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Yellow Moon
When the moon rises, the monsters descend!
One day, thirty strangers arrived in the small town of Cleary, Ohio. And five boys vanished during a baseball game in the park. Bizarre tunnels have appeared under the town, leading to a place no earthly eye has seen before. Eventually the children will return, but the once-peaceful town of Clearly may wish they’d stayed away. For they will not be alone. They will bring with them unimaginable creatures, monsters only visible in the eerie light of…the yellow moon.
One day, thirty strangers arrived in the small town of Cleary, Ohio. And five boys vanished during a baseball game in the park. Bizarre tunnels have appeared under the town, leading to a place no earthly eye has seen before. Eventually the children will return, but the once-peaceful town of Clearly may wish they’d stayed away. For they will not be alone. They will bring with them unimaginable creatures, monsters only visible in the eerie light of…the yellow moon.
207 pages, Paperback
First published October 1, 1994
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Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews
July 17, 2024
(Reread 7/17/24)
Upon reread, the only thing holding me back from rating this insane carnival of horrors 5 stars is the somewhat thin characterization. I never felt like I got to know the many different characters, which made it difficult to truly feel scared for their safety, despite the uniquely nightmarish terrors visited upon them. Still, as I alluded to in my initial review six years ago, I prefer that over detailed backstories of every minor player, sucking away any chance of sustained tension or unsettling atmosphere, so this is just me wanting to have my cake and eat it too, I suppose. Either way, still one of my favorite 90s horror novels, and a must for fans of “supernatural evil in small town” tales. Especially batshit crazy ones (tales, not fans, though that’s fine too).
——————————————-
(Original review 1/6/18)
I think the Duffer Brothers should scrap whatever plans they have for Stranger Things and just option this for use as a season 3 blueprint instead. You have your Upside Down-like parallel world, with a group of five preteens and a sheriff Hopper analogue doing battle against the creatures that come through into the real world of Hawkins, Ind...err I mean Cleary, Ohio. Indiana and Ohio are pretty much the same, anyway. This would be way dark for the semi-family friendly Stranger Things, but the show has so far been a nice mix of classic Spielberg and classic Stephen King, and now it could go all in on the horror.
Now that I've gotten my personal fantasy out of the way, I'll just say that this is definitely one of the better "evil in small town" stories I've read, with a non-stop pace and some pretty freaky imagery that'll stick with me. The basic gist is that the small, peaceful town of Cleary is suddenly becoming inundated with homeless people from who knows where. Dozens and dozens of them, just standing around and muttering to themselves. They're not really bothering anyone (other than maybe peeing in public), but the sheriff doesn't like it and thinks something weird is going on.
Meanwhile a group of boys are playing baseball in the park when they notice a strange tunnel or culvert in a nearby wooded hillside. It wasn't there before, they're sure of it, so they decide to crawl through and see where it leads. What they accidentally bring back with them will change the town forever.
The biggest strengths of this novel are its relentless pace, its surreal inexplicable terrors bordering on Bizarro, and its no-frills, somewhat edgy authorial voice reminiscent of early Lansdale (minus the southern colloquialisms) and Skipp & Spector. There is zero filler here, just go go go for 250 pages. It's not your typical small town horror, with a gradual buildup and slow reveal. Here, the reader never really gets a chance to catch their breath after the introductory 30-40 pages or so. The characterization is a little scant, but I'll gladly take that if it means I'm spared 150 pages of padding that destroys any chance of sustained tension or eerie atmosphere being built up.
The horror market crash of the mid-90s meant that publishers had no interest in Searls' two followup novels (Malevolent and Bloodthirst in Babylon), but fortunately Samhain released them back in 2012. They've been updated to include modern tech and references, which I don't normally care for, but I'll definitely be getting to them sooner rather than later. They're out of print, with prices on the rise now that Samhain closed its doors, so I better just end this thing and snatch them up now.
Upon reread, the only thing holding me back from rating this insane carnival of horrors 5 stars is the somewhat thin characterization. I never felt like I got to know the many different characters, which made it difficult to truly feel scared for their safety, despite the uniquely nightmarish terrors visited upon them. Still, as I alluded to in my initial review six years ago, I prefer that over detailed backstories of every minor player, sucking away any chance of sustained tension or unsettling atmosphere, so this is just me wanting to have my cake and eat it too, I suppose. Either way, still one of my favorite 90s horror novels, and a must for fans of “supernatural evil in small town” tales. Especially batshit crazy ones (tales, not fans, though that’s fine too).
