood to get into the right mind set or do you have a certain routine that you have to follow?

It does help when you’re in the mood to write, but sometimes you have to force yourself. For writing horror I like a grey day, and to be alone in the house. But it can be interesting to write it on a sunny day in a busy pub or café or on a bench – if you can still frighten yourself (and any horror writer who can’t do that should switch genres) then you are on to a winner. Also external prompts can be a great help – last year I took part in NaNoWriMo for the first time (you’ll find his posts about it here) and that really helped me to get a lot of words written in a short space of time.

I know this might be a hard question to answer, but do you have a favourite story in They Move Below?

Mmm, that is difficult. I like them for different reasons: some entertain me or make me smile; some have been with me for a long time; some have technical elements or ideas I’m happy with. The title story is one I’m really pleased with, because I can really feel like I’m there when I read it. However, Web stands out because I had to get into another head and the voice just started to pour onto the page. It’s horrible but in a different way, and maybe the hint of hope is something we all need to cling to in dark places.

When you're not writing, what do you enjoy doing?

Computer games; boardgames with friends; playing the guitar (badly: I can’t get the hang of barre chords and suspect my fingers just bend in strange ways; possibly an idea for a horror story right there). Also films, exercise, food, nature, wildlife, and books. Not in that order.

Do you have a favourite author?

I think I am more likely to respect individual works than like everything from a single author. Unless an author only rewrites the same book – which gets boring fast – then each work will be different, and inevitably you will then enjoy some more than others. Which is fine. However, as an early teenager I tried to read everything by Stephen King and Dean Koontz. They both impressed me so much in their different ways. My favourite Stephen King book is Night Shift, and for Dean Koontz it is Phantoms – in both cases they were the first book I’d read by that author.

Following They Move Below, what can we expect next from you?

I tend to alternate between literary/contemporary fiction, and horror. So my next book will be a collection of short stories in the other genre, about life and relationships. Though it is interesting that for a few stories I was torn as to which genre they fell into. For example, Web could just as easily fit into a non-horror collection; and some of what I think of as my literary stories are pretty dark, such as Miasma fromSecondary Character. I suppose that’s one of my author fingerprints.

Thank you so much to Karl for taking the time out to answer my questions and for allowing me to read his wonderful book.

I received a copy of They Move Below in exchange for an honest review as part of the blog tour.