Heinous

by Jonathan Moon

HEINOUS- An ancient evil born in the fire at the dawn of time with an insatiable hunger for violence and dread. Cursed with a weak physical form in our plane of reality HEINOUS seeks out hosts to do his bidding and feed his need for brutality and atrocity. Gavin Wagner is a decent kid from a happy home-not exactly the kind of person you think of as an instrument of evil. Gavin spends his time hanging out with his friend, smoking ganja, and wandering around the woods. After making a sinister discovery in the woods Gavin becomes the newest host for HEINOUS, a monster unlike any other. Gavin is forced to witness the despicable visions of former hosts as the demon instructs him to destroy those he loves most. Gavin struggles for control as Heinous unleashes him on a wild spree of terror with only one possible outcome.

Genres: Horror

198 pages, Paperback

First published July 15, 2009

Reviews

[Rodney · Rating 5 out of 5]

I​ ​am​ ​picky​ ​when​ ​it​ ​comes​ ​to​ ​horror.​ ​Many​ ​of​ ​us​ ​grew​ ​up​ ​on​ ​Stephen​ ​King​ ​and​ while ​I​ ​would​ ​not​ ​change that​ ​personally,​ ​I​ ​have​ ​little​ ​interest​ ​in​ ​a​ ​repeat​ ​of​ ​those​ ​types​ ​of​ ​stories these days.​ ​I​ ​bring​ ​this​ ​up because​​ ​I​ ​wasn’t​ ​sure​ ​about​ ​this​ ​one​ ​after​ ​the​ ​long​ ​dream​ ​sequence​ ​which​ ​opens​ ​the book.​ ​I​ ​set​ ​it​ ​aside​ ​for​ ​a​ ​bit​ ​and​ ​had​ ​a​ ​feeling​ ​it​ ​would​ ​be​ ​overly​ ​descriptive​ ​and​ ​fail​ ​to​ ​pull​ ​me​ ​in.​ ​I was​ ​so​ ​wrong,​ ​and​ ​I​ ​should​ ​have​ ​known​ ​better,​ ​considering​ who​ ​wrote​ ​it.​ ​Moon consistently delivers in his writing. This may​ ​be​ ​a​ ​slow​ ​burner,​ ​but​ ​a​ ​strikingly​ ​powerful​ ​and​ ​frightening​ ​read, affective enough to change the way I physically felt at times.​ ​Heinous is brutal​ ​and​ depraved​, but also very human... definitely​ ​worth​ checking​ ​out.

[Patrick D'Orazio · Rating 5 out of 5]

Before I started on Heinous, I assumed it was going to be something like Mr. Moon's Nightmares, which was a series of short stories and novellas with some intertwined themes to it. Instead, this was a single tale-a tale about Gavin, a somewhat normal teenager that occasionally has dark visions of torture and other disturbing things run through his mind. Still, he seems relatively innocent, and carefree, living his life in a college town hanging out with his best friend and not worry about much of anything. The story starts out with a hellish dream with visions of people wrapped in barbed wire as they laugh uncontrollably, their agony beyond all reason as they are tortured and odd creations trickle through the visions Gavin is having. We step back into the past after the dream, to the days of Gavin's youth, before he meets up with, and is subjected to, the creature he later dubs Heinous, though it has had many names since its birth at the dawn of time. Heinous is chaos incarnate, a symbiote with a desire to cause pain and death while it tortures those who it chooses to do its bidding endlessly.

This is a story that pulls no punches and doesn't apologize for the grim realities it unveils. Gavin resists the creature at first, watching as it uses him to do unspeakable things to those he loves, but then, in time, he embraces the dark cravings of the beast and releases what seems to have been buried inside him from the outset-a lust for the same evil that Heinous spawns. I have said it before in a prior review of Mr. Moon's work-the man knows how to spin a tale. He is a story teller of the macabre and this story tears and claws at you, much as Heinous tears and claws at Gavin, shattering him both inside his head and throughout his body. I will warn you that Moon doesn't soften the blow at any point, and kept me wondering what grand new vicious treat was waiting around the corner with every page I turned. It is interesting, because as I read this book, it almost felt as if Heinous was the incarnation of Gavin's darker self, something he created in his own mind as a justification for his evil actions. At the same time, Heinous seems to have gravitated to the one person with the capacity to embrace his level of wretched depravity. Gavin is that person, and goes along for the ride, able to handle the visions that torture him as he does perpetrates as much evil as Heinous can offer up to the world.

As is the case with most good stories, a lot of what the interpretation of what is truth is left up to the reader to decide for themselves. All I know is the truth that came from this book was filled with a grim darkness that will stick with me for some time to come.

[William III · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you are reading this, then chances are that you are a big fan of horror. You like to be scared. You like to feel uncomfortable. You like to see and read things that make you squirm. But being the big fan of horror that you are, you've probably seen it all and haven't seen or read anything that has truly terrified you in years. I get it, I feel the same way. It's hard to be shocking in today's world.

Jonathan Moon has found a way to be shocking in today's world.

