Gore nerds will appreciate this canny update of the trashy horror/SF potboilers of yesteryear.
On the eve of a community festival, a small Wisconsin town suffers attacks from giant, bloodthirsty mutant ticks in Micklos’ horror novel.
Tomahawk Hollow is a rural Wisconsin town heavily dependent on the tourism trade—the annual Jubilee festival is a key attraction. It is a bit of a problem, then, when hideous, waist-high, intelligent mutant ticks come out of the woods (which are home to a defunct pesticide plant). The savage monsters ravenously attack humans and animals alike, draining their blood and leaving a trail of carnage. Emmaline Blackdeer, a young reporter for the failing local newspaper, and her mentor-editor, Jackson Reed, attempt to investigate, but the corrupt mayor, Silas Cankerby, and a sinister squad of German mercenaries undermine their efforts with a coverup of apocalyptic proportions. Will Tomahawk Hollow survive? Will humanity? Readers of a certain age may recall the lurid horror paperbacks found in the spinner racks and airport gift shops of the previous century, with their schlocky scenarios of nature and animals run amok; memorable titles from the genre include The Swarm (1974), Slither (1986), Night of the Crabs (1976), and, of course, Jaws (1974). Here, first-time author Micklos (who is also a horror filmmaker) entertainingly hits just about all cliches in the formula, from gratuitous opening-pages sex to the community celebration-turned-bloodbath to corporate corruption to the sequel-friendly ending. (“The closest tick was nearly on him, though, rising slightly on its hind legs as if gloating over its prey. Its harpoon-like hypostome extended from its mouthparts like a hideous, barbed erection,” reads one lurid passage.) Unlike, say, Brian Wilford’s similar Rise of the Jellies (2024), there is no obvious comic spoofing; Micklos has the doom-serious tone down to a T (for tick) and plays the slaughter with a perfectly straight face, escalating skillfully and with a minimum of padding to the absurdly violent showdown in the heart of the hell-spawned tick nest. The downside is a never-less-than-predictable narrative arc; still, splatter-punk fans who relish such material will not be disappointed.
Gore nerds will appreciate this canny update of the trashy horror/SF potboilers of yesteryear.Pub Date: June 23, 2025
ISBN: 9798991785549
Page Count: 198
Publisher: Castle Bridge Media
Review Posted Online: July 22, 2025
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A tasty, if not always tasteful, tale of supernatural mayhem that fans of King and Crichton alike will enjoy.
Are we not men? We are—well, ask Bigfoot, as Brooks does in this delightful yarn, following on his bestseller World War Z(2006).
A zombie apocalypse is one thing. A volcanic eruption is quite another, for, as the journalist who does a framing voice-over narration for Brooks’ latest puts it, when Mount Rainier popped its cork, “it was the psychological aspect, the hyperbole-fueled hysteria that had ended up killing the most people.” Maybe, but the sasquatches whom the volcano displaced contributed to the statistics, too, if only out of self-defense. Brooks places the epicenter of the Bigfoot war in a high-tech hideaway populated by the kind of people you might find in a Jurassic Park franchise: the schmo who doesn’t know how to do much of anything but tries anyway, the well-intentioned bleeding heart, the know-it-all intellectual who turns out to know the wrong things, the immigrant with a tough backstory and an instinct for survival. Indeed, the novel does double duty as a survival manual, packed full of good advice—for instance, try not to get wounded, for “injury turns you from a giver to a taker. Taking up our resources, our time to care for you.” Brooks presents a case for making room for Bigfoot in the world while peppering his narrative with timely social criticism about bad behavior on the human side of the conflict: The explosion of Rainier might have been better forecast had the president not slashed the budget of the U.S. Geological Survey, leading to “immediate suspension of the National Volcano Early Warning System,” and there’s always someone around looking to monetize the natural disaster and the sasquatch-y onslaught that follows. Brooks is a pro at building suspense even if it plays out in some rather spectacularly yucky episodes, one involving a short spear that takes its name from “the sucking sound of pulling it out of the dead man’s heart and lungs.” Grossness aside, it puts you right there on the scene.
A tasty, if not always tasteful, tale of supernatural mayhem that fans of King and Crichton alike will enjoy.Pub Date: June 16, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-9848-2678-7
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Del Rey/Ballantine
Review Posted Online: Feb. 9, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2020
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK TO SCREEN
A standout in the series.
The sixth adventure of Harvard symbology professor Robert Langdon explores the mysteries of human consciousness, the demonic projects of the CIA, and the city of Prague.
“Ladies and gentlemen...we are about to experience a sea change in our understanding of how the brain works, the nature of consciousness, and in fact…the very nature of reality itself.” But first—Langdon’s in love! Brown’s devoted readers first met brilliant noetic scientist Katherine Solomon in The Lost Symbol (2009); she’s back as a serious girlfriend, engaging the committed bachelor in a way not seen before. The book opens with the pair in a luxurious suite at the Four Seasons in Prague. It’s the night after Katherine has delivered the lecture quoted above, setting the theme for the novel, which features a plethora of real-life cases and anomalies that seem to support the notion that human consciousness is not localized inside the human skull. Brown’s talent for assembling research is also evident in this novel’s alter ego as a guidebook to Prague, whose history and attractions are described in great and glowing detail. Whether you appreciate or skim past the innumerable info dumps on these and other topics (Jewish folklore fans—the Golem is in the house!), it goes without saying that concision is not a goal in the Dan Brown editing process. Speaking of editing, the nearly 700-page book is dedicated to Brown’s editor, who seems to appear as a character—to put it in the italicized form used for Brownian insight, Jason Kaufman must be Jonas Faukman! A major subplot involves the theft of Katherine’s manuscript from the secure servers of Penguin Random House; the delightful Faukman continues to spout witty wisecracks even when blindfolded and hogtied. There’s no shortage of action, derring-do, explosions, high-tech torture machines, attempted and successful murders, and opportunities for split-second, last-minute escapes; good thing Langdon, this aging symbology wonk, never misses swimming his morning laps. Readers who are not already dyed-in-the-wool Langdonites may find themselves echoing the prof’s own conclusion regarding the credibility of all this paranormal hoo-ha: At some point, skepticism itself becomes irrational.
A standout in the series.Pub Date: Sept. 9, 2025
ISBN: 9780385546898
Page Count: 688
Publisher: Doubleday
Review Posted Online: Sept. 9, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2025
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