——————————————-
(Original review 1/6/18)
I think the Duffer Brothers should scrap whatever plans they have for Stranger Things and just option this for use as a season 3 blueprint instead. You have your Upside Down-like parallel world, with a group of five preteens and a sheriff Hopper analogue doing battle against the creatures that come through into the real world of Hawkins, Ind...err I mean Cleary, Ohio. Indiana and Ohio are pretty much the same, anyway. This would be way dark for the semi-family friendly Stranger Things, but the show has so far been a nice mix of classic Spielberg and classic Stephen King, and now it could go all in on the horror.
Now that I've gotten my personal fantasy out of the way, I'll just say that this is definitely one of the better "evil in small town" stories I've read, with a non-stop pace and some pretty freaky imagery that'll stick with me. The basic gist is that the small, peaceful town of Cleary is suddenly becoming inundated with homeless people from who knows where. Dozens and dozens of them, just standing around and muttering to themselves. They're not really bothering anyone (other than maybe peeing in public), but the sheriff doesn't like it and thinks something weird is going on.
Meanwhile a group of boys are playing baseball in the park when they notice a strange tunnel or culvert in a nearby wooded hillside. It wasn't there before, they're sure of it, so they decide to crawl through and see where it leads. What they accidentally bring back with them will change the town forever.
The biggest strengths of this novel are its relentless pace, its surreal inexplicable terrors bordering on Bizarro, and its no-frills, somewhat edgy authorial voice reminiscent of early Lansdale (minus the southern colloquialisms) and Skipp & Spector. There is zero filler here, just go go go for 250 pages. It's not your typical small town horror, with a gradual buildup and slow reveal. Here, the reader never really gets a chance to catch their breath after the introductory 30-40 pages or so. The characterization is a little scant, but I'll gladly take that if it means I'm spared 150 pages of padding that destroys any chance of sustained tension or eerie atmosphere being built up.
The horror market crash of the mid-90s meant that publishers had no interest in Searls' two followup novels (Malevolent and Bloodthirst in Babylon), but fortunately Samhain released them back in 2012. They've been updated to include modern tech and references, which I don't normally care for, but I'll definitely be getting to them sooner rather than later. They're out of print, with prices on the rise now that Samhain closed its doors, so I better just end this thing and snatch them up now.
July 28, 2024
A pretty classic small town horror novel that would have probably made a bigger splash in the 80s rather than '94. Searls' prose takes a little to get used to; he writes with a bit of a humorous tone alongside some pretty horrific phrases and quips from some monstrous nursery rhyme. Nonetheless, Searls wastes no time at all getting down to business here, opening the tale with the following rhyme:
Cleary, Ohio will never be the same after being touched by the yellow moon! One fine summer morning, 30 or so 'tramps' wander into the small town of about 11 thousand souls, all of them pretty nutzo, but pretty harmless it seems. Nonetheless, the townies are not amused in the least, especially when one of them turns out to be a crazed murder from a nearby loony bin. As the town tries to sort this out, 6 boys, including the sons of the Mayor and Sheriff, play some baseball until the ball goes into the woods. When they go to get it, they find a strange culvert or something, and know it was not there when they started playing. Well, only one way to find out what it is, and the boys go exploring...
Searls treats the reader with one creepy scene after another, and this almost veers into bizarro territory. Oscillating among several POVs, the voice of the mayor and sheriff the most pronounced, the tale narrates a very strange day indeed. First the bums, then the missing kids, then the strange 'knowledge' the bums impart by touching anyone, it just gets crazier and crazier. Finally, the denouement-- while not completely unexpected, it still works quite nicely. 4 yellow moons!!
May we eat your young?
Pluck the eyes and nibble the tongue?
Ah, those tender ears and noses
Tiny fingers and crunchy toeses
Yes! Yes! Such pitiful mewling cries!
With every bite as the young child dies
And may we eat your old?
