'Mania' – Guy N. Smith (Sphere)

It hasn't been the best week for my mental health (nothing major, just loads of little things all ganging up together...) so I figured it was time to put down the books I was trying to read and have a crack at something a little easier on the brain instead. More often than not that means reading some Guy N. Smith; a bit of pulp horror keeps my reading ticking over and I don't have to think too hard about what I'm reading. Can't ask for more than that sometimes... ;o) Given my mental health was affecting my reading, it was more than a little ironic that 'Mania' was my choice of horror read. It did help me realise where some of my limits are though.

While the forces of nature create a white hell outside, a satanic force from beyond the grave is at work inside … Into this world step three unwitting travellers, driven by the blizzard to seek refuge at a country house hotel. A hotel where the guests live in a diabolical world of lunacy and madness, where demented creatures prowl the corridors, where putrefying flesh lies in the cellar and blood-curdling screams echo from the bedrooms … And, amidst the horrors, the monstrous spawn of a subnormal girl awaits a virgin sacrifice to bring the Prince of Evil to life...

Because I'm a little lazier these days, I'll usually just copy and paste the blurb and leave it as it is. Today though, I gave some serious thought to taking a particular word out. I won't say it, you've probably read it and said 'really?' to yourself. As you can see though, I left it in though as it illustrates quite nicely what a mean spirited little book 'Mania' can be. Yes, it's 'of it's time' you might say, and Smith probably didn't have a lot of say in the blurb but the whole book is like this, punching down on people who are mentally ill or have some kind of learning disability. They suffer from mental illness so they're more susceptible to demonic possession, apparently. It's ok when they die, they were asking for it, apparently. I'm not cool with that, not at all. Killing off characters who can't defend themselves is not only bullying but I think good horror needs someone who can fight back, not someone who can't. In this respect, 'Mania' really didn't work for me, not at all.

And if you're pregnant, you might want to give this book a miss (for now) because... Well, I'm not going to say much, just that we all know Smith loved to shock and he does here; we're not talking what Gonzalez does with 'Survivor' but it's not all that far off.

All of which is a shame because Smith does really well to set a scene that our heroes can't escape from and then keep building up the tension and the claustrophobia within the hotel. The stakes are really high for everyone and the energy from that kept me turning the pages. I had to see who made it out of the hotel and who didn't. And that hand... Yeah, I liked the hand.

Do you ever find yourself finishing a book that you dislike for certain reasons but there's still enough of the good stuff to keep you on board. 'Mania' is one of those books for me, a very mean spirited, and bullying, read that does the 'pulp horror' basics well enough to keep my interest. I'm glad I tried it though... Now, it's back to John Gwynne's 'Malice'.