PopHorror Let's Get Scared
(Note: I was provided with a free copy Starr Creek in exchange for an honest review.)
If someone had told me Nathan Carson’s Starr Creek contained goat fucking, I’d have read it sooner. Alas, I had to wait to read it to discover this juicy bit of goodness. But enough about inter-species erotica. How does the rest of the book fare?
Set in 1986 rural Oregon, Starr Creek features Heavy Metal teens, Christian biker gangs, and hopped up kids on 3-wheeled ATVs. They all collide when strange occurrences unveil an alien world inhabiting the Oregon woods.
That’s exactly what it says on the back of the book, and that’s the best way synopsize the book.
Starr Creek is the debut novella of Portland-based writer and musician, Nathan Carson. It shows promise: Carson is as apt with a pen as he is with drumsticks (he plays drums in the doom metal band Witch Mountain, for those wondering). Carson’s cinematic style draws you in and keeps you in, like a good acid trip, and the scenes and locale all come to life in his hand. And he manages to do this without bogging everything down with superfluous prose. Swift and to-the-point: that’s the way Carson writes and that’s the way I like it (uh-huh, uh-huh).
Starr Creek is populated with characters who are all a bit off-center – which is perfect because reading about Average Joe Dipshit is boring. Some readers may find the characters in need of fleshing-out, but I found them fine for a book of this sort and length. I don’t need to know what their favorite cereal is, or their favorite color, or what kind of toilet paper they use, etc. etc.
The only complaint I have is how the climax unfolds. I get that Carson was trying to make it as zany and batshit as possible, but shit’s flying by at 195 miles per hour as opposed to 180. The pedal needed to come off the metal a bit so as not to leave readers wondering just what in the hell is going on.
Starr Creek is wicked fun debut from Nathan Carson and shows a writer with promise. He grabs you by the collar, drags you through the pink mud and leaves you as satisfied as a horny unicorn at a gangbang. Pick it up and take the ride.
Starr Creek is available in paperback and e-book from Lazy Fascist Press.
