Pressure
Jeff Strand
Leisure Books
ISBN: 978-0843962536
2009

Show me a flesh-rending demon and scenes of blood and gore and you'll entertain me; but you will rarely scare or even unnerve me. Most of the time such things in films make me laugh (in a good way, I'm a die-hard fan of horror films). But make the bad guy normal or even just slightly odd in a supernatural way—just not over the top—and you can introduce some serious discomfort. That's precisely what Jeff Strand has done here.

Following an idiotic schoolboy dare, our first-person narrator Alex Fletcher is sent to the Branford Academy, a strict, overbearing boarding school, by his intolerant parents. Sharing a dorm room with him are three other boys, one of whom is to have a profound and ultimately damaging effect on his life.

Darren Rust is the odd one out, the misfit, always detached with only his diary for company. When his roommates decide to punish him for one of his actions it sends Darren over the edge, triggering a campaign of revenge against his three roommates which sees two of them expelled and Alex fearful for the remainder of his time at the school.

Jumping forward several years Alex and Darren meet up again at University and, despite Alex's initial grave reservations, become firm friends—Alex having been convinced by Darren's admitting of being a seriously disturbed child and claims that he's put his past problems behind him.

All seems well, but Darren's intention was merely to find a partner for his plans of serial-killing fun. When Alex refuses, Darren redirects his rage, intending to make Alex's life a literal hell.

This book is really a series of connected short stories—each set years apart within Alex's life. This has the effect of creating several climaxes within one narrative, each getting gradually more severe. It's not a book that will bore you with long build-ups to the action.

Darren Rust is, in many ways, as unoriginal as you can get. A withdrawn teenager who likes cutting up small animals, becoming a serial killer—well duh! But he's not written as one-dimensionally as this summary makes him sound. He's a creepy antagonist for lead character Alex, his obsession being very unsettling.

The violence of the book is well handled. We are not presented with a detailed description of sinews being cut, of bodily parts being sliced and diced, but we are given the impression of serious brutality. It is not the violence, though, that is the real horror of this book—it's the targeting of Darren's madness. And in this, having a first-person narrator helps. This is usually something I find a drawback to horror. You know that, unless the author is being trite, the narrator will survive.

But here this style puts you into the position of the victim of the stalking, the object of the killer's mania, and that is definitely a tad perturbing.

This is a truly thrilling horror novel. After a period writing for the smaller presses, the author has truly graduated with this novel. Welcome to the big leagues, Mr. Strand!

-- I.E. Lester