Publication Date: October 8, 2024
Publisher: Cemetery Gates Media
Autumn has always been one of my favorite seasons. I love when the leaves are ablaze with shades of red, yellow and orange and the first hint of crisp, cold air arrives. We’re right in the sweet spot of fall weather in Central New York and I love taking my nightly stroll around the village where I live. It’s a total sensory overload in the best possible way. There’s all the aforementioned things along with residents firing up their wood stoves for the first time in months and the sweet smell of wood smoke permeating the early dusk. Like most horror fans, I consume horror media year-round, but there is no denying that it all hits a bit stronger in October. The countdown to Halloween is something I look forward to all year, and once October 1st rolls around, it’s a feverish dash for me to cram in as many books and movies as humanly possible. While I love all types of horror, I always associate this time of year with the subgenre that started it all for me – slashers. My earliest memories of watching horror movies as a young kid – not counting family friendly fare – is going to the video store with my Dad and grabbing a Friday the 13th or A Nightmare on Elm Street movie. I’d like to play it cool and say I wasn’t scared those first times watching those movies, but the truth is I was fucking terrified! I had nightmares about Jason Voorhees and Freddy Kruger and although I consider myself more of a Jason Voorhees fanatic, Freddy holds the title for “Most Times Scaring a Young Rich Out of a Dead Sleep”. So naturally when I heard that two poets I admire greatly – Shane D. Keene and Stephanie Ellis- were releasing their take on the slasher genre, I knew I had to read it.
Told in verse and prose poetry, Mason Gorey: A Haunting Catskill Elegy transports readers to Camp Kaatskill in the small New York town of Wildham. Rachel Starck thinks spending the summer at the camp nestled in the woods of the Catskill Mountains will be the perfect summer getaway. She thinks it will give her a chance to experience the world beyond her childhood home in England with a relatively easy job of watching over campers as they explore the woods and swim in the reservoir. But what Rachel doesn’t know is that Camp Kaatskill and the surrounding town is plagued by an ancient curse that demands a payment in blood every summer. Residents seem to either chalk it up to a morbid coincidence or do their best to ignore it, but Rachel’s arrival in Wildham makes it impossible to ignore any longer. Mason Gorey has awakened yet again and embarks on a rampage of brutality that forces the community of Wildham to reckon with its long held secrets.
One of the things that I loved about Mason Gorey: A Haunting Catskill Elegy is that Keene and Ellis pay homage to the history of horror verse poetry and the slasher tropes we’ve all come to know and love, reminding me why I love both horror and slashers so damn much. There are nods to Washington Irving and Edgar Allen Poe just to name a few of the literary references and the summer camp setting full of horny camp counselors getting brutally murdered, long-buried town secrets, and a nigh indestructible killing machine are instantly recognizable to those who love classic slasher films. It provides a solid and recognizable framework, but the true magic comes from Keene and Ellis riffing off each other’s ideas to expand those elements into exciting new territory.
While some slasher antagonists tend to have a convoluted origin story – whether it’s to serve as a plot device to set the stage for sequels or is written a little too vague – Mason Gorey’s is unique and richly detailed without giving too many of the novel’s secrets away. I also love that the events of the novel stretch across generations. It adds another interesting layer not just in the genesis of the legend of Mason Gorey, but also in the way the residents respond to the yearly events surrounding Camp Kaatskill.
I’m relatively new to the world of verse and prose poetry and its use in the horror genre, but after reading Keene and Ellis’ work, I’m craving more! I feel like it’s the perfect vehicle for horror, especially slasher stories. The concise nature of poetry naturally lends to thoughtful, deliberate word choice and an emphasis on imagery and emotion. The result of that approach in Mason Gorey: A Haunting Catskill Elegy is a propulsive story that has a cast of well-developed characters, plenty of thrills, a lot of heart and all of the inventive, brutal kills a horror fan could want. To put it simply – this book is all killer, no filler. Keene and Ellis are two poets who excel at using hauntingly beautiful language to explore the dark and macabre and that contrast creates for a vivid, emotional read that had me hooked from start to finish. It was also on full-on display in their first collaborative effort, Lilith, which I highly recommend picking up as well.
Which brings me back to my introduction about how much I love autumn and Halloween and my nostalgic memories of discovering slashers and horror movies among a sea of VHS tapes. I went that route because as I was reading Mason Gorey: A Haunting Catskill Elegy, Keene and Ellis tapped right into those memories and made me feel that same level of excitement. I think it’s because they share a similar passion and baked it right into the DNA of the novel. Their enthusiasm shines through on every page of this fresh take on a beloved subgenre of horror and the highest compliment I can give Mason Gorey: A Haunting Catskill Elegy, is that it’s tailor-made for the Halloween season. In fact, I can see it becoming a tradition of mine to revisit Camp Kaatskill and Wildham every October. If you dig a good slasher tale told in a fresh way, this is an absolute must-add to your TBR.
