Contemporary
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Whatever happened to Igor?
Following decades of torture at the hands of his cruel master Victor Frankenstein, the once-downtrodden and pathetic Igor finally rises up and walks out on Victor, in the hope of finding a fulfilling life-less-ordinary elsewhere.
Instead, something wicked his way came, and Igor finds his way to Castlemaine, an accursed village nestled deep in the Carpathian Mountains, where terrors stalk the waking world and ale is more expensive than in London. Among the perverted inhabitants and spooky-goings-on, Igor meets Esmerelda, the beautiful but occasionally violent daughter of Castlemaine’s homicidal innkeeper. Together, they find themselves in a whole heap of eerie trouble, fighting dark forces and demons, murderers, mediums and monsters, spirits and zombies, and, naturally, a very disturbing nun, all in the form of five neatly packaged adventures.
The authors’ ingenious mix of the classic and the original, the subtle and the overt, creates a book that hardened horror buffs and sacrificial virgins alike will come back to enjoy again and again!
Here's what readers have to say about this book....
A fantastic read. I saw a lot of Douglas Adams and Graham Chapman here together with a liberal helping of gore all of which made me laugh out loud. My advice is to buy it as a holiday read and hit it in one go, then re-read it to pick up on the bits you missed the first time. I would love to see a follow up or, preferably, how about a five book trilogy? Thoroughly recommended.
This was a lot of fun and a really good read. Igor the servile assistant of Victor Frankenstein, decides he's had enough of lackeying for his unfeeling master and starts a new life in the creepy and mysterious town of Castlemaine, where nothing is as it appears. While it's a pastiche of horror, it manages to satirise lots of things including Brexit and the Internet, and if you don't like satire, you're never very far from a bad (but often hilarious) pun. TBH, I was surprised to find it was over 300 pages, as it never seemed to flag at any point. Hope there's more "twisted tales coming soon from these guys.
Not my normal type of book at all, at least I didn't think so. However, the story of how Igor escapes the clutches of Frankenstein and makes for a life of his own is as hilarious as it is captivating, with a good dose of gross thrown in. Joined by a pantheon of horrors finest, some more well known that others, the escapades of Igor and pals is a superbly written romp of the highest standard. The character development of the titular character, as he turns from chump to anti-hero, is a pleasure to behold, and I think I even pumped my fist into the air at one point. The authors have obviously had a lot of fun naming the characters, and also the different guest ales that Igor slurps on a regular basis. In fact it's been far better researched and thought out than my limited knowledge of the horror genre recognises. That didn't take anything from the book, but instead made me want to read it again, seeing what references and homages I missed first time round. The best compliment I can give, is that as soon as I'd finished I hoped with all my heart there would be more, and I'm pleased to have been told the story of Igor and friends will indeed continue. Well that's great to hear, because Igor and the Twisted Tales of Castlemaine was the most fun I've had reading a book in a long time, which is why I have no hesitation in giving it a rip roaring 5 out of stars.
A fantastic and fantastical romp through classic horror. Laugh out loud funny, with moments of brilliantly crafted suspense, and clever twists. Thoroughly enjoyable, brilliantly thought out, and left me desperate for the next instalment. A gem of a debut novel from the authors. The cover artwork also deserves special mention for its vibrancy. As a big fan of classic horror (Stoker, Shelley, Wilde, et al) I enjoyed picking out the references, and as a fan of fantasy (Adams, Pratchett), this did not disappoint.
Delightfully inventive and beautifully paced. It was even funnier than watching Nadine Dorries in front of the Digital, Culture, Media, and Sport Select Committee and there's no higher praise than that. I rate the humour in a book by how often I iterrupt my partner's reading of her own book to read out a particularly lovely line. With this book, I first did so on page 2. An epic read and I hope there's a follow up novel by these two authors. I loved it.
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