Odious Ghouls by Tom Rimer

I received this book for free from the Publisher in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

We mustn’t tempt it. We mustn’t tempt them.

Tabby Fowle knows the legend. Hell, everyone does. As a child, she—the last of the Fowle bloodline—was warned to stay far, far away from Foul Meadow. She was warned of what would happen if she ever stepped foot into that place of rot again. She promised her grandmother to never go there and had no intention of ever breaking that vow.

UNTIL NOW.

As the traveling lamp lights, so must the three hearths, and the Blood of the Fowle will summon the ancestral ghouls from their centuries-old graves.

With her film crew in tow, Tabby returns to Foul Meadow. She sees dollar signs and, with her family name attached to the project, she thinks—no, she knows—this’ll be just the ticket she needs to fame and fortune. At the very least, it’s what she’s managed to convince herself and her team of.

Unfortunately, video cameras are no match for a demon’s thirst for vengeance. After nearly two hundred years of waiting, the Odious Ghouls have finally been summoned and will—once again—‘gild the land ‘i their crimson plague.’

From the author of Malevolent Nevers and The Glowing Trilogy comes this campy, monster-fest, deriving inspiration from both 80’s era creature-flicks & the contemporary found footage sub-genre.

Odious Ghosts can only be described as a branch of trauma horror – well I am thoroughly traumatised, and I read a lot of horror! This is sick and twisted. Tom Rimer is a horror mastermind.

Odious Ghouls. What does those two words mean to you? What is the image that is conjured up when you picture the context in which they’d exist. I went blind with this one. I really enjoyed Malevolent Nevers released by Tom Rimer last year, so I had full confidence that this was going to float my darkened heart. When family elders warn you to stay away from hallowed ground, you better just believe them. When hell threatens to walk the earth due to your family curse you better take note and listen or otherwise end up like our fabled characters.

Tom Rimer has created Odious Ghouls with a touch of evil, a sparkle of gore and a dusting of murderous spirits. Kind of like a Mary Poppins on crack.

I didn’t know what to expect, like I said, I went in blind. I can’t thank my early self for that decision enough – it made the punch all that more potent, my jaw feels slack just thinking about it. One minute the characters are having a dander around the woods and the next the gory action begins, one minute they’re having a nice drink around a campfire and the next the bloods flowing like the river Nile. Tom Rimer leads his readers by the nose. There’s no better way to upend characters lives by introducing appearing/disappearing houses that harbour axe wielding maniacs.

Tabby Fowle needs to make a decision. Life hasn’t panned out the way she expected. Her foray into Hollywood has fallen flat on its face. She has her team, but the award-winning film has evaded her, until now. She knows the legend. She’s been warned about it her whole life. Her grandmother tells her to keep away from the meadow, known as, Foul Meadow. If a Fowle lights the hearth of the houses, then hell will be unleashed upon the earth. Their plague will become our own. Ominous thoughts. She decides to ignore this though and asks her team to join her on the shooting of a film that will make them, its their golden ticket and they all readily agree.

I truly enjoyed the narrative style. The going back and forth between the three main characters, the sense of urgency never left me as I found myself racing to find answers, to root for characters, and to cry when the delightful Mr. Rimer killed off someone I was hoping would make it till the end. We were met with secrets, deceits, and bloodshed. I felt like a stray bullet – I was hitting wall after wall; I was dizzy with excitement and anxiety. Every step I took, introduced me to yet more surprises. One scene left me shook and that was with Metal (a character that is complex in his many strands of humanity.)

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Welcome. Tom is a New England-based author writing nightmares set primarily in New England, because the scariest stories—and the most terrifying monsters—are usually found right in our back yards.

Tom Rimer