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THOMAS USHER HAS A MOST TERRIBLE TALENT.
Following a car crash in which his wife and daughter are killed, he can see the recently departed, and it's not usually a pretty sight. When he is called to investigate the violent death of the daughter of a prominent local gangster, Usher's world is torn apart once more. For the barriers between this world and the next are not as immutable as once he believed.
Mashing together the grittiest British police procedural with dark supernatural terror, author Gary McMahon creates a refreshingly new take on horror fiction.
FILE UNDER: Horror [See the Dead / Skin Trade / Beyond Reality / A Sacrifice]
Following a car crash in which his wife and daughter are killed, he can see the recently departed, and it's not usually a pretty sight. When he is called to investigate the violent death of the daughter of a prominent local gangster, Usher's world is torn apart once more. For the barriers between this world and the next are not as immutable as once he believed.
Mashing together the grittiest British police procedural with dark supernatural terror, author Gary McMahon creates a refreshingly new take on horror fiction.
FILE UNDER: Horror [See the Dead / Skin Trade / Beyond Reality / A Sacrifice]
15 Reviews
2.5

Sarah
Created about 1 year agoShare
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“27/2 - Can this live up to the hype that I've heard going around about it? I haven't read or heard any praise, or criticism, just a lot of excited hype. According to Ramsey Campbell (who the hell is Ramsey Campbell), on the back of the book, Gary McMahon is "one of our darkest - which is to say brightest stars - stars in the firmament of horror fiction." We'll see...
Also this is my first ever buddy read (not counting being told to read up to chapter 'whatever' in the class book of the semester for English or Lit, I, of course being the avid reader I've always been, had already read the whole book in the preceding school holidays and was now re-reading along with the rest of the class, most of whom never read any of the set books anyway) with my good friend and hopefully, fellow horror enthusiast, All Hail Grimlock (aka Grim). To be continued...
Later that night - Hang on, page 14, Allyson is described as Thomas' 'infant daughter', but page 15 you're talking about refereeing a football (soccer) match for Ally's school team. Ally can't be both an infant and be at school. Which one is the correct description? Okay, page 17, Ally is now seven - hardly an infant.
Oh! One chapter a night is hard to stick to. I blasted through chapter one and was nearly finished the first page of chapter two before I remembered to stop. But it's okay, I 'm a fast, many pages in one night kind of reader who is on holiday with even more reading time on her hands than usual. So I am happy (really, I am) to compromise and keep pace with my buddy who is reading along with me. Let me use a skiing analogy since I'm at a ski resort: people ski at different levels, people take lessons, there is usually more than one person in the lesson with you, no one (hopefully) expects their fellow students to be at the exact same level of ability and confidence as they are. Sometimes you're the faster, more experienced skier waiting at the bottom of the run for the other students as they make stiff, awkward turns down a slope you flew over, sometimes you are the skier who feels embarrassed for holding up the rest of the lesson because you got stuck on a tricky bit. Whoever I am in that analogy (skiing or reading) I am always happy to compromise because I never know where I'll be on the next slope. Five days/chapters from now Grim may have to wait for me as I'll be out of internet range while getting back home over 30+ hours or so of travelling. It's kind of like karma - I compromise now and am forgiven for forcing a slow down on the chapters later (not that Grim's likely to have a fit anyway, but I'll store up the compromise karma for another time when I do need it). To be continued...
28/2 - Page 26, sex pests? Are they England's answer to Melbourne's 'sex fiends' (who are anyone who commits any kind of sex crime on anyone)? In the context it was used in I think the less ambiguous 'rapist' would have worked better. To be continued...
2/3 - Is this really the first book in the series? GR says it is, but sometimes GR lies (dues to librarian error, or whatever). The reason I ask is because Thomas (our narrator) constantly refers back to events that happened after his wife and daughter died, but before the start of this book and it's really starting to irritate me. He talks as if we should know his 'middle' story (not 'back' story, but 'middle' story), even in the vaguest terms and we don't, not at all. Which is why I question if this really is the beginning of the series. If this does turn out to be the second book I'm going to be really annoyed. As anyone who's read my reviews on romance series will know I HATE reading a series out of order, especially (obviously) if details from the previous book impact on the current story (as they definitely do here). Oh, and an editing miss with: "Not matter how many times I saw stuff like this..." on page 36. To be continued...
