Having written and edited over fifty books from novels – to short story collections – to anthologies, while collecting two British Fantasy Awards and a slew of Stoker and Shirley Jackson Award nominations along the way, Mark Morris has certainly established himself as a force in the field of horror fiction. When I was asked if I’d be interested in receiving an advance copy of his new novel to review for the website, I jumped at the chance. That novel is Bad Things Happen Here from Flame Tree Press, and it is now available for purchase.
Bad Things Happen Here centers on six people with diverse backgrounds and disparate personalities who meet for the first time at college. Just as they are getting to know each other better and starting to form deeper bonds, their whole dynamic is shattered after they jointly experience a traumatic, supernatural event which causes them to abruptly go their separate ways. Twenty years later, most of them have relegated those terrifying events to forgotten memories as they have moved on with their lives. Darkness starts to seep back in, however, when Michael, the all-American guy with a spiritual background, suddenly reappears desperately wanting to warn them about something terrible which is coming for them. Michael had left college without a word to any of them immediately following the experiences they endured and remained unreachable ever since. When he finally does show up at Hannah’s place twenty years later, he’s barely alive. She had been his girlfriend at the time when everything went down, so his disappearing act hurt her deeply.
This novel drew me in from the start, but not in the way I anticipated. I normally gravitate to the supernatural aspects of anything I read first, but those points are somewhat muted at the beginning here – hinted at, but remaining on the periphery. With Bad Things Happen Here I found myself really invested in the dramas playing out in the regular lives of each of the six primary characters early on. Hannah is a divorced single mother whose young daughter is being bullied at school while also dealing with issues arising from her aging mother who is showing early signs of dementia. Jess has become a successful artist who’s obsessed with creating works focused on strange portals, to the point she finds herself robbed of sleep and pulling her away from her girlfriend Tash. Max, always the gentle giant of their group, is now married with three kids – one of which is troubled. He begins to hear whisperings which make him question reality. Steve, the most dismissive of them, has become a wealthy architect who has a strained relationship with his wife and a precocious young daughter who has been dealing with debilitating phobias of late. Whatever it is which has begun tormenting their lives, it all seems to tie back to the room where they all congregated back in college twenty years earlier, and it isn’t content at terrorizing just them but takes aim at their loved ones as well.
For me the biggest strength of Bad Things Happen Here is its ensemble cast of characters, each of whom have interesting, nuanced lives of their own with various challenges and hardships. The chapters generally alternate between focusing on each of the core six characters, interspersed with flashback scenes to slowly unveil the events from 2004. The horror elements are great here as well. The evil force takes its time, gradually working to infest the lives of the six in tailor-made, terrifying ways. Will these six college friends who haven’t spoken in twenty years manage to come together to combat the deadly menace stalking them from the past or fall to its relentless vendetta? Even though Bad Things Happen Here is a bit of a slow burn in regards to the unfolding of the supernatural elements, I was thoroughly invested throughout. I highly recommend delving into a copy of your own.
Flame Tree Press Link: https://www.flametreepublishing.com/bad-things-happen-here-isbn-9781805520078.html
Amazon U.S. Link; https://www.amazon.com/Things-Happen-Here-Mark-Morris/dp/1805520075
Amazon U.K. Link: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Things-Happen-Here-Mark-Morris/dp/1805520075
Review by Matt Cowan
Horror Delve 