Over the last week I've read two novels from a new-to-me publisher, Canada's ChiZine Publications, who specialise in "dark literary fiction", ie well-written horror and fantasy. Horror is not usually my bag, partly because I quickly tire of supernatural stories unless they're tremendously well-written--I need it to be scientifically rationalised horror, ie
Alien or
The Thing rather than Stephen King nonsense. Of the two, David Nicle's
Eutopia: A Novel of Terrible Optimism, a tale of eugenics, forced sterilisation and parasitic lifeforms, was excellent, while Tony Burgess's
People Live Still in Cashtown Corners, while well-written, was ultimately mystifying and unsatisfying (the second book by him I've found to be so, despite his excellent script for the blackly comic language-as-disease movie
Pontypool).
But what of the covers? Well, all of ChiZine's cover design work is by
Erik Mohr, sometimes working with
Corey Beep. As you can see below, they've produced some wonderful designs. Indeed, it was Eutopia's cover that first grabbed me...
..that girl's eyes being both completely black and spot-varnished, so that tiny beads of light catch on them and follow you around as you move the book. Look at that expression: you just know she's hiding a set of fangs behind that pursed mouth.
Other ChiZine covers I particularly like:
FWIW I think that People Live Still in Cashtown Corners was mis-cast as a horror novel. I think that it is more of a psycho-noir and read through that filter I actually liked it quite a lot.
ReplyDeleteI think that's true, actually. It was a very good Jim Thompson-style tale for the most part; it's just the part of the story to do with the daughter of the family that derailed it a bit for me. I honestly can't work out what that was for.
ReplyDeleteHoly hell, it's like something that escaped from one of Hunter Thompson's hallucinations.
ReplyDeleteWhy do we find children so creepy? Man that cover just fah-reaks me out.
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