Contemporary Authors

• Stranded Tor (New York, NY), 2016
• Come to Dust JournalStone/Trepidatio (Carbondale, IL), 2017

1. Stranded LCCN 2017286018 Type of material Book Personal name MacLeod, Bracken, author. Main title Stranded / Bracken McLeod. Edition First edition. Published/Produced New York : Tor, A Tom Doherty Associates Book, 2016. Description 299 pages ; 25 cm ISBN 9780765382436 (hardcover) 0765382431 (hardcover) CALL NUMBER PS3613.A27395 S77 2016 Copy 1 Request in Jefferson or Adams Building Reading Rooms https://lccn.loc.gov/2017937092 MacLeod, Bracken. Come to dust / Bracken MacLeod ; [edited by] Sean Leonard. Carbondale, IL : JournalStone - Trepidatio Pub., 2017. pages cm ISBN: 9781945373664 (pbk. : alk. paper)9781945373671 (e-bk. : alk. paper)

• Thirteen Views of the Suicide Woods - 2017 ChiZine Publications, Peterborough, Ontario, Canada
• Mountain Home - 2013 Books of the Dead,
• White Knight - 2014 One Eye Press,

• Bracken MacLeod Home Page - http://brackenmacleod.wixsite.com/author-site/bio

  ABOUT BRACKEN MACLEOD
  Bracken MacLeod has worked as a martial arts teacher, a university philosophy instructor, for a children's non-profit, and as a trial attorney. His short fiction has appeared in various magazines and anthologies including Shotgun Honey, Sex and Murder Magazine, Femme Fatale: Erotic Tales of Dangerous Women, Ominous Realities, Eulogies III, Wicked Tales, Beat to a Pulp, Protectors 2: Heroes, ThugLit, LampLight, Splatterpunk, and Shock Totem Magazine.

  He is the author of the novels STRANDED and MOUNTAIN HOME, a short story collection from ChiZine Publications titled 13 VIEWS OF THE SUICIDE WOODS, and a novella titled WHITE KNIGHT.
  ​
  His new novel, COME TO DUST, is coming in June 2017 from Trepidatio Publishing.

  He lives in New England and is currently at work on his next novel.

• Amazon - https://www.amazon.com/Bracken-MacLeod/e/B0095ZKR5Y

  Bracken MacLeod
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  Bracken MacLeod has worked as a martial arts teacher, a university philosophy instructor, for a children's non-profit, and as a trial attorney. His short fiction has appeared in various magazines and anthologies including Shotgun Honey, Sex and Murder Magazine, Femme Fatale: Erotic Tales of Dangerous Women, Ominous Realities, Eulogies III, Wicked Tales, Beat to a Pulp, Protectors 2: Heroes, ThugLit, LampLight, Splatterpunk, and Shock Totem Magazine.

  He is the author of MOUNTAIN HOME, a novella titled WHITE KNIGHT, and his new novel, STRANDED, is coming in 2016 from TOR Books.

  He lives in New England and is currently at work on his next novel.

• Ginger Nuts of Horror - http://gingernutsofhorror.com/interviews/views-from-the-wood-an-interview-with-bracken-macleod

  QUOTED: "Despite the title, it’s a collection of 19 stories, four of which have never been published before. Though not a complete collection of my short fiction, this book spans the last six years of my publishing career, highlighting my favorite stories with a similar tone and intent. The work varies from crime to suspense to supernatural horror and weird writing, but I think they all possess the same heart (they pass it around after each taking a bite)."

  VIEWS FROM THE WOOD: AN INTERVIEW WITH BRACKEN MACLEOD

  14/3/2017 4 Comments

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  Bracken MacLeod is the author of three novels, a novella, and a short story collection from ChiZine Publications titled, 13 Views of the Suicide Woods (read our review of 13 Views here) . His novel, Stranded released last year by Tor Books was just nominated for a Bram Stoker Award for Superior Achievement in a Novel.
  "Bracken MacLeod writes dark, human stories of horror and modern noir. Absolutely one of the brightest stars of the next generation!"

  Christopher Golden, New York Times bestselling author of Snowblind and Ararat
  Q: Could you tell the readers a little bit about yourself?

  A: In my past life I was a martial arts teacher, a university philosophy instructor, and a lawyer in non-profit, public service, and private practice. Until publishing, my resume reads like a guy who just can’t get along with others. I’m not always combative, but being oppositional comes very naturally to me.

  Q: What do you like to do when you're not writing?

  A: I’m a stay at home dad, so when I’m not writing, I’m enjoying time with my son. He’s a creative kid, and loves drawing, painting, and sculpting. He’s a huge fan of art museums and the Lego store, so I spend a considerable amount of time coloring and playing with Legos. I know. Not very scary unless you have to walk through the house at night in bare feet. My life is whimsical, suckers!

  Q: Other than the horror genre, what else has been a major influence on your writing?

  A: As pretentious as it sounds, existential philosophy. I studied it in college and grad school, and I keep coming back to those ideas when I sit down to write. Stranded is a very existential novel. Sure, it’s a fun book with people being awful to each other and things blowing up, but I also wanted it to be about identity, who we are versus who we want to be, and about directly confronting one’s own self in a very hostile way. I’m pretty sure my mind is forever warped by my philosophical training.

  Q: The term horror, especially when applied to fiction always carries such heavy connotations. What’s your feeling on the term “horror” and what do you think we can do to break past these assumptions?

  A: I think the term is often unfairly maligned, but it is a fault of our own, really. A significant part of our problem is language. It’s just like politics. People outside the genre frame the debate about horror using their language, and then we embrace it like they’ve done us a favor setting the goal posts out. Every time someone uses the phrase “gratuitous” to refer to a subjective threshold of taste instead of the essentiality of violence to the story, we diminish the genre. Every single god damned time we refer to some form or another of horror story-telling as “torture porn” we cut ourselves off at the knees. That’s not our phrase. We didn’t coin it. Someone else did so they could broadly dismiss what we do as prurient and lacking social value. Yeah, there are a lot of shitty books and movies out there in genre that rest on inessential violence and are meant to be titillating for their own sake. But we only have ourselves to blame for horror’s reputation if we just accept the outsiders’ definitions of our faults and use them as a shorthand instead of actually debating in accurate and honest words why something succeeds or fails as a narrative.

  My apologies for that outburst. I will step off my soapbox now. Fuckin’ “torture porn.” *spits*

  Q: A lot of good horror movements have arisen as a direct result of the socio/political climate, considering the current state of the world where do you see horror going in the next few years?

  A: I was on a panel recently where a couple of my colleagues were speculating that we were about to see a big resurgence in post-apocalyptic and dystopian stories. I respectfully disagree. Those markets have been glutted in the last decade and I think people are tired of them. If you want to see what’s coming down the road, you don’t need to look any further than the success of Jordan Peele's “Get Out.” Social horror is the thing looming on the horizon. Between the cultural climate in the Mother Country and here in the States stirred by the successes of Brexit and Trump, I think people are (rightfully) afraid of what is going to happen as a result of the resurgence in nationalist-identity politics and social isolationism. What’s the next bug-eyed monster hiding in the dark. WE are the next bug-eyed monster hiding in the dark.

  Q: What are the books and films that helped to define you as an author?

  A: How much space have I got? The short answer is among books, I’d say The Damnation Game by Clive Barker, Off Season by Jack Ketchum, The Plague and The Stranger by Albert Camus, Beasts by Joyce Carol Oates, and The Informers by Bret Easton Ellis are some of the most influential on me. Among recent influences, I’d have to say that The Road by Cormac McCarthy has shaped my aesthetic and style as much as anything I read as a younger person.

  Concerning movies, anyone who’s read Stranded knows that John Carpenter’s The Thing and Ridley Scott’s Alien are a part of my DNA. All of David Cronenberg’s early work and Tobe Hooper’s Texas Chainsaw Massacre were also hugely formative for me. Today, I feel inspired by the recent trend in horror films like The VVitch, It Follows, The Invitation, and House of the Devil. I keep going back to these new movies because they’re tickling a spot in my imagination that I want to scratch hard.

  Q: What new and upcoming authors do you think we should take notice off?

  A: I think people need to be paying attention to Phillip Fracassi, Michael Wehunt, Michael Griffin, Livia Llewellyn, John Darnielle, Mercedes M. Yardley, and Damien Angelica Walters. There are so many more I could list. This is really an incredible time to be a fan of dark genre writers, but off the top of my head, these are the ones who’ve been blowing me away lately.

  Q: How would you describe your writing style?

  A: Character-driven and emotional. I like plot, but what keeps me interested in a story is not how many car chases or chainsaws there are, but what those encounters do to the people involved in them. It’s why I’m such a devoted outliner. I like to have the plot mapped out from start to finish before I begin so I can focus on the emotional lives of the characters while I write. I want to know where they’re going before we start out. What they feel about what’s happening to them is what I discover along the way.

  Q: Are there any reviews of your work, positive or negative that have stayed with you?

