A Stranger Dead

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Summary: AP Fuchs on my Read List Permanently
Review: I won't go into the plot of the story since my predecessors have covered that, but what I will do is state something that has been over looked. AP Fuchs has accomplished what so many authors attempt, but fail miserably, and that is to take a subject that we have seen before and make it his own.

Yes, "A Stranger Dead" is about the coming of the Antichrist, that is the only similarity. The characters are well developed and pull you into the pages. Their actions are undeterminable and that gets my major props.

When it comes to balls to the wall horror, I know who I like, and now, thanks to AP, I know what I like when it comes to mounting tension, eerie atmsophere and just one hell of an enjoyable read.

Now who am I to be saying any of this, well I'm a horror writer myself and I will soon be sharing pages with AP in the upcoming THWN Presents: New Voices in Horror, a collection of 22 short stories from authors you should be reading.

Pleasant Screams -- Keith Gouveia

Rating:
Summary: A Stranger Dead
Review: In this gripping first novel by author A.P. Fuchs, one is immediately drawn into the pull of his narratives and storyline. What I found when I was reading was that I didn't want to put the book down at all, except that I had to. Yes, I actually had to take a break from reading it because of the vivid nightmares I would have! This may have been coincidence but I think not.

The prologue was what got me hooked right away, but I was further stunned at the extent of traumatic events that take place, leading a young woman, (Gwen Reeves), on a deadly quest bestowed her to destroy the Anti-Christ at all costs. What Gwen does not realize is just how much is at stake in risking this journey! And while she's preparing for the battle of her life, everyone around her is just as involved in the whole scheme of things, which gives much more depth to the storyline, keeping the reader enthralled.

As well, the writing is well-paced and uniquely takes the reader through the minds of all the main characters, so that one is never left in the dark so to speak. And one thing that I truly appreciate is the great use of dialogue which will no doubt set A.P. Fuchs apart from the crowd. Conclusion: A 'must read' whether you're a fan of love stories, dramas, or thrillers alike.

Rating:
Summary: A Stranger Dead Review.
Review: It was a simple essay on the end of times, a paper summarizing how the text and events of the book of Revelation would affect the world. While gathering the information needed to do her project, Gwen Reeves' simple college life strays onto an unexpected path.
His face is all around her, appearing in her rearview mirror and the back seat of her car. His words fill her mind and she has no clue who he is. During her research, Gwen stumbles upon the picture of her tormentor, Harry Thomas, a man who has spent 20 years in a mysterious room full of books, each book containing sins committed by people from the past and present.
It all started 25 years earlier when Harry visits the cemetery where his deceased wife is buried, attempting to fulfill a promise he had made to her: he would spend the night on her grave. When the rain topples down on top of him, he is forced to seek shelter and remains stuck in the cemetery for 20, dreadful years. During his absence, he views the birth of the Antichrist and five years after he is found, he recalls Gwen's name from one of the books he was forced to read.
Gwen's curiosity gets the best of her, causing her to travel to the mental hospital where Harry resides. When they meet, he explains that he has seen the birth of the Antichrist and that it is up to her to locate the child and destroy him. Her mind in a tizzy, Gwen leaves everything behind: her classes, her roommates and her boyfriend, Marty Bones, to try and save the world.
As she searches for the child, another character comes into play, an evil force known as, The Watcher. He is sent by Satan to protect the child and stop Gwen's crusade; messing with her thoughts, sabotaging her relationship with Marty and violating her body and spirit.
The child, Calvin Mandalay is not your typical 'Damien'. He is a normal child who loves basketball, attends kindergarten and is raised by his heart broken foster Mother, Victoria and his Uncle Ken. He is characterized as an innocent 5-year-old who is unaware that he is the son of the devil.
The real terror begins when The Watcher helps Calvin discover his powers through horrifying dreams and circumstances that send his Mother into frenzy. The Watcher lurks throughout the book, reeking havoc on the characters and terrorizing Gwen until she finally becomes broken, almost ready to give up on the task at hand.
A.P. Fuchs' version of the battle between good and evil is a mind blowing read I very much enjoyed. A Stranger Dead had a variety of compelling plots and an array of well-defined characters. A.P. did a remarkable job shedding a whole new light on the age-old story about the child of Satan and the end of times. A.P. also makes a great point about the written word. Can what is predicted in The Bible be changed? Who is really responsible for Gwen's crusade? Harry? God? Satan? Or possibly a third party who feels they can alter what has been expected for centuries? Each page brings an unexpected turn of chilling events and causes a mind flood of questions and intrigue...

