The Black Book (Cosmic Found Footage Horror)
After being let down by another book, I looked at my reading list and nothing really called to me. In the end I just picked this at random and honestly I’m so very glad I did. The Black Book is written in a “found footage” style, where the unfolding pieces of evidence, interviews, and comments are scrutinized and analyzed by Detective Rhonda Buchannan. The way it’s written is immersive and this is never once broken by the author to try and cram extra lore. The plot, character description, dialogue is done through the evidence and I loved every minute. The story surrounds a suicide turned murder case that gets weirder and weirder. When officer Chloe Perez attends the call to the address where the body is found, she becomes deeply involved in the case, and fearful of the black book found at the scene. When she finds herself filmed in a police interview, relaying all the information into the death of another officer, it’s clear that the cases link, and not only that, Chloe has a past which links too. She’s scared of the symbol she saw at the suicide, she’s worried about the words she heard when she saw the gruesome hell-grub that wore the dead man’s face as it exploded from his grave “It’s a terrible thing to fall into the hands of the living god.” And just to make matters worse, her past rushes back and reminds her of what all of these things mean. The Yellow King has come to collect. And he has the ugliest servants to bring people to his home to suffer.
“The appearance was revolting, and the putrid smell of rotten flesh wafting toward me gave my position away. When the smell invaded my nostrils, I pinched my nose closed and tried not to vomit, but I couldn’t help myself. I felt so thoroughly defiled, so infected by the uncleanness of that worm-thing, that I not only puked right there but started blowing air out through my nose in short sharp bursts, trying to expel any diseased particles that had entered and stuck to my sinus cavities. Right then, the worm-thing turned its thorax until the orange dome-like head looked directly at me, and I saw it … saw its … face … or the skin mask covering its face … My intestines twisted inside. The world spun beneath me … I saw the bloody flesh mask covering the worm’s face … I saw it clearly, and in that moment, I realized who it was … who the worm-thing really was … and that … that was when everything started to go black … at the sight of Elijah Whitehead’s face stretched taut and sewn onto the face of that giant pulsating white worm.”
I really loved the cult story in The Black Book. It’s cult meets voodoo and magick and tales of a place called carcosa (kind of like a hell). For a short tale, it’s quite slow burning and I enjoyed that. It was perfectly paced throughout, and the further progression I made, the more I found myself in a rabbit hole of the story and being pulled deeper into the mystery. It’s not very gory or descriptive, but the “hell-grubs” are gross and an ominous reminder of what happens when people are marked by the Yellow King. I did find myself looking around whilst reading and it gave me that childhood feeling of reading a scary story in the bed covers with a light and trying not to feel like the monsters are there. It was a nostalgic feeling and it’s rare when that happens. The Black Book is unsettling, eerie, mysterious and quick to read. Everything I could want in a palate cleansing book that makes me want to carry on finding books just as good as it. Books like this create that nostalgic feel of childhood horror/thriller reading and watching experience and I want to find others that make me the same way. The books I don’t expect to like as much as others, often become favorites for me, and I’m so glad that this is one of them.
Written by Arianne, Sovereign Deity of the Damned
The Black Book (2024)
Mike Duke
Self-Published
Cover Art: Author
5 / 5