  A: I prefer to keep a healthy distance from reader reviews. Don’t misunderstand, I appreciate them, and they’re good for sales, but I suspect that if I’m going to put a lot of weight behind the five star reviews on Amazon or Goodreads, I have to take the one star reviews as seriously. The most interesting critical review I got recently was from someone who said that, although they enjoyed the book, since I didn’t answer every question in overt detail, they’d “basically read the book for nothing.” I feel for that reader, but I don’t believe that every single thing in a book needs to be dissected and laid bare. I like ambiguity in story telling. I like to leave some things up to the reader to decide for themselves. At the same time, I think I leave pretty well staked sign posts along the way. Read for theme and subtext and you’ll get all the answers you’re looking for.

  Q: What aspects of writing to do you find the most difficult?

  A: I second guess myself a lot when it comes to plot. I hate deus ex machina solutions and ascribe to Bradbury’s rule that any coincidence that gets characters into trouble is fine, but coincidences that get them out of trouble are unacceptable. I spend a lot of time making sure that the way out of any problem is set up believably and well enough that a reader won’t ever say, “Well, that was fucking convenient.”

  Q: Is there one subject you would never write about as an author?

  A: I don’t think there’s a subject I’d never write about, but there are perspectives I wouldn’t. By way of example, my books have diverse casts because I want them to honestly reflect the world I live in. While I want to include well-drawn Black and LGBT+ characters in my work, I would never write a book about the experience of being Black or LGBT+. Those aren’t my stories to tell. I have an obligation as a writer to depict the world as it really is (even when it’s about things that don’t really exist), and that means writing with diversity when that reflected the reality of the setting, but I also think I have an obligation to know when to talk and when to listen.

  Q: How important are names to you in your books? Do you choose the names based on liking the way it sounds or the meaning?

  A: Names are pretty important to me. I tend to pick them either based on a personal relevance or some kind of implication that can be drawn from the name itself. The protagonist in my first novel, Mountain Home , is named Lynnea Lowry, after my two favorite scream queens, Lynnea Quigley and Lyn Lowry. Nothing too deep there, but it made the character feel right to me. Made her come alive. By contrast, the child at the center of my latest novel, Come To Dust is named Sophie because of the etymological implication of her name. “Sofía” is Greek word for “wisdom.” Philosofía/philosophy is the love or pursuit of wisdom. And Sophie in the book is a catalyst for other characters’ self-realization and changing views of the world and their place in it. She is a wellspring of personal wisdom for them.

  If the reader catches that, great. If they don’t, I hope they name at least has a rhythm in the prose that isn’t distracting. I don’t think I’d ever name a character Balthazar or Gertrude just because those names are clunky. (All apologies to every last Balthazar or Gertrude reading this now. Shit. I guess I just named the protagonists of my next novel.)

  Q: Writing, is not a static process, how have you developed as a writer over the years?

  A: Length is my big victory. I think I’ve learned how to tell a longer story so that it remains engaging, but doesn’t feel padded. My first couple of works were short and propulsive, but that didn’t make them terribly marketable. I’m not writing Stephen King sized doorstops by any stretch of the imagination, but I have learned how to sit a little longer with the story and let it breathe when it needs to instead of just jamming down the pedal until the finish line.

  Q: What tools do you feel are must-haves for writers?

  A: FOCUS! Keep your eye on the goal. I struggle with distraction and over-extension. I’d say focus is one of the tools that writers must hone and keep sharp. It’s really tempting to follow that shiny new idea down a garden path while you’re in the middle of this story or that novel. Don’t. Make notes for that shiny new idea, write the outline, and then go back and finish the first thing you started. If the idea that’s teasing you is good enough, it’ll wait. Having a half dozen unfinished things isn’t as good for growth or success as a writer as having finished one thing that’s really good.

  Q: What is the best piece of advice you ever received with regards to your writing?

  A: The best piece of advice I got as a writer was from Adrian Van Young and KL Pereria, both formerly of the Grub Street writers’ workshops in Boston, telling me not to flinch. Linger in that moment. They encouraged me to sit in uncomfortable scenes, to let them set in for the reader so they have real impact. Until then, I was always second guessing whether I was going too far with a piece of violence or something scary. I’d look away too soon and undercut what I was trying to do. They are the ones who convinced me that, like comedy, horror is all about timing. You don’t just have to hit the beats before the punch line just right, you have to give the audience time to get the joke, and let it set in. Pause for applause. Of course, you can sit too long. Again, it’s about knowing the beats of the story. How long to wait with the aftermath of something awful, and just when to move on.

  Q: Getting your worked noticed is one of the hardest things for a writer to achieve, how have you tried to approach this subject?

  A: Marketing is super hard for me. In person, people say I can charm a rock. But that takes a lot of will and booze to accomplish. Elsewhere, I’m not so capable. Nietzsche wrote a book called Ecce Homo (“Behold the Man”), with chapters titled, "Why I Am So Wise", "Why I Am So Clever", "Why I Write Such Good Books" and "Why I Am a Destiny." I wish I had that kind of confidence (ironic or not). Trying to get noticed for me is a battle of strangling false modesty, trying to adequately express honest confidence, and not sound like an arrogant fuckface the rest of the time.

  I think the way I approach getting noticed is to try to make my social media (at the least) about something other than the writing. I hope that people will keep coming back to the Facebook or Twitter pages to see what I post about the real me. And then, hopefully, on the occasion I plug a book, they’ll be willing to take a look because I haven’t been hustling them the whole time.

  So the TL;DR version is: be yourself. Don’t always be closing. People want to enjoy things, and I think that’s enhanced when they know you’re interested in more than just getting them to buy a book.

  Q: To many writers, the characters they write become like children, who is your favourite child, and who is your least favourite to write for and why?

  A: SO HARD! I think my favorite is a tie between Lyn in Mountain Home and Mitch in the forthcoming novel, Come To Dust. Both are people at points in their lives where they have to learn how to shake off the armor they’ve strapped themselves into and take real risks. They’re vulnerable in a way that The Prosecutor in White Knight and Noah in Stranded aren’t, which is more fun to write. Characters who don’t know how to break down the doors are more interesting to me. Getting them through that obstacle is the point of the story. What’s on the other side (usually something very fucking scary) is the icing.

  My least favorite character to write was probably Beau from Mountain Home . He’s such an amazing prick, I wanted to kill him early in the book. But he is the embodiment of everything wrong in Lyn’s world at that time. Of course, he needs to last until the final chapter, just so that there’s a challenge for her to rise to meet inside the diner as well as outside! It made me feel like shit to try to get into his head, though.

  Q: What piece of your own work are you most proud of?

  A: Another difficult question. I am proud of all my work, but at the moment, the one I’m most satisfied with is Come to Dust. That book almost never happened (for reasons I discuss in the Afterword to the novel), and the fact that I was able to finish it makes me incredibly happy.

  Of course, Stranded being nominated for a Bram Stoker Award makes me super proud as well. I love that book for all the reasons that are obvious on its face. It’s a love letter to my biggest influences from John Carpenter’s the Thing and Ridley Scott’s Alien, to Yukio Mishima and Albert Camus. There’s a ton of me in that book.

  Q: And are there any that you would like to forget about?

  A: No. There are a couple of stories I don’t think reflect who I am as a writer any more, and a couple that I wish had been published better than they were. But I don’t have anything I wish didn’t exist. I like who I was at the time I wrote any given piece. That’s more important than liking the piece forever.

  Q: For those who haven’t read any of your books, which of your books do you think best represents your work and why?

  A: At this point, I think Stranded and Come to Dust are my signature pieces. I’ve got the rights back to Mountain Home and revised it a little for republication, but Stranded and Dust are the ones that I don’t think I’d massage even a little if given the chance. They’re the ones who reflect how I want to be seen as a writer. Of course, if you want to sample my short work before trying on a novel, 13 Views of the Suicide Woods is the collection of what I think of as most of my best work in the short form.

  Q: Do you have a favorite line or passage from your work, and would you like to share it with us?

  A: I love opening lines. I think they’re the promise a book makes. A personal favorite of mine is the first two lines of my novel, Stranded.
  The void churned and swelled, reaching up to pull them down into frigid darkness, clamoring to embrace them, every one. A cold womb inviting them to return to the lightless source of all life, and die, each man alone in its black silence.
  ​
  Q: Can you tell us about your last book, and can you tell us about what you are working on next?
  ​
  A: My latest book is a short story collection from ChiZine Publications titled, 13 Views of the Suicide Woods. Despite the title, it’s a collection of 19 stories, four of which have never been published before. Though not a complete collection of my short fiction, this book spans the last six years of my publishing career, highlighting my favorite stories with a similar tone and intent. The work varies from crime to suspense to supernatural horror and weird writing, but I think they all possess the same heart (they pass it around after each taking a bite).

  Q: If you could erase one horror cliché what would be your choice?

  A: Violence without consequences. I HATE the ‘80s slasher sequel aesthetic where the villain is the unacknowledged hero, and audiences are waiting for the next sanitized “creative kill.” If the harm you witness on the page or the screen doesn’t make you feel uncomfortable at the very least, then in my opinion it is bullshit. Violence is ugly and painful and it leaves people with scars both physical and emotional. When a killer scrambles a two-dimensional trope character’s guts with an egg beater and then moves on to kill the Jock or the Nerd or the Cheerleader without there being a moment of shock and hesitation on the part of the audience, then I think the writer/director is just engaging in a masturbatory murder fantasy. It’s emotionally bankrupt. This is why I think the ‘70s were a superior period for horror storytelling. There’s not a comfortable kill in the original Texas Chainsaw Massacre or Last House on the Left.

