| Title | : | Erebus |
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | |
| ISBN | : | 0747407835 |
| ISBN-10 | : | 9780747407836 |
| Language | : | English |
| Format Type | : | Paperback |
| Number of Pages | : | 309 |
| Publication | : | First published May 17, 1984 |
Erebus Reviews
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This book scared me when I was young. A zombie outbreak on a farm. Dodgy animal feed. Mad cow disease. It is all there. I enjoyed this book.đŻđ
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Fun stuff from Hutson here, although not a very sophisticated plot and it (as usual) has the lead characters making dubious decisions right and left. Erebus is set in a small, insular town outside of London populated primarily by farmers. Our main leads are Tyler, a local farmer who just returned back home after college and a career in the Agricultural Ministry when his father died, leaving him the farm, and Jo, a reporter from NYC who was forced to flee the Mob and is basically hiding in the British countryside, working at a local rag.
A new chemical company located just outside of town has been supplying the local farmers with a new feed stock for their animals and oh my, does it make them grow fast. Unfortunately, it also gives them a taste for blood as well as passing on these features to those who consume their tainted flesh. So, quite quickly, most of the townies are turned into vampire/zombies and Tyler and Jo are forced to fight for their lives. Can they stop the evil chemical corporation and its plans? Can they manage to get the secret out? You will have to read this trashy pulp novel to find out.
Like I said, fun stuff from Hutson, but at times it almost read as a satire of the horror genre. I lost count of all the timeless cliches evoked-- you know, the car just doesn't start just when you need it, the flashlight burns out just when you need it the most, etc. Campy just does not do this justice. Still, it did evoke the 'mad cow' scare years before it actually happened in the UK and elsewhere, so I guess there is a bit of a portent of a tainted future. 3 pulpy stars!! -
I notice a few readers find this author a bit hit and miss which is a shame because this guy tells a great story. Yes it may not be as in depth as other books are but so what. You get a quick, balls to the wall book, this guy is not afraid to spill the gore and violence! Like I said in a status update, it's like reading your own horror movie. NOTE - there are scenes of gore and violence involving animals and even a baby so if easily offended don't read.
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A good, not great little horror novel. This was my first experience with Shaun Hutson, and I must say, I like his style. He writes in a very simple style and focuses mainly on action and gore. This is strictly pulp horror, with no literary aspirations. On that level, it was good. He doesn't have the insane plotting or deeply disturbing aspects that a Richard Laymon has. He doesn't have the crazy inventiveness of an Edward Lee, but still, he writes fun, easy to read gory horror. This book would make a cool film in the right hands. That's basically what reading this novel was like. It was just like watching a Grade B 1980s horror film. And that's a-okay with me. Believable characters and motivations are waylaid in favor of fast moving action and gore. Recommended for fans of pulpy horror.
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Got off to a very good and gory start only to loose it's way midway through - to the point where a couple of random characters were introduced seemingly as an after thought to accompany the protagonists on their plight. If this were to be categorized by modern standards, it'd be more thriller than chiller with a semi Stranger Things vibe.
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I actually thought that this book was a very good novel. Obviously we're still talking about a Hutson novel here, so don't expect an outstanding stardard of writing or an incredibly complex and intelligent plot, but do expect the usual blood, gore and horror along with the hot firery liquid burning down 'his' throat and knots of muscles tighting in characters jaws...as you would expect from evey Hutson novel. I think the reason I particularly like this one is because you can tell that he really enjoyed writing it. You know when you're a kid and you first watch Night of the Living Dead and afterwards, you imagine that you're stuck in the house with Ben and the rest of them. You make up this whole story in your head, based around the film, as you lie there in bed with your eyes closed. Well Hutson's gone that stage further and actually brought that Night of the Living Dead inspired fantasy back to life. And you can tell he's loving every second of it! As will you. So, do give it a read....we're talking about some really light, horror enterainment here!
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Thoroughly enjoyable novel. This one had it all. Vampirism. Cannibalism. Mad cow disease. Mad humans, what have you. There was no wasted time in this at all. I would have to say that with every Shaun Hutson book that I read, I become more and more a fan. Spawn was my favorite by him before I read this.
A small farming village in England is using a new feed for their farm animals from a chemical plant that looks more like a fortress. Animals start to go crazy and that's when the fun starts. Soon the villagers start to turn as well. A young farmer and a journalist are the ones who search for answers. Seek this one out at all costs. -
Experimental animal feed mutates animals in a small English town, turning them into killers. Likewise to the townspeople that eat the meat. A farmer and American reporter try to dig up the truth, while the evil chemical plant owner, who for some reason commands the British military, try to contain and cover up the incident.
The book is strongest at the beginning, with regular animal attacks leading up to human atrocities. It suffers when it tries to have a plot, provide scientific explanations, and draws way too much from I Am Legend and its derivatives.