Cleary, Ohio will never be the same after being touched by the yellow moon! One fine summer morning, 30 or so 'tramps' wander into the small town of about 11 thousand souls, all of them pretty nutzo, but pretty harmless it seems. Nonetheless, the townies are not amused in the least, especially when one of them turns out to be a crazed murder from a nearby loony bin. As the town tries to sort this out, 6 boys, including the sons of the Mayor and Sheriff, play some baseball until the ball goes into the woods. When they go to get it, they find a strange culvert or something, and know it was not there when they started playing. Well, only one way to find out what it is, and the boys go exploring...
Searls treats the reader with one creepy scene after another, and this almost veers into bizarro territory. Oscillating among several POVs, the voice of the mayor and sheriff the most pronounced, the tale narrates a very strange day indeed. First the bums, then the missing kids, then the strange 'knowledge' the bums impart by touching anyone, it just gets crazier and crazier. Finally, the denouement-- while not completely unexpected, it still works quite nicely. 4 yellow moons!!
January 29, 2020
Wow.
Yes, that's pretty generic I know, but it's the only word that comes to mind when reflecting back on this book, which I finished reading only moments ago.
What an incredible novel, one of those rare finds that you hope for when selecting an 80s/90s horror paperback, but seldom actually get: a polished jewel hidden beneath a lurid cover.
Bursting at the seams with vigor, wit and creativity, David Searls' YELLOW MOON delivers the goods and then some. The prose moves with such sleek efficiency I actually had to read faster to keep up with the cadence. Once I found the rhythm, I was firmly hooked and pulled along for the rest of the ride.
Clocking in a a sleek 250 pages, this novel is all meat and no fat, just the way I like 'em. Searls gives a virtuoso display of how to juggle a large cast of characters and multiple narrative threads, not once did I feel a sense of confusion about who was who and what was what; everything simply flowed.
Like a lucid dream freshly transcribed upon waking, YELLOW MOON should hold immediate appeal to fans of Joe R. Lansdale for sure. For some reason, for me this book called to mind a bit King's DESPERATION and Joe Hill's N0S4A2, even though, impressively, it was published prior to both. Toss in a pinch of King's IT, and you're in the ballpark. This novel truly stands on its own beside any of these, including Lansdale's NIGHTRUNNERS.
Chock full of memorable imagery and out-of-the-park turns of the phrase, Searls has scored himself a new lifetime fan with this one. Had this been published a decade earlier, it would undoubtedly possess renown as a horror classic, which I fully contend it is.
***** Five BIG FAT Stars to add to the sky of the YELLOW MOON.
Yes, that's pretty generic I know, but it's the only word that comes to mind when reflecting back on this book, which I finished reading only moments ago.
What an incredible novel, one of those rare finds that you hope for when selecting an 80s/90s horror paperback, but seldom actually get: a polished jewel hidden beneath a lurid cover.
Bursting at the seams with vigor, wit and creativity, David Searls' YELLOW MOON delivers the goods and then some. The prose moves with such sleek efficiency I actually had to read faster to keep up with the cadence. Once I found the rhythm, I was firmly hooked and pulled along for the rest of the ride.
Clocking in a a sleek 250 pages, this novel is all meat and no fat, just the way I like 'em. Searls gives a virtuoso display of how to juggle a large cast of characters and multiple narrative threads, not once did I feel a sense of confusion about who was who and what was what; everything simply flowed.
Like a lucid dream freshly transcribed upon waking, YELLOW MOON should hold immediate appeal to fans of Joe R. Lansdale for sure. For some reason, for me this book called to mind a bit King's DESPERATION and Joe Hill's N0S4A2, even though, impressively, it was published prior to both. Toss in a pinch of King's IT, and you're in the ballpark. This novel truly stands on its own beside any of these, including Lansdale's NIGHTRUNNERS.
Chock full of memorable imagery and out-of-the-park turns of the phrase, Searls has scored himself a new lifetime fan with this one. Had this been published a decade earlier, it would undoubtedly possess renown as a horror classic, which I fully contend it is.
***** Five BIG FAT Stars to add to the sky of the YELLOW MOON.
May 4, 2020
Yellow Moon
By David J. Searls.
Warner Books.
1994
🎃🎃🎃🎃
Originally published practically the night before every major publisher dropped their Horror lines, 1994s Yellow Moon by David J. Searls' is an unfairly forgotten, fast and fun little read.
The book later got reissued by the now-defunct Samhain Books, as a part of their fledgling horror line, but their reach was fairly limited. In fact, I think you'd probably have an easier time finding the 25 year old first edition, as I have seen many copies of this around in used stores, but never the 2012 reprint.
To be honest, I turned my nose up at Yellow Moon for some time, because it's packaged so innocuously. I gave it an eye at my favorite local used bookstore at least a dozen times before grabbing a copy, because it looked so bland. I was expecting a werewolf novel by way of the Lifetime channel, but thankfully didn't get that.
While it's title and fairly restrained cover art promise a decidedly neutered experience, the book is anything but. No werewolves, no romance, no endless family drama. In lieu, you get a bat-shit insane LSD trip of a novel with tons of monsters, slime and the kinda-sorta undead.
Basically, a portal of sorts opens in an unsuspecting small town, which a handful of preteen boys decide to head into. They don't come back the same, and to a town where things have changed into a funhouse of mutant horror.
The writing style is very Joe Lansdale-esque, with a certain hipness to it that's largely absent from these. There's no fat or distracting subplots, but at the same time there's a lot going on. At times, I actually wished the book would slow down a bit so I could wrap my head around what the hell was going on. There's a billion great ideas in here and I would have loved to see them just a bit more fleshed out.
If you want monsters and a page-turner that doesn't let you catch your breath, Yellow Moon is a great, unsung choice. I'm a sucker for judging a book by its cover and I was largely misled; I shouldn't have ignored this for so long.
Yellow Moon
By David J. Searls.
Warner Books.
1994
🎃🎃🎃🎃
Originally published practically the night before every major publisher dropped their Horror lines, 1994s Yellow Moon by David J. Searls' is an unfairly forgotten, fast and fun little read.
The book later got reissued by the now-defunct Samhain Books, as a part of their fledgling horror line, but their reach was fairly limited. In fact, I think you'd probably have an easier time finding the 25 year old first edition, as I have seen many copies of this around in used stores, but never the 2012 reprint.
To be honest, I turned my nose up at Yellow Moon for some time, because it's packaged so innocuously. I gave it an eye at my favorite local used bookstore at least a dozen times before grabbing a copy, because it looked so bland. I was expecting a werewolf novel by way of the Lifetime channel, but thankfully didn't get that.
While it's title and fairly restrained cover art promise a decidedly neutered experience, the book is anything but. No werewolves, no romance, no endless family drama. In lieu, you get a bat-shit insane LSD trip of a novel with tons of monsters, slime and the kinda-sorta undead.
Basically, a portal of sorts opens in an unsuspecting small town, which a handful of preteen boys decide to head into. They don't come back the same, and to a town where things have changed into a funhouse of mutant horror.
The writing style is very Joe Lansdale-esque, with a certain hipness to it that's largely absent from these. There's no fat or distracting subplots, but at the same time there's a lot going on. At times, I actually wished the book would slow down a bit so I could wrap my head around what the hell was going on. There's a billion great ideas in here and I would have loved to see them just a bit more fleshed out.
If you want monsters and a page-turner that doesn't let you catch your breath, Yellow Moon is a great, unsung choice. I'm a sucker for judging a book by its cover and I was largely misled; I shouldn't have ignored this for so long.
April 25, 2016
Wow.
Yes, that's pretty generic I know, but it's the only word that comes to mind when reflecting back on this book, which I finished reading only moments ago.
What an incredible novel, one of those rare finds that you hope for when selecting an 80s/90s horror paperback, but seldom actually get: a polished jewel hidden beneath a lurid cover.
Bursting at the seams with vigor, wit and creativity, David Searls' YELLOW MOON delivers the goods and then some. The prose moves with such sleek efficiency I actually had to read faster to keep up with the cadence. Once I found the rhythm, I was firmly hooked and pulled along for the rest of the ride.
Clocking in a a sleek 250 pages, this novel is all meat and no fat, just the way I like 'em. Searls gives a virtuoso display of how to juggle a large cast of characters and multiple narrative threads, not once did I feel a sense of confusion about who was who and what was what; everything simply flowed.
