Helpful Score: 1
What was Tim Curran's first horror novel that he ever wrote also turned out to be my first exposure to his writing and I have to say that I'm impressed. Toxic Shadows is a hodgepodge of many things. Dawn of the Dead meets 30 Days of Night meets The Crazies meets Rambo. And even though this all sounds like familiar territory, Curran makes it his own. He uses an interesting setting in the fictional small town of Cut River set in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. Other than Longfellow's Song of Hiawatha, you don't see this location used in stories and it works to create a growing dreaded feeling of isolationism that builds during the story. Although he could have used any small town in the Midwest and made it work, Cut River has that familiar feeling of someplace that you've been to before. That same familiar feeling applies to the diverse band of characters that find themselves trapped in this nightmarish hellhole. You have the overweight traveling salesman, the jealous, overbearing housewife, her doormat of a husband, the recluse Vietnam vet who is still reliving the war and mistrusts the government, the Paul Bunyan-sized ex-motorcycle gang member, his run-off-at-the mouth, ditzy blonde girlfriend, and the rocker chick with a heroin addiction. While they could've been stereotypical cardboard cut outs of their caricatures, Curran develops them nicely. Even the characters that I didn't like when I was first introduced to them, I found myself feeling sympathetic with them as the story rolled along. For me, that's good character development and keeps me wanting to continue turning the pages. Mix in lots of action and blood, even better. For being his first stab at horror, Curran proves that he's no one-trick pony and can deliver the goods. I look forward to reading more from him.