It's Shaun Hutson. A quick, fun gorefest.
More reviews at
Trash Menace. -
Great book. One of my favourite Shaun Hutson's. I really liked his early stuff and I wish he would revisit some of his earlier work with sequels.
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Pretty fun trashy vampire novel that plays out more like a zombie story. If Slugs was Hutson's riff on Herbert's The Rats then this was his go at recreating The Fog by way of Salem's Lot.
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4.5 stars
Nobody can say Hutsonâs writing is remarkable but damn, if it isnât a ton of over the top, gory, schlocky, cheesy, dumb fun.
Though it goes down a slightly different route than most, Erebus really doesnât do anything to make the vampire genre new or original, however Hutson, in his typically glorious, trashy style, makes his baddies scary and a hell of a lot of fun.
Coupled with excessive amounts of bloodshed, action, and requisite explicit sex, Erebus feels more like a Richard Laymon story (without the obligatory kiddie porn and statutory rape). All told, this novel manages to be one of the surprise hits (for me at least) of 2022 and proves you donât need to write the next great horror novel to be successfulâŠjust make it entertaining and balls out ridiculous. -
I loved Erebus. This gave me everything I'd expect from Hutson. A superb 80's pulpfest that is packed with gore, violence and sex (often at the same time)
This could very easily be a Resident Evil story, written some 12 or so years before the video game, Erebus has all the beats of Capcoms zombie franchise. All that was missing was a 'big bad' such as Tyrant, which I'm sure will appear in the recently announced Erebus sequel.
Animal lovers should approach with caution as there's a lot of death and violence set on farms. Unflinching brutality that really keeps the reader on their toes.
Bar a couple of characters randomly appearing towards the books exciting finale that really seem to serve no purpose apart from a doctor was needed to progress the plot, I can't really think of anything I didn't like.
Yes, it had moments of dubious 80s insensitivities but I'm sure you'll be expecting those. What do feature aren't too offensive to be honest.
People may be more offended by the multiple uses of 'moist cleft' đ
Erebus is so OTT...I loved it! -
In the small English village of Wakely, something terrible is happening to the livestock: they are growing disproportionaly large and attacking every creature in sight. Could it have something to do with the new feed provided by local creepy multinational Venderburg Chemicals? And shouldn't people stop eating meat since bizarre things are happening to the animals? Since this is a horror novel, you can guess the answer to those questions. Before you've reached page 10, you know all the vegetarians in town will be fighting for their lives in a matter of days.
What starts out as a great book to read if you wish to give up meat (in the tradition of Fast Food Nation and Upton Sinclair's The Jungle) soon turns into a bizarre amalgamation of right-wing nausea (the main protagonists complain about the latinos in New York and the immigrants in Britain over a romantic candle-lit dinner) with hardcore pornography (would you have sex in a bloody bathroom, with a hole in your shoulder and raving zombies surrounding your hotel? I didn't think so.) Sadly, I don't think Shaun Hutson means to be arch or satirical - everything is written as the equivalent of a Jackie Collins bonkbuster, with entrails substituting diamonds. By the end, you are left counting the cliches, the plot holes and the body bags, though I do have to say Hutson is a master of sickening gore description. -
so so horror thriller by hutson...
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Oh wow, this one's going back a while. Erebus was the first horror novel I ever read. I loved it for its British setting and how it introduced the whole horror genre itself.
Erebus itself comes in before Mad Cow Disease was known, and yep, nowadays it would be considered a trope (contaminated food being eaten = people going psychotic), but back when I picked it up, it was just such a spine-tingling read. I never really lost that feeling over the years.
Shaun Hutson's writing has just grown so beautifully. There's few authors who can cross genres and have readers follow them as they move away from horror. But when I had my nose stuck in every horror novel going from Herbert to Barker, Hutson pulled away me away from horror into the likes of the urban thriller. -
Really good at the beginning , packed full of mystery! Also an interesting take on the vampire mythos but it mellowed out towards the end with a predictable ending. Good read but probably won't read again.
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also one of the early horror classics by Hutson.
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An entertaining slice of 80s horror complete with OTT violence and graphic sex. Yes, it's not the best written book in the world but it is a page-turner. I particularly dig the cheesy cover.
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4 / 5 for 'Erebus' by Shaun Hutson
Another new author (at least, new to me), as I attempt to broaden my genre-fiction horizons. Shaun Hutson is an English author from up north in Yorkshire, who is affectionately known as 'The Godfather Of Gore'. This is the first of his works that I have read, and I was pleasantly surprised.
From the cover blurb - "Something deadly is affecting a small farming community. A selfish and secretive chemicals group protects its interests regardless of the cost to the local people, or even the rest of mankind."
