Dead Bad Things

Thomas Usher #2

by Gary McMahon

He sought to flee his tragic past.

But when Thomas Usher hears a clockwork voice on the phone and sees ever-more disturbing visions in a derelict warehouse, Usher realises that he has to return home – for the sake of his own sanity. Meanwhile, a deadly figure from Usher’s past threatens to undermine the very fabric of reality.

File Under: Horror [ Serial Murders | Hellish Visions | Closet Skeletons | Pilgrims Progress ]


Who Is Thomas Usher?

His name is Thomas Usher. A normal man. An average guy. Until he is involved in a tragic accident and his wife and daughter are killed.

After that, things begin to change. Usher is no longer normal. Or average. Now he can see the dead, and the dead can see him. They seek him out to help them, to usher them to the next level so they might face whatever comes next. The lost. The lonely. The departed. They never speak to him; they only ever demand his attention.

The ghosts are drawn to Usher, and he is compelled to help them in the hope that he might once again see his family. But sometimes, just sometimes, it isn’t enough and his efforts make things worse.

-------

“Gary McMahon’s vision is as bleak as a Yorkshire moor, but it glows with a wintry light that illuminates the dark we live in. His prose and his sense of place are precise and evocative, and his characters are as real as you and me. He’s one of the darkest – which is to say brightest – new stars in the firmament of horror fiction.”
- Ramsey Campbell

“McMahon straddles the line between crime and horror, and succeeds in both genres, just as his hero Thomas Usher is the gatekeeper to an unpredictable world where the line between life and death is increasingly erased; this is a unique series that’s gaining resonance and power as it develops.”
- Christopher Fowler

Genres: Horror, Fiction, Urban Fantasy, Thriller, Crime, Horror Thriller, Mystery

416 pages, Kindle Edition

First published September 27, 2011

About the author

Gary McMahon lives, works and writes in West Yorkshire but posseses a New York state of mind. He shares his life with a wife, a son, and the nagging stories that won’t give him any peace until he writes them.

Reviews

[kwesi 章英狮 · Rating 4 out of 5]

Mystery is not my cup of tea because I need to focus to guess the killer in the near end; unfortunately, this is not the typical mystery book that you regularly read. This is something more mystical, part fantasy and tidbits of mystery to enjoy. I also remember some dark books like The Alienist by Caleb Car; I mean in comparison, they have few similarities. In the other hand, this is something special, something dark that make you pee while reading it.

Who the hell is Thomas Usher? I don't have any slight idea because I never read the first book and I just clicking the hell out of my skull. At last, he is a normal guy with a normal life but after a great incident that affects his life, he become aware of the things that normal people can't. He can see spirit roaming around and humming in the corner. Every reality has its creator and every man have the chance to believe or not, at last, he chose the path that only few people chose to.

This book is a collection of thoughts and perspectives of every characters, what I mean is, every chapter change on its own direction. You'll get pop because you don't have any idea who is talking and what the hell happens to the other character. As a reader, I want to advice everyone to put more effort in reading and please, don't stop in the middle or else you'll lose everything you read. This book is divided into parts and I advice if you take a rest stop in the end of every parts. It is up to you to follow my advice.

If I'm not mistaken there is 4 or 5 perspective in the book, differ only in the narration. First, the prologue was narrated by somebody featuring a mystery scene between Emerson and a bald angel. Second, Sarah and her boyfriend, I think her part was more interesting than the others and mostly her character mostly embodied the plot of the story. Third, Thomas Usher, don't have any idea why had appear and he only manage to support his own character at least once or twice in each part. Not very interesting and I thought he was one of the odd sidekicks. Fourth, weird kids with weird archaic thoughts. Lastly, Trevor, He is very awkward and disgusting. Not only him but also half of the book, I told you guys, I remember reading The Alienist and they have gay theme.

I also encounter some uncommon words which I'm not aware of reading them to some foreign books I read. This is more Britishy or somewhere in the North and I'm glad I have a handy slang dictionary for him.

