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Infernal Machines
"You like horror with brains and heart and style, this is it." - Joe Lansdale, bestselling author of The Thicket
Paulie and Stoner aren’t bad seeds; they’re just a little too smart for their own good. They stole their first car in kindergarten, and as for the homemade rocket launcher in Stoner’s garage … well, it’s best just not to ask.
With 9th grade just around the corner, Paulie and Stoner find themselves on the wrong side of some real bad kids, an older band of white supremacists that go by the name of “Twisted Cross.” When a rumble at a high school keg party turns fatal, it sets off a chain of events that test the limits of Paulie and Stoner’s friendship, and their very sanity.
Welcome to Chapel Harbor, a town where everybody buries their secrets deep, and nobody is quite who they seem. A town where the ghost of a serial killer known as The Junkman is rumored to stalk the woods at night, and where an unassuming magic shop and its mysterious proprietor, Arthur Cardiff, may possess the key to an ancient and terrible evil.
Packed with hairpin turns and twists that will keep you guessing until the very last page, Infernal Machines is a blood drenched, adrenaline fueled, roller-coaster of a horror story that’s at once a paean to the Pulp Horror classics of the early 80’s and a meditation on the enduring power of friendship.
Paulie and Stoner aren’t bad seeds; they’re just a little too smart for their own good. They stole their first car in kindergarten, and as for the homemade rocket launcher in Stoner’s garage … well, it’s best just not to ask.
With 9th grade just around the corner, Paulie and Stoner find themselves on the wrong side of some real bad kids, an older band of white supremacists that go by the name of “Twisted Cross.” When a rumble at a high school keg party turns fatal, it sets off a chain of events that test the limits of Paulie and Stoner’s friendship, and their very sanity.
Welcome to Chapel Harbor, a town where everybody buries their secrets deep, and nobody is quite who they seem. A town where the ghost of a serial killer known as The Junkman is rumored to stalk the woods at night, and where an unassuming magic shop and its mysterious proprietor, Arthur Cardiff, may possess the key to an ancient and terrible evil.
Packed with hairpin turns and twists that will keep you guessing until the very last page, Infernal Machines is a blood drenched, adrenaline fueled, roller-coaster of a horror story that’s at once a paean to the Pulp Horror classics of the early 80’s and a meditation on the enduring power of friendship.
- GenresHorror
404 pages, Kindle Edition
First published December 20, 2012
25 people want to read
About the author
Will Millar
2 books7 followersGreetings and Salutations, y'all. I wrote a book called Infernal Machines, which my brother Jimmmy reviewed favorably somewhere online. I've also written a number of short stories and articles. I'm currently working on a new book, which will probably be less rife with bad grammar and typographical errors, although maybe not.
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
December 16, 2013
The sins of the past haunt the present in this engaging tale of small town evils. Combines coming of age with horror, mystery, action/thriller and a retro 80s feel into a nicely layered novel that will appeal to a wide range of readers.
Will Millar is an author to watch.
Will Millar is an author to watch.
March 11, 2013
Originally posted on my blog Books Forget Me Knot.
4.5 stars
I am very excited to bring you Will Millar’s debut novel, Infernal Machines. It is a highly intricate piece of fiction that left me totally unhinged. I never would have been involved with letting the world know about Miller’s work if it had not been for a tweet I saw on Twitter to sign up for his blog tour. I jumped at the chance because as an aspiring writer I know how important it is to get your work known, it’s even twice the challenge for an indie author. With that said, I love helping out indie authors any way that I can.
Alright, so I’m rambling here. On to the review!
*cue in ultra cool whooshing sound affect*
The prologue to the Infernal Machines left me curious as we are introduced to the cryptic signs of a murder. It made excited, haunted, and thoroughly intrigued to read more. Miller’s writing style is different from what I normally read and can be compared to the subtle horror that is true to 80′s horror films. I really liked the ambiguity that Miller gives us at the beginning, and in turn sets a grounding foundation for the premise of the novel.
The following first few chapters were a little hard to get through. We are introduce to several pivotal characters, switching p.o.v’s from each one. I like exposition – don’t get me wrong – but I found some parts boring. This was my initial thought. I’m glad that I kept reading because the flushing out of characters becomes very important for the novel. It was the bases while Miller constructs the world without it being too much that you just groan and want to give up.
