I want this to be a platform for EVERYONE within the horror community; authors, publishers, bloggers, reviewers, actors, directors, artists. I could go on, if you work in the genre then you are more than welcome to apply for the job.
The rules are quite simple…
You are invited to imagine yourselves as warden for an old graveyard, and choose eight books, preferably horror/dark genre, to take with you to cover your shift; here you can discuss why you chose the books.
As well as the books, wardens are allowed one song/album to listen to. Again, an explanation for this choice is required.
You must also discuss one luxury item you can bring, which must be inanimate and not allow communication.
If you’d like to take part in The Graveyard Shift then please submit an application to gavin@kendallreviews.com
A new shift is about to begin. The warden for the week’s #GraveyardShift is…
Duncan Ralston
Sinister forces gather in Duck Falls. Soon, this small American town will become a battleground for the future of humanity.
Six months after the “Ghostland Disaster,” Duck Falls has become a reluctant tourist trap, and a new home to the activist group Ghosts Are People Too. When the Return to Ghostland televised event ends in yet another tragedy, ghosts once again fall under scrutiny… along with the effectiveness of the Recurrence Field.
Away at college, survivor Lilian Roth has discovered she’s able to communicate with spirits. She and her best friend, Ben Laramie, use the skills they’ve acquired to free ghosts from their hauntings.
But Rex Garrote, the mastermind behind the Ghostland Disaster, is raising an army of ghosts to slaughter every living person on Earth. Left with no choice but to fight, Ben and Lilian must recruit their own army of freed ghosts, and prepare them for war.
Will it be enough to save the world?
Book 2 in the Ghostland Trilogy, AFTERLIFE is a novel of pre-apocalyptic sci-fi horror, perfect for fans of Stephen King and Blake Crouch.
You can buy Afterlife: Ghostland 2.0 from Amazon UK & Amazon US
Books
Favorite Tales of Monsters and Trolls By George Jonsen
This was one of my earliest introductions to horror. I fondly remember my mom reading this to me and my little brother, acting out all the voices. The book is just simple traditional fairy tales but with vibrant, very detailed illustrations by artist John O’Brien, filled with all kinds of monsters, reminiscent of Breughel or Bosch’s paintings. Take a look for yourself and tell me this isn’t cool.
The Witches By Roald Dahl
I may have been slightly obsessed with Roald Dahl at a certain age. Back when I first got reading Dahl, I was far more into drawing than writing, and Quentin Blake’s illustrations were up there with Shel Silverstein and Sergio Aragones for me. I loved the stories as well, don’t get me wrong. The Witches and The Twits struck a particular chord with me because of all the macabre situations and characters.
1984 By George Orwell
This is probably the first book assigned to me in school that I really fell in love with. “It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen.” – it’s an opening line that has stuck with me since then, and it sets an unsettling tone of discombobulation that flows through the rest of the novel. I would definitely consider this a horror novel—at the very least in the psychological sense. The scene with the rats in Room 101 is a masterclass in psychological terror. “If you want a vision of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face – forever.” That’s about as scary an image as in any horror novel, I’d say.
The Stand By Stephen King
One of the first adult horror novels I read, The Stand is a book I’ve returned to many times. The illustrations by Bernie Wrightson brought these characters and scenarios to life in a way I was unaccustomed to in my early introductions to adult horror: Poe, Shelley, Bierce, etc. The characters are so vividly depicted you can’t help but fall in love with them, whether they’re good or evil. Randall Flagg is a truly nightmarish antagonist, and the shades of gray, particularly in Lloyd Henreid, Larry Underwood and Trashcan Man, make for fascinating character studies.
Trainspotting By Irvine Welsh
Written in first-person and Glaswegian dialect, Trainspotting took a little bit of work to get into but once I fell into the rhythm of it, I became obsessed with Welsh’s books for several years. It’s fairly satirical and humorous, but also quite dark. The horrors of heroin addiction are no more evident than in the scene where Sick Boy murders a pit bull after provoking it into mauling its owner.
