by Ray Wallace

Guises
by Charlee Jacob
Delirium Books      


OVERVIEW: A new collection of short stories and poems by the reigning queen of "hardcore horror."

DETAILS: Go out to the mailbox. Open it. Reach in. Pull out what Mr. Mailman brought me. Junk, junk, junk. Shit, shit, shit. The usual stuff. And a package. You know, the kind that a book would come in. It's from Delirium. The package suddenly takes on a whole new meaning. It's now the kind that a warped, what-kind-of-sicko-thinks-this-stuff-up, man-that-shit-ain't-right book would come in! I couldn't wait to open it.

Back inside. Grab a knife. Cut through the tape. Open the package. Well, well, well. GUISES, by Charlee Jacob. The woman who gave the world the twisted and wonderful DREAD IN THE BEAST and THIS SYMBIOTIC FASCINATION. Would this latest collection live up to the depravity and sheer artistry of those previous outings? Only one way to find out.

This volume begins with "The Piper," a tale about a man, an ex-fireman named John Piper, who bears an unfortunate resemblance to a mass murderer. A child killer at that. When the ghosts of the killer's innocent victims are mistakenly drawn to John he must help them find peace. Or is it retribution that they want? "The Bloom" is next, a story centered around a bar called the Fig that caters to a VERY select clientele. One will not find the usual alcoholic in this establishment but a whole different kind of addict. "The Santa Ana Winds" tells of the plight of a woman and her undead child and their search for salvation. Then in "Four Elements and an Emphatic Moon" we are offered a tale of a woman moving through time, through different incarnations, from one dark age to the next in search of a lost love and the fulfillment of a promise.

A woman well-versed in the ways of pleasure, in the arts of manipulation is used by someone else in "The Begetting" to help bring forth an unholy being into this world. Heavy "Lovecraftian" influences here beautifully warped in a way not soon forgotten. In "The Current," a man bound to a wheelchair and the brother who loves him have their realities torn apart by the three strange sisters who move in next door. And then there is "Window for Anon," a truly haunting tale that paints a picture of a tormented woman, a ruined child, and a world caught up in events beyond its ability to comprehend.

After the cerebral terrors of "Window" we are gut punched by the visceral horror of "Red Meat" as we are shown one woman's grim solution to a lifetime of mental, physical, and sexual abuse and degradation. This is probably the book's most "mainstream" horror story and one of its most effective. And what better to follow such a brutal piece with than "Vanishing Point," another Lovecraftian ode chock full of monsters and Apocalyptic doom set on the day that "the Great Old Ones have Their picnic." The last story presented here is the titular tale "Guises." Now imagine waking up every day with a new face. One day you are beautiful, the next plain, the next hideously ugly, malformed even. Then imagine someone killing the people close to you over the years and then you'll have some idea—but not really—of where this story takes you.

And if all these tales weren't enough, the collection throws in a few dozen of the author's dark poems in a section called "Night Unmasked: Poems of Murder, Nightmare, and Love." Here is a gathering of dark verses that any fan of macabre imagery will more than enjoy sinking his/her teeth into.

Labeling Charlee Jacob's fiction as "hardcore" or "extreme" does not begin to do it justice. Here is a writer of immense and rare talent, one somehow capable of turning the profane into the divine. Her prose often borders on the poetic, which transforms the horrific imagery in her stories into something filled with wonder and awe. Comparisons to early Clive Barker are unavoidable and, really, what greater compliment is there than that? Charlee Jacob is a writer that all fans of "horror" fiction should be reading. Enough said. And GUISES proves that the quality of her writing is as high as ever and hints at even greater things to come.

BOTTOM LINE: Another great collection from this extremely talented author. Fiction and poems for any fan of very dark and continuously inventive writing.