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A review by janinepipe
Wormwood by Chad Lutzke, Sadie Hartmann, Tim Meyer
5.0
Buddy review with Ben Long coming soon on Night Worms and video to follow. Suffice to say, you should believe the hype as this is outstanding.
Review from Night Worms Side by Side review -
I will admit going into Wormwood with very high expectations. I was really hyped for it, having seen all the photos and 5 star reviews pouring in after the initial Night Worms release, and then chatting to Tim and Chad about it on YouTube. I am also a HUGE fan of Tim’s work. Chad is still a newer voice for me, although the little I have read has been great.
The only thing that could have made me more excited, was the fact I was buddy reading it with Ben. We just build each other’s anticipation so we are dying to start it.
Finally, it was time …
If I tell you that I read this in under 24 hours across one late afternoon/evening and following morning, I think you might know where this is heading.
I absolutely bloody loved it.
Having spoken in length to Tim and Chad, I knew roughly about the storyline and that it was going to have less of Tim’s cosmic imprint and more of Chad’s melancholic highly emotive characters.
The key thing for me as a writer, are characters you believe in. You feel for them and feel with them. You even grow to love them, no matter how short your time is together.
Coming of age stories need this attribute. Without a character you are invested in, it is just words – a series of experiences and hollow emotions you don’t give a damn about.
I already knew from previous outings into the minds of these two, that I was going to love Baker. And I did. He was right up there with Rocky and James from Glenn Rolfe stories as two of my favourite protagonists. He isn’t a model teen. He makes some shocking decisions. But so does everyone at that age. The mistakes we make and learn from in our formative years help share who we are today.
I knew from talking to the guys, that some of the idea for the story came from Chad’s own past, and he was very candid about how easy it is to fall in with the wrong crowd, to be easily led by hormones and booze. This is amplified times a thousand when you are the new kid, again, in your final year before High School.
Seb and Cass were magnificent secondary characters, both an integral part of Baker’s ultimate *situation*. I won’t say any more than that as I would hate to give away any of the ending. Despite their terrible flaws, because they are kids and I always try to see the best in people, I still felt for them. Terrible judgments were made, but at the very end of it all, I was left with that distinct taste in my mouth, that if one of the adults had not acted in a certain abhorrent way, things might have been very different.
It’s a long time since I was a teen, but the problems never really change, they are always there – hormones, fledgling feelings for others, stress of school and that sense of no longer being a child, yet not quite and adult. No matter what time or city you live in, teens experience these raw emotions. Tim and Chad were able to transport me back to that awkward and conflicting time. When the highs and lows are extreme. When you would do almost anything at all for the one you think you are in love with, even if you don’t have a clue what that actually means or feels like. Through the language, setting and natural dialogue, I found myself in Baker’s shoes and I didn’t like it anymore now than I did back in the 90’s.
I didn’t find Wormwood as bleak as say Odd Man Out by James Newman, but it certainly isn’t a happy-go-lucky tale. The story proves that you don’t need a shock in every chapter, hell, you don’t need a story to be splatterpunk for it to be horrific.
What made my blood run cold was the fact that this kind of thing could and does happen. And sometimes THAT is the scariest thing of all.
5 stars all the way, baby.
https://youtu.be/i0Kuwp40w6s
Review from Night Worms Side by Side review -
I will admit going into Wormwood with very high expectations. I was really hyped for it, having seen all the photos and 5 star reviews pouring in after the initial Night Worms release, and then chatting to Tim and Chad about it on YouTube. I am also a HUGE fan of Tim’s work. Chad is still a newer voice for me, although the little I have read has been great.
The only thing that could have made me more excited, was the fact I was buddy reading it with Ben. We just build each other’s anticipation so we are dying to start it.
Finally, it was time …
If I tell you that I read this in under 24 hours across one late afternoon/evening and following morning, I think you might know where this is heading.
I absolutely bloody loved it.
Having spoken in length to Tim and Chad, I knew roughly about the storyline and that it was going to have less of Tim’s cosmic imprint and more of Chad’s melancholic highly emotive characters.
The key thing for me as a writer, are characters you believe in. You feel for them and feel with them. You even grow to love them, no matter how short your time is together.
Coming of age stories need this attribute. Without a character you are invested in, it is just words – a series of experiences and hollow emotions you don’t give a damn about.
I already knew from previous outings into the minds of these two, that I was going to love Baker. And I did. He was right up there with Rocky and James from Glenn Rolfe stories as two of my favourite protagonists. He isn’t a model teen. He makes some shocking decisions. But so does everyone at that age. The mistakes we make and learn from in our formative years help share who we are today.
I knew from talking to the guys, that some of the idea for the story came from Chad’s own past, and he was very candid about how easy it is to fall in with the wrong crowd, to be easily led by hormones and booze. This is amplified times a thousand when you are the new kid, again, in your final year before High School.
Seb and Cass were magnificent secondary characters, both an integral part of Baker’s ultimate *situation*. I won’t say any more than that as I would hate to give away any of the ending. Despite their terrible flaws, because they are kids and I always try to see the best in people, I still felt for them. Terrible judgments were made, but at the very end of it all, I was left with that distinct taste in my mouth, that if one of the adults had not acted in a certain abhorrent way, things might have been very different.
It’s a long time since I was a teen, but the problems never really change, they are always there – hormones, fledgling feelings for others, stress of school and that sense of no longer being a child, yet not quite and adult. No matter what time or city you live in, teens experience these raw emotions. Tim and Chad were able to transport me back to that awkward and conflicting time. When the highs and lows are extreme. When you would do almost anything at all for the one you think you are in love with, even if you don’t have a clue what that actually means or feels like. Through the language, setting and natural dialogue, I found myself in Baker’s shoes and I didn’t like it anymore now than I did back in the 90’s.
I didn’t find Wormwood as bleak as say Odd Man Out by James Newman, but it certainly isn’t a happy-go-lucky tale. The story proves that you don’t need a shock in every chapter, hell, you don’t need a story to be splatterpunk for it to be horrific.
What made my blood run cold was the fact that this kind of thing could and does happen. And sometimes THAT is the scariest thing of all.
5 stars all the way, baby.
https://youtu.be/i0Kuwp40w6s