The Haar: A Horror Novel

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But then, I can’t help but feel he’s having a go at us, the horror film fans too. Only someone with absolutely no respect for his audience whatsoever could release a product as slipshod and unfinished as this as a ‘sequel’ to a well-liked original. It’s as if he’s saying that horror fans will literally watch any old garbage, whether it’s recycled footage from two years prior or just some low budget junk he shot with his friends by the side of a pool. It’s insulting. A blood-drenched love letter to Lovecraft, handled with impressive authority and confidence."James Fahy, author of The Changeling series Would you fall in love with a murderous sea creature that only has your best intentions at heart? Honestly… I might. This story for all its gore and injustice was surprisingly… adorable. 😆 I absolutely love Muriel as a character. She is so righteous with a hard edge and very relatable. A well-rounded character who I wanted nothing but the best for. And I think Avalon gave that to her in the most romantically disturbing way. 🥹🖤 🌊

Review: The Haar by David Sodergren – Escaping in Paper

The story had a good premise. After all, who isn't a wee bit afraid of a fog bank and what may lurk therein... What a wild ride! I discovered The Haar via the horror side of BookTok and I am so glad I gave this one a go. The Haar is a self-published, indie horror novel that is sort of like if The Thing met The Shape of Water, and had a healthy serving of Scottish folklore thrown in. You'll remember my recent obsession with Indie Horror and even, perhaps, my own toe-dip into the genre myself. But whereas some obsessions drift away, forgotten. The Indie Horror bug is still biting.The novel centers on the little Scottish town of Witchaven and an 80-something year old widow woman, Muriel...

The Haar: A Horror Novel: Sodergren, David: 9798800159837

A blood-drenched love letter to Lovecraft, handled with impressive authority and confidence."
James Fahy, author of The Changeling series
NIGHT SHOOT The story is about Muriel McAuley, an old widow who wants to be left alone but a big corporation is buying up all the land of the Scottish coastal town she grew up in to build a golf course. The million-pound offers to buy her property are now turning into threats. Muriel then finds a sea creature with unique powers and it becomes a game changer.Now, I haven’t forgotten about that ‘gore-soaked’ aspect either. Expect the brutality and bloodbath that David is known for. Think ‘Maggie’s Grave’ and you’ll have an idea, and while this one doesn’t have as much as most of his books, it works perfectly to highlight the horrors and events Muriel is living through. There is gore in this, and for someone like me who loves the gore, it’s the best kind of gore. Sodergren does a fantastic job of describing true horror, some absolutely gruesome things happen in this story…and I could not get enough! Besides the gore, there is so much love shown in this story. For someone like me, the gore and the love make it the perfect masterpiece of literature.

The Haar: A Horror Novel: Sodergren, David: 9798800159837 The Haar: A Horror Novel: Sodergren, David: 9798800159837

Then there's the cliche yelled from a police blow horn at an 80-something year old widow: You are surrounded! Come out with your hands up!!... But when an overseas property developer threatens to evict the residents from their homes and raze Witchaven to the ground in the name of progress, all seems lost… until the day a mysterious fog bank creeps inland. The tag line that this is a ‘gore-soaked folk-horror fairy tale’ just elegantly sums up this story. Do I think David’s work is grossly overlooked? Absolutely. Look at his body of work thus far; ‘The Forgotten Island,’ ‘Night Shoot,’ ‘Dead Girl Blues,’ Maggie’s Grave,’ The Perfect Victim,’ and ‘Satan’s Burnouts Must Die!’ I would call all of these Indie Horror Masterpieces. Sodergren fully embraces the DIY Self-Publishing model and the level/caliber of books he’s given us are second to none. And I’m not going to include our co-written novel ‘The Navajo Nightmare’ as I think that would be too biased, but I will say, his opening salvo that makes up the story is simply one of the best Splatter-Western stories released in that genre over the last few years. The first victim is a homeless man living in a haunted crypt. I guess you could say that that is his own fault. The next guy is the Mexican gardener, Ben, the only character in cinema history to be given an extended laziness montage. Honestly, a full sequence showing him sleeping on the job, fishing, eating and just generally doing no work, before being seduced by the bored rich housewife and killed.The character of Muriel is really strong. She’s funny and formidable. The antagonistic elements aren’t drawn as well, but they work precisely as intended. Some of them are really quite vile. Because it’s another one of those films that begins with a dynamite sequence of horror and then flails around like a fish out of water for the rest of its runtime. But let’s enjoy the good while it lasts. who seems to be able to buy off the local Scottish police and news reporters with all his dirty American money...