Comments on: House of Blood

By: QUICKGASM >> 4.2.07 » Bookgasm

QUICKGASM >> 4.2.07 » Bookgasm — Mon, 02 Apr 2007 11:26:14 +0000

[...] Welcome to Bryan Smith’s THE FREAKSHOW, the only novel you’ll read this year in which evil clowns deflate like bloody balloons! In which complete strangers are forced to have sex in front of an alien! In which a two-headed woman vomits “puke jelly” into a guy’s freshly empty eye socket! In which a girl is raped by a car’s shape-shifting stick shift! In which one sick scene follows another, which would be fine if you were clued in as to what the point was, but that doesn’t arrive until the last 50 pages. Interjecting a sci-fi angle helps keep this more interesting than it would be otherwise, but ultimately lost me to indifference. A little too freaky, with not enough freaks, THE FREAKSHOW is more along the lines of Smith’s silly DEATHBRINGER (although much better than that bomb), instead of the hardcore horror promise behind his debut, HOUSE OF BLOOD. [...]

By: Bookgasm » Deathbringer

Bookgasm » Deathbringer — Wed, 22 Feb 2006 12:53:47 +0000

[...] Of course not. Which is why you’re either going to love or hate DEATHBRINGER, Bryan Smith’s follow-up to HOUSE OF BLOOD. That 2004 title was purposely cartoony and over the top. So’s this one, but it lacks … well, the cohesive sense of fun, even despite the occasional gem of a line like “The head on the dashboard was trying to talk.” [...]

By: Bookgasm » Leisure builds solid horror lineup for 2006

Bookgasm » Leisure builds solid horror lineup for 2006 — Wed, 28 Dec 2005 21:15:11 +0000

[...] January brings Tim Lebbon’s corpse-laden BERSERK and Ray Garton’s creepy-kid tale THE LOVELIEST DEAD, while in February, a writer faces supernatural terrors in Mark Morris’ THE IMMACULATE and J.P. Gonzalez’s extreme horror outing SURVIVOR – about a snuff film – is unleashed to the general public. March offers AFTER MIDNIGHT, another Richard Laymon novel, and DEATHBRINGER, Bryan Smith’s zombie-filled follow-up to HOUSE OF BLOOD. [...]

By: Bryan Smith

Bryan Smith — Fri, 21 Oct 2005 05:03:44 +0000

Thanks for the cool review. I’m always especially happy when people get the very deliberate Manos link. Things like MST3K and Monty Python are every bit as influential for me as works of classic horror fiction, if not a little more so.

By: Rod Lott

Rod Lott — Thu, 20 Oct 2005 19:36:34 +0000

I’m currently a member. Some months the choices are great (THE GIRL NEXT DOOR was paired with CITY OF THE DEAD, I believe), and other months, the choices can be far from it and get returned immediately.

But as a member, I appreciate I can order a bunch of old titles at about $4 a piece and get one free for every five. I’ve pretty much mined the back catalog of all the good stuff in three orders flat.

Plus, it looks like they have some good stuff coming up in early 2006, so I’ll stick with it for a while longer.

By: Flash

Flash — Thu, 20 Oct 2005 19:31:34 +0000

I’ve been waiting on Leisure to improve their line. I was a member of their Horror Book Club for a couple of years but was driven to the brink of madness trying to wade through their poor editing. Sometimes the material was strong but the product felt rushed to me.

I think the last straw was Ed Lee’s INFERNAL ANGEL. How that got past anyone’s desk is a mystery to me. Since then I’ve avoided books with the “Leisure” imprint.

But I know I shouldn’t judge any book by its spine, so I might give this one a try. Sounds quick and fun.