This was my first
Michael Patrick Hicks novella and it damn sure won't be my last.
I had zero expectations
going in--I had no idea what "subterranean horror" even meant, no
clue what the story was going to be about, or which sub-genre it'd be.
"Horror," I figured out from the "A Subterranean Horror
Novella."
I'm not typically a fan
of creature-based horror unless it's in a movie or TV show because I usually
feel it's much better visually than imaginatively, but that wasn't the case
with Broken Shells. I didn't need to
see the creatures; the descriptions took care of that. Great, gross, creepy
descriptions all done to near-perfection.
The Poe-esque back story was a real delight, too. Despair, redemption, fear--all there.
I find myself drawn to
the novella lately and this one was just right. No extraneous garbage that
detracted from the story, no subplots just for the sake of adding a few pages,
just solid creepy fun.