The Howling 2 by Gary Brandner

The Howling 2 ( A.K.A. Return of the Howling ) is a horror novel written by Gary Brandner , published in the late 1970’s .

The story picks up three years after the events of the first novel . Karyn is married to a new man ( David ) and has a stepson ( Joey ) , life is going okay for her except for the dreams she keeps having of the events that happened in Drago . She is seeing a therapist to help deal with them . Meanwhile , somewhere just outside the city she is living in , the werewolf survivors of Drago ( her ex husband Roy and his new lover Marcia Lura ) plan their revenge . They slowly start to drive Karyn crazy , chasing her out of her home , to her parents , and finally to Mexico . Will she be able to keep her wits ? Can Karyn defeat the werewolves of Drago one more time ? Come find out in ” The Howling 2 ” !

This novel is a solid follow up to the original novel . If you liked the first one then you’ll like this one I think . It shares most of the same elements , and the villains have a much stronger personal investment and that makes this one slightly better in my eyes . If you’re looking for werewolves , gypsies , and a solid revenge story … check this out .

The Howling 1 by Gary Brandner

The Howling is a horror story dealing with werewolves . Written by Gary Brandner , it was published in 1977 .

Karyn Beatty was living a happy , normal , middle class life . She was married to a successful editor named Roy and she had aa baby on the way . That is … until she was viciously raped one day . The rape led to a miscarriage and several nervous break downs . Karyn and Roy decide to rent a house inside a village ( named Drago ) in the California mountains in order for them to try to get their lives back together . The villagers seem to be okay people but Karyn is not all that comfortable there , she starts hearing howling noises at night . She tells Roy but he believes that she is becoming unstable . So a gap between them is made and Roy starts having an affair with the local shopkeeper . One night though , Roy gets bitten by a large wolf and he becomes sick for several days . Karyn talks to a former nun who believes there is a werewolf in the village of Drago . Karyn will find out just how true that is as she continues to listen for the howling !

This is a well written werewolf story . It’s got a little bit of mystery , seduction , paranoia , as well as cults and other fun stuff . I wouldn’t recommend it for the weakhearted but if you’re looking for a werewolf story , I’d say give this a bite … I mean give it a look .

Hell House by Richard Matheson

Hell House is a haunted house story written by Richard Matheson released in the 1970’s.

The story revolves around four people : Dr. Lionel Barrett ( a physicist whom also deals with parapsychology) , Edith who is his wife , Benjamin Franklin Fischer ( a physical medium who was the only survivor of a previous failed investigation into the Belasco House ) and Florence Tanner ( a spiritualist and mental medium ) are all tasked with investigating the Belasco House in Maine ( also known as Hell House ) by a dying millionaire interested in the possibility of life after death . Two previous investigations have failed and lead to the death of almost everyone involved by the way . The team doesn’t seem to get along well at the start and it gets worse throughout . The various hauntings becoming more dangerous and divisive .

This is a dark and suspenseful book . I cannot recommend it to those with a weak heart . If you’re strong though , I can’t sing it’s praises high enough . It is everything a haunted house story should be and more .

The Great God Pan By Arthur Machen

The Great God Pan is a supernatural mystery story written by Arthur Machen in the late 1800’s .

It stats off with a man named Clarke agreeing to watch an experiment performed by his friend Dr. Raymond on an innocent young lady named Mary . The goal of said experiment is to open up the human mind to be able to experience a spiritual world , something our ancestors referred to as ” They called it seeing the god Pan ” , so of course it requires some brain surgery. Everything starts off well enough but when she sees the other side she begins to show signs of terror and struggles against an unseen source. She becomes in Dr. Raymond’s words ” … a hopeless idiot ” . The story then switches ahead years later when Clarke hears the story of a sinister little girl named Helen Vaughan whom seems to be connect to a few strange happenings in the town . The story once again skips forward a few years where a man named Villiers finds an old friend of his named Herbert , Herbert was once a well off man but he has now become a vagrant . When asked how he became this way , he replies his wife has ” Corrupted body and soul “. The story from there goes into an investigation of a string of strange suicides . Are all these incidents related ? Are you brave enough to seek ” The Great God Pan ” ?

This story is great , it’s a dark and mysterious atmospheric story which relies on suggestion most of the time . I can clearly now that I’ve read it how much influence his style had on H. P. Lovecraft ( most notably ” The Dunwich Horror” ) . Is this story for everyone ? No , I would not recommend it to people who can’t stand 19th century English prose nor can I recommend it for those whom don’t have a taste for the weird and macabre . However , if those aren’t a problem for you and you’re a fan of H.P. Lovecraft , I’d recommend this without hesitation .