  Q: What was the last great book you read, and what was the last book that disappointed you?

  A: The last book that really blew me away was The Secret Life of Souls by Jack Ketchum and Lucky McKee. It’s a wonderful slow burn observation of the disintegration of a family. There’s a dog point of view in the novel. With very few exceptions, I hate stories told from the POV of a pet or animal. Most of the time, it’s the same with kids’ perspectives too. However, I LOVE this one! I think Ketchum has a way of writing about animals that is affectionate without being overly-sentimental. He has the same kind of honest viewpoint about children too. He really gets it without being glurgy at all. The Secret Life of Souls is perfectly realized in every way.

  The last book that really disappointed me was a science fiction novella called Everything Belongs to the Future by Laurie Penny. It started off so strong with such a wonderful concept, but I just couldn’t hang with the way she chose to end the story. It seemed like more of an ideologically motivated dénouement than one that flowed naturally from the setup. Of course, it’s art, so your mileage may vary. Don’t take my word for it. Read it and make up your own minds.

  Except, totally take my word for it with Ketchum’s book. It’s the best thing I read in 2016!
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  From the author of Mountain Home and Stranded, comes Bracken MacLeod's first collection of short stories. These stories inhabit the dark places where pain and resignation intersect, and the fear of a quiet moment alone is as terrifying as the unseen thing watching from behind the treeline. In the titular story, a young woman waits for her father to come home from the place where no one goes intending to return. A single word is the push that may break a man and save a life. The members of a winemaking community celebrate the old time religion found flowing in the blood of the vine. A desperate man seeking a miracle cure gets more than a peek behind the curtain of Dr. Morningstar's Psychic Surgery. A child who dreams of escaping on leather wings finds rescue in dark water instead. Looking back over a life, a homeless veteran must decide to live in the present if he wants to save his future. In a Halloween Hell house, a youth pastor must face the judgment of a man committed to doing the Lord's work. Fiery death heralds the beginning of a new life. A man who has been carrying pain with him his entire life gives up his last piece of darkness. And a still day beneath the sun illuminates the quiet sorrow of the last feather to fall. Bracken MacLeod is the author of Mountain Home, White Knight, and, most recently, Stranded, which has been optioned by Warner Horizon Television. He lives in New England with his wife and son.

QUOTED: "The collection has many entertaining tidbits, but falls short of thought-provoking cerebral horror."

13 Views of the Suicide Woods
Publishers Weekly. 264.5 (Jan. 30, 2017): p185.
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2017 PWxyz, LLC
http://www.publishersweekly.com/
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13 Views of the Suicide Woods

Bracken MacLeod. ChiZine, $18 trade paper

(280p) ISBN 978-1-77148-411-4

In his first short story collection, horror writer MacLeod brings together the macabre and the offbeat. Stories such as "The Texas Chainsaw Breakfast Club or I Don't Like Mondays," in which a group of teenagers are imprisoned in a dungeon by their guidance counselor, are quirky; others, such as "Ciudad de los Ninos," in which a desperate father bargains for his lost daughter, are undeniably creepy. MacLeod's prose is rich in detail, adding depth and color to each tale, whether a vignette or a longer piece. However, his stories are peppered with scenes that are scary just for the sake of it, reminiscent of superfluous jump scares in horror flicks. "The Blood and the Body" pairs a house party with a freakish Satanic society, but the payoff is forced and jarring. The collection has many entertaining tidbits, but falls short of thought-provoking cerebral horror. (Mar.)

Stranded
Publishers Weekly. 263.36 (Sept. 5, 2016): p58.
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2016 PWxyz, LLC
http://www.publishersweekly.com/
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Stranded

Bracken MacLeod. Tor, $24.99 (304p) ISBN 978-0-7653-8243-6

Water, water everywhere, in the forms of ice and fog, is the element of terror in this claustrophobic horror tale of a trapped Arctic oil rig supply ship. Unpopular crew member Noah Cabot suggests calling for help after a damaging storm, but his bitter father-in-law, William Brewster, the ship's master, presses forward into disaster. With the ship locked up in impossibly thick ice, equipment failing, and the crew suddenly beset by illness, Noah must lead a trek across the treacherous frozen seascape toward their only hope, a mysterious structure that's similarly icebound. MacLeod (Mountain Home) carefully details his maritime settings, effectively placing the reader inside Noah's growing fear by focusing on his struggle to reconcile past and present, especially the marital tragedy that complicates his attempt to save himself and his crewmates. Unfortunately, that tight focus leaves little room for anyone else to rise above melodramatic portraits of implacable foe and unswerving friend. (Oct.)

QUOTED: "It's a well-told tale, full of visceral horror and haunting atmosphere."

Stranded
David Pitt
Booklist. 112.22 (Aug. 1, 2016): p51.
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2016 American Library Association
http://www.ala.org/ala/aboutala/offices/publishing/booklist_publications/booklist/booklist.cfm
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Stranded. By Bracken MacLeod. Oct. 2016. 304p. Tor, $24.99 (9780765382436]; e book (9781466887381).

The crew of the Arctic Promise, a cargo ship taking supplies to an oil rig in the Arctic Ocean, has had a rough time of it. A severe storm has put them off course, their electronic equipment (navigation, communications) is on the fritz, and some sort of flu is attacking the crew. As if all that weren't enough, the water around them freezes solid. Through the thick fog, they dimly see a shape in the distance. Is it the oil rig, or something else? The few members of the crew who are still healthy head off across the ice to find out. There's no denying that the story has similarities to Dan Simmons' The Terror (2007), but there's also no denying it's a well-told tale, full of visceral horror and haunting atmosphere. Fans of that special kind of horror fiction in which a vast and menacing landscape becomes its own kind of locked room should embrace this one with open arms.--David Pitt

Pitt, David

"13 Views of the Suicide Woods." Publishers Weekly, 30 Jan. 2017, p. 185. General OneFile, go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?p=ITOF&sw=w&u=schlager&v=2.1&id=GALE%7CA480195199&it=r&asid=6b1589ccec8308ad6628292b24e852fb. Accessed 11 May 2017. "Stranded." Publishers Weekly, 5 Sept. 2016, p. 58. General OneFile, go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?p=ITOF&sw=w&u=schlager&v=2.1&id=GALE%7CA463513551&it=r&asid=07938f719f6d7605b2dff27c759511e1. Accessed 11 May 2017. Pitt, David. "Stranded." Booklist, 1 Aug. 2016, p. 51. General OneFile, go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?p=ITOF&sw=w&u=schlager&v=2.1&id=GALE%7CA460761757&it=r&asid=ef744582924f9a7eb9d1be0f083b7d21. Accessed 11 May 2017.

• This is Horror
  Stranded
  Word count: 1238

  QUOTED: "Bracken MacLeod’s Stranded promises to be one of the best novels of the year. Combining the aspects of a thriller with concepts often seen in horror and science-fiction stories, Stranded promises chills and scares that will definitely send shivers down reader’s spines in the coming Winter months. In a year already flooded with exceptional novels and collections, we think adding Stranded by Bracken MacLeod to that list will be the best decision readers can make, as this one comes highly recommended."

  Book Review: Stranded by Bracken MacLeod
  September 23, 2016
  “Readers will find themselves reeled in by the narrative, letting MacLeod’s hook sink in all the way as he drags them through the icy waters to his own vision of Hell.”

