Book Review- That Which Should Not Be by Brett J. Talley

When I recieved a review copy of That Which Should Not Be I was super excited. Being that it is time for Halloween I needed a good scary book. The cover and the blurb had me sold! The book is sort of a throw back. Written in the style of H.P Lovecraft. I sadly and almost embarrassingly admit I have never read any of Lovecraft's Tales. But I have always been aware of them. After reading That Which Should Not Be I'm convinced I need to run out and read some of the tales!

That Which Should Not Be starts with Carter Weston a student at Miskatonic University being asked by his professor to retrieve a book from a nearby village. Upon arrival at the village Carter meets up with some interesting characters at the local tavern. There they regale him with scary tales of encounters they have had. Soon Carter himself must fight an evil beyond all imagination.

I was immediately drawn into this book from the start. It is essentially a series of short stories that drive along the main story. I knew it was a perfect horror book when I stopped reading because I realized my heart had begun to pound my breath had quickened. I can't honestly remember the last time that has happened with a horror book. The other thing I loved is that it was not full of gore. It was an intelligent read that showed you can be scary without needing buckets of blood. That is not to say that there is no gore but it is enough to be scary without being over done or gag worthy. While I thoroughly enjoyed this book the only problem I had with it was sometimes it was too intelligent.  I consider myself fairly well read with a rather vast vocabulary. Having taken Latin in high school and college I can usually at least glean the meaning of a word. However I did find myself having to run to my dictionary for a quick glance on a few of the words. But that did not detract from my enjoyment and most people who are not obsessive compulsive like me can probably skip over those words with no problems understand what is happening. I highly recommend this book to anyone looking for a good intelligent scary read.  I give it 5 out of 5 stars.


Oh and keep an eye out for an interview with the author Brett Talley himself!