My favorite characters were definitely Paulie and Stoner.I’m not a boy nor have their kind of mindset but I wanted to be their friend. I wanted to go on their exhilarating adventures of investigations with them. I wanted to be that girl who wanted to always tag along because of how awesome it would be! Also, let’s not forget Dee, which is totally awesome! I just loved how she was a little sassy and very strong. People picked on her but she fought right back. This kind of connection between a character and the reader is what I always enjoy. It’s the sign of a great and talented writer.
For the horror aspect of the story, it’s more suspense and the acts of human monsters (serial killers, white supremacists) and inhuman behavior. The legend of the Junkman was really creepy and when I read about him and what he did….well my heart felt like it was going to fall out of my chest. I don’t read horror often, but I was completely enthralled by the subtle detail Millar describes for a scene or the sinister expression on one of the characters faces. It made my skin crawl. This is another sign of how phenomenal of a writer Miller is.
One last thing that I absolutely enjoyed was how the story takes place within a few years. I liked this idea very much as it wasn’t constrained to a day or a week. The effects that the past had caused the events of present and future. This was a brilliant added detail to the story and I give a gazillion brownie points to Millar for this aspect.
Overall, I really enjoyed this novel and would recommend it to everyone who is looking for a new suspense YA horror novel without the cliches. Will Millar’s, Infernal Machines is purely brilliant, unique, and creative. It’s a great coming of age story filled with mystery, suspense, and twists and turns that will have you completely and utterly wanting more. Nothing is what it seems. Millar just throws a curve ball that is just….well, I guess you’ll just have to find out!
I’m definitely a fan of his work now and can’t wait to see what else he comes up with!
4.5 stars
I am very excited to bring you Will Millar’s debut novel, Infernal Machines. It is a highly intricate piece of fiction that left me totally unhinged. I never would have been involved with letting the world know about Miller’s work if it had not been for a tweet I saw on Twitter to sign up for his blog tour. I jumped at the chance because as an aspiring writer I know how important it is to get your work known, it’s even twice the challenge for an indie author. With that said, I love helping out indie authors any way that I can.
Alright, so I’m rambling here. On to the review!
*cue in ultra cool whooshing sound affect*
The prologue to the Infernal Machines left me curious as we are introduced to the cryptic signs of a murder. It made excited, haunted, and thoroughly intrigued to read more. Miller’s writing style is different from what I normally read and can be compared to the subtle horror that is true to 80′s horror films. I really liked the ambiguity that Miller gives us at the beginning, and in turn sets a grounding foundation for the premise of the novel.
The following first few chapters were a little hard to get through. We are introduce to several pivotal characters, switching p.o.v’s from each one. I like exposition – don’t get me wrong – but I found some parts boring. This was my initial thought. I’m glad that I kept reading because the flushing out of characters becomes very important for the novel. It was the bases while Miller constructs the world without it being too much that you just groan and want to give up.
My favorite characters were definitely Paulie and Stoner.I’m not a boy nor have their kind of mindset but I wanted to be their friend. I wanted to go on their exhilarating adventures of investigations with them. I wanted to be that girl who wanted to always tag along because of how awesome it would be! Also, let’s not forget Dee, which is totally awesome! I just loved how she was a little sassy and very strong. People picked on her but she fought right back. This kind of connection between a character and the reader is what I always enjoy. It’s the sign of a great and talented writer.
For the horror aspect of the story, it’s more suspense and the acts of human monsters (serial killers, white supremacists) and inhuman behavior. The legend of the Junkman was really creepy and when I read about him and what he did….well my heart felt like it was going to fall out of my chest. I don’t read horror often, but I was completely enthralled by the subtle detail Millar describes for a scene or the sinister expression on one of the characters faces. It made my skin crawl. This is another sign of how phenomenal of a writer Miller is.
One last thing that I absolutely enjoyed was how the story takes place within a few years. I liked this idea very much as it wasn’t constrained to a day or a week. The effects that the past had caused the events of present and future. This was a brilliant added detail to the story and I give a gazillion brownie points to Millar for this aspect.
Overall, I really enjoyed this novel and would recommend it to everyone who is looking for a new suspense YA horror novel without the cliches. Will Millar’s, Infernal Machines is purely brilliant, unique, and creative. It’s a great coming of age story filled with mystery, suspense, and twists and turns that will have you completely and utterly wanting more. Nothing is what it seems. Millar just throws a curve ball that is just….well, I guess you’ll just have to find out!
