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The Burning
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
May 17, 2021
1981 Leisure Horror....this is when HORROR was HORROR!!
Jeff Fain's "The Burning" has been sitting on my bookshelf for almost 40 years and I NEVER cracked it open, but I am so glad I read this horrific tale and telling of the fires from HELL!!! And get ready it is shocking. I loved it!
So this great and very cool looking vintage horror is only 287 pages but those pack a wallop of a 700 page book! The book starts out with a honeymoon that goes wrong; and we meet Marvin Kressler, and with him being a minor character he is kinda substantial to the story. But the real characters are Psychic/horror/true crime author Dr. Dan O'Seay and Pamela Murdock.
One night Dan is awakened at almost 11 p.m. from a distraught stranger and her fiance Jay saying 'we need you! and we need help now, can we meet!?' What the hell? They meet 20 mins later, and you are introduced to Jay who has been horribly burned by 'something' that he could not see, and something that is not through with him or Pamela yet!! This demon from hell is literally burning people alive from the inside out and leaving only their clothes! Now, don't think this is just spontaneous human combustion....it is FAR from that, this is the demons and the devil coming up from HELL to make 'those who are not willing to give in and give as asked' pay in the worst of imaginable ways!!! This was a great, creepy as hell, and very graphic about the devil, and his dominions.
What begins with people getting burned in weird and mysterious ways, continues with people getting tortured and burned from the inside out, and ways that you have never read before. It is a shame that I have never seen anything else from this author, because I would really be a huge fan. Now, this starts like a thriller, and I thought; okay where the hell is this going? Is it going to be a book about Witchcraft? Devil worship? Demonic possesions? It was all that and more....I loved it!
Have you got a 'light'? I gave it 4.5 🔥🔥🔥🔥
Jeff Fain's "The Burning" has been sitting on my bookshelf for almost 40 years and I NEVER cracked it open, but I am so glad I read this horrific tale and telling of the fires from HELL!!! And get ready it is shocking. I loved it!
So this great and very cool looking vintage horror is only 287 pages but those pack a wallop of a 700 page book! The book starts out with a honeymoon that goes wrong; and we meet Marvin Kressler, and with him being a minor character he is kinda substantial to the story. But the real characters are Psychic/horror/true crime author Dr. Dan O'Seay and Pamela Murdock.
One night Dan is awakened at almost 11 p.m. from a distraught stranger and her fiance Jay saying 'we need you! and we need help now, can we meet!?' What the hell? They meet 20 mins later, and you are introduced to Jay who has been horribly burned by 'something' that he could not see, and something that is not through with him or Pamela yet!! This demon from hell is literally burning people alive from the inside out and leaving only their clothes! Now, don't think this is just spontaneous human combustion....it is FAR from that, this is the demons and the devil coming up from HELL to make 'those who are not willing to give in and give as asked' pay in the worst of imaginable ways!!! This was a great, creepy as hell, and very graphic about the devil, and his dominions.
What begins with people getting burned in weird and mysterious ways, continues with people getting tortured and burned from the inside out, and ways that you have never read before. It is a shame that I have never seen anything else from this author, because I would really be a huge fan. Now, this starts like a thriller, and I thought; okay where the hell is this going? Is it going to be a book about Witchcraft? Devil worship? Demonic possesions? It was all that and more....I loved it!
Have you got a 'light'? I gave it 4.5 🔥🔥🔥🔥
August 5, 2023
Fain went more for splatstick rather than scares here and The Burning also constitutes something of a homage to the horror genre. Our main protagonist Dan writes novels about the occult and is himself a witch. After moving to North Carolina from NYC, Dan joined a coven of Celtic witches. After a prologue featuring Dan and a woman named Pam in a hotel in Kentucky, Fain takes us to Dan's new town where a group of Satanists also recently moved in. The Satanists hold a rite and send a 'fetch' to attack Dan's coven; can't have any competition you know! The Celtic coven manage to deflect the attack, however, and the Satanists fucked up their protection and the 'fetch' (call it a firewitch) burned them dead.
Dan is just doing his thing when one day two young professors from Raleigh stop by his place. It seems Jay was 'slapped' by a huge burning hand and they hope Dan can help sort out what is going on. After some Tarot card foo, Dan realizes that there is some major bad juju involved and calls the leaders of his coven for help. In Dan's town, several people have been incinerated to ash while leaving the clothes they wore undamaged. Must be related...
