In the twilight world of Fantasy and Horror there’s been a noticeable step back recently towards so-called ‘Fairy Tales’, but with a definite adult tone. These are more akin to the original Grimm’s Fairy Tales, stories designed to entertain adults rather than children. I’m thinking of Sarah Pinborough’s series Poison, Beauty and Charm (2013), for example, which recently took the tales of Snow White, Cinderella and Sleeping Beauty to a very different place, but also Gregory Maguire’s Wicked (1995), telling of the Wizard of Oz story and even Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling’s collection Snow White, Blood Red, (1999).
To this subgenre of nasty Fairy stories then, we have Paul’s latest novel, which takes the idea of werewolves and Little Red Riding Hood to a rather visceral level. It is part of the Short Scary Tales’ small press agenda to publish tales that are both erotic and adult in tone. This is pretty clear from the outset when Michelle Marsden, hoping for a bit of action with her husband on a date in the ladies toilets of a restaurant who gets more than she bargains for…
The book is made up of two parts. The first, RED, is a novella first published by Paul in 2008. It introduces the reader to Rachael Daniels, a care worker whose errand of mercy leads her to be stalked across her city at night by something with evil intent.
Move forward to 2015 and Blood RED, the longer novel, goes back to events just after the events of RED. It returns us to the story from the perspective of Rachael, but also widens the perspective by bringing in a bunch of trackers determined to find catch and kill the monster that has been making their city a place of fear.
The book has a fast pace from the get-go. It is generally violent and bloody, and, as you would rather expect from a devotee, more in the mould of Clive Barker’s sexier, messier work rather than a subtle analysis of mass-hysteria and fear.
What works for me most is that the scenarios are credible, given the circumstances, and the dialogue is both accessible and realistic, giving the impression that this really could happen now. Although this is not a 700 page epic, the characters are developed enough for the reader to readily identify with them without the points having to be laboured.
In terms of the characterisation, the story uses tropes that are both entertaining and identifiable. Hunter, the leader of the trackers, is a pleasing hero and deals with a difficult situation in the manner expected, and there are some nicely done minor characters to expand the plot. However, Rachael is the focus of the tale and is therefore the character who develops most over the course of the story. What happens there is initially unexpected, though the signs are there if you want to look for them. The complication that the werewolf can shapeshift into the form of other people makes things pleasantly complicated, and creates situations that can keep the reader guessing.
My edition for review is the expanded edition, and as a result there’s a wealth of ephemera to supplement the story. We have the original introduction written for RED by fellow horror writer Tim Lebbon, as well as a new introduction for Blood RED by Alison Littlewood, which explains both the power and the attraction of fairy tales.
When I finished it, I did feel that Blood RED was written in a way that would make a great TV series or a film. Paul clearly feels the same way, as there’s an entertaining Appendix in the form of an extract from a movie script adaptation of RED, which gives you the chance to see how a prose novel can become a script.
Pleasingly accessible, fast paced and gloriously gruesome, Blood RED gives a fresh lick of paint (red, obviously!) to an old tale and adds a distinctly adult tone. Good fun.
Blood RED by Paul Kane
Introductions by Alison Littlewood and Tim Lebbon
ISBN: 978 1 909 640 43 6
348 pages
Published by Short, Scary Tales Publications, December 2015
Review by Mark Yon