  The Arctic Promise has definitely seen better days. No bearings. No communications. Frigid cold and supplies are running low. The crew is ill and growing worse by the second. As the mysterious sickness spreads, Noah Cabot is the only one unaffected. They made it through a severe storm only to find themselves plunged in an ominous fog. They are dead in the water. As the ice thickens, the captain continues to push on, burning up the engines, ignoring Noah’s warnings. There’s bad blood here, the worst, and soon there’s no one left for Noah to trust. The crew of the Arctic Promise are alone and dying, lost in a frozen hell.
  Bracken MacLeod is no stranger to the horror fiction genre. Author of Mountain Home, White Knight, and The Texas Chainsaw Breakfast Club or I Don’t Like Mondays, his latest novel, Stranded, arriving October 4th from Tor Books, promises to make him a household name. Not exactly horror, Stranded straddles the line between thriller and supernatural. MacLeod sets the stage immediately by dropping us directly into the storm. As we follow lowly deckhand Noah Cabot around the Arctic Promise, he skillfully fills in the backstory while continuously moving the action forward. What follows is a well-written thrill-ride that isn’t afraid to tackle existential matters with heart, yet never beats you over the head with the message. Almost immediately we feel this sense of dread, intensified as the crew slowly realizes how dire the situation is. Enshrouded in deep fog, the crew is lethargic, quickly turning ill. Weak, coughing up blood, some of the crew are able to make their way around the stalled ship, while others are too sick to get out of bed. With Noah only suffering from a headache and the effects of smoke inhalation, he finds himself alone. Unfortunately, he’s on shaky footing from the word go, as his father-in-law, Captain William Brewster, has it in for Noah in the worst way possible. Noah’s wife, Abby, died from cancer, and the two men have been bitter to each other ever since. And then there’s the accident. Though it wasn’t Noah’s fault, the accident left his coworker Connor MacAllister dead, and Brewster doesn’t make it secret he wishes it would have been Noah who died instead of Connor.
  One of the strongest points of the novel is how MacLeod handles informing his readers about the setting. There’s no info dump here at all as he expertly ties the inner workings of the Arctic Promise and crew politics to the main character in a way that’s easy on the eyes and completely accessible for any reader. The dialogue is spot-on and pitch perfect, moving the story forward at a steady pace. He also bridges in the backstory in a way that’s organic and integral to the plot. From the very beginning, we feel something isn’t right aboard the ship, and as the circumstances go from worse to dire, that feeling only intensifies. Strange things are afoot as the crew begin to grow jumpy at the weird hallucinations they see in the corner of their eyes. And even though he’s not ill, Noah sees these visions as well. MacLeod allows the feeling to remain ambiguous as long as possible, setting the stage for when the crew have no choice but to leave the ship and trek across the ice seeking sanctuary.
  After the dense fog breaks, the men can see something in the distance, barely visible even with binoculars, but there nonetheless. Is it their destination, the Nilfheim drilling platform? Regardless, the men make the tough decision of journeying across the frozen water. They really have no other choice; it’s leave the ship, or die a slow, frozen death. MacLeod ramps up the action and tension here, upping the ante when one of the crew falls through a thin spot in the ice. Closer to their destination than to the Arctic Promise, Noah has no choice but to make a run for it, dragging his dying crewmate behind him. And it is here that MacLeod cracks the ice beneath our feet, and shows us that nothing is right in this frozen hell. The world is unstable, and now Noah and the crew must face the ghosts of the past just to survive.
  MacLeod stretches his narrative muscles in the second half of the novel in ways readers will never see coming in a million years. Throughout the narrative, he’s been planting the seeds, carefully cultivating the logical yet unpredictable supernatural element, and all without making it feel like he shoehorned it into the story. The progress is organic, and extremely grounded. Though beyond believable, the concepts here are both cerebral and emotional, intimately connected at the heart and soul of Noah and the crew.
  If there were any flaws to this novel, it might be the slight suspension of belief required to make the leap to the strange and unnatural situation in the second half of the novel, but only if readers are extremely nitpicky. All in all, readers will find themselves reeled in by the narrative, letting MacLeod’s hook sink in all the way as he drags them through the icy waters to his own vision of Hell. The ending of the novel is one of the strongest endings we’ve seen for a thriller in a long time, closing off all the loose ends while keeping its questions out in the open, allowing readers to take what they want from the story. Certainly, there’s a message here, but MacLeod is only the messenger, what you take away from it is yours and yours alone.
  Already optioned for a possible television series, Bracken MacLeod’s Stranded promises to be one of the best novels of the year. Combining the aspects of a thriller with concepts often seen in horror and science-fiction stories, Stranded promises chills and scares that will definitely send shivers down reader’s spines in the coming Winter months. In a year already flooded with exceptional novels and collections, we think adding Stranded by Bracken MacLeod to that list will be the best decision readers can make, as this one comes highly recommended.
  BOB PASTORELLA
  Publisher: Tor Books
  Paperback: (304pp)
  Release Date: 4 October 2016
  If you enjoyed our review and want to read Stranded by Bracken MacLeod, please consider clicking through to our Amazon Affiliate links. If you do you’ll help keep the This Is Horror ship afloat with some very welcome remuneration.

• Horror Novel Reviews
  https://horrornovelreviews.com/2016/09/02/bracken-macleod-stranded-review/
  Word count: 524

  QUOTED: "This is a shockingly complex story that channels legendary works like John Carpenter’s The Thing, all while venturing in a direction that 99 of 100 readers will never see coming. It’s one twist after another."

  Bracken MacLeod ‘Stranded’ Review
  Posted on September 2, 2016 in Authors M-Z // 8 Comments

  2 Votes

  Written by: Matt Molgaard

  I’m not too familiar with Bracken MacLeod’s work, but I can tell you that his latest piece of fiction, Stranded is one of the best novels I’ve ever read. HNR has been up and running for years, so it’s safe to assume I’ve read a staggering amount of novels in my time (long before HNR existed). I know special when I read special, and Stranded is special, with very few modern works rivaling the brilliance of the novel.

  It’s tough to jump into too many details without exposing a few looming surprises, but I’ll do my best to give you an idea of what you can expect from this contemporary masterpiece. Noah is a young, troubled but resilient gent who finds himself at sea, surrounded by ill men. But Noah, he isn’t ill, in fact, he shows no signs whatsoever of being affected by whatever it is sweeping through the vessel. But illness is only the beginning of the problem, as the captain – Noah’s disapproving father-in-law – not only loathes Noah, he also manages to get his boat stuck in ice. All communication is lost, the ice is merciless, and supplies are limited. The crew stands to die slowly, one by one, unless they can find a way to free themselves from the ice… or reach what looks like another vessel, far off in the freezing distance.

  Let me just say that this story offers so, so much more than the truncated, spoiler free breakdown you just read. This is a shockingly complex story that channels legendary works like John Carpenter’s The Thing, all while venturing in a direction that 99 of 100 readers will never see coming. It’s one twist after another, one conflict building upon a separate conflict. Every bit of tension eventually compounding as a bloody crescendo reverberates through the reader’s mind. It’s an alarming piece of work, and a piece that will no doubt help define Bracken MacLeod’s position in the realm of genre writers. With one swift and intoxicating tale the man makes a major leap through the ranks.

  Stranded is every bit as amazing as the greatest Stephen King story out there. It’s every bit as amazing as career defining works from some of today’s absolute greatest, like Jonathan Maberry, Joe Lansdale, Hunter Shea and more. But the craziest thought – to me, at least – is that MacLeod may have another dozen tour de forces on his hands. As it stands, even if the man never writes another novel in his life, he’s given us one of the absolute greatest to see release in the last century.

  Pre-order it here, immediately.

  Rating: 5/5

• Financial Times
  https://www.ft.com/content/532ecb4e-a112-11e6-891e-abe238dee8e2
  Word count: 313

  QUOTED: "Stranded superbly evokes the existential dread of its characters’ plight and makes the empty white Arctic seem chillingly claustrophobic."

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  Stranded by Bracken MacLeod review — a clever seafaring thriller

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  NOVEMBER 18, 2016 by: James Lovegrove

  The Arctic Promise is trapped in ice in the Chukchi Sea. Illness overtakes the crew, who begin to experience hallucinatory visions. Deckhand Noah Cabot is unaffected, but he has his own problems to contend with: he’s a pariah among his peers, while the captain is also his father-in-law and hates him with a passion.

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  As the freezing conditions worsen and life becomes desperate, they glimpse an oil-drilling platform on the horizon. Once the crew get there, the novel takes an abrupt left turn. All along, MacLeod has been playing a clever game, setting up what appears to be a conventional seafaring thriller while laying the foundations for something weirder. Stranded superbly evokes the existential dread of its characters’ plight and makes the empty white Arctic seem chillingly claustrophobic.

  Stranded, by Bracken MacLeod, Tor, RRP$24.99, 301 pages

• News OK
  http://newsok.com/article/5533990
  Word count: 688

  Book review: 'Stranded' by Bracken MacLeod
  Ken Raymond by Ken Raymond Published: January 15, 2017 12:00 AM CDT Updated: January 15, 2017 12:00 AM CDT
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  “Stranded” by Bracken MacLeod (Tor Books, 302 pages, in stores)

  This book was built to catch and hold my interest.

  I have an abiding love for stories that take place in the Arctic and Antarctic. I particularly enjoy mysterious tales set in those locales, and I'm dead certain there aren't enough such books.

  John W. Campbell Jr. set the bar high with the 1938 publication of his novella, “Who Goes There?” The novella became the basis for at least three movies: “The Thing From Another World” (1957), “John Carpenter's The Thing” (1982) and “The Thing” (2011). The most recent film was a prequel to Carpenter's film, which remains among my top three movies of all time.

  I mention “The Thing” films so prominently because they function in the same way as Brandon MacLeod's book, “Stranded.” From Campbell up through the 2011 movie, writers and directors have recognize that the ice makes an ideal setting for essentially locked door mysteries.

  Strand a team of characters out in the cold. Add a macguffin: an alien from another world, ghosts, an unexplained illness, whatever … then set man against man, whether due to long-simmering grudges or paranoia or madness. The landscape provides a limiting factor, requiring everyone to remain in some proximate location, and imposes physical strictures such as frostbite, lack of food, insufficient water, weakness and so on.

  “Stranded” draws on most of those threads. MacLeod formulates a unique, “Twilight Zone” sort of tale that'll keep you guessing until the very end.

  Without spoiling things too much, here's a capsule version of the story:

  Noah Cabot is among the crew of the Arctic Promise, a supply ship headed to an isolated offshore drilling platform near the top of the world. Noah is generally despised by the crew because they blame him for the death of a young sailor, Connor, who got killed doing a job Noah had been assigned to do.

  Things are even worse between Noah and the ship's captain, a hateful man named Brewster. Noah had married Brewster's daughter against the older man's wishes, and their union ended too soon due to cancer. Brewster actively seems to want to kill Noah … and that's before the strange things start to happen.