Like a lucid dream freshly transcribed upon waking, YELLOW MOON should hold immediate appeal to fans of Joe R. Lansdale for sure. For some reason, for me this book called to mind a bit King's DESPERATION and Joe Hill's N0S4A2, even though, impressively, it was published prior to both. Toss in a pinch of King's IT, and you're in the ballpark. This novel truly stands on its own beside any of these, including Lansdale's NIGHTRUNNERS.
Chock full of memorable imagery and out-of-the-park turns of the phrase, Searls has scored himself a new lifetime fan with this one. Had this been published a decade earlier, it would undoubtedly possess renown as a horror classic, which I fully contend it is.
***** Five BIG FAT Stars to add to the sky of the YELLOW MOON.
Yes, that's pretty generic I know, but it's the only word that comes to mind when reflecting back on this book, which I finished reading only moments ago.
What an incredible novel, one of those rare finds that you hope for when selecting an 80s/90s horror paperback, but seldom actually get: a polished jewel hidden beneath a lurid cover.
Bursting at the seams with vigor, wit and creativity, David Searls' YELLOW MOON delivers the goods and then some. The prose moves with such sleek efficiency I actually had to read faster to keep up with the cadence. Once I found the rhythm, I was firmly hooked and pulled along for the rest of the ride.
Clocking in a a sleek 250 pages, this novel is all meat and no fat, just the way I like 'em. Searls gives a virtuoso display of how to juggle a large cast of characters and multiple narrative threads, not once did I feel a sense of confusion about who was who and what was what; everything simply flowed.
Like a lucid dream freshly transcribed upon waking, YELLOW MOON should hold immediate appeal to fans of Joe R. Lansdale for sure. For some reason, for me this book called to mind a bit King's DESPERATION and Joe Hill's N0S4A2, even though, impressively, it was published prior to both. Toss in a pinch of King's IT, and you're in the ballpark. This novel truly stands on its own beside any of these, including Lansdale's NIGHTRUNNERS.
Chock full of memorable imagery and out-of-the-park turns of the phrase, Searls has scored himself a new lifetime fan with this one. Had this been published a decade earlier, it would undoubtedly possess renown as a horror classic, which I fully contend it is.
***** Five BIG FAT Stars to add to the sky of the YELLOW MOON.
October 14, 2014
I liked how Searls jumped right into weirdness and gory mayhem after introducing just enough detail and texture to give the locals substance. The monsters are vicious, and when they tear through the locals the blood and death disturb. I was fairly sure that everyone was going to die and that evil would reign unchecked for eternity. The actual ending was anticlimactic, though competent enough. I wonder if Searls felt some kind of pressure (from friends? from his editor? from society? from the muse?) to go for the happier rather than the beat-down-and-bloody.
Why do some many horror stories pick on small towns? Are metropolitan areas exempt from uber-evils that bide their time within the folds of the universe? Maybe monsters are supposed to start small and scale up.
Why do some many horror stories pick on small towns? Are metropolitan areas exempt from uber-evils that bide their time within the folds of the universe? Maybe monsters are supposed to start small and scale up.
May 27, 2009
Gruesome but fun.
October 23, 2013
Its not just another day in Cleary, Ohio! Why are all those homeleess people coming to town? Where are all the voices coming from? Where did those darn boys disappear to? The author lures us into another world of strange creatures, bizarre plants complete with a (for lack of a better word) yellow moon. Boys being boys, they just had to explore the drain that suddenly appeared, ultimately unleashing mayhem on their quiet little town. It starts with "crazy" street people and escalates to all sorts of strange events including cars that drive their passengers over roads that instantly appear, horrific crashes, and people transforming into monsters and of course that "yellow moon that permeates everything with an eerie glow! It's a real page turner and you never know what will happen next. You may never look at anything including a homeless person, your family, or even the ice cream truck the same again!
I received my copy in a Goodreads giveaway.
I received my copy in a Goodreads giveaway.
