Book Review: Black Days and Bloody Nights by Greg Chapman (2024)
IFWG Publishing International
This collection was my first exposure to the work of Greg Chapman, and hot pops, was it a journey. Not sure if ‘hot pops’ is something anyone else says or understands, but it’s the expression that came to mind (perhaps for the first time, for anyone, ever) so I’m rolling with it.
Steve Stred is to blame for making this such a journey. He decided to write the most glowing, effusive foreword in the history of horror fiction, and his enthusiasm took the bar for this book and whipped it into the coal-black sky. That bar is yet to feel the touch of gravity.
See, most forewords are playful, clever, politely praising the work to follow and commenting on what a fine human being the author is. Not Steve when he’s talking about Greg’s work. Steve thinks Greg invented blood. His tattooed arms reached out of the pages of the book, grabbed me by my nonexistent collar, and sent a spittle-flecked whisper into my ear that promised I would love this book…
The Followers
And at first, I didn’t. The opening volley, a novelette about a post-apocalyptic survivor family falling under the wing of a outlandish Christian zealot who is two-parts ninja and one-part inquisitor fell a bit flat. It was well-written, with a straightforward, charmingly gnarly style that reminded me a bit of Robert McCammon (and still does), but it lacked a creative wrinkle to make the story memorable. The bad guy was into the more puritanical or fundamentalist stripes of Christian rhetoric, but this felt like a missed opportunity to make it something a bit more memorable.
I think a big part of this could be my fault, for being an American. Compared to Greg's native Australia, we're just much more exposed to extreme Christian communities in the USA, and this had a dampening effect on both my interest in the antagonist and his general creepiness. It’s not a bad story by any means, but I spent the latter half waiting for Greg to add something that really set this apart from similar stories of yesteryear.
Would this, curiously, be my sole disappointment in the collection? Was I about to climb atop Steve’s presumably broad Canadian shoulders and chase the aforementioned bar into the stratosphere? I guess you’ll have to read on, or share this review with a billion story-hungry people to find out. I am quite confident sentences like the preceding one are how you promote your work and build a following.
Black Days and Bloody Nights
Up next was the title story–and to my mind–a second chance to be convinced that Greg was the blood-and-bile horror messiah I was promised. A solar eclipse coincides with the quarantining of a mysterious figure and CDC doctor Sam Carlton is quite sure the abrupt end of the world is somehow connected to his new patient. A cyclopean, apocalyptic horror follows and the moon gives up its secrets in a way I’ve always wanted to see in a story. Seeing an author finally go there made me so happy.
This was a strong entry, and definitely blunted the initial disappointment I felt. But it was also short, and I wanted more to salve the wound left by what most reasonable critics would consider a perfectly adequate and well-written opener.
The Five Stages of Grief
The mother of a child with leukemia strikes a bargain with a particular devil, though not the one they agreed to. I really liked this one, a quick, wickedly twisty little story that kept upping the ante. Solid, fun writing, that shows off good creative instincts. Again, I was pleased.
Testament
I love epistolary horror. In this case, the 1891 journal of Florence Wiliams details the discoveries of a woman who returns to her family home to manage her declining mother’s final weeks. Her writings chronicle a gradual revelation that there may be something far more sinister at work than mental decline, as the old woman shrieks in the night as though being attacked, and the servants treat this behavior as routine. It’s a clever, creepy story that echoes Poe, ultimately a solid entry in what was shaping up to be a stronger collection with each story.
Marion Thinks Her World is Ending
A black sheep teen sees grotesque visions and is plagued by a smiling dark figure. I initially enjoyed this one, but it ended up feeling a bit like a shaken snow globe of dark elements and the story didn't quite stick in the end. Might work better for others, but I thought this was among the weaker entries in the collection.
With the benefit of hindsight, I recognize that Chapman is uniquely creative, and he will try things in fiction that many authors wouldn’t attempt. By nature, that means he’s going to have the occasional miss for most readers, and that’s fine, as his highs are especially high.
Like Father, Like Son
A widowed horror author’s young son has tastes in fiction like his father, only the bedtime stories he demands take on a life of their own. Now, he’s keen to explore more of his father’s catalogue. Pretty cool little story that I don’t want to give too many details about. Suffice to say I really love seeing an author tilt at an idea like this, and Chapman got himself a pretty solid story out of it.
Don't Watch
This was probably the tipping point for me, the marker when I recognized that Chapman wasn’t just a serviceable author, but a genuine talent. A hardluck detective investigates a group of dead film students, but they've left him something personal for him on their final recording. Creative, gritty, and sharp, this one reminded me of modern eastern horror and was smartly written. This was the story that I think really showed me what Greg could do, and it’s one of the best in the collection
The King in Yellow
I feel like this source work is really having a moment in the zeitgeist and Lovecraft’s popular revival hits its third decade, there’s more curiosity about his spiritual predecessor(s). In this case, Chapman makes a fun tale about a man taken into a psych ward who may be what he seems while also infinitely more. Nice reimagining of the themes found in Chambers’ original work.
Torment
Chapman closes the collection with his best offering in the outing, a fantastic, layered, horrific story that I wish he had made into a full-length novel: Jessica returns to the remote Scottish manor outside Aviemore where her father, a disgraced Catholic deacon, has died by his own hand. Now meeting with the local solicitor to manage his estate, she finds that the man known to her father’s friends and associates differs greatly from the one she knew. Staying at the old estate, she comes face-to-face with her father’s secret legacy, and learns that the decaying manor may not be as empty as she believed. This collection is worth picking up for this entry alone.
Final Thoughts
…so in the end, I got around to Steve Stred’s point of view, or pretty close to it. Despite having months of advanced review commitments ahead of me and a reading list that is over four-hundred titles long, I still managed to justify purchasing a few other works by Greg Chapman after reading this collection. While I didn’t love every story here, I recognize that he is an exceptional talent who hits far more than he misses, and occasionally wrangles a story into being truly remarkable.
I mentioned that Greg’s writing reminds me a great deal of Robert McCammon’s, and that’s an impression that only grew by the end of Black Days and Bloody Nights. He’s an effective, direct writer, not trying to be too clever but rather identifying good ideas and seeing them through with enough poise and style to make the most of their ambitions. He’s not afraid of a strong or layered plot, and that’s the kind of writing I have a clear affinity for. A lot of good writers today wouldn’t even try on some of these concepts, let alone get the story over the line.
All in all, it’s an excellent work that puts the gristle back into horror, telling straight-up dark stories where the shadows are always growing and the evil in the world doesn’t hide for long. I can’t wait to read more Greg Chapman, and I’m going to join Steve in evangelizing his work.
Score: 8.2
Strengths
Good, solid, old-fashioned horror stories
Ambitious plots supported by solid writing
Exceptional creativity in moments
Weaknesses
Many of the shorter stories follow similar beats
A few stories feel like misses
Best work in latter half of the collection
Black Days and Bloody Nights will be available on December 2nd, 2024. You can purchase it on Amazon.
You may also like: Silence in the Basement, Dead Letters, A Black and Endless Sky