  One night the Arctic Promise sails into a dense fog bank. The next morning the crew finds the ship locked in ice. It's not free floating ice. The ship is encased in ice that looks to be at least two years old, thick and dense. Attempts to free the ship fail, in part because the crew has fallen desperately ill. Some remain functional, if only barely, while others can't get out of bed. Noah is the only one unaffected by the sickness.

  With communications down and no functioning electronic equipment, Noah and several others head for the only landmark visible on the ice: a difficult to see protuberance that could be another ship or the oil platform. Once they arrive, however, everything takes a sudden twist.

  To say more would be to ruin a perfectly good story, so I'll leave it to you to read the book yourself.

  The novel drew me in and kept me reading, even though it isn't perfect. Noah challenges his captain too often and too openly. Odds are he would've been kicked off the ship long before it neared its Arctic destination. Some of the other sailors seem overly sinister, as if the ship's owners set out to crew it with criminals.

  But the ice is wonderful. You can't set a story in that locale without letting the environment be one of the major antagonists. MacLeod makes the ice an implacable enemy, seeping away strength, crushing boats, opening unexpected holes into the frozen water below. It's enough to make you want to read the book while you're covered with blankets and drinking hot coffee.

• New York Journal of Books
  http://www.nyjournalofbooks.com/book-review/stranded
  Word count: 658

  QUOTED: "Bracken MacLeod has created a very satisfying web of tension and conflict that makes Stranded one of the most engrossing, readable, page-turners of 2016."

  Reviewed by:
  Catherine Grant
  “one of the most engrossing, readable, page-turners of 2016.”

  Bracken MacLeod’s debut novel Stranded feels like the love-child of Fringe and John Carpenter’s The Thing, dressed in psychological horror clothes that make it unique from either and a standout in its own right. The story is an homage to Carpenter’s film with a weird horror twist and is by far one of the most entertaining and readable novels of 2016.

  Stranded is the tale of Noah Cabot and the crew of the Arctic Promise. Heavily battered by a storm, the ship sails blindly into thickening fog that has also disabled their navigation and communication equipment. Unable to repair equipment that isn't broken and with limited fuel and food, they find themselves beset in impossibly thick ice and trapped with no way to call for aid.

  In addition to becoming stranded on the ice, most of the crew experiences a strange sickness that seems to leave Noah Cabot unaffected, which only serves to strengthen the crew’s distrust of Noah and heighten tension. As the crew becomes more ill and an attempt to free the ship from the ice proves unsuccessful, Noah and a handful of crew decide to investigate a mysterious shape an unknown distance away from the ship for supplies. The only way it can be reached is on foot in subzero temperatures.

  What makes novels like Stranded and film like The Thing so powerful is the mounting anxiety from the brutal conditions that make something as mundane as stepping outside or losing a glove a life or death situation. The plot can go from routine to dire with one complication, which keeps the tension like a tightrope. Combined with the toxic dynamic between characters and fragile alliances among the crew, the layered conflict creates the most engrossing, emotional engaging plot possible.

  In addition to strong plot, Noah Cabot is a fully fleshed out character that the reader cares about immediately. His situation is unique among the crew in that he has few allies and more than a few enemies, primary among them his father-in-law who is captain of the boat. The reader is engaged with Noah from the start. Without reader engagement with his character, the novel would still be interesting, but the emotional investment takes it to the next level.

  Noah is not the perfect “hero” archetype. His inexperience at sea and lack of discernment on how to navigate politics aboard the ship make him frustrating and a bit annoying; however, his love for his wife and child, loyalty to his friends, and ability to make quick, intelligent, decisions create love for his character and the reader desires for him to survive and make it home.

  A strange discovery on the ice propels the novel through the second act. There is a definite tone shift as any perceived genre tropes are blown out of the water in favor of an ambiguous supernatural threat as antagonist. Readers who come into the novel outright expecting the events to be defined by science or religion might be disappointed.

  Stranded is definitely a novel that is best enjoyed when readers come in with no preconceived notions or strong opinions about genre. Those looking for either a straight thriller or a hard science approach to events might find themselves exasperated. Go in with an open mind and just enjoy the ride.

  Bracken MacLeod has created a very satisfying web of tension and conflict that makes Stranded one of the most engrossing, readable, page-turners of 2016.

  Catherine Grant is an author from Providence, RI. Her work has been published in Lamplight magazine, Shock Totem, and various anthologies.

• Criminal Element
  http://www.criminalelement.com/blogs/2016/10/review-stranded-by-bracken-macleod
  Word count: 1211

  QUOTED: "MacLeod writes action well and knows when to use it. He also brings extensive knowledge of seafaring life, because it always reads true."
  "this is worth reading if you loved the isolation and paranoia of the former and the behavior of people under impossible circumstances and the fear of the unknown of the latter. It’s a fast read that will keep you wondering to the last page."

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  FRESH MEAT
  Review: Stranded by Bracken MacLeod
  THOMAS PLUCK
  Stranded by Bracken MacLeod
  Stranded by Bracken MacLeod
  Stranded by Bracken MacLeod features an apocalyptic storm and a crew's fight to survive the elements (Available October 4, 2016).

  Stranded by Bracken MacLeod is a gripping existential horror thriller that will appeal to crime fans. Though it is compared to classics like The Thing and The Mist—and it does have the creepy base elements that make those stories work, such as paranoia of your fellow man when trapped in a survival situation beyond your comprehension—to me, it read like a thriller with just a touch of the supernatural. But that touch is disturbing and puts the reader just as off-balance as it does the characters who must confront it. The author of Mountain Home focuses his sharp eye for depicting humans crumbling under pressure to a colder, unforgiving landscape.

  Noah is the least-liked crew member of the Arctic Promise, a supply ship on a mission to refuel and replenish the stores of the Niflheim oil platform in the Chuckhi sea. His ornery father-in-law is captain, and most of the crew shun him for accidentally causing the death of a crewmate on another voyage. He’s a likeable sort who’s not afraid to stand up for himself but is used to a spot far down the pecking order, piping up when he knows he’s right and having to fight to be listened to.

  MacLeod handles the tightly knit, all-male dynamic of a merchant ship crew masterfully—we immediately know who’s liked and who’s on the shit list, who keeps their head down and just does the work, and who can get away with murder. That keeps the story steaming along even before it all goes pear-shaped and the ship becomes lost in fog and trapped in ice.

  The feeling of Abby’s father’s fingers remained like a ghost ready to throttle him. The words echoed in his consciousness calling to mind the promise William made at Noah’s bachelor party two nights earlier. He’d grabbed his future son-in-law in exactly the same way and said, “If I ever find out you hurt my little girl, I’ll break your neck,” as casually as he ordered another scotch and soda when he let go.

  Noah has a daughter at home he needs to get back to. He knows his father-in-law, Captain William Brewster, has become unhinged over shared tragedy, and he is the target of his blame. But it never feels like the stereotypical in-law battle, where the young man must fight for the respect of the elder. There’s something else there, much darker, slowly revealed over the story’s course. The mysterious cause of their predicament is the slow burn playing in the background while Noah fights with Brewster and his lackeys for control of the rescue mission and, later, his very life.

  The communications are out. The ship begins deteriorating as if the years are spinning by like moments. Everyone on board becomes afflicted with a strange wasting sickness that wears down resistance and sharpens tempers, as the fog clears and reveals nothing but pack ice in all directions.

  But that wasn’t possible, was it? Hadn’t he seen water and the frost flowers only a few hours ago? Unless the ice had closed in like a living thing to grasp them, it was impossible. They’d have felt the ice hitting the hull, slowing the ship. Brewster would have seen it on the x-band radar. Yet, there he was standing on it. Ice as far as he could see—which admittedly wasn’t far—and no sign it would look any different if he walked any deeper into the fog.

  They spot a lump in the snow several miles away and set up a mission for it. What they find there—I won’t reveal—challenges their already tenuous hold on reality, as they find themselves in the “Land of Mists” but far stranger than the Niflheim of Norse mythology. The only enemy is themselves and the incomprehensible predicament they find themselves in.

  Because they are under pressure to survive in the brutal Arctic landscape, the philosophical elements of their conundrum don’t get fully explored. Once the realization of what has actually happened hits the men, I was waiting for Noah to feel the lure of the unthinkable, of trading the guilt of his past for a future he might not deserve. He barely wrestles with it, but he has a lot more on his mind as men of lesser mettle and more formidable strength make their own choices, and he must fight to save himself and the rest of the dwindling sane.

  A dim shape behind him darted forward, disappearing in a blur that blackened his vision and stole his breath like plunging into nighttime water. Noah jumped, and the small of his back slammed against the rail. His feet skidded and slipped on the slick deck. Trying to find purchase, he felt himself pitching backward, about to go over. His center of gravity shifted, climbing up his body and the distant surface below pulled at him like hands on his shoulders. He wished he could just drop to the deck, bend his knees and collapse, but his legs were scuttling with instinctive movement away from the thing that had rushed at him. Equally uncontrollable, his arms struck out, trying to grasp something, anything solid and unmoving. All they found was air.

  MacLeod writes action well and knows when to use it. He also brings extensive knowledge of seafaring life, because it always reads true. The mystery of the shadows and why they are mired in a no man’s land where humans were never meant to survive keeps you turning pages, without the use of cliffhanger chapters.