I’m definitely a fan of his work now and can’t wait to see what else he comes up with!
March 11, 2018
Read more: http://www.sarcasmandlemons.com/2013/...
Infernal Machines is a page from a classic horror movie. Only this isn't a haunted house--it's a haunted town. Not by ghosts or ghouls, necessarily, but by people--the strange, the evil, the ones with control of an even greater evil. The focus on the characters makes it strong and gives you a peek into the psyches of several very different types of people. The Nazi-next-door. The video-game-playing good boy. The dark magic shop owner. It takes a little while to get the hang of the big cast, but once you do, you'll be pulled along deeper into more and more twisted adventures. I found myself really enjoying the gritty procedural-like prose and the unexpected twists. A must for fans of modern horror.
plot . 4/5
It's difficult to tell what's going on for a while. This isn't so bad in the long run, because the confusion builds a lot of suspense. It just makes it harder to get into at first. But once it picks up, it doesn't let go. I found myself really getting invested in the secrets each character has. The weird Cliff and his experimentation killing animals. The mysterious Mr. Cardiff. You're dying to know the whole time how all these stories are going to connect and what terrible things are going to happen. It was an uncomfortable feeling in the way that psychological thrillers do best--the kind of uncomfortable that only authors with good atmosphere can produce.
concept . 5/5
It's a cool concept. A weird town. There's something it reminds me of on the tip of my tongue but I can't pin it down. Suffice to say, I loved the idea. It's like a circus or something, with that small town feel. I can't describe it. There was just something inherently eerie about the isolated Washington woods location, the railroad bums, the river stores, the trailer park Aryan gang. You get to know everything as well as if you lived there. But the whole time, you know there's something evil bubbling under the surface.
characters . 4/5
I knocked it down just because there are so many of them. With around ten or so voices, it takes a while before you can really get into everyone's head, which is important for me in getting into a story. I thought it could have stuck with just a few and done the same job, maybe with a few deviations along the way to add some scenery. But besides the confusion, all the characters are remarkably well-explored. I felt like I knew some of them right away (e.g. Cliff, Stoner) and it made it a lot easier to ground myself in the story.
style . 4/5
The style has that gritty feel like crime procedurals. There's even a cop! I kid, but seriously, the style gives this story a really great atmosphere. Dark, kind of grungy, even a little gory. A little like Palahniuk only without his particular brand of psychopathic elegance. More concrete. I was really impressed with it and I think it made the story stand out a lot from the other indie horrors you see out there.
mechanics . 4/5
I thought there could have been a lot more cut out. I'm big on conciseness, so I like to see a lot of pruned adjectives, pithy descriptions, etc. OR, if there is going to be floweriness ala Jane Austen, tight floweriness.
take home message
The heartbreakingly beautiful story of what true horror does to the human spirit, and how it can be overcome.
Infernal Machines is a page from a classic horror movie. Only this isn't a haunted house--it's a haunted town. Not by ghosts or ghouls, necessarily, but by people--the strange, the evil, the ones with control of an even greater evil. The focus on the characters makes it strong and gives you a peek into the psyches of several very different types of people. The Nazi-next-door. The video-game-playing good boy. The dark magic shop owner. It takes a little while to get the hang of the big cast, but once you do, you'll be pulled along deeper into more and more twisted adventures. I found myself really enjoying the gritty procedural-like prose and the unexpected twists. A must for fans of modern horror.
plot . 4/5
It's difficult to tell what's going on for a while. This isn't so bad in the long run, because the confusion builds a lot of suspense. It just makes it harder to get into at first. But once it picks up, it doesn't let go. I found myself really getting invested in the secrets each character has. The weird Cliff and his experimentation killing animals. The mysterious Mr. Cardiff. You're dying to know the whole time how all these stories are going to connect and what terrible things are going to happen. It was an uncomfortable feeling in the way that psychological thrillers do best--the kind of uncomfortable that only authors with good atmosphere can produce.
