The Sorrows

by Jonathan Janz

"Anyone who likes a good ghost story is going to enjoy The Sorrows. Anyone who likes a ghost story where there’s no doubt the ghosts are undoubtedly real will love this novel." - New York Journal of Books 



The Sorrows, an island off the coast of northern California, and its castle have been uninhabited since a series of gruesome murders in 1925. But its owner needs money, so he allows film composers Ben and Eddie and a couple of their female friends to stay a month in Castle Blackwood. Eddie is certain a haunted castle is just the setting Ben needs to find inspiration for a horror film.

But what they find is more horrific than any movie. Something is waiting for them in the castle. A malevolent being has been trapped for nearly a century. And he’s ready to feed. 



FLAME TREE PRESS is the new fiction imprint of Flame Tree Publishing. Launching in 2018 the list brings together brilliant new authors and the more established; the award winners, and exciting, original voices.

• ISBN10: 178758058X
• ISBN13: 9781787580589
• Publish Date: 30 November 2018 (first published 6 December 2011)
• Publish Status: Active
• Publish Country: GB
• Imprint: Flame Tree Publishing
• Edition: New edition
• Format: Hardcover
• Pages: 288
• Language: English

Reviews

[zooloo1983]

After a particularly rubbish day yesterday, I picked this book up at 8pm and at 12:30 I had finished! I may have had a little doze in between! Jonathan Janz is fast becoming my go-to author for horror for sure, with such a huge back catalogue I am not going to be bored and a squeal to The Sorrows to read well see you later! As you all know I ADORED The Siren and the Specter (see review here) for the ghost story and where that book chilled me to the bone, The Sorrows was more about the brutality and the gore.


What do both books have in common? Jonathan and a huge slicing of CRAZY TOWN, and not the kind you would see me hanging about in!!

Like his other book, I felt like that this could be on the big screen, Rob Zombie style maybe, or 80’s throwback to the Hammer horror or even my favourite American Horror Story. The gore, abuse, sex, the horror!

Ben, the hero, is a composer with a type of creative block and his partner Eddie, the jock, the arranger, have plans to travel to Castle Island also known as The Sorrows. They need to complete their composition for the infamous Lee Stanley’s new movie. Eva, the hot vixen, also Lee’s “assistant” and Claire, the wholesome heroine, a new intern travel with them to the foreboding island.

There are a few storylines in this novel, all keep you the edge of your seat with bated breath waiting to see what would happen next! We have a diary from the past talking about a mysterious little boy called Gabriel and the wrongdoing and terror that occurred on the island in 1925.

Whilst the foursome are the island, things start off being just a little bit spooky. Strange sightings take place, violent apparitions, voices are heard and take control of people, mirrored walls and secret passages, the brutality of some of the characters, and finally the goat hooved beast of the island.


Then tension builds in the books with little tidbits of supernatural, and I swear when I was reading this in, late at night as I do, I heard music, the sweet haunting of piano music and I don’t have a piano!! Anyway back to the tension, it was palpable as you delve further into the mystery of the island and the past. A couple of things I felt were a bit too inconceivable and unexplained but I think it that it added to the magic of the book, because let us be honest when you watch films the unexpected always happens!

Jonathan knows how to keep his audience hooked. This book too is his debut!! You can tell he is learning the trade in this book but what a belter for a debut. So dark and twisty and my cup of tea. I really cannot stop thinking of this book as a film on the big screen. It would be a combination of some of the fabulous and the cheesy 80s horror films. There would be plenty of spine-chilling scares and the damn right terrifying too.

And what did I love the most, apart from needing to read the next book….there is no respite at the end!

HOLY MOTHER OF GOD!!!!!!!!

[kalventure]

Happy book birthday to The Sorrows! You can now read this creepy book! 🎉

The Sorrows is the first of many re-published backlist titles from Jonathan Janz and was his first book. It was originally published in 2012 and has been out of print for some time, and I am so glad that this and his other work is being re-released!

Holy crap what a ride that was! Friends, I know you have seen me screaming about The Siren and the Specter and The Children of the Dark, so I am sure that it will come as no surprise to you that I thoroughly enjoyed The Sorrows as well.

The story follows Ben Shadeland and Eddie Blaze, a Hollywood composer duo trying to beat the deadline for the score for the next horror film from renowned director Lee Stanley. Ben's had a bit of creative block since his horrible wife divorced him, and Eddie has taken to haunting legends in Northern California to scare Ben into inspiration.

Despite the fact that they'd mind for inspiration in eerie places several times, Ben felt the old thrill. Sometimes the tale inspired him, sometimes it was the setting. Often, the music didn't come until days later, when a specific memory triggered his imagination.

Eddie has one last trick up his sleeve before their time is up: a month on an isolated island off the coast of Northern California called The Sorrows with an unsolved mystery attached to it.

The characters honestly are the gem of this story. Honestly, the exposition and character description in the first 20% of the book was incredible and never felt info-dumpy. I felt like these were real people that I knew. Which makes it more alarming as the characters stop acting like themselves; or rather, the darkest parts of themselves are amplified. Every character is fighting their own personal demons... and real ones.

"It won't let us leave," Eva whispered."

Having read both his latest and now first works, I can see the growth Janz has experienced as a writer but his raw talent is palpable. He has a command of writing that sucks the reader into the story and grips them start to finish. I enjoy that Janz juxtaposes supernatural horror elements with the horror and depravity of the human condition. I also appreciated the many allusions, implicit and called out, to the work of Edgar Allan Poe.

She stayed behind a moment and gazed up at the castle. Yes, she decided. There was an intelligence in its towering pallid contours. Something corrosive and upsettingly sly. It reminded her very much of another Poe story, 'The Fall of the House of Usher.' Except this building did not look like it could fall. It looked like it would stand forever, far outliving its inhabitants.

The downside to having his latest work published before his first novel is of course that the average reader may not dig to find out that this is a re-released title. This is a really good book, but after the success of Siren and the Specter it pales in comparison to how Janz has grown as a writer. I hope that the final publication does make note of this.

While I thoroughly enjoyed the story, I did struggle with the many characters and multiple perspectives, and the pacing was a little inconsistent in the middle. Some of the first flashback asides felt really disjointed to me; however, the payoff was incredible: the multiple perspectives tied together and the extra time dedicated to exposition when I was looking for action was made up for in spades. For me personally, I wish that there were a few less characters woven together and that the journal exposition was somehow tied into the plot (like Ben or someone finding them and reading along with the reader), but honestly for a first book I am utterly impressed.

Overall, I really enjoyed The Sorrows a lot, and cannot wait for the sequel because THAT FINAL LINE! There is a lot of intricate backstory and interesting exposition, the horror doesn't really get started until 60% or so. But the book is scary and the payoff for multiple characters and POVs is there. I actually think this would adapt well to the screen and make an incredible movie. If you like Edgar Allan Poe and films like The Amityville horror, I highly recommend this book!

content warnings: torture, gore, abuse of power (a Harvey Weinstein-like character), murder, abuse, fatshaming (challenged and addressed), voyeurism, attempted rape

Many thanks to Flame Tree Press for sending me an eARC for review. Quotations are taken from an uncorrected proof and may change upon publication.

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