Jeffrey Thomas is no stranger to horror, nor it to he. His newest book Unholy Dimensions is enough to make you tremble, but the illustrations by Peter Worthy will make you want to crawl under the covers and hold your Teddy Bear - assuming it does not come to life ... with fangs ... and ... ```shudder```.
I'll start the review with Red Glass. Brevity is not a prerequisite or restriction of deep terror - and I dare say Peter Crowther or James Herbert could not have done so well as Mr. Thomas has in this fine and creepy tale.
Take these pericopes ... "...a knife to scrape off some of the paint on his wall..."; "...more chilling than the sudden, barking sound itself..."; "...silhuoette in the second floor windows was..."; ...jagged, swirling paisley designs like an orgy of psychedelic tadpoles...".
And as to Peter's worthy illustrations, the one for Red Glass has a supposedly tranquil sunrise scene - but the dark shadows close in on the reflecting alien sun and glow ... like ... an eye watching ... or a maelstrom about to unleash. There is a vortex forming below the surface which summons the hint of lightning on the horizon. Oh, that water may be seemingly calm, but so too was the day before tomorrow at Hiroshima. The poet said, "the sea is cold, but it holds the hottest life." And it holds the most frightening death. Ask this - are we afraid or afraid because the 'other' is fleeing a terror beyond our understanding and will simply trample us to get away from the terror THEY behold and is INVISIBLE to us?
This is the real thing, folks. Nihilistic, apocalyptic, cosmic, horrific ... and ick!
Run! But not for your life, but for the bookstore and buy this one. Stay tuned for future reviews of the stories from Unholy Dimensions.
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