Hutson certainly earns his nickname - the gore in 'Erebus' is plentiful and beautifully disgusting, suiting the tone of the book and, in some places, really making the toes curl. Be warned - there is violence towards animals and even children in this book. Hutson's descriptiveness within the rest of the book is perfectly fine - not overly descriptive, or poetic or impressive in any way - but his descriptiveness when it comes to gore is fantastic.
The book itself is told in 3rd person, mainly from the POV of two main characters and dual protagonists - Jo, a reporter, and Tyler, a local farmer. We occasionally get asides from the Big Bad Guys, and we often get asides from the POVs of various locals as they meet their gory end, or witness someone else doing so. These asides are good in both ways, as the Bad Guy asides give us a better understanding as to what is actually going on at Vandenburg Chemicals, and the gory local's asides progress the plot and allow us to see the local people devolving into these bloodthirsty 'Zompires' (see what I did there?).
Hutson writes well, telling an exciting story through short, fast-paced chapters, keeping those pages turning at a fair old pace. His dialogue is good and any exposition is handled well, never feeling clunky. There is a fair amount of characterisation for the two MC's, and the Bad Guys hitman too, but despite a large supporting cast, we don't really get too much characterisation for them, and some of them do kind of blur into the same person at some points.
The story itself is highly plausible, and the plot progresses in a logical way, with the tension never really letting up straight from the start, only to ramp up magnificently towards the end. The gore and scares come more and more frequently as the book goes on and you do find yourself rooting for the MC's and being reviled by the Bad Guys and Zompire locals both. The real-life disease explanation is totally believable and pretty well researched by Hutson, and only makes the story feel even more real, even more possible.
It's not quite a perfect book though - there are some clumsily written and awkward love scenes, and a fair old bit of male-gazey sexism. Also, Hutson has a tendency to finish a chapter with a short sentence letting us know how many minutes it will be before so-an-so arrives back in town, or how many hours until sunset. This becomes quite grating after a few chapters and by the end of the book, I did find myself eye-rolling at the end of each chapter. The MCs reluctance to go to the police, in case the police don't believe them, felt like a blatant plot device and it stood out like a sore thumb. Finally, and I can't be too harsh here as this was written in the early eighties when personal computers were still a reasonably new thing.... but, the sequence near the end where a certain character instructs all the PCs in the building to 'self-destruct', via one single terminal, leading to the whole plant, and nearby lorries(!) and annexes, to go up in sudden explosions and flames, really did make me laugh out loud. This sudden and very naive piece of absurdity kind of gave the ending sequence a bit of a silly vibe.
Having said that, the rest of the book was great - especially the actual final ending. Nothing like a bleak finish to a horror book! Overall, a thrilling page-turner, with loads of scares and gore, and a story whose plausibility only makes the horror of the story itself even more horrific. I really enjoyed this book, and I look forward to my next Hutson read.
4 / 5 -
This was my first ever novel by Shaun Hutson. Having got this novel in a monthly subscription box, I wasn't sure who the author was or if I would like this story, but I took a chance on it. Before I get into my review, TRIGGER WARN! - Don't read this if your a vegan, easily offended or have a weak stomach.
This story is set in the farming community of Wakely, and follows our main character called Vic Tyler. There is this new cattle feed that makes animals grow bigger faster, to help improve profitability for farmers. But this new feed, turns these animals into blood drinking, flesh eating monsters. There are graphic scenes where animals are attacking and eating each other. One day, this reporter comes to this town, in search of a mysterious man who informs her of a urgent matter within this chemical company. But after he goes missing they both join forces and try to discover what is going on in their community and with this strange new feed. Resulting in a town turning into a cross between vampires and zombies, it's a race for survival and finding out the truth. -
Have you seen the chucklefest that is Garth Marenghi's 'Darkplace'?
He's a tongue-through-cheek version of Shaun Hutson.
'Blood? Blood. Crimson, copper-smelling blood. His blood. Blood. Blood. Blood.... And bits of sick.' đ
Anyway, Iâm not a huge fan, but like him or not, 'The Godfather of Gore' is an instantly recognisable name in horror like James Herbert or Clive Barker.
Erebus slithered out in 1984, but I remember my mum reading this in 2001, talking about it being a gory-sex fest. Me being a teenager that's all I needed to hear!
I read it when the UK had a foot-and-mouth outbreak. The news full of grim footage of trenches stuffed with dead-ballooned animals, stiff legs poking at the sky like a pile of overturned tables. It felt close to home, a bit of freaky prescience.
Wakely is a British town who's economy depends on farming. The animals start going fucking insane. A grotesquely mutated calf tears its way out its mother, pigs are being yanked appart by their vicious suckling piglets, mares are biting lumps out of and mutilating their foals... nasty shit. The cause is leaving farmers scratching their heads. Maybe it's that shady chemical plant everyone is buying animal feed from? What would happen if people ate these animals? Well, cases of horrendous â28 days laterâ violence are occurring across town, horse well and truly bolted.