Sarcastically speaking, I don't have any idea what he was talking about. About model, other world, Architect and so on. I just follow the flow of the story and I end up beaten with interest. Dead Bad Things is more on mystical realism, talking about religion; I mean what bound the reality and the imagination. I also love to share this book not because I got this for free, but because readers might enjoy his work. He is a good author and I recommend this to those people who love reading dark novels.

Dark novel, but I can't feel the sting of the night on the book. Maybe, I have to try reading this under a blanket or force myself to be scared by anonymous beings. Fool you, because I read this under the heat of the sun with friends. But the most interesting part, but not really part of the novel, is the short story included in the book. Same character, Usher went to visit an old lady and stumbled by the fact that there are ghost.

Kudos to the short story he included on the last pages of the book. I really loved it, I'm trying to connect with the lost runners. The short story was entitled Lost Runners and appeared in The First Humdrumming Book of Horror in September of 2007 but he wrote in August 2005. Now, I can't stop running in the hallways shouting for more books written by him to come!

You have the rights to believe or not, to the place where we can only see behind the mirror. The reality mix with imagination and the complexity of human psychology. Dream. Conscious. Imagination. Death.

I'm superbly thankful to NetGalley for sharing new authors and to the publisher Angry Robot who published a lot of weird stuff lately.

Review posted on Old-Fashioned Reader .

Rating: Dead bad Things by Gary McMahon, 4 Sweets (It should be 3 stars, one star for the short story.)

Challenges:
Book #234 for 2011

[Andrew · Rating 5 out of 5]

Okay so here we have another one of my random gambles and I must admit I am greatly surprised by it - as you can see I have given it a full five stars although I am sure there will be many out there who have read it who will utterly disagree with me. Well I have no intention of defending myself for this choice (hey its free will after all) but I will try and explain my logic.

First of all reading this book you cannot help but draw similarities to other stories out there - I can think of at least 3 in book, comic and film which you could say have influenced the author in the creation of this character and the story plot line in general. SO this should be a massive negative against the book right? Well initially I would have agreed with you BUT then I got to thinking - as those around me know that can be a dangerous thing at times. Anyway I realised what is greater (and I welcome replies) what is greater - those who create a story never told before, with no references to anything else, the are ground breakers true pioneers in their genre.

Or is it the author who can take a familiar expected storyline with predictable plots and characters you instantly recognise and associate yourself with - and take it somewhere utterly different - not through distraction or lying to the reader so they are intentionally deceived but by style and storytelling - such that you see the familiar but in a totally different way so much so that it feels like you are reading something still utterly new and undiscovered. For this I can think of many authors who have taken the traditional and well worn story and made it their own - so much so that rather than speaking an authors name and you shouting out the genre they are famous for - you can call out a genre, character type or even plot device and their name instantly comes to mind.

For me that is really the crux of why this book got 5 full stars - yes when you start to disassemble it you can see similarities - but still the characters, the setting the dialogue are all new and refreshing and made this book for me un-stopable in its reading.

There is however one HUGE problem with this book - its book number 2 now I have to go back and find the first one !!!!

[Helen · Rating 4 out of 5]

The follow up to 'Pretty Little Dead Things' is just as grim and gritty, and once it has you in its black grip it won't let go!
This is an excellent urban horror tale featuring Thomas Usher, a character I've come to like immensely, although this book focusses more on police constable Sarah, and her now deceased, abusive policeman father. However, hers and Thomas' paths cross, culminating in a decisive and other-worldly battle.
Recommended.

[Kara Babcock · Rating 3 out of 5]

My first outing with Thomas Usher didn’t go so well. People died. He moped around. I wasn’t sure why or how I should care. Pretty Little Dead Things was a car crash of a dark and nasty novel that would definitely appeal to certain people who are not me. But still, I had Dead Bad Things on my tablet courtesy of my Angry Robot Books subscription, so I thought I would give it a chance.

Gary McMahon brings Usher back to Leeds in Dead Bad Things, this time for far more personal reasons. I won’t pretend to remember (or care) exactly what happened in the first book. It doesn’t matter, although if you haven’t read the first book, you might be confused about why this is referred to as “a Thomas Usher novel.” Usher doesn’t exactly feature heavily in the first half. Rather, the story is more about Sarah Doherty, a police constable out to find the truth about her deceased father, the much-respected and much-feared Emerson Doherty. But the truth proves to be far darker and sinister: the mystery has moved from network to cable territory.

As with the first book, McMahon pulls no punches in the territory of description and dialogue. I blamed Pretty Little Dead Things for depressing me. Dead Bad Things doesn’t have quite the same effect—I think the lighter role of Usher has something to do with it; though Sarah is not exactly a bright personality, she has a certain liveliness to her that is to be appreciated. However, I don’t mean to suggest that this is a light-hearted romp. It is every bit as graphic as the first novel, maybe more so. There are serious depictions of all sorts of depravity, from murder to child rape.

Even when he’s not describing how Trevor is recalling his domination and torture of his brother Michael, McMahon still impresses with an ability to imply or otherwise plumb the depths of humanity’s darker natures. From Sarah and Benson’s decidedly unprofessional and kinky relationship to the armless psychic Immaculee and her assistant Tracy, the characters in this book are vivid depictions of stark and uncompromising humanity. This is not a warm-and-fuzzy novel about an antihero who redeems himself. It is not a gritty and noir thriller where characters reveal secret hearts of gold.

That being said, Usher is much more bearable here. He does redeem himself, in my eyes, as he fights back against the Pilgrim and discovers how he and Sarah are connected. (The whole mystery, I should mention, is all rather predictable and second-string to the more visceral experience McMahon creates as the characters move along the vicious whirligig roller coaster of his own invention.) Whereas previously, Usher was driven by more external motivating factors, here he seems driven for personal reasons, and this makes him a far more sympathetic individual.

I’m still not going to go as far as to say I liked Dead Bad Things. It just isn’t in my wheelhouse. But I think it’s a better novel than the first Thomas Usher book, so here’s hoping McMahon can keep the trend going if there is a third, yes? So if you got more mileage from Pretty Little Dead Things than I did, this is a safe bet. If you didn’t much care for it, but you like this type of fiction, then give this a try. But if, like me, you find this particular combination of horror and fantasy not to your liking, don’t expect Dead Bad Things to change itself for you.

[Terry Grimwood · Rating 5 out of 5]

My review of DEAD BAD THINGS is really a review of the whole of Gary McMahon's Thomas Usher series of short stories and novels.

Thomas Usher can see, and communicate with, the dead. It is both blessing and curse, an ability he tries to use for the benefit of the living, and most certainly for the dead. However, as his story progresses, he moves from his role as conduit between this world and the next, to pawn in a dark game played by powerful and malevolent beings who lurk in the shdows between life and death.

Usher is a fascinating, complex character, a tragic figure labouring under the weight of a catastrophic loss. He is at once, angry and compassionate. A broken, reluctant hero, but someone who steps up when the moment arrives. He is also the lead player in a cast of equally compelling players. The sympathetic, the grieving, the rotten and the brutal. All multi-layered and flesh-and-blood.

I am an admirer of Gary McMahon's work and his Thomas Usher series is, so far, among my favourite of his works. The stories plunge the reader into a strange, highly imaginative and beautifully realised world, but one that is firmly rooted in the earth of this one. They are vividly and skilfully written and charged with a furious emotional energy. Highly recommended.

The Usher books, in order, are TO USHER IN THE DEAD, PRETTY DEAD THINGS and DEAD BAD THINGS.

[Mark · Rating 4 out of 5]

The follow-up to “Pretty Little Dead Things”, this is a very dark exploration of family secrets and lies, unnatural desires and cosmic horror. Usher has gone to ground, to try and get his head clear with what’s happened but finds that the dead (and an armless Rwandan refugee psychic) still have things to tell him. A minor character from PLDT - Sarah - is suffering too, haunted by her father both in death and from memories of her childhood. Everything seems to hinge around the ritualistic murders of young boys, who’ve all been trepanned, but the truth is far, far worse. Quite possibly one of the darkest novels I’ve ever read from a mainstream publisher, this was tough going at times but ultimately it’s a cracking read, with excellent characterisation and atmosphere and shows that McMahon’s writing is maturing with each new project - mainstream success surely can’t be far away now.

(read in draft as a critique)

[PopcornReads - MkNoah · Rating 3 out of 5]

Dead Bad Things is Book# 2 in the Thomas Usher series of horror novels. Book #1, Pretty Little Dead Things, was called the best horror novel of 2010 by both Dark Fiction Review and Horror Fiction Review. Dead Bad Things can be read as a stand alone novel; however, I might have better understood some of the prior events alluded to in it if I had read Pretty Little Dead Things first.

This review comes with some strong cautions because Dead Bad Things is only for hard-core horror fans. It is definitely not for anyone under 18 years old, or the faint of heart, because it includes domestic violence and rape; ritualistic child abuse, torture, and murder; sexual abuse; child slavery and prostitution (chickens and chicken hawks); and cannibalism. Some of you are going “Eeew, not for me” about now, and some of you are going, “Bring it on!” Read the rest of my review at http://popcornreads.com/?p=2089

[Terri Wino · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm going to round up and give this 3 stars, because once this book reached the end and some things were revealed it became much more interesting. I really only read this because it was a sequel to Pretty Little Dead Things and was curious what happened next to Thomas Usher. This book ended up not having much to do with him until the second half and centers more around Sarah and a mystery surrounding her police officer father.
This book is definitely dark and deals with some sad and depraved characters doing sad and depraved things. It's also a supernatural/horror book, so don't look for a story grounded in reality.
For me, this book was far too long and took too long to get to the meat of the story. It would have been a much more intense and interesting read for me if it had been edited down by at least 100 pages.
An okay book, but if Thomas Usher wanders into another mystery, I won't be following him next time.

[Janette Fleming · Rating 4 out of 5]

SYNOPSIS
He sought to flee his tragic past.
But when Thomas Usher hears a clockwork voice on the phone and sees ever-more disturbing visions in a derelict warehouse, Usher realises that he has to return home – for the sake of his own sanity. Meanwhile, a deadly figure from Usher’s past threatens to undermine the very fabric of reality.

The follow-up to “Pretty Little Dead Things”, is skin crawlingly good, beautiful prose describing horrific crimes, disturbing visions and some of the most dreadful people you will ever meet between the pages of a book.

McMahon is a master of the urban horror story but be warned if you go along for the journey the author won't let you look away...

[Arthur Chappell · Rating 2 out of 5]

Very disappointing. The two main protagonists, Usher and police woman Sarah Doherty don't even meet until the last quarter of the book. While the main villain, a demonic child molester is in Leeds, Thomas Usher spends most of the book in London receiving ominous warnings to both help someone and that he can't help them. A psychic who provides part of the warning is eaten by her own daughter. Virtually any character dies horribly as soon as they have nothing left to contribute. Various characters see reality bend and warp, clocks stalling, things in mirrors, etc. Chapter cliff-hangers are virtually repeats on the same theme and it could all easily happen in Leeds. Usher and Sarah are likeable, but everyone else, human, ghost, demon, are all repulsive. Usher is very similar to DC Comics hero John Constantine, in the Hellblazer comics, film and TCV series, a reluctant psychic in a miserable world.

[Jo · Rating 3 out of 5]

Two police officers find a dead boy in a house in Leeds. Constable Sarah Doherty is dealing with the demons left by her abusive father whilst psychic Thomas Usher is dealing with actual demons in London. This was dark, extremely dark, but quite a rollercoaster of a novel.

[King James · Rating 2 out of 5]

IT was written well and had suspense. One of the main characters, sarah, was likable was the best part of the book. Other than that, there was a lot of rape, pedophilia, and incest. not my cup of tea

[Spinwallah · Rating 2 out of 5]

didnt enjoy it

[Sheryl · Rating 4 out of 5]

a bit odd but good

[Steve Byrne · Rating 4 out of 5]

You can't beat a bitta McMahon. Another bleak, moody, well characterised and thoughtful novel. If Gary wrote uplifting tales of triumph-through-adversity featuring nice, middle class protagonists, he'd most probably be up there in the best seller lists. Thank a non-existent deity that he doesn't. We need real, gritty voices like this in horror fiction, and writers who can deliver this sort of quality prose. Although I was a little disappointed that Thomas Usher didn't feature as greatly in this Usher novel, Sarah Doherty, the character who takes over most of the narrative, is as well rounded and sympathetic as you would like.

Gary McMahon is one of the most satisfying storytellers in the horror genre.

[James Everington · Rating 5 out of 5]

Gary McMahon’s Dead Bad Things is the second of his Thomas Usher novels (following on from Pretty Little Dead Things). Thomas Usher is a man who can see the dead, following an accident in which his family died. As such, he is known to the Leeds police force for his ability to help them, although Usher views his power as a curse rather than a blessing.

If the first novel welded McMahon’s distinctly nihilistic and downbeat style of horror to the police procedural genre, this second seems to be influenced more by things like David Peace’s Red Riding Quartet, where the coppers have secret pasts and hidden loyalties of their own. Whilst Dead Bad Things does open with the discovery of a gruesome child murder by PC Sarah Doherty and her colleague Benson, the question of the identity of the killer is not really what drives the plot forward (although don’t worry, it is revealed). The bulk of the novel is about Doherty’s relationship with her dead father, a famous and well-liked policeman who in the privacy of his home used to rape his wife and cut his daughter with a razor blade. Sarah, who still lives in the family house, begins to investigate her father’s life and uncovers some dark secrets. And at the same time, she starts to see a strange figure in robes and a white cowl, haunting her.

Thomas Usher himself features less in this book than the first, although he is pivotal to how it progresses. He starts the narrative living in a very haunted house in London, trying to escape his past... but a man who sees ghosts should know more than anyone how impossible that is. He soon begins to hear voices and see strange visions calling him back to the North. As well as Doherty and Usher, there are two other viewpoints the action is conveyed from: one a character returning from Pretty Little Dead Things, and one from the viewpoint of…. well, something completely unexpected is all I’ll say here.

These multiple viewpoints and less conventional plot structure make the mechanics of Dead Bad Things occasionally seem a bit too exposed (in particular it seems to take an age to get Usher properly connected to the main plot) but it really doesn’t matter when a writer has such total command of suspense and atmosphere as McMahon displays. To call this book ‘dark’ would imply there’s some chance that your eyes might adjust to the lack of light here, but forget it: McMahon’s world is bleak and you’ll feel just as brutalised leaving it as you do coming in. But it’s a darkness that isn’t gratuitous (although there are some bravura ‘bad deaths’); it comes from looking at the world straight. And its uncompromising nature makes it as exhilarating rather than exhausting. McMahon’s prose and characterisation never falter and for all its heaviness Dead Bad Things is very readable, a genuine page-turner as it’s plot moves forward and its different strands start to connect.

The book ends with the faint suggestion of future hope for some of the characters; which is good for Thomas Usher but maybe bad news for those of us wanting a third book in this fantastic series.

[Richard Wright · Rating 5 out of 5]