The Girl Next Door By Jack Ketchum
A harrowing, nail-biting coming-of-age story about a boy who becomes involved in the torture and sexual abuse of the titular Girl, under the direction of her aunt, this book is an incredibly difficult—though extremely well-told—read. Loosely based on the murder of Sylvia Likens in 1965, the events spiral out of control toward an ending that feels inevitable yet could have been avoided, if any one of the participants had stood up to the single adult in the house. This novel makes Lord of the Flies look like a day at the lake.
Red Dragon By Thomas Harris
The first book to feature Dr. Hannibal Lecter, Red Dragon is far more interesting to me for its complex antagonist, Francis Dollarhyde. I’ve rarely felt the phrase “sympathy for the devil” more clearly than in this novel. Dollarhyde is a monster, yes—the Great Red Dragon. But, with a clear sense of how that monster was made, it’s easy to root for him to respond in a positive manner to the love he’s shown from coworker Reba McClane, and hope that he’ll change.
Perfume: Story of a Murderer By Patrick Suskind
Lyrical and haunting, this story of a murderous obsession was a favorite of Kurt Cobain’s, and a book I discovered much later in life. Grenouille is a killer obsessed with recreating the smell of a young girl he murdered to capture her scent. Once thought to be unfilmable, Tom Tykwer’s adaptation is extremely faithful, and a great companion piece, to the novel.
Album
Hell, I thought picking JUST EIGHT BOOKS was impossible. This question is unbearable. So I’m just gonna throw a bunch of albums at you, a bunch of albums I love, a bunch of random albums I could probably live without but not quite as deliciously: The Afghan Whigs Black Love, Van Halen Balance, U2 Achtung Baby, Rush Counterparts, NIN Broken, Radiohead Ok Computer, Beatles White Album, Andrew Lloyd Webber The Phantom of the Opera, Snoop Dogg Doggystyle, Red Hot Chili Peppers Californication, Fiddler on the Roof, AC/DC Highway to Hell, Dave Matthews Band Busted Stuff, Faith No More Angel Dust, Garbage (Self-Titled), Genesis Duke, Beethoven 7th Symphony, Metallica Black Album.
Afterlife: Ghostland 2.0
Sinister forces gather in Duck Falls. Soon, this small American town will become a battleground for the future of humanity.
Six months after the “Ghostland Disaster,” Duck Falls has become a reluctant tourist trap, and a new home to the activist group Ghosts Are People Too. When the Return to Ghostland televised event ends in yet another tragedy, ghosts once again fall under scrutiny… along with the effectiveness of the Recurrence Field.
Away at college, survivor Lilian Roth has discovered she’s able to communicate with spirits. She and her best friend, Ben Laramie, use the skills they’ve acquired to free ghosts from their hauntings.
But Rex Garrote, the mastermind behind the Ghostland Disaster, is raising an army of ghosts to slaughter every living person on Earth. Left with no choice but to fight, Ben and Lilian must recruit their own army of freed ghosts, and prepare them for war.
Will it be enough to save the world?
Book 2 in the Ghostland Trilogy, AFTERLIFE is a novel of pre-apocalyptic sci-fi horror, perfect for fans of Stephen King and Blake Crouch.
You can buy Afterlife: Ghostland 2.0 from Amazon UK & Amazon US
Duncan Ralston
Duncan Ralston was born in Toronto and spent his teens in small-town Ontario. As a “grownup,” Duncan lives with his wife in Toronto, where he writes dark fiction about the things that frighten, sicken, and delight him. His work has been reviewed in Scream: the Horror Magazine, Cultured Vultures and Daily Dead. In addition to his twisted short stories found in GRISTLE & BONE and VIDEO NASTIES, he is the author of the novels SALVAGE, THE METHOD and GHOSTLAND, and the novellas WILDFIRE, WOOM and EBENEZER.
Duncan’s influences include (but are not limited to): Stephen King, Clive Barker, Richard Matheson, Harlan Ellison, Jack Ketchum, Roald Dahl, Irvine Welsh, Chuck Palahnuik and Bret Easton Ellis.
He runs the small press Shadow Work Publishing, which has published the writing of Jack Ketchum, Wrath James White, Jeff Strand, William Malmborg, The Sisters of Slaughter, Glenn Rolfe and many others.
You can visit Duncan’s Official website www.duncanralston.com
Follow Duncan on Twitter: @userbits
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