concept . 5/5
It's a cool concept. A weird town. There's something it reminds me of on the tip of my tongue but I can't pin it down. Suffice to say, I loved the idea. It's like a circus or something, with that small town feel. I can't describe it. There was just something inherently eerie about the isolated Washington woods location, the railroad bums, the river stores, the trailer park Aryan gang. You get to know everything as well as if you lived there. But the whole time, you know there's something evil bubbling under the surface.
characters . 4/5
I knocked it down just because there are so many of them. With around ten or so voices, it takes a while before you can really get into everyone's head, which is important for me in getting into a story. I thought it could have stuck with just a few and done the same job, maybe with a few deviations along the way to add some scenery. But besides the confusion, all the characters are remarkably well-explored. I felt like I knew some of them right away (e.g. Cliff, Stoner) and it made it a lot easier to ground myself in the story.
style . 4/5
The style has that gritty feel like crime procedurals. There's even a cop! I kid, but seriously, the style gives this story a really great atmosphere. Dark, kind of grungy, even a little gory. A little like Palahniuk only without his particular brand of psychopathic elegance. More concrete. I was really impressed with it and I think it made the story stand out a lot from the other indie horrors you see out there.
mechanics . 4/5
I thought there could have been a lot more cut out. I'm big on conciseness, so I like to see a lot of pruned adjectives, pithy descriptions, etc. OR, if there is going to be floweriness ala Jane Austen, tight floweriness.
take home message
The heartbreakingly beautiful story of what true horror does to the human spirit, and how it can be overcome.
April 1, 2013
Infernal Machines has a lot of elements to it. It's a long book, but the author keeps you interested with action, mystery, horror and the P.O.V. switches help too.
The characters: There is a large cast of characters, but I feel that they each were developed very well. Getting into their heads is easy when you can see things from their P.O.V. Each character has a whole world of their own while they are simultaneously dealing with the strange happenings in their town.
The setting: The town almost seems like a character on it's own. The setting is described so that you can understand the type of world these characters are living in and easily picture the town in your head.
The story: Infernal Machines is filled with a lot of different elements, as I said above. There is a lot going on, but I feel that the way the story is told, it's easy to keep up with everything. It takes talent to work so much into a story, yet still have your reader be able to keep up and Will Millar has this talent.
The action: This story has some great action and these scenes are written very well. The book as a whole is written well, but the action scenes are some of my favorites.
Overall I'd recommend this to those who like horror from 20-30 years ago. It seems to be set in that time period or before and that is also another great thing about the book. I'm going to give it four stars, just because I felt the length could have been cut down a bit and there were also some minor editing mistakes peppered through-out. Nothing that really detracts from the story or writing, just things like double words, transposed words and some little oddities here and there that could have been caught with one last read-through.
The characters: There is a large cast of characters, but I feel that they each were developed very well. Getting into their heads is easy when you can see things from their P.O.V. Each character has a whole world of their own while they are simultaneously dealing with the strange happenings in their town.
The setting: The town almost seems like a character on it's own. The setting is described so that you can understand the type of world these characters are living in and easily picture the town in your head.
The story: Infernal Machines is filled with a lot of different elements, as I said above. There is a lot going on, but I feel that the way the story is told, it's easy to keep up with everything. It takes talent to work so much into a story, yet still have your reader be able to keep up and Will Millar has this talent.
The action: This story has some great action and these scenes are written very well. The book as a whole is written well, but the action scenes are some of my favorites.
Overall I'd recommend this to those who like horror from 20-30 years ago. It seems to be set in that time period or before and that is also another great thing about the book. I'm going to give it four stars, just because I felt the length could have been cut down a bit and there were also some minor editing mistakes peppered through-out. Nothing that really detracts from the story or writing, just things like double words, transposed words and some little oddities here and there that could have been caught with one last read-through.
March 3, 2013
Will Millar’s “Infernal Machines” is touted as a horror novel, but it’s more than that. Sure, it’s horror … but there are elements of drama, mystery, sci-fi, occult, action, and more so thoroughly threaded throughout that it seems like calling it horror sells it short.
Describing it isn’t easy, either. At various points, I was reminded of Stephen King’s “It” and “Needful Things,” “The Goonies,” and pretty much every monster movie I ever watched. Yet, it isn’t just derivative regurgitation. It has monsters of the human (serial killers, white supremacists) and inhuman varieties. It has coming of age moments. It makes strong statements about families and love. It speaks of choices and the price of such choices. It even shares some age-old wisdom: “when the Universe throws you a break, it possesses a child’s patience.”