The sequel to Pretty Little Dead Things, which I read a while ago. I found that novel to be beautifully written, but unrelentingly grim. I found the worldview captivating, but the main character (Thomas Usher) too self-piteous to sympathise with. Without creating spoilers, I also questioned the worth of the grim ending, in which Usher literally loses everything, leaving the reader almost as hollow as the character. Dead Bad Things suddenly gives sense to all that. Where the first book has flaws as a standalone, it all irons out when these two books are viewed as a duology. For much of the book, Usher is a shattered man, still traumatised by previous events, hiding out far to the South of his native Leeds. He's less a character than he is a shell, but his journey is almost a subplot to that of a policewoman called Sarah. Having recently lost her abusive father, she begins to discover that his depravity ran to more twisted, horrific outlets than she could ever have imagined. McMahon doesn't hold back from demonstrating the sick, vicious horrors his characters live amongst, and the book is filled with images you'll want to forget. These aren't there to titillate or thrill, and his descriptions are unflinching. They horrify, in a fundamental way, and are neither for the casual horror reader, or the faint of heart. That said, their very value is in their honesty. Dead things are not the monsters in these books. People are. If all this sounds like a continuation of the first book, you'd be right. What elevates both from their one-note bleakness is the final act, in which Sarah and Usher are brought together. It's really the conclusion of both books, and introduces both redemption and hope as bright colours in a grey landscape. Finally, there is a flicker of light in the gloom, all the more powerful for the long despair.

[J.C. Hart · Rating 4 out of 5]

My goodness. This book. If I had a list of top five things that have creeped me out this year, this would be on it.

The writing is good for the most part, the story broken into three lines – at times I wondered how they would ever meet up, but they did, and in a way I hadn’t predicted.

I hadn’t read the first book in the series (though I will be going back and doing so, now!), so I was a bit behind the eight ball when it came to the story so far. I think it might have helped, but I enjoyed it a lot regardless.

Don’t read this if you don’t like to be scared though. Just walk away now and don’t look back. Consider yourself warned. Personally, I love to be freaked out, so it’s right up my alley!

As I was working my way through it, I’d often read before bed, and any time I had to get up for a drink or whatever I would switch on every light in every room. I would keep my back to the wall. I would avoid looking in mirrors, or any reflective surface, keeping my eyes averted from windows and picture frames. And then I would bolt back to bed, barely stopping to switch the lights off as I went. My husband would ask ‘what are you doing?’ to which I’d simply shiver and shake my head at him. He didn’t want to know. I couldn’t explain it to him in just a few words, other than perhaps ‘Good book! CREEPY!’.

If you like the creepy, if you like the dead and the bad, then this thing, this book, is certainly one you should look into. I’m going to be keeping my eye on Gary McMahon, and the next time I want my skin to crawl, I’m going to be picking up a book of his.

[Kate Sherrod · Rating 3 out of 5]

I would give this a fourth star, and still might retroactively, but I read this without reading Pretty Dead Things first and so had no idea why I should give a crap about the first person narrator vs the policewoman's much more interesting, compelling and fully realized story. The policewoman's story and the other two narrative threads were pretty fantastic, though. If Usher had been more of a presence throughout, or if his status as the first person narrator in those few chapters were made more clear, the book would have stood alone better. As it was, I felt like a good story of a policewoman dealing with supernatural crap in her personal and professional lives got hijacked at the end by some character in whom I had no personal investment whatsoever.

[Eugenia O'Neal · Rating 3 out of 5]

Thomas Usher is a man who can see the dead and walk through the veils between worlds. This makes him very attractive to an entity which desires his powers and who has been manipulating circumstances around him for years.

Dead Bad Things is told from different points of view, including that of some very bad people and gives an insight into how people rationalize evil. McMahon leavens the darkness with light touches of humour here and there so it's not completely relentless.

There was one scene I wasn't too sure about - seemed gratuitous to me. I also am not too sure about the African witch and her assistant - blacks as supernatural beings is a motif that troubles me in the absence of any other 'normal' black characters but this is the first of his books that I've read so we'll see.

[Anthony Corbo · Rating 4 out of 5]

Gary McMahon's writing style moves along nicely. I appreciate his demented gruesome (off center) grip on reality he presents in this book. I love most context dealing with a supernatural realm. Of course allowing leeway for unrealistic occurrences within a story. But... Mr. McMahon has at least one of his characters (bad Guy) go to great lengths to deceive the good guys just to go ahead and practically lead them right to the truth. The details of this unlikable questioning of this part I leave out do to the spoiler effect. If you enjoy reading stories with ghosts, demon like bad dudes , and any dark evil whatsoever, I suggest reading 'Dead Bad Things'. I did not have a chance to read this book's predecessor, 'Pretty Little Dead things' but I will as soon as I find a copy.