  I read this one quickly because I cared about the characters’ fates and did not want to leave this twisted reality where Noah must face his worst moment and learn why it happened. As a huge fan of John Carpenter’s The Thing and Stephen King’s The Mist, I will say this is worth reading if you loved the isolation and paranoia of the former and the behavior of people under impossible circumstances and the fear of the unknown of the latter. It’s a fast read that will keep you wondering to the last page, just like when MacReady and Childs share that last drink.

• Cemetery Dance
  http://www.cemeterydance.com/extras/review-stranded-by-bracken-macleod/
  Word count: 503

  QUOTED: "Bracken MacLeod has written a novel which undoubtedly will garner him a wide base of readers. Part thriller, part horror, part sci-fi, and all great story, Stranded is destined to be on the year’s 'best of' lists."

  Review: ‘Stranded’ by Bracken MacLeod

  Author Blu GilliandPosted on September 20, 2016Categories ReviewsTags Bracken MacLeod, David Simms, Featured, Reviews, Stranded
  strandedStranded by Bracken MacLeod
  Tor Books (October 4, 2016)
  304 pages; $24.99 hardcover; $11.99 e-book
  Reviewed by David Simms

  Stranded is the kind of book which generates plenty of hype and high expectations—like many others every year. This one delivers on all that’s promised, and more, in a genre-hopping blockbuster which draws immediate comparisons to The Terror, The Thing, and even The Twilight Zone. Strong comparisons, yet in this case, apt words. A tour-de-force of claustrophobic thrills which places the book in the same field as Simmons, Koontz, and Golden.

  The Arctic Promise contains a motley crew of characters which are drawn in vivid strokes by MacLeod. Noah, the main character, is on what he hopes to be his last mission before heading home to his daughter. The captain of the Promise blames him for the death of his own daughter, Noah’s wife, and holds no reservations about his thoughts of his son-in-law departing this world ASAP.

  En route to a rig, the ship runs into a dense fog and is soon stuck in ice—ice which quickly surrounds them, trapping them, sentencing them to a frozen death if they can’t find a way out. One by one, the ship’s crew falls ill with a mysterious illness, further compounded by the loss of all communications with the outside world.

  Noah and a team leave the ship and head to a strange structure barely visible in the distance. Reaching it just might kill them, but what they discover there might have them wondering whether or not that might be better. To deliver further details would only ruin many surprises and twists which hide within the pages. Each time the story seems to settle in, the author wrenches readers into a deeper, darker world which is nothing like what is expected, but results in a plot nearly impossible to steer away from.

  Bracken MacLeod has written a novel which undoubtedly will garner him a wide base of readers. Part thriller, part horror, part sci-fi, and all great story, Stranded is destined to be on the year’s “best of” lists and will likely become a film (because it needs to be). The writing is strong and the characters rich in depth, especially once they reach their destination. This tale will stick with those who are brave enough to fall into the chilled claustrophobic world MacLeod has created, resulting in a sense of never having left that world behind—just like the best of Rod Serling’s tales.

  Recommended as one of 2016’s most thrilling reads.

• MandyDeGeit.com
  https://mandydegeit.wordpress.com/2013/07/24/review-mountain-home-by-bracken-mcleod/
  Word count: 299

  QUOTED: "Bracken has created an intricate story with great characters and interesting plot lines that will keep you turning the page."

  JULY 24, 2013
  Review: Mountain Home by Bracken McLeod
  mountain-home-by-bracken-macleod

  “Lyn works at an isolated roadside diner. When a retired combat veteran stages an assault there her world is turned upside down. Surviving the sniper’s bullets is only the beginning of Lyn’s nightmare. Navigating hostilities, she establishes herself as the disputed leader of a diverse group of people that are at odds with the situation and each other. Will she – or anyone else – survive the attack?”

  Mountain Home is Bracken MacLoed’s debut novel, but you’d never know it.

  Bracken has created an intricate story with great characters and interesting plot lines that will keep you turning the page. The suspense starts at the very beginning and Bracken manages to sustain the tense emotion throughout the entire book.

  Mountain Home covers the plight of a group of characters that are put to the test when a local diner is caught under sniper fire. Some of the characters are out for themselves, whereas others feel the need to help everyone survive. Each individual learns more about themselves and the others when the pressure is on. Not only do the patrons of the diner have to contend with being under fire by an unknown sniper, there’s also something sinister lurking around in the forest.

  Hard hitting and well-written, Mountain Home is a definite addition to your horror/thriller collection. Bracken has knocked it out of the park with his first novel and I eagerly await his next one.

  I highly recomMandy this novel.

  Five out of five stars.

• Based on a Story by Angel Luis Colon
  https://angelluiscolon.com/2014/05/29/what-im-reading-mountain-home-by-bracken-macleod/
  Word count: 861

  QUOTED: "an impressive and enjoyable debut."

  What I’m Reading – Mountain Home by Bracken MacLeod
  MAY 29, 2014 / ANGELLCOLON
  I’m going to try a little something new on the blerg this week: a book review.

  Bear in mind, I’m no professional (no shit), but I felt that Mountain Home really deserved a full write up beyond a starred review. Though, I know those help too!

  Moving forward, here’s how these reviews will work (might even apply it to my beer and whiskey rants).

  Focus will be on story, characters and composition (dialogue, structure, etc)
  I ain’t spilling shit about the plot unless I absolutely, positively have to. Otherwise, it’s a spoiler-free zone.
  I hate ratings. Despise them. For books, though, since we’re talking a purchase, let’s go with this system: Buy, Read, Pass. I’ll explain more at the final verdict.
  Last point: Bracken, sorry if this review ends up sucking. Thanks for unknowingly being my review guinea pig!

  Ah, yeah, one last, last point. I bought Mountain Home with my own money on my own Kindle. As a fan of Bracken MacLeod’s short story work (check out his piece, Ciudad De Los Niños, in the last Shotgun Honey Collection: Reloaded (Both Barrels) it’s fucking great!)

  So, on with the show.

  Here’s the blurb for Mountain Home:

  Lyn works at an isolated roadside diner. When a retired combat veteran stages an assault there her world is turned upside down. Surviving the sniper’s bullets is only the beginning of Lyn’s nightmare. Navigating hostilities, she establishes herself as the disputed leader of a diverse group of people that are at odds with the situation and each other. Will she – or anyone else – survive the attack?

  Oooh, suspensey, huh?

  Well, MacLeod’s debut novel literally starts with a bang, then a splatter – possibly a ‘splort’. It’s a powerful and effective way to pull the reader in. It worked on me, I was ready to commit to the story within a couple of pages. I’d compare the story to a solid mix of old school Twilight Zone in regards to the ensemble of characters mixed with the disturbing imagery seen in so many of the splatterpunk greats, Ketchum is definitely evoked a few times.

  What moves the plot is character. MacLeod manages to take story beats that feel familiar and breathe a little new life into them with great characters. We’ve met folks like this before, but it’s a credit to the character work that we can use the familiarity to gain attachment. There’s the plucky heroine, the troubled cop, the scumbag pain in the ass, the junior scumbag, and a handful of supporting characters. Standard fare, right?

  Well, it’s the little details that pull them out of the gutter a lot of other writers would leave them. The relationship between father and son expressed in action, the loss of a spouse not doing enough to halt someone’s bias, the plucky heroine realizing that “pluck” won’t take her anywhere but a hearse.

  These beats and details transform what would be banal into something engaging and emotional. This is character work I can envy. Never found myself skipping passages or wondering when we would get to the next big moment. I enjoyed taking it all in.

  I especially enjoyed the piece’s flawed and incredibly sympathetic antagonist. Like I said, no spoilers, but MacLeod’s sniper is fantastic. An original and heartbreaking take on the crazed killer with no options. Trust me, the sniper’s story moments are the high points of the entire novel.

  MacLeod’s structure is also fine. He injects the right amount of detail into the gore and does a great job establishing setting and location. With the manic pace of the piece, I had little trouble understanding where people were at any given time. Dialogue was strong as well, even when it became a little melodramatic. Those moments were when I envisioned this story in black and white, possibly with Jack Klugman playing a role.

  Only complaint was with multiple moments where we were presented with internal dialogue. I felt it happened a little too often, but I understand the third person and multiple jumps in POV did dictate it to assure the reader wouldn’t be lost. It also comes down to my own personal tastes, so I don’t believe it’s a massive hindrance. Your mileage may vary.

  I also would have liked a little more time with the owner of the roadside diner, but understood why the decision was made. I’d say it was a good decision to limit their screen time.

  Overall, an impressive and enjoyable debut!

  Final verdict: Buy it in digital or print. I’ve got a half a mind to nab the physical copy. It deserves shelf space.

• Horror Drive-In
  http://www.horrordrive-in.com/serendipity/index.php?/archives/853-Mountain-Home-by-Bracken-MacLeod.html
  Word count: 543

  QUOTED: "While this is a very good story, it is pretty one dimensional with the scenery, but still keeps it interesting and tells enough back story about all the situations leading up to the horrific event at the Your Mountain Home Kitchen."