If you're after something literary, hit the bricks! Itâs not Shaunâs goal. His books are pure over the top entertainment and to give the dude his due, he can tell a gnarly story. I haven't read this in twenty years and I still remember the zombie fellatio scene đŠ
His over use of descriptions like âcrimson fluid' and 'sickening thud' always get a chuckle, iffy dialogue, characters deep as tea cup, more gore and guns than Helmand, uncomplicated plots, lots of 80's chauvanistic machismo - a book of its time, but man, I forgive it. Look at it. It wears its balls to the wall pulpy horror heart on its sleeve. It would make a great film đ
So, if granny next door returns from a country market looking pale, hairy and with teeth & nails a concernable length, it's time to load Mr Shotgun before sheâs chewing on your vitals. -
There is something quiet tranquil while travelling through the country side. Thoughts of escaping the city life, enjoying the endless views of lush green pastures, dreams of one day owning a property of your own. It's not until you notice the hundreds of animals with their heads in the feed troughs you begin to think something is not quiet right. What are these animals eating? Gluten Free?
After reading Erebus you may never eat meat again..... -
The first Hutson book I ever read - its got everything in it. The ending is marvelous!
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Erebus is a 1984 horror novel by Shaun Hutson, set in the bucolic English countryside. The green and pleasant land is soon dripping with blood as a mare kills its own newborn foal, while at the abattoir it's the bulls that get to do the slaughtering for a change. Unsurprisingly, the people who have eaten the meat of the tainted animals also start exhibiting bestial behaviour, sporting new canine teeth, their skin turning pale, hair growing from their palms... which I think traditionally means that they masturbate excessively? Anyway, it's up to Jo the journalist and Tyler the farmer to solve the case and have a couple of explicit sex scenes, while dodging zombie vampires and a hitman, among other threats. Heads will explode, spines will be severed.Â
Hutson is at home with action and gore, so there's a lot of both. A crazy lot. Everything is done in excess, stretching creduility not to mention simple basics of anatomy and physics, but Hutson is clearly having fun, so the reader goes with it. The first half with its inexplicable and escalating animal behaviour is entertaining stuff in a Rats turned to 11 kind of way, but once the infection spreads to humans and there's a plot to consider, Erebus becomes idiotic and repetitive. A sub-plot involving Jo the journalist and her New York mafia past is extremely dumb and contrived, not to mention completely unnecessary.Â
The second half loses both its punch and its rhythm, with the characters running around aimlessly between a hotel and an evil chemical corporation (ran by an American, so you know it's evil) for what seems like an eternity. Random characters pop up to help out. The bestial horror of the beginning is replaced by a watered-down version of 'Salem's Lot, with the good English country folks now turned into vampiric zombies, while Jo and Tyler are chased by a hitman for some silly reason. There's a denouement, perhaps intended to strike fear, but all I could muster was a tired groan. Ranking somewhere between James Herbert and Guy N. Smith, Hutson clearly has the chops for a quick, fun, simple horror, but anything beyond that and we're off into a B-grade thriller territory. Without the thrills.
Read all my reviews at mikareadshorrorfiction.wordpress.com -
New animal feed turns all, animas and humans into cannibal vampires on the rural countryside of Wakefield. This novel is great for the horror and though gore fans. People are getting guts ripped and there are enough gore for the George Romero film. Frightening and it got my heart pounding. What more could you hope for? Pure horror fun and goofy to read. I suggest reading on the night in a remote wooden cabin.
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My first read by Shaun Hutson and this book is batshit crazy. I never thought I would see the day and actually say "There is too much gore in this book". I really enjoy gore and blood and guts and all things nasty, but I just felt that this book was just way too much, I am surprised I am even saying this to be honest with you. If you think you can handle it, by all means crack on, but this is really gory and ergghhh I think I gagged a lot reading this.
In a lovely little town of Wakley the animals start acting weird. The baby animals all start growing at twice their rate, and then they start attacking. Then it moves onto humans and the whole town is in turmoil. It is a great horror story and I really enjoyed this aspect of it, its just want you want from a horror story, its fast paced and exciting, it was just gore overload. I will definitely be reading more of Hutson I just hope I don't throw up. -
This was another fun/gory read from Shaun Hutson. Shaun has the ability to take bizarre story ideas and turn them into suspenseful and action packed reads. Iâve heard Shaun say his prose are like âexpanded screenplaysâ, and they do read like that â to their benefit. Shaun Hutson has written some of the best horror movies that have never been made, and some of the most enjoyable novels Iâve read.
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I was going to push through it for the beautiful way it was written, how easy of a picture it painted in my mind. I was set on giving the book a 3 star at the lowest because of very specific reasons.. However, the age of this book became painfully clear by itâs icky outdated social takes, which automatically takes 1-2 stars off a books worth for me lmao.
