Genre: Horror
Publisher: DarkFuse
Publication Date: 27th July 2015
Pages: 159
MY REVIEW:
A copy of Skinner was sent to Confessions of a Reviewer
by the author David Bernstein via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
This is said review. This book is published by DarkFuse.
My only other experience of David Bernstein was reading
the rather excellent Jackpot in which he collaborated with some other fine
authors, Cesare / Rufty / McKenzie. I was hoping Skinner would be along the
same sort of style. I wasn’t let down. You can see my review of Jackpot here.
A group of six friends are on their way to a remote log
cabin for a weekend away. As they are climbing through the Adirondack Mountains
they hit a bad snowstorm. As they round a corner there is a strange figure
standing in the middle of the road. The driver, Rob, swerves to avoid him and
they crash over the side of the mountain.
Miraculously they all survive the crash but now must
battle against the elements to find somewhere safe to stay warm until they get
rescued.
When they find an abandoned cabin they think all is well
until they discover the tracks of a huge animal in the snow outside. If they
think they just need to stay safe from the animal, they need to think again.
So – a group of kids trapped in an abandoned cabin with
some sort of wild animal outside that is basically scaring the crap out of
them. Yeah it’s been done before hasn’t it? Whenever I get into a book like
this and discover the plot I panic. Purely and simply because if there is
nothing different to this story, I will not finish it if my attention is not
kept at a high level. I finished this one. In fact I couldn’t really put it
down. Why? Because Mr Bernstein added his own little twist to the story that
made it the same, but different.
Characters in this story are nothing exciting. You don’t
get big background stories on who they are, what has happened in their pasts
and where they are probably going in their futures. You don’t need to know all
of this stuff so thankfully the book wasn’t filled with unnecessary information
filling gaps that needed to be plugged. Frankly there were no gaps that needed
plugged. It’s six kids basically out for a fun weekend. Three couples. All
normal. Or is it? There is a little sub plot that I am not going to give away
at this point. It worked very well in raising the tension in the story because
some people know and some people don’t know. The problem is the person who
doesn’t know is going to go a bit mad when he finds out.
We have Rob, the driver and his fiancée Aria. Mark and
his girlfriend Sara. Jeff and his girlfriend Spencer. All of the male
characters are pretty macho I suppose and come to blows more than once but
these spats are caused more by fear than anything else. They may be macho but
they are still scared witless.
The big seller in this story for me is the mysterious,
evil, old one. You don’t know much about him. You don’t know his name. He seems
to go by many but like me, you will probably come up with your own for him. You
get a bit of background on this man and soon discover that he may not even be a
man. He is certainly ancient and possesses supernatural powers. In order for
his powers to be sustained it looks like he needs souls. He certainly needs
skins. There is one sequence in this story that will, quite literally, make
your skin crawl. If you do not cringe and feel extreme pain when you read it,
you are most likely already dead.
If you’re lucky enough to be able to claim you watched
all those 80’s horror films the first time around then you are going to love
this. It has all the ingredients that make up that perfect B movie. You know
the ones that weren’t classed as “big” movies because there were no big stars in
them but they became cult movies all the same? This is one. It has all the right
ingredients as I say but anyone can put the right ingredients in. It doesn’t
always make the perfect cake. If David Bernstein were a baker, I would
definitely eat his cakes because he gets the mixture just perfect.
The writing style is very smooth. Like I said before it
isn’t filled with needless info purely to fill gaps. There are no gaps. His
writing is what I would call easy. It’s easy on the eye and the words just flow
across the pages. It’s easy to piece together the scenes into a flawless story.
It’s easy to be completely drawn into the story where you feel like you are
living in it. This is a scary story but not just for the jump out of your seat
moments. There is a certain psychological horror in this as well that messes
with the heads of the characters and messes with your own head to the point
that you have no idea where things are going and what is going to happen next.
That’s what makes this story different to the run of the mill “kids stranded in
a cabin screaming like girls”.
To summarise: Replica ‘80’s horror at its best – BUT –
and that’s an important but – it’s not like all the rest. It’s got a twist that
makes it that bit better and makes it stand out that little bit more. If I have
a negative it’s that I would have liked to have seen more of this element in
it. It ends up just shy of perfect for me because of that. One thing is for
sure though, I will be reading a lot more of David Bernstein if he keeps this
up.
General rating:
★★★★.5 Practically perfect.
Horror rating:
★★★★ Again practically perfect.
You can buy Skinner here:
Book Synopsis:
For six close friends, a weekend away turns deadly when
their vehicle skids off the road and crashes in a remote part of the Adirondack
Mountains.
In the direct path of a blizzard, they are hurt, cold and
scared, wondering if they’ll make it through the night. But the group’s luck
seemingly changes when they take refuge in a small cabin.
Their plan is simple: wait for the storm to pass. But
there is something else out there that has its own plans for them.
Invade. Reveal secrets. Invoke madness. Make enemies out
of friends. Create chaos. And shed blood.
I am a dark fiction writer, a horror writer. I write the
gamut, from atmospheric horror to extreme gory horror to dark fiction and dark
thriller, oh, and the occasional bizarro tale.
You can see more of David at his website.
David’s author page is here.
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