Gary Fry

I think that great fiction is about people and a writer that is very good with characters is one that I want to read. Just my humble opinion.

"Emergence," first and foremost is about a man and his grandson. It is about growing old, losing the other half of yourself and being left alone to spend those remaining days and hours suddenly alone. It is about connecting to the people we care about, in this case, a grandchild. You will see yourself in these characters. They are real.

And it is about fear. Fear of the larger ramifications of the little ways in which we are slipping, mentally and physically, and approaching our own frailty. It is about fear for our loved ones.

Emergence is a literary novella. Don't look for a madman to chase down any of the characters here. We are not sure if the demons from without are real or merely reflections of demons from within. Are we witnessing an encroachment from a hostile dimension or are we seeing the fragmentation and disintegration of a character's control on reality. Either way, there is threat and menace and chilling imagery and an overall sense of dread.

What I am sure of is that this is good dark fiction and if you like the stories of those whose horror is more personal and literary going all the way back to Henry James, then you will appreciate this very fine novella.

Once again, kudos to Darkfuse for consistently publishing novellas of such high quality.… (meer)

This is my second novella by Mr. Fry and very different from “Emergence.” Where “Emergence” was sort of Jamesian (at least in terms of the ambiguity of the supernatural aspects) and drew its interest from the interior emotional landscape of the characters, “Lurker” is in your face horror. Rip your face off horror is even more apt. Greatly enjoyed both novellas and will be following Mr. Fry’s career and wonder what the next book will be like.

I hate to give away plots so I rarely discuss them but I can give a few details without harming the enjoyment. Basically the Mr. and Mrs. have gone through some tough, emotional times and have tried what could be called a “geographical solution.” Move somewhere without the memories. However people can change along with environments and Meg is now suspicious that her husband Harry is having an affair. She gets a clear case of tunnel vision, focusing on her husband, even though signs around her are mounting that concerns about marital infidelity is distracting her from something much more sinister and dangerous that is happening around her. Creepy stuff, folks. Fans of Lovecraft and writers of his ilk will eat this one up. I sure did. It is the combination of the worldly and the otherworldly that did it for me in this one.

Congratulations again to Mr. Fry and to Darkfuse, who introduced me to this writer and turned out yet another great novella. I just renewed my membership.
… (meer)

I have read quite a few of Gary Fry’s novels and novellas and I know what I like about his writing. First, he really knows how to create a mood. Tense. Brooding. Unsettling. It gets to you as you read. Makes you apprehensive for the characters and builds tension which is critical in dark fiction and suspense novels. The House of Canted Steps is certainly no exception. A creepy haunted house story in a Hitchcock style. Slow build. Building to a no holds barred finale.

The second thing that I enjoy in his Fry’s work, and I think that he does it as well as anyone and much better than most, is to let us in on the thought processes of his main character. Fry tends to tell his stories exclusively in first person perspective, which for some writers can be quite limiting since you leave so much of the story beyond the perimeter of your narration, but with Fry it works well because of the way that he does it. From the very beginning of the story we are inside the main character/narrator’s (Mark) head, following every thought, including his own reasoning and rationalizations as he weighs and performs every action. These thoughts ARE the story to some extent. Exceeding well done, in my opinion. Horror stories, good ones at least, are about real characters in unreal situations and you have to connect the story to the real world or it won’t have much of an effect. In this novel, I think that Fry completely nails the dynamic of divorce with child(ren), new spouses/significant others, jealousy, loss, and all of those related feelings. I found Mark to be completely believable and totally bought into him as a character, to the point that later in the book, when things get more and more off kilter, that I found myself very annoyed with him, wondering why he was doing certain things, until I realized…….well, you might want to read the book to see what I was about to say.

I have read several other of Fry’s works, all printed by Darkfuse—which in my opinion is publishing a fine line of dark fiction from a variety of new and seasoned authors.
… (meer)

I am always happy when my new Darkfuse books arrive—I really feel that my membership has been money well spent. This one wasn’t a favorite, but with such different types of works and so many different writers, you can’t expect every reader to like every book.

I am a big fan of Gary Fry and in the internal psychological perspective that he brings to his characters. I think that he went just a bit too far in this one. Rather than simply putting his main character on the couch and letting us watch him process his thoughts, Fry actually makes a psychologist the main character; and the worst kind---one of those people that became psychologists in order to understand and perhaps “cure” themselves. It was just a bit much as the story, which started out a really promising wrong turn/creepy town situation, started to seem like a class. I also felt that the storyline itself was an attempt to teach a lesson and was rather heavy handed with the use of symbolism.

I wholeheartedly recommend him as an author and would encourage anyone interested in good dark fiction to read Fry’s Emergence, Lurker, or House of Canted Steps---all of which are excellent.
… (meer)