Hellish Beasts

by Brian Carmody

On a colonial village field trip, Mike was attacked by a deranged candle-maker and his "buddy" Trent fled, to his undying shame. As adults, screenwriter Trent runs into professor turned soldier Mike when they stumble upon a preternaturally dead cat in the library. Mike believes there's one sinister force behind this and other strange, inexplicable incidents- and he's taking reluctant Trent along for the investigation. Meanwhile, Trent begins to wonder if Lilith, his alluring and inscrutable new girlfriend, may be demonic herself- or if that's just his paranoid Catholic guilt. Dan Wakefield's Going All The Way meets True Detective, Hellish Beasts is an idiosyncratic, darkly humorous, and introspective Horror Noir. With an insider's appreciation for the Los Angeles landscape, this is a serious examination of the duty of friendship, the burden of guilt, the uncertainty of a devout Catholic in modern dating, and the struggle of leaving your 20s behind.

294 pages, Paperback

Published September 12, 2019

Reviews

[Keith Chawgo · Rating 4 out of 5]

Hellish Beast by Brian Cormody is an interesting piece of fiction that deals with a lot of issues that are either sarcastic with the PC culture or it is a testament on the world at large or possibly a bit of both.

Written in the first person, the story details Trent as he falls into a sub world within our modern world where an underbelly is running in tandem to corrupt what we know. Flashing back in time, when his best friend, or buddy, finds himself in dire straits due to large want to be candle maker in a historical village burning Mike’s hand in a vat of melted wax. Trent chronicles their friendship compounded with the guilt that he was not able to help his friend.

The story then jumps to the modern day and a death of a cat in a library and how the investigation pulls them down a path into the strange world that operates within our own. This is where the story makes a statement on leftist politics and media culture using film and television references. This is where the novel takes either an interesting turn or creates a narrative that some readers may feel slightly out of touch depending on their cultural points. I personally was able to get everything that the narrator throws out and appreciated the depth the author has done his homework.

The characters are richly written and keeps them in a three dimensional aspect that works within the confines of the novel. Carmody refrains from a cartoonish arch types to ensure that they all are true to their nature and do not act to pull the story out of the twisted plots that occur within the pages. Lilith is one character in point which could have had total injustices infringed on her but being a very capable author, Carmody ensures that she is more than the sum of her parts. The villains of the piece are interesting and keeps the reader engaged through all their impractical personality traits.

The plot is very twisted and there are times that it feels slightly overwritten and the reader may wish that the author would carry on with the story instead of some of the side tracking that occurs. Saying this, other readers will relish this and enjoy these sections immensely. At times, I personally felt that some of the gender politics, PC culture and moral compass of the main protagonist was a little hard to have empathy for. I was not sure if this was the authors view points coming across as he was making a statement in a realistic sense or using this as a sarcastic way of addressing the real world we live in.

The mystery of the piece drives the reader forward and Carmody spends a good deal of the plot unravelling the very interesting plot. There are whole passages where I felt like skipping but kept with it and overall enjoyed what the narrator was trying to convey. One point is when he decides to be open with Lilith, there is a large passage of tidying up everything we just experienced and having it all drawn out. This probably would have been better without a synopsis of what we have already read as it did feel that the pudding was slightly over egged in this sense.

Overall, I really enjoyed the novel and think the right audience will eat this up whilst some people will be left out in the cold. There are some editing problems that probably could have been tidied up more but Carmody just have a talent of keeping the reader thoroughly engaged within the world that he has created. There are some conversations with Mike and Trent that seems a little messy as earlier in the novel, it was hard to keep straight who was conversing with who but the rest of the novel doesn’t seem to have this problem. A horrific mystery settling into the modern world with film and television references thrown in will be a true winner with the right audience. I would rate this 3.5 stars but more to the four star mark.

[Billie]

On a colonial village field trip, Mike was attacked by a deranged candle-maker and his "buddy" Trent fled, to his undying shame. As adults, screenwriter Trent runs into professor turned soldier Mike when they stumble upon a preternaturally dead cat in the library. Mike believes there's one sinister force behind this and other strange, inexplicable incidents- and he's taking reluctant Trent along for the investigation. Meanwhile, Trent begins to wonder if Lilith, his alluring and inscrutable new girlfriend, may be demonic herself- or if that's just his paranoid Catholic guilt. Dan Wakefield's Going All The Way meets True Detective, Hellish Beasts is an idiosyncratic, darkly humorous, and introspective Horror Noir. With an insider’s appreciation for the Los Angeles landscape, this is a serious examination of the duty of friendship, the burden of guilt, the uncertainty of a devout Catholic in modern dating, and the struggle of leaving your 20s behind.

I found this to be a good read.
The plot and story line are good and like the idea of it.
The characters are interesting if not somewhat a bit creepy but that could just be me thinking that.
The style of the writing I did find to be a bit of a challenge for me to really get into the story so I did struggle a bit to get through but did enjoy the story.

I was provided an ARC from NetGalley and the publisher. This is my own honest voluntary review.

[Heather Bennett · Rating 4 out of 5]

Hellish Beasts is a unique horror book with interesting characters. The storyline is entertaining and well written.

[KayBee's Bookshelf · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5
Pros
interesting storyline
developed characters
good structure
relevant content
doses of humor

Cons
first-person POV took some adjusting to with the writing style for me
full review found at kaybeesbookshelf.com

[kathleen r. · Rating 2 out of 5]

Where are the beasts?

Overwritten to such a pointless situation. The lead character is a weak and self doubting, and rather effete socially awkward single man who knows he simply lacks enough charm and charisma to successfully navigate his way through any situation that requires strength and knowledge rather than petty, tedious, off-putting comments and flimsy references to classic or contemporary films.
If I read once his insistence that he was a Christian, I read it a hundred times. That and the flaccid position that of course he could get dates, but they all seemed to be with women he only met from online dating sites so they never seemed to flesh out beyond coffee, museums, and films. Nothing else could be wrong with his dating profile, the fault always fell back onto the women themselves.
I didn't buy the entire objection he had to his childhood buddy trying to figure out the mystery, because I just couldn't stay with the story long enough to determine what the mystery actually was.
The narrative was dull and plodding. I quickly grew tired from reiterating the basic part of the dead cat, the chandler reference, and his pitiful sniffing after Lillith since it seemed she was far above his usual poor luck with dating interesting and beautiful women. That he got lucky with one woman seemed more of a mistake than a plot point of notice.
I'm sorry but I just had to quit this story before I wasted my time to the finish.
1/3 of the way through was as far as I got. I couldn't take any more. Two stars for effort but this is not one I can recommend.

[Varsha | restlessfiction · Rating 3 out of 5]

Unfortunately, I don’t think I was the right audience for this particular book. The writing style was not my cup of tea and I couldn’t find myself connecting with any of the characters. There were so many seemingly random references that I had to start speed reading to get through them all- there were too many tangents from the actual storyline that I lost interest a third of the way through the piece.

Making my way through the novel, it felt like the climax came too suddenly- the story leading up to it simply felt sparse.

The novel does pick up in the final quarter and the style does start to stabilize, making it much easier to follow and develop an interest. The characters were relatively fleshed out. I wish I had more positive things to say, but this one just wasn’t my jam.

This piece may be a better fit for major cinephiles, rather than the average reader, due to the intense amount of references. It’s definitely a quirky read; I may not have been the right audience for it.

[Will Reuter · Rating 5 out of 5]

I did not think this book was scary at all but surprisingly very funny. There’s some great humor buried in some lines. Also this is a great read of you are into movie references.

[Annarella · Rating 4 out of 5]

I found this book engrossing and entertaining, the style of writing helps to visualize what's going on and it's really fast paced.
The characters are fleshed out and there's the right level of creepiness.
Recommended!
Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC, all opinions are mine.