Small Town Horror, Aussie Style - Reviewing Alan Baxter's "The Gulp"

The very first review here on Protean Depravity was about Alan Baxter's tongue-in-cheek slasher/creature feature The Roo, the story of a kangaroo going amok in the Australian Outback killing people in super inventive ways - that fucken roo... In his latest, The Gulp, Baxter returns to "serious" horror; small town terror divided into five short stories set in the fictional Australian seaside town Gulpepper, or The Gulp, as everybody calls it; a place travelers should definitely stay well clear of.

First thing I appreciate about this collection is how it uses points of view, or the order of character distribution to introduce and explain the Gulp, starting off with Rich the truck driver. While Rich drives his first ever shift through this infamous town, his truck breaks down and he needs to spend the night there until help comes in the morning. Wandering though the streets, looking for a pub to have a drink and a hotel to spend the night, it is through his eyes that we come to explore this place. Baxter then goes on to tell the stories of locals mixed with travelers who were unfortunate enough to end up there. And end up they do... The above mentioned first story, "Out on a Rim" was a really fun read which starts very lighthearted but goes in a direction not expected at all. Trucker Rich is so likeable and identifiable as he's so relaxed and optimistic while ignoring his colleague's warnings to never spend the night in town. Said colleague has had an especially bad experience in the Gulp some years ago (we never know what) which was terrifying enough for him to spend a whole night uncomfortably crammed into the seat of his truck, just once going out to pee. And by now we know that warnings in horror stories should be taken very seriously. Meanwhile Rich casually wanders around and initially it felt like being on vacation to read about his time in the Gulp, walking the streets of a seaside town, contemplating the (admittedly slightly weird) people... A feeling that corona damaged stay-at-home Berlin readers will have missed in this rainy and brisk summer. This light-hearted and relaxed state of mind is the reason that the terrors that await Rich come all the more intense in the end. What horrors am I talking about? You will need to read and see for yourself.

Another swell feature of this collection is that Baxter takes a different horror trope for each new story (sometimes even more than one horror trope as in the third story "The Band Plays On") and interprets them in his own dark ways. The second story, "Mother in Bloom" for instance, takes a trope that enjoys huge popularity nowadays: fungi.

There is something extremely odd yet fascinating in the connection humans build to other, non-human terrestrial life forms, like animals and some plants. Take animals for instance, who have completely different forms of intelligence and skill, and yet we find a way to relate to and communicate with them. Mushrooms are probably on the far end of this communication-scale and that might be at the core of the fear of their ability to unstoppably expand and survive, to thrive where we can't. There is something weirdly fascinating and uncanny about that kind of resilience. That fear exactly is what Baxter plays with in his second story. Strangely enough, this story reminded me of the King short story "Weeds", also known as "The Lonesome Death of Jordy Verrill" which was also filmed as an episode in the first Creepshow (1982) film by Romero, of which, by the way, this short story collection is somewhat reminiscent of. But there is a twist in "Mother in Bloom", the story of two teenagers who try to hide the death of their hated mother in order to keep collecting her welfare money. And it's a hungry one...

There is an incredible amount of allusions and references to be found in the next story "The Band Plays On"; from various vampire stereotypes to "No mask? No mask!" dread moments. Cleverly placed in the middle of the book, this story also marks the emotional and stylistic peak of this book for me. This intensity is established mostly thanks to naive protagonists that you KNOW from the start are doomed and to the suspense of the reader witnessing them being lured into the arms of ruin but frustratingly not being able to prevent it. Tragedy from page one... This was quite something for me, really.

The next story, "48 To Go", revolves around a goofy gangster trying to find a high amount of money he owes his boss and getting involved in an adventure that is seemingly too big for him. There are so many cringeworthy moments in this story, I don't know where to start... The same cringy moments await us in "Rock Fisher", the marine-cosmic meets body horror kind of story about a guy who fishes something out of the ocean that he best shouldn't have. 

By using a very clever narrative device, namely the dispersing of familiar and recurring elements into each story that pop up at unexpected moments, Alan Baxter adds another layer of enjoyability to The Gulp; in each story there are allusions to certain characters and elements told from different perspectives. For example, there is a guy without a nose walking his dog, who keeps on casually popping up and everybody feels a guilty fear of him, but nothing really happens to indicate whether he is in reality sinister (because The Gulp's history gives way to that assumption) or just some guy with a medical deformation.

The ending of this book is amazing and is sure to put a smile on your face! There is, as usual, a little glossary for Australian English in the end too, which can come really handy but I guess constant Baxter-readers will by now have learned some of those expressions. Alan Baxter is slowly but surely working his way up into the list of my top horror authors.

All in all I super enjoyed this and do hope the author maybe expands this universe? There were so many interesting things that are touched on but not really elaborated and it would be a shame that potential remains untapped. Highly recommended for King-fans, especially if you're into small town horror.