From Below

Fans of Shaun Hutson's "Slugs" and "Breeding Ground" will probably enjoy this and it makes a perfect companion piece to those. Yes, the ending was a bit of a letdown, but that's mostly because there's so many deaths/attacks up to that point that the climax did seem rather miniscule and rushed. There's also some in-jokes that lighten the mood but at the same time just makes the reader envision the author patting himself on the back, which momentarily took me out of the story. Also, the words spoor and annelid did become a bit tiring after constantly popping up. Still, it's a pretty good book (for fans of this stuff) that I'll eventually read again.

"From Below", one of three published works by John Tigges under his pseudonym of William Essex, is an entertaining and quick horror read. This was one of the multitude of horror novels published during the horror boom of the mid 80s to mid 90s.The story involves leeches that have grown to enormous sizes -- over a foot and a half in length each. Since they can reproduce on their own, they reproduce at a rapid rate. However, this requires them to find constant sources of food. They emerge from the sewers through pipes and into houses to find their prey. A large number of people are killed before anyone has a clue as to what caused the deaths.While an entertaining and quick read, the book does have its share of faults. These faults are common amongst the novels mass produced/published at the time. The plot is thin, the characters run around totally clueless and don't seem to want to discover the cause of the deaths, and the ending is short and a big letdown. More ingenious ways could have been utilized to destroy the leeches, but an obvious way to kill them was used, but not used in a believable manner. Overall, fans of generic horror (like myself) will enjoy this novel. If you prefer deeper horror with better story development, you might want to steer clear of this one.