[Deborah · Rating 4 out of 5]

See my full review at: http://abookishlibraria.blogspot.com

Horror/Thriller, similar to a Stephen King or Dean Koontz book. Takes place in modern times and includes angels; dark and light...ghosts and crazed killers.

The first sentences are of a man crooning of the shallow grave of a boy child whom he's just tortured and killed. He's a psychopath and a man who deals with the devil and his minion.

This is a frighteningly good book. Good enough to make me want to read the previous books of Mr. MaMahon! He's a fine author who kept me locked into his book until the very end, even when it was so scary I wanted to close my eyes!

4 stars

[Taueret · Rating 1 out of 5]

horrible, awful book. Not because it was scary or gross or confronting (it wasn't really any of those). Just a horrible, bad book. Funny in the way horribly bad things are sometimes, but that's all. I saved notes and highlighted "special" bits on the Kindle app, but it feels like kicking a puppy to belabour it. Loads of people love this author, I just- don't.

If you want to read something that hits the mark this so aspires to, try old-school King, from when he was whacked out on coke and writing well, try Clive Barker at his most freaked-out and horrifying. Try Dan Simmons- maybe 'Carrion Comfort' as a start. But do not bother with this dreck.

[Alexander · Rating 2 out of 5]

I read the first two thirds within two days...then I was having trouble picking it up again. I realized at that point I really didn't care how it ended. I didn't care about the main characters, I didn't care about whether or not the romance would work out in the end, and I didn't care about what the antagonist was up to.

On the other hand, what kept me reading for as long as I did was that Gary McMahon IS a good writer. Though I didn't care what he was writing about exactly, I was enjoying what he was writing regardless.

With that said, I decided to stop reading it and I don't plan on picking it up again.

[Amy · Rating 4 out of 5]

I did not read the previous book in this series (as I did not realize it was part of a series) but I believe that this book does well as a stand alone story. The author paints impressive and grotesque scenes in the reader's mind. The tale is dark and twisted and has a supernatural element. It is a great horror tale (as long as you can stomach some really horrible people doing really horrible things - if not, this book is not for you).

[Marie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I never read a book where I wanted to put it away and never look at it again, but then would contine reading it. I truly had a love/ hate relationship with this book. I read this book without reading the first one, which might have made me hate the book more. I did not care for Thomas Usher, sure he could see ghosts, and live in haunted spaces, but his character was so bland. I love a book that makes me question noises in my house, or the strange people I encounter. This book did it.

[Jesse Baggs · Rating 3 out of 5]

A darkly fun follow up to “Pretty Little Dead Things” and satisfying conclusion to the Thomas Usher series, despite having a scene even more problematic than the smattering of problematic choices in the first book. This time, the forty-something Usher has sex with an exoticsized 19-year-old blind black girl, who (spoiler alert) turns out to be a demon or at the very least a murderer. Still, I would have liked a few more books in Gary McMahon’s haunted atheistic universe.

[David Marshall · Rating 3 out of 5]

I think this is a good story but it's weighed down by some gratuitous violence that I feel adds little or no value to the whole. So this is a horror story hiding some nice ideas about determinism, but not for the faint-hearted.

http://opionator.wordpress.com/2012/0...

[Babsji5 · Rating 4 out of 5]

I like that even though Thomas Usher was the hero, or anti hero, he was periphial through about half of the book. The serial killer/Benson/Emerson storyline could have been a story in itself. As it stands, it felt a little rushed. Maybe Thomas will get some answers now. And DI Tebbit needs to be allowed to go on and die, no more lingering.

[Brian · Rating 4 out of 5]

Better, I think, than its predecessor novel ( Pretty Little Dead Things ), Dead Bad Things takes little time to dive into and rarely lets go of the reader's attention.

One word of warning: this book deals with some intense and disturbing subject matter, so reader discretion is certainly advised.