I read several hundred pages a week, but I’m a tough critic.  I think “I hate everything” might be a little strong…maybe “I’m too suspicious of everything” is more accurate.  The fact is, most writing sucks.  I have my own private rating system, wherein I judge books by how forgettable they are.  No, I’m not expecting Tess of the D’Urbervilles in every new paperback, but I am expecting something I can at least vaguely remember two weeks later.  Most books, however, sadly disappoint.  Heck, I usually enjoy books while I’m reading them…but ask me what they’re about, after I finish, and I usually have no idea.  They’re like cotton candy: it’s tasty and fun, eating it is an experience you look forward to having, but it’s not exactly filling.  It’s…empty.  Every new author, to me, represents a new chance at that most elusive of holy grails, The Book That Leaves a Mark.  I love to read, so much so that I can fairly easily content myself with moribund trash—I can enjoy the experience, if not the book itself.  Nevertheless, my quest bears the taint of a fair bit of disappointment. 

So, imagine my surprise when I found Night Witch.  OK, so it’s not for everyone.  It’s for you if you’re a super obsessive fan of penny dreadfuls, if you love classic horror rags or if you’re just into a good scare.  In a nutshell, it’s for you if you’re really into old school Stephen King (you know, back when he still wrote books with plots).  By “horror”, no, I don’t mean that trite, hyper self aware Richard Bachman nonsense, and I don’t mean those Richard Laymon gorefests.  Like, who even writes real horror anymore?  Isn’t it a dying (or dead) genre?  I certainly hope not.  I, for one, still want a good old BEM (that’s Bug Eyed Monster) to distract me after a stressful day.  Heck, whatever stress I think I’m dealing with, at least no one’s eating my entrails.  So, yeah, back to Night Witch.  It’s a really good—and I mean good—book.  It blends the right amounts of suspense, gross out, empathy (critical to any horror story, believe me), plot, character development, and Big Issue.  There’s really not a lot more to say about Night Witch, because, well, my good reviews usually tend to be pretty short.  What, do you want me to list what’s good?  That’s, um, boring.

More interesting is the question, how come you have no idea who Jack Priest is?  He tells us, “book writing is hard, but book selling is harder.”  In the back of Nightwitch, he explains that he and his buds (also writers) started their own publishing company.  I guess mainstream publishing really does suck…and, really, does this surprise you?  We all know that pretty much every publisher in the universe rejected J.K. Rowling out of hand when she first made the rounds, Harry Potter in hand, and Stephen King often went without the luxury of electricity in his early years.  I think it’s really awesome that these writers said **** it, and did their own thing.  Support them!  The name of said thing is Bootleg Press, and you can find them at www.bootlegpress.com.  So really, it’s out there for us to find.