My quest of reading and reviewing the complete “Rewind or Die” series for the Otherland Newsletter proceeds; a sum total of 23 retro-horror paperbacks (I recently realized that the series isn't even complete yet, so it's still counting!) inspired by 70s, 80s and 90s horror movies. Ever since I first found out about this series I am dreaming about these colorful little books with amazing cover art and extremely over the top storylines. Tongue-in-cheek, bizarro, absurd, gore-splatter, wild ride or pulpy are terms that come to mind describing this incredibly fun series that I will happily read and discuss for you guys in the near future.
On a last note; you will not find all of the series in the Otherland Newsletter as initially planned, but I will still have here the complete series. Still, the "Rewind or Die" books are availabe at the Otherland Bookstore, of course, they will even send it home to you if you can't or don't want to leave home. Just drop them a line if you live in Germany.
So, here we go with Number 7 and 8! These two are by far the highlights of the series so far, both heavy on humor and lots of girl power, I can't really decide which one I like most, they're that good.
Imagine your local movie rental store back in the '70s, '80s, and '90s - remember all those fantastic covers. Remember taking those movies home and watching in awe as the stories unfolded in nasty rainbows of gore, remember the atmosphere and textures. Remember the blood.
Food Fright by Nico Bell
'Mademoiselle!' the French-accented croissant called after her.
Food Fright raises the Rewind or Die game a notch!
Has
anything good ever come out of inititation ceremonies? I guess not, at
least in books not and no exceptions here. But anything else about this book is exceptional because this ceremony, after
triggering some quite unlikely factors, causes an... interesting (to say
the least) monster to come back for revenge. And the revenge attacks
are the most imaginative I have read in a long time. It is safe to
say that it is all about eating food here - "eating" is meant both as a verb as well
as an adjective here.
I loved every moment of this book, love the
humor, love the kind of horror that doesn't hurt anyone (well, maybe
gourmets) and I will definitely be looking for more books by Nico Bell.
Hell's Bells by Lisa Quigley
The confrontation with my parents had been a bummer, but Hayley's conversion was ruining my post-virginal glow.It's the night that Freddy Mercury died and it's sure not easy being fan girl Sasha right now - not only did she lose her idol, but also her virginity to the boy she loves and her best friend Hayley to fundamentalist Christians.
When Hayley smashes all Sasha's and their friends' Jessica and Tiffany's cassette tapes with a hammer in a wild bid to convert and save them, Sasha loses herself and strikes Hayley, knocking her out. So in order to show her what it feels like to be forced into a belief, they decide to summon the devil himself with virgin Hayley's blood. And sure enough, he comes. He's just not the only one joining the party and things will soon take unexpected turns.
If you think this sounds wild so far, you should know that the real action begins after this point - this book is insanely good!!! I thought the highlight of the Rewind or Die series so far was Food Fright, but Hell's Bells has just topped even that.
I surprised myself by how much I loved reading this. And I read it breathlessly! Don't be fooled by page numbers, Lisa Quigley packs incredibly deep existential questions, an utterly likeable set of characters, a very humorous (as well as frightening) representation of religion and a genuine, humanist ending with a heart warming message into this little (but big) book.
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