Even if you've read his collection MR MOON'S NIGHTMARES, you'll still be shocked at the level of depravity he achieves with HEINOUS. Nothing can prepare you for this. Imagine looking out the window and seeing your infant child standing in the middle of a busy street. That sunken chest, punch-in-the-gut feeling is all I can think to compare HEINOUS with. Jonathan Moon shows no mercy.

Moon is going places... fast. His work stands out far from the crowd of young (and, hell, even most of the older) horror writers. Moon will soon be synonymous with horror, just as is King, Barker, and Koontz. It's only a matter of time.

[Donald Armfield · Rating 5 out of 5]

Mr. Moon takes demon possession to an extreme horrorcore level. Leaving behind hundreds of scattered bodies, tortured, decapitated, raped and buried.

This is a story of death from within, crawling through the mind and giving your fingertips and eyes a blood thirsty vivid visual of what Mr. Moon can write.
Damn this is a great book.

[Nicolas Wilson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Review from the wife:
Very vivid, well written horror. The first sequence felt overly long(A quarter of the book?!) but the stream-of-consciousness style of it was well done. She said it was very gruesome, very over-the-top in the depravity- exactly her style of horror! She said Moon may be her new favorite horror author. She said that his mise-en-scene was reminiscent of Clive Barker, with an extra helping of sexual openness, and that his tone was perfect for it-clear and concise, but with a very distinct personality that underscored the peculiar duality of the main character's place in the plot.

She noticed that the latter half the book had more proofreading errors than the beginning, but said that it was overall so well edited, that she shrugged them aside easily. She said that between the impeccable personality to Moon's written tone, the graphic and demented visuals, and the brutal plot, this right up there with Books of Blood on her favorite horror novel shelf.

Apparently, I've got to read this one myself, when I get the time. Sounds like my style.

[Jason Armstrong · Rating 5 out of 5]

Usually when something is over hyped I tend to end up feeling let down. But in this case I found myself woefully unprepared by the hype and praise when I read Heinous. I was told by everyone how gory and disturbing it was but I figured I've been into horror since grade school and nothing really ever gets to me. Don't get me wrong, this book is terribly gory and brutal but what is truly scary about it is the humanity the Jonathan Moon puts into it.

I can't think of the last time I've liked a book so much yet hated every minute of reading it. I guess that's the sign of truly great horror: to make someone so uncomfortable and filled with dread. Like I said, it's not the gore that was disturbing but the humanity. It's Moon's ability to write sincerely about emotions that makes this book work so well and raise it above the level of just another horror novel. Feelings like guilt, isolation, temptation, dark impulses, loss and despair. Maybe it's talent or maybe it's bravery that allows him to go beyond writing a simple gore-fest to honestly exploring what a human would really feel in the presence of real horror. Either way, Mr. Moon needs to be careful or he will very likely rocket right by being a pulp horror writer to being a literary sensation before he knows it.

[Jason Allen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Jonathan Moon is one of the best and most consistent horror writers currently operating in independent fiction and Heinous is a perfect example of that.
The easiest way I can describe Heinous is, take a little bit of Stephen King, circa: The Body, add in some Clive Barker, hellish, grotesquely beautiful, nightmare imagery, ala': Maybe, The Hellbound Heart and you have a horror story with a lot of heart and devastation.
Whereas most of Moon's contemporary peers tend to wade in the B-movie/comic book pool of horror fiction, Moon brings it all back home with believable, relatable characters that have potential to make a reader tear up at the victim's grizzly death. The prose paint a lush, visceral tapestry that is as heartbreaking as it is gory.
Beautiful book and Jonathan Moon is rising.
Can't wait to read more.

[Bryan Hall · Rating 5 out of 5]

It isn't just the story that stands out in Mr. Moon's stellar book - It's the writing itself. It's rare for a debut novel to include such great prose. The book moves back and forth from dreams to reality, and the writing is so strong that the two blend together and create a brutal, haunting story that stays with you.

It may take a bit of adjusting to the present tense style that the book's written in, and it isn't my favorite style, but it's done well and actually serves the book by adding an ethereal quality to it.

Honestly, this book is well worth your time if you like your horror writing to break away from cliches and into something more interesting.

[Clyde Wolfe · Rating 4 out of 5]

Mr. Moon's Heinous is, indeed summed up by his own descriptor---Horrorcore!

Though the beginning of the book seems to unfold in a foggy haze, one in which you have no idea what direction the tale is about to take, it quickly steamrolls into an ocean of blood. Moments of twisted levity drive the characters home and make you chuckle with macabre glee at the oddest of moments---in a good way.

By the end I was wishing there was MORE of the story to read. Especially regarding the latter half of the main character's life.

Heinous is a fine introduction to the works of Mr. Moon, disturbing in all the right ways. I'm glad I have two of his other books waiting to be read.

[Adam House · Rating 5 out of 5]

Jonathan Moon is consistent in many ways: he's original, he blends scares and gruesome imagery with the best of them, and his writing is excellent. On the outside, Heinous is a tale of possession, but it's not the kind you've read about time and time again. It is more among of the lines of Blatty's Exorcist but with cosmic-like demon's worthy of Lovecraft's Old Ones, and dripping with Barker's taste for blood. Heinous is so much more than a possession tale--its fresh, exciting, and terrifying!

Highly recommended.