Like Death

The fact that Tim Waggoner no longer is a writer for Leisure is about as bad as having your hemorrhoids run over by a lawn mower. This novel is told in a manner which will demand you to stay glued to it until all of its terrifying weirdness is revealed to you. Or at least until you fall asleep reading it late into the night. It's about a crime novelist discovering a doorway to another world, or to seeing our own world as it actually is, by way of a more-than-peculiar girl. It will remind you of seeing people as they truly are, their actions and physical appearance literally resemble disgusting innerselves. And makes for one hell of a weird and horrific story. If you're not scared by Waggoner's acid-burning descriptions, you will be at the overwhelming barrage of weirdness that he's able to conujur. Like Death made me a permanent fan, and made me go out and buy Pandora Drive and Darkness Wakes. I can't recommend this book enough. Horrordude.

Tim Waggoner's literate prose at times has a haunting lyricism to it, and he has a deft way of evoking creepy, subtle terrors. But LIKE DEATH, his debut mass-market original, also packs a raw, visceral punch that rivals the likes of Edward Lee and Jack Ketchum. The mix of surreal imagery and gruesome horrors is handled superbly throughout, and the narrative never flags, taking the reader through a truly bizarre landscape of mysteries and dark wonders not easily forgotten once the final page has been turned. I suspect Waggoner is a writer we'll be hearing a lot more from in the future.

Oh my sweet lord, this is a prime example of what good, fresh, original horror writing is all about. I had this book for a while and finally got around to reading it, and once started, could not put down. Basically to give a synapsis of the story, it's about a man on the verge of divorce, a true crime journalist, who is going through what appears to be a slow and hallucination filled mental breakdown. He's a likable fellow, but with some dark undertones to his personality that he cannot get a grip on at times. This is written deftly and while the subject matter is quite intense, Mr. Waggoner makes the man likable anyway. The cover of the book is absolutely stunning. Scary, seductive, horrifying, you will not want to put it down. High recommend.

I've written a long review of this novel that should be appearing in a few weeks in the CEMETERY DANCE WEEKLY NEWSLETTER. For now, let me just say this. LIKE DEATH is a dark ride. It starts out wild, in the midst of a massacre, and things get crazier. LIKE DEATH is a trip into a dark and twisted imagination. This book is not for the easily offended. The images that Waggoner conjures up will stick to your brain cells like caro syrup. It's wet and wild and nasty. Tim Waggoner has written something very different here, and folks who are looking for a journey like nothing I've read, might want to pick this one up. Yours in horror, Steve Vernon

One of those fast reads that sticks with you for awhile. There were a couple of spots where I thought the book would go off the "surreal deepend" but it didn't and finished with a generally coherent world. I look forward to more books or stories based here