Title: The Scrubs
Author: Simon Wood
Release Date: March 22, 2010 (Kindle Edition)
Price: $0.99 (Kindle Edition)
Pages: 80
Publisher: Bad Moon Books (Original Edition)
Format: E-Book
Genre: Horror
Review copy provided by the author.

Praise for “The Scrubs”:

“The Scrubs is one merciless piece of work.”
— Gary A. Braunbeck, author of Coffin Country

“The Scrubs…it’s a journey to a Twilight Zone of our time.”
— Mort Castle, author of The Stranger

“Lean, mean fear machine – The Scrubs is gruesomely inventive entertainment.”
— Simon Clark, author of This Rage of echoes

“If you are looking for a quick read that is sure to leave you breathless until the final page is turned, you cannot do any better than The Scrubs.”
— Horrorworld

“This is a fascinating, disturbing journey.”
— Dark Discoveries Magazine

Plot Synopsis: James Jeter, the notorious serial killer with a sixth sense, holds court inside London’s Wormwood Scrubs Prison. He’s the focus of the “North Wing Project.” Under the influence of a hallucinogen, Jeter can create an alternative world known as “The Rift” containing the souls of his victims. Pardons are on offer to inmates who’ll enter The Rift. Michael Keeler has nothing to lose and little to live for. He’s sent into The Rift to learn the identity of Jeter’s last victim. It’s a mission where the guilty can be redeemed, but at a price…

Review:
Horror fans, rejoice. Simon Wood has written one of the most compelling works of horror fiction since Clive Barker first wrote “The Hellbound Heart” (aka Hellraiser.)

One of the most unique things about this book is its voice. We’re introduced to Keeler, a working class bloke who’s landed himself in prison. As far as settings go for a beginning, it certainly makes things more interesting than usual. We get to know more about Keeler. As you delve deeper into the first chapter, you start to see just how screwed he really is. A prison volunteer for a program that he doesn’t know much about, he soon learns that he’s gotten himself into something he can’t pull himself out of.

Wood is a skillful writer, which is obvious right off the bat. He absolutely knows the meaning of show, don’t tell. His descriptions are vivid and alarming, and his character reactions appropriate but creepy, such as when Keeler says that one of the prisoners makes his balls wither on the vine.

Keeler and his actions just keep getting more and more interesting the further that you read into the story. And he’s full of surprises — at first, I thought “volunteer” meant that he was someone who volunteered as a guard at the prison. Turns out “volunteer” actually means he is a prison who has ‘willingly’ signed up to become a test subject of sorts. Not fun.

Still, Keeler is sharp and quick-witted and he knows when he’s being played or when someone’s lying to him, great traits to have despite the sins that have landed him in jail.

You soon find out that this prison isn’t an ordinary one. If anything, it reminded me of the prison that Alex De Large, ill-fated protagonist of “A Clockwork Orange”, ended up in. Keeler’s “assignment” is to find Lefford and Allard, two of the more dangerous prisoners housed in this facility, and Keeler is smart enough to know that it’ll mean trouble for his reputation among the rest of the prisoners.

Keeler discovers that Jeter, the violent criminal who has been hooked up to tubes and machines, can create a Rift that opens a pathway to his mind — and the answers to where Lefford and Allard are exist in Jeter’s Rift. Only it turns out that this may have been a phony reason to convince him to go into the Rift.

The story keeps getting more and more interesting and engrossing as you find out that Jeter is, not only a psychotic nutjob with a propensity for indiscriminate and brutal killings, but he also has ESP, and Scrubs prison has a supernatural connection that amplifies this — the most wormwood-infused Absinthe is produced here. The potent kind that has to be watered down in Europe and that’s banned in North America.

Everyone is playing each other in this story, and it’s fascinating to see who’s really telling the truth and what’s really going on.

And if you’re wondering, yes, it really is that creepy inside a killer’s mind — but don’t take my word for it. You’ll have to read the novella to experience it for yourself.

Navigating through Jeter’s mind is trickier than it seems, because Jeter is absolutely aware of Keeler in his mind, and everything he tries to do, so he can stop anything that Keeler tries to do while Keeler is left to fight against an unseen force. It’s powerful to see how much Keeler instantly becomes more human when he enters the Rift and encounters the multitudes of Jeter’s victims that have accumulated over the years. One of the victims, Rebecca, is particularly gripping, and Keeler feels for her, which shows us that he’s not like most prisoners. He has remorse, he’s redeemable, and he still has the capability to feel emotion — things that are long since gone from Jeter.

Keeler is surprisingly understanding for someone who we’re told is also a killer, but this is refreshing, especially as he finds and tries to comfort Davey, a little boy that Jeter has been hiding in his head.

And when he finds Lefford and Allard, boy do things take a turn for the worse :-S I won’t spoil it for you, but let’s just say that these boys aren’t exactly looking like themselves, especially not Lefford, whose description is truly ghastly.

The stakes are definitely upped and things get even worse for Keeler after his encounter with Lefford and Allard, and it really strengthens his relationship with the reader, because your sympathy will just increase as you go along and discover what the sadistic, twisted Jeter keeps doing to Keeler.

I’ve been waiting a long time to read a really good horror novel. I mean really good. Too often do I encounter namby pamby amateur stuff on the booshop shelves that tries too hard or that pretends to be a horror novel because of the vague presence of a few scattered supernatural elements and some serial killers. This novel more than delivers on Horrorworld‘s promise that this book will leave you breathless when you’re done with it.

And the ending — what a creepy, unresolved but ultimately appropriate way to end the story. The little boy, Davey, becomes a very important character by the end and everything is explained, and it all makes sense, but it will leave you with a strong sense of disquietude for many days after.

If you haven’t checked it out already, look at Simon’s page for The Scrubs where you can find an interview, review, and a link to read the first chapter for free.

There are very few books that truly alter a person’s literary landscape, and The Scrubs has been one of those for me. Although appropriately explicit when necessary, the book doesn’t actually have as many “gross out” descriptions as I thought it would, so if you’re afraid that it’ll be too scary, I will say that once you find out what’s really going on, the concept is actually more frightening than the descriptions of blood and guts.

What a fantastic novel. Horror afficionados, add this to your TBR pile now.