Regardless of whether it’s easily genred (not a real word, I know) or described, “Infernal Machines” a damn good book. I highly recommend it to all horror, paranormal, and supernatural fans.
See this review during Will's book tour stop at vaempires.com on 3/28/13.
Describing it isn’t easy, either. At various points, I was reminded of Stephen King’s “It” and “Needful Things,” “The Goonies,” and pretty much every monster movie I ever watched. Yet, it isn’t just derivative regurgitation. It has monsters of the human (serial killers, white supremacists) and inhuman varieties. It has coming of age moments. It makes strong statements about families and love. It speaks of choices and the price of such choices. It even shares some age-old wisdom: “when the Universe throws you a break, it possesses a child’s patience.”
Regardless of whether it’s easily genred (not a real word, I know) or described, “Infernal Machines” a damn good book. I highly recommend it to all horror, paranormal, and supernatural fans.
See this review during Will's book tour stop at vaempires.com on 3/28/13.
October 1, 2013
I'm giving it 4 stars because the story itself is very entertaining and well-written with great characters.
If half stars were allowed (ahem, Goodreads) I would lower my rating to 3.5 due to the need for a good editor. Bad editing is a pet peeve of mine, it tends to take me right out of the story, and this was a really good story. A lot of the editing problems were obviously things where the author had planned on switching out a phrase or word for something else, and simply didn't delete the original writing. Anyway. The story reminded me of other great coming of age stories like Stephen King's The Body and Robert McCammon's Boy's Life. Very enjoyable and I'm looking forward to reading more by this author.
If half stars were allowed (ahem, Goodreads) I would lower my rating to 3.5 due to the need for a good editor. Bad editing is a pet peeve of mine, it tends to take me right out of the story, and this was a really good story. A lot of the editing problems were obviously things where the author had planned on switching out a phrase or word for something else, and simply didn't delete the original writing. Anyway. The story reminded me of other great coming of age stories like Stephen King's The Body and Robert McCammon's Boy's Life. Very enjoyable and I'm looking forward to reading more by this author.
April 5, 2013
I thought this was a well written piece, so well, I feel as if I have to read it again to understand everything. I would, if it wasn't so long. I felt like this book was 2 books in one. The first half was immensely good. The second half was a little boring and too much action for me. It felt a little rushed, like the author took a couple of chapters to explain everything. All I all, it was a great horror novel that I would recommend to others.
October 21, 2013
For the first two thirds or so, this was looking like a thoroughly excellent novel. Well written, likable characters and suspenseful. The book just seemed to get better and better and then it all just fell apart in the final third. There seemed to be a number of ideas running through the book and I expected them to come together in the end but half the ideas seemed to be either forgotten about or were just pointless wastes of pages.
MAJOR SPOILERS AHEAD.
Early on there is a strange occurrence in the woods. Some kind of alien presence is suggested after a meteor or something lands in the woods. One of the bad kids then gets possessed by a presence that seems to take on the appearance of a swarm of flies. This is touched on very briefly again later and then is completely ignored.
We have a ghost girl who ends up being completely pointless and then there is Markheim. He starts out as a great character but his time line in the story is not made clear, so I didn't know when events were taking place and his connection with Cardiff prior to his nephew's death made no sense.
What was with the ridiculous supernatural train at the end?
Maybe it's just me. The book was so long that I started losing interest a long way from the end. Maybe I missed something.
Would have made a great novel if its length was halved and some of the nonsense was edited out.
MAJOR SPOILERS AHEAD.
Early on there is a strange occurrence in the woods. Some kind of alien presence is suggested after a meteor or something lands in the woods. One of the bad kids then gets possessed by a presence that seems to take on the appearance of a swarm of flies. This is touched on very briefly again later and then is completely ignored.
We have a ghost girl who ends up being completely pointless and then there is Markheim. He starts out as a great character but his time line in the story is not made clear, so I didn't know when events were taking place and his connection with Cardiff prior to his nephew's death made no sense.
What was with the ridiculous supernatural train at the end?
Maybe it's just me. The book was so long that I started losing interest a long way from the end. Maybe I missed something.
Would have made a great novel if its length was halved and some of the nonsense was edited out.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews