Book Review: The Cursed Among Us, by John Durgin
A cheesy 90s kids horror flick as a self-published novel.
self-published, 2022, 252 pages
It has been 20 years since the serial killer known as The Black Heart Killer terrorized the town of Newport in 1979. Life mostly returned to normal after the killer was captured. All the townspeople have to do is stay out of the woods where the bodies were abandoned-their chests ripped open, and their hearts torn out....
Howie Burke and his friends decide rules are meant to be broken. That’s what 15-year-old kids do. On a beautiful fall day when they decide to go out in the woods to film a horror movie, they stumble across a mysterious grave. What they don’t know is that they are about to release an evil on the town unlike anything in their home-made movies. They will soon uncover the secrets of the Black Heart Killer, and what it truly means to be cursed.
This book has a very 90s horror vibe, with obvious influences from Stephen King. One of the teen characters is even a horror fan who's reading King's It, a bit of ironic self-referential humor on the part of the author.
John Durgin is no Stephen King, but he obviously loves Evil Stevie. The Cursed Among Us is about a group of teenagers in a small New Hampshire town in 1999 who have to face a returning supernatural threat.
Each character is distinct and somewhat archetypal; the unpopular fat kid, the nerd with the abusive homophobic father, the class clown, the normie dude with a crush on the hottest girl in school, etc.
Scenes involving the Black Heart Killer are a bit cheesy and melodramatic, with the author trying to make them horrific with lots of gore and dismemberment, but they read a bit like a low-budget slasher flick.
The kids have to figure out how to fight the monster while uncovering the secrets of the town their parents have hidden from them.
As I said, the author is no Stephen King, but The Cursed Among Us will still be enjoyable to King fans looking for something light and slasher-y for a Halloween read.
My complete list of book reviews.
self-published, 2022, 252 pages
It has been 20 years since the serial killer known as The Black Heart Killer terrorized the town of Newport in 1979. Life mostly returned to normal after the killer was captured. All the townspeople have to do is stay out of the woods where the bodies were abandoned-their chests ripped open, and their hearts torn out....
Howie Burke and his friends decide rules are meant to be broken. That’s what 15-year-old kids do. On a beautiful fall day when they decide to go out in the woods to film a horror movie, they stumble across a mysterious grave. What they don’t know is that they are about to release an evil on the town unlike anything in their home-made movies. They will soon uncover the secrets of the Black Heart Killer, and what it truly means to be cursed.
This book has a very 90s horror vibe, with obvious influences from Stephen King. One of the teen characters is even a horror fan who's reading King's It, a bit of ironic self-referential humor on the part of the author.
John Durgin is no Stephen King, but he obviously loves Evil Stevie. The Cursed Among Us is about a group of teenagers in a small New Hampshire town in 1999 who have to face a returning supernatural threat.
Each character is distinct and somewhat archetypal; the unpopular fat kid, the nerd with the abusive homophobic father, the class clown, the normie dude with a crush on the hottest girl in school, etc.
Scenes involving the Black Heart Killer are a bit cheesy and melodramatic, with the author trying to make them horrific with lots of gore and dismemberment, but they read a bit like a low-budget slasher flick.
The kids have to figure out how to fight the monster while uncovering the secrets of the town their parents have hidden from them.
As I said, the author is no Stephen King, but The Cursed Among Us will still be enjoyable to King fans looking for something light and slasher-y for a Halloween read.
My complete list of book reviews.