Night Terrors: Savage Species, Book 1

Janz (The Sorrows) tries his hand at a serialized novel, but this initial chapter (of a planned five) ends with an arbitrary cutoff rather than a solid conclusion. That said, fans of old-school splatterpunk horror—Janz cites Richard Laymon as an influence, and it shows—will find much to relish, if little that’s new. In western Indiana, a valley is turned into a nature preserve, and monstrous creatures are released into it. Half of the story follows housewife Charly, stuck with an abusive, philandering husband, whose baby is kidnapped by one of these creatures. The other follows young horndog journalist Jesse (covering the preserve’s opening with two colleagues), who stumbles across the monsters as they begin their massacre. Janz hits the genre’s high points—gory brutality, a large cast of characters/potential victims—but no Laymon callback is less necessary than making the wendigo-like creatures rapists as well as carnivores. (June)