Fain definitely did some homework here on witches, or just read a lot of 80s horror novels; in any case, he sticks pretty close to the script. Lots of one liners tossed in sticky situations and yeah, Fain does depict some grizzly scenes for sure. Still, this comes pretty close to a spoof and obviously was intended to be more humorous than scary. Could have made a great B movie and still not a bad read if you like your horror with some humor. 3 burning stars!!
Dan is just doing his thing when one day two young professors from Raleigh stop by his place. It seems Jay was 'slapped' by a huge burning hand and they hope Dan can help sort out what is going on. After some Tarot card foo, Dan realizes that there is some major bad juju involved and calls the leaders of his coven for help. In Dan's town, several people have been incinerated to ash while leaving the clothes they wore undamaged. Must be related...
Fain definitely did some homework here on witches, or just read a lot of 80s horror novels; in any case, he sticks pretty close to the script. Lots of one liners tossed in sticky situations and yeah, Fain does depict some grizzly scenes for sure. Still, this comes pretty close to a spoof and obviously was intended to be more humorous than scary. Could have made a great B movie and still not a bad read if you like your horror with some humor. 3 burning stars!!
June 22, 2024
It’s time to take another dive back into my large cache of 70s/80s Paperbacks From Hell. This era loved to explore the theme of spontaneous combustion and pyrokinesis. Jeff Fain’s The Burning is a solid entry in this sub-genre of horror.
In rural North Carolina, a recent rash of peculiar murders have stumped the local police. They find the victims’ bodies all burned to a crisp, everything but their clothes. They remain in perfect shape, not a singed thread to be found. What kind of arsonist could pull this off? Enter Dan O’Seay, a psychic writer approached by the wife of a recent survivor of the mysterious arsonist attacks. The wife, Pam, gets in touch with Dan, begging him to take their case. She and her husband, Jay, fear that whatever attacked them will be back to finish the job. Not only does Dan accept the case, he brings in his fellow “colleagues” that may know a thing or two about pyrokinesis. You see, Dan also belongs to a coven of witches.
Now, I know this may all sound hokey. But Fain does a solid job bringing what appears to be modern-day witchcraft to the forefront of the story. I found all the nuances interesting and fairly believable, and it kept me turning the pages. My biggest complaint is some of the dialogue. Fain would do a nice job setting up a scene, then he’d ruin it by having the character making a lame joke that killed any suspense in the scene. He did this a few times throughout the book, and I wanted to reach through the pages and throttle him. It’s like he couldn’t help getting in his own way. Oddly enough, The Burning is the only thing I could find that Fain wrote. I don’t know anymore of the backstory, but I think the guy had talent. I wish I've would’ve kept honing his craft and put out more novels.
3.5 Urine Specimens out of 5
In rural North Carolina, a recent rash of peculiar murders have stumped the local police. They find the victims’ bodies all burned to a crisp, everything but their clothes. They remain in perfect shape, not a singed thread to be found. What kind of arsonist could pull this off? Enter Dan O’Seay, a psychic writer approached by the wife of a recent survivor of the mysterious arsonist attacks. The wife, Pam, gets in touch with Dan, begging him to take their case. She and her husband, Jay, fear that whatever attacked them will be back to finish the job. Not only does Dan accept the case, he brings in his fellow “colleagues” that may know a thing or two about pyrokinesis. You see, Dan also belongs to a coven of witches.
Now, I know this may all sound hokey. But Fain does a solid job bringing what appears to be modern-day witchcraft to the forefront of the story. I found all the nuances interesting and fairly believable, and it kept me turning the pages. My biggest complaint is some of the dialogue. Fain would do a nice job setting up a scene, then he’d ruin it by having the character making a lame joke that killed any suspense in the scene. He did this a few times throughout the book, and I wanted to reach through the pages and throttle him. It’s like he couldn’t help getting in his own way. Oddly enough, The Burning is the only thing I could find that Fain wrote. I don’t know anymore of the backstory, but I think the guy had talent. I wish I've would’ve kept honing his craft and put out more novels.
3.5 Urine Specimens out of 5
August 18, 2019
Horror novels that slip through the cracks of the general public are either diamonds in the rough or justified by this notion, The Burning is a prime example of the former!
A super light read with a healthy mix of B horror tropes and gruesome details that will make your skin crawl and hook you until the end. An overall great piece of horror that exemplifies much of what made the 80s the golden age of the genre to many.
A super light read with a healthy mix of B horror tropes and gruesome details that will make your skin crawl and hook you until the end. An overall great piece of horror that exemplifies much of what made the 80s the golden age of the genre to many.
June 19, 2023
Full of unintentional hilarity. Oddly pro-witchcraft, given the '80s publication and North Carolina setting.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews