Well we have a volume of short stories here, that kind of turn out to be one short story and a couple of novellas, from U.S dark dreamer John Farris. In the short story a stalled novelist finds out what happens when you steal someone else’s script for your own. The first of the novellas, Horrorshow, takes us into the deep south of the U.S were a psycho is culling the local female population, and the final entry in the book, The Guardians, also features a psychopath, though this one has an agenda involving revenge and politics. How much fun did I have with this tome of excess, let’s check it out.

John Farris is one of those writers who can be considered horror royalty and has changed the direction horror fiction has gone in the U.S. He is probably best known amongst the wider population for his novel The Fury, which was of course made into a very solid movie by Brian De Palma. For mine his best novel, from a meat and veg reader point of view, is Son of the Endless Night, but hey you choose your favourite from amongst his diverse bibliography. Whether or not Scare Tactics is a good introduction to Farris’s work is debatable, I would argue the book is more apt to put the modern reader off than to generate a new admirer of the American’s writing.

Let’s break it down one by one starting with the actual short story The Odor of Violets. I enjoyed this story but the plot has been done to death by now, unfortunately by fair lesser writers in the main. This is a well written story, Farris is nothing but a craftsman and knows his trade, but for a modern reader is perhaps going to be stilted and is showing its age. The narrative however works, with the horror trope of you reap what you sow really coming home to roost as the main character learns a harsh lesson about stealing others work.

Working better for the modern reader is the novella Horrorshow which loads up on the psycho mayhem in satisfactory faction. There’s a twist coming at the reader, but unfortunately this happens way to soon in the narrative taking out the major bait and switch angle going down which had me rocking along. We then transcend into the sort of transcendental tosh that blighted some of Graham Masterton’s work, in particular the Night Warriors series. We get out of body experience, the main character able to see dead people, and for heaven’s sake a mystical bus. There was a great story going down on the pages here, but unfortunately the delivery is wide of the wickets. I was extremely disappointed with this effort to be honest, even though it was an easy read, maybe because the lead character came across as a real snowflake.

Rounding out the book is the overlong novella The Guardians; the title doesn’t represent the plot for mine, but hey I’m not a horror writer of any note, or ability if we had to be brutally honest. This one is really showing its age, with the writing style straight out the 19th century, think Charles Dickens. The other major crime being committed here for the labouring reader is the novella is in no way a dark genre entry. There’s whole sections of this work that could have been cut without impacting the narrative in the slightest, not quite sure what Farris was doing here but for sure he has gone right off the reservation. While reading this one I was bored at stages and was checking how many pages were left to finish the novella. Once again it is well written, but is aged, and drags like a modern DEI presentation.

John Farris is one of those writers every horror fan that claims to be a fan should be reading. Sure his writing is dated for the modern reader, but he definitely knows how to carve with the knife when it gets to dark genre content. While I am probably not gushing about Scare Tactics the writing is still solid, and doesn’t detract from the writer’s reputation in the least. The plotting is slightly elongated, but the narrative is solid in where it is going, if only it had got there somewhat faster. I must admit to being slightly disappointed that Scare Tactics didn’t involve more short fiction and a lot less novella, but hey you get what you get, some folk would have loved this.

I picked up Scare Tactics for a nominal $2 at a second hand store, which surprisingly is about what I thought the book was worth. Value for money then I guess. The book has a surprising lack of horror content, given the author, and to be honest the writing style is like something out of a few centuries past. I’m not the biggest John Farris fan and as such the narrative here didn’t resonant for me as the pages were laboured through. I’m pretty sure this tome might be required reading for those who can’t get enough of Farris, but for the rest of us it is either a completest requirement, or a book that can be by-passed for the latest King or whatever. While I did get my reading on in places, particularly with the short story that kicks off the collection, in other places it was an effort to keep going. I really had trouble finishing the final novella, which seems to drag longer than a Friday night in Hobart, and at stages was checking how many pages were left to finish the book. Don’t get me wrong here, I have enjoyed Farris novels in the past – did I mention Son of the Endless Night, it was just that Scare Tactics really didn’t resonant with me. I’m not giving this book a recommendation, with the proviso that if you love John Farris then you are going to want to get this one, but I guess you could do a lot worse if you really tried. And hey people claim we give positive reviews to everything prose wise around here.