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Summary: A Stranger Review
Review: Recently I was able to take time from my busy schedule (yeah right!) and sit down with the debut novel from A.P. Fuchs, a dark fiction author from the frozen wastelands of Canada. And, I must admit, I had gone into reading his book expecting it to read like a bad B movie. But instead I was pleasantly surprised when A Stranger Dead caught my attention from the get-go; what with the opening scene in a cemetery some twenty-five years ago and one of the main characters of the book, Harry Thomas, becoming trapped within a secret library within the cemetery.
The first thing I picked up on, thematically, from the prologue, was how one event can change our lives, sometimes for the better, sometimes for the worse, or both. In the case of Harry, it was for the worst but that conclusion is still left for the reader to decide.
Adding to the well-rounded cast of characters, Mr. Fuchs chose to use a young college girl as his leading lady: Gwen Reeves. Gwen is a religious studies student at Brentmere College in Winnipeg (a fictitious college in A.P.'s hometown) and, after being haunted by visions of Harry, she decides to track him down only to find that Harry has been locked up in Hans Memorial Hospital, a psychiatric institute for those challenged by reality. It is through meeting with Harry that Gwen learns that she is destined for far more than just a Religious Studies major. You see, when Harry had been trapped in that library, he had seen something he wasn't supposed to see: the birth of the Antichrist. And now he is convinced that Gwen is the one who must go and kill the Antichrist (who is currently five year old, Calvin Mandalay, living in Toronto, Ontario), and stop all the tyranny that would result from the boy's rule over the Earth when he grows into a man.
I enjoyed the way Fuchs dared to suggest such a significant future historical event would take place in Canada instead of a more well known setting such as the States, where the majority of books and movies take place. Part of his reasoning could simply be because he is from Canada, but another part could be his ability to challenge the normal way of doings things and then portray them in a whole new light.
But there is more to A Stranger Dead than a story about the coming of the Beast. Instead, A.P. uses each of his characters to tap into a different part in us as readers, by presenting realistic characters that both represent ourselves, and those we know. An example of his doing this would be the mother of the Antichrist, Victoria Mandalay, a victim of the depression caused by the divorce from her husband two years prior. She's that mother you see at the playground, smoking the Virginia-Slim cigarette, stressed from life's circumstances, with tired eyes as she tries to keep up with her child she loves so much.
And then there's Marty Bones, Gwen's boyfriend whom she leaves behind when, at Harry's command, goes off to kill the Antichrist. He shows both sides of our humanity in that, as much as he loves Gwen and as much as he shows it, even those of us who think we're so kind and caring and loving, do have our limits and then we do things we never thought ourselves capable of and end up hating ourselves for it. Worse, we keep returning to the acts that we resort to for comfort, no matter how much we hate ourselves for doing so.
A.P. Fuchs has declared himself a horror/dark fiction author, but I would have to disagree. I see him more as a man who writes dark fiction because, ascribing to the universal rule, he is writing what he knows. Better, he is writing about people he knows. And they are not persons who are in his own life, but the people that live inside him, representing the various parts that make up your everyday human being.
When I finished reading A Stranger Dead, I felt both weighted and liberated. It is a heavy story, the kind that enthrals you from the start, the kind where you leave the sofa you're sitting on and walk alongside the people in the story and live their lives with them. And I felt liberated because A Stranger Dead is also a story about the journey into character and into life.
It was a road I'm glad I traveled and it's a road I think you should travel, too. Thanks for listening.