Skip to main content

Review of A.L Sirous's "Jersey Ghouls"

Jersey Ghouls

Review

Make sure to read to the end for buy links and contests.

I love pulpy, trope-filled horror novels that are tinged with a bit of humor. And you get that right from the beginning with Jersey Ghouls. It starts with a blonde in a pith helmet in the jungle. And it all stacks up from there. You've got a small town and the trope of returning to that small town after many years absence. Tandem threats to the well being of the town, the centipedes and a big storm. A past-his-prime ex-cop protagonist. Power outages. Blocked highways...

There were some twists and turns, and some inventive characters that made this a really fun read. I unexpectedly loved the character of Mason the most. A self-aware titular "ghoul," he adds a sort of perspective stories like this are often missing.

I was also fairly impressed with the editing. A lot of indie and self-published stories lately have been so full of errors they were unreadable. This, however, only had a few errors that didn't really distract from the read, save for the name-change of a dog midchapter.

All in all I would definitely recommend this book for an entertaining take on this particular theme. Think Slither or The Crazies and you won't be far off. 


JERSEY GHOULS
A.L. Sirois
Genre: Horror
Publisher: Azure Spider Publications
Publication Date: June 15, 2018
A disabled cop and his ex battle giant centipedes and ghouls in a small riverside community that's about to be flooded out.
The rain-drenched riverside town of Sherwood's Landing, NJ is invaded by a species of centipede from Central America armed with psychedelic venom. Former cop Lafferty "Hoff" Hoffman and his ex-girlfriend Beatrice St. John are swept into terror as their neighbors are enslaved by a centipede-generated group mind. Those remaining free must band together to survive the onslaught of ravenous ghouls.

Purchase Links

Book Tour Schedule

Follow the book tour from July 11 - 24, 2018.
Join us and visit each tour stop daily and discover more features, excerpts, reviews, interviews, fun facts and more! To check the latest tour schedule, visit the Jersey Ghouls Book Page at Book Unleashed.
Jersey Ghouls Tour Graphic

About A.L. Sirois

A.L. Sirois
A.L. Sirois is a writer, developmental editor, graphic artist and a performing musician. His publication career began in 1973 with the appearance of the short-short story "War Baby" in Fantastic (It would be called "flash fiction" nowadays.). He has gone on to have fiction in Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine, Fantastic, Amazing Stories, and Thema, and online at Electric Spec, Mystery Weekly, Every Day Fiction and Flash Fiction Online, among other publications. His story "In the Conservatory," from Thema, was nominated for the Pushcart Prize. In addition to JERSEY GHOULS, other Sirois works include a children's book, DINOSAUR DRESS UP (Tambourine Press / William Morrow), a graphic novel, THE ENDLESS INCIDENT (2014), and a fantasy novel, THE BOHEMIAN MAGICIAN, published in 2017.
As an artist, he has hundreds of drawings, paintings and illustrations to his credit. Al has contributed comic art for DC, Marvel, and Charlton, and has scripted for Warren Publications. He wrote and drew "Bugs in the System" for witzend #12, the famous comics fanzine started by MAD artist Wally Wood. He lives in Rockingham County, North Carolina, with his wife and occasional collaborator, author Grace Marcus. Together they are writing a Young Adult novel set in ancient Egypt.
Social media links: Facebook | Twitter

Giveaway

WIN FREE BOOK AND MORE
Jersey Ghouls Giveaway Graphic
Prizes up for grabs:
1. Print Copy of Jersey Ghouls by A.L. Sirois
2. Color Rough of the book cover, painted in acrylics on illustration board
3. Drawing of the book cover on tracing paper
4. Drawing of the book cover on layout bond paper
Contest runs from June 15 - July 24, 2018.
In partnership with
Book Unleashed Logo

Comments

  1. A.L. SiroisJuly 28, 2018 at 8:33 AM

    Thanks so much for the kind review! I'm so pleased you enjoyed the book. My editor has expressed interest in a sequel, so I am working on an outline -- I'll be continuing Mason's story in the next installment.

    ReplyDelete
  2. A.L. SiroisJuly 28, 2018 at 8:34 AM

    And foro those interested in my other work, please do check out my fantasy novel, THE BOHEMIAN MAGICIAN.
    https://www.amazon.com/Bohemian-Magician-L-Sirois-ebook/dp/B075PMBQ5V/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1532784039&sr=8-1&keywords=the+bohemian+magician

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Book Review of "The Dare Club: Nita" by Laurie Bradach and Kim “Howard” Johnson

Laurie and Kim will be awarding a $20 Amazon Gift Card to a randomly drawn commenter during the tour, so make sure to leave a comment here and visit the other stops on the tour: http://goddessfishpromotions.blogspot.com/2012/11/virtual-review-tour-dare-club-nita-by.html Series:  The Dare Club Format:  E-book & Paperback Genre: Contemporary YA, Mystery Length:  330 pages in paperback Blurb: Nita Conroy has relocated to the most boring town on the planet. That is, until would-be boyfriend Brad Keeley spills the beans about a secret group of girls known as The Dare Club. During her subterranean initiation below the high school, Nita overhears a plan by contractors and school officials to embezzle millions of dollars in grant money. When she is betrayed, The Dare Club's pranks become deadly serious. With the clock ticking, Nita will need the help of her new friends to expose the chilling plot--and hopefully survive long enough to snag a date to the homecoming dance. Exce...
15 comments
Read more

Show, Don't Tell!

Another common error young writers make is telling a story, rather than showing a story. This is probably because many of the short stories they have been exposed to are fairy tales, which have a distant point of view and summary-like narration. They start with phrases like "There once was..." and use direct characterization, like "She was the kindest girl in all the land." When we write, we need to show our stories, using vivid verbs, specific details, and deep point of view. Here's an example of a passage that is told. The action is summarized and the reader feels as if the action is happening far away: It was June of 1943. Eric's older brother had gone away to become a fighter pilot. Eric wanted to be a pilot too, so he got in the family's crop dusting plane and started it up. He flew it out of the barn and crashed it into the old oak tree in the yard. He hit his head. The doctor had to come. His brother came back, injured from the war. The two healed...
11 comments
Read more

Exposition: One tool the author has to tell a story

Exposition is used in two ways when talking about fiction. First, it is the set-up at the beginning of the plot arc. Where we learn the basic who, what, when, and where. This is a necessary part of plot to ground your reader. I'm going to address the second way exposition is used in a story. This is when an author gives background information, description of characters or setting, or summarizes events that have already happened. It can happen at any point in the story. This is a necessary, key element of writing and one of the three tools an author has to tell his or her story, along with scene and dialogue. A good author does this without slowing down the forward progress of the plot. That is, the exposition makes sense in the context of the scene (or action) of the story and does not trip up the reader or bore him or her. She turned her blue gaze toward him. Here, we get the fact that she has blue eyes in the context of the action. That's the best way to give description. One...
12 comments
Read more