September 22, 2014
I was most pleasantly surprised by this book, which has such an unusual concept that you half expect it to be scattered and make no sense. Instead, I found myself feeling similar to how I feel when I read a book by Clive Barker, one of my favorite authors. Where the descriptions of things taking place are so horrific, so wrong, that it leaves your stomach tied in knots. Where your very being cringes away at the thought of a world so disturbed, so deeply wrong. It's almost as if you can't escape from the book, parts of it cling to you and haunt you. I was almost convinced it was going to end happily, but like any good horror book should; it ended with the promise of only more horror to come.
May 25, 2024
What’s to say?
This book is like nothing I have read before. Think a cross between IT, Stranger Things and the Twilight Zone and you’re half way there
This book is like nothing I have read before. Think a cross between IT, Stranger Things and the Twilight Zone and you’re half way there
December 5, 2025
A shlocky B horror movie, in book form. It was, in turn, disgusting, hilarious, sexist, unexpected, and never predictable.
May 28, 2015
Writing is very hard. As Theodore Roosevelt said, it is not the critic that counts but the man who is in the arena. I am not a writer and would not begin to know how to write a novel. All of this is preface to say this is the first truly bad book I have read in a while, and yet it held my interest and was suspenseful. I wanted to know what happened next.
It's badly written but not uniformly so. In fact, given the self-published look of the pages and typeface, and a publishing house I had never heard of, plus the dedication to "Laura, for eighteen years of great parenting", I seriously thought this was a first novel by an eighteen year old kid who was trying to do Stephen King. The story is about his subjects: kids, a small town, a monstrous evil that invades both of them. I was willing to accept the bad prose because I thought this was a first effort by a young writer who does what all young writers do and copies the style and voice of a respected author, and only does it badly as you would if you hadn't written much before. It was understandable. But Searls, to my surprise, is not a young man. So I am sorry I am saying these things.
The sentences just get away from him. He tries to have a cool, hip, casual style describing his characters and their thoughts, full of pop references like King, trying to get into their head and talk like them, like King, but the whole thing is off. He is repetitive; he is describes things oddly; he needs a good editor; the characters aren't so much inhabited and rounded, feeling like real people, as imitations of them. And that's the main problem: his prose and his conceptions of the characters and the story aren't good enough to feel authentic, despite what Joe R. Lansdale says on the blurb on the cover. Everything, including the generic, unexplained horror, feels ersatz.
He didn't do any favors by keeping the novel so short, when he described the minute actions of the many characters encountering the horror for much of that time, unnecessarily, as that would have befitted a longer novel, not the 200 page one we got. He doesn't have much time to deepen the threat for any allegorical thematic significance, nor resolve it in a satisfactory manner. We get a very weak ending.
I hope Mr. Searls continues his writing--I probably won't give his other books a chance--and he seems like a nice guy, responding to praising commenters on Amazon's reviews. I guess he won't reply to me :)
It's badly written but not uniformly so. In fact, given the self-published look of the pages and typeface, and a publishing house I had never heard of, plus the dedication to "Laura, for eighteen years of great parenting", I seriously thought this was a first novel by an eighteen year old kid who was trying to do Stephen King. The story is about his subjects: kids, a small town, a monstrous evil that invades both of them. I was willing to accept the bad prose because I thought this was a first effort by a young writer who does what all young writers do and copies the style and voice of a respected author, and only does it badly as you would if you hadn't written much before. It was understandable. But Searls, to my surprise, is not a young man. So I am sorry I am saying these things.
The sentences just get away from him. He tries to have a cool, hip, casual style describing his characters and their thoughts, full of pop references like King, trying to get into their head and talk like them, like King, but the whole thing is off. He is repetitive; he is describes things oddly; he needs a good editor; the characters aren't so much inhabited and rounded, feeling like real people, as imitations of them. And that's the main problem: his prose and his conceptions of the characters and the story aren't good enough to feel authentic, despite what Joe R. Lansdale says on the blurb on the cover. Everything, including the generic, unexplained horror, feels ersatz.
He didn't do any favors by keeping the novel so short, when he described the minute actions of the many characters encountering the horror for much of that time, unnecessarily, as that would have befitted a longer novel, not the 200 page one we got. He doesn't have much time to deepen the threat for any allegorical thematic significance, nor resolve it in a satisfactory manner. We get a very weak ending.