18/3 - I really like the plot (supernatural themes are a favourite of mine), but GOD why does Thomas have to be so damn depressing?! I loved the tv show Medium and that's kind of what I was expecting, with the tragic twist that his family was killed in an apparent car accident. It doesn't seem to matter what happens to Thomas his whole life is doom and gloom, perpetually waiting for his wife and daughter's ghosts to appear to him. It's almost as if he's waiting to see them before he can be at peace and die, and finally be with them again. The two mysteries that are running concurrently, mostly in the background, although one of them appeared to be the main plotline of the book, are interesting but very slow moving. It's been three, four, maybe five chapters since anything regarding the main mystery - a serial murder mystery - has been discussed. The book is full of words, but at the 200 page mark, not much has happened, mostly just a lot of description of the grim atmosphere surrounding Thomas. I want to know more about what evil supernatural entity is behind the murder of the three young women who were all connected through the making or distribution of porn; I want to know what has possessed the man who was driving the car that caused the fatal car crash; I want to know what has happened to Penny Royale and how she might be connected to the beings in the hoodies; if not for those three still-engaging mysteries I think I would be having doubts about whether to continue reading. The book makes England look like the bleakest place on the planet. Often reading a great book will make me want to visit the country it's set in, not so much with Pretty Little Dead Things. In fact, if I hadn't already visited England and found it to be completely ungrim, this book might put me off ever making the 22 hour trip. To be continued...
25/3 - Bleak, grey, depressing. All I can do is echo what I said in my last update. The subject matter is great (it's about the only thing keeping me going with Pretty Little Dead Things, it's certainly not Thomas' personality, the pacing or the likelihood of a good outcome for anyone), but the interpretation sucks. Why is Thomas not allowed something good, something bright and shiny in his world? And when he thinks he has that good thing it has to be ripped away from him in the most horrible way possible. If there are mediums (or whatever they want to be called) out there I pray that that they aren't living Thomas' life, that it's more like Alison Dubois' life, because I wouldn't wish Thomas' existence (you can't really call what's happening to him a life, can you?) on my worst enemy. To be continued...
P.S. - Evil house on chicken legs is not evil or scary, it reminds me of the flying contraption they built in Chicken Run, which ran around, comically banging into things.
26/3 - Finished (possibly a day or two early, sorry Grim). 3 to 3.5, mostly because I got tired of Thomas' depressing situation pretty quickly. The plot was promising, but I just couldn't get past how much I disliked the main character.
The ending was weird and confusing. I've heard there's going to be (or already is) a sequel. Will that pick up where this one left off Maybe it'll just be another case. All I can say is I hope it's not as gloomy.
The little extra at the end, The Late Show, was the best part of the whole novel. It was scary (reminded me of a cross between House on Haunted Hill - scariest movie ever - and The Ring - Samarra's got to be one of the scariest characters ever), there was no gloom hanging over Thomas and it was a perfect length - telling of one incident in Thomas' death filled life. I think, maybe, novels aren't McMahon's thing, maybe he should go back to short stories, where he seems to have been excelling for some years now.”

Ernestina Rivas
Created over 3 years agoShare
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Kkatiedenae
Created almost 4 years agoShare
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Cheryl Battisti
Created almost 4 years agoShare
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Jyl Glenn
Created about 4 years agoShare
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About Gary McMahon
GARY McMAHON is a British writer whose short fiction has appeared in numerous magazines and anthologies in the UK and US. He is the multi-award nominated author of the novellas Rough Cut and All Your Gods Are Dead, and the novels Rain Dogs and Hungry Hearts. He has been nominated for seven different British Fantasy Awards as both author and editor, and won four times.
Other books by Gary McMahon
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