  Mountain Home by Bracken MacLeod

  Within a small roadside diner in Idaho, Lyn is just trying to get by. She knows that this isn't the best job in the world, being a waitress, but what else can she do? She can't move away, can't get anything better, so this is where she stays put. The patrons that pass through aren't always as friendly or welcoming as she'd hope. Today was no exception, with a couple and their dog that are the rudest she's ever had. While she puts on the charm, she hopes they will leave her a nice tip, what with showing off her assets and all to the husband. What she gets though is nothing more than a smack in the face. But as she watches the couple leave, that's when the first shot rings out.

  A war veteran who was brutally attacked now calls the area home, just across the street from the diner. Her name is Joanie, and all she wants is a little peace and quiet. She bought the property in the hopes that this could be her salvation, away from the war zone, and away from anyone else that breaths. What she got was a land developer that only wanted her home that she outbid him on, and instead he stuck it to her by developing the diner across the street and ruining her view. Joanie on the other hand is none too happy with this result, and the mans attempts to try and get her to sell.

  Pinned down in the diner are an eclectic group, trapped and afraid to make any sort of move for fear of being blown away by the shooter. What can they do? Who has decided to take their aggression out on them? By the time they find out, could it be too late to escape before something worse befalls them? In this fast paced thriller, Bracken writes to the heart of America through the eyes of a war torn soldier suffering from PTSD. What he accomplishes is a great story with a healthy amount of twists and turns within the diner itself, let alone what the shooter has gone through. While this is a very good story, it is pretty one dimensional with the scenery, but still keeps it interesting and tells enough back story about all the situations leading up to the horrific event at the Your Mountain Home Kitchen.

  Overall I'd give this a B+ rating and recommend it to those who enjoy their thriller mixed with some horror elements, while also being engulfed in characters you can relate to and imagine yourself pinned down next to in a bullet ridden diner on the outskirts in Idaho. Also it is a steal at just 99 cents for your eReaders, at least for now.

  Amazon paperback

  Amazon Kindle

  Barnes and Noble paperback and Nook

  Review by Kyle Lybeck

• Ginger Nuts of Horror
  http://gingernutsofhorror.com/review-fictions/mountain-home-by-bracken-macleod
  Word count: 526

  QUOTED: "Mountain Home is a superb hardcore thriller. Mr Macleod has a real gift for character and setting - the people in this story feel painfully real. Likewise, the mill they are put through, while extreme, has the awful ring of authenticity to it."

  MOUNTAIN HOME BY BRACKEN MACLEOD

  10/11/2014 0 Comments

  MOUNTAIN HOME BRACKEN MCLEOD REVIEW HORROR Picture
  A stray thought that has been rattling its way around my mind for a little while now can probably best be summed up by the following proposition: It’s possible that the only difference between a horror movie and an action movie is the presence (or absence) of a ‘hero’ archetype. Remove John McClain and his actions from Die Hard, for instance, and you are left with a really scary story about cold blooded mass murder and theft. Con Air without Nick Cage, Lethal Weapon without Danny Glover, Raiders without Indy... OK, that last one might be a bad example But you get the point.

  It’s a thought that returned to me forcefully as I read Mountain Home by Bracken MacLeod.

  Mountain Home opens in an American roadside diner, just at the tail end of the lunch rush. With admirably economic story-telling, we meet Lyn, the waitress, working hard and not getting a break. We get to know her, in a very short number of words. We understand her. We empathise.

  And then, on page 3, the bullets start flying.

  From there, it’s pure survival horror – or an action movie without the action hero to save the day. Instead we have the employees and few customers of the restaurant that survive the initial attack. Huddled. Scared. Desperate. The prose is clear and unfussy, and does a great job of letting the intensity of the situation and the plight of the characters speak for themselves. The writing is cinematic without ever devolving to purple prose. The pacing is also excellent, with a feeling of real-time desperation interspersed with skilful flashbacks, as the story behind the shooter is slowly revealed.

  Mountain Home is a superb hardcore thriller. Mr Macleod has a real gift for character and setting - the people in this story feel painfully real. Likewise, the mill they are put through, while extreme, has the awful ring of authenticity to it. The book evokes Stephen King's The Mist, Rambo, and the action movie genre in general, but has far deeper, realer and richer characterisation than that genre usually musters. It also takes great advantage of the things that prose can do that a film cannot, by exposing the inner thoughts of the characters as the pressure mounts, to great effect. This is not thrills for thrills sake, but rather an intense exploration of people under enormous pressure, facing slim odds. It's a story of blood, survival, and the costs of violence. Intelligent and thoughtful, without ever veering into pretension, with a crisp, clean prose style, I am mightily impressed with this book, and look forward to more work from this clearly talented author.

  Review by Kit Power

• Angela Yuriko Smith
  http://angelaysmith.com/2013/11/review-mountain-home-by-bracken-macleod/
  Word count: 387

  QUOTED: "An original tale that stands alone as a dark jewel, Mountain Home is an exciting story that serves as a commentary and subtle moral admonishment to take heed with our actions."

  Review: Mountain Home by Bracken MacLeod
  Posted on November 10, 2013 by Angela Yuriko Smith
  Mountain HomeFive StarsKudos to Bracken MacLeod on an excellent, well written and well edited book. The story took hold of my interest from the first few pages and never let up.

  The characters were engaging, I sympathized with Lyn, and later cheered her when she came into her own. The despicable characters were truly loathsome and I was drawn into a familiarity with each of them, even the minor figures.

  The character of Joanie Meyers was a particularly fascinating one to me. She was a prime example of how small minded cruelty and prejudice are often the catalyst behind catastrophic events such as the random shootings plaguing our society now.

  Mountain Home isn’t gentle; the suspense and description are in your face and unapologetic while keeping tightly engaged to the plot. There is no fluff here, no random scenes put in to fatten word count and shock. Every word carries the story forward to it’s explosive end. I recommend this book to anyone who likes suspenseful, fast moving stories that are rich in character development and story with some supernatural shivers thrown in for good effect.

  An original tale that stands alone as a dark jewel, Mountain Home is an exciting story that serves as a commentary and subtle moral admonishment to take heed with our actions: a small kindness can go a long way, and cruelty is a double edged razor that often makes the wielder bleed along with the victim.

  Well done, Bracken MacLeod! I will be looking for more from this potent author.

  Details:

  Mountain Home is available on Amazon, and you can find more on the author, Bracken MacLeod on his author page. He was one of the four authors to read for Journal Jabber’s Halloween Special show and did an interview on Journal Jabber a few weeks before to discuss (and read) Mountain Home.

  You can also find him on his blog.

• Diabolique Magazine
  http://diaboliquemagazine.com/13-views-suicide-woods-book-review/
  Word count: 891

  QUOTED: "it takes you to unexpected places and conclusions. You might laugh at a really bad decision and its denouement, smirk at the comeuppance of a vile character, cheer at well-deserved vengeance, or feel utterly despondent. It’s up to you to decide what you feel, and where. But then, that’s part of the fun of 13 Views of the Suicide Woods; it is an emotional treasure hunt."

  13 Views of the Suicide Woods (Book review)
  Posted by: Michele Galgana in Book Reviews March 13, 2017 0

  Bracken MacLeod is quickly becoming a recognizable name in horror literature. His novel Stranded has been nominated for a Stoker Award for “Superior Achievement in a Novel,” and Warner Brothers Television have optioned the book. I reviewed it for Fangoria, and can tell you that the novel deserves the praise that has been heaped upon it. In between Stranded and MacLeod’s next novel, Come To Dust, comes his collection of short stories: 13 Views of the Suicide Woods.
  One thing I’ll say about MacLeod’s work is that it takes you to unexpected places and conclusions. You might laugh at a really bad decision and its denouement, smirk at the comeuppance of a vile character, cheer at well-deserved vengeance, or feel utterly despondent. It’s up to you to decide what you feel, and where. But then, that’s part of the fun of 13 Views of the Suicide Woods; it is an emotional treasure hunt.
  Most of the stories in 13 Views of the Suicide Woods have been previously published by various outlets. However, “Still Day: An Ending;” “The Boy Who Dreamt He Was a Bat;” “All Dreams Die in the Morning;” and “This Last Little Piece of Darkness” are brand new. You can definitely see a progression in his writing. While the stories may not be presented in chronological order, it is evident how MacLeod has developed over time. It’s a plain reminder of “the more you practice, the better you get.” Of course, it helps if you’re already talented at describing the emotions and motivations of characters in the first place.
  There are plenty of stories to love in the collection. Like an anthology film, if you don’t like one, there’s a good chance you’ll like others. Certain stories struck a chord with me. “Something I Said?” is about a guy in a bar who purposely eggs on a horrible man into beating him so badly that he gets locked up. I won’t say why; the delight is in the unfurling of the motivation. “Ciudad de los Niños” is a nightmarish city full of children in Mexico who are kidnapped and transformed into pint-sized killing machines by a matriarch. The lush imagery made this story one of my favorites.
  “The Boy Who Dreamt He Was a Bat” is a heartbreaking tale of child abuse and daydreaming coping mechanisms. “This Last Little Piece of Darkness” explores similar themes in a way that was unexpected, but no less scarring. These two stories are filled with such detail from a child’s point of view that I was close to tears.
  “Blood Makes the Grass Grow” offered a break with its hilarious ending. It’s about a few bungling thieves that make a series of very bad decisions and crosses a unknown-to-them legendarily gun-happy author, as well as some resourceful pot growers in Maine. “Mine, Not Yours” is a new take on Christian Hell House theatricals and “Morgenstern’s Last Act” is a fantastic parable reminiscent of Something Wicked This Way Comes.
  “In the Bones” reads like it was written for Tales From the Darkside, and it’s hard to discuss this one without giving anything away. The more you read, the more you’ll uncover. Layer after layer unfurls until it’s clear that the bad guy isn’t going to get away with it — and the weaving in this story is ingenious. “Blood of the Vine” is about a small town, who have been inspired by The Wicker Man a little too much.
  “Pure Blood and Evergreen” takes place in a parallel world that has concentration camps for not only the “undesirables,” but for vampires, or vampire-like humans. “The Texas Chainsaw Breakfast Club or I Don’t Like Mondays” is an enjoyable escapist piece in which high school kids are trapped and chained in a basement by someone they trusted. Who will survive and what will be left of them?
  “Reminisce” is an uncomfortable exploration into a deranged couple and the rituals they go through to mentally resurrect their dead son. “Looking for the Death Trick” is a glimpse into the rough life of a prostitute. The title story “Thirteen Views of the Suicide Woods” is a sad look into oblivion in a certain forest.
  I haven’t mentioned every single story in this collection, but you can probably tell that I quite enjoyed the 13 Views of the Suicide Woods as a whole. If you want your next collection of fiction to surprise you, pick it up — or any of MacLeod’s work.
  You can order 13 Views of the Suicide Woods here or check out Bracken MacLeod’s site here. His blog offers glimpses into individual stories within 13 Views of the Suicide Woods.