I hope Mr. Searls continues his writing--I probably won't give his other books a chance--and he seems like a nice guy, responding to praising commenters on Amazon's reviews. I guess he won't reply to me :)
May 21, 2013
Samhain Publishing is on a roll! I am continuously impressed with them because I have yet to read one of their titles that I have not liked. I also have to commend the author of today’s book, David Searls; I reviewed one of his previous books last year, BLOODTHIRST IN BABYLON, but I feel that he actually topped himself with YELLOW MOON. This book has a hearty dose of terror and a cringe-factor that is off the charts!
Author David Searls certainly knows what horror fans want in their fiction. One minute he’s startling you with something unexpected, and the next he’s making you cringe with something gruesome. These two attributes are necessities in any horror medium, and Searls delivers heartily on both!
As with his previous book, YELLOW MOON is written very well and flows seamlessly at a nice clip. I’m surprised at how short this book is, chiming in at just over 200 pages, but it certainly packs a punch in just a few pages. There’s more content here than some 500-page novels I’ve read.
The characters are believable and the small-town setting is a perfect place for the plot to unfold. And speaking of the plot, wow...Searls takes something simple and turns it into a full-blown nightmarish scenario. This is a definite tell-tale sign that you’re dealing with a talented writer, when they can change the ordinary into the hellish.
There’s plenty of suspense in YELLOW MOON as well, although I think the horror outweighs the suspense by a vast margin. This is definitely a good thing for me! There’s also some nice carnage and gore as well. I would love to see some of these scenes played out in movie form, just to see what the special effects team could come up with.
YELLOW MOON is a major win for me and I highly recommend giving this book a look. It was originally released in 1994, which is why you’ll find references to using a payphone (a what?) and other old school nuances, but don’t let this dissuade you; this book is just as terrifying now as I’m sure it was back then. You have to wait a couple of weeks to get it, but definitely mark your calendars now.
Author David Searls certainly knows what horror fans want in their fiction. One minute he’s startling you with something unexpected, and the next he’s making you cringe with something gruesome. These two attributes are necessities in any horror medium, and Searls delivers heartily on both!
As with his previous book, YELLOW MOON is written very well and flows seamlessly at a nice clip. I’m surprised at how short this book is, chiming in at just over 200 pages, but it certainly packs a punch in just a few pages. There’s more content here than some 500-page novels I’ve read.
The characters are believable and the small-town setting is a perfect place for the plot to unfold. And speaking of the plot, wow...Searls takes something simple and turns it into a full-blown nightmarish scenario. This is a definite tell-tale sign that you’re dealing with a talented writer, when they can change the ordinary into the hellish.
There’s plenty of suspense in YELLOW MOON as well, although I think the horror outweighs the suspense by a vast margin. This is definitely a good thing for me! There’s also some nice carnage and gore as well. I would love to see some of these scenes played out in movie form, just to see what the special effects team could come up with.
YELLOW MOON is a major win for me and I highly recommend giving this book a look. It was originally released in 1994, which is why you’ll find references to using a payphone (a what?) and other old school nuances, but don’t let this dissuade you; this book is just as terrifying now as I’m sure it was back then. You have to wait a couple of weeks to get it, but definitely mark your calendars now.
October 20, 2013
DISCLAIMERS: This is goodreads first read book. I could not finish this book.
The only reason this book has one star is because zero stars would make it look unrated. The blurb does not indicate the incredibly disturbing imagery present in this book. It seems as if the author has just written one sickening scene after the other.
Initially the characters seemed to be nicely developed but have been squandered as canon fodder for later gratuitously gruesome ends.
The only reason this book has one star is because zero stars would make it look unrated. The blurb does not indicate the incredibly disturbing imagery present in this book. It seems as if the author has just written one sickening scene after the other.
Initially the characters seemed to be nicely developed but have been squandered as canon fodder for later gratuitously gruesome ends.
October 19, 2013
Yellow Moon has arrived just in time for a Halloween spookfest extraordinaire! I recommend this for older teens who are able to handle some pretty freaky scenes and disturbing mental images with occasional cursing. I will never look at a simple moth...or drain...the same way again. This one definitely fits the horror genre.
August 9, 2015
This was an interesting read, it was a little slow to begin with, however it soon picked up and was a pretty good read :)
May 8, 2016
A very good and fast paced horror novel. I will be reading more books by this writer.
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