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Book Review: Robert Thompson’s HEADLESS

HEADLESSAlthough The Headless Horseman has become synonymous with Halloween, Washington Irving never specifically stated when the legend took place aside from the nods to the Fall season. So, I didn’t feel out of place reading HEADLESS at the end of November, seeing how winter technically begins on December 21st. Having visited the real-life town of Sleepy Hollow, New York in October, I can say that I’ve become somewhat obsessed with the little town and its infamous inhabitant. To that extant, I was thrilled to read HEADLESS, especially when there are – surprisingly – so few horror films featuring the undead Hessian. Do I think HEADLESS will be a good purchase for other readers? Check out my review below to find out.

HEADLESS is written by Robert Thompson, who also owns and produces movies through Fresh Slate Pictures. HEADLESS was edited by Allison Gamble and is published independently through Amazon Digital Services and CreateSpace. The synopsis follows: “Every town has a secret past. Sleepy Hollow is no different. The Headless Horseman wakes every year on Halloween to claim its victims. Katerina and her friends are on their way to the party of the season when one wrong turn leads to another. College kids, a homicidal serial killer and a nod to the slasher films of the eighties. What could go wrong?”

First and foremost, I want to say that HEADLESS is a quick read. I downloaded my copy through Kindle, which I think was 167 pages, and I managed to read the entire novel in just under three days. I can attribute this mostly to the fact that HEADLESS is a gore-fest that slaughters a character or two every other chapter in gruesome and unusual ways. Robert Thompson did a great job at fleshing out The Headless Horseman as a brutal, intelligent killer more than a guy throwing flaming pumpkins. He hacks and slashes; he uses brute strength; and he’s extremely innovative in using objects just lying around at his disposal. More-so, Thompson also gave The Headless Horseman a backstory and a purpose, making the entity appealing to readers who are looking for a little more in their antagonist.

As you would pick up a Halloween novel to see Michael Myers or a Friday the 13th novel to see Jason Voorhees, Robert Thompson created a palpable world for The Headless Horseman to thrive in and, yes, the novel’s essence resembles that of a good slasher flick from the 80’s. It’s got the opening kill to set the tone, the introduction of the cannon fodder and the central characters – some that you love, some that you hate, and it falls into some of the horror film cliches, stereotypes and road-maps that you can’t help but love. While the novel is published as a written word story, again, the pages read like a script that was adapted into a novel and I think that will resonate well with readers, too. As with classic slasher films, I think that the readers are going to relate and root for The Headless Horseman much more than they will the human characters at his disposal. They’re mostly addicts, whores, and dumb jocks, so… HEADLESS is going to be gratifying in the same sense as those old slasher flicks when you thought, “When is this person going to die?”

I could nitpick the descriptions of Sleepy Hollow and its surroundings seeing how I’ve been there myself, but that just wouldn’t be fair here. Particular decisions were made to help bring a particular story to life and I have to give credit for how the setting was handled. Not everything has to be based in actuality, especially when examining a novel about a headless, dead Hessian killing young people on Halloween. Also, I think that the characters were too unlikable at some points and that took away from my overall enjoyment just a bit. You can’t have everyone being a piece of shit save for two characters. I also think that it took the central characters too long to get to their location, although, I did get to enjoy a few bloodbaths during their travel time there. These aren’t big sub-tractors by any large extent, but they did hinder me from giving HEADLESS a perfect score. It is a fantastic read, though!

Oh, and there are two shock twists that I really enjoyed! I think they’ll thrill you, too!

FINAL SCORE: 8 out of 10

Michael DeFellipo

(Senior Editor)

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