• Unnerving Magazine
  http://www.unnervingmagazine.com/single-post/2017/04/17/Review-of-13-Views-of-the-Suicide-Woods-by-Bracken-MacLeod
  Word count: 315

  QUOTED: "13 Views of the Suicide Woods is wholly readable, and at several parts consuming and highly entertaining. ... There’s much more to like than dislike."

  Review of 13 Views of the Suicide Woods by Bracken MacLeod
  April 17, 2017
  |
  Eddie Generous

  13 Views of the Suicide Woods opens with the title tale, a somber, bleak story of a bush busy with folks seeking out the end of the road. It might be my favorite of the lot.
  There’s rhythm to Bracken MacLeod’s writing, a style inching towards literary while still scratching to remain true to his wide cast of characters and all the walks they convey. There are a few incidents of redundancy where characters or circumstances of unrelated stories seem to stroll nearly identical lines. Under gloomy skies, these characters are people at their worst, or itching for their worst. Happiness seems like a myth in the worlds herein, that is right until comeuppance or revenge meet their victims, and even then there are only the poisonous sorts of smiles.
  On the whole, this is a compelling collection of dark literature, leaning toward crime and horror. Aside from the title story, The Texas Chainsaw Breakfast Club or I don’t like Mondays (pretty much what the initial title suggests, really), Blood of the Vine (a Harvest Home kind of tale about a sleepy town and its offerings), Blood Makes the Grass Grow (a revenge/comeuppance jaunt about some folks not to be fudged with), and In the Bones (the story of a broken relation not quite on the mend) are the standouts of this collection.
  13 Views of the Suicide Woods is wholly readable, and at several parts consuming and highly entertaining. The blood is heavy and it is often. There’s much more to like than dislike, and that’s by a long toss.

• Ginger Nuts of Horror
  http://gingernutsofhorror.com/review-fictions/13-views-of-the-suicide-woods-by-bracken-macleod
  Word count: 769

  QUOTED: "There are stories filled with pulpy goodness, crime fiction and other darkness, definitely a little something for everyone."
  "For new readers to Bracken's work, this collection is a great place to start ... 13 Views of the Suicide Woods is a fine, fine collection indeed. One you'd be foolish not to read."

  13 VIEWS OF THE SUICIDE WOODS BY BRACKEN MACLEOD

  14/3/2017 0 Comments

  by Adrian Shotbolt
  Picture
  ​'13 Views of the Suicide Woods' collects Bracken MacLeod's shorter works into a formidable collection of varied treats. His novel 'Stranded', released last year was amongst my favourite books. I perhaps don't read as many novels as I do short story collections, novellas and anthologies, but when I do and they are as engrossing as 'Stranded' then I am a happy reader. This collection represents a fine account and progression of a writer that is on an upward trajectory in the field of dark fiction.

  One of the things that separates the good from the very good when it comes to short storytelling is the ability to capture a reader’s imagination in so few words. Some writers are able to do this with some ease, whilst at the same time creating an atmosphere that envelopes you like a thick mist and refuses to let you go until you have finished reading. Nothing typifies what I've just said more than the first story inside this collection. For those of you unfamiliar with the Suicide Woods, the Aokigahara forest in Japan lies in the shadows of the enormous Mount Fuji. It is a place where people are drawn to to end their lives, resulting in it being one of the worlds top places to.... top yourself! The Aokigahara forest is a place of immense beauty but has a haunting quality to it as well, similarly with Bracken's story. Coincidently enough, I watched a short Japanese documentary on the woods prior to getting this book. The documentary follows a resident geologist who throughout his studies has uncovered numerous corpses, suicide letters and belongings of those who have chosen this route.

  The first story in this collection sets a high bar for what is to follow. It is the title story of the collection in which a police unit goes in search of a missing father (Skip, who's been abandoned by his wife) thought to have entered the local forest to end his life. The parallels with MacLeod's tale and the Aokigahara forest are in full view-from the ominous sign at the forest's beginning, warning people to think about what they are doing, to the box of suicide hotline flyers which have all been taken. The story motors along perfectly with an uneasy, dark atmosphere surrounding it. The scenes with Skip as he has a change of heart whilst in the unfortunate position of hanging from a tree will leave you gasping for air and the final chapter is beautifully written. It left me feeling emotionally drained but eager to continue reading.

  After a brief flash fiction piece, 'The Texas Chainsaw Breakfast Club or I Don't Like Mondays' is up next. It is a story I read some time ago and one I was only too pleased to peruse once again. It feels like a mash-up of two distinct movies from long ago in 'The Texas Chainsaw Massacre', obviously! And from 1985, The Breakfast Club! It is another highlight in the collection. This particular story also shows a self-confidence in writing ability where MacLeod is able to pull two things that sit at opposite ends of the movie spectrum together and stitch them into a narrative that is something both fresh and original. Each of the characters has their own voice and who doesn't love a good 80s style slasher? Very cleverly done and well-written. I just wish it was longer!
  ​
  Elsewhere there are stories filled with pulpy goodness, crime fiction and other darkness, definitely a little something for everyone. Details at the back of the book list the publication dates of these stories and it then becomes clear that there has been an upward progression with MacLeod's writing, a confidence to work with longer pieces and a certain style and flair to his writing that all came together with last years 'Stranded'. For new readers to Bracken's work, this collection is a great place to start and although I'd perhaps recommend the before-mentioned novel, 'Stranded' as the authors definitive work, '13 Views of the Suicide Woods' is a fine, fine collection indeed. One you'd be foolish not to read.

• Hell Notes
  http://hellnotes.com/white-knight-book-review/
  Word count: 409

  QUOTED: "White Knight is a smart, stylish gut-punch of a book, a novella that crime fiction fans should push to the top of their lists. Highly recommended."

  White Knight – Book Review
  by Russ Thompson | May 2, 2014 | Book Reviews | 0 comments
  White KnightWhite Knight
  Bracken MacLeod
  One Eye Press
  ISBN 978-0692024065
  June 10, 2014; $6.95 PB
  Reviewed by Josh Black
  Given the combination of white-knuckle thrills, deep characterization, and existential questioning in Bracken MacLeod’s 2013 debut novel Mountain Home, this novella has a lot to live up to. In many ways it’s a very different work, but fans should rest easy. This is high-caliber crime fiction with heart. MacLeod’s penchant for moral ambiguity is in full swing here, and White Knight probes the sickening depths of violence and abuse with keen, devastating precision.
  The white knight of the title is an assistant district attorney with a tragic past, who feels helpless amidst bureaucratic red tape and people who turn a blind eye to everyday atrocities. When he goes beyond the line of duty to help an abused woman, that isn’t the only line he ends up crossing. Before long his life and the lives of others are at stake, and though he’s a good guy, he isn’t afraid to get a little blood on his hands.
  It’s not easy to get readers fully invested in a character in such a brief span of pages, but despite the blistering pace of the narrative, White Knight does this admirably. The tight, first-person narration works to maximum effect, the prose wasting no words. The difficult situations faced by the unnamed protagonist wear him down to the bone, yet still he pushes on, whether or not his decisions are accepted as the “right” ones in society’s eyes.
  Some of the characters he crosses are outright despicable, with no redeeming qualities. Despite this, they feel like regular people you might pass on the street. Just as in Mountain Home, there’s a lot of bleakness here, but it isn’t forced. Addiction, justice (of the legal and vigilante varieties), abuse, and a cornered person’s capacity for violence are at the forefront, and they’re all dealt with honestly and respectfully.
  White Knight is a smart, stylish gut-punch of a book, a novella that crime fiction fans should push to the top of their lists. Highly recommended.

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