From Below

by William Essex

They had always inhabited the earth, preferring isolated, swampy places that were inhospitable to man. They fed on creatures unwary enough to come within their reach, but they were satisfied with a drop or two of rich, red blood. Until the night that lightning struck with an almost preternatural vengeance. Then something happened: they began to grow and mutate, developing a thirst that could no longer be slaked by mere drops of blood. They needed more, much more. And they began to writhe and move toward the city, a horde of insatiable, unstoppable things that knew no fear and feared no human in their quest for food.

Genres: Horror

Mass Market Paperback

First published October 1, 1989

About the author

Pen name for John Tigges

Reviews

[Christine · Rating 4 out of 5]

One month after an electrical storm strikes a pond, hitting the leeches inside, their transformation is complete. These are no longer simple, normal leeches; they are a foot and a half long, reproduce and reach adulthood much quicker and have an insatiable appetite - so they leave their pond in search of bigger prey. They head for the city and take down any animal in their path on the way.
On Monday, their first human victim is a single mother. On Tuesday, a family of five. On Wednesday, three contractors inspecting the sewers. Meanwhile, around town, their skeletons are being found - fully clothed but not a scrap of meat left on the bones. Suffice it to say, no one knows who could cause this. But one man, Ben Drake, former reporter, thinks it may not be a "who," but a "what."
A night watchman is devoured. Then a lonely widower. A woman and man who meet at the bar and cheat on their spouses together fall prey to karma in the form of mutant leeches. A whole convent of nuns meet their maker.
By Thursday, the death toll is in the 20's and police are no closer to an answer. Ben goes to the police and tells them they should consider non-human killers as the source of the deaths around town, due to the nature of the remains. They brush him off, but he is not to be deterred.
Ben notices a slimy substance he saw at two of the crime scenes and brings it to a professor at the local college to be analyzed. The doctor reports his findings to Ben - the substance was leech saliva. Neither man sees how the tiny creatures could possibly be responsible, but once Ben witnesses a dead leech near the train tracks, he is astonished by the size of it. He knows a regular leech could not cause such harm, but a pack of two-foot-long blood suckers are a different story. Can Ben help the police and mayor stop the mutated leeches before they suck the town dry?
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My first William Essex/John Tigges and I quite enjoyed myself. I love the premise of things lurking underground - in caves, sewers, etc, and I love a good creature feature - so this was right up my alley. I definitely had fun with this one and I'm looking forward to checking out his other work.

[Wayne · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book starts off right out of the blocks and never slows. It reaches new exploitive heights. There was a slew of leech attacks in the first fifty pages alone. The author just set up characters to be fodder for the bloodsuckers. The best has to be the down on their luck family of five. The daughter goes to use the toilet, unbeknownst to her that there is a group of leeches in the bowl. They attach themselves to her buttocks and groin region. We don't stop there, no way. The mom and dad try to help, only to slip in all the muck and die horribly. The best is saved for the son. A teen boy with an over sexed mind is having an erotic dream about a girl from class when the little buggers grab on to his member. Well, he thinks the girl is rather fond of him, so he makes no effort to protect his valuables and the leeches ravish him in bed. They do in the five-year-old son but spare us the gory details. They kill eight nuns in their convent, too.

We start out in a bad storm with lighting that changes the small worm-like creatures into three-foot monsters. They crave human blood and come out of the sewers to find it anyway they can. A free-lance reporter is the only one convinced that it is a thing, not a someone who is doing the killings.

This one is not as good as Shaun Hutson's "Slugs" or "Breeding Ground," but you get the picture. Slimy madness ensues throughout. Also, extra camp points for the author throwing in the girlfriend of our main character being a magazine publisher. She is interviewing a horror author for the next issue. That author just happens to be John Tigges. Who's he? William Essex is John Tigges' pseudonym. They talk about him and ask how good is he? Good as King or Koontz? Oh Yeah, one of the best! Shameless self-promotion at its best.

[Jordan Anderson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Sometimes you need a schlocky, gore infused, creature feature novel. And From Below is exactly that kind of book.

Nowhere at any point is From Below good. In fact, it’s pretty dumb and ridiculous most of the time. And yet, it’s still a lot of fun.

I mean, cmon, who wouldn’t want to see every horror cliche mixed up with killer leeches?

I can’t recommend this one, but I also can’t say I didn’t enjoy it.

[DJMikeG · Rating 3 out of 5]

A fairly ludicrous slice of Horror Boom creature horror. About 60 or 70 pages could have been trimmed from it, it’s pretty bloated at 360 pages. It’s so over the top sleazy and schlocky in places that I definitely had a good time reading it, overall. A very dumb book, but I don’t read these things to be enlightened. If you’re looking for some good old, gross, dumb horror, you won’t be disappointed. I look forward to reading more William Essex aka John Tigges, yet another Horror Boom writer with several big, fat horror novels, all with ridiculous covers.

[Frankenoise · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book would make a cool B-Movie, which isn't saying much. The problem with this novel is pretty much the way it's writen. Leeches kill someone, people investigate, leeches kill again, people investigate again, and so on and so on. It goes on like that for 300 pages. The ending of it was very disappointing too. You read for 340 pages just to have the story end in only 2 pages. All the leeches burn in a fire, the end. Arg. Another odd thing about this book is the woman in here all seem to orgasm very easily too. I will say that this book was writen well, in the fact that it was a good page turner, just the overall plot was weak.

[Brandon S · Rating 2 out of 5]

Well, it's not good. The deaths were repetitive, characters flat, and story a basic retread of Slugs. Still, it's fun enough to get through and not feel like I wasted my time. This is my first John Tigge's book and I don't have a lot of confidence in his work from here, but I'm not opposed to trying again. If anything, The Pack should be fun.

[Alexis Sharp · Rating 1 out of 5]

Fun premise--giant flesh eating leeches--ruined by a lackluster follow through.

[Egghead · Rating 4 out of 5]

Giant leeches suck
Small town becomes blood banquet
Saved by hot date night